We’ve had enough time to get to grips with the armies of 10th Edition, so over the next few weeks we’re going to be publishing a competitive faction focus for each of them, showcasing what’s been working for them in early tournament play. Today, We takes a look at Chaos Space Marines, a faction currently sitting on top of the meta for 10th edition.

Chaos Space Marines were a faction that came out of the gates swinging in 10th edition, with powerful shooting and melee prowess across the board. They weren’t quite among the game’s top factions – Eldar, Necrons, Knights, and Custodes just had more raw power – but they were definitely waiting just outside, and when the Q3 balance dataslate hit the faction received a few nerfs as a bit of insurance against suddenly becoming the next boogeyman following major nerfs to Eldar and the game’s other top competitors.

Changelog

• Update: 2023-12-05 with Mani’s List, new notes
• Update: 2023-10-25 for the Q3 Balance Dataslate
• Published: 2023-08-24

Why Should You Play This Faction?

Despite those precautionary nerfs in the Q3 dataslate the Chaos Space Marines have emerged as one of the game’s best two factions, neck-and-neck with Eldar in a given week in terms of raw event results and an impressive showing at the World Championships of Warhammer. The faction offers powerful units and support for multiple playstyles with a massive number of units to choose from. In their current incarnation the faction isn’t nearly as melee-focused as they used to be but they’ve got a ton of shooting power thanks to both powerful units and the ability to ramp up their lethality with Dark Pacts. Which isn’t to say the faction doesn’t have weaknesses, but they’re definitely in a very strong position at the moment.

Five Things You Need to Know

• You’ve got options. Not everything in the Chaos Space Marines unit list is viable in a competitive setting, but there’s more than one build you can take to plausibly compete. You can build around Abaddon and Terminators, or leave him at home – something that has become easier following his points increase in the Q3 dataslate. You can run blobs of Cultists. You can run lots of vehicles. You can run marines in rhinos. It’s not completely wide open, but there’s more than one way to run Chaos Space Marines successfully.
• Get used to making Pacts. The faction ability for Chaos Space Marines – the ability to make Pacts to improve your damage output – is incredibly useful, and pretty much always worth it. Expect to make pacts most of the time you’re shooting or fighting. That also means that you’re going to fail some and take mortal wounds a few times per game, just because of the odds.
• Marks are a big deal. The Chaos Space Marines Detachment gives you the ability to improve your Pacts and access specific Stratagems using Marks of Chaos. Each Mark has its use, and some are more suited to specific tasks and units. Some may change how you play specific units, and it may be worth taking two of a key unit with different marks to perform different tasks.
• You’re a bit of a glass cannon. On that note, it should be clear that Chaos Space Marines have the ability to put out quite a bit of damage – more than the average faction – by combining effects and dropping pacts on some very efficient units. And while the non-Cultist units aren’t fragile, they’re not super durable either, so you’ll need to plan carefully for when and how you use those units and make sure you’re trading up wherever possible when you lose them. You’re also very vulnerable to indirect fire, so watch out for Whirlwinds, Exorcists, and Plagueburst Crawlers. 
• Melee and shooting are both viable. While many armies struggle to use melee effectively in 10th Edition, CSM are one of the few armies that can do both very well. Units like Chosen, Possessed, and Abaddon can punch way up for their weight class, while units like Obliterators, Forgefiends, and Predators can shoot very hard. You’re not limited in your playstyle with CSM. 

What Are the Must-Have Units to Start This Faction?

There are some very powerful units in the Chaos Space Marines Index, and while you don’t need all of them, you will need to build around at least a few of them to have something competitively viable. Here are the units you’ll generally be looking at as you start to build your lists:

