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I just started my voyage into the warhammer 40k world last week. I am trying to put together a small chaos space marine army.

I have purchased and assembled the following:

10 man space marine squad
5 terminator squad
1 terminator lord


I just purchased a rhino transport yesterday, but I was told to take it back and replace with a land raider. Good advice?

I am going back today and am wondering if anyone can give me some help.

Right now I am planning on getting:

1 Daemon Prince
7 Plague Marine Squad
2 Obliterators

They have Berzerkers, Children of Noise, Kharne, and all the other fighting vehicles.

I want to get the Havoc squad, but they do not carry it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

VERY IMPORTANT:
Did you buy Space Marine tact squad or a Chaos Marine tact squad? SAme with the rhino and Termies. If you bought the SPace MArines, take them back. They are definately not the same and if youre new to the world, its too much of a pain to deal with. Let me repeat, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME! After that, I would just buy a Chaos Battleforce. It has all you need to get started. Build your troop choices before running off to get a bunch of others. Learn the game and good luck

I bought the Chaos figures. I'm not that bad! haha! I did look at the battleforce, but I wasn't too excited by the Possesed characters included. Thanks for the advice though!


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My bad on leaving the chaos out of the orginal post.

No insult intended. Just checking . My advice would be to keep the rhino (for your 10 man squad). Movement is crazy important for tactical squads. Getting your bad dudes into the fight is crutial. Pick up another 10 man squad to round out your troops. I know its not the most exciting thing in the world, but establish your troop base first. And trust me, Chaos Marines can get it done in a big way. I mean, theyre not Tau (HA HA! EAT IT GREATER GOOD!). Do not underestimate the power of a dreadnaught. Thay are close combat MONSTERS! Other than that, just keep checking at your local store. Ask questions. You would be surprised what you can learn just by watching and talking with guys that have been playing since 3rd edition.

Groovy. I went to the store before I saw your reply, but hopefully I didn't stray too far. I spoke with the lad at the store and he helped me with my selection. I kept the Rhino and picked up a squad of plague marines and bezerkers.

Once I get these guys assembled I will address my lack of speed and maybe the dreadnaught. Thanks again for all the help!

E6 Put every squad in a rhino. Vindicators, plague marines and demon princes are solid buys. Advise you to stay away from the other cults they can be tricky to use. Spawn, defilers, raptors, possessed and demons are weak. Terminators are strong and obliterators are strong. Put a power fist on every sergeant it can save your a**. Been playing chaos for more than 10 years, just my thoughts.

Nice! Chaos for ten years....If you have the time, take a look and let me know what you think so far.

1 - Terminator Lord
5 - Terminator Squad
10 - Chaos SM Squad
10 - Khorne Bezerker Squad
7 - Plague Marine Squad
1 - Rhino

I plan on getting two more Rhinos, 2 Obliterators, Daemon Prince with dragon wings, and another squad of Chaos SM.

Did I screw up by getting the bezerkers?

Also, I'm a rookie so the power fist is new to me. Is that a separate bit you actually buy and put on the figure, or is it something you just annotate before the battle?

I'm excited to finish my assembly and then join the legions of chaos!

All of your war gear should be modeled onto your guys. However, since you are new and trying things out, and if your opponent agrees, you could just say I have so and so gear on this guy or squad because you are getting a feel for the army. Most people are more than happy to allow a new player to experiment because we've all been there ourselves. I'm a long time player of chaos, but I've gone with a themed Night Lords army. So raptors, bikes and everyone has rhinos and land raiders. Its not the most competitive list but it fits my personal style.

i think you've got a good start. the problem with berserkers is that their mobility isn't very good compared to other assault troops, and they're so expensive you'll often times overkill the opponent in close combat only to lose the squad to enemy fire the next turn. they've got to stay in cover or out of line of sight because they're not that hard to kill and your opponent *will* shoot them. contrast that to plague marines who are also pretty good in cc but a hell of alot harder to kill. i think youve got a good shopping list. a power fist is a piece that comes in the chaos space marine box. its a big claw that looks like its pointing at something. you've got to put it on the model, can't just decide before the game that its there. imo you should give it to the berserker sergeant if you only have one. he *will* kill things with it. welcome and good luck!

Damn...I didn't really want the bezerkers, but the guy at the store kinda talked me into getting them. Probably would have been better served to have purchased a regular Chaos SM squad.

