Kill Team By Codex: Chaos Space Marines.

Good morning readers,
This is what I hope is one of many new posts regarding the kill teams each codex has to offer.

Having attended two kill teams events does not make me an expert this is just my personal imput.
Also not all the miniatures are painted by me.

Today I am looking at the Chaos Space marine Codex, which is probably one of the difficult ones cause of all the available choises and wargear (weapons, marks, gift of mutation)

First let me list what is available for your chaos Kill Team.

Troops 0-2

Chaos space Marines

Chaos Cultists

Elites 0-1

Chosen

Terminators

Plague Marines

Khorne berserkers

Noice Marines

Thousand sons

Mutilators

Possesed

Hellbrute

Fast 0-1

Chaos Bikers

Chaos Spawn

Raptors

Warp Tallons

Dedicated transport

Rhino

As you can see there is a plethora of elite choices.

I am going to quickly try and eliminate some of the choises.

Chaos Cultists They start out with 10 men for 50p, that is too much even if you wanted to fill some point gap, so  you probably want to give them autoguns and a heavy stubber, that will make a 10 man squad cost 64points, 9 shots +4 str 3 at 24" (or 18shots at 12") and 3 shot hitting at +4 str 4 36".
I have seen them with terminators but even then i would recomend just using 5 terminators.
They have weak shooting and die like fly's t3  +6 armour. You might get many but that can also work as a disadvantage.Anyone crazy enought to play 40 cultists?

Mutilators
55 points for a combat tool that moves 6" cannot run and cannot shoot. terminator armour and 2 wounds. Maybe in a list where you want to play 145 of something else  you add on of these hulking beasts, again you can get 3 terminators for 95p that might be 1 less wound than 2 muttilators at 110 but the can shoot or run.

Warp Tallons
Basic entry at 160p does not let you buy another unit. You can get 1 more and give the gift of chaos to the champion or play 5 with mark of tzench giving them a +4 inv and gift of chaos or make them nurgle so they are a bit harder to shoot. I would preffer:

6 warp talons
Gift of mutation  200p

I still do not recommend this list, 6 guys +3 save with no range weapons, If someone appears in terminator armour (which they probably will) you have no way of beating them, or lose 3 models and start testing. You have no way of getting rid of the enemies special weapons. Maybe if you are the master of hiding models in terrain, but then you will need to take test and in 8 games you will kill your self.

Possesed

no guns, they have some unpredictable combat tricks. If your opponent is smart it will take you 2-3 rounds of shooting to get to him. They can take a rhino but still cannot charge the turn they come out so again you are looking at a turn 3 charge at best. But you do avoid getting shoot turn 1. I do not recommend this:

rhino dirge caster combimelta
5 possesed mark of nurgle 200p


Noice marines.
With sonic blasters they are 5 points cheaper than sternguard  but don't have half their abilities, I would equip the champion with a power sword and a doom siren. they can dish out many shots at 12 but no way of dealing with +3 armour ecxept in very expensive ways.


Khorn berserkers
 from all 4 marked units I like this one the least.Sure they get many attacks but until they get in that 13" range they do not do much. Sternguard and thousand sons grey knights will shoot the hell out of them. targeting the 2 plasma guns first.

Now lets go to the more interesting things.

Chaos space marines

This was my choice for my first kill team though it was based on one of the nightlord novels
  * Chaos Space Marines (200pts)
        5x Additional Chaos Marines (65pts), Autocannon (10pts), Bolt Pistol, 6x Close Combat Weapon (12pts), Meltagun (10pts), None, Veterans of the Long War (10pts)
        * Aspiring Champion (18pts)
            Combi-bolter (3pts), Power Weapon (15pts)

Things were a bit different back then one of my marines was a psycker and another had the smash universal rule, two good ways of taking out terminators. 

Tallos war band

They start at 75 and then each marine costs 13p which is quite cheap.


10 chaos space marines 1 meltagun 1 plasma gun
rhino 200p

11 models 2 special weapons. FNP on the leader and make the plasma gun twin linked.
A similar list can be achieved with chosen also. I think if you are thinking of giving marks nurgle khorne better look at the special units.

Chosen  
I think this is were things get realy interesting 5 for 90p all ld 9 and all 2 attacks.

