The March of Chaos Arcane Journal is a 48 page softcover supplement for Warhammer The Old World. As the name implies this Arcane Journal focuses on the forcers of Chaos, adding a combined arms Army of Infamy, three new characters for the forces of Chaos, and a new unit. This book has less background than a lot of the other Arcane Journals with 17 pages of background in the beginning and a handful of pages throughout the book. It contains background material on the forces of Orders counterattack against the forces of Chaos, and the forces of Chaos counter-counterattack. There is a fun looking scenario, a bunch of new magic items, and three different modifications you can use for your assorted mages, wizards, shaman, and so on. Let’s check it out!

The book starts with a recap of how Mio Ying, the Storm Dragon, arrived in the Old World and her initial successes in recapturing the Westerland. Of course this book wouldn’t be titled The March of Chaos if Chaos had been defeated so we read about the counter assault of the forces of chaos. One of the new regions of The Old World that this book covers are The Shardlands. The Shardlands are further north than even the Chaos Wastes and abut the Realm of Chaos directly. Where the Marauders of Chaos live on the southern reaches of the Chaos Wastes it is the mighty Chaos Warriors and the Chaos Knights that have striven to traverse the Chaos Wastes to take up residence in the Shardlands. Once again the phrase “The Path to Glory” rears its head and this section of the book tells the journey of those who wish to become full Chaos Warriors as they journey to the Shardlands. Much like Frydaal who journeyed to a black fortress a Marauder can cross the Chaos Wastes and try to gain their gods favor at one of the fortresses in that cursed land. Once a marauder gains the boon of becoming a Chaos Warrior or Knight they can put on the heavy armor associated with those foreboding warriors. Whether that armor can be removed or not is a matter of some conjuncture, however, once a warrior puts the armor on they are forever damned and unable to turn away from their dark masters. The book covers eight specific fortresses in the Shardlands. With the exception of the Silver Tower of Sorcerers (Tzeentch) they are all fairly generic descriptions of evil places. I would have expected one for each of the Chaos Gods and was waiting for descriptions of fortresses devoted to the other deities. There is a page devoted to the runes of the Dark Tongue with a few common runes. The Phonetic runes can be used to write out phrases on your banners and shields if you like but with only 9 common runes covering things such as warband, armor, and cultist you don’t get much out of this section.

After these sections the book really delves into the push and pull of the campaign once the armies of Grand Cathay sortied against the forces of Chaos. As the Chainmakers realm expanded Chaos Warriors began to be seen in her ranks and more and more of the Empire fell to Chaos. When the Storm Dragon arrived she led her forces towards Hollum, the site of Frydaal’s first victory in the Old World, razing villages that had been captured by the forces of Chaos on the way. After seizing Hollum the Storm Dragon set about tearing down the many monoliths devoted to Chaos. As she was doing so a large force of Maruaders, supplemented by Chaos Warriors sailed east towards Emskrank on the border of Westerland and Osterlund. Realizing she had been outmaneuvered the Storm Dragon took to the skies with her remaining Sky Lanterns in an attempt to relieve the soon to be beleaguered town. Convinetly this leads right to the books scenario, The Battle of Fort Nordenschloss!

The main Defender army is set up with the advantage of Staked Defences in one corner, while the the relieving force is deployed using the Ambush rules, however, the whole force arrives at once with the result of one dice roll, rather than rolling per unit. The attacking units are deployed on the same long side of the table with special rules for any of their Ambushers held in reserve. Warriors of Chaos units will enter the board from Deployment Zone A, while Beastmen Brayherds Units will enter from Deployment Zone B. More on this later in the review, but it does add some ambiguity to the scenario if you decide to play with non-historical forces. For example, if you are using just one army of attackers how do you decide which ambushers use which deployment zone? I guess you could just split the Ambushers into two elements, it’s easy enough to figure out with your buddies!

This book features four optional additions to the magic system: Disastrous Miscasts, Channeling the Winds of Magic, Mastering Arcane Magic, and Sorcerous Ruses. The authors recommend using either the rules for Channeling, or Arcane Magic to add depth to your games of The Old World. Sorcerous Ruses can be used in conjunction with Channeling, Arcane Magic, or on their own. Finally, if you use Channeling or Arcane Magic you must use the Disastrous Miscast table, but you can use that much scarier table on its own if you so decide. The introductory section also included guidance for organizers of Match Play Events on using these additions, essentially suggesting organizers give players as much advance notice as possible if they plan on using these additions in a tournament.

