8th edition thoughts

8th edition is well and truly on its way, there is no denying that. I could go over everything that has been published in the last week or so, but I've read over half a dozen blog posts all covering g the same ground. So i thought that I would do things slightly differently with my take on the new 8th edition. This post will basically cover the main points I have, whether they are issues or praise, but also look back over the little run of posts I did a week or so ago, about what Id like to see or expected from 8th.

Now, I usually like to get the negatives it of the way first, so I will and surprisingly there are currently very few of them. My biggest gripe so far though is charging, or more specifically, the fact that the charger goes first. I have always thought that the current system needed some adjustment, but on the whole did alright. The new system just doesn't sit well with me, from a game play view, its very simple, too simple, and from a fluff point its just rubbish. Ok, an ork charging a guardsmen maybe able to get the jump, but a howling banshee or wytch? So now my charging guardsmen will be able to surprise those genesteelers or the group of khorne dogs. It just doesn't sit right with me yet, hopefully it will make more sense when weave the full rules, but right now I think its a change for the worse. On other thing about combat that worries me, is with the release of some example profiles the have gotten rid of initiative values, so what will happen in subsiquest rounds of combat? Who goes first, the charger still or the player whoose turn it is? I guess some of the AoS players will be able to answer this one.

Another change for the worse, is getting rid of templates. Now I understand why they are doing this, but it seems to be based primarily around tournament players wishes. It also leads to some odd situations, as in one game I had a platoon command squad with 4 flamers attacking 1 bloke, as that was the only available target. Naturally, I got 4 hits and rolled to wound, but with out templates? I might have missed, assuming your going to have to hit, or might have got 12 hits, assuming d3 each, from 4 weapons shooting once each. Then there is the fact that does this mean that flamers will now be able to shoot through their own troops without penalty? At least that means I can hide my flamers at the back now.

Edit: why, oh why, do you do this to me GW? So I spent some time writing this on Wednesday, only for GW to release an article on weapons, one of which was the Flamer. So it will in deed be a d6 hits, which automatically hit a specified unit, and you can inflict multiple wounds on a single model. So, with the PCS I could get 24 hits, all on one model, which seems a bit silly. It so indeed mean I can hide the flamers in a unit, but with only an 8 inch range, they'll still need to be near the front.

The other issues that if I fired a large blast at a vehicle, I could also hit the squad next door, as in real life when the shrapnel goes everywhere, but does this mean that the shot will only hit the vehicle and nothing else? So no cleaver positioning of templates to think about, no calculated risk about how close to shoot? Also no punishing an opponent for bunching up his squads. Oh, and then there are things like artillery and my precious wyverns. How will these work? Pick a target and only hit them, even if there standing in the middle of a mass of troops? I really need more info on this, as its really not clear to me yet what will happen.

The final thing that has me worried at the moment is really a basic one and I hope will be cleared up quite quickly, and thats the role of flyers. Now with Death from the Sky's, flyers got a whole lot more complex and there were a whole lot of rules added, rules we chose to ignore, but what will they be like now? Will my vendetta be able to forfil it proper role of aerial sniper and what will become of the valkyries MRP's with the changes to templates. Which has raised another question in my mind as I type. Will template weapons now be able to hit flyers? Obviously they can't now, but with no templates? Is there anything to stop my flamers from toasting  hell turkey? Or my mortars from downing a storm talon?

So, really its not all doom and gloom, far from it. A lot of the stuff coming out about 8th looks good. I like fact that save modifiers are back, plus hopefully BS and WS modifiers. Movement values are good to, takes me right back to my early days of 2nd edition.

But what does this do to my thoughts about the various imperial armies I run or plan to run? Well, the big one is that the codices are not going to be what they were. Ill still look at picking up various ones, AM and BA for sure, maybe even the MT and DA ones, but they ate not going to be the be all and end all they were. The other books, whatever they will be called will take over there, the 5 of them to start with. But what will the 5 be? Marines, chaos, elder, non-marine imperials and other? That does leave a lot in the 'other' book, but I don't believe they would split up factions across books. Plus there is talk of new races, maybe even on launch, here's hoping for dark mechanicus and evil Tau (as in 'for the individual' ).

