Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos

"Change! Rot! Blood! Defile!"

– Game battle chant for Warriors of Chaos, shared with Norsca

This is the tactica for the Total War: Warhammer version of the Warriors of Chaos.

Why Play Warriors of Chaos

• Because you want to see the unending tides of damnation overrun all that is good and civilized in this world.
• Because even the demons undivided faction doesn't have a roster big enough for you.
• Because back in my day only the bad guys wore Stupidly OP Armor.

Pros

• Top-grade Melee: Pound for pound, your troops are among the best in the entire game when it comes to melee combat. Though your reign as the undisputed combat champion of the game has come to an inglorious end due to feature/power creep (not even mentioning the coming of Khorne), precious other factions will be able to face you in melee and walk away unscathed.
• Armor: Regardless of which ever one of the Dark Gods you decided to suck off, they gifted you an ungodly amount of armor to protect your troops from the enemy. If for whatever reason the other guy decided not to bring AP against you, you've pretty much already won the fight right there.
• Monsters: You got a monster for every role. Shaggoths for anti-large, manticores for flying terror bombers, chaos spawn to help win you the frontline grind even faster and hounds to chase away pesky skirmishers. That said, power creep has eroded this advantage since the WoC debut in WH1, don't expect your big guys to match the likes of Lizardmen or Tomb Kings.
• Versatility: You're not the most versatile of factions, but you have a fuckheug roster with mono-chaos marked variants of marauders, chaos warriors, chariots, cavalry, etc. With all of the high quality troops you have, you can deploy a wide assortment of tactics against all kinds of opponents. You can use rushes, monster mashes, artillery boxes, magic bombs, and make your lords into one man armies. With how much good stuff is at your disposal, you can come up with all kinds of crazy tactics to throw at your opponent.
• Strong Lords: Your lord options are pretty damn good. Archaon is one of the better duelist characters, Kholek kills whatever he is fighting, Sigvald is the king of "never die" and Sarthoreal is a raid boss with impressive magic abilities. The new lords introduced in the Champions of Chaos DLC aren't to be fucked with either. Festus is a support monster, Valkia + Azazel are some of the best flying duelist lords in the game, and Vilitch is outright busted if you stack barrier regeneration. Even generic sorcerers are pretty damn good in melee, especially if you give them dragon mounts.

Cons

• DLC Faction: The original controversy from the first game, the Chaos Warriors were originally locked up as a pre-order bonus for the first game, slapping those who didn't do so with an extra $8 tax to play as them. For penny-pinching fans, this can make them a hard sell. Plus if you want the marked units and characters that's an extra $16. If you want the full Chaos experience you will need to buy 3 separate games and two DLCs, all together costing about $204. I mean I guess that's cheaper than most decent tabletop armies but god, wait for a sale if you want all of this at once.
  • Update: Immortal Empires is now free for everyone and you can buy the DLCs separately, so it's not nearly as bad as before but you may still have to pay more than you might want to play as the walking refrigerators.
• Limited Skirmishing: You do have some mounted skirmishers, but odds are they aren't going to be the reason why you win the fight. You are not going to be beating your opponent in the skirmishing phase of the fight.
• Limited Ranged: You're generally bringing a battle axe to a gun fight. While you can artillery box with chaos cannons and pick away at enemies with ranged skirmishers, shooting is not your strong suite.
• Slow: The downside of all that armor? It makes you slow as all hell. This, combined with the con listed above, means you are pretty vulnerable to enemy AP Missiles. Be sure that you devote a few of your troops to getting on those skirmishers and limiting how much damage to your troops they do on the way in.
• Expensive: Sadly, all this good quality comes at a price. With how expensive a lot of your troops are, odds are you will probably be outnumbered in whatever match up you are going up against. Expect to rely on quality over quantity when you are choosing to rep team WoC.

The campaign und unique mechanics (The Old World)

• Subjugation, Vassalization, and Norscan Awakenings: The Warriors of Chaos can subjugate lesser mortals and make them their vassals. In TWWH1/2, this was restricted to Norscans, but in TWWH3, the Warriors of Chaos can subjugate human and elf factions by defeating their last settlement. Vassals pay tribute, and count as your provinces for provincial edicts. They must join your wars, but the inverse is also true, which can be a pain because AI Factions don't factor who the suzerain is of vassal factions; you can have a military pact with, say, Skaven or Ogres, and they'll still declare war on any of your vassals.
  • Archaon and Be'lakor may also force confederations of other Chaos Lords by taking over their last settlement, and considering the WoC are now flush with Legendary Lord options, you can create some terrifying doomstacks in the late-game.
  • Finally, taking over certain settlements in the North can lead you to either vassalize the Norscan tribe (if they're still around), or awaken them if they aren't. You'll want to keep just the Dark Fortresses for yourself, as there's really no point in holding minor settlements short of casualty-replenishment on long campaigns. Trading captured settlements to your vassals also lets them get stronger, gives you gold, and lets them worry about holding it.
• Gifts of Chaos: The chaos gods will love to give you gifts in exchange for souls of the fallen. You can sacrifice souls from enemies to gain various boons. These come in the form of undivided gifts, and gifts to specific gods. These can range from buffing units, to gaining new units such as daemons and dragon ogres. You can get souls from defeating any non daemon factions in battle. Fail to pay the tithe of souls however, and the chaos gods won't mind taking their gifts away. Some gifts of chaos can only be unlocked after making a certain amount of sacrifices.
• Path to Glory: Your lords can devote themselves to the chaos gods and, given enough time, ascend to daemonhood. Every lord can take different marks. For instance, a standard chaos lord can devote to Khorne and give major boons to khornate troops in his army. While a chaos sorcerer of death can devote himself to Nurgle and switch his lore of death for the lore of Nurgle, or just stick with death. At level 20 all chaos lords can ascend to Daemonhood at a large cost of souls. This makes them very powerful and get a mix of their patreon gods magic, lest you are playing Khorne of course. Similar to ogres, Chaos lords can gain titles by completing certain objectives such as defeating a certain race or losing a battle and surviving. This allows your lords to forge quite the name for themselves.
• Warbands/Marks of Chaos: What used to just be glorified banners pre Warhammer 3 are now your ticket to unlocking warriors devoted to each god. On campaign as a unit gains experience you have a chance to upgrade them to superior units, for instance you can upgrade a Marauder unit to Chaos Warriors to Chosen. However, if your army has the proper level of Dark Authority for a specific god, you can also give them a mark for that god which alters their appearance and stats. Some subfactions will have an easier time with certain marks than others, for instance Sigvald will have an easy time getting Slaanesh units but Khorne units will be hard to come by. You will need a Lord or Hero of a specific god in order to get the authority for it, so you will have a hard time recruiting and maintaining Nurgle units if there isn't a Nurgle lord or hero in the army. In multiplayer, this means that you can take 4 marked units alongside your mostly undivided army, included specialized marked mortals such as Skullcrusher or Hellstriders. In order to make sure half the units below don't get an extra 4 paragraphs of what they do, here is a general list of the stats each Mark does and each unit that can take Marks will be checked below
  • The Mark of Khorne gives a unit spell resistance and frenzy in exchange for less melee defense, so if you are looking to play offense you will want to give your blessings to the Blood God.
  • Mark of Tzeentch will give a unit Barrier and Magic Attacks, making them great if you are fighting an enemy that has a high amount of physical resistance or if you want them to have a bit of protection going in.
  • Mark of Nurgle will give the unit poison attacks extra Melee Defense and HP in exchange for less attack, making this the choice if you are looking to outlast your enemy.
  • Mark of Slaanesh will give a unit Immune to Psych, more Speed, strider, a physical resist and Devastating Flanker on cavalry. If you want to play a mobility heavy playstyle or you're fighting a ton of fear and terror this is your mark.

