Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Something Stirs In the Chaos Wastes

The drums are beating that Warriors of Chaos will be the next Fantasy book off the rank.


This would fit with the upcoming “Summer of Chaos” where Games Workshop renounce the mistakes of the past and brand Thorpe for the heretic he was. The Remembrancers will elevate Pete Haines to Godhood and his legacy will be venerated with a new Chaos Legion codex that ushers in a wonderful new era of 40k. An era where the sins of Thorpe’s heresy are laid bare for all.

But I digress.

A new Warriors book should prove an easy write as there is not too much wrong with the book. You can generate a number of builds that are competitive though after four years there is a certain sameness to the various building blocks. A Marauder army is viable as is one centred around knights and warriors, as is a Chosen anvil etc……

They have a few bad matchups – Skaven springs to mind – but this can usually be addressed by pursuing different Magic lores (e.g. Rats hate Fire). They also have great matchups – here Ogres is an obvious example – so you will typically see Warrior armies towards the mid to top tables at most events. Where they can struggle is in mobility and I expect we’ll see this area get some love in the new book.

Which leads onto new models. I think we can bank on a plastic kit for Dragon Ogres (with probably a Chaos Ogre option to make it a dual kit), a plastic Shaggoth and a plastic Warshrine. There are no models for Forsaken and I have never seen any proxies on the table so it is a fair bet that we’ll see a re-jig of their rules and perhaps a dedicated kit. The Marauder kit could also do with an upgrade.

From a rules point of view I can see them going two or three ways with respect to Magic. Continue with their own lores, remove the Chaos lores or put in place new marked lores for Tzeentch, Nurgle and Slaanesh that will also cover updated Daemons of Chaos.

Power level? The current book is fine and fits in well with the 8th Edition books.

Thoughts?

10 comments:

  1. The consistently reliable 75hastings69 has pipped the following;

    "Plastic chariot/warshrine
    Plastic forsaken
    Plastic Dragon Ogres
    A Large plastic kit (that I'll leave as a surprise )
    Finecast Characters"

    Chaos always have fantastic looking models, so I am looking forward to seeing the direction they go.

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  2. I had heard that WHFB Chaos Warriors was going to be an August release, meaning that there would probably be something else in the June slot for WHFB.

    First thing that needs to be fixed in Chaos Warriors is the removal of anything that looks like a 3+ ward save! The second thing is the puppet! Both are some of the more broken things leftover from 7th.

    The rumours of new kits ive heard are Dragon Ogres, Chosen, and a duel Warshrine/something new kit. I can see the Dragon Ogres doubling as a duel Chaos ogre kits aswell like you mention. I doubt we will see anything redone that is already plastic.

    I also think we will see three new spell decks for the 3 magic using gods, and options to use some other battle magic decks aswell, if not all

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  3. Dwarfs Dwarfs Dwarfs Dwarfs Dwarfs - where are my Dwarfs

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  4. A nice chance to see if the re-pricing of basic infantry is followed through to become a new "normal" (ie steadfast and step up accounted for)...
    Very much looking forward to this release....if only to see gateway and treason be given proper casting costs! I wonder if they will tie it into the usual Nth Hemisphere Summer big release thingie they usually do?

    Joel V

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    1. The big summer release is 6th ed 40k, so I doubt it

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  5. TBH, although minor, I find the Mark of Nurgle to be a terrible investment. The easy answer is don't take it, however I like my Nurgle themed armies.

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  6. I bet you a shiny green Kakapo no new marauders, chaos warriors.

    I wonder if they will go all out multi purpose kits like Empire, a plastic Shaggoth that can be assembled also as a chaos dragon and also as Glaurach. It COULD be done.

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  7. I agree with Jossy. They need to either drop the 3+ ward option on the units (4+ would be fine), or remove the cheesy item combos that make it possible to guarantee the result.

    Other than that it is fine. Puppet is a pain in the proverbial, but its not as bad as the Ward save (IMHO)

    Blair
    Tauranga

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  8. Really hope they don't fuck this one up.I'v played WoC since 2nd edition and they are my favorite army (built 5 different chaos armies)When the last book came out i found it to be boring and lacked alot of flavor that the older books had.There were to many units that looked great fluff wise but rules wise were arse(forsaken)I'm not planing on building any other armies this year but i will build a new chaos army once the 8th edition book is out.Roll on Novemberish

    Cheer Darren

    PS i love Nurgle WoC too

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