The tombs contained herein will ever be expanding as the Chaos Wastes territory grows...

 

    General Stuff

    Monstrous Hordes

    Chaos Gifts

    Magic Items, Chaos Only

    Chaos Spells

    Human Armies

    Chaos Human Tactics

 

Tactics and analysis of the forces of Chaos

 

 

1.0 General Stuff:

In December 1997, games workshop released a new version of the Realms of CHaos (RoC) in order to adapt this race to the new 5th Edition rules and to make it more chaotic and give it a better background. All in all Tuomas Pirinen (the headauthor) gave Chaos much of flavur and colour back it had lost when Rick Priestly had written the 4th Edition Armybook which was very weak as far as flavour and colour go. This is especially true if you are a long time player like me who simply addored the 3rd Edition Chaos Armybooks which were all flavour. The new RoC achieves to give Chaos some of the flavour back and clarifies many questions and on the other hand limits the army composition choices drastically. It splits the all in one 4th edition army into three different ones under the theme of warbands. Imho this is very good. However there is one big weakness, especially as far as he Marauder background is concerned, it lacks a map. If you are familiar with maps about the chaos wastes you happen to wonder about the location of those Marauder tribes.

This article will try to give a detailed analysis about this new RoC and give some hints on tactics. I will discuss each of the three different armylists seperately. Every RoC army is divided into a Warlord section and a followers section. In addition you can have 25 percent of your army either from the Monstrous Hordes section or other RoC army sections or you can have "real" allies in form of Undead, Chaos Dwarfs, Orcs. Imho to call creatures from the other RoC armies allies is not a good idea for it will create much debating on whether to see them as allies , which means you can't have them in grand tournaments, or some special allies , which means you can use them in grand tournaments, or not. Tuomas Pirinen and Jervis Johnson will , i.e. GW , will allow such "allies" from other RoC armies in grand tournaments.

Especially as Tuomas cleared that up in a letter directed to the Warhammer mailing list. Still not all Warhammer players

do have access to said mailing list and giving many players attitudes it will not cause much good to call other RoC armies allies. Poor wording from GW (as usual as i may say so :(). Remember that you now have to buy each warlord a retinue of at least the same points costs. In addition it is entirely up to you which of your characters will be your armies general. This gives you a lot of freedom to design your army and the possibility to avoid expensive characters in low points games.

1.1 The Marks of Chaos

Only humans and Daemonprinces may have Marks of Chaos. Human sorcerers will have the Mark of the god they follow automatically. Non sorcerers and Daemonprinces must buy one of the marks if you want them to follow one of the chaos gods.

 

1.1.1 The non sorcerer marks:

Khorne: As usual a Khorne character is subject to frenzy. Being frenzy is a risky business. On one hand it makes you immune to psychology and gives you up to 10 attacks which , with the right magic items /chaos rewards, will turn your character into a killing machine. On the other hand given the new 5th edition rules for frenzy characters having to test to keep their attacks it can lead your character in having less attacks than even a champion. The rule of thumb that applies here: The less turns the game has the better - the more turns the worse for your khorne characters. In grand tournaments a khorne character surely is a bargain.

Slaanesh: Being immune to psychology and being unable to break is being underestimated by many players. Not having to ever have to test on your Ld values means you can use slaanesh characters to attack and tie up whole units on their very own without proper support. They only have to survive the hth rounds.

Nurgle: Nurgle gives its champions +1 to their T value. Aleays keep in mind that getting +1 on your T means your opponent gets a -1 on his to wound roll. This means you can easily create nurgle characters being immune to normal S3 attacks.

Tzeentch: This is the only mark that has been changed. From a +4 dispell ability to a 1 reroll per battle with a +1/-1 adjustment. Such reroll is a very powerful ability indeed. The only drawback is that you only have one such reroll in a whole

battle. This results in the player to make a tough decision whether to use that ability or not. Still such an ability can be a battle winner, you just have to choose the right moment. The longer lasting the battle is the tougher your decision will be.

Always keep in mind that you do not have to buy a mark at all if you do not want to. You can always go chaos undivided. Though this will limit you in magic items you might want to use and robs you off some useful abilities.

1.1.2 The sorcerer marks.

A sorcerer does not have to buy his mark. YOu just decide to which chaos god he prays and he gets this gods mark. If he doesn't follow any particular chaos god he gets the mark of chaos undivided.

Khorne: There is no such thing as a sorcerer of Khorne :)

Tzeentch: A sorcerer of tzeentch has the same mark a non sorcerer has.

Slaanesh: This is probably the most powerful mark a sorcerer can have. Nobody will neither shoot or cast spells at him within 12inch. This makes a chaos sorcerer of slaanesh a very powerful enemy wizard killer and perfectly suited to tackle shooting units. To improve this ability it is best to mount him onto a steed of slaanesh which will improve his range to up to 24inch. You can even protect units from certain spells and in some cases from shooting.
Nurgle: The mark of Nurgle is more tricky. No enemy wizard of lower level will cast any spells and you have the chance to dispell enemy spells which are in effect within 6 inch of your nurgle sorcerer at the start of your magic phase on a 4+. This gives you somewhat of an additional dispell and can be very useful to cancel out hands of glory for example. You will only rarely face wizards of lower level though.

2.0 Monstrous Hordes

 

2.1 General

The monstrous hordes are not an armylist on their own. This list comprises all large monsters you find in a typical armybook and several other creatures that originally have been part of the real armylist like Dragonogres, Harpies or

Trolls. Your army can be comprised of up to 25percent from the monstrous hordes list and any characters like Dragonogre lords and such are part of these 25percent. YOu do not have to buy them a retinue - instead you are only allowed to field a type of character depending on the total number of creatures you choose to take. I.e. field 3 Dragonogres and one can be a champion.

2.2 Harpies
The use of Harpies is severely limited now. Human armies can never field more than one Harpy unit. The same applies to Daemon armies. Only Beastmen armies can take more units. AT first glance and for 15pts with 4 4 0 4 4 2 2 1 6 Harpies seem to be a bargain. ON second glance you will soon realise that fielding Harpies is risky. Thisis because of their low leadership and the inability to test on any character - not even the general of your army - Ld values. The fact

that Harpies are fighting in ranks makes up for the lack of Ld a bit. As it is right now fielding Harpies against armies whose warmachines cause fear is very risky and not the way to go. You will fail any fear test more often than not.

Against other warmachines with standard crew Harpies are very effective. Use them wisely and pray you inflict casualties or otherwise your Harpies will be gone for good as their Ld is so low and you will only rarely rally them. Using Harpies against other type of stuff like units is nothing i recommend. The only useful function they have then is to charge the flank and negate any rank boni.

Again anything that causes fear / terror is a bane to any Harpy.

2.3 Chaos Trolls

The only type of Trolls a chaos army is now able to field are Chaos Trolls. They cost the same 65pts - have no special abilities like the Stone - or River Trolls but their Ld is 7 and their A is 4. Additionally you can equip them with double handed weapons which turns them into dangerous creatures given their regeneration ability. The additional attack and the Ld of 7 even gives you the chance to field those Trolls without assorted character to boost their Ld.

Still 7 doesn't mean that you will pass all stupidity tests. The possible double handed weapons turn chaos trolls into real heavy cavalry killers. The resulting S7 combined with 4 attacks is mathematically much better than the 1 automatically hitting vomit attack with a S5. Even though the vomit attack negates any armour saves.To sum it up Chaos Trolls are quite a bargain, even though you will have trouble to field many of those given the fact that they are part of the monstrous hordes list and the crux for any chaos player is what to use for the 25percent. The choices are simply too many and i myself can think of many more important things to field.

2.4 Dragon Ogres

Well there is not much to say about Dragon Ogres. They haven't changed. Even though they are expensive for those 87pts they are awesome. Equip them with additional hand weapons - give them light armour and they have 4 S5 attacks and a 4+ save.

Their rather low Ld7 means you should have the army general near (or with) the unit or one of the Warlords of you army should lead them. Still if i have the choice between dragon ogres and chaos trolls i choose dragon ogres. WIth a T5 they have some great staying powers and it turns them into prime targets. Used wisely you can get your opponent to concentrate too much on these creatures and leave your real "killers" alone until it is too late. Unfortunately Dragon

Ogres are now part of the monstrous hordes and therefore rather difficult to field, given the many choices you have and the gaps you have to fill.

2.5 Chaos Spawn

The rules for chaos spawn changed completely. There is now only one type of generic chaos spawn. For 70pts you get a 2D6 3 0 4 5 3 3 D6 10 with a 4+ daemonic save and cause fear. In addition you cannot break chaos spawn. Even though the movement is rather unpredictable with 2D6 it is fast enough. The D6 attacks hit automatically and given the S4 and T5 it turns chaos spawn into something that can dish out a lot of damage and that has an awesome staying power. Especially as the spawns wont break. Direct SPawn against the usual SKaven Plaque Censer Bearer screen and these rats wont cause any trouble. CHaos Spawn are my number 1 choice from the monstrous hordes list. Or use them to stop the typical Bretonnian charges. You will see the ways to use SPawn are numerous.

2.6 All the rest

All Monsters like Dragons and swarms are also part of the monstrous hordes list. Not much to say about that as it is the same for every army.

3.0 Chaos Gifts

Together with the Chaos boxed set you also get a set of 12 so called Chaos Gifts. Just rol 2D6 for the amount of Cards you can use in each battle. Compared to the old Chaos Gifts these new ones are greatly reduced in their effects on your own or your opponents army.

 

3.1 Winds of Chaos

A typical and truely chaotical gift. Depending on your 1D6 roll either you or your opponent receives the odd winds of magic card or you reduce (or add) the number of cards rolled by 1. Generally its effect on the game is not great.