Legendary Lords and Subfactions

Each Legendary Lord has unique ways to access units from the vanilla/Undivided roster, while LLs from the Champions of Chaos DLC have better access to their God's daemons and Marks.

• Archaon the Everchosen: at the start of TW:WH it was a joke that he was the Neverchosen, but recent progressive buffs have been slowly improving him. Still waiting to see if he will ever get his title back from Kholek but he is currently usable in multiplayer. As of Immortal Empires, He is an extremely powerful melee lord with access to two spells each from the lores of Fire, Metal, and Death. He can fling Searing Doom and Transmutation of Lead from Metal, Flaming Sword of Rhuin and Burning Head from Fire, and Spirit Leech and Purple Sun of Xereus. He gets the cream of the crop of Fire and Death spells, and his Metal spells are alright; it may have been a bit too busted if he got Final Transmutation instead of Transmutation of Lead. He is among the strongest melee lords stat-wise in-game even before taking items, and he's now a more than capable caster. He doesn't get the AoS version of Dorghar, but Dorghar does give him over 3k mass, far more than any other horse-bound character (which is fair, both Archaon and Dorghar are HUGE), so he can get out of a tight spot easier than similar characters. Seriously, he has higher mass than Karl Franz on Deathclaw. Although Be'lakor and the Daemon Prince are more expensive multiplayer lords Archaon is right behind as the third most expensive lord.
  • Campaign: Archaon, as the Everchosen, has easier access to monogod rosters as well as better Authority to command forces from rival gods. Currently he's one of only two WoC LLs who can confederate the others, done by subjugating their final settlement, which encourages you to avoid alliances entirely.

• Kholek Suneater: For a long time Kholek was the most popular MP lord pick for the Warriors of Chaos, to the point that he became the faction's face more than Archaon. This was with good reason, as Kholek is a a world beater of a Legendary Lord. He's a massive, tough, anti-large monstrous lord that is difficult to pin down due to his good speed and mass, and is perfectly fine beating the snot out of infantry as well. Even better when gooning around with his Dragon Ogre boys. With the addition of more WoC LLs in TW:WH3 he's no longer the most common choice of lord but he's still a formidable pick. Has two special abilities, one of which boosts his melee abilities and the other of which is a bombardment.
  • Campaign: Has bonuses that buff Dragon Ogres, giving reduced recruitment cost and upkeep while buffing attack for Shaggoths. Kholek also spreads more Chaos Corruption and has high undivided authority but no boosts to monogod authority at all.

• Prince Sigvald the Magnificent: Used to be bad but got significantly better after The Twisted & The Twilight update. A powerful and quick foot duelist that will never suffer fatigue penalties. His small size, perfect vigor and very high melee stats make him slippery, but when combined with the regen from his unique item he ties with Gor-Rok for the tankiest lord in the game.
  • Campaign: Despite his overwhelming ego, his campaign has him being most in touch with Norsca, having a stronger diplomatic bonus, and have practically the same unit version of the unit with them having the Norsca "Rage", with it upgrading to the superior "Berserk" at late veterancy to keep marauders viable. A Leadership bonus against men encourages him to go after the Empire or Norsca. A bit of an odd duck, as since he's already devoted to Slaanesh CA has to differentiate him from Azazel. He can recruit Slaaneshi Mortals and Daemons turn one, and as Slaanesh's boytoy has Dark Authority to better control them. In turn, he pays a premium to hire and keep Khornates unless he has a Khornate Hero tagging along.

• Be'lakor: Holy hell this guy is strong, even compared to other Warriors of Chaos legendary lords. In addition to fear/terror and the usual high melee statline, he gets a 45% ward save activated ability, passive regeneration that increases for every nearby enemy with wavering morale, and a leadership penalty aura which also removes immune to psychology from nearby enemies. And he's a lore of shadows caster who gets winds of magic cost reductions to all casts. Stack armor, physical resist, and ward saves and he can solo entire enemy armies.
  • Campaign: Gets his own Warriors of Chaos faction starting in Albion in Immortal Empires. Comes with a unique mechanic to corrupt non-legendary human lords into daemon princes. Being the Daemon Prince of Undivided, he can access the Gifts and Favors of the Dark Gods earlier, but must prove himself before he can give them specific marks. Currently he's the other WoC LL (alongside Archaon) who can confederate the others, done by subjugating their final settlement, which encourages you to avoid alliances entirely. Has a big -25% upkeep to all daemon units which stacks with authority bonuses.

• Azazel: As the DP of Slaanesh, Azazel comes with the Lore of Slaanesh and like Slaanesh's daemon lords Azazel is geared for dueling lords and terror bombing wimps with wavering morale. He's very fast, hits very hard, and oddly is classified as infantry size so isn't vulnerable to anti-large sniping. His sword, the Daemonblade, is an especially good magical item that grants the Discouraged contact effect, improving Azazel's proclivity for triggering terror routs.
  • Campaign: Azazel gets full access to Slaanesh's campaign abilities, with some minor alterations. Fitting with his role as Slaanesh's pimp he can seduce his enemy's units to add to his own roster and has +80 diplomacy with the Human factions, meaning through some careful and selective warfare you could make yourself less of a target. He gets cheaper seduction for human units and when stacked with the tech tree reduction he can actually be significantly better at seducing (human) units than N'kari.

• Festus the Leechlord: The Plague Doctor is in, and he comes with a unique pair of mutually exclusive abilities. One is a Mortis Engine-style AoE damage aura, the other is an AoE healing aura. Only one can be active at a time, but they're very strong because he doesn't have to be in melee combat to activate them, unlike a lot of other units with these sorts of abilities. Festus is otherwise a decent caster with the Lore of Nurgle. Since he can heal with both abilities and spells he is a very strong lord choice, but his slow speed, low armor, and mediocre combat stats make him vulnerable to getting sniped or assassinated.
  • Campaign: Fitting in with his Leechlord aesthetic, he can heal his army a quarter past the normal cap, and Festus' army and vassals have access to poison attacks. He can brew plagues on top of his plagues lasting longer.

• Vilitch the Curseling: A caster/melee hybrid lord with a few quirks. Uses the Lore of Tzeentch which is very strong for dealing damage, but lacks buffs to improve their melee skills which are okay-ish, but lack armor piercing. They can hold their own in a blob but don't expect them to fend off dedicated duelist lords/heroes. Has a couple of abilities revolving around Barrier, one that's a passive that heals the Barrier of any nearby units and another that heals the Barrier of any nearby unit but only when Vilitch is casting. These stack with each other, making Vilitch an excellent support lord but only for Tzeentchian units, especially when they're spamming a lot of cheap low-cooldown spells like Blue or Pink Fire. Has another ability which buffs their spell mastery and Melee skills, but requires them to be either casting or in melee for it to go off. Also, while their combat stats are good, they're still a footlord with low mobility. Be careful not to overextend or they'll get gooned to death.
  • Campaign: They can use a slightly altered version of the Changer of Ways abilities and gets the Teleportation stance meaning they're an absolute troll in the Campaign map. Also give their vassals better Barrier and Tzeentch Corruption.

• Valkia the Bloody: Representing Khorne, the Gorequeen has the raw melee stats to rival Skarbrand but much better maneuverability. She makes a great hit + run duelist with 100 speed, a temporary invincibility ability, and a bound wind ability to clear out chaff. Like Azazel she's a small target, which makes her immune to anti-large sniping attacks and with her shield also makes her harder to bring down with ranged fire.
  • Campaign: Valkia is able to fight multiple back to back battles just like Skarbrand and Taurox, while also getting limited access to some of Khorne's Unholy Manifestations and higher Khorne authority.

