Codex: Catachans (3rd Edition) - Codex Compliant

Catachan: shirt optional but shouting is mandatory.
Big thanks to the folks who lent us their voices for this video!
Kristina Amuan:
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Kirioth:
/ kiriothtv
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[@RaptorShadow]

As a fellow Australian, I'm considering starting a support group for those traumatised by the memes.

[@Trisaart]

Same we could set one up in each state!

[@Swarbie8D]

“Hi, my name is Swarbie8D and I’m .... an Aussie 40K fan”

[@Scrombo2]

No jokes, no memes, I just like the Catachan knifey boys, and Sly Marbo is always fun

[@ianshaliczer]

Memes? I thought they were documentaries!

[@chibizion]

What about all the upside down memes?

[@maddlarkin]

My mate used to run a Catachan army and it minced everything that came near a tree, stray into the forest and next thing you know your hit by two demo charges, a squad of heavy flamers and 20 maniac guardsmen with WS4 were leaping out of the trees to finish what was left... I saw Deathwing armies disintegrated by this... God I miss when the Guard had flavour

[@LongWarEnjoyer]

GW: Oh, you said you want to play gun line Cadians, good.

[@Daktangle]

Same, my friends starting banning me from playing as them because they hated fighting in forests/jungles and getting mulched by guardsmen...or the crazy setup time when I plonked down 50 guardsmen as a troops choice >.>

[@lordhamster9452]

The trees speak low gothic.

[@nekrataali]

Yup! Catachans were pretty top-tier during 3rd. Edition. The ability to infiltrate and pack a bunch of special weapons and demo charges into each squad meant they often punched above their weight, especially against Space Marines and their equivalents.

[@JustLookinkAround]

That sounds absolutely glorious!

[@EdFortune]

Praise Be to the Weird Alien Cactus.

[@ravensroost3224]

Praise be!

[@chibizion]

Praise be!

[@golgarisoul]

🌵

[@theapostatejack8648]

Praise Be!

[@stuart1745]

Amen

[@apocrypha5363]

"Call that a Catachan Kill-Knife? That's not a Catachan Kill-Knife, this is a Catachan Kill-Knife!"

[@BetweenDD]

That's a Catachan Kill-Spoon...

[@titanuranus3095]

@@BetweenDD I see that you have played Catachan Kill-Knifey/Catachan Kill-Spooney before.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

"That's Commissar Spork. Don't ask about his name, we lost the fifth squad's plasma gunner that way."

[@EdFortune]

Ah, Catachan. For when you need more Rambo in your Rambo.

[@HA1LILPALAZZO]

not Rambo enough for ya? then how about a character literally based on Rambo? and to top it all off his name is gonna be an anagram for Rambo XD

[@agentorangecb1]

Rambo was based on Sly Marbo. They had to change the name for the films due to copywrite issues. The band metallica is also named after a Mechanicum Forgeworld

[@cilliancallaghan9788]

I just realised after a decade in the hobby that Marbo is Rambo with a few letters switched around. I’m an idiot

[@youdontneedtoseehisidentif4939]

Eh, don't feel bad - today I realised that Sly Marbo's first name is an allusion to Stallone's nickname; I am not a clever boy

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Yeah, most people don't get it for a while. I didn't notice for years.

[@SinOfAugust]

When I grow up, I'm going to become an unscrupulous Rogue Trader, making a living on knockoff Catachan Knives.

[@armedbrit493]

Just hope you don't bump into a real Catachan who clocks you're selling knock off 'tooths'.

[@bobthesnotling8647]

To end the confusion, Catachan is pronounced "Catachan".

[@WeirdGuy4928]

Oh man, for years I've been pronouncing it Catachan. I feel so stupid.

[@nakenmil]

Thanks!

[@bobthesnotling8647]

@@the98themperoroftheholybri33 exactly!

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Catachan - Survive 24 hours, immediately get promoted to Sergeant.

[@nekrataali]

Survive 6 months, and you've started teething.

