EC Rumours

[BitsHammer]

 

So the Infractors kit only has five unique bodies apparently.

 

Full breakdown of the box here: https://taleofpainters.com/2025/03/review-emperors-children-champions-of-slaanesh-army-set/

 

They weren't especially impressed with some aspects of the box.

Edited March 1 by BitsHammer

[Nephaston]

15 minutes ago, BitsHammer said:

 

So the Infractors kit only has five unique bodies apparently.

 

Full breakdown of the box here: https://taleofpainters.com/2025/03/review-emperors-children-champions-of-slaanesh-army-set/

 

They weren't especially impressed with some aspects of the box.

 

EC would want to be taller than average, the vain bastards. 5 unique bodies is also only an issue if you build them all exactly the same, cause simply going by pairs of arms you get 50 different poses, before even adding 9 different heads in different directons, or stealing some from the noise marines.

[01RTB01]

2 hours ago, BitsHammer said:

 

So the Infractors kit only has five unique bodies apparently.

 

Full breakdown of the box here: https://taleofpainters.com/2025/03/review-emperors-children-champions-of-slaanesh-army-set/

 

They weren't especially impressed with some aspects of the box.

5 unique bodies was clear from GWs sprue share yesterday. Enough bits though so hopefully able to make them unique despite the similar posing. 

 

Also from 3-5 feet away I won't be able to see 

[DarkMark]

Looks like the 10 copies they made have sold out, and everything else on their website. No surprise there.

 

I do like what they'd delivered it's just that they haven't really given us very much. 

 

Anyways, I think if you are painting these in the black and pink then start with a cream basecoat. Block the black in, and correct any areas. Trying to build up to pink from black to cream to pink will be a pain, imo. That's how I'd do it. 

[Joe]

Got my copy through Wayland. Curious to see what the various creators come up with painting tutorial-wise over the next few weeks.

[Scribe]

Yikes, that scale looks way off.

 

/dies

[BitsHammer]

2 hours ago, DarkMark said:

Looks like the 10 copies they made have sold out, and everything else on their website. No surprise there.

 

I do like what they'd delivered it's just that they haven't really given us very much. 

 

Anyways, I think if you are painting these in the black and pink then start with a cream basecoat. Block the black in, and correct any areas. Trying to build up to pink from black to cream to pink will be a pain, imo. That's how I'd do it. 

If they made ten copies then my FLGS got more than half.

 

More seriously use Army Painter's pink primer. It's almost a perfect match to Emperor's Children pink so you can clean up any mistakes with the black and it takes washes just fine.

[crimsondave]

The box lasted right at 5 minutes at the online retailer I use.  Hope folks who want it can get it but it doesn't look promising unless GW kept a lot for their website.

[Ahzek451]

It's already gone in then U.S. 

[Marshal Loss]

Looks like there are some Flawless Blade parts (well, at least one head & a different pose) we hadn't seen yet.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1 by Marshal Loss

[Nephaston]

5 minutes ago, Marshal Loss said:

Looks like there are some Flawless Blade parts (well, at least one head & a different pose) we hadn't seen yet.

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

[ThaneOfTas]

18 hours ago, BitsHammer said:

Honestly if Marines were getting their Primaris update today there is a solid chance that GW would have more cleanly divided chapters up and removed as much overlap as possible between the armies.

They seem to be going the opposite direction with marines, cutting way down on unique kits for each of the supplements and relying on "upgrades" to base units.

[BitsHammer]

1 hour ago, Nephaston said:

Well that explains why they don't have poisoned weapons like Fulgrim.

[Vardus]

On 2/28/2025 at 3:21 PM, LSM said:

 

Wonder what happened to the Lord Exultant's "four different power packs" (Sunday's preview) and optional icons (said in the LVO preview).

 

 

Having watched an unboxing video, which looked through the building instructions, the "four different power packs" come from the Lord Exultant's instruction showing that it may be built with the Icons from the Infractors/Tormentors.

[LSM]

5 hours ago, Marshal Loss said:

Looks like there are some Flawless Blade parts (well, at least one head & a different pose) we hadn't seen yet.

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

 

 

I might take that head and cut it a bit for my Lucius.

[BitsHammer]

3 hours ago, Vardus said:

 

Having watched an unboxing video, which looked through the building instructions, the "four different power packs" come from the Lord Exultant's instruction showing that it may be built with the Icons from the Infractors/Tormentors.

Well that's a rare bit of kit cross compatibility.

[BitsHammer]

Speaking of the kits some info regarding actually painting them: a lot like Rubrics they are going to be easiest in sub assembly.

[HeadlessCross]

On 2/28/2025 at 6:45 PM, Rain said:

Because the lore for the Cult Legions is that they are made up of only the most devoted forms of their respective troops. All WE are Berzerkers of various kinds, all Thousand Sons are Rubrics or Sorcs, etc. units that don’t fall into that are not of the Cult Legions. There are no Berzerker Obliterators. There are no Berzerker Apostles or Sorcerers. They don’t belong in World Eaters. Similar logic for other Cults, though the specific exclusions vary.

