Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum

Hey all,

I picked up the Chaos Marines battleforce yesterday for an Iron Painter contest, and after attempting to make a few army lists I cant seem to comprehend what's good and whats not or how many of what to take. In fantasy I'm used to stocking up on tons of big units, but it seems having that mentality in 40k just does not work. Does anyone have some tips to help turn my mind to be more 40k oriented and what I should be looking for in building up an army. BTW I'm going Alpha Legion so taking various marks is fine (though i dislike beserkers).

Eh-hem

*Clears throat*

Ok, Tizz, uhhh, eventhouhg I'm not a chaos player, I say that one of the more useful army in Chaos are Thousand Sons and Iron Warriors.

If you really want to stock up on huge amount of units, then you might want to try out Tyranids, Orks or even Imperial Guard. Chaos Space Marine are always going to be outnumbered, but their quality (in most cases) should be what saves them.

I have a good friend, I can introduce you to, which in turn he can introduce you to his good friend, who is an excellent Chaos Player.

Any of those options satisfy you, I will hook you up, mate! (Also know a very good Tyranid player too)

Anyways, to help you out...

Chaos Lord and Sorcerer, they are just average choice... nothing much more.

Some may say Daemon Prince is a cr@p unit, well, sure they may be in small point battle like 1000pt or so, but if it hits about 2000pt and over, you might want to consider taking one. Coupled with warptime and so, it's goign to be a behemoth that can potentially wipe out hordes of enemy.

Greater Daemon can occupy a slot in your HQ if you want some big juicy target that won't go down at once, and have fairly high hitting power.

WARNING - Ahiram, Lucius, Typhus, Fabius and Kharn are all useless characters. Abbadon is semi-useless character, and I don't suggest takign one unless you plan on really big battle.

Chaos don't get alot of Elites, possessed, chosen, termies, dreadnought. I guess it all depends on style and preference, but I rarely see anybody taking chosen around, and everybody's favorite is still the terminators.(and dreadnoughts)

Troop, don't got alot to say, marines are usualyl tough, but plague marines are tougher. You mgiht want to consider TS squad if you start TS army. Honestly, can't say I like berzerkers alot, but they are useful if you manage to deliver them inside the rhino to enemy in one piece.

I don't really usualyl see anyone taking alot of Fast Attack choices, never seen or faced chaos bikers on battle, saw raptors couple of times, I don't know how they fare, because honeslty, I'm not a chaos man.

For Heavy Support, frankly I haven't seen alot of chaos guys taking Land Raider, but the HS section of Chaos is realyl depending on what they have taken for troop, elite, HQ, their tactic, their playing style, their preference, and how much money they have in pocket.

If you are going to take Obliterators, it's best if you take them in pairs. They can also deep strike on to the board.

Vindicators also got nice sets of cannon, but they can be argued that it is useless compared to Defilers, but who care? Solid choice.

Defilers, they are nice sets of machienry, only downfall would be low armour, but with CC ability and the fact it has demolisher (am I correct? I don't know) cannon mounted on it, makes it awesom. I highly recommend this machinery over other things, but one bigger downfall than low armour is its crazy high price...

Havocs - Average, think them like Devastator of Space Marine. They're just average.

Predator - They have potentials to be very useful. Can be equipped with versatile armanments against different foes. This is on my list of highly recommended with defilers.

Well, I hope this helps somewhat.

The other things to consider when making a 40k force is what you want the units to do. While you have a minimum in Fantasy you don't have a maximum placed on you, in 40k you get both. Also, the battles these days are far more often based around capturing objectives, which only Troops choices can do. In 5th Ed you really need to base your army around Troops choices and you have to take a minimum of 2 to meet standard requirements.

Your "normal" troops are Chaos Space Marines, tough elite troops with decent armour. Plonk 10 of these guys on an objective and they are not going to easy to shift. Drop them in a Rhino and you have a fast moving objective capturing force, although Rhinos are not too difficult to take out. Chaos is normally one of the most customisable forces in 40k too, what you probably want to do is take a read through the rulebook, read your Codex and then take units that fit the slots you're going to need and then look at what you want your units to accomplish. You're going to want a balance of a solid firebase, some anti-tank and even some close combat abilities and you can configure your squads for this.

I tend to start by writing out a list, with the points costs, of all the stuff I like with the upgrades I want and then adjust as necessary to fit the points limit.