Josh

Hello, you lot.

Josh

This is the TTP field manual.

Josh

Josh is talking at you once more.

Josh

Welcome back.

Josh

Today we are talking about Chaos factions in Warhammer 40,000.

Josh

I am joined, as always, by my dear good friend, totally fall into Chaos.

Josh

Johnny.

Josh

Hello.

Johnny

How we doing?

Josh

I'm doing pretty good.

Josh

I assume you're feeling very good about today's topic.

Johnny

Oh, we're finally in my hometown.

Johnny

It's great.

Josh

In the Warp.

Josh

Hometown in the Warp.

Johnny

That's it.

Josh

That's it.

Josh

We made it through several episodes talking about literally every other faction you can play in this game, talking about their lore, talking about the visual and thematic stylings of them, talking about whether they're an expensive army to collect, a high skill ceiling army to play, etc.

Josh

But today, you get to take us through the realms of Chaos.

Johnny

Oh, it's where all the wacky, fun stuff goes on, right?

Josh

Yeah, fun.

Josh

Fun's one way of putting it.

Johnny

What do you mean?

Josh

How does Chaos.

Josh

How is Chaos more fun with everything that goes on in the twisted, you know, not exactly emotional, but just twisted nonetheless.

Josh

Warp.

Josh

How is Chaos so different to the Imperium in being more fun?

Josh

Both are awful.

Johnny

Well, yes, both are awful.

Johnny

Let's be real.

Johnny

We're talking about a natural force of entropy, essentially a space between realities that just eats and mutates everything around.

Johnny

And.

Johnny

But the thing is, it makes things more fun.

Johnny

It's okay with you exploring your vices.

Johnny

It's okay with you embracing change and all of these things that the Imperium just say no to.

Johnny

Where the.

Johnny

Whereas the Imperium controls everyone and everything.

Johnny

Chaos just wants you to do your thing and give you the tools to.

Josh

Chaos wants you to be your true self.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

For better or worse.

Johnny

So vote Chaos at your next election.

Josh

But let's not talk about elections with that.

Johnny

That brief introduction to Chaos.

Josh

Probably, like, just clarify exactly, like, what the Warp is though, right?

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

So the Warp is, as I said, the space between space.

Johnny

It is a turmoily river of emotional influence.

Johnny

Everyone's soul is linked to the Warp because souls are inherently warp energy.

Johnny

So all of your emotional needs come fuel what might be in there.

Johnny

And even the Chaos Gods are beings of emotion.

Johnny

They are beings of certain ideas.

Johnny

And obviously with how grim, dark, and gritty things are in the 40k universe, the gods kind of are pretty grim and gritty as well.

Johnny

One focusing on bloodshed and murder as well as honor.

Johnny

And like 1v1 stuff like this in Khorne, you've got the plague, Grandfather Nurgle, who is focused on disease and Pestilence, but also medicine and healing.

Johnny

You've got Slaanesh, the God of excess, focusing on both like perfection as well as lust and desire and anything that you could want to do and going as far as these things can take you.

Johnny

And then you've got Tzeentch, the God of magic and change, who focuses on knowledge and those needs to fulfill your mind, essentially.

Johnny

And fueling a lot of the psionic energies.

Johnny

And nestled in amongst this, there are space Marines and entities that look to these creatures, these emotional entities as gods and ask favor or do jobs to help them and worship them as gods.

Johnny

And that's where we.

Johnny

We kick into our first faction in the Chaos being the Chaos Demons, which are the entities that work for these godlike figures.

Johnny

We have different demons, which is a bit of a weird word.

Johnny

It's the Imperium's term for what they really are.

Johnny

They are warp entity made manifest.

Josh

Yeah, they're basically extensions of the warp soup, aren't they?

Josh

They're not exactly individuals, they just are extensions of it.

Johnny

Yeah, exactly.

Johnny

They are, yeah.

Johnny

Just the warp made into a physical form.

Johnny

They are an idea with legs, essentially.

Josh

Unfortunately for everyone in the modern setting, you know, we have the Warp, you could call it other things, the Imperium, perhaps the astral plane, etc.

Josh

And as you mentioned, they are beings of emotion.

Josh

But when you've had 60 million years of war and conflict, starting from, you know, the Necrons, genociding the various other races, you've had the whole, like human conflicts in recent times.

Josh

The Aeldaris, like civilizations fall.

Josh

Whilst, you know, the gods might mean well in this setting, they've kind of become twisted and perverse to the most sort of negative components of it, haven't they?

Johnny

Oh, they definitely have, yeah.

Josh

We have Chaos Demons, though.

Josh

They are their own faction.

Johnny

They are.

Johnny

They are the Warhammer Fantasy 40K crossover faction, which sits in a weird spot in the hobby.

Johnny

It is.

Josh

Do you remember when we tried to figure out the connection for that?

Johnny

Oh, man.

Johnny

Sitting there and trying to work out why the same demon can exist in two different realities.

Johnny

@ the end of the day, the answer is it's the space between dimensions and they are separate dimensions.

Johnny

And these guys can sometimes just go there.

Josh

Yeah, the warp just creeps through all the games workshop realities, eh?

Johnny

Essentially it's its own little cinematic universe.

Josh

To the perceptions of these, there's four concentrated sort of sources of this energy.

Josh

As you mentioned, there has been more.

Josh

There may be more in the future.

Josh

But to these big four, you can't even really say they're focused exactly on 40k.

Josh

They just see everything omnipotently, which is kind of fun if you want to really save money.

Josh

Just play Chaos Demons and you get two games.

Johnny

Yeah, but in a weird space you can kind of play them both in Age of Sigma and in 40K, but also not really.

Johnny

It's like this weird crossover that almost works.

Josh

You can play them more effectively as a Chaos demon faction in 40k.

Josh

In Age of Sigma they really expanded the four styles of demons to include more of like a cults side of things.

Josh

You've got like the Blades of Khorne or your gladiators, etc.

Josh

Whereas in 40k you've got more of a space Marine adjacent thing.

Josh

But you still have the Chaos Demon's core.

Josh

Do they exactly play particularly different though?

Josh

The answer is a big maybe the.

Johnny

Answer is yeah, kind of.

Josh

Yeah, kind of like they have the various demons of the four various Chaos Gods.

Josh

Khor, Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch all have a specific role within the army.

Josh

But it's a bit hard to actually get everything to play all four parts of the army because a lot of these models are old man old and.

Johnny

A lot of them are weirdly supported but out of print.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

The start box is exclusively Corn Demons.

Josh

The start box to get you into this faction is entirely Corn Demons, which.

Johnny

Puts you into a very melee focused game style that if you gel with that.

Johnny

Cool.

Johnny

If you wanted something a little more balanced, it's.

Johnny

It can be difficult to find some of the other Chaos Demon models to actually field.

Johnny

But shall we get into our ratings?

Josh

I think before we quite get into that, we should give a brief description of the each of the four like.

Josh

Each of the four in terms of like their visual identity and what that means as well to play them in the tabletop.

Josh

And then I think going into the ratings would be easy then Corn Demons to start with.

Johnny

They are in the starter box.

Johnny

They are the more recent sculpts for the mortal range as well.

Johnny

Are your melee brutes.

Johnny

They are your very typical what you would see in fantasy from like a demon.

Johnny

They are blood and skulls and wings.

Josh

And claws and very Christian depiction of Hell.

Johnny

Yes, Very focused on the melee front of the force.

Johnny

They don't shoot well, if at all.

Johnny

But they love to get into a fight.

Johnny

They know their base battle line unit.

Johnny

The Bloodletters are squishy with big swords.

Johnny

They hit like a truck.

Johnny

But they die really easily.

Josh

Especially if you're fighting Imperial agents.

Johnny

Oh yeah.

Johnny

Your Nurgle Associated demons.

Johnny

Your nurglings, your plaguebringers are kind of your gross, swampy, diseased, big, bulbous and full of pus and pustules.

Johnny

They're gross and big and fat and full of some of the cutest models in the entire range.

Johnny

Because for some reason, Warhammer has fun with Nurgle.

