Below are the summaries of all the points changes for all the Death factions.
Age of Sigmar General’s Handbook 2022 – Death Points Changes
Category Archives: Reviews
Age of Sigmar General’s Handbook 2022 – Chaos Points Changes
Below are the summaries of all the points changes for all the Chaos factions.
Age of Sigmar – Sylvaneth Battletome Review
Sylvaneth have been a troubled faction for a while in Age of Sigmar – a beautiful but relatively small model range, endlessly tweaked faction terrain rules (and let’s not get started on transporting those wyldwoods) and almost all competitive lists lists built around the dominant ‘Warsong Bomb’ combo.
In no uncertain terms, the new book changes everything. That’s almost literally true. So without this review becoming a novel-length guide to the entire faction, I’m going to try and focus on the biggest changes and offer a broad perspective on what it looks like Sylvaneth are now, in terms of play-style, predicted strength overall, and the biggest winners/losers from the Tome.
A quick note on ordering, based on some learnings from our last Tome review. And we feel it actually makes sense to start with army abilities and sub-faction rules, before diving into units, then tackling Enhancements (so you can understand who they make sense on) before finishing up with the Grand Strategies and Battle Tactics.
QUICK LINKS
- Army Rules
- Glades (Sub-Factions)
- Spells
- Endless Spells
- Units
- Command Traits
- Artefacts
- Matched Play Rules
- Final Thoughts
Sylvaneth Battletome Review
ARMY RULES
There’s a crazy amount of synergy in this Battletome, and it all starts with and revolves around Places of Power.
Start of a battle you pick 3 terrain features wholly outside enemy territory and they become ‘overgrown terrain features’. By default, each Sylvaneth unit within 9″ can regen 1 wound. Where it gets interesting is how this combines with all sorts of rules – but the next army rule is From The Woodland Depths, which has two main effects.
The first is essentially the same as the old Walk the Hidden Paths – allowing one unit wholly within 9″ to teleport to within 9″ either an overgrown terrain or wyldwood – with two provisos. Standard teleport rules apply (not within 9 of an enemy unit) and crucially, the terrain piece can’t be in engagement range of an enemy unit.
For the rest of the review we’ll refer to these combined teleporting restrictions as ‘Walking the Paths restrictions’. And we’ll use the shorthand ‘within terrain range’ to mean ‘wholly within 9″ of an overgrown terrain or awakened wyldwood’.
Overall this is more flexible than before but does mean a clever opponent can limit your teleporting options by careful positioning.
The second effect is Strike and Fade, which is potentially huge, even if it requires some careful set up – once per turn, a Sylvaneth unit that has fought can immediately teleport, with Walking the Paths restrictions. This is potentially very tasty, allowing glass-hammer units to fight with impunity, or as a way to radically reposition a tanky slow unit, etc etc – I expect we’ll all be having lots of fun with this one.
Finally, Verdant Blessing remains, unchanged – a cast 6, 18″ spell to summon a wyldwood outside of 3″ of the usual objects.
A really tactical and interesting new addition are Seasons of War, which you can essentially think of as modifiers to the terrain rules, and therefore apply to units wholly within 9″ unless stated otherwise. These are added to your list, and you obviously just pick the one.
The Burgeoning gives units that didn’t charge a Ward of 6. Can’t complain. The Reaping adds 3″ to the terrain effect range – probably really useful given the average big base size of sylvaneth units, and allows you a bit more latitude. In many ways I can see this being my go to, as being slightly outside of ‘wholly within’ could ruin a whole turn’s worth of shenanigans.
The Dwindling allows for a hero phase re-roll of 1 cast, 1 unbindand 1 dispel – as in, 1 of each. Obviously strong given how good Sylvaneth magic is. Lastly, Everdusk reduces terrain effect range by 3″ but in exchange you get exploding 6s to hit in melee. I feel like the 6″ range is going to be too restrictive for this to be reliable, but you’ll see that there are a few ways to make certain units count as overgrown, which does make this more flexible than it appears at first glance.
Overall, I love these rules, they’re easy to remember, are all upside, and give you a meaningful tactical layer.
GLADES
Glades return (obviously) but follow the 3rd edition paradigm of being streamlined and fluffy. And good!
Oakenbrow makes Treelords battleline and for bracketing purposes you halve the damage taken by all of the biggest trees – so also Treelord Ancient and Durthus. Durthi? In the new GHB meta, this is an interesting option to avoid giving up extra damage against your battleline units and allows you to lean into a tanky Ent list, which is awesome for obvious reasons.
Gnarlroot remains the magic pick of choice, allowing a once per turn cast on 3d6 removing one dice while in terrain range. Given some of our spells get better with higher values, this combined with the potential re-roll from Dwindling could be very nice.
Heartwood sees a big change – now it makes Kurnoth battleline, and allows you to pick 3 enemy units that your whole army gets +1 to hit against. This is a great CP saver and even though, as you’ll see, I’m not totally sold on Kurnoth Bows, it means they could make sense as MSU in this Glade.
Ironbark now gives you a command ability usable on a unit in engagement range of an enemy that has charged – on a 2+ that unit suffers d3 mws. A nice punishment for daring to charge your lovely stickmen – and here’s the kicker – it can be used multiple times, but not on the same enemy unit. Obviously fairly useless against horde units but the chance to kill a mid-wound model and deny its attacks could add up over the course of the game – overall, I think this is too niche to be taken competitively.
Winterleaf leans intro a control playstyle, and prevents enemy units from falling back. And if combined with Everdusk (which is a cool combo, and kind of a shame the others don’t offer a combined effect) that unit also can’t be removed – as in, they can’t be teleported somehow away either. Teleporting shenanigans are becoming more prevalent in the game so this is (situationally) more useful than it first appears.
Dreadwood plays clearly into Spite-revenants – making them battleline and allowing you to use Walk the Paths and/or Strike and Fade twice but with the proviso that one of those times it must be Spite-revs. I can’t really think of a reason this isn’t the weakest Glade going, but, y’know, if you really love Spite-revs and want to play more of a horde Sylvaneth, this is how you do it.
Harvestboon allows EACH unit of the new flying cavalry to make a pre-game move of 12″ – and they’re battleline in it. You will see that Spite-riders have a strike first effect, meaning if you can fit into a one drop, this Glade allows you to set up an alpha strike of as many bug cavalry as you want, all fighting before any enemy unit can retaliate. Risky but potentially hilarious!
SPELLS
Sylvaneth are a faction who’ve always had a pretty great time with magic, and it’s better than ever now.
Throne of Vines (casting value 9) heals 1 wound to the caster at the end of each phase until next hero phase – so a minimum of 6 and a max of 12! It’s a ‘heal over time’ so you trade immediacy for reliability. At CV 9 it’s a great candidate for using the Vesperal Gem on (more on that below).
Regrowth (18″ – cv 5) heals d6.
Dwellers Below (12″ cv 7) rolls a dice per model in a unit and does mws on a 5+. Could be fun now we’re more likely to see more, bigger units in general. As you will see, there are similar spells you can combo this with to potentially decimate big units – although part of me would like to see a little variation in effects, and something more targeted towards smaller units.
Deadly Harvest (3″, cv 6) does d3 mws to each unit in range. Not amazing but fine for combat-casters, of which we have a couple.
Verduous Harmony (18″, cv 7) brings back a model to a unit, or d3 models to tree/spite revs or dryads. See a healing theme emerging yet?
Treesong (16″, cv 7) is a great new spell that gives any unit in terrain range but specifically of wyldwoods an extra rend. Shame it’s not any terrain, but still potentially very strong, as in the right situations you could improve the rend of multiple units at once with this.
Overall, it’s a useful, fluffy and powerful lore with some fun effects. At first glance it seems like it wants you to lean into big, tanky, multi-wound units to make the most from it.
ENDLESS SPELLS
I’m over the moon with what GHB22 is doing for endless spells in general and Sylvaneth’s fall in line, offering some excellent, highly synergistic effects at a new bargain price that means *gasp* you will actually use them.
Spiteswarm Hive (40 pts) got brought in line with 3e rules but still rocks – you choose between two effects, each applying to one unit wholly within 9″ in the hero phase – +3″ to move and charge or reduce rend by 1. Buut both go off on a 2+, annoyingly again – you’ve already paid the points, summoned the spell…and it can still fail on you? Bogus!
Gladwyrm (50 pts) is the same but well costed now – d3 mws on a 3+ to owt within 1″ AND heals d6 on a 3+. Get that in the mix and it will add tonnes of value to a melee.
Skullroot (60 pts), one of the damn coolest looking endless spells in the game, adds d3 units to a failed battleshock test AND, when it flies (8″) over an enemy unit, and any unit within 1″ of the tree, it does d3 on a 2+, or d6 if that unit is within 6″ of a wyldwood. There are plenty of opportunities for enemies to be near wyldwoods, but even if they’re not, this has clear and obvious value.
I mean, you’d be tempted to take all 3 right?
UNITS
Heck, there’s an awful lot to cover here. Lots of varied stat lines, abilities, and huge changes to the old book. Again, we’ll keep this high-level – don’t want to miss the wood for the trees – (SORRY I HAD TO) in the interests of not just transcribing the entire book.
Let’s start the A-mama herself, the Beetle-Queen, Ol’ Thunder Thighs, Alarielle. She’s good now – potentially really good – but with provisos. Talon of the Dwindling, Swirling Glowspites and her spell, Metamorphosis remain the same, but Lifebloom has seen a crucial glow up – now, after she’s been killed, she comes back on a 6+battle round number, but you only get one attempt so choose when to try it wisely. She’s got a great 1 shot 2/2/-2/6 bracketing shooting attack, and the beetle horns are decent in melee.
The other great new addition to her scroll is a once per game ‘turn everything into Overgrown’, which obviously has big synergy implications.
Basically, Alarielle does a little bit of everything now, and seems very viable to me as a lynchpin piece that operates in all phases. If she gets shot off turn 1 by pesky Stormfiends or what have you, at least she can now come back to play in the later rounds.
A big investment at 840 – but if you subtract the cost of the best unit she can summon, that’s more like 590. You’ll need to build your list around her, but a very pleasing glow up from her previous incarnation. Difficult to gauge whether she’ll be competitively viable – 16 wounds on a 3+ with no built-in after-save can still be liquified by plenty of things without too much effort – but I think with careful use she can contribute meaningfully to a list.
