Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Warriors of Chaos

Why Play Warriors of Chaos

Because you have the following fetishes: Vikings, horned helmets, buff naked men and utterly dominating any close quarters engagement you enter.

Aside from that, WoC probably have the best offensive power out of any of the Warhammer armies. Very melee-centric, very tough (your core troop choice has S4/T4/WS5 for Odin's sake), very little in the way of ranged support outside of Hellcannons. But who the fuck cares? Ranged combat is for Elves. You're gonna beat those prissy shits head in because your basic troop choices beat the shit out of most other army's elites and your models have the best looking beards this side of the Dwarfs.

High toughness, high strength, high weapon skill. Nothing about this army is subtle. This is the sort of army where you march your guys into the enemy's soft lines, roll a die, and everything is DEAD.

Most of the dark warrior vikings are blessed with an unholy badass armor which encases them and acts as a second skin, this gives them an awesome 4+ armor save. You think their casters go out in robes? Nope. God damn 4+ armor save spellcasters that can take magic armor. You ever seen a level 2 lone wizard charge a terrorgeist and WIN? Yeah, they can do that.

However, do not think that the Norsemen are simple to play. Yes, they probably have the strongest infantry in the game even before getting into upgrades. But this is also the army of "things get expensive real quick." Your crazy iron-clad Vikings can get very expensive when you start piling on the magic axes and shit. It may seem odd given the general tone of this article so far, but moderation is the key to succeeding as WoC. They may have the best stat-lines for infantry and characters in the game, but they can be overwhelmed if their upgrades lead them to being highly outnumbered. Of course, you will be outnumbered most of the time, but under normal circumstances this shouldn't bother you because these guys are badasses. But if you let it get out of hand from overspending, you will struggle. The Warriors are excellent in their starting gear anyway, if you know how to use them. And they RIP AND TEAR when focused on single point. They're a fucking wrecking ball like that.

In addition to this, the WoC shooting phase is non-existent, marauders have gotten slightly more expensive so it's unfeasible to marshal a true horde army like in editions past. Most armies will likely be made up of a core of Chaos Warriors with Marauders as support. In a competitive environment, you'll have to depend on the magic phase to whittle down the enemy before charging. And charging is the key to success when playing the Warriors of Chaos.

Army Rules

Eye of the Gods: Units with this rule (read; Characters and unit champions) must always issue and accept challenges if you can. If the character wins the challenge or kills a monster you roll 2d6 on the EOTG table which will give your character a reward of chaos. You keep these rewards for the rest of the game, but you can't make any stat better then 10 so if you roll a reward you can't use you treat it as if you rolled The Eye Opens.

*2 Damnation: Make a Toughness test. If you pass you gains stupidity or suffers -1 Leadership if he already has stupidity. If you fail, you get Gribblifyed

*3 Evil Eyeball: +1 BS.

*4 Unholy Resistance: +1 Toughness

*5 Iron Skin: +1 Armour Save

*6 Murderous Mutation: +1 WS

*7 The Eye Opens: Re-roll one failed to hit, wound or saving throw until the end of the next turn

*8 Unearthly Reflexes: +1 Initiative

*9 Dark Fury: Gain an extra attack

*10 Slaughters Strength: +1 Strength

*11 Aura of Chaos: Gain a 6+ Ward save or add 1 to a current ward save (to a max of 3+)

*12 Dark Apotheosis: Do a Leadership test. If you fail you gain Stubborn or +1 Leadership. Pass and become a God Damn DAEMON PRINCE!

Usefulness of each boon swings wildly between fantastic and completely pointless, but kitting your characters out to kick ass in duels is pretty much a must with this rule but Chaos lords are already very strong so you don't need to do much.

Marks of Chaos: The blessings of one of the four Chaos Gods, most units can be upgraded and give one of these four marks, which will give said unit an extra rule.

*Mark of Khorne: Any model with this mark gains Frenzy. Really simple, really good. Sticking this on Lords, Chaos Knights and Warriors is a sure fire way to up their killing potential.

*Mark of Nurgle: Units attacking models with this mark suffer -1 to hit (in melee). Another simple but effective mark, especially when you aren't worried about your own guys killing potential. Up against armies like the Empire and Skaven which will usually rely on the quantity of their attacks to do damage over quality, forcing them to hit your guys on 6's can be debilitating for them.

*Mark of Tzeentch: Models with this mark gain a 6+ ward save or add 1 to one they already have (to a max of 3+), in addition any Wizard with this mark can re-roll channelling rolls of 1. Good on Lords and also fairly good on warriors, as it bumps sword and board warriors up to a 5+ ward save, so if you're picking fights with ogres or other really hard hitting units it gives you some extra survivability.

*Mark of Slaanesh: Models automatically pass Fear, Terror and Panic tests. The weakest of the four marks, but not bad. Frenzy makes units immune to psychology so mark of Khorne already has this one beat as it does the same thing, but also ups a units killing power. However the Mark of Slaanesh is always the cheapest mark, usually being half or sometimes even a third of the price of the other marks, meaning that it's a great mark to put on a fat unit of Marauders as it only marginally increases their cost and turns them into a great tar pit against big monsters. If you have some points left over dropping this mark on the odd unit of chosen or a character is also never a bad thing.

Daemonic Attacks: Any unit with this rule has magical attacks, including ranged, stomps or impact hits. This rule is pretty much only found on Daemonic units (shocker).

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Named Characters

• Archaon, The Everchosen, Lord of the End Times: And 8th edition continues the well-established trend of Archaon being better than Abaddon the Despoiler in every conceivable way. He got a point reduction, but he's still fucking expensive. No matter, though, because he continues to kick ass. Rules are mostly unchanged, he can still double his attacks (and that means 10 S5/WS9/I7 attacks that ignore all armour saves), however, much like Kharn, if he rolls a 1 in this state, he hits himself or a friendly unit (your choice). Completely fucking indestructible thanks to his 2+ armour save (1+ if he's mounted) and the fact that he cant be wounded on anything less than +3. SO even attacks that wound on +2 or wound automatically have no guarantee of hurting him. In addition to this, he gets to reroll any Eye of the Gods result. Also, friendly units near him can re-roll break tests. Essentially turning him into an extra battle-standard. Also, he has a 3+ Ward save. Did we mention he has all the marks at the same time? Also he upgrades a single unit of Chaos Knights into Sword of Chaos, his own personal warband, which is immune to psychology and which has the Hatred USR. Also, he causes Terror (the rule). Archaon has also decided that he's not too good to put his feet on the ground. So he can finally be marshalled without his pony. Thus making him far cheaper and also benefiting those of us who were still holding on to those old models of him that were on foot. In spite of this, he is still too expensive to be seen on the table in most games. Though when he is, he'll prove why he was made supreme leader of the Vikings. Seriously, he eats entire units for breakfast. Whole armies don't have anything that can give him more than token resistance.
  • One problem he has is his price. He is 580 opoints on foot and 650 on his special demonic mount (And why would you want him on foot). This means on foot version eats entire Lord allowence for 2500 game and one mounted do not fit in anything under 2600 game. Unless of course it is end times.

• Be'lakor, the Dark Master (Battlescroll): The Dark Master is a very frightening tool for you, with his best value being in trolling. Aside from being a flying Daemon Prince, he's also a Level 4 Loremaster of Shadow with a 4++ Ward (And shots take an additional -2 to hit him), making him a very mobile monstrosity. This power gets boosted more if he makes an enemy unit fail a Panic or Break test, where he gains d3 more power dice to spend, which CAN take him over the power pool limit, but which only he can use. Enemy units within 12" have -1 Ld, which combines well with Hellcannons and other leadership-related tricks. Melee-wise, he's pretty decent, with an armor-ignoring magic sword, as well as all his daemonic attacks. If you're keeping him in combat, you're not using him right. Note, the -2 to hit only applies in the Shooting phase, so you won't benefit from that if your opponent chooses to stand and shoot against a charge (not that you should be charging a shooty unit head-on, given his lack of armor save). One of your few Ld 10 characters.

• Galrauch, The Great Drake: Take a dragon. Split his head (this means two breath weapons). Make it chaos-y. Make it a level 4 mage who knows the Tzeentch lore (he no longer has Loremaster sadly) which is a shame since the Lore of Tzeentch is terrible this time. Make his stats all 6, except Leadership 9. That's Galrauch. Too bad he has to take a Ld test every turn, and if he fails he can't do anything except fight in combat, where 3 of his attacks have to harm him. Fuck. If you use him, try to keep him near a BSB for those 'Spirit of Galrauch' tests, otherwise use him the way you would use a lord of change. For combat charge him into infantry and cavalry (as long as he charges them and not the other way around) in CC. With his 3+ scaly skin, breath weapons, he's tough to shift in combat (and is the ultimate wizard to put on a fulcrum in Storm of Magic. T6, 6 wounds, 3+ scaly skin and 2+ ward saves on a Level 4 wizard anyone?). He also had the BREATH OF LULZ CHANGE. It's a breath weapon except enemy models hit have to take a toughness test or be removed from play with no saves of any kind allowed. REMOVED FROM PLAY WITH NO SAVES OF ANY KIND ALLOWED. Have your trollface on stand-by if you take Galrauch against High Elves, and make the biggest one possible if it wipes out any deathstar units, such as Tyrion and his Dragon Prince drinking buddies.

• Sigvald, the Magnificent: Chaos Lord Joffrey is pretty goddamn slick and cost effective. Ignores terrain penalties, all but immune to psychology, always strikes first, a 1+ armour save with regeneration, 2 bonus attacks and always rolls +1 attack on Eye of The Gods. His only drawback is his stupidity (although the reason behind his stupidity is so fabulously awesome he gets a pass. He's so distracted by his own good looks that he calls his mirror-shield-bearers to him and stands around blowing himself kisses and poncing around.) But he's fucking stubborn and Ld 10 so big goddamn deal! He is T5 now so everyone who was scared of using a T4 lord can take him no problem now. That being said, you can probably put together a generic Chaos Lord just as good while being cheaper and capable of doing more to buff your army.

• Kholek Suneater: A Shaggoth. But way bigger and more badass. Kholek comes with 4+ Scaly Skin and Errata says he has heavy armor so he's sitting at a 2+ armour save. He has the same resistance to lightning-based effects as dragon ogres. He wields a magic weapon which has Multiple Wounds (D3). While he got significantly cheaper in the new rulebook, he also lost his Heavy Armour that let him redirect lightening-based effects within 12" of him. This means he's much more vulnerable to S3/S4 ranged weapons before he gets into close combat (has a 2+ Armour Save, but getting 40 shots in the face per turn is not nice, since in 8th edition you can wound everything on 6s) and he's still just as vulnerable to war machines. If you can get him into combat with a couple of his 8 wounds remaining, he'll be devastating to your opponent, but it's not hard to lose 8 wounds when your only defense is Toughness 6 and an armour save. He also has a shooting attack that does d6 strength 6 hits on a 2+ or hits himself on a 1 but its lightning based so he gets the ward save and gains frenzy which is nice useful for killing cav or small units that get in the way and try to redirect Kholek or any other units in your army. Similar to Shaggoths and Dragon ogres, use his 2++ ward save against lightning to troll shooty Skaven armies.

• Valkia the Bloody: Chaos's own Valkyrie, armed with the mighty spear Slaupnir, who chooses who will fight and feast forever the Realm of Chaos after they die. In case you weren't convinced the Warriors of Chaos are motherfucking Vikings. A fine CQC choice, with a stat-line in-between that of a Chaos Lord and a Daemon Prince, She Flies around the battlefield with her 2+ armour, 7(with frenzy) S7 Killing blow attacks on the Charge, and always rolls +1S from the Eye of the Gods chart. Also flies, strips an attack and -1 STR from any opponent in B2B. Basically can and will beat the shit out of any solo-character with the possible exceptions of Archaon, Wulfrik and a properly kitted out Chaos Lord. Also great at killing 4-man Cavalry units and kicking the shit out of warmachines. Valkia is also incredibly useful in that she basically acts like a second battle-standard, all friendly units within 12 inches of her get to re-roll Break tests, which can potentially turn the scales of battle in your favour. This is due to how the Warriors of Chaos know that when she enters the battlefield it means Khorne is watching, so they fight on bravely in her presence so that when they die with sword in hand she will carry them off to a Warrior's Paradise of fighting and feasting in the Hall of The Slain the Blood God. However, if they should fail that test, she gets angry with their cowardice and they suffer D6S6 attacks and are cursed never to enter Valhalla - I mean, Khorne's Halls. Basically a flying beatstick. But the lack of a ward save is a problem (isn't it always?).

