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As a die hard Imperial Fists player I just wanted to talk about some of the changes the dataslate brings to the faction. Although this is primarily geared with Imperial Fists in mind, a lot of it may apply to space marines in general. I guess we're looking at a sort of casual/competitive viewpoint here. Competitive in that you're trying to win, but casual in that you're still playing Imperial Fists. I fully realize that if you're going to a tournament or something, you're probably taking Iron Hands instead. Iron Hands came out of this smelling like a rose.... but that's not to say that Imperial Fists got nothing! I wont be going over every change since there were so many, only the ones that stood out to me or I feel like might have a big impact. So lets dig in to it.



General Changes: Devastator Doctrine This is probably the biggest most important change as far as Imperial Fists are concerned. Imperial Fist's preferred doctrine is Devastator, and now with the ability to sit in Devastator all game long, it's probably reasonable to think about gearing up some heavy weapons.

HQs: Some general points decreases here, which are welcome. Just about any HQ has some advantages. I stopped running my Primaris Librarian when Armor of Contempt came out as I found it redundant. Maybe the Librarian with his Psychic Fortress will once again return to the battlefield. We will just have to see.

Troops: For Intercessors there might be some reason to run Stalker Bolt Rifles again. Previously I had been using Auto Bolt Rifles. Stalkers will benefit from the Devastator Doctrine, and can make good back field objective campers. You also get a free Astartes grenade launcher so why not? Puts you at AP-3 the whole game, so that's pretty decent for a troops choice. Honestly I have no idea if Arks of Omen is going to invalidate Troops choices completely, but you can sticky objective with Intercessors, so maybe they'll find a place? I typically play Tempest, so without Arks of Omen detachment I can see at least a small squad of Intercessors still seeing play.

The real winners I think in this section were Heavy Intercessors. I had thought people were sleeping on these before and now I think they're really strong. 23 points/model is very cheap for their tanky statline. They're quite durable for their cost. You aslo get to throw in their heavy bolter upgrade for free. If you want to have a fun time, a unit of 10 Heavy Intercessors with 2 of the heavy bolters is only 230 points. With proper support they can be a real thorn in the opponents side, obsec too. As far as what weapons to use.... While there is temptation to go Executor in order to benefit from Doctrine all game, I think I still stick with Hellstorm for pure efficiency. The Hellstorm heavy bolter will benefit from Devastator. I think I will have enough heavy firepower elsewhere that I want to run these guys to be able to deal with large amounts of models.


Elite: Mostly I think you have to look at Aggessors now. Previously Bladeguard Veterans just seemed better, but there is now real competition. Although with all the points decreases, "Why not both?" becomes a possibility. With all you get from an Aggressor for 30 points, it is a lot of value. Mostly I think they're a good melee threat, but we can make some use of their boltstorm gauntlets too.

Rievers: These somehow became the cheapest body. For 80 points you can get a squad of these guys with the grav chutes and grapnels. They arent going to do anything, but they could be quite useful for a teleport homers or something. Unfortunately I still think there is another unit that does this job better, for only a small increase in price.

Fast Attack: Lots of big changes here. The already outstanding attack bike went aquired free multi-meltas, so thats very handy. They also benefit from Devastator, so you're looking at -5 AP and d6+1/d6+3 damage against vehicles.

Then there is the Suppressor. Are these guys good? Who knows.. Who actually knows? I have 3 of them and I think they're kinda cool. Being able to stay in Devastator is a huge benefit to these guys. 90 points is pretty cheap, and for that you get a whole boatload of Str7 AP2, damage 3 attacks when targeting vehicles. They have great range and are pretty good at murdering light vehicles. If light vehicles are common in your area; then these guys really start looking like they shine for 90. Move/shoot penalties can be a bit of a downer on these guys though.

Outriders: Mentioning this only because of the dramatic points drop and the fact that I have a few that are hanging out in my display case. Very cool looking. Are they good? I dunno. Sometimes I found them *useful* to have a fast unit... but they rarely kill anything and they're not hard to destroy. If you just want that fast unit to go score you points somewhere... they're still fine, and a bit cheaper.

Inceptors... ... Allright. I finished painting up my brand new Imperial Fist 6 man Inceptor squad with Autobolters probably only about a month or so ago. I've barely played with them. They are now completely and utterly inferior to the plasma variant in every way, even in Imperial Fists. This makes me dramatically sad. Before at least I could claim that I was getting value out of my exploding bolter 6s and I was saving a lot of points over plasma. Now the plasma is just better against every target. Sad but true.

Heavy Support:

Eradicators are the only thing I think I bother mentioning here. They were good before, now they have an option to switch into all the upgrades for free. Heavy Melta rifle for d6+3/d6+5 against vehicles is almost silly. I think I'm strategic reserving these guys to make sure I get a good shot on a tank. I might take more than one squad. They're very good.

Agent of the Imperium

So I've been messing around with the Callidus assassin, who got a little points drop. She's 90 points, 10 points more than the reiver squad, and able to do a lot of backline objective shenanigans. Her disruption ability to make opponents spend extra CP is also very handy. This is the unit that I think does the Reivers job but better. She's worth the extra 10 points to me.



I know there are plenty more changes I didnt discuss, so feel free to add anything you think has merit for some discussion. Will Imperial Fists remain the worst Space Marine chapter? Will they somehow climb above the bottom tier on the tournament ladder? We will have to wait and see!