Warhammer 40k

[StevieLasVegas]

Yup. I swear it's from the first edition of the game, but please correct me if I am wrong

EDIT: can't say I was ninja'd. For some reason, the following page of replies wasn't showing for me. Weird.

 

[ForTheHoard]

Hey don't mean to bother with a possible stupid question but me and friends are playing 9th edition ( because fuck 10th ) and a question got brought up wether a unit needed line of site to charge another unit. Any help is appreciated and if it's not a bother sources would be appreciated. ( sorry for bad grammer and the run on sentences )

No, you don't need LoS to charge.

 

[Company_Commander_64]

No, you don't need LoS to charge.

Thank you that's what I thought, my friend can be a bit of a sperg about the rules so thx

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

How'd the old saying go from the lore Malal comes from? Khorne is a corrupted god of Valor (Bloodshed), Tzeentch is a corrupted god of Hope (Change), Slannesh is a corrupted god of Love (Passion), Nurgle is a corrupted god of Life (Disease).

Malal is a corrupted god of Justice (Destruction). Whenever anyone prays that something is unjust, that the Chaos gods must be made to pay, that something must be torn down and destroyed, Malal is listening.

He is the circle in the center of the 8 pointed Chaos star that all the other Chaos Gods are fleeing from.

So he's Jyggalag, and the 4 Chaos Gods are the other Daedric Princes. Got it.

But wasn't that star just ripped off from the Elric Saga?

That was me he is the best chaos guard the chaos god of anarcho egoism do whatever the hell you want as long as it's against people who aren't malice and malice will actually fight alongside you as long as you give him a nice body GW can't overcome the greatest god of all the guard of intellectual property rights
it's the same reason the creator of warhammer 40K left the company he got tired of them caring more about making money than he did about creating a good game was actually a good interview with him that someone posted seems like a nice guy

also GW needs to release more ridiculous and over the top space marine chapters you telling me we can have a chapter that literally flies around the universe with a giant shark in a tank

the fact that a lot of the space marine chapters don't have animal companions besides the space wolf
and the white Scars with the Falcons is a missed opportunity .
also the white Scars should definitely have units that ride in the battle on giant lions and tigers
or even horses
also why isn't there giant warp monstrosities that don't align themselves with the chaos god just monsters
you could have warp sea monster like creatures that would make it 10 times more scarier than demons imagine a planet sized monstrosity trying to rip your ship apart

That just boils down to GW being lazy twats who focus too much attention on the Space Marines. Every other faction could be way more developed if GW actually gave a shit about them.

Chaos could have lore that is just as developed as that of the SM chapters, especially with how ''lost'' Chaos gods could be re-emerging, or how the Daemon Primarchs are slowly planning to destroy the Imperium and replace it with a dark imperium that relies heavily on Chaos worship.

As for the warp monster thing, imagine a Warp version of the whale Porphyrios, like a warp monster that's been sinking ships right outside Terra's immediate space, halting traffic from the throne-world to other planets. The Imperium tries everything to get rid of it, from the Sisters praying to the Emperor to just kill the thing, to the Space Marines making Faustian bargains with their Chaos brethren in order to learn more, all to no avail.

There's so much that could be done with Chaos, if they were ever made to be something other than just the Imperium's punching bag. With how many Primarchs on their side, and how they have many Chaos Marines who have battle experience dating as far back as the Horus Heresy, and the fact that the Dark Imperium is as liberal with technology as humanity is during the Dark Age of Technology, these guys should be giving the Imperium the ass-whooping of their lives, not becoming the 40K equivalent of Team Rocket with Death Metal aesthetics. They should be the leading power, not the Imperium.

The Imperium should just be this small island of reason and rationality in a sea engulfed by people sacrificing to heathen gods who speak in forbidden tongues. That would be way more grimdark if the Imperium of Man becomes 40K's Rebel Alliance against an Empire of Chaos that dwarfs them several times over. The whole ''satire of religion'' makes way more sense if the average religious goon in 40K tries to sacrifice you to the Chaos Gods, as opposed to nuns with guns praying to an Emperor who actually does provide miracles to people who protect mankind.

