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I am just starting to play Chaos Space Marines, and after reading several articles/forum posts, this is my army. I am not sure how many points it will be yet. This army is based on assault with other things killing stuff my assaulters can't get.

HQ

Chaos Lord-Mark of Nurgle, The Black Mace. Possibly a different weapon, but definitely Mark of Nurgle.
Huron Blackheart-Used for infiltrating my guys/being good in CC.

Elites

Terminators-Meltas and Lightning Claws. Infiltrate these and take out big tanks and things on the first turn.

Troops

Plague Marines-These guys are the backbone of my army and are for taking objectives and close combat too.

Fast Attack

Heldrake-support from the skies.

Heavy Support

Havocs-Autocannons and Lascannons.

5 x Spawn w/MoN. 15 T6 wounds is hard to kill. Add NLord on bike for more fun.

I'm not 100% sure but you'll only be using Huron's Warlord trait for infiltration if he's the warlord of your force meaning the chaos lord with mark of nurgle will not unlock plague marines as troop choices. Depending on the wording of primary detachment of course.

Could always get rid of Huron and give the Lord terminator armor- deepstrike him in with the terminators. Even though your main focus is combat, it's always good to have some heavy weapons/fortifications in the back to help you out. Havocs are the cheapest for lascannons/autocannons. Obliterators are durable and can provide lots of support. And you never know, you might get lucky and roll a 3 on the warlord trait.....

mickthesplit wrote:
I'm not 100% sure but you'll only be using Huron's Warlord trait for infiltration if he's the warlord of your force meaning the chaos lord with mark of nurgle will not unlock plague marines as troop choices. Depending on the wording of primary detachment of course.

Untrue. Warlord trait designated by warlord. Reread master of traitors/rubricae because if lord/sorc with certain mark is in your primary detachment then you unlock specific elite cult soldiers as troops choice. That means lords can unlock khorne beserkers, plague marines,noise marines. Sorc unlocks thousand sons. Lords&sorc as allies detachment can not unlock anything.

You're sort of taking one of a bunch of different things. Lists tend to be stronger when they have a theme. When they have just one or two different kinds of units doing things in just one or two different kinds of ways.

For example, how would you describe your list in one word? It's not a "Terminator" list or a "plague marine" list (shh), or a "zombie" list or a "bike" list, or whatever. It sort of seems like the word to describe what you have so far would be "unfocused" or "themeless".

I'd start by narrowing things down a bit.

One of the main points for Chaos if you are really into painting and so on is to pick a "chapter" Iron Warriors, Thousand Sons and so on and try to keep to their lore and theme.
This makes the armies more fun to build IMO.
They may not be the most competitive lists but make for really fun games!

In my opinion one of the best choices for heavy backbone is Obliterators (always 2 and usually with MoN) or Havocs with Autocannons.
If you are going for MoN and Plague Marines troops you may want to fill out with some cheap cultists for back objectives.

On another note you may want to try out Battlescribe (http://www.battlescribe.net) for making lists!

Thanks for the suggestions everybody! I'll switch out the Raptors for some Chaos Spawn with the MON, put in Havocs with Autocannons and Lascannons. I'll also take out the Noise Marines. Ailaros, I'm trying to make a close combat oriented army. If there is a strong close combat unit that you would recommend, please do so! I'm thinking of painting my guys mainly green with some yellow, kind of Nurgley.

 SignMaster99 wrote:
. If there is a strong close combat unit that you would recommend, please do so! .

I know from personal experience that the Khornate Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut with the axe of blind fury is a close combat monster that beats damn near anything that isnt a Monstrous Creature (except riptides, does pretty well against those) attach him to bikes for some tough armoured support that can shoot stuff or attach him to chaos spawn for some extra wounds and to kill a bunch of the squad that you charge when your dude man has to eat a challenge. Doesn't really go with your whole Nurgle theme but thats my two cents.

if you bring 2-3 heldrakes, your opponent will generally hate you & condemn you as a power player and a spam-monger. people who react like that to 1 heldrake are overreacting and haven't learnt to take some anti-air in their list yet - more fool them.

I've found 10 chaos space marines with a lascannon sat behind an aegis with another (icarus) lascannon is a pretty neat objective sitter / AV14 remover. I've found maulerfiends to be underwhelming on their own (immobilised makes them useless, entirely) forgefiends are good at drawing fire from eldar as they can blast their skimmers from their poncy hover-bases with impunity on the first turn. helbrutes have been condemned by a lot of people, I've found them to be a pretty effective unit - a dread with immunity to shaken/stunned and a chance to fire 2 plasmacannons at whoever did it. just a shame they can't be daemonic (but hey, it's not like the official model for it looks daemonic, eh?).

vindicators are still vindicators are still good. i once had a daemonic landraider eat typhus, don't give landraiders daemonic possession when you're transporting termies with your warlord.

