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The first reworked faction in Total War: Warhammer 3, The Warriors of Chaos have gone from one of the worst campaign experiences to one of the best. A fundamental overhaul of their mechanics has given them a new lease on life, and the Champions of Chaos DLC has granted them additional play styles and customization.
With a huge army roster and multiple Legendary Lords on offer, the Warriors of Chaos will provide a learning curve even if you are experienced with the game as a whole. This guide will provide a breakdown of how the Warriors of Chaos play, their best units, how their unique mechanics work, and what Legendary Lords are available to you.
Updated on April 23, 2023, by Branden Lizardi: There's another contender to the Chaos Roster. The Forge of the Chaos Dwarfs introduced a new Chaos Dwarf faction to the game. While this won't directly change how the Warriors of Chaos operate, it does introduce a potential new meta to consider with general playstyle and multiplayer options. With new units and game modes, we're going back through our Warhammer guides and making sure that everything stays accurate, up-to-date, and easy to read.
Warriors Of Chaos Playstyle
Despite previously being mechanically uninteresting, the Warriors of Chaos were never considered weak, and their rework only adds to their power, giving them a bountiful amount of unit options and variety. Heavily armored infantry and devastating cavalry make up the core of their army roster.
Being some of the best monsters in the entire game and a great artillery piece means their only weakness is the ranged infantry department. However, powerful magic users can somewhat circumvent this, and no faction in the game should be considered a bad matchup for them.
On the campaign map, the old faction would function as a horde, being unable to capture settlements and upgrading their camp buildings instead. This meant their campaign had no sense of permanence, and one lost battle could be game over. Now that you can settle, your campaign becomes much more recognizable.
Taking a province capital and proceeding to vassalise the previous Norscan occupants is your go-to strategy, as this will give you plenty of allies and passive income.
Non-Chaos factions will despise you, but all your campaigns begin in the far North, with plenty of Norscan and Chaos allies.
Key Warriors Of Chaos Units
|
Unit |
Description |
Tips |
|---|---|---|
|
Dragon Ogre Shaggoth |
Large armor-piercing monster, high missile resistance, and causes terror |
A huge hitbox makes this unit perfect for disrupting enemy formations, and its innate missile resistance helps it survive against focused archer fire. Previously was one of the best doom stacks in the game, but due to the new mechanical changes, they are now limited by your unit cap. |
|
Chosen of Nurgle (Great Weapons) |
Top tier, heavily armored, armor-piercing infantry, has poison attacks but very slow movement speed |
The best non-regiment of renown infantry in the entire game, these heavily armored troops will grind their way through just about anything. Poison attacks help them come out on top in any even infantry contest, and their only weakness is their low speed, which can make them vulnerable to armor-piercing missiles. |
|
Hellcannon |
Magical, unbreakable, armor-piercing artillery, inflicts leadership penalty on hit |
A staple of Warriors of Chaos armies ever since the base game, Hellcannons have always combined high damage output with reliability thanks to their Unbreakable trait. An auto-include in pretty much every Warriors of Chaos army, they grant you your only real source of long-range damage. |
Unique Warriors Of Chaos Mechanics
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Dark Fortresses
These are Warriors of Chaos-specific settlements, normally the capital of a province, and act as your main base of operations. They allow you to construct full building chains and play like any other colonizing faction would.
Securing as many Dark Fortresses as possible is critical to establishing your empire, and you should beeline for any available settlements.
Manually recruiting units without relying on your other faction mechanics is great for building new armies.
Minor settlements will not allow you to build proper buildings but will only support the building of infrastructure, albeit this will significantly aid your economy if you can secure a large amount. Upon taking a Dark Fortress, it will give you the option of vassalising the native Norscan Tribe, giving you an immediate ally in that province.
Warband Recruitment
Perhaps the biggest change to the race is that all Warriors of Chaos armies can now recruit regardless of the map position. Similarly to the Beastmen, recruitment is instant and is instead affected by any current buildings in the region, as well as specific factors such as the climate and geography, more Dragon Ogres from mountains, etc.
While extremely strong for recruiting large numbers of troops quickly, there are certain limits to prevent you from spamming out full armies turn after turn. Each unit has a Unit Cap, which means you are only allowed to recruit a certain amount of them before running out. The percentage next to the unit card will inform you of this unit's chance to replenish its supply each turn.
These changes mean the Warriors of Chaos can now create armies extremely quickly. Being able to fill up a fresh army can potentially save you a settlement or make you able to turn the tides in a tough fight. However, your longer-term recruitment is still dependent on Unit Cap replenishment, so your play style is better tuned to recruiting in short bursts and then allowing your supply to replenish.
Gifted Units can also be recruited immediately but rely on special events or quest completions to obtain. This is one of the few ways to acquire powerful Chaos Daemon units such as Bloodthirsters, so keep an eye out for any good opportunities to claim these!
Unit Upgrades
To go along with the Warriors of Chaos' new way of recruiting units, you can upgrade them in your Warband Recruitment section once they have reached a sufficient experience rank. Basic troops such as Marauders can now be upgraded to Tier Five and morphed into elite units such as Chosen or Aspiring Champions.
