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OK, so here is my situation. I have been painting a CSM army for a few months and because I want to try different painting techniques, I have created an army with 3 different legions in it so far I have Black Legion, Alpha and Iron Warriors. It will most likely get even more broad as the army grows. I love the fluff behind the CSM and their factions and want to try and create a fluff worthy army. I would think they all fight for the same cause during the black crusades and might find themselves on the same battlefields every once in a while.

Just so you have an idea some units break down like this - Iron Warrior Maulerfiend\Warpsmith, Alpha Cultists, Black Legion Marines

I would love to add some Noise marines and Plague Marines as well with schemes matching Emperor's Children\ Death Guard respectively at a later date.

So I ask you, the professionals, would you think this army would be good fluff wise or am I outta luck?

A bunch of CSM are part of some big deal that warbands from multiple legions are fighting in. Makes sense that some of them would get all sloshed together in the confusion of the fighting.

I run a mixed warband. There is nothing stopping you. I like to think that my CSM are hired guns.

Its good to see other people have the same idea as I did. Thought I was on the outside.

If you dont think it should work, say why?

Or you could think of it like a mob or gangster thing.

"First I would like to thank my brothers who are here today. Representatives from the night lords family. From the thousand sons, and from the iron warriors. I hold you all very deeply in my heart.

You are probably wondering why I summoned you all here today..."

 Ailaros wrote:
Or you could think of it like a mob or gangster thing.

"First I would like to thank my brothers who are here today. Representatives from the night lords family. From the thousand sons, and from the iron warriors. I hold you all very deeply in my heart.

You are probably wondering why I summoned you all here today..."

I feel thats when Al Pacino hits someone over the head with a bat.

Haha that is a great reason. Working together for a common goal but also secretly wanting to kill each other in the end.

Certainly viable, warbands will often buddy up for all sorts of reasons. CSM has some of the most flexible fluff in the game.

It's easy to say that your army is part of the 13th Black Crusade (particularly if you're putting Black Legion in there), because of the sheer number of warbands Abaddon has roped together for it. Alternatively, any shared motive you can think of (some artefact, a Forge World, a hive world's population for sacrificing to the Dark Gods) will normally do.

... or "just because", really. The different legions don't hate each other all that much. It could be something as little as an iron warriors battle barge swinging by a word bearers demon planet and blasting "Come on, boys, git your guns! There's a fight on, nah!", and then blasting banjo getaways music until the word bearers below can no longer resist the temptation to load up and start shooting something.

Personally I am old-fashioned so I would tend to stick with the original chaos animosities and I would not mix Khorne with Slaanesh or Nurgle with Tzeentch. I also rather suspect that Khorne and Tzeentch together makes little sense.

However, that is now retconned and all the chaos gods seem happy to work together despite the deep hatreds stated in the fluff still. There is no rules related reason why you shouldn't. None whatsoever.

Even if you did want to stick to the old ways there are lots of legions which don't follow any gods as such. The Iron Warriors, Word Bearers, Alpha Legion and Night Lords all seem to follow no specific gods so could be happily mixed and matched. There could be any number of other CSM groups who could mix with anyone, like the Red Corsairs who seem to not have any specific patron god.

Do as you please so long as it's legal. The rules don't prevent any combinations of god specific troops.

Definitely. The mixing up stuff is what sets Chaos apart from the more uniform loyalist parties.

And for the old animosity rules.... these rules were written in order to be used(!).

Mixing Khorne with Slaanesh, even in the old days, especially in the old days, was fluffy precisely because of the animosity rules, so you would have an army that was liable to infighting on the table, setting it apart from the disciplined loyalist Marines.

Why would any Game Designer write rules - including animosity rules - if the expectation wasn't that these rules see game-play?

 Zed wrote:
Certainly viable, warbands will often buddy up for all sorts of reasons. CSM has some of the most flexible fluff in the game.

It's easy to say that your army is part of the 13th Black Crusade (particularly if you're putting Black Legion in there), because of the sheer number of warbands Abaddon has roped together for it. Alternatively, any shared motive you can think of (some artefact, a Forge World, a hive world's population for sacrificing to the Dark Gods) will normally do.

The 13th Black Crusade was the first reason to pop into my mind especially if you have Abaddon as your warlord.

I guess I am lucky as the units I have picked so far aren’t aligned with any specific god but even when I do, it doesn’t seem like people will have a problem with it. Good to see.

Just odd, I haven't seen to many armies with different schemes. most seem to stick to a single color scheme. (At least in the Showcase Thread)