Long ago, when the Emperor of Mankind led his Space Marine Legions across the stars in what was to become known as the Great Crusade, Primarchs captained his armies. Each Primarch commanded not only a Legion of Space Marines but also vast fleets of warships and innumerable armies of Guardsmen. The military might at the disposal of each of them was immense. Then came the Horus Heresy and fully half the Primarchs rebelled against the Emperor. The history of the Heresy is wellknown, it was a dark and terrible time in which civil war almost destroyed the Imperium. In its aftermath, it was clear to the High Lords that too much power had been at the disposal of the traitor Primarchs. The Codex Astartes of Roboute Guilliman was the main reform. The huge Space Marine Legions were broken down into Chapters of a thousand warriors and equipped with specialist barges and strike cruisers. The fleet was reorganised into battlefleets dispersed between the major worlds of each Segmentum. The Imperial Guard was reorganised to more clearly define who could authorise the formation and deployment of additional regiments. The measures were successful insofar that although there have been rebellions since the Heresy they have always lacked the capacity to tear the Imperium apart as Horus almost did.

The defeated Traitor Marines were never a part of these reforms however. When the Ultramarines were spawning numerous successor Chapters, the Black Legion, the World Eaters and all the others were establishing territories in the Eye of Terror using all the forces they had managed to salvage from the defeat on Terra. To this day Chaos fleets are subordinate to the Lords of the Chaos Space Marine Legions.

From the perspective of Battlefleet Gothic, this means that the Chaos Space Marine Legions have never needed to build specialist battlebarges and strike cruisers. To them any capital ship with the capacity to launch Dreadclaws or boarding torpedoes is potentially a Battlebarge and any fast cruiser might be used to move small forces around. Chaos Space Marines are relatively rare however and a great many Chaos fleets will be made up of renegade captains and their ships with not a Traitor Marine in sight. The degree of fealty rogue captains extend to their Chaos Marine masters is variable and some pirate fleets that ostensibly serve Chaos have probably never seen a Chaos Space Marine so it is perfectly OK to use a Chaos fleet without including members of the Traitor Legions.

The existing list in the Battlefleet Gothic rulebook covers Abaddon’s fleets in the Gothic Sector War. This war was primarily fought in space and Abaddon had no need to gather the Lords of the Traitor Legions around him. This list represents a Black Crusade fleet where the object is to transport Chaos Space Marines to conquer and destroy Imperial worlds.

You can only include a Chaos Warmaster in your fleet if it includes any Capital ships. He must be assigned to the most expensive ship and improves its rolled Leadership by 2, to a maximum of 9.

You may include Abaddon the Despoiler as the Warmaster in any Chaos fleet worth more than 1,000 points.

The ship is full of the sensation-craving followers of Slaanesh and their siren cries extend into the minds of the crews of nearby enemy ships. Enemy ships within 15cm suffer -2 to their Leadership value.

Crewed by the homicidal followers of Khorne, the ship is extremely dangerous in boarding actions. It doubles its value in boarding actions.

The Captain can call upon the power of precognition as well as formidable magiks to control his vessel. This ship has an extra re-roll.

The vessel is rank with putrescence and the many plagues of the Lord of Decay. It gains 1 Damage point and may not be boarded.

Any Capital ship, apart from that of the Warmaster, may be captained by a Chaos Lord. If so, then add 1 to the Leadership rolled for the ship at the start of the game, subject to a maximum of 9.

A fleet of 1,000 points or more may include the Planet Killer. If you include the Planet Killer, Abaddon must be present, though he does not have to be aboard the Planet Killer.

You may include up to one battleship in your fleet for every three cruisers or heavy cruisers.

You may include up to one grand cruiser in your fleet for every three cruisers or heavy cruisers.

You may include up to one heavy cruiser in your fleet for every two cruisers.

Any number of capital ships in your fleet may be upgraded to a Daemonship at the additional points cost shown, based upon the type of vessel chosen.

A Daemonship may not be commanded by a Warmaster or a Chaos Lord even if it is the largest ship in the fleet. This is an exception to the normal rule. A Daemonship may not have a Chaos Space Marine crew. Any number of capital ships can be upgraded to Daemonships subject to these limitations.

