Lost and the Damned
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- – C.S. Lewis
- – Che Guevara
The Lost and the Damned (alternatively Renegades and Heretics) are the various Chaos-following Cultists, pirates, rebels, mutants, renegade Guardsmen, and so forth that are not Chaos Space Marines or Daemons, but fight alongside them for the Dark Gods. They're mostly known for their fanaticism, disposability, and alternations between complete brilliance and mind-shattering idiocy (largely depending on the individual group). Most members of the Lost and the Damned are considered at least 50% as ballsy as their Imperial counterparts, which is fairly ballsy by the standards of the 41st Millennium.
Once upon a wonderful time, the powers that be gave them an army list of their own in Codex: Eye of Terror, the sourcebook for the 13th Black Crusade campaign). Sadly, Games Workshop dropped support for the army as soon as the campaign was over, screwing over everyone that collected an army of them and making them our generation's Squats. Forge World, on the other hand, still carries renegade Guardsmen, but also publishes an army list for them, called Renegades & Heretics, which can be found in Imperial Armour Vol. 5: The Siege of Vraks Part 1; Khornate- and Nurglite-themed variants can be found in IA 6 & 7, respectively. There are also a few fandices that have been made, which are listed below. There's also the option of creatively using Allies to combine Chaos Space Marines or Daemons with Imperial Guard, as well as simply painting your Guardsmen red and shouting "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD" whenever you get a chance.
Of course, none of these options really cover the variety that might be found within the Lost and the Damned, as most focus on renegade Guardsmen and maybe a few other eclectic options.
And you thought the Guard was rough[edit]
So, you have managed to defect from the Imperium and joined the ranks of the Lost and the Damned. You had been drafted and taken from your dreary but comparatively peaceful home that you shall never see again, taken across the galaxy to a place you have never heard of to die in a war you have never heard of in the name of the Emperor. You have lived off shit rations, been bullied and bossed around and threatened by men in nice hats and then those voices in the back of your head came offering an escape for all that. And you have managed to somehow switch sides and join up with the local chaos force, everything is going to get better right?
Think again.
First of all, while you have switched heaps, you are still at the bottom. And while your old bosses might have been puritanical callous slave drivers, at least they were sane (ORLY?). Siding with Slaanesh can be rather fun, but you better prepare your anus. Literally. Sided with Khorne? Just hope to hell that you don't get set with a delay or have to go on a long march or get pinned down among your fellow psychopaths, because he cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it does. Tzeentch? Expect to be made an expendable cog in someone's machinations. Nurgle? Hope you like becoming a walking pile of sores, blisters and pustules with random bits falling off, while smelling of a mixture of slaughterhouse runoff, old gym socks and vomit (alright, to be fair you won't care about that, being Nurglite and all).
Actually, life in the Slaaneshi and Nurglite regiments might not be all that different: Everyone's rather cheerful, but you require ample amounts of hemorrhoid cream (if for very different reasons). Not to mention an actual Khorne renegade guard regiment would find it incredibly fucking dumb to just murder skilled soldiers because muh blood, you moron. (Skalathrax just didn't happen I guess.)(Kharn is an outlier and should not be counted.)
On top of that, your leaders are completely fucking nuts, and you are their literal punching bag. Alright, some are better than others (though the same goes for the Guard that your heretical ass left), but the bottom bar for Chaos leaders is going to be lower since it's more, well, chaotic. It's not uncommon to see someone shot because the boss had one of his little moments, or getting knifed in the back because someone forgot where he put his socks and accuses someone else in your Warband of stealing them. Now, if you are a scheming bastard, a good demagogue, an exceptional fighter and/or simply lucky/favoured by the Gods you might be able to go up in rank (though generals die in the Guard as well, and someone's gotta fill those gaps). That said, this is quite a cut-throat business. On a related note, the forces of Chaos are also opposed to each other. In the absence of loyalists or xenos and the like, a battle between servants of rival Chaos Gods is inevitable. Even if you are fighting a loyalist force or some Orks, you still better keep an eye out for rival Chaos worshipers.
Then there is support. If nothing else, the Imperium has the edge in Industry and general manpower. You will generally have to make do with much less than you did in the Guard, and much of your gear is likely going to be looted from people who don't want you looting their stuff. Now Daemons, some mutations and the blessings of the Chaos gods might be helpful, but that brings up the risk of getting into Chaos Spa-urh, going-even-lower-down-the-command-chain-than-you-already-were-while-losing-your-brain-in-the-process-territory. He meant to say Chaos SpawnAAAAAAAAAHH mmbleble gluh! Finally, you've had enough of this? Well, too bad. There is no going back, heretic scum.
