Warhammer 40k: Chaos Marines and Daemons Ravage In Today’s Faction Focus
Chaos Space Marines and Daemons get new detachments each in today’s previews. Check out what they’re bringing to the table!
Our first week of Faction Focus articles has been completed with today’s article digging into three new detachments each, for both Chaos Space Marines and their allied daemons. Once again, the article includes a link to a video overview and discussion of the new rules.
Cabal of Chaos
Sorcery is already a key part of any self-respecting Chaos Lord’s arsenal, but this detachment puts the dark arts front and center. Turbo-charge your Dark Pacts to benefit both psykers and Daemon Princes. Not those devoted to Khorne, though. He’s still just not keen on this whole sorcery fad.
.All of your non-Daemon psykers enjoy a straight +1 S on their ranged attacks while invoking a Dark Pact, while your Daemon Princes get an even stronger melee buff with +2 S and +1 AP. Tons of models in a Chaos Marines army can benefit from these bonuses, so I suspect we’ll all be seeing this detachment on the table pretty regularly.
A straightforward new enhancement, Touched by the Warp, lets you add the Psyker keyword to a character of your choice. Once again, Khornate champions have to sit this one out, but I’m sure their whispering swords will console them with promises of blood.
Now that your army is packed full of psykers, they can all take advantage of this new stratagem. For just 1 CP, any of your psykers can hurl a bolt of chaotic energy as a bonus shooting attack. Dishing out a potentially devastating 2D3 mortal wounds, this is a serious boost of on-demand firepower.
Devotees of Destruction
Devotees of Destruction is a detachment that’s all about Havocs and Obliterators. It’s not specifically Iron Warriors-themed, but we all know they’re going to make this a stock choice for their lists.
At its core, the Rain of Ruin detachment rule grants the HEAVY keyword to all of your havoc and obliterator units. Obligingly, Games Workshop shared a look at how the HEAVY keyword works in 11th edition.
This makes Rain of Ruin a simple but powerful buff. Now, your heaviest hitting ranged units get +1 to hit most of the time. After all, if they’re moving around or in melee, something has probably gone very wrong for them.
Who needs a path of glory when there’s a perfectly good path of destruction to walk, instead? If you’re taking Havocs and Obliterators, chances are good you’re already considering a Warpsmith to accompany them. This enhancement will let your Warpsmith mitigate the results of a failed Dark Pact Leadership Roll, with a little bonus healing to boot.
The final preview for this detachment is the extremely juicy Ruination’s Bounty stratagem. For just CP, you can improve a unit of Havoc or Obliterator’s firepower with both LETHAL HITS and SUSTAINED HITS 1. This is going to provide a truly withering volley of fire from some of your biggest guns.
Murdertalon Raiders
Raptors and Warp Talon enthusiasts are going to be delighted by this detachment that was clearly invented by a Night Lord, even if it isn’t exclusive to those legionaries.
Bullying their way across the battlefield, your jump pack infantry become truly fearsome when targeting battle-shocked or half-strength units. Not only do they get to re-roll results of 1 against these targets, but the shock of the assault means your opponent’s troops are -1 to hit in response! Brutal.
Being in the thick of the fight is a dangerous place even for a chaos lord, so this enhancement is a welcome option. A 5+ InSv goes a long way to improving the survivability of a character sure to find himself deep in enemy territory.
Shock attack units like raptors rely upon successful assaults, and this stratagem offers them a little insurance on that critical charge turn. The LANCE ability allows them to reroll failed Wound rolls on the charge, giving them a small but potentially critical edge when they need it most.
Cavalcade of Chaos
The first of three previewed daemon detachments, Cavalcade of Chaos, focuses on their heavy cavalry, like the iconic Bloodcrushers.
Another simple but powerful detachment-wide rule, Unholy Avalanche lets your mounted daemons fall back from combat without losing the ability to shoot or charge that turn. Daemonic cavalry are powerful, but points-expensive units, and the ability to keep them from getting bogged down in close combat really improves their utility.
This may not seem like the most exciting upgrade, but considering how large the bases of daemon cavalry can be, it’s worth consideration. This seriously mitigates the issues of large-based units getting in each other’s way for attacks and significantly increases the amount of damage they can throw around.
Another simple quality-of-life improvement for your mounted daemons, Warp-Riders, isn’t just the name of a great album by The Sword. Spend a command point on this stratagem to grant a unit the MOBILE keyword. Now they ignore dense terrain features, walls, and obstacles to move wherever you need them most without penalty.
Lords of the Warp
This is a detachment focused on the unsung heroes of the daemonic legions, the middle managers. Sloppity Bilepipers and Bloodmasters may not enjoy the prestige of the Great Unclean Ones and Bloodthirsters, but somebody’s gotta keep this incursion into real-space on schedule.
Simply put, your daemon characters (excluding greater daemons) gain a +1 LD and OC. This nicely buffers your daemon units from the Shadow of Chaos rule when testing Battle-Shock, and a bonus OC could come in handy in any number of missions.
Another straightforward upgrade, grant some extra staying power to one of your lesser characters with +2 W. Keeping your smaller daemons on the field is important, and +2 W might just see them through a tough round.
All of today’s previews have been generic so far, but Carnival of Excess is a first look at the powers the devotees of Slaanesh will enjoy in the new edition. Choose a Slaanesh character (again, excluding monsters like greater daemons and daemon princes) to gain Fights First when any unit has Fought. This could potentially swing the cadence of a fight your way and leave your opponent on the back foot.
Warptide
The previous two detachments saw buffs for daemonic leaders and specialists, but Warptide is all about improving the humble Bloodletters, Plaguebearers, Horrors, and Daemonettes that make up the BATTLELINE troops of a daemonic legion.
Your BATTLELINE Daemons become frighteningly quick with this army-wide bonus. All of your basic daemons will be able to hurry forward with an advance move without losing the ability to charge. Even better, all of their ranged attacks gain ASSAULT for that turn, letting them put out a huge amount of damage without compromising their close combat capabilities.
Boost a unit’s strength with the Bane-Forged Weapons upgrade enhancement. All BATTLELINE daemons are more than competent at slaughtering standard enemy infantry, but the bonus of +1 S can let a unit really punch above its usual weight class.
The final preview of the day is for all BATTLELINE daemons except Pink Horrors. Spend a command point to heal 3 wounds from a unit during your command phase. No muss, no fuss, just improved survivability for your precious daemonic pals.
A cool thing about the new detachment system is that it seems that it will be easy to build your army around either Daemons or Chaos Marines without excluding the other. If this proves true, you could take the bulk of your force from a Chaos Marine themed detachment and then add one of the Daemon detachments to sprinkle in some interesting options for your buddies from the warp, or vice versa. I hope my interpretation is correct!
Games Workshop has promised more Faction Focuses next week, including the World Eaters and Death Guard, but the week will kick off with a look at the battle sisters of the Adepta Sororitas. Probably a good choice as we’re already drowning in Chaos…
Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, but I prefer it to be from my opponent’s army.
