Category Archives: Codex Review

Chaos Space Marines: Characters

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Greetings again my good readers! The herb keeper returns to continue his miniseries review of the Chaos Space Marine codex! Last time we touched on some of the special rules that could be found in the book as well as glossing over some of the general points of the ‘dex (in case you missed it https://twentyfirstlegion.com/2014/03/07/chaos-space-marine-codex-review-part-1/). This time we’re going to roll up our sleeves and dive right into each special character and grade them based off of; A. Fun Factor (how cool is this guy?) and B. Competitiveness (if I put him in a tournament list will it be worth it?). Hopefully once we’re done you will feel the need to expel the false emperor from your life and stray down the path of glory and darkness! (Kidding, don’t tell anyone I said that, the other writers on here may exterminatus my house). While reading these reviews also consider every one of these characters has the Fearless and Veteran of the Long War special rules. Without further ado…..

Charachters

  • Abbadon the Despoiler: The O.G. baddie of the Chaos Space Marine codex returns as big and terrifying as ever! With all 4 marks of chaos, terminator armor, and 2 different close combat weapons that allow him to have a solution for practically everything if he assaults it. One being the Talon of Horus; which is best described as a claw of pure face f@*# for any and all with a 3+ armor save (good day Wraithknights and Hive Tyrants), oh yeah it has a combi-bolter! The other being Drachnyen, which is an Ap 2 Daemon Weapon (good day everything else). Mr. Abbadon is quite simply one of the most powerful single models in the game. Though slightly expensive, he packs more than enough of a punch to justify his points. The critical thing is to make sure you get him in those situations for him to shine.

Fun Factor: A (he’s Abbadon and you’re playing Chaos Space Marines. ‘Nuff said) Competitiveness: C+ (a huge point sink for someone who may not even be able to earn his points, god help your opponent if he makes it there however.)

  • Huron Blackheart: The fearless leader of the Red Corsairs pops up as one of the most cost efficient, reliable HQ’s in the codex. Seriously, I heart this dude hard, touting the best Warlord trait in the book (which allows you to infiltrate/outflank up to 3 units potentially!) and a lightning claw with a built in heavy flamer that gives him +2 str and Armourbane. All this along with combat familiar that gives him access to a random psychic power each turn and a 4++ save. With all these features this guy is practically guaranteed to make his points back before the game even starts!

Fun Factor: B (Random powers each turn and infiltrate whoever you want basically, frickin awesome) Competitiveness: A (His price, potential grab bag of powers, and infiltrate trick make him one of the books best HQ choices if you’re thinking “WIN!”)

  • Kharn the Betrayer: Another classic Chaos Space Marine character returns as angry and hateful as ever. Mr. Kharn is reincarnated every bit the combat monster he once was. Easily capable of cleaving through infantry and tanks effortlessly, Kharn’s only drawback is a slight durability issue when having to go toe to toe with some of the better characters in the game. If you keep him away from Hive Tyrants, Warbosses, etc he will dispose of most other things with little issue. Unlocks Khorne Berserkers as troop choices.

Fun Factor: C (he’s red, angry, and chops stuff….occasionally his own people…that’s cool right?) Competitiveness: C (Kharn is very meh competitively; he won’t make or break your list)

  • Ahriman: Ohhh Ahirman, what you could have been. Ok let’s start with the positives here (cause there are some); the guy is a psychic boss with ML4 and a staff that allows him to fire up to 3 witch fires at once. Access to every discipline in the BRB outside of Divination and Telekinesis, his Warlord trait is the best one in the book (see Huron), and he has a 4++. Apart from that, he unlocks Thousands Sons as troop choices and has a bolt pistol with inferno bolts. So what’s the bad news you ask? Well for starters he’s HORRENDOUSLY overpriced, a psyker who costs 65 pts more than Tigerius should just be better than this IMO. The ML4 is good but because he is Mark of Tzeentch he is forced to take one of their less desirable powers. Thousands Sons are also a bit of a meh troop choice (which we’ll get to in another article) so this hurts his chances as well. Finally it doesn’t help that his best trick (his warlord trait) is already available on a much cheaper character (see Huron). Not trying to be a Debbie Downer but he simply just doesn’t stack up to the other high lvl psyker characters (Eldrad, Fateweaver, Tigerius, etc)

