The Chaos Space Marine and Grey Knight codexes will be out soon and we’ve already got a good look at what they will hold. Come find out what we know so far.
Winter SEO put out a video review of Codex: Chaos Space Marine and revealed a lot of the content inside. Let’s take a look at everything we’ve seen over the past week.
Stratagems
The Stratagems will state when you can use them and if they can be used more than once per game.
The Stratagems are wide and varied and give all the Legions access to abilities that can aid them. As long as you have the Command Points to spend. The CP costs appear to be decently balanced for what the stratagems contain. Also, with Forge World stating that certain dreadnoughts can now use the HELBRUTE keyword, the Fire Frenzy stratagem will be such a gift.
At 1 CP, the selected helbrute can fire all of it’s weapons twice, provided it did not move in its Movement Phase. It can only target the nearest visible enemy unit with this stratagem. The World Eaters have an Abhor the Witch stratagem that allows them to negate an enemy psychic power on a 4+. Alpha Legion mimics the Raven Guard stratagem and the Word Bearers have extra protection when using a daemonic ritual.
Several stratagems in the Chaos Codex are psyker specific and allow you even more flexibility during your Psychic phase. Want an even greater incentive to take Daemon vehicles? How about re-rolling all failed hit and wound rolls for that unit.
Yes, Chaos gets their own Linebreaker and Killshot stratagems. Khorne players will love for their Infantry or Biker units to attack again at the end of their Fight phase with the Fury of Khorne stratagem. Nurgle players will enjoy healing their keyworded Infantry or Biker units with Grandfather’s Blessings.
Chaos Legions can also take up to 2 additional relics and can dedicate an undeclared unit with the <Mark of Chaos> keyword to a Chaos god of your choice.
Now, Chaos Boons are back and are only applicable to Chaos Characters and not Daemon Princes. At the end of the Fight phase, if a Chaos Character has killed an enemy Character, Vehicle, or Monster, this stratagem can be used at a cost of 1 CP. 2D6 are rolled and the result is used to choose the boon. Boons will last for the rest of the battle and the same boon cannot be received by a model more than once. If this happens, choose another result not yet received, excluding spawndom or daemonhood. Chaos Spawn or Daemon Princes made must have the same Mark of Chaos as the model and do not count towards reinforcement points in a matched play game.
Dark Heretic Disciplines (9 powers total)
Six psychic powers can be taken by any psyker regardless of the <Mark of Chaos> they have. The last three are <Mark of Chaos> specific and play into the strengths of their affiliated Chaos God. One thing to note is that if your psyker can slot two disciplines, one of those disciplines can be the corresponding <Mark of Chaos> power.
So, you could have a T-Sons psyker with Prescience and the Mark of Tzeentch: Weaver of Fates discipline. Said discipline gives a Tzeentch Heretic Astartes unit within 18″ of the psyker +1 to their invulnerable save. If the unit does not have an invulnerbale save, it gains a 5+ invulnerable save until the start of you next Psychic phase.
Imagine being able to use these <Mark of Chaos> specific powers on Abaddon the Despoiler since he carries all Chaos faction keywords.
Mark of Nurgle: Miasma of Pestilence grants a visible Nurgle Heretic Astartes unit within 18″ a -1 to enemy hit rolls that target it.
Lastly, Mark of Slaanesh: Delightful Agonies gives a visible Slaanesh Heretic unit with 18″ a chance to negate each wound made against it by rolling a 5+.
These powers give Chaos player reasons to take Marks while the Index: Chaos did not.
As for the six standard Hereticus powers, Infernal Gaze, Prescience, and Warptime were also in the Index: Chaos and appear to be unchanged.
Death Hex, Diabolic Strength, and Gift of Chaos are now available to us.
Death Hex is powerful and has a high warp charge value of 8. The reason for this is that Death hex, if successful, removes a unit’s invulnerable save until your next Psychic phase. This is a great character sniping tool that will allow you to target key characters/units early on to maximize damage.
Gift of Chaos has a warp charge of 6 and a range of 6″ from the psyker. If successful, the psyker rolls a D6. If the result is greater than the target’s Toughness, the target suffers D3+3 mortal wounds. If a Character is slain with this ability, a Chaos Spawn is added to your army and set up within 1″ of where the targeted character was.
