Astra Militarum: A Review (Part 2)

It's A Wyvern, So What Would Be The Point?

Let's continue with the run-down on the Codex sections.

Elites
Storm Troopers Militarum Tempestus (i.e. Bad Latin Meaning Troopers of Stormy Things: i.e. Storm Troopers) are, aside of hilariously seeing GW on the receiving end of legal threats (from a bigger fish, oh look, they’re reasonable all of a sudden), is the first of the elite choices with new models. So now you can take them in platoons, they are the only types of unit that can take Taurus Primes, they have their own command squad type, and new, snazzy weapons. They can no longer scout or infiltrate, but they do still have deep strike. They can spam a lot of ap 3 lasgun shots (plus a salvo strength 4 special weapon version), and the hellguns can be boosted by the Guard Orders, making them serious trouble for stuff with good armour. Throw in a Biomancy Wielding Primaris, and you have the potential to pick off some seriously weakened Space Marines. They’ve also got some serious discounts from last time, in spite of being better. Yeah. Buy new plastic models!

Wyrdvane Psykers. The Wardian (i.e. Brainlessly Awful) style rename for the Psyker Battle Squad that everybody expected to disappear, but remarkably it remains! However it is a bit rubbish, effectively being a single Lv.1 psyker that has access to the same disciplines as the primaries, and having ablative wounds from enemy shooting and perils of the warp. For 60 points. Plus, the unit’s old abilities (super pie plate and reducing leadership) are gone. They expect you to buy multiple packs of the Sanctioned Psykers set just to get one likely under-whelming psychic power from a 5-10 man squad. The only plus is having transport options. Once again, you suck for buying metal and finecast models.

Next we have Ratlings, who, like Wyrdvanes, didn’t get new models. They’re pretty much what they were in the previous book. Their new rule, shoot sharp and scarper adds a bit of flavour, being able to shoot and then run (like the order). But that’s it. Guess what. Finecast.

Now we have the big fellas. The Ogryns and Bullgryns. New models all, and thus, lots of new juicy things. Both types are Stubborn, Very Bulky, and have Hammer of Wrath. Bullgryns come with two distinct flavours. The close range grenade shooting, moving cover type, and the melee nutters. The moving cover comes from the slab shield, large shields that boost their armour save when in base to base with each other, and cover saves to friend and foe when shooting through them. The melee type have an invulnerable save and a power maul, plus can re-roll hammer of wrath wounds. The Ogryns are seriously tough, and like combined infantry, can use similar sources to ridiculously boost their offensive abilities. If you’re taking the Melee Bullgryns, you would be mad not to stick a Priest in with them.

Fast Attack
Now we’re on to Fast Attack, and once again, the lack of new models is disturbingly telling. There are a lot of nerfs in this section. Some of them necessary, a lot of it is lack of new model syndrome. This brings me on to Rough Riders. They’re still here, contrary to what some expected, but as I sort of anticipated, it’s a larger fuck you to Guard players than if they’d removed them. How bad are they? Well, they cost the same as they did, and most of the options have increased (including an extra point for more squad members). Mogul Kamir, the only real buffer, is completely gone. The hunting lance still boosts initiative, and is still a power weapon, but they remain a one trick pony that is very easy to eliminate. They didn’t even jump up in toughness like they should have done. Once again, you suck for buying finecast and metal.

Sentinels and Armoured Sentinels are next, and again, a similar story. Nothing remarkable, and they’re more or less the same. Armoured Sentinels have dropped in points (but the eagle eyed vets will see this is largely because they’ve lost the previously inclusive extra armour upgrade, which covers 10 of the 15 point reduction). Mercifully, there are again some cost decreases, especially given the fact these guys are basically moving, armoured heavy weapon teams (and teams are cheaper and easier to buff). Nothing appalling like the Rough Riders, but you know the models aren’t new, but at least they’re plastic.

It’s a similar story with the Hellhound Squadron. If anything, it’s a bit worse. Points have been juggled around, so you may end up with your unit being more or less costly than it was in the previous book. For instance there are no Squadron upgrades, so Camo Netting is 15 points for each tank, rather than 20 for the lot. The Hellhound is 5 points cheaper, but the Devil Dog has jumped up 15. Whilst these are tougher than the average Chimera Class tank, it is still pretty scary to consider that the standard, unmodified Hellhound is nearly double the cost of the Wyvern, which can do its job much more effectively, if being a bit more fragile. Still, being Fast Tanks does mean that it can move at cruising speed and fire two weapons at BS, so at least there’s that. But again, they’re not new models.

