Warhammer/Tactics/8th Edition/Warriors of Chaos

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Why Play Warriors of Chaos

Because motherfucking Vikings.

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

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

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

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

Unit Analysis

Lords & Heroes

Named Characters

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

• Galrauch, The Great Drake: Take a dragon. Split his head (this means also his breath weapon). Make it chaos-y. Make it a level 4 mage who knows the Tzeentch lore (he no longer has Loremaster sadly). Make his stats all 6, except discipline 9. That's Galrauch. Too bad he has to take a LD test every turn, and if he fails, 3 of his attacks have to harm him. Fuck. If you use him, try to keep him near a BSB for those 'Spirit of Galrauch' tests, otherwise use him the way you would use a lord of change. For combat charge him into infantry and cavalry (as long as he charges them and not the other way around) in CC. With his 3+ scaly skin, breath weapons, he's tough to shift in combat (and is the ultimate wizard to put on a fulcrum in Storm of Magic. T6, 6 wounds, 3+ scaly skin and 2+ ward saves on a Level 4 wizard anyone?). This is a shame because the model is awesome (though VERY hard to put together).

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

• Kholek Suneater: A Shaggoth. But way bigger and more badass. Kholek no longer comes with any armour, so all you get is 4+ Scaly Skin. Errata says he has heavy armor so it s a bit better. He has the same resistance to lightning-based effects as dragon ogres. He wields a magic weapon which has Multiple Wounds (D3). While he got significantly cheaper in the new rulebook, he also lost his Heavy Armour that let him redirect lightening-based effects within 12" of him. This means he's much more vulnerable to S3/S4 ranged weapons before he gets into close combat, and he's still just as vulnerable to war machines. If you can get him into combat with a couple of his 8 wounds remaining, he'll be devastating to your opponent, but it's not hard to lose 8 wounds when your only defense is Toughness 6 and a 4+ scaly save. Has heavy armor according to errata so so not as vulnerable to low strength shooting. He also has a shooting attack that does d6 strength 6 hits on a 2+ or hits himself on a 1 but its lightning based so he gets the ward save and gains frenzy which is nice useful for killing cav or small units that get in the way and try to redirect Kholek or any other units in your army.

• Valkia the Bloody: Chaos's own Valkyrie, armed with the mighty spear Slaupnir, who chooses who will fight and feast forever the Realm of Chaos after they die. In case you weren't convinced the Warriors of Chaos are motherfucking Vikings. A fine CQC choice, with a stat-line in-between that of a Chaos Lord and a Daemon Prince, with 6 S7 attacks on the Charge and +1S from every roll on the Eye of the Gods chart. Also flies, strips an attack from an opponent, and anything attacking her gets -1S. Basically can and will beat the shit out of any solo-character with the possible exceptions of Archaon, Wulfrik and a properly kitted out Chaos Lord. Also great at killing 4-man Cavalry units and kicking the shit out of warmachines. Valkia is also incredibly useful in that she basically acts like a second battle-standard, all friendly units within 12 inches of her get to re-roll Break tests, which can potentially turn the scales of battle in your favour. This is due to how the Warriors of Chaos know that when she enters the battlefield it means Khorne is watching, so they fight on bravely in her presence so that when they die with sword in hand she will carry them off to a Warrior's Paradise of fighting and feasting in the Hall of The Slain the Blood God. However, if they should fail that test, she gets angry with their cowardice and they suffer D6S6 attacks and are cursed never to enter Valhalla - I mean, Khorne's Halls. Basically a flying beatstick. But the lack of a ward save is a problem (isn't it always?).

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

• Festus The Leechlord: Festus is a mixed bag. Being a level 2 Nurgle wizard is okay, you'll likely be running death if youre taking a Nurgle Prince, so Uncle Festus brings the Nurgle magic. Nurgle is great at making your own troops better or their units worse, and Uncle Fester is pretty much designed to do just that. Having no save other than regen, however, is meh. The main reason why people take him is because he gives 5+ regen and poison to his unit. Which, if it is, say, a 50 man Marauder horde, is fucking brutal. No longer suffers from only pursuing 1D6, but you also no longer get the benefit of double victory points. The new book gives Festus some neat new gifts in the form of potions that can heal wounds to him and his unit, and take them off enemies. More pricey than a regular wizard, and taking him does mean not taking a dispel scroll, but the advantages he brings to his units are worth it. he just screams to be taken, especially in warrior units with halberds.