 

3.2 Mutations (2 Cards)

There are two different Mutation Cards. Depending on your 1D6 roll it affects one of your own units (no characters). Only a 1 gives you a slight malus (either -1WS or -1M). 2 has no effect and 3+ gives you something good that remains for the whole battle. A Chaos Warrior unit with +1S and halberds isa devastating force.

 

3.3 Stench of Nurgel

This is one of the cards you play on one of your opponents units. You reduce this units movement by 1 inch. This effect can be huge. Just consider that any Dwarfen unit now moves just 2 inch. Or heavy cavalary that just moves 5 inch.

If played well and on a big battlefield this can be the reason for your opponents battle plan not working as he is either too slow or his battle line breaks apart.

 

3.4 Storm of Chaos

With this card you inflict 1D6 S4 on any opposing unit or warmachine. On the first look this doesn't seem to be dangerous. But on the second it is! Rule of thump - the smaller the battle the more devastating the effect of this card. It

turned out to be especially useful against opposing flying units or warmachines. Use it wisely and never use it on big enemy units.

 

3.5 Changing the Ways

This card gives you 1D3 of your opponents winds of magic cards once during the battle. On big battles the effect usually is not that great but in any tourn restricted game and tounrament the effect can be huge, like giving you the chance to virtually rule one magic phase. Combined with the powerful chaos spells this card can decide a whole battle.

 

3.6 Eternal Labour

With this card you can get 1D6 wounds back (and your opponent as well). You can only play that on rnf troops. All in all ths card is pretty much useless and just has some kind of fun factor. It certainly wont decide any battle in any way.

 

3.7 Bless of Gods

With this you give your armies general and any other character who follows the same god as your army general a +1 on their save. Any character that follows a different god has his save reduced by -1. Of course this card favours "one god" armies on the other hand you usually do not have that many chaos characters anyways and what if your other characters are wizards? These mostly do have chaos armour but also rarely need it because of some ward or other kind of save. Therefore a reduction of the normal armour save usually is not that bad.

 

3.8 Eye of God

This is one card you do not have to play if you do not want to. Depending on 1D6 one of your characters you nominated before either turns into a spawn (1) or cosmic duell (2) or gets one of his characteristics increased by 1 (3+). This is either S T or W. If you want some true chaotic feeling then play this card.

 

3.9 Fury of Khorne

This card effectively counts as a free dispell scroll. Even though this rarely is a battle winner you can never have enough dispell scrolls.

 

3.10 Allure of Slaanesh

With this card you reduce your opponents first Ld Test by 1D3. Can have some nice effects but unfortunately you cannot really control this card as it has to be played on the first test. On the other hand if you are lucky you can halfway count on your opponent failing his first panic or terror/fear test as this can never be higher than 7. Not bad - but also not great.

 

3.11 Feud of Gods

This card lets you have one round of hth combat between two of your armies characters which follow different gods. Both only have one attack. As long as you do not insist on using the magic weapons you equipped your characters with this card is not that dangerous given the stats and other equipment you usually give your chaos characters.

 

 

4.0 Magic Items Chaos only

There are of course some magic items which are chaos only and which can be taken by any chaos character except daemons. Although some are restricted to followers of a specific god which means beastmen cannot use them. This however does not apply to chaos magic standards. Weird isn't it ?

 

4.1 Weapons

- Chaos Tomb Blade: This sword gives you 1 wind of magic card per wound caused. Not a bad item if you base your tactics on magical superiority. You have to make sure however that you will cause wounds with tha weapon. This means the more attacks the better. Given to a Khorne character would be ideal but on the other hand it is a bit out of flavour (Khorne and magic !). For 75pts i consider it rather expensive.

- Chaos Runesword of Grungni Ironheart: For a 65pts this weapon gives you a +1 on WS S and A. This is a nice weapon to improve your chaos sorcerers or other characters. No bad but also not useful in such a way that you can base some tactics on it. It certainly is not a weapon for your Lord level characters. It lacks the real bite and is too expensive.

- Chaos Daemon Sword: This is the 60pts chaos version of the Venom Sword. Having the chance to multiply any wound into 1D6 wounds and giving no armour save, except magic armour certainly is devastating. On the other hand of you roll a 1 when determining the number of wounds you take that wound by yourself in good old chaotic fashion. If you want to have flavour take this instead of the Venom Sword. If you want to walk to secure path take the Venom Sword. In any way this sword is most dangerous. Just make sure that the wielding character has enough attacks and at least a S5 (hero level and up) you can use it to open any tinhead and kill him. Combined with potion of strength this sword also makes short work of any multiple wound monsters like slaan or treemen or dragons etc.

- Sword of Change: For a mere 50pts this sword raises any true chaos players heartbeat. With the potential to kill and turn into chaos spawn any living creature that takes at least one wound by 33% this sword _is_ it. Combine it with a potion of strength against nasty critters like treemen and you are all set. In most cases the potential S5 (or S4 for Beastmen) of your characters are more than enough. Be aware however that it is a bit difficult to open tinheads with this weapon.

- Chaos Runeblade: Just one of those nice D3 wounds weapons. In addition you negate normal armour. Generally a very nice weapon (you can never have enough Dx weapons) and especially good against tinheads as their awesome armour saves are worth nothing.

- Blood Drinker: Just one of those weapons which have funny but generally useless effects in a serious game. This certainly i snot a lord level characters weapon and honestly 25pts are better spent elsewhere.

- Soul Blade: To this weapon applies the same as for the Blood Drinker - even though i consider it more important to deduct toughness instead of strength.

- Dark Sword: Useless

4.2 Armour:

- Chaos Runeshield: What can i say - this is _the_ piece of equipment no real chaos player with a winning heart should leave for battle. Something that negates enemy magic weapons is especially useful against all those nasty dwarfen runeweapons and turns those magically boosted human characters into what they really are. The fact that you can buy that with chaos armour and it still counts as one magic item is very useful for beastmen which generally have no

possibility to buy chaos armour as equipment.

- Chaos Armour: What can i say? For human army characters it is a must have equipment.

 

4.3 Enchanted Items:

- Slaanesh's Sceptre of Domination: Not that useful as most characters Ld values are just too high - maybe against Skaven it has some worth. The fact that any character who passses his Ld test becomes immune certainly doesn't improve this items effectiveness either. 50pts can be spent better elsewhere.

- Cursed Book: To have a -1 to hit item that even has a range of effectiveness can have devastating effects. Just consider it with the usual banner of might combination and in a unit of chaos warriors. The Ws6 of chaos warriors ensures that 85% of anything they get into hth with only hit at a 5 at best and they hit at a 2. This is almost cheese, especially if you have the Slaanesh Succour of Chaos spell active as well. This means you hit automatically. I think you

get the idea :)

- Helm of many Eyes: An item that lets you strike first is always useful - even though your chaos characters , except beastmen, have an I value of 6-9. If you want to use this item carefully consider what your opponent can field on first

strike stuff. If they are not Dwarfs (with their first strike rune) or such critters than you do not have to use the helm as your I value ensures your first strikes. Whether you still strike first if equipped with a double handed weapon as well is still subject of a large debate GW refuses to decide as usual.

- Potion of Chaos: If you want to play your chaos army ina chaotical way - use this item. Even though i consider its effects too little for 25pts. Since 5th edition it is also 1 use only and it is absolutely not clear what you have to do if you roll a 6 (i suggest you roll on one of the 2 mutations cards).

- Warpstone Charm: A reroll with a +1/-1 modifier for 10pts and being one use only can have some effect but imho magic item slots are too important for chaos armies. The larger the battle the less the affect this item has.

4.4 Wizard Arcana

- Chaos Familiar: Even though a bit expensive for 50pts it still gives you the effects of a warpstone charm once per round. This can be very important for chaos sorcerers. For example in a reroll of a dispell or to keep a reward or

item in effect etc.

- Chalice of Chaos: When the 4th edition was still in effect this item had a lot of value if you wanted to play for magical superiority, but with 5th edition it is useless, especially for 35pts (like who wants to end his own magic phase ?)! It is just a typical item that needs a revamping badly.

- Golden Eye of Tzeentch:Generally for this item applies the same i have written about the Slaanesh Sceptre of Domination.

- Skull of Katam: Useless item period!

4.5 Magic Standards:

- Banner of Rage: Well i think the usefulness of this banner is obvious. Even though most experienced players abandon the bloody path of Khorne sooner or later.

- Blasted Standard: If you really want a one use Banner for 50pts that even is dispellable, well.....

- Rapturous Standard: During 4th edition this was _the_ banner for chaos armies. Now it is almost useless as you can now be broken. Even though it is still not clear given the high amount of crap and contradictions GW let nicely flow into the 5th edition magic items.

 

4.6 Bound Spells:

- Staff of Nurgle: Even though expensive for 100pts this staff is a killer and can be a game winner if you prepare its use in your magic phase correctly. You can even create a battle plan based upon this item. There is no other item of spell that slays everything automatically if not dispelled.

 

 

5.0 Chaos Spells:

No other magic user in the warhammer fantasy world has such a wide array of spell decks to choose from. You potentially have 4 decks. Now you just decide what god your sorcerer follows and thats it. Beastmen can even still combine chaos decks. Chaos magic generally is very destructive and only has some very few spells that help the caster of the unit. The fact that you can combine spell decks by just using different sorcerers even improves that. Imho chaos magic is the most devastating magic right after necromancy.

 

5.1 Dark Magic

Having Dark Magic gives you the useful option to use any dispel card as a power card. This helps you alot with your decision about the cards you want to store for your next magic phase. I.e. store dispels before any other card. On the

other hand dark magic is very expensive. Too many power 3 spells which are not really worth it. Some of the spells however can be battle winners. For real destructive power it is far better to stick with the chaos god spells.

