Pre-Order the Forces of Chaos to Bring Down the Imperium!
September 24, 2012 by dracs
The long awaited Chaos Space Marines, the fallen defenders of humanity, are now up for advance order from Games Workshop! So, let's take a look at what will be fielded against the armies of the false Emperor!
First up we have the twisted machinations of the Dark Mechanicum's latest demon engines.
These two are the Forgefiend and Maulerfiend, two brilliantly bestial designs ready to strike terror into the hearts of all. These are quite different to what we might normally have expected to see from a Chaos Space Marine force, appearing to be something of a cross between a Khorne Juggernaut, a Chaos Spawn and farm machinery. The general design of the sculpts are quite good, with a really nice level of detail and positioning. Of the two I think that the tentacled Maulerfiend looks the best, as it actually creates a sense of movement, although I prefer the head used on the Forgefiend.
However, these aren't the only two to emerge from the Forge Worlds within the Eye of Terror. Look to the skies and you will see the most radical Demon Engine yet!
It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's the giant winged contraption of death known as the Heldrake.
Again, this sculpt shows a great level of detail. I especially like the way you can see wires exposed at the joints and trailing behind it. The pose isn't bad either, as you do get the sense that this thing is in the process of swooping down on an unsuspecting victim, although something about the way the claws have been placed doesn't look quite right to my mind, given the general shape of the rest of its body. However, it does look far too elegant when compared with the other things we have seen for the Space Marines, both Chaos and Imperial. This demon engine is far removed from the Metal Bawkses we are used to.
The Heldrake is not the only thing which the enemy will have to keep an eye on the skies for. Check out the new and improved Raptors, as well as the new alternative Warp Talons.
All in all, I rather like these guys. Everything about these minis looks vicious, from their ornate armour to their weaponry. Even their jet packs have barbed pieces! The Raptors in particular seem to epitomise the vicious fighting style shown here, with their barbed weaponry and scowling face masks, you know these guys are going to cause some carnage.
Yet, when it comes to carnage, even the Raptors won't be able to match the new Mutilators!
These guys look like a real mess. But then, that's what they're supposed to look like. The Mutilators are essentially the close combat equivalent of the mighty Obliterators and they certainly share their bulky, mutated appearance. Yet, while we didn't really mind the way in which the Obliterators appeared almost immobile, these guys are supposed to be close combat monsters. To beat them all I would need to do is attack them from the side and kill them before they manage to turn around, which by the look of things should take them a while.
But where would the Chaos Space Marines be without leadership? Well, they probably wouldn't be Chaos Marines, but still, no less than four heroes of Chaos are up for pre-order.
The first two are your standard aspiring Champion and Sorcerer.
While these guys are nice models and have a very good level of detail, they aren't anything particularly new or special.
It's the next two heroes which really get me excited as, not only do I think they are nice models, they show us elements of the Chaos Space Marines which we have only had glimpses of previously.
The Warpsmith is a Chaos Space Marine of the Dark Mechanicum and appears every inch to be a perverted reflection of the Techmarines of the Imperial forces. The segmented armour looks great, creating a far harsher appearance, while the cloak of pipes and wires create a really dramatic piece of sculpting, even if they do seem somewhat pointless. Top this all off with the evil mass of mechanical tendrils framing the miniature and you have one awesome mechanic.
The prize for my favourite miniature of these new releases has to go to the Dark Apostle.
This miniature looks brilliant, from the flowing scroll work surrounding him, to the intricate symbols and carvings all over his armour. He looks to be a brilliant parody of the Space Marine Chaplains. One thing is for sure, this guy takes his evangelism seriously.
All in all, a fine selection of hellish creations to field in the galaxy of Warhammer 40K. The greater focus upon elements such as the Dark Mechanicum, to me, helps to set the Chaos Space Marines apart, while reminding you of their traitorous back story.
Are any of you pre-ordering some Chaos forces? What is your opinion of these new models? Do they meet with your expectations for Chaos Marines?
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Chaos Space Marine army…I am in you.
BoW Ben
The special characters are all very nice indeed. The plastic champion guy especially goes well with the dark vengeance chosen.
The big stuff, its not my taste, dragons and power rangers zoids arent really my first thought of chaos to be honest.
And I hate to go off on prices again, but when the hardback books came out 18 months or so ago, they were £22-50.
This ones £30. Thats all kinds of ridiculous, for a company that first and foremost wants to sell miniatures.
To start 40k, just for the rules without any models, it will cost over £100 between two people (assuming they both buy a codex and a single big book)
I’ll buy into production costs etc for ever inflating model prices, but rules is a loss leader, thats just insane.
