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Hey there everyone!

Ok so I used to be very into the hobby, had a bit of a hiatus for a few years and now want to get back into it, speciffically with WoC.

Whats the cheapest and best way to get an army started?
Currently I was thinking of buying two battalion boxes, and the plastic sorcerer and lord.
As I'm in Australia, things arent as cheap as I'd hope, so if you can suggest specific sites/stores that would be even better!

PS I also need to buy a hobby starter set or something similar, as i need to get the paints, tools and basing materials, so suggestions on that would be awesome!

thanks guys I really appreciate the advice!

Anyone keen to answer?

Hey man, I'm living in Aus too and I've recently started using Dice Bucket http://www.dicebucket.com/servlet/StoreFront to get Warhammer on the 'cheap'. Only bought a couple of things and that was for 40k, but I've got no complaints.

Can't really help you on purchases 'cause I'm kinda new to Fantasy myself, and don't have the new book cause I only bought the old one like 6 months ago. Sigh. But I do know people are hating on marauders (personally I just hate em cause they're butt ugly) so I don't know if the battalions are the greatest bang for your buck. Warriors are the shizz, naturally, as are sorcerers I believe. I also love knights, but I think people are running chariots these days...

I hope this helped, and someone with a little more knowledge can come and straighten things out

Oh really? Marauder are bad? Im in the middle of buying like 56 of them for pretty cheap, $62 :p hahaha

everywhere ive seen said to just bulk em up and use them as meatsheilds or to deal with unimportant units.

and yeah ive had a look at dicebucket, will buy some things from them soon if i cant find anything on the forum here.

I don't think it's so much that they're bad, so much as they're bad compared to what they used to be. But they were crazy cheap back then. So long as you don't upgrade them too much I'm sure they'll do great, and for $62 what does it matter?!

Oh that makes me feel better
I havent got the book yet, so i havent been able to look at the forces just yet. was hoping to get a pdf just to see what their army is like, but dont know where to look so ill have to wait for a hardcopy one.

and yeah! i was pretty happy with it! i might be gettting the 2010 gamesday sorcerer aswell. its a very nice minature too.

Oh man, that sorcerer is wicked, didn't even know the model existed. And yeah alot of the old pdf's are on scribd, but I think GW has caught on and really started cracking down on that. Though if you do find a copy pm me the link ay

I think with WoC you can really afford to go out and buy what you like, because most of our units are dead hard anyway. A core of warriors/charoits/marauders (whatever you like most), sorcerer and hero with your battle standard, and pretty much splurge on whatever else seems cool to you. I've heard those Razorgore chariot-things are beastly, so I might get some of those eventually. But its all up to taste

My favorites of chaos will always be the generic Chaos Warriors. theyre the whole reason ive wanted to start a WoC army!

And Archaon... not that i will ever have an army big enough to use him (or at least not anytime soon) but i still think he is just awesome! and his model is just sick!

Lords:
- lvl 4 Chaos Sorcerer, Nurgle / Metal
- "unkillable" Lord on disc

Heroes:
- BSB

Core:
- Chaos Warriors
- Chariots

Rare:
- 2 Hellcannons
- 1 War Shrine

Staple, rest is up to you, I suggest getting some of the new heavy cavalry

This gives me a big question. is there any benefit to having an undivided army?

also would you mind explaining exactly what the hellcannon and the warshrine are like/what they do? im very new to everything chaos

dalloskid wrote:
This gives me a big question. is there any benefit to having an undivided army?

Not really, barring being able to field more bodies. The marks are all good enough that there's really no excuse not to pay the extra point or two for them. Well, barring on Sorcerers, as there's a couple Lores that you can't access if you mark them.

also would you mind explaining exactly what the hellcannon and the warshrine are like/what they do? im very new to everything chaos

The Hellcannon is our stone thrower: Not very accurate, but whatever it hits is in for a world of pain (and it's got magic attacks to boot). It's also prone to occasionally charging the nearest enemy unit, although it's rather nasty in combat so this isn't as bad as it might seem. It's the only real ranged option in our list, so it's understandably widely used.

As for the Warshrine, it's primarily there to throw out buffs to various units by its bound spell, which grants a roll on the Eye of the Gods table to 1d3 nearby champions and/or Lords/Heroes. In addition, it also gives a bonus to Eye of the Gods rolls which makes it more likely you'll get something useful rather than turning your unit champions into Spawn.

The Hellcannon is more reliable than you make it out to be, Laughing Man - it's not very likely it's going to charge an enemy and you can get around this limitation by smart deploying. It's a staple though for the exact reasons you posted!

Ok, well I've just purchased 56 Marauders and 1 Sorcerer. I dont have the book just yet, so how should I organise this army so far?
I will almost exclusively by fighting Woodelves and maybe Lizardmen if my friend gets his act together, so just take that into account.

And ill definately have a look at the hellcannon and warhsrine a bit more closely, they sound very good!

dalloskid wrote:
Ok, well I've just purchased 56 Marauders and 1 Sorcerer. I dont have the book just yet, so how should I organise this army so far?
I will almost exclusively by fighting Woodelves and maybe Lizardmen if my friend gets his act together, so just take that into account.

And ill definately have a look at the hellcannon and warhsrine a bit more closely, they sound very good!

Ouch, bad decision unless it was a REALLY good deal :/

Well, you can only field a single legal list now: 1 Sorcerer + 2x Marauder units.

56 for $62 AUD, and the sorcerer is a games day sorcerer i got for 17.50 GBP, very nice model. They should be here in the mail over the next week.

Id like to hear what tactics/upgrades i should employ against a woodelf force? it would be on a very small scale though.
im pretty certain about taking lore of fire for my sorcerer, but what about my marauders? how should i be equiping them? two hand weaponds, weapon and sheild, flails?

Wood Elves will have a field day with a Marauder heavy army. The excel at low S shooting as most of their shooting is S3 or, if close enough, S4. Your Marauders have zero protection against ranged attacks and will die in droves. You could give them a 5+, but that comes at the cost of being no real threat in combat. Unless your opponent screws up, you're going to have a bad time

What points level are we talking about?

Point value of about 500 probably less :p not much

i dont think he has any archers yet tbh, hes only just started too. have i wasted my money on these marauders though?

Nah, they are not good anymore, now slightly less than mediocre thus can still be useful. I wouldn't field them, but I'm interested in what the comp players might to do with WoC now.

Ok then, where should I go from here? i havent actually received the models yet and they are all unbuilt. do i sell them? build them? what would you reccomend?
I'll keep the sorcerer no matter what, its a lovely model, and I know that they are at least useful :p

and what should my next step be with this army?

Nah, keep them. You seem to have made a good deal and they are still usuable - just too pricey to be competitive now. But since you're new to the hobby, that's not an issue for you anyway

A sorcerer is a staple in every army. Take him. Every time.

Chaos Warriors are a good unit. Pricey ,but effective. Either Khorne with Halberds or Tzeentch with hand weapon + shield, 6 wide.

The new elite cavallery is another good idea to get. They are very strong and resilient.

Hell cannons are a must-take. At least 1, but 2 are better.

Marauders are still good. They just happen to cost what they always should have now. A horde of marauders with flails will still beat face.

I think ill aim at getting some warriors next. How big of a unit should i run? a standard 12?

and is there a plastic kit for the hellcannon? i dislike metal for anything other than main characters.
or would it be something easily convertible from another kit?

Standard unit size is 18 aka 3 ranks of 6 models. 12 is too small.

The Hellcannon is finecast now, not metal anymore.

The hellcannon comes in finecast. That's a different can of worms, but it's not metal.

Warriors are expensive points-wise, a unit of 10-12 in a small game is pretty solid and will likely be all you can fit in to reach the '3 units minimum' clause in a small (500ish) point game. You'll want to go bigger in bigger games, 18-20 is fairly standard I think.

This is going to sound so nooby, but what is finecast? i kinda had my hobby hiatus when it came in. i always just assumed it was metal.

It's very lightweight resin. When you get a good cast, it's decent stuff. It's just notorious for having bad casts with bubbles and such. If you can get a look at it before purchasing you'll be fine, and lately I think there have been less issues than when it first started.

Does this apply to all finecast minitures across both fantasy and 40k?

Yes. They all have the same process and materials, and therefore the same perks/issues.

This may just completely change my choice of 40k army; i was staying away from eldar because all the aspect warriors used to be metal, but now I might have a go.

So the hellcannon is something I'll definately consider as my next purchase, along with the warriors.

thanks for all this help guys


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Woah hellcannons are a MASSIVE investment for Aussies... nearly 100 bucks. I think ill holdoff on it for a while...

Yeah. Finecast is overpriced as hell. Back when I still played WoC, I converted a pyrovore into a hellcannon. Modelled a cannon barrel made of intertwined tentacles to expand the pyrovore's cannon and replaced the head with a Demon Prince one. For Chaos Dwarves, I used the beginner's set dwarfes, cut off their heads and replaced them with spare Chaos Warrior heads. To finish it up, I gave each of the three dwarfs a handle with a chain that's attached to the Hellcannon to model it being held back by its handlers.

Price: 25-30€, took me about 3-4 hours (not counting drying processes in).