Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Chaos/Blades of Khorne

Grand Alliance Chaos Blades of Khorne

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

Lore Tactics General Tactics

Blades of Khorne allows you to finally run a mixed mortal and daemonic army, as well as upgrading both sides with killy, new stuff.

Why Play Blades of Khorne?

Because you're tired of all this frilly magic nonsense running around the table. A purple sun? REALLY?! You also never saw a problem you didn't think could be solved by swinging an axe or sword at it.

The hordes of Khorne are great at shutting down magically inclined opponents while lopping off their heads. This army isn't braindead, however, and requires intelligent use of stacking auras, prayers, command abilities, and artifacts to actually be effective. With the 2.0 point increases across the board, it's now more important than ever to hone in on what makes Blades of Khorne so great.

PROS

• Khorne cares not from where the blood flows. Your own units dying helps you in the long run.
• Your prayers cannot be unbound.
• Between Blood Points, Command Abilities, prayers, Judgements, relics, battalions and whatnot, Khorne's armies are surprisingly flexible and tactical now. They're still obsessed with close combat, of course, but can adapt to many opponents quite well.
• Your army is tied with the Greenskins for the most fun thing that you can say while playing any kind of Warhammer: BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!

CONS

• Only one real artillery unit in the Skull Cannon, which is worthless
• Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, and is here. You'll want every kind of hero in your army but won't have the space for them.
• It's possible to be banned from a store for saying "BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD! SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!" too much.

What's changed in 2.0?

• Heroes you previously wouldn't have taken have gotten significantly better. The 3 base command abilities can be used by all of your heroes, without them being your general. Your Exalted Deathbringers and Aspiring Deathbringers are a decent choice now!
• Summoning no longer requires points from your army spent. Kill stuff, get Blood Tithe, summon more.
• Arcane Shield was significantly nerfed...but Bronzed Flesh is still +1 to save rolls and can be used several times in a phase Not anymore, prayer from the Blood Blessing table can only be chanted once each turn.
• Since GHB2017, you no longer need to worry about Bloodbound and Daemon allegiances. While your general still can affect what additional battlelines you can take, all you need is the Khorne tag!

Rulebooks

Faction rules and abilities: Battletome Blades of Khorne (2019)

Latest Matched play points: Blades of Khorne Errata

Core rules: here

Matched play rules, battleplans and expansions: General's Handbook 2022-23 Season 2, plus the battleplans from the Core Book.

Supplement all the above with any Errata and Designers' Commentary from the FAQs.

Allegiance Abilities

Battle Traits

If your army has a Blades of KHORNE allegiance and chose to take the Blades of KHORNE allegiance abilities, it has the following rules:

Legions of Chaos: The errata saw GW cribbing notes from the Cities of Sigmar, now you (and the other god-aligned armies) can take two Slaves of Darkness units out of every four so long as you give them the mark of KHORNE and one of every four units can be from Beasts of Chaos, granting them the keyword as well. In addition coalition units do not count towards the number of battleline in your army, but do count towards everything else (behemoth, leader, artillery, etc). Also cannot be army general. Predictably, Wizards and units bearing the marks of other gods are not allowed.

• Congratulations, your army selection has effectively doubled between all the StD stuff that's now much easier to access and the beastmen.

Locus of Fury: You can re-roll hit rolls of 1 for attacks made by friendly Khorne Daemon units while they are wholly within 12" of any friendly Khorne Daemon Heroes, or wholly within 16" of any friendly Khorne Greater Daemons. A nice buff to your Khorne daemons. As with all other buffs, the unit creating the aura is considered to be inside it, so all of your Daemon Heroes innately reroll hits of 1.

Blood for the Blood God!: A KHORNE army generates Blood Tithe points during the course of each battle; the controlling player must keep a record of how many points their army accrues. One point is generated each time a unit belonging to either player is wiped out.

Unless stated otherwise in the rule for a reward, Blood Tithe points can be expended at the start of either player’s hero phase, but only once per phase. Pick one Blood Tithe reward that has a value equal to or less than your current number of Blood Tithe points and immediately resolves its effects. The latest errata (as of the 22 of July) removes the rule that makes you lose all unused Blood Tithe points when you use this ability. This is -a long overdue- buff to BoK since AOS now favors MSU. Feel free to summon small units of Bloodletters for 2 points (which will eventually die, netting you another point) to disrupt the enemy, while racking up points and summon a big fat Bloodthirster turn 4 for free, or pull out Apoplectic Frenzy more often.

This means that Khornate armies will tend do absolutely break the shit outta MSU armies, since they'll be gaining Blood Tithe points extremely quickly, butchering through some pesky ratmen, for example. This also means that low count armies, like Beastclaw Raiders, will be harder prey, given that they armies numbers are quite low.

1. Bloody Exemplar: 1 Point. Gain a command point. IT JUST WORKS!
2. Spelleater Curse: 2 Points. Choose this reward immediately after a WIZARD has cast a spell anywhere on the battlefield; it is automatically unbound. You may not choose this reward after having attempted to unbind the spell.
3. Murderlust: 3 Points. Select a Khorne unit from your army; that unit can move as if it were the movement phase. If it is within 12" of an enemy model, it can either move as if it were the movement phase or charge as if it were the charge phase. Murderlust specifies a "normal move" which includes the option to retreat & run, effectively giving any of your units retreat, run, move, charge sequentially. Useful for Thirsters stuck in combats they can't win, and/or cycle charging Skullcrushers. Also, if you charge in hero phase, you can pile in even if you ran in your movement phase. When you run, then you cannot charge which in turn doesn't allow you to pile in but guess what, you already Charged in hero phase which means you are eligible to pile in. This trick can be used by any faction that can charge in hero phase(Iron jawz for example).
4. Apoplectic Frenzy: 4 Points. Select a Khorne unit from your army that is within 3" of an enemy model; that unit can immediately pile in and attack as if it were the combat phase.
5. Brass Skull Meteor: 5 Points. Pick a single unit anywhere on the battlefield; that unit immediately suffers D3 mortal wounds. In addition, roll a dice for each unit within 8" of the unit you picked; on a roll of 3 or more, the unit being rolled for suffers a mortal wound. If the roll is a 6, the unit takes D3 mortal wounds instead. You can launch this upon Skarbrand; he will heat up faster and if is already around a couple of enemies, they'll also have a chance to suffer residual damage. (Basically useless unless there's a 1 wound unit holding an objective in one of the few battleplans that you can't walk off a point and still hold it)
6. Relentless Fury: 6 Points. Until your next hero phase, each time a KHORNE model in your army is slain in the combat phase, you can make a pile in move and then attack with the model before you remove it (use the lowest line on the damage table if it has one on its warscroll when resolving this attack).
7. Crimson Rain: 7 Points. You may use this once per battle. Immediately after you use it, and every one of your hero phases afterwards, you may heal all friendly Khorne units on the battlefield D3. Have an army of big baddies? Keep them happy with a little spritz of blood!
8. Slaughter Triumphant: 8 Points. You may use this once per battle. Affects all friendly Khorne units. Unmodified melee hit rolls of 6 count as 2 hits instead of 1. Congrats, you just gave everything in your army exploding dice. That block of 20 Bloodwarriors, those 40 Bloodreavers, that summoned unit of 20 Bloodletters, and don't forget your Bloodthirster. A very, very good choice, but you better make sure you've still got enough of an army to enjoy it.

