Warhammer 40K: What to Expect From 2025’s Emperor’s Children

Goatboy here with what I think we should all expect in next year’s new 40K army – Emperor’s Children.

Goatboy here wow, what a 40K preview we got. Overall it didn’t start off as exciting as I wanted it to be – but we did get something pretty dang interesting in the end.  We finally saw some info on Emperor’s Children army coming out in 2025.  That is pretty rad and most likely means it might be one of the last of the “codex”releases if GW really starts cranking them out.  Heck I hope they speed things up, as it feels like we are missing 2-3 books right now as we head to the end of 2024.  With that let’s wax poetic and figure out what might actually show up in Emperor’s children. Remember that this army in the big picture fills the same role in 40K as Hedontites of Slaanesh does in AoS, so that Battletome may hold some hints.

Fulgrim had humble mini beginnings in EPIC

Let’s Start with Fulgrim

We’ll start at the top and we know will have two new Character models showing up.  The biggest of course will be Fulgrim. He will most likely be an interesting Daemon Primarch as he shouldn’t fly like the other two. Fulgrim most likely will be a different kind of assault beast when compared to Angron, and shouldn’t be a weird psychic powerhouse like Magnus.  This has me wondering,  what kind of design would he fall into?  I wonder if we have a system like the other three Primarchs have with a 3 tiered “choice” based system that manages to have decadent names.  You could do something like an Advance/Charge aura, a +1 to hit Aura, and maybe a Feel No Pain sort of thing.  All of these could be interesting when you start to stack them with other things. But for sure, Fulgrim should be a juiced up Keeper of Secrets that hits harder with more damage potential.  That would be the “best” basic format as again, this guy isn’t flying but maybe he could move through things like the sneaky snake he is.

Lucius The Eternal

From there we continue at the top and have a newly updated Lucius model that looks pretty rad.  He will probably get another wound and have mostly the same sort of rules I hope.  His Fights First is very powerful, and keeping that within the army feels like a good thing as most other armies are losing it.  Or they could go hog wild and make him like another Mephiston as he isn’t known to lead units into battle.  He really wants to win things on his own and he could gain some kind of cool pop up ability once you kill him once.  I am starting to feel that giving him a No LOS option would be pretty amazing and fit right in with some of the changes we have seen in other special characters. Lucius is broadly in the same vein as Sigvald, so a look at his AoS rules could provide a hint.

Emperor’s Children Characters

Continuing at the top we would probably look at the regular Chaos Lord showing up as an option followed by the Master of Executions.  Those two feel dead on to be added to this as while they don’t scream Emperor’s Children they also don’t scream about being locked in only specific armies.  I like the idea of having a few other options for the book and most likely finishing things off with some kind of Caster like the Master of Possession as a neat little add on option too.  We’ll see if a Sorcerer shows up or we get something special like some kind of Pain Master etc.

Noise Marines

Of course from there we have newly updated Noise Marines to help balance things out.  I wonder if we’ll get shooting-based ones and maybe some alternate build assault-based options.  I really wish Chosen showed up in World Eaters as it feels like a simple add-on to the army.  It’s the same with the idea that Terminators might not show up in this kind of list but Chosen feel well suited to be “picked” by Slaanesh for the army.  It gets really hard to see what models should skew into the different cult armies. While Thousand Sons and Death Guard have fully realized army choices with Troops to Elites we don’t nearly have that variety of units build out in World Eaters just yet.  I do get the feeling the release will feel more along the lines of World Eaters, with a smaller core of units to get the army launched,  so we will just have to see.

Cultists – But What Kind?

The Cultist like option will probably be very unique for them too.  The idea might push them more toward an Accursed style build as we have all the cultists really getting it on with pain, drugs, and more pain.  It makes me think will see this instead of a 10-man unit with a misspelled animal name like the Jakhals from World Eaters.  I think all the cult armies should have cultists and so far World Eaters is the only one with one type locked.  Time will tell if anything new comes to them whenever they get their fancy new book out with what I am guessing is the standard three Detachments.

Termys and Heavy Support?

I don’t think we’ll see Terminators for the army and I am probably guessing that Obliterators are not going to show up either.  This leaves a few holes at the Heavy side of t higns, which could will mostly be filled with CSM classics like Predators, Forgefiends, and Maulerfiends.  All the armies seem to love those Daemon Engines and I don’t see them not showing up in Emperor’s Children as I don’t think the army will get a custom Daemon Engine right off the bat.  This isn’t going to be like the Death Guard and all their gross little fart machines belching out damage.  I would also expect a Helbrute will show up and maybe a cool and unique one would be neat to have.  It is the same with a Daemon Prince option too that hopefully isn’t too expensive and doles out a dope aura.

Maybe a Funky Fast Attack?

I am hoping we see one really weird and unique option on the Fast Attack choice with either some kind of Daemon Riding option or something else fast and wicked.  I would love to see some of the Warp Talon like option that goes heavy into the noise aspects of their current kit design.  They would be cool as some kind of screaming death monster coming to remove your spine for Fulgrim to wear.  GW could either decide to really fill it out with Emperor’s Children unit roster with recycled CSM stuff, or go all new things to help “sell” more new unique kits for the army.

Emperors Children Army Rules

Finally what kind of overall rule will they have?  I don’t think they will keep Dark Pacts as that should just stay as a CSM style build.  We could do something like an escalating “Powered by Pain” chart that builds turn by turn to get more abilities as they move up, or maybe more damage is caused?  We could do something as simple as the World Eater rules option that lets you get a bunch of choices turn by turn as you roll something and decide.  I like that as it has been fun to play with that with World Eaters and something akin to that is just a cool set of rules.  Having choices turn by turn lets you really rethink how things work, give you fun player choices, and lets you have an exciting game.

What do you think? Are you excited about the upcoming Emperor’s Children release showing up in 2025?  

Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.

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