Hey everyone, Reecius here to talk about Grey Knights and trying to see the silver lining. Check out the Tactics Corner for more great articles.
So, all you dedicated Grey Knight players out there let me preface this by saying, I feel your pain. It is tough to open a new Codex for your favorite army, full of excitement, and then feel let down when you see things taken away or nerfed. So, no judgment here. I felt the pain with my Nids.
But, as with Nids, if you hang in there and can look past what you’ve lost to hopefully try and see what you have, you can have fun with your army again. I am loving my Nids now, particularly with the awesome formations and FW models such as the Malanthrope that have just been great fun and give Nids the boost they needed. So Grey Knights players, in the short term, vent away, but try to keep an open mind and stay positive.
For one, I think the Nemesis Strike Force Detachment is just fantastic! Building an army into this Detachment I think will give you the tools to make a good, fun army to play. I am not saying it’s the ONLY way to play them by any means, just what jumped out at me. This detachment will make for incredible allies (just the HQ and troop alone buff Astra Militarum significantly, not to mention Draigo!), but if you want to play it just as Grey Knights I think you still can quite effectively.
You lose ObSec in the Nemesis Strike Force detachment, but, you gain something pretty awesome. You gain the ability to reserve your entire army and start coming in via Deep Strike turn 1 for those units arriving that way. The turn they arrive they can further shoot and then run or run and then shoot! That may not sound like much, but, it is pretty fantastic as it allows you to recover from a poor scatter and/or to get out of blast/template formation without sacrificing your shooting. Ideally, it allows you to land, shoot and then scoot into cover. Not bad at all. Actually, fantastic!
This detachment also gives you the option of only taking a single troop, and up to 4 Elites which is great as we will get to in a minute. Lastly, you do only get 2 Fast and Heavy choices, which stinks, but I think it is a fair trade for what you get.
I would build a list around this detachment. You want a beta strike list that always goes nearly full reserves for an essentially null deployment. You also want to almost always go second. The reason being, that you can essentially “steal” a turn of shooting away from your opponent AND get last chance to take objectives. In most missions, that is very powerful.
From there, you build a list around hard hitting units that can pack a wallop the turn they come in, and then engage in melee to deliver a death blow. It is a gambler’s army for sure, but, a lot of fun.
As for army composition, I would look to units that both do a lot of damage with psychic powers and shooting AND can then fight in combat. Cleansing Flame is a brilliant Nova power (WC2, 9″, S5, AP4, Assault 2d6″, Ignores Cover, Soul Blaze) particularly when you consider how much damage it can do on a unit arriving via deep strike. To any unit with a 4+ or worse save, that is devastating. To units with a save, it is still very powerful with the ability to hit multiple units. This couples well with an Incinerator with its close range, Strength 6 ap4 stat line. This qualifies Purifiers as a great unit to deliver a lot of hurt. Taking 5 with 2 Incinerators and a Hammer only runs you 145pts. That is not a big price tag for a unit that can deliver a heavy blow into the enemy backlines. I would consider taking 2-4 of those. (Note, Purifiers don’t Deep Strike, doh!)
For me, there is no reason to pass on Draigo now as he is just the Warp Dust sniffing champion of butt kicking, again. My Goodness, he is a beast. Easily one of, if not the best, melee characters in the game. At a very reasonable price tag it is more a question of why not take him? For me the only question is how to deliver him and in what unit?
He would fit well with Terminators who got a great price drop and still pack a wallop while also filling your troops slot. He would also go great with Paladins who also can further buff him with their Apothecary and Bro Banner.
Either way, you can either deep strike the unit or put them in a Land Raider where they also anchor your army against the off chance that none of your units come in from reserves on turn one. You slap a teleport homer on a model inside too, and you now provide some accuracy to those units coming in from deep strike in later turns, as turn 1 they will likely want to arrive too far away from the Land Raider to make it worthwhile. While the Land Raider has its ups and downs, it does make the unit more reactive and mobile as well as provide you with some additional firepower.
If you do choose to have your hammer unit come in via deep-strike, I would consider taking an Interceptor Squad which will often start on the board to anchor your army and possibly man a Comms Relay to give you 8/9 units arriving turn 1 as opposed to 1/3 odds, or to decrease the amount of units arriving from reserves if you want to keep them off of the table. The unit can then shunt into position to support the rest of the army once they have arrived. They also provide some valuable mobility. Units that arrive via deep strikes can struggle against speedy armies after they’ve landed.
