Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The (lackluster?) Warriors of Chaos

Like I've been saying, lots of thinking about Warriors of Chaos has been going on lately for me.  Lots of lists, and lots of tweaks to them, before I've even played a single game of Fantasy in 8th.

Warriors of Chaos to me are an army that epitomizes what seems fun to me in Warhammer- lots of strong blocks of infantry.  I've heard it both ways, as far as how OP they're going to be- some say top tier, some say bottom of the barrel.  I'm not really sure what I think yet, since lots of games are going to be needed for people to actually get a handle on this Edition.

So, here is the latest list I've been playing around with.  I'll make comments on each unit as I write it:

Sorceror Lord of Tz, Disk, Conjoined Homonculus, 4++ Ward Pendant, Enchanted Shield, Stream of Corruption
This guy is a little bit of everything.  A 2+/3++ save is pretty good, and if he miscasts he won't hurt anyone since he's on a Disk.  The Stream of Corruption is a S3 AP breath weapon that'll surprise anyone if I decide to charge in with him (or just move up next to a huge horde unit and let loose).  Lots of points, but lots of nasty spells/tricks possible with this bad boy.

Exalted Hero of Tz, Shield, Collar of Khorne, Book of Secrets, Third Eye of Tz, BSB
This guys is the 'mandatory' BSB every army needs these days (especially with WoC!).  He's got a 3+/5+ in combat, which isn't terribad, and he's also a L1 Wizard who knows all the spells someone he has LoS to knows, which can be pretty great.  He goes in the Nurgle Warrior squad, so he also benefits from the Frenzy Banner, with 5 S5 attacks...

Hellcannon x2
These guys are my only real shooting.  They can take out blocks of infantry with shooting, or just charge into combat against gunlines.  I can't wait to see fast cavalry at a loss of what to do against them :)

7 Chaos Knights w/ Mark of Khorne, Standard, Musician, Flaming Attacks Banner
This is a pretty hard-hitting squad that, if not dealt with swiftly, will tear just about anything a new asshole.  Against WS4 T4, they'll do 10 S5 wounds, and 4 S4 wounds on average (rounded the numbers... optimistically).  Against WS4 T3, they'll do 12 and 6, respectively.  Pretty solid numbers that they can put out every single combat assuming they all live (which I'm aware they won't always).  Still, a Hydra dies in a single turn of combat against them (without it ever striking).  Nice :) heh, assuming they all get their attacks against it anways.  It actually looks like they probably won't :(

17 Warriors of Chaos w/ Mark of Nurgle, Halberds, Frenzy Standard, Standard, Musician
Warriors w/ 3 attacks and S5, they're nearly as good as the Chaos Knights in combat, if a (whole lot) slower.  The BSB guy goes here, giving the unit a 5+ ward vs. spells (because of his MR2) and the MoN makes them slightly harder to hit in the shooting phase.  It adds up, though.

18 Warriors of Chaos w/ Mark of Tz, Shields, Standard, Musician, Blasted Standard
These guys are pretty resiliant, with a 3+/5++ in combat, and a 3+/4++ against shooting.  'Only' two attacks each at S4 makes them slightly less awesome at combat, but I'm not too concerned- the resiliance of the unit should make up for it.

50 Marauders w/ Mark of Khorne, Great Weapons, Standard, Musician
And here's the cool horde I wanna try.  Even if you butcher 20 of them before they get to strike (a somewhat tall order, since they have WS4), they'll still get 40 S5 WS4 attacks back.  Thats a lot of dead... stuff.  For example, against a Dark Elf Black Guard unit, that's about 17 dead elves, who would do less than 17 wounds to the Marauders.  It's a cheap block, and potentially way more destructive.  I'll just need to learn how to use it.  This is all assuming all 10 Marauders get their attacks, of course.

5 Hounds x3
These guys will just try to annoy people, and attempt to kill warmachines.  Also, giving cover to my blocks and forcing people to shoot at them instead of my blocks will help immensely.  They'll also do a good job of panic-ing my own troops off the board, since they'll die and my troops' low leadership will help them fail it up.  Also, fanatic popping is a great use for these poor blighters.  They'll die. Every. Single. Game.  Of that I'm sure :)

So, that's the plan for 2500.  I'm considering making the BSB more resiliant in combat, instead of being a wizard, but playtesting will tell me which is better I think.

What do you think?  Are the blocks fast enough to 'get there' against a gunline?  Will the Knights survive or just die horribly game after game after game?  Will my tooled out Sorceror end up doing what I want for the most part (harassment, general softening up of my opponent)?  Let me know!

1 comment:

Chumbalaya said...

I like a lot of those units. My problem with WoC is that they have good unit but don't combine them very well, kinda like CSM in 40k.

Limited mobility, virtually no shooting, and no scouts/flyers is gonna cause all sorts of problems for them.

I think any WoC list is gonna want Marauder Cav to get a free move and charge some war machines ASAP. Beyond that, Exalted Heroes on Disks are your best bet to go after blasty things.

I'd like to see how it works out though.