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Hello. I recently got into fantasy. I have a bare understanding of the rule's.
My base army will be the Battalion and a Slannesh Lord. To see if I like it or not.

How could I take on armies like Vampire's or Dark Elves?

And if I wanted to build on my army what would you suggest?

Hmmm...

Vampires: Well, Slaanesh gives you Immune to Psychology. Conventional Tactics suggest killing the Vampire and his Bodyguard. Another solid tactic is to bring as many dispel dice onto the field as possible. As the Vamp List is heavily dependent on Magic, many dispel dice will frustrate the VC's plans.

Dark elves like to enter combats which favor them, and by this I mean that they would rather soften your troops up with sorcery and shooting before getting into combat. I would suggest some fast moving units to get into combat quickly, as Elves don't like it when they're stuck in ANY kind of combat that they haven't set up.

If you have trouble with numerous units, then Khorne is your friend. However, don't take two hand weapons on Chaos Warriors, as the 2+ save is too good to pass up. Warriors with MoK have 3 WS5 S4 attacks each, which is more than enough to deal with VC troops. Also consider Slaanesh, for the immunity to Fear, Terror, and Panic.

Heh my Warriors will be Slannesh.

Painted to a similar fashion as my 40k army

Can you mix and match like in 40k say a Tzeench sorcerer in a crowd of Slanneshi warriors?

Against the vampires the only thing you really have to do is kill the characters, take them out and the whole army comes crashing.

I believe you can put a tzeentch sorc. in a block of slanneshi warriors, not 100% sure though.

Yes, you can mix n' match marks like in 40k.

Against VC you could even have a chance to win, as WoC have so tough heroes that they could beat even Vampires. That is if you get to the Vampire in first place.
But yeah, Slaanesh against VC and DoC and Khorne against Dark Hip-I mean Elves

A good thing to have against VC is not only a good armour save, but an immunity to killing blow. Arguably their deadliest character is one that starts out with 4 S7 attacks that auto-hit, and then gets more for each one that wounds from those. Even with a 1+ armour save you're looking at saving on 5's, so perhaps something to help you regenerate would be handy. On the other hand, several of their units and some characters can get killing blow, so you'll need either immunity to that or depend on a good ward save - which chaos doesn't really have access to.

Large units of skeletons and zombies isn't something chaos needs to worry about, either. Since you're going Slaanesh and will ignore fear, the usual VC tactic of summoning zombies on the flank and sending them in to cancel your rank bonus is really a detriment - a square-ish block of chaos warriors can easily kill enough zombies to not only counteract the penalty from being flanked, but actually help the combat. Attacking from the rear is even worse.

IF you decide on anything khorne, a few units of marauder horsemen are a nice thing to have. DE love to bait frenzied units with dark riders and then flee out of charge range - having marauder horsemen nearby to declare charges on the baiting unit can help make sure you at least catch and kill them for your trouble. They're also good for flanking.

NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER, I stress NEVER put a lord that's on any kind of steed inside a unit with the Banner of Rage. It gives the whole unit frenzy which is very nice, but it makes the character frenzied too - which means if someone is sitting like 14" away [or 20" away if you're on a steed of Slaanesh] then your character is going to rocket out of your unit off on his own to engage that enemy. He's very very very unlikely to ever win combat against some kind of ranked unit and may even die if it's able to stand and shoot, and you'll lose the frenzy bonus once you're out of the unit, to boot. It's just a downright bad idea, so be careful of that [yes, I did it once].

Halberds are very nice. Always have at least one warrior unit equipped with them. You keep the option of using your shields, but sometimes being S5 at high initiative is just plain awesome.

A unit of knights is a nice thing to have. They're fairly good on their own, and add a lot of tactical flexibility. Being faster than the rest of your army, they can dominate a flank or at least threaten it. Certain units in the undead list like Cairn Wraiths and Spirit Hosts can only be hurt by magic weapons, which chaos knights all have. They're a 1-shot simple answer to those kinds of units, and both are very expensive. Wraiths cause terror, which can mess with your unmarked units, but knights of Slaanesh will ignore that completely and ruin their day too.

Warshrines are great opportunities to show off your conversion skills, and are wonderful units as well. You can go unmarked to save points, but the benefits they can provide are really amazing buffs to warrior units. The more I play with my chaos army, the more I find it lacking in a few specific areas - these areas are, I think, designed to be made up for by the use of the shrines. You COULD make a "deathstar" out of a big block of chosen with lots of characters and three shrines piling blessings onto them, but I'm almost convinced that it's better to spread the blessings to different units instead. Gaining the odd extra point of toughness, better armor saves, higher S or more attacks adds a lot to the normally good, but not very special units of chaos warriors.

My WOC have consistently pounded Vamps against folks that are pretty darn good players. The secret is simple MOK warriors. I do not mind my opponent spamming his units to 30 or so in size. 6x2 MOK warriors with additional hw can go through 30 skellies or zombies or ghouls for that matter in a single round of combat (25 ws5 st4 attacks hitting on 3's wounding on 3's or 2's can be devastating) or my other favourite unit MON warriors 6x3 with hw-shield and banner of rage.

The only key here is to not get charged by grave guard or BK's (thats where dogs come in) My magic defence is only against the danse (movement spell) and wind of undeath (hate that spell) oh and try to save a dispel die for the book of arkham (bound movement spell)

All of those units are incredibly vulnerable to having a unit of zombies zome at them from the side. A large enough unit will get 5 combat res, which even with 2x hw your khorne warriors will only get about 4-5 wounds. You may win often enough, but the moment you lose it's all over.

@Spellbound I love zombies in the flank or better yet the rear.... free combat res.

Not when they are the only thing you are fighting...

