Alright kiddies I trust your all well? I'm not doing too bad myself. Today I'm going to have a little talk about Warriors of Chaos and an idea I have for a bit of a concept army. So if you've read any of my previous posts you'll probably know that I play a fair bit of Vampires. I love my Vamps very much but my play style of mass Zombie tar-pits makes for an extremely slow moving army. It works well and I win plenty of games but brother, I got the need for speed.
Now WoC don't usually spring to mind when you think of fast armies. Normally you see huge blocks of Chaos Warriors marching forward in an unstoppable (but slow) wall of death. But I was flicking through their rules the other day and noticed that both Marauder Horsemen and Chariots are core units. An image of a some what Dothraki host flashed into my head and I began to toy with the idea of an entire cavalry WoC list. Recently I watched through both seasons of Vikings. Honestly I thought it was a bit shit (the whole "oh look at this brutal viking guy with a heart of gold" thing really started to get to me) but I did find the costumes, sets and culture they produced fascinating. I really liked the idea of raiding other lands not because you are evil necessarily, but because that is your culture. It made me think it would be awesome to have a WoC army not of demons and vortexes and things but of big men from the north. Big men with horses and axes.
So these two ideas unified to create an army of Northern Raiders on horseback, riding south in search of riches and glory. Perhaps the Vanguard to a much bigger, much more traditional host of Chaos. They will be a force of Chaos and will worship it but in a much more generalized way. No specific gods as such, more of an idea that they are helping to spread the darkness they worship. I guess more of a Marauder way, tribes of evil men enabling and helping Chaos but with a much more primitive idea of what Chaos is. A sort of "Barbarians of the North" kind of vibe. Any way this is a rough idea of the list I would build.
To begin with I need a General. For me this is an easy choice. As I said I don't want this army to be too "crazy Chaos", with all the demons, magic, mutants etc. So a Demon Prince is out of the question. (Even though these guys are fucking brutal and I highly suggest anyone else should use them). A Sorcerer is cool but when I think of a horde of Northman Raiders their leader should be a big, strong warrior. So the classic Chaos Lord would be the General and probably on a Demonic Mount (because that model is bloody awesome). I'm imagining 1 or 2 Exalted Heroes for some more combat support and then a Sorcerer. To keep things thematic the Sorcerer won't use a Chaos lore, instead maybe Fire or Death. Something punchy. Then two units of five Chaos Knights. These will be the real hammer of the force. One unit will contain the Lord while the other will take an Exalted Hero who would be the Battle Standard Bearer. Two units of five Marauder Horsemen rocking javelins. These will screen the Knights, support charges and harass with a little bit of shooting. Another unit of ten Marauder Horsemen with flails and an Exalted Champion. These guys will act as another combat unit that should be able to cause some damage so long as they have some support. Two Chaos Chariots, to flesh out the cores and support in combats/protect the flanks. Then two units of ten Warhounds. The doggies aren't that great but their quick and could chew up some warmachine crew or any Wizards dumb enough to be out on their own. And finally a Shaggoth. I know he's not technically cavalry but he's quick, he packs a nice punch and I already have the model, so he's in. All of this (roughly) comes in at around 2,200 points. Me and my mates normally play 2,500 so there is some room for upgrades and perhaps another unit somewhere.
So the tactic is pretty simple. Screen my Knights till they can get into combat and then they can take care of themselves. Everything else works together to combi-charge. I want to gang up on the enemy. The trick will be movement, charging a unit of five Marauder Horsemen into something will do nothing but if I can also flank in the same turn with the dogs or a Chariot? Suddenly that combat is going to go a lot better. Flank with a Shaggoth and the enemy is in real trouble. I will definitely need to keep my General central as well as the BSB because the Marauders only have Leadership 7 and the stupid dogs only 5. All the Marauders and Warhounds can (and will) take Vanguard. That's most of the army moving twelve inches before the game even starts. That's some serious speed. Take that you slow ass Zombies!
Now I'm not sure if I'll win many games with this list but honestly I don't care. I think it will look awesome. I think it will be fun to play. And I think it's thematic side of things is just brutal. I love the idea of the thunderous sound made from a thousand hooves as a barbarian host cascades down from the North to mess up someones day. Anyway I'm pretty sure this is going to be my new army. Please let me know what you think. Are there any gaping holes I've missed? I'll keep you updated on their progress. I have a couple of games coming up too and I'll tell you all about them so stay tuned. Until then keep rolling Dem dice and keep your eyes to the North, can you hear the thunder?........
