Following an earlier announcement that Warhammer 40k Noise Marines and Lucius the Eternal would not feature in the upcoming Chaos Space Marines Codex, Games Workshop has released a free Index with their rules. But if you already have the Index Cards for the Chaos Space Marines, you needn’t download these new rules – they’re almost entirely unchanged.
The Chaos Space Marines latest Warhammer 40k Codex releases this Saturday, and GW confirmed back on April 16 that the Slaanesh-worshipping Emperor’s Children would not be part of it. GW confirmed at the time that a new Index was coming for the Emperor’s Children – that was finally uploaded this Tuesday.
The unit stats for both the Noise Marines and Lucius the Eternal in the new Index – which you can download from the GW site via this link – remain the same. Noise Marines are still a variant of Chaos Legionnaires with weird, sonic weapons and the ability to force Battle-shock tests on the units they shoot with them. Lucius the Eternal remains an excellent character killer, with the weapon ability Precision, and a Leader who grants his whole unit Strikes First.
Both Lucius and his loud buddies have replaced their ‘Heretic Astartes’ faction keyword with the ‘Emperor’s Children’ faction keyword. Games Workshop’s post from April 16 notes that normal Chaos Space Marine forces “can still recruit Noise Marines of their own”, presumably on the same basis that they can currently recruit Khorne Berzerkers, Plague Marines, and Rubric Marines – up to one unit of specialist marines per army.
The Army Rules card in this new micro-Index allows you to field a dedicated Emperor’s Children army. Functionally, this is a Chaos Space Marines army, using the Dark Pacts Army rule, and with access to all the usual 40k Detachments. Such a force may not contain any units pledged to the 40k Chaos gods Nurgle, Khorne, or Tzeentch, and any unit that has a choice to gain the Slaanesh keyword must take it. The army must contain Lucius the Eternal, and he must be the Warlord.
All told, it’s the bare minimum required to keep Emperor’s Children playable in 40k now they’re out of the Chaos Codex. If you want to use multiple units of Noise Marines, you’re stuck with Lucius as a general. Without a dedicated modern models range, Emperor’s Children aren’t the most common custom Chaos army – but, as Tabletop Tactics’ video above shows, the people who love them really love them.
We think it’s dead certain that Emperor’s Children will receive a standalone Codex this edition. It’s hardly a bold guess on our part – Games Workshop has released a new Chaos-god-specific Warhammer 40k faction in each of the previous three editions of the game. Separating the Emperor’s Children at this stage ensures the main Chaos Space Marine Codex won’t need errata when the Emperor’s Children Codex comes out.
Until that happens, we’ll have to wait in dread anticipation, and maybe get in more practice painting miniatures pink. Whenever the 40k model for Fulgrim finally does come out, it’s going to be a beast – check out the Horus Heresy Daemon Primarch Fulgrim model to get an idea of what to expect.