Faction Focus: Space Marine Chapters

Warhammer 40,000 Faction Focus: Space Marine Chapters

From the moment GW unveiled the new rules for army construction, one question has been on the minds of many players, "What does this mean for Space Marine Chapters?"  Despite all the memes, Space Marines are by far the most popular faction in the game.  And it makes sense when you think about it, the game was kind of built around them.  They've been front and center in the lore and rules from the games very inception.  And with the expansion of the lore through Black Library's hit Horus Heresy series, this has only grown.  It's a cycle of hype and profit.  As Space Marine fans buy models, books, and merchandise for their favorite Legions and Chapters, GW dedicates more resources to providing them with more stuff to consume, which only builds up the fanbase more.  As a result, there are individual sub-factions of Space Marines and Chaos Space Marines that are more popular than other entire factions.

As I said before, I can't imagine that GW wouldn't make a Codex for at least the classic three, if not the big five.  And Dark Angels have already been confirmed as getting a new Codex in the spring of next year.  So let's see what details the designers have for us for now.

OVERVIEW

This faction focus will obviously need to be a bit different, as we're covering five specific Chapters of Space Marines as opposed to a single, more diverse faction.  So right from the get go, they reveal that these Chapters start with the same base-line Army Rule as all other Space Marines: Oath of Moment.  This is good, it's a powerful and flexible rule.  But as expected, each Chapter will instead be represented by its own Detachment with its own Detachment Rule and compliment of Stratagems.  We even get the name of two, the Righteous Crusaders and Champions of Russ Detachments.

They also confirm that these Detachments will be useable by all Space Marine armies, as well as that they will have restrictions on them.  This is something many of us theorized GW would do, and it's now been confirmed.  It looks like the restrictions will be done with Keywords.  The examples they give are that Psykers can't be used in Righteous Crusade while non-Space Wolves characters and Deathwing units can't go in the Champions of Russ.

DARK ANGELS

Oh!  We're getting more details than I thought!  This means these might be available on release!

The Dark Angels Detachment is the Unforgiven Task Force.  It comes with Grim Resolve, which lets them stay OC 1 when battle-shocked.  This is very useful.  But, well, it's not Combat Doctrines.  Here's hoping their Codex will have a bit more oomph to it.

We then get the full Datacard for the Deathwing Command Squad.  The unit consists of an Ancient, Apothecary, Champion, and Command Terminators.  We actually didn't have a specific Datasheet for a Deathwing Ancient in 9th, so that's nice.  Interestingly, we get a note that there is a rule not on this Datacard.  If you want to field the Command Squad with a Watcher in the Dark, you'll need the rule form the Deathwing Knights datasheet.

The entire unit gets the Terminator profile, with no special stats for any of the characters in it.  We get the rules for the Narthecium finally, allowing you to return a non-Character model to the unit in your Command phase.  It looks like the standard rule for Banners will be +1 OC, which I think we've seen before.

Then we get an interesting reveal!  The Honour of Death rule grants +1 to Advance and Charge rules while the unit has a Company Champion.  But it also make the Heroic Intervention Stratagem free.  I can't remember if that was revealed as a Stratagem yet, but that is very interesting.  Heroic Intervention gave Characters a lot of increased threat and board control.  And when units got it, or powerful characters had increased range for the ability, it could make them a potent force you needed to carefully play around.  Now you'll need CP to use it, meaning like Overwatch you'll need to consider it as you plan your turn, but you won't always be able to rely on it.

LION EL'JOHNSON

Get ready for some screaming Death Guard and Thousand Sons players, as Dark Angels get their Primarch as part of this reveal.  The Lion returns with a new 10th Edition friendly T9 and an extra wound.  He was one of the last Datasheets of 9th Edition, so I wasn't expecting many changes for him.  Still, they're definitely here.  Arma Luminis's Plasma profile has lost a pip of AP of course, as has Fealty on the strike.  Fealty's strike is also nerfed when you consider the new Toughness profiles, but that's been true for many weapons.  He's also lost a couple of Attacks with it, though nothing like what Angron lost.

Like his brothers, he gets one of these snazzy new Army Commander rules.  Hmm . . . maybe Faction Commander might be a more appropriate name?  Doesn't really work for Abaddon though.  All Secrets Revealed causes nearby enemy units your opponent targets with Stratagems to test Battle-shock, and potentially lose the Stratagem and the CP.  That's seems situational, but you know your opponent will want to use Stratagems if they're fighting a Primarch.  In the mean while, Martial Exemplar is an all around useful Aura that grants +1 to Hit, while No Hiding From the Watchers gives a powerful but situational 4+ FNP against mortals.

The Emperor's Shield gets a massive buff.  It keeps its mortal wound on saving throws of 6, but now also grants the rare -1 to Wound and a whopping 3+ Invuln!  The Lion be thicc!  And if that's not enough survivability, he also gets that wonderful Lone Operative rule when near friendly Space Marines.

