Preferred Enemies - Warriors of Chaos: Lords and Heroes pt. 3

This installment of Preferred Enemies will deal directly with the Mutations, Magic Items and the Daemon Prince which should wrap up the Lords and Heroes portion of this Preferred Enemies cycle.

 

Chaos Mutations and Powers:

 

Daemon Blade – 50 pts, Magic Weapon

Wielder gains the Random Attacks rule (D6+3), however every roll of 1 can not be rerolled and strikes the bearer.  This power has the potential make an exalted hero a murderous whirlwind but you do not often see it much due to its hefty 50 pt price.  It also counts as a magic weapon.

Collar of Khorne – 45 pts, Talisman.

Magic Resistance 3, wearer must have the Mark of Khorne or be a Daemon of Khorne.

Unholy Strike – 35 pts

Rather than use his normal # of attacks, the character may make 1 attack that is at double his Str score and causes D3 Multiple Wounds.

Flaming Breath – 30 pts

Character gains a Str 4 Breath Weapon with Flaming Attacks rule.  This power is obviously deadly against Wood Elves, especially if they have been hexed by Curse of the Leper. 

Chaos Familiar – 25 pts, Arcane Item.

Owner knows 1 additional spell from his chosen lore and adds +1 to his channeling attempts.  This is a great item to take to almost ensure you get the right spells you want.  This is most disconcerting when a Lore of Nurgle caster takes it.

Scaled Skin – 20 pts.

Scaly Skin (5+).

Allure of Slaanesh – 15 pts.

Any opponent wishing to attack the character with this gift must pass a LD test.  If they fail the model can not attack that phase.  Does not affect attacks that do not roll to it.  Models with Mark of Slaanesh or Daemons of Slaanesh only.  This is especially good when you have Phantasmagoria in effect and you are wanting to wreck your opponent’s unit.  Having a Daemon Price be able to attack without models attacking back is golden.

Poisonous Slime – 15 pts.

Points attacks special rule and 5+ ward vs. Poisoned attacks.
 

Acid Ichor – 10 pts.

Whenever a character suffers an unsaved wound in close combat, attacker must pass an initiative test or take a Str 4 hit.

Burning Body – 10 pts

Character gains flaming attacks special rule and 5+ ward vs. flaming attacks.

Soul Feeder – 10 pts

Roll a D6 for every wound caused in close combat, for every 6 rolled the chaos character regains a wound.

Third Eye of Tzeentch – 10 pts.

Character may reroll ward saves of 1.  Mark of Tzeentch or Daemon of Tzeench only.  This is an annoying spell as it makes trying to killing blow Mark of Tzeentch very difficult .

Nurgle’s Rot – 10 pts

At start of every magic phase, any enemy model in base contact suffers a S1 hit with no armor save.
Mark of Nurgle/Daemons of Nurgle only.
 

Hideous Visage – 5 pts.

Character has Fear special rule. However, other models may never use his leadership.
 

Of all the Chaos Boons, the one that causes the most consternation is the Flaming Breath but the other actually happens to be Allure of Slaanesh.  It is imperative that models marked with certain gifts are killed as fast as possible so that their random rules don’t disrupt the players train of thought.

Dread Artefacts of Chaos

The Hellfire Sword – 65 pts.

This is my personally favorite magic item out of the entire book.  It grants the user Flaming Attacks and the Multiple Wounds (D3) special rule but most importantly at the end of combat, the player rolls a D6 for each unsaved wound caused.  On a 6, the enemy unit suffers an additional D6 Str 4 hits resolved as shooting and these wounds count towards combat ress.  The drawback is that the end of the magic phase the player rolls a d6, on a 1 he suffers a wound with No armour saves.  This weapon is often coupled with the Soul Feeder boon.

The Sword of Change – 30 pts.

If any enemy monster/character is slain by this blade then you roll a D6.  On a 4+ the model turns into a Chaos Spawn under the wielder’s control!

Filth Mace – 30 pts. Mark of Nurgle Only.

Close combat attacks with mace have Poisoned Attacks rule.  Once wielder has slain an enemy model in close combat, then he gains the Terror special rule and in the next combat phase all the poisoned attacks hits inflict D3 Multiple Wounds.
 

Helm of Many Eyes – 25 pts.

Grants wielder Always Strikes First and +1 to their armor save.  Also grants stupidity.  Work around? Mark of Khorne = Frenzy and immunity to psychology.  No stupidity test then. 
 

Skull of Katam – 15 pts. Arcane Item

The bearer of the skull may consult the skull prior to trying to channel power dice.  If he does, then he rolls 6 dice to channel rather than 1.  For every 1 rolled, he then suffers -1 to LD for the rest of the game.  Mark of Tzeentch casters may not reroll the 1’s when using this item.

Chalice of Chaos – 10 pts. One Use.

Grants character 1 advantage/curse, they roll a D6 and consult the table.  They may suffer a wound with no saves, may gain ASF, Regeneration, 5+ Ward, or Killing Blow til end of turn or they may turn into a Daemon Prince.

Pendant of Slaanesh – 50 pts.

May only be worn by Mark of Slaanesh models.  Character may not join units with other characters in it.  Whenever the bearer’s unit needs to make a break test, they roll 1 dice. In addition for every unsaved Wound the character suffers, he gains +1 attack for the game.
 
Blasted Standard – 25 pts.
Models with Mark of Tzeentch only.  Everytime bearer’s unit suffers a shooting attack, roll a D6. On a 2+ the strength of the attack is halved, but on a roll 1 the strength is doubled.  Against shooting attacks without a str score it does not function.

