Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to The Chamber of the Everchosen. We hope you enjoy your visit!


Here at COTEC we are all about the Warriors of Chaos in Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Tactics to help you slaughter your opponent on the tabletop, through to galleries on how to build your next Warshrine. Its all covered... and growing!

We are a forum for gamers and hobbyist alike and again would like to welcome you to a fun, friendly, warm place and hope to see you again!


Join our legion! Takes less than a minute and gives you access to everything!


If you're already a member please log in to your account by entering the correct runes and words of power:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
How to Build an Army?; Looking for advice from the old heads!
Topic Started: Nov 10 2011, 06:19 AM (126 Views)
byhlli
Slave
[ * ]
Hey, guys.

I played a Warriors of Chaos army several years ago and really enjoyed them. I moved into playing 40K rather than Fantasy over the last few years, though, and have totally lost touch with Fantasy.

I'm considering entering a 1,000 point tournament at my LGS and I'd like to put together an army to compete in it.

I have models galore - Lords, Heroes, Marauders, Warriors, Knights, Hounds, Chariots, Dragons, whatever. Loads stuff kicking around. (Exact details would take a long time to work out!)

So, I want to know how people tend to go about building army lists these days. I tend to focus on an aspect of play and aim to dominate it - my previous lists were often exceptionally fast-moving and very tough in combat. Think entire armies of Chaos Knights and Dragon Ogre Shaggoths. I have also been known to build fluffy armies: I fought a campaign with friends which developed my army from a 500-point all-Marauder list into a fully balanced list, with detailed explanations of which units survived which battles and got promoted or upgraded through time.

So, for this tournament I'd like to take a list that focuses on a theme. At 1,000 points I'm struggling to convince myself that a fast-moving Chaos Knight-heavy list is viable. I think I'm limited to somewhere between eight and ten Chaos Knights at 1,000 points, after uprgades and suchlike are considered. Therefore I'm considering Warriors and Marauders. I have an absolute ton of models for both, including a host that are unbuilt, so I have plenty of opportunity to put together specific unit builds without spending any more money.

So, for a basic 1,000 point list, how would you go about building your army?

I'm considering magic - level 2 Sorceror? - and maybe a BSB if possible, then probably focusing on either Chaos Warriors or Marauders to fill out the remaining points. What are the best set-ups for these troops? Are they a better option than Knights at this points level? Should I focus exclusively or one or the other, or take a mix of both? What are accepted unit sizes for these units?

Are there any obvious combinations of units that I'm missing out on? Is there a better way to go at 1,000 points than just taking as many Warriors/Marauders as I can fit into the list? Am I better using MSU or should I be taking large hordes?

Any and all advice you can offer me would be gratefully received. Hopefully I can put something together by tomorrow!

Thanks in advance, guys!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
conjoy
Exalted Guardian
At this point size a good way to run things is to assume Marauders are your core and Warriors are your Elites.
As to a theme, you could easily go mono-Tz very successfully:
I would look at a large anvil-style block of Shield Marauders with MoTz, 5 wide and maybe 8ish deep. Stick your BSB in that unit and youv’e got a Stubborn unit with Ldr 8 rerolling.
That unit is cheap, you don’t mind it taking casualties because the models are so cheap, but in combat are also fairly hard to kill. A nice touch is to give the BSB the Iron Curse icon for 5 points meaning the whole unit has a 5+ ward v warmachines.
This unit can be nicely flanked by either Halberd Warriors (Tz still works well here) and/or Great Wep or Flail Marauders in units of around 18 or 24 work well.

For your general I would consider a Hero with the Book of Secrets and a Dispel Scroll, or forget magic altogether, its unlikely to be a huge factor in battles of this size. You’ll either spend a lot of points for little return. Or you go all-out 6-dicing bigger spells, but risk blowing up and without the usual protections present in a larger game. Personally I would go for two minimally kitted characters because BSB rerolls are a HUGE bonus.

Chariots are excellent value at this size game, and I would still include two units of Warhounds.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
byhlli
Slave
[ * ]
conjoy
Nov 11 2011, 01:36 AM
At this point size a good way to run things is to assume Marauders are your core and Warriors are your Elites.
As to a theme, you could easily go mono-Tz very successfully:
I would look at a large anvil-style block of Shield Marauders with MoTz, 5 wide and maybe 8ish deep. Stick your BSB in that unit and youv’e got a Stubborn unit with Ldr 8 rerolling.
That unit is cheap, you don’t mind it taking casualties because the models are so cheap, but in combat are also fairly hard to kill. A nice touch is to give the BSB the Iron Curse icon for 5 points meaning the whole unit has a 5+ ward v warmachines.
This unit can be nicely flanked by either Halberd Warriors (Tz still works well here) and/or Great Wep or Flail Marauders in units of around 18 or 24 work well.