- Arnizipals Black Horror: Even though a Power 3 spell this one is a potential battle winner. If you prepare the casting of this one well it will have a devastating effect, especially in close combat. As most rnf troops only have a strength of 3 this gives you a 66% killing chance. Even elites with S4 only reduce the chance to 50%. The fact that only magical armour may save only benefits chaos armies anywass. To sum it up - this is the Dark Magic rnf troops killer.

- Blade Wind: This Power 2 spell has a range of 24'' and can be used to good effect against low WS troops. It is especially useful against low WS monsters like Stegadons or Zombie Dragons. Toughness does not count either and therefore your chance for a wound is by 50%. Watch them Lizardmen players curse if you attack their stegadons with it.

- Dark Hand of Destruction: This Power 1 close combat spell inflicts D3 wounds if you manage a successful attack roll. This spell has the benefit that the caster does not have to roll to wound against his targets toughness which can be very useful against such foes. On the other hand if you do not manage the hth attack roll the spell is wasted. And this happens happens by at least 33% 

- Death Spasm: This Power 2 spell with a range of 18'' is designed to be one of those character/monster killing spells. You just need to exceed your targets toughness by rolling 1D6. However just about any important target has a toughness of at least 4 which gives you just a 33% chance of success in most cases. In many other cases the spell is useless as your possible targets toughness is 6 and more. All in all this spell is certainly not a must have one.

- Doombolt:For a range of 18'' and being a power 2 spell this spell is expensive if you consider the possible damage you can do. Against warmachines however it canbe devastating as its strength increases to 10. Not even an empire steam tank will survive long against this spell. Though inflicting just 1D6 hits is certainly not that great.

- Malediction of Nagash: A power 3 spell with a range of 36''. The possibility to to slow down an enemy unit far away or to reduce its shooting capabilities can be nice. The D3 wounds in following magic phases can be ignored as almost no spell stays in play for longer than 1 round. However investing 3 power cards into casting this spell is a risky bit. You usually do not have the power for this 2nd rated spell as there are far more important spells to cast.

- Power of Chaos: A power 1 spell that gives you the chance to draw more power cards from the pile or being sucked into the warp for 14%. This spell can be useful sometimes but be aware that a 1 will kill you and losing valuable characters is something no army , especially not chaos, can afford.

- Soul Drain: Even though the power 3 make this spell expensive, its range of 24'' and the chance to gain additional wounds even above the stats value make this spell really useful. Especially if you consider that the template is 2'' and no armour save is allowed. A good spell against tincans.

- The transformation of Kadon: A nice spell that can tranform a potentially weak level 1, 2 wizard into a fearsome creature. For level 3,4 wizards i consider this spell wasted unless said wizard is really low on wounds and magical equipment. You usually cannot afford to lose a level 4 wizards casting abilities.

- Witch Flight: What can i say. Tranportation spells are always useful and given that chaos sorcerers usually are killing machines compared to the average sorcerers of most other races this spell can be a battle winner.

5.2 Tzeentch

Tzeentch spells are very cheap to cast. The deck only has one power 3 spell and you are likely to find a good use for each of the spells in this deck even if this is only to draw dispels from your enemy using the cheap but still rather powerful spells in order to successfully cast the one killing blow.

- Blue fire of Tzeentch: A power 1 spell with a range of 18'' that inflicts 1D5 S4 hits is nice to draw dispells and/or to whittle down lightly armoured enemy troops. It makes up a bit for the lack of shooting power in a chaos army.

- Bolt of Change: A power 2 spell with a range of 12'' that has the potential to kill everything as there is no save at all against it undoubtly is a battle winner and perfect to crack even the toughest of dwarfen characters. To roll equal to or less then your toughness on 2D6 is something not even Vampires manage easily. Consider a highly mobile chaos sorcerer on a flying disk positioning himself to cast this spell - a perfect assassination.

- Boon of Tzeentch: A good dispell drawing spell that, if cast successfully grants you D3 additional magic cards, is always very useful.

- Touch of Tzeentch: One of the few close combat spells for the usually cheap 1 power card. It inflicts 1D6 S4 hits with no armour save. At least against human armies or the average champion/hero this spell has its uses besides drawing dispells.

- Glean Magic: Stealing one of your opponents spells for 2 power cards and from a maximum range of 24'' is nice, even though you must return it to its owner when dispelled and you have to draw it randomly. At least sometimes you will draw one of thsoe spells you really want your opponent not to have.

- Incandescent Assassin: This spell is designed to attack characters or multiple wound large creatures. Unfortunately most possible character targets's WS is quite high and therefore the spell is most likely not effective. Against monstrous critters like the stegadon (WS2) this spell can be devastating however.
- Pink Fire of Tzeentch: Just another useful 1 power spell. Its range of 6'' is mostly useless and turns it into a close combat spell. It targets single models with a strength from 5 to 10 which means it is capable of giving almost all high toughness creatures a hard time to survive.

- Shield of Fire: For just 1 power you can cast the only self protecting spell from the tzeentch deck. It is very useful and i almost always try to protect my sorcerers with it - if they draw it of course - It's potential to destroy your opponents magic weapons is a very useful benefit as well.

- Gift of Chaos: For just one power you get the chance to add one of the mutations listed in the two mutation chaos gift cards to your sorcerer permanently. This is nice but it only comes to bear in long battles. In tournaments with their 4 turns this spell can't show its full potential.

- Tzeentch Firestorm: This is the only power 3 spell in the tzeentch deck. It gives you the chance to raise pink horrors if you only manage to inflict enough wounds. Unfortunately the template is just a mere 2'' one which means you have to choose your targets wisely. Still it is a useful spell.

 

5.3 Slaanesh

The Slaanesh deck doesn't seem to be too powerful on first glance but on second glance it can have more potential than the Tzeentch deck. At least against opposing armies with low Ld values.
- Acquiescence: A power 1 spell for hth purposes. Even though it is nice to have your opponents characteristics halved it is quite difficult to achieve as you have to roll equal to or less than your I on 1D6. Even dwarfen generals have I of 5. Not quite a spell one would like to have.

- Beam of Slaanesh: A power 2 spell with a range of 24''. If you fail a Ld test on 3D6 your characteristics are all halved. Not bad to slow down tough enemy units. The failing rate for the Ld test is high enough to make it a nice spell even against high Ld enemies. A nice spell to support your own army.

- Bondage of Slaanesh: A very dangerous and useful spell for 2 power. Unfortunately the range is only 12''. If successful cast one opposing unit can do nothing. This spell can be a battle winner even though it has a supporting character.

- Cacophonic Choir: A close combat power 1 spell with great, even though somewhat fickle, destructive power. It is especially useful against opposing cavalry units as this spell does not permit any kind of armour save. One of my favourite.

- Chaos Spawn: A power 3 spell with a range of 24''. What is to say against a spell that has the power to kill everything. Imho it is _the_ character killing spell, especially as you do not need to have a line of sight and even creatures like Vampires can fail a T check on 2D6 quite easily.

- Cursed Caress: This is another hth spell with great killing power. There are not many characters which have more than 3-4 wounds. And not even a ward can save you.

- Lash of Slaanesh: A power 1 spell with a range of 8'' that inflicts 2D6 S4 hits. Unfortunately it permits armour saves and therefore you need to choose your targets carefully.

- Pavane of Slaanesh: Another power 2 supporting spell with a range of 24''. Unfortunately the required Ld test is on 2D6 which means you need to cast it against low Ld enemies in order to have acceptable success with it. Though if you manage to successfully cast it the chosen enemy unit/character is in deep trouble especially if in hth combat. Skaven beware!

- Slicing shards of Slaanesh: Just like the lash of Slaanesh except that it costs 2 power and has a range of 24''. Not bad but also not that great.

- Succour of Chaos: Another power range 12'' supporting spell which is very useful. Given the high WS of many chaos troop types it ensures that you hit most opposing stuff on a 2+.

5.4 Nurgle

Also the Nurgle spells are quite powerful. There is not much to say compared to the other chaos spell decks.

- Cloud of flies: A power 1 spell that prevents an opposing unit to either move or shoot. Unfortunately it's range is only 12'' which means that ideal targets like archers are not that ideal targets at all. Still the supporting character of this spell can be quite handsome in order to get your units to charge what they want to charge.
- Fly Swarm: A power 1 spell that gives the Nurgle sorcerer some surviving power against nasty opponents equipped to the teeth with nasty weapons/spells. It even gives you the chance to survive instant death stuff.

- Miasma of Pestilence: Another power 2 spell that can be cast on the sorcerer only and which supports him to a certain degree. Unfortunately this spell affects any modell within 6'' of the caster friend and foe alike. Only nurgle characters are unaffected. Therefore you need to be careful with casting this one.

- Pillar of Putrefaction: A power 1 spell that works like the high magic coruscation of finreir spell except that you cannot move to up to 24''. Not a bad spell for sorcerers but utterly useless for Plaguebearers.

- Pit of Slime: A power 2 spell with a range of 12'' which is imho useless. The rate of success for this spell is at 33% at best. One has more important things to do in his magic phase.

- Plague Wind: This is the only power 3 spell in the Nurgle deck and has a range of 24''. It has a lot of destructive power and works best against targets with low T. It is additionally useful that you can raise Plaguebearers with that spell if you only inflict enough wounds. This additional effect, besides that it does not allow armour saves (which makes it a good spell against tinheads), can disrupt your enemies plans quite easily as it binds hopefully important enemy units in hth combat for at least one round. Additionally this spell can be devastating against characters out on their own.

- Rancid Visitation: Just the typical useful power 2 spell with a range of 18'' that inflicts 2D6 S4 hits with no armour save. Almost a must have.

- Shrivelling Pox: A hth combat spell for 1 power. It can be quite useful if you only manage to roll high enough. Quite a useful spell against creatures with many wounds.