I've also conceived a beastly objective sitter which is 30 cultists with mark of tzeench, on a skyshield. 3+ invulnerable saves all round! objective just behind so trail a few guys back there, or jump down towards the end.

Thanks again for all of the suggestions! I was planning on only one Heldrake, for the reason you said, and they're also pretty expensive ($$). I'll consider the Khornate Chaos Lord on the Juggernaut, but I'm not really sure which HQ to switch him out for. Does putting my Nurgle Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut work? I don't have the CSM codex yet.

as a great man once said. "needs more helldrakes"

 SignMaster99 wrote:
Thanks again for all of the suggestions! I was planning on only one Heldrake, for the reason you said, and they're also pretty expensive ($$). I'll consider the Khornate Chaos Lord on the Juggernaut, but I'm not really sure which HQ to switch him out for. Does putting my Nurgle Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut work? I don't have the CSM codex yet.

No, you need the mark to get the steed. MoT steed, disc of Tzeentch, makes you become a biker which adds +1 toughness and one attack. But if you're not taking PM as troop choices I'd say make your lord MoK with Juggernaut and axe of blind fury.

if you dont have the codex yet, i recommend reading up on the fluff, decide which legion you like the sound of most and build your army around that.

if you like deathguard (plague marines) then you'll want plague marines, typhus (maybe), cultists (or zombies)

at the moment i dont think thousand suns (tzeench marines) or worldeaters (khorne berzerkers) are especially competitive but its possible to make a fairly competitive force from most of the other legions

I would say that you should pick whatever you feel for and not care to much about how competitive it is (unless you are a very competitive person). There are fun/semi-competitive lists for Zerkers and Sons imo. Just go with whatever interests you and you will have fun!

i agree with the above, the game is much more enjoyable that way. there may be ways to field world eaters or thousand sons without losing horribly every time, hopefully there will be supplements for them at some point!

however if deathguard is your bag, the current codex really favours you!

Yay! I was planning on doing Deathguard (or a Nurgle army). I will be taking Plague Marines for Troops as they are pretty tough and good for holding objectives or so I have heard. Is the Palanquin of Nurgle any good? I think that's the mount or whatever for Nurgle.

Lord Gigglethorpe wrote:

 SignMaster99 wrote:
. If there is a strong close combat unit that you would recommend, please do so! .

I know from personal experience that the Khornate Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut with the axe of blind fury is a close combat monster that beats damn near anything that isnt a Monstrous Creature (except riptides, does pretty well against those) attach him to bikes for some tough armoured support that can shoot stuff or attach him to chaos spawn for some extra wounds and to kill a bunch of the squad that you charge when your dude man has to eat a challenge. Doesn't really go with your whole Nurgle theme but thats my two cents.

Plague Marines>Khorne Berserkers in close combat. Thats right, Plague marines are more assaulty than berserkers, because they come with plague knives (poison wounding on 4+) which can slay MC, strike at i3 but have T5 and FNP on 5+ to survive the initial assault.. Blight grenades are defensive and offensive so they deny +1 charge bonus for enemies or ignore penalty for charging thru cover.

Plague Marines are always the go to troop for Chaos.

Obliteratos, heldrakes, and the defensive line are competitive units.

You could take Black Heart, Terminators, Cultists, and Obliterators and make your list Infiltrate. Deepstriking terminators with meltas, and holding the Cultists behind the defensive line with a quad gun. Most the fighting will be on the other side of the board, as long as your objective is the only non-contested one you will still win.

if you're all about death guard, a fluffy list would be all units in rhino's, but if you fancy a bit of fun try nurgle bikers - chaos lord mark of nurgle bike and burning brand, or a sorcerer on bike

though the nurgle daemon prince model looks awesome, i used my daemon prince for the first time last week - love it

The Palanquin is fun to use on a Sorcerer of Nurgle. Put him in a Land Raider with Typhus and 5 Plague Marines. You'll have a really good unit for clearing and taking objectives, actually 2 good units in there if they separate (Typhus can usually handle things on his own if needed). Without the Land Raider however, I wouldn't use the Palanquin.