Her (strong independent literally used to be her)right hand – The Lady of Vines – is an exciting alternative. A good, tanky wizard who can chip damage at range and hold her own against smaller stuff in melee, her main incentives are a once per game Dryad summon – although it’s super frustrating to me that it goes off on a 2+ and is therefore guaranteed to fail when you really need it – and a 12″, CV 7 spell to give an aura of a 5+++, which is potentially huge. She also counts as Overgrown terrain but with a 9″ range, allowing her to be a mobile, much-cheaper alternative to her ‘mum’.
Drycha remains largely unchanged, functioning as a harassment piece who buffs spite-revenants with a +1 to their wound rolls. But I still don’t see why you’d ever really want to run them even with that. She still offers plenty on her own merits, as a mixed range, 1 cast wizard with a super swingy warscroll spell that does MWs based on the difference between your roll and their leadership. Her notable strength is the ability to double either her melee or ranged output to 20 attacks, and fish for mws on 6s, which means flexibility, good horde clearing potential, and a potentially great Unleash Hell candidate. Hard to see how the tree-mech competes with the more specialised Big Trees, but her versatility and speed (9″) does mean she’s nice and flexible.
Warsong Revenant also remains pretty much the same, losing his knowledge of the whole lore but remaining a very potent wizard (the only straight source of +1 to cast) with 2 casts and his great warscroll spell, rolling dice equal to the casting roll and doing mws on 5+. The 4 up ward will keep him hanging around, and as you will see, there are plenty of Enhancements that will find a great home in him. He also has a 12″ +1 bravery to friendlies and -1 to enemies aura which, weirdly, kinda combos well with Drycha’s warscroll spell – and also the Skullroot. Bravery buffs are always welcome too as a way to just avoid having to use Inspiring Presence.
The Arch Revenant gained a huge ability, and nothing else on his scroll is worth a damn, including his melee output – but it doesn’t matter. He now gives +1 wound to Kurnoth (ANY attack) within 12″, and has a CA to give one unit of them +1 attack. If you take any Kurnoth – who, spiler alert, are now amazing – you’d be mad not to bring him too. A fantastic buff piece now with another 4+ ward to help him survive sniping attempts.
Durthu remains a beat-stick – in the truest sense of the term! Well, more of a beat-wood but that has its own problems…. anyway, he’s the big melee hero. The main change to him is that his ‘fight last’ ability now counts as a unique monstrous action BUT goes off on a 3 now. So less swingy, but unfortunately means you can no longer try to do it twice with two Durthus. Still great overall as he dishes out the damage, walks the spirit paths himself (so freeing up the generic version) and gets an extra attack for being in terrain range.
The Treelord Ancient is basically unchanged, which isn’t exciting, but his once per game auto-wyldwood has bigger implications before due to our improve army rules, and he’s the tankiest wizard yet – bar Alarielle – who is no slouch in melee with a few -1 d2 and 2 -2 rend 3d attacks.
The generic Treelord is also largely the same, buuuut has one really cool new ability called ‘Lash and Tangle’ – if he hits something in melee, it can’t pile in. So, charge him into the ‘end’ of an enemy unit so only one of them is in weapon range of him, fight, dish out a fair bit of hurt – and boom, only 1 or 2 can slap back. Against a bigger unit, this is potentially HUGE if you position him right.
The Branchwych remains unremarkable save for having the Warsong’s spell and basically being our cheapest wizard. Which isn’t a bad thing to be in such an elite army – unexciting but fills a role, so can’t complain.
Gossamids! Much has been made of their d3 mortals on 6s to hit ability but, with 2 shots each, that’s 2 mws on average and not much else on top given they have no rend. They exist, frankly, to be an annoying screen, with their ability to fly away on a 2+ after Unleashing Hell – again, guaranteeing them to hover in place when you most need them to buzz away. They’re also flimsy, and will die to almost anything with so much as a rock to throw. I’m not saying they’re bad – against predominantly melee armies, the ability to fly up, do a few lucky MWs, move-block and fly ‘safely’ away once charged could be very annoying. But at 220…it seems like a big risk to me.
OK, let’s talk ‘true’ battleline: Tree Revenants, and their woodier counterparts, the Drayds. The Revs have 2 wounds each now but still die to a mean look. Their Tree cousins teleport still (which is always useful and a great scoring vector) and get a free All Out A/D which is fine. Dryads picked up a -1 to hit and -1 wound while within terrain range, which is kinda funny and could make for a frustrating screen, but they do literally nothing else other than hope for cold rolls from your opponent. And require careful positioning – a big blob could be nice but fitting it wholly within terrain range makes it much less appealing.
Spite Revenants, if you were paying attention in the Glades section, are no longer ‘true’ battleline. And they still don’t excite me, with 6s to hit doing a mortal and 3 attacks each, that’s 2 MWs (and again, not much else) per activation. Now, there are ways to situationally buff them a fair bit by adding rend while near a terrain, but in all honesty, the amount of set up required to make them put out meaningful stats is going to be too difficult or unfavourable in the vast majority of circumstances. They’re kinda cheap though and worth running if you want lots of little bodies accompanying Drycha. Maybe.
Kurnoth of all variety fare much better, and frankly are going to be hard not to take. Scythes points went up to match swords at 250, and do -3(!) rend for 2D. Swords get -1 but do their 2d on 6s to hit. Bows, bafflingly, still hit on 4s but have flat 2 damage and are slightly cheaper. So you have some tactical decisions to make – for my points, bows are out in the cold at the moment as you’re paying a large premium for how tanky they are – which is great for swords/scythes who are also standing there on objectives dishing out pain. But statistically the bows do very little without some buffing and support – and while useful for MAYBE sniping out a support hero, there are just much better ways in the book to do that.
Also, all flavours of ‘Noth have an updated ‘Envoys’ ability – when the ‘Noth is contesting an objective, they make friendly units in objective range also count as being within 6″ of terrain. More mobile synergy!
The new Bug Cavalry are also wonderful. Tanky, fast, and they hit hard with a good number of attacks, -2 for both with the Seekers having d2. The main difference is the Spite-Riders have fight first, while the Seekers can revive something with up to 5 wounds on a 2+. So yep, chances are they can bring back a Kurnoth model per turn, per unit. Both flavours heal their own models back to full health if they kill a model, have a 6″ pile in and rally on a 5+. So they’re survivable, flexible, hit decently hard and fill a niche Sylvaneth were otherwise sorely lacking. Very impressive unit.
Overall, a huge glow up, which was expected. There’s speed, tankiness, some good reliable output and a number of fun plays. There are some outright swings and misses – Spite Revs, Dryads – and some situationally good but too costly (and therefore risky), like Gossamids and maaaaaaybe Alarielle – or that require maybe too much set up (Dryads…again) and potentially Treelords. But I think overall there’s multiple viable lists in here.
COMMAND TRAITS
Gnarled Warrior makes your save unable to be modified, up or down. Obviously application on a 3+ Durthu or such! Lord of Spites reduces a unit’s attacks by 1 if it finishes a pile in within engagement of the hero – another great way to boost survivability. They’re both good, but Warsinger might be even better – adding 3″ to units within 12″ of the hero at the start of movement phase. Combine with Spiteswarm for 11″ move Kurnoth with a 10″ average charge, don’t mind if I do.
Wizard traits also run hot – Nurtured by Magic heals a unit d3 wounds within 18″ on a successful cast. Certainly not a bad incidental source of healing. Potentially HUGE is Warsinger, allowing a wyldwood to be where you measure the effect of a spell from – yeah, any wyldwood. This allows you to potentially be in spell range from turn 1, punish people trying to block your teleports, and all sorts – really interesting plays available here. Radiant Spirit ignores spell effects on a 4+, which seems more niche to me but is still a good counter to magic heavy armies if you pop this on a Treelord Ancient or you really want to ensure your Warsong remains alive and kicking, etc.
Hero wizards get Acorn of the Ages for an auto-wood within 12″. Luneth Lamp gives a wizard the option to banish an invocation with +2 to the roll – this is massively niche! Why you would ever take this unless you’re playing a casual grudge match against your invocation loving friend, I don’t know. Unless it’s a sign we’re somehow entering an invocation meta…. Preventing this page from being a complete waste of a dryad is the returning Vesperal Gem, allowing a once per turn auto-cast that can’t be unbound, but a 1 on a d6 roll does d3 mws to the user.
ARTEFACTS
Other heroes can choose from Greenwood Gladius, which adds d3 attacks to a melee weapon. I can the whispers of ‘Durthu’ on the wind…. Crown of Fell Bowers picks a unit within 6″ and gives all units +1 wound against it. This would be decent if it was just the hero, but all units? Nice! Seed of Rebirth rolls a d6 when the hero dies – on a 2+ they survive with d3 wounds and all other damage negated. With all the healing Sylvaneth has access to, this could be huge on a chonky hero.
MATCHED PLAY RULES
Topline, most of these are unfortunately a bust, which is frustrating given the design space and the fact the forthcoming GHB Tactics all seem harder to pull off on average. Factor in the book’s lack of good Galletian Vet candidates and it feels like Sylvaneth have been a bit short changed in terms of scoring potential, at least in the short term.
Grand Strategy wise, it’s tempting to just write ‘bin’ and move on, but in the interests of being thorough… Chorus of the Woodlands asks you to complete 4 battle tactics from the Sylvaneth list. You’ll see why I don’t think that’s very doable shortly. Vengeance and Spite wants you to kill the enemy general with an Outcasts keyword unit – so, Spite-revenants or Drycha. Urm. That’s not going to be terribly easy. Drycha could do it, but if the general is any kind of monster, she’s not doing it alone, which means a big game as you will have to soften it just the right amount with other units for her to finish it off.
Baffling that they’d hinge a whole Strategy on a keyword only two units have. Baffling and aggravating. Roots of victory tasks you with having a wyldwood in each corner of the board, and there being no enemy units with 6″ of them. This feels more doable but also like a huge win-more strategy, as it basically implies you will have almost complete board control. Thematic but hugely risky for so many obvious reasoons.
