Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi there fellow dakka-ites!

I've just recently gotten the new-army bug again, and when a member at the FLGS stated he was selling his Chaos Space Marines, I just couldn't resist.

I didn't have the funds to buy all of his items (I can never have too many termies, well on my way to a full Deathwing company.) But I bought what interested me and will list it here:
HQ
1 Daemon Prince (Wings, Power Armor, Axe arm)
1 Kharn the Betrayer
1 Chaos Sorcerer (New Sculpt)
1 Un-assembled Chaos Terminator Lord
Elites
5 Terminators without any arms (I have all the parts that came in the box
6 Thousand sons + Aspiring Sorcerer
12 Khorne Berzerkers (10 assembled, skull champion and another guy un-assembled)
Fast Attack
5 Chaos raptors (Again with all box options available)
Heavy Support
1 Un-assembled Forgefiend/Maulerfiend

I've ordered the codex which should be coming mid next week. As you can see I've got a ton of elites and HQ's, with no troops and few fast attack and heavy support.

What I'm wondering now, dear Dakka reader, is how to proceed from here on. I've been thinking about picking up the old battleforce off of ebay or amazon which would give me two squads of ten berzerkers, two CSM squads, and a rhino. Also I'm not sure how to outfit my terminators, raptors, skull champion, or whether to build a maulerfiend or forgefiend, so advice on that would be nice. Also any tips on how to play them would be appreciated, they seem to be a close-combat oriented army, with a few good fire support options. Hopefully you wonderful folks can help me with these matters, although I think I'll know better what I want once my codex comes.


Additionally, on a non-tactics related question, I can't quite decide which legion to paint them as, I quite like the Thousand Sons, Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, and Night lords in other words, mostly undivided.(although Tzeentch is my favorite chaos god)some advice on which one you feel I should go for would be appreciated.

I know I'd have to modify some things to get Night Lords to work, as if I remember correctly, they don't use daemons. Iron Warriors or Word Bearers would be easier, as they both use a ton of daemon engines. and perhaps I could do Ahriman's warband for the Thousand Sons (I believe he tricked or convinced many different groups to help him reach the black library, no?)

Heldrakes seem to be a good choice from what Ive read



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, I like to run an IW themed army, so I have alot of havocs.

 Zachariel wrote:
Hi there fellow dakka-ites!

I've just recently gotten the new-army bug again, and when a member at the FLGS stated he was selling his Chaos Space Marines, I just couldn't resist.

I didn't have the funds to buy all of his items (I can never have too many termies, well on my way to a full Deathwing company.) But I bought what interested me and will list it here:
HQ
1 Daemon Prince (Wings, Power Armor, Axe arm)
1 Kharn the Betrayer
1 Chaos Sorcerer (New Sculpt)
1 Un-assembled Chaos Terminator Lord
Elites
5 Terminators without any arms (I have all the parts that came in the box
6 Thousand sons + Aspiring Sorcerer
12 Khorne Berzerkers (10 assembled, skull champion and another guy un-assembled)
Fast Attack
5 Chaos raptors (Again with all box options available)
Heavy Support
1 Un-assembled Forgefiend/Maulerfiend

I've ordered the codex which should be coming mid next week. As you can see I've got a ton of elites and HQ's, with no troops and few fast attack and heavy support.

What I'm wondering now, dear Dakka reader, is how to proceed from here on. I've been thinking about picking up the old battleforce off of ebay or amazon which would give me two squads of ten berzerkers, two CSM squads, and a rhino. Also I'm not sure how to outfit my terminators, raptors, skull champion, or whether to build a maulerfiend or forgefiend, so advice on that would be nice. Also any tips on how to play them would be appreciated, they seem to be a close-combat oriented army, with a few good fire support options. Hopefully you wonderful folks can help me with these matters, although I think I'll know better what I want once my codex comes.


Additionally, on a non-tactics related question, I can't quite decide which legion to paint them as, I quite like the Thousand Sons, Word Bearers, Iron Warriors, and Night lords in other words, mostly undivided.(although Tzeentch is my favorite chaos god)some advice on which one you feel I should go for would be appreciated.

I know I'd have to modify some things to get Night Lords to work, as if I remember correctly, they don't use daemons. Iron Warriors or Word Bearers would be easier, as they both use a ton of daemon engines. and perhaps I could do Ahriman's warband for the Thousand Sons (I believe he tricked or convinced many different groups to help him reach the black library, no?)

If you played against CSM in the old edition, you can get a pretty good idea of how to play this edition. The codex is basically the exact same book, just with different unit pricing.

The helldrake is pretty useful thing to pick up for the army as a whole. At first I thought it looked silly, but it is incredibly useful at knocking out enemy infantry. Makes marines cry.

In terms of HQ the Sorcerer is nice because you get access to Biomancy, but his issue is that he's not fearless and only has two wounds.

Kharn is great, but he faces the issue that a lot of CC HQ options face. How to actually get him into combat. If he walks, people can run away. If he takes a rhino, he can't assault out of it. If he takes a landraider, well you just bought a chaos landraider and that thing is not that great.

The lord is a good way to go. Put him on a bike and give him the Brand of Skalathrax and he's pretty set. Sigil of corruption and mark of Tzeetch gives him 3++ too. He starts getting expensive though.

There's always Huron. That guy got better in this edition. Plus he can make infantry outflank.