Jimzan.
Now WoC don't usually spring to mind when you think of fast armies. Normally you see huge blocks of Chaos Warriors marching forward in an unstoppable (but slow) wall of death. But I was flicking through their rules the other day and noticed that both Marauder Horsemen and Chariots are core units. An image of a some what Dothraki host flashed into my head and I began to toy with the idea of an entire cavalry WoC list. Recently I watched through both seasons of Vikings. Honestly I thought it was a bit shit (the whole "oh look at this brutal viking guy with a heart of gold" thing really started to get to me) but I did find the costumes, sets and culture they produced fascinating. I really liked the idea of raiding other lands not because you are evil necessarily, but because that is your culture. It made me think it would be awesome to have a WoC army not of demons and vortexes and things but of big men from the north. Big men with horses and axes.
 |
| Frank Frazettas "The Death Dealer" |
So these two ideas unified to create an army of Northern Raiders on horseback, riding south in search of riches and glory. Perhaps the Vanguard to a much bigger, much more traditional host of Chaos. They will be a force of Chaos and will worship it but in a much more generalized way. No specific gods as such, more of an idea that they are helping to spread the darkness they worship. I guess more of a Marauder way, tribes of evil men enabling and helping Chaos but with a much more primitive idea of what Chaos is. A sort of "Barbarians of the North" kind of vibe. Any way this is a rough idea of the list I would build.
To begin with I need a General. For me this is an easy choice. As I said I don't want this army to be too "crazy Chaos", with all the demons, magic, mutants etc. So a Demon Prince is out of the question. (Even though these guys are fucking brutal and I highly suggest anyone else should use them). A Sorcerer is cool but when I think of a horde of Northman Raiders their leader should be a big, strong warrior. So the classic Chaos Lord would be the General and probably on a Demonic Mount (because that model is bloody awesome). I'm imagining 1 or 2 Exalted Heroes for some more combat support and then a Sorcerer. To keep things thematic the Sorcerer won't use a Chaos lore, instead maybe Fire or Death. Something punchy. Then two units of five Chaos Knights. These will be the real hammer of the force. One unit will contain the Lord while the other will take an Exalted Hero who would be the Battle Standard Bearer. Two units of five Marauder Horsemen rocking javelins. These will screen the Knights, support charges and harass with a little bit of shooting. Another unit of ten Marauder Horsemen with flails and an Exalted Champion. These guys will act as another combat unit that should be able to cause some damage so long as they have some support. Two Chaos Chariots, to flesh out the cores and support in combats/protect the flanks. Then two units of ten Warhounds. The doggies aren't that great but their quick and could chew up some warmachine crew or any Wizards dumb enough to be out on their own. And finally a Shaggoth. I know he's not technically cavalry but he's quick, he packs a nice punch and I already have the model, so he's in. All of this (roughly) comes in at around 2,200 points. Me and my mates normally play 2,500 so there is some room for upgrades and perhaps another unit somewhere.
So the tactic is pretty simple. Screen my Knights till they can get into combat and then they can take care of themselves. Everything else works together to combi-charge. I want to gang up on the enemy. The trick will be movement, charging a unit of five Marauder Horsemen into something will do nothing but if I can also flank in the same turn with the dogs or a Chariot? Suddenly that combat is going to go a lot better. Flank with a Shaggoth and the enemy is in real trouble. I will definitely need to keep my General central as well as the BSB because the Marauders only have Leadership 7 and the stupid dogs only 5. All the Marauders and Warhounds can (and will) take Vanguard. That's most of the army moving twelve inches before the game even starts. That's some serious speed. Take that you slow ass Zombies!
Now I'm not sure if I'll win many games with this list but honestly I don't care. I think it will look awesome. I think it will be fun to play. And I think it's thematic side of things is just brutal. I love the idea of the thunderous sound made from a thousand hooves as a barbarian host cascades down from the North to mess up someones day. Anyway I'm pretty sure this is going to be my new army. Please let me know what you think. Are there any gaping holes I've missed? I'll keep you updated on their progress. I have a couple of games coming up too and I'll tell you all about them so stay tuned. Until then keep rolling Dem dice and keep your eyes to the North, can you hear the thunder?........
Jimzan.
This sounds like a sweet army, man. The imagery alone will make up for any power shortfall and I think it will look great on the table top.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered using marauder heads on some of your knights to keep them looking human rather than evil suits of armour?