What do World Eaters want/need in 10th?

[Indy Techwisp]

Surprised this isn't a Topic already.

 

While I'm not a WE player myself (yet), I think it's fair to say WE have a lot of open design space left to fill, so here's my guesses at what WE could get in 10th:

• Berserker Surgeons: Frequently mentioned in the lore WE got in 9th and the Index, would be a useful character to have (also the first Chaos Apothecary!)
• Berserker Bikers/Berserkers on Juggernauts: WE have a Mounted character with no Mounted unit to lead, so this makes sense. Also they've shown up in art already.
• Unique Terminators (Red Butchers): So far, WE are the only released Cult Marines with no unique Terminators. I'd guess Melee Only for unique Terminators.
• Another WE Unique Daemon Engine: There's a couple from Forgeworld that are preferred by WE iirc, so maybe one of those in plastic?

 

Obviously, this is all from an outside perspective, so there's probably some more nuanced ideas people who actually play WE have.
Feel free to suggest anything else!

[SvenIronhand]

As an outsider? Heavy weapons of some sort.

[spiros14]

There are three things that immediately spring to mind.
 

First is a Slaughterbrute, on the grounds that the Thousand Sons got access to the Mutilith Vortex Beast. Why shouldn't an adept Khornate lord be able to summon and subdue a daemonic monstrosity to his own will?

Second is a unit of Juggernaut riders. You have the Lord Invictus, you might as well have a unit for him to lead.

Third is a terminator lord. For goodness sake GW you made Azrakh the Annihilator let your fanbase use him in games!

 

Unique Terminators for World Eaters and Emperor's Children is something I wanted at first but as time goes on I think it makes more sense that they don't. I know a lot of people want the Cataphractii Red Buchers and Tartaros Pheonix Guard but does it make sense that those suits made it to the 40k setting? Both the Death Guard and Thousand Sons kept their old suits through supernatural means; Nurgle "heals" any damage to a DG's suit with a mutative growth, and TS are spiritually bound to the suit. Consider that Abaddon, the most successful and influential Chaos Lord to have existed, has had to replace his old Cataphractii suit with Indomitus pattern, and you can see that expecting to keep the Heresy era terminator suits in good repair across 10,000 years is an almost laughable prospect.

Another thing to ask is whether it makes sense for these factions to keep to the old ways after 10,000 years. If the nails are biting hard enough that you would rather forgo a storm bolter for a second axe, then really you should just drop the armour altogether and become an eightbound to increase your combat prowess even more. Terminator Armour is (to a truly lost World Eater) irrelevant when Khorne cares not from where the blood flows.

I'm not saying to drop Terminator armour altogether, because there will be some "peculiars" that still utilise the suit, but expecting them as a staple is denying the faction a new angle to write their veterans.

[Indy Techwisp]

16 hours ago, spiros14 said:

First is a Slaughterbrute, on the grounds that the Thousand Sons got access to the Mutilith Vortex Beast. Why shouldn't an adept Khornate lord be able to summon and subdue a daemonic monstrosity to his own will?

 

I'd entirely forgotten about the Slaughterbrute, but yeah WE should definitely have it as an option.

[gaurdian31]

On 7/28/2024 at 1:58 PM, SvenIronhand said:

As an outsider? Heavy weapons of some sort.

The "Teeth of Khorne" would be awesome to have. 

[Kharn13]

On 7/27/2024 at 9:39 PM, Indy Techwisp said:

Surprised this isn't a Topic already.

 

While I'm not a WE player myself (yet), I think it's fair to say WE have a lot of open design space left to fill, so here's my guesses at what WE could get in 10th:

• Berserker Surgeons: Frequently mentioned in the lore WE got in 9th and the Index, would be a useful character to have (also the first Chaos Apothecary!)
• Berserker Bikers/Berserkers on Juggernauts: WE have a Mounted character with no Mounted unit to lead, so this makes sense. Also they've shown up in art already.
• Unique Terminators (Red Butchers): So far, WE are the only released Cult Marines with no unique Terminators. I'd guess Melee Only for unique Terminators.
• Another WE Unique Daemon Engine: There's a couple from Forgeworld that are preferred by WE iirc, so maybe one of those in plastic?

 

Obviously, this is all from an outside perspective, so there's probably some more nuanced ideas people who actually play WE have.
Feel free to suggest anything else!

