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So, since the Chaos Space Marine codex will come out in about 6 months or so if the rumours are true then we (or at least I) might as well share some ideas. I really want them to make marks fun to use AND good at the same time. Anyway, here are a couple of ideas -

Chaos Marine
Mark of Nurgle = +T4(5), Feel no Pain and Blight Grenades.
Mark of Khorne = +A1, Furious Charge, Fearless and +WS1.
Mark of Slaanesh = +1I, access to Noise Weapons.
Mark of Tzeentch = 4++ Invl Save.


Possessed Marine
Mark of Nurgle = Feel no Pain, T5 and Gift of Nurgle = Poisoned Attacks (+4) and everytime a Possessed Marine dies with MoN he will explode, dealing a single S4 attack with no AP.
Mark of Khorne = Furious Charge, +1A and Strength of the Blood God = +1S and makes their close combat attacks count as AP4, just like the old Chain Axes from the older CSM books.
Mark of Slaanesh = Counter-Attack, +2I and Glory of Slaanesh = Will automatically hit will all close combat attacks and if the Iniative is higher than 1/3/5 then he will recieve one extra attack. (For example - Possessed Marine with MoS = I6. If he attacks a Space Marine with I4 then he will only recieve one attack. If he attacks a Slugga Ork he will recieve 2 attacks because the Ork got I2.)
Mark of Tzeentch = Daemonic Flames (Assault 1/S4/AP3/Template), +5 Invl Save and Favour of Tzeentch = Count as Power Weapons

Base stats - WS4 BS4 S5 T4(5) W1 I4 A2 LD9 Sv3+


Dreadnought
Mark of Nurgle = Unholy Resilience = -1 to be hit by all attacks and get's to reroll Penetrating and/or Glancing Hits but must accept if it's worse. Just like Venerable Dreadnoughts.
Mark of Khorne = Let the Blood Flow = Furious Charge, +1A and Blood Talons.
Mark of Slaanesh = Might of Slaanesh = +2I, Sonic Boomers (Heavy 4/S7/AP2/TL) and Counter-Attack
Mark of Tzeentch = Tzeentch's Blessing = Sorcerer in Dreadnought, all shooting attacks counts as AP3 (unless it's already better) and F13/S13/R11


Terminator
Mark of Nurgle = Feel no Pain, T4(5), Blight Grenades and get's to have one extra heavy weapon for free.
Mark of Khorne = Furious Charge, +1A, Fearless and get's to assault after they Deep Strike.
Mark of Slaanesh = Counter-Attack, +1I and replaces heavy weapons with Sonic Boomer (Heavy 4/S7/AP2)
Mark of Tzeentch = Adds +1 invl save, all shooting attacks counts as AP3 (unless it's already better) and one Terminator may become a Sorcerer for +10 points.


Chaos Lord
Mark of Nurgle = Feel no Pain, T6, Poisoned Attacks (+4) and Blight Grenades.
Mark of Khorne = Furious Charge, +2A, +1S, Fearless and Blood for the Blood God = Allows the Chaos Lord and the unit he's in to move one more time in the same turn. If the Lord and the unit get's to Furious Charge that turn he and the unit will recieve +1S for that turn (Once per game.)
Mark of Slaanesh = Counter-Attack, +I2, Sonic Boomer (Heavy 4, S7, AP2) and Blessing of Slaanesh = Can move and shoot with Sonic Boomer without Terminator Armour and Power Fists allows you to strike at your actual Initiative and not at I1.
Mark of Tzeentch = Adds ++2 Invl Save, all shooting attacks made by the Lord counts as AP3 (except if it's higher) and Blessing of Tzeentch = The Lord get's to pick 1 spell for free.


Just throwing out some ideas. Some of those rules might even be overpowered (or a lot worse than the other marks) but i'd love to see that they make Marks more viable.

My proposal would be to take the "elite" troops that are dedicated and make those available to all.

1. MON - FNP, +1 T and plague grenades.
2. MOK - Furious Assault, +1 A, +1 WS
3. MOT - 4++
4. MOS - +1 I, access to noise weapons.

As an example, my current problem is best summed up by comparing CSM with MoN icon and Death Guard. Due to cost you want to keep your squads at minimum so say the nurgle perfect number of 7.
7 Death guard costs 161 points with no upgrades.
7 CSM w MoN 155 points. (If I am off by 10 sorry)
So for 6 points, your death guard get FNP and blight grenades as well has have the mark inately instead of dependent on one guy holding the icon as well as the ability to have two guys with special weapons instead of one.

Right now, if we are talking troop choices, I always go with the true thing rather than a marked up CSM unit.
The sad thing is that non-troop marked things will never match up to the dedicated troops. No death guard terminators or emporer's children terminators with blastmasters and sonic blasters, etc.

I love the ideas of enhancements to the Marks but I am afraid of the costs that GW will arbitrarily attach to them.

Also the cost of some needs adjusting, specifically I am thinking of 1000 sons. They are fairly powerful almost the equal of SM sternguard. AP3 but doesn't get hot. Slow and purposeful meaning they can reach out and touch while moving. But the aspiring sorcerer has a prohibitive cost! 60 pts AND spells? He should be no more than an aspiring champ with a powerweapon (+30) and spells or 60 and give him all the spells with the ability to cast any one per turn.

DAaddict wrote:My proposal would be to take the "elite" troops that are dedicated and make those available to all.

1. MON - FNP, +1 T and plague grenades.
2. MOK - Furious Assault, +1 A, +1 WS
3. MOT - 4++
4. MOS - +1 I, access to noise weapons.