• Dark Commune. Originally a bit of a sleeper pick, the Dark Commune has emerged as one of the faction’s most powerful units, giving a unit of Cultists or Accursed Cultists it joins a 5+ invulnerable save and the ability to Advance and Charge once per game and get +1 to hit and wound for the rest of the turn when doing so. This makes them great for turning Accursed Cutlists into surprise melee threats, and coupled with their regeneration makes them an incredibly nasty unit.
• Accursed Cultists. Accursed Cultists have quickly become one of the faction’s key units, as they can come in units of 16 (10 Mutants, 6 Torments), and are able to regenerate either 3 mutants or 1 torment per turn, once in each player’s command phase. Couple that with the 5+ invulnerable save from the Dark Commune and a 6+ Feel No Pain and you have a unit which can be remarkably difficult to remove, making them a great tar pit which also hits like a truck. That said, Accursed Cultists will still melt to high volumes of anti-infantry firepower, so they may not be quite as good a build-around option if Ironstorm Spearhead lists become the norm for Space Marine armies.
• Chosen and Chaos Lords. Chosen are just a very solid unit, sporting 3W, accursed weapons (S5 AP-2), and the ability to charge after falling back or advancing. Give them combi-weapons to give them surprisingly deadly shooting as well. Being eligible to shoot after advancing or falling back also makes them surprisingly effective at playing the mission, as they can go very far out of a Rhino and then do things like Cleanse objectives. The current prevailing strategy – with good reason – is to pair them with a Chaos Lord and give them the Mark of Chaos Undivided so they can pop a free use of Profane Zeal every turn for full re-rolls. Give them combi-weapons and this makes them just incredibly nasty shooting or fighting in melee. The Chaos Lord brings a ton to the table here as a melee threat, with a thunder hammer that can put out Devastating Wounds.
• Cultists. Depending on your game plan, you may also want some regular Cultists. These are among your cheapest unit options, and 55 points gets you 10 models which can easily hide to make up for being Toughness 3. Their role as solid backfield holders is made even more clear by their For the Dark Gods ability, which makes objectives they control “sticky,” i.e. you control them after they die until someone else does. This is especially important because too many armies in 10th have indirect fire that can kill your objective holders, but be mindful that this ability only happens in your Command phase, so be sure to have a backup plan if you go second and lose them before turn 1.
• Obliterators. Obliterators can put out a scary amount of firepower on their own, and their ability to Deep Strike means they can drop in near a key target and remove it from the table. They are also relatively durable and can either weather the return fire or avoid it altogether using the Dark Obscuration Stratagem. We’ll come back to that later. Even with a points increase in the Q3 dataslate Obliterators are pretty much a must-take in CSM armies, and it’s common to see a unit of 4 show up in top lists.
• Forgefiends. Another stellar unit, Forgefiends have some very good damage output. They are able to combine Dark Pacts with their own Daemonic Ordnance ability to really push out some truly nasty damage. While most Forgefiends run triple Plasma to bring 3 separate Blast guns and get an eye-watering number of shots into elite infantry, the Gatling loadout can also do some real work. Most competitive CSM armies want at least one Forgefiend, and many run multiple.

After that initial list we’ve got a lot of Nice-to-Haves which show up often in competitive lists, but aren’t necessarily build-arounds like they used to be.

• Abaddon the Despoiler. Abaddon got a massive points hike in the Q3 dataslate, limiting his value, but even at the higher cost he’s still an incredibly powerful melee threat and force multiplier. Abaddon’s ability to let your other CSM units within 6” re-roll hit rolls helps improve their damage output and synergizes extremely well with the exploding hits or auto-wounds from the Dark Pacts. Abaddon also comes with all five marks, and imparts those onto whatever unit he joins. If you give him a Terminator bodyguard, that unit can dominate the midboard like few other units in the game. 
• Master of Possession. The Master of Possession is a great all-around unit. He’s got a nasty little Psychic attack (which he can buff) and he gives the units he joins +1 to Advance and Charge rolls and a 6+ feel no pain. This along with an 8” Movement makes him the perfect escort for some Possessed. They’re also very good with a unit of Chosen as well, since they can Advance and Charge and as such get +2” when working with a MoP.
• Warp Talons. Though not in every list, Warp Talons are a cheap, effective unit with the ability to deep strike (and do actions), and throw out enough attacks to threaten weaker units or trade up against tougher ones. 
• Chaos Terminators. If you’re taking Abaddon, you often want him accompanied by a large (10 models) unit of Terminators. They give him a ton of ablative wounds to work with, and they’re just a solidly durable unit to work with besides. Post-Dataslate this has become a bit too expensive and it’s a bit too slow to be a top-tier strategy, but you could do worse.
• Vindicators. With a profile that is very effective into both elite infantry and monsters/vehicles, Vindicators hit very hard when given the Nurgle mark. They are also surprisingly durable with a 2+ save. Their weakness is their limited range, but at least they don’t mind being touched by the enemy–their special rule lets them continue firing their Blast weapon even at enemies in Engagement Range with it. 
  

There are a ton of other units you can work with outside of this bunch, providing varying levels of value. Possessed can be a solid alternative to chosen, trading their shooting output and versatility for more durability (T6 and a 5+ invulnerable save) and speed, plus 2-damage melee attacks that gain Devastating Wounds when they Dark Pact. This can make them solid for taking down tougher targets, and they’re likely to punch up in points if you can deliver them to the right target.