• Vilitch The Curseling: A level 4 Tzeentch wizard with an improved statline and little protection outside his armor save. Failed enemy casting attempts turn into dispel for him, while failed dispels turn into more power dice. Unfortunately, Lore of Tzeentch took a big hit in 8th edition, so it's probably the worst Chaos lore to have Loremaster in. Much pricier than its equivalent build from a generic Sorcerer Lord. Pretty much reserved for a themed army.

• Gutrot Spume: A Chaos Lord with MoN, a Great Weapon, an extra D3 attacks every round, the ability to move through absolutely any water feature along with his unit, a Nurgle's Rot mutation and the ability to take a warshrine as mount all for 250 pts. Hes alright for that amount of points, have him hunt monsters as he will wreck them. He weill also wreck any hero class characters.

• Orghotts Daemonspew: A monster with M6 WS8 BS3 S6 T5 W9 I7 A8 LD9 a 3+, a 6++ and some cool abilities: if he suffers a wound in H2H, whoever inflicted it must take an I test or suffer an S4 hit, MoN, Fear, a 6 S4 QTF shot a turn with KBW and Poisoned, Paired Weapons that are +2S and Poisoned for 430 pts. 9 str 8 attacks with poison at normal initiative... not forgetting that he has a pretty high ws. He is the chaos warrior's pain train as he will wreck nearly anything. (apart for a certain not-german emperor...)

• Bloab Rotspawned: Monster with M6, WS5, BS3, S6, T5, W8, I5, A6, LD8, 3+, Fear, MoN, Lv3 Nurgle Mage with +1 to all casting rolls, all enemy wizards within 12 -1 from theirs, all enemy units suffer D6 S3 magical hits if they are within 6 at the start of the magic phase. Also has a 'stonethrower' with S3(4), but no AS allowed against it for 415 pts. Pretty good wizard, suffersfrom being only level 3. However like the other maggoth lords he is also pretty good in combat. And unlike the other two he can deal with anything ethereal with magical flies. (Take that hexwraiths!)

• Morbidex Twiceborn: Monster with M6 WS7 BS3 S6 T5 W8 I6 A7 LD8, with a 3+/6++ but with Regen as well. Also has Nurgle's Rot. Has Orghotts Fear and MoN, and his shot except it's S6. Also gives all Nurglings within 12 Regen for 385 pts. So basically a Orghotts with better abilities except for H2H weapons but a worse statline for a 45 pt discount. Except Twiceborn's shot dosen't have KB or Poison. The only reason to take this guys other the other two is if your planning on fielding a good amount of nurglings. Unfortunately the babies are special and thus share slots with other better choices...(And nurglings are deamons of chaos, so if unless your using the chaose horde army, you wont be seeing morbi in a chaos warriors army)

• The Glottkin: Ooooh boy, now here are the big bad guys of the second end times book. Three fatasses combine to make the fatass to end them all (literally). Sharing the same profile the nurglebros are a monstrous creature (S and T 6) with 12 wounds! the only model GW has released with starting stats more than 10. But thats not all these guys have. With regen and mark of nurgle they are tough to kill. Add in the fact that with 5 attacks basic he gets an extra d6 + one of them is S10with d6 wounds! so with thunderstomp that already 5+2d6 attacks! (don't forget nurgle's rot which does a str 1 autohit which ignores armor) He also sports a s3 breath weapon which also ignores armor, makes everything nurgly reroll failed charges and instead of rolling eye of the gods he auto gets +1 ward save to replace that regen in case the enemy has tons of flaming (which they will inevitably do)... Did I forget to mention they're a level 4 wizard? The only problem besides the points cost which, even though he cheaper than Nagash, they'll will still be the only lord/hero choice you field if you want some rares/special to go with your army, is that they have initiative 1! This means those three are 1 purple sun / pit of shades away from going down the rabbit hole & never coming back. Sadly that will restrict play at higher levels.

• Festus The Leechlord: Festus is a mixed bag. Being a level 2 Nurgle wizard is okay, you'll likely be running death if youre taking a Nurgle Prince, so Uncle Festus brings the Nurgle magic. Nurgle is great at making your own troops better or their units worse, and Uncle Fester is pretty much designed to do just that. Having no save other than regen, however, is meh. The main reason why people take him is because he gives 5+ regen and poison to his unit. Which, if it is, say, a 50 man Marauder horde, is fucking brutal. No longer suffers from only pursuing 1D6, but you also no longer get the benefit of double victory points. The new book gives Festus some neat new gifts in the form of potions that can heal wounds to him and his unit, and take them off enemies. More pricey than a regular wizard, and taking him does mean not taking a dispel scroll, but the advantages he brings to his units are worth it. he just screams to be taken, especially in warrior units with halberds.
  • Festus Empowered: Now we are talking. The thing about Festus the Leechlord is that he dies almost instantly in combat, with only a regen save and measly toughness 4 to pull his boots out of the fire. Well worry no more because Festus now has an extra wound and a whopping toughness 5. Also - thanks to the lore attribute for Nurgle it is entirely possible to buff his toughness to 6 and in rare cases 7, as he is now a level 3 wizard. Just spam those low cost spells and pray that you roll a 6 while your regen / poison deathstar dishes out the pain. He also has two more nifty abilities. One - a spell that grants hard cover to all units within 12". And two - ALL TERRAIN OTHER THAN OPEN TERRAIN IS DANGEROUS FOR YOUR OPPONENT. Drink your opponents tears as they try and cross a board now covered in Nurgley goodness.

• Skarr Bloodwrath: A new character introduced in ET: Archaon, Skarr is a frightening melee monster, with WS8, S/T5 and I7, with paired magic weapons that grant d3 S7 Impact hits and 7 S7 attacks on the charge thanks to MoK. That shit's BRUTAL. Even more hilarious, he's actively encouraged to go on killing sprees; for every challenge he wins or monster he kills, he adds to a special tally. If he dies, he gets to return on a d6+Tally roll of 4+, back with d3 Wounds and cured of any effects not caused by Eye of the Gods. If anything, his greatest weakness is his inability to mount, making him forced to footslog it along and risk dying before he can kill something big.

• The Troll King Throgg: A troll with better stats. Incredible for his cost. Lets you take trolls as core, lets all trolls, ogres, dragon ogres and warhounds use his Ld (8), gives said units re-rolls to their Ld if he is within 12 inches, and gets a vomit attack at S5 and he has a strength 5 breath weapon that ignores armour saves. Outrageously deadly when you put him in a unit of 17 trolls. Plus his mutant regen is hilarious seriously there will be cries of WTF!? when he turns into a daemon prince for no reason.

• Wulfrik The Wanderer: Fluff-wise this guy makes the entire Space Wolf chapter look like pussies. Crunch-wise, he's also pretty good, having a stat-line roughly in-between that of a Chaos Lord and an Exalted Champion. So, basically S5/I7/WS8 with 4 attacks. Under normal circumstances, this still makes him a fine combat character. However, Wulfrik stands out in combat through his ability to offer an unrefusable challenge (the fluff reason for this is pure awesomeness as he basically offers a scathing insult to said character perfectly in their own language) to any model of your choice, and the fact that at the start of the game you can nominate any model to be his prey, thus causing him to gain +2S and the ability to re-roll all failed hits against that model, so basically while fighting said model he makes 4 S7/I7/WS8 attacks all re-rollable, so he can and will slaughter any hero or wizard you put him up against. In short, Wulfrik is one of the best one-on-one fighters in the Warhammer world. Also taken primarily for the Seafang, which is the outflank rule from 40K on steroids and allows him to pop up with a force of Marauders on any edge of the table and promptly begin to fuck shit up, probably the best reason for taking him, pretty godsdamned awesome for his 180 pt cost. Also, his model looks awesome.

• Scyla Anfingrimm: Huh, he actually got usable. M6 and D6+2 S5 attacks with Fury and Unbreakable make him usable and can take a bit of punishment with T5, W4 and a 6+ save. He is in fact your cheapest Hero choice in the book, but he's vulnerable to ranged fire. Should not be your first choice, unless you are looking for a low point Leadership 10 general which is quite rare for warriors of chaos.
  • He can join units even if he has the unbreakable rule (characters that are not unbreakable cannot join unbreakable units ) So you can hide him in a unit of monstrous beasts to "get a look out sir".

• Tamurkhan, the Maggot Lord (Forge World): Ridiculously powerful and survivable, thanks in part to his stats, in part to the enormous Toad Dragon he's mounted on, and in part to the fact that, when killed, he can possess the body of the model that killed him, but he's far too expensive: you'd need to be playing a game of at least 2600 points to even take him, since he costs 645 points, and that's at the reduced statline and points value! Though thanks to The End Times he can now be taken in normal 2,000 point games.

• Sayl the Faithless (Forge World): A Sorceror Lord who can take spells from the Lore of Shadow or Lore of the Heavens. Has a few nifty abilities, such as the ability to reroll any characteristic test, channeling extra power dice on a 5 or 6, and most notably the ability to inflict his miscast results on any friendly model within 12". Also has a pet Chaos Spawn, which you should probably ignore.

• Kazyk the Befouled (Forge World): An Exalted Hero of Nurgle. His only real bonus is allowing you to upgrade Nurgle Chaos Knights to Rot Knights: For 15pts, these guys swap their Chaos Steeds for Rot Beasts, which give them Poisoned Attacks, 5+ Regeneration, an extra Wound and the Monstrous Cavalry unit type. This is a pretty nice upgrade for the Knights, two wounds each is nothing to laugh at, especially with Regen and their 2+ armour save (no barding). As for Kazyk himself, he's nothing special. Get an Exalted Hero, give it Poisonous Slime, Mark of Nurgle, a Daemonic Beast, and a shield & lance, and you have a cut-price Kazyk who does exactly what the real Kazyk does. The only real reason to take this guy is for the Rot Knights upgrade.
  • Unfortunately, there are no models for Rot Knights yet (unless you count Kazyk's). You'll have to convert them up yourself. The closest models that GW makes that can be made into a Rot Knight are the Space Wolf Thunderwolf Cavalry, of all things.

Generic Characters

Note: While named characters are judged against their generic counterparts, generic characters are examined based on their role in your army.

• Daemon Prince: Ascending from the halls of trapdom, the Daemon Prince is actually a viable choice now! He's more expensive than your Chaos Lord at only a few better stats, is rather vulnerable (only 5++ without upgrades) and counts as a Monster. He also has Unbreakable by default, and not any of the 'gotcha' forms of Unbreakable that still cause him to die against an enemy with 5 ranks and full command. He can take up to 25 points of magic items and 100 points of Mutations, but mutations are generally not as good as magic items (with the exception of scaly skin (5+) and soul feeder, which are just brutal). It also does not help that while his base cost is not that high, he has to take a number of "options" that increase his cost significantly: he has to be dedicated to a specific god (this is NOT a Mark of Chaos: it's a better version that includes Hatred for the opposing Chaos God), needs Chaos Armor if you don't want him to die like a bitch, and needs Wings if you want him to get somewhere alive (though he has M8, everything will be aimed at this guy), making him cost AT LEAST 300 points. Can be up to a lvl4 wizard, depending on the mark this may or may not be worth it UNLESS you're taking Mark of Nurgle, as this gives you access to the Lore of Death, allowing you to fly up flanks and Purple Sun or otherwise take Lore of Nurgle to buff himself to extreme levels (potentially scoring yourself extra wounds). But in the end, is he worth having over a Combat Lord or Lord level Sorcerer? Of course he is! Why? Because Daemon Princes can be built to be nearly impossible to kill, but get him into combat quickly to stop war machines and wizards from focusing on it. The Nurgle Prince Level 4 Wizard with flying, Scaly Skin, Chaos Armour, Soul Feeder, Sword of Striking, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem and Spell Familiar(?)is quite possibly one of the most broken lords rocking around, and people will hate you for taking one.
  • Note Even if you're not taking one, it's a pretty good idea to have a Daemon Prince or two on hand because of the Eye of the Gods chart: if you roll for it and get a 12, there is a chance (LD test, good chance you'll make it) that the character making the roll turns into a Daemon Prince. If this happens, he keeps all his stuff like his mutations, his Eye of the Gods rolls and even his title of General/BSB, with the exception of his mount(which remains a solo model if it's a monster. The old model is then removed as a casualty (rewarding your enemy with VP, a small price to pay), but note that THIS IS DONE REGARDLESS OF IF YOU PLACE A DAEMON PRINCE. REMOVING THE CHARACTER IS MANDATORY. Doesn't happen often, but never say never.

