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Exotic ways to run Chosen.

3K views 31 replies 12 participants last post by  Davidian 
#1 ·
Okay, as time progresses, with most units there seems to be one or two "optimal" builds that dominate about every list you see here on the forum. With Chosen, it has lately become this one:

18 Chosen of Tzeentch
Halberds, Shields
Full Command
Favor of the Gods on Champion
Wailing Banner

Now, this is a fantastic unit, don't get me wrong. But let's see if we can get some other nice ones up here! This one I'd like to try out sometime:

18 Chosen of Khorne
Additional Hand Weapons, Shields
Full Command
Favor of the Gods on Champion
Wailing Banner

What makes the difference here is that with control of the results, you can get the +1 Strength pretty easy, and you can can in general expand their combat potential better than Tzeentch Chosen with Halberds when you add Warshrines to the mix. Mainly because these guys benefit a lot more from the added strength than the Tzeentch Chosen with halberds, so if they get both the +1 str and +1 attack... That's 5 str 5 attacks per guy in the front rank, just so brutal.


Anyone like the Book of Secrets on the champ? Are there other interesting item combos we need to find out? Ruby Ring of Ruin perhaps?
 
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#3 ·
How about the Ironcurse Icon? I always thought it'd be interesting. Especially with the Blasted Standard.

I think that the Favour is better, but it'd still be good to try. 3+ ward against war machines anyone?
 
#4 ·
I'm afraid that you can't 'stack' ward saves like that. Only very very few things can add to another ward save (Mark of Tzeentch for example).
In the case of Ironcurse Icon and Blasted Standard, you would have to choose one of them so the icon would be redundant.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Nurgle/halberds
Festering Shroud
FC/Amulet of Putrefaction

Khorne/AHW
Razor Standard
FC/Potion of Strength

Khorne/Halberds
Banner of Swiftness
FC/Helm of many Eyes

Tzeentch/shields
Blasted Standard
FC/Collar of Khorne

I think book of secrets is a neat idea too, but AHW+potion_of_strength or halberd+helm_of_many_eyes could really surprise an enemy champion
 
#6 ·
I've thought of the Shrieking Blade (cause Fear) or the Terrifying Mask of Eeee (cause Terror) as maybe an alternative to the Wailing Banner. It makes the champion cause Fear/Terror, and that means enemy units in base contact with HIM has to test for Fear. But I don't know if it means that the unit causes Tear/Terror for the purposes of Eye of the Gods...

What you can do, however, is to put something else on the champ and let a Character with Favor of the Gods join the unit at the start of the game.

Collar of Khorne is nice on the champ as well. And yes, Sword of swift slaying can be great, especially in challenges and such.
 
#7 ·
I always thought favor only worked on the model recieving the blessing, ie. the hero. The Chosen get the blessing at the start, as a unit, not the hero - so why would the hero be able to influence the roll? If it is allowed, then does that mean I can use favor on a hero to boost my warrior block to T5 from a warshrine? That would be very nice indeed.

I still think khorne/halberd/helm-of-many-eyes is a very cheap killer-champion.
 
#8 ·
Ascendo- If there's a Hero in a regiment of Warriors who get the buff, he can move it around as he is part of the unit at that time. If he leaves the unit, he loses the buff. If you want to buff your characters and be able to move them around, you have to designate them as the target at the expense of the unit.
Chosen work the same way- the EotG roll is at the beginning of the game, not before deployment. So you can stick a Character in there during deployment and use his Favor if you want. I've done this before with a BSB or a Sorc Lord who had a few extra points to spare.

Putting the Book on your Champion can work well, although there are a lot of nasty results that can kill him outright (one S10 hit an it's over).

I've often considered putting a Festering Shroud in the unit, and giving the Champ the Blasphemous Amulet. Put the Musician between the two, so that you spread out your bases, and you should hit ~6 enemy models with a Toughness test each turn.
The problem is, MoN is practically useless on Chosen. With WS6, the only things that it affects are Ws7 or Ws3 opponents. Basic Warriors effects Ws3 or Ws6, which are a little more common.

I normally run my Chosen:
MoT
Add HW
Wailing Banner
Favor
and give them +1S if I don't get the Wardsave. They're the same as Halberds, or better if there's a Shrine on the table.

The damage output on this unit is incredible. Last game I was in, I was charged by a regiment of LM TempleGuard with Halberds. My regiment dished out a boatload of attacks and quickly dropped half the enemy regiment (I did cheat and have a 4A BSB present). The LM attack back, kill off 7 of my Warriors. Next turn I reform, bring my frontage to 8 for maximum attacks, and buff the unit with Okkams. Dropped an immediate 31S8 attacks on his head, killed 18 Saurus, which would have destroyed the unit even at full strength.

