Detachment Focus: Veterans of the Long War (Updated January 9, 2025)

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Veterans of the Long War Detachment for the Chaos Space Marines.

The Tenth Edition release of Codex: Chaos Space Marines gave the faction access to a whopping eight detachments, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. These can dramatically change how the army plays, as each one tends to push players to build in a different way. In this series we’re diving deep into each Detachment and talking about what its rules are and how to play it. This article will be focusing on the Veterans of the Long War Detachment.

Changelog

• January 9, 2025: Updated with errata, dataslate changes, and a new list
• May 11, 2024: Initial Publication

Detachment Overview

Ostensibly designed to be the Black Legion Detachment for Chaos Space Marines, the Veterans of the Long War gives Chaos players the closest thing we’ll get to a “dark mirror” of a Space Marines army, offering an analog of the faction’s Oath of Moment rule. Power-wise Veterans of the Long War isn’t quite in the top tier of Chaos Space Marine options, but full re-rolls to hit are powerful and there are some strong abilities in the Detachment’s Stratagems. There are a number of units in the Chaos Space Marines army which really need re-rolls to hit to reach their full potential, and Veterans of the Long War lets them get there.

Detachment Rule: Focus of Hatred

At the start of your Command phase, select one unit from your opponent’s army to be the focus of your hatred. Until the start of your next Command phase, each time a HERETIC ASTARTES model from your army (excluding DAMNED models) makes an attack that targets your focus of hatred, you can re-roll the Hit roll.

Anyone who has played against Space Marines knows how powerful Oath of Moment can be, and this gives you a similar boost. It combines extremely well with Dark Pacts to let you fish for additional sustained or Lethal Hits. It’s great for focusing down key targets without having it overcommit, and great for punishing elite armies relying on a small number of powerful units. What’s also great about this is that, aside from a few key units we’ll mention, pretty much any unit can benefit from this, letting you keep your options open. 

If there’s a downside here it’s that the ability isn’t great for dealing with hordes of cheap models, and there are a number of units in your army which can already re-roll hits, such as Chaos Terminators. On that note it’s ironic that Abaddon’s aura to re-roll hits butts up against the core rule of his detachment (though it does free you up to use his 4+ invulnerable save more). That said, it’s only for one enemy unit, so don’t be afraid to take units which re-roll hits anyways, as you’re going to shoot/fight more than one thing per round most of the time.

Enhancements

The Veterans of the Long War Enhancements are a mixed bag. They’re just okay, and not really things you’d build around. Warmaster’s Gift is the one you’ll end up including in most lists, but if you have the points, the Eye of Abaddon and Mark of Legend can each be worth taking.

• Warmaster’s Gift (15 points) – Chaos Lord model only. Each time you make an attack that targets your focus of hatred an unmodified successful wound roll of 5+ scores a critical wound. This is good for one thing and that’s a Daemon Hammer Chaos Lord, where you can use it to score more Devastating Wounds, particularly in concert with the Chance for Glory ability to bump those to 3 damage. Pair him with Legionaries for re-rolls to wound and you’ve got an incredibly nasty melee threat.
• Eager for Vengeance (20 points) – Goes on a non-DAMNED model. Your unit is eligible to Fall Back and shoot and charge. Additionally, if you fell back this turn, then each time you make an attack that targets your focus of hatred you get +1 to hit, and each time you select your focus of hatred as the target of a charge you get +1 to the Charge roll. This is a really powerful effect, but the fact that it’s all gated behind having to actually make a Fall back move makes this incredibly situational and way too expensive at 20 points. I’m sure there are times when you can use this but this is easily the least useful of the four options here.
• Eye of Abaddon (15 points) – Goes on a non-DAMNED model. While the bearer is on the battlefield, each time the focus of your hatred is destroyed you roll a D6 and on a 4+ you get 1 CP. This is something I’d pay 5 points for, but at 15 it’s a bit too much. Chaos Space Marine armies often really want CP and have very few ways to get more of it, making this a solid addition, particularly if you want to be able to use the Detachment’s 2 CP Stratagems. 
• Mark of Legend (10 points) – Goes on a non-DAMNED model. Once per turn you can re-roll one hit roll, wound roll, or one saving throw for the bearer. The obvious place to put this is on a Daemon Prince, where the save is helpful for keeping him on the table and having an extra re-roll during the attack sequence (in addition to the one hit/wound re-roll you already get) is pretty great. Otherwise it’s also okay on a Hammer Chaos Lord paired with a unit of Chosen.

