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

===Fast Attack===

*'''Chaos Bikers''' - If Loyalist Bikers can best be thought of as a "horse archer" unit, engaging at close range before withdrawing to a more tactically advantageous position, Chaos Bikers are better thought of as a "pursuit cavalry" option. They're one point cheaper than their Loyalist counterparts, with the usual lack of Grav/ATSKNF/Chapter Tactics that this entails, but unlike Loyalist Bikers, they get the Bolt Pistol/CCW bonus for an extra attack each. While White Scars and Ravenwing will use "Hit and Run" to avoid getting bogged down by tarpits, Chaos uses extra attacks to hope to break through. 
**''Loadout:'' The first thing you'll notice is you have the option to give two models Special Weapons (Flamers/Meltas/Plasmas), by trading in either the secondary Close Combat Weapon your Bikers get, or trading in your Bike's Twin-Linked Bolters. Both options have their pros and cons, but this anon's personal opinion is to swap out the Twin-Linked Bolters. You only get to fire one gun anyway, and you want every attack you can get when it comes time to assault. When it comes to Bike Squads, it may be ok to go against conventional wisdom and actually buy a Power Weapon for your Champion; unlike vanilla Marines, you have the mobility to dictate your own fights, and a few lucky rolls on the Chaos Boon table could have your squad turn into a surprisingly frightening DISTRACTION CARNIFEX!
**''Marks:'' When it comes to Marks, you can take them or leave them. Khorne gives extra weight on the charge, while Slaanesh grants access to the Icon of Excess, which does better in this formation due to the improved toughness. The Mark of Nurgle costs more on these guys than normal, simply because it ups your Toughness. While this can give you near-immunity to small-arms fire, it provides no defense against attacks which don't work against toughness. The Mark of Tzeentch is even more pointless on these guys than on other units; while it's cheap, a 6+ Invulnerable won't mean much when you have the option to Jink. 
**''Retinue'': Bikers are an excellent retinue for a Slaaneshi Biker or a Khorne Juggernaut Lord. They provide ablative wounds and clear out the chaff while the Lord takes care of priority targets. Don't be afraid to put a Lightning Claw on the Champion, this way he can challenge and eliminate the enemy squad leader and allow the Lord to slaughter the rank-and-file. Remember, the Lords benefit from the Icons as well!
**''One of the greatest units in the Chaos Codex'': With the addition of Traitor Legions these guys have become something amazing! Death Guard? T6, Fearless and FNP with ReRolls of 1 to FNP PLUS SHROUDED IF 18" AWAY albeit I3. Emperors Children? COMBAT DRUGS ON THESE GUYS! T6? 3A BASE? WS5/BS5? I6?. Black Legion? Crusader, Hatred EVERYTHING! World Eaters? 2D6 movement which they can move 12" during movement AND Charge with Re-Rolling charge ranges + Rage + Furious Charge?! Seriously. If you're playing Traitor Legions and the retrospecting Legions Formation Detatchment pick up like 3 units of these guys plus they have Objective Secured AND Double Boons so kit out those Sarges! Dakka plus Choppy and in many armies Fearless. Underated is an understatement. Only the Thousand Sons players should skip them, really...because they're probably playing the Grand Coven anyways.

*'''Chaos Raptors''' - Chaos' Assault Marines with Fear. Reasonably priced and can get shit done. Icons and double-special weapons make them respectable. Can have up to 15 models in a unit. Slaanesh and Khorne are easily the best (and cheapest) mark options for them.  A solid unit, through and through; you can't really go wrong with Raptors. 
**''Loadouts:'' Meltaguns tend to be the weapon of choice. They let you light up transports or heavier vehicles, while your Bolt Pistols/CCWs let you shred through lighter infantry. Flamers are alright except for overlapping roles, while Plasma Guns are not particularly worth taking, as you do NOT have Relentless and won't be able to charge after firing them. Unless you're deathguard, in which case go ham. Plasma pistols are a useless choice since Melta guns are 5 points less, don't Get Hot and don't take away either close combat weapon.
**''Marks:'' Mark of Slaanesh makes for three I5 attacks each (on the charge), Icon of Khorne gives 4 I4, Icon of Nurgle makes them T5 (and thus harder to kill), and Tzeentch gives them Invulnerable saves which you'll almost never make :)

