On Monday, Games Workshop took a knife to the Space Marines range, and then plunged it into the hearts of old school players still playing with armies they built during earlier editions of Warhammer 40,000. An article published on Warhammer Community revealed that 12 units will be completely axed from the next Codex: Space Marines, and a further five models will be demoted to serve as proxies for other unit entries. Almost all of the casualties are the older, smaller, ‘firstborn’ Space Marine models.
Specifically, the following 12 kits will have their rules moved from the Space Marines codex to the Legends supplement. Legends don’t receive balance updates and aren’t eligible to use in most organised play games, and we can expect these models to leave production:
- Centurion Assault Squad
- Centurion Devastator Squad
- Razorback
- Predator Destructor
- Predator Annihilator
- Vindicator
- Whirlwind
- Dreadnought
- Stormhawk Interceptor
- Stormtalon Gunship
- Stormraven Gunship
- Hammerfall Bunker
The following five units will also not be part of the Space Marines codex, but have instead been redesignated as ‘Legendary Proxies’. Their models can be used to stand in for a different unit:
- Tactical Squad – counts as an Intercessor Squad
- Devastator Squad – counts as a Desolation Squad
- Suppressor Squad – counts as an Inceptor Squad
- Pedro Kantor – counts as a Captain
- Uriel Ventris – counts as a Captain
This doesn’t quite mark the end of the firstborn kits. The Mars pattern Rhino will still be in service, though I have to wonder if its transport capacity will be downgraded to reflect how teeny tiny it looks next to Primaris marines. Several Space Marine chapters still have unique firstborn units, including the Space Wolves Wulfen and Thunderwolf Cavalry, the Deathwatch Watch Master, and almost the entirety of the Grey Knights range.
It’s been almost a decade since the first Primaris models were released, and it was only a matter of time before the firstborn Space Marines went the way of the Thunder Warriors. I raise my glass to some very long serving kits, to everyone who just had their armylist gutted, and to YouTuber ‘Paul is bad at stuff’, who can no longer bring his cursed 36 Centurion list to tournaments.
Bitter as this pill will be to swallow for some 40k players, Heresy players can be cheerier. The price of Predators, Vindicators, and Whirlwinds on eBay and trading groups is likely to crash. The 40k models may not be the Deimos pattern vehicles that are most associated with the Heresy, but the Mars pattern vehicles were just as prevalent on both sides of the conflict.
The fact that the Stormraven is going off sale is also interesting. This ugly flying brick is the base chassis on which the far cooler Storm Eagle and Fire Raptor are built using resin components. If it’s being removed from production, there’s a chance that GW is making new, completely plastic models for these iconic Heresy aircraft. Given how hellish the current hybrid kits are to build, it’s a change I would welcome.
Has your army just been gutted, or are you ready to swoop in and grab some bargains? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord community.
Source: Wargamer
