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So, after only ever fighting for the mighty God Emperor (and occasionally for Gork and Mork) I decided to turn my back at my SM and Orks (for the moment at least) and start a CSM army, namely Night Lords. The reason why I chose them is that I love their background and how they don't fight for anyone but themselves!
Now, the aim of this army is to be semi-competitive, more or less fluffy but mainly to be fun to play with. I want it to be a good all around list to deal with more or less any foe.
So my goal for now is approx. 1800 points which is the size of game I normally play. So here we go:

HQ
Lord with Murder Sword and Veterans of the long war --- 105

Troops
(Squad A) 10x Chaos Space Marines with Close combat weapons, boltguns, 1x plasma gun, Veterans of the long war, Icon of Vengeance, Champion with PW, Rhino (see below) --- 265
(Squad B) 10x Chaos Space Marines with CCW, bolt pistols, Rhino (see below) --- 195
(Squad C) 10x Chaos Space Marines with Boltguns, Heavy Bolter, Flamer --- 155
(Squad D) 10x Chaos Space Marines with Boltguns, Heavy Bolter, Flamer, Rhino (see below) --- 210
35x Cultists with Mark of Nurgle. --- 220

Heavy Support
10x Havocs with Boltguns, 4x Meltagun, Champion has Meltabomb, Rhino (see below) --- 240
10x Havocs with Boltguns, 4x Meltagun, Champion has Meltabomb, Rhino (see below) --- 240

Fast Attack
Heldrake with Baleflamer ---170

All the Rhinos have dirge casters, dozer blades and extra armour --- 55 each

------ 1800 points exactly ------

So basically the idea is as follows:
My Lord with Murder Sword picks a target at the beginning of the game, then joins the Cultist Squad. I can then (hopefully) watch how my opponent tries to kill 35 T4 cultists in order to save his hero from a horrible death. I think this HQ fits the Night Lords theme quite well because my opponent will be 'scared' of my Lord during the game (or at least the enemy HQ will be ) btw, the Cultists are not actually devoted to Nurgle, instead they maybe wear better armour then normal cultists
This should give me some time to move up with my rhinos and chose some worthy victims for my CC orientated Squads (namely squad A and B).
As for background, Squad A is the ancient, highly elite and aggressive squad, so they get the best war gear, chain swords, veterans special rule and icon. Squad B on the other hand is a squad specialised in silent killing and just overall looking badass and scary (e.g. they all have knives instead of Chainswords. I will hopefully post some pics in the P&M section soon). Again I think that this squad fits the theme quite well since they are scary and one could imagine that they cause mayhem behind the enemy lines.
Squad C is there to either give fire support or, in case of an objectives game, to guard the home objective. I gave this squad both, Heavy Bolter and flamer so they can deal with any threat: Infantry in the distance? Pick them out with the heavy bolter. Deepstriking or charging enemies? Barbecue time!
Squad D is basically the backup squad. I plan to keep it in reserve. They can then either help protect the home objective or rush forward to secure another objective late in the game. For weapons, the same applies as for squad C.
As I already said, the Cultists are basically the meatshield for my Lord to get him into combat with his unfortunate victim. My story for them is, that the Night Lords corrupted or forced a group of Guardsmen/civilians to fight for them and against the Emperor and basically expect their enemies to be confused when they are attacked by their own people.
Next, my two 10 man squads of Havocs. Well, with 4 Meltaguns each there really only is one thing they should do... blow up enemy tanks. If they fail to do so in the shooting phase my champion will show them how it's done in CC with his melta bombs. I brought ten of them because I don't want to have my Melta guys dying once they are getting shot at. The rhino is to transport them around quickly for the more mobile they are the more tanks they can blow up.
The Rhinos are upgraded with dirge casters because a) It's quite funny when enemies can't fire overwatch because there potentially are 5 rhinos that stop them from doing so and b) because this whole scaring the enemy with the sound of terrifying screams and howls just fits the army's theme too well as not to include it. The dozer blade and extra armour are there to get my squads into combat as quickly as possible without having to stop to repair it .
Finally, the Heldrake. This is the part of the army I'm really not sure about. I wanted to include it because it is horrifying and all that but I have heard positive and negative opinions on it. So please, if you think that it does/doesn't fit into the army, let me know. Another issue with it is, that I have a feeling that it isn't very easy to transport...

