Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Legions of Chaos

The Legions of Chaos is an army added in the 2014 The End Times supplement/core rules update from Games Workshop to Warhammer Fantasy. They're a big and very welcome throwback to the iconic Hordes of Chaos approach from older editions, where Warriors of Chaos, Daemons and Beastmen are all fielded in a single great gribbly horde, with the addition of the new Nurgle special characters as options. Later, it got an alternate version in the form of the Grand Legion of the Everchosen, which basically trades some of the named characters here for access to most of the Skaven units.

Why Play Legions of Chaos

Because why not. Seriously, you get all the fun toys that the old Horde of Chaos players used to get. You will make the old Neckbeards grin with joy once more. Warriors can now access the brilliant Skull Cannons of Khorne and the chaff Razorgors from the Beastmen book. Beastmen have access to infantry and units that are not utter shit and will not die in hordes of beer and vomit (and ambush now works like it should). Daemons now get their pick from both the other books like flanking core units, as well as trading their old Reign of Chaos chart for one in which only one result can directly hurt you.

If you are already playing a Beastmen or WoC army, there is no downside whatsoever to bringing in exterior units. Even though you are still forced to take magic items from respective books, there is nothing stopping your Beastlord from joining your unit of Chaos Warriors. Daemons don't get as much of a boost, as Daemonic Alignment means your Daemonic character can only join Daemon units with the same mark, and does not benefit from Inspiring Presence or Hold Your Ground! (unless the models with those rules are Daemons with the same mark). So it does not allow things like using Heralds of Slaanesh making to make Chaos Warriors always strike first.

Army Special Rules

By default, all options follow the basic rules of their original armies unless otherwise contradicted, but there are some additions.

• Daemonic Alignment: Daemon units can only be joined by characters who are aligned to the same Chaos God as they follow. Similarly, they can only benefit from Inspiring Presence or Hold Your Ground if the model providing these effects is aligned to their patron god. Only Daemonic characters can join Daemonic units.
• Beastlords, Doombulls, Great Bray-Shamans, Wargors, Gorebulls, Bray-Shamans, Gor Herds, Ungor Herds, Ungor Raiders, Tuskgor Chariots, Minotaurs, Centigors, Bestigor Herds, and Razorgor Chariots can all buy Marks of Chaos. For a unit, the cost is 2pts per model for Khorne, Nurgle or Tzeentch and 1pt per model for Slaanesh. For a Hero, Lord, Chariot or Monster, the cost is 10pts for a Khorne/Nurgle/Tzeentch mark and 5pts for a Slaanesh mark.
• Beastmen Ambush is modified- notably, you don't have to match an ambushing unit with a deployed unit.
• Beastmen Lords and Heroes count as Chaos Champions and so use the rules for Eye of the Gods, but if they receive the Daemonhood reward, they instead trade it for the Spawndom reward.
• A slightly modified version of the Eye of the Gods chart (result 7 gives a result based on what mark the champion has, or if he has no mark) is used.
• In an End-Times LoC army, Daemonic Instability is replaced with Unbreakable and Unstable.
• A modified version of the Daemonic "Reign of Chaos" table is used (regardless of whether or not the army you field includes any Daemons); long story short- when you roll for Winds of Magic, consult the chart for random FUN. Most of the results are actually pretty good for the LOC player- results 5-6 and 8-9 don't target your own units like the Daemon version, and result 7 will probably do something. Results 2-4 are still bad for you though (although 2 and 4 only are if you are fielding Daemons).

Chaos Ascendant

Chaos Ascendant is a special set of rules introduced in the Glottkin Book in the same vein of the End Times Magic rules that would be later introduced in the Khaine Book. Both give a grand boost to their respective armies, but Chaos Ascendant are ultimately conditional and only occur based on consent between both players, whereas End Times Magic can be forced upon the game by either player..

• You must select a Chaos God to be ascendant. This should ideally be the one with the most units dedicated to them, but if you have two Chaos armies, you'll need to roll off.
  • All Daemons replace Daemonic Instability with Unbreakable and Unstable. However, Daemons of the Ascendant God get to lose Unstable, making them even tougher to remove.
  • Mortal Champions marked by the Ascendant God get to re-roll any die they want on the Eye of the Gods Table, making things more likely to be in your favor.
  • If you ever roll doubles on the Reign of Chaos table, you can always replace that result with "Summoned from Beyond", meaning you can now drop in a pack of your Ascendant God's lesser daemons in the field. It makes the lack of synergy between the Daemons and Mortals a little less bothersome by not forcing you to take as many Daemons on the field.
  • Summon Infernal Legion: This is a spell that all Chaos Wizards learn by default. It casts on a 14+ and summons 100 points worth of models with the Daemonic special rule within 12" of the caster and 1" away from anything else (Units with more than 5 models need to be in ranks of 5). This can be upped to summon 150 Points of Daemonic units to up the casting to a 17+, or 200 points for a 20+. This cannot be dispelled by any means, so you can enjoy spamming this to all fuck until you forget that you need those die for something more useful than more daemons.

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Note Under End Times supplement rules, you can spend up to 50% of your points on Lords, AND up to 50% on your heroes since they have separate points spending pools. You still of course need 25% Core regardless however.

Named Characters

Note: Under the current edition, named characters tend to be overpriced; you can emulate most named characters from scratch and save yourself some points. That said, many named characters do have abilities and war gear combos unique to them so if you need to have them go ahead. Just make sure you're really getting your points worth. That being said, Warriors of Chaos tend to be the exceptions to that rule, and it is only in the form of special characters that you'll get any force multipliers with Warriors of Chaos in general.

Lords

• Khazrak the One-Eye: Costing in at 270 points, Khazrak is still one of the better beastman special lords - though that's more because of how crap the beastmen tend to be in general. With stats that are pretty good, if not as killy as a vanilla Chaos Lord, the ability to forgo his normal 4 attacks to make a number equal to the number of models in the opponent unit's front rank, negating enemy magical weapons and a 2+ save, he's a fairly decent combat character. His special rule makes him most useful in an army where you have a lot of beastmen (make sure to give them marks) with the Beastmen Ambush rule. If you know that your opponent is taking Tyrion, Avatar of Khaine, just take him. Immediately. No ifs of buts. See how your opponent likes it when Tyrion is just a guy with S4,a nd the widowmaker loses all of its power. 3+ to hit with re-rolls, the 5+ to wound. Tyrion be dead.

• Malagor the Dark Omen: When it comes to being a disrupting wizard, Malagor's actually pretty good. Can cast from one of four lores (Wild, Death, Shadow, Beasts), level 4 wizard, gets a cumulative +1 to all casting rolls for each spell successfully cast, gives Frenzy to other beastmen, can fly, and negates the ability to use the general's leadership for anything within 6" of himself. Pretty good if you get spells that target leadership and you're fighting an army that generally relies on its general's leadership. Of course, you're paying 350 points for this...

• Taurox the Brass Bull: Coming in with a near dragon statline but still 5 points more than an actual dragon and nowhere near as useful, there are better things to spend your points on. Yes he's capable of wiping out heavily armoured units on his own, but a properly kitted out Lord in a unit can still do the job just as well and if your opponent manages to roll 6s both To Hit and To Wound, he dies if he fails his armour save though the odds of it aren't likely (it'll only happen about 7.40% of the time against normal and Strength 4 Spearmen Hordes, and 5.55% of the time against normal S3 and S4 hordes).

• Skarbrand: He can't fly, but at M8 that's not so bad. With maxed out WS and Initiative, 6s in Strength and attacks, and 6 Toughness 5 Wounds for survival, he's a monster in a melee. Add in the fact he ignores armor with his attacks, his S5 Breath Weapon, permanent Frenzy and inducing Hatred in every unit on the table, friend or foe, and you got someone who guarantees bloodshed.

• Kairos Fateweaver: The absolute best daemonic spellcaster in the game, hands down, who starts with ALL Daemonic Tzeentch spells and 1 spell from EACH of the main Battle Magic lores. Only downside is you have to choose which of his two heads is casting each phase (Left Head knows Life, Metal, Light, Heavens, Daemonic Tzeentch, while Right Head knows Death, Beasts, Shadow, Fire and Daemonic Tzeentch) and you may not have enough power dice to get the best out of him if you haven't loaded up with Horrors of Tzeentch. Oh, that not enough spells for you? Well, with the rules option/update for End Times Spells, you can take a Kairos into battle who knows sixty fucking four different spells, of which he can potentially try to cast thirty six each magic phase. That's nine lores for six spells apiece, the nine End Times Spells granted by having those nine lores, plus Summon Arcane Fulcrum, which each head knows.

• Ku'gath Plaguefather: The only reason you'll take this guy over a regular GUO is his S5 (no armour save) stone thrower ability, and while it can and will destroy every unit it hits, you're paying out the ass for that ability and a slightly better statline (250 fucking points for that, +1 Wound, +1 Attack). How much he's worth it depends on how much shooting you plan on having to counter horde/archer spam lists.

• Archaon: Whoa boy... what to say about the big daddy of all Warriors of Chaos? He's an unholy rape machine in a vanilla WoC army and he certainly doesn't lose that trait in an LoC army as well as being one of the four characters in your entire army with LD10. If you're going to take a special character, you can do a hell of a lot worse than Archaon.

• Galrauch: What's scarier than a Chaos Dragon with 6s in everything and Leadership 9? When it's also a level 4 wizard with the Mark of Tzeentch and with Fumes of Chaos replaced by the Breath of Change (enemies must pass a Toughness save or die outright, no backsies!), of course! His only weaknesses are the fact he uses Tzeentch Lore (which kind of sucks) and the Spirit of Galrauch rule, which means if you fail a Leadership test (not very likely, on LD9) he can't move, breath weapon or cast spells and he makes 3 WS6 S6 attacks against himself.

• Kholek Suneater: With his sizeable stat boosts compared to a regular Shaggoth, Kholek looks like a guaranteed choice, on the other hand, those 7 attacks are coming at a rock bottom initiative of 1, which means that a single Purple Sun spell and you can kiss 545 points goodbye. His attacks do D3 Wounds on a hit (which, at WS8, is pretty likely, perfect for crushing characters or other monsters), and the fact he's a Large Target with a 2+ save and 8 T6 Wounds to get through means he'll wreck a lot of havoc for everyone except gunline lists. He also gets the ability to blast a single enemy unit within 24" with a bolt of lightning if he can roll a 2+, which deals out D6 S6 hits - on a 1, it blasts him instead and triggers his his Storm Rage (he can even use this if he's in a melee) which also makes him a decent support character for killing things like heavy cavalry early.

• Sigvald the Magnificent: Sigvald is weird. Awesome combat lord with Mark of Slaanesh, amazing stats, good saves, a boatload of attacks and one of four characters in the entire army with LD10. The problem is he almost has to be in a unit to prevent him from dying to cannons and few infantry blocks really benefit from the Mark of Slaanesh, so finding where to put him can be a tricky proposition. If you're just after his LD10 then go with Gutrot Spume.

