Space Marines: A Review

I am very excited about this post because it is my first Codex review on the blog. You guys have read a million of these, have your own ideas, and lets be honest have much better things to be doing than spending hours on a 40k blog so I am going to hit on, in my opinion, the major talking points of the book, what I like, and what I dislike about it. 

Chapter Tactics

The chapter tactics mechanic in this book were very obvious to be the one thing that was going to make or break this codex in every aspect of the 40k universe. You can only change a Space Marine so much and add so many units before they really aren't Space Marines anymore so these chapter traits needed to be fluffy to the chapter, keep each chapter on level ground with each in power level, make the book interesting, and hopefully make the book competitive. 

Before the book came out I saw two possible outcomes here; there would be one chapter that is way better than the others leading to one obvious build or they all came up short and the book was a stinker. GW blindsided me here with a moment reminiscent of Dumb and Dumber: "Just when I think you can't get any dumber, you TOTALLY REDEEM YOURSELF!"

With less than one page of rules GW took all of their major chapters and not only made them all valid choices but also made them fluffy and true to their chapter, have no obvious chapter choice over another, and make the bonuses significant enough that a clear direction for that chapter was clear. Within minutes of reading the chapter tactics ideas rushes through my head of  different armies that could be valid with each ruleset: 

Iron Hands with their 'It will not die' on vehicles could do a badass and devastating Storm Raven heavy force, Salamanders drop pod armies, grav heavy white scars bike armies, etc. All tasty, all valid, all with their own distinct flavor. 

Chapter Master

This dude, is an unadulterated, unrelenting badass. He is super cheap, can unlock bikes as troops, and be tooled out with relics to be a murder machine, uber tank, or great support character there is not much else to say other than ally with another chapter and take 2! T5 with 4 wound eternal warrior and 2+,3++ with it will not die and a 6+ FNP? Sign me up! Chapter tactics can take his utility even further. Oh yeah and a once per game str 10 AP1 orbital bombardment. 

Tigurious

Lets face it; he deserves his own section. I am not even going to talk about librarians because they are going the way all other psykers have; cheap psykers, they are all the same. Tigerious however checking in at 165 is just absurd. He is the re-roll king; move aside Fateweaver. Tigurious is a level 3 who can re-roll his psychic powers when generating them meaning you can basically count on that clutch power pretty darn close to 100% of the time. He can also reroll failed psychic checks and did I mention he is 165 points? I did?! Well I'm saying it again.

Cheap Troops

ZOMG their troops are cheap. While that is obviously a fantastic thing; it really is still just depressing how difficult they are to get where they need to go (Rhinos are still shit) and in the days of warriors in night scythes, even cheaper kroot that can really go where everywhere they want, and Eldar Jetbikes the lowly tactical marine and scout are still kinda meh and I was really hoping to see more.

Land Speeder Storm

Before the book I was actually a fan of the storm for nothing else than it was a transport that scoring units could outflank in. The better news; they are 5 points cheaper, are a dedicated transport, and get a heavy flamer for free. I really think people will still glance over them but tI wahey are worth a look depending on the build you are going with. My marine list has two. 

Heavy Support Centurions:

I know they are getting alot of flakk for being pricy but I actually like this unit alot with grav cannon and amp. Yes they are expensive but it is one of those units that you absolutely have to kill and those are always worth a look. These guys will erase MCs with decent armour saves and do similar things to units like broadsides. Yes they are 24" range and expensive but throw a unit of three of these units in a Storm Raven, Drop pod or even a Land Raider and you have options and in my opinion they are good ones. I can imagine this unit doing wonders in an alpha strike pod list. 

Bikes

When combined with the White Scars chapter tactics and Khan these guys unfortunately straight up out Ravenwing, Ravenwing. At base cost they are 6 points cheaper, have better close combat characters, better weaponry with the relentless grav guns and all the same special rules.

Command Squad

  I was not going to mention anything until this errata came out today. The errata took this unit and elevated them to amazing. Going back to drop pod salamanders this unit can rock 5 twin linked flamers or melta guns for super cheap....Sexy! 

Well guys; that is stuff that immediately jumped out at me. I am sure I left some awesome stuff out. Please feel free to comment below and ask my opinion or add your thoughts on some other units or about the ones that I have posted here! 

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