Warhammer 40K: Detachment Breakdown – Mastering the Chaos Space Marines “Creations of Bile”
Goatboy here to breakdown the 40K Advent Calendar Detachment – the Chaos Space Marines ‘Creations of Bile’ with tips, tricks, and a sample army!
With this 2024 Advent Calendar of fun stuff for Warhammer 40K coming out, it’s time to review the detachments as they come out. We’ll do as usual a Good, Bad, and Ugly little break down for each one then a look at the type of list I would play for this army. I will begin with one of the detachments and as the weeks go on break down a few in batches as they come out. I am very excited to see some new rules and maybe some new ways to play an army and create something new and unique. Right now the game is sorta of locking into “best” of style armies and while we do have some innovation from time to time it feels like the same tricks are what is going to carry “best of” armies to the top.
‘Creations of Bile’ – The Good
Let me start this off with how I loved the old Creations of Bile army from a few editions ago. It was one of the armies I took to Kansas City GW event and wrecked face with it as I ran around the table with 30 Possessed and 10 Terminators. This is not the return of that army but it is still pretty dang good. This is one of my favorite of the 2024 Advent Detachments as it does everything I want in a CSM list – a really decent brawler with some very good strats and relics. With that out of the way let’s start with the good.
At the top level this army has a very strong rule to build your units around. Your main rule is the ability to pick one upgrade out of 6 options, or roll for 2 randomly, or if you have Fabius Bile as your warlord you can roll the two randomly and reroll them if needed. This is huge as all the abilities are powerful. These all activate for Heretic Astartes Infantry (no Damned). The First is adding 1 to the Melee Attack Characteristics. The second is to add 2” to their movement characteristic. The third is adding a +1 to the units Weapon Skill. The fourth is improving the toughness by 1. The Fifth is adding a point of strength to all melee weapons. The Sixth is adding a +1 to the Ballistic Skill of all Weapons.
All of these powers are pretty dang amazing especially on the bodies of Infantry units with the CSM book. You can see how powerful a lot of this could be for a ton of Chosen, Terminators, Legionaries, and even Obliterators. Also Fabius Bile is pretty dang amazing hiimself, and was already showing up in CSM lists. So making him your Warlord is an easy thing.
From there we have three powerful Enhancements and one decently costed one. The one that is ok is the Surgical Precision which grants the bearer Precision on their melee attacks. The next is the Living Carapace which gives a Chaos Lord an extra wound and a 5+ Feel No Pain for 15 points. The third is a relic for an Infantry unit that gives the b eater a 12” can’t place reserves bubble. The final one and my favorite (wish it could go on a Daemon Prince) is Prime Test Subject that gives a +1 to the damage characteristic of the models melee weapons and the ability to reroll the hit roll. I get the feeling that Daemon Hammer is going to come in hot.
You also have six very good Stratagems to work with. Monstrous Visage returns and it can give a Bile unit a -1 to be hit either in the shooting or Fight phase. There is a 1CP Fights on Death in Masters are Watching. You have your 2CP option to get another Mutation in Delayed Mutations. The unit has to take D3 mortal wounds to activate it and I bet there could be some fun interaction with their Healing Spell called Diabolical Regeneration to “kill” a model and then gain some movement by bringing something back. The best one is the last one in the Advance and Charge power called Autostimulants for 1 CP.
‘Creations of Bile’ – The Bad
There isn’t a heck of a lot bad in this army as the only thing I think we are missing is some way to increase the AP value of attacks. The Possessed are in a weird spot in only have an AP -1 and would really benefit by pushing them to a two at some point. Sadly will have to wait for a Dataslate update to really get something like this.
I was also hoping for more Possessed like stuff and even some kind of benefit to Helbrutes as while they are “vehicles” they could really be listed as monstrous Chaos Space Marines. I always thought they should have more buffs to help round them out a bit more. This is of course while I start a bunch of them on my desktop.
‘Creations of Bile’ – The Ugly
The real ugly I have is why this wasn’t in the main codex! This is a pretty neat detachment especially since we have a plastic Character who loves to run around and show off how fabulous he is.