Massive let down.
Battle tactics fare slightly better. Eradicate Trespassers wants an enemy unit within 6″ of a wyldwood to die. With good positioning, there should be plenty of times in a game the enemy can’t help but be in range for this, so overall it’s nearly as bankable as ‘bring it down’ or ‘broken ranks’ used to be, perhaps better in some ways as it’s any kind of unit.
Harness the Spirit Paths requires a unit to use From The Woodland Depths (i.e. teleport to a terrain piece) and successfully make a charge. Now, charges of 9″ are far too risky, so I don’t like it – unless you have a Spiteswarm Hive set up, in which case your charge is now a re-rollable 6″ – much more doable.
Balance the Cycle wants you to kill a unit within 12″ of a terrain piece by a unit added to your army that turn – which basically means you’ll need Alarielle to summon Kurnoth or a Treelord, and for them to make a 9 incher – in this instance Spiteswarm doesn’t help because it picks a unit end of hero phase and Alarielle summons end of movement. I guess you could summon in 3 bow hunters and plink the last couple of wounds off a weak unit – otherwise this is a massive gamble.
March of the Forest Lords is, thank god, another sensible one. Kill an enemy monster with one of your Big Trees. All of which are good – but Durthu is obviously a beast, so this one goes some way to making amends for the others.
Unleash Ghyran’s Wrath needs a wizard you pick to kill a unit with a spell or endless spell. Given, as I mentioned before, that none of the Sylvaneth spells are really reliable single-target damage, this isn’t super bankable. However, plenty of our wizards have casting bonuses and multi-casts – so Warsong using Unleash Spites, having a Gladewyrm or Skullroot kicking around from the last turn and another spell/Arcane Bolt means you may have a few chances to finish off the last few wounds needed to score this.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There’s a lot to take in here. Having noodled on it all for a few days, I think the book’s strengths lie in tanky, reliable damage units that have surprising mobility – but the best combos in the book require a lot of careful positioning and over-lapping failable effects – i.e. there’s a risk one part of your plan falls through and ruins the synergy.
It’s also a really expensive book – and even though on average the costs are fair, it makes list-building a challenge because of not many smaller costs that can slot into the gaps between 300+ models/units.
A corollary of that is it’s another highly elite army. Heartwood offers the chance to take battleline that doesn’t give up additional damage against them from the new GHB Bounty Hunters battalion, but it also means it doesn’t place super nicely with some of the keyword scoring opportunities. And in general, if you wanted to run a more horde or infantry based list, in light of GHB 22, your options are severely limited – in competitive reality, I’d go so far as to say, limited to zero.
However, I’m bullish on the book in the long term. It’s flexible and non-linear – Enhancements seem varied and have plenty of candidates for them, the book can lean into magic dominance, pure anvil lists, hyper-mobility and alpha strikes, or leafy, synergistic death stars.
If nothing else, for existing Sylvaneth players, it feels like the first time in many years the faction feels like it should. And I woodn’t trade that for the world.
What do you think of the Tome? Got any thoughts on combinations that we may have missed? How will the Sylvaneth slot into the current meta?
Start Collecting: Slaves to Darkness – Beginners 1,000 Point Army
What’s in the box……!?
1 Chaos Lord on Karkadrakk
5 Chaos Knights
10 Chaos Warriors
16 miniatures, including a mounted hero and five cavalry
One of the best things about the Start Collecting! boxes are the savings, which are usually great. In this case, (as of 18/06/22 in GBP) the box is £65… What do you save, you may ask…. Well, that’s a bit of a complicated question, the Chaos Lord on Karkadrakk isn’t available in any other way and the newer knight and warrior models are also only available in this set…. Oof.
Aside from this, these sculpts are push-fit and the two units do not include options for either banners or standard bearers which you will want. This means that, in order to have units working at their full potential some conversion is needed, which isn’t brilliant for a starter set presumably aimed at beginners.
There are some minor options available – two head options for the Karkadrak Lord and head options for the warriors (male and female which is cool). There’s also the option to build a Doom Knight champion, with a Doom Flail, for the Chaos Knights to give extra Doom.
Unfortunately, the nature of the kit does mean that only one of the four potential Chaos Warrior option weapon fits is available, as these are hand weapon and shield warriors only. In addition, only the lance option is available for the Knights (other than the aforementioned Doom Knight option).
The push-fit nature of the sculpts does also present a bit of a tricky painting problem as there are some hard to reach bits and sub-assembly may be a bit fiddly.
These sculpts are excellent though, very dynamic but close enough to the originals to fit nicely in in with the rest of the range. They also don’t have markings for any specific god so can be painted to suit your taste in appalling extra-dimensional overlord or overlords. A great update to classic sculpts.
As mentioned, the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak sadly isn’t available in any other set and so there really isn’t any way to give yourself much variety if you wished to run more than one…. though I don’t know why you would.
A separate Chaos Warrior regiment set, with the older sculpts, is available direct from GW at £35 for sixteen(!) warriors. The sharp-eyed amongst you will have noticed that this isn’t a good number as the minimum unit size is ten, so you will have more hotdogs than buns. On the flip-side, whilst these are older and more static sculpts, which were designed to rank up for Warhammer Fantasy, they are multipart and do have banner and musician options.
This older kit can be built with either shields or two hand weapons but if you want halberds or great weapons you will need to spend a bit of money. GW used to make upgrade kits for these options but have discontinued them, sad to say. It is possible to make some quite convincing halberdiers though by using the spears from the separate Chaos Knight kit, if you choose to build your Knights with Ensorcelled Weapons.
For separate Chaos Knights, with the older sculpts, you will need to find £36 for ten. YMMV on this but I don’t think this is terrible value though I do really like the aesthetic of the kits. This multipart offers all of the build and command options and fits in reasonably well alongside the Start Collecting! knights, though perhaps not so well aesthetically as the warriors.
Who or What are Slaves to Darkness then?
The Chaos Gods are the ‘Big Bad’ of the setting and have had a huge trove of lore written about them over decades, so please forgive the rough edges of what follows…..
These are extra-dimensional representations of mortal drives and emotions become self-aware and turned up to eleven. These ‘Gods’ destroyed the Old World (does this mean GW is actually Chaos Undivided?) and are intent on corrupting the Mortal Realms and doing it all again. The Chaos Gods are reflections of mortal drives and emotions and seek to drive mortals further and further down the path of dedicating themselves to those drives and emotions. There are separate books for those purely aligned to a single God and their Daemonic footsoldiers. The Slaves to Darkness book is more for those who are still holding their cards close to their chest before playing a hand they can’t win. Chaos Undivided is the worship of all of the Chaos Gods, if you enjoy buffet food for some reason then this may be the option for you.
Slaves to Darkness are the (largely) mortal worshippers of Chaos Gods who are still sampling the buffet and have not yet dedicated themselves (entirely) to a single God, though they may have a Mark which bestows some Godly favours.
Unit Review
Chaos Lord on Karkadrakk
This got a slight points drop after the book was released from a slightly bonkers 250 to a slightly less bonkers 225.
Our Karkadrak can move 9″ and comes on a 90 by 52mm base which can be useful in blocking off an enemy move and generally being a bit annoying.
At 9 wounds Look Out Sir! is available, with a 3+ save and a 5+ mortal wound save this is moderately survivable but can’t stand with any serious melee threats for too long.
Your healing options in Slaves are limited so be aware that, if focused, this Lord will go down quick. This is a sad truth of Slaves, in my opinion, your generic Lords are not the melee terrors they were in The World That Was and if you try to use them like they are you will suffer.
The Karkadrak does have a plethora of attack profiles though – five with a total of 13 attacks!
These aren’t great though, most are zero rend with six at -1. Your Karkadrak does have a heal effect with their axe, if it slays an enemy with the weapon it can heal D3. On the charge the Karkadrak can deal D3 damage to each enemy unit within 1″ on a 2+
The Karkadrak may be best described as a moderate utility buff hero and not an anvil or a beat stick. What buffs though….? Well, Slaves units receive buffs from nearby heroes with the same Mark. Plus, the Karkadrakk has a Command Ability which buffs Chaos Knights and Chariots wholly within 18″ giving them reroll charges and +1 to hit. This means that, if you wish to lean into Knights and Chariots, the Karkadrak can be a fun addition.
Chaos Knights
These are currently 170 points for a five and sadly often used more like semi-survivable chaff rather than delivering the hammerstrike you may be wishing for, I am afraid you need to look to Varanguard for that.
Knights have a 10″ move which is OK for cavalry and a 75 by 42mm base. Knights also have a 4+ save and a 5+ mortal wound save with 3 wounds. Their big bases are helpful for screening but again they won’t survive prolonged attention.
Command options include a champion, standard bearer and musician. The Doom Knight champion gets an extra attack and can take a flail with a 2″ range and D6 attacks. IMHO both the Ensorcelled Weapons and Cursed Lances outclass this but YMMV.
The Standard Bearer (1 in 5) adds plus one bravery giving a potential bravery 8, it’s free so you take it but I do usually find this unit is either OK or just blows up….
The Hornblower musician (1 in 5) adds plus 1 to run and charge rolls, which is always a great buff.
Knights are apparently scary *cough*, so their Horrifying ability subtracts one Bravery from enemy units with a model within 1″…. ahem.
Are they actually scary though? Well, with Ensorcelled Weapons they’re putting out 3 3+ 3+ -1 rend 1 D attacks…. plus the 2 4+ 4+ – 1 D attacks from the horses. We have the lance variant from the Start Collecting box though which gives us buffs on the charge (2 damage and -2 rend) but is less effective in a prolonged melee grind with only 2 attacks and hitting on 4s.
Knights sadly don’t do great damage and can’t really take a punch.
Chaos Warriors
These clock in at a whopping 200 points for ten. They do have 2 wounds though and taking mark of Tzeentch can help their resilience, which really spikes in units of ten or more though (+1 to save taking them to 3+) so if you are looking for that you will need to pile in 400 points or lose it quickly.As mentioned, Warriors have a range of weapon options – Hand weapon and shield, Great Weapon, dual hand weapon, halberd and dual wield.
We all know dual wield should be the correct option, with a dove fly-by, but sadly only giving reroll hits and losing the mortal wound repelling ability of the shield (5+ MW ignore) simply isn’t worth it.