Hopefully with this new setup it will help with a few weaknesses within some of the current codices. I assume that guard, scions, sisters and the like will be in one book, possibly with the mechanicus, and as such there maybe options to mix and match things. In terms of actual units, the guard might be one of the bigger winners, as quite a few units are overpriced or under supported. Ogryns are the first that spring to mind, as do rough riders (assuming they will not be removed sometime soon) but this may also help things like sentinels and the various chimera chassis vehicles, both of which have armour 10 and are very prone to massed bolster fire. The same goes for the Russ variants, and front and side armour is excellent, but rear is useless. So won around toughness value should help.

The blood angles should be helped by the new charge rules and if they keep many of their other rules/chapter tactics, then they should be able to play as they should. The Dark angles will also get a lift with 2 wound terminator's but we'll have to see what happens with bikes. The ap modifiers will be a bit annoying for them, as the willno doubt be a lot +1 or +2 modifiers out there. Although, if a lascannon is only +3, there may not be many, as this would still give a 5+ save, something they didn't have before.

The two big worries I have aboutmy armies though is that I'm painting up my Knights and the Hjaltland are finished. If there is to many changes, theres going to be quite a bit more brush work to do. Then there is the fluff. I wonder if I'm going to have to change my fluff, again, to fit the new FOC.

Well, this is starting to turn in to a rant so ill end it here and there really is only going to be one way to find out for sure, but we might have to wait over a month for that one!

Marine WiP 2

So I got some more brush time the other day and decided to concentrate on one set of models. The first set I laid my hands on happened to be the Emperors Disciples, so I ran with it. Now, the two models are a sternguard and a command squad and I felt that I needed to give them something extra from the base marine.

The base marine color scheme.

I know I needed to change a few bits, the yellow eyes really don't work! But overall I like the scheme. So, my first attempts looked something like this;

Models primed and base colors painted.

The sternguard on the left looks ok, the robe needs some work and there's some details, metal chains and stuff that need painting, but on the whole, I like it. I think that I will be taking this scheme through it the rest of the sternguard. The command squad model however, looks off and its all down to the helmet. It just looks rubbish, like a big yellow melon plonked on the top, it really had to go.

Take 2.

With the main helmet blue again and also the back pack toned down, two yellow stripes rather than a big block of color, and I think the model sits a lot better. It will still stand out, as both fists are yellow, not just the left. 

Although both models are not finished, needing the details filling out, chains, badges and markings at the very least, I'm pretty happy with the colors, the only thing that may change is the yellow robe, it may end up red, but that's still to be decided. Hopefully ill get some time soon to finish these two models off.

While I was waiting for paint to dry, I based these two models, the left in Ratskin flesh and the right in Jeakero orange, as there supposed to be different colors (at lest they are on the chart I found). However, they look the same to me! In the daylight, there is a subtle difference though, the orange is, well, more orange and slightly lighter, but I'm still not convinced. Next up will be painting Troll Slayer orange on top of both of them to see how they look then.

Ill let you know when I get around to it!

The lost game - Hjaltland LI vs Necrons

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that blogger had decided to delete the text of one of my posts. To be fair, it wasn't all bloggers fault, I tried to undo some typing and used the key short cut (ctrl + z) and I pressed it once to many. now normally, nothing happens, but for some reason, it deleted all my text and pictures and pressing redo and trying to paste did nothing. However, blogger redeemed itself a little by holding the pictures in the archive. So here they are, I've tried to fill in what I can remember, but this game happen way, way back in September! 

Set up, main guard blob in the middle, flanking force on the right. Some neurons on the far side.

Reserves, ready to rain death from above.

The majority of the necron force, small but powerful none the less.

The royal court, not a clue who they all are now.

First strike. Everything ran, apart from the royal court who did a deep strike thing right up to the flank of the blob squad.

Blob getting decimated by the court and wraiths.

Assaulting the royal court, I remember it didn't go as badly as I though it might.

Court jumps sides, tries again, but is down to just 3 members now.

Wraiths taking out the quad gun crew. 

Fire fight in the sky, vendettas are harder to kill than you think!

Royal court assault mk2 and only one model remains.

Close up shot.

The flyer came in and destroyed the squad to the rear, who were trying to join in the combat. By this point the wraiths had been dealt with.

End game and a 2+ save and a 4+ reanimation on T5 W3 model proved too much for the guard.

If I remember right I did actually win this match,mostly due to the flanking squad picking up points for me, along with the pcs in the vendetta. The necrons were too small a force to be able to fight and claim objectives.

Hopefully the next game I play I will be able to do another right up, a proper one again. 

