C:CSM's Place In the Metagame

OK, first off, yes, I know that it's been a monthish. I've been enjoying my winter break by not doing anything besides sitting on my ass and playing with my 360.

So I thought I'd come back with something decently cool, an article about Codex: Chaos Space Marines' place in the current metagame.

Once upon a 4th edition, CSM were the shit. Lash was stomping everyone, PMs were unkillable, and Oblits were dropping Plasma Cannon templates on all those walking Marines. So what changed? On the surface, not much. CSM still place very highly in tournaments.

Well, I don't think that this is going to last much longer. CSM are slipping in the meta, and here are the reasons why.

1) Lack of good builds: if you run into CSM at a competetive tournament, it's almost definitely Lash. And compared to Lash, the other builds are somewhat gimped in an all-comers environment. Chaoszilla and Raider Rush both have problems with Mech, and guess what rules 5th? Books like Guard, Wolves, and even Marines have multiple high level builds, and Nids look like they will.

2) Dependency on Psychic Powers: in either Lash or Warptime, CSM relies on a DP's psychic power to be a real force multiplier. This worked when Psyhoods and RoW were everything that countered them. Now with things like Deathleaper's LD reducing ability and SuperSWHoods, even getting the power off is tricky. And the powers we have are one-dimensional and weak compared to some of the newer ones (looking at you, Murderous Hurricane/PBS).

3) No Psychic Defense: so any tourney army is used to having to muddle through enemy psychic defense to get its powers off. And then it runs into CSM. No psychic defense-none. So things like PBS's, Rune Priests, and GoI libbys can just go nuts on CSM.

4) Dependance on DPs: DPs are the only viable CSM HQ, and this was good when no one could kill a DP in a turn with aanything less than their entire army. And now we have IG that can toss a DP back into the Warp with a Plasmavet squad or two, SWs that can kill it with one Long Fang squad, and soon Nids with enough poison attacks that every DP will fail saves fast. Loyalists have Typhoon squadrons, Orks have lootas, etc.

5) Inability to open transports fast enough: and this is where CSM really takes it up the ass. 3 Oblit squads should open about 1.5 transports/turn. This was good enough, back when people didn't field 10+ things with an armor value on a regular basis. Termicide's good for one each, but Oblits do less and less each turn.

6) Relative weakening of troops: With GHnters and Vets having knocked CSM out of the "Best Troops" slot and Tyranids able to take 20 Gaunts and manufacture the rest (all with poison and FNP), the dominance of CSM troops is over.

So like Tau, CSM will soon be forced to sit back and wait for a new codex. In January, I'm going to be shelving mine and doing some Nids or Guard. I'll be keeping up with CSM, however, and I'm still going to be commenting on them/writing about them if something piques my interest.