# Red Corsairs?



## D-A-C (Sep 21, 2010)

Hey everyone a friend of mine is looking to use Chaos in 40k, I was trying to help him find an army that is competitive .... but .....which is also thematically interesting as well as looks great when painted.

So to make a short story long here was kind of how the discussion went

*Black Legion* - Too generic, and their paint scheme kind of feels like cheating, base coat Chaos Black, highlight Gold and Silver, and all black vehicles are worse

*Alpha Legion* - Was actually a favorite of his, the scheme is nice, but a little tricky. Where it came apart was the lack of rules for theme.

*Emperor's Children *- They are mine all mine (rubs my hands covetously) stay away!!!

*Death Guard* - He isn't interested and Nurgle and I recommended they are like the Iron Warriors of the previous edition, i.e. too many people playing them who just want to win.

*World Eaters* - This was the closet legion to being chosen, excellent rules with IOK getting +1 attack, Kharn, great paint scheme, only problem was he couldn't get passed the whole MAIM KILL BURN aspect and wouldn't listen when I said "you know they really don't charge tanks with their bare hands"

*Iron Warriors *- He liked what little fluff there is, especially Iron Cage, but no way to make them stand out rules wise and he hated their scheme

*Night Lords* - I told him about all their badassery (is that even a word lol?) they have great fluff, pretty cool paint scheme, he hated batwings (why they are awesome!?) and I also added that they are getting really over popular because of cool books, plus lack of special rules.

*Word Bearers* - He really liked the scheme, minute I told him about the fluff he just didn't like them.

*Thousand Sons* - I said they were weak gameplay wise and also he isn't a fan of the whole magic thing. 

So now to cut this short story I have made long short  he asked about the *Red Corsairs*. Now after I stopped laughing and doing pretty poor pirate imitations (aaaarrrrrgggghhhh matey, it be the scallywag Blackheart on the starboard bow lol) He actually made some pretty good points. 

(1) The scheme, when done well is pretty bad ass and not too hard.

(2) Th fluff is as good as its going to get for a renegade chapter.

(3) Most Codex options are available without feeling cheap by using the BL.

(4) They have their own special character (which I agreed could be used at even 1000pts games because of his points cost which is the minumum we play) and the model looks great. Plus hes quite good for his points.

(5) Huron, also, unlike either the Primarchs or Abaddon, has had quite a few success recently and definately isn't considered a joke in fluff terms by the imperium

Anyway that was alot of text to the ask the question could I have some opinions as regards what people think of the Red Corsairs? As I'm a bit too biased against them to be helpful. So what are your thoughts?


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## Angelus Censura (Oct 11, 2010)

I can't remember - does the Corsairs have a mix of different loyalist Chapters mixed into it? Or is it one chapter that turned traitor and then crossed out all Imperial Insignia.

I think maybe 1 (or possibly 2) codexes ago, long before there was a model for Huron, I took an army of Corsairs, and basically kitbashed whatever loyalist bits I could get from friends with Chaos bits, and then just put the Chaos arrows over Imperial Insignia. Looked really cool having a beat up bunch with mismatched dirty unkept armour from their old loyalist chapters. However, I think the fluff has gotten better since then - should be a good choice.


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## Eremite (Aug 27, 2010)

The Corsairs are a renegade chapter whop have turned to chaos and have their own (pretty sweet) colour scheme. Fluffwise some people dislike them as Johnny-Come-Latelies to the Long War, while some see them as the natural successors to old warhorses like Abaddon.

They are pirates in the sense that they specialise in ship-to-ship combat (which is what original space marines were all meant to do; marines, after all) and haunt Imperial shipping. They are given fully over the chaos and a major thorn in the Imperium's side despite only having a few companies post-Badab. 

For those who don't know, the Red Claws (then the Astral Claws) set themselves up as planetary rulers under the tyrant Lufgt Huron, essentially becoming a small renegade sovereignty within the Imperium. A few Chapters joined them and others were sent to bring them to heel. War raged for a few years, and the Astral Claws and their void-war speciality dragged it out marvellously, but ultimately they fled into the Maelstrom and fell to chaos. Their erstwhile allies, which include the Relictors, were all sent on penitent crusades and the victors allowed to plunder their lost equipment. 

We’ll be seeing more of the Corsairs in the up-and-coming books ‘Blood Reaver’ (by ADB, part of his ongoing Night Lords series) and in the more distant future ‘Gildar Rift’ (a Space Marine Battles novel by newcomer Sarah Cawkwell). Huron Blackheart appears, briefly, in a short story by Graham McNeil in Heroes of the Space Marines, but he mostly just sits on his throne acting evil rather than showing his tactical badassery. 

The pre and post Fall models of him and marvellous things, too, it must be said.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Eremite said:


> Their erstwhile allies, which include the Relictors, were all sent on penitent crusades and the victors allowed to plunder their lost equipment.


The rest of your post was correct and a great summary for the Red Corsairs, the Relictors however were not one of the Astral Claws' allies, nor were they sent on a Penitent crusade.

