So the new guard FAQ is up and while there's nothing earth shattering in it, there are a few annoying points.

First on the list is that Cadian and DKoK can no longer take two of the same special weapons. It's not a massive surprise that this is the case, however, I was really hoping that it wouldn't change,as it did keep some of the Veteran Squads rules and playability alive. With this change it has completely removed any last bit of the old guard platoon structure.

The next few changes are simple clarifications or just cleaning up wording. Plasma cannons now do mortal wounds to units not individual models, thus no longer break the only one model per unit taking wounds rule. The Valkyrie charge \ being charged rules are brought in line with everything else, I'd have to check what it said but this is what I assumed it would be anyway. The third is changing the new aegis defence line to obstacle terrain rather than area terrain, which makes a lot more sense and is a lot more playable. 

The last change is to correct the wording for the tempestor's weapons options in the Militarum Scion squads. 

So nothing that going to significantly change anything for me, just annoying that I'll have to rejig some of my squads again to get them to fit the new 'new' squad options.

The questions are actually pretty sensible questions for once, although only two of the questions are really relevant to me. The first is the mobile command ability of chimeras and confirmation that you can issue orders when in the chimera and also the one when you disembark, which is nice. This means that you can get addition orders off from your command squads, which can be useful. The other question, or rather two questions, that is useful relate to the field promotion stratagem. Now this is how I viewed the answers but at least it's nice to have confirmation. So, with the stratagem you need to choose a completely new warlord for your new commander. In addition, there is little point in choosing 'old grudges' as it doesn't let you select a target for the grudge, as that happens at the start of the first battle round. 

One other question that might come up occasionally is about abilities that let you choose additional doctrines for units, such as Kasrkin. This clarifies that you can pick one of the doctrines, trophy hunters, even though it normally takes up both doctrine slots, so effectively you could have the equivalent of 4 doctrine slots on a squad or vehicle. 

The last question is about Creeds orders ability and basically states you can't have your cake and eat it. If the order that triggers the ability stops for some reason, so does the ability, which seems pretty straight forward to me and seeing as I don't plan on using her anytime soon, not something I have to worry about. 

 I'll start with a warning, this is very text heavy and long!

So there have been a few more rumours floating around about the new guard codex and while a lot of these are still very rough and vague I still thought that I might put down a few thoughts about the rumours. To be honest I'm not liking a number of these rumours and hope that most of them don't turn out to be true but I suspect that I will be very disappointed with the new book.

The codex itself is apparently slated for Feb 2023! Were supposed to be getting a new edition in June 2023, just 4 months later! I'm really disappointed by this possibility, to be looking at having waited over 5 and a half years for a codex only to have a new edition drop just months after feels really bad. There is some hope for us though, as there is talk that the codex has been set up for the next edition, so all might not be lost. In addition part of this late release has been due to issues balancing the codex, not just internally but with other codices. There have apparently been multiple rewrites as it was initially far to powerful, this might be because they are trying to make to codex more elite, more of a Cadian Veterans codex rather than the mass recruits it has been. Personally I really don't like this idea and hope that they don't try and take it more elite. The guard should be about mass ranks of poorly trained and equipped soldiers charging across no-mans land and bayoneting the enemy. 

To this end they are supposed to have removed all the custom regiment traits options and skinned it down to just a handful of options, some sources say just 4 options, Cadian, Tanith, Kreig and Catachan. This sounds like a terrible idea and one I'm not sure about. I haven't read the new Votann book but there are apparently custom traits in there, so I find it strange that they would have removed the guard ones if the new squats have them. I could understand reducing the number of options or restricting the options but I can't see them removing them completely. As for only having 4 options for regiments, I don't see this either. We didn't have masses of them anyway, really just 7 for guard and 7 for scions, which is similar to most other codicies. Considering the guard as as varied and different as can possibly be, limiting the options to 4 seems very odd. One thing that could be said to off set this is the rumour that we can mix and match regiments traits within the army. Now there doesn't seem to be any specifics about how this will.work.but I figure that it will.work one of two ways, either you will choose a key word, say infantry, and all of the infantry will receive X trait and all vehicles will receive Y traits or we will be able to bring multiple patrol (and maybe spearhead) detachments in an army without costing any CP's, as long as certain conditions are met. I don't see us being able to just give every different unit a different trait and having one infantry squad having one trait and the next squad a completely different one. That would just be far to complicate and potentially overly powerful. 

