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Robin Cruddace

2023-06-14T03:26:44Z

2603:6011:A500:19AD:70AC:9B04:1BE3:44BD: Added 10th Editoon because we know he’s gonna fuck it up again somehow.

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[[Image:Cruddace.jpg|300px|right|thumb|The Cruddmeister himself, doing his best (and failing) to not look like an [[Ogryn]] with Downs.]]
'''Robin Cruddace''' is one of the designers for [[Games Workshop]]. He's nowhere near as good as [[Jeremy Vetock]] or [[Phil Kelly]], he is considered the [[Heresy|Bane]] of Tyranid and Tomb Kings players due to his [[Fail|Tyranid and Tomb Kings Codices.]]

Mostly, his Codices are just boring. They're not particularly well-balanced internally (as [[Pyrovore]]s will attest), but they aren't guilty of [[Phil Kelly]]'s monobuild (Aside from 6E Nids). They also aren't very well externally balanced (i.e. against other Codices), but they're nowhere near as bad as Ward's. And his fluff is... well, it really depends on how much of a 'Nids fan you are. In other words, the crunch was crappy bad but still workable with a few good lists, and his fluff can either go from being tolerable, or straight up to Matt Ward levels of pure undisputed bullshit.

In the end, Cruddace will be forever hated by Tyranid players who want to feed him feet-first to a [[Ripper|Ripper Swarm]] for [[Rape|the travesty he inflicted]] upon the [[Warhammer 40,000/5th Edition Tactics/Tyranids|5th]] & [[Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Tyranids|6th]] edition codices. He should probably avoid aquariums or river cruises to South America, lest some disgruntled Neckbeard try to fulfill the aforementioned prophecy by throwing him into a school of [[Ripper|Piranhas]].

Eventually, Cruddace was mostly trapped in [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], possibly because Games Workshop realized nobody likes him that much, or maybe because he legitimately liked the other game better and chose to design for it. The latter seems fairly unlikely, though, as he's a really, really big [[Tank|treadhead]]. This probably explains why his Imperial Guard 'dex (read: army with dozens of tanks) was so much better than his 'Nids 'dex (read: army with absolutely zero tanks). It's kind of hilarious how GW keeps giving him the infantry only armies, and how he gave the Daemons vehicles.

Also, for some reason, a lot of people spell his name "Cruddance." It has yet to be determined whether this is a shitty attempt at a pun ("crud" + "dance") or just people being inconsiderate faggots (see: [[Bretonnia]] v. [[Brettonia]]).

==Ahem==
Robin Cruddace is a codex writer for [[Warhammer 40,000]] and [[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]], and an utter treadhead. This means, of course, that there is [[Imperial Guard|one army]] he is '''very good at writing''', but not too many others, and there is much wailing and misery over the utter hackjobs he's pulled on the [[Tyranids]], the army he was '''least''' suited for. It's also possible that he's not really a treadhead either - the guy's an Imperial Guard player, just like [[Matt Ward]] is an [[Ultramarines]] player, so like Ward it's easy to see he definitely played a bit of favoritism with his own guys. On the other end of the spectrum, it appears he may have been in the camp of believers that Tyranids were overpowered with overpowered MCs, since that's what he [[Carnifex|nerfed the hardest]], and then he took away all their equipment options so they couldn't even be accidental bargains somehow.

He also filled the Tyranid fluff with page after page of losing battles for Tyranids, rather than the enigmatic analysis on their rapid development and adaptability which they were previously known for (their crunch now makes them among the most rigid armies in the game). In fact, he has one story about how well the [[Tau]] were able to out-adapt the Tyranids by tricking them into disadvantageous evolutionary paths. The Tau won that battle by beating Tyranids at their own game. In the Tyranids' own codex. (And thus, the [[Pyrovore]] was born!) And then the Tau were killed off by [[Necrons]]. Also, he removed all the awesome fluff about Inquisitor Kryptmann (aka spehss Alan Grant from Jurassic Park with a hint of Ripley from Alien/s). Fortunately, with the 6th edition Tyranid codex, someone else realized how stupid this was and brought Kryptmann back, along with adding the story of Tyranids wrecking both Grey Knights and Chaos Daemons in the Shadowbrink campaign. If only they could've saved the crunch from Cruddace.

Editors' note: /tg/ is pretty damn sure that if Cruddace had the power to, he would buff imperial guards to the point of being stronger than [[The Ultimate Grey Knight Cheese List|A certain selection of model Cheeses]] and turn them into an army of literally nothing but 9 Tanks and a creed that would wipe out anything short of a primarch on the first turn, and completely kill any remaining units in the second turn while simultaneously '''Literally Retconning the Tyranids and their entire existence, threat and presence as well as playability''' from 40k. Let's just hope he never obtains said power.
As per the newest Octarius book, it seems he succeeded.

We don't know what's [[Heresy|wrong]] with Cruddace, but if he writes your army's codex, you better hope he likes your army. One theory is that if it kills his guardsmen, he'll hate you forever (no wonder he despises Tyranids as much as the Inquisition despises freedom of speech and opinion.) On that note, the Eldar better hope that Cruddace is never allowed near any of their future codices, but the Dark Eldar have likely already fallen victim to his writing.