Inquisition fluff update

As you may have noticed, I have been updating much of my fluff over the last few weeks, adding somemore details and depth to the armies and also adding new armies to the list. So of the eagle eyed readers may have noticed that I have updated the inquisition fluff as well, taking in to account the changes to their codex or rather, codex: imperial agents. This has lead to a slight redo for main inquisitors  and the addition of a third inquisitor, in order to cover all 3 of the main ordos within the inquisition.

One of the main reprocussions of this is the abandonment of a full on deathwatch army list, something that I was never overly keen on, as I didn't really have the models and I didn't want to buy loads of new ones. With the release of codex imperial agents, I can still get units of deathwatch in, simply by using the chambers militant. This means I can make small units to go with the inquisitors, and actually add in more flavor and fluff, a win win situation if you ask me!

So, whose getting added?

Well, the heretics will have to deal with the order of the golden orb, a sub order of the order of the bloody rose from the convent sanctorum. A small order, from a small convent in the segmentum Parcificus. The convent will be centered around a relic, surprisingly a golden orb, that was supposed to have been held by a saint.

The xenos will face the wrath of squad Krupp, a squad of deathwatch veterans drawn mostly from the forces known to inquisitor Etiennia. Many of the veterans originally fought along side the inquisitor when they were part of their chapter and impressed enough to be requested in to the deathwatch. There will be some controversy about the vet squad, as in their legitimacy, as they are used more as a personal army than as part of the deathwatch.

Finally the daemons of the warp will have to face the Grey knights of 7th brotherhood. Now, this is where I may go off topic slightly, so to speak, as I will most likely not take the chamber militant on this one, as it means terminator's, which I have, but not with the required weapons, as all of my spares are carrying chainfists. I may well go with the deamonhunter strike force and use a strike squad. Although this leaves me an issue as well, as they need storm bolters. I could just leave out the Grey knights, but I think it would be cool to have some in the collection somewhere.

With the redistribution of the various henchmen warbands that I currently have to forfil the new warbands setup in c:ia, and the addition of the chambers militant, I should be able to form some nice small (500 point) armies to add to my other forces to provide some fluffy and fun forces for some naritive type games.

Other 8th codices

So what of the other forces that I use? Well, currently I run the Disciples using Imperial Fists tactics, the Stone Dragons as Wolves, Brazen Hawks as Black Templars. Plus I plan on running an Inquisitional detachment with Grey knights, deathwatch and sister. So what are my thoughts on these armies?

Well, most of my thoughts on these armies are pretty thin, hence the single post, as I run most of these for the fun of it rather than for anything serious. Ill start with the Space Marines codex, for no other reason than its the first one I thought of.

So what in the codex would I chane, either in points or options? Points wise I couldn't really say what I'd change as I think that most things are pretty well coasted, well, the bits I use anyway. I also think that there are no gaps in the units, as there are options for everything and more often than not, several options. Granted some units are better than others, think grav-centurions over grav-dev's. There really are just two things that I think need looking at, the first being said grav-Dev's.

Now I'm not against grav or anything, but I think that a devastator marine should not have an amp, a centurion has a grav and amp as well, which seems odd. A normal marine carries a lascannon, or a heavy bolter, but a centurion can carry two lascannon or two heavy bolters, but a normal marine can carry a grav and amp but a centurion can only carry a grav and amp as well? Surely it should be capable of carrying 2 gravs and amps or a marine can only carry a grav and not an amp as well? Now a centurion with two gravs would just be silly, so I think that a normal marine should lose the amp. They will still be powerful weapons, but would be more logical in my view.

The second thing I would like to see I the codex is a change to bikes. I don't mean the actual bikes or anything but the weapon loads. Surely after several thousand years, someone has thought to pull off a bolter and stick something else on there? I mean the Dark Angels managed to do it with plasma guns, but no-one else has thought of this? Not even the White Scars? I don't think that everyone should be driving around with plasma talons, I'm more thinking that one bolter is removed and you loose the twin linked, but have the option to fire both weapons. I think it would be good to have the option for a melts or Flamer on the bike. I know that the marine riding the bike can take these weapons as well, and that would prob need adjusting but I like the idea of bikes with things other than bolters.

In terms of formations, the only thing I think is lacking is a proper formation for the Black Templars, with crusader squads as part of the core instead of tactical squads. There may well be on option for this already, and I might just have missed it, but as far as I'm aware, its only the standard gladius or the ones from Angels of Death to choose from.

