Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Chaos Space Marines (section)

===HQ===
*'''Chaos Lord''' - A nasty, inexpensive close-combat character with tons of options. Even fully-kitted out: Lightning Claw, Power Fist (or Chainfist in Terminator armor), 2+/3++; will usually run you under 175 points - quite impressive in and of itself. Chaos Lords in general love to accompany CSM units. The Lord can take the appropriate mark to unlock cult marines (except the Sons) as troops. You can even take two Lords with two different Marks to unlock two different sets of cult troops! Lords get access to essentially the entire CSM armory and they are only 65 points base. Making him a Nurgle Biker Lord rewards you with a piece of [[cheese]] and a few angry glares for your T6 leader. Also cheap and Fearless - he only costs about 20 points more than a chaos marine holding an Icon of Vengeance, but has the same effect and is a lot tougher and nastier in a fight. Remember to equip the Lord with Sigil of Corruption no matter the rest of options, a 4++ save is always a good idea.
**'''Mark of Khorne:''' Rage + Counterattack. Unlocks Khorne Berzerkers as Troops choices. Stick this guy on a Juggernaut of Khorne and give him the Axe of Blind Fury Artefact. You end up with a T5 W4 CC monstrosity which has the Cavalry unit type and thanks to the assorted USRs and the Artefact gets 7+D6 S6 AP2 attacks struck at full Initiative. Add a retinue of MoK Bikers with the Icon of Wrath. The entire unit gains Furious Charge (so the Lord's Strength on the Charge is actually '''7''') and might re-roll the Charge distance. Outfit the Champion with an LC or PF to support the Lord and remove enemy units from the table in each Assault Phase. Many skulls shall be collected for the Blood God when the Lord and his warriors reach the foe...
**'''Mark of Nurgle:''' +1 Toughness. Yes, that's right. Put the Chaos Lord on a Bike and get the dreaded T6 HQ. This means he is immune to Instant Death inflicted by S10 weapons and most small arms fire wounds him only on 6s. It might be a good idea to accompany him with a unit of MoN Spawn to get loads of T6 ablative wounds that can keep up with his 12" move. MoN Chaos Bikers work well too. Take the Blight Grenades as well, for just 5 pts. you get assault + defensive grenades to deny the charging enemy his bonus attacks. Also, this makes Plague Marines Troops, so you get Objective Secured units that are really difficult to remove from their posts.
**'''Mark of Slaanesh:''' +1 Initiative. Unlocks Noise Marines as Troops choices, which is very good. With the enhanced reflexes you usually strike before everyone else. Take a Lightning Claw or two to shred the corpsefuckers before they know what hit them. Or even better, take the reliable LC+PF combo and put this guy on a Bike. Additionally, take a MoS Biker retinue with the Icon of Excess. They are fast, durable with T5 and 3+, can use FnP to protect them more often that not and they strike at Initiative 5. All in all the unit is quite versatile and might be more survivable than the MoN equivalent due to the FnP. Just stay away from S10.
**'''Mark of Tzeentch:''' +1 Invulnerable save. Unlike the previous examples this guy is probably best used alone. He doesn't unlock any Troops choices and the viable candidates for retinue don't benefit much from the Mark. However, MoT is the only means of reliably getting a 3++ save on the HQ (SoC + MoT). You might give him a Disc of Tzeentch for shits and giggles: zoom around the table thanks to your Jetbike status and shred enemies in CC. Or perhaps take the Burning Brand of Skalathrax. Tzeentch loves fire, after all. Then again, he's the 'best' terminator-lord, what with the 2+/3++, and works really well with MoT terminators.