No, really, go back and think it through. Now admittedly, sometimes the Tyranids will lose. But a good writer is able to balance a sense of closure with the cosmic horror that there are always more Tyranids out there. When they invaded [[Macragge]] they couldn't win because it would kill the Ultramarines forever, [[Mary Sue|and the Ultramarines are pretty damn important to the game]]. But it was climactic, it was intelligent. It was an epic battle stretching from the dark tunnels of a monastery-fortress to the tundras of the planet surface to the depths of space, both sides fighting tooth-and-nail. It was the entirety of the third biggest group of a theoretically infinite faction, verses the homeworld of one of the most famous and powerful space marine chapters and the heart of [[Ultramar|one of the most important regions in the Imperium]]. The Tyranids lost the war as a whole, but they destroyed the entire First Company and decimated the rest of the Chapter, and the Ultramarines could only manage to destroy ''most'' of them. Pretty hardcore.

And then there was the Shadowbrink Campaign, where a load of Grey Knights protecting this relic that needs to have rituals performed over it every day to stop a frakload of Daemons from arriving suddenly get a message that the Tyranids are on their way. When said Tyranids arrive, they nom those Grey Knights and the Guardsmen sent to help them, and because those Grey Knights are no longer there to perform their rituals a load of Daemons are unleashed upon the world too. Initially the Tyranids see the Daemons as more food and send feeder beasts to consume them, but because the Daemons are ethereal creatures born from corrupted souls, they can't be eaten, and kill the feeder beasts in all sorts of spectacular ways as they wallow helplessly in a bog created by the Daemons. Realising that that plan went down the toilet, the Hive Mind starts to look upon the Daemons not as prey, but as rival predators after the same food source as the Tyranids (which is pretty much true as Daemons feed off the souls of mortals while the Tyranids devour their bodies). With that in mind it decides to spam a load of gun beasts to blast the Daemons into oblivion, causing the Chaos Gods to fight amongst themselves again now that their plan's going wrong and their Daemons have no more real souls to feed off. A Great Unclean One is blown up by Zoanthropes, Khorne is unable to get any [[Khorne|BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD]], Tzeentch withdraws his forces early and leaves the other three gods' forces in the shit [[Just as Planned]] and Slaanesh decides to be its rival's bitch and follow the Khorne Daemons in a last battle. Sending a load of Tyrannofexes and Trygons to face them, the Tyranids wreck the remaining Daemon forces and force them to retreat back into the Realm of Chaos, before returning to clearing up the rest of the biomass left on the world. Literally the only true Tyranid victory ever mentioned.

In the story Crud'''f'''ace wrote, [[Hive Fleet Gorgon|meanwhile the Tyranids;]] in their own codex; [[Bullshit|lost a battle of adaptation to a random Tau force]] nobody knows. Consider that rapid adaptability was the Tyranids' single most important claim to fame. Then afterwards, Cruddace killed off the whole Tau force anyway. [[Fail|With another faction entirely.]] The saddest part is how easy it would be to fix: either make it a major Tau world (with the implication that, if the Tau lose, the Tau Empire is nommed), or make the Tau solution something so [[grimdark]] and [[Apocalypse|apocalyptic]] (read: super virus) that the Tau realize the only way to stop the Tyranids when they all finally arrive is to sacrifice the entirety of the Tau Empire (and possibly all sentient life in the galaxy). Hey, its worked in other universes.

But no, he made the Tau '''better''' than the Tyranids. Apparently the Ultramarines are just chumps... (he was probably making a remark about how well [[Codex Astartes|a certain piece of literature]] from [[Roboute Guilliman|a certain spiritual liege]] would realistically hold up against an enemy as dynamic as 'Nids).

The ideal was, as he gave it, [[Bullshit|"you wouldn't be hearing about Tyranid victories".]]

In any case, we are not kidding: if Crud'''f'''ace doesn't like your army, prepare to get fucked.

That being said, he also made a bunch of the 8th edition Fantasy books, which were, for the most part, pretty good, and seem to be bringing Warhammer Fantasy into ''*gasp*'' balance (even if [[Tomb Kings]] are still at the arse end of useful). He was also a co-writer for the 7th edition Lizardmen army book, which was considered a strong, but balanced book until 8th edition changes to magic occurred.

There's also a [[skub]]tastic argument between Kelly's and Cruddace's fans about the mess of random tables that Codex: Chaos Daemon has become. The book's actually decent overall (unless you relied on Fateweaver to win games for you) and balance wise is in line with the other 6th Edition books. Also, the fluff does a good job in portraying the Chaos Daemons. However, if you even try to suggest that one of the two might be behind the nerf of one unit, you'll find yourself in one of the big shitstorms [[:/tg/]] is known for.

He recently wrote the new Space Marine codex, its pretty decent and balanced the Chapters lore pretty well compared to the other previous codices, even if it did leave in a lot of the Ultrmarine wank it was reedited to be more balanced.

It should be noted that "crud" is an often-used euphemism for "crap". Make of this what you will.