- Stench of Nurgle: Another power 1 hth combat spell with some supporting character. However here applies the same as for Miasma of Pestilence.

- Stream of Corruption: A nice power 2 template spell especially useful against low I opponents as they are killed outright. Especially a 6 kills regardless of I. Unfortunately GW reduced the template down to a small one which only affects 3-4 enemy modells. Greater Daemons however , having this spell as their Daemonic Reward can still use the old huge flamer template.

 

6.0 Human Armies

Human armies are one of the 3 aspects a chaos army can have. Apart from the now applying Warlord - Retinue picking they didn't change the human stats or equipment possibilities except for one notable difference. You can now buy Chaos Armour as equipment for 10points. This means chaos sorcerers and human characters not aligned to khorne wont have to sacrifice a valuable magic item slot in order to wear such armour. And you can never have enough saving throws. Another benefit is that you can now field multiple Lord level characters and these do not even have to be your armies general. In fact any character can be the nominated general. I.e. with these new rules the average chaos characters and the average chaos army becomes even tougher than before. More about army composition later.

 

6.0.1 The Chaos Rewards

Human characters can be given so called chaos rewards. These are given in the same way as normal magic items but have some advantages. First such rewards cannot be negated by any! means. This means you have not to worry about spells like deadlock or weapons like the destroyer or sword of destruction. Unfortunately you cannot combine the SOD with rewads either as per WD222.

 

- Nurgle Rewards:

Nurgle's fould Odour: For 50pts this reward reduces the ws of any enemy unit fighting the bearer and unit he is with. Imho this item is far too expensive as a -1 on your ws rarely also changes the resulting to hit roll. And the to hit roll is what counts.

Nurgle's Rot: For a mere 35pts this item gives any enemy in base to base contact with the bearer 1 wound on a D6 roll of 6. This means the chances are 16%. This is not much and makes this item more or less useless and should only be taken for flavour or if you really have no 35pts to spend elsewhere.

Nurgle's cloud of flies: For 30pts this item gives anyone fighting the wearer a -1 on their to hit roll. This is a very nice item as it affects the to hit roll. Given the high WS of chaotic characters this means any enemy has a 33% to hit at best. If you combine that with some other items that give a -X to hit like the cursed book for example this means the wearer can only be hit on a 6. Imho you get the point.

 

- Khorne rewards:

Collar of Khorne: Having an item that will destroy enemy magic weapons if you only manage to make a successful saving throw om behalf of your chaos armour and that gives you and a unit you are with a 4+ dispell against spells sounds nice , on first glance.

However given the fact that magic weapons used to fight a chaos army usually either disallow armour saving throws or/and modify any possible armour saving throw in a way that it is 5-6+ at best and the additional fact that this item

is 100pts make this item pretty much useless.

Axe of Khorne: For just 75pts you get a weapon that has the effect of a frost blade. Even though that a 6 on a D6 renders this weapon useless it is still worth its points. This is because you usually only ned magic weapons when fighting enemy characters/creatures with multiple wounds. Just never forget to equip your characters with non-magical weapons as well.

Battle fury of Khorne: For 50pts you get an item that increases your attacks by 1-2, being frenzy it doubles to 2-4, giving a khorne lord character a total of 6-7 (11-14 when frenzied) attacks. As long as you are frenzied you can be sure that your total number will drop dramatically after the first few hth combat phases. Of course such a reward can be nice if combined with cheese stuff like an exectutioners axe or if you want to have a character capable of slaying a whole unit in one round of hth combat but given the pts cost and the fact that these additional attacks wont last longer than 2 rounds you have to ask yourself whether this is really worth it or not. Rule of thumb, the shorter the battle the worthier it becomes. Imho the up to 10 attacks are enough for any purpose already and you need to fill your magic slots with more important stuff.

Praise of Khorne: For just 25pts you get the chance top reroll any armour save. This may be nice for as long as you do not face many of the armour save negating weapons. If combined with the chaos runeshield it can be even be a great reward.

 

- Tzeentch rewards:

Destiny of tzeentch: For some 40pts you get a special save that works at least once, if not more depending on your D6. This is another item to make a 1W champion live at least twice as long or other characters living much longer as well.

Fortune of Tzeentch: For some 35pts you get the ability to reroll any one dice roll once per turn. Of course this item will burn out on a 1 but this is effectively the Mark of Tzeentch working not only once per battle. This can be very nice and even a battle winner sometimes. Even though you should not depend on it.

 

- Slaanesh rewards:

Allure of Slaanesh: For just 50pts you get a reward that lets any opposing figures do a Ld test on 3D6 in order to strike your character. This comes in very handy and the chances for even high Ld races not making that Ld test are at 30% which is quite a bargain. Against low-level Ld races like Goblins or Skaven this item is almost a must for any selfrespecting Slaanesh character.

Gaze of Slaanesh: This item reduces the A value of any opposing figure by 1 for just 30pts. Even though thi sis not that impressive against opposing characters it is devastating against almost all rnf troop types. If you just manage to bind opposing characters with other characetrs of your own the Gaze of Slaanesh rewarded character will be dangerous to no end. It increaes the attack value of any character dramatically.

 

- Non-aligned rewards

Breathe fire: Having the ability to breathe fire for 50pts is a bit expensive. However this reward can be used in hth combat as well and this means, given the size of the template, that you cover most of any opposing units. This means used right this reward can be quite useful, even if expensive.

Regeneration: Well what is to say. this gives you something like a special save for just 50ptsand given the fact that you rarely bump into fire based attacks it is a very good bargain especially if you consider that all non chaos rewards which a chaos player also has access to have a good chance of burning out.

Iron hard Skin: Just another 4+ special save like reward for a mere 40pts. A must have.

Hideous Appearance: Well to inflict fear (and be immune to fear then) for 35pts is a bit expensive. First of all the very high Ld of chaos characters almost ensure that you rarely fail any fear test and second half your characters are immune to fear anyways. Of course it has its uses if you want to send a lone character against a huge fear causing unit all alone and where you risk losing the combat result. Imho there are many other ways to ensure that this will not happen to any chaos army.

Scorpion Tail: This reward gives you one other S5 attack which negates any armour save for 35pts. Not a bad one but also not that great. Imho this reward is like a filler if you still have character points free and do not know with what to fill the magic item slots.

Mace Tail: This is like the scorpion tail without negating armour saves and for 25pts.
Many Arms: For just 25pts this reward gives you either +1A or a +1 to your save. Not that bad if you want to go for rnf troops. It does not however increase the attack value if your character uses a magic weapon.

Massive Horns: For just 25pts this gives you an additional attack. Thats quite useful sometimes.

Scaly Skin: For 25pts you get an additional 4+ saving throw which is modified by strength. Not that great especially if you consider that the base is +4.

 

6.1 The Warlords

As it is with all chaos characters, human warlords are quite expensive. This means that you have to be even more careful with your character selection. You can't allow yourself to waste any points here. You wont ever have that many characters. Generally your characters are far above the average human ones. You start with a WS that no other race has which ensures you will hit at a 3+. Your S starts at a 5 and your T raises to a 5 as well. This means that most other

races have difficulties wounding your characters as long as they are not mere champions and it also means that you can even try to tackle tinheads by relying on nothing else but your own S and may be a halberd. Your I is as high as that of any Elves which ensures a first strike in consecutive hth combat rounds against almost any other race. Your Ld values start at a 9 which also means that you rarely break.

 

6.1.1 Champions

For just 61pts you can have an unaligned chaos champion with a WS7 S5 T4 I7 Ld9 A3 W1.

The fact that you can buy him chaos armour without sacrificing his valuable magic item slot certainly helps him to survive. His combat stats are good enough to tackle almost any other character up to the hero level with a good chance of winning would it be not for his one and only wound. Imho characters with just one wound are wasted at least if they are as expensive as a chaos champion. Also it is difficult to find the right retinue, because in order to not to waste critical character points the ideal retinue of a character should be costing as much as the character. If it costs more you are going to lose character points which you can sometimes accept but mostly not, especially if you consider combinations with troop types from the monstrous hordes list. You hardly find a retinue for a champion which is sufficient for a battle and only costs lets say 100pts. The only possible troop type would be Marauders and these must be fielded in big blocks and not in 8-10 figs.

- Useful magical equipment:

To find useful magic items for a champion is always difficult. You have to decide whether to take a protecting item which is mostly not worth it because most protecting items work on a 50% chance, a unit supporting item like the cursed book or ruby chalice, which means that your champion has to rely on his chaos armour only (always buy that) and on the slim chance that your opponent ignores and possibly forgets about a "lowly" champion, or you go for an offensive item like magical weapons which is the worst idea you can have imho. Best equipment for a champion would be the halberd if you have to tackle tinheads or just his handweapon and possibly an additional one if you have to fight standard troops.

In any case you can say the shorter the battle is the more valuable and survivable a champion becomes.
- possible equipment:

Mark of Tzeentch, additional hw, jade amulett, cursed book, ruby chalice, halberd gives you a reroll, actually gives you 2 wounds because of the cheap jade amulett and 4 attacks. I think you can figure the stats out for those other marks on

your own. The cursed book would give any enemy a -1 to hit on your character and any other chaos troops within 6''. The ruby chalice would even protect you from missile fire even though it is a bit expensive and therefore whether to put it onto a 1 wound character or not is questionable.

- my personal view:

I never field champions, the disadvantages outweight any possible advantage i can think of. It may also be that because i only face experienced generals who usually do not ignore a champion.

6.1.2 Hero like character

For just 163 points you get an unaligned character that has WS8 S5 T5 W2 I8 Ld10 A4.

