I am coming to you from the Marriott Ypsilanti Ann Arbor At Eaglecrest. BigMek SkrapKlaw and I are relaxing a bit before dinner and set up for the tournament tomorrow here at UCON. I have had a chance to flip
through the new Chaos Marine codex and its kinda scary, but not to
scary. There are some very nice improvements, but nothing that the
current codexs cant cope with given the right application of certain
units and fire power. In fact most players standard tournament or
what I like to call your “ Signature List” can deal with the
forces of Chaos.
That said there is some stuff to watch
out for. The Helldrake comes to mind. This thing is wonky and
pretty deadly when you start going over different situations in your
head. I don’t know about you, but I frequently think about new and
unusual ways to use units and this goes doubly for units from new
codexes. As a long time chaos player, its been a second army pretty
much since the mid 90's and sadly ended 3 years ago when I sold off
my beloved Emperors Children army, I am apt to use units as they were
used in the old codex. I know I will do the same thing when I
finally get a new Eldar codex. I also did it when the new Dark Eldar
codex came out, god I miss blast template dizzys.
The main point is that thinking outside
the box, to use the old cliche saying, with units is how you get the
jump on surprising your opponent and really gaining an advantage. Ok
I digress. The Helldrake is a new unit and I have seen many people
treating it as a nasty flyer that’s main purpose is to take out
other flyers with extreme prejudice. Although it does this rather
well its anti infantry potential is pretty devastating. With
vehicles being more fragile and more and more foot lists coming to
the forefront, dealing with hordes of infantry is a real key in list
building. The Helldrake equipped with a baleflamer is pretty scary.
Since the Helldrake can vector strike a unit in the movement phase
you can wreck some havoc with enemy flyers in that phase and then
hose a unit with the baleflamer. A strength 6 AP3 flamer that also
has the soul blaze and torrent special rules. Me likey. Its
survivability is also pretty good thanks to the daemonforge rule and
the It will not Die rule. So as you can see the Helldrake is a
favorite.
Being a fan of Slaanesh and the
Emperors children I was kinda disappointed by the new incarnation of
the Noise Marine. Granted they are a little cheaper. You only pay
20 points as opposed to 25 points for a Noise Marine with a Sonic
Blaster. The Sonic Blaster is not to my liking though. Its basically
an old rapid fire weapon now Granted it ignores cover, but
still....rapid fire. The Blast Master is still a nice weapon though
as is the Doom Siren. I have noticed that is you equip a noise
marine and Chaos marine in the same way, standard load with an extra
close combat weapon, you are only paying one point more for the Noise
Marine than the Chaos Marine. So you get Fearless for one point. So
you can go to to ends of the spectrum with Noise Marines now. They
can be outfitted for close combat and outfitted for close to mid
range shooting. I like this kind of versatility. Marked lords make
the Cult marine of the associated mark troops which means you can
really cram units in.
I really like how cheap I can get a
Chaos Sorcerer now as well. 75 points for a Sorcerer with a Mark of
Slaanesh. Thats 25 points cheaper than the old base cost. How cool
is that! A cheap HQ option that can actually contribute! The new
Powers are also sexy. I have been toying with several lists but the
one that has been really jumping out is a dark mirror of CVintons
Space Wolves list. Now if I can only number crunch it to be all
thousand sons and marks of Tzeentch...........
I have to say I am still trying to
figure out how to keep the Craftworlders competitive. They may only
be broken out for casual games and fun. The Necrons and Dark Kin
will be doing any tournament games until I get the Chaos Marine Army
back up to strength. I suppose that means its time to really step it
up on the hobby side of things and get to painting.
Well Next Time I will be reporting on
the Craftworld Open as it happens and the aftermath of its first year at UCON. May Khaine Watch over us.
Until next time..................
Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes,
War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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