40k BRB FAQ 1.1 Out

So much to many people's surprise GW has released a new set of FAQ's for the 40k Big Rule Book. I've only just started skimming through it but is appears to be quite thourough so far. It should solves quite a few questions people have been having.

Check it out here!

The Stormraven?

Yeah uh... I was hoping for something more. Thoughts?

Original Info can be found on Warseer.

Chaos Space Marines: Army Overview

Models:
*Plastic to Metal ratio, While most of the Troop Choices are plastic you'll find that a fair amount of the other Infantry models including HQs and Elite and Heavy Support to be metal. Luckily other then an HQ choice and Obliterators you could almost get away with a full plastic force.

*How old the current models are, Most of the models are quite old, there have been some updates to the HQ Daemon Princes, Obliterators, and the new Defiler, but other then that most of the models have been around for about 5 years or longer.

*Anything new coming out soon, as of right now there is no News of new stuff.

*Large back catalogue of Classic/OOP models? There is still a small catalogue of the Classic models on GW's website, but ebay seems to be full of older models.

*Fun/easy to paint, many schemes available to choose from? There are many schemes available for Chaos Space Marines, all ranging from Dark to Darker, and can be varied even more by the Chaos God that your army may choose to follow.

The larger models can be quite fun to paint, but the Chaos Armor itself can get a little tedious to paint as you have to outline almost every arm, shoulder pad, breast plate and leg. Still the models are fairly easy to paint as you do not need advanced painting skills to be able to pull the details off the models.

*How many models in an average army of 1,500-2,000 points, Most armies will consist of about 45-60 models.

*Costs in £/$ in collecting the average army, relatively cheap or expensive when compared to other armies, You will probably be looking at close to $500-600 for a 1,500 point army. If you concentrate on having higher point models and large vehicles this could possibly drop to about 450. This seems about average for most armies.

Background:
*Small summary of the race's history, A Chaos Space Marine is a towering warrior, whose brute strength is tempered by inhuman skill. Armed with a fearsome bolter, protected by a suit of power armour and the product of intense training and genetic manipulation, he is far beyond a mortal man, transformed into a lethal, superhuman killing machine. The Chaos Space Marines were once Humanity's ultimate warriors, dedicated to the defence of the Emperor and the Imperium of Man. Having since sworn themselves to the Dark Gods, in exchange for untold power and immortality, they wage war on the very worlds they once fought to protect. Though their noble ideals and goals have been cast aside, their superhuman bodies and military skill remain, leaving them to degenerated into psychotic killers.

*How do they get on with other races, They don't. Pretty much that simple. The Chaos Space Marines are mostly blood driven to destroy the universe.

Play Style:
*General playing style, A Chaos Space Marine army is an army of the most blood hungry, feared warriors to have walked the void. An army of elite, battle hardened veterans it will often be out numbered, relying on its greater skill and equipment to win the day. The Chaos army list is very flexible, allowing you to create an army suiting a number of playing styles.

*Themed army list types, there are a couple of themes, which can be seen in the Chaos Space Marine Codex. These themes are usually broken between Legions, and Gods.

Chaos Legions:
The Black Legion - is a Legion of Chaos Space Marines united to the pursuit of a single purpose and opposed to the infighting that consumes so many of their Chaos Space Marine brethren, as they serve Chaos Undivided. They are always brought together in great numbers when it is the will of their Warmaster, Abaddon the Despoiler, the heir of Horus. Whenever the entire Black Legion is called to battle it marks the beginning of another of Abaddon's Black Crusades against the Imperium of Man.

Word Bearers - are one of the nine First Founding Space Marine Legions which betrayed the Emperor of Mankind during the Horus Heresy, becoming Chaos Space Marines, their allegiance pledged to their Daemon Primarch Lorgar and to Chaos Undivided. The Word Bearers were also the first Space Marine Legion to be corrupted by the Ruinous Powers of Chaos and through their actions they corrupted the Warmaster Horus and brought on the terrible civil war of the Horus Heresy in all its savagery.

Alpha Legion - are the Chaos Space Marines Traitor Legion about whom the least is known. They are experts in infiltration and their armies contain many Chaos Cultists in addition to regular Chaos Space Marines. The Alpha Legion's Primarch was named Alpharius, who was actually one of the identical twin Primarchs Alpharius Omegon, two brilliant and secretive Primarchs, one of whom was reportedly later killed after the Horus Heresy by Roboute Guilliman, the Primarch of the Ultramarines.

