Here is another in what I hope will be a continuing series of pimping work for others around the net. Marc Mercer a regular reader of Blood of Kittens has a blog inside Imperius Dominatus . Marc has always been a great opinionated voice in the community and Blood of Kittens is happy to support his blog. Marc feels that Blood of Kittens has lacked some Chaos Space Marine love of late. So here is his top seven picks for the best units in that codex. Let him know what you think of Plague Marines number five on his list 🙂
I’ve being playing a lot with my Chaos Space Marines lately (Iron Warriors) and while the codex is flavourless and dull compared to newer codexes, the actual army isn’t too bad, if you pick the right units and today that’s what I’m going to discuss. If you take these top 7 units from the Chaos Space Marine codex you’ll probably win more games, and everyone likes winning games right? And of course that’s providing you don’t win games with them in the first place.
Here’s the top 7 units in the codex, and in no particular order. Of course comments are always welcome, I’d like to here if you have any thoughts on other units too 😉
1. Daemon Prince
The Daemon Prince is a bad ass mother which only costs 110 points, 20 more points than a Chaos Lord and you get a lot more bang for your buck. The D.P is a monstrous creature so no armour saves in combat, so you want to get this bad boy into the fight a.s.a.p so wings are pretty mandatory and they’re only 20 points too – so for 130 points you get a basic flying monstrous creature, groovy!
Marks can make your Prince better in certain ways. I wouldn’t bother with mark of khorne as the Prince has enough attacks already and the other marks offer more benefits. I’d take either mark of nurgle for better small arm fire protection and the Princes number 1 enemy, plasma guns, will need 3+ to wound instead of 2+. Mark of tzeentch gives a 4+ invulnerable which isn’t bad and mark of slaanesh gives increased initiative, though the Prince is I5 so probably not hugely needed.
If you haven’t taken MoK you give your Prince psychic powers. These range from ranged attacks giving the Prince some ranged offensive or close combat boosting powers. You should be getting that Prince into assault a.s.a.p with wings, so warptime is probably the best power over all – re-roll to hit and to wound is nice. Wind of chaos if also pretty funky for wounding on a 4+ and allow no armour saves in the form of a flamer template; nice for dishing out pain for assaulting.
Tactics with this big daddy-o is simple; cast warptime, fly forward and then smash stuff. Always hide your Prince behind armour as monstrous creatures need 50% cover, this will work well particularly if you haven’t taken mark of tzeentch where the 4+ cover save is a much better save. However, if you do take a Daemon Prince take them in pairs and if you can a Greater Daemon. You take one Prince it will get singled out and ranged weapons like lascannons will shoot it to bits in time not caring about the extra toughness or in time the better invulnerable save.
The only downside to a Prince is as mentioned above is that they attract a lot of fire power. This can be good and bad. In my 2k list I take dual Princes and a Greater Daemon; this gives multiple threat but more importantly target saturation, I have three monstrous creatures running about which you really need to put down sooner than later. But, as I’ve found out, the Princes die (which is a shame) and the Greater Daemon comes on without any damage. Although I’ve lost the Princes they’ve acted as a distraction and my main force is fine. This is a catch 22 for my opponent, they must deal with the Princes or else they will run riot but if they don’t everything else will get them. If they deal with other targets the Princes will still get them 😉
3 x monstrous creatures is the win IMO 😉 Remember, target saturation, three monstrous creatures isn’t nice 😀
2. Greater Daemon
The Greater Daemon is a bargain IMO and has stats like the Daemon Prince, the G.D is a better fighter and has more attacks along with a 4+ invulnerable save, but is slightly slower.
While there isn’t a huge amount to talk about a Greater Daemon itself I’ll talk about the few tactics available. Basically you deep strike in and assault straight after, yes Daemons in the Chaos Space Marine book can assault the turn they’re summoned, something you probably didn’t know. The Greater Daemon is excellent to act as a line breaker, they can appear while your squad stays in a vehicle and then charge forward smashing tanks and infantry, remember they’re a monstrous creature 😉 .