*'''Warp Talons:''' Oh, boy, here comes the proverbial [[shit twinkie]] in the CSM codex. Here it goes. Take everything you may like about Raptors (but strip them of ALL THE FUCKING GRENADES! I mean what the hell Phil?!) and turn the diarrhea up a few notches and TA-DA! 30 pts. a you power armoured dude with a pair of lightning claws, the daemon USR and when he deep strikes with the rest of his crew, their pimping bling has a chance of blind everyone within 6". Usually a 33% chance (against marines, if they don't have a character in that squad). Should you actually manage to blind the enemy, most things will hit you on a 6 at range or a 5 in close combat making them [[Rape|easy, defenseless pickings]]. Too bad it almost never works. These guys should have been your first wave, coupled with Oblits for fire support and Maulers for hard targets. What makes them extremely shit is the fact that they can't assault after deepstriking, which means that even if they did manage to get in turn 2, they will get shot at by everything they didn't blind (read everything) and then do some more dying when it gets time to eat that overwatch. Theoretically they can be good with an icon of Slaanesh (Lol nope) and a Jump Pack Lord for extra punch. However, the cost is so prohibitive and the potential so limited that... No. Just no. Also work exceedingly well in Planetstrike missions; the 7th ed update in Sanctus Reach means that Deep Striking attackers can still assault after arriving on the table, meaning your Warp Talons can truly benefit from inflicting blindness on nearby units and don't have to stand around for a turn while they get blasted away. Bottom line is - they're just too fragile to survive and too expensive to take in large enough numbers to make a dent in the enemy lines after getting shot at for a turn. It really is a shame, cause they have one of the most dynamic, detailed kits out there (same one as the Raptors).
**'''STOP THE PRESSES:''': The Raptor Talon formation introduced in Traitor's hate finally gave Warp Talons some love. See, now they can not only assault on the turn they came in - their fear ability might actually turn out to be useful with that -1 to LD AND fear, if two or more units manage to charge. Now, scatters will be scatters, so it's not guaranteed that you will always be able to get two units in CC - but if you manage to do so on anything less than a TEQ chances are you're going to tear it a new asshole. Now - as counter-intuitive as that may seem, almost any mark EXCEPT khorne is a good fit on these guys. Slaanesh & banner (warp talons can't take any banners, just marks) makes them more survivable as they will hit first, ignore armour saves and if they get hit back FNP. Nurgle helps you not get thinned down by overwatch and not lose dudes to regular CCW's. Tzeentch could help you if you've just charged someone who can ignore your 3+, as a 4++ can be decent. Overall, using this formation is a gamble, but unlike anything else you could do with these guys, it has the potential to actually pay off.
**'''Alternative opinion:''': Blinding a 3-dudes [[Tau|XV-88 Apocalypse squad]] (can't be done anymore since all Tau suits get immunity to Blind from their Wargear) and giving a turn to your machines (especially Fiends, Helbrutes and Defilers) to shoot and [[RIP AND TEAR|get to CqC]] could be worth the risk, you can shred the armoured weeaboo next turn. Unless you took the Dimensional Key and manage to activate it, you have a reasonable risk for a bad scatter dice roll, and kissing your nasty melee unit goodbye. Vanguard Veterans suck, people (save in the case of Blood Angels, for whom they are just on the edge of hilariously awesome). You can also hop-scotch them over terrain for a turn-2 assault with your Initiative 5 (Mark of Slaneesh) or [[RAGE]]-fueled (Mark of Khorne) lightning claws. Beware that this will make them a huge fire magnet for a relatively fragile unit with only 3+/5++, so keep them screened by cover or friendly vehicles on their first turn. Or you can crap them the Mark of Tzeentch to have a 4+ inv. to be more confident about anti-MEQ weaponry. Not definitive, but nice.
**'''Alternative opinion #2:''': Deep Striking these guys is a bad option. Like, Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial bad. Yeah, the warpflame can be nice--IF IT WORKS. Remember, most boards are going to have you against I 4 (dem Marine), so it's a 1-4 shot of them passing the test. It's too risky to rely on the Blind to take care of getting shot the fuck to bits. Also, these things Deep Striking at vulnerable bits makes people shift fire to end your panty raid nice and quick. Unless you're diverting fire (and who wants to pay so much for a diversion--just use a distraction Mutilator instead). What I've found works to lulz-worthiness is giving them to Slaanesh with a Sorcerer with a Jet pack. Take at least one power from Slaanesh (all are great), and then Biomancy it up with what is left. These guys will tear up damn near anything they run into. OR...
**'''Alternative opinion #3:''': Ally with daemons. You know how any mass-deepstriking daemon army abuses the fuck out of icons and instruments? Yeah, you can do that too. Ta-daa! Enjoy precision deepstriking these guys to blind enemies so that your daemons can survive that 1 turn of shooting before they can [[RIP AND TEAR|get into melee!]].
**'''Faction Thoughts:''': The best legion tactics for these are probably Black Legion or World Eaters. Black legion because of their awesome bonuses from Raptor Talon on the Speartip, while the World Eaters basically are the same as Khorne Daemonkin, only cheaper per model in exchange for a slight reduction in damage vs slaanesh daemons. To be honest, though, they actually mesh quite well with any of the marked legions. Night Lords is still good, but Stealth is not very useful with a 5+ invulnerable save base. Iron Warriors really shouldn't be using them, but may work as a sort of Death Guard lite or cheaper, slower Emperors Children. Word Bearers and Alpha Legion grant basically no benefits (though, with the prevalence of ultramarines units hanging about, it may be worth it for WB). Just ignore Crimson Slaughter. Black Legion does exactly the same but infinitely better (CS require the full Black Crusade detachment to get a weaker version of the same effect)

