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The 7th edition is released tomorrow and while many consider it to be a minor change for the most part, there are a few new rules and designs that might change how SM armies play.

Most affected are probably the ones, whose special rules are strongly tied to the rulebook, such as Iron Hands and White Scars. The latter experience a change in how the new Jink rule works, while the former profits from the new vehicle damage table and the fact that vehicles are scoring.

There are also plenty of other changes, especially in consideration of other armies buffs and nerfs.

I'd be happy to hear your thoughs, analysis and speculations.

Bikes dont get auto jink anymore, however, when white scars do jink, they have 2+ cover.

landraiders and dreadnoughts are buffed, meaning Iron hands got alot of strength.

Tiggy is still an amazing psycher, and now allying in AM to make a fluffy PDF force detatchment is amazing for extra psyker batteries.

Salamanders got a nice buff considering they dont have to go full Drop pod list anymore. They can also Ally AM for some nice lists.

Raven guard and regular imperial fists will mostly remain unchanged, however Lysanders sentinals of terra gained an interesting buff with the changes to psychic powers as well.

I'm looking forward to see what the new Adamantium Will rules will be and how effective they are for my Black Templars.

 kronk wrote:
I'm looking forward to see what the new Adamantium Will rules will be and how effective they are for my Black Templars.

This. The buffs to vehicles and the fact that Dedicated Transports for Troops also have Objective Secure also has me dusting off my Land Raider Crusader again.

 AlmightyWalrus wrote:

 kronk wrote:
I'm looking forward to see what the new Adamantium Will rules will be and how effective they are for my Black Templars.

This. The buffs to vehicles and the fact that Dedicated Transports for Troops also have Objective Secure also has me dusting off my Land Raider Crusader again.

Crusader Squads lead by Chaplains are back, baby!

For white scars I am considering moving away from being a special weapon shooting army and more towards a CC component/twin linked bolters of my army as a result of the changes to jink. Giving sergeants melta bombs, taking larger units with a buffing character. Especially since many of the power builds like ovesa star and the like are not possible the need for grav weapons is on the decrease.

I think with the way psykers work now taking characters that do guaranteed buffs are going to make a come back such as chaplains. IN addition with the changes to smash I see more variety of characters being viable. I will also be switching over to a ordo hereticus inquisitor with psyoculum instead of a ordo xenos with rad grenades with my centurions. I see a significant number of psykers on the table and with the loss of prescience reliability I think it will be a worthwhile investment.

The change to allies being able to go in transports really opens up a lot of builds. Still have to really think back and look at all the combos I decided against because of ally restrictions as well as the new grey knights being battle brothers.

Eihnlazer wrote:
Bikes dont get auto jink anymore, however, when white scars do jink, they have 2+ cover.

But WS do not have Skilled Rider... 4+ from jink, 3+ because of their CT. People have pointed out that turbo-boosting does not improve Jink anymore.
Ravenwing will get 3+ top as well (4+ jink, skilled rider)

This edition should be good for me, I run with Salamanders and lots of vehicles (Rhinos, Predators, Dreadnoughts) and usually use two librarians. All of these are getting desperately needed buffs. They've also toned down bikes, which I like - they were so much better as troops than my tactical squads, that I always felt like I had to stick them in my list. It always seemed weird to me that they were being used as this reliable shooting platform which automatically got cover saves.

I run/own just about everything SM (well just about everything 40k for that matter). I think this edition will be tons of fun for this codex. Hoods and good access to psychic powers will make use able to have an affect on that phase. White scars will probably see the biggest change, and I don't see it as all bad or unbalancing at all.

Being that everything can score, and vehicles are tougher to one-shot, I really think that Blood Angels might have a chance now with Razorspam. Plus, Corbulo leading a squad of TH/SS Terminators parked on an objective is probably going to be one of the most stubborn objective holders ever lol!

 Murdius Maximus wrote:
Being that everything can score, and vehicles are tougher to one-shot, I really think that Blood Angels might have a chance now with Razorspam. Plus, Corbulo leading a squad of TH/SS Terminators parked on an objective is probably going to be one of the most stubborn objective holders ever lol!

but it only takes 1 troop unit to deny their scoring and instead claim it for the enemy.

Troops cannot be denied, HQ and Elites can.

Exactly and that is the trade off in list design. you have to decide which one you want to do. I think rhinos and other transports are going to make a comeback, but they are not going to be no brainers and need to fit your list.

 Exergy wrote:

 Murdius Maximus wrote:
Being that everything can score, and vehicles are tougher to one-shot, I really think that Blood Angels might have a chance now with Razorspam. Plus, Corbulo leading a squad of TH/SS Terminators parked on an objective is probably going to be one of the most stubborn objective holders ever lol!

but it only takes 1 troop unit to deny their scoring and instead claim it for the enemy.

Troops cannot be denied, HQ and Elites can.

True, but honestly I really doubt that any troop choice will stand for very long against this squad. Being that you have to be in such close proximity to claim the objective that is just feeding units to the termies xD

The additional 'Maelstrom' missions have recently been shown, and my White Scars, with very fast, tough scoring bikes, have the potential to absolutely dominate the victory point game. I could almost see a game in which I'm not actually too worried about killing the enemy, only doing it when I get a good opportunity, and instead zip around grabbing VP after VP due to the variable objectives.

Like Leth, I'm also thinking shooting might be more situational, with a greater benefit gained from charging towards the enemy while retaining my jink save. It's possible I'll want to add power weapons to some of my bike sergeants. I'll also be a little less worried about taking on MCs in combat with my powerfist Captain (I don't use the Shield Eternal). At the same time, TL bolters aren't hit by snapshooting as badly as other bike guns - special weapons and attack bike MMs are though!

I use a fair number of landspeeders who will lose their jink if they want to shoot - which is most of the time as they're gun platforms. However, I've always seen the 5+ cover save as a 'nice to have' - it's not good enough to rely on, and I've always figured that if anyone really wants to kill them, they will! The double MM and double HF speeders will be most effected - the typhoons rely more on range to protect themselves, and have more opportunity to use cover.

I use both a whirlwind and sniper scouts - without pinned overwatch these have the potential to synergise very nicely with charging bikes.


Of course, this is all only theory - it may not actually work out like this in practice...

Im currently planning on running either a Space Marine Drop Pod Army or a White Scar Bike list myself, as I have always been a fan off aggressive armies, however I wasn't sure is a White Scars Bike list was more of a shooing, hit-and run style army or where they an army that could actually do some damage in CC, which seems to be the case now due to the different jink-save.

That being said, the new White Scars list seems to be very brutal due to all of the firepower and strength it can bring. However, an Iron Hands Drop Pod/Bike army also seems nasty, as to the changes to the rules they now have a 5+ invulnerable save, which is something to look at if that is the case.

 Rommel44 wrote:
That being said, the new White Scars list seems to be very brutal due to all of the firepower and strength it can bring. However, an Iron Hands Drop Pod/Bike army also seems nasty, as to the changes to the rules they now have a 5+ invulnerable save, which is something to look at if that is the case.

I didn't see anything related to this. Could you elaborate?