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Hi Lords and Ladies. I will continually update this post with new ideas for rules, and will listen to all useful feedback in order to refine the rules. Please note this may seem sparse at first but will be heavily updated.

I will create some kind of changelog to make people aware of which rules are updated and when.

PLEASE DO NOT POST STUPID CRAP ABOUT RULES WHICH WILL DELIBERATELY RUIN THE ARMY - there is no place for your bitterness here. Anyone doing so will be quoted, but instead of quoting what negative nancy crap they posted, their words will be changed so that they declare themselves to be fish in the service of the God of Fish, and their genitals grow from their forehead.

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Chaos Space Marines and Chaos Daemons Special Rules

Your Worst Nightmare
Hunters beyond compare, driven by the need to inflict horror and slaughter, these brutal killers charge into battle without mercy, without thought, following only their warp-driven desires.
Warp Talons gain the "Your Worst Nightmare" special rule: Models with this special rule may assault in the same turn they arrive from deep strike. In addition, on the first turn of any assault in which they charged (Counter-Attack and Piling In do not count as the unit charging), all their close combat attacks have the Blind special rule, in addition to any other special rules which may apply.

We Overturned The Galaxy
The Traitor Legions were conquering the galaxy millennia before their opponents were even born. Thousands of hours of combat across ten thousand battlefields has honed the survivors into the most hardened and cynical of veterans. Those Chapters who forswear their oaths to the Emperor exist in a state of constant war, pursued by their former brothers and hated by those already in thrall to the Dark Gods.
* All Chaos Space Marine and Chaos Daemon vehicles with a Transport Capacity of 1 or more have the Assault Transport USR.
* All Chaos Space Marine and Chaos Daemon vehicles with the Walker, Tank, Heavy, Super Heavy and Lord of War unit types may move up to 6" and fire all of their weapons at their full Ballistic Skill. Ordnance weapons still follow the usual rules for each unit type.
* All Chaos Space Marine and Chaos Daemon vehicles with the Walker, Tank, Heavy, Super Heavy and Lord of War unit types ignore Crew Stunned and Crew Shaken results. They still lose Hull Points as normal.
* All Chaos Space Marine models with the Infantry and Character unit types, but without the Daemon USR, may purchase a Mark of Chaos. CSM models with the Daemon special rule may instead purchase a Daemon of Chaos special rule. (Note: Daemon Princes, Possessed, Warp Talons, Obliterators, Mutilators and vehicles with Daemonic Possession have the Daemon special rule.)

Unrelenting Fury
Some warriors carry bitterness and hatred like poisonous shards within their psyche. Over time, these emotions become an increasingly desperate obsession, and not even destruction of their physical form will stop them from killing.
Khorne Bloodcrushers and CSM Mutilators gain the Unrelenting Fury special rule: Models with Unrelenting Fury have the Rampage special rule. In addition, they may always make their attacks in the Fight phase, even if they have been killed by Overwatch fire or enemy attacks made at higher Initiative steps.

Mark of Khorne
Rage, Counter-Attack. Count as having Assault Grenades when charging into assault.

Mark of Tzeentch
Psyker, Mastery Level 1 or +1 to existing Mastery Level. HQs, DP and LOC may upgrade to max ML 4. Re-roll saving throws of 1.

Mark of Nurgle
Fear, +1 T. Defensive Grenades.

Mark of Slaanesh
+1 I. Must always make and accept challenges. In challenges, gains Preferred Enemy against their opponent. Models which already have Preferred Enemy against their opponent gain the Shred special rule as well.

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WARGEAR

All Chaos Space Marine Lords, Chaos Space Marine Troops, Aspiring Champions, Chosen and Chosen Champions wearing power armour are equipped with a close combat weapon and a bolt pistol in addition to whatever else they are carrying (yes, even Havocs with lascannons). The CCW can be replaced with a power weapon etc and pistols can be replaced with plasma pistols (plasma pistols cost 8 points). Models allowed to take plasma pistols can take two and benefit from Gunslinger. Models not mentioned in this list carry their wargear as listed in Codex: CSM.

