As for rules, Marks of Chaos are now much more important to the build of your army, as models with different marks treat each other as suspicious/desperate allies. This means that theming your army will become much more important. You can of course still mix Marks in your army if you wish, but these will pretty much be treated as allies rather than parts of the same force.
I have also been doing some shuffling around in the army list, mainly moving core to special and special to rare, so you won't be spamming super-elites more than basic troops. In total, WoC now have 8 Core Units, 12 Special Units, and a ridiculous 15(!) Rare Units (don't blame me, I'm not the one who made all those Monsters!). No one should be able to say WoC are not spoiled for choice in that department. Note that a few of the changes in this book are written with the upcoming 1.4 version of the 9th Ed rulebook in mind (such as Psychology tests), so in case something is a little unclear, it will be cleared up with that update.
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This update contains the following changes from the Ravening Hordes version:
- New Hero: Slaughterpriest (Khorne version of a spellcaster)
- New Core unit: Marauder Champions (Marauders with S4 and I4).
- New Core unit: Marauder Hunters (skirmishers armed with throwing axes or javelins).
- New Core unit: Marauder Chariot.
- New Special unit: Skin Wolves (MB)
- New Rare unit: Varanguard (Chaos Knight MC)
- New Rare unit: Pusgoyle Blightlords (Nurgle MC)
- New Rare unit: Giant Chaos Spawn (Mo)
- New Special Character: Crom the Conqueror (from SoC)
- New Special Character: Kordel Shorgaar (BSB).
- Added The Will of Chaos special rule from 7th ed, allowing models to re-roll failed Panic tests.
- Mark of Slaanesh now gives both Immunity (Psychology) and Stubborn, costs 2 pts for normal units.
- Mark of Nurgle gives -1I along with +1T.
- Eye of the Gods is now rolled if the character destroys a non-Expendable unit or kills an enemy character (which no longer needs to be done in challenges).
- Streamlined Damned by Chaos and Dark Apotheosis so they either give spawndom or daemonhood, no roll needed. Changed a few of the results to remove pointless ones like Evil Eyeball. Eye of the Gods is now only rolled for characters and Chosen rather than normal champions (as champions are no longer able to get killed separately, and keep things easier to keep track off).
- Models with different Marks treat each as suspicious/desperate allies.
- Lots of Chaos Mutations from earlier editions added.
- New Magic Items: Chaos Daemonsword, Rending Sword, Crimson Armour of Dargan, Crown of Everlasting Conquest, The Book of Secrets, Banner of Wrath. All God-specific banners removed (will be part of Magic Items expansion instead).
- Lords can take 75 pts worth of mutations and powers, heroes can take 50, chieftain can take 25 pts
- Chaos Knights moved to Special, Ensorcelled weapons cost 4 pts.
- Chaos Chariot moved to Special.
- Renamed Soulflayers to Fatemasters. Have fireglaives which give them Flaming and Magical Attacks. Have the Master of Fate special rule, allowing friendly units within 8" to re-roll 1's when making armour saves. May not take standard bearers or musicians. 40 pts (previous cost from RH list was bugged).
- Removed Rot Knights, they will instead be a simple upgrade in Kazyk the Befouled's unit entry in the Champions of Chaos book.
- Chaos Warshrine moved to Rare, completely reworked to give blessings to all units, not just affect the Eye of Gods table, have 5+ ward by default (so 4+ with MoT), 110 pts.
- Dragon Ogres T5, Shaggoth T6. Cheaper halberds.
- Skullcrushers moved to Rare, 76 pts, Ensorcelled weapons cost 4 pts.
- Wrathmongers are a separate unit, moved to Rare.
- Chaos Warhounds do not count towards the minimum number of Core Units that you need to include in your army.
- Forsaken do not count towards the minimum number of Core Units that you need to include in your army. Forsaken are not Skirmishers by default.
- Cultists do not count towards the minimum number of Core Units that you need to include in your army. Cannot take Marks.
