This series of posts has been composed a few paragraphs at a time over the last week as I have begun the journey of learning a new book, and play style, as I move away from tyranids this next tournament season. Rather than changing previous ideas or reworking this post I have left it as is. I feel that is shows the process I use while creating and testing lists as well as providing insight behind why I am and will continue to make the list building choices I have been. This is part one of four interconnected posts.
I
wish I had the time to write all of my thoughts on the new CSM book and other
wargaming topics in my head. Most notably of the topics I will not be covering
right now is how hard the hobby bug is getting me. I have big dreams involving doing
a fully converted CSM army. I also have only 18 days to paint 2200 points of
Dark Elves for a fantasy GT, which is itself a crazy task. Enough of that
though, this is about Chaos Space Marines.
I
have played two games with the new book. I faced a 3 flyer and a 4 flyer Necron
list each game. My first game I had the Biker Lord and Daemon Prince from my
last CSM post, 3 untis of havocs with missiles and flakk, 4 small cultist
units, 1 large cultist unit, 5 spawn, and two heldrakes. My opponents dice were
cold, but I got to see how the Chaos units interacted. The second game I took
out the Prince and added Typhus with six units of zombies, and switched the
spawn out for some bikes. Here is my unit by unit analysis.
Chaos
Lord - Remember when I said he was “broken”? He is a boss. In the first game
him and his spawn friends single-handedly took out 5 wraiths, a full immortal
unit with attached Lord and Nemesor, and an annihilation barge. They would have
killed more, but the rest of my army had already done that. In the second game
his first boon roll turned him into a spawn (he still took several hull points
off of a barge and lived the whole battle). The only change I would make, and
this was suggested in the comments by Hulksmash), is putting him on a
Juggernaut instead of a bike. For 15 points you get an extra wound and attack,
and stay at T5. Sounds like a good deal to me; 175 points for someone who has
7+D6 S6 AP2 I5 attacks. He re-rolls all misses against Space Marines and is fast
with a 4++. What isn’t to love?
Chaos
Spawn – The day the codex leaked one of the local players was talking about
spawn being good and I told him he was wrong. I later had to write back to him
admitting I was the one who was wrong. These guys are massively improved. Yes
they are fragile, but that requires your opponent is shooting them, and no one
wants to waste shots on spawn. Even if you roll a ‘1’ for attacks, with rage on
the charge you have three attacks each. I personally am torn on whether to use
spawn or bikes for my lord’s escort. When the Spawn have cover (and being
beasts there is little downside to being in it) they are just as durable as the
bikes. I for now am going to put the spawn on the shelf, but that is mostly
because of a crazy conversion I want to do for Khorne bikes.
Bikes
– Why are these so cheap? For serious. I run them at 23 points each
(Khorne/Veterans), plus another 20 points for an Icon of Wrath. Think about
that…23 points for a T5 marine that moves 12” with rerolls on their charge
range and has 4 S5 attacks on the charge (rerolling misses on marines). A
Khorne Berzerker is 20 points with VotLW and is far slower. I have no idea why
bikes are cheap, but they are something we will see a lot of, especially the
nurgle variety.
Daemon
Prince – Being a Daemon of Nurgle does not make you T6. Read that again. Are
you back from checking your codex because you don’t believe me? I was surprised
too. I can’t kit one out that makes it survivable enough for the points
investment. Yes, with nurgle it is shrouded for a 2+ in ruins or a 3+ jink, but it is still only four wounds. I think they might work with
the right psychic buffs, but that is far too big of a risk rolling on tables to
get your powers and thus utility.
Havocs
– Flakk missiles will not change the meta away from flyers. I am sad too. I
played two games with 12 flakk missiles in each. In both games I had at least 7
alive at the end of the game, so they had plenty of time to shoot, and I only
did a total of three hull points in each game. Only being S7 is a killer. My
dice were not cold, 4 missiles only have a 14% chance to down a Necron
flyer…before they jink! I am dropping them from my list. I have never been an
autocannon guy, but recognize their effectiveness in that capacity, and may
look at them in the future.
Cultists
– Cheap scoring units = awesome. My opponent the first game was commenting on
how fragile and vulnerable they are, I reminded him that these are the same as
gants that don’t need a synapse babysitter. This is true, and I strongly
believe my time with Tyranids has made me very aware of how to use cultists
(including their capabilities as a feigning unit and as a speedump and a unit
that can pin someone in a target priority pinch. They are not impressive
offensively. I had a unit of 35 attack five Necrons and only kill three. They
will get the objective holding job done though.
Plague
Zombies – Troops that are cheap, fearless, and feel no pain? Sure, I will take
five. Most people have complained about the price of Typhus, and that is valid,
but I do not think they are evaluating the full picture. To make a sorcerer who
is comparable (but nowhere near as good) as Typhus will cost you 155 points.
Then if you take say 5 units of cultists, and split the extra cost among them,
it is only 1.5 points per model to make them zombies. Would you pay 1.5 points
to make something FNP and fearless? I am sure people will poke holes at that
logic, but I am standing by it. I also strongly feel that until an FAQ is
released zombies can only be in units of 10 (between
writing this and posting it an FAQ was released saying you could add additional
models). I don’t mind, small units are easier to hide.
Heldrake
– So the internet though everyone was going to start footslogging? Get back in
your transport, because Heldrakes are going to kill you. When I played Blood
Angels I always used at least two Land Raider Redeemers. A S6 AP3 flamer is
nothing to mess with. Being able to hit models 56” away with that flamer is outright
scary (36”+12”+8”). No one is safe. All the talk you hear about “Double Dragon”
is true. I have been of the mentality that I could just “ignore flyers,”
Heldrakes are making me seriously reconsider. These are a must have.
I
like this new book, I like it a lot.
As I stated at the beginning, this is the start of a four part series on my initial list building and testing of the new Chaos Space Marine book. Because of the composition process there will be things in this post that I disagree with in later posts. That is part of the raw analysis as I develop a new list.
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