Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Warriors of Chaos

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Why Play Warriors of Chaos

If you're new to Warhammer Fantasy, they are a great army for beginners. Their strategy is simple, and you don't have to spend as much time and money on models since they don't use too many. Plus they look awesome. And also; MOTHERFUCKING CHAOS WORSHIPING VIKINGS!!!

In addition to this, NEW ARMY BOOK ON THE 2ND OF FEBRUARY!

... But it's written by the Cruddace...

Shit.

Actually according to the leaks it's turning out pretty good after all!!

True, it actually is pretty good, but boy does this page need an overhaul now!

(READERS NOTE:REALLY? you think so? so why haven't you done it yet?)

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can pretty easily emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, a few named characters do have abilities and wargear or wargear combos unique to them, so if you absolutely need to have them, go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth.

• Archaon, The Everchosen, Lord of the End Times: Holy fuck, probably one of the most expensive characters but an outrageously deadly one at that. Can at any time double his attacks for the rest of the game (on a character with a WS and I of 9; S, T and A of 5 - scary shit), but will strike himself, or his unit (your choice), on a to-hit roll of 1. Did we mention he has 3+ ward save, magic resistance 3, ignores armour with his attacks, causes terror, counts as a wizard and cannot be wounded on better than a 3+? Also, that isn't a complete list of his abilities. Still, taking him will eat the entirety of your Lord choices, and you still need an army of over 2700 points just to field him. Needless to say, you're probably never going to see him on the table. But if he does appear, oh boy will he wreck shit, shame about the enormous fire magnet taped to his shoulders.

• Galrauch, The Great Drake: Take a dragon. Split his head (this means also his breath weapon). Make it chaos-y. Make it a level 4 mage who knows all the Tzeentch lore. Make his stats all 6, except discipline 9. That's Galrauch. Too bad he haves to take a D test every turn, and if he fails, 3 of his attacks have to harm him. Fuck.

• Sigvald, the Magnificent: Pretty goddamn slick and cost effective. Ignores terrain penalties and can always march WITH A SQUAD, all but immune to psychology, always strikes first, a 1+ armour save with regeneration and 2 bonus attacks. 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! Bear in mind he is only T4 so he will die easier compared to a regular lord.

• Kholek Suneater: A Shaggoth. But way bigger and more badass. Haves a Heavy armor which redirects all lightning-based attack against him and great weapon which inflicts D3 wounds. Essentially impossible to kill without lore of metal, cannons or Pit of Shades. Will destroy most things in combat, and could actually edge Archaon in hand to hand.

• Valkya the Bloody: A not-quite daemon prince(ss), she can fly, strip an attack from her opponents, has killing blow and a stat line halfway between a daemon prince and a chaos lord. She also lets you re-roll on the Eye of the Gods table if you wish. -1 Strength to all attacks includes shooting, so unless your opponent is running cannons, feel free to fly her around solo bitchslapping war machines, 5 man knight units, and 4 man demigryph units: with 6 S7 AP attacks on the charge, she can and will flank and run down 4 mournfang; just don't go in from the front. Can and will beat down any solo character, up to and including the dark elf pendent lord on pegasus.

• Vilitch The Curseling: A level 4 tzeentch wizard with an improved statline and little protection outside his armor save. Can store way more power dice than he should. Having Loremaster Tzeentch is nice. Pricy though.

• Festus The Leechlord: Being level 2 nurgle is meh. having no save other than regen is meh. you take him because he gives 5+ regen and poison to his unit. Which, if it is a 50 man marauder horde, is fucking brutal. Only pursuing 1D6 is bad, but on the off chance you do, you get double victory points for that unit. Unreliable, but can be game changing, especially if you run down something worth 400+ points.

• 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 D6 vomit at S6. Outrageously deadly when you put him in a unit of 17 trolls.

• Wulfrik The Wanderer: One of two named characters frequently taken to lead a unit of Marauders, Wulfrik does two main things. The first is his ship, Seafang, which is essentially the Outflank rule from 40K on steroids. The second is his Gift of Tongues rule, which both forces the opponent to accept his Challenge and lets you pick who accepts. You take him to get a unit of Marauders into the enemy's backfield to wreck artillery, mages and other squishy units. His stats aren't bad, particularly against the target of his Hunter of Men ability, but if you're looking for a pure combat character you're better off with a properly kitted out Exalted Hero. Take him for Seafang instead.

