Throwing out the rest of Codex CSM. Next up the loyalist Marines.
Page 41
Post-action reports and pict-skull images have allowed Imperial Strategos to piece together the nature of this diabolical creation.
Imperial Strategos. Strategy planning group I'm guessing, in some centralized manner at least. It's in reference to a defiler.
Page 41
A Defiler's most potent ranged armament is a battle cannon mounted in the turret, which is capable of blowing apart vehicles and destroying enemy squads with a single blast.
Capabilities of the Defiler battle cannon.
page 42
One of the most daring Chaos Space Marine raids took place on the planet of Scount's Fall, a mere hundred light years from Terra. Having slipped through the Cadian Gate, a small flotilla of ships from the Night Lords legion spent months in the Warp evading detection by Imperial patrols and pickets. Scound's Fall was chosen as a target because of its large Schola Progenium Abbey. Here future Admirals, Commissars, Storm troopers, and Sisters of Battle were housed and trained by the Ministorum.
The Night Lords spend "months" in the warp evading Imperial forces after escaping the Eye and head towards Terra (a distance of maybe some few tens of thousands of light years) Average warp speed is between tens of thousands times c to a few hundred thousand times c, depending on how many months and how much of a straight line course it was.
Also Schola Progenium training "Admirals commissars, Storm troopers, and Sisters of Battle"
Page 42
The Rhino is the ubiquitous transport vehicle of the Space Marines, and at the time fo the Horus HEresy each Legion had access ot hundreds of these armoured vehicles. Its chassis is based on Standard Template Construct design, meaning that it is relatively simple to build and maintain, and capable of using a variety of engines and fuels.
Each legion suppposedly had "hundreds" of Rhinos. Either they werent' fully mechanized back then, or "hundreds" is an understatement (a few thousand in Rhinos vs tens or hundreds of Legionnaires total?)
Page 42
A Chaos Rhino is often upgraded with short-ranged Havoc Rocket Launchers to turn it into a more powerful fighting vehicles.
They can stick rocket launchers onto Rhinos. I assume this is similar to sticking hunter killer missiles on Imperial vehicles.
Page 43
The Vindicator sacrfiices its transport capacity in order to mount reinforced armour, additional internal bracing and ammunition storage. This is needed for the massive Demolisher cannon mounted on the front of the hull, supported by thick recoil suppressors.
..
The Demolisher cannon fires a large bore shell packed with high explosives. While it lacks the range of a standard battlecannon, the demolisher is more potent and can breach a city wall or obliterate a tank.
..
During the Dominion of Fire, two Chaos Vindicators belonging to the Brothers of Anarchy spearheaded the Choas Spacee MArine attack on Forterss Secundex, battering their way through its fifteen metre thick rockcrete curtain wall over the course of three days.
Vindicators packing demolisher cannon . Usual bit about being shorter ranged but more powerful, although whether the power is from the momentum/impact, the size of the shell and its explosive properties, or both isn't specified. Two can blast through a fifteen metre thick defensive wall in three days (not sure if its sustained fire or not)
Page 45
One of the loyalists heard the pounding of their armoured boots and turned, his bolter ready. The muzzle of his bolter flared and Adrastus felt three solid impacts to the left side of his chest. Spitting back a curse, he hurled himself at the Space Marine.
CSM armour resisting bolter impacts from short range.
Page 45
Standing up, Adrastus wrenched the power sword free, blood hissing form its energised blade, and held it aloft.
Power sword having thermal effects.
Page 46
IT is rumored that Abbadon may have been a clone-son of Horus himself, a direct creation of the Primarch's Gene-seed.
Unlikely, given the current HH fluff, but possible I suppose.
