Warriors of Chaos review....now that I've played them awhile

hey just thought I'd post some musings of the WOC while my paint drys.

I've played them now over two leagues and thought I'd run through the units I've been using and how they have performed.

marauders with GW, light armour and shield.....great for what I use them for....redirecting, soaking up missle fire and a second wave to take ranks. As before they won't win any combats without character support but now are cheaper.

marauder horse fast cav.......a bit of a dissapointment. Great for redirecting charges but are singled out quickly and destroyed.

medium Marauder cav.......the biggest dissapointment. Tryed running these with flails and shields as medium cav (ranks) with character support. Character was the only one to ever kill anything and often had to abandon the unit to help out more important combats. I'll be dropping these and the idea.

warriors.........the best unit in my army. Can easily absorb most charges and dish out the pain in return. I normally only fielded one unit but will field two in the future. Fears of them being left out of the game are unfounded by simple proper deployment. I havn't had them stranded even when march blocked in any game so far.

chosen........a kick ass unit that gets only better from the pregame eye of the gods table roll. Love these guys but will probably only field them in higher point games in the future. They were the one unit that always seemed to die as my opponents always concentrated everything on them.

Chaos Knights........up with the warriors as best unit. Overly expensive and singled out by opponents...thats why I have to field two units now

Warshrine......havnt tryed it yet but will in my next games. I'm skeptical of its use but Love the fluff of the unit so it will probably stay no matter what its effectiveness is.

Characters......Sorcerer Lord, exalted bsb, Chaos Lord. All general awesomeness but probably prefer the Sorcerer Lord over the Chaos Lord for effectiveness.

spawn......craptastik.....too slow.

ogres....good unit but there are better choices. Left out for higher point games.

Dragon ogres....awesome but chaos knights are much better for the points.


So thats my thoughts.

I am curious how you field your sorcerer lord?

I have been considering mark of nurgle fo marauder cav. Harder to shoot at them, and they hit almost anything on a 3+.

Also you missed the chaos chariot that can win combat on its own:
-D6+1 str 5 impact
4 str 5 attacks
2 str 4 attacks.

You average 7 str 5 hits an 1 str 4 hit on the charge.

Yeah your right about the chariot but I've never used one, just don't fit my idea of the "northern horde".

My last few set-ups of the Sorcerer Lord......deamonic mount, Chaos runesword, enchanted shield, book of secrets, level 4.
........this makes a 1+ save good fighting character with 5 spells and 7 power dice, and also causes fear. Just watch out for the miscast from the book of secrets. I never use more than 3 dice on a spell which limits that though somewhat.

Oh I havn't played with any marks in the army since my first 3 games and I use the lore of death.

**The book of secrets affects all of your miscasts!

I have thought about the sorcerer lord on a manticore with the chaos rune shield for fighting characters. Ironically I think the axe of khorne is best on a sorcerer

Could be, but it just annoys me. Dosn't seem right mixing up stuff like that. It would be alright If I had just entered the hobby with no knowledge of the past. The new fluff actually explains the new rules pretty good but you just can't forget the past when its been ingrained for so long, 'course I'm not sure what the rules were before 5th edition.

Carson wrote:Could be, but it just annoys me. Dosn't seem right mixing up stuff like that. It would be alright If I had just entered the hobby with no knowledge of the past. The new fluff actually explains the new rules pretty good but you just can't forget the past when its been ingrained for so long, 'course I'm not sure what the rules were before 5th edition.

Yeah I cant take the axe on a sorcerer, it just seems that it is the best option though

I've played Chaos exclusively (in all it's forms) since I started playing Warhammer over 10 years ago. I've only played a few games with the new book but here's what I think:

Marauders - handweapon + sheild, mark of slaanesh @ 25 strong. Very cheap static res unit. Good place to hide a Sorcerer.

Horsemen. They "earn" their points by being a distraction that has to be dealt with. Always used ranged weapons until I saw Wade use them against me as a Khorne unit I never thought they had much hitting power. Wade, had a unit of 5 Khorne Horsemen go through Minotaurs like they were paper -- changed my view completely.

Chaos Warriors: Seem to get a bad rap, but those guys can hit hard. I always use Halberd + sheild. I have never bought into the Great weapon opinion as you never get to choose when or if you charge. Having both Marauders and warriors on the table it seems like Warriors always see the end of the game.

Knights: Anyone that says this isn't the best unit in the army hasn't played the army. You really should have 2 units and if you can, units of 6. Anyone that only plays with one unit to be "fair" is just hurting themselves. It's not like WoC is a broken army -- we need those Knights. Even bare bones on the table they are incredibly effective. Crazy good.

Chosen: Have never used them so I guess I really don't know, but I think I'd rather have more Warriors than just a unit of Chosen. Although in a 2 Warshrine gimmick army a "Chosenstar" unit looks pretty cool.

HellCannon: Consistent? Not really, but wow I LOVE the Cannon! Just the Psychological factor alone makes this a good unit. And when it does work it really can go to town. I've used 2 at one time and the results were great. I'm obviously biased here, but this thing can make a BloodThirster nervous.

b]Spawn[/b]: Any Spawn without the mark of Slaanesh is crap.

Ogres: I cannot fathom why anyone would put these on the table other than for fluff reasons. Absolute rubbish. I can't even explain in words how much I hate Chaos Ogres. When the Ogres got their own armybook they really should have wiped these from the map.

Dragon ogres: As a Beast player I have a soft spot for Dragon Ogres as they hit pretty hard, but are much softer than they look. Again, other than for fluff there is no reason not to put Knights on the table instead.

Sorcerer Lords and other Sorcerers are ALMOST broken....almost. It really is the main reason a WoC army can be a threat. Tzeentch Lord and a couple tzeentch and Nurgle lvl 2's got me a few frowns around the gaming table. I can remember a few magic phases were I actually felt a little guilty. Oh, and the 2 Hellcannons on the table that can actually work quite well with your Sorcerers. Having said that an overpriced, less effective Chaos Lord on a Daemonic Mount is just too cool.

After I'm finished the Khorne Daemons, I think I'm going full bore on Woc. This is the kind of stuff that gets me motivated.

I didnt think that the sorcerers were THAT good. but I never used them that much. I always use them for fluffy armies where a chaos lord or champion is out of place (sorcerers are the ones who get things moving in the chaos world! )

I have secured myself 1 Throgg King of trolls and 16 gamezone trolls (for $9us each! )

I am super pumped to play the troll army!!!

Sorc lord on Manticore
Throgg
4xunit of 4 trolls
20 hounds
6 or more forsaken (the only humans who would fit into a troll army )
2 spawn
giant

I love seeing theme armies. Get painting so I can face this on the table!

Yep, love themed armies. they just seem funner to play with and against. I've always wanted to see a throgg troll army. Really don't know if its viable in game terms but certainly sounds cool.

Carson wrote:Yep, love themed armies. they just seem funner to play with and against. I've always wanted to see a throgg troll army. Really don't know if its viable in game terms but certainly sounds cool.

I am content that it is more viable than ogre kingdoms.

I am content that it is more viable than ogre kingdoms.

Which is too bad as Ogre Kingdoms is easily one of my favorite armies. Love the models -- even the Yeti's.

I just bought all the models for an Ogre army.

ScottRadom wrote:I just bought all the models for an Ogre army.

Great! We can have a clash of the titans!

I just bought all the models for an Ogre army.

Even if I never actually played the army I always wanted to paint an Ogre army. Rumour has the new book out in mid - 2010. Maybe I'll get the chance if the Beasts armybook sucks.