# Which warhammer chaos army is superior



## Assassin_reborn2 (Jul 4, 2009)

I was wondering what race would be better. Warriors of chaos or beastmen. PLus i also wanted to know which chaos god was better tzeench or khorne.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

Define "better." There's better in a mechanical, in-game sense, and then there's what's better outside of the game, which is entirely subject to opinion (although I suppose what's better in game could be subject to opinion as well.) For example, there are plenty of people who find Tzeentch just plain cooler than Khorne, and vice versa, even though there's no out of game way to quantify which god is actually better.

So, let's tackle the mechanical end of things first.

Warriors of Chaos is a by far superior army book, purely because Beasts of Chaos relied on the old Hordes of Chaos book to provide most of its magic items and options, and Hordes of Chaos no longer exists. The current rumor is that Beastmen are on the redevelopment list for Games Workshop, and truth be told, they do need it since the current book was really volume 2 of a two-volume Chaos army book. However, Games Workshop has really cracked down on information lately, and outside of what's ready to be released within 6 weeks, or has been previewed by Games Workshop (and, in essence, is just being held until they feel like releasing it, but is complete) nobody really knows anything, despite the myriad rumor forums that exist. 

Mechanically, the Mark of Khorne is more generally useful for most units, as it provides Frenzy. While Frenzy is a bit of a double-edge, most armies don't have things that can lead Frenzied units around by the nose easily, and the benefits of Frenzy far outweigh its drawbacks. Models are immune to Psychology apart from Frenzy while they're Frenzied, which is great if you play against Daemons or Undead a lot, and they gain an extra attack to boot-- a unit of Warriors of Khorne, for example, can be armed with hand weapons and shields and fight with the same number of attacks as any other unit of Warriors with two hand weapons-- meaning they're exponentially better protected while still having an increased damage output.

The Mark of Tzeentch is nice for your casters, since the Lore of Tzeentch is seriously powerful magic, but its primary benefit of a 6+ ward save leaves something to be desired, I think. It shines if you have a large unit of marauders and want to give them light armour but no shields, though, because the cost of the mark is fixed per unit regardless of how many models are in the unit, while light armor is charged per model. So if you have a unit of 30 Marauders with great weapons, and you want them to have some sort of save, light armor would normally be the only real answer, since you can't use a greataxe in combat with a shield. But, the Mark of Tzeentch ends up costing less than giving the unit light armor when the unit is more than 20 models strong. The other place the Mark of Tzeentch shines is in conjunction with a unit that has the standard which grants them a 4+ ward save against shooting and magic missiles (whose name escapes me at the moment). In that instance, the unit benefits from a 3+ ward against shooting and magic missiles, so it makes it possible for the unit to close with frequently shooty armies like Dwarfs or Empire without taking nearly as many casualties as they might otherwise.

On a "what's cool" end, I sort of like Chaos as a greater whole. I think all the gods are interesting, although, admittedly, I find Tzeentch and Khorne cooler than Slaanesh and Nurgle, though Tzeentch and Khorne are sort of tied for coolness in my book. 

I do like the "there's something horrible in the woods" theme the Beastmen have always had, and it's an interesting evolution of things like gnolls and goatmen from D&D. Warriors of Chaos, at the end of the day, are vikings, and I've never been that into the whole Norse mythology thing-- I've been quoted recently as saying, in regard to Codex: Space Wolves for 40k, "Drunk and hairy is no way to do the Emperor's work." It's sort of a general statement about life, though, in my opinion. That being said, Warriors don't necessarily have to be vikings, and you can easily draw influence from any of the more violent cultures in history for your particular warband. My army of Khorne includes assorted northern tribesmen who have come to follow my army's lord, but the core of it is based around a fallen knightly order whose martial pride got the better of them, and all they can focus on now is slaughtering the world, in the most brutal and effective manner they can. You can't really take Beastmen and reshape their image to your own purposes as easily, though-- at a certain point, Beastmen are the creepy things in the woods and the unknown predators that people tell stories of. If you end up getting into "civilized" beastmen, to use the word civilized loosely, you end up with Skaven. If you go even further into the wild, uncontrolled mutating power of chaos, you end up with a bunch of Chaos spawn and assorted troglodytic things that you find in the caves of the Old World.


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## Fen-Dweller (Sep 25, 2009)

To sum that awesome response above up:

Wait for the BoC book to come out and figure out which you like better, because that's the only "better" there is, really.


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## Assassin_reborn2 (Jul 4, 2009)

I read the gotreck and felix books and those books always seem to make me feel that the beastmen are really weak. But then thats just purely from a biased point of view so i dont know for sure.


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

I don't think that the beastmen are portrayed as that weak in the Felix and Gotrek books more that a dwarf that happily goes toe to toe with greater deamons and dragons doesn't struggle with a dozen or so normal sized creatures.
As to whats coolest I prefer the whole Beastman feel and the way they play but thats just an opinion and until the new rulebook is released they are definately the underdog min game.
As to the marks Khorne is effective if screened properly (There's nothing funnier than making khorne chariots bounce of walls and forests,) Tzeench models look nice when well painted but I'm not a big magic fan so I prefer the rotting minions of nurgle.


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

Fluffwise Khorne is the superior. Although boundaries change over time, Khorne`s realm is the largest. 

Gamewise:

From gaming its up to you. want magic and fire and cool looking / wierd stuff? - tzeetch

want rock solid, easy to paint well ( just a matter of drybrushing and washes/inking) and still cool looking with plenty of conversion idea`s? - nurgle

want a brutal CC monster with lots of mechrite red everywhere, and enjoy the whole '' warrior '' aspect then khorne

and if you still like cool paint jobs but hate tzeentchy magic and want some fast and still good CC then slaanesh:laugh: ( I love slaanesh in the sense of Ld. bombs and the cool pinks and purples )

But, id wait for the BoC book to come out, to me an Undivided Beasts sounds best fluffwise ( again with the FLUFF, its not all about the fluff Robert! - sorry its just fluff dominates my hobby  )


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## Zorenthewise (Aug 7, 2008)

That's hardly accurate. Fluffwise none of the gods are superior. Khorne is present at every battle regardless, but the same argument could be said of Tzeentch, as everything is according to his master plan. Fate, lust, and decay are very large realms indeed, so who's realm is the largest is not really measurable. Think about it: Tzeentch draws the battle together, Khorne relishes in the battle, Nurgle loves the aftermath with the decay and rot, and Slaanesh loves the pride and glory that the victors feel. None of the chaos gods are superior to the others because they all are immensely powerful.

Other than that, I think you made a great post. The short descriptions of the four cult paths was quite accurate. I personally love undivided, but that's just me.

As for the original questions: there is no best race, only best generals. WoC will be easier to pick up and be good at (especially Khorne. Probably the most straightforward army there is, right there.), but with enough practice you could be unstoppable with any team.


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