The Space Marine Problem

 

Or “how to ruin something through repetition”

This article is like the fifth iteration of an article that I write every time there's an editorial about Space Marines on BLOS, or a new rulebook for them is announced. And a new one has been. A completely new Space Marine codex was just revealed, with new units, the controversial Bolter Discipline rule, and a new rule giving them a bonus attack in the first round of combat. I have no actual reason to believe this will be less than a quality product. GW has been pretty good in 8^th edition, and nobody actually has this book in hand. So, fingers crossed. The thing is though, I do feel that a lot of unwarranted complaining has preceded this announcement, and I'd hate to think this was influencing the design process. To get my own bias up front, I play Orks, I basically could not run a shooty army until I got a codex, which was a long wait, but it was worth it(1). This means I only have, um, limited sympathy for people complaining about their army being flawed, when they were first in line for new releases. I also find this sort of article to be an unproductive and inherently negative use of my time, but once it's published, I can put it down, and move on. I have clouds to yell at. So lets get into this, The Space Marine Problem.

The Problem, as expressed by the Internet

Since 8^th edition launched there has been a general feeling that Space Marines are underpowered in some quarters. There is not a single issue highlighted, more a general feeling that things aren't right. Some point to the fact Marines now suffer penalties to their armour save, and are proportionally more vulnerable to Mortal Wounds. Some complain that bolters do not ignore armour saves of light infantry. Some feel that 8^th edition favours generally favours quantity over quality, as templates have been removed for simplicities sake. Some point to marines generally not being better performers in the tournament scene. Some point enviously at other factions, which may actually do something better than a marine. Some point at the open nature of 8^th ed allowing for things like “Imperial Soup”, where you mix and match and remove the unpopular beakies. Stuff like regular Tactical Marines have been unpopular for a while, often ignored in favour of the cheaper Scouts. As I say, its rarely one agreed complaint. Meanwhile, the response from people not currently playing a Marine faction is along the lines of “What? You've been the company favourite forever, adapt.” None of viewpoints are completely without merit, some more than others TBH, but its ultimately missing The Space Marine Problem.

What's Actually Wrong

So, here's the actual problem. Its not a matter of how this faction in all its variety is designed, nor of game mechanics, its more appearances. Space Marines are described as the best of the best, the closest thing the setting has to superheroes, rare and special. They are positioned as the starter army, with 40K designed around them. They have also become, over time, a majority of the forces in the game. This has created something of a conflict between their key concepts and how to play. Tactics 101? Tool your army to murder Space Marines, and you'll probably be OK. However, there is an unavoidable assumption that Marines should be the best army, special, but they absolutely cannot be that and ubiquitous at the same time. Sliced bread is pretty amazing, objectively, but do you care since its everywhere? This is not a problem of things being underpowered, this is a problem of mediocrity through over-exposure. If, say, Astra Militarium was the defacto default and given the same focus, Marines would look utterly spectacular in the comparison. The rules as they are do back that up. If we go straight to the bottom and compare Conscripts with Tactical Marines, the beakies trounce the cannon fodder. Some stats are actually double, nothing is worse, and the area where the beakies match the plebs is foot speed. You do pay for this, but well, you should, shouldn't you?(2) Actually competent Guardsmen fair a little better, but it's still a case where there is an overt gap in capabilities. So why don't we judge Marines higher in the army rankings? Why are they reputedly poor performers in tournaments? It certainly not because they lack in other areas, they are very well-supported. It's because everything else is judged against them as a baseline, and everyone knows how to beat them. This is The Space Marine Problem, and it will not be solved by just making units “better”, or applying an army-wide special rule, as GW seems to be doing.

The Why
This is ultimately a problem of GWs own making. They always favoured beakies, but things didn't really get out of hand until 3rd edition, an admittedly bloody long time ago, but there we are. It was during this period GW favoured the "mini-dex" concept where there was a single major Beakie codex which would receive a supplement to make more specific chapters. This grew into the Index Astartes series of articles, and is the forerunner to army variants found in the modern 8th Ed codex, although it would take 20 odd years before this applied to everyone. GW now had an easy to do a 40k release, just to apply a new special rule to the Marines and add a new model or three , and you're done. Easy money in the sort term. The long term effect was that Marines became the default, these new armies pushed non-beakies to the back of the queue for support, and marine players would begin to squabble jealously over who got what hat. Each subset of the Marine faction assumes, on some level, that they are the best Marines and there's such overlap between them. The first codex the Blood Angels got was shared with the Dark Angels. Does every first founding chapter/legion deserve its own book? Should Deathwatch be its own thing? Should maybe they and Grey Knights be under the Inquisition banner? With so much overlap in rules and models, does this not become like picking between flavours of potato crisp? If, just if, GW had been more restrained, this would be less of an issue. And now, things have gone full circle, with the mini-dex concept returning for this new release. 

