Age of Sigmar & Warhammer: 1988’s Original ‘Warriors of Chaos’
With a newly revitalized Slaves to Darkness coming to AoS 4.0, it’s time to turn back the clock decades. The mighty Champions of the Ruinous Powers had humble, metal beginnings.
Chaos has been part of Warhammer for a very, very long time. You can go all the way back to 1986’s Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay to see early incarnations of the Chaos Pantheon and its followers who were a bit different than what we have now. By the time of 1988’s dual Realms of Chaos hardbacks- it had started to get fleshed out, with the four major powers in place and lots of new metal miniatures available, for you to declare war on The Old World.
Fast forward more than three decades to today and it’s easy to take the intricate and amazing mortal followers of Chaos for granted. We are overwhelmed with crazy insane quality like the Slaves to Darkness, Varangard, and many, many more. Just look at the recent arrivals headed to the Age of Sigmar, such as Eternus, new Darkoath, and all the hulking armored brutes we love to hate!
Varanguard – CHARGE!
One day we shall get heavy armor – maybe!
Will kill for Chaos; also paintless dent repair services!
“Dont tell the Orks I stole my mount from Ghur.”
Archaon says CHARGE!
Your puny horse is lame compared to his.
Back to the Chaos Wastes of the 1980s
Now let’s go back to the 1988 Citadel Catalog and take a look and the minis that first walked the path of Chaos that got us to where we are today. Prepare yourselves for the Chaotic horrors of the days of yore.
Chaos Thugs
Everyone has to start somewhere. These Chaos Thugs threw off the yoke of civilization in the Old World and never looked back. Many of these have the really old school “shields with a hole” design from GW, along with a bevy of mutations. #17 walked right out of the Road Warrior, #18 has been been visiting the hair stylists of the
original 40K Dark
Eldar, and #2 is just lost. #7 didn’t make it that far.
Chaos Warriors
Welcome to the real killers – the Chaos Warriors themselves. The very early design hallmarks are all there. Heavy armor, horns, and oversized weapons. There wasn’t much god-specific detailing on these early models, but GW hid some subtle icons here and there. Note the Khorne rune on the axe of #8.
We are starting to get some more variety with this bunch. Asian armor styling on #6, running poses for #4 and look at #11 – I hear he hacked his way into the Mortal Realms…
Champions of Chaos
Chaos Warriors need leaders, and the Champions are where the real detail and variety are. These are all clearly aligned with a specific chaos power and many of these minis shouldered on for decades in the GW online store. Tzeentch has his own page of champions, but the other three gods all got a handful of wonderful detail. #2′ is classic Nurgle for years and years. #16 is creepy as hell, #17 is REALLY happy, and Slaanesh’s #11 is ready for a battle AND the afterparty.
Tzeentch has the really mutated champions, as you would expect from the Lord of Change. You get headless Horror based ones, Bird and Moon themed ones, and even some based on early 40K Chaos Marines.
After 30 years Slambo (#11 way up there) even hacked his way into the Mortal Realms. I have a funny feeling he may not be the last…
~Which minis up there should be brought back into the Age of Sigmar 4.0?
