The Hardest Trailer of 2025.. (Astartes 2) | Aztecross Reacts

[@AztecrossGaming]

Use code 50AZTECROSS to get 50% OFF plus free shipping on your first Factor box at bit.ly/3BE6Fvk! #ad

[@DrCrispy-93]

Could do a reaction video to all the Warframe cinematics or Prime trailers please? (love your vids btw)

[@fettuccine9896]

"the emperor forgets" spray painted on a wall is wild world building

[@iMoo1124]

Man I'm so glad someone mentioned this The play on The Emperor Protects is so good Originally, I thought the creature the Astartes was chainsawing was either an orc, or a random citizen, but after I rewatched and noticed the vandalism, what if it's actually a Genestealer cultist? That would be so fucking cool to see how scary those things actually are, the size and build of us but like x2 x3 times heavier and maybe an extra arm.

[@migavelli]

It's Heresy brother!

[@Icarus6783]

Tau propaganda. You can see they are holding one in that scene. A chaos cultist would have been dead on site. They wanted intel.

[@Psycorde]

@@Icarus6783 AMD is better

[@thefluffalo]

We're so close to him painting minis on stream. I can feel it in the wind

[@Cloop123-s5z]

become one us

[@Lancersilva]

I’m on the verge myself so I’d watch the fuck out of that stream. And fittingly enough for Astartes II, Deathwatch is the faction I wanna paint first.

[@goodguyben6716]

@@Lancersilva if you want to paint deathwatch then thats fine but rn they arent in the best spot in terms of care and attention and are kinda rotting on the tabletop and with mini releases. but other than that they are cool for sure.

[@goodguyben6716]

once he tastes the plastic crack aint nothing stopping him and cross will have a full 2000pts army

[@Lancersilva]

@ I don’t plan on playing tabletop. I just think the minis are neat. Probably gonna do 15 tops

[@Rex_Sierra]

Cross slowly starting to smile as he watches the trailer lol me too brother me too

[@DrCrispy-93]

Aztercross playing Warframe and watching Warhammer?? 2025 is off to a healthy start.

[@UrbanAnubis]

cross, this is gonna be about the deathwatch. this shows us a brief summary of the different chapters the deathwatch kill squad will be composed of. chapters shown here are retributors, scythes of the emperor, mortificators, blood angels, and sons of medusa.

[@Dahaka27]

Nearly. The Red helmed black armoured assult marines were Angels Vermillion (Blood Angel successor) - red with black helm and skull in the blood drop.

[@UrbanAnubis]

@Dahaka27 ah, thanks for the correction! Til lol

[@M1903Enjoyer]

I mean, deathwatch dont wear their colors like that, just shoulder pauldrons. This looks like each chapter has its own segments in different battlefields. And an Inquisitor Terminator at the end, which could be Grey Knights or its own inquisition thing

[@spartacus6256]

⁠@@M1903Enjoyerthey don’t yes, what he means is that Astartes 2 will be about the origins of the members of this particular kill team, before they joined the Deathwatch.

[@M1903Enjoyer]

@spartacus6256 I still disagree with that, all that has been revealed is these chapters fighting their individual battles.

[@ttlpwn34]

I just became a Scythes fan because of this trailer. The absolute swag and drip from that one Marine turning with his cape catching the wind... The aura of those three Marines in that clip was so strong.

[@ordohereticus5530]

I would bet my 5,000 points Dark Angels army that its a Deathwatch animation. The final shot is a terminator with the symbol of the Inquisition on its helmet and the final words are "suffer not the alien to live", the motto of the Deathwatch. All the different combat scenes with all the different chapters and factions will be the backstory for each squad member. Retributors, Sons of Medusa, Scythes of the Emperor, Angels Vermillion, and the Mortifactors. What a line up of chapters.

[@osialrechs2899]

But what about the chaos marine? He had some decent screen time in the trailer. Is he going to be a black shield?

[@ordohereticus5530]

@osialrechs2899 nah he is going to serve as target practice.

[@inoob26]

This may sound really dumb but the way Astartes has basically no dialogue reminds me of what I liked about the "no voice actor" era of Lego games where I personally think the humor way better and creative without saying it out loud

[@Clameraman576]

Oh yeah stories that show instead of tell are so much better

[@Lamp37820]

Vader pulling out a picture of Anakin and a pregnant Padme and pointing to it is one of the best bits in all of the LEGO games.

