Taken with permission of Skavenblight
Chaos has the problem of no good
missile troops, so you have to hit hard and you have to hit fast,
taking advantage of the fact that Chaos has some of the best HtH
troops there are. Use formations that exploit this. Chaos is one
of the few armies where I would use the Weighted Line or the
Center Presented deployment (the Big Arrowhead line). With the
Weighted Line, use Chaos Knights and Minotaurs or Chaos Warriors
as your main strike force on one flank of your line, anchor the
other flank with more Chaos Warriors, and deploy your Beastmen
between them (I find the best weapon for Beastmen is the
halberd), give them light armour and a shield so that they will
survive to get in HtH. Things like Chaos Hounds are good for
protecting your flanks, Harpies make good harrassment troops, and
if you can afford them, Dragon Ogres can be added to the weighted
end of your line. Centaurs are the only decent missile troops you
have, but they are exspensive. Of the Daemons, I think that Flesh
Hounds and the Flamers of Tzeentch are probably the most useful,
followed by PlagueBearers, and Nurglings can be useful as
screens, because of their 3 wounds for only 30 points, and they
cause fear, and have a Daemonic save, they can really tie up the
enemy for a while. I do not usually use the Greater Daemons, as I
feel the points are better spent otherwise, but of the Greater
Dameons I lean toward the Lord of Change as being the most useful
for its points cost.
You *must* get into HtH early in order to have any chance of
winning, and you must break your opponent's line and get into his
rear areas, or you must roll up his flank, you cannot give him a
chance to cut your troops down with missile fire and artillery,
and speaking of artillery, a cheap flying monster or Harpies are
good for getting rid of them. This is one of the armies that
needs its characters and their extra fighting abilities to win,
use your characters wisely. The special characters are very, very
high in points, but one or two can be a focal point for your
attack.
Always, I repeat, *always* give any unit that can have one a
magic standard, especially your Chaos Knights and Chaos Warriors.
For the Chaos Knights, I choose a Khorne banner, likewise the
Chaos Warriors, but that is a subjective choice, made because my
style of fighting with a Chaos army is to attack with a hard rush
of troops. Hope this is of some help, the formations are posted
elsewhere in this section.