New 40k rules are here for the Emperor’s Spears chapter of Space Marines as they got a codex supplement inside White Dwarf 460.
Every so-often new 40k rules make their way into the monthly White Dwarf, and now we have the new Emperor’s Spears rules that were spotted on Imgur! Let’s dive into it!
New Emperor’s Spears Codex Supplement 40k Rules!
The Chapter Tactic for the Emperor’s Spears is Redden the Earth, which sets the stage for a super aggressive melee-focused army. Adding 1 to both charges and advances is pretty good, getting additional hits on natural 6s to hit is just a cherry on top. As far as tactics go, this is decent, not the worst, not the best, but a solid option if you want to go all-in on a melee plan.
In order from worst to best, Druidic Talisman gives your Librarian or Chaplain on one of their tests to make sure their buffs go off exactly when you need them to. Beast-Hide Cloak is slightly more universal, subtracting 1 from the damage characteristic of any attacks at the character (to a minimum of 1), which is great to get possibly an extra turn out of the character if there aren’t focused-fired.
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Finally, Horizon Blade replaces a power sword and makes it a +2 S -4 AP 2D, and the kicker is on charge or intervention it turns into -5AP and 3D, forcing the target to use its invuln and if it doesn’t have one its basically DOA.
There are some decent Warlord Traits to match the army as well. Sentinel of The Veil gives the character a 3″ boost to Interventions, they also fight first in the fight phase. Tribal Heritage gives a once per battle re-roll to one hit, wound, or save roll, and a once per battle free Epic Deed Stratagem. Bloodied But Unbroken gives an additional attack, and if they are below starting wounds they get another additional attack.
A good combo is taking a Chapter Champion with Bloodied But Unbroken and a Horizon Blade. This will give a great combat character with 6 attacks at full wounds and 7 while damaged hitting on 2s, at 6 S, -4AP, 2D. If he is on the charge or intervenes, the weapon becomes -5AP 3D, forcing invulns. It gets additional intervention range if enemy characters are near, plus it will get to re-roll all hits and wounds against characters, AND they get to fight first against characters. Ultimately this is a very selfish character but can put on some serious hurt on an enemy character who gets too close.
The first stratagem is a simple +1 to wound rolls for a unit, if they have 5 or fewer models its costs 1 CP, if it has more than that it costs 2 CP. The second stratagem targets an enemy and Infantry units in your army re-roll hit against that unit for the rest of the phase. Both of these are okay, but not amazing.
However being a codex supplement, all of these rules work in conjunction with the current Space Marines codex, so there are tons of potential interactions there for you to customize.
What do you think about the new rules? Are you happy with them? Will you try to play an Emperor Spears list?
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