Stratagems

The Veterans of the Long War have an okay set of Stratagems with some decent effects to choose from. That said, some of these are pretty expensive and situational – two of these focus on your Focus of Hatred and they’re also the Stratagems which cost 2 CP. 

• Endless Ire (Epic Deed, 2 CP) – Used when your focus of hatred is destroyed. Pick a visible enemy unit within 12” of one of your non-DAMNED character to become your new focus of hatred until your next Command phase. This one is very situational, requiring a lot of things to line up right but every now and then you’ll be able to use it to double up on hit re-rolls and surprise an opponent by finishing something off, then pivoting to a second big kill. It’s very situational and expensive, and as a result something you’re likely to use a Chaos Lord for to drop the cost to 1. The ideal scenario here is often going to be “shoot one target to death, then use this to nominate a second one you’re about to charge.”
• Contemptuous Disregard (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Worsen the AP of incoming attacks by 1 for a phase on a non-DAMNED unit for a single activation. The Chaos version of Armour of Contempt is OK. Similar to other effects, the Q4 Dataslate nerfed this, dropping its window of utility from an entire phase to just a single unit’s attacks, making it substantially less useful. It’ll still have its moments, but it’s not the auto-fire it used to be.
• Bringers of Despair (Epic Deed, 2 CP) – One non-DAMNED unit within Engagement Range of your focus of Hatred gains the Fights First ability. This is really strong but again pretty situational. The times having Fights First will be helpful to you and you’ll be in a situation to drop it on your focus of hatred are pretty limited, but when it does happen it’ll be a complete rout. Another reason to have multiple Chaos Lords in your army.
• Black Crusade (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in your Movement phase on a non-DAMNED Infantry or Mounted unit. Until the end of the turn your unit can shoot after Advancing or Falling Back, and its bolt pistols, boltguns, and combi-bolters gain the DEVASTATING WOUNDS ability while your unit has not already inflicted 6 wounds this turn using that ability. The key here is just that you can Advance or Fall Back and Shoot. Ignore everything else – that part’s more a fun bonus and it really only does anything on Bikes, where a unit of six might get enough shots to make it worthwhile for the mortals. But being able to Advance and Shoot is huge on Obliterators, who suffer from a 4″ movement characteristic, or on bikes, where they can really stretch the field and still deliver some good bonus mortals, or on Havocs, who also like the extra movement. It’s less great on units that want to charge.
• Let the Galaxy Burn (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – One non-TZEENTCH unit from your army that hasn’t shot yet gets [IGNORES COVER] on its ranged attacks and the attacks characteristic of torrent weapons in the unit becomes 6 until the end of your Shooting phase. They’ve carefully worded this to prevent you from taking it on Rubrics, but there’s still plenty of value if you want to throw it on a unit of Plague Marines sporting four snot cannons. That said, the real value here is Ignores Cover, which is great on something like Obliterators, who would love that ability attached to their Indirect Fire ability – use this to fire through walls at your Focus of Hatred target. 
• Millennia of Experience (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Used in your opponent’s movement phase, after an enemy unit ends a Move within 9” of one of your INFANTRY or MOUNTED non-DAMNED units. You can immediately make a Normal move up to 6”. Reactive moves are always great, and this is a great way to get free movement onto an objective or move out of range of a charge you don’t want to take.

