Goreshed

Traitor Guard should be more efficient than cultists. Not saying they need to be miniature chaos marines by any stretch but they should be a lot more disciplined and have abilities to reflect that than compared to the regular human who put down their pen or farming tool and turned to chaos. The different kinds of Traitor Guard would be as varied and should be as varied as everything else in the grimdark. They would be far more organized and have more invested into them than say cultists who are just trying to overturn what is going on. A big philosophical difference I could see is that with cultists you are expecting them to die, with zero returning to carry it on once the word has been given and they have been activated. They would be the chaff that just charges forward and gets the enemy to burn up their ammunition. Traitor Guard would be more along the lines of they are an investment and while at times they would be sent to their deaths there would be a greater thought into the bigger picture of the warzone and how that falls into place. One is more expendable than the other, specially when you are talking about investments in vehicles and training. Yeah it's chaos, but that doesn't mean that they just throw resources away that could be used to help their own end. There is also the fact that there are simply different levels of how invested someone is into the side they fight on. Imperials have everything from the barbarian who is simply a zealot for his sun god to extreme fanatics (who are just like chaos cultists in that regard) to units like the Cadians/Mordians/Tempests. You could have Traitor Guard that is literally just jacking people from worlds and throwing them into a brutal world of who am I not wanting to die to more, to the more spiritually invested to those who take a more undivided stance to it. Same goes for training and for equipment. Some are more invested than others and all come from as many different backgrounds as those in the guard. There is a lot to explore in that and not many authors take the time to flesh that out as the bigger picture is more focused on the Imperial side. Combine all of that with the simple matter that the chaos gods don't pay as much attention to regular humans as they do to marines or other heavy hitters that are able to offer more to them. Do they ignore them completely? Absolutely not. But a lot of that extra faith comes in from an influence of someone who is closer to the chaos gods than they are. Major examples I can see with that is during the Gaunt's Ghost series where a number of times after the leader of the chaos group was taken out then the more regular humans come to their senses and realize what they have done, or it just all falls apart because their 'conduit' to chaos is severed.

Could it have had more chaos? Sure. But I don't think many were expecting to see the two new knight kits. Nor do I feel people were thinking they would see a daemons dex anytime soon yet here we are. Not to mention Angron himself which gives us quite the daemon prince advantage with Magnus and Mortarion over just poor girlyman. But you know whats even better? Space Marines haven't gotten :cuss: for a while. They really populated the first part of this release but have finally been toned down a bit and letting the rest of the genre catch up.

I've got a good idea of what I want to do for color and a background, just waiting for my copy of the box set to come in and start reading that new book!

It's another layer of the lore. The Imperium is supposed to be this rigid bastion against the tide of death that's always coming for it. Chaos doesn't care so long as things are going...well...Chaos(y). Lore wise the trade off is the lack of greater support in some cases or the change in how one is equipped or how they wage war in general. I absolutely love it and have always loved that aspect of the difference between the Imperium and Chaos as they both have positive and negatives of being the way they are.

Army box goes on sale today!

Yeah I had the same feeling on the carrion birds as well. Given the nature of the army and just how few models are in it I tend to go further with conversions and making them more individual. However that new knight is supposed to also be a pysker so we shall see what skills they can bring to the table. Would be nice to have at least something for the pysker phase at least.

Alright so we have two new sexy as warp models coming our way. Here and Here On top of a brand new codex which promises to be deadlier than ever. Anyone else pumped for this? I know CSM is slated to be following closely behind it but I cant help but feel pumped for these two new models and a brand new dex.

So, up until IA13, there really has only ever been a one sided telling on the Chaos titans, just like the rest of the lore. The past few years have seen a much greater increase in seeing things from the Chaos side. As Marshal Loss has said, the Adeptus Titanicus books would be a great start. Another great read would be Titan Death which you read about the creation of the first Banelord titans which is an awesome read in that regards.

@Closet Skeleton - I agree with that but the point still stands that they are making the daemon prince models a lot larger than what they used to. I do hope they continue that thread, just like I'd hope that they would do that to the nids and their big bugs. Would be awesome to see the greater sizes really come into play.

For the banners themselves I would look at what AOS has for the base of it. From there it's only a matter of building it up. Usually with some sort of rendition of IV/Olympia/Iron skull, that sort of thing.

There is a potential that they will resize the daemon prince model if one takes into account Belakor. On one hand I hope they don't resize the model however if they are indeed going to be changing it up so that all the daemon primarchs/daemon princes are about the same size I wouldn't complain too much.

Kinda depends on what legion/renegade you are going for. Want something a bit more fleshy? Probably start with a base out of one of the AOS models or the classic DP models we have now. Want something more mechanical? Try the dreadknight or helbrutes as a base. It's..well...chaos. So have fun with it. Long as things are WYSIWYG and on the right base no one should really have an issue with it.

@Closet Skeleton - Can't really argue the first part. IG have taken it hard for a while now and have really been kept up from the soup lists of 8th edition but with those being thrown out in most cases they are back to square one. As to the second point...well...there are always those who will complain for one reason or another, cant make everyone happy. Overall 9th looks to be capitalizing on the changes made from 8th and the consistency is greater than we have seen before with codexs compared to previous edition. -IF- GW makes it through the entire release and stays consistent then it would be a miracle in and of itself given the companies history. Which leaves more hope for the chaos community that we aren't going to be the guinea pigs of an edition.

Lets face it, Chaos is lumped into the same category at times as the xenos, which means lack of support which means a smaller player base compared to those armies who get supported more often. It just is what it is. World Eaters and Emperor's Children are two easily done up armies with enough established fluff and units that they could be slid into their own book apiece. I could totally see them releasing those two armies at once in a rival vs rival chaos grudge match. That still leaves the regular dex, daemons and knights for already established armies. Not to mention the possibility of a mortals and dark mechanicum army. I truly suspect GW to release some sort of mortals with the basic army since that did seem fairly popular in the past two editions and I'm ok with that. It's something at least, when chaos players were complaining they didn't have a scouts counter. Well we got it in the form of cultists (it is an entirely new thread going between the ups and downs of both units). I'm not really expecting new units, maybe some special characters, but the flavor of the new edition bodes well for us. Looking back I dont think there has been a single 'well this army is complete trash' thread about any one book that has been released for 9th. It gives me high hopes that GW will continue that trend for Chaos and with its level of secrecy with the release of Chaos I can easily see some serious kit rebuilds and lore drops for the coming 9th edition Chaos (in all its glory).

@Putrid Choir - It's been talked about a thousand times over in the renegade section of the forum. Not having a mortal followers of Chaos army when the Imperium syncs so well together does us a disservice. So, between the models from Blackstone fortress and the new cultists models, one can wish cant they? Getting the power armored side squared away would be a huge boon, even if the mortal side suffers as it always has.