For your general I would consider a Hero with the Book of Secrets and a Dispel Scroll, or forget magic altogether, its unlikely to be a huge factor in battles of this size. You’ll either spend a lot of points for little return. Or you go all-out 6-dicing bigger spells, but risk blowing up and without the usual protections present in a larger game. Personally I would go for two minimally kitted characters because BSB rerolls are a HUGE bonus.

Chariots are excellent value at this size game, and I would still include two units of Warhounds.
Thanks for the reply!

I've been reading about the cheeseboard that is the Chosen deathstar and, while I rather fancy having a stab at that sometime (there are one or two power gamers in my LGS!), I don't think it's appropriate for this tournament. Though an 18-man Chosen unit with my General or BSB would still leave me about enough points for two solid 12-man units of Chaos Warriors.

While I understand the idea of a huge horde block of Marauders, I've been playing Space Marines for a while and I kind of feel a bit nekkid without my nice armour saves. Is a Chaos Warriors/Chosen army list viable without the Marauders?

Tzeentch is currently the mark which is most appealing to me, though that may because I've got dreams of 3+ ward saves in mind. Khorne is probably my second choice of mark.

I notice you suggest two Heroes - do you think it's better to take two cheap Heroes in order to get the BSB rather than pick up one properly-kitted Hero? I'm also curious why you say magic isn't so important - I could conceivably pick up a level 3 and two level 2 wizards. Granted, it's not balanced and won't lend itself to a hugely sensible list, but would any other army be able to cope with that much magic at 1,000 points?

*Sigh....*

I don't know why I'm finding it so tricky to get my head around taking Marauders in place of Chaos Warriors. I'm now also looking wistfully at my Chaos Knights. Dag-nabbit! Need to spend some time thinking deep and ponderous thoughts.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
byhlli
Slave
[ * ]
Oh, hang about. Do Marauders with a mark of Tzeentch and shields get a 5+ parry save?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
nzkoston
The Chosen
In a 1000pt army I usually leave the BSB behind. An extra Exalted Hero at a naked 135 points I've found can actually chew up quite a bit unnecessarily. We already get to re-roll on panic tests so i find the BSB points better spent elsewhere in a 1000pt game. Of course thats how i see it.

I also tend to roll with the mark of khorne a fair bit so i dont need to worry about psychology tests all that much. But with mark of khorne i always have a few small packs of hounds to prevent my frenzied units being baited into enemy redirectors.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
byhlli
Slave
[ * ]
conjoy
Nov 11 2011, 01:36 AM
For your general I would consider a Hero with the Book of Secrets and a Dispel Scroll, or forget magic altogether, its unlikely to be a huge factor in battles of this size. You’ll either spend a lot of points for little return. Or you go all-out 6-dicing bigger spells, but risk blowing up and without the usual protections present in a larger game. Personally I would go for two minimally kitted characters because BSB rerolls are a HUGE bonus.
Actually, I just looked at this again. Even if I take a naked BSB, I've only got 115 points left to spend on a General. That's either another naked Exalted, which doesn't seem to make much sense, or a Chaos Sorceror with 30 points of upgrades, which is also pretty limiting. What kind of builds are you thinking about?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
byhlli
Slave
[ * ]
nzkoston
Nov 11 2011, 02:33 AM
In a 1000pt army I usually leave the BSB behind. An extra Exalted Hero at a naked 135 points I've found can actually chew up quite a bit unnecessarily. We already get to re-roll on panic tests so i find the BSB points better spent elsewhere in a 1000pt game. Of course thats how i see it.
That makes sense to me. Do you take a kitted out Chaos Sorceror, then? Or do you prefer to leave the magic at home for smaller games?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
conjoy
Exalted Guardian
I don't think I mentioned Chosen? 1k points is definitely too small for these guys. Warriors are your Elite in this size game.

Because MoTz stacks with other wards, including Parry, yes Marauders with weapon and shield get a 5+ parry ward from frontal (not-stomp) attacks in melee.

I hadn’t really thought of how few points you have to spend on characters. I really like having a BSB. I would be personally very tempted to take a melee lord with the MoTz, a Shield and the Iron Curse Icon. For 235 points he has a 3+ and 5++ save in melee and his whole unit has a 5+ ward against war machine shooting.
Take the BSB the same equipped but without the IronCI.
You place them both in a unit of 38 Marauders with Shields and the MoTz You now have a unit of 40 thats almost certainly Steadfast on Ldr 9 rerolling. And your characters are 3+,5++.
Gives you enough points to take:
18 Maradauers of Kh with Flails or Great Weps and Standard.
12 Warriors of Khorne with Halberds, Standard and either musician or Banner of Eternal Flame.
5 Warhounds
You can get a couple more Marauders or a Warrior if you stick to the MoTz.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · Armylist · Next Topic »
Add Reply