Night Lords - are one of the nine Traitor Space Marine Legions which betrayed the Emperor during the Horus Heresy, becoming Chaos Space Marines. They do not worship any of the four Chaos Gods individually, but acknowledge them equally in the form of Chaos Undivided as they ruthlessly spread terror and fear amongst the galaxy's inhabitants.

Iron Warriors - once formed the Emperor's most able body of siege troops. The Iron Warriors Primarch, Perturbo, excelled in siege and trench warfare above all else and his treatise on fortifications and their destruction formed the basis of several sections of the Tactica Imperium.

Chaos Cults:
Death Guard - are one of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines. They worship and devote themselves exclusively to the Chaos God Nurgle and as a result of his 'gifts', they are Plague Marines—men eternally rotting away within their Power Armour but immune to pain or minor injury.

Emperor's Children - are a Legion of Chaos Space Marines who solely serve the Chaos God Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure.

Thousand Sons - are one of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines who are sworn solely to the service of Tzeentch, the Chaos God of change and sorcery. The main feature that distinguishes the Thousand Sons from the other Traitor Legions is the sheer number of psyker mutations that have always existed among the Space Marines in this Legion. They prefer to use Chaos Sorcerers and guile in combat, relying on their psychic abilities and sorcerous knowledge to earn them victory.

World Eaters - are one of the Traitor Legions of Chaos Space Marines who now inhabit the Warp rift known as the Eye of Terror in the Imperium of Man's Segmentum Obscura. The World Eaters are also one of the twenty First Founding Space Marine Legions, though they were also one of the first to betray the Emperor for Chaos. The World Eaters are the dedicated servants of Khorne, the Chaos God of War and Murder, and live for nothing more than to spill blood in his name. The World Eaters'Primarch, Angron, was one of the first of the Space Marine Primarchs to join with the Warmaster Horus when he turned against the Emperor of Mankind and began the Horus Heresy.

*Competitive list types, - Most of the current competitive lists contain Plague Marines as Troops riding in Rhinos with 2 Melta Guns, 1-2 Daemon Princes, and 2-3 units of 2-3 strong Obliterators for Heavy Support.

*Current tournament standings, The Chaos Space Marines can still hold their own in most tournaments but they are starting to show their age. While not often in the top three it's hard not to find them in the top 10.

Misc:
*How popular is the army, Is one of the more popular armies across from Space Marines, seeing as how they are the evil twin.

*When was the book released, The current Codex was released in September 2007.

*When is the next one due if known, there has been no word of a new coxed.

*Any race specific forums, I've not found any Chaos Space Marine Forums, if you find one let me know and I'll update.


***If you find any information on here outdated or inaccurate please let me know so that I can update, thanks***

Forge World: Eldar Hornet

Forge World just recently came out with a new Eldar Tank model, that Hornet. Along with some experimental rules that can be used with the new craft.

On first glance the model looks fantastic, although it does slightly resemble a lopster, I can get past that as it seems to have gone the opposite direction of many of the Eldar models, and that's smaller. Which given the available table space with the armies we play these days is a good thing.

But I was quite disturbed by the experiment rules they had given it. With weapons it comes to be pretty expensive. Especially compared to the costs of our Dark Brother's Codex. They're still asking 30pts for a BS3 Bright Lance, instead of the 25 Points for the BS4 Dark Lance.

So after drudging through the Dark Eldar codex for a bit and checking out their point values, I figured I'd come up with my own Experimental Rules for the latest Forge World Model.

You'll have to understand that it's going to be slightly cheaper then some Eldar Equivalents as I feel the current Eldar dex is slightly overpriced compared to current 5th edition codexes.