• Sarthorael the Everwatcher: Looking back it's surprising we got a greater daemon six years before the daemons got dedicated factions. Not available in the campaign (for WoC anyway, Norsca can unlock a different Lord of Change over the course of the Campaign) but playable in multiplayer. A giant lore of metal caster with a lot of missile resistance. Well used as a battering ram to disrupt gun factions with his mass and terror as the rest of the army hounds after him, but prefers to run through the lines to new spots of safety to cast his spells. Was ground bound in WH1 and WH2 but in WH3 he can fly just like other Lords of Change.

Legendary Heroes

• Harald Hammerstorm: One of the OGs of Warhammer Fantasy is here, as ol' Harry has come to the game in full glory. He is more or less specked to fight the Undead, with his uniqe trait "Bane of the Undead" outright removing the Undead trait from units and lowering their leadership. This means that not only can he hilariously make undead units like Zombies run away, but he also completely negates undead healing as most of it requires the unit to be undead in the first place. His other big ability is an AoE explosion ability that devastates low armor. He is also stupidly tanky and unbreakable. Sadly he doesn't come with mount options so while he is fantastic against Undead factions he's only kinda OK against everyone else.

Units

Generic Lords

• Chaos Lord: Cheap melee lord. Can take a poison mace if you want this lord to be supportive. He can also be put on a flying mount for manticore gooning. They have been reworked and are now a solid melee lord though somewhat lacking in AP. Can take Marks of Khorne or Slaanesh. Better marked usually and a good way to build towards a demon prince. Unmarked is the only version that can mount a chaos dragon however, Khorne gets a horse, chariot, or Juggernaut. Slaanesh can only get a Horse or Chariot. You probably should plan on turning any of the marked ones into demon princes eventually though. Really wish they let the marked lords ride a marked dragon, especially with the big buffs dragon got to their mass/melee stats with Patch 2.0. Unmarked is perfectly viable as well and has the advantage or not needing souls to upgrade and not losing any levels, plus being able to use the dragon mount.

• Chaos Sorcerer Lord: A hyrid lord which is often preferred in multiplayer for cost efficiency. One of the few non-elf lords to get a dragon mount. Can be given the Mark of Tzeentch or Nurgle. (Lores of Tzeentch and Metal for Tzeentch or Nurgle and Death for Nurgle) Marked lords CANNOT mount a chaos dragon however, they get either a warshrine, or for Tzeentch a disc instead. too bad if you wanted a dragon. Marked lords can be upgraded into demon princes though which don't need a mount, in campaign you'll probably use these as a stepping stone to demon princes eventually, unless you prefer to leave them just marked. Unmarked is perfectly viable also, lets you use the awesome chaos dragon.

• Daemon Prince: Come in a variety of types, including an Undivided option and one for each of the four Chaos Gods. All of them are versatile melee and caster hybrids, except for the Khorne prince who is melee only. Check the Chaos Gods' pages for details about the Daemon Princes for each of them, as they are the same as those accessible to the WoC roster. The Undivided Daemon Prince has the Lore of Fire plus some melee buff abilities, including a particularly good one that gives Immune to Psychology to nearby allies. Probably worth it in general at least in campaign, but costs a ton of souls. Fairly expensive in Multiplayer as well. Do note they aren't as heavily armored as the mortal lords, instead relying more on their Daemonic physical resistance.

Heroes

• Exalted Hero: Melee hero, often a part of the manticore goon squad. their stat line is honestly kind of absurd for the price, as they can beat pretty much any other standard melee hero in a one on one fight. Definitely one of the better melee bodyguard heroes. Can be given the Mark of Khorne or Nurgle. They can specialize in army support or dueling with a choice of different mutually exclusive skills, in particular they can boost demonic authority for either undivided or their mark choice. Unfortunately marked hero's lose access to a flying mount, Nurgle only gets a normal horse or chariot, Khorne gets that and a juggernaut also. Marking isn't bad but you may prefer unmarked in order to fly. Nurgle hero's get an awesome AoE heal skill.

• Chaos Sorcerer: Tankier than the traditional wizard as they have a large amount of armour and are a low-end melee character. Not the best option for melee grinding, but they also make a great goon squad participant when on a mount. Comes in Death, Fire, Metal, or Shadows. Can be given the Mark of Tzeentch or Slaanesh (Slaanesh gets lores of Slaanesh and Shadows). Marked sorcerers can ride a chaos warshrine or the Tzeentch can ride a disc also if a flying mount is preferred.

Melee Infantry

• Chaos Marauders: Your budget line, but you often fill up your numbers with them given how expensive everything else is. They are how you go wide in WoC. Posses low armor but can still cause some more expensive units to struggle against them. They have pretty good stats as far as melee chaff go, so they should earn back their cost fighting other low level troops.
  • Chaos Marauders (Great Weapons): Cheap Ap Damage but not as good as Chaos Warriors (Great Weapons) since the Marauders are very fragile with trading away what little defense a Marauder gets.
  • Can be given any of the marks, each come with an additional weapon variant. Khorne gets Dual Axes, Tzeentch gets Spears, Nurgle gets Great Weapons and Slaanesh gets Hellscourge Whips for additional Melee Defense.

• Chaos Warriors: The spiked anvil of Chaos. High all-around in offensive and defensive stats except for speed. In general, Chaos Warriors in this faction are much more well rounded than their Monogod cousins. They are better defensively than Khorne, faster than Nurgle, more offensive than Tzeentch and more durable than Slaanesh. They're the nice in between that allows them to fill a wider variety of roles. Often beat out other line infantry in the grind. They Lack AP, so not effective against other high armour targets.
  • Mirror Guard(RoR): A strong point used in Marauders and Warriors. Moves faster, higher defense, and don't falter against Fear or Terror.
  • Chaos Warriors (Great Weapons): your AP troops effectively upend other armored infantry like Dwarfs.
  • Chaos Warriors (Halberds): Your Anti-large infantry out classes Great Weapons if facing Cavalry and Monsters.
  • Get all their marks and weapon variants for Marauders, though the Tzeentch version gives up spears for halberds. Khorne can also get halberds for some reason, but chosen of Khorne can’t have halberds.

• Aspiring Champions: Not-large monstrous infantry with magical attacks. They fill a role as support units, having the Encourage ability which gives extra Leadership to your lines, being a moral anchor if your lord is way from your front lines. The magic attacks are also a cheap way to crush enemies that rely on Physical resistance for protection.
  • Immortal empires buffs their statline to be more like monstrous infantry, while getting an insane number of buffs from the Warriors of Chaos tech tree. With the buffs from all 4 god tech trees they are a contender for most powerful unit in the game, they have insane melee killing power, regeneration, barrier, and the ability to summon a unit of pink horrors each. How strong they have become compared to the 2 last games is completly insane. They also have very high health per model so as such are basically immune to most AoE damage spells, with only things like Spirit Leach and Final Transmutation being effective against them. Ironically though they are the easiest elite unit to recruit also, often spawning in normal recruitment pools while Chosen have to be grinded all the way through. They are great for any of the 4 monogod warriors of chaos but they are truly shining on undivided factions, with the stacking of buffs from the tech tree and the choices to pick any bonus from a specific god like Tzeentch's barrier.
  • The Severed Claw(RoR): A more defensive variant of Aspiring Champions with halberds, charge reflection, and Tzeentch barriers.

• Forsaken: A niche, fast damage dealing unit, being both fast and having good armour. Good at mulching through low armor units and used as foot flankers. They don't do well against Armor-piercing or elite infantry. Generally going to be way better used against low armor factions like Beastmen or Skaven and kept away from high armor stuff like Dwarfs or Lizardmen. Can get all Marks.
  • The Daemonspew: Blessed by Nurgle, they have poison attacks and melee attack debuff aura. A supportive unit to mix with your line blob to make an elite unit easy to handle.

