Chaos Space Marines getting some love from Games Workshop is a big deal. And as one of the armies Space Wolves players are most likely to face in Warhammer 40K, I felt that I should write about what's hot and what's not in the latest Chaos book.
We know that there will not be new Chaos Space Marines Codex. And we know that Games Workshop are now rolling out supplement books for every army as a means of 'patching' whats broken and unbalanced as best as they can by giving different units a boost through formations.
Unfortunately, Traitors Hate isn't as immediately awesome as Khorne Daemonkin, but there is some gold in here. Although you will definitely feel some hatred and want to scream "Death to the false Emperor!" when comparing to the Space Marines Codex and their supplements. Chaos purists will be holding out for Nurgle Daemonkin, Tzeentch Daemonkin and Slaanesh Daemonkin books and I for one cannot blame them.
Anyway, Chaos Space Marine woes aside, let's get to the meat of the Traitors Hate Formations and the tactics behind them.
Black Crusade Detachment
Must take 1 Core choice and 1 Auxiliary choice.
Up to 5 Command choices and any number of Auxiliary choices.
Command Benefits:
Re-roll Warlord Traits
All units have HATRED Armies of the Imperium
All Chaos Space Marines get Veterans of the Long War for free.
Choose 1 model with the Champion of Chaos rule and roll on the Chaos Boon table.
Hatred is good, being able to roll a Boon is fun!
Command: Lords of the Black Crusade
1 of the following:Chaos Lord
Sorcerer
Daemon Prince
Can be replaced by Special Characters
Yep, fine. That's pretty standard.
Core: Chaos Warband
1 Chaos Lord0-1 Sorcerer
1-3 of the following units
- Chosen
- Chaos Terminators
- Possessed
2-6 units of
Chaos Space Marines
1-3 of the following units
- Raptors
- Warp Talons
- Chaos Bikers
1-3 of the following units
- Havocs
- Helbrute
Roll twice on the Chaos Boon table and choose the result.
All untis gain Objective Secured.
Combine with your free Boon roll and that's not bad.
The fact all units get Objective Secured is pretty awesome for an army that generally doesn't like to take many Troops.
Chaos Lord on a bike, Plasmacide Chaos Terminators, 2 small units of Chaos Marines, 1 Chaos Bikers and a squad of Havocs with 4 Special Weapons is okay. But I'm not exactly getting excited about the killing potential or value for points here.
Core: Maelstrom of Gore
Kharn of the Betrayer or Chaos Lord4-8 units of Khorne Bezerkers
Chaos Lord gets Mark of Khorne for free.
Fleet and +3" to charge distances.
Once per battle all units in this formation that are locked in combat may perform a Pile In move and Attack during their movement phase. But enemy units cannot attack back. Units from this formation may Attack again in the Assault phase.
The rules look awesome on paper. Kharn is a must! And with 4 units of Bezerkers some of them will make it into combat. Really, you just want to get Kharn in there.
Kharn + 8 Bezerkers with Champion and Fist + Land Raider
8 Bezerkers with Champion and Fist + Land Raider
8 Bezerkers with Champion and Fist + Land Raider
5 Berzerkers + Warpsmith + Rhino
Don't forget to roll your free Chaos Boon. You might get lucky with a Skull Champion!
This really is a 'core' choice due to the number of Bezerker units and your need to get them across the board.
The Fist of The Gods formation (below) gives you a Warpsmith and 3 Land Raiders for transports.
It's small, it's stupid and it might just work!
Personally I wouldn't run all those Bezerkers on foot (they would get shot to peices). But Kharn with 8 of his buddies in a Land Raider is a must have. You could have the other 3 units of Bezerkers very small and on foot, but I don't think they'd make it. Even with Fleet and +3" charge.
Core: The Lost and the Damned
1 Dark Apostle4-9 units of Chaos Cultists
Dark Apostle Zealot rule applies to call Cultist units within 6" of him.
If a Chaos Cultist unit is destroyed, it is placed into Ongoing Reserves with the Outlank rule on a 4+.
The new Cultist spam with respawning cultists - if you're lucky!