On the other hand, if you survive, have the skills to pay the bills, and satisfy the Dark Gods, the sky's the goddamned limit. You could even be a champion yourself some day, or perhaps even a Daemon Prince. It's happened before. All it takes is a combination of ruthlessness, ambition and a willingness to survive (and the ability to not die from a bolter slug to the face). No one said this was going to be easy, but the ultimate prize justifies everything done to obtain it!
The Other Hand is Just as Rough[edit]
The above is an accurate summary of experiences for those regiments who start on their particular path to damnation firmly for, shall we say, "religious reasons." However, the fact that Games Workshop has rebranded them as "Renegades and Heretics" should give a glimpse into the notion that guard regiments may have more secular or material reasons to rebel against the Imperium. It's not hard to figure out why, either - the Imperium literally spans a galaxy and running an organization that large with that many people can leave some "a little neglected," especially when facing alien factions against whom the Imperium threw into a fight with them, what with their whole empire building and all... although at this point it's more empire repair. Not to mention that war is CONSTANT in the Imperium, not just against aliens or heretics, but against other polities on the planet or on other planets in that particular solar system, all jockeying for favour and resources for their own pet projects. Oh, and if none of those problems materialize for the planet, then another Imperial faction you've also probably never heard of from half the goddamn galaxy away has taken issue with you for any of the most inscrutable reasons and dispatched themselves to your homeworld to straight up wreck you and take all your shit! Remember that for most imperial citizens, there is little difference between a castigation by the Black Templars or being declared Purgatus by the Inquisition and an invasion by the Black Legion. Then there's civilian life, notoriously horrid in the Imperium: working daily double-digit hours at a minimum under certainly unsafe conditions, minimal education loaded with propaganda and outright misinformation and disinformation, eating rations made from reprocessed waste if they get any at all, where living in a literal cubicle is a luxury and if they are even perceived as stepping out of line or more likely happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, they will be lucky to die quickly from the incident, executed by the strongman breathing down their neck. At least if you live in the lower parts of a Hive World or anywhere on a Forge World. Otherwise, your life is pretty much the same as it was while the Emperor was walking around in 30K.
So let that set the stage: you're alone in a galaxy that's either wholly indifferent or actively hostile against you and the billions of people on your planet, the only reason you're there is because some guy you will never meet with the sort of political power you cannot begin to imagine thought it would be beneficial to found a colony there and most likely did not afford enough resources to adequately start one, the bulk of which will get sucked up anyway by said guy's esteemed acquaintance or their favourite bootlickers while you get tasked with fighting a proxy war against literal fucking monsters that at any moment can become a planet-wide total war while billions of your fellow man around you live under the most horrid conditions possible. Is it any wonder that, in the absence of some serious military authority, that so many planets rebel? Well, yes, actually, since each world has a high degree of independence and just about everything they rebel over is actually under the control of their own planetary governments scheming to increase their personal power, not the Imperium.
However, as the previous section poignantly notes, a rogue PDF can only go so far on its own - farther if they happen to enjoy the patronage of a nearby forgeworld or are on one themselves. Beggars can't be choosers in this particular depth of desperation so they solicit the help of literally anyone who can assist - often times, you have the usual suspects like renegade and heretic astartes or daemons, but allegiance to either certainly won't help in throwing off the yoke of oppression inasmuch as it's just trading yokes. Same goes for any support from Xenos although some are more helpful than others, or most. Indeed, carving out a territory in this frankly rather crowded galaxy only means continued participation in the ceaseless resource war in which the galaxy is embroiled and may inevitably lead to a continuous cycle of breaking and forming alliances to fight former allies or new threats. And on top of all that? The people of the planet, the reason for which you may have taken up this otherwise noble project of sedition, will likely be plunged into the same misery they enjoyed whilst you were still loyal to the Imperium in order to keep your now independent war machine rolling. Usually under far worse conditions and far higher casualties due to being cut off from the Imperium's protection, resources, and industry. Thus, planetary insurrection in the Imperium is usually relatively short-lived, though the ones that are most successful are either totally subsumed by a previous benefactor and/or require resources to retake that the Imperium has dedicated elsewhere long enough to actually enjoy some temporary peace and stability. Most likely though, insurrection in the Imperium is nasty, brutish and thankfully short compared to the agonizing, millennium-spanning, soul-crushing servitude as a pawn in the Imperium's everlasting quest to dominate the galaxy. *BLAM* Heresy!
