Starting a Chaos army

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**Nexx**

Hey,

First off I've never played 40k. I just paint for kicks but now I've been gifted the chaos side from the Dark Vengence box, twice.
I've got:
2 Chaos Space Marines Lords
2 Chaos Aspiring Champions
12 Chaos Space Marine Chosen
1 Chaos Space Marine Hellbrute
20+ Chaos cultists.

What I'd like to know is can I use this for the base of a decent army? I legit have no clue what I'm doing and I swear the more I read, the more I get confuzzled.
Any and all help is appreciated.

pew pew or something 40k-related...

**Sgt. Cortez**

Next month will see the release of a new CSM Codex, meaning their rules might change significantly over the index we have right now.
That being said with 8th edition the helbrute has become useful for the first time, as well as Chosen. CSM Lords have always been one of the strongest HQs and they complement Chosen very well now. That being said, the Chosen in the dark Vengence box have a very unusual weapon choice.
Cultists... there are a lot people here who find them useful, for me they've always been a waste of points. They can hold an objective, but they won't kill anything and they will die whenever something shoots at them. And they aren't as cheap as one would think.

For a guideline, you should ask yourself which Legion/ renegade warband you like. All of them like to concentrate on some aspects of the CSM codex. So do some reading in the lexicanum and find out what you like about CSM, be it a paint scheme or certain units or a Legion. From there you can start to enlarge your collection. Welcome to the Eye of Terror

**SilverAlien**

That's a solid start, but the dark vengeance box does have the issue of some units not having the most wonderful loadouts. I'm gonna toss some suggestions for making them into a small workable force.

Spoiler:

Firstly, you've actually got chaos lords, sorcerers, and dark apostles if you want them. The leader of the chosen has a power maul, and can be a solid stand in for a dark apostle, which you want. The aspiring champion doesn't exist currently, so will likely be run either as a chaos lord or a sorcerer, and the chaos lords can be either lords or sorcerers to fill out your roster. Or run the champions as extra chosen if you fin you don't need both chaos lords and sorcerers.

The Chosen are the big sticking point. They are mostly melee loadout, with expensive pricey weapons on fragile frames and no transport. However, this is still fixable. In fact, this is why you really want a sorcerer, warptime can really help them run up the field and get into combat.

For the non melee chosen, run them as a separate unit. I think they are mostly armed with bolters, which isn't doing much. You can either do a little converting to make them look like some for of combi-weapon, proxy them, or just run them as normal CSM and not worry about it. You'll need one of the melee dudes to fill out the space, treat him as the sarge so his loadout is legal.

The cultists are good and still the default choice for many CSM armies as troops. Remember to keep them at 10, to avoid morale issues (or minimize them) and keep the melee loadout and gun loadout in their respective units. The dark apsotle does wonders for patching morale issues, a big reason you want one or two, particularly for your melee cultists.

The hellbrute is solid, I think it's multi melta and fist, which works well for a tank buster.

The chaos lord can also buff your nearby troops, probably ranged troops as dark apostle does more for the melee guys. Or you can just use him as a beat stick. Or not worry about chaos lords, run sorcerers and apostles for your HQ, and use the aspiring champions as more melee chosen. These are all acceptable solutions. The latter is probably the best, you don't need more then 2-3 HQs and the chaos lords are the least useful.

In case that was a bit much to take in, a condensed list that would be fairly decent might look like

Spoiler:

That's a decent battalion list.

Also worth mentioning, once the CSM codex drops some of these units may work significantly better. If chosen can infiltrate for example (which they have been able to before, in various incarnations) they get a lot better. For now, i'd say you cna build a functional army, good for learning the game and playing casually, it's honestly better than the army I started out with.

**phydaux**

Three squads of Havocs with four Plasma Rifles, Asp. Champ. with a Plasma Pistol & Powerfist.

**NoiseMarine with Tinnitus**

As stated by others, that is a solid foundation to build upon.

Secondly, I agree with the above. Hold out until the CSM codex drops before comitting to anything.

Personally, I have a moratorium in place regarding 8th until I get the codices for my armies.

**Nexx**

You people are the best.
Thank you!!