Chaos Cults: The Showdown

Greetings folks.  Among the turbulence of the warp, Chaos has sprung anew with more followers of the Dark Gods.  Whilst the new Codex: Crimson Slaughter has come at the disappointment of many of the die hard fans of the older legions of Chaos, it is indeed more for the Chaos Space Marines to consider.  While I myself am a bit underwhelmed by the book overall, it did come with a few new kits and a dataslate.  The Terminators and the Lord got a minor re-cut, and the Hellbrute got a full blown kit.  Not only that, but a great dataslate with three options, all of which offer something great.  I am a fan of this because I have always loved the dreadnought as a model and a unit.  Now there is a way to run it with a pretty unique set of options.  I'd dare say they even do it better than their highest competition, the Iron Hands.  If nothing else, Iron Warrior's everywhere should really like these formations.

Regardless, a midst the swirling chaos of the warp, I have decided to take a look at the more prominent members of the dark ranks.  The Cult Legions of the Chaos Space Marines.  Everyone knows the fluff behind these guys, but what I am interested in right now is how they compare with each other.  Nothing here should sway you away from using them in a themed list should you desire.  But with the fascination with Nurgle Marines being the current flavor, I wanted to take a look at all four and really see what each cult has to offer, and which I think wins the favor as greatest among equals.

WARNING: the following is based completely on my views as a player, and I recognize bias is ever an issue with opinion/observation-based articles.  As such, take all that you read with a colossal size grain of naturally occurring, flavor enhancing crystal.

Plasma vs. Grav Tech: The Showdown

General greetings, and welcome to the second installment of The Showdown.  With the Space Marine codex hot off the presses, the masses of the internet have begun to sift through its pages in search of the ever popular "optimized net-list."  While my feels on the codex vary, it looks like a solid codex with several good choices.  That said, it does feel some options can be much more useful than others with very little effort.  But that is not the point of this article.  This showdown stems from the grav-weaponry introduced to the Marine players as a genuinely new trick they have to bring to the table.  But given it's use, and it's fairly direct competition from plasma weapons based on point cost, stats, and who it is that can bring these weapons, it is this comparison with plasma that strikes most when it comes to the question, "How viable are the new Grav weapons?"  So lets take a look and find out.

WARNING: the following is based completely on my views as a player, and I recognize bias is ever an issue with opinion/observation-based articles.  As such, take all that you read with a colossal size grain of that naturally occurring, flavor enhancing crystal.

Chaplain vs. Librarian: The Showdown

Welcome all to the first installment of a new series I shall be attending for Rites: The Showdown.  This series will take two units, usually sharing some similarity and breakdown in-depth what it is about them that shines.  And having had been made to suffer the presence of the witch we all know as Corvus, the Templar in me has decided to breakdown the uses of the Chaplain vs. the Librarian for the first showdown.

WARNING: the following is based completely on my views as a player, and I recognize bias is ever an issue with opinion/observation-based articles.  As such, take all that you read with a colossal size grain of naturally occurring, flavor enhancing crystal.

So as it is probably easy to recognize, these units are both HQ choices presented in just about every Space Marine codex.  A few exceptions are that some codexes refer to these units with different names, such as the Blood Angel "Reclusiarch" as well as their chaplains found in the elite slot. The Space Wolf "Rune Priest" and "Wolf Priest."  The Black Templars have no Librarians at all, so they will only be contributing for the men in black.  Regardless of name, I will be looking into the HQ version of each codex for this comparison.  So lets get down to business.