Decrepit Dakkanaut
|
THE ASTRA MILITARUM CODEX (relative)
The following is written up to go over the new AM codex specifically focusing on how this codex is different from the old codex. A separate article discussing what the codex is like absolutely - independent from its past - will be forthcoming.
Fluff
Before getting into the meat, let me touch on the fluff a bit. GW decided to give IG a name change, but then treated it very, very softly (probably knowing the level of nerdrage it will produce). It's still called the Imperial Guard in many places, they're still called guardsmen, etc. It seems more of a formal name change, but that's it. Probably just to get people used to the idea for the next codex.
Anyways, the fluff itself is pretty crummy, and, interestingly enough, is crummy in the exact same way that it's been making crummy fluff in all of the codices over the last year and a half. They did add a bit of new stuff, but they also completely forgot to include some pretty important bits of the old fluff. They also savagely hacked down some other parts as well. Just as they basically forgot to include legions in the CSM codex, they took away all of the fluff of the various armies save cadians and catachan. Everyone else got a one-sentence blurb. They also cut down a lot of fluff for the units as well, several entries that once had full-page spreads got hacked down to a paragraph.
Probably the biggest problem, though, is style, which is another problem they've been having. They're defining, rather than describing. Almost all of the wit and sparkle is gone from the language. It's about as entertaining as reading a user manual now. More like a reluctant child being forced to write an essay for their homework while they'd rather be playing outside than a labor of love.
Also, the orange cadians are kind of obnoxious.
Warlord Traits
The new warlord traits are interesting, but, being warlord traits, are random, and that's what really kills it. Being able to outflank units or give orders to a model who doesn't get them is nice, but they're SO disparate, that you can't really make any kind of strategy around them. In the CSM codex, for example, they're more or less all based around close combat, but here they're very far apart. Because of this, I almost think I'd still use book traits rather than the new ones for general play.
The main purpose of them, it seems, is to give out certain warlord traits to special characters, which is where I'd look favorably on them. The traits are good, but it's the randomness that's the problem. Take out the randomness, and you take out the problem.
The other things to note are that the warlord traits seems to strongly favor lord commissars as there's a 1/3rd chance that he gets to use orders (and those same warlord traits are much less useful for a warlord who can already issue them). Also, the tank commander is interesting as you only need roll on the top three. That means you have a 2/3ds chance of getting one of the two best traits for the commander. But it's still one of the best traits, you don't know which.
I feel like there is plenty of times when you're going to step on your own toes with warlord traits, like doing things to boost your leadership, and then getting the "don't worry about morale" one. A 1/6 chance isn't good enough to NOT take standards, priests, and commissars, but there is a 1/6 chance that a lot of their usefulness will get pushed aside.
Orders
Orders are much the same as they were, but did get a few structural tweaks. Inspired tactics makes all orders auto-pass instead of an extra order. Receiving an order no longer prevents an officer from giving one. You no longer need to follow the chain of command with orders, and you no longer need line of sight from both the officer and the receiving unit for orders like fire on my target. Otherwise, it's the same, including some annoying things like an officer still not being able to give orders to his own unit if they're in a transport, and voxes still being the same.
Orders themselves got a bit stronger. Fire on my target now just flat ignores cover and bring it down gives hunters rule (so heavy bolters now might have a use as an anti-MC weapon?). There are new orders that confer a special rule to a shooting attack like pinning, and split fire. I don't imagine using these that often, but they're nice to have.
The two things I'd note are that while incoming is gone, they replaced it with al'rahem's like the wind, which was easily my favorite order of the old codex. That and one of those special rule orders is precise shot. As far as I'm concerned, guard squads can now be ordered to use sniper rifles against non-MCs. Either by getting a ton of them through mass lasgun fire, or one or two but with special weapons goodness, you can all but guarantee that your opponent doesn't get to use hidden anything. Not that you could properly hide upgrades in 6th edition anyways, but you certainly can't against guard anymore. It should be reasonably trivial for a guard player to ensure that whatever they're shooting at doesn't have special or heavy weapons next turn, and possibly doesn't have a sergeant either.
Upgrades
Most annoyingly, they made generic weapon upgrades more expensive. Plasma pistols and power weapons got a nonsensical price hike, and powerfists got much more expensive. I guess guardsmen were too good in close combat...
Special and heavy weapons look the same, except for a merciful price drop in sniper rifles and, continuing the trend, grossly overpriced flakk missiles. Vehicle upgrades were largely the same, except they all got universally cheaper, which means that rather than none of them being worth taking, now they're all worth taking. The price drop for heavy stubbers now makes me actually consider taking them. They did get two new upgrades that are particularly intriguing. They also got an upgrade that gives them a one-shot overwatch (that's a little bit pricey... maybe), and their track guards were equipped with a worse version that lets you auto-repair immobilized results like a rhino.
The one thing that they got that's VERY interesting is a teleport homer, which is odd because they've been doing a decent job of scouring these from all the rest of the codices. Now guard, of all armies, has access to scatterless deepstriking, and on any vehicle. I find this strange, but I can also imagine that this will see a lot of use. Not that the guard has that much of interest to deepstrike, but the beacon also works on allies, which means scatterless terminators or vanguard vets, or whatever.
