TRAITOR'S HATE: I'VE RUN OUT OF PUNS

Here we go, this is the big thing.  The thing that everyone talked about, the over so powerful psychic powers.  We already know them as they are the same powers that the Angels of Death supplement gifted to the sheep Astartes.  But we only ever really heard about 3 powers.  Why is that?  Because those brainwashed Imperial fools don't need many of the other powers.  With things like Grav, chapter tactics, and free transports they can afford to put their points into guns and other things that reliably kill things and not have to rely on the shifty business that is the warp.

Chaos on the other hand, we don't have all the handouts and support from our trust fund that Daddy set up.  We made it in the world on our own using our own guile and any damn trick of the trade we can learn.  Sure, we aren't driving around in a Bugatti, but we have a sense of accomplishment instead of entitlement.

Wow, that got weird.  Now things are all awkward and shit so lets get back into being nerds and get into the powers.  Now as there are 28 powers I am not going to go through all of them.  I will pick out a couple good ones that can particularly help out Chaos Space Marines and give a couple ideas as to how they can be used.  Lets begin with...

GEOMORTIS

Do you run a Deathstar of Spawn, Khorne Dogs, or Bloodcrushers then this is the power for you.  Imagine healing D3 wounds and giving the whole unit IWND.  Well, now make it a reality.  It's only WC1 and targets any Character within 18".  Go go Deathstar Hammer.

Torturer of Worlds is another good one, it's more offensive in a sideways manner as it doesn't cause any damage, but could seriously hamper your opponent's plan.  It's basically a nova malediction with a range of 18" and causes targets to move as if they were in difficult terrain AND then can't run, turbo-boost, or move flat out.  This is pretty good keeping Eldar Scat-Packs from getting away and keeping a lid on that Battle Focus shenanigans.  It also nips the Screamer-star from using their tail slash, Ork bike-stars from getting their jink bonus and Wulfen from running AND charging.

And of course there's Earthly Anathema.  Those flicker jumping Warp Spiders causing you issues jumping behind terrain?  Or perhaps those Tau suits move-jump-shoot tricks keeping out of sight?  Well, no more worries there.  You don't need to see them and you don't need to worry about their damn cover saves.  So, Rapiers, Oblits, Predators, Forgefiends, and all those other things that can shoot but aren't taken cause of reasons just got a shit ton better.

Last, but certainly not least, is Worldwrithe.  Which is Chaos talk for "move terrain around"  We all know the merits and bull shit with this one as it has been discussed to death.  Angels of Death to be precise.  Most tourneys don't allow it, so there isn't really much to say.  Moving terrain seems cool and all for a themed game, or for basement shits and giggles, but it's a tournament nightmare.

ECTOMANCY

OK, so I'm going through these powers and as far as I'm concerned, all of them are better than any of the God powers in the Chaos book.  Assault 6 heavy bolter is pretty sweet, extra hits in combat is good, a 3++ is good.  Even the 9" nova with haywire is good for stripping off Hull Points from parking lots.  Oh, and there's the pick a unit up and move it 18".  And we can't leave out the swaperoo that the Imperials were going ape shit over until the ITC guys nerfed it to prevent the assault from happening.  Now I actually have not read the powers in Angels of Death, only heard and read about them on social media, but the one in Traitor's Hate specifically states that you can charge in the same turn this power is cast.

So Chaos Space Marines lack a couple things, speed, medium strength firepower, durability, and this discipline has powers to offset those weaknesses.  Imagine Ahriman pumping out 18 heavy bolter shots.  Or killing an entire parking lot with 3 Daemonshrieks.  A Daemon Prince of Tzeentch with a 3++ would be amazing.  This discipline is not the best of the 4, but I think it might have the best average of powers, each of them being useful is some way even if they are nerfed by those guys at ITC central.

