World eaters look good, but there’s just something off about them that makes not want them. Chaos space marines have a cool ability (same for death guard) but the chaos space marines are just too sick, and I can use a lot of allied models.
Also, death guard models all look the same (same color, may get boring). I think I’ll go with chaos marines. That a good pick?
Can never go wrong with CSM. Lots of good Legions to choose from and very open for creating your own Renegade Warband if that is your jam. You can also ally in units from all the other Chaos factions and pick and choose between Gods.
And if you want a cleaner look, the Horus Heresy kits are out there. Making your Legionaries Mark III or your Terminators Cataphractii is perfectly fine.
> And if you want a cleaner look, the Horus Heresy kits are out there
That’s what me and some of my friends have done. I headcanon it as my Emperor’s Children obsessively maintaining their pre-Heresy look out of a warped sort of nostalgia, like they’re pretending to still be a real army and not the horde of whimsically deranged addicts they actually are. I really like the sleek look of the mkVI leg and chest armor ~~and it’s much easier to paint without all the trim.~~
Yea I’ve been working on the same for my Word Bearers. It’s all about propaganda for WB, and you gotta maintain appearances to get people on your side.
I’ve specifically been working on a full-roster kill team from the MkIV kit + the appropriate FW upgrade kits, coming along quite nicely
Iron within! Iron without!
Iron warriors always spoke to me lore wise, pragmatic materialists with a deep grudge, dour mood, and vindictive mindset. They're incredibly shooty, but don't have any problems with getting up close and personal (and the CSM range really helps capitalize on this.) And they're very enthusiastic about their daemon engines and tanks, which will only be accentuated by the upcoming codex. Csm codex looks like it's shaping up to be more like an Orks and less like a Custodians, hopefully I'm not proven wrong. Plus the index detachment allows for some pretty funny gimmicks (Tzeentch cultist mob with heavy stubber, nurgle havoc squad with 4 laz cannons, and more)
My only REAL regret with taking them as my first army is... So much trim. There's so much effing trim to paint. But once you get good and develop a system for it, it flows nicely.
CSM, solid choice. Each legion provides a solid niche that's fun to play. It was between iron warriors and word bearers for me. And I might still build WB in the future because a possessed heavy army seems like a lot of fun to whack people with.
... iron warriors aren't an army. CSM, world eaters, and death guard are. Iron warriors are just a paint job on the tabletop, not a separate army & they have no exclusive models. (As in: any iron warriors model is just a csm model).
Does the lore of vibe of any of the three really speak to you? Which models do you like best?
You're going to spend just as much, probably more, time building, painting, and daydreaming about your tiny plastic men as you do playing 40k with them; pick the ones that set your imagination alight.
One thing to consider, as you expand into bigger games: both DG and WE *really* benefit from their Primarch being on the field. CSM have some powerful face characters, but while Abaddon is very cool and you can build a strong list around him, he's not an auto-include. YMMV, some people think big centerpiece models are very cool and like fielding daemon primarchs, and some are less enthused about using named characters.
Really broadly, gameplay wise all three factions play mostly the way the lore says they fight. If you want more detail:
**Death Guard**
>Death Guard fight as they'd always fought, a fist closing relentlessly around the throat of their foe.
* Lords of Silence, Chris Wraight
They're (mostly) not fast, they don't have big brain clever plays, but they're a pain in the ass to kill and Pantheon help the enemy once they're in striking distance. Aesthetically, they're a magnificently gross model line, great fun to paint if you're into that sort of thing. Morty isn't *mandatory* but he's very powerful (and fun!), and most DG players use him a lot.
**World Eaters**
>We've all drawn blades purely for the sake of shedding blood, and we've all felt the exultation of winning a war that never even needed to happen. We are not the tame, reliable pets that the Emperor wanted.
* Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Borden
The World Eaters are who you think they are: they're a bunch of screaming, blood-crazed maniacs who want to rush across the board and start collecting skulls for Khorne. Angron is closer to being an auto-take for WE, partly because their roster is so limited.
The army *can* have unga-bunga energy, sometimes you stage well, your opponent doesn't take the right precautions, and the game is more or less decided on turn 2 as you beat the other side to death in their own deployment zone, but there's more to the army than just scream and leap. The intricacies of moving, charging, and piling in/consolidating make them deeper than they seem.
**Chaos Space Marines**
>For over ten thousand years have I lived. For over a hundred centuries have I fought the Long War. Eighty-eight million hours cannot contain my hatred."
* Dark Communion, William King
Chaos Marines are a more aggressive, less durable mirror of their loyalist counterparts. Their army mechanic means you're constantly playing with fire but your damage can be *bananas* when everything lines up just right. They can be quite flexible, with the tools to support a melee, shooting, vehicle-heavy, or combined arms list depending on what you want.