 

[NerdShamer]

With how many Primarchs on their side, and how they have many Chaos Marines who have battle experience dating as far back as the Horus Heresy, and the fact that the Dark Imperium is as liberal with technology as humanity is during the Dark Age of Technology, these guys should be giving the Imperium the ass-whooping of their lives

To paraphrase one of their Dreadnoughts, "THERE IS NO BLOOD! THERE IS NO SOUL! THERE IS ONLY IRON!!!"

Yeah, exactly how am I supposed to take these guys seriously if they can't be bothered to stay sane enough to recognize when to stop yelling at each other and just drop the entire warband on an planet?

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

To paraphrase one of their Dreadnoughts, "THERE IS NO BLOOD! THERE IS NO SOUL! THERE IS ONLY IRON!!!"

Yeah, exactly how am I supposed to take these guys seriously if they can't be bothered to stay sane enough to recognize when to stop yelling at each other and just drop the entire warband on an planet?

The fact that Chaos keeps fucking up just makes it sad. They have all the ingredients of being the superior faction that should make them stronger than the main protagonists.

They have some of the more advanced warships like the Glorianas left over from the Horus Heresy days.

Their troops have battle experience that stretches for thousands of years, some even fought during the Horus Heresy or the Great Crusade.

The Imperials have two Primarchs, these guys have more than four.

Their Dark Mechanicum has less constraints than the Adeptus Mechanicus and can probably toy around with forbidden or alien tech better since Chaos corruption works in their favor, so if an STC has Chaos corruption in it, that's probably a plus for them since they can use that.

And yet these fuckers keep losing-to an army of primitive, superstitious apes who limit their technology due to their fears of Chaos, while worshiping someone who didn't want to be worshiped.

That's like what if Halo's Forerunners kept losing...........to the UNSC. That's how bad it is.

 

[NerdShamer]

They have all the ingredients of being the superior faction that should make them stronger than the main protagonists.

Everything but their sanity, in a way.

 

[p1138]

The problem is, that even if they didn't want to write chaos as constantly being losers, the way they've written chaos almost all of them are stupid.

The world eaters barely made it to terra during the horus heresy, because they were too busy killing their own ship crew, and eachother. This is the one chaos legion that is truly too stupid to exist.

Deathguard at least has nurgle magic to explain how all of their shit falling apart can make it through space to get somewhere.

Thousand sons, at least the sorcerers have functioning brains. But they're usually too busy fighting everyone but the imperium.

Nightlords, Wordbearers, Alpha legion yeah sure these guys should be able to figure something out.

Iron Warriors? Honestly these guys are a bit of a question mark for me since they just seem to randomly pop up every now and then in 40k.

Emperor's children, almost as bad as world eaters in terms of me wondering how the fuck any actual group of them can manage to get anything done. At least every now and then one of them with a functioning brain pops up in a book, rather than just all being random coomers or whatever the hell in the eye of terror.

Black legion is just a shit show of infighting even when Abaddon is in the room.

 

[NerdShamer]

Iron Warriors? Honestly these guys are a bit of a question mark for me since they just seem to randomly pop up every now and then in 40k.

Because they're too competent for them to be used as an recurring villain. They almost wiped out the Imperial Fists, for one.

 

[Salt_Merchant]

The fact that Chaos keeps fucking up just makes it sad. They have all the ingredients of being the superior faction that should make them stronger than the main protagonists.

They have some of the more advanced warships like the Glorianas left over from the Horus Heresy days.

Their troops have battle experience that stretches for thousands of years, some even fought during the Horus Heresy or the Great Crusade.

The Imperials have two Primarchs, these guys have more than four.

Their Dark Mechanicum has less constraints than the Adeptus Mechanicus and can probably toy around with forbidden or alien tech better since Chaos corruption works in their favor, so if an STC has Chaos corruption in it, that's probably a plus for them since they can use that.

