Need some advice.. Starting Alpha Legion Army

[Gamerzsatx]

Hello all.  My dad and I are new to Warhammer 40k and are starting to build our armies.  He is going Ultramarines and as started to amass his army.  We plan on starting with about 1500pt armies with some ability to change out a unit here or there.  His army is quite extensive  and has many options in all categories (HQ, Elites, Troops, FA, Hvy Support, Flyers and Transport).  My objective to to field a solid 1500 list of Alpha Legion with some ability to adjust to what he pulls out.

 

I am starting with the Chaos Marine Starter kit:

- 1x Master of Possession (supplied with a Citadel 40mm Round Base)
- 1x Venomcrawler (supplied with a Citadel 100mm Round Base)
- 2x Obliterators (each supplied with a Citadel 50mm Round Base)
- 2x Greater Possessed (each supplied with a Citadel 40mm Round Base)
- 1x Chaos Space Marines unit (10 miniatures, each supplied with a Citadel 32mm Round Base)

 

- Chaos Marine Battle Detachment: the Chaos Space Marines Battalion Detachment set includes your three mandatory Troops units as well as two Fast Attack units and an HQ choice to lead it. As a Character, the Chaos Lord/Sorcerer Lord in Terminator armour can also serve as the Detachment's Warlord, enabling you to generate an additional Command Asset each turn.

 

- 1x Helbrute

- 10x Raptors

- 1x Chaos Lord in terminator Armor

- 1x Sorcerer with jetpack

 

I know i may have to many  Chaos Marines and some other things that might not fit well but I would obvious like to use most of what I already have.  What do you suggest I add to build out my Alpha Legion army and what would the optimal configuration would play in a 1500point game?  I figure I will need to buy as many units to be around 2000 pts to give it some flexibility.  Please let me know on what I should prioritize over the base 1500pt army recommendation.  Thank you very much.

 

 

 

[Gamerzsatx]

I also have 1x Demon Prince with wings

[Dr_Ruminahui]

That seems like a pretty good start.  My suggestion would be to build, paint and play what you have and then figure out what your play style is, what works in the army, and what holes you need to fill.

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Alpha Legion Tactics 101: unlike most of Chaos, we're a shooting army.  While we do have a stratagem that can help us get the Holy Grail first turn assault -- most useful with Possessed or Berzerkers - most armies and most players are good enough at screening their important stuff that I honestly feel like we should focus on shooting.  The core of this is our excellent Legion Trait: enemies shooting at our units from a range of over 12" suffer a -1 to their hit rolls.  Ergo, we operate most efficiently at ranges over 12".

 

This mostly means Heavy weapons, since most infantry small arms are at their most effective within 12".  This also means infantry are our best weapons, because unlike literally every other army in the game, our vehicles have not yet received the benefit of Legion Traits via errata or new codex (Helbrutes are the exception as they do receive the Legion Trait, but unless you're fielding the big FW guys like the Leviathan you need a bunch of them to achieve armor saturation).  Daemon Engines are an exception since they get a 5++ that can mass-improvable via Cursed Earth to a 4++ and Mark of Tzeentch/Weaver of Fates to a 3++ for one of them.

 

So!  Infantry weapons effective at over 12", you say?  Chaos Marine Squads can take one Heavy weapon at 5 models or two Heavies at 10+ models.  The small squads are good if you're trying to fill out Battalion detachments for the Command Points, but the big ones can be useful for taking up space and screening out deep strike space in your backfield; they also take buffs better because you have more guns shooting per psychic power/stratagem/whathaveyou.  Havocs can take four Heavies and while they can be hidden and are Toughness 5, they tend to be priority targets.  If you take Havocs, hide them well or layer them with additional protection (deploy inside a Rhino, stick them in cover, devote a Dark Apostle to casting Benediction of Darkness of them, etc).  Terminators and Obliterators both operate well in a deep strike roll, though the Oblits are generally more lethal and can stand-off at longer ranges if you're taking combi-plasmas on the Terminators.  Because they carry so many twin-bolters, Chaos Bikers from your Battalion box are a good disruption and table control unit -- they pump out a LOT of shots even if they're just bolt rounds, and they're fast enough to get wherever you need them within a turn or two.

[Gamerzsatx]

Thank you Rumi and Ferrum.  For troops, I notice that most list favor cultists over Space Marines.  Should i invest in some cultists?  For 1000-1500 pets army how many should I start with?  Or should i mix some SMs quads and Cultist in the army?

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Cultists have one benefit over Marines, and that's they're cheap. They're used to fill Troop slots for battalion detachments and because they're expendable, they're used as screens to prevent 1st or 2nd turn charges against your main gunline.

[Gamerzsatx]

One last thing what codex do i need to buy?  I already have the Chaos Marines 8th edition and Psychic Awakening: Faith and Fury.  I was wondering to I need the Daemons codex since i am using the Daemon Prince with wings??

[Excessus]

Good morning and welcome, operative.

 

No, the Daemon Prince for CSM is detailed in our codex.

 

Happy gaming!

[Gamerzsatx]

Thank you. How about Poxbringer and Nurglings? Are they also in the CSM Codex?

[Iron Father Ferrum]

Nope, those would be in the Daemons dex.

[Gamerzsatx]

Thank you Father Ferrum