Chaos Space Marines: The Traitor Legions
Thinking about my future plans for my own Chaos Space Marine Army got me thinking about the faction and one or two things that have puzzled me over the years.
The Horus Heresy was the single most important event in the lore. It divided the Space Marine Legions into two. Two equal halves. Nine loyal and nine traitor legions. There were twenty legions and two are totally absent from the lore. They are unlikely to have been written out of history because they were 'too loyal to mention' so, we could guess they were guilty of crimes even worse than those of the Sons of Horus. That means that more than half of the legions belong on the dark side.
Yet, the traitor legions have always been treated less equally by Games Workshop when it comes to supporting the faction.
I understand that in very simple terms, GW might consider the 40K universe to be: The Imperium versus The Others. And in 'the others' there is Chaos plus the Xenos factions. And as a company they need to try to support all factions as best they can. But I still believe that they should have played the Good versus Evil card better by giving the Chaos Legions and the Renegade Chapters an almost equal amount of support.
Now is the perfect opportunity. The Space Marines have been boosted with the concept of a main Codex plus Codex Supplements for the Loyal Legions, now chapters. And no doubt there will be new books for the non-codex Loyal Legions: I Dark Angels; VI Space Wolves; IX Blood Angels.
This is a good point in my ramblings to say that I have since Second Edition been totally puzzled and more recently annoyed that in every single Space Marine Codex the table of the twenty legions appears. Usually quite early on in the background and the story of the first founding. Yet, never once has this table appeared in a Codex Chaos. This makes zero sense. It's inclusion would have put the traitor legions into context straight away. I must caveat by saying I have every Chaos Codex up to the 2017 edition. I did not purchase the later tweaked version but I very much doubt the table is in there.
So, if Chaos were to be treated to the same amount of attention I would hope to see a main Codex: Chaos Space Marines, followed by four supplements for: IV Iron Warriors; VIII Night Lords; XVII Word Bearers; XX Alpha Legion. The five Codex to cover the four god-specific Legions: III Emperors Children (Slaanesh); XII World Eaters (Khorne); XIV Death Guard (Nurgle); XV Thousand Sons (Tzeentch); plus XVI Black Legion.
This approach would enable the main Codex Chaos to expend on options for Renegade Chapters. There are many mentioned but they only get a mention in passing. For example: The Crimson Slaughter; The Cleaved; The Company of Misery. The Red Corsairs do get more attention than others.
The god-specific Renegade Chapters could either get some attention in the main Codex Chaos Pace Marines, or be included in the Codex books for the appropriate god. The Flawless Host (Slaanesh); The Blood Disciples (Khorne); The Purge (Nurgle); The Scourged (Tzeentch)
This brings me on to Codex: Chaos Daemons. Whilst I think there might be a small demand for a dedicated |Daemon Codex, I would hazzard a guess that most Deamons are taken as allies in detachments as a part of a main Chaos Space Marine force.
The opportunity is there to treat Daemons like Genestealers. By that I mean they can appear in more than one Codex but with perhaps slightly different rules?
So, for example, let us consider Khorne. It could be that a Bloodthirster and other HQ choices are kept solely in Codex: Chaos Daemons but Bloodletters, Flesh Hounds, maybe Bloodcruhers could appear in Codex: Worldeaters. Perhaps with an ability or two less or a points change? This would be both fluffy and give greater flavour to god-specific Chaos Space Marine army.
Anyhow. As always, it will be interesting to see what the next twelve months brings.........
