Goatboy’s Warhammer 40K Meta Hotness: Chaos Space Marine Chosen
I choose you CSM Chosen – to lead the Chaos Revolution at many tourneys this past week! Let’s jump in and see why CSM Chosen are this week’s Meta Hotness.
CSM Chosen have always filtered around the edges of cool and with a few character add ons, free upgrades, and a powerful set of rules you all of a sudden have one of the best all around units in the game. I remember when Chosen had a first new kit – that didn’t do much at all. It was that old 2012 CSM vs Dark Angels Dark Vengeance release that had a batch of them, looking awesome at the time. But they have not nearly kept up being so cool. Of course a new kit didn’t come for a long time until the latest CSM release and with that a huge update into how they are played. Chosen were always supposed to be the “veterans” of the CSM and the guys who were almost ready to become a Character thru some kind of terrible dark ritual or promised to a dark power.
Now they seem to fit into a role of a weird “Sternguard/Vanguard” vet style unit setup with some decent anti-infantry shooting mixed with a decent close-combat attack. All attached to a fatter than normal body for such a small based little jerk. They were basically the non Daemonic Possessed in some ways and continue to fit into that mold. So why are they good? Let’s dig in and figure it out.
CSM Chosen are Tough
These guys have 3 wounds a piece which is a big deal on such a small based model. On top of having 3 wounds they also don’t take up too much room in any of the CSM vehicle transport options as well. You can have a Rhino filled with 30 wounds of Chosen plus 2 Characters if you need to – giving you almost 40 wounds of beef for an opponent to chew through. This is huge amount of wounds to dig out of an objective beyond all the other rules they can get with a specific Mark load out. You Mark them Nurgle and can easily make them untargetable as well with a Strat which is a pretty awesome thing. They also have a version of Armor of Contempt that sits at a Battle Tactic which allows you to double up on them with your Friendly neighborhood hood attached Chaos Lord. These guys are not easy to remove off of the tabletop.
Decent Anti-Infantry Damage
This unit really is designed to hit other infantry hard and do a decent amount of damage. The ability to have 4 combi weapons is a powerful upgrade especially with some of the marks allowing for a ton of other “types” of hits. You throw a Sustained Hits 1 with a Dark Pact and Reroll everything with Undivided and it all of a sudden blows up to a ton of Devastating wounds to the unit. On top of that they can have 4 Plasma Pistols too which can shoot out some decent damage as well. Just being able to double stack the Reroll hits and Wounds with a Chaos Lord means your Forgefiend and your Chosen unit can go ham on an enemy.
Good Assault Option
Oh and like a Vanguard Vet unit – this unit has a ton of attacks with each model having 4 Accursed Weapon hits that are AP -2/1D as well as a few Powerfists that can help shore things up. Being able to hit hard with full Rerolls gives them a nice step up to other units that skirt this type of roll of being an aggressive bully in shooting and assault. You throw in some characters into this unit which can get you a free Strat, more attacks, Precision attacks, and other fun things that all add up to a real pain in the butt. Oh and they just get to Advance and Charge just because they are awesome.
CSM Chosen are Priced to Move
These guys are pretty inexpensive too in points. Sitting at 110 points for a 5-man unit and at 220 for a 10-man gets you a lot of wounds on the able. Plus being able to ride in a Rhino gives them even more of a cost effective little Chaos Marine unit that can easily jump out, get moving, and wreck you in both phases of the game.
A Tournament Example
The biggest event this past weekend was won by a CSM player – Liam Vsl took the London GT – an over 700 player event across the pond. He went thru 3 Eldar players to take in the end with the following list that’s utilizes Chosen in Rhinos pretty spectacularly.
CHARACTERS
{CHAR1} 1x Chaos Lord (75 Points)
• Warlord
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Daemon hammer
1x Plasma pistol
{CHAR2} 1x Chaos Lord (75 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Daemon hammer
1x Plasma pistol
{CHAR3} 1x Chaos Lord (75 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Daemon hammer
1x Plasma pistol
BATTLELINE
10x Cultist Mob (55 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 1x Cultist Champion
• 1x Close combat weapon
1x Cultist firearm
• 9x Chaos Cultist
• 9x Close combat weapon
6x Cultist firearm
1x Cultist grenade launcher
1x Flamer
1x Heavy stubber
DEDICATED TRANSPORTS
1x Chaos Rhino (75 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Combi-bolter
1x Combi-weapon
1x Havoc launcher
1x Chaos Rhino (75 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Combi-bolter
1x Combi-weapon
1x Havoc launcher
OTHER DATASHEETS
5xChosen (110 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Chosen Champion
• 1x Accursed weapon
1x Bolt pistol
1x Combi-weapon
• 4x Chosen
1 with paired accursed weapon and a plasma pistol
1 with accursed weapon and a combi-weapon
1 with accursed weapon and a boltgun
1 with a powerfirst and a plasma pistol / Chaos icon
5xChosen (110 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Chosen Champion
• 1x Accursed weapon
1x Bolt pistol
1x Combi-weapon
• 4x Chosen
1 with paired accursed weapon and a plasma pistol
1 with accursed weapon and a combi-weapon
1 with accursed weapon and a boltgun
1 with a powerfirst and a plasma pistol / Chaos icon–
10xChosen (220 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Chosen Champion
• 1x Accursed weapon
1x Bolt pistol
1x Combi-weapon
• 9x Chosen
2 with paired accursed weapon and a plasma pistol
3 with accursed weapon and a combi-weapon
2 with accursed weapon and a boltgun
1 with a powerfirst and a plasma pistol / Chaos icon
1 with a powerfirst and a plasma pistol
1xForgefiend (180 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 1x Armoured limbs
2x Ectoplasma cannon
1x Ectoplasma cannon
1xForgefiend (180 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 1x Armoured limbs
2x Ectoplasma cannon
1x Ectoplasma cannon
2x Obliterators (170 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Chaos Undivided
• 2x Obliterator
• 2x Crushing fists
2x Fleshmetal guns
2x Obliterators (170 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Nurgle
• 2x Obliterator
• 2x Crushing fists
2x Fleshmetal guns
5x Warp Talons (100 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
• 1x Warp Talon Champion
• 1x Warp claws
• 4x Warp Talon
• 4x Warp claws
5x Warp Talons (100 Points)
• Mark of Chaos: Slaanesh
• 1x Warp Talon Champion
• 1x Warp claws
• 4x Warp Talon
• 4x Warp claws
ALLIED UNITS
3x Nurglings (35 Points)
• 3x Nurgling Swarm
• 3x Diseased claws and teeth
Syll’Esske (120 Points)
• 1x Axe of Dominion
1x Cacophonic choir
1x Scourging whip
The Blue Scribes (65 Points)
• 1x Sharp quills
Using the CSM Chosen List
As you can see it is a full CSM skirmish list designed to go wide, hit hard, and wreck your face. These are all the things Liam did to taking out some of the top players from across the way. A big congrats to Liam with a very cool looking list that also utilized a bunch of other neat Chaos interactions – especially on the Daemon side of things.
For the Warmaster!