To my delight, guard also got relics. There's nothing that stands out as a must-have, but they have some nice spice that you can add to change things up a bit. I like the one that turns your officer into Calgar where he can just decide if people fail morale or not with the consequences of everybody getting pinned when he dies (which seems likely, given how fragile CCSs still are), and there's the mask of beatstick +1 that's kind of nice as well. Nothing particularly outrageous or powerful, but interesting nonetheless.
CCS
Not much to say, the CCS is the CCS. It got a little bit more expensive to reflect its slightly better orders. This is somewhat offset by advisers being different.
Lord Commissar
This is also much the same, getting a slight price drop because they're not quite as good and their wargear became more expensive. They gained a special rule where you can't take them as your warlord if there's a senior officer also in your army, and, much more importantly, aura of discipline now ONLY works for morale and morale-like tests. You can no longer cast a Ld10 bubble of accept orders better.
I'll also use this spot to talk about the same to summary execution. Honestly, the old version of the rule left a better flavor in my mouth, what with the at the first sign of trouble, the commissar instantly shoots whoever looks like they should have been in command of the situation. The new rule is much softer and friendlier. Firstly, they fixed it so that now summary execution kicks in AFTER rerolls (so it can work with a regimental standard now). Also, it no longer zaps the highest leadership model, which means you can actually include commissars in a CCS without feeling stupid. It's also, curiously enough, no longer mandatory, which means that you can choose to be soft and fuzzy and not kill anyone if you don't want to. The way you choose who gets killed is a cute mechanic, though.
The one really important thing to note about summary execution is that they lifted the prohibition against one commissar shooting another. Now that there's a chance that your opponent can pick a model to get the bolt to the brain, this is important if you have two commissars in the same squad.
Commissars
These guys got a price drop, mostly commensurate with the increased cost of wargear - a fancy weapon being necessary as they're no longer the best leadership buff. They also got returned to their adviser role. Rather than being a unit upgrade, you can now take a certain number in your army (based on the number of officers), and then you dole them out like independent characters, except they're not independent, so they're stuck with the squad.
This means that you're likely to have rather fewer of them in your army than you could before. It also hurts blobs (like they needed it) because it's now basically impossible to double up on commissars in a blob, which means all those 6th ed rules that make commissars vulnerable make blobs even moreso now that you can't take out insurance policies in the form of extra commissars. Even if you could, they now have an explicit rule stating that no more than one regular commissar can join a squad (and that joining happens AFTER you choose if you're using combined squads or not).
There is one main difference, though, other than that their summary execution became friendlier, and that is that regular commissars can now take powerfists. They're still vulnerable, and powerfists are still way too expensive, but you can take them.
Master of Ordnance
No different whatsoever. The only change is a price drop.
Officer of the Fleet
The officer of the fleet still retains its old ability, but also gained the ability of the astropath, so the "reserves advisor" is now just a single model (who also got cheaper). The only catch is that you can do one or the other, and not both. They stack now, though, so there's that. At least it's not just that one ability that was on all the time that actually helped certain armies rather than hurt them.
The one interesting thing is that, as per a new trend, their ability only goes on if they successfully pass a leadership test. There is a lot of stuff that works this way in the guard codex, from orders to psychic powers, to the officer of the fleet, to priests and techpriests. The idea is that you have some very neat little abilities that provide nice buffs in a versatile way... but they're nearly as likely to fail to go off as to succeed. As such, all of these things are nice, but not something to get too carried away with, as they're just so unreliable.
Astropaths
Now they're just a level one psyker with telepathy. Note that this is the only place in the codex where you can take this ability.
Priests
THEY GOT RID OF EVISCERATORS!!! BOOOOOO!!! There is no balm that can soothe this rage-filled wound. They should have at least given them the option, even if it was ridiculously priced (I'd still consider buying them if they were 50 points apiece if for rule of cool alone).
But it's time to be calm, and look at what priests do now, as they have several changes. Priests are absurdly cheap now. You can only take up to 3, but what you get for 75 points makes them almost, dare I say it, an auto-include. Because for pittance, you get a lot.
The first thing they get is a replacement of their old hatred rule with zelot. That means that they still have hatred, but they now also have fearless. I'm just going to let that soak in for a moment. Three independent character sources of fearless that can move around to wherever they're needed. This is enormous.
Not only does it mean that you sort of don't need to care about morale with key units anymore, but it makes a big step towards making blobs not stupid anymore. Fearless is just straight better than stubborn (and priests won't execute sergeants like commissars used to), and with a 4++ and a 2+ LoS! you might actually be able to keep fearless on them, unlike a commissar with its 4+ LoS! and flak armor. It doesn't single-handedly save blobs, who also have other serious issues like the by-model cover save rules and wound allocation, but it's a sweet odor nonetheless.