Two khorn warriors will not fight off a fully ranked unit.

Not when they are the only thing you are fighting...

Two khorn warriors will not fight off a fully ranked unit.

Well lets see... they are zombies.... lets say 3 ranks and a flank and outnumber thats 5 CR

I start with a banner so 1 CR so I got to come up with 4 CR with 8 attacks (9 if the champ is on that side) hitting on 3's killin on 2's (unless the helm is around then hitting on 4's)

So you are right I will not consistently win against a flank charge from a ranked unit of zombies. That is why I mentioned that the only magic I defend against is the danse and Wind...

magic is the only way to get the zombies into flank semi-reliably against a decent opponent.

Of course all of this is situational.... pound for pound core chaos warriors can stand against any unit vamps have other than blood knights.

Not saying warriors arent good, they are. Despite what most nay-sayers believe.

But you must protect their flanks in some manner. They are to expensive to have enough guys there for defence.

Marauders with the mark of slanesh will usually do the trick but if you have khorn marked warriors your liable to get baited out of formation (this can be guarded against but it becomes tricky).

I would tend to shy away of mark of khorn on anything except small units of marauder mounted or not.

Hands down dogs and marauder cav are essential to any khorne based WOC force. You gotta screen your frenzied units to avoid being baited as cypher stated.
screening units combined with something threatening on each flank (I use knights myself) can keep you out of most trouble.

WOC main weakness are its high point cost for characters and lack of any real shooting. Other than that they are pretty strong and IMHO often underestimated.

Question.

What would be esstional for a Slannesh themed force?


Thanks so much for posting in this thread guys I reall apreciate it. This weekend I hope ot have the army book and as late as Xmas to have a Playable army in use.

Essential? I would say lots of Marauders and Warriors with the MoS. Sigvald or a Lord on a Daemonic Mount is a nice touch. Too bad you can't have Pleasure seekers anymore. Rapturous Standard is a great banner and you can build some characters with "Slaaneshi-Only" items. I don't know go nuts (literally).

Regardless of build some pink, purple, tatoos, and/or tentacles on your minis.

Cool.

So

Slanneshi Chaos Knights

Slanneshi Marauders

Slanneshi Warriors

Chaos Hounds.

Lord on Daemon Mount.

Would this be a good start?

Sounds pretty good, If your starting with the box set I'd say split the marauders into two blocks of ten. If you're immune their not going to run from fear causing units anyway and It will protect your flank a bit more having marauders on both sides and the warriors punching up the middle

Your list sounds pretty good. I agree with going with MoS if you are concerned with VC as that will make you a lot more resistant them. Both VC and DE need magic so the more dispel dice the better.

VC- kill their characters. VCs work by having large units containing powerful characters and by healing thier units so killing characters stops them ressurecting more troops and takes away a lot of their ability to deal damage. Also target the important units and do not let them tarpit your strong units. Another VC trick is to create units on one side of you so they can flank charge. Having some cheap mobile units at your flanks can hold these off.

DE- dark elves try to wear you down they hit hard in close combat. Tip 1 stop them getting the charge, or isolate then destroy units. De also depend heavily on magic to weaken your army. Try to dispell any spells that make it easier for them to win in combat. You could alos try using multiple small units of Chaos Hounds to tie up ranged units or threaten machine crews. Even if they do not kill them it takes the DE players attention off your units which are going to caues trouble in combat.

I just got the army book.

I have to say I am very impressed with the units.

Question how good are flails with marauders and lances for knights?

Shadowbrand wrote:I just got the army book.

I have to say I am very impressed with the units.

Question how good are flails with marauders and lances for knights?

Flails for marauders on foot aren't anything special. Oftentimes one just wants those guys to not die and bring up as much static combat resolution as they can, and in that case light armor and shield are better option. For horsemen it's a different case as they are more of a shock cavalry which often tend to attack first due charge so they benefit from the flails a lot more.

I'd advise against lances, especially as they make the already expensive knights even more pricy. Even if the lance "upgrade" was free, I'd still think twice giving up the magic weapons-status and the strength bonus in every round in melee (which make the knights far more useful in prolonged combats).

Flails are great for small units of marauders (10-12) Shields for big units.

Lances on knights are a terrible idea. Cant think of any reason to take them.

Shadowbrand wrote:What would be esstional for a Slannesh themed force?

I'm starting a Slanneshi army as well, and I really like Giants, and Chaos Spawn. The Mark of Slannesh on them is a little pricey at 20 points, but Always Strikes First on units like that is great!

If I had the cash flow I would have two Slaaneshi-giants in my army. Since the Giant has a 1-in-6 chance of hitting the I-Win button it is worth it paying the points to make sure you get to attack first.

ASF spawn is ok. I would rather use the points towards another Giant or a Warshrine. In smaller games (~1000pts) I think they would be pretty good.

Also are you guys fond of the Hellcanoon?

I prefer to have as few uncontrollable things on the board as possible. Lately I've even started dropping the Banner of Rage from my army lists after a summoned unit of zombies caused my main unit with the general to charge off at an angle and open its very thin flank to a full unit of graveguard. I lasted a few rounds but in the end it was all over.

I use lances all the time on knights, usually on my second unit. Simply put, most knights are S3 anyway so being S4 is nothing to complain about. Also 10 S6 attacks on the charge (15 if they are frenzied, which they frequently are) generally means that there are no subsequent rounds of combat even against well armored or high toughness troops.

When you buy flails BTW buy light armor not shields. My horsemen are modeled with shields so i feel its wrong to give them Lt Armor but it works better with a two handed weapon.

The Hellcannon is fine, but it tends to run about killing things rather than shooting things.

I want a Slammeshi Giant and perhaps some Trolls more so then the Hellcannon now.