Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Space Marines 10th Edition – The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Goatboy here to talk about Codex Space Marines. As usual, I will go into the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of 10th Edition’s new book.
We all knew Space Marines were going to be one of the first new releases for 10th Edition. While we had a Tyranid xenos threat win the first release spot (which isn’t always the best) – Space Marines weren’t too far behind. Now as usual, I won’t go into a deep dive of the codex. Instead, I want to tell you what excited me about it. A lot of the book is especially strong, at integrating into all the other Marine stuff. Still, it wasn’t all roses. There were a few things that left me hanging a bit.
The Good means I liked it. The Bad means I think it isn’t too hot. Then the Ugly is things I scratch my head about and wonder why it made it into the Space Marine Codex at all. I feel like we will be talking about Marines for a good while, as there is a ton of stuff in this book to work t hrough. Plus we finally got new Assault Marines. So yay right?
Codex Space Marines – The Good
The big bit I like about the book is while there aren’t “chapters” per see – each of the Detachments feels like an actual chapter choice that fits. That is a good thing as it brings a bit of the flavor we missed from the initial book without overfilling the pool with crazy Marine detachment nonsense. I do think will see some new “detachments” come out in the future to better reflect the important Chapters themselves. But will have to wait and see on that one. GW has changed up how they cover Marines chapters almost every edition.
Another thing about the Detachments is there is a lot there to look at. Each of their rules is unique enough to get you to shift your army a pretty big deal – which is a good thing. This is great as it gives players a ton of options for their Marines and all the other Marine indexes we have. They no longer are forced to take the Gladius as their initial detachment. It just didn’t feel right. There is a lot to dig through as you go into each one, and you can expect me to write a ton of different armies.
The ability for all the other Marines to now have 8 detachments to choose from is a big range of options. I can see a lot of Space Wolf players looking at the White Scars option as a great choice for a fast “get” mixed-in style army. You can see my Space Goats loving this detachment as Advance and Charge Billy Goats is my jam.
Oh, and on the unit front – be prepared to get wrecked by Aggressors. If you haven’t been seeing them, now they are going to be bonkers in a lot of the detachments. They are tough, shoot a ton, and just love a bunch of their new rules like turning all their Guns into assault with a +1 strength when within 12” and other fun stuff.
The detachments do a good job of giving you a bunch of options which is a good thing. On the unit front, we continue to see some new stuff like the Jump Assault Marines and others. I was hoping we would see “scouts” just going away but a new kit means those weird-looking dudes in cargo pants live on.
Oh, and the weird little Command Squad unit is going to be badass! If they stay the points they are now, expect to see them a lot. A unit with 16 wounds and some decent weapons at only 4 models seems like a good thing. Plus, the kit is fantastic to build as well!
Oh and to continue some of the issues in the game with Lone Operative – the cool anti-Nid option from the Leviathan Boxed set has Lone Operative and Feel No Pain. It is a huge boon to the unit, and something we’ll see a lot as another “objective” controlling pain in the butt. The FNP is the Chef’s kit to a pretty sweet model.
Overall a ton of good that takes a lot of work to dive in. But the Codex Space Marine Detachmants are awesome. Most of their unit rules are still in it, and the army you have now should work. Go get yourself more Aggressors – trust me!
Codex Space Marines – The Bad
Let’s get this over with. I initially thought Oath might be too powerful,l but that was with all the crazy layers of options the initial Index Marines had. Being able to fully reroll hits and wounds felt way too much. Especially with some of the options in the book that can shoot a ton of shots. I will now say this – it probably didn’t need to lose any kind of wound reroll interaction and should have just been Reroll wound rolls of 1. Still, it isn’t all bad. But Oath getting kicked in the teeth a bit is a pretty bad shift.
I also don’t like how the old Scout model got Legended but then we got Scouts back again. I wish they were a different unit or some kind of Primaris Novice option like Black Templars have. It is also weird their pants are now more pants-like then the old Scouts. It feels a bit weird to see them back the same. It is also weird how Vanguard Vets are still in the book and we didn’t see an upgraded Assault Intercessors option with cool weapons.
The Detachments – while cool – do feel like they are missing some of the flavor we had with the old Chapters. I think because Armor of Contempt is in every set of Strategems it becomes less exciting as each option really only gives you five new “extra” rules to mess with. I also feel like the upgrades are good but could have been used to give a lot more Chapter flavor detail that could help make the choices feel like chapter choices – instead of just whatever army your weird color marines want to be for the day.
Codex Space Marines – The Ugly
We’ll again talk about how the new Aggressor Meta is going to be a rough one to deal with. I will call it ugly as a wave of bullets washes over their Oath target as the player digs for Lethal hits through a shower of AP 2 bolter fire. It is one of the things that will make them good. But man – that is a ton of dice rolls to watch happen, dig thru, and then get rerolled into oblivion. I don’t like saying people should have a chess clock for 40K. But if this becomes a common thing, bring it and watch players time out as they dig through dice rolls.
I also feel like Oath of Moment could have had a lot more interaction throughout the book just to – give other neat rules. I just find it a missed opportunity to make the army feel more unique. But that is just me. Also, the Codex isn’t going to break some of the stranglehold of Eldar being too powerful.
The rest of the week I’ll continue talking more about Marines, probably through a few lists together, and maybe a better breakdown down thoughts on each of the detachments. It’s gonna be a fun time as a lot of new armies are going to show up on the tabletops. The best thing about any new Space Marine Codex – is how it breathes new life into the game because just about everyone has an army of them lying around somewhere, and the unit roster is so large, you will see lots of list experimentation for months to come.
~And They Shall Know No Fear!
