Do Space Marines need a boost in 8th edition Warhammer 40K?
I’ve been playing 40K for a number of additions now, as both a loyalist and traitor in power armor and a xenos player, and I have to say that out of all the editions, Space Marines are the weakest right now.
With the Adepts of Mars rolling out the Primaris there is a little (quite good) boost in that unit, but until (next edition) when Primaris replace all the Space Marines armies, marines need a little love.
Games Workshop needs to pay attention to this-as Space Marines are THE benchmark of 40K.
They drive all model sales.
There is a good chance that you, the person reading this article, plays Space Marines, and if not, not only knows a dude playing Space Marines, but most likely (you) will be starting a Space Marine army at some point.
Years ago when Jawaballs and I used to get comped at Games Day and had a few friends in that circle the shadow stats for 40K were 80% of all first time armies = Space Marines, and 95% of all players who have a xenos army continue to start a Space Marine army in a year.
Space Marines need that representation on the table, they need to FEEL all space opera and heroic in the game.
Where are they falling short?
Model losses count in Kill Team
You have so few models, which results in a small dice pool each turn, losing 2-3 models will cost you the game. Kill Team is VERY tactical.
Warhammer 40K tabletop is more clash and smash.
Lots of units.
Lost of different models.
And with each edition more models come to the table. With such large dice pools in shooting- count up all the number of shots you can take in a single turn, and being based on a D6 system, its beyond easy to just blast away and bypass anything currently in the rules in-game that tries to make a model or unit special.
Tabletop 40K is who has the biggest and who shoots first.
Are you currently every scared of Space Marines on the table?
No diss, as I play Space Marines myself- Red Templars and Grey Knights.
The usual Games Workshop reaction is to just get more power armored dudes on the table- cut the points on the models…
…but at this point in 8th what are another 8-10 models going to buy you?
GW tried to fix it with the *updated* bolter rule.
How is that working out?
What is the fix?
In my opinion, and shout back with yours, that AP system has to go.
I get what GW was trying to do- streamline the different power levels of weapons vs. armor, but AP went out with RT and 3rd edition 40K for a reason.
It just doesn’t work when you have a mass combat game with hundreds of miniatures and models and are tied to using a D6.
Marines not getting the full 3+ save is what is literally killing them.
You are paying the points for T4 and 3+ which are negated by buckets of dice.
The size of the game also has to decrease a bit.
True you can play 40K at any size, but who doesn’t want bigger, and certainly GW wan’t bigger = more models.
You can give marines all the special rules you want, but big games negate them with the dice.
Kill Team = small 40K
Warhammer 40K tabletop = medium games.
*Something 40K” = big games.
Maybe come up with new EPIC rules using current scale miniatures?
Space Marines not feeling like a heroic army is going to hurt the game.
Thoughts?