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So I've been thinking of collecting a chaos marines army, and I'm looking for an army that should do fairly well on the offensive. Its geared around 1000 points as that's how many points most games played in my area are set to. Please note: don't suggest anything super risky that could pay off spectacularly, i'm very bad at the game.
Merenon the Fallen - Chaos Sorcerer with Mark of Nurgle, Chaos Bike (95 points)
The Damned Prophets - 10 Chaos marines with autocannon (150 points)
The Vanguard - 10 Chaos marines with flamer, -8 bolters, +8 CCWs, mark of Slannesh (170 points)
Rhino (for The Vanguard, 35 points)
Slannesh's Blessed - 10 Noise Marines with 5 sonic blasters, 1 blast master, icon of excess (255 points)
Rhino (for Slannesh's blessed, 35 points)
The Glory Hunters - 3 Chaos Bikers with Mark of Nurgle, Melta Gun (replacing Twin Linked Bolter), Plasma Gun (replacing Twin Linked Bolter), Gift of Mutation and Icon of Despair (133 points)
Predator with Lascannon Sponsons and Combi Plasma (125 points)
I'm not sure if this army is great or not, but I used various sites to get a good idea of what to include in my force. This adds up to 998 points.

Did you name them or is this some sort of white dwarf?

 Filch wrote:
Did you name them or is this some sort of white dwarf?

I decided to give them my own names, none of the names relate to set units from white dwarf ect (to my knowledge)

It is a bit... meh.

The sorceror is not going to do anything with only one mastery level and no close combat weapon. You have a lot here that can face of against a vanilla marines army (such as: your slaanesh guys would quite well in cc vs a tac squad) but as soon as anyone brings anything special you'll be doomed.

I would fist lose the vanguard for a more specialised close combat unit, you could try possessed in a rhino as they are pretty similar to your vanguards but get it done better.
Your sorceror needs something more, I woukd look to the suppliment codex (crimson slaughter/black legion) for him.
Lastly I would definitely take some daemon engines i.e. heldrake, couple of maulerfiends.

But overall not a bad first list, how well it does really depends on the experience of your opponent.

 mrhappyface wrote:
It is a bit... meh.

The sorceror is not going to do anything with only one mastery level and no close combat weapon. You have a lot here that can face of against a vanilla marines army (such as: your slaanesh guys would quite well in cc vs a tac squad) but as soon as anyone brings anything special you'll be doomed.

I would fist lose the vanguard for a more specialised close combat unit, you could try possessed in a rhino as they are pretty similar to your vanguards but get it done better.
Your sorceror needs something more, I woukd look to the suppliment codex (crimson slaughter/black legion) for him.
Lastly I would definitely take some daemon engines i.e. heldrake, couple of maulerfiends.

But overall not a bad first list, how well it does really depends on the experience of your opponent.

Hmm, if I were to take 5 possessed as opposed to the vanguard, and were to give the sorcerer a second mastery level, I'm already over 1000, plus out of the FOC, which I follow out of honour.
I really wanted noise marines, could I lower their points cost and gear them for cc? Personally I think the vanguard would work more than the Damned Prophets. Perhaps I could take two groups of 5 marines, which would spare more points for good things? I am notoriously bad (learning) with my IG and GK armies, so I will look further into it. Thanks

Hey welcome to Chaos! A few suggestions on your list:

1. Sorcerer - You'll want him at Level 3 with a Spell Familiar. You also don't want to give him any chaos marks, because it forces you to roll on the chaos spell table for a power, and they suck. Your best bet is to either roll on Biomancy or Telepathy, both are excellent, gauge it by your opponents list.

2. Chaos Space Marines - You never want a heavy weapon on them. The best loadout for them is 2x meltaguns. While we're on that topic, don't mix specials or heavy weapons in a squad, they have different targets and you'll be wasting damage when you shoot at the wrong one. You want to be able to handle many threats at an army level, not on a unit level.

3. Noise Marines - They can take 2 Blastmaster at 10 man according to Games Workshops FAQ on their website. I'd toss all thr Sonic Blasters and get a second Blast Master.