Fun Factor: C (He has a lot of powers he can potentially take and unlocks thousand sons as troops) Competitiveness: D (Too expensive and underwhelming to ever be seriously used in this type of game setting)

  • Typhus: The big stink himself returns and what a great HQ choice! Clocking in at the same points as Ahirman, Typhus packs quite a few tricks that make him worth the point sink. For starters, he is pretty damn tough; with terminator armor, toughness 5, and the feel no pain USR. He is by no means an easily disposed of fellow, once more he carries a daemon/force weapon that’s capable of cleaving through enemy troops like a hot knife through butter. If that doesn’t work you can pull his trump card; a giant destroyer hive on his back explodes, covering all those nearby in Nurgle’s pestilence for some AP2 goodness! Unlike Kharn, Typus can potentially hold his own against monstrous creatures, needing to only cause one wound for a chance at destroying them completely (be wary of smash attacks however). He unlocks Plague Marines as troops and that’s not all! He can also take those boring old Cultists of yours and turn them into scoring zombies! (granting them Feel no Pain at the cost of mobility) That’s right folks, you can have FREAKIN ZOMBIES!

Fun Factor: B (Zombies bro….zombies….) Competitiveness: B (Being a beefy hitstick who can give an already ridiculously cheap troop choice Feel No Pain. Couple that with him unlocking one of the better cult troops and Typhus has himself a good case for being one of the stronger HQ choices in a competitive setting)

  • Lucuis the Eternal: Lucuis can be best described by a word that follows everything Slaneesh quite frequently…..strange. Seriously, this guy is one of the oddest HQ choices in the entire game. He has the thin durability of Kharn, yet rules and a background that almost demand you try and get him in challenge (accent on the ‘demand’ in Veteran of the Long War’s case). In his defense, he is a serious troll when you get him in combat, for starters, his ATK characteristic is equal to his opponent’s WS (hello Captains). Dude’s gear is also really nifty; power armor that gives him a 5++ and during combat it causes a str 4 ap 2 hit to the opposing unit for each armor save he passes (with ignores cover?). His weapons are a lash that reduces the ATK characteristic of an opposing model in base with him by 1 and gives all his close combat attacks the rending special rule. A power sword for some Ap3 action, a Doom Siren for some Ap3 Flamer action (Lucuis doesn’t like power armor). Finally he unlocks Noise Marines as troops and that is just awesome!

Fun Factor: A (He’s a unique dude, with some crazy cool abilities. Fielding him should always provide some fun to be had!) Competitiveness : C (The inherit problem with Lucuis is he just isn’t durable enough to be the challenge monster his rules encourage him to be, he’s cheap enough that it doesn’t kill you taking him, but there are wayyy more cost efficient ways to get Noise Marine troops )

  • Fabious Bile: Full disclosure, I love Fabious, there doesn’t seem to be much excitement for him on the interwebs or in the 40k community in general. Me thinks this has a lot to do with the cold treatment standard chaos space marines have received from these same groups. Now I will preempt this by stating I like the regular marines just fine, I will have a Troop Section review coming soon and I will discuss this point more in detail but there you have it. Anyways Big Daddy Bile has some cool tricks up his sleeve! For starters, he can grant any unit of normal chaos marines +1 Str and the Fearless special rule for the rest of the game. His wargear is a buffet of nastiness; his spidery harness, The Chirugeon, that grants him +2 Atks, +1 Str, and the Feel no Pain special rule. The Rod of Torment (insert joke here), which makes his close combat attacks cause instant death and of course, his Xyclos Needler, which is a poisoned (2+), assault 3 18” range pistol.

Fun Factor: C (cool rules, just nothing that gets you and your opponent terribly excited about the game) Competitiveness: B+ (SUPER underrated, reliable HQ choice) Well that’s it for today folks! Next part will be up shortly and we’ll go over the non-special character HQ’s! Until then, Ralshenik out!

