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Hey guys so ive narrowed it down to 3 armies and i need your help picking one.
I know Nurgle is probably the most competitive but im not a fan of the models or lore, although cool its a bit too icky for me.

Firstly its the Night Lords. Love there lore and colour scheme, probably get Blackheart for the his infiltrate rule and just paint him in NL colour scheme.
Lots of raptors/warp talons, bikes and mostly mark of slanesh and what not.

Secondly its World Eaters. Really like the fluff on these guys, although not so much on Angron as he seems like a bit of a dick. Kharn and Chaos lord on juggernaut/AOBF Daemon prince leading the army. A few zerkers here and there and some terminators. Defilers, hell brutes and other Khorne related goodness

Finally its Alpha legion with a hint of Fallen. There elite image, cool and mysterious lore makes me really like these guys,even though i know nothing about them haha.Led by Cypher and just a Daemon prince. I have 15 cloaked Dark Angel veterans that i may paint Alpha Legion colours and see how that looks, if anyone likes the idea of this then could they give me some tips on an army list? Also if anyone knows any cool information about these guys then please tell me!

Thanks for helping!

you cant really play the non cult legions with the CSM codex.

If you want to play Night Lords or Alpha Legion it is probably best use the C:SM codex.

So world eaters are the most viable fluffy using the CSM codex.


The cypher thing can work though, his new data slate is pretty awesome. For maximum effect you want to add Huron and not a daemon prince.

Not a hardcore CSM player, but I think that Night Lords and World Eaters are.. very uncompetitive. Warp Talons/Raptors are just as terrible and overpriced as regular Assault Marines and noone -ever- fields them while khornate army is so easy to counter it's actually painful to watch. With Alpha Legion you can have anything you want and you can use some of the most potent CSM builds(aside from mono-Nurgle army with typhus and zombies, nurlge oblits and plague mareens).

Nothing spells 3 headed hydra like three heldrakes. Now you can punish your foes with fiery doom Targaryen style.

Have you looked at 30k? These 3 armies have rules. If you talk with your gaming group, maybe they'll let you play those.

I would think that a Tzeentch themed army (so probably Thousand Sons) could work, if only for a really over-the-top pychic phase.

Nurgle is the only cult theme that works well, I hear thousand sons are a bit better since 7th.

But for non cult go 30k the csm book utterly fails to let you reflect a legion force the way fluff says they should play.

 Truth118 wrote:
I would think that a Tzeentch themed army (so probably Thousand Sons) could work, if only for a really over-the-top pychic phase.

No no no don't fall for it it's a boody trap run. DO NOT play Tzeentch themed armies. Like, at all. Just bad idea run away. Believe me, I play Tzeentch and it's bad. The last time Tzeentch and KSons were good was... 2nd edition. We've sucked since 3rd edition. We get no real benefit, get the worst mark that gives most a 6+ invuln, our cult troops are the worst and some of the worst units in the game, our icon is a downright joke, Ahriman is an overpriced bullet dakka releaser but dies because of the number of spells he casts, and we have the worst psyker discipline in the game that we are forced to roll on with only 1 good spell out of 4 with one absolutely terrible one that harms you more than anything else, one primaris that is super random, and a bad but not harming yourself 2 WC waste. You will regret it.

Aww im sorry StarTrotter you seem so into Tzeentch armies and from what youve said they dont that good. Maybe they will get a buff soon? Do you know where i could find these 30k rules that you speak of? Thanks!

Play the Night Lords with the Raven Guard tactics. Load up 60 marines into Rhinos as the core of your army.

Convert up the First Claw from the Night Lords trilogy as a Sternguard or Honor Guard unit.

After combat squading you've got 18 Objective Secured scoring units which can Scout/Outflank (unless having one doesn't give you the other now)

 tko75 wrote:
Aww im sorry StarTrotter you seem so into Tzeentch armies and from what youve said they dont that good. Maybe they will get a buff soon?

I'm gonna let you in on something, because you seem like a nice guy. Chaos codexes have been pretty much awful for more than 15 years, with the exception of one good codex in the last half of 3rd edition. And that was roughly a decade ago - afterwards GW did a hard 180 on Chaos and never looked back.

They aren't going to get a buff. If you want to be happy playing 40k, don't ever hope that GW will get anything right with your army - that way lies madness and disappointment.

If you want to use CSM competitively then you cannot play a fluffy army. If you still want to use CSM competitively then run 2 groups of 10 cultists as your troops and spam out the good units.

I'd say nights lords as they rely on the competative cultists, whilst the other legions generally use mediocre assault units.

Regarding Ahriman, if you take a couple background psykers that you use for gate of infinity and warpcharge batteries..
He can teleport up to the enemy lines turn 1, throw out 3 str D blasts and then cast gate of infinity himself out immediately.