Summon Daemons of Khorne: as of AOS2, wizards have all lost the ability to summon Daemons. Instead, at the END of your movement phase, you may use 2-8 (or 16) Blood Tithe points to summon from the list below. The new unit must be set up wholly within 12" of a Khorne Hero or Skull Altar, and 9" away from an enemy. The unit summoned cannot move or run this turn, but they may charge (a nine-inch charge isn't good odds without some aura support). Blood Tithe points no longer dissapear (and destroying summoned units give them back), so feel free to spam low cost units while still increasing your Blood Tithe count for an apocalyptic summon. Summoning is situational but can be just what you need late game to jump on an objective or cut off your opponent's movement. A Skullcannon can still fire as well, so quick-scoping a long-range target is possible.

• 2 Blood Tithe: 1 Bloodmaster
• 2 Blood Tithe: 5 Bloodletters
• 3 Blood Tithe: 1 Skullmaster
• 3 Blood Tithe: 5 Flesh Hounds
• 4 Blood Tithe: 1 Blood Throne
• 4 Blood Tithe: 10 Bloodletters
• 5 Blood Tithe: 1 Skullcannon
• 5 Blood Tithe: 3 Bloodcrushers
• 6 Blood Tithe: 10 Flesh Hounds
• 6 Blood Tithe: 15 Bloodletters
• 7 Blood Tithe: 20 Bloodletters
• 8 Blood Tithe: 1 Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury
• 8 Blood Tithe: 1 Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage
• 8 Blood Tithe: 1 Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster
• 16 Blood Tithe: 1 EXALTED GREATER DAEMON OF KHORNE

Slaughterhosts

All Khorne units in your army gain this keyword. If a model already has a Slaughterhost keyword, it cannot gain another one, but this does not prevent other units in your army from having a different Slaughterhost keyword on other units. This does not mean you can use two Slaughterhost rulesets, it only means if a unit comes with a Slaughterhost keyword it is not prevented from being used in your army using another Slaughterhost keyword, they just can't benefit from any of the rules. There are four Slaughterhosts to choose from in the book and they are all bloody fantastic. Each comes with a keyword wide Ability and mandatory Command Ability, Command Trait, and Artifact of Power. It's an easy (see: free) way to get more good shit for your army, so there's really never a reason NOT to use one of them. NOTE: this doesn't give you a free random artifact; the artifacts in these must be the first artifact you give to your army.

Reapers of Vengeance (boy I sure do hate wizards and love daemons)

• Ability - Devour the Craven: If any enemy units within 3 inches of any friendly Reapers of Vengeance fails a battleshock test, add D3 models that flee. Stacks well with a few other new battleshock altering abilities.
• Command Ability - Leave None Alive: At the start of the combat phase, pick 1 friendly Reapers of Vengeance Daemon unit wholly within 8 inches of a friendly Daemon model with this command ability. After that unit has fought in the combat phase for the first time, if they are within 3" of an enemy unit, it can instantly pile in and attack again. (For those of you looking at Tyrants, since both rules happen "immediately after a unit fights for the first time" using this command ability will break the chain of Tyrants, as such, whichever you want to fight twice, use it at the end of the chain.)
• Command Trait - Mage Eater: The general can attempt to unbind one spell in the enemy hero phase in the same manner as a Wizard. If your unmodified unbind roll is an 8, the spell is unbound AND the caster suffers D6 mortal wounds.
• Artifact - Skullshard Mantle: Each time the bearer is affected by a spell or endless spell, roll a dice. If you do so, on a 2+ ignore the effects of that spell on the bearer. It doesn't just work on wounds.

The Bloodlords (boy I sure do hate Heros/Monsters and love punching them with my zipping Greater Daemon)

• Ability - Slay the Mighty: You can reroll wound rolls of 1 for attacks made by friendly Bloodlords Daemon units that target a Hero or Monster.
• Command Ability - First in His Sight: At the start of your hero phase, pick a friendly model with this command ability. You may heal 1 wound allocated to each friendly Bloodlords Daemon unit wholly within 16" of that model.
• Command Trait - Slaughterer's Thirst: Add 4" to the Move characteristic of this general. Also, re-roll charge rolls for this general. Faster Bloodthirsters are always handy.
• Artifact - Halo of Blood: The bearer fights at the start of the combat phase before the players pick any other unit to fight in that combat phase. Note: the player whose turn it is choosing who's "fight first" ability trumps the other. Note to the note: Actually not true, whoever's turn it is goes first with all of their 'fights at start of combat phase' units, then the other player fights with all of theirs, then it goes to standard alternating order.

The Goretide (GOTTA GO FAST!)

• Ability - Tireless Conquerors: You may re-roll wound rolls of 1 for attacks made by melee weapons by friendly Goretide Moral units wholly within 12" of an objective marker.
• Command Ability - Ever Onwards: During your movement phase, before you make a run move, you may use this ability on 1 friendly Goretide Bloodreaver or Goretide Blood Warrior unit wholly within 16" of a friendly model with this command ability. If you do so, that run roll is auto 6. In addition, that unit can run and charge this turn. Reavers kept their +1 run/charge banner, and you can still whip them for +3 run/charge, so this ability allows you to get a block of 40 across the field turn one, their **minimum** threat range becomes 19+2d6" (Base Move + Run bonuses (roll of 6+1+3) + Charge bonuses (2D6+1+3)
• Command Trait - Hew the Foe: Add 1 to the Damage characteristic of this general's melee weapon. Your general is going to want to get in and stay in, so beefy bois like your Juggerlord or Mighty Lord are best.
• Artifact - Thronebreaker's Torc: Ignore positive or negative modifiers when making saves for this model. Now that your Bloodsecrator can move, may be just what he needs to shrug off the volleys of fire coming his way.
• Named Hero With Keyword: Korghos Khul

The Skullfiend Tribe (hunt their heroes, let lose your Khorgoraths)

• Ability - Skull Hunters: You may re-roll hit rolls of 1 for attacks made by friendly Skullfiend Tribe Mortal units that are wholly within 12" of an enemy Hero.
• Command Ability - For the Brass Citadel: At the start of the combat phase, you can pick 1 friendly model with this command ability. Until the end of the phase, re-roll all hits and wounds for attacks made by friendly Skullfiend Tribe Khorgorath units wholly within 10" of that model.
• Command Trait - Master Decapitator: Get 2 Blood Tithe points when your general slays a Hero instead of 1.
• Artifact - Crowncleaver: Pick one melee weapon, that weapon gets +2 attacks.

