I have preordered the new Codex Chaos Space Marines and was going to have to wait until release date to do any real review of it. Which is quite tricky as like a lot of hobbyists, I’m reading blogs or listening to podcasts a lot of the time so by the time you have the book you’ve already got at least a partly preformed opinion based on what you’ve personally ‘downloaded’ from other people’s readings of the book.

However, most of the book has been leaked so I’m able to form my own opinion on the details of it a little more, at least in theory. But to help me avoid regurgitating the opinions of others I’m going to review this from the perspective of the impact it has on my preferred list, play style and just the general feel and design of the army based on my preferences as a hobbyist. Hopefully that makes this useful, as whilst it’s personal it might prompt something in you and/or you might just think I’m totally wrong! That’s all good too as I haven’t put it on the table yet so at this stage a chunk of this is theoretical at best!

A bit of background, one of my favourite ever Codex releases was Codex Space Wolves in 5th Edition. I wrote a review on my old blog titled ‘Codex Fluff Wolves’ which probably says plenty about where my focus on that book went. I loved the level of customisability that it suddenly gave you around the make-up of your force with Logan Grimnar led Wolf Guard forces and the narrative space occupied by Lone Wolves being a huge draw for me. In the end, that book led to the creation of my Gorewing army – a World Eaters Terminator force led by a counts-as Logan Grimnar and brimming with Lone Wolf Berzerkers with double-chainfists – glorious days!

5th edition was a very different beast to 10th Edition 40k but one of the things that struck me about the 10th Edition Chaos Space Marines Codex was seeing the level of customisability you have over your army at the list building stage when selecting your detachment. I know, I know, this isn’t the first Codex displaying the new approach to Detachments but it’s the first to have 8 of them and because it’s for the army I want to play, I’m now a lot more aware of it than I can say I was when making do with just the Index detachment.

The Detachments in this Codex are:

• Chaos Cult
• Soulforged Warpack
• Fellhammer Siege-Host
• Deceptors
• Pactbound Zealots
• Dread Talons
• Veterans of the Long War
• Renegade Raiders

Of these I’m most immediately drawn to Renegade Raiders and Dread Talons.

Veterans of the Long War probably ought to be my favourite, I write a blog called Oath of Moment after all, and this is the one with the Chaos version of loyalist Space Marines’ Oath of Moment rule – Focus of Hatred

I do think there’s some scope in this detachment to be fair but it’s the Renegade Raiders and Dread Talons that appeal to me most based on the way I’ve been writing my lists with the Index and how this would allow me to lean them in two slightly different directions whilst retaining plenty of my favourite units. So let’s look at each of these in turn – a reminder again here that this isn’t some hyper-competitive generalist review of the book but instead doing a bit of a deep-dive into the feel of some of the detachments specifically in the context for how I want to play my Creations of Bile / Emperor’s Children Chaos Space Marines. Before that, just a quick reminder of the Dark Pacts and Cults of the Dark Gods rules that affect all Chaos Space Marine detachments.

Renegade Raiders
Starting with the Detachment rule – Raiders and Reavers – you can quickly see that this is an aggressive detachment that’s going to open up additional manoeuvrability and killing power when targeting your opponent’s scoring units.

I get the impression that I’m not alone in thinking that this is insanely good. Assault weapons are amazing for allowing you to move at speed and not lose you ability to deal ranged damage but also for the scoring potential on Actions etc for a unit that’s raced across the board. The AP improvement when targeting units on objectives is on ALL attacks. Whether that’s Lascannons or Chainswords that’s targeting their unit. Suddenly going after that Primary scoring starts to add a layer of vulnerability to your opponent’s units…

The list I’m looking at roughly will help show some of the additional power that comes from the Stratagems that a Raiders and Reavers detachment gets to play with.

