Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is a reference for people who want to build a very cheap $ army yet still be formidable. This is my guide to getting in wh40k ultra cheap. I wish somebody told me this 6 years ago. I have spent so much money on wh40k. I have sold most of my old army and started a new one. If i can go back in time, this is how I would have built my Chaos Space marines army.

As you all know, marines can be bough cheaply on ebay. Since you are playing Chaos, you dont really care about the paint job. If the paint job sucks then just paint over it with a huge green brush and say its an army of Nurgle. The alternative is to buy Khorne Berserkers because you get 12 for $37. Just clip off their bunny ears and grind off the khorne symbols. A standard box of Marines of 10 are a $39 on GW.

Next, you can take all the bolter guns. Glue a coffee straw onto it and then glue on a gargoyle head and bam!!! it is a lascannon or if you used the smaller head, it becomes a chaos autocannon!


What you need is aproximately 36 bolter guns. 16 gargoyle head that is often used for chaos lascannons. Then you need 20 of the tiny gargoyle head to make them into autocannons.

Although Cultist serve better troop taxes, they can be expensive in my opinion. You gotta buy 2 boxes to get minimum which is $20. then you need another 10 which is another $20. Now you have spent $40 on troops. Where as you can buy 5 KB at $3 and it would cost $15. 5 more and you have your second squad for a total of $30. Often times if you are bidding on a lot on ebay, then you will have extra marines people did not want. I also recommend you buy some of the throw away chosen to use as champions and even Lords.

List

CAD 1

Lord, mb @70

2x5 Marines@75x2=150

3x5 Havocs, 4 AC@115x3=345

CAD 2
Lord, MB @70

2x5 Marines@75x2=150

3x5 Havocs, 4 Lascannons@ 155x3=465

CAD 3

Lord @65

2x5 Marines@75x2=150

2x5 havocs, 4 ac@115x2=230
1x5 Havocs, 4 LC@ 155

Total 1850

Now that is a total of 75 Marine bodies with 3 lords. The lords are not $20 blister bits. You can use any old Champ as lords. You just have to paint him a designating color. Gargoyle heads are ultra cheap! you get at least 8 for $2 click here http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xchaos+gargoyle+head.TRS0&_nkw=chaos+gargoyle+head&_sacat=0. Coffee straws? grab some free ones at Dunkin Donuts.

So thats 75 marines at nearly $3 each. So that is $225. Possibly $10 in gargoyle bits. Maybe $10 for some DV Chosen to be used as Lords and some Champs. So for only $245 you can have a very shooty CSM army. You can even get 75 Marines even cheaper on ebay.

If you can spend the extra money on Cultist instead of marines, then you would only need 45 marines and then 60 cultists. 60 cultists=$120, 45 Marines = $135. Making this roughly $50 more expensive. However, if you can spend the $50 then you can also use an ADL with a quad gun to give all your havocs a 4+++ cover save because you just freed up 150pts.

Some basic tactics

Keep your cultists and lascannon havocs in reserve or out of line of sight. Losing 2 models in a squad of 5 will result in a ld check which you can lose and run off the bord. Obj sec? who cares? Just shoot! You got 20 AC pumping out 40 shots! You then have 16 lascannons!

I mainly wrote this to answer all the newbs who keep asking to make a CSM army for them with the junk they have.

edit: please move to tactics?

Great post, sadly that only gets you started then the sickness sets in :(

That army isn't very good...

Corelia, this is the critism I was looking for. Please share what army can you make with $245 GW dollars. If you cant make a very good army for $245 GW then please share some good army lot bids on ebay. I am more so interested in those ebay links.

1.) CSM is a weak army so please share a better CSM or any other army. Interested in building a great Eldar army on a budget.

2.) I took 36 marines and doubled thier fire power for less than $10 of gargoyle head bits, coffee straws, and glue. The big cost factor still resided in the $3 marine bodies and bases. If you had extra Marine bodies laying around then you can upgrade them into Havocs.

3.) $ is the constraint. Filling out the points was easy especially for cost ineffective CSM.

I realize the monetary savings was the main point. I didn't realize it was the entire point.

Cultists are more points-efficient than CSM but they cost more because they are comparatively brand-new. Cultists don't need to be represented with Cultist models though. Troll eBay for plastic Cadians, Beastmen (Gors or Ungors both work) and Marauders. Kit bash away!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/654987.page

Check out this man's thread for how to make a Heldrake out of a cheap model kit. Heldrakes are considered one of the best units CSM have.

