Will Chaos rise again? Probably not, but until they do we’re stuck reading another post on how to fix the traitor Space Marines!
Now let’s get to the big issue- Everyone has an idea for how to fix Chaos Space Marines, the little demon engine that couldn’t. The book hasn’t aged well, and it’s suffering from a serious identity crisis. Most of the “How I’d fix chaos” articles I’ve read have been pretty good, but they focus more on the obvious problems and less on the character of the army. This is the issue I want to address most:
Here’s the last of my How to Fix the Chaos Space Marine Codex series.
***FAST ATTACK***
Raptors- Points adjustment, gains Hit and Run.
Warp Talons- Points Adjustment, hopefully the icons acting as demonic teleport homers and HH style mark upgrade value will solve problems for these guys, but also, their flavor is weak. Let’s try to inject something interesting into them.
Chosen Prey- If you hold Warp Talons in reserve, you may select one unit in your opponent’s army to be Chosen Prey. Your Warp Talons have Preferred Enemy against that unit. When they arrive via deep strike, if their Chosen Prey is hit by Warpflame Strike, they suffer a -3 penalty to the initiative roll for their blind check. If a Warp Talon wipes out or sweeps their Chosen Prey in any assault phase, you may remove them from the table, place them into ongoing reserve, and select a new Chosen Prey.
Bikers- Points adjustment.
Spawn- Don’t fix what ain’t broke.
Heldrake- Points adjustment.
The Heldrake was never really the model that broke the codex, it was just a sign of the edition, right place right time. It was really just everything that 6e stood for- Big price tag shiny new units that could wipe out a squad of increasingly vulnerable marines from a table in an environment where normal troop squads were disappearing and formations were showing up more and more. The only thing that needs to be done to the heldrake is to give the players options that are decent besides the heldrake. Nobody actually likes the flying turkey, even the people that own 3 of them.
Hellblade and Helltalons- Move these over from Forgeworld into the codex so we have something besides the turkey.
Dreadclaw Drop Pod- Move it from Forgeworld into the codex.
***HEAVY***
Havocs- Points.
Obliterators- Points, and make other heavy support options less crap. Obliterators were never truly that wonderful, they just had the freedom of choice where other chaos shooting options were weak.
Defiler- Points, marks.
Forgefiend- Points, marks.
Maulerfiend- Points, marks.
Chaos Land Raider- Needs flavor. It’s been 10,00 years, let’s see what the Dark Mechanicum can do with this thing.
-Points, Marks.
-May replace twin linked HB with twin Reaper autocannon. (4 shots, twin linked)
-May replace twin linked Lascannons with quad heavy bolters, hades autocannons, or ectoplasma cannons. (Remember that a tzeentch mark grants inferno bolts)
-Demonic possession upgrade now includes Demon. (general vehicle rule)
-Chaos Vindicator: Points, may squad 1-3 per slot.
-Bloodlure Ammunition: Any unit that charges a target hit by weapons from this vehicle in the previous shooting phase counts as having assault grenades. (sexy for demon allies)
-Chaos Predator: Now this guy… This was the model I always thought was most lost in translation, like a dreadnought, but worse. Predators lose more and more ground every edition, because vehicles get more and more vulnerable to assault and anti-tank weapons, and predators have just never had a lot of guns.
So let’s change the role of the predator. It’s a 10,000 year old death machine, and after marinating in the warp all this time, it should come out as something completely different, more bloodthirsty, assault oriented, and malicious.
-points adjustment. Still AV 13/11/10 HP3 though, you’ll see why.
-1-3 per slot.
-Comes standard with demonic possession/demon.
-Base weapon is now a Hades Autocannon instead of a normal autocannon.
-May upgrade to Twin Las turret, or Ectoplasma turret.
-May take HB sponsons, Lascannon sponsons, Reaper autocannon sponsons, or Ecto sponsons.
-Bloodlure Ammunition: Any unit that charges a target hit by weapons from this vehicle in the previous shooting phase counts as having assault grenades.
-Hellblitz: If this vehicle performed Tank Shock in it’s previous movement phase, it may fire all of it’s weapons in the shooting phase regardless of how far it moved.
Vehicle marks
In addition to standard marking benefits where applicable, gain these rules.
-Slaanesh: Replace Lascannons or ectoplasmas with Blastmasters. Replace Heavy Flamers with Doom Sirens. Replace HBs with Sonic Blasters.
-Khorne: Vehicle gains Fields of Slaughter.
-Nurgle: Vehicle gains It Will Not Die.
-Tzeentch: Arcane Locus- Vehicle has an icon, blessings and hexes which target units within 12” of the vehicle require one less charge to activate, to a minimum of 1.
***Lords of War***
Khorne Skull choochoo train- Whatever. It’s a lord of war. I don’t want to talk about it.
Renegade knight- Put him in the codex.
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About the Author: Jack Stover
