New Warhammer: The Old World Warriors of Chaos arrive in a 54-miniature core box, points-matched against Grand Cathay right out of the gate.
Fifty-four miniatures and points-matched on both sides of the box is a great Warhammer The Old World core set that really pushes two different factions now. The Warriors of Chaos finally march in with fresh plastic for Warriors, Knights, and Champions, plus a brand-new plastic Chaos Dragon riding shotgun on the same wave. Across the table, the other half of the box is another addition to the Grand Cathay range that, honestly, looks amazing.
Plus, there’s a bigger release pattern hiding under all the shiny new evil armor, too. Battle March reinforcement boxes are shipping alongside the core set, which means the old “buy the core, wait a quarter, then buy the real expansion” cycle just got a lot shorter (hopefully, we don’t have actual release dates yet).
Either way, the 2026 Old World release roadmap suddenly looks a lot closer to a 40k codex wave than the slow-drip Old World rollout we’ve been used to.
Plus, GW stacked the release with a new Arcane Journal, a Beastman crossover Army of Infamy, a card pack, and a revised rulebook printing alongside the kits. So, anyone who built an army around the old Warriors of Chaos battalion box or the Chaos Marauders Reinforcement Set should love all these new minis.
Warhammer: The Old World Core Set
- Dual-army core set: 54 miniatures split point-for-point between Warriors of Chaos and Grand Cathay, with the new plastic Chaos Dragon centerpiece in the same wave.
- Battle March reinforcement boxes: Two new 400-750 point starter armies, one per faction, ship at the same time as the core set, which is a real cadence change.
- New Arcane Journal: The March of Chaos: Adds a Warriors of Chaos and Beastman Brayherds Army of Infamy, plus reworked Winds of Magic rules for WoC Wizards.
If this hits shelves around the price of other starter sets, the value starts adding up really fast, and best of all, both halves play as starter forces right out of the box
Here’s everything included:
- 1 Aspiring Champion on a Daemonic Mount
- 1 Aspiring Champion with Battle Standard
- 16 Chaos Warriors
- 4 Chaos Knights
- 1 Gate Keeper on a Cathayan Warhorse
- 1 Gate Keeper with Battle Standard
- 20 Jade Warriors
- 5 Jade Lancers
- 1 Cathayan Grand Cannon with Ogre Loader and crew
We think the matching points for each side is what pushes the set past the usual “starter box, but one side clearly needs help” problem. Now, two players can split the contents and get a game in without immediately needing to patch one army up with another purchase.
The rulebook, dice, templates, and playmat are all in the same box, too, so the only mandatory follow-up purchase for a new player is paint.
At the 2,000-point mark, each army still needs more bodies, so the new Battle March set on the Warriors of Chaos side gets you a lot closer to that goal, too. The real kicker is that the reinforcement box lands the same weekend as the core set, which lets you spend even more in one weekend… er, we mean, get more minis!
New Warriors of Chaos Models
Chaos Champion
The new champion kit in this set is far more interesting than the usual leader sprue. One champion fights on foot, the other rides a Daemonic Mount, and the assembly options let you build either one as a Chaos Lord, Exalted Champion, or Aspiring Champion.
Plus, one of them can also carry the battle standard.
That covers three different character options without digging through a bits drawer like you’re trying to match an old White Dwarf conversion article. For a faction where list-building often comes down to which character profile fits the remaining points budget, building that flexibility into the kit is a real upgrade.
Chaos Knights
The Knights are the unit that helps determine whether the Warriors of Chaos army pushes the middle or waits behind a wall of armor, daring someone else to make the first mistake. These new models in heavy plate, with great lances, and angry horses look great, and they make up the mounted punch in this starter force.
Best of all, they also share weapon options with the new Chaos Warriors kit, so swapping lances for hand weapons gives you some handy build flexibility out of the same plastic sprues. That’s the kind of flexibility the older WoC sprues were never exactly famous for, and the Old World base sizes guide covers what footprint the new models will need on the table now
Chaos Warriors
These new Chaos Warriors are the kit that a lot of players have been waiting for the longest. Best of all are the first new plastic Warriors of Chaos sculpts The Old World has had, and they look great even ranked up!
Horned helmets, jagged weapons, and the classic “walk forward until the other army becomes a terrain feature” energy are all here.
Sixteen new models come in the core set, which is short of a proper full block on its own, but the Battle March reinforcement box adds another eight, plus Marauders and Marauder Horsemen alongside them. So the core set plus two Battle March boxes get you to a much healthier fighting footprint without immediately buying a third Warriors kit, which is exactly the kind of army-building value that Warriors of Chaos players have been waiting to see.
Best of all, the level of detail sits much closer to the recent Marauders sculpts than to the older Warriors plastics, which helps the range feel like one army rather than two eras of GW design history standing in the same movement tray.
Chaos Dragon
Well, the Chaos Dragon is the centerpiece model that nobody was totally sure GW would commit to this early. Turns out, they did, and this thing is incredible on a scale that was unexpected in the Old World, we think.
