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Hello all. I'm new to 40k and am considering starting a chaos marine army. I was wondering if some kind folks could outline their strengths and weaknesses. Also. Do people consider them OP in any way? I'm looking for a challenge. 

Chaos Marines are not OP in any way.

Strengths:

Great basic troops, with more base attacks and better leadership than a standard SM, and for less points. Also get Icon Buffs

Cult troops are fantastic, although some are situation dependant

Great armoured units.

Obliterators

Daemon Princes

Good Psychic powers

Weaknesses:

General opinion is that the DP is the only viable HQ choice. (I disagree)

Fast Attack slots are very pricey

If Icon Bearer is killed then the squad loses the bonuses it gives.

Land Raider can only transport 10 models in power armour or 5 in termi armour.

Dreadnoughts have a couple of rules issues atm.



Also, there are rumours of a new codex later in the year, so you may just want to buy the basics just now and wait and see what happens.

Hope this helps!

Following the rumours a late june/july release would be the best guess and if even half the rumours hold true there should be quite a few new units and redone models that are going to be awesome.

Yeah, its looking good! I think that the standard CSM kit and the plastic Terminator Lord and Daemon Prince boxes are unlikely to change, as they're all quite new kits, but things like the cult troops and obliterators seem likely to get new kits. And the Chaos Dread.

What do you guys feel are the go to units? Tau have their broadsides. Orks their...boyz. What's the CSM big earner? Plague Marines? Oblits?

Brother Captain Momo wrote:What do you guys feel are the go to units? Tau have their broadsides. Orks their...boyz. What's the CSM big earner? Plague Marines? Oblits?

There are many. Beserkers are a very good choice. It is a very mixed opinion.

Two entertaining explanations of what I consider the two best troops choices:

Plague Marines and Khorne Berserkers are great troops for holding objectives and storming objectives, respectively. While much of the codex is mediocre to poor, those two units are rock solid. Run of the mill Chaos Space Marines with icons of Chaos Glory aren't bad either. Daemon Princes are good (not great, now that Warptime got nerfed in the FAQ) and vindicators with daemonic possession are good. Terminators are cool and effective in a multitude of roles, and Obliterators are the go-to heavy support choice at the moment. Summoned daemons are decent harassment units also.

All in all they're a bit underpowered but still viable.

Rejoice brother! Your slavery to the false Emperor ends today.
Follow this link: http://www.3plusplus.net/p/codex-reviews.html ( written by far better players than i am ) to learn something about the few strenghts and the many weaknesses that plaque our current codex.

The standard troops, somewhat oddly, are my favourite part about the current CSM codex.
Plague Marines are my go-to defensive unit of choice, they can be nigh-on immovable in the right circumstances.
Other than that, respect has to be given to the humble run-of-the-mill CSM squad, as it's a great jack-of-all-trades unit, and can pretty much do everything without excelling at one thing specifically.

All you have to remember when playing chaos:

Never take spawn.

That's pretty much it. Their troops are the best in the game, most versatile, and can be deployed in hordes.

Most of the rest of their other choices work the same as the standard marines versions, except land raiders that don't have POTMS, but are cheaper, and their dreads, which can be random.

juraigamer wrote:All you have to remember when playing chaos:

Never take spawn.

That's pretty much it. Their troops are the best in the game, most versatile, and can be deployed in hordes.

Most of the rest of their other choices work the same as the standard marines versions, except land raiders that don't have POTMS, but are cheaper, and their dreads, which can be random.

I would add Possessed and Noise Marines to that list.
Possessed are too random to be really all that effective, due to their rules, and Noise Marines have to pay a lot of points to be anywhere near effective; otherwise, they're a mediocre assault unit at best.

Basically most units are overpriced from 10 to 30% and you can't field suppressive weapons in meaningful volume.

Usually your only long range AT will come from heavy, which means you can't engage more than 3 targets per turn at range. Beyond those, you need to get inventive with melta. Chaos definitely has the tools for that but at pretty steep cost, especially in FA.

Apart from that I'm not complaining.

Edit: just to be clear, csm are often considered a pretty weak army. Post 666.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:

juraigamer wrote:All you have to remember when playing chaos:

Never take spawn.

That's pretty much it. Their troops are the best in the game, most versatile, and can be deployed in hordes.

Most of the rest of their other choices work the same as the standard marines versions, except land raiders that don't have POTMS, but are cheaper, and their dreads, which can be random.

I would add Possessed and Noise Marines to that list.
Possessed are too random to be really all that effective, due to their rules, and Noise Marines have to pay a lot of points to be anywhere near effective; otherwise, they're a mediocre assault unit at best.

I would drop Noise marines from that list, I think they're pretty decent, definitely not as handy as 'zerksers or plague marines, but they are solid enough. I would also add 1000 sons, they are VERY pricey, but the invulnerable save is always nice

bombboy1252 wrote:

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:

juraigamer wrote:All you have to remember when playing chaos:

Never take spawn.

That's pretty much it. Their troops are the best in the game, most versatile, and can be deployed in hordes.

Most of the rest of their other choices work the same as the standard marines versions, except land raiders that don't have POTMS, but are cheaper, and their dreads, which can be random.

I would add Possessed and Noise Marines to that list.
Possessed are too random to be really all that effective, due to their rules, and Noise Marines have to pay a lot of points to be anywhere near effective; otherwise, they're a mediocre assault unit at best.

I would drop Noise marines from that list, I think they're pretty decent, definitely not as handy as 'zerksers or plague marines, but they are solid enough. I would also add 1000 sons, they are VERY pricey, but the invulnerable save is always nice

Oh, I never said they were bad, but compared to the other Cult troops, they're a bit too pricey for what they do.
I kind of like them as a unit, but I just can't justify taking them for that reason.