Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Astra Militarum – the Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
Goatboy here to talk about Codex Astra Militarum. Here’s the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly from 9th’s new book.
Overall it is an interesting codex and while it isn’t nearly as crazy and interesting as it could of been it does feel like it was heavily designed. What I mean about it being designed was there was a lot of thought in how this book works. It might give a little bit of insight in how we might see 10th edition codexes built. It sure is a heck of a lot cleaner with simplified rules for regiments and dataslates having more “rules” built in. But we’ll go into that as I start to dig into the book a bit.
My Auto-wounding Soapbox!
Before jumping in though I do want to get on my soapbox a bit and talk about how much I hate the 6’s to hit causing auto wounds. It is one of the rules that frustrates me in how it basically invalidates a ton of other armies rules and completely changes how to define how to make something tough. The rule makes tt feels like there shouldn’t be a Toughness stat and we should just move to AOS as a method for flat hitting and wounding on options. The new Born Soldier rule also tacks on the whole – counts as a 6 to wound if rolling a 6 to hit. Thankfully in this book there isn’t a ton of bad interaction beyond one really on edge unit that we’ll discuss later. We know this rule is bad for the game and have tweaked/changed it for every book that has had it so I expect this one to get changed too. I just wish the move to this rule instead went towards the exploding 6’s for 6 to hit . Becasue while that exploding 6’s is powerful it still allows your tough abilities to work. Alright let me hop off my Soapbox and get to the review.
The Good
Overall I think this book is better built then the last Chaos Daemon codex. The removal of old locked in Regiments helps clean up a ton of the extra “baggage” rules we have seen in a lot of other books. You have your 9 total Warlord traits, locked in pages of Stratagems, and your relics are all built to work within the book. This makes it easy for a player to “build” a list as you don’t have to jump back and forth worrying about what you can pick and use. It also means Keywords are heavily used in the Stratagems and that is something I think this edition didn’t do enough with. CORE is well sprinkled throughout the book so a lot of things just work with each part of the book. It makes the codex very synergistic as well as much easier to “figure” out. Those are all examples of a much different design process and feels like how this book works might translate into the new edition pretty easily.
Orders
The Order system is a lot better with each of the rules cleaned up. Everything is balanced to work and the whole who can get an order is well laid out. I really like the ability to give your tanks Objective Secured. While I am not a fan of a ton of army guys on the table I do love me some tanks. Crushing the enemy under your tracks is one of the few joys I haven’t really jumped into with in 40k and this book might drive me to go searching for Russes and grabbing the Rogal Dorn tank. I like how the Order system can start to stack onto other parts of the army as you move things around and can create little order combos. This will take some practice but I can see a general throwing out commands all over the place and will most likely do well with little Order cards/tokens.
The Rogal Dorn Heavy Tank
Speaking of the Rogal Dorn – it feels about spot on. It has decent firepower, a cost that isn’t too much, and just looks cool. Could you imagine if the Primaris vehicles had tracks on them how much cooler they would look? The Metal Slug feel of the tank makes me want to try and get one. I also like how you can upgrade it with a Tank Ace ability to make it an Officer. Tank commanders are back and while not nearly as busted as before they still seem good. I think will have to see how much of the balance dataslate stays or if it all drops away to really see how the codex works.
The Ole Leman Russ
I talked about the Leman Russ but that Dataslate got a serious glow up with all the weapons being good. It is still tough, and seems well costed to show up on the tabletop. It got to stay a Squadron which is awesome to. So look out for 9 Russ armies designed to abuse objective secured orders and be a true pain in the butt. The turret change too helps by giving it a +1 to hit when shooting and allowing the tank to shoot while in Engagement range at other non engagement range enemy units. That feels pretty dang spicy and again is calling to me to make a bunch of tanks. Oh and you got to love the Vanquisher ignoring invulnerable saves. Or hate it as again you start to add another rule to ignore your “tough” abilities.
