Codex Space Marines Review

Codex Space Marines - Warhammer 40,000 Supplement
Games Workshops Warhammer 40,000 Rule book
Published by Games Workshop

8 UK pounds - 14.99 US Dollars

Space Marines are humanity's ultimate warriors dedicated to the defence of the Emperor and the Imperium of Man. These genetic super men have there own Codex, so lets have a little look inside.

Its the first and perhaps the biggest selling Codex in the Games Workshop set for Warhammer 40,000 3rd Edition. Lets face it though its Space Marines and I personally don't know anyone who plays WH40K that does not own at least a small Space Marine army (Yes including me!). So its easy to see how this is the biggest selling Codex they produce. Also its the first that showed us GW new attitude to their army books - i.e full of rules and light on background. A complete contrast to the older style of Codex that we all got used to! There was something special about wading through all that background at the start of the book - it gave your army more meat and made it feel a little more real. Yes, we all appreciated the cheaper price, but surely 4 pages of additional background would not hurt? If you didn't know what a Space Marine was, were he comes from and who he fights for then this book can leave you a little puzzled.

The lack of background is only a minor gripe - the army list is well presented and is easy for even the novice to understand, thanks to the new way the army are structured. Using the list you can get a good rounded Space Marine army - other mini-me Chapter specific Codexes are available which act as plug ins to give your army a little more character. So even if you are Blood Angel or even Space Wolf player you are still going to need to get you hands on this book to make full use of all those wonderful special rules inside your own 'special Codexes'. I like this idea and it opens up hundreds of possibilities.

The colour section is the standard fare showing lots of examples of Space Marines colour schemes along side how to paint and organize your Miniatures into armies. Plus if you are stumped for some clever tactics you are given 3 Codex Space Marines tactics to help even the most tactical impaired (like me!) get the most out of the humble Space Marine.

In all its a good book and a must for Space Marine players out there. My only moan is the lack of the rich WH40K background which all us old hands remember. Perhaps we shall see a some kind of source book in the future it would be a shame to have all that wonderful background go to waste. To sum this Codex review up in one sentence 'This Codex does exactly what is says on the back of the book'

Flaming Skulls