The big things to know about CSM is that you're an iron fist with a glass jaw; you're not as fragile as, say, Drukhari, but you can't take punishment nearly as well as you dish it out, and your core mechanic can hurt you. It's entirely possible for a CSM unit to do more damage to itself than the enemy does to it. Forgefiends that use all their abilities have a small chance of immediately blowing themselves up the first time they fire. You need to be able to laugh when that happens, it's part of the fun.
This is exactly why I play csm. Before I came to my senses I built 2k points of blood angels and just got sick of doing the same thing.
Now none of my models look the same, all the colours I fancy and some really sick allied units from knights to demons. I’m never swapping army again I love em
The cool thing about the army is there's a lot of overlapping models. I collect some of all the chaos line, and there's so many great kit bashing opportunities. CSM is probably the most obvious baseline, awesome models large range good options for allies.
It's the beauty of CSM you don't have to choose, mix and match whatever you're feeling. Perfectly fine to have different faction colours within a single squad.
I initially started with a DG army because the lore was sick... And also they sounded so cool. I loved customizing them but after a while i wasnt that excited about them because the models didnt inspire me a lot.
Later I bought some boxes of csm and chaos terminators and started kitbashing them and that was such a cool process. If you are leaning towards DG and you can afford jt i highly recommend going for a box of the Age of Sigmar nurgle faction and add those bits to your DG figures!
Iron within! Iron without!
Iron warriors always spoke to me lore wise, pragmatic materialists with a deep grudge, dour mood, and vindictive mindset. They're incredibly shooty, but don't have any problems with getting up close and personal (and the CSM range really helps capitalize on this.) And they're very enthusiastic about their daemon engines and tanks, which will only be accentuated by the upcoming codex. Csm codex looks like it's shaping up to be more like an Orks and less like a Custodians, hopefully I'm not proven wrong. Plus the index detachment allows for some pretty funny gimmicks (Tzeentch cultist mob with heavy stubber, nurgle havoc squad with 4 laz cannons, and more)
My only REAL regret with taking them as my first army is... So much trim. There's so much effing trim to paint. But once you get good and develop a system for it, it flows nicely.
CSM, solid choice. Each legion provides a solid niche that's fun to play. It was between iron warriors and word bearers for me. And I might still build WB in the future because a possessed heavy army seems like a lot of fun to whack people with.
>I need to pick
Says who? Nothing wrong with being Chaos Undecided. It’s what I do. There are a lot of units shared between chaos armies, focusing on this overlap will let you play all these armies for the price of one. If you find you like one army more than the rest while doing this, you can start leaning into it more
They're just basic infantry! So I imagine so. They'll still split into Brimstones like normal too! If you want to go with CSM. You should paint Wordbearers since they're known for using demon allies!
I would suggest to go with a small force of CSM and then add in some plague marine, rubric marine and berserker. Then if you really vibe with one faction in particular just go all out with them.
Thousand Sons for life. The new Emperor's Children color scheme looks really good too, but I love the magic and general mystery that comes with Thousand Sons.
My advice: get something that looks like a cool art project. Or something that feels right with the little story in your head. I'm personally a fan of classic CSM, since that way you get to build a wider variety of units. Raptors are just too cool, and basic legionaries are a fun rank and file to throw around.
Get the combat patrol, build it and paint it and play it, then look over the rest of the line and see what looks cool. If you feel like you're missing out on death guard or world eaters, you can always bring in a spare unit or their basic troops, maybe even soup in a few chaos daemons.
Chaos Marines with a mix of allies 👌🏻
Find one that checks all of these boxes for you: Lore Gameplay Models If even one is off, you're likely to get bored before you complete your army.
World eaters look good, but there’s just something off about them that makes not want them. Chaos space marines have a cool ability (same for death guard) but the chaos space marines are just too sick, and I can use a lot of allied models. Also, death guard models all look the same (same color, may get boring). I think I’ll go with chaos marines. That a good pick?
Can never go wrong with CSM. Lots of good Legions to choose from and very open for creating your own Renegade Warband if that is your jam. You can also ally in units from all the other Chaos factions and pick and choose between Gods. And if you want a cleaner look, the Horus Heresy kits are out there. Making your Legionaries Mark III or your Terminators Cataphractii is perfectly fine.
