A new edition is coming... New 40K discussion thread!

[The Other Dave]

Although (of course) in various places on the Internet there's a lot of sniffing-down-the-nose at the whole idea of non-granular points as Gaming for Babbies. *shrug*

[Konrad]

Less math makes me happy.

[YellowStreak]

I like the look of it so far.

[The Other Dave]

I am legit planning purchases for my Scythes of the Emperor with dual expansion in ASC and 40K in mind.

[The Other Dave]

Well, it looks like bigmarines are a thing, and God help me they look pretty good too.

Currently the rumors suggest:
They'll be part of the SM codex, and it'll be possible to field them alongside smallmarines, or in armies of only bigmarines.
They'll have different squad types, but a given 5-man squad will all have the same weapon.
T5/S5/2W, and the super-bolter is range 30 S4 Ap-1 (where regular bolters are now AP0)
Will be pricier even than Grey Knights (!)

Frankly, I do like the look of them and if I were starting my Scythes anew I'd be tempted to go big with them, but as it is I don't think I'll mix and match - not least because fluff-wise my army is "set" during the second Tyrannic War.

[kojibear]

The minis look good but I don't see why they have to be super super space marines. The Astartes are already the best that the Emperor could engineer, so these marines are for me more like a truer scale space marine. I can't see the different chapters not being pissed off by these reengineered marines without the sanction of the Emperor himself. Also these marines were not raised and trained within the chapters, so do not share their doctrine and culture. I doubt they would be accepted into their ranks so easily. It sounds like a recipe for a disaster.

Dear Chapter Masters,

Please find enclosed replacements...err...I mean reinforcements for your subpar...err...I mean seasoned marines. They have been injected and engineered...err...I mean indoctrinated and educated to possess superior...err...I mean supplemental tactical and physical skills.

All our best wishes,

Mars

P.s. You're all fired.

[me_in_japan]

I'm sure they'll find fluff Reasons for Stuff. Aesthetically, I rather like them. As Kbear said, they're more like a true-scale marine than something totally new, but as such they're pretty funky. Remind me a wee bit of Infinity Orc Troopers (note to non-Infinity players: an Orc is a power-armoured trooper. Not a smelly green ambulent mushroom with a bad attitude.)

[The Other Dave]

I think there's an argument to be made, too, that current space marines (and, in fact, space marines all the way back to Rogue Trader) don't really live up to the badassery they display in the fluff, ruleswise. 'Course, that might also be better solved by giving Marines across the board S5/T5 and 2 wounds, but *shrug*

(The paranoid anti-GW part of me thinks it's at least somewhat likely that, back before they started turning things around, they *did* plan to squat the entire SM line and replace it with bigmarines, but the AoS debacle led them to rejigger and just release them parallel to regular old marines.)

[jus]

And the jury is in!
Primaris marines - intercessor squad are all veterans with an extra wound. Strength and toughness still 4 and 3s to hit like regular joe marines.

On one hand they aren't that much better...yet. But it still rankles some what that mythic warrior gods of yore needing to be even more mythic warrior godlier.
Here's a thought though, maybe every regular joe space marine has it in him to achieve greatness. I mean, commander dante, Calgar and pedro all used to be regular joes, 4s across the board. With experience and adaptation each has managed to rise to the dizzying Heights of testosterone fueled statlines of chapter masters. Maybe what our boy guilliman did was, speed the process along, with pumping out veterans +...Doesn't account for being a head taller though m

[me_in_japan]

(The paranoid anti-GW part of me thinks it's at least somewhat likely that, back before they started turning things around, they *did* plan to squat the entire SM line and replace it with bigmarines,)

Not even GW are/were that daft. Even pre-AoS, it would've been obvious financial suicide to do that. Biggest sellers, and whatnot.