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A number of years ago, when the 5th edition Imperial Guard codex came out, I wrote up a rather sprawling review of it, as it was a major change to my favorite army after six years of frustration with an aging codex and multiple edition changes. As we enter a new era of change, I was again feel the urge to discuss the rules available to my beloved army. Of course, there isn’t really a codex, or an Imperial Guard, and really, the concept of what an Astra Militarum Army can include is muddled with the new keyword system… but still, let’s do a deep dive into the new AM rules!

While I think that the nature of cross buffs will make most AM armies mostly have AM units, rather than a true skittles approach to the Imperiuim, I will try to add some discussion of common subsidiary units, such as assassins, Imperial Knights, and St. Celestine. My goal is not to provide a template for high end army building, but rather to discuss each unit, it’s options, it’s uses, and show the ways it can be used, to the extent it can be used. As before, I am going to rate units on a four point scale: Casual, semi-competitive, competitive, highly competitive. Casual means that a unit has such problems that it likely can’t be included in any list intended for tournament play, but may have some fun options for mega battles or scenarios. Semi competitive units are either broadly underwhelming, or are narrow in their strengths, and will be included sparingly in tournament winning lists, but can still appear in solid lists. Competitive units are units that are either broadly useful, or have some options that allow them to be key parts of top lists. Highly competitive units are those that can be the foundation for tournament lists, or are otherwise wildly overpower or under costed. These grades don’t always account for player skill, but can help a newer player guide their choices for what to buy, and also can help clarify when I like an option, or see it as fun, and when it is actually effective. Another hope is to provide a resource for new players so that they understand some of the less obvious aspects of playing the army.

One of the things that I will freely admit to is that much of what I’m writing is based on theory hammer, but obviously play experiences trump theory. While I am writing this as a committee of one, I encourage anybody with differing, alternative, or additional opinions to share them. I make no claims to speaking for the community, but I do want to reflect consensus as much as possible.



Intro:

The Astra Militarum has two army wide rules. The first is the often replicated <regiment> keyword, which ties models to a single regiment. For armies built entirely of “generic” units, this doesn’t matter much, but if using a special character, you will want to key as many forces as possible to the same <regiment> as the special character. This is an elegant solution to the problem of heroes from two distinct regiments (or chapters, klans, etc.) from sharing their buffs with basic troops. Now, if you want your units to benefit from Harker’s aura, they cannot be given orders by Creed or Pask. None of the AM special characters seem like auto-includes, so that gives us some interesting options for army building. The other wrinkle is that Scions, Scion command, and Tempestor Primes are all automatically keyed to <Militarum Tempestus>, so Company commanders cannot give orders to Scions, and Tempestors cannot give orders to regular infantry. Plan accordingly!

One trick denied by the FAQ was declaring Militarum Auxilia as a regiment for your officer. You cannot do that, so there is now now way to issue orders to Ogryn or Ratlings.

The more bespoke rule that the AM have is the orders systems, which have gotten a pretty strong overhaul. The orders have, for the most part, been toned down, or more correctly, evened out, in strength. They also can only be given to units 6” form the office. In return, they now automatically succeed, and all officers know all orders. As officers have gotten cheaper (sort of, see below) and much easier to keep alive, orders have shifted from a layered on bonus to an essential part of how the army works. Properly played, an AM army uses it’s orders to expand the tactical options and enhance the firepower of its units.

The bread and butter order is Take Aim!, which is the clear favorite for overcharged plasmas, as it allows all ones to hit to be rerolled. Keep in mind that rerolling ones on a BS4+ model raises the likelihood of hitting from 50% to only about 58%, or about a 16% increase in firepower. When a 30pt Commander gives orders to two 72 point triple lascannon Heavy Weapon squads, you get an 18% bump in damage for a 21% price premium. And most target squads will be even cheaper! In other words, this isn’t the most cost effective strategy, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a nice order. Commanders do a lot more, and they can fight a bit (or with dirt cheap plasma even shoot a little bit). Also, the reduced size of deployment zones means that the old IG adage of “bring more men and fewer” buffs runs into its own diminishing returns as you run out of good places to bring even more men.

A very similar order is Bring it down!, which allows the unit to re-roll ones to wound. Mathematically, there is little difference in expected damage output between rerolling hits and wounds, although running the numbers does show that it is slightly better to re-roll the more difficult roll, which means you should re-roll hits for high strength weapones (plasma, melta, Missile, Lascannon), and re-roll wounds when shooting low to mid strength weapons against high toughness. The problem is that the most likely source of 5+ and 6+ wounds are lasguns, and if you're making decisions based on lasguns doing work, you don't want to use either of these orders. As long as you Take aim when shooting is harder than wounding, and Bring it down when wounding is harder than hitting, you'll be fine. If you end up in a situation where you are shooting all of a squads firepower into a tank, or shooting something like mortars or heavy bolters against high toughness, this order is the smart play. One thing to keep in mind is that if your'e not shooting high strength weapons, and the squad has lasguns, FRF!SRF! does more damage. Most of the time, if you're using this order, things are going pear shaped. That doesn't mean you shouldn't try, but this should be the least used order, with two huge exception: BS3+ Meltas on Toughness 8+, and snipers. One common pattern will be scions or veterans shooting a melta gun at Toughness 8 or higher models, which is a 3+/4+. The math shows to use Bring it Down! Here instead of Take Aim.
Since snipers do an additional mortal wound on a wound roll of 6+, fishing for sixes is a smart play. How smart relying on snipers can be is an exercise left to the reader. On the other hand, Psykers are a much easier path to laying a few mortal wounds.

First Rank Fire! Second Rank Fire! is the order to use when you are relying on lasguns to do work, as it double the shots the squad receives, to 2 at 24" and 4 within 12". however, this order is about more than just clearing grunts. Because lasguns can wound any model in the game, FRF!SRF! also doubles lasgun damage against vehicles. I ran the numbers for T3/5+, t4/3+, T4/2+, T7/3+, T8/3+, and T8/2+. For the latter four, I counted plasma wounds twice, and lascannon wounds as 3.5 for the vehicles, and 11/6 for terminators (averaging a one and five twos for the six possible damage rolls). For both 12" and 24" range, FRF!SRF! actually outperforms Take Aim for GEQ and MEQ targets, and also does better against light vehicles (T5/3+). To oversimplify, use this order when shooting at infantry , and Take Aim when firing Plasma, ML, and LC against hard targets.

Moving away from pure damage and into toolbox territory is Forwards for the Emperor! which allows a unit to fire after advancing. This is clearly a niche order, but should never be neglected. There is nothing stopping an officer from giving orders after he himself advances, so an officer can keep up with running conscripts and still have them fire, or allow a unit with meltas to really close into short range. While this might not always be useful, when it is, it could be game changer. After all, compared to a minor bump in efficacy, being able to fire weapons at all because you ran into range is a huge benefit! Be watchful for opportunities to use this one.
The real gem of the orders is Get Back in the Fight, which allows a unit that Fell Back to shoot. Without another order, and with a -1 to heavy weapons for having moved, the unti won't be at it's most effective, but getting to shoot at all is good, and for some units (scions with four plasma/melta), it can be punishing. Since controlling the line of battle is key to 8th, this is likely the first order you should use given the opportunity.

Move!Move!Move! now allows a unit, instead of shooting, to move as if it were the movement phase, and the unit must advance and cannot charge this turn. A strict reading of the advance rules says you cannot advance twice, but still, moving a unit 12+d6" in one turn is pretty speedy for the normally stodgy AM. This another kind of goofy order, in that while it allows a unit to move fast, it also requires an officer within 6”. The most readily apparent use of this order is to move a squad onto an objective, and it's really hard to to disagree with that. I can also help shift bubblewrap very quickly, or even allow a player to shift squads from one flank to another with decent, but not overwhelming speed. Another ability to keep filed away for occasional use.

Finally, Fix Bayonets! causes a unit engaged to immediately fight as if it were the Fight phase. This gives a unit the opportunity to swing twice, but it also allows units a chance to kill the enemy, and free themselves to shot and charge a different unit. If a unit is being tied up by a small handful of enemy models, this could allow it to fight, kill them, and then shoot/charge again! Outside of units tied up by the smallest enemy squads, the clear use of this is on Conscripts, which might do enough damage to free themselves from combat. Even if they do not, they might do enough to force a nasty morale check. A key consideration is if the squad involved should simply fall back, and be given get back in the fight. That allows more friendly squads to pour in firepower as well. Still, a unit that falls back cannot charge, while a unit that wipes out it's enemy with this order could. This prevents your Conscripts from being held up by a handful of light troops. Bonus tip: Priests War Hymns adds one to the attacks characteristics of units within 6”, which would also include while fighting under this order.



The Armory
Before I jump into the individual units, I thought I’d discuss the various options available as upgrades.  These are divided fairly neatly into Ranged, Special, Heavy, and Melee weapons, with Ranged and Melee generally being upgrades for characters or unit leaders and Specials and Heavies being upgrades for squads or vehicles.  Not all are available to all models, but generally when a unit allows a model to choose, they can pick whatever they want.

Melee
GW has finally realized that AM characters don’t get quite the same utility from their power weapons as Space Marines, and has lowered the points cost dramatically for melee options.  Much like in 6th/7th, models select from Power Swords, Power Axes, and Power Mauls, with many characters also having an option for the Power Fist.  Power Swords use the models strength, but have AP3, Axes are +1S and SP2, while Mauls are +2S and AP1.  Powerfists, when available still double the strength, but now have AP3 and d3 damage. However, when swinging, the model has -1 to hit. 
One of the subtle changes to 8th edition has been to simply get rid of the overly complicated rules for gaining an attack while using a pistol and close combat weapon.  Instead, models simply use the attacks profile (what a concept), while dedicated assault troops and leaders often come base with a chainsword, which allows the model to attack one extra time when using that weapon.   For the AM, taking a melee weapon requires trading in the chainsword, so any power weapon attacks will be based solely on the Attacks characteristic.  Running some simple math for the three basic types shows that the Power Ax remains the clear favorite for a S3 model, with the Maul nosing ahead for higher toughness, very low armor save models like orks, while the powersword is more competitive for 2+ saves, or when all of the weapons are wounding on 5’s anyway.  The spread isn’t horrible, even the basic sword won’t hold you back.  The ax, somewhat amusingly, is a whole point more than the maul or sword, at 5pts instead of 4pt.  At 10 points, the fist is a bit more of an investment, and due to being -1 to hit, probably wants to go on models with good WS and high attacks (read, Company commanders and Lord Commissars).  At S6, AP3, with d3 damage, the fist will bring the pain, but unlike plasma, I would be judicious in how many I would buy. 
 
 
 
Ranged
AM characters don’t  have a deep bench of ranged options.  Most come base with a laspistols, while commissars tool around with a fancy bolt pistol.  Any character or sergeant can upgrade to a bolt pistol or bolter for a mere point, while the plasma pistol is now a very reasonable 5pts.  Plasma pistols can overcharge, just like the special weapons, and pistols can be fired even when the squad is engaged with an enemy unit, although this requires that a unit survive at least one fight phase, which is never a safe bet.  Still, plasma pistols are now a perfectly fine choice.  I would focus them on BS3+ characters, but at 5pts they are simply cheap enough and good enough to spam.  The bolt options are too cheap to ignore.  The bolter is objectively superior now that it doesn’t limit the models attacks or preclude it from charging, but if you’re like me and have models with bolt pistols, I’m not sure I’d be cutting models up for an extra shot!  From a damage per point perspective, adding a bolter to virtually every model that can take one makes sense.
 
Special Weapons
The AM retain the five special weapons from earlier editions: sniper rifle, Grenade Launcher, flamer, meltagun, and plasma gun.   I have a long standing theory that GW struggles to differentiate more than three options for any given squad, and that is even more true here than normal, as there is virtually no application for grenade launchers, and a very narrow one for sniper rifles.

Grenade Launchers have been mediocre for multiple editions, and despite making the obvious fix by upping them to Assault 2, GW has simply doubled down on their somewhat dubious flexibility in 8th.  That flexibility is the sole redeeming quality of the weapon, in that it can credibly be used against both light infantry and medium infantry/light vehicles with at least modest expectations.  In Frag mode, the weapon has d6 shots at S3 AP-, while the Krak grenade is S6, AP1, damage d3.  Krak is clearly inferior to plasma for only two points more, but Frag actually does decent work at range against light models such as guardsmen or orks.  The problem is that the frag grenade is actually worse than a basic lasgun at 12” with FRF!SRF!, and somewhat surprisingly, worse against even guardsmen compared to a rapid firing plasma gun. 

Okay, so the Grenade Launcher is garbage… is there any way to use it?  Surprisingly, a little bit.  The basic advantage of Grenade Launchers is that they are assault weapons, so they can advance and still shoot a little bit.  This allows a squad that is mostly moving to still contribute a bit.  24” range is pretty good, and certainly outclasses the flamer. One way to think about the grenade launcher is that if if fires three times as often as a flamer, it will be more effective. So, you can argue that instead of a flamer on an objective camper, a grenade launcher could do more. Which is fine, but a plasma gun does even more! And while flamers won't always fire, they will pretty frequently. Still, there are (slightly) worse ways to spend 44 points than a command squad with four grenade launchers. [Author's note: guess who painted up four more grenade launchers in the weeks prior to the launch of 8th edition, on the notion that they couldn't possibly stay that bad...]

Sniper Rifles are the special weapon choice that everybody forgets, even if they've been in the codex for multiple editions now, in some flavor. They are super cheap, they are 36” range, they can target characters freely, and they are S4. Also, on a 6+ to wound, they pop for a moral wound, in addition to the regular wound. The problem is two fold: they available for cheap on Ratlings, along with infiltrate and shoot and scoot, making basic infantry not the best platform. Second... they just aren't all that great. Even in a mirror match up, trying snipe commissars is harder than it looks, and against anything tougher, the Vindicare is super tempting. They are also heavy weapons, and 8th edition is even more mobile than past editions, making long ranges static firepower less appealing... especially when that firepower isn't overwhelming. I guess they can be taken in SWS for 30pts, which is dirt cheap.... but so is an infantry squad with heavy and special weapon. I say keep them on ratlings unless you really like your sniper models, in which case I'd take them in command squads for BS3+ and a fourth sniper rifle.

The gap between the sniper rifle and the meltagun is probably the biggest on this list, as the melta gun has a clear mission profile: wasting large models at very close range. While overcharged plasmas are close to as effective as meltas, meltas bring an extra AP, and the crucial two dice, pick the highest for damage. That shakes out to an average of about 4.5, while ignoring 3+ saves. While it might be tempting to load up deepstrikers with meltas, those units cannot land within 9” of an enemy unit, so they'll be denied the extra dice. Overcharged plasma can shoot twice at 9”, doing two damage per shot. Even so, AP4 helps, and against 3+ saves and above, meltas at longer range out punch plasma. This is not a weapon for footsloggers, although as assault weapons they can advance and still fire at -1 to hit. Scions or transports are the friends of this very short range, very powerful weapon. I'll be talking more about this weapon in the appropriate unit entry, but in general veterans and command squads like this gun while riding in a chimera or valkyrie, and scions of all type love it.

It's interesting when a new edition comes out and GW clearly sees that the meta will shift, and makes a price change preemptively. Prices for the humble flamer (and less humble heavy flamer) went up in nearly all applications, as the old template weapon instead became an 8” range, d6 automatic hits. Two things to cool off anybody getting overheated: 8” is pretty short (and outside of deep strike range), and d6 S4 hits aren't changing the world. In prior editions, template weapons were hard to pull off, but could absolutely murder light infantry by covering fistsfuls of models under the template, having AP5, and ignoring cover. Now, best case scenario you hit 6 models, who get their full saves, as well as cover. This is, ironically, a fantastic change for IG, who will now lose only a few models from even the best set up flamer shot. However, for us, our bulk flamers lose some luster in raw damage. On the flip side, the flamer has greater general utility. While the template was roughly 8” long, at that range it might only hit one model, while now a flamer in range gets the full d6. Also, while it does not ignore cover, always hitting ignores modifiers that make hitting harder, including various stealth rules, advancing, and even airborne! Oh... and during overwatch... where you'll now do some guaranteed hits if the charging squad starts within range. Overall, I'm not as bullish on the flamer as some, but it's a weapon with both offensive and defensive punch, and goes great with squads that plan on shooting at other infantry. Also, 45 pts buys you a SWS with three of 'em, which makes a nice little counter charge unit.

Finally, the once and future king, the plasma gun returns to his rightful place as the premium weapon. It's hard to explain how much better plasma is than every other weapon in all but the narrowest of roles. Meltas do better against the hardest targets (T7, T8/3+, and up), and flamers against light infantry, but plasmas excel against a broad range of targets, from the basic MEQ (marine equivalent), through most two wound infantry and any 4+ save high toughness models, or any model with a 5++ invulnerable save or better. Even against melta targets, the ability to overcharge and hit at S8 with Damage 2 allows the plasma gun to really acquit itself. Perhaps shockingly, the plasma gun runs the same price as the flamer and is five points cheaper than a melta gun. While five to ten points should never stand between an AM player and the right weapon for the role they want, the plasma gun is stupidly good for a very nice price.
As alluded to, plasma can now be fired in two roles, the first of which is identical in function to what we know and love: rapid fire 1, 24” range, S7, AP3, Damage 1. However, the gets hot rule is gone! Now, when supercharged, where the Strength and Damage each bump up one, a roll to hit of one causes the firing model to be removed after all shooting is resolved. Keep in mind that if there are negative modifiers to hit, for example against an airborne target, then a roll of 2 counts as a 1, making the supercharge more deadly. Use against hard to hit targets at risk. Still, the synergy between supercharging and the Take Aim! Order should be obvious, reducing the risk of losing a model from one in six (~16%.7) to one in 36 (2.7%). While overcharging should only be done when necessary, against T7 or higher targets, or those with multiple wounds,(or in direst need, against T4, where S8 wounds on a 2+ but S7 does not) don’t' be too afraid of losing models. A final minor buff is that in 8th edition, units can charge after firing rapid fire weapons, so plasmas can fire and then charge... which might actually be a decent idea at times! Overall, the plasma gun is the most useful weapon, and also fills a role least served by heavy weapons or vehicles. Competitive AM armies are going to include a lot of plasma, and flamers and melta to taste.