And yet these fuckers keep losing-to an army of primitive, superstitious apes who limit their technology due to their fears of Chaos, while worshiping someone who didn't want to be worshiped.

That's like what if Halo's Forerunners kept losing...........to the UNSC. That's how bad it is.

because the whole point of falling to chaos is it doesnt just make you stronger, it also makes you weaker.

while yes, individually a chaos space marine with chaos gifts should defeat an imperial space marine

or a chaos possesed battleship would have an advantage over its non gribly counter parts

walking the path to glory takes away from you as much as you gain, John french says as much in the foreword of slaves to darkness

"They are made slaves who can no longer choose their own path. Chaos pulls them apart, divides them, consumes them and sets Horus’ forces against each other. It does not do this because it is a winning strategy, far from it; it does this because it can’t help it. The great powers in the warp, the four that are called gods, can come together and apply their power to a single end, but this can only be temporary. As soon as they align they begin to split. And because they are elemental forces they do this messily, and with all the care of an earthquake.

But why don’t Horus and his followers simply choose not to be swayed by these forces? Why don’t they just take the good bits – the special powers – but stay focused and united in their goals? Because once Chaos has its claws in them, they have no choice. Once an individual has let Chaos take hold of them, their thoughts and emotions begin to resonate and amplify in harmony with the great powers. Other ways of seeing events wither in their perception. The manifest powers of Chaos become a release that can only be accessed by falling deeper into their embrace. Characters fall to Chaos, but they spiral as they fall. They try to escape, but their every choice now only takes them deeper. There is no way out for Horus and those that follow him, they are slaves and doomed through their own choices to fall apart and on each other with murder and treachery."


the fact is chaos forces simply cannot work together in any meaningful way, which is the chief advantage the Imperials have.

its what in the background makes abaddon unique, He is able to extert significant levels of control over the myriad of forces who are intrinsicly opposed to working together, not enough to break their inherrant chaotic nature but enough to get meaningful thing dones that arent jus destroying planets they come across.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

Everything but their sanity, in a way.

The Joker's insane, but even he knows when to be a team player.

The problem is, that even if they didn't want to write chaos as constantly being losers, the way they've written chaos almost all of them are stupid.

The world eaters barely made it to terra during the horus heresy, because they were too busy killing their own ship crew, and eachother. This is the one chaos legion that is truly too stupid to exist.

Deathguard at least has nurgle magic to explain how all of their shit falling apart can make it through space to get somewhere.

Thousand sons, at least the sorcerers have functioning brains. But they're usually too busy fighting everyone but the imperium.

Nightlords, Wordbearers, Alpha legion yeah sure these guys should be able to figure something out.

Iron Warriors? Honestly these guys are a bit of a question mark for me since they just seem to randomly pop up every now and then in 40k.

Emperor's children, almost as bad as world eaters in terms of me wondering how the fuck any actual group of them can manage to get anything done. At least every now and then one of them with a functioning brain pops up in a book, rather than just all being random coomers or whatever the hell in the eye of terror.

Black legion is just a shit show of infighting even when Abaddon is in the room.

Which again, kills any suspense there is whenever these fuckers show up. It's just a ticking countdown of how long before these losers get their asses handed to them by Daddy Rowboat's finest. At this point, they're even more cliche villains than 80s cartoon villains who at least win once in a while. Hey, say what you will about the Decepticons from G1 Transformers, they drove the Autobots from Cybertron and ruled the homeworld with an iron fist. Chaos can't even manage that.

Yes, it's to the point where the Lovecraftian Cthulhu super-soldiers can't even top some bad guys from a children's robot cartoon.

its what in the background makes abaddon unique, He is able to extert significant levels of control over the myriad of forces who are intrinsicly opposed to working together, not enough to break their inherrant chaotic nature but enough to get meaningful thing dones that arent jus destroying planets they come across.

