The Gaming Kingdom

Well the first thing that strikes you when you pick up the Warriors of Chaos book is that it is a heft tomb, 128 pages all told is not bad and seems to be something that games workshop are going back to, bulking out the books with some solid background sections and artwork.

The background and art is a nice mix between old and new stuff with more of an emphasis on the northern tribes and the path from Marauder to Daemon Prince or Spawn is explored quite nicely throughout the book.  The colour section is also quite bulky with some good colour schemes and banners.  There is also what I assume to be the upcoming plastic Daemon Prince model is in there too, which is a nice bonus.

The Bestiary section is well laid out and flows a lot better than some recent army books; it follows the path from Marauder to Daemon Prince in the way that it lists units with all of the mounts and monsters after that with all of the support elements.  One thing in the Bestiary section that will interest you is the army special rules and the much talked about Eye of the Gods table.

The army special rules and Eye of the Gods table is where my first real complaint with the book comes up.  The wording on the Eye of the Gods rule makes it slightly ambiguous as to how it works exactly but the gist of it is that when your Heroes and Lords kill opponents in a challenge or slay a large target the get to roll on the table with the result affecting them for the rest of the game and the possibility of them stacking.  The tables effects range from the character becoming stupid at one end, through a whole load of stat increases to them being stubborn and having a 4+ Ward Save at the top end of the table.

This really helps to emphasise the nature of the army and reinforces the fear of having a chaos lord closing on your lines as you know that not only is he hard but he is probably going to get harder.

At the other end of the Bestiary is the special characters section and for those of you who like to field them you will not be disappointed, my personal favourite being either Throgg the troll king, who has the ability to pass on his leadership to all monsters even if he is not the army general, counts trolls as core and can vomit D6 times a round compared to once.  Or Kholek Suneater, a Dragon Ogre Shaggoth with 8 wounds, 7 attacks a 2+ save and the ability to not only attract any lightning based attacks but to call down his own every shooting phase.  All of the gods get at least on character and there is even a Marauder Hero in there as well.

Moving on through the book you will reach the Magic section that not only contains the new lore?s of chaos but the Marks, Gifts and Magic items as well.  All of the Chaos lore?s have had an update and are different to the ones in the Daemon Book.  While both Nurgle and Tzeentch are a vast improvement on the old lore Slaanesh has become very situational with spells 2, 3 and 4 having no effect on units that are immune to Psychology and spell 5 making one of your own units cause fear.  This means that although immensely powerful in some situations it is next to useless in others and so can be a double edged sword in an all comers list.  Also worth a mention is the number 6 spell in the lore of Tzeentch, Infernal Gateway.  This spell is cast on a 15+ and does 2D6 Strength 2D6 Hits on a unit within 24 inches of the caster.  What makes it worth a mention and its 15+ casting value is that is and 11 or 12 is rolled for the strength of the hits the entire enemy unit is removed from the game!  No armour saves or ward saves the unit is just removed from the game and transported to the realm of chaos.  Now when you take in to account that to be able to cast the lore of Tzeentch the Sorcerer must have the mark of Tzeentch which gives him +1 to his casting rolls things start to get nasty as it is easily possible to get +2 to cast on multiple mages with some form of reroll to boot.  This spell is going to win someone a tournament but you have to try to keep it in context.

The marks of the gods have all been updated as well with varying degrees of change.  The mark of Tzeentch now provides a 6+ ward save which stacks with any other ward save the character may get.  It also gives +1 to cast.  This means that the Fighting Tzeentch Sorcerer lord is gone but forces you to make the choice between fighting and magic.

The mark of Nurgle is probably the most improved as it now provides a -1 to hit to shooting attacks directed at the unit and when in combat gives and give -1 weapon skill to opponents in base contact. 

The mark of Khorne conversely is probably the least improved as it still gives frenzy but no longer adds any dispel dice.

The mark of Slaanesh no longer confers immune to psychology; you are now just immune to fear, terror and panic.  This may seem like a small change but give them the ability to flee as a charge reaction now and makes them susceptible to more magic items and magic.

As more units can now be marked, including your Marauders and there is no longer any restrictions on mixing marks on characters and units the army becomes a lot more flexible as long as you are not playing mono god armies.  On the plus side, as a mono god player at least the Marauders can be marked now allowing cheaper troops that still fit the theme.

After the marks comes the Daemonic Gifts, unlike the ones in the Daemons book these can only be taken once per army and although some of them are interesting they don?t combine as well as they could with the marks and magic items available like the bloodline powers do in the Vampire book.

