Ish

My goal is to eventually collect six full Intercessor squads: three with bolt rifles, two with assault bolt rifles, and one with stalker bolt rifles. I’ll probably put power fists on the two assault rifle Sergeants, since I think they’ll be most useful there.

It makes a lot of sense on Assault Bolt Rifle squads, but so too does the power sword they could already take... and I have to assume the power sword (4 pts.) is going to cost less than the power fist.

Yup! I asked GW this directly on Facebook and they confirmed it... The question I'm pondering now is if it will be worth it. I'm thinking it won't be worth it on bolt rifle or stalker rifle Intercessors.

Oh, yes, that is clearly how they intended the rule to work and how 99.9999% of people play it. I just enjoy finding silly little pedantic nitpick things that turn the game completely on its head if you apply the rules as written. My personal favorite remains the 5th Edition(?) Necron Codex where the Monolith’s secondary weapons grew more powerful as it took damage because the rules said it “lost –1 shots” when damaged. Well, if you subtract a negative number from a positive number... 😁

The biggest “missing links” in the Primaris line-up seems to be a lack of a real close-combat squad, the lack of a cavalry type unit, and the dearth of transport options. Reivers are great, but they’re basically an alternative to Scouts. They don’t really do what Assault Marines and/or Vanguard Veterans do... Inceptors actually play pretty similarly to Attack Bike Squads (esp. if played as White Scars), but they don’t really do the same job as Bike Squads: rapid response objective grabbers and fast flankers. Reivers can kinda do this, but not really. As for transports, well, I’ve said it a thousand times before: I was genuinely shocked when the Repulsor kit was released that there wasn’t an option to build it without all the damn guns to make a different transport. A “flying Rhino” to match the “flying Razorback.” Giving Primaris Marines the ability to use Rhinos and/or Drop Pods would be a huge boon.

So the intent of ATSKNF seems pretty clear, right? Botch your Leadership test with your Spess Mahreens and throw the dice again for a second chance. But there's a pretty big problem here: The Morale Test is resolved by rolling a D6 and then adding the number of casualties to obtain the final result which is compared against the unit's base leadership (Leadership 7 or 8 with a Sergeant). But since re-rolls happen before modifiers ATSKNF can never actually be triggered! No matter what you roll on the die, it will be less than the highest Leadership characteristic in the unit and the test will be passed. So no ATSKNF trigger. Then you apply the number of casualties. Then you fail... Obviously, this is cannot be how the Game Designers' intended ATSKNF to function, but...

Yep, the next big release for AoS is supposed to be Goblins. It looks like they plan to mostly emphasize the Moonclan Grots (the artists formerly known as Night Goblins) as they haven’t really teased us with anything for the Spiderfang Grots (née Forest Goblins) or Gitmob Grots (a.k.a. regular Goblins). It’s possible they’re going to “merge” the three divergent Goblin sub-factions into one unified sub-faction, as they recently did with the Beastmen... We’ll see. (The real question, for me, is if my Ironjawz are ever going to see some love.)

Well, I definitely know I wanted to use one of the power fists on my Captain. Probably not the most efficient load-out for a guy who will spend most of his life standing behind the gun line and handing out rerolls... But, c’mon, they’re the Imperial Fists. “This pain train has no breaks... Choo-choo!”

I’m sitting here staring at a lot of unbuilt Intercessors... and a bunch of Imperial Fists’ Power Fists. I can’t decide if I want to use them on the Intercessor Sergeants or not.

I’d imagine that, with proper insulation and people being good about keeping the door closed, the power needed to keep it cold isn’t nearly as bad as the power used to get it cold in the first place... and if you bring the temperature down gradually enough, it’s that probably not so bad either. This is just speculation on my part, I have no actual idea.

Oh, yeah... 8th Edition has that stupid “Tactical Reserves” rule.

I wouldn’t deploy the bombers on the table, leave them in reserve until you’ve established air superiority.

That was really baaaaad. Lazy word play really gets my goat, but I’ll try not to have a cow.

B-b-but... Beaky Marine is Best Marine!?

The internet fandom has a weird tendency to label everything in a codex “Must Have!” or “Absolute Trash!” They seem to think that if one unit is 0.005% more efficient in a given role than you’re an utter moron for choosing an alternative. To wit, in 5th through 7th Editions, I almost always included a Whirlwind in my Space Marine army. I liked the model and found it useful for dealing with light infantry camping out in cover. Where there other units that could do the job as good (if not better)? Of course. Did it still do the job? Yes. Ignore the chattering ninnies on the Internet. Use the models you like the most.

Oh, no, I was thinking of just the HQ Commander.

Really depends on what you want the Commander to do.

Kinky sex?

Hence why I’m inclined to believe that the Aggressors were meant to have Assault Bolters and Plasma Exterminators, but the Inceptors were supposed to have the Boltstorms and Flamestorms... I mean, a perpetual failing people keeping mentioning of the Inceptors is that their an “Assault” unit that doesn’t have any kind of mêlée weapon... a pair of powerfists and flamers would fit that role very well.

The Ottoman Caliphate was abolished and its ruling House of Osman dynasty deposed in 1924. Dündar Ali Osmanoğlu is the great-grandson of the last Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II. Dündar Ali Osmanoğlu is the eldest, male-line direct descendant of Abdul Hamid II, which makes him the "heir." Sortt of. I can talk your ear off about salic law in general or the laws governing the succession of the British crown, but I will admit I know bugger all about the way Islamic law handles dynastic succession... Other than it's quite complicated. But, unless the citizens of the Republic of Turkey were to suddenly rise up and overthrow President Erdoğan and demand the restoration of the old imperial dynasty its pretty much just an academic curiosity about who is or is not the "heir."

It's really weird that Aggressors don't have a teleportation deep strike option, a la Terminators. I read someone, somewhere, speculating that perhaps the Aggressors (slowish, tanky infantry) and the Inceptors (speedy, bouncy jumptroops) were perhaps originally designed with the other squads' weapons but these were swapped at some point during development. This makes a lot more sense to me than more "fan theories," honestly.

I think the Flamestorm Aggressors actually look a lot better than the Boltstorm ones, reminding me a lot of the Firebats from StarCraft. I'll probaby add a unit of them eventually, but I'm going to go with Boltstorms for the first units.

Well, here they are: the Imperial Fists upgrade sprue and decal sheet from the Imperial Fists Supremacy Force battleforce. Pretty nice.

Just remember, this is meant to be a beta test. Don’t worry too much about wargear options and equipment details — presumably a lot of that will be addressed when (and if) a new model range is made — concentrate more on the organizational and mechanical things: Should this unit be Elite or Fast? Should this vehicle be squadron-able or not? Do Acts of Faith work as is or need a tweak?