Tzeench psychic powers

One of the things that keeps cropping up in my group is how under powered chaos are.  In particular, how under powered Tzeench magic is.  The so called god of magic has one of the weakest spell lores out there.

I have attempted to remedy this with my own list.  See what you think.

Flickering fire of Tzeench.  WC 1+   Primaris Power
This is a witch fire with a range of 24 inches.  Declare how many warp charge points you want to attempt to cast this at.  This spell does a number of d6 s4 ap5 hits equal to the amount of warp charge declared.  Eg a WC3 cast would shoot 3d6 shots.  Any unit taking at least one unsaved wound will be affected by soul blaze.

Blessing of Tzeench WC 1   Spell number 1
Malediction.  On a successful cast of this spell transfer d3 warp charge points from your opponent’s pool to your own.

Bolt of Change WC 1 Spell number 2
This is a beam with a range of 24 inches.  Any target lying under the beam takes a strength 8 ap2 hit.

Future sight.  WC 1 Spell number 3
This is a Blessing affecting the caster and his unit.  The unit gains d3 rerolls which last through this turn, and the opponents next turn.  These may be used to reroll any single dice for to hit, to wound or save, or cast or deny spells.

Breath of Chaos. WC 2 Spell number 4
This is a witch fire.  This has a range of template.  Any model hit by this template must take a toughness test or take a wound with no armour or cover saves allowed.  Invulnerable saves may be taken, but successful saves must be rerolled.  Any unit taking at least one unsaved wound will be affected by soul blaze.

Transformation of Tzeench WC 3 Spell number 5
This is a witch fire with a range of 24 inches.  The target unit takes 2d6 s6 ap 4 hits.  If at least one model is removed as a casualty you may add a chaos spawn model to the table, one inch from the target unit.  It has a number of wounds equal to the amount of wounds inflicted by the spell.

Firestorm of Tzeench WC 4 Spell number 6
This is a witch fire.  Center the apocalyptic blast over the sorcerer casting this spell.  Every unit covered by the template take a number of hits equal to the amount of models under the template.  These hits are resolved at s5 ap4 with ignores cover.  Models with the mark of Tzeench, or Daemons of Tzeench are immune to this power, but models with the Mark of Nurgle or Daemons of Nurgle take two hits. Any units taking at least one unsaved wound will be affected by soul blaze.

Chaos space marines new codex 7th edition

Wow its been a long time since I last updated this page.  I have been playing 40k but have been so busy with work that I have not felt like writing much in my evenings.

There have been a lot of arguments on the Internet of late about how badly done to Chaos space marines are.  As someone who has had an army of them since 2nd edition, I personally have issues with how they play, vs the fluff that I want them to play like.

I don't doubt there are a handful of strong units in the book, probably enough to field an army capable of beating quite a few armies out there, but the majority of units are made redundant by better units in the same slots and/or over priced

The crux of the issue is that Chaos space marines really represent Naughty, Spikey loyalists rather than the Legions that many chaos players, especially those from the older editions, want to play as.

There is of course a very simple solution . Make a Chaos renegade codex representing what a regular warband of new renegades has access to and what they lose by becoming a traitor.  I would do something like limit the amount of high tech gear they could have, but give them some of the easier to maintain stuff from the vaults.  This could even be a supplement to the loyalist codex, complete with keeping your chapter trait.  This would replace the existing codex.

Then make a true legion codex with all the cool stuff from the heresy.  Make chaos marine scary. Basic ones should have stats of chosen.  Price them as an elite hard hitting force.  This would be a stand alone new codex.

I would even go so far as to say traitor guard should have their own codex.  It could be very similar to the existing Astra Militatum book, but again swap out some of the tech for some of the older kit.  Model wise they could use all the same models as the guard range.  Make them battle brothers to the chaos faction.

Chaos thoughts

I realise I have not posted very much recently, been busy with Christmas and other things.    I also have not finished, or really even started the Chaos Codex review.  The reason for this is that I was reviewing it before I really had played that many games, and my opinions on certain units are continually changing.

