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With the up and coming new Chaos Codex, this thread is important because I'd like to illustrate some idea's that would make all who follow Chaos more appealing to both fight and play.
It's been a long time since I owned the Chaos Codex, so I'm going off of what I remember and also bits of the 5th Edition.

First and Foremost,

All Chaos units are stubborn - because honestly - there are few situations that will honestly cause a CSM to even consider falling back.

All Chaos units have Hatred towards any force of the IoM, and automatically grant the Hatred rule to the IoM.

Undivided changes:

1. Retain the competitive nature of the Chaos Gods - All armies may have one unit aligned to each of the Gods, but any additional units dedicated to a particular God will disallow it's rival. For example: a player may have 1 squad of CSM's from the World Eaters (Khorne), 1 Emperor's Childern (Slaanesh), 1 Death Guard (Nurgle), and one Thousand Son's unit (Tzeentch). He or she decides to add a squad of Khorne Berzerkers, and therefore may no longer take any units dedicated to Slaanesh in their army.

2. Allow Cultists to suicide bomb enemies. (think the demo charge of the IG except resolved directly over the head of the "Liberator".) In addition: The bombs would do different things depending if they remained unaligned or dedicated to a God.

Nurgle:

1. Give more units Nurgle's Rot - especially the more expensive ones, i.e. The Deathguard and Plaguebearers <--- though the PB's may already have it I can't remember.

2. Upgrade the Nurgle's Rot on Typhus. -Call the strain Stardust Typhoid or something (winks at The DarkEmperor).

3. Enable the Zombie Plague during normal games - modified to scale of course.

4. Tanks dedicated to Nurgle have special ordinance that not only explodes, but defiles the earth making it's area of impact count as a Fireblood River (dangerous terrain that wrecks any vehicle immobilized within) until the end of the next turn.

Tzeentch:

1. Allow Pyskers to Teleport across the map (as in DOW2).

2. Allow Pyskers to sacrifice a model to regain warp charge.

3. Allow Tzeentch marked units to act as homing beacons for Demons. (This may be unnecessary, I can't remember)

4. I loved the "Curse of Tzeentch" ability from DOW2 that damages a specific model for a period of time before causing the unfortunate victim to explode... bring that as an option for a psychic power.

5. Inferno Bolts can be taken as an upgrade by any model that would normally carry any form of bolter - including tanks, dreadnoughts, cultist agitators and terminators.

Khorne

1. Make Chain Axes Ap 3 and retain the Berzerkers WS at 5

3. All Khorne units have Rage and the crusader special rules. (Obviously)

2. Added ability to Khornate units: Bloodfrenzy: The unit or model is fearless. Also, whenever the model or unit suffers an unsaved wound take a leadership test, if passed the unit fights normally, if failed, the weight of Khorne's unfathomable rage bears down upon them, amplifying their already aggressive nature with unholy fervor for the rest of the game.

Bloodfrenzy:
- Units with multiple models lose 1 WS 1Ld and gain 1 S and the Strikedown ability.
- Independent Characters become the living embodiment of Khorne's rage and lose 1 WS and 2 Ld, but gains the Smash and Strikedown ability.

3. Khorne's and his followers gain Preferred Enemy against any Slaanesh model.

4. Special Rule: The Blood God Cares Not - Units that are affected by Bloodfrenzy must take an leadership test at the beginning of their turn to test their sanity. If they fail, their sanity lapses and they must make a single attack to the nearest model (Friend or Foe!), within 6 Inches - they automatically move into base contact. If there are no models within 6 Inches, the unit must immediately move D6 towards the nearest unit in place of it's crusader move. If engaged in close combat, the attack may be made towards an enemy before any other attacks are made, but every miss is automatically allocated as a hit against units of multiple models chosen by the opponent. Individual models will not strike themselves.

Slaanesh

1. Followers of Slaanesh have the Preferred Enemy against Khornate as well as all Eldar units. They likewise gain this speical rule against Slaanesh units.

2. Followers of Slaanesh have Fleet. - and imo most close combat weapons should have Fleshbane.

3. Like the Inferno Bolts, any weapon controlled by a unit dedicated to Slaanesh may be upgraded to sonic weaponry, including those of cultists and heavy support. Their profile should be chosen like a missile launcher either to fire as an assault weapon or a heavy weapon or perhaps a template weapon.

4. The fight against Slaanesh is a fight against one's own desires. To represent this, any model attempting to attack a unit favored by Slaanesh (i.e an Elite or HQ), they must first make a leadership test. If they pass, they may continue to fight as normal, if they fail, roll a D6 - the result correlates to the Telepathy Psychic Discipline on page 423 . with the exception of 2, 4, 5, and 6 which are as follows:

-D6=4: Autopin
-D6=5: You! You're a traitor! Result of Hallucination.
-D6=6: Olfactory ecstasy: put into a psychedelic trance by a mixture of perfume and a momentary lasp of will, the unfortunate victims of this effect gains the Feel no Pain, Rending, and Fearless special rules, and has its WS reduced to 2. However, it cannot act for the rest of the game as their senses explode in a mania of pleasure verging on the precipice of unendurable agony. Every turn, the unit moves D6 in a direction of a scatter dice as they gleefully experience a new world apart from the hellish realm they have already forgotten existed moments before. If it encounters an object it immediately stops until the next turn as the unit sprawls out to examine the incredible intricacies of their universe made visible, if it encounters a unit (friend or foe), it is driven to pull it apart and douse themselves with the kaleidoscope of colors within, the screaming of the victim fueling a fresh bought of uncontrollable cackling before moving on to find new mind opening experiences.

The unit cannot claim as scoring an objective, and instead counts as a third party contestant that can negate an objective to all players.

That's a few thoughts anyway. What do all of you think?

Too many of the beneficial changes will make the basic point cost too high.

I don't want my CSM to be stubborn and I can already select fearless ones as troops (okay that's the older codex).

I could understand some of them being subject to hatred but I can not see how this fits into the narrative - should they be given hatred against everyone? It would fit better. Should they fear Grey Knights as they are the ones most likely to hunt them down (in the mythology of the imperium).

I agree to some extent about retaining the nature of some of the chaos gods not mingling but this should mean two gods ally in a single armu (khorne/TA oT khorne/nurgle or nurgle/slanessh or TZ/slanessh).

I would have thought cultist would be the last people to want to sacrifice themselves.
I think the deity specfic rules from the old codex were about right (marks and mounts and special abilites) too many and your opponent will not know what the heck is going on.

The Fear and Hatred changes I understand, but I don't get why you wouldn't want CSM's to be stubborn.

My Brother's Quote: Cultists would do anything the CSM tell them to if it's in the name of the Dark Gods. In DOW2, I've sadistically eradicated entire squads of cultists. At my orders they slaughtered themselves by swallowing grenades for no more reason than I enjoyed watching their innards fly over the comrade already swallowing the next pyrotechnic pineapple.

So you want to confuse your enemies, but then limit your own forces to two armies? I actually agree with this in a way. Either you're undivided, or you stay with the fluff.

Why is the Hatred rule given to the loyalists in this incarnation of CSM?

Bringing someone to justice because it's your purpose or duty next time you see them is different than waiting 10,000 years for revenge on someone who has wronged you personally

Perhaps because there is no other hatred more than that of the traitor, heretic, and mutant in the IoM? Though the CSM's have a personal hatred, the IoM's is systematically endemic. It has been passed through the generations, not dissipating, but amplifying with religious rhetoric to the point where nearly everyone may not know who they are, but hates Chaos all the same.

I guess hatred fueled by religion is just as strong as hatred fueled by vengeance, will certainly agree with you there.

After all, I've always complained that Space Wolves and Thousand Sons don't get bonuses vs. each other.

Yeah, and then there's those grudges as well, imagine that hatred.

No thanks, I'm scared too