Dreadknights got a big points discount and IMO, should be present in every list. They pack a punch and come stock with Deep Strike, which works well in this detachment. I would take 1-2, for sure. You can keep them dirt cheap, or beef them up a bit to serve your needs. I would take the Greatsword and either an Incinerator or Psycannon to give him some ranged bite, and strongly consider the teleporter to keep him mobile. That said, there is a good case to be made for the barebones Dreadknight at a bargain basement price!
A Stormraven for AA is a bit pricey, but, it serves the purpose well and it provides some mobile AT as well. Keep it cheap, no or minimal upgrades, and it will serve you well to counter aerial threats and tanks.
Lastly, in HQ you have a lot of solid options. I am drawn to Crowe quite a bit for his reasonable price point and versatility. He has Cleansing Flame, is quite powerful in a challenge and can now join units. However, the Brother-captain and Librarian are also quite good.
Nemesis Strike Force
Draigo
Brother-Captain: Cuirass of Sacrifice, Psycannon
Terminator Squad x 10: Psycannon x 2, Hammer
Purifier Squad x 5: Incinerator x 2, Hammer
Purifier Squad x 5: Incinerator x 2, Hammer
Stormraven: M.Melta
Interceptor Squad x 10: Incinerator x 2, Hammer
Dreadknight: Heavy Psycannon, Teleporter, Greatsword
Aegis: Comms Relay
The downside here is, obviously a really low model count. Like, really low! The game plan though, is to have pretty much all of your units deep strike in bottom of turn 1 off of the comms relay manned by the Interceptors (who can Combat Squad as needed) who then shunt forward to join their brothers.
They army hits hard, hopefully weathers the counter attack, and then wades into melee with the hammer unit of Terminators+Draigo+Brother-Captain. That unit has enough punch to take on damn near anything and they shoot well, too. It can also combat squad as well, if you feel you need the extra unit or to create two powerful melee units. The Purifiers take on light infantry and vulnerable units and the Dreadknight goes where needed. The Stormraven gives you aerial defense and mobility as it can swoop up a unit that finds itself out of place.
If you find yourself playing interceptor heavy Tau, just save yourself some time and buy a beer, lol, but in general terms the army can pack a nasty bite for so few models and would be very fun to play. If you find yourself up against a barrage heavy army that can smoke your Interceptors early, just deep-strike them, too and take your chances. You can also beef up your model count by dropping Draigo and the Stormraven to take more units to give you more durability, but, you leave yourself open to powerful melee units and aerial threats.
Point being here, that if you are diligent and try to see past the kick in the nuts of what you’ve lost, you can hopefully find a way to enjoy your army!
You’re a positive guy Reece ! 🙂
I think the realese are really bad, but thats another story.
Just a note; purifiers does not have deep strike. How are you going to deliver them ?
They don’t, lol, I missed that. Doh!
Wow, this book really does struggle in a big way =(
Well, you can skip them and go with other units.
Yeah, not as many people would be complaining about this codex if Purifiers gained deep strike. That would mean GK have still have a good power armor unit… 🙁
Somehow I feel like there would be just as much complaining, lol.
And I’m sure that no matter how bad they made GK, someone would spring to their defense with “you just don’t understand the new codex, you’re stuck on the old one.” They could make Strike Squads 200pts and BS1 and someone would bring up the fact that at least they can shoot and still assault.
Unfortunately it seems that Purifiers are better off in a rhino list, which is too bad considering that sweet new detachment.
Yeah, that is a bummer.
And by the way: which unit i sitting on the coms relay in turn 2? This is a problem since it will stop some of your unit from beeing in deep strike or shunt in turn 1.
No one is on it turn 2, most of your stuff came in turn 1.
Aye but your opponent is space marines, they can dump a drop pod right on your comms relay turn 1 before you get to go!
So, Lords of War and Formations to the resque. But then no-no’s from the tournament organizers. I’m glad to see that Tyranids aren’t alone in this predicament.
I think that LOW is a regional thing. For some reason the east coast hasn’t caught up with the west about allowing people to play with the toys they like. Hell, many east coast events still don’t allow FW, while the west coast has almost entirely accepted it for years.
The nemesis strike force isn’t a formation it’s a detachment (special FOC). GKs don’t have (and rumor has it, aren’t getting) a special detachment to make the army better. And as far as LoW goes, you could always take draigo, it’s just that you have to take an HQ to use him now.
