So, I finally bought the new CSM Codex and read through it to see what has changed from the Index, and decide to write an article as I though that many of you may find it interesting.
Rule Changes
Some cool things in here:
- Abbadon the Despoiler now gives 2 additional Command Points to the army if he’s the Warlord.
- Huron Blackheart now gives 1 additional Command Point to the army if he’s the Warlord.
- Huron Blackheart now gives the usual re-roll 1s to hit aura within 6″ instead of his moral immunity aura.
- Plague Marines now have loads of new “plague” weapons, both for CC and shooting, some of them limited to 2 per unit, while other can be taken by everyone, probably a preview of what the new multi-part kit will have. Also Plague Champions of the unit can now get Plasma Rifles.
- Possessed now have 2 wounds each instead of 1.
- Obliterator’s Fleshmetal Guns are now Assault 4 instead ouf Assault 2.
- The Defiler now gets 4 attacks when he has 8+ wounds instead of 3 and 2 attacks instead of 1D3 when he’s at 1-3 wounds.
- Horror units can only deal 1 Mortal Wound with the Smite power while there are less than 10 Pink Horrors in the unit.
- Doom Sirens have been changed from Assault d3 to Assault d6 (Lucius the Eternal one too).
- The Icon of Despair now has a range of 6″ instead of 3″.
- Every mounted character, be it in a daemonic mount or a bike, is gone. You will need the Index to use this.
- We now have a new HQ called Exalted Champion, who seems to be a lesser version of a Chaos Lord.
Point Changes
Many of this in the Codex, I agree with most of them as they balance things out.
Point changes graph (points reduced in positive, points increased in negative):
Chaos Bikers: 31 to 25
Chaos Cultists: 5 to 4
Chaos Lord on Terminator Armour: 122 to 105
Chaos Predator: 102 to 90
Chaos Vindicator: 160 to 135
Defiler: 216 to 152
Khorne Lord of Skulls: 465 to 365
Maulerfiend: 149 to 140
Mutilators: 65 to 50
Noise Marines: 16 to 15
Plague Marines: 21 to 19
Rubric Marine Aspiring Sorcerer: 30 to 18
Warpsmith: 78 to 45
Abaddon the Despoiler: 253 to 240
Khârn the Betrayer: 173 to 160
Bloodletters: 9 to 7
Daemonettes: 9 to 7
Pairs of Brimstone Horrors: 2 to 3
Pink Horror: 10 to 8
Plaguebearers: 9 to 7
Blastmaster: 28 to 20
Hades Autocannon: 33 to 25
Reaper Autocannon: 18 to 15
Soulreaper Cannon: 15 to 20
Baleflamer: 30 to 15
Daemonic Axe: 45 to 10
Hellforged Sword: 42 to 10
Lighting Claws: 9/13 to 8/12
Plaguesword: 3 to 1
Power Fist: 20 to 12
Power Point Changes
I must admit I don’t use this much, but I have been quite surprised to see how many Power Point changes there have been, all of them making our units cheaper PP-wise.
- Abbadon the Despoiler: 13 to 12
- Daemon Prince: 10 to 8
- Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour Armour: 7 to 6
- Sorcerer: 7 to 6
- Warpsmith: 6 to 5
- Bloodletters: 5 to 4
- Plagueberars: 5 to 4
- Daemonettes: 5 to 4
- Rubric Marines: 8 to 7
- Noise Marines: 7 to 6
- Chosen: 8 to 7
- Mutilators: 10 to 7
- Helbrute: 8 to 7
- Chaos Bikers: 7 to 5
- Raptors: 7 to 6
- Warp Talons: 9 to 7
- Defiler: 16 to 11
- Forgefiend: 10 to 9
- Chaos Vindicator: 11 to 8
- Chaos Predator: 10 to 9
- Khorne Lord of Skulls: 39 to 29!!!
Highlights
As this is my blog I might as well tell my opinion on the changes:
- The extra CP points for the characters are nice, though I’m not sure if Huron will be worth it without his morale buff, even though you can now get the same effect from an Iron Warriors warlord.
- Possessed and Obliterators have both received an important buff, but I’m not sure if it’ll be enough to make them worth it, they’re still quite expensive.
- Defilers, at that price, seem to be great, specially with an extra attack. They are S16 in CC and can get some shooting in the mix too, while being decently durable. Will have to try this out, but they look promising.
- Exalted Champions will be a great addition to any CC army, as they give a re-roll to wound aura in combat. I’ll be certainly using one besides a Dark Apostle and a damn lot of Berzerkers for the ultimate chaos assault combo.
- Daemon Troops are better balanced, Brimstones being more expensive and the rest getting cheaper, though I think they won’t appear as much in CSM armies because they break the Legion “allegiance”, and will be left for pure daemon armies, allies in a different detachment or summoning.
- The Lord of Skulls already looked like a good option to me, now he’s almost an auto-include with that price-tag and stats, what a beast!
- Daemon Prince weapons which aren’t Malefic Talons aren’t complete trash anymore.
Overall I like all of the changes, everything seems to balance the game, basically making previously worse options cheaper, and I can’t wait for every Codex to be released, because if they’re all like this 40k 8th edition is going to reach a new level of awesomeness. I might have missed something, but I think every change is covered, except for the PP of acquiring new models for a unit, which I don’t even find worth sharing.
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