Chaos Space Marines, 6th edition:
To start off, this is a nice new codex in my opinion. It added a bundle of new strategies, units, and upgrade options. I will break each army selection into a discussion about my opinion on the unit, and their optional upgrades. As I comment on the codex in general, I will be looking at it from a nurgle point of view, as that is my main army for chaos space marines.
As a quick note about some noticable core rules which pertain to chaos space marines, let's discuss them. First in mind is fearless. There are quite a bit of fearless unit types in the game, and granted it is nice to have some in each codex. But let's face it, sometimes games workshop went overboard, and handed fearless out like candy on halloween night.
Not every codex needs fearless, and especially the factions of chaos space marines. A quick break down...
Khorne berserkers? They long for combat. They love fighting and killing, but are probably not big fans of dieing. This especially holds true since their skulls too will be added to the blood god's skull throne.
Nurgle plague marines? Ok, fearless because they are essencially already dead and bloated, walking corpses of disease and filth. They care little for bodily harm and care only to disease the universe with their fathers curse. Yes, this happens to be my army choice so maybe it seems I favor them, but hey, the story fits and I didn't choose this army by accident.
Noise marines? Ok, they love the screams of agony and death, even if it comes from them or their allies. Storyline says it makes sense, so I have to roll with it also.
Thousand sons? They are walking cans of sand. Need I say more? How does cursed dust which is thousands of years old fear anything? It doesn't.
Daemons? Yep, they are not from this realm, they are immaterial in nature, I doubt they care about "dieing". They just dissipate upon "death", so not really any reason why there would be some sort of fear for death.
That is my breakdown for rationale. Now, due to peer pressure from the 3 out of 4 factions having fearless, khorne is given it like a needy child on christmas morning. Maybe I misunderstand the storyline and the berserkers are praised after death by the blood god for how many skulls they collected, but I would think dieing and thus ceasing to help collect further skulls would be a good reason for their god to stop caring for the soldier.
First, let's talk HQ's.
Typhus - Being a nurgle player, Typhus obviously stands out. He is amazing in the new codex! However, he has some flaws, as any character might. Basically, plague zombies are a great addition and cheap objective capturing unit.
The flaw with plague zombies is that they cannot take the mark of nurgle. If they were plague zombies with the mark included, even if the points were slightly higher for the unit, then it would fit the theme better.
Also, Typhus's Manreaper is better than ever, but only strikes at initiative 1 from being unwieldy. I do not like this, and it severely hurts his potential killing power. Being 230 points, he should be much more damaging as well as survivable. However, his survivability is pretty good I feel after play testing him.
Chaos Lord - Being fearless, and thus providing fearless for other units he joins is just amazing and pure awesome sauce. Throwing on a Sigil of Corruption, Black Mace, and Burning Brand of Skalathrax in conjunction with a bike or jump pack, and you have an extremely menacing unit that your opponent MUST deal with. Since it can contest (and possibly score via a warlord trait), throw him at an opponents major scoring unit and watch as your opponent tries to find a way to deal with such a threat.
Chaos Sorcerer - The sorcerer is basically a watered down version of the chaos lord, but can cast some spells. The spell lists look nice, and there are certainly some awesome ones, with others being less useful. Personally, I like the idea of a Nurgle spell casting sorcerer, and using a spell familiar helps ensure the spells succeed. Normally I would be against a caster (especially given the threat Tyranids cause with extra psyker dice tests), but in this codex with the familiar it is a very viable choice. I have yet to play test it myself, but I look forward to trying them.
Daemon Prince - The new Daemon Prince, although costly in points, is extremely power and a huge threat for any opponent. Having him in flight mode at all times is crucial, and placing him behind line-of-sight blocking terrain is very helpful to keep him around. Mind you, you only really need to hide him for at most one turn, since he can assault on turn 2, he will wreck some garbage. Throw him at a big expensive unit that your opponent is trying to hide in cover or whatnot and let the slaughter begin. One on one, this guy can take on almost anything. With initiative 8, not many things are going before he does. Another sickening combo is to stick a black mace on him (thus making it an AP2 daemon weapon), even though it is expensive, he should easily make back his points if you play him right.