*'''[[Chaos Spawn|The Unnameable Beasts]]''' : According to legend, during a dark, terrifying time not so long ago, these were but a sick joke; no one took [[Chaos Spawn|that which must never be named]], not even in funny lists, not even for flavor nor fluff. No sane person took them; they were easily the worst unit in all of 40k, which is a hell of an accomplishment, considering [[Pyrovore]]s existed back then too.. '''Not anymore!''' Chaos Spawn are now the workhorse of any assault based Chaos Space Marine army- OH MY GODS NO PL- BJADKJFOASIHDOLADMFNCAOSJ. Anyways, Run them forward ahead of your Rhinos and tag team them with your Maulerfiends. If even a single Spawn makes it into combat then they've served a very important purpose: tying up the enemy while your assaulting units hop out of their rhinos. They will also divert fire away from your Rhinos because the opponent is left with selecting 1 of 2 bad choices: either shoot the spawn to prevent his units from being tied up in combat or shoot the rhinos and hope they get disabled while still getting assaulted by the Spawn. Spawn now get access to a similar mutation ability to Possessed. Spawn also lost slow & purposeful but they eat up a slot now. Unless, that is, one of your dudes gets mutated into one. This isn't as bad as it sounds, as long as it's not a major loss and the resulting Spawn is within combat range. Their new stats make them excellent suicide melee units if one is to suddenly pop into existence, and can hopefully make back a few of the points lost by whatever 'spawned them. But being a Daemon Prince is like, 40,000x better.
**'''Alternative opinion:''' The new buffs of rage, a ten point price drop, the minor but useful random ability at the start of each fight sub-phase, the ability to take marks (36 points for a t6 w3 unit) and the fact that you can now control the damn things mean they can actually be useful when used to escort ICs across the board, such as a bloodcrusher mounted lord with the axe of blind rape, bike sorcerer (giving him much needed protection), or if you don't mind wasting their movement, Typhus (who becomes t6 and can use the destroyer hive without wiping out his own unit). If you enjoy cheese, take 5 with MoN, stick a Nurgle Biker Lord in there with plenty of bells and whistles, and you have a ridiculously durable unit that is almost guaranteed to get your Lord across the board, whilst drawing tons of firepower away from your other units. Less than 200 points for 15 T6 wounds that can close the gap between you and your opponent ridiculously fast is a steal, and so durable that they'll most likely stick around for use as late game objective clearers. And if they don't, your oppponent has probably been diverting enough firepower towards them that the rest of your units can move up the board practically unassailed.
**'''Alternative Option 2''': Run 5 of these all with MoN, then use Be'lakor to cast [[Cheese|invisibility]] on them. 5 T6 3W beasts which can only be targeted by snap-shots running up the battlefield and getting anywhere from 5-30 attacks per combat sounds pretty damn good.
**'''Pro modeling tip if you already didn't figured it out:''' Their box contains 2 square and 2 rounded bases. Make 2 legitimately, then use some green stuff/playdough/hot glue to make an additional two (just model up some [[Fulgrim|snake bodies]], slap some spare heads and tentacles. Alternatively, pour some hot glue on top of another model/random cluster of bitz and push some appendages in while the thing is still warm). Profit!
**'''Detachment Bonus!''' They are the cheapest auxiliary unit in most Traitor Legions, so get a mascot if you want the detachment bonus but are mainly running Core. Although none of legion armies buffs them directly except Night Lords, legion-specific detachments can help the Unnamable Things to get closer to close combat (WE Butcherhorde or BL Speartip) or hide them from enemy fire before they can charge (Alpha Legion Insurgency Force).

