Goatboy: CSM – Thank Goodness!
The CSM codex is here and I get to create new army lists that are no longer counts as nonsense. So with that in mind let’s look at the CSM book and some of the things that are interesting to me.
Goatboy here again – and wow I am very happy right now. It is an interesting book and I think will see different lists that will all be worth wile.
So let’s look at the first thing that stuck out – Noise Marines really got a nice bump in the decent department. Yes I know Salvo can be annoying but think of it this way – Grey Knights had to move at least a turn to get into range to shoot – and we all know how close 24 inches can really be. So a turn of a movement and now you are in range to dominate a lot of the board. 20 NSM with Sonic blasters can pour out 60 shots. Mix that in with one of the Slaanesh powers and you might have a problem for a lot of armies. And that whole lack of cover save from the sonic sounds of doom and gloom is pretty good. You think they play Hardcore music or just a bunch of terrible pop?
The other neat thing is that there are ways to change up the force org chart. This is great as it gives me hope for some of the future codexes coming out. Wouldn’t it be great to have some Eldar armies that are just built on Aspect warriors? Or how about the Tau utilizing different Allies to create specific armies.
The other neat thing is that Chaos Bikers are pretty dang cheap. I used to utilize Swift Claws as an “annoying” unit and it seems I can easily transfer this unit into the CSM book with a bit more omph with the Chaos Lord or a Dark Apostle who gives that unit a lot of hatred and fearless. Plus they gain a point of WS and BS to shoot those Plasmaguns into the hordes of 6th edition. We do miss the Attack Bike though and I wish we had some ability to make Bikers troops or at least the Raptors.
The other interesting unit is they really kicked up the ability of the Chaos Spawn. Remember that 10 Spawn box we used to get for Apocalypse? That many beasts running around and causing shenanigans is pretty neat. Plus they are cheap and getting 150 for 5 fearless, T5 beasts is pretty good to hold a unit at bay for awhile. A lot of the time in 6th the winner controls the movement phase and locking a unit down for 3 turns is usually a win in my book.
I am also a fan of the Heldrake. I have officially declared this model as the one to most likely to break as you fly around the country – so pack it good. I am getting 2 to throw around the table top and I think that a Torrent flyer is pretty interesting. It can kill another Flyer and then torrent the crap of a squad hiding on an objective. Shrouding? Eat it you jerk and get covered in soul burning flame!
And now we also have Gretchin for Chaos as well. Cheap scoring units that can be come a very annoying blanket to bother flyers. Covering the board in guys makes it very hard for a flyer to find a proper landing spot. It also let’s you control the board a bit more. Typhus will be in a lot of lists just like you saw Coteaz in GK lists. I am a fan of small units of 10 to help hold objectives and go to ground when they need to make sure they hold that token.
I also like the new warlord powers. I hope we see more of this in the future as I think it adds something interesting especially with some of the locked in abilities on the Special Characters. The infiltrate power is pretty strong as you can do some nutty stuff like throwing in 40 Bezerkers that will be assaulting your army by turn 2.
So with that in mind let’s look at a weird list that is brewing in my head. This is a version of an older CSM list that I played against at Adepticon one year. It was played by a nice guy who I can’t remember his name. I think he is teaching in Japan as I didn’t get a chance to say hi at Adepticon and the ATC.
ROBOTS IN YOUR FACE!
HQ: Typhus
Elites: Hellbrute
Elites: Hellbrute
Elites: Hellbrute
Troops: Cultists X 10
Troops: Cultists X 10
Troops: Cultists X 10
Troops: Cultists X 10
Troops: Cultists X 10
Troops: Cultists X 10
FA: Helldrake, Baleflamer
FA: Helldrake, Baleflamer
FA: Helldrake, Baleflamer
Heavy: Forgefiend
Heavy: Forgefiend, Ectoplasm X 3
Heavy: Forgefiend, Ectoplasm X 3
Formation: Aegis Defense Line
Yeah it is super Spammy but it is full of Robots. I went with Zombies because they will stay around for awhile and bit robots running around in the middle of them sounds awesome. The Defense line is there to help keep your Forgefiends alive for a bit longer. Plus this army gets to use a lot of robots of doom. You could drop Typhus for a Dark Apostle and a Warp Smith if you want as well but I think the Zombies give you what you need. I do think the Zombies can get over 10 models but will wait for a full FAQ so the comments aren’t full of hate.
So yeah – what weird CSM lists are you looking at? Currently I want to play a CSM/Demon army as it gives me the bits I need. Plus I have wanted to buy a squad of 9 screamers for awhile now.
