Chaos day baby! And with it, the classic nightmare Creations of Bile returns and this ones real good.

The detachment ability is Experimental Augmentations which lets you at the start of the battle pick one of 6 buffs for all Heretic Astartes Infantry models (excluding Damned, sorry Accursed Cultists) to have until the end of the battle. You can also roll randomly for two buffs instead, but duplicates don’t stack which is womp womp.

If Fabius Bile is your Warlord, you can re-roll one or both dice, which is obviously to incentivize bringing the big man himself. What are the buffs you ask? Let’s take a look

Cholinergic Accelerants: +1 Melee weapon attacks (WOOYEAH BABY)

Hyperadrenal Infusion: +2 Move

Paraneural Reaction: +1 to Weapon Skill (YES YES YES YES YES)

Supracutaneous Chitination: +1 Toughness

Macrotensile Sinews: +1 Melee Weapon Strength

Ophthalmic Enhancement: +1 Ballistic Skill

These are all, very good. The ballistic skill one is probably the least useful, but Havocs hitting on 2’s could be very funny. The dream is +1 attacks then really anything else. I regret selling my CSM right now.

Enhancements

The enhancements are just frankly really good, with very straight forward application. Which flavor wise, is very Chaos Space Marines.

Surgical Precision is so on the nose I find it low key cute, giving a Heretic Astartes Model (Daemon prince??? Hello????) precision on their melee weapons. It’s only 10 points. It may as well be free. Solid A

Living Carapace gives a Chaos Lord +1 wounds and a 5+ Feel No Pain. For 15 points, it’s fine? I wish it could go on a Disco lord or Daemon Prince. Something with a bit more muscle. Bonus points for a icky name. B

Helm of All-Seeing makes it so an enemy unit can’t be set up from reserves within 12″. For 25 points, this is always solid. 3″ Deep Strike might be dead, but that doesn’t make this any less valuable. A

Prime Test Subject is a big 35 points and gives a Heretic Astartes Infantry model +1 damage to their melee weapons, and full re-roll to hits. A+, this slaps on a Chaos Lords go-turn.

Stratagems

Monstrous Visages lets an infantry unit pretend they’re Eldar and subtract one from hit rolls against your target unit until the end of the phase. This is one of the instances in this detachment that doesn’t exclude Damned units. Very good no matter what you use on it. There’s a reason Eldar spams it. A+

Masters Are Watching gives you a 4+ fight on death, which becomes a 5+ fight on death for Damned units. Is good. A-, wish there was a way to make it a 3+.

Specimens For The Spider is a massive 2 CP but lets a Heretic Astartes Infantry unit full wound re-rolls against a Character unit in the fight phase. With the added bonus of forcing a unit to battle-shock within 6″ if you destroyed any Character models with those attacks. If it was the enemy Warlord, all enemy units within 6″ make a battle-shock. Full wound re-rolls can be, really silly on some units. Put this on Dev wound Possessed with +1 attack and you’re really doing some damage. Or make it 1 CP with your Chaos Lord who might have a 4 damage dev wound hammer with Prime Test Subject on your Chance For Glory turn. A+

Delayed Mutations is another 2 CP stratagem which lets you in the command phase select one augmentations for a unit. They suffer D3 mortal wounds, but then you get whatever buff you want. Didn’t get +1 attacks? Well, now you do. It’s useful, but crazy expensive. In a Chaos Lord squad, its a definite A, anything else and it’s going to look more like a B.

Diabolic Regeneration lets you return a destroyed model to your unit (excluding characters) or D3 Battleline models. My normal opinion on these strats is that they’re bad. But bringing back 6 OC of battleline for 1 CP? That’s hot. Strong A

Autostimulants is used at the start of your charge phase, and lets you charge in a turn which you advanced. You’re using this every game like twice, minimum. S+

Reminder Dark Pacts exist, and this stuff rocks.

Lists

This week I got a very special guest in the form of Edmonton’s favorite Chaos Lord, Dan Wortel. Let’s dig in to what he came up with.

