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Hi all

After a number of years of not playing 40k I have decided to get back into it.

In a show of pathetic optimisim I am looking for advice around building my first (recent) army.

I am keen to initially build a 1000 point army, which I could use as base to swell to 2000 points on onwards as funds allow.

Can anyone give me a good start, or any major pitfalls to avoid?

Thanks a lot

if your after fun with khorne, im eyeballing using the crimson slaughter thing. if you can get shrouding on a khorne lord on a bike with axe of blind fury you have a turbo boost with a 2+ cover!!!

up to 13 attacks on the charge.. give him a biker squad for hammer of wrath lols

Thanks for the swift reply - why would you suggest bikes over juggernaught?

i like the bike because you can put him in a squad... lets just say the dice gods are on our side. you get the shrouded warlord trait in crimson slaughter. you move 12 inches then turbo boost 12 inches.. thats a 24 inch move with a 2+ cover save. next you move 12 and shoot yadda yadda.. then you charge. thats like 7 hammer of wraths plus between 7-13 hits with lord. dont have the codex on me right now but 4 on the charge with a korne biker squad. thats a mighty lot of close combat.

I play my chaos for fun mainly so i like silly things.. like sorc in a rhino with that flamer relic thingy ( im so professional at remebering) rolling round spewing torrent based love at everyone weeeeee

on a different note if you are after a comp style army i like helldrakes.. they are a serious i hate you button when you instakill a squad of spess mahrinssss

Nice explanation cheers! seem like a tactic that is ripe for the stealing ha ha.

Who do you use for HQ choice?

Often use demons?

As i said, im a bit rusty sorry - been doing plenty of reading but the GW propaganda isnt quite the same you know...

Im new to chaos so im just looking at sound tactics and testing them at the local gw store, last i tried was chaos lord on bike aobf mok and some stuff from the crimson slaughter codex.

Crimson slaugher sorcerers can also take divination... pre science on a forge fiend? hahaha 8 shots with re rolls.

they have been my two hq ideas so far gotta save to get some more of them lol but still gotta keep building my grey knights too so im a little slow..

i haven't used demons at all, im waiting for my painting to be a lot better because i really wanna do a pro painted demon army one day. but google screamstar and demon flying circus there are great demon builds there

Well there's a few things to start out with:

- Do you want to take Daemons, Marines, or both? Daemons fill in a whole lot of holes in the CSM army list and so it's very much recommended to take them, the only problem is finding the points for both. In particular, Tzeentch Daemons are outstanding while the Marine half tends to be very poor. I suppose the best balance would be to take Tzeentch Daemons alongside Khornate Marines.
- Do you want everything to have a Mark? Some units really do not want to pay for a Mark because they won't get much out of it. Namely, Cultists want to stay cheap, and basic Marines typically don't want the Mark of Tzeentch.
- Do you want to build a 'fun' army or a 'hard' army? The two are not mutually exclusive but you'll often find that the cooler options are a bit underperforming on the tabletop. On the other hand, you'll have people screaming at you to take Heldrakes because they are exceptionally strong. You need to find a balance between fun and competition for the best experience.

If I were in your position, I'd stick to the best competitive options that fall within your theme. IE- Limit it to Khorne and Tzeentch, but take the best of both worlds. Say for 1000pts?

Khorne Lord- Mark of Khorne, Juggernaut, Axe of Blind Fury, Sigil of Corruption
Cultists- 15
Cultists- 15
Chaos Spawn- 5

Herald of Tzeentch- Psychic Mastery 3
Pink Horrors- 10
Flesh Hounds- 8

This should come out to ~800pts as a very loose guess so you still have some wiggle room. The Lord leads his Spawn, and runs upfield with the Hounds to provide a very fast melee threat. The Herald camps out with the Horrors to provide some ranged firepower. One of the things you'll discover quite early is that Cultists are not a fighting unit, but exist purely to hide in a nice hole somewhere and capture objectives.
To bulk this out, you have a few options. The 'best' option is probably to add a Heldrake but it won't be very enjoyable for your opponent. For a slightly nicer option, you could look into a few Obliterators to roam the field, some Chosen packing upgraded guns, or a few sacrifical Terminators to drop in on suicide rushes. Alternatively you could tune up the Daemon-side of things with a Soulgrinder to get some heavy armour on the field.
The obvious problems are dealing with enemy vehicles and so whatever you choose to add, it should probably be a shooting unit.

tzeentch marines. this should be pretty competitive or you at 1000

1000 Tzeentch

HQ
Sorcerer (150pts)
2x Additional Mastery Level, Mark of Tzeentch, Sigil of corruption
Power Armour with Bolt Pistol, Force Weapon

Troops
Chaos Cultists (78pts)
17x cultists with 17x Autopistol


2x squads of Thousand Sons (Troops) (492pts)
6x Thousand Son,
Aspiring Sorcerer with Melta Bombs (5pts)
2x Chaos Rhino with Combi-bolter, Dirge caster with, Dozer Blade, Searchlight, Smoke launchers

Heavy Support

2x Chaos Predators (280pts)
Side Lascannons, main Twin-Linked Lascannon

Pure Khorne marines. Just don't do it. Getting tabled isn't fun.

Well are you looking for a Chaos Daemons army or a Chaos Space Marines army?

CSM:
Khorne you'll need to take two land raiders of zerkers. Don't let anyone tell you land raiders should never be taken. This is the one situation where they are NEEDED. Support them with FMCs and maulerfiends
Tzeentch Thousand sons are too complicated to really give a summary of

CD:
Khorne has really poor troops but flesh hound grimoire packs and bloodthirster flying circus is ok
Tzeentch the best CD god. Screamer Star and the original Flying Circus.

Changeofways is right. Do you want to go pure CSM of Chaos Daemons too? It would also be good to know your local meta, or at least the level you want to play. Do you want to go as competitive as possible? Just semi competitive, or just for fun? With this information we can better understand what typ of list you're looking for, and then help guide you.

As a general rule of thumb, find a unit that you think is awesome, or that really appeals to you in some way. That way when you buy, build and paint it it will inspire your passion. And it gives us a centre piece to work around.

As for the gods you've chosen - something's to note. If you're going pure CSM then Tzeench struggle, and you need to be pretty good to pull it off. I'd possibly even suggest that Khorne are better in an edition where the shooters are kings. If you go for a Khorne list, and you're thinking about bezerkers, then double land raiders are almost a must. I've tried running the list with one, but it struggles. You need your whole list hitting the enemy it once. Speed is key as the guns rule. The less time spent in the open being shot at the better. And rhinos just don't cut it.

Conversely, with daemons Tzeench is the boss, and Khorne is pretty poor. The bloodthirster is relatively good at what he does, but the rest of the Khorne units are poor. As for Tzeench, their units are pretty awesome! High mastery level daemon princes with wings, fateweaver, screamers are all good choices.

So let us know what sort of thing you're looking for and we'll give it a go. Alternatively, have a go at a list to give us an idea as to what you're looking at, and we can adjust as needed!

Happy modelling.

I will be playing against my brother (Eldar) and two sons (Tau and Space Wolfs) usually although the odd other game as well. Despite this, I would still ike to remain competative.

There are several definates, mostly for fluffy reasons, I guess:

Ahriman (would be happy to use him as sorcerer if needs be, just love the model!!!)

Terminators

World eaters dreadnaught


And i am keen to avoid using cultists unless i can be convinced.

Based on the armies I will be playing the most how should I build on the above??

An army of mainly Tzeentch daemons and world eater CSMs seems logical.

Thanks for the all the hints so far - any further thoughts?