Archives

AoS Chaos Spawn Tactics

Warhammer 40k, and Age of Sigmar Chaos Spawn.

Chaos Spawn where humans that have been so warped by the forces that thwy are more animal than human. This warping also leads to the destruction of rational thought. This means that a couple of key abilities (movement and number of attacks), are random, and as you may have read elsewhere, I see randomness as the enemy of good tactics.

You can get Chaos Spawn in two different ways. The first is to have the Chaos Spawn as part of the starting army list as usual. The second is if a model (friend or foe) is warped bymagic are mishap and changed in to a Chaos Spawn.

General Chaos Spawn Tactics

Chaos Spawn are a bit of a wild card with random movement distance and number of attacks. If tou have some good rolls then they can cause a lot.of damage, however with a coupe of poor rolls your plans will fall apart!

The randomness that cause you so much hartache also is the Chaos Spawns strength. This is because although you don’t know quite what the Chaos Spawn will do, neither will your opponant! The difference is that you are the controling player so you can make best use of whatever the roll is.

So here is the key. The Chaos Sparn is a disruptor rather than a game winner in it’s own right. Use the Chaos Spawn to keep your enemy gussing and keep them havingto guard thier flanks and rear. It can really slow down  an army if you have to cover many different possible counter attacks.

With the Chaos Spawns (eratic) speed you may be able to flank, or break through the enemys lines and threten softer units at the back.

Chaos Spawn Special Ability Writhing Tenticals

Chaos Spawn get 2D6 attacks per turn. That averages out at 7 attacks per combat round. That works out at 1.75 wounds a round. However the Chaos Spawn has another trick up it’s sleave. If you roll a double (which will happen 1 in 6 rolls)  then you wound on a 3+ which nudges the average to 1.86 wounds a round before save rolls. The thing is is that the range of possible rolls is a much wider than many units, so use with care.

Tags:

AoS Chaos Everchosen Archaon on Dorghar

AoS Chaos Everchosen Archaon on Dorghar

Also buy: Discount Archeon Models from Wayland Games

“It was hidiouse! Truely hidiouse! Out of the darken clouds this creature if true evil dived down apon us, and riding this hell creature named Dorghar was Archaeon himself!

Archaeon did not waver, he struck for the General and his retenue. A roar rippled through the Chaos ranks, and the Chaos Heroes where energised with an unholy fevor.

Even befor the cry had died down Archaeon was smashing though the Silver Helms ranks. There was an Archmage on a Dragon. We thougt that it would be more than a match for Archaeon, but with a swipe of his sword the dragon’s head was lost, and with a snap of jaws Droghar took the mage. I swear Draghars head glowed!

I’m just glad Archaeon is on our side! Now pass that meade.”

General Tactics for Archaeon

Archaon’s warscroll comes with half s page of special rules. My top tip is to make sure that you know them all. The best way to do this is to set up a few models and roll the dice to see what happens!

Archaon and Dorghar’s Weapons and Armour

Archaon only has 1 weapon, The Slayer ok Kings, however it is a moster killing weapon. With 4 attacks  hitting on 2+ and wounding on 3+, you should be getting 2 wounds in each combat turn with 3 Damage with each unsaved wounds Archaon can mess up enemy units without assistance. However The Slayer does have another trick. If you focuson killing just the one Hero or Monster, and you roll two or more 6’s to wound, the target is slain instantly. They don’t even get a save of any type.

The Daemon Dorghar has a number of attacks using his claws, tail, and three snarling, gnashing heads. At  best this gives Dorghar 20 attacks per combat round.

 

Tags:

AoS Warriors of Chaos and Chaos Knights Tactics

Warhammer AoS Chaos Warriors of Chaos

In this article we will have a look at the tactics we can use for Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights in Age of Sigmar games.

General Chaos Warriors Tactics

The Chaos Warriors are the standard choice for rank and file troops for the chaos army. They tough with 2 wounds, have 2 attacks each and a good Bravery score.

