Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – Chaos Sorcerer Lord
There are a lot of issues with the current Chaos Sorcerer lord right now. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work.
It’s been a while since the Chaos Sorcerer Lord was a scary option on the field. I think the last time was when they could ride a bike, be Black Legion-friendly, and hung out with a ton of Khorne Dawgs while throwing spells. He was part of one of the “well-loved” Deathstar-like lists from yesteryear of competitive 40K. Now they just feel like a bad Dataslate in an army suffering from the Arks of Omen update.
I think there are a lot of issues with the current Sorcerer lord right now. Beyond just having 2 options – Terminator armor or sweet sexy robes. It feels like a unit that just doesn’t really have a place right now in the army, as other casting options are just better. So what do we do about it? How do we juice these guys up?
First Let’s Make the Chaos Sorcerer Lord a Unique Caster for CSMs
We all know the Master of Possession is a better caster in the CSM book. With better spells, better stats, and just an overall useful piece to the current puzzle of getting CSM to work in matched play games. Of course, we could just make the Sorcerer Lord a better caster. But why not tweak him and make it a bit more unique? We could make him the best caster for CSM with more spells, or we could just make his spells better.
I vote for better spells. Right now he just doesn’t feel needed beyond the chance to throw out a Marked spell or just try to get a secondary game going with Interrogation. We’ll first start with making his spells better overall with a much stronger set of blessings and maledictions to help amplify the game a bit. I love his anti inv save power, and while it is too short-ranged, an added few inches could make him a much-needed slot for the army. I also think Warptime should just revert back to the way it was – move and assault. We’ll just make it instead make a normal move without the ability to advance again.
On top of all of that, I also thought some kind of “double” shooting option for your infantry would be good. I love the idea that this is a much more offensive caster who is designed to pump out the offense while the Master of Possession is more of the boosting units thru healing or beneficial auras.
Give Different Psychics for the Chaos Sorcerer Lord vs the Daemon Prince
The Daemon Prince should be an offensive powerhouse. All his spells are for his own Ego with benefits such as damage spells, power boosting options for himself, and other cool benefits. Let the Sorcerer be the weird glue for the army with all the beneficial stuff that isn’t healing and instead go with making his “pawns” better damage dealers. There are tons of things you could do with this, such as making their bullets cooler, making them faster, or just having more attacks. I think making all 3 casting options unique with just the Mark powers being the glue between them makes each dataslate unique and interesting to play with.
Cool Deployment Options
This guy is supposed to be second in command to the Chaos Lord so making him more than just a caster would be cool too. He doesn’t need a Reroll aura of any type, but maybe this model is the planner. Give the Chaos Sorcerer Lord an option you can pay for that it is things like tactical scholar, spell devoured, or maybe a true assault mage. There are things we can do that are not just making him a better caster by gaining an extra spell. Instead these options would make them different than the other 3+ armor saved psychic slingers.
Give Them Secret Agendas
What if they have some other fun rules like Secret Agendas for Abaddon or pacts with Greater Daemons in the warp. They need to complete these for Favour and allow for cooler options? Maybe they have to cast X amount of blessings in a game and they can be powered up with something unique. There are a lot of weird small things that just add to the units aura of awesome with a few simple bookkeeping options.
Make Taking a Chaos Sorcerer Lord Worth It
Man, I won’t say how many jump-pack sorcerers I have sitting on my bookcases. Let alone all the bike versions. I would love to gain these options again, as it is one of the cool ways to build a Night Lords army or other fun terror forces. I just really want CSM to get cool again. I think helping fill out their leaders is one of the ways to bring something neat and scary to the tabletop again.
~For the Warmaster