This is a major part of flavor for Chaos, and what separates Chaos Legions from the “subfactions” of many other factions. That said, people can still just use Codex: CSM to play Red Chaos Marines, or Pink Chaos Marines, or whatever. All GW is doing is giving fans of specific Cult Legions the ability to play a fluffy and themed Cult Legion force without self imposed limitations that were not considered when balancing the army.

 

Finally, yes, units like Helbrutes and Predators really should be universal, though I’d rather lose them and have proper themed Cult armies than go back to bland Chaos Soup.

You already ARE bland Chaos Soup. EC were literally just given Legionnaires But Not and then Possessed But Not. 

 

Also how are you able to say there's no World Eaters Obliterators? Does the Technovirus decide "oh yeah that's the World Eaters so we can't infect them"? Did Dark Apostles all the sudden forget their chants even though there's a bunch of dumb fluff behind the Eightbound that would require Apostle aid anyway? 

[LSM]

2 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

You already ARE bland Chaos Soup. EC were literally just given Legionnaires But Not and then Possessed But Not. 

 

Also how are you able to say there's no World Eaters Obliterators? Does the Technovirus decide "oh yeah that's the World Eaters so we can't infect them"? Did Dark Apostles all the sudden forget their chants even though there's a bunch of dumb fluff behind the Eightbound that would require Apostle aid anyway? 

 

Ironically, Obliterators were originally their own Cult (and lasted longer at it then Raptors - in the 2007 Codex 'Blits couldn't even take an Icon to get the effects of a mark). In the recent book Renegades: Lord of Excess there's an Emperor's Children character who becomes an Obliterator, and someone remarks that "~he can no longer hear the sublime - his mind is lost to obliteration." Obliterators could be made to be incompatible with being devoted to one of the Chaos Gods - they have been before, and Codex: CSM has (mostly) lost its ability to mark units again.

 

Likewise, Dark Apostle were originally a Word Bearers exclusive unit, back when Word Bearers were exclusively worshippers of Chaos Undivided (being steadfast in their faith in the entirety of Chaos, and not beholden to individual gods). It really wouldn't be new to exclude them from the Cult Legions, it'd be oldschool.

[BitsHammer]

3 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

You already ARE bland Chaos Soup. EC were literally just given Legionnaires But Not and then Possessed But Not. 

 

Also how are you able to say there's no World Eaters Obliterators? Does the Technovirus decide "oh yeah that's the World Eaters so we can't infect them"? Did Dark Apostles all the sudden forget their chants even though there's a bunch of dumb fluff behind the Eightbound that would require Apostle aid anyway? 

EC could use a possessed style unit. Maybe something with snake bodies and four arms?

[Rain]

1 hour ago, LSM said:

Likewise, Dark Apostle were originally a Word Bearers exclusive unit, back when Word Bearers were exclusively worshippers of Chaos Undivided (being steadfast in their faith in the entirety of Chaos, and not beholden to individual gods). It really wouldn't be new to exclude them from the Cult Legions, it'd be oldschool.

Are WB *not* worshippers of Chaos Undivided anymore? When was this changed? Do you just mean that under current rules each squad can take a Chaos mark to change their Dark Pact bonuses? Because that can be explained as them praying to a specific god before the battle.

 

The Romans had a pantheon, but would still pray to specific gods for specific tasks. In the 3.5 book, marks made that unit a full blown Cult unit, so it made sense that WB could not take marks, as Cult marines are permanently owned body and soul by their governing power.

 

In current rules it’s clear that marked units from the CSM book are much different from full on Cult troops, and could represent something as simple as that unit chanting prayers or offering sacrifices to that god before the battle. I guess it could be argued that WB believed that the Chaos gods were not separate powers, and that Chaos was essentially one entity, but I’m not sure how well sourced that idea is.

[Mogger351]

4 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

You already ARE bland Chaos Soup. EC were literally just given Legionnaires But Not and then Possessed But Not. 

 

Also how are you able to say there's no World Eaters Obliterators? Does the Technovirus decide "oh yeah that's the World Eaters so we can't infect them"? Did Dark Apostles all the sudden forget their chants even though there's a bunch of dumb fluff behind the Eightbound that would require Apostle aid anyway? 

The dark apostle in the red angel is seemingly just about tolerated, I'm dredging my memory here but he didn't have nails and caused the rest of them to start ticking and other problems when they manifested anything. Same for their warpsmith, they were more khorne aligned marines rather than World eaters.

 

That book is largely and weirdly not realistically related to the army as it is now. It had a lot of stuff that isn't in the army in any way.

[TheMawr]

3 hours ago, HeadlessCross said:

You already ARE bland Chaos Soup. EC were literally just given Legionnaires But Not and then Possessed But Not. 

 

Also how are you able to say there's no World Eaters Obliterators? Does the Technovirus decide "oh yeah that's the World Eaters so we can't infect them"? Did Dark Apostles all the sudden forget their chants even though there's a bunch of dumb fluff behind the Eightbound that would require Apostle aid anyway? 