The Old School (ain't no school like it)[edit]
Cast your mind back to the dark days before the Internet of things to the hallowed days of Rogue Trader when this... well, we hesitate to call it an army, a loose confederacy of units, yes? Right, This was when Realm of Chaos was released as a two-part supplement to the game. The first book, Slaves to Darkness, had a lot of rules for Fantasy as well as a limited set of rules for some chaos space marines and daemons, particularly those in service to Khorne and Slaanesh. The second book, The Lost and the Damned, is where you find stuff for Nurgle, Tzeentch and most importantly for our purposes, an army list for "chaos renegades".
This catchall term included the now familiar items we expect to see in a LatD army, namely traitor guardsmen, mutants and their vehicles backed by a whole bunch of shit you would otherwise find in WHFB: beastmen, minotaurs and a whole bunch of other nasty monsters you could add to the list. Because fuck yeah, why not? Luckily, second edition would continue this wholesome content and slam all this stuff into one, single book - and it was great and you know it!
After that, we all know the story - third edition, blah blah blah. Hard rules change, Instant Death, bizarre power creep etc. Chaos Space Marines enjoyed two releases during this time, though their second, infamously OP codex came during the waning days of 3.5. Alongside them, the vaunted Eye of Terror Codex was released for the eponymous global campaign backed by the early 2000's internet and, well, that's more or less the basis for our nostalgia.
Games Workshop does it again[edit]
The Lost and the Damned army list was a hell of a lot of fun, and was designed for those who had scored Codex: Eye of Terror for campaigns. The idea was simple: an army full of non-Marines dedicated to Chaos - pirates and raiders and cultists and mortal warriors devoted to Chaos, all under one banner, albeit with Chaos Marines allowable as Elites (and you could even get a cheaper, if weaker, Chaos Lord/Sorcerer as an HQ).
The combination of lots of modding possibility, a potentially characterful army, and some interesting ideas to differentiate it from the Imperial Guard went a long way towards endearing it to players, since the idea of cultist units had been toyed with before in the previous Chaos Codex, with the Alpha Legion. This was taking it to its logical conclusion, and suffice to say, some people thought this was pretty cool. Forge World saw potential here as well, and to promote the new army list, put out some bad-ass new resin-cast models. Several people started to get into the new army, and there was a lot of Derp and win as players used this to put out some truly entertaining army lists, from Zombie Apocalypse setups backed with heavy armor, to squads of Traitors backed by Mutants and APCs. All in all, the army itself was on the cheesier side of crunch: effectively, you could take the best of both CSM and Imperial Guard codexes which overall translated into a very powerful army with arguably better guardsmen than the Guard themselves could field.
True to form however, the second that the official tournaments of the season ended, Games Workshop abruptly stopped supporting the army entirely, refused to allow Lost and the Damned armies into future tournaments, pretended the previously-supported army didn't exist, and left players with naught but the Counts As rule to keep them company - and then there was RAGE. A few fortunate souls - the ones focusing on infantry and not-Chaos armor - could get away with using their killy and flash models as a viable Imperial Guard army, but these players were a distinct minority, since a lot of players had used the rules to field more versatile, interesting, or outlandish lists, especially given how expensive the models from Forge World are.
But all is not lost, for the Forge World Siege of Vraks sourcebooks each contain a variant Lost and the Damned list at the end. Part one has rules for a vanilla Chaos Undivided force, Part two has rules for a Khornate force (with Berzerkers as an elite option), and Part three has rules for a Nurgle force (with Plague Marines as elites). Still rather luckluster though, as the limited units and god choices in the army made it rather obvious they were primarily intended for the Vraks campaign even though Forge World's website said they could be used for other renegades if needed. But then Imperial Armour 13 came out...
