These Are The New Space Marines Rules To Know Now!

By Rob Baer | August 8th, 2019 | Categories: 40k News & Articles, Space Marines, Tabletop Gaming News & Rumors

Wow. Don’t miss everything you need to know about all the spicy new Space Marine rules, and new model options for Warhammer 40k.

Coming from Warhammer Community, Crimson Fists, Black Templars, Imperial Fists, Salamanders, Iron Hands, Ultramarines, White Scars, and Raven Guard are all getting a rules buff to their Chapter Tactics. But beyond that, we’ll also be able to make our own custom Chapters with unique Chapter Tactics as well! Plus exciting new units are coming with even more exciting new rules!

Here are some of the key takeaways from the previews, thus far including the new custom chapter rules!

Numbers Game

8 chapters will have rules in the new Marine Codex, and 6 of them will have supplements. However, the previews have included chapters we know will have their own book soon. It is unclear at this time if they will feature their overall rules in the SM dex, and then expanded rules in the supplements.

Dorn Has All The Fun

Black Templars and Crimson Fists are confirmed in the Space Marine codex with rules.

That’s right, Pedro Kantor’s famously stoic Chapter now joins their fellow Imperial Fists successors, the Black Templars, as one of the eight featured Chapters in the book, complete with their own tactics…

Pray To The Emperor

Chaplains are rumored to be getting “prayers” just like Chaos’ Dark Apostles. Plus Librarians from Ultras and White Scars are getting two new Psychic Disciplines as well-

Indomitus discipline (Ultramarines) and Stormspeaking discipline (White Scars).

Weapon Buffs for Days

Before we jump into the tactics, the Stalker Bolt Rifle got a nifty bonus at 2 damage a pop now. Intercessors now have the option of toting around (basically) an autocannon.

The new Incursors are also armed with paired combat blades:

Exploding attacks are always good, even if they are on “scouts”. Plus now with the new Assault Doctrine, you can get -1 AP on your CCW as well. NEAT!

Eliminators just got stupid good. Are you ready for this?

These deadly marksmen can now target enemy Characters with all three of their bolt sniper rifles’ ammo types (executioner, hyperfrag and mortis rounds), and their ammo profiles have been ramped up – for starters, they’re now all Strength 5!

So add strength to these profiles for all your purging needs. That mortis round is looking even spicier than before at exploding S5 shots that can shoot down hiding characters and units alike.

Plus the highly-anticipated Las Fusil seems to be no joke either. Shame on all of you that made fun of this “lasgun”.

The Sergeant of the squad now can act like the Devastator sergeant in some regards and give the unit +1 to hit AND wound which is just a huge force multiplier against mid-level targets now.

Chapter Tactics & Doctrines Affect All Space Marine Units

However, a crucial change to all Chapter Tactics in the codex is that they now apply not merely to Infantry, Bikers, and Dreadnoughts, but to ALL UNITS in a Space Marines Detachment!

We’ve been begging for it for over a year and GW has finally done it! Now, Chapter tactics apply to EVERY Space Marine keyworded unit in your army.

Plus Codex Space Marine and Custom Chapters (again sans GK, DA, BA, and SW) can now all benefit from the newly re-introduced Doctrines!

Doctrines are rules that every Codex SM Chapter has free access to. They always start off having the Devastator Doctrine. But as the game progresses, you’ll be able to switch to which doctrine best suits your situation.

Now, it doesn’t just apply to them, but to all of the Chapters (and any successor Chapters you’ve created) that use the rules from Codex: Space Marines.

At the start of any of your turns (after the first), you can choose to change from the Devastator Doctrine to the Tactical Doctrine, and again on a later turn, from the Tactical Doctrine to the Assault Doctrine. Once you’ve changed doctrines, you can’t go back – your Space Marines are already committed –but your current doctrine will remain active for the remainder of the battle unless changed.

Those were the major points that affect the majority of Codex (and in some cases non-codex) Space Marine units. Below are the links to our extensive breakdowns on the latest previews, and what they could mean for YOUR Astartes army.

Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, and sign up to get your free hobby updates newsletter each morning as well!

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About the Author: Rob Baer

Virginia Restless, Miniature Painter & Cat Dad.
I blame LEGOs. There was something about those little-colored blocks that started it all… Twitter @catdaddymbg