New codex coming this year...

[Panzer]

 

So it seems I'm getting the Primaris from the Dark Imperium box for free. This solves my loadout questions kinda by itself...now I just need to buy some BA upgrade sprues for the blood drop relics and the chainsword.

 

I chopped the hands off of the Intercessor sergeants from Dark Imperium and gave them chainswords from one of our kits and it looks pretty ok, for the record. I don't know that I'd bother picking up that kit by itself when (per an article this morning on BoLS) it looks like it will be free alongside the "Blood Angels" Primaris kits.

 

I wouldn't pick it up seperately either normaly, however I won't complain about free Primaris models and I somehow have to make them look more like BA after all even if I'm going to build them as Knights of Blood (so the shoulder pads aren't really useable for me unfortunately).

[Panda_Saurus_Rex]

Wouldn't Red Thirst make Power Axes the new hotness over Swords anyhow?

[Pendent]

I mean, yes and no. Swords still have that extra point of AP and with a Priest will be wounding on 2s as well. Axes don't need or particularly get benefit from the priest against many targets.

At the end of the day we are going to have some really weird damage curves for our different weapons, especially taking buffs like the priest into account. My gut says swords may be a bit better as a whole because we'll be able to use our infantry to more aggressively hunt harder targets, but it's going to vary enormously depending on what we face.

[Panzer]

Wouldn't Red Thirst make Power Axes the new hotness over Swords anyhow?

Eh not really. It would still be a wash for the most part.

[Closet Skeleton]

Wings of Sanguinius lasts until your next psychic phase. Which means if you use it on turn 1 its still active in your turn 2 movement phase, where you get to cast it again. So that's actually 18" on turn 1 and 24" on turn 2 for 42" before you have to worry about charging most armies.

 

Presumably the 'increased' to 12 means that my biker librarian won't lose his m14 when he wants to fly. The very minor problem is that if he moves onto the second floor of a ruin he'll get stuck unless he casts wings again.

[Panzer]

True, it's still active in your next movement phase.

He only gets stuck without re-casting it if you stay there for your next turn as well. You can go up there with the move in the psychic phase, do your business, and then leave again in your next movement phase. ;)

[9x19 Parabellum]

So I'm thinking DC units of 8

4 with Chainsword and Boltgun (the cheap, ablative wounds, essentially, but who can mulch infantry if they live through shooting)

4 with Powersword and Boltgun (the slightly more expensive, but still cheap guys who actuall shread any and everything they come in contact with (except perhaps T8 vehicles...unless buffed by SPriest)

[Dont-Be-Haten]

To be fair, the axe gives killy things the buff without having to rely on a priest playing tag-a-long and is cheaper cost wise.

 

This would allow you to have multiple dedicated melee units without having to rely solely on 1 or more bubble auras. Or in the case that the unit is separated from the priest's range.

 

Just food for thought.

 

Another option might be to have a dedicated squad that doesn't need the priest nearby and one that does with the better AP. This if course is speculation, because we don't know if the priest still has the strength buffing aura.

[Pendent]

Given how powerful he's supposed to be I wouldn't be surprised if Mephiston gets some bonus to his roll for manifesting psychic powers. Given that wings only needs a five anything here would go a really long way to making sure you can keep those wings on basically at all times. After the first turn you're looking at 24" of total movement per turn that wings are up on a model with the fly keyword so we could have our psykers keeping pace with flyers pretty easily. How hilarious would it be for a flyer to try to run away from a combat with Mephiston only to get run down?

[Bremon]

Well Mephiston should make Tigurius look like a normal librarian imo, so I hope Meph is an absolute beast psychic power-wise. +1 to cast. 3 casts. Something.

[Panzer]

Well Mephiston should make Tigurius look like a normal librarian imo, so I hope Meph is an absolute beast psychic power-wise. +1 to cast. 3 casts. Something.

Mephiston is extremely powerful but not THAT powerful. Tigurius is an extremely powerful psyker as well and compared purely by their psychic might likely to be stronger than Mephiston iirc. There's a thread comparing Tigurius, Mephiston on Ahriman somewhere here on B&C.

[Blindhamster]

 

 

Well Mephiston should make Tigurius look like a normal librarian imo, so I hope Meph is an absolute beast psychic power-wise. +1 to cast. 3 casts. Something.

Mephiston is extremely powerful but not THAT powerful. Tigurius is an extremely powerful psyker as well and compared purely by their psychic might likely to be stronger than Mephiston iirc. There's a thread comparing Tigurius, Mephiston on Ahriman somewhere here on B&C.

