Way back last summer, when I was originally starting to put this issue together, I thought it would be fun convert the Warhammer Armies: Chaos expansion box from Warhammer Fantasy Battle for use in Warhammer 40,000. This idea would allow some of the interesting features of Chaos to be used in a 40K Chaos army while we waited for the official 40K Chaos codex to arrive.

Now that the codex is here, the article is a bit redundant, but there are still some very interesting ideas, new psychic powers and new troop types that can be used to add a bit of variety to games involving Chaos.

One of the most interesting features of using the Fantasy Battle Chaos rules is that, in addition to the advantages that Chaos provides, there are disadvantages as well, which provides a very Chaotic feel (sometimes Chaos bites back!) and also helps balance out some of the powerful abilities. These advantages and disadvantages are much toned down in the 40K Chaos codex.

STRICTLY FOR FUN

The use of these rules is not to be taken seriously. The rules are strictly optional and are intended to provide a bit of fun for Chaos players. Needless to say you must have the Warhammer Armies: Chaos expansion box to use these conversion rules. Using Warhammer Armies: Chaos rules and cards allows Chaos players some of the features of the first edition Chaos books Realms Of Chaos: Slaves of Darkness and Realms Of Chaos: The Lost and the Damned without their unbalancing effects. It also provides an alternative to the use of the 40K Chaos codex for players wishing to explore alternatives.

Warhammer 40K points costs for some of the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Chaos creatures are also included in this article for adding these creatures to your 40K armies. Warhammer Armies: Chaos contains a rules/army list book, ten spells/psychic powers for each of the three psychic Chaos powers and three decks of cards. First is a deck of Magic Items/Magic Items cards that are used in the same way as Wargear cards. Second is a deck of similar Magic Item/Rewards cards, which are basically Chaos attributes with points costs.

The third card deck is a smaller deck of Chaos Gift cards that are played on characters or units during the game to temporarily increase their fighting abilities. There are some fun cards in this deck that can whisk away one of your Chaos Champions to a cosmic duel (temporary) or eternal labor (permanent) or even turn them into Chaos Spawn! Very Chaotic!

The rules for using all of these cards are all covered in Warhammer Armies: Chaos on the following pages: Chaos Gifts, pages 13,14 Chaos Magic Items, page 15 Chaos Spawn, page 36 Chaos Demons, pages 39, 40 Changes to certain cards to accommodate the rules differences between Fantasy Battle and Warhammer 40K are described below.

DEMON ANIMOSITY

In Fantasy Battle, there are no longer hatreds between the followers of Khorne and Slaanesh or Tzeench and Nurgle. These hatreds have been replaced by the Demon Animosity rules on pages 39 and 40 of the Warhammer Armies: Chaos book. If an army contains demons from more than one Chaos power, be sure to use these rules.

TRANSLATIONS

Translations: Fantasy Battle to 40K equivalents

Magic Weapon = Force Weapon
Dispell = Nullify
Spell = Psychic Power
Magic Armor = Auras/Psychic saves and field armor saves
Magic Card = Warp Card

Only Marine characters and Chaos Magi are considered Chaos Champions for use with these rules. In WHFB, Beastmen and other creatures may not be powerful Chaos Champions.

USING THE CARDS AND SPELLS IN 40K

GENERAL

Both Magic Item/Magic Item and Magic Item/Reward cards are purchased as Wargear cards subject to the normal Wargear card limits. The points cost is 50% of the points cost listed on the card (fractions round up). The 50% figure is a good round number to use. Some of the cards will be overpriced at this cost and some will be underpriced, but using this percentage seems to work pretty well.

Most of the cards can be used just as they are with exceptions as noted below.

MAGIC ITEMS/MAGIC ITEMS CARDS (Chaos Magic Items)

These cards can be purchased by characters that are not Chaos Champions (Cultist Coven, Beastman, Centaur, Minotaur and Dragon Ogre characters). Remove the Chaos Runeshield, Helm Of Many Eyes and Demon Steed cards as inappropriate for use in 40K.

Changes/Conversions To 40K

Chaos Demon Sword, Chaos Rune Blade: No armor saves except for psychic auras and field armors. Hits from these weapons will automatically penetrate any target with an Armor Value.

MAGIC ITEM/CHAOS REWARD CARDS (Chaos Atributes)

These cards can be purchased only by Chaos Champions.

Changes/Conversions To 40K

Breathe Fire: Use the flamer template and rules. There is no chance of catching on fire from flame breath hits. The flame attack is used in addition to any other shooting attack, but cannot be used in hand to hand combat.

Cloud of Flies: -1 to opponent's WS.