• Chosen: Oh my. Pound for pound, chosen are probably the best heavy melee infantry in the game and unlike other contenders like black orks, they also come in Great Weapon and Halberd variants. They will never run away, their stats are terrifying, and they are absurdly tanky. They are every bit as scary as their reputation makes them out to be. Like any heavy elite infantry, they are slow with low model counts, so they will suffer severely from being targeted by artillery, magic, or AP missiles. Can get all marks and separate variants same as Chaos Warriors. In campaign the biggest issue they have is that they really cant compete with Aspiring Champions once the tech buffs are online, seriously there is no competition, Aspiring Champions are actually cheaper and they have a 10% chance of being recruitable from the get go on Chaos controlled territory.

Beasts

• Chaos Warhounds: Cheap and fast harassment unit, shutting down skirmishers, cavalry, missile units, and artillery crews that target your slower-moving warriors. These doggos are a good way to chase broken enemies off the field and their low cost means you won't miss them too much if they die.
• Chaos Warhounds (Poison): Doggos with poison attacks. Better for catching slippery units and able to support in melee with their poison.

Cavalry

• Chaos Knights: your melee cav, strong and able to win lots of protracted fights. Best used in a supporting role since they're somewhat cost-inefficient compared to demigryphs/blood knights. This version is probably best used against heavy missile factions like Elves, as they will be able to block some of the incoming fire and chase them down. They're better in a grind too, though you'll have to pull out eventually (Yeah, yeah I know, insert Slaanesh joke here). Khorne and Nurgle marks enhance your prolonged melee ability offensively and defensively respectively, Slaanesh gives devastating flanker so makes them much better at hammer and anvil tactics plus physical resistance. and Tzeentch gives barrier allowing them to hit and run cycle charge without getting worn down. Which of the 3 is best? that depends. Slaanesh will be by far the best at flank charging and also get a nice 10% phys resist on top, Nurgle goes all in on the MELEE cavalry aspect and have insane MD and poison so can basically just stay in the grind no problem, Tzeentch if microed can just use barrier to avoid casualties but their offense is the worst and they may not always be able to recharge their barrier. Khorne is probably the worst, not because they are bad, but because everything they do is better done by skullcrushers which are also khorne.
  • Swords of Chaos:(RoR): Knights with Flaming weapons but with a smaller model count, but most useful in keeping your characters safe and letting your whole army get a temporary speed boost.
• Chaos Knights (Lances): Cycle charging cav. While the shield makes them good at resisting missile fire, the tremendous charge bonus is a bit of a waste on the skirmishers on the other side. As such, best to use these guys against other cavalry, monsters, or for rear charging infantry. Just make sure that you are keeping an eye on them, while they do have tanky stats they can still crumple surprisingly quick if you leave them in a grind. Maybe don't use these as Khorne or Nurgle, Slaanesh and Tzeentch synergize much better. If going Slaanesh carefully ask yourself if the extra charge is even worth it compared to sword and board, even sword chaos knights have high enough charge with devastating flanker, and you wont always get flank charges.
  • Both the Lance and Sword and Board versions can take any of the marks.
• Skullcrushers of Khorne: extremely tough heavy cav that can engage pretty much any unit type effectively, just don't charge them into the front of halberds and they should wreck, if you were considering khorne chaos knights maybe just use these instead.
  • Knights of the Brazen Throne:(RoR):
• Doom Knights of Tzeentch: Oh hey, warriors of chaos finally get air cavalry. And it's a good thing too, they weren't going to win vs. Cathayan doom balloons with nothing but marauder throwing axes and manticores. Despite their lack of anti-large and armor piercing, doom knights are one of your precious few mobile units that aren't made out of wet cardboard and will be extremely useful against factions like greenskins and tomb kings who don't have much of an air force. Remember that they are weaker in melee and more expensive than normal knights, they really pay a premium for the ability to fly. For some reason they have halberds but lack both AP and anti-large, disappointing. Still a very effective unit if used right.
  • Knights of Immolation(RoR):
• Hellstriders of Slaanesh: actual melee light cav that are much better in melee than regular marauder horsemen, but still fragile, and annoyingly they lack devastating flanker despite being Slaanesh marked. come in spear and whip version, thankfully they are the only whip unit that actually has AP. They gain damage resistance for the whole battle scaling to number of models killed. so you can start them off chasing routers and weak units before sending them in to flank charge tougher units later in the battle. the whip version has respectable melee stats so aren't as dependent on charging. Unfortunately their lack of AP and extreme fragility really holds them back in later campaign.

Missile Cavalry

If you want shooting but don't want to spring for artillery, you only have skirmish cav. Like most Skirmish cav, you need to use some micromanagement to make sure a real opponent doesn't chase them out of the game and use their ammunition efficiently instead of AI autopilot everything.

• Marauder Horsemen: You cheapest shooting unit. Useful in taking things out annoying units air and harass units with a low Missile resistance. Fragile with the same protection as a Marauder. Their cost efficiency makes them a go to in a lot of competitive lists. Can come with Marks of Tzeentch and Slaanesh. Tzeentch gets warpflame causing javelins in addition to the normal mark stuff, really good.
• Marauder Horsemen (Throwing Axes): Trades Missile range for AP. Suited for harassing armored foes from a distance but won't take punishment well like the normal variant. Can come with Marks of Khorne and Nurgle. khorne gets flaming attacks in addition to the normal mark effects. Note that all versions are currently bugged and can fire in melee so they are ridiculously deadly right now.
• Marauder Horsemasters: A slightly upgraded version of Horsemen with the most important upgrade being significantly better armor. Lets it take punishment and trade better when engaging in melee with other Skirmish units and other lesser melee units.

Monstrous Infantry

• Chaos Trolls: A regenerating bag of HP and AP damage. Do need some babysitting to help with their low Ld. Better for Marauder lines for that extra Damage and Monstrous mass. To be honest, probably not worth it in most situations because of that low morale and weakness to fire.
  • Chaos Trolls (Armoured): Pay extra, so Trolls are less likely to run when they take damage. These guys came out before CA realized we like variants that serve different purposes and aren't just straight upgrades. Still probably not worth bringing though, especially now that we got marked chaos spawn.
• Chaos Spa- those things: Line breakers, they do go down quickly from guns but are a cheap way to tie up multiple line units as they don't stop attacking until they are all dead. They can tear apart lighter infantry lines if they get their hands on them, and can really help supplement a cheaper frontline. Generally better than trolls, as while they lack AP they are unbreakable and will fight to the end. Each version comes with a Mark, Khorne gets Frenzy, Nurgle gets Regeneration, Tzeentch gets Armor sundering and Slaanesh gets Devastating Flankers as Soporific Musk.
  • Their Monster-Mass makes them really helpful when the opponent stack has Mammoths and other heavy-hitters. It's not the most efficient tar-pit, but they're easier to recruit than dragon ogres and they can lock them in place while your Halberds/Spears do the damage.
  • Wyrd Spawn: (RoR) Spawn blessed by everyone's favorite crazy Bird, these guys have armor sundering and Barrier, so they can actually help against armored troops and have resistance to magic on top of all that. They can also walk through trees for some tzeentchian reason. Don't ask me why.
• Dragon Ogre: Your anti-large monstrous cavalry. These boys will kick the hell out of any cavalry or monster they get their hands on, although their vulnerability to missiles means they can be a bit of a risk against super missile factions. Try your best to keep them safe, probably best on the flanks where they can deal with cav and go into the back line or flank when that is done. Can send infantry flying if needed.
  • Summoners of Rage: (RoR) Have magic attacks and an infantry clearing bound spell. It takes out Physically resistant enemies or give you another edge in a fight.

