We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

While in Warhammer 40k ALL FACTIONS ARE BAD, the Chaos are the bad of the bad. The Sisters of Battle may have literal angels who play on their part, but Chaos is literal daemons. Where Space Marines may get out of hand and kill innocents, Khorne is so aggressive for blood that his lieutenant Kharn the Betrayer will literally slaughter his own World Eaters just because he’s so anxious to kill and maim and destroy–more blood for the blood god. Getting started in Chaos is fun.

It was the forces of Chaos that led Horus to turn against the Emperor, and it was the forces of Chaos that worked their evil ways on the rest of the traitor legions to get them to join forces with Horus (some were more eager than others).

Getting Started in Chaos

The Daemons of Chaos

The Chaos Gods armies are:

Khorne, the Blood God, and the Daemons of Khorne

He is followed by the World Eaters. It is rumored (and I am hoping) that they will soon see a release for the World Eaters that will even bring back Angron as a Daemon Prince, like Magnus the Red and Mortarion are. Crossing my fingers for that. (You can find my article about that here.)

Nurgle, the Plague God. Nurgle gets a lot of love from players and that’s justifiable. The models are simply too much fun not to paint at least once. With the gaping maws in their stomach to the weird protuberances growing from their backs to the pus-filled boils that cover every inch of them, the Plague Marines are just gooey–in a delightful way.

Tzeentch, the God of Change, is the hardest one for me to wrap my head around, because you don’t necessarily conflate “change” with “chaos” but change it is. His minions are covered in extra limbs and extra heads, and Tzeentch followers, above all others, are deep into sorcery and magic. The Thousand Sons are some of the best sculpts to come out of Games Workshop, and they’re just a delight.

Slaanesh, the God of Excess. For a long time, Games Workshop really played up the fact that “excess = lust” and loved to parade around half-naked women as their daemonettes, but it’s nice to see that they’re branching out from that, into things like gluttony and avarice. There are a lot of benefits to getting started in Chaos.

What Book Do I Need to Play as the Chaos Daemons?

There is the Codex: Chaos Daemons which covers all of them–and note that this is explicitly for the Chaos Daemons, not for the traitor Chaos Space Marines who serve the gods of Chaos.

What Models Are There For the Armies of Chaos?

There aren’t really very many recent sculpts, to be honest, and if I cared more about Chaos Daemons (which I don’t) I would probably be bummed about that. I absolutely love what has been done with the Chaos Space Marines, the Death Guard, and the Thousand Sons, but when it comes to straight Chaos Daemons, it’s a big meh from me. (Also, you’ll note in my article about the best and worst value of Start Collecting boxes that the Chaos Daemons are definitely in the Worst category.)

Still, there are options. The Daemons of Tzeentch Start Collecting box has a Burning Chariot of Tzeentch, 3 Flamers of Tzeentch, 3 Screamers of Tzeentch, and 10 Pink Horrors. (Buy from Amazon) The Start Collecting Daemons of Slaanesh box has an Exalted Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh with 4 claw-armed Daemonettes, plus a set of 5 seekers of Slaanesh, and 10 Daemonettes of Slaanesh. (Buy from Amazon) The Daemons of Khorne Start Collecting box has a Herald on Blood Throne, 3 Bloodcrushers, and 10 Bloodletters. (Buy from Amazon) Nurgle currently has no Start Collecting box (but he does have lots of little Nurglings which are fun to add to any army.)

Getting Started in Chaos Space Marines

The Chaos Space Marines are necessarily as varied as the Space Marines themselves. While they all have named Legions and presumably successor legions, there isn’t a lot to differentiate an Alpha Legion from a Black Legion other than the color of their armor–they’re not like the Space Marines who each have their own codices.

Still, the Chaos Space Marines are very unique in their corruption of everything Space Marine. It would be easy to have simply spiky versions of Space Marines (and that’s kind of what Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Terminators are) they also have some remarkably fun and flavorful units that give them a style all their own. For example, all of their vehicles (well, most of their vehicles) are some kind of weird half-machine half-daemon engine. And they have some units that simply have no crossover identity with the Space Marines at all–like the Obliterators.

What Books Are There for Chaos Space Marines?

They have a Codex: Chaos Space Marine, but it is out of date and there is a major glaring problem in it that has all Chaos Space Marines upset: Space Marines now have two wounds while Chaos Space Marines only have one. It seems like everyone playing Warhammer 40k is counting down the days until Chaos Space Marines will get their extra wound, but it just hasn’t come.

