Any Warhammer Players Here?

[Liquidator Queeg]

I specifically mean the fantasy battles game. I know there are quite a few Warhammer Fantasy Role-play fans around here.

I've been playing Warhammer off and on since the mid-eighties and I've collected a fairly sizeable chunk of miniatures over the years. Most recently (using 6th edition rules! Gah! Holy editons Bat Man!), I've been gathering a horde of Chaos troops to unleash upon my fellow fantasy battles comrades.

Thus far I have a demon prince, 2 champions (used as either lords or heroes), units of 5 knights, 12 warriors, 16 marauders and 8 beastmen, a sorcerer (and familiar), a chariot, and an assortment of Tzeench horrors and chaos spawn. All in all, I can easily field about 2,000 points worth of chaotic goodness, plus another 500 or so including the demon prince.

The only thing I really lack, and it's one of the aspects I dislike about chaos armies -- I got no frickin' heavy-hitting artillery! There's nary a bolt thrower, stone lobber, or archery unit to be found amongst the Warhammer chaos hordes.

I understand that the chaos armies are about the best combat troops in the Warhammer game, but if the game set-up involves a long march across the battlefield, my chaos troops can be picked to bits before they can gather enough wind to launch a massive charge into enemy lines.

My question is this: Have any of you Warhammer players found a decent strategy to counteract the lack of heavy-hitting artillery in the chaos army? More sorcerers? More chariots and knights? They have faster movement rates -- that's been my thinking, to compensate for the lack of long-range firepower.

Secondly, what kind of armies are you all collecting and unleashing on the battlefield? Do tell, please!

Cheers,

Steve

[Phantom]

Originally posted by Steven A Cook

My question is this: Have any of you Warhammer players found a decent strategy to counteract the lack of heavy-hitting artillery in the chaos army?
Steve

Yeah...Don't get hit.

Always liked the Fantasy Battles, never got the chance to play much though. I had a good time at a Con some years ago. My unit (forgot what type) was tasked with taking out an enemy giant. Well, we did it...And the GM then brings out the "fallen giant" template, I hadn't seen it before. Anyway, the giant fell forward...Right onto my troops. I think one or two actually survived. I thought the whole thing was hilarious, best time I had while lossing most of my units.

[Cybrludite]

I've thus far managed to avoid buying more that a pair of books for this, but I've got a really evil idea for a 40K Ork army lead by a Warboss who took a knock to his 'ead & now thinks he & his boyz are Victorian English. Now I just need a butt-load of those Lego pith helmets...

[pathstrider]

Hmm... I think you've got the right idea.

You're never gonna be able to fully counter the enemies hvy artillary fully, so I suggest have enough 'threatening' units to make the enemy waste his points protecting the artillary - that way the enemy stays nice and stationary, or even better away from the main battle while you concentrate on their main units.

It doesn't really solve the problem, I know, but it makes you feel better.

Units that are excellent for this are smaller unitsMaurader Cavalry and warhounds as well as anything that flies - the other advantage of this is by directly threatening the artillary they soak up the fire from your main units.

If you're worried about the enemy having 'big monsters- then tool up you're Demon prince and go hunting.

And, if you're fighting a lot of opponents which have heavy artillary, may I suggest not taking the knights? They really are to expensive when you consider that a bolt thrower will kill one of them just as easily as a maurader on foot.

Instead, why not take a larger unit of maurader horsemen and spend some points on a good hero to go in - I know it kinda reduces the unit to a 'hero delivery' system - but let's face it, chaos knights vs just about anything is mostly overkill - Mauraders are good enough, and the fast cavalry movement is a joy.

Does that help? I don't have the chaos book with me at the mo, so I'll have to get back to you when I find out this is all wrong

And for the record, I'm a big Empire player - so I know how the guys behind the cannons think!

Mark

[oops1]

Okay, it looks like you are running something like three Core choices, if your general is one of the lord/heroes. If the daemon prince is the general, I'm not sure what your final comp ends up as (you didn't list the daemons out). If it is a mortal army, look into a chariot or two, they're fast enough to control the range and hard enough to get stuck in.

There is a player in this area running a Chariot/warhound army (all core), and the only thing that consistantly beats him is magic heavy armies (Only the two dispel dice). The units seem to work rather well for him, although I'm not too fond of it.

I'm currently building a fantasy chaos army that's warrior based, it will suffer from some of the same problems as yours, but the number of units and a pair of fast movers ought to keep it fairly intact until the general melees start.

Also , if you're runnning flamers and horrors, don't they have a ranged attack(for traditional missile units)? My books aren't with me to check. Chaos is supposed to have this lack of artillery, its part of the design, so that the 'cookie-cutter' army syndrome goes away. The hard as nails close combat troops are its strength, like the knights are for the Bretonnians.

Can you tell I play way too many GW games? Anyway, best of luck in WFB.

[Liquidator Queeg]

Originally posted by pathstrider
Hmm... I think you've got the right idea.

You're never gonna be able to fully counter the enemies hvy artillary fully, so I suggest have enough 'threatening' units to make the enemy waste his points protecting the artillary - that way the enemy stays nice and stationary, or even better away from the main battle while you concentrate on their main units.

[suggestions snipped for space]

Does that help? I don't have the chaos book with me at the mo, so I'll have to get back to you when I find out this is all wrong

And for the record, I'm a big Empire player - so I know how the guys behind the cannons think!

Mark

Sure does help! The next additions to my army are probably going to be some marauder horsemen and warhounds. Although I'm still being tempted by the Nurgle Plaguebearers since the great unclean lord is the patron deity of my army.

Steve

[Liquidator Queeg]

Originally posted by oops1
Okay, it looks like you are running something like three Core choices, if your general is one of the lord/heroes. If the daemon prince is the general, I'm not sure what your final comp ends up as (you didn't list the daemons out). If it is a mortal army, look into a chariot or two, they're fast enough to control the range and hard enough to get stuck in.

Also , if you're runnning flamers and horrors, don't they have a ranged attack(for traditional missile units)? My books aren't with me to check.

Actually, I've been unable to use the Tzeentch horrors as "horrors" since I don't have enough models to make a unit. I've been planning to sub them as chaos spawn or furies or something else, but they just don't look impressive enough and the base sizes are off. :-(

My army is dedicated to Nurgle, so I'll have to invest in some oozy-looking models. My general is mortal, so there won't be too many demonic choices in my army, just a few down the road (other than my demon prince -- who I have yet to actually use since the battles I've fought have been limited to 1,500 points or less!) to spread the chaos love across the battlefield.

Thanks for all the tips fellas! I appreciate them!

Cheers,

Steve