For Space Wolves, my knowledge is even weaker but I do think that some of the recent rules and units are a little bit too strong, mainly the Wolfen. The Thunder Wolves are pretty strong as well, and possibly a little cheap for what they are. The only real question I see is with the various Claw units, blood, sky and swift, and the fact that they are still BS3. With all the other scout units being BS4 now, leaving these units as BS3 seems odd, but increasing them would change the whole setup of the codex. In truth I don't know what the answer to this problem is, lucky its not something that's going to affect me, as I don't really play SW and neither do any of my opponents.

The only other codex that maybe affected by the arrival of 8th is my Imperial Allies codex, one I dont actually have yet (birthday present sitting in the cupboard). Will this codex cease to exist? Or will it continue on? I hope it will continue on, as it solves a lot of problems for me, enabling me to field units and armies without having to buy multiple whole codices. Hopefully the new sisters codex (if there is one) won't be to much of a change as to affect the sisters units in the book, not that ill be using many of them and hopefully the same can be said for Grey knights and deathwatch. At the end of the day, I could always just sub units, like for like.

As for the other codices in the GW universe, in afraid in completely clueless, whilst I know of many units and some formations from other books, points costs and rules are beyond me. Yes there are certain units (wraithknight) and formations (Tau Stealth  Cadre I think its called) are either under costed or over powered, but then everybody knows these things and their are lots of people more informed than I am and able to make better arguments for fixing them. For me, the main thing I want to see from the other codices is a leveling of power and universal (and sensible) formations.

At the end of the day, its pretty much anyone guess what 8th will bring.

8th edition marines

Ok, so now were on to the other forces in my collection, the marines, or more specifically the Angels of Death (that's the original Angels of Death, the Blood Angels and Dark Angels).

I'll start with the Blood Angels, for no other reason than there my favioured of the two. Now, ill admit that my knowledge of the angels is not as good as my knowledge of the guard, so this will not be as in depth as the previous ones.

So, what units would I change or amend? Well, in my opinion the BA dont really have much of an issue in this department. There are a few odd choices, as in why are priests and techmarines HQ choices? I still think they should be non-FOC slots, not that that really means a lot with detachments and formations. The only real issue I see is that some of the units are the same as the main marine codex, yet they cost a lot more, ie terminators. Now, some will argue for the red thrust and all, but its effectively a chapter tactic and not an extra special rule. The other main Issue is the flyers. Now the vanilla marines have 3 flyers, but so far the BA's only have the one. Access to one of the fighter variants, or even a different version would be good but I think just the usual ones will be most likely. There is also the issue of hunters and stalkers, as the blood angels dont possess any anti-air capacity at the moment. It would be nice to get access to these weapons, or similar ones, to give us a chance against flyers. Then their is the issue of centurions and grave Dev's, both of which we dont have access to, but to be honest I'm happy not having them. I feel that they are not required, as there are other tools the Blood Angels have access to instead.

Having mentioned a number of units above, I think there is one thing that really needs to be said, I dont want the Blood Angels to just be red marines. In many respects I would like the next codex to move further away from the main codex. Yes, the Blood Angels are codex compliant for the most part, but we have enough special units to make us different. An anti-air platform based on the Baal predator would work and a flyer, based on the stormtalon would also be good. In sure with a few upgrades it could be achieved. All this would put a lot of the individual feeling back in to the Blood Angels which I feel is starting to be lost. We have librarian dreads, and close combat specific dreads, Baal preds and then there is the death company and the sanguinary guard, all units not in the main codex. Adding in new units to fill the current gaps, anti-air and attack figher, plus a few alterations to some existing units, terminators mainly, and I think things would good.

One other thing I would like to mention is heavy bolters. I really hope they change all the heavy bolters profiles to assault 3, as this would not only make them useful again but would also be really useful to my army!

I haven't got the Angels Blade supplement, but from what I know, the detachments are pretty good and I expect to see most, if not all of it carried over in to the new codex.

Ok, so Blood Angels rant over with, lets move on to the other Angels, the Dark Angels. Now this is a lot harder for me to do, mostly as I feel that the DA are pretty good where they are. They currently have a good codex with some good formations, yes there are some problems, no codex is perfect but there fixable.