- Chaos Warriors cost 15 pts
- Chosen do not have Rewards of the Gods, cost 17 pts. Have the Chosen of Gods special rule, letting them gain powers through the Eye of the Gods table like characters by destroying enemy units.
- Flayerkin are S3, cost 6 pts.
- Marauders have shields by default at 5 pts, can take additional hand weapons.
- Hellstriders 18 pt, get ward save as their first upgrade, Hellscourges give ASF instead of +2 Initiative.
- Chaos Sorcerers with Marks have to use their patron god's lore.
- Hellcannon follows rules for Daemonic. Fixed "Thzzz" result.
- Daemon Princes follows rules for Daemonic.
- Added Fiend Tail and Regenerating Flesh upgrades to Chimera, nerfed to S5, 175 pts.
- Slaughterbrutes have W6, can upgrade claws like in 8th ed, 230 pts.
- Mutalith Vortex Beast have W6, 250 pts. Aura of Mutation cast on 5+.
- Chaos Trolls cannot take Marks, can take light armour. Have Natural Armour (6+).
- Chaos Ogres 28 pts, start with light armour, can take medium armour.
- Juggernauts have Impact Hits (D3) instead of Murderous Charge, are WS4.
- Disc of Tzeentch have the Hover rule instead of Fly, 25 pts.
- Chaos Spawn have Random Movement 2D6, cost 40 pts.
- Chaos Giants Giant of Tzeentch 15 pts, Slaanesh 15 pts (gives Unbreakable and +1I).
- Chaos War Mammoth 325 pts, have W10. Trample causes D3 hits per rank rather than D6. Throw back into combat inflicts D6 Hits. Gore is now D6+1 attacks.
- Putrid Blightkings, Skullreapers and Wrathmongers are Skirmishers.
- Nerfed Bloated with Disease, it now only increases Wounds (thus avoiding situations where lucky rolls could result in a T10 model).
- Bliss in Torment buffed, you get to roll one D6 for each spell cast, plus one D6 for each wound inflicted.
- Lash of Slaanesh S4, does not allow units that takes casualties from it to March in their next round.
- Pavane of Slaanesh now causes 1W for each point the Ld test was failed by, 12" range, 8+ to cast.
- Slicing Shards Leadership test are taken at the unit's unmodified Leadership.
- Pink Fire of Tzeentch roll 2D6 for range, rather than using artillery dice.
- Glean Magic is now S4, is now a hex spell.
- Tzeentch's Firestorm replaced with 7th ed's Treason of Tzeentch, causing enemies to strike their own unit (so yay, another hex spell for Tzeentch to cast into combat!)
- Treason of Tzeentch renamed to Pandemonium.
- Daemonic Mounts have S5.
- Archaon no longer has the mark of each god, but a different blessing from each one like in 7th ed (as Archaon really isn't an uncontrollable maniac who is bloated with disease anyway). Nurgle and Slaanesh. Cost 575 pts. Dorghar option costs 50 pts.
- Kholek has the Armour of the Storm magic item. Cost 465 pts.
- Vilitch have heavy armour, 360 pts.
- Valkia has a 5+ ward against missile attacks. Gaze of Khorne only affects units with Mark of Khorne. 350 pts.
- Sigvald have the Mirrorshield magic items, magic him -1 To Hit in close combat. 305 pts.
- Festus Healing Elixers give Regen 6+. Cost 250 pts.
- Throgg 265 pts.
- Scyla Anfingrimm may not be the army's General.
- Wulfrik the Wanderer 160 pts.
With this one done (except for patches of course), I can finally start working on the Champions of Chaos and Daemons of Chaos books. Having to sort through all the source material for WoC I have also managed to do the same for DoC though, so it should not take as long to finish. Aiming for a release of Champions in March and Daemons in late April or early May. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Approximately 947 hours of death metal was listened to and 58 goats were sacrificed to the Dark Gods during the creation of this book.
