My thoughts on the new Chaos Space Marines

So Games Workshop have hit me with another curveball; they're putting out the Chaos Space Marines ahead of everything else for the new edition of 40K. This was a bit of a surprise, I was convinced it was going to be Dark Angels, but there you go. With this and some shiny new models to build, there's no way I'm not going to have an opinion on this, so...

(Apologies once again; it's having a lot of difficulty uploading the photos...)

Chaos Space Marine Codex

My initial thoughts on this are a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand it's about time Chaos Space Marines had an update; they haven't had one since 4th edition and were long overdue. On the other hand, as a returning player I'm not sure how I feel about all the new things that will be involved in it. We've got several new units out on release - more on them later - and even more stuff once the Dark Vengeance models go out on general release. I'm hoping they will, rather than being relegated to Deffkopta-style 'you must drop £60 on Dark Vengeance before you can use Cultists' spiel. But there's a lot of new stuff now, some of which I suspect is replacing old stuff. Which is great except that I've actually spent a load of money on old stuff that is potentially no longer relevant. I say potentially...

Here's the thing: Where GW seem to be going with all this is taking Chaos Space Marines in a new direction. It's no longer enough for them to be able to say "Like Space Marines... but bad guys," give them a couple of different units and put a couple of armies on the table that fight in a very similar way for the most part. No, they seem to want to take Chaos in a different direction entirely. Hence the Cultists. Hence the Maulerfiends and Heldrakes. They want Chaos to be their own, very distinctive force.

Now in some cases this is quite welcome. Take the Cultists, for example. One thing that I noticed Chaos Space Marines struggle with was numbers. Particularly armies that were based on a mark of the Chaos Gods, would number at full strength around 30 models. My Khorne army, when it's finished, will have 31 models in it. And what we find is that we just don't have the numbers to cope with things like Tryanids, who attack in hordes, and even things like Necrons, because losing even 1 Chaos Space Marine is going to hurt. It would be good to field an army in numbers.

They also have given them two huge models, the Maulerfiends and the Heldrakes. Having the biggest stuff in the game is not going to last, judging by the precedent of Warhammer, who seem to be trying to put out a bigger and better model every time they release a new army, and with Eldar and Tau surely not far away from an update, the idea that Heldrakes will dominate the skies in 40K due to it's sheer size will last at most a year. So I think this is setting a precendent for what is to come in the new edition of 40K.

Trouble is what about my current armies that have only got Chaos Space Marines in them? What are they going to do? I'm hoping for some updates to the rules that might complement the currently existing rules, but I'll have to read the codex to find that out. I just hope what I don't read is that the armies I have spent the past 4 years collecting have been made redundant.

I think for the first time I'm starting to see what the bitter veterans rant about when their game gets updated, and while I'm not going to take one look at the army book and write it off straight away, I can sort of see why people do. This isn't news to a great many people, but to me it is the first time I sat one iteration of a game out from start to finish so it is a new and not entirely welcome feeling...

Anyway, on to the models:

Maulerfiend/Forgefiend

I quite like these, actually. They look outlandish, as though they just about belong in the Chaos army, but painted up with the rest of the army with a similar colour scheme and it should look really good as a centrepiece for a much larger army.

Heldrake

These look to me like flying stained glass windows. Not that that's a bad thing, but they don't look very... durable. I don't think GW has had a concept of aerodynamics since the Valkyrie, so it looks somewhat unbalanced. It'll be the token flyer of the 40K game for Chaos, a set of rules which I have yet to experience to be honest so I'm not sure how it's all working. I think in terms of colours, the same thing applies as does to the Maulerfiend...

Raptors/Warp Talons

This are quite welcome! I've got some of the old Raptors, and while they don't look bad, the models do look a bit dated these days. I'm hoping these new Raptors will be easier to stand, for a start! Assault troops aren't that easy to come by in Chaos Space Marine armies; Raptors were metal and lacked the flexibility of some of the other models and Bikes aren't actually all that good anyway. I think with the advent of these models we should see some more Fast Attack orientated forces in an army sorely missing some speed...

Warpsmith

Well lookey here, they've gone and put Dr Octopus in 40K. Not sure what I think of this. I like the model and the concept of having someone to repair tanks is useful for Chaos Space Marines but I can't quite see what he's going to do on the battlefield that the Techmarine isn't already doing. That'll be a chapter to look forward to in the book; just what is this guy's deal?

Mutilators

Oh dear, there's always one. Sorry but I don't like these models at all, I think they're absolutely hideous. I think they look overly chunky and barely capable of moving, never mind performing CQC manuevres they're clearly purporting to be able to do. And that 'Flesh Stretched Over The Power Armour' thing they've got going on makes me feel physically ill just thinking about it; why would even a Chaos Space Marine do that to himself? I know these models were probably conceived as a close combat equivalent of the Obliterator design. Funnily enough, I never liked those models either.

All the other models are stuff that was out in Metal before and has now been updated for Finecast, with the exception of the Aspiring Champion who I'm pretty sure was in the Dark Vengeance boxed set.

So all in all, it's not looking too bad at all, and I could definitely come up with some army concepts from what is on display here. I just hope it's not going to be at the expense of the armies I already have...

Edit 24/9/2012

It's just come to my attention that Khorne Bezerkers and Plague Marines, plus the kits to make Thousand Sons and Noise Marines, are now in the Elite section of the Chaos Space Marine bit of the Games Workshop Website. That, to me, is a pretty strong indication that those models are going to be in the Elite section of the army list from now on.

This means 1 of 2 things:

1: We're going back to the old rules where those units were listed as Elites, but if your army was lead by a Chaos Lord with the appropriate mark then they would count as Troops. So if you took a Chaos Lord with the mark of Nurgle, Plague Marines would count as Troops, otherwise they would count as Elites.

2: They're going to be purely Elite choices.

I sincerely hope it's the former. It would fit in more with the background, I guess, and shut down or at least limit some of the more vomit-inducing tournament combos like 2 Daemon Princes with the mark of Slaanesh leading a force of Plagues Marines. Also I've got an army full of Khorne Bezerkers at the moment and I do NOT want to be told that I have to also take 2 units of Chaos Space Marines before the army is going to be legal.

We shal see...