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I Am New To Warhammer 40k And Table Top Wargaming In General, And I Am Thinking Of Going With CSM Word Bearers, What Would Be The Best Units For A Lore Friendly Army?

The Word Bearers were the first to give their bodies over to Daemons, so lots of Possessed is a good start. Spawn would also work, since not everyone lasts all the way to being Possessed.

Because the Word Bearers are worshippers of Chaos Undivided, they shouldn't have any Daemon Princes - you've got to pick one god to appease if you want big wings!

The Word Bearers also created the Imperial Cult, and they still have Chaplains among their ranks, so lots of Dark Apostles is a good start. Beyond that, any space marine-based unit you can find!

Do They Use Standard Chaos Lords, Sorcerers Or Warpsmiths?

 Prime259 wrote:
Do They Use Standard Chaos Lords, Sorcerers Or Warpsmiths?

They might have any of those HQ units. More commonly for them probably the Chaos Lords and Sorcerers because they are more focused on demons + marines rather than daemon engines + vehicles like the Warpsmith.

Thanks, For The Help.

I'd like to chime in and say Dark apostle since the word bearers basically invented the corrupt chaplain to spread the dark word!

Any Named HQ Choices For The Word Bearers, And Any General Units I Should Not Use?

Also it's good to remember that the Word Bearers remained somewhat Legion, if I was making a Word Bearers army I'd go ahead and grab the betrayal of Calth set and some possessed.

That'll give you 30 Marines, A Chaplin (Dark Apostle), A Chaos Lord and a Contemptor Dreadnought. Also it may be worth looking at some demons for summoning.

K, Thanks.

Word Bearers are one of the "undivided" armies and thus are made up of a bulk of Chaos Space Marines rather than Cult Troops (such as berserkers, plague marines, etc). But it's not unheard of for them to bear marks (even though that means jack all now).

The premier units of Word Bearers are Possessed and Dark Apostles, as they're heavily religous. It's not unheard of for them to use other non-god specific units, but these ones are proportionally more in word bearer armies than most. Daemon Princes are, naturally, a no brainer as well.

The key thing about word bearer armies is that they use a lot of Daemons, so it's good to have a combination of Marines and Daemons in your army. And they use a variety of daemons, not just from one god, so having a mix is good. Cultists are another unit that you should look out for, as Word Bearer warbands tend to cause a congregation of chaos cultists (for obvious reasons).

jbeil wrote:

Because the Word Bearers are worshippers of Chaos Undivided, they shouldn't have any Daemon Princes - you've got to pick one god to appease if you want big wings!

I don't know the Chaos Marines codex well, I don't know if you could do a Chaos Unidivided Deamon Prince, but the Word Bearers do have deamon princes.
M'kar, for example, is one of the most famous deamon prince and was, initially, a Word Bearer.

Word bearers can pick marks that's been a thing since traitor legions and now they can use cult units as elites. As people said you should have possessed and a dark apostle and your army should be a mix of cultists, marines and daemons.

Word bearers rely more on infantry tactics than anything else.

Word Bearers can have marks, but the key with them is to not stick to one god, as they worship Chaos as a Pantheon.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Word Bearers can have marks, but the key with them is to not stick to one god, as they worship Chaos as a Pantheon.

Yes, you are meant to have a mix of everything in my opinion like my raptors were ashen circle and due to their excessive nature of destroying the works of the imperium slaanesh took notice. A squad of my CSM were obsessed with spreading the knowledge and word of lorgar hence marked by tzeentch, I am also planning to grab a squad of plague marines when the new kit comes out(Going with the idea that they were a group who largely ignored cover believing the gods are their armor and shield and care not for their wounds which eventually led to the plague god plus they will look great in red with colchis runes!). I also have a horde of cultists and of course my Dark apostle is not going to be marked since he has to handle all of the crazy peoples religious needs. Plus I have some daemonettes in my demon summoning pool.

In the word bearer omnibus they had a group of khornates and they sent them out on the first charge since that was their right and the fact they strayed to the blood god.

