Chaos Wishlist
As a big fan of Chaos in Warhammer 40k, it has been a rough year and a half. While codex releases for Death Guard and Thousand Sons have been bright lights of hope along with the army of renown for Be’lakor. Sadly though, the rest of the super faction has languished since the updates in Psychic Awakening. Games Workshop have teased that 2022 will be a big year for the Chaos faction in the 40k universe. That combined with the festive season approaching has led me to write up my wish list to send off to Santa Claus. Hopefully in a few months time, we can look back and see how many of my wishes came true.
1 - All I Want for Christmas is Two Wounds:
This is almost a guarantee, but still must be stated. I want my two wounds for Chaos Space Marines and three wounds for my Terminators. I am still baffled by the fact that GW has not simply made an errata changing the wounds characteristic for all of the CSM datasheets. It is not even all that unheard of, as they gave out the mass update granting ‘Angry Charge’ to CSM. I recently played a game with some Chaos Space Marines against their loyalist counterparts and the difference in survivability cannot be understated. A smattering of small arms fire is enough to nearly wipe out small units of Chaos Marines. I will try to stop ranting now, but I simply had to get this out of the way. Now for more fun things!
2 - World Eater and Emperor’s Children Codex/Codex Supplements:
This is one that my wallet and I disagree on. I have collected models for all of the various Chaos Space Marines subfactions and have pledged allegiance to all four of the Dark Gods (I will pledge to the Horned Rat if he shows up too!). So if Chaos Space Marines get the same treatment as their loyalist friends, that is going to put a major hurt on the piggy bank. However, as a fan, I would love to see Khorne’s chosen sons and Slaanesh’s devotees get the same fleshing out as Death Guard and Thousand Sons. I love the Red Butchers stratagem (it upgrades a terminator unit to a Khorne Bezerker statline and gives them the insane fight twice ability), but I would love to have Bezerker Terminators. I also want those models in plastic right now, please and thank you. For Emperor’s Children, give me back my Sonic Dreadnoughts GW. It’s basically a sentient boom box that drops the bass so hard it kills people.
On the flip side, if instead of simply giving us World Eater and Emperor’s Children Codices, GW decides to go the loyalist route, with a core codex and then supplements, I am all on board. Psychic Awakening did a good job in making the different CSM legions feel distinct, so dedicated supplements will truly make each subfaction stand apart from each other.
3 - Primarch!:
This one should be self explanatory, but I want another Primarch and would love it if it was another Chaos Primarch. Personally, I feel like Fulgrim and Angron are the most likely, but I would totally dig a giant Chaos Dreadnought/Terminator Perturabo. I also just finished reading Dark Apostle, so I am in love with the Word Bearers (even if I don’t love their rules), so a Deamonic Priest Logar would be amazing. Also since I am Alpharius and whomever is reading this is also Alpharius, getting models for Alpharius and Omegon would be amazing. Finally, while Konrad Curze is dead, I still would not be opposed to him getting resurrected so I can have Grim-Dark Batman running around on the table top.
4 - Daemons Don’t Have to be Greater, Just Good:
This is something that I personally dread. I love giant centerpiece models. I am currently running a 2000 point list with 3 greater daemons, a daemon primarch and Be’lakor. However, I am convinced that Greater Daemons are either going to be one per army (I really really hope not) or more likely one per detachment. I can deal with that heartache as long as Gamesworkshop does a good job with making the non-Greater Daemons not suck. There are actually a lot of different units in the Daemon’s codex but you would not know that looking at them on the table top. So many of the units are laughly bad. Since the release of the 8th edition codex, most of these units have received point decreases followed by more point decreases, but they are still just not that great. When was the last time you saw a Slaanesh chariot on the table top? Or a Tzeencth Burning Chariot? Or the Khorne chariot? These units could do so many cool and interesting things instead of just being a slightly different melee profile. So far 9th edition codices have been great with making units feel unique, so I really have high hopes for this one.
5 - New Daemons:
This wish was almost rolled up into the last one, but I want this badly enough to make it a point all its own. Outside of Greater Daemons, we have had updated Fleshhounds, Karnak, The Skulltaker, The Masque of Slaanesh and Furies. These models along with the introduction of Horticulous Slimux, the Contorted Epitome, and the Infernal Enrapturess, have shown how far GW has come with their model creation. The difference between these models and the older daemon models is staggering. I would love to see not only updates to old models, but an increase to their roster. To be honest, of all of the large factions, Daemons feel like there are very few options. When building a mono-god army, you would struggle to find units for every type. Some gods literally would not be able to field a Brigade as they lack units for some battlefield roles. We have already seen new units introduced in Age of Sigmar (the Talon and Voice of Slaanesh), so having those get rules in 40k would be great.
6 - New Daemon-Engines:
There had been a long drought of new Daemon Engines up until the release of the new Venom Crawler and Lord Discordant models. However, not counting forgeworld, there are six total Daemon Engines and one of those is Khorne only, so cannot be fielded by some subfactions of Chaos Space Marines. I would be very happy with the introduction of a couple new Daemon Engines. Maybe a tunneling worm-like thing that acts as a transport that can burrow to deepstrike on a later turn. Or maybe a giant cannon that works as an artillery piece. It has eyes that can see through walls, but cannot see up close, so it has a minimum range and absolutely atrocious close combat. Free ideas here GW!
7 - Legion Traits:
Regardless if Chaos Space Marines get a unified codex, or codex and supplements, the one area that they definitely need improvement is in their Legion Traits. These are supposedly the same as a Chapter Tactic for regular Space Marines, however, most of the Chaos Traits are laughly bad. Iron Warriors lets you ignore bonuses to saving throws due to cover, and re-roll wound rolls against…Buildings. Yup, better watch out all you Aquila Strongpoints, they are coming for you. By far the worst though is the Word Bearers. Their trait is....wait for it - you can re-roll failed Morale tests. You know, that rule that all Imperial Space Marines used to have. In all seriousness, GW did a good job of beefing up the Chapter Tactics for the Imperial Space Marines, so I hope that they will do the same for their spikey brothers. Also, I really hope they bring back the choose your own adventure chapter tactic for homebrew legions. My Crown Breakers need some spicy rules!
And that is it! That is my wish list for Chaos in the new year. What do you think awaits Chaos next year? Will we finally see the top tables again? Will we be painfully overpowered like Ad Mech and Drukari? Will I look back on this list in six months with sadness or joy? Or will Chaos get pushed back another year? Who knows? (Tzeentch probably)
Hopefully this list does not get lost in the Warp and can make it to Santa on time! Until next time, I hope you all have a Happy Holiday season, and get lots of hobby goodies this year!
'
'
'
'
'