[@sugarcombfilms3467]

It takes more skill to make something compelling without dialogue. Dialogue is kinda cheating because you can just exposit what you need the audience to understand, so without it, it's nothing but show don't tell

[@pitmatix1457]

Space Marine chapter breakdown. Retributors - Grey with gold trim. Syama Pederson's own fan creation as seen in Astartes 1 Sons of Medusa - Light green with white helmets. A offshoot of the Iron Hands chapter. There was a religious schism in the tech worshipping Adeptus Mechanicus, the schism spread to the Iron Hands and their successors as they are so linked to the Mechanicus. The Sons of Medusa were Iron Hands part of this schism so separated and formed a new chapter of their own (Medusa is the name of the Iron Hands homeworld). Mortifactors - Bone and black colours - An Ultramarines successor chapter who have basically gotten really heavily into Voodoo! Angles Vermillion - Red with winged blood drop icon - A successor to the Blood Angels who look very similar to the chapter they were born from. Scythes of the Emperor - Yellow and Black - An Ultramarines successor who were the first chapter to encounter the Tyranids, they were almost completely wiped out at the time and their homeworld was taken by the Tyranids. Just enough survived to rebuild but for a long time in the lore they looked like the were done for.

[@vext7396]

Scythes of the Emperor finally getting some love. I'm here for it. 😁

[@myownaccount5058]

The show is probably going to focus on the deathwatch, they’re a chapter of space marines made up of various other members of other chapters. The first mission of space marine 2 where you play as Titus in the black armor is Titus being in the deathwatch before rejoining the ultramarines for the rest of the story.

[@Duncan_Idaho84]

That makes sense. They said these clips are only backstory and not part of the actual show.

[@crazychizzyboy8462]

FOR THE EMPEROR

[@cimerea]

That orc block... Precise, mechanic and snappy... I'm not sure I've ever seen it done with more style before. Btw Helldives = Imperial Guard at best xD

[@attimus103]

There's two regiments of guard who use drop pods or grav chutes like Helldivers one is the Elysian Drop Troopers and the other escapes me but the Elysian is the more popular one that pops up. They even have/had physical models for the tabletop.

[@Troupe_Master]

Both are trash

[@attimus103]

@@Troupe_Master I appreciate your insightful interjection. Would you care to elaborate on how a Helldiver is or is not equivalent an Elysian Drop Trooper and how both are trash relates to it?

[@Troupe_Master]

@@attimus103 😁

[@voltus20]

​@@attimus103i believe the other one would be the Tempestus Scions.

[@Lancersilva]

Neat lil tidbit, those weren’t Blood Angels, it was the Angels Vermillion. Their chapter symbols are nearly identical but the Angels Vermillion have a skull in the blood drop and if you look closely on the shot of their pauldron you can see an iridescent skull in the blood drop. Love how Syama is using some of the lesser known chapters like the Sons of Medusa (the green guys), Scythes of the Emperor (the Wiz Khalifa fanboys), the Mortifactors (the bone-white savage and my favorite Ultramarine successor), the Angels Vermillion (we have Blood Angels at home), and of course Syama’s very own Retributors (the only homebrew chapter to be made canon).

[@someweirdguy5721]

I loved your explanations for each chapter

[@horizontide568]

Whats even more diabolical is from that angle the saw blade was probably stabbed right into the throat before he "hit the gas" 😬

[@Subsistence69]

Chief would absolutely get fucking cooked by a space marine Brb gonna go watch Astartes again for the 1000th time

[@Troupe_Master]

5:57 im sick of this sentiment..things dont need to be relatable for someone to enjoy them. The constant need to relate to everything is weakness

[@Johnny12Hats]

Master Chief is a Xenos sympathiser, he would not be shown mercy

[@pitmatix1457]

His best friend is an AI too, another serious heresy.

[@n20v0x3]

As a huge halo fan I've been playing for years and read multiple books. I can say that a space marine would still win. But that doesn't mean masterchief isnt good in his own right.

[@euanbeveridge5489]

"A motion picture is motion. You gotta keep the dialogue down to a minimum" - Bruce Lee

[@joshuasculinarymultiverse431]

In the books, the Master Chief was not the best Spartan; he simply has the "it" factor.

[@SLUGY000]

Still can’t believe they let this man out of the basement to release this…

[@attimus103]

They hired him to limit him, put him on their project, only to... probably...assist him by giving him a team to finish his original project.

[@Healthywave99]

​@attimus103 He's had to have been working on this for years so I assume that's what he's been doing all this time. I mean it took him over 4 years to make the first one alone. And he helped out with the Secret Level episode.