6th Edition[edit]
6th edition brought with it rules for allying between armies, which though full of Derp and Rage due to odd combinations, did allow an Imperial Guard army to ally to Chaos Marines or Daemons (albeit only as Desperate Allies). This, combined with the return of Plague Zombies and Chaos Cultists in Codex: Chaos Space Marines, allowed for the Lost and the Damned to be used (more or less) in sixth edition. Forge World also updated their Renegades & Heretics army list from the Siege of Vraks series, allowing them to ally with the Guard, Chaos Marines, or Daemons. Sadly, neither of these options entirely captured the flavour of a Lost and the Damned army---the Siege of Vraks series was, by that point, badly outdated, and allying Imperial Guard to Chaos Marines had severe restrictions (and, anyway, Imperial Guard aren't quite the same as Lost and the Damned).
7th Edition[edit]
While 7E started off with a similarly bleak outlook with only the badly outdated Vraks rules, now under suspicion with the underwhelming options and Imperial Guard now being desperate allies at best with Chaos, Forge World managed to pick up on GW's slacking ass by releasing Imperial Armour 13, a new sourcebook that not only showed off some new super-toys for the regular Chaos armies, but also brought in a much larger army list more suited for 7E. Now instead of just an undivided, Khorne, and Nurgle army loosely using similar units, now the army could haul out not only some of the new Chaos toys including the Noise Marines and the Sonic Dreadnought, a shitton of tanks, and a new specialty system allowing for other armies like a Heretek army using old Mechanicus shit and a daemon-casting army.
Was it a great army? Well, it was alright, but some issues still persisted like random leadership and only one named hero available; also some units were very good while others were not worth taking. Was it an improvement? You bet your fucking ass that it was, even if your units start off with a meager BS2. Sooooooo many options made for nice build combos, basically the closest thing we had to any of the 3.5E chaos lists!
List is available here: take a gander over here..
8th Edition[edit]
Well thank Gods that's over! The age of egregious cheese-mongering has finally come to a close as 8th edition blessed us with its grace. So, what's new aside from everything? All the fun Forgeworld Toys got yanked officially, but you can always add them back because of how faction keywords work. We've kept our Chaos Covenants, but you get one and it's only if you take a Renegade Commander. The big loss is Demagogue Devotions but as we said, Faction Keywords can get those all back along with taking allies from CSM and Daemons.
With the release of Blackstone Fortress, renegade Guardsmen (and Guardswomen) finally have plastic models. They fight alongside Chaos Beastmen, renegade pskyers, Negavolt Cultists (so Dark Mechanicus?), and Chaos Space Marines. At the same time, renegades models have been pulled from Forge World. Then GW teased an image of something very chaos looking, hinting at a new version of CSM that includes these units or, Gods forbid, a full-blown LatD book! Unfortunately, these models were all made into a sort of pseudo-army that wouldn't really cut it as a Kill-Team, much less a full-blown army. Even as BSF: Traitor Command introduced Traitor Commissars and Ogryns, those hopes remained dashed.
The base army is squishy dudes and tanks. For more info, please check out the 8E tactica here.
9th Edition[edit]
Our hopes rested on the release of the Imperial Armor books for 9E. The Warhammer Legends: Forgeworld update launched to provide rules for models that were no longer produced and our lads and lasses got an update - hurray! And then we read the rules - the Gods too appear to have forsaken us.
On the plus side, we still have tanks and our infantry got better - WS/BS 4+ base and no more randumb leadership values! However, the cost of removing those last remaining bits of jank has been to throw the mutated baby out with the toxic bathwater, and with it the last shreds of flavour that this army had, it would seem. Gone are psychic powers and god-specific chaos covenants. The list is now basically an allied Guard detachment lacking orders, strategems, relics, psychic powers or much of anything now. LatD or R&H cannot survive competitive play without these inclusions and thus, this once vaunted list has found itself in the rubbish bin of bottom-tier. This army desperately needs a supplement or something lest it be squatted, which is ironic considering how armies thought to be orphaned and abandoned like Sisters of Battle or gods forbid the actual Squats themselves have been completely revitalized or reintroduced respectively under 9th. There are more of the same hints and signs we have fed off of for years in the fevered hope that the thing we like might actually be supported and mainstream again, but if you're a chaos player you should be used to being forsaken by now.
The base army is still squishy dudes and tanks, but not much else. There are no relics, stratagems, warlord traits or anything else that might have given flavour to the list and the unique units available are rather underwhelming if not completely uninspired. They might make for a usable allied detachment for other Chaos armies.
For more info, please check out the 9E tactica here.