On to the Magic Items with 17 magic weapons to choose from you know the direction the book it going to take already.  The other thing that does stand out though is the lack of magical defence and an around ward save.  I assume the latter is to give fighting characters with the mark of Tzeentch an advantage but can see no real reason for the lack of magical defence as it almost force you to take at least a level one scroll caddy which is a shame if you were hoping to do a mono Khorne army.  A good thing about the new magic items list is the removal of the restrictions on who can take what, meaning that you can still take the Khorne themed items in an all Khorne list but you can take them on a character with the mark of Tzeentch if you want to, as although it may rub people up the wrong way with the restrictions in place the mono god lists were at a serious handicap with the magic items available to them.

Finally after the magic items we come to the army list itself.  I will give a quick description of each entry and try to highlight something good and bad about each choice.

Lords;

Chaos Lord

This guy is easily the match of any other lord in the game, with the right equipment I could see him taking on a Bloodthirster in combat and at the least holding his own.  Stick him on a Chaos Dragon and there in not a lot in the game that will stop him.  Unfortunately this kind of combat monster does not come cheap will be tipping the scales at almost 800 points on a dragon

+Combat monster that could charge units in the front and win on his own.

-Has to challenge so will very rarely get to eat through a unit and cost a truck load of points.

Sorcerer Lord

Not your standard sorcerer lord as this guy is just as good in combat as most normal heroes and can take on lord level characters from some of the books.  Equip him correctly and you would hardly know that he was not a fighting character, but again can cost 800 point if you max him out.

+Relatively cheap way of getting two dispel dice without losing too much in combat.

-Has to accept challenges so can be head hunted by a smart opponent.

Daemon Prince

At first glance it is hard to see the use of this guy and most people will leave it at that, not as good in combat as a chaos lord, more expensive than a sorcerer lord if you want to upgrade him to cast magic, only unit strength 3 and only has a 5+ ward.  Where he comes in to his own is that he is a jack of all trades.  With a little thought he can do any job you need and with the right chaos gift can add spice to a list.

+Versatile

-Can be fragile

Heroes;

Chaos Sorcerer

Again the hero level sorcerer is a step above most other spell casters when it comes to combat, with a base of 2 attacks and a weapon skill of 5 he can get stuck in to unit champions and with either a good roll on the eye of the gods table or the right magic weapon he can take on heroes as well.

+Solid choice and not a lot is lost but taking at one.

-Again has to accept challenges so can he head hunted.

Exalted Hero

Nice cheap hero who is a mach for most lords in the game if tooled up correctly.  Can be the battle standard bearer and has some very good options for mounts.  With the Juggernaut of Khorne to make him a solid tank with a -1 save  or the Disc of Tzeentch for the cheap flyer the stand out choices for me.

+Very versatile and if you are happy to go without the leadership make you wonder why you need a lord.

-I honestly can?t think of one for this unit ever chaos army should have at least one in some form!

Core;

Chaos Warriors

If you think of the old books chosen you won?t go far wrong.  2 attacks each with chaos armour as standard.  Good weapon options and the ability to be marked.  You can go for your Nurgle tanks with 2+ save in combat or if you really want to smack up a unit go for a Khorne unit with either additional hand weapons or great weapons for those 4 strength 4 attacks or 3 strength 6.  With core infantry like this it makes you wonder why you need characters?

+Hard as nails core infantry.

-Movement 4 and the points rack up if you get carried away.

Chaos Marauders

Cheap core infantry to contrast the warriors.  You can field a unit of 20 with full command for as little as 100 points but with a few upgrades the become a solid choice that makes the all Marauder hoard viable.  My unit of choice, 12 with mark of Khorne and Flails a cheap ass unit that can?t be ignored.

+Cheap and can have a mark.

-Toughness 3 and little, if any armour.

Chaos Warhounds

Another cheap unit but this time it does not count as core.  Can be upgraded to have a scaly skin save or poisoned attacks but may advice it to keep them cheap and use them as screens for you frenzied units.

+Cheap and relatively quick.

-Low toughness and leadership that can cause panic in your force.

Marauder Horsemen

Core fast cavalry and the count towards you minimum core units as well!  They also have the interesting Horselords rule that lets them re-roll the dice to pursue an enemy defeated in combat making it more likely that you can cut people down which is always nice.  A whole host of upgrades are on offer.  Including the ability to make them in to a fairly solid medium cavalry that can hit as hard as most people heavy cav.

