This is it. With the launch of the Dominion box just around the corner, the angriest army in the Mortal Realms bears the honour of being the last faction to get their write-up for the new edition.
If you haven’t read them yet, the 23 other faction articles are already live. Do you want nothing more than to rage-smash every one of those other armies? Then we think you’ll love the Blades of Khorne.
Who Are the Blades of Khorne?
Of the Chaos Gods, Khorne is by far the most bloodthirsty and warlike. His mortal followers are driven by the promise of power and martial prowess, and the Blood God’s daemons are near-mindless beings of primal wrath and fury.
The armies dedicated to Khorne have no overarching goals or lofty ambitions, except to slaughter everyone and everything in their path. They crave nothing more than to soak the battlefield in the blood of their enemies and collect skulls to pile up at grisly altars.
If you want a powerful army that will roll across the board like a frothing red tide, look no further.
Here to tell us more about how the Blades of Khorne fare in the latest edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is Russ Veal, one of our crack playtesting team. He’s clearly a follower of the Dark Gods as he also provided the write-up for the Slaves to Darkness.
Russ: Many Blades of Khorne units provide buffs that aren’t command abilities, making stacking benefits really easy for the army. For example, try combining a Bloodsecrator’s Rage of Khorne ability with Wrathmongers’ Crimson Haze for mega-bonus attacks across multiple units.
The Blades of Khorne also have access to command abilities like Blood Stampede, which allows three units to re-roll wound rolls of 1.
The number of hit and wound re-rolls available, along with the ability to stack extra attacks, can lead to some terrifying damage output, making a cohesive Blades of Khorne army a fearsome force of wanton bloodshed.
The new coalition rules allow you to take units from Slaves to Darkness with the Mark of Khorne, and one in every four units can be from the Beasts of Chaos faction. These gain the Khorne keyword, meaning Beasts of Chaos can be easily added to a Blades of Khorne army and can even have Artefacts of Power.
A unit of Bullgors or a Chimera will bolster your army, and because they gain the Khorne keyword, they’ll benefit from most of your abilities.
The Skull Altar faction terrain is now defensible and can become a great bastion for your Bloodsecrator to defend. This makes him harder to hit, improves his save, and increases his banner’s area of effect as you measure from the garrisoned Skull Altar.
Slaughterpriests can unbind and dispel endless spells and also banish invocations, making them key to your magical defence and giving you access to powerful buffs and enhancements. They have a wide range of abilities, and the new invocation rules for the Wrath-axe, Bleeding Icon, and Hexgorger Skulls mean they are more likely to stick around and cause havoc.
Biggest Winners
If you want to spill blood and take skulls in the name of Khorne, you need to have the best warriors on your side. But who would those be? We’ll hand you back to Russ as he picks his favourite units for the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.
Bloodthirsters
Russ: All types of mighty Bloodthirsters become even more terrifying in the new edition. Being both Heroes and Monsters, they get access to heroic actions and monstrous rampages, meaning you can combine Titanic Duel and Their Finest Hour for +1 to hit, wound, and save against a monstrous target.
If that wasn’t enough to take your target out, use the Leave None Alive command ability from the Reapers of Vengeance sub-faction to do it all over again.
Last, but not least, having Bravery 10 means Heroic Recovery is likely to give you D3 wounds back, keeping Bloodthirsters stronger for longer.
Blood Warriors
Russ: Blood Warriors are a powerful battleline unit, and their minimum size has been boosted to ten models. Reinforce them twice for a unit with 60 wounds – that will take a while for your opponent to chew through.
They’re a great target for prayers like Bronzed Flesh, Bless, and Killing Frenzy.
Consider using the unit champion to issue All-out Defence for an additional +1 save. Although the maximum benefit is +1, you add that after any modifiers, so it’ll take a rend of -2 on enemy weapons to take you back to your base Save of 4+.
This unit is also a great target for the Rally command ability – adding highly defensible models makes them a tough prospect to shift from an objective.
Mortal Heroes
Russ: Okay, they’re not a single unit, but all these Heroes work in concert to improve your army. For example, a Bloodstoker’s Whipped to Fury ability gives a nearby unit a massive boost to ensure they get into combat, and they do some work once they’re stuck in.
Lots of Heroes have access to command abilities which affect multiple units, such as a Mighty Lord of Khorne’s command ability Gorelord, which lets you re-roll charges for all units wholly within 16”.
Blood Stampede from the Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut allows re-rolls on wound rolls of 1 for up to three charging Khorne Mortal units. An Exalted Deathbringer allows units within 18” to ignore battleshock with Brutal Command.
Finally, a Bloodsecrator’s Totem keyword grants them a command ability range of 18” just like your general – between the two they should cover most of your army with a bit of planning.
In short, all of the mortal Heroes are fantastic, and offer plenty of options to tailor your force to your preferred style of play.
And with those wise words from Russ, you should be ready to take some skulls in your games of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. The Start Collecting! Khorne Bloodbound Goreblade Warband is a fantastic place to begin, and it includes several of those Hero units Russ mentioned. Why not keep going with the Start Collecting! Daemons of Khorne box? And don’t forget to pick up the vital Blood for the Blood God paint.
And this concludes our series of articles focusing on how all the factions play in the new edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Battle commences this Saturday with the release of the stunning Dominion launch box, featuring two armies and a lavish version of the rule book.