It seemed to me that everyone and his dog was using Khorne marked Lords with the Axe of Blinding fury to start with.  As time has progressed, Daemon Princes with the Black Mace have become more popular, and I have even started to see them on normal lords.  The reason for this I believe is that unlocking Berserkers into troops really isn't that useful for an army that has a lot of close combat capable troops.

Other cult troops offer a different take on the sit back and shoot method, and most of them are better than the options that are available elsewhere in the book.  This isn't the case with Berserkers, who are very poor if they don't charge, and in subsequent rounds of combat.

Thousand Sons are good anti MEQ, Plague marines do a decent job of objective holding on cheap and Noise marines have exceptional anti horde weapons and one of the best heavy weapons in the game.  Not quite the best, that position belongs to the Eldar Dark reaper tempest launcher IMO.  But it is certainly not far off the best.

All Berserkers do, is throw a bunch of attacks down.  You can do this more effectively with terminators, spawn and even possessed.

Chaos Characters - Ahriman and Huron

I realise it has been a while since I last wrote anything on the Chaos codex.  I have been distracted and playing a few games.

There is a very real chance that both Ahriman and Huron will become mainstay HQ choices for Chaos lists. The reason for this is very simple.  They have an exceptional Warlord trait.

By being able to infiltrate d3 units, you can get a first turn charge with a number of the units in the chaos list. This opens a world of tactical options, and essentially prevents gunlines from causing all kinds of carnage. You really do need the first turn to take the most advantage of this though.  If you don't get it, consider hiding your units within cover.  If you do go first, deploy in the open 18 inches away.  Fast units like raptors, mauler fiends, daemon princes, spawn, bikers and warptalons can assault the enemy before they have chance to do anything.

With d3 units able to do this, you want to include three units if you include either Huron or Ahriman to take advantage of this.  The best thing with this strategy is it is automatic with these Warlords, and is in effect another special rule for the characters.

Tankbusting 101 - Weapon comparison - BS4

For the last couple of weeks I have been quite busy not getting around to writing anything more on the chaos book.  It seems anything I can do to avoid writing I seem to do instead. 

What I thought I would do instead is write an updated 6th edition anti tank capability comparison between various weapons in both Space Marine and Imperial Guard lists including as many of the different types of guns as I could think of, seeing how bs 3 and 4 affect the various weapons and equally importantly looking at how the changes to how AP affects armour harms your chances of a kill. 

Firstly lets look at common anti tank weapons available to marines using BS4 adjusted for 6th edition AP values, bearing in mind anything with ap 3+ is actually 50% worse at tank killing now;

ML                                Chance of Glance        Chance of Pen          Chance of kill

VS AV 10                              11.11%                    44.44%                7.41%

VS AV 11                              11.11%                    33.33%                5.56%

VS AV 12                              11.11%                    22.22%                3.70%

VS AV 13                              11.11%                    11.11%                 1.85%

VS AV 14                              11.11%                           0%                       0%

Lascannon                     Chance of Glance        Chance of Pen          Chance of kill

VS AV 10                              11.11%                    55.55%                 18.52%

VS AV 11                              11.11%                    44.89%                 14.81%

VS AV 12                              11.11%                    33.50%                 11.05%

VS AV 13                              11.11%                    22.11%                  7.30%

VS AV 14                              11.11%                    10.72%                  3.54%

TL Lascannon                 Chance of Glance        Chance of Pen          Chance of kill

VS AV 10                              13.88%                    69.44%                 23.15%

VS AV 11                              13.88%                    55.55%                 18.52%

VS AV 12                              13.88%                    41.67%                 13.88%

VS AV 13                              13.88%                    27.76%                  9.25%

VS AV 14                              13.88%                    13.88%                  4.44%

Autocannon*                    Chance of Glance     Chance of Pen          Chance of kill