• Valkia the Bloody: A great killy combat lord. With 7 Str 7 attacks on the charge, good armor, and flying she is meant to get into combat immediately and murder whatever she hits. Her ability also makes her a highly mobile BSB. She also has a nifty ability where she lowers the strength and number of attacks of models in base contact with her. The reality is that you can easily get a chaos lord to do her job better for around the same amount of point. She isn't particularly tanky and she lacks a ward save. But is she cool? God yes. And there is no better lord for a Khorne themed army. Why should Nurgle have all the fun in the End Times?
  • Khorne's old lady is an incredible boon for Beastmen when she isn't the General; two BSBs for an army that suffers so strongly from leadership issues is a true gift of the dark gods.

• Vilitch the Curseling: The biggest problem with this guy as a wizard is that he can only use the Mortal Lore of Tzeentch, which is generally regarded as being one of the worst Chaos Magic Lores, and you're paying 145 points more for a regular Sorcerer Lord for his loremaster the ability to take enemy magic dice and +1 Strength. If you really want a Tzeentch Sorcerer Lord for some reason, then you're better off with the generic one and putting him on a mount. Still, Vilitch might be useful under Khaine magic rules; watch as your opponent tries to cast a 15+ spell and is only allowed to use one dice. The casting will ultimately fail and you will immediately acquire another dispel dice.

• The Glottkin: So, the Glottkin are the big character getting pushed for the Legions of Chaos, at least in their initial release. Are they worth it? Well, for starters, you're paying 810 points for a Lord choice Special Character Monster with a good staline (barring that lousy Initiative 1), a shitload of extra rules, they're a level 4 Wizard (WoC Lore of Nurgle), and they always get Aura of Chaos if they roll on the Eye of the Gods. As far as support goes, Nurgle Marked or Nurgle Daemon units within 12" can re-roll failed charges and they are one of the four characters with LD10. The big problem with the Glottkin is they can't cause wounds enough to buy back their absurd point cost. The fact that they lack the spellcasting perks of Nagash makes magic use a risky proposition for something that's also intended to go barrelling into close combat. Yes, if the dice gods are kind, then a charging Glottkin can dish out 14 attacks, one of which is S10 D6 Multiple Wounds, but that depends on random luck, and they're too tied down by their bottom of the barrel Initiative. Especially if your opponent is packing a Wizard with the Lore of Death or any other spells that target Initiative; one Purple Sun to the face and it's bye-bye to 810 points.

• Orghotts Daemonspew: One of the three Maggoth Riders of Nurgle, Orghotts Daemonspew is a Lords choice that costs 430 points. For this, you get a Special Character Monster with another good statline, armour save, and Poisoned Attacks. Now, this guy is going somewhere, compared to the Glottkin he's still pricey, yeah, but nine S8 Poisoned Attacks at Weapon Skill 8 isn't something to sneeze at. Get him into combat, especially if you have a Nurgle Sorcerer with the Fleshy Abundance spell, and between his attacks and his Acid Ichor, he's pretty good at mowing down lower-toughness foes.

• Bloab Rotspawned: One of the three Maggoth Riders of Nurgle, Bloab Rotspawned is a Lords choice that costs 415 points. For this, you get a Special Character Monster another good statline, armour save, and some great support rules. His specialty is his shooting attack (a 24" stone thrower at Strength 3(4) and Ignores armor) as well as his spellcasting, not only is he a level 3 Lore of Nurgle caster, his Doombells add +1 to his casting rolls and inflict a -1 penalty to the same to any enemy wizard within 12". Pretty good for a support character and one of the few new characters who can make their points back in nearly every game barring a bad miscasts or lucky cannon shots.

• Morbidex Twiceborn: One of the three Maggoth Riders of Nurgle, Morbidex Twiceborn is a Lords choice that costs 385 points. For this, you get a Special Character with another good statline, this is the most vanilla of the Maggoth Riders and easily the worst of the three. If your army is big on nurglings he's kind of okay, but, really, there's better things to spend your points on.

• Gutrot Spume: Now, what is there to say about Gutrot Spume? Well, at 250 points as a Lord choice, he's the cheapest special character that Nurgle gets in the new Legions of Chaos, for 40 points more than a generic Lord he gets +1 Wound, +1 Ld, a Great Weapon and for special rules... Nurgle's Rot, Mark of Nurgle, Flailing Tentacles (+D3 attacks in Close Combat), and the ability to hop on a Chaos Warshrine for another 125 points. His most unique ability is "At Home on Land or Sea"; Gutrot and any unit he is with treat any areas of water (even impassible ground) as being open ground and so can march, claim rank bonus and be steadfast. He's worth his points, but since he only has one mount he's less versatile as a normal Lord and a little gimmicky, he only becomes awesome if you know your opponent is going to fight you on a water-featuring board, and he's also the fourth character in the entire army to have LD 10, by far the cheapest one to get it, and since plenty of units benefit from Mark of Nurgle there's not shortage of places to put him. He's also 125 points cheaper than Sigvald (the other on foot LD 10 character), trading 1 initiative for 1 wound, definitely somebody to consider if you want a "cheap" LD10 general.

• Festus Empowered: So, what happens with this beefed up version of Festus the Leechlord? He costs 320, and statwise is a Nurgle Sorcerer Lord with +1 Tougness and Regeneration. The new Festus is a great support character, His Gardener of Nurgle rule is very handy on a terrain heavy board, if you stick him in a unit they gain his Poisoned Attacks and Regeneration (5+), and the Shroudlings are great to help protect you against gunline lists or archer spam. As for combat rules his pestilent potions are handy for keeping him alive in challenges (or winning if you roll well) to help you take advantage of Destined for Daemonhood.

• 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.

Heroes

• Morghur, Master of Skulls: This guy is confused about what the hell he wants to be. He literally eats missile attacks and spells so long as he stays more than 12" away from the source, so that means he can't be shot down, which is kind of handy to get him into melee. On the other hand, he certainly isn't a unit killer by himself - between his WS6, T5 and automatic S3 Armor Ignoring hit on every enemy model within base contact you'd think otherwise, but he's only S4 and has 2 Wounds. At the same time, you don't want to stick him in a unit for protection because he automatically kills 1 friendly model within 12" every Magic phase, replacing them with a Chaos Spawn on a 3+ and just killing them on a 1-2. If you're willing to stick him in a big but normally crappy unit, like ungors or marauders, he could be worth it, since the chaos spawn are much more killy than the original creatures, but in general, avoid.

• Slugtongue: Although he can only cast Lore of the Wild or Lore of Death spells, Slugtongue's not too shabby for a level 2 wizard. You want to position him in a good-sized unit to cloak him and put him as close to the enemy as you can at the game's start; his "Curse of the Famine-fiend" means you can potentially knock off D3 or even D6 Wounds from every enemy unit within 36 inches. It won't soften up a horde army too much, but a big force is sure to take a few wounds, and every bit helps. With Poisoned Attacks and Regeneration, he's got a decent bit of survivability to him as well.

• Moonclaw, Son of Morrslieb: This guy is just... ugh; Stupidity on both the enemy and YOUR OWN GUYS within 12", only a level 1 wizard, and the ability to get a +2 to casting rolls and make D3 Stone Thrower shots during the first, second or third round of the game. Avoid like the plague; this guy shows just how stupid GW was being when they reinvented Beasts of Chaos as Beastmen. (Also probably Moon Moon in disguise.. dammit Moon Moon!) If you really want to take him though (most likely to fuck over a Goblin or Skaven player) then put him on Unbralok so you can get him as far away from your own guys as possible, and make sure the only ones he's near (if he must be near some of your guys) are Chaos Warriors for their higher Ld.
  • Adding Umbralok isn't a bad idea, since that's +2 Movement, +1 Wound and +3 Attacks (at Initiative 2, yeah, but Moonclaw's I3 himself, so he's hardly one to talk) for +35 points on his original 200 point cost. At the very least, it's no worse an idea than taking this piece of shit character in the first place!

• Skulltaker: Character killer nonpareil; he's always got to issue and accept challenges, but with WS 9 and Heroic Killing Blow when in a challenge, that's what you want him to do. Not too bad at mincing infantry, what with flaming attacks, killing blow, and 4 Initiative 9 Strength 5 attacks, but it's not his strong point. Beware of enemy characters who have better initiative/Always Strikes First and other decent stats, because he's only got a 4+ armor save and 2 T4 Wounds to protect him. Needless to say, shooting attacks will fuck him up.

• Karanak: Another character assassin, but also good for fucking over enemy wizards.

• The Blue Scribes: Seriously? Okay, the fact you can chose which of the eight default lores you cast from each Magic Phase is nice, but with randomized spells each time and no way to even get the signature spells, they're kind of useless.

• The Changeling: Only useful if you're going up against a force with especially killy creatures or characters to copy. Of course, he's got to get into base contact first, so... yeah, there's better things to spend points on.

• Epidemius: If only his ability worked on Warriors with the Mark of Nurgle... In an all Nurgle DAEMON army he is fantastic, but he benefits little from combining armies unless you're focusing on a lot of Nurgle daemons.

• The Masque of Slaanesh: Luckily she comes with a 3+ Ward Save, because that rule about being unable to join any unit would be a killer otherwise. She's quick as greased lightning, can make mincemeat out of most common troops, and can penalize Leadership, Initiative or Strength for all enemies within 12". Not a bad little supporting hero.

• Wulfrik the Wanderer: You suddenly have access to three awesome faction's core choices and you choose marauders? I mean, they aren't even good in Warriors. His ability is cool and he can rock a challenge like nobodies business, but he is unreliable as hell and, I mean, well... marauders man. Marauders...

• Throgg: Trolls for core? Yes please. Even with all three factions vying for that sweet sweet 25% core requirement you are going to be hard pressed to find better core than trolls. Throgg is cheap, has good stats, and is great in zoo themed monster lists.

• Festus the Leechlord: Would be amazing if he were tankier. With no armor and only regen to save him if he is in the front of a unit (where he has to be) you can bet your bottom dollar everyone will target him and he will die. His abilities are awesome as giving an entire unit a 5+ regen save and poison are awesome. If you want a deathstar he is your go to guy, but just know he has drawbacks.

• Scyla Anfingrimm: He's a Chaos Spawn with +2 attacks, Hatred, a 5+ armor save, the Mark of Khorne, and the Brass Collar of Khorne (Ward Save 6+, Magic Resistance 3). There's better things to spend your points on. He's also Leadership 10. Which means there is a good chance that he'll be your general too.

• Ungrol Four-Horn: For starters, you can't take this guy unless you take an Ungor Herd for him to lead - that right there should be reason enough to give him the skip. On the other hand, if you must, his stats are relatively decent, especially if he passes his Leadership test (on LD 7, don't count on it) and gets his +2 Weapon Skill and +1 Strength for the turn - nobody's expecting WS6 S5 attacks from ungors! Failing the test gives you a random Lore of the Wild Spell from a level 1 Wizard. All in all, gimmicky and tied to one of the absolute worst units the Beastmen have. Avoid.

• Ghorros Warhoof: A fairly decent character in his own right, and the fact he gives +1 Leadership to all Primal Fury units if he gets killed can be useful. The big drawback is that he has to come with one of the worst units that the beastmen have, and +1 WS does absolutely nothing to improve them. He's not really worth it.

