Over the weekend John Phelps asked the following questions:
Q: First, the storm shield loses its invulnerable save vs ranged attacks (it only gets it in close combat). However (and this is not clear), it looks like a figure in normal armor can take a storm shield (like you could before with the WGC). I don't know if anyone remembers this fluff, but originally, storm shields were also used in boarding party actions, usually paired with a bolt pistol or chainsword.
P: This is correct, models in power armour cn use storm shields.
Q: There are different banners that the Standard Bearer can take (you must take a minimum number of points before you get to take the higher ones). The holy relic one says you cannot move in the turn you reveal it, would you take that to mean you couldn't assault that turn? Since the effect is +1 A, this would seem odd. It does say the model can't move, so maybe the squad can assault as long as he would be within 6". Anyone have thoughts on this?
P: The model revealing the relic cannot move, but the rest of the unit (not to mention any other units nearby) by can and assault as normal. The idea is tht the standardbearer holds the relic aloft as the rest of his battle brothers charge the enemy.
Q: I mentioned the Auspex already in the scouts thread, I was hoping the targeter would show up too, since there is a bit for it on the squad sprue.
P: Targeters are kind of 'built in' to the Space Marines BS now. However, a nice house rule I've seen played is to allow units that include models with targeters to pre-measure the range before declaring a target. It's not much of an advantage, so I wouldn't charge points for it, but at least you get somethings out of those scopes on the SM sprue.
Q: The way things are listed, I would say that bikes, attack bikes,
and speeders can *not* buy any of these upgrades. But this isn't clear.
Jervis, would you mind clarifying this? It says on page 6 that all of
these can be taken on Marine vehicles except for bikes and dreads. Then in the Dread's
listing, it lists a few specific upgrades it can take.
All of the tanks list all the options, but the speeder and bikes don't list
any. And, your house model of the Chaplain on a bike (shown somewhere in the
main rulebook) has a smoke launcher, as well as the attack bikes on pages 19 and 29 of the
Marine codex. That tends to simply you can add them (and since one of the models in
question is a newly painted Black Templar fig, it's not just a holdover from 2nd edition).
P: Yes, and attack of the old 'cut and paste' here, I'm afraid. The vehicle upgrades section should say that vehicles can take the following upgrades, if allowed to do so by their entry in the army list.
Bikes and attack can't take vehicle upgrades, mainly because they are not treated as vehicles in the rules and so the rules wouldn't always work for them. We were having a chat about attack bike smoke launchers last week following a test out of a Ravenwing army, and decided in the end to leave them purely as decoration as there is already quite enough special rules in the game already (you have to draw the line somewhere, and this was it!). The dreadnought can take the specific upgrades listed in it entry only. Land Speeders can't take upgrades.
Q: While on the topic of pictures in the codex, there's one of the Razorback with heavy bolters - looks pretty cool. I know the Razorback is being redone, will it have multiple turrets, or just multiple weapons in the box? I may have to call up GWUS and see if they have the Razorback variants as bitz.
P: Urm... the short answer to this is I don't really know, and the person who would know is not in today! I would guess that they'll either be varient bits you get in the box, or seperate upgrade items you can get from mail order, but don't hold me to that!
Q: HQ Characters' entry states that they are Independent Characters unless accompanied by a Bodyguard. The Armory section then goes on to list items, and note that many can only be taken by an Independent Character. If the HQ character does take a bodyguard, then is he no longer an Independent Character and therefore cannot take those Independent Character items like Terminator armor?
P: No, the equipment can be taken by anybody who *may* be an Independent Character.
Q: If we are reading the Armory section correctly, then marines in Power Armor can now take Lightning Claws (1 or 2), Thunder Hammers, and other previously (older editions) Terminator-only items. Is this correct?
P: Yes, but you'll have to convert up the models yourself!
a) If so, can they still take items that Terminators cannot take, like grenades? It would seem a kind of cheesy way to get around the "Terminators can't take these" restrictions to take Artificer Armor, Terminator weapons, and items like grenades.
P: Yes they can. Don't worry, it's not really cheesy in the new game, as characters are not as powerful as before, and (relatively) cost more points.
Q: If a Dreadnought is "crew stunned" on a damage result, can it fight back in an Assault next turn?
P: No. This is actually stated, but is hidden away on page 87 in the 'Stun results' text in the bottom right hand corner of the page.
Q: We noticed that tha weapons options for the Land Speeder Tornado changed from the basic rulebook - it can no longer have both the Heavy Bolter & Multi-Melta together. Just wanted to confirm this was correct.
