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Issue. Pactbound Zealots needs a rewrite.

Rule. Dark Pact stratagem and enhancement are all based on having a unit with one of the 4 chaos gods mark or undivided mark. Yet no enhancement for undivided and although stratagems can be used by all, to get the better version you need specific corresponding mark.

Analysis. 1. Since the mark of nurgle and slaanesh are best, this really becomes a pactbound of 2 gods over undivided. Easily seen in 99% of pactbound army lists.

Because of forcing specific marks it limits the overall use of what the detachment offers in comparison to the other detachments.

Conclusion. Since this detachment is suppose to be undivided like the other detachments in the codex yet is suppose to be the zealots of chaos gods equally such as the Word Bearers this detachment represents, the following changes wound make better sense and game play.
1. Dark Pact. Characters alone or attached to a unit can use dark pact on a successful leadership roll to choose either sustain or lethal melee or range attack rolls for that individual or unit the individual is attached to at the 5+. All other units get the same basic 6+ option like the other detachments.

2. Enhancement. Weapon of Chaos (Khorne version) but undivided. Eye of chaos (tzeentch) undivided heart of chaos (slaanesh) but undivided. Breath of chaos (nurgle) but undivided. book of chaos (undivided) Units with no character within 6” of the character with this enhancement can choose the dark pact at 5+ and any level of stratagems

3. Stratagems . All units can use the basic stratagems but if led by a character can use the advanced stratagem. All Stratagems that mention a specific chaos god to get the extra benefits now replaced with if led by a character, that unit can choose either benefit from the stratagem.

Once again showing that characters are granted greater boons.

Isn't it also one of the stronger CSM detachments?
Because this looks like mostly buffs.

Is pactbound one of the strongest for chaos codex? Yes it is in the top 3. But only when you pick slaanesh for melee and nurgle for range.

Is this only giving buffs? No. As of right now any unit can get the 5+ dark pact based of course on what mark for sustain lethal melee range. In my version only units with a character can get the 5+, But in return they get to choose any sustain lethal just like all the other detachments in the chaos codex. Units without an hq or vehicles only get the 6+ dark pact just like all of the other detachments in the chaos codex. .
The reason behind this is to make them undivided as they are suppose to be like all the other detachments in the chaos codex, and the fluff idea that Characters are more in favor with the dark gods to get power boosts.

Another downgrade is it is very expensive to try and have a character in every unit. Thus also limiting the dark pact and advanced level Strats. However to help a little bit is the enhancement for units without a character or vehicles. But then they have to bundle together to get that benefit with a unit that has a character that has that item.

So at the end this detachment gets the flavor of undivided zealots like Word Bearers, stronger option to choose dark pact sustain and lethal melee or range, stronger stratagem use but at the cost of having Characters leading units to get those buffs. While non character units get the basic 6+ dark pact and basic stratagems

I don't love the option of removing the marks of chaos detachment as the option to dedicate different units was a thing in previous editions. I would say the Chaos Cult could be a good fit for Word Bearers, I really dislike the design of that detachment. If Pact Bound Zealots is oft-used then that is a further shame. I think it would be more interesting if you analyzed what it would take to balance the 4 marks in this detachment.

I don't think detachments should be designed in such a way that your whole list needs to be built around it, like only working for Damned units or units with Characters, it limits the list building aspect of the game too much and squeezes out more varied lists if most detachments focus on spamming 1-2 units, something the CSM author should be commended for avoiding.

I would change Chaos Cult to allow transferring MWs to nearby friendly units, encouraging a mix of chaff and quality. Introduce a few Daemon ce ntric things like a Strat and Enhancement.

There are 2 issues with what you are thinking. 1. The codex is for undivided detachments period. 2. Because of marks as is, the troops are limited on using Strats, enhancements and pacts to choose unlike the other detachments in the codex. Even if you could balance the marks as all good to have, the issue is that your army list will either be like now, a 2 god list for range and melee and get to use only 1/2 of the Strats and enhancement and pact

#1. Pact Bound has to be undivided.
#2. You can name each Strat enhancement and dark pact as is to a specific god as listed already for flavor.
#3. Specific detachment rule is that all troops can use any of the enhancements, strats and pacts. Which is the easiest way of fixing this.