OK, I think this is it for now. If you have read this far; well done and thank you!
I would be grateful for any comments or criticisms because as soon as I've got the army list fixed, I can finally start the army project properly!
So keep an eye out for it in the P&M blogs section. Thank you everyone for reading and I'm looking forward to any comments!!

1 very important thing to learn from transitioning from C:SM to CSM is that you no longer have combat squads, ATSKNF, and many technology luxuries.

I do not think it is a good idea for you to have a heavy bolter and a flamer in the CSM squad. I think you should take double meltaguns, plasma guns, or flamers. Leave the heavy weapons to the Havocs. Infact, take those 8 melta guns and give 2 to each CSM squad. They benefit from having an assault weapon and if you bought the ccw then they get the +1 attack.

give the havocs as many autocannons as possible. If you don't have anymore, then use the hb to fill in till you get ac. Autocannons help shoot down flyers, glance light tanks, hurt mc and can maim a squad.

The good criticism about the helldrake is that it auto kills 4-8 marines with the baleflamer and also vector strike a light tank or mc in the same turn. The bad criticism is that people depend entirely on the helldrakes to carry the army to victory. Some people argue that the Helldrakes is the only thing that makes CSM remotely competitive. The heldrake has lightning on its wings as if it was designed with Night Lords in mind.

I think it is unusual to see a Night Lord army with no raptors.

First of all, thank you for the feedback.
I see what you mean when you say I shouldn't bring a HB and a flamethrower in the same squad. I just thought that it would be good to give a squad that basically stays in my deployment zone to give supporting fire and hold the home objective a variety of weapons to deal with all threats.

So are you basically saying I should drop the melta guns in the the havoc squads and give 2 meltas to each of the CSM squads? I'm not 100%percent sure about this since at least one of these squads will stay back (see above) so they would most likely not get into melta-range accept for when the enemy uses a tank spearhead. However I agree with you that the other CSM squads would benefit from some anti-tank weapons since they don't have any PF/melta bomb/etc.
I actually hadn't really thought of Autocannons, mainly because I never used them with my SM, so I will probably give those a try and see how it goes. So, with the Havocs now carrying long ranged weapons I guess I should drop the Rhinos and melta bombs and save myself 120 pts? And should I keep all 20 of the Havocs?

Thanks for the info about the heldrake. Do you own one because I have actually never seen one live so I am kind of worried that my main problem with it will be transporting it .
Would you say that the heldrake would work well together with the rest of the army (both, the army I came up with and the one with the changes you suggested)?

Yes, many people think that a Night Lords army should have lots of raptors. This is, as far as I know, down to the option CSM players had to drop two Heavy Support slots for an extra Fast Attack slot when playing a Night Lords army back in 3rd ed. But really, NL fluff says that they haunt and scare their victims to considerably weaken their combat abilities and then strike to get an easy victory. So Raptors are one way to represent this, but then again the dirge casters or an Icon of despair could do that job, too I guess. Or do you have a good idea how I could fit some raptors into this list?

Any thoughts on my Lord/Cultist squad?

Another idea I had was to use Huron Blackheart as my HQ (not using the actual model but building a NL version) so I can infiltrate D3 units. I guess that would fit fluff wise .

Fluff wise I think you should make a list with all the most scary units you can think of. Any unit with Fear or Daemon (since it automatically confers fear) is more than welcome.
I also agree that Raptors and Warp Talons fit very well (but I discourage you to run warp talons if you are playing even semi-competitively), as I believe their hit fast&hard with bloodlust gives really well the idea of a guerrilla warband that tries to take the enemy when it's unprepared so it's easier to inspire fear on him.

 FlamestormA wrote:
First of all, thank you for the feedback.
I see what you mean when you say I shouldn't bring a HB and a flamethrower in the same squad. I just thought that it would be good to give a squad that basically stays in my deployment zone to give supporting fire and hold the home objective a variety of weapons to deal with all threats.

Then I'd suggest you to take 2 long-range weapons (i suggest plasmaguns, autocannons and/or lascannons depending on what you're trying to do). Autocannon are MUCH better than Heavy Bolters IMHO, as they have better range and have decent chances on damaging MCs or light vehicles. Not to mention the fact that it's almost an auto-wound on most xeno-infantry without cover.
I understand you like the flamer for defensive purposes, but then it would be better to give the champion a combi-flamer. It's uncommon that the same unit will be charged twice in the same game.

