Lost and the Damned

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FOR CHAOS!!

FHOR KAY-OSS!!

The Lost and the Damned are the various Chaos-following cultists, pirates, mutants, renegade Guardsmen, and so forth that are not Chaos Space Marines or Daemons, but fight alongside them for the Dark Gods. They're mostly known for their fanaticism, narm[1], disposability, and alternations between complete brilliance and mind-shattering idiocy (largely depending on the individual group). Most members of the Lost and the Damned are considered at least 50% as ballsy as their Imperial counterparts, which is fairly ballsy by the standards of the 41st Millennium.

Once upon a wonderful time, the powers that be gave them an army list of their own in Codex: Eye of Terror (the sourcebook for the 13th Black Crusade campaign). Sadly, Games Workshop dropped support for the army as soon as the campaign was over, screwing over everyone that collected an army of them and making them our generation's Squats. As usual, of course, Forge World went completely around Games Workshop (Foregeworld is part of Games Workshop PLC and answers to the same management, which makes people's bashing of GW and love of Forgeworld utterly perplexing) and not only still carries renegade Guardsmen, but also publishes an army list for them, called Renegades & Heretics, which can be found in Imperial Armour Vol. 5: The Siege of Vraks Part 1 (Khornate- and Nurglite-themed variants can be found in IA 6 & 7, respectively). There are also a few fandices that have been made (which will be listed below) but they're completely unofficial. There's also the option of creatively using Allies to combine Chaos Space Marines or Daemons with Imperial Guard, as well as simply painting your Guardsmen red and shouting BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD whenever you get a chance.

Of course, none of these options really cover the variety that might be found within the Lost and the Damned, as most focus on renegade Guardsmen and maybe a few other eclectic options.

And you thought the Guard was rough

So, you have managed to defect from the Imperium and joined the ranks of the Lost and the Damned. You had been drafted and taken from your dreary but comparatively peaceful home that you shall never see again, taken across the galaxy to a place you have never heard of to die in a war you have never heard of in the name of the Emperor. You have lived off shit rations, been bullied and bossed around and threatened by men in nice hats and then those voices in the back of your head came offering an escape for all that. And you have managed to somehow switch sides and join up with the local chaos force, everything is going to get better right?

Think again.

First of all, while you have switched heaps, you are still at the bottom. And while your old bosses might have been puritanical callous slave drivers, at least they were sane (ORLY?). Sided with Slaanesh, well prepare your anus. Sided with Khorne, hope to hell that you don't get set with a delay or have to go on a long march or get pinned down among your fellow psychopaths, because he only cares that it flows, and no, not that "it", that's Slaanesh domain. Tzeench? Well, expect to be expended in someone's schemes. Nurgle? Hope you like becoming a walking pile of sores, blisters and pustules with random bits falling off while smelling of a mixture of slaughterhouse runoff, old gym socks and vomit (alright, to be fair you won't care about that, being Nurglite and all).

On top of that, your leaders are completely fucking nuts and you are their punching bag. Alright, some are better than others (though the same goes for the guard that your heretical ass left) but the bottom bar for chaos leaders is going to be lower. Chaos is more, well, chaotic. Seeing someone shot because the boss had one of his little moments or knifed in the back because someone forgot where he put his socks and accuses someone else in your Warband of stealing them is not going to be uncommon. Now if you are a scheming bastard, a good demagogue, an exceptional fighter or simply lucky/favoured by the gods you might be able to go up in rank (though generals die in the guard as well and someone's gotta fill those gaps). That said, this is quite a cut-throat business. On a related note, the forces of chaos are also opposed to themselves; in absence of loyalists or orks and such, a battle between servants of rival chaos gods is inevitable. Even if you are fighting a loyalist force or some orks, you still better keep an eye out for rival chaos worshipers.

Then there is support. If nothing else the Imperium has the edge in Industry and general manpower. You will generally have to make do with much less than you did in the Guard and much of your gear is likely going to be looted from people who don't want you looting their stuff. Now Daemons, some mutations and the blessings of the Chaos goods might be helpful, but that brings up the risk of getting into Chaos Spa-urh, going-even-lower-down-the-command-chain-than-you-already-were-while-losing-your-brain-in-the-process-territory. Finally, you've had enough of this? Well too bad. There is no going back, Heretic scum.