• The Troll King Throgg: A troll with better stats. Incredible for his cost. Lets you take trolls as core, lets all trolls, ogres, dragon ogres and warhounds use his Ld (8), gives said units re-rolls to their Ld if he is within 12 inches, and gets D6 vomit at S6 (actually, he has a strength 5 breath weapon that ignores armour saves). Outrageously deadly when you put him in a unit of 17 trolls. Plus his mutant regen is hilarious seriously there will be cries of WTF!? when he turns into a daemon prince for no reason.

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

• Scyla Anfingrimm: Huh, he actually got usable. M6 and D6+2 S5 attacks with Fury and Unbreakable make him usable and can take a bit of punishment with T5, W4 and a 5+ save. He is in fact your cheapest Hero choice in the book, but he's vulnerable to ranged fire (as a Monstrous Beast he cannot join units) and will die pretty quick. Should not be your first choice, unless you are looking for a low point LEADERSHIP 10 general which is quite rare for warriors of chaos.

Generic Characters

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

• Daemon Prince: Ascending from the halls of trapdom, the Daemon Prince is actually a viable choice now! He's more expensive than your Chaos Lord at only a few better stats, is rather vulnerable (only 5++ without upgrades) and counts as a Monster. He also has Unbreakable by default, and not any of the 'gotcha' forms of Unbreakable that still cause him to die against an enemy with 5 ranks and full command. He can take up to 25 points of magic items and 100 points of Mutations, but mutations are generally not as good as magic items (with the exception of scaly skin (5+) and soul feeder, which are just brutal). It also does not help that while his base cost is not that high, he has to take a number of "options" that increase his cost significantly: he has to be dedicated to a specific god (this is NOT a Mark of Chaos: it's a better version that includes Hatred for the opposing Chaos God), needs Chaos Armor if you don't want him to die like a bitch, and needs Wings if you want him to get somewhere alive (though he has M8, everything will be aimed at this guy), making him cost AT LEAST 300 points. Can be up to a lvl4 wizard, depending on the mark this may or may not be worth it. It really is if youre taking Mark of Nurgle, as this gives you access to the lore of Death, allowing you to fly up flanks and Purple Sun. Otherwise, just take the Arabyan Carpet(or a Disc of Tzeenth) on a regular Sorcerer instead. Despite this, though, you should always have a Daemon Prince or two on hand because of the Eye of the Gods chart: if you roll for it and get a 12, there is a chance (LD test, good chance you'll make it) that the character making the roll turns into a Daemon Prince. If this happens, he keeps all his stuff like his mutations, his Eye of the Gods rolls and even his title of General/BSB, with the exception of his mount(which remains a solo model if it's a monster. The old model is then removed as a casualty (rewarding your enemy with VP, a small price to pay), but note that THIS IS DONE REGARDLESS OF IF YOU PLACE A DAEMON PRINCE. REMOVING THE CHARACTER IS MANDATORY. So do have a few on hand, m'kay? [Daemon Princes can be built to be nearly impossible to kill, but get him into combat quickly to stop war machines and wizards from focusing on it]. The Nurgle Prince with flying, Scaly Skin, Chaos Armour, Soul Feeder, Sword of Striking, Charmed Shield & Dragonbane Gem (with however many magic levels you decide to splurge on) is quite possibly one of the most broken lords rocking around, and people will hate you for taking one.

• Chaos Lord: A ten-foot tall, four-foot wide Viking warlord with a giant axe and an insatiable need to slaughter everything around him. Your primary fighting lord, and probably the best generic character in the game. Stream of Corruption, Dragonhelm, Palanquin of Nurgle (still infantry), Dawnstone and 65 points in whatever weapon you want. Even an opponent character with S7 will likely only deal one wound per round of combat, and that means he won't have enough defense to survive your onslaught. All a vampire lord can claim is that he kills more normal troops per round, but then again your army doesn't implode if your lord dies. Also, he has Eye of the Gods and he will be killing enemy characters left and right. Has one of the highest statline and can equip a variety powerful weapons and armour, as well as a variety of special mounts depending on what you want to use him for, though this can really up his cost, and he's not cheap to begin with.