==Notable Victims of The Cruddace==
*[[Imperial Guard]] (5th Edition): His first work gave Cruddace the "Treadhead" moniker. Though the internal balancing and fluff are pretty good, the codex really throws a wrench into the metagame; months later, the infamous leaf-blower list will be crafted using this codex flooding tournaments with melta-vets, artillery and various other spams.
*[[Tyranids]] (5th and 6th Edition): This is where everything went wrong and how Cruddace became synonymous with nerfing. Cruddace literally took his least favorite army's codex and proceeded to figuratively [[Nurgle|smear shit all over it,]] by simultaneously nerfing anything the 'Nids had that was competitive into the ground, and then writing stories essentially portraying them as being a weak and pathetic race that lost every battle it fought in. This was when the consecutive stream of nerfs from 3rd edition onward hit their absolute peak. Although the codex churned out some nifty units ([[Hive Guard]] coming to mind), the balancing at the time was wonky as fuck, deleting the much beloved [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]]. This also introduced the [[Pyrovore]], arguably the most useless unit in the game. and the consecutive nerf stream continued up until 8th edition, which was the only codex that has granted the nids any significant stuff since '''2ND EDITION'''. <span style="color:purple">'''***SSSSSS Crud-assssss hassss not the neckbeardssss to be writing fohhhhh usssssss he mussssst be taken to the poolssssss***'''</span>
*[[Tomb Kings]] (8th Edition): Largely forgettable compared to his other works. Noteworthy in that it clears up a lot of contention from the previous book (like making liches '''actual''' wizards), fleshes out their lore (it doesn't really, it just includes a lot of long-winded descriptions of what they look like when they're killing people. You'll get sick of paragraphs-long descriptions of "bronze blades flashing as blood sprays into the sky and skeletal feet trample maimed foes into the earth" long before you finish the book) and gives the Tomb Kings [[Awesome|Sphinxes that they use in battle]]. It should be mentioned that most TK players absolutely hate most of his changes. Giving an army that actually relies on magic unreliable magic was a massive dick move and would frequently cause spontaneous game-loss regardless of how you played. It was also one of the most rigid books ever written because the army was neatly divided into "must have" units and "don't touch" units (and the must haves weren't all that good, they were just the only units that were decent, whereas the "don't touch" units often were incapable of actually doing whatever it was they were meant to do, i.e. character-hunters who couldn't kill another character to save their lives and monster hunters who had, at best, a 1 in 12 chance of actually killing another monster). Essentially there were two workable builds. The "Khalida plus archers" build that carried over from the much better 6th ed book and the list that Cruddace seemed to think you should be playing; Tomb Guard Deathstar, with Necropolis Knights, sphinxes, and Chariots. It's notable that, once again, he wrote a book that revolves around tank-like creatures (sphinxes), large blobs of expendable infantry, and a deathstar composed of the most elite unit in the army, led by a character with a powerful, but very short ranged aura. He also made them slow as all hell compared to previous versions. Weirdly reminiscent of his 5th edition Tyranid Codex.
*[[Sisters of Battle]] (the 5th Edition [[White Dwarf]]-only not-even-[[Codex]]): Continuing on the nerfing trend after [[Matt Ward]] butchered the Sisters in 5th ed. The team-up of Ward and Cruddace heralded a severe Gav Thorpe-esque reduction and tactical blunting of the previously known Witchunters list - gone are any inquisitorial support, leaving the Sisters outgunned and outclassed. Immolators? Can't take them with troops! HQ? Too expensive to be useful! Decent Elites slots? BWAHAHAHAHA - no.
*[[Empire|The Empire]] (8th Edition): Again, not very memorable. Adds some gee-whiz new war machines, but most infantry gets a price hike when other armies are getting their points costs ''lowered''.
*[[Chaos Daemons]] (6th Edition): playing the nerfer-in-chief yet again, but balanced out (somewhat) by Phil Kelly and his random tables of random. Sadly, the victims are manifold - [[FAIL|Juggers have no armour]] and [[Just as planned|Tzeentchian psykers and Flamers buff your opponent]]. It's all not as bad as the internet makes it out to be, especially on 1d4chan, but it is close. Because you can take Screamers and Tzeentch Heralds in the right combo to have a Jetbike unit with a '''re-rollable 2++''', and Warpflame isn't a big deal if you fire your spells on one unit at a time. Just pretend everyone is Necrons! Also, Daemons do have ways to deal with flyers, like a Slaanesh Prince with Lash of Despair and Biomancy. Expensive, but it works, and let's not forget Bloodletters behind a quad gun that can fire at BS5. Oh, and did we mention you have [[Cheese| a Monstrous Creature that has nine attacks on the charge, always hit on 3s with hatred, wounds everything on a 2+, ignoring armour and inflicts Instant Death? And can wreck a Land Raider by smashing it with Armourbane (Skarbrand)?]]
*[[Space Marines]] (6th Edition): There seems to be an uncanny pattern of switching back and forth between Cruddace's Treadhead and Nerfer personas; this one uses the former largely because of the army that he himself plays - no really, he plays [[Howling Griffons]]! It is however an incredibly stable codex with fluff--although derived from the previous edition--is not terrible. There are some casualties (like the deletion of the [[Black Templars]] as their own, separate faction and subsequent amalgamation into the book), but there are some nifty bright spots, specifically the Chapter Tactics. Now you can choose from seven different chapters to play, each with their own unique strategies. Would be seen as a great codex if it wasn't for Heldrakes and Riptides, but technically that's not his fault (c'mon, the non-Space Marine players need some things to even the playing field).
*Due to [[Games Workshop|GeeDubs]] deciding it would be a grand idea not to tell us who the author is any more, we no longer have a way of determining who else might fall victim to the ominous touch of the Cruddace.
*He's confirmed to have written the 6th Edition Tyranids Codex (aka, the book that nerfed an already fairly low tier army into complete uselessness) thanks to White Dwarf. Much Rage abound. Also makes you wonder why censoring the names of the authors was a good idea considering White Dwarf informed us of who wrote the book.
*We also know he's one of the three guys writing [[Warhammer 40,000 7th edition]], getting second billing after [[Jervis Johnson]].
* While unconfirmed, he's the main suspect behind the 7th Edition Dark Eldar codex given the style of writing and changes to the crunch (farewell Flickerfields and most special characters, including Vect).
*We also know he co-wrote Codex: Deathwatch (7th Edition) with [[Phil Kelly]] through an interview. It's a mess, featuring stuff like rules that cannot be used since he forgot to include options for characters to use the rule, as well as forgetting basic equipment (like the Assault Marines Jump Packs), as well as the most boring formations in any rulebook.
*He's also been confirmed as one of the writers behind [[Warhammer 40,000 8th Edition]], once again getting second billing after Jervis Johnson., as well as being a lead writer on most Codies, so Ultrasmurf Tank spam and Imperial Guard Spam aren't OP for no reason.
*The April 2018 issue of White Dwarf confirms him as one of the main writers for the 8th Edition Dark Eldar Codex. While generally extremely well received, there are some baffling decisions like the the Squatting of Kabalite Trueborn and Hekatrix Bloodbrides. Bloodbrides can be (sort of) explained by Wyches coming with 2 Attacks base now, but the writers could easily have opened up more wargear options or something. The same rationale may have been used for the Trueborn due to Warriors getting to take more heavy and special weapons, but the same principle applies. Another is adding the Crucible of Malediction, (a wargear choice already available to Generic Heamonculus) as a very overcosted Stratagem. (Sort of) Justified by Urian Rakarth not having one, but it against raises the question: Why not just give him the Crucible anyway?
**As it turns out the Dark Eldar are extremely mono-build as far as competitive play goes so they are sadly the latest Victims. With very minor variations (some might take a Razorwing or two), each Tourney List is literally:
*** Black Heart Spearhead: Labyrinthine Cunning Archon with Writ of the Living Muse plus 3x Ravagers
*** Flayed Skull or Black Heart Batallion: Naked Archon x2, 6x 5-Elf Kabalite Squads with Blaster in Venom
*** Alaitoc Battalion: Jetbike Farseer with Doom, Jetbike Warlock with Conceal or Jinx, Ranger Spam.
* Warhammer Community's article on which GW figures make official visits to the 2018 NOVA Open lists him as the lead designer of 40k. Suddenly, an edition characterized by stuff that the Guard does well (such as massed volleys) makes a lot of sense.
* It was stated in an article about Kill Team that Cruddace had a hand in it. Especially with the Rogue Trader release.
* While some were hopeful and optimistic to the approach of [[warhammer 40,000 9th edition|Warhammer 40k’s 9th Edition]], months of codex creep and rules bloat have made many wishing for another rules revamp. Ork Players found their greentide in the garbage while Chaos Marines Players lost an entire codex’s worth of wargear and options in one of the [[FAIL|worst blunders since his Tyranid days.]]
* The Crud is the lead designer for Warhammer 10th edition, and there is already much wailing and gnashing of teeth as Tyranids see Synapse nerfed in an article mentioning him