Pact Bound Zealots is not an undivided detachment and is part of the codex so I don't think the author of the codex meant the codex to be undivided. Black Legion and Renegade Chapters have always been able to take a mixture of marks of chaos, not just the mark of chaos undivided, there is no other codex that can represent an army including every flavour of Chaos worship without it just being worship of chaos undivided so it is this one or nothing.

Interesting weaknesses like every unit not having equal access to the full power of Stratagems and being different from other detachments is good design, as long as there is one cookie cutter detachment then that is all you need. Needing to play around the marks of chaos creates interesting gameplay challenges for players.

The reason why you're not meaningfully limiting the power of the Stratagems by only having the full effect apply to units led by characters is that people can build their army around avoiding this restriction, you cannot build your army around giving every unit every mark of chaos because each unit has to choose 1 of 4. The problem is I can stuff a character into every unit regardless of what detachment I play so you are not creating any meaningfully new playstyle with your detachment. Now maybe the current effects of Tzeentch and Khorne are underwhelming enough to be non-options, but that's fixable and I think you know the codex well enough to fix it.

Chaos Cult Detachment
Detachment Rule: Crazed Devotion
The zealots of the Chaos Cult throw themselves into battle with reckless abandon, shielding their allies with cries of fanatical fervor and good pain.

Units in this detachment gain a 4+ Feel No Pain against mortal wounds. However, any mortal wounds ignored in this way are passed to a friendly unit within 3" as mortal wounds which cannot be ignored by this ability.

Enhancements
Book of the Reviler 20 pts
Inscribed with maddening verses, this unholy tome contains the means to rewrite the fates of summoned entities, reshaping the battlefield to the cult’s twisted design.

At the start of your Command phase, you may replace one Daemon unit in Strategic Reserves with another of equal or lesser points.

Crown of the Blasphemer 20 pts
Adorned with jagged iconography, this crown exudes an aura of dread, crushing the wills of foes and emboldening the fanatical faith of the devoted.

Units within 6" of the bearer automatically pass Battle-shock tests. Enemy units within 6" suffer a -1 penalty to Leadership characteristic.

The Malefic Tome 20 pts
Bound within this ancient grimoire are searing incantations that lash out with warp-fueled precision, leaving only ashes in their wake.

The bearer gains a ranged attack: Range 12", Assault D6, Strength 5, AP -2, Damage 2. This attack gains [Lethal Hits] when targeting units below starting Strength.

Epistle of Lorgar 20 pts
This sacred text, penned by the Primarch Lorgar himself, resonates with the unholy power of the Primordial Truth, inspiring followers of the dark gods to unspeakable heights of devotion.

DARK APOSTLE model only. In your Command phase, you can return up to D3 destroyed DAMNED models (excluding CHARACTER models) to the bearer’s unit.

Stratagems
Wrathful Entreaty (1CP)
The cult cries out to the Ruinous Powers, beseeching their wrath to focus on a singular foe. The air burns with dark invocations as vengeance takes form.

When: Fight phase
Target: One enemy unit within 12" of a Chaos Cult or Khorne LEGIONES DAEMONICA unit
Effect: Until the end of the phase, Chaos Cult and Khorne Daemon units attacking the target improve the AP of their melee weapons by 1.

Mutating Invocation (2CP)
Twisted prayers warp the air, causing unnatural mutations to erupt in their prey. Even the strongest armor is no defense against the agonizing power of change.

When: Shooting or Fight phase
Target: One Chaos Cult or Tzeentch LEGIONES DAEMONICA unit
Effect: Until the end of the phase, each time an enemy unit makes a saving throw of 6+ against an attack by the target unit, it suffers 1 mortal wound in addition to any normal damage.

Feculent Beseechment (1CP)
The stench of decay fills the battlefield as the cult summons the blessings of Nurgle. The enemy falters, their resolve rotting away with each breath.

When: Command phase
Target: One Chaos Cult or Nurgle LEGIONES DAEMONICA unit
Effect: Until the start of your next Command phase, enemy units within 6" of the target have their Objective Control (OC) reduced by 1 (to a minimum of 0).

