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For a while I've been trying to figure out a way to make a Space Marine Swarm Army list work. Basically, the idea is to take advantage of the fact that a basic Marine is vastly under-costed for what it can do. Since the new basic Chaos Marines have boltguns, bolt pistols, CCW's and grenades, kitted for either short ranged firefights or hth combat, I figure they're about the most undercosted models in the whole game right now.

The problem has always been making it work in a competitive environment. Footslogging HTH takes an awful long time to get anywhere, and shooting is better done by min-maxing basic marines. However, by including double Lash of Submission into the list, and by placing it on Independent Characters that cannot be targeted, I'm thinking it could work. 86 marines chokes the opponent to death, presenting far more marines then he can ever kill, and the double lashing makes assaulting much quicker when I want it to be, or lots of short-range rapid fire when I'd rather do that.

So, I need some advice from the vets here. How can I make an army like this work? Here's the list I'm toying with at the moment, but nothing is set in stone at this point. The list is only at 1950 points at the moment, so there is another 50 points to spend on other things.

Points: 1950

HQ:
(165 Points) Sorcerer with Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission, Warp Time, and Familiar.
(165 Points) Sorcerer with Mark of Slaanesh, Lash of Submission, Warp Time, and Familiar.

Troops:

(270 Points) Chaos Space Marine Squad (14 total). One Upgraded to Aspiring Champion with Power Fist. Two Marines carry Meltaguns.
(270 Points) Chaos Space Marine Squad (14 total). One Upgraded to Aspiring Champion with Power Fist. Two Marines carry Meltaguns.
(270 Points) Chaos Space Marine Squad (14 total). One Upgraded to Aspiring Champion with Power Fist. Two Marines carry Meltaguns.
(270 Points) Chaos Space Marine Squad (14 total). One Upgraded to Aspiring Champion with Power Fist. Two Marines carry Meltaguns.
(270 Points) Chaos Space Marine Squad (14 total). One Upgraded to Aspiring Champion with Power Fist. Two Marines carry Meltaguns.
(270 Points) Chaos Space Marine Squad (14 total). One Upgraded to Aspiring Champion with Power Fist. Two Marines carry Meltaguns.

Let me know what you think.

That's not really alot of marines. It isn't enough to prevent people from killing alot of them.

I think my Mech Eldar would lose exactly 0 models against this list.

I'd spend the extra 50 points on Wings for the sorcerors.

It's a coin flip army is my final estimate. Either you win big, or you lose big. I don't use armies like that, it's annoying to lose simply because army X showed up.

Something to remember is that Chaos Marines will not get And They Shall Know No Fear, so if a squad of Chaos Marines breaks under half strength (when they're more likely to break) then they aren't coming back.

Another thing to remember is that the number of units you can bring to bear is just as important as the number of models you can bring to bear. That's one of the advantages of the Imperial Guard - sure the individual units suck, but there's so many of them that over-killing them one at a time is really inefficient.

I'd also recommend ditching the Power Fists in favour of Power Weapons and Melta-Bombs. Power Weapons will help you deal with troops armed with Power Fists before they can mulch your Marines, and Melta-Bombs will give you greater tank and bunker-cracking ability than the Power Fist.

Basically your list is homogeneous, slow, and short ranged. This will make life dull, brutish, and short when it comes to missions involving capturing objectives, dealing with a variety of opposition, and dealing with opposition that doesn't politely move into range.

Oh and while they are good troops, I wouldn't call them undercosted. Dark Eldar Warriors are still really good bang for the buck. Given 40K is more about close-range firefights, limited assaults, mobility, and long range poundings than anything--I'd put the Warriors up above CSM. When the new Smurf book comes out, those CSM won't seem so awesome anymore.

you need oblits in here.

also, no marks? I realize that Plague Marines are tougher, but a large group of t5 marines could be pretty hard for an opponent to deal with. MoT can provide defense against anything that yanks that 3+ save from you as well. Best icon might actually be chaos glory, for the rerolled LD.

It seems like the army would run better with fewer (but bigger ) CSM squads, and longe range firepower for backup.

Couldn't you drop the CSM for an equal number of 9 man TS squads with BoT? Yes it halves your forces, but with 4++ and fearless the TS will stick around longer then the CSM, and the BoT is better then a meltagun for tank hunting, while the bolter shots ignore most saves.