The second big change is that they became even better at buffing close combat, as if hatred and fearless weren't already enough. Now they have "priest orders" where if they pass a (crummy) leadership test, they get to choose one of three things to give the squad that little extra bite. One choice is to let you reroll failed armor saves (in close combat only), and to give the squad shred (likewise), and the other is to give the priest himself smash. On the one hand, this does something to ameliorate the loss of the eviscerator, as it gives the priest a source of S6 Ap2. It's at initiative, but it also lacks armorbane, which is still very sad. On the plus side, though, smash just turns him into an Ap2 monster of sorts, getting 4 S3 I3 Ap2 rerollable attacks on the charge. For a very, very modest price tag.
It makes it so that you're no more likely to get into close combat in the first place, but it means that if you do somehow manage to make it there, at least you'll be doing more damage. Also, an important thing to note - priest finally work on ogryn. Give that a thought or two. A bullgryn squad with three priests...
The third change they made is giving the priest the ability to take a plasma gun. An independent character with a plasma gun. You want 0-3 extra plasma guns in any squad? Done. That would be good enough in and of itself without the fearless and close combat buffs. How they thought 25 points was an appropriate price for this unit escapes me.
Primaris Psykers
They also, surprise surprise, got a price drop. They are no longer a stand-alone HQ choice though, but instead work like priests. They also lost codex powers, being merely book power units.
Of course, that loss, and the loss of telepathy, was more than made up for by the fact that they now have access to divination. Just as I can imagine a bunch of armies spamming priests to get army-wide fearless, I can easily imagine all high-power guard armies spamming these to get army-wide prescience. That and fishing for allowing russes to ignore cover saves, fishing for blobs and russ squadrons to get a 4++, fishing for blobs to get foreboding, and generally just trying to throw around misfortune.
Expect to see a lot of these.
Techpriest Enginseers
These were one of the worst units in the whole game, and I'm glad to see that they were plucked from "never use" to "probably don't use".
To continue the trend that all of these advisers have been taking, they got cheaper, and they got better. They still have the low-chance fix-it power that they did before, but now they have the ability to use "techpriest orders", their one order being to temporarily give a unit power of the machine spirit. The "free" extra armor is nice, but most of what this will be used for is to give squadrons of leman russes split fire. I don't know if it's quite worth the price for this, but given that it has both that and the fix, it's starting to become a better buff unit.
Two other things to note. Firstly, the servo harness changed. Techpriests now just have a powerfist, rather than their regular weapons and a free powerfist attack, making them stronger in close combat. Secondly, you can now take squads of servitors just on their own (per techpriest). They suffer from mindlock, but they don't need to follow the priest around. This means that you can make a tiny two-plasma-cannon heavy weapons squad for only 50 points. Of course, they're super fragile and might mindlock, but it is pretty cheap, assuming you're already bringing a techpriest.
Tank Commander
Treadheads rejoice! A squad of leman russes as your HQ!
On the surface, this doesn't actually mean that much. Really, it's more that you're removing the HQ tax for running an armored company (you still need to take mechvets, though. The tank commander doesn't make russes troops). The commander does get "tank orders" though, which are like the adviser orders of a passed leadership test allowing him to buff his tank command squad. Nothing fancy, so much as just alleviating some of the problems that you get with big squads of russes (like giving them split fire, and allowing them to move more than 6").
Nothing too powerful, but it's also really cheap. A nice, fluffy choice for treadheads.
The only big thing it will affect is allies, as it's now possible to bring a squad of 3 russes as an HQ choice and a squad of 3 russes as an HS choice, effectively allowing other armies to ally in a guard armored company.
Infantry Platoons
These remained virtually unchanged. They fixed the typo where special weapons squads didn't get frag grenades, and they use the new prices for plasma pistols, sniper rifles, and the like, but that's it. That, and like everywhere else, they can now take a chimera or taurox.
The only thing particularly interesting about them is conscripts. Conscripts lost SitNW! which is pretty much what made conscripts worth taking in the first place. No more permanent scoring unit. There are only two things that ameliorate this. The first is that conscripts now cost THREE POINTS apiece. Say hello to the cheapest, crappiest infantry in 40k, gentlemen.
The other difference is now you can assign them commissars and new priests. This makes conscripts an alternative to infantry squad blobs. They now stand a reasonable chance of taking orders, which means 150 points becomes 100 lasgun shots with precision strike, or 150 lasgun shots with first rank fire. It also means 150 points for 50 fearless bodies with the possibility of twin-linking or a 4++. Put another way, it is now possible to buff conscripts up to the point of being useful in their own right.
Veterans
A great reason for why you should never believe in rumors, veterans wound up being exactly the same, except they got a little bit cheaper (especially in doctrines). Their base price is the same if you re-buy krak grenades, but if you didn't want them anyways, then veterans are just straight cheaper.
Mechvets were very strong last codex, and thankfully they decided to handle this by fixing the chimera, rather than screwing up vets.
