The Goonhammer Hot Take: Space Marines Points Update

In our review of the all new 10th Edition Space Marine codex, one of our issues that was noted was that we could not be sure what points we should expect to be using when putting ceramite on the table. The codex has points listed in the back, but they’re obviously wrong in places - nobody wants to see a return to Desolation Squads with 10 models at 240pts. Thankfully, Games Workshop have come through with an all new Munitorum Field Manual (V. 1.4) replete with updates to a large portion of units new and old. We’ve had sight of it in the form of a review copy earlier today, with the full update to be uploaded by Warhammer Community imminently. As always this PDF will trump the point costs and unit sizes found in the Marine codex itself.

So what’s actually changed? Let’s take a look.

The Changes

Mostly what we’re looking at here is points drops. There’s two upwards movers, with Aggressors and Vulkan He’stan picking up points increases, but otherwise the direction of travel is all downwards. In many cases this is presumably meant to offset the loss of Oath of Moment Wound re-rolls making the army’s firepower that bit less effective, though there’s a few chunkier drops such as the planes where you have to assume it’s both the loss of Oath but also the lack of their presence on anyone’s gaming table which is influencing the more aggressive cut.

The full list of changes as we see them is:

Adrax Agatone - Down 5 points to 85
Aggressors - Back up 10 points per 3 to 110
Ancient - Replacing the Primaris Ancient, down 5 points to 50
Ancient in Terminator Armour - Down 15 points to 75
Apothecary - Down 5 points to 50 and replaces the Primaris Apothecary entry.
Ballistus Dreadnought - Down 10 points to 140
Bladeguard Ancient - Down 5 points to 45
Captain with jump pack - Down 15 points to 85
Chaplain - Down 10 points to 60
Chaplain in Terminator Armour - Down 15 points to 75
Chaplain on bike - Down 5 points to 75
Chaplain with jump pack - Down 10 points to 75
Chief Librarian Tigurius - Down 5 points to 75
Darnath Lysander - Down 5 points to 100
Firestrike Servo-Turrets - Down 5 points to 75
Hammerfall Bunker - Down 35(!) points to 175
Impulsor - Down 5 points to 80
Inceptor Squad - Down 5 points per 3 to 110
Invictor - Down 10 points to 140
Judiciar - Down 5 points to 70
Kayvaan Shrike - Down 5 points to 100
Kor'sarro Khan - Down 5 points to 70
Librarian - Down 5 points to 70
Librarian in Terminator Armour - Down 15 points to 75
Librarian in Phobos Armour - Down 5 points to 70
Lieutenant - Down 15 points to 65
Lieutenant in Phobos Armour - Down 5 points to 55
LIeutenant in Reiver Armour - Down 5 points to 55
Outrider Squad - Down 10 points to 95 for 3
Pedro Kantor - Down 5 points to 90
Razorback - Down 5 points to 95
Redemptor - Down 10 points to 200
Repulsor - Down 5 points to 190
Repulsor Executioner - Down 10 points to 220
Roboute Guilliman - Down 20 points to 360
Scout Squad - Down 10 points to 55
Sternguard Veteran Squad - Down 10 points to 100
Storm Speeder Hailstrike - Down 10 points to 130
Storm Speeder Hammerstrike - Down 10 points to 150
Storm Speeder Thunderstrike - Down 10 points to 160
Stormhawk - Down 10 points to 155
Stormraven - Down 15 points to 240
Stormtalon - Down 10 points to 165
Techmarine - Down 15 points to 55
Terminator Assault Squad - Down 10 points to 195
Terminator Squad - Down 5 points to 185
Vulkan - Up 20 points to 100
Whirlwind - Down 5 points to 145

There’s also points for the two properly new datasheets in here, the Company Heroes who weigh in at 95pts for the squad, while the Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs come in either a 5 for 85pts or a 10 for 170. Finally, the Fire Discipline enhancement in the Gladius Task Force rises to 30pts - this is the new name for Bolter Discipline, previously 25pts.

Black Templars Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs. Credit: SRM

The Winners

Any point drop is a win, and there is a lot to cover here so we’re just going to highlight the things we feel will have the biggest impact on list design going forward. Right away the biggest winners are anyone that had already been looking at running the Ironstorm detachment from the codex. The Ballistus Dreadnought was already seeing quite a bit of play so seeing both it and the Redemptor go down in points, as well as the requisite 2 Techmarines you’re looking to run to make use of their incredible enhancements dropping by 21%? Absolute madness. Fans of being Omnissaiah adjacent will be ecstatic with having around 100 points freed up in just those units alone. The fact both varieties of Repulsor and the Storm Speeders have also seen drops really opens up what the rest of that list can look like. Once again the big winners from a Space Marine-related rules release seem to be Iron Hands - how does this keep happening?

Inceptors dropping by an additional 5 points is a bit of a head scratcher as they were already seeing extensive play, and this firms up their inclusion in just about every list trying to be a pain in an opponent's plans. Good news if you’d invested in a grip of them for play in the index, at least.

Lastly, we recommend taking a hard look at Scouts now. The new version of their datasheet is definitely priced to move at 55 points, making it the cheapest non-character unit you can get, and having both the Scout and Infiltrators rules it feels like they definitely have their place playing the objective game. Not currently on the horizon is any indication of when the new kit will release, as it’s been notably absent from the previews, but the good news is that you can put the old ones on the table to substitute for them in the meantime.

The Losers

In contrast to the ones of Iron Hands players celebrating another reign as the Best Marines, the losers here were people hoping to actually use Salamanders for their Salamanders-based detachment. It was clear Vulkan was going to look real good in Firestorm Assault lists and someone at GW clearly noticed it too, because as mentioned above he’s gone up quite significantly. 100 points for his ability set is far from unplayable, but probably makes him at least a choice instead of a must-have in your lists.

The only other point increase we see here is the Aggressor and it is something we probably should have expected. They were a stand out unit at 110 points per 3, so seeing them drop to 100 in the last MFM was quite the welcome surprise. This nerf feels more like our Popeye-armed friends are going back to their natural state.

Otherwise, the losers are probably those units that didn’t get drops when their equivalents did - Gladiators look relatively worse compared to Ballistus Dreadnoughts now for example, and while the gap between Hellblasters and Sternguard Veterans goes from 15pts to 25pts. A mention too for the non-Codex Marines, who see no changes - which makes many of their datasheets relatively worse, since they’re equally as impacted by the Oath of Moment change but cost just as much as they did with the old version.

Blood Ravens Aggressors. Credit - Soggy

The Impact

Our opinion on the Ironstorm Spearhead was already quite high and these changes only solidify it as being one of the stronger detachments in the book, edging towards the outright strongest. Beyond that, everything else is gravy, and Marine players will be pleased to see their armies get a little bit more stuff to compensate for the nerfing of their army rule. The main thing we need now is to see all this in action when the Codex goes live in a couple of weeks, so we can start to find out where Marines are going to stack up to their rivals - particularly the still-dominant Aeldari and the resurgent T’au Empire and Chaos Space Marines.

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