

Astra Whatitarum? Stop making up factions, boy.

Standard caveat: this is just what it says, my first impressions of the book, not a comprehensive review. Feel free to contradict, correct, and condemn me over this stuff if you think it’s wrong.



The warlord traits table is actually shockingly good. Like, “no dead results and most all of them things you can actually use.” The worst one is maybe the Relentless trait, but even that has some kooky uses, so I think overall it’s quite solid. Tank Commanders can only get the first three traits and cannot ever roll on any of the other tables (from the BRB or elsewhere), which is sort of interesting. Outflanking with units is kinda middling, but it can stuff some scoring units or tanks in their backfield so that’s cute. Preferred Enemy is a really good thing to have. Ignoring casualties from morale is actually pretty huge. 18″ Order range is decent, and getting an extra order is pretty nice.

Orders are a simple 12″ range now and snake eyes lets you autopass all further orders rather than giving an extra, free one. Most of the orders stayed the same and were kept, but of note we have an order for Split Fire now (which, remember, will require another Leadership check to use and will only let one model aim at a different target, so mediocre overall) and one for Precision Shots, which is a big deal. Junior Officers also can give the Shoot -> Run order, and one for Pinning. The senior officer orders are the same names but slightly altered function- now you can get Tank/Monster Hunter, Ignore Cover, or an automatic regroup/unpin.

Astropaths having Telepathy makes sense in-universe, but is pretty weird in game functionality. I guess.. I guess it’s a really cheap psyker? Officer of the Fleet is now the only reserve-modifying guy, but he needs a Ld7 check to do it, so kinda weak there. They fixed the Master of Ordnance shenanigans, so none of that. They’re all cheaper now, too, so that’s something.

Tank Commanders are the new sexy. The wording is pretty weird, but assumedly he always is in the same tank each game and can’t “hop around” to different ones? The tank orders are actually kinda weak overall (though not terrible)- Split Fire is the only one you’d really want to use on any sort of regular basis. The big deal, really, is that he basically lets you fill your requisite HQ slot with something useful and bumps up the effectiveness of his own tank significantly, especially with the multishot variants. Also an AV14 warlord is no joke. Note that he is allowed to be your warlord regardless of the Ld values of other characters in the army.

Commissars are cheaper now, but with Inquisitors and Priests around, there’s not a strong call for them. Still, they make for a really cheap HQ if you need one, so there’s that. Summary Execution is a bit more forgiving overall now, since it usually just picks off a grunt. Be careful about having important models in the squad, though, because 1/3 of the time your opponent will get to murder one of them. Note that a Commissar can execute another Commissar in this way (but not himself) and will only execute IG models. Standard Commissars “assign” like Royal Courts/Warlocks/Wolf Guard now, though Lord Commissars are still ICs.

Ministorum Priests are badass. For 25pts, you get Zealot (Hatred + Fearless) for the whole unit and the SoB War Hymns, which can turn your blobs into really scary combat units. Expect to see these guys replacing SM characters as unit-buffers.

Primaris Psykers are… even more badass? They keep the same statline but are cheaper (50pts) and can pick from Divination or… oh, who am I kidding, they will always pick from Divination. You can get ML2 for 25pts, which is a decent deal, but a lot of the time that 50pt DivBot is all you need, and they’re 0-3 to boot.

Enginseers are a bit more iffy, but they can repair on a 5+, which isn’t awful, and when not doing that can hand out Power of the Machine Spirit, which is kinda neat. However, with the Split Fire order for tanks, it may not really be needed, so I’m guessing they won’t be making a ton of waves.

Platoons are basically unchanged. They lost the “roll for the whole unit as a single thing when in reserves,” which is good. You can only include one Conscript squad per Platoon now, which is a thing, since Conscripts are hella cheap. Power Weapons are more expensive now, so you have to pay a bit more for your Power Blob if you want it. Heavy Weapons Squads are still terrible, especially with all this S6+ Ignore Cover/Barrage around. Special Weapons Squads get some mileage now that Vendettas can’t carry as many duders.

Veterans are pretty much identical. They can trade one of their special weapons for a Heavy Flamer now, which I guess is a thing. Doctrines are a lot cheaper (except for Demolitions, which is probably fair) and their base price went down 10pts. Harker is still a useless piece of shit.

Stormtroopers are, well, I’m sure you’ve seen the stats by now. In IG they come as Platoons in the EL slot, with each platoon being 1-3 Stormtrooper units and 0-1 Stormtrooper Commands, with the Command unit being able to get up to four specials and able to give orders (but the normal IG orders, not the special ones from the Stormtrooper book.) Doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of reason to take them in IG when you can get them as troops from their own book, but that’s that I suppose.

Chims are 65pts now, it’s true, but they do keep Smoke/Searchlight. Two Fire Points now rather than five, although for most units that isn’t a huge loss. The lasguns on each side fire individually at BS3 and can shoot at different targets, which is cute- it’s obviously less good than the extra fire points, but it’s not awful. However, with the price bump, we’re unlikely to see an IG mech army doing well any time soon, since Chims are still pretty fragile things.

