The future of my marine armies.

So with 9th we get a new wave of space Marines and the death nail of the classic marine is one step closer. Now I've mentioned in the past that my old marine armies, my Eagle Knights and Dark Guardians have been relocated to the loft for storage as but what's is the future of the various chapters? Well, let's have a quick look shall we.....

Eagle Knights

(Blood Angels successors)

The Eagle Knights were my first completed 2000 point marine army and to be honest is still my only complete marine army. These will also be my first primaris army I complete or that's the plan anyway. As it stands these will still follow the old Eagle Knights and be primarily close combat orientated. With the release of Assault Intercessors this plan is now a possibility. The army will be built around a patrol detachment, with one or two minimum Intercessor squads with one or two full squads of Assault Intercessors and two HQ's, a Captain and Lieutenant. At the moment I have no idea of the points value for these units, so things may get adjusted to meet the 500 point limit but to be honest, if any army goes over 500 points, it will be this one. 

Dark Guardians 

(Dark Angels successors)

Next up are the Dark Guardians and hopefully these will retain their hammer and anvil approach, with bikes and probably an Inceptor squad or two, hopefully with plasma. Now it might be quite difficult to get all of these units in to a 500 point patrol detachment. I believe that for a Intercessor squad and HQ will be around 150 points or more, so leaving only 300 and a bit for bikes and Inceptors. This may mean a small rethink, maybe dropping the Inceptors and just having bikes, or running scouts to cut down the required troop option. On second thoughts, sniper scouts might actually fit the narrative better, after all, someone has to tell the hunters where to hunt.

Stone Dragons

(Space Wolf \ Ultramarine Successors??)

Lastly, the force that has changed time and again, been amalgamated and split more times than I can count! The current idea is to form a scouting, sneaky force, which will necessitate another change in the forces narrative. The overarching narrative is a hunting force, so that will remain but the tactics that they use will have to change as the force will be formed of Phobos armoured units only. The idea will be to have a selection of units in there, although I might have to have a think about how to dark with vehicles. 

The 4th chapter, possibly a return of the Emperor's Disciples or the Brazen Hawks.

This force will be the 4th and final 500 point force, giving a total force when combined of 2000 points. This chapter will focus on longer range and heavier firepower, with a core including Intercessors with stalker bolt rifles and Hellblasters, with heavy plasma incinerator. Alongside a captain and a squad of flamestorm Aggressors there won't be much change our of 500. The Aggressors are in there as a counter punch units to protect the long range units. As to what chapter tactic they'll end up using, I have no idea, but probably something Imperial Fists.

So, here are the four armies that are planned for my Marines in 9th edition and also the upgrade to primaris units. These armies are not fixed in stone but the general idea will not change. As I said, the idea is to form 4 separate forces that can fight at 500 points or Combat Patrol level but can be combined to for higher level games while still keeping within the patrol and battalion detachments. The four armies also cover the 4 main elements of list building, with assault, speed, stealth\infiltration and range all dealt with. This is not going to be a highly tuned and optimised list but a fun and narrative one. How long it will take me to build and paint these armies is anyone's guess though!