4. Bikes - Don't mix special weapons agaib. 2x melta is thr preferred loadout. Gift of Mutation is usually worthless, especially so on a 2 wound model who will be riding in the front of the bike pack. Also Icon of Despair is awful, not worth it.

5. Predator - Don't bother with the combi plasma.

UncleanOne wrote:
Hey welcome to Chaos! A few suggestions on your list:

1. Sorcerer - You'll want him at Level 3 with a Spell Familiar. You also don't want to give him any chaos marks, because it forces you to roll on the chaos spell table for a power, and they suck. Your best bet is to either roll on Biomancy or Telepathy, both are excellent, gauge it by your opponents list.

2. Chaos Space Marines - You never want a heavy weapon on them. The best loadout for them is 2x meltaguns. While we're on that topic, don't mix specials or heavy weapons in a squad, they have different targets and you'll be wasting damage when you shoot at the wrong one. You want to be able to handle many threats at an army level, not on a unit level.

3. Noise Marines - They can take 2 Blastmaster at 10 man according to Games Workshops FAQ on their website. I'd toss all thr Sonic Blasters and get a second Blast Master.

4. Bikes - Don't mix special weapons agaib. 2x melta is thr preferred loadout. Gift of Mutation is usually worthless, especially so on a 2 wound model who will be riding in the front of the bike pack. Also Icon of Despair is awful, not worth it.

5. Predator - Don't bother with the combi plasma.

Thanks. Tips on which of the two physic disciplines to use would be great thanks

I've been using 1d4chan for tips (why I avoided tzenetch) and theyrrecommended sonics


Automatically Appended Next Post:
After revising the list with the use of your feedback (thank you!! x3 ) and 1d4chan, I now have a slightly different list, but which I still like.
Chaos Sorcerer, mastery level 3, with a spell familiar
5 CSM with 1 Melta Gun and Melta Bombs (sergeant)
5 CSM with Mark of Slannesh, 1 flamer, -3 Bolters and +3 CCW
5 Possessed with Mark of Slannesh
10 Noise Marines with 5 Sonic Blasters, Blastmaster +10 CCW
3 Rhinos (1 for possessed and cc marines, 1 for sorcerer and anti tank marines, 1 for noise marines)
3 Chaos Bikers, Mark of Nurgle, 2 melta guns
1 Predator with Lascannon Sponsons
I hope that this list is somewhat improved

Whilst I am not a Chaos Player, this list appears to be a good starting block for you (although I must admit I don't encounter slaanesh all to often) compared to what I see most Chaos Players in my area use.

The only thing I will say is in regards to your transports. It appears as though you have one of you CSM squads sharing a rhino with your possessed (if I am reading your list correctly.) unfortunately this is against the rules as only one unit can be in a dedicated transport at one time. Even if you have the transport capacity for two units.

The exception to this is independent characters who join units (like your sorcerer) who may share the transport with their unit so long as there is room for them.

If I were you I would gift the Noise Marines' rhino to either the csm squad or the possessed as to my knowledge Noise Marines are a shooty unit who are better off being able to bring their full firepower to bear and being in a transport prohibits that.

Sorry I could not give you any more constructive feedback.

Breton_ wrote:
Whilst I am not a Chaos Player, this list appears to be a good starting block for you (although I must admit I don't encounter slaanesh all to often) compared to what I see most Chaos Players in my area use.

The only thing I will say is in regards to your transports. It appears as though you have one of you CSM squads sharing a rhino with your possessed (if I am reading your list correctly.) unfortunately this is against the rules as only one unit can be in a dedicated transport at one time. Even if you have the transport capacity for two units.

The exception to this is independent characters who join units (like your sorcerer) who may share the transport with their unit so long as there is room for them.

If I were you I would gift the Noise Marines' rhino to either the csm squad or the possessed as to my knowledge Noise Marines are a shooty unit who are better off being able to bring their full firepower to bear and being in a transport prohibits that.

Sorry I could not give you any more constructive feedback.

Thanks

I equipped my noise marines with CCWs, threreby making them a shooty-closecombat all rounder kind of unit. As one of my CSM squads will be tank hunting and the other in CC for the plan, I think I'll run the Slannesh CSM unit behind the rhino of the possessed, earning them cover. Hopefully they will catch up within a turn?

 mavrah333 wrote:

 Filch wrote:
Did you name them or is this some sort of white dwarf?