Plasma pistols now cost 8 points each and plasma guns cost 12 points each.

Exalted Icon of Chaos
An Exalted Icon represents such a horrific defilement of the enemy's holy relics that it is certain to encourage the mirth and favour of the Ruinous Powers. Those warriors marching beneath such an Icon can feel the eye of their god upon them, exhorting them to feats of wanton slaughter beyond their darkest imaginings.
* Available only to Chosen.
* Follow the usual rules for Icons of their relevant Gods.
* Grants the Zealot special rule to all models in the unit.

Kai Gun
Legend has it that an entire shoal of Screamers of Tzeentch were bound during the creation of this insane weapon, much to the amused satisfaction of its current owner. No trigger or firing mechanism is attached to the weapon. Instead, its blinding, shrieking power is unleashed with a single word: "Now."
* S4, 24" range, Assault 1, the AP value is equal to the roll of a D6 (so this is the rare instance you're praying for a 1).
* Precision Shot.
* Instant Death.
* May be used by models with any Mark or no Mark; the bound daemons are slaves to whoever owns the gun.

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UNITS

N'Kari, Doom of the Eldar
A Keeper of Secrets, profile and wargear to be confirmed.

Doom of the Eldar
The first Keeper of Secrets to be born, N'Kari woke full of frustrated lust and fear, feelings which were only assuaged by the glut of Eldar souls.
N'Kari has the Preferred Enemy (Eldar, Dark Eldar and Harlequins) special rule. In addition, all Eldar, Dark Eldar and Harlequin models with a Ld characteristic are at -1 to all Fear tests she causes against them, even if they are normally immune to Fear or would automatically pass Leadership tests.

Chosen
Chosen are the strongest and most brutal of all Chaos Space Marines. These warriors are champions among champions, many of whom stormed the Emperor's Palace during the Seige of Terra. Their hatred and contempt for all other beings, combined with superlative skill in the art of war, marks them out as the favoured of the Dark Gods.
* Chosen Champion has +1 Attack. All Chosen and Chosen Champions gain the Crusader USR. Remember plasma pistols are now 8 points each and plasma guns are 12 points each.
* Chosen may take an Exalted Icon of Chaos.

Unsanctioned Psyker
This wretch has fled the persecution of the Imperium and run straight into the arms of his corrupted masters; or perhaps he was born on a Chaos-held world and has barely escaped the tormenting embrace of daemons. Whatever his story, this doomed creature is "protected" in the service of his Chaos Space Marine masters, although this is no guarantee that his life will be long or his soul will be saved from hell...
* Each unit of Chaos Cultists may purchase an additional Champion with a ML of 1. This model is armed only with an autopistol and improvised armour.
* His mastery level costs 10 additional points.
* The first time he fails a Psychic test he suffers a S10 hit with an AP of 1, as an explosive device wired into his brain takes him out before the daemon which always hunted him can arrive to kill him and everyone around him. This attack is resolved before the Perils test is made (in the unlikely event he survives such a traumatic injury).
* The psyker, and every model in his Unit, must take a Mark of Chaos. Every model must have the same Mark. The unsanctioned psyker can only use the discipline of that God and may not use any other disciplines at all.
* He DOES gain Psychic Focus.
* Units with the Mark of Khorne cannot take an unsanctioned psyker.
--- The rationale behind this unit is that some Chaos Cultists are so good at what they do they draw some favour from their Gods (if they didn't, why would anyone worship them?). The other is fluff-based, to make the 41st millennium seem a nightmarish place, to give things a bit of depth and backstory, and to make psykers seem like they're permanently in trouble (otherwise why would they be persecuted and require sanction?). It's also a cheap way of getting a (somewhat unreliable) psyker onto the board and is another way to prevent Summoning spam. TL;dr - this is a fluff unit, and not designed to be a power gaming unit.

