Veteran Skills
Ten thousand years of warfare has honed the skills of the Chaos Space Marines just as their service to Chaos has augmented their powers. No conventional Space Marine has the depth or breadth of experience that the Traitor Marines have built up and consequently there are few war skills that at least some of them have not mastered. This is reflected by the ability to assign Veteran skills to independent characters or units.
The army list entries specify which characters and units may have Veteran skills. Models with no Mark of Chaos may have any number of skills, whilst models with a Mark may only have one. All models in a unit must have the same skills, including any character they form the retinue of. Skills conferred by a list entry or which are automatic to members of a certain Legion or bearers of a particular Mark of Chaos do not count toward the maximum number of skills. No model may take a Veteran skill more than once.
If a character temporarily joins a unit and has different Veteran skills to the unit, the character may not utilise any skills the unit does not have and vice-versa. If, for example, the character has counter-attack and the unit he has joined is charged neither the character nor the unit may use the counter-attack skill to move into combat.
Counter-Attack. Unengaged veterans in a unit that has been assaulted may move up to 6" to get into base-to-base contact with the enemy. Treat the counter-attack as an assault move, so take terrain into account as normal.
Models that counter-attack do not receive the +1 attack bonus for charging but will be able to fight with their full complement of attacks. Models may counter-attack if the unit they are in was charged as part of a 'sweeping advance', in which case the move is made immediately after the unit that made the sweeping advance completes its move.
Errata — Chapter Approved: Codex: Chaos Space Marines Q&A (v3.0): If a Lord with a Veteran skill such as Furious Charge takes a Chaos Spawn or Chaos Hounds as followers, the skill does not extend to them, since they're a separate part of the unit without the same skill — the exceptions are Night Vision and Skilled Rider, which extend to followers in any meaningful way; no other skill does.
Furious Charge. During an Assault phase in which the unit charges, all models will be at +1 Initiative and +1 Strength.
Infiltrate. The squad may deploy using the Infiltrators scenario special rule, if allowed to do so by the mission being played. Models with a bike, a Steed, Followers, Daemonic Stature, the Mark of Khorne or Terminator Armour cannot use this skill.
Errata — Chapter Approved: Codex: Chaos Space Marines Q&A (v3.0): Infiltrate can be combined with Daemonic Flight — Daemonic Flight is not among the abilities that block it.
Move Through Cover. The squad rolls an extra D6 when rolling to move through difficult terrain. In most circumstances this will mean that they roll 3D6 and pick the dice with the highest score. Models with a Bike, a Steed, Daemonic Stature or Terminator Armour cannot use this skill.
Night Vision. Within the Eye of Terror there are worlds wrapped in perpetual night and worlds with underground labyrinths that stretch forever. Chaos Marines accustomed to such places develop a sixth sense more efficient than any mere technology to enable them to master the night. When the Night Fight mission special rules are in use, Veterans with Night Vision may re-roll the dice when rolling to determine how far they can see but must abide by the re-roll even if it is worse.
Siege Specialists. The unit gets +1 on any Armour Penetration rolls against enemy bunkers and tank traps. When crossing minefields they will only trigger a mine on a roll of 6.
When occupying fortifications in missions where they are the defenders, these Veterans are treated as being Fearless.
They may never use the Voluntary Fall Back optional rule but test for Pinning as normal. Outside fortifications, and in fortifications built by the enemy (ie, when attacking) they get no benefit.
Skilled Riders. Only available to units mounted on Chaos Space Marine Bikes or Daemonic Beasts. The unit re-rolls any 1s rolled for Difficult Terrain tests but must accept the new result. Remember that all independent characters have this ability, so do not need to pay points for it.
Tank Hunters. The unit always passes any Morale checks due to tank shock and adds +1 to all Armour Penetration rolls made with heavy weapons, special weapons, melta-bombs and krak grenades.
Errata — Chapter Approved: Codex: Chaos Space Marines Q&A (v3.0): Tank Hunters does not help against the Monolith — it has no weak spots to exploit, so its Living Metal immunity to bonus Armour Penetration still applies. Sonic weapons and Daemon weapons of any kind can never use the Tank Hunters skill, but the melta and flamer components of combi-weapons can. Terminators can generally take Veteran skills despite having no asterisk restriction listed for them — but check each skill's own description, since some (Infiltrate, for example) specifically forbid Terminator use. If a model couldn't normally take a Veteran skill at all, it does not receive a free skill just because its Legion grants one to eligible units.