What chapter can use which units? What are the unique units?

[Exilyth]

I got myself the last index imperium 1 my FLGS had available.

 

Aside from the option to use techmarines w/conversion beamers, I now have a small overview over the non-codex-space-marine chapters (e.g. blood angels, dark angels, black templars, space wolves).

 

Noticing that some units are not available to some chapters (and that many primaris units are missing from the index), I've been wondering:

 

Is there an overview available over what unit is unique to/usable by/not available for each astartes chapter/codex?

[Terrified Templar]

Well each Codex has an Army List page in the Index which lists the Space Marine Datasheets that carry over but that was at the start of 8th edition and just about all the chapters listed have their own codex now so there is no longer one overarching overview of what units can be taken by what codex. However I think just about everyone can take the new Primaris units now. But unless you want to use Datasheets that are unique to the Index or want to play Deathwatch there isn't really any use for the Index anymore

[Hawklynn]

Black Templars will NEVER take a librarian or other witch. They also do not get scout squads or devastator squads.

[Halandaar]

They also do not get scout squads or devastator squads.

 

This is a lore consideration, not an actual game rule.

 

Is there an overview available over what unit is unique to/usable by/not available for each astartes chapter/codex?

 

Not really, no. The index is probably the closest thing to that, but it's been superseded by each chapter's individual Codex so some of the restrictions in there aren't actually the case any more.

 

What are you looking to find out? Maybe a more specific idea of what you're hoping to achieve might help us assist you better.

[Exilyth]

However I think just about everyone can take the new Primaris units now.

Interesting.

 

Let me guess, Death Watch can take mixed primaris units?

 

Not really, no. The index is probably the closest thing to that, but it's been superseded by each chapter's individual Codex so some of the restrictions in there aren't actually the case any more.

 

What are you looking to find out? Maybe a more specific idea of what you're hoping to achieve might help us assist you better.

I have been contemplating on whether I'd like to play one of the more specialised chapters instead of codex marines.

But I wouldn't want to spend money on a codex just to find out I'd be unable to use half my army with that book.

 

I was just curious if a resource/overview on chapter specific unique units and unit restrictions exists - that would help a lot with the decision.

Judged by the index, some of the restrictions are really hard.

[Medjugorje]

Some restrictions must be in... necessary. They musnt be hard like Codex 4th edtion but a maximum of 1 Devastor or Scout Squad could be a thing.

Maybe make them more expensive then to ohter marines.

[BluejayJunior]

In general, most of the units are the same. There aren't too many that are not usable by the BA/DA/SW, Deathwatch is a little more different and I'm not sure what they are or are not allowed. 

Ironclad dreadnoughts, Centurions, thunderfire cannons are the only units I can think of that are in the Codex Space Marines, but not Blood Angels, Dark Angels, or Space Wolves. 

And then Space Wolves have variants of scouts, tacticals, and devastators that are slightly different, instead of the normal codex options. 

[Lord_Caerolion]

Veterans are different for Space Wolves as well, given they use Wolf Guard instead. Primaris are now identical between all Chapters, though.

[Panzer]

Honestly, just visit the Games Workshop website and sort by Blood Angels etc or take a look at the 1d4chan tactics page for the Codex in question since there all units are listed.

As for the vanilla Codex Chapters all Chapters can use the same units except for Black Templar who can't use Psyker and have their own special Troop unit called Crusader Squads (because they used to have their own Codex at some point in the past).

 

Any Marine army can take any Primaris unit except for Grey Knights for some reason nobody knows (probably because Grey Knights don't use any regular Marine unit so regular Primaris wouldn't fit either). Deathwatch has access to all the Primaris units as well and yes they can mix their units (basis of 5 Intercessors + whatever other Primaris models you want).

[Lord_Caerolion]

I'd say at the next Grey Knight release we'll see Primaris kits released for them. In-universe, I'd say that Cawl might not have had access to the knowledge of their existence.

[Xisor]

Yeah, off the top of my head, the only faction that has thoroughly bizarre (counterintuitive) restrictions is the Deathwatch.

 

E.g. They can take:

Techmarines

Predators

Vindicators

Whirlwind

Stalkers

Hunters

Land Speeders

Scout armour (obv. not 10th Company! But they could pop the armour on...)

