Many, many years ago, I was inspired by Gav Thorpe’s classic novel Angels of Darkness (and the classic Cypher rules in the older Chaos codices) to put together a Fallen Angels army.
I actually brought this out on my very first trip to Fortress Kasteli for some Crete gaming many years ago now! I’ve never actually finished putting the army together or painted it, which is a shame, as I think it’ll look awesome.
With bits from the Dark Vengeance set, I think I’m finally at a point to get this sorted and onto the field! Here’s a 1000pt list based on the models I have completed (or are snap fit from Dark Vengeance, so no complex assembly or posing!)
Chaos Lord (DA Captain from DV, combi-plasma, powersword, veterans) – 95pts
Chosen – 5 man squad – 3 plasma guns, power weapon, power weapon and plasma pistol for champion, rhino with havoc launcher, icon of vengeance, veterans) – 252pts
Chaos Space Marines – 5 man squad, plasma pistol and power fist for champion, plasma gun, veterans – 135 pts
Chaos Space Marines – 5 man squad, plasma pistol and power fist for champion, plasma gun, veterans – 135 pts
Chaos Space Marines – 5 man squad, plasma pistol and chainsword for champion, plasma gun, veterans – (DAs from DV set) – 135 pts
Chaos Bikers – 3 Man Squad, plasma gun, veterans – (DAs from DV set) – 88pts
Havocs – Champion with plasma pistol and power weapon, veterans, 2 x lascannons, 2 x missile launchers – 180pts
Expanding this up to 1500pts is fairly straightforward:
Chaos Lord (DA Captain from DV, combi-plasma, powersword, veterans) – 95pts
Chosen – 5 man squad – 3 plasma guns, power weapon, power weapon and plasma pistol for champion, rhino with havoc launcher, icon of vengeance, veterans) – 252pts
Chaos Terminators – 5 man squad – 4x powerfists, 1xheavy flamer, veterans – 210 pts
Chaos Space Marines – 5 man squad, plasma pistol and power fist for champion, plasma gun, veterans – 135 pts
Chaos Space Marines – 5 man squad, plasma pistol and power fist for champion, plasma gun, veterans – 135 pts
Chaos Space Marines – 5 man squad, plasma pistol and chainsword for champion, plasma gun, veterans – (DAs from DV set) – 135 pts
Chaos Bikers – 3 Man Squad, plasma gun, veterans – (DAs from DV set) – 88pts
Raptors – lightning claws and melta bombs on champion, flamer, veterans – 145pts
Havocs – Champion with plasma pistol and power weapon, veterans, 2 x lascannons, 2 x missile launchers – 180pts
Havocs – Champion with plasma pistol and power weapon, veterans, 4 x Heavy Bolters – 150pts
All we need now is an allies list! I’m going to use the allies as more of the traditional fallen angels type force – cultists geed up by a rogue fallen angel type. Unfortunately the Chaplain from the Dark Vengeance set, as a limited extra, requires more assembly – its not a snap together one, so its not available for my first pass. Instead, I’m going with a sorcerer (librarian), some more termies as his elite guard, and then the cultists. I’m looking a female cultists, calling the librarian Charlie, and this allies list as my Charlie’s Angels 🙂 I have a set of gangers from a 25mm gang game from some time ago, so this should be fun!
Sorcerer – 2 extra mastery levels, spell familiar, sigil of corruption, force sword, bolt pistol, veterans – 155pts
Terminators – 5 man squad, reaper autocannon, 4 x powerfists, veterans – 225pts
Cultists – 10 woman squad, shotgun for champion, 8 auto guns – 60pts
Cultists – 10 woman squad, shotgun for champion, 8 auto guns – 60pts
Obviously the Fallen Angels force will be painted in black, with brown robes and red chapter markings, as befits the original chapter colours. Cultists I don’t know yet! I think a mixture of red and white might be the way to go there.
Lots of changes to this list in the future, though! I see the purchase of the classic cypher model here, and from unbuilt models, the addition of more bikers and a chaos dreadnaught (as an angel of blades). I think I’d also expand out the marine squads to be more of a complete tactical squad feel rather than the smaller 5 man units.
40k (or FB) Chaos is something that I never managed to get my head around, when I tried playing them (many moons ago) I found them far too variable 🙂
I like variable 🙂
One thing I’ve always liked about the Fallen Angels is that its never quite clear what actually kicked off. Were they rebels, or were they loyal and the main chapter were actually just holding out to see who won? They are more rogue marine than true “chaos”.
Generally I tend to go for rebel legions (like the world eaters too) rather than more raw chaosy stuff.
You were never a big Michael Moorcock fan, as I recall? I grew up on Moorcocks stuff, so the Chaos vibe appeals a lot more to me. I quite like the thought of having a chaos army dedicated to doing good deeds, for example – a group of noble paladins could follow the blood god, for example, or a group of genuinely good doctors could try to placate Nurgle. Its not generally done in modern 40k, but was quite integral to the early stuff – it was all more chaos and law than good and bad.