Astra Militarum: Part 1

 

THE LOST & THE CANNED

Astra Militarum: Extended review Part 1

A quick forward before we get to the good stuff. Originally this article was meant to be published as one long overview of the new Astra Militarum Codex (imperial guard) I soon realized that I did not have the time to sit and pour over every detail in one sitting, and as stated below, this is not a codex review. This is more of a collection of my personal observations and musings on the new book, which I will put out as a series of articles focusing on the individual parts of the book that I was not able (read not fully prepped) to go over on the podcast. Part one is about the units that were removed in this release.

This article is the follow up to my last appearance on the Stuff of Legends podcast where we went over the new Astra Militarum and Tempestus books. Unfortunately, we did not get to cover everything we wanted to due to the time constraints, so I wanted to do an extended version to cover some of the items we skipped during the show.

This is not going to be an in depth codex overview, there are plenty of other people covering that, and honestly I am not really that much into the meta aspect of the game, rather this article will focus mostly on a few key details about some of the unit changes/removals and changes to the background fluff. This is all basic stuff with my own personal spin on a few areas of interest.

Starting off, let have a brief moment of silence for those units who are no longer with us:

-Sly Marbo.

-Lukas Bastonne.

-Mogul Kaimr.

-Kubrik Chenkov.

-Al'rahem.

-Solar Macharius.

-Every piece of artillery except the basilisk.

 

A quick breakdown for why I believe some of these characters are absent from the latest iteration of the codex starting from the top.

Sly Marbo:

This one actually seems kinda obvious, first off he was a pretty OP character, now that’s not to Say that there are not plenty of those still hanging about in other books (elder cough cough) but he was less a man and more of a strength 8 blast with unlimited range. But I don’t think that’s the reason he got pulled. The word of the day in 6^th edition is ‘supplement’ as in there is a good chance Marbo will be returning to us in one of them. It has long been rumored that Catachans will be getting their own book/data sheet after the release of the main guard codex and I still believe this to be the case, so keep an eye out in the near future as I am sure he will be popping back up at some point.

Side note: His model is still available for purchase on the new GW site, so either selling off the remaining stock, or waiting for an update.

 

 

Bastonne:

This guy never really saw a lot of play as an HQ in 5^th ed, sure he had some interesting fluff but for the most part he was just another upgrade with a few special perks that were not really worth the points, he also suffers from ‘lack of model” syndrome, so yeah poof!

Mogul Kamir:

Real shame about this one, I can’t say for sure why he’s gone, I mean you could technically gussiy up any odd rough rider and call him Kamir, and I will have to check, but I do believe he had a model at one point. Rough riders are still in the main book so a supplement seems unlikely (maybe a data sheet with expanded rules) as far as I can tell though he was just one of those units that fell out of favor, I was actually surprised to see rough riders at all in this edition, but they do still have that unique flavor about them, and allow all kinds of fun kitbashes with bikes, so yeah, not sure where he’s gotten off to.

Chenkov:

I was really bummed he got the axe, though like Marbo I have a sneaking suspicion he may be coming back in a future supplement and in a plastic/finecast kit (he was metal and not called Chenkov on the site prior to the great metal purge) With the new points drop on conscripts he would still be a solid choice regardless of what faction you were playing, he was a tad broken, and may have been even more so in 6^th, but I also did not see him on the table that often, so maybe he was shelved due to lack of demand. While I’ll miss being able to flood the table with an endless tide of bodies, its not much harder to accomplish the same task with regular conscripts in any 750+ game.

Al'rahem:

The legend is gone, but the rules live on. Old model, old rules. The new order (order here) essentially gives any unit a similar ability to his “like the wind” perk. After handing off that ability to move troops around quickly to any random command squad/HQ choice there was not much reason  to keep him in the main codex. Still though, there’s hope for a supplement, or possibly a new sculpt/model (fingers crossed)

Solar Macharius:

He was dead and gone by 5^th, so he only makes the list on a technicality but still he got a whole page (no stats just a big piece of fluffly filler) He had a model and rules prior to 5^th though, but I am guessing he got the rough customer treatment like all the other old fluffy HQs (sans Yarrick and Strayken) Macharius seems like he would be the one least likely to see a datasheet/re-release though just based on his recent exclusion from two consecutive codex’s, who knows, maybe FW will step in on this one.

Update: He does have page in the Astra book, they just decided to hide it under a heavy dose of dark printing and pseudo latin that I didn’t catch of the first read through.

 

Artillery:

Let’s make this section quick.

Medusa:

Short range, ok damage, Forgeworld model only.

Griffon:

Replaced by the Wyvern which is arguably better than its predecessor/cheaper.

Colossus:

Forgeworld only, small load considering the cost, just take a nova cannon costly.

There is one thing I want to get out of the way before wrapping up, all these models are still produced by Forgeworld, and still have current rules to support their use and inclusion in regular 40k lists. Imperial Armor has been doing a good job of filling the gaps left by GW’s clumsy economizing over the years. Overall not a total loss as it is an expensive alternative. There’s a lot of FW friendly rulings/gamebooks being put out by GW lately, so it would not be to hard to keep your old models in regular play despite not having an entry in the main book. 

Closing thoughts on the old and the lost, it happens with every release/update, GW phases out the older less popular specific characters and units in favor of whatever the new hotness is that go round I think we’ll see some of these guys back on the table in the not so distant future, and while a little disheartening to see some old favorites disappear into the warp, there will always be new hero’s to captivate the next generation of war gamers who are just coming into the hobby and will never know the loss of squats, or look longingly at beastmen regiments in back issues of white dwarf. This is the new school, and we are all now custodians of the lore prior to this release, so remember to share some of that wisdom with our newer players whenever possible, you just might be the one who inspires the next Dave Taylor, or (insert famous mini painter here)

 

Cheers

-Scott

BH Senior Taste Maker