Home Grown Codex Ideas

[Dammeron]

After purchasing and reading the new Space Marine codex, I have begun revisions on the latest version of my home grown Chaos Space Marine codex, and I have come up with a few ideas that are extremely raw at the moment, but which I would like to get some opinions on.

 

First of all, I absolutely LOVE the "Eye of the Gods" special rule in the new Warhammer FB "Warriors of Chaos" book. Essentially, it allows Chaos Champions to develop random mutations (some of which are debilitating, most of which are extremely useful) depending on how they perform on the battlefield. I think a refined version of this rule would fit the Chaos Space Marines very nicely, and would be reasonably easy to implement (i.e. for every enemy character a beneficiary of the rule kills in CC, they may must make a single roll on the "Eye of the Gods" table, and must abide by the result).

 

Second, I have been paying alot of attention to "Chosen" of late, especially in comparisson to their equivalents the Sternguard and Vanguard veterans, and they are woefully misrepresented under the current codex. To my mind, they should be sort of like an elite cabal within their repsective armies, a conglomeration of the most hard bitten, most experienced, favoured, well armed and callous Chaos Space Marines imaginable. To that end, I have been playing around with the following revisions:

 

- Chosen are Fearless as standard (+2 pts to basic cost of each model).

 

- All options relating to specialist close combat weaponry (e.g. Lightning Claws, Power Weapons etc) are removed from their army list entry. Instead, you may upgrade ANY NUMBER of models to "Chosen Champions" for the points cost listed in C:CSM. In addition to the changes listed in their appropriate army list entry, "Chosen Champions" benefit from +1 WS, to represent the fact that not only have they been fighting in the Eye of Terror and beyond for countless millennia, but they must constantly battle to maintain their status in the warband. "Chosen Champions" have the same options as "Aspiring Champions" as listed in the Chaos Space Marine squad entry.

 

- The following rules and options are added to the basic "Chosen" Chaos Space Marine entry:

 

Special Rules:

 

- Furious Charge (if the squad is upgraded with The Mark of Khorne)

- Feel no Pain (if the squad is upgraded with The Mark of Nurgle)

- Fleet (if the squad is upgraded with The Mark of Slaanesh)

 

Options:

 

- Any members of the squad may uograde their bolters to Sonic Blasters (if the squad bears The Mark of Slaanesh)

- If the squad bears The Mark of Tzeentch, any number of Aspiring Champions may be upgraded to Aspiring Sorcerers for a cost of +25pts per model. Aspiring Sorcerers carry "Corrupted Force Weapons" (details of how "Corrupted Force Weapons" function will be detailed in the codex's finished form) and may purchase a SINGLE psychic power from The Lore of Change (The Lore will be finalised later).

 

 

I've also been thinking how it might be possible to implement rules for the various Chaos Legions and Renegade warbands within the mechanics of the army list itself, without the need for the inclusion of specific special characters, divergant army lists, etc. It seems to me that the simplest way of doing this is by appointing one particular Independent Character (e.g. a Chaos Lord, Chaos Sorcerer or Daemon Prince) as the overall "Warlord" of your force for whom particular upgrades can be purchased that then affect the composition of the entire army. For example, one could appoint a Chaos Lord as the "Warlord" of you force, who then has the option of being upgraded to a Dark Apostle. This means that he is equipped with an Accursed Crozius (Undivided Daemon Weapon that functions as a Personal Icon and allows him to roll a leadership test against any wounds he suffers rather than making a normal armour save), that Greater Daemons may be purchased as compulsory H.Q. choices and packs of Lesser Daemons may occupy Troop slots on the Force Organisation Chart (Greater Daemons and Lesser Daemons themselves will of course be getting more attention and detail than they are currently provided in the existing codex). This is of course, only a VERY rough example of what I am thinking of, but it is quite functionable in that it allows chaos forces to be tailored and individualised without the need for abstruse seperate army lists, the inclusion of particular characters, reams after reams of special rules, etc.

 

As for the apparent division between Renegades and Traitors, I have dealt with this by providing the option for particular units to be upgraded to "Traitor Marines." Traitor Marines are different from standard Chaos Space Marines (that now represent more recently turned Renegades) in that they are ancient and embittered veterans, having fought the Long War for countless aeons and garnered rewards as a result.As an example, the upgrade in the Chaos Space Marine squad entry confers +1 WS on all members of the squad and makes them subject to the "Eye of the Gods" special rule. They are, however, MUCH more expensive than your standard Chaos Space Marines (representing their relative rarity), and don't have access to some of the more specialised equipment that Renegades do. There will also be the option of upgrading your aforementioned "Warlord" to a Renegade Chapter Master who will have slightly less impressive stats than your Traitor Chaos Lord, but has access to more equipment, and also allows your army to purchase a VERY limited number of options more common to loyalist Space Marine armies (Techmarines, Masters of the Forge, Razorbacks, etc).