==And then, Codex: Space Marines==
When Cruddace was revealed as the writer of the new Codex: Space Marines, there was much moaning at how badly they were going to be nerfed. In amongst all the complaining about how stupid the Centurions looked, the doomsayers spoke of an age when Vanilla Marines would be amongst the worst Codices in the game.

And then, it was released, and there was much confusion.

Unlike Cruddace's Imperial Guard, or the Eldar and Tau Empire books that had been released recently, it wasn't overpowered against the others. Unlike Cruddace's Tyranids, or the recently produced Chaos Space Marines, it was neither underpowered nor monobuild. There was shock and confusion. For the first time in a long while, there was a Codex that was neither [[rape]] nor [[fail]]. It was... ''good''.

The Chapter Tactics, whilst having [[White Scars|some]] more powerful than [[Raven Guard|others]], were all valid choices that could have decent army lists written for them. The Black Templars took few casualties during the transfer. The fluff ([[Skub|with]] [[Black Templars|a few]] [[Iron Hands|exceptions]]) was well-written and portrayed every Chapter faithfully (with the obvious exception being Ultra-wank in every non-Ultra Chapter's story). Most of the options in each slot could be taken in a good army list. It was ''good''.

What this indicates regarding Cruddace's writing ability is unknown. There are several views which can be loosely grouped together. The first view is since he has demonstrated bias towards Imperium factions, especially those with tanks (It is very convenient that the Imperial Guard [his favorite army] can now bring a larger allied Space Marine force WITH all their vehicles, and that transports can be taken for free in a certain detachment), this codex is a work of selfish favoritism. The second relates, as Space Marines have long been Games Workshop's Creator's Pet/Cash Cow; GW could have been looking over Cruddace's shoulder while he wrote the codex to ensure their pet stayed at the top like they want. The third is a case of Occam's Razor, where Cruddace's talents have been [[Level|improving]] over time with practice or he had a flash of brilliance resulting in the codex being better-than-average for him. Another possibility may be the fact that GW is finally doing actual playtesting.

As ever, get the facts straight and draw your own conclusions.