*'''Chaos Sorcerer''' - The Sorcerer has a weaker statline than a Chaos Lord, with one less WS, BS, Wound, Initiative and Attack. However, he's 5 points cheaper and comes with a free Force Weapon of choice and Mastery Level 1. Unlike vanilla Librarians, you don't get access to a Psychic Hood, but you're 5 points cheaper compared to them in exchange, and you can upgrade to Mastery Level 3 (while they're capped at ML 2 outside of certain special characters). There are usually three main ways to run a Sorcerer:
**'''Mandatory HQ''' - 60 points and you have your cheapest HQ option for when you really want to cram more models in; if you do this, you'll probably stick him in a Rhino where he can annoy stuff with Psychic Shriek. However, this is usually inferior to the other two options.
**'''On A Bike:''' A Sorcerer on a Bike can take advantage of being able to move, cast powers, then Turbo. He can either join a unit of Chaos Bikers, run solo, or even hide out in a unit of Spawn...wait, what NOOOARGRBRBLRBRBLB! Ahem, either way, if you're buying a Bike for your Sorcerer, it also pays to upgrade him. You '''will''' take a Spell Familiar, and at least one additional Mastery Level to play with. Taking a 3rd Mastery Level is usually a good idea as it's one of the few tricks you get over the Loyalists, and it helps ensure you get that one power you really want.
**'''Palanquin of Nurgle:''' For 5 points more than the cost of a basic Forgefiend, you get a Sorcerer with the Mark of Nurgle, Mastery Level 3, and a Spell Familiar. Historically, the Palanquin was overlooked because it does not actually make your Sorcerer any faster, and prevents riding in a transport; add having to use a up a psychic roll on the  Nurgle discipline. The main reason to take a Palanquin is if you want your Sorcerer to use Malefic Daemonology and summon Daemons, as getting the additional wounds means a few additional turns of casting; you '''will''' Perils, but you have enough wounds that you don't care! Traitor Legions made this build even more viable as the Lore of Nurgle has been updated, including a power that lets you heal a character, so with some luck you can [[Awesome|just summon a unit of Daemons, take a wound, and heal it right after!]]. Hide in a unit of Cultists and go to town! Word Bearers benefit quite a bit from this, as a cheaper alternative to using a Daemon Prince for summoning, but Crimson Slaughter can also benefit too, especially if you also give the Sorcerer Prophet of the Voices to become a Daemon and Perils only on 6s...though you end up only being able to join units of Possessed.
Note that a Sorcerer with the Mark of Tzeentch will unlock Rubric Marines as troops. However, this seldom matters as Rubric Marines are pretty bad, especially compared to other options, and Thousand Sons already get Rubric Marines. :)

*'''Exalted Sorcerer of Tzeentch (Wrath of Magnus):''' The Exalted Sorcerer is if you want the "best of" a Chaos Lord or Sorcerer in one slot and don't mind paying a premium on points. Has Mark of Tzeentch, is ML2 base, and can upgrade to ML3. He's BS5, I5, and W3 compared to a standard sorcerer, which is awesome! Also has access to a S9 AP2 Heavy 1, Lance Blast once per game thanks to his '''Lord of the Silver Tower''' special rule. Also, he's Fearless! He gets access to Divination too, which the Sorcerer doesn't know unless you give a Crimson Slaughter Sorcerer the Balestar.
**'''Analysis:'''The Exalted Sorcerer is cool but ultimately overcosted for most builds. Like the Warpsmith and Dark Apostle, does not have access to Special Issue Wargear or Terminator Armour, and unlike either, he's even more restricted in his loadout; he has his Bolt Pistol and a Force Stave (no Force Sword or Force Axe for you, since GW doesn't [[Chapterhouse_Studios|write rules for stuff without models]]), and that's it unless you choose to buy a Relic for him; taking a Disc is mandatory and '''not''' an option; seriously, quit bitching and take the fucking Disc already! You'll be glad later when he can move 12", cast, then turbo 24"! His Lord of the Silver Tower, despite being fluffed as similar to an Orbital Bombardment, is worse in every way that matters, with less Strength and AP, a smaller blast, and [[Fail|not actually being a Barrage weapon]]. Telekinesis is a bad discipline, so the main reason you're taking him is if you want a fearless Cultist Bunker yet don't want a Helcult, or if you want to give him Seer's Bane so he can go beat stuff up. He gets Divination, but if you want it that bad, you either take a Crimson Slaughter detachment, or Daemon allies anyway, and you can use a cheaper character to carry the Astral Grimoire.
**'''alternate opinion''': wait, wait!! '''WAIIT'''!! Yes, they are expensive but they can bring the hurt and fuck up any old seargent or any IC that isnt [[Tau|CC orientated]], and he gets divination, you know for the thousand sons, scarab occults, to get those lovely AP3 weapons twin-linked, or get massed autopistols(not really a good idea). While yes they are expensive, if used right they can be amazing and can create some the deadliest deathstars out there(Hello Forgefiend-Star), so [[Tzeentch|Engage troll-face]], scream JUST AS PLANNED as loud as possible, and just bring 'em.
**'''Note:''' If you're using the rules for Legions, these can only be taken in a Thousand Sons OR Black Legion detachment. The latter means they lose access to all the Thousand Sons artefacts and the Blessing of Tzeentch rule. 

