Warriors of Chaos Tactica

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Most Warriors of Chaos armies hail from the north, the chaos wastes were foul warp dust permeates everything and changes the landscape into nothing more than the whim of the fickle Chaos Gods.

Mighty Warriors clad in daemon forged chaos armour, warriors who have left their brutal clans in order to dedicate themselves to battle and their dark Gods.

Backed up by the warriors of the numerous clans that live in the Chaos Wastes and Norsca. Rough, brutish people who live a harsh life, fighting for survival and honour. These Marauders, often clad in savage furs travel south to raid and pillage the realms of man. They train massive and powerful hounds that are more than willing to feed on the flesh of man.

The creatures of the mountains often aid these foul warriors, mighty Dragon Ogres and Dragon Ogre Shaggoths. A race that existed before the coming of Chaos, mortal enemies of the great drakes, rather than face extinction with the coming of Chaos they struck a pact to fight for the Dark Gods rather than fade into extinction.

Giants from the high peaks of Norsca are also roused in times of war, ready to fight for anybody that will provide them battle.

Trolls from Troll Country, east of Kislev also follow in the wake of Chaos incursions, knowing that there will be plenty of food to follow.

Ogres are another race not above the call of Chaos, after all, a race whos sole devotions are battle and eating flesh would have no problem fitting in with the forces of Chaos.

These dark armies are supported by infernal war machines created for them by the Chaos Dwarfs for the price of innumberable slaves. The mighty Hellcannons.

Mewling Spawn are one of the most fearsome sights in these armies, champions who have recieved too many 'Gifts' from their capricious Gods, wrecking their minds and turning them into nothing more than beasts.

When the Warriors of the North gather, the South trembles.

Thankfully for the soft south, the 4 Great Powers of Chaos are often at each others throats.

Khorne is the most powerful of the 4 Gods the god of battle, blood and rage, and hates most his brother Slaanesh, seeing his excess as needless and frivolous, he also hates Tzeentch, thinking his cunning manipulations and use of magic cowardly and weak.

Tzeentch is the second most powerful, creating a vast web of possibilities and futures, he plays the long game that no other can see. Twisting fate, manipulating fortune. Sorcery is the power of the minions of Tzeentch, casting warp spawned fire to burn down their foes. Tzeentch hates Nurgle, as Tzeentch creates new Empires and promotes hope, Nurgle would see them brough to ruin and promotes dispare.

Nurgle the god of disease, dispare and famine is the third most powerful, but as with disease and famine themselves, this is transeant. When disease is rife in the world, and running its course Nurgles power can eclipse that of all other gods but all diseases fade, as does Nurgle, when his foul contagions fade and die he again becomes weaker.

Slaanesh is the youngest and weakest of the 4 brothers. The master of excess, pleasure and perversion. His calling cards are some of the biggest vices of man though and with every passing day his power grows.

Despite their differences, in times of war the Gods put aside their animosity in order to unite against a common foe. Unlike their Daemonic followers, Mortals are more inclined to worship the pantheon as whole, brooking any aid they can to get them through the day to day struggles or the hard northern life.

After the mighty Vortex the Elves created to drain magic from the world and drive back the original incursions of Daemons, Mortals are now the Chaos Gods chosen servents in the world, not confined to the far north like the Daemons, Mortals can strike south at will. Despite this, it is every champions goal to be elevated to Daemonhood, thus gaining immortality.

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Army Overview;

Warriors of Chaos armies provide you with an army that is packed full of elite, hard hitting and often durable troops. Because of this though, the armies are often quite small and outnumbered.

Enemy Fire-power causes serious problems for the forces of Chaos, as we have no flyers to hunt war machines or skirmishers to screen our units, our elite and expensive models can die in droves before they ever reach the enemy. Particularly when facing Black Powder weapons. Liberal use of Hounds can be used to offset this problem somewhat, screening our most expensive units and trying to hunt war machines with their decent movement value of 7.

