Warhammer 40K: Codex Astra Militarum – The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Goatboy here. The Warhammer 40K Astra Militarum Codex has gotten to my warm hands so let’s go over, the good, the bad, and the ugly for 10th Edition.
Goatboy here and we got a whole set of new rules to look over. The Astra Militarum 10th Edition book has gotten to my warm hands and I want to go over it real quick. I won’t dive into every last little thing, but give yout he basics you need to know. I am not the biggest fan of the AM army as a whole. I like the models but don’t like how it plays. It just isn’t evil looking enough for me. Still there are some neat things in this Codex and will hit the high points.
As usual will do a Good, Bad, and Ugly review for this new Codex. The good is things I like and think are decent. The Bad are updates I am not a fan of. The ugly is something I just don’t find all that great in the book. There is a lot of good in here and really my “bad” takes are really just me thinking about having to deal with these rules on the table top.
Astra Militarum- The Good
First of all – the way the army works with commands has stayed the same. This is a big thing in that if you’ve been playing the AM book this whole time you don’t have to “relearn” its new rules and how it works. If you’ve got your method for giving out orders you can easily keep doing that and still function in the game. The codex has five Detachments to pick from so with the Grotmas’s Bridgehead Strike you have six different ways to play your book. This is pretty good and a decent amount of stuff to look at and figure out what style you want.
There are Two Standout Detachments
The Combined Arms returns with four enhancements. The Kurov’s Aquila has been removed and replaced with Reactive Command which gives you the ability to issue a command to a unit if the enemy sets up within 9” of the model. This could be interesting as you can stack some close combat option on the unit or just letting it be more survivable. This also doesn’t count towards your amount of Orders the bearer can give out in the round.
You’ve seen the new Siege Regiment which feels like an interesting option that most likely won’t get taken. The game is all about guaranteed abilities and putting a dice roll to the chance for part of your rules to work is a hard pill to swallow for players who like to minimize luck.
The Mechanized Assault Detachment grants a +1 to wound for any models coming out of Transports which seems like it could be interesting. Just giving a large swath of your army a better chance to wreck you with massed weapon fire – especially in an army that has multiple transport options – seems good. I am not a fan of a lot of the Enhancements as while they are cute they don’t give you a ton of stuff you need to have. On the Stratagem side you have a fun little move d6 inches after disembarking in Rapid Dispersal which seems neat. Clear and Secure gives you a full hit and wound reroll if you got out of a transport and shooting at something on an objective for 1CP. There are also too embarking strats that let you get back within your vehicle. Hasty Extraction is during your opponents charge phase and Move out is at the end of your opponents turn. Both of these seem good.
Really the interesting detachment besides Combined Arms is the Bridgehead Strike that is heavily pushing Scions and the units like them. You can’t really talk about this codex without that one as it has “locked” in useful rules. It is very powerful, it is already winning games, and getting updated rules will make it even better. I can expect most armies to be this option or the Combined Arms option for most games.
Leontus Is Weeping
Big things to remember in all of this – the units were printed before the initial dataslate nerfs that have already happened to Lord Solar. The dataslate will always be the main set of rules changes and I don’t expect Mr. Solar to get back his old rules of giving everyone orders. It just means he might not show up as much as he did before as he is still good. The HQ side of things got trimmed down a lot with all the old Resin Models getting the Legends treatment. This leaves you with Ursula Creed, Solar, the Command Squads (Krieg, Cadian, Catachan, Tempestus), Sly Marbo, Lord Marshal Drier, Leman Russ Tank Commander, and the new Dorn Tank Commander. Yup now you could take up to six Rogal Dorns if the points favor it. You also get a ton of other small Characters based on if the model is in plastic and somewhat easy to get.
Overall a lot of the codex is sorta the same from the Index. They tweaked some things, removed some things, and really just updated to match what they have available for sale and in plastic. It really feels like a slightly tweaked update from the index and that isn’t a bad thing. Your army works the same and most likely you’ve swapped to Bridgehead so your army will be the same. Will just have to wait and see if points get tweaked more especially when the real points get locked in.
Astra Militarum – The Bad
I think Astra Militarum is a really hard codex to balance correctly. Tanks can be in such a weird spot from being too good and spamable to just too easy to deal with. All of this can be based on just how much terrain you have. Or if there is a fast assault army that is designed to punch up instead of just killing bodies. I really feel like this army rides the waves of “good” player popularity just based on being a normally “large” army which leaves you a ton of options to win the game. MSU is key to a lot of strategies and having powerful units that can punch up, show up anywhere, and backed up by tanks is a powerful thing. It can also be a kind of bad thing as it isn’t the most exciting army to see on the table top in front of you.
Astra Militarum – The Ugly
The book has lost Iron Hands Straken which is one of the cooler models in the range. It is an interesting Resin design that feels like a nicely updated model that could easily be used to build out the rest of the Catachan line. The Catachan line is really showing its age when you compare it to all the other models in the book. It really makes you wonder when they will update them or we just get left with all these muscle bound Chads talking about drinking their protein shakes and what Bro-noun they want to use today.
Of all the armies this is the book that I find towards the bottom of my tier list. It just doesn’t do a whole lot for me and while I do like the models I just don’t like how it plays. It doesn’t feel fun. I do like painting them as they are not to hard and look pretty good.
For the Emperor!
