Goatboy’s Warhammer 40k: Chaos Space Marine Reveals & New Detachments
Goatboy here with my 40K thoughts on those awesome new Chaos Space Marines we saw unveiled at Adepticon 2024. So, about those new Detachments…
The Adepticon 2024 reveals have come and gone, and while they showed a bunch of general GW stuff – you know, I am really just excited about the Chaos Space Marine reveals. The CSMs were my first army, so it will always be a faction. I look forward to being good for a bit, getting nerfed, and making me sad. Still, it is an exciting time as we have some new Long War stuff to look forward to.
The big reveal was two new minis accompanied by a pair of new boxed sets. Sadly, I don’t need most of what is in the boxed sets, but most likely, one will flow into my greedy little hands at some point. It’s an interesting release, as taking both of these and a combat patrol nets you a pretty robust CSM army to mess with. I am hoping we have some other new kits showing up as well – but the two character models will hopefully come with some fancy new rules that make taking a jump-pack dude worth it.
On the model front, I prefer the foot Chaos lord versus the Jump-pack guy. He looks a little weird, kind of slowly dropping in, and would have rather had a much more aggressive jump-at-you pose. I think all his model parts look cool, and if I get one, I would most likely change how he is on top of a piece of smoke. I would probably go with some kind of tactical rock or broken bits of machinery.
Eight New CSM Detachments, You Say!
The big bit of info, though, from the GW Seminar was the reveal that the new CSM Codex would have eight new detachments! This is crazy, as the last big one was Space Marines, and this codex has even more. There are a lot of Detachments and something to really think about and break down.
Vashtorr
First, they said that Vashtorr and team are in there. That takes up one and most likely would be some kind of Daemon Engine-style list. I would guess it will do something like give a +1 to hit for big monsters. I’m hoping they are not attached to things like needing units to have less starting strength, but it could work better for this army versus others just due to how much shooting you could have in it. I also hope they update Vashtorr’s datasheet, as it is rather basic right now. He should have some sort of pick some ability out of 3 and let it make my Daemon Engines better.
Veterans of the Long War
I am guessing the other two detachments would be based on the names of the new boxed sets. The Veterans of the Long War box would match a Black Legion option and most likely do something with objectives and do more damage to people on them. This would match up to how the Dark Angels Death Wing rules would work, and, depending on how they set it up, could be cool.
Dread Talons
The Dread Talons is a weird box but has to match up with some kind of Night Lords-like detachment. I would guess more things that are looking for Battleshocked enemies, but I really hope they don’t go hard into that. The Night Lords need to have some interesting rules beyond just forcing Battleshocks. Maybe they get bonuses hitting stuff with higher Leadership and, on top of that, force leadership to be higher? I would also put in Raptors as a Battleline unit – maybe?
That leaves us with six more detachments to look at.
Even More Detachments
Slaves to Darkness – The old index cards Slaves to Darkness will probably stay with changes to some of the main stratagems and rules to not let Forge Fiends go crazy. That then leaves out four which we can break down and see what they might be.
Iron Warriors – The Iron Warriors one could match up with some simple rules like Rerolls to hit or other heavy emphasis on shooting damage attacks. It could even do things like reroll number of blast hits with benefits to Undivided units over other marked ones.
Word Bearers – The Word Bearers will hopefully go heavy on Daemonkin options and pushes to make them cool. You have Daemon in your keywords you get a cool bonus.
Alpha Legion – The Alpha Legion option should either go hard on the Cultists aspects or just really push the sneaky marines vibes. I am guessing Sneaky marines with bonus to cover, stealth options, and other fun stuff. It is always the army that needs to be thought about because if you build it where you can pressure things too quickly – it can be overpowered.
Cya Slaanesh – I am guessing Emperor’s Children are going to get out of the generic CSM Codex, as they are the last Cult Legion army with a chance for a Primarch and their own Codex to come out in the future. I don’t expect a detachment for them.
Red Corsairs & Fabius – However, I am pretty sure we will see a Red Corsairs-like option highlighting Renegades and featuring Huron Blackheart. This one would just go hard into the Advance and Charge abilities. Finally, I’m sure after eight straight editions of 40K, Creations of Bile will be in the codex as well to round things out. It feels spot-on to think about, and this covers all the CSM Detachments we might have in the new codex – listed below.
- Slaves to Darkness (Generic Index CSMs)
- Vashtorr’s Trashy Friends (Daemon Engines)
- Veterans of the Long War (Black Legion)
- Dread Talons (Night Lords)
- Big Boom Bros and their Guns (Iron Warriors)
- True Believers of the Corrupted Flesh (Word Bearers)
- Shhhh, We are your Friends and totally not Sneaky Snakes. (Alpha Legion)
- Pirates of the Space Caribbean (Red Corsairs)
- The Doctor Is In! (Creations of Bile)
I am just excited to see one of my main armies get one of the codexes soon. I wish we had more books coming out, as it helps players figure out and rebuild their armies. They also let some balance issues get worked out like “equipment” mismatches we have between boxed sets and datasheets. I know it is frustrating to rebuild units but it does help get us to a meta that feels actually pretty decent for once.
