Munitorum Field Manual Changes

Hello battle brothers! The new Munitorum Field Manual points went live this morning (4/25/2024), so I thought I might bring the changes to your attention and give my opinion of them. 

Games Workshop handed out points changes to us with a fairly light hand, which I suppose is good, but I don't think they did enough to lift our armies win rates up into the 45%-55% Goldilocks zone they purport to aim for. They did take aim at our dominant list, the Ironstorm, but they didn't do any points drops that are likely to lead to something rising in its stead. 

Anyway, that's enough teasing. Here's what changed. I'm going to lump both Dark Angels and Space Marines stuff together, and group them into what went down and what went up. Beside the units, I'll put how much their points changed by.

First, the fun bit. 

Deathwing Knights:             215         (-20)
Deathwing Terminators:      180/360  (-10/-20)
Inner Circle Companions:     90/180  (-15/-30)
Lion El'Jonson:                    300         (-50)

Jump Pack Intercessors:        80/160  (-5/-10)

Brutalis Dreadnought:          160        (-15)

Hellblasters:                         115/230  (-10/-20)
Incursors:                               80/160  (-5/-10)
Tactical Squad:                    140         (-20)
Terminator Assault Squad:  185/370  (-10/-20)
Terminator Squad:               175/350  (-10/-20)
Vindicator:                           175         (-15)

A lot of our signature units went down in points, and Terminators, Inner Circle Companions, and the Lion did all need the help. Deathwing Knights in particular going down 20 points a squad seems pretty consequential, although I don't think these points drops are going to be enough to lift the Inner Circle Task Force up into the Goldilocks zone. 

The Lion going down 50 points is also a welcome change, though I think he's still too expensive. Hilariously, he's still more expensive than the Necron C'tan, though not by much, as the Nightbringer, the Void Dragon, and the Transcendant C'tan all went up in points. 

Jump Pack Intercessors going down strengthens the case for them replacing Inceptors as the deep striking secondary scorers of choice. Hellblasters (let's face it, everyone thinks of them as a signature DA unit) went down significantly. My Firestorm list will certainly be happy about that.

I highly doubt anyone cares that Incursors, Tactical Squads, or vanilla Terminator Squads went down. I'm still not using any of them for anything. Terminator Assault Squads going down may be of interest to us because I'm sure at least some of us like to park units full of shield/hammer units on objectives and dare opponents to come get them off. 

Seems good

The Brutalis Dreadnought is now 50 points less than a Redemptor Dreadnought, which makes me wonder if Ironstorm players are going to replace the Redemptors they have their Stormravens drop off with Brutalises. And with Vindicators going down in points, I wonder if there's an Ironstorm build based around them that could be competitive.

Next, here's the un-fun stuff.

Eliminators:                          85  (+10 WTF?)
Stormraven Gunship:          260  (+20)

Adept of the Omnissiah:       35  (+10)
Master of the Machine War: 30  (+10)

Most of what this amounts to is that the typical Ironstorm Spearhead list went up by 60 points, which isn't too hard a hit. And, as previously observed, players can swap out one Redemptor for a Brutalis and get most of the way there - especially if they're already using Jump Pack Intercessors instead of Inceptors as the Intercessors went down. Alternately, Ironstorm players may switch over to Repulsor Executioners, as list built around those have also made it into the top brackets, and Executioners are now a full 40 points cheaper than Stormravens. 

It should be noted the Callidus Assassin often turns up in these lists and she also went up 10 points, but that's beyond the scope I'm aiming for. 

And then there's Eliminators going up in points. I'm at a loss to explain that one. Maybe a rules developer got bad-touched by Eliminators in one game and they're still salty about it?

And then there's what I'm relieved to see.

Azrael:                             The same
Ravenwing Darkshroud:  The same

Yesterday I'd have bet money that Games workshop would address the Dark Angels Ironstorm by increasing the points on Azrael and the Darkshroud, as those seem to be the units taking the Ironstorm into the top brackets in tournaments. Instead, they targeted the Stormraven and the Ironstorm enhancements. I was so sure our units would go up, I bought smoke trail stands for some of my Firstborn Assault Marines so I can use them as Jump Pack Intercessors to replace my Inceptors. Now I don't have to, but I may still want to, because it would save me a full 50 points.

To sum up my opinion of this effort on the part of Games Workshop, I give them a C-. More stuff went down in points than up, and the Dark Angels Ironstorm was addressed through the Codex: Space Marine entries instead of ours, so the rest of us aren't paying for the sins of the Ironstorm. However, with the rest of both our and vanilla Space Marine detachments having win rates at or below 45% (and in some cases sinking as low at the 20's), I think we needed points cuts across the board, and Games Workshop did not deliver. Still, I'll take good news where I can get it, and that combined with almost not nerfing anything that didn't need to be nerfed (seriously GW, Eliminators?) it's an overall net positive for us.

Here's the link so you can check it out for yourself: Munitorum Field Manual Aprlil 2024