Topic of the Week: Non-Codex Chapters

[Lost Nemesis]

This week's topic, we take a casual roadtrip out of the comfortable confines of the brilliant 5th edition Space Marines codex and catch some sightseeing with our non-codex chapter codices. These, of course, would be the Blood Angels, Black Templars, Dark Angels and Space Wolves, as well as any other former, experimental or fan-made codices you'd like to discuss.

How do these books stand next to the 5th edition codex? Which do you or would you play, and why? Would you use any of these codices for counts-as armies for other chapters, and if so, which?

Anything you have to discuss about these non-codex chapters, do so here!

Also, a reminder - if you have an idea for a new topic of the week for next week or another week after that, just send me a personal message and we'll go from there.

[kevin vanrooyen]

I really want to start up a deathwing army an i have "recyclesd" (they were unpainted) my termies from my Imperial Fists for use with the Dark Angels. I just sold the SW codex to my friend andrew a bit over a month ago, the BT codex has some nice touches such as min-maxing and DSing LRC's for tourney play. 20 man marine squads are nice but i like my scouts outflanking with powerfists or sitting on objectives with bolters/ snipers. Plus i'm a big fan of librarians.

The only use I see for the BA codex is as a list for the 8th assault company but this could be done with the vanilla marine dex by mounting some of them on bikes with a bike riding captain. I know about the furioso dread and ball pred... but they don't seem to be worth losing the cheaper and better vanilla marine wargear IMO.

The SW codex desprately needs an update, although in a way they are better off because their codex isn't complete, it relies on the vanilla marine dex and so they get new stuff such as LR redeemers and cheaper tanks. Also who can resist terminator armourr that costs as many points as an Imperial Guardsman?

[MC Bone Giant]

I feel the SW codex is still viable in the 5th edition climate. It received some assistance with changes to the counter-attack rule. You can make some pretty powerful combinations still that will put a lot of hurt on a lot of people. The amount of PW/PF you can have in squads makes every squad a threat. I look forward to the new SW dex when it comes out, but I hope its not at the expense of squad customization/flexibility.

[sithjack]

The SW codex desprately needs an update, although in a way they are better off because their codex isn't complete, it relies on the vanilla marine dex and so they get new stuff such as LR redeemers and cheaper tanks. Also who can resist terminator armourr that costs as many points as an Imperial Guardsman?

I'm trying to write two different papers right now so I'll get a more thorough summary of DA/SW up later. However I just want to say it always feels good to look through the new Marine codex and realize your Wolf Scouts just dropped in price.

[DFA 2008]

I play a home made chapter of Imperial Fists successors and I contemplated using black templars list cause it'd be fun, but I exclusively drop pod assault, so the tactical squads wouldnt help me much. Might make a small army just for kicks though =D

[Subsocial]

I don't play Marines but if I were to pick up an army I would choose Blood Angels (second to GK but they're a totally different thing). The reason is quite obvious for me... SCORING ASSAULT SQUADS!! I mean, wow. I would run mostly a rhino rush list supported by 3, count em 3, vindicators. This plus the death company would be a very formidable list, in my opinion. Not to mention a dread or two I'd take for long range support.

[4theEmperor!]

I am sure many of you have read my posts about my blood angels (and are sick of reading them!). They are my 2nd space marine army, the first being Ultras. I play with tons of jump packs with a minimum of 3 assault squads and 1 veteran assault squad and jump-pack death company. That is a minimum of 5 jump pack squads. I mostly use honor guard with jump packs too. To back them up/support them I have a tactical squad in a rhino (10 men) and a 10 man dev squad combat squaded apart with 2 PC and 2 LC in each. I run 2 attack bikes with multi meltas and 1 or 2 baal predators.
For HQ I have Dante, Mephiston, Corbulo and Lemartes from which to choose. I almost always run Corbulo, and will mix up the others. For bigger games I will put a 2nd Veteran assault squad.
This army is very competitive. I rarely ever lose with this army. It is so fast and so killy and the Death Company are amazing.
I have 2 furioso dread models which I have not used yet because they are not built.

[Quick]

The Blood Angels' Codex, having been written with v.5 in mind, works just fine in v.5 world; though no better or worse than it did in v.4 world.

The Dark Angels' Codex, again, doesn't work any better or worse than it did in v.4; though that doesn't say too much. Even the designers at GW realize that white angels and black angels are fine, but green angels are not fine.

The Space Wolves' Codex still works, but I think it's starting to develop Dark Eldar Syndrome, i.e. your Codex is so old that 'perfect' lists are known and have been math-hammered to death. Thus, there is basically one correct list at any given points-level. This isn't necessarily a criticism of their v.5 ability, but it speaks to a gradual loss in competitiveness due to constantly bringing a single list to the table.

I can't speak for the Black Templars, as I haven't played against them in v.5.

[Ridell]

I used to play vanilla marines with a home-brewn chapter. It was sorta bland and seemed to lack "that certain something", so I decided to get rid of them and switch to Orks. Then, one day, I got my hands on the Space Wolves' codex. I remember thinking "Holy ****pickle! Space marines are sorta cool, vikings are also cool, but viking space marines? Where do I sign?!"

A couple of Bloodclaw boxes later, I'm now more than happy with the Space Puppies. Not to mention I haven't lost a single time yet, the closest one was a hard-fought draw against a pure Khorne CSM list backed by two daemonic Vindicators.

In conclusion, Space Wolves are still a viable and fun army to play with an interesting fluff and a ton of dog- and drinking-related jokes to make games THAT much more fun

[Phalanx]

I play SW (only one game with them so far, though) but I like them. They're a lot more assault orientated than normal marines, which is something I really like about them. I like how many powerfists and power weapons I can take in my units, and then I can still take meltaguns on top of that. The danger of SW though is that units can get very expensive very fast. As long as you can reign yourself in points-wise, its a lot of fun. BS5 assault cannon with another assault cannon and a CML in a wolf guard unit, anyone?