You should also use the Greater Daemon as a speed bump against tough elite units, like thunder hammer Terminators. The Greater Daemon has the attacks to tackle them and has a 4+ invulnerable to take the wounds. The Daemon will probably die but hopefully takes down some Terminators with it. The plus side is you’ve just thrown a 100 point monstrous creature against a elite unit, tying them up or dishing out damage, your Daemon Prince wouldn’t survive this and the Greater Daemon may not but my point is the D.P can cost around 170 points and the Greater Daemon could probably do a slightly better job and maybe survive that bit longer.
Another tactic envolves taking a Chaos Lord. Lets say your Chaos Lord is in a fight and things aren’t going his way, he’s got one wound left and will probably kick the bucket. Pull the Greater Daemon through his rear and have that dying Chaos Lord your opponent is glad to be killing change into a revitalised monstrous creature with full wounds and better strength, toughness, weapon skill and invulnerable save then previously – if your opponent was getting annoyed with your Chaos Lord than pulling in a Greater Daemon to replace your dying Lord is going to annoy people – DO IT! lol.
As Greater Daemons can appear in the place of a Champion you can also use them to plug gaps and support. This has some negative comments which I’ll move onto it a minute. If you take a Champion in each unit you’re maximising the areas that Daemon can appear. You take one Champion your Daemon may not appear where you require it. For instantance in a recent game I took three Champions, one CSM squad camped on my objective so having the Daemon appear there is useless. I had another CSM squad going for the enemy objective, but only minor squads where on there and the CSM could deal with them plus the Greater Daemon cannot claim objectives so probably not the best place to put. I had the last Champion in front of a massive skirmish envolving my Chaos Terminators being dragged down by a massive mob of Guardsman, hey-ho Greater Daemon appears and assaults slaughtering said Guardsman, excellent for support and plugging gaps where your lines are the weakest.
Do not think the G.D is without negatives, firstly it only has a 4+ invulnerable and is T6 to like the Daemon Prince anti tank weapons will have no problems putting wounds on and weight of fire will bring it down in time. Secondly is that this guy has no fleet or wings so when you appear you best damn make sure the thing can make combat and is in the thick of things or else you’re foot slogging and not making assault, which is where you shine and you’re gonna get shot up. Lastly the cost of the Greater Daemon isn’t exactly 100 points. You need a Chaos Lord or Champion to make the Daemon work, so at least your costing is going up by 15 points to upgrade the Champion. The problem with this also is if you pop wargear on the Champion it can become wasted the the Daemon will appear and then boom! your power fist has just being blown up by a big warp nasty, a waste of points if you ask me.
3. Chosen Chaos Space Marines
Now just hold your horses and stop your huffing and puffing back there 😉 . Just hear me out and then bitch me after ok? 😛
Chosen aren’t as bad as you think, but you must have them in the right role. If you’re taking Chosen forget close combat because Chaos Terminators do it better for cheaper. I’ll explain why Chaos Terminators are better at assault in a minute, it should be clear, but I’ve had debates with people who seem to think Chosen are better in assault :S – moving on from the strange and weird folk. Anyway, roles, yes that’s where I was you want the Chosen in a SHOOTING role only. Why? Well they can take 5 ranged weapons per squad but firstly get it out your head about taking heavy weapons for Chosen, that’s for Havocs or Obliterators. What you want with Chosen is special weapons – the ability to take 5 of these can cause major headaches and can be cheap too, did you know a squad of 5 Chosen with 5 x flamers and a Rhino costs just 150 points. I think that’s a pretty good deal.
Now we know what role they can do lets discuss tactics. If you want to keep these cheap and you are taking a Rhino then take only two special weapons, after all only 2 models can fire from the hatch so any extra are wasted until you get out the tank – and you do not want to get out unless you have too.
