The cellphone camera shots and internet links are floating in this week as everyone starts to crack open Traitor’s Hate. But how good is it really?
If you haven’t seen what Traitor’s Hate is doing for Chaos lately, just go look anywhere on the internet.
Now, while we sit here scrutinizing the blurry photos all over the internet, it’s time to ask the big question.
DID KHARN AND FRIENDS FIX CHAOS?
The answer- Yes and no.
First of all, I still think we’re going to see chaos as a patchwork army. Units like the humble chaos space marine himself are still deadweight, regardless of what you do with them. It was a cruel lesson that was taught to grey knights, blood angels, and even the Deathwatch, who are still going through their new kids on the block phase. That lesson is this- Power armor troops just aren’t good enough. They need special rules, cool guns, or free transports to work. And the worst, most inefficient, and broke-on-his-ass power armored model of all is the chaos space marine, who doesn’t even ATSKNF.
Now, as far as bandaids are concerned, we got them in spades in the form of the new Black Crusade Decurion and the adjoining formations. CSM has always been a cherrypick army full of born losers and born winners. A handful of the losers became winners, but the real bandaid here is that it got a lot easier to pick the winners.
I mentioned above that I still think CSM will be a patchwork army. By that I mean, I don’t think we’re going to see pure CSM only lists. I think we’re still going to see 4 book armies where you show up to the table with a forgeworld book, demon allies, your CSM book, and Crimson Slaughter or Black Legion. But then again, asking to be able to build a complete army out of just one book seems like a tall order in this edition anyway, even after the nerfing of superfriends.
Let’s look at some of the new winners.
THE CYCLOPIA CABAL
It isn’t new and it wasn’t reprinted here, but we’re getting new lores. You’re probably still taking it, because off-force org psyker spam isn’t going out of style.
THE HELFORGED WARPACK
A warpsmith and a grab bag of helbrutes, dinobots, and defilers. The big deal in this formation is that one of the big robots is the pack alpha, and he gets a 4+ invulnerable save. If he dies, the rest of the robots all get rage. If you were already running 2 maulerfiends, and you should be running at least 2 maulerfiends, this formation is great, because you’re getting a free iron halo on your fattest robot, and then you’re daring your opponent to kill him so that your other robots can clean up his mess.
You could theoretically use forgefiends and defilers, but I think this formation suits aggression. I’d rather take the dirt cheap maulerfiend and give him the only thing he needed- Survivability.
THE RAPTOR TALON
The only thing that was holding warp talons back was deep strike. This formation gives them assault-on-same-turn deep strike. The unit is now fixed and usable. An obvious winner, whether you like jump troops or not. They took a unit that wasn’t great, and made it work. Gotta be happy about that. Mark of Slaanesh is a real hoser here, because you’ll get that Initiative 5 to go first. There’s also a spooky rule that lowers enemy leadership, so after you win the fight, they’ll always break and you’ll run them down with your Slaanesh super initiative.
DEMON PRINCE AND FRIENDS
GW really has a hardon for possessed. The models look stupid, the rules are mediocre, and they’re pretty sweet on paper, until you realize they really need either guns or a transport to work, and they only really shine if you roll the right mutation when you need it. Well, they’re fixed now… At least as long as you’re crimson slaughter. The core CSM possessed still have to walk to the fight, where they will be badasses… As long as they get there. But Crimson Slaughter CSM, that can actually run fast, will shine. What does the formation do? As long as these guys stick around near their demon prince daddy, they get all their mutations at once. Looks like nurgle is gonna carry this one, because if you have to babysit a bunch of possessed marines and aren’t gonna be flying around, you better be shrouded.
NEVER ENDING CULTISTS
Get a dark apostle. Get a shit ton of cultists. When cultists die, put them back on the table. It’s pretty simple, and it’s pretty cute. It’s a great way to swamp the board with a lot of models, bubble wrap what needs to be bubble wrapped, and control that real estate. Now, here’s what makes it really good- TYPHUS. In an army that includes Typhus, all cultists are zombies. Not just cultists in his detachment, not just cultists he’s hanging out with, every cultist you put on the table, no matter how you got it, is a zombie. The rule in the codex reads “Any Cultist units in the same army as Typhus can be nominated as Plague Zombies.” That means you can get fearless, FNP, recycling meat shields. Congratulations, chaos. You now have access to the best bubblewrap horde in the game. Thanks Mr T!