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

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

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

Core Units

• Chaos Warriors: Vikings in scary looking armour and the reason why this army is so fucking badassed. Also the basic infantry unit for your army, but probably one of the nastiest infantry units in the game. They're very, very good at killing (model for model they beat most armies' elite melee troops), but their cost and larger base size means that you'll never want to take them in large units. Generally used in units that are six wide to maximize the number of models in base contact with the enemy and take advantage of their 2 Attacks. There are two main set-ups for these guys. The first is Shields and the Mark of Tzeentch, with the MoT stacking with their Parry save from HW+Shield for a 3+/5++ save in close combat. Hard to kill and still pretty deadly in return. The second set-up is to give them the Mark of Khorne and Halberds. Some folks like to use Additional Hand Weapons instead, but the Halberds are mathematically just as good or better in all situations. The Mark of Slaanesh is the cheapest mark, as it only allows you to pass Fear, Terror, and Panic tests in an already high Leadership army. The mark of Nurgle no longer makes you harder to hit with shooting attacks, but it is still invaluable against against elite units (even most heroes have ws 6, meaning they will hit you on a 5+ instead of a 4+), as a penalty to hit is stronger than a ward save. Always, always make use of the banner of swiftness on these guys. m4 is horribly slow and +1 move and charge distance is amazing.

• Chaos Marauders: The cheap and plentiful alternative to Warriors. You can mark them Khorne with Great Weapons (or occasionally Flails) for a massive horde of half-naked berserkers. Yes, they'll drop like flies, but at 6 points per model you can have a lot of them in a unit, and when they hit back they tend to murder the faces off most things. It's usually good to have at least one unit of these guys to handle the few things that Warriors can't handle - like High Elves and their ASF Greatweapons. The other, less frequently used set-up is Tzeentch with Shields and Light Armour. They get the same synergy with Parry saves and the Mark of Tzeentch as Warriors, so rank them them up fairly deep for steadfast and use them to hold something nasty in place while the rest of your army sets up a flank charge. Their models are considered pretty terrible though, so a lot of people don't like to use them.

• Chaos Warhounds: Flankers. At only 6 points a pop, combined with M7 they are excellent at intercepting enemy scouts and skirmishers, and to hunt down the crews of enemy war machines, wizards or even ranged units. They drop like flies though: at T3 with a 6+ save for an additional point, everything with something bigger than a hand weapon or a longbow will kill these pups instantly. They can be given poisoned attacks as well, but with only 1 attack each this should not make much of a difference. Finally they can be upgraded to have Vanguard, meaning they get a free 12" move before the start of the game, putting them close to your enemy and less likely to be shot down along the way. Use them if you want to, but they won't work against every army you'll face. Take a few units as drops so that your opponent has to place his important units first. Dont bother giving them any upgrades other than vangard.

• Marauder Horsemen: Cheaper than Chaos Warriors, Marauders are your light cavalry. Notable for having the only non-magical ranged attacks in your army (throwing weapons or javelins), you can give them flails and light armor, combined with a Mark of Khorne to break enemy infantry units and run them down (3d6 dice + a reroll if needed? Yes please.) Again, with only T3 and a 5+ save they die like bitches to handgunners, so use their speed to keep them behind cover before you charge. They're not often used: if you want cavalry, Chaos Knights nearly always are given this task. But if you absolutely need you some poor bastards taking those Fanatics out or want a mono-cavalry army, these are your friends.

• Forsaken: Another trap. Their stat-line is considerably worse than that of a Warrior, but they cost more points. When in B2B with an enemy they get a (randomly determined) special rule, from Armor Piercing to Killing Blow. Fast and with great potential, but just not worth it compared to regular Chaos Warriors. I've seen some players attempt to use multiple small units of Forsaken, but your points are better spent elsewhere. On the plus size, the parts from their sprues make for excellent conversion fodder for Chaos Warriors, so if you were wanting to spruce up a unit of those...

