The Chaos Decimator is a cool new addition to the Forge World collection (image left is from Forge World). In short, it is a daemon engine available to both Chaos Space Marine and Daemon armies that uses an elite slot. Apart from obviously proxy-ing for a dreadnought, Forge World has released a set of experimental rules for the beastie. I have a few mixed thoughts on the rules.
Firstly, the main advantage of the decimator is its regenerative ability. To wipe it off the tabletop, an explosion is the only effective killing method. Anything short of that risks a regenerative roll. Although that roll can fail permanently (and not be re-rolled on subsequent turns), I wonder if 155 points a little on the high side for this beast? To compete with the other armies out there, I wonder if 10 points cheaper might be a better way to go. Once the upgrades are factored in, the "typical" decimator build would probably be a butcher cannon plus a mark of chaos - totalling an extra 35 points for a grand total of 190 points. That kind of points level puts in in league with HQs of a greater daemon nature ... and just a little below some of the cheaper land raiders.
In terms of the marks of chaos, despite them all having the same points cost, I think what you get for the abilities has a startlingly large range. The mark of Nurgle gives a tremendous boost to the unholy vigour rolls (allowing re-rolls) and seems vastly more powerful than the Slaanesh mark which simply purchases assault and defensive grenades. Those grenades are a bit "shrug" for my liking in comparison to the Nurgle mark! I think the Khorne mark should probably have been in keeping with all other Khorne marks and given +1 base attacks. The Tzeentch mark is interesting (re-roll ranged to hit rolls of 1 and bonus strength to heavy flamer attacks) and is about in the middle of the bunch for me.
Hence whilst being very cool, I think the rules may need to be tweaked a little: less points basecost; get the marks of chaos costing different points and make them more in line with the regular codexes.
Other than that, this adds another important cog to the chaos daemons codex. I could imagine fielding a few of these, coupled with soul grinders and several blight drones of Nurgle in the fast attack slot to create quite a unique and scary army.
Firstly, the main advantage of the decimator is its regenerative ability. To wipe it off the tabletop, an explosion is the only effective killing method. Anything short of that risks a regenerative roll. Although that roll can fail permanently (and not be re-rolled on subsequent turns), I wonder if 155 points a little on the high side for this beast? To compete with the other armies out there, I wonder if 10 points cheaper might be a better way to go. Once the upgrades are factored in, the "typical" decimator build would probably be a butcher cannon plus a mark of chaos - totalling an extra 35 points for a grand total of 190 points. That kind of points level puts in in league with HQs of a greater daemon nature ... and just a little below some of the cheaper land raiders.
In terms of the marks of chaos, despite them all having the same points cost, I think what you get for the abilities has a startlingly large range. The mark of Nurgle gives a tremendous boost to the unholy vigour rolls (allowing re-rolls) and seems vastly more powerful than the Slaanesh mark which simply purchases assault and defensive grenades. Those grenades are a bit "shrug" for my liking in comparison to the Nurgle mark! I think the Khorne mark should probably have been in keeping with all other Khorne marks and given +1 base attacks. The Tzeentch mark is interesting (re-roll ranged to hit rolls of 1 and bonus strength to heavy flamer attacks) and is about in the middle of the bunch for me.
Hence whilst being very cool, I think the rules may need to be tweaked a little: less points basecost; get the marks of chaos costing different points and make them more in line with the regular codexes.
Other than that, this adds another important cog to the chaos daemons codex. I could imagine fielding a few of these, coupled with soul grinders and several blight drones of Nurgle in the fast attack slot to create quite a unique and scary army.
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