A wise strategy to use with this guy would be one of the three... hide him behind cover as he flies forward to avoid being shot at / crash landing, keep him flying towards the enemy out of cover to provide a much desired target for the enemy to shoot at (basically tank the hits), or have him deepstrike onto the table in flight mode to provide a late game threat. All of these are very viable and deadly if played properly.
Warpsmith - This HQ looks really nice on paper, but I have yet to try him. An HQ with 2+ armor, 4+ attacks, and a melta / flamer (2 shots a turn) to boot are amazing. I would always throw an Aura of Dark Glory on him for some invuln goodness, to make him resiliant like a terminator. He is good by default, but with a Burning Brand of Skalathrax AND a flamer both fired in one turn makes this guy very deadly for swarm armies. And hey, he has a melta, so bye bye tanks.
Another choice is to throw on a black mace or murder sword to make the +2 attacks from mechatendrils really help out. Picture a black mace on this guy... and lets be optimistic, I roll a 6 for the daemon weapon bonus attacks. That is 5 attacks on the charge, +6 from the daemon weapon. It is going to be hard to stop 11 swings from this weapon even if it is AP4. It will certainly proc. GG.
And finally, his shatter defences and tanky goodness. Shatter defenses is great for picking out that one piece of terrain that you just KNOW your opponent will hide his little grubby scoring units in. The good thing is, you shatter defences after objectives have been placed, so you know where your opponent is going. And now for the tank shinnanigans. Repairing is so-so in my opinion, he could instead be killing / blowing something up. The tank "gets hot" is quite useful for when this guy is out of range of something to shoot / attack, and obviously if the foe has some sort of tank which fires many shots. Otherwise, this ability is not the best, but also not the worste.
Now, the Troops...
Obviously, Plague Marines - These guys are pure pwnage given that they have toughness 5, feel no pain, defensive grenades, and a 3+ armor save. Using plasma as usual, I think these guys rock, and despite them being expensive points wise, they are resiliant as they come.
The first obvious advantage of these guys in this codex is that they cost 1 more point each base, but they have plague knifes. Wounding any toughness on a 4+ and rerolling against equal or less toughness than their strength, these guys can wreck even Khorne berserkers in melee.
For example, recently I played a game against the new Khorne berserkers, they charged my plague marines, I fired overwatch and melted a few faces, and then combat ensued. First off, they had twice as many guys as me (opponent x10, me x5). Secondly, they had more attacks, a superior initiative value, and higher strength. They managed a few wounds, I rolled saves, and then feel no pains. All said and done, I lost one plague marine but managed to kill one berserker with a plague knife. Sure his guys are cheaper, but looking at the melee stats, a khorne berserker unit is practically THE best basic troop melee unit in the game (given their benefits and armor saves to point value). What is lacking? Fire power. Who has that? Plague marines.
Plasma's, melta's, and flamers are always awesome. With overheating only occuring on 1's thanks to 6th edition core rules, plasma seems like an obvious choice for plague marines. Make two plasma gun wielders, and make the champion a plasma pistol & melta bomb holder and your looking at a unit which can do everything, on top if being able to cap objectives. And thanks to plague knives, no more champion power fist needed! Yay! (And there was much rejoicing...)
Khorne Berserkers - Looking good. Points cost reduction, do not really need the chain swords so I would drop those and keep these guys cheap. Instead of a bunch of chain swords, more guys is always better. More guys, more attacks, especially as Khorne.
Sound Marines - Awesomely awesome. Ignores cover with 2 shots each from two feet? Yes, yes, yes, all kinds of yes. Blastmasters are nice not required. Ten guys for one is a stretch, so I am not all for that. However, the shining star here is the doom siren. Given the new core rules "wall of death" for flamer templates, I feel sorry for those who charge this unit. These guys are anti-objective campers.