I would expect the same four things. For the daemon engine I would prefer some kind of gun platform - a mini KLoS type thing or dreadnaught? I also think that daemons will be part of the codex going forward. 
 

Drop pods for chaos would also be awesome for WE! 

[LSM]

16 hours ago, gaurdian31 said:

The "Teeth of Khorne" would be awesome to have. 

 

As an aside, where does "Teeth of Khorne" come from? I've seen some people say Rogue Trader, but the closest thing I've been able to find is the Slaves to Darkness lore insert for the Devastator Squads: "As the teeth of the World Eaters, Devastator Squads rarely limit themselves to providing tactical support. They are often found in the thick of any fight, taking blood with as much abandon as their comrades-in-arms."

 

Rules wise, they were no different from Emperor's Children Devastator Squads (with the exception of having an extra two Bolter marines, bringing their squad size up from 6 to 8, and having Chainswords instead of Hallucinogen Grenades).

 

//

 

As to what I'd like to see (as a non-WE player):

• The mentioned Butcher Surgeons.
• WE Terminator Lord.
• Jugger Riders (though if Daemons get folded in, then I guess Bloodcrushers alleviate this somewhat).
• "Teeth of Khorne" (with Plasma Cannons, because blood ~plasma, and... Heavy Flamers, maybe? For some Kill, Maim, Burn? Though I guess Plasma burns...)
• Red Butchers are neat, but... I'm good with 30k stuff staying 30k. So I'd like to see a WE Terminator concept that's pushed past what Red Butchers were.

And then give WE access to Bikers again (a classic component going back to their Index Astartes list), Chaos Lords (because: why?), Warpsmiths and Vindicators (Khorne often has an industrial, weaponsmithing aspect), and Traitor Guard (~Blood Pact).

[Kharn13]

46 minutes ago, LSM said:

 

As an aside, where does "Teeth of Khorne" come from? I've seen some people say Rogue Trader, but the closest thing I've been able to find is the Slaves to Darkness lore insert for the Devastator Squads: "As the teeth of the World Eaters, Devastator Squads rarely limit themselves to providing tactical support. They are often found in the thick of any fight, taking blood with as much abandon as their comrades-in-arms."

 

Rules wise, they were no different from Emperor's Children Devastator Squads (with the exception of having an extra two Bolter marines, bringing their squad size up from 6 to 8, and having Chainswords instead of Hallucinogen Grenades).

 

//

 

As to what I'd like to see (as a non-WE player):

• The mentioned Butcher Surgeons.
• WE Terminator Lord.
• Jugger Riders (though if Daemons get folded in, then I guess Bloodcrushers alleviate this somewhat).
• "Teeth of Khorne" (with Plasma Cannons, because blood ~plasma, and... Heavy Flamers, maybe? For some Kill, Maim, Burn? Though I guess Plasma burns...)
• Red Butchers are neat, but... I'm good with 30k stuff staying 30k. So I'd like to see a WE Terminator concept that's pushed past what Red Butchers were.

And then give WE access to Bikers again (a classic component going back to their Index Astartes list), Chaos Lords (because: why?), Warpsmiths and Vindicators (Khorne often has an industrial, weaponsmithing aspect), and Traitor Guard (~Blood Pact).

Nice list, but I would guess if we got jugger cav then we wouldn’t get bikes. I would make my jugger cav using bikes though (outriders or hopefully a chaos equivalent soon).

[gaurdian31]

4 hours ago, LSM said:

 

As an aside, where does "Teeth of Khorne" come from? I've seen some people say Rogue Trader, but the closest thing I've been able to find is the Slaves to Darkness lore insert for the Devastator Squads: "As the teeth of the World Eaters, Devastator Squads rarely limit themselves to providing tactical support. They are often found in the thick of any fight, taking blood with as much abandon as their comrades-in-arms."

Basically what you are referencing there is what I am referring to, World Eater Devastator squads or what would now be called Havoc squads.

[LSM]

6 hours ago, gaurdian31 said:

Basically what you are referencing there is what I am referring to, World Eater Devastator squads or what would now be called Havoc squads.

 

Yeah, it was more that for a long time I've seen a bunch of people refer to "The Teeth of Khorne" like it was an established term, but I've never actually seen where it came from.

