Chaos Space Marine FACT Roundup

[Learn2Eel]

I already see Daemon Princes and Plague Marines falling out of favor - they don't look like the 'must gave' choices they used to be.
We don't have the codex or points costs yet, but I think standard Chaos Marines, Chaos Lords and our characters in general are getting a massive boost. I think it's great, I've never been this excited for a new release before. There are so many options and they all sound awesome. Slaanesh and Khorne look to be getting some big boosts.
It's as it should be - even our Aspiring Champions should be fearsome. Our Chaos Lords should be killing machines easily able to best Space Marine Captains and so on.
On Daemon Princes, the good thing is that GW isn't completely saying ditch them. I can see them not being taken in army loats but kept around for that "turn into a Daemon Prince" roll on the table.
One gift you can get gives you a free roll on the chart before deployment - imagine your opponents look if your chaos lord turned into a daemon prince - for the price of a chaos lord!

[BatMarine]

It's also nonspecific as to what kind, so there may be some kind of ruling in the book, or it may be basic, or maybe with the mark that it had to begin with, who knows!

[daboarder]

I already see Daemon Princes and Plague Marines falling out of favor - they don't look like the 'must gave' choices they used to be.
We don't have the codex or points costs yet, but I think standard Chaos Marines, Chaos Lords and our characters in general are getting a massive boost. I think it's great, I've never been this excited for a new release before. There are so many options and they all sound awesome. Slaanesh and Khorne look to be getting some big boosts.
It's as it should be - even our Aspiring Champions should be fearsome. Our Chaos Lords should be killing machines easily able to best Space Marine Captains and so on.
On Daemon Princes, the good thing is that GW isn't completely saying ditch them. I can see them not being taken in army loats but kept around for that "turn into a Daemon Prince" roll on the table.
One gift you can get gives you a free roll on the chart before deployment - imagine your opponents look if your chaos lord turned into a daemon prince - for the price of a chaos lord!

I think your opponent is going to LOVE it when your tooled up chaos lord turns into a daemon prince with none of the options before the game even starts.

[Saint_Anger]

Let's paint Blood Gorgons. All hails Gammadin!!!

[Learn2Eel]

I think your opponent is going to LOVE it when your tooled up chaos lord turns into a daemon prince with none of the options before the game even starts.

It was just an example If someone runs a cheap-as-chips Chaos Lord and that happens, then I think your opponent will be mightily peeved.
Could you imagine it happening to a ~40 point aspiring champion though? Ridiculous.

How about +1 strength or Fleshbane on a Blissgiver (if the current Daemon Weapons are retained). Hello Paladins, buh-bye Paladins (in one round).
I can see WAAC players already complaining about the random nature of the codex, but hey, that is the whole point of Chaos. I love the sounds of this codex already. And even then, the really random nature seems to stem mostly around the Chaos Boons table anyway. It's not like you are forced to take lots of characters to exploit it.
I even went through all the boons and put a ranking next to them, and out of about 26 unique results (unique being the key word, so I only counted the 11-16 once) only two of them would I say are bad (the Spawn and Nothing ones) and two I thought were mediocre, but could still be useful. The rest provide either good or great buffs.

What if Typhus all of a sudden got Eternal Warrior from killing a sergeant? Or if Abaddon had one wound left and all of a sudden had all four back again? Or if Ahriman - paired with Biomancy and Iron Arm - all of a sudden had Instant Death attacks and what not? The possibilities are astounding......and the wargear options are hugely numerous.

Warlord Traits
1 - Friendly units within 12" of Warlord have Preferred Enemy (Space Marines)
2 - Melee weapons belonging to the Warlord and his unit have Soulblaze
3 - D3 infantry units may infiltrate (could this be new Creed???)
4 - Warlord and unit have hatred (everything!)
5 - Warlord causes Fear
6 - Warlord may re-roll Chaos Boons

Hmm.....these are decent Warlord traits. Re-rolling Chaos Boons is great. Causing Fear is good, but situational as effectively half the armies in the game ignore Fear. Having Hatred Everything on the Warlord and a unit he joins is great, but again, it depends on how often you come up against non-marine armies. D3 infiltrating infantry units is very neat. I can imagine some great tactics that spring up from getting this trait. Soulblaze on the Warlord and unit's melee weapons isn't shabby at all - the extra potential casualties are always nice, and this would help to thin out low-armour save units. Preferred Enemy Space Marines is situational again, but being a 12" bubble, it has some fantastic uses if you are against marines. What's that? All friendly units? My Defiler's battle-cannon is quite happy. My Cultists all of a sudden aren't simply a meatshield anymore. In general, my dice rolls are going to improve.

Some of the wargear pieces I found interesting;

Infernal Ammunition - AP3 : This doesn't say, unlike other ones, whether it is limited to bolt weapons or applies to any ranged weapon you have. I guess we'll see. Having (for example) a Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour with a heavy flamer with this would mean lots of death for marines both in shooting and combat.
Mechadrites - +2 A, includes Meltagun and Flamer : This is a Warpsmith upgrade or something they come with. Also gives +1 to repair results I think.
Seal of Corruption - +4 Invulnerable save : Thank you! Stacks with Mark of Tzeentch for +3 invulnerable save goodness. Eat it Grey Knights - ours covers shooting as well! I hope like hell it is priced like the Space Wolf equivalent and not the Phase Shifter as was rumoured.
Also this;

Wizard's Familiar - re-roll psychic tests : Yowza!

