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Greetings all!

I am new to Warhammer 40k, deciding to break a break from Fantasy. The plague Marines in the Chaos Space Marine army have always caught my eye, and I thought I would bounce some ideas off the community before I go full bore and start buying models simply because they look cool. I would very much like to stick to a theme, as that has always been my play style. Taking that, I also don't want to get anhilated everytime I play so I can still enjoy myself. That being said, I would like some help with a Nurgle themed Chaos Space Marine list. The list below is what I came up with just missing around on my own. It is heavy on Plague Marines, since I not only love the fluff and look of the model, but I have bene told that they are hard as nails as well. Three squads of 7 in Rhinos, and one squad of 7 to man the aegis defense line with Quad gun since flyers seem to be prevalent in my gaming group. I am planning on running a nurgle lord in terminator armor with a squad of 4 terminators with combi-plasma or melta to deep strike and chip away at transports and tanks. Then I have 2 tank hunting Chaos Predators with twin-linked lascannons. I prefer the range of these over the vindicator and am hoping that they can help escort my plague rhinos to objectives. Of course I have yet to play a game of 40k, and understand that my logic could be fundamentally flawed. Any insight into what to change, or better load outs, or even scarp the entire army altogether would be welcome. I understand it helps to know what armies I will be up against, and as of now there is a Chaos Space Marine player (khorne I believe), Necrons, Eldar, Tau, Orks, and Deathwing/Dark Angels. Thank you in advance if you respond to this.

CHAOS LORD
TERMINATOR ARMOR
MARK OF NURGLE
COMBI-PLASMA

4 CHAOS TERMINATORS
COMBI-PLASMAS

7 PLAGUE MARINES
CHAMPION WITH COMBI-PLASMA
2 PLASMAGUNS
CHAOS RHINO

7 PLAGUE MARINES
CHAMPION WITH GIFT OF MUTATION
2 PLASMAGUNS

7 PLAGUE MARINES
CHAMPION WITH COMBI-MELTA
MELTA BOMBS
2 MELTAGUNS
CHAOS RHINO

7 PLAGUE MARINES
CHAMPION WITH COMBI-MELTA
MELTA BOMBS
2 MELTAGUNS
CHAOS RHINO

CHAOS PREDATOR
TWIN-LINKED LASCANNON

CHAOS PREDATOR
TWIN-LINKED LASCANNON

AEGIS DEFENSE LINE
QUAD GUN

Overall a solid nurgle-themed list.

You are lacking fast attack, of course. Both the Raptors and the Heldrake are excellent fast-attack units, but neither is particularly fluffy for a nurgle list. Another great option is nurgle bikers to stay within your theme.

I would recommend dropping the terminators for a nurgle lord on a bike and some escort bikers. The bikes add +1 toughness, so you have a T6 unit that can move fast and hit hard. Consider giving the lord the burning brand for some torrent / ignores cover goodness. I think these will be more useful and tactially flexible than a deep-striking termicide unit that will (usually) give up slay the warlord points. Give the lord blight grenades as well - they will give you +1 to cover/jink if you are within 8" of the enemy, helping your bikers to survive to get into assault as you are bearing down on the enemy.

I like the 2x Tri-Las predators. They are an immediate threat to anything on the board and by taking two and placing them strategically, you can force most enemy attacks to be against your AV13 front armor.

Plague marines are great. I do think that you should go with 2xplasma units and 1xmelta, though. If you need to save points, delete the plasma guns (or one of them) from the marines manning the quad-gun, as they are pretty much static anyway.

Good luck,
-Aeglos

I like the idea of a T6 Retinue with high mobility for my lord. Plus the conversion opportunities for making them look more like Plague Marines could be fun. Here is an updated list based on your suggestion. I guess my next step, if I move forward forward with this, is asking what will this army struggle against? I tried to incorporate meltas and plasma for some tactical flexibility, combined with that flamer on the Lord to add some anti-horde and space marine. I imagine that the high toughness will help a bit, but do I have enough bodies on the board to take and hold objectives? I have been told that 40k is very much an objective based game, and I want to make sure that I stand a fighting chance. I imagine that Mech Imperial Guard lists would pose a serious problem, but is there anything else? Again, thank you so much for taking the time to give me some advice, and I look forward to fine tailoring the list more


CHAOS LORD
BIKE
MARK OF NURGLE
BLIGHT GRENADES
BURNING BRAND OF SKALATHRAX

7 PLAGUE MARINES
2 PLASMA GUNS
COMBI-PLASMA
CHAOS RHINO

7 PLAGUE MARINES
2 PLASMA GUNS
COMBI-PLASMA
CHAOS RHINO

7 PLAGUE MARINES
2 MELTAGUNS
COMBI-MELTA
CHAOS RHINO

7 PLAGUE MARINES

5 CHAOS MARINE BIKERS
MARK OF NURGLE
2 MELTAGUNS

CHAOS PREDATOR
TWIN-LINKED LASCANNON

CHAOS PREDATOR
TWIN-LINKED LASCANNON

AEGIS DEFENSE LINE
QUAD GUN

I think it interesting that 7 plague marines will man the quad gun.

Hello and welcome to 40k!
I would consider getting rid of the Combi weapons for the PM squads, and maybe switchero around a bit and get a small normal CSM unit (you can still paint them nurgly) and man the Quad with. Another idea would be to grab a 10 man unit of cultists for it.
Generally most people (including me) don't pick the Gift of Mutation since it usually doesn't bring so much to the game. Sure its fun and all sometimes but mostly its pretty meh

You may also consider grabbing something with a bit more punch for your PM Champs, like a fist or a Power weapon (they usually hit last tho -1 initiative vs MEQ(Marine or Equal) and fists are kind of expensive). I find that they are sturdy enough that it might pay of to actually give them fists tho!

Another thing that I'm getting for my nurgles are Spawns, seems like a hell of a fun unit to me!