Chaos on the ebb

The original Warhammer world was “destroyed” in 2015. The Warhammer: The Game of Fantasy Battles changed forever when Games Workshop (though they said Archaon was responsible) destroyed the world.

Warhammer

Of course we know now that the Old World in Warhammer is coming back.

Reading the most recent Old World Development Diary entry, The Main Factions Revealed we found out what the core factions will be in the game.

List of core factions

I quite like the fact that Chaos is almost non-existent in this era.

The battles of Warhammer: the Old World take place in the decades immediately before the Siege of Praag.

This means that Chaos is not as strong as it was in previous incarnations of Warhammer.

Chaos Daemons have existed in the past and will again, but there is an ebb and flow to the power of Chaos – in our period Chaos is at its lowest ebb in a long time.

You can still play Chaos if you want, but I like the fact that the focus is on the core factions.

Chaos Great Unclean One at Warhammer World

The Great Unclean Ones are Nurgle’s mightiest daemons. Towering over their enemies, these living hillocks of rotting flesh lumber across the battlefield swinging their rusted weapons, vomiting streams of filth and unleashing diseased magics upon the foe.

These Chaos Great Unclean One models were on display at Warhammer World

Great Unclean Ones are terrifying when roused to wrath, wading through enemy ranks, crushing foes beneath their bulk and pulping survivors with their enormous swords and flails.

Some toll rusted summoning bells to draw forth fresh daemons, while others unleash terrible outbreaks of magical plague.

Forge World Chaos Brass Scorpion of Khorne

The Brass Scorpion is a Daemon manifesting as a machine, these formidable daemon engines of the Blood God Khorne wreak havoc upon the battlefield.

The superb Forge World version of the Brass Scorpion on display at Warhammer World in a diorama.

This is one of my all time favourite models from Forge World.

Brass Scorpion Miniatures Gallery

Assault on Zybos

The industrial world of Zybos has fallen to the Black Legion. Now it’s massive foundries produce countless foul Daemon Engines.

The Imperial Fists have declared that they will purge this corrupted world and destroy all traces of these hideous creations.

This diorama was originally built for the Warhammer 40000 Apocalypse Book and featured Ultramarines.

When it was moved to Warhammer World, it was extended by the team and the Ultramarines replaced by the Imperial Fists.

Forge World Brass Scorpion

The Brass Scorpion is a Daemon manifesting as a machine, these formidable daemon engines of the Blood God Khorne wreak havoc upon the battlefield.

The superb Forge World version of the Brass Scorpion on display at Warhammer World.

Forge World Brass Scorpion

This is one of my all time favourite models from Forge World. I seem to be in the minority as I really quite like this model, and if you read this blog I am not a fan of Chaos one bit!

The Brass Scorpion is a terrifying daemonic engine of destruction dedicated to the Chaos God Khorne, Lord of Slaughter. This nightmarish construct, as much hell-spawned beast as war machine, it storms across the battlefield like a monstrous predator hunting and killing. Its huge claws are capable of shredding armour with ease and its firepower laying waste to swathes of enemy infantry. Even in destruction the foes of Chaos have learned to fear this unholy war machine, as its infernally-charged reactor erupts to scorch the battlefield with the fury of its death-throws.

The Brass Scorpion of Khorne is a fantastically impressive resin model designed by Daren Parrwood and this model was  painted by Mark Bedford. I love the paint job on this model, the combination of glossy red and brass details really makes this model both impressive and threatening.

Brass Scorpion Miniatures Gallery

Chaos Great Unclean One

The Great Unclean Ones are Nurgle’s mightiest daemons. Towering over their enemies, these living hillocks of rotting flesh lumber across the battlefield swinging their rusted weapons, vomiting streams of filth and unleashing diseased magics upon the foe. Great Unclean Ones are terrifying when roused to wrath, wading through enemy ranks, crushing foes beneath their bulk and pulping survivors with their enormous swords and flails. Some toll rusted summoning bells to draw forth fresh daemons, while others unleash terrible outbreaks of magical plague.

Great Unclean One

From the displays at Warhammer World.