Any Daemonship may have a single Mark of Chaos with the same effects and cost in points as described in the list 8.

You can include any number of escorts in your fleet.

These vessels may not contain a Chaos Warmaster, a Chaos Lord or have a Chaos Space Marine crew, neither can they be given Marks. You should feel free to paint and model them to be consistent with the rest of your fleet, it will not have any game effect however.

Chaos Lords. Any Capital ship, apart from that of the Warmaster, may be captained by a Chaos Lord at +25 points. If so, then add +1 to the Leadership rolled for the ship at the start of the game, subject to a maximum of 9. A Lord may be given a re-roll (which he can use for his own ship or squadron only) at +25 points. A ship commanded by a Lord may be given a single Mark of Chaos from the list above.

Chaos Space Marines. Any Capital ship can be designated as having a Chaos Space Marine crew at +35 points. The ship will be subject to the Chaos Space Marine special rules. If the ship contains the Warmaster or a Lord then you can assume that he is also a Chaos Space Marine.

Marks of Chaos. A ship with a Chaos Space Marine crew may have a Mark of Chaos, even if a Warmaster or Lord does not captain it. However, there are some restrictions on exactly which mark it can have based on the Chaos Space Marine Legion that controls it. Even if a Warmaster or Lord captains a ship, if it has a Chaos Space Marine crew the choice of Mark of Chaos is limited as well. The options are shown in the table below.

Legion Fleets. If the Warmaster’s ship has a Chaos Space Marine crew, then all other ships in the fleet that have Chaos Space Marine crew must be of the same Legion, unless a Chaos Lord captains them.

Rivalry. Members of the Emperor’s Children and the World Eaters cannot be combined in the same fleet. Similarly, members of the Death Guard and Thousand Sons may not be combined in the same fleet.

Capital ship Squadrons. If Capital ships are grouped as Squadrons, then each Squadron may only contain a single Warmaster or Lord and that ship must lead the squadron. Similarly, a squadron may not include ships with different Marks of Chaos.

Example: A fleet Warmaster’s ship has a Death Guard Chaos Space Marine crew. His ship has the Mark of Nurgle. His fleet contains six other cruisers, three ships have Chaos Space Marine crew and one of these also has a Chaos Lord. The two Chaos Space Marine ships without Lords must be crewed by the Death Guard and must therefore have the Mark of Nurgle. The ship containing the Lord can be Death Guard as well but doesn’t have to be as it could represent an allied force from another Legion. Because the fleet contains members of the Death Guard, the Lord’s ship may not be crewed by the Thousand Sons but may be represented any other Legions. Let’s assume it is the Emperor’s Children and therefore has the Mark of Slaanesh.

When organising these ships into squadrons, the Warmaster and Lord’s ships may not be in the same squadron and each must command any squadron they do join. The Chaos Lord’s squadron may not contain any ships with a Mark other than that of Slaanesh, and the Warmaster’s squadron may not include any ships with a Mark other than that of Nurgle.

Leadership. A vessel with a Chaos Space Marine crew will have +1 Leadership (in addition to any other bonuses due to there being a Chaos Warmaster or Chaos Lord on board). Furthermore, the maximum Leadership of the vessel is increased to 10.

Boarding and hit-and-run. The superior fighting skills of the Chaos Space Marines are most apparent in boarding actions. A ship with a Chaos Space Marine crew adds +2 to its roll when performing boarding actions, and enemy conducting hit-and-run attacks against them subtract one from their hit-and-run result. Hit-and-run attacks launched by boarding torpedoes, Dreadclaws, Thunderhawks or teleportation originating from such a ship add +1 to their result.

Planetary Assault. Ships with Chaos Space Marine crews in a planetary assault mission score 2 Assault points for every turn they spend landing troops.

Terminator Teleport Assault. For an extra 10 points, Battleships and Grand Cruisers with Chaos Space Marine Warmasters, Lords or crews may roll two dice when conducting hit and run teleport attacks and select which one they wish to count. They will add +1 as normal. This represents them unleashing their Chosen Terminators in a teleport assault.