Competitive Chaos Space Marines in 6th Edition with the Old Book

Hey all, Kevin here for one last run down on Chaos Space Marines until the new book comes out either in August or in September. Since we still have the rest of the summer to play with the current book in this edition I thought I would talk about it a little bit and how it stacks up in the current set of rules.

First impressions show that it has gotten a major boost in a few factors. Being battle brothers with daemons adds in one of the most popular ally combinations with Fateweaver. Since Fateweavers abilities is one of the few I can find that did not get FAQ'd to be army specific he can be a major boost to a book that already is fairly elite in nature. This is an expensive option although that easily can run you into a 500+ point commitment which is extremely expensive for an already over costed book when average game sizes are getting smaller due to the game taking longer to play and fears of opening up the double force org at over 2000 points..... Also since I cannot find where CSM icons can help daemons coming in, or vice versa, so unless someone finds a gem that allows these pieces of wargear to benefit non-lesser daemons please state below....

Running through HQ's some took hits while others did not. Correct me if I am wrong but daemon weapons are still just power weapons making them less useful in general. Yet I will not go into much detail for special characters since I would consider them all over costed for the time being. What really is the money is the daemon prince and the sorcerer. First of all the sorcerer and prince both have access to telekinesis, telepathy and pyromancy....telepathy being the most useful but still in an edition where foot armies are gonna be more prevalent than vehicle armies lash kust got that much more useful so I say stick with it. If not the sorcerer has a weird situation where you have to buy a psychic power from he book and then exchange it with a BGB rulebook power...so psychic powers can all cost different levels. Now a cheap 5 point familiar just lets you have an extra power. So you can still get a relatively cheap telepathy sorcerer that knows two powers. Yet the money is even more in the daemon prince's court since he can take fly and be a flying monstrous creature with lash. Easily this is the easiest pick of the HQ's and two of them will always be a main stay for now.....

In the troops section things kind of got juggled around. Khorne berserkrers feel the nerf bat hard since furious charge was their big thing for that large cost. Going down to I4 and multi assaults being nerfed really has hurt them. When they get redone I do expect them to get rage but for now they are too expensive and not worth their price compared to a standard Chaos Marine. Plague Marines are still worth it even though FNP got dropped to a 5+ they will get it against virtually almost everything but S10 weapons and weapons that cause instant death automatically....both of which are very rare. Still the ability to take two plasma guns in small squads now is very valuable especially with someone like fateweaver around. Expect that combo untilt he new book premiers. I have never been much of an expert on noisemarines so I will not say much about them. normally heavy weapons can now atleast mvoe and shoot, unless they have a template or blast....just like noise marines....I would not take them now.

Now regular Chaos marines got a little bit more attractive.  Being able to have massive groups of 20 of these guys with a couple plasma guns and an autocannon, probably one of the most useful heavy weapons in the game, makes them a solid choice in this probable foot units shooting mass anti infantry fire into other mass troops edition. Throwing in Icons of Chaos glory just to reroll morale will always be useful when units can rally so easily these days. Fateweaver next ot 20 or 40 of these guys is a sight to see.Heck even 10 in a rhino with an autocannon and a plasma gun is useful. Regular CSM have a Bolt pistol/CCW, are a lot cheaper than vanilla marines, easier access to special weapons, and have access to autocannons which are more useful in this edition.

With the shooty terminator now being very viable again we are gonna see a resurgence of chaos terminators....especially with reaper autocannons (Twin linked 36" range autocannons). These guys with Fateweaver is gross yet in general they are more worth it now than last edition when they were still worth it....the only worthwhile elite still imho

Nurgle bikers are still very cool.....too expensive although...raptors, while better are too expensive also....

Lesser and greater daemons? no comment... we have real daemons again.....

Now the heavy slot got very interesting. Oblits with their 2+ save and two wounds got even more useful but they are about to be out shined by the simple havoc squad.....Since things like reaper autocannon are going to be a lot More useful a unit of 4 of these will be tremendously useful....8xS7 shots will be very useful especially when 6's are needed to hit flyer's...this does show how much of a mid range army we are looking at.....preds are ok but not as useful as havocs or oblits...same with all the other heavies

Realistically a good  list, if you have the models, at 1850 right now probably would look like this.

x2 lash princes with wings
2x15 CSM's w/ plasmaguns, autocannons, champs w/fists/TL bolters
2x5 havocs w/ 4x autocannons each.
1x2 Oblits
Fatewaver
1x9 nugling bases

Boom you have a foot horde of 40 power armored guys with a hell of a lot of dakka and rerollable armor saves.....CSM's themselves are no pushovers in combat as well....nurgling bases will be a good standby for armies that want to take fateweaver but they also can tie up a unit of wraiths or such steaming across the table towards you, especially since they are immune to instant death and have invulnerable saves.....oblits can deepstrike melta any AV 14 you happen to run across or just start on the table and let the lash princes swooping around take care of that....all in all this is a decent list for what we can use right now but I will not state this is the end all super competitive list....it is decent and can work but really a whole lot more playtesting will be needed if any can be before the new book comes out....but time will only tell and the new book is coming pretty soon so do not get too busy using the old one....more on this later....

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