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Changelog

17 April 2016
* Created this thread
* Chaos Chosen: Swapped it so the unit always has Crusader and the Exalted Icon gives them Zealot, as it makes more sense this way around.

I don't disagree with your sentiment and I absolutely appreciate the obvious effort that's gone into this but I would just like to suggest writing somewhat less verbose wording for some of your rules.

For instance, Unrelenting Fury is a cool and flavorful rule but itself is just a package for three other abilities. Try this:

Mutilators that are Daemons of Khorne and Khorne Bloodcrushers gain Fury and Rampage. They also always make attacks in close combat, even if they die.

This way, we don't make up a new rule that needs to be defined. So anyone playing these rules only has to go look up or remember already existing rules. That's a small thing but its important. Also, I'm not quite sure what Fury is. Do you mean Rage?

Now there are some balance concerns here too. In the Unrelenting Fury rule, being able to always get off your attacks is a little much. Bloodcrushers and Mutilators, for as inefficient as they are, pack a lot of AP 3/2. This would make a lot of CC units worthless by comparison. What if they got to make a single naked baby attack at I1 if they die in CC?

Your Worst Nightmare is in a similar boat. Not only do we have two totally unrelated abilities defining the same rule, there are practical concerns with this one too. It also has some balance implications to think about too.

The exact wording for the Blind special rule would not cause a blind test to be taken for each hit, but giving every attack blind still feels ham-fisted. That also steps on the toes of the Warpflame Strike rule which is weak, but salvageable. I would cut this rule altogether and just increase the range on Warpflame Strike.

We Overturned the Galaxy has the obvious balance implications of giving those bonuses away for free but even if you could justify that how does that fit with the fluff? Are the Rhinos used by CSM not the same Rhinos used by loyalists? What do the models for chaos rhinos have that loyalist models don't that would imply this?

Giving free CCWs to everything is also tenuous. CSM have the exact same stat line as loyalist CSM and loyalists that can take them on tacs have to pay for them. How do you justify that? Making plasma cheaper also has the same concern. CSM have the same stats as loyalist MEQs so the argument that wargear prices should be proportional to the model price is out. Are loyalist plasma guns not the same plasma guns that CSM get? I think plasma pistols should be cheaper in general, but CSM shouldn't be the only ones that get a discount. The same goes for CCWs. 2ppm seems to be where GW thinks they are balanced but 1ppm feels better.

Exalted Icons are cool. Do they cost the same as the normal icons? Since only Chosen can take them, it seems fair.


In general, I agree with the sentiment and I especially like the flavor text for your rules but I don't think giving special privilege to one codex is the answer. What we really need is for a lot of units to come down in price and for a lot of units to have synergy with each other. There are also core game rules that could be reworked and game- wide point cost precedents that could be adjusted which would help CSM and a lot of other struggling armies too.

Id let Warp Talons keep their Blind explosion when they come in, as that happens before melee does. Many of these are interesting (particularly the All Assault vehicles thing) i think its just a matter of polish.

As for the justification, while the Rhinos may be the same basic chassis, they have been messed with for thousands of years and Chaos only cares about functionality. So im sure a bunch of World Eaters got sick of the Normal Rhinos and made the Assault ones, though you may want to change their Access Points and make it optional, id do it like this:

All Chaos Space Marine and Chaos Daemon vehicles with a Transport Capacity may have the Assault Transport USR, if they choose to take this free upgrade they exchange their regular Access Points for one Access Point at the front of the vehicle. If the vehicle is Open Topped this rule does nothing.

Thanks for the extremely detailed feedback gents. I've got a lot to say and will reply when I finish work. I would say that I don't understand all the cost/rules comparisons between traitors and loyalists - they are entirely separate armies chosen from entirely separate codices, and there are already significant disparities in rules and costs - for example, loyalists get free special and heavy weapons (do they still get this?), can split into combat squads, get ATSKNF. Why can't the traitor legions, who fought alongside demigods and conquered a million worlds, do this? Lord Solar Macharius conquered a thousand worlds. Wow, I'm sure Mortarion, Fulgrim and Horus are impressed.

