Each of the varied Warhammer 40,000 armies has a certain set of units that the rest of the army is built around. This is commonly referred to as the "core" of an army. The core of the army generally represents a solid block of Troops choices from the codex along with the army general, a big gun, and a cool character or two like medics and psykers. Every time the army drops into a warzone, most of this "core army" is inevitably present. Presented below is what a Chaos Space Marine "core army", without too much Wargear, generally consists of.

	Unit Name	Points	Unit Wargear	Points	Notes	Total
	Chaos Space Marine Lord	60	Daemon armour Power weapon Bolt pistol	20 15 1	HQ Choice	96
	Chaos Space Marines (9) Chaos Space Marines (1) Aspiring Champion	126 27	Bolters Combat weapon Plasma gun	0 0 10	Troops	163
	Chaos Space Marines (9) Chaos Space Marines (1) Aspiring Champion	126 27	Bolt pistol Combat weapon Plasma pistol Power weapon	0 0 10 10	Troops	173
	Chaos Rhino	50	Combi-bolter	0	Troop Transport	50
	Defiler	150	Battle cannon Reaper autocannon Heavy flamer	0 0 0	Heavy Support	150
					Total points:	632