Chaos! Kaos! Caos! Don't give a fuck!

The new Chaos space marine codex is just around the corner, and it has me in the mood for slayer, Bolt thrower, and other metal bands. It also Has me drooling over new units such as the forge fiend pictured above.

Chaos is getting not only a massive facelift, as we saw in the dark vengeance box, but it is also getting significant changes to playstyle.

One of the big changes is the addition of the warpsmith and the dark apostle.
   The Warpsmith is the chaos answer to the techmarine, but with sponsorship by the dark mechanicum instead of mars.  The dark apostle is like it sounds, a chaos chaplain. Until the codex pops, It is hard to say exactly what they will do, so a little patience for details will be needed.

My favorite change is the addition of daemon engines, in the form of the forgefiend, the maulerfiend, and the heldrake. The forgefiend and the maulerfiend come in the same box, so there will be spare parts for other projects. They build either a shooty daemon engine, or one geared for close combat, particularly against vehicles and buildings. Both are walkers, and have the "it will not die rule" the Heldrake is the rumoured flyer, and looks pretty badass. As much as I like the ranged weapon being in its mouth, I think I am going to want to mount it elsewhere, so I can use that as a place to add gribbly bits.

For me, the biggest change is in aesthetics, the range is moving away from "space marines with spikes and trim" to a more organic look, where the trim is as much a growth on the armour as it is an intentional addition. Mutations are going to be something seen on the armour itself as much as it is on the marine wearing it. The new aspiring champion also has the tentacles coming off its back like those in the dark vengeance box, this time holding the champion's combi-melta. His armour also has the semi-organic hoses/cables the dark vengeance models have. I think this is the new direction the range will take, one that shows: The corruption of serving the ruinous powers is, even for inorganic materials. It will show how the legions replaced the technology they lost during the heresy/scouring, It will show how far the once noble marines fell. Most of all, it will show us How far GW has come since slaves to darkness in their ability to envision and execute detailed models.



As for the codex itself, I think this will give us an idea of what to expect in future books, which makes me excited for those releases as well.