What we do well though is combat. The basic Chaos Warrior, although usually costing 16+ points with upgrades, gives us 2 S4, WS5 Attacks at Initiative 5. Coupled with a great armour save and decent toughness.

It usually comes down to a good old fight with Warriors of Chaos armies, trying to get our hard hitting units into the right combats whilst trying to limit the enemy flankers with units such as Marauder Horse, Hounds and Spawn. They can also have a very powerful magic phase, capable of 14 Power + 2 Bound a turn, this can make for a serious boost for the army.

Lord Choices

Chaos Lord;

Chaos Lords are probably THE hardest characters in the game, their problem lies though in their lack of any decent ward saves, so be careful when getting charged or fighting opponents with the Always Strikes First special rule. Your high toughness and great armour often sees you through though.

A Chaos Lord can, at his best dish out - 12 S8 Attacks a turn. [Mark of Khorne, Daemon Sword]

Simply mounting him on a Barded Steed is often the best course of action, with a Shield this gives him a 1+ Save. You then have a choice on many great magical weapons.The Runesword is my favourite giving +1 WS, S, A. At only half of your magical allowance you can then take something for defense if you wanted.

Marks are interesting for a Chaos Lord -

With the Mark of Tzeentch, you can actually get a decent ward save, when combined with the Talisman of Protection. With the Armour of Morrslieb you can get a 3+ ward against none magical attacks.

Mark of Nurgle make you harder to hit with both shooting and in combat. I think this is best used when mounted on a monster, as he will then be the focus of a lot of firepower.

Mark of Slaanesh is least useful on a Lord, as he has great Ld anyway and many of his mounts make him cause Fear/Terror.

Mark of Khorne is nice for the extra attack, but I would not like my Lord to be baited thanks to Frenzy and lured out of position.

He also has the choice of many mounts -

The most obvious is the Dragon, the Chaos Dragon is the most powerful in the game besides the Star Dragon of the High Elves. A powerful but expensive choice, a matter of taste really. Daibolic Splendour is a very nice choice for Dragon Lords, helping you to make the most of those Terror tests.

Manticores are just a poor mans Dragon and a bit of a liability with how easily they die. Not a good choice for a Lord.

Daemonic Mounts are no longer true Monsters, so you get the +1 armour save and still get the great stats of the mount. The also cause Fear. They are a very nice choice, if you take one though, I would take the Enchanted Shield so you keep your save at 1+.

Disks are better for Sorcerers IMO, Steeds of Slaanesh make your Lord too fast for your other Cav to keep up.

Juggernaughts are great, giving you a 0+ Save with a Shield, plus they have magic resistance.

The Chaos Lord is a powerful choice but despite this, he is usually overkill. You can often make Exalted Champions plenty powerful enough in combat to deal with most enemy characters at a lot cheaper points cost. The Lords extra Ld does come in handy though.

Sorcerer Lord;

The Sorcerer Lord is a powerful Wizard with a not too shabby statline. Always upgrade to Level 4.

There are many great offensive magical items for Wizards in this book, I think most are best on lower level wizards though, the level 4 is powerful enough as it is.

Again it is a good idea to put him on a barded steed for a 2+ save as the enemy will think of him as an easy target like most Sorcerers.

This is one place were the Manticore can be taken though, if you REALLY want a flying Monster in your army but want a magic heavy force then you can always put your Sorcerer on a Manticore as he cant have a Dragon. Stream of Corruption is nice here, giving you a breath weapon attack to use before you charge into the rear of a unit, a nice extra bit of damage to accompany your magic.

You can actually make Sorcerer Lords rather good in combat, which I think is one of the best things about Chaos Sorcerers. A nasty suprise for the enemy. With a basic statline of 3 S4 Attacks at WS5 they are decent fighters. Mounted they get another S4 Attack.

