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I really want to start a CSM army but everything I've seen says they are awful. Aesthetically I love Iron Warriors and would like to theme my army that way. I currently have 40 cultist left over from my Dark Vengeance boxes (I play DA) and a Warpsmith just because I thought it would be fun to paint. What would be the best route to go? Looking to make a 1500pt list. My budget is pretty open.

Daemon engines and hellturkeys would be good. Also squads of 10 melta marines in rhinos are good. Havocs are also nice if you give 'em lascannons.

Plague marines in squads of seven and equipped with either 2 plasmaguns or 2 meltaguns can be pretty tough.

You may also want to put them in Rhinos, but you'll need something big, scary and distracting in the army to draw fire away from the rhinos on turn 1, else that 35 pts will be wasted.

Nothing about Chaos is awful! The lords of chaos will take you in and cuddle you till you wont look to another army!
I play chaos and I am really liking it, what about chaos seems awfull?

Starting out with the basic forceorg is always a good start, get two boxes of marines and MF/FF or Pred/Vindi and a Drake. It all boils down how you want to play your army so you are the only one who can really decide.

Would be kind of cool if you are going for a Iron Warriors to kitbash normal CSM with the kit from Iron Hands, and use the PM rules for them maybe?
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat440277a&prodId=prod1600078a

As someone who plays Iron Warriors themselves, this is music to my ears. First of all, whatever anyone has told you about Chaos being awful, is talking utter bollocks. Chaos are very strong and while Heldrakes are infamous and part of many net lists, it is not necessary to take any. I don't field any, and I don't plan to. Another thing, what kind of army do you want to field? A rush army with strong CC units and Daemon Engines like the Maulerfiend, Helbrute and Defiler? Nurgle lists with Plague Marines up the wazoo and everything being tough as all hell? Chaos can cater to any playstyle with a little tweaking.

Be'lakor is my staple use him wisely, reliable psykers are hard to find

if you enjoy winning I vote crack'n'burn tactics, drakes handle infantry very will so get mass anti tank to break transports and skyfire platforms. then unleash drakes and clear the feild

my personal vote tells you to try everything, buy some termies some obliterators, I bought a defiler agreed the worst unit in the dex and he still is great fun to play with hides ain weird places and battlecannons things I dislike. made it invisible with belakor once for 2+ cover (led to the guy getting funny looks for saying defilers are OP).

at the end of the day this is a game so have fun with it!

Thanks for all the suggestions. I love the way the MF and Heldrakes look so I'll definately grab those. I like the kitbash Id
idea as well also thinking about the Forgeworld Mk III armor. I'll grab a codex and start digging through.

HQ-Go Be'lakor or other DP
T-Lots of cultists
F-2 x Turkey and 1 Spawn x 5(MoN),
E-Meh
H-2 or 3 x fiend

 FeindusMaximus wrote:
HQ-Go Be'lakor or other DP

E-Meh

how dare you meh at our lovely cheap terminators that can have rage. seriously they are the cheapest 2+ save in the game and we give them power weapons and all that jazz

 FeindusMaximus wrote:
HQ-Go Be'lakor or other DP
T-Lots of cultists
F-2 x Turkey and 1 Spawn x 5(MoN),
E-Meh
H-2 or 3 x fiend

Pretty much sums it up.

I like having both a DP and Typhus, because then I can spam zombies, who'll camp on half or more of the objectives.

I'm also told that getting a maulerfiend and casting invisibility on him vis Be'lakor turns it from a "shoot at turn 1" problem into "holy cow! KILL IT NOW BEFORE IT KILLS ME!".

plague marines, obliteraters, heldrakes, cultists, done

Go green. Take plague marines or csm with MoN. Squad of 7 using 2 melta or plasmaguns in a rhino exactly as Selym stated.

If you are going to take a helturkey then you need atleast 2. 1 is not enough. Also oblitz can be made using termi if you pin the arms so that the gun arm can be swapped out with the tentacles arms holding multiple guns and the power fist arm can swap with the power weapon arm. Always take MoN and atleast pairs of oblitz.

Skip the fiends in my opinion. Oblitz and havocs are just better bcuz no armor value or hull points. AC on havocs are amazing.

Dont go crazy over hq. For nurgle there is typhus or the biker lord. Khorne juggernaut Lord. Ahriman or tz sorc on a disc with bbos to get ts. Steed of Slaanesh lord for noise marines. Use the hq to unlock your troops choice. Or the other strat is to go flying circus demon prince but that is not for beginners.

Choose between bikers or spawns to accompany bikerlord, jugger lord, or steed lord. U want the other 2 slots for that helturky.

List i recomend to u.

Typhus

20 cultist/zombies (Buy imperial guardsmen but do not zombify yet as you may want them as imperial allies to get a bassilisk and vendettas or lrb & valkeries)

7 pm, 2 plasmaguns, meltabomb champ
Repeat squad(use 15 csm but just paint them green. The 15th can be a pf champ or a Standard Bearer if you choose to revert them back to CSM with any marks)

2 helturkey (use hellblades with any dragon head that fits)

Or the spawn or bikers to accompan . The lords.

3 squads of havocs toting 4 ac
Or 3 pairs of oblitz MoN

 Filch wrote:
Go green. Take plague marines or csm with MoN. Squad of 7 using 2 melta or plasmaguns in a rhino exactly as Selym stated.

If you are going to take a helturkey then you need atleast 2. 1 is not enough.

1 spicy chicken wing surprise is enough at the 0-1500 pts range, after that is when you should consider getting a double order.

1 is enough of a fire magnet distraction when i was fighting double dakka jets, scyth spam and 9 vendettas at 1500. At least it distracted the enemy for a turn.

A warning about CSM products on GW. Some of them are poorly equipped out of the box. There are plenty of sites so you can buy the bits they don't come with, or you can buy the loyalist versions and convert them to have spikey bits. Good examples are Predators and Havocs/devastators.

Omg, general duff is so right! Both pred n havoc boxes are a joke! There were no lascannons for the havocs! Plague marine boxes comes with only 1 plasmagun! What else is missing?

 Filch wrote:
Omg, general duff is so right! Both pred n havoc boxes are a joke! There were no lascannons for the havocs! Plague marine boxes comes with only 1 plasmagun! What else is missing?

A better way to go for PM's is to get two CSM boxes and convert, then you'll have a 7 man unit with 2 plasguns, and a 7 man unit with 2 meltaguns. Stick both in Rhinos. Then use the spare six marines for extra options (flamers etc).

So generally CSM armies go like this:

Big Scary HQ choice that unlocks an elite choice as a troop (Ahriman, Abby, Kharn, Typhus, lords, sorcerers, etc)
the corresponding elite choice (thousand sons, berzerkers, chosen, etc)
Small squads or single unit death stars

So with Iron warriors, you're not going to be doing this at all. They have no such elite or such HQ choice.

Go for 3 vindicators
Your HQ choices should be warpsmiths, lords, or sorcerers, and you should have 2 HQs given neither of them will be supermen like other CSM HQs
get lots of regular CSM troops with special weapons. 10 man squads in rhinos. Get that iron warriors armor saturation going. 6 rhinos and 3 vindicators charging down the board...hahaa
For extra armor saturation, get 3 helbrutes.

Your kill plan is going to be to kill anything that can harm your armor, and then kill all their bolter-wielding infantry with your armor. even rhinos are invulnerable to bolter fire.

And if you liked Nazi Zombies, you'll love:

-Typhus

- Zombies x35
- Zombies x35

[530 pts]

It makes a good base for your force