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So i'm thinking of purchasing DV to start a Chaos army, and i would love to use the angel figures as an allied detachment for my IG, or as an army if a friend comes over who doesnt have anything to play with.
So my question is, are the chaos components in DV good for the starting of a Chaos army? E.g, can they be utilized easily?

The models are nice. The cultists are useful. The dread looks great but isn't really a competitive choice. But as for starting army you don't get too much.

I'd say its a good start but I think the marines give you a much more viable force. If you convert the dark angel stuff to chaos its a much better deal. Then you just need a couple squads of troops and some vehicles and you are set.

Kevlar wrote:
The models are nice. The cultists are useful. The dread looks great but isn't really a competitive choice. But as for starting army you don't get too much.

I'd say its a good start but I think the marines give you a much more viable force. If you convert the dark angel stuff to chaos its a much better deal. Then you just need a couple squads of troops and some vehicles and you are set.

Whats needed to convert the marines?

Based off the advice I've read, I'd say no. You get am HQ that can be made to be good, a dreadnought that can be made to be good with some converting, chosen which are elite and I'm not too sure about, and two troop choices of cultists.

I used to think cultists sounded like a good idea, but when they get into CC, the leader MUST issue a challenge, and considering his stats, he will almost always die. Then everyone takes a moral test with a wonderful LD of 7. I see fleeing happen alot. Best use for cultists is ranged support, but then again for 25 more pts you could have a unit of chaos space marines that put out just a few less shots but with better accuracy and more oomph. Outside of ranged suuport, cultists in CC only seem like a good idea if you have a dark apostle around.

Really though, it's a cheap force and you get a lot to play around with, especially if you're handy with conversions. I wouldn't call it good by any stretch of imagination though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tyriion wrote:

Kevlar wrote:
The models are nice. The cultists are useful. The dread looks great but isn't really a competitive choice. But as for starting army you don't get too much.

I'd say its a good start but I think the marines give you a much more viable force. If you convert the dark angel stuff to chaos its a much better deal. Then you just need a couple squads of troops and some vehicles and you are set.

Whats needed to convert the marines?

A lot of time and patience. They have a crap ton of imperial detail on them. I thought of using them as templar, but even that simply didn't seem like it was worth the time due to all the work you would need to put into it.

 Necroshea wrote:
Based off the advice I've read, I'd say no. You get am HQ that can be made to be good, a dreadnought that can be made to be good with some converting, chosen which are elite and I'm not too sure about, and two troop choices of cultists.

I used to think cultists sounded like a good idea, but when they get into CC, the leader MUST issue a challenge, and considering his stats, he will almost always die. Then everyone takes a moral test with a wonderful LD of 7. I see fleeing happen alot. Best use for cultists is ranged support, but then again for 25 more pts you could have a unit of chaos space marines that put out just a few less shots but with better accuracy and more oomph. Outside of ranged suuport, cultists in CC only seem like a good idea if you have a dark apostle around.

Really though, it's a cheap force and you get a lot to play around with, especially if you're handy with conversions. I wouldn't call it good by any stretch of imagination though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Tyriion wrote:

Kevlar wrote:
The models are nice. The cultists are useful. The dread looks great but isn't really a competitive choice. But as for starting army you don't get too much.

I'd say its a good start but I think the marines give you a much more viable force. If you convert the dark angel stuff to chaos its a much better deal. Then you just need a couple squads of troops and some vehicles and you are set.

Whats needed to convert the marines?

A lot of time and patience. They have a crap ton of imperial detail on them. I thought of using them as templar, but even that simply didn't seem like it was worth the time due to all the work you would need to put into it.

Forget converting then. I was going for a mainly casual chaos army, rather than a tourney-worthy one. Anyone else want to share their opinions? I'm on the brink of clicking add to cart, but now i'm not too sure.

Tyriion wrote:

Kevlar wrote:
The models are nice. The cultists are useful. The dread looks great but isn't really a competitive choice. But as for starting army you don't get too much.

I'd say its a good start but I think the marines give you a much more viable force. If you convert the dark angel stuff to chaos its a much better deal. Then you just need a couple squads of troops and some vehicles and you are set.

Whats needed to convert the marines?

A paintjob plus some minor chaosification.

