Building a slaves to darkness force

[Tomm23]

Ove time ive manged to acquire some chaos models and wonder if it forms a base i can build off for a slaves to darkness army. I have

chaos lord

chaos sorceror 

Daemon prince

2 champion equivalents

40 marurders

5 spawn

Some chaos warriors and probably the knights are what id be looking at to add, but what would other people recommend? Also have bloodthirsters of insensate rage and unfettered fury, would these work within the force?

[Galas]

A start collecting box can really help you with a little of "elite" to your Marauder horde. I don't think this army will be very competitive, but is a nice small force. Adding Chaos Knights, Chaos Gorebeastchariots and Chaos Warriors of a Starter Box will really upgrade it.

Allegiance: Chaos

Leaders
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (140)
- Runestaff
Lord Of Chaos (100)
Exalted Hero Of Chaos (80)
Exalted Hero Of Chaos (80)

Battleline
20 x Chaos Marauders (120)
- Axes
10 x Chaos Marauders (60)
- Axes
10 x Chaos Marauders (60)
- Axes

Units
3 x Chaos Spawn (180)
2 x Chaos Spawn (120)

Total: 940/2000

 

 

[Aspirant Snaeper]

Including units from a Start Collecting box and sidelining one Chaos Spawn, you could have a tidy 1500 point force to work with. Use those Sorcerer Lords to good effect.

Allegiance: Chaos

Leaders
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (140)
- Runestaff
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (140)
- Runestaff
Exalted Hero Of Chaos (80)
Exalted Hero Of Chaos (80)
Lord Of Chaos (100)

Battleline
20 x Chaos Marauders (120)
- Axes
20 x Chaos Marauders (120)
- Axes
10 x Chaos Warriors (180)
- Hand Weapon & Shield
5 x Chaos Knights (200)
- Ensorcelled Weapons
- Slaves to Darkness Battleline

Units
2 x Chaos Spawn (120)
2 x Chaos Spawn (120)
1 x Chaos Gorebeast Chariots (100)
- War Flail
- Mark of Chaos: None

Total: 1500/1500
 

I would recommend looking into Tzeentch's Battletome to get access to more benefits though that will require your Knights to be moved to "Units" rather than Battleline but that will make little difference.

[Tomm23]

The start collecting box certainly looks like a good start then along with some extra warriors. Also looking at wulfrik to get a surprise attack from the marauders. Couple of questions-

Are units of 30 too big? That way you get a much better chance of keeping the bonuses, but will melee based squads just be too unwieldy?

Vortex beast or slaughterbrute? Looking for a centrepiece big beastie and wondered if anyone had a preference over the other?

[Aspirant Snaeper]

Big units are nice for sure, at that point I'd honestly say just get another Slaves to Darkness starter box if you want more Warriors, then you'll have more Knights and another Chariot to play with as well. Granted I'm speaking from a Khorne-centric perspective and larger units work better for my army. However Marauders are nice in that they don't need to be big to even have a chance at the bonus like most units, it just increases their chance of it working. 

If you do get more warriors, it's worth it to invest in some Halberds, then run them in two units of 10 or one big block of 20. Keep the Halberds in the second row behind Hand Weapons so they can strike double-file. 

Vortex Beast and Slaughterbrute depend entirely upon whether you go Khorne-marked or Tzeentch marked. Since you have Sorcerer Lords I'd recommend going the Tzeentch route and thus the Vortex Beast. This will allow you to take the Tzeentch allegiance and all of the benefits that brings over general Chaos. 

[someone2040]

If you're actually wanting to run Slaves to Darkness, I'd take a good look at Chosen. They're expensive money-wise, but they provide the only real Slaves to Darkness exclusive synergy (re-roll wound rolls if Chosen kill a model).

I love them, but that's probably because they're the only unit in my army that tends to kill anything (Or maybe it's because they're explosive, always killing something or being killed in return).

One of the good thing I guess about being Slaves, is as one of the more generic factions with stuff that is always battleline, you can branch out to any faction you want. It's not as much an advantage in Chaos (Where Khorne, and various Daemons are always battleline anyway), but it can bring in interesting units like monsters of chaos. They're generally a bit on the pricier side at the moment, but at least you can bring them in without losing sleep over the fact you won't lose your allegiance ability (since you'll be Allegiance: Chaos anyway).

 

The only thing to pause upon is probably the fact that GHB2 is around the corner (probably June or July). Unless you're desperate to dive in with a fully fleshed out army, I'd just purchase and work on stuff you know you're keen on. Slaves won't get worse, but there may be interesting things to bring into the list depending on what drops with GHB2.