Page 46
Abbadon has led twelve more Black Crusades against the Imperium since his first horrific onslaught. Each attack has sent the Imperium reeling and ravaged worlds clsoe to the Eye of Terror. With every assault Abbadon leads, the strength of his Black Legion grows. In the minds of the Chaos Spacee Marines, success is a sign of the Chaos God's favour, and Abbadon is now seen by many as the natural succecssor to Horus. Only the Daemon Primarchs wield as much power as the Warmaster of the Black Legion. The High Lords of Terra dread the day that Abbadon truly unites all of the Traitor Legions and returns to Earth to play out the last acts of treachery begun by Horus ten thousand years ago. Their fear is not without just cause.
Were Abbadon to actually UNITE the CSM legions and launch an assault, he might actually put the Imperium at risk, but with the low scale stuff e does his main threat seems largely to be one of terror or psychological value (or gaining cred with the CSMs)
Page 48
When Horus was defeated, Kharn already lay horribly mangled upon a mound of corpses.
His fellow World Eaters carried away his lifeless remains and fought their way back to their ships. Once aboard they discovered that by some dark miracle Kharn still lived. Whether Khorne had breathed life back into his Berzerker Champion or Kharn's own relentless spirit simply refused to leave, it is impossible to say.
Kharn basically came back from the dead. One wonders if Khorne would keep raising him if need be.
Page 49
With a blinding blast Kharn fired his pistol, its incandescent shot smashing a hole through Thiron's chest and hurling him backwards onto the cathedral steps.
Plasma pistol shot punching through CSM armor and knocking him backwards.
Page 49
Bolts from Horkal's pistol sparked from the Betrayer's armour, leaving small craters in the blood-red ceramite.
Kharn's armour is immune to sustained bolt pistol fire.
Page 50
.. the Emperor unleashed the Spacec Wolves against Prospero. Delicate towers of vast antiquity were asmashed to rubble by energy beams from above, vast libraries of incalcuably precious works were burned beneath a rain of fusion fire.
Fusion fire - beams or bombs?
Pag 52
Most of Bile's experiments end with his subjects dead or so horribly disfigured and deformed they might wish for death, but in several battles the Emperor's Space Marines have encountered fierce resistance from a hardened cadre of enhancecd humans who fight with the strength and cunning of devils. These altered specimens of Bile's experimentation exhibit strength, speed, and intelligence many times greater than the human norm. These are Bile's proudest creations; the New Man that forms the pinnacle of his foul art.
All of Man's worst traits have been bred into these creatures, married with the ambition of a tyrant and the physique of the most prized warriors. Fabius Bile owuld see these creations spread throughout the galaxy, leading rebellions and usurping rule from the Imperial Commanders. Even the Inquisition does not know how many of these abominations have escaped into the galaxy, but they do know they are almost impossible to locate until their incipient psychosis sends them into a manic killing spree.
Bile's "new Men" as describedin the earlier codexes.
Page 56
Huron was crtiically injured by a melta-blast near the end of the siege of Badab in the fighting inside the Palace of Thorns.
A rather miraculous survival, I'd say.
Page 56
In recent years shipping close to the Maelstrom has adopted a convoy system. Dozens of merchant vessels, protected by Imperial navy escorts, make the perilous journey to worlds such as Morgan's Reach, Tarturga VI, Verkruz, and Zathatethus Grand.
..
By these means, the strength of the Red Corsairs grows, and the name of Huron Blackheart is whispered fearfully across a score of sectors.
Truthfully I can't imagine how much "strngth" you can gain from captured merchant vessels and perhaps their escorts.
Of interesting note is the "convoy" system adopted, including escorts. This implies it is not a common practice in the Imperium as a rule. It may depend on the region (some being more dangerous than others).
Blackheart supposedly "threatens" a score of Sectors, which would in theory make him much more terrible than Abbadon, and certainly more horrifying than your average CSM champion.
Page 57
Most space hulks drift randomly upon warp eddies, but sometimes Chaos renegades will activate antiquated engines and employ the power of Chaos Sorcerers to steer a space hulk towards a target.
Chaos Sorcerers can also navigate the Warp after a fashion. Probably slower than Navigators, but hell.