Generic Characters

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

when trying to decide whether to take a Warriors of Chaos, Beastman or Daemon equivalent in the same role, give the Magic Items available to each a quick browse as a tiebreaker.

Lords

• Beastlord: 65 points cheaper than a Chaos Lord and only slightly less killy (-2 WS, -2 I, -1 A), Beastlords can do well with a small bit of magical equipment and spread through a few Warrior units if you want to have several combat Lords without sacrificing your magic.

• Doombull: Oh daddy yes, the Doombull can now wreck havoc with monsters worthy of his skills. Use him in the same way you would in a Beastmen army. However, the new Legion rules means that he fits perfectly in a unit of Trolls. Give him the Blackened Plate and he'll grant the entire unit a 4+ ward against flaming attacks. Oh, and he gives them Frenzy via the Slaughter's Call special rule. Laugh when your trolls have five attacks, and are immune to fire based attacks, which was their only weakness before, and he actually beats out Chaos Lords for sheer number of models he can kill (which can spike even higher with proper items like the Ramhorn helm).

• Great Bray-Shaman: You'll likely see more of these pop up in order to give access to Lore of Beasts, something which Warriors of Chaos and Daemons of Chaos lacked. He's got an extra point on Toughness over Sorcerer Lords, is cheaper, and can be built to be pretty decent in combat if you want to get extra power dice (see Tactics) though without Chaos Armour will need a Ward Save if you plan on getting him into combat. Overall a better wizard if you just want one for increasing your strengths and shutting down the enemies magic, though Chaos Sorcerers get better mounts and have access to more varied Lores.

• Bloodthirster: The only Lord choice besides a Doombull who beats out a Chaos Lord in terms of sheer killyness. Expensive as hell (all four greater daemons are), but you were never going to outnumber the enemy anyway, and you're definitely getting what you pay for! Now with three varieties thanks to End Times Archaon:
  • Unfettered Fury: Basically the same Thirster you're already using. Even the same cost.
  • Insensate Rage: 100 more points for Frenzy, HKB, and a Great Weapon. Simply put, if you charge it, it will DIE, no fucks given about ASL. But 100 points? Really?
  • Wrath of Khorne: +150 points gives you a bevy of boosts. Magic Resistance 3, Frenzy, Devastating Charge, Hatred (Characters) that gives him a bonus +3" when charging any. He also gets an S5 Flaming Breath Weapon and a set of weapons giving it a middle-ground between his little brothers: +2S on the first round of Close Combat, and always issues an extra attack.

• Lord of Change: he's supposed to be the greater daemon of the god of magic, so you'd think he'd be a great wizard, but the current bland Daemon book makes him no better than the other two wizardy greaters. He is automatically a level 2 wizard and can be upgraded to up to level 4, making him slightly cheaper (10 points) than the other casting greaters when fully upgraded. He gets to reroll 1s on his channeling attempts, otherwise, he has no special advantages in terms of spellcasting; and only a couple of the random daemonic gifts affect spellcasting, so don't expect any help there. He has access to Lore of Metal (which is OK) and Lore of Tzeentch (which is also OK, but wildly unpredictable). Lastly, he's OK in combat, especially against units he can thunderstom- however, he has Unstable, plus he can't dish out the same melee death as the Thirster or Keeper. He's not all downside though- he can fly, and is fairly tough for non-cannons to kill (T6, W5, 5+ ward that can reroll 1s). But if you're looking for a good spellcaster, you may want to look elsewhere.

• Great Unclean One: like Nurgle daemons tend to be, he's tougher than his comrades (+1T, +1W) but isn't all that great at combat (at least when compared to the other three greater daemons), although his Nurgle trait makes him harder to hit. Ironically, he's particularly vulnerable to poison. Is automatically a level 1 wizard but can be upgraded up to level 4; has access to two very good Lores- Nurgle and Death.

• Keeper of Secrets: arguably the most powerful of the four greater daemons. Can dish out damage nearly on par with the Thirster, but can also be a devastating wizard. Like the Unclean One, is level 1 but can be up to level 4. (S)he can use Lore of Slaanesh (which can be surprisingly good) or Lore of Shadow (which is one of the better generic lores).

• Daemon Prince, Daemons of Chaos Version: Inferior to the Warrior version seen below. Has the same stat line and basic upgrades (flight, Chaos Armor, Wizard levels, Marks, etc). The difference is the Daemon version is stuck with the random Daemonic Gifts charts rather than being able to reliably take magic items and mutations, and the Daemon version has the Unstable rule (Warrior does not). To add insult to injury, the Daemon version is slightly more expensive! Only take this guy if you like needlessly putting yourself at a disadvantage, or if you have some sort of fluff reason.

• Daemon Prince, Warriors of Chaos Version: The same old unbreakable Daemon Prince from hell that everyone loves. The new rules for Lords means that you could potentially bring two of them to a 2000+ game, although doing so might make you suffer in other areas, just because you can stuff your force with Lords and Heroes, it doesn't mean that you should. Pretty much any of the 4 Gods make a brilliant unit, the Nurgle Death Prince is hated throughout the game, although the Tanky Tzeentch Prince with Lore of Metal is also pretty good. Don't forget Slaanesh, who can fly up first turn and Choir Bomb everything in sight. With a Chaos familiar and a level one wizard using Slaanesh, you are pretty much guaranteed to get Choir as your spell. Khorne is also handy, because not being a wizard makes you pretty cheap.

• Chaos Lord: The new Lord rules have been good for Chaos. You can now quite comfortably squeeze in a combat lord and a Level 4 in a 2000 point list. One of the best lords in the game, coat him in thick armour and a nice ward save and send him in at the deep end. Using Tzeentch can make you almost un-killable, Nurgle can make you un-hittable. Slaanesh isn't as popular because he has a meaty leadership 9, but if you are prone to running away like a sissy girl when your wardogs blow up then it may help you out. Khorne gives you an extra attack, which is always handy. Chaos Lords don't usually need Magic Weapons thanks to their high statline, but If you don't want to give your Lord a special mount or specific Magic Weapon, you'll usually be better off paying the extra 25 points and getting a Doombull as their statline is better for the job.

• Chaos Sorcerer Lord: More expensive than his Beastman counterpart, but makes up for it by being able to take armour and respectable mounts. Tool him up anyway you want, but make sure his armour save is 2+ or better and he has (at least) a 4+ ward save as it's really easy for warriors to do and due to Eye of the Gods, he could very well end up in Challenges, though luckily for you, you are not a smelly elf mage in a cowardly robe. He is only Toughness and Strength 4, so if you want him just to get a tough lvl 4 wizard to defend against enemy magic you'll be better off with a Great Bray-Shaman.

Heroes

• Wargor:Unless you want a cheap BSB, you'll probably only see him around for his Beast Banner (which grants a unit +1S) which is pretty awesome in units of Warriors or units of Bestigors. He is fragile, so at least give him heavy armour, a shield and Gnarled Hide for a 2+ armour save. Even then make sure you have another character/champion in the unit, Eye of the Gods now applies to him and he has to declare and accept challenges- you don't want your BSB turning into a spawnnnnnnnaAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

• Gorebull: Not quite as good as a Doombull but decent none the less and makes for a cheap Chaos Lord stand-in. Like above, best used in units of Trolls with the Blackened Plate to make them immune to flaming attacks and frenzied.

• Bray-Shaman: A cheap scroll caddy, what every Chaos Warrior player wanted. You can make them level 1 and spam Wildform or Miasma on everything, or give one Shard of the Herdstone, surround him with a cluster of other Bray-Shamans (now that there's no duplication limit) and watch as your magic phase is better than your local elf player. Remember you can't have any higher than 12 dice in the magic phase unless you are using the Khaine magic rules or Storm of Magic.

• Herald of Khorne: If you're going to be tossing around units of bloodletters and you want to make them better, then you need these guys; they're the only character that can join them. They're pretty good at melee (especially when charging), although a little fragile (T4, W2, 6+/5++).

• Herald of Tzeentch:' Kind of a weird one. He's the only Daemon character who can be a level 2 wizard and isn't a hyper expensive Lord. Not great on his own, and not great in melee; his Loci are also odd- one is a throwaway that boosts the number of nearly useless Blue Horror tokens dead Horrors create; one gives him and his unit a random Strength value each turn; and the last gives +1S to Tzeentchy damage spells he or his Horror unit casts. Additionally, Horrors are best used in a "Multiple Small Unit" (MSU) fashion- field many smaller, more expendable units so they can dominate the magic phase. If you are taking one big unit of Horrors and are using the Khaine magic rules, then it's totally worth taking him with the "+1S spells" Locus; otherwise, the Bray-Shaman is probably a better choice for a cheap, low level wizard.

• Herald of Nurgle: If you're going to be tossing around units of plaguebearers and you want to make them better, then you need these guys; they're the only character that can join them. Very durable hero and surprisingly hard hitting, and can be upgraded to a level 1 wizard.

• Herald of Slaanesh: If you're going to be tossing around units of daemonettes and you want to make them better, then you need these guys; they're the only character that can join them. They're also decent fighters (they may have difficulty against high Toughness or well armored enemies), and can be upgraded to be a level 1 wizard; they are super fragile though (T3, W2, 5++).

• Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch: A web-supplement character, they are cheap and do provide you with an excellent range option! Their grapeshot is deadly (S = D6 +3) and they can march and shoot with a unit of flamers, stick a few around and clear all the chaff crap or aim at bigger, elite units. They get Regeneration because of Warplame? Sure, it means nothing if you have sufficient numbers of Exalted Flamers. Oh, and Skull Cannons can deal with Regeneration save.

• Exalted Hero: A slightly smaller and less angry Chaos Lord. Pretty good in combat and can also be a BSB. Again, give him some decent armour and a ward save, or use the Dawnstone. Very adaptable, for example a BSB on a Chaos Steed with Halberd, Helm of Many Eyes, Dawnstone and poisonous slime gives him a 1+ re-rollable armour save keeps him well protected and has enough Strength to do decent damage... However, do not be tempted to spam multiples of them with the new rules, Ld 8 means that he will run away like a girl if he charges a steadfast unit, as even 4 kills is countered by three ranks and a banner.

• Chaos Sorcerer: Yet another sorcerer, aren't you spoilt for choices and it is only the hero slot. A little bit too expensive to be a scroll caddy, but you could give him the Skull of Katam. You might go insane, but no one is relying on your leadership anyway.

Mounts

Sadly, mounts cannot be taken cross-army. That does not mean however that they can't be in the same unit as each other though.

• Razorgor Chariot: For starters, it's the only "mount" that Beastmen characters can take. Of course, with how crappy beastmen are in general, you're not likely to take many of them in the first place.

• Gorebeast Chariot: It's a tough bombass chariot. NURGLE MARK IT. T6 with most things needing 4+'s to hit makes this guy stick.

• Chaos Warshrine: Put a sorcerer lord on it and park it behind your units. Beware though. It's a chariot and it cannot join units, and because enemy units can individually target your lord when he sits on top (though the 4+ save should protect him from all but archer or cannon spam). If your lord does die the shrine is suddenly LD0, so beware.

• Chaos Steed: You know it you love it. Your normal barded cavalry. Take it for the +2 armor save and good mobility.

