[Bloodcuddler of Khorne]

I've just started collecting and putting my Chaos Marines together. Originally I was thinking about going with an extremely Undivided army, but some of the god-specific stuff is starting to look pretty appealing. Unfortunately I only have so much money to put into this army, and I don't want to strain the limits of my friends' tolerance of "counts as."

I generally don't play in tournaments, so I'm not too worried about that. As for the armies I'll be playing against, one friend has Space Marines and Orks, one has Eldar and Tyranids, one has Space Wolves and Tyranids, one has Blood Angels, one has just Orks and one just has Imperial Guard. Another friend is going to get Necrons as soon as he has some money to spend on it. I'm generally the only Chaos player--I figured someone has to do it--but I also have Daemons, if we try to get someone into Warhammer and they need an army.

I know this is a pretty varied list of armies, but I'm trying to decide what would be the best investment for playing against them--regular Chaos Marines, Plague Marines or decked out Noise Marines?

 

[High_Seraph]

really just get what appeals to you and if its a friendly game counts as is fine if you want to see how a unit does.

 

[Honsu The Half-Breed]

Well It depends upon what you want your army to do (thanks to jasonfly for explaining these terms to me still a 40k noob) Footslogging, Mech Close Combat, Shooty, Hybrid between CC and Shooty. TBH you would probably benefit from a well balanced army mixing in elements of each so that you have all bases covered. But as for the PM's Vs. NM'S PM's will survive better due to the toughness but you could inflict mass damage with lash prince and noise marines due to the templates. (use lash prince to mess with the layout of troops and bunch them together so that the template covers as many as possible and "nuke" them.
Honsu

 

[fynn]

well i have used both types in my army, and both work will, but what you can do for a start, is as cash is a concern, save the cash for the noise marines, and use stadard CSM models with a bit of GS, or a sickly paint job as your PM's, and if you dont currently have any spare CSM's, you can probaly fine em cheap enough on ebay

 

[Bloodcuddler of Khorne]

So neither are really "better" or "worse" for the armies I'm up against? Hmm.. maybe I'll try a mix of both?

If I had to choose a type of army, I'd probably go "Shooty" for the Chaos Marines, since my Daemon army pretty much has close combat covered, and because the Orks and Tyranids I'm up against are very CC focused. Maybe somewhat shooty/cc hybrid just because I imagine that's a lot easier for Marine armies to achieve than Daemons.

 

[fynn]

if you go with PM's, try and keep em out of CC, as there low I makes em suck balls in CC, where as NM are better. but both are good for shooty armys, PM's with 2 plasma guns in arhino gives the oppenont a few head aches, and NM are the same in arhino.
1 advantage of the sonic weapons are the fact that can pin the target, so great for use against guard and small mobs of boys

 

[Malgron]

I'm going to agree with Honsou and fynn.

I use a couple of regular CSM in my PM squads. Greenstuff works well to make them look corrupt. Painting is easy as camo green > dark green ink> Drybrush camo> drybrush sunburst yellow.

Using both cult troops could work well. Just decide which one will perform which tasks. Both can objective camp, and both can be rushed forward. If you are going to use lash, Why not have PM in a rhino w/ havoc objective sit so they still have a TL 48" range small blast while a NM squad can move forward.

Alternately, since NM don't have the best anti-tank, you could send melta PM forward and keep NM with blastmasters and havoc rhinos camp.

You could probably make your own noise marines by cutting up a sprue to make sonic blasters, and adding the Dirge Caster bit from vehicle sprue for a doom siren champ.

Peace!

 

[daxxglax]

Noise Marines are definitely the more shooty of the two. Plague Marines are quite good though; T5, Feel No Pain, Blight grenades... they're great for claiming and defending objectives. Plus, with Meltagun access, they're better at popping tanks than Noise Marines. If I were you, I'd take both.

As Fynn said, you can easily use green stuff (or just a nurglish paint scheme) to denote Plague Marines, and you can get regular CSMs on ebay for cheap. I'd advise stright-up buying the Noise Marines.

 

[Ghost792]

Well I'd definitely say noise marines but that may have some bias to it. Noise marines are the better shooters (against infantry) and plague marines will survive better (and can take melta guns). I would suggest that you use both and see which one you like better and what better suits your tactics.

 

[Katie Drake]

I'd say go with both. Most players use Berserkers and Plague Marines as both work well together (the Plague Marines pick up the Zerk's slack when it comes to shooting where the Zerkers make up for the Plague Marine's slowness in combat), but Noise Marines and Plague Marines are complimentary as well.

Noise Marines are quick in close combat and have access to weapons that excel at shredding light infantry and can do quite a number on heavier troops as well. With a Blastmaster, Noise Marines become an unholy terror for infantry of all kinds. Noise Marines are also quite good at dishing out pain while on the move since all sonic weaponry has a mode that allows the weapon to fire as an Assault weapon. Noise Marines are also good at taking objectives. An Aspiring Champion with a Doomsiren can kill a ton of Space Marines in a turn and because of their high Initiative excel at assaulting into cover.

Plague Marines are hard as nails and can be equipped to deal with even the heaviest vehicles. Their basic armament gives them a minimum of anti-infantry ability as well, and since they have Blight grenades Plague Marines are good at receiving charges.

Basically, you can use Noise Marines to clear objectives and Plague Marines to hold them.

 

[Inquisitor Malaclypse]

good advice all around army building wise.

as it pertains to the issue of collecting models i'd buy the standard CSM box and paint them to your preference.

you could even paint them in Black Legion colors, set up your shoulder pads to be interchangeable and they can be NM one week and PM's the next.

 

[Bloodcuddler of Khorne]

Using both sounds good, thanks guys

One quick question about using the Noise Marines though... if I have them sitting relatively back and shooting while the Plague Marines move up for objectives, am I better off taking the Noise Marines in squads of 5 so I can take more Blastmasters, or groups of 10 just so there's more of them to take wounds?

 

[Katie Drake]

Using both sounds good, thanks guys

One quick question about using the Noise Marines though... if I have them sitting relatively back and shooting while the Plague Marines move up for objectives, am I better off taking the Noise Marines in squads of 5 so I can take more Blastmasters, or groups of 10 just so there's more of them to take wounds?

I wouldn't bother taking squads of Noise Marines that will do nothing but sit back and shoot. Instead take units that can be flexible. A squad of 8 with Champion with doomsiren and power weapon and two or three models with sonic blasters in a Rhino is perfect. You can either sit in the Rhino and shoot out of it in defense, or move up to assault as needed. Noise Marines are probably the most flexible Cult Marine type, so equip and use them accordingly.

 

[Bloodcuddler of Khorne]

Well, I went to the store to pick up a box of Noise Marines. Fortunately, my roommate was working, and he warned me that there's only one actual Sonic Blaster in there! All it has different from a normal CSM box is the one blaster, one blastmaster and the doom siren.

If I wanted a squad of 10 where 9 of them have the Sonic Blasters, is there a more efficient way to model them from normal CSM?

 

[Katie Drake]

If I wanted a squad of 10 where 9 of them have the Sonic Blasters, is there a more efficient way to model them from normal CSM?

Just order the sonic blasters separately. It's actually not too expensive.

 

[Orochi]

Looking at the Armies your friends have. The only armies in the whole list that would make me say PMs is BA and marines. The rest will be easily broken by some hardcore noise from noise marines.

 

[Warlock in Training]

I wouldn't bother taking squads of Noise Marines that will do nothing but sit back and shoot. Instead take units that can be flexible. A squad of 8 with Champion with doomsiren and power weapon and two or three models with sonic blasters in a Rhino is perfect. You can either sit in the Rhino and shoot out of it in defense, or move up to assault as needed. Noise Marines are probably the most flexible Cult Marine type, so equip and use them accordingly.

This nails it. TSons and NMs need more tataics to use, if sitting on objectives with blast masters or taking objectives with Doom Sirens, I use 8. 5 SBs, and 1 BM with 2 spare wounds is good to sit and dakka. 8 with 5 BMs and DS/PW Champ with 2 spare wounds is useful. Ethier one works.