Use the Chaos Warriors as the backbone of your army. They can defend objectives, or form the core of any advance. As usual you will want to ‘soften up’ any enemy units with some ranged fire before the Warriors pile in, and you may want some fast units to follow up any break troughs and etc.

Chaos Warrior Command Models

The horn blowers, standard bearers, and aspiring champion are collectively known as a command group. You do not have to have all of the command models in your unit, or any of them, but they do add useful benefits if you do!

Aspiring Champion

All units of Chaos Warriors must have a leader. The leader is called and Aspiring Champion. The Aspiring Champion is better at wielding weapons so with a sword, he hits on 2+ normally, but still wounds on 4+. This may sound like a small difference, but if you roll some dice you will see that the chance of wounding goes down from 1 in 4 ( 25% ) to 5 in 12 ( 41.66% ). In other words, very useful!

Standard Bearers

You can have any number of Standard Bearers in a Chaos Warrior unit, but there are no benefits from having 2 or more standard bearers other than having spares in case one standard bearer dies!

Having a standard bearer in the units useful. It increases your bravery from 6 to 7. This means that you will need to loose three warriors per turn before you have to worry about loosing a Battleshock test This is useful as Chaos Warriors usually come in units of 10 so they do not get the +1 for units of 10 or more ( because at least 1 model must have died to need a test ).

Horne Blower

Horn Blowers allow the unit of Warriors to move an extra inch when charging. This means that your minimum charge is now 3″. If you have ever failed a 3 inch charge by rolling double ones, you will know how useful this is!

Just like the standard bearers, you can have 2 or more horn blowers, however this does not give you any additional benefits.

Chaos Warriors Special Rules

The Chaos Warriors have a few special rules that you will want to remember ( or have a memo note to remind you ). I will go through the special rules in order of importance as I see them. If you just remember one rule, remember the first of these!

Chaos Runeshields

This special rule is amazing! You get to save against Mortal Wounds! That’s right, Warriors of Chaos get a chance to save against all those Arcane Bolts and other attacks that other units just have to sit there and take. The save is just 5+, but at least it’s something.

Legions of Chaos

This is a special rule that kicks in if you have 20 or more warriors in a unit. The usual number is 10 to a unit so you may only see this in very large games. If you do have a unit of 20+ then this rule lets you re-roll for some saves. Note that you can not re-roll Mortal Wound saves.

Berserk Fury

If you are daft enough to give up your shields in favour of a 2nd weapon, then this rule gives your warriors a small extra chance of hitting your opponents. If you get to choose, go for the shields!

Mark of Chaos

Adding a mark of chaos from one of the four chaos gods will not affect the unit of Warriors directly. However there may be other special rules in plat that benefit units of one of the gods. For example when you are playing in the realms of earth Nurgle units can get regeneration benefits. Keep an eye on the other special rules at play in the game.

AoS Chaos Knights Tactics

Chaos Knights are warriors of Chaos on War Steeds. As the rules are so similar I will write up their tactics here.

The basic stats for the Chaos Knights add one point of bravery, one extra wound, and an upgrade to 10″ move.

The knights have similar special rules to the Chaos Warriors. The Legions of Chaos special rule has been dropped and a new ‘terrifying Champions’ rule has been added. Chaos Knights with Chaos Glaves get a ‘Impaling Charge’ special rule too.

 

Tags:

AoS Chaos Lord Tactics

AoS Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount

General Chaos Lord Tactics

The Chaos Lord is a very capable fighter in the Age of Sigmar games. Placing him on a Daemonic mount gives him speed, extra toughness, and some extra attacks.

Chaos Lords are meant to be in the thick of the fighting. He does not have any ranged weapons or magic items so there is no point holding back. They are well able to take this role too. With thick 4+ chaos armour and 6 wounds, the Chaos Lord will shrug off or absorb loads of damage before he goes down.

 

Marks of Chaos

The Chaos Lord can align with one of the four gods of chaos. You do not have to pick a chaos god, however if you do then the Chaos Lord gets bonuses.. If you don’t pick a god then you don’t get any benefit, so you might as well pick one.