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: A trap. He's the most expensive of your Lord level characters by far, the only state upgrade his from a Chaos Lord is an extra wound, has no decent defenses and can't join units. Made all the worse by only being able to take Gifts, not magic Items (which means for all the fluff about Daemon Princes, a Chaos Lord will likely slaughter one in actual gameplay), and the WoC Gifts tend to be very situational. It does fare a little better if you give it magic levels, as then it becomes a sorcerer with terror, fly, Tendrils of Tzeentch, higher toughness, strength, WS and attacks as well as thunderstomp. It will become far too pricey for what it does, but at least you will be able to (barely) live with yourself if you take him for fluffy reasons.

• Chaos Lord: Your primary fighting lord, and a solid contender for the best generic character in the game. Stream of Corruption, Dragonhelm, Helm of Many Eyes, Palanquin of Nurgle (still infantry), Dawnstone and 40 points in whatever weapon you want. Even with S7 he will likely only deal one wound per round of combat and that means he won't have enough defense to survive your onslaught. All a vampire lord can claim is that he kills more normal troops per round, but then again your army doesn't implode if your lord dies. Also, Eye of the Gods. Has a very high statline and can equip a variety powerful weapons and armour, as well as a variety of special mounts depending on what you want to use him for, though this can really up his cost, and he's not cheap to begin with. Completely brutal on a Juggernaut because you can't be killing blowed (being monstrous cavalry). He does not sadly, as stated by the FAQ. This only makes the Juggernaut SLIGHTLY less awesome: it's still a great choice, especially if you take some Skullcrushers to allow for a Look Out Sir!

• Sorcerer Lord: Your wizard lord, starts out as level 3 wizard, with the ability to chose from any of the battle lores, though if you give him a mark of chaos he has to use the lore of the respective Chaos god. If you plan to give him a mark, use the mark of tzeentch, his lore is generally the most useful and his mark adds plus 1 to all of your sorcerer's casting rolls, plus it means you can give him flight by putting him on a flying disc. One nasty alternative tactic is to give him the mark of Nurgle. The "Magnificent Buboes" spell causes one automatic wound with no saves, useful for sniping. Despite being a wizard, he is actually a decent fighter, but still keep away from combat if on his own and from character-hunters, due to Eye of the Gods.

• Exalted Hero: Your fighting hero. A bit weaker stateline than the Chaos lord and fewer options with equipment, but still a very powerful fighter. Runesword makes him nearly as good as a lord for much cheaper points. Also, your BSB.

• Sorcerer: a SOLID choice and one of the best wizards in all of WHFB. Good fighter with magic abilities to boot.

Core Units

• Chaos Warriors: 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 means that you'll never be able 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. The Mark of Slaanesh is generally useless now that Terror and Fear are nerfed, while Nurgle just doesn't have any particular synergy with any of the available weapons. That said, it is invaluable against shooting and 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.

• 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 5 points per model you can have a lot of them in a unit and when they hit back they tend to murder the faces off most things. It's usually good to have at least one unit of these guys to handle the few things that Warriors can't handle - like High Elves and their ASF Greatweapons. The other, less frequently used, set-up is Tzeentch with Shields and Light Armour. They get 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.

• 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 at a considerable rise in points, which works best with big units, something of a paradox when compared to the use these dogs have. Use them if you want to, but they won't work against every army you'll face.

• 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), 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 bastsrds taking those Fanatics out or want a mono-chavalry army, these are your friends.

• Forsaken: Another trap. Their stat-line is considerably worse than that of a Warrior, but they cost more points. If you want something killy, take Chaos Warriors with Halberds and the Mark of Khorne. If you want something fast, take Trolls or Dragon Ogres.

Special Units

• Chosen: 3 points more expensive than a regular Warrior, gaining +1 WS and the Chosen of the Dark Gods 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, but a full command group costs 50 points compared to the Warriors' 30. Also note that the champion can have up to 25 points worth of Magic Items. Take the Favor of the Gods; it costs only 5 points and allows you to influence nearly all rolls you make on the Eye of the Gods table, including your pre-game roll (this is allowed, according to the FAQ). Back them up with a Warshrine of Tzeentch if you want to experience white-hot incandescent hate from your opponent.