Josh

Nurgle has probably the most fun from what I've seen in the whole, like, chaos setting.

Josh

There's this one novel I listened to where this one planet's taken over by this, like, plague of Nurgle.

Josh

And the, like, greatest, biggest demon of Nurgle's just like, basically doing like a carnival show with his nurglings as they erupt from the bloated carcasses of things.

Josh

And he's singing and the nurglings are dancing and all the pus puddles.

Josh

And the whole scene is meant to be comedic.

Josh

But if you weren't part of Nurgle, holy crap.

Josh

Like, you're vomiting your guts up just because they're right next to you.

Johnny

Disgusting and wonderful all at the same time.

Josh

Slaanesh has lots of fun, though.

Johnny

Slaanesh is your fast moving, slim, semi melee, focused army.

Johnny

They have some very interesting models that have definitely moved away from their previous over sexualization.

Johnny

They are your slave sort of vibe with whips, and I'm just making it sound like they're still sexualized.

Josh

They're BDSM demons.

Johnny

Yeah, sure.

Johnny

They kind of are.

Josh

They are.

Josh

They are the excess demons that just happen to manifest as your fast attack units.

Josh

And so naturally are very dexterous, feminine bodies.

Josh

And because they're really quick, they have a lot of that, like, you know, slim blades, whips, etc.

Josh

But they're definitely Meteor 7 demons.

Johnny

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Josh

And then easy to define compared to Tzeentch.

Johnny

Yes.

Johnny

Tzeentch, being the God of change, is probably the weirdest to stick in a box.

Josh

The most Eldritch.

Johnny

Yes, for sure.

Johnny

We have their battleline unit, which are blue and pink horrors that split and change and become smaller versions.

Johnny

They have a little bit of like a bird vibe is the easiest way to put it.

Johnny

With their Lords of Chains, they've got a few beaky things, but then other than that, they're kind of just like weird, amorphous amalgamations of arms and legs.

Josh

And then you have them as your midline spellcaster unit.

Johnny

Yeah, they're your more ranged option with weird shenanigans.

Josh

All right.

Josh

It's a pretty good groundwork, I think.

Josh

Now we could definitely fall into how we personally rate the factions.

Johnny

How did you find the Chaos Demon faction as a.

Josh

As a whole, I'm actually pretty positive on Chaos.

Josh

I just don't seem to collect them.

Josh

I actually quite enjoy Chaos.

Josh

Chaos Demons, however, tied for my lowest overall.

Johnny

Oh, wow.

Josh

Score in the Chaos range.

Josh

Funnily enough, y part of that's just that a lot of the models are old.

Josh

A similar problem I had with other factions that I do like, such as Drukhari and Grey Knights.

Josh

The models just need a bit of a range refresh, and then I'm totally on board.

Josh

I gave them four for style.

Josh

I love the eldritch horror of them.

Josh

I love how different they all are.

Josh

I love that you have your Infernal Demons of Khorne, your Tankish blobs of nurgle, etc.

Josh

And I love that you have a lot of different tiers, I suppose, of Demons from your lowly battle line soldiers all the way up to what are known as Greater Demons.

Josh

And they are akin to, like the knights that you like so much.

Josh

Just these huge centerpiece models that really just tie your army together.

Josh

Love the style.

Josh

For the Lore, I like them.

Josh

I'm just not really, like, excited by them.

Josh

So I gave them a 2.

Josh

They seem to be more of a.

Josh

Like a base ingredient for other factions.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

And so because of that, I tend to like the other factions more as they really run with the theme.

Josh

For accessibility, I gave them a three.

Josh

It would be higher if it was, you know, easier to acquire, but there's a lot of options and variety in an army, which is always good.

Josh

And then for gameplay, I gave them a 3.

Josh

It'll be interesting to see what they do when the Codex releases.

Josh

I assume that each of the four demon groups will get a flavored detachment, but it's going to feel real bad if there's not some new models to really, like, fluff that, like, fluff that detachment up, you know, for sure.

Johnny

For sure.

Josh

12 for me.

Johnny

Well, we had similar ratings.

Johnny

The only difference is I gave them a five for style because I really like the aesthetic of all of the different demons and the vibes, and I really do like what they have.

Johnny

But yes, the.

Johnny

The Lore does definitely feel like they are a base ingredient.

Johnny

We'll see later on that a lot of the other Chaos factions have a higher rating in Lore because, you know, they've expanded on this premise.

Johnny

Accessibility are three similar reasons.

Johnny

There's a lot of models.

Johnny

Some of them are hard to get, but there is a lot of variety out there.

Johnny

And the gameplay.

Johnny

I gave a three as well, because they seem Fine.

Johnny

And yeah, they will obviously get some sub factions when they get a codex, but the gameplay in and of itself at the moment is still pretty cool.

Johnny

With their four distinct play styles trying to work together, I think it's a nice puzzle to try and learn.

Josh

They really play off of morale as a mechanic as best as they can in this, in the current edition of the game, which is cool.

Josh

Yeah, it would be nice to just see what they do with that in the future.

Josh

Yeah.

Johnny

Yep.

Josh

So what did that total for you?

Johnny

Ah, 13.

Johnny

One up for me.

Josh

Okay, cool.

Josh

Next up, your boys.

Johnny

Next up, we're gonna move into Chaos Space Marines.

Johnny

This is your Space Marines, but with more fun.

Johnny

No more spiky bits is the better.

Josh

Way of putting it.

Josh

More spiky bits.

Josh

There you go.

Josh

There are some questionable dudes in here.

Johnny

Oh yeah, and some.

Johnny

The Chaos Space Marines are for the most part veterans from the old Horus Heresy age.

Johnny

There are some that have been created since using some weird and wacky methods from either using Gene Seed that they have stolen or from other Chaos Space Marines who have passed these.

Josh

They also have some like Modern age traders as well, forming new warbands as well.

Johnny

Yeah, for sure.

Johnny

They definitely do.

Johnny

This is one of the more fleshed out armies in the game.

Johnny

Having been around since the dawn of time.

Johnny

They are, for the most part Space Marines.

Johnny

They tend to have a lot more mutation and weird and wacky stuff going on, but for the most part, they are still super soldiers.

Josh

Yeah, they have a lot of analogy to Space Marines, of course, because they start off as, you know, normal Space Marines.

Josh

A lot of their patterns of armor and heavy support vehicles will actually be just about identical, except for the spikes and trophy racks and evil sigils.

Josh

I found it quite interesting that because there's an even amount of traitor legions to loyalist legions from that heresy era, everyone's kind of got an analogy.

Josh

You've got like the sneaky bad guys, the Alpha Legion compared to the sneaky good guys, the Raven Guard.

Josh

You've got like the more recent Traders, the Red Corsairs, the speedy bad guys compared to the speedy good guys, the White Scars.

Johnny

Yeah, I dislike your term good guys, but yes, you make a valid point.

Josh

But they also bring in like cultists and stuff like that.

Josh

So there's more than just Space Marines in here.

Josh

You can add the daemons in from Chaos Daemons as an allied unit, and some of the actual Chaos Space Marines became so unique they became their own factions.

Josh

We'll discuss later.

Josh

What else do you have to say about them?

Josh

From, like, a gameplay and army collection and even a lore standpoint, they.

Johnny

The easiest way to think of these guys is, whereas your Space Marines are very clean, very militant, very focused, these guys are a little more gritty and dirty.

Johnny

There's a lot of spikes, and there's a lot of weird trim that you have to, like, paint, which is definitely a challenge that you need to be aware of when you start collecting Chaos Space Marines is.

Johnny

Trim is everything, but it actually helps to make them look very good on the table as well, with patience and a little bit of effort.

Johnny

Their lore is expansive, and as you said, they have an analogy in the Space Marines.

Johnny

In the Space Marines as well.

Johnny

So there's a lot of similar tropes and gameplay styles that you can play just with a slightly different twist.

Johnny

For the most part, they tend to use old pattern equipment compared to the newer age Space Marine stuff.

Johnny

We don't have Repulses and all of these cool Dreadnoughts anymore, but we do have their old baby Dreadnoughts and we do have old Predator tanks that they've, like, taken from old usage and made their own.

