I am coming to you from the Marriott Ypsilanti Ann Arbor At Eaglecrest. BigMek SkrapKlaw and I are relaxing a bit before dinner and set up for the tournament tomorrow here at UCON. I have had a chance to flip through the new Chaos Marine codex and its kinda scary, but not to scary. There are some very nice improvements, but nothing that the current codexs cant cope with given the right application of certain units and fire power. In fact most players standard tournament or what I like to call your “ Signature List” can deal with the forces of Chaos.
That said there is some stuff to watch out for. The Helldrake comes to mind. This thing is wonky and pretty deadly when you start going over different situations in your head. I don’t know about you, but I frequently think about new and unusual ways to use units and this goes doubly for units from new codexes. As a long time chaos player, its been a second army pretty much since the mid 90's and sadly ended 3 years ago when I sold off my beloved Emperors Children army, I am apt to use units as they were used in the old codex. I know I will do the same thing when I finally get a new Eldar codex. I also did it when the new Dark Eldar codex came out, god I miss blast template dizzys.
The main point is that thinking outside the box, to use the old cliche saying, with units is how you get the jump on surprising your opponent and really gaining an advantage. Ok I digress. The Helldrake is a new unit and I have seen many people treating it as a nasty flyer that’s main purpose is to take out other flyers with extreme prejudice. Although it does this rather well its anti infantry potential is pretty devastating. With vehicles being more fragile and more and more foot lists coming to the forefront, dealing with hordes of infantry is a real key in list building. The Helldrake equipped with a baleflamer is pretty scary. Since the Helldrake can vector strike a unit in the movement phase you can wreck some havoc with enemy flyers in that phase and then hose a unit with the baleflamer. A strength 6 AP3 flamer that also has the soul blaze and torrent special rules. Me likey. Its survivability is also pretty good thanks to the daemonforge rule and the It will not Die rule. So as you can see the Helldrake is a favorite.
Being a fan of Slaanesh and the Emperors children I was kinda disappointed by the new incarnation of the Noise Marine. Granted they are a little cheaper. You only pay 20 points as opposed to 25 points for a Noise Marine with a Sonic Blaster. The Sonic Blaster is not to my liking though. Its basically an old rapid fire weapon now Granted it ignores cover, but still....rapid fire. The Blast Master is still a nice weapon though as is the Doom Siren. I have noticed that is you equip a noise marine and Chaos marine in the same way, standard load with an extra close combat weapon, you are only paying one point more for the Noise Marine than the Chaos Marine. So you get Fearless for one point. So you can go to to ends of the spectrum with Noise Marines now. They can be outfitted for close combat and outfitted for close to mid range shooting. I like this kind of versatility. Marked lords make the Cult marine of the associated mark troops which means you can really cram units in.
I really like how cheap I can get a Chaos Sorcerer now as well. 75 points for a Sorcerer with a Mark of Slaanesh. Thats 25 points cheaper than the old base cost. How cool is that! A cheap HQ option that can actually contribute! The new Powers are also sexy. I have been toying with several lists but the one that has been really jumping out is a dark mirror of CVintons Space Wolves list. Now if I can only number crunch it to be all thousand sons and marks of Tzeentch...........
I have to say I am still trying to figure out how to keep the Craftworlders competitive. They may only be broken out for casual games and fun. The Necrons and Dark Kin will be doing any tournament games until I get the Chaos Marine Army back up to strength. I suppose that means its time to really step it up on the hobby side of things and get to painting.
Well Next Time I will be reporting on the Craftworld Open as it happens and the aftermath of its first year at UCON. May Khaine Watch over us.
Until next time..................
Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!