The Old World: Warriors of Chaos

Tactica

By javgoro, with contributions from other members of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles/The
Old World discord.
Contents
WoC Tactica .................................................................................................................. 3
Overview .................................................................................................................... 3
Marks of Chaos and Generic Special Rules .................................................................. 3
Marks of Chaos ....................................................................................................... 3
Generic Special Rules ............................................................................................. 4
Other upgrades ....................................................................................................... 4
Army list options ........................................................................................................ 5
Characters ............................................................................................................. 5
Infantry................................................................................................................... 6
Cavalry ................................................................................................................... 8
Chariots ................................................................................................................. 9
Monsters ................................................................................................................ 9
Lores of Magic .......................................................................................................... 10
Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos................................................................................. 12
Magic items .......................................................................................................... 12
Gifts of Chaos ....................................................................................................... 15
Miscellanea and FAQ ................................................................................................ 16
Are Warriors of Chaos that bad? I’ve heard a lot of complaints ................................ 16
Are Chaos Warriors that bad? Why? How can I make them work? ........................... 16
How to train your dragon ....................................................................................... 17
I choose you! ........................................................................................................ 24
Chaffing, screening and redirecting ....................................................................... 24
Writing an army list ............................................................................................... 26
Sample army lists ................................................................................................. 27
WoC Tactica
Overview
This is a mechanical analysis of the Warriors of Chaos army in The Old World ruleset. Units
are graded on how good they are in terms of how well they perform on the battlefield as well
as how expensive in points they are. Short explanations follow for each unit and their
upgrades. The grades are as follows:

Purple: Fantastic. The best options in the list. You’re always building a stronger list when
you choose these options.

Blue: Very good. These options are always strong, and you will get a good return on
investment on your points.

Green: Decent. These options can be strong, although there’s usually a better/stronger
option or you have to build around them

Black: Weak. These options are not very powerful, or require a lot of building around. You
can play these options and be successful, but they generally are not very powerful or have
very significant downsides.

Red: Terrible. You’re actively hampering yourself by taking these options. Never pick them
on a competitive army.

This guide is primarily aimed at new players of The Old World, as well as at players who
choose Warriors of Chaos as their new army, and is meant to be a series of guidelines.
Nothing said here is set in stone, and playstyles and local metas are so divergent that some
of the information here may not be of use to you. Just take it as a starting point towards your
own path to glory, and not as a bible of the Dark Powers.

Marks of Chaos and Generic Special Rules

Marks of Chaos
All of our units can be upgraded with the various Marks of Chaos, and so it is easier to make
a generic list here. Any exceptions will be noted on the specific units. If you really want a
deep dive into the mechanics, especially Mark of Nurgle, check out the mathematical
breakdown at the end of the document.

Mark of Chaos Undivided: Our default mark, it allows you to reroll any failed Panic, Fear
and Terror tests. It’s solid, and costs us nothing. It’s not flashy, but it works all right. When
in doubt, go with it and save points.

Mark of Khorne: Mark of Khorne grants the unit Frenzy and Immunity to Panic, Fear and
Terror. This gives the unit a huge amount of offensive power and good psychology bonuses,
but makes it hard to control. Furthermore, if you lose combat, you lose its benefit. It’s hard
to play around, and the downsides are massive, but it’s a great way to build hammers.
Handle with care.
Mark of Nurgle: MoN has historically been a staple of defensive units. Currently, it makes
the opponents reroll 6’s to hit in combat. It’s not worth the points on several units (generally
anything that is below 20 points per miniature) compared to adding extra models. It will only
pay off when you would lose combat by less than 1 Wound, in which case it might tip the
scales over to a tie. However, when a unit is very hard to hit and very resilient, and costs a
lot of points (like a Lord of Chaos on Dragon), Mark of Nurgle’s value raises exponentially,
and becomes fantastic. There are also synergies with magic that raise its value to Decent
if you build around it.

Mark of Slaanesh: MoS grants you +1I in the first round of combat as well as immunity to
Panic. It’s a very solid Mark that pairs well with fast troops that want to hit hard. MoS
becomes fantastic in troops with Great Weapons or very small numbers.

Mark of Tzeentch: MoT is highly situational, in that it will be very useful against certain
armies (like Tomb Kings) and useless against others. Magic Resistance (-1) is always nice,
but you’re missing out on rerolls from MoCU (which, again, is roughly 1 ppm) and paying
2ppm for the rest. It’s generally not worth it, unless you want to run a wizard bunker and get
the extra bonus to casting rolls, in which case it becomes Decent.

Generic Special Rules

Gaze of the Gods: this is a rule that all of our characters get access to. It allows us to roll
on a random table that can improve the character’s statline at the risk of gaining Stupidity
(but there are ways to mitigate that risk). It’s almost always worth rolling on the table until
you get your first Stupidity result, at least.

Ensorcelled Weapons: this rule gives us AP -1 on our hand weapons. It’s solid. The problem
is, it makes several of our upgrades not worth it (extra hand weapons and halberds),
because you’re paying points to gain marginal benefits while losing significant ones. If it
benefitted all weapons, it would be fantastic instead.

Chaos Armour: Some of our troops get access to Chaos Armour, which is a variable Ward
save, and also allows our spellcaster to cast spells while wearing armour. It’s great on
anything that gets it, and you don’t have to pay extra points for it.

Other upgrades
Specific upgrades for the units will be listed in their entries. As far as Command Group
models go, Champions, Musicians and Standard Bearers are always Decent or Strong. I
will only call out exceptions to these when they specifically apply. Otherwise, they are
cheap enough that you really want to buy them.
Army list options
Characters
Chaos lord: Chaos Lords are our best melee fighters and our best generals. They have an
impressive statline, are our only characters with Plate Armour, and come stock with a 5+
Ward save thanks to Chaos Armour. They get access to the Gaze of the Gods ability and
Rallying Cry. They cost a ton of points once you kit them out, but they’re usually worth the
expense.

Exalted Champion: Our second-tier fighty character. They have a good statline, and can
pack quite a punch. They can also be our Battle Standard Bearer, which can help with
Leadership rolls (although depending on how many of your units have MoCU or cause
fear/terror, you may not get that much mileage from it).

Aspiring Champion: 70 points for a Chosen unit champion that has 1 extra Wound and a
5++ but no Plate. No. Just no. Not even as a cheap Battle Standard Bearer.

Daemon Prince: Daemon Princes work as a hybrid caster/fighter lord that can be upgraded
to have great mobility. They are decent, and if used properly can be a proper thorn on the
enemy’s side. However, the fact that they are unstable and only have 4 Wounds means that
if they get bogged down into combat they are very likely to just die to static combat
resolution. Use them carefully and support them with other units to avoid this.

Sorcerer Lord: Our magic lores are really good, Sorcerer Lords have a decent statline, and
can be quite punchy with the right mounts. If you can fit one in your army, always run it.

Exalted Sorcerer: Not quite on the level of the Sorcerer Lord in terms of stats, survivability,
or casting power, but a lot cheaper. It can be pretty good if mounted in a chariot, and more
magic is never a bad thing. If you can’t afford a Sorcerer Lord or Daemon Prince, this is a
decent budget option.

Character mounts
Chaos Steed: The most basic mount option, and a decent option all in all. It does nothing
flashy, but it’s cheap, and allows you to run with a unit of Chaos Knights and be protected.
If you want to add the character to a unit of Chosen Knighs, this is terrible instead, as they
will lose Countercharge, which is a very powerful Special Rule.

Daemonic Mount: Twice as expensive as a Chaos Steed, and it doesn’t come with a
Barding. You gain 1W and some punch at the expense of 1 Armor Save. It’s roughly on par to
a Chaos Steed in my opinion, but probably not worth it for the cost. Also, the same
consideration with regards to Chosen Knights applies to the Daemonic Mount.

Manticore (Chaos Lord or Sorcerer Lord only): A good option for a monster rider, as far as
budget goes. Nowhere as powerful or as expensive as a Chaos dragon, it still adds 4 W to
the rider and has a decent punch, plus it flies. It can make you lose control of the mount,
although you only need to worry about that for the first couple of turns while you’re
maneuvering.

Chaos Dragon (Chaos Lord or Sorcerer Lord only): the Lamborghini of character mounts.
Massively expensive, and you get what you pay for. Two breath weapons, +1T, +6W, a
buttload of attacks, fly, terror… It’s massively expensive, and if you are careless with it, you
won’t get your points back, but there’s not a lot of things in the game that will direct the
enemy’s attention like a dragon will.

Infantry
Chaos Warriors: Terrible? Surely you must be joking! They have WS5, S4, T4… Look at that
statline! Well, yes, they’re terrible. Chaos Warriors in The Old World are overpriced for any
role you want them for. As hammers, they’re a lot worse than Forsaken, Knights, or even
Marauder Horsemen. As anvils, their lack of Shieldwall and above average, but still not that
good resilience, means that they’re just gonna be taking charges and Falling Back In Good
Order for a couple of turns while losing expensive models until they break. Seriously, they’re
garbage for the cost. Don’t bother. But if you still want to bother, look at the end of this
document.