[@Zebarianian]

Throughout 3rd edition I dreamed of running a Kroot vs Catachan jungle hell campaign. Would have been incredible.

[@nekrataali]

One of the guys in my shop played Catachans and I played Feral Orks...made for some crazy games lol 😄😎

[@JennFaeAge]

"Praise be to the Weird Alien Cactus" might be the most Snipe and Wib quote I've heard...possibly ever

[@rmod42]

Ah codex catachans, the start of a beautiful line of regimental codecies that never was... one day tallarns, one day...

[@garymcgregor5951]

Yeh, my Praetorians are still waiting, too!

[@Mrkabrat]

Can't say much about 40k due to my lack of ignorance of its rules, but maybe they could do like the 6th ed WFB armybooks and have alternative army lists within the book (like the Night Goblin army or the Karak Kadrin army)

[@TheBoyFromNorfolk]

@@Mrkabrat They did, at one time you could create a custom regiment with a wide selection of special rules availible. It was epic.

[@Mrkabrat]

@@TheBoyFromNorfolk The times when you could go hog wild building an army list with different units

[@vaughanb1963]

Soon the Men of Fluffiness that lurk on the sofa will take over

[@VallornDeathblade]

"Why do people live here!?" A wise question Covus... A wise question indeed...

[@danieldeak9141]

Catachan: AKA Space Vietnam.

[@WarhammerGeek]

The "Oops, Sorry Sir" rule reminds me of the actual practice of "fragging" which is a self-explanatory thing that happened during the Vietnam war. Your officer would go to sleep and you can guess the rest. For better or worse most incidents didn't actually kill the target.

[@KillerOrca]

My uncle told me about how his unit sergeant almost got that. They just rolled him into a irrigation ditch loaded with gross ass water though and he had to walk back to their LZ soaked to the bone and covered in reeking mud. Apperently it "did the trick" and the guy stopped being a flaming asshole. They actually liked him by the end of their tour.

[@asteroidrules]

So basically Marbo's lore evolution mirrors that of the man he's based on, Rambo. Originally a traumatized and scarred veteran who just snapped he's now become a heroic figure.

[@vxicepickxv]

It's basically the same thing, except I don't think GW ever gave a shout out to the Mujahideen.

[@jademerrydown2943]

The fact that I remember buying this book is starting to make me realise how long I've been in the warhammer fandom XD

[@juangonzalezdiaz7466]

The idea of your opponent’s army using an auspex (or equivalent), a very specialized piece of technology, to try to discover where did you put some pointy sticks in a ground in the hole covered in leaves is extremelly funny to me and I can’t really tell why

[@mbufton]

The concept that ork attack squigs can smell holes in the ground just adds to the hilarity

[@lioneljohnsononvacation2635]

Catachans there. Really nice place. Thanks vulkan for suggesting it for my vacation.

[@damianblack]

Enjoyon' the jungle scenery, brother? I dunnae think i'd like it as much. Prefer the cold...

[@lioneljohnsononvacation2635]

@@damianblack Yes, brother Russ. It reminds me of Caliban. When it still had monsters on it.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

@@lioneljohnsononvacation2635 When it still had ANYTHING on it.

[@itsmegoodbye9227]

Half your chapter [REDACTED BY INQUISITORUM HERETICUS] hope your hyper cocky attitude has been purged knowing that

[@hairyiceman]

I have so many fond memories of using this codex with my friends. Bizarrely (probably due to our age) we kept pronouncing it as cat-ach-ans. Also, special shoutout to how incredibly awesome the heavy flamer & demo-charge models were. Why yes, I do like infantry that can throw ordnance templates.

[@MichaelAlthauser]

TIL that Snipe is Australian. Another great video, seems like Catachan had some really thematic rules to fit the entire army theme, much more so than you'd see today.

[@chopmopjeter18]

Damn dude I miss when 40k used to have wild and elaborate special rules. The Catachans in more recent editions are barely even a shell of their former selves. I am also still annoyed that Guard can't take Platoons any more. IG armies are so oddly organized and ramshackle nowadays, Platoons were an organizational boon to them and it really helped with enforcing the military aesthetic/feel.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

I liked 40k's elaborate special rules too, but now they've scrapped Universal special rules and loads of units have identical rules with dozens of different names, there's no room for the more weird stuff. I also hate Stratagems, but that's a rant for somewhere else. It goes on for ages.