Dropping Festus into the regiment has had insane results for me as well, when I ran this unit:

16 Chosen
FC
Banner of Rage, Favor
Add HWs
(394)
Festus
(579 total)

Damage output?
with +1A from the EotG roll, that was
35 S4 poisoned attacks, with a 4+5++

They took down a dual charge from 24 enemy Chosen with Halberds, Banner of Rage, +1S, and a Khorne Chariot.

You can get the same effect from Warriors and a Warshrine for much cheaper, although with slightly less certainty.
 
#10 ·
Something you pretty much never see is anyone running chosen with hand weapon+shield. I guess this is because IF you happen to get the 4+ ward, you have no use of the parry save anymore. However, I think they might be very viable. They can be an absolutely fantastic anvil unit, the parry save is not the only thing about it.

If they get a 6, they'll have a 2+ armour save combined with a 5+ parry save - that's hard. And even more, if they get a 3... Toughness 5 on that unit is very awesome, extra strength makes them as hard hitting as if they had one-handed halberds... etc. And well, if you get a 12, it's not like you'll have your worst game ahead of you. Maybe it is not optimal, but worth giving a try I think. It's a reliable unit whatever result you get IMO.
 
#32 ·
if they get a 6, they'll have a 2+ armour save combined with a 5+ parry save - that's hard. And even more, if they get a 3... Toughness 5 on that unit is very awesome, extra strength makes them as hard hitting as if they had one-handed halberds... etc. And well, if you get a 12, it's not like you'll have your worst game ahead of you. Maybe it is not optimal, but worth giving a try I think. It's a reliable unit whatever result you get IMO.
too true, I find the same is true for simple warriors with a warshrine... game before last I had 18 warriors with HW&S, blasted shandard, MoT and hero with Collar of Khorne and FotGs.... thats alot of points in wards alone;

3+/5++ in combat
3+/4++ against shooting
3+/4++ against magic.................. 103 pts in wards to be precise

I got an 11 for EotG's roll and opted for stubborn and the 4++ [3++ for Mot] and they only took a single casualty in 5 turns despite being in the thickest fighting....


however in other games I hae not been as lucky [T5 and terror still rock :D] with the EotG's table but they are still very durable and reliable anvil
 
#11 · (Edited)
mid-sized Chosen unit with hand weapons and shields.
MoT
unit Champion with Book of Secrets

walk over, tie up the opposing unit of doom for x number of turns. When chosen unit begins to die, cast whatever spell the unit champion have with all the dice you got and hope for a IF/miscast. BOOM! Nuked.
Should be nice with a Puppet somewhere to get a really devastating result.

Turing tie-up time your warriors of khorne make a mess of opposing army.

Tricksy-tricksy Tzeentch.
 
#12 ·
You'd have to use Lore of Shadow, because it's the only one that's guaranteed to give you a spell that you can cast into/during combat. Which means that you're losing Miasma elsewhere in your army.
Fun trick though, since most opponents see/hear 'Chosen' and think that it's your absolute best regiment and will naturally send their biggest, baddest guys over to fight it.

Downsides are: what if you don't get Double 6's (guess you still held him up) or what if you don't generate an explosion? Even "everyone in base contact" will only hit 2-3 enemy models. Best results would be the S10 Template or getting yourself and everyone nearby sucked into the Warp.
 
#14 ·
You'd have to use Lore of Shadow, because it's the only one that's guaranteed to give you a spell that you can cast into/during combat. Which means that you're losing Miasma elsewhere in your army.
Good point about shadows as lore choise.
But no worries about Miasma tho, as far as I know, you can have as many signature duplicates as you want in one army.

Could make for a fun army, Miasma the hell out of your opponent :p

I really like the idea for this set-up, am definately going to try it out.

I would put the Raptorous Standard on that unit for more pretend unbreakability.
How sweet would it be to get Mindrazors on him!

Only one problem; challenging.
Definately no warshrines in this army, or we could loose our champion to an enemy lord before we have time to detonate.
 
#15 ·
One way to take this idea even farther-

Chosen of Nurgle w/ Champ, Festering Shroud, Glaive of Putrefaction
L1 Sorc of Nurgle w/ Book of Secrets, Blasphemous Amulet

When deploying the regiment, deploy them
Sorc | Champ | SB

If the enemy challenges you, accept with the Champion, so that they come over to the center of your unit. Hit them and drop them to T2. If the champ doesn't finish them off right there, they're dead at the start of the next friendly magic phase (2x T2 Toughness checks, wounds no armor). Not to mention that with the BSB and Sorc in the unit, you're forcing ~5 toughness checks on the enemy unit even without challenges.