The high WS almost assures an at least 3+ to hit against almost everything else the warhammer world has to offer. The high toughness means that about 80% of any other races characters will need a 5+ to wound and his S5 means he wounds about 80% of any other races characters on a 3+. His A4 means he is having as many attacks as any other Lord level character (with some exceptions of course :)). His I8 is only equalled by elven races and assures the 1st strike in any consecutive rounds of hth combat. His W2 mean that he will survive much longer in combat and his Ld10 makes him an ideal leader. Of course he costs as much (and more) than most other races generals but considering his stats he is more than worth it. Of course his high cost also means that you have to try to make him as survivable as possible. So always buy him chaos armour and a shield and either an additional HW or preferably against tinheads a halberd. This gives him either 5 S5 attacks or 4 S6 attacks. His high cost also come in handy if you consider the necessary retinue. For the average 200+ points you can always have a nice big block of marauders with assorted banner. More on unit composition later.

- possible magic items:

The hero like character has two magic item slots free. You usually should think of either 1 protecting item and one attacking item or one protecting item and one unit supporting item. The high costs of this hero means that you have to

protect him well. Otherwise your points have been wasted. Checking on his stats means that this character usually does not really need a magical weapon - at least against most other races and therefore a unit supporting item should be preferred. If your character is not acompanying a unit or you have to face some really nasty stuff (monsters, vampires, ttoads etc.) he should probably have a magic weapon. You should however always consider the purpose first as his stats make many and most of the cheap magic weapons obsolete.

- combos: (always buy chaos armor and shield and additional HW or halberd and consider a possible mark. The mark should be chosen based upon the task this character has to fulfill - of course this is for hardliners and not for the poets who prefer themed armies :)) I think you can figure the purposes of the different marks by yourself. Also remember that his stats mean that he can deal with any sort of rnf troops without any magic weapon and therefore a possible magic weapon should be chosen with the "how to kill opposing characters/multiple wound creatures" in mind. If you check out the magic weapons list you will easily find the perfect weapon for the specific task without having me to point that out. If you think your hero needs a magic weapon then his second magic item should preferably be some ward like save.

Imho this is mandatory as your hero is far too expensive to risk him easily.

You may also , however go for the Chaos armour/chaos runeshield combo and mount that character on a barded steed (1+ save) or a steed of his chaos god (2+ save). Since the chaos runeshield negates any magic weapons your character

might have to face this 1+ save is almost like a special save which is only reduced by your opponents strength. Again many armies with their S4 maximum this works very well. If not for that go for a special save should you decide to equip your character with a magic weapon. Should you decide that a magic weapon is not that necessary (which is in almost 70% of all battles) then you should go for s unit supporting item like the cursed book or the ruby chalice or any other assorted item that helps your assorted unit to win a round of hth combat. Mounting your hero can be quite effective as it does not only increase your armour save to 2+/1+ it also makes this character extremly fast. Even more if he is riding a disc of tzeentch or a slaanesh steed. Speed always is a battle winner as it gives you the chance to choose your fights on your own terms. If you decide to let this characters retinue to be mounted as well however, this will be very expensive pointswise and your unit will be a small one. It is mostly far better to let such a mounted character run on his own.

Another way of mounting such a character is to let him ride on a chariot. This does not only increase any charge by 1D6(+2 in case it has scythed wheels which i highly recommend) S7 hits which is enough to wipe out or at least severely

hurt almost anything else you might have to face in the warhammer world it also protects your character on a varying degree both from missile and hth attacks.

An added bonus is that the chariot is then part of this characters retinue.

Such a setup becomes even more dangerous should you decide to let your characters chariot being towed by the steeds of your characters chaos god. this ranges from the rather slow but awesome and multi wounded juggernauts of khorne (check out those beasties stats.) over 24'' ranged discs of tzeentch to the also 24''ranged steeds of slaanesh (T5) which do also increase your characters attacks by 2. Beasts of nurgle are nothing i would recommend for towing because of their compulsery movement. Lastly even if you only use "mere" chaos steeds this gives you steeds which have a S4 WS4. More on chariots later. Now without any further comment here are some working and tried combos for hero characters.

Be aware however that these can only be some of the myriad useful combinations.
• Mark of Slaanesh, Halberd, Chariot towed by steeds of Slaanesh, CHaos armor, Allure of Slaanesh, Iron hard skin.

Now this character is the perfect rnf killer and can even attack tough cavalry. His mark means he wont break. His halberd gives him S6 attacks which are 6 in total. 4 hitting on a 3+ (against 96% of any opposition) and 2 hitting on a

4-5+ due to the two steeds of slaanesh. The allure of slaanesh lets any opposing figure first have to pass a Ld test on 3D6 in order to strike your chariot.

This is very difficult for most rnf troops and even characters. The iron hard skin gives this character a 4+ special save. If this character charges in his chariots it adds D6+2 S7 hits. And lastly this chariot has a charge range of 24'' which makes it as fast as anything can go in the arhammer world. In addition this chariot causes fear and wont ever break. You can also just replace the armour of brilliance for standard chaos armour and add a magic weapon. Of course this means you lose the "to hit" protection the armour of brilliance offers. On the other hand you get 2 additional attacks with your magic weapon. Of course you can change the marks of this character as well.

Just make sure you add the steeds of his chaos god then. This character surely runs on his own and should therefore be placed and moved carefully. always let him sit back behind rnf units. His charge range means that he wont have any problems with any charge from such a position.

A cheap variant of this is to just mount that character on the steed of his god. This only takes the D6+2 S7 hits and one attack away.
• Any mark, chaos armour, steed (either the one of his god or a chaos steed) with barding (not possible for steeds of the chaos gods), chaos runeshield, an assorted magic weapon (like sword of heroes against dwarfs), additional hw.

This character has a save of 1+ (chaos steed with baridng) or 2+ (steed of the chaos god) to start with which cannot be negated by any magic weapon. This means his save can only reduced by the personal strength of any opposing enemy. Against humans this means he has something like an unmodifiable 2+ save (3+). His magic weapon means he can strike pretty hard. Again always remember that such mounted characters are vulnerable to missile fire. More about tactics for lone characters later.

Characters which are to accompany units should preferably have a unit supporting item.

This however is not always necessary - it just depends on what kind of enemy you are going to fight. Generally the only unit supporting items such a character can have is something that decreases the to hit chance of any opposition or protects the unit from magical attacks. (Cursed book or spelleater shield for example). Imho a character that is not mounted must be placed in a unit. Of course giving such a character a unit supporting item means that he still needs a protecting item and does not have any magic weapon.

This however doesn't mean muchin most cases.

• any mark, chaos armour (shield), halberd, cursed book, regeneration, in a unit that carries the banner of might.

This is one of the typical -1 for the enemy and +1 for me combos. If the unit is a chaos warrior one this means it and the character will hit almost anything on a 2+ and can only be hit on a 5+. The differences in the to hit roll are so high it almost ensures that you will win the combot as long as you are able to wound your opposing stuff. Therefore it is a nice idea to give that unit halberds for example. Such stuff can be even deadlier if you combine such a cursed book with a ruby chalice being worn by another character in that unit which turns the to hit rolls into 2+/6+. Of course if you need a magic weapon then you have to give up on the cursed book and this changes the to hit rolls into 2+/4+.

Mounting such a character on a monster is something i do not like to do. Of course such character/monster combos usually are devastating to no end and generally cheesy, not to mention that such combos are _expensive_.

6.1.3 Lord level characters

Anything said about hero level characters also applies to lord level characters.

A lord level character just has WS9 BS9 I9 W3 A5 and is even more expensive.

However he has a 3rd magic item slot available and this means that you can give such characters a unit supporting item and a magic weapon and a protecting item all together. This also reflects the usual way to equip such a character. If you want such a character to be on his own you can always change the unit suporting item into another self protecting item like something that decreases the enemy to hit roll (which is true to most unit supporting items as well anyways) or, if your gaming group allows that, go for another protecting item.

This however comes very close to cheese imho. Sure you can never have enough saves but too many unmodifiable and/or special saves just make a game boring, especially as chaos has access to several additional saving items. As for

examples on how to equip such a critter just use the examples i mentioned above and add the assorted item that the above mentioned character does not field.

 

6.1.4 The army battle standard bearer

Generally a BSB would always be useful would it not be for the one fact that most BSBs only have 1 wound. This makes them extremly vulnerable and they therefore usually die asap. In order to prevent them from dying to some degree you can mount and armour him to the teeth and/or give him a protecting magic item. This means however that you sacrifice the chance to give the BSB a magic banner.

Combining magic banners can be devastating for your enemy. Imho it is sad that you can have two magic banners in one unit if you use the BSB. I prefer a house rule that only allows one magic banner in any unit. A human chaos BSB differ quite some compared to most other armies BSBs. Generally BSBs have champion like stats. The chaos BSB has a mixture of champion and hero like stats. His S WS W A are those of a chaos hero. This means he has 4 attacks , a very high WS8 and , most important, 2 wounds. Of course this makes the chaos BSB expensive.

On the other hand you can almsot use him as an additional hero who actually survives more than just the 1st round of hth combat. As an added benefit you can even mount this BSB onto the same chariot your army general rides, adding

even more awesome destructive power.

Her is a possible example:

- Army general is a lord character: mark of slaanesh, armour of brilliance, regeneration, sword of change (or whatever you feel like it), additional hw, on a chariot towed by steeds of slaanesh + the army BSB having a halberd, mark of

slaanesh, halberd wearing chaos armour/chaos runeshield combo. This means any enemy striking that chariot will have a -2 to hit against a WS of 9 and therefore usually hitting on a 6+ and his magic weapon will not work. He will receive D6+2 S7 hits, 5+2(steeds of slaanesh) attacks from a magic weapon and 4 S6 attacks from the BSB. Additionally the whole stuff will never break, cause fear and will have a +1 to any combat result. This is just one of the lesser cheesy combos possible.

I.e. given his stats a human chaos army BSB can be a useful addition to any human chaos army.