Chimera
Speaking of, this tank basically reverted to what it was before the previous codex came out. Its price went back up, its hatch went back down to 2 models firing from it, and the side lasgun ports went back to being side lasgun ports. The only real difference is that the banks of lasguns can now fire completely independently of the chimera or the crew, and they're no longer stuck with a limited side-armor firing arc. In any case, chimeras got returned to being reasonable again, which is fine by me.
The one other thing to note, though, is that because a chimera and the squad inside can now fire at four different targets, it is theoretically possible to force grounding tests on four different flying monstrous creatures simultaneously, if that situation somehow ever comes up.
Taurox
A new edition to the codex, and, sad to say, a pretty weak one. And not just because it has an ugly model.
For some reason, someone at GW looked at imperial guard and decided that what we need is rhinos. We don't. We have chimeras. There's pretty much no reason to take a taurox over a chimera.
The taurox prime does get fast, but it still has that crappy armor and lower troop carrying capacity. In a way, the taurox prime looked like an attempt at giving guard a razorback, but this failed miserably, as the taurox's weapons are crummy. A small blast autocannon? A missile launcher? The gatling gun isn't SO bad, but with low S and no Ap... well, it's just not a punisher cannon, and it's not mounted to the much more fearsome russ chassis, or have the option of taking anti-tank weapons as well. If someone wanted firepower, I think a chimera would still be better, as I'd take 6 shots against 10 if it meant +1S, and Ap4.
Maybe I can see their use as part of a bigger rush strategy (like with a bunch of hellhounds where everything charges turn 1), but even then... fast just isn't as good as AV12, especially when you consider that tauroxes are more expensive, both moneywise and in points than a chimera.
Ogryn
Regular ogryn are almost exactly the same. They lost furious charge in favor of hammer of wrath, which gives them a slightly different damage profile.
The only real gripe is that they upgraded from bulky to very bulky, which means you can't fit as many in a chimera. Given that you can no longer do a 5-ripper-gun drive-by, though, it's not a big loss.
Bullgryn
We did get these, though. Just as ogryn were our tactical terminators (more concentrated form of our regular infantry), we now have gotten ourselves assault terminators. They come in two forms.
The first are shield bullgryn. Their ripper gun is massively downgraded to a mere guard grenade launcher (that can only fire frag mode). Sure, throw around a bunch of small blasts, but their killing power now rests almost exclusively in close combat (which you would expect). The problem, though, is that they didn't gain anything to make them punch harder in close combat. In a way, it's like a terminator armored with a storm bolter and a storm shield... rather fangless.
The one thing they get, though, is the durability buff. To begin with, they get a 4+ armor save. So long as you pair them up so that each of them is in base contact with one other, that save upgrades to 3+. T5 W3 Sv3+ has some sticking around ability. They also have the thing where they improve the cover saves of everything behind them by 1, which does stack with cover saves they already have, including an aegis. By themselves, they're a mobile aegis of their own, giving a 4+ cover save to whatever is behind them.
The idea of a mobile aegis and a really hard to kill squad of ogryn does sound nice, but I have my doubts. Bullgryn are pretty expensive, and you don't get that many, which means that that "mobile aegis" is much, much shorter than a real aegis. Spending 200 points for what basically amounts to giving a single unit a +1 cover save isn't really worth it. Meanwhile, their killing power still isn't the best of best.
I could see this as a tarpit unit, or as a way to deliver priests or lord commissars across the board on foot. With good rolling with primarises, you could be talking about a unit with a 3+/4++ with T5 and a big pile of wounds. It does have rule of cool on its side, though, and it might be fun to play, but it still suffers from the problems of ogryn, generally.
But you can also swap out shield bullgryn for mace bullgryn. This is where things promise to get real. Their armor save goes back up to 4+, but they gain a latent 5++. Less crazy durable, but they also gain shred on their hammer of wrath hits, and they also get a power maul. Yeah, still stuck with just Ap4, and they no longer have furious charge to give them that +1S, but they still get +2S. That's still S7. Times four attacks per bullgryn on the charge. In a way, this makes orgyn the bully unit that you always wanted them to be.
But, of course, they're expensive, and they don't do THAT much damage for their cost. I'm interested in trying a mixed bullgryn unit, though, with two or three with shields in front and 3 or 4 with mauls in the back, and a priest or two to give all of those S7 attacks shred (ARMOR SAVES NOW!)
Ratlings
Ratlings are ratlings. The only new thing is that they gained "shoot n' scoot". I imagine this being used rarely, and only on turn 1 at that. Strangely enough, though, if you're willing to snap fire, guard have their first MSM unit.
Wyrdvane Psykers
Other than a name change, these guys behave the same. The only big difference is that they no longer have codex powers, and instead have the book powers, including divination again.
It's hard to see why you would ever want these when you can take primarises which are so much better in every way (independent, better psychic mastery, higher leadership, force weapon, etc.). They don't buff or hurt anyone else any better either. The only thing they do is buff themselves better. Iron arm, for example, effects the entire squad, rather than just the single model, and precognition could possibly make this squad scary, if properly kitted with support models. But those are low odds of working out.
It's tough to see why you would ever take these now.