I’ll be picking up a codex for definite. I was talking to Phil Kelly about it at gamesday yesterday and my death guard have gone from bad ass to uber bad ass 😀
They are finecast? sorry especially with mutilators and their lack of undercuts I was sure they made them in plastic.
Sorry I do not like any of the releases, they do not seem to fit, at least for me and they do not look as good as one should expect from GW.
It kind of shows that in the last gamesday the big presence was forgeworld, not GW proper, maybe they should be running the show and their sculpts be made into plastic, not GWs.
I personally like how they are making ‘Chaos’ visually different from ‘Imperial’ Space Marines. I am sure there will be the old tried and true Space Marine Kits still available for Chaos but the new ones show the Dark Designs that can only be possible from Warped tainted minds. The Fiends and Drake have so much detail on them it is fantastic.
As for the price of the Codex, they raised the Price on White Dwarf magazine and it was worth it. So I am going to see what they come out so I can properly pass judgment.
I see it more as making a distinction between “Chaos” and “Chaos space marines”, the re-introduction of cultists, for example, make it possible to have a chaos force more like we see in the gaunt novels, were generally the bulk of the forces are made of deranged untrained heretics with a few if any marines leading them.
You mean the blood pact? If so they were a trained fighting force making up most of the chaos’ force, more akin to guard then your average Looney cultist. I see what you mean here but you would be better of using guard to represent Blood Pact with Demons and/or Chaos Space Marine’s as allies, hey that gives me an idea……
Making the single pose no options aspiring champion in plastic while having finecast obliterators and mutilators that share the same bodies is just pants-on-head-trousers-full-of-jelly stupid.
Yeah Ok, so follow the links and do the math, Dark Vengence ( regular edition ) 79 Euro. Chaos Space Marines one click launch bundle ( Chaos Codex, 5 raptors, 1 Aspiring Champion, 1 Helldrake, 1 Forgefiend ) 191:50 Euro = 270:50 Euro to start you journey on the road to true madness. Ive posted a bit about these hillarious prices here and there and this is the last bit of my time Ill waste on GW. But to all you crazy ass millionairs out there, best of luck with your 40K gameing
anto thats cheap man just had a look GW Australian $513 for the same here so just over half a grand to start an army its true madness
Sooo… No cultist box set then? That sucks, you have to buy the dark vengence box set repeatedly for 20 cultists a time?
i imagine they’ll be released in another “wave” after a while. for now though you could either convert some guardsmen or go on ebay and buy the cultists separately.
Someone’s dropped the ball here.
Individual characters and jumpers are good but the larger things are a mess – great for collectors, but for Chaos Space Marines and Chaos? Clusterf*ck….
Should have stuck with the Doom theme.
Oblits were always a bit of a fail, and instead of a new design and plastic kit they get Finecast. lol.
Very disappointed in the Maulerfiend, Forgefiend and Heldrake. They look like something from transformers rather than an amalgam of flesh and machine. I just think that the design could have made these daemon engines really sinister and warped but the Maulerfiend looks like a constipated rhino and the Mutilators look like sloth from the goonies.
The sorcerer is a bit of a static pose but on the other hand I think the aspiring champion will fit in well with the dark vengeance guys. I absolutely love the Warpsmith, Raptors and Dark Apostle (especially as my current chaos marines are Word Bearers), brilliant models.
On the whole a bit so-so. I think the most bizarre decision is to give the havocs the choice of flakk missiles but release a finecast set with no choices on the weapons you get. I assume the old plastics will get a revamp along with some cultist boxes in the second wave.
So instead of spikey marines, we get horny ones instead.
I have to say, this new Chaos release looks as though the entire studio sat down and worked long and hard at figuring out how to do the least amount of work to achieve a whole release.
I am not a Chaos player, but that does not mean I don’t care about the release. I wanted to see big, beautiful, exciting minis, because that means more people would be enticed in starting Chaos and provide me with more suitable opponents! But this was massively disappointing.
The Forgefiend/Maulerfiend are really cool, but only in concept. The finished product looks painfully bad. There is simply too much stuff that really does not contribute to the model. When I think Chaos, I immediately think the Forge World Reaver Titan. Now that thing is a masterful fusion of the warping influence of Chaos on a machine. The Fiends have so much extraneous detail that does not add to the model that I simply can’t decide where I want to look at it, I would just rather look away from it because it’s just so unappealing. The Heldrake also suffers the same problems.
