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I had spent several weeks rebasing and painting a bunch of old Chaos Warriors that I had assembled circa 2013 but had never used. I added a Slaves to Darkness Start Collecting Box and suddenly I had an army. I built them up to 2000 points for a local tourney, going with a Khorne theme.

I took (everything Mark of Khorne):

a. HQs - Chaos Lord on Karkadrak, Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince of Khorne, Chaos Lord, Slaughterpriest, Bloodsecrator, Blood Stoker

b. Battleline - 20 x Chaos Warriors with Halberds, 10 x Chaos Warriors with Halberds, 5 x Chaos Knights with Lances, 5 x Chaos Knights with Ensorcelled Weapons, 2 x 8 Iron Golems

I got a fair number of test games with the list. The basic design was for the big brick of Warriors to dominate the centre/key objective relying on weight of dice and resilience to carry the day. With 2" reach, extra attacks due to the Bloosecrator, reroll wounds from the Bloodstoker and fighting twice due to the Lord these guys could chuck a ton of dice with a bunch of soul-destroying yet oddly satisfying rerolls. The Knights would pressure the depth objectives while the Iron Golems held objectives in my territory. I had a ton of drops and I wanted my orders-reliant Warriors to be Hunters of the Heartland.

Game 1 - Veins of Ghur vs Daughters of Khaine.

He had a big unit of Snakeladies with halbery things, two small units of bow-snake ladies. a 20 strong unit of Wyches, a Cauldron thing on wheels, an Avatar dude and a host of little supporting ladies. My plan was to take the centre with the big brick while the cavalry smashed his mobile stuff. I would then send my blocks of soldiers to the objectives as they appeared in Turn 2 and 3.

He gave me first turn and I moved up, counting on my Daemon Prince to shut down charges. I didn't count on the Wyches and Snakeladies running and charging and I found myself in a furball (scale-ball?) in his turn. Things looked bleak at first, but he selected his Snakeladies to fight my Chaos Knights first allowing my big block of Warriors to decimate his Wyches. I did lose a unit of Chaos Knights. He did not double-turn me and my second unit of Knights and the Lord on Karkadrak devastated his Snakeladies. By the end of the 3rd round my left flank was pretty much wiped out, but he had not real mobile units and I was sitting on the objectives that had landed rather luckily for me (plus I had some small utility units that could run and grab them).

A good scrap -luck was on my side with no double-turn and random objective placement favouring me.

Game 2 - Apex Predators vs Trolls and Lumieth

Our local tourneys allow two players to team up with 1000 point lists to encourage new players. Leads to some lore-bending alliances but hey - makes for some variety!

They had two unit of trolls, two big trolls, Lumineth cavalry, two units of Lumineth pikemen, a character that could fly around and shoot and a ballista. They only had three characters which would hurt them in this game. My plan was to take and hold two objectives from the start and simply outlast them, killing their characters if the opportunity arose.

They game me first turn and my Chaos Knights (stoked) slammed into one of his big units of troops killing three and tying the rest up. While my Knights were killed by the second wave of trolls, my Warriors then mopped up and controlled the centre while the Iron Golems and the Daemon Prince locked down an objective. I ran away with this one, helped by the mission and their low saves. My Warriors lack rend so they rely on grinding down opponents - easier against 4+ saves and worse.

Game 3 - Savage Gains vs Sylvaneth

He had three big Treemen including the Durthu fella, two units of Hunters and then some chaff.

My plan was to send my Cavalry against the flank without giant Treemen while my Warriors and Iron Golems would try to tie up his big trees. There were several flaws with my plan. First, the 3+ save on his big trees meant that All out Defence had him saving on 2+. Second, his leader was hitting with flat damage 6 and instant fight twice. Third, the middle objectives could be pulled.

We each double-turned, but I made a critical error taking the double-turn that I gained on Turn 3. I should have let him go first and pulled the objective being challenged by his two surviving giant Treemen. Instead, I took the double-turn and he pulled the other flank objective that I was in the process of controlling. This mistake cost me the game - a rookie mistake, no doubt, but I will make the excuse that I was tired... Still, a fun and instructive game! I hadn't faced Sylvaneth before.

I came 3rd with my final opponent coming 1st. I liked my list, even if rolling between 40 and 60 dice with rerolls twice was a little brain melting. The buffed Warriors took people by surprise and they could really grind down opponents while taking objectives. The Blades of Khrone support characters worked well with my Mark of Khorne Warriors. The Slaughterpriest was a bit lacklustre, but I didn't face much magic. My list lacked much in the way of Rend - nothing strange for Slaves to Darkness. I think the list lacks a true heavy-hitter to counter big scary threats. If I stick with them I might look to swap out some of the Blades of Khorne character support for something like an Allied Bloodthirster to give the list a true hammer. The Bloodstoker, though, is staying!

Thanks for reading - comments and criticism very welcome!