AceofCase

The weird wording for Lucius being restricted to only Slaanesh daemons seems to confirm that subfactions are very much gone.

I'm coming around on Dark Pacts. D3 mortal wounds isn't the end of the world, but it does lean towards being used by anything with a high volume of attacks. Sustained Hits on Warp Talons. Lethal Hits on a power scourge Helbrute when it charges a vehicle. Not so great on a Land Raider unless it's a dire situation. Curious to see what Lords, Sorcerers, Dark Apostles, and such offer our units when they're attached.

Kinda disappointed that Chaos would get the faction rule that has a negative, but it is what it is. Legionaries look solid. The return of being able to double up on special weapons is nice, even if they aren't duplicates. As long as we can take Chaos icons on more units and they aren't too expensive, I don't see why you wouldn't spam the Dark Pacts. Also damage 3 autocannons are hilarious. I need more immediately.

The way I see with the various chapters is this: If the difference from the "baseline" chapter is tactical, it can be represented by a detachment. If the difference is organizational, then it can be represented by being a separate faction. For example, the Raven Guard are a regular codex compliant chapter that favors it's own sneaky tactics. This can easily be represented by running a complimentary detachment. You don't need 6 relics, 6 warlord traits, and a whole host of stratagems to represent that army. The Blood Angels however have their glaring genetic flaw, as well as unique organizations of Death Company and Sanguinary Guard. Same goes for the unique structures of the Dark Angels, Space Wolves, and Black Templars. Thus it's better represented by an actual faction change instead of just one detachment. Subfaction rules leaving the game is probably one of the best possible changes for the entire line of armies. We no longer have to deal with the outright embarrassing rules forced upon various armies and have way more free reign about how we play, while still being able to represent our favorite subfactions with how we build our lists, play the actual game, and how we paint our models.

70. 40 built from boxes, 10 from the start collecting box, and 20 still on the sprue. I don't see myself using more than 4 squads, so the last two boxes will probably turn into alternative weapon options for the existing squads.

Having looked at the leaked points values... Defilers are ridiculously cheap in comparison to our other units.The synergy from the Daemon keyword will make them pretty useful I think. Running 3 of them down the table with support could be relatively decent without a ridiculous price tag.

I think I'm going to keep using 6+ sizes on several different units. Blasts are a little scary and cohesion might take some time to get used to, but the loss in efficacy when using what decent stratagems we have balances it out I think. We could see more opportunities to use Merciless Fighters as well if the overall meta shifts towards MSU and close combat.

I actually wouldn't be surprised if they just replaced them with some sort of elite close combat unit in power armor. Probably something in between how Sternguard and Vanguard Veterans work and how the new Primaris marines are set up. We'd get fewer war gear options for them but they'd have some sort of fancy rule to run around with. Either way, at this point I think we'll only see areal benefit from the edition change in a new codex as opposed to the edition itself. The new rules aren't going to address the power imbalance between the armies as they are now.

I don't think MSU will be the ultimate build style in 9th. The cost of detachments means each Force Org slot is more valuable and should be utilized efficiently. We also don't know what the rest of the possible Secondary Objectives are... there very well may be one that gives victory points for killing Infantry or just units in general. I think we might find it to be a balancing act that requires actual thought when list building.

Forgefiends and Defilers moving forward with a Lord Discordant and hitting on 3s is going to be very satisfying now that they're all hitting on 3s. I picked the perfect time to finish painting up a squad of melta bikers, I'm thinking we're going to see a lot more vehicles and monsters in most metas now. Also, Havoc launchers will go on everything!

Based on what we know so far, I'm beginning to think Marine melee lists will see some sort of benefit. The smaller tables and changes to terrain may benefit us in closing the gap... whether or not we will have any real punch when we do actually make the charge is another story. Rhinos might actually help reduce overcrowding in the deployment zone while also benefiting from terrain instead of being shot to pieces early on and stranding the unit that was inside.

YITH I finally got my airbrush and supplies! Today the painting and building begins. I have a few test figures to strip from my brush days, but once I'm all done I'll be sitting on 2 CSM squads, two terminator characters, a helbrute, two rhinos, and 10 renegades of some sort.

TITH I used green stuff for the first time. I'm using it to make flayed skin trophies for my Black Shield/Renegade marines. It's a little tricky at first, but I'm having a whole lot of fun. The idea of an army thats completely unique satisfies me immensely. Photos will follow once they're painted!

TITHI started kitbashing and converting some mk4 marines into renegades, ordered like 180 skulls from Wargames Exclusive, and worked on a few fluff ideas for my warband. Overall really excited to have direction in the hobby again, and loving how adding extra bits to miniatures gives them so much character. Anyone know a good kit to get lots of spikey bits and skulls and chains?

Painted the first tactical marine from an armored assault box. I'm feeling the allure of Codex: Space Marines again and decided to do Knights of Gryphonne. The orange is definitely a unique look... the larger kits would look particularly interesting.