Gouge out the loyalist symbols. Make it look like they carved them out.


Then just say they are loyalists that turned traitor, or scavenged some armor from loyalists.

All of those DA are snap fit which will make converting them much more difficult especially since they're covered in DA logos and other custom aspects. I would try and sell the DA models use that money towards more actual chaos models. As for the chaos starter set models, it is a decent start but like others have said, the Helbrute has a non-optimal build.

Tyriion wrote:
Forget converting then. I was going for a mainly casual chaos army, rather than a tourney-worthy one. Anyone else want to share their opinions? I'm on the brink of clicking add to cart, but now i'm not too sure.

If you're just doing casual, I'd say it's worth it. You get like...470 pts worth for naked models, so with some upgrades you can easily hit 500 and have yourself a nice chaos force to throwdown in a friendly game with

Oh also, if you're area is decently warm with warhammer activity, trade the DA for chaos. That's what I did. 40 cultists, 10 chosen, 2 hellbrutes, and two chaos lords give you lots of options. I haven't looked to much into the chosen yet because I'm focusing on the cultists atm, but there's a lot of bits you can salvage off of them, and after doing that some minor conversion work can make them very fancy standard marines.

I used the AoBR termies for oblits, and they converted easily enough, with gun bits and green stuff.

Otherwise, though, nope. Yer gonna want Khorne boyz, and Nurgies. I'm still mulling whether Noisy boyz are the new Cat's Meow.

 Necroshea wrote:

Tyriion wrote:
Forget converting then. I was going for a mainly casual chaos army, rather than a tourney-worthy one. Anyone else want to share their opinions? I'm on the brink of clicking add to cart, but now i'm not too sure.

If you're just doing casual, I'd say it's worth it. You get like...470 pts worth for naked models, so with some upgrades you can easily hit 500 and have yourself a nice chaos force to throwdown in a friendly game with

Oh also, if you're area is decently warm with warhammer activity, trade the DA for chaos. That's what I did. 40 cultists, 10 chosen, 2 hellbrutes, and two chaos lords give you lots of options. I haven't looked to much into the chosen yet because I'm focusing on the cultists atm, but there's a lot of bits you can salvage off of them, and after doing that some minor conversion work can make them very fancy standard marines.

What could I add to bring it up to a 1000-1500 point force? Thats what most of the people at my LFGS and my friends normally use (for convenience). I could easily trade the DA as you say, but I could keep them for a while, incase i want to end up using them. So, as i'm going for mainly casual, is it worth it?

Tyriion wrote:

 Necroshea wrote:

Tyriion wrote:
Forget converting then. I was going for a mainly casual chaos army, rather than a tourney-worthy one. Anyone else want to share their opinions? I'm on the brink of clicking add to cart, but now i'm not too sure.

If you're just doing casual, I'd say it's worth it. You get like...470 pts worth for naked models, so with some upgrades you can easily hit 500 and have yourself a nice chaos force to throwdown in a friendly game with

Oh also, if you're area is decently warm with warhammer activity, trade the DA for chaos. That's what I did. 40 cultists, 10 chosen, 2 hellbrutes, and two chaos lords give you lots of options. I haven't looked to much into the chosen yet because I'm focusing on the cultists atm, but there's a lot of bits you can salvage off of them, and after doing that some minor conversion work can make them very fancy standard marines.

What could I add to bring it up to a 1000-1500 point force? Thats what most of the people at my LFGS and my friends normally use (for convenience). I could easily trade the DA as you say, but I could keep them for a while, incase i want to end up using them. So, as i'm going for mainly casual, is it worth it?

Yes. You get...

A rule book
spare dice
spare templates
1000 pts worth of stuff (470ishchaos/530ish DA)

You can trade one army to make a thousand points for the other army. A thousand point army for 100 bucks (75 if you do it online) is a pretty good deal.

If you really want to keep the DA, you now have enough to throwdown with a friend who you'd like to introduce to the game (sorta the point of getting the starter).

Already have the book? Sell the mini one for 33 bucks.

The only time a starter set isn't worth it is if you don't like either of the armies in the box.

As for bumping the army point list up to 1500...you might have trouble getting there, I'm not sure. I've yet to really list build. Word on the street is that upgrades can make your stuff get expensive really fast, so my guess is that yeah, you should be able to hit 1500 without too much issue.

