Tuesday, March 29, 2011

What Should be in a Sons of Malice Themed Army?

I would like some help to attempt to answer the question of what units from Codex: Chaos Space Marines would be suitable for use in a Sons of Malice themed army in today's post.
As with many other people in the hobby, I recognise the Sons of Malice as Malal's own chapter. In brief, Malal is the renegade chaos entity who opposes the other big four. Hence immediately, to build a Sons of Malal themed army, I reckon it is safe to rule out all those models who possess the mark of the big four. Explicitly: that immediately rules out plague marines, rubric marines, bezerkers, and noise marines. But what of the other entries in Codex: Chaos Space Marines?

Although we wouldn't be able to take any named characters as is, there may be the potential to use some of them in a different guise based on effects.  For instance, Abaddon could be a cool one to use with his daemon blade (i.e. a trapped daemon of a different god) and his combat ability.  Indeed, I plan to use my earlier conversion as a Sons of Malice character.  But would any other be good?  Fabius Bile could potentially be used as as I'm fairly certain that he didn't fall to Slaanesh like the rest of the Emperor's Children.

In terms of other units, dreadnoughts seem okay, as do the vehicle entries in general, alongside the usual marines, terminators and havocs. 

What do other people think should be in a Sons of Malice themed army?

10 comments:

Bix said...

Yeah you're right, ol Fabius is for hire and is classed as Chaos undivided; I think he'll work for anyone who can keep him in a fresh supply of test subjects.

You could also think about naming that daemon weapon a Dreadaxe. In fact I’m sure I've seen a 40k conversion of Kaleb Daark around somewhere, maybe B&C a long time ago.

jabberjabber said...

The good old Dreadaxe! Thanks for reminding me about that one!

Farmer Geddon said...

Ummm... In my opinion...

But, long story short, as long as you've got some imaginative modelling and justification I reckon anything goes. Bezerkers with headswaps to look less Khorny is something I'm thinking about. Noise marines I've got a few of the old guitar guys - I feel some kiss makeup coming on!
Deamon princes - I'm going angel/demon, but any model would do, as he's a God right?
Nurgle and Tzeench might be hard, but I'm sure you could come up with something.
The fluff of the SoM allows you to be pre excommunicatus or post, good or bad...

jabberjabber said...

Very true, Geddon.
Thanks for writing the opinion piece on your blog as well -- it was a great read!

Grendel said...

Does Malal and his followers subdue lesser daemons belonging to the Big 4 and make them 'shades' sorta speak? I could be getting my fluff mixed, but a unit of varying daemon-type individuals all 'grayed' up could fit. Also, a 'enslaved' defiler would look good.

-Grendel

jabberjabber said...

That's a neat idea Grendel! Cheers!

Porky said...

I wrote something on Malal this week too, here. I was thinking about what the god might be based on an unrelated picture, and it set me thinking more about Malal as a reflection of the other gods.

If so, armies fighting in his name might be a fusion of the forces of the famous four, not in the sense of a hodge-podge, but rather with a single unit having multiple traits usually associated with the others, and maybe slightly more powerful as a result.

Not very practical I know, given I can't think of any ready-made candidates in the codex, but counts as is always an option. I cobbled together a rough and unusual lesser daemon profile in my post, but that kind of thing's not going to be possible for most opponents, even if you can get it to a point where it looks balanced.

Interesting ideas here though, and some good discussion. If we do finally get Squats/Demiurg in some form, Malal can't be far behind. I'd welcome a fifth faction. I'm not sure Chaos is really Chaotic enough at the moment.

jabberjabber said...

Thanks for the link and thoughts, Porky -- Cheers!

Unknown said...

I've been a fan of the 40k universe for a while now, though I only started playing recently. When I first got the Know No Fear starter set and the Plague Lord, I took a single glance at his weapon and my very first thought was of Dreadaxe. Taking a look at the stats of the creatures in the book, I couldn't help but think that a lot of it- with heavy reflavoring, mind you- could easily represent the Renegade God's servants. A few black, white, and silver paints later, I find myself with no regrets.

Unknown said...

Sons Of Malice have been reported to have bound and chastised lesser daemons, sometimes bloodletters, sometimes plaguebearers. Oh also there was a Dreadaxe available in the Chaos Wargear in recent Chaos Codex editions. In general with Malice you get all the benefits of a Chaos Undivided army. If there was to be anything in the future for Malice forces, I am surprised there is a lack of daemons playable as Undivided or as such (vanilla so to say). Malice or Malal or "Malalice" as I say, due to the anarchistic tendencies gets to pick and choose what it wants (like Undivided). Idealistically, a Mark of Malice would cause hatred for Chaos and Imperial enemies alike (if GW included more for the renegade god)

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