Blissful Devotion (1CP)
The whispers of Slaanesh fill the ears of the faithful, promising ecstasy in their suffering. Bolstered by their zeal, they stand firm against all odds.

When: Shooting or Fight phase
Target: One Chaos Cult or Slaanesh LEGIONES DAEMONICA unit controlling an objective marker
Effect: Until the end of the phase, the target unit gains a 5+ Feel No Pain ability.

Warptime Ritual (1CP)
By bending the fabric of reality itself, the cult manipulates time, granting unnatural speed to those devoted to their dark rituals.

When: Command phase
Target: One Chaos Cult or allied Daemon unit that did not move during the Movement phase
Effect: The target unit gains the ability to make an additional move during your next Movement phase.

Sacrificial Liturgy (2CP)
The blood of the faithful stains the altar as the cult enacts a terrible ritual. From the Warp, daemonic allies rise to fulfill their grim pact.

When: Command phase
Target: One Chaos Cult unit
Effect: A Daemon unit from Strategic Reserves can be set up on the battlefield wholly within 6" of the target unit. The summoned unit can be placed anywhere more than 6" horizontally from enemy models, instead of the standard 9". The target suffers 1 mortal wound.

1. each detachment in the codex is a representation of the undivided legions. They even say it. Yes, you can have veteran night lords or deceptor iron warriors but each detachment theme is based on the legions.

2. Each detachment in the codex allows to have in addition cult marines which represents undivided legions having access to them.

3. Pact bound is flawed because to get the benefits for a decent army Strats pacts, everyone uses only nurgle range and undivided or slaanesh melee. This makes a very limiting flavor & effective army option either way as is. Cutting out 1/2 of what you can play or thinning out your army with every mark but quickly reducing any efficiency.

3. My view is to make it more playable with all the Strats enhancements and pacts. Just like the other detachments. Without making it over powerful or underpowered. But more in flavor of undivided with that word bearers theme and equally allocated to each chaos god to be utilized in the pact bound zealots.

4. The best way to do this thematically and be balanced is to start with the 6+ dark pacts. Enhancements and stratagems have no mark attachments. Special detachment rule 5+ dark pacts if unit is led by a character.

5. Reason.zealots are fanatics who are led by a more fanatical leader. This isn’t the only possible solution but dies fit the theme and gives a balance to allowing to choose any pact strat or enhancement. Another example for Marks would be a stratagem 1cp to allow a unit to switch a mark which I think was in 9th. That way a chaos lord can 0 cost switch his unit accordingly or another unit can switch at 1cp. But I think that is still a weaker option.

6. Conclusion is tying units to specific marks for specific Strats pact’s enhancements reduces playability of everything by 1/2 and as seen only a theme of nurgle slaanesh lists. Even if all 4 marks were awesome, people will only play 2 marks to have efficiency in unit use. It is to hard to utilize 4 marks tied to 4 Strats 4 pacts spread across your army units efficiently.

Veterans of the Long War - Black Legion
Deceptors - Alpha Legion
Renegade Raiders - Huron
Dread Talons - Night Lords
Fellhammer Siege‑host - Iron Warriors
Pactbound Zealots - Word Bearers
Chaos Cult - mortals
Soulforged Warpack - Vashtor
None - Emperor's Children

1. One legion doesn't have a detachment and two detachments aren't for legions at all.

2. Cult units are not marked units, every unit in your army getting marked is very different from including 1-2 cult units. The idea seems to be that you're supposed to bring every mark in your army and have them work together, each doing what they are good at and that's a cool concept that cannot be done with 2 cult units. I suppose you can have 4x5 in 2k.

3. I thought I read that it was popular in tournaments which must mean it is playable already, did I get something confused? A champion-based detachment is a natural concept for the CSM, but I'm not sure it's very Word Bearers.

Veterans of the Long War - Black Legion
Deceptors - Alpha Legion
Renegade Raiders - Huron
Dread Talons - Night Lords
Fellhammer Siege‑host - Iron Warriors
Pactbound Zealots - Word Bearers
Chaos Cult - mortals
Soulforged Warpack - Vashtor
None - Emperor's Children (Emperor Champions will be the Noise Marines just like Khorne, 1k, DG.)