So are you basically saying I should drop the melta guns in the the havoc squads

Yes! Meltaguns are close range weapons, Havocs should spit death from distance! The most common choice for Havoc is a 5-man squad with 4 Autocannons. A good possibility is to put them behind a ADL with a Quad-cannon. Do not make the unit larger than 6-7, more than 2 ablative wounds (the champion IS an ablative wound if you don't use the ADL) is a complete waste of points.

Thanks for the info about the heldrake. Do you own one because I have actually never seen one live so I am kind of worried that my main problem with it will be transporting it .
Would you say that the heldrake would work well together with the rest of the army (both, the army I came up with and the one with the changes you suggested)?

Helldrakes are a wonderful unit, both competitively and aesthetically. Also fits very well on a Night Lord legion (it's hard to find something scarier than a huge mecha-dragon that spits warp-flames and feasts on your brethren's corpses!).

Another idea I had was to use Huron Blackheart as my HQ (not using the actual model but building a NL version) so I can infiltrate D3 units. I guess that would fit fluff wise .

Huron is very good, but if you want to use it effectively you have to infiltrate units of 20 CSM and reach close combat, infiltrating one or two units of 10 CSMs won't change the match. But 40 MEQ bodies is a much different story...

Thank you for the feedback!

Fluff wise I think you should make a list with all the most scary units you can think of. Any unit with Fear or Daemon (since it automatically confers fear) is more than welcome.
I also agree that Raptors and Warp Talons fit very well (but I discourage you to run warp talons if you are playing even semi-competitively), as I believe their hit fast&hard with bloodlust gives really well the idea of a guerrilla warband that tries to take the enemy when it's unprepared so it's easier to inspire fear on him.

So, scary units you say. The daemonengines seem to fit here. The only 'issue' I have with them is that they are Daemons. NL fluff says that they are more or less unaffected by the warp/daemons but then again it is the daemons special rule that gives them Fear. So it's a bit of a vicious circle . But I guess one could imagine the NL to temporarily ally with Daemons/Daemon engines to be scarier/better in combat. So I guess the Heldrake (it actually is called Heldrake not Helldrake. It's probably named after the Norse goddess of the underworld (she's called Hel). Anyway, moving on...) is seeded, cause it fulfils both the requirements of being scary and, as I now learnt from you guys, being effective in combat. Would you say one is enough or should I get at least 2. Of course it could then collide with potential Raptor or Warptallons squads.

Then I'd suggest you to take 2 long-range weapons (i suggest plasmaguns, autocannons and/or lascannons depending on what you're trying to do). Autocannon are MUCH better than Heavy Bolters IMHO, as they have better range and have decent chances on damaging MCs or light vehicles. Not to mention the fact that it's almost an auto-wound on most xeno-infantry without cover.

That's a very good point. As I said before, I didn't use autocannons with SM so I never really considered using them. Plus, the only HW you get in the CSM box is a heavy bolter, so that's what I went for . But I guess autocannon it is then. It's also the same cost as HB which makes things even better. Now, the problem with auto cannons is, I can only have one of them in a squad of CSM. Considering I already have 8 autocannons from my Havocs, would you go for double plasma (more mobility) or plasma/autocannon combo (better range).

I understand you like the flamer for defensive purposes, but then it would be better to give the champion a combi-flamer. It's uncommon that the same unit will be charged twice in the same game.

Agreed. However, funnily enough, a combi-flamer is more expensive than a normal flamer. So I'll see if I can fit it into the list at the end.

Huron is very good, but if you want to use it effectively you have to infiltrate units of 20 CSM and reach close combat, infiltrating one or two units of 10 CSMs won't change the match. But 40 MEQ bodies is a much different story...

