Chosen vs Possessed

[Narric]

Looking over the two units, I've seen an oddity. Chosen to me seem the better choice than Possessed. Chosen are more reliable, and depending on what gear you give them, cheaper.

I'll explain why.

With Chosen, you select the wargear, and their abilities don't change in game bar the Champion gaining Boons.

Possessed have a 1/3 chance of having an ability that is not useful to you. This may sound less then previous edition, but remember, last edition the ability stayed for the entire game. Now, the abilties don't help you getting into assault, and when you get there, there is no garuantee the ability you roll will be even useful. eg getting re-roll wounds when assulting gaurdsmen, or AP 3 against terminators.

But what is every one elses thought son them?

[The Man They Call Jayne]

I have used neither, but simply on paper Chosen seem to be the better choice. Better wargear, and the option for thinks like outflanking Special Weapons Teams. I do think about running a minimal squad with massed flamers just for messing up troops and laughing at  assaulters with Overwatch. Attach them to my Warpsmith with a Couple of Flamers and a couple of Meltas and they could be quite complimentary.

[Irisado]

Possessed are one of the few units in the new Chaos codex that are still a bit too risky in my opinion.  They remain quite costly, are pretty inflexible, and are still bound to the whims of the random nature of the D6.

Chosen are just far more versatile, so they can be used as a jack of all trades unit, or tailored for a particular shooting role (anti-infantry or anti-tank), or geared up for assault if you wish.  This just makes them a much easier unit to use effectively, and to integrate into the rest of your army.

The Possessed have their uses, and I would still be tempted to take them, because, as shock troops, they can be useful for drawing fire away from more important units, but it would have to be a reasonably large game, in order for me to be able to free up sufficient points to be able to accommodate a reasonably sized squad.

[Aun]

I've been using a squad of 10 chosen with 5 plasma guns in a rhino ever since the new book came out, and they are amazing. The firepower the plasma guns provide makes them an astounding threat to just about everything in the game, but the big draw for them is that they have three base attacks. I've had many opponents charge them after enduring a withering Overwatch from all the plasma guns only to be destroyed or broken in the subsequent combat because of the chosen's sheer number of attacks.

While I havent used possessed, I have to say that I think they can be a very effective unit. While they are expensive, all of the random effects they have in melee are good and their base stats are very competent. One thing I would suggest to anyone who is fielding possessed would be to place them in a Dreadclaw. This lets them deep strike and then subsequently assault on the same turn (and the fact they have fleet will help them get stuck in).

[DEF Knight]

It seems like they're fairly distinct units to me. Chosen can be tooled for a variety of specific roles, but Possessed seem relatively singular in their purpose. They're elite CC units. They're for countercharging enemy anti-MEQ and anti-TEQ units, and taking out TEQ themselves. They're for fighting exactly that which would bring Chosen low.

Now if you stack up the numbers I don't really think they're quite worth it. There's plenty of ways to do their job cheaper, but I still think they're rather distinct. if their AP3 power was AP2 instead, and they were a couple points cheaper they'd be a lot more attractive I think (even just the ap2 thing would give them a much greater scope of usefulness)

[Chicop76]

Don't know about new possessed and just assumed they are similar to the old ones while I can see chosen stuff on army builder. 5 plasma guns that can out flank is nuff said.

[Fhanados]

Unless I'm playing a larger game, I use neither. If I can fit them both in I will, but depending on who or what I'm facing (I generally play against the same people and we rewrite our lists each game) I'll take one or the other.

I think the loss of Infiltrate made Chosen far less attractive to me than last codex. I really don't like the idea of having to take a named character to guarantee my sneaky veterans have the same ability they've had access to for several editions.

That said, due to the Champion actually having his own options now you can really tank out the squad. This can get really expensive REALLY fast. I run Plasma Chosen (5 plasma guns, champ with plasma pistol) which winds up being close to300pts once I factor in the Rhino. They murder most things they look at, but honestly very rarely make their points back.

Possessed are pretty pricey per model. To me their main drawback is a small number of attacks, which can somewhat be mitigated by a Mark of Khorne, but who wants to do that? I usually run a unit of 5 naked or with MoT. Their high S makes wounding most infantry a breeze, and gives you a good shot at hurting vehicles back armour. You have to pray to the dice gods you get a decent roll on their Daemonkin ability (or whatever it's called now) if you're charging them at something extra tough.