1. One legion doesn't have a detachment and two detachments aren't for legions at all. Each detachment listed in the codex is suppose to correspond with the theme of each undivided legion. Chaos Cult, Huron are the exception and Soulforge is the new Undivided Vashtor

2. Cult units are not marked units, every unit in your army getting marked is very different from including 1-2 cult units. The idea seems to be that you're supposed to bring every mark in your army and have them work together, each doing what they are good at and that's a cool concept that cannot be done with 2 cult units. I suppose you can have 4x5 in 2k. Cult Units are different from cult marines. Cult marines are marines from one of the 4 chaos gods specific codex. Cult units are pactbound which have to choose one of the 4 dark gods marks or undivided. The issue is that marks to use everything based on how dark pacts, enhancements and stratagems are tied to the marks, you are stretched too thin to build an effective list with more marked units to provide that undivided theme of worship. That is why everyone plays only 2 or 3 marks Undivided, Slaanesh, Nurgle and still have a reduced dark pact, enhancement stratagem detachment.

3. I thought I read that it was popular in tournaments which must mean it is playable already, did I get something confused? Yes, it is playable and ranked 3 or 4 of choice but only in the above format #2 A champion-based detachment is a natural concept for the CSM, but I'm not sure it's very Word Bearers. I can agree and disagree on that. Word Bearers rely on chaos lords, sorcerers dark chaplains in their stories. The Dark Pact is very powerful at 5+, but very limiting based on the Marks and units (which is there to counter its power, I just think its the wrong direction for theme and broad ability to play units; usually only nurgle slaanesh and undivided are used.) Same with enhancements and Strats. Which basically makes this detachment a pact bound zealot of undivided nurgle and slaanesh. My goal is to have GW revise it to be able to represent all the 4 gods while remaining Undivided as the concept of the other undivided legions with the theme of Word Bearers (Undivided Zealots). So, if we were to give all units the undivided status but the ability to choose any of the Dark Pacts 5+ at will is very powerful. This would also include the enhancements and strats being able to be used fully by each unit. So, as a compromise something is needed to replae the strict mark = what you get to use. Some options I can think of are 1. Zealots are controlled by zealot leaders, thus having a character in a unit is one way to get all options available because they have a stronger connection to the 4 gods. 2. Make Dark Pact remain 6+ like the other detachments which allow any unit to use the dark pacts as needed. But allow the enhancements and strats to be fully used by any unit. 3. Refer to the previous codex and add a stratagem to change a mark on a unit.

It boils down to dark pact enhancements Stratagems being connected to different marks. I like the concept but it fails. No one will build a 5 mark or 4 mark list. At most 3 nurgle slaanesh undivided and 2 will never see play 95%,Khorne tzeentch.

Even if all 5 marks were equally great no one would do it. That is why it fails and the only way to fix it to be able to use everything like the other detachments, is to remove the marks. This leads to just having the theme name on the Strats for the marks in name only. Now a heretic daemon prince in the army is forced to have a mark so that would be the only one to choose.

I'm pretty out of the loop on chaos this edition, so forgive my ignorance. It sounds like the issue is that, for fluff reasons, you want to encourage people to field units tied to all four gods instead of just Slaanesh and Nurgle.

So question: are the benefits actually all that fluffy in the first place? I haven't looked at the CSM rules in a while, but from what I recall, the pact benefits were all basically some abstract, generic variation on "kill stuff harder."

That being the case, if the issue is that it's too hard to come up with 4 equal-but-different versions of "kill stuff harder," maybe just embrace the abstract and cut the subpar options? Just refluff the good options as one-size-fits-all buffs?

Or alternatively, come up with some more distinctive and flavorful god-specific benefits that don't step on each others' toes so that people actually want to field a little of each. Off the top of my head:

Slaanesh: when you use the pact, also gain Fights First. Now your Slaaneshi units are charge catchers.

Nurgle: When you use the pact, sticky nearby objectives as they're corrupted with your fly-blown boogers. Now your Nurgle units help with board control.

Khorne: When you use the pact and successfully kill a unit, nearby allies' melee weapons gain +1 Attacks until the end of the phase. Now a single khorne unit is a force multiplier for any other squads going into melee.