P: The Space Marine Codex is correct (we weren't sure how the model would go together when the list in the rules was written).
Q: If a unit of Marines falls back, and would move through another enemy unit in a Crossfire situation, are they destroyed, or would they automatically regroup & the Crossfiring enemy would count as Assaulting them (with a +1 Attack)?
P: They are destroyed (they regroup *after* falling back, so are subject to Crossfire).
Q: Librarians as listed on page 171 of the rule book state that they get two psychic powers: Smite and Storm of Destruction. However in the SM Codex on page 7, it shows only Smite. Which is correct?
P: With the extra wargear, especially the Force Sword, Librarians were simply too good if they got Smite and Storm Of Destruction, so we chopped it in this list. In the 24pp minidexes for other Chapters, the Librarians get different powers (but still only one each), and SOD will re-appear in the Space Wolves Codex.
Q: I used to field 1 Librarian, 1 Chaplain, 1 Techmarine, 1 Apothecary, and 1 Captain every fight over 2000 points because it looked and felt right fluff wise. It now appears that for standard missions this impossible to do. The librarian, the chaplain, and the captain(hero) all are distinct HQ choices, and standard missions allow only two HQ selections. Anyone else find this troublesome?
P: The Force Organisations limit access to characters to preserve play balance. However, we plan to run optional rules in Chapter Approved in WD for 'Supreme Command' units that can be used in large games, and which basically allow you to take a group of characters as a unit.
Q: Why cant the command squad have jump packs or bikes! Inquiring minds want to know.
P: Just attach the commander to an Assault squad or Bike squad (that's what I do, anyway!).
Q: One item of praise - putting the army list in the front of the book was genius as it allows for very quick reference / lookup.
P: It made more sense to us to. As an aside, while I can understand why some people that think the colour section would have been better off in WD, I have to say that they are forgetting that the majority of people that will be buying the Codex are not the hard-bitten veterans of the 40K list, who've been painting Citadel Miniatures before they could walk, etc., etc, and this being the case we've tried to make sure that the Codexes are useful hobby guides for people who are not experienced at playing our games, as well as those that are. To be honest, as I think I've said before, it's much more of a challenge to get people to paint their armies than it is to understand the rules, and so I think anything we can do to help this process along is well worth the effort.
Q: One item of scorn - I cannot for the life of me figure out how they going to justify having an entire 24-48 pages of codex devoted each to Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Imperial Fists, etc. before a Codex Orks, or Codex Eldar. All the rules you need are here, and the few items that may change could easily be put in a white dwarf article. Not even mentioning how many frustrated Ork warbosses and Eldar farseers are going to be fuming while the SM players get yet another codex that rehashes the rules before they get their codex!
P: It's a thankless task trying to work out the running order for Codex release - no matter what you do someone will be upset! Basically, what we've tried to do is please *most* of the people, as we know we won't please all of them, and this means that we've simply released the Codexes in order of popularity of each race. The only real exception to this is that Dark Eldar, which will be out a few weeks after the Space Marines, as they are included in the box. The reason that the Space Marines get so much coverage so early on is that Space Marines are simply far more popular than the Eldar and the Orks, by a scale in an order of magnitude of several times to one.
This said, there are a couple of points I'd like to make. First of all, its only the SM Codex and the Dark Angel and Blood Angel Codexes that will be out before the Orks or Eldar, along with Chaos Space Marines and Dark Eldar of course. Secondly, you should be waiting less than a year for the Orks and the Eldar, and during that time they have perfectly good lists in the rulebook itself! That's seven Codexes in less than a year, not counting the 'Chapter Approved's lists that will be going in WD and the CJ. In other words, come *on* guys, be fair, we're doing these things as fast as we can!
P: Terminators & Grenades
In order to avoid a bit of real bloodshed, I'll just say for the record that Terminators may *not* use grenades.
However, we did realise the other day that we'd forgotten about the grenade launcher attachment included on some Terminator models, and we're thinking of putting this in Chapter Approved as a new piece of wargear. How it will work, we don't know yet, but I'm sure we'll come up with something in the end...
Q: Do Space Marine skimmmers and dreads get the vehicle upgrades?
P: No for Skimmers, yes for Dreads, but only those listed
Q: Do thunderhammers
A) Prevent enemy from striking in the next Assault phase?
or
B) Prevent enemy from striking until the end of the next Assault phase, i.e. hitting after
the thunder hammer?
P: B.