Finally, Diabolic Strength has a warp charge of 6 and a range of 18″. If successful, the selected Heretic Astartes model gains +2 to Strength and +1 to Attack until your next Psychic turn. Imagine a helbrute in the Shooting phase with Diabolic Strength and, if possible, adding the Daemonforge stratagem to re-roll failed hit and wound rolls. Or an Emperor’s Children model in the Fight phase using this power and the Excess of Violence stratagem to attack again.
Relics
There are 14 relics that come keyworded by Legion, by <Mark of Chaos>, and/or model/weapon/armor equipped. The relic listing does include four relics granted by the four Lords of Chaos. Khorne: Talisman of Burning Blood gives the model equipping it the ability to advance and charge in the same turn and re-roll failed charge rolls. Tzeentch: Eye of Tzeentch grants the Tzeentch Psyker equipping it +1 to their Smite rolls. Slaanesh: Intoxicating Elixir grants the Slaanesh model equipping it +1 to Strength and Attack characteristics. Nurgle: Puscleaver replaces the Nurgle model’s power sword with Puscleaver which has AP-2 and D3 damage.
The Axe of Fury, Murder Sword, and The Balck Mace have returned and what will be getting the most attention will be the Legion-specific relics. Such relics as Fleshmetal Exoskeleten for the Iron Warriors. The chosen model has a save characteristic of 2+ and can heal 1 wound at the start of each turn. Word Bearers get a Cursed Crozius that has S+2, AP-2, 3 damage. Night Lords get Claws of the Black Hunt for a model with double lightning claws.
World Eaters get their Brass Collar of Bhorghaster which allows the model to deny one psychic power each enemy psychic phase. If the model is successful in Deniyng the Witch, the enemy psyker attempting to manifest suffers Perils of the Warp. Alpha Legion and Emperor’s Children get impressive weapons each.
The Blissgiver for the Emperor’s Children has the ability to fire within 1″ of enemy units and target enemy units with 1″ of friendly units. Also, if the Blissgiver wounds an enemy Character but is not slain, roll a D6 at the end of the phase. If a 6 is rolled, said Character suffers D3 mortal wounds.
However, Black Legion gets the short end of the stick with their Eye of Night relic. It can only be used once per game and against an enemy vehicle. On a 2+ roll with a D6, that vehicle suffers D3 mortal wounds. So, Black Legion has a good stratagem, nice changes to Abaddon, but a lackluster relic.
Warlord Traits
Chaos Space Marine Warlord Traits cover two pages and contain 13 total traits.
Those 13 are split into 7 Legion-specific traits and 6 generic traits that can be taken by any Legion.
The Legion-specific traits do provide your chosen Legion with powerful skills and buffs that will compliment your stratagems and relics. The Alpha Legion “I Am Alpahrius” trait allows your warlord to randomly equip on of the generic six traits as well the Legion specific one. if he dies, you can select another Alpha Legion Character as the warlord and equip another random trait. The worst part of this trait, for your opponent that is, is if the match has Slay the Warlord objective, all Alpha Legion characters must be killed in order to complete it. Black Legion has the Death to False Emperor triggering on a 5+ that are within 6″ of the Warlord. Relic aside, the Black Legion stratagem, psychic discipline, and re-rolled failed hit rolls if you take Abaddon as your Warlord, makes the Black Legion very strong this edition.
There is also a list of named characters that must take their Legion’s trait if they are the warlord. However, Cypher can never equip a Warlord Trait. Remember, the Legion-specific Warlord Traits are not limited to Named Characters. Any warlord you choose can equip them.
As for the six generic Warlord Traits, Unholy Fortitude looks like it might be the go-to trait as it adds +1 to the Warlord’s wound characteristic and allows your Warlord to shrug off wounds on a roll of 6. The other traits can be used based on what your chosen Warlord character is missing from their abilities. Of course, if these traits don’t light your fire, then your Warlord can equip a Legion-specific Trait.
Grey Knights Sanctic Discipline
The Grey Knights Sanctic Discipline is just one page with 6 powers listed. Of the 6 powers listed, we have seen Purge Soul, Gate of Infinity, and Hammerhand before.
