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Hi people ! I was just wondering how you portrayed or thought how should be portrayed some of the Chaos undivided CSM factions. So, of course, this include Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Black Legion, Word Bearers and Alpha Legion factions.

I guess that for the Iron Warriors, it's mostly heavy support units (Obliterators, Land Raider, Daemon Engine, etc.) and using rhino as fast attack. Word Bearers most be CSM with cultist and daemons allies of various gods. Black legion must be the presence of different cult troops (zerkers, plague marines, noise, rubric) and chosen.

So How do you portray Alpha Legion and Night Lords ? And in your case, how do you or would you represent the other factions ?

I play Alpha Legion and Thousand Sons as a single army.

Basically Alpha Legion covers all my vehicles, marines, and cultists, while tzeentch covers the Hq, oblits, and terminators.

I also run a couple ml3 sorcs with no mark as Alpha Legion sorcerers.

 Warzoner wrote:
Hi people ! I was just wondering how you portrayed or thought how should be portrayed some of the Chaos undivided CSM factions. So, of course, this include Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Black Legion, Word Bearers and Alpha Legion factions.

I guess that for the Iron Warriors, it's mostly heavy support units (Obliterators, Land Raider, Daemon Engine, etc.) and using rhino as fast attack. Word Bearers most be CSM with cultist and daemons allies of various gods. Black legion must be the presence of different cult troops (zerkers, plague marines, noise, rubric) and chosen.

So How do you portray Alpha Legion and Night Lords ? And in your case, how do you or would you represent the other factions ?

Black Legion:
- Use the Codex: Black Legion supplement (duh!), and/or pretty much can use anything and everything under the sun. Black Legion is not only the single largest CSM faction, (as they're still the closest to resembling the old school Legion organisation), but they are also the true "Vanilla Chaos" in the same way that Ultrasmurfs are the iconic Loyalist Chapter.

Iron Warriors:
- Warpsmith is a must. Only mark allowed is MoK & Berserkers the only cult unit allowed. Lots of Heavy Support, from Daemon engines to Havocs to vehicles. (Vindicators being a hugely iconic tank for them)
Plenty of basic Marines w/Cultist support to represent the way that Iron Warrior Warsmiths make use of masses of slaves for their siege craft and to throw at the enemy's guns.

Word Bearers:
- Use Codex: Crimson Slaughter. Possessed as Troops, plus a relic that gives a Sorcerer the Daemon USR to make full use of Malefic. Plenty of Cultists and again, at least one Dark Apostle is an absolute must-have. Add Daemon allies for extra flavour.

Night Lords:
- Heavy focus of basic Chaos Marines, Chosen & Terminators. Would also include large numbers of Raptors + Bikes, and a smattering of Warptalons. Daemons are generally frowned upon, though DP's and the odd Daemon engine are definitely doable. No marks should be present, and Cult troops are huge no-no for truly fluffy NL's.
Huron Blackheart makes a decent 'counts as' Night Lords leader as he also allows for D3 units to Infiltrate.

Alpha Legion:
- Like the Night Lords, mostly focus on basic Chaos Marines, Chosen, Termies, Havocs, etc... Cult troops generally don't feature at all, and marked units are also a rarity. Huron again makes a solid 'counts as' HQ choice in order to allow access to Infiltrate USR.
Cultists again are a must-have, though are *much* better represented by allying in the more organised 'traitor guard' styled Renegades & Heretics units from IA:13 or Vraks books.

Why allow Iron Warriors to have zerks and not Night Lords? As long as it causes fear I say they are allowed to take the marks.



On the topic you could also get AM allies for Iron Warriors/FW to get some siege tanks and ally daemons for the Word Bearers

Just take MoN and say everyone is cybernetically enhanced, so the T5 makes sense.

I gather for Night Lords you use the Black Legion supplement and give them all MoN...

Iron warriors should not take many cultists and tanks.

Instead, ally them with renegades to represent your more fitting human followers and artillery batteries.

Iron warriors still have alot of marine tanks lol.

While not one of the legions I've got plans to do a undivided army so il be using crimson slaughter and I've roughly got a 1500 point list in mind that could probably work for Alpha Legion/ Word Bearers too
HQ
Chaos Sorceror Mastery Level 3 Prophet of The Voices
Troops
10 Chaos Space Marines 2 Plasma guns Rhino
10 Chaos Marines 2 Plasma Guns Rhino
10 Chaos Space Marines 2 Plasma Guns Rhino
35 Cultists 2 Flamers
35 cultists 3 heavy Stubbers shotgun 31 auto guns
Fast Attack
6 Chaos Bikers 2 Melta Guns
Heavy Support
Chaos Predator auto cannon heavy bolters death of Kasyr Lutin
Chaos Predator twin Linked lascannon Lascannon Sponsons
3 Obliterators

Advise for the above list: get that sorcerer a Spell familiar. Never had a game where that wasn't a great investment. It may backfire if you start chucking 7 WC at Summoning, but at that point hope you roll a wound on perils and hopefully have sacrifice or possession to mitigate the eventual loss of your HQ.

You don't have any Possessed for your Prophet to join. Entirely a waste of points; spend them elsewhere.
Heavy Bolters are a crap investment for Predators. You can get Heavy Bolters elsewhere (and WHY would you want that?)
Lose enough Cultists so that your other CSM squad can purchase a Rhino.

I honestly wouldn't even bother with the Sorcerer. A Warpsmith would benefit a gunline more. On top of that you would get access to more relic vehicles.