On the other hand, if you survive, have the skills to pay the bills, and satisfy the Dark Gods, the sky's the goddamned limit. You could even be a champion yourself some day, or perhaps even a Daemon Prince. It's happened before. All it takes is ambition and a willingness to survive (and the ability to not die from a bolter slug to the face). No one said this was going to be easy.

Games Workshop does it again

The Lost and the Damned army list was a hell of a lot of fun, and was designed for those who had scored Codex: Eye of Terror for campaigns. The idea was simple: an army full of non-Marines dedicated to Chaos - pirates and raiders and cultists and mortal warriors devoted to Chaos, all under one banner, albeit with Chaos Marines allowable as Elites (and you could even get a cheaper, if weaker, Chaos Lord/Sorcerer as an HQ).

YOU ERASED MY HIGH SCORES ON TETRIS?!.

The combination of lots of modding possibility, a potentially characterful army, and some interesting ideas to differentiate it from the Imperial Guard went a long way towards endearing it to players, since the idea of cultist units had been toyed with before in the previous Chaos Codex, with the Alpha Legion. This was taking it to its logical conclusion, and suffice to say, some people thought this was pretty cool. Forge World saw potential here as well, and to promote the new army list, put out some bad-ass new resin-cast models. Several people started to get into the new army, and there was a lot of Derp and win as players used this to put out some truly entertaining army lists, from Zombie Apocalypse setups backed with heavy armor, to squads of Traitors backed by Mutants and APCs.

True to form, however, the second that the official tournaments of the season ended, Games Workshop abruptly stopped supporting the army entirely, refused to allow Lost and the Damned armies into future tournaments, pretended the previously-supported army didn't exist, and left players with naught but the Counts As rule to keep them company - and then there was RAGE. A few fortunate souls - the ones focusing on infantry and not-Chaos armor - could get away with using their killy and flash models as a viable Imperial Guard army, but these players were a distinct minority, since a lot of players had used the rules to field more versatile, interesting, or outlandish lists, especially given how expensive the models from Forge World are.

Fuck you, GW - although, as GW has consistently behaved this way for decades, at some point one has to blame the players for expecting anything different to happen. Of course being followers of Chaos one can't blame them completely for expecting something totally unlikely to happen.

But all is not lost, for the Forge World Siege of Vraks sourcebooks each contain a variant Lost and the Damned list at the end. Part one has rules for a vanilla Chaos Undivided force, Part two has rules for a Khornate force (with Berzerkers as an elite option), and Part three has rules for a Nurgle force (with Plague Marines as elites). Still rather luckluster though, as the limited units and god choices in the army made it rather obvious they were primarily intended for the Vraks campaign even though Forge World's website said they could be used for other renegades if needed. But then Imperial Armour 13 came out...

6th Edition

6th edition brought with it rules for allying between armies, which though full of Derp and Rage due to odd combinations, did allow an Imperial Guard army to ally to Chaos Marines or Daemons (albeit only as Desperate Allies). This, combined with the return of Plague Zombies and Chaos Cultists in Codex: Chaos Space Marines, allowed for the Lost and the Dammed to be used (more or less) in sixth edition. Forge World also updated their Renegades & Heretics army list from the Siege of Vraks series, allowing them to ally with the Guard, Chaos Marines, or Daemons. Sadly, neither of these options entirely captured the flavour of a Lost and the Damned army---the Siege of Vraks series was, by that point, badly outdated, and allying Imperial Guard to Chaos Marines had severe restrictions (and, anyway, Imperial Guard aren't quite the same as Lost and the Damned).

7th Edition

While 7E started off with a similarly bleak outlook with only the badly outdated Vraks rules, now under suspicion with the underwhelming options and Imperial Guard now being desperate allies at best with Chaos, Forge World managed to pick up on GW's slacking ass by releasing Imperial Armour 13, a new sourcebook that not only showed off some new super-toys for the regular Chaos armies, but also brought in a much larger army list more suited for 7E. Now instead of just an undivided, Khorne, and Nurgle army loosely using similar units, now the army could haul out not only some of the new Chaos toys including the Noise Marines and the Sonic Dreadnought, a shitton of tanks, and a new specialty system allowing for other armies like a Heretek army using old Mechanicus shit and a daemon-casting army.

