Total War Warhammer/Tactics/Warriors of Chaos
This is the tactica for the Total War: Warhammer version of the Warriors of Chaos.
Why Play Warriors of Chaos
- BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE
- Because you want to see the unending tides of damnation overrun all that is good and civilized in this world.
- Because back in my day only the bad guys wore Stupidly OP Armor.
Pros
- Unmatched Melee: Pound for pound, your troops are the best in the entire game when it comes to melee combat. If anyone else even tries to match you, you will probably laugh as you step over their remains and entire their backline. This is no longer true as of TWW2, Dark Elf Har Ganeth Executioners go through your units like a big pointy greatsword through butter, the Greenskin Krimson Killerz ROR can 1v1 Chosen and reliably win, Lizardmen monsters will Jurassic Park all over your infantry etc. Hopefully TWW3 can put the Chaos Warriors back on top
- Armor: Regardless of which ever one of the Dark Gods you decided to suck off, they gifted you an ungodly amount of armor to protect your troops from the enemy. If for whatever reason the other guy decided not to bring AP against you, you've pretty much already won the fight right there.
- Monsters: You got some monsters that are unmatched in what they do. Shaggoths make dragons cry, manticores make great mounts and flying harass, trolls will help win you the frontline even faster and hounds will make sure that all those pesky skirmishers don't screw over your troops on the way in. You best have answers for anti large though.
- Versatility: You're not quite the most versatile of factions, but with all of the high quality troops you have, you can deploy a wide assortment of tactics against all kinds of opponents. You can use rushes, monster mashes, artillery boxes, magic bombs, and make your lords into one man armies. With how much good stuff is at your disposal, you can come up with all kinds of crazy tactics to through at your opponent.
- Strong Lords: Sigvald aside, your lord options are pretty damn good. Archeon is one of th ebetter duelist characters, Kholek kills whatever he is fighting and Sarthoreal is a raid boss with impressive magic abilities. Even generic sorcerers are pretty damn good for what they do.
Cons
- Limited Skirmishing: You do have some mounted skirmishers, but odds are they aren't going to be the reason why you win the fight. You are not going to be beating your opponent in the skirmishing phase of the fight.
- No Ranged Infantry: Your ranged options are just said skirmisher cavalry. In any shooting match, you're gonna loose.
- Slow: The downside of all that armor? It makes you slow as all hell. This, combined with the con listed above, means you are pretty vulnerable to enemy ranged attacks. Be sure that you devote a few of your troops to getting on those skirmishers and making sure they can't do to much damage to your troops on the way in.
- Expensive: Sadly, all this good quality comes at a price. With how expensive a lot of your troops are, odss are you will probably be outnumbered in whatever match up you are going against. Expect to rely on quality of quantity when you are choosing to rep team WOC.
- The campaign is terrible: Their campaign, along with that of the Beastmen, is in dire need of a rework (that hopefully comes with Warhammer 3). The horde mechanic the WoC revolve around has never been particularly fun to play as, and only continued to age poorly as Warhammer 2 went on. Maybe CA had a point when they originally planned to hold them back for Game 1, they feel incomplete and kind of pointless. Add to this that elementary stuff from the Lore such as specific pledges to the Dark Gods and Demons are missing (with Archaon being the Champion the Chaos Undivided and all that, except you also can play as Sigvald who is a Champion of Slaanesh with no access to Demons of his patron) and you got yourself a dumpster fire of epic proportions. There are mods like Ultimate Chaos that seek to alleviate the worst of it, but most of them are of dubious quality and other can break entire campaigns (like the Chaos Outposts Mod). If you want to play WoC in Singleplayer, better wait for Warhammer 3 and hope it gets better.
The campaign und unique mechanics (The Old World)
Legendary Lords and Subfactions
- Archaon the Everchosen:
- Kholek Suneater:
- Prince Sigvald the Magnificent:
- Sarthorael the Everwatcher:
Units
Generic Lords
- Chaos Lord:
- Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Death):
- Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Fire):
- Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Meltal):
- Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Shadows):
Heroes
- Exalted Hero:
- Chaos Sorcerer (Death):
- Chaos Sorcerer (Fire):
- Chaos Sorcerer (Meltal):
- Chaos Sorcerer Lord (Shadows):
Melee Units
- Chaos Marauders: Your budget line, but you often fill up your numbers with them given how expensive everything else is. They are how you go wide in WoC. Posses low armor but can still cause more expensive units to struggle against them.
- Chaos Marauders (Great Weapons): Cheap Ap Damage but not as good as Chaos Warriors (Great Weapons) since the Marauders are very fragile with trading away what little defense a Marauder gets.
- Chaos Warriors: The spiked anvil of chaos. High stats all-around stats in offense and defense except for speed. Often beat out other line infantry in the grind. They Lack AP so not effective against other high armour targets.
- Chaos Warriors (Halberds):
- Chaos Warriors (Great Weapons):
- Aspiring Champions:
- Forsaken:
- Chosen:
- Chosen (Great Weapons):
- Chosen (Halberds):
Beasts
- Chaos Warhounds: Cheap Fast harassment unit, Shutting down Skirmishers, Calvery, Missile units, and Artillery Crews that will target your slower-moving Warriors.
- Chaos Warhounds (Poison):
Cavalry
- Chaos Knights:
- Chaos Knights (Lances):
Missle Cavalry
if you want shooting you only have Skirmish calv. Like most Skirmish calv you need to use some Micromanagement to make sure a real opponent doesn't chase them out of the game and that they use their ammunition efficiently instead of AI autopilot on everything.
- Marauder Horsemen: You cheapest shooting unit. Useful in taking things out annoying units air and harass units with low Missile resistances. Fragile with the same protection as a Marauder.
- Marauder Horsemen (Throwing Axes): Trades Missile range for AP. Suited for harassing armored foes from a distance but don't take punishment well like the normal variant.
- Marauder Horsemasters: A slightly upgraded version of Horsemen with the most important thing is having signeifenlty better armor. Lets it take punishment and trade better when engaging in melee with other Skirmish units and other lesser melee units.
Monsters Infantry
- Chaos Trolls:
- Chaos Trolls (Armoured):
- Chaos Spawn:
- Dragon ogres:
Monster
- Chaos Giant:
- Chaos Feral Manticore:
- Dragon Ogre Shaggoth:
Chariots
- Gorebeast Chariot:
- Chaos Chariot:
Artillery
- Marauder Horsemen: