Yes, we still exist! Life has gotten in the way the past couple of months following ATC in May but with life settling finally, ETC over with for another year (congrats England) and the new Marines around the corner, it’s time to start looking at things again.

The big change are in some generic rules including Doctrines, Angels of Death and Chapter Tactics.

Firstly, And They Shall Know No Fear (ATSKNF) has been reworded to allow a re-roll upon success or failure rather than just failure. This can help minimise the chances of sticky situations where a single model is locked in combat and nothing can shoot a pile of 30 Ork Boyz. Secondly, all Marines get an extra attack when they charge, are charged or heroically intervene (Shock Assault). Thirdly, all Marines get Bolt Discipline which we should all be familiar with by now and fourthly, Combat Doctrines.

Doctrines allow a Space Marines army to flex it’s vaunted fluff of being an adaptive, superhuman jack of all trades army. With abilities that improve AP on different weapon types as the game advances, Space Marines will attempt to maximise their efficiency for each weapon type; however, against armies who do not care about saves (i.e. high model count, low save armies or armies with lots of invulnerable saves) this is going to have minimal effect.

Effectively, you start the game on Devastator (i.e. long range guns) which improves the AP of Heavy and Grenade weapons and from Turn 2 onward, you can elect to change the Doctrine in a step-wise progressive manner (i.e. you cannot return to a previously used Doctrine and you cannot skip Doctrines – therefore the earliest you can get the Assault Doctrine up and running is Turn 3). There is a stratagem which allows you to roll back the Doctrine one step.

The Tactical Doctrine seems to have the most impact throughout the course of a game given the vast majority of basic Marine weapons are Rapid Fire / Assault though there is some juiciness pondering AP-2 Heavy Bolters turn one… The Assault Doctrine being Turn 3 at the earliest tends to take away from some of its efficacy in terms of being built around but will come in handy late game for tight battles.

Importantly, Chapter Tactics now applies to everything bar Servitors. The days of Space Marines not having all the bonus fun on their vehicles are thankfully gone and it is a shame it needed a codex release over an Errata to fix that… There have been some minor tweaks to Chapter Tactics, most notably Raven Guard not getting auto -1 to hit (they now always get cover and if they have cover, get -1 to hit as a bonus), Black Templars being able to re-roll any of their charge dice and Crimson Fists entering the fray (bonuses to hit against units larger than the firing unit, with exploding shooting for Bolt weapons). The most interesting change though is the ability to make your own combinations of “minor”

If you are not using a “classic” Chapter, you can create a successor chapter by choosing two of 19 traits. One of these traits is “Inheritors of the Primarch” and is just using one of the First Founding Chapter Tactics included in Space marines (i.e. Ultramarines, Salamanders, Imperial Fists, Raven Guard, White Scars or Iron Hands – notably you cannot have Space Wolves, Blood Angels, Black Templars, Crimson Fists or Dark Angels included). When selecting this trait, you do not get to select a second trait. The rest of the successor traits we have been shown seem to involve small components of major traits but are less powerful though there are likely combinations that will open up a lot more competitive options. Here are examples of six… pay close attention to Long-Range Marksmen and except it to get FAQ’d quickly as 11″ flamers are scary options!

Here are the 18 from a review:

Bolter Fusillade – re-roll to hit of 1s for bolt weapons

Born Heroes – 6″ heroic interventions

Duelists – melee weapon against an infantry / biker unit automatically wounds on a unmodified hit roll of 6 (cannot combine with Whirlwind of Rage)

Fearsome Aspects – 3″ bubble of -1 ld for opponents

Hungry for Battle – +1 to Advance or Charge distance

Indomitable – no more than one model can flee

Knowledge is Power – psychic / deny the witch – re-roll any or all the dice roles

Long Range Marksmen – +3″ of range to ranged weapons

Master Artisans – re-roll single hit and wound roll when shooting, fighting or declaring overwatch

Preferred Enemy – select faction keyword and when resolving a melee weapon attack on turn it made a charge, was charged or performed HI, you can re-roll hits

Rapid Assault – do not suffer penalty for Advancing and firing Assault weapons

Scions of the Forge – models with a damage table have double number of the wounds remaining when determining which damage characteristic is used

Stalwart – when resolving an attack against a unit with this rule, an unmodified wound roll of 1 or 2 always fails

Stealthy – unit counts as having the benefits of cover when being shot at from greater than 12″

Stoic – +1 LD for models

Tactical Withdrawal – able to charge in turn fell back

Warded – 5+ save against Mortal Wounds

Whirlwind of Rage – melee attack during charge / was charged, scores an additional hit on unmodified roll of a 6

Long range + Master artisans seems like a good combination right off the bat… though so too does Hungry for Battle and Whirlwind of Rage for a more aggressive army. I will be curious to see what FAQs come out here.

Each of the eight primary Chapters will also have access to a bunch of special characters, relics, warlord traits, etc. along with a special rule each (i.e. Ultramarines have Scions of Guilliman and White Scars have Devastating Charge) to balance some of the potential combinations for Successor Chapters. Scions of Guilliman combines well with Bolter Discipline and also allows Heavy Weapons to be far more useful in standard Tactical squads.