We all know that the worst thing about the Chaos Space Marines Codex is the Chaos Space Marines. So if you want to take the bare minimum Black Crusade army, this is the way to do it.
Now you have plenty of points for all the nasty stuff that you really want. Like Heldrakes, Daemon Princes and Maulerfiends.
But wait!
If you take Typhus to lead your Chaos Space Marines, Cultists can be upgraded to Plague Zombies.
Suddenly this formation got a whole lot more interesting and made the Typhus Zombie army more interesting too.
Respawning, Outflanking zombies? Yes please!
The Dark Apostle's Zealot bubble becomes more appealing too.
Auxiliary: Helforged Warpack
1 Warpsmith3-5 of the following units
- Hellbrute
- Maulerfiend
- Forgefiend
- Defiler
While the Warpsmith is alive and on the battlefield, all vehicle models in this formation can use their Daemonforge special rule a second time (if they have used it already).
One vehicle model in this formation is the Alpha and gains a 4+ Invulnerable save. If it is destroyed, all other vehicle models in this formation gain Rage.
Maulerfiends. Lots of Maulerfiends. And make one an Alpha.
Warpsmith can join another unit as he doesn't need to be near them.
Definitely take this formation.
Auxiliary: Veterans of the Legions
1-2 of the following unitsKhorne Berzerkers
Thousand Sons
Plague Marines
Noise Marines
UNKNOWN
Auxiliary: Heldrake Terror Pack
2-4 HeldrakesEnemy models within 12" of 2 models from this formation suffer -1 Leadership. If 3 models -2, if 4 models -3.
Vector Strikes from models in this formation against Pinned, Falling Back or Gone to Ground unit inflict D6 Strength 7 AP2 hits instead of only 1 hit.
You're buying 2 Heldrakes if you want to take any at all.
The Leadership decrease is okay. It's better if you have 3 Heldrakes for this. 4 Heldrakes seems horrible to face.
Hmm... Lost and the Damned (Zombies) core + Typhus + 4 Heldrakes in a Terror Pack auxiliary = crying opponent?
Buy the Cultists an Aquila Strongpoint to hide in.
Add glass of wine to serve with this cheese.
Auxiliary: Cult of Destruction
1-3 Warpsmiths3-5 of the following units
- Obliterators
- Mutilators
Each Warpsmith can target a unit from this formation within 8".
Obliterators shoot twice. Mutilators attack twice.
Units must use different weapons for the different sets of attacks.
You know this is all about the Obliterators right?
The thing is, they need to be within 8" of the Warpsmith in order to fire twice (with different weapons at the same target). And you need 3 of these units.
3 units of Obliterators isn't uncommon.
But rather than mess up whether they're Deepstriking or walking with everyone else, simply take the 1 Warpsmith (especially if you were going to take 1 anyway) and make sure one of these units is within 8" of him.
It seems a bit of a faff trying to take multiple Warpsmiths to get multiple shots out of your Obliterators when they need to keep changing weapons.
Chaotic? Yes. Confusing? Yes. Worth it? Only if you take 1 Warpsmith as your tax.
Auxiliary: Fist of the Gods
1 Warpsmith3-5 of the following units
- Chaos Predators
- Chaos Vindicators
- Chaos Land Raiders
6+ Invulnerable save to vehicles from this formation within 12" of the Warpsmith.
Warpsmith receives +1 to repair rolls when repairing a vehicle from this formation.
3 Vindicators can perform a Linebreaker Bombardment, firing a single Apocalyptic Blast that Ignores Cover.
3 Predators have the Monster Hunter and Tank Hunters special rules.
You MUST take 3 tanks.
Predators look favourite.
Land Raiders for transporting your assault troops.
I don't really care about the Warpsmith, he's buffs aren't that good.
Auxiliary: Raptor Talon
1 Chaos Lord3-5 of the following units
- Raptors
- Warp Talons
Can Charge on the turn they Deepstrike. But it is a disordered charge.
Enemy units charged by 2 or more units from this formation -2 Leadership.
