Chaos Space Marines Units and Tactics 4: Chosen

Alright, since I have opened the doors to the Elite choices with the dreadnought article, let's keep chugging with my personal favorites; the Chosen!
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We've got it all Do you need a dose of plasma for an unfriendly Carnifex? We got it. A little melta for that cranky Leman Russ? Got it. Need a couple power weapons? We got those too. Chaos Chosen can take an astounding selection of gear, including one heavy weapon and 4 special weapons OR 5 special weapons OR a few guys with power weapons and a few with special weapons OR a bunch of Combi weapons AND they may all take meltabombs AND they can have an Icon ... whew. All these choices can lead to a player getting wrapped around the axel about what to take and can often lead to overpriced units, so let me help y'all out.
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Sneaky Devils 5th edition made Chosen an outflanking unit and I recommend that you use that ability for them. There is nothing better, whether it is turn 2 or turn 5, than having a gang of Renegades show up and blast the hell out of some back armour or hop onto an unopposed objective. to help them get there, just follow my golden rule for units that may take a rhino and TAKE A RHINO. This will ensure that regardless which table edge you come in on, you will get into position quickly to disrupt the enemy. Scared of outflanking? I tried outflanking Chosen the day the 5th edition book came into my hands and have been using it 95% of the time ever since that day. Out flanking gives you a 2/3 chance of getting the edge you want and the few times I got the wrong edge, I was still able to engage enemy targets and throw his plan for a loop.
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What to take Remember that Chaos has other units that are much more effective at close combat, so lets leave those CC weapons behind for now and focus on what really makes Chosen deadly; special weapons.
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5 meltas will give you the ability to come on and ROAST any tank or vehicle you find in your path and outflanking will often get you rear or side armour. Now, melta is also good for killing elite infantry and monstrous creatures and generally will get you a kill on anything without a hard invul or cover save backing it up. The rate of fire is less than plasma, but melta is also cheaper. I prefer cheap, so I roll with melta in a take all comers list.
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5 plasma is also very nice. At rapid fire range, you can kiss enemy infantry good night, murder monstrous creatures and pop light armour pretty reliably. The fact that they are rapid fire weapons is OK too as you will typically be hopping out of a moving rhino anyway and avoiding assault. Don't be too scared of Over heating unless you know you roll a lot of 1s. Generally power armour will save you in the case of overheating anyway. The only reason I generally don't take plasma is that I want big tanks to die and I like my Chosen to be as cheap as possible, but Plasma is still a fine choice.
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5 flamers ... there is nothing better than the smell of fried Orks in the morning! But in all seriousness, though this is the cheapest option for Chosen, it is suboptimal for a 'take all comers' list. Make no mistake, you WILL kill a lot of horde-types, you WILL even kill a squad of space marines pretty reliably, but for tanks and MCs, you will be pretty useless, so unless you know who you are facing and are making a list to beat them, I would leave the flamer spam at home.
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How many Chosen do I take? Like I have said before, I like my Chosen cheap, so I roll with 5 dudes, regardless of the weapon layout. Remember that the idea of using these guys is to come in outflanking, move as far as you need to and wreck whatever you need to wreck all in your turn. From there, the enemy will either pull units to address them (which is a good thing for your other guys) or he will risk either ignoring them or not commiting enough to killing them to wipe them out (also very good for you). Either way is good in an objective mission as it allows you some breathing room for your troops and exposes gaps for your hard units (or it allows the chosen to continue raping the back line). In kill point missions, they and their rhino may end up as kill points, but then again, they will likely earn some for themselves. the rest of your army just need to pull their own weight too.
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If you think you need to take more chosen, than by all means do so, but I think this unit does its job good enough and cheap enough with just 5 guys.
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What about Icons? If you think your Chosen are going to hang around after their ordeal or you have the points and want to give them a fighting chance, then throw them an icon of Chaos Glory, but other than that, the other marks won't benefit you much for the price you will pay for them. Extra toughness isn't worth 10 points a model, neither is 5+ invul, +1 A or I isn't really that useful since you aren't making them assault specialists. If you are running a fluff army and simply must take a Icon then do so, but other than that IoCG is the only one I would even consider.
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What about Melta Bombs? Chosen are one of those units that can benefit from a melta bomb. In my experience, people will likely shoot your Chosen to death or they will run a walker at them. Since there is no reason to pay for the fist AND lose a special weapon (they can't take both), I recommend a melta bomb or two in the unit, only if you have the points. If it works, you just killed a walker and as a bonus, you get to see that terrible look on your opponent's face when his sure thing went to crap.
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When to not outflank There has been a few times that I have chosen not to outflank and it was often because I went second and my opponent ran a spear in the middle of the board (this usually happens in Ork battlewagon spam lists). In this case, they key to destroying his army lies in wrecking a select vehicle (ie, the big mek's wagon, leaving that cover save behind the rest of the army). This is a rare occasion and even then, I sometimes wish I had outflanked with them ... so my advice to you is to always outflank with them unless it seems utterly stupid to do so, because the one or two times my chosen did not come through were the times I cose not to outflank.
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Don't be afraid to mix it up I know that there is a lot of talk out there about not mixing weapons, but try it for yourself. I have had some success trying 3 meltas/2flamers and maybe there are some other variations that would be effective. I haven't mixxed a whole lot, so I figure it is worth a try.
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Anyway, that's my two cents on Chosen, Happy Hunting and have a good weekend! By the way, the photo is of my WIP Iron Warriors Chosen, they will be finished shortly!