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In the 8th edition the chaos marine legions are finally shaping up to be the premiere antagonist of the imperium, with the new major release on the radar.

This prompts the question: What is the chaos legions' greatest asset in the war against the imperium?

I was always thinking it is their sheer numbers, given how large legions have been; but this doesn't seem to hold true. While all legions together at the hight fielded around 1.5 million marines; a comparable number is achieved by the imperium, albeit in a less focused manner.

I think your number is a bit lean tbh. If you by the codex force distribution charts you start seeing higher numbers than thought (of course these charts are to be taken as abstract, seeing is the 1ksons have as many Scarab Terms as they do Rubrics, according to the codex). Both the 1ksons and DG have very large fleets, both have traitor houses aligned and have access to guard like troops in the form of heretic guard. This isn't counting the aux's that both factions have (Tzaangors and Cultists). When looking at the codex chart for 1k sons you get the number of rubrics and scarabs seems to sit at 100k rubrics and 100k scarabs (lol this is just dumb, just figure most of those are rubrics) across the entire legion. This does not count the Scarabs in the legion command as no number is given. Now you have to assume the number of tzangors at least quadruples that number and the constant available cultist pool to be in the millions. This is also not counting the prospero guard which once more, no numbers are given. Now add in demon princes and and Exalted and regular sorcs outside of the legion command. We start seeing some scary numbers. The 1ksons have at least two knight houses under direct patronage and at that many traitor titan legions.

None of this accounts for hel brutes, demon engines, forgeworld units, planetary invasion craft (fire raptors ect) and combat fleets. The legion is made up of 9 cults and each cult has its own fleet of silver towers, escort vessels, battleships and super heavy units. This is all taken from the codex.

This is one legion, we still have the other legions to factor in and the countless warbands. There seems to be far more chaos marines than imperials. At least by the information given. Factor in demon summonings and wargroups and you have a very very large base to draw upon. Chaos as a whole probably don't come close to outnumbering the imperials but in great irony, are far easier to organize and draw upon. The Imperium is beset on all sides and cant afford to move at least half of its war assets as they are needed as defense. My point is I think its a case of both numbers and legacy marines that makes the legions dangerous.

Nothing? Or possibly plot armor.

Numbers and fleets are meaningless with the way GW writes stories and setting details (they are never consistent or relevant on the scale they use)

Chaos 'powers' are either countered or are a negative on a regular basis.

Really, they'll only be the premiere threat until the next tyranid codex, and then they'll have to overhype them again.

Temptation. Chaos's biggest strength is that it is always nawing away at anyone it can with promises and boons. As long as their is life in the galaxy, chaos has a way to extend it's agenda. It's the great irony that if it ever succeeded in defeating the IOM it would probably weaken itself.

Experience, pure and simple, when you live in a literal hellscape after fighting the bloodiest war in history (not including war in heaven) and survive anything from a few years to tens of thousands of years in the warp.... well, you learn a lot.

NOBODY expects Chaos! Our chief weapon is surprise!... Surprise and fear... fear and surprise...

Our two weapons are fear and surprise... and ruthless efficiency! Our three weapons are fear, and surprise, and ruthless efficiency... and an almost fanatical devotion to the Chaos Gods!...

Our four... no... Amongst our weapons... Hmf... Amongst our weaponry... are such elements as fear, surpr... I'll come in again.

The insidious nature of chaos itself.

Chaos' biggest asset is that living in the Imperium sucks. Chaos thrives because of the Imperium, not despite it. The Imperium is a hellhole for most people, so falling to Chaos seems to be the only way for many to escape their miserable lifes. For most it doesn't end up well on the other side, but once you're there you can't return.

Also Traitor Legions.
Also Daemons which can flood every Planet now due to the rift.

Cults, traitors and a unboud Dark admech.

Cults because of destabilizing whole secotrs.
Traitor Guard because 90% of the time they are good enough to either lock down a sector, slow enemy Astartes and or just simply take an objective all on their own.
And dark admech because, well, inovation+ insanity and warp shenanigans.

An inexhaustable source of cannonfodder, coupled with...

An insatiable lust for power whilst having psychotic paranoia

The same thing as benefits the Sith: hatred!

I think it really dpends on the scale you want to see this.
Like many said the greatest asset of chaos itself is, that it can't be beaten. There will always be the lust for war, pleasure etc. so Chaos will endure as long as there are people.
The Forces of CSM and their allies have two advantages above their imperial counterparts: First, the hatred and warmongering character, which lets them excell in war-like situations. Second, experience and have been literally "walking through hell" gives them some form of tenacity as well.....think Marvels Punisher

The fleet. It contains the Legions' greatest firepower, they need it for the vast majority of their strategic mobility (warp transport being much less common), and without the fleets the Chaos Legions are at the mercy of the Imperial Navy and their huge firepower.

Even if a Legion managed to warp onto a planet, wifhout a fleet presence the Navy would bombard most of their formations to dust. Without a fleet presence, they cannot interdict Imperial reinforcements and supplies. Abaddon has also repeatedly shiwn that if an Imperial world is too tough a nut to crack through invasion alone, then destroying the world is an alternative. An alternative that requires a strong fleet. If a CSM force needs to retreat, again the fleets are needed, so they facilitate hit-and-run tactics to keep the Imperium on its toes and prevent a hammer blow counterstrike.

Basically, without the fleets, the Chaos Legions cannot counter any of the key strengths of the Imperium, and would be confined to the Eye of Terror in all but a handful of scenarios.

I agree that the Legion's greatest asset is the horrible conditions within the Imperium. That's taking the long-term view, anyway.

In a direct military confrontation, the greatest asset would be some combination of being unbound by religious doctrine in warfare and the widespread use of magic powers. The only problem is of course that some legions have their own restricting doctrines and that the magic powers can be as much of a curse as a blessing and aren't neatly replicable. You can't just order up some unaided flight with a side of x-ray vision, hold the paranoia.

Chaos as a whole is very dependent on particular circumstances. A force of Iron Warriors and an equivalent force of Word Bearers might have wildly different strengths against the same set of defenders. Just the basic fluctuations of the Warp greatly influence which soldiers are even available to a commander.

Abaddon.

It helps that they tend to be the attacking / aggressive force, which is, after all, supposed to be the Space Marine's way of war, and means they should really tend to have the initiative, striking at the weaker points of the Imperium.

I'd say that while having no real logistical tail means they're prone to have problems with supplies, it does mean that their forces are "all teeth, no tail".

Just now its the great rift. The Imperium is cut in half with that.

Entropy. The Imperium has been steadily crumbling since it was built. It can only ever get weaker, there's no ordered equivalent to the warp, or the 'Powers, or human temptation or organic decay - there's no natural counterbalance setting things to rights. The machinery breaks down, the walls fall, the rifts get wider, alliances collapse. Chaos, it would seem, is the natural state of the universe, and all that can be achieved is a fighting retreat against it.

If all Chaos did was sit back and watch, the whole thing would still fall in the end. They only have to be lucky once, the Imperium has to be lucky forever.

Casualty wrote:
Entropy. The Imperium has been steadily crumbling since it was built. It can only ever get weaker, there's no ordered equivalent to the warp, or the 'Powers, or human temptation or organic decay - there's no natural counterbalance setting things to rights. The machinery breaks down, the walls fall, the rifts get wider, alliances collapse. Chaos, it would seem, is the natural state of the universe, and all that can be achieved is a fighting retreat against it.

If all Chaos did was sit back and watch, the whole thing would still fall in the end. They only have to be lucky once, the Imperium has to be lucky forever.

Entropy is as much chaos' downfall. They only live as long as there are souls/emotions to harvest.

It's difficult to say. Without the cults, it would be quite difficult for them to make conquests deep inside the Imperium. Without their Chaos gifts, they'd just a group of renegades with aging technology that could probably be worn down over time by Imperial forces without a whole lot of effort (especially if they were as divided as they are now). Same can be said about their equipment without the aid of the Dark Mechanicum. Without the daemons, they would lose a massive, nigh-limitless source of reinforcements that would put incredible pressure on them to bring in human recruits just to be able to barely muster armies capable of seriously challenging the Imperium (again, how divided they were would play a major part in this). Without the Guard, they would lose a solid part of their army which could not be made up in quantity with more Marines or in quality with more cultists. So I think that it's a mixture of all of these things interacting that makes the legions so dangerous. Remove one or two of any of them and the CSM's threat level goes way down.

.

Given that Chaos didn't really start winning until after a Certain Army became a term describing what happened to them...

I'd say their greatest asset is GWs senior staff over the last decade or so.