When it comes to utility action troops, Raptors can be a decent pick; a unit of 5 will only set you back 95 points and they come with the ability to Deep Strike plus a 12” FLY move. If you’re taking a unit, Haarken Worldclaimer is a solid addition, giving you more durability and damage output for the unit. He’s too pricey to include in every list that brings Raptors, but he is an option worth considering. 

On the vehicle side, there are plenty of decent options. Predators of both varieties have real play, with the autocannon and heavy bolters making them especially effective against opposing heavy infantry. Land Raiders feel very durable, and love being marked Nurgle and using Dark Obscuration to safely fire its Lascannons downrange while a payload of Possessed/Chosen/Legionaries up the board. 

CSM also have some very viable Character options. Chaos Lords of both varieties pair very well with units like Chosen or Terminators. The Terminator Sorceror also makes the rest of your army’s shooting more effective. Daemon Princes are a little bit more expensive than they should be, but the winged version hits very hard and loves being Slaanesh or Nurgle for their respective enhancements. Huron Blackheart is also an interesting option for the ability to redeploy Infantry and adding a bit of shenanigans to a unit like Chosen. 

Finally there are Daemon allies. Almost every Chaos army which can take one wants Nurglings, which at 35 points are some of the game’s most versatile and effective units. Sure they’re OC 0 but they can Infiltrate and Deep strike, do actions, bog down enemies in melee with their -1 to hit aura, and just generally help you accomplish your goals. The Blue Scribes are another unit which sees a lot of play, primarily as a Lone Operative capable of moving around the table and, on some maps, being your primary method for Deploying Teleport Homers.

How Does This Faction Secure Objectives?

Cultists give you a cheap option to secure objectives, while Accursed Cultists with Dark Communes are a more expensive but very worth-it option. The ability to resurrect models in each Command Phase helps them retain control of objectives, and the ability to advance and charge once per game helps them charge onto opposing objectives (and clear off the detritus that previously littered said objectives). And on top of that, with OC 2 they are extremely capable of taking objectives from most other units.

Legionaries can fight well over objectives with opposing units in their weight class, but unfortunately there is little reason to run them when Chosen are only 15% more expensive and come with an additional wound and advance/fall back and shoot/charge. The classic Chaos Space Marine is a solid pick for friendly games, but is unlikely to make it into most competitive lists. Chosen on the other hand are very nasty.

Cypher is also an excellent objective holder because of his Lone Operative rule. If you want more Lone Operatives, allied Daemons are an option worth considering. The Changeling and Blue Scribes are worth considering in most lists, and Nurglings are nearly a must-have for doing actions.

How Does This Faction Handle Enemy Hordes?

Plasma Forgefiends used to be your best option for hordes but with the changes to Devastating Wounds they’re more an anti-elite infantry threat since there’s no damage spillover. Accursed Cultists and Chosen with Chaos Lords currently fill out most successful competitive lists and both are more than capable of tearing through enemy hordes.

Units like Terminators can also throw buckets of dice at the enemy, and if you don’t have better targets, your Obliterators can pivot to high volumes of worse shooting – though you typically want them for big targets.

But in practice, your main anti-horde will be melee. Units like Chosen, Possessed, and Accursed Cultists can drown enemy units in saves.

How Does This Faction Handle Enemy Tanks and Monsters?

CSM are very, very capable of shooting enemy Vehicles and Monsters to death. You have fewer options in melee, but can still rip open enemy armor with the right units. 

Obliterators are the first unit that comes to mind, and they’re excellent at cracking enemy armor in 10th. They have to get dangerously close for optimal use, but delivering flat 6-damage shots while within 12” is going to put serious hurt into any large unit in the game, and often that’ll happen the turn they arrive out of Deep Strike. 

The Mark Of Nurgle on units like Havocs with Lascannons, Vindicators, and Forgefiends means that you can generate enough high AP saves on enemy units to push through damage even if those targets have a good invulnerable save. Using Abaddon to give those units hit re-rolls gives you incredible consistency and smooths out the variance you might otherwise have with low-volume, high-damage shots. Many lists running Forgefiends and Obliterators also take Chaos Undivided on a unit to unleash Profane Zeal – full hit and wound re-rolls with Devastating Wounds will turn large targets into a fine paste just as much as it will hordes.

For other units, the Mark Of Tzeentch is what helps turn any shooting unit into an anti-armour unit. Auto-wounding on a 5+ to Hit (using full re-rolls form Abaddon to fish for 5+ results) means any unit with good volume and/or damage can do serious damage regardless of your Strength characteristic. 