In theory this might also mean any psyker could navigate the warp after a fashion (Weirdboyz have been used too.), at leats over short distances the same way non-Astropathic psykers can in theory send messages (just not as well as Astropaths.)
Page 58
Forewarned of the Astartes task forcee, Huron left several of his ships in reserve. He then took a more circuitous route to Parenxes than was necessary, arriving in the system on the opposite side of the star. AS the Death Hawks' and Space Wolves' vessels moved to intercept the Red Corsair fleet, Huron's reinforcements attacked from the opposite direction. The Space Marines were cuaght between two renegade fleets and desperately tried to break out of the trap.
..
Meanwhle, he manoeuvred his fleets into a wide net that forced the trapped Space Marines closer and clsoer to the Parenxes star.
Implies Huron emerged from the system fairly close to the star, but isn't definite. Also use of warp drive in a tactical manner (to navigate around the system to enclose an enemy)
PAge 58
In reality, Huron placed his flagship there, on minimal power so that it could not be detected at long range.
..
Instead of a full-scale boarding attack, Huron despatched his Red Corsairs in boarding torpedoes - some one hundred and twenty warriors in total.
Drifting almost silently through the void, the boarding torpedoes of the Red Corsairs split into three waves.
Huron using stealth tactics of 'running silent' - actual success of this tactic in reality in space debatable. Probably some sort of passive stealth measures that exist as well.
Page 58
Only when the torpedoes were less than half a dozen kilometres away were they detected by the auguries of the Space Wolves' ship. For several seconds, defence turrets opened up a furious bombardment around the torpedo wave. Despite the intensity of the barrage, only one torpedo was destroyed and the surviving four strruck home.
6 km away and "several seconds" suggests an average velocity of 2-3 km/s. Rather low, considering in other cases (Eg Iron Hands) they get to hundreds of km/s. Probably depends on alot of factors (stealth, need for manuvering, kind of boarding torpedo, etc.)
Page 58
With explosive melta charges the boarding torpedoes smashed their way through the armoured huhll of the strrike cruiser. FRag launchers mounted in their tips exploded, filling the interior of the ship's chambers with a storm of shrapnel to clear defenders.
...
As strobing photon flash fields detonated, blinding and disorienting any survivors, the fronts of the torpedoes opened up like the petals of a flower and the Red corsairs stormed out.
Boarding torpedo gear includes flare and frag stuff and melta charges for breaching.
Page 58
Their auto-senses unaffected by the visual barrage unleashed by the torpedoes entry, the renegades let loose a hail of fire with their bolters.
..
A counter-attack led by one of the Space Wovles' Iron priests was short lived, as the Red Corsairs deployed their lascannons and melta g uns to the attack.
Auto senses immune to flash/flare effects, and the use of lascannons onboard ship.
Page 59
The Red Corsairs had improvised additional barricades and sited their heavy weapons to rain heavy bolter fire and lascannon blasts down the accecss corridors.
Again using lascannon onboard ship.
Page 59
With the entry portal secured, the Red Corsairs brought up a phase field generator to breach the titanium-reinforced doors...
..
Projecting a localised warp field, the generator vaporised a perfect circle of the armoured gateway.
Phase field generators. This particular variant seems to actually do phyiscal damage to mateiral objects. Usually they just make a temporary portal through.
Page 61
The Warp is the realm of Daemons. As well as psychic predators such as Enslavers and Vampyrs.
I'm not actually clear what the difference is between Daemons and psychic predators, but apparently there is one since the former is the realm of the Ordo Malleus while the latter can fall under Ordo Xenos.
Page 61
Each Chaos God is a coalescence of countless souls, greater than the sum of its parts but capable of investing its essence into the creation of Daemons. Many of these Daemons, known as lesser Daemons and Daemonic Beasts, are nothing more than appendages, wholly slaved to the will of the Choas God and capable of little more than acting on their rudimentry instincts. Other Daemons, the Greater Daemons of Chaos, are capable of independent thought and action, deriving their power and personality from their Chaos God, but also one step removed, continuing their existencec within but also apart from teh gestalt whole.