I will modify my Sergeants and add the power fist. Thanks for the heads up! I am going to get my Plague Marines up and running today.

e6delta wrote:Damn...I didn't really want the bezerkers, but the guy at the store kinda talked me into getting them. Probably would have been better served to have purchased a regular Chaos SM squad.

I will modify my Sergeants and add the power fist. Thanks for the heads up! I am going to get my Plague Marines up and running today.

Did you open it up yet? Otherwise just return it and get what you actually wanted to get. Don't get peer pressured into buying stuff you don't want.

Yeah, unfortunately I started modifying their helmets last night. Oh well....lesson learned. The guy was cool though so no big deal.

I turned most of the berserkers into aspiring champs. The nice thing about chaos is that you can always modify and change your minis to suit your needs.

Just use the zerkers in a rhino to lock up your enemies better ranged units. Assess battle and enemies most dangerous ranged unit. Charge straight in rhino unload and lock em up in melee.

Good to go! Thanks for all the help! I am finishing their assembly as we speak.

Have you thught about a thosand sons squad to soak up the anti-tank fire with their 4+ invunerable save? Also the can cut through normal troops armour with their ap3 guns.

IMO, you need the following core for a good solid starting force for a CSM army:

1: Winged Daemon prince
4: Chaos Space Marine squads (put 1 flamer in each squad. Use other special weapons per your preference)
4: Rhinos
2: Obliterators (x2)

That is a good, solid start.
You'll want to add other things eventually (like your terminators, etc), but that's a solid core.

Also, check the Swap Shop here and look on www.bartertown.com. There are always good deals to be found on preowned minis. Just trade safely, and you'll be fine. Feel free to PM mer here or on Bartertown, if you contemplate buying used. I'll be happy to help you learn the ropes (I'm a Bartertown Admin).

Eric

And there you have it. Ask the nerds and we shall guide you.
Keep us updated and post some pics when you get rolling. Let us know how your games turn out.

Dont fall into the "get a transport for evey unit" trap that seems to proliferate these days.

Sure if you're building this army to be competitive work away at it but if, like a lot of others you play with a friendly gaming group for fun and experience ignore the transport nonsense. Most tabletops still have lots of cover and terrain so dont be afraid to footslog it. City fight games love infantry even more.

100-120 quid on transports is not my idea of fun so dont worry too much about them. Pick up the models you like either rules wise or fluff wise and go for it. Sure you wont win every game but so what, if you're having fun and your gaming group is nice it wont matter and you'll gain more from your losses then your wins (cliched I know).

Ha ha! This site is awesome. Thanks for all the support. I just finished assembling the Bezerkers and have only the plague marines left.

Any thoughts on Havoc units? I was thinking of getting two squads and modifying them with some extra SM weapons. That way my little army has a good base of firepower.

Also, is a terminator lord a capable leader for my little outfit, or should I get an upgrade as well. I'm thinking Daemon prince with dragon wings.

glad you're enjoying the conversation

havocs... chaos players generally dont run them because they're running meltas in their tac squads and a bunch of obliterators. they're not bad - they're just not the best. one thing I'll say for them though is they are *extremely* hard for the opponent to get rid of if they're sitting in cover where they belong. If you run 2 squads of 10 with maximum lascannons you'll have an extremely resilient firebase capable of acing any target in one shot. just remember they cant kill what they cant see so be careful where you place them.

imo there are 2 viable hq choices for chaos: demon prince with lash and wings, sorcerer with lash, warptime, wings or terminator armor. lash is just overwhelmingly good. its not that demon weapons are bad - its that they could have been lashes. if you do take one make it a blood feeder - when a lord goes on a rampage with one of those things he tends to leave a gigantic bloody mess behind him.


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oh and for gods sake get a rhino for every unit.

Bah.
I spit on your Daemon weapon. Too unreliable for me. : )
D-Prince of tzeench with warptime and/or D-Prince of Slaanesh with lash. : )

Eric

i dnt know if anyone else does this but i often use a winged DP with gift of chaos
its not optimal my any means
but my opp tend to try and use powerful ICs, being able to turn 200+pts into a 40pts spawn on a 6+ at least is very funny
also it can be used in CC
against multi wound squads this hurts
also hoping from one guard squad to the next 'gifting' them as you go

Alright, I went shopping. Here is the layout of my outfit as of today.