Kharybdis Assault Claw

Employed by many Legions as their primary ship-to-ship assault craft, the Kharybdis is a monstrous drop pod capable of carrying large assault forces through the void and mounting significant firepower to blast a path through defending small craft.

This Kharybdis Assault Claw was part of a diorama at Warhammer World.

Legion Kharybdis Assault Claw
Legion Kharybdis Assault Claw

As a fully operational dropship, Kharybdis assault claws also serve as orbit-to-surface transports, a role that allows them to use the firepower of their storm launchers and melta cutters to scour clean their chosen landing zone before disembarking their deadly cargo.

Some aggressive commanders employ the Kharybdis as an effective tank hunter, ramming enemy armour in daring low-altitude attack runs.

Nurgle fortress at Warhammer World

This incredible Nurgle fortress was on display at Warhammer World.

It includes this Great Unclean One. They are the Greater Daemons of Nurgle. In form they are massive and bloated with disease and decay, and their necrotic and boil-covered flesh is rent, where their organs spill out, hanging across their huge girth.

Great Unclean Ones can endure tremendous amounts of damage before being felled. Many opponents cannot stomach to look at a Great Unclean One, let alone fight one.

Thousand Sons Legion Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought

This Thousand Sons Legion Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought was in the display cabinets at Warhammer World.

Contemptor Dreadnought
Thousand Sons Legion Osiron Pattern Contemptor Dreadnought

For many decades, the arts by which the powers of a psyker could be maintained medically into the half-life of Dreadnought sarcophagus internment eluded the Thousand Sons, just as it had many others of the Legiones Astartes who attempted the task. It was not until the mind of Magnus itself was focused on the issue, which he saw as part of the wider Librarius Project to establish firmly the place of the psyker within the Legiones Astartes, that a solution, albeit a difficult one, was created.

The use of a crowning psychometric barrier lattice for the living brain of the mortally wounded psyker was his answer, a device he named the ‘Osiron’. Difficult to construct and using principles few even among the Imperium’s foremost psi-arcanists understood, the Thousand Sons immediately began fitting it to the highly adaptable Contemptor Dreadnought chassis in their possession with startlingly powerful results.

Chaos Vindicator

The Vindicator has been in use by Imperial forces since the Great Crusade, and it has hardly changed since those turbulent days so long ago. The Space Marine Legions that sided with the corrupted Warmaster and Primarch of the Luna Wolves, Horus Lupercal, used their Vindicators against the Loyalist forces of the Emperor during the Horus Heresy. After the Horus Heresy ended in a pyrrhic victory for the Emperor’s Loyalists, the Traitors fled into the Eye of Terror, and luckily the number of Vindicators they still have in their possession is quite low in the late 41st Millennium, due to the Traitor Legions’ inability to easily replace their losses.

This Chaos Vindicator was part of a large display at Warhammer World.

Chaos Vindicator

The Vindicator is an Imperial siege tank based on the Rhino chassis used by many Space Marine Chapters that boasts the most powerful weapon of its type in the Adeptus Astartes’ standard armoury, the Demolisher Cannon. It is highly valued and can only be issued to company officers whose units have been tasked with a specific tactical requirement. Though short-ranged, the Vindicator’s Demolisher Cannon is capable of destroying enemy armour and fortifications in a single shot.

Games Workshop have had a Vindicator model in their ranges for many years now. Originally a conversion article in White Dwarf back in 1989, it was followed up some years later with a Forge World resin conversion kit of the then new plastic rhino.

Modelling Workshop Page for the Space Marine Vindicator

In 2007 Games Workshop released a new plastic Vindicator. Not to be outdone, in 2013 Forge World released the Demios Pattern Vindicator.

Legion Deimos Pattern Vindicator

A nostalgic throwback to the original plastic conversion from 1989, this is obviously a lot more detailed and sophisticated model.

The Vindicator has a long history in Games Workshop and the many variations providing an interesting insight to the design and development of Games Workshop as a whole. From the early days of simple conversions, to Forge World conversion kits, a detailed plastic kit and then a retro throwback.