With the Chaos Space Marine codex in hand now, a lot of us have spent a lot of time digesting the new book. There are just tons of options and just like you expect for Chaos Space Marines, they can get quite expensive. So just how you put together your lists for this codex are extremely variable, with something for just about everyone.
Presence of Faeit is my weekly editorial. I generally report during the week what is going on, and today is my day to comment on what exactly it is that I am thinking of.
Chaos Marine Codex:
I have spent quite a bit of time with the codex and even got the first game in against Chaos Space Marines. I wont get quite into how that game went, but I will tell you that it was very one sided.
My first impressions of this new book, are that Chaos Space Marines are not a point and click army. Meaning that there are not obvious units that stand out so far above the above the others, that you will see them in most lists. In contrast I see Grey Knights as a point and click army. Chaos Space Marines on the other hand will take some skill to build a list and field it on the tabletop.
So yes, it is a strong codex. If you are still thinking otherwise at this point, take another look at it. There are lots of powerful options for strong units, spammed units, and much much more. Lets take a look at a few of the things that are currently standing out for me.
Havocs:
Just wow, cheaper in so many ways. One unit of havocs with 4 autocannons is only sitting at 115pts now. That is some serious heavy weapon firepower for an extremely cheap rate. Not only this, but the unit is still very flexible in the fact that you can load it up with plasma guns, missile launchers (with flakk options), lascannons, meltas, etc. Havocs should very much be a staple in many armies now.
Daemon Weapons:
Love em. Wish there was just a simple entry though for them without having to take a unique version of them. Or at least maybe a few more of them so that we do not have every Chaos Marine army fielding the same ones. A Chaos Lord with a Daemon weapon is a powerful thing, I just feel that something is lacking here.
Noise Marines
Slaanesh must be just giddy now with the power of sonic weaponry. Nothing is more annoying than xenos armies or IG that are cowering in their cover, and now we have the single unit that dig them out in mass. Even the Blast Master now can ignore cover with its long range S8 small blasts. The point costs for sonic blasters is not that steep either and with an icon of excess, feel no pain is now your ally. Oh yea, and every unit's aspiring champion can take a doom siren.... just enough said.
Forgefiends
A single vehicle that can deliver 8 shots at S8 is just a beast to deal with. The only issue really comes down to it being target number one in games because of its large size. For 175pts and two Hades Autocannons, there just is not too many vehicles in the game that can throw down that many shots at S8.
Conversion Beamers
6th edition has brought one thing to 40k. That is that the strength of the entire blast template, both large and small are now at full strength. So welcome back to the world of the conversion beamer, which is a weapon that I did not truly like in 5th edition, but is now finding its way back into my lists under 6th.
In fact, I cannot even start to tell you what my two conversion beamers blew up last night, because they were on fire. The long range aspects of a conversion beamer sit just about right for the lack of long range firepower that Grey Knights lack. Not to mention that they are available under a decent number of selections. Ordo Xenos Inquisitors as HQ can take them, as can Techmariens in the elite slots.
So above you can see my latest conversions to get conversion beamers into my lists. These two models are my Ordo Xenos Inquisitors wielding Conversion Beamers.