But then of course the CSM couldn't be in Rhinos anymore.
Maybe I should drop the whole Rhino idea (should make the whole army cheaper moneywise, too) and take more CSM. Have them in Squads of 20 (say 3 squads. Two infiltrate and run forwards, one stays back.). Give them all 2x special weapons (melta or plasma) and CCW except for the one staying back which might get a heavy weapon. Then have 2 squads of 6 or 7 Havocs behind an ADL, 4 autocannons each. Have 1 or more Heldrakes, depending on your responses. Talking about them: Is there any reason why you would take the hades autocannon for it? Say, I also take a Forgefiend/Maulerfiend cause they fit the theme. Or some other scary thing for 100-200 points (If you have any suggestions please let me know). Then have Huron Blackheart as my HQ. This would be ruffly 1800 points (depending on how many Heldrakes I take. I calculated in 2 for now).
Now, let's see what this list can do:
– killing infantry in close combat? Yes, with infiltrate I should be in CC by turn 2
– killing infantry with shooting? I've got about 60 bolters plus special weapons plus 8-9 autocannons plus 2 bale flamers. That should be sufficient .
– killing flyers? Depends on if I take a weapons emplacement for my ADL, I guess. But I still got 8 or 9 autocannons so that should be ok. Is the Heldrake any good at killing flyers? Because it's only ranged weapon is a template so it can't be used against flyers. I'm not sure about the Vector strike rule, though.
– killing tanks? Well. Depends on the special weapons I take, I think. Or I could give my Champions meltabombs?

What squad should I put Huron in if I was to go for this list?
I got rid of the Cultists because they only were a meatshield for my Lord with Murdersword. Since he is gone, so are they.

The other thing I could do is to go for cheaper and less troops and then take 2 15 man squads of Raptors. I would have to lose one of the Heldrakes but with infiltrate I could be in CC in turn 1.

Please let me know what you think of this. So far the feedback was great and very constructive so thank you guys!!

I can hear dalymidboro shouting,"take 2 heldrakes!"

I am disgusted by the heldrake so i call it the go to hell drake or held-rake.

However i believe heldrakes will fit in your army aesthetically and functionally welll.

I think you should take huron, but if do not like the mos+ioe combo, then just give them MoN for T5 and pray you do not lose so much.

after 3 squads of 20 csm, try a cultist blob for home obj. In fact with an adl+quadgun manned by huron or havock champ, you can bubble wrap them all with 20-35 cultists. On the last few turns they can run to an obj.

If you continue huron route, i heard you can give him infiltrate so he can infiltrate to the squad he is joined with. If it doesnt work them have him shoot quad gun.

Also 20 csm with MoS+IoE is more forgiving to plasmaguns. By taking plasmaguns instead of meltaguns, the infiltrated squad can all shoot 24" since bolters & plasmaguns have the same range. This allows you to be farther away behind cover turn 1 but close enogh to march and take their obj or charge.

 FlamestormA wrote:

That's a very good point. As I said before, I didn't use autocannons with SM so I never really considered using them. Plus, the only HW you get in the CSM box is a heavy bolter, so that's what I went for . But I guess autocannon it is then. It's also the same cost as HB which makes things even better. Now, the problem with auto cannons is, I can only have one of them in a squad of CSM. Considering I already have 8 autocannons from my Havocs, would you go for double plasma (more mobility) or plasma/autocannon combo (better range)

If you plan to take 8 Autocannons with Havocs then I'd choose plasmaguns for the CSM. Some more AP2 stuff is always welcome

Agreed. However, funnily enough, a combi-flamer is more expensive than a normal flamer. So I'll see if I can fit it into the list at the end.

Yes, that's sad. However this allows you to take 2 special weapons in the unit. It's up to you to see if it's worth the cost.

But then of course the CSM couldn't be in Rhinos anymore.

The whole point of using Huron is to avoid using Rhinos - that are terribly dangerous against Helldrakes and other template AP3, as the opponent can blow up your rhino and then roast the whole unit with one shot - or Land Raiders, that are expensive.

– killing flyers? Depends on if I take a weapons emplacement for my ADL, I guess. But I still got 8 or 9 autocannons so that should be ok. Is the Heldrake any good at killing flyers? Because it's only ranged weapon is a template so it can't be used against flyers. I'm not sure about the Vector strike rule, though.

It's actually very good. Two Heldrakes allow you to have 2*(D3+1) AUTOHITS at str7 against side armor, which for flyers is usually AV 10-12 with Daemonforge. Very good chances to blow up at least one flyer per turn. However if your Heldrakes enter the game before your opponent's... well, they could be killed before having a chance to fire back. After all, with a penetrating hit one single hit could be enough.

