Traitor Legions: Contents & First Look
BoLS will be bringing you Codex Traitor Legions coverage all week. Today we look at the contents and one very cool formation!
The Traitor Legions are upon us! Fourteen years after 2002’s release of the beloved CSM 3.5 codex full rules for all nine traitor legions are here! These are each a unique army that will open up the game to dedicated CSM players who find the default codex a little plain. Every one of the nine gets some serious love, and the book leaves open an interesting possibility for the future…
It’s like this – but with a goatee evil.
What we have here is almost a Chaos reflection of the earlier Astartes Angels of Death codex. In 136 pages, you get only 9 pages of fluff – 1 per legion to introduce them to new players. THAT’S IT! The rest of the book is rules. GW has pulled off giving each Legion a distinct feel via 9 sets of Legion restrictions and special rules, warlord traits, relics (some very very distinctive and fluffy), and of course a detachment. While I personally think some are more fluffy and cool than others, everyone got some of the GW design studio love. There are however some standouts that will be altering the meta. More on those in the week ahead.
Now, onto what you came for, let’s crack open the covers and see what makes Codex Traitor Legions tick:
Look at that cover! Hmm, where have I seen that chap before?
Every codex needs a sexy logo and you know the CSMs just love the skull motif. I count 37, how about you?
The table of contents – this book is dense!
What we have here is non-stop rules – just like we saw in Angels of Death. There is a short 18 page section of background, followed by 12 pages of full page mini photography. Then we hit the first big section, the 36 page datasheet section. This section covers some updated characters, a lot of generic formations that form the CSM backbone of most of the Legion detachments, and a handful of unique formations that only a single legion can take. Next comes the 9 Legions themselves each with 6 pages of rules. The codex wraps up with the updated Sorcerer rules, the 4 new Disciplines and the summary pages.
Let’s take a closer look at one of these formations. Meet the Plague Colony, unique to the Death Guard Legion.
A pretty spicy formation, and one that continues the trend of dual-tiered special rules based around the patron god’s sacred number. We saw this in Wrath of Magnus but here we see solid benefits of -1I, -1WS backed up by the awesome -1T if you max out the formation at 7 units of Plague Marines. Note that unlike the large unweildy Tzeentch formations based around “9”, Emperor’s Children with “6” and Death Guard with “7” as sacred numbers have much more achievable formations.
Future-Proof Legions?
Now before I leave you for today – lets talk about the open-ended nature of this book. There are many who are saying that this book is lacking because it didn’t upgrade many of the CSM’s base units. That is technically correct, but is missing some key points.
- Many of the Legions have abilities that enhance units for ZERO point cost, effectively acting as a point modifier for the entire army compared to the old CSM codex.
- Due to the nature of the Traitor Legion codex being a specific add-on to the CSM codex, it means it will also very well out-live the current one – meaning that an updated CSM codex in the future will have an immediate trickle-down effect on the Traitor Legions that are still buildable via the add-on book. In effect it means that GW had de-coupled the Legions (badasses) from the Renegades (posers) which in a strange way give the Legions more staying power – as they are now in their own stand-alone publication.
Codex Supplement: Traitor Legions $35
AdvertisementThe Traitor Legions of the Chaos Space Marines have waged terrible wars of hate and vengeance upon the Imperium of Mankind for ten thousand years. From the Daemon worlds of the Eye of Terror, they plot the destruction of the empire they once helped to build. They have neither forgotten nor forgiven the loyalists, nor the False Emperor whom they serve. These warriors will not rest until the galaxy is burning, and the Emperor’s putrid carcass is cast down from the Golden Throne into the filth where it belongs.
Codex Supplement: Traitor Legions is a 136-page, full-colour softback supplement to Codex: Chaos Space Marines. It contains a wealth of additional content and rules that any Chaos Space Marines army can use, with a huge array of rules for all nine of the Traitor Legions.
In The Book
– Datasheets for the following models:
– Kharn the Betrayer
– Ahriman
– Exalted Sorcerer
– Tzaangors
– Rubric Marines
– Scarab Occult Terminators
– Khorne Lord of Skulls
– Magnus the Red– 26 Formations for Chaos Space Marines
– Chaos Warband
– Maelstrom of Gore
– The Lost and the Damned
– Helforged Warpack
– Heldrake Terror Pack
– Cult of Destruction
– Fist of the Gods
– Raptor Talon
– Terminator Annihilation Force
– Favoured of Chaos
– Trinity of Blood
– The Chosen of Abaddon
– The Bringers of Despair
– The Hounds of Abaddon
– Daemon Engine Pack
– Cyclopia Cabal
– The Tormented
– Black Legion Warband
– War Cabal
– War Coven
– Tzaangor Warherd
– Sekhmet Conclave
– Ahriman’s Exiles
– Rehati War Sect
– Plague Colony
– Kakophoni;– Chaos Artefacts, Warlord Traits, Tactical Objectives and an exclusive Detachment for each of the 9 Traitor Legions;
– Updated Disciplines of Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh, as well as the Sinistrum, Heretech, Ectomancy and Geomortis Psychic Disciplines;
Advertisement– Armoury of the Chaos Space Marines.
~Have fun folks, and check back all week for more Traitor Legions reviews and more.