Hornet.............................................................60pts

BS: 3
Armor: F 11, S 11, R 10

Unit Comp: 1-3 Hornets
Unit Type: Vehicle (Fast, Skimmer)

Special Rules: Scout, Maneuverable, Concentrated Fire

Wargear: 2 Shuriken Cannons

Weapons: Each Hornet may upgrade each of their Shuriken Cannon's for the cost below;
Scatter laser..........................................+5 points each
Eldar missile launcher...........................+10 points each
Starcannon..........................................+10 points each
Bright lance.........................................+15 points each
Pulse laser...........................................+20 points each

Options: Any hornet may be ungraded with the following;
Holo-feild..................................................+20 points
Vector Engines........................................+10 points
Spirit stones............................................+10 points
Star Engines............................................+10 points

Manuverable: The light tank is employed for reconnaissance and raiding, and is often used for hit and run tactics. A vehicle with this special rule may always make a 6" move during it's Assault Phase, unless it is immobilized.

Concentrated Fire: The vehicle's computer systems are adapted to fire on a single target and let loose with all of it's fire power. As long as the Hornet is armed with two of the same kind of weapon, the vehicle can forfeit shooting both weapons to instead fire one as Twin Linked. This counts as only firing one weapon.

Well there you have it, some rules that add a little something new to the Eldar. I think that it uses a little of what the Dark Eldar were able to get in their new book, and refresh the Craftworld a little. Let me know what you think, and if you get a chance to play test it at all ;)

-CKR

Rumor Mill: Grey Knights

*Thanks to the folks at Warseer.com

Glossary:
SoB = sisters of battle
GK = grey knights
SM = space marines
Inq = Inquisitions
NFW = nemesis force weapon
PA = power armour
AA = artificer armour
TA = terminator armour
PW = power weapon
FW = force weapon
IST = inquisitorial storm troopers

Release date:

Originally January, now looking more like February or March. (Harry reports WFB Orcs and Goblins for March and Skaven wave 2 are slated fro January, so February seems the best bet for now)

Organisation/fluff:

Codex: there is much less focus on Inquisition aspects, and no SoB. No Allies. A GK army.

No allies from/to other Codii. new fodder units in codex. not same as guard units. (penal legion troops are the fodder unit I was mentioning in the past, cause I know someone will ask)

Interesting bit here. Got to see some layout work on the new codex. I'll confirm the rumors of a fleshed out chapter org chart, but it's not your typical SM structure of 10 companies of 100 marines for sure.

The organization of GKs chapter being fleshed out has opened a number of new "roles"

The relation of Ordos Malleus to the Inquisition is also expanded upon

Officio Assassinorum also has an interesting fluff piece...albeit very short

To respond to the wishlisting of justicars being treated similar to Wolf guard, don't place bets on that.
It was apparent from my last contact Inq forces were still present...including storm troopers...but there are other new units there as well. From everything I've been told/heard the focus has definately shifted to GK. Not as many options for Inq, Assassins combined to a single unit with wargear to dictate functional role, Inq retinue changes that will effectively kill the tried and true power tactic of shooting everything in sight as it Deep Strikes in. The utter removal of use of allies from other codex books, or inclusion of units from this book with other armies (Self contained...no surprises there.) Overall I always felt the prior incarnation was inquisition with a dash of GK. The feel I have now is reverse of that...but there will still be very effective Inq builds to be had...so far as I know.


Special rules:

Combat squads were an option I know was playtested.

Some interesting Psychic abilities. just about all squads have psychic options. Heavy on they disabling side. Enemy psykers beware.

Not a lot of Mechanised. But quick to deploy.

Army wide. Daemonic Infestation makes summoned demons less instable?

The basic GK marine profile looks very similar to a SM sergeant.

A conversation earlier centered around an ability named "Out the Heretic" which could be used against non-daemon forces causing one unit to "count as" daemons. 'Out the Heretic' is well received by PT

While External Allies rules are gone by all accounts, it does not mean allies in the codex are gone. Inquisition forces ARE present, just not as dominant. And you will recognize others.

'Shrouding' basically unchanged...also known as nightfighting...one source suggests possible grant 6+ cover save (commentary: does this work with Annointed armor?)

'Rites of Exorcism' daemon units charging as if into difficult terrain.

'Aegis' enemy Psykers within 12" take psychic tests with +1d6

Chaos icons work to oppose GK units teleport ability. A unit with a chaos icon will block the ability of GK to teleport into battle within the icons area of influence. I'm hearing that there may also be other items that hinder this deployment tactic from other armies as well.


Wargear:

The new codex has new options (weapons, equipment, etc.) that will be included in those box sets.

Also, I understand there to be a standard 1 special weapon per 5 man squad, plus special options for the upgraded leader.

