The New Chaos!

    To begin, the image is a piece I have been working on for a while, adding

alterations as my photo manipulation skills improve. 

    The new chaos codex has been out for almost a week, and I have to say, I am

rather pleased. My beloved plague marines only went up one point, while getting

their rusty shanks of killyness back! The new daemon engines add both flavor, and

give players like myself options for heavy support that both fit into fluff and are

effective.

    While the codex is not perfect, asking for perfect is asking for the impossible.  My

favorite parts are the champions of chaos rule, the chart that goes with it, chaos

artefacts, and the many, many builds that can be made with the book.


    the champions of chaos rule fundamentally alters how the codex works, meaning

that you have to make sure your champions are capable of winning challenges, or

lose a major benefit to your army. This is helped by the fact that champions are part

 of the basic cost of a squad now, and the costs for wargear are not too spendy. Two

upsides to this are the chaos rewards chart, and the ability to purchase a foll on the

chart at the beginning of the game. The free roll ignores results of spawnhood or

daemonprince, meaning that the worst you will get from it is no bonus, but with the

possibility of gaining very powerful abilities, for 10 points. During the game, if your

 champion kills a character in a challenge, he gets to roll on the chart.

    The chaos artefacts are pretty damn awesome, from the ap4, torrent soulfire

flamer, to the daemon weapons that are pretty good for "mimicing" effects you

would expect from the various chaos powers. This, combined with the gifts that a

lord/sorceror/daemon prince can take. makes for a very characterful set of options.

    The variety of lists you can make from this codex are immense. You can make lists

ranging from a list dominated by cultists, to one that is elite, depending on your

warlord. The option to take daemon engines, heldrakes, effective spawn, etc. means

that the number of lists you can make is so large that a single article is unable to list

them.

    
    In all, I am very happy with the codex, and look forward to both playing many

games using it, and what further codices will bring to the tabletop.