Followers of the Ruinous Powers rejoice, for your dark prayers have been answered! Psychic Awakening: Faith & Fury contains loads of new rules for the Chaos Space Marines and today we’re taking a look at some of them.
This article was originally published on the Warhammer-community page.
First up are a selection of Daemon weapons that can be given to your characters instead of any other Artefact of Chaos. Not only are there new weapons dedicated to each of the four Chaos Gods, but there’s also an option for those Warlords that follow Chaos Undivided. For example, G’holl’ax, the Fist of Decay, is a devastating weapon that may be taken by a Nurgle Character armed with a power fist.
As well as the new Daemon Weapons which can be taken by any Chaos Space Marines, the Word Bearers, Night Lords, Alpha Legion, Iron Warriors, Emperor’s Children and World Eaters all get new rules. These six original Traitor Legions each get additional Warlord Traits, Stratagems, Artefacts and Tactical Objectives. Let’s take a look at the new ways that you can bring ruin to the galaxy.
Word Bearers
The Word Bearers were the first heretics, turning from the light of the Emperor to embrace the worship of the Chaos Gods. The Daemonic Whispers Warlord Trait represents the otherworldly guidance that the Word Bearers receive in return.
As if having extra Command Points wasn’t enough to silence the mewling of the Emperor’s sycophants, then taking a Dark Apostle and upgrading him to know, and be able to chant, an additional Prayer will.
Night Lords
The Night Lords were born of the dark – fear is their weapon and they show no mercy to the weak. When you are about to wipe out an enemy unit in close combat, use this Stratagem to prevent them from running away.
The Night Lords also have the perfect answer to those pesky Space Marines Primaris Lieutenants. Let’s see just how noble they are when the range of their aura ability is greatly reduced.
Alpha Legion
It’s entirely possible that you are already playing an Alpha Legion army without realising it, that’s how sneaky they are. Nothing they do is what it seems – they may have already sabotaged an enemy vehicle before the battle even began.
The Alpha Legion are also famous for their use of non-Space Marines operatives. Name your Warlord a Cult Leader and make your cheap, plentiful Chaos Cultists deadlier.
Iron Warriors
The Iron Warriors are the undisputed experts at siege warfare.* With the Siege Master Warlord Trait and a few units of Havocs, no enemy bastion will be able to stand before your punishing volleys of fire.
Since this Warlord Trait also works on vehicles, take a Warpsmith to repair your tanks at the same time as giving them re-rolls to wound. The Iron Warriors have an Artefact that upgrades the Warpsmith’s mechatendrils to MEGA-mechatendrils just in case anyone gets too close to your war machines.
Emperor’s Children
If you want to get your Emperor’s Children pumped for battle, a regular protein shake isn’t going to cut it. Combat Elixirs are much more useful – apply the effects to a 20-man squad of Chaos Space Marines to get the most bang for your Command Points.
Their Primarch Fulgrim taught the Emperor’s Children to seek perfection in all things. Help your Warlord attain perfection in combat by equipping him with the Raiment Revulsive.
World Eaters
Make your World Eaters Warlord even better at spilling blood for the Blood God and claiming skulls for the Skull Throne by naming him as a Disciple of Khorne with this Warlord Trait.
Angron, the Primarch of the World Eaters, once carried two mighty chainaxes called Gorefather and Gorechild. The latter is now wielded by Khârn the Betrayer, but you can equip your World Eaters Warlord with the murderous Gorefather.
All of this is just a glimpse of the bounties that the Dark Gods have provided for their loyal followers in Faith & Fury. The second book in the Psychic Awakening series will be available to pre-order from Saturday – grab yourself some reinforcements now so that you’re ready to continue the long war.
* The Imperial Fists? Pah! They don’t even have chevrons!
And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!
Wooooo chaos rules!
no DTTFE with Gorefather without buffs D: but splat marines!
Well the new EC combat drugs strat makes a Possessed blob more enticing… +1A, then use Fabius on the same unit hopefully getting the +1A but all of Fabius’ buff are good, then the Demonkin Ritualist strat. Possessed with D3+3 attacks, Mortal Wounds on an unmodified 6 to-wound as well. Lol, if I could only use that with my Flawless Host.
I think whether any of this sees play will largely depend on the rest of the supplement and more importantly whether CSM get further points cuts in CA 2019.
Make Warp Talons less than 24 ppm (maybe 20?) for a 1-wound model that can get shot by an anti-deep strike strat, and suddenly maybe I am willing to consider a night lords khorne 10-man warp talon unit in a host raptorial detachment.
“..whether any of this sees play..” really ?? Already CSM players I know are queueing up to look at sample copies of the text and build from there. Some take some thinking about – which is good – there shouldn’t be any auto-wins.
NOT everything is about tournament play (only 10k played according to ITC in 2018/9). These additional rules (6 pages per Legion) add flavour to the game – each legion (and Chapter) now feels different. It’s much better than just getting a stratagem/warlord trait/relic on a single page that we got in Chapter Approved 2019.
I mean, maybe a competitive player posting to the website about organized competitive play who was assessing rules in the context of a competitive environment… might have been focusing mainly on competitive play for a reason?
I get that the very idea of tournaments causes your blood to boil very nearly as much as the thought of someone posting UNAUTHORIZED GAMES WORKSHOP COPYRIGHTED NUMBERS DO NOT STEAL, but maybe bring it down a few notches? You don’t gotta scream it from the rooftops at all hours of the day.
You do know that this site is primarily slanted towards the ITC and competitive play? I think a comment regarding competitive choices is more at home here than casual choices….
CSM players i know are angry as hell about this insulting half assed release.
Don’t believe me? Check out GW facebook comments. 😉
This is not a half assed release at all, this gives some very strong tools to CSM players. As I have been saying, it’s not a codex, it’s a supplement and as those go, it brings a lot to the table for CSM players.
Plus with CA on the way, there’s a lot to be excited about.
I assume you mean Chapter Approved? I can’t wait to see the changes!
I totally agree with you Reece. I am a big complainer and a salty Chaos player. But even I think this supplement is full of fantastic rules. Shame we don’t get any of the fixes or improvements that SMs have gotten (other than bolters and an extra attack), but this supplement is still amazing for Chaos.
I did a 90-minute review of it singing the praises of this release on my Chaos YouTube channel. There are so many new combos thanks to this supplement:
For anyone interested, I did an in-depth review (on my Chaos-focused YouTube channel) of the new rules and what I think are the best new abilities and tricks for Chaos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxPdKb-7LrU
“This is not a half assed release at all”
Indeed. If only one could say the same for Phoenix Rising.
Dude, Rob, lol, you misquote the numbers on competitive players every single time, lol.