==8th Edition==
Interestingly, on a recent stream on WarhammerTV, it was said that the Almighty Treadhead himself was in charge of the design of 8th edition.

After almost 3 years of 8th edition it's pretty safe to say making the Treadhead senior rules writer was a terrible idea. Imperial Guard soup dominated the meta for the majority of the edition and it is only with the release of the Space Marines 2.0 codex and the Iron Hands and Imperial Fists supplements that something new has challenged the guard crown. (Notice how all the broken armies like running tanks?) Do you like playing independent, fluffy armies using only a single codex? Too bad cause we're cookin' soup up here in 8th, but only in the Guard and Eldar varieties. Did you like when they promised at the start of 8th that 40k players wouldn't need a personal library to keep up with all the rules? Too bad. Cruddace and his team's continued inability to write balanced rules combined with GW's love of draining wallets has led to countless FAQs and Errata, a yearly "balance" book in the form of Chapter approved, Codex 2.0 releases, and a series army supplement books. At least his work on Kill Team is decent. Although it also suffers from too many book releases and patches.

==9th Edition==
According to the 9th Edition core rulebook Cruddace was the lead designer of 9th edition. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out well…

Flavor of the month codexes/lists are still a thing, Rule bloat and Power Creep is reaching critical levels faster than 7th edition, mortal wound spammers are king and armor piercing can’t make sense. There are some factions that become [[Cheese|gamebreakingly busted]] and others that are [[FAIL|borderline unplayable]]. Even the core rules, while balanced and decent at the start, was turned into a mess; constant FAQs, major gameplay changes to CP that halved what you normally get and [[what|to pay for a warlord trait]], and further confusion on terrain! There have been many attempts to patch the game’s rules but it only makes the physical codices worth less to have as a result. Because the rules kept changing on a dime, entire armies can either be worth it or worthless just by how he felt about a tournament or two. God Emperor help you if you liked Imperial Fists or DeathWatch this edition.

There is a theory that Robin Cruddace fell into a coma during the development of the 9th edition Tyranid codex. It is considered one of the most powerful codexes of all time and had to be nerfed many times before even approaching something resembling balanced. Even in its weakest state it still offers powerful options that no other faction could hope to bring. Of course, he seems to be making up for this with nerfs to Tyranids in 10th.

Ultimately the greatest flaw was not the constant rule changes or the treatment of a singular army, but how the design of each army’s rules were compared to the previously-released codex. This philosophy of comparing from the most recent rules created the power creep seen today as the most modern codex had to be stronger than their predecessors, making armies that were released early incapable of catching up to the current metagame for a long time. Combine this with the general inconsistency between how rules were worded and Robin’s typical favoritism towards certain factions, and you have an edition that was so broken that they had to start from scratch. [[FAIL|Again…]]

There is only so much Robin can truly blamed for, so take this with a grain of salt. Be the judge for yourself if the design team has their faults or if they’re just following orders from a more incompetent corporate. Either way, the designers ARE to blame. If they are as incompetent as the suitmen up there, then for this, or if they know that this is wrong, and still did it, then they should have stand up.

==10th Edition==
Games Workshop has not made it subtle that Robin Cruddace has continued to write for 40k rules team, but also putting his vision of how an army plays out (if the WarCom articles are to go by). The edition has yet to come out and every promise made to make this edition simpler, less lethal, and with less rerolls has proven to be false. There have already been devastating combos in the Space Marines, army-wide rerolls, and leaders having different rules based on what armor/mount they’re given despite being the same fucking dude; a regular chaos sorceror gives Precience and Gift of Chaos while the slower Terminator Sorceror gets Warptime and Death Hex, despite Prescience doing better with Terminators and vice versa. It would be no surprise if history repeats itself with 10th edition being so bad that it needs [[FAIL|a third reboot in less than a decade.]]

[[Category:Writers]][[Category:Warhammer 40,000]][[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Warhammer 40,000/10th Edition Tactics/Chaos Space Marines

2023-06-14T03:11:41Z

2603:6011:A500:19AD:70AC:9B04:1BE3:44BD: /* Characters */ I find it very weird that the supposed leader of Chaos Warbands has no abilities to lead anyone he joins. Everyone else is a better leader than the lord is apparently.

{{stub}}

This is the current [[Warhammer_40,000/10th Edition Tactics|10th Edition's]] [[Chaos Space Marine]] tactics. [[Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Chaos Space Marines|9th Edition Tactics are here.]]

==Why Play Chaos Space Marines==

==Faction Rules==
*'''Dark Pacts''': Any time one of your units makes an attack, you can choose to make an offering to the dark gods, giving either ''Lethal Hits'' or ''Sustained Hits 1''. After you resolve your hits, you have to pass a Leadership test or suffer d3 mortal wounds. While not the wisest take on cultists, but the marines could make use of this - especially if you grab an icon to re-roll their Ld test.

*'''The Lost and the Damned:''' The rule that lets you attach Khorne Berserkers, Plague Marines and Rubric Marines despite no longer sharing a codex. This gives them the {{W40kKeyword|Heretic Astartes}} keyword instead of whatever they used to have. That said, it's only presumed that they get Dark Pacts, since their datasheets only have their faction rules. It's also uncertain if anyone can attach to them due to the limitations of the Leader rule.