There seems to be two main issues that I see mentuined over and over again, that the flyers are over priced and that you can't play pure deathwing. Now in regards to the flyers, I'm not sure that there over priced, yes there weapons are not the greatest but on the whole I think there where they should be, adding some special ammo (hellfire shells maybe) and adding armourbane to the missiles might be nice, give them that extra versatility and punch, but I think that there not far off the mark. As for running deathwing solo, you can, you just can't really run the formation from what I understand. In addition to this, there maybe a case for saying that terminator's are over priced compared to vanilla marines, but I think that they are pretty well priced for their rules. One unit I would like to see changed slightly are the company vets, as I would like to see special ammo made available, even if its just hellfire shells for their boltguns. Ok, so there supposed to be more of a vanguard vet squad rather than a sternguard squad, but the DA don't have access to special ammo, which I think wrong.

Right, I think I'm out of things to say on these guys. It want as in depth as the others, but that mostly because I'm not as invested in these boys as I am with my Guard. This year may change all that as the BA/Eagle Knights are the main painting challange and will feature onthe table top a bit more often.

8th edition Militarum tempestus

To follow on from my previous post about the guard in 8th, this post will look at the new Militarum Tempestus faction, or sub-faction if you will. Firstly, there are two options as to which way the codex will go in 8th, either the codex will continue on its own and grow in both size and units or the codex will disappear, rolled back in to the guard codex. If the codex is rolled back in to the guard codex, which is possible as the units are still in the guard codex, then expect to see a number of formations that are specific to the MT, enabling them to be fielded on their own. However, I think that the codex will remain a stand alone codex but gain some more options, namely in the HQ and support sections.

So, assuming that they remain a stand alone codex, what new u its will they get or at least should get and what units need changing or amending? First off, lets look at the current units and there's not many of them. Of the units that are in the book, there really is only two that I think need some sort of adjusting; The taurox and command squad. 

The taurox doesn't need adjusting as such, is more to do with the options for the vehicle equipememt that need adjusting. This is the same gripe as I had for the guard version, where some of the options are over priced for what they do. A small price reduction on certain options would be useful but again this is a minor issue really. The big issue is with the command squad. This is essentially a platoon command squad that had been raised from the troops choices to the HQ choices, but nothing has been done to allow for this move. They are in a sense exactly the same. In the Guard MT platoon, they perform there function perfectly well, but in the MT codex they are lacking. This is mainly due to orders, or the lack of. With only one order per turn still, they lack the punch that they deserve. The fact that they cost more than the equivalent guard PCS and more than the better guard CCS is negative. Now I sent believe that they need a points drop, just an extra order to make them the command squad they should be.

In addition to these changes, I would like to see some extra units appear. As it stands now the codex had some food options in the fast attack bracket with the primes and valks, but they still lack some proper punch. Now the army is supposed to be a light and fast moving army, so the likes of the LRBT is out of the question, but the vendetta would fit perfectly.  This would give some proper anti-armour, yet still keep the fluff and be easy to insert in to the heavy support options. Yes I said heavy support and not fast, as this is where I see it sitting in the MT structure, as a support weapon, not a strike weapon. The scions are the strike force and the vendetta comes along after to deal with any heavy armour that turns up. In a similar vain, I'd like to see heavy weapons squads back. We use to have them when were were talking about stormtroopers but they dissapeared a codex or 2 back. Dropping the squads in as a heavy support choice would be good to my mind, offering a range of options to deal with a number of threats that the MT's just can't deal with effectively right now. Yes, the taurox primes do a good job, but there is little dedicated along range anti-armour and no non line-of-sight weapons. Being able to add some lascannons or mortars would be great, as it would expand the options dramatically. Dropping a three weapon squad in as a heavy support choice would keep the fluff but give options.

Old HWT (pic of google, picclick UK, but I lost the link to add it in properly!)

So with points and units covered, we'll move on to formations and detachments and I don't expect there to be massive changes. We have the air assault and ground assault formations, which aren't bad formations, so we'll see them again, but I think we'll gain a few others, both smaller and bigger. I'm not sure if we'll see a detachment or not, there really isn't much to go on, as there isn't much in each section to use. This would basically mean we'd end up with a detachment version of the CAD, with command being HQ, core being troops and auxiliary being either taurox or valkyrie. That is unless they add in vendettas and HWT squads, then we might see some extra bits. I do expect a deep strike formation with some sort of deep strike bonus (re-rolls or D6 scatter) and a large scale formation including both armored and air assault formations combined.

Overall, I'm hopeful for the MT's in the next edition and just hope they get a few more tools for the tool box to really make them an army capable of dealing with any threat.

