Salamanders

Salamanders, in particular, will be a precious ally to both Fists and Iron Hands. They have Self Sacrifice, which can, of course, be a game-changing stratagem if used skillfully. They also have the means of creating quite an insane Captain on a bike. Between warlord traits, psychic powers, and a relic, you can get a T9 captain with -1 to wound, meaning S4 can't wound him, and S8 wounds him on 6's. Interesting how you can get a model immune to strength 4, as I write about how Space Marines is going to be an army centered around mass bolt rifle and hurricane bolter fire. Finally, Salamanders also have a powerful Grav Pod option. Their Grav Pod can use a combination of strats to count as stationary (ignoring the penalty from disembarking), +1 to wound, and reroll to wound and damage. This combo supplements Iron Hands or Fists well, since they will be ironically weak vs heavier targets in this alternative mixed marine build style.

This isn't the summation of the impact of the changes, though. When huge, powerhouse, meta defining armies take nerfs and shifts in style, every army in the game is affected. The relative power of armies like Ultramarines and White Scars will increase when compared to their new Space Marine counterparts, which might make them viable enough to be considered on a larger scale. Armies like mech Eldar no longer have to be concerned with going second and auto losing to Imperial Fists, which will resurrect some of their viability as well. Armies like Tyranids, Orks, and Gene Stealer Cults, however, might struggle more as an increase in the volume of fire that marines produce directly conflicts with what they're trying to do. Finally, being forced to move out of Devastator Doctrine will decrease the value of artillery, which could lead to Marine lists with zero artillery (see Broviathin from LVO). This shift means units that hate tremor shells can function again, and garbage troops like scouts and cultists become more viable since they can hide out of line of sight to deny kills.

Big FAQ changes like this always have significant, sweeping impacts on the meta as a whole, and these are just some of my initial opinions on the matter. I highly recommend subscribing to The War Room to get an even deeper dive into the meta as it develops so that you can stay ahead!

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