I have been wanting to get into 40K for years. I am finally thinking of diving in and starting with Chaos Knights. A few questions on how to get rolling.

For many years I have always loved the lore of 40k and have always wanted to get into the actual tabletop game. Life has been crazy and I was never able to do so though. Finally I think I might be able to take this up as a new hobby! I am really tempted to dive into Chaos Knights to start.

Lore wise Chaos is my favorite aspect of 40k. I especially love the concept of Chaos Undivided. No matter what I build though I have the goal of magnetizing everything so I can hot swap it as rules change and get updated. Given this I kind of like the idea of having a much smaller army that only specializes on a few big units. I am also a fan of the mech genre (MechWarrior, Armored Core, and Mobile Suit Gundam) so this might just be a good fit for me!

I like the idea of having a simple and straightforward army. What really caught my attention is that Poorhammer said that you can build an entire 2,000 point army just buy buying 6 boxes of War Dogs. That seems like a really awesome way to have an entire magnetized army able to hot swap out for multiple scenarios.Correct me if I am wrong, my understanding is that War Dogs come in five varieties Huntsmen, Executioners, Stalkers, Karnivores, and Brigands.

It seems like Huntsmen and Executioners come from the Imperial Knights Knight Armigers box and Stalkers, Karnivores, and Brigands come from the Chaos Knights War Dogs box. Would I be buying multiple of just the War Dog box or a mix of the two?

Auspex Tactics said that you could paint your units an generic color scheme and could run them either as Imperial Knights or Chaos Knights. I really love that concept as well having access to two different codices with ab already magnetized force. How would this work? Does anyone have a list that I can reference? Not committed to this idea but it is really awesome, maybe a way to expand down the road after I get a War Dog force going first?

I think to begin with I am just going to start with one box of War Dogs and build it as the Combat Patrol. That seems like an easy way to dip my toe in and not break the bank. I am sure that being new to model building that even setting up that combat patrol will take me quite some time to build, magnetize, prime and paint it all. Nevertheless this looks like a labor of love to me.

Is there anything else I need to know before I dive in? Are there any houses that serve Choas Undivided? I know choosing a house is a lore/aesthetic choice over a gameplay one.

To start out before anything else I think at bare minimum I am going to pick up the old 8th edition codex for $5 on eBay and read up on the lore. Seems like a good starting point as I like collecting old codices for pennies on the dollar and seeing how lore has changed over time.

Thank you for all your help and guidance here. Really excited to finally dive into the game all these years later and maybe finally find a faction that is a good fit.