Sunday, April 8, 2012

Chaos Spawn Hopes

With the new chaos marine codex around the corner, I thought I would write a little missive about some hopes for chaos spawn.  You remember chaos spawn, right?  They're what most followers of chaos are likely to become if they spend too much time receiving "gifts" from the chaos gods or too much time spent in the warpier regions of space.

When the plastic chaos spawn models came out, I bought a pair of them -- although the torsos and legs of the models aren't brilliant (and don't have many choices!), the arms, heads and rest of the wibbly bits excited me!  Indeed, they're incredibly useful for creating conversions and there's still a good number of bits in my bits box from them that I have plans for.

But, I've only ever fielded them when I wanted to make an "obvious concession" (not that almost the whole of the 2007 chaos codex is not an obvious concession by now!).  The apocalypse formation that turns 10 marines in to 10 spawn was also exciting ... but somehow not good enough to tempt me in the purchasing any more.

So, what are my hopes for the new codex that could tempt me to buy more?  

Most obviously, chaos spawn need a saving throw.  Contrary to every opponent's expectations that I've ever fielded a spawn against, they don't have a save!  That change alone would be sufficient to make me consider fielding them more often.  Add in a spawn handler or two (with a good old spawn goad - much like in Realms of Chaos) and that'd make a very interesting unit that would be tempting to field.  If they are fielded in units, perhaps some kind of ranged (random?) attack might be nice to have, but not essential. Some purchasable upgrades would also be cute to have -- in particular, having access to chaos marks would make the spawn much more authentic and in line with the old background.  Although all spawn are different, a unit of them could be handled in much the same way as possessed marines -- some base line statistics and (like the old chaos marine codex) optional upgrades.  

Well, its a long shot, but that covers the base line hopes for the much over-looked and maligned chaos spawn.

2 comments:

Thor said...

The kit is great and I'd also like to see these guys get some use. For me the biggest draw back is the slow & purposeful rule. I can handle everything else about them if I knew I could move 6" and charge 12", being 'bests' and all. Instead now you could move 1" and charge 2" if the dice gods crap on you.

jabberjabber said...

Hi Thor -
Agreed! I think this is where the spawn goad would come in. Assuming the "handler" was still alive, then I would suggest that the use of a spawn goad would circumvent the slow and purposeful rule (in an analogous way to how a Tzeentch sorcerer rules a squad of rubric marines).

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