My Chaos bastard-child

Today I am going to go and play my first game of Warhammer in the 8th edition.  I will be using my Warriors of Chaos and I believe I will be facing High Elves.  I could be facing Lizardmen or Tomb Kings as well, but I just want to hit whatever it is.  And Warrriors do that well.

So first I need to wax reminder of the new rules.

Movement

This is my favorite part of the new rules.  Apparently, all other things being equal, charge distances are now a matter of luck.  Instead of charging double the unit's move distance, you roll 2d6 and add that to the base move characteristic.  This means that an average unit can charge from 6" up to 16".  Also, there's no more wheeling in the charge moves.  It's measure range, check line of sight, then freely wheel once before executing a straight-line move.  People, I can't lie.  This is by far my favorite part of the new Warhammer.  It adds the strategy of 'hope' to the game, and can make some things really interesting. 

Magic
So magic batteries are back, yay!  But it's totally random again.  The player rolls 2d6 and that's how many power dice he gets, while the opponent has as many dispel dice as the lower die roll.  Add a '6' roll on a d6 for each wizard to beef up the pile, and blammo!  I don't know that I really like this, but it keeps Slaan from creating 212 casting dice in a single magic phase of a 1500 point game...
Casting is easy:  Roll any number of dice, add your level, and beat the casting score!  If you roll a double 6, then you cast the spell too powerfully to dispel AND your head might blow up.  Yes.  Thank goodness I'm not playing my High Elves as they get to ignore the bad side of this rule in some cases.  That just feels dirty...

Shooting
Everything shoots in two ranks now.  Awesome!

Close Combat
This phase is hugely different.  Blows are struck in order of initiative, period.  The charge bonus comes in the Resolution phase (this kinda sucks, especially added onto random charge distances.  But I play high Initiative armies, so I can't complain too much).  Everything fights in two ranks now, just like shooting.  Awesome!  Casualties are removed from the rear instead of the front, nearly guaranteeing that someone will get to fight back.  Fear causes people to fight worse now and can be effective in every round of combat.  All in all, I couldn't be more stoked.  Combat is going to be deadlier, faster, and much more intense.  I just hope I'm on the 'giving end' more often than not...

Army Selection
This is the easiest change to spot in the whole rulebook.  Warhammer armies are chosen again on the 'percentage' system.  Instead of having to take horribly expensive core units by the scores just to meet the requirements, I can knock out the prerequisite points of core and move on.  High Elves got boned by this, but my Warriors of Chaos were certainly benefitted.  I've almost decided to bring a single unit of chaos warriors and be done with it.  Is that cheezy?

Warriors of Chaos

Inarguably the most evil of all the races in the Warhammer world, Chaos is the most basic brute malice given form.

Every year, the Empire braces for the inevitable invasion from the north.  Quickly, armies of massive, bulking, armored warriors appears by the thousands on the horizon.  Not focused on conquering but instead destroying, the armies of Chaos strike terror into the northward lands of the Empire.

The average Chaos warrior stands 2m (almost 7 feet) tall, and weighs hundreds of pounds.  They are armored from head to toe with volcano-forged armor and carry the sharpest, most vicious blades of any army.  They speak little, howl often, and find total joy in slaughter.  A Chaos warrior's bloodlust is matched only by his skill at bloodletting.

There are four major powers, or Gods, that the Warriors of Chaos follow.  These Gods want to see the destruction of all the civilized lands and nothing less.  They gift the greatest warriors in the armies with greater strength, useful mutations, and magical powers.  They also punish failure by turning those champions and non-followers into Spawn and other less-desirable forms.  Of all the Gods, the most powerful is Khorne.

Khorne is the Chaos God of War, Bloodletting, and Slaughter.  He takes the form of a massive beastly canine, so strong and angry that his mere appearance is enough to launch wars.  He demands little of his followers other than the to kill and bring him the skulls to build his great throne.  Those skulls need not be of enemy and sometimes includes the greatest of his own followers!

Chaos armies most often follow the lure of Khorne.  The pure, unadulterated fury that he embodies is easy for warriors to identify with.  Khorne's armies are the largest and fiercest of all of them, but other Warlords tend to trust them little for obvious reasons. 

The Old Days

I am a good-guy player.  As many of my blogs have noted, I'm a human-supremecist and a champion of order.  For many years I actually played High Elves and Empire because of this.  But, after losing my 20th game in a row with the High Elves (thanks last edition codex creep!), I fell to the lures of Khorne.  I wanted an army that didn't instantly die when they got hit, could deal out real damage, and also looked cooler than ballz. 

As it turns out, I've actually really dug Chaos warriors for some time.  As I was packing up to move from the Great White North back to the greatest nation in the world, I found some Heroquest boxes.  With some nostalgia, I happily fondled the contents and remembered fondly the Chaos Warriors- my favorite models.  It figures that those whispers were planted long before I realized it...

My army (or really just my three favorite and painted models)

This model MADE me choose Chaos.  No matter how much I loved my good guys, this model always drew my eye.  In fact, there's probably a few too many Warhammer players with this model for no other reason that they listened to me.  But you gotta admit, what says 'screw you with an axe' more?

This model has a great history.  I had a new player decide to start Warriors of Chaos for Warhammer and I got to teach him all his hobby skills (go go gadget Academy!)  He became really amazing at the painting and modelling side of it and converted up his own Valkia the Bloody model.  I love me some Valkia so I asked him to build me one.  Here's the pieces he used:  old Lelith Hesperax (Dark Eldar), Dark Pegasus wings (Dark Elves), Deamonette head (Daemons), Chaos knight lance and shield (WoC).  I tossed in the skulls from the Warhammer basing kit and went to town painting it.  Is she sexy or what?  Also, throwing some thanx out there to Ryan Murphy for such a cool and simple conversion.  This kind of hobby skill is admirable in anyone, especially newbs!

Finally, this knight is just cool.  I painted him as part of a staff painting contest (and some really cool gamers) and crushed all opposition.  As always, the models look better in person than my camera-work belies.  I apologize in advance. 

If you check out the rear end of the model real close, you'll see the winning brush strokes.  Everyone in the contest was well-known for their painting skills, so I had to take it up a notch.  To win, I painted a Khorne symbol in watermark across the horse's armor.  Hopefully you can see it. 

Hopefully I win today, but moreso y'all are inspired.  Happy Gaming!