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I'm doing my first Apocalypse game on Saturday, (I have, I believe, 2000 points to work with.)

The group I'm doing it with is very lenient on WYSIWYG, and allows some (but not a gross amount) of proxying.

The players, as they stand, are as follows:

We have 2 players, one playing DE and one playing Craft World

Three players, one playing Dark Angels, one playing Blood Angels, and one playing Imperial Guard

and three players, one a Slaanesh Daemons, one a Khorne Daemonkin, and me, a flat CSM player.

My models, as they stand, are:

5 Raptors, the champ is equipped with a Power Fist and Plasma Pistol, two Raptors equipped with Meltas.

5 Warp Talons, nothing too special, only one has the "wings" to designate an Icon if I take one.

5 Terminators, 4 with Power Fists and Combis, one with a Power Fist and HF.

3 Helbrutes, one with missile launcher and Reaper, one with Power fist and Lascannon, and one base

a Daemon Prince with wings, power armor, and a sword.

27 CSM, with assorted weaponry (meant to be able to "convert" into Chosen squads, should I choose, and two can very easily be Psykers with Force Staves)

13 Chaos Bikers (one is the old Doom Rider model, got him from a friend for helping split fire wood.) The Bikers are kind of a mixed bag, as they don't actually have any ranged weapons, per se. I made them through a kit bash of CSM and Chaos Knights, and attached two melee weapons each before I realized that they can't... actually do that, so I'm doing some Green Stuff to attach some ranged weapons to them.

20 Cultists from the Dark Vengeance box

10 Bloodletters.

a Sorcerer in Termie Armor with a Familiar, Flamer, and Power Sword

2 Chaos Lords, both from the Dark Vengeance box (one is Vrosh)

Cypher (nough said.)

I also have access to a Soul Grinder, a Heldrake, and an assortment of tanks through said friend.

What should/could I run, using this set of models? (I'm not 100% on the points, as some of the players aren't fully commited, and there might be some that show up.)

I listed the equipment they have so that I can avoid proxying as much as possible.

I have, I believe, 2000 points to work with.

Are you breaking out stratagems and formations? And are you intending to be the army Warmaster?

I would probably take the daemon prince as your HQ - taking your warlord is always a risk in apocalypse, but the safest place to be is probably in the air where you can't be shot at with really big guns. You can bring him in from strategic reserve on turn 1 (he's a flyer) so you're not missing much.

Remember that the game is all about objectives, objecttives, objectives. I'd talk to your colleagues, but since you've got a good start on it, I'd optimise your army for burning marines off objectives, and providing warm bodies to hold your own. Small units of cultists and marines dug into cover (and ideally out of line of sight) are the order of the day.

That means the sorcerer - make that flamer the Burning Brand of Skalathrax - and probably the other terminators as escort - and the Heldrake with a Baleflamer.

The Helbrutes can be made into a Mayhem Pack formation - that gives them Deep Strike and It Will Not Die, in exchange for them each receiving a Crazed token every turn, damaged or not. Deep strike them in on turn 1 and let them drawn attention and fire off everone else. They won't survive (probably) but they'll leave the enemy going "aaaaaaaahhhh!!" for a critical first turn.

Taking that logic to its conclusion - I'd focus on purely deep striking units, so throw in the Soul Grinder and Warp Talons. If there's a strategic objective to allow precise deep strike (I think it's Ground Observer?) consider that.

If you can take a pure(ish) flying/deep striking force, you can come on from reserves on turn 1 - and, since holding reserves off will reduce your setup time, you can afford to underbid your opponents for setup time, improving your chances of going first.

I've only played apocalypse once and it was glorious.
Took a Khorne lord on a Juggernaut (this could be the Doomrider model) with a unit of 10 bikers (mark of khorne of course), called my finest hour on turn one, moved up 36" and disordered charged into 5 units. 3 full strength guards infantry blobs and 2 Chimeras. Even tough he fired 180 shots, I only lost a single bike. It was really a pisspoor display of marksmanship.

Anyways, needless to say i wrecked the chimeras, made some wounds and swept the entire thing up in a sweping advance.

Must've been only 300-400 points but the hole it left in that deployment zone is one of the most satisfyig things I've ever done with CSM.

Use cypher to infiltrate a bunch of melta Chosen. It's not, by no means, the most competetive- but it is very fun and can be effective. I'd throw 2 flamers in with meltas in the squad that Cypher rolls with.

so, sadly, I cannot do a Battle Report, but Chaos ended up winning in the end.

I was able to borrow a Greater Brass Scorpion, as well as what I brought to the table. (20 Noise Marines, 10 Bikers with a Biker Lord, the Heldrake, 5 Raptors, 5 Warp Talons, and Cypher for that sweet, sweet infiltration.)

I ended up running a slightly modified version of the Emperor's Children Warband formation (I think it was from 5th edition? it referred to Helbrutes as Chaos Dreadnoughts).

That, combined with the Soul Grinder and 3 Bloodthirsters that the Khorne Daemonkin player (eventually) brought out, and the total lucksack deep strikes of the Slaanesh player, plus some lucky rolls to take out the enemy Baneblade on t2, allowed Chaos to table the Imperium and have the Eldar players concede, due to being completely overpowered.