• Daemonic Mount: Better for heroes than lords, but still good regardless. Your go-to monstrous mount.

• Chaos Chariot: God YES. Nurgle mark makes these already tough chariots harder to kill.

• Manticore: Would be great but is a huge target for cannons / literally anything in range of you. Also - your lord can be targeted and the mount itself is deceptively squishy.

• Chaos Dragon: Oh baby. 50% lords? Hello gorgeous. Put flaming breath on the rider for 2/3x2d6 auto hits in melee.

• Juggernaut of Khorne: Khorne lords only. Take Helm of Many Eyes and a strength buff and blend the fuck out of anyone stupid enough to stand in front of a unit of Skullcrushers with a chaos Khorn Lord. That said - Daemonic Mount is probably a better option.

• Palanquin of Nurgle: Cool but not great. Park a BSB on this and keep him alive for a long time. Probably. Also - the only current model that exists for them is the Daemon Epid-d-d-d-d-emus, and his model is... eh.

• Steed of Slaanesh: Wanna go fast? This is the way to do it. Great for those lords who want to be up the ass, rounding the third turn in the large intestine of your enemies on turn one. Problem is that the mount doesn't really add any defenses, and there are few units to take him with that are really that good. That said - taking a killy lord in a unit of hellstriders is a great way to ensure they get their bonuses before they are mercilessly killed.

• Disk of Tzeentch: Take Mark of Tzeentch, Charmed Shield, Talisman of Preservation, and Third Eye of Tzeentch on an Exalted Champion for an unkillable and highly mobile BSB.

Core Units

• Gor Herd: Half the cost of a Chaos Warrior and nowhere near as useful but that ain't why you take them. Whilst they are pretty poor in the beastman book as you really need them to do something they are much better in the Legion rules. One point more than a Marauder, they have -1I but +1T and +1M. Give them Mark of Khorne and Extra hand weapons and you might have a unit that will actually kill something- especially if your general and/or BSB are nearby to help with the Primal Fury roll. Give them Mark of Nurgle, and they might actually survive something. Slaanesh works really well because their leadership is average and they won't run away because a razorgor had a change of heart about attacking a giant. Tzeentch isn't great unless you actually pay for Sword and Board upgrade so they have a 5+ parry. They are still pants and can't be expected to reliably kill anything of substance, but they will gum up the enemy long enough for your heavy hitters to get into combat.

• Ungor Herd: Two points cheaper than Gors and much, much worse. They will break at the first sign of trouble, their armour save is useless and giving them spears is a waste of points. Sword and Board gives them a 6+ parry, and Mark of Tzeentch can turn that into a 5+. But there are much better things in the core choice for you to take.

• Ungor Raiders: What's this? Another Chaos unit with a ranged attack? For a point more than a Ungor you get a shortbow instead of a shield. They are pretty much wardogs with bows in your eyes, Ambush them in the side or behind the enemy to get rid of your long range penalty and to pull the enemy out of formation, since they are Skirmishers keep them in Cover and they'll be very hard to hit, so if your opponent wants them gone they'll almost certainly have to divert a portion of their army to fight them. Give them mark of Slaanesh. It is the most useful, as if they were in combat to begin with you used them wrong, and then send them off on assassination duty. Bonus points for murdering two units of doomfire warlocks on turn one with these.

• Tuskgor Chariot: It's cheaper than a Chaos Chariot by thirty points. For that you lose a point of armour, and the two Chaos Warriors are replaced with a Gor and a Bestigor. It's cheaper but not quite as good as you lose two attacks and whilst one is S6, the other is S4 on the charge only. You don't have scythes either so you lose one impact hit off the bat, but as already stated, thirty points cheaper, if you want a larger number of chariots go with these guys, those saved points add up quick. It should be noted though that as far as killing goes, Mark of Khorne on these chariots lets them outperform vanilla Chaos Chariots while still remaining cheaper because of Primal Fury giving them hatred for all of their attacks (including the mounts for some reason), so make sure that your general can keep up.

• Chaos Warhounds, Beastmen Version: Don't count as core and poison is three times the price of the WoC dogs. In short no. In long NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

• Chaos Warhounds, Warriors of Chaos Version: That's better. These dogs count as core, which is good because who wants an army made up entirely of core models? Use them as chaff and send them to their doom. They can block charge lanes or confuse your opponent at deployment. The best general is decided by how he uses his dogs. Just be careful where they panic too, Beastmen without the Mark of Slaanesh aren't the bravest of souls and you can still run from exploding dog syndrome.

• Bloodletters of Khorne: the most expensive of the four kinds of Core lesser daemons, but also one of the better ones in melee. They die easily, since they're only T3 with a 6+ scaly save and the daemonic save (normally 5+, but it can change); but they're quite good in melee (WS5, S4, killing blow; also get +1S when charging). Not the best choice for a tarpit (due to their cost and fragility). As a side note, don't bother giving them poison (eg Nurgle's "Blades of Putrefaction" spell) or flaming attacks (eg the Banner of Eternal Flame), since they have magic weapons and won't actually benefit. If you do go with one big unit, it is highly recommended to take a Herald with Locus of Wrath or Fury.

• Daemonettes of Slaanesh: the cheapest of the four kinds of Core lesser daemons. Just as fragile as Bloodletters (minus the scaly save), but have lots of armor piercing attacks at a mere S3; they make a great target for the Nurgle "Blades of Putrefaction" spell if you happen to have it. Additionally, your larger units almost have to have a Herald with the Locus of Swiftness so they get ASF (the other two Loci aren't really worth taking compared to this).

• Pink Horrors of Tzeentch: take for extreme magic phase. MSU style is recommended. Especially nasty if you're using the End Times: Khaine magic rules- each unit will know all of the Tzeentch spells!

• Plaguebearers of Nurgle: It is easy to do worse as far as core choices go. With a daemonic ward save, high toughness / strength, and poison, a block of 50 can really make an excellent tarpit. Throw in a Herald of Nurgle with a loci of your choosing. Combine with fast flanking units to flank and spank your enemies. Grab some chariots from whatever army you choose, or some knights of chaos, and enjoy that sweet sweet static combat res. Even better, make your opponents cry if you use chaos ascendant and pick nurgle, they lose the Unstable rule.

• Chaos Warriors: The original power armoured demi-gods of battle. Chaos Warriors have been splitting skulls and taking names for decades. Welcome to the best human warriors on Warhammer World. Even as core, there is not much that a Warrior of Chaos cannot stand up to and break beneath his iron boots. Rocking a 4+ armour save off the bat, Chaos Warriors are tough to beat. But they are expensive, and giving them upgrades only makes them more so. Halberds are generally seen as the way to go, as S5 beats an extra attack against everything except T2 or less. However, now that Beast Banner carrying Wargors can join units of Warriors, maybe we'll see Additional Hand Weapon Warriors come into fashion. or maybe we'll see S6 Halberds that wound ogres on 2+. You can miss shields if you want, as a 4+ armour save is often good enough. Plus they can't use it with a Halberd. As for Marks, they are good without them but better with them. However, a Mark of Nurgle Warrior which a shield and Halberd rocks in a 20 frigging points. Nurgle is generally seen as the best mark, as WS5 means most heroes will hit them on 5's. Tzeentch is common, as it gives you a 5+ parry. Khorne makes you frenzied and Slaanesh makes you immune to Panic, Terror and Fear. They have fallen a little bit out of fashion with people this edition as Chariots have become core, but in my opinion. It isn't a Warriors of Chaos Army without Chaos Warriors.

• Forsaken: Faster than Gors, Ungors and Warriors, but rather hit and miss. Costs the same as a Ungor and a Warrior and you don't really get much for it. D3 attacks sound nice, but only the first rank get to use more than one and warriors have two anyway. Most useful marks are probably Khorne and Slaanesh, which grant hatred and swiftstride respectively. You won't see these around very often, which is a shame because they look pretty cool.

• Chaos Marauders: The original Viking Warrior, accept no less. Unfortunately they have become more expensive, and vast hordes of them have fallen out of favour due to the costs of their weapon and mark upgrades. They also have no armour or shields, unless you add them on. In a Legion list, they lose out to regular Gors, who are tougher, faster, and almost as cheap. Marauders can work, but they do need support.

• Marauder Horsemen: More Horsemen for your core, and who says the Kurgan aren't represented in your army? Quite handy due to their speed and manoeuvrability. Mark of Slaanesh turns them into brilliant fast cav, because they can still flee. Mark of Khorne and Flails turns them into a nasty alpha strike unit which could possibly crunch through a small unit of bowmen or a warmachine. If you want to play an all mounted force, these are your guys. Even then, a small unit of 5 will probably be worth its weight in gold.

• Chaos Chariot: This is how you make a chariot. It's a mean machine of death and destruction. With two Halberd carrying Chaos Warriors on its back, plus Scythes. This chariot is probably one of the best in the game. It's also armoured with a mean 3+ save and four wounds on its T5 frame. Mark of Khorne gives it a horrible amount of attacks, Mark of Nurgle makes it very hard to hit. Take one and love it. It's better than the Beastmen one, but also more expensive.

Special Units

• Minotaurs: In a Beastman army Minotaurs are quite good, in a Legion Army however they are not quite so good. They are 20 points more expensive than trolls and all they get to show for it is Frenzy and 1 impact hit each. And they replace regeneration for Light Armour. With little in the way of defence they are prone to crumbling like pussies if combat doesn't go their way. If you want to use them you do need to invest plenty in them, but honestly trolls and Ogres are both better.
  • Throgg helps with their leadership issues quite a bit and can help support a flank of the buggers so that you don't have to clump them right next to your general.

• Centigors: Bad in the Beastmen book and about as bad here. They fill the role of fast cavalry except they are priced like heavy cavalry without the armour. Their Drunken rule is decent but they'll still die like dogs. If you want cavalry in your list, take marauder horsement. Giving them a shield, Light Armour and a Flail makes them 18 points. So not only are they cheaper they are also better in combat. IF you absolutely have to use Centigors for some reason (Chaos Gods only know why) give them Throwing Axes for S5 shooting attacks and have them run away from anything scarier than zombies.

• Harpies:More Chaff for your army. They are quite a bit more expensive than Ungor Raiders except they get to fly. They are pretty nimble in close combat, but they will die to a stiff breeze. Keep them away from your other units because they will flee first chance they get, and beastmen who flee when a unit panics are damned to an eternity of bubble baths and sweet smelling shampoo.

• Bestigor Herd: Bestigors live fast and die hard. Two points cheaper than a chaos warrior they exchange chaos armour for heavy armour and have a great weapon. T4 and heavy armour will keep them alive for a little while, but make sure you stock up on these hardy warriors. Like all Beastmen units they need support, give them a Beastlord or a Chaos Lord and buff them up with magic or the beastmen. They will probably break whatever they meet, but it will cost them to do so.

• Razorgor Chariot: 15 points more expensive than a Gorebeast chariot and a mixed bag in comparison, it has a 4+ save instead of the 3+ save, worse handlers and is T5, but the beast pulling it is better (+1M, +1A and S6 on the charge) and is overall better than a vanilla Gorebeast chariot if you successfully make your Primal Fury test as the whole thing gets to re-roll all of its misses, though it will also die much faster unless you Nurgle mark it.

