Wargame Tactics

Chaos Space Marine
HQ Tactics

Named HQ Characters

The Chaos Marine army has a number of special characters that you can choose from. Remember that you can only have one of each in your army, so be careful, and be careful of the points cost for these characters. One may alone will not win the game for you, specially when they can not claim objectives.

Abaddon The Despoiler

Abaddon The Despoiler is the most powerful of the Chaos Space Marine special characters, and has the highest points cost.

Abaddon is a one man army, but he costs more than the points you pay for a Chaos Land Raider. This means that for every turn that Abaddon is not doing something then you have a sizeable section of your army redundant. This in turn means that you will need to get Abaddon on to the gaming table as fast as possible. A popular way to do this is to use the Terminator teleport system that is built in to the Terminator armour. This will mean that Abaddon will start in reserves ( if reserves are allowed). However the delayed arrival is usually offset by the speed that Abaddon can get into fight.

Abaddon's Strength and Weapons

Abaddon has some fearsome weapons. For starters the two close combat weapons give Abaddon 4 + D6 attacks at S5. The other one that allows you to re-roll any missed wound ( but not re-rolling missed hits) at S8, means that Abaddon will be wounding most characters and monstrous creatures on a 2+ ( with that re-roll). This will mean that he will be able to walk through most one on one close combats. Be careful that you are not out numbered. If there enough returned hits Abaddon will eventually succumb and fall.

Abaddon also has a twin linked bolter. This is not as good as the Storm Bolter of the Imperial Space Marine Terminator as it is still a single shot per turn rapid fire weapon, but it does allow Abaddon to re-roll missed hits.

Abaddon's Toughness and Special Rules

First off Abaddon is wearing the super tough Terminator armour. Even if he did not have any other special rules, this would make him a tough nut to crack. However as well as the Terminator armour he has the mark of Nurgle as this adds 1 point of toughness to his stats, and because he has the mark of Tzeench he has a 4+ invulnerable save instead of the usual Terminator save, and if that is not enough Abaddon also has the eternal warrior special rule so he can ignore the instant death special rule too.

Abaddon has the Black Crusader Chaos Space Marine special rule. This gives you the preferred special rule for Space Marines. This will give you an extra advantage when fighting them in close combat or when shooting weapon.

Note: Abaddon has the marks of Khorne and Slaanesh too however the bonuses that these marks give Abaddon have been added to his stats already so don't go thinking that you can add extra attacks and initiative to his skills! The good news is that you should find that what he has is plenty enough.
Also note that the +1 leadership for the ' Veterans of the long war' rule has no effect as Abaddon already has L10.

Huron Blackheart

Kharn The Betrayer

Ahriman

Typhus

Typhus is the named Chaos Lord for the Nurgle. Not only is he is warlord but he is a level 2 psyker too.

Typhus's Strength and Weapons

Typhus does not have any shooting weapons however as a psyker he may have some shooting options using his psychic powers.
To make up for the lack of shooting weapons Typhus has a Daemon Weapon ' Manreaper'. This is a S6 AP2 Force Weapon.
Typhus has a close combat special weapon 'The Destroyer Hive'. This is a one shot weapon that works best when Typhus is in close combat with a number of models. Be careful though this weapon is as dangerous to your friends as it is to your enemies!

Typhus's Toughness and Special Rules

As a named character Typhus has a number of special rules. You will be well advised to get very familiar with all the extra rules and may be to have a 4x3 card with a reminder of the rules so you can review them quickly during the game.
Typhus has the mark of Nurgle so he gets the usual +1 toughness. Note that this is already added to Typhus stats so don't go thinking that you can upgrade his stats to T6!

Typhus has Terminator armour. This gives you a great way to get Typhus in to the fight quickly. As Terminator armour comes with teleport built in, so if you pair him up with a Terminator squad and you have a hard hitting squad that will dole out some real pain.
If you don't like the idea of teleporting your very expensive HQ unit in to the either, then you will need a Land Raider as a taxi to make sure that Typhus gets in to the fight.

Plauge Zombies

Everyone loves a good Zombie! Ok not everyone, but I imagine that we will see Typhus fielded more often just so they can have a 35 model Zombie unit on the table!
Note that Zombies don't have to be just units of walking dead. They make great units for holding objectives too, specially if they can hide in cover too.

Lucius The Eternal

Fabius Bile

Chaos Lord Tactics

Chaos Lords are the most powerful generic characters that you can choose for your Chaos army. The Chaos Lord will usually be the general for your army too, unless you have a named lord in your army too.

Mark of Chaos

The Chaos Lord will usually have a mark of Chaos as these marks are very useful. For example most of the marks allow you to take one of the elite units as troop units. Note that the mark of Tzeentch does not bestow this benefit.

The Chaos Lord can take a number of weapon and wargear upgrades. Be careful here. There are a good number of options available. You will be advised to keep your focus on the role that you want the Chaos Lord to fill. If you don't you could over spend points on options that you do not use, and these points could be better spent elsewhere in your army list.

Chaos Space Marine
Sorcerer Tactics

In the Chaos Space Marine army paykers are called Sorcerers. And the Sorcerers in the Chaos Space Marine army are some of the most powerful psykers in the game. You need to look to the Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Chaos Daemons for any psykers with equal power.
One diffence between the Chaos Sorcerer psykers and psykers from other armies is that the Chaos Sorcerers are fairly decent in a fight too.

Daemon Prince Tactics

Chaos Space Marine Warpsmith Tactics

The Chaos Space Marine Warpsmith is a new addition to the 2012 6th edition Codex: Space Marines.

Dark Apostle

Dark Apostle are the Chaos Space Marines version of the Chaplains and are often used in a similar fashion. This is usually in leading a close combat unit in to assaults as often as possible.

Invulnerable Save

The Chaos Space Marine Dark Apostle gets the same 4+ invulnerable save that his Imperial Space Marine counterparts do. This means that you can be a bit more daring when you are getting your Dark Apostle in to combat. But do be careful as the unit that the Dark Apostle is with will not get this save!

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