It’s Like Tactics: Breaking Down the Chaos Space Marine Codex

My Tactics pledge: I am not the greatest player, nor a seal pup. I will endeavor to speak from my experience and always be honest about what is theory and what is play tested. Never will I assume to know better than anyone else... unless I must call out ego or pretension.

Funny things happen when a codex is leaked a week early. As many have noticed quite a few bloggers have the new Chaos Space Marine codex. Frantically bloggers had reviews and insights up within hours. My plan is to avoid reading them like the plague.

Instant analysis is often shortsighted and based on antiquated meta, but that isn't the reason I'm avoiding them. I am curious to see if my conclusions about the codex will be the same as the punditry.

So if you see similar analysis on other sites understand I am writing independent of what else you might have read.

Where do we start?

Typically, websites break down a codex unit by unit, while I will be doing much the same it is important that units don't exist in a vacuum so cross referencing is paramount.

In this article some general concepts that define the Chaos Space Marine codex will be laid out, after which I will break down units into tiers.

Concept Number One: Chaos Space Marines are all about the options

This is in stark contrast to the Necron codex where you had very few ways to change units.  This codex will be a min-maxers wet dream.

The ability to customize units goes beyond only adding a meltagun. How you adjust your unit with better stats and universal special rules is critical. As I mentioned a few days ago this codex is very malleable and adjustable to the ever-changing meta. It is very hard to judge units, so it is important to look at the base cost and the number of changes you can make. Typically, more upgrades is better, but we shall see how some units are made worse because of cost to effectiveness ratios.

Concept Number Two: Chaos Space Marines the new Hero Hammer 

Hero Hammer is an old concept where you could build immensely powerful characters that won games single-handedly. Entire comp systems were built to disallow certain characters. Even today many Fantasy tournaments don't allow characters in their events.

The new Chaos Space Marine Hero Hammer is built around designing Lords, Sorcerers, and Daemon Princes that are pretty broken. Adversely, this makes basic HQs better and cheaper than most of the unique characters in the codex.

Basically, it forces characters to always challenge. This rule makes it very important knowing how to juggle challenges between your HQs and lesser characters. Sometimes you want to challenge with your HQ for an mass killing or take a challenge to keep a combat going. Other times you want to avoid another dangerous character, so you sacrifice a lesser character instead of risking your HQ.

Concept Number Three: Know when to mark and divide

Overall, the new psychic powers are doodoo and made worse because you must have a power from your Chaos God of choice. On the flip side you will sacrifice access to other bonus if you choose no marks. Phil Kelly's eternal quest for balance has made him meticulous in assigning point costs and negating certain combos. Without keeping a close eye on upgrades can make a cheap Chaos Space Marine unit a very expensive one in no time.

Concept Number Four: Randomness for Random's Sake

Certain units like Possessed, Spawn, and Hellbrutes have random elements. Most random elements have only good outcomes. I personally enjoy most random elements, but I draw the line with Boon of Chaos table. Not only is it ridiculous, it has a good chance of doing absolutely nothing. Then there is pretty darn good chance you will be turned into a Spawn! I cannot wait for the nerd rage when someones Chaos Lord is turned into a Spawn because he has to roll on the damn chart. Luckily, randomness can be avoided for the most part.

Concept Number Five: Leadership without Fearless

If you look across the entire codex you will notice a universal one point drop in leadership for non-fearless units. At first I was very disappointed with this change, because the fear of losing a winnable combat costing an entire unit wasvery disheartening, especially when Space Marines don't have this problem.

So it is very important to understand that Phil Kelly has put in clear ways to mitigate this problem.

Lords can transfer Fearless to the units they are attached to is a big deal. This is the reason that you will see Lords more often than Daemon Princes. The ability to attach and avoid unnecessary leadership checks is paramount.  The lack of Fearless ties back to challenges because risking a HQ also puts risk on the rest of the attached unit.

If you follow and understand these general concepts I think you will be on your way to making fun and competitive lists with ease.

So how do I rank the units you can find in the Chaos Space Marine codex?

There you have it, my break down of the Chaos Space Marine codex. Next up a unit by unit analysis and history lesson coming to a Blood of Kittens blog near you!