The Chosen have the infilitrate rule which means you could, well, er, infiltrate. You do this take full compliement of plasma guns and camp them in terrain. You could end up dishing out 5 x plasma gun rapid fire shots in the first turn taking out a light transport for another unit to tackle or a monstrous creature. Though, consider that they’re not in a transport and 5 Space Marines with plasma guns will become a target and will die, soon, terrain at least gives them a cover save but weight of fire will take them down. Also, before anyone says you cannot infilitrate in a transport so no, they cannot take a Rhino if they go down the ol’ camp plasma route.
The best thing to do with these guys really is outflank in the Rhino. Take 5 meltaguns or 5 flamers and then roll up and nuke the most threatening transport in range or monstrous creature – 5 meltaguns should do the trick. Same applies to a horde, roll up load up and unleash hell on them. That weight of fire power will make sure a lot of things will die. Oh, a mental note as well, if you outflank and you’re not in a situation where you want to be just pop smoke on your Rhino which will at least give it a cover save protecting it and the Space Marines inside that little longer.
I did some more indepth Chosen tactica which can be found here: Chosen Tactica
The negatives for Chosen is in their wargear. People get all bambozzled by the amount of wargear options they have and end up mix and matching and just not setting them up right. Chosen excel at shooting so do not ever make them close combat, at all. Comparing them with the correct wargear to match a unit of 5 Chaos Terminators the Chosen cost 190 points and that’s for MoT and 4 power weapons, they have no means of transport and only 1 attack each, you’ll get 2 though taking a bolt pistol. Looking at the Chaos Terminators they’re 150 points come with more attacks, 2+ armour save and more importantly they can deep strike too.
Another problem is they can cost a fair bit. You take a unit of 5 with full special weapons the price isn’t bad but it’s not hard to kill 5 Space Marines and you’re always removing a special weapon for when dies. You want to take a full unit for bodybags like you have to do with Havocs and they will cost 180 points and that’s before any upgrades or transport.
If you use Chosen right and set them up right they will work. You use them wrong and set them up wrong they will fail. Perhaps you’ve seen them in a new light now?
4. Chaos Terminators
I’m not going to deny I have love for Chaos Terminators. These are the ultra good guys can bad. I hear people say they suck, why is that? Is it because they do not have thunder hammers and a 3+ invulnerable save? If that’s the case all Terminators suck who do not have that wargear, which is not the case! Chaos Terminators are a lot more flexiable and have better wargear options than loyalist Terminators, minus the thunder hammers of course.
I’m not going into tactica with this guys because I wrote it all here a year ago: Chaos Terminator Tactica
5. Plague Marines
What’s not to like about Plague Marines? They’re T5 get feel no pain and grenades which minus off the charge bonus attack, awesome!
These guys can act in the same role as Chaos Space Marines, you can take two special weapons and you do not need a certain squad size to do this like with Chaos Space Marines. Pick your Plague Marines for a role say for tank hunting, infantry smashing or monstrous creature busting and fit them with dual special weapons and send them packing in a Rhino; it’s that simple. Also, these guys make great objective holders being pretty tough to get rid off.
Bad thing about these guys is they cost a pretty penny so you get about 7 for the price 10 so you will lack numbers, but this isn’t a problem as your Plague Marines are harder to dispose of. Plague Marines will good against normal anti infantry weapons do not like the tough stuff like power weapons and them being I3 means they will strike probably last so against say Terminators they will get hammered. Also large blast templates can really hurt them, you may think a battle cannon isn’t too bad against Plague Marines but it is; the AP3 takes out the armour save and because the battle cannon is double the Plague Marines toughness no feel no pain for them – Plague Marines fear battle cannons!
6. Chaos Raptors
Before you start booing and hissing at me (again) just hear me out because these is going to be short and sweet.
Take a minimum squad of Raptors. Throw in 2 meltaguns. Deep strike in and nuke a tank. Raptors job done and cost 120 points – ave it 😉
Though, use them as a suicide unit because that’s exactly what they are. They’re a little expensive to be taking in full units, which you need two of btw for unit redundancy and target satuation. Keep them small which keeps them cheap.
7. Obliterators
Not a lot I can say about Obliterators because everyone should know how f**king awesome these are! Forget Havocs, these are your boys and will cost cheaper more or less.
