Lords and sorcerers

Having gotten myself into a few discussions lately about the merits of either Chaos Lords versus Chaos sorcerers I am gonna try to put my thoughts on those two HQ choices into writing. I will not talk about the other three HQ choices, the prince, the dark apostle and the warp smith. I do not use them in any of the lists I play presently.

The Chaos Lord

What he brings to the table:
 The lord has the standard statline for a marine lord. But he also brings fearless and the option to be customized to work almost any end of the tactical spectrum.

How to play him:
You either want to play him aggressively or defensively. Willynillying around somewhere inbetween will just get him killed and waste your points. Get him stuck into the enemy lines as fast as possible, using bikes or juggernauts to send him there by turn two. When your there, the enemy will either have to deal with him or watch him tear their lines apart.
For a defensive lord you stick him with a blob of something. Cheap ass chaos marines, with plasmaguns, would be my suggestion. That way he provides fearless for the blob to let it work its shooting, for however long you want to, as you move the blob into the midfield.

Builds and loadout:
Khorne juggernaut lord (170): juggernaut, mark of khorne, axe of blind fury, sigil of corruption
Nurgle bike lord (160): bike, mark of nurgle, powerfist, sigil of corruption
Unmarked foot lord (135): powersword, burning brand. sigil of corruption

The Sorcerer

What he brings to the table:
The sorcerer has taken a hit since 5th edition. But it also brought him in line librarians from other marine armies. He got quite a few customizable options and whatever you fancy you can more or less do with him. Also he is cheap as a hooker on the harboerfront, on a slow tueday noon.
He provides a quite nice selection of offensive and utility powers.

How to play him:
You can play him aggressively as yet another shooter unit. That is a waste of his powers if you ask me. The shooting powers in either Tzeentch or pyromancy are at best mediocre. Another aggressive way to use him is with biomancy and slaanesh powers. Blessings for himself and his unit or maldedictions for the opposition. If you do this, you could put him on a steed and stick him with spawns and outflank them.
The utility way is the obvious selection for my sorcerers.I choose telepathy and stick him with a large unit of marines. Then I hopefully get invisibility for a 2+ cover save in terrain. If not then the remaining powers are also good, maybe except for Mental fortitude.

Builds and loadout:
Slaanesh level 3 sorcerer: mark of slaanesh, sigil of corruption, steed of slaanesh, spell familiar
Unmarked level 3 sorcerer: sigil of corruption, spell familiar, burning brand

Finally some thoughts on warlord traits

Against almost any marine player I would roll on the chaos table. The chance of having preferred enemy against them is just to good to pass up. Also there are a few other results that are ok like master of deception and hatred incarnate. The remaining are quite useless though.

If I play a flyer/reserve heavy army I often consider rolling on the strategic table. Giving the opposition -1 on reserve rolls is golden. Also being able to pull down nightfightning over the battlefield is quite good. Especially if your going second and got vehicles with search lights such as rhinos.

A few times I rolled on the personal traits. Getting FNP when your within 3" of an objective is quite nice when you just blasted your lord and hangarounds into the enemy lines near his objective. One extra victory point for characters killed by the lord isnt the worst thing that can happen to you either.