Whfb player getting into AoS- Questions about Mortal Chaos.

[Lincoln Hawk]

Hi all, 

 

So very recently I have decided to get back into the hobby and alot has changed, I went to the local GW store and picked up the Chaos faction book, Disciples of Tzeentch and generals handbook. I have a massive amount of Warriors of chaos models, knights, chariots, hellcannons, you name it, ive got it lol. 

 

So looking through the books, nurgle really peaked my interest and I love the blightking models, and while Tzeentch will be a new project( Tzaangor army looks like a lot of fun but a big investment too) I just wanna get into some games with my buddy(competitive tourney player) and maybe some guys at the local club.  After watching alot of videos it seems plain old chaos just isnt that good anymore, so I guess im looking at some advice and opinions on what you think works from the old mortal range that I can throw nurgle tag on and have a solid game with. ( Things such as 20 x chaos warriors, are chariots a good choice as nurgle seems to be very slow moving etc etc)

 

Sorry if the post isnt super clear, just trying to jumble through the mass of models and ideas, but any help is appreciated. 

[AlphaKennyThing]

Warriors are always a sound choice. The ability to give nearly all Slaves to Darkness units whatever Chaos keyword you want is helpful, so you can stick them in whatever themed army you want. I use them in a Khorne army, and they have consistantly been the kings of objective holding.

Equally Knights can look awesome in Nurgle theme. They're a pretty reliable unit in terms of durability and average damage output, and might give you the faster moving choice you need. Alternatively, Marauder Horsemen are absolutely rapid and make for a great harassing unit when equipped with javelins.

[Killax]

You can go mixed Chaos like the old days and a key figure in that isnt Archaon but Sayl, a Forge World Sorcerer.

In essence a lot can be done but to obtain the full Chaos goodness I suggest looking into updated Khorne aswell. 

Anything can work if you find your key focus. Blightkings and Skyfires are very legit. So are big block buffed Chaos Warriors for example.

[Lincoln Hawk]

Thanks for the replies guys. 

 

I guess I'll try a little of everything I have and see what works and what suits my playstyles, happy warriors can work though, as always been one of my fav units. 

I have never really been into Khorne, so Nurgle or Tzeentch for me, but some of the new stuff does look pretty sweet and seems filthy on the battlefield. 

The brayherd really drew me, as I was about to start a beastmen army when I took a hiatus, but they seem very one dimensional and I will eventually be looking at some tournament play myself. 

Thanks alot for the help, much appreciated. 

[Lincoln Hawk]

Couldnt see a way to edit my post.

 

Whats the best sort of numbers to be running Warriors in??

[someone2040]

10's unless you have some kind of sneaky strategy like @Thomas Lyons

They're a bit too pricey IMO to be taking in large units. They're your battleline unit (So you still need to fit in 2 more battleline), and you want to fit in your killy stuff into the list as well. That being said, I don't run Nurgle, and as mentioned, there might be some strategy that works well for Nurgle where you want a large tarpit unit which is what Warriors are good at.

 

[HobbyHammer]

15 hours ago, Lincoln Hawk said:

The brayherd really drew me, as I was about to start a beastmen army when I took a hiatus

#GoatBigorGoatHome

Check out my new blog on TGA for some Bray-Inspiration  

 

[Salyx]

You could very well play Nurgle all the way with Blightkings as Battleline, a Harbinger of Decay as General and a Warshrine. This makes your Blightkings very resilient with a 4+ /5+/ 6+ save. If you use the Blightguard Bataillon, it is even more resilient with a -1 to hit. Moreover, they do a lot of damage even if they do not have rend. It is just the number of wounds that makes the damage. And if you are up against some nasty 2+ rerollable save, Dr. Festus will help a lot. 

I have seen this kind of army a lot and it is strong and fun to play against. If you like Nurgle, this is a good way to go. 