Options: Great Weapons are OK, especially if paired with Mark of Khorne in cheap
hammers. Shields aren’t too expensive, and it’s your best budget option thanks to
Ensorcelled Weapons. But overall? Leave these guys in the shelf.

Chosen Chaos Warriors: These guys are Special, and 1 per army. They also cost a buttload
of points for what’s essentially 1W troops, more so once you upgrade them. But they are one
of the punchiest infantry units in the game, and if properly supported, they’ll mince most
things to pieces. Run them in small units of about 12 Chosen, otherwise they get too costly.

Options: Mark of Slaanesh or Mark of Khorne paired with Great Weapons turns Chosen
into a fantastic hammer. A great substitute for the MoK is the Banner of Rage, especially
paired with MoS. Mark of Nurgle starts being competitive on them, especially when paired
with Shields. You probably want to avoid Mark of Tzeentch in them. They don’t have the
bodies to work as a Sorcerer bunker, and flaming attacks and Magic Resistance are nice but
very situational on a unit you’re already paying through the nose for. Drilled and Plate
Armour are both well worth your points on Chosen Warriors.
Chaos Marauders: Marauders are cheap. That’s their biggest upside. They have OK stats for
their cost, and they also can get good options. Don’t expect them to win many combats or
be the backbone of your army, but they’re usually worth bringing along.

Options: In general, you want to keep Marauders cheap, so try not to load up on too many
upgrades. Small units that work as hammers are ok, if nothing else because they’re
throwaway hammers that you are ok with them not doing anything of value. In this case, give
them Mark of Khorne and Flails. Larger units with Shields (and nothing else) are the only
thing you have in the army that can use the Shieldwall special rule to stop strong chargers
like heavy cavalry in their tracks. Marauders also benefit from larger units thanks to the
warband special rule. One unit may replace Close Order with Skirmishers and Open order,
although I’m unconvinced that you want either in most cases, but don’t forget that option.
It may come in handy.

Forsaken: After sucking for the last two editions of Warhammer Fantasy, Forsaken now get
their time in the sun. These guys are amazing. 5++ ward, a base movement of 5, 1D3 attacks
each, random upgrades every turn, Furious Charge… Their only downsides are their cost (19
ppm) and Impetuous (which isn’t a huge deal, but it’s worth paying attention to), and even
then they’re core. Run two or three units of 5-7 and you won’t regret it.

Options: you don’t pay for these upgrades, but must choose one. Unlike other units,
Forsaken get an option depending on which God “forsook” them, but these are actually
upgrades, unlike Marks of Chaos, which tend to be sidegrades. Forsaken by Khorne or
Forsaken by Slaanesh are both very, very good (the latter actually makes forsaken almost
as fast as cavalry). Forsaken by Nurgle is very bad (you won’t have the numbers for Fear to
ever be a factor), while Forsaken by Tzeentch is ok, but pales compared to how good the
good options are.

Chaos Ogres: A decent punch, a decent amount of Wounds, and a pretty high M stat with
Impact hits. Chaos Ogres are a pretty good option, and they can perform a similar job than
Forsaken or Chosen at a similar cost. Run them in small units of 3-4. You won’t get any
benefits from Ogre Charge, but you’re spending a lot of points on an extra rank for that AP.

Options: Great Weapons is so much better than Extra Hand Weapons on these guys it’s
not even funny. The only mark that’s really worth running on them is Mark of Slaanesh if you
run them with Great Weapons, but it’s not strictly required.

Chaos Trolls: These dummies fulfil a similar role to Chaos Ogres at a similar cost. Their Ld4
and Stupidity means they have to be babysat by your general at all times, which makes them
a lot less reliable. They’re ok, but they compete with other very strong options in our Special
Units section. It’s notable that you can run them in units of one, which can have its uses as
a chaff unit that’s hard to get rid of.
Chaos Spawn: Unbreakable monstrous infantry that’s highly random, but with pretty good
upgrades for a reasonable cost of 50 ppm. I might be undervaluing them, and the only thing
that makes me put them at Decent instead of Good is how busy our Special section is.

Options: All upgrades except for Spawn of Tzeentch are Good. You should always upgrade
these guys, IMO.

Cavalry
Chaos Knights: Not super expensive for a heavy cavalry core unit with good stats. They’ll
be one of the staples of WoC armies as far as hammers are concerned. Lack of
Countercharge definitely hurts these guys, who would be Fantastic otherwise.

Options: Lances is a must-take. Mark of Khorne and Mark of Slaanesh are both worth their
points on these guys. The former doubles their punch but makes them hard to control. The
latter gives them an advantage when dealing with other heavy cavalry that might
countercharge them. Mark of Nurgle at least is an upgrade, mathematically speaking, but
it’s a lot worse than the alternatives. Don’t bother with Mark of Tzeentch.

Chosen Chaos Knights: These are Chosen on horses. They’re very expensive, and Special
instead of Core. They will decimate almost anything they touch if they get the charge, and
they get access to Countercharge, which is very nice. One of our best hammers, and one of
the best cavalries in the game, although things like Grail Knights and Demigryphs are still
better.

Options: once more, Lances are a must. The same considerations with regards to Mark as
in Chaos Knights apply here, but Mark of Slaanesh is even better on these guys. Always
take Plate Armour. Drilled is not as important here as it is on footslogging Chosen, but still
nice.

Marauder Horsemen: Cheap core fast cavalry that can fire and flee or be run with flails as
cruise missiles? Yes please. These guys are fantastic.

Options: How you upgrade these guys depends a lot on what you want to do with them.
Mark of Slaanesh is almost a must, IMO, for the immunity to Panic. Both Flails and Javelins
are good. Cavalry spears and Shields can also be used if you want these guys to work
harrying the backlines and hunting warmachines. All in all, they are super flexible, so just
gear them according to the role you want them to perform.

Chaos Warhounds: Never leave home without a couple of units of these. Super cheap
chaff, they can screen your frenzied units and your hammers, they will stand in the way of
enemy shooting, and you won’t care when (not if) they die. Watch out for them panicking
your other units, however.

Options: Keep them cheap. The only option that’s worth it is Vanguard, and even that one is
questionable depending on what you want them to do. Never, ever run them with a Handler.
It makes them slower, costs 15 points for what’s basically a M5 chaos warrior, and you don’t
need the extra punch it brings. It’s the worst option in the whole book, incredibly
detrimental.

Dragon Ogres: These guys are fast and hit hard for a very reasonable amount of points.
Running them in units of 1 to 3 as shock cavalry is a good option. They also unlock
Shaggoths for your list (see below).

Options: Great weapons seem the best weapon choice, given their low I and Ensorcelled
Weapons making other options comparably worse. Heavy armour will also work very well
with them thanks to their natural Armoured Hide.

Chariots
Note: Chariots as character mounts are Very Good, or Fantastic for Exalted Sorcerers.
Sorcerers can have a 360º line of sight while riding a chariot, and their defensive stats are
greatly increased while on a chariot. Also, any character mounted on a chariot becomes
immune to Killing Blow/Monster Slayer.

Chaos Chariot: A lot of punch in a small frontage, and will wipe front ranks like there’s no
tomorrow, all for 110 points. They are no longer Core, which would have made them
amazing, but they’re still really good.

Options: I don’t rate any of the marks as particularly good, although Mark of Tzeentch could
be interesting to protect them from magic missiles and to help remove Regeneration from
whatever you impact. Given its cost and high T, Mark of Nurgle is also worth considering.

Gorebeast Chariot: a little slower than a Chaos Chariot, but with more punch for only 25
points more. However, it’s Rare.

Options: The same considerations as in the Chaos Chariot applies here.

Monsters
Chimera: it flies, it hits like a truck, it’s resilient, and it’s not too expensive. Warmachine
crews hate them. Their low Ld is their biggest weakness, so watch out for Panic.

Options: You want pretty much all options with Chimeras. If one had to order them in terms
of priority, Regeneration comes first, then Poisoned Attacks, then Breath Weapon and
Fiend Tail.

Hellcannon: it’s a monster that shoots, and has stats to go with that. It’s basically immune
to traditional warmachine hunters, and its shooting is very, very powerful, although the nerfs
to template weapons hurt it somewhat. It also gives you something that nothing else other
than magic gives you in the army, which is ranged firepower. The Hellcannon comes with
very significant downsides. It’s very likely to misfire (it will do so if it doesn’t pass its Ld 9
check at the beginning of the turn), and there’s a decent chance that it blows up during the
battle (about 27% it will blow up if it fires every turn, and about 89% chance of at least one
misfire per battle, if it shoots all 6 turns). It’s a high risk-high reward unit, although at 215
points in Rare, I’m not sure I like the odds.

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth: you must have one unit of Dragon Ogres in your army to run one of
these. It’s a big, quick beatstick with good armour, T and a lot of W, it causes terror and can
call lightning on stuff around it. In essence, it’s a mini-character, as it can also be equipped
with Mutations and Magic Items. Definitely a strong pick.

Options: too many to list here. Giving it Heavy armour is a no-brainer. Depending on your
budget, you might want to give him some magic weapon, or go with a Great Weapon. As
always with Ensorcelled Weapons, avoid the Extra Hand Weapon like the plague. The only
worry with upgrades and a Shaggoth is that you may end up spending too much when it’s
not really necessary, as it’s already a strong piece as it is.

