"Army Selections in 40K 8th edition boxed set" Topic

Did Games Workshop make a good choice in having the boxed set this time include Primaris Space Marines and Chaos Death Guard?

Gotta push the new hotness. THAT part hasn't changed in Nottingham.

No. I just ordered the book because I simply have no need or use for Space Marines or Chaos. I just fancy the drone, and that is not worth the 50 extrabucks…

Sure

While I do like the new rules I personally do not share what appears to be a fairly common enthusiasm for Chaos – I have exactly one Chaos mini and that is one painted by No 2 son which I can't bring myself to get rid of

Further to this I also think that the Death Guard were not a great choice either – in the unlikely event I were to use Chaos – Blood for the Blood God! (i.e. Khorne – who seems to be much more popular among those who favour Chaos)

I wasn't going to get it anyway (thought it sounds more like what I'd enjoy than it used to), but I'd have been more tempted if it were Orks, Tau, or Eldar. Most chaos just grosses me out.

andy

I think the choice was a good one. They pretty much have to do space marines. I forget what the numbers were exactly but SM outsell everything else put together I believe or close to it.

So Space Marines will always be one of the forces.

The other choice is more difficult. Since 2nd edtion they have done:

Orks
Dark Eldar
Tyranids
Orks
Chaos
Tyranids
Harlequins

So I guess Chaos is kind of up again and the focus of the new edition is going to be Chaos vs. Imperium with aliens sort of balancing things out.

Tzeentch just had a big new release so they were out. You are then left with generic chaos, which they did last time they did Chaos, Nurgle, Khorne and Slaanesh.

I think they are somewhat unsure about what to do with Slaanesh at the moment in both AoS and 40K.

So it kind of comes down to Khorne or Nurgle. Fantasy-wise they did a big push with Khorne stuff when the AoS set came out so if they want to do something like they did with the simultaneous releases for Tzeentch the only real option was Nurgle or generic and they did generic with 7th.

Nurgle is the only Chaos force I don't have an army for. I have Tzeentch, generic, Khorne and Slaanesh so for me I wasn't that interested, except the new models are so cool and I do have a fantasy Nurgle army so the daemons cross over.

I managed to trade my Nurgle stuff for more marines.

Overall I would say it was a pretty decent choice.

The only two "enemy" armies that haven't seen inclusion in a starter set are Tau and Necrons. Necrons would have been a good choice too, easy to paint, forgiving for beginners to play, but with the focus on chaos that wouldn't wash as well.

I recognize it's a personal thing, but Chaos has always turned me off too – way, way too much Teenager/Gross! Given my son's collection, I always hope for a throwback to Crimson Fist versus Orks … but I know it will never happen. ;)

I really like the Nurgle marines. But I do prefer the original battered-and-abused MkIII look, sans errant guts.

You kind of need something largely new to kick off a starter, and the last (IMO unappealing) Nurgle marines were released, what, early on in 3rd edition? That and Typhus was it. So, yeah. You don't like them, trade them or flip them. I have some reinforcements coming in the mail today.

And Khorne has been done to freakin' death lately.

I think they are somewhat unsure about what to do with Slaanesh at the moment in both AoS and 40K.

I concur. Personally, I wish they would return to the earliest interpretation of Slaaneshi marines. Weird and lithe, with claws, and daemonette, fiend, and KoS heads- but not outright ugly. I hate many of the current designs, especially the Keeper of Secrets. One of my all-time least favorites, along with the original WHFB Nagash. I'd rather have the four-armed bull-thing.

And I've never liked the noise marine concept. Too one-note! It all needs work.

It doesn't really matter what the OTSM (Other Than Space Marine) army is in the box, even though Orks and Chaos are the most popular opfors in the starter sets, so GW must have done some marketing/sales research to justify including those armies.

I'm sure they did their homework, some SM faction is a given, and I'm sure putting Nurgle in the box as the OTSM is the opening move to push a new range of Nurgleness onto the shelves. The box sets are intended to prime the market.

Personally I would have bought the box if was something other than Chaos – Necrons would have been my first choice, but they are a narrow niche. So I only bought the books. And the books have me primed for spending on their other ranges.

However, I understand the GW business decision which probably makes lots of sense for their bottom line.

Is it just me, or does the composition of the Nurgle forces in the Dark Millennium boxed set heavily remind the chaos force in the 6th edition Dark Vengeance boxed set?

In both cases you get:
- a couple of chaos characters (2 in DV, 3 in DM)
- a squad of chaos marines (6 chosen in DV, 7 Death Guard in DM)
- a vehicle of some sorts (walker in DV, drone in DM)
- 20 unarmoured dudes (cultists in DV, poxwalkers in DM)

What, no cardboard stand-up of a dreadnought?

no cardboard stand-up of a dreadnought?

Hey, don't knock it. It may lack some depth but at least it's well painted.

And no free army list and wargear books either, as some have lamented here: TMP link

For GW it was the perfect choices.

Death Guard since they have better stats than the other Chaos Marines.

Bigger Space Marines since their long term plan is to phase out the old Space Marines thus forcing players to buy these new more costly Marines.

Given that zombies are so popular, and that Nurgle is fairly comparable with horror movie aesthetics, it was a sound choice.

Did anyone ever field the cardboard dreadnought, or see it fielded?

I never did. Mine went into my template and army file card box as a divider. I guess its still there.

I never play Orks but I played against cardboard dreadnoughts a couple of times back in the second edition days.

I thought I was the only one who could not stand Chaos forces in 40K. I commonly found most (not all, mind you)chaos players to be either obnoxious or immature and sometimes both. I long since stopped playing against anyone who fields Chaos. All games I've played in the past against Chaos players fell into a couple of ruts. Either the players blathered on endlessly about "this Chaos special rule, and that Chaos special rule" usually mixing/min/maxing several editions and interpretations together to maximum Chaos advantage. Then after gushing effusively how their "Chaos forces are the Greatest(TM)", dragging the game out into a boredom fest resulting in and said Chaos forces still loosing spectacularly. Then there was always option two, Chaos player fielded some god-offal Chaos meta-rule warping,game bending, fun destroying mega character (looking at you Abaddon/Fabius Bile/BloodThirster…etc…etc..etc…) that would single handedly wipe the table clean of all opponents.
Chaos rules and player mindset, ruins an otherwise descent game, in my not so humble opinion. :D

I thought I was the only one who could not stand Chaos forces in 40K.

You still might be – I don't think anyone else in this thread yet has said they "can't stand Chaos in 40K." Some thought it was gross, or a bit immature, but no-one generalized about Chaos players the way you did.

Although I do like your coined term "god-offal" – quite apropos for Nurgle at least ;-)

Cheers

w.

Oh I have never liked Chaos and I will never own any either.

Never would've guessed that Mithmee ;-)

Do like

Dark Angels
Guardians of the Coverant
Harlequins
Eldar
Orks
Imperial Guard
or and Squats

Detest Anything:

Chaos
Tau
Nids (though Genestealer Cults are okay)
Ultramarines
Dark Eldar

I'd always enjoyed shooting Chaos with my Imperial Guard. Never bother pondering why an opponent would build such an army.

All 40K devotees go on about their special rules and how brillantlly they can exploit them to unbalance any game (not aways true). Its a 40K thing not limited to Chaos (though they do seem to have a lot of special rules).

TomT

I often don't even know half of the special rules for my army when I play or often forget them when they are useful.