• 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. All we need is a new kit for these AND we're getting a new kit for these!

• Ogres: Opinions are mixed on these guys. They're cheaper, but less deadly and durable, than Dragon Ogres. Remember that these guys are NOT the Ogres you see in an Ogre Kingdoms list; you're not getting any Impact Hits and the other juicy stuff you get from those. They can take Chaos Armor to up their durability, but this gets expensive fast on bigger units. The only Mark worth something for them 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, don't be shy about Great Weapons), use 4-6 of them and let 'em rip. 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.

• 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 to: 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, countercharge knights, slay monsters, and kill anything worth a lot of points. Be careful though, these guys are tough, but not invincible.

• Trolls: Trolls are... eh. 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 inflict a magical S5 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. Use as core in a 6 by 3 block with throgg for ultimate trolling. (I see what you did here)

• 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 either the Mark of Tzeentch for a 1+/5++ save in combat, or the Mark of Khorne to make them even deadlier. 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 (5+ ward against shooting, stacks with the Mark of Tzeentch) is a good idea when facing more dakka armies.

• Chimera: No rules yet.

Rare Units

• Chaos Spawn: Spawn are terribad. Like, really sucky. Even less reliably than Trolls, combined with their low stats for a monster and their slow movement (7" at average, can't march or charge) makes them a joke. You should buy these for only two reasons at best: conversions using the crapload of tentacles found on the sprue, using them to drag your converted Chaos Warshrines.

• Scyla Anfingrimm: What's worse than a Chaos Spawn? The answer: one that costs nearly twice as much while being only marginally better, and you can only use one of it in your army. Piss off.

• Chaos Warshrines: Actually pretty good. Their stat line, combined with their small frontage, makes them ridiculously durable, particularly when given the Mark of Tzeentch for a 3++ Ward. Worth taking just for their role as anvil units, but they can also buff your units by giving them a roll on the Eye of the Gods table. This works better on a unit with the Favour of the Gods in it, or if you've taken Valkia. Works in just about any army and are fairly inexpensive.

• Hellcannon: The only "war machine" in your army, it is a stonethrower that will kick your ass in combat. Needs to take a 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. When it misfires though bad shit goes down, from explosions to murdering its crew and mindraping every wizard on the table (hilarious if you don't have any, but your enemy has plenty). Temperamental at best, and with a notable price tag, the Hellcanon should only be taken by the more daring of generals.

• 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 pricy though, so have a plan before you field this guy.

• 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. The Giant can take a Mark of Chaos; the Mark of Slaanesh is surprisingly powerful on this guy, allowing him to strike first. Which, combined with hits of str6 is very welcome.

• Skullcrushers: Skullcrushers actually kick arse. 1+ Armor save, meaning that it takes a S5 hit or higher to put them on anything but 1's for armor saves. They have 3 magical S5 attacks each, cause fear, are frenzied and have a magic resist of 1. In addition the juggs get stomps on infantry. They're monstrous cav so they have swiftstride and can't be killing blowed. 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 oncomming horde of whatever else you bring.

• Slaughterbrute: The slaughterbrute is a powerful monster with very decent attacks, strength and 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 ( which involves jamming a lot of sanctified blades into its back). Doing so is borderline mandatory, as it uses your chaos lord's weapon skill and leadership so long as he is alive, producing results like a weapon skill 8 leadership 9 monster. This reeks of awesome, and certainly makes sure the slaughterbrute will live up to its name.

• Mutalith Vortex Beast: Same as above, but 10 times weirder.

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, and a good number of marauders (they're cheap in more than one sense, but shamefully not in the actual "money" sense), I'd say about 60 or so, which again could be less. Others just skip marauders altogether because the figures don't look as good as warriors do and becuase they don't find them useful enough, and I say that is a chice you'll have to make. Having bought this, invest in some heroes, sorcerers, a unit of horsemen or two and 1 or 2 hellcannons ("Oh my god the pain!" once again). Of course, the hellcannons and horsemen are not mandatory and you can be well served with just a sorcerer and one or 2 cheap heroes, but the miniatures look too awesome to not have some of them. Buy monstrous units if you are really going to use them, and remember that these don't look so well (if you want ogres you're better off using some from the Ogre kingdoms army, because the chaos ones look terrible). Same with chariots (which make a good base for Warshrine conversions). You can have a decent army for about 200-250$.

