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I've got a game coming up against a long-standing rival, and I'm a bit stumped as to what to do with it.

2000 points Chaos Space Marines, single force org, with no flyers. Also, I'm fighting Templars. Assume I can field whatever.

I've never gotten the chance to run Abaddon before, so I'm itching for the opportunity. Beyond that, I'm not sure where to take it. Meet his crusader squads and dueling champions head-on with high initiative FNP slaanesh troops or angry khorne berzerkers? Cheese out and spam plague marines? Hope that he's banking on dealing with power armor and run a cultist list to laugh at his grav guns?

So many options. Help!

Hrm. Without a list to look at, it's hard to offer specific advice. But there are some things that stand out as general tips:

- Give your champions power swords, where possible. You want to win challenges against BT, not just spare your HQ from a challenge.

- Yes, MoS will help you, anything that gets you increased initiative is good against this army. Consider IoE as well.

- Abaddon might be overkill even in a 2,000 point list. There are some artefacts CLs can take that are just about as good at killing MEQ and it's not really that hard to simply avoid Abaddon in the first place. I don't want to think about what a grav gun could do to him.

- I would consider a Noise Marine firing line since you know there's going to be a big assault component to his army. Just give them CCWs to deal with any cc they get into.

- Cultists can tie up some of their tougher units while you focus on the real threats. I would get a couple cheap squads.

- Autocannon havocs can be hard on BT. You might also want to consider a Forgefiend for a similar amount of firepower.

- Heldrakes might be a good idea. I don't like them as much these days, but it's BT.

Well he can't use Helldrakes i.e no flyers, Oblits do have a PF, 2+, and every heavy weapon in the game. No reason not to run some of these guys.

Autocannon Havos would be awesome inthis fight, you know rhinos are going to be on the board. Maybe multiple squads, what else are you going to take in this slot? Oblits, Havocs maybe better. Preference really.

High Initiative, and power swords will win this game.

Typhus and a ton of cultist and you still have points for goodies mentioned above.

Think about a Tzeench thousand sons army! DP P's with wings and psychic shooting attacks, and slow moving bolter infantry with AP3 rounds!

If he is a mostly assualt based army then bring a squad of thousand sons as elites. I've seen these used against marines and if used well they can do a lot of damage. If he tries to take you down with his grav guns then you will have a 4++ save. maulerfiends i find can be very useful. If he usually places his close combat based squads in rhinos or razorbacks then you should have maybe 1 or 2 squads of plague marines in rhinos with 2 meltas. For your HQ i recommend typhus. This means you can take plague marines as troops and you can bring lots of plague zombiesto hold up his squads whilst your thousand sons rain them with bolter fire.

1) T-sons, AP 3 Bolters hurts power armor soooo badly. If it comes down to dirty fighting, you can always tarpit the power-weapon squad with them too.
2) Berserkers are not as good due to their nerf to Furious Charge but still an option.
3) Abaddon is solid due to his Warlord Trait, me thinks.
4) Buy Veterans of The Long War.
5) Mark of Slaneesh will help with basic CSM.

- The Chaos Codex is not lacking for AP3 firepower. Even if you don't want the Heldrake, the Burning Brand is going to be a fantastic option. Also consider taking multiple units of Noise Marines to get those Blastmasters on the field. Even here though I would say to avoid Thousand Sons. Even in an environment rich in AP3 I think you can do better, and Blastmasters will still provide a perfectly adequate solution.

- Consider unarmoured units because of Grav weaponry. Cultists and Spawn are both brilliant options and thoroughly waste any points he's invested into those guns. Especially the Spawn actually because you don't have any Heldrakes to burn the Fast slots on.

- I'd say to avoid tooling up any Champions that don't have Initiative 5 or greater. Templars will drag you into a challenge and Preferred Enemy/Rending means at the very best, you can expect mutual destruction. Unless you can get your attacks in first (IE-Mark of Slaanesh) you'd simply be fighting to draw and so I'd accept that anyone striking at I4 is going to come off worse.

- Veterans of the Long War is a pretty good deal for anyone intended for assault. Certainly worth it on any HQ characters and a decent option for anyone serving on the front lines.

If you think you'll face lots of Terminators than units of 7 Plague Marines with 2 Plasma Guns each and 2x 3 Oblits is the way to go.

If that's not the case, then I'd suggest Noise Marines with 2x Blastmasters and Doom Siren on the champion. Both Oblits and Havocs are good in this case.

Slaanesh will give you an edge on challenges, that's for sure.
Probably I'd go with Abaddon and 1 Lord with MoS, PF, LC, Bike and Sigil of Corruption in a unit of Bikes. If you prefer the Nurgle-themed army then probably 5 Spawns with MoN are better (15 T6 wounds with 5+ invulnerable save are nasty).
Well, MoN Spawns are a good escort also for Abaddon. I would avoid any T5 Spawn (MoS, Unmarked, etc..), in my opinion is T6 on a 3W model that really makes the difference (IMHO)

i have had good success with unit of 3 oblitz, havocs with 4 missle launchers, lord on a bike with MoK and the axe of blind fury, and csm marines with plasmas.

abadon is not going to die if you take him. i rann him with termies but i think a unit of chosen would be better. have them in a land raider and flat out to the biggest threat.

bikes are your friend, and adl with quad gun is pretty good too. try to run 2 hqs if your playing 2000pts to give troop choices fearless. and dont be affraid to lose a few guys to get into combat and then attack.

but you can make a strong shooting base army with csm too.

Just a bit of fun to think on with 1k sons; If you take the Tzeench DP with a gift, and manage to getboon on him and a squad or two of 1ksons, you can literally start the game with a super murder DP from hell. Last game I fielded him in I got shred from the gift, and turn 1 he got +1 S/T, and re-roll armor. This coupled with the fact that I had Boon/Iron Arm/Warp speed..he made his points back and then some.

Otherwise, everyone here seems to be forgetting things like vindicators and defilers. Battlecannons and demolishers cannons make marines cry. I personally prefer deffy's, but most here would disagree with me. Personal preferred loadout is extra ccw/whip and a dirge caster. Also consider a maulerfiend to take out any landraiders he has. With the magma cutters those things are pretty much guaranteed to take out any av14 on the board with relative ease.

As far as HQ's go, depending on how your group views the semi-obscure wording on all of the various artifact/relic charts, taking a Juggerlord with the AoBF/burning brand can put out a whole pile of hurt. I've had luck putting him in with some khorne bikers with plasma and the IoW for FC and re-rolling charge range.

And noise marines may very well be a good firebase-anchor for you, a couple of blastmasters can make short work of a MEQ squad.

If you are really itching to field Abby, why not throw him in with a unit of MoS termies all with basic loadout, maybe some combi-'s and an IoE? NEVER underestimate the utility of having PE.

Only other thing you might want to consider is taking a small daemons allied detachment, namely a tzeench herald (ML2, for divination) and a bare-bones pink horror squad.