Ultramarine – Force Additions
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Warhammer 40,000 – Ninth edition is on it’s way. Everyday more previews and leaks are being released as the newest edition of 40K prepares to launch. Overall 8th Edition was good, the abundance of errata and changes due to the competitive meta was a bit much to keep up with at times. I know in my group some of the guys that only got to play once a month or less often felt lost or frustrated when the army list they’d been working on for months suddenly was over/under costed or just not legal. My hope is the new edition will have less of that “constant tweaking” and the loop-holes of the previous edition will be sorted out. I think making vehicles viable and making command points more standard across game sizes rather than having to min/max to get the most points to spend on tricks will also be a huge help. I haven’t played 40K proper since Christmas time (Necromunda and Kill Team are easier to fit in), so after updating Battlescribe I started looking at the lists I made for 8th Edition and the trend was definitely towards getting the most CP possible (2) minimal battalions with a special formation seemed to be the sweet spot, my “Nightlords” force was a Spikey 17 Red Corsairs Battalion with a Nightlords Outrider of Raptors and another Battalion of cultists, and Terminators. While the force was ok, it was clear I was forced to diverge from my all flying Raptors, Daemon Princes and teleporting Terminators that I began building at the start of 8th.
In previous editions, your force was valid until it received a new codex or the edition changed. There may have been external reasons to change your army such as meta shifts or power creep, but for the most part if you built a 2k force it’d stay a 2k force until a new book came out, giving you a shelf life of several years. In 8th you knew for sure that at a minimum of annually points would be adjusted so that investment in a new force could require reworking in a year. However in addition to the annual points adjustments, core rule of the game would change every six months or two weeks after the release of a new book. Which was happening at least every two months if not more frequently. While the attention and finessing to make things a better experience for everyone is appreciated it got to the point that if you took your finger off the pulse for a fe weeks the game could be drastically different.
That tangent brings me to the latest project to cross my table, more Ultramarines. This time around Sargent Chronos, some Terminators, another Landspeeder and two Landraiders. All of these units will benefit from the changes that have been announced so far. Chronos and the Landraiders won’t be hitting on 4’s or locked in combat any longer, Terminators won’t be over-watched to death and the Landspeeder can zoom around and shoot without penalty.
