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As the title states, is Chaos still a competitive army to play? A friend of mine just gave me a ton of his old chaos stuff and I am going to be trying to put together a list to play. I am leaning towards the Word Bearers.

Chaos is still very competitive since they have quite a number of discounted things and flex than standard SM (namely, the CSM terminators have some of the best deals on weapons and variety, while Chosen are awesome when outflanking and the basic CSM can adapt to any situation even without upgrades). The only problem is there is little to no variation, as the good units pretty much outclasses the bad ones in any situation.

I can still win a fair few games with the Chaos I have, so I'd say yes. It's clearly not my generalship, let's put it that way.

Chaos Space Marines aren't a terribly uncompetitive army, but rather have a limited number of viable units and, unless going a Cult route, you can often build a highly identical army with Space Wolves for 10-20% fewer points and get Counterattack and ATSKNF too.

Mono God can be decently fun and provide some variation depending on how dedicated you are. Going with only Cult Troopers can be effective but really makes it monotone, while there are some variations for each Mono-God build that is varied and still competitive (in theory a Lash Sorc in a squad of Noise Marines and a Doom Siren can cause a hell of alot of damage in a single turn).

The problem is not so much that they aren't competative, but rather they're quite boring. The stronger builds make use of the same units over and over (deamon princes, plague marines, lash, obliterators) because builds without those units can pretty much always be done cheaper by another marine codex. E.g space wolves.

lunarman wrote:The problem is not so much that they aren't competative, but rather they're quite boring. The stronger builds make use of the same units over and over (deamon princes, plague marines, lash, obliterators) because builds without those units can pretty much always be done cheaper by another marine codex. E.g space wolves.

This. They're literally one competitive build, and it's only really nasty against low-mech MEQs and TEQs with poor psychic defense. Mech IG pastes it, Eldar abrogates the Lash very easily, Mech BA overwhelms it with armor, SW typically incorporate high quality hoods, etc.

Seconding some of the above opinions - Chaos can field a very strong army, usually based around plague marines+daemon princes+obliterators. Just a lot of their units are so far below these star players that it seems a bit boring.

Yes, but the problem is that most Internet "competitive" builds are just Plague Marines in rhinos, two daemon princes with lash and mark of Slaanesh, and as many Obliterators fit in the rest. It's boring as hell.

I run a list with Marines in rhinos with Chaos Glory, three Vindicators and some Terminators for good measure. They do well.

I second what SRM said; the Plague/Lash/Oblit list is competitive, but it's also the most forgiving build there is, which is why it's so competitive. Chaos Space Marines is still a powerful Codex and is used to good effect in a variety of tournaments, with or without the Lash/Plague/Oblit list.

For example, whilst a very skilled player, Mannahnin (a Dakka Mod) finished 2nd in the overall Adepticon Championships (I think) with this list:

Lash prince
lash sorc w/personal icon, jump pack

4 terminators w/chainfist, hvy flamer, 3x combi-meltas
5 Chosen w/3 meltas, 2 flamers, in Rhino w/combi-melta
Dreadnought w/Missile Launcher

10 CSM w/2 meltas, icon of glory, champ w/fist, in Rhino w/combi-melta
10 CSM w/2 meltas, icon of slaanesh, champ w/PW, in Rhino
5 LDs
5 LDs

5 Havocs w/icon of glory, 4x ML
2x 2 oblits
1850

Chaos isn't that competitive unfortunately. The dual lash build was ok last edition (the cries of cheese wear deafening) but in a 5th ed environment with good opponents its actually not a good list at all. I would say it is crap, I've only lost to it once, and that was last edition with orks. The real dangerous lists are ones that use better units, and bring MSUs of them, mechanized as best as you can.

Synister_Intent wrote:As the title states, is Chaos still a competitive army to play? A friend of mine just gave me a ton of his old chaos stuff and I am going to be trying to put together a list to play. I am leaning towards the Word Bearers.

The guy who took second place overall at Adepticon was playing Chaos Space Marines. They also routinely place well at Ard Boyz, even after the advent of 5th Edition.

Take that for what you will.

An entire army of Toughness 5 feel no pain terminators or basic guys...at least I think the termis get mark of nurgle.

Anyway...yeah. First time I ever went to an ard boys semis I got massacred by them twice in a row before going against vanilla marines.

Terminators can't get FNP, they can get a MoN, but even then that doesn't protect them from Lascannons. A MoT on the other hand...