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Hi all, I've been looking to get into the hobby and some friends who play have invited me to join them for a game at the weekend. One of the guys is going to give me access to his CSM collection, and has suggested I put together a 1500 point list. It'll be my first time playing, I don't have the codex, just battlescribe to work it out with. Is there any chance I could get some help/advice/suggestions?

This is the full inventory of what I can use, they've said I can upgrade them however I like and we'll just keep track of it on the day. I'm likely to be playing against either or both of Necrons or Space Marines.

2x Chaos Lord
1x Terminator (5man)
1x Chosen (5man)
1x Helbrute
2x Cultists (10man)
1x Heldrake
1x Predator
3x Obliterators
1x Khorne Lord of Skulls
4x Khorne Berzerkers (5man)

Appreciate any help!

Can you source a spawn? One spawn model and you can run a butcherhorde.


Something like

World Eaters butcherhorde
Khorne Lord + talisman of burning blood.
4 bezerkers
Spawn.

Iron Warriors CAD

Lord or sorcerer
Oblits as troops.
Helldrake
What's left on tanks

Hmm...if you leave out the Lord of Skulls (which is a ridiculous 888 points), it looks like you will just barely be able to make it to 1500 points.

Your achilles heel is that you don’t have the right units to really open up some of the more powerful legion tactics.

Here’s my suggestion:

Detachment 1: World Eaters Butcherhorde

Primary Formation: Maelstrom of Gore
Kharn (ask you use one of your chaos lords as a proxy) w/ Talisman of Burning Blood
4 units of Khorne Berserkers

Auxiliary:
1 spawn (see if you can proxy something for the spawn - if you don’t take it or another auxiliary, you lose all the benefits from the Detachment).

Logic: This gives the space marines in this detachment, fearless, furious charge, adamantium will. They all get a 2D6” movement at the beginning of the game and have fleet and get +3” to charge rolls. Also, once per game they to basically get a free round of close combat attacks. Also, if you take the Talisman the unit that Kharne is in, gets an extra 3” to movement, running, and charging. This makes first turn assaults a possible reality. And since the Berserkers are strength 5 on the charge with 4 attacks a piece, they can potentially wreck a lot of vehicles. Just writing this makes me excited.

Detachment 2: Combined Arms Detachment - Iron Legion

HQ:
Chaos Lord w/ sigil of corruption and cranium malevous (?)

Troops:
20 cultists as-is (have objective secured)
3 Obliterators (they get tank hunter and objective secured)

Elites:
Helbrute w/ 1 close combat weapons and 1 distance weapon (maybe las cannon)
5 chosen with plasma guns (need to shoot from distance since you don’t have transports)
3-5 Terminators with combo-weapons and powerfists

Fast Attack:
1 Heldrake with Bale Flamer (unless you are worried about other flyers, then take the Hades Autocannon)

Heavy Support:
1 Predator with heavy bolter sponsons

Logic: Everyone with the VotLW rule (at least the lord, obits, chosen, and terminators) get 6+ Feel No Pain. Obliterators and cultists give you ObSec and the Oblits have Tank Hunter.

Edit: I did not tally points. If you do end up >1500 points consider ditching the Helbrute or the terminators or reduce the terminator squad size to 3 and suicide them in using deep strike behind enemy lines.

That's fantastic help, thanks cinnabar.

So this is what I end up with:

++ World Eaters Butcherhorde (542pts) ++

+ Core (510pts) +

Maelstrom of Gore (510pts)
Chaos Lord (90pts) [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Mark of Khorne, Power Armour, Talisman of Burning Blood, VotLW] (can't afford Kharn here unfortunately)
4x Khorne Berzerkers units (1 champ, 4 regular) (105pts each) [w/ VotLW]

+ Auxiliary (32pts) +

Spawn (32pts)
Chaos Spawn (32pts) [Mark of Khorne]

++ Iron Warriors CAD (954pts) ++

+ HQ (120pts) +

Chaos Lord (120pts) [Cranium Malevolus, Sigil of corruption, VotLW]

+ Elites (469pts) +

Chaos Terminators (179pts) [VotLW]
3xChaos Terminator [w/ Combi-melta & Powerfist]
1xTerminator Champion [w/ Combi-plasma & Power Fist]

Chosen (160pts) [4x Boltgun replaced w/ Plasma Gun, VotLW]
Chosen Champion (28pts) [Combi-plasma]

Helbrute (130pts) [Thunder hammer, Twin-linked lascannon]

+ Troops (100pts) +

2x 10 Chaos Cultists (50pts)

+ Fast Attack (170pts) +

Heldrake (170pts) [Baleflamer]

+ Heavy Support (95pts) +

Chaos Predators (95pts)
Chaos Predator (95pts) [Autocannon, Heavy Bolters ]

Total: 1496pts

Sorted
Make sure to get a weapon on the khorne Lord, and bezerker champions if you can.

The hellbrute is probably a weak link.

Shame the oblits haven't fit. I'd take them as troop over cultists anyway.

Captyn_Bob wrote:
Sorted
Make sure to get a weapon on the khorne Lord, and bezerker champions if you can.

The hellbrute is probably a weak link.

Shame the oblits haven't fit. I'd take them as troop over cultists anyway.

If I drop the helbrute, half the cultists, and take the terminator squad down to 3 as cinnabar suggested, I can fit the 3 oblits and it leaves me with some pocket change to fit the berzerker champions with chainaxes and something like put ichor blood on the chaos lord in the MoG.

