New Marines after a bit of testing...

Trying again....  Silly mobile app ate the last post...

So, now that I have a few games with the new Marine Codex, here is what I am finding... 

Imperial Fists chapter tactics are really quite good.  Rerolling 1's is not bad, and the Tank Hunter for free on the Centurion Devastators is huge.  Scoring Sternguard is good with my old Crimson Fists, though the Drop Pod going down to 10 capacity is painful.  Honor Guard is nice though and Pedro Kantor's once per game Orbital Barrage has proven useful now that I will actually use it... 

Troops are still a bit lacking.  Tac Marines are OK, cheap bodies to hold objectives really.  The overwhelming bulk of the actual work is done by Sternguard, Centurions and vehicles frankly, so I am torn between bringing the bare minimum and hiding them, or trying to flood the field with them....  Scouts are OK too...  So many ignore cover things these days, so the camouflage cloaks are less of a sure thing.  BS 3 makes them "eh" as snipers but at least they are cheap.  Heavy weapons are iffy with them, but I still take them.  Liking the Land Speeder Storm loaded out with 5 lads armed with bolters or shotguns zipping about the enemy backfield.  Heavy Flamer there is surprisingly effective, ignores the BS 3 of the Scout driver.

Heavy Weapons...  Who came up with the costs for these?  Looking over the book, Missile Launchers are 15 or 25 points if you want Flak missiles.  The Assault Cannon is also one of the more expensive upgrades...  In second edition it was the single most powerful weapon in the game, and we are still paying penance for that as Marine players.  Then it ignored almost all armor (-5 save mod, so Terminators could save on 8+), did d12 wounds and could fire up to nine shots...  Now, it is an upgraded Heavy Bolter.  IMO, the ancient Heavy Bolter is really the worst heavy weapon of this (and several previous) edition.  So being slightly better than the worst one is not really a "premium" thing.  Neither the ML or the AC ignore 3+ armor usually... Yes, the AC rends, but counting on 6's is not a successful strategy I think.  And Flak rounds should have been included as a free upgrade to ALL ML, much the same way "flier" was included as a free and massive upgrade for the Necron Croissant and IG fliers...  :-). Just my opinion of course per usual, what would I know I'm just an Engineer...

Centurion Devastator is really powerful.  Finding at least with my Crimson Fists that mixing in one Las Cannon with 2 Grav ones, oh and Missiles for everyone...  Sgt gets the split fire/night fire upgrade, and turn one Tank Hunters surprise a fair number of folks...  :-)   bonus of night vision for the Chapter Master should he be say, attached to them on turn one for his single shot...  The old Planetstorm miniatures I am fielding as the Centurions look pretty good, and seeing the ancient Fantasians hit the field after so long is good...  Oh, and Tank Hunter works for emplaced weapons fired...  Aegis Gun gets really good with rerolls...  Just saying :-)

Finding the old Assault Marines to be OK as well...  As it happens I have "a few" that have been shelved for several editions now...  Time to paint them up as CF I guess.

Thunderfire Cannon is amazing.  I played the Barrage wrong last week, forgot it was the lay the template and scatter from the first hit...  Would have made no difference in general as large flier bases like on the Riptide or big vehicles will just get hit 4 times, regardless if the first shot hits...  And the packed blob of Kroot were doomed either way as I aimed for the center of the blob...  Going forward, it limited my shooting at single or well spaced small units, but in general it makes little difference for the usual targets...

I was surprised that the Stalker is as good as it has been for me.  Lacking Interceptor I assumed it would be poor at best...  Not so much really...  So many skimmers on the field these days, having either 4 twin linked shots at full BS or 8 twin linked shots at BS 2?  The Hunter is also darn good and scares the Heldrakes locally...  Problem is no squadrons and the Heavy Support slot is tight...