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.

OK so I'm reading through the space wolves and the chaos space marines codices and I'm having trouble picking between them.
Could you guys please tell me the key differences and play styles between the two.
Also what the strengths and weaknesses of the two factions?
as a chaos space marine specific question are noise marines any good?
and a space wolf specific question are thunder wolf cav and the terminator spam i heard of any good?
should running mostly if not entirely all terminator army be even a driving factor in choosing?

Successful space wolves armies will be running grey hunters as troops and packing longfangs with missiles for heavy support.

Thunder wolf cavalry are quite a good unit, but can quickly get expensive if you gear them up. I'd avoid running a terminator army as they aren't really competitive. Dark angels with deathwing run a much more efficient terminator list and even it will fall short and severely limit you.

Chaos space marines have a few competitive options for troops. Cultists are great for taking objectives - they are somewhat useless in combat, but incredible cheap. Regular CSMs with no fancy marks or icons are decent as they run pretty cheap and give you plenty of MEQ on the field. The only competitive cult troops are plague marines and noise marines - so yes noise marines are decent enough to use (blast masters are great).

Obliterators and havocs are your staple heavy support choices in a CSM list. Most lists will also run 1-2 helldrakes to be competitive, but if you (like me) don't like the model then you can skip over them and make sure you pack nurgle obliterators/autocannon havocs.

If you don't mind making a list using only PMs, noise marines, obliterators, havocs, cultists, and helldrakes - then choose CSM. (Note: if you play in a somewhat casual environment, the CSM codex has much more options)

As for spacewolves..... rumours are indicating that they will be getting a new codex sometime next year. It may be worth to hold off on them until they receive an update - SW are still decent, but they are definitely aging.

Thanks that helps a lot.

This is the same choice I had to make when I started playing 40k about two years ago.

Both armies have a lot of character, their fluff really emphasises the individuality of both armies. In the end I started both and love them a lot.

They both have some nifty rules, the most controversial rule is in the CSM book though, which requires all characters with the Champion of Chaos rule to challenge other characters if possible. If your character kills another you get to roll on a table to see if your char has been awarded by the Gods, these range from extra armour and wounds to being turned in to a daemon prince. Lot's of people hate the always challenge thing, but it's probably my favourite thing in the book.

I run a lot of noise marines, they put out a scary amount of mid range firepower and have no problems shifting anything short of terminators from cover, and given Doom sirens they're brilliant up close; words can hurt.

TWC are brilliant, they don't have very high leadership though, so they may run easily and far if they lose combat, which is pretty unlikely. Put a Wolf Lord on a Thunderwolf for extra killy.

CSM and Wolves are both very aggressive armies, when I play my CSM I find they play best by crashing through the opponent's troops on objectives and moving on to deal with other squads while cheaper units follow them up and hunker down.

Grey Hunters, the staple of a SW force, are no slouches either, 15 points a marine with a CCW and a free special weapon at ten men is awesome. Space Wolves want to be in their enemy's face firing everything they have daring them to charge them, if they take the bait they can use their counter attack rule to get an extra attack as if they launched the charge!

Wolves also get Rune priests, brilliant psykers with access to the divination psychic school and probably the best anti-psyker wargear in the game, but expect the latter to change.

The important thing is that you pick an army you won't get tired assembling and painting.


Best of luck!

As a side note, Space Wolves, could have a new codex next year, 2014, or 2015 the latest, the way GW is releasing codexs now.

So if you go the SW route, keep in mind your army can be invalidated next year, while Chaos Space Marines got a new 6e codex and will not be updated anytime soon.