If the enemy unit needs to be dealt with in melee, Possessed are a solid bet. It doesn’t matter what their Save or Invuln or Toughness are if you can hand them 20+ mortal wounds from a unit of Undivided Possessed given full Hit and Wound rerolls with Profane Zeal. Units like Chosen and Terminators can also use the Mark Of Khorne or Profane Zeal to punch up against harder targets in melee, and for Chosen the Chaos Lord can typically throw out some devastating wounds off the free Profane Zeal Stratagem.

What Combos Should You Build Around?

There are a few notable combos to think about building around as you create your Chaos Space Marines army. You may not typically see all of these in a single army, but seeing two of them is pretty common.

Chosen and Chaos Lords

The big combo right now is running units of 5 Chosen with a Chaos Lord. Chosen are already versatile units which can hit reasonably hard in melee but the ability to drop a free Stratagem on once per round on this unit with the Chaos Lord makes the unit a real nightmare. You’ll typically be using this for a free use of Profane Zeal, getting full re-rolls to hit and wound with an Undivided unit of Chosen while the Chaos Lord fires up his Chance for Glory in order to throw out as many Devastating Wounds as he can. It’s such a nasty combo that most top lists now just run three Chaos Lords with three units of Chosen in Rhinos.

Accursed Cultists and the Dark Commune

The other ubiquitous unit combo is max-sized Accursed Cultist units with attached Dark Communes. The Dark Commune gives the unit a much-needed invulnerable save and a once-per-game Advance and Charge ability which really ups what they’re able to do. Accursed Cultists are already a real chore to kill and the Commune just make them even better, turning them into both a difficult tarpit and a deadly combat unit while being OC 2 means they also make great midfield objective holders.

Obliterators with Profane Zeal and/or Dark Obscuration

Obliterators are one of the star units in the codex, but they need re-roll support to provided the kind of consistent output you need. You have two main choices for how to use them:

• Chaos Undivided. Marking your Obliterators Undivided gives them full rerolls from Profane Zeal and makes them incredibly consistent. In this format they’re your premier Knight destroyers. 
• Nurgle. If you’re going to do this the plan is usually to Deep Strike the Obliterators near Abaddon and combine his re-rolls with their ability to get Sustained Hits on a 5+ to score a huge volume of hits. When doing this, it’s very common to drop them more than 12” away from their target so you can use the Dark Obscuration Stratagem to keep them safe and untargetable after they arrive. This is also hilariously frustrating for opponents trying to hit them back after they take out a key target.

Possessed with Masters Of Possession

Possessed and a Master Of Possession go together perfectly. The Possessed unit ability to gain Devastating Wounds when the unit makes a Dark Pact also affects the attached Master Of Possession. The MOP has a surprisingly good gun with Precision and Anti-Psyker, and giving him Devastating Wounds means that he’ll trigger nasty critical wounds on a 2+. Annoyed by Ahriman or a Grey Knight Librarian? Attach a MOP to some Possessed and reliably snipe out the psyker character with 6 (or more if you got a 6 to hit with exploding hits!) mortal wounds. 

The 6+ Feel-No-Pain also stacks well with their 5+ invulnerable and 3 wounds apiece to make them surprisingly durable against 2- and 3-damage guns that would otherwise put a big dent in them. And of course, +1 to charge is always amazing on a melee unit (especially if the Possessed have the Mark of Slaanesh to also take advantage of the +1 to advance before they charge using the Unnatural Swiftness Stratagem).

Abaddon with Terminators

Abaddon is great as a solo unit, but he can also attach to a Terminator unit to take them to the next level. Because Abaddon has all Marks and Marks just check for each keyword on a unit level, Abaddon can attach to a Terminator unit of any Mark and then give that unit access to the benefits of every Mark. 

This opens up a wild amount of synergies. Want to destroy Knights in melee? Give Abaddon and the Terminators full hit and wound rerolls with Profane Zeal and the Undivided Mark. Want to survive all game? Use Dark Obscuration and their Nurgle Mark. Want to revive models as they die? Use Skinshift and the Mark Of Tzeentch. They also have a much larger threat radius because they can advance and shoot/charge with their Slaanesh mark. The Khorne stratagem benefit is much smaller, but fighting on death on a 3+ instead of a 4+ is still a nice little buff. 

An army can still be OK running Terminators and Abaddon, but this is mostly old tech and the points increase on Abaddon has made this a bit too inefficient to be a competitive way to run the faction.

Adding Allies

Chaos Space Marines are a relatively elite army, so they can always benefit from Daemons to add some units to play the mission and screen. Why pay 55 or more units for a CSM unit to screen a corner or deepstrike for Behind Enemy Lines when some Nurglings can do that for only 35 points? 