1 - daemon prince
1 - terminator lord assembled
5- terminators assembled
7 - plague marines assembled
10 - bezerkers assembled
20 - chaos space marines assembled
3 - obliterators
2 - Rhinos

I also ordered Dragon Wings for my Daemon Prince and I ordered 12 melta guns. Just in case I get another chaos SM squad.

I plan on getting two more Rhinos and maybe another chaos SM squad. That should keep me busy for some time.

Any glaring weakness that sticks out? I stuck with units I liked, but hopefully it's still a decent setup.

Glaring Weaknesses?
Nah.
Some things to contemplate, though...
2 more rhinos (1 per squad)
Buy more Marines. It's nice to have options. You should have 1 of each special weapon (if not 2) for each squad. Sometimes, you'll want to take flamers (because flamers are far better in this edition than previous).
Try to get a hold of some heavy weapon bits (Las cannons, for example) because, sometimes, you'll want a regular CSM squad to sit back and snipe tanks or high priority targets.
Put havoc launchers on the rhinos when you assemble them. They're pretty nice (twin linked & Str 5).

Eric

Good to go. I was planning on getting two more Rhinos next payday. I like the idea of the Havoc launchers on the rhinos as well. I will get to work on my marines weapon selection.

Magick the bloodfeeder is really just there for good times. It's unreliable... but there's something soooo satisfying about charging that guy into a blood angels death company and killing every single one of them at init. 5 anyway no guts no glory. I love that thing


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e6 as an experienced chaos player I want to tell you about havoc launchers.....

they're 15 points, so they up the cost of the vehicle by almsot 50% one of the few good things about a rhino compared to other transports is that rhinos are cheap. rhinos are there to provide mobility, so if they're doing that you're not going to be able to shoot your havoc launchers. also str. 5 ap. 5 small blast is just a really weak gun. most armies are either made up entirely of heavily armored troops (marines, necrons, witch hunters) or have access to them (tyranids, orks, eldar, demons). these units tend to be the ones you need to shoot and they ignore havoc launchers. plasmaguns are 10 points less per vehicle and have the ability to knock down even the most heavily armored badguys. for these reasons experienced chaos players do not take this weapon.

Granted, I've only been playing Chaos for 6 years, or so... but I have tremendous luck with them.
Granted, I tend to play elite armies, even withing Chaos... So, I'm not afraid of the extra points for a havoc.
The idea that ANY unit "ignores" havoc launchers is laughable. At S5, you're wounding your toughest "average" troops on 3's (SM, CSM, etc). I know it's not DATA, but to prove it happens: Weekend before last, ONE round of AVERAGE shooting on 3 Rhinos (1 H-Launcher & 1 TL bolter per rhino) took a squad of 8 SM Terminators down to two.
TWO.
Now, that isn't going to happen every game... or (probably) even every 1 in 10. What I mention it for is to show that nobody IGNORES it. Even Terminators fail saves... sometimes horribly.
The best time to use a Havoc Launcher is if you have a Rhino for a unit of CSM that's going to sit back & shoot (like, if you put a heavy weapon in it). Your Rhino is a mobile firing platform in that instance.

Also, If you're taking a H Launcher for anything more than an extra "punch," you're doing it wrong.

Beware those who tell you what "experienced players" do. They don't speak for all experienced players.

Eric

The havoc launcher is my favorite weapon in the warhammer 40k game. 95% of the time this thingy makes it's points back, can you really think of anything else in the game with that level of consistancy? I just always consider my rhinos to cost 50 points, these puppys are mandatory! A twin-linked small template @ s5 ap5 is Death to geq and meqs still lose at least 1 model per hit. You can damage rhinos (admittedly with luck) and the odds on av 10 are better(killed a land speeder with one a couple games ago). I must stress 1 thing, always place mobility above getting a shot off with this bad boy, moving little men around is the rhinos primary function. You won't be going 12 every turn though. I have to say it one more time, Havoc Launchers are amazing!

I can't say I'm an experienced chaos player, but my havoc launchers seem to do alright, they certainly kill more points than they cost in my games, however, my regular opponent has the tactical flair of a lump of mud, so maybe it's more because he's useless than because the havoc is useful.