What Models Are Available for Chaos Space Marines?

As mentioned, there are a lot of models available to the Chaos Space Marines, some of which are oldies-but-goodies, like the Chaos Terminators (Buy from Amazon), while others are relatively new Fabius Bile (Buy from Amazon) and the Dark Apostle (Buy from Amazon). Remarkably, one of the best places to get good and unique Chaos Space Marine units is from the Start Collecting box, where you can get units (like the Venomcrawler and the Possessed) that you simply can’t find anywhere outside of the box (and–spoiler alert–in my article about the best and worst value, they’re the very best). (Buy from Amazon.)

Getting Started in Thousand Sons

If there is a Warhammer 40k faction that will give the Grey Knights a run for their money during the Psychic Phase, it’s the Thousand Sons. Magnus the Red was always a visionary psyker, to the point where he, during the Siege of Terra, appeared before the Emperor–only to get kicked out, which was the tipping point in turning him to Chaos.

What Book Do You Need for the Thousand Sons?

The Thousand Sons have a Codex: Thousand Sons dedicated to themselves and while it’s not the thickest, it’s definitely got some good stuff in there. It’s hard to say: Thousand Sons are weak in the meta right now–but meta changes with the wind, so I always say you shouldn’t make decisions about what army you collect on the current meta.

What Models Are There for the Thousand Sons?

The Thousand Sons Rubric Marines are some of the best looking models in the game (Buy on Amazon), including, of course, the Scarab Occult Terminators (Buy on Amazon). Even these, the most Chaos Space Marineish of the Thousand Sons, still are led by and use Psychic abilities. But there are a lot more to the Thousand Sons than the Rubric Marines–Ahriman on his floating disk, Tzaangors by the dozens, and whatever the Mutalith Vortex Beast is. And, of course, you can field a Primarch: Magnus the Red may not be the best in the meta right now, but he looks great on the tabletop. (Buy on Amazon.)

They also have a Start Collecting Thousand Sons box which contains 1 Infernal Master, 5 Scarab Occult Terminators, and 20 Tzaangors. Personally, I think this is one of the weakest Start Collecting boxes there are, but if you need a lot of Tzaangors you could do worse.

Getting Started in the Death Guard

The Death Guard are just impure, filthy fun. Everyone of their models has been blessed by Papa Nurgle, and as such they not only are wholly infected and diseased (which gives them benefits to defense because it’s hard to kill something that is already full of wounds–Disgustingly Resilent). Probably every Warhammer 40k player has at least dabbled with the Death Guard because they are simply so much fun to paint, and even if they weren’t getting started in Chaos, they were having fun with some models.

What Books Do You Need for the Death Guard?

There is the Codex: Death Guard, and it probably won’t see an upgrade anytime soon. Death Guard are one of the most popular armies, and as such they have had a continual stream of models released for them over the last few years–and a Codex to match. All of the sculpts are relatively new, and they all look great.

What Models Are There for Death Guard?

Well, where to start. My personal favorite Death Guard model is Mortarion, who has the benefit of being both a delight to paint but also really good in gameplay (Buy on Amazon). Poxwalkers are one of the strongest units in the game right now if you want to paint a horde of grotesque zombies (Buy on Amazon). But the Blightlord Terminators (Based on Amazon) and just the standard Plague Marines are tons of fun, too. (Buy on Amazon)

Getting Started in Chaos Knights

You know how I said that some of the Chaos Space Marines were just regular Space Marines with spikes on them? That’s pretty much how things go for the Chaos Knights. They are really remarkable models and the spikes and chains (and impaled heads) look really good, but they’re essentially a mirror image of the Imperial Knights.

What Book Do I Need for the Chaos Knights?

There is the Codex: Chaos Knights, which is pretty limited with its 5 datasheets (but really: how many Knights do you need?) There is also the Psychic Awakening: Engine War book which adds a lot of flavor and some additional powers to the Chaos Knights.

What Models Are There for the Chaos Knights?

There are several, but the two that look the best (and by best I mean most corrupted and filthy) are the Knight Desecrator and the Knight Rampager (Buy on Amazon). (You can build them both from the same kit.) Either way, there are worse ways of getting started in Chaos.