Why play Chaos?

[Aspiringchaoschampion]

How cool the army is our model range is great etc

[Aspiringchaoschampion]

Also they were my first proper 40k army

[Tenebris]

As a side note I did some crude math based on some of the veterans who have posted in this thread and Wikipedia.

Slayer le Boucher- 17 years Chaos

Insane Psychopath- 19 years Chaos

Dragonlover- 17 years Chaos

Castigor- 27+ years Chaos

Chaeron- 20 years Chaos

I am both in awe of this dedication and reassured as to why my painting is so terrible in comparison with these masters.

We are in it for the Long War

QFT.

Add Tenebris - 17 years of Chaos

[Dragonlover]

 

Slayer le Boucher- 17 years Chaos
Insane Psychopath- 19 years Chaos
Dragonlover- 17 years Chaos
Castigor- 27+ years Chaos
Chaeron- 20 years Chaos

I am both in awe of this dedication and reassured as to why my painting is so terrible in comparison with these masters.

 

 

Holy :cuss, you put me, painting and master in the same sentence and meant it. I think I love you a little bit right now. ;)

 

Dragonlover

[Prot]

I wasn't going to post in here... because I don't like where Chaos is right now on the table top. And no, I don't mean competitive wise as that is the top complaint you'll hear over, and over again.

 

I came to Chaos a very long time ago, around that time the BnC was just invented (check my join date). There was a fist full of people that posted regularly here at that time, and I would have to say most of them left around the time of the legendary ball of intergalactic snot known as 'Gav-Dex' came spewing from the warp.

 

But I still stuck through it, as did some others. Because for me it was about being the bad guy that wanted to kick the Emperor off his throne. But I never wanted to do it with  Daemons... never. For me it was about revenge, and 'freeing' the Imperium from the Emperor's tyranny, and dictatorship.

 

For me, Chaos still had to be an organized, potent, extremely tactical war machine. That's always been the Iron Warriors. In my mind there is no better organization of pure siege warfare, and disciplined military might than the Iron Warriors. I don't even put the Black Legion there, as they have too many back room deals going with the space hippies. Iron Warriors see them as an arm's reach tool at best. No way you would see any of my Iron Warriors brandishing true mutations. They are chopped off on sight and replaced with bionics.

 

Last year I made a big mistake trying to force myself to move on from Iron Warriors to a different Chaos Legion, and sold the majority of several thousand points. Truth be told, IW took a bit of a hit once GW canned Pete Haines. I don't just mean rules, I mean they lost a lot of the character he brought to the table.... which is fine, because this also meant the good ol' " 9 Obliterators, 3 Defiler, Lt. and 10 marine' players were on to the next fad.

 

I think if you're actually playing this game, and a lot of people aren't, but they love 'theorizing' or 'math-hammering' what works, you really want to embrace the Daemon side of things as it's how people have remained, or tried to remain competitive. I can't do it. No named daemons for me, no Bel'akor, no Bloodthirsters, or minor daemon bombing/summoning. It just wasn't the IW way. It never should be in my opinion. They'll descend on a planet with a million ships and personnel in record time, and dismantle your best built war fortress in a month, but there won't be a pile of space hippies ever leading that charge.

 

Now if you're "Playing Chaos" (this is the question right?) for fun reasons. There's a lot to stay for. A lot of great models, and great fiction. The motivation to paint something truly unique up, and put it on the table is definitely a bonus with Chaos. Well painted Chaos Space Marines are often some of the best looking armies in the game... they just give you the vehicle to really show off your skills.

 

I was thinking Crimson Slaughter fit my criteria for all of this.... an organized Chapter, with real resources, and some of the finest adherence to the Codex Astartes ever displayed until marked heretic by the Inquisition.... no real affinity for space hippies, as they are a military force with Khornate tendencies but no allegiance to any god, yet 'gifted' by a few of them it seems. Their allegiance to space hippies is purely to elevate their destructive capabilities and not to appease some warp hippie.

 

Sorry for being long winded about it all. It's a great army with a lot of potential, and a lot of people find their way here eventually. It's a matter of finding what clicks about Chaos for you.

[Trevak Dal]

Those old pictures were what turned me against Chaos specifically, it looked VERY dumb all the horns and skulls. I kinda hated all the 40k models. My friends were wanting me to get into the game, but none of the factions except Grey Knights (those wrist mounted storm bolters were AWESOME) really appealed to me-and they were all metal, and the most expensive to start to play with.

The army that brought me into 40k was actually the Lizardmen remake back around the time 5th edition 40k came out-I don't know the relevant WFB edition. I always LOVED dinosaurs, so when I saw my friend reading the white dwarf featuring them at lunch I said "Holy :cussing -what are those!?" and we made an experiment where we were going to blend elements of the then defunct Kroot codex from Chapter Approved, Lizardmen background, with a dash of the Sanghelli background from the Halo novels and games (when our production of the weapons started to go awry, I played them with the Then Black Templar rules-which was awesome, because I had an "Arbiter" (Emperor's Champion) and Zealots (Chaplins). The Nakai were descended from the Old Ones, and had been following along like in the Lizardmen Codex until finally, a revolutionary Scar Veteran had enough of the Slann choosing to not aid humanity-they saw the Emperor of Mankind as a reincarnation of an Old One named Quetzalcoatl-and it was their duty to aide in his works.

The Saurus and Skinks rose up and overthrew the Slann, forcing them to become the pilot/navigators of their warpships, which enabled the Nakai to make pinpoint warp and webway jumps (The Lizardmen having greater mastery over the Old Ones' sorcery).

Humanity hates them-because they're alien bastards who come interfering with their works-but the Nakai HATE chaos and Necrons (the old enemy) especially, and see Humanity as the Reclaimers of the Old Ones' legacy, the Tau being the pawns of the Interlopers (Eldar).

I only ended up going with Tau because we couldn't effectively mass produce the weapons for the guys-and modifying Pulse Rifles is Haaaaaaaaaaaaaard and tedious as can be. When our molding thing failed at every turn, I was like, "Well, how about I just use what I have of the tau now, and we can come back to this later?"

I tried a few other things like modeling them with Spears and making them look like Staff weapons from Stargate SG-1 (took a lot of inspiration from Jaffa too)

We never came back to it. I sold off the majority of the Lizardmen models to a guy building a Lizardmen army-but I kept my Arbiter (Saurus Oldblood) Temple Guard and 16 Saurus-which were my first painted models.

Lizardmen are still my favorite models GW make, followed by Warrior-type Tyranids, Grey Knights and Shadowsun.

I don't like how Tau Crisis suits look-the antenna are dumb like Horns and spikes, some WallE or ROB stuff or something. Couple rounds of shooting turned my opinion around Rickey Tick.

[totgeboren]

Prot, I just have to ask. You have seen IA13 right?

 

The Rapiers just scream IW and are really good too. The Sicaran is also a great vehicle, and the Fire Raptor (though I haven't got one) seems to be one of the best units in the book.

But not only that, having some Traitors and Renegades as allies means you can have lots of artillery. Or if you want lots and lots of artillery, use the traitors as the main FOC for lots of artillery goodness and ally in a FOC of CSM. A CSM HQ, some IW Termies and a squad or two of CSM to intercept anything trying to take out your artillery would work pretty great I think, and not a daemon in sight.

[Prot]

Prot, I just have to ask. You have seen IA13 right?

 

The Rapiers just scream IW and are really good too. The Sicaran is also a great vehicle, and the Fire Raptor (though I haven't got one) seems to be one of the best units in the book.

But not only that, having some Traitors and Renegades as allies means you can have lots of artillery. Or if you want lots and lots of artillery, use the traitors as the main FOC for lots of artillery goodness and ally in a FOC of CSM. A CSM HQ, some IW Termies and a squad or two of CSM to intercept anything trying to take out your artillery would work pretty great I think, and not a daemon in sight.

 

Yep. I don't own IA13 but I've seen it. I did sell about 6-8,000 pts of painted IW and have very little left of it. It was, as mentioned, a mistake looking back on it.

 

I have a Sicaran, and a Fire Raptor. I own 3 armies they could go into: Dark Angels, Ultra's, and of course my Crimson Slaughter. Once I decide which army gets them, that'll probably be it for me  hopping around from PA army to PA army.

 

I have a lot of IW bitz still but invested a lot of time on painting my Crimson Slaughter. (I'm a really slow painter as my CS blog thread can attest to.)

 

P.S. I just got the fire raptor though, haven't used it. (I've only used the Sicaran with my Dark Angels a few times. It was pretty good with PoTMS.)

[Excessus]

It's been about 20 years of chaos for me as well. Thousand Sons and Alpha Legion all the way!

 

Chaos has background and aestethics before power...though I do love playing the underdog. :D

[Dragonlover]

I love that there's like, a couple of centuries worth of experience with Chaos concentrated into the people who've posted in this thread. I knew there was a reason I got on with you lot!

 

Dragonlover

[Chaeron]

I love that there's like, a couple of centuries worth of experience with Chaos concentrated into the people who've posted in this thread. I knew there was a reason I got on with you lot!

 

Dragonlover

 

I think it's a massive bonus, really. I tend to find that people who play Chaos always return and contribute, irrespective of how we perform on the tabletop because of their love for both the setting and the fiction surrounding it. I'm not suggesting that this isn't true of our loyalist brethren of course - but it's certainly a trait amongst the board that people generally commit and continue their involvement for many years. Having people who can comment and give such advice has always been invaluable - be it for painting, converting or tactical/strategic notions, it is most definitely a boon and a great reflection on most veterans!

 

That, in turn, I think - brings more people to the fold...

[Lucio]

This thread makes me feel like such a newbie for only having 6 months worth of experience with Chaos!

Back when I was a kid it was Space Wolves, Black Templars and Orks for me, followed by a LONG break when I decided £100 a month was far better invested in booze and women, than little plastic figures.

[Prot]

This thread makes me feel like such a newbie for only having 6 months worth of experience with Chaos!