Unfortunately, some tournaments seem to outright ban all Lords of War for some backwards reason…
Ya I think the real kicker here…is Draigo being a LOW. You couldn’t play this list at NOVA because of that. I really don’t understand the character LOW’s. It’s basically just bumped their points cost by forcing you to pay an HQ tax.
LOW super heavy? Makes sense. LOW Character? It’s not like you could take two of them to begin with!
Is the stormraven in there just for anti flyer duty? Might be better to take another dread knight.
There is one glaring weakness in this list Reece. If you go second, and your opponent is a SM force with drop pods…they can land right on your comms relay and take it from you!
I think that’s less of a problem with Lords of War and more a problem with the NOVA rules…
I’m thinking the characters put into Lords of War were done for two reasons, first to make it so that they could not be taken in an Allied Detachment (though the NSF works around that well). It’s not like Ghazghkull is going to show up to a battle with a squad of grots and a Dakkajet, if you did something to get he attention, he’s going to bring some friends…
The second reason is to deny you taking an army that consists of an awesome character along side another Lord of War without playing higher point values to pay for the minimum requirements from additional Detachments. Using the same example, they want you to have to pay for at least 2 HQ’s and 4 Troops before you’re bringing both Ghazghkull and a Stompa.
Those are really excellent reasons Adam. Thanks for replying!
They’re just my theories, I might have thought about it more than the game designer, but I’m hoping not!
You should probably add a third reason “to convince people that wanted to do the things restricted by the above to play unbound instead”
But… why on earth would you want to do that? Neither Ghaz nor the Stompa are particularly powerful- why does there need to be a special penalty for bringing them to a game?
I agree this is odd. It’s especially frustrating if you are a big fan of both the Stompa and Ghaz (or the Space Marine Super HEavy and Draigo…)
Super Heavies probably need some limiting (and only one per list), but I don’t really care if I’m going up against Logan, Ghaz, and Draigo 😉
… yet you can have a baneblade and multiple knights. The mind boggles.
Codex overview in nutshell:
– Draigo, libby and dreadknight is good.
– termies are ok, not good. Ever see a termy army doing good or within top ten in a GT last years ? A few points off don’t make it better.
– Rest is meh or bad.
– That fomation is ok, but not good like one of the SWs or nids.
Worst of it is no new models or units, half the codex got ripped out, bad external and intern balance. Lot of unique, fluffy and fun stuff got out. Makes it bland. Yeah shure it happened to SW too, but don’t make it better.
Seems like a rushjob by GW.
That’s pretty much my feelings on the book. I think GK will become a mid-tier army and that’s not really a bad thing. I think they are reasonably balanced with most of the other recent releases, so not being a surefire tournament winner is fine by me. Losing half the codex sucks and it is a bit bland, you right.
I know some people hate the look of the DKs, but I think they’re awesome so I’m pumped they got a boost!
Good article Reece. I appreciate your consistent optimism (except that one Ork bat rep haha)
You are unfortunatley right.
LoW being disallowed will become something you experience less and less. Each release seems to feature a codex LoW that was previously just their boss / badass. There will probably (and should be) always be a restriction on the LoW you can take but that should almost never prevent the codex fella from being taken.
The thing that I find inescapably annoying with this release is having units taken away with none added. I think codex updates are really exciting and some of these releases have come with new units that are fun and exciting and make the pain of nerfs/losing some units more doable. But to straight ONLY take away and not give? 🙁 That is not so cool!
At least the Assassin stuff is REALLY cool and every imperial army can look at that and get a piece of the action. We will be seeing a LOT of Vindicare and probably Collexus (spelling?) assassins.
The Assassins being taken out of GK was the biggest gift they could have given every other Imperial player, haha. They’re so cool now, with far more interesting rules than before… Now it’s just the fact that they take up a whole detachment that’s annoying, haha.
Agree…the anti psyker one. Just wow. Pretty much an always take with my black templars now!
They really didn’t lose much of any units when you start build army’s the way GW designed it in the BRB. They only actually lost choices because of the decisions TOs have made about list design
Taking away options sucks, but in the mind of GW, I don’t believe they think that is what happened. You can have as many sources as you want for your army, so the new GK codex with formations, the assassins dataslate (or is it a suplement, codex?) and the AM book, you can basically field what you did before, more or less.
