Space Marine Codex Review: Special Characters

Fair warning, this is a long post thanks to there being a ton of special characters and other options to take as an HQ choice. I will be doing them in order the book has them so Ultramarines are coming first, and there are a lot of them. If you are familiar with the previous codex all the names will be familiar except the addition of the Black Templar characters.

Space Marine Codex Review: Warlord Traits and Chapter Tactics

Warlord Traits are probably my least favorite part of 6th edition because I have yet to play a game where they have mattered. It is a great idea that could add a lot to a game and the way a character operates on the battle field. In this post I will look at how well the six new warlord traits work in the Space Marine codex. I will also be looking at all of the chapter tactics and how they work. I think that chapter tactics is the wrong wording for what they do, a better term would be company tactics. I like company tactics better because it makes more sense that a company specializes in one particular set of tactics then the whole chapter mastering that particular way of war. I know that when I start running Space Marines I will not be saying I am running, for example, White Scars and Iron Hands it will be Captain Bob of the third company who is a bike master and Honored Brother Henry of the Armory who is a friend of machine spirits everywhere. Enough of that, on to the review!

Blood Angels+White Scars VS. Imperial Guard 1500 Point Battle Report

I was able to get a game in with the same gentleman that I played last time. Both of us changed our lists a bit, since I just got the Space Marine codex I really wanted to try one of the new chapter tactics and the only one that I could do without using my assault marines as tactical marines which hurts their feelings when I do that so I used my Blood Angel bikers as White Scar bikers. We decided on 1500 points because it is a good point limit that allows each player to take a variety of units but not enough to take a bunch of crazy things. We rolled up the relic mission which I feel like gave the advantage to my opponent since all of my units a fast and the relic will just slow them down. Warlord Traits did nothing like every other game. I won the roll to go first and he did not steal the initiative. Continue reading to see both army lists and how the battle turned out.

My Deployment

Space Marine Codex: First Impressions

Very happy to report I was able to pick up my book today and had enough time to give it a look over and gather some first impressions about it. I am not disappointed with the book at all, it is beautiful, the pictures are all high quality, I like the organization of the book, and probably my favorite part of it is the quick fold out reference sheet for all the chapter tactics and special rules that I am sure will be seeing a lot of use. This is going to be my first post before I start delving in depth with the codex later in the week. Continue reading to get the parts that stuck out to me the most.

Space Marine Preorder and Fedex

I preordered the Space Marine codex on Sunday guaranteeing me a copy on release day which has me very excited. Naturally the minute I get an email from Games Workshop with the tracking number I open the link and watch it travel from Memphis Tennessee to California. Up in the top right hand corner there is an expected delivery time and date which is 1030 in the morning on Friday. When I woke up today and did my morning rituals and sacrifices to the Emperor of man kind I looked up the tracking information expecting to see that my book was delivered safely. That is not what I see, what I get instead is a big red exclamation point saying that the business was closed so they could not deliver it. Okay, no problem just load it on a truck to try again during a later part of the day right? Nooooooo, we will deliver it the next business day which means Monday. After a period of wailing and gnashing of teeth I calmed down and resigned my fate to getting the book on Monday. It did not take me long to remember that the store I ordered it from which happens to be a Games Workshop store does not open until Wednesday after they close on Sunday.

I stalked around the house a bit bashing servitors and cursing my fate at having to wait another week for my book since I would not be able to pick it up during the week. After preparing a scathing speech which would make the GW customer representatives ear's bleed I decided to call the store to see if they would be able to do anything to fix the situation. I called the store and calmly explained the situation. Quickly the manager opened up the boxes that had been delivered earlier in the day to see if my book was in there. After looking for a while he promised me that if the book was not in the box he would gladly let me walk out with one off the shelf so that I would not have to wait until the next week which soothed my ill mood. He went to the bottom of the last box that he received and sure enough was the book marked for me. With the Emperor shining down on me once again I hung up the phone and began to paint my last assault marine.

For those of you that are picking up your codex in the next few days or even weeks I hope the Emperor shines upon you like he did me.