Triple Dragon Old World Chaos Army List

In a meta where Chaos Dragons look like a crazy, risky choice, the Polish player Filipo has shown up to a team tournament with triple dragon and a block of Chaos Knights with the Mark of Khorne. Let’s break down his list.

The list is extremely aggressive, made up of big, expensive units (with 3 dragons).

This player scored 40 points and his team finished 5th in the world-level event.

I think that’s an amazing achievement, considering the state of Chaos in the current meta and the level of the event.

This is not just a list; it’s an analysis of the context, the list itself and its variations, to help you adapt it to your own personal style.

This post is part of a series of The Old World lists that I think is going to be very useful.

Let’s dive in.

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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.

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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.

Warriors of Chaos Old World army list with Dragon spam

496 – Chaos Lord, Shield, General, Chaos Dragon, Mark of Nurgle, Great Weapon

499 – Exalted Champion, Battle Standard Bearer, Chaos Dragon, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Great Weapon, Brazen Collar, Crown of Everlasting Conquest

311 – 9 Chaos Knights, Lance, Mark of Khorne, Champion, Brazen Collar, Standard Bearer

35 – 5 Chaos Warhounds, Vanguard

133 – 9 Marauder Horsemen, Shield, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Javelin, Cavalry Spear, Marauder Horsemaster

119 – 8 Marauder Horsemen, Shield, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Javelin, Cavalry Spear, Marauder Horsemaster

405 – Warpfire Dragons, Wizard Level 1, Daemonology

How to play this list – and how to play against it

This list tries to smash the enemy with three dragons and a fairly big unit of Chaos Knights with the Mark of Khorne, while scoring with a couple of units of Marauder Horsemen of Chaos. To do that, they take the Mark of Chaos Undivided (stability when it comes to Leadership checks).

The idea is to get into combat on turn 1 or 2, as soon as possible, because every turn you’re not in combat is a turn where you’re taking cannonballs and other enemy damage.

The opponent should try to engage each dragon with an infantry unit or something that can beat it in combat.

How does the list avoid that? By charging either with several dragons into the same unit (two or three), or by charging with a dragon and one of the three units of cavalry and horsemen the list has. That’s why every single one of these units has a paid unit champion: so the champion can accept or issue challenges while the dragon and rider hit the unit freely, doing a ton of damage and letting any of these units take care of the big problem.

On the other hand, the list is playing a very dangerous game by relying on the Mark of Khorne: it makes the unit of 9 knights hit very hard, but they have the huge downside of being easy to bait around.

Filipo tries to minimise how easily they can be led around by taking a unit of 5 Chaos Warhounds with Vanguard, something I see as practically mandatory if you are going to field an expensive Khorne cavalry unit.

Besides that, we can see the list repeats the Bronze Collar both on one of the dragons and on a Chaos Knight, to get some magical protection in addition to what the riderless dragon already gives, since it’s upgraded to a level 1 Wizard.

Speaking of dragons: with the Lore of Demonology it can look for the spell that reduces the enemy’s Leadership to combine it with Terror, one of the buffs/assault spells to improve Weapon Skill and, if it rolls a spell it doesn’t want like the Supernatural Steed, it can always swap it for the magic missile that is the lore’s signature spell: 2D6 Strength 4 hits with AP -1. It’s a very good spell, but the problem is that, as a level 1 wizard and with a casting value of 9+, it’s hard to get off.

Apart from tying up the dragons with infantry, how do you deal with this list?

This list suffers a lot from cannons and from tools and abilities with the Monster Slayer rule.

It also has the problem of being vulnerable to light shooting, because the Marauder Horsemen, which are the units used to score, are basically models that save on a 5+ and only have Toughness 3. So even if you increase the number of bodies in the unit, it’s relatively easy to bring them down below Unit Strength 10 so they stop scoring.

Every turn you manage, as the opponent, to stop the dragons from catching any of your strong units or expensive, powerful characters is a turn you’ve won.

Lastly, there is something you must always keep in mind: the Warpfire Dragon denies Ward saves to any model within 3″ of it. Always remember that.

If you manage to get it close to either of the other dragons, they’ll be a good target to focus on that turn.

On the flip side, because of this, their movement will be constrained: the Chaos player is going to avoid grouping those dragons together.

Combos for this Chaos force in The Old World

The first one is the joint charges I already mentioned. The Chaos Lord on dragon is extremely expensive and, given that you can no longer go over 500 points (at least under the restrictions this list was built for, you cannot spend more than 500 points on a single character), you can’t really buy him much. But you can consider changing a few things.

