Hey there guys, Recently picked up the Warhammer 40k TT after a break at the end of 5th. After being a solid Eldar player for like 2 years, I've decided to go with Chaos Space Marines this time - so I have something more durable to play whilst I re-learn the game. My play style is mainly assault focussed, but I do lean towards balanced armies most of the time So I've bought the CSM assault force, and now I ask you - how is TT in its current form for CSM, especially at a 1000points, which is where I'm starting?
Chaos is still solid in this edition, I'm not sure if you've seen all the naysayers and what not, but it's mainly cause there's is no stupid crazy builds like you could do back in 3.5 so the 6th ed chaos dex has gotten a lot of negative attention and became codex:Heldrake case they were so stinkin' good in 6th. Chaos is balanced, but if i where you id stay away from normal chaos marines as they are too expensive points-wise and all around not worth it. Honestly plague marines or cultists are the way to go for troops. Fearless, Feel no pain, better in assault than khorne berzerkers and cultists are just plain cheap if you want to put power in other places. But this is a very balanced codex, I personally like it alot. It's pretty tough to be an assault army with chaos seeing as Khorne really got the shaft lately but he has his all stars. At 1000 point you have quite a bit of options since some stuff in the dex is a bargain Here are some suggestions to try out for an assault-ish army, and you can still be super aggressive with plague marines, please forgive me in advance if im straying from what is actually in the Assault force box, consider these pointers for the future. And also forgive me if I'm a bit nitpicky with it, I'm a competitive player and have been for almost decade now, kind of a rough habit to break ^^; So ill be suggesting what basically is hot and whats not. But honestly if you want to just have army to hang out with your buds, do whatever feels right for you man. HQs: Deamon Prince (Nurgle with wings, Nurgle princes always have a 2+ cover now that flying monsters have the jink rule and nurgle giving shrouded makes it a 2+ jink) Typhus Khorne Lord on a Juggernaut which is: Chaos Lord -Sigil -Gift of Mutation -Vets -Mark of Khorne -Juggernaut of Khorne -Axe of Blinding Fury -Meltabomb Stick him with a full unit of spawn and go to town on your enemies this guy can even take out chapter masters. Elites: No need, but if i had to pick id go with possessed or combi-melta terminators. or triple helbrutes Troops: (lord with respective mark of course) Plague Marines -Always Meltagun/Meltabomb, 7th edition made vehicles tougher to kill -Always in a rhino (rhino rush is a very assaulty aggressive tactic that still kicks butt today) Cultists-minimum 10 unless zombies then go balls out thiry-five, nothing says annoying like a blob with FNP and fearless, and some really cool modeling possibilities Fast Attack: Nurgle bikers, all the Toughness 6 Heldrakes are still solid, not amazing super good like in 6th but solid anti blob/flyer, Also super cool looking. Heavy: OBLITS!!!-Nurgle for t5 Obliterator are your all purpose dakka, Oblits are so solid and good, once again also amazing conversion possilbities with these too Maulerfiend are now also freakin awesome, now that its tougher to immobilize stuff (short of grav weapons), Maulerfiends are a demon engine not to be laughed at. You playing a smelly Land raider spamming loyalist? These guys will chew straight through it These are all what i recommend in a chaos army and its very aggressive too, as Chaos should be I feel. I hope this helps a bit (even remotely), also don't forget the golden rule either: Just have fun Also remember there's still no harm in running what you want to run, these are mainly just from a competitive standpoint. 1000 points should get you a good force to get some practice games in. Definately check out the Juggerlord though, guy is just toooo sweeeeet! -TXTOASTRMASAKR (AzuNyan)
Yeah I saw that people complain at lot about the CSM 'dex That's actually a pretty awesome summary dude Thanks for the pointers, was on the right track with nurgle at least!
Chaos is a mediocre faction at best in 7th. The army lacks character and substance and is basically the old 4th edition book with a few things tacked on. That being said, no army comprised of MEQ equivalents with tough vehicles is terrible and I still have fun playing with my CSM. If you're a fan of 3.5, consider looking into the 30k rules. You can still use them with your 40k models, and the list is much more fun & internally balanced. As for the actual game at the moment, vehicles are substantially stronger in 7th so some tanks like Land Raiders etc are more useful than they used to be. A solid core of infantry is no longer 100% required, although we already had cultist spam to take objectives. If you like assault, consider a mechanised force based in Rhinos or Land Raiders with some Maulerfiends backing you up. Maulerfiends are lethal and move at a ridiculous pace across the board. Deep-striking Terminators are as viable as ever so it's pretty easy to get a cool assault themed CSM army working as we do it pretty well despite the lack of character available to us in this iteration. If you're a fan of Chosen, considering playing Black Legion, or if you really like Possessed, the Crimson Slaughter supplement has some sick rules that let you run an all-Possessed force.
30k does look interesting - I've quickly become a fan of Emperor's Children/Death Guard I've still got to look into loads - and managed to get a friend back into TT armies, meaning I can learn on the fly with them. Are Heldrakes still an almost necessity - all the flying rules are still pretty new to me..
Heldrakes are solid but not the crazy good flyer they used to be when they had a turret Baleflamer, still good AA Anti-MEQ.Pretty balanced now. Its really up to you if you want to use one. Personally I'd run one for cleaning up obj sec units or blobs.
30K is brilliant! It has units that can leave giggling like a maniac, and Primarchs! It can be done on the cheap with all the plastic and finecast Mk IV stuff Citadel now has, and there's always been Mk V in the standard range. Plus you can still find some examples of the older models, representing Mks II to V, on bidding sites. If you're careful you can pick up some nice bargains. If you do conversions, you can do parts for Mk II and III armours. Outside of that, it's the FW legion armour and weapons. Volkite weapons are gaining favour. If you're interested in 30K, I hope you've looked at The First Expedition forum.
I'll take a look into the forum, haven't really heard of anyone doing 30k by me though which sucks :/ Also struggling to put a list together as I have a game coming up next weekend - to Daemon prince or not to daemon prince..
