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Ok, when digging around in my loft I discovered my old pile of Chaos Warriors and I thought it might be fun to strip them and paint them up again. I'm here to see if what I have will make a decent army - it's at least 15 years since I last played WHFB, so I have literally no idea any more. I don't even know what a normal army size is!!

I'm imagining that this will end up as a Tzeentch Warriors of Chaos army. I'll reassemble it based on what people tell me is any good. I don't want to buy any more models (because nobody I know plays WHFB and I'm not sure I'll ever use them) but I do have a massive stock of bits and kits so I can convert anything if I reeeeaaallly need it. Musicians, Champions & Standards are easy to make too.

Here is what I have...

2 Sorcerers or Champions of Tzeentch, with Discs (can easily be Lords)
1 Dragon
40 or so Chaos Warriors, including around 10 Halberd arms, and the rest with hand weapons.
10 or so Chaos Knights with lances
1 Chaos Chariot
A few ogres
Most of an old Daemon Prince

So, what should I do???

Do you have any prerequisites? Any units you like the look of or Gods you want to include or avoid?

Or do you just want a large beatdown stick in all the flavors?

Well, I'd like to stick with one god, and I'm thinking Tzeentch might be good because of my lovely RT-era guys on Discs, and because my 40k army is Slaanesh and I don't want to do that again. Practically, I'm looking for a relatively small elite force - I see this as a fun modelling project that allows me to resurrect some old models and that I may occasionally get to play with.

In terms of composition, I'm not looking for the most competitive list, i'm thinking of more basic questions like...

- Is that enough to make a decent size army?
- Discs/sorcerers/lords/daemon princes - which?
- What's a good unit size for warriors? Two twenties? Three twelves? Four tens?
- Should I bother with the Halberds?
- Does anyone need ten Chaos Knights?
- Should I make some Chosen?
- Is there any amazingly cool unit I should convert some guys into?
- Is there anything I'm missing that I reaaallly need?
- Are weird units like the single Chariot or Ogres worth it?

I'm starting from absolute blank, with no knowledge of the meta or what is good/bad, but with a set amount of models...!



EDIT: Oh, I forgot, I did the Reaper Bones Kickstarter, so there are probably options to convert some Giants as well...

From what you've said it looks like you'd have about 2000-2500 points of guys.

This edition is all about the big units, blocks of 40 chaos warriors are pretty common and do well but if you're running Tzeentch shields are best (khorne likes halberds though I hear).

Chaos knights are always fun but lances are 5 points each to get +2S on the charge while their other weapons are +1S always and magical. They can be run as 10 and scare your enemy or they can be run as 2 fives to piss him off and make him worry about his flanks.

Depending on the number of ogres you have they can do very well (units of 6 can hit like a bag of hammers).

Can't say about the chariot but dragons and other monsters aren't that great this edition (all cannons do d6 wounds so it's easy to drop them) but you can make it work.

If you want to go Tzeentch then a lvl4 is a must.

Chosen.. you probably don't need since you've got knights.

I'f you're not looking to buy anything else you should be able to make this work, if you are then there are some lovely new khorne knights riding skullcrushers, some wolves or marauder horsemen might help keep chaff off you (more than once I've beaten warriors of chaos simply because I've parked 5 wolved in front of 40 warriors and made them charge me, turn to face me properly then over run and end with a flank exposed to my grave guard).
Quite simply, this edition is about massive units of infantry and monstrous infantry/cavalry.

Now with giants... Well, I think Slaanesh ASF is a must, but ymmv. As with dragons, they are limited this edition as cannon and spell slingers tend to snipe them out.

A unit of ogres would be tidy, stomp attack is great. I personally take a unit of trolls but ogres will get you the same-ish result of a strong flank holding unit.

All warriors in a 40strong unit.

2x5 chaos knights imo, use them to break flanks and eat small units of elites.


If it was me, I'd keep one low level sorc on a disc and have him zipping about casting annoying spells on fat enemy units that can't wheel to deal. I'd have my level 4, armed to the teeth with the usual Infernal Puppet + ward + anything else you fancy nicely nestled in a sizeable unit of marauders, perhaps DHW or flails.

I'd swap the Lances on the Knights for Ensorcelled weapons. Lances suck on Knights.

Thanks guys - I didn't realise the unit sizes had changed that much. So, at the moment I should be looking at

40 Chaos Warriors with Hand Weapons & Shields
5 Chaos Knights with Ensorcelled Weapons
5 Chaos Knights with Ensorcelled Weapons
Lvl2 Sorcerer on Disc
Lvl4 Sorcerer
4/5 Ogres

and not bother with the Giant/Chariot/Dragon/Daemon Prince?