Chaos Giant: Somewhat random, but a lot better than in the past. Giants hit hard, have a
decent profile, are unbreakable, and while not super resilient, can take some punishment.
The Shaggoth is perhaps the more solid pick, but I wouldn’t consider the Giant a bad one.

Lores of Magic
Signature WoC spells

The signature spells require your wizard to have the appropriate mark, and may be chosen
instead of your chosen Lore’s signature.

- Winds of Chaos (MoCU): A decent hex that allows you to bait enemy charges, then
force them to fail them. It’s a useful spell, but using it to its full potential will not be
easy.
- Acquiescence (MoS): This spell is fantastic, and all but ensures your hammers will
hit before the enemy does. It also will deter enemy units from charging into your
hammers. It has even more synergy with MoS, because your units will be hitting at
I5 on the first round of combat if charging, which means you strike even before
enemies that countercharge. Absolutely fantastic in every way, although Enchanting
Aura is more consistent in achieving the same result.
- Fleshy Abundance (MoN): If you want to make an anvil of Warriors, this is the way.
+1T is fantastic in any situation, and the only thing that hampers this spell is the
casting range of “Self”.
- Blue Fire (MoT): A powerful magic missile that will decimate heavy cavalry and
infantry. Always a good choice, especially if you run several cheap sorcerers, and it
will give you some ranged firepower to deal with chaff.

Battle Magic: this lore offers some useful options, but is overshadowed by the alternatives.

- Hammerhand (signature): It’s ok, and can save your skin in a duel. Daemon Princes
or sorcerers in a Chariot are more likely to get use of this, but it’s not great.
- Fireball: an OK magic missile that’s overshadowed by the (generally) stronger Blue
Fire of Tzeentch, if you have access to it.
 - Curse of Arrow Attraction: Arrows? What are those? You have no use for this.
- Pillar of Fire: it’s ok, nothing special, but it can be used as a deterrent for enemy
charges. I still don’t think it’s very good.
- Arcane Urgency: a good, solid movement spell. We can make good use of it, but the
10+ casting cost makes it less than ideal in that regard.
- Oaken Shield: a 5+ Ward is always nice. Sadly, you don’t always want your sorcerers
in the units that will benefit from it, and your best melee units already have some
degree of Ward built in.
- Curse of Cowardly Flight: A big meh. Too situational, and it’s unlikely affect stuff
that you really care to make run with it.

Daemonology: A strong lore that synergizes very well with WoC. Its only downside is that
you need to be close to the enemy due to its very short range, but your casters are
reasonably resilient.

- The Summoning (signature): A good magic missile, comparable with Blue Fire.
- Steed of Shadows: This spell is great. Send flying troops behind the enemy. Pairs
especially well with Chosen with the Drilled special rule.
- Gathering Darkness: A fantastic Hex. Makes enemies more likely to lose combat,
and it makes them more likely to Break when they do. The synergy with our playstyle
is great.
- Daemonic Familiars: somewhat situational given it’s an assailment, and that it has
low S, but it can really ruin the day of heavy cavalry.
- Daemonic Vessel: A fairly strong buff for Daemon Princes or Sorcerer Lords that
see themselves in combat. It’s situational, but powerful.
- Vortex of Chaos: Probably the least appealing spell in the lore. It’s the same as Pillar
of Fire, but a lot worse.
- Daemonic Vigor: More stats of the kind you want to have. It’s pretty great.

Dark Magic: Another strong lore, if perhaps with less utility than Daemonology.

- Doombolt (signature): A magic missile that uses a template for hits. Templates
aren’t very good, and while it has decent AP, its S isn’t anything special. Our normal
signatures are better, IMO.
- Word of Pain: A fantastic hex, with a decent range. Its casting value is pretty high,
so you’ll probably need a Lvl 4 to make the best use of it.
- Stream of Corruption: A decent assailment spell, although its actual value will
depend a lot on the enemy unit’s formation and how lucky you are at rolling for
partials. It’s ok.
- Infernal Gateway: Perhaps not as good as Steed of Shadows in terms of giving you
raw movement, but it will allow you to face any way you want at the end. It’s not as
good, but almost.
- Phantasmagoria: One of the best spells in the lore. It will wreak havoc on your
opponent’s plans (and yours if you’re not careful). It’s really, really good, but it will
also hamper your advance, which can be risky, and doesn’t always fit our playstyle.
Its low range and the fact that it’s also easy to dispel once cast hold it back from
being fantastic.
- Battle Lust: even Khorne likes this spell. It’ll turn any of your (already beefy
hammers) into a meatgrinder.
 - Soul Eater: a decent way to snipe a careless character that thought your Sorcerer
was going to be easy pickings. Don’t count on it to work at S3, but when it does, it’ll
feel awesome.

Magic Items and Gifts of Chaos

Magic items
Army list magic items are listed before the generic ones.

Magic Weapons
- Daemonsword: This item packs a lot of power in it, but it comes with the downside
of the wielder inflicting hits on their unit or themselves, and a 75 points price tag. It’s
very good, but there are other alternatives that do a similar job for less.
- Chaos Runesword: This is basically a 1-handed halberd that gives you a +1 bonus
to WS and I. Its real value lies in making your Chaos Lord have better stats,
comparatively, than other lords of a similar tier. In particular, the +1WS is going to
matter against other lords that go dragon hunting.
- Filth Mace: Too expensive for what it does. The only use I can think for it is to make
it easier for the rest of your unit to kill whatever your character is fighting. If it wasn’t
40 points, I’d find it a lot better.
- Spellthieving sword: Highly situational, and I can think of many better uses for 20
points. It can have some use against mounted sorcerers, since they can have a lot
more Wounds than spells, especially if you run this on a champion or shaggoth.
- Ogre blade: Very similar to a Daemonsword, and has a similar price. You exchange
Strikes First for Multiple Wounds (D3). It’s probably better than the Daemonsword
all things considered, but still too expensive, IMO.
- Sword of Battle: Would you pay 60 points for a 1-handed halberd that gives you +1
attack? I probably wouldn’t.
- Duellist’s Blades: An additional hand weapon that grants you +1 attack and still
benefits from Ensorcelled Weapons is what you get for 55 points. I don’t consider it
worth taking, but the +2A may be appealing to some people.
- Dragon Slaying Sword: This weapon doesn’t do much for you overall, except turn
this character into a monster hunter. It’s not reliable, in the sense that you’re fishing
for 6’s, but if it pays off, it will pay off big, more so with how widespread characters
in monsters will be in TOW.
- Headman’s Axe: Killing blow on a halberd, for 45 points. This is almost the same as
the 7th edition Axe of Khorne, but doesn’t allow for a shield, so I like it a lot less than
that one.
- Spelleater Axe: Just buy a Brazen collar instead, and get yourself a decent weapon.
- Giant Blade: one of the best weapons in the rulebook, which isn’t a lot to say. No
AP bonuses hurt it quite a bit, but whatever wounds do go through will hurt. It’s also
quite cheap, but at 30 points, it’s 5 points too expensive to give to a champion.
- Sword of swiftness: solid for a champion at 25 points.
- Berserker Blade: 20 points for this, or 2 for Mark of Khorne? Decisions, decisions…
- Sword of Might: A +1S Ensorcelled weapon. For 20 points it’s not horrible.
- Biting Blade: 15 points make this a good budget option, especially on things with a
native high strength like a Shaggoth or Chaos lord.
 - Burning Blade: It won’t do much for you, but what were you expecting for 5 points?
Decent on a unit champion to deal with the odd regenerating enemy.

Magic Armour
- Armour of the Damned: this is Mark of Nurgle on steroids, and as such has no
synergy with MoN. The effect is good, and is Plate Armour, but it costs a whooping
70 points. Maybe if it cost 40.
- Crimson Armour of Dargan: It’s Heavy Armour, which is already a strike against it.
It can only be used by infantry or cavalry, which is another strike against it. The
effects are pretty good, more so with how prevalent multiple wounds seem to be,
but I am unconvinced it’s worth the points, except perhaps for a character on a
chariot.
- Armour of Destiny: Your characters already come with a ward save built-in, and it’s
70 points and Heavy Armour. There’s a lot of better options for you. For Chaos Lords,
this is terrible.
- Bedazzling helm: Worth every single point it costs, even if at 60 points it’s very pricy.
Ridiculously good on a Chaos Lord on Dragon.
- Armour of Silvered Steel: Decent on Sorcerers, and good on Daemon Princes,
giving them a 3+ for 40 points. It’s not amazing, so think twice before making the
investment.
- Glittering Scales: Armour of the Damned in its AliExpress version. It’s light armour,
and has negative synergy with MoN. At 35 points, it’s usable, but if you want people
to reroll hits, you’re better off running MoN and Bedazzling Helm.
- Shield of the Warrior True: Why this isn’t called “Shield of Ptolos” is beyond my
understanding. Most of our characters come with a comparable ward stock, so
you’re paying 30 points for a shield.
- Spellshield: See Shield of the Warrior True for why this is terrible.
- Armour of Meteoric Armor: Kind of a weird item. It’s definitely decent on
footslogging Exalted Sorcerers and Daemon Princes.
- Enchanted Shield: Again, you’re paying 10 points for a shield. Next.
- Charmed Shield: You guessed it. Not worth it even at 5 points.

