Armageddon: The Space Marine Half

[Wispy]

2 hours ago, Karhedron said:

 

You might have an easier time with the multipart kits. They mentioned in the stream that the shoulderpads are moulded on which will make customising them a bit harder.

oh but i was thinking of just swapping the whole arm. but we'll see what the multiparts bring!

 

 

[Wispy]

4 hours ago, Orion said:

 

The ETB gunshields are a bit naff. 

Was the same on Dark Imperium.

Probably can expect this from a multipart.

 

[Nagashsnee]

Everything is fine, nothing really stands out. Everything is incredibly safe and by the numbers. I was hoping to see the start of primaris mix armor, the Librarian especially could have used something to make him stand out from the existing one. 

 

Super hyped at finally getting a new land speeder tho. Been waiting on that for far far too long. 

[Alby the Slayer]

2 hours ago, Marshal Reinhard said:

I guess the possible issue you have is that the pauldron feels more floaty than we're used too? Would you have raised this concern if the pauldron's top edge was touching  the gorget like right one is?

 

Exactly.

There seems to be too much space, but again maybe it's the picture or just me. 

[MoriyaSchism]

The Captain looks fine, but I might have to do a shield swap on him as I don't like the Armageddon icon on it and I will probably try to separate the sheathed short sword he has for use on other miniatures. The Iron Halo and backpack will be swapped for a classic design.

 

The Librarian suffers a great deal from asset reuse (Phobos Librarian arms, Tacticus Librarian cape/robe, Terminator chestplate). I don't like the new design language for Primaris Librarians, I think the blue gems/pebbles on all his gear are entirely unnecessary. Not much was done to make him look unique and ultimately he ends up looking worse than all the other Primaris Librarians and the ones that came before 2017. The head of the force staff seems like the designer couldn't decide if he wanted design a warding staff from the Grey Knights box or recreate the old horned skull head piece from the old model, the end result is really awkward. Removing the halo bit from the staff and painting the skull as a metal piece will be tricky. 

The Vanguard Veterans are mostly fine but there's some nonsense going on there that once I noticed simply has to go. The two handed sword appears to have the same length of blade as all the other power swords in the set, it just has a really long hilt. It also appears to be based on the design of the Armageddon campaign icon which I really don't like. I'll try to get rid of most instances of the Armageddon campaign badge featured on these models if I get them. The other Vanguard issue is that two of the models have really poorly sculpted Crux icons on their loincloths, they remind me of slightly runny eggs or melted Salvador Dali clocks and for that reason they will have to go. 

 

The other Tacticus style units are mostly fine but they feature some stuff I don't like like the weird burning Ork skulls on the banner, the Marksman's Honours inside a reliquary and the strange sling attachment point on one of the Intercessors. The sling on the Auspex Intercessor just reeks of incredible laziness from the sculptor. Instead of wrapping the sling around the gun's side so it uses its actual sling attachment point under the muzzle they simply copied the attachment point and slotted it onto one of the rails. The shoulder joint on the grenade throwing Intercessor will need to be shortened a bit to look good as well. Other than that not much to change or complain about. 

The Land Speeder is mostly fine but I think I'll end up changing some stuff about its front end and will try to fill in the sides and recreate the old anti-grav pannels from the original Land Speeder by cutting up the two repulsor plates. The pilot's switch flipping hand will be replaced with the throttle arm from the Invictor Warsuit, I have a couple of Warsuit pilots in my bits box exclusively for Land Speeder conversions. 

 

 

Edited May 2 by MoriyaSchism

[Felix Antipodes]

Most of the models are fine.  I especially like the Ancient and the Land Speeder.  Not impressed at the cynical cash grab of only releasing the lore book in the box set, with no separate release like everything else is getting.

[Orange Knight]

The banner bearer could be a nice Lt model - just swap the banner arm for a power fist.

Would probably be more useful for a new collector as well, although we don't know what rules banners will have in 11th.

 

I think the new Speeder is a straight upgrade on the classic Speeders. I never particularly cared for Speeders in general, but this one does look good and has a nice side profile.

 

All these flying models are hard to store and transport. If I assemble a unit of Vanguard Vets, I would want them all on the ground. I need to see what the other Speeder base looks like and if the profile is lower, and whether it can be taken on/off the base easily.

[Casual Heresy]

I’m definitely sold on the box now. And I’m happy to end up with double marines mostly since I’ll be swapping the Orks with a mate. I’m actually really enjoying how they’ve tried to tie the whole box into specifically fighting on Armageddon. 
 

- The Captain: I wish we’d been getting a unique load out like dual lightning claws, but this model is fantastic so ill forgiven. I’ve already got two sword and shield captains for my Ultras, so in this case one will be joining the Blood Angels. 
 