Tartaros/Cataphracticii

Gravis Captains

Stormravens/non-Corvus flyers

Apothecaries (but can take Primaris)

Captains on bikes

Centurions

Ironclad Dreadnoughts

 

Now, some are more sensible than others, but really: Aggressors but no Techmarines? Inceptors but no Land Speeders? Primaris Apothecaries but no Apothecaries?

 

Daft.

 

Personally, I think only the hardest restrictions should be enforced (Black Templar's Librarians, Grey Knights/Dark Angels specialisms to the exclusion of other things).

 

For strategems/relics/warlord traits, it should be an easy one in, one out sort of dealio.

 

But this is a bit late in the day to pontificate on that! :D

[Halandaar]

Yeah lots of valid points here, I'll try to collate some;

 

Primaris Space Marines and their supporting vehicles can be taken by every chapter with the following couple of exceptions;

• Black Templars can't take the Primaris Librarian
• Space Wolves can't take the Primaris Apothecary or Chaplain (they get a Primaris Wolf Priest instead, which combines both roles)
• Deathwatch can't take the Primaris Ancient, Gravis Armour Captain or Primaris Lieutenants

Codex Space Marines has a few unique units not available to other chapters, which are;

• Centurion Assault Squads
• Centurion Devastator Squads
• Ironclad Dreadnoughts
• Thunderfire Cannon
• Honour Guard
• Chapter Champion
• Crusader Squad (Black Templars only)

For the most part, the rest of the units in Codex Space Marines are also included in the Blood Angels and Dark Angels books too. The Space Wolves and Deathwatch books are probably the most divergent, but even so, a lot of the units (especially vehicles) are identical across all Codexes. 

 

Blood Angels have the majority of the units from the SM Codex, plus a lot of extra things

• Cannot take the Venerable Dreadnought
• Their Apothecaries go by the name of Sanguinary Novitiate, but are essentially the same.
• Extra units are Sanguinary Priests, Sanguinary Guard, Sanguinary Ancient, Terminator Ancient, Death Company, Death COmpany Dreadnought, Furioso Dreadnought, Librarian Dreadnought, Baal Predator

Dark Angels

• All their "Master" units ("Master in Terminator Armour, Master in Gravis Armour" etc) are just Captains by another name.
• Several units are functionally the same as those in the Codex, but with extra Dark Angel-ey names; Ravenwing Bike Squad, Ravenwing Land Speeders, Ravenwing Attack Bikes, Deathwing Tartaros Terminators and Deathwing Cataphractii are essentially the same as their C:SM counterparts.
• They don't have distinct Terminator and Assault Terminator Squads; they have the single "Deathwing Terminator Squad" unit which can mix and match ranged and melee weapons.
• They can't take the Stormhawk Interceptor or Stormtalon Gunship, but have unique flyers of their own; the Ravenwing Dark Talon and Nephilim Jetfighter.
• On top of the C:SM units, they can take Interrogator-Chaplains, Deathwing Apothecaries, Deathwing Ancients, Deathwing Champions, Deathwing Knights, Ravenwing Apothecaries, Ravenwing Ancients, Ravenwing Champions, Ravenwing Black Knights, Ravenwing Darkshrouds and Land Speeder Vengeance.

Space Wolves are a bit different in that almost all of their infantry units differ from the SM Codex in some way, whether that's their loadouts or their individual statlines. In model terms, you could still use a Tactical Squad to represent Grey Hunters, for example.

• They cannot take Tactical, Assault, Bike or Devastator Squads, with those roles broadly filled by Grey Hunters, Skyclaws, Swiftclaws and Long Fangs respectively. They also have access to a dedicated melee Troop unit, Blood Claws. All the "Claws" units have worse shooting capability than your average Space Marine, which is what makes them different, whilst Grey Hunters can take extra melee weapons to make them a bit punchier than a Tactical Squad.
• The get no Company, Sternguard or Vanguard Veterans, nor Terminator Squads, and instead have access to Wolf Guard and Wolf Guard Terminators.
• Almost every infantry unit can take a Wolf Guard or Wolf Guard Terminator as a Squad Leader.
• Their Librarians go by the name "Rune Priests", Lieutenants are called "Battle Leaders" and Techmarines are called "Iron Priests", but all are more or less the same as their C:SM equivalents.
• The have no Chaplains or Apothecaries and instead have "Wolf Priests", which combine both roles into a single unit.
• They can't take the Stormraven or Stormtalon, and instead have unique flyers, the Stormwolf and Stormfang Gunship.
• They have access to Wulfen, Wulfen Dreadnoughts, Thunderwolf Cavalry and Fenrisian Wolves.