Talismans
- Crown of Everlasting conquest: a 5+ regeneration that can’t be cancelled by
flammable or magical attacks, and that stacks with your ward saves? This is nearly
an auto-include.
- Brazen Collar: It’s appropriately costed, and it transfers to your unit. A decent item
to give to secondary characters (for example a Chosen champion).
- Dawnstone: Decent, if a bit pricy. With Armour Saves being better than they used
to be, the Dawnstone can do a lot of work on our high armour Lords.
- Talisman of Protection: Generally not very good for the same reasons our shields
aren’t good. However, this could be good or even fantastic on Shaggoths.
- Paymaster’s coin: It’s insurance against a bout of bad luck, and might help
characters with the Dragonslayer Sword. Not amazing for us, but if you have 20
points spare, there’s worse options out there.
- Obsidian Lodestone: Half as good as the Brazen Collar for the same price.
- Luckstone: I’m not sure it’s worth the 15 points. Kind of expensive for what it does.
Magic Standards
- Banner of the gods: 75 points for this is ridiculous. The effects are good, but not 75
points good.
- Doom totem: This banner is expensive, but its effects are quite powerful. It stacks
with Terror too, making it a lot easier to outright Break opponents.
- Blasted Standard: the effect is a bit situational. I would run it on Chosen Knights,
as a single save you make thanks to it already pays for itself.
- Banner of Rage: Frenzy that you can never lose, which incidentally means immunity
to Panic, Fear and Terror as a side effect. This banner is really good for the price, and
on larger units it will even be cheaper than Mark of Khorne. Run it on Chosen of
Slaanesh with Great Weapons and wreck face.
- Banner of Iron Resolve: Pricy, but the effect is powerful. Ideally you’d run this on
Marauders, but you’ll need a BSB for that, which makes it a lot less appealing.
- Razor Standard: I like this a lot for sword and board Nurgle. AP-3 on our hand
weapons can scare even heavily armoured cavalry.
- Rampaging Banner: 30 points, but very, very useful. Give this to a hammer.
- The Blazing Banner: Situational, will find a home in all-comers lists, I think. If you
really want flaming attacks, consider MoT instead, but it’s only 25 points.
- War Banner: Having extra combat resolution never hurt anyone. You don’t care for
this on a hammer unit, but it’s definitely useful.

Enchanted items
- Pendant of Damnation: It’s not exactly bad, but at 30 points for what ultimately is
a fairly minor bonus, it’s a bit overcosted.
- Helm of many eyes: A classic. There’s a better alternative in the form of a gift
(Enchanting Aura), and has one big drawback in that, since it makes your character
stupid, any rolls of 1 on the Gaze of the Gods will just give them -1 Ld. It still has
some good uses on champions, Shaggoths, etc.
- Favour of the gods: This lets you reroll Gaze of the Gods rolls once per battle.
Realistically, you shouldn’t need more than one reroll, but you can buy several of
these to reroll more than once if you really want to. Also, at 5 points, it’s super cheap.
You really want to buy one of these whenever you have points to spare.
- Wizarding hat: It’s a fun meme, but we’re discussing optimization here. Getting one
spell is nice, but Stupidity hurts us pretty badly, and it’s 45 points.
- Flying Carpet: Maybe if you want to proxy a disc of Tzeentch now that we don’t have
those? Having a cowboy character might have its uses in some odd builds, I guess.
- Healing potion: Now that our characters can have many wounds thanks to
combined profiles, this is actually useful. It’s still expensive enough that you might
be better off investing in survivability.
- Ruby Ring of Ruin: You are a wizard, Arbaal. Casting fireballs is never a bad thing.
- Potion of Strength: It’s too expensive for what it does, but it can be run on a
champion. If you’re expecting to charge a monster, and you really want it dead, it’s
not a bad option.
- Potion of Toughness: I kinda like this on Daemon Princes, to keep them alive when
it really matters, but not being able to drink this on the opponent’s turn hurts it a lot.
It’s a bit too expensive for a one use item.
- Potion of Speed: Nice when you need it, and it’s only 10 points.
 - Potion of Foolhardiness: It’s 5 points, which is the nicest thing I can say about it. I
struggle to find a consistent use for it, but for 5 points, even if you never use it it’s
not a waste.

Arcane items
- Skull of Katam: A +1 bonus to cast to your wizards is always good, but 60 points is
excessive. There’s an option to build a casting battery by running several Sorcerers
in close proximity to one another with this item, but it’s a bit of a meme build.
- Infernal puppet: Ridiculously good, and a great way to shut down a sizable amount
of your opponent’s magic. A fantastic pick.
- Spell familiar: One extra spell means one extra spell cast per turn, and on several
of the lores, you can really use it. For 15 points, this is very good.
- Feedback Scroll: It can give an enemy wizard a bad day, and it can pay off big.
Likewise, it will more often be useless. You have better things to spend 60 points on,
but it’s a fun item.
- Scroll of Transmogrification: It probably won’t work on who you want it to work
(high level casters), and it won’t last for the whole battle. It’s a ton of fun, though,
but 50 points is 25 points too many.
- Wand of Jet: It will break, but until it does, it will give you a decent advantage.
Couple with MoT in a unit for a +2 to cast.
- Lore familiar: The reliability this gives to your Sorcerers cannot be understated.
Absolutely fantastic on a Sorcerer Lord.
- Power Scroll: If one particular spell is a key part in your strategy, the Power Scroll is
a good use of 20 points. Otherwise, it’s highly situational.
- Dispel Scroll: Stopping that one spell that will mess with your plans is often more
powerful than getting through that one spell that makes your plans. It’s no longer an
auto-include, and that’s a good thing.
- Arcane Familiar: I struggle to justify the need to roll on two lore tables, but it opens
up some interesting possibilities and combos.
- Earthing Rod: 5 points for this is an insane deal. Always take it on your best caster.

Gifts of Chaos
- Dark Majesty: Very expensive at 50 points, but forcing Terror tests to be made on a
-1 Leadership (which can stack with things like the Doom Totem) is likely to be good.
Forcing enemies to make Break tests on up to -3 Ld (Terror, Doom Totem, Dark
Majesty) is going to be very, very good. Dark Majesty requires you to build around it,
but it can be quite powerful.
- Daemon Flesh: There are very few things that will wound your characters on a 2+,
and if you want to be protected from those, you’re better off investing on more
generic items and gifts that give you Ward saves or Regeneration. If you’re mounted
on a monster, this will only help you against cannons. If you’re not mounted on a
monster, just being in a unit gives you better protection. Overcosted.
- Extra Arm: too expensive for just +1 A. The effect is solid, but I don’t think it’s worth
it. The good thing, is stacks with whatever magic weapon you’re using, which can
make a difference in challenges.
- Diabolic Splendour: a -1 to be hit from shooting can be very good on mounted
characters against certain armies like Wood Elves. It’s situational, but has its uses.
 - Enchanting Aura: Enemies not Attacking First is good. Forcing enemies to Attack
Last is very good. You get both in a package for a reasonable price. Put this on a
character that runs with your Great Weapon Chosen and go to town. As close to an
auto-pick as it gets for certain army builds.
- Aura of Pain: it’s just S3, but it’s automatic hits that ignore armour and regen. It can
tip the scales in your favour against other enemy characters. A solid option for the
price.
- Master of Mortals: For Marauder based armies, this has a use, but Marauder-heavy
armies aren’t amazing.
- Acid Ichor: Similar to Aura of Pain, but more directed to challenges. Run it on things
with a lot of Wounds to get the most use out of it.
- Poisonous Slime: a budget option, especially if you don’t invest in magic weapons.
Decent, not amazing.

Miscellanea and FAQ

Are Warriors of Chaos that bad? I’ve heard a lot of complaints
WoC are actually shaping up to be a powerful army. The complaints stem from the fact that
the faction’s identity has been gutted pretty badly. From tight ranks of plate-clad badasses
being the optimal choice, we’ve gone more towards a motley crue of monsters and
characters with expendable chaff, in terms of what troops are more efficient. The massive
downgrade of our Warriors, Knights and Chosen, and the comparable upgrade of other units
(for example, how Chaos Warriors lost access to Plate Armour, while Black Orcs, Phoenix
Guard and others gained it) has hurt us pretty bad in that regard. But if you’re just looking at
WoC for the competitive aspect and not so much for the lore-appropriateness, WoC are still
a very good army.

Are Chaos Warriors that bad? Why? How can I make them work?
They are. Sorry to disappoint you. On paper, they should be good. They have massive stats
and powerful upgrades, but to explain why they’re bad, I need to take a step back and
explain a more generic idea about how The Old World general strategies and army
construction work.