SPAWN
This is a big deal that nobody’s going to look at or think about, but you’re insane if you missed it. In the Black Crusade detachment, you can buy an infinite number of off-force org spawn packs. At 30 points a model for a giant fearless expendable murder beast, spawn were one of the best value units in the codex, possibly the game. The only thing that ever held spawn back was that they were in fast attack- One of the most valuable slots in the codex, where they were competing with units like heldrakes and T6 nurgle bikes. Now, there’s nothing stopping you from buying any amount of spawn you want, whenever you want.
Now let’s look at losers.
These formations aren’t necessarily bad, but I think for the models and points you’re spending, I don’t think they’re bringing as much to the table as they need to.
KHARN AND FRIENDS
Kharn and a bunch of berzerkers. One turn a game, Kharn and all his buddies can fight, but nobody can fight back. That’s pretty insane- But the problem here is the same problem berzerkers have always had. How are they gonna get there? The formation has an insane rule, but it doesn’t solve the biggest problem khorne has- Getting from his side of the board to yours.
HELDRAKES
You get a special rule for having 2+ heldrakes. Here’s the thing about heldrakes- This formation isn’t bad, and you do get free stuff, but the fact is you either spammed drakes or you didn’t really use them at all because it’s a pain in the ass model to build and paint that everyone hates to play with or against. The only thing worse than fighting a heldrake is owning one. So really, this formation really just gives you a bunch of stuff you already had.
CHAOS TANK PARKING LOTS
Vindicators got the rule where if you have 3 of them all fire at once, they just put down 1 apocalyptic barrage template and it ignores cover.
Predators got the rule where if you have 3 of them, they all get tank hunter and monster hunter.
Both of these rules are great, but unless you’re an ultra fluffy treadhead iron warrior player, I don’t think it’s really worth the time. I’m not going to go out and buy an entire parking lot of space marine tanks for this. If I wanted to do that, I’d just play Imperial Guard, the army that does tank parking lots the right way.
My thoughts on marine tanks is that they are sinking an awful lot of points into something the army isn’t supposed to be good at. Shooting is great, but when you look at the winners on this list, you see a lot of assault elements- Permafast possessed with a demon prince, 4+ invulnerable death rage maulerfiends, infinite zombie swamp cultists, infinite spawn, and an assault-on-landing deep strike formation. Having good tanks is fine, but having your entire army assault your opponent on turn 2 is better, and if you’re assaulting them, you can’t shoot them.
OBLITERATOR/MUTILATOR DOUBLESHOT PACK
This formation has a bunch of oblits and or muties, and a warpsmith. Every turn, you pick a unit in the pack. It shoots twice if it’s oblits, or it fights twice if it’s mutilators. While it’s theoretically good because you’re getting double shooting every turn, it solves the problem that doesn’t need to be solved. Obliterators and mutilators were never that great, and the only real reason we ever liked obliterators was because every other choice we had was more mediocre. They’re fat and slow and easy to pick off. While getting to double-tap plasma cannons or assault cannons does sound great, the fact of the matter is that point for point, I’d rather have permafast speed demon possessed, infinite recycling zombie cultists, or a 4+ invulnerable suicide maulerfiend that gives his friends extra attacks when he dies.
How it all comes together
Unfortunately, none of these formations are as lean as they could be and they suffer a lot from unit tax. The robot pack, tank parking lot, and obliterator pack all require a warpsmith babysitter, which is basically just another maulerfiend or helbrute you could have instead.
The raptor talon pack that fixed warptalons needs a chaos lord babysitter with a jump pack. Theoretically, this isn’t bad because you might have put a badass chaos lord in there anyway to take advantage of the assault rule, but he can be a drag on points.
The demon prince that you need for the possessed isn’t bad because you’ll probably still want a demon prince, but he must babysit the possessed in order for them to get their all mutations all the time rule and be worth it, so that will affect your build options. I think a basic nurgle prince with wings that just hops from cover to cover to keep his shrouding will be the right call, because the stars of the show are the crimson slaughter possessed.
The new formations seem to magnify the issues with point efficiency chaos has always had- Everything must be super expensive or ridiculously cheap. Your success with the cherry picking that is the way of chaos will determine your victory. In a way, we’ve circled around 360 degrees. Taking cultists is still the most expedient way to get ob-sec and bodies on the table to make your board control game work. While Typhus isn’t in the new list, I can definitely see allying out for him to get zombie action.
The list I’m conjuring in my head is a Typhus swamp from hell. I’d take a standard detachment with Typhus and cultists. Then I’d take an infinite cultist formation to get a swamp of bodies. The rest of the points would be a dump into a cyclopia cabal, spawn, and either demon prince babysitters with possessed, or maulerfiend packs. With all the lockdown from the zombie crew, I’d used the rest of the army to maneuver and push fat turn 2 assaults.