[@attimus103]

@@Healthywave99 no doubt. But it could be the same production team he was on for Secret Level, only this time he's the lead.

[@voltus20]

​​@@attimus103he wasn't working for GW (he was working for Blur Studios) for the period of time he worked on the secret level episode (6 months), as per his LinkedIn, and he has his own studio now, so it's safe to assume it's a different team. During his time at GW pre-Secret level work, he helped around on some of the cinematics and announcement trailers GW did, so he must have started work on Astartes 2 after he finished with Secret level(January 2023), at the maximum, so about 2 years of progress, with the whole thing taking about 3 years, since it releases in 2026. Considering he has close to the same time he had for Astartes 1, and he has a full fledged team this time around, we can probably expect a decently sized piece of glorious content.

[@SLUGY000]

@@attimus103just joking bout it lol don’t take it seriously

[@lildiglit826]

Spartans are actually just as equal if not slightly more stronger and faster then space marines do your lore

[@danielpercent5434]

Next video will be cross wearing a space marine helmet and painting mini figures 😂

[@CHEDDAakaSWAY]

“And make Cortana watch” is crazy

[@OmniVenom]

And he doesn't even look at you when he has the sword inside of you while spinning the chainsaw. That's cold.

[@tristenswenson1828]

Cross, if you want actual comparison between Spartans space marine, there's a channel called Pancreasnowork. He actually has a couple videos talking about halo and warhammer mixing.

[@domc9801]

4:21 I believe Cross is thinking of the War of The Beast, when the Orks got so big and powerful that they nearly took Terra and even sent diplomats.

[@sgtnova3685]

I’m a veteran halo player from the beginning I’m new to Warhammer Master chief stands no chance to a single space marine

[@dawsonmurphy7158]

He’s right though, even lore accurate master chief from the books would get bodied by a single space marine. But you’re comparing apples to oranges. Like tyranids and the covenant are completely different things, as are the mutations Spartans and space marines go through.

[@madkaris7224]

For those who want to know, the chaos warband in the trailer is named The Sons of Vengeance.

[@dev1in101]

From the World eaters?

[@madkaris7224]

@@dev1in101 They are from a unknow founding, like the Sons of Medusa ( white and green from the trailer)

[@angusfraser-brown1663]

@@madkaris7224 Sons of Medusa are Iron Hands successors aren't they?

[@madkaris7224]

@@angusfraser-brown1663 They look like it but they are classified as "unknow founding" on most of the wikis. Maybe some new lore will tell us.

[@angusfraser-brown1663]

@ Thanks for the answer :)

[@jayallen5599]

Always here for more 40k content

[@ChuckNorrisFist]

Cross trying to make sense of the lore of Warhammer in a 2 minute conversation is hilarious. Brother, you've got a long way to go... 😂

[@ShadQuakeFix]

8:15 The only character that could match or beat space marine's is Doom Guy

[@crimsonknightli1238]

Yeah I don't think anyone else has a shot besides him.

[@arbiter9087]

Not match, just beat in general. Doom Guy is heavily overpowered. They'd most likely team up to be honest.

[@stevenjackson9028]

​@@arbiter9087 One of the lost primarchs

[@attimus103]

Master Chief is an juve-treated, human sized power armored, non-psychic Inquisitor at best if comparing him to something existing in world.

[@fatherfuji]

Words need not be spoken when brothers are united in purpose.

[@J_A_Niss]

YES BROTHER, FOR THE EMPEROR!

[@DevilNinja17]

250 space marines is considered overkill to wipe out all of humanity.

[@BBroadnax]

Damn, that shit was extremely badass.

[@agirlnamedmichael1670]

Every damn frame of Syama Pedersen's work is a piece of art.

[@stephennelson4954]

I am really looking forward to this series.

[@s3m4jno5w4d]

Cross gets it. Cross 100% gets it. Master Chief has no place in this universe and I'm saying that as a day one Halo Stan. Don't fuck this up GW, you have the opportunity to be what Marvel wishes it was. Let Sayma and Henry guide you. Give them ALL the money

[@silas6328]

What Halo fans that think Mater Chief would have a shot don't understand is that a single space marine is equivalent to taking ALL of the technology that turned John into the Chief and upgrading that technology with 10 thousand years of advancement. The Space Marines would look at Chief like some medieval ancestor. If the Space Marine is the Abrams Tank, then the Spartans were the breach loaded muskets.