- Librarian: finally a Primaris Librarian with a stick!  I love this model and it’s a vast improvement over the current one. Genuinely can’t decide between the bare head and the helmet. UM and BA getting one each. 
 

- Chaplain: I was already a fan, but I don’t k ow if I’ll be painting one as a Blood Angel right away since I have the old death company chaplain built with a future proofing kitbash and lots of other jump pack characters for the BA. This will be my first UM Chaplain though. 
 

- Ancient: I love him and I appreciate the Armageddon Campaign banner. Neither army has a stand alone Ancient so both getting built, but might give the BA one a sword instead of rifle for obvious reasons. 
 

- Intercessors: feel they could have been more adventurous, but I do like the more retro detailing. Defiantly splitting each squad into two five mans for each Chapter though. 
 

- Eradicators: Sorry Angels, the UM are stealing both squads for six man DAKKA nonsense! Love the MkVII helm adapted into a Gravis one. 

 

- Vanguard: I like them better now having seen the whole squad, but still think they could have been more adventurous. Think the BA are taking both squads. 
 

- Speeder: it’s an interesting blend of the classic and storm speeder designs though think I’ll swap the pilot helmets. Really not sure if I’ll do one for each  or if one of my armies will get both. 
 

- Everything else: I appreciate not having a full HB rule but ok and the lore book is right up my alley. Included chapter approved deck is much appreciated and the campaign deck is a genuinely interesting innovation. But I had been hoping for something like AoS where an updated combat patrol game was included with rules, board and scenery. 
 

It’s not a perfect box by any means but I’m still satisfied. 
 

 

[Moonstalker]

3 hours ago, Orange Knight said:

The banner bearer could be a nice Lt model - just swap the banner arm for a power fist.

Would probably be more useful for a new collector as well, although we don't know what rules banners will have in 11th.

 

In stream, they said he will still grant +1 OC, but he will also have a 4+ FNP for himself when he is standing on an objective.  The Ork banner guy grants a 5+ invul.

[Xenith]

17 hours ago, Interrogator Stobz said:

It's

Erk! What on Earth are Ork style skulls doing on a SM Banner? That's awful. The rest of the mini is cool, but that is jarring and awful. 

Probably as trophies - the ork skills are being immolated in fire after all - probably similar to the ultramarine banner with the genestealer head with a sword through it. 

 

I generally have the same feeling, there's no standout model there on the marine side - more bland intercessors. 

 

They could have made this a lot more interesting and pushed a speed (freek) theme with some new bikers, sm scout bikes, rescaled rhino, jump pack/bike captain, etc. models are technically excellent, but they lack the *soul* they older hand sculpted models do. 

 

The orks on the other hand are awesome. Weird muscly torsos, so definitely a new design direction, but almost every model is a winner.

[firestorm40k]

I was always planning on getting this before the reveal, seeing as Marines are my main 'ongoing' 40K army; having said that, there’s no argument that the Marine half isn’t anywhere near as interesting as the Orks - it’s clear which models the designers enjoyed working on more 

 

There’s not a lot here for the Marines that is as big ‘wow’ moment as in the last few Edition Launch sets - while updated Vanguard Vets is welcome, I don’t think they were as anticipated as the Terminator updates for 10th/Leviathan, for example. 
 

Not that there’s anything wrong with what’s here - the Librarian is a great update to an older plastic kit, and the Jump Pack Chappy is also solid. I guess the nub is, while the Captain is a really nice model, well posed etc, it’s still just a Space Marine Captain, of which there are already several options available. 
 

If the Land Speeder is nice to assemble and paint, I can see me adding a couple more to make a Squadron  and I’ll happily add the rest to my Ashen Sentinels - with the exception of the Eradicators, which honestly I don’t see the point of when Heavy Intercessors already exist  (Plus, after doing 10 HInts and 6 Inceptors, I know that I really don’t enjoy painting Gravis Armour )

[darkhorse0607]

Not much to add that hasn't been said already. I think this is the first launch box since 8th that I'll be skipping. The Orks are amazing, but I am a slow painter and only paint an ork or two per year, I'll get a box of boyz when they release and call it good.

 

I was whelmed overall with the SM side. 

 

The Captain is great, really like that one. I think the Librarian is my favorite of the Primaris Librarians (although that bar is not high, I haven't really liked any of the generic Primaris Librarians). Chaplain is ok, not something I'm clamoring for. Ancient I can take or leave, after edge highlighting all the checkers on the Victrix Guard banner, I'm not touching a banner for the rest of the year. The Ancient itself is ok I guess, not my favorite. Land Speeder is fine, but didn't give me the "I need it right now" feeling.

