Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – Chaos Spawn
Today’s Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – the Chaos Spawn. It is such a weird old model, and while it is useful it really feels like – it’s a bit dull and flat. Let’s fix that.
I remember the Chaos Spawn kit when it first came out. A completely customizable plastic kit – it came out alongside the CSM Possessed kit from back in the day. You had a ton of gross options, it gave you a ton of bits to mess with for other projects, and it used to come on a Terminator sized base. Flash forward a few years later, a base size change, and a big increase in cost, all still in the same kit we have had for years. This weird little gross Chaos follower that got too close to the Daemonic sun.
The model is sorta useful in the armies who can access it. Usually, as an extra choice to hold objectives, grab some coffee for their friends, and maybe dying for Khorne. Overall Chaos Spawn are just sorta there – farting around and being annoying. Why not make them actually scary?
These are things that got too close to the Warp and got overloaded with power. Why not let some become – greater spawn – who could do all kinds of neat stuff? Let them be more than the butt of many a Chaos Lords joke. Let’s see if we can make them truly of Chaos.
Give Chaos Spawn Marks!
These guys should definitely have Marks of Chaos. They put too much faith into the Gods of the Warp and now they are so infused with power. So why not let them have Marks that could lead into other things. Those given to Khorne are crazy murder machines and have different things they can do. Heck, let’s just make all the random nature of their attacks based on the Marks and get wild with it.
Khorne!
Let’s let them give out Auras of violence as they drive those around with their Chaos Energies. You could do things like Exploding 6’s, ways to ignore pain, or other fun things. Let them act like mini Altars to Khorne and do fun things.
Tzeentch!
Hey this one could easily just be something that makes spell casting better. Having someone close to the warp nearby can help power up your Psychic might. This could also be a way to help your units, just by bringing the Warp near and letting it go crazy.
Nurgle!
Another easy one that brings the plagues borne within its creepy appendages. You could just let it spit out an Aura that helps chain Diseases amongst all of Nurgle followers. Their mindless gibberish helps drone out the enemy in waves of death.
Slaanesh!
This could be a creepy unit that flows between the battle driven by the pain those inflict. It would do things like pass on combat auras like -1 to hit for the enemy and +1 to hit for your buddies due to the sheer power of the allure of Slaanesh. These should be “worshipped” by their followers as the closest to their gods.
Undivided!
The sight of things guys should do things like help with leadership, give rerolls to charges, and other fun options for the game. I love the idea of benefit-generating units that don’t have to be badasses in combat. Having weird Spawn do this could be really cool.
Remove Some of the Random Nature
By going into things based on Marks you could remove some of the unit’s random nature. At times it is frustrating as you have to roll to see what they do when, they should just do stuff reliably. Give them their random attacks but no longer have their powers that have to suffer thru the whims of a d3. Instead, just lock it in place and let the player decide based on how they build it out with Marks and choices at the beginning of the game.
Make the Chaos Spawn Boxed Set Make Sense
Have the Chaos Spawn unit size be a 1-2 option. This way, you could make the boxed set – kind of make sense. The unit currently is 1-5 which is a really odd way to have a model set up in the current game of 40K. If you move it to where they are almost like weird special characters – it gets a lot more interesting. Becoming a Spawn and somehow being alive enough to be used should be special and important enough for the army to carry around. It also makes this dang boxed set an interesting purchase instead of you trying to find another option to get a unit of 3+.
Unique Units Create Neat Interactions
Chaos can be a lot of things and I love the idea that their “choice” to follow the gods in turn follows them. It can benefit them in interesting ways beyond just making them badass in combat. Having the Chaos Spawn be more than just objective holders or wound sponges is a great way to give something else unique to the game that isn’t a psychic badass or some dude who carries the sickest sword into a laser fight.
I pledged my loyalty to Chaos and all I got was this T-Shirt?