Stormtroopers
This change fills me with a touch of nostalgia. In a way, by becoming cheaper, and in higher numbers, they become more common, which makes them less special. No longer do they have all of the special missions that made them interesting, and they lost their extra hellpistol, so they're less versatile in that way as well.
But that misty-eyed sentiment doesn't change the fact that they just got better. Instead of taking one squad, you take a platoon of up to 4 squads. That means up to 12 squads in a full FoC, all of them raining down melticide, or whatever. You can now use the stormtrooper ability of opening up a second front with 105 carapace armored models with hot-shot lasguns, instead of just 30, and you even now get orders to boot (like first rank fire, which now works on those hellguns). If you want to do a mass-drop army, you can pretty much do it, so long as everything else is taken care of.
The units did also get cheaper, and you can still take single 5-man melticide squads, but I feel like now they're a more go-big-or-go-home kind of thing (especially since you can't rely on pinpoint melta anymore) thanks to platoons. My guess is that stormtroopers will become more of a list style and less of an add-on with people playing stromtrooper lists with lots of them.
Interestingly enough, because they have platoons, you can now more seriously run mech stormies. You can now take a bunch of squads with a bunch of chimeras, and the missing special weapon won't be felt too harshly as you can only shoot two out of the top hatch anyways. And there's all the orders, and their special equipment.
It seems like there's now a smooth progression from conscripts to infantry squads to veterans to stormtroopers where you can sort of use the same strategy, you just have to decide how much special gear they'll be showing up with and what their statline will look like.
Scout Sentinels
The same, except lascannons got half as expensive. Golden.
Armored Sentinels
Of the two, this was the big winner. Much cheaper both at base and in upgrades.
The biggest thing about armored sentinels is that for pretty darn cheap you get 6 HP of AV12. That's a pretty decent amount of durability, especially for a squad that can give cover saves to stuff behind it, and can get into close combat. Furthermore, they retain the advantages they already had over vendettas (starting to shoot turn 1, being able to shoot at the same target over and over again, easier cover saves and no vulnerability to interceptor or skyfire), and they keep the advantages they had over russes (not totally stupid in close combat, and having a better long-range weapon profile.
Except now they're just cheaper. Not break the bank overpowered, but I bet you'll start to actually see these in lists more commonly rather than very infrequently. My only complaint is that this unit behaves like a heavy support choice, not like a fast attack choice.
Rough Riders
They did get restored to their 3.5 codex glory (albeit with one worse Ap on their lances), but they're still rough riders. That huge steaming dump that 6th edition took on them had nothing done to scrub them clean, or at least cover some of the odor.
Hellhound
Is the hellhound. A tiny points drop, but they still forgot the smoke launcher and searchlight.
Devil Dog
Likewise, except that for reasons I can't possibly imagine, it got more expensive. It's now the same cost as the vanquisher, but with worse armor, shorter range, and fewer options. Too bad, as I vaguely almost liked this tank before.
Banewolf
Exactly the same as it was before, which means it's exactly as useless.
Valkyrie
Got more expensive and lost scouts and deepstrike, all congruent with its change to flier. Rocket pods got cheaper, but otherwise it's the same. A pretty big disappointment, really.
Vendettas
Which is the same I could say for vendettas. Vendettas needed to be fixed. Instead they just tweaked it by making it more expensive and pointlessly reducing its transport capacity by a little bit. It's a transport, and it's a heavy support choice, and they badly shoehorned it into the fast attack slot. Once again, rather disappointed.
Hydras
The only thing that's a bigger disappointment than the vendetta is the hydra. The poor vehicle went from being our rifleman dread that ignored jink saves to... crap. Still doesn't have interceptor, which means airplanes can still blow it up before it gets a chance to shoot, and it still can't do anything against ground targets. At least it used to be good against skimmers, but I guess they thought that wave serpents weren't strong enough...
You already didn't need dedicated anti-air before, and now what is supposed to be the premier anti-air weapon has just gotten worse. It's all the more painful given how much better the rest of the HS choices got that they just made the hydra straight worse. Open topped only adds insult to injury. It looks like they came out with a hydra kit just in time for nobody to want to buy it. So much for only writing rules to drive sales.
Leman Russes
RUSSES! If there's anything to be said about this codex, one could cynically (or exuberantly) call it Codex: Leman Russ.
Russes are the same as they were before, but saw MASSIVE points cuts. The hulls are much cheaper (120 points can field you a piece of AV14. Unbelievable), and their weapons are much cheaper as well (discounts to multimeltas, lascannons, and plasma cannons). The best I can guess for why these firesale prices is because GW finally figured out how much worse tanks are than monstrous creatures, and how much worse heavy, non-skimmer tanks are compared to skimmers. I expected them to get a little cheaper, but this almost seems too much.
There are a few exceptions to this craziness, though. The first is the executioner. Yeah, it did get nearly 40 points cheaper, but it also gained gets hot for its main gun, which means its firepower has been reduced and its much more likely to kill itself turn 2 or 3. It's become more of a specialist anti-MC unit, which would bother me, except that it's just so much cheaper now.