Playing This Detachment

Veterans of the Long War may not be the strongest detachment in Codex: Chaos Space Marines, but it’s still pretty good. That core ability is very strong and more importantly, it’s generically strong – there really aren’t many units which won’t benefit from the Focus of Hatred ability. It’s a Detachment built for Legionaries, Obliterators, and Vindicators, and those are all very strong units to build and play around. Being able to focus down big targets really helps shore up one of the bigger weaknesses of the Chaos Space Marines, which is that they lack some of the truly hard-hitting weapon options of their loyalist cousins. Additionally, mobility tricks like being able to fall back or advance and shoot via Stratagems gives units like Obliterators and Havocs a ton more utility, and being able to use Millennia of Experience to reactive move around key threats gives you a ton of counterplay, either to get away from threats, move block with key units, steal an objective, or get into position for a charge.

Because you have multiple solid Enhancements and 2 CP Stratagems, you’ll want to put at least one and likely two Chaos Lords in your list. Chosen also work well here, where it’s easier to protect them with the Contemptuous Disregard Stratagem and they’re just already very good units to have.

Despite looking like a Black Legion detachment, this doesn’t really scream out for Abaddon. That said, there’s some real value here in being able to put Abaddon with a unit of Chosen and just rock his 4+ invulnerable aura all game and not have to worry about re-rolling hits. The downside here is that you really want Abaddon somewhere he can get re-rolls to wound so he can fish for Devastating Wounds with Drach’nyen, and not having that on offer here stinks. Where we have seen a ton of play for the Veterans of the Long War recently is with Emperor’s Children, who love to take the Detachment with Lucius the Eternal as their Warlord. There’s not a super special reason for this; he’s just an incredibly solid character option to attach to a unit of Legionaries. 

Strengths

• Detachment ability works with pretty much any unit in the game, freeing you up to build however you want
• Full re-rolls to hit against a key target is huge for taking out your opponent’s most powerful unit early in the game to cripple them
• Solid Stratagem effects with great buffs for Obliterators and Vindicators

Weaknesses

• Detachment ability isn’t great against horde armies where re-rolls to hit aren’t as necessary
• Stratagems are expensive and tend to be pretty limited situationally
• Having a -1 AP Stratagem as your defensive option isn’t great after the Q4 nerfs

A Sample List

As we’ve mentioned, the lists we’ve recently seen perform well with Veterans of the Long War tend to run as Emperor’s Children, taking advantage of the ability to add Lucius the Eternal as a cheap extra melee threat to attach to a unit of Legionaries.

Tom Maher's List List - Click to expand

Tom’s list runs a lot of the things we’ve already talked about. Chaos Vindicators are one of  the game’s most lethal units and wonderful for their cost, and they’ll put in good work here, while the Obliterators love suddenly being able to advance and shoot or ignore cover on their targets. Likewise for the bikes. This list pack two Chaos Lords – one with boosted melee output to join the small squad of Chosen – and the other with the CP-generating Eye of Abaddon Enhancement to join a unit of Legionaries. Meanwhile, Lucius joins the other unit of Legionaries and Bile hangs out with the big unit of Chosen. Normally I’d suggest that the ten-model unit of Chosen get more out of the Lord’s boosts but I’m not convinced he really needs them, while having Bile’s +1 Strength and Toughness applied to a larger unit is often going to be the better payoff. Though you may vary this by opponent.

If you don’t want to run Emperor’s Children or Lucius here well, you don’t have to – you have other options. Swap him out for a Master of Executions or Huron Blackheart and you’ll have 10 additional points to spare. This list was notably created before the release of the Nemesis Claw datasheet, and I’d even recommend running one of those instead of the second unit of Legionaries – drop the Eye of Abaddon and this list has those points ready to go. The Nemesis Claw give you a way to further mess with your opponent on top of Cypher, preventing Interrupts and helpful if you aren’t running Lucius.

Final Thoughts

This is a tricky Detachment. The raw power here comes from re-rolls to hit, which makes a lot of otherwise high variance units like Vindicators and Obliterators much more powerful. But don’t sleep on the movement tech – being able to disengage and re-engage from combat is huge, and that reactive move can do a ton of work. Chaos Space Marines already have good damage and output, so when you give them their own versions of the loyalists’ fancy movement tricks, it’s no wonder they get a big boost.

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