UPGRADES

Welcome back to the 40K Misfit and today I am going to talk about the sneak peak dump that Games Workshop released about all the in game weapon upgrades that are due to arrive in October which I will link HERE.

First up we have Heavy Bolters going to 2D which is a much needed upgrade.  This will bring the gun more in line with some of it's significant others like the Assault Cannon (for Imperials) or the Reaper Chain Cannon (for Heretic).  While it won't kill as many models, it will do a better job of taking out more elite models.  I do wonder if it will affect the price of the weapon since, as of right now, the Heavy Bolter is 10 points and a Reaper Chain Cannon is 20.  If the price of the Heavy Bolter doesn't increase I can see them becoming far more popular if the meta continues to move towards a more Elite MSU style army compostion.

Next on the list is that Flamers and Heavy Flamers have has a range increase to 12" and while you might not think that's much of a boost there are armies that can abuse this.  I don't know Salamander's rules very well, but I know they are all about the hotness with mortal wound bull shit, they also have a way to increase the range of Flamers as it is, so look for them to be getting even longer range Flamers  Chaos can take a unit of 10 Terminators with 10 Combi-flamers dropping with MoS and killing almost 2 full units of Orks, or a full unit of Primaris Marines.  Now, I don't entirely agree with this boost, but Flamers did need something to make them a little more relevant.  I'm betting that this change was to give Flamers the ability to be used more often during Overwatch.  Since deep strike keeps models outside of 9", it's impossible for your average Flamer to be usefull.  I think they may end up regretting this change though.

I don't actually know what this is exactly, but it came up when I Googled Melta.

Melta guns get a little something in that they now get +2D at short range in stead of rolling 2D6 and picking the highest.  This is ok, I don't see it as a huge change, but a good one that will make some difference in trying to decide if Plasma or Melta is better.  Multi-meltas are getting 2 shots, which is actually a pretty huge deal combined with the damage buff.  Considering it is currently one of the cheaper weapons a Helbrute can take, doubling the number of shots will make it a contender.

Power swords are getting a nice little +1S boost, although I'm not really sure why.  The energy field around the blade is represented by the -3AP, but I guess they didn't see enough on the table so lets make them better.  Chainswords are getting a much needed boost and becoming -1AP.  This will go a long way to making Power armour units deadlier which is an issue I have been talking about for a long time.  I have a couple articles on power armour, the last one you can find HERE which in turn links you to the first article.  Not only does this make Space Marines better, but makes combat far more encouraging for them, at least for your basic Marines who don't have -1AP Bolter weapons.  Once the Assault Doctrine hits it is going to be scary.  The boost to these 2 swords is going to make me wonder what changes are coming to power and chain axes.  Perhaps taking chain swords on your Khorne Berzerkers and having them keep their pistols might become a thing.

Everyone is going to get a pair of oven mitts when issued Plasma Guns because they will only "get hot" on an unmodified roll of 1.  Neat.

All of these changes are going to come into effect in October when the Space Marine Codex drops and they are going to affect every army.  This is going to be a huge change in that EVERYTHING is going to die really really fast.

There is one more little tid bit, and that is that Marines are all getting an extra wound.  I don't think is going to be as big of a problem and some people are making it out to be.  Not only do these extra wounds come with a significant point increase (18pts per model), but we have been dealing with 2 wound Marines, almost exclusively, for months now.  However, what this change means is that you will likely see a few more of your old school Marine units due to their flexibility.  Primaris Marines have a very 30K vibe to them in that the whole squad is armed with the same weapon.  That makes a squad very good at one thing, but Tactical Squads can have a few models in a unit with special or heavy weapons allowing them to take on multiple roles and not find themselves in situations where they can do nothing useful.  This will also see the return of units like Rhinos and Drop Pods.

This is going to make a big splash for Chaos Players though, who are happier than pigs in shit about this development.  While the weapon changes will take place immediately the wounds are not going to be applied to the Chaos Marines until their Codex comes out.  As I said, the rest of the meta has been dealing with 2W Marines for months, so this shouldn't be too big of an issue, but this could shake things up fairly significantly if Chaos Marines can continue to field units of 20 Marines.

Til next time, keep them dice rollin.