The other exceptions are the ordnance large blast tanks. The LRBT and the demolisher already were easily on the bottom of the barrel, what with large blast weapons being useless against fliers and MCs, and much less useful against targets that displaced or made good use of multi-level cover. The snap-firing of (now cheaper) hull weapons also did them in. Yet, for all this, the LRBT stayed exactly the same, which means it stays at the bottom of the list, gathering dust. The only thing stranger was that they decided to make the demolisher MORE expensive. The eradicator, punisher and executioner all got 40 points cheaper or more, but the demolisher got more expensive? Poor, poor, useless demolisher. It's almost like it was a typo - the person writing a codex typing a "7" instead of a "2". At a 50 point discount, it would be in line with the cost of a vindicator, which has the same gun, worse armor, but is faster. I really don't know what they were thinking.
As for how you use them, it's all exactly the same as before. You now can just field more of them.
Basilisk
The poor basilisk returns to being the only big-gun lobber. It is otherwise exactly the same as it's been for the past decade (or more). Nothing really to say.
Wyvern
This new tank seems to take the old griffon and roll it up with the old colossus and old 5th ed hydra make it better. It's still accurate, but it uses several small blasts instead of a single big one. This means more accuracy and flexibility, and it also means that you can rack up more hits, and cause multiple wounds to single targets. With shred and ignores cover, it's pretty much guaranteeing that every time you shoot, you're going to force some armor saves.
... But, unfortunately, that's all it can do. It's no longer ordnance, and it's now just S4, which means it's now virtually useless against vehicles, and with just S4 and Ap6, it's not good against monstrous creatures either.
I'm sure a lot of people are going to swoon over this unit, and I'm sure it's going to be popular, and generate a lot of hate, but I predict that this will easily be the most over-rated new unit in the codex. The main reason is that while it can do a few things, it can only do one thing really well - killing light infantry (and sort or MEq). The problem is that the guard codex is literally choking on units that fill this role. It's hard to say why you'd need a wyvern when you have hellhounds and punishers and endless waves of FRF lasguns and chimera heavy bolters and, and, and.
It fills a role very well, but it's just not all that necessary, really. I don't imagine that will stop people from whining about it, though.
Manticores
Once again, much the same. They got a tiny bit more expensive, but that's in part because they correctly undid the bad FAQ ruling about weapon destroyed results.
Otherwise it's the same tank designed to strip hull points and unnecessarily murder hordes. Don't know if it's worth nearly the same price as 3 wyverns just to annoy vehicles, and given that I'm already not that sold on the wyvern...
The fluff on them worshiping their missiles was kind of cute, though.
Deathstrikes
These guys got a HUGE boost. For slightly cheaper, these guys got their maximum 5" radius, rather than an up to 5" radius, and now they get to shoot if you roll above a FOUR, just just rolling a 6. Pack in a few of these and you're looking at ludicrous damage in the first few turns.
The main problem, though, is that they still can't squadron, and russes just got so much cheaper that it feels bad to clog up valuable russ real estate with just a single missile. I can imagine these being pretty overpowered in low-points games, though, where FOC slots are less of a concern, and you're going to be running up against fewer fliers and monstrous creatures.
Yarrick
Yarrick had a bunch of changes happen to him. Yes, he's still the maybe-he-gets-back-up power claw bale eye cranky old man (his equipment is completely unchanged), but the rest of him is different.
Firstly, he got MUCH cheaper. But this comes at a cost. Aura of discipline got worse like for all commissars. Gone is fearless. Gone is the 12" bubble of stubborn. Gone is hatred. He also gained summary execution.
Pretty much he went from a beatstick buffmaster, to nothing more than a beatstick. His force field did change to make him a bit better at this (and invul save instead of an anti-shred field), but that's it. He's now just a dude with a power fist. An up-priced lord commissar.
Except there's one other main difference. He's now an officer. Without a CCS, so you can throw him in with some vets or something. This makes his role really rather different than before. He's not a commissar valiantly inspiring his men. He's now a senior officer that's a little bit more beaty. Really, it's best to think of him now as an alternative to straken. The problem is, though, why not just bring straken?
Creed
I'd hate to say Yarrick was the only casualty, but he's not. Creed also got worse. Gone is the extra huge command radius. Gone is the extra orders - you now get the same number, but he counts as a one-way vox caster. Gone is the making things outflank. Done is the for the honor of cadia order.
Like how Yarrick has been hacked down to a slightly better lord commissar, creed has been hacked down to a slightly better senior officer. Really, the only thing particularly interesting about him is that he can roll for two warlord traits. Ho hum. Like yarrick, he's no longer the force multiplier he once was
Kell
Kell also got worse - a lot worse. Gone is his ability to make infantry obey orders better (that went to creed before it got dumbed down), and all that's left of listen up maggots! is making it so that you can use KELL'S pathetic leadership of 8 (and only when he's in a squad with creed), which practically everything already has, or better. Meanwhile, a primaris in the squad will raise it up to Ld9, and then you'll get psychic powers, and the psyker is even cheaper.