Detailed description of the Chaos gods. Like I said before they're just a sentient mass of warp souls, and daemons are mini "gods" created from the essence/power of the greater ones.
Page 61
Where the boundaries between realspace and the Warp are exceptionally thin, such as in Warpstorms, Daemons can manifest themselves with bodies of psychic ectoplasm.
The bodies of Daemons who manifest in "reality" are made of ectoplasm. Also boundaries in or near warp storms are "exceptionally thin" which is probably why in some cases they can break into realspace (eg Daemon worlds)
Page 62
In realspace, Greater Daemons manifest as huge, terrifying creatures capable of slaying scores of warriors and destroying battle tanks. They have strange powers and are virtually impervious to mortal weapons. Summoning such a creature demands a high price, for it takes a tremendous amount of energy for a Greater Daemon to corporealise. The price is always a sacrifice, a living being that acts as a gateway into the mateiral realm. The rampant energy of the daemon passing through inevitably destroys the host.
Greater Daemons in battle,a nd the requirements of summoning one.
Page 63
Though nothing more than lowly minions in the Realm of Chaos, such Daemons are nevertheless powerful fighters in the material plane. Their otherworldly nature grants them speed, strength and resilience beyond that of Men.
Lesser daemons. Naturally they're superior to normal beings.
Page 81
Auto cannon are automatic, self-loading weapons that fire large calbire, high velocity explosive shells. A masterful unification of rate of fire and destrutive power, autocannon rounds re most effectively used against light vehicles or particularily tough infantry. They are the weapon of choice when facing the larger of the Tyranid bioconstructs, as well as the ramshackle buggies utilised by the Ork tribes.
Chaos still uses autocannons, which function as both anti vehicle and antipersonnel weapons.
Page 81
Larger versions of the boltugn, heavy bolters are deadly weapons that fire fist-sized bolts at the enemy. With a staggering rate of fire and shells even more lethal than the standard boltgun, heavy bolters put the fear of the Dark Gods into enemy infantry.
I'm not sure I quite buy bolter rounds being "fist sized", since that would suggest a diameter of anywhere between 50-60mm (If we're charitable) to 100+mm (if we're more literal) Higher rate of fire and more powerful bolts.
Page 81
These holy effigies are charged with the coruscating energies of raw Chaos, and sometimes mark a squad that has been claimed by one of the Four Powers as their own.
Icons act as psychic beacons, allowing Sorcerers in the Chaos fleet to easily locate them from orbit and direct towards them any warriors that are teleporting to the battlefield. In the same way, Daemons that are answering the compelling call of a summoning use these Icons as guiding lights throught he warp.
Chaos version of teleport homers/beacons. One wonders if these could scale up and act in other roles (as in navigating ships through the warp, for example. Daemons can be lured to them through the warp it seems, although the exact range isnt specified here.)
Page 82
Lascannon are enormous heavy weapons, ,deployed specficially to destroy heavilly armoured targets. At long range there are few finer weapons for tank hunting than teh lascannon. Within the gun itself is a laser chamber that charges an explosive energy blast capable of piercing the armour of enemy vehicles.
Lascannon. Note the "explosive energy blast", suggesting a non-thermal damage mechanism (or at least a significant damage mechanism)
PAge 82
Chaos Space Marine missile launchers can fire either super-krak or frag missiles. Frag missiles are designed to wreak havoc in lightly armoured infantry formations, ,whhile super-krak missiles can break open all but the most heavily armoured targets. With an ample supply of both types of ammunition, a missile launcher is the most versatile weapon available.
Each time the missiel launcher fires, teh ontrolling player may choose the type of missile being used.
Missile launchers., Seem to carry large supplies of both kinds of ammo in the weapon.
Page 82
A larger, more destructive version of the melta gun, the multi-melta has a greater range than its smaller cousin. Multi-meltas are perfect for destroying bunkers and enemy tanks.
I imagine only Astartes could possibly carry a multimelta unaided.
