✠ Analysis Wolves Of The Sea | Warhammer The Old World Chaos
A tournament is coming up soon.
But the tournament restrictions just ruined your plans of a Chaos Lord on dragon + level 4 sorcerer. Don’t worry—there’s hope.
Here you have a brutal and fun alternative that fits perfectly with the restrictions: the Sea Wolves. Maybe you didn’t even consider them a viable option on a first glance, but here’s an analysis that might change your mind.
Advantages of the Sea Wolves list over the regular army
Basically, the advantage of this army is that, even though they have inferior armor compared to what we usually see in Warriors of Chaos, their mobility is very good, their hitting power is strong, and as they’re ambushers, you can skip the part where your troops slowly move towards the enemy while they get shredded by ranged fire while you’re powerless to respond.
This sub-faction has a couple of very interesting units. Which ones?
First, the Marauder Tribe Berserkers (“bárbaros berserkers de la tribu” in Spanish, way too long!), who are a Core Unit. As a second top unit, we have the Marauder Tribe Huscarls, who are beefed-up barbarian cavalry, or Chosen wannabes, depending on your perspective. Either way, they’re cavalry who, when charging (and counter-charging, since they have the special rule), deal three attacks each at Strength 5, Armor Penetration -2 (with flails and the Mark of Khorne, obviously).
Do they have a save? Yes, a 4+ armor save against shooting, with flails and the Mark of Khorne, obviously. They also have toughness 4.
Additionally, they have something very good: they come with Swiftstride and Warband rules, which make them harder to redirect, as I already explained in the post linked below, despite having Frenzy from the Mark of Khorne. A fantastic unit, especially when you add the Icon of Darkness for just 20 points.
What does it do? Check out the linked post below, where I analyze the magical items worth taking.
How to easily fill your Core Units
The only problem with the Huscarls is that they’re Special Units, so they don’t fill Core points.
But don’t panic: Core Units can easily be filled with Ambushing Berserkers and Chaos Marauder Horsemen, either with Frenzy or without it, according to your preference.
There are many tournaments where the same unit can only be included three times, and with three units of Chaos Marauder Horsemen and three units of Berserkers, you already reach those 500 points. I’ve already spoken about these Berserkers in another post, where I made an in-depth analysis of all the Core Units available to Warriors of Chaos, including the Sea Wolves. I’ll also leave it linked below.
Units you should never include in your Sea Wolves list
There’s also the ForgeWorld Werewolves. They have about as much future as a sober Dwarf. The reason is their transformation only happens in close combat. If they could do it in any turn, you could give them toughness 5 and a 5+ armor save during the journey into combat, which, combined with their regeneration, would give them enough durability to reach close combat.
Remember, being skirmishers doesn’t give a -1 penalty to enemy shooting due to their unit strength of 3, so they’re not saved by that either.
I’ve seen people say you can totally build a list around them, since the shapeshift buffs stack if they fight more than once in a turn (like with overruns or if they crash into another unit that’s already in combat), and also because any characters you put in the unit count as part of it, so they get the buffs too — as long as you deploy them in open order and stick them on a demonic mount. Technically, I think that all checks out, but it really feels like something that’s gonna get FAQ’d sooner or later.
Another unit that is purely thematic because it simply had to be included is the Barbarian Chief. He’s like one of the most underwhelming Chaos Champions, but even worse. Instead of having a special 5+ armor save from Chaos armor, he has only a 6+ Chaos armor save, and in exchange, he has Ambusher. Meh.
We all know character points are highly valuable, and we’re not going to spend them on him.
Sea Wolves limitations: Characters and Rare Units
The limitation that initially puts people off the most is that, in a regular army, you can have a Chaos Lord or a Daemon Prince, plus a level 4 wizard. In this sub-faction, you must choose only one of these three. This is an army focused more on troops than on characters. The rest of the character restrictions are secondary.
On the other hand, even though this army allows 33% Rare Units compared to the usual 25%, the usefulness of this depends a bit on what units you plan to include. For instance, it might be worthwhile if you want to play The big Nurglish Chaos Spawn, but if you aim to maximize the number of Dragon Ogres, a regular Hordes of Chaos army list is much more interesting.
If the tournament limitation is a maximum of 3 identical units, you could include two units of four Dragon Ogres and one unit of a single Dragon Ogre (I love those guys. Reason: linked in “related posts”)
The special Challenge Rule: When and whom to challenge
Finally, let’s finish with a very interesting detail that gives this sub-faction tons of personality: who starts the battle? AFTER DEPLOYMENT IS COMPLETE (when you already know your opponent’s army and also know who has the +1 bonus to the roll-off), it’s the Chaos player’s decision to issue a challenge through a unit champion with only one wound.
The enemy decides whether to accept. If refused, the Chaos player chooses who starts the battle, without any roll needed. If accepted, it can only be with a one-wound unit champion, and the duel lasts until one of them dies.
Obviously, as you decide whether to issue the challenge or not, you’ll have the upper hand (challenging a Bretonnian or an Elf who strikes before you usually isn’t a good idea…).
If you’re still unsure about trying this list due to its low armor, I guarantee its incredible mobility will surprise you. Check out the linked posts below—I hope you find them useful.
✠ Chaos Breakdown of Core Units
🐂 Dragon Ogres | The best analysis in the (Old) World
