Before I start to review the units it is worth looking over what exactly the Marks and Icons do for the new 6th edition codex. They do exactly the same, regardless of unit, so it should come as no surprise that some marks are more useful on some units than others.
In the 4th edition Codex the Marks and Icons did more or less the exact same thing, with Icons bestowing the Mark of chaos and a teleport homer on a unit of normal chaos space marines. Very few other units could take marks. This has all changed.
In 4th edition which we are all familiar with, the marks did the following;
Khorne: +1 attack.
Tzeench: +1 invulnerable save, or a 5+ one if they didn't have one.
Nurgle: +1 toughness, but didn't count for instant death.
Slaanesh: +1 initiative
Icons as explained above, gave a squad the mark, and the ability to act as homing beacon for teleporters and chaos daemons. The only exeception was th Icon of Chaos Glory which gave the unit a reroll on morale checks, because Chaos Marines didn't get "And they shall know no Fear" like loyalist marines. In the vast majority of cases squads didn't bother with Icons, except occasionally the Icon of Chaos glory as cult troops were available in the Troops section with better equipment options and statistics, such as Plague marines and Khorne Beserkers.
Fast forwards to 2012 and the new Chaos Codex is out for 6th edition. The Marks of Chaos have changed considerably. The new Marks of Chaos give the following rules.
Khorne: Rage and Counter attack
Tzeench: +1 invulnerable save to a 3+ maximum, or 6+ if they don't have one.
Nurgle: +1 toughness
Slaanesh: +1 initiative
Those marks which can take psychic powers have to take at least one spell from their patron god. As you can see, most of the marks havn't changed all that much. Khorne changes slightly, but charging it is as good as it used to be.
Icons now add something extra on top of the Marks. Most of them are limited to squads which already have a Mark of Chaos. They now add +1 to the combat result, like the marine and guard standard equivelents.
Icon of Wrath: Furious charge and rerolling charge range. Khorne only.
Icon of Flame: Bolt weapons have Soul Blaze. Tzeench only.
Icon of Despair: Fear. Nurgle only.
Icon of Excess: Feel no Pain. Slaanesh only.
Icon of Vengeance: Fearless.
The first and most important thing to bear in mind is that the Icon of Vengeance is a much improved version of the Icon of Chaos glory. Not taking morale tests is far better than rerolls.
Looking at the Mark and Icon combinations, Khorne looks to have a very good combination, although in a lot of ways the Khorne Beserkers unit needs these to restore them back to their 4th edition capabilities. This will be looked at in more detail in the Elites section.
Tzeench seems very similar to before. I don't think the Soul Blaze rule is especially good as a rule, a 50% chance of landing a couple of extra flamer hits really doesn't do anything for me. However the Mark of Tzeench is very good on certain units, like Terminators, or those with the Daemon rule.
Nurgle mark is worth having, every unit can benefit from toughness increases. Fear on the other hand is just not worth the points. So many units will be fearless or otherwise immune that it is more or less a joke special rule.
Slaanesh is interesting. While the mark isn't anything great on the face of it, it does boost the normal marines to a higher initative than loyalists, so terminators with lightning claws for example, benefit by being able to strike first with lethal effectiveness. The best reason to upgrade to Mark of Slaanesh is to have the Icon. I expect these to be very common, as Feel no Pain is an exceptionally good special rule. Terminators with this will be very strong, as will any units with the Daemon special rule.
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