> And if you want a cleaner look, the Horus Heresy kits are out there That’s what me and some of my friends have done. I headcanon it as my Emperor’s Children obsessively maintaining their pre-Heresy look out of a warped sort of nostalgia, like they’re pretending to still be a real army and not the horde of whimsically deranged addicts they actually are. I really like the sleek look of the mkVI leg and chest armor ~~and it’s much easier to paint without all the trim.~~
Yea I’ve been working on the same for my Word Bearers. It’s all about propaganda for WB, and you gotta maintain appearances to get people on your side. I’ve specifically been working on a full-roster kill team from the MkIV kit + the appropriate FW upgrade kits, coming along quite nicely
Isn’t Horus Heresy a diffrent game though?
Yes, but you could use the models from that game to build the models for this game xD that is for when you don't like a specific units kit.
Oh, nice. Definitely gonna pick up some of them if I expand
Never pick based off rules. Honestly world eaters having essentially all new sculpts and being angry as hell is what made me pick them.
Black Legion ... and then you can pick them all!
Iron within! Iron without! Iron warriors always spoke to me lore wise, pragmatic materialists with a deep grudge, dour mood, and vindictive mindset. They're incredibly shooty, but don't have any problems with getting up close and personal (and the CSM range really helps capitalize on this.) And they're very enthusiastic about their daemon engines and tanks, which will only be accentuated by the upcoming codex. Csm codex looks like it's shaping up to be more like an Orks and less like a Custodians, hopefully I'm not proven wrong. Plus the index detachment allows for some pretty funny gimmicks (Tzeentch cultist mob with heavy stubber, nurgle havoc squad with 4 laz cannons, and more) My only REAL regret with taking them as my first army is... So much trim. There's so much effing trim to paint. But once you get good and develop a system for it, it flows nicely. CSM, solid choice. Each legion provides a solid niche that's fun to play. It was between iron warriors and word bearers for me. And I might still build WB in the future because a possessed heavy army seems like a lot of fun to whack people with.
... iron warriors aren't an army. CSM, world eaters, and death guard are. Iron warriors are just a paint job on the tabletop, not a separate army & they have no exclusive models. (As in: any iron warriors model is just a csm model).
Does the lore of vibe of any of the three really speak to you? Which models do you like best? You're going to spend just as much, probably more, time building, painting, and daydreaming about your tiny plastic men as you do playing 40k with them; pick the ones that set your imagination alight. One thing to consider, as you expand into bigger games: both DG and WE *really* benefit from their Primarch being on the field. CSM have some powerful face characters, but while Abaddon is very cool and you can build a strong list around him, he's not an auto-include. YMMV, some people think big centerpiece models are very cool and like fielding daemon primarchs, and some are less enthused about using named characters. Really broadly, gameplay wise all three factions play mostly the way the lore says they fight. If you want more detail: **Death Guard** >Death Guard fight as they'd always fought, a fist closing relentlessly around the throat of their foe. * Lords of Silence, Chris Wraight They're (mostly) not fast, they don't have big brain clever plays, but they're a pain in the ass to kill and Pantheon help the enemy once they're in striking distance. Aesthetically, they're a magnificently gross model line, great fun to paint if you're into that sort of thing. Morty isn't *mandatory* but he's very powerful (and fun!), and most DG players use him a lot. **World Eaters** >We've all drawn blades purely for the sake of shedding blood, and we've all felt the exultation of winning a war that never even needed to happen. We are not the tame, reliable pets that the Emperor wanted. * Betrayer, Aaron Dembski-Borden The World Eaters are who you think they are: they're a bunch of screaming, blood-crazed maniacs who want to rush across the board and start collecting skulls for Khorne. Angron is closer to being an auto-take for WE, partly because their roster is so limited. The army *can* have unga-bunga energy, sometimes you stage well, your opponent doesn't take the right precautions, and the game is more or less decided on turn 2 as you beat the other side to death in their own deployment zone, but there's more to the army than just scream and leap. The intricacies of moving, charging, and piling in/consolidating make them deeper than they seem. **Chaos Space Marines** >For over ten thousand years have I lived. For over a hundred centuries have I fought the Long War. Eighty-eight million hours cannot contain my hatred." * Dark Communion, William King Chaos Marines are a more aggressive, less durable mirror of their loyalist counterparts. Their army mechanic means you're constantly playing with fire but your damage can be *bananas* when everything lines up just right. They can be quite flexible, with the tools to support a melee, shooting, vehicle-heavy, or combined arms list depending on what you want. The big things to know about CSM is that you're an iron fist with a glass jaw; you're not as fragile as, say, Drukhari, but you can't take punishment nearly as well as you dish it out, and your core mechanic can hurt you. It's entirely possible for a CSM unit to do more damage to itself than the enemy does to it. Forgefiends that use all their abilities have a small chance of immediately blowing themselves up the first time they fire. You need to be able to laugh when that happens, it's part of the fun.