==Detachments==

===Slaves to Darkness===
====Special Rules====
*'''Marks of Chaos:''' Every non-{{W40Kkeyword|epic hero}} unit without any of the following keywords must be assigned one; {{W40Kkeyword|khorne psyker}} is an illegal pairing, and {{W40Kkeyword|characters}} can only Leader Bodyguards who have the same Mark keyword as them. Each keyword also provides a special rule, all of which buff your hit rolls, so leave those '''Torrent''' weapons at home, folks.
**{{W40Kkeyword|Khorne}}: If you use Dark Pacts in the Fight Phase to gain '''Lethal Hits''', you critically hit on a 5+.
**{{W40Kkeyword|Nurgle}}: If you use Dark Pacts in the Shooting Phase to gain '''Sustained Hits 1''', you critically hit on a 5+.
***That means Nurgle particularly favors Combi-Weapons, the Infernal Gaze Sorcerer gun on Hazardous mode, Forgefiends regardless of guns, and the Fellgor Beastmen Corrupted Stave.
**{{W40Kkeyword|Slaanesh}}: If you use Dark Pacts in the Fight Phase to gain '''Sustained Hits 1''', you critically hit on a 5+.
***That means Slaanesh particularly favors Axes of Dismemberment, the Commune Stave on Dark Communes, Daemon and Warp Hammers, Heldrakes, and Possessed.
**{{W40Kkeyword|Tzeentch}}: If you use Dark Pacts in the Shooting Phase to gain '''Lethal Hits''', you critically hit on a 5+.
***That means Tzeentch particularly favors Fleshmetal Guns on warp hail mode, (Twin) Heavy Bolters, and Reaper Autocannons.
**{{W40Kkeyword|Chaos Undivided}}: Re-roll hit rolls of 1.
***Note that this means Khorne and Tzeentch have less use than the other three keywords for '''Devastating Wounds''', as their special buff makes critical wounds even less likely, and across the board you should be avoiding '''Torrent''' weapons.
****If you use a Helbrute to pick up both Dark Pact abilities at once, Khorne and Tzeentch will like Devastating Wounds just fine. The same is true if you're wielding a weapon with '''Sustained Hits 1''' built in, like a Heavy Bolter.

====Stratagems====
*'''Dark Obscuration (1 CP):''' When an enemy tries to shoot at one of your units, that unit gains ''Stealth'' for some extra protection. {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle}} units take this a step further by preventing enemies from attacking them unless they're within 12".

====Enhancements====
*'''Eye of Tzeentch:''' {{W40kKeyword|Tzeentch}} only, of course. Whenever the bearer's unit uses Dark Pacts, they also need to make a Leadership test for a free CP.
*'''Intoxicating Elixir:''' {{W40kKeyword|Slaanesh}} only. Grants the bearer a 5+ FNP and whenever they make a Dark Pact, one enemy they hit must take a battle-shock test.
*'''Liber Hereticus:''' {{W40kKeyword|Chaos Undivided}} only. Using Dark Pacts grants the bearer's unit both ''Sustained Hits 1'' AND ''Lethal Hits'' at the same time.
*'''Orbs of Unlife:''' {{W40kKeyword|Nurgle}} only. At the end of the fight phase, roll a d6 for every enemy unit within 6" of the bearer, adding +1 if they used a Dark Pact on that turn. On a 4+, the enemy suffers d3 mortal wounds.
*'''Talisman of Burning Blood:''' {{W40kKeyword|Khorne}} only. Bearer's melee weapons gain +1 to Attacks and Strength. Whenever the bearer's unit makes a Dark Pact, the weapon instead adds +d3 to Attacks and Strength.

====Tactics====
*Take Abbadon and a Helbrute and mark all of your units to be of Tzeentch or Nurgle; re-roll even successful hits to fish for crits. Now a BS3+ shooter will hit critically 5/9 (56%) of the time (and hit non-critically another 2/9 or 22% of the time); each critical hit is an automatic wound that must roll to penetrate and a hit that must roll to wound.
**Add Forgefiends and fire in Hazardous mode so the hits that roll to wound are hoping to Devastate and ignore saves.
**Give Abbadon a Chaos Terminator escort full of combi-weapons and a reaper cannon; he has Chaos Undivided, so you can use the Profane Zeal strat to re-roll wound rolls to fish for critical wounds for Devastating Wounds. Odds are good Abbadon will refund the cost of the strat anyway.

==Equipment==

==Unit Analysis==
As per the Daemon index, you can have 1/4 of your army in points be [[Warhammer_40,000/10th_Edition_Tactics/Chaos_Daemons|Chaos Daemons]]. As per the Adeptus Titanicus index, you can have up to 1 [[Warhammer_40,000/10th_Edition_Tactics/Adeptus_Titanicus|Chaos Titan]] model. As per the Chaos Knights index, you can have up to 1 {{W40Kkeyword|titanic}} or 3 {{W40Kkeyword|war dog}} [[Warhammer_40,000/10th_Edition_Tactics/Chaos_Knights|Chaos Knights]] models in your army. See those tactica pages for an in-depth analysis, but remember, in both cases anything you field will ''lose'' its Faction rules (what happens in terms of Detachment rules will still be Detachment-specific, but you'll have to pick a CSM Detachment).