Basically, he's now just an expensive way to add another powerfist to a CCS.
Straken
In case you missed the trend, straken also got worse. Like the above, he lost his best buff abilities and force multipliers and became a much more one-dimensional character.
He still dishes out fearless to his squad, and still has a nice stat line, but the respectable 12" bubble of furious charge and counterattack is now down to a measly 6", turning it from an army ability to just him and nearby squads. He still has Ap2, but he lost armorbane, replacing it with monster hunter, which seems rather worse.
The only thing he gained was that he can now do smash attacks, which means you have a guardsmen who has a source of S10 Ap2 (and at-initiative to boot), which means against some things he's scarier than he was before. Interestingly enough with monster hunter and smash combined, you actually have a pretty decent MC killer... if you can ever, EVER manage to get into close combat with one (that doesn't also kill you first).
The main problem is that for this change in abilities, he comes in at a prohibitive 35 points more expensive. He's almost more expensive than yarrick, and for at best not really any better.
Nork!
Nork is largely the same, with the most obvious changes being the changes that were made to ogryn in general (FC to HoW and very bulky). His loyalty changed a little bit (no longer will he kill commissars if they kill the officer, for example). His heroic sacrifice went from D6 S6 to 4 S5, but he also gained the hilarious headbutt ability which is like an Ap3 version of a smash attack.
The only thing particularly interesting is that he got a lot cheaper.
Pask
Now this one is actually different, and not for the worse for a change.
Pask is still an upgrade for a tank, but he is, more importantly, an upgrade for a tank commander (meaning Pask gets tank orders, etc.). To start with, he still makes the tank BS4, but his "if you sit still, you're +1S against vehicles and shred vs. MCs" went away. Firstly, the part about MCs is just gone, but the +1S instead depends on which russ you put him in. Before going over what they do, it's important to note that he no longer has a prohibition against moving in order to use this rule.
With most russes, the +1S gets turned over into twin-linked, and without dragging a psyker into it. This is better for vanquishers (which already likely penetrate armor), and eradicators (which weren't an anti-vehicle weapon in the first place). It also does somewhat ameliorate the problems of the large blast ordnance tanks. You're going to get so few shots off and do so little damage, that at least it's twin-linked, but it's rather too little too late.
With the executioner, pask gives you a wonky large blast template he can fire instead that I can't imagine ever wanting. That just leaves the exterminator and the punisher. The exterminator gets rending, which is a pretty good rule for this. The loss of +1S hurts a S7 weapon pretty badly, but at least you've got a roughly 2/3ds chance of getting +D3 strength and gaining that all-important Ap2. More importantly, it was a tank that suffered from not doing anything well, and this upgrades it to still a generalist tank, but at least it can now somewhat threaten harder targets like TEq, MCs and heavier vehicles.
But what steals the show, of course, is the pask punisher. A RENDING PUNISHER. People are getting excited about this for very, very good reason. The punisher was already arguably the best tank in the fleet, as it had the ability to be good against everything through both volume of fire AND a bunch of good high-S low-Ap weapons as well. You still have BS4 against light targets, but now you're causing rending against TEq (which you will now absolutely annihilate), and against monstrous creatures (which was better than shred against them), and against vehicles. A punisher cannon now has the ability to damage AV14 with its main gun as well as its hull weapons.
This is absolutely insane.
The only thing that held back the punisher was because it had only a 24" range and was stuck moving a maximum of 6" per turn. But remember the part where pask was a tank commander? That means he gets tank orders. That means he can move a leman russ up to 18" in a single turn if he forgoes shooting. That makes a 24" weapon much, MUCH scarier with a two-turn threat range of 48". Deployed reasonably centrally, that's practically the whole board.
Plus, he can still order split-fire for his squad and do the shoot-'n-smoke as well.
Last but not least, of course, he gets preferred enemy if he's your warlord. I'll just let that sink in. A pask tank squad is now a 3-tank army in its own right. I expect to see this a lot in guard armies, but I REALLY expect to see this a lot in people who ally in guard as a secondary detachment. We could easily see this showing up at tournaments soon.
For All Our Homies
Of course, not everything made it into the codex. For some reason, they decided to trim things down. The particularly distressing thing is the loss of all those special characters. There's rumors they're coming back as dataslates, but rumors are just that - rumors. Unless I actually see something different, I'm going to assume they're gone.
Bastonne
Not the biggest loss, but then there was no real reason to cut them. It seems like the changes in orders finally made him worth taking, and then they decided to give him the axe. Was useful in outflanking lists and especially air-cav. Don't know why he's gone.
Marbo
He was always just there for the yukks, so he's no real loss. That said, he was a super fluffy part of the imperial guard. I'll be sad to see him go.
Al'Rahem
This one actually hurts as there was an entire guard playstyle based off of him. I don't understand why they decided not to allow for outflanking armies anymore, but clearly this is the trend, as creed doesn't outflank and neither does harker. Don't know why they cut him. It's pretty clear that he's going to be gone, though, especially since they gave that one order of his into the general pool.
