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

===Artefacts of Chaos===
This is where you find your Daemon weapons and other cool Chaos-y stuff. You're only allowed one of each per army. The Axe of Blind Fury and Black Mace are Daemon weapons, which just like before, add +D6 attacks, but a roll of 1 automatically wounds the model with no armor or cover saves (although you can still take Invulnerable saves) and reduces him to WS1 for one fighting sub-phase. Note that these weapons are not restricted to just Chaos Lords - any model that can take wargear from the Artefacts of Chaos list has access. Also keep in mind that a model who ascends to Daemonhood loses all wargear and rules, so if you take one of these and ascend during the game you don't get to keep your toy. 

Among your chief weapons are:

* '''The Murder Sword''': Take a Power Sword. Make it cost twice as much, and make it cost an extra 5 on top of that. In exchange, you get to nominate **one** enemy character, and while you're in base-to-base contact with that character (presumably due to a Challenge), it becomes double-strength, AP 1, and causes Instant Death. The problem with this one is simple: It requires too many variables to go off for it to work as planned, the really powerful characters out there tend to have some form of Eternal Warrior, and for 5 points more, you can run the "Power Fist/Lightning Claw" combo, granting your Champion far more versatility and more deadliness against a far wider variety of targets.  
* '''The Black Mace''': The Black Mace is a Daemon Weapon with Fleshbane, AP4, and a nifty special rule: '''Cursed:''' When it causes an unsaved wound, the model who took it must immediately make a Toughness test (6s automatically fail) or be Removed From Play. No ifs, ands, or buts. Not only that, at the end of any phase where the weapon has caused at least one wound, all non-vehicle enemy models nearby the Mace must also take a Toughness Test or take a wound with no saves of any kind allowed. If you're looking for a monster-killer, or a way to mulch through tarpits, this is up there, and if you can get Enfeeble (or run a Prince with Grotti The Nurgling) nearby, this thing goes from "scary" to having the effect of a localized black hole...assuming the Prince survives any retaliatory attacks that is. Alas, it does not benefit from Vector Strike.
* '''Axe of Blind Fury''': Reserved for those with Mark of Khorne. Adds +2 Strength at AP2 and gives the Rage USR (even though Mark of Khorne already gave you Rage, Daemon Princes of Khorne will benefit from it). Really nice, but it lowers your WS and BS by 1 which is a bit of a bummer. Still, A Chaos Lord or Apostle with this can go nuts. Thanks to the latest FAQ, Daemon Princes of Khorne can take the Axe of Blind Fury.
* '''Burning Brand of Skalathrax''': This is the very Flamer that Kharn himself used to fragment the World Eaters from a unified force to numerous fragmented warbands in the Skalathrax Incident. It's basically an AP 3 Torrent flamer with Soul Blaze. The Soul Blaze is mediocre, but Torrent and AP 3 take this artifact over the top. A really nice artifact. Whether you use it for a Daemon Prince to act as a pseudo-Heldrake (Vector Strike an enemy, burn another enemy), you use it to make a "tax HQ" more dangerous (if you just want to pop a Lord in a Rhino, this is a good way to make him a contributing fighter), or you want to toss it in a Terminator Annihilation Force so you can "double-tap" it on the way down, this is a really nice artifact for its cost. {{40k-Ranged-Weapon-Profile|range=Torrent|strength=4|ap=3|type=Assault|rof=1|rules=Soul Blaze, Template, Torrent|align=center}}
* '''Scrolls of Magnus''': Big scroll of spells reserved for the mortal followers of Tzeentch (alas, a Prince cannot take it), so [[Meme|put on your robe and wizard hat]]. At the start of every turn, your character may elect to take a S3 AP 1 hit to roll for a random power; you roll one die to see which discipline you roll on (Pyromancy, Biomancy, Telepathy, Tzeentch, Telekinesis, or Divination), and you roll another die to see what power you actually get. If the bearer of the Scrolls of Magnus was not already a Psyker when generating a power, the character becomes an ML 1 Psyker, so you can have a [[Awesome|spell-slinging fighting Lord]]. If you roll a power you already have, reroll. 
