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Chaos is, to me, the most interesting part of the fluff, but I had no interest in playing Chaos on the tabletop until 6th edition. While some of the Traitor Legions definitely remain difficult to play, Cultists and Allies go a long way toward opening up options to play Chaos as I'd love to play it. I'm currently toying with the idea of taking IG Allies with an Iron Warriors-inspired list for access to an Ordnance Battery, and I'm trying to investigate what I can do to the IG HQ and Troops I'm thus obligated to bring in order to make them feel more Chaotic. Current plan is a Nurglite IW splinter (and associated human cultists) calling themselves the Children of Rust and worshipping the decay of machinery. Lots of vehicles, lots of augmetics.

Specific questions:

Straken: He certainly has a superhuman statline, although his weapons and nominal armor aren't quite to par. While a simple heretic analogue to Straken would work well for what I'm going for, I found myself wondering if you think most people in casual play would object to the use of a modded Chaos Space Marine as a counts-as Straken. The shotgun is definitely strange armament, and he DEFINITELY wouldn't be wearing Flak Armor, but in terms of general statline it would pretty well fit, and having a Traitor Marine as the overall commander of the cultist Guard would go a long way toward making them stand out from standard Guard and fit the fluff pretty well. I'm not sure if I really want to put the points into Straken in the first place, but the option might be fun, if I ever got the chance to use it (I'd still mod a more ordinary Chaos Straken as a backup, but there'd be no point in making the Marine Straken model at all if it'd never get used).

Dark Vengeance cultist models: There are a /lot/ of models of lasgun out there (as the Vostroyan models remind us), and the autogun stats are the same regardless... would it be kosher to use the autogun cultist models in place of standard guardsmen, scattered throughout multiple squads to clearly differentiate between cultists-who-are-guardsmen and actually-from-the-CSM-Codex autogun cultists? It'd just be a lot of conversion or Forge World purchases (as an American) to make proper Guard look even half as Chaotic as the DV cultists, and if I ended up using technically-Guard units as my only squishy human infantry I'd want to be able to put the DV models /somewhere/. As for the autopistol/CCW cultists, could they work for sergeants/bodyguards or, since Guard have a CCW, even regular Guard if modded to wave lasguns one-handed at the enemy instead of their pistols?

Any further suggestions on making the Guard elements seem more heretical would be appreciated (short of shelling out for FW Renegades).

(And yes, I'm definitely considering Bane Wolves for Nurglite goodness.)

Cultists as Guardsmen may be problematic as you are playing a CSM army which may cause some confusion. Cultists as Guardsmen in an IG army would be fine though. After all in game terms a Lasgun is an autogun.

What I did for my own 'traitor' IG was use plastic cadians as a base which universal head swaps (mostly beastmen and Marauders) and the occational limb swap to represent mutants.

They still look like IG but are noticably different even from the other side of the table.

 Ilkhan wrote:
Chaos is, to me, the most interesting part of the fluff.
Dark Vengeance cultist models: There are a /lot/ of models of lasgun out there (as the Vostroyan models remind us), and the autogun stats are the same regardless... would it be kosher to use the autogun cultist models in place of standard guardsmen, scattered throughout multiple squads to clearly differentiate between cultists-who-are-guardsmen and actually-from-the-CSM-Codex autogun cultists? It'd just be a lot of conversion or Forge World purchases (as an American) to make proper Guard look even half as Chaotic as the DV cultists, and if I ended up using technically-Guard units as my only squishy human infantry I'd want to be able to put the DV models /somewhere/. As for the autopistol/CCW cultists, could they work for sergeants/bodyguards or, since Guard have a CCW, even regular Guard if modded to wave lasguns one-handed at the enemy instead of their pistols?

first thing, yes true.

second. The DV cultists make great IG. Once you splash in IG you want to repeat these words to make it better for you and better for your opponent. "I will never take cultists with autoguns." Cultists with autoguns cost MORE than IG, have worse armor, less options, no grenades, no orders. They are total crap. Therefore you have your IG with lasguns/autoguns and cultists with pistol and CCW. Make it easy for your opponenet to differenceiate. If he wants to know are they cultists or IG, just say "If there are rifles in the squad, they are IG" "If no rifles in the squad, they are IG" The only IG unit that doesnt have any rifles are CCS and PCS if you max out special weapons and usually you are going to be taking special weapons that cultists cant take, also they come in 5 man units, which cultists cant do.

An ez thin to do is, cant remember their name but, use those one guard models that look like the germans with the gas masks. Paint flesh darker colors, use colors like
Bright greens, bright and dark dark purples. Thats if you are looking for apearence, also skulls can never have enough. Use the chaos guards for the space marine video game for aome ideas. Just make them look metal not like iron metal i mean like head banger metal