Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – Making Chaos Space Marines True Villains
Goatboy here. Chaos Space Marines need to be truly villainous, but their rules are a bland hot mess. Let’s fix that.
Chaos Space Marines are the ancient bad guys that originally broke the glorious golden age of the Emperor’s domination. So why do they feel like they don’t have a true identity right now?
Let me preface this by saying Chaos Space Marines are not truly in a bad place like some of the other armies. I think overall, their points are ok, their damage isn’t too bad, and they have some good things in the book. The biggest issue is they just don’t feel like they have an identity other than being somewhat punchy guys who hate the Imperium.
So how do we fix them? I think their Dark Pact rule isn’t terrible, just a bit clunky. In fact, I like the idea of it. But having to roll so many “battle shock” tests while also rolling units battle shock tests is kind of a frustrating thing. Especially since the army really has shifted to a more MSU/shooting-style army. This means your turns are overtaken by tons of 2d6 rolls.
That isn’t to say the outcome is bad. It is just frustrating. I think I had a game where I failed so many thru Rerolls and the constant need for success to work that it became an issue. How many times do I need to damage myself when it could be much easier?
Fixing Dark Pacts
Let’s fix it by removing it from each unit trying to do it, and put it under your leader in some way. Heck, let the whole Mark mechanic stay. But instead, have your leader call their Dark Pact out. You could have each type of leader have different Dark Pact abilities, and create this much more unique aspect of leading a Warband of crazy people.
Say, for example, a Chaos Lord has 3 different “Dark Pacts” to choose from, and all are much more useful in the game. Things like the Sustained Hits, Lethal Hits, and other neat options could be rolled into some of these abilities. I don’t want Devastating Wounds as it causes some weird damage potential things, and opens a can of worms rules-wise.
From there, you could look at either chaining into other leader units that give the Dark Pact options to the unit they join. Or perhaps mix in some kind of cool Aura ability on Dark Pacts. The Dark Apostle could chain into other things beyond just punching better.
Having each of your characters be important would be a unique thing and help create a cool narrative of leadership within the CSM army. I love Characters joining and think Dark Pacts really should be chained thru them instead of per unit.
Heck, this could let the Warp Smith do something, as he shouts out to Vashtorr the Trashtorr and prays to do more damage to the enemy. It would help just remold the CSM army into a dark mirror of Space Marines that utilizes their chains of command. Now we have the Chaos gods pouring their Dark Pact powers into CSM leaders, which also lessens how many dang rolls you need to do throughout the game.
Corrupting the Battlefield
How many times have you read stories about Chaos Space Marines corrupting a world thru Dark Rituals and sacrifice? Why can’t we see something like this in a game as they take an objective, an area, or try to do something unique? Why can’t this chain into using Cultists in weird ways to burn some bodies on the field and do something unique?
We could see it beyond just feeding the rituals but maybe feeding Daemon Engines to greater heights of rampage and destruction. This idea that you are able to burn Cultist resources in order to drive your army’s interaction could be a cool and unique trait for CSM. Some of the other armies would do something similar. But let’s push it beyond just being a weird meat shield like Orks do with Grots. The CSM army sacrificing some life to power an ability out would be pretty neat.
It just can’t be “burn some Cultists to gain a CP” – that’s too simplistic. It needs to do more stuff and have options. You could even utilize a Dark Apostle to power it up more as he is closer to the Chaos Gods and, thus, a conduit to destruction.
Make the Army Unique
I could always say just make what CSMs are supposed to be good at better. But let’s make them different instead. They are all about pledging their life to one of the Chaos Gods and we should build upon that as the other armies don’t fit that type of zealotry. It is just one of the ways to really make Chaos Space Marines unique and cool beyond just being naughty marines who need a spanking because they drove a hot dog car into a storefront.
What do you think? Is this index a nice start of an idea that could just be fleshed out more, or should we redo the entire thing? Why aren’t Chaos Lords scary combat monsters like they were in the past? Abaddon seems good, but where is the rest of the close-combat monsters that we need and love in the game?
How would you make CSMs the ultimate villains of 40K?