Mark of Khorne Ability

If the Chaos Lord takes the Mark of Khorne then you can re-roll roll of 1 when hitting with your Warhammer. The horse hooves do not get this bonus. This bonus can be useful, however given a choice you may find the other marks are more useful.

Mark of Nurgle Ability

Chaos Lords with the mark of Nurgle get an extra wound. This does give the Lord extra survivability. Worth taking if you favour the Nurgle god.

Mark of Tzeentch Ability

Tzeentch Chaos Lords get to re-roll failed saves. These are normal saves and not mortal wound ignore rolls. It is still worth having though. This ability is even better if you have Mystic Shield cast on you or if you are in cover ( or both ).

Mark of Slaanesh Ability

The Mark of Slaanesh special rule can be very useful. With this mark the Chaos Lord can move, run, and charge in to assault in the same turn. This make it easier to pick and choose targets to assault.

Chaos Runeshields

The Chaos Lord gets the same Chaos Runeshields that the Chaos Warriors have. That means that the Chaos Lords get a 5+ save against Mortal Wounds.

Mounted Chaos Lord Weapons

The Chaos Lord does not get an option to choose different weapons, you get a Warhammer and that is it. If you have remodelled your Chaos Lord to have a different weapon, just use the Warhammer stats for that weapon.

The Cursed Warhammer gets 4 attacks a round. This is less than the Chaos Lord on foot gets. This is because the mounted Chaos Lord only has 1 weapon. This more than made up by having the Runeshield. The four attacks do have a good chance of hitting, wounding, and causing damage ( 44.44% chance of wounding, -1 rend, 2 damage ).

The Warhorse does get 3 attacks with the usual chance ot hit and wound, so well worth remembering.

The conclusion is that the mounted Chaos Lord is good in a fight, but be careful not to take on too much in one fight. He is good but not all powerful. Have a unit of Chaos Knights to accompany your Chaos Lord as a bodyguard.

AoS Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount

AoS Chaos Lord on Daemonic MountA Chaos Lord can ride a Daemonic Mount. In this post we will have a look at the Chaos Lords abilities and the tactics you can use in the Age of Sigmar games.

 

Mounted Chaos Lord Ability – Eye of the Gods

This special rule means that if your Chaos Lord kills a Monster or Hero you get extra wounds on a roll of 2+. This is one roll per kill, so if he kills multiple Heroes and Monsters per turn you could get multiple wound bonuses.

To get the bonus the Chaos Lord needs to take the last wound. If you have other units in the assault don’t kill off your target. Use the other units to take out any extra units that your opponent has in the combat so that your Chaos Lord can get a clear shot at the target.

Tags:

AoS Chaos Slaves to Darkness Battalion – Godsworn Champions of Ruin

Warhammer Chaos Lord with Wings

The Godsworn Champions of Ruin can be seen as the default battalion for the Age of Sigmar Slaves to Darkness army. The basics of this battalion is that you have a general and 3 to 8 Slaves to Darkness units. Using this battalion organisation you can create well rounded army lists that are both flexible and decimating.

Organisation Units

The organisation options for the Godsworn Champions are quite open. You need a general. The General could be a Daemon Prince, Lord of Chaos, or a Sorcerer Lord. The last two could be mounted on a manticore. My suggestion would be to o with the Daemon Prince, or as a second choice the Lord of Chaos. This is because you can take a Sorcerer Lord in the main body of the battalion.

For the main body of the battalion you can take one to eight units that can be selected from the slaves of darkness list. Most of the slave to darkness units are listed with notable exception of the Chaos Marauders in any form (on foot, horse or chariot).

The openness in the battalion organization gives you a great deal of flexibility. Of course there are some units that you will want to add in all the time, like at least one unit of Chaos Warriors and a Sorcerer Lord, however this still gives you plenty of slots to add in other units to make in your army. I do highly recommend adding a unit of Chaos Knights. This will add speed to your army.

Battalion Abilities – Unholy Challenge

The benefit of this battalion is that you can pick a unit from the battalion that is within 3″ of a Hero or Monster, for example in combat, and that unit can have a free assault round. Now the warscroll is written with the expectation that you will assault the Hero or Monster that you are near, but the rules are not explicit on this.