Tzeentch: When you finish shooting or fighting with a unit that used the pact, select one enemy unit that you targeted with an attack. That unit suffers -1 to-hit until your next command phase. Either you're harassing them with weird magical ammo, telepathic attacks, or else you're just sneaky gitz that are good at throwing off the enemy's momentum with dirty tactics and well-timed suppression fire. Now Tzeentch units help keep the enemy from killing the rest of your army as efficiently.

EDIT: So while you *could* lean into just one or two of those by spamming one or two gods, you'd be giving up tools that generally help your army as a whole. Without Slaanesh, you're giving up a powerful tool for dealing with incoming melee threats. Without Nurgle, you have to leave more units babysitting objectives. Without Khorne, your non-Khorne units will hit less hard in melee. Without Tzeentch, your non-Tzeentch units will be hitting hit by incoming attacks more often.

But conversely, leaning into one or two gods is still viable and has its own upsides. Having more Slaaneshi units means you're more likely to be in a situation where Fights First comes up. Having more Nurgle units means you're potentially stickying multiple objectives at once. Spamming Khorne means you have more chances to kill an enemy unit thus buff your other units, who are then more likely to kill another unit and spread the buffs farther. Spamming Tzeentch means you can debuff a big chunk of the enemy army instead of just one or two units at a time.

 IwinUlose wrote:
It boils down to dark pact enhancements Stratagems being connected to different marks. I like the concept but it fails. No one will build a 5 mark or 4 mark list. At most 3 nurgle slaanesh undivided and 2 will never see play 95%,Khorne tzeentch.

Even if all 5 marks were equally great no one would do it. That is why it fails and the only way to fix it to be able to use everything like the other detachments, is to remove the marks. This leads to just having the theme name on the Strats for the marks in name only. Now a heretic daemon prince in the army is forced to have a mark so that would be the only one to choose.

People built 5 mark lists in 5th edition and 8th edition. What is your conclusion that nobody would take every mark in a list based on?

Lethal is as good as Sustained hits when wounding on 4+, better when wounding on 5+ or 6+.

Lethal is as good as Sustained hits 5+ when wounding on 5s and better when wounding on 6s.

Lethal 5+ is as good as Sustained hits when wounding on 3+ and better when wounding on 4+ or worse.

Lethal 5+ is as good as Sustained hits 5+ when wounding on 4+ and better when wounding on 5+ or 6+.

Undivided re-roll 1s is only worse than both when wounding on 4+, it outperforms Lethal 5+ when wounding on 2s and 3s and outperforms Sustained 5+ when wounding on 5s and 6s. That's already balanced enough, I can see an argument for either being more viable depending on the unit and meta, but I don't think you can blame the Detachment ability for making 5 mark armies unviable, let alone completely unseen in the wild.

Cult units with the exception of Noise Marines cannot make Dark Pacts can they? The rules are telling me they are allied units from foreign legions, not just marked units. Their names used to be Thousand Sons, but Rubric Marines isn't much better as a name for a marked unit since it still refers to the Rubric of Ahriman and a secret technique to create new Rubrics which as far as I know is only known to the Thousand Sons.

I really like the idea of Khornate CSM leading the charge with a Stratagem Wyldhunt, I think this design is thematic and expanded to the other marks would be ideal for the Pact Bound Zealots. So you have
*fight on death for Khorne
*ignores cover for Tzeentch
*heal for Nurgle
*advance and charge for Slaanesh
*fall back and shoot/charge for undivided (representing the superior morale I believe was the benefit in previous editions)

Your picked unit gets the benefit, if the picked unit has the appropriate mark it spreads to units within 6". Now you are heavily incentivised to get a variety pack of marks to benefit from the various Stratagems turning into auras while spamming the same mark over and over will have more limited value.

Khorne gets lethal hits 5+.

Tzeentch gets lethal hits 5+.

Nurgle gets sustained hits 5+.

Slaanesh gets sustained hits 5+.

Undivided gets re-roll 1s.

I thought the same as Wyldhunt when it comes to simplifying things to all marks getting both lethal hits 5+ and sustained hits 5+ instead of this 3-way split just because I thought lethal hits was what prevented 5 mark armies but I don't really think that anymore based on the mathhammer I presented. .