It’s hard to see what game GW thinks they have when they release codices. Do they imagine everyone plays vanilla RAW? Do they know there are local house rules and restrictions and try to change that? Do they really care?
If they believe that than they must also acknowledge the fact they increased the cost to the player wanting to play that previous force significantly. (The player must purchase Codex: GK, the inquisition book, and the assassins dataslate to do what was already in a single lower priced book)
If by “Acknowledge” you mean “wet themselves with anticipation while chugging whiskey and giving white guy high fives”, then I agree
😉
I have a question about the NSFD. Rites of Teleportation says, “Instead of making reserve rolls from the start of your turn 2, you can make reserve roils for any unitin this detachment that is placed in deep strike reserve from the start of your turn 1.”
Does this mean that if you’re in deep strike reserve, arriving turn 1 is optional? At first, I read the use of “can” as something I was given permission to do, but not required to do. Now I’m beginning to wonder if this is just sloppy language. It would be nice to have to option to DS turn 2 if I wanted to.
GW tends to use “can” and “must” differently, so I think you have the right to not deepstrike turn 1 with any given unit (up to all of them) if you don’t want to.
Better question: if you choose to forfeit normal reserve rolls in favor of coming in on a 3+ T1, and you fail that 3+, can you never arrive from reserves because you forfeited your regular reserve rolls?
I think i be the lone voice here. I think GK is way to OP. I will let the hate set in. I am thinking about getting into GK
I really like them as well Alex. And I am doing a GK army also
I have to eventually do my Samurai Grey Knights.
I haven’t gotten the codex yet, but I am sure it will be fine. Once the dust settles people will find that thing they missed during the first reads that gives GKs a punch. I am going to play GK+BT cuz I am crazy. Well, and it sounds like fun. Who knows. I love the debate though.
How about the fact that every unit now has a 8″ range mind strike missile . Most people seem to miss that one
Yeah, the Grenades are ballin!
It’s pretty nice, but no one really relies on psychic heavy armies anymore except for maybe Daemons.
It would be nice against Eldar and ‘Nids as well, and I have seen about 50% of the CSM lists include in your face psykers. Not thinking too many Space Wolves will sell out on psychic anymore.
Not so useful against a great many armies, I think Blood Angels will be an interesting litmus test.
I wonder if instead of the Aegis, get the Wall or Martyrs bunker for the interceptors instead. It’s only 5 pts more and they can just hide inside it. Though,if they do that, can they use the comms relay? Now I’m not sure…
Well they could always hide behind it out of LOS
They can work the Relay from inside, as it only specifies a unit within 3″ and you are permitted to measure distance to them as though the Bunker were a transport.
I’ve been playing around with using a Bunker with Relay for GK, but I wouldn’t stick Interceptors inside of it- a Henchmen squad (for that Inquisitor you want to get Servo-Skulls) seems like a much better choice.
They are actually well suited for seventh edition. There is no way they were gong to be as powerful when the last codex dropped. Could have definitely been a lot worse .
I also think as all the codexes get hit with the “streamline” hammer, the strengths of the first few hit will become more apparent.
Yes the three books that have come out so far are pretty balance compared to each other
GKs have some decent builds, I think, though frankly they suck at Malestorm Missions and the new codex did nothing but hurt them in that regard, with the exception of cheaper mobile Dreadknights and improved deepstrike. But with the lack of psybolts and the psycannon nerf, power armor GKs are definitely not the way to go, forcing you into very elite Terminators/Paladin based armies which can’t afford to split units off to grab far-off objectives.
I can see GKs settling in to the mid tier, but the internal balance of the codex is pretty terrible at first glance. Certain units will always be taken, and half the codex will sit on the shelf.
I can’t wait until they rewrite eldar in 2015.
In my eyes. the book is still plenty strong. Grey Knights lost a lot of variety, but as a force (in the fluff, at least) there shouldn’t be a lot of variety. They’ve lost a bit of viability as a standalone codex, but with or as allies, they will be very strong.
Plus, their terminators are offensively cheap.
“Grey Knights lost a lot of variety, but as a force (in the fluff, at least) there shouldn’t be a lot of variety.”
As an reason for having a limited number of the units in the codex, sure. As an excuse for why half those units are terrible, that’s bullshit.
