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Give Slaanesh and Tzeentch some love pls. FW don't do upgrade kits and GW's are about fifteen years old and look abysmal imho.

Because Nurgle is the superior god and Khorne is just crazy

Simple human psychology could attribute to these two "gods" being most popular.

Anger which is within all of us as a species and the fear of death.

Khorne I think is because of the carefree, blood for the blood god stuff, also who doesn't love insane psychopathic murderers? Nurgle I think has always been because it's statistically better in most cases, and you can basically slop on paint and not care because it's filthy/diseased so who cares if you get some brown on your green or green on your brown, it's all just gross.

Although I would have thought the oversexualized nature of Slaanesh would have made him/her/it popular, but then again kids game so they can't have topless Daemonettes or things like that anymore without worrying parents.

No idea about Tzeentch, he's just never been popular.

I am hoping we'll see something next year from forgeworld for tzeentch and thousand sons...

Because Nurgle and Khorne models are easy to design.

Personally I chose nurgle because it fits my playstyle (my first army was crons) of tough guys that have rapid fire guns

Also nurgle is easier to convert (not saying its easy to make a nurgle guy look epic) but converting space marines into plague marines is pretty doable.

Good points. I have a set of the FW conversion kits for the gods of the great unwashed and anger management issues and they are really nice.

Just a shame the others never got a look in as it didn't tie in to an IA release. Although, The Flawless Host appear a fair bit in IA13 so here is hoping for Slaanesh.

I think ease and straightforwardness of both design and recognition of models are large parts of the reason. It's not particularly difficult (not to devalue the work of those who do so particularly artfully) to add spikes/boils and blood/pus to a basic sculpt, adding distinctive and recognizable character. How do you model excess ((s)he isn't just about slapping an odd number of tits onto everything), though? Deceit? Change? Those aspects offer a wide - perhaps even wider - range of possibilities, but they aren't nearly as clear and focused (making designing a handful of kits for high sales volume troublesome) nor do they fit as seamlessly into the battle-centric tabletop aspect of a universe that, while plagued by all sorts of issues, is still "only [about] war". A drugged up adherent of Slaanesh surrounded by food, drink, and slave girls? Sounds like a potentially awesome diorama, but good luck fitting that into a charge or picking from where to measure range.

There's also the more psychological/metaphysical side, wherein space zombies (of death) and space maniacs (also especially of death) resonate more with the gaming crowd. And yes, I'm skipping over the myriad potential (unwashed/unloved/poorly adjusted socially) jokes this invites. Not sure I'd attribute the Nurgle/Khorne dominance to the universality of anger and fear of death, though - if the "(stereo)typical gamer" played Chaos to confront his nature and project frustrations, we'd see a lot more Slaanesh out there, I'd wager. Besides, there's plenty of cheesecake in the miniatures world that doesn't invite questions about the relevance of claws and/or tentacles in your attraction thereto.

NoiseMarine with Tinnitus wrote:
Give Slaanesh and Tzeentch some love pls. FW don't do upgrade kits and GW's are about fifteen years old and look abysmal imho.

They're the two easiest to make things for and that won't raise ire. Make some gross green looking thing and shove it out the door and you've got a new Nurgle thing, while Khorne is largely just stereotypical demon stuff. Hermaphroditic titty demons tends to be harder to come up with stuff they can put in a game they think kids are going to play, and they seem to have just lost interest in coming up with stuff for Tzeentch.

Considering the very nature of Chaos, it is very Selfishly Evil by all intents. I think of the Gods of Chaos, as the Immaeterium embodiments of the 7 deadly sins. Khorne is Wrath. Slannesh is Lust and Sloth. Nurgle is Greed and Gluttony. Tzeneech is Envy and Pride.

Granted, there are some crossovers of the deadly sins from Chaos god to the next one. But that could be the reasons of conflict between the powers of chaos. Remember that the warp is based upon the hopes, dreams, fears, and nightmares of the living. The stronger the emotion the more stronger the warp entity is then created.

Yet, I think that Khorne and Nurgle are easier to represent for modelling purposes because they are very direct and straight forward. Slanesh and Tzeneesh are a whole lot more subtle in their methods. That makes it a lot more difficult to model such abstract concepts.