Now the Mutilators, it’s as though they made the Mutilators look just as dumb as the Obliterators simply so they would not have to make two new kits. It’s as though the Mutilators were made to look that was to justify how crummy the old Obliterators look. The Obs/Muts have the potential to be such terrifying and brilliant models, but for me, those simply do not achieve that potential.
The Raptors/Warp Talons are really neat. They are good, but some of the claws and spikes on them as well as the helms just do not look good. Again there’s too much extraneous detail that doesn’t really contribute to the look of the model.
The Aspiring Champion really is a nice model, but the fact that it is basically moulded with one pose and one weapon loadout, it ruins what the Champion should be about. More options, more posability would have been preferable. But it definitely will make for a good start for conversions.
It just seems to me ever since Grey Knights, the Studio has been doing consistently poorer work. The Grey Knights only had small little problems to me, easily overlooked. The Necrons, most of those models were just truly horrid. It seems that the Design Studio just has no desire to make awesomely posed models and only wants to show off just exactly how much crap they can fit on a model and sprue. There seems to be no sense of aesthetic other than “throw more unnecessary stuff on that thing!” They seem to have forgotten that less really is more.
So much entitled butt hurt!
@moriarty If having an opinion, even a negative one, is “entitled butthurt”, then sure! But if we’re going to pay premium prices, it better be a premium top notch product. I dunno about you, but if I’m to spend my hard earned dollar, I better be getting something amazing. If the technique is there, but the aesthetic is not, how can I justify the expenditure? But I suppose some people are fine with throwing large amounts of money at subpar products.
Subpar for you might not be subpar for others? This equally seems to be a difficult concept for some to grasp.
Having an opinion is great, negative or not, I agree, let’s just leave the hyperbolic nonsense at home, though.
@moriarty What hyperbolic nonsense? I do believe I articulated myself thoroughly and precisely. I identified what are the problems to me, pointed them out accurately, and whether or not other people agree is not my concern. Although what’s hyperbolic to some may not be hyperbolic to others. I guess some people find that hard to grasp.
It’s great if some people find these models acceptable, but I cannot and as such will express so and precisely why I think so. I am free to do that just like others are free to mindlessly faun over them. But I suppose this is an equally difficult to grasp concept. Or would you feel better that I say nothing at all and just nod along with the masses? I suppose that’s better for you isn’t it?
Either way, let’s leave the snide and condescending nonsense at home, shall we?
I personaly like the look of the new stuff here, except the mutilators. The forgefiend “Hades Autocannon”thingamajig, actualy made me kinda want some chaos allies even.
never been a huge fan of the models in the chaos line up, I think they’re are too “busy” for want of a better term. With so much detail and so much going on it gets lost. Dark Eldar now there is poetry in sculpture….
Hate the Helldrake and Forgefiend. Previous style of warped imperium was great with defiler etc. but these look like fantasy models with armour on. If I do pick them up the heads will be removed at the base of the neck and a cockpit/maw installed. The face/ maw in the Hellbrute worked well.
Like the warptalons/raptors.
Would have liked a mainstream chaos droppod like the forgeworld one. It would be cool if it was possessed and kept blasting off and slamming down arond the battlefield after troops disembark. Would give a real nasty choatic feel to the battle.
Sorry reposted from a non-starter thread but more at home here.
As a CSM player i’ve eagerly awaited this release and, having now seen the new releases, I have to say its a mixed bag and more negative than positive. The Forgefiend, Maulerfiend and Heldrake and just not CSM. The Maulerfiend looks like its from the classic Dino Riders cartoon! Its a huge fail and so out of sync with Chaos im struggling to understand why it made it thru the design stage. The Heldrake looks almost ‘oriental’ in style. Another NO. The Forgefiend holds up a little better but it still doesnt ‘pop’ for me. A huge fail across the board here.
The other releases are a better. The finecast releases are very exciting and i like the Mutilators. Raptors are a massive improvement and the Warp Talons look like a fun alternative. I would hope FW come up with some upgrade kits so u can make this plastic boxed set more chaos power specific. I think the stand outs are the Dark Apostle and the Warpsmith, tho the latter is a little too ‘busy’ for me to pick one up. A new CSM force based on Word Bearers with a Dark Apostle leading? That could tempt me to dip in me pocket.
Ive been building a CSM force for quite some time now. Nurgle Death Guard only. It will be finished one day if i can find time between work and DJing nearly every bloody nite! VIVA BOW! Keep up the good work guys!
I used to be a chaos player and I still don’t see myself coming back to GW. I think some of the the new things are cool if a bit too detailed. But really it comes down to not being able to afford it! I would love to have a few things just for the painting and collecting but I’ll never have a proper army again.