• Chaos Lord: A ten-foot tall, four-foot wide Viking warlord with a giant axe and an insatiable need to slaughter everything around him. Your primary fighting lord, and probably the best generic character in the game as his statline is near unrivalled by any other lord, and if he is kitted out with the right magical items and mutations he becomes near unstoppable. The only generic lord that comes close to him in sheer power is the Vampire lord, who can also be kitted out with a fare few nasty weapons (but your army doesn't turn to dust if he dies). The Eye of the Gods rule means he will be challenging enemy characters left and right, so giving him items to kill characters and boost his armour and ward saves is usually the way to go. He has access to some of the best mounts in the game like Juggernauts and Chaos dragons but even without any upgrades or mounts he is very pricey and further magical items and mounts only increases his points cost, so choose wisely.
  • One nasty build is to give him the mark of nurgle, Dragonhelm, Dawnstone, hellfire sword, shield, soulfeeder, poisonous slime and scaly skin. Put him in a unit of your choice and on mount with barding, and watch as everything bounces off him. Even characters with S7 will likely only deal one wound per round of combat, and unless they have a ward save, they will be absolutely fucked when your lord gets his attacks. No armor saves, no regen and every wound has a chance of hurting enemy units for an additional d6S4 hits. Granted dragonhelm or dragonbane gem can make this setup problematic and he won't have a general ward save so will be in trouble if an attack ignores armour saves hits him.

• Sorcerer Lord: Your wizard lord, starts out as level 3 wizard, with the ability to chose from any of the Chaos lores or 4 of the better regular battle lores (Death, Shadow, Metal, or Fire), though if you give him a mark of chaos he has to use the lore of the respective Chaos god or its associated battle lore (Nurgle - Death, Tzeentch - Metal, Slaanesh - Shadow). The Lore of Tzeentch is generally regarded as ineffective now, with a terrible lore attribute and completely unpredictable spells that are no longer game-breaking if you roll well. Despite being a wizard, he is actually a decent fighter, but still keep away from combat if he's on his own, and avoid character-hunters, since you still must always issue challenges due to Eye of the Gods.

• Exalted Hero: Your fighting hero. A bit weaker statline than the Chaos lord and fewer options with equipment, but still a very powerful fighter. Great for smaller games. He can also be your BSB, and he should take a banner if you can.

• Sorcerer: a SOLID choice and one of the best wizards in all of WHFB. Good fighter with magic abilities to boot. You should always bring one to tag along, even if your are going full CC with your characters. Taking entire turns of spells in the face is not nice, especially when dealing with High Elves, Dark Elves, Empire, Lizardmen etc. Make him a lvl2, fix him a Dispel Scroll, and use him to thwart enemy spells.

• Sorceror-Prophet/Daemonsmith/Infernal Castellan (Forge World): Thanks to the Tamurkhan - The Throne of Chaos book (page 186), you can take Chaos Dwarf characters in your Warriors of Chaos army. They're decent, but the choices in the army book are just as good, if not better. Also their bases dont match as all chaos dwarfs are based on 20x20mm. Take a Daemonsmith to repair your Chaos Dwarf War Machines and stick him at the back; otherwise, pass.
  • As per FAQ daemonsmiths engeneer reroll applies to hellcannon despite it being monster Not warmachine. Enjoy.
  • Also taking them requires a tax in form of at least one chaos dwarf unit which can be any of the warmachines (except Hellcannons) or an infernal guard unit.

Core Units

• Chaos Warriors: Vikings in scary looking armour and the reason why this army is so fucking badass. Also the basic infantry unit for your army, but probably one of the nastiest infantry units in the game. They're very, very good at killing (model for model they beat most armies' elite melee troops), but their cost and larger base size means that you'll never want to take them in large units. Generally used in units that are six wide to maximize the number of models in base contact with the enemy and take advantage of their 2 Attacks. There are two main set-ups for these guys. The first is Shields and the Mark of Tzeentch, with the MoT stacking with their Parry save from HW+Shield for a 3+/5++ save in close combat. Hard to kill and still pretty deadly in return. The second set-up is to give them the Mark of Khorne and Halberds. Some folks like to use Additional Hand Weapons instead, but the Halberds are mathematically just as good or better in all situations. Except when you're up against zombies, skeletons, and weak units you'll wound on 2+ anyway... The Mark of Slaanesh is the cheapest mark, as it only allows you to pass Fear, Terror, and Panic tests in an already high Leadership army. The mark of Nurgle no longer makes you harder to hit with shooting attacks, but it is still invaluable against against elite units (even most heroes have ws 6, meaning they will hit you on a 4+ instead of a 3+), as a penalty to hit is stronger than a ward save. Always, always make use of the banner of swiftness on these guys. m4 is horribly slow and +1 move and charge distance is amazing. If you are going up against an army which loves its DAKKADAKKADAKKA, then maybe units of 18, 3x6.
  • If you have some characters in the unit take champion. If enemy have some murderlord in there and you have your wizard or BSB you can sacryfice champion as you have to issue and accept challanges. Not a problem if yor murderlord is in there obviously.
    • Even with no characters there it is worth to take a champion. Granted he has to issue chalanges but if he wins Eye of the gods. Of course this may enable enemy to hide his valuable character in the challange.
  • Note: When taking Halberds, shields are optional; 4+ armor save is good enough against most shooting but the extra bonus never hurts unless you're afraid of Lore of Metal; bear in mind that not all armies can take Lore of Metal (Vampire Counts FORBIDDEN LORE BITCHES, and Ogre Kingdoms can't for instance). In a case like that, you'll probably want shields so you won't be completely pulverized by Leadbelchers.

• Chaos Marauders: The cheap and plentiful alternative to Warriors. You can mark them Khorne with Great Weapons (or occasionally Flails) for a massive horde of half-naked berserkers. Yes, they'll drop like flies, but at 6 points per model naked, and 11 points per model with Mark of Khorne and great weapons means you can have a lot of them in a unit, and when they hit back they tend to murder the faces off most things with WS4, S5, and 2 Attacks each(if you don't lose frenzy), and It's usually good to have at least one unit of these guys to tie up/redirect anything you don't want to put a lot of points towards getting rid of. The other, less frequently used set-up is Tzeentch with Shields and Light Armour. They get the same synergy with Parry saves and the Mark of Tzeentch as Warriors, so rank them them up fairly deep for steadfast and use them to hold something nasty in place while the rest of your army sets up a flank charge.Their models are considered pretty terrible though, so a lot of people don't like to use them. Their models look like He-Man's deformed viking brother, and the limited options on the spruce means that all of them adopt the same, about-to-brain-themselves pose. If you like models who look like they come from the era before detailed casting, buy marauders. If not, buy the better-in-every-way Chaos Warriors.

• • Alternate take: The strength marauders bring to the table is the fact that they bring a big block of troops for cheap points or if you read above you will notice chaos marauder with mark of khorne and flail is 10 points when playing WoC. Also, buff these bastards with some spells, and they can become a total pain in the ass. Their main downsides are: 1) they are mounted on 25mm bases, so a horde of them will be hard to maneuver, and 2) they need support from characters. They are not like Chaos Warriors who can operate on their own; if you want them to accomplish something, put an Exalted Hero with them and buff them with some spells. Marks though can be quite effective on them, Mark of Nurgle helps them survive a lot longer in combat (good for tarpitting), Mark of Khorne makes them pretty good against other core if they have Great Weapons, and Mark of Slaanesh allows them to ignore the inevitable panic tests that come from being shot at. Note that Mark of Khorne also makes you immune to psychology, so it's like the Mark of Slaanesh but with one more attack. A block of 20 marauders with mark of khorne and flails scares the shit out of empire gun-lines, they will shoot lead in their faces and it will only make their penises harder, and when they hit, they'll RIP AND TEAR like flamers on Grots.

• Chaos Warhounds: Flankers. At only 6 points a pop, combined with M7 they are excellent at intercepting enemy scouts and skirmishers, and to hunt down the crews of enemy war machines, wizards or even ranged units. They drop like flies though: at T3 with a 6+ save for an additional point, everything with something bigger than a hand weapon or a longbow will kill these pups instantly. They can be given poisoned attacks as well, but with only 1 attack each this should not make much of a difference. Finally they can be upgraded to have Vanguard, meaning they get a free 12" move before the start of the game, putting them close to your enemy and less likely to be shot down along the way. Use them if you want to, but they won't work against every army you'll face. Take a few units as drops so that your opponent has to place his important units first. Dont bother giving them any upgrades other than vangard.
  • Alternate take: For 30 points naked, they're a super cheap investment in an army that otherwise has very expensive units. They give you more flexibility at deployment and make excellent redirectors. Once they run, they'll likely keep running, but keeping your outnumbered self unflanked for a turn or two can make the difference between life and death. Don't ever consider them combat-worthy. Consider them for dominating the movement phase, protecting your own flanks by redirecting chargers, and with the side benefit of maybe occasionally doing a few wounds on something squishy. Don't leave home without 2-3 naked units of 5 in any army above 1500, learn how to use them and you'll love them. Don't bother with any upgrades. Just get more units of them if you have the points to spare.
  • You can also use them to dominate the deployment phase. By putting down 3 or 4 units of just 5 hounds as your first deployments, you get to see where your opponent is putting his stuff before you start deploying your important units. Sure, you'll probably miss out on the +1 see-who-goes-first roll, but that's offset by letting you react to your opponent's deployment.
  • Watch out for panic tests - with Ld 5, these things will run at the first scent of danger, and you don't want your expensive units of warriors to follow them off the board. Vanguard helps you get them away from your main battle line, while a BSB will reduce the chance of your important units failing their test.

• Marauder Horsemen: Cheaper than Chaos Warriors, Marauders are your light cavalry. Notable for having the only non-magical ranged attacks in your army (throwing weapons or javelins), you can give them flails and light armor, combined with a Mark of Khorne to break enemy infantry units and run them down (3d6 dice + a reroll if needed? Yes please.) Again, with only T3 and a 5+ save they die like bitches to handgunners, so use their speed to keep them behind cover before you charge. They're not often used: if you want cavalry, Chaos Knights nearly always are given this task. But if you absolutely need you some poor bastards taking those Fanatics out or want a mono-cavalry army, these are your friends.
  • Alternate take: Note that Marauder Horsemen, being light cavalry, have the Vanguard special rule. Against certain dakka armies with slow to fire weapons (i'm looking at you, Empire Handgunners Empire Handgunners have move or shoot not slow to fire), a group of 5 with flails and Mark of Khorne will rip through a gunline and possibly overrun, engaging a cannon or something like that. Think of them as a one-shot desert eagle magnum. Also good for charging lone wizards. In one of my games they almost took out an empire Great Wizard by themselves.
  • They can be used as typical disruptors and warmachine hunters. Min unit of 5 with light armor, shields, javelins, spears and musician they clock at exactly 100p or 105 with mark of slanesh (propably good idea). They can hunt lone wizards, shoot some redirectors and such or charge warmachines and chaff with decent chanses of killing it with 4+ AS, S4 atacks and being imune to panic. Do not usde them as redirectors tho. Warhounds are cheaper and better for that.

• Forsaken: Another trap. Their stat-line is considerably worse than that of a Warrior, but they cost more points. When in B2B with an enemy they get a (randomly determined) special rule, from Armor Piercing to Killing Blow. Fast and with great potential, but just not worth it compared to regular Chaos Warriors. I've seen some players attempt to use multiple small units of Forsaken, but your points are better spent elsewhere. On the plus size, the parts from their sprues make for excellent conversion fodder for Chaos Warriors, so if you were wanting to spruce up a unit of those...
  • Alternate take: Those small units aren't so bad. Movement 6 plus swiftstride with Mark of Slaanesh means they're not much slower than your Knights at around half the cost, and Immune to Psychology means you can field 5-man units without worrying about them fleeing after ranged attacks. They're unpredictable (Frenzy + D3 attacks gives you 2-4) and you never know what mutation you'll get in CC, but that makes it just as hard for your opponent to know what to expect. Useful as a flanking unit in support of your main blocks of Warriors, or to chase off small units such as skirmishers or light cavalry.
  • They can be used as slower but more killy (especially with mark of khorne) version of maruder horsemen. They cost exactly the same as fully kited horsemen with same save.