 

Back when I was a kid it was Space Wolves, Black Templars and Orks for me, followed by a LONG break when I decided £100 a month was far better invested in booze and women, than little plastic figures.

 

Ancient Chaos trick: Trust me, once you learn to have intimate relations with plastic, it's far better to spend the money on the hobby.

[Rain]

Yeah I know what you mean Prot, I too started with Iron Warriors, back in the IA days before the good Chaos Codex. I was drawn to them because I was fasicnated by the idea of rugged militaristic Chaos Marines that used precise planning and firepower instead of demons and magic. Unfortunately that's not really what they are anymore, even Forge World, that normally produces very quility fluff, has turned the Iron Warriors into human wave attritionists, and the brilliant but cold Perturabo is now a guy that decimated his Legion for no reason and kills people for delivering him bad news.

 

Plus, as you alluded to, I am currently playing Red Corsairs so that I can use demon allies and cult marines without butchering the fluff, or at least what the fluff used to be. Luckily I also really like the paint scheme, and I think the Badab War is one of the best and most complex pieces of fluff that GW has ever written. Also, space pirates.

[Lucio]

Ancient Chaos trick: Trust me, once you learn to have intimate relations with plastic, it's far better to spend the money on the hobby.

I went one better, found me a woman willing to let me buy the booze, and she buys me my plastic

[Dallas Drake]

It was 2nd edition Genestealers (Cults) that got me into 40k. Back then when I was a kid I mostly played Blood Bowl and Necromunda and tried to paint Genestealers rather badly.

 

I quit the lot in 1997 and only came back to the hobby in 2007 when I gave my then girlfriend (now wife) the choice of me either collecting Chaos or buying a motorbike. She said go play with plastic men, so I did!

 

Sadly, since then Chaos have kinda lost what they are, but that's not something to bring up here. Got to hope the Crimson Slaughter Chosen, Raptor/Warp Talons and Helbrute models are just the start or a magnificent model range revival.

[Aspiringchaoschampion]

Il be honest il have played chaos for about 5 years this year im really tempted to find a way to make pure undivided work little to no marks etc

[Excessus]

Il be honest il have played chaos for about 5 years this year im really tempted to find a way to make pure undivided work little to no marks etc

I'd say go with IA13. I did a list with 3x hades autocannon rapiers, a sicarian and a fire raptor as heavy support and with a dreadclaw with a warpsmith & 9 draznicht's chosen with 5 plasmas...amongst other things...it worked pretty well... :D

[Zhukov]

I've deleted my first sentences some times now, it turns out the question is harder to answer than I thought. I'm not quite sure why I still play them... It's not because I like the models or fluff so much, at least not more than other Space Marine armies. I think that's where it comes down to for me: I'm a Space Marine player, although I enjoyed some other armies through the years as well. Looking at all the Space Marine armies, the only one being truly different to the others is Chaos Space Marines.

 

Having had a crappy codex for all the years I've played them (I think I started playing pretty much when the Gav codex came out, so thankfully I just missed the lamented 3.5 codex), has some weird advantages too: It makes me able to really go all out when making lists without fearing for 'cheesing' or going with an 'easymode' list. Even better: It forces me to make absolutely no mistakes with list building and playing if I want to stand a chance of competing with CSM.

 

By now I have to admit though, my enthousiasm for CSM is a bit low.

[Aspiringchaoschampion]

 

 

Il be honest il have played chaos for about 5 years this year im really tempted to find a way to make pure undivided work little to no marks etc

I'd say go with IA13. I did a list with 3x hades autocannon rapiers, a sicarian and a fire raptor as heavy support and with a dreadclaw with a warpsmith & 9 draznicht's chosen with 5 plasmas...amongst other things...it worked pretty well... :D

I needs to save up me thinks :D

[Lord Lee]

Wow, so many responses highlighting the best about Chaos Space Marines.

 

Keep the good vibes coming tell me of your favorite fluff for Chaos Space Marines.

 

Lord Lee.

[Aspiringchaoschampion]

ERM I just love the fluff in general of the faction

[Captain Tezdal]

Why do I play chaos? I could tell you it's because my love of the models, the fluff, and all kinds of other things, but the real reason I started playing chaos was back in 3rd when I was a wee laddie' I went in FLGS and saw a guy with a World Eaters army, I immediately thought RED, CHAINAXES, and the rest is history. Have since moved on from playing World Eaters to experience the myriad flavors of chaos but they still have a special place in my heart.

[Sheesh Mode]

I think partially it is because the Black Templar were not angry enough for me.

 

The chaos Gods saw fit to bless me with a sweet deal and an army for barely 300 dollars which synergized well with what I already owned. The natural progression into aggressive assault tactics was unavoidable. 

 

I have found that chaos is simply more fun, more brutal, and more satisfying. Keep your toys and rules loyalists, they won't save you.

[Aspiringchaoschampion]

I agree sheesh mode chaos is just more fun I find chaos is also great because while your forces may all belong to one chapter/legion/warband or god each individual champion and unit can have their own goals motivations etc its great if you like writing fluff for your army