8th edition Imperial Guard

So, despite the recent rush of information I have decided to continue the 8th edition theories series, I'll try and keep on top of any changes that will occur due to the new rumours and information. In the mean time, let us look at my main loves of the 40k universe, the Imperial Guard (and that's the IMPERIAL GUARD and not the Astra Militarum). Name changes aside, what do I think and hope will occur with the 8th edition codices.

Well, to start, I expect that we will continue to have two codices, one for each faction, or failing that I expect that we will receive one codex with the option to run a pure IG or MT force through formations, if not through the CAD or imperial version.

Assuming that we get two codices, what will the guard one look like? To be honest, I doubt much will actually change here. I don't think that we will get any new models as such, but I do expect that we will get new infantry and heavy weapons boxsets, partly due to the demise of cadia and partly due to the fact the current ones are getting long in the tooth. Most sets have the options to build all combinations, even if not at the same time (think combi-weapons) but the guard only have the basics, the catachan box set doesn't even have a grenade launcher in, one of the two most basic of special weapon choices. What armies these boxsets will belong to is unknown, but I expect them to be very generic. Other than a redo of the infantry kits I can't see any kits that really need redoing. The Russ kits are good, as are the wyvern/hydra, the hell hound and chimera ones are good to. Only the sentinel kit is a bit weak, but it still has all the options. The same can be said of the command squad kits, ogryns, and MT squads (I'll cover these in detail later). The only 'kit' that needs an upgrade is the ratlings, as their still metal, that's if they still exist in the new codex and haven't been replaced by special weapon squads with sniper rifles.

So kits and model wise, I don't see much happening, but what about rules wise? We'll I see a lot of points adjustments here to start with. A lot of guard stuff is well costed, platoons, chimeras etc. The main one that springs to mind is the bulgryns/ogryns. They are more expensive than a terminator with no invun and a worse save. Yes their thought and strong, but that's not the same. They, as in ogryns, don't even have any weapon options, (flames anyone?) bulgryns do a little better but are still just as overpriced. I'd like to see them drop in points, how many? Not sure, but a fair few.

The only other unit I can think of that needs a base points reduction are the various Russ tanks. I'm not suggesting a big drop here, no, just a few points, 10 or 15 maybe. For me, they seem just a little high, if they were bs4, then I'd be happy as well, but lets face it there guard, not marines. The biggest issue though is the options, not just with the tanks, but overall. While most are fine, some just don't make sense. The main culprit is cam nets, while it maybe justifiable on a russ ( just about), on a sentinel its just stupid. There needs to be some sort of adjustment with a few others as well, nothing major, just maybe they need some individual tailoring for certain units.

The last big points issue though comes with the special characters. Now, some of them we know or at least speculate, are gonna be gone, Creed and Kell, so their points cost is a little irrelevant at the moment, so ill stick to Straken. Now this is a man with a serious points issue. He is more than a command squad on his own, and while his stats are good, there not THAT good! He either needs some serious rules buffs or a large price drop. I'd go with the latter.

So that's my main gripes with units and points, but what about the rest of the book? Well, one thing I would love to see are chapter tactics or rather regimental doctrines, seeing as were talking guard. We all know how well the chapter tactics have worked, so why wouldn't it work for guard? They used to have a similar thing in the old days, with the likes of codex; catachan, and some of the special characters, such as chenkov and al'rahem, giving special rules related to their regiments. Why this can't be resurrected in a similar fashion I don't know, but it would add a whole layer of fluff to the guard again. The question would then be though, what doctrines would you have? Cadian, Catachan, Mordian, Valhallan, Tallarn, Steel Legion, the list is long, almost endless in fact, at least with the marines it was pretty definitive.

What other changes will there be? Formations and detachments, but hopefully not the Cadian one! A smaller core choice, maybe the armored assault vets one, or just a slimmed down company (2 squads per platoon maybe?) There is no doubt that we will see a detachment in the book, but what it looks like is up in the air. If the bring in doctrines then its likely we may see more than one, maybe 4 or 5, with differing command and core options and requirements, maybe an infant based catachan option, armored steel legion, mech vet Cadian, aircav ???, you get the idea.

All in all, I think that the basics of the army will not change, the main units will remain the same with the same options and much of the rest of the book will be very recognizable. The main changes I feel will be that way the army is fielded and to a lesser extent how its played. For most of us though, little will change. Those of us with foot slogging armies will keep on marching, those who ride in (relative) comfort will ride on and the tread heads will keep on rolling.

At this point I was going to start on the Militarum Tempestus boys, but I think that will have to wait until a new post!