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When they go to war, the dread Chaos Space Marines sometimes unleash the Warp-twisted and tortured souls of bested foes upon the enemy army, their horrific screams drowning out communication attempts and terrifying them with its otherworldly presence. Even the hardiest of warriors find their concentration pushed to the limit when assailed not only by the inbound foe, but by the howling spirits of their fallen allies as well.

Haunting Spirit (1-3 may be taken if a Dark Apostle or Sorcerer is in the army as Elites, but take no FoC slots).

Infantry

WS1 BS1 S4 T4 W1 I4 A0 LD10 Sv-

Wargear: None

Special rules: Daemon, Deep Strike, Incorporeal, Wails of the Damned

Incorporeal: Haunting Spirits ignore the effects of difficult and dangerous terrain, and have the save from the Daemon rule increased to 3+ (which cannot be further modified). In addition, Haunting Spirits are never locked in combat (in exactly the same way as a vehicle), nor do they lock enemies in combat by charging. They can never seize or contest objectives, nor do they offer kill points in relevant missions, and they cannot be joined by characters.

Wails of the Damned: Enemies within 12" of the Haunting Spirit suffer -1 WS, BS and LD (the latter of which is increased to -2 on units that have a model in base contact with the Spirit) and cannot fire Overwatch. This effect does not stack with other Haunting Spirits.

A couple of things.

1. Although they do not use a FOC slot, what slot type are they (Elite, Troop, etc)?
2. Incorporeal is frankly broken. My suggestion take away the attack immunity (there are a few armies who have absolutely no way of dealing with them such as Sisters of Battle and Necrons). Give them an unmodifiable 3+ invulnerable save instead. I would also take away the Mishap safety, or it needs to be appropriately costed (even Drop Pods can be outright destroyed in the right circumstances).

Done.

If each marine dead creates a spirit then I would paint skme glowin the dark marines.

I think it might be helpful for you to narrow down exactly what it is you want this unit to be.

Wails of the Damned makes me think they're meant to be a debuff unit that sets other units up for assault. Incorporeal gives them a save that makes them more durable and almost like a tarpit, except it doesn't let them lock into combat (which is probably for the best). Incorporeal also means that they themselves can never be locked in combat which means they'll always be susceptible to getting targeted by things, but they're also able to charge a new enemy every turn.

What's their unit type? Infantry? How "swarmy" do you want them to be? If we're looking at a unit that can be taken in large numbers, can't score, debuffs, and charges an enemy every turn, I think you'd be looking at something in the 8 or 9 points range. Maybe a bit more. Sure, they're susceptible to shooting each turn, but they're still packing a 3+ invul. Now, if you made them a relatively elite unit (say 3-5 or 5-10), I could see them being less expensive simply because it would take less firepower to take them off the table.

A few questions regarding their special rules:
* Do multiple units with wail stack their debuffs? I assume it isn't cumulative with multiple spirits in the same unit, but what about when multiple haunting spirit units are in range of the same enemy unit?

*If haunting spirits can't be locked into combat, can they still be punched back during assault? Can they be swept if they lose combat by enough?

*What happens at the end of an assault with these guys? They don't "lock in", but spirits and anyone charging the spirits still pile in at initiative (I assume). So you'd theoretically have a lot of spirits in BTB or within 1" of enemy units. Would consolidation be a thing in some way?

Haunting Spirits are meant to be pure debuff units, as they have no way of attack. They force the enemy to choose between spending firepower on removing the Spirits, or ignore them and tank the debuffs.

They are Infantry, and I intended for them to just be a few single models rather than swarms. However, having them in small units might also make sense. They are certainly not intended to be any more numerous than that.

The 'never locked in combat' mechanic works like a vehicle. No sweeping, no consolidation, etc. They can of course still be attacked in assault, just like a vehicle can.

I'm almost thinking these units could be more akin to a summoned Psyker power, or like how the GK Vortex works. Maybe pass a leadership or some test on the Dark Apostle to allow them to be summoned. Once they're summoned they could be templates or markers to signify their location.

From there the summoned spirit could either scatter like the Vortex, or move a few inches as normal. This would remove the problems with balancing their toughness and how they are locked in combat, making them more of an ephemeral spirit wafting around the battlefield.

1 wound, 3+ save, T4. I would not pay more than 20-25 pts for each of those. The effect is nice, but the body is extremely fragile for what it is supposed to do (get within 12" of the opponent).

Change its invul save to 2+ and I could see it cost rise to 35-40.