Units can even be side-graded by switching their standard weapons into Great Weapons and vice versa. This will not spend anything, and you are free to customize your units in this way as much as you like. However, upgrading a unit to a higher tier will cost gold and experience, resetting them back down to a lower experience rank.
As well as upgrading units to different tiers, you may also brand them with a Mark of Chaos. This will align the unit with one of the four Chaos Gods and send them down a different upgrade path.
For instance, regular Chosen can be branded and turned into Chosen of Nurgle, but once committed, they cannot be turned back into regular Chosen or aligned with a different God. This system will allow you to mix and match different builds, taking the best elements of each Chaos Daemon faction.
Gifts Of Chaos
The new currency for the Warriors of Chaos is Souls, which can be spent in your Gifts of Chaos panel. This is essentially an augment system whereby you select various buffs and boons to apply to your faction or specific lords.
Each buff will cost an initial Soul amount to unlock and then place. You must also pay Soul Upkeep per turn to maintain your Gifts. These boons are extremely powerful and allow you to receive Gifted Chaos units alongside strong stat buffs and special equipment.
Like with Unit Upgrades, you can align with a certain Chaos God, who will provide different thematic buffs, such as Tzeentch, enhancing your magical capabilities.
Warriors Of Chaos Legendary Lords
There are quite a few Legendary Lords available for the Warriors of Chaos. So to keep things concise, we've compressed all the important remarks to this table.
|
Legendary Lord |
Description |
Tips |
|---|---|---|
|
Archaon The Everchosen |
Heavily armored, formidable melee fighter with excellent spell casting and a mounted option in his warhorse: Dorghar Lord Effects: Weapon and missile strength per rank, Ward Save, and All Authority increase for lord's army |
The quintessential Warriors of Chaos campaign, Archaon is one of the best all-around Legendary lords A great, safe start with only one major enemy in Boris Ursus will allow you to play the way you want |
|
Kholek Suneater |
One of the strongest possible melee fighters, a massive monster with armor-piercing attacks, high health, and decent speed Lord Effects: Reduced Soul Cost for Carnage Incarnate, reduced upkeep for Dragon Ogre units, missile resistance bonus for all monstrous units |
Capable of being a one-unit army, Kholek's strengths should be maximized by increasing his battlefield power Try to stack as many Dragon Ogre units as you can, as he has good synergy with monsters |
|
Prince Sigvald The Magnificent |
A strong duelist, melee-focused lord with the ability to spread Slaanesh Corruption and Seduce Units Lord Effects: increased Slaanesh Corruption, increased Speed for Slaanesh Units, increased experience gain for lord |
A reworked lord, Sigvald now has a strong Slaanesh-focused play style but struggles to stand out from Azazel Not especially good at anything, but has a safe starting location |
|
Be'lakor The Dark Master |
Powerful flying Daemon lord with strong Shadow magic and battlefield abilities, able to corrupt Human Lords into allied Daemon Princes Lord Effects: Shadow Shroud ability, All Authority increase for lord's army |
One of the strongest lords in the game, very powerful in all areas Great starting location on Albion and a unique mechanic to corrupt enemy human lords |
|
Azazel (DLC) |
Daemon of Slaanesh, a strong melee fighter with access to Slaaneshi Seduction and Corruption Lord Effects: Domineering Aura ability, reduced cost for Unit Seduction to human factions, and increased Seduce Unit budget |
Similar in playstyle to Sigvald, but a stronger character on the battlefield Comfy start surrounded by Norscans |
|
Valkia The Bloody (DLC) |
Very strong flying duelist, has access to Khorne's Bloodletting and Corruption Lord Effects: The Gaze of Khorne ability, increased campaign movement range after enemy retreats from battle |
More unique start location than other Warriors of Chaos lords, contesting the Dark Elves in the far North West Has access to some strong Khorne abilities but cannot raise Blood Hosts, which is critical for momentum |
|
Festus The Leechlord (DLC) |
Durable melee fighter with strong aura effects and Lore of Nurgle spell casting, able to brew Plagues and spread Nurgle Corruption Lord Effects: Increased battle healing cap for lord's army, increased Plague duration in own province |
Very powerful lord, despite poor melee capabilities, his healing and damaging spells can be pivotal for a good campaign Starts South of other Chaos Lords, which means you won't have the luxury of vassalising multiple Norscan tribes early on |
|
Vilitch The Curseling (DLC) |
Hybrid melee and caster lord, with access to powerful Lore of Tzeentch spells, as well as the Changing of the Ways and Tzeentch Corruption Lord Effects: Steals a portion of experience earned by other lords, Twisted Twin passive ability, reduced cost of Teleport Stance for lord's army |
Unique start position to the Far North East, bordering Cathay, assaulting the Great Bastion is a fun challenge Can be played in multiple ways, but excels at regenerating his ally's Barrier, leading to very tanky armies |