Goatboy’s Warhamer 40K: Codex Chaos Space Marines – The Good, The Bad, & the Ugly
After what feels like an eternity waiting on the new Chaos Space Marine codex – it has arrived. Was it worth the wait?
As usual I won’t go too crazy into the details. We’ll do the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly as I break down the big picture things you need to know about the book.
Overall I am pretty happy with it as it doesn’t feel like the brutal cascade of rules that Nids had nor the sheer metallic brutality of Ad-mech. This means that building a list within the confines of this book will most likely stay the same throughout the season instead of the wait and see how the GW nerf bat hits you from some of the current bad boy books.
As is usual I do the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Good stuff is the things I like, bad stuff is the stuff that has me sad, and the Ugly is just me questioning decisions. This is a HUGE book with a ton of rules in it as all but one of the main legions has rules in it (World Eaters got a White Dwarf and an upcoming super kewl codex coming).
CSMs – The Good
First of all it is a new book with a whole lot of new rules in it. It feels like a true Chaos Space Marine book with a lot of intent to utilize Marines, their Cult friends, and the Daemon Engines that make the army unique. Each of the Legions have a slew of rules with 6 Warlord Traits, a page of Stratagems, 6 Relics, and their own rule set for their legion. Each of these makes the armies unique – which is a good thing. You can tailor your play style to match your legion. Thankfully they made the Word Bearers decent this time with some cool interaction with Possessed as well as the cults and prayers and that creepy-culty kind of thing.
Updated Datasheets
After all the Legions a lot of the Datasheets got a nice glow up too. Daemon engines got the updates seen in the other Chaos Releases with hitting on 3’s most of the time and some similar stat updates. Even the spells got updates matching Thousand Sons – which is part of my sad face as Warptime is just not nearly as good. Abaddon is a beast and will probably be a lynchpin around the Black Legion armies we are going to see a ton of. Thankfully his point cost seems right and not really as pushed as some of other Special Character options in other books who needed to take a nerf 2-3 months later.
My favorite glow up is the new Possessed as they just seem insanely beastly. They are fast, hit hard, and have a decent set of stats to make them something scary to look at. Either the Red Corsairs making them Advance and charge or the new Slaanesh prayer allowing the same thing too is going to be commonplace. They even get an option for an Icon which is awesome as the Icon plus Mark line up to give extra rules such as the Slaanesh always striking first and then getting +1 to hit in close combat with an Icon.
We got better!
All of the Characters got some shuffling around as you see the Master of Executions hitting the Elite slot. I wish the Aspiring Champion went into that area too but I understand why. The Lord Discordant also got a nice tweak in going to 9 wounds. There doesn’t seem to be a limit on them so we might see some 3 Lord Disco builds plus Master of Possession. Cypher might end up being a pain in the butt auto take as he messes with opponents CP regen options and is pretty cheap.
I like how the regular Chaos Space Marine – aka the Legionaires – can get a baby caster in the mix which could be interesting. Still the troop I like is the weird Cultists mutants as they regenerate, ignore morale, and just seem like a pain in the butt to remove. I do worry it might be a pain to get all of them depending on how the box set is set up.
New Doctrines
The new Doctrine is very interesting as instead of giving extra Ap it instead goes hard into the exploding 6’s option. You start off in Destruction with Heavy, Rapid Fire, and Grenades giving you more hits on natural 6’s to hit. Then it moves to Massacre with Rapid Fire, Assault, or Pistol weapons doing the same thing. Finally it ends on Slaughter with Assault, Pistol, or a Melee weapon. As usual you have methods to get to these on units at different times so expect a lot of Yahtzee’s hitting the table top.
Beyond all of this it just seems like a solid book. It has a lot of options to kill stuff, it has some alright shooting, the Land Raider got tougher, and there is a whole slew of 3 wound models that could make for a very solid board control army. Heck all of the legions have some uses too and that is a sign of a good book.
CSMs – The Bad
It is very strange that the CSM codex doesn’t have any kind of custom Renegade Legion option. It feels like an odd omission when so many other armies had it and it fits in Chaos Space Marines the most. I wonder why they dropped it or is this a new thought on game design showing up where customization doesn’t always lead to fun games. I am starting to get the feeling we might see a bunch of these CSM codex rules concepts in the upcoming Marine Codex that I am sure is on target for this time next year.
Warptime getting kicked in the teeth is an annoying option. I almost would have rather had it give just a flat +x to their movement or charge phase. Make it like a +2 to charges as the rules still state you can only declare a charge if you are within 12″ of your target. Or heck just another option for advance and charge. A lot of the other old combos have gone away too with the Double shooting options, double assault options, and other fun things. This is probably for the best as it seems like GW is trying to realign 40k again due to some of the too strong codexes that came out.
I don’t know about all the Secondary options for each of the Legions. Some seem doable but others just add in too many layers of complication. Between the different extra objectives, actions that take too long to do, and just layers of being a pain in the butt it makes you wonder why even add them. The way the game is going your army needs 1-2 doable secondaries and when you have too many hoops to jump thru it becomes less desirable.
CSMs – The Ugly
Why did they take away Jump Packs? Why did my poor Night Lords players have to suffer thru a foot slogging Emo guy? Look we don’t need Sorcerer’s with them but not giving us a Chaos Lord with a Jump pack? What game designer got so hurt by a Chaos Lord whuppin their butts that they had to remove them from the book. It is a crime I tell you. All my converted ones are looking so sad on the shelf.
Like I said overall the book is huge, has a ton of interactions and a butt load of rules. It is going to take a bit to dig thru it but I am excited to get back to playing some Chaos Space Marines most likely poorly. Still it will be fun to dust them off, be excited how they have more wounds now, and my Maulerfiends hit on a 3+.
Death to the False Emperor!