I decided to give them my own names, none of the names relate to set units from white dwarf ect (to my knowledge)

...thats very cute and adorable...

 Filch wrote:

 mavrah333 wrote:

 Filch wrote:
Did you name them or is this some sort of white dwarf?

I decided to give them my own names, none of the names relate to set units from white dwarf ect (to my knowledge)

...thats very cute and adorable...

Not sure if Chaos is meant to be "cute and adorable"?

Note that you can't take a close combat weapon and a sonic blaster on the same model, as the codex states:
"Any noise marine may take a close combat weapon or replace his boltgun with one of the following; -Close combat weapon -Sonic blaster"
Not sure if this has been FAQd though

 fL_O wrote:
Note that you can't take a close combat weapon and a sonic blaster on the same model, as the codex states:
"Any noise marine may take a close combat weapon or replace his boltgun with one of the following; -Close combat weapon -Sonic blaster"
Not sure if this has been FAQd though

Oops. Verterans of the long war will be a waste, should I give the champion a gift of mutation?

 mavrah333 wrote:

 fL_O wrote:
Note that you can't take a close combat weapon and a sonic blaster on the same model, as the codex states:
"Any noise marine may take a close combat weapon or replace his boltgun with one of the following; -Close combat weapon -Sonic blaster"
Not sure if this has been FAQd though

Oops. Verterans of the long war will be a waste, should I give the champion a gift of mutation?

I would restructure this unit, maybe drop the numbers, keep the sonic weapons and blastmaster, put a doom siren and a power sword/lightning claw on the champ and drop the unit to just those 7 guys.

 fL_O wrote:

 mavrah333 wrote:

 fL_O wrote:
Note that you can't take a close combat weapon and a sonic blaster on the same model, as the codex states:
"Any noise marine may take a close combat weapon or replace his boltgun with one of the following; -Close combat weapon -Sonic blaster"
Not sure if this has been FAQd though

Oops. Verterans of the long war will be a waste, should I give the champion a gift of mutation?

I would restructure this unit, maybe drop the numbers, keep the sonic weapons and blastmaster, put a doom siren and a power sword/lightning claw on the champ and drop the unit to just those 7 guys.

This is expensive and wasteful. You wouldn't want to give them shoot sonic weapons and also buff them for cc. Choose one or the other. If you go shoot you don't really want to move them.

I think the ideal setup is 10 man with 2 blast masters in a rhino. You can camp in back. The rhino will protect them from small fire and barrage stuff for a bit anyways. The 2 Blastmaster can shoot out of the top, and parked in a ruin they can be hard to remove.

If you want a cc noise marine squad don't buy any special guns, just get the free cc weapons, and a power weapon and doom siren foe the champ.

For 10 man in either case icon of excess can be decent if wanted.

Well I'd rather stick to info I know, rather than some obscure FAQ that will just bring questions. I'm not sure how to sort these guys out. I want them as a gunning unit, so the mutation would be a waste, as would gearing for cc.

If you're going to be walking the Noise Marines up the field, the Sonic-Blasters don't strike me as a good use of points. If they move, they're getting two shots at 12" and that's it. As a static firebase, they'd be better, as they're getting three shots at 24". The Ignores Cover rule is nice if you're planning on fighting armies with a lot of 5+ saves that will find some ruins to hide in, but the Blastmaster just seems to be a better all-around option. Move and shoot twice at S5/AP4 causing pinning (not to be relied on, of course), or stand still and get a S8/AP3 blast? That's better than a plasma cannon, even before adding the Pinning and Ignores Cover factors...

Sorcerer is a very strong choice for 1000pts, you should do well in the psychic phase.

