Chaos Space Marine Units and Tactics: Possessed

Alright, wrapping up the elites in this series are the much decried possessed! Some people may throw up in their mouth a little when they think of this unit and others claim to actually see stink lines coming from their page in the codex, but none the less I will discuss them.

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Something Random As we all know Chaos Possessed have the Demonkin special rule making them role a D6 AFTER deployment to see what special rule they will gain for the rest of the game. While that might make some people absolutley love them, the majority of Chaos players get mad or disinterested because for 26 points a model, we would like a little more control over our units and with some of our troops costing over 20 points a model, we can think of better ways to invest our points.

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That being said, lets talk about the special rules. They really aren't that bad considering. Almost all are a benefit worth having in a fearless unit. Scout is perhaps the worst because it takes effect AFTER deployment and while some folk will say it allows you to get cloder for assault, all it does is give you the chance to move that expensive unit out of mutual support range and into the jaws of the enemy.

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On a S5 model, Rending can be fun, furious charge is nice and so are power weapons (awesome for killing meqs), but the unit runs into the same problem zerks do when in a rhino, which is the idea of waiting a turn to hop out and assault and since Possessed have less attacks than zerks and no pistols, this means they are even worse at this tactic. The plus side is that you have rending or PWs, but the enemy knows this and will spank you for it. WHile this may buy your other units some time, 26 points a model ducks as a sacrifice.

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Fleet can be very nice and it can help with the rhino situation. COmbined with S5, it makes for a nice little charging unit and because of this, I actually think it may be the other optimal choice along with power weapons. Fleet also gives you the chance to get a unit into assault and tie it up for another unit (like zerks to cme along and put some real hurt to it.

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Feel no pain will make these T5, S5 models with fearless, very nice for holding objectives except for the fact that they aren't troops. Combined with the Nurgle Icon this unit can be nigh unkillable.

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What to give them You could buy a champ (kind of worthless with the fearless and the inability to buy a powerfist) or you can buy icons. When it comes to icons, the choices become grim. If you need a icon for deep strike, take the Icon of Chaos Glory. Other than that, given the expense of the other icons, khorne is the best for adding to the Possessed one skill: close combat. Other than that, the other icons are going to make this unit even more expensive than it already is and in geneal I woul avoid giving them an icon at all and just leaving the squad alone in a rhino or maybe give them the mark of khorne and keep them in the rhino.

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My honest opinion Look, if you want to run possessed, then run them and run them well and in all the fluffy ways you please, but I have used them before and I have tried to find uses for them. Alas, their best uses seem to be for converting CSM models or making kitbash raptors. If you could pay per special rule, then take an icon, they could be much more dangerous, but as I already stated, they are a very costly unit in a very costly army and their random ability means that they may not always be there when you need them, sometimes making them unable to provide mutual support, thus breaking one of my golden army writing rules. Imagine being able to pay for mark of slaanesh and fleet and have S5, or feel no pain, mark of nurgle and keep fearless ... but for now that is all left to chance.

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That is my take on possessed, take it for what it is worth and here's to hoping a new codex writer will give them rules to fit their awesome models. As always feel free to comment.