The new codex is out and, while I am not excited by the new codex, it is not the end of the world. Are the new units good? Some are good others are meh. Is this codex an upgrade? A little if any.
New and Missing
So they took out the Doom, the parasite, and spore pods. The doom was just too powerful. Everyone whined and so out he went. The parasite and spore pod didn't have a model so out they went. While I did have a model for the Parasite, I will not miss him much. I found that he just wasn't worth the HQ slot or points to play. Making ripper swarms is funny but it rarely happened.
My big loss was the spore pod. I made 3 of these and used them in almost every game. Whether drop the doom in, a big squad of devilguants, or a carnifex. Nothing like a bit of bugs in the backfield to help distract your opponent long enough to get your army there. We still have some deep strikers but no mishap protection. Even the mawloc cant move stuff out of his way. Good luck clearing a path for him. Maybe you hope he fails and then gets lucky and goes back into reserves....oh well.
The new big beasties look cool. They are beefy models unlike the tryanofex/tervigon. I think the exocrine will have a chance of making it into my list. I think the Haruspex is just to slow to be useful. I am sad that the the Tau and eldar mosters are fast gun platforms. I think that most things will stand back and shoot this guy down just like they do tryants, tervigon, and carnifex broods. I like the Exocrine. Sure his shot is only 24" but he can move and shoot making it 30" Maybe he will get a shot or two off before being gunned down.
The other new guy is the Crone. on paper he sounds pretty good. Haywire missiles, S8 vector Strike, flamer. He seams ok until you see T5 W5 Sv4. It is not to hard for a quad cannon to kill this guy without any help. 4 wounds on a 2+ and a failed grounding test and this guy is gone without even firing a missile. On the bright side if they shoot at the crone this turn that takes the shooting from our flying tyrants.
Warlord traits
I have never been a big fan of the warlord table. Ususually I roll on it hopping for a 6 to make my warlord an HQ. So to say I am disappointed with these is not really a big deal. I will guess I will get the one that makes Jungles into carnivorous plants. Then I will play on a city board. At least with the swarm lord I get one of his old abilities.So we have the plant trait. One that gives us nightfighting witch is cool if using rupture cannons and other long distance guns. (We don't have many) The third one is 6" to synapse. It is handy but not ground breaking. The fourth one is 2 vp for winning challenges. I hope you can play some Chaos without AP2 weapons. Next is a decent one when playing against a army that hides in ruins. I will hope for this one. The last one gives you FNP the turn after you are hurt. This would be a lot more helpful if it activated as soon as you are wounded. That way you could get to use it.
Instinctive Behavior
Instinctive behavior in 5th was no fun. When 6th rolled around all of a sudden the feed guys were getting rage. That was fun. Now it is back to being no fun and with a vengence. It is like they thought we will teach them to take advantage of a change of rules and went way overboard. I understand that we just need to be more careful with our synapse. Giving how important now synapse is I am sure people will look for ways to burn down all synapse. If they go so does the army. So just bring more synapse.Weapon changes
So everyone knows that you don't get rerolls on scything talons. I guess it was just too powerful. They did give us back +1 attack for having 2 close combat weapons. This is at least a little better. We also get an AP on all weapons as well. This is also nice. I am on the fence about whether they cancel each other out. I mean I loved rerolling 1s but this just changes how I kit out tyrants.Bone swords got a bonus and a nerf as well. They always do ID now no more ld test but now they are AP3. I saw this coming since power swords moved to ap3 as well. They needed to make room for the new and improved crushing claws. These now give you +1S and AP2. No more D3 attacks. I like these rules better. Just because I rarely used them before. Now I might try some on some tyrant guard.
Another change made was lash whips no longer slow your opponent but make you faster. Not bad. I still like the idea of wrapping up you opponents but this will help out as well. Another big boon to I is more units have flesh hooks. They took away the rending but at least now my shrikes can have them.
There is the new shock cannon with gives hive guards a 1 shot haywire shot at 18" I think I will keep the 2 shot impaler cannon. S8 ignores cover and 2 shots are much better now that hive guard are worse at shooting. I got a kit though so I will try them out. Maybe they will be awesome!
The also got rid of the pesky -1 on the damage chart that the venom cannon had. I might start running a tyrant with one or maybe a carnifex. It is deffintatly is a plus but is it enough to warrent losing a set of brain leach devourers... probably not.
So that is all for today. Next time I will start going into different Force org slots.
The sky is not falling. It is not total rubbish. It is just like when we got our 5th editon codex. We lost stuff and gained stuff. All in all we will adapt and keep on going. As long as my bugs can nom nom I will be carry on.
Questions? Comments? Nom nom noms?
