Everybody says that the Black Legion is bland and boring. I don't agree. Although they might be the Chaos Smurfs because they could take any model fluffwise, that doesn't mean they have to. People who call the Black Legion Vanilla CSM tend to forget that the marines of this legion are no less than the Lunar Wolves, the Sons of Horus, the army of the greatest Warmaster of Mankind ever. They are an elitist force and the new Codex: CSM suggests they should be played as one. The rumors are pretty solid that Abbaddon makes your Chosen troop choices. Combine this with the rumor that Chaos Terminators can be upgraded to Chosen and you got yourself: Chaoswing! I don't say that this is super competitive (most likely it won't be) but it is awesome! You can still use any other entry in the codex for a Black Legion army, but elitist super hard troops seems to be the direction Phil Kelly wants to push the Legion of the Warmaster. I really like this!
World Eaters are easy to represent with the new Codex: CSM. Kharn or a khornate (is this an adjective?) Warlord will make Berzerkers troop choices. Along with the new Mutilators, Close Combat Cultists, Close Combate Hellbrute and the Maulerfiend this army is going to be brutal in hand to hand combat. I think that the World Eaters are represented well in the new codex, especially when you take Khorne Daemons as allies.
Mark of Nurgle or Typhus makes Plague Marines troops. What is even more awesome: Typhus is told to turn Cultists into Plague Zombies. Taking Nurgle Daemons as allies is a great idea since Epidemius special rule affects all Nurgle models on the board (even the enemy). Death Guard is going to be fun and one of the most synergetic armies out there!
I haven't really heard much about Lucius the Eternal or Fabius Bile (at least I can't remember a lot) but they can't become any worse, can't they? Noise Marines are as good and versatile as ever and the mark (or icon?) of Slaanesh now gives the unit the Feel no Pain special rule ("You call THIS pain? That doesn't impress my senses at all!"). As far as I know, there are no Sonic Weapons for tanks and walkers. Again, the ability to take Daemon allies adds flavor to the Emperor's Children.
Ahriman is rumored to be to psychic powers what Michael Jordan is to Basketball. Rubric Marines seem a bit better to me than they were before. Together with the very fast and competitive Tzeentch Daemons the Thousand Sons look fluffy and playable to me. Can't say any more about them until I read the codex.
Now here comes the more interesting part. The Cult Legions are rather easy to represent in a fluffy manner. The remaining four Legions however, don't have special cult units or a dedicated deity. So let's see if the new Codex: CSM does them justice:
The Alpha Legion are known for cunning tactics, cultists, propaganda and surprise. It's rather difficult to surprise your opponent in a game the way the Alpha Legion does in the background. Cultists are in to distract the opponent but from there you are left on your own to create a fluffy Alpha Legion army. You could, however, ally with Imperial (i.e. traitor) Guard to go deeper into highly tactical warfare. E.g. Chaos Vendettas and Veterans seem appropriate. I'd love to play against such an interesting army.
The Iron Warriors got a lot of new toys in the form of daemonic flyers, daemon engines and the Warpsmith as an HQ. Together with tanks, Havocs and the Hellbrute (formerly known as the Chaos Dreadnaught) you can easily field an interesting army of Iron Warriors. I'd rather take Imperial (traitor) Guard as allies than Chaos Daemons, in order to get access to heavy artillery and more tanks!
The Word Bearers are great to represent in the new codex! Actually, the Word Bearers are pretty standard CSM minus the cult units. The Dark Apostle and the Cultists are a great addition for the followers of Lorgar. Together with Daemon allies I could imagine a really atmospheric Word Bearers Host. From a fluff perspective the Word Bearers are looking forward to a good time with the 6th edition codex.
