Chaos review #15 the lame jumpers

Well there is a second jump pack equipped unit of crazies for Chaos, and they are the Warp Talons. These are a mix of Marine and demon for some reason. However, they are nowhere near the demon Marine combo that the Possessed are. They are basically just Chaos Marines with some demon rules and back story. By the way, I think they are a pile of suck!

The Warp Talon is a glorified assault Marine. They have basic stats and the unit champion is the same as all the others. They come equipped with a pair of lightning claws and that is all. They are jump infantry so they follow those rules. They have the Demon rule and that gives them a 5++ and useless Fear. They also have the special ability Warp Flame Strike. They start in a squad of five $1.60 in points. They can take up to five more schlubs at the cost of 30 points each.

Warp Strike-  happens whenever this squad deep strikes onto the board. Every enemy unit within 6” of the Talons is affected by the Blind rule. This forces an enemy unit to take an initiative test or have their WS and BS reduced to 1 until the end of their next turn.

They can take Veterans o’ War for +3 points each. They can also grab Marks like everybody else: Khorne +4, Tzeencth +6, Nurgle +4 and Slaanesh +3. They cannot take any Icons. Finally, the unit champion can take two rolls on the Gift o’ Mutation chart for +10 points each.

A full squad of lightning claw armed Marines is pretty scary. The extra attack for having a pair of them along with the wound re-roll is fantastic!  They can be given the Mark of Slaanesh to go at initiative 5 to enhance their killing power, or Khorne to gain +2 attacks on the charge. Either one of these make the Warp Talons sound good. However, they are a big pile of poo.

I would never take these things. Why? Well 30 points each for a one wound, no grenade having, lame ability assault Marine is bad. Who thought these were a good addition to this army? If they had the option to assault after deep striking then I could see some use for them. You have to try a risky deep strike to even attempt to use their Warp Flame Strike ability. Then you have to hope you don’t scatter badly and that your opponent, probably Marines, fail their initiative test.  I don’t mind the occasional risky deep strike, but having to always do it? No thanks.

Here we also have another assault unit without assault grenades. Why? Every Marine carries these items. Warp Talons do not have them for some asinine reason. Well I hope your opponent doesn’t utilize cover. Then you can get to go at full initiative. Otherwise you have to suffer the irritation of Overwatch followed by initiative 1 close combat. This stuff ranks the Warp Talons up there with Genestealers and Bloodletters as 6^th edition pure assault unit failures.