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Hello all. Just joined up here, though I've been lurking for a few weeks now.

So, along about the time that 6th edition was just being released, my friend and I decided to start playing WHFB. We went halves on the starter set, painted it up, and played 2 or 3 games. We liked the game, so he decided to build up an Orc army. I wasn't really feeling the empire, so after consulting the army books at my nearby GW store, I decided to throw my lot in with the fel powers and build up a Hordes of Chaos army. I went on ebay, got a steal on a good base for the army, and then... real life happened. For 3 years or so, my warriors languished in storage, the lack of bloodshed slowly driving them mad.

So we've finally arrived at a place where I can get back into it. But, I'm at a loss as to what I'm supposed to do with my army. I recognized that all I had were expensive units, so I went out and bought a unit of marauders, marauder horsemen and some warhounds.

So, looking for some serious direction for my army.

Current list is:

10x Warhounds
16x Marauders w/ Command
5x Marauder Horsemen
18x Warriors w/ Command
10x Chosen w/ Command
10x Knights w/ Command
Sorcerer w/ Familiar
Exalted Hero w/ Daemonic Mount

Current army points total, with minimal upgrades is 1669. That's with no magic items, marks, gifts, etc. I kind of feel like I'm missing some heavy hitters. Maybe I should get some spawn, trolls, or ogres? Do I need a hell cannon? Looking for someone to help me fill the gaps.

On a related note, my friend only has about 800 points worth of Orcs to field right now. I'd like to play against him, but I don't know the best way to trim my army down. Again, any tips or info is appreciated.

Thanks again for any help.

with the models you have, id suggest running at least 1 20 man block of maruders, maybe marking them with nurgle, (to keep them getting shot up), or slanesh to help with enemy LD tricks. flails are a good buy for them, but i find light armor and shields rarley pay for themselves. for your lords/heros i personally love a sorcerer (either hero or lord) with a mark of tzeencth, disc, golden eye and maybe some other gear. a nurgle sorc on foot can also do bad things to anyone who gets close (keep casting curse of leper on something and watch it melt after 2 turns). as for other stuff, i like knights in blocks of 5, giants with slanesh marks can be fantastic fun, and spawn are great for slowing down the foe, or anchoring your weaker maruder units. (dirt cheap and kick @$$ in combat) never used a hell cannon, but i imagine when it works its great fun... but the risk of it eating crew and going nuts is somewhat a concern. never tried trolls or ogres, but thats because i simply just dont like the models. (too "old" olling compared to the wonderfully detailed and kick butt other models)

for 800 pts, id run a single group of 10 warriors with shields, a few groups of mabe 10-15 maruders with flails, a tizz sorc on disc, MAYBE a second sorc of nurgle or a hero on jugger (hero, jugger, MoK and a cheap magic wep) then your hounds to round things out. my 1000 pt list has a nurgle sorc, a tizz sorc on disc, a jugger hero, 10 warriors, 20 maruders. mind you thats really relying on your ranged magic attacks to wither them down, then finish up a maruder warrior charge

Thanks for the info! I'll start building a list based on your suggestions, and see how it plays

For a gamey-but-still-strong 800 I would suggest:
- tizz sorcerer
- 12+ warriors w/ full command & shields
- 10+ marauders w/ musician & flails
- 5 horsemen w/ musician, flails/spears, light armor
- 5 warhounds if you want 'em
- 5 knights w/ standard, musician

I made a list for the above, but then I had some points left that could go any variety of places to pay for marks, depending on how you want to mark things. I dislike 'skittles' chaos so I didn't go with MoS on everything, though that is obviously the ideal choice on these core troopers, particularly starting out. Anyway, my list looks like this so far:

H: Sorcerer - MoT, book of secrets, talisman of protection = 145

C: 12 Warriors - full command, shields = 222
C: 10 Marauders - musician, flails = 54
C: 5 Horsemen - musician, flails, light armor = 86

S: 5 Knights - standard, musician = 230
------
737

63 points means MoS for everybody with a little extra for another warrior or roar on the sorcerer (), or it also means 3 more warriors for a more respectable 15 block, perhaps with MoS so it's taken care of but the marauders go unmarked as Slaanesh could care less and the knights already cause fear ... Or you could go with 5 dogs and use the extra for a couple warriors or perhaps a warbanner for the warriors or knights (warriors likely need it more).

- Salvage

Wow, thanks again for the suggestions!

Out of curiosity, does it never pay to use horsemen with shields and hand weapons? Mostly asking because I've started assembling my horsemen.

Flails are the 'optimal' choice, but I actually run my own as spears + light armor. This is exactly the same effect as spears + shields, which brings a nice aesthetic look - I happen to just be lazy and not want to paint shields too You could do shields with no combat option, but it seems so easy to pay 5/10 points and give them a bit more of a role - either +1 strength spears, or throwing spears / axes for a bit of range. Actually for the same points as flails + light armor you could go t.axes + shields, which would model up as shields + hw, so if say you've got 10 points in some games, you could spring for the t.axes for tossing or go without otherwise.

- Salvage