Pete Haines

Pete: The Year of Chaos continues with the release of Codex: Chaos Space Marines and it is my pleasure to explain some of the thinking that went into its design and production.

Like many gamers who have been with Warhammer 40,000 since its earliest origins, I have a particular fascination with the forces of Chaos so when Andy Chambers, the Warhammer 40,000 Overfiend, told me that I would be handling the project I was simultaneously delighted and terrified.

The delight is easily explained. I enjoy having a role-playing element in my games of Warhammer 40,000. For me, there is far more fun to be had if the characters that lead my armies are fully defined with names, background and equipment that is entertaining, characterful and reasonably effective. Inevitably this drew me first to the Space Marines and it was with my Harbinger Chapter that I cut my teeth in Warhammer 40,00 and developed a better view of what I actually wanted for my next army.

The Realms of Chaos books came out about this time along with the Titan Legions game.

Fabius Bile was once a hero of the Great Crusade but, since the Horus Heresy, his genetic research has spawned monsters, claimed millions of victims and led him around the galaxy pursued by the forces of the Imperium intent on foiling his next plot. There is more to Fabius Bile than a gaming stat line; there is an implicit narrative that cannot help but spill over and embellish your games.

I read these fully expecting that the forces of Chaos would become a regular opponent for my Space Marines and finished them with a strong urge to collect a Chaos Space Marines army instead. There's no mystery why this should be the case; in comic books, novels and movies anti-heroes and villains are far more fascinating than the heroes. The dark menace of Dr. Hannibal Lecter, Pinhead or even The Joker is clearly popular with audiences. Compared to the best villains, heroes can be rather dull because they are either too perfect, too lucky or just downright predictable. A classic villain has grandiose plans and gets to deliver long soliloquies to captured enemies and intimidated henchmen. He is resourceful and tough, exuding the kind of cool menace that only a villain can. In every respect he is more than a match for the hero except for the fact that he has flaws and weaknesses. These can range from rampant megalomania to a penchant for explaining his cunning plan to the wrong person; clearly villains carry the seeds of their own destruction with them.

Looking at Chaos Space Marines we have genetically engineered supermen, trained to the highest standards, equipped with the finest weaponry, who had been part of a Great Crusade in which they were hailed as the saviours of Mankind. They are then corrupted, their all-so-human desires and frailties preyed upon by beings of consummate evil until they turn on their brothers and fight an apocalyptic civil war. The survivors are then hardened and embittered by defeat and exile. Damned by their sins, they must start to build anew, mastering the madness of the Eye of Terror and building their strength to strike back at the Imperium. What could be cooler than that?

The terror I felt stemmed from the fact that because so much good work has been done on Chaos in the past, there seemed to be an enormous responsibility to get it right. When the project started the excellent Index Astartes series in White Dwarf was in full flow and was, each month, building the background of each of the original Chaos Space Marine Legions to a hitherto undreamt of level. Clearly there was no point in duplicating this material. The other point that Index Astartes raised was that having let the genie out of the bottle by detailing specific rules for all nine original Chaos Legions, it was going to be practically impossible not to carry the principle forward into the Codex. This was going to mean that the book would have a lot of rules material to cover. The other worry was that Chaos rouses strong views in its devotees so, however the final version shaped up, it was likely to be a bit controversial, especially as the rules presented in White Dwarf would probably need to be streamlined to fit into a Codex format.

There were a number of objectives I wanted to achieve with the army list. I stuck to them quite rigorously so they are worth explaining further as they are the basis of the most important changes made in the new Codex: Chaos Space Marines.

DIVERSITY
The Codex formalises the idea that there are nine entirely different Chaos Legions, each with their own strengths and weaknesses rather than a single polyglot force.

It had become clear to me that single Legion armies were the preference of the vast majority of Chaos players and the response to Index Astartes was all the confirmation that was needed. With the Index Astartes compilations as companion volumes, Codex: Chaos Space Marines could focus on rules because the in-depth background for each of the Legions had already been published.

I had already developed a clear view about whether to include Cultists and other Chaos-aligned troops, such as mutants and abhumans. The name of the Codex would be Codex: Chaos Space Marines so the whole emphasis would be on the Traitor Legions themselves. Obviously it would have to cover Daemons as the Chaos Space Marines have the ability to summon them, but I saw no good reason for including Cultists other than as an Alpha Legion option (and I made sure that these were quite specialised). Cultists work best as a separate army and there is plenty of scope for a distinct Cultist army list to be developed later.

Also, within the general point of diversity is the observation that Chaos players have always been amongst the keenest converters in the hobby. A look through the Golden Demon archives is all the illustration needed. Because of this I commonly allowed options in the list that were unlikely to be seen in the range as encouragement to figure converters. I am looking forward to seeing the product of this extra license in Chaos Space Marines armies at Games Workshop events.

OBLITERATORS AND RAPTORS

The new Obliterator model is an incredible work of the miniaturtes designer's art!

Obliterators and Raptors, troop types new to third edition Warhammer 40,000, had to be examined and moved forward. Clearly the basis was there for two excellent troop types but they had never quite caught on. In the case of the Obliterators, they lacked the endurance or firepower that their imagery (and points value) implied. Raptors were similarly very expensive in points for what they did. Fortunately these rules were easy to fix and the miniatures designers did a great job of making the new models a lot more exciting too. I have no doubt that both troop types will be a much more common sight in Chaos Space Marine armies after the new Codex is released.

VETERANS
Chaos Space Marines are all, to some extent, veterans. The long war has hardened them in a way only the oldest Dreadnoughts of the loyalist Legions could understand. The new Space Marines might have their Land Speeders, multi-meltas and plasma cannons but the Chaos Space Marines have experience. That had to count for something. The method I adopted to reflect this was to detail a number of Veteran skills drawn mainly from campaign experience systems but also including the special skills that have been developed to support the Index Astartes articles. Chaos Space Marines can select skills from this list at an appropriate points cost. In this way any Chaos Space Marine can be fielded as a Veteran with something to show for his ten thousand years of experience beyond being able to infiltrate. The key balancing factor is that there is a points cost for each skill. These are not set at prohibitive levels but allocating more than one skill will quickly get expensive. Whilst Chaos Space Marine Veterans have access to the full gamut of Veteran skills they all come at a price. Loyalist Chapters, such as the Space Wolves, have some of the same skills because they have specialised in a particular way of combat down the generations and are very good at training their recruits in their distinctive method of fighting. Their points do not fully reflect these skills because the price of specialisation is its very focus. As a practical example, if a Space Wolves Grey Hunter had to purchase his special skills using the system from Codex: Chaos Space Marines he would cost 20 points rather than his normal 17. This in turn is the price of versatility; Chaos Space Marines can have some very useful skills but have to pay the price for them.

Next: Part 2