Chaos Space Marines: Opening Thoughts

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Hello folks, Rob here to reviewilate the very first codex of 6th edition for your reading pleasure! Codex: Chaos Space Marines! That’s right people; the much less resplendent, much spikier marines of the 41st millennium were also the first ones to get the 6th edition treatment. This will be the first part of a comprehensive series where we’ll go over the book itself, the unit selections in the codex, and some general thoughts on list building with the army.

Given that this book was following up the highly controversial 4th edition ‘dex, in addition to being the first book of 6th, it would be an understatement from the warp to say people were waiting on the edge of their seat for this bad boy. Phil Kelly being penciled in as the author only served to raise the anticipation level for the book (before the creation of the fabled GW design team). When it finally dropped in November of 2012, Chaos players across the globe crammed into their FLGS for a copy.

As stated above we will be going over each section and units contained in those sections during future parts of this review, for now let’s take a look at some of the rules the codex added to the army.

  • Veteran of the Long War- An upgrade option for mostly everything in the book, varying in cost and intended to represent the fact this model was a veteran of the storied Horus Heresy, this rule gives every model in the unit the “Hatred:Space Marines” special rule. By Space Marines, they quite literally mean every single space marine that is not one of your spiky brethren; everything from Grey Knights to Dark Angels will feel your wrath! I feel like this is a very cool USR that can add a lot of personality to your army, got a squad of Chosen you thought of a unique background story for? What better way to expand their background then by making them a survivor of the greatest war in 40k history? On top of which you get hatred against over half the armies in the game, not too shabby a deal in this writer’s opinion.
  • Champion of Chaos- Nothing drives the warriors of the Chaos legions more in battle than the idea of gaining favor in the eye of one of the gods and receiving their demonic gifts in return. To gain this favor a champion of chaos will always issue a challenge in combat whenever possible, even at times where the task seems insurmountable. This has proven to be one of the release’s more polarizing rules, with some going so far as to call it the worst USR in the game. Nay I say! This is a very sensible rule within the context of the army lore, admittedly, it is frustrating when you a forced to issue a challenge against a Hive Tyrant or Greater Daemon. Though remember we are at a point in 40k where we lovingly refer to our Sgts and such as “challenge meat”, if that’s what they’re already there for what harm is it in simply forcing the decision? Especially when we’re talking about an army full of power hungry super soldiers! Besides, it’s not like they don’t offer some kind of benefit for having to do this……
  • The Boon Table- Hey man, you gotta issue a challenge anyway right? If you win it you get to take a roll on the wheel of hell! This sucker is a MASSIVE random table that is rolled on every time a model with the Champion of Chaos rule (see above) wins a challenge! With over 25 different options that offer everything from the Adamantium Will USR, to a straight transformation into a Daemon Prince! As with the Champion of Chaos rule, this has become one of the more polarizing features among the community, with opinions ranging from amazingly fun to god awful mess. Being the optimist that I am, I’m more inclined to go with the first opinion. I mean, how do you beat a chance at getting an (almost) free Daemon Prince!? With that said, I can see some areas of frustration, my friend had is Kharn turned into a Spawn the very first time he ever rolled on the table, trust me it was as horrible as it sounds! They probably should have given a safeguard for named characters to avoid that kind of thing (well they SORT OF did, but more on that when we get to the HQ’s!). For a regular Chaos Marine Aspiring Champion, however, even becoming a Spawn is a pretty good upgrade! Not to mention most of the table really isn’t THAT helpful or hurtful (seriously becoming a spawn is like the WORST case scenario), just some very cool, but very mild powers.
  • Mark of Tzeentch- +1 to the model’s invulnerable save (max 3+), pretty nifty and can get pretty powerful when combined with the right items.
  • Mark of Nurgle- +1 to the models toughness, more durability, is that ever not good?
  • Mark of Khorne- Model gains Rage and Counter Attack special rules. Yeesh, someone needs a hug. I love this mark to be honest, not a popular choice but if used on the right models it can get mean.
  • Mark of Slaneesh- +1 to the models initiative; not bad, you hit faster so they no get to hit you too!

Next article we will dive into each section and discuss the units available in them, as well as more specific special rules for these units. Until next time friends, Ralshenik out!