[@garymcgregor5951]

I couldn't agree more!

[@Joetime90]

Ah the glory days

[@garymcgregor5951]

@@TheSmart-CasualGamer one of my favorites, though I never played bugs, was "Jones is acting strangely"! It was Fun! And let us not forget the Weird Boy 'Ead Bang table!

[@NMahon]

@@garymcgregor5951 stuff like that adds so much character and fun to the game. I think it's done way too much to please the competitive crowd

[@owenbevt3]

I’d almost forgotten that once upon a time non-marines got a bit of attention.

[@Carsf100]

I'm highly surprised Snipe didn't giggle at "booby traps." Excellent video, as always.

[@UnkleKlumsy1353]

Melancholic nostalgia. I miss the days of third edition

[@Slev00]

FWIW, when I worked at GW, Catachan was pronounced as you guys do across the company!

[@mattmatt1302]

11:32 at first i thought this was just funny hyperbole but taking into account the strange days we are living right now i realised that may be true.

[@mrbanana69]

Gigachad: Yes I play catachan how can you tell?

[@williamaitken7533]

Aaaaa Look y'all, your codex compliant series is genuinely one of the best pieces of Warhammer content out there. I really appreciate the research and humor that you put into it. It's always awesome seeing y'all in my notifications!

[@Delveintohobby]

That last bit about an overused meme is painfully true for most 40k memes

[@theoriginalcheebamech]

For Ghosts fans use this codex and just replace each instance of 'Catachan' with 'Tanith'

[@KillerOrca]

Oh so thats how you run their scout leader.

[@theoriginalcheebamech]

@@KillerOrca there is this: docs.google.com/file/d/0B6P_IpE7H5z7UlFpcVZqWTFRWXM/edit?pli=1

[@Smeghead76]

@@KillerOrca Mkoll is awesome, but Mkvenner is even more so.

[@apocrypha5363]

On the subject of the Woad Warriors of Tangar, if a Marine chapter was founded on that reginent's homeworld, would they be called the Tangarines?

[@pitmatix1457]

Only if they covered themselves in fake tan instead of woad for that full orange effect.

[@harrylarrison4417]

I used to like that old platoon rule for fluff. I can see why they got rid. I had a guard army made up entirely of infantry who would all deepstrike in due to a doctrine you could have. They would almost always lose but it was great fun to airdrop two huge platoons in every corner of the board.

[@urscreenhere]

While I brought the surviving catachan miniatures from my youth, the self-same codex most likely gathers dust I'm my folks house...

[@kharadron3561]

I'm ginger, I'm now considering Lorge George's bandana to be ginger hair

[@TheGrayfrog100]

Toe Poppers are a real thing. Used in Vietman if I remember correctly. Though not with Bolter rounds obviously.

[@TheGrayfrog100]

"The M14 mine blast-type anti-personnel mine used by the United States during the Vietnam War was known as the "toe popper." Earlier examples of the toe-popper were the Soviet-made PMK-40 and the World War II "ointment box." The United States also used the M16 mine, a copy of the German "Bouncing Betty"." Im a History Geek.

[@KillerOrca]

@@TheGrayfrog100 Makes sense considering, you know, this is basically Space Nam we're talking about.

[@TheGrayfrog100]

@@KillerOrca I have always had a kinda soft spot for these guys :)

[@thomasjauncey9871]

Loved this codex - this was all I'd ever wanted from an IG army at time, lots of guerilla infantry. Its a large reason why I play GSC now - they're mechanically the same in lots of ways. Great vid

[@Voelund]

Wasn't it in this there was a short text about other guardsmen calling the Catachans "Baby Orgyns" but not to their face?

[@aidanfarnan4683]

"And I for one welcome our Weird alien cactus overlords...."

