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Hey Dakka,

i drove myself a bit into a pickle; I've read dozens of articles & pages regarding CSM units/tactics that would fit into a, lets call it 'assault-ish' army.
I do have a Slaanesh themed shooty army (mostly NM's, Oblits & Sorcerers for the Slaanesh powers) and the army actually works quite well, although
the Tax slaanesh chaos lord is a bit annoying.
But regarding this 'assault'-centered-army (Either CSM vanilla or CS, both dex's are available to me) i hit a brick wall. So, instead of throwing the next 150+€
into my local shop, i'd rather ask you guys. I had a couple of ideas, but i'm not sure if this 'could' work, if it's even a viable option or if there're better options.

Let's start with those units i was thinking of buying for my Assault-army; keep in mind - i've never used those units (and, before i forget - i play mostly 1k points,
no flyers/knights in our local meta. Mostly SM, Footdar, DE & Tau (who would've thought.. those fishies..)


So, Spawn - lot's of ablative wounds to bring something choppy into battle, some say they play a 2nd fiddle compared to bikes / Raptors? I personally do not
like bikes since mine never achieved anything - but i probably played them in a wrong way.

Next on the list were either Possessed or Berzerkers. I used both, the CS & the CSM possessed (even though only in one game each ) and i personally like
the CSM possessed more - the CS possessed are better on foot but i didn't felt that they're as killy as the CSM version. I would probably tag them along an IC in
a LR since the LR is the only Assault vehicle for chaos iirc (?). On the same list was Khârn - tagging him alongside the 'zerkers/possessed and charge out of
the LR turn 2-ish. (The possessed are slightly favored here for their 4(5 with roll) S6 AP-(AP3 with roll) on the charge, even though they're very very expensive).

On another list, which is probably less likely to work and/or happen, were 2 Vindicators. All sources of information i found always spoke of "bring them in pairs"
and i can see the appeal of having 2 S10 AP2 pie plates & 2 enormous threats vs infantry on the table. And due to their low range they probably fit quite well into
an assault-centered army. The problem here is, at least in my newbie mind, that the LR and thus the ability to deliver my choppy melee unit into battle alongside
the IC/Khârn has to go. I probably had to get a Juggerlord (or a CS Slaaneshi/Tzeentch Lord with Daemonheart on a bike), tagged alongside of Spawns (or Slaanesh
bikes with Icon of Drugs in case of the slaanesh lord) but i'm not sure about this.

You see, i really cannot decide between any of these choices or that i have, in my newbie-frenzy overlooked something (bare in mind, i'm not interested in buying the
dex's of either Khorne Daemonkin, Chaos Daemons or any other ally. And no Hellturkey's - i really wish to keep the box of pandorra of flyer in my meta closed as long
as possible. I'm also not a competitive player nor interested in tournaments in any shape or form (excluding beerhammer tournaments ))

And, to make things easier - here's what i've got in my model repertoire. Thanks in advance for any help (excluding the "throw your chaos away and buy a useful army"
of course) & sorry for my, somewhat wonky english skills

edit: typos

First of all, welcome to chaos! Your new army should, with careful maintenance, bring you many years of trouble-free maiming of the minions of the false emperor.

Here are some of my thoughts, in no particular order:

Vindicators are nice to support an assault army, except that the become less useful as the game wears on, because your troops will be near the enemy and you won't want to risk dropping a S10 pie plate on a unit of bikes or berserkers. This is where non-blast weapons become useful. If you want to take out armour, try raptors with a couple of meltaguns in the squad. a predator with lascannons, or a daemon prince with wings. You have two DPs - do they have wings?

Do you actualy have 60 cultists? That's rather good. Cultists are a good unit because they're very cheap. You can use them as a screen for your elite units, so the enemy have to shoot the cultists instead of the elite units.

You said you had trouble with bikes. Bikes are quite good, but you need to use them right. They are good at taking out armour or hitting things in close combat, but you need to keep them out of trouble by running them around the edge of the board to their desired target. This shouldn't be too hard if you use turbo-boost.

If you have berserkers, putting characters in the squad makes the character more resilient than putting the character with regular CSM, thanks to the high weapon skill of the berserkers.

Your noise marines could benefit from rhinos, as presumably you are looking to shoot rather than assault with them?


P.S. Good call on rejecting flyers - I hate them too!

Large groups of marines with ccw and the banner are pretty nasty. Initiative 5 with 2 base attacks, and 5+ feel no pain can be tough. Only problem is they arent fearless, thats where the chaos lord comes in handy, give him dual weapons and watch him cut things up.

Spawn are good but they need to be nurgle with T6 for them to really shine.

Land raider with a 10 man marine unit with ccw could be good, or terminators with combi melta as a reactionary force at your center for added support could also be good.

Vindicators can be nice also in a well rounded or close combat oriented force.

In my experience, the reason for bringing two vindicators is the same as for two maulerfiends. They die too fast. They're nice and all, but they rarely last more than a turn on their own for me. Or they do, but the main gun is useless. That said, these days I'd prefer to bring rapiers over the standard vindicator but you'd need IA13 for that, which, I suppose, is out?

IA13 also has dreadclaws which are droppods +1. Though they are technically flyers, so probably not an option either. As expensive as they are, they are helluva lot cheaper than our land raider. And faster to boot.
As for possessed vs zerkers? Black Legion have a formation of a daemon prince and 2 units of possessed. They get 5 WS, 5 I and rending.They will hit harder than the berzerkers would even when striking last, assuming an average loss of 2 possessed before attacking that is. On subsequent rounds they're much better than the zerkers since they don't need to charge to keep the extra strength and grenades don't matter anymore at that point.. A squad of 10 is only like 40 points more, though I think it's worth the points. Of course you have to figure out what to do with the second unit of possessed, which may or may not be a deal breaker. They're too expensive to be footslogging them imho.

If you don't want daemonkin, you could try the hounds of abaddon formation, also Black Legion. It's not half bad for a full on assault army. You don't get the advantage of blood tithes but they can hit harder and ironically, are more likely to make the charge thanks to a pseudo waaagh (also once per game). It's also cheaper than the vanilla equivalent in units, CSM or daemonkin, though not by much.
For Crimson slaughter, the brethren of the dark covenant could also work. Can't really go wrong with a fnp and zealot bubble.

For non formations units, Chosen can be good but you need to assign them a clear role. Any mark will work.
Terminators can work too, but they're really expensive. I personally like the bringers of despair with abaddon, especially now that they're a bit cheaper. Assuming IA13 is an option for the better transports anyway. Unless you want to use them, your better off going with small termicide units.
The large csm units are also too expensive imo, but worth considering in some of the formations.
As much as i want to like Berzerkers, I find them not worth it most of the time.
Spawn make decent escorts for a lord with the high toughness and wounds, though I find that bikers work better for me. More versatile and ... well ...cheaper.
Maulerfiends are decent too, but you'll need at least 2. Just don't go after infantry or dreads. IA13 blood Slaughterers are pretty scary if you like dreads.

I think that'll do for now