anyone with the new marine dex, what's the new lore?

[Guest Triszin]

I won't order my copy until the wolf supp is up for order.

 

But I am curious as to the new lore in the book, anyone care to share?

[Dracos]

They have Lore?

 

Sorry Cleveland I had to. I’d help but GW decided local game store customers weren’t worthy of having the Codex this weekend. :(

 

Somebody help our Brother out :)

[UnkyHamHam]

I've been pouring through it over the past day. There are a few nit picks that bug me, but nothing stand out new.

 

One off the top of my head is a whole fluff section on Honor Guards, something we no longer have access to. It's annoying and seems counter to the "no model, no rules" policy.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

There's a few pages littered about showing particular warzones and the orders of battle of the Space Marine forces which are fighting in them.

The orders of battle are interesting from a Black Templar perspective. You see, all of the orders of battle for every other chapter define the units within them by reference to Codex Battlefield role (Close Support, Battleline, fire Support etc), whereas the Black Templars Crusade has simply "Sword Brethren Assault Terminators", "Sword Brethren Terminators" and four Crusader Squads, with no reference to Battle. In addition, the pictured Black Templar is in Tacticus Armour, so we know that at least one of those Crusader Squads has or is Primaris marines. There's also a cool scribum note next to it saying they can't work out what the Black Templars are on about because these squad designations don't appear in any of the 14 editions of the Codex Astartes they had available.

This is useful because it shows that even now, when Battlefield role has become much more important in the context of Space Marines, it matters not a jot to Black Templars. Which is important because everyone has been saying for months that Templars follow Battlefield roles for pauldron colours, i.e. Assault Intercessors should wear red trim because they have close support markings in codex chapters. Now we know that Templars don't care about Codex Astartes Battlefield Roles one iota, so black trim is probably correct for an assault intercessor without a jump pack. (I hope we get jump troops one day...)

In addition, it could perhaps show a slight change to what was in the order of battle for a Black Templars Crusade in the first 8th edition codex, which had 'intercessors' 'Aggressors' and 'Reivers' listed separately from the 'initiates' and 'neophytes'.

[Sothalor]

Any particular new lore on Incursors this time around? They always struck me as falling into this weird middle step-child position fluff-wise: here are these Space Marines who... shoot things. And then stab them.

 

I mean, as opposed to all the other Space Marines who *aren't* shooting things? Or stabbing/smashing?

[MegaVolt87]

Any particular new lore on Incursors this time around? They always struck me as falling into this weird middle step-child position fluff-wise: here are these Space Marines who... shoot things. And then stab them.

 

I mean, as opposed to all the other Space Marines who *aren't* shooting things? Or stabbing/smashing?

 

Anyone in Phobos armour that does the same thing as frontline troops are just spec ops/ tacticool guys essentially, thats the difference. 

[StrangerOrders]

Caveat, I didnt get the 8th Codex(es) so this might be old hat but I didnt see these on the wikis when I went to check so it might be new stuff.

 

They did a good job of adding alot of flavor in terms of Successors, including giving Foundings and some extra details to chapters which I am fairly sure were just names before as well as official color schemes.

 

I am also quite happy to see the Sallies get four new Successors as well! Including some cool kraken-hunters, Cawl's pets it looks like and Sallies (but somehow with even more fire).

 

They left out successors for the three weird chapters (SW, BA and DA) but I imagine that will come later.

 

Kind of hilariously, they detailed more Ravenguard and White Scars Successors than Imperial Fists Successors. 

 

Not sure if this is entirely new or just really struck me, but they moved FAR away from 'codex as narrative'. The entire fluff section reads more like a series of job descriptions for each rank and company within a chapter than anything too binding and in better detail than I recall before. Shockingly, I'd say there is more on the day-to-day management of a chapter than combat fluff.

 

Overall, this was really a 'build-your-own' guide feeling codex and I am very satisfied with it. Really focuses on telling you how things work with minimal shilling for any units, glorifying Primaris or the like beyond the rules section. 

 

Its made me very excited for the Wolves and BAngels supplements tbh, since I sense that they will dwell heavily on organization and successors and less on narrative and repetitive combat-fluff if they follow this Codex's trend.

 

I'd actually encourage the buy!

[StrangerOrders]

Any particular new lore on Incursors this time around? They always struck me as falling into this weird middle step-child position fluff-wise: here are these Space Marines who... shoot things. And then stab them.