What are your guys' opinions on Cultists? They seem pretty good if in a gigantic blob, but otherwise, kind of iffy.

Fluff death guard hate rhinos lol. Just saying

Okay, so I finally got the CSM codex in the mail, and here's the list with points put to the units. http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/554592.page

Cultests in small units are fine as well...I use them as a 10 man blanket for Fabius Bile. They work fine for holding back line objectives...

The best thing about them is that they are so cheap...if you have 1,900 points in full-on assault units, you can spare 100 points for a couple troops in the backfield

So, I fun something like this at 1850 for a campaign and I've played against Eldar, Tau and Necrons, and come out 3/3. it gives you some suvivabilty on your lord to get him nto CC with the spawn, which can be brutal if they make it to CC with the lord.

The Heldrakes are pretty much a given, and can handle vehicles and anti-infantry with the baleflamer.

The predators give you pretty reliable anti vehicle.

The only thing you might be missing is some potential Anti-air, which you could get by swapping a pred for an aegis with a quad gun, and tweaking to get enough points to drop a cultist squad on the aegis to man the gun.


HQ: Chaos Lord (1#, 195 pts)
1 Chaos Lord , 195 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 31 & 93); Bikes (Character); Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades;
Power Armour; Mark of Nurgle; Close Combat Weapon; Chaos Bike; Sigil of Corruption; Twin-Linked
Boltgun x1; Champion of Chaos; Fearless; Independent Character; Warlord)
1 Dimensional Key
1 The Black Mace

Fast Attack: Chaos Spawn (5#, 180 pts)
5 Chaos Spawn , 180 pts ((C:CSM, pgs. 41 & 100); Beasts; Mark of Nurgle; Fear; Fearless; Mutated
Beyond Reason; Rage; Random Attacks; Very Bulky)

Troops: Plague Marines (6#, 180 pts)
4 Plague Marines , 180 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 46 & 98); Infantry; Blight Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power
Armour; Bolt Pistol x4; Boltgun x2; Plague Knife x4; Meltagun x2; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Mark of Nurgle)
1 Plague Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 39 & 96); Infantry (Character); Blight Grenades; Krak Grenades;
Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Boltgun; Plague Knife; Champion of Chaos; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Mark of
Nurgle)
1 Chaos Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 54 & 99); Vehicle (Transport, Tank); 10 model capacity; Searchlight;
Smoke Launchers; Dirge Caster; Combi-Boltgun; Repair)

Troops: Plague Marines (6#, 180 pts)
4 Plague Marines , 180 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 46 & 98); Infantry; Blight Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power
Armour; Bolt Pistol x4; Boltgun x2; Plague Knife x4; Meltagun x2; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Mark of Nurgle)
1 Plague Champion ((C:CSM, pp. 39 & 96); Infantry (Character); Blight Grenades; Krak Grenades;
Power Armour; Bolt Pistol; Boltgun; Plague Knife; Champion of Chaos; Fearless; Feel No Pain; Mark of
Nurgle)
1 Chaos Rhino ((C:CSM, pp. 54 & 99); Vehicle (Transport, Tank); 10 model capacity; Searchlight;
Smoke Launchers; Dirge Caster; Combi-Boltgun; Repair)

Fast Attack: Heldrake (1#, 170 pts)
1 Heldrake , 170 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 52 & 101); Vehicle (Flyer w/ Hover mode); Daemonic Possession;
Baleflamer; Fear; Daemon; Daemonforge; It Will Not Die; Meteoric Descent)
Fast Attack: Heldrake (1#, 170 pts)
1 Heldrake , 170 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 52 & 101); Vehicle (Flyer w/ Hover mode); Daemonic Possession;
Baleflamer; Fear; Daemon; Daemonforge; It Will Not Die; Meteoric Descent)

Heavy Support: Chaos Predator (1#, 140 pts)
1 Chaos Predator , 140 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 54 & 103); Vehicle (Tank); Searchlight; Smoke Launchers;
Twin-Linked Lascannon; Lascannon (each side))

Heavy Support: Chaos Predator (1#, 140 pts)
1 Chaos Predator , 140 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 54 & 103); Vehicle (Tank); Searchlight; Smoke Launchers;
Twin-Linked Lascannon; Lascannon (each side))

Heavy Support: Chaos Predator (1#, 140 pts)
1 Chaos Predator , 140 pts ((C:CSM, pp. 54 & 103); Vehicle (Tank); Searchlight; Smoke Launchers;
Twin-Linked Lascannon; Lascannon (each side))