Great Weapons are another cool choice but again the loss of the shield is a huge blow, though the pip of rend is nice.
Halberds give us a 2″ reach, compensating for the 32mm girth, with the trade off of a 4+ rather than 3+ to wound and may be a nice option for a large block of warriors, allowing more to attack.
The only option in our start collecting box though is hand weapon and shield, giving 2 3+ 3+ 0 rend 1 D attacks, I haven’t found Warriors very killy in any variation but they can do some work against light armour and can be considered an OK anvil.
As mentioned, Warriors have a range of weapon options – Hand weapon and shield, Great Weapon, dual hand weapon, halberd and dual wield.
Points mean prizes
At the time of writing the Start Collecing! box clocks in at a fairly respectable 595 points and immediately fills our core requirements for a 1k game of a hero and two battleline.
Should you buy multiples of this set?
Well, in the current meta definitely not (and possibly not even one….). They are fantastic models though and really give the heavy metal theme of Slaves to your army. You will have a bit of a samey feel to your army though due to the lack of variety in poses and will need to do some work to create your command models.
So, a 1K army list might look like this:
Allegiance: Slaves to Darkness
– Damned Legion: Ravagers
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs:
Chaos Lord on Karkadrak (225)
– General
– Artefact: Mark of the High-favoured
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Ravagers Command Trait: Master of Deception
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (135)
– Ravagers Command Trait: Bolstered by Hate
– Spell: Mask of Darkness
10 x Chaos Warriors (200)
– Hand Weapon & Shield
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
5 x Chaos Knights (170)
– Cursed Lance
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
10 x Chaos Warriors (200)
– Hand Weapon & Shield
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
9 x Untamed Beasts (70)
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
Total: 1000 / 1000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 2
Allies: 0 / 200
Wounds: 78
Drops: 6
Battalions to taste.
This makes good use of our box and adds in a wizard with a teleport and an extra couple of wounds, courtesy of Bolstered by Hate. Our Karkadrak Lord now has an 18″ range on their Aura of Chaos and so can buff your Khorne units from further away, in addition Master of Deception subtracts 1 from hit rolls of melee attacks directed their way.
An extra block of warriors gives our wizard a body guard and a nice target for their teleport spell to go objective grabbing. Untamed Beasts round out our points and are a good cheap screen with a cheeky pre-game move.
A nice trick in Ravagers is the ability to summon in models via the General which you can rotate through your heroes. This summoning is more impactful in smaller games and the ability to bring in ten marauders is very nice. You will need to pick these up though to effectively round out your list (I would suggest twenty marauders) but these models will be useful as you expand to 2000 points.
All in all I think this is a nice fluffy list which will be fun and meets our heavy metal theme from the Start Collecting! box.
What will it cost?
| Set | GBP £ | USD $ | EUR € | AUD $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start Collecting: Slaves to Darkness | £65 | $110 | €85 | $165 |
| Battletome: Slaves to Darkness (2nd Ed) | £27.50 | $45 | €35 | $70 |
| Chaos Sorcerer Lord | £11 | $16.50 | €13.25 | $22 |
| Chaos Warriors | £35 | $60 | €45 | $75 |
| Untamed Beasts | £42.50 | $70 | €55 | $110 |
| Total | £181 | $301.50 | €233.25 | $442 |
With the above you’ll end up with 10 additional Warriors for when you look to expand to 2,000 points. You’ll also have a Warcry warband, which is nice. As always, shop around. You’ll be able to find retailers who’ll offer 15-20% off the prices above. If you live in the UK sign up to SCN Hobby World and join their mailing list, with them you’ll receive 25% off GW prices!
If you want pure metal though, buy a second Start Collecting! and use everything from both, excepting the second Karkadrak….. I am not saying it’s great on the table but you can turn the volume up to eleven and headbang your way to a 0-5.
So, is it a buy?
Overall, I would say yes…. it was a buy for me. I picked one of these up and use all of the units in most of my Slaves to Darkness lists. They look cool, especially if you like the heavy metal aesthetic and are a truly great reimagining of classic Warhammer Fantasy units. They do currently lack a bit of juice on the tabletop but who knows what a new book and a shaken up meta might bring……
Speaking of which, with a new Battletome coming for them later this year, it’s likely they’ll also receive a new Vanguard boxed set much like the other factions.
But, until then prepare your claim for whiplash injuries and bellow to the uncaring skies “For The Everchosen”!
Vanguard: Nighthaunt – Is it Worth it?
Nighthaunt: Vanguard – First Impressions Review
On the weekend Games Workshop finally announced new Vanguard sets, 3 in total, Skaven, Daughters of Khaine and Nighthaunt. Ahead of the weekend pre-orders, we at Woehammer thought reviewing it would be a good idea and spent some time deciding if it offered a good way to begin a Nighthaunt army.
What’s in the box?
| Slot | Unit |
|---|---|
| Leader | Knight of Shrouds |
| Battleline | 20 x Chainrasps |
| Battleline | 10 x Grimghast Reapers |
| Battleline | 3 x Spirit Hosts |
34 Miniatures with one small Hero (HQ), and 33 melee troops all of which are battleline coming to a total of 645 points.
Purchased individually these models would be AUD$320 without discount, and all indications are that it will be priced at AUD$190, which makes it great value.
| Set | GBP £ | USD $ | EUR € | AUD $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knight of Shrouds | £21 | $35 | €27 | $55 |
| Chainrasps | £52 | $84 | €68 | $140 |
| Grimghast Reapers | £30 | $50 | €40 | $77 |
| Spirit Hosts | £18 | $32 | €23 | $48 |
| Total | £121 | $201 | €158 | $320 |
| Vanguard: Nighthaunt | £80 | $130 | €105 | $190 |
This set has the battlelines to meet requirements for 750, 1000 or 2000 point games (not recommended) and best of all you could buy multiple copies. Except for the Knight of Shrouds these are staple units you would see in many competitive lists.
With the Chainrasps to act as anvil and the Grimghast to provide the hammer the 2 work well together and also compliment the Knight of Shrouds ability to allow sequential activation. Combined with Nighthaunt’s allegiance ability to fall back and charge every turn it’s very easy to supercharge the Grimghast with a 3rd attack creating a serious threat.
The Spirit Host offer good value through their number of attacks, 6s autowound for Nighthaunt giving 3 autowounds per attack on average. They also serve as a bodyguard granting a hero within 3” a 3+ ward with the Spirit Hosts taking the damage. This is essential if you are going to use the Knight of Shrouds ability
The choice of hero for the box is the biggest issue. The Knight of Shrouds abilities don’t really work well with the other units, his warscroll includes free Redeploy and Unleash Hell. For an army with almost no ranged damage. Nighthaunt live and die with their wizards and the Guardian of Souls would have been a better choice. His mounted brother, the Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed, is superior; granting an All out Attack for free. Compared to the Grey Seer included in the Vanguard:Skaven set it seems like a weaker choice.
Other criticism are minor, the units are more old school Nighthaunt and really only work well in 2 processions (Sub factions) – Emerald Host and Grieving Legion. Bladegheist Revenants would have had more options than the Grimghast. None of the new scuplts (Craventhrone Guard, Scriptor Mortis or Awlach the Drowner) are included and as a direct match up, it is weaker than the other Vanguard boxes released on the same schedule. That said this box is more of an option for multiple copies than the other 2 (although 2 Warpfire Cannons might not be terrible).
Overall this is a solid basis for a Nighthaunt Army. All it needs is your choice of heroes and it’s time to assert Nagash’s claim to the realm.
My First Grand Tournament
On May 14, I attended my first ever Warhammer grand tournament. This is the story of how I won two games, almost won a third, and had a damn good time meeting a lot of really cool people.
The place? Detroit, Michigan. The field? 34 players. The event? Motor City Mayhem. The battleground? A faded Best Western hotel just off the highway, where the lobby floor was always wet but the staff were always accommodating.
I arrived a day early in order to take in the sights of Detroit. While I won’t go into too much detail, if you ever find yourself in that part of the world make sure to check out Belle Isle Aquarium (America’s oldest aquarium!) and John K. King Books (America’s second-largest bookstore!). And for the love of god, try the local rectangular pizza.
Then Saturday rolled around and it was time for the games to begin.
The List
Now here’s where I admit something embarrassing: I had only played two games with my army list prior to this. Why would I do something so stupid? Well, I have a small toddler who dictates what I do with my free time. Also, I thought I was playing a different list until a week before the tournament.
Long story short: I submitted a list that centered around a Krondspine Incarnate. Then the tournament organizers updated the event packet to disallow a certain unit. I’ll give you one guess what that unit was.
So the Incarnate was out. But as the Girl Scouts say: improvise, adapt, overcome. I peered inside my Ikea Detolfs to see what other models were painted and ready to go. Here’s what I came up with:
Quite the mixed bag. You’ve got two flavors of eels, two styles of Namarti, a couple of sharks, two support heroes, an Eidolon of the Sea and a fully tricked-out Akhelian King (a.k.a. the Slap-King).
Why Dhom-Hain for my enclave?
I thought their ability for Namarti Thralls to charge and fight again after killing an enemy unity sounded extremely cool… if I could pull it off. (Spoiler alert: I did not pull it off once during the entire weekend.)
Why these battleline troops?
I was curious to see how the eels performed. The Thralls and Reavers, however, were a calculated decision. The new Idoneth Deepkin battletome relies on a strong core of Namarti, and I had identified the block of 20 Thralls as one of my biggest sources of reliable damage.
Why these heroes?
Well, it’s hard to say no to the Slap-King. While a little tricky to use, he’s more than capable of earning double his points back with a well-timed charge. How does 7 attacks, hitting on 2s, wounding on 2s, rend -3 and damage 4 sound to you? And that’s just his first weapon (he has four).
The Eidolon of the Sea (hereafter to be known as the “Seadolon”) is a major winner from the new battletome. While useless at melee and shooting, he’s a wildly efficient spellcaster and unbinder of enemy spells. One of his warscroll spells, Tsunami of Terror, can strip the armor from your opponent’s toughest units, and with his surprising durability (12 wounds, a 5+ ward and reliable self-healing) he can even be used as a sacrificial lamb to tie up an enemy unit or absorb an Unleash Hell.