The sorcerer would be a bit stranded true, but could always hide behind the cultist mob. Ultimately it's purpose is to summon daemons, best case scenario being Sacrifice to turn cultists into heralds to increase the warp charge pool or bring useful relics. Summon up some pink horrors as screens and power batteries.

A warp Smith would also be helpful, but unless it's in a vehicle or something tough like plague marines its likely to be sniped before it can help the mech units beyond a turn

Slayer none of the vehicles are relics all.of the csm.squads are in.rhinos. the heavy bolters are useful. The sorcerors hides behind it re rolling up.to 3 dice everytime he casts a malefic spell.and is within 12" of the predator with the legacy of ruin. The rhino mounted csm.squads and bikes move forward to grab objectives while the cultists act as bubble wrap.for the predators. With the legacy of ruin the predator has as long as he is within 12" of it i can risk just chucking 3 or 4 dice at summoning

 Warzoner wrote:
Hi people ! I was just wondering how you portrayed or thought how should be portrayed some of the Chaos undivided CSM factions. So, of course, this include Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Black Legion, Word Bearers and Alpha Legion factions.

I guess that for the Iron Warriors, it's mostly heavy support units (Obliterators, Land Raider, Daemon Engine, etc.) and using rhino as fast attack. Word Bearers most be CSM with cultist and daemons allies of various gods. Black legion must be the presence of different cult troops (zerkers, plague marines, noise, rubric) and chosen.

So How do you portray Alpha Legion and Night Lords ? And in your case, how do you or would you represent the other factions ?

Iron Warriors are the easiest to make into a competitive army out of the options you have listed.
Take MoN on as many options as you can, and say it's cybernetics. Use the Heldrake, rhinos with havok launcher and pintle gun as well for anti-infantry support.
Take MoT Havoks on sky shield as a "fortress" and bam, you have a good iron warriors army.

Word Bearers are probably the next competitive choice. Use a lot of daemon allies and mix up the chaos marks.

For Black Legion, you could use the supplement, although it's not very good.

For Alpha legion, I would strongly encourage you to use the SM codex and just not use centurions. They fit the alpha legion play style better, especially with inqusition and IG allies (This was my "chaos" army for 2 editions now)

For Night lords, anything that is fast or causes terror are good choices. MoK/S bikes or raptors are a very solid choice. Individual maulerfiends could work. Unmarked troops are not the best choice but somewhat fluffy.

Or you could do what many Chaos players do, and just spam whatever is competitive and not sweat the fluff. The paint job will designate you as the faction you want to play after all.

Experiment 626 wrote:

 Warzoner wrote:
Hi people ! I was just wondering how you portrayed or thought how should be portrayed some of the Chaos undivided CSM factions. So, of course, this include Iron Warriors, Night Lords, Black Legion, Word Bearers and Alpha Legion factions.

I guess that for the Iron Warriors, it's mostly heavy support units (Obliterators, Land Raider, Daemon Engine, etc.) and using rhino as fast attack. Word Bearers most be CSM with cultist and daemons allies of various gods. Black legion must be the presence of different cult troops (zerkers, plague marines, noise, rubric) and chosen.

So How do you portray Alpha Legion and Night Lords ? And in your case, how do you or would you represent the other factions ?

Black Legion:
- Use the Codex: Black Legion supplement (duh!), and/or pretty much can use anything and everything under the sun. Black Legion is not only the single largest CSM faction, (as they're still the closest to resembling the old school Legion organisation), but they are also the true "Vanilla Chaos" in the same way that Ultrasmurfs are the iconic Loyalist Chapter.

Iron Warriors:
- Warpsmith is a must. Only mark allowed is MoK & Berserkers the only cult unit allowed. Lots of Heavy Support, from Daemon engines to Havocs to vehicles. (Vindicators being a hugely iconic tank for them)
Plenty of basic Marines w/Cultist support to represent the way that Iron Warrior Warsmiths make use of masses of slaves for their siege craft and to throw at the enemy's guns.

Word Bearers:
- Use Codex: Crimson Slaughter. Possessed as Troops, plus a relic that gives a Sorcerer the Daemon USR to make full use of Malefic. Plenty of Cultists and again, at least one Dark Apostle is an absolute must-have. Add Daemon allies for extra flavour.

Night Lords:
- Heavy focus of basic Chaos Marines, Chosen & Terminators. Would also include large numbers of Raptors + Bikes, and a smattering of Warptalons. Daemons are generally frowned upon, though DP's and the odd Daemon engine are definitely doable. No marks should be present, and Cult troops are huge no-no for truly fluffy NL's.
Huron Blackheart makes a decent 'counts as' Night Lords leader as he also allows for D3 units to Infiltrate.

Alpha Legion:
- Like the Night Lords, mostly focus on basic Chaos Marines, Chosen, Termies, Havocs, etc... Cult troops generally don't feature at all, and marked units are also a rarity. Huron again makes a solid 'counts as' HQ choice in order to allow access to Infiltrate USR.
Cultists again are a must-have, though are *much* better represented by allying in the more organised 'traitor guard' styled Renegades & Heretics units from IA:13 or Vraks books.

I generally agree with this assessment. In order to make the CSM more competitive people will ignore the fluff.

My only change would be to say that none of the Legions other than Word Bearers should carry marks or cult troops. Word Bearers can take MoK and take Beserkers. Black Legion is Undivided in so much as it can take any and all marks and cults in a single army.

Depending on how far back you take your fluff, your army shouldn't contain more than two marks/cults as each has an opposition. Khorne opposes Slaneesh and Tzeentch opposes Nurgle.