 

In addition to the explanation above by LSM, an element that is a recurring theme in GW armies but got kind of confusing with the [ subfaction ] era. Its actually not so weird that khorne ( a god mind you.) is able to prevent those that follow him to be afflicted by the technovirus or indeed world eaters cast those out who are.

But this thinking also extend endlessly :
I mean why cant chaos use any Imperium vehicle in existence ? why is it limited to a generic traitor guard, and there arent different units for traitor cadians, traitor catachans and traitor krieg, the line is arbitrary drawn by thematics, there doesnt even need to be a lore justification.

 

Thats not to say each cult legion wouldnt have its equivalents of Apostles, Surgeons (wich main CSM dont even have.) etc. But these will be their own unique things, give it time.. there is not enough left to update to focus as hard on the old ( 2nd and 3rd ed. ) armies as they did the past 2 editions, its soon time for the new armies (that started to be added since 7th ed.) to get their spotlight.

 

to the first part.

 

Technically Rubric marines are TS legionaires and Plague marines are DG legionaires both under effect of their legions affliction, previously Noise marines where both the EC legionaires and a special unit as you could equip them as both in the ( lengthy ) upgrade sprue era... all they did is split it up into a legionaire and a special unit.

TS and DG didnt have a special unit, but got terminators instead.. and World eaters didnt have a baseline unit as Berzerkers where less legionaires than the others. ( though you could argue they are legionaires that have forsaken the bolter build and focus purely on the assault build.) but didnt get a replacement unit for either Legionaires or "special" thing.

Each of them also have 3man Exalted units from a design perspective, wich manifests differently in game terms but are relevant to the cult champion and their pre-daemonhood primarch : Exalted sorcerers (Ahriman), Exalted terminators (Typhus), Exalted Berzerkers (Khârn) and Exalted Duelists (Lucius)

 

in a way (but in this case I assume coincidentally) the mortal chaff follow a similar route;

 

Tzeentch --> Tzaangor --- Tzaangor Enlightened
Nurgle --> Poxwalkers --- Gellerpox
Khorne --> Jackhals --- Goremongers
Slaanesh --> Nothing --- Nothing

 

But thats steering off too much.

 

While Im on the hated "you* lost nothing, you only didnt gain what you wanted to gain" when it comes to the cult factions camp I want to also take the oppurtunity to delve deeper into this.

 

First of all its not entirely true.. if you had a CSM World eaters or CSM Emperors children army you lost Khârn/Berzerkers and Lucius/Noise marines. Not alot, but a core identity of your army. This shouldnt have been the case.  There is lore and rule precedence to keep them in CSM as well as their dedicated new army without having to utilize ally rules. ( in AoS some named characters appear in more than 2 battletomes.)

 

Second, Im consistent with it. Ive been saying this to angry Ynnari fans too.. we didnt lose Hellions, because we never had them.. we gained some units, for the first time ever. Its bare bones, but its expandable instead of all-inclusive but removable. ( for the record, Ynnari have even less reason to have aspect warriors than WE having dark apostles... but thats another pet peeve and another topic.) 

And that expandable part is the important ( but maybe naive ) thing in this view point.

 

When there are too many placeholders you get in a cycle of losing things when new things are added. With a cleaner slate approach you know what to expect. In addition, and more importantly, you create a situation of urgency.

 

In developer meetings, it regularily has happened to me that when I proposed character X for faction Y it was turned down as important because faction Y already has character Z as dual faction. But ( being the aesthics person on the team.) character Z doesnt fit faction Y visually.

Every decision we only see the end product of I try to ( perhaps wrongfully as I obviously dont work for GW) see the development team angle.

 

 

[TheMawr]

38 minutes ago, BitsHammer said:

EC could use a possessed style unit. Maybe something with snake bodies and four arms?

 

Possessed to go with your avatar picture

Marines that have become one with their bike in a strife for perfection.

 

I envision those guys who have their car/bike they work on every day and almost are in a relationship with... and then give it a chaos (slaanesh.. not not THAT slaanesh.. eww) twist fluffwise. Becoming Johnny from the chrono trigger game

[Rain]

40 minutes ago, Mogger351 said:

The dark apostle in the red angel is seemingly just about tolerated, I'm dredging my memory here but he didn't have nails and caused the rest of them to start ticking and other problems when they manifested anything. Same for their warpsmith, they were more khorne aligned marines rather than World eaters.

 

That book is largely and weirdly not realistically related to the army as it is now. It had a lot of stuff that isn't in the army in any way.

Yeah, The Red Angel had several throwaway product placement lines about products that were no longer sold for that army as of the release that TRA coincided with. They weren’t worked into the plot at all, it would just mention that “oh yeah, Kossolax had obliterators with bullhorns to make announcements” or “and then some Raptors attacked some guardsmen.” The whole book read like it was written by someone that was just doing a job, and didn’t really give a , but that’s fair enough I suppose, as, well, they were just doing a job.