Oh 'Lord'y!

Time to talk CSM. The next most recent codex...or whatever. The penultimate Codex. Chaos Space Marines. So far, their codex is doing awesome, what with cheap meat in the form of Cultists and excellent flyers, the Heldrake, as well as the ability to field cheap sorcerers, monster HQs and tons of heavy weapons in the form of Havocs they have become a force to reckon with. The army is excellent as primary or allied but today, I'm here to talk about Lords. Oh yes.

Pretty much every Chaos Lord's dream outfit

Specific Questions:
How do I make the most Killy Lord?
What CC weapons does he get? (Hint: He always gets CC weapons. Always)
Should he take a mount?
What about Marks?


First off, time to immediately debate the Lord's purpose. Here is my take: 1. Open up Elites to be taken as Troops 2. Kill a ton of people

The Lord doesn't have any psychic powers and his in-game utility is near-zero past mauling people. He doesn't give your army buffs, he doesn't have an aura of good effects and he doesn't give a f*** if your face doesn't like being hit with an Ax. This changes if he's your Warlord but 2 of the 6 in the codex suck (Soul Blaze and Fear, mostly because of MEQ) so it's meh. In my mind if you take a Lord it's only for the reasons above so we'll concentrate on that.

Marks

Khorne
Unlocks what you want the most with a Lord: more CC. Berzerkers can be used as a bloody body guard and give the Lord an extra attack on charging or being charged. Very good.

Tzeentch
Unlocks Thousand Sons. Not good. They're effective versus MEQ but really costly with no special weapons they have bad anti-vehicle so they're literally only expensive anti-MEQ. Oddly, the best army for them to fight would be another Thousand Sons army. Taking Tzeentch ups your Invuln but once you have 4+ from Sigil or 5+ from Aura you really don't need it. If you're getting shot a lot you'll still die, if you're needing to tak invuln saves your probably facing something that can wreck you if you just fail one save so you've taken a not-so-useful mark to unlock a not-so-useful unit. Not so useful.

Slaanesh
I 6 can give you an edge against your MEQ or DE counterpart and Noise Marines have some great weapons. Definitely number 1 or 2.

Nurgle
Makes it so that only Railguns or other uncommon weapons can one-shot you. Pretty sweet. Unlocks Plague Marines who would be good if they were fairly priced! Ugh! 21 points instead of 24 would be enough. You'd have enough to get ranged weapon option with what you save while still having a fairly priced 'better than MEQ' unit. But I digress, pretty nice, even nicer if you take a Bike, 6+ for MEQ to wound you with CC or Bolters but the unlock, I don't think, is worth it.

How everyone should model their Power Axes

Mark Conclusions
Khorne or Slaanesh.

Weapons
Now, I've done all the math for the CC weapons.

The choices are these:

Weapon	Attacks (Average)	Strength
Lightning Claws	5	4
Power Axe	4	5
Power Maul	4	6
Power Fist	4	8
Power Sword	4	4
Black Mace	7.5	4
Murder Sword	7.5	4
Axe of BF	8.5*	6

* - Axe of BF needs a Mark of Khorne and thus you'll always have 1 more attack in CC, on the charge or being charge


Now we have to go through each, apply WS and AP and Strength vs. MEQ. So I did:

Weapon	Hits	Wounds
Lightning Claws	3.33	2.5
Power Axe	2.66	1.77
Power Maul	2.66	0.74
Power Fist	2.66	2.22
Power Sword	2.66	1.33
Black Mace	5	1.38
Murder Sword	5	2.5
Axe of BF	5.66	4.72

For attacks I included a bonus attack in each to account for having a bolt pistol (Why you would change out the bolt pistol but keep a CC weapon, I don't know. It's literally a worse idea in every way.). Now what's cool here from this chart is that you can see clearly that Murder Sword is equivalent to 2 LCs versus anyone but the one guy you nominate (When it turns into Final Form you'll cause 4.16 wounds against the nominated target) but you keep your pistol and it's only 5 points more than 2 LCs. 