*'''Daemon Prince''': Your personal, customizable close quarters monster. Seriously, this guy is shit-your-pants frightening, being able to wreck the face of any infantry short of assault terminators before they can so much as lift a finger, as well as most monstrous creatures and light vehicles. He sports WS 9, I8, 4 wounds, 5 attacks, and is a Monstrous Creature so he gets Smash. He also has access to Chaos Rewards and Chaos Artefacts (notably the Axe of Blind Fury and Black Mace) and can take wings, turning him into a Flying Monstrous Creature. He does have some steep downsides, though. His biggest weakness is his newfound lack of Eternal Warrior, so S10 blows and Instant Death weapons/rules are the bane of his existence (which basically means that you should keep him the fuck away from dreadnoughts). Also, with a sharp rise in base cost (plus the fact that he must be devoted to one of the Chaos Gods) the price tag once you've added wings, Mastery levels, power armour, and so on, he can become very costly, very quick. So that means you have to actually get off your ass and think about how best to use him. Often run with the Black Mace, which, although costly, is quite terrifying for pretty much anything that he runs into.
**'''Side Note:''' Since you MUST be devoted to a Chaos God, if you make your Daemon Prince a psyker he must roll at least 1 power on the chart of his dedicated god. This makes fishing for Endurance or Iron Arm slightly more difficult, but on the bright side, chaos powers aren't nearly so crap now as they were before Traitor legions dropped, so you have that much going for you.
**Marks - Due note that Daemon Princes don't get Marks of the Gods, but they are required to be dedicated to one God. Daemon of Khorne gives you Furious Charge, giving you Plasma strength hits on the charge. Slaanesh gets Rending, which makes it decent at popping tanks without relying on one Smash attack per turn(especially when coupled with a Daemon Weapon or the Talons of the Night Terror) and an additional 3" of run. Tzeentch allows you to re-roll ANY saves of 1, which is amazing if you take any of the 2+ relic armours from Traitor Legions. Nurgle gets you Shrouded, for a 2+ jink save if you take wings. All pretty decent choices.

*'''Warpsmith:''' Doc Oc up in this bitches! The Warpsmith is an evil Techmarine, with many assorted goodies. He's expensive, but already comes with most of his wargear so you don't have to go crazy and try to trick him out further...in fact, you probably can't trick him out further, mostly because he can't take a Bike! Maybe the tentacles kept causing him to fall off? He comes with a 2+ armor save, Power Axe & Bolt Pistol, and Mechatendrils. These nasty tentacles give him an extra 2 attacks, so he can make 6(!) attacks on the charge. Really though, you care more about his shooting as his Mechatendrils have an in-built Flamer and a Meltagun, making him one of the few characters in the game with the <s>sanity</s> <s>SANITY IS FOR THE WEAK!</s> to take a meaningful gun. You have the option to fire both these weapons at the same time, or to fire one of them alongside another weapon; swap out his Bolt Pistol for a Combi-Melta and he can double-tap something and make it go BOOM! Rounding it off, he can forfeit shooting to attempt to repair an adjacent friendly vehicle on a 4+, or curse a nearby enemy vehicle within 18" so all its guns Get Hot! See that Leman Russ Punisher? Curse it and dare it to fire at you! Finally, at the start of the game, he can select one piece of terrain in the opponent's deployment zone, which from then on provides one less Cover than normal. 
**''Analysis:'' The problem with the Warpsmith is that he's an expensive HQ without having "general-purpose" flexibility. For the price of one Warpsmith, you can buy a Sorcerer of Chaos with a Bike, Spell Familiar, and still have 15 points leftover! He can repair vehicles, but most vehicles Chaos has access to cost less than he does, and it's common for vehicles to be destroyed outright in a turn before they can be repaired. His guns are mis-matched, making the "fire two weapons" option fairly pointless at first, and a 2+ save only means so much. That being said, three different formations that appear both in Traitor's Hate and Traitor Legions have a mandatory Warpsmith, so you'll want to find a way to use him regardless. The Combi-Melta is the best option as for just a few points more, it lets him "run solo" like a 3rd Space Marine unit. Compared to a 5-man team of Chaos Space Marines with one Meltagun and one Champion with a Combi-Melta, he costs 25 points more, in exchange for better Ballistic Skill, and a grab-bag of abilities here-and-there; the only issue remains getting him to his target. Ectomancy Psychic Powers are one option, but another option is finding a "spare" Rhino for him; a team of Autocannon Havocs can take a Rhino without actually needing it.
**Note that while the warpsmith isn't necessarily "great" at anything, Master of Mechanisms is hilarious against shooty LoW choices. Watching an overeager Stompa or Gatling Knight strip 3-5 HP due to gets hot in a single round of shooting will cause tears and/or RAGE. Or just deter them from firing in the first place!

*'''Dark Apostle:''' The Chaos equivalent of a Chaplain, the Dark Apostle is a "passive" support character. He comes stock with a Power Maul, Bolt Pistol and Sigil of Corruption, grants his unit Zealot, characters in his unit may reroll results from Chaos Boons, and friendly Chaos Space Marine units within 6" of him use his Leadership (Leadership 10) instead of their own.
**''Analysis:'' The Dark Apostle's shares similar problems to the Warpsmith, in being more expensive than a Sorcerer for less flexibility. He costs 45 points more than a Sorcerer while maintaining the exact same statline. Even accounting for his free Sigil of Corruption, this still leaves him 20 points more expensive than a similarly-equipped Sorcerer. To add insult to injury, the Apostle cannot take any wargear to enhance his own mobility; no Bikes, Jump Packs, or Mounts for him. Also, do note that he does not get access to regular melee gear that even aspiring champions can use, unless you're willing to spend even more points on the Axe of Blind Fury or some other cool legion artifact. So what do those extra 20 points do for you? You get gain a Leadership 10 bubble, you grant Zealot to a unit he joins, and you get some insurance to control whether or not characters in his unit will be transformed (though it usually matters mostly for himself!). The zealot is excellent for running large mobs of cultists as more than just "mandatory troops", especially if they are marked Khorne. 4 attacks a piece on the charge, with hatred, even at WS and S 3 are nothing to sneer at, especially coming from a unit that can potentially bring 35 bodies to bear. Oh, and the one artifact in the codex that makes the guy's atacks AP2 is the aforementioned Axe of Blind Fury, which is also a Khornate toy. Take a hint. Still, even more so than the other HQs, his bonuses are very niche, and it's hard to justify the extra points you pay for him over a Sorcerer if you're running a CAD.

