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The rumors (from leaked images of datasheets from new unit boxes) about some or all smolmarines going to 2 wounds is making this Death Guard player salivate...

Wait, wut!? smolmarines get 2 wounds>? Does that go for Chaos marines as well?

Its from the leak of veterans so tacticals might not get 2 wounds but since another leak showed terminators getting 3 wounds they just might. If the rumours are accurate its probably going to happen with the Space Marine Codex in October. This reminds me of Age of Sigmar Stormcast since all their units have at least 2 wounds and since there are plenty of other factions in AoS with 1 wound infantry I don't see other factions getting wound boosts out of the blue. Chaos Space Marines should obviously get an equivalent upgrade once their Codex comes out. Hopefully that's sometime this year. Here's to hoping they balance the points appropriately, not that things are balanced at the moment.

Well, this is huge - possibly as huge as anything in the 9e core rules was:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/202 ... haracters/

TLDR - there's a new "Core" keyword for certain units, and many character aura abilities (the examples were the SM captain and Lt auras) ONLY affect Core units, which those characters are not. Captains no longer give themselves rerolls, basically, and further can't babysit artillery any more either.

It's basically a game-wide nerf that relatively speaking buffs those Core units. I like the idea in principle - characters are plenty powerful without buffing themselves too, and if you want character auras to be about making them good leaders this certainly does it - but it's a big change and no mistake.

The reroll Crusade traits are good now

It's bad news for smash characters and tanks that want babysitting (Exorcists will miss having a personal Canoness in their parking lot, bolstering Retributors' stock if they get Core for example).

It's a good use of keywording to fine tune aura and unit strength, letting you have impactful auras and powerful units without them automatically acting as multipliers for each other. I like it even though it's annoying for my preferred herohammer style

I like how it opens up design space for dedicated "artillery shepherd" characters for armies where that's appropriate, who do just hand around vehicles and give them buffs - although I also wouldn't be surprised if that space never really gets explored.

The Other Dave wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:09 am

I like how it opens up design space for dedicated "artillery shepherd" characters for armies where that's appropriate, who do just hand around vehicles and give them buffs - although I also wouldn't be surprised if that space never really gets explored.

Sounds like something the Imperial Guard would get. An ICBM battery commander for their Deathstrike launchers would be quite thematic.

The Other Dave wrote: ↑

Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:09 am

I like how it opens up design space for dedicated "artillery shepherd" characters for armies where that's appropriate, who do just hand around vehicles and give them buffs - although I also wouldn't be surprised if that space never really gets explored.

I think they're going for more specialized characters for sure. The Primaris Techmarine and the new Death Guard character are likely to have vehicle specific buffs.

IG are already pretty specialized with their generic buff characters being spread out over different roles. Other than Tank Commanders not being able to order themselves I don't really see them getting affected by this much. Hopefully they reinforce their roles and make them more viable/interesting.

When it comes to Xenos like Tau, Necrons, and Orks they have very few aura buffs that work like the offending Imperium buffs and the few that do exist are already heavily restricted so I see this as a chance for them to flesh out their rules to bring them on par with everyone else. I don't really know too much about how the Eldar factions work but I think Craftworld Eldar rely more on Psychic buffs so maybe those will get a bit more refined but I don't see it being too disruptive.

Yeah, exactly - I think this is primarily a Marine nerf, which is not necessarily a bad thing.