[@TheAjcostello5672]

Oh, the memories! I loved this book and making my own Deathworld Veterans! I used a lot of the old (1995) Necromunda weapons sprues that you could get back then to make shotgun-toting crazies. Oh, the feels!

[@garymcgregor5951]

My Orlocks did double duty in my Catachan army!

[@AcceptTheNull]

Catachan (Cawh tahh chan) was my first army in 96/97ish, as I think it was the guard box set at the time. My friends and I ended up adopting the terrain rules for all games, especially using colored yarn to represent different areas, but give easy movement. It was so much more interesting then the like six, very minimal looking, pieces that normally ended up on table.

[@pudlordtynan919]

It's the Rambois

[@immortalgamer3960]

This is the book that got me into Warhammer 40k. One of my friends had a few squads of Catachans and the old jungle snipers and had the codex to play them. One look through the book and I'm still playing this game almost 2 decades later. (Though I went marines because we didn't want to play the same army but we wanted to be able to be "on the same team".)

[@angush8595]

Snipe's confidence at the begining is how i aspire to be in all aspects of my life

[@matthewberryman6609]

I have this on my bookshelf. This was one of my favorite guard regiment and was a really good supplement.

[@walt_man]

I almost forgot about you guys out there. Great video showcasing what WAS 40k and how it WAS awesome under the wing of Jervis, Andy, Gav, et all.

[@AlexJP88]

I still think in 2024 the Codex: Catachans would still be popular to read than it was back in 2000. I think it was brilliant that Catachans had their own Codex back then with interesting Catachan stories, a little blurb about each unit and wild Jungle information. about the whole world of Catachan . I pop back from time to time to watch this video again.

[@Pikilloification]

Bought this one back in the day. The catachan guardsmen plastic kit was revolutionary when it came out...

[@Chronic.]

9:17 that sentence cracked me up more than it should have.

[@lordceno948]

In early February 2001 I played my first real game of 40K. It was my small collection of Eldar vs Catchans. Thing is, while driving to the game store one of my tires popped, I spun out, and only a snowbank prevented my driver's side door from hitting a phone pole. I can legitimately say I nearly died. After getting the spare tire on the others with me convinced me to continue onto the store. Long story short I lost that game badly. Not only was it my first real game after a few baisc 'learn the phases' games, but unsurprisingly my head just wasn't in it. Afterwords I dropped off some of the others at a party they were interested in, but elected to head back to our university campus and try to de-stress. After a failed attempt to do a bit of reading for class, I headed to the gaming club's office and ended up reading one of the copies of Codex: Catachans we had and found something not mentioned in this video. After all the special rules for deathworld terrain, snipers, booby traps, etc. there is a note saying that before playing you should make sure your opponent is clear on all these rules and not just mention them in passing at the start of the game. Well, I had no friggin' idea and it was a pretty terrible introduction to the game. Luckily it didn't turn me off entirely.

[@flyboy_nathan4112]

The power move would've just been to pronounce it chattercan the whole video

[@theodryche7294]

3:39 It feels the most Grim because "'toe poppers" are a real thing used in various forms by both sides during the Vietnam War.

[@TheSmart-CasualGamer]

Jesus CHRIST. Was there ANYTHING in that war that wasn't a Human Rights nightmare?

[@penguinsentinel8508]

11:42 - Snipe gives us the Sly Marbo death glare.

[@wolvz7081]

Codex day!!! Some people love Christmas, Hanukkah or Ramadan. But for me I have something even more specialier to look forward too, and that’s Codex Day. Right do I have time to watch it today. 😬

[@spaceninja7687]

Ah brings back memories of having an army of bulky men in nothing but T-shirts and red bandanas fighting against two story sized monsters with flashlight guns.