 

Just curious if it's more a fan thing than an official one.

[gaurdian31]

13 hours ago, LSM said:

 

Yeah, it was more that for a long time I've seen a bunch of people refer to "The Teeth of Khorne" like it was an established term, but I've never actually seen where it came from.

 

Just curious if it's more a fan thing than an official one.

Yeah, I definitely think it is more fan thing than anything.

[spiros14]

I see it as a heavy bolter in Eternal Crusade of all things but that's really it. 
Personally I think a Teeth of Khorne style army would be better off as a vanilla CSM thing to just allow players to go the full mile with it and have a similar dynamic of The Purge/Death Guard AKA "We worship the same god, but go about it in such different ways that we're pretty hostile against each other"
As a crunch point I'm opposed to seeing a havoc equivalent for World Eaters. Similar to the Thousand Sons the World Eaters are dedicated to one style of combat with support in the other sector by way of the generic units. Thousand Son units are very ranged based with the like of Maulerfiends and Heldrakes to support in combat; World Eaters are very combat based with Forgefiends and the tank pool to support in ranged. 

I could concede to a Jakhal style unit with heavy stubbers which would contrast well with Tzaangor melee, but apart from that I don't see heavy weapons carrying to be a World Eater legionnaire's prerogative.

 

[Dr. Clock]

I don't think WE really 'need' anything. They work well as-is, though I know there's not much diversity in lists beyond 'do you Angron'.

 

I nevertheless am really hoping that Daemons are brought back into the Cult Marine lists completely and it just becomes 'Codex: Khorne'.

 

In that case I'd honestly be happy with any new units of marines, mortals, daemon engines or even Spawn.

 

For new marine unit I'd love the obvious Jugger Cav, Jump Infantry, or Teeth.

 

For new mortals I'd recommend a burninator unit, something Accursed adjacent, a mortal character/priest, or Khorngors.

 

New Khornate Spawn would also be fun although I feel like the studio is much more likely to focus on marine units and Spawn will still be a random include for old heads.

 

New Daemon Engine could be almost anything, but basically I'd look for an aggro 80-100 point Mauler-lite, although if skullcannons and bloodthrones are in the list this is way less of a priority.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

[Ming the Merciless]

Terminator and Power Armour Lords.

[jimbo1701]

 

Terminator and Power Armour Lords.

Even just an entry for them in the book so I can use azrakh would be great. My list would be:

 

- surgeon 

- named terminators 

- daemon engine ie blood slaughterer. 
- jump assault berserkers 

- khornes teeth with specific heavy weapons such as blood flamers and skull cannons 

- juggernaut cavalry. 

[Kharn13]

The Red Path had a cool idea of ghost ship Lotara Sarrin. Yes. Please.

[Kharn13]

Also, another cool idea to get some shooting in - 1 jugger cav model in a unit 3 could have a mounted gun platform with assault keyword. That would be spicy!

[Ethrion]

I'd love to see an apothecary, bikers, a command squad (like the company heroes), havocs, vindicators and/or artillery, basic lord options in power and terminator armour, a reiver-like lighter-armoured unit, a lone operative headhunter (like an eversor or vindicare), a slaughterbrute, and jump pack berzerkers. Heck, if I'm being greedy, why not drop pods or termite assault drills! :P

[Gaz Taylor]

My thoughts on this as I got a World Eater Combat Patrol for Christmas and planning on doing an army this year of them.

 

I think World Eaters have a nice selection of units, however based on what I've been learning about the army, it would be nice for a little more variety in lists. So in this case I would like to see the following:

 

• Another character model such as a Lord or Gladiator type champion
• Bikes or a unit of Juggers
• Havocs and Vindicators - Big Guns is very much Khorne!

I think something simple like this would be cool and hopefully still in the theme. 

[Tokugawa]

On EC reveal it's confirmed that the 4 cult legion codex would include daemon units.

 

So juggernaut and "big gun" arrived. Not in the form you had imagined though…

[Hathor42]

Thousand sons and deathguard had the first apothecary type units. Sorcerer's can bring back a rubric marines and deathguard have the plague surgeon. A butcher surgeon would be cool though. I'd like upgrade kits for vehicles so they could have giant buzz saws and such. 

