In an edition where Chaos has been nerfed (o7 for the Chaos Lord on Chaos Dragon with Ogre Blade), there are people—brave warriors—who have taken this army to Worlds.
And not only that: they’ve done it without double dragon and with blocks.
Since I know many of you like this playstyle, I wanted to bring you a block-based Chaos list.
In this case it’s the list of the French player Thomas Gepadpo (congrats on your results), which doesn’t lean on magic or monstrous creatures. It’s a list many more classic players will like.
This isn’t just a list; it’s an analysis of the context, the list, and its variations to help you adapt it to your personal style.
If this helps and you want to support the project -> Don’t do it yet, in case the post turns out to be rubbish…
Read it first, and at the end of the post I’ll leave you a link.
Let’s get to it.
General context and constraints the list was built for
Event format and structure
This list was created for an eight-player team event where pairings are arranged beforehand (it’s possible to “protect” certain lists. For example, if a teammate brings no magic defense, it’s very possible to “shield” them so they never face a magic-heavy list in any round, which affects list composition and makes them differ from a singles event where you can’t “dodge” a pairing no matter how rough it looks).
General army restrictions
- Maximum 500 points in a single character or unit.
- Allied are not allowed, but Mercenaries are.
- Your army may only include 0–2 Level 3 Wizards and/or 0–1 Level 4 Wizard.
Category limits
0–3 Characters: Character subtypes listed under the same unit entry (e.g., Chosen Lord, Exalted Champion, Aspiring Champion) are considered part of the same unit entry for this rule.
0–4 Core
0–3 Special
0–2 Rare and Mercenaries
If the same unit entry appears in multiple categories (e.g., Special and Rare), all of them count toward the most restrictive applicable limit. Example: Cathay can only take 2 giants at most, no matter how many Shugengan they include to field them as Special instead of Rare.
Character mounts count as part of the corresponding unit entry if that mount exists as a standalone unit (e.g., Heavy Chariots).
Named characters are exempt from all restrictions.
Secondary objectives and victory conditions
All games last 6 turns—no Break Point or variable game length (if you don’t know what I mean, here are the victory conditions from the Matched Play Guide explained).
Secondary objectives: The list is designed to play a total of 4 combined secondaries in each game (Domination or quadrants count as 2).
For example, one round might be baggage trains (1) + 2 strategic locations (1+1) + special feature (1), while another might be domination (2) + 2 strategic locations (1+1). In both cases there are 4 total objectives combined in different ways.
This is crucial, because lists are tweaked around the pack and would be different if you played all secondaries at once each game, or only 1 secondary per game.
Line of sight special rules
Large targets are only blocked by other Large targets. Neither hills nor impassable terrain block (at the event this list was built for) large targets.
Old World Chaos List (2000 points)
499 – Exalted Champion, General, Chaos Dragon, Mark of Nurgle, Great Weapon, Armour of Meteoric Iron, 3x Favour of the Gods, Crown of Everlasting Conquest
326 – Sorcerer Lord, Chaos Steed, Mark of Tzeentch, Wizard Level 4, Daemonology, Spell Familiar, Infernal Puppet, 2x Favour of the Gods
306 – 8 Chaos Knights, Lance, Mark of Tzeentch, Champion, Brazen Collar, Standard Bearer, Icon of Darkness, Musician
35 – 5 Chaos Warhounds, Vanguard
228 – 12 Forsaken, Forsaken by Khorne
264 – 4 Dragon Ogres, Heavy Armour, Great Weapon
170 – Gigantic Spawn of Chaos, Gigantic Spawn of Nurgle
170 – Gigantic Spawn of Chaos, Gigantic Spawn of Nurgle
How to play this list—and against it
This list runs a single dragon, and the Sorcerer Lord will go inside the Chaos Knights unit.
Always remember, at the start of your turn, to roll on the Eye of the Gods table with both characters, since that’s why you’re bringing several Favours of the Gods on each character. Also, the Brazen Collar is a big deal. The Brazen Collar gives Magic Resistance to the whole Chaos Knights block, including the Sorcerer Lord.
On top of that, it’s also important to protect against shooting via the Icon of Darkness banner, which for 20 points gives enemies −1 to hit you with shooting.
Chaos Warhounds with Vanguard, when set up as a marching column—single-file ranks—take up a lot of space and can block a charge or line of sight for just 35 points—they often earn their keep. You just need to trade them at the right moment, not “because turn 1”.