That was pre mephiston looking into the hive mind or doing the things he does in devastation of baal I think?

[Panzer]

 

 

Well Mephiston should make Tigurius look like a normal librarian imo, so I hope Meph is an absolute beast psychic power-wise. +1 to cast. 3 casts. Something.

Mephiston is extremely powerful but not THAT powerful. Tigurius is an extremely powerful psyker as well and compared purely by their psychic might likely to be stronger than Mephiston iirc. There's a thread comparing Tigurius, Mephiston on Ahriman somewhere here on B&C.

That was pre mephiston looking into the hive mind or doing the things he does in devastation of baal I think?

 

Definitely before that, yeah. But also before Ahriman moving all the big Ynnari characters from the webway into the middle of the warp as if it were nothing only to bring them back as if it were nothing because Yvraine gave him what he was searching for all the time etc.

He could've put an end to the whole Ynnari thing and ressurection of Guilliman and so on (aka the whole 8th edition setting) right then and there. :D

[Bremon]

 

 

Well Mephiston should make Tigurius look like a normal librarian imo, so I hope Meph is an absolute beast psychic power-wise. +1 to cast. 3 casts. Something.

Mephiston is extremely powerful but not THAT powerful. Tigurius is an extremely powerful psyker as well and compared purely by their psychic might likely to be stronger than Mephiston iirc. There's a thread comparing Tigurius, Mephiston on Ahriman somewhere here on B&C.

Which is obnoxious as hell. Meph is practically a daemon. Do Ultras really need a great chapter master, best psyker, only scout character, potent captain, a tank character or whatever other crap they have, and a Primarch? GW can throw us a bone here and make Meph a roided-out-on-warp-juice lunatic. I’m not asking for Eldrad, I’m asking for something better than Tigurius, I don’t need his aura buff to go along with it. Otherwise I’ll just stick to unnamed librarian #5 with a jump pack, or a dread lol. My regular opponents all have access to ridiculous characters, and I don’t want an index dante situation where your return on investment regarding points is less than market average lol. Ahriman should be an absolute beast when 1k Sons get a book. Edited November 28, 2017 by Bremon

[Karhedron]

To be fair, the axe gives killy things the buff without having to rely on a priest playing tag-a-long and is cheaper cost wise.

Exactly so. Even with Red Thirst, S5 still occupies a sort of sweet spot on the damage chart so the question just becomes how you get there.

 

Axes and Priests are the 2 easiest ways. Axes are cheaper and don't require an HQ slot (relevant when you consider we are already likely to be HQ-heavy). Also Axes don't get left behind if your Priest fluffs his charge roll. However Swords + Priest get that sweet AP-3.

 

For units I intend to operate independently, particularly single-wound models like DC, I think Axes are the way to go. If you are running SG or Terminators where a Priest would likely get more mileage out of his resurrection abilities then I think Swords (or LCs) come into their own more.

[Are Verlo]

I am curious to see how Lucifer engines work in this edition. Are they baal pred only or will the engines be available to other models with the «rhino chassis»

[TheRealMcCagh]

Accurately representing lore Mephiston on table top would be game breaking. Psykers in general have to be nerfed a little bit, but the things he does in Devastation of Baal and Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius would be criminal on table top.

[Bremon]

Really hoping we get more previews before the twitch stream on Friday. I want to see the sanguinary discipline, info on Baal predators, Furioso, etc.

[Panzer]

 

 

Well Mephiston should make Tigurius look like a normal librarian imo, so I hope Meph is an absolute beast psychic power-wise. +1 to cast. 3 casts. Something.

Mephiston is extremely powerful but not THAT powerful. Tigurius is an extremely powerful psyker as well and compared purely by their psychic might likely to be stronger than Mephiston iirc. There's a thread comparing Tigurius, Mephiston on Ahriman somewhere here on B&C.

Which is obnoxious as hell. Meph is practically a daemon. Do Ultras really need a great chapter master, best psyker, only scout character, potent captain, a tank character or whatever other crap they have, and a Primarch? GW can throw us a bone here and make Meph a roided-out-on-warp-juice lunatic. I’m not asking for Eldrad, I’m asking for something better than Tigurius, I don’t need his aura buff to go along with it. Otherwise I’ll just stick to unnamed librarian #5 with a jump pack, or a dread lol. My regular opponents all have access to ridiculous characters, and I don’t want an index dante situation where your return on investment regarding points is less than market average lol. Ahriman should be an absolute beast when 1k Sons get a book.

