Chaos Space Marine Squad

The spiky bois to the Raven Guard's beakie bois.

They are the first thing you think of when you hear the word, 'Chaos Space Marines'. These are your heretical versions of the Space Marine Tactical Squad, and are the most common force of the Spiky Bois that is not a squeaking 5-year-old or a LSD meat sponge.

Overview

Chaos Space Marines have all the strengths and skills of their loyalist kin, but are further augmented by the powers of Chaos and experience from ten thousand years of battle. So while they are as resource-stricken as a hobo on food stamps, these guys are old enough to learn a few tricks or two up their sleeves. Since the Horus Heresy these warriors have known that their entire experience is now a neverending clusterfuck that makes Game of Thrones look politically coherent. They are wholly committed to the path they now tread, and they can expect no quarter from their former battle-brothers.

There is little uniformity between squads as much of the organization and structure of the former Space Marine Legions have either nuked themselves into oblivion, couldn't be fucked to do anything, been productive for 10 Millennia, went their own merry way to jerk-off, too busy playing tower defense or is suffering from severe anonymity issues. In place of appointed sergeants, they follow the strongest and most merciless Chaos Champions.

Clad in run-down Chaos Power Armour (Although OGs from the Horus Heresy still maintain their Mark V: Heresy Armour), the armament of Chaos Space Marines differs little from their loyalist counterparts, consisting of Bolters, Plasma Gun, Meltaguns, Flamers, Heavy Bolters and uniquely, Autocannons or one-handed Bolt Pistols and Plasma Pistols. For close combat, they are equipped with Close Combat Weapons such as Chainswords, Power Fists, Power Swords, Power Axes, or other ritual weapons. Chaos Space Marine heavy weapon squads are known as Havocs.

The Great Crunch Debate

Nerds have spilled a lot of digital and physical ink over the value of Chaos Marines as a unit. Certainly Chaos Marine utility has waxed and waned over the editions, not to mention the constant comparison to their loyalist counterparts. Generally speaking, earlier edition chaos bois are universally thought of as better than loyalists, and for the longest time this was reflected in their price per model versus the Emperor's finest. Games Workshop decided to alter this arrangement around 4th edition, albeit subtly: their price was largely identical to loyalist marines and in place of "And they shall no know fear," CSM received one more Ld and a loadout that included bolter, bolt pistol, close combat weapon and frag or krak grenades.

Unfortunately, they had to compete with Plague Marines in the troops slot, but they were a competitive budget option... unless and until you compare them to Noise Marines. This was the era of the monobuild but worse things were in store for CSM. Chaos marines slid in comparative quality even further in 6th; they technically still would have to compete with cult marines in the troops section due to Chaos Lord marks shifting cult marines to the elites and they had to contend with an even cheaper, more disposable budget option: cultists. Seventh exacerbated this problem when legions could shift other units to the Troops slot. These circumstances would persist into eighth edition following the great reset. Presently, spiky bois lack the two wounds that their loyalist bros got at the beginning of 9th; similarly, their weapons also didn't get the upgrade that the loyalists got, so they're really behind.

We may be on the precipice of a great redress in 9th, and a potential return to the 3.5 edition craziness. We're talking two wounds and three attacks per model - fuckin' a! How about common weapons in line with loyalists, like chainswords and autocannons and such? Yep. Oh hey, how about a dude with a big axe, champs with daemon swords and a goddamn psyker in the unit? Though we do not know how this will affect their cost, this is the flavour we haven't had in this army in like 20 years, so it's hard not to get hyped over it.