Johnny

There's definitely a feel of, like, Renegades and Raiders as a feel for the entire army.

Johnny

Thank you.

Johnny

As a feel for the entire faction as a whole.

Johnny

They definitely feel like outcasts and broken, isolated sections, whereas the Imperium works very much in one cohesive unit.

Josh

Do they, though?

Johnny

They pretend that they do.

Josh

No one can get along in this setting.

Johnny

No.

Johnny

And I mean, when you're.

Johnny

When you're building a war game out of miniatures and then trying to add lore, you kind of have to give everyone reason to fight everyone, right?

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

Even.

Josh

Even Chaos Space Marines will fight themselves.

Josh

You know, you hear about sort of one of the key instigators of the heresy, the word bearers.

Josh

They are Chaos Space Marines that dabble more into demonic possession than the other Chaos Legions.

Josh

But they will just straight up go murder like the next Chaos Space Marines group to just achieve some impossible agenda the Chaos Gods asked of them.

Josh

You know, there's so much infighting here, it's kind of hilarious.

Johnny

Even in the novels that I've read and listened to, it's so hard for these guys to work together, and they're always trying to backstab each other.

Johnny

There's always another agenda, another reason.

Josh

Yeah, I find the Chaos Marine novels a lot more engaging than the Space Marine novels for the most part.

Josh

There's some tragic Space Marine novels which are very gripping.

Josh

But one thing to remember is a lot of the Chaos Space Marines have been around for, like, 10,000 years and going and hiding inside the warp, which there are certain tears in real space they can use to get into the warp.

Josh

This alternate reality, they are sort of cut off from the passage of time so that, you know, they don't just turn into old wizened things and just fall apart.

Josh

No, they.

Josh

They come out and they, you know, they know the history of the Imperium.

Josh

They know how hypocritical it's become.

Josh

They, you know, walked amongst the gods, so to speak, and they have all this, you know, history to every single Chaos Space mar.

Josh

It's really nice to see compared to the Space Marines, which might have been around for like, 200 years, comparatively.

Josh

And they're all Julian, honor, brother.

Josh

And in the Chaos Space Marine, like, I know your dad.

Josh

Your dad was a pos, you know.

Johnny

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Johnny

Yep.

Josh

Do you want to give them some ratings?

Johnny

I sure do.

Johnny

These guys are, I think, tied for my highest rating.

Johnny

No, not quite.

Josh

I'm not surprised.

Josh

I'm not surprised that you would say both of those statements in a row.

Johnny

For style.

Johnny

I've given them a four.

Josh

Yeah, fair.

Johnny

I think that they're very near perfect.

Johnny

They definitely have a lot of fun, a lot of cool instances.

Johnny

They.

Johnny

Yeah, as we said, we've been going through, like, they're just.

Johnny

They're just having a blast, man.

Johnny

Everyone's trying to do their own agenda.

Johnny

Everyone's working against each other while pretending to cooperate from a lore perspective.

Johnny

I gave them a five.

Johnny

I think they have some of the more impelling and gripping lore they have.

Johnny

I mean, nightlords who are terrifying to read about.

Johnny

They've got the word bearers who are religious fanatics that started the greatest divide in human history.

Johnny

You know, they've got giant siege engines and demon engines that are just vehicles filled with the souls of a demon.

Johnny

It.

Johnny

It's super cool and really impelling.

Johnny

I've given their accessibility A4.

Johnny

I think they have a very good range with some very good models.

Johnny

A lot of their older models still stand up.

Johnny

Okay.

Johnny

Today, and they do have some old models, but some of them are very in need of a refresh, if you can.

Johnny

The only reason I didn't give them a 5 is because trim is terrifying.

Johnny

It's.

Johnny

When you come to paint these.

Johnny

When you come to paint these guys, a lot of people will suggest you paint them in the color of the trim and then fill in the gaps.

Josh

Ah, that's smart.

Josh

I didn't think of that.

Johnny

But if you can get past the insane amount of trim on a hell Drake.

Johnny

I feel like the model looks so glorious with patience as opposed to effort.

Johnny

There's no secret techniques to making these guys look good.

Johnny

And then for gameplay, I gave them a five.

Johnny

They're one of the more fleshed out and internally balanced groups in the game.

Johnny

They have quite a few detachments that perform at a decent level.

Johnny

Their different gameplay styles come across while still sticking to this, like, gambling theme where they can get benefits, but there's a chance at them getting injured as they make Dark pacts to the Dark.

Josh

Gods after versing Yue sometimes forget that there is the potential to roll badly and be hurt by your dark pact you're making.

Johnny

I mean, in saying that it doesn't happen very often with me.

Johnny

I've had a lot of luck.

Josh

All right, chat if you will.

Josh

When you verse Chaos Space Marines, they can essentially do this dice gamble, like any time they go into like a fight, right, a shooting or a melee and there's like what, like a roughly 40% chance you failed the roll and you get hurt.

Johnny

For the most part, yes, you can.

Josh

Still get the benefit, you know, if you're hurt.

Johnny

But you might have to sacrifice someone.

Josh

To the gods, but you never seem to fail.

Josh

You are Chaos Pill.

Josh

You are praising Tzeentch in public or something holy.

Josh

Oh, all of your opponents, me with my Necrons, our other mate with Space Marines, our other other mate with Orc failing these leadership checks and amidst the chaos is got his back covered by these Chaos Gods.

Johnny

It's.

Josh

What did that total you out though?

Johnny

An 18.

Josh

That's pretty good.

Johnny

Where are you sitting with these guys?

Johnny

Where do you gel?

Josh

I'm somewhere between a 13 to a 15, which, you know what, it's not bad.

Josh

Chaos Space Marines I like similar to Space Marines in my eyes.

Josh

Not for, you know, what they visually represent, but just in terms of like a collection and game perspective.

Josh

I'm just a bit indifferent to it.

Josh

But I am more positive on the Chaos Space Marines, that's for sure.

Josh

For style, I'm sort of between a 3 and a 4.

Josh

I am not really sure.

Josh

For lore, I'm between like a three to four as well.

Josh

You know, I'm not really sure which way to go.

Josh

I'm pretty positive though, so I would likely just be higher for the style.

Josh

I love that there's so much differentiation in the group of models here.

Josh

You know, you've talked about the word bearers, the Demon Boys, the Night Lords are your, you know, terror tactics group.

Josh

You've got the classic Black Legion, which are your, you know, as like quintessential Chaos Space Marine.

Josh

You got Alpha Legion.

Josh

They're your infiltrators.

Josh

The Chaos Cult is actually like the human servants, the lost and the damned, the corrupted guardsmen, etc.

Josh

They have their own sort of sub faction within the faction as a whole.

Josh

I feel like there's more.

Josh

There's the demon engines, there's the vehicles you mentioned.

Josh

There's so much there.

Josh

It's pretty cool.

Josh

And the lore is just really fun for accessibility four for me, gameplay four for me.

Josh

It's really nice to see everything get represented within the Chaos Codex.

Josh

The crusade stuff seems very fun with like ascending a character through like demonic possession and gaining artifacts of power.

Josh

If you want to play a narrative ongoing game.

Josh

Yeah, just cool.

Josh

I'm happy that you love them so much.

Josh

You're always having fun with them on the tabletop.

Johnny

Even if I don't win all the.

Josh

Time, like somewhere around like the 1516 mark.

Josh

I would say if I'm leaning all.

Johnny

Positive, hey, I'll take it.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

A lot of the other factions we'll talk about, except the last one, they're basically the same rating just for different reasons.

Josh

I'll just put that out there now.

Josh

But that will take us to the next one.

Josh

The Thousand Sons.

Josh

Was it.

Josh

Were we talking about these guys next?

Johnny

We sure are.

Johnny

We as the person who has very recently started collecting these models as well.

Johnny

They're pretty cool.

Josh

Love them.

Johnny

They've got some very nice looking models, some very interesting style to them.

Johnny

These are the Necrons in human form.

Josh

Yeah, they got a similar Egyptian theme.