Monsters

• Chaos Giant: A big infantry smasher, but easily sniped and hammered with ranged and anti-large attacks. Remove them, and they can frolic through even the heaviest of armor. Shockingly they are actually potentially really good now, there are now multiple ways to give them really high missile resistance and tons of healing, so they are now a very effective unit and are actually a good doomstack option.
  • Bilious Thunderguff: (RoR) An upgraded giant sworn to Nurgle. Along with poison attacks, he also comes with a violent wind bound ability where he lifts a leg and farts all over everyone around him, draining health and corroding armor. Definitely worth bringing in matchups where your opponent doesn't have much ranged and has to fight him in melee.
• Chaos Feral Manticore: One of the most cost effective flying monsters in the game. It has an impressive statline for the cost so it can actually do a good bit of work diving into backlines or helping goon out enemy characters. It's big problem is Rampage, so you will likely lose control over it, though it is decently cheap so don't worry too much if it goes nuts. Often used as a mount for characters in multiplayer, but there is nothing wrong with taking this guy by himself. they can get regeneration in melee from campaign techs, which is pretty ok, they still die fast but it helps.
• Dragon Ogre Shaggoth: An anti-large monster duelist. Are you scared that the enemy might have a dragon, big scary tree, crab monster or freaky rat monstrosity from hell? Throw this thing at it and if it doesn't kill it it'll get it damn close. Of course, it's also a massive bullseye for every AP missile unit on the field, so you got to make sure that it's kept safe. Often paired with Kholek to make a Dragon Ogre goon squad. the biggest weakenss they had was lack of healing, but now that sorcerer lords can have lore of nurgle they can finally be healed. Maybe the Shaggoth doomstack is back. they are hard to recruit however requiring an expensive endgame undivided gift to recruit. ironically a normal nurgle sorcerer lord can probably shaggoth doomstack better than kholek now due to healing.
• Chaos Warshrine: Big buffboi that buffs even better when models die around it. Consider bubble wrapping it with marauders, the gods aren't picky on whether you're sacrificing your enemies or your own troops to them. Doesn't have much offensive capability, but has enough HP to slog it out on the frontline for a long time. Can be dedicated five ways, choose Khorne for killiness, Nurgle for healing, Slaanesh for a mortis engine AOE HP drain, Tzeentch for increased spell effectiveness, and undivided for physical resist. Slaanesh may be the strongest for infantry grinds, followed by nurgle. The others are perhaps more situational.

Chariots

• Chaos Chariot: Standard heavy chariot. Will get absolutely dumpstered in prolonged fights but will devastate enemies on the charge. Bring against heavy armor factions that can't lock it down like Dwarfs. Each of these can come with any mark, but pledging loyalty to Tzeentch is likely your best bet since regenerating barriers is the strongest buff you can give a hit and run unit like a chariot.
  • The Sibilant Slaughtercade: (RoR) A Slaanesh pledged chariot that comes with poisoned attacks, increased speed, devastating flanker, and a damage resistance + charge bonus buff that increases as it racks up kills.
• Gorebeast Chariot: Slower than standard chariots, but has more AP damage for fighting higher armor. Generally not a good deal thanks to the price since standard chariots can simply do what it does better. Can come with the Mark of Khorne.

Artillery

• Hellcannon: Big gun with homing projectiles and damage that includes a Ld debuff. It also comes with an unbreakable Chaos Dwarf crew who will keep firing until they're killed to the last man. Somewhat of an odd man out in the Chaos roster since their playstyle is more geared towards bumrushing the enemy than noob boxing around the artillery, but there are no complaints about having one to round out your army. Depending on the matchup, you can force the enemy to come to you if they can't artillery duel with the cannon. If you got the attention to spare, taking manual control of them allows you to fly the projectile.
  • The Soul of Damnation: (RoR) A tad beefed up Hellcannon. Stats identical, but has the addition of the Soul Devourer ability that makes it reload faster when enemies are near.

Daemons

• For the daemon units go look at their respective pages, the overviews there are mostly the same except that with the limited access to them you'll want to be a bit more careful before throwing your bloodthirster into a horde of skeleton spears. unfortunately your skill and tech tree's are generally lacking in ways to boost demon units, so you may be better off relying on your factions own units late game after you have tech and red tree buffs. you do get some buffs from the red tree for demons but they are pretty bad.

Tactics

Multiplayer Strategies

You're... pretty damn strong in multiplayer to be honest, despite being a meme faction for years in the first two games. You got a lot going for you, from strong lord choices, good magic lores, really good infantry, cavalry and monsters, and even an alright skirmishing core with Marauder Horsemen. Your only real major weakness is just how expensive everything is, and even then you got it better than the High Elves in that category. You got a ton of new mechanics with the Champions of Chaos DLC in game 3 and are likely to benefit from future monogod DLC as well. It should only get better from here. Here's how to win glory for the Chaos Gods:

• Beastmen:
• Bretonnia:

• Chaos Dwarfs:

• Warriors of Chaos:
• Daemons of Chaos:
• Dark Elves: After seeing this matchup, it’s no wonder thag the Chaos warriors haven’t been able to make it out of Warhammer Canada. Dark Elves are tailor-made for busting your balls. Between darkshards, scourgerunners, and dark rider crossbows, they have more than enough ranged AP to melt your infantry and heavy cavalry. Go for a marauder frontline and bring some hellstriders and maybe some doom knights to run down their cowardly ranged units.
• Dwarfs: You'll win the infantry fight, assuming your slow frontline survives the heavy artillery bombardment. Use manticores, hounds, calvary, and/or furies to mess with Dwarfen ranged. Big monsters like the Shaggoth should stay out of this, unless you like watching 2000 gold get shot to shit.
• Empire: The Empire is your arch enemy for many good reasons. While you may scoff at their frontline infantry, you should never underestimate how good flagellants are at stalling you long enough for Helstorm rockets and cannon balls to send your warriors to hell, and the disappointed gaze of The Gods. Your Chaos Knights, while tough, need some support from warhounds or skirmishers because Demigryphs with halberds will eat them for breakfast. Your big monsters are useful killers, but like the Dwarfs are The Empire is really good at killing large units. The general play is to bring a solid line of Chaos Warriors with shields because they can endure handgunners long enough to quickly cleave though their frontline. For the rest of your army get a core of warhounds, preferably poison unless your pinching pennies, as they're great for chasing down skirmish cav, attacking their back line, and are a good supporting option for Shaggoths to lessen the damage they take when fighting Demigryphs. As for monsters, per the norm, bring Shaggoths. They can defeat an unsupported Steam Tank and will wreak havoc on most Empire cavalry while being fast enough to juke cannon balls. Again, be really careful of Demigryhs with halberds. Those bird riders may take a lot of damage, but they can also kill Shaggoths with surprising speed. Bring support if they have a Jade Wizard for back up, and having a goon squad of Exalted Heroes on manticores can help control the sky if Karl Franz is on the field. The goon squad will be needed because Karl Franz will otherwise crush unsupported heroes. If your opponent brought some other southerner, then expect Volkmar to be next on the list if he’s looking to win the infantry fight. A typical Empire frontline when fighting you will largely consist of halberdiers, and maybe a few greatswords and some flagellants to act as meatshields so he can keep shooting you. For the other legendary lords, Gelt is a common sight due to him being the only guy with access to the Lore of Metal, which can screw over your armor, transmute your leaders, and nuke blobs if you're dumb enough to make those. Remember, go wide with your infantry, have a core of dogs and shaggoths and then show that the Sons Of Heldenhammer are no match for the Dark Gods!
• Grand Cathay:
• Greenskins:
• High Elves:
• Khorne: Make no mistake, this is a bad matchup for you. Khorne is better than you in a knock down drag out melee fight. Bloodletters trade up vs Chaos Warriors and Chosen and a wide frontline of marauders will crumble quickly and buff Khorne's units in the process. However, you have a potential ace in the hole. Dragon ogres give more bang for the buck than khorne's horribly overcosted monsters + cavalry. If you play your cards right, your superior magic, skirmishing, and monsters will be enough to tip the scales in your favor.
• Kislev:
• Lizardmen: Though a flexible faction with many tools to use against you, you have relatively little to fear from their infantry. Saurus are tanky SoBs, but grindfests will generally work out in your favor due to your superior offensive statlines. Though you'll never catch any Skink units, the only ones you need to pay any real attention to are the Red-Crested variety, which will still melt in combat against your forces without extensive support. Instead, your primary concern will be the myriad of monsters the lizards are almost assuredly bringing to bear against you. Chaos Warriors or Chosen with Halberds will be your bread and butter for pinning such beasties down. Dragon Ogres and Shaggoths also make fantastic hunting squads for isolated dinosaurs and will utterly dumpster them if they can get in the thick of it. Additionally, though the Lizardmen do technically have a higher ranged roster to chose from, your Hellcannon can lay waste to their forces long before even their artillery can attempt to retaliate. Just be particularly cautious of Razordon Hunting Packs, Troglodons and potential Ripperdactyl strike squads.
• Norsca: To show the northerners that the chaos gods favor you most, you’ll need to consider your army carefully. Beserkers will trade upwards into pretty much any infantry you bring, even chosen, and their ‘berserk’ ability makes them a surprisingly tough nut to crack. This means you should either go super low-tier and bring tons of marauders, or super elite and invest in chosen and chaos warriors, relying on your infantry to win the day. Both setups have their own advantages and weaknesses. Do NOT bring mostrous infantry like dragon ogres or chaos spawn. Sure, they can deal with berserkers fine, but Norsca has plenty of mobile anti-large and ap to make you regret it. If you can protect it, a hellcannon can pay huge dividends by shooting holes in their higher tier infantry. You are one of the few factions that actually had a good answer to mammoths, Shaggoths have the speed and ap to grind them down and reliably outduel them. You won’t be able to keep pace with them in the skirmish game, but you probably want to bring at least a couple of wolves/skirmish cav, since their ap ranged units can make your monsters very sad if allowed to fire in. Marauder chariots can actually be a big problem for you because of their great mass and ap, so whittling them down with your fast units is probably your best bet. Kholek is not a great choice here, since he can get ground down by Skin wolves and Wulfrik, I’d recommend Archaon or a chaos sorcerer on a dragon. The former has a chance to put duel even Wulfrik (let alone throgg or a chieftain) if you use slayer of kings wisely, and the latter is able to pick his engagements, and probably won’t face any threats in the sky.
• Nurgle:
• Ogre Kingdoms
• Skaven: First thing's first, leave the Chaos Warriors and Chosen at home. Not only do you not need them to deal with most Skaven frontlines, but they will get ripped apart against Jezzails and Mortar teams. Marauders are the frontline of choice as they will help deal with Clanrats and Skavenslaves relatively quickly and for cheap. Hounds are also pretty much a requirement in order to get behind the rats and take out the weapon teams before they are able to do irreversible damage. Finally, Spawn are your friends, as they help shred Skaven infantry, murder Rat Ogres and are unbreakable so some of the scarier Skaven units won't be able to spook them off. For magic lores, go with something that can deal with swarms like Fire or Shadows. Sigvald is your best bet here as a lord since Jezzails are some of the best SEM snipers in the game and Sigvald is really hard to kill.
• Slaanesh: Slaanesh epitomizes the very concept of anti-armor and even their basic troops will run laps around yours. Fortunately, you will be able to match their speed since the chaos gods blessed you with doom knights and hellstriders from Slaanesh's own roster. You will want to go as cheap and wide with your front-line in order to cover your flanks. Large units like dragon ogres will also be a good idea since Slaanesh lacks ranged units other than their own marauder horsemen. Lords wise, you'll either want a large monster beatstick or a flying caster lord. Keep an eye on the enemy roster if you went for the latter, you'll want to turn off flying and hide in your own army for a while if your opponent brought Azazel.
• Tomb Kings: In Warhammer 3 you've got some really good options here, the ability to recruit anti-infantry Khorne warriors with high armor can really give the tomb kings a bad time. Bring anti-large whatever really and back it up with a solid line of dual-axe khorne boys and watch the kings melt, even faster if you bring the lore of fire in some form.
• Tzeentch:
• Vampire Coast: The deckhand cries out in pain as he strikes you. A terrible, terrible matchup for you. Shaggoths, Chaos Spawn, etc. would be great here if they could actually get into melee, but with the coasts firepower there isn’t a chance in hell of that happening. Your only strategy is to go super wide and use chaos warriors/chosen as your killing. And then you’ll promptly run straight into World War Z as the coast player runs your infantry smack into a veritable wall of deckhand mobs and summons while their ap missiles and monsters eat your infantry for breakfast. You’re better off just forfeiting this one tbh, the coast player can basically just take a nap while you’re tearing your hair out on how to deal with them.
• Vampire Counts: Your bad luck just doesn’t run out when it comes to the vampires. To put it shortly, wait for your rework. Sure this matchup is marginally better than Coast since you’ll actually make it into melee, but Vampire Counts will take your leadership to pound town with fear/terror, and their excellent mobility means that they can pick their engagements way better than you can. Also they can heal. Your only hope is to grab 2 Shaggoths or an exalted hero goon squad and defend them at all costs. Hopefully Tzeentch will favor you!
• Wood Elves: You know what they say: dogs are a mutated tentacle-y chaos warriors best friend. Chaos Warhounds are a must in this matchup, because they are the only unit with the speed to reliably pin down the asrai’s shooters. Here’s the thing: you will win the infantry grind with 0 effort, as chaos warriors will kill any asrai infantry they’re put up against with one hand tied behind their back, and the great weapon variant can even buzzsaw through Tree Kin relatively quickly. That’s not where the Wood elves strength lies however. If they go full Vietnam and bring a list full of shooters, you’ll want chaos warhounds and skirmish cav to pin down and damage their archers and cav. Chaos knights can deal with any cavalry the wood elves have (except for maybe the lost Sylvan Knights) as long as they don’t take the charge. Speaking of The lost Sylvan knights, they can be a huge pain since your magic damage is limited, and the easiest way to grind them down is probably a fire caster with flaming sword of rhuin. I wouldn’t bother with Shaggoths. An Exalted hero (or even two!) on a manticore can be a great pick here, since it’s mobile enough with a small hit box and has the killing power to take out Treemen, Zoats, lords/heros you name it. You’ll just need to be careful of Hawk riders. Archaon on Dorghar or Sigvald are probably your best lords here. Anything with a big hitbox is just asking to become a pincushion.

Campaign Strategies

AND THE REWORK CAME! The new rework gives you the ability to recruit daemon lords and all the daemons in general. a new 'upgrade system' allows you to recruit basic marauders and then upgrade them over time into chaos warriors and then chosen. your objective really is to kill a lot of people to earn 'souls' which you can offer to the chaos gods to get daemon units or major faction buffs. with the ability to pseudo-conquer settlements the days of horde agony are in the past. Take Archaon and his lads on a merry slaughter-crusade throughout the world and with the ability to evolve your non-legendary generals into daemon princes come rank 30 it's the chaos experience we always wanted.