Deathwatch 

• They cannot take Tactical Squads, Scout Squads, Assault Squads, Devastator Squads, Company Veterans or Sternguard Veterans. All those infantry units are replaced with the single, multi-purpose unit; Kill Team Veterans.
• They don't have separate Terminator or Assault Terminator Squads, but a single unit which can mix and match ranged and melee weapons. Tartaros and Cataphactii squads are not allowed.
• Bikers are available, but Scout Bikers and Attack Bikes are not.
• Terminators, Bikers and Vanguard Veterans can be added individually to Kill Teams to grant it extra rules.
• Similarly, Inceptors, Hellblasters and Aggressors can be added to Intercessor units to grant them extra rules.
• Ancients, Lieutenants, Champions and Techmarines (and Servitors) are all unavailable. Apothecaries are disallowed, but Primaris Apothecaries are not.
• Some specific Captain models, namely the Cataphractii Captain and Captain in Gravis Armour are also not allowed.
• There is a unique character type, the Watch Master.
• Any vehicle incapable of transporting troops is not allowed, so no Hunters, Stalkers, Predators, Vindicators, Whirlwinds, Land Speeders, Stormtalons or Stormhawks for you.
• In addition, the Stormraven is unavailable, replaced with the Deathwatch-unique Corvus Blackstar.

 

Pretty sure there's a bunch of stuff I missed, but hopefully this helps you see what can be transposed from your current collection into other Codexes.

[Ishagu]

TC, you'd be better off hosing a chapter and buying the relevant codex book.

[Exilyth]

Honestly, just visit the Games Workshop website and sort by Blood Angels etc or take a look at the 1d4chan tactics page for the Codex in question since there all units are listed.

I was hoping I could avoid the former and the later is a bit unreliable due to edit wars.

 

Yeah lots of valid points here, I'll try to collate some;

Thank you, that's really helpfull.

 

I'll have to take some time to think about the info provided.

[Panzer]

 

Honestly, just visit the Games Workshop website and sort by Blood Angels etc or take a look at the 1d4chan tactics page for the Codex in question since there all units are listed.

I was hoping I could avoid the former and the later is a bit unreliable due to edit wars.

 

 

You make it sound worse than it is. People can edit a lot on 1d4chan but they don't remove existing units or add not existing units to the list. It's only evaluation of those units they edit. So since you're looking only for a list of units it should be perfectly fine for you.

[Medicinal Carrots]

You could play around on the Combat Roster:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/combat-roster/

 

No stats, rules, or points, but you can at least see what datasheets are available to each faction.

[Exilyth]

Thanks everyone.

 

Looks like I can rule out blood "assault-and-rage" angels as too meelee centric for my taste.

 

I think I'll be able find the other information I'll need on the specific subforums.

[Leonaides]

Well that all depends... they can make a pretty nasty shooting force that also happens to be better in melee than an equivalent codex chapter.

[Lord_Caerolion]

Yeah, they don't cost any more than a normal Marine, so you can make a shooty army that's got a bit of extra deterrence if people try to get up close.

[Panzer]

Just to be fair, Blood Angels don't do shooting any better than the most basic vanilla chapter since they don't have any special unit, loadout, Stratagem or Chapter tactic to help with shooting. They do shooting like a Marine army and you can focus on it like with any other Marine army but you won't be as good as the actual shooty armies and not as good as the better shooty Marine armies.

What Blood Angels can do well is melee and how you are supposed to build a Blood Angels army is having 2-3 melee hammers (JP Captain, Mephiston, Deathcompany, Sanguinary Guard and/or Vanguard Veterans) supported by okay-ish shooting. They aren't World Eaters or Orks or something like that after all. ;)