Chaos Space Marines are assault oriented and Codex Marines, while all-rounders, seem biased towards shooting. Why shouldn't the Chaos armies charge screaming out of all their transports? And why would loyalists do this?

Loyalists are typically pious warrior-monks. Traitors are generally deranged, selfish, arrogant nutcases. Why would they think or behave even remotely the same as each other?

I'll come back to the rest later.

I like the idea behind this, though obviously having a pair of codexes that don't suck balls would help out a great deal more overall, but it's GW so…

 NoPoet wrote:
Your Worst Nightmare
Hunters beyond compare, driven by the need to inflict horror and slaughter, these brutal killers charge into battle without mercy, without thought, following only their warp-driven desires.
Warp Talons gain the "Your Worst Nightmare" special rule: Models with this special rule may assault in the same turn they arrive from deep strike. In addition, on the first turn of any assault in which they charged (Counter-Attack and Piling In do not count as the unit charging), all their close combat attacks have the Blind special rule, in addition to any other special rules which may apply.

I think for Warp Talons something like this does make sense, but I'd maybe just leave them with their regular Blind blast thing. Also, the charge should probably count as disordered, but perhaps the target can't Counter Attack and can't Overwatch on better than BS1 (Dark Angels can be as well trained and disciplined as they like against enemies they could see before they were charged, but daemonic jump units suddenly emerging from the warp are a bit different).

 NoPoet wrote:
We Overturned The Galaxy
The Traitor Legions were conquering the galaxy millennia before their opponents were even born. Thousands of hours of combat across ten thousand battlefields has honed the survivors into the most hardened and cynical of veterans. Those Chapters who forswear their oaths to the Emperor exist in a state of constant war, pursued by their former brothers and hated by those already in thrall to the Dark Gods.

I think a lot of this is provided too much for nothing, I'll address them individually:

 NoPoet wrote:
All Chaos Space Marine and Chaos Daemon vehicles with a Transport Capacity of 1 or more have the Assault Transport USR.

I actually kind of like this one, but perhaps it could be balanced by counting as charging through Dangerous Terrain (so it's also Disordered by default)? They're still trying to get out of vehicles that are at least similar to the loyalist equivalents, and even if there are weird new configurations it stands to reason that they may not be entirely safe

 NoPoet wrote:
All Chaos Space Marine and Chaos Daemon vehicles with the Walker, Tank, Heavy, Super Heavy and Lord of War unit types may move up to 6" and fire all of their weapons at their full Ballistic Skill. Ordnance weapons still follow the usual rules for each unit type.

I probably wouldn't bother with this, everybody is in the same boat when it comes to vehicle rules being annoying, and walkers being generally lacklustre. Plus, can't Heavies and Super Heavies already fire all of their weapons anyway, or at least more easily?

 NoPoet wrote:
All Chaos Space Marine and Chaos Daemon vehicles with the Walker, Tank, Heavy, Super Heavy and Lord of War unit types ignore Crew Stunned and Crew Shaken results. They still lose Hull Points as normal.

I'd limit this to the walker types that are clearly part daemonic, while I know even Rhinos may have pilots fused to them and such it's less obviously the case and some traitor legions are less mutated than others.

 NoPoet wrote:
Unrelenting Fury
Some warriors carry bitterness and hatred like poisonous shards within their psyche. Over time, these emotions become an increasingly desperate obsession, and not even destruction of their physical form will stop them from killing.
Khorne Bloodcrushers and CSM Mutilators gain the Unrelenting Fury special rule: Models with Unrelenting Fury have the Rampage special rule. In addition, they may always make their attacks in the Fight phase, even if they have been killed by Overwatch fire or enemy attacks made at higher Initiative steps.