A Faint Hope[edit]
Warhammer Fest 2022 saw a mild sign of some relevance in the Moroch Kill Team boxset, having the same Traitor Guard from Blackstone Fortress repackaged in one set called the Blooded Squad along with some new orders to spice it up. Seeing as previous boxed Kill Teams all got rules on their respective faction's codex or shortly after, there's a sliver of hope that we'll eventually get rules to throw in a batch of spiky guardsmen to throw at the enemy instead of a bunch of piddly cultists. Though the mortals of Chaos got a few new options with the 9th Edition CSM codex, this hope unfortunately did not manifest in the codex, with the cultists not even gaining the option to attach a traitorous commissar or a Chaos Ogyn.
That hope would emerge later, as the Renegade Enforcer (plus optional Ogryn bodyguard) as well as the generic traitor guardsmen all became available units for the base CSM armylist alongside the rest of the Kill Team squads that weren't already part of a team. That said, the guardsmen aren't that much better than the basic cultists aside from some new guns, but they synergize with the Enforcer and his ability to force them to auto-pass any combat attrition checks the guardsmen make. Even better is that the Ogryn acts as a super bodyguard for the Enforcer, taking absolutely any blows for the guy without any means of oversight since they're a single unit.
Fan Service or Lack Thereof[edit]
Being one of the most popular ideas out there for IG conversions, many players have obviously taken to creating their own versions of the LatD codex. Unfortunately, none are really available, widespread or Gods forbid, current so we're presently stuck with this mediocre Warhammer Legends list. Clearly, fielding an army of renegade humans, mutants and whatever else is appealing to a surprising number of players and there have been recurring hopes of a true-to-form codex release. After all, there are entire armies, some with full-blown codexes, geared specifically to fighting renegades, heretics, mutants, the lost and the damned or whatever you wanna call this army. Games Workshop stoked these hopes through Blackstone Fortress' inclusion of traitor guard, beastmen, quasi-Dark Mechanicus types and Chaos Space Marines. Unfortunately, an actual release isn't known to be in the works for the Lost and the Damned or the Renegades and Heretics or whatever you want to call them. We could hope for an Astra Militarum supplement though some would prefer a codex; however, every loyal Astartes Chapter that deviates from the codex has received or will receive a codex supplement.
Regardless, there's a few things we fans of the Lost and the Damned would like to see in release:
- Diverse and Usable HQ: taking a look at the last three editions of the army, HQ selection hasn't been stellar. By far, the most useful is the Renegade Commander but that one's been hollowed out over successive releases. 7th edition had an interesting take, allowing for players to build a customized commander with a covenant that granted special rules and buffs to the army; naturally, this approach seems to have fallen out of favour with Games Workshop's design team in favour of crowding a list with a variety of HQ choices and, frankly, that sounds pretty cool too. Just shift Rogue Pysker covens to Elites like their loyalist counterparts and you have plenty of room for mutant commanders, hardened renegades, super psykers, heretic preachers or what have you! Along with that...
- Competitive Flavour: the army list has lost a lot of its uniqueness over the editions. Not only does the army lack unique stratagems, which are required now for competitive play, their psykers lack unique powers, our leaders have no warlord traits aside from their auras, we have no access to a specialized armoury or relics and they don't have what makes their loyalist counterpart so potent either: Orders.
- There is an opportunity here to really flex the creative muscles the design team to showcase a more radical Renegade force, one that shows off its history of patronage and allegiance from a host of current and former allies. For instance, being able to have a flexible army-wide master Keyword (Imperium, Chaos, Xenos, unaligned, etc.); from there, wargear options borrowed from codexes other than Imperial Guard would add a lot of flavour.
- Revised Unique Units: in addition to providing the army with a well-deserved injection of flavour unique units can be the difference between a boilerplate echo army or an interesting alternative. Presently, the army has access to marginally better Cultists than what other CSM armies get and a wide variety of mutants and renegades, which is what you would expect. A lot of these options are effectively toned-down and altered versions of what loyalist Guard get so there's room for improvement.
- One unit a lot of fans wouldn't mind seeing returning are beastmen distinct from generic mutants. They have been reintroduced steadily back into 40K with the Thousand Sons as well as non-Tzeentchian variants in Blackstone Fortress and a Necromunda mercenary. We could see a variety of beastman variants, like troops, elite variants, minotaurs, etc. - there's a lot of leeway here for creativity.
