Question on new Codex

[Midgard]

So, it seems like it will be some time before I buy the new Codex, however, I have every intention of continuing to build my Chaos warband in between, and thought I'd check first. In the last Codex, the general theme seemed to be of Chaos armies being made up largely from squad-level units of different allegiances/warbands. The Gav-dex made it look as if it would be pretty common to see an army made up of Black Legion Terminators, Word Bearers CSM squad, Night Lords Raptors, Iron Warriors Dreadnaughts, Death Guard Plague Marines, and... well, you get the idea.

 

My question is, does the narrative in the new Codex still support this view, or is the focus more on single-warband forces, i.e. armies made up largely of units belonging to the same warband (i.e. Word Bearers-only army, etc)?

 

I realize that ultimately, my warband is what I make of it, however, I want to create a fluffy force with focus on back story and narrative opportunities, as opposed to tabletop efficiency. I do want it to be reasonably playable, but am definitely not looking to build a tournament list here.

 

The core of the army will be Word Bearers (currently one CSM squad painted, plus Dark Vengeance models to be made into WB; and I want to get the new Dark Apostle miniature as HQ, more for flavor than anything else), but I already have some Plague Marines and Sorcerer, both of which are not painted in WB colors. I am mainly trying to decide on whether or not any new models purchased will be painted as Word Bearers, or if I should try painting them in a variety of color schemes to represent the "diverse" nature of Chaos armies. As such, the narrative theme of the current Codex will help me to make up my mind - are we dealing with reasonably organized Legion forces, or makeshift remnants of whatever anarchic renegades flock to a strong leader's banner? Which way does the current Codex seem to lean?

 

Thank you guys in advance!

[Kol Saresk]

Both.

[Tenebris]

Actually the new codex is quite interesting from fluff standpoint. It provides the tools to make a viable and lorewise legion force as well as a renegade warband. While I have the feeling that GW left to Forge World to expand on the astartes legion background they did a good job on the various renegade warbands presenting valid motives why several fell to Chaos. A good thing is the Veteran of the Long War rule to present a Heresy era astartes and the ability to upgrade almost all units with a mark or with an icon is great to make Legion specific armies.

 

Now the only rule that is somehow lore tied is that to take Thousand Sons as troops you have to have either a Sorcerer with Mark of Tzeentch or Ahriman, a Lord upgraded with this mark does nothing to the FOC. From a Word Bearer viewpoint the codex allows to take a proper Dark Apostle HQ and a number of cultist units which can function as a horde of screaming fanatics. Be it Terminators, Possessed (Gal Vorbak) and Chosen can go Undivided at no penality and still be effective on tabletop and as a nice addition 20 chaos marines in a squad works to a great effect if you want tho build a Word Bearer army which is quite hordelike and still be viable on the board.

 

All in all the codex allows to build really unique armies ranging from a monster spam list with mutilators, fiends and spawn to small elite armies. If there is a downside is that the Elite slot is quite crowded and the general efectiveness of the monogod armies prevents some to take the more fun choices.

 

So far I have played around seven games with the new codex and I have tried to serve each god and all I can say that be it Undivided or Legion each setup is fun to play but again there are always better choices for competitive players in the form of Nurgle and Slaneesh armies.