Prepare yourself for some vile heresy, as the new codex for Warhammer 40k’s spikiest faction, the Chaos Space Marines, is coming up next week. On Sunday, Games Workshop announced a slew of products which will be available to pre-order from Saturday, June 25. Pride of place among them was Codex: Chaos Space Marines, along with the new Chaos Space Marines Combat Patrol.
We’ve already seen some of the myriad 9th edition changes that can be found in the upcoming Chaos Space Marines codex through Warhammer Community previews. For one thing, Chaos Space Marines finally have two wounds – a sorely-needed upgrade that should help bring them up to speed with their loyalist Imperium counterparts.
GW has also promised new legion rules for each traitor legion – including warlord traits, relics, stratagems, a legion trait, and secondary objectives. We weren’t sure at first what was meant by ‘each’, but we now know there’ll be eight subfactions. It seems the codex will include six of the nine original traitor legions – minus Thousand Sons, Death Guard, and World Eaters, the ones with standalone codexes – and then Red Corsairs and Creations of Bile.
WarCom states there’ll be ‘prayers, psychic powers, Marks of Chaos’, along with datasheets for 44 units. In terms of raw numbers, that’s actually somewhat fewer than the previous codex had, despite all the new Chaos Space Marine kits shown off at Warhammer Fest. The Chaos Space Marines codex for 8th edition had 45 datasheets initially, but there were 53 datasheets in the updated 2019 version.
First revealed back in May, Combat Patrol: Chaos Space Marines looks to have a nice mixture of different unit types, with 10 Legionnaires, five Havocs, a Helbrute, and a Dark Apostle flanked by two Dark Disciples. There’s a total of 19 models, coming in all shapes and sizes.
As with every Warhammer 40k codex release, there are extras and accessories available. Codex: Chaos Space Marines has an optional collector’s edition, with silver foil page edges and a soft-touch cover, and there are also custom datacards and dice. The dice deserve a little shout out for being a clear and readable black on red, with a star of chaos on the six. (Not a given, just compare them to the new Skaven dice for Age of Sigmar).
Both codex and Combat Patrol will be available to pre-order from Games Workshop’s webstore on June 25. Chaos Space Marines aren’t the only Warhammer 40k faction getting some love this weekend, though. The Genestealer Cults are also getting a Combat Patrol of their own.
For more details on upcoming Warhammer releases check out our Warhammer 40k 9th edition codex release date guide, or our Combat Patrol introduction. And if you need a recap on the Dark Gods, here’s all you need to know about Warhammer’s Chaos factions.