If the terminators are a 3-man suicide squad, any thoughts on which combi-weapons to equip?

This is what I end up with if I make these changes:

++ CSM World Eaters Butcherhorde (559pts) ++

+ Core (527pts) +

····Maelstrom of Gore (527pts)
······Chaos Lord [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Ichor blood, Mark of Khorne, Power Armour, Talisman of Burning Blood, Veterans of the Long War, Warlord]
······Khorne Berzerkers [4x Berzerkers, Veterans of the Long War]
········Berzerker Champion [Bolt Pistol, Chainaxe]
······Khorne Berzerkers [4x Berzerkers, Veterans of the Long War]
········Berzerker Champion [Bolt Pistol, Chainaxe]
······Khorne Berzerkers [4x Berzerkers, Veterans of the Long War]
········Berzerker Champion [Bolt Pistol, Chainaxe]
······Khorne Berzerkers [4x Berzerkers, Veterans of the Long War]
········Berzerker Champion [Bolt Pistol, Chainaxe]

+ Auxiliary (32pts) +

····Spawn (32pts)
······Chaos Spawn [Mark of Khorne, Spawn]

++ Iron Warriors CAD (941pts) ++

+ HQ (120pts) +

····Chaos Lord (120pts) [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon, Cranium Malevolus, Power Armour, Sigil of corruption, Veterans of the Long War]

+ Elites (296pts) +

····Chaos Terminators (136pts) [Veterans of the Long War]
······Chaos Terminator [Combi-melta, Powerfist]
······Chaos Terminator [Combi-melta, Powerfist]
······Terminator Champion [Combi-melta, Power Fist]

····Chosen (160pts) [4x Chosen with Boltgun, CCW and Boltpistol, 4x Replace boltgun w/ Plasma gun, Veterans of the Long War]
······Chosen Champion [Combi-plasma]

+ Troops (260pts) +

····Chaos Cultists (50pts) [Cultist Champion, 9x Cultists]

····Obliterators (210pts) [3x Obliterator, Veterans of the Long War]

+ Fast Attack (170pts) +

····Heldrake (170pts) [Baleflamer]

+ Heavy Support (95pts) +

····Chaos Predators (95pts)
······Chaos Predator [Autocannon, Heavy Bolters (on side sponsons)]

Looks like a nice list. It will do really well against vehicles, but might have a harder time against flyers since nothing you have has skyfire.

1) Chain axes are fairly worthless against space marines, but more worthwhile against necrons. You might add or remove those depending on your opponent. Alternatively, meltabombs are just a couple points more and do real work making these squads serious threats to vehicles.

2) Both lords need better close combat weapons. I prefer lightning claws and power mauls myself. One interesting options is to take 1 lightning claw and 1 power fist, so you get to decide whether you want AP3 with shred or x2 power but at initiative 1, depending on the opponent. However, that's a very expensive option.

3) Your terminators seem primed to take out vehicles, but would not necessarily do very well against infantry. Be cautious about putting unwieldy weapons on single wound models. Even with terminator armor, if someone gets 40 attacks into your terminators before they swing back, those points will have been for nothing. Your tank-hunting oblits and your lord with Cranium Malevolus are already primed to take out vehicles. As an alternative, you could load them up with combi-flamers and lightning claws or other non-unwieldy power weapons to be more effective against infantry. That may free up a few points, too.

4) If you have any points to spare (probably not), I would add side sponsons to the predator.

Right, I think this is it then. Exactly 1500 points:

++ World Eaters Butcherhorde (557pts) ++

+ Core (525pts) +

····Maelstrom of Gore (525pts)
······Chaos Lord [Bolt Pistol, Lightning Claw, Mark of Khorne, Power Armour, Talisman of Burning Blood, VotLW, Warlord]
······Khorne Berzerkers [4x Berzerkers, VotLW]
········Berzerker Champion [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon]
······Khorne Berzerkers [4x Berzerkers, VotLW]
········Berzerker Champion [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon]
······Khorne Berzerkers [4x Berzerkers, VotLW]
········Berzerker Champion [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon]
······Khorne Berzerkers [4x Berzerkers, VotLW]
········Berzerker Champion [Bolt Pistol, Close Combat Weapon]

+ Auxiliary (32pts) +

····Spawn (32pts)
······Chaos Spawn [Mark of Khorne, Spawn]

++ Iron Warriors CAD (943pts) ++

+ HQ (135pts) +

····Chaos Lord (135pts) [Bolt Pistol, Cranium Malevolus, Lightning Claw, Power Armour, Sigil of corruption, VotLW]

+ Elites (283pts) +

····Chaos Terminators (123pts) [VotLW]
······Chaos Terminator [Combi-flamer, Lightning Claw]
······Chaos Terminator [Combi-flamer, Lightning Claw]
······Terminator Champion [Combi-flamer, Lightning Claw]

····Chosen (160pts) [4x Chosen with Boltgun, CCW and Boltpistol, 4x Replace boltgun w/ Plasma gun, VotLW]
······Chosen Champion [Combi-plasma]

+ Troops (260pts) +

····Chaos Cultists (50pts) [Cultist Champion, 9x Cultists]

····Obliterators (210pts) [3x Obliterator, VotLW]

+ Fast Attack (170pts) +

····Heldrake (170pts) [Baleflamer]

+ Heavy Support (95pts) +

····Chaos Predators (95pts)
······Chaos Predator [Autocannon, Heavy Bolters (on side sponsons)]

Thanks so much for all your help!

Fantastic. If you don't mind, PM me to let me know how it goes.