Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K: Codex Chaos Daemons – The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
Goatboy here with a quick and dirty review of the new Chaos Daemon Codex, the good, AND the bad.
I won’t lie I am not the biggest fan of this book. I don’t think it is completely unusable but it really feels – well just phoned in when you compare this codex the Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Knight books. There just isn’t nearly as many cool and interesting things in this Codex. It isn’t bad – it is just not what I wanted. I will use it and most likely win games with it – I just don’t like well “Chaos” it as much as I wanted too.
As usual I break it down pretty simply into Good, Bad, and Ugly columns. This way it is pretty simple in how I try to figure these books out and see if I can build something unique enough to pull me away from Chaos Space Marines. I think I will end up using some Agents of Chaos nonsense to get them into armies but will talk about it a bit more as I break it down.
Codex Chaos Daemons – The Good
Hey it’s a 9th edition book and it has rules that fit into 9th edition. I was never a fan of Summoning as it was just a weird mechanic. I didn’t want to bring a bunch of daemons and other bits plus it never felt right. So I put it in the good column as it should just go away as a rather old rule that didn’t fit. Oh and speaking of rules – this book was set up differently than the others with each god and their relevant units in each of their sections. They had Warlord traits, relics, spells, strats, and rules all broken down into their groups. I like this and think it is a nicer way to split these things up.
Better Dataslates
On the rules front almost all of the Dataslates just straight got better. More wounds, more strength, better movement, and other rules all just got better which is great. A lot of the Greater Daemons got close to being usable – especially without needing to use CP’s to get them to become exalted. This is a good thing and another good part for this updated codex as lots of stuff just got better.
Manifesting
I do like some of the new teleporting rules too. Manifesting is an interesting option as it lets you deep strike closer based on the enemies leadership. You can deep strike within 9″ or within the distance that is their leadership. Now this could be really interesting in a lot of the chaos mixes as you have options to decrease leadership all over the place. You start to show up within 6″ and a 10 man unit of Daemonettes or Bloodletters becomes scary. Also Warp Locus lets you deep strike within someone with that. Chaos Space Marine have some characters with it so we can see how this will combo to make for some fun turn 2 explosion of daemon nonsense.
Better Psychics
I felt like the Spells all got tweaks to be better too. Tzeentch still doesn’t feel as spell heavy as it should be – but that is fine as it fits within the current design for the book. I like that Delightful Agonies is a 5+ FNP which matches all the other Chaos versions of that spell. There is a lot that feels more in line with the other books which is a good thing.
Be’Lakor is Bonkers! (in the good way)
Oh – Be’lakor is friggin bonkers too. That Dataslate got a glow up and expect to see him in many Daemon based armies. Heck he is just going to be an issue in a Supreme Command Detachment as he activates all the different god based Warpstorm stuff, can utilize a ton of different stratagems, and is a beat stick. The other interesting glow up is the Soul Grinder as he is now toughness 8 with a ton of wounds. He gets some cool abilities based on what god he likes (not needing points even) so he might show up as an Agent of Chaos as his points is pretty aggressively costed for a giant monster of daemon engine.
Chariots – Really!
The Slaanesh Chariots all got better. Heck all of the chariots got better too. I shiver at the thought of trying to build a giant Hellflayer but even that crazy thing is better. There is going to be a full bore chariot army for Daemons that will piss me off because it is good but I will never try to buy it. Oh and a cool thing if you take a Greater daemon you can take an accompanying Herald that doesn’t take up an HQ slot. That is pretty dang cool and a great way to really give up a lot of assassination points or Abhor the Witch.
Codex Chaos Daemons – The Bad
This book feels very boring in its design. The overall army rules for being pure daemons is just – you get access to a Warp Storm chart that lets you try to gain some Warp Storm points and get to spend them on abilities. All of the abilities are not bad – they just all cost too much. This feels like it was thought of and someone just went too far to the under-balanced side of things instead of making it too good. You roll 8d6 and on each 4+ you get a point you can spend during the full Battle Turn. This means you are hoping for 4 so all the abilities should be set up to push towards that with lots of 1, some 2,s and the best ones being 3. The book all went plus one for all of these. It really hurts this rule that was supposed to be designed to help them live.
Pick Your Warlord Trait Carefully
Of course you do have Warlord traits that let you store some WS points – but the other big bad from this is there is no stratagem to get an extra Warlord trait. That is right – you only get one Warlord trait if you are playing a pure Chaos daemons army. There are so many interesting traits but only being able to take one royally sucks. You get extra Relic options for the book – but no Warlord traits which really hampers the Warp Storm rule.
The other thing is there is no mono god bonus’s besides the storm. Where are your loci rules that give advance and charge? How about some crazy Khorne one that makes Psychics a pain in the butt. Oh hey what about a Nurgle FNP or some other kind of tough option? Or what about Tzeentch one that cascades spells into each other. Nope this book gives you none of that.
Goodbye Big Mobs
Speaking of Spells – Pink horrors are no longer casters. Heck all of the troops feel very weak because you can only ever take 10 per choice. That is right no more big blobs of 30 models running around the table. All of the Daemon troop units are over 100 points which is a big pain in the butt. It feels like the army wanted to be an elite army without the benefit of making the elite army survivable.
High Point Cost and Delicate
A bunch of 4+ saves into 1 wound models that are not that tough is no way to keep an army around. The Pink horrors sure have a 3+ to shooting but you get there they explode. Their new exploding rule is nice that it doesn’t cost points to have saved for splitting – but with only 10 models and each split happening on a 4+ from an attack it isn’t nearly as good as you want it to be. I like the Daemonettes the most as they are cheap, fast and have a lot of attacks. But once you start going from there it gets harder to really justify investing in these chaotic bodies of nonsense.
Codex Chaos Daemons – The Ugly
They took out Furies even though there is a plastic kit from Warcry. They took out one of the better RND/Secondary options for the Daemon book. Nurglings got hit too as they can’t do actions are no longer a troop choice. Nurgle lost FNP but they did gain wounds and toughness. But we know this game is full of murderous firepower that makes things not survive like you want them too.
There Will Be Objective Issues
They just bleed Assassination, Bring it Down, and Abhor the witch points. In fact this is probably going to be one of the easier armies to pick objectives into as it tries to assault you with usually big things that give up points easily. Your options to score are not nearly as good as you want them to be because the book ones are just – kinda enh. I think GW should look at a secondary and if it can’t be done easier than Banners than they shouldn’t print it.
It Could Be Spicier
Really, a bland feelling Codex is really the big issue of all of this. I like the idea of the Warp Storm – but it needs to be tweaked to be better with more options. Their saves are also annoying as I understand the reasoning behind it – but a bunch of 4+ saves only matter if you can hide them in vehicles that can also be a 4+ save and take hits. The Greater Daemons are neat but everything feels just way to expensive. I just can’t see how some things survive when Abbie and his Dawg Pound will just shoot things off of the table. Let alone a Tau army going fully online and ready to murder things.
Next few weeks will have me talk about different lists and thoughts on the gods as we wait on the next 40k release. Something tells me we are going to be in for a rough ride when that next new codex comes out.
All hail the Primordial Annihilator