I like to take the Daemon Sword for 4 S5 Attacks. You could then also take an Enchanted Shield and Barded Steed for a 0+ Save, making a character that is both good in fights and the magic phase. You can take that even further if you wanted and can take the Talisman of Protection [for a 5+ Ward on Tzeentch Sorc Lords] and a Warrior Familiar for an Auto S5 Hit.

Word of Agony, Father of Blades, Swords of Might are also all nice choices if you want your Sorc Lord to fight.

Marks for this guy are very much dependant on which law you prefer, they are all pretty good.

Tzeentch is probably the best for the Sorc Lord, it has some great offensive spells and one of the best defensive spells in the game. It adds to your Ward Save AND gives a very important +1 to cast.

Nurgle again makes your Sorc Lord harder to kill but the law does have 2 bad spells [3+4]. The rest of the spells are good though.

Slaanesh doesn't provide much in the way of none magical benefits but it is cheap. The law is a good one, its problem though is that a full half of the spells don't work on Immune to Phsychology units so the law is next to useless against the likes of Undead and Daemons.

Overall the Sorc Lord is my favourite Lord choice, you can make him a great combat character and still have a very powerful caster.

Daemon Prince;

Daemon Princes are a tricky issue, whilst superior to their counterparts in the Daemons book, they are still nowhere near as good as Great Daemons and for a similar cost.

The problem is that they are worse at fighting than a Chaos Lord thanks to their lack of magical items and lacklustre Daemonic Gifts. They are a jack of all trades probably best served in a harassment role.

They fly, so you can get them where you want them, and they are Stubborn, so they can hold up units. So you are often best using them to pin down an enemy unit and hitting them in the flank with another unit. As the Prince will not win combats on his own.

You can make him a good spellcaster but then his points are up around 500.

Tzeentch is a good mark for him if you go for 4 levels of magic. As he will then also get a 4+ ward. You can dart him about, lending support to combat when needed but mostly using him as a Sorcerer.

You can make a fairly decent combat Prince with Word of Agony, Splendour and Fury of the Blood God. Even that costs you 400 points though.

Overall it is not a terrible choice but not a good one either. They can work and come in handy but you are better served with units more dedicated to specific roles, if you want combat, get a lord, if you want magic, get a Sorc Lord.

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Hero Choices

Exalted Champions;

Exalted Champions are great choices. Fantastic fighters and not too expensive. Their one main weakness is their relative fragility which can be offset by putting him on that trusty barded steed.

Most combinations of weapons work for these guys, even mundane weapons when on foot. Great Weapons for 4 S7. 2 Hand Weps for 5S5. Even the Flail is nice, with that high initiative, you will strike when you [hopefully] charge at S7, and then probably strike first in subsequent rounds at S5. If you go for a mundane weapon that does then leave the points for magical protection like the Armour of d**nation or Crown of Conquest.

Making an Exalted into a Battle Standard is often a great idea. I would not opt for a magical banner, all but 2 of the magical banners in this book can be taken by units anyway and the 2 that you cant mean if your Battle Standard is captured you will be giving up almost 500 points they are that expensive. You can mount the Battle Standard and give him a Shield for a 1+ Save and then give him a Sword of Battle or Might for either 5S5 or 4 S6.

You could even put him on a Daemon Steed and have the Enchanted Shield for 7 S5 Attacks, causing [and so immune to] Fear and a 1+ Save. Making a very versatile and powerful battle standard.

For the regular Exalted, Daemonic Steeds, Barded Steeds and Juggernoughts are all nice choices.

Overall they are a very solid option. It is hard to do them badly to be honest.

Sorcerer;

Another great choice. There are items in this book that allow for extra power dice, 2 in fact and 1 Sorc can take both. So you can have a Sorcer that is about as powerful as a Sorc Lord, in a Hero slot.

I would always get the extra level unless you are just taking the Sorc as a Scroll Caddy.