Johnny

Egyptian theme, but turned up to 11.

Johnny

They're devoted worshippers of Tzeentch.

Johnny

Their primarch Magnus did nothing wrong.

Johnny

Did everything wrong.

Johnny

It is a bit of a meme in the community, but oh boy, did he not listen to his daddy.

Josh

He meant well.

Josh

Messed up and then thought about it.

Josh

And then after most of his sons died in battle, he's like, actually, you know what?

Josh

Yeah, screw that.

Josh

And then just was an angsty emo teen for the next 10,000 years.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

The Thousand Sons had a bad case of mutation that forced them to basically seek Tzeentch's help in creating a.

Johnny

What they call the Ahriman's Rubric.

Johnny

The spell they cast to try and prevent their body mutations.

Johnny

What it really did was turn their flesh to dust and it fused their souls into their armor.

Johnny

So they're now kind of like war living armor.

Johnny

It also removed a lot of their autonomy, which is why I also bring in that reference to the Necrons.

Johnny

They're kind of suits of armor, whereas.

Johnny

Similar to what happened to the Necrons all that time ago.

Josh

Yeah, much like the Necrons too.

Josh

The Thousand Sons that got dusted, if you will, were more of the non sorcerer variety of Thousand Sons.

Josh

Their home world was very much like in the practice of teaching magic.

Josh

Yeah, you got the sorcerers leading the dusty boys.

Josh

Very Necron pilled.

Johnny

And these guys are very sorcerous.

Johnny

Their whole shtick is magic.

Johnny

Being followers of the God of magic, they like to cast spaceships.

Josh

Yeah, they're not spaceships.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

They are like windows in reality that just fold reality in on itself and then a door appears and then they just walk out of it.

Johnny

They just pop right up.

Josh

Wow.

Josh

They're ballin'I.

Josh

Love them.

Johnny

These guys are super cool.

Johnny

They have some really cool models.

Johnny

They have some really cool characters.

Johnny

They've got a really tragic backstory.

Johnny

This is everything I want out of my Chaos Faction.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

With the exception of the sort of Ahriman saga of novels.

Josh

Ahriman's Magnus, favored son, very powerful sorcerer.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

Outside of them, they have come back into the game around a decade ish ago.

Josh

The army range is a bit smaller.

Josh

Thousand Sons have had a couple of community rumors of getting a lot more of the automata, but more of like magic possessed machinery.

Josh

Like Mechanicus automata.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

But I.

Josh

Oh man, I feel bad for Thousand sons because in 9th edition and prior there was a psychic phase.

Josh

You would have like your command phase where you maybe do a couple of like commander abilities, roll a couple of resources, and then you'd move to movement phase, self explanatory.

Josh

Then you would do the psychic phase where you apply spells before you then go into the classic shooting and melee and stuff like that.

Josh

In 10th edition, they really wanted to sort of simplify the game and make it a bit more accessible.

Josh

It's not that simple.

Josh

But the psychic phase was folded into attacks and the Thousand Sons got shafted with a lot of their nuance, didn't they?

Johnny

Oh, yeah.

Johnny

They're definitely overly.

Johnny

They were the masters of the psychic phase and now they've lost their mastery, you know.

Josh

You know what I realized after doing like four episodes of this stuff?

Josh

By now all the detachments that seem to come out, at least in this first batch of codices, they released them staggered.

Josh

All the detachments are like, every army gets a melee focused one.

Josh

Every army gets like a shooting focused one, a character focused one.

Josh

They're all like the same.

Josh

Same, but different.

Josh

And it really Relies on the models you have access to to make the most out of those detachments.

Johnny

Yeah, I mean, it's a competitive game, so they call it.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

But then the Thousand Sons, this whole schtick is psychic phase that doesn't like super exist at the moment.

Johnny

Guess we'll have to see what happens when they get a credit.

Josh

However, they are doing pretty well overall from like a, you know, a win rate perspective in like, high level play.

Johnny

They have this army rule that focuses on the ability to cast spells using a resource you gain based on how many sorcerers you have, which kind of ties your like, psychic phase into your command phase.

Johnny

Ish.

Johnny

So they kind of get this weird hybrid psychic phase.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

Okay.

Johnny

And you have the ability to cast more than one spelling around based on how much of this resource you gather.

Josh

It is a lot more digestible, I will admit.

Josh

Psychic profiles were like, bloated, I must say.

Josh

I read some 9th edition Necron codices preparing for one of our upcoming episodes.

Josh

And like one character could have like.

Johnny

10 abilities and they're all abilities you.

Johnny

And you'd pick the abilities in your list building and then your opponent needs to know what all these abilities is like.

Johnny

It's a lot to track.

Johnny

So I understand why they did it, but they're pretty cool for ratings.

Johnny

I will lead the way here because these guys are very high up there for me as well.

Johnny

They got a total of 17 for me.

Josh

No, that's just below Chaos Marines, isn't it?

Johnny

Just below.

Josh

Okay.

Johnny

And you'll kind of see where for style, I've given these guys a5.

Johnny

I think their models look so cool.

Johnny

They're like big beast model is really fun.

Johnny

There's a lot of magical sorceress elements.

Johnny

Every single unit gets like a special sorcerer that leads them.

Johnny

The model range isn't huge, but the style is all there in every single model.

Johnny

Shows the Thousand Son style, which shows a lot of cohesion in the army.

Johnny

For lore, I've given them a four.

Johnny

They had some ups and downs in the lore, like moments where they were more pronounced and moments that they weren't.

Johnny

Obviously.

Johnny

Magnus was a very big character in the later events of the Horus Heresy.

Johnny

The lore around Ahriman is really fun and desperate and fantastical in a sci fi setting.

Johnny

So I gave them a 4.

Johnny

For lore accessibility, I've given them a 3.

Johnny

They don't have a huge range, which really limits what you can field.

Johnny

And even then, for the most part, you're fielding a lot of the same guys.

Johnny

They're very monopose and the trim is insane for the same reason that I had to, I had to, you know, dock a point off of Chaos Space Marines for their trim.

Johnny

These guys turn it up to 11 or 12.

Josh

This is like a kids coloring in book that's for some reason labeled like expert coloring in.

Johnny

Yeah, yeah.

Johnny

This is like giving an adult coloring in book to a kid.

Johnny

It's insane.

Johnny

But boy, do they look.

Josh

They do.

Josh

It's true.

Johnny

And then for gameplay, I've given them a five.

Johnny

I think the ability to cast spells and influence your units and is really cool.

Johnny

Yeah, yeah.

Johnny

It's that like fantasy element added into this sci fi universe.

Johnny

They are an elite style army.

Johnny

So they have quite a high cost point wise which both helps and hinders their abilities.

Johnny

But they have this cool like flame sort of aspect.

Johnny

Like a lot of flame weapons if you want to build in that way and they can be quite good.

Johnny

Or you can go into your spells a little more and focus on the shooting and give them like keywords to make their shooting better.

Johnny

They kind of just do a lot of cool things that I'm really excited to put these guys on the table.

Josh

They combine two of your favorite gameplay elements, manipulating the system as a whole and magic.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

I'm surprised you didn't get these guys sooner.

Josh

Eh?

Johnny

I was scared of the trim.

Johnny

Let's be real.

Josh

Oh, fair.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

Okay.

Josh

You went from Necrons to Chaos Marines to Thousand Suns.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

It doesn't help.

Johnny

Their starter boxes, not the best way to start the army.

Josh

They're weird beastly, because it focuses more.

Johnny

On their like culty sort of cheap units as opposed to their more practical battle line.

Josh

Fun fact, I'm not sure if it was 9th edition or if it's current edition, but at some point the models, the Beastly Cultists, the Zangors, they had a caveat where you needed like I think a sorcerer in your list for every group of Zangors you ran.

Josh

Because they, you know, you could keep them in your backline, hold objectives and then move the bulk of your army up pretty good.

Josh

But the start box, the box that's like, hey, if you buy this, you can start your army decently.

Josh

Well, all these boxes are well priced, but the Zangors outnumbered the sorcerers.

Johnny

Yeah, I think that's a 9th edition mechanic.

