Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Chaos Space Marines (section)

===Troops===

*'''Chaos Space Marines''' - The basic Troops choice. You'll get a lot of mileage out of these guys. 13 points each, ONE cheaper than loyalists, 5-20 per squad, NOW WITH FREE ASPIRING CHAMPION (Free=10pts, but look at the loyalists, the cost is incorporated in the base cost)! Leadership 8 now. Veterans of the Long War upgrades this to 9 for 1 point ( 10 on the Champ.)  Champ can take a fuck of a lot of gear. Loyalists can take a Heavy Weapon or a Special Weapon at 5 men in a Tactical squad and a Special or Heavy Weapon, in their own respect, -At 10 men. CSMs on the otherhand, can only take a Special at 5 men and a Heavy at 10. Similar options as Loyalists, but instead of Plasma Cannons and Multi-Meltas, we get Autocannons or the option of taking a second Special weapon. On the up side, we can take CCW's on top of all our gear for only +2 pts/model or throw out the bolter and just take it for free. Icons are no longer for guiding deep strikes, and yes, one dude has to take a banner but it's a flat cost per unit. You can make a strong CSM unit given all these variables.
**The biggest advantage Chaos Marines have is their versatility. With a solid armor save, 2 attacks in close-combat (if equipped with the extra CCW), strength and toughness 4, and bolters as their main weapon (and access to heavy/special weapons), Just a squad of them can be used differently as circumstances merit, enabling them to go shooty against foes, or switch to melee against foes that are particularly vulnerable in close-combat but threatening inside their "power range" (such as Guardsmen or Fire Warriors).
**Be sure to include a Rhino, whether they're kitted for close combat or gunning down your enemies, they really help getting them closer. They're easy to blow up, but they still make it easier for your Chaos brothers to deal with a certain unit earlier than later. The only time you don't want to bring Rhinos is for them to just sit on an objective, in which case you should get Cultists to do that instead.
**Needless to say they're as versatile as hell and wicked cost-effective, and they make for great scoring units: Hwee Kaptoored Eet Fhor Kay-oss!. If you have a few points left to blow once all your choices are made, you rarely can go wrong with throwing a few more Marines on the table. 
(Comment from a reader: one important thing that 1d4chan left out here is the fact that you can take chaos space marines in groups of 20. Yes, seriously. It may be expensive to field so many chaos space marines in one squad, but it WILL make your army look intimidating and badass, and is also a subtle highligh to the fact that chaos space marines never underwhent the changes presented by the codex astartes, so the traitor legions are still 10,000 and above strong, and the renegade chapters are gaining in strength.)
*'''Cultists:''' 50 pts gets you a Cultist champion and 9 of these squishy 'umies. You can take up to 25 more for 4 points each, for a whopping total of 35 in your mob. Their options are pretty weak (autoguns for everyone except the Champ, 1 dude every 10 can take a heavy stubber or flamer, the Champ can take a shotgun) but they are better meat shields than Grots because they're taller, and without autoguns they cost exactly the same as grots, while being all around better. If you add a Dark Apostle to the squad they become fearless (and thus cannot to go ground), making them not only resilient but pretty decent in melee in large numbers. You can also spend the fortification slot to buy an Aegis defense line and crap the cultists in there, for an inexpensive 2+ cover save bulwark.
** Don't bother with a mark. Cultists are a mass of expendable bodies, and don't need the points wasted on them only to die as expected. If you're really intent on making them tougher, take Typhus and make them Plague Zombies.
** Here's a more detailed explanation why Marks are bad for your Cultists. Starting from the "best" to the worst:
*** ''Nurgle:'' Makes your lowly Cultists as tough as Space Marines. Don't get too excited because they still wear T-Shirts as their armor.
*** ''Slaanesh:'' Your Cultists are now I4, which means that they hit before Guardsmen and at the same time as Space Marines. Nothing special but it's still a better HtH mark than Mark of Khorne (see below).
*** ''Tzeentch:'' 6++. Needless to say, it's pretty pathetic. Having the lowest possible save is almost like having no save at all, so unless you're very lucky your Cultists will die just as fast and 5+ cover saves or better are everywhere. And don't forget that you're paying for this upgrade...
*** ''Khorne:'' Well, this doesn't sound like the worst mark: it gives your cultists Rage and Counter Attack. The big problem with this mark is that Counter-attack is unreliable because of Cultists' low Ld, and that bucket of attacks doesn't mean jack when you're I3 and have no assault grenades (Termagants hit before them, BLOODY TERMAGANTS). MoN gives you extra ressilience which always "works" (MoK only works in combat), MoS is cheaper than Mok and with MoT you can at least attempt to troll people, so there's no reason whatsoever to take Mark of Khorne, ever.
**** ''Another take on the Mark of Khorne:'' While it seems bad on its own (LD 8 makes counter pretty worthless,) slap a Dark Apostle with a 35 man squad of these bad boys and you got a horde with 4 attacks each on the charge, 3 attacks each when charged, and HATRED. Did I forget to mention these guys are fearless and ld 10 for counter attack? Yeah, so they are only initiative 3, but you brought a squad of 35, right? Even if you lose 20 of them before they swing you're still getting 60 attacks (rerolling hits) on the charge and 45 attacks with counter attack. Not to mention how many they will get without losing any in close combat.
*** Don't get me wrong, at the end of the day all Marks are bad. What ultimately kills the Marks is their price. They cost exactly 50% more than they should. If you make certain calculations, you'll figure out that an amount of points dumped into marks add roughly the same survivability or offensive capability as the equal amount of points dumped into extra bodies, and extra bodies are always better because they give you both. Not to mention that Marks don't change cultists in any meaningful or fun way unlike, say, their Dawn of War 2 counterparts. So forget about the marks; Autoguns, Flamers and Heavy Stubbers are the only meaningful options that Cultists have.