====Special Characters====

*'''[[Typhus]] the Traveler''' - Typhus is a walking tank. With Terminator Armor, Toughness 5 from the Mark of Nurgle, 4 wounds base, and Feel No Pain, Typhus will not die outright unless he's hit by a Force Weapon, or Strength 10 attacks. Otherwise, most (non-powerfist/TH) attacks will bounce off of him, plain and simple. Not only can he take a punch, but he delivers one too; his signature weapon is the Manreaper, a giant force-Scythe with +2 Strength, AP 2, Force, Unwieldy, and the Daemon Weapon special rule. As long as he avoids Wraithknights or Walkers, he can hurt it. Should he be tied up by a mob of chaff, he can also use his Destroyer Hive to center a large blast over him, and every model nearby takes an automatic S4 AP 2 hit. Top this off with being a Mastery Level 2 Psyker, who rolls all of his powers on the Lore of Nurgle.  He also allows you to take Plague Marines as troops. As if that's not enough, he allows your army to sidegrade any units of Chaos Cultists into Plague Zombies; the Plague Zombies become Fearless and gain Feel No Pain, but they're also Slow and Purposeful, and they cannot take any options beyond adding more bodies. However, this all comes with the drawback that he's "locked" into Lord of Terror, granting him Fear. Needless to say, you don't want him as your Warlord, not for his trait anyway. Seeing as he's one of the most survivable characters in the entire codex, and Slay The Warlord is a thing in most games, taking him as a warlord might not be a bad idea in some cases.
**Summary: You take Typhus if you want Plague Zombies, while getting a beatstick in the bargain. Zombies give you an unrelenting screen of angry meatshields that will take dedicated firepower to shift from objectives or serve as semi-passable tarpits. However, Typhus himself is expensive and the actual Zombies suffer from Slow and Purposeful and the inability to take any of the normal Chaos Cultist upgrades. If "fearless Cultists" is what you're looking for, there are cheaper ways to get it; from using the Cultists as a "delivery system" for an appropriately punchy Chaos Lord you planned to take anyway, to running the Helcult formation. 

*'''[[Lucius]] the Eternal''' - Lucius is a bit of an odd duck out, as well as the obligatory Slaaneshi Special Character. As a Chaos Lord, he's largely typical, but his abilities and weapons load make him a much nastier close-combat unit than he appears to be at a glance. For starters, he's WS 7, as opposed to the typical Chaos Lord WS 6, and he boasts Initiative 6 due to his Mark of Slaanesh. He lacks a traditional Daemon Weapon - but what he has in return makes this almost not matter. Lucius boasts a Doom Siren (AP3 Heavy Flamer), a Power Sword, and a unique weapon in the Lash of Torment, which reduces the number of attacks enemy models get by 1. The FAQ confirmed the Lash to be an artefact, not a weapon, barring him from taking an extra attack for two weapons. In challenges his attack always equals to his opponents' WS! That's 6 attack against a Space Marine Captain! He also has Krak Grenades and Frag Grenades. What truly makes Lucius useful though, on top of all the above, is his unique ability stemming from his Armour of Shrieking Souls - any close combat attack Lucius saves against (Armor Save OR Invulnerable Save) causes an automatic S4 hit on the unit that attacked him, with no armour saves allowed. It's not all good news, however: Lucius positively sucks against vehicles and his 5+ Invulnerable save, whilst useful, isn't exactly a stellar defensive feature. He is a character designed for challenges but most HQ's have AP2 weapons or 2+ armour saves which Lucius has no counter for. He also lacks Eternal Warrior, which means he's actually quite vulnerable against things like Force Weapons and heavy weapon sniping attempts.
**Lucy's Lash of Torment now makes ALL of his close combat attacks have the "Shred" rule, effectively giving him Lightning Claws and granting his Armour of Shrieking Souls a better chance to wound. Stick him in a squad of Noise Marines with the re-tooled Icon of Slaanesh to give him drug-fueled Feel No Pain. Also, dual [[FATAL|Doom Sirens]]. You can never have enough [[FATAL|Doom Sirens]].
**Traitor Legions gives him a load of buffs, especially if you have him lead a Kakophoni, netting him Feel No Pain(+6), Split Fire, Shred on his Doom Siren, and Strength 6 on his Doom Siren if you bring a full 6 Noise Marine Squads.