The Flayed (How do I like worshiping khorne but I don't like dying, also let loose your Skullcrushers)

• Ability - Blood woken Runes: end of the combat phase, a Flayed Mortal unit save increases once by +1 for rest of game if they slay a Hero or Monster.
• Command Ability - Wrathspeaker: at start of combat phase, a Flayed Mortal wholly within 12" of a Mortal Hero gain +1 to hit rolls if they charged this turn.
• Command Trait - Vessel of Butchery: re-roll prayer rolls of 1 within 8"
• Artifact - The Slaughterhelm: +2 charge rolls.

The Baleful Lords (all abord the Bloodthirsters train)

• Ability - Unbound Slaughter: Baleful Lords Bloodthirsters can run & charge and take can have one more Behemoth in your list if they are all Bloodthirsters. Do I Hear 5 Bloodthirsters. (you still need Battlines but you can go cheap on it)
• Command Ability -Frenzed Annilation: during combat, one Baleful Lords Bloodthirsters ignores wound table.
• Command Trait - Thirst for carnage: +1 to charge rolls for Baleful Lords Bloodthirsters within 8".
• Artifact - Black brass crown: +1 Save against attacks. Put this on Bloodsecrator, leave him in cover and watch him laugh at any shooting attempts your enemies might try or be an asshole and give this item to Exalted Bloodthirster, nobody wants to meet 20 wound monster with 3+ save.

A note regarding the above: Your general does not have to be from any of the above to take the general trait, but if he is than he MUST take it. That means no named heroes can be your general and get a keyword (Korghos Khul being the exception since he has the Goretide keyword). You MUST use the Slaughterhost's Artifact of Power (your general doesn't have to), and only that Slaughterhost's Hero can use it (so no giving your Goretide hero the Skullfiend Tribe's Artifact). The Slaughterhost's are clearly designed so that you take certain units (two being Daemon focuses and two being Mortal focused), but nothing's stopping you from mixing and matching.

• Also: imagine Slaughterer's Thirst with Thermalrider's Cloak. Suddenly, your Juggerlord is moving 16" with Fly (or your Mighty Lord is moving 13" with Fly). There is A LOT of potential hidden in this book.

Command Traits

Much like the Disciples of Tzeentch Battletome, there are three tables to pick Command Traits from for you: Bloodbound, Daemons and Mortals. If you have a combination of those keywords, you can pick which table you take your Command Traits from, though 1-3 are copy-pasted on all three tables.

A BLOODBOUND General of an army with a KHORNE allegiance and has chosen to take the KHORNE allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Command Traits:

1. Arch-slaughterer: You generate one additional Blood Tithe point each time your general slays an enemy HERO or MONSTER. Khorne rewards those who kill bigger threats and worthy prey.
2. Unrivalled Battlelust: If your general is within 12" of an enemy unit (but not within 3" of an enemy unit) at the end of any of your opponent’s charge phases, you can immediately attempt a charge move with your general. A nice bonus if your general is a meaty big guy.
3. Slaughterborn: Re-roll all of your general’s failed melee hit rolls. Fine. It might not look like much, but it can be especially important if your general has plenty of attacks and/or carries certain Artifacts of Power.
4. Mark of the Cannibal: If your general slays one or more enemy models in the combat phase, they heal 1 wound at the end of the phase. This is a nice bonus, given that your heroes have already have a healthy number of wounds, pretty good if you are expecting to get lots of focus from the enemy.
5. Bloodsworn: KHORNE MORTAL units from your army wholly within 16" of your general can use your general’s Bravery characteristic in place of their own when making battleshock tests. Now a lot more impressive with the lose of table-wide battleshock immunity. Giving your Bloodreavers and Blood Warriors Bravery 9 could be the difference between losing the unit or staying alive another turn.
6. Disciple of Khorne: Add 2 to the Attacks characteristic of all melee weapons wielded by your general (but not any weapons used by their mount if they have one). If your general has multiple weapons this makes them even scarier.

A DAEMON General of an army with a KHORNE allegiance and has chosen to take the KHORNE allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Command Traits:

1. Arch-slaughterer: You generate one additional Blood Tithe point each time your general slays an enemy HERO or MONSTER. Khorne rewards those who kill the bigger threats and the worthy preys.
2. Unrivalled Battlelust: If your general is within 12" of an enemy unit (but not within 3" of an enemy unit) at the end of any of your opponent’s charge phases, you can immediately attempt a charge move with your general. A nice bonus if your general is a meaty big guy.
3. Slaughterborn: Re-roll all of your general’s failed melee hit rolls. Fine. It might not look like much, but it can be especially important if your general has plenty of attacks and/or carries certain Artifacts of Power.
4. Rage Unchained: Add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of all melee weapons wielded by your general. Neat!
5. Aspect of Death: Each time an enemy unit within 8" of your general fails a battleshock test, D3 additional model flees from the unit. All around a good bonus.
6. Devastating Blow: Any unmodified wound rolls of 6 for attacks made by your general (not their mount) in the combat phase inflict a number of mortal wounds equal to the weapon’s Damage characteristic instead of being resolved normally. The closest thing Daemon Generals have to a must pick, given that they already have a scary damage characteristic.

A MORTAL General of an army with a KHORNE allegiance and has chosen to take the KHORNE allegiance abilities can choose one of the following Command Traits:

1. Arch-slaughterer: You generate one additional Blood Tithe point each time your general slays an enemy HERO or MONSTER. Khorne rewards those who kill bigger threats and worthy prey.
2. Unrivalled Battlelust: If your general is within 12" of an enemy unit (but not within 3" of an enemy unit) at the end of any of your opponent’s charge phases, you can immediately attempt a charge move with your general. A nice bonus if your general is a meaty big guy.
3. Slaughterborn: Re-roll all of your general’s failed melee hit rolls. Fine. It might not look like much, but it can be especially important if your general has plenty of attacks and/or carries certain Artifacts of Power.
4. Hungry for Glory: You can reroll all hit and wound rolls of 1 for your general when attacking enemy HEROES or MONSTERS. Pretty good, pretty powerful. With the proper support, your general will be a potent hero buster and monster hunter... given that there are plenty of them on your enemy's side.
5. Berserker Lord: Roll a dice each time your general suffers an unsaved wound or mortal wound; on a roll of 5 or 6, the wound or mortal wound is ignored. A save after the save. These things have always been pretty damn handy, just ask to any Chaos Warrior with Runeshields. Now that it is always active, this is a much better trait to take.
6. Violent Urgency: You can reroll failed charge rolls for your general and any KHORNE units from your army that are wholly within 12" of him at the start of the charge phase. Actually a strong trait for almost any mortal general, putting out charges is always good, and guys like Knights, Chariots and Skullcrushers, who have bonuses for charging, already love this trait.

Artefacts

Murderous Artefacts

One KHORNE MORTAL HERO in an army with a KHORNE allegiance and has chosen to take the KHORNE allegiance abilities, plus one KHORNE MORTAL HERO for every battalion selected, can choose one of the following Murderous Artefacts (weapons of mounts can't be upgraded this way):

1. Heart Seeker: Pick one of the bearer's melee weapons. You can re-roll wound rolls for attacks made with this weapon.
2. Collar of Contempt: The bearer can attempt to unbind one spell in each enemy hero phase in the same manner as a wizard. In addition, you can attempt to dispel one endless spell in your hero phase.
3. Blood Drinker: Pick one of this HERO’s melee weapons to be a Blood Drinker. At the end of any combat phase in which the bearer inflicts any unsaved wounds or mortal wounds with this weapon, they immediately heal D3 wounds lost earlier in the battle. Additional sustain is always great, especially for your general.
4. Gorecleaver: Pick one of this HERO’s melee weapons to be a Gorecleaver. Attacks from Gorecleaver inflict an additional -1 Rend (for example, a weapon with a Rend characteristic of -1 becomes -2 instead). In addition, any wound rolls of 6 made with this weapon inflict double damage. Two words: Lord of Chaos. (On foot, to be specific, so make it five). His Reaperblade is powerful and reliable, now imagine it with an additional -1 Rend. Now imagine it Slaughterborn or Hungry for Glory. Now imagine it scoring a 6 To Wound or two. Or imagine it with Reaperblade's special attack. If Khorne smiles upon you, you could slay some of the mightiest monsters and heroes, potentially landing a 12 damage attack with -2 Rend, or even scoring a hit with 12 Mortal Wounds, making Khorne so proud of you. This is just such a good upgrade for your Chaos Lord. Not a must pick but, damn, the potential damage it can make is just incredible. Heroes with strong weapons and/or Rend also make great users for this.
5. The Crimson Plate: You can re-roll save rolls of 1 for the bearer. Good enough. Yeah, not much more to say. (Apart from you know, how a bloodsecrator in cover with this has a re-rollable 2+ save but I can't imagine why you'd want that).
6. Blood Rune: You generate one additional Blood Tithe point each time the bearer of a Blood Rune slays an enemy HERO or Monster. Not as reliable as anything else on this list. While Blood Tithe points are good, you have to properly manage your hero, and make him hunt specifically for heroes or monster, which are not exactly the backbone of almost any army. Is not bad, just... is not the stronger pick on this list.

Banners of Khorne

Make your Bloodsecrators even stronger now. Laughs and skulls ensured. And now that he can move, run, and jump, these might deserve a second look. One KHORNE BLOODBOUND HERO bearing a TOTEM (to make it short: Bloodsecrator) can be given one of the following banners of Khorne. These banners confer an additional ability on the TOTEM - they do not replace any existing abilities:

1. Banner of Rage: You can re-roll hit rolls of 1 in the combat phase for any KHORNE models from your army that are wholly within 12" of the bearer. If you have used a Bloodsecrator, you know how this is starting to feel overpowered.
2. Banner of Wrath: In the combat phase (every combat phase, so twice per battle round), roll a dice for each enemy unit within 8" of the bearer. On a roll of 4 or more, the unit being rolled for suffers D3 mortal wounds. Now that your bannerman can run up and get into the mix with everyone else, this banner can actually be used to full effect.
3. Banner of Blood: You can re-roll failed charge rolls for any KHORNE units from your army that are wholly within 12" of the bearer when the charge roll is made. Khorne-marked cavalry absolutely love this, but charging is always good for a melee heavy army. Also note that this is when any charge is made, so if you're charging in yours (or your opponent's) hero phase, this still works.

Trophies of War

One KHORNE BLOODBOUND HERO in an army with a KHORNE allegiance and has chosen to take the KHORNE allegiance abilities, plus one KHORNE BLOODBOUND HERO for every battalion selected, can choose one of the following Trophies of War (weapons of mounts can't be upgraded this way):

1. Skull-helm of Khorne: Subtract 2 from the Bravery of enemy units within 8 inches of the bearer. Has some potential in lists that leverage battleshock.
2. Blood-forged Armour: 5+ against mortal wounds. That's not so bad but there's better artifacts in here.
3. The Brazen Rune: Roll a dice each time the bearer suffers any unsaved wounds or mortal wounds as the result of a spell; on a roll of 2 or more, the wound or mortal wound being rolled for is ignored. Once per game, you can try to unbind a spell or dispel an endless spell (no longer breaks afterwards). Now forces you to try to unbind instead of being automatic, but also doesn't break on use. Very good now.
4. The Blade of Endless Bloodshed: Pick one of this HERO’s melee weapons to be a Blade of Endless Bloodshed. Increase the weapon's rend by 1. Why take this over the Gorecleaver, the world may never know.
5. Mark of the Destroyer: Pick 1 of the bearer's melee weapons. Add 2 Attacks to it. Faaaantastic!
6. Talisman of Burning Blood: Add 1 to any run rolls you make for the bearer and any KHORNE units from your army that is wholly within 12" of them at the start of the movement phase. In addition, add 1 to any charge rolls you make for the bearer and any KHORNE units from your army that is wholly within 12" of them at the start of the charge phase. I guess you have seen the tendency. Successful charges are always good. Improving your charges are never a wrong choice.

Daemonic Weapons

One KHORNE DAEMON HERO in an army with a KHORNE allegiance and has chosen to take the KHORNE allegiance abilities, plus one KHORNE DAEMON HERO for every battalion selected, can choose one of the following Daemonic Weapons (weapons of mounts can't be upgraded this way):

1. A’rgath, the King of Blades: Pick one of this HERO’s melee weapons to be A’rgath, the King of Blades. When attacking Heroes, change the Hit of this weapon to 2+. Doesn't prevent the enemy from further modifying the hit, but on big unwieldy axes this is a godsend.
2. Deathdealer: Pick one of this HERO’s melee weapons to be a Deathdealer. Add 1 to the Rend characteristic of this weapon. A good pick, considering Daemon heroes already have a strong damage output.
3. Khartoth the Bloodhunger: At the start of the combat phase, roll a die. On a 4+, the bearer fights before anyone else. Doesn't let you fight twice, but allows you to hit before other units, which can be vital in some situations. Also, using a fight twice command ability can be used right after this goes into effect, meaning you could potentially wipe out anything before it has a chance to blink.
4. Hellfire Blade: Pick one of the bearer’s melee weapons to be the Hellfire Blade. Unmodified wound rolls of a 6 with this weapon cause a mortal wound in addition to their normal damage. Quite a nice buff. Simple, yet effective.
5. Harvester of Skulls: Pick one of this HERO’s melee weapons to be a Harvester of Skulls. Add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of this weapon. Another good pick. You couldn't go wrong with this.
6. Foe’s Bane: Pick one of this HERO’s melee weapons to be a Behemoth’s Bane. Once per turn, you can re-roll 1 failed hit roll or 1 failed wound roll for an attack made with this weapon. A mulligan that could mean the difference between whiffing and annihilating.

Daemonic Adorments

One KHORNE DAEMON HERO in an army with a KHORNE allegiance and has chosen to take the KHORNE allegiance abilities, plus one KHORNE DAEMON HERO for every battalion selected, can choose one of the following Daemonic Adorments:

1. The Crimson Crown: Once per battle round, the bearer can use a command ability on their warscroll without a command point being spent. With how amazing our command abilities are now, this is a strong contender.
2. Armour of Scorn: Each time the bearer suffers a wound or mortal wound, roll a dice; on a roll of 6, the wound or mortal wound is ignored. Add 2 to this roll if the wound or mortal wound was suffered as a result of a spell. A save after the save is always good, and obviously this will shine against heavily magic armies.
3. Mark of the Bloodreaper: Re-roll save rolls of 1. Sometimes it's what you need.
4. Collar of Khorne: The bearer can attempt to unbind one spell in each enemy hero phase in the same manner as a wizard. Also, you may attempt to unbind one endless spell at the start of your hero phase. Khornate Daemons HATE shitty wizards. You should know it by now. Also you should know by now that while this Adorment is certainly great, it also depends on how many of those pesky nerds are on the enemy site.
5. Crimson Soulstone: The bearer immediately heals D3 wounds lost earlier in the battle each time they slay an enemy HERO or Monster in melee. This has gotten a lot better because you can use it any phase and it happens per unit slain, so killing multiple monsters or heroes in a single phase has the potential to fully heal you.
6. Mark of the Slayer: You can re-roll hit rolls of 1 for melee weapons for the bearer and all KHORNE units wholly within 12" of them at the start of the combat phase. This allows your daemon hero to bestow re-rolls on your mortal units. A daemon prince in a mixed army comes to mind.

Blood Blessings of Khorne

Every PRIEST in a Blades of KHORNE army (Slaughterpriests and Khorne-marked Chaos Warshrines, which sound pretty sweet) gains an additional prayer which can be used in addition to their other abilities in the hero phase, in the same vein as spells for other armies wizard (except that this isn't for pussies). Every KHORNE PRIEST can know a different blessing. Turns out, you were the test bed for the more universal priest rules that AOS 3.0 would be bringing onboard! Shame that all your unique prayers only cast on a 4.

• Strictly RAW, Slaughterpriests are able to chant one of their Warscroll prayers, a Blood Blessing, AND a Judgement all during the same turn, giving you an effective tier3 wizard that can't be unbound, for 100pts. Bent.

1. Bronzed Flesh: Casts on a 4. Pick a KHORNE unit from your army that is wholly within 16" of the PRIEST and which is visible to them. You can add 1 to the save rolls of the unit you picked until the start of your next hero phase. This is effectively Mystic Shield With the nerf to Mystic Shield, our Priests now make our eager-to-die units harder to kill. This is best used with a Khorne-marked Chaos Warshrine to make your (Mortal) Battleline incredibly tanky in combination with its 6+ ward save.
2. Blood Sacrifice: Casts on a 4. Pick either a KHORNE unit from your army that is wholly within 8" of the PRIEST. The unit you picked immediately suffers D3 mortal wounds, but you gain 1 Blood Tithe point. Note that you could make some audacious shenanigans and use it on Skarbrand to heat him up quicker. Take a CHAOS SPAWN or two (They're dirt cheap at 50 points) and watch your Blood Tithe skyrocket.
3. Resanguination: Casts on a 4. Pick a KHORNE HERO from your army that is wholly within 16" of the PRIEST and which is visible to them. The model you picked immediately heals D3 wounds lost earlier in the battle. Excellent, because one of the traditional weaknesses of Khorne armies has been that they can do a lot of damage, but can't take it; it's superb with Bloodthirsters or heroes with powerful artifacts. Still, "Priests know that a man killed will bleed for a moment; a man who keeps killing will shed blood for a lifetime". This can lend to cheeky trick like keeping the very mentioned above Warshrine alive for longer.
4. Brazen Fury: Casts on a 4. Pick a KHORNE unit from your army that is wholly within 16" of the PRIEST and which is visible to them. The unit that you picked does not have to take battleshock tests until your next hero phase. We've lost our table-wide battleshock immunity from the Bloodsecrator, so this should see more use. Imagine buffing up your 40 Goretide Bloodreavers before launching them into the enemy lines.
5. Killing Frenzy: Casts on a 4. Pick a KHORNE unit from your army that is wholly within 16" of the PRIEST. Add 1 to the hit rolls of the unit you picked until your next hero phase. Yes, the same as the Command Ability of some heroes. Yes, this blessing is better than almost every spell any other army gets, and can't be unbound. This is Khorne's concept of fairness.
6. Spellbane Hex: Casts on a 4. You may dispel 1 endless spell. Now actually useful, but you're not going to let those spells go off anyways, right?

Evocations *Judgements of Khorne*

Turns out that this was but the forebear to the Evocations that AOS 3.0 would introduce, meaning you got priestly endless spells before they were even called that.

One Priest cannot attempt to summon more than one Judgement per turn, and if you fail to summon a Judgement, you may not retry to summon THAT Judgement that turn. You also cannot summon the same Judgement multiple times onto the battlefield (so no flinging tons of axes). Unfortunately, these Evocations are much more temporary than in last edition, with one being essentially a one-and-done shot while the others essentially vanish once they have accomplished their stated purpose.

• Hexgorger Skulls (CV 3+, 40 pts): To quote an old man, "MAGIC MUST DEFEAT MAGIC!". This Judgment is one set of skulls that can move up to 8" in your hero phase (and immediately after being summoned). The skulls must stay within 6" of one another. All Wizards have to take -2 to casting rolls when within 12" of either skull. If they have a spell result of 8 while within 8" of either skull, the spell is immediately destroyed, wiped from the caster's memory, and all wizards within 12" of the skulls take d6 mortal wounds before the Judgment is removed from play. These two work in best tandem, so keep them close together!

• Bleeding Icon (CV 4+, 40pts): What's more terrifying than seeing the Blood God's Icon? One that flies around and can shatter units by making them run like bitches. May move up to 8" in your hero phase (and immediately after being summoned). On top of that, this thing's made to ruin morale; Any non-Khorne units that fail battleshock within 3" of this icon need to roll a die: a 1-5 adds +d3 casualties to the unit while a 6 adds a whopping +d6 casualties before vanishing (Khorne units are immune to this effect). A lot weaker than before, but its focus is a bit clearer now as a horde-breaker.

• Wrath-Axe (CV 4+, 60pts): Pure, unadulterated aggression made manifest. May move up to eight inches in your hero phase (and immediately after being summoned). This thing deals d3 mortal wounds on any unit it passes over on a 2+ and then deals d6 mortal wounds on a 2+ against a nearby unit once it vanishes, refusing to elaborate any further as to why it came. In this way you can treat the axe as a sort of artillery, spat out by a very angry priest and then rips through the army.

Warscrolls

Daemons, Bloodbound, and Mortals, oh my! Updated warscrolls for your Daemons and Bloodbound can be found in your Blades of Khorne (2019) book, while you'll need to seek out the Mortals since Slaves to Darkness don't have a book quite yet. Generally speaking, Daemon heroes benefit Daemon units, and this is true for Bloodbound and Mortals too, so if you're looking to make a balanced list you should focus in on one of the three subfactions. This isn't always the case and exceptions have been pointed out below. Splashing in a few Bloodbound in a Daemons list can be useful, as can Mortals in a Bloodbound list. There are a TON of combinations of units, abilities, warlord traits, and artifacts, so pay close attention to the keywords of units and abilities when putting together your list.

Leaders

You can take up to six leaders in a 2k points list. This is the hardest section for most players to fill out because we have a lot of very good leaders to choose from.

Named Characters

Named Characters are unique, so you cannot take duplicates of them. They're usually very powerful force multipliers or selfish beat-sticks.

Daemon

• Skarbrand: (380pts. DAEMON, GREATER DAEMON, BLOODTHIRSTER, MONSTER, Behemoth)The angriest of Khorne's Bloodthirsters, unlike most big monster in AoS Skarbrand gets more killy the more he gets hurt or if he hasn't attacked in the last battle round. Big Red comes with a respectable 14 wounds, 8" move and 4+ save but lacks the flying ability of other Bloodthirster's due to Khorne beating his ass. Skarbrand's axes will blend all but the largest heroes, Slaughter rolls from 5 to 9 dice with a 4+/3+/-2/3 profile and if Carnage hits, Skarbrand rolls a dice. If he beats the number listed on his total damage table (a 1+ if he has taken 13+ wounds) the target takes 8 mortal wounds but on a roll of a 6 he can put out 16 mortal wounds (Yes you read that right 16.) SKARBRAND HATES HORDES!!! . Skarbrand does lack a command ability, but who cares when you get to blend hydras? Unlike all other BT's Skarbrand cannot be summoned. Also consider a Bloodsecrator and Wrathmongers boosting carnage up to three attacks. If you keep him out of combat for one turn he deals instant 24-48 mortal wounds!

• Skulltaker: (120pts. DAEMON, BLOODLETTER, HERO, HERALD OF KHORNE) Khorne's favorite Bloodletter has survived the transition to AoS quite well. He shares the 5 wound/5"/10 Bravery/4+ save as a normal herald, the Cloak of Skulls allows Skulltaker to re-roll all failed saving throws, and his weapon the Slayer Sword packs 3 attacks at 3+/3+/-1/3, though any roll of 6 to hit deals three mortal wounds ON TOP of its regular damage, like Bloodletters do now. In combat with heroes Skulltaker gets to re-roll all hit and wound rolls, almost guaranteeing another prize for the skull throne and as a bonus, Skulltaker triggers the Locus of Fury for your other Khorne daemons. Cannot be summoned, so if you want him, you need to actually take him in your army. His Command Ability is not that spectacular, but may be useful sometimes. Is now getting an amazing updated model as well!
  • This guy is mediocre against hordes, but he's the best non-Monster duelist in all of Age of Sigmar, period *Sound of an Akhelian King laughing* Three attacks may not seem a lot, but you can re-roll ALL of them, failed or not, so you should always re-roll the hits trying to fish for that magical six. You have an almost guaranteed 3-6 wounds each fight phase, which will kill the vast majority of Heros out there, meaning any decent opponent will try to hide them from you. Use this to your advantage playing Skulltaker as an area denial/permanent threat against your opponents' buffers. Even if he doesn't take any skulls home, he may very well take the game for you!
  • P.S. He's not a named Hero anymore. Give the boy a sword!

• Karanak: (140pts. DAEMON, FLESH HOUND)When he is placed you choose an enemy hero: he always rerolls every failed hit and wound roll against him and, in the hero phase, if he is within 8" of his quarry, he instantly summons an unit of 5 Flesh Hounds, making him cost-effectively 40pts, assuming he makes it up the board before dying. This may be a little awkward as it must be set up wholly within 8" of Karanak but more than 9" from the enemy. He can also unbind and dispels spells and when he does it the caster suffers d3 mortal wounds.

• Mazarall the Butcher, Daemon Prince of Khorne: (Forge World 340pts DAEMON, MONSTER,) Another surprise monster, another Khorne addition for AoS...as if there aren't enough already. Has the basic trappings, 12 wounds with a 3+ save (making him arguably tankier than your Bloodthirsters). His shield gives him the ability to unbind 1 spell/turn. His movement, axe's rend, and shield's attacks all decline as he gets hurt. His axe also gains more attacks the more it kills, meaning that the sooner he gets into combat the scarier he'll be. Charging also makes him deadly, as he gets to roll a d6 for any enemy next to him in combat and deals d3 mortal wounds on a 4+. His Command Ability allows a single Khorne unit to re-roll wound rolls of 1. Not too bad. But being a named character hurts because it means you can't supplement him with relics or command abilities, a shame. NOTE: He is currently not listed as being a leader in match play, so he acts like Karanak.

Bloodbound

• Skarr Bloodwrath: (100pts)The End Times dude is back and he's real killy. Unusually for a Hero, named heroes, in particular, Skarr does not buff your army at all and is at his best against hordes of weak infantry by doing pretty much what the Stormcast Decimators wish they could do. He has five attacks with the cool statline of 2+/3+/-1/D1. While this seems underwhelming when compared to most other melee heroes, he does have the awesome trick of being able to exchange his attack count with the number of models in his range, which is 3", the absolute maximum for melee weapons. Now you see 30 Plague Monks, now you don't. However, even with a fixed attack count of 5, he's no hero or monster killer. Keep him to murder the small stuff, let your Mighty Lord take care of the mighty foes. Also, Skarr has a chance to come back from the dead at the end of any turn in which at least 8 models were killed, so he feels most at home in big games where 8 deaths per turn is nothing special. If that's ensured, simply throw him at the opponent in wild abandon, he'll be back anyway. Best case, he murders the faces off 7 dudes, gets killed and then you already have 8 kills together. Don't forget that whenever he's slain he'll generate a point of blood tithe. If you don't have any good horde targets just throw him in whatever area you need him and reap the rewards.
  • Some interesting changes in the Battletome update. No longer dependent on models killed, but instead resurrects on 8+ from 2D6. It also benefits from extra attacks now, as the number of models becomes his attack characteristic. Finally, he gained an interesting command ability with Wrathmongers that gives them the ability of Bloodwarriors to attack when slain (not dependent on phase).

• Valkia the Bloody: (140pts) Your own goddamn Valkyrie, which is kind of ironic with Sigmar now being Odin and all. Either way, Valkia grants rerolls to Battleshock in a big bubble, but with a twist: If you reroll and models still flee afterward, you lose another D3 models on top. If you lost so many models that even on a 1 someone flees, it might be in your best interest to not use the reroll, but it can save your ass. Valkia is also pretty good in combat, especially when charging, as her spear gains D3 damage when doing so, putting her at 6 attacks with 3+/3+/-2/D3, a profile most monsters will feel insecure over (especially your awful awful Khorgorath). Between her 3+ save and her awesome shield, she's also pretty tanky so long as you keep her away from Mortal Wounds. In other words, good as a backfield assassin, but will struggle to handle more than 5-10 model units of most factions, the weight of dice cuts through a 3+ quite easily in practice.
• Scyla Anfingrimm:(100pts) a High number of wounds, two great attacks as well as 2D6 okay attacks onto which he adds 1 for every wound he suffered. He can also unbind spells like a Wizard, moves as fast as Skullcrushers and has an awesome rule that allows better pile-in moves. Only problem? He only has a 5+ save and no Command Ability. Oh, and 8 Wounds can be problematic in wound-counting systems, as it's rather a lot for less survivability than a Mighty Lord of Khorne. Interestingly, Scyla actually lost the Hero keyword, though he's still unique still a Monster and still takes up a Leader spot.
  • Donkey Kong is a unique combination of abilities, best sent against something that can't kill him easily like dedicated ranged to let him survive a turn and get riled up. Because of how his bestial leap works, he can effectively run and extend his threat range for a reliable 8" automatic pseudo-charge. Use "at the double for" 22" of guaranteed melee threat range.

• Korghos Khul:(180pts) You can take your Mighty Lord of Khorne as Korgos Khul (the lord from the basic set that always fights with Vandus Hammerhand and all that). He's exactly like a Mighty Lord but has two additional abilities. Favoured of Khorne lets him re-roll all failed hit rolls (because he and his dog, Grizzlemaw, HATE EVERYTHING!) and Aqshy's Bane allows him to pile in up to 8" and attack as long as he's within 8" of an enemy unit. Let that sink in: it's like he has a 13" Move (5+8) More importantly, there's no restriction on running/retreating and then piling in giving him effective run & charge, as well as retreat & charge. Also, his pet Fleshhound Grizzlemaw has the same attack profile as a lord of Khorne's fleshhound except he has an additional -1 rend on his attacks, so he is better against armour. In addition, a change-up in the new Battletome his Command ability is now unique. Where before it gave a reroll to charge (just like the Mighty Lord of Khorne) now it allows all friendly Goretide units re-roll hit rolls of 1. But there's more: he still has the Axe that instakills anything it wounds on 5+. Coupled with his re-rolls to hit, and because the instakill happens at the end of the phase where he wounds, that means each turn you have 2/3 chance of killing anything! Well, some things have saves-after-the-save that makes the two wounds a turn more difficult, but most of those Monsters your opponent has that cost him 300 or more points will get a no-return ticket to the Realm of Khorne! This means that your opponent will either keep his expensive guys out of reach from Korghos, or he'll try to kill him in one shot. Both outcomes are great because they force the hand of your opponent and lets you make him play your game.
  • Do note though: His command ability now specifically only affects Goretide Khorne units. So if your taking him in an army lacking any Goretide he essentially has no unique command ability. In cases like that unless you just want to use him as a beatstick character you might be better off just taking a regular Mighty Lord of Khorne and just give him an artefact and command ability to make up for his fewer rules. Individual choice of course.
  • Always make the attacks with Grizzlemaw first, since the Axe of Khorne specifically states a model that took wounds from that attack survives, you kill it on a 5+. If you wound a model, then kill it with your dog, you've wasted your chance at using your instakill. Whereas if you wound it with your dog, kill it with the axe, damage spills onto a second model, you can attempt to instant kill that one too.

• Vorgaroth The Scarred & Skalok The Skull Host of Khorne (Forge World):(1200pts. MONSTER, Behemoth) Who says only Nurgle Maggotkin can have all the fun with tanky models? Forgworld's most recent Unique Dragon & Rider and they are a true Titan you would build a list around. This has 30 WOUNDS (even Nagash and the Glottkin will feel inadequate about that) with a 3+ save, with the potential to make 32 attacks with rend and damage higher than 1, in addition to its other abilities. The pair will massacre anything they set their focus on, especially in conjunction with some Blades of Khorne buffs (hello Bloodsecrator or Warshrine). VORGAROTH can kill a model in any friendly unit to make them Fearless but also if any models flee you lose d3 more models. SKALOK can recover wounds by eating a friendly if she rolls under their wound Characteristic. Wizards subtract 3 from rolls when they are near this model. VORGAROTH and SKALOK are a giant blender, Recommended to start in reserve using their Eternal Hunt rule to avoid first turn shooting, then deploy them near the usual Bloodbound Support to turn your blender into a blood Hurricane.
  • Hilariously powerful in melee, but effectively useless in a game based entirely on objectives, a great collection piece, but it will lose every single game vs a semi decent opponent.

Other

• Skaarac the Bloodborn, Greater Khorgorath of Khorne (Forge World): (420pts, Monster, Behemoth)The first AoS creation by Forge World, this is a massive snowflake Khorgorath (although curiously no Khorogorath keyword). It comes with a hearty 16 wounds and can kill with its boiling hot blood, massive hooves, and brutal blades. This latter weapon starts with a whopping 8 attacks at 3+/3+/-2/2. Which is pretty dang scary. If it kills any models in the combat phase it heals D3 wounds. It also has two 12" aura effects: -2 to casting rolls, and -1 to enemy Bravery. When he dies, he explodes, causing every enemy model within 3" takes a Mortal Wound on a 4+ (rolling per model). His command ability allows Khorne Monsters to reroll charges if they're wholly within 12".