The Disastrous Miscast table is simply much worse than the regular miscast table. Rather than dropping a 5″ template on the unit on a miscast table result of a 2-4 and taking a S10 hit with an AP of -4, on a 2-3 not only do you take the plate full of hits the wizard automatically dies and is removed from play! On the other end of the table while a result of an 8-12 results in the spell being automatically cast with the penalty of not allowing the wizard to cast any more spells that turn on the regular chart only a 12 allows the spell to be cast on the Disastrous Miscast table. But don’t worry, there is more as not only does the wizard lose the ability to cast any more spells that turn he permanently loses the spell he just cast! The middle of the Disastrous Miscast table has more explosions, a result that Bewilders the wizard for the rest of the game and a chance to force the wizard and the unit he is in to give ground! Wow. Things just got a lot more dangerous for the mages of the old world!

Channeling gives wizards a pool of Channeling Dice based on their wizard level, from a D3 for Level 1 Wizards up to 2D3+1 Channeling Dice for a level 4. Wizards can use any number of available Channeling Dice per turn.

One Channeling Dice can be used for the following:

• to allow your wizard to re-roll one dice when rolling to select spells
• roll an extra D6 when casting spells, discarding the lowest die
• roll an extra D6 when dispelling, discarding the lowest dice
• and to enance the range of a spell by D6.

Additionally, for two Channeling Dice a wizard may re-roll a failed Casting or Dispel roll, but they may not re-roll a miscast.

Arcane Magic allows the mage to either roll on a chart, or if you purchase the Arcane Magic Card Deck draw from the deck. Both players draw or roll six times to get a random selection of Arcane Magic Ploys. Six of the 11 ploys can only be generated a limited amount of times. Wizards, Dwarf Runesmiths, and models with a Bound spell can use the generated ploys. I was super excited to bring cards back into the game and while the $36 price tag for the official cards is a bit steep for me the nostalgia is likely to get me to buy them anyway! The Arcane Magic Ploys can be used to do the following:

• Target a unit regardless of line of sight and range
• Attempt a dispel regardless of range, or if the dispelling mage is in combat
• After successfully casting a spell, or bound spell, recast the spell again, not counting the bonus casting against the total number of spells the wizard can cast in a turn
• Re-roll on the miscast table
• Roll an extra D6, discarding the lowest result when attempting a Wizardly or Fated Dispel. If a double 1 is rolled you may discard one of the 1’s!
• Re-roll a failed casting roll, or even a miscast!
• Re-roll a failed dispel roll, including an Outclassed in the Art, or a Fated dispel
• Roll an extra D6, discarding the lowest result when attempting a Casting roll, discarding the lowest result. If a double 1 is rolled you can discard one of those dice.
• When rolling on the Miscast table the wizard may roll twice and choose which result to apply
• Automatically Dispel a spell instead of rolling
• After a spell is rolled if the result is any doubles (except a Miscast) and the result is higher than the casting value the spell is cast as a perfect invocation

Finally, you may spend 25 points to purchase 0-1 Sorcerous Ruses per mage. The Sorcerous Ruses are generated randomly at the beginning of the game by rolling a D6 on the Sorcerous Ruses Table. Most of the Ruses rely on either a die roll or an opposed die roll. The best of the list is Escapology which allows the Wizard to recover a wound on a D6 roll of a 4+ when it loses it’s last wound. If you could buy this outright I think every Wizard Lord in the game would have it! Spell Eater is also a very good result as not only does it automatically dispel an enemy spell with no roll needed (except for a spell cast with perfect invocation, then the player may attempt to dispel it on a natural double 6 as normal.) Additionally, the next time the Wizard makes a Casting roll after using this ruse they may roll an extra D6 to the Casting roll, discarding the lowest result!

The other four results are opposed rolls when an enemy wizard casts a spell. Both players roll either a D6 or a 2D6 and add one of their stats to the result, depending on the Ruse generated. The wizard using the ruse uses a variant of their Wizardry level (level, level divided by 2 and so on) and either a D6 or 2D6 while the enemy wizard rolls a D6 adds a characteristic such as Leadership, Toughness, Initiative, or Wizardry level. If the wizard using the Ruse loses the roll the spell is cast. If the result is tied the spell is dispelled. If the wizard using the Ruse wins the spell is dispelled and the enemy will lose a wound, won’t be able to cast the spell again, reflect the spell against the caster, or dispel any of the enemies other spells in play. Looking at the opposed rolls it looks like unless you are using a level 4 Wizard you will more often than not lose the roll, depending on the army you are playing, and even with a level 4 the odds are not in your favor. Overall I’d say while two of the results are good the other 4 are not, and thus probably not worth the 25 points.

Much like the Razing of Westerland pays homage to the classic Path to Glory The March of Chaos brings some fun character creation elements to your games in The Old World by introducing two new characters: Champions of Ruin and Chieftains of Ruin, specially blessed Heroes of the Warriors of Chaos and the Beasts of Chaos respectively.

