Goatboy’s 40k: Bad Guys Got New Toys Too!
Today I want to look at the “best” new things that just came out for the Chaos Marines and what it means for CSMs, Daemons, and even the Orks.
Goatboy here again and while most of this week has been the chatter on how bonkers some of the new Space Marine powers are there was a Bad Guy release that came out as well. While it isn’t nearly as strong as some of the new GI Joe in Space stuff it is still pretty potent set of weapons to bring the paint to your opponent.
Bring in the (Chaos) Knights!
The best release for the bad guys so far is the added in Renegade Knights. For those living under a rock, in a tree, or in a cave – GW is releasing a new pseudo board game called Renegades that consists of a Knight Paladin/Errant Kit, a Knight Warden Kit, and some terrain for a rather hefty price cut. There is some kind of board game rules with it but they also released an updated dataslate for Renegade Imperial Knights. These are the Knights that have fallen to Chaos. You can think of them like brand new Chaos Space Marines instead of the FW, fully devoted to a Chaos God, Daemon engine of doom. While this means the Renegade Knight isn’t nearly as “combo” heavy with a Daemonic Save, Daemon God Rules, and other weird options it instead gives you a much more customizable”regular” knight to add to your evil forces.
The best thing about these guys is that they follow the normal Chaos Space Marines ally chart so even your Ork buds can use some knights and not worry about freaking out if they get too close. This is also great as the Daemon army has access to some mean super heavies with decent firepower because the Renegade Knight has all the weapon options the normal Imperial Knight has, with the added benefit of being able to take 2 of the same guns on each arm. That means you could see 2 Avenger Cannons on a knight or 2 Rapid Fire Battle Cannons. Heck this gives you the option to have 3 sets of Heavy Chubbers to shoot at an opponent and annoy them when they fail the armor save. The second “gun” option is a little bit more expensive for the Renegade knights but the normal basic load outs for Knights remains the same costs. You do not get access to any of the formations yet but who knows what will end up with whenever the White Dwarf wants to update the game.
The detachment for the Renegade Knights is called Forsworn Detachment and it lets you take up to 3 Renegades. They do gain preferred enemy Imperial Knights but they also give that to the enemy Knights. Overall this is a great set of new rules for Chaos Players as these guys will help out a ton when playing with your subpar codex. I am hoping we get some amazing updates and maybe will actually see some Chaos Space Marines that are not just HQ characters attacked to a bike/juggernaut.
I tested out 2 super shooty knights with dual Avenger and Dual Battle Cannons with added on Stormspear missiles. They did shoot a lot and earned their points back in initial testing. I think the missiles are not needed if you are running dual sets of guns but I was missing the close combat D so I might ended up just going with 2 Renegade Wardens with added Missiles. Right now I plan on grabbing a set if I can as I can always add 2 more fully magnetized knights to my collect. The Chaos Knights I initial made were sold and I painted 3 more for myself. I am up to 14 Knights built and painted right now and it doesn’t look like I am quitting doing these jerks anytime soon.
Give me some Chaos Space marine hotness or the finger gets it!
Test List – Murder Murder Bang Bang!
Daemonic Incursion
MurderHorde
K Herald, Jugger, Lesser Gift, Greater Gift, Locus of Wrath, Crown of Woe
Khorne Dogs X 5 – 8 Units
Foresworn Detachment
Renegade Knight, Avenger Cannon X 2, Stormspear ML
Renegade Knight, Rapid Fire Battle Cannon X 2, Stormspear ML
Enter the Sorcerers!
The next decent rules release for Chaos came in the form of a new formation called the Cyclopia Cabal. This is a formation from the Black Legion book that is made up of 3-5 Sorcerers. They are from the Black Legion so they have to take Veterans of the Long War so there is an initial tax of 15 points but they do gain access to a pretty nutty spell in return. Any of the Sorcerers can attempt to manifest this spell and each sorcerer within 12 inches of the caster gets to add an addition Warp Charge Dice to the casting that doesn’t come from the WC pool. The WC 3 spell is called (will add it) and its like a super powerful Puppetswar that doesn’t have to hit, has a 30 inch range, and causes the entire unit to shoot for your team.
I want you to think about that for a little bit. Then mix in some of the biggest and baddest set of shooty units we have out there. Now imagine grabbing a unit of Storm Surges (Normally 2) on the first turn, activating all their D missiles and murdering a unit of poor Tau hanging out on the table top. What about taking one of the Riptides form a Riptide wing, force them to double shoot, and thus turning off that ability for the unit? How about that bad a$$ unit of centurions with attached Hunter’s Eye character? Or heck a full unit of Thunder Fire cannons sitting there ready and wanting to hear the chitter chatter of chaos?
This is an extremely powerful spell and while it doesn’t effect vehicles its range, lack of needing to roll to hit with it, and the fact any of the Sorcerers from this formation can cast it means you will be getting hit by your own guys at some point. I remember a game where I stole a Thunder Fire Cannon for 5 turns with Puppets war. I ended up killing his own Captain, command squad, and a few marines. He wasn’t very happy with me and I ended up winning the game all on back of his own Thunder Fire Cannon. I like that you can throw a ton of dice at this power and if the Sorcerer eats it to a perils you always have another one that can try it again next turn.
I suspect a lot of players will add this formation to some of the KDK lists I have seen floating around. While it isn’t particularly fluffy it does give them a lot of strength to help keep all those Gore Pack doggies alive and make sure your Thirsters stay powered up with Invisibility, Endurance, or even Shrouding all over the place. We have also thought about messing with them in some Enfeeble bomb lists to try and mitigate some of the Azrael/Bark Bark Star lists that have started to come up. You can easily get -3 to 4 and watch as they succumb to the weakness that is enfeeble.
KDK CAD + Cyclopia Cabal
KDK
Bloodthirster of D Slinging
Bloodletters X 8, Char Upgrade
Bloodletters X 8, Char Upgrade
Flesh Hounds of Khorne X 10
Flesh Hounds of Khorne X 10
Flesh Hounds of Khorne X 10
Chaos Paladin of Khorne, Legacy of +1 Inv Save to Khorne Daemons, Dirge Caster
Cyclopia Cabal
Sorcerer, Lvl 3, Bike, Spell Familiar, Veteran of the Long War, Force Axe
Sorcerer, Lvl 3, Bike, Spell Familiar, Veteran of the Long War, Force Axe
Sorcerer, Lvl 3, Bike, Spell Familiar, Veteran of the Long War, Force Axe
You can easily protect your doggies with multiple spells and if you get lucky with some Malefic you could throw down with some Cursed earth as well and get some 3++ doggies. The Chaos Paladin is there with the legacy that gives all your Khorne Daemons a +1 to their Invulnerable save. I do wish you could take some Daemon special items as the Crown of Woe would be great but alas those KDK jerks just really get shafted a bit on the special items department. There are some good gones just not nearly as spicey as the updated Daemons are with Curse of the Wulfen. I figured you could do some Blood Priests of Khorne who cast some chants to the great Murder King himself.
Kneel Before Chaos!
Overall when you compare the Angels of Death to the updated Chaos stuff – only the Renegade Knights have any hope of being nearly as good. The new Psychics are really nutty that they even overshadow the sheer amount of cool with the updated Marine Chapter detachments. Here is hoping we see some events take a good hard look and try to let some of the other armies actually get to compete. But oh well – at least Chaos Space Marines got two good things which is more then what we got since the book came out.
