Warhammer 40K: What We Want From The New Space Marine Detachments
Space Marines are getting a new 40K Codex, lets talk about what we’d like to see in the their detachments.
We are about to have another new Space Marine Codex come out. It sure feels like I say that every year sometimes, but this is the first one for 10th Edition. It’s only our second 10th Edition Codex, hot on the heels of codex Tyranids, so things are still a bit in flux. What we see in this book will really help us determine how the edition is going to look. A big important thing in the books, maybe the biggest thing that isn’t in the Index, is all the additional detachments. Today lets take a look at what we want from them.
Chapter Representation
Even though it added a ton of bloat to the game, one of the best parts of the last couple editions for Space Marines was getting some good representation for the Codex Chapters. Sure, the really divergent ones have normally had their own books and rules, but a lot of the core old Legions just get lumped together in the main Codex. 10th doesn’t seem to be going as far as the last couple editions with a big book for each chapter. Instead GW has already announced that there will be Detachments that are based off each of the six Codex Legion/Chapters. I think its a good balance, giving you a way to represent you’re chosen chapter. I hope they have a little more flavor then just “take a lot of bikes” but we will have to see.
Changing Up Battleline
One of the things we’ve been teased with is that a detachment could change up what you can take and how you take it. In particular it could allow new units to become Battleline. Now sure, Battleline as a concept has a few problems right now. At core however its a good idea and having a detachment feel really different, not just in its rules, but it how its built is a great idea. The rules commentary actually talks about detachments changing what is Battleline. So we do know this is an idea that GW has had. I think it would be great to see the detachments change this up. For instance they’ve announced a First Company detachment. I could see Terminators and Veterans getting Battleline in this detachment. I don’t know if that should come with any stats changes. You could up the OC of units. Or just keep them how they are. But changing things up is always good.
Restrictions
The flip side to this is that we feel that detachments are more interesting when they come with some restrictions. Now sure, you can have them only buff certain units to make it less likely people will take anything but that. However I think that list building gets a lot more fun and interesting when you have some really hard restrictions. So for instance I could see the First Company Strike force not allowing you to take like… any of the battle company infantry. Why would some Tactical Marines be in that army?
You could also have some detachments with softer limits, like removing Battleline. Maybe the bike heavy Stormlance Task Force will give Outriders and other bikes, Battleline. At the same time the current battleline units could lose it. It shifts how you build an army in interesting ways and means taking a detachment is a real choice. Ultimately that’s really what it comes down to. We want the detachments to have some real effect on your army, beyond just one rule and a bunch of similar strats and enhancements.
Let us know what you want to see out of detachments in the new Codex, down in the comments!