.Just my 2 cents worth.

Fluff nuts like khorne, and nurgle has been the easiest to win with for awhile now. They're popular, thus they get more models.

I do agree, though, that they're also a lot easier to model.

was there actually any official reasoning why they did away with the topless daemonettes? some parental complaints? or is it just that the 90s were actually less prude than the 00s onward? the only thing even remotely topless in the entire citadel range right now is the FW KoS

Khorne and Nurgle are lore wise, two of the most powerful chaos gods and the two most at home on the 40k battlefield. Given war and rot pervade 40k (the imperium epitomizing both) they get more attention than their fellow chaos gods do. Also their war machines and daemons tend to be nuttier (skull cannon and lord of skulls) or very durable (plague reaper, tower of skulls), or very good at what they do (Angrath and any great unclean one).

Besides, which looks more at place on a battlefield. Blood (Khorne) and rust and decay (Nurgle) or electric colors and a rainbow paint scheme (tzeentch and slaanesh)?

The biggest problems of T ans S

S has to be censored for the younger audience, it causes problems with making stuff for him and properly attaching, even from a creator standpoint.


T is just so inhuman in his action, motives and behavior that its very difficult to have a "what would T do" moment to think of his kind of units. what DOES T do? anyone has a clue? not really.

It's just the popularity of them. Among the community, Khorne > Nurgle > Slaanesh > Tzeentch in popularity.

I play pure Tzeentch Daemons in Fantasy, and I've occasionally played them in 40k as well for gaks and giggles. I love Tzeentch. Heck, I was running a Deathwatch campaign focused around him. I actually hate every other god, personally.

Tzeench isn't popular because A) he has undeniably the stupidest basic daemon troop and his daemons have no strong theme to them (birds, derpy pink blobs, and flying manta rays? Huh?)

And B) the Thousand Thugs have always sucked rules wise and don't really look "evil" and in my own experience CSM players are almost universally heavy metal fans drawn to the strong heavy metal vibe of the army.

Slanesh niche-competes with the Dark Eldar for Kinky Sex Flavored Army and I've never seen a slanesh player who wasn't just "trololol pink marines". Most people just field noise marines or nothing.

I figured it was because their rules usually suck (lol Slaanesh) so they become less popular. Nurgle is pretty much a non brainer for the increase in toughness and FNP. I think it was only recently the mark started to come with slow and purposeful.

As has already been said above, generic skulls and blood demons (aka Khorne) and space zombies (Nurgle) are easily made and identifiable as they play off of well known ideas in horror. Khorne themed releases also tend to have emphasis on muscles and brawn, which appeals to traditional stereotypical masculine ideas.

By contrast, the other two gods are harder. Slaanesh is hermaphroditic, so already might be derided for some as being effeminate, and there is the need to tone down any sexual related themes to that acceptable for society and particularly parents paying for their children. Tzeentch is about eldritch magic and sanity blasting alien forms and it is hard to do that without looking just weird or stupid. The current cartoonish Pink Horrors for example I think are a step in the wrong direction from the last attempt which was a non-humanoid blob of writhing limbs and mouths and eyes. Tzeentch is also about mastery of magic and GW thematically has traditionally been focused on brawn rather than magic/intellect. One only has to read all its stories of the devious magic user getting come-uppance at the hand of the muscle-bound warrior that smashes his way through all attempts at wily deception. The number of stories where the reverse happens is comparatively much less.

 Theduke07 wrote:
I figured it was because their rules usually suck (lol Slaanesh) so they become less popular. Nurgle is pretty much a non brainer for the increase in toughness and FNP. I think it was only recently the mark started to come with slow and purposeful.

The Mark of Nurgle doesn't give SnP, Plague Marines have always had it and Daemon of Nurgle gives SnP and Shrouded

The Imperial Answer wrote:
Khorne and Nurgle are lore wise, two of the most powerful chaos gods and the two most at home on the 40k battlefield. Given war and rot pervade 40k (the imperium epitomizing both) they get more attention than their fellow chaos gods do. Also their war machines and daemons tend to be nuttier (skull cannon and lord of skulls) or very durable (plague reaper, tower of skulls), or very good at what they do (Angrath and any great unclean one).