To their credit, GW has demonstrated the self-awareness to address these problems, as there's evidence of it long term. Notably, the Black Templars and Salamanders got rolled back into the main Marine rules, and it would be hard to argue with a straight-face that Space Wolves aren't their own thing. Their most recent attempt is the entire Primaris concept, which is proving to be something of a long term revamp of the army from the foundations up. Its too early to say if this will work, and speculation enters the realm of tinfoil hats and chemtrails. On the one hand, this would bring Beakies closer towards their fictional depictions, but what its mainly done so far is highlight the “weaknesses” of the traditional Marine. Almost, as if, GW wants Marine fans to buy a completely new army? Right now, what they mainly do though is add yet more units to a faction already very well-equipped to the point of redundancy. It is FAR too early to tell what the new Codex will mean for the faction, but if they are getting a new bonus rule for the Fight Phase, one hopes for a price increase. Even so, none of this doesn't actually address The Space Marine Problem. Should GW update all Space Marine factions to Primaris, or otherwise rebalance things with their new codex, that would leave us in exactly the same position of beakie over-exposure, and potentially over-correcting versus other factions. Remember, the tactics you would use to defeat Primaris are the same as other forms beakies; they are good, but they are still ultimately a small/quality force with no special resistances to anti-tank guns and Mortal Wound effects. They are fated to be the new average.

The Solution

I dunno, is there one? Fanbases are notoriously hard to please. One possibility I've already hinted at is to put the toothpaste back in the tube, and simply release marines less often. Yes, they sell, but that's confirmation bias at work. If only marines are sold, only marines sell. Let the diehards have the Horus Heresy setting, and start amalgamating these chaps into omnibuses. If this seems unfair, well, its still more in the way of spin-offs than your average Xenos race gets. Alternatively, people could gain some self-awareness and realise how “first world problems” this all is and accept Marines can't be the entire game. But that's probably even less likely than the first solution. Whatever, I'm done being grumpy now.....

Foot notes

1. Then there was the 7^th ed book, but lets not get sidetracked.
2. If you think the answer is “no”, maybe you should stop reading.

Orks in 8th Edition: Command Points & Stratagems

OK, I said that I might write a bit about the newish Ork codex, and here we are. MUCH LATER. Let's start with one of the big ones, Command Points & Stratagems. I must confess I'm a late comer to this entire concept, Orks having extremely limited options until the new book. For the unfamiliar, Command Points (CP) are a resource generated by building your army in a specific way, which can be spent on special rules, Stratagems. Think of them as a hand of cards you can play(1), interrupting the normal turn sequence to affect the game. Orks can do rather well out of Stratagems, because our low cost units can enable a lot of them, granting flexibility to your forces. I'm not going to do a blow-by-blow of those available to Orks, these are fairly self-explanatory, but I will talk about a few highlights and how best to get them. 

The Basic Idea

The stratagem holy trinity is probably Teleportas, Ramming Speed, and Unstoppable Greentide. Basically everything choppy benefits from being teleported in, but it's a gorksend for your Deff Dreads and walkers. This has synergy with Ramming Speed, which can make the teleported vehicle a nasty surprise for people, as well of being handy for the new Speed Freek units. These two allow for what every ork force ultimately wants to do, getting in your opponent's face on your terms. Factor in Da Jump, and you can get a metric ton of stuff in the enemy deployment on turn 2, and this is where Unstoppable Greentide comes in. Not only do you get models back for free, you can redeploy the unit. While it is extremely predictable, a typical Battle Forged Ork force will start with these three stratagems in mind. However, you need CP from somewhere, and a lot of people start with something like this:

HQ

Weirdboy with Da Jump

Weirdboy with Fists of Gork

Troops

10 Gretchin

10 more Gretchin

Another 10 Gretchin

This basic battalion is and easy plug in for an existing force with an infantry element, and is a decent example of how to work more Command Points into your force. It only costs 214 points, grants 5 CP, and while grots are famously crap at actual fighting, even they have a use. The Grot Shields Stratagem allows them to protect other infantry like the famously bullet-prone Lootas, and if not, they can do the boring stuff like hold objectives. The Weirdboyz are also inexpensive, and bring two useful powers, and can Smite stuff in the absence of better ideas. This battalion is obviously not self-contained, and would require there to be a big unit of Boyz or similar to work properly, but it really wouldn't be difficult to add one, and then do exactly what you want with the rest of your points. Alternatively, a more self-reliant battalion might look like this:

HQ

Weirdboy with Da Jump

Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun

Troops

30 Shoota Boyz, including a Nob with a Big Choppa

10 Shoota Boyz, including a Nob with a Big Choppa

10 Gretchin

This battalion is about footslogging and doing unglamorous jobs like supporting fire and holding objectives. There are two Stratagems you can use here, the aforementioned Unstoppable Greentide, and Mob Up. These are mutually exclusive, so don't mix them up, but using Mob Up to nail two units together and then jumping them somewhere is well-worth considering. Remember Ork units usually work best as big as possible. That said, clan kulture starts to make its presence felt here, requiring some tweaking. Goffs would definitely want to go the Skarboy route here, for example.

Going Further

OK, so you got a battalion, do you need more that? Possibly. Going for 2 battalions gives pretty much all the slots you'd need at under 2000 points and 10 CP, assuming you don't mind taking the mandatory Troop units and HQ. I come from the school that believes ork armies should have at least a hundred models in them, so I don't. This may not however be the case. One thing that tends to turn up a lot in the discourse is the idea of small formations of differing clans, maximising their speciality. Badmoons or Freebooters would like the Spearhead detachment, Evil Sunz would like Outriders, and so on. These do suffer from fairly minimal CP, so variants of the grot battalion seem more popular. Alternatively, if you are a clan purist(2), there's always the brigade. This grants more CP than 2 battalions, and requires one less HQ, but asks that you take a lot of everything. Fulfilling that requirement is tricky, but there is an inexpensive unit for each slot. Unfortunately, Orks don't do the whole “Multiple Small Unit” thing very well(3), so this really isn't sensible below 2000 points. Here's an example of what people are trying.

Bad Moons Battalion

HQ

Weirdboy with Da Jump

Weirdboy with Fists of Gork

Troops

10 Gretchin

10 more Gretchin

Another 10 Gretchin

Heavy Support

15 Lootas

10 Lootas

This is a culmination of what we've talked about so far. You Mob up the 2 Lootas, have them shoot, and them use the Bad Moon specific stratagem “Show-Offs” to make them fire again. Tactical Rerolls and More Dakka also have applications here, to maximise the Dethguns, and Grotshield will protect them from the inevitable attempts at revenge. Of course, this eats CP like me at an all-you-can-eat buffet, which is another reason why this is a battalion.

Wrapping Things Up

This concludes our brief look at the matter of Ork Stratagems. TL;DR try to have as many as possible.

Foot notes

1. Literally, in that you can buy them as cards.
2. Dodgy wording alert!
3. Possibly Deathskulls, but its a push.

The 8th Edition Ork Codex: Hang on, we can shoot now?

This article follows on a footnote in the previous article, a thought that just kept bubbling up when I tried to write about Orks. Shooting. Its a thing we do now. Its a good 90% of what those new models do. Its gone from being something we couldn't consider, to what people earnestly are building armies around. And I've found in the few games I've managed to play, its an element I've been having success with. But is this just novelty? Are we making up for lost time? Or are mistaking crumbs for a feast after a famine? This article discusses the issues.

I will now use the word “shooty” a lot.

Item 1: BS 5+ and Dakka Dakka Dakka
Even under ideal conditions, most Ork models are not marksmen. They hit a third of the time, but as most of their guns are short ranged with the Assault keyword, that often ends up halved. Dakka Dakka Dakka, or DDD for convenience, stops that from dropping to zero due to enemy bullshit like camouflage, but what excites people is the bonus shot a 6 generates. Ork guns put out a lot of shots anyway, so this creates the potential for a ridiculous damage output. Mathematically speaking however, and I'm sorry if you have already grasped this(1), you don't actually get that many actual hits out of it. Say 60 shots, no other modifiers. That's 20 hits, 10 of which generate more dice, and 3.333 ish extra hits. Or, if we treat the DDD bonus shot as improvement to accuracy, its a 5ish% increase on top of the basic 33.333%. Units with higher BS obviously do better, but we'll come back to them. This reality check is important, but it glosses over two important factors. The first is that when the gun is big enough, say a rokkit and above, the pay off is worth it. The second is that this triggers for Overwatch, where any additional shot is welcome, in hope of killing a model that strikes first. The takeaway from this is that DDD doesn't help the rank file that much, although shooty specialists do love it. DDD can be further improved with More Dakka, which is somewhat situational, but does grant 44.4% accuracy if needed.