===Characters===

*'''Chaos Lord:''' The typical leader of your Chaos Marines and a general powerhouse that can make a stratagem have no cost for his unit. In addition, once per game, he can increase the stats of his equipped melee weapons by 1 for the rest of the fighting phase; +1 attack, strength, armor piercing, and damage. Sadly he gives [[derp|no buffs to anyone he leads]], so grouping him with Legionnaires and Chosen only exist to add bodies between him and his non-precise opponent.
**'''Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour:''' Similar to the regular footslogger, this beast of a man halves any damage he takes rather than a once-per-game ability, making this model an indomitable ire upon your opponent. Of course he still has the same flaw of [[derp|the leader of the group having no actual buffs to anyone he leads]], and the gutting of combi weapons has rendered him useless to gunner armies, but at least he’s more durable this edition, [[List of 40K Cheese|right?]] [[Robin Cruddace|Right?]]

*'''Dark Apostle:''' The evil chaplain is now stuck with his two lackeys. He retains all the big draws of a chaplain, giving +1 to wound for any pack of legionaries, chosen, cultists or accursed cultists he joins in melee while also having a single-use ability to cure a unit within 9" of battle-shock. However, he also has an ability to sacrifice one of his lackeys (and sadly nobody else) to make one enemy he's engaged with to suffer 1 MW on a 2+ or d3 MWs on a 6.
**Simply put, the sacrifice isn't worth it unless you really want someone dead on that turn. MEQs are all W2 or higher and no hero worth their statline will be threatened by the loss of those wounds.

*'''Dark Commune:''' Not much they could do but go up, the Commune can join a mob of cultists or mutants to grant them a 5++ while the Demagogue is around. While all of them contain all manner of meager weapons, you do get a psyker and an Icon to get a re-roll when using Dark Pacts - Something you need with how puny they are. The demagogue also has a single-use ability to let the squad charge after advancing and adding +1 to hit and wound - maybe helpful for mutated cultists getting into the fray but nothing else. Any sniper or unit with [Precision] can kill the Demagogue and turn the entire unit useless.

*'''Exalted Champion:'''
*'''Heretic Astartes Daemon Prince:'''
**'''Heretic Astartes Daemon Prince with Wings:'''
*'''Lord Discordant on Helstalker:'''
*'''Master of Executions:'''

*'''Master of Possession:''' While not as powerful and as important as 9th edition, the buffs given to a unit he leads can get into the fray faster with a +1 to advance and charge; something that synergizes well with the Chosen’s ability to Advance and Charge. The 6+++ FNP isn’t the best thing in the world, but it gives extra durability to units he leads and makes failed tests from the Dark Pact survivable.
** He also comes with an ability to deal a mortal wound to his unit (something to use your FNP on) to improve his psychic attacks with a +1 to hit and wound. This is actually really good because it ensures he wounds MEQs and TEQs on a 2+ with precision on his Rites of Possesion so any leaders in your opponent’s unit isn’t safe. Psykers Beware.

*'''Sorcerer:'''
**'''Sorcerer in Terminator Armour:'''
*'''Traitor Enforcer:''' An evil Commissar with a power fist whose only use is to join a pack of Traitor Guardsmen. He allows the guardsmen to use the Insane Bravery Strat for no CP, but it will cost you a model each time you use it. Consider it at your peril because you don't have someone to resurrect them.
**You can also grab a chaos ogryn as a bodyguard, giving both some extra muscle and a 4+ FNP to go along with the enforcer's 5++ save.

*'''Warpsmith:''' The evil techmarine, coming stock with two servos with a melta and flamer while wielding a plasma pistol and a powerful exalted weapon in place of any power weapons. If you really want him to dent tanks and paste MEQs, you can buy a daemon hammer. Despite being able to hide behind havocs, legionaries and chosen, he gets ''Lone Operative'' when he's within 3" of a {{W40kKeyword|Vehicle}} while also being able to heal d3 wounds on one to give +1 to hit.
**While he can comfortably camp in the back with havocs and legionaries, there is an incentive to get him closer. His third ability forces an enemy {{W40kKeyword|Vehicle}} within 12" to make an instant Battle-shock test, which can help screw up things for the tank in question.

====Epic Heroes====
*'''Abaddon the Despoiler:''' One of the very few to have lost out in tankiness, being nerfed to T5 with the same W9 and 2+/4++. Dark Destiny at least makes using Dark Pacts a good idea as passing the associated Leadership test lets him roll another d6 and win 1 CP. The Warmaster lets him pick from one of three different 6" buff auras: Paragon of Hatred lets friendly units re-roll to hit, Mark of Chaos Ascendant shares his 4++ save with friendly {{W40kKeyword|Infantry}} and {{W40kKeyword|Mounted}} units, Lord of the Chaos Legions lets friendly units re-roll Leadership and Battle-shock tests.
**His combat loadout remains quite the threat and then some. The Talon of Horus remains plenty terrifying with a barrage of S7 AP-3 with '''''Devastating Wounds''''' while the strapped-on Combi-Bolter remaining S5 AP-1 D2 with ''Sustained Hits 1''. Drach'nyen, however, got an absolutely monstrous buff, now being upped to Strength ''FOURTEEN'' AP-4 D3, also with ''Devastating Wounds'' - and all without any drawbacks that come with being a Daemon Weapon.
*'''Cypher:'''
*'''Haarken Worldclaimer:'''
*'''Huron Blackheart:'''
*'''Fabius Bile:'''
*'''Lucius the Eternal:''' If he is your {{W40Kkeyword|warlord}}, you can only take {{W40Kkeyword|slaanesh}} Chaos Daemons.
*'''Vashtorr the Arkifane:'''

===Battleline===

A unit that can gain Battleline from a special rule, like Noise Marines, is not listed here as it does not have the keyword intrinsically.