– killing tanks? Well. Depends on the special weapons I take, I think. Or I could give my Champions meltabombs?

Well, if you have 3 units of 20 CSM meltabombs are a must. You don't want that many points to be tarpitted by the first walker that charges in them..

What squad should I put Huron in if I was to go for this list?

Strictly RAW speaking, you need a 2 to infiltrate a unit AND Huron. However I don't understand the problem. Just put him in one of the CSM blobs that charges into CC

I like the idea of 2 helldrakes... with baleflamers, but I just love helldrakes - even before they got their turret ass firing gun...

I agree with the squads and havoks should have a nice place to hide (an ADL and mayeb even a quad gun) to hide behind. I personally like the autocannons as the missiles with flakk are so freakin expensive.. It is always nice to have a few chumps out in front to take the first couple wounds so that you get to keep you heavy weapons, but honestly they should be firing from a distance, if you want up close and personal and a lot of special weapons take champions and abbadon. You could think about your lord on a bike since you are not giving him any marks it would make him T5 and if you took a bike squad with slaanesh they could have a banner of excess giving them FNP... you could load up your champ with a Pfist or power weapon, hell you could take a sorcerer with no mark with the bikes and lord and try to get biomancy goodness like endurance or enfeeble...
CSM are a fun army and NOT an easy one to run competitively. I think allied in with Chaos they do well. They are a playable army, but not forgiving to a lot of loss... I guess that same is true for many armies... cheers.

EDIT: I wrote this post before reading the last two comments, so I haven't included anything from them in here!

Thanks for that Filch!
So my tendency is to go for two Heldrakes (sorry...) but I'll see how the rest of the army turns out and then decide.
Say I take Huron, I don't really understand why I should take Mark of Slaanesh and Icon of Excess. So they are even harder hitting when I get them to charge?
Cultists sound good to me as they have a clear role (that's why I included them in the first list). Would you say they should get a Mark of any type (maybe MoN for more survivability?)
I guess I could give Huron Infiltrate but then he would count as one of my D3 infiltrating units, wouldn't he? So as I will statistically roll a 2 most of the times, I could only infiltrate him plus 20 marines. They might be tough (with Icon of E that is) and Huron has a 3+4++ but I think they would get killed pretty quickly. And what would I do if I rolled a 1 for the number of Infiltrating units? He would have to go on his own!!
So I think he'll be the quadgun operator, BS5 should help kill some stuff. His main role in the army is to let some units infiltrate so there we go.
24" range for both bolters and plasmas is good, as you said (and they're both RF, too). So I'll do that.
So if I pretty much keep the list from my last post, get rid of the potential Daemon engine and put in a squad of Cultists I should be good. And the marks and icons for the CSMs of course.

So now I've got:
– 2x 20 CSMs with 2x plasma each and CCW (most likely MoS and IoE). Nice and mobile. They infiltrate (given I roll 3+ for how many units can infiltrate) and sit in cover for 1, maybe 2 turns, shooting bolters and plasmas at the enemy, then charge and have a good time because of FnP and I5.
– 1x 20 CSMs with 1x plasma and 1x Autocannon. They stay back, give fire support, possibly hold and objective.
– 2x Heldrakes with Baleflamer to barbecue Marines
– 2x 6-7 Havocs with 4x Autocannons each behind an ADL with Quadgun. They stay back, give supporting fire, shoot down fliers, Champion can shoot Quadgun when Huron gets bored of it (or dies...)
– Huron Blackheart to man the quadgun but mainly so I get the Master of Deception Warlord Trait (infiltrate D3 units)
– 30ish cultists to grab an objective late in the game (might even keep them in reserve ). If the mission is not Objectives, they can be my bullet catchers (which was their original purpose anyway) Not sure if they should get a mark (T4 Cultists doesn't sound bad but it's 2 pts a model for MoN)

Now what I think the list is lacking is anti tank power. Fair enough, the Autocannons and the Heldrakes' vector strike can glance AV13 and as I've got lots of them I should be able to deal with most vehicles. But what about LRs? Maybe I should give the champions meltabombs? It's only 5 pts each so why not?