I play word bearers in 30k and I usually find the following scream word bearers:

Possessed: duh

Chaplains: duh again

Sorcerers: we like daemons

Daemons: see above

Flamers: Word bearers are iconoclasts, they loved burning books, cultures of those they considered heretical

Cultists: Despite what they say about the alpha legion, the word bearers are just as good at creating cults

I'd say daemon princes are fine, we use to be able to take undivided daemon princes(in that glorious tome known as 3rd edition CSM) and papa lorgar is technically a daemon prince of chaos undivided. G-dubs is just weird all of a sudden

 Prime259 wrote:
I Am New To Warhammer 40k And Table Top Wargaming In General, And I Am Thinking Of Going With CSM Word Bearers, What Would Be The Best Units For A Lore Friendly Army?

Word Bearers follow a somewhat unorthodox structure for their organisation (at least if you go by what is depicted in the novels, and has been supported by tidbits on GW's last CSM legions book).

The Legion is divided into various Hosts, which can range in size from an SM company to several thousand Marines (this would be a 'Grand Host').

Each Host has the following key figures and structure.

Dark Apostle. The spiritual guide for the Host and highest authority.
In-game, this would be... a Dark Apostle)

Coryphaus. The 'war leader' of the Host. While the Dark Apostle is the ultimate authority and guides the Word Bearers in their worship of the Dark Gods, it is the Coryphaus who manages the day to day warfare, grand battle strategy and all things 'military'. He answers to the Dark Apostle, but may well be a far superior warrior in many respects.
(In-game, this would likely be a Chaos Lord of any flavour, though anything is possible)

First Acolyte. An apprentice to the Dark Apostle and joint second-in command with the Coryphaus. The First Acolyte tends to the needs to the Dark Apostle and will likely one day succeed him.
(In-game, this would likely be another Dark Apostle).

Icon Bearer. A notable warrior charged with carrying the Host's icon
(In game, this could be represented by almost anything; a character of some sort, or simply a particularly snazzy CSM with a banner)

Coteries. These are the masses of the Word Bearers, organised into squads led by champions. Although usually Undivided, there are plenty of documented instances of Coteries leaning heavily towards one Dark God more than the others, which is frowned upon but accepted (the Word Bearers trilogy has a squad that may just as well be Khorne Berserkers... they are frowned upon as being a bit deviant, but also highly respected for being absolutely brutal warriors).
(In-game these are just about everything else that's not a vehicle or slave; CSM, Chosen, Possessed, Raptors, Warp Talons, you name it, and you can certainly justify a few marks of cult units)

'Special Things'. There's no single heading for this, but the Word Bearers love their exciting names or decorated or significant units or groups within their Hosts. We have seen elite Possessed (called the Gal Vorbak) and Terminator Chosen (acting as enforcers of the Dark Apostle/Coryphaus' wills) called The Anointed. Let your imagination run wild.

After that, you have all the usual CSM fun with vehicles and Daemon engines, and of course countless numbers of cultists.



In all seriousness though, if you're thinking of running fluffy Word Bearers, pick up the Word Bearers trilogy from the Black Library. It's very readable, has a nice plot and is full of inspiration. Oh, and you'll really appreciate just how awful the lives of those cultists are...

Also remember to model lots of scrolls and parchment on your armor. A Word Bearer is only as good as the words he bears.

*runs away before being kicked for the bad pun*

What Colors Would I Use For Units Dedicated To One Deity, Such As Khorne Berserkers Or Noise Marines?

Depends on how you want to go about it. Chaos Warbands, unlike other armies, sometimes operate like mercenary bands. This means that the individual units sometimes keep their original chapter/legion colors while in another army. Other times, the warriors choose to give up their original allegiance and repaint their armor to match their new masters. While this is most common with the Black Legion, it happens with regularity with the other traitor legions as well (save for perhaps the Four Mono-god legions, but that's only because the circumstances that created them were unique).

In the 3.5 edition codex, there was an example of a Khorne Berserker that had joined the Black Legion. The result was that the Berserker painted almost all of his armor in the colorscheme of the Black Legion, except for his shoulder pad and helmet which remained the same red-on-brass of normal Khorne Berserkers.

That is, of course, just one example. The Berserker can very well completely repaint his armor to match the other word bearers, since there's not really any rules regarding chaos space marine armor coloring (like there is with loyalist marines). However it would be better to keep some aspect of it to make him stand out among your regular word bearers.