Tags:

AoS Chaos Exalted Hero of Chaos

Games Workshop Age of Sigmar Exalted Hero of Chaos

General Exalted Hero of Chaos Tactics

The progression for a mortal in the Slaves to Darkness army is: Marauder -> Chaos Warrior -> Chaos Chosen -> Exalted Hero -> Chaos Lord -> Daemon Prince. This means that you can expect your Exalted Hero to be a good fighter, but be careful not to bite off more that you can chew!

The Exalted Hero is a good close combat leader. He has a good armour save ( 4+), a decent number of wounds (5). He has a variable number of attacks (D6) and an average chance of wounding ( 4 to hit, 3 to wound, with -1 rend), but there are ways to improve this. You will find details on how to do this later in the post.

Exalted Hero of Chaos Abilities

The Exalted Hero has a number of Abilities. You will want to be coversant with them all.

Trail of Red Ruin

The Exalted Hero’s main skill is that he can attack twice in one combat phase. This can be against two different units if they are in range (3″). More about this later too!

The best use of the Exalted Hero is to use him to ‘mop up’ any stray Heroes or wounded Monsters that have survived or escaped a previous combat with your Chaos Warriors.

Tags:

AoS Chaos Sorcerer Lord Tactics

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Chaos Sorcerer Lord

In this post we will have a look at the Chaos Sorcerer Lord and how to use them in Age of Sigmar tactics.

General Chaos Sorcerer Lord Tactics

The Sorcerer Lord does have some close combat skills, but hand to hand combat is not the best use for the Sorcerer Lord. The main reason you would field the Sorcerer Lord is for his magic ability.

The Sorcerer Lord usually is on foot, but you can find models, or create models where the Sorcerer is mounted. If you can find or create a mounted Sorcerers then you will find them much more useful. The extra speed means that you can dash around the board supporting your front line troops where the support is needed most.

It doesn’t matter if your Sorcerer Lord is mounted or on foot he will need a bodyguard. If the Sorcerer Lord is mounted the bodyguard will need to keep up so a mounted bodyguard like a unit Chaos Knights. A unit of Chaos Warriors make for a good bodyguard for Sorcerers on foot.

A great use for the Sorcerer is to bolster the strength and toughness of you front line troops. There are 3 different ways that the Sorcerer can bolster your troops. I have detailed these bellow. The other use for any wizard it to be there to dispel any enemy magic.

Chaos Sorcerer Lord Abilities

Age of Sigmar Chaos WizardThe Chaos Sorcerer Lord has two special abilities, Oracular Vision and Mark of Chaos.

Oracular Visions

In the command phase you can pick a unit ( or the wizard ) and that unit can re-roll save rolls of 1. This can be for incoming shooting attacks or for close combat. It follows than that you pick a unit that is about to get thumped big style!

Note that this ability is not a command ability or a spell. This means that you can use this ability even if you cast a spell or if the Sorcerer is not your general.

Mark of Chaos

You can select a Mark of Chaos for your Sorcerer when you place him on the table. A Mark of Chaos shows that he is following one of the 4 Chaos Gods. This dos not have a direct effect on your Sorcerer , but there may be other rules in play that may have an effect. Examples may be Battle Plan, Time of War, or Scroll Rules from other units. Otherwise you may want to pick a mark of chaos just because it adds to the battle story line!

Magic

The best reason for adding a Sorcerer to your army is because you want access to magic. Sorcerers are Wizards so they can attempt to unbind one spell a turn and cast one spell in your command phase. The 3 spells that Sorcerers know by default are the Arcane Bolt, Mystic Shield spells and thier own signature spell Daemonic Power!

Daemonic Power

Daemonic Power has a casting value of 5. If cast a whole unit with one model within 18″ and within line of sight can re-roll rolls of 1 for hits, wounds, and saves. Note that if you RE-roll a 1 you just have to except that the gods are not flavouring you at the moment! However this spell us a big bonus to the affected unit. To make the most of this spell select a unit that will be shooting and assaulting this turn, or a unit where a little push will make a big difference! I am sure that you can think of situations where 1 or 2 extra wounds would have turned the game.

