Warhammer 40K: Thank God My Poor Space Marines Are Getting Buffed
Today let’s look at why we are so glad that regular Space Marines are getting buffed in Psychic Awakening.
Space Marines suck. Though they are the most popular army in the game, they are simply an over-hyped underwhelming force. For instance, the other day, someone’s 12-year-old cousin played their first game of 40K using Space Marines and LOST. Objectively that’s pretty bad. Luckily GW has announced in their latest preview that Space Marines will be getting a much-needed buff in Psychic Awakening 2: Faith and Fury – let’s take a look at why this is great.
Bad Army Bad
As we all know, Space Marines just got a new Codex and a bunch of supplements. As we all also know, Space Marines are simply underpowered and underperforming. Space Marines have had at best mild success in the meta. Indeed if the Angels of Death were all that, why do Tau keep wining a handful of significant events out there? Surely the victory of any of the 20+ non-Codex Space Marine armies in a major event proves the inferiority of the new Marines, despite supposedly OK updates. Heck, go online, and pretty much all you will hear about is people complaining about Space Marines these days, inevitably that means they suck. No other explanation.
This is made even more apparent when we look at hard numbers. Checking out the great site 40kstats.com shows that every time Space Marines have fought another Space Marine army, Space Marines have lost. That’s horrible! And look, I know you may think Space Marines are good, but those are cold facts, and facts don’t lie. In the end, we’ve just got to admit that the fact that I still lose games as Space Marines means they must be a bad army. What other explanation could there be?
Salvation From Above
Indeed it seems that Games Workshop has recognized the issue with the Space Marines. In a move that shows how attentive they’ve become, they reacted swiftly, mere months after the army was released, and are giving them extra rules to buff the Angels of Death. Faith and Fury, the 2nd Psychic Awakening book promises to be jammed pack with pages and pages of new rules, updating Codex Marines, Black Templars, and the Six Traitor Legions that don’t already have expanded rules. These rules include, among other things, 12 hotly-anticipated pages of Tactical Objectives and name generators for the forces of Chaos and the newly updated datasheet for High Marshal Helbrecht, which gives him an extra attack, just what he needed to be good!
Rules for other factions are nice, and all, but the real meat of the book is in the buffs for Space Marines. Basic Codex Marines get nine lovely new pages of rules. This focus on upgrades for Space Marine characters, such as Librarians, Tech Marines, Apothecaries Ancients, Chaplains, and Champions. For what’s been said, these will allow you to spend pre-game CP to upgrade these units, giving them buffs and unlocking new relics and warlord traits. These rules are the real gem of Faith and Fury.
Army Good Now?
Even if the buffs are pretty minor, they will still end up helping Marines, which need I remind you are in dire need of any help they can get. For instance, the new Librarian Warlord trait they showed off, High Scholar of the Librarius, allows a Librarian to generate psychic powers from any of the disciplines they know. This means I will no longer have to make the hard choice – knowing Null Zone or my Chapter specific spells. Likewise, my Phobos Librarian can now hit units with Tenebrous Curse AND a move debuff from my Chapter’s discipline, slowing two units down. My Librarian that had sucked before is now good at last!
Doubtless, we will look back on Faith and Fury as the much-needed buff to make Marines competitive. Units that haven’t seen the light of day before, such as Company Champions, get honest to god needed buff. With this updated Space Marines will possibly have eight highly viable character options, which I think we can all agree is about the minimum for any good book. Overall I’d like to consider this totally necessary buff, is GW’s way for saying, “We are sorry we made your book so bad.”
Final “Thoughts”
Ultimately while the Space Marine buffs are good at first glance, they also come with some unintended benefits you might not see off the bat. For instance, if you were worried about being out of shape after all the extra games you can get in with your new army, you needn’t worry, Faith and Fury will help give you a nice workout. Just add it to your other books, Codex Space Marines, your Codex Supplement, likely Vigilus Defiant, almost certainly Imperial Armor, and possibly even Index Imperium 1. This is not to mention the rule book; Chapter Approved and some FAQs, all of which you need to play your mono-faction pure Space Marine army, and put them in a backpack for a workout. Also as a dedicated Space Marine player you were likely feeling let down when after nearly three months of solid releases, including seven books, you suddenly didn’t have anything new to buy, well you’re in luck now! Lastly, you get to make a lot of great jokes about Faith and Furry.
However you cut it, Faith and Fury looks like it is going to add a bunch of new rules to the game. Black Templars are getting the release they deserved, with half the rules of the other Chapters being exactly to them – fair. The “forgotten” six Traitor Legions are getting updates that seem akin to what Black Legion got in Vigilus, which, as we know, propelled it to meta dominance. Lastly and most importantly, Space Marines, the newest Codex to come out, won’t be left behind as their traitor brothers get unfair upgrades, and are getting much-needed buffs to a lot of characters. Let’s hope this finally makes them good because god help us if GW still feels the Marines need buffs after this.
Let us know if you think these buffs are just what Space Marines need to be good, down in the comments!