Magic Items

• 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, it replaces the +1 armour for barding with an extra attack at S5 and stomp. Since the main draw of cavalry is having an extra +2 armour, the bloodthirsty beast has no place on a chaos lord. It does, however, work great on heroes and sorcerer lords, because it improves their toughness to 5, making up for the loss of armour while still providing a decent offense.
  • 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) pricy. 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.
  • 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.
  • 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. 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 (the model and the lord are one model, so both get frenzy) and stomp that also improves your armour save by 3 and gives you magic resist? 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 armour 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.
  • Palanquin: A mount that is considered infantry - chaos has it all. While not as balls-out powerful as the juggernaut, the fact that you remain infantry means that you can improve your armour save without having to join a unit of cavalry while still being safe thanks to Look out Sir! Since you have a 50x50 base, if you place your lord in the corner of a unit your opponent will be forced to allocate at least 2 attacks to him, which is to your favor. The Palanquin itself 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 (unless you also take the chaos runesword, in which case ws5 heroes and elite infantry will only hit you on 5s).
  • Steed of Slaneesh: Have you ever wanted to hit something really hard, but were too far away to bash its skull in? Then the 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.
  • 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.

• Weapons
  • Glaive of Putrefaction: Break glass in case of Steam Tank. Get one wound in and the target will not only die extremely fast but it will be crippled beyond any hope. This item has two weaknesses however: it only takes effect at the end of the turn in which you wound and it doesn't actually make wounding any easier. Can still be worth it in combination with a potion of strength for instance, or for nullifying particularly nasty enemy lords and monsters in order to grind them down, but make no mistake: this is a cheapish weapon and you get what you pay for.
  • Whip of Subversion: Terrible, terrible item. If you could force a model to attack itself, then it could be fun if still not that reliable, but as it is you are paying for an item that only works on enemies who are likely resistant to basic S5 attacks anyway, and unlike what happens with the glaive of putrefaction that odd wound is unlikely to win the battle for you (how many times have you seen a dragon in base contact with another unit of its side?). Can still be fun occasionally, if you make a saurus old blood kill its own unit, but keep it clear of non Slannesh fluffy lists.
  • Rending Sword: A decent item, in combination with the helm of many eyes it basically means the chaos lord is guaranteed to kill 5 guys per turn. It also helps dealing with high toughness monsters. However, it helps little against armour, so unless you want to have a drawn-out fight with knights and high armour lords either take items to give you extra strength or troops like dragon ogres.
  • Filth Mace: Terror is not what it used to be, so this item has lost most of its value. Poisoned attacks can help with monsters, but for 5 more points you could get a sword with +2S which would do better against all but the toughest critters.
  • The Father of Blades: This is what the whip of subversion wishes it were. It also works against ranged weapons, if you want to parade your lord in front of a gunline. Great with the armour of damnation for that irresistible "stop hitting yourself" build, but even with ws8 your lord will still be hit, so this combination is best taken on a mounted warrior. Naturally, this is an item to fight tough enemy models and is completely wasted on a clanrat, so make sure you get your lord fighting the tough things and that the enemy is forced to attack him.
  • Axe of Khorne: Killing blow, and you get +1S as part of the deal, because we really want to help you take those skulls. What more could you ask for? Sure it is expensive, but accept no substitutes if you want to kill cavalry or characters.
  • Rapier of Ecstasy: See, this is why you don't slaneeshi sorcerers near your magic items: they make them for anal circumference rolls on the wielder and not for fighting. As with the whip of subversion, just what is the intended target for this item? Monsters? They have high strength, so you are basically hoping you roll a 6 to wound and that they then roll a 1. Won't happen that often. Combat characters? A little better, 1/3 shot to kill even lords of many races, but unless we are talking about Skaven they will likely have good defenses in the form of armour (Bretonnia and Dwarves, some High Elf and Empire generals) or Ward Save (Dark Elves and Wood Elves), and since you didn't actually improve your odds of getting unsaved wounds in you are again relying on dumb luck. As before, just get an Ogre Blade.
  • Aethersword: Same as obsidian blade. Generally, an item that would give you extra strength would be better for dealing with the same problem, especially now that monsters are more common and knights rarer, but it can still be useful in some occasions.
  • Chaos Runesword: Gives +1 WS, S and A for 50 points. A very versatile weapon, considering s6 is a breaking point against most things and +1 attack is always nice. Particularly effective on a mounted exalted hero, who will have the stats and defense required to kill some enemy lords, but don't overestimate your abilities: things with very good defensive or offensive stats will kill you (of main concern are mounted lords, especially bretonnians with easy access to killing blow and 1+/1+/5++ save, daemons, dwarvess and vampires, but even others may be a threat depending on their loadout).
  • Sword of Change: The good news is, this isn't the rapier of ecstasy. The bad news is, well, it still isn't very good. At least with +1S your are better at wounding things, and toughness tends to be worse than strength (many things have 5S but "only" 4T), so that's a 1 in 3 chance of killing monstrous things or characters. It is, however, very good at killing elves, so if you are facing them kill their lord and have it kill 2 other guys in its death throes. But then, if you are spending so many points on a single item, you might as well invest 10 more and get...
  • Hellfire Sword: 75 points for flaming attacks, and you cause an extra D3 wounds for each unsaved wound. Pricy, but it can be useful. You negate regeneration, kill lords in one unsaved wound and monsters in two, on average (show your contempt for those hydras by violating them in one turn!). Sadly, like the other chaos weapons dedicated to killing multi-wounded things it doesn't help you actually wound, so in many cases you are better off taking the glaive of putrefaction and still have 75 points to spend on defense or other offensive items like the helm of many eyes or a potion of strength. Still, consider taking this against Ogres.
  • Chaos Daemon Sword: By far the most powerful weapon in the book. At the start of each round of combat, roll D6, and add to the wielder's attacks, and roll a D3 and add to the wielder's strength. If you are the chosen of Tzeentch, then this item will allow you to kill everything. And I do mean everything. If you are unlucky, change "everything" to "yourself", because any 1s you roll are directed at the wielder or his unit. Now, 1.5 attacks per round, on average, will hit you instead of your enemy. With only 25 points to spend on defense, the best thing you can do to avoid looking like an idiot is having a mounted lord on a barded steed and a dawnstone, which will reduce the wounds you suffer to an average of 0.5 per round. Taking warshrines and hoping for a ward save (or better armor, as the gift from the gods allows your armor to reach 0+) won't hurt either. And don't get stuck fighting hordes: fight elite units and monsters because chances are you will be dead in 3 turns. With all this said, it is an item to be used mostly in fun games, but it can be competitive depending on the circumstances.