[Lincoln Hawk]

24 minutes ago, Salyx said:

You could very well play Nurgle all the way with Blightkings as Battleline, a Harbinger of Decay as General and a Warshrine. This makes your Blightkings very resilient with a 4+ /5+/ 6+ save. If you use the Blightguard Bataillon, it is even more resilient with a -1 to hit. Moreover, they do a lot of damage even if they do not have rend. It is just the number of wounds that makes the damage. And if you are up against some nasty 2+ rerollable save, Dr. Festus will help a lot. 

I have seen this kind of army a lot and it is strong and fun to play against. If you like Nurgle, this is a good way to go. 

This is basically what I was looking at, blight kings as my battleline/main units, I just have so many mortal chaos models, I was interested to see if anything would enhance the way nurgle played. 

 

Warshrine is actually one of the models I didnt bother with haha. 

 

Thanks again guys and @HobbyHammer Ive already taken a look at your blog, looks great man, its something I will do at some point, I currently have a million ideas and wants but just need to settle on something ahah. 

[Killax]

I personally like the Chaos Warriors as a block of 20, it's a lot of points, with Mystic Shield it also becomes very close to impossible to remove it. This all can work well for you if you like this type of attrition/offense.

All in all though a lot of designs have the potential to work, so what matters in the larger context is lists. Deathstar units do somewhat excist but typically cannot be everywhere and because of that in my opinion make a less drastical appearance in AoS. 

Pick the models you like though, mono God is also very viable and it's very likely Nurgle will recieve the next Chaos related Battletome. By large because they are on focus in 40K now aswell. 

[Lincoln Hawk]

Yea I prefer the mono god playstyle from reading through the different books, very different to WHFB where picking and choosing your marks was the way to go. I probably prefer it this way though, as the armies being themed is cool from a painting perspective too, which is something i need to book my ideas up on, as I didnt do much of it at all. 

 

Im going to try and give a 20 block a whirl in my first game on Sunday, im sure we will have a couple and I can do some tests units wise. Maybe Ill throw my 2 cents in here and see what you guys think. 

[Killax]

Sounds great to me, don't underestimate their Great weapons either. Those Rend attacks can matter, somehow I feel the forum community sometimes overlooks that, aswell as the re-rolling of 1's for armour when they are a 20 man blob. This can be really good with Mystic Shield.

From my perspective as someone who played most fanatical in 5th and 6th ed WFB the way AoS now portrays Chaos is FINALLY the way it should be. As artwork, narrative and maps showed us that clans most certainly where very god specific in the Chaos Wastes, it was not a place of orderly evil  

In other cases Ive even read about Chaos Warriors and Marauders and such as being polytheistic. To date I cant agree with that. Narrative from Chaos confirms that several warriors are aware of the Chaos gods but they do not worship them all. Instead Archaon is actually one of the fewer well known polytheistic characters but Chaos Undivided has always been a rarity in older WFB lore. Instead it was what kept the Old World the way it was because the uniting of Chaos was the only way for them to threat the whole world... But I degress.

If you want to go mono-God Tzeentch offers a ton to Slaves to Darkness models! Khorne by comparison much less so because there is a lot of overlap between Bloodbound and Slaves to Darkness units. Blood Warriors and Chaos Warriors for example don't really differ too much in practicle terms. Bloodreavers have the advantage of attacking, Marauders have the advantage of attrition... etc.

Nurgle is still well under development but if you do mix in Nurgle Skaven (Clan Pestilence) and Nurgle Daemons you suddenly end up with a very potent Nurgle force that has the monsters and unit removers in Rotbringers, numbers and aggro in Clan Pestilence and attrition in Daemons. It's a mix up I think offers a ton of fun aswell.

[Salyx]

Concerning Chaos Warriors there are 2 viable setups imo:

 

Small units of 10 with Great Weapons for some damage-dealing. Preferably Khorne with some Bloodbound attack buffs.

The other build is a large unit of 20-30 warriors with Halberds. The halberds look pretty bad on first glance; However, if you consider them in large units, the 2" range doubles the number of attacking models. Furthermore, you can buff them up quite well. Lord of War(General) , Demonic power and Mystic Shield (Sorcerer), Shrine buff and Chosen buff are the ones to go for. You could either use them as Nurgle making them re-roll wound rolls with the Shrine and buff up their defense with Oracular Vision or Demonic power and Mystic Shield or you can make them Tzeentch Warriors. As Tzeentch Warriors, they can re-roll all armor saves with the Shrine, re-roll their wound rolls with the Chosen buff and you can as well cast Demonic power and Mystic Shield on them. Lord of War as the best General trait is obligatory. 