[@TheDjentleman1349]

I totally agree, Scythes of the Emperor name is dope AF

[@templargfx]

The biggest tease is the terminator at the end. We've seen how he shows the power of a Space Marine, I can't wait to see how he does terminator marines

[@LaminatedTheCat]

Are you talking about the Black Legion, or the Lunar Wolves as they were known before the schism. They were Horus' legion before Abaddon the Despoiler assumed command.

[@CephalonAxii]

To anyone curious. The guys in Grey are the Retributors, a fan made chapter made official. It seems in their episode, they are fighting the Chaos marines. Said Chaos marines kinda look Nurgle like. The guys in the orange and black are the Scythes of the Emperor, who excel in Tyrranid Termination, for reasons already stated in the video. I don't know the Blue and White marine chapter with the Skull on their Pauldron, anyone who may know let me know. And it seems they are fighting the Bad Moons Orks, because of the yellow on them. As well as Tyrannids I notice from that one scene near the end, where we see him punching/knifing the Tyrranid like it owes him money. Then we get the Blood Angels, who have their jetpacks and are fighting and/or protecting a ship. Who's the enemy? Not sure yet. The guys in Green are a surprise, they are the Sons of Medusa, and they are fighting the Tau. At the end we see a Terminator, rocking the Inquisition symbol. Maybe Deathwatch?

[@Gerf.c5]

I knew you’d react to this 💯💯💯

[@TamerOfTheStrange]

John would have become Capter Master if he was born in the 41st millenium.

[@RawRamenBoyo]

I NEED Cross to start watching lore videos

[@Hihiolb]

8:48 as if you arent a fan of something if you state facts :D

[@silk3sm00th]

Terminator Deathwatch team incoming This is gonna go unbelievably hard

[@DrGrinsp00n]

Great video

[@ChickenJoe2042]

A Space Marine whoops Master Chief's ass, and the Doom Slayer wipes a whole army of marines

[@bboycharge]

Praise be to Space King! IYKYK 😂

[@mogsymn01]

The astartes would burn a flood infected plannet without giving two fucks

[@stitchthewendigo]

I saw blood vermillion, honestly underrated chapter, even though they are the "evil" blood angels, even though the flesh tearers and eaters are right over there

[@simondelavega1938]

INTO THE FIRES OF BATTLE.

[@phantomkill39]

Yo, the Halo books are an incredible addition to the Halo lore. The spartan 2s are incredible. Their augmentations just carried a high mortality rate but they got the formula 1 treatment. The spartan 3s were cannon fodder and the 4s were a better attempt at applying to the program to the whole UNSC. Lol I'm still going back through the books to reread some of the juicy lore...

[@Wepwaet]

8:13 Technically based on the Gene-seed Modifications that the Space Marines go through, and what the Spartan II's went through, they are fairly comparable. One on One the Master Chief would be able to go toe to toe with a Single Space Marine.

[@ShotgunGunna]

The Warhammer universe is so dope

[@Banana_Jesus_]

Chief is comparable to a Chapter Master. He ain't no push over, same goes with most of the Spartan II's. They weigh just as much as an astartes but will be doing cartwheels through the air and dodging everything.

[@gypsylips1950]

TITANIC LEVELS OF HYPE

[@BotBuster7]

We need a Helldivers and Warhammer collab.

[@Lancersilva]

8:17 here’s the thing, Spartans can survive falling from orbit. There’s a short story of a Space Marine falling from orbit and it’s about his last thoughts as he knows he’s about to die. Top that with Mjolrnir armor having a healing unit, regenerating energy shield and a Spartan’s reflexes being closer to a Custodians (the Emperor’s personal body guards and scary good at killing Space marines). That being said a Space marine’s weaponry does have the Spartan’s arsenal beat

[@gryphon123456]

Cross is looking sick. Really pale and cold sweet looking. Hope he’s ok.

[@inertiastreams8104]

Cross you should really check out the Horus heresy such a dope bit of 40k lore

[@Proph3cy]

AstartesCross

[@Lancersilva]

Crosstartes

[@WikiXIV]

Those in Chat saying MC would be able to take 3 SM are out of their mind

[@MegaAdams00]

Master chief is still one of the biggest badasses, along with doomslayer and kratos. Space marines are an army of more minor badasses.

[@JPooger]

4:46 is he talking about the horus heresy?? It sounds like he is referencing how the chapters are restricted to 1000 members or however it works when they implemented the codex

[@dubiousjester475]

The emperor protects

[@Aeoss_1]

3:05 incase you missed it the first time. Because it's fckn worth it. Yessss

[@americanmike101]

40k is finally producing the media that all warhammer fans have been craving

[@Ares180BPM]

4:30 you're talkin about the Ultramarines. Most marine players of the ttg don't like the UM as they're kinda vanilla. At the end of the Great Crusade they were the biggest legion by a large margin, so many "current time" Chapters can trace their genetics to them.

