Behold the awesome might of the Warriors of Chaos! I love this army because the models are some of the coolest in the game. Not to mention the possibilities for good fluff stories and a wide spectrum of characters. You have everything from the disgraced fallen heroes to the gluttonous warmongers that plague the civilized realms of man, and everything in between.

My Chaos Lord is named Aantar the Forlorn. He was born to a southern tribe that was about as close to friendly with the civilized realms of man that you can get while still being considered a barbarian of the North. He rose to prominence among his tribe by brokering trade and setting up mercenary contracts with some of the dukes and lords of the lower empires. Eventually he was given the title of chieftain over his tribe.

Aantar married his childhood sweetheart Shaela once he had made his fortunes and appointed his friend Gethus as his head counselor. Times were pleasant for the young trio for a season, for Aantar's actions had caught the attentions of the Great Architect.

The turn came when the tribe agreed to help a Bretonnian Lord by the name of Nicodemus to fight of an invading army of greenskins. Nicodemus was a poor and rather disliked member of the Bretonnian nobility and had therefore nowhere else to turn. Yet he loved his realm and wished to protect it, and this desire mixed with his prowess in battle won the respect of Aantar and his tribe, and so an unlikely friendship began between the two warriors. This alliance proved to be beneficial to both sides through trade and military aid and so it was that they prospered.

Then one day, while fighting the vile rat men, Shaela was wounded with a poisoned blade. The wound could not be healed by either the tribal medicine men or Nicodemus' surgeons. In desperation Aantar begged Gethus to pray to Father Nurgle for a cure, Gethus agreed and so began his discipleship under the plague god. But Tzeentch had already laid claim to Aantar and so visited him in a dream, teasing him with promises of a cure in the far north, beyond the rings of chaos. Aantar awoke the next day and instantly began issuing orders to prepare to march in the chaos wastes. He also enlisted the aid of Nicodemus to help in the campaign. Nicodemus agreed without hesitation and marshalled his host.

After a long and difficult march, Aantar and Nicodemus arrived at their destination. Aantar took his select few warriors and crossed over into the realm of Chaos, forbidding Nicodemus to follow him, so the Bretonnian Lord waited for his friend.

Aantar was shown visions indescribable to man during his final quest, and when he emerged he had a sad countenance on his face and a set of black boroque armor on with a glowing dark sword at his hip. He spoke to no one but instead went directly to his wife's side even before his warriors finished emerging from the chaos realm, each of them clad in similar plate armor.

At Shaela's side Aantar wept and begged for forgiveness from his dying love, exclaiming that this was the only way. He then asked to borrow Nicodemus' dagger, who acquiesced rather dubiously, and quickly pierced his wife's heart, she died with a ponderous look on her face. As if by design, Aantar's warriors fell on Nicodemus' men and began a wholesale slaughter of the southland men. Nicodemus and Aantar duelled for hours as the battle waged around them, but Aantar was too much. In the end nearly all of Nicodemus's men were dead and he himself was bound to a tree with his hands pierced to the trunk. Aantar whispered a quiet message in his ear before marching off at the head of a large host. The message was:

"I leave you alive, my friend, in the hopes that you can stop me"

Aantar's vision was of the end of the world, the reason that he sacrificed his wife was because the chaos gods agreed to leave her soul be (they lied of course, but he doesn't know that) and that she would be spared from the horrors of the coming apocalypse. Aantar doesn't see any way out of what he is now required to be a part of. Now Aantar has begun his campaign against the southland Empire. He has been gathering tribes to his banner for some time and has even journeyed far to the east to enlist ogres and even to enslave a wild manticore to be his steed. Now he has begun sending advance scout armies to test the borders of these soft imperials. The precursor to a larger invasion...

With my army I decided that I really liked the look of the Thousand Sons in 40k, and decided that such a color scheme would translate well to fantasy, so my army is mostly blue with highlights of gold. But because Aantar is drawing tribes from all over the north to his banners, this gives me an excuse to implement different color schemes between units and allows me to have fun playing around with different looks, so it's very difficult to get bored with this project. Here are a few pictures of a couple of my models:

We'll start with a picture of Gethus, Aantar's second in command:

I liked the idea of a green color scheme and wanted to use that for my sorcerer (odd choice considering that he is in a Tzeentch based army, I know) But he's mainly there to buff up my Knights and help them to be able to get across the board. I used the sorcerer lord model from the manticore kit and modded a chaos knight's horse to be rearing up. I figured the scythe would be a good staff for a nurgle priest, and fluff wise, rather than becoming bloated and horrendous, Gethus has developed leprosy which is why he seems gaunt next to other warriors in the army. Neither is he a happy fellow because he knows that he failed to save his friend's wife, yet he continues to serve Nurgle in hopes that he will not lose another loved one to sickness and disease again, even if it means converting them to the plague god.

Next we have Kaedmon:

Kaedmon was one of Aantar's fiercest rivals growing up, and has been known to fight dirty in order to upstage Aantar, however as the years progressed, and Aantar's prowess and fame grew, finally outstripping his rival. The warrior allowed hate to fester in his heart. He followed Aantar's crusade only looking for a chance to stab him in the back and take control of the tribe himself. Yet when he accompanied Aantar into the realm of Chaos, he emerged a changed man. Now he follows Aantar without question, leading his Knights into battle, who knows what dark promises were given him by the Great Architect?

And here are the Knights that Kaedmon leads into battle:

Here is where the biggest Thousand Sons influence comes in. The strong golds and deep blues. I chose lances more for an aesthetic look than anything else, but they also play as my hammer unit mostly, and so therefore that extra strength on the charge comes in handy quite often.

Lastly here are my warriors:

Again the Thousand Sons theme tends to play in here, I also rather enjoyed the lightning effect on their banners and shields. It played together and was a snap to do, so it made shields a breeze to paint. This unit, with the MOT and the Blasted Standard makes for an amazing anvil unit that can soak up even heavy cannon shots into their ranks. They are great for stopping a charge, and with their great stat line they can usually push back most things they come up against.

That is my army, I plan to keep updating it. (My model of Aantar still isn't ready to be put up, but he will be coming soon) currently Aantar is invading the Empire, as he feels that the Everchosen is taking too long to fulfill his destiny and wishes to be done with the foul deal that he has been given. I will be writing up some battle reports soon. Let me know what you think in the comments!