Day 1
Match 1 versus Maggotkin of Nurgle – Drowned Men
Opponent’s list: Great Unclean One, Horticulus Slimux, Orghotts Daemonspew, Beasts of Nurgle, Plaguebearers
They say battles are won or lost in the mind before a single shot is ever fired. They might be onto something there.
My first opponent of the tournament, Jeremy, was playing a Maggotkin list. I’d never played against Maggotkin but I’d heard rumors about the new battletome – specifically about all the tournaments they’ve been winning. I was keen to see how my fishy aelves would fare against them.
I out-dropped my opponent and gave him the first turn, hoping he’d move into a position where I could charge with my King and eels – and even, fingers crossed, take a double turn.
He simply moved everything onto the mid-board and ended his turn, daring me to come closer. I took the bait, charging with my eels, King, sharks and Thralls. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a very clean or well-positioned charge, as I could only get my King onto his Great Unclean One and not the eels.
Meanwhile, I had misplaced my Thralls so the only thing they were able to charge was the Plaguebearers. Turns out, Plaguebearers are tanky. I thought my Thralls could chew through them but it didn’t work out that way.
On the other side of the board, my Slap-King did a mighty 20 damage to the GUO. However, he rolled an improbable amount of ward saves and stayed standing. My eels and sharks managed to kill a few Beasts of Nurgle, but his center held.
My opponent then took a double turn and used it to go on a rampage with Orghotts and the GUO. After that, what was left of my army was worn down by the weight of Disease points.
In the end, I think I may have been a little intimidated by facing Nurgle for the first time, causing me to under-think my deployment. If I’d placed a few units differently, my first turn would have been much more effective and the game might have been a lot closer.
RESULT: Loss, 12-39
Match 2 versus Sylvaneth – Gnarlroot
Opponent’s list: Warsong Revenant, Treelord Ancient, Spirit of Durthu, Arch-revenant, Branchwraith, Tree-revenants, Kurnoth Hunters with bows, Dryads
Ah, the classic Warsong Bomb list. Soon to be replaced by the new Sylvaneth battletome, the Warsong Bomb – in which a Warsong Revenant powers up their spellcasting while unleashing magic blasts through an Umbral Spellportal – was one of the only competitive lists available to Sylvaneth in third edition.
Unfortunately, it only works if you cast your spells. This would prove to be a major problem for my opponent, Matt, as my Seadolon just would not stop unbinding his spells. Matt, however, was very nice about this. His enthusiasm and positive attitude made for a really fun match.
I gave Matt turn one. He split his forces and moved up to the mid-board. In my counter-attack, I was able to completely take out one flank of Dryads and a Treelord Ancient with my King, while pinning the other flank (Durthu and the Kurnoth Hunters) in place with the Ishlaen Guard.
Although Durthu hits hard (he wiped out all 20 Thralls in a single round!), my King was able to cut him down. With the Warsong Revenant having failed to set up his spell-bomb, I went on to clean up the board.
The result wasn’t close, but this game was a blast thanks to Matt being a really fun opponent.
RESULT: Victory, 31-13
Match 3 versus Soulblight Gravelords – Kastelai Dynasty
Opponent’s list: 20 Blood Knights, Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon, Necromancer, Coven Throne, Dire Wolves
My opponent in this game, Austin, seemed a bit unsure of his army going into this match. And there was a good reason for that: The battleplan was Tooth and Nail, a weird scenario which you don’t often see at tournaments.
In Tooth and Nail, you can’t set up any units in reserve. Which sucked for Austin, because setting up Blood Knights in reserve and then bringing them on from the board edge is the entire gimmick of Kastelai Dynasty. His summoned units also couldn’t charge after summoning, which is another blow for a Soulblight army.
To make matters worse, the board for our game was covered in large pieces of blocking terrain. Most of my units could simply fly over it, but his knights would have to go around. This would allow me to pick my battles and take out his units of five knights one at a time.
After setting up, he gave me first turn and waited for my army to come to him. I moved up but stayed just out of engagement range. Once it was my turn again, the Slap-King was able to assassinate the Vampire Lord on zombie dragon before it could really do anything.
Realizing he was out of position, Austin actually gave away a double turn on Turn 3 (never seen anyone do that before!) so that he could pull back his army and remove one of my objectives.
But it wasn’t enough, and the Slap-King continued on to remove the Coven Throne and Necromancer, handing me the game.
RESULT: Victory, 24-9
Day 2
Match 4 versus Daughters of Khaine – Khailebron
Opponent’s list: Morathi-Khaine, Bloodwrack Medusa, 15 Bow-snakes, 10 Spear-snakes, Witch Aelves, Shadowstalkers
My opponent for this match, Paul, was a younger guy who was at the tournament with his dad. Which is adorable, and total Parenting Goals. Paul was also an awesome opponent who basically apologized for taking the classic “Morathi and the Bow Snakes” meme list. He told me he was looking forward to the new Daughters of Khaine battletome so he could run literally anything else.
After winning priority, Paul gave me first turn. From here on out, we would trade double turns back and forth for almost the entire match!
My Reavers shot apart a unit of Witch Aelves, killing all but one (that lone aelf would come back to haunt me later). He then got the double turn and pushed up the left flank with the Shadow Queen. My plan was to pull back and try to ignore her while pushing the other flank where his bow-snakes and support characters were hanging out.
That plan did not go so well. The Shadow Queen ate every single one of my Reavers and Thralls, while the bow-snakes rained down fire on my other flank, almost killing both my sharks. Things looked bad. But I wasn’t down and out just yet.
Taking a double turn, I rolled my Slap-King and eels through a screen of Witch Aelves and right into his bow-snakes, wiping them out. My King went on to kill his General, the Medusa, and get stuck into Morathi herself.
On Turn 4, he wheeled the Shadow Queen around and aimed her at my remaining units. She killed my eels, but my King was able to finally slay the rampaging god.
At the end of all five rounds, we were completely even on points. We had both taken Hold the Line as our Grand Strategy, and all my battleline units were dead. So were his… except for that one pesky Witch Aelf that was hiding in the corner of the battlefield! This gave him an extra three points and the victory.
In the end, this game was an absolute blast, full of twists and turns and high drama. It was probably the highlight of the entire weekend. My opponent played a great game and fully deserved the win, even though I can’t help but wishing I’d rolled one more hit on that unit of Witch Aelves!
RESULT: Loss, 21-24
Match 5 versus Soulblight Gravelords – Vyrkos Dynasty
Opponent’s list: 60 Zombies, Prince Vhordrai, Lauka Vai, Necromancer, Vampire Lord, Dire Wolves, Skeletons, Corpse Carts
I’ll be completely honest: This wasn’t a fun game. After two straight days of Warhammer, I was getting tired and losing focus. And after the thrills and spills of the previous game against Daughters of Khaine, facing 60 zombies felt like a brutal slog.
Zombies, man. They have so much going on. Double piling in, returning slain units, buffing auras, piling in different directions until they’re stretched across the board like a weird misshapen Katamari of bodies. Zombies are a lot.
It didn’t help that my opponent, Rob, played a slow game, with his double turns feeling like an eternity. I don’t blame him for this. He was micro-managing his tiny dead dudes and explaining his army mechanics as he did so, as any good opponent should. It just took soooo loooong.
You know, maybe this says more about me and my own impatience. I may have to do some soul-searching here.
Anyway, I flubbed this match. I deployed my Gloomtide Shipwreck and Namarti units completely wrong. Then I decided to send my King and eels after his support characters in the back, when I should have tried to end the double threat of Vhordrai and Lauka early in the game. The final result was an ignominous defeat, but at least now I know how zombies work (and I know to ask for a chess clock next time).
RESULT: Loss, 12-32
Final Thoughts
If you’re just starting your Warhammer journey and thinking of taking the plunge into events, I am here to tell you: competitive Age of Sigmar is incredibly fun. It was a pleasure to play against passionate, experienced opponents at a well-organized event. Everyone should try going to a GT at least once, if only for the wealth of knowledge you can glean from your fellow players.
Plus, I got to meet Tyler Mengel and he complimented my painting. That was almost worth the entry fee alone.
What’s next? I’m working on an article about list-building using the new Idoneth Deepkin battletome, to help you get the most out of your own Slap-King and friends. And I can’t wait to attend my next GT, probably with a different list this time. Although the Incarnate is tempting, chatting with fellow Deepkin players at the event has convinced me I need to paint up an Akhelian Leviadon…
Have you recently attended your first GT? Planning to go to one? Drop us a comment below and let us know what you think.
Skirmish Games – A guide to Malifaux
There are a wide array of games, both large battle and skirmish available on the market and while many are familiar with Games Workshops offerings, there are many other colourful games to play.
The aim of these articles is as a taster and guide to help get you into a game that interests you and where better to start than a trip through the breach to Malifaux, Where bad things happen.
What is Malifaux?
Malifaux is a small scale skirmish game played with around 7-10 themed figures. Each figure is individual and has it’s own stat card (no duplicates here!). Players alternate taking actions while trying to score off there schemes and strategies. These can be as simple as “hold this point” or make sure “model 1 is killed by model 2”
Are there any Unique Mechanics?
Rather than roll dice, Malifaux uses a fate deck (fancy name for a standard deck of cards), Players flip cards instead of rolling dice. You also have a control hand of cards which allow you to “cheat fate” for when you really need an action to happen.
Certain characters can also use Soul stones, another resource to boost actions or reduce damage.
How easy is it to get into?
There are many local Henchman (Wyrds demo players) in many countries and can usually be found via the Wyrd forums or running local events and Demo days.
The Rules are available from free from the Wyrd website (listed below) and stat cards can be found there for all factions as well as available on the free M3E app. A standard deck of cards can be used as a fate deck (provided it has a Red and Black Joker) but there are many other variants available with custom artwork.
Crew boxes give you a starting crew and you can usual pick up 1 or 2 more boxes to pad your crew out allowing you to start playing from between £50-£100. Some Masters (Crew Leaders) are classed as Dual Faction, allowing you to easily dip into other factions.
There are also regular updates to competitive play and stat cards to maintain balance.