*'''[[Khârn]] The Betrayer''' - [[Kharn|A real fun guy to be around]]. Kharn boasts a suite of useful traits and equipment, including the Gorechild (A power axe with Armorbane and no Unwieldy, which always hits on 2+, but to hit rolls of 1 hit your own unit), Frag and Krak grenades (the latter of which will never see use), a Plasma Pistol, Furious Charge, Mark of Khorne, and perhaps most importantly, gets a 2+ Deny the Witch and immunity to Instant Death from Force Weapons. Khârn can demolish damned-near-anything in close-combat, from enemy vehicles to enemy infantry when on the charge - an advantage primarily offset by the fact that he's completely fucking useless if he can't get close, and rather easy to isolate and tear down due to a relatively weak (5+) Invulnerable save. He is best-used either with a massive mob of Cultists to absorb ranged attacks and take wounds (Terminators are too expensive to risk losing to his attacks) - the latter loaded up to the fucking gills with Flamers, the squads shoved in a [[Rhino Transport|Metal Box]] or [[Land Raider|BIG METAL BOX]], and thrown directly at the enemy's face. Like Fabius Bile, Ahriman, and Abaddon, Khârn has one more attack than is listed in his profile due to his weapon loadout - for a total of five. He also has a base strength of 6, with 7 on the charge. Khârn counts as a Chaos Lord for the purpose of 'zerkers being troops.
** Kharn's Hatred Incarnate ability lets him re-roll misses during the first round of close combat, making his entourage last that much longer without feeling his axe. 
**'''Fun Fact:''' Due to the wording of his 'Blessing of the Blood God' special rule, he cannot be Instant Killed by a Nemesis Daemon Hammer hit.
** Kharn will kill you so hard that you will die to death.
** Note that due to Gorechild and a decent number of attacks, Kharn can feasibly take on everything from Guardsmen blobs to Land Raiders in close combat and totally wreck their shit. The only things he will ever have problems in melee are Wraithlords and Wraithknights, due to their T8 making it hard to actually kill them before they instant-death Kharn with a punch to the nads. He also, understandably, has a problem with ranged combat of any sort, so a transport for him is near-mandatory (although his low cost offsets this, making even buying a personal land raider for him feasible).
** The Land Raider argument is enhanced by the fact that Chaos Land Raiders are still Assault Vehicles, unlike Chaos Rhinos, and have the same transport capacity. Also consider fitting Dirge Casters, despite the fact that they are of pansy Slaaneshi origin to help negate overwatch.
** The only rules change for Kharn's new Traitor's Hate entry is the Unstoppable rule is now on Kharn's model rather than on Gorechild. This means he can fist-fight Jain Zar on a 2+ after he gets disarmed!

*'''[[Huron Blackheart]]''' - Huron is the leader of the Red Corsairs, and a fairly passable HQ. Of all the Special Characters in the Chaos Codex, Huron is the best "jack of all trades" character. His signature item is the Tyrant's Claw, a Lightning Claw with +2 Strength, Armorbane, and built-in Heavy Flamer, and he has a Sigil of Corruption and Power Axe. Unfortunately, he only gets his base 3 attacks base in melee so he lacks the pure melee potential of other characters. In exchange, however, he has another special item: The Hamadrya is a Combat Familiar (so he gets an extra two attacks) that also makes Huron a Mastery Level 1 Psyker, with a twist. Each and every turn, he rolls to see what powers he actually knows; he rolls a D3 to see what Discipline he knows, with a 1 being Biomancy, a 2 being Telepathy, and a 3 being Divination, and then he rolls to see what power he actually knows from that discipline. 
**''Summary:'' The main reason you take Huron is you want to "lock in" your Warlord Trait to guarantee at least one of your units has Infiltrate, and you would would rather not spend the extra 80 points on Ahriman. His close combat loadout is acceptable against rank-and-file and he can finish off damaged Dreadnoughts/Knights a pinch, though he'll bounce off any proper melee beatsticks without proper buffs (and don't even think of pitting him against a Wraithknight!). Although his powers are random, he can always count on at least having the Primaris to fall back on. Smite and Psychic Shriek let him plink off wounds from armored units, with the former being better than normal due to Huron's improved BS, while Huron remains only one of three ways for a Chaos Marine army to get Divination powers (meaning Prescience) without resorting to Daemon allies. However, he lacks a Spell Familiar and he is still Mastery Level 1 so he won't have the same melee oomph as a proper Sorcerer. Huron is the Swiss Army knife of HQs, where you will always have an option with him, though you don't always get to control what those options are. 

