Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – Chaos Space Marines
Let’s take a deep dive into a hot mess of a 40K unit and some thoughts in how we can fix them up. Hello CSMs
These guys used to be the nightmares of the 40k universe. Ancient warriors corrupted by the foul gifts of Chaos – The Chaos Space Marine is a broken shell from the murderous monster they once were. The dreaded dance of the meta has long left them behind but fear not – maybe we can do spitballing that might come true whenever they get a fresh coat of paint, some new spikes, and some mayhem causing new rules.
Chaos Space Marine Basics
Chaos Space Marines are the basic troop of the Adeptus Heriticus. They range from ancient warriors surfing the anger and spite of the warp all the way to fresh recruits that decided the Space Marine rules are too strict for them. They are still Space Marines, through and through, so any enemy should fear CSM even more that the goody two shoes loyalists. Sadly they are currently still sitting on one wound. Sure you could make an argument that they are cheaper and 2 wounds don’t matter as much… but I digress. They are hampered by old Stratagems, army rules, and basic statline. The old standby of hitting on a 3+ just doesn’t cut the mustard right now 9th Edition, and while Toughness 4 really just sits you in the middle without a whole lot of room to showcase how awesome they could be.
How Can We Make CSMs Good?
FEAR!
First let’s go into what used to make them scary. I always want some kind of fear option to show up for 40k and I think Chaos Space Marines could really do wonders. Maybe they have some sort of element that any unit within a specific range has to pass checks to not mess their pants. They could range from things like modifiers to hit or wound when getting near them. Different legions could have different options too with causing some kind of fear. Emperor’s Children normally strike first but what if they caused you to strike last if you fail? Alpha Legion cause you to hit worse as you see double thru your tears of fear? The Word Bearers zealotry give you something like Mortal wounds on 6’s to wound as their faith burns the flesh of the enemy?
Worship the Dark Gods
Next up we need to make the idea of devoting yourself to a Chaos God something important instead of just activating a Stratagem. I don’t want them too busted as it would cause too much of a cost increase. But simple things to make those devoted to Nurgle, and others worth it. I really like the idea of Ramshackle and find that going on those devoted to Nurgle would be a good thing. They don’t need to just be cheaper Plague Marines but something uniquely the same but not nearly as powerful. Khorne would be easy with just a better attack profile or more attacks. Looking at ways to make these guys unique will be important in differentiating them from Space Marines.
No Primaris!
Oh and for sure they cannot get Primaris versions of their army. I like the idea of older Firstborn Marines who don’t want to cross over might get tempted by Renegade Chaos Space Marines. This leads into some interesting territory for Fluff and army building if the rumored “build your own Legion” rules are true. They need to instead push heavy into some Horus Heresy stuff like some kind of unleash bolter hell or other fun options to make them good.
GUNS! GUNS! GUNS! & Armor
Speaking of Bolters they need a serious glow up. If every army has a better basic gun what’s the point of a bolter? Bolter were scary in the initial rough Marine release because they were one of the few armies that had stacking AP modifiers. Now every army has AP -1 at minimum while the poor bolter just looks like crap when you compare them. This all could just be giving them a special form of gun fire for something like: (Bullet 1: Change to Assault but no AP) and (Bullet 2: RF but with a flat AP -1). Little things to help push their gun out of the bottom of the barrel would do wonders.
I still think we should look at ways to give them some kind of flat ignore some AP for their Space Marine armor or some kind of spend X CP get a turn of ignore all AP. This would keep them at a 3+ and while powerful it wouldn’t be nearly as back breaking as you would think. They wouldn’t get cover just a flat 3+ save for something like AP -1/2 as big laser guns shouldn’t be stopped by Plasteel shoulder pads.
Formidable Opponents
I want to see Chaos Space Marines on the table top and not just a single 5 man unit to activate a Patrol. I want people to be scared of them when you are facing a bunch of devotees of Khorne running from a Rhino and ready to rip your head off. It pains me to remember the good ole days like some kind of Grognard when my Noise Marines were feared across the universe and I lashed you into a little circle for my blast master to brown noise your unit to oblivion.
What other ideas do you have to fix the poor Chaos Space Marine? Are the rumors true and will finally start to see them used on the table top for offensive maneuvers? Will they stop being your objective holders and actually your objective destroyers? Will we finally kill the False Emperor and his cookie empire?
Let us know what units you think are hot right now, down in the comments!