All you need do is look at pacts army lists to see. Nurgle range and slaanesh melee with undivided melee. Reason is 1. Khorne tzeentch are not as good. 2. All marked units makes usable units to thin. 3. Dark pact is limited to the marks you use 3/5. Strats eye dark gods only for non daemon characters. Profane inky for undivided. The other 4 basic everyone can use, otherwise to get full use you can only use 2/4.
This is 10th not early editions

vict0988 wrote:
I really like the idea of Khornate CSM leading the charge with a Stratagem Wyldhunt, I think this design is thematic and expanded to the other marks would be ideal for the Pact Bound Zealots. So you have
*fight on death for Khorne
*ignores cover for Tzeentch
*heal for Nurgle
*advance and charge for Slaanesh
*fall back and shoot/charge for undivided (representing the superior morale I believe was the benefit in previous editions)

Your picked unit gets the benefit, if the picked unit has the appropriate mark it spreads to units within 6". Now you are heavily incentivised to get a variety pack of marks to benefit from the various Stratagems turning into auras while spamming the same mark over and over will have more limited value.

Yeah! Something like that. Each of those abilities would be both more flavorful than an abstract boost to the number of saves the enemy rolls, and they each accomplish something distinctive enough that you actively want to have them all. Having Tzeentch help you get units into melee doesn't prevent you from wanting a Khorne unit to give you fight on death.

There's probably room to quibble over the exact abilities, but from what I understand of the issue, it seems like something like this avoids the problem of having better/worse gods and is more thematic to boot.

IwinUlose wrote:All you need do is look at pacts army lists to see. Nurgle range and slaanesh melee with undivided melee. Reason is 1. Khorne tzeentch are not as good. 2. All marked units makes usable units to thin. 3. Dark pact is limited to the marks you use 3/5. Strats eye dark gods only for non daemon characters. Profane inky for undivided. The other 4 basic everyone can use, otherwise to get full use you can only use 2/4.
This is 10th not early editions

Sorry. I don't have access to the chaos rules since the index got taken down when the codex was released. Can you translate that for those of us not in the know? And what do you think of the above proposal?

Khorne and Tzeentch get Lethal 5+ or Sustained 6+.

Nurgle and Slaanesh get Lethal 6+ or Sustained 5+. Makes units better at what they are already good at, understandable that it's at least slightly better.

Undivided gets Lethal 6+ with re-roll 1s or Sustained 6+ with re-roll 1s.

Khorne gets 3+ fight on death instead of 4+. Mediocre Stratagem with a laughable mark bonus, making it automatic for Khorne might still not be enough, but it's perfectly understandable isn't.

Tzeentch gets back a model in addition to healing D3. Potentially really strong with Obliterators, especially if your opponent doesn't ask about your Strats and never played against a Tzeentch unit (kind of dirty but assuming tournament here). Terminators would also be great, but they don't see play and reviving a Chosen is probably just below worth it. While the big mutants do have 3 wounds, they're 6+ Sv so not really worth reviving. If you have 2x2 Obliterators and 2 Forgefiends I think undivided Forgefiends and Tzeentch Obliterators is okay, I saw a list where 1 Forgefiend and 1 Obliterator was undivided and the others were Nurgle, using Tzeentch would save the Nurgle Strat for another unit.

Nurgle gets cannot be targeted by ranged attacks from more than 18" away in addition to Stealth. Obviously strong.

Slaanesh gets Assault weapons, Advance and charge in addition to Fall Back and Charge. Obviously strong again.

Undivided gets re-roll all wounds, other marks get nothing. Obviously insane, but without the Strat the mark is worse, so you're probably never going full undivided.

One rule can represent multiple things, I agree that game design is tricky.

I really like the idea of Khornate CSM leading the charge with a Stratagem Wyldhunt, I think this design is thematic and expanded to the other marks would be ideal for the Pact Bound Zealots. So you have
*fight on death for Khorne
*ignores cover for Tzeentch
*heal for Nurgle
*advance and charge for Slaanesh
*fall back and shoot/charge for undivided (representing the superior morale I believe was the benefit in previous editions)

Your picked unit gets the benefit, if the picked unit has the appropriate mark it spreads to units within 6". Now you are heavily incentivised to get a variety pack of marks to benefit from the various Stratagems turning into auras while spamming the same mark over and over will have more limited value.

