strange how chaos works

[kursen]

Afternoon all! For those that might not have seen my introduction post in the sorcerers section I'm just coming back to 40k after about a 5 year gap. Now while tzeentch is my favourite god it seems a thousand sons army might not be on the cards for me. I bummed into an old college friend at work and he asked if I'm still doing 40k, I told him I'm just starting chaos back up and he made me an offer I don't think I can refuse.

 

Short story is he is offering me

1 defiler stock loadout

1 Hadesfiend

5 unbuilt terminators

2 forge world plague marine upgrade packs

And 10 already build plague marines from the upstage packs and all for a bargain price of

£45 :O

 

He also said he can throw in the extra sprues etc now I know some of those aren't the most competitive choices but that's fine I just wanted some feedback on if you think its worth it :)

[Tenebris]

It is worth it from a financial pov. On the other side, consider that to use the FW upgrade kit you would need two squads of stock Chaos Space Marines, which on their own are a solid kit.

 

In the end add in a squad of Obliterators, a Helldrake and you have a solid army list that would be playable for a long time. The Plague Marines or Nurgle in general are IMO one of the most player friendly units for they are reliable, even if you make a mistake you can always fall back on them and have a solid option.

 

Use the Terminators as your Chaos Lord escort (4 of them) and make a terminator lord from the Aspiring Champion. Mark all with Nurgle and give them some combiplasmas and you are set up even with the HQ and Elites section. 

 

All in all, add a Helldrake and you are ready to start to play, add in a squad of Obliterators and you are ok for the rest of the edition. 

[hornywingythingy]

I'd rip the geezers hands off! ;)

 

Plagues are probably the best of our troops, all you'd want to add would either be a nurgle lord or typhus, some nurgle oblits and some heldrakes and you'd have a good army.

[kursen]

I am aware I'd need to buy 2 boxes of chaos marines but that' fine, but what he is offering me just seems like a great deal and like you both said with a few more additions I have an army that's ready to play :)

[Lucien Eilam]

2 Death Guard conversion kits cost £45 on their own, never mind the rest of it. Buy it before he changes his mind.

[kursen]

Already text him and I pick it all up Tuesday :)

[Sception]

I'd say only get one box of CSMs, and save the remaining conversion bits for other models. As a csm player, you're likely to want to add bikes at some point, or maybe raptors, or maybe you'll use them to convert a power armored hq or to stick on a pintle guy on a tank, or whatever. Point is, I wouldn't use all of your fw conversion bits on regular infantry dudes. One extra box gets you 20 plagues - which comes out to two units of seven (good size for plagues, and favored number thematically), and one of six (still a good number, and can be favored if you stick a character in or manage to find a single extra marine or chaos marine body lying around somewhere, ask friends).

 

Since you're using the awesome FW conversion bits on your troops, you should strongly consider ordering the matching terminator conversion bits from FW as well. Also, I find plagues are best with pair plasma, so while you're ordering bits from FW, you might want to pick up a set of the horus heresy plasmaguns - not the most chaos looking plasmaguns, but with the conversion bits your models will look chaosy enough, and its hard to find a better deal on a pile of plasmagun bits. You might consider magnetizing your special weapons so you can use melta or flamer sometimes, but for the most part you'll want dual plasma on all three units.

 

After that, you'll need an HQ - something that makes plagues troops. You can certainly just use one of the terminator bodies, especially if you get the FW upgrade kit, but I'd recommend either Typhus plus a bunch of zombies or a bike mounted nurgle lord with the burning brand plus four to six nurgle bikes - use your extra conversion kit bits to make them all cool and nurgly. Either works quite well.

 

Another option to consider, since you might want to be placing a FW order anyway, is the FW nurgle sorcerer dude. A nurgle sorcerer is a decent support hero regardless, but the special character rules for this guy in the the new Imperial Armour Apocalypse book (the new one, not the old one by the same name, be careful) lets him run plague zombies, which is nice for games where typhus is a bit much, or if you're running a bikelord instead. I don't know if he lets you run plague marines core, so you might still need a nurgle lord with him, but regardless he's worth picking up.

 

Other then that, just the basics that you should be getting for any CSM force. A wingless prince and a chaos spawn for boon results - if going nurgle, I recommend the nurgle prince and a beast of nurgle. A couple rhinos. A baledrake - if going nurgle consider converting from an Ork & goblin arachnarok, google search for examples. Maybe a second heldrake - hades if you face a lot of fliers, and bale otherwise. Or maybe some blight drones instead of a second drake, if money is no issue, or if you feel up to scratch building or converting. A couple heavy support squads - either havoks (auto or las) or oblits (and I recommmend oblits if you're going nurgle). Maybe a bike squad to carry a couple meltaguns (and escort a bikelord if you went that route).

 

Once all that's together and painted, consider grabbing some allies. Guard, Black Legion, and Daemons are all decent ally choices for CSMs - nurgle or otherwise. Tau (especially farsight), Necrons, and Orks are all good choices as well, if perhaps more of a stretch thematically.

 

If going nurgle, I'd lean towards daemons, if largely for thematic reasons. A squad or two of plaguebearers to deep strike onto unoccupied objectives, a great unclean one tooled up with some greater gifts and biomancy to deep strike into a forward position, and a soul grinder (convert or counts-as with your defiler) makes for a decent and very cool looking allied detachment for a nurgle marine warband. Maybe throw on some plague flies or nurglings because they look cool and for no other reason. Maybe convert some beasts of nurgle because they're decent, but they're kinda pricey for an allied block. That's more the kind of thing you'd consider if your allie block grows into a separate army of its own.

 

Anyway, if I were offered what you're being offered, OP, I'd jump on it in an instant. It's a great start to a fantastic looking, reasonably effective, and fun to play chaos force. Go for it.

[kursen]

Thankyou for the detailed reply malisteen much appreciated :) I will most likely be picking up those FW termy parts and will probably roll with the biker lord for now aswell :) Im also gonna pick up some green stuff and try ( probably fail ) some sculpting on the fiend and defiler to make them more nurgle.

[Ammonius]

Good luck with your new army, be sure to check out the Call Of Chaos that is coming soon, it's great motivation for completing projects!

[Iron-Daemon Forge]

Thankyou for the detailed reply malisteen much appreciated I will most likely be picking up those FW termy parts and will probably roll with the biker lord for now aswell Im also gonna pick up some green stuff and try ( probably fail ) some sculpting on the fiend and defiler to make them more nurgle.

You could try using Liquid Green Stuff, stippling that on to the armour plate instead? If your able to get your hands on White Dwarf (UK) 392, they shown some great effect on a Daemon soul grinder model to make it look more Nurgle like & would look great on any nurgle tanks.

I'd personal say use a medium dry brush for stippling.

Liquid Green Stuff

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800007a&prodId=prod1500294a

White Dwarf (out of stock on the GW web site) 392

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1670004a