• Chaos Chariot: Pretty damn good as far as chariots go: T5 with 4 wounds and 3+ armor save is nothing to be sneered at for its low-ish cost. This bad-boy will pump out an ungodly amount of S5 attacks if you mark it with Khorne: D6+1 impact hits, then 3 attacks each from the halberdiers on the back. And now they are Core you can considerably upgrade your hitting power with but a small unit.

Special Units

• Chosen: 4 points more expensive than a regular Warrior, gaining +1 WS and the The Rewards of Chaos rule, granting a free roll on the Eye of the Gods table. For the rest they have the same options as a unit of Chaos Warriors, except shields are more expensive for them and can take more expensive magic banners. Removing Favor of the Gods hurt them quite a bit, but this is made more than up for for two reasons: The Rewards of Chaos is done on 3d6 of which you may discard one, potentially allowing you to choose between three different Gifts, and when paired up with a Warshrine this adds yet ANOTHER die to roll with, giving you even more flexibility. With this ability your units of Chosen can quickly become very powerful, and will serve as a good block of heavy infantry for your army.

• Gorebeast Chariot: Chaos Chariot with a purple ape and Killing Blow on impact. Their speed is their big downside, but they are ridiculously tough and hit like an unstoppable rape train with no brakes Betty White. If possible I'd take these guys over a regular chariot any day of the week.

• Ogres: Opinions are mixed on these guys. They're cheaper, but less deadly and durable, than Dragon Ogres. But they are Monstrous Infantry and get the Ogre Charge rules, which you WILL notice. The Mark you should probably take is the Mark of Khorne; combine with a weapon of choice depending on what you're up against (I2 will mean you hit last against nearly anything anyway so don't be shy about Great Weapons but remember their cost), use 4-6 of them and let 'em rip. The other Mark you should consider is that of Nurgle: being only WS3 they will be rather easy to hit. And their champion is allowed to roll for Eye of the Gods, potentially creating an Ogre Daemon Prince. And for the love of Khorne, don't buy the metal Ogres. Use the plastic boxes, get a Spawn of two and glue on some tentacles. It'll save you a LOT of money.
  • On Chaos-ifiying Ogres: As far as I can tell, there is no reason why you couldn't use dragon ogre arms and heads to chaos-ify the normal ogres. Combine that with extra spawn bits as above and you have perfect ogres.
  • Another Chaos-ifying Look: Per the fluff ogres are naturally resistant to mutation. If you don't want to kitbash just assemble the plastic ogres as-is and paint some chaos stars on their gutplates.

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

• Trolls: Trolls are... eh. Cheaper than Dragon Ogres but with near-equal stats and Regenerate, Trolls are what you'll want to kill heavily-armored enemy models. In lieu of their regular attacks (3 at S5), all trolls in base contact (changed, the second rank can do it now too, and the third if they're horded) with an enemy unit inflict a S5 auto-hit that ignores armor. This *will* kill nearly anything without multiple wounds, but remember that this is very ineffective against larger units. Again, knights are a prime target for this attack, but it's always a good idea to have something charge alongside the trolls, preferably something that can deal a finishing blow against the enemy. Also remember that trolls have Stupidity, so don't let them wander off on their own. Taking King Throgg makes them Core, and having him in a big unit of them makes for ultimate trolling. (I see what you did here).

If someone is gloating about their unhittable character with Fencer's Blades and Glittering Scales/Mark of Nurgle/White Cloak of Ulric combo, be sure to vomit on them. Either with your trolls or in reality, it's up to you really.