The taurox is kinda a piece of shit. That’s overstating is a bit, but there’s very little incentive to take one over a Chimera. It has weaker front armor, a similar weapon capacity (one TL autocannon roughly equals the two guns on the Chim), similar transport capacity, similar fire points, and none of the special rules. With the point increase it is cheaper, but is that really worth being noticeably easier to kill? I sure don’t think so. The Prime is a major points increase and gains… BS4 and Fast and some guns? But no survivability at all? No, sorry, no thanks. I don’t need any 85pt transports, this isn’t 5th edition anymore.

Wyrdvane Psykers- that is, Psyker Battle Squads- are basically useless. They get access to basically any discipline, sure, but that’s basically it. Do you really need a ML1 Biomancy squad to get killed really easily? I’m pretty sure I don’t.

Ratlings are cute. The addition of “can run after shooting” doesn’t really make them much better, but they’re still amusing and aren’t terrible.

Ogryn are 40pts and still come with 5+ armor. Way to make Tyranid Warriors look solid, guys. Oh, you have Hammer of Wrath now? Sorry, I still don’t care, because I am going to shoot you with Boltguns and Pulse Rifles and Scatter Lasers and you will die. Bullgryn aren’t much better, but they come with a 3+ save (thanks to their kooky shield) and can give anyone behind them +1 cover save, which is actually kinda fancy. Still probably not good enough given their cost, but you might see some gimmick lists with them. WHY SO MUCH HURT?

Rough Riders are still probably not cheap enough for how fragile they are. They hit hard, but good luck ever actually getting them into a fight.

Sentinels are improved by a number of factors. For one, vendettas are no longer kings of the FA slot, so there’s maybe room for them. Scout Sentinels didn’t really change, which is largely fine as they can still do their useful tricks. Armored Sentinels are now almost the same price but still keep AV12 on the front, so they are a lot more useful. Probably not a major contender, but you can put a lot fo cheap armor on the field with them. Watch those 2HP, though.

The Russ variants are where one of the huge changes to the book is- specifically, their costs. The Battle tank is still the same and the Demolisher went up 10pts, both of which resign them to the back row due to the way that Ordnance works these days, but all of the others got significantly cheaper. 140pts for a Punisher? 135 for a Vanquisher? 155 for an Executioner? A hundred and twenty points for an Eradicator? They’re all still AV14 up front and the HF, MM, and PC sponson costs came down as well, making bringing a handful of them in an army a very viable option. The only downside is that the Executioner has Gets Hot on its main gun now, but with easy access to Divination and other effects that shouldn’t be an issue- you have a wide variety of powerful weapons on resilient chassis available in multiple different slots now.

Vendettas are 170 and capacity 6. So it goes. They’re still pretty good, I think, and you can drop a PCS/CCS/SWS/Stormtroopers out from them. Valkyries are 135 for the only useful configuration (MRP on the wings), with both variants paying 20pts for the Heavy Bolters. Odd, since =][= and the Stormtrooper codex still only pay 10pts for them.

Hydras are pretty garbage. Went down 5pts, but now they are Open-Topped and lost the anti-Jink rule. Do you want a fragile, inaccurate weapon with a niche role? Someone out there must, because GW has made them.

The Wyvern is… better, but still not something that impresses me overall. Its gun tears up light infantry pretty well- it’s sorta like a TFC in that manner. Unlike a TFC or Griffon or whatnot, however, it is pretty useless against anything but basic infantry, can’t hurt most tanks at all, and is pretty easy to kill. Again, does anyone want a fragile, niche weapon? I suppose someone indeed must.

Basilisks are the only one of the artillery squadrons left. Sadface. No changes to them, which makes them fairly mediocre overall. Nice stats, but still fragile and more points than I want to pay for AV12 Open-Topped.

Manticores cost slightly more now and their rockets each count as a separate weapon for purposes of being destroyed. Still one of the better support tanks.

Deathstrikes fire on a 4+ now, rather than a 6+, and don’t suffer penalties from being shaken/stunned. Badass. The Hour is Nigh is a pretty good name for its special rule, but I think I still have to go with T-Minus Ten and Counting for sheer class.

Pask rerolls armor pens against tanks all the time now and has a special ability based on which tank he’s in- large blasts can reroll misses, multishot guns get Rending, and the Executioner can fire as a large blast with Blind instead of its normal profile. However, the benefits only apply to the main gun of his tank. Getting Preferred Enemy as his trait is also a very nice bonus, so for the 40pt surcharge over a normal one you get a nice benefit package.

All in all the changes look generally pretty positive for the Guard- lots of new tank options and many things in the book made more viable, even if there were some losses. Spamming out a parcel of Leman Russes definitely feels like the new book’s strongest strategy, presumably still supported by one or more blobs of infantry and some flyers and stuff. The big challenge I see is going to be balancing anti-tank options, anti-MC options, and anti-infantry options, as the changes to the book have cut down on some of the previous choice picks for many of those roles.