Pro’s and Cons
Pros
- Under £100 to get into
- Every Model Unique
- Great support from the Community and Wyrd
Cons
- Helpful to have a lot of scenery
- Lots of rules interactions which may take a while to master.
- Some miniatures have very small parts making assemble tricky
Summary
Malifaux is a great skirmish game to get into. The factions and crews are all very different with interesting themes and no two are exactly alike. There is a healthy community, with lots of support from Wyrd. The miniatures are well sculpted and characterful with my only complaints being small parts and occasional thin parts supporting a model.
If you are able to get a demo with a friend or Henchman I highly recommend giving Malifaux a try.
Useful Links
https://www.wyrd-games.net/ Resources section for Rule books and stat cards
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wyrd.m3e Android Crew Creator
https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/m3e-crew-builder/id1473771840 IOS Crew Creator
Age of Sigmar – Daughters of Khaine Battletome Review
Many players have asked, ‘why Daughters of Khaine, and why now?’ – and who knows! Especially given not much has changed.
Daughters of Khaine (DoK) are an army of slithering and/or bikini clad glass hammers – ruled over by everyone’s favourite double-act, Morathi and The Shadow Queen. DoK enjoyed a period of dominance, largely thanks to their patented ‘Morathi and the Bow Snakes’ list, predicated on double-shooting 15 bows, with mortals on 6s – earning approving nods from Longstrikes.
For at least the latter half of 3e however, they’ve been hanging on in there but rarely wrapping their tails around that trophy. The question is, how can they be made more reliably competitive, while radically improving their internal balance, with a relatively small unit roster and while following the 3e tradition of clamping down on re-rolls, something they relied heavily upon?
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A quick proviso, I’m not going to bother comparing what has and hasn’t changed the entire way through – but most of the Traits, and Artifacts have, even if they kept the same name. So if you’re a returning player familiar with the old book, I encourage you to read on – I’ll call out when a unit is largely the same!
Read on to get the WOOT! (Woehammer opinion of Tome!)
Let’s start with a high level hypothesis, so that the rest of this review is contextualised. Overall, I think the new book is a slight diagonal-grade. I think DoK have the tools to podium again, without being broken, with better (but still not perfect) internal balance. There are however, some missed opportunities and some ever so slightly concerning trends.
Old DoK players who were happy with where things stood will have a good time with this. It should be pretty accessible for new players too. But I also think it’s launching into a fairly hostile meta. All that said, let’s dive in.
BATTLE TRAITS
Overall, the new and improved battle traits fit the bill – they allow you to slither or dance quickly into a good krump, even if they don’t set the world on fire creatively.
Blood Rites is the same idea, but without re-rolls as per the 3rd edition crack down. The following battle traits are all clearly aimed at combining with it, and there are plenty of options throughout the book to accelerate it. And I mean, it works. It’s functional. I feel like +1s to stuff is a nice way to not rely so much on CP, but it’s also just basic – and there are plenty of armies whose main battle traits are highly effective from battle round 1 or 2, so I don’t love the philosophy of playing around the timing of it, or leaning into various combos just so that it IS effective from turn 1 – but on the other hand, it does give you some flexibility with how the trigger-timings of your list.
Battle Fury is a heroic action that a non-monster can carry out, adding 2 attacks to all melee weapons used by that hero until the end of the turn. More attacks the better, and there are some heroes that benefit a lot from this – you’ll just have to time it right with Finest Hour, but it’s a good option to have in a pinch.
All-Out Slaughter triggers when you pick a unit to fight in the combat phase, and gives them exploding 6s. Does what it says on the tin, and obviously once you’re onto Rite 3 (+1 to hit) you don’t need All Out Attack anyway. Pop this on Morathi, a reinforced blob of Blood Sisters of Aelves and watch the sparks fly.
Fanatical Faith is a ward of 6. Better than nothing (just).
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ENHANCEMENTS
COMMAND TRAITS
The command traits in this book are collectively one of the highlights, with a few things that allow you to really juice a favourite hero and affect the battle in meaningful ways. Most of them, however, we’ve seen before – and I do wish armies would get some more unique traits overall.
I’ve ordered these in order of my favourites first.
Zealous Orator rallies on a 4+. That’s big. Ardboyz have it conditionally, Fyreslayers got it, and now DoK have it – a 15 blob of bow sneks? A 30 blob of Aelves? Prime, prime targets.
Fuelled by Revenge allows Melusai Ironscale a once per battle, +1 attack to Melusai melee weapons within 12″ – not hard to guess the application of.
Sacrificial Overseer lets a general fight again, after killing a model, and after the unit it’s engaged with has fought back. Useful on smaller heroes you’ve chucked into chaff for finishing off a unit, or on a (well, the only) bigger one to go much harder into tougher targets.
Arcane Mastery teaches the general all the Lore. It’s a great lore – even though DoK lack great casters. It gives you flexibility though, which is powerful.
Bathed in Blood gives a general a wound back after killing a model – too niche for my tastes but it makes that ‘one big hero’ (have you guessed it yet?) potentially a lot tankier.
Master of Poisons procs on a wound allocated to a model – and does d6 additional mortals to it. Fits the name, but swingy, and therefore sub-par.
True Believer is +1 to Rites. Fairly useless on most heroes really. I guess if you really want to get a hero repeatedly stuck in, it could be useful, just seems to me all the above alternatives either have more utility or raw strength. Prove me wrong though!
ARTEFACTS
Artefacts can potentially change a hero’s role, help spike their output, or otherwise combo interestingly with a Trait, or otherwise. In theory. Unfortunately for DoK, theirs are boring, if relatively useful.
This time in no particular order, because I wasn’t enthused enough to pick a favourite.
DoK generic heroes
When Bloodbane Venom causes a wound that doesn’t kill a model, a roll of =/+ the model’s Wounds Characteristic kills it. Vaguely useful against heavily armoured but low-ish wound stuff like Annihilators, or getting luck against a Blightking I guess.
The Crone Blade gives one weapon the ability to heal 1 wound on a hit roll of 6. At this point, I’m just going to say it – most DoK heroes aren’t going to stick around long if they don’t immediately kill whatever they’re fighting, so gaining a few wounds here and there back feels niche. Apart from… the the one big hero – the Cauldron!
Slightly more interesting is the Crown of Woe, which prevents Rally or Inspiring Presence within 9″, or 15″ for rest of the battle once the hero kills a model. Potentially devastating AND, finally, something that can work without chucking the bearer into combat.
Rune of Khaine is a ‘fight on death’ effect. Great…so long as you die in melee.
DoK wizards
The Crystal Heart doubles the range an endless spell can be cast at. If the DoK endless spells were better, this would be great. But they aren’t, so it’s not. Because James Workchap largely refuses to make one of the coolest things about AoS reliably usable. But hey if you really want to pop that Viper up in someone’s face, here’s how you do it.
Aside from sounding like a long-fringed metalcore band, Sevenfold Shadows allows a once per battle teleport. Useful if you’re not playing Khailebron, while Shadow Stone is +1 to cast Lore of Shadows spells. Useful, but uninspired.
Priests
Priests are hugely important to DoK. So it stands to reason they only get a choice of two unique artefacts. The Blood Sigil learns ya an extra prayer. The prayers are good! Whereas the Khainite Pendant is a once per game auto-answer. DoK have a lot of pendants, sigils, stones and assorted gew-gaws knocking around, huh?
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PRAYERS
So about those prayers I mentioned. These are mostly unchanged, which makes sense because by and large, they’re bangers – less ‘prayers’ and more ‘blood-curdling celebrations of gore’, but hey. I think with the new internal balance, there’s a little less a reliance on certain prayer combos, but they’re still at the heart of the army.
Catechism of Murder is the exploding 6s prayer you know and love.
EDIT/CORRECTION: Blessing of Khaine is currently in need of a bit of an FAQ – well, hopefully, otherwise it’s not great. The problem is, it currently reads ‘re-roll Fanatical Faith rolls’, i.e. your Ward of 6. But does Rite 5 IMPROVE your Fanatical Faith ward? Not currently as written. So does Blessing aim to re-roll your Ward save, just your Fanatical Faith roll, and/or does Rite 5 IMPROVE the ward or simply GIVE you a ward of 5. Grrrr.
Martyr’s Sacrifice gives each model in a unit the ability to do a MW on a 5+ upon dying in melee. Useful in a big blob of double-reinforced Aelves, if you really plan on them dying rather than killing… Crimson Rejuvenation heals d3 – big woop. Covenant of the Iron Heart auto-passes battleshock for when you really don’t want to save a CP for it – very handy in actuality if you’re leaning into the bikini-horde which this book definitely makes viable. And finally Sacrament of Blood gives +1 to the Rites table to a unit with an Answer of 3 – strong, for obvious reasons.
LORE
The spells are unchanged, rightfully so – this is a highlight of the faction – everything has a distinct use, and affects the game in a meaningful way. See, they know how to do it!
Steed of Shadows goes off on a 6 and makes the caster fly and move 16″. Pit of Shades pops on a 6, range 18″, picks an enemy unit and rolls 2d6 – difference between the roll and their move characteristic does mortals. Mirror Dance dings on a 6, 18″, picks 2 DoK heroes outside of engagement range and swaps them. The Withering procs on a 7, 18″, puts +1 to wound rolls on an enemy unit. Any attacks! This is stronk as it can improve Bow sneks, or allow multiple units to pile in and take down something juicy while you wait for the Blood Rites to catch up. Mindrazor – everyone’s favourite – dings on an 8 (so, risky with not many casting bonuses), 18″, gives a friendly unit +1 rend and additionally, +1 damage to melee weapons if you charged. Finally, Shroud of Despair gets jiggy on a 4 at 18″ and subtracts 1 from a unit’s bravery or d3 on a cast of 8+. This could combo very nicely with Crown of Woe for battleshock shenanigans!
A lovely set of spells and I wish that kind of balance was present in some of the other sections.
SUB FACTIONS
Some fairly chunky changes here. Overall, a decent balance of competitive options with a few of your typical ‘what were they thinking’ moments thrown in just to temper your enthusiasm. As a general trend, sub-factions are pretty interesting in 3rd edition – and while none of these are bad per se, there are a few here that feel very uninspired.
