CSM Apothecaries?

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**ChazSexington**

nareik wrote:
My raptors are renegade marines. They follow Slaanesh. I converted/painted one up to look like a corrupted apothecary. Rules-wise I treat him as an Icon of Excess.

I think most chaos marines who were apothecaries have abandoned the battlefield medic aspect; chaos marines are selfish ego maniacs and are often uncaring towards their comrades. Further, chaos space marines usually have very poor gene seed, rendering another battlefield aspect of the apothecary (collecting geneseed from the slain) pointless.

Finally, the creation of new chaos space marines is described as brutally violent and crude. A mix of dark science and magic with a failure rate obscenely higher than even that of loyalist chapters.

I get the impression chaos space marines just cut open their aspirants (without sharp/hygienic tools nor anaesthetic), insert gene seed and say a few daemonic prayers/rituals and hope for the best rather than following any tried and tested process. If the aspirant dies, survives or begins to develop into a space marine is more or less left to the will of the gods.

Uncaring and ego maniac doesn't mean stupid. An Apothecary is an asset to any Chaos Lord, and can ensure a much higher survival rate, which is generally preferred. I agree most Traitor gene-seed will be Warp-tainted or mutated somehow, but that might not be a bad thing.

**AnomanderRake**

koooaei wrote:
AnomanderRake wrote:
It's a conceptual mismatch. Chaos comes with the idea that the strong will survive and the weak won't have a shot at catching the blessings of the gods, they're less interested in keeping everyone alive than the Imperium.

They're quite interested in keeping themselves alive.

Themselves. Not other people.

**Ashiraya**

You have to remember that Chaos Space Marines are valuable. Getting wounded by artillery is not a sign of weakness, either.

Unless the Chaos Lord is an idiot he's going to keep his super-rare supersoldiers alive anyway he can. He won't hug them and keep them safe from any danger, but if he is capable of avoiding completely needless casualties, he will.

**Sheokronath**

They have to be around, an army going to war without medics is absurd, especially an army that owes it's continued survival to the recovery of organs from its casualties. I feel they're not represented on the board because marines have apothecaries and GW thinks that FNP should be given to marines via a banner.

**Shadowclaimer**

I think its mostly because they don't want Chaos Space Marines to be just "Evil Space Marines" and only have flips of Space Marine equipment, which is understandable. They only just now got around to giving them Techmarines (and thus the crazy monstrosities that don't have an equivalent.)

I think we'll see Apothecaries for the CSM eventually, but definitely different than their contemporaries.

**Magos Explorator**

VictorVonTzeentch wrote:
Also where are you all getting Taloth from, its just Talos in the book.

Also curious about people saying 'Taloth' - ADB (the author) also writes 'Talos' on his blog when talking about the character. I haven't heard 'Taloth' before this thread, and the only relevant Google search result appears to be this thread.

**welshhoppo**

I'm fairly certain that in the Iron Warriors books, the Warsmith tells his apothecary that if he doesn't save the life of his captain Then he won't be alive much longer.

Chaos Lords are not stupid, how are they going to fight the long war without troops? They can care less about mortals, but an astartes is worth saving.