• Razorgor Herd: More Chaff for what is the chaffiest army in existence. Quite mean when it charges it will help put the hurt on anything that it gets into a scuffle with. It will run away if things turn sour, but use it as you would any other chaff, except remember than this cat thing has claws. It can stomp too, don't forget it.

• Bloodcrushers of Khorne: These hardasses bring lots and lots of pain to what they smash into with Killing Blow, but they're rather pricey, and while you're hard pressed to find a unit that does what they do as well, you can often come pretty close at a nice discount. If you're running them, consider throwing in a Herald with Locus of Fury to ensure whatever they crash into turns into paste. Actually worth a second look if you're running with Greater Daemon or two, or other expensive combat lords, as they can handily deal with potential problems. Not a bad unit overall, just expensive, in an army greedy for every last point.

• Flesh Hounds of Khorne: The beloved Khornedogs are here with their stated goal of turning mages inside out. You have better ways to make sure a particularly important mage dies, but probably not cheaper ones, and it's not like they're USELESS if there's nothing in a pointy hat for them to snack on.

• Flamers of Tzeentch:

• Screamers of Tzentch: Fantastic harasser units that can pester infantry, or take meaty chunks out of monsters. Icing on the cake is that they do so safely, meaning your opponent HAS to dedicate something to removing them or the harassing will never stop, and these flying piranhas will strip a giant, dragon, or stegadon to the bones in short order. Great for threat saturation, targeted elimination of key units, softening infantry, eating warmachine crews, there is almost never a situation where these guys aren't going to have something very effective they can be doing, and provide support to a lot of the army. Not perfect, but they come close.

• Nurglings: Chaaaaaaaff. Handy because of the things Hordes are immune to, but, the role of disposable chaff in this army is heavily crowded, and you need that something special to stand out. Something like what is immediately below...

• Beasts of Nurgle: sick chaff (even tho legion isnt light on it). What sets these friend shaped monstrosities apart is their unparalleled ability to fuck with characters, be that flattening mages, or annoying combat Lords while your own get free reign. Also tanky enough to require dedicated effort to remove it, so it's not dying to a stray fireball or MSU archer unit any time soon. Also DIRT cheap for the army, 60 goddamn points, you can bring two of the damn things for less than some of your MSU core options.

• Seekers of Slaanesh: Daemonettes with buffs on... let's call it horseback. They're a fine delivery system for a Herald of Slaanesh, especially if she's giving them ASF, and can make mincemeat out of moderate targets... but they're a bit frail, and you have lots of options for assassinations. Including cheaper options. Also they can't deliver anything besides a Herald of Slaanesh, if they could bring along a Chaos Lord or something they might be better but as it stands, kind of a narrow niche unit, as is the theme of a lot of Legions of Chaos units. Not bad though.

• Fiends of Slaanesh: Fast, great at punching through tougher infantry on a flank charge, and still pretty solid for other cavalry adjacent purposes. Double handy if you're investing into Leadership fuckery. Solid unit choice for either a more fast army, or one with a lot of infantry, and will almost always find a way to make their points back. Use them smartly and they won't let you down, but you do have to use them smartly.

• Seeker Chariots of Slaanesh: Daemonettes on chariots. The bastard middle child between Seekers and Fiends. Frail even with the ward save, they can be very meaty on the charge, but lack the surgical precision and character bubble wrapping of Seekers, or robust flexibility of Fiends, and struggle to find a place in the fierce competition of the options available to you. There's a universe where these are your best option, probably around specific point to stat threshold markers, but I can't see it. Just run Fiends, or a more robust chariot or something.

• Chaos Furies: Yet another chaff unit. Take them with the Mark of Khorne to make them a terror to even hardy warmachine crews, or don't bother, you have cheaper things for the enemy to shoot.

• Hellstriders of Slaanesh: M10 Fast cavalry! These things can be in the opponents backside turn one. With deployment, vanguard and a 20 inch march. If you give them Hellscourges, due to the wording of the rule even the steeds get Always Strikes First. Bear in mind, until they start chasing down units they are pretty poor. But in the hands of a smart general they are deadly. They make excellent warmachine hunters.

• Chosen: And you thought Chaos Warriors were the elite of the army? Sporting an addition point of WS and a free roll on the Eye of the Gods chart which applies to the entire unit. With the new rules to the eye of the Gods chart, if you roll a seven you get given a different reward. Nurgle gets +1 Toughness, Tzeentch gets +1 ward save, Khorne gets +1 Attack and Slaanesh gets +1 Initiative. Use this to your advantage. Bring a warshrine and park it nearby. Now your chosen are rolling 4D6 and removing two you don't like. It pretty much guarantees that you will get the roll you want. Nurgle Chosen with Great Weapons and Toughness 5? Tzeentch Chosen with a continuous 5+ ward save? Additional Hand Weapon Khorne Chosen with 5 attacks each? Or Initiative 6 Slaanesh Chosen? They can be a very powerful unit, and have really gone up in the world.

• Chaos Knights:The deadliest mortal knights in existence. These tend to lose out against Skullcrushers, but that is an unfair comparison. They make excellent bodyguards for Lords on Horses. Just remember that you start off expensive and get worse from their. Each Mark has it's own benefit, although if you are going for Khorne, just take Skullcrushers instead. Ensorcelled weapons are the bane of ethereal and are nearly always the better choice over lances. Being S5 all the time, is better than being S6 on the charge only.

• Chaos Ogres: Giving up the tasty food in the misty mountains for the tasty food of the Chaos wastes. Ogres are pretty good and, if you roll lucky, you can even have Ogre Daemon Princes. Great Weapons are nearly always worth it because you are pretty slow anyway and giving them a mark is handy. Nurgle makes you harder to hit, which is good when you are only WS3.

• Dragon Ogres: Nothing to do with Ogres. Worth a Chaos Knight and a half, these guys are a little fragile but quite heavy on the charge. Slow initaitive means Great Weapons are the way to go. You don't see these guys too often, but if you use them right they will work pretty well. Just keep them away from hard hitting fast targets like Chaos Warriors or Phoenix Guard, a 4+ armour save and three wounds won't last them long at all.

• Chaos Trolls: When they are in Special, Trolls are okay. When you use Throgg and make them core, Trolls are awesome. They are literally stupid, and have a leadership so poor it makes Beastmen seem brave. Keep them near your general so they don't end up chewing their toenails all game. They are quite nasty on the charge, and combine very well the the Doombull. They use Regeneration to keep them save, so a 4 ward against flaming attacks goes a long way. Keep in mind, that if a flaming attack penetrates the ward save, they are vulnerable to regular attacks until the end of the phase. The ward save only works against flaming. If you are against an opponent who is hard to hit, such as a nimble elf or a nurgle warrior, you have the ability to vomit on them. Its a auto hit at S5 which ignores armour saves, take that you smelly elf.

• Chimera: An expensive, but nimble, beastie. Has Fly and can be upgraded to have regeneration (you should do this) flaming attacks (is worth it if you have the points) or poisoned attacks (you can skip this.) It does have poor leadership, so it works well with a Daemon Prince, who can keep up. Can have a truely horrible amount of attacks, with a potential 6 + D3 + 2D6 flaming + D6 Thunderstomp hits in one turn. That is at least 10 attacks and can be up to 27 attacks if you roll like a dice god. He is expensive, and one back combat will make him run away like a sissy, but he can really bring the smack down.

• Gorebeast Chariot: Possibly the best chariot in the game. 130 points of T6 monster with 5 wounds and killing blow on impact hits. Mark of Khorne gives it 9 S5 attacks a turn, Mark of Nurgle means it will probably never die. It is pretty slow and can fall behind the rest of your army so keep that in mind. It makes an excellent flank charger and people will be scared of going near it. Use it well.

• Chaos Warshrine: Not quite so good as it used to be, but still pretty good. Very slow, because it cant march and it doesn't have swiftstride. It also has a relatively low attack output. So what is it good for? It's good at buffing champions, chosen and for refusing to die. Mark of Tzeentch gives it a 3+ ward save and all models rolling on Eye of the Gods roll an additional dice and get to discard one for free. Keep it near your units and buff your champions on the way into battle. You'll laugh when you make several daemon princes in one game, but don't expect it to happen in every one, the odds are quite low. If you're clever/deranged enough to take lore of the wild, use the signature spell to move along

• Putrid Blightkings: The new infantry unit coming out of The End Times, these guys are fluffed up to basically be a sort of Nurgle-worshipping super-Chosen, or even a whole unit of lesser Nurgle champions. Do they live up to the hype? Well... they are 13 points more than Chosen with the Mark of Nurgle and same equipment (if you could give them the same equipment), but you get an extra attack, an extra point of Toughness, and two more wounds. being able to choose whether they're using Great Weapons, Paired Weapons or Sword & Shield at the start of each combat is very handy, and so is their ability to carry a magic standard worth up to 50 points (give them the war banner as you aren't going to have too much of a rank bonus). Fairly gribbly, and combos well with Nurgle magic allowing even just 5 of them to handle tarpitting a massive infantry horde (Use Miasma of Pestilence so they're getting hit on 6's) and take on Monstrous Infantry or Great Weapon Wielders (Curse of the Lepper to make it so that they're not just hard to hit, but hard for even S5 and S6 to wound). Their main issues is that they're infantry, which leaves them vulnerable to Stomps and Thunderstomps (which ignore the Mark of Nurgle), and they're on a 40mm base, it's hard to manoeuvre them and damn near impossible to horde them up, but since their biggest feature is their durability, you can use this to your advantage now that it's possible for Chaos to have decent ranged lists (via artillery, bow users, and characters having long ranged shooting attacks), Fleshy Abundance plus Curse of the Leper and nothing short of even more expensive monsters or groups with Killing Blow is getting past them.

• Skullreapers: Though launched as part of the Grand Legion of the Everchosen, Warriors of Chaos and Legions of Chaos can use these babies too. Minimum unit size of five, 40 points each, Infantry sporting a Movement 4, Weapon Skill 6, BS 3, Strength 4, Toughness 4, Wounds 3, Initiative 5, Attacks 3, Leadership 8 profile. Champion upgrade costs +10 points and he gets +1 Attack and ability to receive Eye of the Gods. They wield dual weapons (+1 attack) which can be upgraded to Ensorcelled Weapons (+1 Strength, attacks count as magic) for +5 points per model, which is well worth it if you want them. Surprisingly good at chopping their way through shit, and an excellent counter for annoying things like daemons or Ethereal units.

Rare Units

• Cygor: What do you call a 275 point monster with T5 and no saves? The answer is utterly crap. It can't hit anything, even with it's re-rolls against wizards. Because it is WS2. That's right, it hits bugger all. It will die pretty easily and is utterly useless, even as a stone thrower. Want to know why? The Hellcannon is better in every regard, with several saves. And its tougher, and its 65 points cheaper. If you don't get the message yet, don't get the Cygor. Please, think of the children.