Try to find some sort of beast that you could mount a CSM up on. Make them your bikers. Another of the best CSM units.

There are lots of alternatives out there. I'm not saying your idea isn't good or valid. I'm just saying that variety is the spice of life and the essence of Chaos itself. Repeating the same min/maxed units that hardly anyone ever takes does not a good army make.

The cost aspect of 40k sucks. It does, no two ways about it. What sucks even harder is when you're someone like me who really really likes the way to official models look only to find out fun facts like to get lascannon havocs I'd have to buy 4 boxes to get a full squad as each squad only comes with one of every weapon. Lame GW, really lame. Especially when you should know as a game company that the most effecient way to field them is obviously as team of all the same weapons type.

But to be honest i like the models and I like the game. If you're looking for an inexpensive hobby this simply isn't it. X wing is a much better entry level wargame as its cheaper, easier, faster and comes pre painted.

Epartalis wrote:
Especially when you should know as a game company that the most effecient way to field them is obviously as team of all the same weapons type.

But they're a miniatures company. They happen to throw some resources at designing some table-top something something. Game, maybe? Battle-something? Oh, I forget.

Thank you Correlia, that is some very helpful information. Where can I find that Bat Man kit?

epartalis,
GW Havocs of mixed guns @ $45 GW.

Me telling you to buy gargoyle heads and tiny coffee straws for $10. Make lascannon and autocannon havoc teams. You saved virtually $30.

I see a lot more lascannons in the near future

Pauper Predator = Rhino with no doors + Havoc marine on top big hatch with a lascannon and 2 more havocs on the side doors with lascannon.

 Filch wrote:
Pauper Predator = Rhino with no doors + Havoc marine on top big hatch with a lascannon and 2 more havocs on the side doors with lascannon.

Is this a serious post?

If i can find the picture i had this 6 years ago. I made a rhino with no top hatch and no doors. I stuffed a piece of foam and then had a havoc ac on top and 2 havoc lac hanging out the side. I painted them very well and some guy bought it from me for the same price of a nib predator.

I think the army is interesting. I also feel that it is unfortunately not very versatile and has multiple weaknesses.

However, When GW's last price hikes were implemented I was pretty sour about the prices so what I did was started a daemons army. The only catch was that I vowed to make it entirely out of GS and misc bits/ plasticard where required. I am now up to about 3,200 points of daemons and I have maybe spent about $150-175 CAD.

May I suggest heavily converting your models using GS? You can literally make at least 2, maybe even 3 marines out of one single CSM. With those kind of savings you could then pick up something more for your list in hopes to give it another element.

Best of luck!

Okay, CSM on the cheap... sounds good.

First off, polystyrene (Evergreen) you can get in all kinds of shapes at your FLGS.
When the bigger obliterators came out (LONG time ago, they had no weapon bits!) I just used tubing for these guys, go the next size up and it can sleeve the tip of the barrel and cut the tip however you like.
Mind-you, green stuff is your friend when doing custom CSM details or just getting that big tube join.
I do admit the gargoyle heads help a lot, just go the extra step and drill them out ok?

Okay, CSM, what are they known for? SPIKES, so how do you get a bunch? Here, look up "arrow picks" on google.
You can get thousands of them for next to nothing, just see if you can find out what plastic they are made of.
Worse comes to worse you may have to use some solvent glues meant for ABS plastic.
Now you can spike-up guys and vehicles.
You could just cut off the tips, drill and then use brass rod if you want a different look.

For the bodies to start with, ebay or kijiji may be the way to go. http://www.kijiji.ca/b-ontario/warhammer-40k-chaos-space-marines/k0l9004
You could do normal marines and do some slight changes: green-sculpt extra details, get some small tubing and cut off the backpack vents and extend them out.
The 20-man Khorne berserker kit was good value for the money (same price as a normal 10-man kit) and you can un-Khorne it pretty readily if you are inclined.

The good thing is, if you paint in a consistent way, you can mix pretty much any era of vehicle or marine with each other and it will not matter, it will actually look like "true" CSMs and their warp-time issues.

I lean toward Iron Warriors they can be almost all normal marines and the paint job is enough, Iron Hands kit bits could be used.

Anyway, you get the idea: you do not need new models to make it all work or even models specific to the army.

Yep, buy termi to make custom obliterators.

Now any ideas to make the heldrake cheap? We had that bat man plane.

Yeah, the wings are the hard part.
It really does look like the wings at least are a good replacement for the Heldrake:

Nananana Hel Bat!