The Traitorous Regiments[edit]
Like the Imperial Guard, the Traitors of the Imperium come in a huge variety of flavors, all ripe for different customization ideas. From those who want their freedom from the oppression of the Imperium, to those who become corrupted with Chaos, there's plenty to choose from. The following is a list of the renegades found in the universe of Warhammer 40k so far. Also, I'll provide some advice on where to find people who have done conversions for those regiments already. More information can be found on the Warhammer 40k wikia and Lexicanum on these groups.
- Blood Pact: This renegade group originally hails from the Sabbat Worlds sector. They worship Khorne almost exclusively, but they're much better organized than the rabble usually found in the Lost and the Damned (or most Khornate Warbands for that matter). This is mostly because they pattern themselves after Imperial Guard. Unlike most renegade groups, however, they've actually captured some industrial and Forge Worlds, so they can field tanks (even super-heavy tanks!). They also have some fairly unique divisions, such as Loxatl xenos mercenaries, unique psykers (yes, really, Khornate Sorcerers, but it's okay, because it was made up by Dan Abnett) called Gore Mages that turn renegades into special Daemonhosts called Blood Wolves, and Storm Trooper equivalents. Technically, however, they aren't renegades, but rather an independent, Chaos-worshipping nation that had never been under control of the Imperium, at least not in living memory. As such, they have a rather unique set of customs, such as cutting their hands on pieces of power armor as an initiation ritual (hence Blood Pact). They also dye their uniforms with the blood of their enemies and display corpses on their tanks. As you can probably tell, /tg/ adores these guys.
- Conversion opportunities abound. In fact, some people have even made full Blood Pact armies. The most impressive belongs to Dave Taylor; in addition to the full counts-as-Imperial-Guard army, he also scratch-built a Stalk Tank and wrote a datasheet of rules for it. You can find it here: [1].
- A note of caution: the Blood Pact wear special Oni-styled masks that will take considerable time to model with green stuff. For your converting convenience, there are plenty of options for Blood Pact head swaps and proxies including: Fallen Legionnaire heads from Max Mini, Grotesque Facemasks with Helmets from Anvil Industries, Crimson Pak from Mad Robot, Crimson Legion from Artel "W", and Red Pact from Wargame Exclusive.
- Sons of Sek: Because the Blood Pact is so awesome, you can't have just one warband. The Sons of Sek are an elite force under the command of Anakwanar Sek (WHOSE VOICE DROWNS OUT ALL OTHERS), who wants to take control of the Sabbat Worlds for himself. They function pretty much the same as the Blood Pact and, by extension, the Guard. However, they do have a couple of unique features, like a Commissaresque commander called a Scourger and an even better-organized, elite force than the Blood Pact.
- Like the Blood Pact they wear special face masks. Shaped, in their case, like metal hands clasped over their mouths. Also like the Blood Pact there are several companies that make suitable head swaps including: Severed Hand Cultist Heads from Anvil Industries, and Sons of Silence from Mad Robot.
- Vraksian Renegades: Basically the "default" renegade army, as Forge World sold models and provides an army list for them (although it works well enough for most armies). As their name implies, they come from the munitions-storage world of Vraks, where (soon-to-be-Apostate) Cardinal Xaphan decided to secede from the Imperium. He earned the support of the (heavily-armed) populace by telling them that the rest of the Imperium had fallen to Chaos and they were the last untainted humans left. Hey, that sounds familiar! The very small percentage of the population that knew the truth of his fall to Chaos became his enforcers and bodyguards. Of course, this was all Just as Planned by the Alpha Legion, who then threw their support behind the rebellion (hence why they can field Chaos Space Marines as Elites). Also, being from a munitions-storage world, they get access to old-school, super-cool, super-heavies like the Malcador.
- Here is a kickass Vraks renegade squad for some inspiration (7th row, middle column): [2].
- Carnibales: an uprising occurred on the planet Solo-Baston when the Ecclesiarchy (in all their infinite wisdom) started taking the lands away from the natives. Not liking this, the indigenous population was guided by 2 pairs of Blood Gorgons Chaos Space Marines (who are by all accounts awesome.) They saw the opportunity in the natives plight and trained them in guerrilla tactics. They also smuggled advanced weapons from offworld which were then assembled by the rebels. Once the rebellion was in full swing, the Ecclesiarchy hadn't anticipated so many rebels, believing the rebellion to be small. The Carnibales (as they were now known) had managed to capture the planet and executed anyone still loyal to the Imperium. The Imperial Guard eventually came to reclaim the planet but where held off and defeated(!) thanks to the Earthshaker cannon (supersized) the Carnibales captured. After that, the Blood Gorgons added the planet to their growing list of captured planets who enjoy their protection (no sarcasm, they really are not that bad for csm, they love freedom and rebelled against the oppressive Imperium and help others free themselves).