Besides, which looks more at place on a battlefield. Blood (Khorne) and rust and decay (Nurgle) or electric colors and a rainbow paint scheme (tzeentch and slaanesh)?

Except lore wise, Tzeentch was originally far more powerful of the four combined till he broke his staff.

Tzeench isn't popular because A) he has undeniably the stupidest basic daemon troop and his daemons have no strong theme to them (birds, derpy pink blobs, and flying manta rays? Huh?)

His theme is generally mutation, he's got more mutant daemons compared to the rest and the Lords of Change represent his multicolored hues and 'raven' persona.

They all have a place, fluff wise. TT wise? Well, as others have stated it seems to go Khorne>Nurgle>Tzeentch>Slaanesh. I've been playing 40k since the end of the Rogue Trader days and in all that time I've only had 2 Chaos armies. Nurgle and Khorne. I guess that says something.

But I really like the fluff for Slaanesh, and might collect 750pts or so for my 2nd Ed games. But that will be after my Squats for 2nd Ed and Khador and Trollbloods for WarMachine/Hordes.

I like Nurgle and Slaanesh. Both for fluff reasons. Never been much into Khorne (but think Kharn is a cool SC.) I've just all ways loved the models for those two parts of Chaos. Like the new WHFB Nurgle stuff is just, amazing. Even those big fly mounts make me squee.

But, really, I just like horror (nurgle in general,) and tentacles (slaanesh and nurgle.)

Because at firts sight, they are the most single minded themes (remark firts sight) lets be honest, a kid or teen have a easy approach to khorno by the simple of "kill kill kill" factor, and nurgle because of zombies and the gross factor, Tzeencht is a little more complicated, how do you explain a kid or teen the fact that everything is movement and change is inevitable? certainly is a philosophical principle hard to explain, and slanessh, well, sexuality, that is the biggest obstacle with the prince of excesses.
Model wise, Khorne is more striking to the male public, blades and axes are more appealing and give a great look of action figure. With nurgle, well again, the gross factor.

I find it a little odd that Slaanesh is seen in a sexual context. Ok, sex has its place with him/her but excess can take many forms e.g. substance abuse etc. As has been mentioned GW could put some thought into the models e.g. FW kakophonii instead of taking the easy route and sticking the odd tit(s) here and there.

Granted, Tzeentch is not as easy model wise.

Anything released that's Chaos-related is love for Tzeentch anyways, since it's following his plan.

its just funny though how so many other model manufacturers seemingly have no qualms releasing nude figurines and making big bucks off of it but GW no longer does. I wonder whether there are any soccer moms in the PR/administration department.

 Sir Arun wrote:
its just funny though how so many other model manufacturers seemingly have no qualms releasing nude figurines and making big bucks off of it but GW no longer does. I wonder whether there are any soccer moms in the PR/administration department.

It's probably just the fact that the two main things associated with Slaanesh is sex and drugs, neither of which are really suitable for kids since that seems to be GW's target market. So the typical "discerning, middle-class" parents of said kid are going to be unlikely to want him to play a game with topless androgynous daemons and a lot of references that their worshippers engage in drug-fueled orgies. Remember, killing people is just fine (see Call of Duty, GTA, etc.) but nudity and drugs are unwholesome filth that must be stamped out.

WayneTheGame wrote:

 Sir Arun wrote:
its just funny though how so many other model manufacturers seemingly have no qualms releasing nude figurines and making big bucks off of it but GW no longer does. I wonder whether there are any soccer moms in the PR/administration department.

It's probably just the fact that the two main things associated with Slaanesh is sex and drugs, neither of which are really suitable for kids since that seems to be GW's target market. So the typical "discerning, middle-class" parents of said kid are going to be unlikely to want him to play a game with topless androgynous daemons and a lot of references that their worshippers engage in drug-fueled orgies. Remember, killing people is just fine (see Call of Duty, GTA, etc.) but nudity and drugs are unwholesome filth that must be stamped out.

And yet those are two things that became associated because they don't really play up the parts of them and as a result that's all people associate to him, I mean Slaanesh is also Perfection of self and Excess, they are all the vices, they could show golden glorious altars and various things of perfect/inhuman beauty.