 

The rest of it left me continually saying "I hope there's more in the individual kits." Super disappointed in the Vanguard (even compared to the Sternguard from the Leviathan box which I liked), and only one of the five poses made me excited, which ironically is the one that has both legs planted on the ground. Intercessors were ok, I wanted more armor variants but again, maybe there's more in the individual kits. Don't really care about the Gravis fellows one way or another. 

 

I dunno, all of it was fine I guess, but other than maybe the Captain, none of it got me ready to pull out my debit card to throw down probably $275-300 on the box. It's the first one in a while that I left the stream/hype cycle with "meh I can wait" 

 

In comparison, the Tyrannic War Veteran LT, Terminators and Sternguard from Leviathan won me over the last time by themselves. But I also didn't love the trailer for this one compared to the last few, so maybe my hype was just down overall. Who knows. 

 

 

[Lord Marshal]

19 hours ago, Interrogator Stobz said:

Erk! What on Earth are Ork style skulls doing on a SM Banner? That's awful. The rest of the mini is cool, but that is jarring and awful. 

 

 

On stream they said it's specifically meant to be an Armageddon campaign banner, to the extent the word 'Armageddon' is etched detail. I guess a lot of people will probably be filling that in with putty, though.

 

 

Edited May 2 by Lord Marshal

[Lord Nord in Gravis Armour]

They wound up splitting the Marines differently than I expected:

 

The Bolt Eradicators share the big three-part sprue with the Ancient and the Jump Chaplain. I had really expected the Jump Chaplain to have his own joint, capable of being sold separately and included with a different mix of units in the Combat Patrol. Now, while I still think there could be a standalone Jump Chaplain coming, it'll have to be a different model and there's no guarantee of it coming with the 11th-Ed Codex wave.

 

The Librarian is actually mixed in with the Vanguard Vets. I guess if the crack Fisher Price rules team is considering the Librarian's staff as a generic "Force Weapon," there's no need to ensure ongoing access to this sprue.

 

The Captain - as expected - shares a two-part sprue with the big Ork, which can be conveniently split in two for miscellaneous releases.

 

The Intercessors actually all share a two-part sprue. But it does look at first glance like "Squad A" and "Squad B" are confined to their own half so they can be used as five-man additions to starter kits and combat patrols as necessary.

 

Obviously the Storm Speeder Landingstrike gets its own crib.

 

Edited May 2 by Lord Nord in Gravis Armour

[brother_b]

I think this release is cool. I really like the captain. I’m really thinking about finally starting a Blood Angels army, as they’ve been my favorite forever. When I got back into 40K I chose white scars because I had a feeling all my blood angel stuff would be invalidated. It was mostly old models.

 

Here we are many years later and I think it’s stable enough to start working on that BA army.

 

What exactly do these vanguard veterans bring vs. regular jump pack assault marines, Death Company, or Sanguinary Guard?

Edited May 2 by brother_b

[01RTB01]

8 hours ago, Craig said:

I like that the intercessors seem to be 10 unique sculpts instead of the 2x5 sculpts that have been in previous boxes. Makes me wonder how they are going to split them for the introductory sets.

The minis are organised on sprues as below:

 

Eradicators + chaplain + ancient

Boss nob + bannanob + painboy

Warboss + captain 

Weirdboy

Intercessors

2x 10 boyz + 5 grots

Land speeder

Wartrakk

Vanguard vets + librarian

Dakkarig

 

Unsure what they'd put in for marines as presumably they'd have the intercessors but then I wonder if the eradicators + will be the new Honoured of the Chapter equivalent so intercessors, cap, Vanguard vets and Libby?

[Crimson Longinus]

I hope intercessors have good rules in the new edition... They are the basic battleline of the army, but GW has struggled to make them relevant. I wish they could be viable without frankly absurd "fires twice" type buffs. I'd actually like to field a lot of them, but that has rarely been terribly viable. I think the new cover rules benefit them somewhat. 

[Evil Eye]

I actually quite like this lot. The Captain is VERY nice. Might get rid of that rock but that aside, I love him. Librarian is fine, a bit bland but he's OK. I like the idea of the matching bases with the Weirdboy. Chaplain is a bit oddly posed but I do like the sculpt. Ancient is quite good, will make a very good base for another character and can give his banner to someone else after a smoothing session from Dr. Dremel. Intercessors are fine, definitely better than prior ETB ones. I actually...LIKE the Eradicators? The gunshields are cool and I do appreciate they don't have the weird bull-bar up front (which makes very little sense on the models that have it, as it seems to be inspired by the folded over stocks you saw on some early-war SMGs...but it isn't a stock and it doesn't fold). The Land Speeder I genuinely really like, will need some de-Primarising but on the whole? Nice model, and the fact the tactical rock is optional is great.