Night Lords got new models for Raptors and a new, more daemonic unit: the Warp Talons. If I recall correctly, the Night Lords use Chaos more as a tool than anything else an don't like mutations. This doesn't fit well with the new Warp Talons but I guess if you spend millennia in the warp it doesn't matter which philosophical approach you have towards the Ruinous Powers: in the end you turn into what surrounds you. Cultists could be described as thugs and gangers that fight as brutally as possible to be recruited as Night Lords Space Marines themselves. Right now I can't see which allies would fit the Night Lords from a fluff perspective since they don't tolerate daemons besides furies. Fun idea: Dark Eldar Wyches (desperate allies) as talented gangers and thugs fighting alongside the Night Lords (I still have to read the NL book trilogy, so I don't know if this idea works).
To sum things up: I think that the new Codex: Chaos Space Marines is a good thing to properly represent the major nine Chaos Legions, especially with the allies rule in mind! The Black Legion is steered towards being a more elitist army. The four cult legions can take their deity's Daemons as allies - Word Bearers take them all! Iron Warriors take the heavy tanks and artillery from the Codex: IG; Alpha Legion take veteran infantry and fast flyers (or whatever pleases them to completely mess with their opponents). Night Lords have even more jump infantry to choose from but I don't know which allies would fit with them. Nevertheless, I am really looking forward to picking up the new Codex: CSM and I am already counting the days to Saturday.
Closing thoughts: Right now I want to start a new Chaos army and continue to play my Dark Wolves as 13th Company Space Wolves instead of Traitor Wolves (I don't want to collect two armies from the same codex). This time I want to play one of the 'Big Nine', a full scale Chaos Legion - yes, hence this article. My problem is that I can't decide on one legion and am torn between some of them. I am going to expand my thoughts on this topic later this week.
A pretty sound assessment, by and large.
ReplyDeleteThe main point of interest for me is whether the new codex will return to enforcing individual character through restrictions (like the 3.5 book did) or rather keep the flexibility of the 4th edition book.
Concerning my beloved World Eaters, I quite liked the fact that the last codex allowed me to play a force that was quite fluffy but also tactically sound. It would be a shame if I had to return to playing pretty much nothing but berzerkers in a World Eaters army (Raptors can be sooo much fun ;-) ).
The Alpha Legion seems to have the most obvious problem: Granted, they get cultists again, but the whole "creepy crawly" redesign doesn't seem to mesh all that well with the whole AL background (remember, we're not even sure if they're really chaotic to begin with). The Fiends, Hellbrute, more twisted Chosen and Heldrake don't at all look like something out of an Alpha Legion force.
That said, Phil Kelly's usually great at writing fluff and rules that "feel right". If the new Chaos Codex is anything like the DE codex (in that it allows us to play several very different types of armies or a combination thereof), I'll be very pleased indeed!
Thanks for your comment!
DeleteFrom what I heard (as rumors get more solid now), the new codex will allow more individualisation than 4.0 but not nearly as much as in 3.5. The most obvious restrictions are the elite slot cult units unless unlocked as troops by a marked character. I think that this is a good thing but I would have rather had army wide marks cheaper than individual marks and icons (or a similar mechanism) to encourage players to play mono-god or undivided lists. E.g. I love the mechanism of Epidemius special rule that really encourages to play a Nurgle only list: it's fun, it's narrative and makes Nurgle even a little bit competitive (i.e. no auto-lose).
Of course, you want your World Eaters to be characterful and competitive at the same time. A "skull counter" rule like Epidemius' would be awesome - one that makes every Khorne marked model on the table fight harder and more ferocious the longer the battle lasts and the higher the pile of skulls grows. This won't be in the next codex but I'd really like such narrative elements in gameplay.
On the Alpha Legion: Yes, they have a problem right now. The Cultists in the codex feel more like the religious zealot Word Bearers type of Cultists than the cold blooded terrorists they're supposed to be. This leaves any AL player with no signature unit in the codex. I agree with you on the Fiends, Heldrake etc. not looking like AL at all.
Finally, I agree with your opinion on Phil Kelly. His last works, the Codex: Dark Eldar and the Codex: Space Wolves have great internal balance and are still very characterful. I hope, so does the new Chaos Codex.
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