VS AV 10                              11.11%                    33.33%                   5.56%

VS AV 11                             11.11%                    22.22%                    3.70%

VS AV 12                             11.11%                    11.11%                    1.85%

VS AV 13                             11.11%                           0%                       0%

VS AV 14                                   0%                           0%                        0%

TL Autocannon*             Chance of Glance        Chance of Pen          Chance of kill

VS AV 10                              13.88%                    41.67%                   6.67%

VS AV 11                              13.88%                    27.76%                   4.63%

VS AV 12                              13.88%                    13.88%                   2.22%

VS AV 13                              13.88%                           0%                      0%

VS AV 14                                      0%                          0%                      0%

 Assault Cannon**           Chance of Glance        Chance of Pen          Chance of kill
 VS AV 10                              11.11%                    22.22%                   3.70%
 VS AV 11                              11.11%                    11.11%                    1.85%
 VS AV 12                                    0%                    11.11%                    3.70%
 VS AV 13                                3.70%                      7.41%                   2.46%
 VS AV 14                                3.70%                      3.70%                   1.23%

 TL Assault Cannon**      Chance of Glance        Chance of Pen          Chance of kill
 VS AV 10                              13.88%                     27.39%                  4.57%
 VS AV 11                               13.88%                    13.28%                   2.21%
 VS AV 12                                      0%                    13.28%                  6.64%
 VS AV 13                                4.43%                      8.86%                   2.93%

 VS AV 14                                4.43%                      4.43%                   1.48%

Melta under half range   Chance of Glance        Chance of Pen          Chance of kill

 VS AV 10                               1.83%                     64.84%                  33.03%

 VS AV 11                               3.66%                     61.17%                  31.20%

 VS AV 12                               5.49%                     55.68%                  28.76%

 VS AV 13                               7.32%                     48.36%                  25.40%

 VS AV 14                               9.15%                     39.21%                  21.14%

Melta over half range      Chance of Glance        Chance of Pen          Chance of kill

 VS AV 10                               11.11%                    44.44%                  24.07%

 VS AV 11                               11.11%                    33.33%                  18.55%

 VS AV 12                               11.11%                   22.22%                   12.96%

 VS AV 13                               11.11%                    11.11%                   7.41%

 VS AV 14                               11.11%                          0%                   1.85%

* has two shots, this is a per shot comparison, so you get two chances of this

** has four shots, this is a per shot comparison, so you get four chances of this

Chaos Codex review Part 2 - HQ Special Characters Part 1

Following on from part one this one will look at special characters. I know many people on the internet will tell you that you can't compare units from one book to another but that is exactly what I am going to do. I am going to compare units from their 4th edition incarnation to the new 6th edition one.  Something really strange is going on this didn't post in the correct formatting!

Abbaddon the Despoiler. The big bad. Mr Chaos himself, the 40k Archeon. Lots of different names, lots of special rules. Lets look at how he measures up to his old self. First thing to note is that his statistics line is more or less identical to before. The only difference comes from his wargear. He now costs ten points less, which noone will complain about.

Equipment wise he has lost his personal icon, but keeps his combi bolter, the Daemon sword Drach'nyen and the Talon of Horus. He now differs in that you will need to choose which weapon to use in combat. Before he combined both weapons to be a mighty whirlwind of destruction. Now you either choose to kill terminators and use Drach'nyen, or for anyone in power armour or worse, the Talon of Horus. While you can still use the Daemon weapon against other units, since it adds a whole bunch of extra attacks, it has a chance of injuring its wielder. I would personally recommend using the Talon of Horus unless you really like running a risk.

Special rule wise, he has the same rules as before, with the addition of Champion of Chaos and veterans of the Long War. These rules will be looked at later on, but suffice to say they are both beneficial special rules. He is still in possession of Mark of Chaos Ascendant which does the same as before. He comes with a fixed Warlord Trait, which in this case is Black Crusader, a good special rule against Space marines, but does nothing against anyone else. He has a special rule which allows him to take Chosen as troops, but I don't see this being used all that much. Would have been far better to have Black Legion terminators as troops, but I surpose you can't have everything.