Thousand Sons - What is cooler than ancient soldiers dried to dust and sealed in armor? Invuln saves are yummy, and AP 3 bolters makes your opponents face palm when they wipe their units from the table. Like it, love it, gotta have it!
Another awesome strat? Throw any other types of marines behind these guys for a delicious 5+ cover save. Why do they need to tank when they can just use walking sand bags?
Rhino (Transport) - The Rhino still provides a useful purpose as always. It is a cheap option to move your troops from one point to another quite quickly. Personally, I like the idea of loading them up with Warpflame Gargoyles, Combi-Bolter, Combi-Plasma/Melta/Flamer, and a havoc launcher. It is expensive for such a low armor tank, but if your opponent does not destroy it quickly then it will pose a very annoying and powerful threat.
Of course, this is only useful really if you have target saturation. If you run just a twinked-put rhino with troops insidex and the rest of your army if foot slogging, expect this rhino to blow up practically immediately. But, when your opponent see's 2 mauler fiends, a land raider, and 2 helbrutes, decisions of what to shoot becomes much more complicated. An added special combo is to hide a twinked-out, troop carrying rhino behind a land raider for blocking your foes line of sight to it. Even if they can see part of the rhino, a 3+ cover save will make your opponent think twice.
Elites:
Chosen - Altough I have not yet used these guys, they look pretty solid. They have 4 special weapons which can be extremely useful at eliminating tanks and monstrous creatures. Plasma guns are a good run, but I think an obvious choice would be flamers, or my personal favorite, meltaguns. Throw a mark on these guys and give them whatever solution you need to balance your army. Besides that, not much more to go with. They serve a purpose and they are good at fulfilling that purpose.
Helbrutes - For the points cost, can't go wrong. Used to be 105, now 100, no reason not to be happy. Multi-melta = win, and being equipped with a power fist enables strength 10, AP2 attacks. That should clean-up tanks, fortifications, and infantry alike. Although it cannot contest objectives, it can make short work of a non-fearless unit. Did I mention that it comes standard with a multi-melta?
Terminators - These guys are back once again. Still good, still resiliant, still quite powerful. Same weapon options, not much has changed, but still a useful option to take in a roster. Given that I use mark of nurgle, they tend to be pretty darn difficult to take down, so sometimes I take them for that. Thanks to new 6th edition rules, 2+ armor seems to be a pretty solid choice. And since invuln saves are not ignored anymore, always good to have.
Altough, something I have never understood is why these battle hardened warriors in the empires most power suit of armor are still prone to being panicked and running away. I know there are quite a bit of fearless units these days and it's annoying, but if somebody should have it, it's these guys. When your surrounded with a wall of ceramite/adamantite armor and you have survived many a battle, there is little you have not experienced and are afraid of... just saying.
Mutilators - These guys... yes these guys. Basically melee-only termies. Tough as nails, but lots of powerful attacks. I like these guys. Given a mark of nurgle, they are tough cookies. Less they get shot by a rail gun, they ain't goin down anytime soon. Dual chainfists followed by dual power axes looks good to me. Thats a lot of powerful, armor ignoring wounds to take to the chest.
Possessed - These guys do not get a lot of love from players, but I personally like them and think it's a good bargain for the points. Strength 5, fearless, and invuln saves make them pretty reliable in combat. Add in their random mutations each combat and they become pretty fierce killing machines in combat. Yes they are a little pricey points wise, but they get the job done. Only complaint I have is that they seem to slow for my taste. Many games they are spending their time just running across the battlefield. I would like to have seen some sort of daemon type transport which could be exclusive for these bad boys. For example, a dedicated transport for 50 points could have 12 armor front and sides, daemonic possession, assault ramps, and has the option of attacking on it's own like a chariot can. THAT would fit the theme perfectly and make these guys the threat that they should be recognized as.