Is this enough? Will I have to buy/convert some Marauders just to hide the Lvl 4 Sorcerer? Is a small squad enough to shield him or does he need a big block? Or is it worth rustling up a few more Chaos Warriors and putting him in a small squad of 10 (reducing the big squad to 35).

Also, what's the deal with Command - should I be looking at a full command in every unit?

As a rule I put a full command on anything that is already a big points investment.

The sorcerer.. Grey a Tzeentch can be pimped so that he is pretty hard to kill yea? I imagine you can get away with throwing him in the warriors but. well don't quote me on that.

Giant/Chariot/Dragon/Daemon Prince, if you need to fill out some points sure, they can work. They are not great though.

I like full command in most units.

I would recommend it in the marauder unit with your level 4 so he can avoid having to issue a pesky challenge on a nasty opponent like an ogre tyrant, orc warboss or (horror of horrors) a vamp or another chaos lord. A sacrificial lamb if you will.

Banners are highly important. BSBers are very important in 8th, you must decide if you want a BSB armed to the teeth with magic items or a utility one with a magical banner (since, annoyingly it's either magic banner or magic items), for me, given the chaos hero's great stats, I like to tool him up and don't bother with the magical banner. Put magic banners on warrior or chosen squads.

Up that ogre squad till you have a full two ranks.

The marauder unit... hmm... If you give them the mark of T, 6+ ward save... perhaps give them light armour and shields to just keep upping their survivability as a utility unit for hiding the lvl4. Perhaps take them at 20 strong? Add another much larger 40+ unit of marauders with DHW or Flails.

Give your warriors the Blasted Standard, the MoT will up the ward to 4+... so that's a 50% invulnerable to shooting of any kind.

Adding another 60+ models to the army is unrealistic at the moment. I could potentially convert a unit of 20 from bits, but I can't really spend lots more on extra stuff if I might never get to play.

If another large unit is needed, I could probably use bits to stretch my number of Warriors, especially since full commands on everything free up more regular guys. Is there an Allies system in WHFB? I could scrape together some undead or goblin models if that helps with extra units.

No, there is no ally system. There is a system for multi-player battles, which could be translated to 1 player having multiple armies but its not really comperable.

Undead could work as counts as marauders especially if you had a Nurgle element to the army.

 ArbitorIan wrote:
Adding another 60+ models to the army is unrealistic at the moment. I could potentially convert a unit of 20 from bits, but I can't really spend lots more on extra stuff if I might never get to play.

If another large unit is needed, I could probably use bits to stretch my number of Warriors, especially since full commands on everything free up more regular guys. Is there an Allies system in WHFB? I could scrape together some undead or goblin models if that helps with extra units.

Just assemble a 'counts as' unit or two then? Or trade your undead and goblins for marauders? Also I think wargames factory and some others do very reasonably priced celts and vikings which would be good stand ins.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Here's a 2k list using what you got, it's very light on troops but everything in it is a killer... If you take it up to 2500 or 3k, I suggest the large unit of marauders to march out at the front and the medium unit of marauders (for the sorc lord to lurk in) and a battle standard bearer.

Sorcerer (2#, 185 pts)
1 Chaos Sorcerer of Tzeentch, 185 pts (Mark of Tzeentch; Level 2 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Chaos Armor)
1 Disc of Tzeentch (Flaming Attacks; Causes Fear; Flyer)
1 Dispel Scroll

Sorcerer Lord (1#, 375 pts)
1 Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch, 375 pts (General; Mark of Tzeentch; Level 4 Upgrade; Hand Weapon; Chaos Armor)
1 Infernal Puppet
1 Talisman of Preservation
1 Favour of the Gods

Chaos Warriors (25#, 515 pts)
24 ×Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch, 515 pts (Mark of Tzeentch; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Hand Weapon; Halberd; Chaos Armor; Shield)
1 Champion of Tzeentch (Mark of Tzeentch; Hand Weapon; Halberd; Chaos Armor; Shield)
1 Blasted Standard

Chaos Ogres (8#, 380 pts)
8 Ogres of Tzeentch, 380 pts (Mark of Tzeentch; Hand Weapon; Extra Hand Weapon; Chaos Armor; Causes Fear; Extra Attack)

Chaos Knights (5#, 285 pts)
5 Chaos Knights of Tzeentch, 285 pts (Mark of Tzeentch; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Barding; Hand Weapon; Chaos Armor; Shield; Causes Fear)
5 Chaos Steed
1 Banner of Rage

Chaos Knights (5#, 260 pts)
5 Chaos Knights of Tzeentch, 260 pts (Mark of Tzeentch; Musician Mus; Standard Bearer Std; Barding; Hand Weapon; Chaos Armor; Shield; Causes Fear)
5 Chaos Steed
1 Banner of Eternal Flame

Total Roster Cost: 2000