Heavy Weapons
The humble mortar really benefited from the changes in 8th edition, with it's prior small blast marker exchanged for d6 shots, which helps from both a gameplay and logistical perspective, and rolling all of those dumb little markers took forever. The mortar is still pillowfisted, averaging just under two S4 hits a turn, which aren't going to turn the tide. At five points, with 48” range and no need for line of sight, it's a fun option for heavy weapon squads (seriously, 27 points for 3d6 shots a turn). I suppose very front line squads that are built to take a charge might go for mortars over the heavy bolter, but for a few points more I like the 3+ to wound T4 and the AP1. Still, moving from “basically useless” to “nifty little support unit” is a big step for the mortar.

Speaking of the other anti-infantry heavy weapon, the heavy bolter also loves it some 8th edition, most notably gaining AP1, which means it does some work even against marines. As always, it doesn't really get enough shots to clear hordes, it isn't accurate or strong enough to damage anything tough, and while cheap, that only really helps on heavy weapon squads and vehicles. The reality of 8th edition, with first turn charges and plenty of movement, is that your front line is going to get mulched. Keep 'em cheap, and the heavy bolter has the range and ability to meaningfully threaten enough units to make it a good choice. On vehicles, I'd remember that moving give them a -1 to hit, which means one S5, AP1 hit per heavy bolter on the move. How valuable that is to you is going to correlate strongly with how many heavy bolter sponsons you'll be strapping on all over the place. In short, the Heavy Bolter is the cheapest weapon for a direct fire squad, and is great in heavy weapon squads (40pts for 9 shots!) and pretty decent in screening infantry squads. Veterans can shoot something better.

The Autocannon continues it's nearly 20 year run as the AM (formerly IG) weapon with the most convoluted ideal target. It's tough to really tell what the Autocannon is good at. It has a long range, S7, AP1, and Damage 2, all with two shots. Against Rhinos (or other T7, 3+ save models) it does a half damage per turn (½ to hit, ½ to wound, ½ to save with AP1, two shots, two damage per hit. That's respectable, but the lascannon averages nearly a full wound a turn (½ to hit, 2/3 to wound, 5/6 failed saves, d6 damage for 3.5 on average. Against higher toughness or better saves, the lascannon continues to pull away. Against two wound bikes, the autocannon does better, and since damage cannot spill over, the autocannon has a chance to kill two bikes. (It's 1/36, but still). One of the best targets, somewhat ironically, are IG weapon bases, which the Autocannon wounds on a 2+ and instant kills. Other good targets are multiwound models with only invulnerable saves, or low saves such as Ork Nobs. If the lascannon is going to bounce anyway, the autocannon (doing two damage with two shots) will average more wounds than the lascannon. The basic autocannon competes directly with the lascannon in most applications, and at 15pts per, I would pay a little extra and get the real deal.

The Missile Launcher is back with a pretty decent dual shot option. The frag missile is a standard d6 S4 shots, while Krak is S8, Ap2, and d6 Damage. So, it's either an expensive direct fire mortar, or a poor man's lascannon. At 20 points it's the same price as an actual lascannon, which is notably superior against enemy armor. Mathhammer says as much, but so does watching enemy tanks bounce Krak Missiles on 5+ saves, or failing to wound a superheavy on a 4+. The real problem with dual purpose weapons for the AM is that we can bring so darn many. When you can easily drop a dozen heavy weapons, take a few of each specialist, instead of generalists. Instead of four missile Launchers, you can take two lascannons and two heavy bolters, and have more effective weapons. Still, in smaller games, the missile launcher isn't the worst option in an infantry squad, but even if I'm playing a big enough game that I want to use my Missile Launchers, I'd rather rep them as lascannons!

The lascannon got a fantastic boost in 8th edition, keeping it's S9 and going to AP3, but gaining d6 Damage. This is your long range heavy killer. It wounds even landraiders on a 3+, and turns a 3+ save into a 6+. It's damage is swingy but is a great place for a command die re-roll. Especially now that split fire allows you to shoot the lascannon independently of the lasguns, basic infantry squads with a big gun are even better. At Bs4+, you'll need more lascannons to destroy a tank than you think, but no gun that's widely available does it better. HWS with triple lascannons are a bit pricey and fragile, and will attract a lot of attention, but really do threaten any non-super heavy model. At least until the meta shifts hard to hordes, the lascannon is going to be the go-to heavy weapon in the armory.

While not available to heavy weapon teams, the heavy flamer is a big part of the AM list, as an option for nearly every vehicle, and also as an add-on to veterans and command. Even more than the basic flamer, the heavy flamer was very conservatively priced. At 17 points, it rates between an autocannon and the Lascannon, and believe it or not, it's worth it. As before, the AM actually benefit a lot from the changes, both while shooting and being shot. Previously, the heavy flamer was wickedly effective against IG, wounding on 2s with no save or cover. Now? Wounding on 3s, while still giving up a 6+ save. On offense, the heavy flamer gains AP1, making it do pretty decent work against anything without a 2+ save. Really, the heavy flamers damage output doesn't along justify the price, but rather the ability to always hit. Compared to a single heavy bolter hit (when moving), heavy flamers do d6 while in range, and with 10” moves on most tanks, that's a big threat range. I'll be talking about the weapon in more detail in the individual units that excel with them, but the existence of the heavy flamer puts pressure on all other mid range shooting.

The multi-melta shows up in two major applications: as a pair of sponsons on the Leman Russ Chassis, or as a hull weapon on the hellhound chassis. It's pretty much exactly what you'd expect, a meltagun with 24” range, that rolls two dice, pick the highest, for damage within half range. In general, it suffers from wanting to move to get a good shot, but then being a 5+ to hit. At 20pts per, it's the same cost as a lascannon for nearly the same damage output (-1 strength, but an extra AP) with half the range. I think I'd generally stick with lascannons where I can, and avoid expensive upgrades of already pricy base models.

The plasma cannon shows up in two places: the armored sentinel, and the sponsons of the leman russ. The cannon is just a giant plasma gun, with 36” range, and heavy d3, and the same option to overcharge. A roll of one will straight up destroy the sentinel, while leman russes have a rule that instead they just take six mortal wounds, and the model cannot fire any plasma cannon again that game. So... don't supercharge unless you're comfortable with tank losing half it's wounds and firepower about 30% of the time. Even in basic mode, the plasma cannon is a fine weapon, with the usual caveats about not moving. Still... plasma is widely and readily available in the troops slot, and I'm not sure I'd pay such a large premium for a bit of range trading rapid fire 1 for heavy d3.

Finally, of the common weapons, the multilaser is last, and unfortunately, the least. No weapon class took a bigger hit in 8th than mid strength weapons with lousy AP, and the multilaser is the lousiest of the bunch. Literally unchanged from prior editions, the multilaser has no AP, no damage multiplier, and only three shots. With the new wound charts, they don't even wound marines on 2+s anymore. If very cheap, such as five points, or even free bundled with the vehicle chassis, the mutli-laser would be wimpy but fine, especially since two of it's primary mounts are transports. Instead, it's more than a heavy bolter, despite being clealry inferior. A weapon that struggled to accomplish much in the past will now face a world with no AV10 targets and a -1 to hit if the model moves (which transports will!). It was a good run, multi-laser, but all things must end!

In addition to the main weapons, there are three weapons that nearly all of the tanks can take as upgrades. The Hunter Killer missile is a single shot Krak missile that can be only fired once. At 6pts, it's actually a decent buy on any tank that doesn't move. Perversely, it cannot be take by a Taurox Prime. The heavy stubber is the same as always, but much cheaper at 4pts. For static, long range vehicles, such as artillery, it's a good buy. However, the changes to stormbolters, going to rapid fire 2, make them the clear favorite, at a trivial 2pts. Two shots at 24” and four at 12”, and no -1 for moving, make it almost a no brainer for any mobile vehicle. Perversely, sentinels cannot take this.

Headquarters

Like elsewhere in the list, the AM HQ choices are simple, utilitarian, and cheap, but in numbers, they become quite potent. Nearly all of them favor buffs and upgrades to raw damage dealing, but that doesn't make them any less valuable.

Company Commanders
After years of bundling officers with their command squads, the Index now free commander to be characters, which allows them to hide more discreetly among a range of squads. This is, for the most part, a really good thing, as it's now a lot easier to prevent a company commander from being shot up early in the game. Outside of that, the actual model has made a pretty straight forward conversion to 8th edition. He hits on a 3+ in both shooting and melee, he has human standard Strength and Toughness of 3, and he has four wounds and three attacks with a 5+ save and a 5++ invulnerable. He's not exactly tough, but between being a character and a decent amount of wounds, he'll take more than incidental shooting to kill. His big feature is being a senior officer, dishing out two orders a turn. All of this is quite cheap. For those that want a more aggressive leader, his three attacks make good use of a power ax of power fist, while he's a good shot with a plasma pistol. Even “fully kitted” he's cheaper than a scout sentinel. Still, with only three attacks, he's not even killing one space marine a turn, but he takes 14 space marine attacks back to be killed.
As hinted at above, part of the skill in building a list will be balancing the number of officers to the number of squads. You want to provide adequate support, but you don't want officers sitting idle. Also, the orders don't dramatically improve the firepower of the target units, aside from FRF!SRF!, which only doubles the lasguns. Still, Get back in the Fight! Alone can come in huge. I'd look to include one for every three to five squads, allowing them to cover some territory and provide buffs. The best way to determine how many to bring is to play this one out. Outside of Get Back in the Fight!, I think you'll find that most of the orders are pretty minor in effect, and it is often better to have more steak and less sizzle.
Overall: Highly Competitive

Tank Commander
Two units in, and we have a Leman Russ. Oh, Imperial Guard, you are awesome. The Tank Commander is a Leman Russ chassis, with all of the options for turret, hull, and sponson weapons. In addition, It gains the ability to give one Tank Order a turn, from its custom set of three, to a non-character Leman Russ within 6”. This all runs 35 points more than a basic Leman Russ. In general, your view of this unit will wax or wane with your view of Leman Russes (to be discussed later), but for now, let's take a deep dive on the orders.

Full Throttle! Allows a tank to make an additional move, with advance, instead of shooting. For when you really need that 20+d6” move with a Russ, this order is there. Since Russes have ample range, this is really about either late game objective grabbing, or moving a fireball Russ (three heavy flamers) closer to a viable target. Best case scenario, either way, is that you have a Leman Russ not shooting, which I think makes this is very corner case order. Still, you will eventually see a time to use this, and you will love it!
Gunners, Kill on Sight!, is the aggressively re-titled “Take Aim!” It allows the Russ to re-roll 1s to hit, which as we've exhaustively shown, is kind of meh for most guns, but amazingly good for plasma. The optimist would point out that using this order reduces the chance of losing wounds to plasma overheats, allowing you to rebuild the classic 5th edition all plasma executioner. The pessimist would point out that doing so requires a pretty expensive executioner, as well as the tank commander, and losing either one affects the synergy pretty profoundly. In a tank heavy force, this works, but I'm not sure I'd build a tournament army around the combo.
Finally, Strike and Shroud! Simply allows a Leman Russ to pop smoke launchers after shooting. This is a secretly great ability, as -1 to hit is a big deal, but Leman Russes can't normally afford to give up shooting. OTOH, when you pop smoke with one tank, it just means the other ones are going to get shot. Still, used timely, it can protect the most threatening tank a little bit.
Overall, the orders, much like the infantry ones, are pleasant little buffs, and not game changers. It allows you to build a legal Armored Company list using the Spearhead Detachment (HQ and heavy supports).

The other major change for the commander over the basic Russ starting at BS3+. Obviously, a Russ that hits more frequently is a good choice, and the jump from 4+ to 3+ is a 33% increase in damage output for a roughly 30% (or lower) cost. All in all, the Commander is a nice upgrade for the Leman Russ... however, it's overall efficacy is tied to the Leman Russ. I'll obviously discuss them in greater detail below, but the commander only helps one of the Russes problems, it's surprisingly low damage output. Outside of Strike and Shroud!, the Commander doesn't help the durability of other Russes, and has the same defensive profile as the basic Russ. While reasonably durable, it seems likely that an enemy that wants to destroy the commander will do so turn one. With little ability to hide otherwise, (the advanced rules for terrain require non-infantry to be 50% obscured to gain cover, and the model still must be wholly within the terrain feature), be careful buying an expensive unit like this. Still, if your meta shifts to more assault armies that can't erase a Leman Russ a turn with shooting, this really buffs an armored task force.
Overall: Semi-Competitive.

Lord Commissar
First off, a Lord Commissar is everything that a basic Commissar is, so much of the discussion about Aura of Discipline or Summary Execution will be below. Unlike prior editions, the Lord does not have any special rules to distinguish himself from his basic peers, but rather an upgraded profile. BS/WS 2+, an extra wound and pip of leadership, carapace armor for a 4+ save, and a 5++ refractor field are the main differences, along with the requirement to buy a power sword, or other Melee weapon from the list. Somewhat oddly, Commissars can explicitly buy two different Melee weapons, which I assume has less to do with the rules than it does with GW selling a lot of commissar models with a powerfist and powersword, or other combination. So, factoring in the mandatory power sword, is a Lord worth 24pts over a basic commissar? Yeah, probably. There are basically two theories with AM characters: the first is to keep them cheap and focus on the steak, not the sizzle. The other is to see them as fairly cheap platforms for BS3+ plasma and/or WS3+, 3Attack power weapons. One at a time they are barely chaff, but two or three characters, all with power weapons, can do the work of countercharge. From that standpoint, if you have the HQ slots, why not spend a few points to turn your morale backstop into a plasma spitting, power ax wielding hero? Instead of spending the points an eversor assassin or squad or rough riders, you could upgrade a commissar to a lord, buy power weapons and pistols for two company commanders, and even toss in a priest for the +1 attack buff. In the end, if all you care about is keeping your men in line, than the basic commissar is fine, but the lord is a legit fighter for only twice the price.
Overall: semi-competitive

Tempestor Prime
Much like the line regiments, the Scions lost their bundled officer and command squad combinations, and instead can buy the heroes ala carte. The Prime has the same stat-line as the Company Commander, gaining a 4+ basic save but losing the refractor field. He comes with a hot-shot laspistol, and can get a chainsword for free, or buy a melee weapon. He can upgrade the laspistol to a bolt pistol or plasma pistol, or can trade it for the Tempestus Command Rod. As the Prime is not a Senior officer, he only can give one order a turn base, but with the Command Rod he can again get two. Giving up a single pistol shot is a no brainer if you have two Scion squads in your army, as the orders are much better than even a hot shot laspistol. Much like the Scions, the Prime has Aerial Drop which essentially allows him to deepstrike at will at the end of the movement phase. As he's bereft of weapons, you can always drop him back a bit, but within 6” to order his squads.
Orders with the Prime are pretty similar to the Captain, but due to the ability of Scions or Scion Command to take four special weapons, Take Aim! Is mostly likley your go-to order when you drop (especially if overcharging plasma), but don't overlook FRF!SRF! In the later turns, and as always, Get Back in the Fight! Can make killing off the Scions annoying to the extreme. This isn't a complicated unit, it drops in near two squads, and provides orders to them. For pretty cheap, you get protection against overcharging for 8 plasma guns, or 20 more Hot Shot Lasgun shots! They're a cheap buffing unit for arguably the strongest units in the codex, so they deserve a spot in any list.
Overall: Highly Competitive

Primaris Psyker
For reasons unknowable, the three psychic units from the old AM codex were split off into a sub-faction, the Astra Telepathica. They retain the Astra Militarum keyword, so they can still be included, but you have to go to a different section of the Index. Anyway, the Primaris is pretty unchanged. He has pretty standard stats, with a laspistol and force staff, and he knows Smite and two powers from Psykana. In an interesting twist, It's For Your Own Good no longer is a penalty, but instead simply means that if the psyker dies to Perils within 6”of a commissar, he does not explode, as the watchful Commissar simply executed him.
The Psykana Discipline, like most others, has three powers. Terrifying Visions subtracts two from leadership from an enemy unit within 18”, but requires a Warp Charge of 7. Gaze of the Emperor is only a Warp Charge 6, and draws a line 2d6” from the psyker. Roll a die for each model covered, on a 4+ the unit takes a mortal wound. Psychic Barrier gives a +1 to saving throws for one unit within 12”, on a Warp Charge of 6. The early buzz is for Gaze, for the ability to pile on mortal wounds, but I see 2d6” as pretty short. Still, this is a “one good shot” type of weapon, and on a relatively cheap AM psyker you don’t' need to get that many mortal wounds to make up it's cost. Terrify is somewhat straightforward, but is best used against a squad that's taken a lot of damage, and is already in the danger zone. Something like a Leadership 7 unit that lost four models is a good target, as a decent roll will start gutting the squad. This power doesn't do much on it's own, and AM should be trying to wipe out units, but it's a strong second pick. Psychic Barrier is the power that really gets the mind thinking, as it can affect anything up to superheavy tanks. This is a very straightforward power, as it simply makes one unit more durable. It also stacks with cover. Give a Baneblade a 2+, Give a veteran squad in cover a 3+, or make a giant conscript platoon even harder to shift.

The rap on the Primaris is that outside of Smite, the Astropath does everything he does, but cheaper. Of course, the Primaris is pretty cheap already, and unlike the astropath, can fight a little. He also knows two powers instead of one. If you're trying to wring every point out of your list, than the Primaris can't compete with Astropath, but he's still a darn good unit in his own right.
Overall: Competitive.