Can't really fault the list otherwise from my point of view. Using the 15pts you gain from the shedding of the Blastmasters could be spent on the Rhinos (three 'dozer blades to avoid getting stuck on an unfortunate terrain test) or Extra Armour and a 'dozer blade for the Possessed Rhino, given that they're the only squad that CAN'T shoot, and NEED to get into combat to earn their wage. A Doom Siren in your CC squad (maybe even instead of the flamer) would help soften up Marines prior to charging, and might make them think twice about charging you... Icon of Excess is expensive but handy to help prolong the life of your Possessed and/or your Noise Marines.

 mavrah333 wrote:
Well I'd rather stick to info I know, rather than some obscure FAQ that will just bring questions. I'm not sure how to sort these guys out. I want them as a gunning unit, so the mutation would be a waste, as would gearing for cc.

I'm not sure how a Games Workshop official FAQ and Errata is considered obscure... there is one for almost all of the other codicies and the main rulebook. It's 1 page that you print and stick in your codex.

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Rules-Errata?_requestid=4189130


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And if you're still morally opposed to official rules then you can just do the MSU route and take 2 5-man units with a blastmaster. This is arguably the better option, but costs more since you have to pay the champion tax twice. In this case don't bother with Icon of Excess, it's too expensive for 5 guys.

ok boys here i come, if you are playing to win have fun

if you are playing to have fun then have fun

in all seriousness this list is not going to do very well unless your opponent is going to go easy and load his dice with bad rolls its not going to be very good for you. just give us an updated list so i can analyse this properly because im sure you have went through many changes of the list

UncleanOne wrote:

 mavrah333 wrote:
Well I'd rather stick to info I know, rather than some obscure FAQ that will just bring questions. I'm not sure how to sort these guys out. I want them as a gunning unit, so the mutation would be a waste, as would gearing for cc.

I'm not sure how a Games Workshop official FAQ and Errata is considered obscure... there is one for almost all of the other codicies and the main rulebook. It's 1 page that you print and stick in your codex.

http://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Rules-Errata?_requestid=4189130


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And if you're still morally opposed to official rules then you can just do the MSU route and take 2 5-man units with a blastmaster. This is arguably the better option, but costs more since you have to pay the champion tax twice. In this case don't bother with Icon of Excess, it's too expensive for 5 guys.

Ok, I looked it up. Actually rather helpful, thanks.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 -v10mega wrote:
ok boys here i come, if you are playing to win have fun

if you are playing to have fun then have fun

in all seriousness this list is not going to do very well unless your opponent is going to go easy and load his dice with bad rolls its not going to be very good for you. just give us an updated list so i can analyse this properly because im sure you have went through many changes of the list

Chaos Sorcerer, mastery level 3, with a spell familiar
5 CSM with 1 Plasma Gun
5 CSM with Mark of Slannesh, 1 flamer, -3 Bolters and +3 CCW
5 Possessed with Mark of Slannesh
10 Noise Marines with 5 Sonic Blasters, Blastmaster
3 Rhinos (1 for possessed, 1 for cc marines and 1 for sorcerer and anti meq marines)
3 Chaos Bikers, Mark of Nurgle, 2 melta guns
1 Predator with Lascannon Sponsons
I hope that this list is somewhat improved. If there's anything that should go, please say now. There are about 10 spare points floating around

Chaos Sorcerer, mastery level 3, with a spell familiar
5 CSM with 1 Plasma Gun
5 CSM with Mark of Slannesh, 1 flamer, -3 Bolters and +3 CCW
5 Possessed with Mark of Slannesh
10 Noise Marines with 5 Sonic Blasters, Blastmaster
3 Rhinos (1 for possessed, 1 for cc marines and 1 for sorcerer and anti meq marines)
3 Chaos Bikers, Mark of Nurgle, 2 melta guns
1 Predator with Lascannon Sponsons
I hope that this list is somewhat improved. If there's anything that should go, please say now.

Everything except the sorcerer and nurgle bikers.

The sorcerer can only cast witchfires out of a transport, and 2W at T4 isn't going to live past turn 2 if he's on foot. Sorcs should always have a bike for the toughness boost and run with bikes or Spawn. I'd advise rolling Telepathy looking for invisibility, Shrouded and terrify to add to the primaris of shriek.

Junk your troop Marines for cultists, they'll die just as easily, but you'll have more cultists. If you absolutely must take Marines, definitely don't waste points on any mark except nurgle, and even then, it's probably not worth it since plague Marines are better (but you need a nurgle lord for that). If you have your heart set on actual Marines, 2 units of 10 with 2 specials each (I'd advise one with dual plasma and one with dual melta) both in Rhinos would be the least worst choice.