And how often do you see anyone else run Terminators. 40ppm is massively overpriced. That GKs have about the only genuinely good Terminators in the game now doesn’t indicate that said Terminators are “offensively cheap”, only that other terminators are overpriced. Incidentally, after upgrades the unit only barely gets cheaper than it used to be, so the points decrease is mostly only smoke and mirrors. You save roughly, say, 20pts per squad, and lose the ability to take Brotherhood Banners and Psybolt Ammo which sucks. Net gain, but don’t miss the forest for the trees.
I’m saving 60 points on my ten man terminator squad all with halberds and 2 psycannons is 390 compared to 450 in the previous book
I think how much people save basically comes down to how many Hammers they use. Personally I’m dropping from 2 in 5 to 1 in 5, so standard loadout for me has dropped from 450 to 400 (2 Hammers, 5 Halberds). If people still stick with 4+ Hammers and other combat weapons then they won’t be saving too much though.
You should have run more hammers, previously. They were 100% worth it. Same thing with Psybolt ammo, and the Brotherhood Banner. As I would run them then and now, I save like a hundred points, but the new Terminators are also noticeably worse in multiple ways.
I will just point out that if I was saying you’d save about 20pts for a 5-man unit, that’s 40pts for a 10-man, which is only a pair of hammers off from your new savings.
Do a little math, and I’m pretty sure only a few characters can stand up to Draigo 1v1. An Iron Hand or White Scars Chapter Master can do it, they hit and wound and have the same base attacks as Draigo, while Draigo hits first (unless concussive, but the CM only has a 50-50 chance of inflicting that on any given turn, so it may or may not matter on the turn Draigo finishes the CM off) and is Master Crafted, so he does slightly more damage, but the Iron Hands has 6+FNP and IWND, and the White Scars can Hit and Run to get an extra attack every other turn.
Abaddon is the only character I can think of that actually outfights Draigo, doing about 0.1 more wounds per round of combat on average than Draigo, but if Abaddon rolls a 1 for his Daemon Weapon, he’s screwed.
I can’t think of much else that can hang with Draigo. Ghaz on his Waaaaagggghhhhh turn is nasty, but only on that turn, and Draigo reliably survives, so next turn Ghaz will get chopped up good. A Black Mace Prince might get lucky and take him out, but Draigo will Force Weapon the DP as long as he survives.
On top of that, GKs have plenty of nasty assault units (Terminators, Paladins, Purifiers) that will likely be accompaying Draigo, so even if Draigo is stuck in a fair fight, there really isn’t much that can hang with his buddies as well, in particular Paladins. Grey Knights are still definitely the kings of assault deathstars.
There’s a bit of an issue with the detachment. There are two reasons to take it: 1) you only need 1 troops choice and gain an elite slot at the cost of 1 Heavy and 1 FA, and 2) you get special deepstrike rules.
The problem with 1 is that 7th requires lots of troops. Taking fewer troops is not the path to victory. Additionally, with DKs being the big auto-include unit, you do not want to be limited to 2 HS slots. Who cares about Elites, Purifiers and Paladins are both too expensive to spam. So the Force Org swaps aren’t particularly useful in general.
As for 2, there’s the question of usefulness. Purifiers and Purgation squads can’t deepstrike. Strike Squads are not likely to see much if any play simply because they’re overpriced for the firepower and assault power they bring relative to vanilla Marine units and other GK units. Interceptors and Dreadknights can take Personal Teleporters, which are strictly better than holding them in reserves and hoping to roll a 3+, or spending points on an Aegis, and hoping they don’t scatter onto something and die. Dreadnoughts and other vehicles can’t deepstrikes. So the only units that benefit are GKT and Paladins. So if you’re running anything other than GKT/Paladins based lists, the deepstrike rules are useless to you, and if you’ve got Draigo you can take Gate of Infinity which is also strictly better than holding the unit in reserves.
So about the only list that I can see actually using the formation rules would be spammed 5-man GKT squads. That would be a pretty fun list to try, but it’s only one build that really benefits, I think.
I will add that to my list of things to try out, though.
No one noticed Feel No Pain for 15 points(relic)? No mention of point cost reduction for the librarian down from nearly 200 to only 135(Psyker 3!). 2 Libby’s with a full unit of Pallys toting psilencers or psycannons with FNP, Gate and Invis is going to be a whole lot of beat down… Mid tier army is a state of mind not an actual appraisal of the new codex for my favorite army. Dig deep and the tools are there. The formation is way kick ass!
A level 3 Libby with the relic and rolls a 6 ok warlord traits is virtually guaranteed Sanctuary at level 5 with specialization….