The Red Corsairs are essentially the diet, weakling version of the Black Legion- they'll accept recruits from any source, resulting in a number of fallen loyalists fleeing to the Maelstrom where the RC are based rather than the Eye of Terror where the Black Legion reside.


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## Warlock in Training (Jun 10, 2008)

Eremite said:


> The Corsairs are a renegade chapter whop have turned to chaos and have their own (pretty sweet) colour scheme. Fluffwise some people dislike them as Johnny-Come-Latelies to the Long War, while some see them as the natural successors to old warhorses like Abaddon.
> 
> They are pirates in the sense that they specialise in ship-to-ship combat (which is what original space marines were all meant to do; marines, after all) and haunt Imperial shipping. They are given fully over the chaos and a major thorn in the Imperium's side despite only having a few companies post-Badab.
> 
> ...





Baron Spikey said:


> The rest of your post was correct and a great summary for the Red Corsairs, the Relictors however were not one of the Astral Claws' allies, nor were they sent on a Penitent crusade.
> 
> The Red Corsairs are essentially the diet, weakling version of the Black Legion- they'll accept recruits from any source, resulting in a number of fallen loyalists fleeing to the Maelstrom where the RC are based rather than the Eye of Terror where the Black Legion reside.


Most have been said already. Red Corsairs is my Main Army and Fav. Their the BL of the Maelstrom. The few short Stories of them in C:CSM, WH40k BRB, and Novels are great. Stories of their taking the SW Strike Cruiser, taking the fight to a SM Chapters fortress and stealing their Geneseed crippling the Chapter, and hosting a competion for other CSM Lords to compete in. 

The 2 new IA Books coming out on the Badab War will further provide fluff and depth to Astral Claws/Red Corsairs.


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## D-A-C (Sep 21, 2010)

Hey everyone, thanks for all of the replies so far. I was thinking if he was going to play them as a fluff army he should probably drop all Icons. Would this be correct? Or could he use IOK, IOS, ION and IOT as he saw fit. 

He wants a Sorcerer in his army so I suggested that he could very easily be a Lt of Blackhearts and could have the MOT as they often make pacts which would explain his mark compared to no other icons. Again is this correct?

He also wants a Dreadnought (despite the crazed rule). For this I suggested it would be highly unlikely for the Corsairs to have a dreadnought of their own. However one way to circumvent this fluff gap, is say that on a ship to ship raid the Corsairs managed to find a dormant Dreadnought in stasis. They then could easily have corrupted it by bringing it to back to the Maelstrom, maybe even the Sorcerer Lt had a part to play in its corruption. Does this sound plausible?

Also is Huron the most powerful CSM in the Maelstrom, or at least one of the most powerful?

Finally, I think whats most interesting to me about the Red Corsairs (despite my lame pirate jokes) is the fact that they are the direct and natural opposite to endless supply of Space Marine Chapters. Meaning that I think as a CSM player (although its difficult to admit) there really aren't any legions any more. One of the great things about Blackheart is he doesn't have so much baggage and so he can draw on the strength of the past heresy without being significantly tied to its memory. Anyone else agree?


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Well the Red Corsairs are one of the most powerful factions within the Maelstrom but (and this is where the BL similarity ends) they are opposed by other factions of similar strength, the Word Bearers have an extremely large presence in the Maelstrom and Huron can't afford to anger such a mighty Legion.

The Red Corsairs have Marines dedicated to the various Gods in their ranks, as well as Dreadnoughts, some of which the Astral Claws brought with them and others captured or fallen with their chapters.


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## Daddysen (May 31, 2010)

Eremite said:


> Huron Blackheart appears, briefly, in a short story by Graham McNeil in Heroes of the Space Marines, but he mostly just sits on his throne acting evil rather than showing his tactical badassery.
> 
> The pre and post Fall models of him and marvellous things, too, it must be said.


when i read this I got this image of captain Barbosa from Pirates of the caribean crossed with doctor evil in my mind. remember the bad guy from inspector gaget, Doctor Claw , didn't he have a metal hand and a cat. I dont know about Huron it looks like they just stuck a lot of cliche bad guys in a blender and this is what came out! 

aside from my problems with unoriginality warptime with a heavy flamer and a power fist is no joke!


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

As well as the origional Astral Claws/Red Corsairs colour scheme i rmeembe rreading in one of te old CSM codex's (I'm thinking the first third edition) that sometimes new recruits who had recently turned traitor simpley crossed out their origional chapter markings with a big red cross but retained the rest of their heraldry.


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Yeah, that was after Huron turned from being "Awesome Space Marine Chapter Master" followed by his transformation to "Awesome Rebel Chaos Lord", to what we see today.


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## Pyroriffic (Feb 28, 2010)

Eremite said:


> Huron Blackheart appears, briefly, in a short story by Graham McNeil in Heroes of the Space Marines, but he mostly just sits on his throne acting evil rather than showing his tactical badassery.


I can assure you that he doesn't do a lot of sitting in _Gildar Rift_. I almost wish he would, the swine, it's a hard job keeping up with him!


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