So the question is, should you use him? The answer is it depends. While cheaper, he is still very expensive. In no way is he worse than he was in 4th edition and he is cheaper to boot. For all intents and purposes he is the most powerful character in the book, but he only influences a small area of the table. His ranged abilities are somewhat limited. You will want to build your army around him, in a unit of chaos terminators ideally.

Rating: 4/5

Huron Blackheart

In what appears to be a direct copy of Abaddon, Huron has the same statline and is ten points cheaper. He has the same special rules as before with the addition of Veterans of the Long War. He loses his personal icon. His warlord power is pretty good and allows you to infiltrate some units. The biggest difference here is what the Hamadyra does. Before it gave Warptime, now you have to randomly generate a power every turn from three spell lore’s. I would say this is not an improvement. You may end up with a power you can't use.

The Tyrants claw has changed almost completely. It is no longer a powerfist with built in heavy flamer, but instead it is a unique power weapon with built in heavy flamer. It has the strength bonus of the maul combined with the ap of the sword, along with special rules like shred and armourbane making it a good utility weapon. Is it better than before? Yes, except against terminators and monstrous creatures. Importantly it doesn't strike last.

Should you use him? Well I don't see why not. He is not massively expensive, and the Tyrants Claw is a very effective weapon. It is a bit of a shame it isn't a daemon weapon but I surpose you can't have everything!

Rating: 4/5

Kharn the Betrayer

Wow, a character with a different stat line! Kharn loses an attack from the 4th edition book, he also only becomes five points cheaper. So not a good start. Special rules wise, he is fairly similar to before. He also has the same equipment, except Gorechild is strictly improved. Not suffering the ignominy of striking last, his power axe hits on initiative and has armour bane for cutting through tanks. Not too shabby!

His warlord power grants him and his unit hatred, which is always good! Being a Khorne lord he moves Beserkers into troops choices. Blessing of the Blood god is slightly worse, now requiring a dice roll to prevent psychic powers affecting him and his unit rather than being immune. Mark of Khorne will go someway to remedying his missing attack, but as per every other marked character, to get the full advantage of the gods ability you need to be in a unit with an icon. Speaking of which, The Betrayer special rule has changed, where other friendly models in combat can also be hit, so there is no advantage for separating Kharn from his unit any more. You might as well keep him with them.

So is he worth it? He has taken a hit on some of his more exceptional abilities and doesn't appear to have gained anything overly spectacular. Indeed most of his gains seem to be there to offset his reductions, eg in attacks. I still think he is a very strong character, very few enemy HQs will be able to stand up to him, unless they strike first. The advantage is, most HQs who strike before him, won't have the AP to get through his armour, protecting him from his fairly poor invulnerable save.

Rating: 4/5

Ahriman

Same stats as before but with a twenty points price cut. So nothing to complain about with that so far. It is beginning to be a trend this! Special rules wise, he is more or less the same, has veterans of the long war like all of the special characters so far. His warlord power is the same as Hurons allowing infiltration.

Wargear is the same as before, except the Blackstaff has changed. Due to casting rules changing in general it is perhaps not as potent as before. It just allows the casting of up to three witchfire powers, but you have no guarantee you will even have three witchfire powers. Its combat usefulness is limited because it is a force staff. You get four spells, from either Tzeench, Biomancy, Pyromancy or Telepathy decks, which is the same selection as a normal Tzeench sorcerer. No Divination which is really annoying given he should have this lore!

So is he worth it? Probably not. On paper he is very good, but you can field a level three sorceror of tzeench for a considerable amount less points, with better equipment options and same access to spells. However he can, with the right spells cause a massive amount of destruction with three witchfires per turn. He also has a better stat line than a normal sorcerer.