*'''Cultist Mob:''' Cheap, Shitty, and now no longer limited by arbitrary rules for Mere Mortals. These are units you leave on an objective point in your deployment zone and never care about for the rest of the game. They have a few minor guns they can use to defend themselves, but don’t bother kitting them for melee because they can’t take a punch at T3, Sv6, and a 7+ leadership making Dark Pacts more of a gamble than any other unit. It is probably a good idea to have a dark commune leading them just so they don’t die as quickly.
*'''Legionaries:''' As the frontliners of your forces, they deservedly get plenty of variety in weapons, with so many guns they don't all even fit on the card. Among the ones more unique to the unit is the Balefire Tome, which used to make the unit psychic but now just gives a rather basic 18" A2 S5 AP-1 gun.
**While they're plenty useful at range, their Veterans of the Long War ability strangely only lets them re-roll 1s to wound in melee (or re-roll all wounds if they're on an objective). Part of the issue is that they've undergone the great consolidation of weapons, now stuck with either their S4 CCWs or Chainswords if they want an extra attack and AP-1, with the sergeant having the option for an S5 AP-2 Accursed Weapon instead of the variety of power weapons. You can also take an S8 AP-2 D2 Heavy Melee weapon in case you have the heavy chainaxe from the more recent Legionaries box.

====The Lost and the Damned====
You can have up to 25% of your points be imported Battleline units from World Eaters, Death Guard, or Thousand Sons, and you modify their faction keyword on the way in. Note that you ''do not'' modify their Faction rule, which means any imported units below will get your Detachment rule but not your Faction rule (i.e. they will not get Dark Pacts, and instead will have to function with no Faction rule).

*'''Khorne Berzerkers:'''
*'''Plague Marines:'''
*'''Rubric Marines:'''

===Infantry===
*'''Accursed Cultists:''' Slightly tougher cultists with a 6+ FNP and OC2 for...some reason... Look, the only reason you're using these is because they're easy resurrectable fodder. It doesn't matter whether you sacrifice some of the puny mutants or the slightly stronger torments, you can resurrect them provided that they can hide for a bit.
*'''Chaos Terminator Squad:'''
*'''Chosen:'''
*'''Fellgor Beastmen:''' Gallowfall's newest kill team. While a bit tougher and stronger than any mere cultist, they are still OC1. This unit has strong preference to get into fights, as the entire squad only gets pistols except for the Shaman's Staff, and that offers nothing but a psychic weapon. In melee, meanwhile, the squad gets a +2 to charge rolls when charging enemies on objectives and you can pick up a very powerful great weapon to kill a couple MEQ on the way.
*'''Havocs:'''
*'''Noise Marines:'''
*'''Obliterators:'''
*'''Possessed:'''
*'''Traitor Guardsmen Squad:''' These cultists get access to some of the fancier guns of the Guard like plasma and snipers. While impressive, their melee output suffers as a result. While they can't perma-cap units like regular cultists, they do get cover when camping on an objective.

====Fly====
*'''Raptors:'''
*'''Warp Talons:'''

===Beasts===

*'''Chaos Spawn:'''

===Mounted===

*'''Chaos Bikers:'''

===Vehicles===
*'''Chaos Land Raider:'''
*'''Chaos Predator Annihilator:'''
*'''Chaos Predator Destructor:'''
*'''Chaos Vindicator:'''

====Walkers====
*'''Defiler:'''
*'''Forgefiend:''' Has weapon options, but assuming you pay attention to the rules, it'll always have 1 ectoplasma cannon and 2 autocannons - both with ''Devastating Wounds''. You'll also be constantly Dark Pacting for ''Sustained Hits 1'', so make sure your trio of these have a Warpsmith babysitter.
*'''Helbrute:''' An absolutely critical piece of your Tzeentch/Nurgle army, this dude has a 6" aura letting everyone in it (including him) get both Dark Pact benefits at once, not just one.
*'''Maulerfiend:'''
*'''Venomcrawler:'''

====Dedicated Transports====
*'''Chaos Rhino:'''

====Aircraft====
*'''Heldrake:''' A terrifying model that stalks the skies of the battlefield and ensures the sky belongs to you. Its guns are nothing special, but its Heldrake Claws hit on a 2+ against flying models and comes with Devastating Wounds and '''Anti-Fly 2+,''' turning its S7 -1AP 2D into mortal wounds on anything with that [Fly] Keyword. It may be a bit fragile at T9, 12 Wounds with a -1 at a third of its health, but anything that is targeted by this fearsome flyer will be dropped to the ground bloodied and battered. Eldar vehicles beware, especially when the slaaneshi heldrake gets a lot of fives.

====Titanic====
*'''Khorne Lord of Skulls:'''

===Fortifications===
*'''Noctilith Crown:''' A large shield generator for your heretics, as they all get a 4++ save within 9" of it on top of all the other benefits of hiding behind it. It curiously has some token weapon in some ambient warp energy lashing out, but it's too short-ranged to matter for anything unless you've got peopled fighting around it.

==Tactics==

{{Warhammer 40k Tactics}}
[[Category: Warhammer 40000 Tactics (10E)]]