• Chaos Knights: Until recently the deadliest cavalry unit in the game, Chaos Knights have the works. A 1+ armor save, S5 magical attacks, 10 attacks from a basic 5 man unit and a statline you'll normally see on lesser Heroes, a sizable unit of Chaos Knights is a game-changer. Give them either the Mark of Tzeentch for a 1+/5++ save in combat(No, only unmounted models using handweapon and shield can parry, no parry with a magical weapon or if mounted!), or the Mark of Khorne to make them even deadlier. Don't bother with lances: always having S5 is preferable to S6 on the charge, followed by S4 for the rest of combat. Their downside is of course their cost: at 200 points bare bones you will want to be VERY careful about what you do and don't with them, both in points and on the battlefield. An obvious bodyguard to your General, these guys will break nearly anything you throw them against. Be careful of concentrated fire: giving them the Blasted Standard(5+ ward against shooting, stacks with the Mark of Tzeentch)(Standard is now 2+ Halves strength of hit before rolling to wound, on a 1 doubles the str max of 10) is a good idea when facing more dakka armies.

• Hellstriders of Slaanesh: Hellstriders are a good deal more expensive than Marauder Horsemen, being one point more than a fully kitted out Warrior. What you're getting for that extra points is M10, Fear, Armour Piercing magical POISONED attacks for the mounts, Mark of Slaanesh, Spears, and the ability to take ASF in the first round of combat for peanuts. The main thing you have to be careful of is avoiding being shot. Sure, you're fast, but you will go down hard if you aren't careful. Remember, they are just as easy to kill as normal horsemen (until you get their bonuses [see below*]). The best way to use them is in a similar way to Empire detachments. Have them back up a large unit, so when that unit charges or is charged, they can get the enemies flank. Then, when the enemy breaks and flees, restrain the large unit and send the Hellstriders to run them down. Their special rule means they receive a benefit for each unit the run down (* Devastating charge, stubborn then a 4+ ward save). If you have the models of the old seekers of slaanesh with the old daemonettes instead of GW's new androgynous abominations, it'd be a novel idea to use them as Hellstriders, employing the 'Counts As' rule to save on money and let classic miniatures see the light of day again.

• Chaos Warshrines: Now a bound spell, gives d3 models a roll on the eye of the gods, and they can roll 3 dice and drop one, so you can increase the odds of demon princing a cheap model vs your expensive ones, random attacks make it a a little worse, but still can get a 3+ invul, still imo worth it, and can be a mount. Always have a Demon Prince model on hand, especially when you use the shrine!

• Chimera: A nice beastie. Because it can fly it is one of your fastest units that is not a mount. 6 strength 6 and d3 random attacks are nothing to scoff at (not to mention D6 S6 thunderstomps), even when coming at WS4 and I2. At T5, W4 and a 4+ save it can take some ranged fire, but cannons WILL kill it dead. Though it's a bit expensive to hunt war machines and wizards it is undeniably very good at it, and when those are all gone it is more than capable of piling in with other units to kill big blocks of infantry. Regeneration is a mandatory upgrade, as it can save you from those inevitable cannonballs you'll be taking. Same with the breath weapon, both mandatory. Also, for some reason its random attacks gain +1 To Hit when being attacked from the rear. But if that happens you are using your Chimera wrong. Tag team with your flying Dp because it is awfully ld5, and likely to fuck off the first chance it gets.

Rare Units

• Chaos Spawn: Spawn are terribad. Like, really sucky. Even less reliably than Trolls, combined with their low stats for a monster and their slow movement (7" at average, can't march or charge) makes them a joke. Even with their better interpretations of the Marks of Chaos they still are just too random to have any effect. You should buy these for only two reasons at best: conversions using the crapload of tentacles found on the sprue or using them to drag your converted Chaos Warshrines. Sadly, they are now needed, for the same reason as the Daemon Prince: although some of the marks make them a semi usable, such as giving them a breath weapon, if you roll a 2 on the Eye of the Gods table, the character making the roll has a chance to become one

• Hellcannon: The only "war machine" in your army, it is a stonethrower that will kick your ass in combat. Needs to take a LD test at the beginning of your turn; if you fail the cannon will drive itself 3d6 closer to the enemy, so it can hit them with its spiky bits. It hits at S5, causing Panic at -1 LD, good against feeble humans and greenskins. When it misfires though bad shit goes down, from explosions to murdering its crew and mindraping every wizard within 24' inches, instead of the old "all wizards on the table" which could mean less exploding enemy wizards sadly. Temperamental at best, and with a notable price tag, the Hellcanon should only be taken by the more daring of generals. It is pretty much immune to anything that goes hunting war machines though, as it is better in combat than shooting, being a monster that decided one day that it wanted to be a gun. Remember on a failed LD check it gets a FREE TURN before it makes its 3d6 move, meaning it will turn around and cannon rape skirmishers trying to kill its crew.

