Warhammer 40,000 Armies - Part 6, Chaos Marines

Today I'm looking at Chaos Marines, the Chaos-worshiping counterparts of the Space Marines.

Chaos Space Marines all have one thing in common; they are a Space Marine that gave up their oath to protect humanity and have turned to the four powers of Chaos which promises them great rewards in return for their service. Chaos Marines are ancient, powerful warriors with the strength of a Space Marine and up to 10,000 years of combat experience behind them.

On the table-top, they function in a very different fashion to their loyalist counterparts. Space Marines work best as a spearhead, but Chaos Marines work better as a hammer. Using sorcerous powers to keep table-advantage and large blast templates to take out large chunks of their opponents, this leaves Chaos Marines with more capable strategies and the luxury of spreading their forces out more. They have access to a variety of specialist troops as well meaning that army lists can easily be tailored towards holding objectives, combat, long range or whatever else the player might have in mind. So, time for Pros and Cons.

Pros:
- Above average statline and armour
- Access to game-changing psychic/sorcerous powers
- Combat monsters for HQ units
- Plenty of variety for writing army lists
- Paint schemes and conversions could literally be anything at all

Cons:
- Expensive models, points-wise
- Expensive models to buy since a large chunk of their units are metal models
- Lacking in mid-range support

I personally think Chaos Marines are one of the better 40k armies (but then again, I've got over 10k points of them ;]), they're especially good for beginners since they have a lot of variety meaning there's plenty of room for experimentation.

Anyway, my next review will have another taste of Chaos.