*'''[[Fabius Bile|Fabulous Bile]]''' - The king of mixed bags and fabulous. On one hand, Bile has good stats and wargear: Feel No Pain through his Chirurgeon, Strength 5, a weapon that causes instant death (Rod of Torment), five attacks, and a particularly nasty poisoned weapon in the Xyclos Needler. On the other hand, his Rod of Torment does ''not'' ignore armor saves (unlike, say, the '''MURDER SWORD'''), his Xyclos Needler has really bad AP and sub-par range, and perhaps most damning of all, no Invulnerable save, unlike literally every other Chaos Character in the codex. So... Sucks, Right? Not quite. The reason Fabius Bile is taken, ironically, isn't for Bile himself; it's for his Enhanced Warriors trait, which gives a unit of Chaos Space Marines +1 Strength and Fearless. An enhanced Khornate CSM unit (Mark + Icon) rolls out 4 S6 attacks per Marine on the charge while being scoring and Fearless. While he isn't stellar in a normal CSM army (he's not a fighter nor does he enhance more than one unit of CSM), he really shines as an allied HQ — if you want a reasonably cheap CC threat for your [[Eldar|pansy]] [[Tau|blueberries]], take him and a 10-strong unit of Khornate CSM with meltaguns that can threaten [[Orks|massed infantry]] with the number of attacks, [[Imperial Guard|massed tanks]] with meltaguns/carnage combo and [[Tyranids|monstrous creatures]] with that Instant Death stick. Know that a Disordered Charge (aka multi-charge) denies you your Rage, so plan accordingly. 
**Note that he can enhance one CSM unit in your entire ARMY, so take him in an Auxiliary Detachment for your Traitor Legion, and buff one of their Legion CSM units. 20 Infiltratring S5 Fearless Alpha Legion CSM anyone? 

*'''[[Ahriman]] the Exile''' - A Sorcerer that costs as much as a [[Land Raider]] is seldom a good sign. On the other hand there are only ''three'' other psykers in the game with Mastery Level 4 (Fateweaver, Aetaos'Rau'Keres and [[Eldrad|that dick]]) and Ahriman has access to several psychic disciplines, plus boasting a unique piece of gear in the Black Staff, which is a Force Staff that lets him fire off the same Witchfire psychic power THREE times a turn. This can mean three DOOMBOLTS per turn. Or three psychic screams, which is by far the most brutally effective option since it now hits automatically. His [[dakka|firepower]] can be absolutely insane, but it requires good rolling for psychic powers or just choosing the Primaris for either Biomancy or Telepathy, unlike the previous codex. He has a bolt pistol with Inferno Bolts and the standard Tzeentch Marine 4+ invulnerable save, [[fail|but he's only T4]]. Sadly, he WILL take 1 wound from perils. Devastating if used right, but makes for a huge and high-priority target. Unlike a lot of other units with this price-tag, such as Old One-Eye, he tends to actually be worth it if carefully managed, mostly due to the fact that he drops a [[Touhou]]-esque barrage of firepower out in short order. Just remember that he's a gigantic fire magnet, and his force weapon is only AP4 (but S6). Has an extra attack not shown on the profile, due to his pistol and staff, for a total of 4. Still, he costs a bomb in points. 
** Wrath of Magnus updates his pool of disciplines, now he is able to roll from all powers from the main book (except Sanctic Daemonology), Tzeentch, and all new CSM disciplines.
** A fun option with this one is to ally yourself with Tzeentch daemons. Horrors will serve as batteries for Ahriman to drain. Mount him in a rhino, go full throttle and let the onslaught begin. Only being able to cast witchfires from a transport isn't much of a handicap when he can cast 12 witchfires a turn.
** Wrath of Magnus update: put him on the Disc and join him with Chaos Bikers.
** He can now buy a Disc so enjoy that +1T and turbo boosting around.
*'''[[Abaddon]] the Despoiler''' - Don't be fooled by jokes regarding his lack of arms - Abaddon is BAD news. He is a very dangerous independent character in melee. 6th ed has changed how his attacks roll - he can use either Drach'nyen (+1 Strength, AP2, Daemon Weapon) or the Talon of Horus (Strength 8, AP3 and Shred, though Blood Angels gain Hatred against him). With WS7, I6, +1 attack for having 2 Specialist Weapons (so 5 base), Rage from the Mark of Khorne and the potential extra attacks from Drach'nyen if you use that, Abaddon will hammer just about anything on the charge through sheer volume of attacks. Just take care who you send him against, for there are a few characters that will remove his arms readily. Suffice to say, not many units can reliably go toe-to-toe with the Despoiler and survive for more than a round or two - most will be dead before they can attack, and many armies lack squads that can offer more than a token resistance. He has every single Chaos Mark (For Rage/Counter Attack, +1 Initiative, a 4+ Invulnerable Save, and +1 Toughness), Hatred AND Preferred Enemy against Space Marines of all kinds and Eternal Warrior. On the other hand, the drawbacks are obvious - he costs a fuckton of points, he's a huge fire-magnet, 2+ armour save not being ignored by power weapons doesn't matter much since you opponent is going to try and keep anything valuable away from him (fortunately he can Deep Strike), he sucks at shooting (he only has a Twin-Linked Bolter, so his high ballistic skill is pretty irrelevant), and his Daemon Weapon runs the risk of reducing him to WS1. Do anything you fucking can to get him into close combat, and try to not let him lose his arms. He will maintain his title of unbeatable killing machine right until he fights anything such anything with a D Weapon, then its game over so be careful! 
**Math is for math books.
**'''Don't fight Jain Zar if you're up against Eldar. You will not win.'''
**Since Abaddon technically has all the Marks , he can benefit from the Slaaneshi Icon of Drugs (FNP) and Khornate Icon of FUCK YOU (Furious Charge and re-roll charge distance).
**His firepower is a lot better than it sounds against Space Marines. Because he gives every squad within 12" Preferred Enemy (Space Marines), in theory he adds a block of firepower equal to roughly 36% of every squad within that bubble - and since Chosen squads can pack five plasma guns apiece, and get re-roll Gets Hot...
** Be careful of pitting him against AV13 or higher walkers (as S8 will have trouble punching through their armor) and keep him the fuck AWAY from any that have D Strength close combat weapons (such as Imperial Knights). One 6 rolled in the to wound roll and down goes Abbadon.
**<s>Abaddon can now become a Daemon Prince or a Spawn '''SKSAAOUROOAEBLEHGH'''</s>. The most recent FAQ has brought back his old rule about re-rolling everytime he gets Dark Apotheosis and Spawnhood. Yay!  
**Don´t forget the Bringers of Despair: Terminators with WS/BS 5 who can reroll a single "Look Out, Sir" on Abaddon in a phase.