The Black Mace will on average do no more wounds because there's only a 2/3 chance of a MEQ failing the test. If he does fail the test, you'll probably hit 3 or 4 more guys. 2/3 each to fail the test and you'll end up killing 1 more. Not good and you only have a 1/3 chance to get even a second one. So versus MEQ this weapon sucks. Versus FX? Quick math, 5 hits, 3+ to wound, no saves gives 3.33 wounds. For every guy you blow up, you'll get on average 2 more wounds. Since 3 guys die you get 2 who will fail the test leading to 2 explosions which can hit probably 5 guys killing another 3. So 6 total. This is where the weapon really shines it seems. If you have to fight against low armor save armies a lot I'd recommend this.

The best though, is Axe of Blind Fury. You don't lose anything by going down in WS vs. most units in the game and your BS doesn't matter too much as you'll only have a bolt pistol in this build. (Note: not sure why the axe gives the Rage rule since you automatically have to have it by nature of you being forced to take the Mark of Khorne. It should be Rampage, honestly, but I digress.) Even when you fail your Daemon Weapon roll you get 1.38 wounds vs. MEQ. And, if your opponent is wearing Terminator armor you don't have to worry about him saving every attack.

One big thing with the highest wounds above from the Power weapons is that Axe and Fist are both Unwieldy which can mean your Lord is dead before striking. With the rest you're getting it at initiative. Power Maul isn't too great against MEQ but is pretty good versus FX as it causes instant death and ignores the majority of the saves they have.

Weapon Conclusions

If you're taking Mark of Khorne, take an Axe of Blinding Fury. If you're against a lot of FX take Black Mace. If you're taking a Mark of Slaanesh you can take an LC and a PF. This will give you a fast Shred weapon, and if that won't work the PF can start blowing fools up and you still get the bonus attack from 2 specialist weapons.

 Mounts

There's not much here to be honest. They are all paired to a specific Mark so based on my previous analysis you'll be looking at either Juggernaut or Steed but I'll do them all.

Khorne

Juggernaut gives you all the stats you want as a Khorne Lord: T, W, A and longer charge range. If you can find a way to protect him long enough to get over that is. This might have been an allied unit of Juggernauts from Daemon Codex but they really suck now so that's out. There isn't really a unit you can join that won't hamper you getting to the other side as fast as possible other than Bikers but not sure if you want them? Up to you I guess, I'm not too thrilled with Chaos Bikers other than 'unkillable' Nurgle Bikers (which you can't join) though if you look at it you'll find that Bikers are 4 points cheaper per model than Plague Marines and are the same in every way other than that they move faster. Fair? So yeah, Juggernaut, take him with a cultist shield, allow him to run rampant once he's in range and watch him blow chumps out the water.

Pictured: Chumps

Nurgle

If you've ever wanted an slightly more survivable Lord take this. Ahh if only it gave 1 more toughness in addition to the wounds. Your sitting at 120 points for a guy who's bad in CC and...lives? You're gonna have to spend even more points to get this guy to do something. Since Lords have no ranged options (their best is a plasma pistol) you're gonna have to spend at least 15 points on a power weapon. You'll never make your points back with this guy and he's no better at camping than a horde of cultists. I'd pass and take a Bike instead. 

Tzeentch

This is a pretty swag ride. Jetbike and an attack are nice because of turbo-boosting shenanigans. Too bad you can only do that alone. Or maybe with a royal escort of  Screamers? Not too useful since the mobility is lost when you get any other unit as a screen. And the Tzeentch bonus isn't useful on lords.

Slaanesh

Same problem with the Juggernaut, as in, where to put him? The new problem is that the Steed gives almost nothing you'll use as a CC monster. Run distance? You can't assault then. Outflank? Maybe, but you'll have to be off the board for up to 4 turns. Acute Senses helps but the risk of having your Lord off the table for most of the game doesn't seem like a good trade-off. He is hella cheap though. You don't, however, get bonus Toughness so you can be insta-killed by half a dozen MEQ weapons alone. Not good. 

Other

The Bike is definitely the better of the two choices but forces you into taking a bike unit escort/assault squad. You'll have to change your army a bit to work with bikes, possibly necessitating making a Bike army. 

I've never seen a Lord with a jump pack in play, even in 5th ed but if you're taking Raptors I'd think about placing him in a jump pack. If you're taking Warp Talons, bring a Mark of Slaanesh lord and give the Talons the same. You'll kill MEQ and FX units so fast you might as well give your opponent a broom to sweep his dead units off the board. (With a 10 man unit you'll kill 15+ MEQ a turn with just the Talons. Against FX it's slightly better.)

Mount Conclusions

Take the Juggernaut if you have a cultist shield. The rest of the mounts are pretty poor and don't give you the stats you need.

Gifts and Concluding Thoughts

The gifts are interesting. 

Your definitely going to want a gift of mutation. Pretty much everything on the Boon Table is worth 10 points or more so always take GoM. 

The opposite is true for Combat Familiar. Against MEQ you'll rarely cause a wound. Against FX, pretty much the same story. Total waste of points.

Ichor Blood would be nice on a unit with more wounds (hey! maybe a palaquin of nurgle is good!) so I'd leave it to Daemon Princes.

Aura vs. Sigil is a tough question. I'd almost always choose Aura as you don't want to spend too many points on your Lord's survivability. He's a glass cannon even with Aura so Sigil doesn't improve his situation enough for me to purchase it usually. I'd go with Aura over Sigil the cost per save chance is pretty close though with Aura being 45.4 (15/.33) and Sigil being 50 (25/.5) which means they are both efficiently costed.

Melta bombs are also a must to help you detonate Rhinos and Land Raiders alike. You get exceptionally killy versus these units with Melta Bombs and it costs 5 points. Do not pass these up. 

Conclusion

I've got a few different combos that seem most efficient:

• Khorne Lord w/Juggernaut, Axe of BF, Melta Bombs, Aura, GoM, VotLW, 180 (take Cultists)
• Slaanesh Lord w/LC, PF, Melta Bombs, Aura, GoM, Jump Pack, VotLW 170 (take Talons, Noise Marines)
• Nurgle Lord w/Bike, Melta Bombs, Plasma Pistol, GoM, Aura, 145 (take Bikers, your mission is anti-light vehicle)
• Lord, 1 Mark, 1 Power weapon (90 or 95, sometimes you just want to unlock the Elites slot, having a Lord with just a power weapon is fine in this case. He's just there for the unlock and to join an unlock)
• Coolest Looking: Termie Lord with 2 LCs and a cape. So sweet. 

I'd rarely take an un-Marked Lord and see no reason why you would. If you just want a basic HQ save 5 points and get a Sorcerer. The Khorne Lord on the charge has, on average, 7+d6 S6 AP 2 attacks. Woah. The Slaanesh Lord gets the PF to tango with MCs and Termie HQs. If you're not worried about those, drop it, maybe get another Lighting Claw but then you're really just paying 15 for an extra attack. The Nurgle Lord is for car park armies, getting in close and popping them with MBs or Plasma shots against the rear armor. Bring bikers who also have MBs and let your Heldrakes take care of blobs and you should do pretty well against semi-mech with two kitted Lords with escorts. Also, I didn't list it up there under Gifts but taking Veteran of the Long War isn't a bad deal as it's the only thing that gives you a to Hit CC re-roll. Gets you from a .66 to a .88 for the first round which is really good. I took it on the Khorne and Slaanesh Lord because of how they need their attacks to kill in the Alpha Strike. 

So yeah, that is the Lord. Hope it was informative. Feel free to leave your ideas for builds in the comments and any math questions you might have about Lords or their equipment.