As an army you don’t need any damage-dealing allies because your CSM already have the “doing damage” side of things completely covered. Focus on bringing cheap and mobile units to help you score units while your CSM focus on tabling the enemy. In no particular order, the Changeling, Blue Scribes, Nurglings, and Flamers are units to consider allying into your CSM army, as they give you cheap, versatile units to move around the table and score objectives. There’s a relatively common path to victory for Chaos Marines that focuses on taking Deploy Teleport Homers for the Blue Scribes and then either takes a kill secondary or Behind Enemy Lines/Engage on All Fronts as Fixed Secondaries. 

Sample Lists

Mani Cheema’s List from the World Championships of Warhammer

Mani took this list to an incredible single-loss run at the 2023 World Championships of Warhammer, beating the toughest competition in the world over the course of ten grueling rounds. This horde list has incredible board control and can put pressure on you from nearly anywhere.

”Mani’s

Wings: Most of the tools are familiar, but adding the Slaanesh Legionaries to double stack all of the Rhinos is a really cunning addition that Mani has come up with here. It provides absolutely enormous reach to a list that’s already putting the opponent under a lot of pressure, and the GW maps tend to favour small, moderately durable melee threats. I’ve faced off against Mani’s previous iteration of this list and until you’ve seen it in action it’s really hard to get across just how much stuff it’s hurling at you, and in the end the endless waves of Accursed Cultists (so many Cultists) were major pieces in the engine here.

Lachlann Rigg’s World Championships List

Lachlann finished third at the world Championships with what is a more conventional Chaos Space Marines list for the current meta, albeit one tuned for the Games Workshop terrain layouts.

Lachlann's List - Click to Expand

Lachlann’s list runs heavy on the faction’s best shooting units – Forgefiends and Obliterators – and pulls a common trick seen now in CSM lists, running the Blue Scribes as an allied unit. A lone operative which can reliably push to mid table to deploy teleport homers turn 1, the Scribes give the list some extra flexibility when it comes to performing actions.

Wings: This is a more conventional spin on the CSM hotness than Mani brought to bear, and I do really like Syll’Esske on the GW maps, as although they’re a Monster, they’re small enough to navigate between sections of ruin without too much issue, and highly independent melee killers are exactly what you want on that terrain.

James Carmona’s List from the 2023 SoCal Open

James finished undefeated at the SoCal Open, running a Black Legion list with his Chaos Space Marines that focuses more on Abaddon and support from the faction’s vehicles. Also, it’s running Haarken and that rules.

Army List - Click to Expand

James’ list showcases the more expensive Abaddon, his harbinger Haarken, and a host of vehicle threats to support them. Abaddon has a retinue of only five terminators here – the brick of ten isn’t quite the competitive threat it used to be – with support from two Forgefiends, a Helbrute and four Obliterators. Harken and ten raptors show up here to give the army a mobile melee threat which can drop down and surprise, using Profane Zeal to push through high volumes of damage.

Innes Wilson’s 1st Place List from Rapid Fire GT 2023

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Innes’ list, which again shows off how different you can make things by taking a completely different direction with things and still putting up results.

Innes' List - Click to Expand

Innes has chosen to forego Accursed Cultists and Abaddon for a trio of Chaos Lords paired with minimum-size units of Chosen (the Chaos Lord gives them free uses Profane Zeal once per round). There are two Rhinos here, each marked with Nurgle to give them the ability to make them untargetable as needed, and ranged fire support shows up in the form of two units of Obliterators (one Nurgle, one undivided) and two Forgefiends.

The big surprise here is the unit of Rubrics, a unit offering sneaky good versatility to the army – they’re solid shortrange ranged firepower and good Overwatch, but they also have good OC (2) and a little bit of durability thanks to their invulnerable save. Their full re-rolls to wound against units on objectives can also help them punch way up. Having the Rubrics also means he can drop them off to threaten an enemy or flank instead of committing ten Chosen to it, giving him much more versatilty.

This list also has very solid action support from the Nurglings, Blue Scribes, and Warp Talons. The standard plan for Innes is to take fixed objectives, using the Scribes to Deploy Teleport Homers and making the second fixed secondary a kill secondary, though Behind Enemy Lines and Engage on All Fronts are also solid options for the list.

Final Thoughts

Chaos Space Marines are a fun army to play, and give you several options when it comes to deciding your playstyle and approach. They’re a competitive force in the game and are likely in line for another nerf or two when the next balance pass happens, so if now’s a good time to hop on board before that happens.

That wraps up our look at Chaos Space Marines, but we’ve got more faction focus articles coming up so stay tuned over the coming weeks. And if you have any questions or feedback, drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com.