Renegade Raiders List (click to expand)

Lucius The Eternal
Master of Executions
10 Legionaries
in a Land Raider

Fabius Bile
5 Chosen
5 Legionaries
in a Rhino

Chaos Lord
5 Chosen
5 Noise Marines
in a Rhino

Chaos Lord
5 Chosen
5 Noise Marines
in a Rhino

5 Legionaries
5 Legionaries
in a Rhino

10 Cultists

I love a Rhino Rush style list – if you look back at my initial Creations of Bile lists from the Index, there’s always been a leaning towards this style and I think the synergies with the Renegade Raiders detachment make it totally worthwhile. Over the years, I’ve dabbled occasionally with Drukhari / Dark Eldar armies as I really love their mobile-gunboat style of play but ultimately they’ve always lacked that special appeal that pink power armour has for me. This detachment feels like it might just give me the best of both worlds. Warpcharged Engines and Opportunistic Raiders start to lean into this playstyle.

Opportunistic Raiders gives you an extra free move at the end of the Fight phase that can be used to jump into a Transport if they didn’t disembark from one this turn (useful in your opponent’s turn or for if they’ve been out on foot doing jobs for a turn). Coupled with Warpcharged Engines there’s a lot of additional manoeuvrability to tap into here.

Where the real killing power starts to kick in is with the Ruinous Raid stratagem. Which works hand-in-hand with the Detachment rule to really ramp up the output of units.

As this is a Battle Tactic, Lord of Chaos on the Chaos Lords kicks in here also so that if the Chosen units with the Lords attached disembarked from a Transport this turn and are targeting units on objectives, then one of them can use Ruinous Raid for free and the other pay the 1CP cost for it to have both units re-rolling their Hit rolls, Wound rolls and having an extra point of Armour Penetration on their attacks. The damage could really spike here!

The Chosen feel like they further build on the manoeuvrability factor with their Chosen Marauders rule but the various Legionaries and Noise Marines can largely replicate this ability between the Assault rule and the Reavers’ Haste stratagem

The big unit of Legionaries in the Land Raider with Lucius and the Master of Executions are a really hard hitting unit that wants to get up and in the face of your opponent’s army. There are quite a few overlapping rules here. Lucius provides Duellist’s Pride to the Legionaries’ Veterans of the Long War rule

The Master of Executions then ramps everything up further adding his Warp-sighted Butcher rule to the mix so that after shooting and/or using Grenade to take them below their starting strength they’ll be re-rolling Hits (and potentially Wounds from Veterans of the Long War or Warp-sighted Butcher) and potentially have the extra pip of Armour Penetration too!

This gives a terrifying package that should comfortably shift most units off of an objective and then can tie it down thanks to their Fights First from Duellist’s Pride and access to the Unfailingly Obdurate stratagem.

Both Lucius and the Master of Executions have Precision on their attacks but the rest of the units in the army can tap into that through Scour and Seize – again a Battle Tactic for the Lord of Chaos rule.

Elsewhere in the list, the Cultists are great for their For the Dark Gods rule to capture and ‘sticky’ objectives.

The MSU Legionaries and Noise Marine squads are just great units. With Assault on all their guns (and the guns when fired from their Rhinos) they’re extra manoeuvrable and when they benefit from the Detachment rule for the additional AP they can all put out a much scarier amount of damage.

I think this list prioritises the MSU Rhino Rush theme as that’s my favourite to play at the expense of perhaps a little more ranged killing power that could be provided by Vindicators or maybe to stay closer to theme, Havocs. The Enhancements in the Detachment aren’t anything amazing I don’t think but if there’s any points made available with any changes that might come in the next points update, Mark of the Hound stands out as providing something really useful.

Maybe not in this current list but feels like there could be some value in a blob of Possessed or Terminators with a character attached using Mark of the Hound to get further up the board and Reavers’ Haste to allow them to Advance and Charge to put some real threat across the board (especially with the faster Possessed). Maybe Fabius’ Chosen being bumped up to 10-strong with a Master of Executions attached for a proper old-fashioned Death Star unit!

Dread Talons
Starting with the Detachment rule – Terror Descends – it’s obvious that the main focus of this Detachment is Battle-shock.

