Warhammer 40K, Little thoughts: Troops and transports

I recently read an article about how Adeptus Mechanicus armies don't have transports. They complained that they were required to footslog across the battlefield... despite the Scout moves and Dunestrider rules to get these pedestrian armies going quicker.

It got me thinking about the prevalence of transports, and how Space Marines were really only good due to the cheap nature of their drop pods and rhinos.

Troops are nearly always designed to be objective grabbers. In a Combined Arms Detachment they're the only ones with Objective Secured, and in the old days they used to be the only scoring units. The compromise was that they generally needed help to do anything of importance other than camping objectives.

These days the average Troops choice is getting more and more desirable in a list. Tau Firewarriors have always been a nice little battery of firepower. Scatter jet bikes are turning into the horse-artillery of 40K. Skitarii Vanguard are capable of reducing anything with a Toughness value to radioactive sludge in a decent round of shooting. Cult Mechanicus troops are just Elites used by their fluffy generals as canon fodder.

It'll be interesting to see in the future how codex updates will treat their Troops. I'm predicting that they'll be a strong unit in their own right, and less of the generalists that need support to do anything meaningful that we've had in the past. They'll be exemplars of the army rather than the average joe.

I wonder what this will mean for the Space Marine Tactical squad? Or will they go the way of the Kabalite Warrior... merely an upgrade for a Razorback as opposed to a Venom.

Ah well, just a little thought.

Thanks for reading.

If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please visit and donate at my Patreon. Every Little helps!