Let's have a GW rumors and sneak peeks thread!

[Jye Nicolson]

I know it's two Codexes for Marines in just over a year, which will annoy a bunch of people, but Marines are just a *lot* and the cleanup is welcome. I bet they got real sick of devoting Psychic Awakening space to reprinting stuff for Blood Angels, Dark Angels and Space Wolves. The supplement style makes sense for those chapters too.

The Sister Palantine will slot right in, I'd be happy if she had a standard Lieutenant reroll aura, but I'll take whatever! Probably another model I'll want in a few variants, though having *another* Bloody Rose support character to try to keep in aura range of the Repentia after they rocket off to rip and tear will be an experience

[Karantu]

I don't think anyone reasonable is annoyed at a Space Marine Codex coming out at the start of a new edition. It doesn't have anything to do with them needing cleanup though it's just how their product cycle works. Also they don't really have a problem with reprinting anything and the new codex doesn't seem to cover Bood Angels, Dark Angels, Deathwatch, or Space Wolves properly from how they've worded it. And even with the rest of the Space Marines it still sounds you need the Psychic Awakening books (not sure about Vigilus) to get access to their complete toolbox. Too bad their app is garbage but I guess they can't out compete their own book sales.

[Jye Nicolson]

The extra chapters will get their baseline stuff in that Codex though, so no more printing Repuslor variants, Vanguard rules, baseline strats etc five times. The Angels and Wolves will have more units than a Codex compliant supplement but don't need more relics, warlord traits or strats.

They had said the Codexes will be a "best of" and include PA stuff, so I assume Litanies will be in, as well as headline stuff like Ragnar (well, in a supplement in his case). Whether you'll need the PA or not will depend on whether the stuff that gets left out is good, which I expect to be basically random

[Karantu]

Is it preferable to only have all the generic datasheets in the main SM codex and have the non-codex SM factions refer to that book?
I would think that if you wanted to play a certain faction you'd want the codex to contain all the up to date information on that faction without needing any extra books.
Also if they're only including certain bits from PA that sounds pretty unfriendly to newer players or people who're starting a new faction since they might potentially need something from a book that's no longer in sale. Anyway, all this is under the assumption that you only use rules from books that you own, which is the assumption that GW should be operating under. I guess we're just going to need more flowcharts to make sense of which products are needed to be able to play a specific army.

[The Other Dave]

I like those Marine tanks a lot - all the good things about the Repulsor asethetic without the "altogether too many guns slapped on" trouble those tanks have. Nice and clean. The Monolith is *dope*, and I'm excited to see the new teased kits too.

[Jye Nicolson]

Is it preferable to only have all the generic datasheets in the main SM codex and have the non-codex SM factions refer to that book?
I would think that if you wanted to play a certain faction you'd want the codex to contain all the up to date information on that faction without needing any extra books.

I think there's a *version* of everything being in your Codex so you'd only need one book that would work well, but not the way they did it in 8th. This is how I ended up playing my Wolves as White Scars until Saga of the Beast came out, Codex Space Wolves was just missing most of the good stuff.

Also if they're only including certain bits from PA that sounds pretty unfriendly to newer players or people who're starting a new faction since they might potentially need something from a book that's no longer in sale. Anyway, all this is under the assumption that you only use rules from books that you own, which is the assumption that GW should be operating under. I guess we're just going to need more flowcharts to make sense of which products are needed to be able to play a specific army.

Yeah I think PA will end up largely skippable for anyone with a new Codex, but if you were just picking up a faction there'd be no way to know without doing online research. I expect PA to get sunsetted eventually, they'll end up being a bit of an albatross.

[Karantu]

They released an article on the new Marine changes.

I'm pretty sure this confirms all those rumours about the 2W changes and weapon changes but here's a summary of things they confirmed.
1. Weapon stat-lines are potentially changing in 9th for all factions. The changes brought about by the Space Marine codex will retroactively apply to any other faction that uses the same weapons (i.e. IG, SoB, CSM, GSC, etc). From the article it didn't sound like that this was going to cause any points changes.
Some of the changes are:
- Heavy Bolters go up from 1 to 2 damage
- Flamer/Heavy Flamer range from 8" to 12"
- Multi-meltas from Heavy 1 to Heavy 2
- Melta rule changing to +2 damage within half range
2. Necron Weapons are getting reworked in their codex (but nothing about wound changes?).
3. Old Marines are all going up to a baseline of two wounds and units such as Terminators are going up to 3. There will be points changes that come along with this change (Tactical Marines are going from 15pts to 18pts).
4. CSM will get the same treatment but since it includes points changes it won't be until their codex comes out.

[The Other Dave]

I guess I'll enjoy my low-point plague marines while I can!

Those changes all look good TBH - that's a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't *particularly* attractive that now just got nicer. Plasma guns overheating only on a natural roll of 1 is also in there, and long overdue. (I hope they remember to increase the plague spray weapons' ranges in tune with the flamers, though.)

[Jye Nicolson]

Things are going to be hugely up in the air if they're willing to change weapon stats that dramatically and that sweepingly. On one hand it means you're *really* playing Indexhammer if you're on an 8th ed Codex (particularly, on the other when you get your 9th it could be very spicy indeed.

Also starting to think GW have absolutely no rules based Primaris vs Firstborn agenda at all, the day the small marines go to Legends is both far off and will be a consequence of pure manufacturing/logistics decisions.

[The Other Dave]

Also starting to think GW have absolutely no rules based Primaris vs Firstborn agenda at all, the day the small marines go to Legends is both far off and will be a consequence of pure manufacturing/logistics decisions.

This is exactly what I thought - 2W smallmarines just screams "the units aren't moving" to me. It's not a bad thing - more, different units on the table is always nice - but it seems unusually transparent.