Alongside these changes there are a number of changes to units, some sound good but most sound terrible. First up there are a number of units that are said to be deleted from the book, namely veteran squads, special weapons squads and conscripts. Now I could see them removing special weapons squads but the others? Veteran squads have been part of the codex since the beginning and are deeply ingrained in the lore of the guard as are conscripts. I could see them modifying both units slightly but not removing them altogether. All three of these units can be made from the standard infantry boxsets so it's not like they don't have official models, so are removed for that reason. I was disappointed to loose our platoons but at least we kept the various units but if we loose these units the old guard is well and truly dead.

As well as loosing units, our basic infantry squad is supposed to be getting an overhaul and not in a good way. We are to loose the ability to take heavy weapons in squads, probably due to there not being heavy weapons in the basic infantry box but we are to gain an extra special weapon instead. This changes the way infantry squads have always operated and will also invalidate a large chunk of.my own squads! Back in the day infantry squads use to be sold with heavy weapons, that's how fundamental they were to the squads, so to remove them just doesn't sit well with me. The extra special weapon I guess is to compensate for this and also for the removal of veteran squads as well. Personally I think it's a bad move.

The next is less of a removal and more of a side step. Heavy weapons squads are out and Field Ordinance Batteries (hence forth F.O.B's) are in. There are two separate rumours floating around about this, the first is that heavy weapons squads are out and that the new F.O.B's are in but not as a direct replacement. The new units will be a heavier version with heavy heavier weapons, such as the heavy mortar and laser destroyers. The second rumour is that it's just a straight name swap with some minor rules changes, potentially updated weapons profiles. I think this latter rumour is more likely due to the leaked image we saw a few weeks back, where you could see some heavy weapons teams on the background, all of which looked like slightly updated models of the current teams. All I can say is that I hope we get plasma cannons or multimeltas in the new kits, as it would be nice to finally get some! Apart from that, I don't think going from heavy weapons squads to F.O.B's will make much difference.

Another unit change is to tank commanders, which are said to be moving from bs3 to bs4 but with a plus one to hit with turret weapons. This seems like a bit of a silly change and completely unnecessary. Tank commanders are not going to be better commander but better crews as well, they'll have the best drivers, gunners and kit, so having them all be bs3 makes sense, changing them to bs4 doesn't make sense, and the plus one to hit makes even less. If they are trying to nerf tank commanders why not just make them a one per detachment unit, that would reduce their impact on the table top and keep in with the fluff, a lot more efficient that messing with their bs. 

Now on to the few good changes to the codex, although it's a bit of a stretch to say even that! I guess it's more just not bad changes than good ones. Anyway, firstly there is the changes to command squads, with the combined command squad back again, with officers being in a unit with the rest of the command squad, like it use to be. In addition the whole unit will gain the character keyword, which will increase survivability significantly. I wonder if they will bring the other advisers back in to the squad as well, although si suspect that they won't and will leave them as individual characters as they are. 

The scions as said to receive a boost as well, with their lasguns going from 18 to 24 inch range as standard with exploding 6's to hit. While I think the first part is welcome, I wonder if the second will be a standard feature or part of a doctrine. I would be surprised is it was a standard thing rather than part of a doctrine but I'll take it either way.

Lastly we have the deathstrike, which is apparently going to receive a significant boost to bring it more inline with where it should always have been, with the ability to dish out multiple mortal wounds across a wide number of units, doing significant damage to an energy army. The only down side is that there is supposed to be an equally significant price hike but I'm perfectly happy with that, the deathstrike should always have been a very expensive but hugely powerful weapon of mass destruction that was feared by your enemy.

In addition to the changes to the units in the codex there are a number of units that are not in the codex but will make an appearance. There seems to be three new units that are pretty much confirmed, these being the new Rough Riders, Kasrkins and the new Royal Dorn tank. However, there now seems to be some extra information on some of these. The Kasrkins are all but confirmed as a Kill Team release for I to the dark and it seems that we will see them in either 3 or 6 months time with a main box release, which if it's in 6 months that would tie in with the new guard codex release, however, I suspect that it will be the one in 3 months, ready for the Xmas release to drive up some hype for the codex in the new year. The other information is about the Rogal Dorn tank which is apparently actually called the Praetorian tank, as Rogal Dorn was the Praetorian of Terra. I for one think that Praetorian is significantly better than Rogal Dorn.

Lastly there is some talk of the new Combat Patrol box for guard. The box is said to have a command squad, two Cadian infantry squads, a field ordinance battery and a sentinel. Now this sounds very light on points to me. Currently a company commander, command squad, two infantry squads, a heavy weapons squad and a sentinel only costs 280 points with most upgrades being free. A combat patrol box is supposed to be around 500 points, maybe with a few upgrades to make the points but there is no way you could make 220 points in upgrades on these units. The only way you could reduce that gap is to increase the points significantly, which would basically mean your running t3 space marines. Which is just rubbish. I think there either has to be the new tank in there or were barking up the wrong tree all together.