Commissar Yarrick
Old man Yarrick, the terror of the greenskin, is the most expensive infantry character available to the AM, combining several strong aura buffs with some choppy hand to hand ability. First off, he's a commissar, meaning he had Summary Execution and Aura of Discipline, so he can share his LD9 and prevent more than one moral casualty in nearby squads. He has a 4++ save and T4, and can ignore losing his last wound on a 3+, meaning he should hopefully stick around a bit. He has a powerfist, a stormbolter, a bolt pistol, and effectively a hotshot laspistol (bale eye). Remember that a model can shoot multiple weapons, but can only either shoot pistols or non-pistols, and the stormbolter will usually be the smarter choice, unless locked in combat.
The sort of big ticket rule for Yarrick is the Hero of Hades Hive, which is the pretty standard rule a lot of heroes have in 8th: re-roll ones to hit within 6”. His rule has the twist of allowing re-rolls of all failed hits when attacking Orks. Generally, I do not like rules that only work against a single faction, because they are of no value (or of intermittent value) in take all comers lists, while they smack of impropriety when you know what your enemy is bringing. Editorializing aside, Yarrick is the only source for re-rolling all ones to hit in the AM list, although Harker allows ones in shooting to be re-rolled. In many ways, Yarrick does the job of both a company commander and a commissar, in that he gives every unit within 6” the equivalent of Take Aim! (which also works in combat) and provides for their morale. One key thing to remember is that you can layer an order on top of this aura, for example giving a squad Bring it Down! To re-rolls ones both to hit and to wound. It also layers with War Hymns or Cold Steel and Courage (Straken's aura). Still, the AM aren't going to build a new death start unit any time soon. The other key thing to notice about Hero of Hades Hive is that it is any Astra Militarum Unit, and is not limited to a specific regiment. Scions, Auxilia, Priests, they all benefit from it.

So how do you get the most out of Yarrick? He clearly pays points for his aura and his combat durability, both of which are unique in the codex. His damage output is no different from a Lord Commissar with powerfist, nor are his number of wounds, he's not holding up against a large number of attacks. Iron Will can keep him alive for a while, and it's easy to treat it like two extra wounds, but every time you fail that roll on the first time, he's just a four wound chump. So, while he cannot take on huge squads on his own, he can hold up a squad for a turn or two. The problem is that he's a character that wants to do two things: buff a gunline, and fight in combat. Against a lot of enemies (orks, Chaos, space marines, Nids) you can castle up, shoot the enemy as they come in, and then counter-charge the survivors. Its' old fashions defensive IG work, and it can win games against those enemies. However, those armies with mobile shooting might not be trying to crash your lines, and instead, they'll shoot you up piece meal. Keep in mind that Yarrick cannot sit behind a line of infantry and heavy weapon squads, buffing them, and then wade out and krump heads in every game. That said, he's a bit harder to kill than anything else have, and his aura really is hard to come by. I think he's too pricy for tournament lists, but he's a great piece for narrative games.
Overall: semi-competitive

Lord Castellan Creed
The hero of Cadia, Creed is the thinking man's special character, with minimal combat ability but a couple of neat buffs. In terms of stats, he's identical to the basic Company Commander but has LD9. He comes with a pair of hot shot pistols and a power sword, which makes him not completely pitiful in close combat, but with limited wounds, S3, and only three attacks, he's not going to want to be in combat. What he does want to do is dish out orders, which he does better than anybody, getting three per turn! He also, if selected as the warlord, gives you two additional Command Points. Those are two nice abilities, as both orders and command points are valuable. However, I'm not sure their worth the point cost. Creed is basically the same price as two Company Commanders with plasma pistols. Not only does he have one fewer order than a pair of captains, he can only be in one place, limiting your coverage for orders. As I'll discuss below, the ability to give an extra order is costed at just under 10 points, which means buying Creed is basically paying about 20 points for two command points. He also locks you into being <Cadia>. Overall, there are certainly worse ways to spend the points than a pair of command points, but AM can more easily form a brigade detachment and have ample command points. Still, I think that in lists that will only run one officer, and maybe need some command points, looking to Creed might work out.
Overall: Competitive

Knight Commander Pask
A special character Tank Commander, Pask does everything a regular tank commander does, but he does up to 11. Instead of being BS3+, he's BS2+. Instead of giving one order (to a non-character Leman Russ) he can give two orders, including other <cadian> Leman Russ Characters. Depending on how you read that, it means you can give orders to Tank Commanders, but not himself (Because he is not another character). All of this is a 45 point bump from the basic Leman Russ, or only 10 points more than a stock Tank Commander. I think the choice for a first tank character is pretty obvious. Unless you hate cadia (and remember, you can have <Cadian> tanks with <Catachan> infantry), I would buy Pask before a basic commander every time.

As for how good he is, some of that does come down to his ability to give orders to himself. If he can, he's pretty amazing, being able to shoot and pop smoke, or load up with plasma and re-roll all ones to hit. If not, he's still real good, rocking accurate shooting with support for two other Leman Russes. However, he's still only 12 wounds, and while it sounds funny to say “only” about a model with 12 wounds, lascannon or bright lance spamming armies will light him up. He also gets expensive, easily hitting 250pts with some builds. But not all armies will have kind of ranged firepower, and he will blow stuff up with the ability to take two Multi-meltas and a lascannon, plus a turret, all at BS2+.

Overall: Competitive

Colonel “Iron Hand” Straken
Switching gears to the <Catachan> part of the Imperium, Straken is in many ways a mirror image of Creed, the bellowing, hard charging hero rather than the calculating tactician. Straken starts with the basic Commander profile, but gets a wide range of buffs, with WS2+, +2 Strength, +1 toughness, an extra wound and attack, LD9, and a whopping 3+ save. He is still a senior officer, giving two orders a turn to his men, he does have a nice aura effect, in which all units within 6” at the start of the fight phase can all make one additional attack. For punching, he retains the 5+++ refractor field, and can re-roll wounds against enemy monsters. Before you get too excited, his bionic arm is only AP1 for 2 damage, making struggle to punch through the thickest chitin. He is dramatically more costly than a company commander, clocking in at the same price as three naked captains, or two with plasma pistol and fist. However, he crams a lot of utility into that package. First, he does nearly the same thing as a Priest's War Hymns, although they simply give +1 attack, which can be used with Fix Bayonets! On the flip side, his aura stacks with Priests, giving everyone within 6” of both +2 attacks in the fight phase.

It's hard to put a price on his combat performance, because one of the few models in the codex that actually wants to be in combat, and can survive it. His durability and damage is roughly comparable to a space marine hero armed with a power maul, for a comparable price, although I think I'd take Rites of Battle (re-roll all ones to hit within 6”) over Cold Steel and Courage (+1 attack in the fight phase) and two orders. OTOH, when used aggressively, Straken (especially paired with a priest) can push out a lot of attacks from catachans. The most obvious use is to pair him with large conscript squads, but the huge problem with this idea is the way that Cold Steel and Courage is written. It says that models within 6”, not units within 6”, which means that you need to give him a smaller, more compact attack wave. You could likely put him in the middle of a densely packed mob of conscripts if you really wanted though, which might be kind of cool. One possibility is to put Straken, a priest, and a veteran squad in either a Valkyrie or a chimera. Give the vets three plasmas, plasma pistol, power fist, shotguns, and heavy flamer, and get out, shoot up a tough squad, and charge in. Straken can use his second order on himself, either to Take Aim while overcharging his plasma pistol, or to Fix Bayonets! And fight twice when engaged. All in all, he's a fighty character that makes squads better in combat, but does not really naturally pair with any of the options available to him. Even fully tooled up, his Catachan shock squad is still just 10 guys with T3and 5+ saves. A third use for the big guy is to use him as a one man counter-charge element. Well, not really one man, as if you include him, you should buy power weapons for some of the infantry squads near him, but basically just drop him, and some power weapons into your firebase. He's only 50pts more than a tool up company commander, but while he cannot fight off dedicated assault troops, he can handle small squads or things like tactical squads pretty well. His Aura will buff up the squads near him, and you can turn an overrun position into a furrball. The final thing to keep in mind about him is that he's actually 20 points more than an Eversor Assassin, who is choppier, arguably more durable, and can certainly get to the fight with his extra charge distance and ability to deploy from reserves. If you're not using Straken's orders and aura, you could save the points and get a pure killer instead. Straken seems like he'd be really good in some gadget lists, and pretty solid in a balanced list with the right tweaks to benefit from his buffs.
Overall: Competitive

Uriah Jacobus
A surprise recruit to the Astra Militarum, this special character comes to use via the Adeptus Ministorum, and is in many ways a buffed Priest. He has a company commander stat-line, plus one wound and one attack. His save is only 6+, but irrelevant with a 4++ invulnerable save from a Rosarius. War Hymns gives +1 attack to all friendly Astra Militarum and Adeptus Ministorum infantry units within 6”, while his banner allows them all to also add +1 to their leadership. He also has Zealot, which allows him to re-roll hits made in a turn in which he charged, made a heroic intervention, or was charged. It's hard to tell what his role is for AM... it's not damage dealing, and aside from +1 Leadership, his aura is the same as the basic Priest at one third the price. If anybody can come up with a good use for this guy, I'm all ears. The only real use I can think of is that Uriah is the only model to give +1 Leadership to commissars, which allows you to have LD10 Lord Commissars, which means all other units within 6” of the Lord are LD10. That still seems far more expensive than just eating the loss of a model a turn, but I guess if you want to have the most stoic gunline ever, you can.
Overall: Casual


Elites
Once a relatively boring part of the army list, the Elites section has blossomed from it's past of four simple options. Two game wide trends , and one army specific one, caused a spike in the Elites section. First, command squads all shifted from HQ choices to Elites, and for the AM they became decoupled from their officers. Second, all of the support characters that used to not take up slots or were attached to command squads were all moved here. Finally, the venerable infantry platoon, a unique structure to the AM since 2nd edition in the late 1990s, was broken up, with several parts moving here to Elites. All of this makes the current Elites section a cornucopia of delights!

Master of Ordnance
For my own writing ease, I tackle these units more or less in the order of the books, and oddly, the Master of Ordnance is the first Elites choice in the Index, and the third overall. He has what Warmachine players call “victim stats,” meaning he cannot be expected to endure any actual fighting. His only wargear is a pistol. However, he has, as you'd imagine, a very nice special rule, and a nifty little aura. His aura is cunningly related to Ordnance, and the mastery of the same, giving a range of artillery vehicles the ability to re-roll ones to hit, assuming they are within 3” of the MoO, and are targeting enemy units over 36” away. With artillery being pretty good in this edition, this is a fine ability, even if the blind spot will be a factor more than you'd initially think. His other party trick is the ability to, if he did not move, shoot a battle cannon shot anywhere within 100”, with -1 to hit if the target is out of line of sight. With BS3+, that will do a bit of work. GW knows it audience by stating that only one Artillery Barrage can be fired per turn, regardless of how many models have the rule. (somewhat bizarrely, the artillery barrage is listed as a weapon profile, but not as wargear or a special rule, so technically, there's nothing saying he can actually use it.... Even more bizarrely, it's listed as a ranged weapon in the points list!) The Master is priced right around the point where you aren't going to spam him, because that would get silly and expensive, but he's cheap enough that if you run the artillery, he's a sound investment.
Overall: Competitive

Platoon Commander
To borrow another phrase from Warmachine, the Platoon Commander is an order on a stick. He doesn't do much other than provide a single order, and gives up a wound from his more senior counterpart. He does still have a refractor field, and can take the same weapons as a captain with the same skill, so he can provide some punch... but really, who isn't going to pay 10pts more for an extra wound and order? Since I've covered orders in fairly complex detail, the question for the Platoon Commander is: when would only ever want one order? The answer, simply put, is whenever you only have one squad that could benefit. If you had a squad of plasma vets in a valkyrie or Chimera, you could pay a few points for Take Aim! To avoid overcharge deaths. If you had a conscript screen that operated apart from the fire base (or you don't have a fire base at all) than a single order is all you need. Of course, captains can give the second order to themselves, allowing them to move further, fight twice, or fall back and shoot. Virtually all AM armies with basic infantry will run Company Commanders by default, but taking the Platoon Commander requires a plan. However, in those instances where the second order would be wasted, you can save a few points. Also, with command squads now limited to the number of officers, if you want to spam command squads, you'll want to include more of these guys.
Overall: competitive

Command Squad
No unit has fallen further in status than the poor command squad. In prior editions, the AM had two command squads, each permanently attached to either company or platoon commanders. Company command always had the option for standards and medics, and in more recent editions had veteran level BS. Now, they are all one, with BS3+, the abilty to take a single heavy weapon, up to four special weapons, a heavy flamer, a vox, a regimental standard, or a medipack. Unlike in prior editions, there is no real ability for the command squad to hide or gain cover, and they have no innate defensive tech such as carapace armor or camo cloaks. So, what you have are four straight shooting lads with T3 and 5+ saves, making them easy bolter bait. The initial consensus is to load them up with weapons, buy in three packs, and fill up a transport with BS3+ special weapons. I can't really disagree with that, as that will pack a hell of a wallop, and isn't all that expensive, aside from the transport. For that reason, I favor scions, but for the fans of mechanization, you can basically run fire dragons for a lot cheaper!
A goofier, and more classical option is to keep the squad with lasguns, but give them a standard and medic. This allows all squads in 6” to add 1 to their leadership, and can return a wound to a unit on a 4+. This unnecessary dice rolling on a fairly fragile platform sours me, but putting even one model back on the board can often pay for itself. This is a neat little support unit, but the codex is simply chock full of neat little support units in the 30-50pt range, and you can't buy them all. For serious play, go with special weapon spam, but for fun games, break out your flags and medics. EDIT: as of the 7/2/17 FAQ command squads are limited to one per officer, which makes the ability to spam these a lot more difficult. That doesn't change them being extremely efficient special weapon platforms.
Overall: highly competitive

Special Weapon Squad
Limited to six men with three special weapons, the humble SWS retains it's low leadership and BS4+ befitting basic guardsmen with no sarge. In an “it is still true, and it's still kind of funny” moment, I remind my reader that the SWS is one of the very few 40k units without a special rule of any kind. It's six models with a single statline, and some weapons. That's it. It's an odd choice for the Elites section, but it's hard to think of a better place for them, aside from troops, in all honesty. Anyway, we are spoiled for choice for units that can take multiple special weapons, and nearly all of them do it better than the actually designated Special Weapon Squad. Command squads have BS3+ and can take a fourth gun, veterans have more bodies and BS3+, Scions have, well, quite a bit going for them.
So, why take the SWS? Easy... it's the only place to get the demolition charge. Somewhat cleverly designated a grenade, the demo charge has the expected d6 shots, still S8 with AP3 and d3 damage. It's also cheaper than a flamer (it's natural pairing), making a squad with two flamers and a demo charge well under 50 points. It's short ranged and fragile, but you can cram two into a transport. It might not be the strongest option, but if you really like hand tossed explosions, its' your best choice. For dedicated fluff heads, the SWS with three sniper rifles and three spotters makes an actually functional military unit, compared to the idea of a squad full of sniper rifles, but it's of very marginal efficacy.
However, SWS is also the must purely cost effective ways to load up on special weapons. While I think most players will run out of plasma, and will put them on other platforms, the SWS does allow you to swamp the board with dirt cheap base units with cheap plasma guns. 45pts gets you six men with three plasma guns, which is a unit that you can afford to lose to dedicated shooting, but can shrug off one or two random wounds comfortably. Consider mixing this type of MSU with a general purpose aura, particularly Harker, so you can overcharge with little risk. SWS is also now a lot easier to spam than command squads, thanks to the FAQ.
Overall: Competitive

Veterans
After two editions as troops, the veterans have moved back to their rightful place as Elites, which is fine since 8th edition has given up any pretense of Troops choices as a moral imperative. A fairly complicated unit, the vets, alone of the regimental guard infantry, can swap lasguns for shotguns, which give up 12” of range to become Assault 2 and strength 4 at half range. This is simply cool, and gives them a dangerous and fun edge. As in prior editions, the Vets are BS3+, but otherwise basic guardsmen. Unlike prior editions, the only real options are weapon related, and the doctrines available in the past are gone. (On a tangent, it's annoying that they included rules for shotguns, which have never had models aside from a single cadian lieutenant in 2nd edition, but not carapace armor, which is clearly on Vostroyon models top to bottom.)
Still, the weapon options available are quite nice. They can take a heavy, up to three special weapons, plus a heavy flamer. In addition, the sarge can take all the pistol and melee options, including a power fist. Vets got a price break from 7th edition, and are really cheap enough to serve as your line troops. The basic builds are pretty straightforward, with triple plasma and lascannon as your main firepower build, and triple melta forming the core of a tank hunter build, with heavy flamer, power first, plasma pistol, or even a heavy weapon added to taste. As you'd expect, the latter build should invest in shotguns and a transport. Vets are one of the very few sources of BS3+ heavy weapons, and I'd stick to lascannons to maximize their value. Compared to Command Squads, Vets are not the most efficient delivery mechanism for special weapons, but enjoy a bit more durability, but less than Scions. As a rule, unless you're using the specific advantages of Vets, such as the heavy flamer or shotguns, I’d make sure you would be better off with Scions or Command squads.
Overall: Competitive

Commissars
It was frustrating discussing Lord Commissars or Yarrick prior to the basic model, who provide a crucial lynchpin for the modern Astra Militarum. With the same statline as a platoon commander but with LD8, the commissar isn't going to survive much, and while he can take any pistol or melee weapon, he must come stock with the iconic bolt pistol. However, he's not there to fight, but to keep your soldiers “motivated.” For starters, any unit within 6” can use his leadership, which is great for low morale troops like conscripts. More callously, his coldly named Summary Execution rule means that no unit within 6” will lose more than one model to a failed morale check. This means that a single model can stand among a gunline, and not only buff their morale, but even if the dice go south, keep a squad from dissolving.
The synergy of summary execution with the only large squad we have, conscripts, is self evident. Instead of melting due to morale, they require the enemy to now kill virtually all of them the old fashioned way. It's a great combo, and doesn't need to be spammed or abused to be effective. Even a single squad, with a single man in black, can do great work. In the first 3rd Edition IG codex, there was a brief army building guide that said “Always take 2-3 commissars.” (bold from original text) that was a steep claim at the time, but is now basically true. The AM have a toolbox full of buffs to increase our leadership or allow re-rolls to morale. A simple character does one better, in minimizing the loss from failed checks. To an extent, with them around, points spent preventing failed morale are just wasted, as you can just lose another four or six point model. While OP, it's nice to finally see such an iconic and beloved model get nice rules.
Overall: highly Competitive