Lather rinse repeat and gg, they can't take the D... Atleast not 3.
Since the concept of 2 different independent psykers casting the same power in a squad is debatable, you can always just bring some cannon-fodder along with you.
Also, Tzeentch terminator army with psyker support seems viable.

Can't say world eaters work too much anymore, the initiative nerf to furious charge was a big bane to berserkers imo.
Ironically berserkers need the help of sorcery to reach the enemies safely, usually. Either invisibility or slaneesh bs-thrashing

I would say an un-marked, classy black legion lead by abbadon still works.

Considering that the best units in the book are MoN stuff like nurgle oblits, nurgle bikers, nurgle spawn, plague marines etc. seems like your best option would be to go the way of the smiling grandfather with AIDS. Many nurgle warbands use these types of units.

 StarTrotter wrote:

 Truth118 wrote:
I would think that a Tzeentch themed army (so probably Thousand Sons) could work, if only for a really over-the-top pychic phase.

No no no don't fall for it it's a boody trap run. DO NOT play Tzeentch themed armies. Like, at all. Just bad idea run away. Believe me, I play Tzeentch and it's bad. The last time Tzeentch and KSons were good was... 2nd edition. We've sucked since 3rd edition. We get no real benefit, get the worst mark that gives most a 6+ invuln, our cult troops are the worst and some of the worst units in the game, our icon is a downright joke, Ahriman is an overpriced bullet dakka releaser but dies because of the number of spells he casts, and we have the worst psyker discipline in the game that we are forced to roll on with only 1 good spell out of 4 with one absolutely terrible one that harms you more than anything else, one primaris that is super random, and a bad but not harming yourself 2 WC waste. You will regret it.

On the other hand, Tzeentch Chaos Daemons were always interesting.
But I feel ya, brother. TS was my first army... hope their 30k version will do justice to the Legion

 Eldarain wrote:
Play the Night Lords with the Raven Guard tactics. Load up 60 marines into Rhinos as the core of your army.

Convert up the First Claw from the Night Lords trilogy as a Sternguard or Honor Guard unit.

After combat squading you've got 18 Objective Secured scoring units which can Scout/Outflank (unless having one doesn't give you the other now)

So use the SM codex for a Night Lords army? The NL do look down on chaos worship a lot more then there other renegade brothers so i think youve just came up with a fabulous idea.
Could you tell me a little more about this First Claw squad? Do you know what there load out is?
Also what kinda HQ would you suggest for this list but so far i love this idea
Thanks!

 tko75 wrote:

 Eldarain wrote:
Play the Night Lords with the Raven Guard tactics. Load up 60 marines into Rhinos as the core of your army.

Convert up the First Claw from the Night Lords trilogy as a Sternguard or Honor Guard unit.

After combat squading you've got 18 Objective Secured scoring units which can Scout/Outflank (unless having one doesn't give you the other now)

So use the SM codex for a Night Lords army? The NL do look down on chaos worship a lot more then there other renegade brothers so i think youve just came up with a fabulous idea.
Could you tell me a little more about this First Claw squad? Do you know what there load out is?
Also what kinda HQ would you suggest for this list but so far i love this idea
Thanks!

I was going to link the Wiki pages about them but they contain some pretty serious spoilers (and you should definitely read the trilogy it is fantastic)

Here's a couple pictures which might help in the meantime:
Art by Shane Cook:
First Claw in mini form made by Dimitris Kiourtsoglou.

In terms of in game usefulness a powerful Chapter Master to tank for your drop podding Sternguard would be really useful to survive the inevitable first turn retribution they will attract. Though your whole army scouting up into their deployment zone should take a lot of heat off of them.

You could make yourself a ruined terrain feature as your "Drop Pod" maybe include a Night Lord to represent the Storm Bolter/Deathwind Launcher shooting. Just keep the piece of terrain as close to the dimensions of a Drop Pod as possible and it could represent the Night Lords Infiltrating ahead quite well.

Thanks for such an awesome reply, it's defiantly fluffy and I do like the idea so much. Maybe throw in some vanguard vets despite them not being the best for more authentic feel.
Il start looking at an army list today, but once again thank you for helping and il defiantly take a look at those books.
Looks like I've got a lot of converting ahead of me haha but it should make a wonderful project
Have a great day guys!

DONT PLAY CSM IF YOU WANT TO BE COMPETITIVE. Play Eldar, AM, or Space Marines. If you play CSM, with the hopes of being competitive, you will slap yourself in the face after spending way more money than you ever imagined.

accidentally voted for World Eaters cuz I got them mixed up with Word Bearers...but I would say with the new Daemonic psychery jiggery, Word Bearers are definitely a contender.2 ML3 psykers and a lotta cultists/ VotLW chosen who shot stuff, coupla tanks and a hella ton of summoned daemons.