I'd maybe go with one effect or the other; in fact, the Wulfen Death Frenzy rule might be a good model here; if they are killed in the Fight sub-phase they get to attack at the end of the current Initiative step, even if they already attacked. This will be more balanced than Rampage against enemies you're already better than, but outclass it in cases where you need it most.

 NoPoet wrote:
WARGEAR

All Chaos Space Marine Lords, Chaos Space Marine Troops, Aspiring Champions, Chosen and Chosen Champions wearing power armour are equipped with a close combat weapon and a bolt pistol in addition to whatever else they are carrying (yes, even Havocs with lascannons). The CCW can be replaced with a power weapon etc and pistols can be replaced with plasma pistols (plasma pistols cost 8 points). Models allowed to take plasma pistols can take two and benefit from Gunslinger. Models not mentioned in this list carry their wargear as listed in Codex: CSM.

Plasma pistols now cost 8 points each and plasma guns cost 12 points each.

I wouldn't lower the prices of anything when they have no clear disadvantage compared to the loyalist equivalent. Also, I'd say that chaos marines being able to swap their Boltgun for a close combat weapon is already enough. I get that the loyalists get some pretty nifty bonuses for their extra 1 point per model, but I think the better solution is an And They Shall Know No Fear replacement. I was thinking it could be neat if all chaos marines could re-roll Sweeping Advances, but always have to perform them. This is a nice contrast to the loyalists, and actually it means that in a traitor vs loyalist close combat the traitors won't easily allow the loyalists to fall back. They should probably also be immune to Fear, because they've seen things, man.

A Chapter Tactic equivalent would be the other obvious balancing factor, but a tricky one to balance well; if they're good enough then they would make the chaos marines undercosted. Ideally if we eventually get an updated codex the chaos marines and loyalist marines will cost the same, but have different bonuses that balance them out in terms of value.

I wouldn't lower the cost of Plasma weapons either. I've suggested it several times before, but I still like the alternate idea instead:

Back in 2nd ed, "Gets Hot" was a special rule that existed specifically for Chaos armies, fluff justification being that earlier Plasma weapons didn't have as many safety features/emergency vents (which incidentally lowered the raw rate of fire of said plasma weapons), and while the Loyalists eventually accepted such measures, the Traitor Legions viewed such elements as cowardice and weakness.

In-game, the idea would be that: Any Plasma Weapon wielded by a Chaos Space Marine fires an additional shot beyond its normal profile. Meaning a Plasma Rifle would fire 3 shots at 12", etc. However, any roll of 1 would count as rolling *two* 1s for purposes of Gets Hot!

This would, by itself, close a fair bit of power between them and an average Loyalist force, at least before "wide availability of Grav Cannons" gets brought up.

 NoPoet wrote:
Loyalists are typically pious warrior-monks. Traitors are generally deranged, selfish, arrogant nutcases. Why would they think or behave even remotely the same as each other?

CSM are assault oriented but so are space wolves and they don't get assault vehicle rhinos. For the sake of rules consistency, chaos rhinos and normal rhinos should be mostly similar, save for the things that can actually be modeled differently. If CSM are different from loyalist marines, that's fine, but incorporate that differentiation where it is due. Give marks some more oomph, make some problem units cheaper/ stronger, incorporate some way for a lot of units to synergize with each other.

And the point that all CSM are derranged psychos vs loyalist marines being pious monks, while generally true, is still a generalization. Are Night Lords/ World Eaters/ Emperor's Children less than stable? Definitely. But then the Black Legion, while influenced very much by the ruinous powers, it is kept a military organization insomuch as Abbadon can maintain and is very active in the activities they participated in as a legion. And then the Word Bearers are all raving zealots, right? Are Black Templars very different barring the fact that they worship a different god?