• Ghorgon: This is what happens if you give steroids to a Doombull. Same cost as the Cygor and far better, being tougher and with more wounds. Still no armour save, but it is Stubborn with Leadership 10, so at least he'll stick around. His swallow hole rule sounds good, but losing six attacks for one killing blow is not. Even with the KB on a 4+. He still needs to hit and he has average WS. it's one of the better Beastmen monsters, but there are better rare things for you to spend your points on than this.

• Chaos Spawn, Beastmen Version: Spawn are quite slow, expensive, and totally random. Possibly good against warmachine hunters but all the warmachines in this army should be able to handle warmachine hunters on their own.

• Chaos Spawn, Warriors of Chaos Version: See above

• Giant: 25 Points more expensive than the Chaos Giant, but better for it even though not all of its "Pick up and..." rolls kill the target. Unlike the other Giant this one is Immune to Psychology (useful if you're bringing in low Ld troops) and it can regain lost wounds with one of its attacks against big things.

• Jabberslythe:Another monster with exactly the same cost as the Cygor. Except this one can fly. But still has only T5 with no save. It's almost as if someone hates beastmen. Aura of Madness is okay, it would be better if it was 3D6 because in most armies you'll only ever do 3 wounds maximum. It's range attack is pretty poor, because it's only one hit and it will probably miss half its shots. Spewing acid over things that harm it is pretty good, but it wont really deter anyone from beating it up. Keep it away from anything tough, and it will do okay.

• Skull Cannon of Khorne: A great choice! A mobile cannon with 4 wounds and a 5+ Ward Save. Just watch out for those 2+ wards against flaming attacks!

• Burning Chariot of Tzeentch:

• Soul Grinder: Interesting choice. 250 points base, but it's 50 more for the Stone Thrower or Fire Thrower profile, and 55 for the Bolt Thrower, for 300ish, (there's not much point to getting one without one of these), a Demonbone Claw for another 10 points that shreds in melee (take or leave by preference) and Chaos Marks, (Nurgle or Khorne are probably the best, Slaanesh is free), meaning these guys can get pricey. The choice between Hellcannons, Skull Cannons, and Soul Grinders can be a bit go chew over. Skull Cannons are the cheapest of the three by a fair margin, you can get two for the price of a Soul Grinder, and have points left for something nice. It's fair enough in melee, can shoot on the run, but is handily the worst shot. The Hellcannon is the most durable of the bunch, and probably is the best shot, but is effectively immobile, and while it can defend itself, it may lurch into bad combats, and really doesn't want to be in them, even if it will probably not lose them. Meanwhile, the Soul Grinder is the most expensive, and has mediocre guns, but these guns are easily customizable to the needs of your army, and come with an extra grapeshot, they are still fast and mobile, and absolutely SMASH in melee, with the claw upgrade they can just rip a character or monster apart in a round of combat, and can grab marks of Khorne or Nurgle (or Slaanesh to stay cheap). Ultimately the choice comes down to preference and army build, and what you want out of an artillery piece. All of them perform well, all three provide a valuable service to the army, it really just comes down to preference. Cheap and fast, tanky and damaging, or expensive but fucks in all combats.

• Exalted Seeker Chariot of Slaanesh: Infantry blender par excellence. Between the Impact Hits on the charge, Armor Piercing of the crew, and Poisoned Attacks of the things pulling it, anything short of Ogres, or in any numbers south of about 25, is now dead and being spread across the nipples of the crew. Probably without a chance to retaliate. It doesn't do BAD against bigger stuff, but still is best kept doing its main job of turning big mobs of dudes into paste. Works well in tandem with monsters that would prefer not to drown in chaff, and can delete infantry deathstars if it gets a good hammer charge off, but it's not tough for the price you're paying for it.

• Hellflayer of Slaanesh:

• Plague Drones of Nurgle:

• Hellcannon: This is basically a monster that decided it wanted to be a gun for a short while. You have to be careful with Hellcannons, they are quite unreliable and will like nothing more than to charge into combat and beat things with it's massive gun. Quite tough with several wounds, armour and ward saves. Plus it also has handlers in the case of Chaos Dwarfs, which are probably the only Chaos Dwarf models you'll ever see unless you have rich friends. It loses out a little with the ability to take skull cannons, but you can keep this on a flank and you'll probably hold it down, warmachine hunters have no hope of crushing this monster.

• Dragon Ogre Shaggoth: Yet another monster, except this one is a Dragon Ogre on steroids. It has some armour to save it from dying, but it is a ripe target for a cannonball to the face. Unlike it's smaller cousins, you don't need to give it a Great Weapon because it is initiative 4. It's pretty quite and if it can get into combat it will do quite a bit of damage. Just keep him safe until he gets there. Different view: Expensive and has bad saves. There are much better choices around!

• Chaos Giant: You get brownie points for fielding at least one. Random attacks are hit and miss, but try and get him against Infantry models, while he's pretty good against big things too, Thunderstomps make him a little better against Infantry. Give yourself a pat on the back if you manage to shove Teclis down your pants.

• Skullcrushers of Khorne: Proud Warriors of Khorne, and one of the best monstrous cavalry in the game. Very rarely will you find a reason not to take these beasts. Ensorcelled weapons are generally the way to go, but Lances are cool too. Lances will give you 6 S6 attacks each on the charge. Musicians and Standard Bearers are handy, Champions are hit and miss. You have to challenge and it means you will end up chewing up a goblin champion when you could be crushing rank and file. However they are powerful enough to take out minor heroes and the occasionally lord. If you have a character in the unit, a champion is handy to soak up challenges, because no doubt your lord it kitted out for mayhem.

• Slaughterbrute: The next beast on the list is okay. He binds himself with one of your lords and uses his leadership and Weapon skill. Always bind him to one of your lords, because he does more damage when he is unbound and running through half your army. You can spend some points to give him two extra S5 attacks in addition to his 4 S7 ones. But he could have done with having 6 attacks anyway. Even with Thunderstomp he doesn't do an awful lot of damage and the Vortex Beast is a lot better for his points. He does have an okay armour save, but he is quite fragile. Just try and make sure he dies before his master does. Or their will be trouble.

• Mutalith Vortex Beast: And finally we have beast number 9. Slaanesh BLASPHEMY! Tzeentch would be proud. The Mutalith Vortex Beast is the monster that all Chaos Spawn wish they could be. He carries around a portal to the Chaos Wastes on his back and comes with a built in bound spell that causes its targets to mutate and... um... die. Plus he has an armour and regeneration save, so he is tougher than all the other beasts in the rare section. Aura of Mutation is totally random, but quite good against elves. If you are using Nurgle magic the two go hand in hand.

• Wrathmongers: Though launched as part of the Grand Legion of the Everchosen, Warriors of Chaos and Legions of Chaos can use these babies too. Minimum unit size of five, 55 points each, Infantry sporting a Movement 4, Weapon Skill 6, BS 3, Strength 5, Toughness 4, Wounds 3, Initiative 5, Attacks 3, Leadership 8 profile. Champion upgrade costs +10 points and he gets +1 Attack and ability to receive Eye of the Gods. They wield Paired Wrath-flails, which gives them Extra Attack, Impact Hits (D3) and +1 Strength during first round of combat. So a minimum-sized squad with a champion is dealing out 5D3 S5 Impact Hits on a charge, followed up by 26 S6 WS6 attacks in the first round and 26 S5 WS6 attacks in all subsequent rounds. Tarpits will melt away pretty quick if you can slam these babies into 'em.

Building your army

Buying and designing your army

Honestly Daemons kinda got left out in this book. Most of their characters only benefit other Daemons and not other armies, and they really don't have a whole lot of obvious synergy with other armies either. The real winners here are the Beastmen players (all two of them us) and to a lesser degree Warriors of Chaos.

The first step is choosing what direction you want to go with your Lords and Heroes. With a plethora of Nurgle HQs released, and three whole books of lords to choose from - picking your general dictates the route that your army goes. Want to go Festus? Take a block of warriors as core and faster units to tie up combat while they footslog it to charge range. Want to go with the Maggot Lords? Take charge redirecters to ensure you close and murder as quickly as possible. Take a killy combat lord, a level 4 mage, and a BSB? Take a warshrine for some bufftacular action. Essentially this is the End Times. It isn't about being incredibly competitive and breaking the game. While easy to do this makes people hate you and become "clumsy" when they pick up your $100 Glottkin model, letting it fall to the floor and shattering into a million pieces. It is about having a ball with some awesome batshit insanity that comes from combining three different armies. So pick a theme, flavor the fuck out of it, paint up your dudes, and kick some ass.

As far as buying goes the usual staples still apply. Ebay, Amazon, third party stores, and mini trading sites. The army bundles "Cohort of Nurgle" is awesome for anyone getting into Daemons of Nurgle, but it is better for Daemon players. Obviously. The Warriors of chaos bundle is easy to overlook, but the Beastman one has promise - thirty gors and twenty bestigors are a pretty nice boost. It's an excellent place to start but thanks to the inclusion of the cygor/ghorgon you will probably never want more than one. Best route still has to be battalion boxes.

Where to Start

The biggest problem you'll encounter is where to start your army. You have three whole books to choose from and even choosing the best bits from each army can be rather hard.

The early consensus is that Daemon players have been shafted from the off. This is probably revenge for the reign of disaster that they created in the tail end of 7th. Talk about paying for the previous generations mistakes. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, unlike the other two books Daemons are unstable and unbreakable, Secondly, Daemons cannot join any of the WoC and Beastmen units, they have to remain with their own kind. So Daemons will end up losing models pretty quickly, and unlike the undead armies, you have no way to replace them unless you are playing a special scenario.

So where does this leave you? The simple answer is Skullcannons. There is plenty of room for those in any legion army. Bring two, they are really worth it in an army where shooting is neglected. You can even fit two of them and a unit of skull crushers in a 2000 point army list, although the crushers will be naked. I mean, what else are you going to put into your rare section besides maybe a giant?

The biggest benefit that the Beastmen get are Chaos Marks. These serve to make your crap, fragile and scared troops into slightly less shitty killers. They also give another benefit, chaff. Every legion army can now take bucket loads of cheap expendable shit which will redirect and get shot to death. Ungor Skirmishers, War dogs, Beasts of Nurgle, Razorgors are some of the few ways of clogging up charge lanes. This is good for you because your army will either have single model heavy hitters (Greater Daemons, Chimeras, Daemon Princes.) Or massive units of bulky hammers (Chaos Warriors, Bestigors, Plaguebearers.) Thus you want to get these into an armies soft meaty centre. It's all fun and games to charge a twenty strong unit of Chaos Warriors into a Gyrocopter, but you really want to attack the Hammerers instead. Use your chaff well, and make sure you pick your battles. Apart from the Chaos Warriors, most of your units are fragile and you want to pick their fights.

One of the Chaos Warriors best lists is the monster mash list, so lets see how the Legion can improve it. Fill your core with cheap skirmishing/ambushing beastmen, or units of Gors with Mark of Slaanesh. Bring Throgg, A Gorebull BSB with the Blackened Plate and a unit of trolls. Take a Daemon Prince, maybe a Chimera or two and some skull cannons. Boom, a unit of nearly impossible to kill trolls, chaff to gum up a counterattack, and cannons to deal with other monsters, plus it's a very fast list.