Yes, beyond psycannon and incinerator, there are 2 other special gk weapons I know were ptd...but these I can't go into detail on at this time. I'll say one had pretty poor response from the playtest group, but there could be some nice tactics developed to make it effective if it did move forward.

Corrected Psycannon profile:
24" A3 AP3 S6, no invulnerable saves, pinning test for units or models with psykers.
or 36" H1 AP4 S5 5" blast, no invulnerable saves, no cover saves. (does not cause psyker pinning)

Incinerator, no profile changes noted: S5 AP4 A1 template, no invulnerable or cover saves.

NFWs: NFW lose the changing abilities based on rank of user. standardized to PA NFW is PW with special abilities vs Daemons, TA NFW is FW with same. I've seen "other" sites reporting I said nfw gave wound daemons on 2+. I never said that. Not sure where that is coming from. From what I know right now NFW will be +2S across the board as now, but PAGKs will all count as PW, and TAGKs will all count as FW. Then on top of that, all nfw gain additional capabilities vs daemons. Plus unit leaders may have master crafted NFW...not sure if it's upgrade or standard.

GK Annointed Armor: All GKs (TA, PA, AA, etc.) wear ornate armor which has been blessed and annointed to provide additional protection both physically and spiritually. Any GK may always Re-roll any failed armor, invulnerable, or cover saves. Annointed Armor is not wargear. Has point cost. Works with Storm Shield. Not as good at might seem...(aka something else to this rule I dont know yet)

The rumor I had earlier about "Annointed armor" got some additional legs with a small twist. Looks like this could be granted to a unit containing a Gk chaplain. Much like other chaplains elsewhere grant re-rolls on charges, the gk chaplains are rumored to grant counter attack and re-rolls of armor saves...caveat being the reroll is only 1st round of cc... It's a complex confirmation, and taken alone I'd pour salt on it, but given I've heard of the anointed armor prior and recent codexes have some charge related chaplain ability...I thought I'd go ahead and post it. It's definitely taking more realistic tones...

New options for Dreadnaughts including librarian. psycannon arm. Purge weapon...large pie plate, special abilities include forcing instability test for daemons, including Daemons of Chaos armies, pinning in other armies.


Army list:

Do not hold too tightly to past structures and expectations.

As far as TAGK as troops? I havent seen anything indicating this. However, I do recall a discussion of TAGK filling roles in two slots though, possible Heavy and Elite.
The GK jet bike sketches did not look at all like sammaels...no plasma gun. Knights on them has NFW in lance style. Very bullet bike rider stance...ie leaning forward over bike, not upright like marine bikes. Had the swept front faring, but not wing motifs. Looked like twin linked storm bolters under slung beneath handles. Very aggressive looking. Too bad they got axed.

according to a tiny bit I got overnight, GK TAs will have access to the standard marine upgrades, plus NFW, incinerators, psycannons, etc., of course. But he is saying the cyclone launcher for them will be arm mounted like their Storm Bolters. I'm very skeptical of this, but this source is close enough to know, so I thought I'd pass it along.

Inq lords are hq and unlock ISTs as troops
ISTs are elite otherwise
ISTs can take chimera or valkyrie as dedicated transport
Inq lord retinue looks more like imperial guard command characters with some seritors thrown in
Temple Assassins one entry in elite, one stat line, options allow for customization into temple variants...but the actual temples are only mentioned in fluff, so some special rules look lost
Demonhosts look to be out
In troops we have imperial guard conscripts...like an imperial guard platoon, but conscripts only
Death cult assassins still elite, larger unit sizes, though
Penal legion squad in troops, different than imperial guard codex entry
chimeras or valkyries as dt only, and only imperial guard
Valkyries only dedicated transport, no vendetta option
Hellhounds in fast, same as imperial guard, but not variants
Deathstrike launchers in heavy, same as imperial guard...replacing orbital strike

Also, some weird dynamics in the ruleset if you have both inq and gk hq present. But details were not given.

(Ed: so from this batch it looks like inq is going to be viable, but I question really this more from a why standpoint. If GW did this, only the hq really separates it much from imperial guard, but handicapped ig. Hope to see more soon once the nov nastiness ends. Damn de are blocking all my insight into the future...)
From what I've been able to gather, the codex has the following counts...caveats apply:

Including Special Characters, not including variant units eg. exterminator/demolisher

Hq: 8-9 entries
El: 6-7 entries
Tr: 6 entries
Fa: 7 entries
He: 8 Entries
Dt: 4 entries

Ive heard the Army list section is between 12-14 pages.


