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Narrative Review – Chaos Space Marines – Part 2

Hi All,
We are continuing our trek through the Chaos Space Marine codex’s crusade rules! Today we will be covering the Agendas, Relics, Army Traits, and requisitions!

Agendas and Relics:
The CSM get four core agendas: The Eye of The Gods provides a way for you to get lots of glory for your champion. Initially, every character gets 2 exp for every enemy character or vehicle they destroy. This goes up by another 2 exp if the enemy character was a warlord or a vehicle with 11+ wounds. For every unit in either category that your champion kills he gets 1 personal glory (max 3). Wanton Hate gives units experience equal to the number of enemy units killed in each Wanton phases to a max of 3. Claim and Despoil is a wonky option. Your opponent sets up three objectives that you claim via an action. If the action is completed, the unit who completed it gets 3 experience. And, for every one of those units that ends the game in your deployment zone, you get 1 point of Warfleet Glory. Finally, Blasphemous Ritual requires you to do a ritual in the center of the board, provided there are no enemy units within 6″ of this point. After it is complete you roll 2D6, if you get an 8+ the unit gets 3 exp and you get 1 Dark God Lory point (max 3).

The CSM get 6 relics to choose from. Their three artificer relics include one that grants the ability to deepstrike, a cultist-only option granting a 4++ and a 4+++ vs mortals, and an improved force stave which also does 3 mortal wounds if a unit you fought is still alive, and you roll 3D6 and beat their leadership. The Antiquity relics are all focused on the specific dark gods. The Khorne option gives +1 S/T/W/A permanent Wanton Slaughter but they can never fall back. The Nurgle option is incredibly troll-y dealing D3 MW on a 2+ to an enemy in melee range. What makes this option annoying is that after the battle the enemy unit must take an out-of-action test even if it survives the battle. The Tzeentch relics allows you to know all powers from their chosen discipline (if given to a psyker) or the ability to cast 1 power if given to a non-psyker. Lastly, the Slaanesh relics gives you perma-transhuman and +3″ to your aura abilities. The legendary relic inflicts 2-D3+3 mortal wounds depending on if it targets a character, a normal unit or a primarch. It’s very good but watch out for units with mortal wound defense.

Army Traits and Requisitions:
The CSM get four different trait tables. Core and Daemonkin units get a full table, while cultists, Daemon Engines and Warp Smiths/Disco Lords get three (or fewer) options. The Disco Lord Table has two options, the standard “Ignore a failed out of action result for a vehicle” and the ability to corrupt or enrage a machine spirit an additional time. The Daemon Engine/Machine Spirit table is decent, granting the option to get 2 additional wounds, a chance to either heal d3 instead of 1 wound a turn, or to get the Daemon Engine keyword (if it doesn’t have it) and lastly you can use the “act on top-bracket” stratagem for free once per game. Cultists can get CORE (an under-used upgrade, or can get “Let the Galaxy Burn” allowing them to participate in the various “Wantons” or may get a legion trait. While it is a tame table I think it is very fluffy and all options make sense. The CORE upgrade table is pretty good while some options are milquetoast (+1 BS) others give you the ability to get +2 exp when marked for greatness, get to pick which wanton act you use or always be considered in range of a Chaos Lord/Exalted Champion/Dark Apostle.

For Requisitions the CSM get six options. Rites of Possession allow you to turn a CORE, Tratoris unit into a unit of Daemonkin unit for 1 RP. Chosen of the Pantheon is a 1 RP choice that allows you to start marking units. You have the standard ascension to deamonhood option for 2 RP. Chaos Reward is an interesting choice that allows you to either “Spawn” a unit of give it a chaos boon. Commune with the Dark Gods is the standard “swap prayers” requisition. Lastly, the one that you will spam the most “For Chaos” gives you Chaos Point for the cost of 2 RP.

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