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Cultists are your friends. The CSM codex if full of fun, but expensive toys and running cheap cultists as your scoring units allows you to field enough of the expensive units to compete. Add in the fact that Chaos Space Marines as troops are underwhelming and it's pretty much a no-brainer.

Chaos Daemons being a Battle Brother is pretty epic as well. You can get some fun units to play with and don't even have to worry about the Warp Storm table. Fateweaver and his 1 re-roll a turn can really help a Heldrake or Forgefiend make that 5++ when needed or get another chance to gain a wound/HP back when you fail an IT WILL NOT DIE roll. Or, a unit of Flesh Hounds can be a perfect unit to stick your Khorne Lord on a Juggernaut Mount as he swings his Axe of Blind Fury around his head (another great use for Fateweaver...rerolling a 1 on a demon weapon).

I could go on, but it would mostly just echo what other have already said. Just note that Chaos Space Marines aren't as bad as most would make you believe. They suffer from being compared to the Tau and Eldar....as does every other codex.

 Nakor The BlueRider wrote:

 Voidwraith wrote:


Chaos Daemons being a Battle Brother is pretty epic as well. You can get some fun units to play with and don't even have to worry about the Warp Storm table. Fateweaver and his 1 re-roll a turn can really help a Heldrake or Forgefiend make that 5++ when needed or get another chance to gain a wound/HP back when you fail an IT WILL NOT DIE roll. Or, a unit of Flesh Hounds can be a perfect unit to stick your Khorne Lord on a Juggernaut Mount as he swings his Axe of Blind Fury around his head (another great use for Fateweaver...rerolling a 1 on a demon weapon).

Unfortunately Daemon units can't join any CSM units. It would of been awesome if they could but the Daemon Codex denys this.

Other than cast blessing on each, i can't see what been Battle Brothers does for CSM's & Daemons.

CSM army's are great if you like converting & painting, you can really go to town on your models & end up with some fanatic results. Also they can be a blast to play when you aren't spamming Heldrakes & your opponent isn't spamming WS/Reiptides etc..

While the book has problems, I wont deny that, it can still be fun to play & collect.

My mistake. My buddy plays both armies, so although I have a lot of experience playing AGAINST them, I rarely have the books to do the sort of rule-reading session that would uncover the fact that Demonic Instability keeps non-Codex: Chaos Daemon ICs from joining units from C:CD. I was just assuming that Khorne Marked ICs would be able to join a battle brother unit of Khorne from the C:CD, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Bummer.

Regardless, the Chaos Daemon Codex is still full of great units that make fun additions to a C:SM army.

Sw0rd of the emperor wrote:
Just to clarify, I am a casual, non-competitive gamer. I'd rather have a fun army than an OP one

Direct quote from the OP, just to help direct the thread.

Yes, Tau and Eldar (and the combination of the 2) have made a mockery of power armor, but if you're not heading to a tournament and your buddies aren't playing Space Elves or Fish, Chaos Space Marines are going to do alright. In fact, Codex:Heldrake was the OG when it came to making a mockery of Power Armor. All is not lost...

And what's the point of talking people out of playing non-eldar or tau (or Necrons and Chaos Daemons we're extending to the "other" really good non power armor codecies)? Do we want EVERYONE playing the same army? A quick glance at any forum will show one that Eldar and Tau are the top armies of the day...do we need to slam that point home in a thread asking specifics on another codex?

Besides, the chasm between what we consider to be the best and worst isn't as great as everyone believes. I had a really great game against Tau with my Blood Angels the other day...a game that I lost, but just barely. I also beat my buddies Chaos Daemon Flying Circus list with the same BA list, which is another match-up I normally lose, but it's normally close, and apparently can be won.

It can all be summed up by merely saying: No army is so bad that you can't play it, and no army so good that you must.