Skip to content

✠ How I Won My First Tournament with a Chaos army

How I Won My First Tournament. Old World Warriors of Chaos

If someone had told me I’d win my first Warhammer The Old World tournament with Warriors of Chaos, without ever playing before, I wouldn’t have believed it. But I did it. And in this post, I’ll tell you exactly what led me to victory and everything I learned along the way.

This tournament had specific restrictions on magic levels, character points, and a few other things. Because of that, I ran a heavy cavalry list with a winged Daemon Prince (non-mage, just for hunting support units) and a level 4 Sorcerer on a Manticore.

Surviving Orcs and Learning a Lesson

In my first game, I faced an Orc player who had read the rulebook much better than I had—and who played not just better, but far better than me. This made it the perfect opportunity to learn the game.

Here’s what I discovered:

  • Night Goblin Fanatics are insane.
  • Chariots can march in The Old World.
  • Compulsory moves are much more interesting than I expected.
  • Orc shooting units have some wild combos.

Each of these could be an entire post on its own. If this one gets shared enough, I’ll write them all.

Now, looking back, I know we both made mistakes because the game had just been released, and neither of us had much experience with it. In fact, I had none. But regardless, the reality is he completely wrecked my army.

So how did I win?

There was a crucial rule in the rulebook that I had read… and that he had overlooked.

The way points are calculated at the end of the game: To earn points for damaging an enemy unit, you have to kill more than 25% of its models.

I had built my list around this. For example, my large units were multiples of 4, like Dragon Ogors. That way, if you kill 3 out of 4, you don’t score any points. Not a single one.

And just like that, my score ended up positive, and I moved on to face…


Khorne Daemons and the Problem with Impetuous in The Old World

The second game was against Khorne Daemons, which—rules-wise—are in a really bad spot because Impetuous gives them all the downsides of Frenzy but without the extra attack.

My opponent was a better player, but his army was worse. And once again, the same factor that won me my previous game secured my victory here as well.

What did I learn in this match?

  • Impetuous is a terrible rule.
  • Not everything with wings has Swiftstride in TOW.
  • The Bloodthirster is an absolute monster in close combat. If you don’t find a way to stall it, you’re done.

Even though Khorne Daemons aren’t in a great spot, Juggernauts and similar units still have their place. If you want to preserve your points, field them in units of four.


Third Match: Crushing the Wood Elves

After lunch, still feeling sluggish from the food coma, I faced Wood Elves.

Unlike the previous two armies, this one I actually knew well. I used to play Wood Elves in a past edition and have a soft spot for them, so I had already checked how they turned out in The Old World… and let’s just say my expectations weren’t great.

Right from the start, I knew I had this game in the bag. My troops were faster, tougher, and I basically ran him over. He had to retreat all the way to the edge of the board, shooting as he went, but it didn’t matter. He just couldn’t do enough.

What did I learn in this match?

  1. Light cavalry isn’t what it used to be. No more marching and shooting, no more 360-degree fire unless skirmishing… they lost a lot of their old advantages.
  2. Shooting units now have some built-in advantages. Reforming and shooting, for example. But that’s a topic for another post.
  3. Some arrows are incredibly useful… and others are absolute trash. I wouldn’t waste points on some of the Wood Elf options.
  4. Wood Elves in The Old World have a magic item that lets them teleport between forests. If you leave one of your own units in a forest, you can block them from using it.

In this tournament, magic items weren’t public. We played it like 6th edition Fantasy: you wrote them down, and they weren’t revealed until you actually used them. (Ah, those were the days…)

By the way, this Wood Elves match was what sparked my idea for countering Frenzy issues. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’ve linked the post below.

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!


privacy policy            cookies policy

Cookies