Guard or Chaos Marines

[Duncndisorderly]

Not sure if this is the right section, but I hope it is. Anyway, I'm thinking of starting a new army (already use Blood Angels) and I'm a little undecided between Guard or Chaos Marines so my question is in two parts :

1) which would you reccomend ?

2) On a budget of £150 or $240 what would you buy?

Im hoping to put a 1500 point list togetherbut I'm not really sure where to begin other than a Battleforce
Thanks in Advance

[ElCheezus]

If you go infantry guard, you might be able to pull it off on that budget. If you want to go mech, you'd need to find some good deals, the tanks can add up pretty quickly. For example my mech list has two Hydras, a Leman Russ, four Chimeras, two Vendettas, and a Hellhound. And I'd add more if I had them. I'd estimate that around $360, not counting the Hydras since I'm converting them from old Gryffons. And that doesn't include the infantry you'll still need. Infantry guard, though, you should have a little easier time of buying lots at once. I'm pretty sure there's a box of 5 basic guardsmen with no options for about $8. Since that's the bulk of what you need, that would help.

Can't comment on the cost of Chaos Marines, though. They benefit from a much, much lower model count, yeah?

[eagleboy7259]

If cost is a limiting factor I would definately go Chaos Space Marines. Mech Guard is probably one of the most expensive armies in the game to field. It also really depends on what kind of army you want to have, Guard and Chaos Marines are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Shooty = Guard & Assualty = Chaos Marines. There really isn'y much of a middle ground for either of the armies.

The battleforce is a pretty poor jumping off point for Chaos Marines. You could get a realative cheap army onto the table using 2 Boxes of Khrone Bezerkers, Kharn the Betrayer, 2 Rhinos, Land Raider, and a Demon Prince. Then it's really whatever you want to add to it, Dreadnought, Defiler, Obliterators, Terminators, etc.

[Duncndisorderly]

I think I'm probably gonna go guard and start out with two battleforce's that should get me a healthy amount of troop and heavy weapons teams as a starter. Im also thinking of adding two leman russ to the list again as a starter.
Is there anything anyone would suggest as an alternative to the russ tanks?

[Feighan-Raask]

If you can make the money stretch far enough consider getting leman russ demolisher's/executioner. Not only are these tanks really effective they are slightly more points so will help you reach the 1500 point target.

[gcsmith]

I like the tank which is s6 ap3 ignores cover, Its never seen often, and with cover reigning supreme would be better at anti meq in my opinion.

[Connjurus]

I'm gonna cast my vote in for one Demolisher and one Executioner.

[lowdog]

I would go IG just for the difference in playstyle. You already have a MEQ army that's good in assault. Guard will flex different tactical muscles, even if it's a bigger investment in time and money.

[w7west]

If you want to learn basic tactics, chaos space marines is an excellent army to do this with and I would suggest starting with two chaos space marine or plague marine squads each in a rhino. Add to this a daemon prince and some heavy support or perhaps a dedicated cc squad and you should be landing somewhere between 1000-1500.

CSM is a great mix of functionality and survivability and it allows you to learn about every phase of the game. (moving, shooting, assaulting.. each part is very important to winning with chaos)

If you are the kind of guy who just wants to start crushing all who oppose him as quickly as possible, I would suggest guard. Spend 5-10 minutes figuring out how to put the chimeras in front of the heavy tanks for cover, and then all that is needed is a few buckets of dice. Sometimes it will be important to know which things need to be shot at first if for some reason you can't shoot everything in range into pieces on your first turn.

[Duncndisorderly]

thanks for the good info people, much appreciated
Spent a few hours at my local GW yesterday and have been advised towards vendettas/valkyries and a manticore/deathstrike to go with the Russ tanks.
Any thoughts on these? picked up the codex whilst I was there, should keep my fluff addiction happy for a while

[Duncndisorderly]

Just by way of an update I've set my shopping list as follows
2 x battleforce
2 x Leman Russ
2 x chimera
1 x basilisk
1 x Deathstrike Missile launcher
1 x Valkyrie

Am I making any unneccesary purchases here? if so what would you reccomend instead??