6.1.5 Chaos Sorcerers

As with all sorcerers in the warhammer world there are 4 different kind of human chaos sorcerers as well. They differ in their sorcerer level (ranged 1-4) and in their stats. Of course they are quite expensive as well. Usually a sorcerer is not that much of a fighter - he is for casting spells. A chaos sorcerer however has all that is required to turn him into a supreme fighting machine.

His WS is 6 (compared to the usual 3-4 most other sorcerer types have) which means that he will hit anything at a 4+ and all rnf on a 3+. Also a chaos sorcerer has one attack more than most other sorcerer types. Combined with his high S and T values of 5 and his awesome I of 6-9 (only elves are equally good with I) and his Ld of 9-10 you have all the basics to use your sorcerer for more than just casting spells. In fact i regard the spell casting abilities of chaos sorcerers to be just a goody. A sorcerer usually has 1 wound more than any comparable non sorcerer character and he can have 1 magic item per level.

This means a lord level sorcerer can have 4 magic items. Equipment wise you can even give your chaos sorcerers armour. This is something no other sorcerer can have. For a mere 10pts you can give each of your sorcerers chaos armour. Now just mount him on a barded steed and your chaos sorcerer has a respective basic armour saving throw of 2+ without you having to sacrifice any valuable magic item slot. Also remember that the sorcerer marks are mostly different compared to those for the non sorcerous characters.

- The different levels:

First of all you have to keep one sad fact in mind. Just about every chaos character is very expensive and you therefore cannot afford to lose one or to take unnecessary risks.

First level sorcerers have S4 T5 W1 I7 A2 Ld9.

This means they are are already quite good , especially with their high T and A values. Unfortunately they only have 1 wound and cost a whooping 84pts naked. This makes them imho far too expensive because of their fragility. I.e. tactics like any greenskin player uses with multiple cheap goblin shamans are not affordable.

Second lebel sorcerers have S5 T5 W2 A2 I7 Ld9.

Such 2nd level sorcerers are even better than 1st level ones as they have not only 2 wounds but they can also have two magic items which makes them much more survivable, especially as you have to remember that this type of character is a sorcerer and should therefore have some invaluable dispell/destroy magic stuff. With two items available and bought chaos armour you can give your sorcerer at least one of these items and still protect him to a reasonable degree. Give him an additional hw and he even has 3 S5 attacks which is enough for most rnf troop types and even for many opposing characters. Unfortunately he also costs some 166pts naked.

Third level sorcerers have the same stats as a 2nd level except for W3 A3 I8 and the chance to equip him with three magic items in total.

All this makes him equal, if not superior to most other armies lord level characters.

Fouth level sorcerers are the highest level sorcerers a human chaos army can have. Compared to a 3rd level sorcerer they have W4 I9 A4 Ld10.

This together with their other stats makes them most formidable foes capable of dealing death to almost everything else the warhammer world has to offer. The 4th magic item slot even increases all that. The high WS of 6 (which is as high as the WS of any other human armies Lord level characters can be) even ensures a good to hit against comparably ranked characters. The high I of 9 means that only elves can challenged him there and ansure the first strike in any consecutive hth combat phases.
Summary:

Apart from the fact that they are quite expensive, which applies to everything a chaos army can field chaos sorcerers are the way to go as far as characters are concerned against most armies. The only army you would have to fear then would be Orcs and Goblins because of their Banner of Mork. Apart from this you have to fear nothing. Given the fact that sorcerers are not that much more expensive compared to comparable non sorcerous chaos characters i would highly recommend to base your army around them. Sure you lose a higher WS and one attack but you gain the benefit of spell casting and the chance to add several magic items only a sorcerer can have and one additional magic item slot. This more often than not is worth the points.
Personal View:

I always base my human chaos armies around sorcerers. Any Hero/Lord level characters i only choose in order to field something on which i can maximise the to hit/taking hit effect or if i really see a need for a possible non sorcerer mark (Slaanesh comes in handy here). If possible i prefer 4th level characters for the reasons i mentioned above and in order to maximise the survivability of my characters within the given restrictions (i rarely if ever play "free for all magic items" games. We usually play by a 50-75pts max). This means that i usually field even fewer characters than many other chaos armies but if i combine my characters with superior speed and movement this makes usually up that lack. With the speed a chaos army can give its human characters you can always choose your fights and decide which parts of your opposing army you want to eliminate early in the game.

Some tested examples:

• Sorcerer Lord: Mark of Slaanesh, Steed of Slaanesh, Chaos Armor, Lance or additional HW, Allure of Slaanesh, Gaze of Slaanesh, Iron hard skin, a magic weapon.
Now this character is a mighty combo of character AND rnf killing machine. He has the stats of a sorcerer lord. He rides a steed of slaanesh giving him a 24'' charge/movement range and one additional attack witha WS3. The Mark of

Slaanesh means that noone within 12'' will ever cast or shoot at this character as long as he is alone. Therefore just get him close to enemy archers or artillery which should be easy given his charge range and if you use possibly scenery to your advantage and you have a thorn in your enemies army that is invulnerable to most attacks either ranged or magic. You have to charge him in order to kill him. And if someone charges him (or you decide to charge by yourself) your two marks of slaanesh come into bear. Anyone attacking the sorcerer in hth loses 1 attack , which means that most rnf troop types wont ever strike at him and those who have more than one attack will have to pass a Ld test on 3D6 first. This will even fail by 40% even if you have the highest Ld value of 10. Especially low Ld armies like skaven or Orcs and Goblins will have a very hard time to kill this guy. In case something manages to hit and even wound the T5 sorcerer he has a modifiable 3+ and then an unmodifiable 4+ save. Should he charge then he will have a grand total of 5 attacks which are either S7 (Lance) in the first round and S5 in any consecutive rounds, or 6 attacks with a S5 (additional Hw), or he strikes with any sort of dangerous magic weapon (a skull wand of kaloth against low ld troops for example). Should anything survive the hth phase then you still have the magic phase with a fairly high percentage to successfully cast a destructive magic spell.

Sure this sort of character is an all attack one where his magic abilities are just an added benefit. If you decide to field such a character you should add a second sorcerer with some magical backup in form of dispell/destroy scroll(s) and or items which help with your spell casting. You can also always drop one of the items mentioned above and give this sorcerer some backup abilities and he will still be a very dangerous fighting opponent.
• Sorcerer Lord: Mark of Nurgle, placed in a unit of chaos warriors, Chaos Armor, Nurgles Cloud of Flies, Staff of Nurgle, Regeneration, magic weapon.
Just another form of an all attack killing machine. Given the fact that the beast of nurgle is not "the mount" to use for characters you should either give him a chaos steed (range 14'' save 2+ because of barding) or place him into a

unit, preferably chaos warriors. A range of 14'' is usually not enough to evade any artillery or missiles which could be trailed against such a acharacter should he be out on his own. Therefore placing him into a unit should be prefered. This character is build around the Staff of Nurgle, an item which has the power to kill everything within 12'' if you only succeed to cast the spell bound into it. The regeneration gives him something like a special 4+ save, the cloud of flies reduces any to hit by -1 and a possible magic weapon gives him character killing abilities in hth. Best it would be to assort an additional character to this unit in order to help the sorcerer to survive any possible challenge and to add additional killing power. If you do this it would be very handy to replace the magic weapon with a spell casting item or some magical backup in form of a dispell scroll. Whatever you decide to do never forget about the Staff of Nurgle. This is the item you want to use at least once (it burns out on a 1-2) against some possible opposing killing machine. Therefore always use your magic phase to prepare the spell bound in the staff. If you do that wisely you will pick out any opposing character and slay him. The fact that your character is within a unit of chaos warriors even ensures that enemy characters will sooner or later be close to that staff because a chaos warrior unit always is a target noone can ignore. Be sure if you do not want to come , they will.

• Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch: Mark of Tzeentch, Chaos Armour, Lance or additional hw, riding disc of tzeentch, iron hard skin, destiny of tzeentch, skull staff, dispell scroll (destroy) or magic weapon.
This is some kind of a backup sorcerer. He is primarily used for dispelling purposes because of the skull stuff. If you just change the scroll for a magic weapon he turns into a more than capable fighter able to deal with almost anything else. The mark gives you a onetime reroll which is can be a battle winner. The iron hard skin - destiny of tzeentch combo gives this sorcerer a very high survivability rate, not to mention his 3+ armour save.

Summary:

As you probably know by now chaos sorcerers are awesome fighters. However you should never forget to have some kind of backup that helps you dealing with opposing magic. Therefore try to field at least two. Chaos sorcerers of less

rank fall into the same group even though they lack magic item slots and you have to even more carefully select what items your sorcerer should have. The less items the more specific the sorcerers role will be. You might also want to

equip a sorcerer for magic supremacy by giving him skull staff, potion of knowledge etc. but i rarely find that necessary for a chaos army.

6.2 Human army rnf troops

General: As it is with characters human chaos rnf troops are quite expensive too. Even though they have superior stats they die almost as fast as any other weaker rnf troops of most other armies. This is because of them having only one wound.

Multi wound troops you have as well but they are so expensive that you can rarely field many of them. So what does this mean.

Being a chaos player you have the option to field either many small units  equipped to the teeth which will have a hard time trying to survive a round of hth combat against any opponent who fields big (not to say huge) blocks of rnf troops, or you field only some few units which are composed out of big blocks and which are not equipped to the teeth (like that cursed and way too expensive chaos armour for chaos warriors) but who can stand up against other huge rnf blocks. Imho any small units tactic is doomed unless these small units are extremly fast and do not meet huge blocks of rnf. The resulting combat results usually end in your opponents favour and you cannot allow yourself to break.

Therefore make any block of rnf troops as big as you can possibly and reasonably do. More on that later.