*'''[[Heldrake|Hellturkey]]:''' (Attack Flyer) Here be dragons(Swoop)(no swooping, swooping is bad(at least for your enemies))! This is that it's a flyer, which you need now, unless you want to invest in a Sicaran. What it can do is Strafing Run with a Hades Autocannon (R36" S8 AP4 Heavy 4 pinning) or drop a S6 AP3 torrent. However, it's prized ability is the vector striking at S7 against land or air targets - yowza! A good move will have you wiping your opponent's aircraft and a unit of troops off the field. For even more fun, you can use its Daemon Forge ability once per battle to reroll your wounds/pens! Careful though - although more resilient than most with 12/12/10, the bird is still thin skinned. Even though it has a 5++ and can jink in addition to being a flyer that Will Not Die, a good penetrating hit will drop it right out of the fucking sky. Still, arguably one of the best units of the entire book - sailing carelessly through air, your opponent's army it shall RIP AND TEAR... ahem, <s>take two and take Baleflamers.</s> With the advent of 7th edition and the FAQ (see below), Heldrakes are no longer the unbelievable, unlimited rape machines they were in the past. The 7th edition nerf to Vector Strike hits the Heldrake just as hard as the nerf to his weaponry. Since the Heldrake can no longer feasibly flame/gun the unit it Vector Strike-d (but note that you can still burn something else), you're often going to have to make a choice between getting a vector strike in, or positioning yourself for effective shooting. This dramatically reduces the Heldrake's usefulness, unless you're using the Death From The Skies maneuverability rules. This isn't to say Heldrakes aren't usable, but no longer are they an auto include in any CSM army.
** The latest FAQ put a stop to the turret fun as the heldrake's weapons are treated as hull-mounted now, so no more Asses of Fire. Guess GW got tired watching the Corpse Emperor's lackeys burn in the fires of the warp and decided to nerf this Chaos flyer <s>back to the Eye of Terror</s> from "everyone bitches about how cheese it is" to merely "good". Tragically, this is not a surprise.

*'''Chaos Storm Eagle (Attack Flyer, Pursuit 3, Agility 2, Forge World):''' 20 pts. cheaper than a loyalist Storm Eagle, still a fast attack, can't take a Typhoon Missile Launcher instead of its Heavy Bolter, but ''can'' upgrade to a Reaper Autocannon for free. It also loses the Power of the Machine Spirit rule, like every other Chaos unit, but everything else is otherwise the same. You can buy Possession for this thing, which is recommended.  Take a full squad of marines, cult marines or termies and away you go! Alternatively, put Kharn and some 'zerkers in this, watch your opponent cry.

*'''Hellblade (Interceptor, Pursuit 5, Agility 3, Forge World):''' Was Chaos' own Supersonic Flyer long before the Helldrake was on the scene, comes with two AND ONLY TWO EVER reaper autocannons, which is nice because it's only BS3. Can be possessed, though with only 2 HP there's no point in doing so. If you can't fit raptors, havocs or drakes into your list, you could always settle for one of these in your fast attack slots, but don't expect it to survive: AV10 all around and only 2 hull points makes it thin skinned, although it gets 4+ evade. With 6th ed, it's a full-fledged flyer, allowing it to hate on heavy infantry and light vehicles with impunity, while its high volume of decent strength shots make it deadly against other flyers. Be warned, even a Fighta-Bommer's defensive big shootas or a fucking Pintle-mounted Stormbolter can blow this thing out of the sky due to it's shitty armour. The updated rules give it a price break, though once you upgrade its reapers to Helstorm autocannons (And really, why the fuck would you NOT?) it sits once again at 115pts. It now comes with a straight-up 5++ save and a fun little ability to allows it to be repositioned D6+2" before it takes a move, and the "Unnatural Predator" rule lets you pick out an enemy flyer before the start of the game and re-roll all To Wound or AP rolls of 1 against it, which is rather nifty.

*'''Hell Talon (Strike Fighter, Pursuit 4, Agility 4, Forge World):''' Oh, you thought 'Blood Slaughterer' was a stupid name? A fighter bomber with Supersonic, 4 hull points and Strafing Run - which makes it having sex awesome! With its single Reaper autocannon it can put holes in heavy infantry, light vehicles, and aircraft, with its bombs it can blow apart blobs in a glorious inferno, and with its twin linked lascannon it can put holes in enemy tanks, making Mech Guard and Nidzilla cry. Another nice feature is that if the enemy army is light in MEQ units, you can swap out the autocannon for a havoc launcher instead to really get some pie plate hate on things. Just like the Blade, it gain the point break, autocannon upgrade, free invuln and teleport ability. It also gets to pick between a whole load of bombs, each of which if more [[Rape|fun]] than the others against a specific target, giving your bomber some versatility. These are bananas. Not only do they have great Flyer stats, but they suffer no penalties for shooting at ground targets the way generic fighters do. If you're expecting enemy Flyers, take <s>these</s> a pair of Hellblades above and continue shredding stuff on the ground.

*'''Dreadclaw Assault Pod (Attack Flyer, Pursuit 1, Agility 1, Forge World):''' The Chaos Space Marine version of the loyalist drop pod, the Dreadclaw has the nifty advantage of NOT being immobile (it's a deep-striking flyer with hover) and it's an assault vehicle with better armour than a rhino. Unfortunately, it eats a fast attack slot but it can deep strike 10 marines, 5 termies (though they can already do it just fine without) or a dreadnought. It counts as a Fast Skimmer once it Deep Strikes onto the table, not Zooming, therefore, you don't need sixes to hit but you can Jink to get 4+ cover (3+ if nightfight). It can Deep Strike onto the table Turn 1 and unload a shooty alpha strike unit, or move Flat Out 18" to set up a perfect Turn 2 charge. 100 points, but it gives us some fun new options and mobility. Also note that since it's a Dedicated Transport for CSM you have an Objective Secured fast skimmer (or Chosen in an Abaddabadon or BL list) to snag or contest objectives.
**Edit: all is good and beautiful, but [[Derp|it has no "transport" rule]]. So beware rules lawyers. Mind, it also has the Daemonic Possession thingy, so shoving expensive units inside is highly undesirable (ahem, Dreadnoughts). Remember, it is rolled even if the unit starts the game already embarked upon such vehicle! Yet despite this you gain a deepstriking assault transport you can land somewhere safe <i>(there's no Inertial Guiding System on that thing, don't treat it like a normal Pod)</i> then flat-out towards the target. Jink to avoid the inevitable storm of hate that will head your way, move again, deploy, and assault. For the mathematically inclined that's 6+6+2d6 = 18" - 24" charge range. Take these if you have want a glorious chaos drop pod assault. ''Feel like a legionnaire.''
**Forgeworld has finally released an update that brings all of its Flyers up to date with Death from the Skies. What's weird is that Dreadclaws and Kharybdis are included in this document, as a rare case of "technically a flyer but." While all but worthless in a Dogfight and as maneuverable as a rock, they can be taken in Wings now and gain Attack Pattern benefits.


*'''Blight Drone (Attack Flyer, Pursuit 3, Agility 4, Forge World):''' Possessed hovering flyer with a BS2, Daemon of Nurgle (i.e. Shrouded & 5+ Invulnerable save), reaper autocannon and a mawcannon (without tongue). It costs 150 pts, has pretty decent armour (12/11/10), but it will also explode when wrecked so be sure you get this thing as close to the enemy as possible! They can be taken in squads of 1-3 too. The mawcannon has a flamer mode (S6 AP4) and a large blast (S8 AP3).
**Forgeworld's DFtS expansion make these buggers fair to middling in a Dogfight, but BS 2 and only having 1 direct-fire weapon and no Skyfire makes these rather lackluster. You may be able to use your USRs to tank through a Dogfight, but you won't be grounding enemies this way. YMMV.