[@HalfBakedMoose]

Bro John is cooked if he encounters a space marine it’s not even a fight

[@bkelso61]

Back to the frontlines

[@chipsandip]

I bet the astartes dood has met henrey cavil

[@uhltide3]

SUFFER NOT THE ALIEN TO LIVE

[@lepepelepub12]

Space Marine are beastly, Spartans wouldn't have a chance. Just look at the lore of the augmentations for both. A space marine creation process is meme worthy on how over the top it is it is basically space magic.

[@henryromain5577]

Syama Pedersen is a Genius

[@Gumz1983]

Made by the same guy who made the secret level for Amazon. And the original Astarties.

[@crossthreader]

I skipped school to go buy Halo 2. My twins were born the day that Halo 4 came out.

[@crispybacon3811]

Any spartan 2 would body an astartes based on a single fact: the super fibrification of neural dendrites. Spartans nerves conduct signals at the speed of light, effectively giving them something akin to a sandevistan from cyberpunk. If your opponent can move before your optic nerves send signals to your brain and then the delay before those signals go from your brain to your muscles takes time because your nerves aren't fiber optics, you would be killed far before you can understand your opponent even began to move. Astartes are a sledgehammer, Spartans are an obsidian scalpel moving at mach speed. An astartes would be comparable to a brute chieftain power wise. Astartes win on cool factor and drip though.

[@voltus20]

Spartan 2's canon average reaction speed is 20ms, not lightspeed, as confirmed in the novels. Still incredibly fast (slightly above 10x faster than the average marine in the Halo universe), but nowhere near close to lightspeed. Astartes have a similar (if somewhat faster) reaction speed, as shown by them *dodging* blasts from Engager shotguns at point blank, where they are described as reacting half a second faster than the Tempestus Scion he was assaulting (Tempestus Scions are the Elite regular human units of the imperium, and have a reaction speed about 2x faster than a regular human).

[@NickWebb-lc6ry]

The more you get into Warhammer, the more you realize EVERYTHING you ever played stole from it.

[@brycej68]

For the Emperor!

[@McCool117]

I'm pretty sure you're talking about the Ultramarines.

[@stewbie26]

Master Chief is a peasant compared to Space Marines. 40K is the pinnacle of sci-fi. I'm also a huge 40k fan so kinda biased BUT IT'S TRUE

[@PurpleCyanideTube]

5:50 unfortunately I disagree. If it was 1 on 1 arena like combat maybe yea but if it was just encountering each other on a planet no. Sure if a space marine shoots a helldiver they are pretty much dead but they have to find them first and they don’t have any kind of radar unlike the helldivers. Helldivers don’t fight head on like space marines do. They would see them on radar determine they are a significant threat and hit them with a large orbital strike (there are many) or if for some reason you think the helldivers wouldn’t have that despite every single helldiver having a dedicated ship they could just hit them with a support weapon like a recoil less riffle or a auto cannon. Space marine armor is NOT that strong. It can prevent small arms fire sure but high velocity physical munitions (nevermind explosives) blow the (well defined composition of the) space marine armor out of the water

[@adamvietkong2977]

the space sharks are also pretty disliked, they don't leave the void until something threatens the emperor and they have no home planet, just a swarm of ships, quietly ambushing every enemy, and quickly rushing them with melee and closerange gunfire, mostly in the void, and using small, rural, outskirt planets to replinish their resources

[@spartancrown]

Scythes of the Emperor. Is the chapter

[@CalebO-l6c]

Not the ppl getting disappointed that yes chief would get slammed by a space marine its not just enhancements marines it bro its actual space magic

[@MrJara1018]

An astartes with no armor would body a Spartan 2 in armor

[@TimPlaysRiffs]

I'm just here so I don't get fined.

[@jb2257]

The emperor looked so majestic

[@bumponalog5001]

Chief from the novels could take on one or two space marines. But he wouldn’t last long.

[@juggalo_kronikturdzgaming7075]

Doom Guy would annihilate the entire space marine army

[@D4RK_FL4M3]

Obviously, so?

[@thousandsons-b12o]

Name scythes of the emperor 5:43

[@chipcunningham6005]

I love Factor and I noticed you have to microwave some meals now 2 then 3 minutes