Now hear me out, I know Battle-shock is a bit of a “lovely when it happens” sort of rule but there’s definitely some scope here to stack the odds a little and whilst the focus is Battle-shock the key Stratagems for this detachment key off of the conditions for Battle-shock as well as a unit being Battle-shocked.

If I start with the rough list I have in mind here that’ll probably help to discuss my thinking on it and how I think the various key rules on units interact with the Detachment rule and Stratagems from Dread Talons.

Dread Talons List (click to expand)

Daemon Prince with Wings
Eater of Dread (Enhancement)

Fabius BIle
Master of Executions
5 Chosen
in a Land Raider

Chaos Lord
5 Legionaries
5 Noise Marines
in a Rhino

Chaos Lord
5 Legionaries
5 Noise Marines
in a Rhino

10 Traitor Guardsmen
in a Rhino

5 Legionaries
in a Rhino

10 Cultists

2 Chaos Spawn

5 Raptors

5 Raptors

The thinking here is there are a few overlapping rules ideas that should make this quite a fun list to use. I don’t think it’s as out-of-the-box powerful as my Renegade Raiders list but I do think there’s some potential in it and it’ll definitely feel a rewarding one on those (probably rare) occasions that everything goes off as planned.

One of the first principles around the list was putting in some units that can trigger additional Battle-shock tests for my opponent coupled with the Detachment rule these will often be at a penalty to their Leadership and whilst passing 1 test of a 6+ isn’t unlikely, passing multiple on a 6+, 7+ or even an 8+ suddenly becomes very unlikely so there’s a good chance to be able to stack these where you would like them. The main avenues for this are the Daemon Prince with his Flying Horror rule, the Noise Marines with their Riotous Cacophony rule and the Raptors with Terrifying Assault.

Between those you can trigger Battle-shock tests in the Movement, Shooting and Fight phases. Once you start to factor in the Stratagems and some other rules synergy there’s also another really opportunity to force through some Battle-shock with the combination between the Raptor’s Fearsome Aura, the Detachment rule and the Screaming Descent stratagem.

Assuming you get the Battle-shock off there are a couple more Stratagems Depthless Cruelty and Pitiless Hunters that might be useful and trigger off of it, but crucially, not just on the enemy unit being Battle-shocked they can be Below Half-strength as an alternative condition of their use.

That these are both Battle Tactics means they can also be triggered for free by the Lord of Chaos ability on the Chaos Lord – although in truth, the Chaos Lords are most likely to want to benefit from Depthless Cruelty rather than Pitiless Hunters as I imagine the Noise Marines will value that one more.

So what else does the list do?

There’s a punchy unit in the Land Raider – as with my Renegade Raiders list – Fabius Bile is in with a squad of Chosen but this time he’s brought a Master of Executions along too. Whilst only 8 strong (including the little Surgeon Acolyte) the Master of Executions gives them access to re-rolls in combat and Fabius’ +1 Strength and Toughness can combo nicely with Depthless Cruelty to really push through a lot of damage.

The Legionary squads accompanied by Chaos Lords are like smaller versions of the same thing. They have innate re-rolls to Wound in combat if targeting a unit on an objective and as mentioned before the Chaos Lords add a lot of extra punch and one can trigger Depthless Cruelty for free each Battle Round.

As mentioned already, the Raptors drop in with Screaming Descent and use their Fearsome rule to help force through the Battle-shock fails where they’re wanted.

The Daemon Prince is a little missile using Flying Horror as mentioned already to trigger additional Battle-shock tests and uses Daemonic Destruction to force some Mortal Wounds on targets and has the Eater of Dread enhancement to make use of the spare points and to potentially grab some extra CP when all those Battle-shock results go my way!