6.2.1 Chaos Knights

Chaos Knights represent the most elite rnf troops a chaos player can possibly field. WS6 BS6 S4 T4 W1 I6 A2 Ld9 combined with a WS4 S4 horse and the chance for a 1+ save are impressive.

This however is expensive. A fully equipped chaos knight costs around 80pts each. Altogether you have a knight on a superior warhorse with a 1+ save. In addition you do not have to pay extra for either musician or banner bearer.

Now having a 1+ save to start with means that no S3 attack will ever hurt those knights. Even a S4 or 5 attack only reduces the save to +2 +3. This makes them vastly superior to any other cavalry especially as you still have a magic

banner slot free. Of course any such unit is extremly hard hitting - imagine each warrior has 2 attacks hitting on a +3 with a S6. Thats pretty much enough to kill any opposing rnf troops which only have 1 wound. Unfortunately their

high points cost mean that you never have many of those chaos knights - especially if you remember the fact that any points the unit costs more than their warlord means lost character points - and therefore (almost) no ranks.

This fact can pretty much kill your expensive chaos knights. Additionally never forget that expensive means important. Even only 5 models cost you around 400pts with a magic banner not included. This means they have a standing combat result of 1. Now let such a unit face a standard infantry block of imperial halberdiers with a banner of defiance. From the 10 attacks there will roughly 66% hit. Thats 7 attacka. Your S6 from the charge mean you wound on anything but a 1. With 7 hit you can be sure that one to wound roll will be a 1. Thats 6 wounds if we are generous and your dice rolling is good. Ok 7 of those halberdiers die and their front rank cannot fight back but with their banner and ranks their basic hth combat result is a 7+. This means both units aree equal in hth.

To sum it up your empire players blocks a very expensive chaos unit with a throw away halberdier unit and will probably tie this unit up for the remainder of the game. I.e. your few chaos knights need to break their opposing units in

the first hth round or they are wasted. This means your unit may needs either an assorted character for additional killing and/or a magic banner that helps you with the combat result. Ths makes this small unit even more expensive and important. It will draw even more attention from your enemy.

An additional weakness is that there are way too many magic items or spells which do not give you an armour saving throw (just check the spells). Just take one of those standard 2D6 S4 hits spells which every deck has. It means if this

spell will ever be cast at your unit it will most likely be wiped off the table top.

Personal view:

I never field chaos knights as they are way too expensive for the uses they may have. Being expensive means i have to protect them from magic and other stuff. Of course their charge range of 14'' makes them fast but one has to ask himself

if such a small unit that can die easily if your opponent knows this game is worth the efforts of additional protection you more or less must give them. If you really want to field them make sure they attack small opposing units and not your enemies big blocks.

6.2.2 Chaos Warriors
Chaos warriors are the elite foot troops of any human chaos army. They have the same stats as a chaos knights just without the horse and cost 31pts (33pts with halberds) with chaos armour giving them a +3 save. Additionally you do not have to pay for musician and banner bearer as well.

As per weapons, given the warriors truely awesome stats you can just equip them with anything you want.Additional hw - figure 12 - 15 S4 attacks hitting on a 3+. Halberds - figure 10-12 S5 attacks hitting on a 3+. What kind of weapons you choose really depends on the possible enemy you have to fight. If it is against cavalry or other T4 troops use Halberds. If it is "weak" stuff like elves or humans use additional hw or spears.

As far as armour goes you have to carefully consider if you should pay the 7 pts for chaos armour. This increases the price for each model by 25% and you only need that chaos armour when fighting missile heavy fast troops like elven

for example. The T4 makes your troops much saver than additional chaos armour.

If you field chaos warriors make sure that the unit is as big as possible - therefore buy them as retinue for your most expensive character. They will be a prime target.

Always equip your chaos warriors with a magic standard. The best would probably be the banner of might or if you want to go cheese the banner of rage. Imagine chaos warriors hitting on a 2+. If you really want to be cheesy and create a powerful block then give this unit the banner of rage and add an army battle standard bearer with the banner of might. Each warrior will hit on a 2+ and have 4 attacks minimum. Thats enough to break almost anything. I cannot possibly think of any other more devastating rnf troop.

If you add some characters to your chaos warrior unit you are even more set.

You just have to make sure that this juggernaut gets into hth on your terms and relatively unmolested. This means - protect them with your other troops and use them in a second wave for example. More on tactics later.

 

6.2.3 Chaos Hounds

For 12pts you get something that is M6 WS4 BS4 S4 T4 W1 I4 A2 Ld6.

This is not bad - especially if you consider the 12'' charge range. The lwo Ld you can cover with an assorted chaos warrior who will not even slow the hounds down.

Not bad. Unfortunately and obviously you cannot give ypur chaos hounds any sort of equipment. This makes them easy pray for any sort of missile attack. This lack of any save/equipment and the fact that you have plenty of additional rnf troops which are far better make your chaos hounds more or less useless. For flanking and to cancel opposing units rank bonuses they may still have some use. I would however not build big units. They are just not worth it. Not even as a screen are they good as they are too expensive.

 

6.2.4 Chaos Marauder

Now this is the troop type chaos lacked during the 4th edition time. Something that is cheap and still quite powerful.For a mere 12pts you get M4 WS4 BS3 S4 T3 W1 I4 A2 Ld7 which you can additionally equip with double handed weapons or additional hw or flails.

With flails you will have troops which have 2 attacks hiiting most opposing rnf troops on a 3+ with a strength of 6. Thats pretty much davastating and enough to even tackle the most heavily armored cavalry.

Unfortunately only one unit per retinue may have a magical banner. If you really want to you can also equip this troops with la and shield. This is however not really necessary as you can bring many and thats the key - big blocks! If you do not want such a units chaos lord to accompany said unit then you should assort it a chaos warrior for Ld purposes. This warrior also serves the good purpose to take challenges you do not want your chaos lord to accept in case he is accompanying the unit.
Personal view:

I always equip my marauders with flails and leave any armor at home. I also make marauder units as big as i can possibly do without sacrificing character points. Such a marauder block can be a first class blocking unit if you equip

it with the banner of defiance. More on such tactics later. All in all chaos marauders are more than worth their points.

6.2.5 Mounted Chaos Marauder

Mounted chaos marauders are just marauders mounted on a normal warhorse and with the option to equip them with flails and/or shields. If you give them everything the marauder costs a whooping 35pts and that is expensive.

Additinally every such unit may have a magic banner. Even though not cheap they are much cheaper than chaos knights and can accomplish most of the tasks a chaos knight unit can do in much the same way.
Personal View:

If i field such marauders i never equip them with shields and therefore have great fast cavalry. The options of any fast cavalry far outweight any benefit you could get by giving them a shield. The flails are just like lances. Be aware however that you should possibly break any opposing unit in the first round after the charge because the lack of armor and numbers don't give them much staying power in consecutive rounds. As far as magic banners go i never give them any - this is because i usually need my banners in the big blocks.

For harassing and flanking purposes such marauders can be devastating however.

6.2.6 Chariots

Well what is to say. Chaos gets two types of chariots - either marauder chariots with marauder crew and normal warhorses or chaos warrior chariots with chaos steeds and chaos warrior crew. Always equip your chariots with

scythes - thats a must!

WHich type of chariot you want to use is totally up to you. Be aware that the marauder chariot can accomplish 80% of the tasks any chaos warrior chariot can accomplish. The only difference is in points cost and equipment and as it is

the impact hits that make chariots so dangerous the equipment is of minor importance. The role of chariots for characters is already covered above. Being able to give one chariot a magic banner can sometimes be very important. The jobs for chariot are obvious. They are something like the long strike hard hitting force a chaos army can field. Never leave the chaos wastes without them.
Personal view:

Apart from using chariots as a character ride (of course with the character typical steeds to increase the charge range and for other benefits i have already mentioned) i usually try to combine two chariots or more together and attack one unit with it. As long as this unit is not huge and stuffed with supercharacters you can be sure that this unit will break after the charge more often than not. Additionally i use these chariots for flanking purposes - removing the rank bonus - and to tackle opposing heavy cavalry.

6.2.7 Ogres
Ogres you can field in the same way as dragonogres (3 dragonogres can have a champioon etc.). For 40pts you get something that moves 6'' has WS3 S4 and T5 and A2 and Ld7. Unfortunately your ogres cannot have a magic banner but at least you can give them most types of hand weapons and up to heavy armor.

The high points cost mean that you never field many of those ogres. In addition your retinue neds at least a unit of marauders or chaos warriors in order to field ogres. This can get you to waste character points quite fast as you

either have to cut down on your warrior unit(s) in order to keep the optimum as many character points as unit points or you field them and lose character points. Cutting down on your warrior units is not that much of a goo didea because in close combat your warrior units are much better (higher WS Ld and numbers and magic banner) than your ogres. Additionally your ogres usually draw a lot of fire. This you can use to your own advantage to distract your enemy

away from the real danger your warrior units pose. Their high toughness of 5 and 3 wounds make them almost ideal to take bow fire.
Personal view:

I rarely field ogres. If i field them then i never give them any armor as i rely on their high toughness and additional hw. I only field ogres if i take real expensive characters with me. Imho ogres cannot accomplish much in hth - at least not at all as much as any warrir unit can.

So much about the different human chaos troop types and characters. I am sure you have learned a lot so far. Now on with the most important part - TACTICS

7.0 Tactics with human chaos armies.

General: In this chapter i try to cover several tactics for a human chaos army. Be aware that i cannot discuss all possible tactis because this would blow this already big document. Additionally i only cover HUMAN army tactis and not combined chaos army tactics. The combined arms tactics you can find in my tactics for demon armies.

7.1 The game factors that count

7.1.1 Time: Time is a key factor for any chaos army. The lack of missile weapons and cheap troops you can use to draw missile fire in form of screens mean that you have to get into hth combat as soon as possible. Therefore the factor time here is - get into hth. Combined with your speed it is also - get into hth asap and at your OWN conditions.