EDIT: I've added up the points for this list with 35 Cultists (no mark) and 6 Havocs each. It's 2080 points... . So I will have to drop 280 points. I was thinking maybe the CSM squad that stays back since it is 295 points. Then add a few cultists and split into 2 Cultist squads (so about 20 in each). This gives me 4 troop choices, 2 Fast attacks, 2 Heavies and 1 HQ



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hi there Diablix and Elluj, glad you joined the discussion!

If you plan to take 8 Autocannons with Havocs then I'd choose plasmaguns for the CSM. Some more AP2 stuff is always welcome

Yep, I was gonna do just that. The possible autocannon/plasma combo was meant for the CSM squad that stays back to provide supporting fire. But since the list from my last post had too many points, I will probably drop them. The other two 20 men squads will get two plasma guns each.

Yes, that's sad. However this allows you to take 2 special weapons in the unit. It's up to you to see if it's worth the cost.

Since I dropped the squad, I probably won't use it though. (well maybe give a combi-flamer to each of my two CSM Champions for some roasting before they charge?)

It's actually very good. Two Heldrakes allow you to have 2*(D3+1) AUTOHITS at str7 against side armor, which for flyers is usually AV 10-12 with Daemonforge. Very good chances to blow up at least one flyer per turn. However if your Heldrakes enter the game before your opponent's... well, they could be killed before having a chance to fire back. After all, with a penetrating hit one single hit could be enough.

Great, another reason to use them! And I think the danger of getting shot down/killed before doing anything applies for every 'scary' model. But thats exactly the reason why I want to bring two: If the enemy kills one of them, I've got the backup one. If the enemy kills both early in the game then that's unlucky for the Heldrakes cause they don't get to fry stuff BUT chances are that my opponent wasted most of his shooting on killing 340 points worth of flyers which would allow the rest of my army to advance more or less unhindered.

Well, if you have 3 units of 20 CSM meltabombs are a must. You don't want that many points to be tarpitted by the first walker that charges in them..

Good point! I'll tell my champions to pack some.

Strictly RAW speaking, you need a 2 to infiltrate a unit AND Huron. However I don't understand the problem. Just put him in one of the CSM blobs that charges into CC

Uhh, stupid question: When you say I need a 2, you mean a 2 on a D3, right? If this is what you mean (which I'm sure of) I guess I'll just try to field him in one of the CSM squads that charge into CC (as you said) and if I don't roll high enough he joins the Havoc squad and operates the quadgun.

I like the idea of 2 helldrakes... with baleflamers, but I just love helldrakes - even before they got their turret ass firing gun...

I agree with the squads and havoks should have a nice place to hide (an ADL and mayeb even a quad gun) to hide behind. I personally like the autocannons as the missiles with flakk are so freakin expensive.. It is always nice to have a few chumps out in front to take the first couple wounds so that you get to keep you heavy weapons, but honestly they should be firing from a distance, if you want up close and personal and a lot of special weapons take champions and abbadon. You could think about your lord on a bike since you are not giving him any marks it would make him T5 and if you took a bike squad with slaanesh they could have a banner of excess giving them FNP... you could load up your champ with a Pfist or power weapon, hell you could take a sorcerer with no mark with the bikes and lord and try to get biomancy goodness like endurance or enfeeble...
CSM are a fun army and NOT an easy one to run competitively. I think allied in with Chaos they do well. They are a playable army, but not forgiving to a lot of loss... I guess that same is true for many armies... cheers.

Well, I won't use most of this in my list right now but you gave me some great ideas for the future, maybe when I add more to the army. For now I want to keep it easy (cough, cough no psykic powers) and more or less fluffy (I know I don't have any Raptors... see one of my earlier posts where I explain why). But I see we are on the same wavelength concerning the Heldrakes, which I only learnt to love today .

Thank you so much everybody, I didn't expect many comments when I first started this threat. This has been a great help so far and definitely gave me the courage to start threats in the future.
So please keep commenting!
Cheers.

