Warhammer 40K Makes Space Marines Harder to Kill

The backbone of one of Warhammer 40,000’s main factions are about to get a bit harder to kill. The Warhammer 40,000 community was in for a bit of a surprise earlier today when Games Workshop confirmed rumors that all Space Marines would now have 2 wounds or more, meaning that they’ll be a lot harder to kill. The Space Marines are one of the quintessential factions of Warhammer 40,000 – augmented humans with enhanced speed and strength and a few extra organs – and 9th Edition will apparently make their in-game stats match the lore. The Codex: Space Marines coming out later this fall will confirm that all “fully-fledged Space Marines” will be able to take 2 wounds before they succumb to injuries. The rule change will make even the rank and file Space Marine units a bit harder to kill, providing players with more usable units when building their armies.

Games Workshop previewed several other changes earlier today, including improvements to a number of weapons. Flamers and heavy flamers will have a range of 12″, melta weapons gain a Damage bonus, power swords are getting a Strength modifier, chain swords will penetrate armor a bit easier, and supercharged plasma weaponry will have less of a chance to overheat. These changes will first appear in Codex: Space Marines, but any unit that uses the same wargear will get the same updated weapon profiles regardless of their affiliation.

Warhammer 40,000 just launched its new 9th Edition with streamlined rules focused to make the game a lot more inviting. While the fundamental rules remain the same (players roll pools of 6-sided dice to determine the success of attacks, with wounds killing off individual units), there are now clearer rules for unit coherency and interacting with terrain, as well as new missions. Another big change is Crusade rules that allows an army to grow in power the more they battle, giving players the opportunity to create a meta-narrative for their armies.