to turn them into a real beater capable of dropping multiple multi-damage strikes. There was a lot of excitement around Havocs and their wonderful new models when the 2nd Codex came out for Chaos Space Marines. Almost every unit in the Chaos Space Marines army has the keyword, which can be replaced by one of KHORNE, TZEENTCH, NURGLE, or SLAANESH, allowing the unit to devote itself to a Chaos god. The Kytan also gets access to the Daemonforge Stratagem, and receives the same +1 Strength and re-roll charge benefits other Khorne Daemons can get from Bloodmasters. Then grab your eight-pointed star and strap in because Chaos Space Marines may be the army for you! You get +1 Attack. They make great targets for Prescience and Warp-Sight Plea. This is primarily a review of the units and options that are specific to Chaos Space Marines, but Chaos Space Marines often see play in Chaos Soup armies, and we’ll be covering some of those cases as well. Now sitting at 135 points, it’s a more attractive option than it was before if you need a cheap unit to score Engage on All Fronts. Chaos Space Marine armies have access to a large variety of subfactions, each with their own special rules called. The best way to run these is as Iron Warriors, which gives them the best stratagem support. Can be shot even if firing model’s unit is within Engagement Range of enemy unit. This makes them invaluable support units for casting Warptime on a key melee unit, or a buff like Prescience or Delightful Agonies. Take advantage of this by using them when they’ll have the greatest effects, i.e. The big upsides to summoning are that you 1. Straight upgrade to any character you slap it on, especially Daemon Princes, Lord Discordants and Smash Lords, and it’s relevant on all three. The triple whammy of losing Specialist Detachments, the addition of the Desperate Breakout Stratagem and the impact of Blast means that Possessed have plunged from being one of the best units in the army to a fringe choice at best. Finally note that Daemon Princes also have a re-roll 1s to hit aura like Chaos Lords, but it also works on all DAEMONS with the same mark, so it works cross-faction. Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (Legendary), Captain with Master-crafted Heavy Bolt Rifle, Shield-Captain in Allarus Terminator Armour. A unit of Teleporting 4W Infantry with 6 shots each firing Fleshmetal weapons at 24″, they can put out a lot of damage, they’re pretty tough thanks to having T5, 2+/5++ saves, and 4 wounds apiece. Works wonderfully on Obliterators, Bikers, Terminators, and Havocs. That said, it’s still 525 points, which is too much to pay for something you can mostly replicate for 100 points cheaper with the Lord of Skulls or Kytan. Subtract 1 from hit rolls if the firing model’s unit Advanced. Many of the legions also bring strong synergies to the table for them, as you’ll see in a lot of the legion-specific articles, and one place you might want to break from running as Slaanesh is to go for, Possessed were the superstars of late 8th Edition Chaos lists, but the transition to 9th Edition has, sadly, torpedoed them. Pick a friendly Chaos Spawn, Possessed, or Cult of Destruction (obliterators/mutilators) within 18″. These guys were a decent take in some gimmicky lists prior to the January 2021 points update and now that they’ve dropped to 15 points per model, they’re actually a steal and likely to make a real splash in competitive play. In battle, Daemon Princes are best kept protected until they’re needed, advancing behind a steady line of infantry, ready to jump over and decimate opponents that get too close, or to make important counter-charges. Each Dark Apostle comes with an OK melee statline (WS 2+, 4 Wounds, 3 attacks), a 4+ invulnerable save, an accursed crozius, and an aura that lets him share his Leadership with nearby units, which can be handy for keeping cultists on the table. They’re also great for holding Noise Marines if you want to save the CP that it would cost to put them into Strategic Reserves. It’s also a better option for shooting in combat. Don’t worry about the guns on these – treat them like a melee threat and if they manage to hit something shooting well, that’s an added bonus. Because of this and their overall power level, the powers you can pull off here make a Chaos Sorcerer or two basically auto-includes in Chaos Space Marine armies, and worth splashing in a sorcerer or two in a Death Guard army. Cypher has a really cool model, and his pistols are neat. This does almost nothing for you in 9th edition now that vehicles can move and fire heavy weapons without penalty thanks to the. Cute, but dropping to AP-2 hurts it and most of the time the Murder Sword is a better option. Normally, there isn’t a really compelling reason to take Rubric Marines in a Chaos Space Marines army; they’re not quite good enough without the crazy help you get from the new Stratagems that Thousand Sons got for them in Psychic Awakening: Ritual of the Damned. Until the end of the phase you can ignore penalties for moving and shooting heavy weapons or advancing and firing assault weapons. Obliterators got a huge adjustment in the 2nd codex to go with their new models, beefing up in size, wounds, and firepower and in 9th edition they’re just a legitimately good unit. One final thing to note is that the Lord Discordant is a CHARACTER, so they get the Legion Traits thanks to errata, but not INFANTRY, so they can’t use some stratagems and abilities, such as Fury of Khorne. Also comes with an aura that lets nearby units re-roll hit rolls of 1. On a 4+ the unit takes 3D3 mortal wounds. You need a full detachment of a legion to unlock Legion traits and the Legion stratagems from Faith and Fury, but the relics and warlord traits from Faith and Fury plus the single stratagem for each legion that from the main codex only require you to have a Chaos Space Marine detachment (or a Chaos Space Marine warlord for the relics), so you can give a World Eaters Warlord the, warlord trait in a mixed detachment, or use the. Only one attempt can be made to deny each psychic power. These are solid but haven’t been printed anywhere else, and can be kind of a chore to find. Others are shaped from the crews of damaged starships caught in Warp Storms, their bodies transmuted through exposure to pure empyric power. Butcher Cannon + Claw may be an option to consider but you’re likely going to be better off going full shooting or melee with the Decimator. You can re-deploy up to D3 Cult of Duplicity units PLUS the Warlord. There are also a couple of easy ways to boost their longevity that are worth looking at: can make them harder to hit. The better play is typically to do this with a Thousand Sons Sorcerer, but a CSM one can work in a pinch, particularly when paired with Obliterators to cast Prescience on. It’s still worth looking at having a Lord Discordant as your warlord, but keep in mind that they’ll be difficult to protect, and potentially easy Headhunters/slay the warlord points. To make matters worse, this thing takes up the space of four Stratagems, robbing Chaos Space Marines of 3 other strats and reducing the total number the faction has access to.