In TOW, the rules favour a “hammer and anvil” type of approach, where you have certain
units that will suffer the opponent’s charges and sacrifice themselves to slow the enemy’s
momentum (“anvils”), and in the process they will force the enemy to expose their flanks to
a countercharge. That’s where your offensively powerful units (“hammers”) come into play,
ideally crippling the enemy on the countercharge. This is all very simplified, but should be
enough to understand the idea of units having defined roles to play.

With this in mind, there are a set of roles that units can play (hammer, anvil, chaff,
warmachine hunter…), but realistically speaking, Chaos Warriors can only play hammer or
anvil. In principle, their stats make them viable for both, as they have good offensive (high
WS, high S, high I) and defensive (high WS, high T, decent Armour) power. However, Chaos
Warrior suffer from several problems when acting as either. As a hammer, Warriors being
M4 makes it hard for them to choose their targets or reach combat, and if they get charged
their offensive prowess cannot be brought to bear. Forsaken have a similar or better
offensive potential than CW that are built as a hammer, while being faster and more
resilient. As an anvil, things aren’t a lot better. Marauders are a lot cheaper per Wound,
which helps them soak casualties solely through their numbers, and CW have no access to
the Shieldwall special rule, which means you are risking your success to stop the enemy on
a dice roll with bad odds (unlike Marauders, who will give ground as long as they roll under
their base Ld). The lower amount of bodies also means that it’ll be easier for the enemy to
have enough Unit Strength to be over twice yours and deny you the possibility of Falling Back
in Good Order. So both as a hammer or as an anvil, basic Warriors are outclassed. I already
discussed the issues with Marks of Chaos above (our only real upgrades on Chaos
Warriors), but that only makes matters worse.

So… You just got into the army, you have some Chaos Warriors from a basic box, and you
want to know how to make them usable. Well, the good news is that when you’re very new
to the game, it’s not as important to be efficient as it is to learn the rules well. But if you
already know the rules, and are looking for ways to make Chaos Warriors work for you, here
are some sample ideas.

- The arcane bunker: 15 Chaos Warriors with shields, Mark of Tzeentch and full
command cost 258 points. If you add 2 or 3 wizards to the unit, they will all benefit
from the casting bonus from Mark of Tzeentch. Add Enchanting Aura to deter
attackers and allow your warriors to hit before them, a Razor Standard or War
Banner, and the Skull of Katam to the combo, and you have a very expensive bunker
where you’ll be blasting anything that comes close with Blue Fire of Tzeentch, then
picking off the scraps with your warriors and Sorcerers in hand-to-hand.
- The unkillable nurgle bunch: 12 to 17 Chaos Warriors with the Mark of Nurgle and a
Nurgle Daemonology Sorcerer plus a Razor Standard. Stack Fleshy Abundance and
Daemonic Vigour on them, and laugh at the opponent’s puny attempts at hurting
your unit. You will need to find ways to force the enemy to engage you instead of
flanking you, so make sure to cover your flanks in some way.
- The Khorne Missiles: 5 Chaos Warriors with Great Weapons and Mark of Khorne.
Nothing else. These guys will hit very hard, and you won’t care if they die. Just make
sure to have a way for them to reach combat, or that you force the enemy to engage
you instead of simply shooting at you.

Marks of Chaos, a mathematical breakdown

Marks of Chaos are pretty much the only upgrades we can take on most of our units, gear
aside. The big questions are, “how much of an upgrade are they in reality?”, and “when are
you better off saving your points?”. Let’s take an in-depth look.

Mark of Chaos undivided

Mark of Chaos undivided is functionally almost the same as the “Veteran” special rule.
Veteran state troops for the empire gain +1WS and the Veteran rule for 2 points. Empire
Greatswords may purchase Veteran for +1ppm; with this in mind, we can say that Veteran
is roughly 1 point per miniature. MoCU, which is similar if a little worse should be about 0.75
points, but since the game isn’t as granular, let’s round up to 1 to make calculations easy.
Whenever you replace this mark for another one, assume you’re “losing” a 1 ppm benefit,
and so you’re actually paying 1 extra ppm than you would if you had no marks whatsoever
and upgraded a unit with a God-specific mark.
Mark of Nurgle
Mark of Nurgle is hard to quantify. On paper, it looks quite good for your survivability, but
once you do the math, it’s not so clear. Let’s take a good look at it, and be ready for a wall of
text. Spoiler alert, the answer is “it depends”.

- In most cases, your troops are hit on 4’s, and so, of all the incoming attacks, MoN
will trigger on a 6 to hit that will be rerolled into a miss 50% of the time. In other
words, MoN will make you ignore 8% of the attacks you suffer. On a more practical
level, MoN will make you go from 0.5 hits per attack to 0.4166 hits per attack, in
other words you take 17% less hits. To make matters more complicated, MoN’s
effectiveness raises exponentially as the chance to hit you decreases. If your Chaos
Lord gets hit on 6’s thanks to the Bedazzling helm, MoN will make him ignore 8% of
the attacks he suffers, but the math for the successful hits he suffers changes
substantially. He goes from being hit 1/6 (16%) of the times, to 1/36 (2.7%) of the
times (an 83% decrease in hits taken). You can see why MoN is so good on units with
a very high WS. Takeaway: Mon gets better the harder it is to hit you.
- MoN costs around 2 ppm for most normal units. On an “unmarked” (the 1 point
discount from losing MoCU) Chaos Warrior with shield, you’re paying 13 points per
Wound in the unit. On a Nurgle warrior, you’re paying 16. In other words, a Nurgle
warrior costs 23% more than an “unmarked” warrior. If MoN reduces successful hits
by 16%, then you’re actually paying more “per wound” than you would if you simply
added more “unmarked” warriors. On the other hand, if we’re discussing Chosen
Knights, at 40+ ppm, adding MoN is only about a 5% increase in the miniature’s cost
for that 16% extra survivability, in which case MoN becomes very appealing.
However, things get still more complicated. Takeaway: MoN gets more worth it the
more your unit costs. Below a certain cost, MoN costs more than adding more
miniatures.
- They say all hits are created equal, but you take a look at our great weapon chosen
and you take a look at that weedy goblin and you see that statement is not true.
Ignoring a big hit is a lot more valuable than ignoring a goblin hitting you, so the
harder enemies hit, the better MoN becomes (you always ignore the same amount
of hits, but one big hit ignored pays off a lot more). However, the other side of this
coin is that there’s diminishing returns to the investment. The more you can tank hits
without suffering a wound thanks to armour and Toughness, the less you actually
gain from ignoring hits in terms of added survivability (like the Chosen Knights with
a 2+ armour I mentioned above). On the other hand, most units with high T and WS
tend to cost a lot of points per miniature, which is where MoN really comes ahead
in terms of making the investment worth it. Finally, if you are hard to wound, anything
that makes you even more resilient gets a much bigger payoff in terms of the amount
of attacks you can tank before you suffer a single Wound. All of this makes
evaluating whether MoN is worth it or not harder. Takeaway: MoN may not be
needed if you’re otherwise sufficiently resilient.
- MoN offers a good degree of protection against poisoned attacks (basically halving
their efficiency). Poison attacks are the bane of high T units, so while a high T unit
gets less benefit from MoN against normal attacks, they in turn gain a lot of benefit
from this protection from poison. Takeaway: MoN is very good against poison, but
this is a very situational bonus.
 - As a final consideration, MoN enables you to run a MoN sorcerer with the unit, which
then allows you to cast Fleshy Abundance, and perhaps also Daemonic Vigour (for
a total of +2T) on the unit. This, more than MoN itself, makes the unit almost
impervious to a lot of damage than they otherwise would suffer, and is a great
reason to run MoN troops. Takeaway: If you run MoN, build around it.
- In summary: MoN by itself isn’t great on anything that’s not expensive. If you build
around it, it will pay off. And on anything that’s expensive and hard to wound, it
becomes really, really good. But on most troops, unless you build around it and want
it for the unit’s role in battle, don’t bring it.

Mark of Khorne
Gaining an extra attack is great. Being immune to Panic, Fear and Terror is amazing. Being
forced to declare charges and to pursue is horrible. Losing Frenzy when you lose combat is
even worse. So what gives? Let’s take a look.

- Frenzy doubles your offensive output on troops with 1 Attack. On anything with more
attacks, the effects are diluted. A unit with A2 gains 50%. A lord with A5 gains only
20%. So MoK becomes less worth it the more base attacks you have.
- Frontage is a big factor in judging MoK’s efficiency. You’re paying extra points for
extra attacks, but since only miniatures in contact with the enemy can make their
full attacks, once you go too wide, MoK stops being appealing. At 30mm. width, we
can ensure full contact with just about every ranked unit in the game up to 6-wide.
Once you go wider than that, you risk losing attacks, although losing 1 or 2 attacks
in total should not be a huge problem. The other side of the coin when discussing
frontage is that, should you take casualties, the extra attacks from MoK make it a lot
more likely for you to still strike back with some punch. 3 models with MoK striking
back is equivalent to a full rank of other models with a different mark. This may tip
the scales in a situation where your hammer has been caught by an opponent’s
lucky charge or pursuit roll.
- In terms of efficiency gain compared to adding more bodies, MoK is always
beneficial for anything with 1A base. You’d need to double your frontage to achieve
what MoK does for 23% more cost. It also makes you less vulnerable to being
multiple charged, and gives you several powerful immunities.
- For anything 3A or less, MoK still comes out ahead, because you’re devoting a
smaller percentage of the cost you’re paying for the model to gain the extra attacks.
However, for units like Chaos Ogres, MoK may not be necessary since they already
throw enough attacks to perform their job.
- The final consideration is that the downsides to Frenzy are very big, and MoK is the
only mark you can lose. MoK is a double-edged sword that you must wield very
carefully (ironic, isn’t it?). If you need a hammer, it’s your best bet, but you need to
protect it from getting pulled out of position.