====Supplements & Forgeworld====
*'''Vrosh Tattersoul (Dark Vengeance)'''- A dirt-cheap HQ for an assaulty squad. 65 points nets you an Aspiring Champion with an extra wound, Rage, combi-melta, power axe (plus another CCW for +1 attack), and not much else. When he kills an enemy character he always gains +1 Attack instead of rolling on the boon table. That's... really all there is to say about this guy; if you've only got 500 to 750 points of stuff then he's good at just rounding out a squad.

*'''[[Be'lakor]] the Dark Master (Dataslate)'''- A returning character from Fantasy, Be'lakor gets the EW rule that regular Daemon Princes lack and is a Level 3 Psyker with all Telepathy Discipline by default, and if you don't think up at least five ways to abuse the Invisibility psy power the moment you read this, punch yourself in the face. He comes with the unique rules Shadow Form (4+ invulnerable save and Shrouded and automatically passes Dangerous Terrain tests) and Lord of Torment (gains a bonus D3 Warp Charge points by making enemy units fail morale checks). He also has wings and possesses a unique weapon called the Blade of Shadows (S+1, AP2, Fleshbane, Armourbane, and Master-Crafted). He also doesn't need to be devoted to a chaos god, as he serves all of them (making him a fluffy and effective choice for a Chaos Undivided army). At 350 points, he's a flat upgrade to the basic Daemon Prince and cost-effective to boot. His only weakness was that you had to terrain-hop him or Invis himself to keep him from dying to crazy fire. But now, with 7e, you can jink while gliding. Enjoy your constant 2+ cover save, mate. In short: JUST TAKE HIM FOR MALICE'S SAKE!!!
**'''Alternative Opinion:''' Be VERY FUCKING CAREFUL around anything with Cleansing Flame (IE: Grey Knight Purifiers). They'll get 2D6 hits on you, 50% of which will mathematically wound (not including the fact that they'll be re-rolling 1s, due to Preferred Enemy), that will not only auto-hit (and therefore ignore your invisibility) Template weapons don't work on invisible units, but also ignore your precious 2+ Jink. I can tell you from personal experience that a combat squaded unit of 10 Purifiers will result in Be'Lakor's firey demise. It makes matters even worse if Be'Lakor is currently not invisible and said Purifiers are carrying Incinerators.