Militarum Tempestus Command Squad
This unit, another casualty of the command squad decoupling, is generally the same as the basic AM command squad, minus the ability to take heavy weapons or a heavy flamer. Instead, they can take all the basic special weapons plus the hot shot volley gun, discussed in more detail below. More crucially, they gain carapace armor and the Aerial Drop rule, the latter of which allows the squad to be deployed at the end of any movement phase anywhere more than 9” from an enemy unit. If this sounds like a really cheap way to have accurately deepstriking special weapons, welcome to the 8th edition hype train. There's nothing clever I can write about these guys. They technically have the option for standard and medic, but I’m not sure I can think or a reason to take those. MT Command compete most notably with Scions themselves, who can take four specials as well, but in a 10 man platform instead of the all killer, no filler four man command squad. That said, 10 scions is not easy to kill, so scion squads can hand around a bit longer. In terms of sheer damage on time, and on target, this is the unit of choice. As of the first FAQ, these are limited to one per Tempestus Prime, which seems to strongly push for a bit of a balanced diet (Prime, Scions, and Command squad).
Overall: Highly competitive

Ogryns
A unit choice dating back to Rogue Trader, Ogryn are the Ogres in space that help to round out the fantasy tropes common in early 40k. Obstensibly the assault specialists, Ogryn have been underwhelming since I started playing 3rd edition. By far the biggest issue with Ogryn was always a limited ability to deal damage in combat, with no access to power weapons. Of course, now that 8th edition had introduced AP modifiers, I was expecting Ogryn to gain at least a little something to help crack armor. And... prepare to be disappointed. The good news is that Ogryn are now substantially cheap, a 5+ save actually means soemthing now, and they got a slight morale bump. The bad news is that there are now dozens of weapons that deal multiple wounds, in both combat and shooting, and Ogryn are one of the few multi-wound units to not gain a wound in the new edition. So, Ogryn aren't OP, but are they usable?
Yeah, I think they are. They are just cheap enough that they can be taken in bulk, and do benefit from support, specifically priests, for War Hymns, and astropaths for Fortify. They hit reasonably hard on the charge, and while they can't reduce armor saves, hitting and wound most things on 3+s will result in a lot of saves to roll. Somewhat unusually, they have a three shot gun, giving them far more firepower than most shock units, although don't confuse them for anything other than a shock unit. Ogryns are worst used against terminators, as their combination of a 2+ save and powerfists will not end well. However, they will cut through Orks or gaunts like butter, and he will also do efficient work against models with only an invulnerable save. Ogryn certainly can do things, but the question is more if your army needs it. There are cheaper and more versatile counter assault units available from other armies like assassins, but Ogryn do benefit from in army buffs. On the whole, they are a specialist unit that pretty much a good amount of work to include in an army, which I think limits their ceiling.
Overall: semi-competitive

Bullgryns
The more focused cousin of the Ogryn, Bullgryns trade their ripper gun for one of two shields and either a grenadier gauntlet or a Bullgryn Maul. Bullgryn are crazy durable, starting with a basic 4+ save, and gaining either a 4++ with the bruteshield or a 2+ with the slabshield. These can, and should, be mixed in the unit. It will take a truly dedicated effort to chew through these lads. the Gauntlet appears somewhat unfortunate, as an assault d6 gun with only S4. The Maul is actually slightly cheaper, and is a basic power maul with damage 2. With WS3+, S7, AP-1, and Damage 2 with three attacks (four on the charge), this is a unit that will hurt what it charges. At over 40pts per model, it should! Bullgryns, like all Ogryn, take up three slots in a transport, so putting them in a Chimera or valkyrie isn't a great idea. Unfortunately, they cannot receive Orders as they are not <regiment> infantry.

Unlike basic Ogryn, Bullgryns don't mind mixing it up with terminators or monsters, and in many ways they are the ideal unit to send against Assault Terminators. They are also legit against vehicles, wounding all but the heaviest on fours with AP1. If they're not swinging on something either high toughness or very hard hitting, they will struggle to really make their points back. I would screen them with conscripts to prevent them from being tarpitted or assaulted by units like Harlequins. Also unlike basic Ogryn, I don't think Bullgryn are really meant for counter assault. I think they're a shock unit, meant to lead attacks. I think you should be careful buying them, but if your play style is aggressive, Bullgryns are one of the most durable units, and also the most capabel in hand to hand.
Overall: Competitive

Ratlings
Another ancient unit, Ratlings are the final abhuman squad in the index. They are sniper specialists, trading any ability to perform other battlefield tasks for some sniping buffs. They are a rare S2/T2, with only a 6+ save, but if they are in cover, they get +2 to their save. They can deploy after all other units are deployed, anywhere more than 18" from the enemy (so, basically infiltrate). And they can move after shooting, allowing them to set up more shots. They are BS3+, and sniper rifles are S4 and do an extra mortal wound on a 6+ to wound. In terms of damage, they're kind of wimpy, but they can target any character, even if they aren't the closest. It's still hard to actually do wounds, as 10 shots will do about one normal wound and one mortal wound to a T4/3+ save model. Ratlings are cheap, and will average about one mortal wound per turn with 36" range. If enemy support characters are eating your lunch, Ratlings are the most efficient snipers you can find, but they are a unit with a narrow ideal target.
Overall: semi-competitive.

Officer of the fleet
Probably the first model to really feel out of place, the Officer of the Fleet's main ability is to target within 18", and then all Aeronautica Imperialis units can reroll ones to hit against that unit. Since the only AI unit is the Valkyrie, with a not horribly impressive rack of shooting, he's clearly waiting for the Forge World indexes. Then, of course, he's just one more source of re-rolling ones to hit, but he has the burden of needing to be close to the target unit. He also can call in an air strike which does nothing half the time, d3 Mortal wounds a third of the time, and 3 mortal wounds a sixth of the time. He's on the cheaper end of AM support characters, but unless you're running a flyer wing, I'd leave him at home.
Overall: semi-competitive

Techpriest Enginseer
A reasonably durable, slightly choppy character that can heal d3 wounds a turn from any vehicle, this guy has "stand me next to a superheavy" written all over him. He's not exactly cheap, but he can keep units alive, or even undo degradation. I'm concerned that outside of superheavies, too many other vehicles can be shot up in one turn. I"m also concerned that with only move 6", he'll struggle to be in the right place at the right time. Still, he's a good insurance policy for superheavies.
Overall: competitive

Ministorum Priest
As hinted at, the priest, through his War Hymns rule, gives +1 attack to all units within 6". He can also personally re-roll hits on the first turn he fights, he can take a good range of melee weapons, and he rocks a 4++ with four wounds. He's a force multiplier, turning conscripts into two attack models, or making Ogryn even punchier. If you are serious about a unit doing damage in combat, you should strongly consider a priest. Oddly, he's only WS4+. His buff stacks with Strackens, and can also be combined with "Fix Bayonets" to allow a unit to swing twice, both times with an extra attack. Also, don't forget that he gives himself an extra attack.
Overall: highly competitive.

Wyrdvane Psykers
A unit of psykers, Wyrdvanes only get one dice on psychic tests, but can add +1 if the squad has three or more models, and +2 if six or more. all in all, this means that they are less capable of casting powers than a primaris for more points, all while not being a character and thus able to hide from shooting. If you have a unit of these, break them up and use them as Astropaths, because Wyrdvanes are simply poor.
Overall: casual

Astropath
Let's not bury the lede on this guy: 12 pt psyker, albeit one that only gets 1d6 when testing for Smite. Still, 12 points buys you a pretty good chance at Psychic Barrier, making it a bargain. On a long enough scale, Astropaths are really the only psykers that the AM needs, although I prefer buying proper Primaris to get a touch of combat punch. You can put them with your tanks, or your gunline, or even riding along with vets. Even Smite succeeds a third of the time with them, and for that price, you can just buy three.
Overall: highly competitive.

Color Sergeant Kell
Hey, it's yet another support character! But this one is famous! Kell embodies the sort of “kind of good in fighting, has a couple of decent buffs, and doesn't cost all that much” philosophy that seems to permeate the Index. He has a company commander statline, but swaps the refractor field for carapace armor (4+ save). He has a powerfist and a power sword, which provides a bit of punch in combat, but his real value is in allowing all Cadian units within 6” to reroll morale. This is a pretty rare ability, and while the AM have a lot of ways to deal with morale, this is a different option. He also allows one officer within 6” to give an extra order, an ability that's neat but not overly valuable. Finally, he can take wounds for Creed if within 3”, which seems to reflect his classic role as a bodyguard. He costs a bit more than a company commander with fist and plasma pistol, so his appeal is basically in the morale re-rolls and keeping Creed alive. With commissars and command point rerolls, I don't rate the morale re-roll all that highly, and Creed shouldn't be taking too much damage as a character, so I think Kell is destined for narrative play.
Overall: Casual

Sergeant Harker
Harker, in a refreshing change of pace, offers some legitimate offensive firepower and a very simple, broad buff. Payback, his custom heavy bolter, is assault 3, with AP-2, which he shoots at a healthy BS3+, all at 36” range. This isn't overwhelming, but solid firepower. His rule, somewhat embarrassingly named Harkes Hellraisers, allows all Catachan units within 6” to re-roll all ones in the shooting phase. The key here is to look up all the artillery, tanks, and even super heavies, and note that they can all be keyed to Catachan. This means Harker can make a Baneblade re-roll ones to hit, or a handful of veteran squads, or even a cluster of dirt cheap mortar squads. He's a true force multiplier, with the ability to give the equivalence of Take Aim! To multiple squads, earning his points back easily with the 16% damage increase, even before he starts shooting Payback. Further, his rule is an aura, not an order, so can be stack with FRF!SRF! Or Bring it Down! For more fun. He's one of the true gems of the codex, as he can make anything better, as long as there is enough of it to justify his points.
Overall: Highly Competitive

Nork Deddog
Aside from Yarrick, Nork is the oldest named character in the book, going back to 2nd edition, and his role hasn't changed very much. He has the standard bodyguard type rule (if a character takes a wound within 3", on a 2+ Nork takes a mortal wound instead) that applies to any AM character. Since characters can hide from shooting, his bodyguarding does the most good in close combat... which works out, because he's pretty good in hand to hand. He had a standard Ogryn profile for just under three times the price and twice the wounds, but he gains the Huge Knife, which rocks AP-1 and Damage two. He can also make one of this attacks a Thunderous Headbutt at S8, Ap2, Damage d3. oh, and if he is slain, he can fight one more time, even if he fought already that phase. Since he's too expensive for gunline duty, I say pair him up with Straken or Yarrick to tank wounds. As long as he gets into combat, he will do some damage, and if he has somebody to help keep alive, he could break even on points.
Overall: semi-competitive

Troops
This section got a shakeup, with Veterans leaving for Elites, the Platoon being broken up, and Scions joining the main list as a troop. All of them are pretty solid, leaving them all as fine choices for list building, and even better, they can all be mixed!

Infantry Squad
The ground pounders, the dogfaces, the poor bloody infantry… the basic Infantry Squad is now freed from its fetters of platoon structure, and can be purchased ala carte. The biggest change by far is the loss of combined squads, a much loved rule for nearly a decade. Now, each squad must stand on its own. Other than that, it’s basically the same. You can buy a special, a heavy, and a power weapon (but not fist) and/or a plasma pistol for the sergeant. You can also buy a vox caster, and now is probably a good a time as any to discuss this rule. Basically, if an officer is within 3” of a unit with voxcaster (not the model itself), the officer can give an order to a unit within 18” (of the officer) as long as that squad also has a vox caster. Keep in mind that voxes are 5pts each, and a platoon commander is only 20pts. I don’t have a really problem with voxes, but I don’t think orders are good enough to try to extend the range a bit. If you plan on having one or two solo squads, then go nuts, but I think that I’d rather simply have more officers than a vox network. Only command squads, infantry squads, veterans can even take them, which I think reduces their efficacy somewhat.

Anyway, the basic infantry squad does what it did in 3rd and 4th edition: it provides decent firepower at a low price. How low? Actually really low. After dropping a point per model, the basic infantry can now be fielded with flamer and heavy bolter for only 55pts, or las/plas for 67pts. That’s, uh, real cheap. With six ablative wounds before losing a critical model, this is a lascannon that will stick around from all but focused fire.

The consensus early on is that the infantry squad is a distant third to the hard hitting scions and the uber efficient conscripts, but I think that there is room for cheap, decent firepower. I wouldn’t include anything other than flamers, plasma, heavy bolters, or lascannons, as the other specials are either too weak or really want to be fielded in numbers, and the other heavy weapons simply don’t do much. I think that you can make a case for only fielding conscripts, heavy weapon squads, and scions, but I also think that having squads with some pop is a good thing. The choice is really up to you!
Overall: competitive

Conscripts
I almost don’t want to write this, because the internet is aflame with conscripts being OP, but I think the target audience for this treatise is probably a player that doesn’t already know the internet consensus. To be blunt, conscripts are ineffective warriors that can be taken in huge squads to take advantage of force multipliers. What that means is that while they only shoot lasguns (and are only ever armed with lasguns) on a 5+, the unit of 50 can received FRF!SRF!, which doubles the whole squads firepower, for between 50 and 100 more shots. At the goofy extreme, 100 more shots is 33 more hits, 11 more wounds on T3, and nearly four more dead space marines. All from a unit that cost 150pts plus a 20pts platoon commander! Okay, so just start shooting them, and watch them melt to morale. Add a 31pt commissar, so you only lose one more a turn due to morale. Okay, so just charge them and tie them up in combat. Well, the officer can order them to fight an extra time, or fall back and shoot. If they want to fight, a 35pts priest gives them all an extra attack for both rounds of swinging. Even thirty conscripts swinging twice with a priest put out 120 attacks. Okay, you say, but now you’re pouring 86 points of upgrades into a 150pt unit, so it’s not all that efficient! Well… bump the platoon commander to a company commander, and with clever positioning you can do this for two 50 man blobs. 396pts buys you over 100 wounds, and the ability to put out 400 shots a turn.

In practice, this won’t be fun, and you’ll quickly run out of time if you include too many of the bastards. Given that these are not permanent codexes, I wouldn’t start building 300 conscripts to spam them. Still, even a smaller package of a 50 man unit, a commissar, and a platoon commander is just a hair over 200 points, which is roughly the same as a lot of other armies 10 men squads. One of the reasons that people like conscripts over infantry squads is that they can provide the same “bubble wrap” of physically taking up space to protect high value assets like artillery or tanks from deep strikers or assault units.

8th edition is very good to conscripts, who can now bunch together nice and tight without worrying about blasts, and also will get their 5+ save from most small arms. Even if you add a unit to your army just for fun, it’ll be a good unit that will soak a lot of firepower while sending out a lot of lasgun love.
Overall: highly competitive

Militarum Tempestus Scions
I love this unit. Stormtroopers have ranged between bad and “niche” for four five straight editions, and now, they finally got them right. Everything about them in the context of 8th edition works, and outside of being criminally undercosted (and, I suppose the sins of plasma more generally), they are a wonderful example of fluff meeting crunch in game design. Scions start as veterans, gaining BS3+, but also gain a 4+ save, and trade the plebian lasgun for the regrettably named hot shot lasgun. This marvel of technology (which is incredibly difficult to maintain in the field, hence its rarity) has AP-2. On a basic weapon. This means that light infantry get no save, while space marines in cover only get a 4+. It’s still only S3, but here’s the other kicker: it gets doubled with FRF!SRF! On the downside, it’s only range 18”, meaning it can’t double tap outside of 9”

Speaking of being within 9”, Scions have the ability to Aerial Drop, which is their version of the new deep strike: at the end of any movement phase, they can deploy anywhere more than 9” from enemy units. If you’re thinking this allows them to land and light up targets of priority, then welcome aboard! As hinted at above, the 9” range means no flamers, no Hotshot double tap, no double dice for meltas. That pretty much leaves plasma, the volley gun, and melta guns base. The clear generalist winner is the plasma gun. When overcharged, a plasma gun does more damage than a long range melta (but less than when in half range), and can also shoot normally. With Damage 2, overcharged plasma is ideal for multiwound units. You won’t go wrong spamming them, and only them. Volley guns, unfortunately, have a longer range but are heavy, meaning they are less effective for drop troops. Long range meltas are still pretty effective, especially when mixed with plasma, as many opponents will wipe out the plasma squads first.

The cool thing about scions in 8th is that they can take four specials if 10 men, which I recommend. 4+ save troopers are now a lot more durable, and with the ability to freely drop into cover, they are really hard to shift with shooting. Even in assault, they can always fall back and use “get back in the fight!” to shoot again. Now, be careful about armies with large, dedicated assault units that can multicharge and wipe out multiple scion squads… especially since commissars can’t drop with them. (Note: check FW for elysian commissars). OTOH… if there’s a big assault squad, shoot it first! Or, if in a transport, that’s a squad that not crashing into your main gunline. One of the ridiculous thing about scions is how stupidly cheap they are. A mere 124 points buys you 10 men with four plasma guns. Sure, you’ll want a Tempestor Prime, but buying two squads and a prime gets you an awful lot of firepower for under 300 points.

Overall: Highly Competitive.

Dedicated Transports
The last time I wrote one of these, this section was a single model, but we are now blessed with three different transports, all of which fit very slightly different niches. One of the biggest mistakes a player in 8th edition could make is to try to run these models, especially the Chimera, the same way they did from 3rd-7th editions. The game has changed around these models, and GW did not really adjust their points to reflect those changes. That said, we have some pretty nice options for battle taxis now, while the days of static pillboxes are long behind us.

Chimera
To understand what's wrong, and more importantly what's right, about the current Chimera, you need to understand a bit about it's past. It was famous for having a surprisingly durable front armor, with weak and long flanks, as well as the ability to allow squads inside to shoot out. It also had a rather nifty rule that allowed an embarked officer to give orders to squads not embarked in a transport. Because of this, squads in chimeras tended to stay embarked, until they disgorged to fire at full effect, while command squads (RIP) stayed embarked as long as possible to dish out orders while staying relatively safe. Now, no models can fire from inside, officers aren't bundled with command squads, and an officer can how be quite safe hiding behind an infantry squad, making orders much more flexible and available. Also, for much of it's life, the multilaser was a yeoman's weapon, doing some work while being cheap.