Abaddon failed so many times that he's accomplished nothing of substance; the Imperium is stronger and more united than ever before. All his Black Crusades failed even harder than the actual Crusades. At least the Baltic and Spanish Crusades accomplished some permanent change; the only thing Abaddon really accomplished was destroy Cadia, which is tolerable, since there's many other worlds that supply high-quality IG units, and split the Imperium in half, but that doesn't even change a lot of things considering that Guilliman is leading the Imperium, more Primaris Marines are coming, and the Imperium's forces are more united than ever, especially with the Lion also entering the fray.

"They are made slaves who can no longer choose their own path. Chaos pulls them apart, divides them, consumes them and sets Horus’ forces against each other. It does not do this because it is a winning strategy, far from it; it does this because it can’t help it. The great powers in the warp, the four that are called gods, can come together and apply their power to a single end, but this can only be temporary. As soon as they align they begin to split. And because they are elemental forces they do this messily, and with all the care of an earthquake.

But why don’t Horus and his followers simply choose not to be swayed by these forces? Why don’t they just take the good bits – the special powers – but stay focused and united in their goals? Because once Chaos has its claws in them, they have no choice. Once an individual has let Chaos take hold of them, their thoughts and emotions begin to resonate and amplify in harmony with the great powers. Other ways of seeing events wither in their perception. The manifest powers of Chaos become a release that can only be accessed by falling deeper into their embrace. Characters fall to Chaos, but they spiral as they fall. They try to escape, but their every choice now only takes them deeper. There is no way out for Horus and those that follow him, they are slaves and doomed through their own choices to fall apart and on each other with murder and treachery."

You can pretty much say the same thing for the Imperium prior to Guilliman coming back. The Space Wolves versus the Inquisition is one example; each faction in the Imperium takes care of itself, only for itself, and they play along only so they can get something out of it. Each Space Marine faction does its own thing, the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Inquisition might as well be rival faiths, and they only help each other if some serious threat is coming. Hell, between closed doors, these factions spend just as much time competing for power as they do protecting the galaxy.

The thing is, the way Chaos is written, they're just another form of shotgun fodder for the Imperium. Strong enough to be a threat for a book or two, not strong enough to upset the status quo. Even though they have more primarchs, more advanced warships, less technological restraints, a better relationship with the warp, and four Chaos Gods working with them, they're way too divided and weak to be anything other than a minor nuisance. The Imperium has too much plot armor, Chaos has too little of it. And are we supposed to believe that this existential threat to the Imperium was just so stupid that for the majority of the time, they couldn't pull together and at least pretend to be on the same side? Especially since all four Chaos Gods hate the Emperor more than they hate each other; they even call him the Anathema for fuck's sake. But they're too stupid to notice the fact that their own infighting sabotages their own cause.

At this point, no amount of beefing up from the novel-writers will wash the stain of repeated defeats and infighting among the Chaos forces.

the fact is chaos forces simply cannot work together in any meaningful way, which is the chief advantage the Imperials have.

Then in that case, they will always remain Team Rocket with spikes and tentacles. Nothing more, nothing less.

LOOKS LIKE ABADDON IS BLASTING OFF AGAIN!

 

[p1138]

Then in that case, they will always remain Team Rocket with spikes and tentacles. Nothing more, nothing less.

LOOKS LIKE ABADDON IS BLASTING OFF AGAIN!

I mean sure, but that's the thing... and here's the TLDR version of what Salt_Merchant said... They're chaos, not the organized legions. Not followers of order. They aren't following gods of coherency. It would actually be incredibly weird if "chaos" suddenly got their shit together. Their problem is in the name.

 

[Company_Commander_64]

Iron Warriors? Honestly these guys are a bit of a question mark for me since they just seem to randomly pop up every now and then in 40k.

Iron warriors should BE a threat to the imperium. But they arnt, despite the fact they keep their legion numbers up, they're mostly uncorrupted by chaos, and use actually tactics and strategy. I mean they infected a hive ship with the same techno virus as the obliterators and used it to drop titans. Not to mention they carried the heresy on their backs.

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

I mean sure, but that's the thing... and here's the TLDR version of what Salt_Merchant said... They're chaos, not the organized legions. Not followers of order. They aren't following gods of coherency. It would actually be incredibly weird if "chaos" suddenly got their shit together. Their problem is in the name.