On the other hand, the champion… well, the Chaos Lord that combos with the dragon is there to reach Toughness 6, something the Exalted Champion doesn’t have. Keep in mind that this Exalted Champion, as much as he has Toughness 5 and one less Wound, has a 5+ regeneration save, already comes with a 5+ Ward save and has a 4+ armour save thanks to the dragon.

The Mark of Chaos Undivided on Marauder Horsemen in big units works quite nicely with javelins, because by not taking, for example, the Mark of Khorne, they are not going to go charging off after the enemy and can instead shoot at enemies that get close, light enemy units that approach objectives.

On top of that, they can stand and shoot against small units trying to push them off objectives, and since they are big units of 9 or 8 models, they can whittle the enemy down enough to win combat even when being charged.

The triple dragon combo allows you to build a very aggressive list and, considering that the 1,000 points you can spend on characters are already taken up by two of the dragons, it’s quite interesting to have some magic, some magical protection, especially something you can include as a Rare choice. In that sense, the Warpfire Dragon is very interesting.

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Fixed elements in any Chaos list with dragons

In these dragon lists you will always see one Chaos Lord and one Exalted Champion / Paladin (only the latter with regeneration), because you can’t take two lords.

Both Chaos characters will carry great weapons. It’s very rare to see anyone prefer a different weapon on them. Despite their high Initiative, the extra Strength and armour penetration are very attractive.

The big Chaos units that can choose magic items for their champion (Chaos Knights in this case), in lists without magic like this one, are going to take the Bronze Collar.

The Chaos Knights all have lances and shields, they save on a 3+ regardless of the Mark they take and they charge at Strength 6. Careful: they have Counter-charge as a base rule.

You are never going to see Chosen, because they are not Core units. Remember that the 3 dragons are 1,400 points; you need 500 points in Core. Anything like chariots, Chosen and similar things, you’re never going to see here.

You can’t combine giant spawn with a Warpfire Dragon; there just aren’t enough points.

In a list like this you could see Dragon Ogres, but they would be taken as single models; you are never going to see a big unit of them.

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Possible tweaks for The Old World Warriors of Chaos list

The item Favor of the Gods is very interesting and some people take one or two on each character, to be able to re-roll if they get Stupidity by rolling a 1 on the Eye of the Gods table. It’s a matter of taste, but there aren’t that many possible combinations anyway, because the dragon-mounted characters are already very expensive and don’t leave you much wiggle room.

The Chaos Knights can be fielded in both big and small units, that is, units of 5 or units of 8, 9 or 10.

As for Marks: some players prefer them with the Mark of Khorne, others go for the Mark of Chaos Undivided and a minority use the Mark of Nurgle. You are never going to see them with the Mark of Tzeentch or, especially, with the Mark of Slaanesh.

If the Chaos Knights unit is big and carries a banner, it’s very likely you’ll see the Icon of Darkness, which gives them -1 to be hit by enemy shooting attacks.

The Chaos Warhounds don’t always have Vanguard. It’s a good rule, but if you need to make the list fit, it’s something you can drop. You’re not going to see them with any other upgrades.

The Marauder Horsemen of Chaos can also be played as big or small units: instead of units of 9 and 8 you can take units of 5 or units of 6…

Another option is to run them with the Mark of Khorne, with all the downsides that brings. But if they do take the Mark of Khorne, the most common choice is to skip javelins and pay for flails instead, so they get more damage from Strength rather than just the +1 Strength from the cavalry lance on the charge.

None of the other three Marks make any sense on these horsemen.

As for the Warpfire Dragon, there are several configurations.

I prefer the level 1 wizard upgrade for the magical protection it gives, bearing in mind that being a level 2 Wizard doesn’t add any more magical protection to the army (for just 30 points it’s a very good option to be able to dispel something here and there throughout the game without having to include any other wizard).

You can also run it as level 2 or with no wizard levels at all, both are viable options.

Besides that, as far as lores go, Demonology is very solid, and there are other players who go for Battle Magic. The nice thing about Demonology with this army is that practically every spell is a good option: if you roll it, it’s interesting. For example, the magic missile, even though it has shorter range than Fireball, is actually more powerful, and you have to remember that the dragon is going to be more or less close to the enemy anyway: it flies, it’s an aggressive model in close combat and it’s also tough, so even if the Demonology missile has shorter range, I don’t think you’ll really miss the extra range with this miniature.

The thing is that Battle Magic spells tend to have lower casting values, and with only a +1 to cast, that difference in casting value can be very noticeable.

In any case, that’s it for this post. There are things about Chaos lists that I cover in the post about the other list I did with blocks, without triple dragon, so I’ll leave it linked below in case it helps you.

Related posts I said I would link