Chenkov
This one also really bites. I guess, on principle, infinitely respawning conscripts could be considered cheesy, but I never found any problems with it being overpowered in any case. Plus, SitNW was SUPER DUPER FLUFFY for a guard army. Being able to callously send your own men to their deaths and when the squad took 50% casualties figure that well, they were done for anyways and sending in the next infantry wave was awesome. Plus, being able to shout "To a man, you say? SEND IN THE NEXT WAVE!" in your local gaming store was worth it.
I dearly, dearly hope this gets a dataslate, but given that they were steering conscripts back towards the 4th ed ones, it seems tragically unlikely.
Mogul
Did anyone ever use him? Still, why the cut?
Penal Legions
These WERE the worst unit in the game. They were also not terribly fluffy. They should have either continued with the Last Chancers motif, or they should have made them more like conscripts. Now, if you want penal legionaires, you go back to using them as conscripts like you probably were before.
They could have tried to save them rather than cut them, but I guess it just wasn't worth the effort.
Colossus and Griffon
As mentioned, these both sort of just merged to become the Wyvern, and that's not that bad of a thing, really. They were both only so-so against vehicles anyways, and the loss of Ap3 is mitigated by just causing a lot more hits in the first place, and the wyvern is just straight better than the griffon used to be (and the griffon was a dubious unit with a silly looking model anyways).
This is more of an apotheosis than a loss, I think.
Medusa
This was, though, and I'm scratching my head for why. Having a field gun was nice, and having an artillery piece that could actually hurt hard targets rounded out the artillery section nicely. It's not the biggest loss, but it still does make me wonder why it was lost.
Play Styles
In 5th edition, foot guard was roughly as strong as mech guard (even during leafblower days), but 6th ed gave mech guard a gentle verbal chastisement while it bent foot guard over the barrel and beat it bloody.
Foot guard did get a bit of a helping hand this time around. We still don't have hidden upgrades, but we can make up for the fact that we can't hide commissars etc. by just being able to take more of them. Maybe it's the end of MSU blobs, but the blob might just possibly be able to make a slight comeback. There are an awful lot of sources of buffs for infantry platoons now, and they're very cheap, but they're not free, and they're not limitless. They also rely to a dangerous amount on several different units passing leadership tests to trigger their abilities, making the support that foot guard is going to be relying on rather unreliable.
MSU foot guard came out mostly the same, as the buffs won't help it as much, but then it was also hurt less by 6th ed. The real question is blobs. The real question is "can I run my whole army across the table and actually arrive there with some of it?". I hate to say it, but this still seems pretty weak. Blobs will now arrive with more strength, what with powerfist commissars and plasma gun priests and psychic shriek psykers, but there wasn't really added anything to make it more likely that they'll actually survive long enough to make it to engagement ranges.
Blobs are less bad, though, so I might give them a try again.
Mech guard will still stay mech guard. You might, on rare occasions, actually need to get guys out of their chimeras to bring the extra special weapon into play, but that's countered by the fact that if they get out, they now have better orders. Mechvets are still a superb defensive weapon, they just got rationalized a bit with their points costs and abilities.
The new mass-stormtrooper ability is kind of interesting, though, and was a playstyle I liked to run. Really, though, what steals the show is the new armored company guard. I'm looking forward to trying this out, and I can't believe I'm the only one.
Anyways, that's it for my summary of the codex based only on how it changed from the last codex. At some point in the near future, I'll do a writeup about the units based on their own merits.
Conclusion
In the run-up to this new codex the only thing I wanted was for them not to screw it up, and thankfully, my hopes and prayers were answered. The new guard codex will play very similarly to the old guard codex, and most of the old stuff is there that's been pretty much just slightly tweaked. Not a whole lot of big changes.
To talk about what changed in general, the most obvious thing to say was that lots of stuff got cheaper. Thankfully, though, this isn't some brute exercise in codex creep. The stuff that got cheaper was all from the low-power end of the codex and the combination of lower prices and better abilities really just served to make bad units usable again. The stuff from the middle of the codex, the stuff that just worked right in the first place, was scarcely touched. The most obvious examples were infantry platoons and the CCS. Plus, it wasn't all just in one direction either. A few things did get more expensive or lost options, and these were generally from the higher-power end of the codex.
The end result is pretty much exactly what you'd want. An army that uses the same models and plays in the same ways, with the overpowered stuff toned down a bit, and the big mass of stuff that had become bad or difficult to use getting revitalized. They also managed to do this without making any ultra thundernerfs, or without introducing a new pile of grossly overpowered units (excepting possibly pask).
The end result is a more thoughtful and internally-sensical codex with more options given to the player. I could hardly ask for more.
... well, then except for them to get someone new to write the fluff.
|
Thought for the day 
Vorradis 75th "Crimson Cavaliers" 8.7k
Black Templar-24,000+
Sisters of battle-2,500
Loyal Chaos Marines-2,000
Legio I Italica-8.000
