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Hey yall!
I, as you may notice, am quite new here and would greatly appreciate some help with forming an effective (under 1000 points) Warhammer Fantasy WoC army to play against the mostly Dwarven and Empire armies of my local foes which can be both shooty and stabby.

Today I went to my local gaming store and bought the old battalion boxed set (as I hate the newest models witha passion) and am excited to get going
I now currently own (all unassembled)
20 marauders
12 WoC
5 Chaos Knights
10 Warhounds

I have done some researching around and apparently using marauders with two handed weapons is very effective and I am considering equipping mine like that.
However I am pretty much clueless on how else to equip them so they compliment each other well.
Any ideas for a list which contains my current models or recommendations for an addition to my army would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers BrotherSergeantRobert

I would agree on the Marauders using Great Weapons option.

Are you giving you units any mark? Also, how do you intend to use the Warhounds?

If against Dwarves consider Flails instead of great weapons. Flails do the exact same thing as great weapons except they only last 1 turn, however you get to keep your Initiative. But your opponents, Dwaves and Humans, in the vast majority have the same or lower initiative than your Mauraders. This way you'll always get to attack, probably even before dwarves and opposing Greatswords, but if you have a great weapon they might kill you before you get to strike. Khorne Marauders with flails, 2 Ws4 Str 5 attacks each, lovely.

For the Warriors will be good however you kit them, however I against all shooting armies perhaps sword and shield is the best bet along with tzeetch. Consider the Blasted Standard or Ironcurse Icon to help against War Machines.

The Chaos Knights are your most deadly unit. Give them Daemon weapons for Str 5, full command and a magic standard, probably the Warbanner. Go nuts.

Warhounds are chaff. Either he targets them and they die, you win. He doesn't target them and they threaten his warmachines, you win. Or they chaff up his big block mess up his counter charge, you win. They are totally expendable, be ruthless with them.

For additions another box of Marauders would be a good start, marauders power comes from they being so cheap that you can take a big enough block to survive what they throw at you, then have enough left to obliterate the unit. At least 30 in horde formation would be a good start. You'll need some heroes, a level 2 unmarked sorcerer using Metal magic is a good shout, since you can bet your but both Dwarves and Empire will have some units worth Searing Dooming. And a BSB, no one wants there combat army fleeing at the first sign of trouble.

I think I will use the warhounds to screen some of my units, get in the way of enemy units and possibly hunting some warmachines.

Also I think that giving the marauders the mark of Khorne sounds like it would be causing some serious damage so I might use that, however overall I'm not sure if the great weapons are worth the initiative debuff (but am very tempted as they look awesome!)

Is a BSB necessary in a WoC army? (I cannot find a model for it on the GW website but am very much a fan of Exalted Deathbringer HERE > https://www.games-workshop.com/en-NO/Khorne-Bloodbound-Exalted-Deathbringer-Axe)

I also think I will use the lvl2 unmarked sorcerer with lore of metal (even though the model is quite Tzeentchy) Here > https://www.games-workshop.com/en-NO/Chaos-Sorcerer-Lord-2016

Finally the Chaos warriors
I'm inclined to give them shields as per suggestions however I am concerned that they will not be killy enough with the MoT.

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated, thank you very much for your replies.

If you do a little bit of Mathhammer, against Empire troops (hitting on 3's, wounding on 3's) they do 8 wounds at -1 when arrayed in 2 ranks of 8. Against dwarves (hitting on 3's wounding on 4's) they do 6 wounds, he will probably save 1 or 2. But on the otherhand in defence they have a 3+ armour 5+ parry save. They will reliably grind through anything you send them at. If your worried about them not being killy enough, that's where the BSB comes in. Not only has he got a killer stat-line, makes sure your Anvil will never run away but he will also contribute 2 kills to combat rez.

A BSB is necessary in every combat army. Especially in elite armies like WOC. If you fluff your rolls and lose by 1, then fluff your leadership test then that's 1/4 of your armies killing power running away.

For Marauders, look into flails. Strike at I3 and Str 5, but only for a single turn. But with the amount of attacks your putting out a single turn is all you'll need.

I'll second (Or third) the idea of equipping the Marauders with Flails. Don't give up your initiative if you don't have to and frankly, if you can't get the job done in the first round of combat you're probably going to lose that combat anyway.

Thank you to everyone for your help so far!

I've just finished a 1000 points list for my WoC and would love it if anyone could give me feedback

Heroes-
Chaos Sorcerer (unmarked) level 2 and probably Lore of Metal
Exalted Hero w/Mark of Khorne, shield and upgraded to BSB

Core-
20 Chaos Marauders w/Full command and flails (I couldn't afford Mark of Khorne :( )
5 Chaos Warhounds
5 Chaos warhounds
12 Chaos Warriors w/ Full command and shields (again I couldn't afford a mark)

Special-
5 Chaos Knights w/Full command, Ensorcelled weapons and shields? (I'm not sure if they come with shields automatically or if you have to upgrade them with it)

Overall I'm quite happy with this list but am still unsure on some things:
For example is a chaos knights unit that is almost a quarter of my army pointswise too expensive? Also which are recommended Lances for slightly cheaper or are Ensorcelled weapons better?
Also should I use both units of 5 warhounds or should I use one and spend the points on a mark or banner?
Finally, will my Exalted hero be good enough to sacrifice some foes to Khorne or should I reshuffle the points in order to give him some magical items?

Again thanks for your help so far guys its really helping me out.

So we need to make some points. First thing to go when looking for points are the Champions, then the musicians, then the none essentials then the chaff.

Using Battlescribe, this is the list I came up with.