Magic Items/Upgrades

Beastmen Equipment/Upgrades: The Beastmen not only have access to a lot more Magic Items then Daemons or Warriors (and therefore can be built to certain roles better than the other two armies for fewer points), but several of their items can be used to help out the other two armies, like giving them a reliable amount of Magic Dice or allowing them to re-roll wounds made by their magic for example.

Gifts of Chaos:

• Crown of Horns: Steadfast makes this mostly pointless unless you plan on putting your character in a unit of Warriors and/or taking on Horde armies.

• Slug-Skin: Not very good, you're paying 30 points for a S3 hit on 1-3 models (unless you are on a chariot), usually the casualties don't add up enough to make the points back.

• Many-Limbed Fiend: Useful on anybody S5 and higher, not so useful on others. Combines nicely with a Gorebull with an extra hand weapon for 7 S5 attacks.

• Gouge Tusks: Here we go. Helpful for breaking through heavily armoured fuckers and keeping you from fluffing those important rounds of combat.

• Gnarled Hide: This one is excellent, 10/10 WOULD BANG, especially when combined with existing armour.

• Rune of True Beasts: Slightly more useful against the combined profile characters, but unless it's on a Doombull with the Armour of Destiny (or Glittering Scales), they are unlikely to survive against even the weaker ones or regular monsters and their rider/handlers. With that armour though they can Doombulls can kill the weaker Combined Profile characters.

• Uncanny Senses: Good if you're combining it with The Swift Sword of Slaying and might face initiative 5 troops to make sure you get those rerolls. Just be sure to NOT combine it with a Great Weapon.

• Shadow-Hide: If you have 5 points to burn on a Gorebull or Doombull you could do well with this to prevent archer spam against him, making him virtually impossible to hit with normal troops.

Magic Weapons:

• Primeval Club: Beastmen lords usually don't need help wounding, they need help hitting, not to mention this one weapon uses your Lord's ENTIRE points allowance and its effects can almost always be replicated with a great weapon or the Ogre Blade for far less.

• Axe of Men: A little on the expensive side and lacks a way to make the enemy accept the Challenge, not to mention if you really want Unbreakable troops you could just include a couple Daemons.

• Stonecrusher Mace: HERE we go. Great for a combat Lord, especially if you're going to face Empire and you want to see the look on your opponent's face when you break his Steam Tank. It also costs only 5 points more than the Giant Blade, and has much better effects.

• Mangelder: Very pricy for very little effect. Now Terror only really sometimes stops enemies from charging you and combat is where you want to be.

• Hunting Spear: This one can actually be worth it, just for it's Monster Hunting potential (big scary monsters that fly, like Dragons, are one of your worst enemies). Best for a cheap Hero, just be aware that your BS will cause you frustration.

• Axes of the Khorgor: Can be good on a Doombull if you spend points on armour or gifts for him and cannot afford the Sword of Bloodshed.

• Steel Claws: A good item for it's points, combine with Gnarled Hide for an effective combat Hero, or with both Gnarled Skin and Trollhide for an effective Lord.

• The Brass Cleaver: Fuck Awesome. A Doombull carrying it around or a character on a chariot will mince infantry. Combine it with the Ramhorn Helm for a Horde crushing monster.

• Everbleed: Considering how many attacks your Lords can get on average, you'll be getting one to three unsavable wounds per game and is only really worth if you combine it with several attack increasing items and if not, there's other things you can spend your points on.

Magic Armour:

• Blade Blunter Armor: Worth it considering the large increase in heroes you'll be fighting, put it on a Wargor, run him at Tyrion/Karl Franz Ascendant/Malekith to get rid of their magic weapons as your hero doesn't need to survive in order to make combat monsters a lot weaker.

• Trollhide: Not a good item. The armour of Destiny outstrips it in every way, but if you've already put that on somebody else and aren't going to be up against many flaming attacks then go for it.

• Blackened Plate: Fucking fantastic if put on a Minotaur who is then put in a unit of Trolls, otherwise it can still be handy given how common flame attacks are becoming.

• Ramhorn Helm: AWESOME, again 10/10 would bang. Sweetness when combined with Gnarled Hide, Heavy Armour and Shield, giving you 1+ Armour Save that gives you an extra attack every time you make an armour save. Send a Doombull out on his own with this combo while he's saying "come at me bro!" and watch him decimate rank and file troops.

Enchanted Items:

• Shard of the Herdstone: Arguably the single best item in the entire list and it has great synergy as ALL friendly wizards are affected by it, not just Beastmen and now that Khaine magic is out this gives you a guaranteed amount of dice that won't be capped. Another thing to keep in mind is since there's no limit on heroes you can take a lot of Bray Shamans (your cheapest wizards) and stick them next to it for a massive boost to your magic phase.

• Horn of the Great Hunt: Thanks to wording the extra range only affects Beastmen, but it can still be Great in a Chariot list or if you need to get into combat fast. Beastmen resist shooting damage in the same way an infant fights Mohammad Ali, you want ANYTHING that will get them into combat faster.

• Horn of the First Beast: Can be worth it if combined with LD10 Lords to make sure you get Hatred in every round of combat, and the wide range means nearly your entire army will be affected.

• Stone of Spite: Can get a lot of hits/wreck a lot of items given how many Heroes/Lords are in lists now, just make sure your characters are out of its range.

• Skin of Man: Perfect for a Bray-Shaman who, in your opinion, should not live past turn 2. If you have some silly desire to keep your Shaman alive long enough to affect the game, you should probably skip this one. If you want to use it effectively though, get a Bray-Shaman, try to get Bray-Scream and then fuck up some flanks. Keep in mind this still works if your Shaman is mounted on a Chariot, so if you have the points try out a scouting Chariot.

• Cacophonous Dirge: Since Musicians only work in combat if you've drawn (and ONLY if you've drawn) this one is limited in usefulness, but if you have the points to spare in a combat list use it to avoid drawn out combats.

Talismans:

• Eye of Night: Overcosted and weirdly specific in its effect. If you really want Magic Resistance then the Obsidian Lodestone does the job better but costs the same.

• Chalice of Dark Rain: Fucking fantastic, nearly everything in your army favours combat over shooting and unless you KNOW you're not facing an army that's not using shooting (and it can be useful against some of those: Read it, it says that Banshees can't scream except on a 4+), you should really be considering this.

Arcane Items:

• Skull of Rakos: Unfortunately this only affects Beastmen Wizards, but if you're using plenty of Bray-Shaman around the Shard of the Herdstone then it'll easily make its points back.

• Staff of Darkoth: Can be useful for fucking over War Machine crews, but unless you're fighting against plenty of those and want to take them down quickly you'll usually be better off paying 25 points more for another wizard unless combined with the next item.

• Hagtree Fetish: Oh hell yes, since it affects ALL magic against the chosen unit you can combine it with magic available to Sorcerers/Daemons to add more punch to your spells.

• Jagged Dagger: If your Great Bray-Shaman is trying to run touchdowns or getting into combat, he'll have to be built correctly or he's gonna bite it too quickly to make use of this. Keep in mind it's not actually a magical weapon, so if you want to use it effectively get a Great Bray-Shaman, put him on a chariot, Nurgle mark it, give him Skin of Man and whatever other Weapons/Armour you find is appropriate (Ramhorn Helm really helps here) and send him into small vulnerable units.

Magic Banners:

• Beast Banner: Really good for a unit you NEED to cause casualties and is great in Warrior, Troll, Chosen and Putrid Blightking units and is overall Great for a BSB.

• Totem of Rust: Well, here we have a dilemma. -2 armour save for the unit and enemies in close combat, -1 save for all units within 6". Now you have two choices. A) give it to a BSB in a unit without armour (like a Gorebull in a unit of trolls for example). Nearly everything can soak a decent amount of damage simply by being T4 and a lot of enemies will seriously miss those two points of armour, toss in some buffs and your blender is good to go. The downside to this plan is that you miss out on being able to take the pretty solid Beast Banner listed above and since the Totem doesn't effect Scaly Skin saves your BSB really needs to be sporting that Gnarled Hide. Option B) give it to your Bestigors. Doing so will be a total waste of their heavy armour but will give you a unit that can make Greatswords go bye-bye. Definite high risk, possible high reward. Think about this item carefully.

• Manbane Standard: Could definitely be worth it on the Bestigors, especially a center-field one.

• The Banner of Outrage: The Beastmen unit it's on automatically get Hatred every turn and your enemies also get Hatred, just not every turn AND you lose the chance to get Frenzy from Primal Fury (at least according to the FAQ). Not worth it, your enemies don't need help killing your Beastmen and since there are LD10 characters you shouldn't worry so much about your Primal Fury rolls.

Daemons of Chaos Gifts: Daemons do not get access to magic items, which in 8th edition can be a bit of setback. However, they may purchase rolls on the Daemonic Gifts table, available to them in their army book and just like magic items, it's easy to go overboard with them.

Remember that you can swap your gift for a points-equivalent magic weapon from the BRB. What this means is that you can actually tailor your setup based on who you are up against. For example, if you're playing against an army with high armour, you could swap your Greater Gift result for an Obsidian Blade or Ogre Blade for example, though since they are so random it's very hard (or even impossible) to get the results that will help you the most compared to Beastmen or Warriors of Chaos.

• Exalted Daemonic Gifts: These bad boys come in at 75 points per gift,(unlike greater and lesser you may not chose to swap these out for generic magic item of the same value) so only your Greater Daemons might be running these. As such, a bad roll on here will make you feel like you wasted 75 points. After the roll is made, you may choose to keep the roll or opt for the 0 option, just like with deciding magic spells. You cannot have multiples of the same roll, and you cannot buy more than two rolls on a table.
  • Hellforged Artefacts: If you don't like the result on the exalted table, you are able to swap the roll for one of these four items:
    • The Portaglyph: While useful in the Daemon army book, it's not at all useful here as flanking can be pulled off much more reliably and cheaply by Beastmen units. If you do still want to use it, put it on a flier and fly him over to the other side of the board to try and get them to pop out behind the enemy.
    • The Rock of Inevitability: Also not very good, usually you're going to be rushing towards the enemy rather than sitting behind the Bulwarks and Towers you're summoning, though if you want to make a ranged list (using units from all three books) then it can be useful to deal with the enemies Close Combat troops.
    • The Eternal blade: Finally, a good item. While not worth the 75 points you pay to get it, it is still a decent exchange for a botched roll on the table.
    • The Chromatic Tome: The best item of the four, since it allows you to alter not only the Winds of Magic but the roll on the Reign of Chaos table so that you'll never roll snake eyes again and with the Khaine book it can help you vastly increase your power dice.

