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Im wanting to start a fluffy CSM army. I'm curious what units you would field with:

Alpha legion
Word Bearers
Iron warriors

Ive looked into the lore of each, but not really found any indiciation other than said army has a large amount of culitists.

Alpha Legion: Lots of cultists, if Chosen still have infiltrate then they might be an option, Huron counts-as for infiltrating. IG (traitor guard) allies.

Word Bearers: Dark Apostles, large CSM squads, cultist hordes, Demon Prince/Demon allies, Possessed.

Iron Warriors: Vindicators, Rhino CSM squads, Warpsmiths. IG allies for artillery.

Hope that gives you an idea or two.

Thanks for the help!

Which legions make use of hellbrutes/Dreadnoughts and Jetpack units?

Helbrutes could fit in pretty easily with the Iron Warriors, they're all about vehicles (so Fiends fit here as well).

As for JP units, Night Lords are the best fit, focusing on lightning fast attacks.

Hmm having played a Mech IG, I wanna steer away from Vehicle heavy lists.

I think Im gonna go with the Word Bearers. Im gonna create my own Dark apostle etc. And give reasons to there being a Hellbrute etc. I wanna try and be fluffy, but each legion seems to be so precise to how it works itll be hard to field awesome models without not beign fluffy.

WB could easily fit in a 'brute, as they have a lot of demonic mutations among their troops. There's a lot of potential for particularly gribbly conversions.

The trouble is, I have a mild dislike for Daemons/Tyranids pretty much because they are just a creature, I like the whole MEQ style/Mutation.

Would it look weird If I had CSM troops without mutations?

Slightly, i think your best bet with non mutated CSM chapters would be the night lords, they are to be honest the most pure CSM chapter as they tend to steer away from going to one god…if you want a non muted one i wold say those guys, or making your own CSM chapter would be fluffy.



Just my opinion though, pick whatever you feel best.

I love night lords I think they are damn awesome. But the paint scheme with the lightning isnt someone I am able to create atm so thats the issue there.

Get normal SM and paint them up BL. Boom, new renegades aren't very mutated and pretty much anything you're after is fluffy.

 Archie The Death Rider wrote:
Slightly, i think your best bet with non mutated CSM chapters would be the night lords, they are to be honest the most pure CSM chapter as they tend to steer away from going to one god…if you want a non muted one i wold say those guys, or making your own CSM chapter would be fluffy.



Just my opinion though, pick whatever you feel best.

I think Alpha Legion also does not reside within the Eye of Terror so also does not get much mutation, and I feel that an elite Alpha Legion army could do well.

For Alpha Legion, I would actually use another army's Codex entirely... either that, or AL should have a default "Battle Brother" level of alliance with everyone, because you never know when it's an Alpha Legion Plot.

In fact, AL should have, like, a dice-roll at the beginning or end of a game, where on a 6+, the AL player actually wins, regardless of the results, because it turns out the other army were actually members of the Alpha Legion, and the "people" that were on the Alpha Legion's side of the table had been switched out with unwitting dupes.

 Psienesis wrote:
In fact, AL should have, like, a dice-roll at the beginning or end of a game, where on a 6+, the AL player actually wins, regardless of the results, because it turns out the other army were actually members of the Alpha Legion, and the "people" that were on the Alpha Legion's side of the table had been switched out with unwitting dupes.

I think I'll knick this for a house rule...

On the OP, not all CSMs are gibbering horrors, at least visibly. For Word Bearers you could have an 'elite' core of bog standard marines plus aspiring champion who have landed in Imperial space and have begun rallying a Chaos cult (which is how I imagine most CSMs would operate given their low numbers). A Hellbrute as a 'gift' before the expedition has left for real space to help them take on local garrison armour.

One missing I think is a Nurgle warband, a Helbrute would as a mash of daemon and machine fits visually into their style IMO.

And then of course there's do-it-yourself. There are numerous independent warbands, some sub-factions of a Legion, others renegades from a Legion, others Imperial Space Marines who have turned since the Heresy, and plenty who are a mash up of all three.

Helbrutes are ultimately just warped Dreadnaughts. You could have your relatively mutant free warband disable an Imperial Dreadnaught and 'sacrifice' it to the Gods, who take the opportunity to twist a millennia old guardian of the Emperor into a psychotic servant of Chaos. This gives you the model and a reason why the 'normal' warband has a Lovecraftian ED-209 for muscle.

 Archie The Death Rider wrote:
Slightly, i think your best bet with non mutated CSM chapters would be the night lords, they are to be honest the most pure CSM chapter as they tend to steer away from going to one god…if you want a non muted one i wold say those guys, or making your own CSM chapter would be fluffy.



Just my opinion though, pick whatever you feel best.

Night Lords are still prone to mutation and corruption and are just as "pure" as the Iron Warriors. Even the Alpha Legion have their own daemon princes.