Fast Attack:
Chaos Bikers - Now these guys are new for me to be using, but they seem really good. Movement is incredible, and given jink via turbo boost, they get your guys to where they need to go. Personally, I use nurgle bikers and they are fantastic. Toughness 6 with 3+ armor gets the job done right. Put a power fist on the champ and you have a unit that can get anywhere, and kill anything. I like to throw in a chaos lord to provide fearless since leadership 8 and 9 seem like weak sauce to me. Besides, the bike's increased toughness on the chaos lord helps a lot, especially against double toughness instant death.
Warp Talons - Overall a great unit choice. The mobility is key, and having an invulnerable save with a fast hard hitting power claw unit is awesome awesome cherry blossom. Mine are toughness 5 with 3+/5++ which makes for a devastating assault unit. In melee, only hard hitting power weapons can deal with these guys effectively, and that is where the 5+ invuln's beauty starts to shine. Re-rolling to wound with dual power claws is already sick, mobility is just the cherry on top.
For some added fun, throw in a jump packing chaos lord with a black mace, and he can use the unit as an absorbtion shield from attacks early in game, and then split off from the unit to go sow his own terror elsewhere on the battlefield.
Chaos Raptors - I like warp talons, so naturally I would like these guys also. Jump infantry rock, and these guys not only move quickly, they can get a mark. As always, I take a mark of nurgle and suddenly these guys are beast. Having two melta's or two flamers is the way to go, depending on what role you want filled. Personally, I am a melta kind of guy. Their speed combined with special weapons is what makes them deadly, no tanks can escape these bad boys. Also, twin the champion with a power *anything* and even melee is very viable. Just watch out for leadership tests... these guys are not fearless. To counter this, you could throw in a chaos lord to provide fearless to the unit, even if he is a bare-bones chaos lord.
Heavy Support:
Maulerfiend / Forgefiend - For starters, let's begin with the maulerfiend. I am a huge fan of these steam rolling bad boys. Choosing what role it plays is up to you and what task you want him on. To tie-up troops (for example terminators or another daunting unit with power weapons) throw on some lasher tendrils and go to town. Reducing those power / chain fists down to 1 attack is extremely nice. Even if the maulerfiend gets hit and wounded, he has a 5+ invuln save and the enemy still has to roll on the damage table. If he does not die, he can heal with "It Will Not Die", which is very appropriately named in this instance.
Keeping magma cutters is an excellent choice for keeping the points low. I like the barebones maulerfiend as he is a huge, not to mention extremely fast, threat that your oppponent simply cannot ignore. Magma cutters are so-so in my opinion but if employed against fortifications or big nasty tanks, he will make short work of them. This is why I primarily take this build, I dislike big 14 armor tanks and buildings getting in my way. This guy mows them down quickly on turn 2 and beyond.
Forgefiends... oh yes forgefiends. I love them, but personally prefer the "all up in your face" style of the maulerfiends. However, with the correct army build, these guys can prove equally effective. For starters, I say as a rule of thumb (and you won't regret it), deploy these guys atop a skyshield pad for the 4++ invulnerable goodness. Sure it's only 1 better than their natural 5++, but that 1 number difference can mean living / dieing for this guy. If you do this, he is basically behind a wall 50% as far as a save goes, but yet he is still out in the open to fire at anything on the table! Sickening combo if you think about it. An added benefit is that the enemy has to climb that thing to get group units up to shoot close-range or assault them. GG.
Now that I have covered the most important strategy with these guys, let's talk guns. Hades Autocannons. Love them mostly, but slightly hate them. 3BS will mean an average of 4x Str 8 hits. For a high 175 points, that is a bit expensive I feel. Think about that if you are playing against a swarm army. Oh boy, 3-4 wounds on some gaunts? Sad day for the forgefiend and his family. However, when you look at this as a tank/flyer killer, you have the right thing in mind. 8 shots at Str8 vs. an incoming flyer means an average of rolling a single 6. A str8 vs. the 11 armor that most flyers have means it has a good chancs of taking it down. That is some good anti-air, especially considering that most flyers cost the exact same price as the forgefiend (but he starts the game on the table and shoots from turn 1).