[Prot]

I'm not sure how you could shoehorn this in, but it's something that's always stuck with me since the Heresy novels; Librarians that sustain the legion. Mildy tolerated, the Librarian's role would be to sooth the nails giving the army a 'chance' at tactical thinking.  

 

Aside from that admittedly bizarre element to the army, I'd still love to see a new Daemon engine. Not a 'daemon', but something between a Defiler and Kytan. The Kytan was pretty cool in its day, and there's the big Khorne choo-choo train but those are largely impractical. I'd love to see a new tormented killing machine brought to the legion by the Arkifane.

 

 

[Rain]

On 2/11/2025 at 12:11 PM, Prot said:

I'm not sure how you could shoehorn this in, but it's something that's always stuck with me since the Heresy novels; Librarians that sustain the legion. Mildy tolerated, the Librarian's role would be to sooth the nails giving the army a 'chance' at tactical thinking.  

 

Aside from that admittedly bizarre element to the army, I'd still love to see a new Daemon engine. Not a 'daemon', but something between a Defiler and Kytan. The Kytan was pretty cool in its day, and there's the big Khorne choo-choo train but those are largely impractical. I'd love to see a new tormented killing machine brought to the legion by the Arkifane.

 

 

Pretty sure there are canonically no World Eater librarians since the late Heresy, and retconning them in would be jarring. The Nails are implied to be Khornate archeotech that causes psykers to explode, and, of course, Khorne hates psykers. There are lore references to slave psykers being kept as navigators, but that’s about it.

 

On the other hand, this would right up the alley of Butcher Surgeons, who could do it with drugs. Arrian Zorzi, the best WE character in all BL fiction was an apothecary who self medicated his Nails with sedatives. It would be a cool expansion of the lore to make this a more widespread thing.

[Prot]

On 2/14/2025 at 1:52 PM, Rain said:

Pretty sure there are canonically no World Eater librarians since the late Heresy, and retconning them in would be jarring. The Nails are implied to be Khornate archeotech that causes psykers to explode, and, of course, Khorne hates psykers. There are lore references to slave psykers being kept as navigators, but that’s about it.

 

On the other hand, this would right up the alley of Butcher Surgeons, who could do it with drugs. Arrian Zorzi, the best WE character in all BL fiction was an apothecary who self medicated his Nails with sedatives. It would be a cool expansion of the lore to make this a more widespread thing.

 

Technically I agree. I think slight twists to the current lore could make it work, even if it is a fringe 'detachment'.  Even the apothecary angle is a bit out there, but like the libby idea, I would try for something on that angle. Trapping WE into an advance and charge army just seems a little too narrow. Not saying it shouldn't be the focus, just I believe like most armies there's room for aberrations. 

 

I just think we have seen stuff happen that was never really hinted at and is changing the 40K story (for the better) for the first time in decades. And if we trap ourselves into new characters/units that are just... more possessed and angrier than the last one, it's probably a dead end.

 

I know this won't happen. I'm just dreaming. I would imagine at best we are looking at re-introducing Daemonkin. Khorne Cannons, Bloodletters, and the like.

 

I loved Daemonkin. I played them since inception until GW killed it. I'd love to see something even stronger in that direction.

 

On that note, maybe it's fast attack we're missing. Famous (infamous) stories of the World Eaters on bikes could expand to speeders, and/or jump packs. It would be nice to see just a bit of a wider playstyle. 

 

I play quite a bit, and it's just hard sometimes for me to play this index more than 2-3 weeks in a row. As much as I love WE, it would be nice to expand.

Edited Wednesday at 04:29 PM by Prot

[Rain]

Sure, I just think psykers are the wrong way to do it. Psykers have been hated by Khorne and his worshippers since at least 2nd ed, and it ties into the story of the World Eaters' fall, with the Legions Librarians being gradually ostracized and eventually all killed by Angron's apotheosis. Limitations on what a faction can have are just as important to maintaining the integrity of that faction as the options that they can take. That said, I'm all for a ranged detachment, and a unit type that can support it. There was a lore blurb in the 9th ed WE book about a WE warband that favors ranged weapons, and I think a Havoc type unit that can take flame weapons and chaincannons would be a flavorful expansion of possibilities for WE, without breaking the lore.

 

Bikes and jump packs are glaring omissions, no argument there.