• Chaos Chariot: Pretty damn good as far as chariots go: T5 with 4 wounds and 3+ armor save is nothing to be sneered at for its low-ish cost. This bad-boy will pump out an ungodly amount of S5 attacks if you mark it with Khorne: D6+1 impact hits, then 3 attacks each from the halberdiers on the back. And now they are Core you can considerably upgrade your hitting power with but a small unit. Skip on regular infantry and you can have a stupidly fast army as a whole with these without giving up killing power and resilience. Just watch out for combat res and be sure to break steadfast.
  • There are armies that fill their entire core with multiple chariots. 3 of them charging a infantry unit have a decent chance of murdefying a lot of rank and file that is not elites and surviving comeback. Abilities that being single model give are nothing to scoff at either.

Special Units

• Chosen: 4 points more expensive than a regular Warrior, gaining +1 WS and the The Rewards of Chaos rule, granting a free roll on the Eye of the Gods table. For the rest they have the same options as a unit of Chaos Warriors, except shields are more expensive for them and can take more expensive magic banners. Removing Favor of the Gods hurt them quite a bit, but this is made more than up for for two reasons: The Rewards of Chaos is done on 3d6 of which you may discard one, potentially allowing you to choose between three different Gifts, and when paired up with a Warshrine this adds yet ANOTHER die to roll with, giving you even more flexibility. With this ability your units of Chosen can quickly become very powerful, and will serve as a good block of heavy infantry for your army.
  • Unfortunately they serve very similar role as regular warriors (albeint with added upf) while being more expansive and taking from special allowence that have so many better things. Only really good reason to take them is for altar tactics trying to abuse their special feature and get best possible Eye of the gods effect on 4d6. But it is hardly competetive. They also have access to two handed weapons but it waste their high I.

• Gorebeast Chariot: Chaos Chariot with a purple ape and Killing Blow on impact. Their speed is their big downside, but they are ridiculously tough and hit like an unstoppable pain train with no brakes. If possible I'd take these guys over a regular chariot any day of the week. Remember that like all chariots, they can pivot and threaten a charge on your flanks after movement, making them excellent linebackers for your main blocks. Just turn them to face any direction you don't want your enemy moving into and they create a no man's land of pain. Take Mark of Nurgle to have a T6 W5 brick wall that most troops will only be hitting on 5s to begin with. This might actually be the best chariot in the game now.
  • They are great adition to all chariot army as well as regular army for flank charges. Those guys can even hold entire enemy units at bay for some time as anything other than elites will have hard time damaging them.

• Ogres: Opinions are mixed on these guys. They're cheaper, but less deadly and durable, than Dragon Ogres. But they are Monstrous Infantry and get the Ogre Charge rules, which you WILL notice. The Mark you should probably take is the Mark of Khorne; combine with a weapon of choice depending on what you're up against (I2 will mean you hit last against nearly anything anyway so don't be shy about Great Weapons but remember their cost), use 4-6 of them and let 'em rip. The other Mark you should consider is that of Nurgle: being only WS3 they will be rather easy to hit. And their champion is allowed to roll for Eye of the Gods, potentially creating an Ogre Daemon Prince. And for the love of Khorne, don't buy the metal Ogres. Use the plastic boxes, get a Spawn of two and glue on some tentacles. It'll save you a LOT of money. Alternatively you can use the Dragon Ogre arms and heads to Chaos-ify the normal Ogres; Combine that with extra spawn bits as you see fit. Or, given the Ogres' high resistance to mutation, you could just paint some Chaos Stars on their gutplates.
  • The main competitor with Ogres are Trolls as they cost around the same and fill similar rolls, but both have their own advantages and drawbacks. Trolls get regeneration, but Ogres can take Marks. Ogres have a wider selection of weapons but Trolls can be taken as a Core unit. Ogres have their ogre charge, while Trolls have their vomit attack. All in all Trolls probably just edge out the Ogres thanks to their vomit attack and buffs from Throgg, but if that doesn't mean Ogres are useless or irrelevant and can still be effective if you want to take them instead.

• Dragon Ogres: More expensive than regular Ogres, hitting at S5 without using Great Weapons will bring the pain upon any lesser unit you'll face. They're fast too: at M7 you can slam them into your enemy's juicy units with ease. They're immune to lightning-based attacks as well, use this to troll gun-heavy Skaven armies. Don't waste these guys on regular infantry; maul your enemy's biggest units, counter-charge knights, slay monsters, and kill anything worth a lot of points. Be careful though, these guys are tough, but not invincible.

• Trolls: Cheaper than Dragon Ogres but with near-equal stats and Regenerate, Trolls are what you'll want to kill heavily-armored enemy models. In lieu of their regular attacks (3 at S5), all trolls in base contact with an enemy unit and those in the rank behind them inflict a S5 auto-hit that ignores armor. This *will* kill nearly anything without multiple wounds, but remember that this is very ineffective against larger units. Again, knights are a prime target for this attack but it's always a good idea to have something charge alongside the trolls, preferably something that can deal a finishing blow against the enemy. Also remember that trolls have Stupidity, so don't let them wander off on their own. Taking King Throgg makes them Core, and having him in a big unit of them makes for ultimate trolling (I see what you did here). If someone is gloating about their unhittable character with Fencer's Blades and Glittering Scales/Mark of Nurgle/White Cloak of Ulric combo, be sure to vomit on them. Either with your trolls or in reality, it's up to you really.
  • With added additional hand weapons they are 4 S5 attacks a piece. Granted WS 3 is not stellar but enough against most rank and file. Against heavy armor they have auto-hitting, no armour save allowed vomit attack. And with their 4+ regen they will not go down easily unless enemy have some serious FIRE-power (literally). Elite infantry is their bane really. Taken in core as Throgg horde can be scary ac hell. Small units can be used to intercept cannonballs and shield your daemon price on his way in.

• Chaos Knights: Until recently the deadliest cavalry unit in the game, Chaos Knights have the works. A 1+ armor save, S5 magical attacks, 10 attacks from a basic 5 man unit and a statline you'll normally see on lesser Heroes, a sizable unit of Chaos Knights is a game-changer. Give them the Mark of Khorne to make them even deadlier. Cavalry rules say that the Mark of Tzeentch does not give them a 5++ parry save, so you'd be served best not to use that one. Don't bother with lances: always having S5 is preferable to S6 on the charge, followed by S4 for the rest of combat. Their downside is of course their cost: at 200 points bare bones you will want to be VERY careful about what you do and don't with them, both in points and on the battlefield. An obvious bodyguard to your General, these guys will break nearly anything you throw them against. Be careful of concentrated fire: giving them the Blasted Standard is a good idea when facing the more dakka armies. Upgrading one to a Champion is usually a bad idea, you don't want to waste all of his expensive attacks on a single-wound unit sergeant. A Lichebone Pennant with Mark of Tzeentch will be vital if you're up against a magic heavy army with access to spells that ignore armour (Lore of Metal, Curse of Years, Lore of Death perhaps?).

• Hellstriders of Slaanesh: Hellstriders are a good deal more expensive than Marauder Horsemen, being one point more than a fully kitted out Warrior. What you're getting for that extra points is M10, Fear, Armour Piercing magical POISONED attacks for the mounts, Mark of Slaanesh, Spears, and the ability to take ASF in the first round of combat for peanuts. The main thing you have to be careful of is avoiding being shot. Sure, you're fast, but you will go down hard if you aren't careful. Remember, they are just as easy to kill as normal horsemen until you get their bonuses from their special rule, which means they receive a benefit for each unit the run down: Devastating Charge, Stubborn and a 4+ Ward Save. The best way to use them is in a similar way to Empire detachments. Have them back up a large unit, so when that unit charges or is charged, they can get the enemies flank. Then, when the enemy breaks and flees, restrain the large unit and send the Hellstriders to run them down. If you have the models of the old Seekers of Slaanesh with the old Daemonettes instead of GW's new androgynous abominations, it'd be a novel idea to use them as Hellstriders, employing the 'Counts As' rule to save on money and let classic miniatures see the light of day again. With their Initiative 5, the ASF upgrade will let them re-roll misses against most things; this is a considerable buff since they only start with a single attack each.
  • Basically those guys are very good but very over costed light Cav that have potential to be quite deadly after they kill several things but that will not happen as this is not what light cav is meant to do. Skip them if you want fast cav take marauder horesemen.

• Chaos Warshrines: Now a bound spell, gives d3 models a roll on the eye of the gods, and they can roll 3 dice and drop one, so you can increase the odds of rolling daemon-hood. Random attacks make it a a little worse but it can get a 3+ ward save from mark of Tzeentch so can still be worth it and can be a mount. Always have a Daemon Prince model on hand, especially when you use the shrine!
  • Sadly it is slow and don't have either swiftstride or impact hits like normal chariot. It is good if you have some chosen and want to abuse their special rule a little and for little else beside being Tzeentch wizard mount for sweet 3+ 1rerollable ward. But in this case range of spells quicly becomes an issue unless you go for Tzeentch lore which is unreliable but have very good range.

• Chimera: A nice beastie. Because it can fly it is one of your fastest units that is not a mount. 6 strength 6+d3 attacks are nothing to scoff at, not to mention D6 S6 thunderstomps, even when coming at WS4 and I2. At T5, W4 and a 4+ save it can take some ranged fire, but cannons WILL kill it dead. Though it's a bit expensive to hunt war machines and wizards it is undeniably very good at it, and when those are all gone it is more than capable of piling in with other units to kill big blocks of infantry. Regeneration is a mandatory upgrade, as it can save you from those inevitable cannonballs you'll be taking. Same with the breath weapon, both mandatory. Also, for some reason its random attacks gain +1 To Hit when being attacked from the rear. But if that happens you are using your Chimera wrong. Tag team with your flying Dp because it is awfully LD5, and likely to fuck off the first chance it gets.

• Putrid Blightkings (End Times) : Kind of a mixed bag. 3 wound 4+ Armor Save infantry on a 40mm base who can choose to fight with 1hand+shield, 2hand weapons or a great weapon. With WS6, MoN, and T5 they are hard to kill and their attack potential is clearly not lacking, but they have only M4 and seem like they will have a hard time winning combats between steadfast and rank bonus. Also, they are infantry with 40mm bases, so forget having a horde of these unless you are playing a omgwtfholyshit-sized game.
  • Note: They might be a decent, if not good, tarpit for hordes: 5 of them could easily tank a horde of 50 clanrats, empire state troops and the like. The combination of high WS, MoN and T might force the enemy opposing force to roll 6s to hit and 5-6 to wound. This means that it would take some 30 dice to cause 5 hits, and then only 1-2 of those hits would actually become wounds, and even then you have a 4+ (or 3+ save if you are using shields in combat, plus the parry save) to shrug off those hits. Also, a rank of 5 Blightkings covers the whole front line of a 20mm model horde. When they retaliate, they have 15 attacks (20 if you had the 2 hand weapons) that will normally hit and wound on 3s. Note that this is just speculation. Maybe if you are a WoC player who fights huge hordes a lot (Skaven, Empire, VC) try using them and tell us what they're like.

A unit of 5 held off a 50 strong horde of skellies with spears using their shield combo for 3 rounds without taking a single wound, however, infantry worth a damn(lizardmen saurus bearded midgets,empire great swords ect.) Will grind them down with frightful speed, take them when you want to hold a line against a horde so your squishy/damage optimized guys can do their thing without worrying over having to chop through 50 gobbos over the course of a game-therefore wasting points, otherwise, pass.

• Skullreapers (End Times) : New Khorne End Times book 5 special choice. Come with two hand weapons, chaos armour, option to upgrade to +1S +1A ensorcelled weapons. I personally take a group of 10 of these bad boys into game on occasion. It's a 400 point unit, pricy I know, but with dual wielding ensorcelled weapons equipped they WRECK EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH.