• Armour
  • Skinhidden Plate: +1 Toughness would be lovely, if it didn't cost 60 points. Skip.
  • Chaos Runeshield: For 50 points it makes your opponents magic weapons and runic weapons count as normal weapons. Have your opponent rage when his 100 point sword is useless. Of course, most lords invest at least 50 or so points in defense, so in most cases you are spending 50 points to make your opponent waste 50 points. Still, if you want to hunt down lords, this item and the aethersword on a mounted lord basically guarantee you can kill any character in 2-3 rounds of combat while being immune to retaliatory attacks, if you do not mind that you won't be very good at anything else (with the exception of hunting heavy cavalry).
  • Armour of Damnation: Amusing when used in conjunction with The Father of Blades, but your 45 points are better spent on other defensive items.
  • Crimson Armour of Dragan: Too expensive. Unlike the Bronze Armour, it can be used on your general to provide killing blow immunity without gimping your leadership, but it's simply not worth it. If you are afraid of characters, you are better off just taking a 4+ ward (or the runeshield) so that you actually have some decent defense against other attacks, while against units you have an excellent tool at your disposal already: marauders. Oh, and you can't suffer multiple wounds, but since this benefit won't extend to your mount forget about taking a lord on a dragon bearing only this as defense.
  • Armour of Morrslieb: Quite a good armor, actually. Being cheaper than the talisman of preservation comes with the cost of not working against magical attacks. It is thus best used on an exalted hero whom you want to solo units rather than on a lord who can be reasonably expected to fight enemy characters at some point.
  • The Bronze Armour of Zhrakk: 15 points, the wear can at best wounded on 3+, even if the attack is auto-wounding, and gives immunity to killing blow. Very cheap way of getting killing blow immunity, but being unable to confer leadership means it's a big no for your general. Instead, take it on an exalted hero and then kite him to hold things like grave guard on his own (but keep the bsb nearby!).

