On one hand, I was very disappointed that there was not more in the book from the "new" and unique Crimson Slaughter warband - their leader, Sevastus Kranon - deserved at least his own data slate and warband sheet, but alas, it was a missed opportunity for the writers! No other warband seems to be haunted by the screaming ghosts of their own victims, and seemed to cause as much terror and seemed to grow in strength as much as these guys.
Overall, I know GW has models suitable for these guys. I love their fluff, that the Black legion sent them in on the first wave, basically as cannon fodder.
Kranon has now "left the conflict" with the survivors of his warband and look to exact revenge on the Black legion.
On the other hand, the book brings up the usual basic flaw of all 40K books for GW....
....Their narrative for these massive fights / campaigns are flawed by NOT having enough marines (chaos or otherwise) to sustain the story they narrate.
It was funny that they put force org charts in this latest book...Kranon's first wave attackers against a heavily defended Imperial / Mechanicus consisted of entirely three tanks and 41 marines, and a dreadnought. It is silly, because the enemy are in the thousands, and the descriptions are two massive for such a small warband. If anything, it needed another box containing 10,000 cultists and 10 Titans...
OK, second wave was Khorne led by Kharn. Similar issues. The narrative includes chaos cultists, more titans...but they don't really account for it.
Third wave was a surgical black legion strike force, all to accomplish the real mission.
I'm guessing right now that the Chaos mission is flawed. The Black legion Sorcerer believes he is opening a trapped prison full of demons...
I'm thinking he unwittingly found Trayzyn the Infinite's vault...and unlocked it.
That would be ironic...not only might there be a bunch of C'Tan Shards in there, but...a Primarch...
Anyhow...I digress...
In November and December I was given two transport boxes...things might get interesting...2000 points of Chaos Marines, plus a Demon Prince and 10 Bloodletters? Hmm....I don't know who originally owned them. Table ready, plus or minus some repairs.
It is a pretty weak warband right out of the transport cases. Kharn is the recognizable HQ choice. 2 units of Berserkers. 5 terminators (all different). 3 Bikers. 5 Havocs (one of each heavy weapon). 3 Rhinos, 1 all-las pred, 1 landraider. Some debris that might be Chosen or something like that. Overall, the non-berserker units need some retooling and love. Not enough special weapons...not enough means to deploy these guys into assault directly.
Overall, anyone want to trade 10 old-school metal bloodletters for a new box of spawn or a real box of something else from the Chaos marine line? Demonsd are all the rage...I'm interested to get a box of chaos marines, a chaos lord, and/or maybe another box of chaos bikers. That would give me the pieces I need to really upgrade them. Eventually two Helldrakes...Need to keep the Prince, just in case someone upgrades to one in-game...same for the spawn...probably need one per character, LOL...
The big question becomes - Upgrade their painting and basing to be Black Legion and Khorne/Kharn, or go thematic and go Crimson Slaughter / Khorne/Kharn...I don't know at this point. That said...I have the next book on pre-order...
They do well with the fluff in the Black Library books. With codices, yeah, they tend to give Marines too much credit to accomplish tasks beyond them. I also thought the sizes of units they gave for the conflict was outright silly. Sure, if they were attacking a planet defended by PDF, but not Mechanicus.
ReplyDeleteBe careful playing around with CSM. There's a bug that bites you once you get in a few games, and then other armies seem dull in comparison.