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
Saturday 20 October 2012
Saturday 13 October 2012
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.
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.
Monday 8 October 2012
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
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
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