• Plague Toads (Forge World): For 24pts a model, you get a mediocre Monstrous Beast. They put out a handful of Poisoned Attacks each, and they have the Mark of Nurgle, but they won't get much done. Think of them as weaker Trolls without stupidity and the vomit, just throw them at whatever you want tarpitted down (as 2 wound Daemons they aren't going anywhere) and you can't go too wrong. They're much better in Daemons of Chaos where they are Core choices and you'll need at least one character with the Mark of Nurgle to even take them.

• Infernal Guard (Forge World): Chaos Dwarf soldiers. They were overpriced even as Core, but they're the only unit that the Chaos Dwarf characters can join, so only take one if you want a bodyguard for your Daemonsmith. Can be upgraded to have blunderbusses or fireglaives, giving Warriors of Chaos a proper shooting unit that isn't a war machine. Fireglaives are probably the best choice, as the points cost for taking enough blunderbusses to use them effectively is probably more than it's worth.
  • generally not worth it unless you absolutely have to have some shooting units or as a tax for dwarf character.

Rare Units

• Chaos Spawn: Spawn are terribad. Like, really sucky. Even less reliable than Trolls, combined with their low stats for a monster and their slow movement (7" on average, can't march or charge) makes them a joke. Even with their better interpretations of the Marks of Chaos they still are just too random to have any effect. You should buy these for only two reasons at best: conversions using the crapload of tentacles found on the sprue or using them to drag your converted Chaos Warshrines. Sadly, they are now needed, for the same reason as the Daemon Prince: although some of the marks make them semi-usable, such as giving them a breath weapon, if you roll a 2 on the Eye of the Gods table, the character making the roll has a chance to become one.
• Note that, in some cases, a unit champion becoming one of these is actually the 2° best outcome you can get, as you both get a spawn and can reposition it facing any direction. Additionally they are only random movement unit in the army enabling random movement shenanigans.
  • Alternative take. As only thing in army with random movement (hell cannon only gets it on failed Ld). It can be utilised for some random movement shenanigans. But it is minor buff especially as its random movement is only 2d6.

• Hellcannon: The only "war machine" in your army, it is a stonethrower that will kick your ass in combat. Needs to take an LD test at the beginning of your turn; if you fail the cannon will drive itself 3d6 closer to the enemy, so it can hit them with its spiky bits. It hits at S5, causing Panic at -1 LD, good against feeble humans and greenskins, and the model under the center of the template suffers a Str10 hit that causes D6 wounds, pretty good against monsters, too. When it misfires though bad shit goes down, from explosions to murdering its crew and mindraping every wizard within 24' inches, instead of the old "all wizards on the table" which could mean less exploding enemy wizards sadly. Temperamental at best, and with a notable price tag, the Hellcannon should only be taken by the more daring of generals. It is pretty much immune to anything that goes hunting war machines though, as it is better in combat than shooting, being a monster that decided one day that it wanted to be a gun. Remember on a failed Leadership check it gets a FREE TURN before it makes its 3d6 move, meaning it will turn around and destroy skirmishers trying to kill its crew. Interesting thing it is not categorised as war machine so it has base and handlers which means it is not removed from the table when chaos dwarf die it rolls on monster reaction table and it can fight on. Granted with abysmal leadership it will just move towards nearest enemy until it hits it unless there is a general nearby but still.

• Dragon Ogre Shaggoth: The big brother of the Dragon Ogres, the Shaggoth will fuck shit up. 5 attacks at S6 murders everything it runs into. Combining with either another hand weapon or a great weapon, there's nothing a Shaggoth won't murder. The obvious downside is that the Shaggoth is relatively vulnerable (T5, 4+ save and no way to regain wounds), it is the magnetic pole for shooting. Get this guy in combat fast and keep him there, otherwise he'll be headbutting cannonballs from turn 1. He is rather pricey though, so have a plan before you field this guy. Should have been the hero choice version of Kholek; right now he's fighting for space vs Skullcrushers, and losing.

• Giant: Giants have a ton of special rules, making them effective against both monsters and infantry/cavalry units. They are less effective against monstrous infantry, due to most of the Giant's attack being effective against only one model. The Giant is surprisingly very effective against characters, especially if you roll on the Pick Up And chart; you have a 2 in 3 chance to remove the guy from the game. They're sublime fire magnets though, and it'd be a shame to have your 200+ points model taken out by a pair of cannons. As of the new book, the Mark of Nurgle actually increases his toughness to 6, making it the ideal choice.
  • Decent monster overall but if you go moster heavy Chimerae is superior due to being more reliable in combat fly and breath weapon.

• Skullcrushers: Despite suffering a significant points increase less than three months after being released, Skullcrushers are still one of the best choices available to WoC players. 1+ Armor save, meaning that it takes a S5 hit or higher to put them on anything but 1s for armor saves. They have 3 magical S5 attacks each, cause fear, and are frenzied. In addition the juggs get stomps on infantry. They're monstrous cav so they have swiftstride and can't be killing blown. Forget using chaos knights, these guys blow them out of the water and are cheaper and better than 2 knights put together. I recommend taking a unit of 3-4 every game, sometimes 2 units depending on how mean you want to be. These guys are ridiculously hard to kill and if you send them into the enemy's flank they'll just sit there and rampage the whole game while your opponent scrambles to deal with them and your oncoming horde of whatever else you bring. I advise not taking a champion, because he has to challenge, and you're then losing a third of your attacks from him and the mounts (Which are s6 on the charge) fighting some scrawny unit champion.
• As a side note. Always and I mean ALWAYS bring a unit of these combat lords. I've seen them withstand a shitload of arrow barrages and still get to them and destroy them with ease. And against combat units, well my unit even managed to withstand a damn daemon prince and beat it in his face in turn 3. Definitely a solid choice.
  • Side note. While looking super cool units bigger than 3-4 quickly become unwieldy, wich in combination with frenzy makes them stuck in ackward positions, blocked by your own units or on terrain. 2 units of 3 is typically optimal usage of them.

• Slaughterbrute: The first of two big, scary monsters. The Slaughterbrute is a powerful monster with very decent four attacks, solid strength and decent toughness. While it may at first seem to suck at close combat with a pathetic weapon skill of 3, you can boost its killing ability by binding it to your Chaos Lord Lord of Hero, a process which involves jamming a lot of sanctified blades into its back. Doing so is borderline mandatory, as it uses your Chaos Lord's Lord's of Hero's weapon skill and leadership so long as he is alive, producing results like a weapon skill 8 leadership 9 monster. If that SOUNDS awesome, it's because it IS! It only has four attacks however, so it won't do much against large units, even with its thunder stomp. Where it excels is against small elite units, preferably with good armour, that its high WS and S will give you a good return against. HOWEVER, it is both more expensive, easier to kill (assuming regen) and easier to redirect than a Chimera, so keep that in mind.

• Mutalith Vortex Beast: The other big, scary monster. The Vortex Beast has a bound spell which makes you roll on a table to see how many toughness tests the enemy takes, for each toughness test they fail they suffer a wound with no armour saves allowed. This monster has great synergy with the Nurgle magic lore and its toughness reducing spell. Be aware though that a lot of the rolls on the chart give bonuses to the target unit.

• Nightmaw: If you take Sayl the Faithless up in the Lords section, you have the option of including his pet spawn Nightmaw. Nightmaw follows all the rules for 'normal' Chaos Spawn (if there is such a thing), with the following added bonuses: He gets a 3+ regeneration save, the Always Strikes First rule, and enemy models have a -1 to hit penalty when shooting at it. The -1 to hit and 3+ regen will ensure Nightmaw getting into combat despite enemy shooting, while the 3+ regen turns it into quite a good damage sponge when it gets there. It gets a random amount of attacks, between 2 and 7, and its Initiative of 5 means it will be getting re-rolls to hit most of the time thanks to ASF. Unfortunately, its attacks are still just Strength 4 with no extra abilities, so Nightmaw won't really impact combat much apart from being hard to kill. Nightmaw's biggest failing is costing roughly double the point cost of a basic Chaos Spawn, if it was included for free with its master Sayl, Nightmaw would be an excellent unit.

• Wrathmongers (End Times): New Khorne End Times book 5 unit. Come with chaos armour and flails that give impact hits(D3) and +1 attack. Can also take a magic standard. They can do wonders against blocks of infantry, but their weakness lie in their low movement and having fairly weak defense for such high cost. Remember that these are competing in the rare slot with alternatives such as Skullcrushers, which would in most situations be better.

• Chaos Siege Giant (Forge World): Giant with a better armour save (5+, 3+ against shooting) and a special ability that lets them destroy terrain. Not competitive because they're overcosted compared to the standard Giant. Perfect if you're playing a siege scenario.

• Bile Trolls of Chaos (Forge World): Complete fucking garbage for their cost. For TWENTY FIVE more points than a regular troll you get -1 WS, +1 T, +1 W, and +1 BS. While their Mark of Nurgle makes them safer from ranged attacks (-1 to hit) it also only subtracts 1 from enemy WS in close combat, though since they're only WS2 that'll barely help them at all. Their final advantage is their vomit causes D3 wounds at S5 rather than only one, but honestly you're just better off paying the extra 10 points for another troll.

• Chaos Dwarf War Machines (Forge World): Magma Cannons, Dreadquake Mortars, Deathshrieker Rockets and Iron Daemons may be taken in Warriors of Chaos armies as Rare choices; see here for details. The Magma Cannon and Deathshrieker are pretty good, but since they're competing for a Rare slot here, you may be better off sticking with a Hellcannon.
  • Also notę that They are allowed only under Throne of Chaos book Not WoCh codex.

• Chaos War Mammoth (Forge World): Not a brilliant choice; although it's powerful, and most of its attacks will do considerable damage, it's very expensive and models mounted on the back of it can't attack, except with throwing axes. But, to be honest, you want one anyway, don't you?

Building Your Army

Buying Your Army

One of the best things about this army is the low model count. The other one is that the models are, most of the time, goddamn awesome. Under 8th edition infantry has been strengthened (haha!), while other units such as chaos horsemen, chariots or the like don't see so much use as they used to have. Consequently, you should consider buying a strong core of infantry: about 30-40 warriors of chaos ("oh my god the pain!" being cried by your opponent's units is guaranteed in close combat), although some people prefer to use even less. Marauders are no longer a good choice, although they can be used MSU style quite effectively depending on your list. Having bought some Warriors, invest in some heroes, sorcerers, a unit of horseman or two and 1 or 2 hellcannons (they are AMAZING now!). One of the advantages of playing WoC as opposed to Ogre Kingdoms or another similar force is the viability of many of your choices - you can run an all-mounted force, an all-chariot force, a force made up entirely of monsters or a simply Warrior army. The choice is yours!

Since Chaos Warrior squads are better off being smaller, just one or two boxes (make it three) of them will do for core along with a box of Warhounds and a Chariot if you want one. And then just proceed from that point.

Buying your army in a Post-ET/AoS world

Good news for you. The rough transition to AoS has left the Warriors of Chaos relatively unscathed and almost all of their units (which had models) are still available, though they have been scattered across 6 different armies, so you will need to do a bit of hunting. The biggest blow has been the loss/replacement/basically unusable updates of a few of the named characters and rare units, mainly Archaon whos model is completely different now, Sigvald who is also much bigger than he used to be and Throgg and Galrauch whos models have both been dropped from GW stores and the Hellcannon is also gone as well as most things from the Tamurkhan: Throne of Chaos book. To get these models you'll need to do some hunting on ebay, bargaining with Ivan or Cheng for a recast or convert your own.

Luckily, Chaos appears to be the most supported faction by 3rd party and smaller model manufactures as pretty much all of them do their own takes on marauders and Chaos Lords/Heroes so feel free to look to them for units and conversion material. Avatars of War and Mierce Miniatures in particular have very good selections of their own (not) Chaos Lords and units to pick from. Even GW still seems to be catering to Fantasy Chaos players (or the AoS Chaos player and by proxy us) as most of their new Chaos stuff, like the characters and monopose Start collecting set still fits with the classic heavy metal Vikings so you can use them for unit filler and conversion fodder. Even the new Rockgut Troggoths Stone Trolls make great Chaos Trolls when you add some spawn bits and green stuff extra tentacles on them. Just take that Lord off of that lizard thing if you get the new Start Collecting set, it looks awful.

