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To start with, I'm completely new to wargaming. I wanted to get started by getting 2 small armies so I could play with friends and without breaking the budget, so I figured the starter box set would be perfect because it came with 2 armies and the rule book for a good price. After playing a few games with the armies, I noticed that the Dark Angels seem to have better units overall than the CSM, and after some internet research, I found out that the two armies are pretty unbalanced points wise (what i'm generally seeing is CSM has roughly 525 pts and DA have around 740pts).

I'm at the point where I want to begin expanding my army (I enjoy the look and fluff of CSM and would like to use them as my main army) but I still want 2 relatively balanced armies to fall back on so I can introduce friends to the game and play against them at home.

Because CSM has roughly 215 points less than the DA, adding more units to the CSM army seems to be the easiest way to go about it from a noob's point of view, and would benefit me in the long run because that's the army I want to play, but I have a feeling it wont be that simple...

So the real question is, how can I balance the 2 armies in the DV box set (if "balanced" even exists...), preferably by only adding units to the Chaos army, but I am willing to buy a box or 2 for DA if need be. Please note, my current hobby budget isn't that large for at least the next 2 months, so maybe keep the points roughly in the 750 range....I can't afford to boost 2 armies up to 1k pts for a while.

Here's the army lists of what comes with the box set for reference:

Dark Angels

Company Master
-bolt pistol
-power sword
-combi-weapon
-frag/krak grenades
*Iron Halo (4+ invul save)

Librarian
-Bolt pistol
-Force Sword
-Frag/Krak grenades

Tactical Squad (10 models)
1 Veteran Sergeant with chainsword, plasma pistol
1 SM with Plasma Cannon, Bolt Pistol
1 SM with Plasma Gun, Bolt Pistol
7 SM with boltgun, bolt pistol
All have Frag/Krak grenades

Deathwing Terminator Squad
1 Terminator Sergeant with storm bolter and power sword
1 Terminator with assault cannon and power fist
1 Terminator with storm bolter and chain fist
2 Terminator's with storm bolter and Power fist

Ravenwing Bike Squad
1 Ravenwing Sergeant with chainsword and twin-linked boltguns
1 Ravenwing Biker with Plasma gun and twin-linked boltguns
1 Ravenwing Biker with bolt pistol and twin-linked boltguns
All have Frag/Krak grenades

Chaos Space Marines

Chaos Lord
-Power Sword
-Plasma Pistol
*Aura of Dark Glory (5+ invul)
Frag/Krak grenades

Helbrute
-multi-melta
-Power fist

Chosen
1 Chosen Champ with Power maul, bolt pistol, boltgun
1 Chosen with a pair of Lightning claws
1 Chosen with Power Axe, Bolt Pistol, boltgun
1 Chosen with Power Fist, bolt pistol, boltgun
2 Chosen with CC weaps, bolt pistol, boltgun
All have frag/krak grenades

Cultist
1 Cultist champ w/ 2 CC weapons
1 Cultist w/ flamer
8 Cultists w/ CC weaps and autopistol

Cultist
1 Cultist Champ w/ shotgun and CC weap
1 Cultist w/ flamer
8 Cultists w/ autoguns

If I don't get to use all the models that came with the box, I wont be too bummed, so if removing a unit will help the balance a bit more feel free to do so. I would prefer not to spend over $100 balancing the two armies, but if that's not possible that's fine, just try to keep the cost low. Thanks in advance for helping a noob out

Sorry if i broke any rules copying the army list out of the box set or if I posted this in the wrong forum. Just let me know and I'll be happy to move it

Welcome to Dark Angels! I can't get you all the way to an even force, but here are a couple things to cut the difference.

First off, when I added up the DA points - I got 715. Not sure if I screwed up, or if you have added upgrades such as Veteran Sergeant to the bikers as well. I don't think you need it if you did.

First thing I'd do is cut the Company Master. He's around 115 points (I believe), and at this point total, you really only need 1 HQ. I'd keep the Librarian in that role.

Call your Tactical Squad leader a Sergeant instead of a Veteran Sergeant, and proxy his plasma pistol as a regular bolt pistol. The Plasma Pistol costs way too much for its value. Also - proxy a regular Powerfist instead of the Chain Fist on the Termis. Those 3 changes save you another 30 points.

You then have about 70 points to go. I'm wondering if you can upgrade your Chaos side with boons, special armor/weapons, or something else to make up those points?

The only other cuts you could make to the DA side would be to eliminate the heavy and assault weapons, or to cut your Tactical Squad down to 5 men - and those are all bad ideas

I

Thanks Bubbinski! I probably messed up on the point total for DA so thanks for double checking =). By adding Mark of Nurgle to everything in the chaos army, I ended up with +73 more points bringing the total to 598 pts. That puts chaos +3 points above DA (going off what you said about needing 70 more pts), which can easily be fixed by taking a mark off one of the chosen (3 pts/model) so they would be completely even. Although I'm sure there are more efficient ways to use those points, it gets me where I want to be without having to buy additional units =D