Playtesting:

GK 2000pt AL from Playtest:

HQ
Grand Master with Retinue
Named character

Elite
5-man TAGK squad + 2 spec weapons
Dreadought - unknown configuration

Troop
2x 5-man PAGK squad + 1 spec weapon + razorback
10-man ????? squad + chimera

Fast
Storm Raven

No Heavies

The Playtest list posted was played against 2000 points of Orks including nobs, mek with kuston force field, lots of boys in trukks, a BattleWagon and dread mob. It was Capture & Control with Dawn of War.

GKs held most in reserve.
PAGKS in Razorback came in turn 2 and moved to boys flank. 1 squad got tarpitted with boys, the other fought thru boys to take objective 1.
unknown unit had HQ attached, spent game trading shots with dread mob until TAGKS arrived to help.
TAGKs TP in turn 4 and later assaulted Dread mob. 4 standing at end of game.
The StormRaven took out one trukk turn 3 and the bw turn 5. Dread and HQ w retinue arrived in it and assaulted Nob mob. wiping it out in 1 round. then started after other boys.

It was reported as a pretty one sided battle. GKs nearly unassailable. GK win with 1 objective and second contested in turn 6. supposedly orks were close to 4:1 outnumbering GKs


Models:

The box sets should all be plastic.

The GK models are ornate.

The biggest issue you'll find with the TAs is scale. The new plastics are in scale with the other TA models. The metals are old scale sized. Its a noticable difference.

But even the AA marines look "bigger", though not to such a great extent, to me.

Once painted, the new models have better depth of detail IMO. And more small details not present in the metals. This is in both TA and AA. The best examples to look at are the Blood Angel plastics to understand how much detail can be crammed onto a figure, but still look good.

Plastics:

Storm Raven. obvious choice. Options for BA, GK and ??? (note, other sources say that a BA second wave containing storm raven and librarian/furioso dread are slated for a separate January release) I've had personal conversations with direct individuals, which would surprise me if the SR model was not a keystone of this release. I've personally seen a few mockups of the SR from the modelling teams, many more from the art team. I know what the final selected design is. It looks better than I imagined.

TA knights: 5 pack, Paladin upgrades, squad upgrades. Psycannon, NFW, SSTH, banner? Supposed options for all will be on sprue. Plus NFW will NOT all be halberds. But the exact nature of them was not revealed to me. If this pans out we could see a lot of weapon options in the sprue...a lot more than would be used. Assault Cannon, PsyCannon, Incinerator, SS, TH, NFWs, Cyclone launchers...seems like a lot to jam in, but if we look at SW and BA boxes those were loaded with bits. The GK TA sprues:

5 legs
6 torsos
8 heads
6 nfw
5 SB
unknown # Special Weapons (includeing SS), but if above holds it could be 6+
GK TA back banner
6-8 shoulder shields
12 shoulder pads
~12 upgrade bits (books, scrolls, crux terminus, etc.)
8 arm sets (sounds like the arms have no hands, similar to sanguinary guard)
4 hands (right/left?)
more?

PA knights: 10 pack, justicar upgrades, squad upgrades, extra bits. NFW, psycannon, incinerator, banner?

walker: There have been some rumors of a GK driven walker. I have not personally seen this in any incarnation. However, there is a boxed walker of some type. I suspect this is a dreadnaught box set that will also have bits for BA. (see above) I've seen other people posting rumors of a penitent engine style walker, with a PAGK driver...I have absolutely no confirmation of such a beast. However, if GW wanted to avoid the cries of "GK dont have Dreads, it isnt fluffy" that could be a way...

Tank: I have not seen mention of a GK troop transport. Rhino based with psycannon options has been in some PT. I list this as possible, but unlikely, 4 box sets of this size are about par for a release, 5 would be a surprise.

Blisters:

New Stern

New Chaplain?

Justicar upgrade character

Paladin upgrade character

Inquisition character

2 other blisters unknown contents

Other:

Later release of GK themed terrain set? Concepts are out and some "preview" shots are floating around if you hunt. Nothing more I can say on this.