Anyone seen the Daemon Prince upgrades?

Daemon of Khorne - Hatred (Slaanesh), Furious Charge
Daemon of Slaanesh - Hatred (Khorne), Rending, Fleet, runs +3 (or D3) inches
Daemon of Nurgle - Hatred (Tzeentch), Slow and Purposeful, Shrouded
Daemon of Tzeentch - Hatred (Nurgle), Re-roll failed saves of 1

Given that those upgrades do not give stat bonuses, I wonder if these are in addition to Marks or they replace Marks for Daemon Princes entirely? I am guessing it is the latter, considering Marks are referred to separately for other units in the codex, as well as the wording of the psyker part for Daemon Princes (if it is a Daemon Prince of (X), it must choose at least one power from (X)' discipline). If that is the case, I assume Daemon Princes now have a flat statline - they are probably the same as before but T6, maybe even I6.

Also, BIOMANCY on a Daemon Prince!?
By the way, I love how Obliterators have Assault Cannons now

This all sounds so awesome, but I guess the telling point - and the big unknown - is the points costs of all of this stuff. Being a Phil Kelly codex, I'm not too worried, but there is always the slight fear that the codex will again get the short end of the stick. I guess it's just the nature of Chaos fans to be pessimistic after the last codex.

[flekkzo]

I'll buy the codex when it goes digital, which i love the way they are set up in iBooks. Eventually I'll only need my iPad and mini rule book

Wouldn't be surprised if they do release the mini rulebook for the iPad. If they're smart they release a bunch of iBooks stuff around the 24th of December for all the little warlords opening up their iDevices they got for Emperormass and are searching for "Games Workshop" on

[firestorm]

The Chaos Marines lose their Battle Report, so all of those neckbeards who say that new armies always win are WRONG.

No, its because since they fired Pete Haines and Andy Chambers left, there is no one working at GW that actually LIKES Chaos

I can't believe the prices. How come our aircraft is so expensive, if it was a Transport like the Storm Raven I could understand... I was planning on buying a few of the new flyer and daemon engine kits, but GW have actually scuppered their sales potential as I simply won't be able to afford to.

[Learn2Eel]

By the way, I have to say, if anyone looks at Tastytaste's rumours - the recent ones that talked about the points costs of the Dragon, the Daemon Engines, what the special characters do and what-not - they should really sit up and take notice. He predicted Chaos would be getting Biomancy, that Typhus would have Fear (because the Icon of Nurgle now does that), that Typhus has a S4 AP2 Large Blast (not S4, but the Warp Charge 2 Nurgle power is instead poisoned +4), that chaos vehicles could get mini deff-rollas that did D6 S5 AP- hits, or 2D6 if unit did Death or Glory (spot on), lash whip equivalents that reduced attacks by 1 (correct), you no longer lose all your attacks if you roll a 1 for Daemon Weapon (true), Attack Familiar providing two bonus attacks (correct), he got the Tzeentch psychic powers spot on, etc.

Not trying to promote him at all, don't really care. But it's something I just noticed - some of the stuff he posted hasn't been confirmed yet, and some seems to be wrong, but given how much he got right in a single recent post, I'd say we can look at his other stuff with a kind of validity. And if you do that, you notice how cheap the daemon engines are according to him - 120 for the shooty variant (the Forgefiend), and 135 for the combat variant (the Maulerfiend).
The main point of this post - hope that the daemon engines aren't going to be over-priced for what they do according to another recent rumour (that had the Forgefiend at 175 points).
Ah....what am I saying. It's a Phil Kelly codex. It will have good internal balance and be competitive across the board.
I guess the main thing is that we get a fluffy, fun codex with lots of options. Something us Chaos players have wanted for ages and please god can I shut up now and stop rambling thank you.

[Learn2Eel]

Given the new wargear options and stuff, I wonder what Abaddon will be like in the new codex. Given the recent focus on having one super-powered or near-unkillable combat character in each codex (though obviously Abaddon has always been that way), I wonder if he will be getting any buffs or significant changes. I expect El Topknot to be even stronger than he was, and for the same points cost too. 275 was probably too much for a character that was only really useful in combat (though it's fun that he kicks Draigo's butt from end to end). It wouldn't surprise me if he has that +4 invulnerable save wargear combined with the Mark of Tzeentch for a +3 invulnerable save. I also wonder if his base attacks will change, given the Mark of Khorne now provides Rage and Counter-Attack instead of +1 attack. I've seen rumours that he will be S5 base (so S10 when fighting) and make Chosen troops, so that's something.

Also, I would assume he has a special rule to block him from becoming a Spawn or Daemon Prince on the chart (as hilarious as that would be). When you pair him with some of the buffs on the chart, it really makes me think he is going to be the challenge-king of 40K.

[olberon]

AAAAARGGGGHJHHHH to much new goodies

must resist temptation.....

AAAh what the keck im going to start a new army :P