For those who do not know Obliterators carry a range of heavy and special weapons they can use each turn, on a particular note these are one of two units which can only get multi meltas and plasma cannons; the former particularly useful in the mech environment. Special weapons are all twin-linked btw and they have slow and purposeful, which has the relentless special rule so these guys can move and shoot heavy weapons and counts as not moving with rapid fire.
Best thing for these guys is hold them in reserve. Do not set them up as a lascannon platform because you’re wasting the abilities they have and lets face it they’re not cheap and that’s exactly what you’re paying for – you want lascannons get a Predator or Havocs. Deep strike these guys in and get them to pop a tank with multi meltas or meltagun, burn infantry with flamers or plug gaps where you need them.
Bad thing about these guys is they cost a fair amount of points and pretty easy to dispose of with the right tools. The 2+ armour save makes them survive small arms along with 2 wounds but things like meltaguns, lascannons and demolisher shells will really spoil there day and inflict instant death, beware!
Notable Mentions
Chaos Lord
Yes you may laugh but consider a Chaos Lord with MoK and a pair of lightning claws dishing out 6 attacks on the charge, with re-rolls to wound. You could risk it and pay 10 points more and get a daemon weapon, still with MoK, this could potentially give 17 attacks on the charge, extremely nasty!
Unfortunately the Chaos Lord is pale compared to a Daemon Prince.
Chaos Sorcerer
120 points buys you a lash Sorcerer. Pop your Sorcerer in a Rhino along with a squad for armoured and squad protection. Then lash out the hatch.
Ok, so lash doesn’t affect mech so lash has slipped down the ranks. It also requires weaponry in the army to work around it i.e Vindicators and the Sorcerer needs a squad and transport to protect it. Remember, the Sorcerer is a I.C so can be picked out in combat and lack of psychic defense is also a problem.
Noise Marines
Give them those fancy guns, er a sonic blaster, yeah that’s the one. Forget blastmaster because it’s over priced. Shove them in a Land Raider and then bail out open fire because the sonic blaster is a assault weapon and then charge into combat; Noise Marines are I5 so you’ll probably go first.
These guys are expensive just for a initiative boost. You work out the difference between a normal CSM and it’s 5 points, you can take the MoS for 20 points which works out to 4 Noise Marines different – not even a minimum squad. Also sonic blaster is 5 points extra making them more expensive than the more survivable Plague Marines. Sonic blasters should have been included in the points cost I think.
Lesser Daemons
Cheap objective troops for 13 points a pop? That will do nicely. Oh, they have Space Marine profiles too but with a extra attack 😉
Bad news is they only have a 5+ invulnerable so can get wasted quickly. And you need a large unit to mak things happen, which can lead to deep strike issues. Though if you’re objective claiming the cover save will be better.
Ok so finally here’s a army list for all the Chaos Space Marine goodie units.
Chaos Space Marines “Goodie Build” – unlimited points
HQ
Daemon Prince – wings, MoN & warptime
Daemon Prince – wings, MoN & warptime
Greater Daemon
Elite
5 x Chosen w/ Rhino – 5 x meltaguns – Rhino w/ havoc launcher
5 x Chaos Terminators – 1 x chainfist & 4 x combi meltas
5 x Chaos Terminators – 1 x chainfist, 1 x heavy flamer & 3 x combi flamers
Troops
7 x Plague Marines w/ Rhino – 2 x meltaguns & chaos icon – Rhino w/ havoc launcher
7 x Plague Marines w/ Rhino – 2 x meltaguns & chaos icon – Rhino w/ havoc launcher
7 x Plague Marines w/ Rhino – 2 x plasma guns & chaos icon – Rhino w/ havoc launcher
Fast Attack
5 x Raptors – 2 x meltaguns
5 x Raptors – 2 x meltaguns
Heavy Support
3 x Obliterators
3 x Obliterators
3 x Obliterators
Comment here or visit Marc’s post at http://www.imperiusdominatus.com/2010/05/chaos-space-marine-top-7-units.html