Fire & Fists Descend On Warhammer 40K With New Codexes
October 14, 2019 by brennon
Games Workshop are back to looking at Space Marines fondly as this weekend marks the start of pre-orders for the new Salamanders and Imperial Fists Codexes for use in Warhammer 40,000 and your Space Marine armies.
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Leading the way for each of these First Founding Chapters you'll find the two books which can be picked up in their standard guise as you'll see above and below or in either Limited Edition format or digital if you prefer your tablets and other handheld devices. Once again, as a good friend has mentioned, it does look like these folks are posing for their Tinder profile pictures.
I still think it would have been cool to see them do some proper full artwork for these Codex Supplements. I know artwork costs money but it would have been rather cool to see a proper battle scene on the cover showing these Chapters embroiled in the midst of battle. I guess these do have a more 'official' look to them; as if they could be in-world dataslates or something.
Newly Forged Leaders
Beyond that though we have two new characters entering the fray. Both of these characters are the 3rd Company Captains of their respective Chapters, leading the way and telling their own stories on the tabletop. For the Imperial Fists, we have Tor Garadon or Chip Hazard to his friends.
Armed and armoured in the newest technology available to the Primaris Space Marines these characters are going to be causing all sorts of damage on the battlefield. I knew a power fist was a hefty weapon but now this one has a set of knuckledusters attached!
Stepping away from the bright yellow of the Imperial Fists we also have Adrax Agatone, one of the newest colours in Dulux pai...oops, yeah. I think the 'tone' bit threw me off there.
Despite my little jab about the name I actually think that Adrax is the cooler of the two new Captains. I love the style of the Salamander armour and their history of hunting fire drakes on a boiling world just makes them all the more epic right?
I can't wait to see what they do with the Space Wolves and their Viking theming. I'd love to see a new Arjac Rockfist in particular although he is most likely too surly and grim to get himself upgraded to Primaris level.
Upgrade Your Armies
As well as the options available for characters there are also going to be a pair of Upgrade Kits available so you can properly personalise each of your squads.
As before, both of the kits come with a number of different head options to use for leader figures as well as a set of shoulder pads which allow you to either properly kit out a smaller unit of mix and match them across a full squad.
There never seems to be enough on these kits but hopefully, they aren't too dear so that you can pick up a few of them to use across your entire army. If you're frugal and use the transfers well you should be able to make good use of these across your soldiers and vehicles.
New Vehicles & Scouts
As well as the options which are very Chapter specific here there are also a few additional releases which reach beyond them to the Space Marines at large. The new Impulsor Tank is going to be popping up this weekend as an alternative transport option...
...and for scouting ahead and making sure that the coast is clear we also have the Infiltrators which can also be built as Incursors.
These stealthy Space Marines will be heading on before the vanguard of your force to look for enemy units and eliminate them before they can engage you in direct battle. As you might imagine, dropping these guys behind enemy lines is a good idea as they can rush in and disrupt them whilst also securing objectives and the like.
I do like that we're seeing this evolution of the Scout to this new 'Primaris' level but it will be interesting to see how that develops with armies like the Black Templars and Space Wolves.
What do you make of the new releases?
"For the Imperial Fists, we have Tor Garadon or Chip Hazard to his friends..."
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It looks like they keep the decent artwork for the Collector’s Editions.
I’m still holding off buying the next Codex Space Marines as I’m not sure if Dark Angels will get a supplement or just stay as a full Codex of their own.
The infiltrators look good. and the decals could be handy.
Still think Tor is one of the worst sculpts GW have put out for a LONG time (it’s still that “transformers robots in disguise” toyesq backpack gun that drives me mad). The upgrade kits for the chapter specific space marines ARE nice, HOWEVER they push the price point for building a squad of ten from ridiculous to absurd 🙁
…boy must have got out the wrong side of the bed this morning
I think the P upgrade packs since White Scars / Emo Guard (terrible design choice) have had 20 shoulder pads + transfers rather than 10?
