In honor of our American holiday celebrating unintended consequences, I bring you a guest article written by Arch-Heretic Pete:
Five Step Chaos Program
Let me be
clear right up front. I love the Ruinous
Powers. I’m dedicated to them. I first got into this game with the old
Tyranid snap-together models (back in the late ‘90s), but the minute Marcus
showed me the Chaos codex and I read the descriptions of the Legions, I was
hooked. I had an Alpha Legion army back
when they weren’t cool. And that army
grew and fractured, so now I have over 4000 points of Legionnaires, but also a
solid Thousand Sons force, a Death Guard army, a fair chunk of World Eaters,
and enough Emperor’s Children for a very nice Allied force.
I’m with
Chaos. I’m invested. I’m here to stay.
That being
said...
Chaos has
been getting screwed for a while now.
I don’t say
this out of anger or nerdrage, just as an honest fact. The past two Chaos codexes have been very
weak. They’ve been weak compared to what
came before them. They’ve been weak
compared to other contemporary codexes.
There are lots of folks who will pound their math hammers and tell you
the current Chaos codex is perfectly fine as long as you take this
and this and this and use them like that... but I’ve
always felt that any codex that only offers one viable build is kind of a
failure. A big aspect of this game is
the variety, and what little variety the Chaos Marine Codex has is... well,
pretty useless. Hands up, anyone who’s
seen a lot of Mutilators out on the battlefield...
But I
digress. Just a little.
While
talking with our host here the other week, it struck me that the Chaos Marine
codex could be improved drastically with just a handful of tiny tweaks. I’m not going to talk about stat lines or
wargear or pricing (okay, maybe once about pricing). These are much simpler tweaks which would let
Chaos feel like a more viable army.
So, here
are my suggestions and the reasoning behind them. If anyone happens to be a major stockholder
in Games Workshop, please feel free to pass them on. Even if it’s just for a good laugh...
1) Force
Organization Chart
An army
with a Chaos Lord on a Bike may take Bike Squads of 5 or more models as troops.
An army
with a Chaos Lord with a Jump Pack may take Raptor squads as troops
An army
with a Warpsmith may take one Helbrute as a troops choice.
An army
with a Daemon Prince may take one Possessed squad as troops if they share the
same Chaos god.
-------------------------
The only
character in the Chaos Marine codex who truly unlocks/alters the FOC is Abaddon. If you think about it, Kharn, Ahriman,
Typhus, and Lucius don’t do anything to the chart that any Lord or Sorcerer with
a 5 point mark of Chaos couldn’t do.
This rules tweak gives Chaos armies the same flexibility that loyalist
Marines do, able to have an army that reflects the sometimes wild structural
and tactical decisions a Chaos Lord may make.
Plus...
Doomrider! Think about it.
2) Retinues
Any Chaos
Lord, Chaos Sorcerer, or Dark Apostle (including Huron Blackheart, Kharn,
Ahriman, Lucius, and Fabius Bile) may take one Chosen squad as a personal
retinue. This unit does not use up any
HQ or Elites slots. All options and
prices remain the same.
Any Chaos
Lord or Sorcerer in Terminator Armor (including Abaddon and Typhus) may take
one Chaos Terminator squad as a personal retinue. This unit does not use up any HQ or Elites
slots. All options and prices remain the
same.
-------------------------
Slightly
related to the first rule. Loyalist
Marines get numerous “free” units in the form of Honor Guard, Command Squads,
Techmarines, and so on, which means they have a lot more flexibility when
filling out their force organization chart.
Not to mention Imperial Guard, Dark Eldar, Necrons, et al... Giving Chaos Lords a retinue just puts them
on the same footing as pretty much every other Codex. Plus, a Terminator retinue is exactly the kind
of brute force thing to clearly separate Chaos from loyalists.
3) Veterans of the Long War
For all of
the original legions (Black Legion, Emperor’s Children, Iron Warriors, World
Eaters, Word Bearers, Death Guard, Thousand Sons, or Alpha Legion), Veterans
of the Long War is free for any unit it applies to. Non-legion Chaos armies may purchase the Veterans
of the Long War rule at the listed cost per model.
-------------------------
Now that
Space Marine Chapters are getting free bonus rules just for their paint scheme,
it seems unfair not to give the Legions the same advantage. Especially when it should’ve been a given
rule for them from the start.
Yes, this
means the Red Corsairs or anyone’s favorite home-brew army have to pay a few
extra points. But the original legions
need to be distinguished somehow, and this is the easiest way. Plus at least a third of the players out
there will just argue “counts as” anyway and say their Red Corsairs army is
using Black Templars rules, sooooo...
4) No more Havocs
The entry
for Havocs is removed from the army list.
-------------------------
Pretty
straightforward. Havocs are, in my
opinion, a weird holdover from when Chaos Marines were just Space Marines with
horns and spikes. They don’t really fit
the idea of a wild, unrestricted army when their squad size and weapons options
are almost a dead ringer for Devastator squads (without the ability to split
fire). Besides, the last rule kind of
makes up for this...
5) Chaos Marines
On page
95 remove bullet points three of the
Chaos Space Marine entry. Replace the
first sentence of bullet point four as follows...
For every
five models in the squad, one Chaos Space Marine may replace his bolt pistol
with a plasma pistol....................................15pts
Or replace
his boltgun with one of the following:
-------------------------
Under the
past two codexes, Space Marines can build lots of very flexible, five-man
tactical squads using the Combat Squads rule.
Chaos Marines, on the other hand, have been forced to take a ten man
squad just to have a heavy bolter.
This new
rule reflects the “warband” nature of Chaos Marines in two ways. One is that it allows for a huge amount of
special or heavy weapons in one squad (very un-codex). Two is that it keeps the idea of one champion
having absolute control and not letting those under him out of his sight. So it’s possible to create a massive troops
squad of twenty Chaos Marines with four flamers, or four meltaguns, or four
lascannons... but they won’t be allowed too far from their champion.
This also
means siege/firepower-centric armies can field lots of heavy weapons and still
have all their heavy slots open for tanks or daemon vehicles. Good news for Iron Warriors or Word Bearers.
And there
you have it. Feel free to correct,
debate, or mock down in the comments. Now
let’s all give thanks to the Ruinous Powers.
And have stuffing and cranberry sauce.
Let the Galaxy Burn
Just not Dinner
