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After looking through the new Chaos Codex, it seems like for troops choices the Cult Troops (Plague Marines, Berzerkers, etc) give you more bang for your buck than normal Chaos Marines enhanced with one of the marks. Since I already have a few squads of standard Chaos Marines, that I still want to use in regular games, which marks have people found to be the most useful?

Also what marks work well for specialist squads like Havocs, Bikers, and Raptors?

all of em' are great, but IMO undivided, and nurgle are the best ones. however each has it's place in an army, so it all just depends upon what type of army your going for

If you run against other I4 and pick up lots of power weapons, slaanesh will really work nice. Othervise MoK is pretty neat for your assult units.

Other then that, undivided is probably the best for the point cost, since your standard marine isnt fearless.

Remember that Icons of Chaos aren't quite the same as Marks of Chaos since the Icon-bearer can be killed and you'd lose the effect of the Icon, and an Icon is needed to summon Daemons.

I like Nurgle on Raptors, but the nurgle mark is so expensive you need a really big squad, like 15 dudes, which of course becomes a pretty expensive unit. But 15 raptors with MoN are about the same price as 15 plague marines. The gain in mobility and initiative can more than make up for the loss of FnP and Fearless, but it obviously depends on how you use them or what you want to do, because they become such a huge part of your army.

it basically all comes down to which unit your putting the icon in. combat things, mostly MoK and MoS, but MoTz can work well too. It really is up to your personal tastes.

I've been using Icon of Glory for cheap morale enhancement combined with acting as a summoning point and teleport homer. If you use any lesser daemons and/or terminators this is a pretty good deal. Of course, if you like cult troops you can buy cheap personal icons in those squads.

The best value for the icons of the gods is definitely in large squads, since it's not a per-model cost. Big (in the teens) squads of Raptors or even CSMs on foot can be quite durable and nasty in assault with an Icon of Nurgle or Khorne. Big squads (6+) of Terminators can be quite tough with an Icon of Tzeentch, and an Icon of Slaanesh can make the ones with power weapons fairly nasty at a pretty low cost.

IT depends, if you're marking raptors I'd go for IOK, CSM's I find IOCG very effective, and IOT is my terminators choice

For Havoks, you really should stick with Chaos Glory. It makes them much less likely to run away when taking shooting casualties. In fact, with a 'glory' icon you really don't need to pay for a Champion. Every point counts when you're trying to load up on Lascannons.

Samwise158 wrote:After looking through the new Chaos Codex, it seems like for troops choices the Cult Troops (Plague Marines, Berzerkers, etc) give you more bang for your buck than normal Chaos Marines enhanced with one of the marks. Since I already have a few squads of standard Chaos Marines, that I still want to use in regular games, which marks have people found to be the most useful?

Also what marks work well for specialist squads like Havocs, Bikers, and Raptors?

Like eeryone else says, it depends on the unit & what its' role is.
That being said:

Havocs should have Undivided. The reroll of Ld has saved me on numerous occasions.
I don't bother with Khorne, myself, though it does help in combat.
Slaanesh is good if you want to increase the speed of your HtH units (better with a P-Wpn than P-Fist, as you lose the Icon's benefit on the champ with a P-Fist).
Tzeentch is good on bikes (2+ Turbo Boost save... until 5th ed comes out) and makes a Termie go from +2/+5 to +2/+4 (50% save vs P-Wpn's, as opposed to 33%). THAT is a big deal.
Nurgle is good all around. That's why it's the most expensive.
MEQ's will only wound your Infantry on 5+.
Your bikes jump to a T6. They can take a beating from anything but High Str. shooting & HtH... but they're still not horrible against it (in comparison to unmarked).


Eric

In my opinion Nurge is one of the most dangerous ones. The marines get that +1 thougness (Along with other things.). This makes it nearly impossible to instant kill them. Actually only STR 10 WPS will be capable of doing it. Other marines will wound them on a 5+, and my puny Rifles will only wound on a 6+.
Nurgle IMO.

The Icon of Nurgle does not change the base toughness of models. They still suffer Instant Death from Str 8 weapons.

Besides, why does instakilling even matter? Having the Icon doesn't give them FNP, you know. They aren't like Plage Marines proper. Whether they lose a wound to a railgun or a lasgun makes no difference.

Chaos Bikes with the IoN are incredibly dangerous - they become Toughness 6.

I've always dreamed of taking high-teens to 20 raptors or CSM, but after multiple cases of failing morale checks with 9 models remaining, I'm sticking with 10. I can handle 4 marines running away, but 9 is pretty much a full, usable squad in my eyes, and to see it running off seems like such a gigantic waste.

Really depends on the job. All the marks are pretty good in CC in their own ways. Tzeentch and Nurgle will protect you and khorne and Slaanesh will give you an edge on your enemies. CC really goes to khorne though for the reason of extra attacks. Slannesh is like a cheaper version almost, except you ill most likely strike first. Nurgle is good for shooting squads or squads that want to tie up and keep an enemy busy (nurgle bikers are great at this.) Tzeentch is best for sorcerors and shooting squads. Thats my 2 cents.

I'd rather undivided raptors with furious charge.

But nah. Chaos doesn't need veteran skills. Its troops are obviously all green.

Yeah, WS4 BS4 I4 Ld9 troops are green...

All you're doing is proving his point, which is that if anyone deserves vet skills, it's CSMs.

Of course, this has all been gone through before, the obvious retort being that the loss of vet skills is just in line with what SMs will have after the revision.

apparently the reasoning for the CSM's now having both bolt pistol-close combat weapon, and bolter is that they are veterans of so many wars that they can carry both. GW's explainations are sooo funny.