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. Archeon 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.
• 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)

Only one Norscan tribe can be awakened per province. It is recommended to awaken them in the province capital.

• 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 and speed, making this the choice if you are looking to out last 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

The first DLC to TWWH3, Champions of Chaos, will revamp the faction and change how they play. Each Legendary Lord will have unique ways to access units from the vanilla, Undivided roster, while Chaos Champions have better access to their God's daemons and Marks.

• Archaon the Everchosen: at the start of the Total War 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 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.
  • Archaon, as the Everchosen, will have easier access to monogod rosters as well as better Authority to command forces from rival gods.

• Kholek Suneater: Given how prevalent he is seen, most players think of Kholek as the face of Warriors of Chaos despite the advertisement. But why wouldn't you as he is the best legendary lord the WoC have in MP. He's a massive, tough Dragon Ogre monster lord that runs around unhindered and deals massive damage to both infantry and monsters. Even better when gooning around with his Dragon Ogre boys.
  • His campaign bonuses buffs Dragon Ogres, giving reduced recruitment cost and upkeep while buffing attack for Shaggoths. Kholek also spreads more Chaos Corruption.
  • Has the hardest time recruiting Monogod units, but obviously has better control over Dragon Ogres and Shaggoths.

• Prince Sigvald the Magnificent: Used to be bad but got significantly better after The Twisted & The Twilight update. A powerful and quick foot dualist 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.
  • 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, since he's already devoted to Slaanesh, so 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. 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. 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.

• Azazel: As the DP of Slaanesh, Azazel comes with Slaaneshi spells and full access to Slaanesh's campaign abilities. Like Slaanesh's daemon lords, Azazel is geared for dueling lords and terror bombing wimps with wavering morale. 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. While his quest weapon the daemonblade is good, you can just give him the sword of Slaanesh from a special dilemma at the cost of just temporarily wounding one of your heros (its one of the random eye of chaos dilemmas, I think it's always the first one he gets). He is really good with the sword, it makes him much tougher and deadlier.

• 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 combination warrior-caster, at home casting or in melee. 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 his combat stats are good, he's still a footlord with low mobility. Be careful not to overextend or he'll get gooned to death.
  • Campaign: He can use the Changer of Ways and the Teleportation stance meaning he will be an absolute troll in the Campaign map, and gives his vassals better Barrier and Tzeentch Corruption.

• Valkia the Bloody: Representing Khorne, the Gorequeen has the raw melee stats to rival Skarbrand. She makes a great hit + run duelist with 100 speed, a temporary invincibility ability, and a bound wind ability to clear out chaff. On the campaign map, she's able to fight multiple back to back battles just like Skarbrand and Taurox.

• 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 a battering ram to disrupt gun faction with his mass and terror as the rest of the army hounds on their position 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.

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 how are now a solid melee lord though somewhat lacking in AP. 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 dont 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: versatile melee and caster hybrids (except khorne that is melee only) that combine some of the advantages of both generic lord types. Probably worth it in general at least in campaign, but costs a ton of souls. do note they aren't as heavily armored as the base lords.

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 Calvery and Monsters.
  • Get all their marks and weapon variants for marauders, though the Tzeentch version gives up spears for halberds.

• Aspiring Champions: A small unit of Chosen 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. What really screws them over is their pitiful amount of health, so once they actually start fighting they will drop like flies. Immortal empires buffs their statline to be more like monstrous infantry, and they have an insane number of buffs from the warrior of chaos 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. its insane how strong they are. they also have very high health per model so are basically immune to most damage spells, only things like spirit leach and final transmutation are effective. ironically they are the easiest elite unit to recruit also, often spawning in normal recruitment pools. They are great for any of the 4 monogod warriors of chaos but they are truly insane on undivided factions, the stacking of buffs from the tech tree is ridiculous.

• • 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 Missles. 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 their is no competition. and Champions are actually cheaper.

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 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 abillity 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 hit and run cycle charge without getting worn down.
  • 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.
  • 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 dont charge them into the front of halberds and they should wreck,
  • 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.
  • 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.

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 Spawn: 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.
  • Wyrd Spawn: (RoR) Spawn blessed by everyone's favorite crazy Bird, these guys have armor sundering so they can actually help against armored troops and have resistance to magic. They can also walk thorugh trees for some 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. Do yourself a favor and don't get one, it'll get shot to pieces before it can do anything useful.
  • 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.
• 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:
• 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. Hellcannon(s) could find their crew being harassed by Furies or Dark Riders. Dragon Ogres, if they can make it, can handily deal with cavalry and monsters.
• 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: your arch enemy for good reason, the empire while you may scoff at there frontline infantry never underestimate how good flagellants are at stalling you as helstorm rockets and cannon balls rain the imperial version of hell down on you, while you cav is good, make sure there supported as Demigryhs with halberds will eat them for breakfast, monsters while useful are another tricky prospect as like the dwarfs, the empire is really good at killing large units, the general play is go for a solid line of chaos warriors with shields, they can quickly cleave though there frontline while at the same time not getting completely torn to shreds by there handgunners, for the rest of your army get a core of war hounds, preferably poison hounds unless your pinching pennies as there great for chasing down there skirmish cav, attacking there 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, however again, be careful of demigryhs with halberds, the bird riders will take a lot of damage but they can also kill shaggoths with surprising speed, make sure there supported if they have a jade wizard for back up, having some exalted heroes on manticores can help control the sky if they bring Karl Franz, though do it in a goon squad cause Karl is more than capable of throwing an exalted hero in the dumpster, if he doesn’t bring Karl, 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, maybe a few greatswords and some flagellants to act as meatshields so he can keep shooting you, for the other legendary lords, gelt is also a common sight due to him being there only access to lore of metal which can screw over your armor or nuke blobs if your dumb enough to do so, go wide with your infantry, have a core of dogs and shaggoths and then show that the helden hammer is 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. Mauarders 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 asrsi 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 or 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 archeon 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.

Villitch

Total War: Warhammer Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Magic Banner Immortal Empires
Total War: Warhammer	The Empire Dwarfs Greenskins Vampire Counts Bretonnia Warriors of Chaos Beastmen Wood Elves Norsca
Total War: Warhammer 2	High Elves Dark Elves Lizardmen Skaven Tomb Kings Vampire Coast
Total War: Warhammer 3	Kislev Khorne Tzeentch Nurgle Slaanesh Grand Cathay Ogre Kingdoms Daemons of Chaos Chaos Dwarfs