+Core choice fast cav.

-Can be expensive if tooled up too much.

Special

Chosen

And you thought Chaos Warriors were hard.  Chosen have an extra point of weapon skill on the core warriors and cost 3 points more.  Did I forget to mention that they get a free roll in the eye of the gods table at the start of the game and get to re-roll the bad results?  That combined with options for weapons, marks, magic banners and the fact that the champion can have a 25 point magic item makes them a very solid choice.

+Free eye of the gods roll

-Movement 4

Forsaken

Forsaken are the same points as chosen but with movement 6, weapon skill 4 and a random number of attacks.  This unit is what happens to a chaos warrior when it all goes wrong and unfortunately that is all I can see happening when you field them.  The movement is good but with only a 5+ save and no command options available to them I can see the getting overwhelmed very quickly.  If only they skirmished.

+Fast and relatively cheap support unit.

-Not good enough to compete for a special slot.

Ogres

For 15 points more than a minimum unit of forsaken you can have a minimum unit of ogres.  You will be on a similar frontage, same movement, have the same armour, cause fear, be guaranteed 3 attacks per Ogre, have 9 wounds in the unit not 5 and not be subject to frenzy. All round a better choice I feel if you want some fast moving infantry support and when you consider they can be marked and have weapon and command options you can really make a monster unit.

+Can have equipment and marks to make them more specialised.

-Points can rack up very quickly.

Chaos Chariot

Your usual chariot but that little bit harder hitting.  D6+1 strength 5 impact hits and 4 strength 5 attacks from the guys on the back in addition to the ninja horses will ruin any ones day.  Excellent support unit and could devastate a flank with one a well supported charge.

+Can be marked and taken as a mount for characters.

-Can be left behind in faster armies.

Dragon Ogres

There is not much that needs to be said about dragon ogres to be honest just take a look at their stats and then put them in your list, with great weapons if possible.

+Very solid stat line with some good upgrades.

-Initiative 2 I suppose.

Trolls

A nice unit option that can get a roll on the eye of the gods table if the pass 3 regeneration saves in one turn.  That and the vomit make them a very useful unit but it all depends on you passing those leadership tests for stupidity.

+Can get an eye of the gods roll and ignore armour with the vomit.

-Stupidity

Chaos Knights

I don?t think you will see many armies without a unit of chaos knights in them.  You can quite easily spend 300+ points on the minimum sized unit if you are not carful but with 2 attacks each and the option of strength 6 lances or strength 5 all the time can be devastating, and that?s without a mark.

+Very hard hitters.

-Expensive command upgrade.

Rare;

Spawn

A cheap double rare option that with the right mark can be deadly against the right opponent.  I like the mark of Slaanesh for always strike first as you can hold up a flanking force with two of them very effectively for a relatively small investment.

+Cheap and unbreakable.

-Random movement.

Chaos Warshrine

A counts a monster with ok stats and a movement of 4 that give your unit champions access to the eye of the gods table and lets you bless one unit per turn with a roll on the table.

+Guaranteed eye of the gods roll.

-Movement 4 I suppose.

Hellcannon

The hellcannon has been toned down slightly but is still an interesting choice.  Give you the chance to reach out and hurt people at range are you can use it as a monster and get it in to combat as quickly as possible.

+Hard hitter in combat and at range.

-Gives up half point it's the chaos dwarfs die.

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth

The Shaggoth is a solid rare choice that has a very impressive stat line and the option of either an additional hand weapon for 6 attacks of a great weapon for strength 8.  That, causing terror and an impressive 6 wounds makes the Shaggoth my preferred rare choice.

+Can survive a lot of punishment and still be a threat.

-Needs to be used with care as he will not beat a ranked up unit on his own.

Chaos Giant

The giant is just as tough as the Shaggoth and has the same number of wounds but lacks the armour save.  Not a problem when you are getting shot by cannon balls but can make a big difference against bow fire and the like.  One advantage he does have is that he can be marked and can charge a unit in the front without too much fear due to his stubborn leadership 10.  Mark of Slaanesh for always strike first is again my first choice.

+Stubborn and can be marked.

-Random attacks and no armour.

That?s if for the review and as you can see the Warriors of Chaos are quite a varied list with a lot of good options.  Next time I will be taking a look at how the units can go together to make an army and will run through 2 sample lists to give an example of two completely different play styles available to you.

Kris Sherriff