Yes, and mostly good changes were made for Chaos across the board. Marks and Leaders were too expensive. Escorts were complete rubbish because they were overcosted. Still, it has recieved nowhere near the attention lavished across the IN fleet. Chaos has 24 vessels to choose from, excluding special ships like the Planet Killer and an activated Blackstone. Imperial Navy has 33 ships. The original book as 13 ships for each. The new fleet lists for the varius Imperial sectors have a dizzying array of battleships, battlecruisers, crusiers and escorts to choose from compared to what's available in the Chaos lists. In addition, they have the capability of taking Space Marine allies and some Chaos ships are available to them. The Chaos fleet should be a worthy counterpart for the Imperial Navy. In addition, many of the changes made to the IN fleets were intended to make them work better, while some of the changes made to Chaos reduced their capabilities.
I'm tired of hearing from IN players that Chaos is far superior. Chaos has longer ranged weaponry and a slight speed advantage over IN ships, but IN has 6+ prow armor which pulls double duty as superb protection and ram, and they come standard with torpedos. I guess that the traditional way to play with Chaos is to run abeam and try to stay at long range while firing long range weaponry. As a chaos player, you can't hide behind your abeam aspect. Although we do have some weaponry at 60cm, the bulk of our firepower is at 45cm or closer. That range is easy picking for an AAF torp shotgun. A few centimeters closer and you're in ramming range. These tactics ignore aspect and shields and are highly effective against Chaos ships and available to IN and Orks equally. Eldar don't care about aspect, so abeam is no defense there either.
The other strategic option that Chaos has, Head-On, has been significantly nerfed by the changes made to the fleet list. Although the Hades and Murder were untouched (which is fine by me), the two carriers that could lend support to this strategy have been changed. The 60cm lances on the Devestation put them too close to truly be a fleet support carrier as they were originally, but they can't function as an attack carrier either. The removal of the front lances on the Despoiler have stripped it of it's Head-On attack carrier utility as well and made it only usable as a fleet support ship.
The result is that Chaos is now largely a one trick pony, and it's not the best trick either. If you want to do a solid Head-On fleet, youre going to have to do it largely without in-formation carrier support, which means no CAP. You can have plenty of carriers if you decide to traverse, but your abeam aspect will generally mean nothing and you will be in torp shotgun range, if not ramming at the very least. Also, since you added LO on Nova Cannons, traversing is even more difficult to pull off.
My point is that the IN got all kinds of new ships, new toys and boosts, while Chaos got more of the same. Chaos got a decrease to it's escorts, but IN got a decrease in points cost to one and 3 new escorts to choose from. Chaos got 3 new Light Crusiers, IN got 5. Chaos gets 4 new Battlecruisers, IN gets 7. Now IN has 6 battleships, but Chaos has 4. IN gets all kinds of new ships to add versatility to its fleet list, and Chaos gets more 45cm broadsidess.
One thing I'd like to see is an escort like the Firedagger for Chaos. IN has always been able to outpace Chaos in terms of ordnance because of torpedos standard on almost every ship and cheaper carriers, espeically now with the Tempest escort carrier and Enforcer light cruiser carrier. A chaos firedagger type escort would help screen against torpedo storms and keep us from being overwhelmed by Imperial AC, whiche we now don't have much of a defense for.
I'd also like to see a light cruiser carrier. Chaos fleets are piratical by necessity and if they couldn't steal a light carrier it would probably be necessary for them to convert one.
I've been playing Devestations with the 45cm lances for a while now and one thin I've noticed different from before is that they die very quickly. Getting inside 45cm puts them in easy reach. They don't have high armor and their abeam aspect doesn't make one bit of difference when being rammed, torpedoed, bombed or shot by Eldar. The 60cm lance allowed them to keep a reasonable distance away. They are definately not an attack carrier. I'd like to see them regain their 60cm lances for a points increase or make their lances Str 2 45cm Left/Front/Right with WBs to the side. This would give it an attack carrier role and it would fare much better.
Actually, I'd like to see a few ships rebalanced with dorsal or prow weaponry at L/F/R. For example, a Carnage with 6wb @ 45cm, 2wb@ 60cm and 8WB LFR at 60cm. I'd also like to see the Despoiler rebalanced to perform its original roll as an attack carrier. You guys really nerfed the Head-On strategy when you removed its prow lances and made at a broadside ship. Torpedos aren't a substitute.