Thoridon

"As far as the Terminators go, we had the original design by Jes Goodwin, and that was a big influence on the five new miniatures in the Leviathan boxed set. The job of designing the multi-build kit was then passed to me, so I had a lot to work from, and we had to think of all the things people would want – it always baffled us that the Sergeant couldn’t be armed with a power fist, for example." Terminator sergeant no longer locked into the power sword? I sure hope that's what they're saying!

I think access to the 7 main detachments, plus our own unique option, without any restrictions/requirements will be great. It's nice that they're letting us play as whatever 'flavour' we prefer, without being forced to use x number of a certain unit in order to unlock things. It's probably going to mean that I use different detachments in different games, as I tend to mix up my army composition to use different units from my collection. I do like the sound of Stormlance, as getting units into easy charge range is a big thing for me when I go melee heavy. It'll probably be one of the first I try. I'd expect Vanguard to be popular in tournaments, given how strong shooty armies tend to be. As for the new Jump Assault Intercessors, I think it's nice that we have them but it's another variant of bolter and/or chainsword marine, of which we already have bucket loads. I'll probably run some in an anti-infantry role, but assuming they allow our Death Company to use that jump loadout I'm more likely to run them in black and red - depending on the points difference. As Intercessors and DC Intercessors are the same points I don't see why a jump unit wouldn't also be the same. I guess the main advantage of the regular version is having the OC to move quickly onto objectives without needing a chaplain. Fixed loadouts definitely helps for the points balancing with the system in 10th, and it does speed up games when you're not rolling dice for 7 different weapon types in a squad of 10. It just means we need to look more towards vehicles and fire support for high strength damage output, where before we could 'hide' extra fists/hammers. Probably better for the game overall, less fun from the hobby/building perspective.

Access to the main Codex detachments confirmed: Each Chapter of Space Marines has their preferred ways of fighting, from the massed jump pack assaults of the Blood Angels to the disciplined firing lines of Imperial Fists. However, all Space Marines are drilled day and night to fight in whichever way fits the mission best, and that’s why in the upcoming Codex: Space Marines all seven Detachments can be adopted by any Chapter that sees fit. Stormlance does look nice for the charge after advance/fall back. I'll definitely give that a go to see how it feels for different units. The evasion stratagem could be rather handy too, especially for a slower unit like aggressors or terminators. https://www.warhammer-community.com/2023/09/21/codex-space-marines-the-new-detachments-arent-just-for-the-first-founding-chapters/

This is definitely my preferred approach. Negatives just feel bad, and lead to narrow builds as you avoid anything that's made weaker. Having a couple of bonuses that apply to specific situations without penalising other units allows you to mix things more without feeling punished for doing so, while at the same time providing that carrot if you want to focus more on that aspect at the risk of putting all your eggs in one basket. Personally I think our existing Index detachment will remain the same after the marine Codex is out as our unique option, and then we'll get to choose from any in the main Codex. That would mean anyone who wants an armoured BA army can play that, anyone who wants a gunline build can go that route and for those of us evidently obsessed with grumpy jump infantry there would be options for either extra maneuverability or extra potential damage output. I just don't know what they can do with a BA supplement to make us pay for that. All I could really see them do is merge the current Index datasheets with copy/pasted lore and art from the 9th supplement, add a page of current points at the back and charge £25 for something that already exists. Probably justified by adding the option for Death Company to use the new Jump Intercessor build while at the same time moving the older DC kit to Legends (but that's another topic). I'll be surprised if we get a full BA Codex with extra unique detachments besides Sons of Sanguinius.

If the new leaks are accurate it seems like there might be a detachment providing both of those in the main Marine codex, which would certainly be handy to help get units into combat easier.

A fantastic army :) There's a lot of character in those old models and all the conversion work is fantastic. Really putting your own mark on them!

Devastators can also put themselves up to 48" away in cover and potentially attack from turn 1. Melee infantry have to cross the board over multiple turns and avoid being tarpitted/intercepted en route. If you get to charge in turn 3 and then hit like a wet noodle, failing all your attacks needing 5s on the single power fist the squad is allowed to equip on the sergeant, it's all risk and no reward.