I know I keep going on but AGAIN, the Barded Steed is a great option. It helps keep your Sorc alive as he is not exempt from the rule that makes all models in your army challenge if they can. It also makes him quite decent in combat for a total of 3 S4 Attacks.

Marks again are a matter of preferance here.

Tzeentch Sorcerers of Disks are a nice harassment unit, hunting warmachines and blasting units with magic.

Nurgle Sorcerers are slightly more durable.

If you are going magic heavy in the army, always take the Infernal Puppet, especially if you are taking a Hellcannon. The ability to re-roll miscasts AND make the opponent re-roll them is a god send. Especially considering how the Chaos army lacks in magical defense.

The Power Familiar and Book of Secrets are both great choices and should feature in any magic heavy army. I would steer clear of Blood of Tzeentch, it is just asking for a miscast or a worse roll in my opinion. The Rod of Torment is a nice bound spell too if you are going heavy on magic and want to really blast the enemy.

Again here you can make your Sorcerers fight quite well, a simple Sword of Might or Battle makes for a decent fighter when on that Barded Steed, it will just limit your arcane items a little.

You could have 3 Lvl2 Sorcerers pumping out a combined total of 10 Power Dice a turn [including the army pool] and have an Exalted Champion leading your force for a relatively cheap and effective set of characters at 2000 points.

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Core Choices

Chaos Warriors;

These guys are the poster boys of the army. Iron Clad Behemoths, awesome in combat.

They are a decent if expensive choice so be wary if taking too many in an army as you will then be seriously lacking in support units. This is one of your hammer units, meant to hit the enemy hard.

The 2 best set ups for Warriors are;

15 Warriors; 270
Shields,
Full Command.

12 Warriors; 234
Halberds,
Shields,
Full Command.

The first unit relies on its durability, it deploys 5 wide and should recieve very few casualties, high WS, 2+ Save in combat mean that these guys will stick around in a fight. They also have 2 ranks and a banner for +3 combat res and should get at least a few kills with their 11 S4 Attacks.

The second is only 12 models in order to have 2 ranks of 6 to maximise the units frontage. This will give you 13 S5 Attacks, with 1 less point of static combat resolution, this unit makes up for that in the amount of kills it gets. You still take the Shield to help against missile fire or for when you really need that extra save in combat.

Additional Hand Weapons and Great Weapons are not bad choices, but not as good as the ones above. Both of these choices should be taken like the Halberd set up if you do decide to take them.

Marks are very important for Warrior units -

Slaanesh is the cheapest and probably the best, it make your unit almost immune to pschology whilst you can still choose flee as a charge reaction. Cheap and very handy for these expensive warrior blocks, never leave home without at least this mark on your Warrior units.

Khorne gives you some serious hitting power, those Halberds would be on 19 S5 Attacks. This mark also makes the Great Weapon and 2 Hand Weapon options more viable. Frenzy is as always a double edged sword though, do you want your very expensive unit chasing an eagle off the wrong way in a battle or getting hit in the flank after killing some 80 points worth of dire wolves?

Nurgle is nice but expensive, it makes your unit great against other WS5 elite infantry and makes regular WS3 Infantry very innefective against you [as they would now hit on 5's]. Also keeps your unit alive longer when getting shot at. If you can spare the points its a nice option.

Tzeentch isn't too good for them. The 6+ Ward adds a little to their durability but thats it and it is expensive.

Warriors have access to a 50 point magical banner. There are many great ones to choose from -

Rapturous Standard is awesome for any Warrior unit, cheap and can keep your Warriors in fights they should run from very easily.

Festering Shroud is nice on defensive units if fighting low toughness enemies, a great Elf and Human killer and still cheap.

Banner of Rage is great on offensive units without the Mark of Khorne. Giving you Frenzy that you never lose. On a Nurgle Halberd unit this will mean you getting 19 S5 Attacks, hitting on 3's even against WS5 opponents.

Blasted Standard is great on Tzeentch units for a total 4+ ward against shooting.