Item 2: Bad Moons and Other Clans
As the designated shooty clan, Bad Moons obviously excel with guns although not in the way you may think. I honestly had to get help with the sums for this one, but the interaction between DDD and their culture boils down to 46.5% accuracy. This is a hair below "competent", AKA BS 4+, although it does pay dividends if the unit gets a +1 modifier. Bad Moons impress more with the Show-Offs stratagem, which is a straightforward doubling of damage output. Mob up some Lootas or Tankbustas, apply that, and opposition vanishes. So far, this has granted Bad Moons a certain popularity in competitive play, as part of a multi-clan strategy(2). Some other clans do also have shooty aspects, not as immediately powerful as Bad Moons, but enough so ranged units get a bonus without hampering the choppy ones. Deathskulls get many rerolls that help with the more unstable Ork weapons and the Wreckers Strategem. This leads to a lot of Kustom Megablasters and small units to max usage of the rerolls, but also big units of shooty specialists because Lootas are their thing. Also notably, their Opportunist warlord trait allows them to snipe characters. Freebooters inevitably feature Flash Gitz, but also shooty units in general, so as to trigger their Kulture, at which point you are looking at BS 4+ or better. Finally, Evil Suns don't suffer the negative of assault weapons, although that is obviously about going fast rather than dakka.

Item 3: Shooty Units
Ok, we've established that there are reasons to think Orks can be shooty. Do the actual units and their abilities back this up? I mean you get T'au players pointing to Kroot and the Farsight Enclaves as examples of "close range" and "melee", but that's only relatively speaking. Or are Orks more like Tyranids now? Mainly choppy, but quite capable at shooty, if they wish? Lets look at the codex as a whole. We're gonna pick out units that are overtly shooty. Ones that rely on shooting as their primary damage output, have a reasonable option of shooty for the price, or come with so many guns by default it would be dishonest to say they weren't. We are also gonna ignore any Kulture benefits, we're looking for a baseline.

HQ: Shokk Attack Gun, Deffkilla Wartrike, Kaptain Badrukk.
Troops: Shoota Boyz, (including Ard Boyz,) Gretchin.
Elite: Tankbustas, technically Burnaboyz.
Fast Attack: All of it bar Stormboyz, for a total of 7.
Heavy Support: Flashgitz, Gunwagon, Killa Kans, Lootas, Mek Guns and 'Orkanauts.
Fliers: all 4.
Lords of War: The Stompa.

Shooty units: 26.
Total units in codex: 47.

I think we can safely say Orks are shooty.

Is This Actually Wise?
Maybe, but context is important. On the competitive/tourney side of things, those shooty units that seem to be popular are those that fill a specific niche, tie in the aforementioned Bad Moons strategem. or are shooty as secondary function. For example, the Traktor Kannon has gained fans as it solves a historical problem with aircraft, while the Smasha Gun just blows up tanks very cheaply. Those units do have quite major limitations, such as the Gretchin crew preventing many bonuses, but they do the job. By comparison, Shoota Boyz turn up in hordes, going for the old Stalin quote about quantity. Shoota equipped Boyz do shoot, but given their effective range, its more something they do BEFORE they charge. This brings us back to the elephant in the room(3), the self-evident counterargument to any suggestion that Orks should shoot; Orks are really good at punching things. You don't see people talking too much about this as its so obvious. Ork profiles default to WS3+, A2, with a special rule about charging. Ork units typically put out more numerous and more accurate attacks in the Fight Phase than at range, and have numerous reliable delivery systems to get there. Basically all ork vehicles have an explicit melee function too, the only exceptions being supersonic aircraft and artillery. Even Gretchin units, whom have a obvious shooty bias, include Killa Kanz in their number with have 3 unique melee weapons now. Its just a lot harder for ork players to mess up punching than shooting.

The Conclusion
Orks are shooty again, but its about third or forth on the list of things they do. There's certainly the tools to build a compelling shooty army, but you'll run into some tactical preferences baked into the army design. This puts them slightly behind shooty Tyranids in my judgement, as bugs specialise more easily, but Orks can definately play against type better than punchy Astra Militarium or T'au(4). Dakka Dakka Dakka is very much the odd one out of the Ork rules; its an ensemble dark horse, a clearly welcome one, but the big picture for most players is unchanged. For those of you want to shoot though, go right ahead.