Deepstriking units that can charge when they arrive. The Chaos Lord will make or break that charge.
1 unit of Warp Talons feel like a must in order to make enemy units Blind, so you don't get Overwatched to death as you charge in.
This formation has a nice Night Lords feel to it. But I wouldn't take more than 3 units otherwise you're keeping too many points off the board. If this arrives piecemeal it's a nice, constant distraction to tie up enemy units and sew confusion.
Auxiliary: Terminator Annihilation Force
1 Chaos Lord or Sorcerer3-5 units of Chaos Terminators
Lord or Sorcerer gets Terminator Armour for free.
Nominate a unit in the enemy army. Units from this formation may immediately shoot at it when they arrive from Deepstrike. This does not prevent units from this formation shooting again in the Shooting phase. Units from this formation gain Hatred against the target enemy unit also.
If the first nominated unit is destroyed, pick a new enemy unit to nominate for Annihilation.
The Lord or Sorcerer can be replaced by Abaddon or Typhus.
Chaos Terminators aren't really known for their shooting, except with combi-weapons which can only fire their special weapon once. So really each Terminator unit would need a Reaper Autocannon for this to be any real use. And you need 3 units of them.
I would be included to take 2 plasmacide Terminator squads of 3 men (they Deepstrike, shoot and hope not to die!) and 1 large squad of Terminators with Combi-Bolters and 2 Reaper Autocannons for a constant stream of Annihilation fire and close combat Hatred.
Even so, that's still a lot of points! And a lot of points trying to Deepstrike in order to be able to shoot twice.
I'm not really feeling that.
3 squads of 3 with 1 Reaper Autocannon and 2 combi-meltas in each would be a good budget choice and versatile enough.
Auxiliary: Favoured of Chaos
1 Daemon Prince3-5 units of Possessed
Possessed within 12" of the Daemon Prince receive all 3 Mutation table results instead of rolling.
Sound brilliant!
Shame it's a lot of points and you need to get it across the board and into close combat some how.
It could have worked well as a Core choice, but it's not.
I think I'll pass.
Auxiliary: Trinity of Blood
3 Khorne Lords of SkullsRampage
Enemy units locked in combat at start of this formations movement phase suffer S6 AP4 hits with Ignore Cover and Soul Blaze equal to number of models in enemy unit.
Shooting attacks from units in this formation are twin-linked if firing at an enemy unit that has already been shto at by another unit in this formation.
I don't see myself ever fielding such an expensive formation.
Auxiliary: Spawn
1-3 units of Chaos SpawnEveryone loves spawn! Don't know if this formation gets any extra rules yet..
CONCLUSION
In summary, I feel that the Chaos Warband isn't brilliant, because you're forced to buy an Elite choice, 2 Chaos Marine Troops and Heavy Support choice that I know you wouldn't normally take. That's a pretty high tax.
This actually saddens me, because I long to see a nice Chaos Space Marines army. But Games Workshop just isn't going to give us one. Maybe it's part of their marketing strategy to make Chaos players want to start playing Horus Heresy and fork out a fortune on Forge World models?
Maelstrom of Gore is going to be very popular! Kharn + 4 squads of Bezerkers. It can be small. It knows what it does and it does it well. Small numbers aren't an issue if you time your Red Rain right. Or just get Kharn stuck into close combat. But it needs something to help it get there. It needs Land Raiders.
Fist of the Gods steps up to deliver your Land Raider transports and the much needed long ranged firepower in the form of Monster Hunter/Tank Hunter Predators. Warpsmith can provide some close combat clout or tank hits with his 2+ save.
As if Cultists weren't awesome for their points already, The Lost and the Damned makes them even better with respawns that can Outflank. Typhus making cultists Plague Zombies makes this even better.
Helforged Warpack is obviously awesome because of Maulerfiends.
Basically, if it's already good in the Chaos Space Marines Codex - then it just got better!
If it isn't so good, then it still isn't so good.
Games Workshop had a real chance to fix the Chaos Space Marines Codex. But they didn't. So it looks like Khorne and Nurgle are the real winners here.