Josh

Yeah, I just find that kind of hilarious.

Johnny

So legally you couldn't even run them in the same army at that point because.

Josh

No, no, no, look, I do love Thousand Suns.

Josh

I think it was that start box that actually stopped me from getting them because When I first got back into this hobby, I looked at Aeldari.

Josh

As we discussed at that point in time, the models weren't great.

Josh

I then looked at Thousand Suns because I love the magic aspect too.

Josh

But I saw the boxes itself weren't, like, the most well balanced or stocked.

Josh

Then I went into Necrons.

Josh

That's fine, but I really liked the Thousand Suns at some point.

Josh

I don't know what's changed since, but I'm just not as hot on them now.

Josh

They were tied for, like, my next army, and now they're, like, lower than normal Chaos Space Marines for me.

Josh

Somehow I gave them a four for the style, a three for the lore.

Josh

There's just something more I want out of them, but I don't know what that is yet.

Josh

They kind of suffer from the.

Josh

We added this group of models into the game so you can play it and then, like, forgot to update them as a whole for a while.

Josh

Like, they're there and Die Hard fans will know everything about them because there's always stuff to learn.

Josh

But they're just lacking a little bit of that, like, background.

Josh

I think.

Johnny

They haven't been fleshed out as well.

Josh

That.

Josh

But for the range, though, I love the models.

Josh

I'm sort of between a three and a four for them because they are cheap to get, relatively speaking.

Josh

You don't have a lot of options to choose from, which makes list building actually easier.

Josh

But I want to see a bit more out of them as well.

Josh

I want to see maybe a couple of those, like, psychic automata that they had in the Heresy, like, lore.

Josh

I want to see maybe a couple of different, like, they're called Rubric Marines.

Josh

I want to see a couple of different, like, variants of them.

Josh

Zangors can get shafted for all I care, though.

Josh

Maybe like, a magic cultist mob would be nice, like your typical dudes, but, like, walking around like staffs.

Josh

Or maybe they've, like, blinded themselves to see better, like, wizard them.

Josh

I don't know.

Josh

That puts me at a.

Josh

I think a 15.

Johnny

All right, that's acceptable.

Josh

Death Guard.

Josh

Next faction.

Josh

Nurgle's boys.

Johnny

These guys are gross.

Josh

I know.

Josh

Do you.

Josh

Are you squeamish?

Josh

Don't look these up.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

Nah, these guys are disgusting.

Josh

Slaanesh.

Josh

Slaanesh things.

Josh

At least you can sort of look at them and think, that's not for me.

Josh

But Nurgle will make you feel queasy the more you look and think about it.

Johnny

But as we said before, Nergal has the most fun in terms of, like, what you See, in the lore and stuff like that.

Johnny

Like, Nurgle loves his children.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

So Nurgle infects you.

Josh

You get sick.

Josh

You're puking your guts out.

Josh

Awful.

Johnny

The worst possible plagues.

Josh

17 plagues at once.

Josh

Instantaneous bubbles across your skin.

Josh

Your eyes are swollen, blah, blah, blah.

Josh

Nurgle psychically reaches out to you.

Josh

Hey, do you want.

Josh

Do you want to let me in?

Josh

Do you want to, like, sell me your soul?

Josh

And the moment you say yes, it doesn't hurt anymore.

Josh

You might have, like, a distended jaw in your belly.

Josh

You might have your arm burst out into a tentacle.

Josh

You might have, like, eyeballs on your tongue.

Josh

But you don't feel bad about it.

Josh

You might be repulsed by what's happened to you, but you're not in pain.

Josh

You're just part of Nurgle now.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

Death Guard were led into the jaws of Nurgle by the word bearers, everyone's least favorite.

Johnny

Oh, not.

Josh

No.

Josh

At the very end of the Horus heresy, Mortarion, primarch of the Death Guard, his first mate, or favored son, Typhus, is a sketchy boy.

Josh

Typhus hijacked their flagship in warp travel into, like, a Nurgle storm.

Josh

The whole ship got, like, corrupted.

Josh

And the only way they would be saved is of Mortarion except a Nurgle.

Josh

And this guy hated anything to do with the warp.

Josh

He rejected Psychers, hated, like, the Thousand Sons, blah, blah, blah.

Josh

And.

Josh

But Typhus became so juiced up as, like, a reward.

Josh

He carries the.

Josh

Oh, my God, what's it called?

Josh

The Destroyer Plague.

Josh

The Fly Eater pack.

Josh

I don't know.

Josh

He is a walking, like, beehive now of just flies and maggots, and Mortarion is just this sad bastard because he didn't want this.

Josh

He's one of the only Chaos Boys that didn't want to do this.

Josh

But he valued the lives of his sons, however that would actually happen over them, just, like, rotting away.

Johnny

Man, that's rough.

Josh

Yeah, right.

Josh

But, you know, the word bearers did engineer everything into motion.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

When you're not sure who to blame, just blame the word bearers.

Johnny

Right.

Josh

Fudge.

Josh

Erebus.

Johnny

Well, the Death Guards, aesthetically, are pussy and covered in boils and weird mouths in weird spots.

Johnny

They tend to be a little plumper than some of the other models due to whatever is going on inside Death Guard.

Josh

More like dad Bodguard.

Johnny

Oh, yeah.

Johnny

Yep.

Johnny

It's gross and at the same time, kind of cool.

Johnny

Like, their models are probably some of the most detailed in the range.

Josh

I know.

Josh

Their character sculpts are next level oh.

Johnny

Man, they're so cool.

Johnny

And I just wish everyone else got anything close to what they get.

Johnny

Mortarion is beautiful.

Josh

Their range bumped me up, like, two or three points.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

These guys scored surprisingly high for an army I would never collect.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

I'm tempted now, like you are doing Thousand Sons.

Josh

A maid of ours is doing the next faction we're going to talk about.

Josh

No one's in Death Guard right now.

Johnny

No one is in Death Guard right now.

Johnny

But I thought you were holding out for a hero, which we'll get to soon.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

Anyway, we'll talk about that soon.

Josh

The Death Guard originally were, like, the toughest bastards out of the original legions.

Josh

The Thousand Sons were your scholars, but the Death Guard were like the folks you sent into, like, you know, poisonous war zones and, like, swampy terrains.

Josh

And they, like, were fine about it.

Josh

They're naturally very resilient folks.

Josh

They were able to actually not immediately die to Nurgle.

Josh

Surprisingly, other Space Marines would have.

Josh

They're just tough bastards.

Josh

Back in the day, they didn't even care to clean their armor.

Josh

They were just rusty and gross because they were just going from one terrible place to the next.

Josh

And that's really blossomed with Papa Nurgle's blessings into what you.

Josh

What you said already.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

Oh, yeah.

Josh

In Law In Lord, they are meant to be like your immovable wall.

Josh

The Necrons get back up, you know, but they, like, can be put down.

Josh

The Death Guard are meant to, like, tank, quite literally, with their bodies, like damage.

Josh

They move, like, probably the slowest in the whole game, but you're gonna have a tough time getting rid of them.

Josh

And they're bringing, like, plague auras up the board with them that worsen a couple of your, like, statistics, like, your toughness and stuff like that.

Josh

So you become easier to hit when you're close to them because you're sick.

Johnny

Now, which is a pretty cool aesthetic.

Josh

Yeah.

Johnny

And has decent implications in the game as well.

Josh

Yep.

Josh

Shall we just go to our Slag rating?

Josh

We've spoken heaps about Nurgle already.

Josh

It's pretty obvious what they are.

Johnny

Why don't you take the lead on this one?

Josh

All right.

Josh

I am Emma.

Josh

An odd mixture here for accessibility.

Josh

Number five.

Josh

Great sculpts.

Josh

Fantastic sculpts.

Josh

I really hope that when they get a Codex, there's, like, a character focus list, because, hot damn, the gameplay 5i, if you haven't noticed, love not dying in this game.

Josh

I love to outlive my opponent.

Josh

So, you know, whether the weather, my plague, boys and girls style, normally I'd be turned off.

Josh

But they're not like horrifying murderers with skulls on their back.