Khailebron gives you access to a command at the end of movement phase and allows a unit to teleport. Teleportation is frankly super useful in a game of objectives – both defensively, offensively and for objective play. Want to deploy your bow sneks way back and teleport them up into range? Get something within charge range (preferably once the +1 charge Rite has kicked in)? Quickly screen something or help score Savage Spearhead, etc, all potential scoring applications. It also makes Shadowstalkers battleline, although why you’d want to take more than 1 unit of them is beyond me (you’ll see why)
The Kraith allows a Sisters of Slaughter (who are good now) unit to fight again on a 4+, with the strike-last effect applied, so they can’t fight twice in a row. Swingy, sure, but if you’re leaning into bikinki-aelves and running multiple squads of them AND charging multiple times, you could get a lot of value from this. But make no mistake – this hugely relies on bigger blobs of them, otherwise you’re not going to have a unit left after the enemy unit slaps back.
Zainthar Kai lets a Melusai unit fight on death. What, you want me to analyse that? Obviously it makes Melusai battleline too.
Hagg Nar adds 1 to the Rites chart. Simples! It also lets you include 1 Cauldron of Blood in addition to your behemoth limit, for some reason.
Draichi Ganeth improves the rend of both flavours of bikini aelf by 1 if they charged. Stack that with a Gladiatrix and Mind Razor and they can hit rend 3 – which is frankly brutal. This sub-fac also ups the reinforcement cap of Aelves by 2 (so you can include an additional reinforced or double reinforced unit) and your (power?) fantasies about flooding the table with murderous, lethal Morathi’s Secret models can finally come true.
Khelt Nar (don’t exactly roll off the tongue some of these do they?) allows any unit to retreat and charge. Not my favourite but frankly, this is occasionally going to be clutch, especially against tar-pit armies or unfavourable engagements. It definitely has play even if it doesn’t jump off the page at you.
THE UNITS
There’s obviously the potential here to get really into the weeds. So instead of describing every part of every warscroll, i’m going to pull out the most interesting bits.
THE SHADOW QUEEN is more or less unchanged. She slaps, and her damage table got upgraded to 6 being the first threshold. If you didn’t know, her gimmick is you can only do 3 wounds to her MAX per turn – but she can’t heal. Interestingly, you could probably compete without her now, but I’m not sure i would trust anyone who left her at home.
Most of the on-foot heroes remain very similar. But they all have a little more utility because of the other changes. I think Melusai Ironscale risks getting edged out since you don’t need her to make Sisters battleline. Her melee damage cap is 12 – not great with only Rend 1. The reason you take her is her command ability – to let a Melusai unit run and charge/shoot – and at 115 points, she’s takeable.
Morgwaeth finally got the true Underworlds treatment and got made redundant.
Shall we talk about the One Big Hero? The Shrine – and its various combinations. It got a LOT better. Try and bear in mind those past hints I made – you’ll see the synergies on offer here.
Firstly, the configurations are as before – the Cauldron ridden by the Bloodwrack Medusa on her own, or with one of either the Hag Queen or Slaughter Queen and the Avatar riding shotgun with either Queen. It’s a fun modular approach you don’t really see elsewhere – each hero retains the same abilities on foot, but on the Cauldron become way more durable and and therefore much better platforms for many of the above enhancements – overall I’d say the book pushes hard for you to take some version of what I’m now calling the Bloodwagon. The wagon’s base abilities are +1 to chanting (huge), an impact hit (standard 2+ for d3) and Bloodshield, a +1 save aura tied to the damage table, and starting at 18″.
Personally, I think the Slaughter Queen variant is the spiciest. This combo gains the Pact of Blood ability not found elsewhere, which is an unbind attempt. The Slaughter Queen herself brings two abilities to the table…well, cauldron – Orgy of Slaughter, a her phase CA with a 3″ range that allows a unit to fight.
Yep, this thing can fight in the hero phase. Is it any good at fighting? The mounted Avatar (who retains these same stats on foot as above) swings 4 times for 3/3/-2/3 – a good start. The Slaughter Queen brings 4 attacks at 3/3/-1/d3, and it’s topped off by the attendant aelves with 8 (bracketing) 3/4/-/1. Individually, none of that sets the world on fire, but it adds up – and at 13 wounds, albeit on a 5+ save, you actually have the ability to tank a round of attacks from plenty of stuff, meaning the fight-in-hero-phase ability will actually see play, and if it helps you finish something off, being able to then reposition defensively or set up for another charge is potentially huge.
So pop Bathed In Blood on it and so long as you’re fighting units rather than single/very small elite units, you could easily get a bunch of wounds back, in up to two phases per (your) turn. Sacrificial Overseer suddenly seems great – imagine finishing off a unit in your hero phase, charging two units at the same time, then getting to fight twice in the following combat. Crone Blade and Rune of Khaine could be brutal on this platform. Exactly how you pimp your ride is up to you but there are definitely some fun options here.
But I saved the best for last. The Slaughter Queen’s second ability, Dance of Doom, answers on a 3 (2 while on the blood wagon) and applies strike-first. Now we rollin’!!
The Hag Queen instead has Witchbrew, another source of +1 to Rites, and Touch of Death, a 3 answer prayer for d3 wounds to a unit within engagement range. Unless you’re really playing to Blood Rites acceleration combos, you can see why I prefer the Slaughter Queen – even though she’s 315 compared to Hag Wagon’s 270.
The Bloodwrack Medusa is your budget wagon pick at 200, or 130 on her own – a 1 cast, 2 unbind hero whose real value is a source of +1 Rites for Melusai and a nice spell (5 – 18″) for minus 1 to melee wounds for an enemy unit. She buff, she debuff, she whiffs in melee. However, her Bloodwrack stare – mortals on a 5+ for each model in a unit within 12″ has much more play on a durable platform as incidental chip damage given you want the Wagon up close and personal.
When he’s not riding the Blood Wagon screaming ‘I’m King of the wooorld!’, the Avatar of Khaine got way better. 10″ range, 6 attacks 3/3/-1/1 ain’t nothing (obvs applies to Wagon variants) and his aforementioned sword are perfectly fine, and with 9 wounds on a 4+ he’s one of your tankier options. What he gains for going solo is a built in Ward of 5 and Wrath of Khaine, allowing him to use the Stomp or Smash to Rubble Monstrous actions, while being immune to monstrous actions himself. At 155, that makes him a cheap Totem, with good utility who can still put a dent in things.
The rest of the book is more straight forward. Gladiatrix is a straight up Aelf buff piece – she adds rend, and changes their wound characteristic to 3+. Very strong. Witch Aelves rip and tear when buffed by her, and various aforementioned other buffs – and get +1 to wound while within 12″ of a totem. Sisters of Slaughter are less killy but are eligible to fight within 6″ and can pile in 6″ – this is not to be underestimated, as with careful positioning this can avoid unleash hell or just cause headaches for your opponent wanting to stay out of melee.
Khainite Shadowstalkers lost their -1 to hit, so become a lot less interesting. 9 bodies on a 4+ that can teleport – so 1 unit is probably fine for screening/scoring, and I guess it’s cute that in Khailebron you can run a shadow themed list.
Doomfires do a bit of everything, but nothing very well. Interestingly, while at 5+ models, they’re one of the army’s only source of +1 to casting/unbinding, making them potentially interesting for getting off early Mindrazor etc before zooming off to die. CORRECTION: A kind reader pointed out – correctly – that only heroes can take spells from the Lore! So this lowers Doomfires stock a little given their warscroll spell (scaling mortals based on size of enemy unit) is short range and will be tricky to get off while keeping them safe – but it does mean they still get a bonus to getting an endless spell off turn 1.
Blood Stalkers are unchanged, which means they’re still amazing given Shadow Queen kept her double shoot. Even though this is good for those of us who have 15 of ’em, It’s a worrying precedent – double shooting is not a popular mechanic, and for good reason. I’d have preferred to see that dropped in favour of a more interesting and tactical rule – standing still and raining hell from 24″ twice is uninteractive and bad for the game.
Blood Sisters however just became one of the best infantry units in the game, because Turned to Crystal now happens after their attacks have resolved. So, reinforce them, throw out 3 attacks each at 3/3/-1/1, add in Rites and buffs to taste, and whatever is left standing immediately takes 10 mws on a 2+. So that’s 8-9 MWs on average before everything else, before the unit gets to slap back. Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.
Both flavours of Khinerai got better. Heartrenders can drop from the sky, shoot (1 attack 3/3/-1/1) then move 6″. This gives them all sorts of positional utility and scoring potential. LIfetakers are less tactical but get a bonus attack and are 3/3/-1/1 in melee – plus, after they fight, on a 4+ they can retreat 6″. Swingy, but if it goes off this could be a massively frustrating hit’n’run tactic – worth trying for the look on your opponents face.
Now, I’m always gonna bang the ‘Endless spells should be great – or as good as they are now, but dirt-cheap’ drum. Given they’re usually easy to dispel – sure, your opponent has to use up a cast slot to do it – and cost valuable points when you might even fail to cast them – people gravitate only towards the absolute best ones, which are generic – like life-swarm and spell-portal. Faction specific ones usually look great and COULD offer a tonne of personality.
Bloodwrack Viper comes up on a 7 within 9″, then picks a unit within 1″ after it flies 9″ and rolls 3 dice – each =/+ wounds characteristic kills a model and it can also ‘do an Avatar’, i.e. make a Stomp or Smash to Rubble monstrous action.
Hang on – is the Viper actually good?! Casting on a 7 isn’t too bad, a 19″ threat range – but 80 points is dear. If it was 60, I’d say hell yeah!
The others actually aren’t that bad but you probably still won’t take them at a high level. Bladewind passes across units and does 1 MW on a 2+ and removes their cover modifiers within 12″. So niche, and hard to see when you’d cast this for 50 points over anything else in the great Lore. Heart of Fury (an invocation not a spell) makes you roll – on a 1-5, -1 damage within 12″ – potentially useful for the odd occasion you really want to charge something and think you might not kill it. On a 6, you also get +1 attack in the same range. If you have a spare 45 points, that’s not a bad shout potentially!
GRAND STRATEGIES & BATTLE TACTICS
I’ve left these for the end because it actually makes more sense to think about them once you know what the stuff can actually do. Overall, these are probably more viable than average, which is great.