In the modern world, none of that is true. Much has been said about how vehicles are supposed to be more durable now, and while questionable for things like the LRBT, the basic Chimera is now a tough little bastard, even at close range or in assault. It has one less toughness and two fewer wounds than an LRBT, making only slightly less vulnerable to dedicated anti-tank weapons. With T7 and a 3+ save, it can now shrug a lot of the mid strength fire power that used to eat it up (hell, assault cannons used to regularly one shot chimeras from the side with hot rolls, something that is now mathematically impossible. So, don't try to bunker down with them, get in the mix!
Adding to this is the loss of firepower. The Multi-laser is probably the worst heavy weapon in the IG arsenal. It is objectively worse than even the heavy bolter against anything but painfully specific targets (T5/6 models with poor or invulnerable saves), and yet is somehow two points more. The multilaser is only available on three platforms, all of whom seem overcosted. They could have made the gun 5pts, and it would have been fine! That leaves two choices for weapons: heavy bolters, or heavy flamers. Bolters are cheaper, and dual loaded with them a chimera can tun you only 91pts, which for the record is just about 19 points more than Rhino. (for which, you get the same mobility and durability, better but less accurate shooting, room for two more models, and, oddly, a slightly more generous degradation chart) I compare these two models because the double HB Chimera is basically our Rhino, except it can move a full squad plus a support character or two. The other option is double heavy flamer, which while scarier, is admittedly shorter range. However... the chimera can move 10", and shot 8" more. That's a decent threat range, and as discussed, this is a model that wants to move. Four turns of moving and firing double heavy bolters yields 8 S5, AP1 hits, which is only one more than a double heavy flamer Chimera that shoots one time! It's admittedly spendier, breaking the triple digit mark at 109pts, but it's firepower moves from incidental to significant.

One of the biggest mental hurdles for players of prior editions (myself included) is to look at that, and lament how much a half dozen would cost. That ignores the fact that you shouldn't be using that many. Chimeras aren't the only way to move squads, we have excellent deep strikers and the Move!Move!Move! order, as well as genuinely good indirect fire artillery. The Chimera should focus on doing what those choices cannot, which is delivering either meltas or flamers to their target, preferably with a bit of close combat punch. Don't forget, you can put two characters in there, which can include an astropath for cheap fortify/smite. Avoid the multilaser, use them sparingly, and they'll do right for you, but if they're not moving, you're spending a lot of points on harder to kill heavy weapon squad.
Finally, the chimera can, and should, be charging. A good tactic is to send the chimera in first to soak the overwatch, allowing your more fragile gaurdsmen to charge in unmolested. You can also charge while fully loaded, to gain extra movement. you can disembark while engaged, as long as the squad has room, so don't charge ork mobs or anything big, but charging an enemy transport to block it could be fun. Also, you can charge light static shooting squads, either while full or empty.
Overall: Competitive

Taurox
The poor Taurox, which nobody wanted, made it clear that the IG were never going to get the model they really wanted: a cheap, no frills, transport. Think Ork Trukk. It's been on nearly every IG players wishlist for over a decade, and instead, we got the Taurox, which suffers from a nasty case of Skornergy. It's a quick, relatively light transport, which comes bundled with two long range, surprisingly expensive heavy weapons. It's statline says it wants to move fast and close in, but it's weapons want to flank and fire. It's also not cheap, running only six points less than the double HB chimera, while losing a point of toughness and two transport slots. It also, somewhat oddly, does not have smoke launchers!

I wish there was some hidden power to this poor guy. It's staggering that when every other model got a price break from a twinlinked weapon to twin weapons, the taurox instead got two autocannons at full retail. Even the exterminator gets it's lousy cannon at a discount. Not only are autocannons long range and heavy, they're not that great. They're also readily available on plenty of platforms, making this a model that wants to move, but then loses it's ability to actually use it's pricey firepower. I'm not sold on it's firepower, so in the end, it's a few points cheaper for a hit to durability, and I like the option to add characters.
Overall: Semi-competitive

Taurox Prime
Only five more points bumps you up to BS3+ and a more interesting array of weapons choices. The drawback is that it can only carry Militarum Tempestus or Officio Prefectus models, but since Scions are stupid good, I'm not too worried about the loss. The Prime can take the autocannons, or it can take two hot shot volley guns, and perfectly fine weapon that's otherwise only available to scions. They don't like it because it's a heavy weapon on a squad that is almost always moving, and competes with the plasma gun. Here, it's half the cost of the Autocannon for four shots at S4 and AP2, giving it a great range of ideal targets. It also must take a turret weapon, which is a mixed bag as well. The Taurox missile Launcher is literally a twin missile Launcher, but instead of a discount, pays a 10 point premium over two missile tubes on their own. The Taurox Battle Cannon loses a point of Strength and AP off the original, while costing more (on an admittedly cheaper hull). The Gatling gun, however, is a mere 18 points for 20 bolter shots. By process of elimination, that leaves a Prime with double hotshots and the Gatling gun for 96 points, or less than a double heavy flamer chimera. This is a legitimately decent unit in terms of firepower, and if you could put basic infantry in them, it'd be the only transport I used. The Prime is good enough, and Scions are cheap enough, that a full scion squad with flamers in one of these is a nice package that can tear up light to medium infantry. It's a lot more fragile than a tank, but it hits hard and accurately, and can work either as a transport or as a light fire support vehicle.
Overall: Competitive.




Fast Attack

Okay, so it's come to this. While never a highlight of the IG codex (aside from the fabled 5th edition codex with 130pts vendettas), fast attack is simply meh in 8th edition. Unfortunately, few armies are as suited to fill out a Brigade Detachment and roll deep with command points than AM. Which means we need to pay a three fast attack unit tax. Unlike the rest of the codex, which is full of units that are cheap and effective, Fast Attack is home to the middling and the surprisingly expensive.

Scout Sentinels
Starting here, the sentinels had a smooth transition into 8th, going from AV10 with two HP (super fragile) to T5, 4+ save, with six wounds. That is unequivocally a more durable platform. Of course, with only heavy weapons and BS4+, they can't really move and shoot all that well. And, really, the only weapons that are remotely decent are the lascannon and the heavy flamer. The mutilaser, as thoroughly discussed, is a pea shooter, and the autocannon gives up too much to the lascannon for only five points. One thing to keep in mind is that a sentinel with lascannon is actually five poitns less than an infantry squad with a lascannon, and while it doesn't have the lasguns, it has only four less wounds with higher toughness and better save. I'm not suggesting you buy three lascannon sentinels and use their scout move to burrow in terrain and stand and shoot... but that's not the worst way to fill these slots.

Another decent approach is to aggressive, with a heavy flamer, and use the model to get in the way. At movement 9”, it has a 17” range with the heavy flamer, and it can fight a very, very little bit. The key here is to flame and/or assault either light support troops, or transports to prevent them from moving as directly as they'd like. The Scout Sentinel gets to move 9”, but not within 9” of enemy units, prior to the first turn, which allows you to either find a shooting perch, or threaten a flank.

Another trick with these is if the enemy has deep strikers, you can use their scout move to extend the 9” bubble they cannot land in. Sure, they can land and shoot/charge the sentinels, but that's probably a win! The chainsaw is fun, but with only one attack at WS4+, the odds of even forcing a save is pretty low, but you when it causes a failed save you'll feel pretty good. Interestingly, these do not degrade, meaning they fight just as well at one wound left as with six. They also explode, causing a mortal wound within 3” on a 6+. All told... if you really want cheap fast attack that actually do something... grab three of these with heavy flamers, and cram them into your opponent, forcing him to deal with them instead of the real meat of your army. You will do some wounds with the heavy flamer, you might tie up a shooting unit for a turn in assault, and you might do a mortal wound when it inevitably dies!
Overall: semi-competitive (but necessary!)

Armored Sentinel
Basically a sentinel that trades the scout move for a 3+ save, but costs five points more. I wish I could be clever here, but this unit assumes you want to buy a really expensive heavy weapon that can't take orders. To be fair, it can take a plasma cannon alongside the other options, which is somehow the same price as an autocannon... which actually is really dumb, and if you are going to buy these things, I'd run them with plasma cannons at a cool 55ps per. Outside of range, I'd rather take a special weapon squad with three plasma guns for ten points less, more shots, and more mobility. Still, if you want reasonably durable lascannons, this is pretty good place to get them. If you have enough heavy armor in your list so the enemy isn't sending lascannons at them, they'll likely survive quite a while. Still, this is a reach for a unit that really doesn't offer much.
Overall: Casual

Hellhounds
A bit of an interesting choice, as the three species of genus hellhound are actually different model choices, but share the keyword Hellhound. The Hellhound has a single wound on the basic Chimera, and also is no faster, in a change from prior editions. The three versions are differentiated by their turret weapon. The basic Hellhound has an inferno cannon, which has a healthy 16” range, heavy d6, always hits, with Strength 6, Ap-1, and damage 2. Compared to the old template, the hellhound simply isn't going to burn down hordes anymore. But.. with AP1 and D2, this is your best killer of two wound units like bikes, Crisis suits, or even storm shield terminators. All of this is only 3 points more than a heavy flamer, on a chassis two points cheaper than the chimera. So, a hellhound with inferno cannon/heavy flamer is only 1 pt more than a chimera, while also rocking an extra wound. This gives you an idea how much GW values transport capacity in pointing out units. The other quirk of the basic hound from hell is that it explodes on a 4+, dealing d3 mortal wounds to all unit within 6”, so keep this guy out of your lines.

The Devil Dog mounts a melta cannon, which is a multimelta with d3 shots. This is a great weapon, but it is... not a bargain. Yes, a double melta Devil Dog has d3+1 melta shots at 24”, but it still suffers -1 to hit if it moves, and it runs 128pts, which is pricy for AM, but is actually pretty decent for vehicle mounted multimeltas across the game. One thing to consider is that with 24” range, in most games, the Devil Dog will never need to actually move. With the ability to deliver so many melta hits, this tank is a genuine threat, and when mixed with other threats, it can provide a lot of pressure on the enemy to deal with your armor. Also, 128 points is less than the bare bones hull of a Leman Russ, which has only one pip of toughness (albeit an important one) and an extra wound.
Finally, for the nihilist in all of us, the Bane Wolf provides the chem cannon, a heavy flamer with Ap-3 which wounds everything but vehicles on a 2+. This is somehow actually cheaper than a heavy flamer, it's natural pairing, giving you a nasty close range tank for 105 points. Save a command point to reroll the die for number of shots, but this could melt a squad of heavy infantry. Unlike in prior editions, when a vehicle that could shoot that short range of a gun would likely be wrecked in close combat the next turn, the Bane Wolf can actually survive some combat, but of course, will not be able to shoot if it falls back. Still, this is not an expensive vehicle compared to the rest of the game, and can easily win it's points back with a good shot.
As pretty capable medium tanks, the hellhound is arguably the strongest choice for Fast Attack, but you need to make sure you have enough other armor in the list that they don't get shot up turn one. Mix three of them with some chimeras, a superheavy, pask, or even artillery to swamp your opponent with armor.
Overall: competitive

Rough Riders
The proud recipient of multiple buffs, Rough Riders are, if not good, at least capable of acting as shock troops. The hunting lance is no S+2, AP-2, with d3 damage, which is great, but with no bonus for charging, models only get one lance attack a turn. Instead, they each get one chainsword attack, and another trampling hoofs attack. In short, if they charge, they get the lance and two basic swings, and otherwise, they just get the two swings. They are also now two wounds a piece, which combined with the increased durability of 5+ saves, makes them harder to shift than previously.
In one of the never ending pendulum swings, Rough Riders once again can take up to two special weapons instead of hunting lances, including the omnipresent plasma gun. They also gained a nifty outflanking rule that allows them to deploy within 7” of the board edge, but more than 9” from the enemy. However, they do not have any buffs to charging, making this a bit risky.
So, there are basically two main approaches. First, you go minimum squad with two plasmas or flamers, and you use them as a highly mobile, slightly durable special weapon squad. The second is that you go bigger with all lances, and you actually try to kill some folk. A full squad charging a rhino will lay three or four wounds on it, and if it does fall back, it will allow the riders to charge again. At 50pts for a minimum squad, and 100 for a max, they provide some options for either counter-charge or flanking that an otherwise all infantry army might lack. If you're going for an all infantry brigade, I'd look hard at the horsemen, then you deny your opponent a good target for his heavy weapons. They wont' buzzsaw through tough units, but they will do work. Also, if you can at all get a priest near them, that doubles their hunting lance attacks.
Overall: competitive

Flyers
A tragic victim of one of the few times a codex unit moved to Forgeworld only, the loss of the Vendetta leave the valkyrie as the only flyer left. Since Troops is a short section, I thought I'll talk about the old warbird next.

Valkyrie
As discussed above comparing a hellhound to a chimera, 8th edition 40k places a tangible and high point value on transport capacity. [to recap: a hellhound w/ heavy flamer costs only one more point than a dual heavy flamer chimera, making transport 12 roughly equal to an extra wound and swapping a heavy flamer for the inferno cannon.] It's not surprising that the Valkyrie went up in cost, but that's not all that's suprrising. First, it's shockingly durable. With the near standard T7 and 3+ save, the Valkyrie is a pretty standard medium vehicle, until you see 14 wounds (four more than a chimera!). Also, while moving as a flyer, the Valkyrie is a hard to hit, with all shooting having a -1 penalty. Flyers do not have base rules, but instead join three rules. The first is hard to hit, while the second is airborne, which prevents it from being charged by non-fly units, or fighting or being fought by those units that cannot fly. Finally, supersonic is a simplified version of 6th7th edition flier movement. You pivot up to 90 degrees, move 20-45”, with no further pivots. This movement is limiting if you're firing, but as a transport, it works pretty well. Further, the Valkyrie has the Hover Jet rule, which allows it to ignore many of the flier rules and just move normally up to 20”, while being hit as normal.
So, it's a tanky little craft, but what does it do? It's not the shooting, I can tell you that right now. It has the same weapon options as always. In the nose, you can pick between the virtually worthless multilaser, or a lascannon. (Guess which one I think you should pick.) On the wings, hellstrike missiles are no longer limited in how many times they can fire, but simply get one Krak missile shot per turn, with longer range and rolling two dice, pick the highest for damage. Multiple Rocket Pods are basically heavy bolters with d6 shots. You can also add two heavy bolters if you'd like. Not unlike the chimera, you have the option between weapons that don't do much, and spending even more for weapons that still only do a little bit. In my book, the lascannon easily eclipses the multi-laser for only 10pts more. Even hitting on 5s, a lascannon shot can change a game in a way three multi-laser shots never will. Under the wings, the hellstrikes are slightly cheaper, but are really just fancy krak missles. However, if the krak missile hits, it will do some nice damage. Both wing missiles are overcosted, and I'd honestly rather have neither at that price. Still, aside from heavy bolters, there's a 12 point total difference between the cheapest loadout (ML/hellstrikes) and the most effective (LC/MRPs). I say spend the points. Speaking of points, on top of the points in weapons, the valkyrie chassis runs you well over a hundred points, with street legal birds clocking between 160-172 points. This is well above a chimera, for not that much more fire power, but a substantial bump in speed and durability.
This makes the Valkyrie the better transport, but what makes it really great is the return of the old Grav-Chut insertion rule. As before, it allows models to disembark at any point in the move, but more than 9” from enemy models. Further, if the Valkyrie moves more than 20”, you lose a model on a d6 roll of 1. However, because the units disembark, and are not deployed, they can move as normal during their turn. If you have a unit that wants to get close in, this is the transport for it! Meltas, flamers, and even shotguns like being able to ditch out 9” from the enemy and walk to within 3”. For units like shake n bake veterans (flamerx3, heavy flamer, shotguns, power first), two special weapons squads, or most cheesily three command squads, the valkyrie really puts them where they want to be. Just don't go looking up flyer transports for other armies, or you might get depressed.
Overall: competitive


Heavy Support

This is the part of the review that old school IG treadheads look forward to the most – discussion of tanks, and artillery, and.. well, basically those two, plus heavy weapon squads. Traditionally a strength and source of offensive heavy lifting, the heavy support options have cooled off a bit while the rest of the list has improved over the last 17 years. Still, it will be an unusual AM army that doesn't include some of these delights...

