I have my stuff (just got one starter box and the index for Chaos), and looks good for now. The Index has all the basics for running my Chaos Army, with the following exceptions:
- no artifacts (i.e. Axe of Blind Fury); notes in the main rule book state these will come out when the main codex comes out.
- no bonus for marks. You can give any CSM the Mark of Khorne, but it doesn't give him extra attack/+1 S/etc. It doesn't COST anything, but it doesn't DO anything. Granted, if I give him the mark keyword "Khorne" and make him "World Eaters" legion keyword, and Kharn happens to be within 1", he gets to re-roll 1s to hit, or something like that.
- all the Legions are mentioned, but only World Eaters, Thousand Sons, Death Guard and Emperor's Children have specific notes, and even they don't provide any bonuses unless you bring the related special character.
- there is only one Chaos lore, 3 spells, that's it. No specific lore for Tzeentch/Nurgle/Slaanesh. Also, your sorcerer is set at two spells, and can attempt to deny one. No upgrades.
As for the Daemons, all looks good, but again, no relics/artifacts, but each Chaos god gets a bonus (Khorne Daemons, for instance, get +1 S when they charge AND get charged), and each Chaos god gets it's own lore for the psychic phase.
I am assuming much of the above that is missing will be taken care of when the actual codex for the army drops, which leads me to think of a possible problem. If they are going to drop codexs like they used too, the army that get's it's codex first will be more than a bit overpowered, and there will be a serious imbalance until the other army codexs start dropping. I'll feel bad for the guy who has to wait another 18-24 months for his codex to drop as he tries to play against a guy who's codex drops next month or so. Maybe they will release them all at once??? Digital???
Haven't played any games yet, but we are looking to roll some dice this weekend. My entire group is VERY excited about this release, and it has even brought back guys who gave up on GW years ago. It's a good time for 40K.