I've really been thinking about a list that makes a lot of use of Shadows and Nurgle's ability to drop stats. Include items like the Amulet, Festering Shroud, BloodCurdling Roar (wounds a lot easier on T1, T2), make use of the Enfeebling/Curse combo or just toss the spells out at all times to keep the enemy weakened. I can see it being a frustrating list to play, although perhaps not a very good one.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Sivejir's Hex scroll.
Toughness 1, nuff said.


edit:
Not enough said!
I have a massive hatred toward High Elves, and am willing to build an army around messing with any HE player.

I was just working on a list with a sorc lord with +7 to cast (and +5 to dispel) and a lvl2 with +4 to cast, just to spite the regular HE players here (don't know why), when I read the Hex scroll.
I thought... hmm T1 eh? I seem to remember a particular Nurgle spell that might work well with that!
And then I read your post...
I think it could make the list your working on a bit more solid. as it doesn't rely on casting several spells. Just one.
Wait till the enemy lvl4 casts a spell. Hope he starts with a minor one, use the scroll and BOOM.

Intermezzo: I just re-read the item. Damn my excitement, I missed the part where he can roll below his lvl and all is fine. /intermezzo.

It still might be fun to try, just maybe not on his lvl4.
Although I can still see it tie in with the idea of your list.
 
#17 ·
Magic Resistance won't protect you from that blast. And yes, as it's an S10 hit, he'll survive. No matter what it does, the S10 will only cause a single wound, and you still get your Wardsaves against it, so that lord should be plenty safe.

Sounds like a cool tactic, but from a practicality standpoint- there's a regiment of Chosen right there, and a Chaos Lord, and a Sorcerer Lord. If you had the Chaos Lord in the Chosen, do you think they'd have really faltered in the first place? It's also a several hundred point tactic.
 
#18 ·
Yes, but couldn't a Chosen champion switch with ANY character in range? A Sorcerer Lord of Tzeentch in a unit of 5 marauder suicide charges a Temple Guard horde; suddenly the Chosen champion does his mad 6-dice spell, swaps places, and blows up!

I guess it all depends on if the explosion happens before or after the Shadow Lore's effect, I would imagine after, although we should have the choice.

That is a damn cheap strategy that saves points no matter what you switch..
 
#23 ·
I disagree with you about the no one running chosen with hand weapon shield. I run my Chosen with MoT, HW & S, banner of rage, and favour of the gods. I usually end up with the +1 S result, +1 A result, or Terror causing. I would never run anything in my army with additional hand weapons. If I go Khorne, it's halberds for the +1 S. They'd already have +1 A from frenzy. Three attacks is enough. The +1 S usually makes it either 3+ to wound or 2+ to wound. If I run Tzeentch, I run HW & S for the 5+ward 3+ armour.
 
#24 ·
Well, the fact that you do it disproves my point then, or it would if I was actually stating that no person whatsoever uses them. It's just a manner of speech. I meant that it is atypical that people use HW+Shields on their Chosen.

I've been along the same lines of not wanting to use double hand weapons, mathematically it is generally almost never worth it in a Chaos army. However, in the specific circumstance of using Warshrines to expand both strength and attacks, I prefer getting 5 str 5 attacks over 4 str 6 attacks. Might not be the best way to roll though - I'm just putting it out there.
 
#26 ·
Ultimate anvil unit:
18 chosen
HW & shields
MoT
Favor
Wailing banner

Chosen + warshrine means that you can get a 12 and 6 unless you roll a 4. If you do, you now have an unkillable unit with a 2+ armour save and 3+ ward. And stubborn. HOW DO YOU KILL THAT!!!
 
#28 ·
My Shiney New Chosen

All this talk of Chosen has forced me to go out and buy 10 of the little monsters [no more Warrior substitutes for me!]. GW should thank the forums for the promotion.

After a night of snipping, filing, pinning and gluing they are all assembled and ready for a basecoat followed by deep-purple [blue wash maybe], boltgun-metal chainmail, and bronze/gold detailing.

Since they are only 10, I was thinking of the following setup:

Halberds/shields/MoT
Collar of Khorne on champion
Banner of Rage [for immunity to psychology]

Then throw a BSB with Halberd/MoT/Favor/Preservation in there for the right bonus at the start.

I know it's not the Wailing Banner cheese, but I like having immunity to psychology and good magic protection. I'm absolutely terrified of Lore of Metal these days.

What do you guys think?
 
#30 ·
Then throw a BSB with Halberd/MoT/Favor/Preservation in there for the right bonus at the start.
This won't let you alter the pre game roll!
Nor any roll thanks to the shrine, just for the Hero.
He might be in the unit, but he is not "part" of the unit.
 
#29 ·
You're going to want to increase the number of models in that regiment. 10 of them are going to be turned into pincushions regardless of their Wardsave.
I'd drop the Banner of Rage and pick up the Mark of Khorne and a Wailing Banner if you have the points available. Otherwise, your build looks pretty solid, just not as hard as it could be.
 
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