 Prime259 wrote:
What Colors Would I Use For Units Dedicated To One Deity, Such As Khorne Berserkers Or Noise Marines?

I wouldnt use any of the cult marines. If you wanted Khorne word bearers just use generic chaos marines with khorne markings. Berzerkers need surgeons to make, which only the world eaters and black legion have access to(despite what DoW would have you believe, there are no emperor's children berzerkers )

Likewise if you wanted slaanesh aligned word bearers I wouldnt touch noise marines(mainly cause the word bearers disapprove of the decadence of the ECs and noise marines are the decadent of them all). I'd just again use generic chaos marines and put some slaanesh markings on them.

The black legion codex of last edition goes into how the regular chaos marines who align to a particular god look. They pretty much have look just like regular black legion with marks of allegiance to their particular god

One of my favourite representations of the Word Bearers is in the book Kingsblade, the Word Bearers host in the book is attempting to sacrifice the worlds population to allow their dark apostle to become a demon prince, it's a really good read and gives a nice feel to the word bearers.

As for the whole cult troops, I mean I don't see why not. I'm sure if a Word Bearer warrior was chosen by Khorne the rest of the unit would be pleased, as long as he fears the other gods in kind. But if you want to avoid the cult troops, I've always liked the Dark Apostle herding a swarm of cultists forward while summoning in demons.

 Vraptor98 wrote:
One of my favourite representations of the Word Bearers is in the book Kingsblade, the Word Bearers host in the book is attempting to sacrifice the worlds population to allow their dark apostle to become a demon prince, it's a really good read and gives a nice feel to the word bearers.

As for the whole cult troops, I mean I don't see why not. I'm sure if a Word Bearer warrior was chosen by Khorne the rest of the unit would be pleased, as long as he fears the other gods in kind. But if you want to avoid the cult troops, I've always liked the Dark Apostle herding a swarm of cultists forward while summoning in demons.

Pretty much that's how I view it when I mark my guys I simply paint one of their shoulder pads in the colour of the god and then paint on their god iconorgraphy along with Colchisian runes, the new plague marines are going to be painted in red rusted armor with runes all of em of course with some parchment it also helps the new plague marines have loads of censers on them so that saves me money from being another dark angels veteran kits. In the case of the word bearers omnibus sometimes the gods don't care and get involved.

I do recommend the dark angels vet kit since it has loads of robes, some purity seals(word bearers still use em in some form) and censurs it will take some filing depending on what you want to use Prime.

Patriarch Phyrx wrote:

 Prime259 wrote:
I Am New To Warhammer 40k And Table Top Wargaming In General, And I Am Thinking Of Going With CSM Word Bearers, What Would Be The Best Units For A Lore Friendly Army?

Word Bearers follow a somewhat unorthodox structure for their organisation (at least if you go by what is depicted in the novels, and has been supported by tidbits on GW's last CSM legions book).

The Legion is divided into various Hosts, which can range in size from an SM company to several thousand Marines (this would be a 'Grand Host').

Each Host has the following key figures and structure.

Dark Apostle. The spiritual guide for the Host and highest authority.
In-game, this would be... a Dark Apostle)

Coryphaus. The 'war leader' of the Host. While the Dark Apostle is the ultimate authority and guides the Word Bearers in their worship of the Dark Gods, it is the Coryphaus who manages the day to day warfare, grand battle strategy and all things 'military'. He answers to the Dark Apostle, but may well be a far superior warrior in many respects.
(In-game, this would likely be a Chaos Lord of any flavour, though anything is possible)

First Acolyte. An apprentice to the Dark Apostle and joint second-in command with the Coryphaus. The First Acolyte tends to the needs to the Dark Apostle and will likely one day succeed him.
(In-game, this would likely be another Dark Apostle).