Finally for Fast Attack, is the Valkyries and Vendettas. Similarly, we have points increases for both (although to be fair, they’re now fully fledged flyers rather than skimmers), and largely point increases for options. Plus, their Grav Chute Insertion rule has been seriously nerfed. It allows deep strike deployment for their embarked unit anywhere along the line of their movement, but the whole unit takes dangerous terrain if it scatters. A reasonable nerf, but Necrons can still do it without. Once again, the models aren’t new. [Although worth noting that you can stick an Augur Array for 25 points onto a vehicle, and any unit Deep Striking within 6” of this doesn’t scatter, so there is a sneaky way around this nerf]

Heavy Support
Okay, now we move on to Heavy Support. It is a mix of good and bad again. The bad, well a few things are gone, although not a lot that would be seriously missed, but the main news is that it’s business as usual. A few nice discounts on the obvious stuff, new things are, largely, obviously better, and everything else is as it was or a little worse. Russes are more or less as they are, but they’ve got a few discounts. Most of the fancy variants are a bit cheaper, and the Lumbering Behemoth rule gives way to the heavy vehicle rule, so Russes can only move 6” but none of their guns ever notice, which is arguably far better than previously. The main news is that these have a boost via the aforementioned Tank Commander (and Pask), but otherwise, options are a bit cheaper (but again, no Squadron discount on camo nets) and the other thing to report is that the Executioner Plasma Cannon (that okay, was a bit OP) has now got Gets Hot, meaning it can easily kill itself even more than if you stuck the Plasma Cannon sponsons on it as well (but at least they’re 10 points cheaper). In general, Russes are as solid as was expected. Expect lots of Pask Punishers.

The Hydra is more or less what was expected, and surprisingly for a new kit, a little disappointing, if anything. It’s a tiny bit cheaper, it’s lost the Jink Denial rule it had, it still doesn’t have interceptor (but the Hydra Autocannons still have Skyfire). In spite of firing at BS, it probably wouldn’t drop a flyer as effectively as Pask in an Executioner or Punisher (albeit for the price of getting that you do get 3 Hydras). If you are going to make use of Hydras, it’s bad news if your opponent doesn’t take any flyers. That will probably also explain why the Wyvern is so sodding good.

The Basilisk is exactly the same as it was, although the alternatives are gone. The Manticore is a tad more expensive, and the Deathstrike costs exactly the same. Although hilariously, the Deathstrike has had the real boosts: it shoots on a 4+ (always on a 6 even if it was –3[it’d be a dead tank, incidentally]), is harder to knock back from shooting and it uses the apocalyptic template, fixed at a 5” radius, rather than random. Mind you, the Manticore is better by nature of Barrage (hence the extra 10 points), but that’s it. These entries are no worse than before, which I suppose is good. What worries me is if they get new models next time…

Finally, we have the Wyvern, which I’ve mentioned earlier, which is why I am mentioning it last. I’m a veteran of GW. I’ve been around for 20 years, and whilst I know GW love to make new models better than old ones, I have never before been so surprised by how ludicrously good a new model is. It’s only major weakness, let’s say, compared to the Hellhound that it is hilariously cheaper than, is that it is open topped. For a mere 15 points, you can buy an enclosed compartment upgrade for it, rendering this weakness away, and it’ll still be 45 points cheaper than the Hellhound, which isn’t twin-linked (so it doesn’t re-roll wounds).  Sure, it has better strength, but it’s much less likely to inflict as many hits. The Hellhound also doesn’t roll to hit, but then, it only fires one of those templates, and the Wyvern fires 4 barrage shots that re-roll to hit, and to wound, so the bonus strength counts for less too. A single Wyvern can potentially annihilate any troop unit on a standard 4 by 4 board by the end of turn one. You have to get a Hellhound into position. The Hellhound costs 60 points more. Add 5 points to that, and that’s another Wyvern.

The only other things worth mentioning are new wargear items. There are, as usual, 6 unique items. A pretty good master crafted power sword, a mask that gives a 4+ inv, it will not die and causes fear, and 3 order/morale boosting items. One in particular that allows Inspired Tactics on any double but 1. Some new vehicle upgrades, one that gives Adamantium Will, and one that explodes when enemies charge the vehicle. These are pretty much the only things that don’t have models for them that are worth note, really. Enjoy the one Codex you have them for.