Dan “Just spam Vindicators” Wortel’s List and Thoughts

CHARACTERS

Abaddon the Despoiler (280 points)
• Warlord
• 1x Drach’nyen
1x Talon of Horus

Fabius Bile (85 points)
• 1x Fabius Bile
• 1x Chirurgeon
1x Rod of Torment
1x Xyclos Needler
• 1x Surgeon Acolyte
• 1x Surgeon Acolyte’s tools

Master of Executions (80 points)
• 1x Axe of dismemberment
1x Bolt pistol

Sorcerer in Terminator Armour (80 points)
• 1x Combi-bolter
1x Force weapon
1x Infernal Gaze

BATTLELINE

Cultist Mob (50 points)
• 1x Cultist Champion
• 1x Autopistol
1x Brutal assault weapon
• 9x Chaos Cultist
• 9x Autopistol
9x Brutal assault weapon

Legionaries (90 points)
• 1x Aspiring Champion
• 1x Chaos Icon
1x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy melee weapon
1x Plasma pistol
• 4x Legionary
• 2x Astartes chainsword
4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy melee weapon
1x Lascannon

Legionaries (90 points)
• 1x Aspiring Champion
• 1x Chaos Icon
1x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy melee weapon
1x Plasma pistol
• 4x Legionary
• 2x Astartes chainsword
4x Bolt pistol
4x Close combat weapon
1x Heavy melee weapon
1x Lascannon

DEDICATED TRANSPORTS

Chaos Rhino (75 points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Combi-bolter

Chaos Rhino (75 points)
• 1x Armoured tracks
1x Combi-bolter

OTHER DATASHEETS

Chaos Terminator Squad (180 points)
• 1x Terminator Champion
• 1x Chainfist
1x Combi-weapon
• 4x Chaos Terminator
• 1x Accursed weapon
3x Combi-weapon
3x Power fist
1x Reaper autocannon

Chosen (250 points)
• 1x Chosen Champion
• 1x Boltgun
1x Chaos Icon
1x Plasma pistol
1x Power fist
• 9x Chosen
• 6x Accursed weapon
6x Bolt pistol
7x Boltgun
2x Paired accursed weapons
3x Plasma pistol
1x Power fist

Chosen (250 points)
• 1x Chosen Champion
• 1x Boltgun
1x Chaos Icon
1x Plasma pistol
1x Power fist
• 9x Chosen
• 6x Accursed weapon
6x Bolt pistol
7x Boltgun
2x Paired accursed weapons
3x Plasma pistol
1x Power fist

Havocs (125 points)
• 1x Havoc Champion
• 1x Meltagun
1x Power fist
• 4x Havoc
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Havoc lascannon

Havocs (125 points)
• 1x Havoc Champion
• 1x Meltagun
1x Power fist
• 4x Havoc
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Havoc lascannon

Havocs (125 points)
• 1x Havoc Champion
• 1x Meltagun
1x Power fist
• 4x Havoc
• 4x Close combat weapon
4x Havoc lascannon

“My initial thoughts are I am really excited to give this a try. CSM is a faction that loves the mid-field. Lots of their infantry units are already set up to be solid melee units, this just pushes them over the edge to amazing. Stand outs are Chosen, Havocs, and of course the humble Legionnaries. I think the army rule really hits that effective yet still lore friendly vibe a lot of chaos detachments have.

So, when I read the detachment rule, I was a little shocked that it was all Heretic Astartes Infantry models (excluding Damned models) from your army. That is a pretty crazy boost if you build into it. I think personally if you’re doing Creations of bile, you need to roll for two augments. One augment is neat, but two can be awesome. If I had to pick one either +1 toughness or
+1 attack are the standouts as the best two.  I don’t hate the enhancements or the stratagems, but none stand out as too crazy to me. Bringing back a havoc or an obliterator is cool, it was an annoying thing to do in 9^th edition.

My only real issue for this detachment is without Bile as your warlord you are relying on luck to get the augments you want. Even with him it can still be a bit random, and if you bring him as your warlord you exclude Abaddon from your list, which can be a pretty big hit in certain match ups.

So, to sum up I think it’s cool and fun idea but will it trump renegades or vet’s hard to say at the moment. I personally don’t think so. 7/10″

Final Thoughts

This detachment is really strong. It feel’s about as aggro as it gets for CSM. Is it better than Raiders? Maybe. Raiders has more steps to maximize for some very strong buffs, while this detachment is very much plug and play.

Which is good. I really love how straight forward the identity is here. The wait for a non-Imperium detachment was long, but so, so worth it.

Tomorrow is Aeldari day, and we’re getting 2 detachments. Expect me to go a lot more in depth with them. I’m actually shaking with excitement.

That’s all from me today though.

Go get some hot chocolate, you’ve earned it buddy.