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Chaos Space Marines

Army rule · Dark Pacts

Right before it shoots or fights, a unit can make a Dark Pact: its weapons hit harder until the end of the phase, but it risks hurting itself.

The Chaos Space Marines army rule is called Dark Pacts. It is neither a standing bonus nor a once-per-battle thing: it is a choice you make unit by unit, every time one of them is selected to shoot or to fight.

  1. When a unit with the Dark Pacts ability is selected to shoot or to fight, you decide: Dark Pact or not. Nothing forces you.
  2. If yes, it first takes a Leadership test. If it fails, it suffers D3 mortal wounds — before it has shot or struck at all.
  3. Then, pass or fail, you pick one of two abilities for its weapons until the end of the phase: [LETHAL HITS] or [SUSTAINED HITS 1].

Both work off critical hits — the best hit rolls. With [LETHAL HITS], a critical hit wounds automatically: no wound roll. With [SUSTAINED HITS 1], a critical hit counts as one extra hit.

A worked example

  1. My Legionaries are selected to shoot. Do I make a Dark Pact?

    Your call. If yes: Leadership test first. Fail it, and the unit takes D3 mortal wounds. Pass or fail, their weapons gain [LETHAL HITS] or [SUSTAINED HITS 1] until the end of the Shooting phase.

  2. My Raptors made a pact to shoot. They charge and fight right after. Does the pact still hold?

    No. It ends with the phase you made it in. In the fight, it is a new decision, a new test, a new risk.

  3. I fail the test. Do I lose the bonus too?

    No. The bonus comes anyway. Failing the test costs you D3 mortal wounds, not the pact — that is the bargain.

Only units with the Dark Pacts ability can make a pact. Being Heretic Astartes is not enough: the datasheet decides. Go and check before you count on it.

Three things are not explained on this site yet: how a Leadership test is rolled for a Dark Pact, what exactly a critical hit is, and what mortal wounds are. Ask someone at the club to show you the first time.

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