**'''The Bad:''' Cool though it may seem, this actually has some pretty big downsides. The first is the point cost. For the cost of taking the Mark of Tzeentch and the Scroll of Magnus on a model, you could buy another Sorcerer altogether! You can't take Primaris powers, though if you roll for only one non-Tzeentchian Power, then you'll have it from Psychic Focus (''sigh'', and the Chaos Psychic Focus for Tzeentch, not that anyone cares for it); admittedly, Biomancy's Smite can be nice when your Lord is BS 5, and Psychic Shriek/Prescience never go unwelcome. The whole process is totally random: you won't necessarily get a spell that's useful to you, but you won't know until after you take the hit. Which brings us to the really big downside: every time you roll on the table, '''including re-rolls''', the model takes a S3 AP1 hit. Plus even if you know a lot of different powers, you'll only be able to cast one per turn anyway due to your limited Mastery Level.
**'''So Why Take This''' - If you want to add "another Psyker" to any formation with a mandatory Chaos HQ, this gives you another option. While you can run a Cabal if you want multiple Sorcerers or use Daemon allies, this lets a formation's Dark Apostle  "do something" besides provide passive auras, while a Disc Lord of Tzeentch is pricey but effectively a mini-monster in his own right. If you're running the Mark of Tzeentch anyway (to turn a Sigil of Corruption into a "Hands-free" Stormshield, or for tougher Terminator armor), you can justify 25 of the points for the Scroll as "an extra Warp Charge", with 20 points accounting for the luxury of an unorthodox Psyker vector, and the ability to learn multiple powers throughout the game. Note that if you give this to a Disc Lord, his T5 and (likely) 3++ make taking a wound from the power generation quite unlikely.
* '''Dimensional Key''': The Dimensional Key activates after its holder kills a model in close combat. From that point onward, any enemy model that starts any phase within 12" of the holder treats all Terrain as both Difficult and Dangerous terrain for the duration of that phase. On top of that, all friendly Codex: Chaos Space Marine units that Deep Strike (anywhere, not just within 12" of the bearer) don't scatter for the rest of the game. 
**''Analysis:'' A cute item with a flawed implementation. The problem with it is that unless you're fighting an army that wants to assault you, or one is extremely lucky, you can expect to reach Assault by turn 2 at the earliest. This wouldn't seem too bad, until one remembers that reserves start to arrive at the beginning of turn 2 on a 3+. This means that generally, 2/3rds of your reserves will have already arrived by the time you activate it. Those remaining units will certainly arrive safely, but it's difficult to justify 25 points on a wargear option that affects, in the vast majority of cases, two units at best, chosen randomly. 
***'''NOTE:''' With traitor Legions, turn 1 assaults are now quite viable between the World Eaters bonus move/talisman and/or a Black Legion Raptor talon assaulting from deepstrike turn 1. 
**''Making the Key Work:'' Let's suppose you do have your heart set on trying this toy out and aren't playing the Black Legion. How do you make the most out of it despite its flawed design? One possibility is to consider the Deep Strike a "nice-to-have" bonus rather than integral to your battleplans. To a certain extent, the Key lets your unit march into the open, and delay "countercharges" to some degree. A -2 to charge distance can make the difference between your opponent getting the charge or just standing there in the open waiting to be charged. If you really want to get that Deep Strike Bonus, Soulswitch or Worldwrithe both give you the option for Turn 1 assaults, should you roll it; the problem remains relying on excessive luck on generating Psychic Powers. Should you be running fortifications anyway, the Comms Relay lets you reroll reserves, both failed and successful, should you '''really''' wish to play with your guys off-table for more turns than normal. One final edge-case is that the rules as written state "units that arrive from Deep Strike" and Gate of Infinity also states you "arrive by Deep Strike." Chaos lacks Hit and Run or other ways to truly disengage, but this "could" give you the edge if you were trying to create an Obliterator analogue of the more infamous Centstar...one without Grav, mind you.
**''In apocalypse:'' When you have the ability to choose when your reserves come in, this really gains some traction.

'''Overall:''' The core Chaos Relics are generally focused on hitting your opponent harder. You'll notice no defensive wargear in here. Of them, the Axe of Blind Fury and the Black Mace are both dangerously powerful (the latter more so on a Daemon Prince or a Sorcerer that rolls Iron Arm), and the Burning Brand is "boring-yet-practical" at what it does. The Murdersword is too situational and expensive to take advantage of, and the Dimensional Key would be awesome if it was easier to trigger, but is relegated to the realm of "gimmick" otherwise. The Scrolls of Magnus are an expensive gimmick but "can" be used if you want to turn a mandatory HQ into a "backup caster".