Heavy Weapons Squad
For those interested in history, heavy weapon squads danced all over the Force Org Chart. In the 3rd edition back of the book lists, they were actually bundled as either mortar, fire support(heavy bolter/autocannon), or anti-tank (Missile/Lascannon) squads, and they were split between troops (fire support) and heavy support (the rest). In third edition, they were part of the HQ platoon, and limited to no more than two of a kind, and five total. (Fun fact, you could also take a sentinel squadron as part of the HQ platoon). In the 3.5 codex, they stayed in HQ, but could also be taken as platoons in heavy support. In the 5th and 7th edition books, they were part of the platoon, and could finally completely mix and match weapons. Now, they are independent heavy support options, and holy cow are they terrific. One of the reasons they are so good is that, like all non-veteran Infantry
While they pay full price for the weapons, the base squad is suspiciously cheap at 12pts. This makes triple mortars only 27pts, while even trip-las runs a mere 72pts. Even at BS3, this is very efficient source of long range fire power. Unfortunately, they are fragile, with only six total wounds spread over three models. This means that weapons that are Damage 2 will kill a full base, and at T3/5+ save, expect to see a lot of 2+ to wound, no save against them. That said... not a lot of armies spam Damage 2 weapons, at least that I've seen so far. And even in an all infantry list, where the enemy lascannons and other stupidly powerful weapons will be shooting at the heavy weapon squads, it takes more shots than you'll think. (the math is boring, but to kill a full squad of three, it takes 6 shots at BS3+, S6 or higher, AP2 or higher, and damage d6). Regardless, these are not durable squads, but they have a huge amount of firepower on a fragile platform. Due to this, you can’t take just one squad with lascannons and expect it to do much. You either need to spam multiple squads to minimize the losses, or with the ability to split fire, you can put lascannons in squads with two mortars. This makes for a very cheap lascannon (42pts) but I would keep in mind that not every opponent will be able to wipe out the squads, so consider running some squads with full weapons.
On that note, which weapons should you take? The biggest loser is probably the missile launcher, which pays a sizable premium for versatility, and no army with access to as many lasguns, heavy bolters, and mortars as the IG should pay a premium for a frag missile option. All of the other options have uses, although the Autocanon remains, shall we say, “niche.” (the autocannon is the best weapon against some targets, such as termiantors and other multiwound models with good invulnerable saves, which IMO makes it a fine weapon in a couple of infantry squads, but not worth burning a heavy support slot over.) However, the other three are all very solid. The mortar is the easiest to see the value in, because it’s so dirt cheap, and can shoot without LOS. It’s good on its own, and it also makes ideal ablative wounds for more expensive options. IN the end, it is just a bunch of S4 shots that still need to roll to hit, but the squad is so laughably cheap that there seems to be little downside, other than inflating your kill point total. The heavy bolter is a legit gun in 8th edition, and while it will never do a lot, it will reliably chip wounds off anything it shoots at. That sort of minimal firepower is fine at the price, which is very low. On top of providing the firepower, a squad like this can dramatically increase your armies footprint, limiting drop zones for enemy deepstrikers.
Finally, you have the real star of the show, the lascannon. The IG are interesting in that while they are famed for being a gunline army, the list doesn’t provide a lot of strong long ranged firepower options. Infantry based lascannons are actually good in 8th edition, and the heavy weapon squads are the most point efficient way to field them. As discussed above, when packing lascannons, the squads are threatening and expensive enough to justify making them a priority, and with only six wounds, they won’t last long. Either spam them like hell, or mix them with mortars or heavy bolters. When bought in three-packs, they’re actually a pretty decent target for orders, but that’s not enough reason, on its own, to run them straight.
Overall: Highly Competitive

Basilisk
Another long serving IG model, the baslisk is a classic. It’s always been a long range, powerful, indirect fire weapon, and 8th edition does not change anything. In terms of durability, the “open topped” nature of the bassie is represented by the model being T6 instead of the usual Chimera hull T7, but it has the 11 wounds of the hellhound, one more than the basic transport. T6 is obviously more vulnerable to S6/S7 weapons than T7, but that’s the range of weapons which have suffered the most from the shift to 8th, and I do not see the loss of toughness as being huge. Further, the bassie doesn’t even need line of sight with its main gun, so feel free to hid it if you can. While she can take a heavy bolter or heavy flamer (and you should take the cheaper heavy bolter) the star of the show here is the earthshaker cannon. Like in prior editions, it’s basically battle cannon with S9, but it also rolls two dice for the number of shots, picking the highest. This yields roughly 4.5 shots a turn, which does drop to only 2.25 hits, but those hits hit pretty hard. It’s only AP-2 and Damage d3, but it’s wounding almost anything on a 3+, with infantry eating it at 2+. Unlike in prior editions, this is not meant to shoot at single wound infantry, instead it’s clearly designed for hitting multiwound models. It also does yeoman’s work against vehicles, stripping roughly 1.5 wounds from T8, 3+ save models. Keep in mind that it has ridiculous range and indirect fire, meaning it can reach out and touch anything on the board.
It can also be bought in a three pack under the Vehicle Squadron rule. This rule causes the “unit” to be deployed as one, with all models within 6” of each other. After deployment, however, each model acts independently. This is actually a pretty positive rule, because it allows you to cram more artillery in a battalion detachment, while also minimizing your drops. OTOH, it does increase your kill point total, and prevents buffs from improving three at once. On the whole though, it’s a positive rule, as it allows the IG to bring more medium vehicles to the party.
While a fine piece of kit, I think that the bassie suffers from being the middle child between the harder hitting Manticore and higher volume of shots from the Wyvern. The old girl is very affordable at just over 100pts, and it can fire at full effect until it drops to only 5 wounds. If you are a retruning player with an old basilisk, or you happen to prefer howitzers to mortars or rockets, the bassie is a solid, multifaceted choice.
Overall: competitive

Hydra:
A true piece of specialist kit, the Hydra is designed to shoot down flyers, and that’s about it. The start of show here is the Hydra Quad Autocannon, an eight shot autocannon that gets a +1 to hit flyers, and a -1 to hit all other targets. The crucial thing to remember is that “flyers” now include any unit that moves through the air in any way, not just 6th edition style flyers. So jetbikes, jump pack infantry, winged monsters, and skimmers all are “flyers,” and so the hydra gets a +1 to hit them, even if they do not have the Hard to Hit rule. So, the Hydra is essentially BS3+ against flyers that are not hard to hit, BS4+ against hard to hit flyers, and BS5+ against everything else. This alone makes the Hydra a reactive weapon – there is no reason to take it unless you play against units that Fly. Still, Flyers are so common, it’s a safe bet the Hydra will get a chance to shine. Looking at the Hydra against a common vehicle archtype, the deadly storm raven, the Quad only lays two wounds per turn, which perversely is actually less than a three lascannon heavy weapon squad. However, against jetbikes, the Quad guns hit on 3s, wound on 3s, and outright kill a bike per shot due to damage 2, meaning it will waste nearly two jetbikes per turn. For raw firepower, the Hydra suffers from the same ceiling as the basic autocannon: low AP, and only damage 2.
Defensively, the Hydra has the same basic chassis as the basilisk and other “open topped” artillery, combining the wound count of a medium tank with the toughness of a light tank. It also can be bought in “squadrons” like the basilisk. Unfortunately, the Hydra is a fairly pricey option, clocking in at over 120pts a piece. While more durable than in prior editions, it’s just pillow fisted and narrow in focus.
Overall: semi-competitive

Wyvern:
Probably one of the best units in the codex last edition, the Wyvern retains its focus as a light infantry killer, with the same artillery chassis as the basilisk, but the extravagantly named “wyvern quad stormshard mortar” as the main gun. This weapon is not subtle: it can fire out of LOS, with 4d6 shots at S4, rerolling wounds. That sounds like a lot of potential wounds, but like all blast weapons, the need to roll to hit means that even against T3, you’re not even forcing seven saves. Sharp eyed readers might ask why buy the Wyvern when it’s basically the same as two mortar heavy weapon squads, which are cheaper and easier to hide out of line of sight. The Wyvern is arguably more durable, and it can take advantage of the Master of Ordnance aura. In general, this isn’t 7th edition, and I wouldn’t make the wyvern the go to artillery piece. Absent some ability to increase either the number of shots or hits, this is another casualty in the switch away from blast templates. Not for the first time, a weapon that had been twinlinked in 7th edition lost the re-roll, but kept the overall number of shots. One of the reasons the Wyvern was nasty in the past was that it got four twinlinked shots, which nearly guaranteed bunched up hits with no need to roll against BS. At d6 shots at BS4+, the wyvern will average nearly two hits per mortar, which was easily eclipsed in prior editions. The Wyvern is comparatively cheap at just over 90 points per, but I’d take two heavy weapon squads with mortars at 54pts every time.
Overall: semi-competitive

Manticore:
Here is your heavy hitter. The manticore is actually more durable than most artillery at T7 (historically it was not open topped), and it cannot be bought in squadrons. However, it is armed with four storm eagle rockets, each of which can only be fired once, and only one per turn. (Oddly, nearly all other limited ammo weapons were simply made Heavy 1, such as hellstrike missiles.) The rocket hits hard, with 2d6 shots at Strength 10, Ap-2, and Damage d3. Do not, unless you have no other choice, waste this on single wound models. Against heavy vehicles, each rocket will average about six wounds, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize it takes over six lascannon shots (at BS4+) to do the same work. With huge range, no need for line of sight, and a price tag just north of 130pts, the manticore hits harder, and far more efficiently, than the rest of the artillery options. The only real drawback is that it can only fire four times, which will come up less than you think. Most games will be more or less decided long before turn five, and even without rockets it’s a durable objective grabber if need be.
This isn’t a complicated entry: the manticore hits harder than anything else less than a lord of war, and is surprisingly affordable.
Overall: highly competitive.

Deathstrike
A variant on the manticore, the Deathstrike has only one big missile which hits very, very hard. It's heavy 3d6, and every hit causes a mortal wound! Further, every other unit within 6” from the target takes d3 mortal wounds on a 4+. In theory, this makes the deathstrike a powerful option for hitting not only tough units (averaging 7 mortal wounds) but also tightly packed clusters of enemy units. In practice, the utility of this is hamstrung by the special rules. Not only does the deathstrike only shoot once, it can only shoot by rolling a d6, adding the turn number, and hitting 8 or more. Which means it cannot fire turn one, and only fires turn two on a 6+. This makes this weapon quite unreliable, and allows an enemy to target it at their leisure. The deathstrike had been a fun, goofy option for several editions, and that doesn't really change. The reality of modern 40k is that by the time this thing fires, the game will be more or less decided, making it either too little too late, or just piling on.
Overall: casual

Leman Russ Battle Tank
I don't want to bury the lede, so let's just start by saying that the LRBT is not a very good choice. I'll talk about why, and I'll talk about ways to mitigate it, but the basic tank simply cannot hold up to the better options in the book.

To start, the LRBT is one of the few vehicles to become less durable in the change to 8th. In the past, the front armor 14 and long range meant that long range anti-tank weapons actually struggled to hurt the basic Russ. Instead, most Russes went down to either meltas or close combat. Now, instead of a lascannon hit having only a 1/3 chance of stripping a hull point, it has about a 5/9 chance of stripping 3.5 wounds. Meltas now strip 3.5 wounds half the time, even at full range. The tank is actually more durable against combat now, but the days of the LRBT shrugging off enemy lascannons are over.

To make matters worse, the LRBT is pretty pillow fisted. In prior editions, even the basic battle cannon had a really good chance of hitting, and when it did, it laid a Strength 8, AP3 hit on everything it touched. It now averages just under two hits a turn at Strength 8, Ap-2, and Damage d3. It's hard to tell what the ideal target for it is. I guess multiwound models, to get the most out of the d3 damage, but it's not an efficient anti-tank gun, and doesn't have the shots to really threaten infantry. An admittedly better is the Eradicator Nova Cannon, which drops to S6 but prevents units from gaining the benefit of cover. (It also halves the battle cannon's range.) This is pretty clearly meant to clear enemy infantry, but will still average less than a dead marine a turn. The exterminator cannon again went from four shots, twin linked, to... just four shots. Autcannons are not good enough for two of them to justify a Leman Russ chassis. Finally, that leaves us with the Vanquisher cannon, which has S8, AP-3, and damage d6, with the ability to roll two dice pick the highest regardless of range. This is actually worse than a basic lascannon against T8 targets, so keep that in mind. The Battle Cannon is technically the cheapest option, but it's only three points less than the other choices, so I wouldn't call it the budget option. Still, if you feel the need to run a Leman Russ, I would go battle cannon, simply because it can do anything the other three offer, while having luxurious range.

The hull and sponson options don't exactly make the tank great, but they are, surprisingly, more of a reason to buy the tank than in prior editions. I'm pro heavy bolters, and three of them will always force some saves on nearly any target. The hull lascannon probably makes more sense in an infantry squad or tank commander, because full price for a BS4+ lascannon on a fire magnet is not a great plan. I generally feel the same way about multimelta sponsons. Plasma sponsons are actually a pretty good buy, although they are only heavy d3. Still, Russes have a special rule that causes the model to only lose six wounds if an overcharged plasma rolls a one. That's a steep price to pay, especially since you also lose the ability to shoot plasma. IG have no shortage of access to plasma, so I'm not sure I'd shoehorn them in here. Finally, heavy flamers, while priced at full retail, are intriguing, as you can move and shoot all three to full effect. The “Fireball pattern” Russ seems more fun than powerful, simply because the LRBT cannot fall back out of combat and still shoot. This means that if you don't kill what you hit with the heavy flamers, odds are, the Russ will be assaulted, and not shooting for at least a turn.

Is there any good news? Well, the LRBT has a healthy move of 10”, meaning it no longer is a lumbering behemoth. It also does have a special rule allowing turret weapons to ignore the -1 penalty for moving and shooting. If I were forced to play this unit in a game, I would probably go for the battle cannon with single heavy bolter, and use it's speed to hassle the enemy on the flanks. It's a bit pricy, even in this skinny version, at 162pts, but I just do not see any traditional gunline use for this unit.

Overall: semi-competitive

Leman Russ Demolisher

The Index splits the Leman Russ variants along familiar lines, although the demolisher variants no longer enjoy any enhanced durability. Instead, the split seem to be made primarily on cost, with the demolisher variants clocking in at one higher power level, presumably because the have usually had more expensive sponson/hull weapons, as the only turret option dramatically more expensive is the actual demolisher cannon itself. The punisher is actually the cheapest possible LR turret weapon! The split in the index also reflects the kit being split, and thus allows GW to only include the rules that are appropriate for each half in the box, although SM scouts, one of the few other unit choices split between two model boxes, are a single unit entry.

Outside of price and turret options, everything said about the LRBT applies to the Demolisher, so lets look at those turret options. The Demolisher cannon itself is an impressive piece of kit. Retaining it's traditional 24” range, it has d3 shots, but d6 against units with more than five models, making it far more versatile. Even against monsters and vehicles, the Demolisher cannon will bad touch most targets with S10, AP-3, and a healthy d6 damage. So, you have basically a d3 shot lascannon that can move and shoot without penalty, that can also go full blast against large units. This power comes at a healthy price tag, at 40 points above the chassis. Still, if you want a tank that will do some damage, this is your girl. The executioner cannon, which was a three shot small blast before, is now merely heavy d6... which is the same as a lot of single small blasts, like frag missiles. It can be supercharged, and if you roll a one or more ones to hit, the model takes d6 mortal wounds. So... don't do that unless you have rerolls. This option isn't horribly expensive, but no army is spoilt for plasma choice more than IG. You can buy a lot of Special Weapon Squads with plasma guns for the price of a single LR Executioner. Finally, the Punisher gatling cannon offers 20 shots at S5, focusing on sheer volume of fire. In many ways, this is the strongest option, fully loaded with heavy bolters and a storm bolter at 178pts, this puts out a 31-33 shots. The only thing to keep in mind is that the Taurox prime with mini gatling cannon does much the same thing for cheaper, but S5 is admittedly better against a broad array of targets (anything with T4, T5, or T8) As a leman russ, it can move and shoot without penalty, meaning you're forcing quite a few saves against almost any target. If you had to include a Russ, I'd probably go with this one.

Overall: semi-competitive

TLDR: spam conscripts, scions, and heavy weapons teams/artillery

I read it all and thought it was well done. I agreed with almost all of it. You might also mention for FRFSRF that the sergeant should toss a frag grenade if the target is within 6". This is also a good idea if you use Get Back in the Fight since the target is probably close enough.

This assumes that the sergeant isn't armed with a better shooting weapon, such as a bolter.

An interesting read, this edition has reinforced my belief that GW put grenade launchers on the cadian sprue to taunt us and remind us that we can't have nice things.

Just a heads up; you have the points value for missile launchers wrong, they're 20 pts.

Good read, looking forward to the rest!

Would you guys take Elysians or Scion command squad. They are both BS3+. Elysians don't have hot-shot las but don't matter since you want to equip them with plasmas anyways

Scions- 9 pts, 4+ armor, LD6

Elysians-7 pts, 5+, LD8

JB wrote:I read it all and thought it was well done. I agreed with almost all of it. You might also mention for FRFSRF that the sergeant should toss a frag grenade if the target is within 6". This is also a good idea if you use Get Back in the Fight since the target is probably close enough.

This assumes that the sergeant isn't armed with a better shooting weapon, such as a bolter.

Thanks, that's exactly the sort of little technique or tip that I really want to add. I'll add that to my discussion of that order.

Col_Caffran wrote:An interesting read, this edition has reinforced my belief that GW put grenade launchers on the cadian sprue to taunt us and remind us that we can't have nice things.

Just a heads up; you have the points value for missile launchers wrong, they're 20 pts.

Wow, well... I"m not sure that helps my view of the poor thing any! Thanks for the heads up.

And GW's lack of understanding how poor the grenade launcher must be one of the biggest mysteries. Nearly every other unit or upgrade has had at least one moment in the sun, or is at least good in really big games. I guess the mortar has consistently been lousy, but ignores LOS is at least a tangible reason to take them, and they're dirt cheap now. The Grenade Launcher has been objectively worse than the plasma gun forever.

Otto von Bludd wrote:Good read, looking forward to the rest!

It'll be slow. Once I get into the units, I imagine things will move a bit more, as there is less mathhammer, but I hope to have major updates every couple of days or so.

fe40k wrote:TLDR: spam conscripts, scions, and heavy weapons teams/artillery

From what I've seen, you're not wrong. There are a few units just so clearly better than the rest of the list that a tournament list will likely be built from a pretty narrow palette: conscripts, scions, aura characters, heavy weapon squads, manticores, and possibly superheavies. That gives you durability, numbers, and crazy damage dealing. When I build my hard core tournament lists, that's what I'll be looking at as well.

Still, the goal of this isn't to belabor that point, which will be repeated ad naseum. My goal is to do two things: show how the rest of the list can excel, or at least be useful; and to help newer players with some of the basic decisions and gameplay scenarios they will encounter. Most players aren't that competitive, but most players still want to at least put up a fight. So I want to help them build more effective lists, not the most effective list.

What is so bad about grenade launchers? They seem like a decent all purpose special weapon to me.

5 pts, for two fire options at 24", both asault.

Sure, it's not as good as a flamer for multi target short range, although it's cheaper. It's not as good as a plasma gun for single target mid range, although it's cheaper. and it's not as good as a meltagun for short range single target, although it's a lot cheaper.

Instead it's just mediocre at all those things, at a pretty good range and for cheaper. It seems a good weapon if you're not sure what your lowly infantry squad may end up facing off against. For a squad which only costs 40 points, an extra 5 to give it a multi use weapon seems ok to me.

 argonak wrote:
What is so bad about grenade launchers? They seem like a decent all purpose special weapon to me.

5 pts, for two fire options at 24", both asault.