A Champion of Ruin has one better WS, I, and W than a regular Aspiring Champion, while a Chieftain of Ruin has one better W than a regular Wargor. I’m not sure why the Chieftan has so many fewer upgrades to the hero stat line than the Champion. While he is only a 15 point upgrade and the Champion is 20 more points I think they should have similar upgraded stats. Maybe having new models helped the Warriors of Chaos in more than looks! Each of these characters can roll three times on the Ill-fated Gifts table, and pay 25 points per additional roll on the table, up to three times. The Ill-fated gifts table provides 11 potential gifts, which can stack if you roll the same results multiple times. While there is a chance your character ends up suffering from Stupidity, or Impetuous, there is also a chance the model will gain a 5+ regeneration, or D3 attacks with a +1 leadership! The model can also gain armor piercing, gain a wound, a point of weapons skill, Initiative, Toughness, Strength, or gain Hatred. With the exception of Hatred everything else can be increased at least once, some such as Wounds can be increased as many times as that result is rolled! Again, the authors consider the impact of these characters on Matched Play events suggesting they not be used, or at the bare minimum announced well ahead of the event.

Also as a nice throwback to older editions the Hordes of Chaos Army of Infamy allows the Chaos player to bring a mixed force of Warriors and Beastmen. I have to say this list excites me for this reason alone! While I never had a mixed force back in the day I always wanted one and this is a great excuse to add some Beastmen to my Warriors of Chaos list. If they expand to a full army so be it! I guess I finally have a reason to paint up those Pestigors I’ve owned since they were released. No, not the plastic ones….

The Army of Infamy has a few rules about how the two elements interact. Beastmen Units within 6″ of a Warriors unit may re-roll hit results of a natural 1, while Warrior units may re-roll any To Wound results of a 1 within 6″ of a Beastman Unit. This allows both units to be more effective as they show off to their frenemies! If a character in this Army of Infamy kills their opponent in a challenge they must roll on the Gaze of the Gods table, and once per game your General may re-roll the D6 when rolling on the table. Definitely worth saving in case your patron deity decides to turn you into a Spawn! On the negative side Beastmen characters can’t join Warrior units and Warrior characters can’t join Beastmen units, and neither side can use the Leadership of the others characters. They don’t trust each other that much! Finally for each character with a Mark of Chaos besides Undivided you include you must bring a unit marked with that Chaos Mark as well.

This Arcane Journal introduces a new Wizard, the Cult Magister, and a new unit, Chaos Cultists. The Cult Magister is a Level 1 Wizard that can use either Daemonology or Dark Magic. He can’t be the Army General and can only join units with the Dark Pawns (i.e. Chaos Cultists) special rule. The Cult Magister can be given the Ambushers special rule so he can join his Chaos Cultists. Even more fun he has the Sacrifice special rule in which he can sacrifice one of his Cultists and adding their Wounds total to his Casting roll! Bad day to join a cult when this guy is around! His stats aren’t terrible for a low level mage with a WS of 5 and S and T of 4. Give him a flail and he is not to be laughed at, even if he isn’t as tough as most Chaos Wizards! The Chaos Cultists have two hand weapons and throwing weapons, but can swap those out for hand weapons and short bows. They are 1 less WS than Chaos Marauders and no armor but they are Skirmishers and Ambushers, and as I mentioned they give you a chance to bring short bows! Are short bows great? No. Are they retro? Absolutely, which means that’s how I would equip them! This unit also gets to deploy from Ambush closer than normal, being restricted to 4″ instead of 8″ from an enemy unit and they can add or subtract 1 from their Ambush roll. Looking like normal humans really helps!

Both of these entries are on 25mm bases which seems odd as the Chaos Warriors all have 30mm bases, but I guess the Beastmen still use 25mm bases so in a true Hordes of Chaos Army of Infamy they won’t look too out of place. Sadly these two minor units can only be used in the Hordes of Chaos Army of Infamy, I’m hoping this changes as they add a little more variety to the Warriors of Chaos.

Finally, this Arcane Journal contains 17 new Magic Items. These Corrputed Magic Items are common items that can be used by all armies, but not without risk. With the exception of one item they all have some form of drawback. While it’s nice to have a Sword that hits at S+1, -1 AP, and provides +D3 extra magical attacks for only 50 points, you have to be willing to live with the chance that if you don’t cause any wounds in combat you’ll suffer D3 Strength 4 hits with an AP -1! The more powerful the item the greater the drawback, which is how it should be! I think these items will be used by players in friendly games, or Matched Play players who are willing to take a few risks. I really like the narrative nature of these items and can’t wait to see them on the battlefield!

Overall I think this is a super fun book that provides a lot of options and variants no matter what army you play. It hits me right in the nostalgia so if you have been playing a while I think you’ll like the book just for that twang of “the good old days.” Even if you are newer the magic items and different ways of effecting spell casting is well worth it.

Have you picked this new Arcane Journal up yet? If so what are your thoughts?

-Wachtmeister

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