LOL @ at all your 40K players upset GW had the nerve to take the effort in making a plastic stand-alone character model, only to release it with only one single pose and no alternative arms/heads :p WELCOME TO WARHAMMER FANTASY.
Here’s my thoughts on the models, in order of apperance.
Forge-/Hellfiend: A friend of mine pointed out that these beasts seems to have drawn their inspiration from Cryx Helljacks and I have to agree with him, though I will add that there is a fair bit of He-Man in them as well. Basically, someone at GW saw Cryx models and said ‘We can do that better!’. I’m not sure what to think of them really, though I don’t think they fit very well with Chaos Space Marines or in 40k in general. Would have been better in fantasy.
Hellldrake: Fantasy dragon with mechanical body. Just plain horrible. Also, why oh why not use the already established flyers that Chaos already has access to! They look much better and the models already exist so it would have been an easy matter of turning the Forge World version into a plastic kit!
Raptors/Warptalons: I do like the raptors but I miss the more birdlike apperance of their predecessor. The warptalons seem a bit too spiky and the ‘wings’, for a lack of a better word, on their back packs are redundant. Also, am I the only one that think it looks silly that every jump/flying model nowadays has to have their toes stuck to some random debris?
Mutilators: I think they mesh quite well with the already established Obliterators but the faces are horrible! All I can think of when I see them is some poor retarded fool that only can drool slowly on themselves. On another note, why didn’t they take the opportunity to make a combined Oblit/mutilator plastic kit? Oh right, this is GW after all…
Champion: Nothing special but not particulary bad either. However someone said earlier that these models look ‘busy’ and in this case I think it’s true.
Sorcerer: Just a classic Chaos sorcerer. Stylish and fairly well designed. On the plusside is the fact that while he is posing, he isn’t trying to outpose every bad-ass bastich out there and in 40k there are a lot of those.
Warpsmith: Nothing wrong with the model, though to me doesn’t seem like he belongs with Chaos. Mostly I get the impression of a more archaic version of the normal techmarines. Remove the spiky axe and the star on the chest and there isn’t much to connect him to chaos.
Dark apostle: The model itself is quite fine but it suffers from limitations in casting. To sustain all those scrolls, they need to be almost comically thick. Also the ‘halo’ will probably just break into itty bitty pieces after a couple of games.
I feel dizzy…all that spin
A mix of excellent, ok, poor and awful for me….and the video is mostly not that great either. A better effort than some previous attempts.
Having poured over the new box set id rather spend any GW cash on Dark Vengence and avoid this new stuff….the only good bits look like being failcost which I wouldn’t touch with…well anything actually
My wife calls my models toys. I insist that they are models. This new line of Chaos isn’t really helping my argument.
The Flyer is ridiculously toy-like. As are the Chaos engines.
The are not Chaos Space Marine themed. They should have a marine operator, like the Hell Brute, fused into the vehicle.
I was really hoping for all new sculpts like they did for the Dark Eldar. The Dark Vengeance set gave me hope, which these lame vehicles/beasts promptly stomped.
What a disappointing release.
I think that the Maulerfiend was made wholly as a response model to the Dreadknight, which is probably the worst model they could have responded to in the entire range. Who designed these armored warbeasts anyways? This isn’t Lizardmen, this is Chaos. This hurts so close to home if you’ve read any of the novels that describe the creations of chaos, they’re so vivid and abstract, while these seem…. very heavily inspired, to put it politely.
I play Chaos Daemons, and the fantasticly designed new minis from my range were perfect, could not have asked for better models (though I can and do ask for more :P), these CSM monsters, the Maulerfiend… I’ve spent a lot of time looking at it, and I’ve pinpointed where the whole thing goes wrong, and it’s mostly in the head, but it’s also in the hands. The body doesn’t really help either, but it’s more of a neutral element that just draws more attention to the head and hands… The hands are pretty self explanatory, these humanoid hands just don’t fit with 40k, not on monsters like this. The head… that’s what drives it home. Look at the mouth, notice how it’s the classic set of lipless spike teeth that pretty much every 5-12yo children’s marketing lines have, and this even could have even been worked had they not made the eyes smart and angry-looking, which completes the children’s toy monsters theme. Imagine how the Maulerfiend would look if its eyes were bulging and crazy–it fits a lot more, maybe even to the point of saving the model. But that would defeat the whole point of the model, which seems to be to actually bring kids toys to the gaming scene.
The worst part about this is all the crazy 40k players out there who only like 40k for the game, like this model. Just as they would have liked any big model. As long as it’s detailed, they’ll worship it, and that may actually be why things are beginning to reach this point. Or that’s my take on it, at least.