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

==Allies==


===Battle Brothers===

*'''Other Chaos Space Marines: '''With Traitor Legions finally getting their own rules, there will be many new strategies arising involving allying different Chaos subfactions. Chaos warbands are battle brothers with each other: if you want to benefit from another subfaction's rules, ally them in as an Allied Detachment or a single formation. This way you can take armies consisting of multiple legions and warbands if you want to combine their different strengths.
**Want Divination? Take a Thousand Sons War Cabal or Ahriman's Exiles. Exalted Sorcerers of Tzeentch(including Ahriman) have access to Divination and can cast its powers on 3+ easily with either of these formations. Divination and tack-on psyker spam formations are no longer just for loyalists and Eldar. Thousand Sons are so eminently valuable as allies, as their relics are awesome for helping other detachment forces (i.e. Jump Infantry Terminators)
*** Oddly enough Black Legion can do this too. You loose access to TSons artefacts, but you aren't forced to slap mark of tzeentch onto cultists/marines and as an allied detachment actually allow you to bring an exalted sorc + ObSec termicide unit or chosen.
**Does your melee army need a powerful heavy weapons team, for fire support? Ally in Iron Warriors or Death Guard for autocannon or lascannon havocs, with free Feel No Pain and either Tank Hunters or Relentless. Loyalist Devastators may have the grav, but they have nothing like this.
**Want your Possessed to not suck as bad? Ally a Crimson Slaughter formation to get a squad of Possessed that can roll Shrouded, 3++ and Beasts type among their mutations.
**Saw the loyalist veteran meltas in drop pods strategy, and want to try it out? You can do it for cheaper by taking an Alpha Legion allied detachment and infiltrating Chosen!

*Renegade Knights allow for more specialized loadouts but do not have the formations of Imperial Knights. And your Warpsmith has no servitors. Good support but not enough synergy to be the main focus. [[dwarf fortress|FUN]] in small games.

*'''Chaos Daemons:''' Daemons provide fast-moving assault elements to supplement more assault-heavy forces. Soulgrinders are awesome due to having an in-built 5+ Invulnerable Save, and can either be viewed as a "better Defiler" in many ways, due to their AV 13! Fantastic mobile cover, and they pack a punch, too! Troops are no longer obscene amounts of points in this codex, either, and heralds are fuckcheap HQ units; the mandatory units in an allied detachment can cost as little as 135 points, meaning you could take Soul Grinder support in lists as small as 1000 points and still be none the worse for wear. Meanwhile, bloodthirsters follow the flying monstrous creature rules and have WS 10 (10!). Lords of change are mastery level 2 psykers by default, level 3 with the upgrade (which you will always take) and can take either Tzeenchy witchfire powers to give your enemy feel no pain or Divination powers to be useful (Divination is probably better in a shooty CSM army because of Prescience). Daemons are by far the best allies you can take simply because they bring Divination.
**Protip: Wanna make your Bloodletters or Daemonettes actually survive so they can reach combat? Run them straight towards the enemy every turn, then park a rhino in front of them and block all incoming fire! Then deliver your delicious, demonic payload right into those helpless loyalist corpse-fuckers' sphincter!
**'''Icons''' Also, friendly 'daemons' can get more accurate deepstrikes off daemonic icons. This does still work for warp talons ('blind' bursts near the enemy, you say?) and obliterators. You still scatter D6", but that's not ''that'' bad.

*'''Khorne Daemonkin:''' - A combo of Daemons with things you can already do, the Space Marine aspects of the detachment don't have the random mutation table, and the champions can get access to AP2 initiative weaponry through the Axe of Khorne. The Daemons are more stable, and can actually join your squads and you can join theirs, though adding a Herald won't benefit you since it only applies the Locus to "Daemonkin" units. Having BftBG also only applies its effects to Daemonkin, so if you only use a small allied detachment you might as well save those Blood Tithe points for summoning more free units of daemons, which can be done more reliably than having Sorcerers with Malefic Daemonology. They have fantastic formations, so you can easily add them to your main force without being forced to pay a HQ+Troops tax. But even if you use the "Combined Arms Allies" FOC at least you've got Berserkers as the Troops choice, leaving your primary detachment free to build towards another god(s) of your choice.

*'''Renegades & Heretics (Forgeworld)''' - probably the most obvious one for both fluff and functionality. You get to combine the Helldrake AND Hydra flak tanks and DOMINATE the skies. As battle brothers your characters can join each others squads and/or benefit from each others abilities, so you can have an impressive number of psykers buffing each other up. Dark Apostles can make your massively combined renegade squads fearless & zealots and Warp Smiths can fix up your multitude of tanks that you'll probably have. Your big platoons/troops choices don't need to take up several FOC slots so can generate a considerable amount of cheap bodies.
**Now with that said, taking Renegade as allies causes a few problems. First you are "required" to take the Arch-Demagogue w/ command squad as a compulsory HQ choice. But if he's not your warlord it's a wasted slot, because you aren't allowed to buy a Demagogue Devotion ''(and therefore can't get any of the interesting army upgrades)'' and you won't have the Master of Renegades rule either, so no unlocking God-specific units using a Covenant to gain things like contagious Plague Zombies. You still get access to all of the generic list and all of their upgrade options however. So if all you wanted was access to cheap bodies or Imperial Guard tanks then it's still a perfectly good option.

*'''Renegade Knights:''' Unlike Imperial Knights they have no relics or formations (yet), but as BB you can repair them, pack them closer with your units (e.g. Nurgle bikers), and they can dual wield identical weapons, allowing you to gear them up for specific roles.

===Allies of Convenience===

*'''Necrons:''' From a hobby/fluff perspective, Necrons can make for a fun "Chaos Androids" or Dark Mechanicus project. Beyond that, Necrons provide you with a wide toolbox. Use to easily fill in the gaps your army might be lacking in the anti-vehicle department. A Command Barge and two full squads of warriors are durable and take down vehicles as well as Infantry. Use them as Living Metal shields.  Can also contribute a few fantastic fliers: a night scythe can put a squad of warriors and a <s>volt-tek</s> haha, no lethally close to an important vehicle while simultaneously burning their fliers, though not as good as before.  The Doom Scythe is more of a mixed bag.  While its death ray can blow holes the size of a Land Raider into a Land Raider, your Heldrake outclasses it for anti-medium infantry work and arguably for anti-flyer work (depending on if you're using Death From The Skies). Select a flyer based on your army's needs. Notable Necron formations include the following:
**The '''Deathbringer Flight''' is a sidegrade to the old combo of taking Nightscythes carrying Warriors w/ Storm Harbingers. You trade the rapid hull-point stripping ability of multiple Voltaic Staves in exchange for a pair of super-powered small blasts; if firing both blasts at the same target, the second one gets +2 BS for its Death Ray; this will give it a high enough BS to minimize concerns about a bad scatter. Generally speaking, two fliers is enough to have an answer enemy aircraft, as well as for providing spot elimination versus key hard targets, plus the formation is really easy to include in an army. With many tournament formats moving towards "three detachments," it's easier to plug this formation in an army.
**The '''Triarch Judicator Battalion''' is on-and-off a mixed bag, but for the most part handles well with a Chaos army. Praetorians got buffed to the point they make a solid assault unit, and they provide their own movement to boot. Running them alongside fleshy-masses-that-were-once-human gives you a wave of fast-moving hard targets your opponent has to deal with, that can move through cover with no issue. If you're feeling sneaky, note that the Praetorians can also take Night Scythes as dedicated transports too, though you're not using them as transports. Instead, you're using the Nightscythes either as air defense, or as ground-attack craft; note that they would reroll to-penetrate vehicles marked by the formation's Stalker, so if an otherwise tough-to-remove Knight is bearing down on you, some mass Tesla just might be what the Warlord ordered.

*'''Orks:''' From a hobby/fluff perspective, there are numerous cases of Chaos Lords trying to hire Orks as mooks, or they make an amusing "counts as" for 40k Beastmen. Orks can provide several things to an aspiring Chaos Lord. Why take a few expensive Havocs or Forgefiend, while Lootas or Mek Guns are available, or why swarm Zerkers when Slugga Boys will bury the enemy in attacks just as well? Either with Lootas or Mek Gunz, they add an additional layer of fire support that is otherwise missing in a Chaos army, and they provide extra weight of fire. With Warbuggies or Deffkoptas, they can provide a cheapish substitute to having attack bikes, though both have their own share of dirty tricks they can do in turn. Just remember that Ork armor is worthless, so don't be surprised when your Chaos boys are still standing after your big green friends are shot up. Notable Ork formations include the following:
**'''Bullyboyz:''' Simply put, Bullyboyz turn Meganobz from a decent suicide missile into an unholy train of destruction. With Fearless and improved Weapon Skill, they hit harder, and give a commander absolute reliability that they will stand their ground. They still lack invulnerable saves and so cannot weather the attacks of mass Grav weapons, or enemies bringing their own Riptides/Fire Dragons/Thundershield Terminators/etc, but both Orks and Chaos have access to cheap chaff units that provide an extra layer of screening. Cultists are for most intents and purposes glorified Grots anyway. With Bullyboyz, you don't particularly fear Knights as much, as you have the weight of Klaw attacks to simply out-attrition them in a direct slugfest.

===Desperate Allies===

*'''Dark Eldar:''' This could be a good (or at least interesting) pairing, with Plague Marines and massive Cultist blobs holding down the objectives while the Dark Eldar range ahead and blow things to pieces. As a rule of thumb, CSM are the anvil and DE are the hammer. Don't worry too much about the whole Desperate Allies thing; Chaos Marines don't have that many abilities that would benefit the DEldar, and the DEldar are usually so much faster than the rest of CSM (with the exception of the Heldrake and maybe the Maulerfiend) that you don't need to worry about the whole One Eye Open, "we won't work within 6" of you" thing.

*'''Tau:''' NEW CODEX!!!!!! Pretty good choice. First take a Cadre Fireblade and a minimum squad of Firewarriors. Followed by a MOTHERFUCKING RIPTIDE, THIS BABY WILL SHIT DOWN THE NECK OF ANY IMPERIAL DOG!!! For extra brownie points align your MOTHERFUCKING RIPTIDE to your preferred Chaos God. For extra, extra brownie points replace the giant burst cannon on your Slaanesh Riptide with a huge dildo. If you want to be a dick, take sensor towers and make any three of your squad's weapon twinlinked. Yes, it would work on any allies, not only battle brothers. Heck, you even can twinlink enemy squad just for S&G. Worth mentioning, that Broadsides with velocity trackers are near the best anti-air in the game, and one of the few capable of penetrating damn Caestus ram.

===Come the Apocalypse=== 
*'''The Imperium:''' Yes, that's right, you can now ally with any Imperial faction as long as they deploy 12 inches away and if they come 6 inches close to you, you need to test to see if they just stare at each other for a turn. They come in many flavors:
**'''Space Marines:''' Since they have too many Chapter Tactics to cover, the best ones will be covered instead. Iron Hands (The supplement too) gives you more durable flyers and tanks, tougher marines, and [[Chapter Master Smashfucker|an unkillable Chapter Master]] if you take the Supplement. Salamanders with their bonuses to Meltaguns and Flamers, and Imperial Fists for Tank Hunting Devastator/Centurions with Bolter Drill as a bonus. 
**'''Dark Angels:''' Pretty hilarious, but not particularly useful. 
**'''Grey Knights:''' Extra warp charges and Force Weapon goodness. Would you like a Storm Raven and a [[Dreadknight|Baby Carriage]] with your order of lore-breaking? 
**'''Blood Angels:''' Cheap Razorbacks and easy access to Stormravens. Death Company Dreadnoughts aren't bad either.
**'''Space Wolves:''' Wolf here, wolf there, wolf everywhere. Nifty flyers and Marines right here.
**'''Astra Militarum:''' Run your meatshields as Renegades and Heretics instead.
**'''Adepta Sororitas:''' Infiltrating Meltaguns with Immolators and a Exorcist? Oh my. 
**'''Legion of the Damned:''' Yet another army that can bring more Meltaguns in case you didn't have enough, although some Multi-Meltas are useful in this case. 
**'''Inquisition:''' Outside-the-box Xanthite fluff? Offers very little to Chaos due to most of their tricks being designed for Battle Brothers.
**'''Militarum Tempestus:''' They're okay as well. Drop them in the backfield away from your advancing troops.
**'''Imperial Knights:''' Renegade Knights offer exactly the same platform with more customization, and Chaos Knights offer Daemon options and various neat tricks. Skip.
**'''Skitarii:''' Here comes the Dark Mechanicus! They provide you with just about everything you don't get: AP2 at initiative, anti-MC, anti-infantry, anti-tank and cheap and very reliable and cheap anti air and a long ranged mini Vindicator
*'''Tyranids:''' They help with anti-air and providing more warp charges (that they cannot share with you). Hive Tyrants and Crones are a must, while Zoanthropes are nice to have.
*'''Eldar:''' Provide fast units in the form of skimmers and jet bikes or durable units in the form of wraiths. They provide S6 en masse so that could plug the anti-tank gap as well as readily available strength D in the Wraithguard (which can be made fast by slotting them in a serpent).