The least they could do is knock out the Imperium first before going back to killing each other. Which, like I said, if that's all they do, then they will forever be the Imperium's bitch. Forever relegated to punching bag status in the plot. Which pretty much kills the tension.

Again, the fucking Decepticons in the Transformers G1 cartoon at least accomplished more. They successfully drove the Autobots from their homeworld and reduced them to fucking freedom fighters. Chaos can't even manage that. Chaos can't even beat the bad guys from a kid's robot toy cartoon.

Iron warriors should BE a threat to the imperium. But they arnt, despite the fact they keep their legion numbers up, they're mostly uncorrupted by chaos, and use actually tactics and strategy. I mean they infected a hive ship with the same techno virus as the obliterators and used it to drop titans. Not to mention they carried the heresy on their backs.

That's because the plot says so. The Iron Warriors should be a threat, but they are not, because that's not what the story uses Chaos factions for.

 

[Cats]

lol

"...He works his way down a long spiral stair, wheezing as he goes. His lungs are half full of fluid, and he cannot help but think it is a poor Gift. Then again, he has thought other Gifts were poor in the past, only to discover their genius much later. 'Forgive', he says, speaking softly to the Little Lord Nurgling at his elbow. The tiny daemon giggles, then farts liquidly into the crook of his armor. That counts as forgiveness, probably."

 

[Imperial Citizen]

The least they could do is knock out the Imperium first before going back to killing each other. Which, like I said, if that's all they do, then they will forever be the Imperium's bitch. Forever relegated to punching bag status in the plot. Which pretty much kills the tension.

The thing is that the Chaos Gods are empowered by the emotional highs of instability. Betrayal, madness, unpredictability are their nature.

It’s why Kharn is the Betrayer, why Tzeentch intervened to prevent Magnus from killing Ahriman, why Lorgar doesn’t step out of his solitude and gut Erebus and Kor Phaeron for their political wars. The Gods want eternal war and prolonging conflicts, rivalries, and mistrust is their way to achieve everlasting battle.

The Gods are nothing more than conscious pools of emotion. For all their power, they are not truly intelligent as they are only driven to feed their immediate desires of creating chaos.

 

[Salt_Merchant]

The least they could do is knock out the Imperium first before going back to killing each other. Which, like I said, if that's all they do, then they will forever be the Imperium's bitch. Forever relegated to punching bag status in the plot. Which pretty much kills the tension.

Again, the fucking Decepticons in the Transformers G1 cartoon at least accomplished more. They successfully drove the Autobots from their homeworld and reduced them to fucking freedom fighters. Chaos can't even manage that. Chaos can't even beat the bad guys from a kid's robot toy cartoon.


That's because the plot says so. The Iron Warriors should be a threat, but they are not, because that's not what the story uses Chaos factions for.

They cant simply just put aside their infighting

thats the point


the first thing they did after fleeing real space into the eye of terror wasnt regrouping and getting ready to enact revenge, it was to try to murder each other to the point that the sons of horus were nearly wiped out., and the world eaters Break their entire legion irreparably fighting the emperors children over skalathrax.

Warband command isnt based on who the best leader is, its based on who can give each individual marine in the warband what they want (usually power and glory), and who is the hardest to murder. You dont see the space wolves or ultramarines having their chapter masters killed by their own captains for promotion (yes this probably happens in some random chapters, but they would be the exception) But killing your predecessor is a legitimate way to climb the ranks within a chaos warband.

as for the iron warriors.