[@goreobsessed2308]

The funny thing is the toe - popper concept wouldn't work with modern shotgun shells when the primer is struck outside of a barrel they make a loud sound and the powder blows bit the pressures so low that the shot just sits their and the rest flies a few feat. It's why it took so much experimentation to make guns it take a very specific setup to send the bullet downrange and not just the lighter case pieces. - you can see a video of it in action look up camping trip alarm their setoff by string and use a shell usually to scare bears or boar's from stealing your camp food but a warning against people to if needed

[@J.C136]

> sees wib comment on the plushies > "haha thats funny" > looks to my litteral shelf of plushies plus a bunch of others on top of the clothes draw > "oh no"

[@pclone5019]

I don't actually have time to watch this video now, but I figured since it just went up that I'd stop by to drop a like and comment early so that I don't have to do so later. Great video I assume.

[@pclone5019]

For anyone curious, my assumption was correct.

[@christophersmith8848]

1:20 You see, someone just picking one is fine, but switching between them would've driven me to Chaos 7:40 Hi Kirioth

[@TomCruiseRisky]

First Codex and force I ever fell in love with as a youngin'. Just great times trying to paint up these guys and playing with the special ambush rules.

[@fredchristensen9113]

'Earless Torment' sounds like a good band name.

[@DayLoukarai]

"Oops, sorry sir" is pretty clearly an oblique reference to the fact that Americans in Vietnam (from the conflict Catachans are based on) were a draft army, and thus were notorious for killing their commanders out of, well, not really wanting to be in Vietnam.

[@wobblyjoe8402]

Old time Guard player here and happy to see them in this series. Would definitely like to see more. Miss the days when the Leman Russ was the most bad ass tank in the game.

[@j.murphy4884]

There's a lot of Solid Snake in Marbo too, look at that bandana, that handgun.

[@oreoiscoolification]

Oh boy, Cata-chan sure is kawaii with such oversized knives and biceps!

[@Confuseddave]

Yes, but you live in Derbyshire, so saying you've seen something more than the sun means you've seen it... four, five times right?

[@scarecrow2097]

It makes me sad that there's the chance they'll run out of classic codexes at some point :( as someone who joined during 8th, I love this series

[@joostteboekhorst9914]

i love my little army of top heavy screamers. even better when you run full veterans with 4 flamers per squad. especially now flamers are more powerful.

[@JennFaeAge]

*puts on Comic Book Guy voice* Best. Codex Compliant ending. Ever

[@Moneor]

3rd edition had some really interesting and unusual armies - Lost and the Damned (Chaos Horde), Speed Freeks, 13th Company... Too bad GW put the plug on most of them soon after.

[@asteroidrules]

I kind of want to run some games with these jungle fight rules in 9th edition now. A decent amount of them could be easily translated thanks to the new terrain rules bringing back so much of the old complexity.

[@Mark-nh2hs]

I have to admit when they started to describe Catachan I thought - Australia lol the Australian Wildlife one got me - couldn't stop laughing

[@alexcass7855]

So, this is the last Codex Compliant due to Wib's death after that last joke?

[@Scrombo2]

Thank you for the new vid, australian jokes aside, I just like the funny sneaky men (and women) with big knives, and a similar love is what's leading me to paint some Ork Kommandos

[@YossarianVanDriver]

Now I'm just thinking about how the aesthetic of Catachan and its people is definitely supposed to invoke the general idea of the Vietnam war, or at least the action movies that were in turn invoking it, and yet the planet is entirely peopled by humans strongly resembling the invading US soldiers, not the actual Vietnamese, and you can probably tie this uncomfortable aspect to how the whole planet meant to invoke a real place people live is presented as purely hostile...this is too heavy for a KZbin comment, I'm gonna go think about something else.

[@dwadland]

Two years after this video was release but just wanted to say : 1) I was in Warhammer World this weekend and Dave Thomas' Catachan Devil models are still on display in the Exhibition. Still love seeing these guys - they're the reason I started collecting Catachans in the first place. 2) I think I saw you both in the Warhammer World store the same day. Didn't want to bug you as you were looking in a cabinet and you had masks on - but thought I'd say hello now as I saw this video pop up. You guys are ace :)

[@TheBunnan]

MA BOIS!!! My first and fav 40k army. Yes they wasn't "meta" and because of the lack of lascannons struggled against space marines, but flamers and WS4 gave most other things a good kicking. Deathworld snipers where fantastic harassment units and worth every point.

