Space Marines are lionised by the citizens of the Imperium as deific saviours who deliver mankind from certain doom, but few know that not all of their superhuman kind serve the Emperor’s will. From the depths of the warp, monstrous figures clad in ancient and twisted power armour emerge to despoil the galaxy for their own dark whims, born of a great betrayal that cursed the Imperium ten thousand years before the opening of the Great Rift.
They are the Chaos Space Marines, a dark reflection of the Emperor’s angels, and one of the greatest existential threats to Imperial hegemony. Yet for all they kill, maim, and burn, they are not all mindless savages. Many simply rage against a galaxy that cast them aside – and which, they would argue, owes them the power that only the Chaos Gods provide. Here’s everything you need to know if you’re thinking of starting an army of these bloodthirsty warlords.
New to the world of Warhammer 40,000? This quick-fire primer will get you up to speed on the vicious raiders and reavers of the Chaos Space Marines – what they are, how they look, and the way they play on the tabletop.
Like the loyal Space Marines they stand in opposition to, Chaos Space Marines are genetically augmented super-soldiers taken apart and remade by arcane science from a different age. They are armoured in advanced suits of powered armour connected directly to their bodies, which grants them strength, speed, and durability far beyond that which even the greatest human warriors could hope to achieve.
Almost all began their lives as loyal servants of the Emperor, and whether they were present at the first great heresy or threw off the Imperium’s shackles in more recent times, they all reached a moment when the allure of Chaos broke through their rigid conditioning and delivered ever greater rewards for their service.
To understand how the Chaos Space Marines came to be, we must go back to the dawn of the Imperium in the 31st Millennium – when the Emperor walked the earth and Legions of Space Marines tens of thousands strong conquered the galaxy in humanity’s name. At the pinnacle of the nascent Imperium’s might, the insidious taint of Chaos wormed its way amongst its greatest heroes and a corruption of body and spirit took hold of the Primarch tasked with commanding all others – Horus Lupercal, the Emperor’s favoured son.
Truths were twisted. Pride and martial prowess were appealed to. Doubts were cast on the Emperor and his plans, and soon fully half of the Space Marine Legions turned against their brothers. The apocalyptic civil war that they ignited almost brought humanity to its knees, but the death of Warmaster Horus in a duel with the Emperor collapsed all hope of victory for the Traitors and seared a stinging defeat on their souls that would never heal.
Those surviving heretics who fled into the Warp eventually regrouped and began a campaign of vengeance on the Imperium known as the Long War. For ten thousand years they have dealt uncountable blows to slowly soften their hated foe, and at the height of the 41st Millennium their schemes bore fruit as the Great Rift – an immense warp storm of inconceivable scale – cleaved the galaxy in two following the fall of the fortress world of Cadia.
Now Chaos runs rampant across the galaxy. The assault on the Imperium was largely the work of Abaddon the Despoiler, master of the Black Legion and the most notorious tyrant to plague the galaxy for 10 millennia. It was Abaddon who seized the reins of his Legion following Horus’ death and pulled the shattered Traitor forces back together through sheer force of will, and now it is Abaddon who gathers Chaos Space Marines of every allegiance and creed for a massive push towards the Sol System and Terra itself.
The Traitor Legions are not the only Space Marines to have turned against the Emperor, however. While it is rare for the indoctrinated warriors of the Adeptus Astartes to break their oaths of allegiance, it is not unheard of, and some have sought out Traitor warbands of their own accord – disillusioned with Chapter or Imperium, or having been tempted into pacts with the Dark Gods.
Others possess the ambition and resources to strike out alone, forming their own warbands in the pursuit of power and infamy. There have even been occasions upon which entire Chapters have turned renegade in one fell swoop, such as the Red Corsairs led by Huron Blackheart who had previously served the Imperium as the Astral Claws.
A daemonic presence meanwhile gathers warbands of his own. An ancient demigod of industry and artifice named Vashtorr the Arkifane exploded onto the galactic stage in the closing years of the 41st Millennium, owing no allegiance to the Dark Gods save the carefully worded bargains he strikes, and he now advances his carefully laid plans through a network of indentured warriors and bartered allies.
This is the Traitors' time. Many of the heretics feel themselves empowered in the unilluminated realm of the Imperium Nihilus – that benighted half of the galaxy on the opposite side of the Great Rift from Holy Terra. Some see the dubious gifts of their Dark Gods swell with greater strength – artefacts of heinous power seething with enhanced prominence and sorcery flaring with greater diabolical majesty. Beyond the excoriating touch of the Emperor's light, it seems, darkness is gathering strength.
On the tabletop, Chaos Space Marine armies have access to a wide variety of units that excel both in ranged combat and deadly assaults, though with a heavier preference for close combat than their Loyalist kin. Most infantry are extremely resilient thanks to the armour saves granted by their power armour, while hordes of expendable mortals are sacrificed to soak up firepower, soften up dug-in enemies, or hold backfield objectives.
This hunger for a bloodsoaked melee manifests as some of the finest close combat troops in the game, with the infamous Possessed in particular packing speed, durability, and raw strength into a single powerful body. Chaos Terminators are the cream of the crop with the added ability to teleport right behind enemy lines, and should that still not be enough to buckle your opponent’s battle lines, waves of Warp Talons, Raptors, and Chaos Spawn can shatter what’s left.
Their roots as former Imperial forces also gives them access to several reliable vehicles like the Rhino, Predator, and Land Raider tanks for troop carrying and anti-armour duties. Everything gets better when mixed with the warp, though, and Chaos commanders can enlist the services of a variety of powerful Daemon Engines to crush your foe’s finest under the perfect amalgamation of technology and chaotic power.
Combat Patrol is a game mode perfect for beginners and veterans alike, in which smaller forces clash in fast-paced and balanced games. Here, Chaos Space Marines are all about aggression and their love of close combat, which aims to establish an early lead with an all-infantry force bristling with deadly weapons and plenty of bodies to hold them.
Zarkan’s Daemonkin are, as the name suggests, centred around their elite Possessed and the Master of Possession that leads them. These two units are some of the fastest infantry in any Combat Patrol, and can delete your opponent’s most valuable pieces with a brutal charge early in the game.
The Legionaries support the assault with ample firepower, high armour saves and a hefty Wound count, and pack a heavy bolter and melta gun to do solid work against a wide variety of enemy types. The Cultist Mob may seem unimpressive by comparison, but as a BATTLELINE unit they’re invaluable for capturing objectives, and expendable troops are always handy for soaking up firepower or blocking enemy advances simply by being in the way.
All you need to deploy Zarkan’s Daemonkin is a few dice, a ruler, and the downloadable rules below – the Core Rules show you how to play the game, the Combat Patrol Datasheets provide a balanced army that’s ready to play, and the Combat Patrol Missions give you some thrilling objectives to fight over!
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The fragmented nature of the Chaos Space Marine warbands that exist in the 41st Millennium means they frequently diverge from the colour schemes of their parent Legions, and now span the entire spectrum from riotously colourful Noise Marines to sombre Black Legion Chosen. What this means is that absolutely anything you can think of is not only possible, but lore-appropriate – the more eclectic and maddening the better.
A solid, achievable base is always a good place to start though, especially with the fine details that most Chaos Space Marines miniatures possess, so the Warhammer 40,000 Painting Team have put together a list of paints to give your Combat Patrol the dark and forbidding armour of the Black Legion and their mortal cultist supplicants.
The intricate armour trim, bones, and chaotic charms all present a great challenge for confident painters, and look fantastic with only a careful hand and a few metallic paints needed. Thanks to the skills you’ll learn painting even the most basic miniatures from this Combat Patrol, you’ll have no problem with the more extravagant heroes and vehicles found in the Codex.
Once you have a few Combat Patrol games under your belt and you’re ready to go from an opportunist warband to an all-conquering invasion fleet, you might be wondering where you want to go next.
Your first stop is Codex: Chaos Space Marines – the essential companion to the faction, containing plenty of background lore and gorgeously painted miniatures, as well as rules for 48 different units and plenty of different ways to play them. Together with a copy of the Warhammer 40,000 Core Book, you’ll have all of the rules you need to start playing full-size games of Warhammer 40,000.
Your Combat Patrol provides a versatile base of infantry to start your army around, so the hulking Daemon Engines that can shred lesser troops and trade blows with larger units are your next step. Maulerfiends and Forgefiends are deadly armoured beasts built from the same kit – slaying elite infantry and vehicles in close combat or blasting holes in just about everything, respectively.
Larger still are the spider-like walking tanks known as Defilers, who marry intense firepower from their torso-mounted cannons with a pair of enormous crushing claws that can turn entire tanks into tin cans in seconds. While they mop up your unlucky foes on the ground, the swooping daemonic flyers called Heldrakes win you the skies with razor-sharp claws and baleful weapons that are especially good when used against enemy aircraft – but still deadly to whatever’s left on the battlefield.
In the 41st Millennium, no one is more infamous than Abaddon the Despoiler. As the master of the Black Legion and architect of the Black Crusades, he is the closest thing to a supreme commander the disparate warbands of Chaos have. He also lives up to his legend on the battlefield with almost unmatched fighting prowess and a datasheet full of special rules and equipment.
The mysterious daemon lord Vashtorr the Arkifane is the master of the daemon forges and has a unique ability to manipulate technology, whether it be to boost the power of your own Daemon Engines or cause enemy weapons to explosively overheat in his presence.
Even the greatest Chaos Lord swollen with empyrean power needs someone to watch their back when the bolt shells start flying, and Chosen are the bodyguard of choice for most leaders. Each is a certified champion and veteran of a thousand battles, with a wide assortment of weapons on offer to take on everything from enemy leaders to similarly elite infantry.
As some of the oldest antagonists in Warhammer 40,000's history, the Chaos Space Marines feature in dozens of stories both as antagonists and the stars of their own tales. So many, in fact, that several novel series have been collated into extra-thick omnibus editions—like Josh Reynolds's saga of the genetic maestro Fabius Bile, which follows the outcast flesh-sculptor on his never-ending quest for perfection.
Night Lords: The Omnibus by Aaron Dembski-Bowden plumbs the very depths of the Chaos Space Marines’ depravity in a series of tales about possibly the most vicious and violent Legion of them all – the Night Lords. Then, from cruel brutality to religious zeal, Word Bearers: The Omnibus by Anthony Reynolds puts possibly the most reviled of all Heretic Astartes centre-stage in a chain of stories that examine the decaying Imperium from their own unique perspective.
The duplicitous Alpha Legion learn that their double-crossing can be a double-edged sword in Renegades: Harrowmaster by Mike Brooks as warlord Solomon Akurra and his warband encounter the fearsome Primaris Space Marines deep within the Ultima Segmentum, and must decide between fading into the shadows or striking back.
Renegades: Lord of Excess by Rich McCormick delves even further into the warped obsession of the Emperor’s Children as the violent and hedonistic warlord Xantine finally has a chance to prove himself a true son of Fulgrim. When his reavers come across a world rich with valuable rejuvenation treatments and cut off from the Imperium by roiling warp storms, Xantine gleefully marshalls a great host of Chaos and sets out to show the beleaguered world of Serrine the true meaning of perfection.
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