 Banner of Rage – 25 pts.

Mark of Khorne – Unit gains Frenzy and they can never lose it.

 Of all the magic items, the most power ones are the Hellfire Sword and the Chalice of Chaos with the Skull of Katam coming in a strong third.  While the Hellfire sword eats up a chunk of points, it does yield an absolutely devastating result against Wood Elf units.  Characters wielding this blade must be dealt with at range and not by Flammable models.  The Skull of Katam has the ability to upset the magic phase by flooding the caster’s pool with dice.  Finally the Chalice of Chaos has a 1 in 6 chance of unleashing another Daemon Prince unto the field which brings us to our final selection from the Lords list…

The Daemon Prince of Chaos. 

The gift of immortality, the final reward for serving the Chaos Gods.  The ascension into what can only be described as a godlike being of darkness and destruction upon the field of battle.

The Daemon Prince is the premiere choice to lead a Warriors of Chaos army.  The Daemon Prince has a superior stat line to that of even a Chaos Lord and may be elevated to 4^th level as a Wizard at the same time.  The Daemon Prince is perhaps the most destructive Lord choice to encounter in close combat of all the Warhammer Fantasy armies except perhaps going toe to toe with a Bloodthirster. 

                                M            WS         BS           S              T              W            I               A             LD

Daemon Prince   8              9              5              6              5              4              8              5              9

Special Rules: Daemonic Attacks, Terror, Unbreakable

Daemonic Invulnerability: 5+ Ward save

Magic :   May take up to 4 levels of Wizard.
                Mark of Tzeentch : Lore of Metal, Lore of Tzeentch

                Mark of Nurgle: Lore of Death, Lore of Nurgle

                Mark of Slaanesh: Lore of Shadow, Lore of Slaanesh      

Troop type: Monster (Character)

Upgrades: (Must choose one of the Marks)

                Daemonic Flight  - it gains Flight

                Mark of Khorne: +1 Str when it charges for the turn – hatred: Daemons of Slaanesh

                Mark of Tzeentch: May reroll ward save rolls and channeling attempts of 1. – hatred: Daemons of Nurgle

                Mark of Nurgle: Enemy models -1 to hit in close combat against Daemon Prince. Hatred – Daemons of Tzeentch

                Mark of Slaanesh – Armor Piercing , Hatred – Daemons of Khorne.

The Daemon Prince may be tooled up to be devastating on the field of battle.  It may take up to 100 pts in Chaos Mutations and Powers, 25 pts in magic items, Chaos armor and Daemonic Flight.  It must choose a Mark and unless a Daemon of Khorne take Wizard levels. 

Standard Daemon Prince General:

Daemon Prince – 235

Level 4 – 140

Mark of Nurgle -10

Daemonic Flight – 40

The Other’s Trickster’s Shard – 15

Dragon Helm – 10

Poisonous Slime – 15

Scaled Skin – 20

Burning Body – 10:
Total: 495

You now have a Daemon Prince that has a 2+ ward save against fire, a Level 4 Nurgle caster that has the chance to have his Toughness raised every magic phase, and someone who now has poisoned attacks and flaming attacks.  The model is unbreakable, thunder stomps and forces you to reroll successful ward saves when base to base.  The daemonic flight provides it with the advantage of flying across the field and chewing up the backend of your arm and finally to top it all off the Daemon enjoys his opponents suffering a -1 to hit him in close combat, 6’s if they failed their Terror test or they are not at least weapon skill 5. 

So how does a Wood Elf general handle this type of monster?  The best way is to engage the Daemon in close combat and issue a challenge.  Ranged attacks will work but at best you’re going to make him have to fail at 2+ armor save and a 5+ ward from within 15” away.  You can handle him that way but I think your ranged firepower would better be used on other supporting units that the Daemon Prince is bringing to bear. You will want to augment a hero or lord to be at least Toughness 8 (Lore of Life: Flesh to Stone + Throne of Vines) and having a weapon that ignores armor saves is the best option since that will remove the 1+ armor save and also make sure you have Annoyance of Netlings.  You will need to be mounted on a horse, eagle or stag in order to prevent being Thunder stomped and to provide the hero with that additional +1 T and Armor bonus.  You will need to block his magic phase and disallow him from hexing your or undermining your advantages.  Ideally, you will be able to tie this Monster up with your highborn and then heal him with the Lore of Life attribute or the Regrowth spell.  The Treeman ancient might also be a good option but against the Daemon Prince he will receive a 6+ armor save and be granted no ward save, the Daemon prince will still have to wound him and if you have him at T8 or T10 that will help but I think the better option is to have a geared up Highborn.

If your spellweaver has chosen Lore of Beasts, the same ideas hold true.  You will cast Pann’s Impenetrable Pelt, Wyssan’s Wild Form, and Savage Beast of Horros to provide the following benefits:  +4 Strength, +4 Toughness, and +3 attacks.  Your spellweaver could also try to spear the Daemon Prince with the Str10 Amber Spear or your spellweaver could also go balls out and charge the Daemon Prince and hope to get off Transformation of Kadon and turn herself into a Dragon and see how that battle ensues.  While the Transformation of Kadon option is truly epic and would make for one hell of a story afterwards… it’s not your best option.

This will wrap up the Preferred Enemies – Warriors of Chaos : Lords and Heroes segments.

We’ll start in on the Core choices later on until we’ve covered the entire book (or the Wood elves get a new book – gasp! Omg! That would mean I’d have to rewrite 43 articles!)

Until next time…