For Grand Strats, you got Bloodthirsty Zealots which scores if all your units have fought at least once. This shouldn’t be hard – as long as you time it right with your weaker stuff. Say you have 15 Bow sneks – make sure you push them up throughout the game so you can charge them into something if necessary near the end-game before you table them – or the game ends. What’s nice about this is it’s VERY hard for your opponent to deny, and you can score it even more reliably when the game isn’t going your way!
Blood Bath however is a weak variation on that theme, requiring every enemy unit to have at least a scratch on it – i.e. not be at full health.
EDIT: On re-reading this, the wording is actually ‘all enemy HEROES and MONSTERS either have at least 1 wound allocated to them or have been slain and if all other enemy units on the battlefield have had at least 1 model slain.’
Overall, I don’t think it changes my analysis below, but it’s a tiiiny bit harder.
It’s not too bad, and means you don’t have to plan for your archers to be in melee somehow – but say a unit or hero is able to reliably hide in a corner or heal up in the last turn – could suddenly deny you. Overall, Grand Strats that are in your hands, so to speak, are quite good – and given DoK battleline units aren’t tanky and most everything else wants to be aggressive, I think these actually do compete with the Core options.
Naught but Destruction is your token ‘what the fuck were they smoking’ GS – you pick a defensible terrain piece in enemy territory, and if there isn’t one, the opponent picks one anywhere on the battlefield. Now you gotta demolish it. I mean – sure, the Viper or Avatar can smash to rubble, but what happens if there IS no defensible terrain? Every game should have it but…that’s just a ‘should’. Unless this is a hint the new GHB will mandate every game has to include some, this is a very strange one.
The Battle Tacs are actually fun, and continue the trend of really only 1-2 being doable by any one list – which isn’t a bad thing. Clash of Arms wants you to charge with 3 units and if two of ’em are bikini Aelves you get an additional victory point. Fine in a pinch, potentially great in Aelf spam lists given they will probably churn through Broken Ranks fairly quickly.
Tide of Blades is Savage Spearhead, but bonus point for doing it with two Witch Aelves units. Again, with Shadowstalkers, Khinerai and aggressive play in general, this become highly achievable.
Cruel Delight relies on 2 or more Khinerai units using their Fire and Flight or Fight and Flight ability – very doable and you’d certainly be within your rights to have 2 Khinerai units now. While Unexpected Attack wants Khainite Shadowstalkers to charge after deep-striking. Even with +1, the odds of a re-rollable 8 incher are far too low to ever pick this unless it’s an absolute last resort or you’ve gone full Khailebron and are popping 3 ‘Stalkers down in the same turn. Incredibly niche and risky.
On the more situation end of the spectrum we have Executioner’s Cult – which can be picked if you have a Gladiatrix – which well you might! She has to kill a hero with her Killing Stroke ability – this would be a flex to pull off – and certainly doable – but it would be so easy to either accidentally kill the hero beforehand or just…not. Why risk it? Baffling and risky specificity on this one.
Hatred of Chaos is available if you’re running Hagg Nar or Khelt Nar and asks for 2 or more CHAOS units to be destroyed this turn. Highly situational, but not necessarily difficult, so it’s a perfectly nice option to have in your pocket, especially given they’re both perfectly viable sub-factions. And Chaos suck. And everyone plays Nurgle now – so this might come up more often than you think…
BATTALIONS
3e books have been circumspect with Battalions as they have the potential to tip the balance massively. Take Nurgle’s rotbringers cyst for an example that is almost certainly too good. On the whole, I’m happy with Battalions being fluffy or just matching the core battalion effects when you have a more unusual army make up – and that’s more or less what’s on offer here.
Vyperic Guard comprises Morathi+Shadow Queen, 1-3 Khainite Leaders – 1 mandatory (Bloodwrack or Ironscale), and ~6 Melusai warriors – 2 mandatory, and offers an extra enhancement – so it’s basically a bonus/tweaked Command Entourage. Not bad!
Shadow Patrol however is the fluffy, competitively rubbish one that isn’t worth the ink used to print it. 2 Mandatory Doomfires and FOUR mandatory Khinerai gives you either a one-drop or Swift. I mean…why?
CONCLUSION
Hopefully that gives you a good idea of the fun, competitive and creativity level of the new book. My takeaways are that the internal balance got much better with only a few sore losers (especially Shadowstalkers), the creativity level ticked up a little with some annoying missed opportunities (straight forward albeit useful Command Traits/Artefacts), and the competitive factor ticked up a fair notch. Will the increased options and killing power be enough to deal with the oppressive tankiness of Nurgle, or the strike-first brutality of new IDK (who seem a particularly brutal counter to DoK at first glance) or the forthcoming mobility, the ‘I laugh in the face of your rend’ and oppressive charging/tar-pitting potential of new Nighthaunt? We’ll soon see – my knee jerk reaction is ‘sometimes’ – which is, honestly, as it should be! Now, go forth and bathe (but don’t drink – leave that to SBGL) in the blood of your foes.
Krondspine Incarnate – A First Look at the Rules
So we’ve had a little more information on the Krondspine Incarnate today from Warhammer Community.
EDIT: Plastic Craic has now managed to get hold of all the rules. For a complete rundown visit Plastic Craic.
Attacks
First off are its attacks, and it has quite a few. All at rend -2 or -3! The Krondspine works in a series of power levels rather then wounds. With each type of attack receiving a number of additional attacks equal to its level.
The model starts at level 2 and so will get 8 Vicious Claws attacks and 3 Tearing Fangs attacks. If you’re rolling REALLY well that will mean you can potentially dish out 28 wounds. However, that’s very unlikely, so let’s take the averages….
| Attack | # of Attacks | Successful Hits | Successful Wounds | Damage Pre-Save Roll |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vicious Claws | 8 | 5.3 | 3.6 | 6-8 |
| Tearing Fangs | 3 | 2.0 | 1.7 | 4-8 |
Note, that if it destroys an Endless Spell or devours a MONSTER, then it will gain a level and an additional attack for each attack type (it’s maximum level is 3). Most Monsters have between 12-18 wounds, so they’d need to be softened up first to guarantee the Throndspike making the kill and gaining the power level, but you’re probably only talking 3-4 wounds.
What about Killing it?
Yup, it has no wounds only power levels. Once it gets reduced to Power Level 0 it is removed from play, however what’s not clear is how easy it is to reduce its power level. There’s no mention of a save anywhere, but I suspect that each increase in power level brings an increase in its save value judging by this line on Warhammer Community:
The better they’re doing, the more lethal they become – and the harder they are to kill.
– Warhammer Community
The Krondspine will feed on Endless Spells as well, and for each one it consumes it will gain a power level. However, that’s not a guarantee!
Don’t get me wrong, on average the controlling player will be rolling a 9 (Level 2) which will consume most endless spells. However, if it does fail that roll then it will drop a level.
The best bet may be to kill the bonded character, at which point the Krondspine is reduced to its Wildform where it will attack the nearest unit (enemy or friendly) or Endless Spell within 12″. This could mean if you kill the bonded character early doors, the Krondspine could run rampant in its own lines.
As has been mentioned on our new Discord Server though, you could link it to a cheap as chips Savage Orruk Boss and just send them hell for leather up the table…
Conclusion
There’s a lot here, but we need more info yet. What’s its save, and exactly how much damage is needed to reduce its level? Does it reduce only one level per turn regardless of the damage inflicted on it? If this is the case, then things that cause a mass of mortal wounds are going to be pretty ineffective against it (looking at you Wurgog).
More importantly, what’s its value in points?
Availability
At the moment it looks like you need to buy the Battlescape Box in order to get the model as there’s been no official confirmation that the Krondspine will be sold separately.
Of course there are other options you could use…
Neat and Handy Airbrush Review
I’ve never actually owned an airbrush despite wanting one for many years. With the birth of my first child in 2019 I decided to postpone this purchase further as I was concerned that an airbrush would wake any children in the house when I used it (myself being a late night painter).
Recently however I had seen the YouTube advert for the neat and handy airbrush. The main draw was the fact that this was a cordless airbrush and no louder than an electric razor.
Delivery
I ordered the product on 21st February via their website, when ordering you’re given three locations for the airbrush to be despatched from. These are the UK, USA and Australia. I was given updates throughout the week on the progress of my order until it arrived on my doorstep on 23rd February. 3 working days! Impressive!
The airbrush came very well wrapped inside a bubble wrap envelope, the airbrush itself sits in a foam tray as shown above, very little opportunity for this to be damaged on route.
Batteries
Being an eager beaver I charged up the batteries immediately with the USB connector supplied. There is no plug with this, so you will need to plug the USB either into a computer or a phone charger plug with a USB port. The batteries were charged within 40 minutes each and they both provide 30 minutes of non-stop use.
Note that you can also use this while connected to the power supply if you wish through a power inlet on the compressor shown below. So if you do run out of battery you can still continue using the airbrush.
Noise
So how was the noise? Was it really as quiet as an electric razor? Actually, it was quieter! I recorded this on my phone (phone is approx 15cm from the airbrush).
But the true test of this, was my infant son of 5 months was sleeping in his cot in the next room and he didn’t even stir! Exactly what I need so far!
First Use
Here I had a problem. I had connected the charged battery, screwed the cup in and filled the cup with a little diluted Abaddon Black. I went to use the airbrush and only air was ejected from the nozzle. After playing around for sometime and becoming increasingly frustrated I emailed neat and tidy using their contact us page.
Bear in mind that I emailed them at 23:30 GMT, with this in mind I had a response within half an hour from a nice chap called John. John asked me how I had used it so far and if I could provide a video for them to view. After saying that I had cleaned the brush and tried it with water alone I was provided with a link to a quick fix.
Yup, that did the job!
I used citadel paints on my first go and immediately found that these needed diluting for them to work, but once they had a little water added to them the airbrush worked a treat.
There is very little in the way of over spray from what I can tell and the airbrush is extremely easy to control.
Conclusion
It’s obviously not a high end airbrush but it’s a perfect tool for undercoating your miniatures indoors as well as giving you an easier way to paint OSL if you wish.
Plus with the support I received I can’t recommend this brush enough!