On a different note, you'll need to get a bunch of Square bases on your own. There are a few base manufactures out there that will have what you are looking for and people on ebay selling old bags of bases, or you will need to make your own using wood and a wood laser cutter (but they are expensive so only do this if you already have one or have easy access to one.)

As for Bases sizes for your army, they can be found here.

Named Lords and Heroes

• Archaon - 50x50mm
  • On foot - 25x25mm
• Be'lakor - 50x50mm
• Galrauch - 50x100mm
• Valkia - 25x25mm
• Sigvald - 25x25mm
• Vilitch - 25x25mm
• Feetus - 25x25mm
• Wulfrick - 25x25mm
• Throgg - 40x40mm
• Scyla Anfingrimm - 50x50mm
• Tamurkhan - 100x150mm
• Sayl the Faithless (and Nightmaw) - 25x25mm (40x40mm)
• Kayzk the Befouled - 25x50mm
• The Glottkin - 100x150mm
• Orghotts Daemonspew/Bloab Rotspawned/Morbidex Twiceborn - 60x100mm
• Skarr Bloodwrath - 25x25mm

Generic Lords and Heroes

• Chaos Lord/Exalted Hero - 25x25mm
• Sorcerer Lord/Sorcerer - 25x25mm
• Daemon Prince - 50x50mm

Mounts

• Chaos Steed - 25x50mm
• Daemonic Mount - 50x50mm
• Chaos Chariot - 50x100mm
• Chaos Warshrine - 50x100mm
• Manticore - 50x100mm
• Juggernaut of Khorne - 50x75mm
• Seeker of Slaanesh - 25x50mm
• Palanquin of Nurgle - 50x50mm
• Disc of Tzeentch - 50x50mm
• Chaos Dragon - 50x100mm

Core Units

• Chaos Warriors - 25x25mm
• Marauders - 25x25mm
• Forsaken - 25x25mm
• Marauder Horsemen - 25x50mm
• Chaos Hounds - 25x50mm
• Chaos Chariot - 50x100mm

Special Units

• Chosen - 25x25mm
• Chaos Knights - 25x50mm
• Chaos Trolls - 40x40mm
• Chaos Ogres - 40x40mm
• Dragon Ogres - 50x75mm
• Gorebeast Chariot - 50x100mm
• Hellstriders of Slaanesh - 25x25mm
• Chimera - 50x100mm
• Chaos Warshrine - 50x100mm
• Plauge Toads - 50x50mm
• Putrid Blightkings - 40x40mm
• Skullreapers - 40x40mm

Rare Units

• Hellcannon - 100x150mm (or smaller or none, but this was the base it got given in 8th).
• Dragon ogre Shaggoth - 50x50mm
• Chaos Spawn - 40x40mm
• Skullcrushers - 50x75mm
• Chaos Giant - 50x100mm
• Slaughter Brute/Mutilith Vortex Beast - 50x100mm
• Bile Trolls - 40x40mm
• Chaos Siege Giant - 50x100mm
• Chaos War Mammoth - 100x150mm
• Wrathmongers - 40x40mm

Army Composition

Generic Mounts

Generic mounts tend to be worse than mark-specific mounts, but the ability to be taken with any mark guarantees that they aren't obsolete, especially due to the dubious usefulness of the marks of Slaneesh and Nurgle in every other aspect (although their specific mounts do rock).

A note on monstrous cavalry: at the moment, skullcrushers are the only monstrous cavalry unit in your army, which means that you won't have Look out Sir! unless you take a unit of at least 5 of them and place your hero in the unit. This is a problem especially against cannons, although stone throwers and quite a few spells can also present a danger: remember, even with a 4+ ward save two cannon balls are enough to kill a lord. Against cannons, you can protect yourself by placing a unit of trolls/ogres/whatever you want in front of the lord. Against spells and stone throwers there is nothing you can do, but they are generally unreliable (stone throwers) or can be dispelled at the cost of allowing something else to slip past (spells). All analysis of monstrous mounts assumes that you are taking this into account.

• Chaos Steed: Your standard barded warhorse, only since this is chaos, he gets S4 to kick people to death. If you want a mounted hero or lord, this is what you'll likely be taking. With a 1+ armour save if you take a shield and the fact that a chaos lord (and heck, most of the times the exalted heroes) will only ever be hit on a 4+ you have a great defense right from the bat. The cost for such an awesome loadout is that with cavalry being so gimped this edition you will have a hard time killing very large units if you are unable to maneuver well (and depending on the map it may be hard: losing a 40 point model to a dangerous terrain test is sad). While not bad on your general, it might be best used on a hero leading a flank.
• Daemonic Mount: An attack-oriented chaos steed, with an extra attack at S5 and stomp. It does, however, work great on sorcerer lords and especially exalted champions, because it improves their wounds to 3 and toughness to 5 (you can use mount's toughness and wounds - it's been errated), while still providing a decent offense. Barding is possible now.
  • It might be a good idea to stick your BSB on one of these things, just to give him a little extra protection.
• Chaos Chariot: Yeah no. Chariots operate fine on their own, placing a character there will only turn them into the focus of all shooting, because it will become as vulnerable as a Shaggoth and just as (or more) pricey. Not only that, you replace one of the crew (so you lose attacks compared to a normal chariot) and you aren't as mobile as if you were on any other mount, because you can't march. Oh, and it's more expensive than a Daemonic Mount. If you didn't get the picture yet, don't take it.
• Chaos Warshrine: Yes, this really is a mount now. Despite offering a great ward save and being relatively tough, the Warshrine is no longer as useful as it used to be. In addition, it hobbles along at a painfully slow pace - as in, slower than the rest of your already (mostly) slow army - hardly an ideal choice for a mount.
  • With mark of Tzeentch it gets 3++. Fuck cannons.
• Manticore: At T5, 4 wounds and no armour, this thing will die fast to shooting, melee, and magic. Which is a shame, because it can really dish out the pain: 4 attacks (5 if you fail the leadership test, which will also make your lord frenzied) at s5 with killing blow and thunderstomp will put a hurt on things, but you can't really expect it to survive against anything other than s3 infantry (and even then, not lol 4 rows asf high elves). Back when terror was more devastating, this was a worthy, if unreliable, mount,but now you are better off just taking the Tzeentch or Slaneesh mounts if you need your lord to move fast across the board. As of the new book, the Manticore was given a substantial price discount and the ability to buy a 4+ armour save. Still a glass cannon, but with the option for other viable flying threats like a Chimera or a Daemon Prince, it can find its place in an army now as part of a multitude of fast threats.
• Chaos Dragon: Ouch. The corrupted cousin of the Star Dragons, it has one less WS, S and W and replaces them with an extra breath weapon that will devastate low T things and put a dent on even high T cavalry, and +1I. This your strongest mount, but also the most expensive. Unless you are tackling enemy lords or monsters, this is usually to your advantage, especially considering you are paying 50 points less for it. At 3000+ points, you can properly equip your lord, but at 2500 you just have the bare minimum, so take the mark of tzeentch, a talisman of endurance and a great weapon and go hunt whatever you please, just get into combat fast before you are struck down by everything your opponent has to throw at you. Monsters are always risky to take, so don't be surprised if one game you slaughter everything in your path and the other you lose 620 points to turn 1 shooting.

Mark-Specific Mounts

• Juggernaut of Khorne: An S5 mount with 3 attacks (S6 on the charge) which also improves your armor save by 2 and stomps infantry in their faces. Khorne is a kind god indeed to those who would fuck shit up in his name. Now that armor can't be improved past 1+, you benefit from it most if you take a halberd or a great weapon. Alternatively, if your lord already has a talisman of preservation, you could take a hero with the armor of destiny and a shield and have a sweet 1+/4++ save on two models (if you do so, make sure to make this fact obvious to your opponent by sending your characters on lone missions against his precious inner circle knights/ white lions). Heck, you could even take the glittering scales and still have a 2+ save while only being hit on 5+ or even 6+. A very solid choice.
  • Also good modelling opportunities are available here as you can simply create a Jugger-Lord by sitting one onto a spare juggernaut model if you have some skull crushers, adding some extra bits.
• Palanquin: A Monstrous Beast mount, The Palanquin provides a respectable 6 S3 poisoned attacks, ideal against monsters and hordes designed to slow you down alike. Of course, all this is wasted if you don't make the most of your armour, so grab that dawnstone and a dragonhelm/enchanted shield. A solid choice only stained by the fact that the mark of nurgle is generally wasted on lords. Also kind of slow making it a sub-optimal mount in comparison to other choices.
• Steed of Slaneesh: Have you ever wanted to hit something really hard, but were too far away to bash its skull in? Then the boobed snake is for you. Of dubious usefulness in a lord (you want him close to the rest of your army to offer his leadership), this thing is spectacular on an exalted hero, because while the Disc of Tzeentch has fly, the steed allows you to join a unit of marauders and still have the vanguard move at the start of the game (which means you have all the defensive benefits of being in a unit), something your opponent will have to react to unless he wants to lose his flank. All the mounts have fear, but the fact that your hero will likely hit units in the flank (away from the BSB) makes it far more effective here than elsewhere.(in the new codex, you no longer have this for some reason.)
• Disc of Tzeentch: Boy, aren't you just spoiled for mounts? The Disc of Tzeentch can claim two main advantages over the Steed of Slaneesh: it allows you to fly over units, and you get a far more useful mark. Without vanguard, you are better having your hero or lord join a unit of chaos knights rather than marauder horsemen, and then leave the unit when a suitable charge opportunity presents itself. As with the steed of slaneesh, it tends to be more useful on a hero, but the fact that you can be close to your army before they reach the melee (where they will be required to make far fewer leadership tests) means that it can and should be considered even on a lord. Also, great to keep sorcerers out of dangerous combat once it starts. Again, fear is more advantageous here than on the other (non-slaneeshi) mounts.
  • Depending on the Lore your sorcerer knows, being mounted on a discs usefulness can vary. A Tzeentch wizard will know either the lore of Tzeentch which has good range and do not require the wizard to be that mobile so he can just sit at the back of the field shooting mind bullets, or the lore of metal which has a shorter range but has some very good buffs that you want to cast on your front line, so being able to fly back and forth casting buffs and debuffs will be far more beneficial to your army.

Chaos Mutations and Powers

These are the Chaos equivalent of Vampiric Powers, Ogre Big Names etc. Some armies have them, some do not. Deal with it. Something to note is that while only some of these are Magic Items, they are still purchased with the points allowed to 'Chaos Mutations and Powers', and NOT your Magic Item allowance, though Magic Items in this section still cannot be put on a BSB.

• Daemonblade (Magic Weapon): Not worth it on a Chaos Lord since he already has an impressive 5 attacks, so it would be better to just take the Sword of Bloodshed which would give him a +3 attacks for a total of 8 attacks all the time without that risk of hitting yourself on 1's. That being said it can be useful on a Deamon Prince who has that tiny 25 magical items point limit or a Sorcerer Lord, so grab this if you've already used up all your magic item points and still need a magic weapon.

• Collar Of Khorne (Talisman): Magic is for pussies and Khorne knows this! For a 45 points your favoured champion gets his very own brass collar which gives him Magic Resistance 3 so that he can shrug off those magic missiles and please Khorne by taking that magic wielding weakling's head for the Skull Throne!!!
  • Situational but against magic heavy opponent can work especially well on someone outside of a unit.
  • The thing is, if you go ward heavy on the model that has it might be a waste of points. Most efficient on models with 5++ granting a better save against magic.

• Unholy Strike: Instead of lots of murderous, Ogre-strength strikes with a lot of chances to kill stuff, you get one Cannon-strength, D3 wounding doom attack that makes brick walls run home to mummy. If fighting Ogres or anything with a lot of big things it can be worth it, otherwise you'll be better off with the more expensive Bloodshed Sword. Comboes well with Sword of Striking.

• Flaming Breath: All right, yet more Breath Weapons for your army (always excellent), goes great with Daemon Princes or anybody with the ability to fly and for extra fun, remember that in a challenge you can use it to cause 2d6 strength 4 hits on your opponent. All. On. Him.

• Chaos Familiar (Arcane Item):' An excellent item, an extra spell and 5+ channelling? With the new point allocations to Lords and Heroes you'll be hard pressed to not find at least a Hero to put this on. It's simple really. If you have a wizard, take this.

• Scaled Skin: This is great on Daemon Prince's for that 1+ armour save, otherwise you're not getting your mileage out of it since you can duplicate it just as well on Chaos Lords by using a mount and the Enchanted Shield, and you don't want your Wizards in combat anyway.

• Allure of Slaanesh: Usually not worth it unless you have your character on a large base, and since regular Chaos Lords will get hung up in Challenges so often only one model will have to test every couple of turns it's best used on Daemon Princes.

• Poisonous Slime: Gives Poisoned attack, and a 5++ against poison. the ward save is kind of useless because your Lord/hero should have a better save anyway, but the poisoned attacks can be useful if given to a Khorne lord with a buttload of attacks, and can be combined with the Nurgle spell for the buff to poison.

• Soul Feeder: for every wound dealt roll a D6 and get a wound back on a roll of 6. Great for your Combat lord (as if you'd have a another kind) and helps him stay alive for a while longer, since (unless you're up against that T10 Dwarf asshole) you'll be getting a wound back every two rounds of combat, or 1 round if combined with the Sword of Bloodshed. Can be used to mitigate your lord poking himself in the eye with the Hellfire sword.

• Acid Ichor: any model that wounds the lord takes a S4 hit if they fail an initiative save. It's an all right choice, anything that attacks your lord will probably be dead in the next round of combat anyway, but every little bit helps, so It isn't bad if you have the points to spare. It is more hilarious than useful if you find that your lord is regening a lot of wounds through soul feeder, you can essentially solo charge a unit and they can end up killing themselves from any wounds they inflict on your lord.

• Burning Body: Gives flaming attacks and a 5++ against flaming attacks. Similar to Poisonous Slime, your Lord should have a better save anyway. If your opponent has a lot of Regen saves this is pretty great, but not so great if your opponent has that oh-so-easy-to-get 2++ wards save against flaming attacks.

• Third Eye of Tzeentch: Very fun on anything but a Daemon of Tzeentch, who already has it built in. Take it if you have a Tzeentch chap with a big ward save for a 3++ ward.

• Nurgle's Rot: Take it on your Prince or someone on a mount as this only really shines when it's on massive bases. Getting out 3-5 free hits that kill dudes on 6s with no armour saves for 10 points? Not bad, but there are better things out there. Good for saving points.

• Hideous Visage: A cheap filler, but unfortunately doesn't make the characters unit immune to fear, just him. Being unable to give out his LD to others is very rarely a drawback, as they all pretty much share the same LD anyway.

Dread Artefacts of Chaos:

• Hellfire Sword (Magic Weapon): One of the best trolling weapons against anything that has high armour, regeneration, many wounds, or some combination of the three (yes, Hell Pit Abominations, I am looking at you). The main downside apart from the price is that on average you'll be taking a wound for every model you cause to explode (make sure to get a Ward Save) and some of effects of this weapon can be recreated by taking unholy strike and burning body but for 20 points cheaper, but if you combine with the Soul Feeder ability you should have a Lord who regains more wounds than they lose.

• Sword of Change (Magic Weapon): Although hilarious, it is a little over costed for how often this will come into effect, though with the new point allocations to Heroes and Lords it can be more often than you think, and it will make its points back even if it only works once.
  • Problem with this one is that you sacrifice weapon buff that would enable you to kill characters and monsters effectively for this. Skip.

• Filth Mace (Magic Weapon): Not that great, you can get Poisoned Attacks for half the price, Terror won't help very often (especially with your WS), the only thing that really shines is the D3 Multiple Wounds, which makes it decent for fighting Monstrous Infantry, but not too much else.

• The Helm of many eyes (Magic Armour): With how high your Initiative is already you can stick it on nearly any Lord to get re-rolls on all of your attacks, and with your already high LD stupidity will only rarely come into play, and it can be combined with Scaled Skin on a footslogging Lord (or a mount) to get a +1 Armour Save. (Note it is magic armor so it can't be combined with Enchanted Shield). Is good if you fight a lot of Elves, or against anything that isn't Elves if you have a great weapon, as you probably still hit them first.

• Skull of Katam (Arcane Item): Can be good, IF you aren't taking advantage of the Beastmen's Shard of the Herdstone (which is overall better for some more points). Unless you're putting this on a Demon Prince, your leadership on your sorcerer should never matter outside of a few fringe cases, think of it like an extra power die a turn (6 rolls averages to 1 success). On average you should be able to use this every turn without popping your wizard. The only thing holding it back is that you can't get Chaos Familiar with it, which is usually just plain better. You could try taking an extra sorcerer as a Skull caddy, give him a channeling staff and have that wizard in the back pumping out 6 channels a turn that succeed on a 5+, with some luck he can be a great alleviator In phases against BC, or just help your daemon Prince with LoD pour on the pressure to make those enemy characters pop.

• Chalice of Chaos (Enchanted Item): Far too random, and while the results seem good at first look, any character worth their points should already have a good Ward Save (so results 4 and 3 are out), leaving you with only a 50% chance to get something useful (or for Daemon Princes, 33% chance).

• Pendant of Slaanesh (Enchanted Item): This item essentially makes your Lord character and their unit Unbreakable vs Break Tests unless you really fucked up and somehow lost by four points (or more depending on whether or not an LD 10 character is within range), gaining additional attacks is handy enough too, but given how you shouldn't be losing combat to start with, this is of dubious use. If you really want some Unbreakable units then just get some Daemons.

• Blasted Standard (Magic Standard): Excellent for keeping your knights and other large blocks of units alive long enough to reach the enemy (and really cheaply too), don't worry about it's downside, on average you're still better off with the banner and getting that double Strength hit every now and again than going without it.

• Banner of Rage (Magic Standard): Not that great, if your frenzied units lost combat you've normally fucked up and sent them after something that'll kill them anyway, Frenzy or no Frenzy.

Magic

• Tzeentch

Tzeentchian spells are quite funny. They have some nice damage dealing potential, works well with it's mark (+1 bonus to your ward save and channelling rolls) and many are underestimated. That said The Lore of Tzeentch suffers because it is a mostly ranged spell lore in a combat centric army (six out of the seven spells cannot be cast while the Sorcerer is in combat), because it heavily features the bad kind of random, and because it has a silly extra rule called Warpflame instead of Flaming attacks. Guys affected by a spell with Warpflame have to take a toughness test. They take more hits if they fail, but if they pass, they get regeneration, which stacks with whatever regenerate save they might already have. This is a Bad Thing to give your opponent.

Some would argue that you could have a Fire Wizard on hand to get rid of any regeneration you give your opponent (because warpFLAME is somehow not FLAMing) in which case, congratulations, you have the only Wizard in the game that needs help from another Wizard with a completely different Lore. That’s efficient use of points in your army of expensive characters right there.

In fact, half of these spells are straight out of the Lore of Fire with random strength and Warpflame tacked on. Where’s the threatening “turn enemy character into a spawn” spell? Where’s the awesome mutating spell that lets a whole unit roll on the Eye of the Gods table? Why has Tzeentch always got to be this random strength magic missile garbage? Why couldn’t you let Tzeentch be cool, Mr. Cruddace?

Lore Attribute – Boon of Magic You get a power dice for each casting dice that rolls a 6 when you cast a spell. Only the Sorcerer that cast the spell gets to use these free dice, so you can’t have a Tzeentch wizard working with other Sorcerers to fuel a magic phase, which is shit.

Signature Spell - Blue Fire of Tzeentch Essentially the Fireball spell with random strength. Pretty low casting difficulty, but it has Warpflame, and that random strength will mess up the spell half the time. Probably the worst signature spell.

Treason of Tzeentch The only Tzeentch spell that can be cast while the Sorcerer is in combat, Treason inflicts a somewhat hefty Leadership penalty on the target. It forces them to use the lowest LD they have, and stops them from using their general’s Inspiring Presence and Battle Standard. You want this to go off when your army hits the enemy, of course, so they break easily. Is it worth taking the Lore in the hopes you get this spell? No, because a basic Sorcerer can get similar spells from the Lore of Shadow or Lore of Death.

Pink Fire of Tzeentch Shoots out the flamer template and inflicts a hit on anybody under it, with the Warpflame rule. Fucking awful due to random strength, Warpflame and using the artillery dice for its range.

Bolt Of Change A powerful, single shot magic missile that acts as a bolt thrower shot, penetrating ranks and causing multiple wounds. Has a respectable if random strength, and can chew up a unit of monstrous things. But the kind of targets you want to fire it at will most likely pass their Warpflame test if the Bolt doesn’t kill them. This is retarded.

Glean Magic Another awful spell because there is so much that can go wrong with it. If cast, you duel an enemy wizard by rolling a D6 and adding your respective wizard levels, and if you win he loses a wizard level and you steal one of his spells. Can screw up your opponent if you steal the right spell, but the spell you nick is (say it with me) random. Also, the caster has to have a high wizard level if he wants a chance at winning the duel. And if Tzeentch really hates you today, you can give your target Regeneration too! That's too many rolls to fuck up an enemy Wizard. Just run up and stab the fucker. Note that this spell can be hilarious against VC. Lick up tears as you pluck away Invocations from his supporting necromancers. Emphasis on 'can be.' You've got get the spell off, hope it isn't dispelled, win the wizard duel, and be lucky enough to get Invocation as the random spell you steal, and hope they don't get Regeneration (If dealing with necromancers, it couldn't matter less if they gain regeneration. If they are in combat, there is no way any level of regeneration is going to save them from even a sufficiently annoyed chaos marauder)

Tzeentch's Firestorm It’s the Flame Storm spell from the Lore of Fire, but with random strength and the Warpflame rule. Slap the blast template down and watch as it scatters off your target to irritate a single guy on the unit’s corner. And then the entire fucking unit gets Regeneration, because fuck you.

Infernal Gateway A bigger version of the signature spell of the lore. If you roll 11 or 12 for the strength, it’s Strength 10 and does 3D6 hits. Far too unreliable and not quite as threatening as its previous version, where it could nuke a unit on a lucky roll.

• Nurgle

By far best of the chaos specific lores. lucks out again and somehow has better magic than his nemesis, Tzeentch the Supposed God of Magic. Must be Chaos being fickle or something. The Lore of Nurgle is stocked with augment spells to boost your own units along with a few spells based around messing with Toughness values, which makes it a good lore against Elves, Goblins, Skaven etc. Nurgle spells work well with WoC, favouring a short ranged approach. You'll typically open your magic phase by nerfing the Toughness of your enemies, buffing your own units, and then use direct damage/vortex spells to kill your enemies. Having multiple wizards with this lore is pretty, since the lore itself is pretty balanced, and its spells combo nicely with each other. Just don't use it if you're going against Ogres or armies with lots of monsters.

Lore Attribute – Bloated with Disease Each time you cast a spell, you get a one in six chance of severely buffing your Sorcerer’s defensive abilities for the rest of the game. +1 Toughness and Wound, while unlikely to occur regularly, is never a bad thing. Hilarious on a Demon Prince when it works once every few games if you take this over Death for some reason, less meaningful on a normal sorcerer.

Signature Spell - Stream of Corruption A short ranged spell utilising the flamer template. Anybody hit by it must pass a Toughness test or lose a wound. It's situational but excellent for cutting down blocks of Elves, Goblins and similar low-toughness chumps. Stream of Corruption is a solid spell and good for spamming if you have a load of Nurgle wizards. Note that you can't use this in combat as it's not a proper breath weapon like that.

Miasma of Pestilence A simple augment spell that nerfs any and all enemy units in base contact with the target. WoC Initiative is quite high on average anyway so the Initiative penalty isn’t so noticeable, unless you cast this on some Ogres or Trolls. You can boost the spell to cause a debuff of D3, but it’s often not worth going that far unless you really need to land your combat hits.

• • Alternate take: Forget the Initiative, look at the WS debuff! See all those WS3 baddies? When they drop to WS2, they're hitting your WS5 warriors on 5s. If they have Mark of Nurgle, 6s. Trollface.
  • Alternate take 2: While a -1 to Initiative doesn't sound so hugely important, it is critical against High/Dark Elves, since it will negate their ASF rerolls. Which is a pretty big, considering you are getting a lot less ASF great weapon attacks in the face.

Blades of Putrefaction Another augment, this time granting poisoned attacks. Nice and simple. WoC have a lot of atatcks anyway so this is likely to push a lot of poisoned wounds through. If the target already has poison, it gets a boost.

