Wrath of Magnus is already in stocks, Fenris is already burning – it’s high time to talk about new Chaos rules. They are really interesting this time. Our Chaos player will give out his thoughts about new releases and how to use them.
Well, let’s start with the most interesting one - Magnus The Red. Everyone didn’t believe that the Primarchs will return in 40K. Here’s the 1st one himself. I think, it was quite difficult to create rules for such a monster – they needed to show all his power without making him imbalanced. And GW managed to succeed. He casts on 2+, has 5th ML, ignores perils has D-beam and impressive stats.
From the other hand – 650 pts is really expensive. And he really needs support. First – for warp-charges. The Gaze of Magnus itself costs 5 WC and I could fail it even casting on 2+. And where to get WC to cast the other powers? So you can’t take him thoughtlessly and win. You have to create synergy inside an army. Also, he can be easily killed if he’s alone. Now it’s really hard to say how effective he can be – he needs many tests. Good thing, you can take Magnus in many formations with different set of bonuses. All in all. the rules are interesting, but you have to use them thoughtfully to get the full advantage. This is what a Primarch should be, I think. But he won’t be a frequent guest on the tables due to his cost – both in points and in pounds.
Taking into account that his main power is magic, Ahriman looks slightly better. He didn’t change, but got an option to take disc which greatly improves his mobility and adds some new ways to use. Concerning that there’re formations where he gets cast on 3+ and he can be joined to a squad and that he can shoot 3 similar witchfires, I think he’s better than Magnus in price-quality proportion.
However, in powerplay you’ll more likely to take Sorcerers. New Exalted ones or ordinary. With all the same options they cost almost the same. Small bonuses like Fearless and «Orbital strike» complement the Exalted ones, the possibility to take a bike and different Force weapon is a plus for ordinary. Personally I like the concept of blazing swarm of exalted sorcerers, flying on disc and throwing spells. I think, sorcerers wlil be the most popular unit from this book – a lot of formations with different cast bonuses make them an easy taken ally not only for Chaos, but for any army without strong psychic powers.
Even the fact that they have to generate a spell from Tzeench discipline doesn’t spoil them. In fact I don’t mind to generate all with some of the sorcs. Now Tzeench magic is much better – they’ve added more spells with AP2 shooting and taking control of the enemy units. Also we still have the new magic from Traitor’s Hate. So, playing Thousand Sons is all about casting – be prepared fir this.
Since I’ve finished with the characters, It’s time to talk about artefacts. They are extremely cool. You can give any unit jump packs every turn just for 30 pts. (Here’s the company for anyone on disc) Daemonic(!) Force(!) sword with AP2 (!!) striking on your initiative (!!!) and using your leadership against the enemies’ to wound. Majestic! It means you’ll wound everyone at least on 4+. With AP2, instant death and lots of attacks. Also there’s an artefact which lets you to cast undeniable spell if you have any doubles. So – take 7 dice and it’ll work every time you need it. The hardest part is to roll good spells for the sorcerer with this stuff.
And what about the core of the army – unstoppable rubric marines? Extremely cool new models (like all others, btw) The rules didn’t change but now you have better weapon options. You can give the whole(!) squad flamers S4AP4 for 7pts…not the best choice if you ask me. 30 pts for a marine… If you want to have such flamers – Flamers of Tzeench are cheaper (or can even be summoned), faster and have almost the same vitality. The new soulreaper cannon is pretty cool. Strength is just 5, but AP3 is really tasty. However, it’s taken only for each 10 models, which is expensive.
Expensive – it the key word for all this army. New terminators cost 250 pts. And you’ll definitely give them that soulreaper cannon. And 2 S8 AP3 rockets in addition. So – it’s 300 pts for 5 men squad. But it’s a lot of AP3 shots (their combi-bolters have the same inferno bolts). And their leader is a sterling sorcerer with 2 wounds and ML. I’d try deepstriking them and wiping the enemy’s 3+ armor out.
So, there’s only one new unit left – Tzangors. And I don’t know what to do with them. Why do I need the same cultists, with the same weapons, but with 6++ and a bit faster? Well, the meat crowd running in front of the marching rubrics seems impressive, but nobody’s likely to waste points at them, even in the formation.
So, speaking about the formations – there’re pretty a lot of them, but mostly similar. Magnus with sorcs, Ahriman with sorcs, Sorcs with sorcs…. They all give slight bonuses to casting, so you can choose any depending of what you need more. Terminators formation with the bonus to Toughness is pretty expensive, but interesting. Also there’s a formation you can take if you’ve bought all new boxes (except for Tzangors and Magnus). That’s the thing, I’m going to do. If you take powerplay, the formation with Ahriman and 3-9 sorcerers casting on 3+ looks the most preferable. All others are cool but too expensive. But in friendly play these all will be really interesting.
By the way, if you take maximum units in the formation – you get re-roll of 1s on your saves. Again – cool but expensive, since almost all the formations have maximum of 9 units. The detachment itself is pretty nice. Flexible enough, you get re-roll on perils and one extra WC from every sorcerer. Also, any unit under a blessing gets +3 to the invulnerable save. That makes the whole army really hard to kill.
All in all I can say that Thousand Sons are really strong and interesting army. GW created a lot of new rules and options, and the most part really works. I can’t say how it will play on tournaments, it really needs testing. But right now you can see it has really great potential. Don’t forget that you can take allies like Renegade Knights or Daemons. Also there’re a lot of new brilliant miniatures. I think, I’ll collect a small army of Thousand Sons – so stay tuned for painting and gaming tutorials!
P.S.: Yes, I remember that there’re also Daemons in this book. But they are not as interesting. Despite many people’s expectations they are still separate army, not like those Daemonkin guys. So, let’s talk about them the other time.