Archaon

Archaon leads the Warhost of the Apocalypse, with the following effects:

1. First, +1 maximum active gift of Chaos Undivided, coming to a total of 4 Gifts of Chaos Undivided when you max out the tech tree. You'll see less of this early game when you're starved for souls, but it gives you more flexibility mid to late-game.
2. Second, for each vassal you have, you get +10 to diplomatic relations with Beastmen, Norscans, WoC and Daemons and +10% research rate. This is pretty huge, with optimal play you can get 8 - 10 vassals early on, and 20+ Chaos faction vassals later on, for a whopping 300+ % research rate and over 200 diplomatic relations. This is without considering human and elf vassals from patch 2.1.1.
3. Finally, souls + 25 for each vassal you have, which basically gives you free upkeep for cheaper gifts early game, and helps you build up a soul bank for buying gifted units later on.

[Early Game Research Tech Tree and Gifts]
Unless you're going for something specific, I highly recommend rushing at least one Gift of Nurgle through research. This should unlock at turn 20 - 30. Choose "Bloom of Decay", which will give +75 growth per region to ALL provinces after winning any battle (sieges, minor settlement battles and field battles all count). This is frankly insane given that you'll be doing nothing but fighting the entire campaign, and snowballs the more armies you have. With some luck, you can unlock T4 settlements by turn 40 - 50 and T5 settlements not long after.

Note that "Bloom of Decay" doesn't add growth gain for that turn; it adds growth directly into your growth point count (see https://imgur.com/a/is7BctC for a badly edited demonstration).

You're pretty much free to play around with whatever research and gift you want from there, but I do like finishing off Nurgle's tech tree to get a second gift for "Deadly Transmission" which enables replenishment in foreign territory. This is basically Skarbrand's faction mechanic i.e. replenishment in hostile / neutral territory, and lets you play hyper-aggresively for favour, souls, and growth from Bloom of Decay.

[Early Game Build Up]
You start off in the Blood Marshes, northeast of Kislev, and at war with the Slaaneshi minor faction the Exquisite Pain. Spend turn 1 taking your Dark Fortress, recruiting marauders, and getting a new lord (no supply lines for Chaos). The next couple of turns should be spent taking out the Exquisite Pain before subjugating their last settlement. Once done, you can go in three directions: west, to take down Boris Ursun before he smashes the Khorne minor, east to take the Dark Fortress from the Nurgle minor, or south to take Norsca.

I've generally proceeded by taking out Boris Ursun and capturing the three Dark Fortresses to the west up until you encounter Daniel, and later Malus Darkblade. From there you are in a good position to either keep going west to Valkia and Sigvald, or pivoting down to Norsca. With three Dark Fortresses you've more or less stabilized your early economy, so feel free to experiment from here.

If you do go west, you can eliminate Daniel fairly easily, but your main challenge will be Malus especially since he's allied to Malekith. If RNG is in your favour, you can avoid getting into a war with Malekith by joining war through one of the Daemon minors lying around, and then turning around to subjugate the Daemon minor. Either way, subjugate the western Daemons and Norscans, and confederate Valkia and Sigvald. You should generally take out Crone Hellebron to safeguard that front, and leave one stack to defend against Malekith and Alith Anar, while getting your western vassals to send crapstacks at them to build a large buffer zone.

From there, world's your oyster. You can burn your way down to Morathi, and take the Dark Fortress at the Ancient City of Quintex before heading off to the meatgrinder on the donut. You can take the Dark Fortresses in Norsca and subjugate / confederate the factions there on the way to the Empire. You can hit up Kholek (assuming Grimgor hasn't destroyed him) and meet up with Vilitch outside Cathay far to the east. Or you can do two or more of the above with the good economy you should have by now, and keep burning the world.

[Lategame Shenanigans]
Gifted Unit farming
Lategame, you tend to build up a huge bank of souls from fighting the Ordertide. With this bank, you can micromanage your Gifts of Chaos to gain more gifted units than ordinarily allowed. For example, Shaggoths are the highest tier gifted unit for Chaos Undivided. Their gift, "Carnage Incarnate", costs 2,000 souls and has a per turn upkeep of 200, and gives one Shaggoth per four turns passively. However, the Shaggoth is dropped into your Gifted unit pool on the same turn you apply "Carnage Incarnate". This makes it possible to recruit one Shaggoth every two turns by manually swapping out the Shaggoth gift, and then swapping it back. This works for all gifted units, although Nurgle gifted units are given one turn later since all Nurgle gifts give Nurglings in addition to the desired unit.

Illustration: Turn 80: Spend 2,000 souls apply Carnage Incarnate, and get Shaggoth #1 in the gifted unit pool. Your lord can recruit Shaggoth #1 at this stage if desired. No further changes can be made to my Undivided Gifts of Chaos this turn. Turn 81: 200 souls are deducted for Carnage Incarnate upkeep. Swap out Carnage Incarnate with literally anything else (e.g. Hail of Hellfire for 1,500 souls if you want Hellcannons). No further changes can be made to my Undivided Gifts of Chaos this turn. Turn 82: 150 souls are deducted for Hail of Hellfire upkeep. Swap out Hail of Hellfire with Carnage Incarnate for 2,000 souls. Shaggoth #2 is now ready for recruiting 2 turns ahead of time, at an extra cost of 2,000 souls + 1,500 souls for the Hellcannon.

Perks from Daemon Princes of Tzeentch
You will also want to get Daemon Princes of Tzeentch, since at level 18 one of their special Lord perks "Deadly Erudition" gives Hero capacity +2 and Hero recruit rank +5 for Chaos Sorcerers. Sadly, the recruit rank part doesn't work as at patch 2.1.1, but if it gets fixed, it means that with two Daemon Princes of Tzeentch you can get sorcerers with instant arcane conduit and vortex spells with overcast and winds of magic discounts.

Goon Squad Settlement Battle Cheese
One way to take settlement battles / sieges with few casualties is to keep your infantry and cavalry in reserve to avoid dealing the towers. Instead, send in your manticore goon squad (Lord, Sorcerer, Hero) and single entity monsters (Shaggoths, Bloodthirsters / Keepers of Secrets, Soul Grinders, Skullcannons) to bash down any gates and deal with the garrison. Infantry will tend to blob up around your goon squad, which allows you to delete them with vortex spells (especially Pit of Shades and Infernal Gateway).

To further reduce damage, you can slap on regeneration items on your Lords and Heroes, and dedicate your Exalted Hero to Nurgle. Nurgle Heroes get to choose the perk "Stench-Ridden" at rank 7, which gives them 3 uses of the ability "Locus of Fecundity" on the field. This provides replenishment of +0.8% health per second for 11s and -1% fatigue per second, which helps keep your goon squad alive and top off your single entities after beating down the garrison.

If you have enough winds of magic, this tactic can even take down fullstacks and T4-5 garrisons, although you will likely need to commit some of your infantry later on to deal the finishing blow.

Azazel

Gifts of Slaanesh, seduction, and diplomacy is the name of the game for Azazel. Gifts of Slaanesh can give you +25 souls per turn each, and you can easily have dozens of these active at once, so your able to sustain gifts of chaos easily and build up massive reserves of souls, you should use you diplomacy benefits for all its worth to avoid unnecessary wars and gradually spread out and conquer as many dark fortresses as possible while gaining vassals. You may not have the insane versatility of the undivided lord like Archaon or Be'lakor but you Slaanesh faction benefits are extremely strong. prioritize givings gifts of Slaanesh to evers lord you meet, friend or enemy, and you will never have to worry about souls again, you may not be overall as strong as Archaon, Be'lakor, or maybe even Sigvald but you are one of the best Warriors of Chaos factions in campaign for sure. Azazel himself is a great flying lord whith good abilities and an awesome weapon. Unfortunately because hellscourge units suck and mark of Slaanesh isn't really that good except on cavalry, Azazel probably has the weakest unit roster of the Warriors of Chaos factions, Slaanesh and undivided units aren't bad by any means but with the exception of chaos knights Slaanesh marking isn't usually one of the most useful choices. His powerful faction effects can certainly make up for that slight weakness though. Like all 4 monogod Warriors of Chaos, his tech tree is generally more focused and less versatile than the undivided lords.