Chaos Sorcerer, level 2 with Skull of Kutan. *Although he is you general, his leadership doesn't matter due to only being 8, what your normal chaos warriors have anyway*

Exalted Hero BSB with Ironcurse Icon and Enchanted Shield. *2+ Save, gives the Warriors a 6+ ward vs Warmachines that is increased to a 5+ due to Mark of Tzeetch. *

20 Mark of Khorne Marauders. Flails. Standard.

5 Warhounds with vanguard and poison. *Send them directly at the enemy Warmachines, you never know, with Poison you might actually win*

12 Warriors with Mark of Tzeentch and Shields. Standard.

5 Chaos Knights, ensorcelled blades and standard. 999pts.

Feel free to play about with swapping ensorcelled blades for a magic weapon on the exalted or even a Mark on the Knights (Nurlge or Khorne). If you swap ensorcelled blades and the upgrades on the Warhounds you can get another unit of war hounds. Your choice, but the basic stuff is about as good as you'll get.

Your magic phase is simple. Channel 1 or 2 dice, so you have a sizable chunk more than him. Then make him choose between Searing Doom (possibility boosted if you have a lot of dice) and whatever buff or debuff you get. He cannot dispell both. Be reckless, it's worth it to get a miscast to get a boosted Searing Doom off against his unit of Knights or Longbeards.

The Chaos Knights are indeed expensive but I can ensure you, from experience, they can take care of themselves. I've charged them with a unit of Empire Knights (11 specifically) with a Warrior priest and bounced off them.

You want the Ensorcelled weapon because:

1) Magic attacks
2) Str 5 all the time is better then str 6 in the first round of combat (and even then only on the charge)

Drop one of the warhound units and use the other to screen your knight from shooting. Use the points saved to get a mark on either the Marauders/Chaos Warriors.

At such low points you don't really need a magic items. Getting your Exalted a great weapon or halberd (can they take halberds? I can't remember) is good enough.

Yeah, exalted heroes with Halberds are pretty awesome. Give them the helm of many eyes for ASF and +1 to his armour save. Sure you might become stupid, but BSBs get a reroll so it is okay.

Thanks again guys

The list that ALEXisAWESOME made sounds very good but I personally don't know if the upgrades on the warhounds are worth it because they probably will just get shot up whilst acting as a screen and I think would rather give the Exalted hero a mark and maybe a 5pt item such as a luckstone maybe?

Also I think I will keep the Ensorcelled weapons like Commodus Leitdorf recommended as it will allow the knights to be less temporary in their damage however I may switch out all the upgrades in this post for another unit of warhounds depending on the foe.

welshhoppo that looks pretty nice but I dont think I have enough points to fit that in I will probably include a similar set up in my 1500pt army in the future

Which mark is the best for the Exalted hero?(i will probably just put him with the warriors)

Cheers

Well he doesn't have much in the way of defensive ability, so I'd say mark of Nurgle because it means that he will be hard to hit. Slaanesh isn't great, Khorne is good and Tzeetch is only good if you have a good ward save to improve upon.

welshhoppo but if I put the Ironcurse icon he can have a 5+ against the war machines with Tzeentch(is that worth it?)

Also if I give him different mark than the rest of the unit are there any rules or debuffs because they serve different gods?

Cheers again guys

If you have a different mark to the unit, you can't join it.

Also, while in a unit with more than four rank and file, you can't be singled out by ranged attacks, so it shouldn't be an issue at all.

Ah so I should probably give the hero the mark of Tzeentch so he can join my warriors then.
Or should I give him Khorne and stick him with my Marauders who have the mark of khorne too

You'll get better mileage out of your Marauders by giving them the mark of Khorne to go with a Khorne BSB. He can help that unit out much more then the Warriors who can serve as a good bunker for your wizard.

When I created the list I had the intent of the BSB to go inside the Warriors unit. Unmarked characters can join marked units, that's why I left the BSB unmarked. Spending the points to give him Mark of Tzeetch wouldn't be worth it for a 6+ ward. I'm of the opinion your Warriors need him more for the static combat rez so they can win combat, something your Marauders need no help with.

Mathhammering those Marauders against Empire Swordsmen, in 2 ranks of 7 and 1 rank of 6 (It's important to maximise number of attacks from the front rank with WoC, since models in the 2nd rank only make 1 supporting attack) gets you 21 attacks, 10.5 hit, doing 9 wounds at -2. Wowzer. Imagine casting Arabian blades on them so they hit on 3's!

Ahh I see what you mean ALEXisAWESOME so I should leave him unmarked then so he can go with the warriors and the sorcerer with the marauders so miscasts arent as catastrophic damage wise.
Should I give the hero a different weapon or should I just keep him with a hand weapon I have 11 points left to spend (maybe a 5 point item on a hero and a weapon or an addition to the command for one of the units?)

Meh, either or. The majority of Miscasts won't blow up to many men when you put him on the side of the unit. Since you've only got two spells to threaten him with and one of them will usually be Searing Doom you've kinda got to go all in dice wise and just prey. 1/2 the time that miscast will do nothing more than annoy the Wizard casting it.

So where you put him is at your discretion. Warriors if you want to use the Marauders as a suicide unit or Marauders if you *know* you will be 5 dicing Searing Doom every turn (for example if the opponent has a Steam tank!).

Ok after those changes I think I might be finished with the list so here it is:

1000 points

Heroes-
Sorcerer lvl2 Skull of Katam (w/ marauders)
Exalted Hero BSB Enchanted shield, Ironcurse icon, luckstone (w/CW)

Core-
20x Chaos Marauders Flails MoK Musician Standard
5x Chaos warhounds (screen for Knights)
12x Chaos warriors Shields MoT Standard

Special-
5x Chaos knights Ensorcelled weapons standard

I think it may be done but if I'm missing anything please let me know.
Cheers