WOuld the entire iron warriors legion be a threat to the imperium?

sure, but good luck ever convincing all the disparate factions within the old legion (a legion that hasnt existed for 10 millenia now and is now just roving warbands) to unite under a single leader unless said leader was perturabo, and thats not factoring in iron warriors forsaking their ties to their father, or just joining the black legion entirely. (which again requires you to forsake your ties to your primarch)

The black legion is the single largest group of heretic astartes in the galaxy, and even it is just a crudly woven coalition of warbands united under Abaddons rule, if abaddon was to die the black legion would collapse entirely into disparate parts,


you also seem to be completely ignoring the fact the imperium was split into 2, and that imperium nihilus is a xenos and chaos ravaged hellscape with barely any imperial control. (not that i blame you as Geedubs has done fuck all with it)

 

[LORD IMPERATOR]

you also seem to be completely ignoring the fact the imperium was split into 2, and that imperium nihilus is a xenos and chaos ravaged hellscape with barely any imperial control. (not that i blame you as Geedubs has done fuck all with it)

THAT IS MY COMPLAINT. GW HAS DONE FUCK ALL WITH IT.

All we get from Chaos stories is that some Chaos army rocks up to some Imperium world, or that some Chaos corruption happens, but no matter the outcome, it does nothing to dent the Imperium, it doesn't change the status quo, and Chaos might as well be a fart in the fucking wind.

Everything that you said would have been worthwhile, if it wasn't for the fact that Chaos, the thing that broke the Imperium during the Heresy, the force that kept the Emperor up at night, the main reason he even banned religion in the first place.........is relegated to the same position Team Rocket has in the Pokemon anime. They're punching bags. Chumps. They can't even get their shit together, and all they do is fight each other or get Rowboat's boot up their asses. Four gods, more demigods, more advanced tech, and war veterans whose battle experience stretches millennia, and they're about as threatening as Team Rocket trying to steal Ash's Pikachu for the umpteenth fucking time. It doesn't matter how many people they corrupt, it doesn't matter how far their influence spreads, they're just brainless animals fighting each other and barely even threatening the outside world.

The thing is that the Chaos Gods are empowered by the emotional highs of instability. Betrayal, madness, unpredictability are their nature.

It’s why Kharn is the Betrayer, why Tzeentch intervened to prevent Magnus from killing Ahriman, why Lorgar doesn’t step out of his solitude and gut Erebus and Kor Phaeron for their political wars. The Gods want eternal war and prolonging conflicts, rivalries, and mistrust is their way to achieve everlasting battle.

The Gods are nothing more than conscious pools of emotion. For all their power, they are not truly intelligent as they are only driven to feed their immediate desires of creating chaos.

And that is another problem. You'd expect nefarious gods of eldritch horror to have more brains than a cockroach. How these guys are supposed to be threatening, I cannot fathom. It seems that all you need to do is just give them a wide berth and slap around the ones that try to jump the border.

Again, if they were this non-threatening, the Emperor keeping them a secret from his sons was an even bigger goof. He could've just told them the truth.

''OK boys, just so you know, there's this realm called the Warp ruled by demons and gods, but the four gods in charge are complete dipshits who war with each other just as much as they do with the outside, and if you get entangled with them, you'll just waste away being used as cannon fodder for these gods to wage eternal war on each other in an eternal slapfight that won't end. Just stay clear of them, 'kay? Always remember that daddy loves you........''

No need for banning religion or keeping this shit a secret, they're all just goofballs who can't get along anyways. And in the few times they do get along enough to strike as one, just focus your strength in defending until they break apart and start arguing again.

This is why nobody fears them anymore. Anytime they show up in the novels or comics, it's a joke. They're going to get their candy asses whooped because they can't pull together to cause any real damage or be of any real threat to any serious galactic power.

 

[p1138]

THAT IS MY COMPLAINT. GW HAS DONE FUCK ALL WITH IT.

All we get from Chaos stories is that some Chaos army rocks up to some Imperium world, or that some Chaos corruption happens, but no matter the outcome, it does nothing to dent the Imperium, it doesn't change the status quo, and Chaos might as well be a fart in the fucking wind.