 

Mephiston has other traits. He is not just an extremely powerful psyker, he's also physically a lot stronger than the usual Astartes. Plus whatever it is that's happening to him which we were reading about in his book.

[Panzer]

Accurately representing lore Mephiston on table top would be game breaking. Psykers in general have to be nerfed a little bit, but the things he does in Devastation of Baal and Mephiston: Blood of Sanguinius would be criminal on table top.

Yeah Psyker on his level are capable of invocing world ending rituals and stuff.

[9x19 Parabellum]

 

To be fair, the axe gives killy things the buff without having to rely on a priest playing tag-a-long and is cheaper cost wise.

Exactly so. Even with Red Thirst, S5 still occupies a sort of sweet spot on the damage chart so the question just becomes how you get there.

 

Axes and Priests are the 2 easiest ways. Axes are cheaper and don't require an HQ slot (relevant when you consider we are already likely to be HQ-heavy). Also Axes don't get left behind if your Priest fluffs his charge roll. However Swords + Priest get that sweet AP-3.

 

For units I intend to operate independently, particularly single-wound models like DC, I think Axes are the way to go. If you are running SG or Terminators where a Priest would likely get more mileage out of his resurrection abilities then I think Swords (or LCs) come into their own more.

 

 

There's one other thing to consider: aesthetics.

 

Blood Angels belong with swords, I think.

 

Axes are for Space Wolves and Khorne.

[Indefragable]

My mathhammer buddy says with Red Thirst, Axes and Swords are statistically the same against MEQ. The 2+ To Wound (vs 3+) and AP-2/AP-3 differences basically wash out.

 

Swords with a Priest are noticeably effective.

 

As others have said, swords for the core formations and axes for outliers.

 

Silly rabbit: mauls are for kids.

[Panzer]

 

 

To be fair, the axe gives killy things the buff without having to rely on a priest playing tag-a-long and is cheaper cost wise.

Exactly so. Even with Red Thirst, S5 still occupies a sort of sweet spot on the damage chart so the question just becomes how you get there.

 

Axes and Priests are the 2 easiest ways. Axes are cheaper and don't require an HQ slot (relevant when you consider we are already likely to be HQ-heavy). Also Axes don't get left behind if your Priest fluffs his charge roll. However Swords + Priest get that sweet AP-3.

 

For units I intend to operate independently, particularly single-wound models like DC, I think Axes are the way to go. If you are running SG or Terminators where a Priest would likely get more mileage out of his resurrection abilities then I think Swords (or LCs) come into their own more.

 

 

There's one other thing to consider: aesthetics.

 

Blood Angels belong with swords, I think.

 

Axes are for Space Wolves and Khorne.

 

Try to tell that Dante or the Sanguinary Guard lol

[Bremon]

Dante’s been swinging an axe longer than Logan Grimnar’s been alive. Only Khârn has more hours logged swinging an axe lol.

[Indefragable]

For fun, what comes to mind:

 

Hidden Content

Dark Angels = Swords. And halberd. And Corvus hammers, apparently

 

Emperor’s Children = Swords for their elegance

Iron Warriors = demolition hammers

 

White Scars = curved swords. Curved. Swords.

 

Space Wolves = axes. And fancy tooth-blade chainswords

 

Imperial Fists = ...wait for it....thunder hammers. Huh? Lysander’s Fist of Dorn is a TH

 

Night Lords = lightning claws and scraggly, jagged blades. And shivs.

 

Blood Angels = swords...at least I used to lean that way. I still think it looks the best, but I’ve come around to accepting BA as the “all melee weapons, including one’s one knuckles” as “the BA” way

 

Iron Hands = Power fists and hammers. Power axes apparently, since they keep getting a relic one

 

World Eaters = daisies and gumdrops. Stupid autocorrect...that was supposed to be chainaxes (any more iconic weapon associated so deeply with its Legion?)

 

Ultramarines = short lil Roman swords. And pretty much any weapon since it’s the Ultramarines

 

Death Guard = knives and scythes

 

Thousand Sons = Egyptian stuff. Or conjured weapons

 

Sons of Horus = whatever works. Fist, axe, mail, power Fist, lightning claw. Never fight fair

 

Word Bearers = Power mauls

 

Salamanders = it’s hammertime!

(Matched rules state you are not allowed to play Salamanders unless every character has a thunder hammer)

 

Raven Guard = lightning claws

 

Alpha Legion = your own shoelace.