• Arcane Items
  • Skull of Katam: Simply not worth it. We already have the Mark of Tzeentch, and 50 points is far too much to pay for what you get.
  • Infernal Puppet: A must for any wizard heavy list any list with at least one Sorcerer Lord or and even against other wizards. For 35 points it lets you adjust ANY miscast roll by d3. Any. Fucking. Miscast. Yes, especially yours. Saving your sorcerer and watching that metal lore bitch exploding for 35 points? Point and laugh.
  • Blood of Tzeentch: Can be useful, but in most games you're already going to have enough casting power to make something like this redundant. If you have the spare points for this, it can swing a spell around in some games. Highly situational.
  • Power Familiar: Useful generally & more so in a game where you are outclassed magically. As with the Blood of Tzeentch, situational.
  • Warrior Familiar: Not worth it. Skip.
  • Spell Familiar: Brilliant against most of the armies you'll face, if you have the points for it, use it.

Magic

• Tzeentch

Tzeentchian spells are quite funny. They have some nice damage dealing potential, and many are underestimated. Moreover, the Mark of Tzeentch gives your sorcerer a +1 bonus to your ward save and casting rolls. The main advantage of the lore is that like the lord of change itself it cannot be predicted: your infernal gateway is as likely to deal 2 S2 wounds as to destroy a unit with no saves allowed. Amazing for those who like to play mind games with their opponents.

• • Flickering Fire of Tzeentch (4+): For its casting value it used to be a damn amazing spell, but now that if you use only one die you have a one in three chance of failing the spell in spite of whatever bonuses you might have it lost ground to the simple fireball. Still, an average of 4,5 hits and S4,5 is nothing to scoff at, so they can be pretty useful on 2+ sorcerers to either make your enemy waste dispel dice or make his glass cannons suffer (it is amazing against high and dark elves). When you finally roll S7 against his cavalry or monsters, he will definitely think twice about letting other mind bullets pass.
  • Baleful Transmogrification: A damn amazing spell. Against the armies of the living, it can only be used to any effect once the BSB is dead or against lonely warmachines, but since Tomb Kings and Vampire Counts seldom bother with one it can and will force your opponent to keep his constructs or chariots or terrorgheists near the general or risk losing them to an extremely easy to cast spell. Again, mess with your opponent's head.
  • Treason of Tzeentch: An enemy unit resolves a single close combat attack against itself. Troll any hordes or any High S/Low T unit you like. I recommend High Elf White Lions, who, if in a unit of 20 will stab around 8 of themselves to death.
  • Pandaemonium: This spell will be dispelled at the beginning of your opponent's turn, guaranteed (he won't in your turn unless you roll badly). So, what's its use? Against magic-heavy items, it is invaluable to make them waste two casting dice each turn (which is usually the bonus power dice they receive, so they'll have to rely on good rolls for winds of magic). But what about the others? Well, in that case you, being the Tactical Genius you are, will realize that those hellcannons and their -1ld panic tests just became that much more deadly, as well as the fear tests for your units on the flanks.
  • Call to Glory: Removes a 15 point chaos warrior and replaces him with an exalted hero. +1 str, +2 A and other bonuses. But if your opponent dispels it you don't get the warrior back. So use it when your opponent's mage is not a threat. No, being the smart fellow that you are, you will use it on a 5 points marauder. Your opponent dispels it? Fine, you lost an expendable marauder that still got double the normal attacks at a greater WS (important against elite units) for one turn, and again, he wasted his power dice. He doesn't? Well then, have fun dealing with a free chaos hero rampaging through your frontlines! (In addition, the powergamer in me notices the spell can be dispelled at any time, in order to offset the 100 vp penalty, end the spell just before you roll the final armor save that might kill him.)
  • Infernal Gateway (15+): You know it, you love it. Easily the best spell in the game, it inflicts 2d6 hits at 2d6 strength. The real kicker is that if you roll a 11 or 12 as a strength you remove the unit from the game. The Whole Unit. No Saves. Even ICs. The Whole Unit. Again, the chances of this happening are 1/12, but every fantasy player has heard the terrifying tales of deathstars suddenly disappearing to this baby, and only an opponent with brass balls will allow you to cast it freely.

• Nurgle

• Slaanesh

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. 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.

Be very careful about one thing though: All Chaos Models are mounted on, at the smallest, the double-sized 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.