I think Possessed are less appealing to most people because they are over specialised and overpriced for their lack of wargear/weapons/upgrades. It would be nice to be able to give 1 or 2 a flamer type attack like the days of yore, or even give them bolt pistols. Alas this isn't possible, so Chosen and their bazillion different configurations become very tasty.

Chosen can be geared to take on anything, for a price of course. TEQ heavy meta? Melta/plasma/axe/fist. MEQs? Swords and plasma. Hordes? Flamer/heavy bolter. Then you've got Marks...

I like both units, but when it comes to crunch time it depends on how many points I have leftover from my core as to what I field. Both units are, after all, supporting units. Using them as frontline infantry is a guaranteed way to make you sad.

[crisis_vyper]

Neither.

If I ever want to use anything from the elite section, I would be using Tzeentchian Terminators or Nurgle Terminators. The Cult troops are more of a troop choice for most people as a result of them becoming troop choices when you give an appropriate mark to the Chaos Lord/Sorcerer to unlock a specific cult troop.

Not to mention that I think that a Chaos Army would benefit more from utilizing the Troops, Fast Attack and Heavy Support part of the list more than the Elites.

[Brassclaw]

Neither.

If I ever want to use anything from the elite section, I would be using Tzeentchian Terminators or Nurgle Terminators. The Cult troops are more of a troop choice for most people as a result of them becoming troop choices when you give an appropriate mark to the Chaos Lord/Sorcerer to unlock a specific cult troop.

Not to mention that I think that a Chaos Army would benefit more from utilizing the Troops, Fast Attack and Heavy Support part of the list more than the Elites.

I would have to agree with vyper, the elite section is not the best for chaos. I do have a unit of possessed, but i haven't use them in this edition nor probably wouldn't use them in a competitive setting maybe in large apoc. games

[crisis_vyper]

I would have to agree with vyper, the elite section is not the best for chaos. I do have a unit of possessed, but i haven't use them in this edition nor probably wouldn't use them in a competitive setting maybe in large apoc. games

I miss the old days where possessed are perhaps one of the most powerful Elite choices given to us. 

[Irisado]

I miss the old days where possessed are perhaps one of the most powerful Elite choices given to us. 

I don't miss the old days at all, and I do like the Possessed in the current book much more than in the 2007 codex, so I still think, on balance, they're reasonable.  It's really the random element that's the problem, but we just have to accept that the Chaos Gods are sometimes fickle .

[Chicop76]

I miss the old days where possessed are perhaps one of the most powerful Elite choices given to us. 

I don't miss the old days at all, and I do like the Possessed in the current book much more than in the 2007 codex, so I still think, on balance, they're reasonable.  It's really the random element that's the problem, but we just have to accept that the Chaos Gods are sometimes fickle .

I think he mean before the 4th/ 5th edition codex.

[crisis_vyper]

I miss the old days where possessed are perhaps one of the most powerful Elite choices given to us. 

I don't miss the old days at all, and I do like the Possessed in the current book much more than in the 2007 codex, so I still think, on balance, they're reasonable.  It's really the random element that's the problem, but we just have to accept that the Chaos Gods are sometimes fickle .

I think he mean before the 4th/ 5th edition codex.

Chicop76 got it right. At the time of the 3.5/4th edition codex I can get rending (which is godlike during 4th edition), wings, and other nonsense upgrades and wreak havoc. And I do not have to roll on a random table for anything.

[Irisado]

I think he mean before the 4th/ 5th edition codex.

I got that, I was mentioning the 2007 book to show that I think that they are better than they were in that version.  I appreciate that crisis_vyper was referring to the 3.5 edition codex though.

Chicop76 got it right. At the time of the 3.5/4th edition codex I can get rending (which is godlike during 4th edition), wings, and other nonsense upgrades and wreak havoc. And I do not have to roll on a random table for anything.

Rending was too powerful in fourth edition.

Yes, the random table is a bit frustrating, but it's better than the previous random table, and that's why I say Possessed are still an improvement on their most recent previous incarnation.

[Restayvien]

Bear in mind that the Possessed's unpredictablility works both ways - it's harder for an opponent to effectively/efficiently counter a unit that's so variable.