SPACE WOLVES

From the Unforgiven to their rivals in the Vlka Fenryka.  Sagas have returned and they seem like a much more worthy replacement for Combat Doctrine.  Unlike before, you get to pick a saga after you've fulfilled it.  This will make the mechanic much harder to play around.  The buffs are army wide too, meaning the more you successfully complete, the stronger your army becomes!

We just get one unit reveal for the Rout.  The Hounds of Morkai seem largely unchanged, with their special rule now transferred to their weapons.  They get more attacks with their knives than before though.  Morkai's Howl is interesting though.  It refers to units being Stunned.  We haven't seen that referenced before, so I don't know if that's a condition that can be inflicted or specific to this rule.

BLOOD ANGELS

Er . . . okay the Red Thrist is definitely powerful but did you have to call it that?  Blood Angels fans don't normally think of that as a buff.  Savage Echoes was a much better name in my opinion.  Still, this will keep the Sons of Sanguinius a devastating assault army.

Death Company now gets a 6+ FNP and look like they're going to be absolute blenders on the charge.  They get re-roll Hits innately, and you can use Fire Overwatch and Heroic Intervention on them for free.  But in exchange, you'll want to keep a Chaplain with them or they can't Fall Back or hold objectives.

Blood Angels get a little more love than their lupine brothers, or at least their successors do.  We get a look at The Flesh Tearers Chapter Master and fan favorite Gabriel Seth.  We get to see his full Datacard too, as well as how his rules interact with other Space Marine characters.  He's coming in with a nice buff to his melee, getting 6 attacks and SUSTAINED HITS 1 on Blood Reaver now, and another +1 Attacks for every 5 models he's fighting.  But the big kicker here is that he grants Advance and Charge to a unit he's leading!

BLACK TEMPLARS

Vows return as a flat army-wide buff your units just get.  This is arguably more powerful than Combat Doctrines of the Space Wolve's Saga ability.  Granted I'm sure Templars players would love to have access to the Assault Doctrine's Advance and Charge.  Still, you get to pick the best buff based on the army you're fighting, and that's always a good thing.

We just get to see Sword Brethren for this preview, though that's not a bad reveal.  Still I'm betting people wanted to see Helbrecht or The Emperor's Champion.  They get a third wound now, so that's definitely a nice buff.  Even better, they get to choose between a buff of +1 Attacks or +1 Damage every fight phase.  Despite their rigid dogma, it looks like Templars will be quite flexible on the battlefield.

DEATHWATCH

The military arm of the Ordo Xenos suffered quite a bit in 9th Edition.  Honestly, it's innately difficult to balance an army who's schtick is fighting a specific type of enemy.  This has never seemed to hurt Grey Knights though.  It looks like they'll be much more flexible now.  The rule for the Black Spear Task Force is an alternate version of Combat Doctrines.  Just like with Gladius you have three options to choose from and you can only use each one once per battle.  These don't seem as strong, but it's so hard to beat Advance and Charge or Fall Back and Shoot and Charge.  Additionally, not all of these will be universally useful against every opponent.

The Veterans squad seems like it's had some weapons consolidated, but the Infernus heavy bolter is still there and completely intact.  Long Vigil weapons seem generically useful, but the Xenophase blade has taken an necessary but painful nerf.  Death to the Alien is an interesting rule though.  It's re-roll Hits of 1 against any target, but if the target is not Imperium or Chaos you get full re-roll Hits.  I guess that's one way to single out Xenos factions without giving them a unifying Keyword.

FINAL THOUGHTS

There's no denying it, Combat Doctrines are powerful.  It's going to be hard to give up that Detachment rule, especially since you can still play any Chapter of Space Marines with it.  There's nothing stopping a Black Templars player from using it and just not taking Psykers, and I don't think it excludes Chapter specific units like Ravenwing or Wulfen.  It won't surprise me if we see a lot of fans go this route until their Codex comes out.

Of the new Detachment Rules, Sagas seem like they're the most powerful.  If you plan properly and can keep your opponent from playing around you, you can stack up a some serious power.  Oaths are next in my opinion.  It's hard to argue with a flat army-wide bonus you get to pick at the start of the game.  I think Blood Angels gets my next pick, as there's no world in which hitting more and hitting harder is a bad thing.  Deathwatch feels lack luster to me, as not all of its buffs will always be useful and they only last a single round.  Dark Angels might be the dark horse though.  We don't know how big of a deal Battle-shock will be for 6+ Ld armies, but if it's a real threat that rule could help them maintain board control.  It certainly ended up an issue in yesterday's Battle Report.

Still, I'm pretty sure there are fans out there right now that aren't happy.