Be'lakor

Be'lakor, the first Daemon Prince, the first champion of Undivided, and the first to suffer from Daddy(-ies) issues, comes with a few unique mechanics to differentiate him from Archaon and the Daemon Princes:

• Confederation: Like Archaon, Be'lakor can confederate with the other Warriors of Chaos factions after seizing their last settlement, whereas other Warriors can only vassalize. Easier to do the earlier in the campaign, while your competition is still trying to subjugate the tribes. The factions closest to you is Sigvald, who is just to your Northwest, and Festus, in the Empire. Your mileage may vary, but Sigvald is the easiest to subjugate since the Fortress of the Damned is a port, and isn't DLC-locked.
• Rifts: The best of the unique mechanics because of how it works with the WoC playstyle: Rifts allow for instant travel between two points on the map, and new ones can be created with the Tzeentch Unholy Manifestation simply by activating it on any land army that you have vision on, so you can send expendable heroes out to tag distant armies for you and have portals all over Malleus.
  • Be'lakor starts with a Daemonic Rift in his capital, which leads you to the Southern Wastes and Ostermark, which throws you into the shit right away.
  • You start with 4 charges of this rite and a cooldown of 15 turns, and this anon recommends placing your first few rifts on your Dark Fortresses rather than on Order Faction Capitals: teleporting an army directly on Sigvald or Archaon's doorstep makes subjugating them so much easier, and also makes holding these fortresses a cinch. Dark Fortresses are hard to take even without a garrisoned army and some, but not all, tend to be pretty far away from each other. Rifts can transport an army from a relatively quiet fortress right in front of an invading Skaven Horde or Empire doomstack.
  • Stances are retained when traveling through rifts, but not movement, so entering in the raid/encamp/ambush stance ensures you're not entirely defenseless when emerging from the other side.
• Manifestations: Replaces the Eye of the Gods mechanic. You can sacrifice souls to the four Gods in exchange for campaign abilities and a gifted Daemon unit.
  • Tzeentch creates portals and gifts Pink Horrors
  • Nurgle delivers 100 Nurgle Corruption (over 10 turns, so +10 a turn) and Plaguebearers
  • Khorne greatly improves the melee and charge stats of an entire army and gifts Bloodletters
  • Slaanesh deals damage to an opposing enemy army and gifts Daemonettes
  • Souls sacrificed in this manner do not count towards the Gifts of Chaos, which is a shame.
• Daemonic Warband Upgrades: Not only does Be'lakor have a base 3+ Authority with all four Gods, but after researching through the tech tree, Be'lakor can upgrade any of the basic Daemons to their Exalted versions, which keeps them competitive as the game goes on.
• Be'lakor's Shadow - You can convert enemy Human lords into Daemon Princes, either by defeating them with Be'lakor, or by Hero action. This only applies to non-Legendary, non-Warriors of Chaos lords. It takes 10 turns for the transformation to complete, and if the Lord is disbanded or killed, the effect is removed.
• Konquata and the Campaign: As mentioned above, Be'lakor starts in Konquata, Albion, with the Vanaheimling's as his Norscan vassals. Being so close to Bretonnia and the Empire, as well as having rifts to Ostermark and the Southern Wastes, it's tempting to start throwing the forces of Order into Chaos, but subjugating and vassalizing other Chaos-factions should take priority. Wulfrik's territory is also quite close to you, and while you can't make him playable, having him as a vassal is still helpful, and you can gift him territory to make his faction stronger. Honestly, trading away all the non-Dark Fortress settlements to vassals or allies is the smart way to go because you benefit very little from them, while they can make full settlements out of them. His one weakness is that he has no bonuses to soul generation at all so gifts of chaos are much harder to sustain.
  • Konquata doesn't have a port, which makes you kinda glad that you have the rifts, instead. Getting in and out of Albion without them is a bitch, both for you and for invaders. It's not as annoying as the Galleon's Graveyard, but you will have enough warning about coming invaders to get an army through a rift.

Festus

Festus has power support abilities and the always powerful and useful plague mechanic but is unfortunately stuck on foot and mediocre in melee, thankfully Nurgle marking is generally one of the strongest options on many units and they have access to great weapon versions of infantry which is very useful. He also gains souls from plagues which is pretty decent but much weaker than Archaon's vassal effect or gifts of Slaanesh at generating souls overall. Both marked heroes and lords of Nurgle are very good as well. Frankly Festus is very solid. Good units to take advantage of are chaos giants while stacking missile resistance, Aspiring champions, and Nurgle chaos knights are all very strong, make sure to always have sources of healing to outlast your enemies. Really just his low speed and no mount holds him back.

Kholek

Kholek is a beast who gets stronger and BIGGER with every vassal, but he lost his 20% ward save skill for no apparent reason. Unfortunately he has no particularly good factions benefits, he does nothing to boost his army except giving dragon ogres a weak activated ability and some combat bonuses and he gives only his own army a 25% discount on dragon ogre upkeep, plus gets the shaggoth granting chaos gift easier. Unfortunately he is far, far less useful overall than Archaon, Be'lakor, or even Sigvald as far as faction effects go, his is still a beast in combat but there no real reason to use him instead of just confederating him as Archaon and Be'lakor. Disappointing that they felt the need to nerf him and give him nothing to make up for it. I guess you can get 50 vassals and have fun with how giant he is but frankly that's just a gimmick.

Sigvald

Sigvald has Slaaneshi seduction and gifts of Slaanesh both of which are extremely strong. Gifts of Slaanesh let you spam hero actions across the map to passively generate souls, where most chaos factions depend on battling and razing to generate souls you can get insanely high passive soul income while also seducing factions to become your vassals, allowing you to upkeep your gifts of chaos for free. seriously this effect alone makes Sigvald and Azazael deceptively powerful. Compared to Azazel, Sigvald has a better tech tree and access to the full roster instead of just Slaanesh, frankly Slaanesh marking is only really that useful on chaos knights and cavalry to give devastating flanker but is kinda lack luster on marauders, warriors etc. Sigvald is much more well rounded than Azazel in unit/hero/lord choice.

Valkia

Valkia has some of Skarbrands signature mojo, but isn't quite as OP. She herself is a potent flying beatstick and her Khorne/Undivided rosters is focused and powerful, but in terms of faction benefits and campaign effects she is solid but perhaps not the best. Her Star ability is to replenish in enemy territory. Khorne units are offensively focused and powerful thankfully. She is the only Warriors of Chaos faction who cannot use any sorcerer lords and only has access to the Lores of Fire and Metal, maybe go Fire since you have lots of units with flaming attacks to benefit from Kindleflame. She also has no way of passively generating souls like Archaon/Festus/Azazel/Sigvald and must rely on razing and battles completely, meaning its much harder to sustain many gifts until later when you've built up a nice large reserve of souls. Still that doesn't mean she is weak by any means. Her ability to rampage across the map quickly is as potent as always. Her version of the Bloodletting ability is basically useless, all it does is increase Khorne authority and experience gain for units, but she and her other lords should have no problem getting Khorne authority since your likely to mark most of your lord and hero's.

Villitch

A decent caster and decent fight but stuck on foot unfortunately, god why couldn't they have given him a disc?, as a lord he's kinda mediocre, good to support barriers on your troops but other wise not amazing. Factions wise his benefits are only ok, he has the changing of ways which can definitely be good and the ability to teleport is nice, but his other faction bonuses are semi-mediocre. Thankfully, barrier is extremely strong and the mark of Tzeentch is just good in general. The biggest issue with him is that he isn't Kairos or nearly as OP as him, but still Tzeentch units are strong enough to make up for that. He has no particularly good way to gain souls compared to other lords though.

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