Hello Bunnies!
We have been lucky enough to have access to all the books for 3rd edition and I’ve been looking and theorising what this all means for the game. Below is an overview of the new Liber books core army list for the space marines. There are a few things to say upfront; a lot of options have gone. This mostly affects the HQs (now High Command and Command), they have all lost access to any form of bike. The consuls are now (mostly) only as they can be brought from GW and so lack customisation in wargear options. These changes have already lead to a lot of emotions following the leaks of the books online! We have not had sight of the legacies PDF that is coming out and I think it’s highly likely many of the options will be in that…hopefully! I really feel for those who’s armies are hugely effected by the changes and I went through it from 1st to 2nd so I feel your pain. I am really looking forward to seeing how the new rules for the units work on the table and I'm genuinely excited for this edition of the game as 2nd really wasn’t the version for me. I am thinking that this edition brings back the narrative feel that I want from the game!
List building:
A note around list building, the community site did a good job of rounding up how you build your lists. You can basically take what you like but with some limitations. The main thing you will need is centurions or consuls. A High Command gives you access to some special Apex detachments or a regular detachment. Centurions and consuls each give you access to a detachment. Centurions come with Office of the Line (2) which gives you access to 2 detachments instead of 1. I suspect at 3k, assuming no Primarch, you’re very likely to needing to run 3 High Command/Command. This is probably change to the amount you’re used to running in 2nd edition.
Rites of War as they were in 2nd edition have also gone but the detachment system will let you replicate the bulk of the previous rites. The one thing that you can’t do is run a full drop pod list currently. Rites of war are now your legion special rules.
The 3 core missions all use progressive scoring, meaning you score each turn. Nearly all units can score in some form, with some notable exceptions, however Line units will really help as they score additional points on top of the objective standard. So an objective worth 2VP will be worth 4VP to a unit with Line (2). Vanguard units, such as terminators can only score 1VP for holding an objective but do score for removing other units that were holding objectives. The notable exceptions I mentioned will no doubt upset any White Scars player even further, given you’ve (for the time being) lost access to any bike characters, cavalry are excluded from scoring. Cavalry units include all forms of bike and speeders, so basically the White Scar army as it was often run. Vehicles and automata are also not able to score.
I am going to give a brief overview of each of the new battlefield roles the units fit into. I will not go into to much depth as for the most part if you’re familiar with the previous editions it will look fairly to you.
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| Image from Warhammer Community website |
High Command:
3 options but technically 5 all of which are differently suited Preators. Artificer, Artificer with a jump pack, Terminator clad (tartaros and cataphratti) and finally the new Saturnine clad version. All of these options come with the Master of the Legion, which is now a bonus reaction point. These have retained most of options for wargear that they had. The Saturnine is as it was shown on the community site with no further options. Terminator options are toughness 5 now, this is the same for the standard terminators as well.
Command:
15 options here, which is great as you will likely need to include a few of these. Centurions have the most flexibility in character options and as noted above much of the rest are now kitted out as sold with minimal options. I will also note that most of special rules that each consul had have gone. Some of this has moved to wargear but some of it has just gone. Chaplains are the stand out here as they no longer give you any special rules. Now I think the reason for the loss of rules is 2 fold, advanced stats and game balance. The advance stats vary across each of consuls and each can be used by the unit so some of the benefits that the special rules used to provide is rolled up in these stats. I also think balance plays an important part due to the way that list building works. I personally think it’s good that Chaplains don’t provide re rolls or fearless as you would likely see several of them in every melee focused army.
Retinues:
These are now separated out from the HQ choices, which is great. These look good, very melee focused as you would expect and all options are here, with the exceptions of any form of bike and saturnine. They have also added in an extra level of retinue called a Centurion command squad, which is cheaper and on a 3+ armour save.
Elites:
This used to be a very filled area but it now only features 3 units. 1 of which is new, the Veteran assault squad. These are better assault marines with WS5 and wide access to special weapons. Interestingly the standard veterans have lost all forms of melee options and are now a shooting platform, going to WS4 and BS5 The are basically built to carry the new disintegrator weapons as these are the only real options for them. The do also have Line (1) in shoot form but it seems like a real lack of options compared to previous. Seekers round out this section and are now your combo weapon wielders if you need.
Heavy Assault:
Terminators! 3 varieties, Tartaros and cataphratti are both now toughness 5. Cata now come with volkite charger as standard. The Saturnine are as previewed.
Troops:
Tactical, despoiler, assault and breachers. The first 2 have Line (2), Assaults lose Line in favour of Vanguard, and finally breacher have Line (1).
Support:
Heavy weapons, support squads, rapiers, apothecaries, techmarines, deathstorm drop pod and the new Araknae weapon turret. Heavy weapons squads score one less VP when holding objectives, which I like as a nice balance to them possibly sitting on a back field objective. The community site had revealed that heavy weapons can now move and shoot but they gain a benefit for standing still which again I think is a nice change. Apothecaries have changed and how require a reaction to gain the benefit of recovery test which reduce damage by 1 to minimum of 0. The old feel no pain rule essentially but limited to a reaction use, no instant death also means you can use it against any attack. It is also a shooting reaction so no benefit in melee. Again this feel like a great change to me, as it was all a bit to easy to get an extra save in 2nd. The Araknae looks fine, can give invuns to models wholly within 3”.
War-engines:
This is the new home of dreads, and they have seen some positive changes. They come in detachments of 1 and no more, no talons either, which limits the quantity that can get into a list. They have stayed at wounds but the damage on weapons brings them back inline which would be enough of a change for the good for me but they have taken it a step further and reduced all the WS and BS of all of them to 4 rather than 5. The points are down slightly too. I like all of these updates, potentially a step to far but they still look awesome and are one of the iconic units of the heresy and even better you won’t feel bad for putting them on the table now!
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| Image from Warhammer Community website |
Transports:
Rhino, drop pod and termite. Rules changes are the main benefit and downside here. You can now charge out of any vehicle but it will be disordered. Disordered loses your set up move and basically means you can change D6” out of a non assault vehicle. You can also move the vehicles full distance before getting out. Which could lead to some big moves. Drop pods and termites have the same issue if you want to run a lot of them. You can only deep strike 1 unit a turn from turn 2 onwards. Which essentially limits the number that you can run. Good news is no scatter and you can now take 1 in an army rather than needed to go full orbital drop.
Heavy Transports:
Land Raiders and Spartans aren’t hugely different. No flare shields for the spartan any more and it can take laser destroyer arrays instead of lascannons if you wish. Hull points are up on both in line with the damage now on weapons. All of which feels good and lines them up with dreads nicely. Also gone is exploding in 1 shot. We also have dread drop pods, same issues as regular pods, also on Saturnine dread in the drop pod. We also have dreadclaws and kharybdis drop pods, which are now flyers. Flyers are interesting and could be viable options again, but that will require extensive play to work out. In theory they seem like good potential options to get troops where you want.
Recon:
Recon marines main change is to the nemesis bolter, which has lost some range and gained the heavy trait. They also don’t get as many VPs for holding objectives. You also have Sabres and land raider explorators both now with outflank. Outriders are here too, and look similar, though they do have vanguard which will be good for those White Scars players who have them. Tarantulas are in recon as well, they give up less VP if killed on turn 1.
Fast Attack:
The 3 planes, interesting potential here. You select a mission for the plane but you still need to roll, at the end of your turn it comes off the board but then you must roll again for it to come in from reserve again. Testing is needed to see how these work out but my initial thought is planes could be a possibility again! Jetbikes are the same but can’t score and have no vanguard so very much mobile firepower. The speeders have stayed as wounds which again is no longer a problem with the damage on weapons. Javelins have lost access to any other pintle mounted weapon other than the heavy bolter, seems like an odd choice but again the kit doesn’t come with those options and we see the profile reflect that. Both of the speeders can be taken in squadrons.
Armour:
The rest of the non transport tanks, not much changes here except for the hull point count on all tanks. They all seem to have received a point reduction as well. Definitely feels like the tanks will be a lot better this edition.
Lords of War:
Again a similar story to the rest of the Armour, increased hull points. The 3 big tanks are all here so that basically confirms that we will see all 3 variants in plastic to go with the previewed Fellblade. Thunderhawk, Stormbird and Mastodon are all present still as well. Thunderhawk and Stormbird are unlikely to see regular play. The Mastodon looks much more viable that previous editions.
Finishing comments:
That wraps up the space marine core list. Overall a lot of what you would expect, if fact near identical to the 2nd edition Liber books. The only other thing worth mention is the wargear is listed separately to the profiles and the profiles say things like ‘ Can take weapons from sergeant list’. This means some flipping or scrolling but does add a lot of flexibility for GW to alter point costs or even add items, which I think is good!
I like the list overall and all of what I could want is in the list. Yes options have gone for characters and that’s a bit of shame but I think we will see this expanded as we see more of the Journal Tactica’s and probably in the legacy PDF. I would say many of the changes are positive and better for the game but I do suspect we will see some backlash to missing parts. For me though I’m pleased with core list.
Happy gaming!
Andy
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