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If you decided to start a CSM army today, knowing that CSM is slated for the 6th Ed. boxed set, what would you consider off limits purchases, and what would you go ahead a get now to get a head start on modeling and painting?
I ask because I have been eyeballing CSM since I got in to 40k last year, and chose Orks when I started over choosing CSM because honestly, I like the greenskins so much, but also because the CSM models are so out of date.
Now that I'm almost done with my Ork army, I'm starting to think I might get started on some CSM. Not positive yet, but it's a thought.
So, if I were going to buy now, with the intent of playing in the fall, what should I avoid, and what would be ok to pick up now?
My thoughts are avoid the Dreadnaught, Oblits, and maybe Terms because people are hoping for rescuplts and plastic across the board, and to avoid power armor marines because we can expect AoBR style snap togethers for the cheaps.
So, what does that leave me with? As a fairly new player, I'm kind of lost on this decision aside from maybe some Finecast stuff that I don't even think I want.
Help?
Thanks!

Plague marines, demon prince, rhino, defiler, predator

The daemon princes have recently been done in plastic, so are probably fairly safe from re-sculpting. Aside from that, Rhinos (and other vehicles) are probably pretty safe.

In terms of what will be good/bad in any new rules? Who knows.

Off limits:

Dreadnoughts
Anything chosen looking
Oblits
metal plague bearers

The rest is fine. Grab all the old metal HQ's you can while you're at it.

What you need :
Plauge Marines
Defiler
Daemon Prince
Rhions
Havocs

juraigamer wrote:Off limits:

Dreadnoughts
Anything chosen looking
Oblits
metal plague bearers

What this man said.

You'll always need Rhinos and basic troops. Plus, the Plastic Daemon Prince kit is only 2 years old, and bitchin'!

The Thousand Sons, Plague Marines, Noise Marines, Oblits, and Dreadnoughts should get redone. Although I'm saying should, I really mean hopefully.

The Chaos Terminator Lord plastic kit is also pretty good. I'm fairly certain this will remain a reasonable HQ slot in the newest edition. I'm just HOPING that you'll be able to take Storm Shields, so I'd caution your Terminator Lord's loadout.

i would say that you would be fairly safe buying boxes of the standard marines, because lord knows that the next starter box will be expensive as hell, and won't give what you really want. yeah you will make a saving in the long run by buying the starter box, but the standard marines are never going to change that much, and are a great way to really make your army yours by the way of conversions.

that and terminators, who can go wrong with a unit of 10 khorne terminator champions with lightning claws? though you said they need a resculpt, i really like them

I'm planning on splitting the box with my Marine playing friend.
So, if things go well, the CSM in that box will be quite a bit cheaper than just buying boxes of them separately.

Look through current metal HQs and buy any you like and think could be finecrafted.

Is it plastic? Then it's probably safe to buy. The Marines, possessed, Terminators, Terminator Lord, and Daemon Prince are all plastic kits from the last few years, and won't change. Rhinos and Defilers are older but will also remain unchanged. If it's in Finecast I also wouldn't expect new models, but there have been upsets before, like the Hive Tyrant going from Finecast to plastic in just a few months.

Honestly, the only plastic kit I can see getting changed out are Khorne Berserkers and bikers. It's a fairly safe army to buy into.

If you're not bothered about HQs, then anything that isn't:
Chosen - Possibility of getting cooler-looking models to differentiate from regular marines.

Chaos Dreadnought - Self-explanatory.

Cult Troops - Although Berzerkers are okay-ish, I can see them getting re-done if the rest are. Considering that Khorne is perhaps the most popular Chaos God, re-doing the other 3 cult troops and not berzerkers is an opportunity that GW will likely not want to miss.

Raptors - Currently all metal sculpts, and not really very good ones at that. Marine jump pack troops are plastic, Ork ones are plastic, DE Scourges are plastic, Eldar are Finecast, but they're perhaps the exception as opposed to the rule. Either way, expect them to either become plastic multi-part kits, or Finecast.

Bikes - Potentially. I wouldn't put them very high on my list of resculpts, since not even SM have had re-sculpted bikes (AFAIK), but if we are indeed seeing a CSM vs DA starter as the rumours are implying, we may be seeing the first wave of new bikes, both for CSM and possibly Ravenwing DA.

Havocs - Probably plastic weaponry.

Obliterators - Painfully annoying to put together, look like crap, essentially expensive lumps of what is, at first glance, terribly cast metal.

Avatar 720 wrote:
Chosen - Possibility of getting cooler-looking models to differentiate from regular marines.

They don't really have models at the moment so I wouldn't worry about it.

Brother SRM wrote:

Avatar 720 wrote:
Chosen - Possibility of getting cooler-looking models to differentiate from regular marines.

They don't really have models at the moment so I wouldn't worry about it.

Not having models doesn't mean that people don't buy other things to use as conversions. If the possiblity of their getting an official box of models can stop someone throwing more money than is necessary at conversions they didn't really want to do in the first place, then I might as well tell them.

Obviously, if people want to convert chosen, then more power to them.

kronk wrote:

juraigamer wrote:Off limits:

Dreadnoughts
Anything chosen looking
Oblits
metal plague bearers

What this man said.

You'll always need Rhinos and basic troops. Plus, the Plastic Daemon Prince kit is only 2 years old, and bitchin'!

The Thousand Sons, Plague Marines, Noise Marines, Oblits, and Dreadnoughts should get redone. Although I'm saying should, I really mean hopefully.

The Chaos Terminator Lord plastic kit is also pretty good. I'm fairly certain this will remain a reasonable HQ slot in the newest edition. I'm just HOPING that you'll be able to take Storm Shields, so I'd caution your Terminator Lord's loadout.

If Chaos terminators get access to hammers and shields, I'll drop everything I have going at the moment to dive right into a CSM army. I'm imagining how awesome they might look right now...