Those are the best looking chaos models currently available, and all of them are usable in one way or an another. If you want to start an chaos army, it is a good way to do it.

Oh, and the Chosen champion makes a decent Dark Apostle to go with your mêlée cultists.

 Necroshea wrote:

Tyriion wrote:

 Necroshea wrote:

Tyriion wrote:
Forget converting then. I was going for a mainly casual chaos army, rather than a tourney-worthy one. Anyone else want to share their opinions? I'm on the brink of clicking add to cart, but now i'm not too sure.

If you're just doing casual, I'd say it's worth it. You get like...470 pts worth for naked models, so with some upgrades you can easily hit 500 and have yourself a nice chaos force to throwdown in a friendly game with

Oh also, if you're area is decently warm with warhammer activity, trade the DA for chaos. That's what I did. 40 cultists, 10 chosen, 2 hellbrutes, and two chaos lords give you lots of options. I haven't looked to much into the chosen yet because I'm focusing on the cultists atm, but there's a lot of bits you can salvage off of them, and after doing that some minor conversion work can make them very fancy standard marines.

What could I add to bring it up to a 1000-1500 point force? Thats what most of the people at my LFGS and my friends normally use (for convenience). I could easily trade the DA as you say, but I could keep them for a while, incase i want to end up using them. So, as i'm going for mainly casual, is it worth it?

Yes. You get...

A rule book
spare dice
spare templates
1000 pts worth of stuff (470ishchaos/530ish DA)

You can trade one army to make a thousand points for the other army. A thousand point army for 100 bucks (75 if you do it online) is a pretty good deal.

If you really want to keep the DA, you now have enough to throwdown with a friend who you'd like to introduce to the game (sorta the point of getting the starter).

Already have the book? Sell the mini one for 33 bucks.

The only time a starter set isn't worth it is if you don't like either of the armies in the box.

As for bumping the army point list up to 1500...you might have trouble getting there, I'm not sure. I've yet to really list build. Word on the street is that upgrades can make your stuff get expensive really fast, so my guess is that yeah, you should be able to hit 1500 without too much issue.

Thanks for your help, Necroshea. Due to the following factors:
-I like both of the armies
-small rulebook will be very handy
-need some templates
-friend does DA's and would love to buy some of the DA's included
-I love the new models
-Has some new stuff which will go down well in a new CSM army
Ive decided I will get it

Tyriion wrote:

 Necroshea wrote:

Tyriion wrote:

 Necroshea wrote:

Tyriion wrote:
Forget converting then. I was going for a mainly casual chaos army, rather than a tourney-worthy one. Anyone else want to share their opinions? I'm on the brink of clicking add to cart, but now i'm not too sure.

If you're just doing casual, I'd say it's worth it. You get like...470 pts worth for naked models, so with some upgrades you can easily hit 500 and have yourself a nice chaos force to throwdown in a friendly game with

Oh also, if you're area is decently warm with warhammer activity, trade the DA for chaos. That's what I did. 40 cultists, 10 chosen, 2 hellbrutes, and two chaos lords give you lots of options. I haven't looked to much into the chosen yet because I'm focusing on the cultists atm, but there's a lot of bits you can salvage off of them, and after doing that some minor conversion work can make them very fancy standard marines.

What could I add to bring it up to a 1000-1500 point force? Thats what most of the people at my LFGS and my friends normally use (for convenience). I could easily trade the DA as you say, but I could keep them for a while, incase i want to end up using them. So, as i'm going for mainly casual, is it worth it?

Yes. You get...

A rule book
spare dice
spare templates
1000 pts worth of stuff (470ishchaos/530ish DA)

You can trade one army to make a thousand points for the other army. A thousand point army for 100 bucks (75 if you do it online) is a pretty good deal.

If you really want to keep the DA, you now have enough to throwdown with a friend who you'd like to introduce to the game (sorta the point of getting the starter).

Already have the book? Sell the mini one for 33 bucks.

The only time a starter set isn't worth it is if you don't like either of the armies in the box.

As for bumping the army point list up to 1500...you might have trouble getting there, I'm not sure. I've yet to really list build. Word on the street is that upgrades can make your stuff get expensive really fast, so my guess is that yeah, you should be able to hit 1500 without too much issue.