[@81hewp]

I miss my days in the jungles. Praise be the Black Palm.

[@rossamundbrennan7248]

Used to play 3rd ed catachan as a kid. Good bit of nostalgia.

[@armedbrit493]

The single greatest codex GW ever produced. You are free to disagree, but you'd be wrong.

[@richtheunstable3359]

Seen baby versions of weird alien cacti on adeptus Titanic's bases recently. Praise be

[@fatboynoslim6]

Every time I see a S&W video uploaded, that day of lockdown becomes more bearable. Thank you guys for doing what you do

[@PanzerIV1976]

Brilliant, thanks. I’m going to put on my tank top

[@flyboy_nathan4112]

They're just built different

[@KabinMiniatures]

Nice work as always! Love that Karl Kopinski artwork in this book!

[@Mossmyr]

I remember downloading this codex from GWs website when they gave it out for free.

[@Butterwinkle]

Only once before I have ever self indentified and sympathized to such a degree with a fellow Australian.

[@19platten20]

Booby traps and ambushes should make a return in this or next edition of 40k.

[@garfusa2]

This was my first army back in the day ^^ Memories

[@grozwald]

As a non-Australian, I have laughed at that picture, but I have good enough sense to know that any Aussies in the hobby have also probably seen it.

[@silverboy980]

This sounds like it was a fun codex.

[@garymcgregor5951]

It was!

[@teecefamilykent]

The spooked line made me giggle my socks off lol

[@meatguyf1375]

God, I love the with my whole heart. That army is responsible for my most crushing victory in the history of 40K. Nothing could touch me, I blew up every vehicle he had with det charges, and my dang colonel managed to solo a wraithlord. Granted, it was because my opponent couldn't rolled nothing but ones for his attacks, but I like to think that's just more of the Catachan magic at work.

[@michaelde-lucchi8912]

Ah, catachans were my first full squad of metal minis.

[@auretioustaak6579]

@Snipe and Wib, Two things to add to your video here: 1) Jervis Johnson (or Andy or Gav memory is vague on which one of them) wrote in an article several editions later that the design team had learnt their lesson about designing armies with rules only used circumstantially and including the costs for those rules in the unit entries as standard rather then having the points as an add-on to each unit only if the rules were being used (or for thematic reasons you chose to spend those extra points when attending a tournament). 2) The Chainsaw Warriors rule was on the Scout Sentinels if memory serves. The Scout Sentinel was released at the same time as the plastic Catachans and so all sentinels to that point didn't have an option for a big feck off chainsaw weapon attachment (in addition to their patented Heavy Flamer for jungle warfare). That aside, this video was made almost 2 years ago, and the remark about the Swamp Rats spending 2 years in Quarantine and Wib with his mask on, the question now is, having likely experienced 2 years of quarantine, was it as enthralling an experience as the Swamp Rats had? Finally, I believe it was issue #243 of White Dwarf (had the same pic on the front as the Codex) which was the release issue for the Catachans and it had a 1000pt battle report against the Dark Eldar in the back which was really awesome and worth a read. Cheers, Watch Tower. P.S. As a fellow Australian, who has been collecting Rogue Trader, 2nd edition (and to a far lesser extent 3rd edition - just the carnifexes, Raveners, Tyrant Guard and Hive Tyrants to fill gaps) Tyranids for the past 13 or so years (yeah I have over 1000 models for them now, - 34 Screamer Killers {original Huggafexes ftw!} and rising and they don't look out of place...) I can say, with certainty, that Codex Australian Wildlife, is underplaying the 'playful' nature of said wildlife. :p

[@anotherzingbo]

I really enjoyed that, thanks for putting it together!

[@ericmumper6821]

This was my first Warhammer 40,000 army. Good memories.

[@DaemonDrakken]

Thank you two for...well...being you. Well done!

[@FA-qk4eh]

I’m watching this and praying for a decent range refresh for these ferocious foliage fighters