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I'm new to 40k and was wondering whether possessed chaos space marines were any good. I've heard occasionally that they suck,is there any truth to this?

Yes, this is the case. There randomness combined with a high point cost, makes then sub par. They can work with a decent roll but are just to random for competitive army. And even with a good roll they are out performed by other choices in the chaos dex.

Shame i love the models but.... hopeful for new dex =p

They don't really suck per se, they're just a bit overpriced. They're about five thirds the cost of a normal csm, for fearless, s5, 5++ and the daemonkin roll. Plus they can't score and can't take special weapons, but if you really want to use them it should be possible to work around it.

It's unfortunate that you can't roll their random power ahead of deployment but they all enhance the unit's power in assault so as long as you deploy them with that in mind, it should be manageable.

Another option would be to just use their models to represent other stuff, like plaguemarines.

They are bad - dont buy them

Its better to spend your money on obliterators - 9 of them !

or you can get terminators ... dribbles

I wish Chaos players wouldn't just recommend 9 Obliterators.
They may be good, they may even be the 'best' unit in the codex, but there are other things, other themes, style of armies etc.
Also I think 9 is OTT, max I would go for is 6, even if I didn't want a third different HS unit.

Possessed can be fun in games like Apocalypse, or if your not playing against competitive lists (if your playing against say Ig without Vet/chimera/vendetta/manticore spam, with them taking things like Ogryns and Penal legion) they can be a nice unit to use.

I don't think there as bad as people make out, but Zerkers do the job they do better in most cases, and are 5 points cheaper, and are troops, and can take anti-tank weaponry (which Possessed only get if they roll Rending, I think thats an option). If your trying to win games, against even semi-competitive armies, best to leave the Possessed out to be honest, its a shame because they do look really really cool.