I want to love raptors so much, I love the models. I like the fluff. But they're not very good. They may be able to pick on weak units and harass things in the opponents back field. But they're not fearless and will book it 3d6 any chance they get.

The maulerfiend has not impressed me. I fought against one and it could not even put down my hell brute, which costs almost half as much and ended up winning the fight. I think the forgefiend would be a good way to go if you want one of those two.

If you haven't noticed, I'm not very high on the codex. I was expecting Space Wolves, part two, but got the same book with different pricing. If you want to make your basic CSM as good as they were in the last edition, you actually have to pay 1 point more per model (bump leadership to 9 and give them close combat weapon with bolter).

Now for things that are good. Obliterators are still awesome. If you have no quips against Nurgle, give them the mark of Nurgle and you get T5 2+ 5++ beasts. Take two units of two each and you're set.

For Troops, I think an effective way to go is with small squads of 5 to hold your back objectives. Then perhaps take Thousand Sons to be your heavy hitters. Or plague marines. Those guys are tough and now come with plague knives. I haven't found troops that I really like yet. Lack of fearless on basic guys makes it annoying.

So of the things you don't have yet, I wholeheartedly endorse obliterators and the hell drake.

I'd consider exactly what kind of force you want to build first! As you've already figured out, you are etremely light on the troop choices, wiih exactly zero Chaos Space Marines or cultists - at the moment only the Thousand Sons or berzerkers can become troops by purchasing the appropriate character.

Therefore you want to decide exactly what theme you want to go with - this will dictate your purchases afterwards.

With the current model collection, I can see several choices:

- Play an undivided list with a variety of marked units
This will allow you to make the best use of the models you already have - in this case you will want to pick up a lot of chaos space marines, and maybe a few cultists to act as cheap objective holders. One option with a nice feel would be to take one of each cult unit to show you really are an undivided force - one lord with one mark, backed up by a Tzeentch sorcerer in l;arger games, will give you more troops variety without sacrificing too much scoring ability.

- Go for pure Khorne
Kharn fits nicely in here if you want to use him - in this case you will want to pick up a lot more berzerkers, with perhaps CSMs and cultists as additional help, rather than the core of your army. If you do this the Tsons will be surplus (unless you create an allied detachment).

- Go for pure Tzreentch
As above, but create a Thousand Sons army of magic blammo - in this case Kharn and your berzerkers will be surplus, and you'll need a lost more TSons and sorcerers!

Of course these ideas will build you armies which 'feel' nice to me - I have a tendency to build forces that fit into the background as much as possible, even if this doesn't result in the most effective list. Your own personal opinion will vary - you may be fine with just using whatever marks are most appropriate for a certain unit, in which case add more troops of whatever flavour you feel like and away you go...

Thank you all for the responses so far!

 Hedgehog wrote:

- Play an undivided list with a variety of marked units

I agree this would be the easiest, and I definitely could work with it to make it seem more Iron Warriors (with more havocs) or Word Bearers (with tons of cultists)
however the problem here is that I feel every chaos player and their dog (spawn) plays undivided, and most armies I see are either Black Legion or Iron Warriors.

 Hedgehog wrote:

-Go for Pure Khorne

This is intriguing because it is the most divergent playstyle from the armies I currently own, My deathwing tend to win by sheer survivability and my eldar by farseer and Harlequin shenanigans. Just throwing tons of berzerkers and cultist blobs at people seems quite effective, and will totally crush the weaker CC armies underfoot, but it seems they'd have a massive problem with ranged combat.

 Hedgehog wrote:

-Go for Pure Tzeentch

I like this one because as I said Tzeentch is my favorite chaos god, however it also seems the hardest to do, as it relies on an upgrade kit which is backordered and I'd be outnumbered 2-1 almost every match. although any MEQ army would cry if I pulled this army off.

EDIT: Alternatively, If I chose to Ally daemons in, this would be devastating because tzeentch has the most powerful daemon units available currently, plus I'd have tons of scoring bodies in the horrors, and the screamers would wreck tanks and TEQ.

 Hedgehog wrote:

I have a tendency to build forces that fit into the background as much as possible

I definitely agree with you here, I would rather have my army represent whatever legion I choose and stay true to the fluff than throw together whatever works best and call it a night.

I think perhaps a heldrake and A unit or two of CSM would be my next buy, with some cultists if I go Word Bearers, another maulerfiend for IW, a few TS upgrade kits if I decide to go for the Sons. and berzerkers if I go World Eaters.

I have a fairly decent amount of fluff knowledge, and the legions that appeal to me most would be the Thousand Sons and Iron warriors, as the Sons are one of (if not the most) tragic legion, and a bunch of possesed suits of armor lead by potent sorcerers is just awesome. Also Magnus and Ahriman are two of my favorite characters in the whole setting.

As for Iron Warriors, I love their tactics and delicious evilness although I dislike their Primarch. Their love of siege warfare is matched by my love of tanks. Finally they seem to be one of the few legions that actually accomplishes things, unlike the Black Legion, who, with the exception of Araghast and Eliphas, seem to just be Saturday morning cartoon villains, who lose every time they fight but act like it's actually part of their "master plan" said while twirling their moustaches. but that's enough about my dislike of the followers of Abbaddon.

Thank you all for responding, and thank you for the advice so far!