Monday 21 April 2014

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.

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