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Done in battlescribe, copied and did some edits.

I'm trying to branch out a bit, I'm still pretty newish to Chaos Space Marines and 40k in general, and I'm trying to get away from the list I've been using involving three CSM squads with rhinos and meltas, the chaos lord and his chaos spawn friends, and the pair of heldrakes and the vindicator. Experimenting some.

Basically making a general list that should be trying to handle anything. I’ve had success with Flying Demon princes, though two is too many at this point limit, and anything over two Heldrakes seems expensive and a tad overkill. I have Slaaneshi marines in Rhinos to run around and destroy anything that can’t handle bolterfire and melt vehicles. Heldrakes are well, Heldrakes, they can handle most infantry, and as much as I’m not a fan of Nurgle fluff-wise and my legion background-wise doesn’t like Nurgle, there’s some merit to toughness 5 Obliterators.

I’m looking some some tips and suggestions, as the daemon prince seems to bit lonely and the cultists were thrown in to fill the leftover 81 points.

+++ 1500 pt Chaos Space Marines +++

+ HQ +

* Daemon Prince: Aura of Dark glory, Power Armour, Slaanesh, The Black Mace, Wings

+ Troops +

* Chaos Cultists: 11x Autogun, Champion's upgrade, 15x Squad models (champion included)

* Chaos Space Marines: 9x Chaos Space Marine, Icon of excess, Mark of Slaanesh, 2x Meltagun
* Aspiring Champion: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Close Combat Weapon, Melta Bombs
* Chaos Rhino

* Chaos Space Marines: 9x Chaos Space Marine, Icon of excess, Mark of Slaanesh, 2x Meltagun
* Aspiring Champion: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Close Combat Weapon, Melta Bombs
* Chaos Rhino

+ Fast Attack + (340pts)

* Heldrake: Baleflamer

* Heldrake: Baleflamer

+ Heavy Support + (304pts)

* Obliterators: Mark of Nurgle, 2x Obliterator

* Obliterators: Mark of Nurgle, 2x Obliterator

Why do you have aura of dark glory on your DP? He's a daemon. Also, either giving him GoM or making him DoT with one mastery level is nice (hopefully he can get lucky and get *Boon of mutation* or doombolt), No need to pimp out your lowly cultists btw, they'll mainly be objective holders- prob keep them in reserves

Like chillis said, you don't need the AoDG. Personally I really like the nurgle marked Dp, but if you're a Slaanesh guy, go ahead. I ususally think that psychic powers on this guy is just too many points. As for your troops, well, chaos troops aren't that good for the points. I would either recomend all out cult troops like plague marines and noise marines, or unmarked CSM squads with no mark, and if you take an icon, always take the fearless one.

Also, the best way I've found to run cultists is to hide them. Which means reserves, and keep them away from everything. Because of this, I wouldnt recomend autoguns, or even the 5 more guys. If you're gonna add more bodies, 25+ is the magic area.

Good list in general, but I would take a look at the troops, because I have never found that their killing power is worth all the points.

I agree it gets more expensive but I feel like one mastery level is worth it. DoT reroll saves of 1? YES. one mastery level and have to roll on the tzeentch chart? Get boon of mutation that I can cast on my DP when otherwise he isn't a champion? YES. I feel that 40 points for rerolls of one and however many chaos boons is worth it for the survivability and buffs.

On another note I agree I wasn't really into the MoS CSM troops. But if you were to do NM or PM (or zerkers) you'd have to take a chaos lord as well. I'd recommend what chicken said- maybe can use those points for a squad of havocs with AC

Well I like to get my Demon Prince into combat as fast as possible and make it without having too much trouble, hence the wings being really useful for that, I also keep forgetting he has that 5++ from being a demon, so I'll take that off.

Chaos Marines with Rhinos have almost always served me well, Noise Marines feel too expensive, and the icon of excess hasn't been overly reliable, and for the most part I try to keep the marines out of assault, so neither mark or icon seem to fit.

It's tempting to remove the cultists for a Vindicator, but it limits scoring options at that point, as much as I love that tank for what it's done for me. Noise Marines feel expensive to me, because I love getting those Blastmasters and having them sit back and snipe things in cover, and I think at some point I'll need to try those Plague Marines.

