Doctrines

 Next up on the list are the various doctrines that can be found within the guard codex and supplements. This includes the original guard Regimental Doctrines, plus the new Militarum Tempestus Doctrines and the custom doctrines. We'll start with the original guard ones and work our way out from there. 

First up, the Stormtroopers doctrine. I think it's fairly safe to say that we will loose this doctrine from the list due to the new Scion regiment doctrines. This is not a bad deal as gaining 6 doctrines after loosing one is not a bad thing. Yes, you could argue that there is no need to loose the Stormtrooper doctrine as it's not specifically for scions but it was designed for them as so I think we'll loose it. There are two others which stand out as needing work, the Mordian and Catachan doctrines. The Catachan doctrine is not terrible, none of the doctrine are actually terrible, but very few people take it for both Half's of the doctrine. Yes, having S4 guard can be cool, but re-rolling the number of attacks for vehicle weapons is a lot better. If people take the Catachan doctrine, which they do, it is with vehicle heavy list, which is very counter to the Catachan lore. I think this needs a rebalancing but I don't really know how, as guard are not a combat army and never will be, and even if we were, our best combat units can't benefit from doctrines (i.e. Bullgryns). 

The other Doctrines that needs work is the Mordian Parade Drill. Now this has the benefit of a +1 to leadership but all of the main benefits are for overwatch. With overwatch now being a once per turn stratagem, taking a while regimental doctrine that gives you a +1 to hit in overwatch is not very useful. Changing this to a straight +1 to hit or ignoring negative modifiers if a model is in base contact with at least 2 other models in the unit, would be a good change, with a similar change to vehicles as well. This could carry over to overwatch as well but it wouldn't be essential. Another option would be to keep the overwatch buffs but make it so that other units within a few inches could also overwatch, a la Tau. 

All in all, the basic AM doctrines have managed the transition from 8th to 9th rather well and are all still useful. 

Alongside the AM doctrines we now also have the MT doctrines. These are for the 6 named Scion regiments, plus the original stormtroopers doctrine in the list of options. Now we've already stated that the original stormtroopers doctrine will disappear and when we look at two of the MT doctrines it makes it even more likely. Both Thetoid Eagles and Iotan Gorgonnes both have very similar doctrine, giving extra hits on 6's. None of the doctrine are bad and there is very little that I would change. The one I probably would look at changing would be the Psion Jakals. The doctrine affects moral tests, however, there are lots of ways to by pass moral or even just outright ignore it, plus there is no guarantee that even if a unit fails moral that they will loose more than the 1 model for doing so. Against some armies this could be very good but against most armies this will be very hit and miss. Personally I would like to see this changed to effect the unit in some way, possibly something along the lines of halving movement, (moves, advance and charge) or even making the unit -1bs for shooting. This would still fit with the lore and make them viable against many different armies. 

Lastly, I can see the Kappic Eagles getting a bit of a nerf. This is probably the best doctrine by some margin. The +1 to hit is a very powerful trait on its own, when paired with the ability to move with heavy weapons, effectively giving a +2 to hit over normal, makes it extremely good. Granted there is only one heavy wespon in the Scions arsenal, but when your taking between 2 and 4 per squad, it quickly mounts up. I think we might see one of the other disappeared from the doctrine, most likely the moving with heavy weapons part. 

Last up are the Custom doctrines. These were introduced in Psychic Awakening and give the option to mix and match bits from various Regimental Doctrines. While this is good, it does have various drawbacks, mainly loosing a Regimental order or stratagem. Anyway, some of the custom doctrines are better than others. Combined Auspex I can see changing, as with the changes to overwatch it suffers from the same issues as the Mordian, in that it's only going to come In to play a maximum of 5 times. I think this should be changed to an ignores cover type of arrangement. Keeping the same requirements will make sure it's not to over powered. Monster hunters is another one I think needs changing. I simply think it needs to include vehicles, as well monsters. A simple change that would broaden it's appeal and usefulness. 

Pyromaniacs also needs tweaking, as it's very narrow in scope as well. It only effects flamers, of all 3 varieties, and while re-rolling ones is good, I think it needs the extra bonus of ignoring cover. This won't be a very big change but would make the trait useful. Flamers are not very common, especially in infantry units, with most only being able to take 1 and others, such as vets and command squads being more useful taking other weapons. Only special weapons squads can really make full use of this upgraded doctrine. 

The last doctrine to look at is slum fighters. Now there is not actually anything wrong with this doctrine, gaining an extra hit is not bad at all, however, I would like to see this changed to an auto wound arrangement. This might be greedy but auto wounding is a lot more useful than an additional hit. Most of the time we're going to be wounding on 5's and only very occasionally on 4. Gaining an auto wound wound be a great ability and seeing as most things only have 1 attack, not overpowered at all. 

All in all the doctrines are one of the stronger areas of the codex and there really isn't much to change, just tweak here and there. Next on the list is stratagems and that might take a while!