Girlyman is down to 350 points, his aura can now re-roll “all” shooting for Ultramarines but now only re-rolls 1’s to wound. Master of Strategy Warlord Trait allows a unit to use Tactical Doctrine (one assumes when another Doctrine is active). Ultramarines get the Indomitus Discipline (see below) and some relics, including the Sanctic Halo (Captain / Chapter Master, 3++ save and can act as a Psyker to deny the witch) and the Sunwrath Pistol (plasma pistol, 2 shots, S8, AP-3, 2D). And then… there’s 16 MORE stratagems… including Tactical Expertise (more AP for bolt weapons). Tyrannic War vets also exist again and allow re-rolls to hit and wound against Tyranids.

Tiggy has been revamped, going to W5/A4, his Hood of Hellfire allows a re-roll to Psychic tests and +1 to Psychic Tests and Deny the Witch rolls. Master of Prescience allows a unit within 6″ to be -1 to hit.

White Scars also get six more Warlord traits, some more Relics and stratagems. One of the Warlord Traits is gaining attacks when the character kills other characters. They get their own Psychic table (see below). They have a Relic which can add 1 to their Psychic test when casting from this table. Khan is buffed to W6/A5 and Moonfang is +2 Strength and re-rolls wound and damage against characters. He also gets Anzuq which can cause a MW to a unit within 12″ on a 4+ during the shooting phase.

The below information is taken from reviews and datasheets so may have some inaccuracies.

Stalker Bolt Rifles are 2D.

All the Chapter Specific units will be included in their Supplements, the main codex only allows for generic Chapters to be made and used. Vanguard supplement units and datasheets are included in the Space Marines. Very few datasheet changes (Whirlwind, 5 points less)

Eliminators with a Lasfusil at 33 points each.

Typhoons are 87 points with Heavy Bolter.

Tactical Marines are 12 points each (one point drop).

Impulsor are 75 points, 4++ dome is 18 points, comms array is 18 points and Bellicatus is 17 points.

Warlord Traits – Space Marines and Vanguard

Space Marine Warlord Traits are largely the same. Imperium Sword now adds +1 Strength and Attack instead of just 1 Attack.

Vanguard Warlord Traits are the same from the supplement.

Specific Chapter Warlord Traits are the same “but better”. Salamanders adds +2 Strength. Imperial Fists add 2 to their saving through. White Scars 2+ Mortal Wound on charge. Raven Guard / Ultramarines are the same.

Four pages of Stratagems and none are Chapter Specific, these are included in the supplements (two more pages each).

Suppression Fire – 2CP shooting phase when Whirlwind / Thunderfire Cannon which has not moved can shoot twice but cannot shoot at units it can see.

Death to Traitors – 1CP use this during the Fight phase for a unit, melee weapon against Heretics Astartes on a hit roll of 6 you can make another attack

Duty Eternal – 1CP Dreadnought chosen as a target as an attack, halve the damage rounding up

Veteran Intercessors – before the battle, unit that contains at least 5 models (1CP) or 6+ models (2CP), add 1 to A and Ld

Boltstorm – 2CP, start of shooting phase and Intercessor unit, bolt rifles gain special rules, autohits at half range

Hunter Slayer Missile – Repulsor can fire, D3 MW to vehicle or monster

Amplification – 1CP when resolving an attack with a grav cannon, can re-roll wound and damage rolls

Rapid Fire – 2CP, start of shooting phase, Intercessor unit, Bolt Rifles become Rapid Fire 2

Hammer of Wrath – jump pack unit does a mortal wound on 5+

Big Guns Never Tire – 1CP does not suffer penalties of moving and firing

Fury of the First – 1CP, Terminator unit +1 to hit roll

Target Sight – 3CP, Intercessor squad with Stalker Bolt Rifles can target characters and do MWs on 6s to wound

Steady Advance – 1CP, move infantry unit and choose to shoot them with and Bolter Discipline counts as staying stationary (I assume this means in the shooting phase, not an extra shooting option)

Skilled Riders – 2CP, biker unit or Land Speeder gets 4++ if moved, 3++ if Advances

Hero of the Chapter – 1CP, extra warlord trait for another character

Transhuman Physiology – 2CP, not a vehicle or servitor, unmodified rolls of 1-3 always fail

Vengeance of the Machine Spirit – 2CP can blow up vehicles

Tactical Flexibility – 1CP start of Movement Phase, any units with 10+ models can be combat squadded

Adaptive Strategy – 1CP at the start of the battle round, if character models on the battlefield can immediately change combat Doctrine

Might – 1CP, Primaris unit in Fight phase, unmodified rolls of 6 automatically hit and wound

Standard of Emperor Ascendant, 9″ bubble but 4+ stand back up.

Shield Eternal is still 3++ and ignore wounds on 5+++.

Burning Blade Strength +3 and 2D.

Repulsor + 30 points.

Libby down 8 points.

Rhino 65 points.

Apoth 30

Reaver 16

Stormtalon 100

Predator 85

Litanies of Battle – hate still exists (re-roll of all hits in combat)

Can use one Litany at the start of a battle round and cannot use each one twice. Needs a 3+ to be activated.

of Faith – within 6″, 5+++ against MW of Fire – select one unit, ranged attack against closest enemy visible unit +1 wound roll of Rage – select one unit within 6″, melee weapon on 6s gets to make another attack of Strength – +1 S/A and damage of weapons of Focus – select one unit within 6″, ranged weapon attacks add +1 to hit roll of Hate – add 2 to charge of rolls of friendly chapter units within 6″ and pile-in / consolidate moves are 6″

Psychic Powers are below: