by Pat Nevan
Rules credit throughout the article to Games Workshop
Good old Khorne, first in my heart, last of the AOS factions to receive its preview article in the lead up to 4th Edition. As the singles of people who follow my work know, I’ve written pretty extensively on the subject of my unhappiness with the 3rd Ed transformation of Khorne to the God of Brain-Dead Board Control. There were a few hopeful signs of change in the lead up to 4th Ed and I’ve been sweating on the Khorne preview article with the battered optimism of the long-suffering spouse of a Hollywood celebrity awaiting their partner’s return from their latest stint in rehab. Maybe, just maybe, things will be different this time.
Now that the preview is here, the waiting is over and I have to say I’m cautiously optimistic. The preview looks healthy. Khorne has shown a capacity and a willingness to change. Obviously I’m not going to get everything I want overnight, but life isn’t a fairytale. Recovery is a process and you have to be realistic about what you can achieve. Let’s have a look at what’s on the table.
Battle Traits = Blood Tithe
That’s pretty much it. You get them the same way you always have. There aren’t 8 options anymore cause they won’t fit onto one page with the extra word salad that accompanies 4th Ed rules. On a sad note, pour one out for Magical Immunity and the Blood Tithe that came with it; still, nearly everyone is taking some lumps in their Indices. As always, you can spend Blood Tithe once per turn and the 2 point unbind is much the same as ever.
Murderlust
For me, the changes to Murderlust are the absolute best news in the article. The old end-of-the-hero-phase Murderlust led to the absolute brain death of running three inches away and then Murderlusting in at the end of the enemy hero phase, to deny enemy movement and battle tactics. The absolute obnoxious tedium of pin and win that some people mistook for high-level board control play. Shifting Murderlust to a flat 3 inches once a turn in the movement phase retains its utility.
Need a little extra speed in your movement phase, Murderlust it. Want to lock someone down without triggering their goofy anti-charge Strike Last abilities, run up real close and Murderlust your way in. They can’t Redeploy until after you are done moving, so they have to sit back and take it. Conversely, in your enemy’s turn you aren’t moving until they have finished, so you aren’t locking anybody in combat unless they are silly enough to stand within 6 inches of you – so no more denying battle tactics or movement.
A few Khorne players are viewing this as a major nerf but they are overlooking a few key points:
- They have to stand 6 inches away from you to charge you or risk being Murderlusted. It’s not that hard to fail a 6″ charge.
- Anyone with 5 inches of movement isn’t retreating from you anytime soon, and you will be breaking out the measuring sticks for 6″ infantry units. Still useful for contesting mini objectives.
- It’s also a bonus Redeploy. Use it on another unit, or on top of a Redeploy, after you see what your opponent is doing. Move away from that threat unit, then move again. Not very Khorne-like, but as long as the blood is red. (This is based on my understanding that you can use multiple MOVE abilities in a turn, but only one CORE ability. This may well prove to be wrong).
- Yes, this also means Murderlust and a Redeploy will deny charges in the new old fashioned way most of the time. It just won’t be an auto tactic denier, and it will cost a command point. Again, as far as I know; I won’t be surprised to see a first-FAQ stoppage on the double down here.
So they’ve taken something that was extremely powerful but dull and oppressive and given us something that is strong and useful that will actually reward clever play. Good job. Peculiarly enough, they have moved Murderlust over to the Ironjawz and I can only hope that the Board Control devotees who joined Khorne in 3rd go with it.
Brass Skull Meteor
Costs an extra Blood Tithe but does much more reliable damage, so well worth it. I can see this one going up once people start Zeroing out support heroes just for looking at them funny. The extra lethality of this probably explains why they changed the targeting provisions, limiting you to targets that are visible to a friendly Blades of Khorne Hero. Old Khorne used to be able to hit anything, anywhere. Calling in the holy artillery seems like more of a Stormcast thing, but oh well. Barring an FAQ this 100% does beat the targeting provisions for Guarded Heroes so good luck hiding behind those Clanrats, Mr Warplock Engineer
Heads Must Roll
Garbage, just garbage. Presumably included to remind Khorne players of their history in Age of Sigmar. 8 points gets you a bonus attack for the game, 6 points gets you a point of rend for a turn? You can only consider this a missed opportunity. The obvious answer here is an army-wide heal like back in 2nd Ed. Some people don’t think that’s a Khorne thing but the lore is full of Wounds scabbing over and Bloodbound fighting on with impossible injuries. Failing that a ward for turn, turning off wards, Crits to mortals. Anything but rend, bleugh.
Slaughter Triumphant
Now this is what I’m talking about. The old 8 point perma-attack is there. If you’ve got the points and you’ve got the bodies on the table to use it, go for it. The replacement Bloodthirster is the Belle of the Ball here. Send one of the big boys into combat and if he doesn’t make it back, once the Blood Tithe ticks over to 8, back he comes full of piss and vinegar. There are a couple of points to be made here.
- This occurs in any player’s movement phase, which goes way back to 1st Ed 8-point Blood Tithe Khorne summoning. AKA: The good old days. Your opponent takes the first turn in the round, you summon/return at the end of their movement phase (out of harm’s way), move in closer in your own movement phase and choppity chop. It’s amazingly powerful and a lot of Khorne players are going to learn to love it.
- No Heroes. No Shrine. This one is impossible to screen and in pretty short order, Khorne’s enemies will be debating killing Bloodthirsters.
- Everyone is taking a Bloodthirster and using it. I know everyone takes a Whipthirster, but the feeble lore-inappropriate, combat-avoiding Debuff Thirster will not do you any favors here. If you want a fresh new Bloodthirster popping up where it’s needed, the old one has to earn some Blood Tithe and die. What else are you going to spend the points on, Rend?
I’m not even a Bloodthirster guy and I’m for this. One of the worst of the many mistakes of the last book was pointing 20 Bloodletters below a Bloodthirster on the summoning chart, making it uneconomical for Khorne to summon Greater Daemons. Well now you got no choice but to whip it out and plonk it on the table.
Make sure to give it the full “Say Hello to My Little Friend” when you do
Battle Formations
Happily they gave us a new and interesting one. Mortals fight after Daemons like they were Lumineth or something. Eh, OK it makes a nice alternative to the normal policy of segregation. This one could get interesting if Daemons have any Strike First tech, which could end up being pretty clutch. The Halo of Blood has been around for a while and I can see it making it to the Index.
The other sub-factions mentioned are a Daemon one that seems to improve wards with blood spilled. Possibly a new Blood Tithe spend? Some sort of Goretide objective holding thing, and a Brass Stampede. All pretty solid. A custom Blood Tithe option is a really good idea for subfactions now that I think of it.
Just in case you were wondering what you needed to roll to summon the Hexgorger Skulls, and weren’t the least bit curious about what they actually do, they included the summoning prayer and not the Warscroll. I guess they wrote the article on a Friday?
Unit Focus
Excuse me one second while I queue up “Here I am, Rock you Like a Hurricane” on my YouTube Music. Not only is this guy pretty sweet, I have been saying for years that they should specialize Thirsters, and this dude is clearly the anti-infantry guy. Well someone read my dream journal.
This guy is buffed all the way up to where he always should have been, with some of the more obnoxious aspects of his warscroll cut out. Hitting on 3’s finally, Exploding 6’s on hits (not wounds – hurrah), an actual permanent 5+ Ward to make him tougher than a strand of wet lettuce. Straight 5 damage per hit, charge mortals and he f*cks up infantry like a virulent strain of chlamydia.
From an NPE point of view they have toned down his mortals to a random roll, no more getting lucky and churning out 12 mortals to everything in the middle of an army. You can spam them, and people will, but the Once-an-army Rampage guarantees diminishing returns. I will be astonished if this guy comes in anywhere less than 400 points which is where a Greater Daemon should be.
Really not a Bloodletter guy but these guys got a bump. Ward save and auto-returning models to officially confirm that they are, in fact, the Skaven Clanrats of Khorne. They don’t return models if you aren’t in combat so if you want them to last, don’t kill anything?
Of all the unique heroes in the Khorne range, they had to roll out this diminished mutant son of a bitch. Poor little fella, he started out in his own box set summoning a posse of five Flesh Hounds but it’s been downhill ever since. He’s lost a point of save, lost his damaging unbind, gotten a bit worse in combat and he overrides the Beast keyword for other nearby Flesh Hounds and picked up a ward.
A few people in the Craichouse discord got a bit excited about his Chosen Prey rules and out-of-phase movement until I pointed out that he has better out-of-phase movement rules now, and can’t make it into a competitive Khorne list. Plus you can summon Flesh Hounds directly into combat off him currently. In 4th you can stop his out-of-phase movement by standing still in a game of freeze tag. He did get extra rend vs heroes so in the unlikely event that he makes it across the battlefield he could get lucky and kill a support hero.
Another disappointment, the Blood Warrior continues on its merry way as the off-brand, red-coloured Chaos Warrior. I do wish they’d give these guys something more thematic. They kept murder rolls on their Warscrolls so they do retributive damage like they were two Zombies stuffed in a suit of armor, but only if you kill them in combat. They’re still cool with being ploughed under with charge mortals. Goreaxes are gone, they kept 3 attacks but they’re hitting on 4’s cause they aren’t elite enough. Meh.
This is the pick of the Mortal litter so far. I’m reliably informed (some guy told me that some guy told them in the Coach’s discord.) that Spearhead Warscrolls are the same except for the abilities. Assuming that’s true, I am so hyped for this. After only 9 short years, someone at Games Workshop has realized that the Juggernaught is not just a funny-looking red horse and given it some rend and damage on its weapon profile.
I couldn’t care less if it has fewer attacks or hits on 4s, I’m just so happy to see it. And the guy on top does damage like he has a f*ck-off big lance and is elite as well. They may actually be able to do some damage on the charge before settling in to become annoying goddam tarpits. Without old fashioned Rally to prop them up they did need something. More of this please.
In Conclusion
Once again I wrote a review article that took a lot longer to read than the actual article. Still, as we say at the Craichouse, “Don’t like it? Get your own f*cking Blog!”. On reflection I’m giving this one a solid 7/10, maybe not fully Slaughtering a Fatted Calf but I’d definitely body-shame one. For once it all seems to be heading in the right direction and I’m left with a vague sense of confidence that someone in charge has a rough idea of what Khorne should play like.
We were talking about the preview in the Craichouse discord and one of the guys asked if I’d use a Bloodthirster aggressively so I could summon it back. The obvious answer was ‘f*ck Yes!’ and that’s what I’m hoping to see with this Index. How about we get across the table and hack some stuff to bits for a change? Deny battle tactics with mass slaughter, not board control.
Let’s replace the omnipresent Whipthirster debuff General with the sacrificial suicide plunge Thirster. The best part of the deal is the Johnny Khorne Latelys that jumped on the Band Wagon in 3rd Ed don’t even own Boomthirsters. Give them three months, they will be running Ironjawz using Mighty Destroyers to lock down their opponent’s troops with 6-man pig units like the tactical geniuses that they are.
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