Josh

You know, they're just gross and unhinged.

Josh

I kind of dig it.

Josh

Like, I kind of dig this version of horrifying.

Josh

So 5.

Josh

But Philora gave them a 1.

Josh

I just don't care about their background.

Josh

So I had like a 5.

Josh

1 and then 5 and 5.

Josh

So it was 16.

Josh

Interesting beat out Thousand Sons.

Johnny

Interesting.

Josh

Almost beat out Chaos Marine.

Josh

Actually, no they didn't.

Josh

I think my original notes just straight up beat out Chaos Marines and Thousand Sons.

Johnny

Well, for Death Guard, I gave them a five for style again.

Johnny

Yeah, no, they.

Johnny

They're so cool looking models.

Johnny

Their whole style fits in with every single model because they've put so much effort into the sculpts.

Josh

I didn't even mention the vehicles.

Johnny

Oh, the vehicles are gross.

Josh

They have like an aerial drone which is technically a lawnmower now because it's infected with a nurgle demon.

Josh

So they have this like aerial one man drone that's now a demon engine that like spews plagues and when you're sick, just like dive bombs you with this like rolling pin that's spiky.

Josh

Anyway, sorry to interject.

Johnny

For lore, I've given them a two.

Johnny

Again.

Johnny

Just.

Johnny

Yeah, I just don't care.

Johnny

But then for accessibility, I gave them a 4 because the range is sick, dude.

Johnny

You get to paint them in some really weird and different styles.

Johnny

Mistakes come off as purposeful.

Johnny

It could always just be, you know, a bit of a rash.

Johnny

But for gameplay I gave them a three.

Johnny

I don't really know a lot about their gameplay other than that they're really tanky in.

Johnny

In my like, brain due to me playing Chaos Space Marines.

Johnny

The.

Johnny

The nurgle keyword tends to be used on ranged units, but these guys aren't for the most part.

Johnny

And also they have a small aura around them, which means they don't want to be enraged.

Johnny

They want to get close to the enemy.

Johnny

So for me, that's like a weird.

Josh

The aura gets bigger as the game goes on.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

But it just feels weird in my brain because of previous stuff.

Josh

Yeah, there was a lot of hoo ha.

Josh

When the start of 10th edition rules came out, everyone was like, not my Death Guard.

Josh

Who's this?

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

Which put me at a 14 for these guys.

Johnny

Still surprisingly high.

Josh

Yeah, I'm definitely seeing them with plague tinted glasses here.

Josh

I completely agree with your caveats, but I'm very optimistic about what's to come.

Johnny

Oh, their codex is going to be great.

Johnny

Moving on.

Johnny

World leaders, which are the devoted of horn, the angriest of boys.

Josh

I feel rage building up inside me, Johnny.

Johnny

Their primark was Angoron, you know, the angriest of boys, Angry Rob, and the only one in the entire faction that didn't want this.

Josh

Oh, my Lord.

Josh

Angron is the most tragic primarch, in my opinion.

Josh

You have, like, the Night Lords, the Terror Boys.

Josh

The guy, like, edged himself into being the bad guy, quite maybe literally.

Josh

Angry Ron was like his.

Josh

His baby version crash landed into a gladiator planet, and then some old tech was stuffed into, like, the base of his skull to remove, like, sensory pleasure from any emotion except anger.

Josh

So he's just pissed off unless he's violent.

Josh

Which made for a great gladiator, but a terrible person.

Josh

And supposedly, the Emperor's original plan for the World Eaters was actually to be, like, the medics of the Space Marine legions.

Josh

So.

Josh

Well, that didn't go well.

Josh

And then his whole legion, really, because they're literally, like, part of him.

Josh

Like, they're kind of, like descendants.

Josh

All the Primarchs have, like, little bits of them embedded as an organ in the other Space Marines.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

They have this fatherly reverence to their Primark, whether they're a frothing maniac or not.

Josh

And the World Eaters went and, like, found this tech and just, like, voluntarily did it to themselves.

Josh

And so you just have this crazy pack of rabid dogs.

Josh

But they're also Space Marines.

Johnny

They are your melee brutes for chaos.

Josh

Space Marines, the most melee est army in the whole game.

Johnny

They move so fast.

Johnny

They run in and they hit you with their axes.

Johnny

Two axes sometimes, or just a big chain.

Johnny

Glaive these.

Johnny

These guys are pretty cool, if you're into that vibe.

Josh

They.

Josh

They wear themselves on their sleeves so hard.

Johnny

They're the epitome of anger and frustration.

Johnny

For me, I didn't gel as much with these guys.

Johnny

I think they're very one note.

Josh

Yep.

Josh

But they are.

Josh

They do it well, though.

Johnny

Angron's backstory is so sad.

Josh

Makes grown men cry.

Johnny

And it's not even just, like, getting stuck on the wrong planet every step of the way.

Johnny

Everything went against him.

Josh

Do you know?

Josh

Like, heresy, error.

Josh

Angron, if you've ever seen artwork of him, he has all these skulls on his belt.

Josh

Do you know who they are?

Johnny

His brothers.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

That he couldn't save.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

He went back and was like, I failed you.

Josh

Come with me.

Johnny

It's insane the things this man went through.

Johnny

He didn't even want to be a demon.

Johnny

He ended up Being a demon, his.

Josh

Word bearer brother, like, tricked him into becoming the first, like, demon primarch.

Josh

The others, like, kind of had to just go with it, but Engron was, like, he was okay not being one.

Johnny

He just got punched in the gut every step of the way.

Josh

He literally.

Josh

He exited his, like, birthing pod to a bunch of elder, like, hit squad that, like, saw the future and were like, not this guy.

Josh

He's gotta go now.

Josh

We're killing a baby.

Josh

Who cares?

Josh

And he killed them as a baby.

Josh

And the only time he knows peace is when he gets blown up, only.

Johnny

Knowing that he will come back very soon.

Josh

Oh, my goodness.

Josh

Wow.

Johnny

Unfortunately for me, Angron couldn't save them.

Josh

He's not even my favorite character here.

Johnny

No.

Johnny

But my Slag ratings are fairly middling for these guys.

Josh

Cool.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

Go on, please.

Johnny

For style, I've given them a three.

Josh

Yeah, fair.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

For Lore, I've given them a two.

Johnny

This would be a one if Angron didn't have such a tragic backstory.

Johnny

But they are very one.

Josh

They are.

Johnny

For accessibility, I've given them a three, mainly because they don't have their full range yet.

Johnny

They've been told that they will get their range in two waves, and we've only received the first one, so they're missing a lot of tools in their pack.

Johnny

The models they do have do look pretty cool, though.

Johnny

They definitely have that, like, skull and bones aesthetic.

Johnny

The big melee weapons, very little in the way of shooting, and some cool sculpts.

Johnny

They just need some more stuff.

Johnny

And then for gameplay, I've given them a two.

Josh

You just don't like melee as much, eh?

Johnny

Which is funny, considering most of my army is in melee.

Johnny

But they just.

Johnny

They're so one.

Johnny

No, the Blessings of Khorne is a cool little mechanic having, like, a random chance at a buff or two.

Josh

Yep.

Johnny

And there's also a chance you get nothing at all.

Johnny

But outside of that, they just don't gel with me as much as some of the other sub factions and other Chaos factions do.

Johnny

So I just couldn't rate them much higher than a 10.

Josh

A 10's okay.

Johnny

Yeah, it's fine.

Josh

Middle of the road, right?

Josh

I love them.

Josh

I have to admit, I, especially, through the Imperium, tried to be as optimistic as I could.

Josh

In this instance, though, I genuinely love them.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

And that I think anything above a 15 is me really liking them.

Josh

But, like, the 10 to 15 is me just being nice.

Josh

Okay, that came out wrong, but I feel like you get my point.

Josh

The World Eaters, so, so humorously.

Josh

Creeped up on me because they're not subtle, but they kind of just like came out in ninth edition.

Josh

And just like as the weeks go by I'm like, you know what, I'm down.

Josh

If it wasn't for our friend picking World Eaters, I might have done them as my next army.