Sanctuary is +1 to invulnerable…now Draigo looks totally insane with a 2+ invulnerable….
Everyone noticed the Librarian. Our HQs are basically Librarian… and… maybe a Grand Master with a psycannon, if you find the points?
I feel I need to point out that the relic does not grant FNP to the unit, only to the character, though Paladins do have the cheaper apothecary. FNP on a 3-wound character vulnerable to ID is much less impressive, and it’s probably not worth it just to try and protect a Librarian from Perils, and you can’t get it on Draigo, so it’s definitely nice, but nothing game-changing.
For you GK players, what do you think would be a good allied force to join to my AM? For the moment I have Draigo, 5 termies/Paladin and one Dreadknight.
I am looking for something not too expansive that can be a great force multiplier for my AM. Of course I want the DK to be in, apparantly they are awesome now. What would you guys recommend?
I am not sure that deep striking a single unit in the back field will be very useful, they will probably die quite fast without doing much…Any suggestions? are the Personal Teleporters a good idea?
We are looking for units that can do some damage while distracting the other army from my main Force…
Sorry for all the typo….English is not my native language
Your English is really good. I don’t see any typos 🙂
As for what to include as allies for your AM army, I would suggest picking up a GK Librarian because they are cheap and really flexible with what you need. For your DK, I would suggest taking the personal teleporter along with the heavy incinerator or heavy psycannon, and a nemesis daemonhammer. My reason for that is because you want speed, and that GKs in general are good against any unit with a Toughness value that’s not flying, and you don’t want to be tied up in close combat for long. Finally, Terminators would be a good idea to fill as your troops. As far as equipping them, I would say keep swords or upgrade to halberds, a daemonhammer to hide in there, and whatever special/heavy weapon you think will serve you best, depending on your local meta. If you can fit Draigo, take Draigo, but don’t go out of your way to include him if your main Faction will suffer for it. And don’t ever give up anti-tank options to include GKs in your army.
If you use at least one decent sized blob then a Mastery Level 3 Librarian will work well with them – all the usual marine benefits for the guardsmen, plus 3 powers from Divination/Telepathy/Santic.
5 Terminators is really the best option for troops, as mentioned below – you don’t need to deep strike them into the backfield either, the ability to DS them means being able to drop them in anywhere to respond to threats and provide a bit of a buffer against combat units.
Finally, Dreadknights: Teleporter, Greatsword (5 pts more than the Hammer for master-crafted is worth it IMO), and one or two of whichever heavy weapon fits your needs best, and of course depending on points. For what it’s worth, Dreadknights work a lot better in pairs than on their own – if you can spare the points then 2 would be ideal.
Also, the 30″ shunt from Dreadknights means that you could, if you wanted to, shunt it/them into the backfield the same turn your Terminators drop in to provide 2-3 reasonably tough units for your opponent to deal with, instead of just 1.
Depending on what weapons you bring (and whether you bring 1 or 2 Dreadknights) the above would cost you roughly 500-750 pts. This is pretty much what I’m using when allying to my Imperial Guard.
Thanks for the post Reece, I’m trying to talk my (still fairly new to the game) GK buddy down from the ledge haha. I think the NSF, alpha strike is the way to go too, that jumped out to me right away on a first pass and still seems to stand up. We’ll see.
So with all the books leading up to sixth edition it felt like armies were just going more and more op/cheesey until finally they were mostly all out (along with 6th) and it seemed like for the most part things balanced out across the board (again…for the most part). Now were seeing book after book feel like its struggling or loosing things. Perhaps GW is trying to tone everything down, and if we give it enough time we’ll see things be a little bit more balanced all around (again…again…for the most part).
Possibly. We have heard that the Eldar and Chaos books are going to be redone as soon as 2015?! I would hope that they at least wait until 2016.
I wouldn’t mind seeing chaos marines redone. as much as I love cultists (huge word bearer fan) the other staple of CSM I’ve always been drawn to is just the plain, vanilla marine squads. the art style of chaos marines has so much character that using just vanilla squads has an appeal, but I feel like it’s an up hill struggle to both convince your self to use them, but more importantly be succesfull with them. That said I have been out of the loops for the most part since graduating last spring and hunting careers (totally missed the 7th ed drop for a few months) so mayble CSM aren’t nearly as restricted as they felt in 6’th. especially if i’m not crazy and GW really is trying to tone armies down.