Yes, to infiltrate Huron together with a unit you need 2 on a D3, which means you have to roll 3 or higher. That's because they are counted as 2 separate units.
However in my opinion it is a matter of bad wording, since it is plainly stupid. So you can always ask your opponent what he thinks about it, I wouldn't have any problem to count Huron AND CSM squad as a single unit for infiltration purposes

MoS is good because it allows you to hit before loyalist marines and together with most Eldar. This means less casualties against MEQ and more wounds to the enemy with I5.
I believe there's no need to explain why Feel No Pain is good

However, it depends on how much strictly you want to follow the Night Lords fluff. Because as long as I remember they despise those who worship a Chaos god. As such, MoS and IoE doesn't fit at all with the Night Lords background.

One more thing I was thinking about was how to equip the Champions (the CSM champions). So far they have meltabombs plus bolt gun/bolt pistol/CCW combo (like everyone in the squad except for the two plasma gunners who obviously don't have bolters). Should I give them anything else? PW maybe?

Yes, to infiltrate Huron together with a unit you need 2 on a D3, which means you have to roll 3 or higher. That's because they are counted as 2 separate units.
However in my opinion it is a matter of bad wording, since it is plainly stupid. So you can always ask your opponent what he thinks about it, I wouldn't have any problem to count Huron AND CSM squad as a single unit for infiltration purposes

Thank you for the clarification.

MoS is good because it allows you to hit before loyalist marines and together with most Eldar. This means less casualties against MEQ and more wounds to the enemy with I5.
I believe there's no need to explain why Feel No Pain is good

However, it depends on how much strictly you want to follow the Night Lords fluff. Because as long as I remember they despise those who worship a Chaos god. As such, MoS and IoE doesn't fit at all with the Night Lords background.

So, the benefits of MoS and IoE clearly speak for themselves and I'm planning to use them. But as you said, it doesn't fit the NL fluff very well to worship one of the Chaos Gods. However, I am quite happy to sacrifice some fluffiness to get a good balance of fun to play, semi competitive and more or less fluffy army. The way I see it is that you can do more or less anything with your army (yes, there are exceptions...) as long as you have a good reason for it. So in this case I could say: "They are not really devoted to Slaanesh. Instead, keeping in mind that The Imperium of Man is their arch enemy (Emperor sent an Assassin to kill their primarch, HH, etc.), they have specialised themselves to fight Marines. So now they strike before them in CC and are tougher (FnP). Another way to look at it (quoting the CSM codex): "The Night Lords put their faith in the use of fear as a weapon, the thrill of the chase, and the feast of murder at hunt's end." Well, causing fear is represented by the two Heldrakes (cause they are daemons) and even the Cultists who are/were Imperial civilians/soldiers (see my first post). Thrill of chase? Heldrakes again, really. And I don't think there is a better way to represent the 'feast of murder' than with a MoS. The only improvement fluff wise I can think of is to literally give everyone MoN and then Icon of Despair so they cause fear. But then why would they be T5?

If you agree/disagree or have another idea I would be happy to hear about it!

Hi there,
This is the list I came up with after reading all your comments. I'll try to keep this as brief as possible since most of the units and their strengths/weaknesses have been discussed before.

HQ
Huron Blackheart
160 points

Troops
CSM x20
– CCW and Bolters
– plasma gun x2
– melta bombs for champion
– MoS
– Icon of Excess
415 points

CSM x20
– CCW and Bolters
– plasma gun x2
– melta bombs for champion
– MoS
– Icon of Excess
415 points

Fast Attack
Heldrake
– baleflamer
170 points

Heldrake
– baleflamer
170 points

Heavy Support
Havocs x6
– autocannon x4
168 points

Havocs x6
– autocannon x4
168 points

Fortifications
Aegis Defence Line
– quadgun
100 points

1766 points

Basically, the idea is that the CSM infiltrate (Huron's warlord trait), push forward, rapid fire one or two turns and then charge.
The Havocs sit behind the ADL to provide fire support and man the quad gun. The Heldrakes deal with fliers and MEQs.
What I like about the list is, that I always have two units to get one job done, so even if one gets killed, the other one can complete the task.
The main issue I see is that I don't have enough Troops. The two CSM squads push forward and can hopefully hold/contest up to two enemy objectives. But at the moment, I don't have a way to hold my home objective... I was thinking, maybe a small unit of Cultists to walk onto the table late in the game to hold the home objective? Remember, I have still got 44 points to spend.
OR, I could change the list to 1850, then I could include 18 cultists which would add up to 1848 points.
Any other ideas and opinions on this would be great!