- Given the fact that their name seems to be derived from Spanish and that they use guerrilla tactics, think South American rebels. They also have special leaders called Disciples, who follow the teachings of the Blood Gorgons. They are injected with daemon blood and mutated to superhuman levels of strength. Multiple opportunities for conversions. I suggest using the WHFB Chaos sorcerers as Disciples.
- Carnibales are basically space Taliban. The author who created them, Henry Zou, is an Afghan war vet. Seriously, loose guerrilla army that uses hit and run attacks, hides out in local villages, and receives external support from a clandestine foreign source? That's either Taliban or Mujahideen. Either way, a good look for that sort of force would be just standard dudes in simple clothing with assorted small arms, think of the rebels in the first Predator movie.
- The Vraksian Renegades army list is the best suited for this group. They have the Apostate Preachers and Enforcers that can be modeled to be Disciples. They also use light weight skimmers called spikers and one can use the Vraksian salamander's stats for it. Overall the list has the guerrilla warfare feel of the Carnibales.
- Given their "armed feudal-worlders" background and insurgent guerrilla army influence, kitbashing Tallarn and Catachan infantry kits together would make for some good looking models, just be sure to "Chaos them up" a bit.
- Unfortunately Zou getting fired due to plagiarism means this plotline is dead in the water.
- Brethren of Fire: A Tzeentchian LatD force that arose when the entire PDF of the sepulcher world Tachira went full-on-heretic from the Imperium's failure to stop constant depredations by the Dark Eldar. Led by a Tzeentchian Chaos Lord-in-exile, the newly extra-heretical forces took complete control of the planet and managed to drive Imperial forces off-world before a warp storm enshrouded it. They've since emerged numerous times, seeking slaves and plunder, and backed by a small number of Chaos Marines. Their force organization is based only loosely on the Imperial Guard model, having phased out Imperial Guard recon units in favor of Stalk Tanks and Mutant packs, though they possess production capabilities and considerable heavy armor, including Decimator Super-Heavy Tanks.
- The Ironclad: Mr. Zou also brings another cool army, the Ironclad, a pirate and marauder army which are somehow connected with the Carnibales (we won't spoil you here how, just go read the Bastion Wars trilogy) they are an assault horde oriented force which boasts wheeled light tanks and shock armored infantry, any Warhammer Fantasy model with iron plate armour (hence their name) will work great for them, along with some Tauros Venator and Testudos, of special note is that the setting of The Emperor's Mercy where they appear features a lot of desert geography, so you may mix sand and metallic colours to bring a very nice visual effect, oh, and they are allies with the Blood Gorgons (the guy in the 6th edition CSM book cover is a Blood Gorgon), so this opens the possibility for wonderful ingame alliances.
- Chosen of Nemeroth: While this isn't in fact a true regiment and rather a warband of Chaos Space Marines, it does have its own traitor Guardsmen, all wearing a closed helmet with glowing green light and shooting green beams with the lasguns, suggesting they might have something to do with Nurgle. Why they are in a warband like that is unknown, but might just be there to give the warband some bodies. Their main strategy is to drown the enemy in grenades and agro the shit out of them so the real deal can aim their plasma cannon properly. They are absolute pushovers in melee combat and will always try and keep themselves away from the fray, but good lord do you need to get close to them anyway - In comparison to other enemies in the game. they are small and nimble as fuck, so shooting them can be risky and generally wasted business.
- Prospero Spireguard: The Thousand Sons's very own Guard regiment. Though how many of them survived after the razing of Prospero, and whether the descendants of the Prospero dudes saved by Magnus by being teleported to the Planet of Sorcerers remains to be debated (quite possibly all of them have mutated into Tzaangors by now), it is still likely that certain Thousand Sons Warbands continue to preserve a successor regiment to the Prospero Spireguard. After all, in The War of the Fang, the Thousand Sons spent centuries, if not millennia, preparing for an assault on Fenris by recruiting 2 million Guardsmen and their assorted APCs, tanks and artillery to their cause, thus rebuilding the Spireguard entirely from scratch. Of course, the problem was that after Magnus got banished back into the Warp when the Space Wolves unfairly and despicably ganged up on him one after the other (even the ancient Bjorn was no match for Magnus), the Thousand Sons vanished back to the Planet of Sorcerers and left all their mortal troops behind. The abandoned Spireguard were massacred by the vengeful Space Wolves. BUT there's nothing that says that the Thousand Sons never recruited fresh meat for new Spireguard regiments after that, and despite the focus on Tzaangors (for now), it is possible that a Warband or two continued to rebuild the Spireguard regiments. Well, the sky's the limit so use your imagination and craft your own narrative!
