Chaos Marines: Bi-curious, or Two is Company.

So after my tournament last weekend, I discovered how truly wonderful Plague Marines are for holding onto objectives.  Even 5 can be a tiresome chore to get rid of (especially behind an Aegis).  I did however miss the devastating firepower of cheap units of Noise Marines toting Blastmaster.  So, is there room in the 41st millenium for someone who like a little of both?

Something I noticed, while flipping through my Chaos Marines codex is that you can actually take two different Chaos cults as Troops by having two marked lords (or special characters).  While that becomes a bit heavy in the character taxes, and means you wont be getting a Sorcerer (unless you want Thousand Sons) or Daemon Prince, it can actually open up some nasty options in your Troops department.

So with friendship in mind, here's the kind of list that I think might be fun to give a whirl:

Chaos Lord: Mark of Nurgle, Terminator armor, chainfist, lightning claw, blight grenades Chaos Lord: Mark of Slaanesh, lightning claw, Burning Brand of Skalathrax

5 Chaos Terminators: 5 Combi-plasma, 3 power axes, power sword, chainfist

5 Noise Marines: Blastmaster 5 Noise Marines: Blastmaster 5 Plague Marines: 2 Plasma guns 5 Plague Marines: 2 Plasma guns 12 Chaos Cultists

Heldrake: Baleflamer Heldrake: Baleflamer

5 Havocs: 4 Autocannons, Veterans of the Long War 1 Obliterator: Mark of Nurgle 1 Obliterator: Mark of Nurgle

Aegis Defense Line

Total: 1,748

I really couldn't figure out any way to squeeze more out of the list, maybe dropping 2 cultists to add some sonic blasters to the Noise Marines?  The list has plenty of AP2 to handle monsters, terminators and the like, as well as the AP3 firepower from Noise Marines and Heldrakes.  The overall plan is to leave the noise marines and cultists in the back field on objectives, while the Terminators and Plague Marines advance to try and reach other objectives.  Some rhinos might be nice, but I rarely see them live long enough to get me any extra distance anyhow.

In general, I think there is something to be said about having multiple cults for scoring troops, especially if it's complimented by Nurgle or Slaanesh.  A Khorne army could gain a lot from having some Plague Marines in the back field squatting on objectives, or a Tzeentch army could compliment it's AP3 firepower with some Blastmasters.  Looks like I have some combinations to play and test!