With the latest couple of publications Chaos Space Marines have gotten a ton of new and exciting abilities to go with their rather boring and pathetic line up of units and Legion Traits. Without further ado I would like to compile a list of the most crazy combos in the Chaos Space Marine line up that I can think of.
Possessed have gotten quite a bit better, what with their points drop in CA19 and their buffs in Faith and Fury and Vigilus Ablaze and increasing the number of attacks is the way to go. So lets get down to the nitty gritty and start with a big old unit of 20 models in a Word Bearer Daemonkin Ritualist detachment for 340 points, then you take a Dark Apostle of the Dark Council with Soultearer Portent (+1 to wound) and Dark Zealotry (re-roll hit rolls) and a Sorcerer for Prescience and Warptime (you can also take a Master of Possession and use the Chaos Familiar strat to swap powers and can also cast Mutated Invogoration (re-roll Possessed number of attacks)). One of the characters can be the Warlord and take the Master of the Union trait (+1A for Daemon units within 6"), and the other can be a Field Commander and take the Shepard of the True Faith trait (additional mortal wounds on un-modified 6s to wound). Finally the use of the Vessels of the Neverborn stratagem (+1A and S when within 6" of a Master of Possession) and Revered Hosts (+1D for melee weapons of Possessed)
So, lets say you cast Prescience and Mutated Invigoration, and get Dark Zealotry and Soultearer Portent to go off successfully, also lets say all the stratagems are used and none are stopped with Vect or anything. However, in order to maintain the coherency to the buffing characters and due to taking some firepower lets say you can only get 10 models in range to actually fight which means 60 attacks which are hitting on 2+ with re-rolls, S6 with +1 to wound doing 2D each.
This means you will kill 56 Guardsmen, 40 Marines, 35 Primaris, do 46 wounds to a vehicle or Knight. 9 of these wounds come from Mortal Wounds from the Field Commander trait. Keep in mind these number do not take into account Death to the False Emperor, Veterans of the Long War, or attacking twice with Fury of Khorne
Those numbers are fantastic, but we have to contend with the troubles that all combat armies have to deal with and that's getting them into combat. Assuming we are going to keep them as Word Bearers, we could go with the Mark of Slaanesh. This not only gets us a FNP with Delightful Agonies, but with a Slaanesh Daemon detachment we can also charge after we advance if we are near a Herald plus another +1S bring it up to 7. You can also get a round of combat in the psychic phase with a
Now there is a solid argument to make your Possessed Alpha Legion with the Mark of Nurgle teamed up with some Nurgle Daemons. This takes all the damage dealing buffs that Nurgle provides while being able to essentially deep strike your bomb with Renascent Infiltration, and letting you do it again and again if need be. This is probably more effective in keeping the unit alive and being able to deliver the payload but you lose out on 2 attacks per model and rely on dice rolls more for that bonus damage.
Now, if you're not really into combat and would rather shoot stuff, there are a few decent combos you can take. First is an Iron Warriors death ball with a Chaos Lord with the warlord trait Daemonsmith (unmodified hit of 6 generates additional hit within 6"), a Sorcerer with Prescience, and a whole bunch of Obliterators with the Mark of Slaanesh of course. You could make the detachment a Devestation Battery as well for the Armour Bane trait (re-roll wound rolls of 1 vs vehicles) and the Punishing Volley strat (make a shooting attack at the end of the opponent's movement phase if they get the first turn) and you could take a Master of Possession for Infernal Power which lets you re-roll hits and wounds of 1 when within 6", so there are a couple ways to build the detachment. Now with the Tank Hunter strat this combo is best suited at taking out vehicles, and Rampant Techno-Virus makes it best suited with a unit of Obliterators. So lets take a look at the actual output of damage against a knight, or any T8 vehicle really, with one unit of Obliterators with maxed stats hitting on 2+ with re-rolling hit rolls of 1, wounding on 2+ (VotLW) with re-rolling all wound rolls, and extra hits on 6's to hit. With 18 shots you're likely to score 20 hits and convert most of those to wounds. It comes out to 19.8 something so I'm just going to say 20 wounds, 13 of those get through the 5++ which nets 39 wounds. Even if we reduce the stats of the Oblits to 8-2-2 you will still be scoring 24 wounds. Then you use Endless Cacophony and do it again.
Speaking of...You can also go for a more infantry killing method with Emperor's Children Noise Marines. With a full unit of 20 with 18 Sonic Blasters and 2 Blastmasters, Excruciating Frequencies (+1 to S and D of Sonic Blasters and Blastmasters), the Remnant of Maraviglia (Preist relic that allows models within 6" re-roll wound rolls), a Lord for hit re-rolls of 1, VotLW, and Prescience you are looking at killing 20 Marines or dealing 32 wounds to a large target with a 3+ save. These numbers are a little harder to duplicate over and over again because the Remnant of Maraviglia is a one use relic.
If you're looking for the character that can go the distance there are a whole host of options for you. Lets start with the Ninja Blender Night Lord Supreme. A Chaos Lord with the Killing Fury warlord trait and the Rapacious Talons daemon weapons gets up to 14 attacks, with re-rolling 1's to hit and all wound rolls and topping it all off with VotLW you'll be popping 10 guardsmen, 6 marines, and tearing 10 wounds off a large target with a 3+ save. Alternately, you could mark him as Nurgle and give him the Fist of Decay which increases your damage against large targets to 14 wounds, but reduces the number infantry models killed by a third. Plus you don't even need VotLW because the fist always wounds on 2+. Don't forget that there are ways to offset that -1 to hit, Prescience and From the Night are on the top of the list.
Well, there you go, a couple of the highly powerful combos you are likely to come across. Thanks for reading and if you have a combo feel free to let me know in the comments.
Until next time, keep them dice rollin
