Chaos Marine Analysis - Raptors

Just as a quick supplement to the Invasion tournament report, I've just seen the final scores for the event. It looks like my team drew with the winning team on points for both games and painting, meaning that the winner was determined on a dice roll (1-3 this team, 4-6 that team), which we lost. Balls.

But anyway, sorry for the lack of Chaos posts recently, I got distracted by my shiny new toys.

I only just discovered that my local WHSmiths not only sells White Dwarf, but also Wargames Illustrated, Toy Soldier, and other tabletop wargaming magazines. They also sell Settlers of Catan and the Discworld 'Ankh Morpork (sp?)' board game. You know you're in Oxford.

Anyway, I spent the last day or so assembling my £56 Vendetta, and then on its first outing it fell off the table during an Apocalypse game smashing into many many pieces. Anyway, long story short tomorrow I'm going to spend a further £4 on some new glue because after nearly 10 years in the hobby I am fed up with GW's glue, it's more expensive and it stretches the definition of glue to the limit. The irony being that the glue in question was a replacement to the glue that I brought back to my GW when they released the dodgy batch. In my opinion, they're all dopey batches.

But anyway, back to Chaos. I'm hoping to have Fast Attack done with by the end of tomorrow, although as it's 20 to midnight while I write this tomorrow may turn into today, so stay tuned for that. Raptors.
 

Well, I think that I can safely say that these guys are better than they were in the last Codex. For a start, I really like their new models. Secondly, I don't think that they're priced too badly. 4Pts more expensive than a standard Chaos Marine, and for that you lose your bolter but you gain a free close combat weapon, a jump pack and fear (which isn't much, highly situational and won't help against most units that you would need it against).

A further thing that I like about the Raptors is the ability to take them in squads of 15. I think that this is really starting to become a common theme across the Chaos Space Marine Codex, every power armoured unit that you get has the ability to come in large blocks. Essentially though, they are still Chaotic assault marines, although you can probably pile on enough attacks on the charge to make up for the lack of power weapons (46 inc Champion).

Running through the wargear. Plasma Pistol, no, I could nearly get another raptor for that. Flamer, no, at that range I am getting enough S4 hits anyway. Meltagun, meh, why not, although I'm sure there'd be some better anti-tank in here somewhere, if you're looking for small, fast tank hunting, semi-suicide squads why not, they'll die the moment they pop something.

Plasma gun, better than a plasma pistol, and same cost, but still no. Melee weapons on Champion, why not more attacks, he'll be in challenges most of the time anyway. If you're really feeling it go for a power weapon. Gift of Mutation, for the fun why not, but I wouldn't. Melta bombs on the Champion, yes. Gives you the ability to at least damage vehicles in combat giving you more versatility, and 5pts too, sweet.

Marks, go with Mark of Slaanesh if you want one. Cheapest of the Marks and FNP, although it bumps their cost to almost 20pts per model. Icons, they're fine, but I personally don't like the idea of pumping too many upgrades into this squad. The fearless icon is Ok, but I would probably take Veterans of the Long War instead. LD10 should do the trick.

Overall, I think that Raptors are one of those 'not bad units', if you're on a board with lots of cover, so you can hop about avoiding fire and jumping out on enemies like I've seen Hellions do. This works especially well considering that you get your 3+ against dangerous terrain now. But to be honest, in a slot that also contains Spawn, Bikers and your only flyer (my gaming club in Sheffield's Facebook page has gone crazy about whether the Heldrake is any good or not), I don't think that, 'not bad' cuts it.