- 666th Regiment of Foot: A traitor regiment that took part in the Eye of Terror Campaign, fighting under Abaddon's orders in Cadia before it's untimely demise. Also funnily named like an 18th-century British infantry regiment.
- Servants of the Abyss: A breakaway unit from the Black Legion, the Servants are similar to the Chosen of Nemeroth in that it is not traitor regiment but rather a space marine warband that has a significant number of renegade guardsmen. Featured in Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress.
- Grendish 82nd: A traitor regiment that is featured in Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, specifically the Traitor Command expansion.
- The Sighted: Some new kids on the block brought to us by Rachel Harrison's Severina Raine series. These guys appear to be a Tzeentch worshipping chaos cult operating out of the Bale Stars region. Lead by a cabal of nine rogue psykers. The Sighted are identifiable by their carrying of glass shards and colored feathers, as well as the occasional removal of eyes. One of their nine leaders was actually a rogue tech priest who used reprogrammed battle automata and homemade servitors that had mirrors for faces.
- Infardi: Another chaos cult from the Sabbat Worlds. This one was active primarily on the shrineworld of Hagia, the birthplace of Saint Sabbat. The name Infardi comes from a local word for pilgrim, which they chose for themselves in mockery of the Ecclesiarchy. Show up in the Gaunt's Ghosts book Honour Guard. Known for wearing green robes, covering themselves in tattoos, and having lots and lots of tanks.
- Moebian Sixth: A Nurgle-worshipping traitor regiment that plays the baddies in Darktide. Originally from the hiveworld of Atoma Prime, they were the most decorated of the Moebian regiments serving in the 'Fringe War' on the edge of the Moebian Domain. Until decades of too-long tours fighting the forces of Chaos led to widespread PTSD and Warp-taint. Now, they've come home to Hive Tertium to spread the Good Word. Wear all black with the occasional patch of yellow hazard-striping (Iron Warriors-style) and have a fondness for night vision goggles (especially ones that have three lenses arranged in a triangle). Look like Fallout ghouls under their rebreathers.
- Blooded: A cult of 'Militarum Traitoris' warbands from the Kill Team: Moroch box set. Comprised of chaos worshipping cells that infiltrated the Guard garrison on Moroch, they seek to compromise the planetary defenses and prepare the way for the coming Chaos fleet to take control of the Nachmund Gauntlet. Not exactly the most original cult out there.
More regiments coming soon.
Realm Of Chaos The Lost And The Damned[edit]
(1st Edition 1990 Hardcover)
I don’t know if this is the right place but i must warn you about this book:
It has some disturbing content before WH40K became more mainstream.
It contains lists, rules, arcane rituals and short storys from authors or other sources that i hope i will never meet.
If you hear voices while reading this, try to ignore them.
I failed to destroy or throw away this book. It was always back on my bookshelf the next day.
My hope to stop this is to send it to someone else.
My advice is to store this in a safe that is locked forever or kill it with fire.
NEVER look at the decorations surrounding each page
See Also[edit]
Playable Factions in Warhammer 40,000 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Imperium: | AdMech: | Adeptus Mechanicus - Mechanicus Knights | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Army: | Imperial Guard - Imperial Knights - Imperial Navy - Militarum Tempestus - Space Marines | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Inquisition: | Inquisition - Sisters of Battle - Deathwatch - Grey Knights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Other: | Adeptus Custodes - Adeptus Ministorum - Death Cults - Officio Assassinorum - Sisters of Silence | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chaos: | Chaos Daemons - Chaos Space Marines - Lost and the Damned - Chaos Knights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Xenos: | Aeldari: | Dark Eldar - Eldar - Eldar Corsairs - Harlequins - Ynnari | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tyranids: | Genestealer Cults - Tyranids | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Others: | Necrons - Orks - Tau - Leagues of Votann |
Gallery[edit]
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A company of Traitor Guardsmen. But you probably wouldn't have been able to tell from afar huh?.