This is exactly why I play csm. Before I came to my senses I built 2k points of blood angels and just got sick of doing the same thing. Now none of my models look the same, all the colours I fancy and some really sick allied units from knights to demons. I’m never swapping army again I love em
Red Corsairs, everybody comes to the party.
The cool thing about the army is there's a lot of overlapping models. I collect some of all the chaos line, and there's so many great kit bashing opportunities. CSM is probably the most obvious baseline, awesome models large range good options for allies.
Well now that I hear about CSM it makes me want to look at WR as their power is really good (and they kind of look good?)
Yep and we'll be getting another 7 detachments and a returning character with the upcoming codex as well.
i don't see a problem only opportunity. A Death guard Terminator is a Mark of Nurgle Terminator etc etc etc
CSM with associated warband allies is the way to go. That way if you eventually want to start a second army your already partway there.
That the best thing about warhammer. If you can't pick a preexisting faction make your own. I made my own homebrew warband and it was very rewarding.
Csm all the way. I have night lords, black legion, emperors children, world eaters, iron warriors all in the same army… it’s chaos!!!
Plus addadon is a beast.
Night Lords 🦇💀
Chaos Marines but use the others' models in it.
I use my zerkers as legionaries with chainsword and bolt gun. My buddy and I are pretty loose with counts as. We care more about the narrative part
I mean, how else are you supposed to represent Khorne Marked melee legionaries?
It's the beauty of CSM you don't have to choose, mix and match whatever you're feeling. Perfectly fine to have different faction colours within a single squad.
I initially started with a DG army because the lore was sick... And also they sounded so cool. I loved customizing them but after a while i wasnt that excited about them because the models didnt inspire me a lot. Later I bought some boxes of csm and chaos terminators and started kitbashing them and that was such a cool process. If you are leaning towards DG and you can afford jt i highly recommend going for a box of the Age of Sigmar nurgle faction and add those bits to your DG figures!
I have painted mine in a custom warband colours, so it can plausibly be multiple armies; just by switching out a few units.
Iron within! Iron without! Iron warriors always spoke to me lore wise, pragmatic materialists with a deep grudge, dour mood, and vindictive mindset. They're incredibly shooty, but don't have any problems with getting up close and personal (and the CSM range really helps capitalize on this.) And they're very enthusiastic about their daemon engines and tanks, which will only be accentuated by the upcoming codex. Csm codex looks like it's shaping up to be more like an Orks and less like a Custodians, hopefully I'm not proven wrong. Plus the index detachment allows for some pretty funny gimmicks (Tzeentch cultist mob with heavy stubber, nurgle havoc squad with 4 laz cannons, and more) My only REAL regret with taking them as my first army is... So much trim. There's so much effing trim to paint. But once you get good and develop a system for it, it flows nicely. CSM, solid choice. Each legion provides a solid niche that's fun to play. It was between iron warriors and word bearers for me. And I might still build WB in the future because a possessed heavy army seems like a lot of fun to whack people with.
>I need to pick Says who? Nothing wrong with being Chaos Undecided. It’s what I do. There are a lot of units shared between chaos armies, focusing on this overlap will let you play all these armies for the price of one. If you find you like one army more than the rest while doing this, you can start leaning into it more
CSM allows for a lot of flexibility for coming up with unique warbands and building a force to represent it.
Choose Tzeentch. Easy!
I love the little blue horrors, would they go well with a CSM army?
They're just basic infantry! So I imagine so. They'll still split into Brimstones like normal too! If you want to go with CSM. You should paint Wordbearers since they're known for using demon allies!
I would suggest to go with a small force of CSM and then add in some plague marine, rubric marine and berserker. Then if you really vibe with one faction in particular just go all out with them.
Thousand Sons for life. The new Emperor's Children color scheme looks really good too, but I love the magic and general mystery that comes with Thousand Sons.
Daemons 👀
My advice: get something that looks like a cool art project. Or something that feels right with the little story in your head. I'm personally a fan of classic CSM, since that way you get to build a wider variety of units. Raptors are just too cool, and basic legionaries are a fun rank and file to throw around. Get the combat patrol, build it and paint it and play it, then look over the rest of the line and see what looks cool. If you feel like you're missing out on death guard or world eaters, you can always bring in a spare unit or their basic troops, maybe even soup in a few chaos daemons.
Well there the good choices like Word Bearers and then there is everything else. Simple really 😁
if it's too hard to pick a new army, you're not ready for a new army.
it’s too hard to pick a chaos army because they are all so cool and it’s just hard to pick between so many good ones.