 

Greater Daemons and Lesser Daemons will, of course, be much more various and customisable than they are under the current codex. This will be very easily achieved by using the rules currently provided as a standard foundation that may then be customised via the application of Marks of Chaos and a VERY limited number of Chaos Gifts/Rewards etc. They will also be prone to the "Eye of the Gods" special rule.

 

Daemon Engines: After recently flicking through some of my old, OLD books on chaos (the RoC books and the Renegades Epic aemy book), I started thinking about how it might be possible to represent a greater variety of Daemon Engines within the constraints of 40K. At present, all we have are Defilers and Soul Grinders, which are basically variations on the same basic design, then I started thinking that it might be fun to apply the same criteria to daemon engines that I did to daemons in general, i.e. start with a basic entry that can be customised by purchasing upgrades and alterations. The rules I have thus far created essentially allow the player to create their own daemon engines from a single standard army list entry, and seem to work very well indeed.

 

Gifts of the Gods: The way in which Chaos Rewards/Gifts of the Gods have been handled in the new FB "Warriors of Chaos" book is quite intriguing. Rather than having a prohibitive list of rewards for each chaos power, there is instead a universal list of rewards that any character may purchase, but certain examples of which are more redolent of a particular power than others. With that in mind, I have set about consolidating the "gifts" I have developed into a single list that models with any Mark of Chaos may purchase from, but which is very loosely categorised into "Gifts" of Rage, Hope, Despair and Desire respectively, so that players can be aware at least in fluff terms what gifts are most redolent of their particular patron deity. The availability of Gifts within the army list itself is HEAVILY restricted, with Independent Characters being allowed to purchase a maximum of three, and unit characters a maximum of two.

 

Dreadnaughts: I have made distinctions between Traitor and Renegade Dreadnaughts by making the former somewhat more destructive but also a hell of alot more unstable. The current Crazed! table has also been heavily revised with an eye towards making Traitor Dreadnaughts much more functionable on the tabletop (there is still a chance that they will attack allies, but they will always turn on enemies first if given the opportunity). Furthermore, I have made Dreadnaughts in general much more customisable with God-specific upgrades etc. Renegade dreadnaughts also have access to weapons and ugrades that Traitor Dreadnaughts do not.

 

All suggestions, comments and CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms welcome.

[Night Stalker]

Ok. First of all, it's nice that people still want to improve our codex.

 

You want Codex: Chaos Space marines to portrait:

• Traitor Legions
  
• Recent Renegades
  

 

It's very tough project to represent them both - i even say It's Impossible [to to this well]

 

Why, instead of this, do not make codex which focus on actual chaos warbands. focus on a leader and his troops ?

 

p.s: those chaos legionnaires who fought from time of horus heresy are for sure either leaders or chosen atm. so there is no point in creating them as a troop choice.

 

Yes, i have many other constructive arguments, but first check my sig and look at homegrown codex:csm and codex:nl [both mine].

[Jarulek]

Edit: Nevermind, I'm blind

[Dammeron]

Edit: Nevermind, I'm blind

 

:huh: ^_^ <_<

[Zealot Of Chaos]

Ok. First of all, it's nice that people still want to improve our codex.

 

You want Codex: Chaos Space marines to portrait:

• Traitor Legions
  
• Recent Renegades
  

 

It's very tough project to represent them both - i even say It's Impossible [to to this well]

 

Why, instead of this, do not make codex which focus on actual chaos warbands. focus on a leader and his troops ?

 

p.s: those chaos legionnaires who fought from time of horus heresy are for sure either leaders or chosen atm. so there is no point in creating them as a troop choice.

 

Yes, i have many other constructive arguments, but first check my sig and look at homegrown codex:csm and codex:nl [both mine].

 

ah but this is not a new topic for dammeron, he has been working away on this for a while and has in fact found a way to whilst not make the legions ecstatic, much happier than they are now, in fact I wanted to start a petition to make dammeron the official chaos codex writer for GW and whilst I do agree that ultimately all the legions need a codex each, dammeron's is a good starting point

 

@dammeron, my views on your codex are no secret, keep tweaking and extensively playtesting and once it is refined (hopefully in the not too distant future) post as a pdf :unsure: