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

===Psychic Primer===
Having at least one Psyker adds an extra layer of depth to your army, and Chaos Space Marines can bring the Psychic game. One of the main reason Psykers remain useful in 40k is they generate their powers after army creation but pre-game, meaning you're paying for a "wildcard" gun you can tailor. 
*'''Know what Powers To Take''' - Most of the "BRB Psyker" rules from the [[Psychic_101|Psychic Tactica]] apply here. You don't get Divination or Telekinesis without the Balestar or Ahriman/Exalted Sorcerers. Of the Traitor's Hate disciplines, Ectomancy gives you a good grab-bag of abilities, with the "mobility powers" being a notable force multiplier for an army that's traditionally "slow" like Chaos; when you can "swap places" with your own units, or selectively give your units the "Interceptor Shunt", an Ecto-sorcerer plugs a lot of the traditional CSM weaknesses. Heretech is for if you're up against mass enemy vehicles (*cough*...Gladius...*cough*), while Sinistrum gives you some Deathstar/anti-Deathstar tech. Geomortis has a few duds, but selective Ignore Cover/LOS can have its uses, and you get a good "Healing" power which can be helpful if you want to run a Summon Sorcerer. Remember you can "mix-and-match" disciplines. While this costs you your Psychic Focus, Psychic Shriek is the "main" Primaris that gets attention anyway. If you've rolled your two powers on one Discipline and got at least one of the powers you wanted, it's probably worth taking Psychic Shriek as your third power rather than rolling for it. 
*'''Summoner Psykers''' - Your Sorcerers are no better at avoiding Perils from attempting to Summon Daemons than any others, but this is deceiving. Princes can summon if you spend the 50 points on getting two Mastery Levels, but a more economical option may be to just spend 60 points to give your Sorcerer a Mark of Nurgle and Palanquin; the extra two wounds can give you an extra turn or two of tossing out summons. Finally, Crimson Slaughter gets Prophet of the Voices, which lets you turn one of your Sorcerers into a Daemon. 
*'''Mobility is Key''' - Most Psyker powers max out at 24" effective range, with 18" being the average for Witchfires. Thus, unless you're running a Summoner Prophet (or the less efficient Summon-Prince), you want your Psyker to bring mobility. Your Sorcerers can take Bikes (or Jump Packs for fringe uses) while your Prince can use Wings. Remember that you can Turbo or Flat-Out after using Psychic powers.
*'''Protect your Psykers''' - You need to protect your Psykers from both your opponents and themselves. Besides incoming fire, your Psykers can Perils, and the Champion of Chaos rule can trigger from Witchfires; the last thing you want is your Sorcerer to transform into [[Chaos_Spawn|that-which-must-not-be-named]] because he fried a Sergeant with an errant Psychic Shriek! Protecting a Sorcerer is either a matter of joining a good "bunker" unit (whether it's a blob of Cultists, or a unit of Spawn-OHGODNOBLARGAHHHHH), or really good positioning ("Bike twelve, manifest a power, Turbo back to safety"), while Perils is something you just learn to live with (or you buy a Mark of Nurgle & Palanquin for an extra two Wounds). For protecting your Psykers against accidentally transforming themselves from their own spells however, you'll want to avoid targeting small units with characters among other similar targets that your army should otherwise be capable of taking on. That said, if you're running a Sorcerer in a Chaos Warband, Favored Scions gives you some insurance (and you might get a buff or two out of it).
*'''Include some "Batteries" for support''' - Your Spell Familiars give you some leeway in stretching your Warp Charge out further, but you will stretch thin. A good rule of thumb is one Psyker is a "battery" for every two casters. Thankfully, you're Battle Brothers with Daemons, and an allied Detachment of 11 Daemons and a Herald of Tzeentch will give 5 Warp Charges for less than 200 points, as well as a fearless bubblewrap/objective-holders while the rest of your army gets to fight. While an overcosted unit and generally not recommended for serious play, even the Thousand Sons Sorcerer can be thought of as a "free Warp Charge" if you're insistent on running a unit of them as a glorified breacher-team. 
*'''Have A Plan''' - Psychic Powers are a tool among many. Summons let you "build momentum", set up traps, or deny/lock down the board, while other powers can make your army selectively tougher, your enemy selectively weaker, or serve as fancy analogues to guns, but if you don't plan out your powers, you will have a bad time. If you're up against an opponent that wants to do an assault alpha-strike, Summons can protect you either through bubblewrap (Daemonettes!) or with counter-charging Tarpits (Beasts of Nurgle!), while summoning "fast" move-through-cover Daemons can be used to prepare for a "push." It's when you have an underlying army providing fire support (be it of the Meltagun, Autocannon, or Termicide Combi-plasma variety) that Psykers truly shine, rather than relying on them to carry you through single-handedly.