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

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

• Skullcrushers: Despite suffering a significant points increase less than three months after being released (THANKS GW YOU FAGGOTS), Skullcrushers are still one of the best choices available to WoC players. 1+ Armor save, meaning that it takes a S5 hit or higher to put them on anything but 1's for armor saves. They have 3 magical S5 attacks each, cause fear, and are frenzied. In addition the juggs get stomps on infantry. They're monstrous cav so they have swiftstride and can't be killing blowed. Forget using chaos knights, these guys blow them out of the water and are cheaper and better than 2 knights put together. I recommend taking a unit of 3-4 every game, sometimes 2 units depending on how mean you want to be. These guys are ridiculously hard to kill and if you send them into the enemy's flank they'll just sit there and rampage the whole game while your opponent scrambles to deal with them and your oncoming horde of whatever else you bring. I advise not taking a champion, because he has to challenge, and you're then losing a third of your attacks from him and the mounts (Which are s6 on the charge) fighting some scrawny unit champion.

• Slaughterbrute: The first of two big, scary monsters. The Slaughterbrute is a powerful monster with very decent attacks, strength and toughness. While it may at first seem to suck at close combat with a pathetic weapon skill of 3, you can boost its killing ability by binding it to your Chaos Lord, a process which involves jamming a lot of sanctified blades into its back. Doing so is borderline mandatory, as it uses your Chaos Lord's weapon skill and leadership so long as he is alive, producing results like a weapon skill 8 leadership 9 monster. If that SOUNDS awesome, it's because it IS, and it'll certainly make sure that your ungodly abbatoir of a creature will live up to its name. HOWEVER, it is both more expensive, easier to kill (assuming regen) and easier to redirect than a Chimera, so keep that in mind.

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

Building Your Army

Buying Your Army

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

Magic Items

Generic Mounts

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

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

Mark-Specific Mounts

• Juggernaut of Khorne: An S5 mount with 3 attacks (the model and the lord are one model, so both get frenzy) and stomp that also improves your armour save by 3 and gives you magic resist? Khorne is a kind god indeed to those who would fuck shit up in his name. Now that armor can't be improved past 1+, you benefit from it most if you take a halberd or a great weapon. Alternatively, if your lord already has a talisman of preservation, you could take a hero with the armour of destiny and a shield and have a sweet 1+/4++ save on two models (if you do so, make sure to make this fact obvious to your opponent by sending your characters on lone missions against his precious inner circle knights/ white lions). Heck, you could even take the glittering scales and still have a 2+ save while only being hit on 5+ or even 6+. A very solid choice.
• Palanquin: A mount that is considered infantry (Changed, it's listed as a monstrous beast in the army book, which makes a character riding it monstrous cavalry. I make this point because games workshop has said many a time, that Army Books out-rule the Main Rulebook. So even though the BRB classes it as Infantry, the army book outweighs it.) - chaos has it all. While not as balls-out powerful as the juggernaut, the fact that you remain infantry means that you can improve your armour save without having to join a unit of cavalry while still being safe thanks to Look out Sir! Since you have a 50x50 base, if you place your lord in the corner of a unit your opponent will be forced to allocate at least 2 attacks to him, which is to your favor. The Palanquin itself provides a respectable 6 s3 poisoned attacks, ideal against monsters and hordes designed to slow you down alike. Of course, all this is wasted if you don't make the most of your armour, so grab that dawnstone and a dragonhelm/enchanted shield. A solid choice only stained by the fact that the mark of nurgle is generally wasted on lords (unless you also take the chaos runesword, in which case ws5 heroes and elite infantry will only hit you on 5s).
• Steed of Slaneesh: Have you ever wanted to hit something really hard, but were too far away to bash its skull in? Then the the boobed snake is for you. Of dubious usefulness in a lord (you want him close to the rest of your army to offer his leadership), this thing is spectacular on an exalted hero, because while the Disc of Tzeentch has fly, the steed allows you to join a unit of marauders and still have the vanguard move at the start of the game (which means you have all the defensive benefits of being in a unit), something your opponent will have to react to unless he wants to lose his flank. All the mounts have fear, but the fact that your hero will likely hit units in the flank (away from the BSB) makes it far more effective here than elsewhere.(in the new codex, you no longer have this for some reason.)
• Disc of Tzeentch: Boy, aren't you just spoiled for mounts? The Disc of Tzeentch can claim two main advantages over the Steed of Slaneesh: it allows you to fly over units, and you get a far more useful mark. Without vanguard, you are better having your hero or lord join a unit of chaos knights rather than marauder horsemen, and then leave the unit when a suitable charge opportunity presents itself. As with the steed of slaneesh, it tends to be more useful on a hero, but the fact that you can be close to your army before they reach the melee (where they will be required to make far fewer leadership tests) means that it can and should be considered even on a lord. Also, great to keep sorcerers out of dangerous combat once it starts. Again, fear is more advantageous here than on the other (non-slaneeshi) mounts.

