Warhammer 40k - Last Preview Review or rather, Overview of the Non-Codex Marines

That's it, you read it right in the title. Even though there were supposed to be 3 more of these I have decided that this is the last one.

This is Warhammer 40k and I am Zak Ludick. Warhammer is a tabletop boardgame that I started playing in the 3rd Edition of the game (I was a teen) and we are now busy looking at the new rules for 10th Edition.

For one, Imperial Agents are not a playable faction (that I can see), they are an ad-hoc collection of various unaligned models that are all Imperial. This allows players to stick them into their army with some restrictions based on the number of total points they are fielding.

Similarly, the Titan one was about the God-Machines of the Imperium(and Chaos) and you can now just stick one in your army. Other Factions also have access to Super Heavies across the range, but that post would be more about a lot of Unit Spotlights and I might as well do some sort of points when their full datasheets and points are available.

That leaves over the Big 5 of Space Marines Chapters with their own Flavour. That is because these guys are non-Codex Compliant. They have physical or cultural or organisational reasons why they cannot follow the letter of Roboute Guilliman's Codex Astartes.

I will deal with them one by one and I am going to ignore Unit Spotlights for today's post because it would be better to look at these later as entire datasheets. For now we focus on the Detachment Rules. And that is how these are fielded actually. As a Faction, you have selected Adeptus Astartes(Space Marines) already and have access to all units in the Space Marine datasheets. You now are taking a Detachment that gives you the Chapter rules for your army and the has some restrictions for units you cannot field because of the Detachment rules.

The most obvious one for everyone is that you can't mix Epic Heros from one Chapter to another.

Deathwatch - Alien Hunters drawn from many Chapters. These are actually not a true Chapter, more like a band of ad-hoc Killteams.

The Deathwatch are similar to the Gladius Task Force in that it has 3x abilities that are use 1 time for your whole army.

Simple and effective.

Black Templars - Vowed to never stop Crusading. They wouls sometimes build their numbers above 1000 Marines and instead of starting Second Foundings, they would split their fleets and continue crusading. Nobody really knows how many Black Templars there are in the Galaxy.

Black Templars take a vow. It gives them one ability, the whole game long. They have four to choose from but you make that descision for the duration of the battle.

I like this quite a bit.

Blood Angels - Almost Codex compliant, but for a gene-flaw due to the death of their Primarch during the horous heresy. These guys have a Black Rage and a Red Thirst... they are Space Vampires who are also Angelic in a sense and thus have a few units that is a cultural flavour that they have that other Chapters do not.

It is a good thing that Blood Angels are so fast. They get a bonus to melee on the charge only. Only one option. Nothing to think about or plan.

Dark Angels - Almost Codex compliant as well. Not so much Angelic but very Dark. One of their main differences besides some fancy vehicles and aircraft are the Deathwing and the Ravenwing, these take up 1st Company and 2nd Company slots respectively. These two "wings" are two out of 6 formations that existed during the time of the Great Crusades. Dark Angels also have their own agenda, one of repentance, thus they and their Second Founding Chapters hide some secrets.

Dark Angels have a interesting Detachment ability. Usually units in Battle Shock get an Objective Control of 0. Dark Angels keep an OC of 1 no matter the state of shock they are in. This represents their grim determination and it will be a powerful tool that will win games.

Space Wolves - I left the most unorthodox Space Marines. A Chapter with a heavily viking culture, also a were-wolf gene flaw. They do not form into the Companies of the Space Marines and rather form together warbands under a Wolf Lord called a Great Company, of which there are 12. They have many unique units and heroes that they can field.

My main army is the Space Wolves and this is a very interesting Rule.

Unlike the others, the Space Wolves do not start the game with a bonus of any sort. They have to work for it. They have to complete some sort of Deed worthy of Saga with one of their Characters.

The payoff? Well, they can stack their advantages earned during the game.

It is possible to complete all of their Sagas in one game, it is also possible that you do not always complete sagas. However, I think this will force Space Wolves towards having ENOUGH Characters and an aggressive playstyle that will ensure that the Sagas are completed!

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa