Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I'd like to begin a Warhammer Fantasy army.
I've never played the game before.

This list will be for fun only, don't really care if its competitive.

Here is the list I've come up with based more or less on models I like.

The Lord and the Hero on steed are pretty set in stone. (I got the sorcerer lord from the manticore kit and he'll be riding the daemonic steed from the lord w/ daemonic steed kit. Lord gets stuck on chaos steed bits and becomes exalted hero on chaos steed)

Sorcerer Lord - Lvl 3 + Daemonic Mount = 285

Exalted Hero + Chaos Steed,Great Weapon + Shield (5) = 139

Exalted Hero + Halberd + Shield + Standard Bearer = 144

10 Chaos Knights + Lances + Command = 500

18 Chaos Warriors + Halberds + Shields+ Full Command = 336

18 Chaos Warriors + Shields+ Musician & Standard Bearer = 306

18 Chaos Warriors + Shields + Musician & Standard Bearer = 306

10 Chaos Warhounds = 60

Total 2076 points with no magic, items or marks

Where I get lost is selecting the rest of the wargear to outfit the army. If someone could help with magic and marks I'd really appreciate it. I tried to provide as much information as possible. I just want to have a clear plan to build towards, not just go crazy buying stuff like I did with my Necrons.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

Hi there and welcome to chaos.

Quick tip dakka dosnt like it when post the individual points for each upgrade, so for a unit just put the final points cost and just list what they gave.

I suggest checking out the link below for getting started there is quite a bit of stuff that will help you.
Check that out and i'm sure you will change this lust up a bit good luck.

Cowpow - I had already looked at the link in your sig but hadn't looked again after making the list. Doing so led to a few changes.

Lvl 3 Sorcerer Lord on Chaos Steed 251
Exalted Hero on Chaos Steed, Shield + Biting Blade 136

BSB w/ Halberd & Shield 144

5 Chaos Knights FC 250
5 Chaos Knights FC 250

18 Chaos Warriors FC w/ Halberds & Shields 336
18 Chaos Warriors Musician + Standard 306
18 Chaos Warriors Musician + Standard 306

5 Chaos Warhounds 30
5 Chaos Warhounds 30

Total 2038 (No magic or items)

Being new the game, the list is basically a modelling guide at this point. I'm struggling to add the finishing touches. I really like the looks of the list, models-wise. I don't care about being super competitive.
Maybe if I explain what I'd like to do with this army someone could help with the magic and items. Again don't care about being super competitive, just looking to have fun and make this list playable.

I picture my sorcerer lord as a combat sorcerer. I want him charging into battle with my knights but don't know how to equip him to help him survive.
The sorcerer lord and mounted hero would each join one of the groups of knights. I'd like to send each group of six up a flank while the warriors advance up the middle.
The BSB would go with the Halberd Warriors and be my kill threat in the middle. The remaining two units of warriors I'd like to be as resililiant as points will allow to act as anvils. The two units will cover the flanks of the Halberd Warriors.
The two units of hounds will be out in front of the warriors

Now that I've done a better job explaining my intentions, hopefully it'll be easier for you guys to help.

Fighty sorcerer lord? Very classy sir. And a fighty exalted? Even better! Here's how I'd flesh out that skeleton of yours:

L: Sorcerer Lord - level 4 (SHADOW), chaos runesword, talisman of preservation, charmed shield, barded steed = 386

H: Exalted Hero - MoT, sword of swift slaying, dawnstone, shield, barded steed = 191
H: Exalted Hero - MoT, talisman of endurance, halberd = 179

C: 18 Warriors - MoT, full command, halberds, shields = 356
C: 18 Warriors - MoT, rapturous standard, full command, shields = 358
C: 18 Warriors - MoT, banner of eternal flame, full command, shields = 348
C: 5 Warhounds = 30
C: 5 Warhounds = 30

S: 6 Knights - MoT, full command = 310
S: 6 Knights - MoT, full command = 310
--------
2498

Not a lot of reason not to make your level 3 a level 4, and I think shadow is the best option due to being able to cast most everything while in combat (and because it's also probably the best lore in the BRB ), though you could go with any of the four available and it would work well enough. He's pretty tough at 1/4+ save (drop first hit) and pretty fighty with stats higher than many other races' combat characters

Fighty exalted has rerolls to hit and rerolls on his 1+ armor, for sexy times all around. The BSB exalted is boring as hell but oh-so-efficient. (There is little reason to take halberd + shield, unless he's modeled with a shield, as he must always use the halberd and will very very rarely benefit from the shield vs shooting attaks.)

The warriors are warrior-eriffic, with full command everywhere because it's so easy to say and useful to have. Halberd warriors kill everything, some shield guys are on fire, other ones are sticking around forever. Warhounds do what they do, and the knights each got another member to live longer, kill more, and give their characters LOS! rolls at least until they take a casualty

Anyway, I dig it, very solid core of warriors with fast wings to dice stuff up.

- Salvage

Thanks Boss, I like it a lot. Especially the fact that you squeezed in two more knights.

I also like the mono-god themed list as it will make painting a little easier, and mono Tzeentch lets me use purple.

The BSB will probably be modeled with a shield. I like the looks, plus I don't know what else I 'd do with that hand.

When I model my warriors, does the rapturous standard or banner of eternal flame replace the generic banner the standard bearer was carrying, or is a second model given a banner?

Thanks - Like I said, Im new to Fantasy and want to do things right this time. I have a ridiculous collection of Necron models with no direction at all for my army. I can't let that happen again.

Just a generic banner, not a second model!

Thanks, that's kind of what I thought but I wanted to be sure.

Nice boss looks solid.

NecroWolf wrote:The BSB will probably be modeled with a shield. I like the looks, plus I don't know what else I 'd do with that hand.

Then I'd just drop the halberd and give him a shield. 'Only' S5 but the 3+ armor will likely come in handy to keep him in the game

Happy to help, and good luck out there.

- Salvage

The Salvage list is a nice tweak, the list looks fun AND scary. Chaos knights can be monster!

I especially like that, when you want to mix things up, you can try downgrading your sorcerer to a level 2 and upgrading your fighty exalted to a chaos lord to make the knights that much more insane. I just faced one in a tournament... all the knights but one died to a weird table terrain effect- but the chaos lord kept going and beat face all by himself . Was an eye-opening experience!

The fighty sorcerer lord is an interesting experiment, but if it fails, I think that will be a great fall-back for you. I don't have the rulebook in front of me and don't Think the shadow lore innate ability will let him switch places with another mounted character, but if it could that'd be another nasty trick to use with a fighty chaos lord (i.e. bait with sorcerer then plop down your combat monster lord in front of them ).

So yeah, I do think you'd be doing it right the first time if you built towards that list! The other bonus is that it is not too high of a model count to feasibly paint, yet it is a very solid size numbers-wise for a WoC warrior-heavy army.

I wish they made plastic halberds. I thought of converting chaos knight lances but most of them look more like pikes more than halberds. Guess I'm gonna learn how to pin for the metal halberds.

Would it be acceptable to use that staff/scythe weapon that comes with the manticore sorcerer lord and call it a chaos runesword, or just use the rules for a chaos runesword? I can't find any sword I like anywhere near as much as the staff.

I would far recommend using your knight lances (plus a few more) as giant 'heroic scale' halberds, over the metal GW halberd kit. Lots cheaper and I like the end result myself - but if you don't then that's definitely reason enough to keep looking around for options

The runesword can be anything you want: runeaxe, runestaff, runescythe, etc. And the manticore sorcerer lord is pretty sweet, with those robes sweeping around and all. Oh, I guess you could use the fighty lord part of that kit, with the chains, as your combat exalted

- Salvage

I'll make the lance decision once the models show up. If I don't like the look from the lances I'll order the metal halberds then.

The plan was to have the Manticore Sorcerer Lord as my Sorcerer Lord and the Manticore Lord as my mounted exalted. The Lords from the Manticore kit are really nice looking and fairly inexpensive as bits on ebay.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Can the Sorcerer Lord take a shield? Browsing through the GW website then rechecking the codex, I'm kinda thinking no.

Check out the text under the caption of "fragile wizards"
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?categoryId=cat440026a&pIndex=1&aId=10100004&multiPageMode=true&start=2

Then I noticed the Lord has a shield option under armor that the sorcerer lord does not.

If I can't put a shield on the lord, maybe magic armor?

The sorcerer lord can take a magical shield because it's a piece of magical armor, and while I forget the explanation for why chaos sorcerers can do it - either because they already have mundane armor, or because they have a special rule for it - you can trust us that they can do it

Just read that thing on GW's site, but don't worry about it. Unless 'magical shields' have stopped being 'magical armor' (which they have not AFAIK), you're in the clear and that guy doesn't know what he's talking about. Also, warrior familiars are not hot gak

- Salvage

Thanks for the clarification.

I trusted you guys but wanted to be sure before I model these things.

I can build the whole army for a little over $300, which seems reasonable for 2500pts. I'll probably order the first bit of it today so I can start.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
One last question. How long has the current Chaos codex been out?

I won't be able to prime the models until sometime around May due to weather and lack of anywhere to spray the models. The models then, may not be painted until June or July, maybe even August if things go slowly.

I'd really hate to spend all of that time and money on an army, only to get hit with a new codex. I tried searching but couldn't really find any information about a new book or when the current one was released.

Can anyone offer some insight in that department? Is there anything being discussed in the pipeline that I'm just not able to find?

You are right boss shields are magic armor, chaos sorcerers wear chaos armor and the book says if you come with or have an option to take mundane armor then magic armor is allowed.
In the brb I think it's right above the magic armor section.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I have heard some stuff for possibly September ish again nothing is confirmed but I would assume that warriors will still be awesome in that book.

Well, today I ordered the codex, 2 boxes of warriors, 2 boxes of knights, 1 box of warhounds, the exalted champion and my lord bits.

I would have just ordered the whole shot at once, but my supplier was short 3 boxes of warriors and a box of knights.

Anyway, it'll get me going and the missing units will probably be in stock before I get to them.

Damn excited!