5 chosen  90

melta gun 10

melta gun  10

plasma gun  (twin linked) 15

lascannon (preferred enemy) 20

and

Rhino 35 with 5p dirge caster or combibolter         or   rhino with armor or combimelta                         
Power sword or plasma gun 15                                     melta gun 10
Give the rhino shrouded

I would keep the lass cannon in cover or out of your opponents 36 or 30 depending on his guns. he has preferred enemy  so to hit you need a +3 reroll if you get a 1 and to wound you need a +2 with a reroll. I dont think it gets better than this. You use him if possible to target the opponents weapon that can hurt your rhino.
turn 2 the one plasma gun and one melta can shoot from within the rhino.
the other melta gun can come out and shoot in cover of the rhino.
This list loves all kind of 10 less armies. probable bad match up thousand sons. inv and ap3 bolts, nid and ork swarms. I am going to test this list out.

I  know they are again a low count number but regardless the number of  ap weapons you have  the opponent will target them I prefer if you take down my 2 special weapons I am left with another 2 than 4 bolter marines.

You could also drop the rhino and add a mixture of power weapons. or go 4 plasma weapons with preferred enemy and twinlinked so you reduce the chance of harming yourself.


Terminators

6 terminators 1 power fist and one combi plasma.

 6 terminators 2 combi plasma

5 terminators mark of khorne reaper autocannon

Good against  the stearnguard and thousand sons, seem to suffer against the greyknight strike force.

 Plague marines
One of my favourite units. FNP and T5 making them reliable against lots of low str shooting and able 1/3 to shake off a melta or plasma shot. With +4 poisoned str 4 plague knifes. 2 attacks with pistol.


7 plague marines 168
2 plasma guns (Preferred enemy twin linked) 30

7 beasts another list I like, you could make it 5 +1 spawn.

Thousand sons
This is another unit I like, they are all ld 10. They do seem to cost allot but they have a +3 inv, ap3 bolts,
the leader is a psycker and comes with a power weapon,
You have 50% to get the ap1 shot just hope it is when you are playing against terminators. Simple to make this list.

7 thousand sons (champion included) 196p
  

Hellbrute

The hellbrute at 100p (FAQ) allows you to add 3 terminators or 5 raptors both choices as is.
With the terminators you can have 4 hard to wound models. It would also make a grey knight strike squad and sternguard some way ineffective as they probably can not deal with the hellbrute, but instead focus there shoots on to the terminators. 8-9 shoots +3 to hit +2 to wound, it will come done to your armour saves and passing the break tests.

1 hellbrute with combibolter added to the fist
3 terminators 200p


This list suffers from a low model count, and will can break if lists take out 2 of your terminators.
The other option is to add normal chaos marines with mark of nurgle.

1 hellbute
5 chaos marines mark of nurgle 1 melta gun

       
Moving on to the fast choices.
Spawn 
What used to be the worst model in 40k gained two major face lifts with the codex and 6th edition. They cost 30p each and have 3 wounds, ld 10 but no armour save. In combat thay can do from 1-8 attacks hiting on 4s and probably wounding on 3s Like the mutilators no guns either, with the major difference they move 12" even into terrain with no penalties and have fleet. So you are looking at a turn 2-3 charge.

6 spawns mark of khorne or slannesh shrouded stealth fnp

5 spawns mark of nurgle 180p - unfortunatly there is nothing to fill in at 20p rending,hatred, prefered enemy I wll try this one.

3 spawns khorne
 hellbrute with combibolter

Raptors
Even if  not the best unit I realy want to make the unit of bleeding eyes from the nightlord chapter, when not hanging of a celling they are walking on all fours twisted and possesed from the warp, but not like warp tallons, they dont all have a pair of lightning claws.

The thing in big games I would use this unit to pick on some snipers or a weaker unit / blow up a tank.
So you get 5 for 95 and 2 melta gun or plasma guns lets say plasma with twin linked & prefered enemy.

5 raptors 2 plasma guns
5 chaos marines 200p

or
7 raptors nurgle 2 plasma guns power weapon simular to the plague marines but swapping FNP for jump packs. and the poisoned blabes

or
8 raptors  2 plasma guns power weapon.
 Here are just some raptor pics I found for inspiration

Chaos bikers.
Simular to the raptors but a unit of 3 for +1 tougness and a good cover save. and can charge the enemy on round 2. Just dont let the enemy to sneak into the ruins.

8 Chaos Bikers
Mark of khorne
1 melta gun twin linked
1 plasma gun prefeered enemy
Champion has plasma pistol and Power weapon. fnp

This completes the examination of the Chaos Space marine for kill team. Let me know if I left out what you think is a strong list? I will try to post results of my games bellow.