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Like the title says, I have begun to plan out and buy some Chaos with the intention of doing a relatively fluffy style Iron Warriors force. I have been looking at using either the new Traitor's Hate formations (Chaos Warband definitely and probably Fist of the Gods or the one with the daemon engines) or The Purge from Imperial Armour: Siege of Vraks (the one that requires 2x Elites, no Fast Attack but allows up to 4x Heavy Support). My main point of concern is I'm not sure if I want to run with Traitor Guard or not for big tanks. Fluffwise it seems to be a good idea depending on the mission in particular; for instance I re-read Storm of Iron and there the Iron Warriors force have a pretty large contingent of soldier-slaves that man artillery crews, dig trenches and draw enemy fire (and that's before including POWs). However, the Siege of Hydra Cordatus was also a pretty large scale battle (after all, they had a contingent of the Legio Mortis including the Dies Irae there), and in the other stories it seems to be mostly Chaos Marines. My very rough army concept is still largely a warband that's engaging in havoc and mayhem in some as-of-yet unnamed Imperial sector, so not really intended at this point for a long, drawn-out battle that would require thousands of slaves to dig in, but would naturally need to have some firepower (my GW has a very nice Sector Imperialis table that I'm imagining my forces fighting through).

Any suggestions from both a fluffy and an "I don't want to lose all the time" approach? Both seem to have something to offer me, just can't really decide which one seems better. A Traitor's Hate formation would probably be easier/cheaper to acquire since it doesn't require Forgeworld stuff (although if I was going to field renegades in any major way I'd likely just use the Cultists with autoguns from Dark Vengeance, since they look more like a militia), but part of me likes the idea of rolling up with a bunch of tanks and such.

Well ideally you 'd want some renegade allies in the long term. Just suits the fluff better than anything codex csm has to offer right now. We don't have anything that could emulate basilisks and mortars unless you count the land raider achilles which makes a poor substitute but it's the only(?) barrage platform csm have. And not necessarily marked nurgle given how IW are undivided, but that also means a mostly nurgle warband works equally well. Black Legion also have warbands that are associated with one go or another. It's only on a whole that they are undivided.
Like you mentioned however, this is much more expensive and also makes more sense in larger games. For the most part I think IW would be just fine with TH and maybe a couple of cultists as cannon fodder. If you have any forgeworld stuff though, the purge detachment might me of more immediate interest. Juggling CADs with a decurion because you want to field your raptor isn't easy. The purge doesn't really offer csm all that much apart from the altered CAD. We don't really have any barrage and the poisoned flamers are nice and all but they won't be game changing. And I don't even remember what a csm missile launcher looks like. The TH formations are more useful by comparison and allow even more heavy and elite choices than the purge, but with potentially a lot of tax to pay.

The warband fits into any legion really and then it depends on what you want to bring. I'd say if you're fine with using vanilla units only go with TH. It's no less fluffy and stronger than a purge CAD given how you get extra rules. You're probably best of using the purge as a quasi allied detachment. Either for renegades or fill the min reqs with termicides. Then fill the rest with whatever forgeworld nasties you'd like. If you're really strapped for points you might want to consider mutilators here. However bad they may be, they're as cheap as cultists if you really just want to meet the min reqs. Though in that case you might as well pay the points for a warpsmith in one of the formations. Or a regular CAD with cultists as you probably don't need all 4 heavy slots.

Yeah that's kinda what I'm thinking, TH as primary, Purge as allied Traitor Guard--I mean pressganged slaves--for bonus tanks at a later date.

Why not both? The Purge will give you access to the FW goodies for the minimal price of some Terminators for a suicide mission, and the you take Fists Of the Gods and that formation allows you some sweet Maulerfiends spam.

Alternatively, Black Crusade Warband decurion core, Fist of the Gods Auxiliary, then Emperor's Wrath artillery formation from the (traitor) Guard. You'd be CtA, but they're going to be camping a corner anyway, so checks should be minimal. Should represent IW nicely.

Edit; just threw together a rough list to see if it fits in 1850. It does, but a few comprises will have to be made.

Black Crusade Warband
170 - Juggerlord (change to crimson slaughter Daemonheart fist/claw lord if you want completely unmarked)
75 - 5X Chaos Marines
75 - 5X Chaos Marines
112 - 3X Terminators, 3X combi
90 - 3x Bikes, 2X melta
115 - 5X Havocs, 4X Autocannons

Fist of the Gods
110 - Warpsmith
115 - Predator, Lascannon sponsons
115 - Predator, Lascannon sponsons
115 - Predator, Lascannon sponsons

Emperor's Wrath
135 - CCS, Volkovs cane, chimera
40 - Techpriest
250 - 2X Basillisk
130 - 2X Wyvern
170 - 1X Manticore

1817

So only 33 points spare and both the CSM squads are barebones, the bike escort is Min sizes and you're stuck with auto/las preds in the FotG. You could drop a bassie or a wyvern, but then what's the point? A multi melta Helbrute would save you 15 points and be more in keeping with the armoured theme, but Havoc with Autocannons are just great for cost, so it's more personal preference I suspect.

I'd probably grab another biker and throw a Flamer on both the CSM squads and call it a day.