Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Chaos Space Marines: 4th, 5th, and beyond

I started playing 40k at the end of 3rd edition. The 3.5 codex was the perfect way to start off my venture into the hobby and into chaos with all the interseting fluff, and variety that was in the book. Those were the best times i had with chaos.
The amount of background that the 3.5 codex contained was enough to get you hooked. With all 9 legions represented, you could pick any army that fit your playstyle. Personally for me it was world eaters. An all foot army of blood raged(a rule that all khorne berzerkers had) madmen running across the board with chainaxes that gave a 4+ save at best in combat, with deepstriking bloodletters for support led by kharn was too good to pass up!

 Then i hear rumours of a new chaos book coming out.
I was pretty excited when i first heard about it. New characters! More flexibility! Abaddon is a beast in combat! Possesed are awsome now! But then i also heard some other rumour like Daemons being generic, and no bools of chaos. I figured these are just rumours and i hoped for the best. When it came out i was really disappointed. I couldnt do the armys that i wanted to and even looking at other things lots of the characters were really bland now. Lucius taking the worst hit IMO now not being as good as he used to be in close combat. Fluff wise the book was ruined. There were things that i liked about the 3.5 dex not because it was good, but because it fit the fluff. The ancient enemies rule was gone now, any legion could work together( slaanesh and khorne, nurgle and tzeentch). On top of that the fluff of some  units was changed. For example ,the Defiler was a Daemon engine designed by abaddon. Now, no one knows where they came from. Although the new models were really cool, they were for lackluster units.
 As a dedicated Chaos player i dealt with the changes. When 40k began getting more competitive with 5th edition out the codex really was starting to show its flaws. With a watered down codex you can only do but so much to keep up with these new armies that are being released. To actually keep up with the changes i started seeing people play very similar chaos lists using the same units. I fell into that trap and began doing the same. Ive tried out every unit in the book at this point and its just gotten really stale for me. Im not saying that its hard to win games or that the current codex is really bad, because its not. You can win games with the book no different than the new Blood angels, IG, or Grey knights. Its just that it relys more on tactics now(which is how it should be) as opposed to autowin armies.



 I really hope they get it right this time with the new codex thats said to release soon. I dont want another codex like this one or the 3.5 dex. They need to make one that balances out the two. The books written by black library capture the essence of chaos so well, and im wondering why they didnt put that effort into the codex. From rumors the new book has a chance to be great. Mix that in with the new 6th edition rules and it should be fun times. Only a few weeks until the new edition and then after that only time will tell. Im building a new chaos army just for 6th and regardless of how the book turns out i will be playing with it. As such a major part of the 40k universe lets hope Chaos gets the treatment they deserve.

Ill be waiting

          

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