Is it a great army? Jury's still out on that, because the book's still sorta new, but some issues still persist like random leadership and only one named hero available. Is it an improvement? You bet your fucking ass that this is, even if your units start off with a meager BS2.

If you wish to judge it for yourself before selling your soul to Forge World, take a gander over here..

Fandex alternatives

Being one of the most popular ideas out there for IG conversions, many players have obviously taken to creating their own versions of the LatD codex. Here is a list of the people who have come up with their own fandexes (will be updated as more are found):

• Chaos Gerbil's fandex (is currently asking for more playtesters, but codex is pretty solid) [2] Here's a link to his blog as well so you guys can keep up with his updates [3].

• The Tempus Fugitives had their own version. Sadly, their website went down, but it can still be found here: [4].

The Traitorous Regiments

Like the Imperial Guard, the Traitors of the Imperium come in a huge variety of flavors, all ripe for different customization ideas. From those who want their freedom from the oppression of the Imperium, to those who become corrupted with Chaos, there's plenty to choose from. The following is a list of the renegades found in the universe of Warhammer 40k so far. Also, I'll provide some advice on where to find people who have done conversions for those regiments already. More information can be found on the Warhammer 40k wikia and Lexicanum on these groups.

• Blood Pact: This renegade group originally hails from the Sabbat Worlds sector. They worship Khorne almost exclusively, but they're much better organized than the rabble usually found in the Lost and the Damned. This is mostly because they pattern themselves after Imperial Guard. Unlike most renegade groups, however, they've actually captured some industrial and Forge Worlds, so they can field tanks (even super-heavy tanks!). They also have some fairly unique divisions, such as Loxatl xenos mercenaries, unique psykers (yes, really, Khornate Sorcerers, but it's okay, because it was made up by Dan Abnett) called Gore Mages that turn renegades into special Daemonhosts called Blood Wolves, and Storm Trooper equivalents. Technically, however, they aren't renegades, but rather an independent, Chaos-worshipping nation that had never been under control of the Imperium, at least not in living memory. As such, they have a rather unique set of customs, such as cutting their hands on pieces of power armor as an initiation ritual (hence Blood Pact). They also dye their uniforms with the blood of their enemies and display corpses on their tanks. As you can probably tell, /tg/ adores these guys.
  • Conversion opportunities abound. In fact, some people have even made full Blood Pact armies. The most impressive belongs to Dave Taylor; in addition to the full counts-as-Imperial-Guard army, he also scratch-built a Stalk Tank and wrote a datasheet of rules for it. You can find it here: [5].
  • A note of caution: the Blood Pact wear special Oni-styled masks that will take considerable time to model with green stuff. For your converting convenience, here's a link for head swaps with Oni masks: [6].

• Sons of Sek: Because the Blood Pact is so awesome, you can't have just one warband. The Sons of Sek are an elite force under the command of Anakwanar Sek (hence the name), who wants to take control of the Sabbat Worlds for himself. They function pretty much the same as the Blood Pact and, by extension, the Guard. However, they do have a couple of unique features, like a Commissaresque commander called a Scourger and an even better-organized, elite force than the Blood Pact.

• Vraskian Renegades: Basically the "default" renegade army, as Forge World sells models and provides an army list for them (although it works well enough for most armies). As their name implies, they come from the munitions-storage world of Vraks, where (soon-to-be-Apostate) Cardinal Xaphan decided to secede from the Imperium. He earned the support of the (heavily-armed) populace by telling them that the rest of the Imperium had fallen to Chaos and they were the last untainted humans left. Hey, that sounds familiar! The very small percentage of the population that knew the truth of his fall to Chaos became his enforcers and bodyguards. Of course, this was all Just as Planned by the Alpha Legion, who then threw their support behind the rebellion (hence why they can field Chaos Space Marines as Elites). Also, being from a munitions-storage world, they get access to old-school, super-cool, super-heavies like the Malcador.
  • Here is a kickass Vraks renegade squad for some inspiration (7th row, middle column): [7].