Regeneration: Wounds from flame, melta and plasma weapons prevent regeneration.

Battle Fury of Khorne: Is cumulative with Frenzy effects. A charging Chaos mighty hero with three attacks and equipped with two assault weapons will roll 11 attack dice if under the combined effects of this card and his normal Chaos Champion of Khorne Frenzy. (3+1+1=5, doubles to 10, plus one for second weapon equals 11 dice.)

Mace Tail: Add +1 Attack

Scorpion Tail: Add +1 Attack and one random hit per close combat phase will allow no armor save.

CHAOS GIFT CARDS

These cards are played on characters or units during the game to temporarily increase their fighting abilities. Rules could be devised for the following cards, but its simpler to just leave them out: Levitation, Elastic Limbs, Hypnotic Gaze and Burning Body.

Skull Face, Hideous Visage, Rotting Flesh: The modifiers on these cards apply to all dice rolled by the close combat opponent(s). Only natural 1s count as fumbles, and only additional natural 6s count as crits.

Breathes Fire: Use the flamer template and rules. There is no chance of catching on fire from flame breath hits. The flame attack is used instead of a shooting attack and cannot be used in hand to hand combat. This is deliberately different from the Magic Item/Chaos Reward Card above.

Spits Acid: No armor saves are allowed except for psychic aura type saves and field armors.

Long Spines, Mace Tail, Venomous Bite, Scorpion Tail: Add +1 Attack and ignore the other effects. Regeneration: Wounds from flame, melta and plasma weapons prevent regeneration.

Flight and Mighty Leap: May not be given to mounted models.

SPELLS/PSYCHIC POWERS

There are ten spells in each of the Chaos spell decks, giving a wider range of powers for Chaos psykers to select from.

There are two possible ways to use the new Chaos spell cards. The first way is to add the six non-duplicate cards to the four existing 40K cards for each power. The second way is to just use the ten new spells as they are and not use the 40K psyhic power cards at all. Some of the four duplicate spells are subtly different than their 40K equivalents and make a very interesting change of pace.

Changes/Conversions To 40K

Slaanesh:

• Chaos Spawn = Fleshy Curse

Tzeench:

• Touch of Tzeench: No armor saves except for psychic auras and fields.
• Firestorm of Tzeench: Use 2" blast marker, no armor saves except for psychic auras and fields.
• Shield of Fire: -2 to opponent's WS.

Nurgle:

• Stench of Nurgle = Aura of Decay
• Miasma of Pestilence: This cloud also partially blinds anyone inside it, so even affects models with sealed armor.
• Rancid Visitation: Typo on card, last sentence should read "This card causes..."

CHAOS CREATURES

The Warhammer Armies: Chaos army lists include a number of Chaos creatures that are not found in the original Warhammer 40K Chaos army list (black box set codex) or the new codex. Some of these creatures are included in the Epic Chaos army lists. Here are 40K point values for use of these creatures in your 40K armies. The point costs listed below are for creatures only and include no equipment.

We have done no playtesting using these creatures in 40K yet, but we do have a few suggestions on using these creatures. Both characters and squads of these creatures should be equipped in the same way as the Beastmen in the the new Chaos codex. You must also have a least one squad of any creature type to tobe able to include any characters of that creature type.

The character levels of these creatures may have Magic Item/Magic item cards, but may not have Magic Item/Reward (attributes) cards. They also should probably not have access to any of the normal 40K Wargear cards because the Beastman Champion in both the black codex and the new 40K Chaos codex may not purchase Wargear cards.

BEASTMEN

Beastman (13 points)
Beastman Champion (21 points)
Beastman Hero (44 points)
Beastman Lord (71 points)

MINOTAURS

Minotaur (30 points)
Minotaur Champion (38 points)
Minotaur Hero (63 points)
Minotaur Lord (89 points)

DRAGON OGRES

Dragon Ogre (44 points)
Dragon Ogre Champion (52 points)
Dragon Ogre Hero (74 points)
Dragon Ogre Lord (101 points)

CENTAURS

Centaur (16 points)
Centaur Champion (24 points)
Centaur Hero (49 points)
Centaur Lord (76 points)

BEASTMEN SHAMEN

Shaman (39 points)
Shaman Champion (69 points)
Master Shaman (128 points)
Shaman Lord (180 points)

The Beastmen Shaman stats were developed from the basic Beastman using the normal stat increases for psykers in 40K.

Troop Type	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld
Shaman	4	4	3	3	5	2	4	1	7
Shaman Champion	4	5	4	4	5	3	4	1	7
Master Shaman	4	6	5	4	5	4	5	2	7
Shaman Lord	4	7	6	4	5	5	6	3	8

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