Warhammer 40K: There Are Too Many Marine Units – We All Know Where GW Should Cut!
Goatboy here with a discussion about how the Codex Space Marines is just way too big, and there’s an obvious place to cut.
Goatboy here with a discussion about how the Codex Space Marines is just way too big. There are too many choices in that book and when you add the Supplements you start to see this codex becoming an unwieldy beast. It’s almost absurd to think that this one single book dwarfs the number of choices in so many of the other “full-fledged” codexes and has me thinking it is time to trim, cut, and remove the bloat.
The last time myself and Larry looked at the Space Marine book we were surprised to see over 100 separate datasheets! This is just absurd to think about when a few of the Chaos Legion books are scratching to get over 20 unit choices with some of the Daemon options added in for one single detachment. A hundred units just becomes to much to think about when building a Space Marine army.
Classic Marines – Now Firmly Past Their Prime
Did you know there are roughly 20 old firstborn marine like units lingering in the codex? This isn’t just Tactical Marines and their units but some classic vehicles hanging around like the Whirlwind, Vindicator, and other older options. Do you think these units are going to stay in whatever new Space Marine Codex comes out when we get a new 11th Edition? Are we going to get updates to finally “Primaris-ize” them?
Next a note on age and editions. 40K’s 8th Edition that unveiled Primaris Marines showed up in June 2017. Can you believe it’s been eight years already! Back in 7th Edition, GW had a problem to solve – Space Marines sales were slowing, the beating heart of 40K. The problem was that after over twenty years of the Grimdark, most players already owned plenty of them. The real trick was – how to get players to rebuy an entirly new Marine army?
The answer was – slowly and steadily. Fast forward to 2025 and the tail end of 10th Edition. In the past eight years GW has cranked out almost 80 Primaris and new Marine units – CRAZINESS! Even more surpising is that it’s been three full editions, leading up to four editions if you count the future 11th Edition. In that time, a large chunk of the current 40K playerbase doesn’t even remember the Classic Marine era, and probably wouldn’t even notice those twenty units all being brushed away to Legends, or CSM codices.
Balancing a 100-Unit Codex Is Causing Problems
I bring this up because there seems to be some newly updated Detachments utilizing some of the older Marine options to create an OP non-interactive army. These old school units by themselves aren’t nearly as exciting but when you have over 100 options to try and balance it gets hard to make sure nothing gets missed. Just look at how long Centurion Devastators went from being trash, to good, trash again, and once again being a bit too good?
I guess it is neat to see something that isn’t the Gladius Detachment being an issue but still – we are getting to the stage of armies become over-tuned monsters. You then add in a huge swath of “character” updates that again add in more rules and options for an army so large it dwarfs so many other choices. Marines pretty much have a tool for every “issue” in the game – an advantage not shared by the other factions.
I won’t even go into the supplements as they add more bloat on top of it all. Trying to balance options from the regular Space Marine codex within other color-marine flavors becomes a real problem. It makes me think in the future will see basic Marine Detachments only usable by the main book and then supplement options that are only available for those armies. I don’t see the Legion books getting access to Chaos Space Marine detachments so why do Black Templars get the Gladius Detachment? Fair is fair.
A Primaris Future – Is It Time?
I hope in the future we see a much more reviewed process for Space Marines and how they work as well as all their mini codexes. It feels like the initial build and then constant tweaking is leaving a lot of little pockets for issues. I know Marines need to be decent as they are the most popular army but hiding their win rates and power under a pile of players doesn’t create a good experience.
Do you think the new Space Marine Codex that will most likely be coming will be paired down? Are we going to see some anti-grav Whirlwind-like tank to replace the old one? Are the Tactical Marines going to get left in the Legend section of their Faction Pack finally?