That's the key thing for me. Before it was probably too easy for multiple melee weapons to damage tanks but at least there was an option. Now with even fists and hammers wounding on 5s it feels like there is no option to build a melee unit to hunt tanks/monsters, it's mostly masses of S4 and then a few things that get a bit more strength and extra point of damage to be effective against tougher elite infantry. As you say, chainfists exist but we can only get those on Terminators and they're not exactly fast. It would be nice if they were an option to give to Vanguard Vets or Death Company (and not just 1 per 5). I feel there should be an option to equip a melee unit with anti-vehicle weapons, accepting the tradeoff that they'd be less effective against infantry as a result - the same way you can build a tank with loads of lascannons or loads of heavy bolters and assault cannons depending on the role you want it to fill. If we can build our tanks as anti-vehicle or anti-infantry specialists why can't we do the same with the elite melee marines in the chapter? Edit: And I should add that I really like how tougher tanks and monsters are now, it just feels like we're missing a melee option to counter them.

It's nice to finally get jump pack assault intercessors, but they're unit #1472 equipped with some mix of bolters and/or chainswords. Great if you're up against an infantry swarm, not so much if you need to destroy tanks and monsters. When the Codex arrives I can now see them dropping the old Death Company units to Legends and just allowing us to use any of the 3 Intercessor builds (Intercessor, Assault and Jump Pack) as Death Company by painting them black and putting some red crosses on in return for a 6+ FnP and Black Rage. Again, fantastic for anti-infantry but they'd lack any punch against tough stuff. There's no reason for them to keep the old models in the codex/supplement now they have a jump pack squad available, and they've been moving away from all the weapon options to the old DC units are prime targets for Legends. I think long term it's probably a good call that Bladeguard Vets will be the elite foot melee unit and there might be a new Vanguard Vet unit as the elite jump pack melee unit when the main SM codex lands. Even if that's the case I'd only expect them to get generic "power weapons" across the board, or maybe relic blades the same as our Sanguinary Guard. A nice boost to take on elite infantry but still not enough to go after tanks. It feels like our infantry squads are relegated to anti-infantry roles in 10th (with some elite units being better for killing enemy elite infantry) and anti-vehicle/monster duties need to be performed by long range anti-tank weaponry (or the occasional special character strong enough to make a dent).

In theory I've lost a lot of my painted army for any competitive play simply due to how long my Marine collection dates back to but I'm not really too bothered by it. 1. I much prefer the 'Primaris' scale; Marines look like Marines, not normal humans with extra armour. 2. I've always assumed all older models will be replaced or become Legends once they started that rollout, I just didn't know how long it would take. For those reasons I've only bought Primaris since they launched in 8th, besides a couple of older units to round out a few squads. The main thing for me is I still have a lot of the newer stuff unpainted so if they announced that all remaining firstborn are off to pasture I'd have to pull my finger out and get some more painted quicker. As it is I'll likely still use a bunch of things in friendly games (such as Land Speeders) as they have rules to use and I still enjoy using them. Some units I might try to modify a bit and mix in with the new models, like upscaling some veterans into extra Sternguard. Ultimately I'd already accepted that my older models were on borrowed time. Anything I can't modify to mix in with Primaris or run as a Legend will take their place on the shelf of nostalgia. If you have 10,000 points of stuff and use 2000 for a game there's a lot that stays on the shelf anyway! I still enjoyed collecting and painting the older stuff. I didn't get rid of the old Mephiston when he got a new model, or Dante with his new model released. I'll just have a significantly larger portion of the non-playable section of my BA collection.