Sure, it's not as good as a flamer for multi target short range, although it's cheaper. It's not as good as a plasma gun for single target mid range, although it's cheaper. and it's not as good as a meltagun for short range single target, although it's a lot cheaper.

Instead it's just mediocre at all those things, at a pretty good range and for cheaper. It seems a good weapon if you're not sure what your lowly infantry squad may end up facing off against. For a squad which only costs 40 points, an extra 5 to give it a multi use weapon seems ok to me.

It's just an inferior weapon. Compared to plasma guns outside rapid fire range, it doens't do anything that much better. Against GEQs, it deals 40% more wounds with the frag grenade, and against MEQs, it deals less than half. And it just gets worse from there one. The plasma gun is better than the krak grenade in every single application. So, the only scenarious where it actually is better is when you face low toughness infantry with bad armour, but even then it's basically 3-4 lasguns worth of firepower. There is absolutely no shortage of weapons in a guard army to deal with the kind of stuff the grenade launcher is good against, so why not just get a plasma gun that is better against harder units for just 2 more points?

If, and I mean IF i were touse grenade launchers it would be in special weapon teams for a grand total of 39 pts. It is a elite slot and you get three guys with lasguns as well. Its not great but if you need to fill some points *shrugs* also whilenyou can get a mortar team for cheaper you can use the three lasguns to soak wounds for the launchers.

Just a idea

 Ir0njack wrote:
If, and I mean IF i were touse grenade launchers it would be in special weapon teams for a grand total of 39 pts. It is a elite slot and you get three guys with lasguns as well. Its not great but if you need to fill some points *shrugs* also whilenyou can get a mortar team for cheaper you can use the three lasguns to soak wounds for the launchers.

Just a idea

The problem with this is that a mortar HWS would cost 24 points and be arguably more killy. If you found 9 points extra, you could get 3 more mortars. Of course, heavy support slots are a bit more rare but this is still an edition where slots are cheap, as you get 6 HS slots for a 30 points tax. And if you're worried about going last with too many units to deploy, you wouldn't use SWS anyway.

So yeah, if I were to use grenade launchers, it would be a cheap way to deploy them. I have used them before, when they were 5 points and the plasma gun or meltagun were 15 and 10 respectively, but right now I can't see any place for it.

Nice summary. I'm really leaning towards mass heavy flamer vehicle use this edition. It's that -1 to hit when moving that just kills most other vehicle weapons for me. I don't want to run a parking lot list.

Yes a Mortar is a Meh weapon, but it is a cheap, multi-purpose Meh weapon. It is about half a Missile Launcher for 1/4 the Price. It is also the only Long Range Anti-Horde Special Weapon you can get. Sure it is a S3 Weapon, but it is a 24" Assault 1d6 Weapon, mix that with a Mortar in your Infantry you are getting 2d6 To Hit Chances, 3d6 for a Special Weapons Squad for just 21 points.
I am not saying this is a 'Competitive' choice, but it is an option especially if you are taking on infantry. and you want to just SPAM 1d6s of shots at the large units of infantry at Long Range.
The orders 'Take Aim' and the better 'Bring it Down' (In my opinion for this kind of set up) will make a difference too.

 Anpu42 wrote:
Yes a Mortar is a Meh weapon, but it is a cheap, multi-purpose Meh weapon. It is about half a Missile Launcher for 1/4 the Price. It is also the only Long Range Anti-Horde Special Weapon you can get. Sure it is a S3 Weapon, but it is a 24" Assault 1d6 Weapon, mix that with a Mortar in your Infantry you are getting 2d6 To Hit Chances, 3d6 for a Special Weapons Squad for just 21 points.
I am not saying this is a 'Competitive' choice, but it is an option especially if you are taking on infantry. and you want to just SPAM 1d6s of shots at the large units of infantry at Long Range.
The orders 'Take Aim' and the better 'Bring it Down' (In my opinion for this kind of set up) will make a difference too.

So, don't confuse the best option with a good option. AM don't struggle for long range anti-horde, there's no reason to take a deeply subpar option in the special weapon slot. The frag grenade option on the grenade launcher is less than twice as good as a basic lasgun with FRF!SRF!, which is frankly dumb. A special weapon squad with three GLs will run you 39pts, which is pretty cheap, for sure, but is also the same price as a 10 man infantry squad, or a five man ratling squad. the SWS will put out, on average, 13.5 shots at S3 at 24" range, and costs more than a HWS that puts out 9 shots at S5 AP1 and 36" range.

I love grenade launchers. I like the models, I like the concept, I like the ideal of dual shots. I want them to be usable, but I really think that outside of crazy specific uses they just don't do enough. With the range, S6, and d3 Damage, I kind of like them against units that rely more on their invulnerable save, but aren't going to close in, because close in the plasma gun's second shot makes the Grenade Launcher redundant. So, Farseers, squads with storm shields, and that sort of thing aren't bad targets, but are pretty uncommon, and also need to be in the specific 12"-24" band, where they are in range, but not close enough to be outclassed by double tapping plasma.

I think when you start combining two very specific targets (very light hordes, lightly armored multi-wound models) with a specific battlefield situation (mid range), it just becomes too specific a piece of kit for me to recommend in a take on all comers list.

Headquarters

Like elsewhere in the list, the AM HQ choices are simple, utilitarian, and cheap, but in numbers, they become quite potent. Nearly all of them favor buffs and upgrades to raw damage dealing, but that doesn't make them any less valuable.

Company Commanders
After years of bundling officers with their command squads, the Index now free commander to be characters, which allows them to hide more discreetly among a range of squads. This is, for the most part, a really good thing, as it's now a lot easier to prevent a company commander from being shot up early in the game. Outside of that, the actual model has made a pretty straight forward conversion to 8th edition. He hits on a 3+ in both shooting and melee, he has human standard Strength and Toughness of 3, and he has four wounds and three attacks with a 5+ save and a 5++ invulnerable. He's not exactly tough, but between being a character and a decent amount of wounds, he'll take more than incidental shooting to kill. His big feature is being a senior officer, dishing out two orders a turn. All of this is quite cheap. For those that want a more aggressive leader, his three attacks make good use of a power ax of power fist, while he's a good shot with a plasma pistol. Even “fully kitted” he's cheaper than a scout sentinel. Still, with only three attacks, he's not even killing one space marine a turn, but he takes 14 space marine attacks back to be killed.
As hinted at above, part of the skill in building a list will be balancing the number of officers to the number of squads. You want to provide adequate support, but you don't want officers sitting idle. Also, the orders don't dramatically improve the firepower of the target units, aside from FRF!SRF!, which only doubles the lasguns. Still, Get back in the Fight! Alone can come in huge. I'd look to include one for every three to five squads, allowing them to cover some territory and provide buffs. The best way to determine how many to bring is to play this one out. Outside of Get Back in the Fight!, I think you'll find that most of the orders are pretty minor in effect, and it is often better to have more steak and less sizzle.
Overall: Highly Competitive

Tank Commander
Two units in, and we have a Leman Russ. Oh, Imperial Guard, you are awesome. The Tank Commander is a Leman Russ chassis, with all of the options for turret, hull, and sponson weapons. In addition, It gains the ability to give one Tank Order a turn, from its custom set of three, to a non-character Leman Russ within 6”. This all runs 35 points more than a basic Leman Russ. In general, your view of this unit will wax or wane with your view of Leman Russes (to be discussed later), but for now, let's take a deep dive on the orders.

Full Throttle! Allows a tank to make an additional move, with advance, instead of shooting. For when you really need that 20+d6” move with a Russ, this order is there. Since Russes have ample range, this is really about either late game objective grabbing, or moving a fireball Russ (three heavy flamers) closer to a viable target. Best case scenario, either way, is that you have a Leman Russ not shooting, which I think makes this is very corner case order. Still, you will eventually see a time to use this, and you will love it!
Gunners, Kill on Sight!, is the aggressively re-titled “Take Aim!” It allows the Russ to re-roll 1s to hit, which as we've exhaustively shown, is kind of meh for most guns, but amazingly good for plasma. The optimist would point out that using this order reduces the chance of losing wounds to plasma overheats, allowing you to rebuild the classic 5th edition all plasma executioner. The pessimist would point out that doing so requires a pretty expensive executioner, as well as the tank commander, and losing either one affects the synergy pretty profoundly. In a tank heavy force, this works, but I'm not sure I'd build a tournament army around the combo.
Finally, Strike and Shroud! Simply allows a Leman Russ to pop smoke launchers after shooting. This is a secretly great ability, as -1 to hit is a big deal, but Leman Russes can't normally afford to give up shooting. OTOH, when you pop smoke with one tank, it just means the other ones are going to get shot. Still, used timely, it can protect the most threatening tank a little bit.
Overall, the orders, much like the infantry ones, are pleasant little buffs, and not game changers. It allows you to build a legal Armored Company list using the Spearhead Detachment (HQ and heavy supports).

The other major change for the commander over the basic Russ starting at BS3+. Obviously, a Russ that hits more frequently is a good choice, and the jump from 4+ to 3+ is a 33% increase in damage output for a roughly 30% (or lower) cost. All in all, the Commander is a nice upgrade for the Leman Russ... however, it's overall efficacy is tied to the Leman Russ. I'll obviously discuss them in greater detail below, but the commander only helps one of the Russes problems, it's surprisingly low damage output. Outside of Strike and Shroud!, the Commander doesn't help the durability of other Russes, and has the same defensive profile as the basic Russ. While reasonably durable, it seems likely that an enemy that wants to destroy the commander will do so turn one. With little ability to hide otherwise, (the advanced rules for terrain require non-infantry to be 50% obscured to gain cover, and the model still must be wholly within the terrain feature), be careful buying an expensive unit like this. Still, if your meta shifts to more assault armies that can't erase a Leman Russ a turn with shooting, this really buffs an armored task force.
Overall: Semi-Competitive.

Lord Commissar
First off, a Lord Commissar is everything that a basic Commissar is, so much of the discussion about Aura of Discipline or Summary Execution will be below. Unlike prior editions, the Lord does not have any special rules to distinguish himself from his basic peers, but rather an upgraded profile. BS/WS 2+, an extra wound and pip of leadership, carapace armor for a 4+ save, and a 5++ refractor field are the main differences, along with the requirement to buy a power sword, or other Melee weapon from the list. Somewhat oddly, Commissars can explicitly buy two different Melee weapons, which I assume has less to do with the rules than it does with GW selling a lot of commissar models with a powerfist and powersword, or other combination. So, factoring in the mandatory power sword, is a Lord worth 24pts over a basic commissar? Yeah, probably. There are basically two theories with AM characters: the first is to keep them cheap and focus on the steak, not the sizzle. The other is to see them as fairly cheap platforms for BS3+ plasma and/or WS3+, 3Attack power weapons. One at a time they are barely chaff, but two or three characters, all with power weapons, can do the work of countercharge. From that standpoint, if you have the HQ slots, why not spend a few points to turn your morale backstop into a plasma spitting, power ax wielding hero? Instead of spending the points an eversor assassin or squad or rough riders, you could upgrade a commissar to a lord, buy power weapons and pistols for two company commanders, and even toss in a priest for the +1 attack buff. In the end, if all you care about is keeping your men in line, than the basic commissar is fine, but the lord is a legit fighter for only twice the price.
Overall: semi-competitive

Tempestor Prime
Much like the line regiments, the Scions lost their bundled officer and command squad combinations, and instead can buy the heroes ala carte. The Prime has the same stat-line as the Company Commander, gaining a 4+ basic save but losing the refractor field. He comes with a hot-shot laspistol, and can get a chainsword for free, or buy a melee weapon. He can upgrade the laspistol to a bolt pistol or plasma pistol, or can trade it for the Tempestus Command Rod. As the Prime is not a Senior officer, he only can give one order a turn base, but with the Command Rod he can again get two. Giving up a single pistol shot is a no brainer if you have two Scion squads in your army, as the orders are much better than even a hot shot laspistol. Much like the Scions, the Prime has Aerial Drop which essentially allows him to deepstrike at will at the end of the movement phase. As he's bereft of weapons, you can always drop him back a bit, but within 6” to order his squads.
Orders with the Prime are pretty similar to the Captain, but due to the ability of Scions or Scion Command to take four special weapons, Take Aim! Is mostly likley your go-to order when you drop (especially if overcharging plasma), but don't overlook FRF!SRF! In the later turns, and as always, Get Back in the Fight! Can make killing off the Scions annoying to the extreme. This isn't a complicated unit, it drops in near two squads, and provides orders to them. For pretty cheap, you get protection against overcharging for 8 plasma guns, or 20 more Hot Shot Lasgun shots! They're a cheap buffing unit for arguably the strongest units in the codex, so they deserve a spot in any list.
Overall: Highly Competitive

Primaris Psyker
For reasons unknowable, the three psychic units from the old AM codex were split off into a sub-faction, the Astra Telepathica. They retain the Astra Militarum keyword, so they can still be included, but you have to go to a different section of the Index. Anyway, the Primaris is pretty unchanged. He has pretty standard stats, with a laspistol and force staff, and he knows Smite and two powers from Psykana. In an interesting twist, It's For Your Own Good no longer is a penalty, but instead simply means that if the psyker dies to Perils within 6”of a commissar, he does not explode, as the watchful Commissar simply executed him.
The Psykana Discipline, like most others, has three powers. Terrifying Visions subtracts two from leadership from an enemy unit within 18”, but requires a Warp Charge of 7. Gaze of the Emperor is only a Warp Charge 6, and draws a line 2d6” from the psyker. Roll a die for each model covered, on a 4+ the unit takes a mortal wound. Psychic Barrier gives a +1 to saving throws for one unit within 12”, on a Warp Charge of 6. The early buzz is for Gaze, for the ability to pile on mortal wounds, but I see 2d6” as pretty short. Still, this is a “one good shot” type of weapon, and on a relatively cheap AM psyker you don’t' need to get that many mortal wounds to make up it's cost. Terrify is somewhat straightforward, but is best used against a squad that's taken a lot of damage, and is already in the danger zone. Something like a Leadership 7 unit that lost four models is a good target, as a decent roll will start gutting the squad. This power doesn't do much on it's own, and AM should be trying to wipe out units, but it's a strong second pick. Psychic Barrier is the power that really gets the mind thinking, as it can affect anything up to superheavy tanks. This is a very straightforward power, as it simply makes one unit more durable. It also stacks with cover. Give a Baneblade a 2+, Give a veteran squad in cover a 3+, or make a giant conscript platoon even harder to shift.

The rap on the Primaris is that outside of Smite, the Astropath does everything he does, but cheaper. Of course, the Primaris is pretty cheap already, and unlike the astropath, can fight a little. He also knows two powers instead of one. If you're trying to wring every point out of your list, than the Primaris can't compete with Astropath, but he's still a darn good unit in his own right.
Overall: Competitive.

Commissar Yarrick
Old man Yarrick, the terror of the greenskin, is the most expensive infantry character available to the AM, combining several strong aura buffs with some choppy hand to hand ability. First off, he's a commissar, meaning he had Summary Execution and Aura of Discipline, so he can share his LD9 and prevent more than one moral casualty in nearby squads. He has a 4++ save and T4, and can ignore losing his last wound on a 3+, meaning he should hopefully stick around a bit. He has a powerfist, a stormbolter, a bolt pistol, and effectively a hotshot laspistol (bale eye). Remember that a model can shoot multiple weapons, but can only either shoot pistols or non-pistols, and the stormbolter will usually be the smarter choice, unless locked in combat.
The sort of big ticket rule for Yarrick is the Hero of Hades Hive, which is the pretty standard rule a lot of heroes have in 8th: re-roll ones to hit within 6”. His rule has the twist of allowing re-rolls of all failed hits when attacking Orks. Generally, I do not like rules that only work against a single faction, because they are of no value (or of intermittent value) in take all comers lists, while they smack of impropriety when you know what your enemy is bringing. Editorializing aside, Yarrick is the only source for re-rolling all ones to hit in the AM list, although Harker allows ones in shooting to be re-rolled. In many ways, Yarrick does the job of both a company commander and a commissar, in that he gives every unit within 6” the equivalent of Take Aim! (which also works in combat) and provides for their morale. One key thing to remember is that you can layer an order on top of this aura, for example giving a squad Bring it Down! To re-rolls ones both to hit and to wound. It also layers with War Hymns or Cold Steel and Courage (Straken's aura). Still, the AM aren't going to build a new death start unit any time soon. The other key thing to notice about Hero of Hades Hive is that it is any Astra Militarum Unit, and is not limited to a specific regiment. Scions, Auxilia, Priests, they all benefit from it.

So how do you get the most out of Yarrick? He clearly pays points for his aura and his combat durability, both of which are unique in the codex. His damage output is no different from a Lord Commissar with powerfist, nor are his number of wounds, he's not holding up against a large number of attacks. Iron Will can keep him alive for a while, and it's easy to treat it like two extra wounds, but every time you fail that roll on the first time, he's just a four wound chump. So, while he cannot take on huge squads on his own, he can hold up a squad for a turn or two. The problem is that he's a character that wants to do two things: buff a gunline, and fight in combat. Against a lot of enemies (orks, Chaos, space marines, Nids) you can castle up, shoot the enemy as they come in, and then counter-charge the survivors. Its' old fashions defensive IG work, and it can win games against those enemies. However, those armies with mobile shooting might not be trying to crash your lines, and instead, they'll shoot you up piece meal. Keep in mind that Yarrick cannot sit behind a line of infantry and heavy weapon squads, buffing them, and then wade out and krump heads in every game. That said, he's a bit harder to kill than anything else have, and his aura really is hard to come by. I think he's too pricy for tournament lists, but he's a great piece for narrative games.
Overall: semi-competitive

Lord Castellan Creed
The hero of Cadia, Creed is the thinking man's special character, with minimal combat ability but a couple of neat buffs. In terms of stats, he's identical to the basic Company Commander but has LD9. He comes with a pair of hot shot pistols and a power sword, which makes him not completely pitiful in close combat, but with limited wounds, S3, and only three attacks, he's not going to want to be in combat. What he does want to do is dish out orders, which he does better than anybody, getting three per turn! He also, if selected as the warlord, gives you two additional Command Points. Those are two nice abilities, as both orders and command points are valuable. However, I'm not sure their worth the point cost. Creed is basically the same price as two Company Commanders with plasma pistols. Not only does he have one fewer order than a pair of captains, he can only be in one place, limiting your coverage for orders. As I'll discuss below, the ability to give an extra order is costed at just under 10 points, which means buying Creed is basically paying about 20 points for two command points. He also locks you into being <Cadia>. Overall, there are certainly worse ways to spend the points than a pair of command points, but AM can more easily form a brigade detachment and have ample command points. Still, I think that in lists that will only run one officer, and maybe need some command points, looking to Creed might work out.
Overall: Competitive

Knight Commander Pask
A special character Tank Commander, Pask does everything a regular tank commander does, but he does up to 11. Instead of being BS3+, he's BS2+. Instead of giving one order (to a non-character Leman Russ) he can give two orders, including other <cadian> Leman Russ Characters. Depending on how you read that, it means you can give orders to Tank Commanders, but not himself (Because he is not another character). All of this is a 45 point bump from the basic Leman Russ, or only 10 points more than a stock Tank Commander. I think the choice for a first tank character is pretty obvious. Unless you hate cadia (and remember, you can have <Cadian> tanks with <Catachan> infantry), I would buy Pask before a basic commander every time.