Thanks for your help, Necroshea. Due to the following factors:
-I like both of the armies
-small rulebook will be very handy
-need some templates
-friend does DA's and would love to buy some of the DA's included
-I love the new models
-Has some new stuff which will go down well in a new CSM army
Ive decided I will get it

Right on. I really doubt you'll be dissapointed.

Also yeah, having a mini rulebook is so much more comfortable to carry around than the hardbound tome.

I am going to buy a dark verengence kit and trade the dark angels for my friends chaos. What should I buy next? I am thinking of going with a nurgle army,

zathandrapuss wrote:
I am going to buy a dark verengence kit and trade the dark angels for my friends chaos. What should I buy next? I am thinking of going with a nurgle army,

Backbone of a nurgle Army : plague marines.
I'd strongly advise to get the conversion kits from FW. Paired with boxes of regular marines, they make damn fine plague marines that you can customize to your need - the finecasts one are more difficult to modifiy.
Get rhinos to move them.
And finally get Typhus. Model is awesome, and he's like Nurgle's Abbadon.

My basic starting list for PM is Typhus, 2 squads of PM + rhinos, and 2 squads of cultists / zombies. That gives you a nice base to play with.

From DV, you can use the chaos dread, painting the chosen in Nurgle theme is easy and they fit well. The chosen are not a competitve choice though, the weapon mix makes them very pricy.

I currently use my chosen as aspiring champions for my regular squads.

Yeap, as people said, it is USEFUL, but not enough.

The Hellbrute is an ok unit choice, that might not be tournament good(tournament lists tend to be spam anyways), but it's more than good enough to use on normal games.

The cultists are REALLY useful. You might want to convert them in the future, or get some more copies of them, but having 20 of them is a good troop choice for holding objectives.

The Chosen is not really the first elite you'd go for, and definately NOT with that varied a loadout, but they make amazing champions for the rest of your squads, and they give you a wide variety of special weapons, that you'll need for your full game.

If you could think about converting the Dark Angel stuff, then you got a decent start. You can get 10 Chaos Space Marines, 1 Sorcerer, 1 Chaos lord, 3 Chaos bikes. It;'s not too difficult to do the conversion to chaos, especially if you got some green stuff handy. Just add spikes and tentacles!

You will need some Heavy units soon, but you'll have enough stuff to start with, and a decent choice of special weapons.

ThatEdGuy wrote:
I currently use my chosen as aspiring champions for my regular squads.

This is my plan, as well.

The Hellbrute will get some table time now and again, but not so much the cultists with my army lists.

The chosen will have a few modifications (mainly slapping on a combi-weapon), but will serve as champions in other squads. A fully kitted-out close combat chosen squad is very expensive and doesn't do as good of a job as terminators (IMHO).

The Dark Angels models will be used as fallen.

I would definately get the set. With one or 2 chaos rhino's, it gives you plenty of spiky pits for throwing on the DA tactical squad and the other DA's. I use them as newly converted DA fallen.

I did a bat rep, where a good chunk of a 2000 force from the DV set:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/482982.page

Kharn=CSM lord
10 ranged and unmarked marines= fallen DA tacticals
20 cultists (didn't pay for upgrades, and they die fast anyway)
2 Obliterators= fallen DA terminators
Hellbrute as himself
also used 1 chosen as a filler Havoc (and as others have said before, use the rest of the chosen as other unit champions)

For the models that I didn't use, I definately want to run the bikes in a 6 man squad as nurgle fallen, and maybe another 2 obliterators (plus the random HQ's as fallen versions in the chaos codex).

I also converted a second group of DA tacticals from the second box I got into fallen Plauge Marines (need to get an extra plasma gun from somewhere so that squad can have 2 PG's).

As mentioned above you can use the Dark Angels as fallen and still be fluffy, just paint them all black to represent them being pre-heresy instead of their actual green, on 3.5 I had a squad of chosens made of the robe DA ones, don't think there'll be any problem fielding a few more, to convert them however your might need some chaos bits, I've swapped some heads, placing some trophy poles on them works as well. The latest i used was the plasma tactical to make me a havoc with autocannon