If they survive for some reason, they can also help with a quadrants mission, to contest any quadrant: thanks to their movement they can jump into any quadrant at any time, so your opponent doesn’t have something in a quadrant where you have nothing and walk away with a pile of points.
In this list the Forsaken are run with Mark of Khorne, which makes them hit like demons, rerolling to hit thanks to Hatred. Between them, the Dragon Ogres, and the Chaos Knights, the punch is there.
As for the Spawn, as I explained in the Orcs post, beware when playing against Random Movement units, because if you’re coming from 6th Edition they can really surprise you.
There’s not much more to the list. Everything is quite expensive; if you mess up a movement it can be catastrophic, because they don’t hold as much as they seem. And it might be missing one more expendable unit, something more mobile beyond Chaos Warhounds.
Since it brings the Infernal Puppet, the idea seems to have been to pair this list into opponents with lots of magic. Whether they actually managed it, I don’t know.
Combos for Chaos in The Old World
Putting a character into a unit carrying the Brazen Collar means the character also benefits from the Magic Resistance.
A Sorcerer with Mark of Tzeentch in a unit with Unit Strength (US) 10+ gets +1 to cast, which can be very interesting.
You might be overlapping MR from the Mark of Tzeentch and the Brazen Collar—just saying.
The combo of Meteoric Iron Armour + Crown of Everlasting Conquest on the Exalted Champion means the champion always saves—no matter how much armour you strip (cannonballs, stone throwers…)—on 5+, 5+, 5+. That gives him a ton of staying power, and combined with the Mark of Nurgle it can even let him survive a Worlds game.
Staples in Chaos list Old World
Right now, Exalted Champion on Chaos Dragon shows up in pretty much every list—either alongside another dragon, a Manticore, or a Sorcerer, but it’s always there.
Units of Dragon Ogres with heavy armour and great weapons (the number of models and units varies across lists).
If Spawn show up, they come in pairs and with Mark of Nurgle (Regeneration and Poisoned Attacks)—170 points total, a bargain.
If this post is helping, here’s the link where I explain 5 ways to support ToW for free.
Possible tweaks for your Chaos list in Warhammer: The Old World
Number of Dragon Ogres: you’ll see them in units of 4.
There’s another player who ran a unit of 5 at Worlds.
Others prefer units of 2 or 1. Those who run units of 1 often upgrade him to Shartak, unit champion, so they can combo-charge with the dragon and accept challenges with Shartak, letting the big beast hit the unit and rack up casualties.
Exalted Champion could be swapped for a Chaos Lord. The Chaos Lord hits harder, has one more Wound, reaches 10 Wounds with the dragon, and has Toughness 6. The problem is that Chaos Lord on Chaos Dragon almost hits the 500-point cap on its own, so you can’t give it as many magic items. It’s a bit of swings and roundabouts.
Many lists, many players, prefer to skip Chaos Knights and bring Marauder Horsemen, playing a different game.
The Forsaken can be run with Mark of Khorne or Mark of Slaanesh as well, to give them Swiftstride. The other two marks are less interesting because Nurgle gives them Fear and Tzeentch gives them Magic Resistance (3). They end up lacking either punch or speed.
You could swap the Forsaken for Chaos Warriors, who can take a unit champion to have another Brazen Collar or the whip to move farther. Up to taste.
The mark the French player uses on the Knights is Tzeentch, but you can also combine a Nurgle wizard with Chaos Knights with no mark (and then flex the signature between Daemonology’s magic missile or +1 Toughness for the whole unit, depending on the matchup), which makes the list more flexible.
Finally—and, well, finally—congrats again to the French player. I think playing Chaos right now is tough, given what you can face. In the The Old World meta, armies like Cathay, Orcs, Bretonnia… can make Chaos suffer.
Overall, at Worlds it looks like Chaos underperformed.
They kind of threw it to the lions.
BTW, I think it’s necessary to bring you other Chaos lists with a different vibe (the triple-dragon build that’s been common, the sea-wolves list…).
Maybe Chaos is in the gutter, but it deserves our love. Anyway, I hope this post helped.
Related posts
Warhammer Old World Dwarf Army list | Expeditionary Force
How to buy Cheap New Minis and support TOW?
Secondary Objectives Old World 1.5 Explained
Razing of the Westerland New Common Magic Items
Shadowlands Lore of Magic Razing of the Westerland
Chaos Warriors Update Razing of the Westerland
If you think there’s an error in the post, feel free to reach out at theoldwarrior@theoldwarrior.com, and I’ll review it. Hope you enjoy ToW!