And finally, the ectoplasm cannon. I love Str8 guns, especially small blast templates. That will surely clean up some ground units and even possibly some tanks. However, a drawback I see is that he cannot shoot flyers at all (and they are the new fad) and scattering with BS3 could show a waste of shots. Add on over-heating / melting his own face, the forgefiend might prove ineffective most if not all of the game. On the other hand, he could land every hit and save the day. It's all chance I know, but I tend to lean more towards pretty-much gauranteed threats rather than possible threats.
Adding on a ecto-plasm head seems pricey, but could be worth it. I do like the idea of a 2x Hades autocannon, 1x ectoplasm cannon head build. That way he can covery every scenario. But again, a bit pricey... 200 points is as much as a daemon prince, twinked-out chaos lord, or even an entire unit of guys. But hey, to each their own.
Land Raider - The land raider is a long-time classic. It does it's job, and does it well. It Shoves your huge pulsating death star right into your opponents soft, moist scoring unit. If that doesn't sound appealing, then consider the amount of fire-power it carries and how much it can absorb when your opponent fires at it instead of otherwise vulnerable units. Personally, I use this bad boy for both reasons listed, but also as a wall. My other units hide behind this and jump out from behind it when the time is right. Blocking line of sight is awesome and a very effective tactic.
As for it's points, it's a bit higher than I think it should be worth. I would say make it a flat out 200 points base. Also, consider that you can throw on every vehicle upgrade, including additional weapons. For 27 points, you can add another combi-bolter, combi-plasma/melta/flamer, AND havoc launcher. This makes it a very diverse and multi-purpose vehicle. Now you tell me who's going to be tolerating the fire-power that this bad boy is putting out?
Defiler - The defiler is back and is new-and-improved. He got a 5++, it will not die, fear, and daemonforge. Now I do feel that his point increase is a bit too much, but his survivability makes up for it in most cases. Personally, I like to keep him bare-bones as far as weapons choices so that he does not become a huge point sink. Also, he already has a big sign over his head saying "shoot me!". For added firepower, the warpflame gargoyles are a nice touch if your going to be shooting troops (especially for the bare-bones build that I use).
Being so expensive, putting him on a skyshroud landing pad is a good defensive idea. Another method is to build him around crab-claw goodness. Take every ranged weapon off and throw on additional claws, give him the dirge casters upgrade, and send him out to crab-claw up some of the opposition. In combat, besides his low initiative and WS, he will surely make short work of some units.
Obliterators - These guys are a bit expensive, but the various weapons they wield often can make back their point values before the end of the game. In the new codex, a chaos mark can be applied. Obviously my choice is mark of nurgle. Once they become toughness 5, their 2 wounds will actually be put to use. Otherwise, toughness 4 is a tempting target for Str8 weapons. Personally, I always shot Str8+ guns at these guys when my opponents play them, and they seem much less menacing when they get one-shotted.
Another viable option is to give them the mark of Tzeentch. 4++ saves are great, especially since you no longer need to hide in buildings / ruins for cover saves. However, you do still have to work about the obliterators being obliterated by big guns.
For weapon options, I personally love Las Cannon and then the plasma cannon. Alternating these back and forth each turn could be huge. It handles every type of unit, so there is nothing that is safe from their shots. But be prepared for your opponent to quickly prioritize these guys on their "to kill" list.
Havoc Squad - The havoc squad is very good if you give them the right weapons and hide them in cover for the duration of the game. I think the most obvious choice, and pretty much the only preferred choice, is to take some number of these guys and load them up with lascannons or rocket launchers. Then, you have a solid unit shooting lots of strong blasts at the opposition. As for marks, I do not think they are really required. If one was to be taken, maybe the mark of nurgle one is the best? This way they can be harder to kill from basic bolter / weapons fire.
So there you have it, my unit break down. I only listed the models which I consider the most useful models. That, and I only own most the models listed above. So, I did not write about each and every model, only the ones I felt are noteworthy. If I did not list models, either they are old news, not my mark, or not worth really being discussed in my opinion. But I am pretty sure I covered most of the models in the codex. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
