Why Chosen?

[Dave Mcturk]

so chosen aren't... isn't that unchosen ?

[Demonicsarge55]

5 special weapons and a Champion with a combi weapon of the same kind, in a rhino with a combi weapon of the same kind for not too many points. They aren't bad, they just need to be a littler better to justify taking them without the warmaster.

[Power Klawz]

Plasma spam that can still beat your head in while engaged in CQC. Basically.

Alternatively, if you just don't care about points for some reason, toss 9 of them in a Land Raider with a Chaos Lord. Max out your lightning claws, give them a mark of your choosing and delight in the ridiculously expensive mayhem they wreak.

[Mr Mystery]

They're also a useful 'gap filling' unit, due to their general flexibility.

If you can't quite pack in the assault unit you wanted with the heavy weapon unit, Chosen can bridge that gap, offering support in both roles.

[Anggul]

Chosen suffer from the same crippling weakness as all 'Space Marine Veteran' units. They pay full squad leader prices for weapons, but don't have the protection or offer the flexibility of a squad leader. When you buy multiple squad members with special close combat weapons you don't pay full price for them, because some of them are likely to die, thus losing you those points. That's why if you added up the cost from scratch of most elites that come pre-equipped (such as Terminators, Sanguinary Guard etc.) they would work out a lot more expensive. As an example, a Blood Angels Assault Marine Sergeant with a Power Sword is 43pts. A Sanguinary Guard is slightly cheaper than that, despite being 'better' in almost every way. This is because when you're buying multiples of an 'elite' model, you're also going to be losing a lot when they are removed before making much of an impact, which is likely to happen to at least a couple of them. This is especially an issue noticeable with 'elite' Space Marines such as Thousand Sons, Legion of the Damned, Veterans of most kinds etc. who, despite having fancy gear and higher stats, often just die like any other Space Marine. Such units are infamous for having the potential to hit hard, and having fancy rules to negate low AP and such, but just making themselves more of a target for small arms fire, which is now making far more points in kills because of all the fancy stuff you paid for which is rendered useless. As a xenos example, an Incubus is considerably cheaper than a Warrior Sybarite with a Power Weapon, and is a whole lot stronger, but you're buying them in squads so each model lost is a lot more painful than losing a Warrior.

Chosen, like all marine Veterans, should really pay 10pts at most for power weapons, that would make them a lot more viable. They especially shouldn't have to pay full price for a second Lightning Claw when all they're getting is an extra attack. As special weapons squads they're good, but it's a real shame when you can't really have your awesome Veterans get stuck into close combat without paying exorbitant points costs and likely losing a lot of those points before making much of an impact.

[SON OF ROMULOUS]

i plan on building a squad of them for my world eaters i already have a unit of them for my death guard. they are just better then havocs if you wish to spam plasma... i will take the extra weapon as and better leadership any day and the extra attack helps alot too.... i must say though that they can be come pricy rather quickly but im getting used to that with this chaos dex... my same list from 5th took a beating in this edition with the increase in cost on several of my favorite units. as for the difference between them and termies... or vs posessed... posessed are close combat oriented and termies while i like them suffer from issues with their bits.... dont have enough of what you need and honestly their costs go up once you mark them and stick them with other bits and pieces. increasing unit cost as well as the hit to the wallet... so its a give and take for me my heavies were already filled in my dg army so when i had the opening in elites i tossed them in there.

[MrBo]

I just finished kit bashing 3 - 6 man squads for use with abbadon
2 meltas 3 combi bolter
2 plasma 3 combi bolter
1 autocannon 4 combi bolter
all with MoN

my reasoning is that 1 plague marine in points equals 1 chosen w/ combi bolter and MoN (or Icon of vengeance if you drop MoN)
you are losing FnP and fearless and poisoned weapons
you are gaining twin linked, +1 A and +1 Ld , oh and patient searching of ebay will save you about 100 dollars

Seems to me that I would rather have the twin linked bolter than poisoned blade, especially in 6th.
Informed rebuttals are welcome.