I get the idea behind it so they have marks. I like it but I find 3 issues. 1. Does dark pact stay the same in pact bound or is it change also within 6” of other mark? 2. How are Strats and enhancements used? 3. Other marks choosing other mark benefit options if within 6” could be a bit overwhelming for players and a bit odd thematically if you have one mark of the 4 gods and use another.






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Khorne and Tzeentch get Lethal 5+ or Sustained 6+.

Nurgle and Slaanesh get Lethal 6+ or Sustained 5+. Makes units better at what they are already good at, understandable that it's at least slightly better.

Undivided gets Lethal 6+ with re-roll 1s or Sustained 6+ with re-roll 1s.

I agree with all you said. Tzeentch and Khorne are obsolete in pact bound. And only reason undivided is used for is the Strat alone. Otherwise it’s sub par also.

This is why when people hear pact bound they think each unit is pact bound to a specific mark instead of being undivided and worshiping each gods equally. But doing so that way is what makes this detachment a failure. Thematically and in game play you give up so much 2 play only 2 marks with a touch of a third out of 5 marks.

Honestly I’d rather have the same 6+ dark pacts as the rest of the detachments if the Strats and enhancements were available to each unit. This broadens game play style and thematically a undivided detachment

Both you and Wyldhunt seem to dislike 8/9 being better at killing big stuff while 7/6 are better at killing small stuff, so I imagine you'd just simplify it to every mark getting 5+ Sustained and 5+ Lethal on a passed check, that would also get rid of the annoying re-roll 1s effect. You could also give each mark completely different benefits like Wyldhunt suggested, but my assumption is that it would increase the chance of not getting those rainbow armies which I think this detachment is meant to represent. No need for any aura there either way.

The Stratagems would be something like Warp Frenzy, Arcane Occulum, Bloated, Temporal Distortation, Mind of Metal, undivided buffs from the Chaos Boon table, but then if you pick a Tzeentch unit with the appropriate Stratagem if affects Pactbound Zealots units within 6" of the original target. If you chose names like Fury of Khorne you'd have to limit it to khorne and unmarked units, which would make it less likely that you take every mark since you might rather have access to every Stratagem on a unit rather than access to using that unit to give a Strat in an aura.

You can use [ quote][ /quote] to split my post into sections if you want to reply to individual parts instead of the whole of it.Otherwise just hit reply on the top right of my post to reply to the whole thing.

There are 2 options available for Pact Bound Zealots

Option 1. Unaligned like the other detachments in the codex (basically Undivided).
Option 2. Units have Specific Marks like Pact Bound, but changed a bit.

I would think that GW would like to make minor changes than bigger changes.

Option 1.

Dark Pacts: Pacts are 6+ just like the other codex detachments.

Detachment benefit: Dark Pacts lethal/sustain can re rolls 1’s. All units are considered to have an icon to re roll failed Dark Pacts.

This allows pact bound zealots to have better chance at succeeding with Dark Pacts and a better chance to roll the 6+ on die rolls of 1’s. ( This also fulfills the theme of Unaligned and Pact Bound Zealots name).

Stratagems: Remove the mark only, they can keep the name but all units can benefit from the entire stratagem. This gives more use of the stratagems to every unit.

Enhancements: Remove the Mark only they can keep the name as well. This allows all characters to use the enhancements.

Option 2. Gives the stronger pact but countered evenly with limited stratagems and enhancements

Detachment Benefit
Dark Pact is 5+. Units must have one of the 4 chaos god marks. But can choose sustain/lethal just like the other detachments. (This is very powerful without a countermeasure)

Stratagems: as they are now. Limited if not with the corresponding mark. However
Profane zeal and Eye of the gods would need to be changed to usable by any marked unit.

Enhancements: as they are now.

Option 2 makes up for the powerful 5+ dark pact by keeping the limitations of stratagems and enhancements except allowing all 4 marks to utilize the now defunct undivided eye and profane stratagems.
This also increases the chance of using all 4 marked units as they each get the same Dark Pact options.