Taking ccw is also pointless since they will never get there.

Possessed are in contention for worst units in the codex, drop them immediately.

Noise Marines should only be taken as troops (just like all the other cult Marines). The dual blastmasters in a rhino is nice, but bloody expensive.

Preds are pretty bad, I'd be getting some nurgle Obliterators instead. If armour saturation is your aim, maulerfiends will do far more for you since very few things fear a predator.

Be aware that csm is in a terrible place at the moment and it won't be getting better anytime soon either. I wouldn't recommend starting csm, not if you want to win more than 1 game out of 20.

 Drasius wrote:

Chaos Sorcerer, mastery level 3, with a spell familiar
5 CSM with 1 Plasma Gun
5 CSM with Mark of Slannesh, 1 flamer, -3 Bolters and +3 CCW
5 Possessed with Mark of Slannesh
10 Noise Marines with 5 Sonic Blasters, Blastmaster
3 Rhinos (1 for possessed, 1 for cc marines and 1 for sorcerer and anti meq marines)
3 Chaos Bikers, Mark of Nurgle, 2 melta guns
1 Predator with Lascannon Sponsons
I hope that this list is somewhat improved. If there's anything that should go, please say now.

Everything except the sorcerer and nurgle bikers.

The sorcerer can only cast witchfires out of a transport, and 2W at T4 isn't going to live past turn 2 if he's on foot. Sorcs should always have a bike for the toughness boost and run with bikes or Spawn. I'd advise rolling Telepathy looking for invisibility, Shrouded and terrify to add to the primaris of shriek.

Junk your troop Marines for cultists, they'll die just as easily, but you'll have more cultists. If you absolutely must take Marines, definitely don't waste points on any mark except nurgle, and even then, it's probably not worth it since plague Marines are better (but you need a nurgle lord for that). If you have your heart set on actual Marines, 2 units of 10 with 2 specials each (I'd advise one with dual plasma and one with dual melta) both in Rhinos would be the least worst choice.

Taking ccw is also pointless since they will never get there.

Possessed are in contention for worst units in the codex, drop them immediately.

Noise Marines should only be taken as troops (just like all the other cult Marines). The dual blastmasters in a rhino is nice, but bloody expensive.

Preds are pretty bad, I'd be getting some nurgle Obliterators instead. If armour saturation is your aim, maulerfiends will do far more for you since very few things fear a predator.

Be aware that csm is in a terrible place at the moment and it won't be getting better anytime soon either. I wouldn't recommend starting csm, not if you want to win more than 1 game out of 20.

Hmm. I've been using 1d4chan for advice, and they recommended possessed. They've been fairly popular on this thread. Preds were also not discouraged, as they're supposedly good for points.

Possessed aren't that popular because they are very expensive for what you get, and their mutations are not very reliable. Also being a cc unit they need a good delivery system, which rhinos aren't very good for since they are not assault vehicles.

However, don't be too down on them, the best way to "fix" them is to use the Crimson Slaughter supplement for your army. It makes Possessed a troops choice, and they get a different mutation table that is kind of neat. They can even become beasts. There would be no negative for your current army using Crimson Slaughter, most people run it, and it even makes all your units cause Fear for no extra cost (pretty useless if you face a lot of Space Marines, but otherwise not bad).

UncleanOne wrote:
Possessed aren't that popular because they are very expensive for what you get, and their mutations are not very reliable. Also being a cc unit they need a good delivery system, which rhinos aren't very good for since they are not assault vehicles.

However, don't be too down on them, the best way to "fix" them is to use the Crimson Slaughter supplement for your army. It makes Possessed a troops choice, and they get a different mutation table that is kind of neat. They can even become beasts. There would be no negative for your current army using Crimson Slaughter, most people run it, and it even makes all your units cause Fear for no extra cost (pretty useless if you face a lot of Space Marines, but otherwise not bad).

From what I've heard, Crimson Slaughter is good. Its just I don't want to have 30% of my army spendings on books (I might get a supplement on >=2000 points)