Icon Bearer. A notable warrior charged with carrying the Host's icon
(In game, this could be represented by almost anything; a character of some sort, or simply a particularly snazzy CSM with a banner)

Coteries. These are the masses of the Word Bearers, organised into squads led by champions. Although usually Undivided, there are plenty of documented instances of Coteries leaning heavily towards one Dark God more than the others, which is frowned upon but accepted (the Word Bearers trilogy has a squad that may just as well be Khorne Berserkers... they are frowned upon as being a bit deviant, but also highly respected for being absolutely brutal warriors).
(In-game these are just about everything else that's not a vehicle or slave; CSM, Chosen, Possessed, Raptors, Warp Talons, you name it, and you can certainly justify a few marks of cult units)

'Special Things'. There's no single heading for this, but the Word Bearers love their exciting names or decorated or significant units or groups within their Hosts. We have seen elite Possessed (called the Gal Vorbak) and Terminator Chosen (acting as enforcers of the Dark Apostle/Coryphaus' wills) called The Anointed. Let your imagination run wild.

After that, you have all the usual CSM fun with vehicles and Daemon engines, and of course countless numbers of cultists.

Adding to this, Word Bearers are very organized, with a clear hierarchy. They aren't some fly by night operation of a warband led by the biggest strongest chaos lord around. Promotions are based on psykic mastery, theological understanding, and combat effectiveness, and those promotions are granted by the Dark Council. It might be common for the leader of the host to be more of a religious figure than military strategist or combat power.

So Far We Got A Dark Apostle, Possessed Marines, Cultists, Chaos Marines, And Demons, But What Kind Of Demons Should I Use?

Could I Use A Chaos Sorcerer For A First Acolyte?

 Prime259 wrote:
So Far We Got A Dark Apostle, Possessed Marines, Cultists, Chaos Marines, And Demons, But What Kind Of Demons Should I Use?

Word Bearers worship all 4 gods of Chaos, so any Daemon is appropriate.

A lot has been covered already in this thread, I'm just going to add onto that.

the Word bearers also have a daemon forgeworld in the maelstrom (Ghalmek), so daemon engines or any rare or special space marine type of vehicle is pretty fluffy to have.

they do tend to use daemons and cultists as expendable troops en masse instead of marines (fewing any lesser daemon as lower than an astartes).

You could use any damon you want, maby mix it up with different gods of you want, but word bearers are still one of the largest legions and quite literally anything is possible.

For example, I sometimes use a large unit of noise marines, who spread to Word of Lorgar quite actively to the enemies, either accept or be killed by the Word itself

 Prime259 wrote:
Could I Use A Chaos Sorcerer For A First Acolyte?

Word Bearers have parallel leadership structures tactical and strategic. One based on combat proficiency the other base on ideology. The First Acolytes being in the strategic/ideological side. There is nothing wrong with a first acolyte having socererous gifts, embracing them fully, but he needs to remain a full zealot. Make sure there is no way he could ever be on the battlefield running.

In 7th edition, Chaos sorcerers were not fearless, so they could run; which is really not fluffy for a First Acolyte. So you would want to give him an artifact that would give him fearless. Put him in a fearless squad and make a personal rule that he can never leave it, or make a personal rule that if he ever flees, he will be immediately killed.

 Exergy wrote:

 Prime259 wrote:
Could I Use A Chaos Sorcerer For A First Acolyte?

Word Bearers have parallel leadership structures tactical and strategic. One based on combat proficiency the other base on ideology. The First Acolytes being in the strategic/ideological side. There is nothing wrong with a first acolyte having socererous gifts, embracing them fully, but he needs to remain a full zealot. Make sure there is no way he could ever be on the battlefield running.

In 7th edition, Chaos sorcerers were not fearless, so they could run; which is really not fluffy for a First Acolyte. So you would want to give him an artifact that would give him fearless. Put him in a fearless squad and make a personal rule that he can never leave it, or make a personal rule that if he ever flees, he will be immediately killed.

K, Thanks I Will Keep That In Mind.

Honestly, you can use anything, though Cult might be a bit odd unless you have a plausible backstory, such as truly Nurgle-worshipping Death Guard join your warband as Plague Marines. There are Warbands and groups within the Word Bearers that worship one god more than the rest, so a Tzeentch-marked Daemon Prince or Khorne-marked Lord isn't amiss.

It's a pity GW retconned Mark of Chaos Undivided, but nothing we can do about that.

Out of curiosity, why do capitalise the first letter of almost every word? Bearers of the Word, not Capitalisers of the Word