Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K – 10th Edition Chaos Marine Armies – Good, Bad and Ugly
Goatboy here talking about the Chaos Marine 10th Edition indexes out this week. Here’s my first impressions of the Chaos Legions from the good to the bad.
As the weeks move along and I dig into building armies in a time of big 10th edition rules changes and thoughts on the good and bad units we see will get a real in-depth look at these books. But until then – let’s just splash around in the chaotic puddles of doom and see if it is worth getting wet.
Chaos Space Marines
They went from being a hot new codex in 9th edition to a quickly nerfed bit of overworked armor nonsense. It was a quick rules whiplash and while some things might have been too good it really just wrecked an army that was just starting to be interesting. You can tell I am bit sad about it as my Possessed rush was a ton of fun and only having an event or two with them left me sad and writing depressing poetry about how the only Chaos left in my life is my two kids and arguing about Minecraft. So how are the CSMs stacking up in 10th Edition?
CSMs – The Good
Overall CSM feel pretty dang good. They are a much more robust shooting army and their Dark Pact rule actually seems pretty good. They gain the ability to pass a LD test and gain extra rules like Lethal Hits or Sustained hits. Heck they can even get combos that let them get both with a friendly Helbrutes nearby. This is pretty friggin awesome and you can easily set up an army of rough shooting with nice board control from some assault elements.
The Marks are here and don’t cost you anything. Unlike other editions where they would be “free” too they at least give you some abilities. All of these chain off of your Dark Pacts to get 5+ critical hits/wounds to help your armies do things. You can have fun Sustained Hits on your Autocannon Havocs, your Obliterators can do some insane shooting, and even your Accursed Cultists can gain Lethal hits on their gross tentacle bits.
This army feels like a true pile of crazy nonsense and at least doesn’t feel like a goth’d out Space Marine army. Of course Abaddon seems amazing too and continues the idea that Epic Heroes are needed for most armies.
CSMs – The Bad
A lot of the assault elements from the army feels less exciting. I also think some of the Character add ons are not nearly as robust as the Marine options – leaving things feeling like the army is missing something. I do wonder if the army will suffer trying to wreck tough vehicles beyond going super monster with Possessed hitting Devastating wounds and wrecking something in a wave of 2 Mortal wounds per 6 rolled.
Oh and Daemon Princes are interesting – but they still don’t kill enough if they get there. This time they let the walking ones buff your army and for most of the Chaos stuff they are really worth it. They are still just bad going into a unit becasue their AP is not good enough.
CSMs – The Ugly
We have enough bits to do a Lost and the Damned army – but they just need to make a detachment that does it well. Will see if they end up doing more of it or they end up being weird killteam cast offs. Oh and Vashtorr is still terrible. I don’t understand what they want to do with this model and why he is in the book.
Death Guard
Here is an army that feels like GW doesn’t know how to make something tough in this new edition – beyond amping the Toughness Stat. That is great and all but you won’t see Toughness 8 Terminators, so the raising of that bar doesn’t matter when you get wrecked by strength 7+ damage. I don’t think the Death Guard army is bad – it just feels a bit off.
Death Guard – The Good
Death Guard have a fully set up Index with a lot of interesting rolls a some interactions that are neat. They really emphasize the idea of heavy “lethal” hits so while they won’t always have the best strength to kill stuff they can “pour” wounds into things without having to hit and roll a 6 to wound. They also have a crap ton of Flamers that can wreck stuff.
Morty is still amazing and I think a ton of the Daemon Engines are looking good. The Lord of Virulence got a big glow up with helping your Daemon engines hit better so will for sure see this guy a lot. Most likely hanging out with Deathshroud as a cheaper choice than some terminators. Mix a ton of Defilers and other gross robots and get ready to wreck opponents with your well hitting Engines of Destruction.
Death Guard – The Bad
4 inch movement is pretty dang rotten. That is just so slow in a game where things are going all over the place. There are a ton of armies that have abilities to shorten your movement and it just sucks to go from 4 inches to 2 inches. It isn’t enough I tell ya and it makes me think will see Plague Marines in Rhinos to help shore up their short stumpy gross legs.
Death Guard – The Ugly
The Daemon prince on foot does a great buff giving out 6+ FNP when within his Stank Zone but after that he doesn’t do much else. His hits are pretty weak and without any kind of method to reroll or amp up his AP he feels like an expensive buff piece. The Winged one isn’t much better other than gaining Devastating Wounds on the charge which could be cool but it isn’t enough to fix this model for use. Have them be buff units and just do – more buffs.
World Eaters
The newest Chaos army on the block and we have a complete reworking of their rules. I think the Secondary rules were what let this army tick so having a complete change is ok to me as it also lost the Secondary stuff. I really like the new Blessing of Khorne rule as it feels very fun and interesting. Overall I am excited about the army as it is the last one I finished before the end of 9th.
World Eaters – The Good
These guys punch so hard and are so fast you can quickly put opponents on the back foot. Like an Ork army on steroids these guys are going to get there and wreck your face. You can set up a ton of stuff to get Scout moves and if you go first – 11 inch moving Eightbound that can advance and charge is a real thing. These guys punch hard, punch fast, and can wreck stuff just by sheer force of the wound roll with Lethal hits.
Angron also seems pretty amazing and if you are set up to use him – having the ability to regrow him when rolling 3 6’s on the Blessing of Khorne roll doesn’t seem to hard. Heck especially with the ability to reroll it with an upgrade and the biggest glow up – the Jackhals getting a free reroll to your blessings if you are near an objective. I really like the army and plan on testing these guys out more when I get some friends ready to drink deep of the well of 10th Edition.
Oh and their Daemon Prince on foot seems pretty dang amazing with a 4+ Aura buff to all his friends and devastating wounds on his attacks if he Charges. This at least lets him feel worth it for the army as one of the leaders next to Lord Invocatus who feels like a slam dunk choice as well.
World Eaters – The Bad
Our Poor Berzerkers just don’t feel like they do enough for the army to really add them in. The Jackhals are just better it seems with the ability to grant a single dice reroll on the Blessing of Khorne and Sticky Objectives. Terminators again don’t feel as great as they continue to not give us true Butchers of Khorne to wreck stuff.
World Eaters – The Ugly
Where are our damned Khorne Bikers? They could have added a few more things as well. Also the Helbrutes for them is weird as it allows you to attack back if attacked. Does this mean every time they are hit by a different unit? Couldn’t they like amp up the Blessings in someway? Or give another cool Aura like the other CSM options.
The finishes off half of the Chaos stuff you will see another batch tomorrow before I dive into Xenos. It is a ton of info and it is exciting stuff to see on the tabletop.
Who is ready to scream at the dead body of the Emperor and take back Terra?