Banner of Wrath is great in magical heavy armies as it is a fairly decent bound spell.

Warbanner is useful as it is in every army, after all, those Shield units would cost you an extra 80 points for an extra point of combat res for another rank, the Warbanner gives you that point for 55 points less.

Marauders;

Marauders a the workhorse of the army, useful in a wide variety of roles.

They make great defensive anvil units, winning on static combat resolution whilst minimising losses so that your Warriors can then charge in and win the combat for them. With the introduction of cheap Flials and Marks for these units, this is no longer their sole purpose.

Here are some nice set ups for your Marauders -

Defensive;

25 Marauders;
Shields,
Light Armour,
Full Command.
[5x5]

A cheap and effective choice. You can then either give them the Mark of Nurgle or Slaanesh. Nurgle makes them harder to kill, Slaanesh harder to break. Both are great options but Slaanesh is much cheaper.

Offensive;

24 Marauders;
Flials,
Full Command.
[6x4]

This unit can again be given the Mark of Slaanesh or Nurgle, both work well. Nurgle will allow you to hit easier, whilst Slaanesh just ensures you get those charges off against Fear Causers.

18 Marauders;
Great Weapons,
Full Command,
Khorne.

A very hard hitting unit, giving 2S5 attacks to every model for a very cheap price.

Marauders can also be used in cheap, naked, 10 man units to screen your expensive warriors. Small cheap units can also be used as bait and re-directers too.

You can even use some Khorne units as a hammer themselves and use Warriors with Shields as your anvil if you really wanted.

They are a fantastic choice and you will see them in most armies.

Marauder Horsemen;

Like the infantry, this is a cheap and effective unit that can fulfill many vital roles.

They can march block, they are your most effective war machine hunters, they are great rank breakers with that important flank/rear charge.

They can hit hard in combat or harass units with ranged attacks.

They are your best bait unit.

A few nice options are -

5 Horsemen;
Flials,
Slaanesh.

This unit is cheap at 85 Points and makes for a great flank charger. Capable of beating some units on its own with a flank charge. You will see this unit a LOT in Chaos armies.

5 Horsemen;
Throwing Axes.

This unit is even cheaper, causes a fair bit of damage with those axes and can really harass enemy units. This option is great if you have a defensive army with lots of magic or Hellcannons.

7 Horsmen;
Flials,
Light Armour,
Mark of Khorne.

This unit actually hits harder than most heavy cavalry in the game, whilst moving like light cavalry. 14 S5 WS4 Attacks and then 14 S3 Attacks can break units head on, then when you consider this unit is fast cav and so can easily reach flanks it makes for a scary prospect for your opponent. Coming in at around 140 points, the unit still isn't that expensive. You could even put a banner in here if you really wanted.

One of the key points for this unit is that you can get an effective legal core choice for 75 points. If you really want your points spent on Special, Characters and Rare, then you can save a lot of points by taking 3 units of these.

Another very effective unit.

Hounds;

The last core choice and once again we have a very cheap and useful unit.

We can get a unit of 6 for 36 points. This gives Unit Strength 12 and M7. This unit is perfect for a great many roles.

-Breaking ranks with a flank charge [as the WS 4 helps keep them alive in combat too].
-Hunting Warmachines and missile units [thanks to that M7]
-Screeining your Cavalry [Thanks to the points cost and speed]
-Baiting and re-directing.

One of the main roles for Hounds is simply getting in your opponents way and angling so that the opponent is forced to charge them or waste a lot of time avoiding them. If they get charged you make sure it makes the enemy pursue in an unenviable direction. After all this, all your opponent is getting for the unit is 36 points.

The only problem with Hounds is that they do not count as your minimum core requirements, so you will still have to take other core choices. That isn't a problem though as almost anybody can find 36 points for a unit of Hounds and it is not like our other core choices are bad.

[Arguleon Veq]

Special Choices