When the Space Marine legions fell into bloodshed ten thousand years ago, the sons of the Primarch Angron – already infamous for their brutality – were swiftly drawn into the influence of dark and terrible powers. Noble warriors gave way to merciless killers, and the galaxy now trembles every time the chosen of Khorne carve a charnel path from the Eye of Terror.
They are the World Eaters, rage-fueled berzerkers infused with the power of the Blood God. Their brutal assaults are the stuff of nightmares, carving the Imperium’s defenders into hunks of torn meat with snarling chainaxes and daemonic claws, driven by an all-consuming urge for slaughter that consumes their every waking moment. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these crimson killers.
World Eaters Explained
As one of the Space Marine legions that turned against the Emperor of Mankind during the apocalyptic Horus Heresy, much of the World Eaters’ history is similar to that of their fellow Chaos Space Marines. However, where others had been known for noble service and glorious deeds before their fall, the sons of Angron always had a reputation for needless barbarity even before the rediscovery of their primarch.
The reunion with their gene-father only enhanced their baser instincts thanks to a brutal augmentation technique brought from Angron’s homeworld of Nuceria. Known as the Butcher’s Nails, these torturous psycho-surgical devices were implanted into each warrior’s brain stem to send waves of constant agony through their minds and heighten their aggression.
Only the sensations released when feeling pure, unadulterated anger would soothe the pain, and so each World Eater would hurl themselves into the melee to receive a momentary respite, or be driven mad by the Nails’ pounding torment. Ultimately, this unchecked desire for vicious close combat would lead all of the XII Legion into the arms of the Blood God Khorne – knowing or otherwise – and the current wars of the Era Indomitus allow their thirst for battle to be slaked on a galactic scale.
Unlike many of his brother Primarchs, Angron himself has been active across the Imperium for thousands of years, always burning a ruinous warpath across whatever unfortunate system has attracted his ire. Turning back the monstrous Daemon Primarch has always come at great cost, but with the galaxy now more tumultuous than ever and devastating wars leaving millions dead on a daily basis, the Red Angel has absorbed power unlike any he has ever held.
So great is the madness and slaughter that accompany the World Eaters’ campaigns that Khornate daemons spring from the Warp to fight alongside their mortal allies. Bloodletters slice their prey in two with blazing greatswords as long as a man, while thundering Bloodcrushers and wily Flesh Hounds charge down fleeing foes and great winged Bloodthirsters reduce the greatest of warriors to gruesome ruin with sweeps of their daemonic axes.
On the battlefield, the World Eaters play to their murderous strengths and focus all of their inhuman might on slaughtering the enemy in close combat. Waves of crimson-armoured berzerkers charge mindlessly across the battlefield with roaring chain weapons in hand, driving masses of Jakhal cultists ahead of them while thundering daemon engines stampede over enemy lines with recklessly unleashed fury.
Theirs is not a one-note army however, as the blessings of Khorne bequeath unpredictable boons upon his favoured warriors and the constant ebb and flow of battle must be navigated to avoid leaving the World Eaters exposed. Some warbands adopt the mass use of transport vehicles to safely convey their Space Marines to the front lines, while others band together with daemons to share their strengths and cover their weaknesses.
A World Eaters army will appeal to players who love to bulldoze their opponent in great, violent charges, throwing fistfuls of dice and revelling in the slaughter of friend and foe alike – for Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows. After all, might makes right in the grim darkness of the 41st Millennium, and the champions of Khorne might just have more of it than anyone else in the galaxy!
Combat Patrol
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced, balanced games. The World Eaters cast aside all sense of devious tactics and honourable combat to instead charge their enemy down and tear them apart in the melee, throwing crazed killers into the fray around the feet of their towering daemonic master.
The Frenzied Reavers embrace the World Eaters’ playbook with glee, filling their Combat Patrol with deadly close combat infantry that swarm over the opponent and bury them in whirring chainblades. A unit of 10 Jakhals is the perfect meat shield to soak up enemy fire while the deadlier Khorne Berzerkers plunge into the fray, watched over by a sinister character-hunting Master of Executions.
The star of the show is the Daemon Prince Vorrakh, one of the toughest and deadliest units in all Combat Patrol. His hellforged weapons can cleave entire squads of lesser foes apart in a single combat, which coupled with his immense durability makes him the perfect unit for brawling over objectives.
All you need to deploy the Frenzied Reavers is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!
Painting
The World Eaters are traditionally armoured in crimson battle plate trimmed with brass, but are by no means limited to these same few colours – especially where the Jakhals are concerned. The shining details common across many Khorne-aligned units go great with all sorts of dark and brooding colours such as blacks and deep browns, but if you do want to keep your berzerkers looking their gore-soaked selves then there are a wide variety of red shades you can choose from.
Your warriors are so concentrated on battle and bloodshed that they’re likely to reject cleaning their armour altogether, making this army a great project for weathering techniques. To help ease your miniatures onto the battlefield with a simple, achievable colour scheme that works across a wide variety of units, the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints for the World Eaters found in the Combat Patrol box.
This is by no means an exhaustive primer, however, and you’re fully encouraged to come up with your own World Eaters colour schemes. Your warband may hark back to the blue and white armour of the Great Crusade era, while those wholly devoted to Khorne may even coat themselves fully in brass and gold!
Next Steps
Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to up your tally of skulls for the Skull Throne, you might be wondering where to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: World Eaters – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and a showcase of gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 30 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
The Combat Patrol provides a great selection of core infantry units to form the basis of a larger army, so adding a more elite contingent is a great first step. Eightbound are the champions of the World Eaters who have accepted eight (the sacred number of Khorne) daemons into their souls and subjugated them with brute force, transforming them into hulking monstrosities rippling with empyrean strength and immense durability.
The armies of the World Eaters live and die on their infantry, so adding more Khorne Berzerkers is never a bad idea when their power armour and chain weapons make them your premier front-line unit. The Codex also includes rules that let you add Khorne daemons to your army.
No Chaos legion is quite complete without their Primarch, however, and the mountain of muscle and murderous rage known as Angron does not disappoint. His incredible, showstopping miniature is the perfect centrepiece for your army, while his skills on the battlefield are more akin to a raging whirlwind of blades and blood that cleaves anything from swarms of lowly soldiers to the greatest war machines in twain.
Lord Invocatus is a raider without compare among his fellow World Eaters, specialising in lightning strikes and delivering whole units of warriors deep into the enemy’s rear – a real nightmare for an opponent who thinks their vulnerable units safe! When raw power is in demand though, nothing crushes your opponent’s will quite like the awesome presence of the Lord of Skulls, a titanic engine of destruction bristling with weapons that lay waste to entire armies on their own.
Fiction
The tales of their most legendary characters make for a compelling read – there are deep motivations beneath their brassy masks. Find out what happened when Angron himself returned to the galaxy in Angron: The Red Angel by David Guymer, which follows the fates of three separate characters who react to this momentous event in extremely different ways.
Though he is now both the most beloved and reviled figure among the World Eaters, Khârn the Betrayer had a rocky relationship with his brothers in the wake of the Horus Heresy, and you can read all about his rise to prominence in Khârn: Eater of Worlds by Anthony Reynolds. Join him for an episodic journey through the madness of Abaddon’s Thirteenth Black Crusade in The Red Path by Chris Dows, a collection of serialised tales that see Khârn’s madness put to use by the Warmaster of Chaos.
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