[Garradh]

I use a ten-man Khorne veteran squad in my Abaddon list, with Veterans and geared for CC (two meltaguns, powerfist, couple power weapons) and I have had incredible success with them. I park them behind Abaddon's Land Raider as it advances, providing a solid one-two punch of Terminators and Chosen. I'm honestly thinking of dropping the Mark or the VLW just because they're too killy - any squad they've hit, Marine or otherwise, has ceased to be in one turn.

[Daemonette666]

I used chosen for a while there until I decided to try out a few other combos. They worked out well , and helped mitigate the effect that certain enemy units were having on destroying my forces set up to hold my flanks (deployment area). generally back when 6th ed 40k and the new Codex CSM came out I tried to use my Noise Marines as defensive units to hold objectives, and gave them the FNP banner. I had units of Cultists to hold enemy up while I tried to rush forward in one place while the Helldrakes made themselves annoying cleaning up enemy scoring units.

I ran into a lot of problems with enemy Terminators deep striking on a flank, then walking/running up to then assault me in their next turn. I wold shoot everything at them, and barely scratch them, as they kept using FNP, High invul saves from Storm Shields, and their 2+ armour saves. I did not have enough AP weaponry, and decided that since I had Abaddon as my Warlord leading the strike force elsewhere on the board, I would take a unit of Chosen. After a few games trial testing them I cam up with a combination that really worked well. I chose 2 unis of Chosen with the Mark of Tzeentch. Yes it is only a 6+ invul save, but I had remarkable luck in rolling 6's for my invul saves when I used them. I gave the squad champion a plasma pistol and a power fist, and had 5 plasma guns in the squad. If the game was large enough I had 2 squads of them. It really worked out well. The terminators could not stand up against 10 Plasma gun shots,20 if I had 2 squads. I needed 3' to hit them, 2 to wound them, and forced them to take their 3+ or 5+ invul saves. They started to die in droves. If they got into close combat, as they eventually did (but now with significantly less models), the 6+ invul saves I got for the chosen helped me save atleast 1/3 of them that took wounds. The Squad champion always took a Power fist or a Power Axe, and helped knock them down. I also tended to keep a dark Apostle with a Black Mace there to chew up any Lord or IC they had attached to them. It worked well l for a while, then I got bored with the tactic, and decided to try different tactcs, as I am a devotee of Tzeentch as ell as Slaanesh.

They were also good because they were scoring units, and had the additional CCW and Bolt Pistol, and a high LD. I also started to refit my Noise Marines so they only carried Blast Masters, Doom Sirens, and the additional CCW. I did not use the sonic Blaster any more, since they nerfed it with the Salvo rule. I found they were better at assaulting than sitting waiting for the enemy, so gave them the FNP banner on my champion in order to Look out Sir sniper and precision shots (running the risk of losing him in challenges), and decided that Chaos Bikers with MoS and the FNP banner were just that little bit better than Chaos Bikers with MoN.

The MoS bikers worked so well that a squad of 5 plus a lord on bike absorbed 2/3 of the fire power from my Eldar enemies army on the first turn, and another 1/3 of his fire power on the second turn, before the lord was left on his own with just 1 wound left. I added him to a noise marine unit. I lost that game, because most of the objectives were in open ground, and the Eldar player just shot me to death, had a more maneuverable army with flanking units and my rhino and Landraider rush faltered. I conceded after we finished turn 4. with less than 1/4 of my forces left, and having only killed off his Viper Jetbikes, and half his Wraith Guard unit. I did not take chosen in that 1850 point game, because I did not need them.

Needless to say, I still think in games against forces that have a chance of getting lot of units with 2+ armour saves units like terminators or Ork Nobs in Mega-Armour or bikers with high toughness, etc, they are still quite useful. You can always take standard CSM units and Cultists to make up the points and still have enough scoring units on the table.