Hello everyone! As you've almost certainly have seen, Games Workshop has been releasing snippet previews from the new Space Marine book that goes on pre-release soon. All of which are extremely exciting, especially the release of all of the new Chapter Tactics. They have also released a bunch of tidbits on the new primaris units that they are going to have with the codex, but for now, I am not going to concern with those since we are only looking at some basics of each unit. Not enough is known about them yet. A couple of caviets here: First, this is a Black Templars website so I am not going to do comparisons between the new Chapter Tactics. For the short-term analysis...the IF and CF chapter tactics got buffed, as did the Black Templars. The others seem weaker than they were before, but not so weak as to not be viable. All the tactics seem to DO something now. Anyway, the second caviat is that the BT 101 guide is obviously about to become obsolete, especially the unit analysis page. So expect this to disappear for a while after the new codex gets released so that I can update it. With that out of the way, let's take a look shall we?
This is obviously a straight upgrade of our current Chapter Tactics. Being able to choose to reroll a single die will improve our chances of making a charge from 48% to about 56%. An 8% increase is pretty significant, considering a large chunk of the 40k world makes that 9" charge only 28% of the time. We're twice as likely to make that charge. I am certainly not going to complain about that, as it allows us to set up second turn charges with a greater degree of certainty. But what I am significantly more excited about is the portion about ignoring mortal wounds. We have a 33% chance to ignore EVERY mortal wound that we sustain in the game. I don't know about you, but mortal wounds are the bane of our existence right now because we can only attempt to deny one psychic power per turn with our strategem. Now, we can chop off 33% of those wounds right off the top (and that also includes other sources outside of psykers) and that is huge! There are a ton of meta lists that rely on mortal wounds and they will be drastically less efficient against our lists. What used to be a huge weakness, is now a strength. No one out there is able to shrug off mortal wounds like this. Definitely a buff. Let's look at the other stuff that Space Marines are getting.
Shock Assault is a new ability that will be shared by all Adeptus Astartes chapters, which will also combo with our new Bolter Discipline and They Shall Know No Fear. This new rule is huge for our chapter, as we really depend on those additional attacks in close combat to win. While other chapters will also have this on the defensive, we have the benefit of a newly improved chapter tactic that helps ensure that we get the charge off -- and thus, the initiative. If we maim/kill our opponent, then it won't matter if they have additional attacks. Combine this with what comes next and we have all of the makings of a huge buff to close combat.
So not only do we get all of the rules I've gone over, we get doctrines as well! While we will have minimally effective use of the devastator doctrine, after the first turn we can switch to tactical doctrine which is a much more useful doctrine. Bolter shots are insanely effective with this doctrine, especially with storm bolters and hurricane bolters. But both Imperial Fists and Crimson Fists utilize it better. The one we really want to get to is the assault doctrine. This makes Chapter Tactic: Black Templars and Shock Assault fit together seamlessly. Unfortunately, we have to wait until turn three to get it...but there will likely be a strategem that will allow us to prematurely change to the assault doctrine. If our Crusader Squads stay the way they currently are, this makes them ridiculously deadly.
Consider this (in assault doctrine): Purely chainsword/bolt pistol armed 20-man Crusader squad does 28.5 damage to GEQ and 12.4 damage to MEQ (after shooting bolt pistols). Enough to kill most squads on the charge, assuming no losses to overwatch. Purely bolter armed 20-man Crusader squad (that shoots beforehand) does 27.0 damage to GEQ and 11.4 damage to MEQ. Those numbers are nothing to sniff at. While the close combat crusaders do a little bit more damage, you cannot always guarantee that you will have an unit to charge in a game. The bolter crusaders can hold the middle of the board and stay efficient in the game. Especially if you are using them to hold objectives. Use the BP/CCW crusaders to be aggressive and the bolter crusaders to pull up the rear...very solid core.
I will tell you what, I am extremely excited for our newest rendition codex. It looks like we are likely to get a supplement, either in the Imperial Fist supplement...or with one of our own. Let's see what the coming previews give us, but we are going in the right direction!
Consider this (in assault doctrine): Purely chainsword/bolt pistol armed 20-man Crusader squad does 28.5 damage to GEQ and 12.4 damage to MEQ (after shooting bolt pistols). Enough to kill most squads on the charge, assuming no losses to overwatch. Purely bolter armed 20-man Crusader squad (that shoots beforehand) does 27.0 damage to GEQ and 11.4 damage to MEQ. Those numbers are nothing to sniff at. While the close combat crusaders do a little bit more damage, you cannot always guarantee that you will have an unit to charge in a game. The bolter crusaders can hold the middle of the board and stay efficient in the game. Especially if you are using them to hold objectives. Use the BP/CCW crusaders to be aggressive and the bolter crusaders to pull up the rear...very solid core.
I will tell you what, I am extremely excited for our newest rendition codex. It looks like we are likely to get a supplement, either in the Imperial Fist supplement...or with one of our own. Let's see what the coming previews give us, but we are going in the right direction!
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