Today we’re taking a look at the recently dropped Chaos Space Marine (here after CSM) previews for Faith and Fury. They gave us a healthy mix of Relics, Warlord Traits, and Stratagems. It looks like almost every CSM player will have something to look forward to in this book.
Starting us off, they previewed a new Daemon Weapon for any NURGLE model. It’s a power fist that does a flat 3 damage and wounds any target on a 2+ regardless of Toughness, called Ghollax, The Fist of Decay. This thing makes for an incredibly brutal “Smash Captain”, realistically taking out your average vehicle or stripping half the health in a single activation. A little straight forward, but it’s one of the most powerful melee relics we have so far bar none.
Word Bearers
From here, the preview moves to Word Bearers, and they gave us a Warlord Trait (here after WT) and a Stratagem. The WT gives D3 CP and a once per game free re-roll for most kinds of rolls in the game. This is effectively a free 2-4 CP (the free re-roll is essentially a free Command Reroll after all) for a WT, which is great value, and provides a good pay off for playing Word Bearers. They also gave Word Bearers a Stratagem that lets an Apostle know/attempt two prayers instead of 1. This is a really potent strat, but it probably should have been generic to any Apostle like Space Marines are receiving.
Overall, the Word Bearer previews are fairly solid. CSM are a very CP reliant army, and getting a free ~3 CP for a WT is very useful. The Strat prevents the need to take more than 1 Apostle, which saves WB players 100 points in their list creation. 100 points isn’t massive, but it’s also not insignificant. The WT can also help offset the CP spent on the Strat as well, which is nifty.
Night Lords
Next up, we get the previews for the shadowy Night Lords. They got a Stratagem for 1 CP that allows them to basically deny Falling Back to your opponent, as long as the target isn’t a VEHICLE, TITANIC, or has a minimum move. They also got a sweet Relic called the Vox Daemonicus, which allows them to turn off enemy aura abilities and deny deep strike within 12” of the bearer.
No two ways about it, the Night Lord previews are the strongest previews in the release that they gave us. Ask any competitive player about the importance of “wraps” (piling in/consolidating in such a way that you deny your opponent the ability to move) for playing melee armies and they’ll go on a rant. Night Lords got a Stratagem to prevent it for 1CP, and importantly this Stratagem can be used to stop units that FLY from Falling Back. In addition, the Relic also has a lot of uses, and it’s a great thing to take as an additional Relic for games when it’s live. Even if the rest of the rules for Night Lords are lack luster, they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with just off these two things alone.
Alpha Legion
Alpha Legion are up next, and they previewed a Stratagem that lets them try to force an opponents VEHICLE to explode and a WT that occasionally improves the AP values of Cultist attacks. Being able to force a VEHICLE to explode is actually a big deal in games where your opponent brings a lot of tanks , but it’s literally non existent in games where they don’t, so your mileage may vary. The WT is nifty for anyone that wants to play with a horde of cultists, but it’s not super powerful unfortunately.
Iron Warriors
The Iron Warriors only got a WT previewed, unfortunately. It lets them broadcast a 6” aura to re-roll 1’s to Wound for Havocs or any VEHICLE. Kinda nifty and fluffy, but I don’t think anyone would have cried foul if this just affected IRON WARRIORS Units. Definitely more of a fluffy option than competitive.
Emperors Children
Emperor’s Children are next, and they got the most interesting Stratagem in the previews along with a solid Relic. As a Once Per Game use, they can burn 2 CP and bump up one non-VEHICLE unit’s Strength, Attack, Toughness, or Move Characteristics. The Raiment Revulsive allows the bearer to re-roll all Hit and Wound rolls, and re-roll Charge results.
The Stratagem is really interesting and flexible, but it’s hard to find a home. Improving the movement value on Terminators or Obliterators is appealing, but so is boosting the Toughness on a unit that you don’t want to die. It also can’t be used on Cultist’s, so there’s nothing cheeky there. The Relic can turn a Demon Prince with an Axe into a one man wrecking crew. 4 attacks base, 5 for Hateful Assault, 6 with Diabolic Strength, 7 with the Exalted Champion WT (or 9 with the Fuelled By Pain WT if you’re the daring type), and whatever you hit is dead unless it’s TITANIC.
World Eaters
Finally, we have the World Eaters, who were given a WT and a Relic. The WT lets you re-roll all Hit and Wound rolls against CHARACTERS and models with 5 or more Wounds, and the Relic is a special Chainaxe that’s a poor man’s Thunder Hammer. The WT is kinda cool and thematic, but it’s definitely tailored to one man wrecking crew builds. The Relic is mostly just worse than taking a Thunder Hammer, but it’s a Chainaxe so you can save some points if you’re tight on points.
Conclusion
That wraps up our review of the teaser we have for you. Every Legion got something except the Black Legion. Realistically this is because Faith and Fury is pulling other Legions up to Black Legion’s ruleset that they received in Vigilus Ablaze. This means that we have only seen a small portion of what’s yet to come for the followers of the Dark Gods, and that there are many exciting combos yet to be seen!
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