The smell of blood is ripe across the Mortal Realms, as the Darkoath renew their efforts to protect their lands from the encroaching Sigmarite whelps with a new army available to pre-order on Saturday.
Centuries spent waging constant war for survival in the Mortal Realms after Sigmar abandoned them have left the Darkoath tough and extremely swole, with muscle groups you’d need a master’s degree in bench-pressing to identify. Their dynamic new miniatures reflect this impressive vascularity, presenting many fantastic options for customisation.
The Darkoath Chieftain on Warsteed is a foreboding soul, a dark and ruthless mirror of the Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal. He comes with an axe or a sword, three different head options – full mask, half mask, or unmasked – and his stocky mount has a choice of headpiece.
Making pledges to Chaos is always a Faustian pact, and when the stream of victories runs dry, a tribe’s Chieftain may be transformed into a Wilderfiend. These cursed creatures are twisted beyond recognition and have a series of construction options, including two different sets of ornamentation for the neck, two options each from the top and bottom half of the head, and two sets of tusks and horns.
Darkoath Fellriders are blisteringly fast light cavalry who race ahead to pepper the enemy’s exposed flanks with hand weapons or javelins. The unit can be built with a choice of Champion, Icon Bearer, and Hornblower, with five unique daemon plates and five armoured masks for the horses – equine protection is paramount here. The kit also includes 13 heads – four female and nine male, plus five shields, five hand weapons and six javelins.
Covered in rugged leather and hammered metal, and armed either with vicious hand weapons or darkiron spears, the Darkoath Marauders kit is similarly bristling with choice. For every 10 marauders, you can build one Champion with a choice of two heads, plus a Doombeater and Icon Bearer. You get the choice of 13 interchangeable shields, 11 hand weapons, 11 spears, and 30 unique heads to use between five male and five female bodies.
It’s time for a short history lesson. These new Darkoath might be the mortal inheritors of Chaos, but they are just the latest part of a long lineage of Marauders, Barbarians, and Norscans.
The first Marauders were the brutal tribesmen who lived in the frozen north of the World-that-Was. These harsh climates bred warriors who were harsher still, and their kill-or-be-killed attitude was represented by a range of fierce – and only slightly less ripped – miniatures.
Many of the design motifs from Chaos Marauders of old have returned to the new Darkoath miniatures, though the Mortal Realms have clearly imparted a far greater knowledge of haircare than the World-that-Was, while the Darkoath know how to breed a far sturdier horse.
Swear an oath and muster your own barbaric throng with the Darkoath Army Set, which goes up for pre-order on Saturday.