I picked up a copy of the Arcane Journal Warriors of Chaos so I figured I’d do a quick review. I have a decent Warrior of Chaos army so maybe this book will help me out! Like the other Arcane Journals this is softcover and comes in at 48 pages.

There are 16 pages of fluff and art before getting to the special scenario for the book. The forces of chaos are trying to protect their foothold on the shores of the Empire and the Empire of Man grand army is trying to throw them back to the sea. The chaos forces get the benefit of a monolith in the center of the lines and there are extra bonus points for killing enemy character or having your characters survive, depending on the side you are playing.

The book has two Armies of Infamy, The Wolves of the Sea and the Heralds of Darkness. The Wolves of the Sea are marauder focused and allow marauders and marauder cavalry pay 1 point to become skirmishes. Additionally aspiring champions on foot or regular cavalry can pay 10 points to be ambushers as well! This army also has the super fun Warriors Duel in which both armies can chose a unit champion with 1 wound. The winner gets to get the first turn. For those of you who heard of this and are concerned about Brettonians special rule interfering that is covered. If the Brettonians accept they count as having prayed event is they get the first turn. If they don’t accept the challenge no blessing of the lady!

The Heralds of Darkness are an all mounted (plus a few monsters and war hounds) force. cavalry and chariots can re-roll 1’s on charges, pursuits and flees which can be a big help, especially if you roll like I do! There are some limits to marked characters as each character with a mark needs a unit with that mark so mixing and matching is a little difficult.

This book only has two special characters, an Exalted Champion, Frydaal The Chainmaker and an oldie but baddy, Galrauch, The Great Drake. Both can be used in any Warriors of Chaos list. There are some new units that can be used in one of the two lists in the books as well. Marauder Tribe Berserkers which are like regular marauders but frenzied and have a 6+ ward against non magical attacks. Skin Wolves make a return, these monstrous infantry can choose one of three options to upgrade their stats each turn. there are gigantic spawn of chaos now which look like they can be pretty scary, and there are also a new type of dragon, Warpfire Dragons. These nasty monsters can even be level 1 or 2 wizards! oh, and if you managed to kill one of them every unit within 6 inches suffers D6 Strength 5, AP -2 hits! Wow! Oh, and while they are alive, no models within 3 inches are permitted a ward save!

Finally there are 18 new magic items to equip your Warriors of Chaos with!

The books is full of pictures of painted minis and art and should help a fledgling champion of chaos find the proper motivation to get their army painted and on the field, spoiling the enemies of the chaos gods!

As with the other Arcane Journals I think this book is definitely worth picking up if you play the army. If you just like having a full set, and like a little eye candy and light reading, this could also be for you. If you don’t fit into any of those categories and the book is probably worth passing on. I’m glad I got it, there are definitely going to be some fun things for me to try out when I get around to rebasing my Warriors of Chaos!

-Wachtmeister