Mark of Tzeentch

MoT gives you flaming attacks, which is nice but highly situational, and MR(-1). To analyze
the benefit of MR, it’s important to know the probability curve of 2D6. The column that you
really care about is the one labelled “result or more”, as that is the one that affects how you
cast.
 Dice Score Result exactly Result or less Result or more
2 2.77 2.77 100
3 5.55 8.33 97.22
4 8.33 16.66 91.66
5 11.11 27.77 83.33
6 13.88 41.66 72.22
7 16.66 58.33 58.33
8 13.88 72.22 41.66
9 11.11 83.33 27.77
10 8.33 91.66 16.66
11 5.55 97.22 8.33
12 2.77 100 2.77

Almost every spell in the game has a difficulty target of between 7 and 10 (the darker cells
on the column). However, since a wizard adds their level to the roll, you are actually looking
at the cells above the needed result. For example, if a level 2 wizard is casting a 9+ spell,
you should look at the “Dice score: 7” entry, in other words, 58.33% chance of success.
Conversely, MR(-1) kicks numbers “down” the table one entry, and will make it around 10-
15% harder to cast for your opponent. Likewise, it will “give you” a virtual +1 to dispel
attempts, as any successful cast will have already taken a -1 to the final roll.

Similarly, the +1 to cast from having your wizard in a bunker of MoT troops kicks things “up”
the table one row. It’s a nice bonus. Is it worth the points? This is very hard to quantify, but
the Empire has a magic item (the Wizard’s staff) that gives you +1 to cast only for Assailment
and Magic Missiles for 20 points. Adding MoT to a unit of 10+ Chaos Warriors or equivalent
costs you a virtual 30 points (remember the cost of losing MoCU). With one caster in the
unit, it’s a wash: slightly more expensive, but you get the MR and flaming attacks as a bonus.
If you have 2 or more casters in the unit, the value becomes a lot better. However, it also
means that whatever main role that unit was going to perform (hammer, anvil, etc.) now is
subsumed by being a wizard battery and bunker.

Mark of Slaanesh
Jav, you said that Mark of Slaanesh is amazing! What’s the need for a math breakdown? Well,
class isn’t dismissed just yet, so pay attention.

MoS is great in that even if you lose MoCU, you gain immune to panic, which is like one third
of MoCU. I said above that MoCU was roughly 0.75 points, so let’s call it only a loss of 0.5
points overall compared to other marks (sidenote: I didn’t apply this discount to MoK
because you can lose MoK. If you want to apply this, MoK is even better value). Immune to
panic gels very well with our screens and MSU approach. MoS is great in that it allows us to
strike first in many situations. MoS is not great in that it’s also often useless. Useless, you
say? Yes. Let’s look at the math:

- MoS allows you to gain +1 I in the first round of combat. This means I5 on Chaos
Warriors, Chosen, etc. When using great weapons, it also gives you I5 on the charge.
 Why is I5 a very important breakpoint? If we look at a lot of heavy infantry, heavy
cavalry, and other units that we want to beat on hand-to-hand (our bread-and-
butter), I4 is the top number in a lot of cases, with just elite elves and Grail Knights
being the exception. Hammer units want to strike first (or, at worst, simultaneously),
so they can bring all their punch to bear and ideally not take damage in return.
- If you kill one enemy, and that saves you a casualty on anything expensive, MoS has
pretty much paid for itself. Marking a chaos warrior with a great weapon with MoS
puts him up from “14” to 17 (a 21% increase). The calculations here are very similar
to those of MoN. The difference is, with MoN you’re trying to not die. With MoS,
you’re trying to kill the enemy before they strike and so you’re actually making your
unit perform better at that role, as well as giving it a bit more of a lifeline, as they will
attack first more often than not. Once the hammer becomes a bit more expensive
per model (like chosen or knights), you’re already coming up ahead if MoS makes
you strike first when you otherwise wouldn’t have.
- When MoS becomes useless is when that +1I in the first round of combat doesn’t
make you strike first, and that is more common than it would seem. If you get
charged by anything that isn’t great weapons, MoS won’t matter in most cases (or
never, if wielding a great weapon). The greater bonus from charging (+3I) will mean
MoS only gives you a benefit when you’re fighting dwarfs, and in that case, only to
strike simultaneously. When you’re charging, it will only matter against enemies that
countercharge or when wielding great weapons. Otherwise, your natural bonus to I
from charging, added to our natural I4 should be more than enough. Lots of
hammers in this game use great weapons or can countercharge, so MoS is still a
really good insurance policy against them, but it will be useless in all other combats.
- In summary, using MoS depends heavily on two factors. The first is if your unit is
likely to be shot at and flee from panic, in which case, MoS becomes very valuable.
The second is if you’re expecting your unit to see itself involved in combats where
the +1I is going to make a big difference (for example, if you’re running Chosen
Knights who might countercharge/get countercharged by opponents, or if you want
your Marauder Horsemen with flails to strike before countercharging enemies). If
the unit doesn’t fulfil either of these two criteria, MoCU will save you points for a very
similar benefit.

How to train your dragon

The Chaos Lord on Dragon is one of our most appealing character options. Massively
expensive, incredibly powerful and very, very hard to kill. It can be quite oppressive if your
opponent doesn’t have anything that can deal with it, and it can be vulnerable to some bad
luck if it gets challenged. The main advantage of having a dragonlord (or, alternatively, a
manticore lord, but that one is nowhere as poweful) is that you can fly it behind enemy
troops, then start wreaking havoc. Your opponent will have to devote some stuff to deal with
it, and it’s overall a force multiplier. There are three things to look out for when you decide
what to engage:

- Static combat resolution and challenges. You will get challenged, make no mistake.
With your stats, if a champion challenges you, you will almost always win the
challenge and get +5 extra CR from overkill, for a total of +7 once you factor in the
initial Wound and the Close Order bonus. However, if the opponent is in Close order,
 has enough banners, and maybe some extra CR from magic, and if you get unlucky
with your rolls, you may see yourself losing combat by 1 or 2. If that happens, and
you roll poorly on the break test, your 500+ points general can be caught and
destroyed outright. So be very careful what you engage, and if possible, always flank
or rear charge things.
- Monster hunters: these aren’t super worrisome, but whenever you engage them
you’re playing Russian roulette. Again, engage at your own peril.
- Tarpits: a canny enemy might throw an unbreakable unit at you, or a unit where all
members can declare challenges, in an attempt to leave your dragonlord bogged
down and unable to bring all its power to bear. They won’t kill him, but he’ll be
effectively neutralized, as he won’t destroy enough things to justify the expense. The
motto here is, just because you can charge something, it doesn’t mean you must.

Since picking your fights is so important, anything that makes your dragonlord Frenzied
should be avoided. Sorry, Khorne, you aren’t invited to this party.

These are some sample builds for a Dragonlord.

The unkillable dragonlord

The title says it all. The only thing this guy has to fear is a lucky monster slayer, and even that
one doesn’t have the best of chances at killing it before it dies, as you’re giving them Strike
Last or removing their Strike First. He throws out 5 S5 AP-1 (S7 AP-2 on the charge, which
you should get since you’re flying) attacks from the rider, plus another 6 S7 AP-2, plus 1D6
stomps at AP-2 from the mount, and it causes terror and has 2 breath weapons. It also costs
a whopping 631 points.

Chaos Lord [631 pts]

(Lance, Full plate armour, Shield, Mark of Nurgle, General, Chaos Dragon, Bedazzling Helm,
Crown of Everlasting Conquest, Enchanting Aura)

The fun one

This Chaos lord is nowhere as oppressive as the unkillable dragonlord, and is a little less
vulnerable to the odd panic roll. You can customize its mark by replacing MoCU to your taste
(Nurgle or Slaanesh are good on him). He hits harder in duels than the unkillable dragonlord
or when he can’t charge, but can’t regenerate. It’s also less likely to make your friends say
they’re never playing against you again.

Chaos Lord [592 pts]

(Hand weapon, Full plate armour, Shield, Mark of Chaos Undivided, General, Chaos
Dragon, Bedazzling Helm, Favor of the Gods, Giant Blade, Acid Ichor)

The budget lord

When you’re strapped for points but you still want a dragonlord. It’s still pretty good, but it’s
nowhere as resilient or oppressive as it should be, although being able to heal can help it
stay on the battle. If you really need to free up points, skip the healing potion, but at that
point, you basically have a naked dragon, so what’s the point of me including it in the guide?