Chaos Mutations and Powers

This appears to be the Chaos equivalent of Vampiric Powers, Ogre Big Names etc. Some armies have them, some do not. Deal with it.

• Unholy Strike: Instead of lots of murderous, Ogre-strength strikes with a lot of chances to kill stuff, one fuckhueg, Cannon-strength, many-wounding doom attack that makes brick walls run home to mummy. If fighting Ogres or anything with a lot of big things, must take. If not, don't bother.
• Flaming Breath: Stick this on a Nurgle wizard with Stream of Corruption, and watch the infantry-pwning burp fest commence. A fun one to take if you want to REALLY piss off your opponent: a murderous Viking warlord in inch-thick armour. That carries an axe the size of the enemy general. And rides a metal doom horse. And loses the plot in combat. And does not die easily. And hits you hard, often and fast. AND BREATHES MUTHAFUCKIN FIRE!!!! I take this in pretty much every list i can afford it. great on a Deamon Prince.
• Scaled Skin: Do you REALLY need more armour? Yes, you do, take it on your Prince for that 1+ armour save.
• Allure of Slaanesh: If your enemy wants to hit you, he must be brave and stand his ground or start trying to remove the Champions massive (her has to be a Slaanesh follower) codpiece. If you can be bothered, take it.
• Poisonous Slime, Soul Feeder, Burning Body and Acid Ichor: Take them ALL for a completely "brown trousers time" Lord.This will give him Poisoned AND Flaming Attacks, a 5++ against both and the ability to both damage attackers and steal back lost wounds. That annoys your enemy. A lot. I know. I field one all the time. Take the lot on your Lord. NOW! Particular note to Burning Body, regen features heavily in this edition. The others are sort of meh.

Note, Burning Body can backfire in challenges, as many heroes have access to items that give a 2++ against flaming. It also wont grant flaming attacks to any magical weapons you're carrying, as per the rulebook. Take Soul Feeder instead and regain wounds as you mow through rank and file troops with ease.

• Third Eye of Tzeentch: Nowhere near as OP as it was before, but very fun on a Daemon of Tzeentch. Take it if you have a Tzeentch chap with a big ward save. Part of the "Unkillable lord" combo.
• Nurgle's Rot: Take it on your Prince or someone on a mount. I use it when my BsB rides his paliquin. Getting out 3-5 free hits that kill dudes on 6s with no saves? For 10 points? Not bad, but dont bother on anything that has a small base size, because its only on those in base contact. Nice to combo with the Other Tricksters Shard.
• Hideous Visage: A cheap way of making a block immune to fear, but sort of meh overall with your WS5, most things are hitting you on 4s or 5s anyway.

Weapons

Note: this section needs updating. Peolpe with the new book, please help. Note on the note: Been there, done that, got the blood-splattered Chaosy T-shirt

Oddly, Warriors of Chaos don't exactly get a weapons section. Weapons are just thrown in any which way. A mistake made by the Cruddace creature was that he picked the best weapons from the old book and screwed them up big time. Most of them are meh except for the Hellfire Sword, usually because they're either poo or too expensive for what you get.

