Combat Patrol: Chaos Space Marines - Unboxing

Death to the False Emperor! Chaos Space Marines are led by Dark Apostles, fanatical heretics who spread the word of the Chaos Gods. The Heretic Astartes that follow them are armed with an array of deadly weaponry - let the galaxy burn! Today we’ll be unboxing Combat Patrol: Chaos Space Marines. All the models in this box are available separately.

The box art features only a sample of the plentiful options.

Combat Patrol: Chaos Space Marines contains three large sprues and two small sprues. The small sprues are the components for the Dark Apostle and his two dark disciples. The first of the larger sprues provides the pieces to build ten Legionaires, whilst the second contains parts to build five Havocs. These pieces are fully compatible, giving you more weapon options and increased variety between units. The third large sprue is for the Chaos Helbrute. This gives you enough models to start playing straight away, as you have a HQ, one or two Troop units, one Elite unit, and one Heavy Support unit, giving a lot of flexibility already, and comes in at around 500 points – a good starting place for anyone.

These sprues are packed full of components.

Dark Apostle

The Dark Apostle and his Dark Disciples.

The Dark Apostle is the leader of your warband, chanting prayers to Dark Gods and spreading the blessings of Chaos. The Dark Apostle and his disciples are the easiest models in this set to build; they have no weapon options, and the three models come in a total of nineteen parts. This is great for new players, and probably the best place to start if you’ve never built a miniature before, but it does mean that if you include multiple Dark Apostles, you will have identical models.

Legionaires

Chaos Legionaires have options to provide fire support or excel in close combat.

Legionaires will form the core of your army, and have a variety of options to fit any battlefield role you require. You can choose to build them as one unit of ten, two units of five. Each model is relatively easy to assemble, consisting of around ten parts, although this varies on what weapon option each is given. Any model can be given a choice of a chainsword or boltgun, and some also have the option for a special weapon, or can be built as a champion. The options may be a bit overwhelming to new players but does allow for a lot of variability, so no model in your army need look the same. The Legionaires can be fairly tricky and time consuming to paint, the amount of trim and detail on each model can be quite time-consuming to paint, so it’s best to know this beforehand – if you don’t like painting lots of little details, keep your colour scheme as simple as you can.

Due to the number of options available, if you aren’t sure how you want to build your unit, it’s best to sit down with the codex before assembling anything and work out what role you want your Legionaires to fill. Do you want a unit to sit on an objective or advance up the battlefield in a Rhino? Do you prefer range or close combat? Your preference will affect how you want to build these.

Havocs

Havocs have a wide range of anti-infantry and anti-armour weapons.

Havocs provide the Traitor Legions with a mass of devastating firepower, and can be equipped to deal with infantry and armour alike. Havocs are more complicated to build than the Legionaires, consisting of between ten and twenty parts for each, although are still straightforward to build, they just require more time. Like the Legionaires, they have a multitude of options, the Champion has a variety of close combat and ranged weapons to choose from, whilst nine heavy weapons are provided for the rest of the unit. You get one reaper chaincannon, which is my personal favourite, and two of each of the other weapons: havoc autocannon, heavy bolter, lascannon, and missile launchers.

As with the Legionaires, this may be overwhelming for new players, and again I would recommend working out what you want to assemble before doing so. What’s great about this kit is that you can also mix and match parts with the Legionaires. I chose to do so when assembling mine, meaning I built ten Havocs and five Legionaires from the box, as I already had some Legionaires, making use of the spare parts already. You will need to buy some additional 40mm bases to do so, as enough aren’t provided in the box to build two units.

Helbrute

The Chaos Helbrute is a deadly infusion of flesh and machine.

Helbrutes are Chaos Dreadnoughts, containing a Chaos Space Marine within their chest. Helbrutes are by far the most complicated model in the Combat Patrol to build, and have a wealth of weapon options at their disposal. If you have the modelling skills, I recommend magnetising the different arms so you can choose which weapons you want to use, or, as with the other units in this set, work out how you want to equip your Helbrute before assembling it. The torso and legs combined come in 26 different parts, which can be overwhelming to those new to the hobby, but the assembly is still clear and simple to do, it will just take time. If you do choose to magnetise anything, this will also increase the amount of time it takes to build the Helbrute. When I was building mine, I knew they were certain weapon options I wouldn’t use, so chose not to magnetise these; these were the hammer and twin heavy bolter. Besides the weapon options, there are a few different choices to give variety to your Helbrutes, to keep them from looking the same.

Pros

Good value for money

Lots of detail

Good starting force or good for expanding an existing army.

Lots of options, so you can build everything to suit your playstyle

Cons

Detailed models with lots of trim can be frustrating to paint

The number of options may be overwhelming to new players

Overall, I really like the Combat Patrol: Chaos Space Marines, it has a nice core to build up on, and has options to suit almost any playstyle. The amount of trim on each model is annoying to paint, but once you get past that they are really lovely models, and there’s loads of detail crammed into each model, making them perfect for painters. The options are great from a gamers point of view, as you can really customise how you want the army to play. Unlike the previous Start Collecting! box, which had a very daemonic feel to it, the army doesn’t have a strong narrative to it yet either, so it allows narrative players to not feel like they’re wasting any of the models from it either.

Later in the week I’ll be reviewing the Chaos kits from Eldritch Omens for members, so if you’re not already a member, sign up now to receive extra content from me! I post more reviews, painting guides, and a write up of my D&D campaign. You can also support me by becoming a Patron, to receive similar perks!

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Happy gaming!

Chris