So the new space marines were put up on pre-order yesterday, on the games workshop website. Which coincidently crashed and was pretty much down for the whole day.
But what does this all mean to the meta of big competitions. At first glance you might think space marines might move into higher tables at competitions. Now with anti-flyer fire from the stalker/hunter, pretty much unmatchable firepower from the centurions.
Well lets look closer into it then, note that this is based on very strong rumours, but still won't be definite until release day;
Stalker:
Armed with the Icarus stormcannon array, which can fire at 2 seperate targets. Weapon profile is roughly the same as a long-barrelled autocannon, but slightly different, if think its 1 less shot but str. 8. AV 12/12/10 with 3 HP, so pretty average for a marine vehicle. But here's the problem, it only has skyfire, so with no interceptor the flyer can have a good go at the stalker before it gets to fire. Yeah not so good anti-flyer then.
Hunter:
Again suffers from the same problem as the stalker, only has the skyfire special rule and no interceptor. It's armed the skyspear missile launcher, which has a
str. 9 AP 2 heavy 1 armourbane profile. But at BS 4 and one shot, if you miss then that's the shot gone, if chronos works the same and gives the vehicle he's in his BS 5, then put him in the hunter if you really want/need to bring one. I almost forgot if you do miss, then there is a slight chance the missile will hit the flyer later on in the game, so that's quite neat.
So the new marines don't really have that great anti-flyer, but both new vehicles come in at under 100pts with no upgrades, so not everything is bad.
Devastator centurions:
Probably the last word in how much firepower can actually come from just 3 models. If you thought tau battlesuits were mini fire bases, then you'd now be wrong. Similar profile to a broadside, but combined with a marine, WS and BS 4, str. and T 5, 2 wounds and 2+ armour save. Can be armed with an array of weapons to deal with any foe, from lascannons to grav-cannons and hurricane bolters to missile launchers. Can also be upgraded to have night vision and split fire, so can engage seperate targets just like the farsight bomb. But they have no invulnerable save, so when up against plasma/melta fire, or a just a dedicated assault unit, they fall fast. Also space marines now have a large heavy support section, so units will be fighting out for places in players army lists.
Assault centurions:
Close combat based centurions, why? The whole idea mentioned above is to avoid combat based units. So having to charge head on with these is just dangerous, great for killing vehicles up close, and maybe some infantry, but again why? IMO avoid putting them in your list, use your elites slot for something else, like sternguard. They're not cheap either, a unit of 3 will come to around 200pts.
Grav-weapons:
One of the most talked about weapon in 6th, rumours of it have been everywhere. So we know they wound against the targets armour save, so excellent against riptides and wraithknights. But how will they wound a model without an armour save, I don't actually know, they will either wound them on a 6+, or a 7+ and so impossible. Against vehicles, 1-5 does nothing and on a 6 causes a penetrating hit.
General army:
Most of the units in the codex got cheaper, so you'll be seeing more models when playing against marines from now on. I think games workshop wanted people to focus on a more fluffy lists when deciding what to put in their army, so they made the specific chapter tactics. I think this was a brilliant idea, so the army can only select one set of chapter tactics, but the primary detatchment can select an allies detatchment of another chapter. So in other words, space marines can now ally with....
.... Erm space marines I guess.
So back to my original question; will the new space marines change the current meta? And the answer to that question is yes. Due to the new grav-weapons, tau/eldar players won't bring 3 riptides and loads of wraithknights, they'll be too scared of facing a grab-weapon heavy list. You'll be seeing a few more serpent spam lists I'd say, and probably tau gun line with fire warriors, and still the odd 1 or 2 riptides.
