Warhammer 40k: Space Marine Faction Packs Are Coming In Hot

The 11th edition Space Marine datasheets and detachments have been released!

Hot on the heels of last week’s core rules release is the arrival of the first 11th edition faction pack! Surprising no one, this first release focuses on the Space Marines and includes every unit available to them at the beginning of this edition.

The main Space Marine faction pack is a whopping 217-page document, including every generic marine unit in the game, plus all the existing and brand new detachments. It’s accompanied by a set of smaller, supplemental Faction Packs for the less codex-compliant chapters like the Space Wolves and Dark Angels.

Detachments

The change to the detachment system is one of the biggest shake-ups this edition. Previously, when building your list you’d choose a single detachment and that was that. Now, however, you gain a variable number of Detachment Points (DPs) depending on the points level of the game you’ll be playing. A 2,000 point Strike Force game will see players granted 3 DPs to spend.

All detachments now cost between 1-3 DPs and you can choose freely between them with a few restrictions. Some detachments have keywords that preclude you from including those detachments with certain others. Other than that, you’re welcome to mix-and-match as you please to create really thematic forces without sacrificing versatility.

Conveniently, Games Workshop has shared a list of all the current Space Marine detachments along with their new DP costs. This is a great little quick reference to help navigate today’s set of downloads. The three new detachments first previewed last month are at top.

Generic Space Marine Detachments

Updated Datasheets

Space Marine players have access to more data sheets than any other army (by an order of magnitude), so there are plenty of changes to dig into here, as well. It looks like many Flyers have seen changes to bring them in line with the new rules for the AIRCRAFT keyword. Some, like the Stormhawk Interceptor and Stormtalon Gunship are fully fledged aircraft. This means they move almost solely through Ingress moves in which they enter and exit the tabletop as part of their attack runs. Conversely. The Stormraven Gunship has lost the AIRCRAFT keyword and is now a dedicated hover transport.

There have been some big changes to Characters as well. Where appropriate, many characters have lost the Leader ability and had it replaced with Support. This means that Characters like Apothecaries or Sanguinary Priests can now join a unit led by a Captain or named Character.

Is this gonna be a Herohammer edition? Probably, but that’s okay with me so far. It looks like Ancients, Apothecaries, and Lieutenants are all now Support units, in all their iterations. Though, it seems the Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon is still a brooding loner. Perhaps he has a dark past or is just days from retirement?

There is just an absolute ton to dig into here, so I won’t keep you any longer. It sounds like we’ll be back tomorrow to discuss the promised Xenos faction pack release, with Chaos and the rest of the Imperium’s forces getting their datasheets later this week.

I hope we see points before long, I’m really excited to start building armies with these new detachments.

Author: Simon Berman

Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he's the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.