• Greater Daemonic Gifts: These are worth 50 points apiece, and since you can take multiples, you have a better shot at getting what you want. Overall though this table is more or less a trap, because they are either inefficient or downright detrimental to your character's well-being. Only the armour result is really worth it.
  • Weapons of the Dark Gods: If you don't like the result on the Greater table, you can change the roll to an item that changes depending on your alignment:
    • Axe of Khorne: Considering that you should always be in base contact with 3 or more models (unless fighting Monstrous Infantry) this is a good weapon, essentially the Sword of Bloodshed for 10 points less.
    • Staff of Change: Not quite an excellent weapon for Lords of Change or flying Tzeentch Princes as it first appears, but still pretty decent. Most of the time your targets will pass their required Toughness tests, but the times they don't will have this weapon easily earn its points back.
    • Balesword: Another good weapon, great for fighting Monstrous Infantry or taking on monsters (put on a Great Unclean One to deal with the lesser new monsters of The End Times).
    • Lash of Despair: Not a very good weapon unless equipped to a Keeper of Secrets or a Daemon Prince so that you'll get about 6 S6 shooting attacks on average, which makes it good for taking down high armoured targets like Knights before they reach you.

• Lesser Daemonic Gifts: These are 25 points apiece, and cheap enough to make enemy characters think twice about challenging when a Herald is around. This is the table that you want multiples of, because it has more useful and effective results compared to the Greater one.
  • Weapons of the Dark Gods: If you don't like the result on the Lesser table, you can swap the result for an equivalent costing Magic Weapon from the main rulebook, or one of four weapons depending on your alignment:
    • Blade of Blood: Useful for giving you the edge in challenges, otherwise you can do better with items in the Main Rulebook.
    • Wand of Whimsy: Great for building up your Strength and Attacks, especially since the new magic rules came out and you can combine it with the Beastmen's Shard of the Herdstone for many additional magic dice to up your characteristics even more.
    • Plague Flail: An okay weapon, nearly everything will pass the Toughness test but the +2 Strength with no downsides can be very useful.
    • Witstealer Sword: This can be useful on a lot of low Initiative Monsters or against armies such as Lizardmen, Dwarfs and Ogres, otherwise there's better weapons in the main rulebook to swap for.

Warriors Of Chaos Equipment/Upgrades: The Warriors of Chaos focus nearly their entire magical arsenal on improving their own characters, which fits with them being Combat Kings, if the opponent has something you absolutely want dead above all else, then pick up some of these.

Chaos Mutations and Powers: 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. Also since these are not Magic Items they CAN be put on a BSB with a Magic Banner.

• 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 witch 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 usefil on a Deamon Prince who has that tiny 25 magical items point limit, 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 witch 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!!!

• 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.

• Scaled Skin: This is great for 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.

• 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. 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.

• 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.

• 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 is 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 lttle overcosted 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.

• 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 the Enchanted Shield on a footslogging Lord (or a mount) to get a +1 Armour Save.

• 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, but that's a lot of points that aren't really being well used.

• 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

Lore of beasts: This lore is always useful as it gives you buffs to your units (get wyssian's wildform on marauders to turn them into panicier warriors with a worse save- very good.

Lore of metal: use VS heavily armoured armies (Warriors of chaos say...). With this you can give ungors a 4+ armour (just do it for the uncharacteristic ability) and to snipe 1+ armour characters. Also, worseon your enemies save. However, LoB is better at buffs, so know your opponent.

Lore of fire: This has a direct damage spell that murdurs weak opponents (skeletons, zombuggers, brilliant vs dryads). You also have a very good magical missile, and some OK buffs. (PS: if you're doing this for a fireball take ruby ring of ruin).

Lore of the wild

• Bestial Surge (7+): Signature spell - Allows ALL friendly units within a whopping 6" to get an additional 2-7" in movement directly towards an enemy unit. Useful if you are under threat of missile fire or you just need that little extra bump to get into charge range. Remember that Beastmen survive by being aggressive, so this can't hurt. However, when compared to other Lore's signature spells, this spell leaves a Beastman underwhelmed, unless you are using more than one Bray Shaman to cast it per turn, in which case it decently useful.

• Viletide (7+): A 24" magic missile that hits an enemy for 5D6 S1 hits. Great for hunting warmachines, as a S1 hit is still a hit on a 6+, horrible for everything else (Ahem- what about zombuggers and swarms that tend to be T2- Does a decent amount of wounds on them- Invocation only brings back 16 MAXIMUM). Compare to Flock of Doom's (Beasts) 5+ 2D6 S2 and boostable to 48" range.

• Devolve (9+): You know the Jabberslythe's Aura of Madness? This is the spell version of that. All enemy within 12" take a Lead test, if they fail, the unit takes wounds equal to the number failed by. Considering the number of LD10 units out there, this spell is probably best used on... Beastmen (or LD2 zombies- And you'll face a lot now that anyone can summon 30 with a banner with one spell). Combos nicely with Doom and Darkness from Lore of Death.

• Bray-Scream (10+): Already into high 2 dice land, the third spell gives one friendly character within 12" a S3 breath weapon, no armour saves. Fuck awesome, use on Malagor after flying into a flank to turn those Phoenix Guard or large hordes into mincemeat (the breath weapon can get a fuckload of hits in 8th edition), or use it on a character in close combat against any well armoured enemy, gaining 2D6 armour ignoring hits against Heavy Cavalry is huge.

• Traitor-Kin (10+): KILL THE STAR DRAGON RIDER (IE. Faggot) All enemy mounts/handled monsters within 12" (including the ones pulling chariots) attack their own rider/handlers at the monsters strength and attacks. Engage trollface when playing Bretonnia or up against a monster happy army (monsters with handlers on it like Sphinx's and Araknaroks attack themselves)... otherwise sit down and wonder why you didn't take Lore of Beasts. With the new Nagash book though, this is one of the few spells that can help you take down the new mounted heroes, since the FAQ states that the spell works on combined characteristic models.

• Mantle Of Ghorok (13+): One friendly character within 6" gains +D6 S and A.... but takes a wound for any 6s rolled for those characteristics. It's useful for making that Doombull into the unholy rape train he was always meant to be without paying for magical weapons, but if you're packing a quite a few strength/attack boosting weapons (aka what every weapon in the beastmen armoury does) then you can safely skip it. You could use it on your caster if you get stuck in combat- takes him from S4 and A2 to possibly S10 and A8 (although at that point He's dead

• Savage Dominion (16+): This spell had awesome potential, it lets you summon one Giant, Ghorgon, or Jabberslythe (your choice). Sounds good so far... but any wound suffered by your beastie means that the caster has to make a T test for each wound taken, and a failed test means taking a non savable wound, that's not too terrible, also - the caster cannot cast or attack after this point as long as the monster is alive. If you use this spell with anything higher than a normal Bray Shaman at all you've effectively wasted the points, you might as well have bought the monster instead and placed it with your army rather than try to cast it, have it start at the table edge, then run it to the enemy while it most likely gets shot. Pretty good though if you're lucky enough to get it on lower level wizards.

Tactics

Beastly Deathstar

Take a unit of Chaos Warriors that fills a 7*5 block. Take mark of Nurgle. Take a Beastman BSB with Mark of Nurgle and Beastly Banner. Take a Beastman wizard scroll and Wyssan's Wildform. Take Festus and hope to get Fleshy Abundance and Blades of Purification. Take Greatweapons. Enjoy your incredibly tanky and killy block of WS5 S8 T5 Warriors that enemies take a -1 to hit in cc that have a potential 4+ regen and 5+ poison attacks. Does this have drawbacks? Oh sweet Nurgle yes. So many eggs in one slow as hell basket. Is it utterly hilarious? Absofuckinglutely. If you actually manage to get into cc with literally anything it is going to die from 15 attacks that auto wound a third of the time with no armor saves allowed from the warriors alone. Alternatively, take Chosen, Halberds instead of great weapons, shields, and the razor standard. Give sword of swift slaying to the champ, and add an exalted hero to protect your BSB from challanges (Give the hero Obsidian Lodestone.) Or, to enter the realms of the hyperdick, take a beastlord, crown of command, and blackened plate on top of the rest. I mean, you are going to sink your entire armies worth of points into one unit, but that one unit will be S6 off the bat, with a 3+ armour and 5+ regen, MR3, a 4+ ward save against flaming attacks (Lore of metal, I mean you). Armour piercing means that anything with a 3+ save or worse is going to lose its save, and Stubborn should prevent fleeing. To be even worse, take festus empowered,and the cloak of -1 to hit, to force a potential -3 to hit modifier on opponents (-1 on skeleton archers, but that takes them to 6+ anyway). I took just this against an army of high elves and forced a draw. Phoenix guard and White lions were included. LOOK THE FUCK OUT for the dwellers below, as that will fuck your shit up. He killed my last line with a combo of the dwellers below and white lions, but the last few chosen and a miscast ended his army in the process.

Pink Horror Daemon Birther

Herald of tzeentch (level 2 wizard), and a unit of at least 15 pink horrors (so you can get their casting bonus). Also consider the lesser locus of transmogrification, because if they get into combat, they are more than likely screwed. Every magic phase, go all out for casting infernal legion, ONLY when you are rolling at least six dice. Cast it with the unit of pink horrors, so that if you miscast, it won't totally ruin your Herald (this is why you took the pink horrors). Depending on how much you want to summon will depend on you, but I usually go with the 150 point summon (casting value 17+). Also, depending on what is coming at you, will depend on what you summon. I played a 300 point game with this tactic, and DESTROYED. Everyone was getting pissed off, because by the end of the game, I had summoned 700 points of models, and they couldn't do anything about it because I kept miscasting (on purpose). When my Herald was about to die, I just summoned another Herald, which continued to summon more things. So evil, but so much FUN.

ALTERNATIVE: You could also consider using vilitch the curseling to do the same thing as above, in a unit of your choice. This could be better because the other person would be scared to try and dispel you, because you would just take away all of you dice. Watch out for miscasts though.

SIDE NOTE: As mentioned earlier, Summon Infernal Legion is not a new spell that is always available to you. It's a part of the "Chaos Ascendant" special scenario rules (it's not even a part of the Legion of Chaos army list), meaning you have to be playing one of the special Glottkin narrative scenarios to use them. Or you'll have to convince your opponent to let you use them.

Beastly MSU

Core: Beastmen chariots of slanneesh. 2 khorne cannons and 2 burning chariots in rare. Fill Characters With shadow debuffs and Slannesh grash chariots to move through terrain. Plus you get to use your favorite chaff units, be they warhounds, RAzorgors....

Tarpit Breaker

So let's say you're playing that asshole who has too many models and each turn likes to summon 50 zombies (or owns hundreds of Skaven Slaves or some other cheap fodder) to bog down your guys, the easy answer? Gors! VS zombies these are brilliant- MoK and additional hand weapons and you have enough to MURDER tarpits. 3 X 10 unit has 50 attacks. On average they'll get 3s to hit- that's about 33 hits (44 if you get Hatred), 3s to wound, 22 wounds (29 with Hatred), and with T4 they're almost always going to be tough enough to take the return hits.

Free Magic Dice: You'll need a Great Bray Shaman who is correctly kitted out, for example, a 35 man Gor unit with a Wargor and the beast banner (a Warrior unit works great too, make sure to get a champion to take the challenges), then the level 4 Great Bray Shaman using beasts, and lastly give him the Jagged Dagger and Steel Claws (or any other good weapon in the BRB). if you cast Wyssans Wildform and Savage Beast he then can get up to 9 stregth 9 attacks re-rolling to hit, and each kill counts as a power dice (you can on average get around 5-7 "free" power dice as long as you are in combat). Bring on the pain mothafuckas.