Chaos Space Marine Units and Tactics: Working with the Underdogs of CSM

After about a year of running similar Chaos Space Marine lists back to back to back, I got really fed up with them, which led to me being fed up with playing and nearly fed up everything. After I came back from Adepticon, I made the choice to have more fun with my old Stand-by army by revamping what I thought was competitive and what wasn't.
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Now, I didn't throw out all the tried and true units to replace them with all the underdog units - instead, I focused on units that I had seldom used or had only used in the garage or basement back when the new codex first came out. I also took a look at units that were laughed at at the FLGS. For instance, I have never fielded Abbadon outside of the garage in only the craziest of fun-only games AND a kid at our FLGS made Abby a laughing stock by fielding him alone in a Land Raider repeatedly, giving the Warmaster a less than fearsome reputation.
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Forming the List:


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So, I started with the extremely expensive Abbadon the despoiler. At 275, he soaks up a ton of points in an army that already suffers from low model count - but I had a point to prove. Now I know that Abby is a beast and really isn't an underdog when you take into account what he is capable of, so I also wrapped a couple of dreadnoughts with Autocannons and missile launchers into the mix.
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Now, I needed Abbadon to run with a unit, one that can handle anything and would fit the idea of a retinue the Warmaster could be proud of. so I picked a squad of 8 khorne berzerkers with a champ carrying a power weapon (why take a fist when you already have I6 S8?). I could have given him termies, but the idea is that I wanted a scoring unit in this mob and this is what I saw as the best way to get that.
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Now, I add in one of the units I started to run after swearing off the Lash of Submission: The Nurgle Daemon Prince with Warptime! I know, not an underdog, but there is a method to my madness.
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Next, I decided to bring in the much debated Greater Daemon. I know some people hate these guys, but I really think they are strong with a 4+ inv, S6, T6, A5, I5. I have laid out my units to give him options.
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I then fill in the rest of the army with two min units of plaguers and two 2-man squads of Oblits. This gives me enough familiar territory to allow me to function with these units, but pay my best attention to my new units - the dreads, and the big nasties.

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The Tactics
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This army was purpose built to drive a TON of Assault power down the enemy's throat and overload his army with the sheer unbalanced amount of assault! The idea is to shoot the Land Raider straight toward the enemy lines and pop smoke. The DP flies right behind the raider and usually one squad of plaguers in a rhino are righ there as well. I do my best with the dreads to keep the closest unit to them the land raider.
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The dreads and Oblits now go Tank hunting and hopefully pop something that needs to die or needs to be opened.
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Abby and his squad then dump out on the nearest target in the following turn or so as the DP runs a solid defense hopefully blocking the Warmaster's unit from getting swamped by too many units. The Greater Daemon can arrive either in support of the main assault or can help defend the home objective by possessing a plague champ (I role one unit of plaguers with the main assault just so I don't have to burn the Skull champ if I don't have to.
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That is really it for tactics.
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How it Actually Plays:
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The first thing I would like to say is that this list is fun to play for the opponent and for me because there is a lot of fun story-telling elements in it (for instance, SamSquanch's Logan Grimnar gets charged by Abbadon, who then rolls a 1 for his daemon weapon and then gets torn to peices by the great wolf)!

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I had no hopes for this list winning games with so many flaws - only one obvious target, very low model count, not much anti-tank, ect ... but it has actually done very well and I see a reason for that; psychology.
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people lose their minds over Abbadon and just having him has caused some strange mistakes from my opponents, everything from Captain Obvious not moving into range to fire his vindies at me to folks not rapid fire plasma-killing me with crisis suits - all in fear of Abbadon. Another reason that plays into this is that people feed into the stregnth of the Warmaster instead of using his weakness against him. Players with assault armies tend to dump units into Abbadon, which I welcome - Abbadon cranks out a ton of attacks, usually at a higher initiative and once you add in the daemon prince and possibly the greater daemon and dread and it creates an situation where the enemy hemorrages wounds and loses combat either to take even more wounds or to run away and get assaulted again!
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I think the best way this list could be fought is to kill the raider in turn one and then try to ignore abbadon or undermine his assault ability by staying back and shooting him. It seems obvious, but on the board, players get crazy.
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I am by no means championing the idea of running the Warmaster in every game ... I won't and I am not totally against making dreads a fixture in my lists (they rarely fire frenzy or let you down - I simply want to present that there are more ways to win than Lash+Oblits+Plaguers (although the later two can help;)
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I also want to encourage folks who have pigeon-holed themselves into a set list to break the mould, but do it smartly. There is no need to take a horrible list because you feel like trying something, just build a list that carries your traditional units , but compliments the use of the new units.
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My next unit I have been toying with is possessed bikers and since I have only played one game recently with them, I will leave them out of this article, but will write about my renewed experiences with them soon. Feedback is always welcome.