*'''[[Cypher]], Lord of the Fallen (Dataslate)'''- All in all an okay character.  Just beware that he can never be the Warlord and that fielding him will take -1Ld from your actual Warlord, which wouldn't be a big problem since almost all of your HQ's are Fearless (not recommended if you have a Sorcerer as your warlord.) He gets to shoot his 16" range bolt pistol and never-hot plasma pistol twice in each shooting phase/once before or after running and overwatches at full BS (which is TEN by the way). Also uses his pistols in combat, half of his attacks with each pistol (an odd number of attacks give the bolt pistol an extra attack, never the plasma) at I8. Use him for Hit and Run trolling and granting ATSKNF and Shrouded to any unit he's attached to. Just remember Independent Characters with Infiltrate cannot give Infiltrate to non-infiltrating units, nor can they join units that lack Infiltrate before deployment. He's survived for 10,000 years with just power armour, so has no invulnerable save, but his sword gives him Eternal Warrior and the aforementioned Shrouded USR. He gives 3 VP to [[Dark Angels]] players if he's killed within 6 inches of them (1 VP for anyone else who's within 6" of him when he goes down) so don't ever be within 6 inches of a DA, duh. He will give you d3 VP if he survives the match by flipping the bird against the enemy.He can bring up to 3 units of Chosen which come separate from the FOC but can't take marks, icons or transports but have ATSKNF, Infiltrate and can apparently take power fists for 5 points! You could put him and some Havocs behind an ADL with a quad gun for a 2+ covered gunline that will never ever die, you'll just have to deploy them separately at the beginning of the game.

*'''Arkos the Faithless (Forge World)''' - An Alpha Legion Character from the Siege of Vraks books. This guy wields the '''Black''' Blade (+2S, Rending, Power Sword), has a built-in +1 T and he also gives Counter Attack to his squad. Counter Attack is easily gained with MoK, but Arkos seems to have the benefits of a few various things, plus the rending rule can mean he may get lucky while fighting 2+ save opponents.  His warlord trait is the ability to just choose to determine which is your board edge pre-game; if you do this you lose the decision of who takes first turn, but you may re-roll for Seize the Initiative... not fantastic. You may take him for fluff, but unless you have little imagination and fluff expertise you can create [[Your dudes|your own dude]] to represent Alpha Legion lord - he's from the times when Alphas were little more than space Taliban with lots of trained cultists, rather than modern closet loyalist [[anonymous|anon]]s with mind-blowingly over-complicated schemes and tons of just as planned.
** Keep in mind that he can not be run in [[fail|his own legion]] anymore thanks to the latest Traitor Legions Release which forbids unique characters for Alpha Legion. However TL does make him giving Counter Attack useful at least if your opponent lets you use him, thanks to Alpha Legion restricting you from marks.
 
*'''Zhufor the Impaler (Forge World)''' - Zhufor is a pretty strong, well costed Khorne named HQ. He is likely better than any Terminator Lord you would be able to create with the codex with Furious Charge, 4 attacks and S5 base meaning his power fist strikes at S10 AP2, Warboss style, with a total of 6 attacks on the charge. He also has a two handed chain axe, which can be used for mulching hordes, giving him +2 attacks when using the weapon for a total of 8 S6 AP4 attacks on the charge. He packs Eternal Warrior and Terminator armour and so is much more durable than Kharn, and most other chaos HQ's for that matter. That said, he lacks AP2 at initiative that the other killy Chaos Lords can bring and cannot make sweeping advances. If you take Kharn and find that he's dying too much to AP3 at higher initiative (Space elves and Slaanesh) or S8 instant death (half the shit in the game) take this dude instead, he's likely to survive a lot longer and S10 attacks can be a lot more deadly depending on who you're facing (insta-kill those pesky wolves!). His warlord trait also gives you +1VP for each enemy character you slay in a challenge, which considering this guys stats will likely be every character without EW. He also lets you take a squad of MoK Termies as his bodyguard without filling a slot, useful if you wanted to take them anyway, they have similar attacks but bare in mind that this unit will attract a metric fuckton of attention. 

*'''Necrosius (Forge World)''' - A fearless Nurgle Sorcerer with'' Feel No Pain'', a ''Poisoned (4+)'' bolt pistol, and a force sword. His psychic powers are pre-designated: Nurgle's Rot, Gift of Contagion, and Wasting Disease, which is a 24" range focused witchfire that <u>automatically</u> hits any chosen model in a squad, resolved at S3 AP2 assault 1 '''Fleshbane'''. Use it to purge those pesky GK incinerators that deny your zombies their precious 4+ FnP. He also has +1 initiative, wounds, and Ballistic Skill compared to a normal sorcerer. Sadly he can not acquire a invulnerable save thus, rarely makes use of his Champion of Chaos rule, though his I5, FNP and force sword mean he's not totally helpless.
**The ability to take zombies as non-compulsory troops became his warlord trait, though he still grants them all Furious Charge via his "Master of the Dead" special rule. He can only take zombies from the same book he's found in (Siege of Vraks 2nd edition), but his zombies are immensely better with 4+ FnP and the "Warp Plague" rule, which allows you to add d3 zombies to a unit if it kills an enemy unit in close combat.
***Compared to Typhus, Necrosius is better if you want to actively take zombies rather than merely using them as a preferable alternative to cultists for compulsory troops. Necrosius' zombies are far better being 90 points for 30 with FnP 4+, furious charge and the ability to generate more, compared to Typhus  130 points for 30 with only FnP 5+. If you're taking the Purge detachment found in the book you don't need compulsory troops anyway.