In Closing
Overall, the Codex is reasonably solid. But it is in many ways a seriously over-powered Codex, and there will be a lot, and I mean a lot, of new Guard players. Whilst largely a lot of veteran Guard Players wont be disappointed, seeing as most of the staples of the army are, surprisingly for GW, more or less as they were. But anyone who built an army around Al’Rahem (Tallarn) or Chenkov (Valhallan) have pretty much nothing to show for it. Space Marines have ways to distinguish their Chapters, but Guard has no such luck on that front (although that’s an older criticism: you suck for not buying Spess Mahreens!).

Guard (or Astra Militarum) were in dire need of a bit of nerfing. Whilst this has become a reality in places, the places where the nerf-hammer fell most heavily were on things guard players didn’t much bother with that also didn’t get new models (like Rough Riders and certain characters such as Harker). What was staple has been made more obvious, or at least discounted, which in the pattern of 6th Ed Codices was already anticipated. Russes are slow, but in most ways better, the orders system is more refined, but as a result significantly boosted. Guard are still a leaf-blower force, and given a turn to unleash ungodly amounts of fire, can, almost without effort, shoot most forces off the table.

If one looks over it, there are some interesting touches, and GW could have certainly gone more overboard on this book. But regardless, if it does anything at all, it asserts the typical GW hegemony of their miniatures, out of the box, and if you buy any, start with the new ones. GW doesn’t make very much effort to encourage conversions, or customisation with this book. Sure there are some options, even some really cool ones that players could use, but it’s tempered with the fact that rules have disappeared just because they couldn’t be bothered to put models for them out there, and are evidently more concerned that some other company could be, than whether their fans will buy GW’s kits to convert their own.

It’s a disturbing possibility for 7th Edition, and even worse for armies that thrive on conversions, such as Orks, but I’m expecting the newer rulesets to give increasingly less opportunities for companies that make add-on bits to GW’s miniatures. So rather than manning up and filling the void themselves, they’ll merely remove the options to compensate. I am genuinely astonished that veterans can still take shotguns, because I was betting against that (and dreading the possibility). It does at least show me that on occasion, I am wrong about the evil empire. Time will tell to what extent I am wrong about them. This latest instalment does have me absolutely DREADING the next Ork Codex release, but the signs aren’t awful, merely disturbing.

A passable effort. 3 stars.

Astra Militarum: A Review (Part 1)

If In The Case of Potential Law Suits, Replace Name With Bad Latin...

Introduction
No doubt there will be many of these already, but it’s worth delving a bit more.  It is a pretty basic review, in which I will be looking at the changes from the previous book, and largely looking at the rules/army list changes. I couldn’t bring myself to read the fluff. I’m sure it’s somewhere between meh and dogshit, I just can’t be bothered to find out which. After all, it is impossible to check which of GW’s Rogues Gallery wrote it, so I would have to actually read the fluff, and that’s a bit like opening a kinder egg in the hope of finding a live, primed grenade in it.

This will be fairly in-depth, so if you want a one sentence summary of the new book, here it is: buy the new stuff, that’s where most of the effort went.

Immediate Impressions and Army Rules
In fact, this is a good place to start. This isn’t a new concept; a lot of GW Veterans will be familiar with it. It’s pretty simple: unless it’s core, or it’s had a new miniatures release, it bodes rather ill for that unit. Double nerf points if it’s “finecast”, or worse yet, has no model at all (some things are gone entirely: Bastonne, Chenkov, Al’Rahem, Marbo, Penal Legion, Mogul Kamir, Colossi, Griffons and Medusae –  this is likely because in most cases other companies have models for them). It isn’t the whole story, but the only pluses to take from the whole book are a decent amount of points discounts (although some of them border on cheese) and that most units largely remain unchanged, perhaps with the addition of the odd new interesting rule here and there (but that’s pushing it).

Whereas with the new things, they have a lot of huge benefits. Price drops, oodles of new abilities, and typically benefits that are actually useful. A lot of the old stuff still works (Infantry Platoons, Veteran Mech and Russes are better than ever), but it’s hard to avoid that some of the new things are noticeably better than they probably should be, especially for the price. Nothing says this better than the new Wyvern. 65 points each for a chimera class support tank (that can take up to 3 in a battery) that fire 4 twin-linked, mortar shots (strength 4 barrage) with ignore cover and shred (re-rolling wounds). For 65 point points. Yeah, that’s what I thought.

So, with that in mind lets start from the top. Naturally, Guard have a Warlord Trait Chart, with some pretty scary abilities on it. D3 units outflanking, preferred enemy against one codex for the warlord’s unit, a larger command range, an extra order etc. The Tank Commander is restricted to one of the first 3, but that wont exactly break any Guard players’ hearts, as the first 3 are probably the best.

The Orders system is considerably improved now (although the cynic in me thinks this was largely because they could flog gamers a set of order cards). The main improvement is removing the confusion around which officers can take which orders, as there are 3 of the 9 orders that are exclusive to obvious “senior officers”, and the rest can be used by any commander, aside of Tank Commanders, who have 3 unique ones they can use. You still need to remember things, but its much more straightforward, especially if you bought the cards (fancy that!). Notable orders include split fire (very, very useful with combined Infanty Platoons), having a whole unit with precision shots (this is ridiculous), being able to shoot, and then run, and so on. This isn’t even mentioning the senior officer exclusives yet. Oh, and did I mention Front Rank Second Rank can be used on Tempestus Scions (i.e. Storm Troopers), who are armed with ap 3 lasguns? Well, it can. Yeah. And its an order that can be issued by any commander.

Let’s have a look at the various sections.

HQ
The company command squad is similar to what it was, although it works out a lot cheaper to get the regimental advisors, and the bodyguards are gone completely, save one, the character Nork Deddog, who we will get to later. The Astropath is now a psyker, with unique access to the Telepathy Discipline, and is always Lv.1. The Officer of the Fleet now has to pass a Leadership test each turn to use his ability, but can choose to boost the player’s own reserve rolls, or add a penalty to the opponent’s. Most of their options are considerably cheaper, and this is common for a lot of the options in this Codex.

The Tank Commander is a new HQ, who is ludicrously cheap (30 points, plus whatever Russ you put him in, and must be in a Russ Squadron with at least 1 more Russ, as if you weren’t taking two anyway), and comes with 3 unique orders. One should be called “drive me closer so I can hit them with my sword” because that’s basically what it is (aside of the sword hitting bit), the ability to fire at a different target from the rest of his unit, plus one that allows to shoot and then deploy smoke launchers. He can be upgraded to Pask, who is a rare non-new model that is actually improved with ridiculous new rules (although there is no Tank Commander model, but there is one for Pask. So answers on a postcard there.). Pask’s abilities vary depending on the tank, being twin-linked on most, or have rending with exterminators and punishers, and have a special blind(!) large blast for executioners.

Commissars and Lord Commissars are there, as usual, being reasonably priced, and easy to kit up. Ordinary Commissars aren’t technically HQs, and you can have one for every platoon and company command squad you have in the army, but they are restricted as to what units they can join. Lords are a HQ choice, and both confer stubborn onto their unit, and have a somewhat altered Summary Execution rule (on a D6 roll of a 1 or 2 your opponent picks who he executes) but instead of a re-roll, it grants an auto-pass instead. Commissars are now ridiculously good unit buffers, especially in Ogryn/Bullgryn Squads and combined infantry squads.

Priests, Primaris Psykers and Enginseers are still there, now called Regimental Specialists. They can no longer be a HQ when no others are taken (same for ordinary Commissars), and funnily enough, none of them have new plastic models, and are all finecast or metal. Must be a coincidence. In spite of lack of new models, they have all surprisingly got buffs. Priests are now like they are in the Adepta Soritas Codex, having special combat buffs (he can have Smash, pretty funny if a bit useless) if they pass a leadership test. Primaris Pskyers can be upgraded to level 2, and are reasonably priced, although they have lost nightshroud and chain lightning. They can take Divination too, rather than Telepathy (which the Astropath now has), which can be a bit scary. Enginseers are pretty much an auto-include for mech spam, being able to fix immobilised and weapon destroyed results, as well as giving power of the machine spirit to one tank a turn instead of shooting. Servitors are also cheaper too.

Lastly in HQ, we have Special Characters. I have to say that one area where the Dev Team have been busy doing everything possible to not do anything in particular, it’s this grouping. I’m not entirely heartbroken (I don’t care for SCs myself), but it’s certainly the case that there’s been a ritual slaughter of characters from the previous book. Al’Rahem, Chenkov, Bastonne, Mogul Kamir and Sly Marbo are all gone. The reason is obvious, and you will know it off by heart by the end of this review: you suck for buying metal and finecast models.