Sample Detachment Armylist – Creations of Bile
Chaos Space Marines
Creation of Bile
Strike Force
CHARACTERS
Chaos Lord (125 Points)
• 1x Daemon hammer
• 1x Plasma pistol
• Prime Test Subject
Chaos Lord in Terminator Armour (110 Points)
• 1x Combi-weapon
• 1x Power fist
• Living Carapace
Fabius Bile (85 Points)
• 1x Fabius Bile
• Warlord
◦ 1x Chirurgeon
◦ 1x Rod of Torment
◦ 1x Xyclos Needler
• 1x Surgeon Acolyte
◦ 1x Surgeon Acolyte’s tools
Master of Executions (80 Points)
• 1x Axe of dismemberment
• 1x Bolt pistol
BATTLELINE
Legionaries (90 Points)
• 1x Aspiring Champion
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Heavy melee weapon
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
• 4x Legionary
◦ 2x Astartes chainsword
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Chaos Icon
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Havoc autocannon
◦ 1x Heavy melee weapon
Legionaries (90 Points)
• 1x Aspiring Champion
◦ 1x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Heavy melee weapon
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
• 4x Legionary
◦ 2x Astartes chainsword
◦ 4x Bolt pistol
◦ 1x Chaos Icon
◦ 4x Close combat weapon
◦ 1x Havoc autocannon
◦ 1x Heavy melee weapon
DEDICATED TRANSPORTS
Chaos Rhino (75 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Combi-bolter
• 1x Combi-bolter
• 1x Havoc launcher
Chaos Rhino (75 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Combi-bolter
• 1x Combi-weapon
• 1x Havoc launcher
Chaos Rhino (75 Points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
• 1x Combi-bolter
• 1x Combi-weapon
• 1x Havoc launcher
OTHER DATASHEETS
Chaos Terminator Squad (360 Points)
• 1x Terminator Champion
◦ 1x Chainfist
◦ 1x Combi-weapon
• 9x Chaos Terminator
◦ 1x Chainfist
◦ 5x Combi-weapon
◦ 2x Paired accursed weapons
◦ 6x Power fist
◦ 2x Reaper autocannon
Chosen (250 Points)
• 1x Chosen Champion
◦ 1x Accursed weapon
◦ 1x Boltgun
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
• 9x Chosen
◦ 5x Accursed weapon
◦ 6x Bolt pistol
◦ 3x Boltgun
◦ 1x Chaos Icon
◦ 4x Combi-weapon
◦ 2x Paired accursed weapons
◦ 3x Plasma pistol
◦ 2x Power fist
Chosen (250 Points)
• 1x Chosen Champion
◦ 1x Accursed weapon
◦ 1x Boltgun
◦ 1x Plasma pistol
• 9x Chosen
◦ 5x Accursed weapon
◦ 6x Bolt pistol
◦ 3x Boltgun
◦ 1x Chaos Icon
◦ 4x Combi-weapon
◦ 2x Paired accursed weapons
◦ 3x Plasma pistol
◦ 2x Power fist
Obliterators (160 Points)
• 2x Obliterator
◦ 2x Crushing fists
◦ 2x Fleshmetal guns
Obliterators (160 Points)
• 2x Obliterator
◦ 2x Crushing fists
◦ 2x Fleshmetal guns
‘Creations of Bile’ Tactics
The idea here is to utilize the push of having two Advance/Charge units and then another chance with one with the Terminators. The Chaos Lord can make the “Strat” free as needed plus he seems like a right jerk with Half Damage, Extra Wound (Or is it really 2 wounds), and then a 5+ Feel No Pain. Fabius’s unit can always be a pain in the butt with an extra pip of Toughness and Strength causing some funky things especially if I roll another pip of toughness. The Obliterators even benefit from all the love too by being tougher and just as damaging.
Also a sea of Rhinos means I always have things that can just do missions and get in the way. I love that old chassis and still think it has legs today. This army list is really hard for me to not switch to before LVO just due to my love of Creations of Bile.
Download the Detachment (PDF)
The Doctor will see you now…
