Buff to Old Marines

[Krefey]

So, with the repackaging of models for 9th ed, some new stats have been seen in the wild for Terminators and Veterans.  Terminators appear to now be 3 wounds and Veterans 2 wounds (instead of 2 and 1 respectively).  I'd wager that all old marines are getting the +1 wound boost.  Which is an interesting change.  I imagine Chaos marines would be getting a similar buff when their codex is redone.

The terminator heavy flamer is also getting a range buff to 12", which I suspect will happen to other flamer weapons.  Or it might be reserved for the bigger / heavier flame weapons.

What do you guys think about these changes?  Makes marines more durable, old marines will be a more viable choice.  If that's the case, it certainly makes me wonder if GW actually are going to phase out the older style marines after all.

[Plasman]

Is this GW admitting "Hmm we should have just launched truemarine models as SMs and updated their rules to reflect the fluff instead of shoehorning in SUPER MUHREENS"

Edited August 12, 2020 by Plasman

[Krefey]

59 minutes ago, Plasman said:

Is this GW admitting "Hmm we should have just launched truemarine models as SMs and updated their rules to reflect the fluff instead of shoehorning in SUPER MUHREENS"

I don't know.  The did need something new in order to sell more models.  Old marines were reaching a saturation point.  Plus I don't mind the primaris dudes.  They look cool.  WEll, most of them do.  Some stuff is a bit lacklustre.

I suspect it's more them trying to adjust the game so that things are more like the "background" while trying to keep the older line of models relevant.  Or possibly buffing them to get new players interested in buying the old marines instead of focusing just on the primaris.

[Gamoholic]

Interesting change. I was expecting GW to continue to shun the old marines out of existence.

[Shinigami_Josh]

i like the new models, but i think it would have been better to just replace the original marines, at least that way i could have count's as'd all of my current firstborn

[Krefey]

2 minutes ago, Shinigami_Josh said:

i like the new models, but i think it would have been better to just replace the original marines, at least that way i could have count's as'd all of my current firstborn

Nah, replacing the existing range would have destroyed a large portion of their customer base.  Lots of people would have just thrown up their arms and said "nope" if they couldn't use their old marines.

[Krefey]

A bunch of the changes are outlined in a new Warhammer Community article:

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/08/13/new-boxes-new-rules-new-codexes/

[Thenothas]

23 hours ago, Gamoholic said:

Interesting change. I was expecting GW to continue to shun the old marines out of existence.

They can't afford to do that to 65% of their clientbase. They also have to avoid 

[Gamoholic]

3 hours ago, Thenothas said:

They can't afford to do that to 65% of their clientbase. They also have to avoid <X>

I agree it's a fine line, i thought maybe they'd roll them into one, i.e. regular marines count as primaris. In any case, it's a weird hole they're digging and it'll be interesting to see where it comes out. I don't mind much as i play (played/can play?) chaos now anyway.

[Plasman]

Exactly why I thought it'd have made new sense just to go to truescale marine models and rules without adding primaris fluff.

[BearPowers]

I just take this as a minor fluff adjustment. OldMarines would presumably be all getting pretty old in the tooth by now, so the buff kind of makes sense. I think it's also good for those people with huge oldMarine armies sitting around to not feel like they're outdated and inferior. 

Those weapon changes are brutal though! 

[Blackhearts Reaver]

the sales bell curve for Primaris has probably settled into the latter part of the curve and they now want to pick up the new Marine players (who only bought Primaris) to go back and by the old marines too... :)