Curse of the Leper This spell features an interesting mechanic of being an augment or hex spell, allowing you to put it on both your units and your opponent’s. Cast on your own unit, it grants a good buff to their Toughness. Cast on an enemy unit, it nerfs their Toughness. Either way is helpful, but since Stream of Corruption, Rancid Visitations and Plague Wind rely on your targets failing their Toughness tests, this is a good spell to open a magic phase with if you’re heavy on the Nurgle theme.

• • Even without all the synergy with rest of the lore this spell is awesome. Warriors of chaos with T7 are nearly unstoppable. And enemies with T4 can be reduced to T1!

Rancid Visitations This is a potentially powerful magic missile. After causing its hits, it can potentially carry on going if the target fails its Toughness test. Of course, combos with Curse of the Leper to cause the most amount of damage possible. Makes Elves cry, if you get it past their Wizards. Cast it on a block of spearelves and enjoy drinking your opponent's tears.

Fleshy Abundance Nurgle’s final augment spell suffers an increase in difficulty and a reduction in effect from the last WoC book, granting 5+ regeneration to a unit for a turn. However, this time it stacks with any existing regeneration the target has, and oh, it appears Festus gives regeneration to his unit. Bear in mind there is aura version making your entire army that tougher. If you have a Throgg troll horde this is a must making them 3+ regen.

Plague Wind Nurgle’s final spell is one of those wacky vortexes. It can go Night Goblin Fanatic through your own army if you’re unlucky, but WoC can at least withstand this one if it goes wrong. Plague Wind forces toughness tests on its victims and inflicts armour-ignoring wounds on those that fail. Get in close and fire it off into a horde for maximum carnage, but Plague Wind is overshadowed by the utility of the rest of the lore.

• Slaanesh

While Nurgle hands out buffs to your own units, Slaanesh is handing out nerfs to the enemy, putting it in direct competition with the Lore of Shadow, the other option for Slaanesh wizards. Slaanesh is a little trickier than attribute nerfs, and can mess with your opponent’s movement to a great degree.

Lore Attribute – Bliss in Torment When a Slaanesh spell causes some wounds, you roll a D6 for each wound. On a 6, the casting Wizard gets a substantial buff to his combat skills for a turn. Unfortunately, all but one of the Slaanesh spells capable of causing wounds cannot be cast during combat, leaving this attribute difficult to take advantage of.

Signature Spell - Lash of Slaanesh Draws a line from the caster, and anybody under that line takes a S3 hit with armour piercing. Awkward to use and unlikely to affect many models, this is a rather flimsy signature spell. Skip it if you can.

Acquiescence Useful in and out of combat, this hex spell gives the target Always Strikes Last and Random Movement. Easily stalls an impending charge, and can severely nerf enemy units in combat, as well as being easy to cast. I wish this was the signature spell. Fucks up those High Elves something rotten.

• With reasonable casting number this thing can be massive. Random movement d6 mans that enemy is unlikely to move more than few inches and he can forget about any significant charges and you are totally safe if you are more than 6” from him. Bear in mind tho random movement means that enemy can pivot on the spot before move and if he come into contact it counts as a charge. So keep your DP away. Either way cast it on something like demographics knights that are about to charge your flank and laugh.

Pavane of Slaanesh This spell targets a single enemy model and forces them into a LD test on a 3D6. If they fail, they take a wound with no armour saves. Good for attacking enemy characters and sniping unit champions, but you might wonder why WoC have this spell when they're so geared towards challenges. This spell allows you to kill a unit champion outside of combat, thus stopping the Eye of the Gods rule forcing your Chaos Lord into a challenge with some single wound sergeant when you’d rather he go rampaging through the unit, or having that chump accept a challenge instead of the character you want to kill, so it’s more useful than it looks. You can also use it to ping off that final wound from an evasive flying bastard.

• • It is relatively meh due to causing only single would. Only real usage is to end something that has exactly one would and is hiding. But even than with average Ld and Bob rerolls it is not guaranteed.

Hysterical Frenzy Like Curse of the Leper, Hysterical Frenzy can be cast on your unit or an enemy unit, granting Frenzy and a small amount of hits at the end of each magic phase. The hits the spell causes really shouldn’t bother a WoC unit, so you can Frenzy up non-Khorne units if you want. Hysterical Frenzy stacks with existing Frenzy too, so cast it on some Khorne warriors with halberds and go to town. So why would you want to give Frenzy to an enemy unit? Firstly, it can force a unit into charging you, great for pulling in units of shooting guys that would rather stay out of combat. Secondly, having Frenzy stops you from using the parry save granted by shields, which can assist you in cutting down any annoying shield users. Cast it on a war machine crew for Maximum Fun. Thirdly, D6 S3 hits might not sound like much, but they will cause trouble for small flimsy units like the average fast cavalry or skirmisher unit. Note that because the hits are not melee attacks, they will roll to wound against a War Machine's Toughness, not the Toughness of its crew.. The caster's victims are engulfed by a torrent of unreasoning emotions, causing them to claw at themselves... The attacks are resolved as melee attacks (not missile attacks). Fluff does not equal rules. It's a spell inflicting damage, and follows the normal rules for such. As an aside, the wounds this spell causes happen at the end of the caster's magic phase and not when the spell is cast, so the jury is still out if Hysterical Frenzy counts it does not count towards the Lore Attribute.

Slicing Shards Slicing Shards functions in the same way as Rancid Visitations. The target takes a few hits, then has to pass a LD test or take some more. Not quite so effective as Visitations as the target will likely have their General and/or Battle Standard nearby, but this spell combos with Phantasmagoria below. Catch a unit of zombies or other undead away from their general and laugh as he loses that meatblock until he manages a roll of double ones.

Phantasmagoria Essentially inflicts a unit with the opposite of the Cold Blooded rule. They roll an extra D6 when taking LD tests, discarding the lowest dice. Very helpful at breaking enemy units, this spell can be boosted so it hits all enemy units within a certain distance of the caster. As the Lore of Slaanesh is Leadership based, consider using this spell first to get the most out of your spells. Actual Cold-Blooded units (aka Lizardmen) will be rolling 4D6 for their LD tests, and discarding both the highest dice and the lowest dice if they're affected by this spell.

Cacophonic Choir Holy shit this is powerful. A hex spell, the Choir can cause quite a lot of damage even when the caster is in combat. Causes a bunch of hits that wound on a 4+, regardless of toughness, and ignore armour saves. On top of that, the target is slapped with Acquiescence’s effects too! Bliss in Torment gets the most use out of this spell, and if you’re feeling really mean you can boost the Choir to hit all enemy units in range as well. Can often finish a game by itself and will totally cripple units hit by it. Get it on a Prince, fly him in there, and start yelling.

Tactics

Your main strategy as the Warriors of Chaos is always to get your army into combat as quickly as you can, in which you will generally emerge the victor RIP AND TEAR. This makes them easy for beginners, but also very predictable. Always remember that your opponent is likely to want avoid fighting you up close if they can. Advanced opponents will set you up to be flanked and outnumbered once combat begins, which is generally the only way they can beat you. Be prepared and try to outmaneuver them to begin with!

Use terrain to your advantage: when fighting shooty armies (High/Dark/Wood Elves, Dwarfs, Empire etc.) position your units so you can block their line of sight, use Warhounds to soak up enemy fire, and Chimeras/Daemon Princes to harass and annoy warmachine crews and shooty units. Also, try to fight your enemies in confined spaces so they can't flank you. When deploying, form up your units accordingly, don't be a lazy bastard and leave those magnetised warriors on your 5x4 base if you know they can hold a 6x3 gap without being flanked. They will dish out the pain, you'll be happy, they'll be happy, and Khorne will be happy.

Choose your upgrades and equip with care: As said in the introduction, WoC tend to be outnumbered, and this is NOT a tendency you should encourage. You don't need ALL of your Chaos Warriors to have marks: they can be pretty good on their own. In games under 2000pts, marks are rarely effective, you should have one unit of marked Warriors max (generally your offensive unit, though this is not always the case against the most dakka armies, which you can break even if you build your units defensively). Remember, your Chaos Warriors unit of Doom can't be everywhere at once, an extra block of troops/flankers is better rather than having a hugely overpriced unit that will overkill everything by causing 8+ unnecessary wounds.

Be very careful about one thing: All Chaos Models are mounted on, at the smallest, the bigger 25mm Infantry base. While this doesn't seem like TOO much of an issue at first, it can lead to problems very quickly. You're very easy to trip up on terrain, model heavy armies tend to be hard to maneuver, you can wind up double charged, or charging against more units than you intended, etc. Games can be won or lost in the movement phase, especially in fantasy, think about how you move your army.

Shooting is always a problem for Warriors so once again, get up in their face as soon as possible to minimize casualties. A fast list with chariots, skullcrushers, knights, etc. can usually charge by turn 2, and this will usually be a good idea.

Character/Unit Builds

Tzeentch Tank Lord: Chaos Lord with Mark of Tzeentch, Scaly Skin, Armour of Destiny, Dawnstone, Chaos Dragon, Third Eye of Tzeentch, The other trickster's shard, Great weapon, Poisonous slime, shield. 1+ re-rollable, 3++, re-rolling 1s. We dare you to succeed in killing this fucker. He will tank them like a boss. Plus he can dish out a heroic amount of punishment in his own right, with 5 S7 poisoned attacks, forcing opponents to re-roll ward saves, for 703pts total. Seriously, I've had this guy take down two tooled up combat princes on star dragons in challenges one after another (His dragon died after the first prince, so he had to KO both the second prince and his dragon solo)

Nurgle Tank Hero: Exalted Hero with Halberd, Mark of Nurgle, Scaly Skin, Dawnstone, Dragonhelm. Enemies get a -1 penalty to hit in close combat, has a 1+ rerollable armor save, Strength 6, and a 2+ Ward save against Flaming Attacks for the inevitable Lore of Metal spells he'll get in the face. In one of my games, killed a bare-bones High Elf Prince on Griffon with Dragon Armour. You can still make him a BSB to make him even more useful.

Flying BSB: Exalted Hero with BSB, Mark of Tzeentch, Disc of Tzeentch, Talisman of Preservation, Third Eye of Tzeentch, and Enchanted Shield. Non-magic weapon: optional. A great BSB to stick around your more mobile units with poor leadership (Chimeras) and can also help your Skullcrushers control their frenzy. 1+ armor and a 3+ ward re-rolling 1s. Since he's going to be out by himself anyway, it's better to just forsake weapons to make him more survivable or otherwise give him a flail since he shouldn't be in a combat he can't break in 1 round.

Buff Train: Useful when playing against other offensive armies who will want to get in your face (Brets, other WoC, and sometimes Dark Elves if your opponent roles melee heavy). Sorcerer (or Exalted Sorcerer if you want to get cocky) with Lore of Death/Nurgle, atop a Warshrine. Park him behind a line of 3 blocks of Chaos Warriors (and maybe a unit of Nurgle Chosen), with all unit champions within the range of the Warshrine's buff spell. Hold position and let the enemy come to you, before they hit, however, use the sorcerer and warshrine to buff champions and units to the stratosphere. Works well if you manage to not get flanked, and only works against aggressive players who you KNOW aren't going to field ANYTHING shooty (well even if they do field anything shooty and your going to be waiting for them to come to you anyway you may as well invest in a Hellcannon or two, it would probably be a great investment for this build). Beware of flying units and monsters.

Nurgle Broken Prince: Nurgle Prince with flying, Scaly Skin, Chaos Armour, Soul Feeder, Sword of Striking, Charmed Shield, Dragonbane Gem and Spell Familiar(?). Add Magic Levels with Lore of Death. Very tough to kill and likely to ruin the enemy, both in close combat and through spells.

Tzeentch Tank Prince: Same loadout as above, only with Mark of Tzeentch instead of Mark of Nurgle. This prince is useful when fighting armies like Bretonnians and other WoCs, since Lore of Metal can puncture even heavily armored units. Also useful when the OPPONENT is using Lore of Metal, because since you re-roll ward save results of 1, you can use your 2++ against flaming attacks twice, making him nearly impossible to kill through Lore of Metal even if he has a 1+ armor save. Also, 4++ in all other circumstances. Not shabby, but it will only work against a few selected armies, or against opponents that you KNOW are going to use Lore of Metal.