In the previous upgrade packs (just the one sprue), you get five “marine” shoulderpads, 3 Aggressor etc shoulderpads and a Sargent style one. All these are in relief and you get the usual bits and bobs in a couple of heads and a couple of arms. The “new” aspect seems to be the transfers are now included (you get enough transfers to do ten marine shoulderpads) and you get 2 sprues now, as I don’t remember them being in the earlier Blood Angels upgrade pack. However I think most collectors will be looking at either doing ALL the marines in… Read more »
My brain failed, yes indeed! Before it was a single sprue with no transfers but of course GW have been randomly price hiking every several months so it’s hard to say* if these are value for money or not. The transfer sheets look like they have the right-pad squad type markers?
I’ve noticed the Primaris upgrades have universally been bad. Contrast with the proper marine upgrades and which are so much thematic.
*Primaris upgrades sprues were £8 but the price increased to £10 for the ultramarine one.
I know everyone isn’t sold on the Tor sculpt, but I really like the beefed-up power fist and Predator-style assembly he has for his grav-gun and camera. The rest of the Fists releases are looking good; the addition of the measuring tools in their upgrade kit is a nice touch for their nature as siege-breakers. I’ve also checked out some of their leaked rules, and it sounds like they’re going to be absolute BEASTS on the tabletop, especially when kitted out with bolt weapons.
I think the look of the sculpts, the paint jobs, and the look of the codices cover art are cartoony, and i suspect that this isn’t an accident. I’ve noticed the art direction of much of the W40K (and AOS of course) has become increasingly so since the (completely different to the AOS relaunch) relaunch of W40K happened. It’s not ubiquitous as yet, but i think it’s an art direction they are experimenting with at least, if not implementing as such.
GW designed all their new Primaris Marines so that third parties could make extra bits for them … and now it bites them in the arse as all the Primaris upgrades – these are no exception – have been pathetic. Especially compared to previous marine upgrade packs. Past Upgrade packs for normal marines featured every shoulder pad being unique. Whilst Warhamer 40,000 resisted the complete rebooting that Warhammer Fantasy had inflicted on it, the demand to “modernise 40K” into something in line with modern culture is apparent here with increasingly sci-fi and less grim dark models that look more like… Read more »
The cartoonish stuff is something the community asked for. It is part of 40k, and always was. It was always blood, gore, body horror and a piss take on itself.
I think they’ve been told to make sure each chapter has “defined facial features” (rather than the previously more subtle) which is why you have the absurd emo raven guard. Looks like Imperial Fists had a “make him look American and big jawed” note given to the sculptor.
That was kind of the overall aesthetic of the Fists from the beginning, though with a bit of a Roman flavor (not as blatant as the Ultramarines). Though I do agree with you, the “My Promethium Romance” look the Raven Guard have is a bit ridiculous; however, you have to admit that it IS distinct, which is a big deal on the tabletop, especially when people don’t paint their models right away.
Something odd is going on with GW’s release schedule. You’ve got the first of this psychic awakening which has resculpts of a 2nd and a 3rd edition character as well as putting 2 units in plastic for the first time but you can only get them as part of a big boxed deal (the most expensive yet), then next week marines get 2 new army books, upgrade kits, a new tank and new(ish) units. It just seems odd; like GW have devalued the point of the Eldar releases (and I’ve got to hope that if the big boxes set doesn’t… Read more »
I’d say you’ve answered your own question there. Any Eldar player that’s bought that box isn’t going to have the disposable income left over for a second week of releases in a row. It’s price tag is probably most people’s monthly hobby budget.
Are any Dark Angel players WORRIED about getting a new DA codex? Personally I am, since hearing that Chaos has broken out Luther and it’s rumoured Luther’s next appearance will be at the head of a massive force of DA Fallen, despite the fact he has been insisting FOR TEN MILLENIA that HE HAD NO NEED FOR REPENTANCE SINCE THE LION HAD FORGIVEN HIM!
With the rocket surgeons writing for GW these days, maybe it’s best if some forces are left behind.
Which rulebook or novel had Luthor broken out? I hadn’t heard about it.
I wish I knew. I just heard that the Rock was invaded by Chaos Daemons and eventually driven out. And the Grand Master knows that the whole invasion was a diversion for someone to free Luthor from his cell.
I”m not a Dark Angels player, but I could see them getting a new codex, maybe even two. Many of the Angels may have fallen with their fall to Chaos, but you may still have some loyalists kicking about, leading to two separate factions within the chapter. This might even be the impetus for an Imperial civil war, if they ever decide to go that route.
Not a fan of those marines. They look as if they’re missing shoulder pads