It’s a two-headed plastic monster with the kind of table presence that makes every cannon in the room suddenly develop a personal grudge. Plus, the kit includes an alternate Sorcerer on Chaos Dragon build and unused rider builds as a foot version of the Lord or Sorcerer from the same sprue.
So you’re not just getting a monster, you’re getting a centerpiece and extra character value in one box.
Honestly, this is the model that ties the whole wave together. A faction refresh without a centerpiece can feel like just a starter release, and a centerpiece without the rest of the range can feel like a one-off. Getting both in the same preview is what moves this from “new box” to “actual army wave.”
Warhammer: The Old World Rulebook
The rulebook reveal is absolutely going to trigger the “is this second edition already?” question, as soon as people see it. Fortunately, it isn’t; this is a revised printing with the live FAQ rolled in.
Your existing Old World books still work at the table, which is the important part. Plus, if you already own the first rulebook, you don’t need to buy this one again unless you just want the cleaned-up version on your shelf.
The FAQ has been free online, and the Old World rules guide tracks what’s changed. The in-box book simply matches what most events have already been using for more than a year, while the standalone version is for anyone who’d rather have the FAQ and rules a single book instead of scrolling through a PDF between turns.
Battle March
Battle March might be the format change that will get new players into the game. It’s a 400-750 point Old World variant built for faster, smaller games, and the rules first appeared in Arcane Journal: The War of Settra’s Fury. Now they’re in the main core book too.
Plus, the Battle March: General’s Companion arrives alongside it with example muster lists, campaign rules, and six narrative scenarios. It also includes extra magic items keyed specifically to Battle March games, so this isn’t just “small-points Old World” with the same exact framework.
It looks like Lunchtime games at the FLGS, Tuesday night leagues, and raiding-party narrative campaigns are clearly the target here to get folks playing smaller, more fun games.
Two Battle March boxed sets are also shipping at the same time. The Warriors of Chaos Battle March set includes:
- 1 Sorcerer of Chaos
- 5 Chaos Marauder Horsemen
- 20 Chaos Marauders
- 8 Warriors of Chaos
- 4 Chaos Knights
While the new Grand Cathay Battle March set ships with:
- 1 Shugengan Lord on Great Spirit Longma
- 20 Jade Warriors
- 5 Jade Lancers
- 6 Iron Hail Gunners
- 4 Crane Gunner Teams
So these are perfect for running as starter armies, expanding the core box, or reinforcing an existing list without making you wait through another release season. Let’s hope GW keeps this release schedule of reinforcement boxes landing alongside new core content going into the future.
That will be a real shift from how The Old World launched, then started to sputter out. But now it could line up neatly with the rest of the 2026 Old World release schedule.
Arcane Journal: The March of Chaos
The Arcane Journal brings a real list-building feature for Warriors of Chaos players. The big unlock is an Army of Infamy that combines Warriors of Chaos with Beastman Brayherds.
New Winds of Magic manipulation rules for Wizards also stack on top of that, while custom Champions of Chaos and custom Brayherd Chieftains let players build character concepts that don’t exist in either base list. The lore, background, and artwork frame everything around the Westerland-Osterlund border push, giving the rules some actual narrative teeth instead of just stapling Beastmen onto the side for fun.
Card Packs
Three card packs round out the drop. Arcane Magic Ploys is new and ties directly into the magic rules from the new Arcane Journal. Common Magic Items and Lores of Magic are existing reference decks getting re-released with errata baked in.
The errata-baked re-release is the quietly useful part. If you already own those decks, you probably don’t need to buy them again. New players picking up the game through this box get updated cards from day one, which is also a value.
Final Thoughts on the New Warhammer: The Old World Warriors of Chaos
Chaos Warriors have been expecting a rework for a long time, and this wave definitely delivers.
A new core set, a centerpiece kit, two reinforcement boxes, an Arcane Journal, and updated card packs in one preview is the kind of stacked release wave you’d usually expect from a 40k codex window.
If Battle March reinforcement sets keep shipping alongside future faction waves, the time-to-table for new players drops from “buy the core, wait a quarter, then expand” to “buy the core and reinforcement box the same weekend.” Which changes how stores, leagues, and play groups plan around new releases.
Either way, the next faction wave is the one to watch. If Bretonnia, Lizardmen, or another major Old World army gets this same treatment, then this wasn’t a one-off Chaos flex. It was just the overall release-to-market model shifting gears.
Related Reads:
- Warhammer The Old World 2026 Roadmap + Release Schedule
- Warriors of Chaos Battalion Box Guide
- New Old World Chaos Marauders Reinforcement Set
- Warhammer: The Old World Rules Guide
- Chaos Dragon Conversion: Two Heads Are Better Than One
- Old World Base Sizes Guide
- Latest Old World FAQ Guide
What do you think of the new Warhammer The Old World Warriors of Chaos core set and the Chaos Dragon centerpiece kit?