The new additions with this Codex are Sanctuary, Astral Aim, and Vortex of Doom.
Sanctuary will definitely being seeing use as it grants a 5+ invulnerable save to a unit that has no such save or it adds +1 to a unit that already has one with a warp charge of 6. An example we gave in our Stratagems article is that of Draigo with his Stormshield grants him a 3+ invulnerable save. Cast Sanctuary on him and he goes from a 3+ to a 2+. 
Vortex of Doom is a very nasty power with a warp charge of 8. If successful, a vortex opens above the nearest visible enemy unit within 12″ of the psyker. That model’s unit and all other units within 3″ of the model suffer D3 mortal wounds. The amount of wounds inflicted is increased to D6 if the power is manifested with a test of 12+. Now, having a warp charge of 8 doesn’t appear to be too daunting when you can drop 1CP, use the Psychic Channeling stratagem that let’s you roll three dice instead of two, and pick the two highest results.
Last, we have Astral Aim with a warp charge of 5. This power, when cast on a friendly Grey Knights unit within 18″ of the psyker, grants them the ability to target enemy units that are not visible to them and these targeted units do not gain any bonus to their saving throws for being in cover. This power will definitely be slotted in due how cover works in 8th Edition.
There are the powers from the Sanctic Discipline in the Codex: Grey Knights. Stop back by next week for or first look and then tips and tactics breakdown of how to make the most of these powers.
Grey Knights Stratagems
The Grey Knights Stratagems covers 2 pages and contains 16 stratagems.
Several of these stratagems have been carried over from the Codex: Space Marines, such as Tactical Flexibility, Honor the Chapter, or Orbital Bombardment. That being said, there several Grey Knight exclusive stratagems to look forward to.
Unique stratagems include Psychic Onlsaught with the cost of 2CP. Used before a Grey Knight units shoots, this strat improves the Strength and Armor Penetration characteristics of any gatling psilencers, heavy psycannons, psilencers, and psycannons fired by said unit by +1 for that phase.
Psybolt Ammunition has returned for all those Grey Knights fans from 5th Edition. This bolter version of Psychic Onslaught gives more options to Grey Knight players load out wise. 
Another awesome strat is Heed the Prognosticars. At the cost of 2CP, the chosen Grey Knight Character adds +1 to their invulnerable save until the start of your next turn. Imagine using Draigo with a Stormshield for a 2+ save.
Moving on to the Aegis strat, which is used when a Grey Knight Psyker or Vehicle is within 24″ of an enemy Psyker that just successfully manifested a power. The Psyker or Vehicle can then Deny the Witch by rolling 3 dice rather than two and picking the two highest rolls.
Are you really impatient and want to to cast another psychic power? Did you fail to manifest a power you sorely needed? Then the Mental Focus strat will be your best friend at the cost of 1CP and will allow one Grey Knight Psyker to cast one additional psychic power this phase.
Want to deepstrike a Grey Knight Infantry unit or a Dreadnought? You can with the Teleportarium strat with 1CP and it is used during the deployment phase. The Grey Knight unit is then placed on the field at the end of your Movement phase more than 9″ away from any enemy models. How about a your Grey Knight Vehicle has taken damage but you need it to stay in the fight longer? Truesilver Armor, at the cost of 1 CP, will give your damaged vehicle the chance negate wounds for that phase with a 5+ roll.
Rounding out this list of Strats for the Grey Knights are Psychic Channeling and Teleportation Boost. Channeling allows you to roll three dice instead of two and choose the higher result. It costs just 1 CP and will be crucial if you plan to cast Vortex of Doom or another valuable power. Teleportation Boost allows you to make another teleport shunt with an Interceptor Squad if they have already done so earlier in the battle for the low cost of 1CP.
There are the Stratagems from the Codex: Grey Knights. Stop back by next week for our first look and then tips and tactics breakdown of how to make your Command Points count with these Stratagems.
Once again, big thanks to Winter SEO for putting out the review of both of these Codexes. This was more than we could have ever have seen from Games Workshop.
What are your thoughts on the latest rules? Are you going to be picking up either of these codexes? Let us know in the comments below.
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About the Author: James Rodriguez