I really do like those ideas. I will add it to my first post.

Gotta bump this. Would really like more peoples opinion! Would something like this interest you guys, with maybe some tweaks?

Those marks would probably have to cost some major points so as not to be OPed

Well just throwing fluff in there. If your runing a true Thousand Sons list they wouldn't have any possessed. So possessed with the mark of Tzeentch goes against the fluff of the Thousand Sons pretty bad.

Do this one thing and the current CSM codex becomes a much better codex able to take on every codex out there.

Chaos Lord - All Chosen become troop selections.

Take a Chaos Lord and all the chosen are now troops. Those chosen have everything you need to make the current CSM codex very playable in all environments and unique as hell with all those scoring units who can outflank.

DarthDiggler wrote:Do this one thing and the current CSM codex becomes a much better codex able to take on every codex out there.

Chaos Lord - All Chosen become troop selections.

Take a Chaos Lord and all the chosen are now troops. Those chosen have everything you need to make the current CSM codex very playable in all environments and unique as hell with all those scoring units who can outflank.

Now that would be just deadly. 4 meltas in a troop squad! Bam! Bye tanks.

Actually you can get 5 meltas in a chosen squad.

I thought that Tau where next in line after necrons?

yamgrenade wrote:I thought that Tau where next in line after necrons?

Not confirmed rumored though. Most likely it will be a tactical armor army next. GW tends to do Xenos, Imperium, Xenos, Imperium, in that sort of order.

GW did appear to do Xenos, Imperium, Xenos as Spartan said, however SoB have messed that pattern up it seems; we've also had no rumour for what the next Imperial Codex would be...

----

Regarding a Chaos Space Marine Codex, all I'd like to see is this.

Regarding your rules, a few comments I'd have after a quick skim is that IMHO some of them seem internally imbalanced with one-another, such as the Tzeentch Possessed having a much greater boost, as well as (arguably) the Lord, with a 2++/3++ and Warptime.
Then the marks for the CSM's also seem to completely eliminate the need for Cult Units too...

I consider CSM to be more 'Imperium' than 'Xenos'... just sayin'.

:(

Maybe I am missing something here, which I do very often, but with adding the marks, aren't you making cult choices redundant, so no more specific Plague Marines or Rubrics etc?

Essentially, will taking a mark make the guy a cult troop choice?

If your intention is to keep both then whats the point, for marks to do all that they are going to have to cost a fair few, which would make them a bit pointless (boom boom) anyway.

Just Dave wrote:
Then the marks for the CSM's also seem to completely eliminate the need for Cult Units too...

Ah I missed this, but this is why I helped Dave with his 'dex, he has the same - ish, ideas and thoughts as I do.

You should check it out Muppas!

IMO, if a unit has the mark - with benefits and restrictions - it should be a rubric marine not a half-a$$ed kinda sorta I have the mark of so and so marine.

If we are going to go down that road, then move the rubric marines out of the troop choices and make them elites. Otherwise why would I ever spend 50 points to make marines have the mark of nurgle to get +1 T when for a cost of 8+ per chaos marine I can have a REAL nurgle follower with +1 T, FNP, Blight Grenades and fearless AND not dependent on one guy carrying a banner to maintain that benefit. At that rate, until I know I want a squad size of at least 7, you are an idiot to take CSM with a mark instead of Death Guard.

How about:

Troop:
Thousand Son Aspiring Sorceror - XX pts
- Must take 4 Rubric Marines
- May purchase extra Rubric Marines for XX pts each at a maximum of 19 models

?

Also, I had some thoughts on making Abbadon a little more useful.

Knock his price tag up a bit and give him a special rule similar to this:

"When Abbadon is one of your HQ choices, all non-HQ and non-Troop units with either the Mark of Chaos Glory/Undivided or with an Icon Bearer of Chaos Glory/Undivided are considered Troops. If a unit is made a Troop choice in this way by Icon Bearer, and the Icon Bearer dies, that unit is no longer able to score objectives."

(i.e. Havocs, Bikers, Raptors, Termies, Possessed, and Chosen with an Icon Bearer/Marks of Chaos Glory/Undivided)

Just a rough draft.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I've also always been intrigued by the idea of giving Daemon Possession on vehicles more flavors to choose from:

You have your standard that does what i already does, and then there being specifically marked vehicle possessions that cost a little more based on what more they add to it.

Daemon Possessed Mark of Nurge - Ignores Shaken and Stunned results, lowers BS to 3, and you may ask your opponent to re-roll glancing and penetration results once.

Daemon Possessed Mark of Slaanesh - Ignores Shaken and Stunned results, lowers BS to 3, vehicle always has a 4+ cover save, and only when the vehicle is moving at cruising speed, may move an extra 6".

Daemon Possessed Mark of Khorne - Ignores Shaken and Stunned results, lowers BS to 3, when the vehicle is assaulted by close quarters combat, for each attack the attacking unit makes, the attacking unit receives a S4 hit, and may roll their armor save.

Daemon Possessed Mark of Tzeentch - Ignores Shaken, Stunned, and Weapon Destroyed results, and if the vehicle has a Bolter ranged weapon(s) (Boltgun, and Heavy Bolter), they now have Inferno Bolt Ammunition.

I've also always been intrigued by the potential for our inexpensive Dreadnoughts having the option of being Daemon Possessed, making them cost considerably more, following all the rules applying to the type of possession, and removing the Crazed special rule.