Deceptors: The 11th-Edition Chaos Space Marines Infiltration Detachment

In the Declare Battle Formations step, you can select a number of Legionaries and Cultist Mob units from your army. Until the end of the battle, those units, and any Character units attached to them (excluding Epic Heroes), have the Infiltrators ability.

The maximum scales with battle size, and it is generous:

• Incursion — up to 2 Legionaries units and up to 2 Cultist Mobs.
• Strike Force — up to 3 and up to 3.
• Onslaught — up to 4 and up to 4.

At a normal 2,000-point game that is six units starting up the board, which is more pre-game placement than most factions get from a whole detachment.

Two details matter. The rule names Legionaries and Cultist Mob only, so Chosen, Terminators and Possessed are not eligible. And attached Characters come along, which is how a Chaos Lord or Dark Apostle ends up 9 inches from the enemy on turn zero, provided it is not an Epic Hero.

Six, all 1CP, and they are unusually spread between attack, mobility and denial.

• Pick Them Off (Shooting) — a unit re-rolls Hit rolls against units below Starting Strength, and Wound rolls too against Below Half-strength targets.
• From All Sides (start of Charge) — +1 to Charge rolls for each other Heretic Astartes unit that already charged this phase, to a maximum of +3. A reward for a genuinely multi-unit assault.
• Coils of Deception (Movement) — a unit that Fell Back can still shoot.
• Relentless Pursuit (opponent's Movement) — a unit within 8 inches of a moving enemy makes a 6-inch Normal move. The pack changed the range from 9 inches to 8.
• Scrambled Coordinates (start of opponent's Reinforcements) — enemy units arriving from Reserves cannot be set up within 12 inches horizontally of one unit of your choice.
• Detonator (any phase) — when an enemy model with Deadly Demise is destroyed near your Character, its mortal wounds are inflicted automatically rather than on a roll.

Scrambled Coordinates is the underrated one. Combined with infiltrated units already sitting in the middle of the table, it can shut off half the board to a deep-strike list.

• Shroud of Obfuscation (15 pts) — Heretic Astartes Infantry only: the bearer has Stealth and Lone Operative. A character that cannot be shot at until you get close, standing in the middle of the board.
• Cursed Fang (10 pts) — Infantry only: +1 Armour Penetration on the bearer's melee weapons and Precision.
• Falsehood (10 pts) — Chaos Lord only, excluding Terminator and Jump Pack models: the bearer starts in Reserves, then in one of your Movement phases a model in a friendly Legionaries or Chosen unit of two or more models is destroyed and the bearer takes its place, attaching as that unit's Leader. The pack rewrote the third sentence.
• Soul Link (5 pts) — Infantry only: each Command phase, select another non-Epic-Hero Heretic Astartes Infantry Character; the bearer gains Psyker and its datasheet abilities are replaced by that model's for the turn. Official FAQs confirm this includes Core and Faction abilities, works while the bearer is in Reserves, lets the bearer use an ability even if the source model has already exhausted it, and does not change which units the bearer can attach to.

(Points come from the Munitorum Field Manual and move with updates; confirm in the app.)

• Legionaries — one of only two datasheets that get free Infiltrators, and a legal Falsehood arrival point.
• Chaos Cultists — the Cultist Mob half of the rule, and the cheapest way to put Infiltrators bodies on the board.
• Chosen — the other unit Falsehood can arrive into, and worth the character investment.
• Chaos Lord — Falsehood is Chaos Lord only, excluding Terminator and Jump Pack models, so the plain Chaos Lord is the one that can take it.
• Master of Executions — the pack changed it from Leader to Support, so it can now join a unit that already has a Leader, which suits a character-dense infiltration list.

Take it when you want to win the deployment phase. Six units of free Infiltrators at Strike Force denies your opponent's Scouts moves, forces them to deploy cautiously, and puts you on the objectives before turn one. It also suits an Alpha Legion theme perfectly and asks nothing unusual of your collection: Legionaries and cultists are the two cheapest boxes in the range.

Be clear-eyed about the limits. The rule gives you position, not power. Nothing in Masters of Misdirection makes a unit hit harder or survive longer, so an infiltrated Legionaries squad is still a Legionaries squad, and putting six of them in the open invites a punishing first turn. The stratagems are also mostly small: Pick Them Off is conditional and From All Sides needs three or four charges to pay properly.

Sample gameplan: infiltrate two Legionaries squads onto the midfield objectives and two Cultist Mobs in front of them as screens. Put Shroud of Obfuscation on a character standing centrally and Soul Link on another for five points. Hold Scrambled Coordinates for your opponent's first Reserves turn, use Relentless Pursuit to shadow anything that tries to move around you, and spend Pick Them Off once your shooting has thinned a target.