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What if marks of chaos unlocked purchasable upgrades, so that you wouldn’t be forced to buy useless upgrades for certain units if you were thinking of making people purchase the mark of chaos for an upgrade (like the older edition’s marks, like in 7E), rather than just unlocking certain stratagems and being a prerequisite for certain legions. For example, the mark of Khorne unlocks the Fury of Khorne for 2ppm, which adds one attack to the profile.

Mark of Slaanesh unlocks the swiftness of Slaanesh for 2ppm, which adds the ability to re-roll run or charge rolls.

Mark of Nurgle unlocks Nurgle’s decay for 3ppm, which adds a 5++.

Mark of Tzeentch unlocks the Guile of Tzeentch, which adds something scheme-ey to the unit... for some amount of points. Obviously those aren’t balanced points in the least bit, nor are those final products, and no matter what the rules are, certain units will benefit more than others. The idea is to make it so marks do something without having to use stratagems or pay for units that can’t use the upgrade, like putting the mark of Khorne upgrade on a unit of havocs. I feel if done right it could make us feel like marks and legions actually change how your army plays aside from a mando MoS on the shootiest thing in your list for the strategem.... We could even make several purchasable upgrades for each mark.

This goes back to older edition rules where this was a thing and some units had upgrades that influenced special rules and stats. While it was a nice thing to have, this wouldn't work under the new power ruleset for when those rules are used. GW seem to be actively trying to avoid having unit upgrades that aren't weapons on a point per model basis to try and even out the scale.
The only examples currently that come to mind are T'au Support gear which in certain instances takes away weapon slots and possibly tyranids as I know they were another faction that had this in abundance in earlier editions.

On paper, I like the idea of letting units unlock some special rules (that cost points) with their marks. If you go for a one-price-fits-all approach, however, things can get tricky. An extra attack on a daemon prince is more valuable than an extra attack on a chaos marine, for instance, but both units are probably interested in buying an extra attack.

So then you have to decide if you're going to undercost the extra attack on princes, overcost it on marines, or have it cost different prices based on the units. And then you have to figure out how exactly that works if you're doing different prices for different units. It maybe works out to just have a separate MC/vehicle upgrade cost depending on what the actual purchasable powers end up being?

Also, wandering thought blowing through my brain: maybe some units could trade out their special rules for god-specific abilities? For instance, maybe nurgle havocs can give up their "no penalties to hit when moving" thing for something nurgly. Warp talons maybe give up their over watch canceler instead. That sort of thing.

Just add effects for each for free. Even better if you make one not invalidate the others. Even, even better if you differentiate what a Marine, Daemon Prince, Vehicle gets from it.

We live in a tons of free rules for faction/subfaction design now so any worries of overdoing it are unnecessary. Chaos is miles behind in the free power race.

“Na you don’t get extra rules or fluffy flavorful veterans. Instead you get 11ppm MEQ’s and 12ppm chosen. Ahah ahaha!” Yeah I know we behind...

 Eldarain wrote:
Just add effects for each for free. Even better if you make one not invalidate the others. Even, even better if you differentiate what a Marine, Daemon Prince, Vehicle gets from it.

We live in a tons of free rules for faction/subfaction design now so any worries of overdoing it are unnecessary. Chaos is miles behind in the free power race.

I feel like you're basically just describing a subfaction chapter tactic equivalent. And I'd be fine with that. Bring back a "daemonkin" option for each god that lets you mix demons and marines in a single detachment. Give them (insert chaos god here) daemonkin benefits instead of the usual legion/daemon benefits.

I don't feel that chaos marines are in such a bad place that they need a pile of free bonus rules, some touched-up legion tactics wouldn't go amiss. I also rather like the idea of doing the exarch/harlequin thing with some of their characters. Let an exalted champion have the option of swapping out his melee lieutenant rule with something thematic. Ditch some of the auras in 9th edition and give a list of similar options to chaos lords and princes.

Our legion tactics will always suck and we all know it. Except alpha legion.