Josh

But I have the classic case of choosing an army and then one of our friends is like, nah, I'm gonna take that one.

Johnny

You just gotta pull the trigger sooner.

Josh

I do, but I also have an extensive backlog of necrons.

Josh

Anyway, anyway.

Josh

4k points later.

Josh

Anyway, World Eaters for style.

Josh

I gave them a 5.

Josh

They're so unapologetically themselves and I'm down for it.

Josh

Berserkers.

Josh

We don't really have a melee crazed bunch of maniacs like these guys and I'm happy for them.

Josh

For lore I actually gave them a three.

Josh

I don't really you know, resonate with their like plight of being angry all the time, but there are some characters like Lord Avocado actually Lord Invocatus and his like flaming Valkyries.

Josh

I'm joking around but you read up on Lord Invokatus and you'll get what I mean.

Josh

Cadre 331 which like old school version of World Eaters.

Josh

I'm pretty on board for the accessibility.

Josh

I gave them a four.

Josh

If I were to get a Chaos Faction, that actually might hinge on their next release wave.

Josh

We need some of their Lore staples.

Josh

Their specific Terminators, the Red Butchers.

Josh

Maybe like some sort of like surgeon.

Josh

Maybe some anti psycho stuff.

Josh

Bring back some of their forge world corn specific demon engines like the Kaitan, which is a big metallic beast of burden of a demon in metal.

Josh

It's cool gameplay.

Josh

I said they have melee magic because it's just thousand suns mechanic, but melee and that's four.

Josh

That puts me at a 16 tied with death God.

Josh

Shall we do like a minute long?

Josh

Honorable mention for number four.

Johnny

Emperor's Children don't have a faction yet.

Johnny

These are the worshipers.

Josh

They barely have models.

Johnny

These are the worshippers of Slaanesh.

Johnny

We have had an announcement that they will be getting their first wave of models next year 2025.

Johnny

That is all we really know for style wise and through reading through.

Johnny

Well for me the.

Johnny

The Fabius Bile books, they're pretty cool.

Johnny

They have some interesting lore.

Johnny

There's definitely a large emphasis on addiction and vices.

Johnny

The Noise Marines are really cool concept.

Josh

Sonic weaponry.

Johnny

Sonic weaponry through enhancement and demon stuff.

Josh

They sing you to death.

Johnny

There's one Terminator Noise Marine whose voice could punch holes in ships.

Josh

Oh, I didn't know about that guy.

Josh

Yeah, Lucius the Eternal.

Josh

They're like one named character.

Josh

If you kill him in battle but you're happy about it, he becomes you.

Josh

His armor is just faces of every other person that's killed him.

Johnny

They have some really cool lore.

Johnny

We can't really give them a rating because they're not an army yet, but we did want to mention them as the fourth God and the fourth faction.

Josh

I'm really excited for these folks.

Josh

Actually.

Josh

I'm really, like, hedging my Chaos bets about picking this faction myself because they are unapologetically insane.

Josh

They have this really interesting, like, black and pink color scheme.

Josh

They have this body modifications, weaponry.

Josh

They seem to be very oppressive from the lore and gameplay teases we've had.

Josh

But it's really going to come down to, like, what their army does compared to everyone else.

Josh

That will really set them apart.

Josh

But we have one more.

Josh

We have one more faction that we can talk about before you can go to bed.

Johnny

Hey, it's not that late yet.

Johnny

Chaos Knights.

Johnny

These are my jam.

Johnny

These are.

Josh

I almost forgot to make notes on them, but they're your jam.

Johnny

You constantly forget these guys exist until I'm like, but what about Chaos Knights?

Josh

Please, please take the stage for your.

Johnny

These guys are everything I said about Imperial knights, but with the coolest sculpts.

Johnny

They're giant walking machines.

Johnny

They still have that noble household vibe, but these guys have started down the Eightfold path of damnation.

Josh

Yeah.

Johnny

They are.

Josh

You said noble houses.

Josh

I was like, do they, though?

Johnny

Well, it's where they started.

Josh

Okay.

Josh

Yeah.

Johnny

And then corruption ensued.

Johnny

We're talking giant, essentially demon engines where the person could be fused into the engine is now no longer in control.

Johnny

This is the worst of the nobles who have willingly gone down this path.

Johnny

We have demon possessed knights.

Josh

Oh, yeah.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

You just answered my question.

Johnny

There's, There's.

Johnny

Yeah.

Johnny

There's just a couple of ways that they like sub factions, AKA how their journey down the path has taken them.

Johnny

They don't have a codex for 10th edition yet, but I'm expecting to see those different methods of depravity brought forward in their sub factions.

Johnny

They're big and spiky.

Johnny

They tend to have these like, vulture like birds called Terror Shades following them around.

Johnny

They're big on the despair and morale debuffs.

Johnny

If you're near them, it's enough to be like, oh, I need to get out of here.

Johnny

They have an aura of despair around them.

Johnny

They lack the one thing that Imperial Knights recently got, which is foot soldiers.

Johnny

And, well, they got the entire Imperium faction.

Johnny

Inquisitional agents.

Josh

I was daydreaming about, like, making some, like, Attack on Titan memes out of this faction, so I wasn't, like, super listening.

Johnny

Whereas these guys do not have access to anything except Chaos Demons.

Johnny

But there's a weird caveat to how you feel to Chaos Demons that makes it a little more difficult.

Johnny

I'm hoping for some sort of, like, infantry foot soldier mech mechanics when they do get a Codex, but we'll have to wait and see.

Josh

Imagine Dark Mechanicus folded into this faction with, like, Vashtor as an allied unit.

Johnny

You've got me going there.

Josh

Ooh.

Johnny

They have a little bit of internal balancing issues, and people tend to favor their smaller class, the War Dogs, as opposed to the larger knight class.

Johnny

But the knight models are so fun to build, so fun to paint.

Johnny

They leave you with so many extra bits for spiky stuff that you can add to other models.

Johnny

Like, Chaos Knights are my jam, and they're just so much fun and they look so cool.

Johnny

How do you feel about Chaos Knights as a faction?

Josh

I like them more than Imperial Knights, that's for certain.

Johnny

Yep.

Josh

I love the spectrum they bring from, like, a Lore perspective and a stylistic perspective especially.

Josh

You can add a lot of bits to sort of reflect various Chaos Gods compared to just, like, paint and banners to represent, like, the Imperial Knight heraldry.

Johnny

They're a kit Bash's dream.

Josh

Same sort of like, oh my God, can't even.

Josh

Words like.

Josh

Issues I had with the Imperial Knights is what I'm having here.

Josh

Just the lack of, like, a couple of, like, those sort of added henchmen units.

Josh

A bit more of that Allied support.

Josh

Like, I know when we first you.

Josh

You rely, you know, kind of exclusively on one chassis of Night Body, the.

Josh

The littler ones.

Josh

And you've got, like, these three or four bigger knights, but then you have nothing else.

Josh

So for me to like them more, I would need more of that.

Josh

I don't have much to really say on them, if I'm being completely honest, except for I like them more than Imperial Knights, but you're really the one holding their banner here.

Josh

Did you give them a perfect score?

Johnny

No.

Josh

I think I know where or where the score might drop, though.

Josh

But I'll let you give us your thought processes.

Josh

Maybe say what you would like them to improve on, especially considering, like, this is your faction and I love how excited you get by them.

Johnny

So I gave them an 18, which does put them on par with CSM.

Johnny

I gave them a five for style.

Johnny

I think the models are sick.

Johnny

They really show that chaos aesthetic.

Johnny

They do have the trim, but the trim is more interesting than the Imperial Knights stuff.

Johnny

They have more loadouts and less loadouts at the same time than the Imperial Knights.

Johnny

They've been simplified a little bit.

Johnny

That kind of makes more sense.

Johnny

And I really struggle getting my head around the Imperial Knights more than I do the Chaos Knights.

Josh

Did they get the really.

Josh

The really big knights from the Horus heresy?

Josh

The was it lances?

Johnny

Yes.

Johnny

But there's cool.

Johnny

They have access to them.