Pretty sure you need to have 10 man squads to include a se ond melta gun I ur standard
marines squads.

I think he does Matt, I think he has his champ as separate. I wouldn't get rid of the cultists, they are good back up objective holders- just get rid of any upgrade on them. For the CSM take away those marks and trade out the icon of excess for Vengeance possibly. Also give the champs PW.

Here's what I feel is most popular today for troops from most to least:

PM (tough, FNP, wounds on 4+)

Cultists (cheap, blobs, even better as zombies)

Zerkers (Bring on the CC!)

NM (We are the shooty faction with high initiative, good if you know how to use us)

CSM (I'm cheaper then most of the other guys so you can have more of me, but for most marks its better to take someone else)

Thousand Sons (I'm great for taking out crisis suits and MEQ, but I'm fairly expensive)

Chosen (I'm fairly expensive and only an option if you were planning on doing the BL supplement or taking Abaddon. But hey, time for plasma spam!)

Yeah, I do. Battlescribe counts the champion as separate, but it's still a 10-man squad, 9 marines and 1 champion, I think Army Builder does the same thing.

Alright, so if I go and take off the marks from the chaos marines and leave the cultists there, adding on power weapons for the champions, and giving the Rhinos havoc launchers that leaves me with around 92 points to play around with.

I don't really think you need the icons of excess there, just more points sunk into your basic troops. Give them rhinos with Havoc Launchers and you will have greater versatility. Park the rhinos somewhere with good LoS after they deployed their marines and launch away.
Also, no autoguns or upgrades for the Cultists is how I run them. Two squads of ten usually starting in a ruin or in reserve to avoid getting instagibbed for First Blood.

Two Heldrakes, good. It's a must for competitive builds.
Two squads of two nurgle obliterators sounds nice. Though I usually run them in three squads of one for more weapon options per turn and different targets.

If you want, I'd highly recommend at least 2 levels of Psyker on the big daemon dude (no AoDG, as others said). Works wonders if you roll one for slaanesh for either hysterical frenzy or (if not) the primaris power. Then roll one on Biomancy with fingers crossed for Iron Arm.
Myself, I use 3 levels and roll twice on Biomancy, aiming for Iron Arm and Warp Speed.

Well, I'd eventually consider Maulerfiends instead of Obliterators especially if you use Oblits defensely.

I like this a lot, but would go for tzeench or nurgle on the Daemon prince

So I made the following changes:

+++ 1500 pt Chaos Space Marines +++

+ HQ +

* Daemon Prince: Gift of mutation, 3x Mastery Level, Power Armour, Slaanesh, The Black Mace, Wings

+ Troops +

* Chaos Cultists: Champion's upgrade, 10x Squad models (champion included)

* Chaos Space Marines: 9x Chaos Space Marine, Icon of excess, Mark of Slaanesh, 2x Meltagun
* Aspiring Champion: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Power Weapon, Melta Bombs
* Chaos Rhino: Havoc Launcher

* Chaos Space Marines: 9x Chaos Space Marine, Icon of excess, Mark of Slaanesh, 2x Meltagun
* Aspiring Champion: Bolt Pistol, Bolter, Power Weapon, Melta Bombs
* Chaos Rhino: Havoc Launcher

+ Fast Attack + (340pts)

* Heldrake: Baleflamer

* Heldrake: Baleflamer

+ Heavy Support + (304pts)

* Obliterators: Mark of Nurgle, 2x Obliterator

* Obliterators: Mark of Nurgle, 2x Obliterator


Cultists are stock, gave Rhinos Havoc Launchers, removed AoDG, gave psychic mastery and gift of mutation, and power weapons for the champions.

I did a game against my Tau friend, rolled Dawn of War and Purge the Alien. Got some great mutation and psychic rolls, Slaanesh Frenzy, Iron Arm, Life Leech, and the boon table trait to re-roll armor saves (Does that apply to normal armor saves or invul too?). So when the dust settled all that was left was the cultists cowering in the corner, three of the four Obliterators, and a immobilized Heldrake, and all he had left was an Iridium Tau Commander that was almost dead.

Can I recommend making the DP a DoT, you may get boon of mutation or doombolt and then you roll the rest on biomancy

I'll try running the DP as Tzeentch next game and see how that goes.