[Karhedron]

1 hour ago, brother_b said:

What exactly do these vanguard veterans bring vs. regular jump pack assault marines, Death Company, or Sanguinary Guard?

 

Van Vets have got a major offensive upgrade by trading in their relic blades for master crafted power swords. This gives them the same offensive profile as BGVs meaning they excel at dicing elite infantry. The boosted damage and AP also means that they get far more value from their built-in Lethal Hits as the damage is more likely to stick. This makes them much more offensive than JAIs.

 

Now they have a similar offensive profile to Sanguinary Guard. They have more bodies in a squad meaning more attacks but poorer defence. Compared to SG I think that they will be glass cannons. Unlike SG, they can be led by a Chaplain.

[Karhedron]

2 hours ago, firestorm40k said:

I guess the nub is, while the Captain is a really nice model, well posed etc, it’s still just a Space Marine Captain, of which there are already several options available.

 

 I think that we don't have a sword and shield Captain, the last one was with Indomitus and was mixed in with other units. This one is standalone meaning that he will probably get a separate release as well as featuring in the inevitable 11th edition Hatchette partnership magazine. 

[Crimson Longinus]

3 minutes ago, Karhedron said:

 

Van Vets have got a major offensive upgrade by trading in their relic blades for master crafted power swords. This gives them the same offensive profile as BGVs meaning they excel at dicing elite infantry. The boosted damage and AP also means that they get far more value from their built-in Lethal Hits as the damage is more likely to stick. This makes them much more offensive than JAIs.

 

Now they have a similar offensive profile to Sanguinary Guard. They have more bodies in a squad meaning more attacks but poorer defence. Compared to SG I think that they will be glass cannons. Unlike SG, they can be led by a Chaplain.

 

 

I like that the sword loadout is good. A lot of people wanted hammers and shields and lighting claws, and perhaps there will be a multipart kit with those, but personally I always felt that agile jump troops lugging around heavy weapons and cumbersome shields looked a tad awkward. If we get other loadout options, I hope that the sword and pistol build remains viable. 

[Karhedron]

I am not convinced Van Vets will keep classic loadouts like Hammer and shield. Having said that, Sternguard got 2 weapon options so maybe it is not out of the question. 

[FarFromSam]

Shout out to the mk 8 Helmet capt.  So cool.  Also shout out to bare head version.  One of the worst.  

 

Love that the banner is campaign specific.  I cant imagine any one is lacking a genetic ancient.  Top notch.   

 

The speeder looks good.  The assault cannon will look good underslung too. 

 

Gravis will look good in the trash. 

 

As a whole this is a great box for a starter set.  The models are varied and dynamic.  The characters are large and unique.  Comparing this box with other starter sets this may be the best one.  Push fit dark vengeance models looks tiny and blurred.  Great work GW.  Mostly. 

[WrathOfTheLion]

A few thoughts seeing it now.

 

Most of the SM models are fine, not too much to say there. Standouts to me are the Land Speeder, which I like a lot, the captain and the Vanguard Vet on the ground with the bonding studs, which is my favorite model of the box. I quite like the bonding studs on the one eradicator as well.

[Sgt.Sangha]

Well here is my 2 cents and my speculation on the space marine half and what we can possibly see in the future for 11th edition. Keep in mind I am basing this on rumors from around the web, what GW has shown so far and things they have done in the past.

 

Based on the intercessor squad shown for the Armageddon box set, I I believe one of two things will happen. These push fits will only be in this box set and any starter sets with no changes what soever to the current intercessor kit, which I think is unlikely. The rumor of tactical intercessors is more likely and my reasoning is this. The current kit has bits on the sprue for bolter upgrades that make less sense now. We no longer need all those extra bolter bits to make one of three unique bolter rifles that impact how the squad functions. So a new kit that removes that will free up space which can be for more unique bits and war gear. It would make sense to do this because the left over bits on the old kit are far to many, and would be waste of plastic. They cant even really be used in a bits box or a kit bash. 

The same can be said for the melta eradicators. if you take out all those old bits for the various versions of the melta rifles including the powerpack cables for one of the unique variants, you might be able to fit in the heavy bolter bits instead. Thus giving you a kit of eradicators that can be built as either. 

The same with vanguard vets. I believe the new multipart kit will have more options with regards to pistols and such. The push fit kit has a plasma pistol shown, and it is not on the Sgt model. 

The data cards they are releasing will allow you to use the push fit models as they are but once the new codex drops they will have shown off the new multipart models, and have new updated data cards for 11th that reflect their new war gear. This will allow them to consolidate the data cards as well.  

If this happens then maybe the data card for the current intercessors and the possible new tactical intercessors becomes combined as one card for 11th with possible war gear options. Then maybe they can take a rhino transport, or have combat squads ability and lose sticky objectives.