Johnny

But you do have to kit bash them if you want to make them look like a spiky mess.

Josh

Okay.

Johnny

For Lore, I gave them a four.

Johnny

And I feel like this is hyper inflated by my love for this army.

Johnny

For most people, it's probably a lot lower because they don't really have a lot of lore.

Johnny

I think they have a lot of interesting theories and possibilities behind them, but they just don't have the huge impact that a lot of people will probably see and expect from, like, other factions.

Johnny

For accessibility, I gave them a 4.

Johnny

You can buy one kit and make it into most of their knights.

Johnny

You can then buy another kit and make it into any of their war dogs.

Johnny

Like, their kits are very well designed to be easily accessible.

Johnny

They're pretty standard and easy to put together.

Johnny

The only thing that anyone who has built this army will suggest is paint your chassis and then add the armor plates afterwards just to make it easier.

Johnny

But these guys are a Kitbash's dream.

Johnny

Like, you can throw all sorts of weird and wacky ideas at these guys and make anything you want out of them.

Johnny

And then for gameplay, I gave them a five.

Johnny

They're so fun.

Johnny

And it's not anything to do with the fact that they have a Codex or that there isn't potential.

Johnny

But man, it's just fun to throw giant death machines across the table and doing it with that chaos despair vibe.

Johnny

Like, even if I get wiped off the table because I'm an idiot, it doesn't happen.

Johnny

Tell it to Jon Jon.

Josh

Okay.

Johnny

Even if I get wiped off the table, I have such a blast doing it.

Josh

Yeah, the fun.

Josh

You definitely bring a lot of that fun energy this hobby really needs.

Josh

Some people take it a bit too seriously.

Josh

And you bring like four or five murder machines as tall as our terrain and have so much fun doing it.

Josh

I can't even be mad if I'm, like losing terribly because it's just a blast.

Josh

Do you Remember at the start of 10th edition when we had our first ever game when I played Index, which was the like pre Codex rules for Necrons and it really favored a sort of reanimation nigh invulnerability, like silver tide of bodies.

Josh

And I didn't have enough strong weapons to bring down any of your knights in a, you know, efficient manner.

Josh

And you didn't have enough knights platforms to kill me faster than I was reanimating.

Johnny

It was just none of us were.

Josh

Able to score anything.

Josh

We were just in the middle, just boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom for like five rounds and called it a draw.

Josh

Like quite literally a draw.

Johnny

It was an interesting time both for our learning purposes and oh, we were so incorrect.

Johnny

Oh, we had no idea what we're doing back then.

Josh

Do you have anything else to say about them?

Johnny

Chaos Knights?

Josh

They are pretty cool.

Josh

I actually miscalculated.

Josh

I like them more than demons, which means they're not my least favorite Chaos Faction.

Johnny

Which is great considering you always forget they exist.

Josh

It's.

Josh

It's just the big model thing.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

Just I just focus on the.

Johnny

They feel very out of place on the tabletop and they're kind of like a stat check.

Josh

Especially when like every other factions lost a lot of the access to their bigger titanic units.

Josh

The Eldar Knights, the Necron Monoliths are kind of there, the Orc Stompers are not feasible, etc.

Josh

I just.

Josh

I just don't see it.

Johnny

Yeah.

Josh

But I gave them a four for style.

Josh

Very cool.

Josh

Very spooky.

Josh

Love it.

Josh

Infernal War Engines.

Josh

Very cool.

Josh

For lore, I gave them a 3.

Josh

Very fun as a concept.

Josh

There's this one like Core Night I think we talked about before that we'll save maybe for a later episode for accessibility.

Josh

I gave them a four because it's very cheap to get them.

Josh

They would be a 5 if they had the little dudes and some support.

Josh

But for gameplay, I gave them a two.

Josh

I just.

Josh

I'm.

Josh

I'm just.

Josh

I'm indifferent.

Johnny

It's not your jam.

Josh

That's fair.

Josh

It's not my jam.

Josh

I'm just indifferent.

Josh

But you know, we're not the start and end of critical opinion here.

Josh

You.

Josh

You definitely just go with what you want to go with.

Johnny

Oh, this is totally subjective.

Josh

We try to be objective and then subjective.

Josh

Sometimes it doesn't quite sequence like that.

Josh

But please be very open minded to everything we've talked about today.

Josh

Do some more research.

Josh

Look up battle reports such as play on tabletop, certain YouTubers like Luton's really fantastic on deep diving the Law.

Josh

Go on a Games Workshop's website and look at the various models.

Josh

Combat patrols, your best starting point.

Josh

We have spent four episodes and have covered all the factions in the game, including the ones that aren't even factions in the game yet.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

Well done us.

Josh

Go us.

Josh

Next episode is going to be a different topic entirely.

Josh

We'll save that for then.

Josh

How are you feeling, Mr.

Josh

Chaos?

Johnny

I'm.

Johnny

I can't get the smile off my face.

Josh

I won't lie that we're done or that you talked about Chaos episode.

Johnny

That I finally got to get to the Chaos episode.

Josh

We could have done it earlier, but.

Johnny

No, I wanted to save it to the end.

Josh

Cool.

Josh

I'm surprised myself at how positive I was overall.

Josh

There's more Chaos in the top half than any other faction collective.

Josh

So that's fun.

Josh

That's fun.

Josh

Nice.

Josh

Sweet.

Josh

Any closing remarks, my dear friend?

Johnny

Just looking back, it looks like I gave quite a few armies the top slot lot.

Josh

Oh, you have some ties.

Johnny

I have four armies at 18.

Johnny

Who are.

Josh

Who are your top picks?

Johnny

Necrons, Orcs at the top.

Johnny

Yep, all at 18.

Johnny

Necrons, Orcs, chaos Space Marines and Chaos Knights were my tied for first factions, which I think yours was a flat 20 for Necrons.

Josh

I had 20 was Necrons.

Josh

I am awfully Necron pilled when at first it was just a nice interest.

Josh

Now I'm super.

Josh

In second place was Craftworld Eldar at a 19, which was my original pick before I went to Necrons.

Josh

In third place was Sisters of Battle, which makes sense considering I have roughly 1k of points on sprues right now.

Josh

More on that in a later episode.

Josh

And then I actually have my fourth place tied three ways between Blood Angels, Chaos Blood Angels, World Eaters and the Death Guard.

Josh

Actually interesting.

Josh

What.

Josh

What do you think about those ratings?

Johnny

I'm glad that we had a lot different armies in the top picks.

Johnny

It really goes to show that, like, everyone will resonate differently with this game.

Johnny

Obviously we've given everyone a brief sort of summary into what these armies can do, what they feel like, how we feel about them.

Johnny

It's.

Josh

It's always give me your least favorite.

Josh

Like give me a couple from the bottom.

Johnny

We're talking least favorites.

Josh

I mean, I could go while you.

Johnny

Look up Astra Militarum at a five, Adeptus Mechanicus at a seven, Blood Angels at an eight.

Josh

Oh, my point.

Johnny

And Codex Astartes at a nine, tied with Black Templar.

Josh

I can't be mad at that.

Josh

Codex Astartes I feel the Space Marine pain at the moment.

Johnny

Oh, sorry.

Johnny

And League of Oten?

Johnny

A six.

Josh

Oh, all right.

Josh

I only had two that were below a ten, because again, ten was like my baseline.

Josh

Seven was Mechanicus.

Josh

That's my lowest.

Johnny

Yep.

Josh

Nine was Astra Militarum.

Josh

They have cool models.

Josh

They're new.

Josh

That's probably what kept them above being lower.

Josh

Space wolves were 10 and tied with Votan.

Josh

And Imperial Knights just eeked above them.

Josh

But that's fun.

Josh

Yeah.

Josh

We'll talk about a different topic altogether next episode.

Josh

And I will spoil it by saying it's a birthday episode of mine and I want to talk about Necrons.

Johnny

Let's do it.

Johnny

Eh?

Josh

Let's do it.

Josh

We'll catch you next week.

Josh

Thank you so much for listening, you cheeky boys.

Josh

Watch out for whispers in your head from Dark Powers that Be.