• Daemonblade: nice. Magic weapon that makes the wielder have the random attacks (d6+3) special rule (so far, O have no idea if he adds these to his regular amount of attacks or what) but if you roll a 1, you hit yourself. Which is FUHNEH!

• Hellfire Sword: NUUUUH! One of the most trolling weapons against anything that has regeneration and many wounds (yes, Hell Pit Abominations, I am looking at you), turned by the foul Cruddace into a more expensive version of the Daemonblade. Do not take. Evah. If you must do something like that, Unholy Strike and Burning Body will suffice.

• Sword of Change: It went from really rather awesome (Gaunt level) to ABSOLUTELY LULZFULLY AWESOME (Yarrick level). It turns an unlucky enemy character into a gribbly monster thing that chases his former comrades around the board. Take it now. I mean it.

• Filth Mace: No. Just no. Poison on a Chaos character is meh (unless it is for 15 points). Terror is meh. Multiple Wounds is okay, but honestly, you make a Nurgle character to survive, not to butcher everything try to butcher everything but then get ground to paste by a monster.

Armor

Note: only the last piece of armour in this list still exists. Again, please help. *the grand weapons steamroller steamrollered the armour errors too

• The Helm of many eyes: The only piece of armour in the new army book. It works the same as the old one (ASF and Stupidity), but now is a proper helmet so gives you an armour save boost too. Reasonable piece of kit.

Arcane Items

three left in this edition.

• Skull of Katam: In this edition, this item is very good. for 15 points, you get to channel 6 dice instead of 1. Kind of risky, as you lose a point of LD for every 1 you roll.

• Chaos Familliar: Excellent item, and extra spell and 5+ channelling? I always pay the 25 points for it.

• Collar Of Khorne: 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 skullthrone!!!

Magic

• Tzeentch

Completely new spells Tzeentchian spells are quite funny. They have some nice damage dealing potential, and many are underestimated. Moreover, the Mark of Tzeentch gives your sorcerer a +1 bonus to your ward save and casting rolls. There's no more +1 to casting, instead you get a slightly better shot at channeling an extra die. The main advantage of the lore is that like the lord of change itself it cannot be predicted: your infernal gateway is as likely to deal 2 S2 wounds as to destroy a unit with no saves allowed. Also gone! Tzeentch cares not for your stupid hail mary spell. Also take note that all damage spells have special rule called warpflame, which causes everything they hit to take a toughness test, if they fail they take D3 wounds, but if they pass, they gain regeneration save that gets better with each successful test the rule forces them to take, so keep in mind if get any ideas of throwing any of them at tougher units or monsters. Also keep in mind that warpFLAME is not FLAMing. Somehow.

Bluefire of Tzeentch

Treason of Tzeentch

Pink Fire

Bolt Of Change

Glean Magic

Tzeentch's Firestorm

Infernal Gateway

• Nurgle

A lot of toughness tests or suffer more here, and plenty of augment spells. Also after every successful cast roll a d6, on a 6 ye get a wound and a toughness for the rest of the game.

Stream of Corruption

Miasma of Pestilence

Blades of Putrefaction

Curse of the Leper

Rancid Visitations

Fleshy Abundance

Plague Wind

• Slaanesh

Like nurgle but leadership test or suffer from more attacks and for every unsaved wound caused roll a d6, attack, ws and initiative are upped by 1 till your next magic phase.

Lash of Slaanesh

Acquiescence

Pavane of Slaanesh

Hysterical Frenzy

Slicing Shards

Phantasmagoria

Cacophonic Choir

Tactics

Your main strategy as the Warriors of Chaos is always to get your army into combat as quickly as you can, in which you will generally emerge the victor. This makes them easy for beginners, but also very predictable. Always remember that your opponent is likely to want avoid fighting you up close if they can.

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

Shooting is always a problem for Warriors so once again, get up in their face as soon as possible to minimize casualties. EDIT# be wary of skaven and there oh so many war machines.