The Most "Broken" Part of the Chaos Space Marine Codex

I am currently at Tufts University in Boston for a conference, and spent last weekend at Yale for another. While I have been keeping myself busy slogging through senior thesis research on the chaos of Lenin’s shift from War Communism to the National Economic Program the last two weeks, my travel time now is all about another type of chaos…Chaos Space Marines.

I must say that this definitely is a Phil Kelly book. Nothing pops out as horribly broken or mispriced on first read, but instead there are plenty of options to make anything viable. I came back to wargaming as a Dark Eldar player just before the new book came out, and reading this book reminds me of the joy I had working my way through the multitude of possible builds in that book.

That said, I did find one unit that has stolen my heart as the bee’s knees of the new Chaos Space Marine codex…I have enduringly named him Bad Ass the Biker.

And for future reference, all units have drawbacks, and thus nothing in the game is truly broken, and as such I use the term lightly as "broken".

So we start with a Chaos Lord. I personally believe that the two ways to success at offense in 40k are weight of dice and weight of rerolls. So first we throw on Veteran of the Long War. While his is already Ld10, this 5 point upgrade will give him rerolls in the first round of combat against half of the armies I face. Rerolls, check. Now to get weight of dice I want to give him a daemon weapon, as the potential to double a unit’s attacks is immense. Also worth note is that even when rolling a ‘1’ you can still attack, abet at a lower weapon skill. As for which daemon weapon I choose the Axe of Blind Fury. While it reduces his weapon skill down by one, he not only gets the extra attacks, but also rage and +2 strength at AP2. The best part is that it is not unwieldy (This is where it gets "broken"). Offensively on the charge he puts out 6+D6 attacks at WS5, I5, S6, AP2 with rerolls to hit in the first round against marines. That is nothing to scoff at. It is also worth noting that he has mark of Khorne, which gives him counter-attack.

Now he needs two other things to be a rock star; durability and mobility. First we will hit both birds with one stone, and that is where this guy gets his bike. +1T is huge, and the extra movement gained by the big is big too. I am going to also add a sigil of corruption for a 4+ invulnerable save.

All of that for 160 is great, but he needs a gang to ride with. I know many people’s first reaction is khorne bikers, and that is a good suggestion. They are fast, cheap at 22 points each (mark of khorne), and hit with 4 attacks on the charge. That is not the route I am going though. My little Bad Ass is far too awesome to ride with some lowly bikers. Instead this guy hangs out with the most corrupt, evil, crew he can find – chaos spawn. 30 points a model gives you 3 T5 wounds with D6 S5 attacks, plus they have rage on the charge. They are beasts, meaning they move just as fast and like the biker are not slowed by difficult terrain on the charge. They also are a great meatshield. I can charge in against most any target and not fear hurting the lord, as the spawn will take the punches. They have a capable offensive output, with a possible 40 attacks coming from them. I think they could be overlooked as a quick way to pop AV10 when needed. Their new mutation rule gives them the potential to have 4+ armor, roll 2D6 and pick the highest for the number of attacks, or to have their attacks be poison.

In total the Lord with five Spawn comes to 310 points of pure assault wreckage. They also have the advantage that people do not want to waste shots on spawn, giving your opponent hard choices in terms of shots and giving the Lord an added layer of protection. The one major limitation I see is that the Lord must issue a challenge. In the end this is not a huge issue though, as it acts as a restrictor preventing him from breaking units on the charge, and instead ideally freeing him on my opponents turn, protecting him from their shooting phase.

I am going to throw out one bonus “broken” unit. People are doing flips over Nurgle Daemon Princes with wings, and I have my own spin on the unit. So the basics are Mark of Nurgle and wings, and I personally would not leave home without power armor. Here is where I differ though, where most people give him some mastery levels and typically biomancy and nurgle powers, I instead give him the Black Mace. This weapon is a daemon weapon with which normally doesn’t seem worth taking due to only being AP4, but on a monstrous creature is AP2. I find the biggest issue with most FMC, such as Hive Tyrants, is the low number of attacks which lead to them being combat disappointments. Giving him 6+D6 attacks on the charge is boss. On top of that the weapon has a rule that says any model that suffers an unsaved wound must take a toughness test, and if it is failed they are removed as a casualty with no saves allowed. On top of that if there is an unsaved wound from the weapon, at the end of the phase all enemy models within 3” of the bearer who have not been wounded must take a toughness test and if failed suffer a wound with no saves of any kind allowed. He clocks in at 265, which is hefty, but compared to my Hive Tyrant, this guy wrecks a heck of a lot more damage. He also doesn’t have the issue of being forced to make challenges like the lord does.

That is what I have out of my first read through. I will be playing a test game either as or against Chaos Space Marines later today, so look for information on that in the future.