Rating: 3/5

Chaos Codex review Part 1 - Marks and Icons

Before I start to review the units it is worth looking over what exactly the Marks and Icons do for the new 6th edition codex.  They do exactly the same, regardless of unit, so it should come as no surprise that some marks are more useful on some units than others.

In the 4th edition Codex the Marks and Icons did more or less the exact same thing, with Icons bestowing the Mark of chaos and a teleport homer on a unit of normal chaos space marines.  Very few other units could take marks.  This has all changed.

In 4th edition which we are all familiar with, the marks did the following;

Khorne: +1 attack.
Tzeench: +1 invulnerable save, or a 5+ one if they didn't have one.
Nurgle: +1 toughness, but didn't count for instant death.
Slaanesh: +1 initiative

Icons as explained above, gave a squad the mark, and the ability to act as  homing beacon for teleporters and chaos daemons.  The only exeception was th Icon of Chaos Glory which gave the unit a reroll on morale checks, because Chaos Marines didn't get "And they shall know no Fear" like loyalist marines.  In the vast majority of cases squads didn't bother with Icons, except occasionally the Icon of Chaos glory as cult troops were available in the Troops section with better equipment options and statistics, such as Plague marines and Khorne Beserkers.

Fast forwards to 2012 and the new Chaos Codex is out for 6th edition. The Marks of Chaos have changed considerably.  The new Marks of Chaos give the following rules.

Khorne: Rage and Counter attack
Tzeench: +1 invulnerable save to a 3+ maximum, or 6+ if they don't have one.
Nurgle: +1 toughness
Slaanesh: +1 initiative

Those marks which can take psychic powers have to take at least one spell from their patron god.  As you can see, most of the marks havn't changed all that much.  Khorne changes slightly, but charging it is as good as it used to be.

Icons now add something extra on top of the Marks.  Most of them are limited to squads which already have a Mark of Chaos.  They now add +1 to the combat result, like the marine and guard standard equivelents. 

Icon of Wrath: Furious charge and rerolling charge range.  Khorne only.
Icon of Flame: Bolt weapons have Soul Blaze. Tzeench only.
Icon of Despair: Fear. Nurgle only.
Icon of Excess: Feel no Pain. Slaanesh only.
Icon of Vengeance: Fearless.

The first and most important thing to bear in mind is that the Icon of Vengeance is a much improved version of the Icon of Chaos glory.  Not taking morale tests is far better than rerolls. 

Looking at the Mark and Icon combinations, Khorne looks to have a very good combination, although in a lot of ways the Khorne Beserkers unit needs these to restore them back to their 4th edition capabilities.  This will be looked at in more detail in the Elites section. 

Tzeench seems very similar to before.  I don't think the Soul Blaze rule is especially good as a rule, a 50% chance of landing a couple of extra flamer hits really doesn't do anything for me.  However the Mark of Tzeench is very good on certain units, like Terminators, or those with the Daemon rule.

Nurgle mark is worth having, every unit can benefit from toughness increases.  Fear on the other hand is just not worth the points.  So many units will be fearless or otherwise immune that it is more or less a joke special rule.

Slaanesh is interesting.  While the mark isn't anything great on the face of it, it does boost the normal marines to a higher initative than loyalists, so terminators with lightning claws for example, benefit by being able to strike first with lethal effectiveness.  The best reason to upgrade to Mark of Slaanesh is to have the Icon.  I expect these to be very common, as Feel no Pain is an exceptionally good special rule.  Terminators with this will be very strong, as will any units with the Daemon special rule.

Chaos 6th Edition Codex review

So my first codex book of 6th edition has arrived.  As I have five armies in 40k, this is the first of hopefully five new books in the next couple of years.

My plan is to review as a contrast to the 4th edition book, as well as looking at the units in the context of the game.  This page will be a holding page with links to each of the sections as they get written, but some of my first thoughts are included below from a quick flick through the book.  I will be starting on HQs.