Now I wanna play out a quick little scenario using the 2 movement powers Ghost Storm and Soul Switch and the Terminator Annihilation Force (TAF) formation, you may want to check out my previous post to see the strengths of the TAF.  The TAF is capable of taking a Sorcerer in terminator armour, so if he happens to get one or both of these powers, we can use them to perform some movement shenanigans in order to get the most of your forces.  Now we know that deep strike is a little iffy, what with that scatter and such it just isn't all that reliable.  So lets say you drop in your 3 units of termis and 1 lands exactly on target and is able to destroy your chosen target while the other 2 drift off target and are not able to use their combi meltas.  You can use the Sorcerer to move one of the Terminator squads towards your next target, and then use Soulswitch to move the Sorcerer's unit to your potential 3rd target in hopes that your second unit kills it's target.  Plus both of these powers allow you to move your precious terminators out of perfect pie/cupcake plate formation.  If you don't know what cupcake is, ask the guys at TFG Radio.

HERETECH

POWER OF THE MACHINE SPIRIT!!! Are you fucking kidding me?  After all these years we finally get this ability in the form of Boon of the Iron Beast, and you can cast it on the vehicle that he is riding in.  Sure you all are thinking Land Raider but you need to start thinking outside the box and apply this to Storm Eagles, Chaos Sicarian tanks, and Forgefiends.  Especially Forgefiends that are shooting at BS 5 because they are using the formation from the Black Legion book, pair that with them using their Daemonforge ability and you are reliably smashing a vehicle per turn.

Hey, who likes T7 Spawn or T7 bikers?  Yeah, Chaos does.  With Fleshmetal Hide you can boost the T value of an entire unit by 1.  Never mind that, you can have a whole fucking 20 man squad of T6 Marines.  This power really comes into it's own when paired with the Mark of Nurgle giving any unit a massive +2T bonus.  Possessed become seriously durable giving them a shot at making it to the fight where they belong.  And our precious Daemon Prince finally becomes T6 and can't be taken out by S10.

And then there is Flayerstorm.  Not only does it have a fucking awesome name it also tears apart vehicles with ease.  Then it smashes those pieces into nearby enemies.  They don't even need to be that nearby, 12".  Think those Warpspiders are pains in the ass, cast this on a Wave Serpent in the vicinity and smash them with the pieces.
Another thing that Chaos struggles with is killing super heavies.  We don't have a lot of high strength shooting and assaulting them just gets us stomped or blitzed or exploded on, so being able to just pull of hull points is just gravy.  It is potentially possible to kill a Knight by casting Flayerstorm and Scrapcode Curse.

SINISTRUM

This discipline is arguably the best, at least it's my favourite.  Any AP3 shooting attacks always makes me smile and this one is it's Primaris.  It also has that power everyone loves that grants you the boon of re-rolling failed saving throws.  Those imperial swine love that one.  One they don't have much use for is Armour of Hatred.  It grants a 12" buff zone of Fearless and Adamantium Will and a 4++ vs witchfires.  That fearless bubble is amazing for Chaos as we tend to be chicken shits when it hits the fan.

Diabolic Strength grants the psyker +2 to S, T, I, and A.  Which is fucking awesome if that psyker happens to be a Daemon Prince.  S8, T7, I fucking a million, and A7 makes him a god damn monster.  Even on a normal Sorcerer makes him one scary mamma-jamma.

This next one is my favourite, Warp Lure gives you that chance to really stick it to your enemy and strip him of that power that keeps his Deathstar alive.  Pick an enemy psyker 24" away, you roll 2D6, pick the highest and add your mastery level, your opponent rolls a single D6 and adds the target's ML.  If you score higher, which is likely, the target can only harness warp charges on a 6, if you score 3 or more points higher, the target looses a random power.  If you can manage to get that power off on that dude with Invis, you're golden, and it's got a decent range for a psychic power.

And speaking of Deathstars, this last power will make all those Stormshield wielding Thunderwolves wet their pants a little.  Death Hex puts a -2 modifier to Invul saves on a target unit which is insurmountable.  I don't feel like I really need to go over the usefulness of this one any further.

Well, there we have it.  Easily 2/3 of the powers are useful to Chaos players and should boost the chaos army soundly.  The rest, while not ideal, are not going to break the game.  There are a couple key powers that seem to feed the idea of Deathstar hammer with re-rolling saving throws and +1T to the unit, but others seem to strike back at the Deathstar unit such as -2 to the invul save, stripping away psychic powers, and preventing them from taking board control by limiting movement in the shooting phase.

Until next time, keep them dice rollin.