Chaos Familiars

One of the best add-ons to a Chaos Army with a Sorcerer you can add is a Chaos Familiar. Familiars are not useful by themselves, but they they do add one to any casting or unbinding rolls to any wizard within 6″. Note that having two familiars nearby does not improve the bonus. Plus one is the best you can get from your Familiars.

Arcane Scenery

If you are rolling for Mysterious Landscapes look out for Arcane Scenery. Being near Arcane Scenery adds 1 to casting and unbinding rolls. This is in addition to any bonuses from being near a Chaos Familiar or any other bonus.

Tags:

AoS Chaos Mortal Tactics

Games Workshop Age of Sigmar Exalted Hero of Chaos

In this section we will have a look at the AoS Chaos Mortals in Age of Sigmar and Chaos Tactics. As usual you will need a copy of the rules and access to the units warscrolls to make the best use of these pages.

Warriors of Chaos, Monsters of Chaos, Warherd units, Dragon Ogors, and similar units make up for forces of chaos. It is quite reasonable to mix and match these units it the same army.

As with most armies there are a number of organizations available if you purchase the extra battletombs. These include extra abilities and special rules if you field the forces listed in the organization. If you have purchased a battletombe with a organisation that fits models you have,then you will find that fielding that organisation as part of your force will help.

Warriors of Chaos Tactics

AoS Chaos Everchosen Archaon on DorgharThe Warriors of Chaos are where you can find many of the Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition characters

  • Archaon The Everchosen
  • Crom The Conqueror
  • Sigval the Magnificent
  • Wulfrik the Wanderer
  • Exalted Hero with Battle Standard
  • Khorne Exalted Hero
  • Galrauch
  • Lamnasu
  • Throgg
  • Chaos Ogres
  • Chaos Trolls
  • Chaos Familiar
  • Khorne Exalted Hero
  • Forsaken
  • Great Taurus
  • Hellcannon
  • Also buy; Discount Warriors of Chaos at Wayland Games

Slaves to Darkness Tactics

If you are looking for Chaos Warriors, then you need to look here in the Slaves to Darkness list!

Chais Slaves to Darkness units are usually neutral when it comes to being followers of one of the four Chaos Gods. Frequently though the unit special rules will allow you to choose to follow a specific God. This is useful if you want to have a themed army or use that Gods special rules.

Khorne Bloodbound Tactics

Khorne is the most popular of the four chaos gods so there are a whole section of units that are Khorne specific. These are the Khorne Bloodbound.

  • Valkia the Bloody
  • Mighty Lord of Khorne
  • Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut
  • Scyla Anfingrimm
  • Skaarac the Bloodborn
  • Skarr Bloodwrath
  • Skullgrinder
  • Exalted Deathbringer
  • Aspiring Deathbringer
  • Bloodsecators
  • Slaughterpriest
  • Bloodstokers
  • Blood Warriors
  • Mighty Skullcrushers
  • Bloodreavers
  • Skullreapers
  • Wrathmongers
  • Khorgoraths
  • Also buy; Discount Khorne Bloodbound at Wayland Games

Nurgle Rotbringer Tactics

  • Morbidex Twiceborn
  • Bload Rotspawned
  • Orghotts Daemonspew
  • Harbringer of Decay
  • Gutrot Spume
  • Festus the Leechlord
  • Lord of Plagues
  • Rotbringer Sorcerer
  • Purid Blightkings
  • The Glottkin
  • Battalion: Blightguard

Hosts of Slaanesh Tactics

For the most part the Hosts of Slaanesh are Daemons. Because of this I will add tactics for the Hosts of Slaanesh in the Chaos Daemon Tactics section. However there are a couple of Mortal units in the Hosts of Slaanesh that I have added here.

  • Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount
  • Hellstriders of Slaanesh

Monsters of Chaos Tactics

Age of Sigmar Giant GargantThere are more than just corrupted humans in the forces of chaos. In many armies you will find monsters of nightmares too!

Tags: