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My son is new to fantasy and he has two boxes of chaos marauder horsemen and one box of chaos marauders and before he starts putting them together we would like to know if there is a preferred way to equip them and/or play them.

There 2 common types.

Small units of 10 marauder with light armor and flail.

Or fully geared with light armor , shield , hand weapons + mark of nurgle.

In combat that is 4+ armor save and -1 to hit.

For Horsemen, generally Flails are the most popular choice.

Light Armour is generally taken if any armour is taken. Both armour options (Light Armour and Shields) are generally not taken, as they remove the Fast Cavalry rule, the main reason for taking them.

Generally, a musician is always useful, the other command less so.

Common builds, ALL include a musician:

5 or 6 with Flails, Light Armour, Mark of Khorne - Hard hitting unit on the charge, glass cannon

5 with Flails, Light Armour, Optional Throwing Axes, Mark of Slaanesh - General use Fast Cavalry. Reasonable hittyness, useful for baiting and fleeing, all the usual Fast Cav stuff (Which you can't do with the MoK)

5 with Flails, Spears, Javelins, Optional Light Armour, MoS - Cheaper version of the above, less popular.

Light armour can be taken off if the points are a squeeze, though is pretty cheap for a small unit.

There are 4 types of Marauder units I will take.

A Block of 20-25 Marauders on foot with LA + HW + Shield and MoS.

A Block of 10-12 Marauders w/ Flails and MoK

5 Marauder Horsemen with Throwing Axes and MoS and a musician

6 Marauder Horsemen with Flails and MoK.

If your son is new to WFB, I would avoid using MoK. Being forced to charge due to frenzy is not the best thing for light weight troops. MoS is my mark of choice - no fear, no panic, lots of control.

Preferred builds:
A Block of 20-25 Marauders on foot with LA + HW + Shield and MoS
A Block of 10 Marauders w/ Flails (or Great Weapons) and MoS with Champion and Musician. No banner - these units are expendable & die/break all the time

5 Marauder Horsemen with Throwing Axes and MoS and full command. Having a banner in a small unit runs the risk of giving up 100 VP, but I find it tips the battle in my favor against other small units.

My Marauder Cav I use 5 guys, Musician, Flails, Light Armor, throwing Axes, and Mark of Slaanesh.

I have 2 blocks of Marauders with Light armor and shield (And Mark of Slaanesh). I find them lacking generally, as they can't threaten anything. I am currently working on converting the flails to Great Weapons so I can have a block with Great Weapons and Mark of Slaanesh (Light armor is a waste on these) so they can actually threaten things.

You always want Mark of Slaanesh on Marauders of all sorts though.