Chaos Lord [526 pts]

(Lance, Full plate armour, Shield, Mark of Chaos Undivided, General, Chaos Dragon, Favor
of the Gods, Healing Potion)

I choose you!
Chosen Warriors are cool, and they’re really what Chaos Warriors used to (should) be. They
are very expensive, and with some of our magic items and spells, they can be built in
multiple ways that make them quite powerful. Here are a few sample builds for the Chosen.

Deliciously angry
This build basically throws everything into as close of a deathstar as we can make. It’s
hideously expensive, but unless it gets caught on the flank, it’ll destroy anything it touches.
It has shields to help protect them against shooting, they’ll hit on I5 with GW on the charge,
at 3 attacks each, and can’t lose Frenzy. Even if you lose combat, you’re stubborn, so you
get one freebie. Add an Exalted Champion or Lord with the Enchanting Aura to the unit, and
see your opponents cry. With a Daemonology sorcerer nearby, you can give them other
buffs, or give them flying movement so they can end up behind enemy lines. Did anyone ask
for assault Space Marines in The Old World?

13 Chosen Chaos Warriors (0-1) [401 pts]

(Great Weapons, Full Plate Armour, Shields, Mark of Slaanesh, Drilled, Champion, Brazen
Collar, Standard Bearer, Banner of Rage, Musician)

Disgustingly resilient
These are the better version of the Unkillable Nurgle bunch (see above). Deploy these dudes
in a 6x3 formation, or alternatively up their numbers to 19, and add a sorcerer to them for
that sweet, sweet Fleshy Abundance and Daemonic Vigour. They even have a punch in
melee, with their 2A base and the Razor standard.

17 Chosen Chaos Warriors (0-1) [452 pts]

(Hand Weapons, Full Plate Armour, Shields, Mark of Nurgle, Drilled, Champion, Standard
Bearer, Razor Standard, Musician)

Chaffing, screening and redirecting

Note: this section will be expanded with graphics once I have the time to make them

Using screens and expendable troops (A.K.A chaff) is one of the basic tactics that any
Warhammer general worth their salt must learn.

The basic principle here is that if you have a bunch of expendable troops running ahead of
your army, the enemy must either ignore them (making it harder to shoot your more
expensive elite infantry and cavalry running behind them) or waste firepower and charges
dealing with them.

With The Old World combat being so centered on charges being a deciding factor, having
throwaway units to absorb enemy charges to set up your own is a particularly useful tool.

Finally, most of our best hammer units are either Frenzied or Impetuous, meaning that using
our own screens to block our Line of Sight and charge avenues so we aren’t baited into
charges we don’t want to make can be extremely important, depending on list construction.
Warriors of Chaos has two particularly useful units for these roles: chaos warhounds and
marauder horsemen.

This section explains how to use these in greater detail.

Chaffing
Chaff, when used as a military term, refers to releasing small pieces of aluminum or other
metals to confuse detection and guidance systems and make them ineffective. When used
in the Warhammer sense, it refers to throwing cheap units at the enemy so they are forced
to charge them or shoot them instead of focusing on your main line.

To use chaff effectively, you need to position it so that it’s within the enemy’s charge range,
and either far enough that you can perform a safe(ish) flee reaction once the opponent
declares a charge, or that they can only move if they charge your unit, forcing them to waste
time on it (and perhaps strong special rules like first charge). Marauder horsemen are
particularly good at the first role, whereas the very cheap, very expendable warhounds are
great for the latter. Just watch out for panic when these units flee through other friendlies,
or when they get annihilated (hence why these tactics mesh particularly well with Mark of
Khorne and Slaanesh).

Often, to get enemies to engage you, you need to force them to want to charge you, so make
sure to have some way to threaten your enemy into not staying stationary and ignoring your
chaff. Flails on the marauder horsemen can deal enough damage to even elite cavalry that
your opponents will not want to let you get the charge. One of the virtues of the Hellcannon
is precisely that no opponent wants to eat a bit pie plate-sized S5 template on top of their
elite infantry.

The final idea to mention on chaff is that you should consider them losses before the battle
starts, so count on that happening, and position any units that must countercharge close
enough to be in range of the opponent, but not so close that a victorious enemy can overrun
into them (which will defeat the purpose of chaff in the first place). Learning to redirect (see
below) is also a good idea, as you can use that to expose an opponent’s flanks.

Screening
Screening is a very similar idea to chaffing (if anything, the two terms are nearly equivalent).
You position your cheap, quicker units in front of the slower elites to keep them protected
by negating lines of sight to and from the enemy. Enemies will have to shoot at your screens,
wasting the 2-3 turns in each battle where ranged troops are truly effective, or risk high
penalties for shooting at obscured troops.

Screens can also be used as a way to stop your own troops from charging an enemy that is
just trying to bait you into becoming overexposed (like the opponent’s own chaff). Since your
units can’t charge an enemy they can’t see, a sufficiently wide screen will stop you from
charging. When you do want to charge, make sure to finish the previous round of movement
so that part of your hammer unit sees the enemy. Once your turn comes back, you can
declare a charge even if an intervening unit is blocking you, provided that unit moves out of
the way before you have to move. So charge something inconsequential with your hounds,
and the actual enemy with your hammer unit, and reap some skulls in the name of Khorne.
Redirecting
Redirecting in this case refers to positioning your unit in such a way that the opponent, when
they charge it, sees their facing altered, often being forced to move forward or to expose
their flank (note: do not confuse this with redirecting a charge). Redirecting is a lot harder in
The Old World than it used to be in prior editions, but it’s still doable. The main ways to do
this are:

1) Have an anvil unit at an angle: when the enemy charges it and wins, since charging
units are forced to align to the opponent if they can (and if they can’t they suffer
heavy penalties), once the first round of combat is over and you FBIGO, the
opponent must either restrain and reform (thus losing its momentum and facing
your own counterattack) or expose its flank.
2) Have your screens or chaff unit flee at an angle: a unit flees from a charge directly
away from the center of the charging unit. This means that if the opponent follows
up and does not redirect, it will try to chase the chaff in an angled position.
Depending on where the opponent was relative to your chaff and to your own troops,
this may expose their flank for a counterattack.
3) Have your screens flee combat at an angle: this idea is very similar to 2 above, only
the screen will flee directly away from the center of the opponent unit. With wide
units where most models die, this usually means units fleeing at odd angles. While
this isn’t very predictable, it can be used to your advantage if you see the
opportunity, so be on the lookout for it.

Writing an army list

When a new player sets out to write an army list, the question that comes up the most is
“what do I need to add to it?”. The answer isn’t always obvious, but for the most part, keep
in mind the points limit (very low points limits skew things, very high allow you to add just
about everything), and try to cover all of these bases, in order of importance:

- At least two hammer units. These will be units that ideally move fast, and with great
weapons, lances, flails, hard-hitting monsters… These will be the ones killing the
enemy, which ultimately is the most important part of your plan.
- Some chaff: I wrote a full page on these guys, so you know they’re important. You
will usually need 2 small units at least, maybe more depending on how big your army
is. My general rule of thumb is that you want up to one of these for each hammer in
your army, but don’t go overkill. Sometimes less is more.
- At least one anvil unit: this isn’t exactly required, but it’s very useful. It should be a
large-ish unit. It can sometimes (but not always) double-up as a bunker for a wizard.
- At least one character, but most often more than one: you need a general, and you
often want a level 4 wizard (that may or may not be your general). BSB is optional,
and depends a lot on what marks your army has and how monster-heavy it is, but
it’s rarely a bad pick if you can afford it.

When you select units to cover these bases, think about the synergies in your army. Am I
running lots of MoK units in my army? I will need screens to ensure they don’t get pulled by
baiting units. Am I running lots of leadership debuffs? Maybe I should run terror-causing
monsters to take advantage of that. Do I have only anvils and chaff? I am gonna need some
heavy-hitter in my list, then. You get the idea. But in case you are still having a rough time
coming up with a list you like, here are some examples.
Sample army lists
The following are just some example lists. They aren’t meant to be super competitive, but
instead to showcase some interesting synergies in the army, or to explain how to go about
building a list that is greater than the sum of its parts. Feel free to tailor them to your
preference.

The “I just started playing and I only have an AoS vanguard box. How do I expand it?”
This is a simple 1250 points list that one can use as a starter point, based on the contents
of the AoS Slaves to Darkness vanguard box. It’s not meant to win you games (although it
certainly can), but to teach you the game and basic strategies, while being affordable to buy
and paint. Other than the vanguard box, you need a box of Chaos Warhounds (which will be
useful regardless) and an extra Gorebeast Chariot (which you can replace with something
else, like some chaos ogres, or whatever. Play around with options that you like). Convert
the exalted hero on foot into a BSB (it’s a very, very easy conversion), and the rest is basically
“as is”. If the opponents don’t mind (or you’re ok with cutting off the spear tips from the
halberds) you can run the unit of warriors as great weapons. The chaos hounds are chaff,
and the rest are hammers, but if anything must take a charge, your warriors should be the
candidates.