7.1.2 The terrain: Due to the factor time one could say that the more open your battlefield the better for your chaos army as you can get into hth much easier (there is no way to hide). This is true if you play on a small battlefield. The smaller the battlefield the less terrain is ideal for you. Having so fast troops mean that you can get into hth in the 1st round on small battlefield.

The bigger the battlefield the more terrain features even a chaos player would like. As it is terrain features are the only cover a chaos player can have against missile fire. The good use of terrain in combination with speed will save you a lot from missile fire. Hills and woods and buildings are perfect to hide fast cavalry and chariots and such characters behind. Stay away from rivers however.

7.1.3 Speed: Speed is also an important factor for chaos armies. You can possibly field the most mobile characters in the whole warhammer world. Use your speed to maneuver and evade missile fire and to attack the enemy on your own conditions. More on that later.

 

7.2 Typical armies and tactics
General: Now i am going to discuss typical armies and possible tactics. I do not build these armies however. Even though the tactics are based around 3000pts armies you can easily convert them into 2000pts armies. I also generally base the tactics on magic items with a maximum of 50-75pts. this should suit you well.

Be also aware that i rarely field khorne characters - they are just boring.

7.2.1 The general army

My general army typically consists of two sorcerers (mostly lords) and one lord level character riding on a chariot. For retinue purposes there is one chaos warrior unit having heavy armor and halberds and the banner of might and two

marauder units having the banner of defiance and no additional banner or maybe the banner of sorcery. If i field a khorne character than he is the one riding on the chariot with juggers (if i have the points) and of course the chaos

warrior unit gets the banner of rage.

The two sorcerers are one Slaanesh lord on a steed of slaanesh and one Tzeentch lord on a disc. one of those is typically equipped to fight (the Slaanesh mostly because of his steed and the slaanesh chaos rewards) and the other is to backup in form of antimagic (skull stuff , dispell scroll). My army general usually is a Lord of slaanesh on his chariot.

What you can do with that army:

As already said it is a general army capable to accomplish most tasks.

The general with his mark will never break and can therefore tackle even big enemy units and stay there for several rounds. This you can help with by giving this character allure of slaanesh for example as this will deny most of your opposing troops to even attack this character. He therefore has quite a free reign then to wreck havoc with his additional hw or magic weapon like the sword of change (which i almost always give him) if he has to fight characters.

All characters have a charge range of 24''. If you have to face missile troops use your slaanesh sorcerer to move ahead and get close (but out of charge range/arc) to your opposing missile troops and/or casters. The mark of slaanesh for sorcerers will then do its work. Also remember that once you are within 12'' of opposing troops they cannot pull any charge reaction in consecutive turns then. The tzeentch wizard can even fly high and take out cannons and the like very easy.

Initial setup:

MMMMMMMMMM MMMMMMMMMMM(defiance) CWCWCWCWCW(might)

WTZ GCH WSL

 

this initial setup of course also depends on the game factors i have discussed above. Most important terrain. As you can see the major part of this army is the right wing. The slaanesh wizard can speed ahead can possibly cover. As can the general on his chariot. All character hang back for 1-2 inches in order to cover hide from shooting arcs. Their speed makes this not a disadvantage to them. Both the chariot and other characters can always flank charge any opposition. This has some benefits as far as challenges go etc. The chaos warriors hanging on the right flank mean that your general will usually go with his heaviest unit(s) against them. this gives your banner of defiance equipped marauders the chance to flank and use their awesome combat result. All these units should work closely together and all units should be able to cover each others flanks. If your opponent gets his best units to your right flank then charge ahead with your left wing and center as these two units will most like be more than enough to wipe off the rest - especially if you support them with one of your characters.

On large battlefields where i have time i usually like to have my opponent having the first turn as this gives me the chance to see where he wants to go and then i can decide where to build my own strong point and lure the enemy in it. Even though this seems as you would let your opponent have the initiative this is not true. Be sure that,as he will have to be aware of your best units, he will quickly try to get as them. He never has the superior hth fighters and if he attacks your supposedly weaker troops he will (given the speed of your characters) always also end up tackling with your truly deadly characters. And he will soon find out that marauders are anything but easy prey. Also remember to use blocking scenery. The more blocking scenery you have the more defensive you can play.

Is defensive playing possible with chaos armies?

The answer simply is: Yes it is IF you have good blocking scenery. If you have blocking scenery you can use this to cover charge arcs and position your army in a way that it can wait for your opponents advance and using your own

superior speed you will still get the charge. If your opposing arm yhas a lot of missiles on hills for example it could be a good idea to change some of your marauders for harpies (after you have toned down a character of course) in order to help your tzeentch wizard dealing with artillery crews.

 

Another semi defensive tactic is to use your superior speeded characters to wipe out any opposing missile troops and after you have accomplish this you start moving your troops. This is a very able tactic on large battlefields. On small ones you only have the chance for a combined fast advance.

 

Screens

For a chaos army it is more or less impossible to field a screen. Not even chaos spawn is a good screen because of his compulsary movement. You are however perfectly able to tackly and destroy any opposing screen.

This works as following:

Screening troops never are elite troops. In fact they are weak and dispendable troops. In addition screens never have ranks. This comes even better if the scren is a skirmishing one (read the skirmishers chapter in the rulebook). In this case move one of your units one or two inch ahead and receive the charge! At the same time try to position your remeining units and characters for flanking charges for the main enemy unit(s). You can even use your characters to receive such a screen charge. Having the ranks and superior stats mean that you almost always will win (the banner of defiance equipped marauders are not to be used for that) the hth round by a large number and your opponent will break. YOu will of course follow and given the setup of a screen this means you will most likey just charge the opponents main unit during the follow up as he usually is very close behind the screen. This is even deadlier if you decide to take the screens charge with a character and a unit. In order to distract bow equipped screens (like skinks) use your slaanesh wizard and position him right before your receiving unit. Once the enemy unit is one turn away from charging just move your character besides the receiving unit (or attach him) and you are set. You opponent now either charges or receives a charge with your superior speeded characters. Believe me with just some thinking and carefully thought out setup you will destroy ANY enemy screen without having to suffer the usual screen consequences.

If you are fighting skaven and a PCB screen use your chariot from the flank and wipe them out. Another good idea may be a shooting banner like the banner of wrath and/or some stuffs like the staff of osiris. These usually deal well with screens.

 

How to deal with cavalry

Of course this general army can also deal with cavalry of any type. The crux of any cavalry is that if they do not manage to break the target they have charged in the first round they are just weak heavily armored expensive troops hanging around accomplishing nothing. It comes even worse if such a unit gets charged.

You usually have two ways to deal with such troops. First you charge them with your superior speeded characters. This can be dangerous as opposing heavy cavalry more often than not also includes some tough enemy characters - and tough they will be because they are fighting chaos. One option is to equip the slaanesh sorcerer with a cursed book and charge with him and the general on his chariot. You will most like end up being challenged and black gemed. Better is to use your maneuverability and get into such a units flank and charge that.

Then you cannot be black gemed and you will most likely break that unit. The other option is to use one of your units and your characters to position the characters on your opponents cavalry unit flank and one of your units before

him. This should ideally be the banner of defiance equipped unit. Believe me your opponent will think twice before running into this bag and receive the charge from your characters. Even if he breaks your marauders he will receive

the charge. The other option is to have a cheap unit you can use to block such a unit and receive their charge. This works well too.

But how about bretonians and their multiple heavy cavalry units?

Even more easy. If the battlefield is big you can ignore his archers as he will soon block their los (line of sight) with his own knights. You form your units closely together and wait. Ignore the remaining battlefield. If the battlefield is small it works even better as your opponent will never be able to shoot more than once. As the bretonian cavalry wedges are almost never bigger than 10 figs each unit and he will never be able to stuff all his units with characters you use your superior speed and wipe out the weakest unit with your chariot(s) and general or one more character. Soon there will only be some wedges left and you can easily build a bag where if your opponent charges he will always receive countercharges in his flank/rear. This is tried and tested and works. On small battlefields this tactic is not possible however. There make sure your opponent will need two turns in order to charge you and use your own firsat

turn to maneuver your speedy character in a way that they can flank.

 

Magic?

Magic of course plays a big part in any chaos army as well. Having discussed all the available spells you will probably have realised how deadly such chaos magic is. The deadlines of your spells in combination with your speed and the mark of slaanesh can neutralise even magic heavy armies like all goblin ones or undead. A banner of sorcery comes in handy here. Giving your stats and possible equipment you can even play for magical superiority by removing your opponents lesser wizards or be splitting one lord into two or three first level wizards of slaanesh all riding chariots. Such an army i call cheese.

So much about tactics. As you can see these are fairly general. You can use this army and switch the one ot other character around and with only very little change in form of additional chariots and several lesser characters and such you can accomplish anything as long as you bear the principles i discussed above in mind. Use your speed to dictate the fighting and maybe change one marauder unit into mounted marauders. And always keep in mind that your opponent always has plenty of units which will never stand three charging characters. This will always cause disorder and your opponent will react on it and therefore his army comes into disarray and gives your units the chance to mop up and join the fray where you want to.

We here in Freiburg also play battles in which one restriction is that a character may never leave a unit and has to be attached to one all the time.

This reduces the speed factor a lot but still you can win against most opponents as long as you carry in mind what i have discussed about equipment for characters in units etc. STill the above mentioned army is the most versaite one.It has no real weakness as long as you never forget about the above discussed principles.

 

Anyways - thats it - i hope you forgive the racktack form of this article. This is because i wrote this article in german and for some fellow players who just want hard facts and no style. If you have questions or additional two cents or whatever just contact me and i will see what i can do :) You can reach me at:

[email protected]

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