Hey everyone! Adam here, from TFG Radio, to talk about how the new edition, and the rules previews we have been seeing, will affect Chaos Space Marines (CSM). As always, for more tactics articles, check out the Tactics Corner!
Well, we got some more tidbits to chew on! Not enough for a clear picture, but enough for us to “speculate wildly” and see how they affect our glorious forces of the Despoiler! Let’s begin, shall we?
Psychic Phase
Well they seem to be going back to earlier editions of the game, along with a dash of Age of Sigmar. Just rolling 2 dice and hitting a mark is nice and simple. Perils is still a thing, as expected of the grim dark. Although, initially, the loss of a lot of our available lore is a bit of a hit, I’m sure, as other faction books are released, we will see more lores to choose from. Let’s be honest though, we never used too many of the lores available anyway.
Extending the denial range is a nice boost as you can still keep your sorcerer out of immediate danger while denying powers. Speaking of which, limiting how many powers you can deny is a nice twist and is something most players had to deal with in the current system.
Everyone getting the smite power is nice, and we get a confirmation of mortal wounds. This mechanic is straight from Age of Sigmar and is a useful tool for dealing with high toughness models and/or characters. We also see the mention of the invulnerable save. unfortunately we don’t know exactly how it works but it looks like an extra layer of protection for our new 2 wound terminators, hopefully.
Shooting
A fixed “To Hit” roll isn’t that big of a deal since, after playing for a while, we all know the roll for most of our units in the game. One bit of a surprise is that pistols can be shot at an enemy even if they are within 1″. That means that we can shoot pistols while in close combat. This can be huge. I can see hand flamers being a thing we would have to be aware of. In addition, I think it makes plasma pistols much more viable for us as they can do more in close combat than just give an extra attack.
Heavy weapons get a -1 if they moved, which is a big step up from hitting on 6’s. Although this also applies to vehicles, there may be special rules unique to vehicles that may negate this. I think you may see more havocs and predators on the field that can move and shoot with good chances of success.
Cover is a much different thing in NewHammer 40K, Instead of just an extra save, you get a bonus to your armor save. This easily make its more important to seek cover when faced with certain weapons. Being able to give your regular Chaos Space Marines a 2+ save can be huge, especially against something like a krak missile or lascannon.
Charge/Fight Phase
Charging in the game doesn’t change too much. Being able to overwatch more than once is both helpful to us, and also something our assault units will have to be wary of. No more sacrificing that one model, or spawn, to waste an enemy’s overwatch fire. As mentioned before, larger units may see more play in order for assault units survive the fire, especially from flamers.
One other change is that you know longer need to come in base contact with the enemy, but just get within 1″. This is helpful for our assault units in that it gives us an extra inch to reach our target(s). So, although you have to pick a unit within 12″, you really only need, at most, an 11″ charge.
Speaking of making the charge, there are a couple new wrinkles when you fight. As mentioned before, if you make the charge you get to strike first. The mention that slaanesh units seem to negate that, suggests that I should heavily invest in slaanesh daemons. After charging units strike, you alternate activating units to fight. This will be something to get used to and you will quickly learn which units you need to activate to maximize their damage output before your opponent strikes.
The other big change is the return of the 3rd/4th edition consolidation into combat, in a way. Being able to use the 3″ move, when activated, to engage additional units that you did not initially charge is huge. If your opponent makes the error to place units too close to the one you want to charge, you could easily negate that unit’s movement and shooting in the following turn, whether they are stuck in combat, or broke off from the combat.
That’s all this time. As you can see, I will have more articles coming up until we get to the release. I hope you enjoyed the article, leave your comments below, and give my podcast a listen. In the mean time, I’ve got plasma pistols and havocs to get back in shape!
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