Page 82
Plasma weapons are deadly, both to their targets and to those that risk using them. Plasma weapons fire a plasma 'bolt' that explodes on impact, generating the destructive heat of a small sun. Because of the deadly energies contained within them, plasma cnanons are prone to misfire and overheating.
Plasma guns seem to be both thermal and explosive weapons (makes sense)
Page 82
There is a particular type of double-barreled autocannon called the Reaper, no longer employed by the forcers of the Emperor.
Chaos still uses it. The Imperium replaced it with the assault cannon, IIRC.
Page 83
The boltgun, or bolter, is a compact weapon that fires small rockets, or 'bolts'. Each self-propelled bolt explodes with devastating effect once it has penetrated its target, blowing the enemy apartt form the inside.
..
Bolt pistols are smaller verisons of bolters, firing the same ammunition.
Bolt rounds "blowing" the enemy apart from the inside (exploding them, it would seem.)
Page 83
Combi-weapons are bolters that have been converted to house another weapon; a meltagun, plasma gun or flamer. This extra weapon carries limited ammunition, allowing the weapon a single shot, perfect for shots of opportunity.
combi weapons described. storm bolters are dual bolters but are also treated as a separtae weapon.
Page 83
Flamers are flame t hrowers that spew promethium,. a highly volatile liquid chemical that ignites on contactw ith air, throwing out a grerat belch of flame./
Flamers.
Page 83
Meltaguns are lethal anti-armour weapons, and are also used when undertaking assaults against heavily fortified defencec lines and bunkers. Marvels of technology, they superheat their target with sub-molecular thermal agitation, literally cooking and melting away armour plates. Most effective at very short range, the meltagun is capable of reducing rock, metal and living matter to molten slag or ash.
Meltaguns. Microwave version. Cremates people and melts rock and metal.
Page 83
Smaller than the plasma cannon, a plasma gun does not fire a blast in quite the same fashion, rather several smaller 'pulses' of plasma instead.
Plasma pistols ar ethe smallest variant in the plasma weapon family. Each shot from a plasma pistol contains all the destructive fury of a larger plasma gun, although the range and rate of fire is less.
Plasma guns are more rapid fire than plasma cannon. Plasma pistols pack in the firepower of a plasma gun but with a prolonged recharge.
Page 83
Plasma Gun: M32 pattern, short linear accelerator with improvised muzzle dampener.
Plasma weapons use a linear accelerator to accelerate the shot. This suggests the Imperium can make some compact "electromagnetic" weapons, although in this case its indicative its a particle beam weapon of some kind (RL linear accelerators are associated with particles rather than large masses.) I do not know if it would mean they could accelerate some size of slug at a lower velocity.
Page 84
A chainfist is a power fist fitted with chainblade attachment designed to carve through armoured bulkheads or vehicles with its whirring adamantine teeth.
Not really sure I can see the point of a power fist with a chainsaw blade attached. Does the power field extend to the chainsaw attachment?
Page 85
Meltabombs are deadly demolition charges, powered by a subatomic charge, capable of melting through even the most heavily armoured targets. They are much bulkier than krak-grenades, with a more sophisticated detonation mechanism.
Meltabombs.
PAge 86
[Power armour] Backpack with expanded venting required for stacked cell power plant.
The powerplant, however it works, seems to need alot of cooling.
PAge 86
(Terminator armour) - quintuple bonded, plasteel-adamantium-ceramite outer shielding.
Terminator armour composition. Sounds suitably technobabbly/exotic.
Page 86
Modified Mark III armoured greaves with mercury-thread stabilisers.
not sure how this is meant to work as a stabilizing effect.
Page 86
Non Codex plasteel chainmail, additional protection negligible.
They can make chainmail out of some sort of plastic metal stuff.
Page 88
Warptime - the psyker surrounds himself with a dimensional instability, which warps the passage of time and grants the target the opportunity to place his attacks with s ueprnatural precision.
An ability of time dilation.