Finally, the Cultists, Traitor Guardsmen and Chaos Spawn are here primarily for some Primary scoring goodness. The Cultists as mentioned in the breakdown of my Renegade Raiders list, have their For the Dark Gods, stick objectives rule. Whilst the Traitor Guardsmen are a useful little response unit with their 3 Special Weapons and OC2 for helping to tip objectives that you need to capture. The Chaos Spawn are in for some shenanigans. Their Mind-breaking Mutations Aura dovetails beautifully with the Cultists and Traitor Guardsmen for helping them to take and hold objectives – either sitting on an objective your Cultists previously stickied or allowing 10 Guardsman to outnumber pretty much any other unit on an objective when needed.

I’m not sure I can find anything to answer definitively but there’s also potentially an odd interaction with Battle-shock and the Chaos Spawn. Units count as OC0 when they are Battle-shocked. There’s no ‘to a minimum’ rules qualifier on the Chaos Spawn currently so does that mean at OC0 themselves they’d outnumber Battle-shocked units who’d technically go to -1? I’m expecting not but they could work as a handy way of reducing the OC of an enemy unit if the Battle-shock approach doesn’t go your way in one key location.

To my mind, the Renegade Raiders list is the stronger of the two. The Dread Talons one is more of a fun one first but is probably hampered by the wonky timing of some of the rules around Scoring and Battle-shock, as well as the difficulty in getting some of these synergies off and just the fact that Battle-shock is still unreliable even if you can stack the odds a bit more in your favour here.

Just for completeness, there are a couple of other useful stratagems that Dread Talons have access too.

Both of these are really great stratagems to have access to. Fall Back and Charge is always useful to have in your back pocket – especially for units like the Daemon Prince with his Daemonic Destruction rule or the Raptors and putting their Terrifying Assault rule elsewhere (or just to make sure you’re going first in an ongoing combat). Merciless Pursuit is one that works just by having it in your toolbox as it will often render a Fall Back move by your opponent pointless.

There are also a few other units that you might consider in a Dread Talons list due to their interactions with Battle Shock or the general rules of the Detachment. Units like the Warpsmith, and the Cultist Firebrand give you access to further opportunities to inflict Battle-shock tests,

Some Other Thoughts
One thing you might have noticed in both of those lists is that there are no Marks of Chaos. I’m still not 100% sure on how I feel about the removal of Marks… although they remain in the Pactbound Zealots Detachment. I think having played Chaos Space Marines on and off for about 7 or 8 editions I’m really surprised by the removal of Marks of Chaos. The way they have worked has been rehashed a few times over the years but they’ve always been a thing as long as I remember. There’s part of me that has found this quite freeing in my list-writing – Fabius having to have an Undivided unit attached as his bodyguard was a bit of a sticking point in my largely Mono-Slaanesh army but now matters a lot less but I don’t think I’ll never not be a tiny bit sad that my Slaaneshi Legionaries and Chosen are just Legionaries and Chosen.

The big unspoken elephant in the room at this exact moment in time though is the forthcoming Index Emperor’s Children. There are a lot of questions in it’s current absence…

• Will they have a Detachment of their own?
• Will Lucius and Noise Marines keep similar rules to what they currently have?
• How will Noise Marines interact with the Slaves to Darkness rules and/or Battleline etc when running Emperors Children?
• Will Fabius be legal in an Emperor’s Children list?
• Will they have any of their own Enhancements or Stratagems even if they don’t have a specific Detachment?
• Will Lucius having to be the Warlord to play as Emperors Children be a deal-breaker for them?
• Will we get Codex Emperor’s Children in a few months, a year, or a few years?
• When we do, will it be Codex Emperor’s Children or Codex Supplement Emperor’s Children? From a fluff perspective (thinking specifically about Black Library books such as the Fabius Bile series, Lord of Excess and the Faultless Blade) they seem to be the least diverse in their organisation from the other Renegades and Veterans that are represented by the Chaos Space Marines Codex. All of those books have lots of Emperors Children Legionaries, Havocs, Obliterators, Raptors with Noise Marines being an elite minority, usually one unit per warband.

Hope you’ve found this interesting or useful. What list ideas are you looking at for the new Codex? You can expect a review of Index Emperor’s Children once it’s out in the world too!