As for how good he is, some of that does come down to his ability to give orders to himself. If he can, he's pretty amazing, being able to shoot and pop smoke, or load up with plasma and re-roll all ones to hit. If not, he's still real good, rocking accurate shooting with support for two other Leman Russes. However, he's still only 12 wounds, and while it sounds funny to say “only” about a model with 12 wounds, lascannon or bright lance spamming armies will light him up. He also gets expensive, easily hitting 250pts with some builds. But not all armies will have kind of ranged firepower, and he will blow stuff up with the ability to take two Multi-meltas and a lascannon, plus a turret, all at BS2+.

Overall: Competitive

Colonel “Iron Hand” Straken
Switching gears to the <Catachan> part of the Imperium, Straken is in many ways a mirror image of Creed, the bellowing, hard charging hero rather than the calculating tactician. Straken starts with the basic Commander profile, but gets a wide range of buffs, with WS2+, +2 Strength, +1 toughness, an extra wound and attack, LD9, and a whopping 3+ save. He is still a senior officer, giving two orders a turn to his men, he does have a nice aura effect, in which all units within 6” at the start of the fight phase can all make one additional attack. For punching, he retains the 5+++ refractor field, and can re-roll wounds against enemy monsters. Before you get too excited, his bionic arm is only AP1 for 2 damage, making struggle to punch through the thickest chitin. He is dramatically more costly than a company commander, clocking in at the same price as three naked captains, or two with plasma pistol and fist. However, he crams a lot of utility into that package. First, he does nearly the same thing as a Priest's War Hymns, although they simply give +1 attack, which can be used with Fix Bayonets! On the flip side, his aura stacks with Priests, giving everyone within 6” of both +2 attacks in the fight phase.

It's hard to put a price on his combat performance, because one of the few models in the codex that actually wants to be in combat, and can survive it. His durability and damage is roughly comparable to a space marine hero armed with a power maul, for a comparable price, although I think I'd take Rites of Battle (re-roll all ones to hit within 6”) over Cold Steel and Courage (+1 attack in the fight phase) and two orders. OTOH, when used aggressively, Straken (especially paired with a priest) can push out a lot of attacks from catachans. The most obvious use is to pair him with large conscript squads, but the huge problem with this idea is the way that Cold Steel and Courage is written. It says that models within 6”, not units within 6”, which means that you need to give him a smaller, more compact attack wave. You could likely put him in the middle of a densely packed mob of conscripts if you really wanted though, which might be kind of cool. One possibility is to put Straken, a priest, and a veteran squad in either a Valkyrie or a chimera. Give the vets three plasmas, plasma pistol, power fist, shotguns, and heavy flamer, and get out, shoot up a tough squad, and charge in. Straken can use his second order on himself, either to Take Aim while overcharging his plasma pistol, or to Fix Bayonets! And fight twice when engaged. All in all, he's a fighty character that makes squads better in combat, but does not really naturally pair with any of the options available to him. Even fully tooled up, his Catachan shock squad is still just 10 guys with T3and 5+ saves. A third use for the big guy is to use him as a one man counter-charge element. Well, not really one man, as if you include him, you should buy power weapons for some of the infantry squads near him, but basically just drop him, and some power weapons into your firebase. He's only 50pts more than a tool up company commander, but while he cannot fight off dedicated assault troops, he can handle small squads or things like tactical squads pretty well. His Aura will buff up the squads near him, and you can turn an overrun position into a furrball. The final thing to keep in mind about him is that he's actually 20 points more than an Eversor Assassin, who is choppier, arguably more durable, and can certainly get to the fight with his extra charge distance and ability to deploy from reserves. If you're not using Straken's orders and aura, you could save the points and get a pure killer instead. Straken seems like he'd be really good in some gadget lists, and pretty solid in a balanced list with the right tweaks to benefit from his buffs.
Overall: Competitive

Uriah Jacobus
A surprise recruit to the Astra Militarum, this special character comes to use via the Adeptus Ministorum, and is in many ways a buffed Priest. He has a company commander stat-line, plus one wound and one attack. His save is only 6+, but irrelevant with a 4++ invulnerable save from a Rosarius. War Hymns gives +1 attack to all friendly Astra Militarum and Adeptus Ministorum infantry units within 6”, while his banner allows them all to also add +1 to their leadership. He also has Zealot, which allows him to re-roll hits made in a turn in which he charged, made a heroic intervention, or was charged. It's hard to tell what his role is for AM... it's not damage dealing, and aside from +1 Leadership, his aura is the same as the basic Priest at one third the price. If anybody can come up with a good use for this guy, I'm all ears. The only real use I can think of is that Uriah is the only model to give +1 Leadership to commissars, which allows you to have LD10 Lord Commissars, which means all other units within 6” of the Lord are LD10. That still seems far more expensive than just eating the loss of a model a turn, but I guess if you want to have the most stoic gunline ever, you can.
Overall: Casual

A very good read that I know I'll refer to it, but doesn't Pask having the Character keyword mean he can't simply be targeted by lascannons and bright lances like you mentioned?

Edit: oh, wait, his wound characteristic is too high, right... No rules exploitation here!

Great work, looking forward for the next entries!

Superb work so far.

I'm really interested to hear your thoughts regarding St. Celestine as an HQ choice for IG.

Whenever you get round to doing this, is there any chance you could discuss whether or not one or both of her guards are worth it?


Once you've finished, perhaps we could get this put at the beginning of the IG Tactica thread?

Thanks for the kind words, I should have the Elites section done today or tomorrow

 vipoid wrote:

I'm really interested to hear your thoughts regarding St. Celestine as an HQ choice for IG.

Whenever you get round to doing this, is there any chance you could discuss whether or not one or both of her guards are worth it?

Well, I don't see getting to the Allies for a few weeks, so let me share my hottest of takes. Celestine has a lot of aspects to unpack, so let's start with the first one: She gives all ministorum or Astra militarum units a 6++ within six inches, and also buffs sisters Shield of Faith from a 6++ to 5++. A 6++ invulnerable save is like a coupon for a free appetizer: nice, but not enough to change your plans over. Also, the only Ministorum unit to not have an invulnerable save already are pentitent engines, which don't have great synergy with her, being slower. As for the guard, I suppose you could go nuts by leaving her near superheavies or Ogryn, but I really don't see that as an efficient use of her. Go with a Void Shield Generator instead. However, when you look at sisters, a 5++ becomes half decent, and two different units, Seraphim and the Mistress of Repentence, can reroll that save. A 5++ rerolled is actually better than a 4++, so with her buff Seraphim become reasonably durable against even heavy weapons.

Her second ability is that she allows a nearby unit to use an extra Act of Faith, in addition to the one the army gets on a 2+. In practice, this means that she'll always have an act, allowing her an extra move, shot, pile in/fight, or healing. Like the above, this rule really only comes into play if you have at least one more sisters units, so plan accordingly. A unit of Seraphim is not expensive, can screen Celestine, is pretty durable, and can keep up with her, all while being a desperately needed fast attack choice. Seraphim are fairly underwhelming in damage output, but with an act of faith, they do a little better. If Celestie is the only Sisters unit in your army, than her rule guarantees that she will have an act of faith, and not rely on a 2+.

Somewhat uniquely among characters, she can buy a retinue of one or two Geminae. While fairly pricey, each Geminae has a 2+/4++, two wounds, and a power sword at WS3+/S3 with three attacks. More critically, even after they die, Celestine can return one Geminae per turn, with full wounds. Even if she lost both Geminae, if she starts her turn, Celestine can bring one back with her rule, and another back (albeit only at one wound) with an Act of Faith. They do a bit of work, with six total attacks at S3 AP-3, but they are primarily there to tank wounds for the Celestine.

Of course, even if Celestine takes wounds, she has a healthy amount. And even if she runs out, she will return immediately on a 2+. If a Geminae is still alive, she'll join her, if not, she will deepstrike anywhere more than 9" away from the enemy. This is only once a game, but it makes her almost impossible to kill on the first try. (Pro-tip: save a command point re-roll for that 2+ Miraculous Intervention)

So... she's got a minor buff, she fuels her own act of faith, ands he's hard to kill. What exactly does she do? The answer to that is simple: she's a beautiful killing machine. WS2+, six attacks, and effective S7 AP3 Damage2 with her sword. On top of that, she has a shooting attack that's basically a heavy flamer, but assault d6. She cannot take on monsters toe to toe, but as AM, you should be softening up targets like that well ahead of time. With her act of faith, she as a 24+2d6" charge range, making her very able to hit what she wants to assault. When picking targets, I think she has three best case targets. The first are smaller, fast units that she has the speed to chase down and the damage output to actually wipe out. Think bikes, landspeeders, or Crisis Suits. The second are assault units that she can tie up with her high level of durability, especially very large units that could multi-charge and really tie up an AM gunline. Think Gaunts, Orks, or conscripts, that will struggle to kill her, and she can prevent from doing real damage to your lines. Finally, she can target backfield shooting units. Devestators, lootas, etc. She can reach them by turn two at the latest, and stop them from hitting your top units.

I think she's a strong choice, and provides the speed and melee power that nothing in the actual Astra Militarum list comes close to providing. I cannot think of a reason to not run with the Geminae, simply because while they increase her cost pretty dramatically, they also dramatically increase her durability and significantly increase her ability to do damage. She's a big chunk of the list, and can't just be tossed in, for example, you can buy three Assassins for the cost of Celestine with both Geminae. However, when compared to the obvious competition (assassins), offers a lot more versatility and durability, particularly in her ability to move 24" to chase down units, and her ability to take on monsters/vehicles, or any high toughness, high save model.

My final assessment is that she's a toolbox character, and can really operate with a lot of synergy with an AM list. The key is to support her, probably with firepower, so that she can finish off monsters and vehicles, chase down quick units, or tie up hordes. Keep in mind that she will need to destroy a fairly substantial unit to make her points back, and she's here for killing. If used with hesitation or fear, she will struggle to make points back, but if used well, I think she's a rock star.

Overall: highly competitive.

Thank you very much. That's a great help.

Great topic Polonius, I very much appreciate the effort you put in it. I wish it will develop as the "official" 8th edition Astra Militarum discussion thread. On my side I will try to put as many meaningful contributions as I can.



Here are some simple probability results (mean number of damage) that I already put in the other 8th edition thread. It is now more complete with the addition of hot-shot volley gun. I think it has its place here to give some perspective about tempestus scions load-out and what you can expect from one of these powerful squads.


Take a half-size scion troop squad with 2 special weapons. Give the sergeant a plasma pistol (in order to have him being simply useful, the hot-shot pistol is a total garbage). I count the damage done on the turn they drop between 9.5 - 12 inches of a big target, while they fire all their weapons at it. I do count the 2 hot-shot laser guns as contributing to the firepower. On overcharge, I assume there is a tempestor order to reroll .I have put also the humble grenade launcher to stress out the gap between this weapon and plasma guns which costs only 2 points more.



vs. T'au Piranhas , ork warbuggies & Co (T5 Sv 4+) :

squad with grenade launchers : 2.000
squad with hot-shot volley guns : 1.926
squad with plasma guns : 2.593
squad with rerollable overcharged plasma : 5.099
squad with melta guns : 3.926


vs. Killa kans or t'au commander (T5 Sv 3+) :

squad with grenade launchers : 1.556
squad with hot-shot volley guns : 1.556
squad with plasma guns : 2.148
squad with rerollable overcharged plasma : 4.667
squad with melta guns : 3.778


vs average tyranid monster (T6 Sv 3+)

squad with grenade launchers : 1.185
squad with hot-shot volley guns : 1.407
squad with plasma guns : 2.000
squad with rerollable overcharged plasma : 4.494
squad with melta guns : 3.630


vs. Aeldari War Walker, Drukhari vehicles (T6 Sv 4+ i5++)

squad with grenade launchers : 1.333
squad with hot-shot volley guns : 1.333
squad with plasma guns : 1.630
squad with rerollable overcharged plasma : 3.630
squad with melta guns : 2.519


vs Carnifex, Wraithlord or the average tank (T7 Sv 3+)

squad with grenade launchers : 0.870
squad with hot-shot volley guns : 1.315
squad with plasma guns : 1.537
squad with rerollable overcharged plasma : 3.414
squad with melta guns : 3.537

vs Riptide (T7 Sv 2+ i5++)

squad with grenade launchers : 0.630
squad with hot-shot volley guns : 1.000
squad with plasma guns : 1.963
squad with rerollable overcharged plasma : 3.093
squad with melta guns : 2.556


Tough tank like Vindicator (T8 Sv 3+)

squad with grenade launchers : 0.778
squad with hot-shot volley guns : 0.778
squad with plasma guns : 1.074
squad with rerollable overcharged plasma : 3.414
squad with melta guns : 2.667


Houston, we've got a problem !

Plasma guns are so much better than grenade launchers for just a little more price. They retain their efficiency better against big targets.
Hot-shot volley guns are not that bad, they are on par with grenade launchers sometimes, and on some occasions clearly ahead.
Still, they do not justify their high price compared to plasma guns even on standard mode.
Plasma guns on overcharged mode with rerolls consistently outshine meltaguns in all but one scenario at their job of chasing down tough stuff.
What the developers were thinking when they made plasma guns only 7 points ? This thing needs to be at least 10 points !
Overall at current prices, I see no reason to not spam plasma in scions squads. They are better than any other weapon and very versatile, except maybe at horde control (which I will look at later).
Don't forget to sprinkle your army list with tempestor primes for these crucial rerolls of .

so I had planned on running 3 Tempestus command squads with 4 plasma guns. However the third will only have 3 plasma guns....

so after reading this article I am wondering if its more effective to discard the 3rd command squad with 3 plasma guns and adding in the Tempestor Prime with rod for its rerolls of 1. and just 2 command squads.

thoughts ?

This is great! I really enjoyed your review of the 5th ed codex and am eagerly awaiting the rest of this one

Since they're really not a standalone army, do you think it'd be reasonable to include Assassins among other IG elites? I was thinking of bringing a pair of Vindicaires to my next game to try them out.

 KommissarKiln wrote:
Since they're really not a standalone army, do you think it'd be reasonable to include Assassins among other IG elites? I was thinking of bringing a pair of Vindicaires to my next game to try them out.

I will be covering them, but not along with the other Elites. I'm working on the Elites now, and it's already a pretty bloated section. I'll probably talk about them in a follow up, along with knights, inquisition, and any other high use imperial allies.

Is Pask really worth it anymore? It seems he lost all his gun specific abilities, he was nasty with the vanquisher, and he nasty with the rends on the punisher cannon, but now the rends are gone and so is Crack Shot, the best thing about him seems to be the BS2, and orders which he cant use on himself, is that worth it in the new edition? Its like LR tanks as a whole got wayy better and Pask came down a few notches to compensate.

 Rock The 40K wrote:
Is Pask really worth it anymore? It seems he lost all his gun specific abilities, he was nasty with the vanquisher, and he nasty with the rends on the punisher cannon, but now the rends are gone and so is Crack Shot, the best thing about him seems to be the BS2, and orders which he cant use on himself, is that worth it in the new edition? Its like LR tanks as a whole got wayy better and Pask came down a few notches to compensate.

Where does it say he can't issue Orders to himself?

 Rock The 40K wrote:
Its like LR tanks as a whole got wayy better

Right. This statement requires explanation/cross-examination.

I don't think they're all terrible, but most line up as decidedly mediocre.

 vipoid wrote:

 Rock The 40K wrote:
Is Pask really worth it anymore? It seems he lost all his gun specific abilities, he was nasty with the vanquisher, and he nasty with the rends on the punisher cannon, but now the rends are gone and so is Crack Shot, the best thing about him seems to be the BS2, and orders which he cant use on himself, is that worth it in the new edition? Its like LR tanks as a whole got wayy better and Pask came down a few notches to compensate.

Where does it say he can't issue Orders to himself?

I mean I Hope im wrong, it says he "can issue orders to other leman russ tanks." Which I think implies he can issue orders to himself. The consensus Ive seen around is that he cant do it to himself though.

 Rock The 40K wrote:

 vipoid wrote:

 Rock The 40K wrote:
Is Pask really worth it anymore? It seems he lost all his gun specific abilities, he was nasty with the vanquisher, and he nasty with the rends on the punisher cannon, but now the rends are gone and so is Crack Shot, the best thing about him seems to be the BS2, and orders which he cant use on himself, is that worth it in the new edition? Its like LR tanks as a whole got wayy better and Pask came down a few notches to compensate.

Where does it say he can't issue Orders to himself?

I mean I Hope im wrong, it says he "can issue orders to other leman russ tanks." Which I think implies he can issue orders to himself. The consensus Ive seen around is that he cant do it to himself though.

Coming from playing MTG when something says "can do to other" it usually means it doesn't benefit from that ability itself, but can only grant it to others of the same type. I'm not sure about here though since GW usually isn't that tight with its wording. I'm hoping it'll come up in a FAQ or something.