Welcome back Chaos faithful, and all you other losers who are stuck reading blogs about whiny Chaos Marines. It’s time to fix those chump HQ choices!
And if you’re tired of whiny chaos players, why not submit your own articles about something besides chaos? You can do it here, at the link provided.
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 part two of my How to Fix the Chaos Space Marine Codex series.
-THE ARMY LIST CHANGES-
***HQ***
Chaos Lord- This guy should be in every chaos marine list, or at least be a very attractive choice. Currently, he’s outshined by the DP and sorcerer. He’s not bad, it’s just that in the 6e book what he brings to the table doesn’t matter. 65 points wasn’t bad either.
4 wounds: Gotta keep up in the Space Marine HQ arms race. If they can do it and get chapter tactics for free as well, we can too.
Cult Troops and Fearless: Chaos lords always unlock their aligned cult troops and are fearless.
Unmarked: Unmarked Chaos Lords unlock Chosen as troops.
Eternal Warrior: Is 10,000 years long enough to count? All Chaos Lords are Eternal Warriors.
Demon Prince- Don’t really need to change this guy. He’s enough of a house already.
DOESN’T GET ETERNAL WARRIOR– Now, keep in mind that I gave the chaos lord Eternal Warrior, but I didn’t give it to this guy. Why? Because when I changed the design philosophy of the Eye of Gods table, I mentioned that an ascended demon prince keeps all his special rules, which makes him way better than an out of the box demon prince. Meaning that it’s better to have a chaos lord go all the way on the table, because that will get you an EW DP. It’s all about the quest for glory in chaos, baby!
Sorcerer- Sorcerers are already doing work in the 6e book, and don’t need to change much.
Lore Locking- Marked sorcerers are not required to take the lore of their god and may instead roll all powers on generic lores. Marks of chaos “unlock” lores, not force them.
Sorcerers no longer have access to Demonology, because summoning units is a ton of book keeping and I hate it. (Don’t worry, I have plans for demonology.)
THE LEFT HAND PATH- Through visions and sorcery, the sorcerer navigates the warp. He counts as having an icon (demonic teleport homer) and any unit he joins in deployment in deep strike reserve may re-roll any or all dice in a deep strike deployment. (assuming they aren’t coming down on another teleport homer) A sorcerer and any unit he joins in deployment may deep strike on the first turn. This gives him a cool ability to light the way for other deep strikers in the chaos army.
(They still require wargear that grants deep strike, like a jump pack or terminator armor.)
Warpsmith- The only problem with this guy is that he’s competing for HQ slots with choices that are way better than him. The Warpsmith moves to the Elite slot.
Dank Apostle- No, I didn’t spell that wrong.
Apostles are cool as shit, and fluffy as hell, but like the warpsmith, they can’t hang in HQ. He moves down to Elites.
Apostles may buy Psyker levels. They may only roll spells from Malefic daemonology. (See, I made them the summoners so that the Word Bearers could make badass fluffy summon lists with the apostle leading the ritual.) If an apostle is marked, he may only summon units of his allegiance.
HERALD OF THE DARK GODS- The gods have plans for the Apostles. They still roll on the Eye of the Gods table, but can only collect perks. They ignore spawn and demon prince results. When a Dark Apostle successfully summons a demon unit, roll on the Eye of the Gods table.
- Huron- He can stay in the book, but I don’t like him because he’s new school.
- Ahriman- Every problem Ahriman has should largely be solved by “unlocking” him from Tzeentch. Ahriman has the potential to be a mega badass, if he can just get decent spells.
- Abaddon- Takes upgrade to cataphract armor. Abaddon gains Left Hand Path
- Typhus- Takes upgrade to cataphract armor. Typhus gains Left Hand Path
- Lucius- Is mostly sorted out, maybe give him rending?
- Kharn- Gains the Collar of Khorne wargear… He used to have it back in the day.
- Fabius- Doesn’t need much, with the boost to troops in this book, his ability to buff dudes should actually be attractive.
- Doomrider- IS BACK. He has a standard demon prince of slaanesh statline. He is a flying monstrous creature. (his bike was a jump pack back in the day) He has a twin-linked melta gun, and a plasma gun… For reasons nobody ever really knew. For some reason, Doomie was packing heat.
Summoned- Doomie must start the game in Reserve. Classic rule.
He Comes, He Goes- His other classic rule. Roll a die at the end of every chaos turn, on 1, he dips. Does not count as killed if he dips.
Wheels of Fire- Sexy new rule. Doomie may charge on the turn he arrives from deep strike if he arrives in jump mode.
