Greetings,

Instead of doing Orcs for the Tale of Fantasy Painters year long paint a thon on Warseer, I have decided to instead go with Chaos. My change of heart is because while liking the Orcs, I don't think an army would suit my style of play. That, and Black Orcs are the only models I really care for in the line.

I instead have decided to venture into a Chaos Cult army, but with that being said, I haven't decided which one I should do. I have narrowed it down to two possibilities; Tzeentch or Slaanesh/pleasure cult. Slaanesh would be neat as I could use stuff from the Rackham Devourers line as a Daemon Prince, but the Tzeentch one caught my interest because they are crafty and (even more) secretive than the rest of the cults. Also, I have the Liber Chaotica Tzeentch at home as well as 'The Witch Hunter's Handbook' that I got in the mail last week and have been obsessed with since I got it. I figure the armies would be similar whichever one I chose, using Flagellants as Marauders, having a unit of Daemons, and something cool and flashy for my Lord/Heroes.

Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated.

Khrangar

I love the Slaaneshi models. And I prefer their style of play, too.

Fluff-wise I prefer Tzeentch, but I would collect an army of Slaanesh if I had to choose between the two. I don't know what you think, though.

What I know is that Tzeentchian players are not very popular, even those who don't have a flying circus or a chariot army.

For either army, especially the Tzeentch one, I wouldn't go completely God heavy on it. I'd have a character or 2 and a couple units with the MoT or MoS and have the rest marauders and undivided/unmarked units. I want it to be more of a cult than a Hordes army. Have 1 or 2 units of warriors, one chosen, the other, possibly aspiring patrons of a diety. A couple marauder units as cultists, spawn, hounds, for the slaanesh one, led by a DP, for Tzeentch, a lord on foot.

As for my preference, I'm not too sure, I like both options and will be a step away from my Khorne army.

Khrangar

Khranger,

When you say a cult army, I think a bit of elaboration is necessary- Chaos cults, after all, spring up ALL around the warhammer world, and there's simply no way to know which region you would perfer. While your selection of models seems to suggest a northern warband, I thought that perhaps it would be interesting to consider the possibility of a chaos cult from imperial or Kislev boarders- just to make something a bit more interesting.

This, of course, would make it much more difficult to represent chaos warriors and champions and the likes, but I'm sure it could be done. the first thing that came to mind as you were discussing your ideas was a wealthy nobleman of the empire heading up a cult of tzeentch, promising change to the poor who he had more or less brainwashed. This would allow you to field a champion of Tzeentch (the noble), with a Daemon Prince he has summoned, and then a lot of mauraders as the poor, perhaps something like dock workers so that their beefiness could be explained.

If you're going for a normal Chaos Wastes/ Norsca cult, then... ummm, mutations or leather, depending on which god you choose.

I'll figure out exactly what I want in terms of 'counts as' today and make a more elaborate post later on explaining everything.

Khrangar

An Imperial chaos cult would indeed be interesting. But if you take Imperial models, you'll have to make it quite clear that they represent Chaotic units, for example by combining elements from both armies.

Have you considered Beastmen, too?

Tzeentch! Tzeentch!

OK, I'm biased, but... Tzeentch.

As far as modelling... I'd be much more inclined to do a 'civilised' cult than some leather-clad bunch of savages. I mean, Chaos-worship is accepted up North. Why would it be a cult? Using Marauders and such like just makes another bunch of Norse/Kurgan raiders.

The Enemy Within, however, is much cooler. The Plague Monk/Mutation/Beastman sprues would give you some great opportunities for cowled, shuffling mutants, Free Companies and High Elves would give you great parts for normal acolytes of the Cult, and you could throw plenty of Horrors/Flamers into the mix as well. I'm thinking movement trays textured with summoning circles - perhaps make the corner models on the daemon units be chanting summoners with their arms raised towards the centre of the block.

Plus, it would give you an opportunity to do a really novel army: Tzeentch, but sans most of the elites, going for numbers. I reckon it would be a good deal more tactical than most Chaos armies, and definitely not one that would draw complaints, as @ztech mentioned. Ooh, and lots of psychological/sneaky stuff too, if you can: you want to undermine the enemy from within.

To tell the truth, I tried to make a Turich/Dhenra/Kruger/Khal-Tzaan cult army, on paper, but it fell through 'cos of how Khal-Tzaan had to be the general, so I ended up with about six Marauders and a bunch of Daemons filling out my core choices.

I am more to the tzeentch side aswell :wub:. Allthough I really like slaaneshi daemons.

Thanks for the replies.

As far as fluff goes, I figure they're on a pilgrimage to the Northern Wastes in order to get closer to the Gods and summon a Daemon Prince or Greater Daemon or something, but said daemon won't be in the list.

There are secret Chaos Cults all over the Empire, take the Purple Hand (a Tzeentch cult) for example. They have members from all over. I figured Flagellants would be best for a base model as they already have robes and whatnot and I can cover up any skin I don't want to have tattooed with sybols and markings and get some robed heads to cover their faces.

That is all I have for now.

Khrangar