Still, there are a few that remain, plus one that they did bother to give a new model. The reason that Yarrick, Creed, Straken and Pask remain are likely mostly to avoid backlash. Removing Yarrick alone would create a storm of hate that even Head Office would actually notice, so, they get rules. Yarrick is still pretty nails. He’s had a points reduction, his power field is now a 4+ invul, Iron Will remains, and the other thing of note is that, like other Commissars, he can only be the Warlord if you have no other HQ choice.

Creed and Kell also remain, although you can’t get Kell now without having Creed First. Kell is pretty much retrofitted to protect Creed from shooting and melee, plus carries a battle standard, and units receiving orders from creed can use his leadership (8, pretty good). Creed is different, rather than better. He costs more, but buying Kell makes them cost the same as they used to. He has two warlord traits (rolled for), and can issue three orders. In all, not bad, but not a new model.

Finally, we have Straken and Deddog. Both are returning, but we have a case in point: Straken doesn’t have a new model, and Deddog does. Straken isn’t awful, actually, he’s pretty good, but Deddog is significantly better than he was. Straken for one thing, costs a lot more. He still has his counter-attack and furious charge bubble ability, but the range is halved. Plus he must issue and accept challenges, but he does now get smash(!), still has an improved statline, and monster hunter as well, for a laugh.

Deddog however, is cheaper by 25 points and twice as good. He loses Furious Charge, but gains Hammer of Wrath, his heroic sacrifice rule has had a bit of a boost (reliable amount of attacks, plus the possibility of a special attack), will automatically stand in the way of any issued challenges, cannot be killed by a Commissar’s summary execution (and even the hilarious rule of Deddog killing a Commissar for killing the officer he’s protecting is gone), and then there’s his thunderous headbutt attack. By sacrificing all his ordinary attacks, he can make one at +3 strength and AP 3 (making this usually the wonderful Instant Death inducing Strength 8). He’s 85 points. Yeah.

Troops and DTs
The Infantry Platoon is as solid as ever, and is more or less unchanged. There are a few discounts here and there, but largely it’s an unchanged formula, save for being able to take one more Special Weapons squad. The combined squad is still there, and is a very valid tactic this edition, considering the buffs you can throw onto it. In addition to front rank second rank, you can bury up to 6 heavy weapon teams (or a lot of specialists) in a mass of infantry, and plop the split fire order onto itself from its own platoon command that subsists in the same morass of men (or hilariously Precision Shots, or Front Rank Second Rank). Throw in a Commissar or Commissar Lord for Stubborn Ld 9 or 10, or add in a Preacher for fearless (and his other boosting powers), a Primaris Psyker with Divination, and you have a blob of death.

Veterans are pretty much the same beast and can, mercifully, still take shotguns. The main story for them is one of ungodly price drops. Their base cost, and most of their doctrines have reduced in cost by quite a bit. At the very least, taking veterans without forward sentries, and/or a Chimera or Taurox is very foolish. They’re a bit of a bargain, and remain the mech spam linchpin they have always been. The somewhat sad story is on the character upgrades front. Bastonne is gone entirely, and Harker has been nerfed to hell and back. Harker no longer makes the unit relentless, he no longer has feel no pain, he no longer gives them infiltrate, stealth and move through cover, oh and he’s exactly the same points cost as he used to be. How dare you buy metal models. Payback is now rending, and he at least does have relentless, but the chance of having placed rending shots isn’t worth all the stuff he’s lost. You can bet if they would have made a new model for him, this guy would have been a bringer of death. As he is, he’s 10 points cheaper than a Wyvern. GW expects you to take the hint.

As far as Dedicated Transports are concerned, there’s a lot of new things. The Chimera is as solid as always, and has actually jumped up in cost (wonder why). Plus there’s the addition of a new transport! The Taurox. Compared to the Chimera, it is at least cheaper, and comes in two flavours: normal Taurox, and Taurox Prime. The Prime is better, but does cost a fair bit more than the Chimera and only services the Militarum Tempestus Squads. Both Tauroxes re-roll dangerous terrain, although only the prime is fast (neither are tanks), and the prime has bigger guns and stuff, which are basically lighter versions of some of the stuff you get in heavy support. The normal Taurox’s one point over the Prime is having 4 fire points over the Prime’s two, but both are weak anyway, and most Guard Veterans will stick to the ubiquitous Chimera, because it still cuts it. Two models (both could be weapon teams) can fire out of its top hatch, it has a fancy lasgun array allowing embarked units to have some lasgun goodness that can split fire at each side. It also allows commanders to issue orders from it, where the Taurox doesn’t. The Taurox is also weaker.

Okay, this is it for Part 1 of the Review. Part 2 will be up shortly.