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I've been interested in starting a warriors of chaos army or Lizardmen one for whfb for some time now. My questions to dakka are
1)What is the average size for a battl?e
2) How should I build these armies?
3) How does each army play?


Thanks!

Most games are played at 2400 or 2500pts, mostly depending on what has become standard in your area. 2000pts gets played a bit as well. For a new player 1250-1500pt games are good starting points.

Both Lizards and WoC are very solid armies and fairly decent choices for a new player as they are reasonably straight foward to use.
WoC are essentially a pure combat army and easily the best in the game in this area, their standard infantry can beat pretty much anything. They can get some pretty good magic users but the Hellcannon aside they have no shooting whatsoever. You have plenty of different options for different builds, Marauder heavy, Warrior heavy, Cavalry heavy or a combination, but they all tend to be based around beating things to death in combat.
Lizards aren't quite as combat heavy as WoC, but make up for it by having the best magic users in the game, skirmishers, some faster infantry units and some good shooting units. Most Lizard lists tend to be built around a Slann giving out buffs to a few blocks of Saurus/Temple Guard with support from Skinks and Salamanders.

1) Depends on where you play, most people play at about 2400 or 2500 points as an average sized game. As a beginner, i'd advise playing at 1000 points and then expanding from there depending on which elements of the game you like the most.

2)This is tricky, i don't knwo too much about warriors of chaos so i'll leave that to someone else, but lizardmen are a combat army supported by a bit of shooting and a ton of magic. If i were just starting out i'd pick up a couple of boxes of saurus warriors a box or two of skinks 2 salamanders and a skink priest or a scar vet (i don't know how many points that would really come out to but you get the idea). You could also check out some of the 1000 point builds her eon dakka and see something that you like. Eventually you'll definitely want a Slann because they are simply amazing, but don't get one until you have around 2000 points, they don't work in lower point games.

3) Lizardmen and Warriors of Chaos play surprisingly similar as i have seen. WOC tend to be a bit more combat oriented and are the most expensive core infantry in the game, they also romp all other infantry in the game. Lizardmen have the second best core infantry in the game, (and for the points per model i think they are the best). Anyways, a fully fledged lizardmen army runs generally like a block of temple guard in the center of the battle line with a slann, two large blocks of saurus warriors, a stegadon, a unit of skinks or two, and salamanders. essentially, the army moves up the field blasting the opponent with magic while protecting their own (lore of life is wonderfully broken for this ), until they reach the enemy, at which point the slann/TG unit act as an anvil and the saurus hammer down on the enemy. the skinks are good for taking down enemy war machines (because you can now poison lumber......) . the salamanders are great for taking down armored units and low ld troops. put them on the flanks and let the flames roll out.

hope this helps

I'm leaning towards Woc, do you get armor bonuses of any sort? Also, is there a certain number of required units you have to take? like the force organization chart from 49k

Well, I am considering starting a high elf army now because I have a friend interested in splitting an isle of blood box with me for the skaven. How do they hold up combat/ magic wise?

High Elves got excellent Magic and great Offense in close combat, problem is that as soon as they get hit themselves, they will more or less go down.
There are some units that are more surviveable than the others, but most run around with a 5+ save and thoughness 3.
There core units are "bad", to expensive to be worth taking more than required.
Their special units are mostly good, usually at one thing. Swordmasters are there to kill many enemies, Phoenix Guards are there to stay alive, White Lions got better save against shooting, good special rules and are "designed" to take out elite infantry. You could also say that Swordmasters are hammers, Phoenix Guards are Anvils and White Lions can do both(though argueably not as good, depending on the personal view of the player).
They got some nasty magic items and got some of the best wizard items in the game, with the right setup they can rival or beat all other magic heavy armies in the game.

About the "force organisation":
its % based.
Up to 25% Lord choices
Up to 25% Hero choices
Your army must have atleast 25% of the total points as Core units.
Up to 50% Special choices
Up to 25% Rare choices
Also the army must contain atleast 3 units and one character.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There are ofcourse more special units than those I mentioned, though those 3 are the most used.

I design my lists based on what I consider mainstays first, then fillers afterwards.

For my elves I designed my characters first, choosing whether to go magic heavy, bring a dragon, or minimize character presence(basic choices you have to make with any army really).

Then I chose my mainstay units. For HE I went with 25 phoenix guard as the major unit in my army. After that it is just fleshing out the list by making smaller decisions. For core I went with 2 spear units and 1 archer unit, opting to go melee heavy instead of shooting. Then chose some Dragon Princes and eagles to finish out.

Personally I tend to maximize on characters depending on role. For elves I take a lv4 and lv2 mage, a bsb and a melee lord. For dark elves I went with a dragon lord, 2 wizards and bsb.