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I'm a long time player of 40k and i've had a few WHFB armies, but I always seem to sell them or quit because I can't find a stable community that plays. If I can find some people that play often I would love to get another shot at it. I've had Lizardmen, Brets and Empire before but this time i'm thinking about doing something else. Warriors of Chaos. I priced this army out dollar wise, and with the army book it comes in just under $400. Here is what I have...

Chaos Lord of Khorne- 410 Points
-MoK, Shield, Biting Blade
-Manticore: Iron Hard Skin

(No idea if this is a good setup. I wanted to keep the points low, but also have some fun with him.)

Chaos Sorceress- 160 Points
MoT, Lvl 2

(Using the dark elf sorceress model to sort of kit bash my own whenever I get my hands on her. I also want to put her in with the chaos warriors as a buffer for the unit. Ideas on her would be great.)


++Core++

Chaos Marauders- 130 Points
x20
Hand Weapons
Chieftain

Chaos Warriors- 390 Points
x24
Champion, Musician, Standard Bearer
Hand Weapon, Shield

Chaos Chariot- 110 Points

Chaos Warhounds- 60 Points
x10

++Special++

Chaos Knights of Khorne- 490 Points
x10
Doom Knight, Musician, Standard Bearer
MoK, Enscorcelled Weapons
Banner of Eternal Flame

++Rare++

Skullcrushers of Khorne- 244 Points
x3
Skullhunter
Ensorcelled Wepaons

I'm assuming that you are planning to buy two battalion sets.

The biggest problem with the manticore, is that he has a big red target painted on his face, and there is nothing else in the list to distract a cannon. Normally, big flying things want to hide with other ones, because your opponent has to make the choice of which to target.

Wardogs should be In two groups. No need to run them as a big group. You use them as chaff drops, place them first and then you get to react to your opponent.

Same for the knights, knight bus isn't a very viable tactic anymore, too many eggs and not enough baskets. I'd probably stick them in two groups too, except MOK knights are greatly inferior to skullcrushers. You might as well buy another squad of them. Champions are not highly optional, because they have to challenge and you don't want your six attacks wasted on a goblin champion.

Give your chariot a mark too, makes them far better. Unfortunately, marauders are a little bit too expensive and might require editing. Not enough bang for your buck. If you want to play a legion, get some gors, they die just as fast but are cheaper. Otherwise get more marauders, and they'll need some support too.

So your shopping list looks something like this?

Chaos Lord on Manticore
Dark Elf Sorceress
Warriors of Chaos Battalion (x2)
Chaos Chariot
Skullcrushers of Khorne

Not a bad start However, I'd recommend dropping the Manticore lord and picking up the Khorne Chaos Lord on Juggernaut instead. Not only is he a lot nicer of a model (IMO) and a little cheaper money-wise, he's also a little more reliable/survivable on the tabletop, while still being a total meatgrinder of a dude.

As for a list, your starter isn't far off, though I agree with Welshy on many points. I think a decent skeleton given the models above (with jugger swapped in) looks something like this:

Chaos Lord - MoK, [magic weapon], [dawnstone or heavy ward], charmed shield, soulstealer, [moar gifts], juggernaut
6 S5 attaks backed up by T5 W4 1+ armor (discard the first cannonball snipe) that can heal wounds he causes in combat ... and that's before adding in a magic weapon, more protection, and ignoring all the damage the jugger can do!

Chaos Sorceress - level 2 [lore?], [ward save], chaos familiar
Three spells of whatever lore you go with - a choice that may be dictated by your mark or lack thereof (if you go MoT I'd consider Lore of Metal over Lore of Tizz) - with a 4+ armor before adding in other defense.
Exalted Hero - BSB, [defensive gear]
You want this lad for his LD rerolls, along with combat punch. Easily converted from a warrior or random cool model you find somewhere - basically, a badass with a flag. You want defense more than anything, as he's pretty punchy without fighty gear, but everybody wants him dead.

23 Warriors - full command, halberds, shields
Halberds ftw, likely converted using the lances off the knights. You'll need more I suppose ...
20+ Marauders - full command, [???]
Going to depend on available points to see how many you can afford and equipped with what. Flails or shields I'd say.
Chariot
5 Warhounds
5 Warhounds

5 Knights - musician, ensorcelled weapons
5 Knights - musician, ensorcelled weapons

3 Skullcrushers - musician, ensorcelled weapons
----------
2000

As you can see there are a number of unknowns, which are easier to fill in once you have some points filled in. But the concept is the juggerlord rides with the skullcrushers, forming your Brutal & Obvious Kill Unit, backed up by the BSB + warriors, who are absolutely brutal with halberds, particularly when run 6-wide (hence they start at 24 with the exalted). The knights work in combination with the harder units, hitting the flanks or combo-charging together, or providing working the flanks of the board in search of soft-ish targets. They're great units, but don't often want to grind a significantly larger/tougher unit by themselves. The chariot likewise helps out the main units or the knights, providing combo- and counter-charge pressure.

Meanwhile the sorceress either hangs out in her personal marauder bunker (if you can only afford 20 with shields) or heads into the front lines with the warriors or a more significant marauder mob (say 30 with flails) or simply free balls it and runs around by herself, trusting in LOS! rolls and her ward save. And the dogs likely die doing their chaffly duties.

Really, the marauders are the stickiest part of the battalion box. They used to be total sex in the last book, but received some brutal price hikes in the new book, making the old builds (hordes of great weapons) too expensive to work. That said, they can still do useful things, even as simple as keeping the sorcerer company and holding a standard. I'm interested to see someday how flails still work on them, yet even the lowly shield could work.

Clearly marks make the marauders better ... but also more expensive. This goes across the army. Whatever marks you end up choosing, I would recommend not putting MoK on the warriors. It's awesome on the chariot, pretty brutal on the knights, and way expensive on the marauders, but the automatic overrun of Frenzy is too much on the warriors, your bunker unit that you want to keep control of. I'd say the same for the marauders if you intend on having the sorceress in there.

Anyway, hope that helps with your opening list building!

EDIT

Forgot to add: always always always take a musician, before considering other command options. Standards I put on units large enough to protect them and that need the +1 CR. Champions I take when the unit needs to either protect its own unit-killer characters or bog down enemy unit-killer characters (which generally means in units large enough to tarpit things - i.e. has ranks). WoC gets a caveat on champs, as their auto-challenge can get them in sticky situations ... but they can challenge before characters, keeping your sorceress from getting herself vaporized too quickly.

- Salvage

The big deal with the monster mounted characters right now is that iirc your opponent can shoot/hit the manticore which can't use any of the saves or rules from the rider, making it pretty easy to you cannon ball it and leave your character walking the rest of the game and your opponent with some free points for slaying the mount and now making your hero an easy target for the next warmachine shots.

On 9th edition is rumored that these mounted characters will merge their profiles/rules. If this happens then yeah the manticore with a chaos lord will be a hard as nail character with lots of wounds and a good save

Just looked back into fantasy, picked up the WoC book and i'm going through it once more. I think i'm going to start off smaller, around 1.5k and work my way up. Thanks everyone for their thoughts and inputs!