 

I mean, as opposed to all the other Space Marines who *aren't* shooting things? Or stabbing/smashing?

A fair bit is put into the influx of wargear designs and even the previous nature of armories tending towards the large.

 

This codex is considerably less interested in unit identity and much more on company identity I would say.

 

Phobos armor, vehicles and alot of specialist stuff is sort of treated as a sub-identity within the company role. You have you Vanguards in the Scouts, you have your standard principle preferences within the Reserve companies. But basically everyone in the main companies is pretty ready to head to the armory to rotate gear at the drop of a hat, especially if the captain can't finagle auxiliaries from the Reserve companies.

 

The exact example is given of some companies deploying entirely as Phobos-type units for a campaign and then defaulting to their Tacitus for most occasions, a big emphasis in the Codex is that you don't get into the Battle Companies if you can't realistically do this (as opposed to te pretty hilarious old fluff of arriving into a Tactical role and then forgetting how to do anything else until you die or get promoted). The example is even given of squads being broken up to fulfil small squad duties, vehicle piloting and the like before flowing back together afterwards. 

 

I'd sort of say this edition actually went out of its way to make the Codex Astartes smarter I would say.

Edited October 13, 2020 by StrangerOrders

[Gederas]

I'd sort of say this edition actually went out of its way to make the Codex Astartes smarter I would say.

I'm in agreement. Maybe it's because of the return of Guilliman and the rewrite of the Codex Astartes he's done?

Also:

There's also a cool scribum note next to it saying they can't work out what the Black Templars are on about because these squad designations don't appear in any of the 14 editions of the Codex Astartes they had available.

Can I just say I love how there's now, in canon, at least fourteen different versions of the Codex Astartes?

Like.... That's actually hilarious to me.

Also, the one thing that bugs me in this Codex is the Mentors and Fire Lords still being in "unknown Founding". We know both of these Chapters' origins (Ultramarines and Imperial Fists, respectively).

Edited October 13, 2020 by Gederas

[Closet Skeleton]

Can I just say I love how there's now, in canon, at least fourteen different versions of the Codex Astartes?

 

Like.... That's actually hilarious to me.

 

Also, the one thing that bugs me in this Codex is the Mentors and Fire Lords still being in "unknown Founding". We know both of these Chapters' origins (Ultramarines and Imperial Fists, respectively).

 

In canon each chapter has always had its own version of the Codex due to 9000 years of history.

 

Space Marine chapters are supposed to have incomplete histories. Blood Ravens with their 'unknown primarch' thing isn't supposed to be particularly special. 'Unknown founding' was a common designation in third edition lore.

[Sword Brother Adelard]

The Mentors know their founding, they just choose to keep it quiet

[Sete]

There's a few pages littered about showing particular warzones and the orders of battle of the Space Marine forces which are fighting in them.

The orders of battle are interesting from a Black Templar perspective. You see, all of the orders of battle for every other chapter define the units within them by reference to Codex Battlefield role (Close Support, Battleline, fire Support etc), whereas the Black Templars Crusade has simply "Sword Brethren Assault Terminators", "Sword Brethren Terminators" and four Crusader Squads, with no reference to Battle. In addition, the pictured Black Templar is in Tacticus Armour, so we know that at least one of those Crusader Squads has or is Primaris marines. There's also a cool scribum note next to it saying they can't work out what the Black Templars are on about because these squad designations don't appear in any of the 14 editions of the Codex Astartes they had available.

This is useful because it shows that even now, when Battlefield role has become much more important in the context of Space Marines, it matters not a jot to Black Templars. Which is important because everyone has been saying for months that Templars follow Battlefield roles for pauldron colours, i.e. Assault Intercessors should wear red trim because they have close support markings in codex chapters. Now we know that Templars don't care about Codex Astartes Battlefield Roles one iota, so black trim is probably correct for an assault intercessor without a jump pack. (I hope we get jump troops one day...)

In addition, it could perhaps show a slight change to what was in the order of battle for a Black Templars Crusade in the first 8th edition codex, which had 'intercessors' 'Aggressors' and 'Reivers' listed separately from the 'initiates' and 'neophytes'.

This is quite the throwback to the old lore. Good vibes.

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

The Mentors know their founding, they just choose to keep it quiet

 

Yep, and even now I believe it's only known by one other chapter and a former menial.