First of all, let me say the new hardback book is very nice to look at.  Perhaps a little pricey but you can see that this increased cost has been spent on making it considerably more durable and it is full colour.

On the face of it the new book doesn't seem to have any real powerhouse units.  A lot of the codex has had units shifted around, with cult troops moved away from troops and into elites.  This however can be played around with, depending on what HQs you pick.

Existing chaos players will probably have to alter some models.  The changes made to terminators equipment is very annoying.  I will need to rip arms off nearly all of my terminator models to make them legal.

Thousand Sons Sorcerers do not get access to Divination discipline which is not right.  Both Magnus and Ahriman display clear divination in the background of the Thousand Sons legion, as well as in every piece of Heresy writing, yet it is not available here!  Even if the majority of sorcerers didn't have this, Ahriman should have had it.

Noise marines have gone from totally useless to a lot better. Sonic blasters are now worth it vs GEQs and Blastmasters are lethal to marines because both weapons have ignore cover special rule now.  Good news for me with my largely Emperors Children based chaos army.

A lot of the units which were poor before, such as spawn, dreadnoughts and bikers have had an overhaul as well, you may well see considerably more of these in lists.

Codex review pages:

Part 1: Marks and Icons
Part 2: Special Characters Part 1

Chaos Space marines are good for Beginners

I thought I would take this opportunity to look into why I still believe Chaos Space Marines are a good army.  Indeed, it is my opinion that they are possibly the best army in the game to learn how to play the system with, rather than regular Space Marines.  This may come as a shock to many readers, but I will hopefully be able to explain my reasons why I beleive this to be the case.

Point 1.
They are MEQs.  This means they have good armour, reasonable statistics and a reasonable gun.  Regular Chaos space marines have the ability to take two of the same special weapon in a ten man unit or one and a heavy weapon.  This allows them to imitate regular tactical squads, or field a more aggressive, shorter ranged unit. 

Point 2.
The book is very simple.  Most units have no or very few special rules of any kind.  While this is bland and boring, it is also incredibly easy for someone to pick up and learn.  After a few games, players tend to notice that Plague Marines, Berserkers and regular Chaos Space Marines are better than Thousand Sons and Noise Marines for example.

Point 3.
They have very few competitive units.  There are pretty much only three really good units in the book, and a handful of good ones in my experience.  The really good ones are Nurgle Daemon Princes, Plague Marines and Obliterators.  The good units are Berserkers, Chaos Space marines and Terminators.  Most of the rest of the units are either nothing special, over priced, or down right terrible.  Some of these are more than usable, in the right build, but require a bit more planning, so are not as newbie friendly as the units in the Really good/good categories.

You can therefore make a tournament competitive level list by taking two Daemon Princes of Nurgle with wings, three units of two/three Obliterators, and filling your points up on small units of plague marines with dual melta in Rhinos.  This is, all things considered a simple list to design and play with.  It only has three different units.  With the new FAQ, Warptime is no longer as mandatory as it used to be, but it is possibly still worth having on your Daemon Prince.  Otherwise just stick with wings.

Point 4.
Chaos follow the normal rules for leadership.  Unlike regular space marines, who have "And they shall know no know fear" which is very newbie friendly, the units in the chaos marine book, generally speaking, are either regular on leadership tests, or fearless.  Playing with these rules is useful as a stepping stone into the xenos codexes or guard.  If you learn with loyalist Space marines, it can be difficult to adapt to the other armies, due to the space marines inherent resilience to being run down in hand to hand and automatically rallying regardless of squad size.

Point 5.
Cheap in terms of money.  Unlike a lot of armies, this army can be very cheap to buy.  While individual units and models within this list are quite expensive, you get a lot of points and more importantly, you will use these models.  If you just buy the four model types I suggested, these will always find a place in your list.  This is not my usual experience with units in other codexes, where very expensive units, like Land Raiders, can sit gathering dust for months between games.

I hope this has given people some food for thought.  Any feedback is welcome.