Foot Notes

1. Maybe skip a section, or two.
2. This is slightly outside the remit of the article, the idea of taking cheap detachments from different clans for different roles, while maximising Command Points, is a popular one.
3. I call him Dennis.
4. Don't @ me. Once those factions routinely give their Troops swords and pistols, we can talk.

The 8th Edition Codex Orks: My Thoughts

I really should dust this place more often. Yes. I'm back doing this blog again. Yes, its been ages. But, I've not felt like writing about stuff. So, there's been a new Ork Codex with new models. Before that, there was the 7^th ed codex, that sucked. Then 8^th ed happened which was good. Then the Ork index army list aged like a glass of milk left abandoned next to a radiator. Then, much later, we had Orktober. With the ACTUAL CODEX released November. Suffice to say, its been a long and annoying wait. Here are my first impressions, possibly to be followed by further articles.

The codex as a revised Index list
Now, what annoyed me so much about Orks being so late to a codex was that so much of it was obvious and simple. You could have done it in maybe 3 pages in a Chapter Approved. 1 page for discounted prices of about 10%, 1.5 pages for stratagems, and the rest for some kind of shooty rule. So, the first question I have to ask is: did they do the obvious bug fixes? My first instinct is to say yes, as I'm somewhat impressed with the end product. Not everything is as I'd like, but there's enough rebalancing so multiple playstyles are feasible. Its also noteworthy how many little additions have been made that so easily could have been ignored. Case in point, we now have three flavours of Battlewagon, and Kans get multiple different melee weapons. On the flipside, Boyz are now 7 points each, BOO! BOO, I SAY! But I can live with it. This leads us neatly to the next section.

The matter of shooty
Orks never suffered because they lacked close combat ability, they suffered because they lacked reliable tools for shooting. This is simply due to the nature of dice modifiers, which would completely disable such attacks by demanding a 7+ on a six-sided die. Of course Orks were never actually good at shooting, anyone whom claims otherwise is misspeaking at best or cherry-picking data at worst(1), but we shouldn't have been incapable. The result? A very melee-centric army with loads of infantry, and maybe some grot artillery. GW has came in, done the obvious fix, and took it further with the Dakka Dakka Dakka rule. This makes ranged attacks functional again, and fits in very well with existing units. Those of you wishing to make a go of it have plenty of choice too, with the Bad Moons being explicitly a shooty clan, with only Goffs and Snakebites selecting against it. Of course, the other reason for slow & choppy ork forces was overpriced fast stuff, so lets talk about the real reason you are here.


Freeks & new tactics
Orks are the first faction in a while to get new units, excluding beakies, and this brings another concern. GW has a habit of balancing rules to sell new models, which was the match that lit the raging dumpster fire that was the 7th ed codex. The question here is not necessarily do these new units work, its also "did they make something popular suck?" Well, as mentioned they did make boyz more expensive. Mek Guns got reworked too, removing crew shenanigans. And they declined to include a few units without current models, such as, surprise-surprise, the old trakks and buggies. These units seem to be both useful and characterful, a stark contrast to the mishandled launch of the 'Orkanauts. However, its rather difficult not to look at the Evil Suns rules and not say something like, "Yeah, this is too good.". You could easily have one rule removed from the Kulture and it still be powerful, but given how my old favourites Deathskulls turned out, maybe I shouldn't throw stones. Less cynically, the new speedwaagh units seem to be a culmination of something bubbling below the surface in Ork rules: vehicles as close combat units. Its not a new idea, as this can be found as early as 1992 with the old Epic game, and then appearing as dethrollas and wreking balls for more modern kits. Ork vehicles now clearly value the Fight Phase as much as the infantry do. And their role is to drive straight at the enemy lines, firing all the way, and then Tokyo Drift into people. I remain undecided as to which of these new ones are actually the must-haves, if the term can actually be applied to any of them. The Shokkjump Dragsta and Kustom Boostablasta seem to be the most obvious choices, but these models in general are hovering around the 120 points bracket for something with Trukk-like durability. People don't seem to like the Squigbuggy, I dunno. One thing more immediately useful is the Tellyporta strategem, which allows you drop a Gorkanaut anywhere you need it, which did win me a game.

Conclusion

Ehhhh, it looks OK.

Foot Notes

1) Don't even start with your 1^st edition, your Feral Orks or your Lootas. An accuracy of 50% is average, not good, and while you can have shooty orks, you can also have tough Aeldari. It doesn't mean all of them are.