This way you could have Nurgle Warriors hitting on 3s re-rolling 1s, wounding on 4s with a re-roll and a save of 3+ re-rolling 1s or Tzeentch Warriors hitting on 3s re-rolling 1s, wounding on 4s with a re-roll and a 3+ re-rollable armor save. All under the assumption that you get all your buffs through, which will in most cases not happen. 

 

That said, let`s have a look at the other StD units.

 

Chaos Knights are a very good choice as well. Their best setup is with Lances giving them Rend and 2 Damage on the charge. A LOrd on Demonic Mount can easily pump them up into hitting on 2s. They are fast and hit like a truck when they charge. However, they are still quite expensive. 

 

Chosen are at the top tier of Chaos when it comes to offense. However, their defense is as good as the defense of a Chaos Warrior with Great weapon: 4+ save and 2 wounds, nothing more. At the price of almost a 10-men Chaos Warrior squad. However, when they kill enemy models, they buff a Chaos army enormously. So have 1-2 5 men-squads in the center of your battle line...in the second row. 

 

Marauders are cheap, but pretty ok for their price. In fact, I think they are the best 60-point-unit Chaos has because they always have a 5+ save and can always go up to hitting on 2 re-rolling 1s and wounding on 3s, assuming that you can roll 2 6s in a row.  They are nice diverters and can hold objectives. 

Marauder Horsemen: I don`t know, I actually have not played them. However, they seem solid with spears. 

 

Chariots: The normal Chaos Chariots are quite fast, but they lack some fighting power. The Gorebeast Chariots are much stronger, especially if they get their charge range buffed. Mortal Wounds in combination with 6 Damage 2 Attacks for 100 points is pretty sweet. 

 

If you have a lot of old Chaos models, you should take a look at the updated rules for Chaos Monsters or Monstrous Infantry. Cockatrice and Jabberslythe are rather cheap, but pretty nasty monsters, Chimera is more expensive (perhaps a bit too expensive) and dicy; However, it can do a lot of pain. The Cygor is quite ok as well. Razorgors and Chaos Trolls are worth a second look.

 

I hope my long post gave you some insights into what is a good idea to use from the old stuff and did not bore you

[Lincoln Hawk]

So first game played and I had such a blast and managed to get a minor victory.  We rolled Blood and Glory and it literally came down to my knights killing his shaman( Buddy played Moonclan for the first time) on the last point in the last round of combat to take the last and all 4 objectives.

So my thoughts on the mortal units I used.

Chaos Knights- I ran ensorcelled weapons on these as thats what my old modesl had and I actually found the extra dice pretty nice, regardless of not having rend on the charge.  They actually held their own really well considering I only took 1 unit of 5, and 3 wounds per model made them quite tanky. 

Chaos Warriors- Ran a block of 20 with halberds, was buffing them with mystic shield etc when I could and they were still super solid and still remain one of my fav units. Pumped out a nice amount of damage and were really tough to take down. Managed to kill his mangler squig and put a beating on his dread maw causing him to flee( although it was more a tactical move, but these guys still would have killed it, even with its mad saves)

 

Chaos/Gorebeast Chariots- took one normal and 2 gorebeast chariots but played them badly and didnt get the charge off, and they all got slaughtered by the mangler squig/dread maw. The Gorebeast survived very well still though and will definitely try these out again. 

A special shout out to the Blight Kings though.......man what a unit haha, so much fun to play. 

I had such a blast overall, really enjoyed the terrain rules and we even played with 4 rune gates which really added some nice flavor to the game, although I know they can be a bit iffy in tournaments with these kind of things. Super positive experience though and very pleased to be back in the hobby, alot to remember with the buffs etc but for a first game I felt it went really well.

Thanks again to all you guys who took the time to reply and help a returning hobbyist.