++ Characters [622 pts] ++

Exalted Champion [197 pts]

(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Shield, Mark of Slaanesh, Battle Standard Bearer, Banner of
Rage, On foot)

Sorcerer Lord [425 pts]

(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Mark of Tzeentch, Wizard Level 4, General, Chaos Chariot -
Tzeentch, Crown of Everlasting Conquest, Giant Blade, Daemonology)

++ Core Units [491 pts] ++

5 Chaos Knights [203 pts]

(Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Mark of Slaanesh, Champion,
Standard bearer, Rampaging Standard, Musician)

10 Chaos Warriors [228 pts]

(Halberds, Heavy armour, Shields, Mark of Slaanesh, Champion, Standard bearer, Razor
Standard, Musician)

5 Chaos Warhounds [30 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons))

5 Chaos Warhounds [30 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons))

++ Rare Units [135 pts] ++

Gorebeast Chariot [135 pts]

(Hand weapons, Halberds, Mark of Chaos Undivided)

The “Terror bomb”

The point of this list is to pile negative modifiers on the enemy’s Leadership, then force them
to rout. It’s gimmicky, but it’s fun, and can be quite effective if things align. You have several
units that cause terror in the army, as well as a BSB with the Doom Totem. Combine this
with Gathering Darkness for extra punch. Keep your warhounds in front of you turn 1, move
them out of the way turn 2, and charge with your terror-causing units to force possible early
routs. Keep in mind that the Doom Totem will only work as long as enemies see you, so you
might need to hold back your knights one turn. Them charging in near your chaos lord has a
good chance of breaking many enemies outright. It’s 6 th edition all over again.

++ Characters [974 pts] ++

Exalted Champion [242 pts]

(Lance, Heavy armour, Shield, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Battle Standard Bearer, Doom
Totem, Chaos Steed, Favor of the Gods)

Sorcerer Lord [271 pts]

(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Wizard Level 4, Chaos Steed, Lore
Familiar, Daemonology)

Chaos Lord [461 pts]

(Lance, Full plate armour, Shield, Mark of Nurgle, Manticore with Venomous Tail, Bedazzling
Helm, Favor of the Gods, Dark Majesty)

++ Core Units [501 pts] ++

5 Chaos Knights [173 pts]

(Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Mark of Slaanesh, Champion, Standard bearer, Musician)

5 Chaos Warhounds [30 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons))

5 Chaos Warhounds [30 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons))

5 Chaos Knights [173 pts]

(Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Mark of Slaanesh, Champion, Standard bearer, Musician)

5 Forsaken [95 pts]

(Mutated Weapons (Hand weapons), Heavy armour, Forsaken by Slaanesh)

++ Special Units [288 pts] ++

Chimera [225 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapon), Scaly Skin (Heavy Armour), Flaming Breath,
Regeneration (5+), Poisoned Attacks)

1 Dragon Ogres [63 pts]

(Great weapons, Heavy armour)

++ Rare Units [235 pts] ++

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth [235 pts]

(Great weapon, Heavy armour)

The “When all you have is a flame thrower…”

This list is a bit of a meme, and it could be a lot more competitive if we went for something
“normal”. However, it should be a lot of fun, and can probably surprise the opponent. The
idea here is simple. You put your sorcerer lord and the Dark Magic sorcerer in the Chaos
Warriors bunker, and the other one goes on foot with the skirmishing marauders, where he’ll
have good mobility and line of sight (remember, skirmishers have 360º line of sight but other
models in your unit will still block it), and you pew pew everything with your spells and
hellcannons. Meanwhile, the chaos spawn eat charges and stand there blocking the enemy
for a turn or two, and the chimera threatens any warmachines. Make sure to deploy your
hellcannons away from your (mostly immobile) main blocks. You’ll probably lose the battle,
but it will be memorable and you’ll be talking about this for years.

++ Characters [685 pts] ++

Sorcerer Lord [305 pts]

(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Mark of Tzeentch, General, On foot, Skull of Katam, Crimson
Armour of Dargan, Daemonology)

Exalted Sorcerer [215 pts]

(Hand weapon, Light armour, Mark of Tzeentch, Wizard Level 2, On foot, Infernal Puppet,
Diabolic Splendour, Dark Magic)

Exalted Sorcerer [165 pts]

(Hand weapon, Light armour, Mark of Tzeentch, Wizard Level 2, On foot, Dispel Scroll, Spell
Familiar, Daemonology)

++ Core Units [575 pts] ++

20 Chaos Warriors [378 pts]

(Hand weapons, Heavy armour, Shields, Mark of Tzeentch, Champion, Standard bearer,
Razor Standard, Musician)

20 Chaos Marauders [197 pts]

(Hand weapons, Light armour, Shields, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Mark of Tzeentch,
Skirmishers (0-1 unit in your army), Marauder Chieftain, Standard bearer, Musician)

++ Special Units [307 pts] ++

1 Chaos Spawn [51 pts]

(Flailing Appendages (Hand weapons), Scaly Skin (Heavy Armour), Spawn of Tzeentch)

1 Chaos Spawn [51 pts]

(Flailing Appendages (Hand weapons), Scaly Skin (Heavy Armour), Spawn of Tzeentch)

Chimera [205 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapon), Scaly Skin (Heavy Armour), Regeneration (5+), Poisoned
Attacks)

++ Rare Units [430 pts] ++

Hellcannon [215 pts]

(Doomfire, Hand weapons)

Hellcannon [215 pts]

(Doomfire, Hand weapons)

The “I don’t need any friends”

This list isn’t going to be fun for your opponent, and is a very competitive list. You have chaff
in the form of warhounds, you have some magic power on your sorcerer lord (who should
run on its own near, but behind, your chaos knights), a lot of hammers (forsaken and
knights/chosen knights), and a warmachine hunter in the form of a chimera. Also, you have
the unkillable dragonlord. You will need your screens and it’s not exactly easy to choose all
your battles with this army, but if you coordinate your advance well, the opponent is going
to have too much stuff to deal with without being overwhelmed. This is the “fuck it, we ball”
of WoC in form of a list.

++ Characters [927 pts] ++

Chaos Lord [631 pts]

(Lance, Full plate armour, Shield, Mark of Nurgle, General, Chaos Dragon, Bedazzling Helm,
Crown of Everlasting Conquest, Enchanting Aura)

Sorcerer Lord [296 pts]

(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Mark of Tzeentch, Chaos Steed, Favor of the Gods, Infernal
Puppet, Sword of Might, Daemonology)

++ Core Units [569 pts] ++

5 Marauder Horsemen [92 pts]

(Flails, Javelins, Light armour, Mark of Slaanesh, Marauder Horsemaster, Musician)

5 Chaos Warhounds [35 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons), Vanguard)

6 Chaos Warhounds [41 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons), Vanguard)

6 Forsaken [114 pts]

(Mutated Weapons (Hand weapons), Heavy armour, Forsaken by Slaanesh)

6 Forsaken [114 pts]

(Mutated Weapons (Hand weapons), Heavy armour, Forsaken by Khorne)

5 Chaos Knights [173 pts]

(Lances, Shields, Heavy armour, Mark of Khorne, Champion, Standard bearer, Musician)

++ Special Units [501 pts] ++

Chimera [225 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapon), Scaly Skin (Heavy Armour), Flaming Breath, Fiend Tail,
Regeneration (5+))

5 Chosen Chaos Knights [276 pts]

(Lances, Shields, Full plate armour, Mark of Khorne, Drilled, Champion, Standard bearer,
Rampaging Standard, Musician)

The “Monster mash”

This is just a fun list where you cram as many monsters as you can into the whole mix. Not
much else to it, really. The reason I include it here is to show that you don’t always need to
run warriors, chosen and warhounds in a list.

++ Characters [485 pts] ++

Daemon Prince [485 pts]

(Hand weapon, Light armour, Wings (Fly 9), Mark of Nurgle, Wizard Level 4, General, Armour
of Silvered Steel, Giant Blade, Earthing Rod, Favor of the Gods, Dark Majesty, Daemonology)

++ Core Units [510 pts] ++

6 Forsaken [114 pts]

(Mutated Weapons (Hand weapons), Heavy armour, Forsaken by Khorne)

6 Forsaken [114 pts]

(Mutated Weapons (Hand weapons), Heavy armour, Forsaken by Khorne)

7 Forsaken [133 pts]

(Mutated Weapons (Hand weapons), Heavy armour, Forsaken by Slaanesh)

6 Forsaken [114 pts]

(Mutated Weapons (Hand weapons), Heavy armour, Forsaken by Slaanesh)

5 Chaos Warhounds [35 pts]

(Claws and Fangs (Hand weapons), Vanguard)

++ Special Units [506 pts] ++

3 Dragon Ogres [196 pts]

(Great weapons, Heavy armour, Shartak)

3 Chaos Trolls [132 pts]

(Additional hand weapons, Calloused Hides (Light Armour))

4 Chaos Ogres [178 pts]

(Great weapons, Heavy armour, Mark of Slaanesh, Champion, Standard bearer, Musician)

++ Rare Units [496 pts] ++

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth [276 pts]

(Hand weapon, Heavy armour, Headman's Axe)

Chaos Giant [220 pts]

(Giant's Club, Calloused Hide (Light Armour), Regeneration (6+))