• Carnibales: an uprising occurred on the planet Solo-Baston when the Ecclesiarchy (in all their infinite wisdom) started taking the lands away from the natives. Not liking this, the indigenous population was guided by 2 pairs of Blood Gorgons Chaos Space Marines (who are by all accounts awesome.) They saw the opportunity in the natives plight and trained them in guerrilla tactics. They also smuggled advanced weapons from offworld which were then assembled by the rebels. Once the rebellion was in full swing, the Ecclesiarchy hadn't anticipated so many rebels, believing the rebellion to be small. The Carnibales (as they were now known) had managed to capture the planet and executed anyone still loyal to the Imperium. The Imperial Guard eventually came to reclaim the planet but where held off and defeated(!) thanks to the Earthshaker cannon (supersized) the Carnibales captured. After that, the Blood Gorgons added the planet to their growing list of captured planets who enjoy their protection (no sarcasm, they really are not that bad for csm, they love freedom and rebelled against the oppressive Imperium and help others free themselves.)
  • Given the fact that their name seems to be derived from Spanish and that they use guerrilla tactics, think South American rebels. They also have special leaders called Disciples, who follow the teachings of the Blood Gorgons. They are injected with daemon blood and mutated to superhuman levels of strength. Multiple opportunities for conversions. I suggest using the WHFB Chaos sorcerers as Disciples.
  • Carnibales are basically space Taliban jungle guerrilla fighters. The author who created them, Henry Zou, is an Afghan war vet. Seriously, loose guerrilla army that uses hit and run attacks, hides out in local villages, and receives external support from a clandestine foreign source? That's either Taliban or Vietcong Vietcong or latinoamerican guerrilla as the setting of the novel Flesh and Iron is at a jungle world which looks and feels like the Amazonian or Vietnam jungle. Either way, a good look for that sort of force would be just standard dudes in simple clothing (ie the black pajamas worn by the Vietcong) with assorted small arms, think of the rebels in the first Predator movie.
    • The Vraksian Renegades army list is the best suited for this group. They have the Apostate Preachers and Enforcers that can be modeled to be Disciples. They also use light weight skimmers called spikers and one can use the Vraksian salamander's stats for it. Overall the list has the guerrilla warfare feel of the Carnibales.
    • Given their "armed feudal-worlders" background and insurgent guerrilla army influence, kitbashing Tallarn and Catachan infantry kits together would make for some good looking models, just be sure to "Chaos them up" a bit.

• Brethren of Fire: A Tzeentchian LatD force that arose when the entire PDF of the sepulcher world Tachira went full-on-heretic from the Imperium's failure to stop constant depredations by the Dark Eldar. Led by a Tzeentchian Chaos Lord-in-exile, the newly extra-heretical forces took complete control of the planet and managed to drive Imperial forces off-world before a warp storm enshrouded it. They've since emerged numerous times, seeking slaves and plunder, and backed by a small number of Chaos Marines. Their force organization is based only loosely on the Imperial Guard model, having phased out Imperial Guard recon units in favor of Stalk Tanks and Mutant packs, though they possess production capabilities and considerable heavy armor, including Decimator Super-Heavy Tanks.

• The Ironclad: Mr. Zou also brings another cool army, the Ironclad, a pirate and marauder army which are somehow connected with the Carnibales (we won't spoil you here how, just go read the Bastion Wars trilogy) they are an assault horde oriented force which boasts wheeled light tanks and shock armored infantry, any Warhammer Fantasy model with iron plate armour (hence their name) will work great for them, along with some Tauros Venator and Testudos, of special note is that the setting of The Emperor's Mercy where they appear features a lot of desert geography, so you may mix sand and metallic colours to bring a very nice visual effect, oh, and they are allies with the Blood Gorgons (the guy in the 6th edition CSM book cover is a Blood Gorgon), so this opens the possibility for wonderful ingame alliances.

• Chosen of Nemeroth: While this isn't in fact a true regiment and rather a warband of Chaos Space Marines, it does have its own traitor Guardsmen, all wearing a closed helmet with glowing green light and shooting green beams with the lasguns, suggesting they might have something to do with Nurgle. Why they are in a warband like that is unknown, but might just be there to give the warband some bodies. Their main strategy is to drown the enemy in grenades and agro the shit out of them so the real deal can aim their plasma cannon properly. They are absolute pushovers in melee combat and will always try and keep themselves away from the fray, but good lord do you need to get close to them anyway - In comparison to other enemies in the game. they are small and nimble as fuck, so shooting them can be risky and generally wasted business.

More regiments coming soon.