Everything that you said would have been worthwhile, if it wasn't for the fact that Chaos, the thing that broke the Imperium during the Heresy, the force that kept the Emperor up at night, the main reason he even banned religion in the first place.........is relegated to the same position Team Rocket has in the Pokemon anime. They're punching bags. Chumps. They can't even get their shit together, and all they do is fight each other or get Rowboat's boot up their asses. Four gods, more demigods, more advanced tech, and war veterans whose battle experience stretches millennia, and they're about as threatening as Team Rocket trying to steal Ash's Pikachu for the umpteenth fucking time. It doesn't matter how many people they corrupt, it doesn't matter how far their influence spreads, they're just brainless animals fighting each other and barely even threatening the outside world.

You do realize that GW has done fuck all with the "plot" of 40k for almost 20 years(basically 3rd edition up until the start of 8th), right? Even with just the Eisenhorn stuff it took them 9 years to get from Bequin Pariah, to Penitent. It took 6 years for them to eventually put together a novel about the fall of cadia. Hell, if you go back to the original eye of terror campaign thing, that makes it 14 years to get resolved, and still 20 to end up as an actual book that wasn't just bullshit lore blurbs attached to rules.

With regard to how utterly glacial GW has been when it comes to moving shit along for 40k, of course they haven't done a damned thing with Chaos, especially "winning" in any meaningful way. It's why they had to make tyranids the latest big bad with 10th edition because an army of primaris marines and the indomitus crusade need to be distracted by something stupid so they couldn't just keep going along in the Dawn of Fire series and score a bunch of victories.

Genefather: Fabius Bile wins. But that doesn't mean much since he just got some material for his "nu-men" that won't amount to shit.
Arks of Omen: Vashtorr and Abaddon were allowed to get the parts they needed for their whatever key thing, and have done fuck all with it. At least Angron technically got a win by breaking the choral engine that was supposed to have been a small equivalent of the beacon on terra.
Ahriman series: He's been busy fucking around with xenos, still trying to undo the rubric.
Ephrael Stern: Apparently before The Heretic Saint she was on the opposite side of the rift and was travelling back to the imperium controlled side, and we hear nothing about the other side than it's a total shit show. I don't recall what Kyganil fucked off to do by himself.
Dawn of Fire series: The past few books have basically been about girlyman ordering some ships to find a way through the rift via some passage. In the latest one, Sea of Souls I think the name is?(it's the one with dollar store eddie murphy on the cover) Chaos manages to take over... 1 ship. The damned Black Templars in an earlier book took out a damned torchbearer fleet because one of their chaplains was afraid of primaris, so technically BT got more done on accident than Chaos.
Bequin: These books don't even take place in the correct millenium to be moving anything along at this point.
Dark Imperium: Chaos was winning... until the emperor had to make robot girlyman into a super saiyan because otherwise there was no way he was winning that fight, but it wasn't like they were going to just immediately kill gorillaman after bringing him back into the setting. This was just shit writing all around as they had written themselves into a corner
The Lion: He's fucking around gathering up forces at the end of the sons of the forest book to fight against chaos in the rift, but of course the book isn't focused on that at all and he takes out the leader of a chaos war band, whoopdeedoo. Lost 1 or 2 planets in the process.

So yeah, Chaos can't ever do anything major because Chaos can't simply and will never "win", as their wins already happened with the scattering of the primarchs and the horus heresy itself. GW is never going to change this. And while Chaos is busy not winning anything, at the same time GW also still has other factions they need to have people writing for because Chaos isn't the only antagonist in the setting. The Indomitus novel, as awful as it was, the imperium lost to necrons. I don't know what you're expecting Chaos to ever be doing in the setting other than amounting to a foil and punching bag for the imperium, but that's literally how it's always been.

Again, if they were this non-threatening, the Emperor keeping them a secret from his sons was an even bigger goof. He could've just told them the truth.

I don't think anyone argues that the Emperor wasn't an idiot. Remember he had been alive on Terra for thousands of years, implied to have even been Alexander The Great, so that's basically 30,000 years of the emperor failing one way or another.

 

[TingoFranDingo]

You do realize that GW has done fuck all with the "plot" of 40k for almost 20 years

I thought it was kinda funny how in the Cypher book, it gets all the way to the end and Cypher is right there about to meet the emperor and gets told "not right now" and Cypher just fucks off