I'm listening to feedback and I am thinking of ways to make the Chaos army more close combat oriented, while trying to keep the rules as "fluffy" as possible. In fact, I'm surprised no-one has even mentioned that the rules fuse fluff with crunch.

There doesn't seem to be much input from people who actually play Chaos Space Marines as their main army, and there is a great deal about what loyalist Space Marines can do or can get in relation to their Chaos counterparts.

I took the following points into account when coming up with my rules:

They had to make Chaos as characterful as possible.

* Chaos are generally a deranged, close assault oriented army who want to see the light fade in their enemy's dying eyes.

* Chaos Daemon units, which are manifestations of their respective patrons, are nearly all assault-only units, with only Nurgle daemons having ranged attacks (throwing their own poo?) and Tzeentch casting flames that tend to help the opposing player. (Which Codex Space Marine unit protects its enemies?)

* The Gods of Chaos are gods of madness and destruction (including Nurgle and Tzeentch -- they have to destroy something to recreate it).

* Exposure to the warp twists a person's character, magnifies their personality traits and obsessions and mutates their form and even their soul.

* The warp's influence creates insanity, or worsens existing insanity.

* Traitors who stay relatively sane only do so from retaining a sense of purpose, and/or staying out of the Eye.

* The Emperor is NOT a god of madness, although you could certainly argue he is a god of destruction, bloodshed and murder (although he wouldn't see himself that way).

* The Traitor Legions are far older than any warrior of the Imperium, and it seems ridiculous to believe any loyal Astartes could possess anything like the experience of someone who fought in the Heresy.

* It is repeatedly alluded to in 40K novels and discussion that Space Marines of the 41st millennium are regarded to as inferior whelps or faded copies by the traitor legions.

* Chaos Space Marines are priced differently and have different rules, options and equipment to loyalist space marines which may make basic CSM troopers inferior to loyalists (mainly due to ATSKNF).

* Codex Space Marines get free special and heavy weapons, but people in this thread would not want to see a reduction in CSM equipment costs, or to see CSMs getting a free CCW, bolt pistol and bolter (when in most squads this would likely only add up to the same value as the free missile launcher and flamer Codex Marines get).

* I find it hardly likely to compare Space Wolves and World Eaters. I would fully expect the World Eaters to rip the Space Wolves a new one, man for man, and in fact they did this during the Heresy (although this would have cost them Angron, which frankly they didn't care about). The Space Wolves are basically Viking werewolves (sorry to dumb it down so badly) while the World Eaters are blood-mad butchers who exist to carve living flesh into bleeding, screaming chunks.

* I also find it impossible to correlate the Word Bearers and Black Templars, except perhaps as some kind of insane, dark mirror. "This is what you would become if you surrendered your loyalty to the Throne and replaced zealous duty with religious fanaticism - hope you like building churches".

I was also responding to common complaints on 4DChan and Dakkadakka.

* Many, many complaints I see online related to Codex Space Marines. There is a clear sense that C:SM players are spoiled by the vast choice of wargear they get and the number of beneficial rules and formations available to them. They forget that other armies are nowhere near as privileged. This links to the next point:

* Many Chaos players seem to feel like the unloved step-children of the GW, as we only seem to get inferior, bog standard Imperial cast-offs for vehicles (athough we do get Helldrakes, which are roundly criticised by everyone who doesn't play Chaos).

* The majority of Chaos players seem to bemoan the "half-in, half-out" attitude in the Chaos army list, in which the fluff indicates the Chaos armies prefer to get up close and personal, but their dedicated CC units tend to suck (Warp Talons cause a blinding explosion when they appear, but they have to just stand there wasting it? and what's the point of picking Mutilators over Obliterators?), and the rest of the army lacks special rules or profiles to make them dedicated assault specialists.

Please note I'm not calling anybody wrong and I'm certainly not insulting Space Marine players, this is the first decent discussion I've seen about Chaos Space Marines (in terms of fluff as much as crunch), by all means give your opinions. We might even make some decent rules at the end