You can view and/or download the full version over at Box through the link below:
Codex: Lost and the Damned
There's also now a list for using the codex with the Special Operations: Killzone rules:
Lost and the Damned for Killzone!
Here's the basic touchy-feely parts to hopefully spark your interest. For the full rules, hit up the link!
Codex: Lost and the Damned Version 1.1
Why play a Lost and the Damned army?
Have you ever skimmed over the Tanith parts of a Gaunt’s Ghosts book looking for the next part that has some Blood Pact or a stalk tank in it? Have you ever watched 300 and thought, “It’d be cool to play the Persians”? Do you find the guys the Inquisitors are hunting to be more interesting than the Inquisitors themselves? If so, the Lost and the Damned may be for you.
The Lost and the Damned is the catch-all name for the myriad human and semi-human forces arrayed against the Imperium. Mutant hordes, hidden cults rising in rebellion, armies spilling out of the Eye of Terror, traitors, heretics, and renegades of all stripes are all part of the Lost and the Damned. Many such forces also fight alongside daemons and Chaos Marines, making for an almost infinite number of possible armies. No two LatD (Lost and the Damned) armies need be alike. If you’re looking for something a little different, or are looking for a way to combine different parts of your collection in a new way, LatD may be for you.
With the ability to have such variety under your command, the game-play offers possibilities you normally can’t get from forces that are more uniform, and makes list-building an even more challenging and possibly rewarding exercise, with innumerable permutations to play. If you want one army that can always expand without getting old, LatD may be for you.
Whether your focus is on building a unique-looking force, experiencing Chaos in all its forms, or in playing something different on the tabletop, the Lost and the Damned may be the army for you!
This is a fan-made product that in no way intends any challenge to the intellectual property of Games Workshop. You need the rules for Warhammer 40,000 and Codex: Imperial Guard to make use of this codex, and having Codex: Chaos Space Marines and Codex: Chaos Daemons will also be required in order to use all of the options and unit types!
Building an Army
A Lost and the Damned army is a curious mix of forces. Aside from the unique units of its own, it often draws upon other army lists: Codex: Imperial Guard, Codex: Chaos Space Marines, and Codex: Chaos Daemons.
There are several choices to be made with a Lost and the Damned army that will significantly affect the makeup of the force. The individual aspects will be covered in more detail later, but for now when considering an army keep in mind the acronym LATD: Leadership, Alignment, Trajectory, and Development.
Leadership: Who is leading this particular force? A charismatic Cult Leader? A powerful Mutant Warlord? A skilled Traitor Officer? Or perhaps even an Astartes Lord? Each leader will provide advantages and allow you to build more tailored forces.
Alignment: Is the army devoted to one Chaos Power (Khorne, Nurgle, Slaanesh, Tzeentch) or is it an Undivided force? Those devoted to one power will be able to draw more deeply upon that god’s forces, but will be unable to call upon those of their patron’s rivals.
Trajectory: Forces can either be from outside the Imperium (Legions of the Eye) or more home-grown threats (The Enemy Within). The former will have more access to things like daemon engines, while the latter will have more access to Imperial-patterned vehicles.
Development: Now that you know the kind of force that you want, select appropriate units and fill in the details!
Modeling notes
Many of the units in the Lost and the Damned army and its allies will have obvious models already available. Some will not, but hopefully some clever model choice and minor conversion will take care of those.
You may note some things that are not included as options, such as a formal unit for normal man-sized mutants or beastmen. It is my opinion that in most cases, the differences between them and a guardsman would be minor in the context of the 40K rules and should just be handled via modeling choices. So if you want your army to be full of mutants, do so! Convert up your guardsmen or Rabble to be mutants and mutate up some Ogryn for larger mutants. Throw in some full-on beastmen for veterans and a Doombull for your Mutant Warlord.
You may also note that some things are still available as options that may seem odd for an army focused on servants of Chaos, like Commissars and Ministorum Priests. Here think of the in-game effect of the models, and come up with a traitorous equivalent if you want to include them. Call your Commissars “Enforcers”, “Cult Magisters” or something similar, some hard case that will keep the troops in line and more afraid of them and their Masters than the enemy. Similarly maybe you have grizzled beastmen or units juiced up on combat drugs that could make use of the Penal Legion rules. For a number of minor things I felt it better to present a range of units and let you decide for yourself which ones fit your vision of your army rather than try to make those choices for you.
Here's the link again for the actual codex: Codex: Lost and the Damned
THANKS!
My thanks and those of the Ruinous Powers go out to all who have given feedback on my blog or on The Codex Project forums. Ethereal the Shadow, Tiny_Sandwich, Chapter Master Domus, Rob, Atrotos, elotsip, 40Keydet, Colkillgore, Atreides, jabberjabber, Impcommander, Musings of a Smurf, Stucarius, Big Jim and anyone else I may have missed. Even when your suggestions weren’t used they helped me to clarify with myself where I wanted to go.
Thanks to everyone who’s given this a look-through and has gotten this far! I hope that you can get some use out of it with your local groups, as modeling inspiration, or as inspiration for your own projects!
While this stage of the development is over and I need a break, I welcome your thoughts on it! You can contact me through my blog profile at http://sonsoftaurus.blogspot.com/ or over at the Codex Project forums: http://codexproject.freeforums.org/index.php. If something’s unclear I’d be happy to try to explain how it was supposed to work, and if you do a review of it somewhere or use the rules for a battle report I’d love to see them!
I’d also love to see your own Lost and the Damned, Traitor Guard, Chaos Marines and other assorted heretics you may have and hear their stories. So send me your army backgrounds, memorable encounters, pictures, links to your blogs or forum threads with your army progress, etc.! Who knows, maybe some of them can wind up in the next edition when we expand the descriptions and background sections!
Your friendly neighborhood Arch Heretic,
sonsoftaurus
