My Chaos Space Marines army was designed to give me a break from the Space Wolves by being similar, yet different.
I haven't quite finished building it all yet. But when it comes to painting the whole thing, I will be using the Army Painter spray, paint, dip and varnish approach.
I really don't care about them. They're just there to be played with while I figure out which direction my Space Wolves are taking.
Okay, I do care, otherwise I wouldn't have gone to great lengths to convert Manneus Drath (left) to lead my army. We call him 'manny' for short!
Anyway, I started off with my usual 1000pts of Space Wolves and made them evil. It seemed like the logical starting point. However, I swapped out a few things in favour of what the Chaos Codex seems to do best.
So this Space Wolves army list:
Rune Priest with Living Lightning & Jaws
(X3) Wolf Guard with combi melta and powerfist
7 Grey Hunters with melta gun, mark of the wulfen, wolf standard
Rhino
6 Long Fangs with 5 missile launchers
Razorback with twin linked lascannon
Became this Chaos Marines army list:
Chaos Sorcerer 'Manny' with Mark of Slaanesh, Lash
(X3) Aspiring Champion with combi melta and powerfist
7 Chaos Marines with melta gun
Rhino with combi melta
7 Chaos Havocs with 4 melta guns
Rhino with combi melta
Good VS Evil
Yeah, Chaos Space Marines aren't really a patch on Grey Hunters for the points and neither is the Sorcerer compared to the Rune Priest. But, I could use Lash to knock any nasty units away. Meanwhile the extra melta guns on the Rhinos could make a big difference when it comes to popping tanks up close.
The Havocs are just an excuse for lots more melta guns, plus Rhino. Obviously, Manny will lead them so they have some close combat clout too.
I was getting fed up with my Long Fangs getting left to sit and die in 1000pts games, so essentially buying lots of melta guns for the same points seemed like a logical choice in creating an aggressive Heavy Support unit.
Expanding Chaos Space Marines Army
While James is happy to play games of 1000pts, Marc was keen to unleash his Draigo Wing once again (yawn). So I had to bulk the army up by 750pts.
On top of that, since attending Battle Of The Chumps as well as tournaments of various sizes over the past year or two, we tend to make our armies very modular in terms of structure. So then we can just swap units in and out as we need them.
This is a bit of a bitch when it comes to the Chaos Marine Codex, because everything is so damned expensive. Plus, you don't really want to spend 40pts on a Chaos Spawn (hilarious as they are!) when they easily concede a Kill Point.
So after some playing around and fantastically straightforward input from James, I came up with the following...
2000pts Chaos Space Marines Army
Chaos Sorcerer 'Manny' with Mark of Slaanesh, Lash
(X3) Aspiring Champion with combi melta and powerfist
7 Chaos Marines with melta gun
Rhino with combi melta
(X2) 8 Chaos Chosen with 5 plasma guns
Rhino with combi melta
7 Chaos Havocs with 4 melta guns
Rhino with combi melta
(X2) 3 Obliterators
CONCLUSION
The stand out strengths of the Chaos Space Marine army are its special weapons. So it made sense to build an army around these.
Sure, I could have taken Plague Marines as troops, but I quite like Chaos Undivided. Okay, I gave Manny the Mark of Slaanesh and the Lash. But what else was I going to give him? Besides, I can't see the value in making him a Chaos Lord. I've done the maths and the extra attacks from a Daemon Weapon don't seem that great. I felt it would be better to have an all-round strategic character leading my force instead.
The Chosen can either Infiltrate and shoot people from Turn 1 to be really annoying. Or they can Outflank in their Rhinos. Or they can roll forward with the rest of the army.
Meanwhile the Obliterators can either stroll along from the start or Deep Strike in. I think I have Manny a Personal Icon in the first 1,000pts. I need to check that. Obviously, that will make Deep Striking easier if I need the Obliterators to lay down some close range special weapons fire.
But the army looks good on paper. Once it's built, I'll take it for a spin and see how well it does.
This wasn't optimised in any way for a particular opponent, but I feel it should do well against Marines of all colours.
What do you think?
8 comments:
September 2, 2011 3:17 PM
With the chaos marines I bought off a certain someone on ebay I think I'll be running a very similar list but as Red Corsairs. Can't wait to see some paint on these bad boys even if you are dipping them in favour of your equally awesome space wolves.
September 2, 2011 3:47 PM
not so sure as to how well it would do against orks for example or even nids and melta guns while they are great and everything - what happens if you face a drop pod marine list? And with cover being everywhere lash can only get you a unit per turn in the best case...
September 2, 2011 4:05 PM
I'd run up and kick their teeth in with lots more attacks in close combat.
But it is a FUN ARMY, so it won't be great against everything.
September 2, 2011 6:19 PM
I like this list; its very similar to the one I play. A couple of recommendations though-
Demon princes are better than sorcerors, unless you REALLY want him with a unit. Plus, with wings hes more manuverable (Im aware you can take wings on the sorceror, but not if hes in a unit... then they're wasted).
Are those havocs legal? I count 4 heavy support choices there. Why not try Chaos chosen? Their infiltrate is worth the 3 extra points per model. Plus, they have more options than havocs to try for close quarters.
September 2, 2011 6:24 PM
The CHOSEN have the 5 plasma guns.
September 2, 2011 8:22 PM
Its so fuckn ironic that I just decided to make a choas list yesterday. I tested it against Orks & it did ok..
x1 Daemon Prince
w/ fearless, eternal warrior, wings, mark of tzeentch, doombolt, bolt of change =185pts
x1 Daemon Prince
w/ fearless, eternal warrior, wings, mark of tzeentch, doombolt, bolt of change =185pts
x5 Chosen of Chaos =140pts
w/ x5 meltagun
x5 Chosen of Chaos =140pts
w/ x5 meltagun
x7 Plague Marines =171pts
w/ x1 meltagun
x10 Khorne Berzerkers =126pts
w/ skull champion
x10 Khorne Berzerkers
w/ skull champion, p.weapon =141pts
x10 Khorne Berzerkers
w/ skull champion, p.weapon =141pts
x5 Chaos Havocs =115pts
w/ x4 meltagun
x5 Chaos Havocs =115pts
w/ x4 meltagun
x1 Greater Daemon =100pts
x8 Rhino
w/ tl.bolter, daemonic possession =440pts
Total = 1,999pts
I do think I will drop a DP & the GD & go for some much needed long range support. Other than that I do agree with DimmyK, Your list lacks punching power so any horde list will tear it apart. Enjoy!
September 3, 2011 5:01 AM
I like that you don't have plaque marines as it's a shame CSM tend to veer towards subtle variations on one build. Don't rely on lash too much though most armies have psychic defences or mech up.
If you are still thinking of iron warriors I'd warn against the army builder stuff. It works but I think when it comes to time saving it can be a false economy and the dip and shake stage can be really messy.
For silver I'd recommend a black prime, spray a base coat of boltgun metal, then a light overspray of chainmail followed by a heavy wash of Badab black. If you want sharper highlights do a light drybrush with mithril before the wash.
I sprayed all of my GKs together and then sat down with a big brush for the wash. It didn't take too long and looked great. I played a tourney where all I had done was the above, based them, picked out scrolls with brown and painted the swords blue and people were complementing my painting! That Badab blacks like magic.
A cheap spray gun and can of air will do the trick. I use an Aztec airbrush and compressor to do mine. It's a bit more of an investment but I save so much time on the base coating stage.
September 3, 2011 6:19 PM
I just noticed my list was over priced ;( zerkers should be 240pts each. sorry bout that.
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