Chaos Codex – First Impression (Yes, Me too!)

But it’s not out yet!!!! Well, it kinda is. But that’s beside the point since it does come out on Saturday there isn’t any reason not to get started with my thoughts overall. I probably won’t do a unit by unit breakdown or review as I’ll leave that to other blogs to do. I haven’t delved deeply or long enough yet to not make simple mistakes and I’m not going to pretend I have J. I’ll be focusing mostly on my general thoughts on the book, different ideas for builds, and the possible evolution of the book. But today is about my first impression so let’s get down to it.

First off let me say I can’t wait for my hardback copy. Based on what I have and my experience with the Fantasy books I’m extremely happy with this product. The price point is a little high but not for me when I consider how much use I’ll get out of it over the next 5+ years.

Well since I’m a relatively competitive player naturally this is going to focus on my thoughts in this direction. There does seem to be tons of fluff but that’s something I’ll read out of the hard copy so I don’t really have an opinion on it yet. Though I do really like the art in the book.

To the Book! One word: POTENTIAL

This book codex is absolutely full of potential. You can pretty much make any of the old legions should you choose (excluding Alpha legion but they don’t really have a structure anyway) but you can also heavily customize to your personal flavor.

Marks

They are everywhere. If it’s on the table and has a wound characteristic and isn’t a DP you can mark it. You want even your Havocs to counter-attack with a bp/ccw, well you can. Wanna prevent oblits from instant death from lascannons & missile launchers then throw on a mark of nurgle. 4++ Terminators with your choice of weaponry then Tzeentch is your friend. The options are pretty endless and it makes for being able to seriously tailor your force.

I will say that Tzeentch is pretty pointless on any unit that doesn’t already have an invul save since it only gives a 6+ if that’s the case.

Icons

Three out of the five have a solid purpose. The one for any mark that makes you fearless is very nice to avoid leadership issues. The khorne one is solid allowing units with it to hit harder with furious charge but also making them more likely to make charges with the re-roll on charge distance. Though the clear winner is probably the Slaanesh icon for FnP. Until people start to bring more barrage/sniper weapons this icon is probably going to be pretty prolific.

I do feel like they missed the boat with Tzeentch and Nurgle. Tzeentch could have been expensive but granted ignoring cover. Nurgle could have provided relentless or at least slow-and-purposeful. Each would probably have been at the same/higher cost as the Slaanesh icon but then all of them would have been viable. Oh well, can’t have everything. Even when Phil Kelly writes a book J

Force Org Movement:

I like how this was handled. Cult troops being shifted if a lord similarly marked is taken is pretty nice. I do like that they made it clear it only works on the primary detachment. Abaddon making Chosen troops is pretty nice too. This helps keep the elite slot more fluid for you style. Granted almost every slot is overloaded but that gives ton of……potential…….to build a list to fit your style.

Stand-Outs

First one is naturally the Heldrake. Most of you know I play 2-3 Dreadknights in my Grey Knight lists. Partly as a form of blocker for my strikes but also partly because they can and do throw fire and wounds down like crazy. Now imagine being able to do that from a flyer after swiping another unit/vehicle/flyer. The Bale Flamer is insane. With the game going infantry heavy this unit is insanely good and it’s points don’t break the bank.

My second one is Spawn. Weird right? Well I play tyrannids and daemons. You know what I would give for a unit that only cost 36 points per model, was St5, T6, had Rage, was a beast, is fearless, and gets some additional bonuses at the beginning of every combat. Even with only D6 attacks it’s hard not to love this guy. The only issue is that he’s in the fast attack alongside the damn dragon.

The next two are Artefacts but I’m in love with them. The first is the Burning Brand of Skalathrax. It’s Kharn’s flamer from when he went bonkers and broke both the world eaters and emperor’s children legions into warbands. In game terms it’s another torrent weapon that’s st4 ap3. If you give me a chance to throw fire I’m pretty much sold. If you let said thrown fire kill marines try and stop me from taking it J.

The other Artefact that caught my eye is the Black Mace. It’s a daemon weapon which hasn’t changed except that now you still get your normal attacks if you roll a 1 though you do hit on a 5+ at that point unless your opponents are WS2. This daemon weapon is only AP4 but wounds always on a 2+(fleshbane) but more importantly if he kills a single model then everyone within 3” of the model at the end of the turn takes a toughness test and if they fail they die, no saves of any kind. It’s expensive but disgusting against non-marines and even against marines will kill another 1/3 of the models within 3” of him. It also means that he could fight a challenge against a blob squad sergeant, kill it, and then lay waste to 1/2 the dudes within 3” of him at the end of the phase. Pretty nasty I’m thinking.

And finally for my initial round up a Nurgle DP with wings. He pretty much has a 3++ while flying outside of falling out of the sky. He’s pretty solid in CC since most marines will need a 5 to hit and a 5 to wound. Give him the Black Mace and he’s got a potential 11 attacks at AP2 (because he’s an MC) that wound on 2’s and cause toughness tests later. He’s pricey but could be fun.

Allies

Demons will make an excellent ally in and Chaos will make a great addition to several of the books that can take them. To many options to discuss but trust me. It’s pretty awesome.

That’s it for now. I’ll probably post up some initial thoughts for lists early next week.