I probably should've built my Leviathan, Deredeo and Storm Eagle a bit sooner... Oh well, can still run them in friendly games when I do get round to building and painting them :)

As Cleon said, having extra anti-tank units is a must for me. A lone Predator is easily taken out but if it's one unit alongside others with similar weaponry it forces some decisions in target choice. I have an Annihilator as my oldest 40k vehicle and I have to say it is one of the vehicles I take more regularly than others. Part of that is probably nostalgia but I do like the mobile platform with 4 lascannons. Some games it takes a load of fire early and blows up without doing much, other games everything it fires seems to hit and roll well for damage. Even with 4 lascannons it's a bit of an RNG machine in that regard so I tend to view it as sort of an anti-tank casino. If it rolls well, awesome! If it rolls badly or gets blown up early, hopefully something else got to do damage instead. At the cost I feel it's not a major loss if it's a priority target for the enemy but at the same time if they ignore it to go after other targets it can put out some serious damage over the course of a few turns. I used to camp a Captain nearby for the reroll aura but with that changed in 9th I've not felt the need to 'tether' it to anything, which is actually nice and freeing.

As someone who also got back into the hobby after a long break, here are my suggestions: 1. Paints Vallejo are great for getting back into painting, particularly the model colour range. Cheaper than Citadel paints, a dropper rather than their annoying flip lids and the paint quality is generally very good for an all-round acrylic. There are other brands like Scale 75, Kimera and so on which have different properties and excellent uses for display painting but as a workhorse paint you can't go wrong with Vallejo. When it comes to metallic paints I highly recommend the Vallejo Metal Color (not the metallics from their normal ranges). The paint just goes on so smooth without the grainy pigment you tend to get with Citadel metallics. As others have said, Citadel Contrast paints are fantastic for getting through armies, depending on what you want to paint. Rather than get a whole load I'd target specific things: I really like gulliman flesh for quickly doing loads of Imperial Guard faces, for example. A couple of colours could make a very quick and easy Tyranid colour scheme with their texture detail. Essentially anything with depth to it will be effective. Where I (personally) wouldn't use it is Space Marine armour and vehicles, as the bigger surfaces lack the texture to make it work properly and you end up with pooling. 2. Air Brush These can often be a love it or hate it. From my perspective I find that an airbrush has been brilliant for Space Marine vehicles as you get a much smoother finish on the big flat surfaces than you could painting with a brush. That said, they do require plenty of cleaning so it's not something I like to use for smaller models with lots of colour switching. When it comes to a big tank or flier where I want a base layer and a couple of highlight coats I think they're fantastic. You can also use them effectively on anything like Marines or Tau that are mostly monocolour for batch painting the main colours of unit armour, then go in after with a brush for the details. On the subject of brushes I'd try to get a few kolinsky sable brushes (a smaller, medium and large) for normal paints. They don't need to be W&N, there are plenty of cheaper sables out there that still give much better control than synthetics. But when it comes to metallic paints, save some heartache and use cheap synthetics. 3. Videos As Bung said in the first reply, Vincent Venturella has a brilliant Hobby Cheating video series on Youtube. Hundreds of videos showing different things. Rather than "How to paint this model" it's more "How to paint effective skintones" or "How to create a good base". If there's anything you're not confident with he probably has a video on that topic with some tips.

I've used Tornadoes a few times in 9th and quite enjoyed them. When I've used them it's typically been a pair each with assault cannon + heavy bolter, using their speed to zip around and soften up infantry. They might not be the most competitive unit but they fit with how I like BA to play, fast and mobile. I like this combination more than the standard land speeder in this role as they can use the pair of weapons up to 24" at full effectiveness without having to worry about getting closer, reducing the chance of being wiped out after moving into position. I feel the heavy flamer isn't strong enough vs the assault cannon to justify having to get much closer and with the multi-melta instead of a heavy bolter I'd be looking at a tougher target, getting within 12" for the extra damage and expecting it to be destroyed the following turn as a sort of one-shot mobile cannon. That still has its use, but then I'd probably look at the standard variant without the extra cost of the 2nd weapon if I'm using it as a glass cannon.

They'll need reboxing with the new sprue and logo etc. so they can easily rename them to "Astra Militarum Infantry Squad" instead of being Cadian, the same way most Space Marine units are generic. That way the Cadian style can simply be the generic infantry uniform and anything unique like Catachans can have their special name.