The New Lord Solar
The new Shiny character on a horse is pretty awesome too. I am not a fan of the model (a little to Stormcast for me) but he seems so good. He has the ability to give everyone orders (hello super heavy friends), is hard to get thru, and isn’t terrible in combat. I still think the character looks goofy. But he is too good not to use as he is a supreme commander and can seriously allow you to “CP” up and utilize all the powerful stratagems.
Kasrkin
Speaking of CP the Kasrkins seem pretty dang amazing. They might be close to busted with a few strats and abilities to maximize the Borne Heroes rule of causing auto wounds on 6’s (or 5’s in some buff stats). You throw a relic on them, allow them to redeploy, split their fire, and throw out a ton of 6 MW bombs to units. This is where we might see the change to not count as an Auto 6 but will have to see. I built these models for BoLS HQ and they were pretty awesome. Seriously one of the better “AM” builds out there and just a ton of cool parts and options. These guys are going to show up and expect at least 2 units to put some pain into your army.
The Bad
The Regiments being gone is kind of a mixed bag. As it does make building an army easier you are sorta limited to either just picking from the 3 troop choices with obvious Regiments attached to them or building your own with your build regiment ability. That is fine but it just feels off from all my friends with Tallarn armies and those Vostroyan funny hat dudes. I think the Regiment custom rules are good but the ability to auto wound on a 6 to hit mixed with counting as a 6 to wound is very powerful and something you just don’t want to lose out on. The Kasrkin are just too good and their ability to take an extra Regiment ability helps so much there is no reason to change it out.
Relics
The relics also feel meh because again there are a lot of combat options for characters that shouldn’t be in combat. Straken is the only super combat monster in this book and you can’t give him a Relic so it feels off to have so many weird things. Again this points to having Relics cost X points versus a CP as you always have 5-10 points left laying around which would be convenient to throw on a Sarge or Commander. That poor Relic Plasma Pistol we always see left in the Relic box would show up more if it just cost a few points.
Missing Tank Squadrons
Those Hellhound tanks, artillery, and a bunch of others lost the ability to be taken in units of 3. I don’t know how I feel about this as I am used to seeing either none of them or those old days of seeing 6 facing you from across the tabletop. They are not bad vehicles so maybe someone will take them but it still just feels like you should take more Leman Russes and call it a day. Heck that is probably the biggest thing in this book when you should just take a Leman Russ versus any other tank beyond one Super Heavy and maybe one Rogal Dorn.
The Ugly
The Balance Dataslate and how much is going to stay in? Does it all get wiped away and this army becomes as is in the book? I feel Armor of Contempt on the Russes is not needed anymore as well as the whole – ignoring no LOS hits. It is so hard to really discuss things as those two rules are issues that if left in might need to revaluate all of the options in the book. I know a change is coming when this fully releases in the new few months but it is still an issue. I have a lot of Tank friends. So I think any event should wait for the full release before letting an AM player go hog wild with tanks that are too tough and artillery that is way to accurate to justify.
Goodbye Old Man Yarrick
Oh and Yarrick is dead – killed by Angron. I made the joke that we should see Yarrick come back as a “Daemon” of the Emperor like the Saint. Put some wings on him, have some doves flying behind him, and create the ultimate Christmas mini – to sneak into a future AM codex. Heck or just make him come back because Mark/Gork missed him and needs it for Ghaz. Still it is sad that he died as he is a pretty much the mascot for Armageddon and the whole kinda of non Marine bit of lore for 40k. We’ll just have to wait and see.
The Verdict
Overall the book seems decent and we really can’t figure out how busted it could be until everything is set up with their Dataslate. Will they keep the whole wounds counting as 6, and just what shows up a ton for the AM book? This could be a return of Leaf Blower with more Leman Russes than anything else. I also wonder how some of this might let GSC get some fun stuff in their armies too. We’ll just have to wait and see. I’m just happy to see this book come out even though the looming threat of 10th edition nears closer and closer.
For the Emperor!