All this considered I am really worried about where the next guard codex maybe taking us. Thai is the first time I can remember being genuinely worried about the upcoming codex and worried for the future of my forces, which may find themselves invalidated overnight. I hope that many of these rumours prove to be inaccurate or ever outright false, however I suspect that many of them will be accurate, far more than I would like. 

 

So, I received my codex on Monday and I have had a good look through. Firstly, I think the codex is excellent, I really like the way it is laid out, especially all the unit entries. Its something that I have always thought was odd about the Index, why was everything all over the place. I haven't read through all the fluff yet, there is a lot of it. What I have read, its really good.

Now, I know that there have been a number of points reductions and some other rules alterations but I will go into them in more detail when I go through the various entries over the next few posts. What I will go into quickly is the changes that have jumped out at me as I went through the book. Now these are in no particular order, just as I noticed as I jumped around the book.

First up, is the alteration to power weapons. Now, this is annoying as I had armed a few of my models with power mauls, which are really my weapon of choice for guard characters. What am I going on about? Well, power axes and power mauls are no longer part of the Melee weapons list. I remember a time when it was pretty much a must have to arm your Sgts with power axes. Personally, I've always preferred the power maul for the extra strength, up to strength 5, meaning its a 3+ to wound marines, which is always useful. Alas, you can no longer take either an axe or maul, only fists and swords. I'm not sure why they have been removed, I would have at least though that the mauls would have remained, but then I guess that they don't actually do a power maul model. Oh well, power swords it is then.


One other thing I noticed on the war gear list was the vehicle list, a new addition and the stand out item on the list was the Track Guards. This means that even when you take damage, your movement characteristics don't degrade as well, just your ballistic skill. This is great, unless your taking the Valhallan doctrine, then its useless. This is definatly something I will be looking at taking on a couple of vehicles.

Next up, I checked out a couple of units. The first one I had to check out was the Ogryrn Bodyguard. Now this is a unit that I am really interested in adding to my army list, well, actually I am thinking of adding a couple. I was planning to add just the Bullgryn variants, but then I noticed that they have changed the profile for the ripper gun. I was quite excited by the fact that it now has a melee profile. Its not the best weapons profile but it does have a -1 ap which is always useful. However, as good as this is, the bodyguard come with a Huge Knife, which is still -1 ap but is 2 damage, which is great. So, the Ripper armed Ogryn bodyguard with Huge Knife is actually not a bad option. I'll have to check, but if you can take multiple bodyguards for each character, then one shooty one and one with maul and shield would fit the bill perfectly. I think that a box of Ogryns are definitely on the Christmas list.

The next unit to mention is not one that's in the codex. Rough Riders. These have been something that I wanted to get for a while but now, they no longer exist and so they will never form part of the Hrossey Yeomanry. Its a shame, I was really hoping that they would get some buffs in this codex and be reinvigorated for the new edition.

Now comes the Conscripts and there well published alterations. There isn't a lot to say here, yes they have been hit a bit, but is it good enough? I don't know and I don't really care, I don't run conscripts or play in high level tournaments. I can see why people don't like them but we'll see what the changes actually do to there effectiveness on the table.

One thing that I didn't notice, but was brought to my attention on the Xeno Vids YouTube channel. He was putting together a list from the new codex and he mentioned Valkyries and the MRP's being Assault D6. Assault? Now that was interesting, as they were heavy. This now means that they don't suffer a negative hit modifier when they move, which I very useful. Hitting on a 5 rather than a 4 makes quite a difference. This means that they will definitely a be featuring on the table top during my games. A good change as far as i'm concerned.


The one thing that i'm not happy about is that there is still no choice for Carapace armour. I always took this option on my command squads and on my veterans, as that change to a 4+ save made a huge difference and still would. Why it has been removed, I'm not sure, as it doesn't require any extra models or options. Its a shame as it was a good option. The other thing I don't understand, why have they removed the options for veterans? I didn't think that these were overpowered or anything and they added a flavour to the unit. Ok so the doctrines and stratagems now do some of this, but the options added something to the individual units.

Lastly, Defenders of Humanity, or objective secured as it was known before. This was not unexpected and wasn't what caught my eye, all troops in all detachments as objective secured, but in a Spearhead detachment, Leman Russ tanks are also a objective secured. This is great, as it means that you can still run a full armoured company and have objective secured.

These are just my initial thoughts and i'm going to go through all the entries over the next couple weeks, so will be in more detail than others and I may split up some of the various battlefield roles in to multiply posts, as some of them are quite big. I'll look into any changes that may have occurred between the index entries and the codex entries and give you thoughts on the units.