Generic Leaders

Daemon

• Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury: (270pts. Monster, Behemoth) The first of the non-unique Bloodthirsters it shares the same 14 wounds, 4+ save, 10 Bravery, flying and slowly decreasing movement as all the other Bloodthirsters, this one packs a Lash of Khorne and a Mighty Axe of Khorne. The Lash can put out respectable damage at range 12" and can prevent a unit from withdrawing from combat. The Mighty Axe lives up to the name dealing 6 attacks that start at 3+/2+/-2/D3 with the wound roll going down to 3+ at 4 wounds suffered and 4+ at 10 wounds suffered. The Fury Thirster comes with an aura that can damage enemies within an 8" bubble, and his command ability allows Khorne Daemons wholly within a 16" bubble to pile in 6" instead of 3". Good stats and a good hero slayer, the Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury wants to be in the center of your battleline to dictate how and when combat occurs. Can be summoned by any Khorne hero, but like the other two, it takes a full 8 Blood Tithe points.
  • Seems underwhelming on a first read, but 6" pile in gives you a reliable counter to Always Fights First shenanigans, along with effective run/retreat and "charge" so long as you end that move within 6".
  • Modeling/strategy tip: you can assembly the Bloodthirster as either of its three variants with the bits included in the box. You can magnetize the arms/weapons with not too much work (use green stuff to fill the gaps) so you can swap them and use the same model as each of its variants, and deploy one or another against different opponents. Be aware, though, that the points cost of each variant is different.

• Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage: (270pts. Monster, Behemoth) The second Bloodthirster trades the Lash and Axe for a single great axe with the ability to deal mortal wounds in an 8" bubble on wound rolls of 6 or more. It packs fewer attacks, starting at 5 and dropping down to 4 at 7 wounds suffered and 3 at 13 wounds suffered, but the attacks always have a 4+/2+/-2/D6 profile and if you charge, you get to re-roll 1's to hit which you get anyway, because he's a Greater Daemon and gives off a Locus of Fury aura. His command bubble is 16" (8x2, noticing a pattern here?) and gives 'Khorne Daemons the ability to re-roll charge distances. Useful to help ensure you get the alpha strike. Try giving him the Ar'gath, the King of Blades artefact so he hits heroes on a 2+! If your LGS is Friendly, and don't have any guys who always says what you see is what you get (WYSIWYT "rule") then you shouldn't have any problem with building your Bloodthirster as you like and just say what loadout it's running.

• Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster: (300pts. Monster, Behemoth) The last of the Bloodthirster trio, he keeps the mighty axe of the Unfettered Fury BT but trades the lash in for a bloodflail and a 8" breath weapon that deals D3 mortal wounds to a unit in range on a 2+. The flail makes a single attack at 12" with a 3+/3+/-1 profile but deals a whopping 6 damage, which goes down to 3 than D3 as you get more wounded. The Wrath BT is made for hunting down heroes and monsters, as he re-rolls ANY hit rolls against them. Khorne's hatred of sorcery also allows this BT to make one unbinding attempt with a +2 bonus which is pretty nifty for fucking with wizards, and now may also attempt to dispel an endless spell. Instead of the bubble of the other two 'Thirsters, the Wrath BT's Command Ability targets a single Khorne Daemon unit wholly within 16" and grants it the ability to reroll all hit rolls for the combat phase you use it in.

• Exalted Greater Daemon of Khorne (Forge World): (540pts. Monster, Behemoth) Special rules commemorating the re-release of the super-big FW Thirster. It gets jacked to 20 WOUNDS and a 4+ save armed with the same gear the Unfettered Fury Thirster gets. In fact, he gets all the same rules as the Unfettered Fury, just now with a shitton, more wounds. (Edit: the AoE that causes mortal wounds goes off on a 5+ rather than a 6+ on his guy). Really, save yourself the money and don't buy it just to use these rules.
  • Can be summoned for 16 Blood Tithe points. If your army includes an Exalted Greater Daemon of Khorne, the maximum number of Blood Tithe Points you can have is 16 instead of 8.
  • He also has two more additional attacks than Unfettered Fury and teh axe does a straight up 3 damage instead of D3. Give him the gear to cause additional attacks and automatic mortal wounds on a roll of a 6 and watch your opponent cry. The tears (and blood) will flow even more so if you bring a couple priests to give it a 3 up armor save and heal D3 wounds a turn...

• Bloodmaster, Herald of Khorne: (80pts) A Herald on foot, at first glance a pretty cheap standard hero making 4 3+/3+/-1/1 attacks with the usual 6's to hit cause mortal wounds deal. His true usefulness is triggering your Locus of Fury and with his 'The Blood Must Flow' special rule you can get some attacks in with him first then pile in with your bloodletters.
  • Note the Blood Must Flow rule uses Bloodletter as a keyword meaning it works on any model with that keyword. Now look down the warscroll and see Bloodmasters have the Bloodletter keyword (as indeed do all Bloodletter heroes, including Skulltaker) meaning if you take multiple of these guys they can proc each other. Worth remembering if you ever have two of them within 8" especially since your second Bloodmaster can still use his Blood Must Flow ability too.

• Skullmaster, Herald of Khorne: (120pts) A Herald on a juggernaut, 40 points extra compared to the Bloodmaster gets you 3 juggernaut attacks (3+/3+/-/1) +3" move and +1 wound. Of debatable use. He can keep up with your bloodcrushers to proc their loci but so could a Bloodthirster or Khorne Dameon Prince. He loses the Blood Must Flow Ability and swaps it for the bloodcrusher's faux hammer of wrath rule meaning he doesn't actually do anything to buff your army and he is simply not strong enough to be considered a worthwhile close combat hero.
  • Can make Bloodcrushers Battleline if you make him the General, why you would though is a bigger question (since Bloodcrushers kind of suck compared to Skullcrushers, and there are way better options for a General).

• Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne: (120pts) A Herald on a chariot, same points as a Skullmaster swaps your three juggernaut attacks for two Bloodletter crew attacks (4+/3+/-1/1 6's cause mortal wounds) and the chariots gnashing maw attack (4+/3+/-1/D3 restores D3 wounds for each wound caused) and +1 wound. While the Skullmaster swapped the Blood Must Flow rule for the standard bloodcrusher rules, the skull throne swaps them for a range buff for the generic command abilities. While the battleshock test one is useless for daemons, you can have an easier time making the units who need charge rerolls get it. And you're more survivable than before, so the Blood Throne might be useful now. Emphasis on might.
  • The 3.0 FAQ has granted the throne the Totem rule, which expands the range of their command abilities considerably. Another might, in this case, might be useful in covering your ass with your bloodletter buddies.

• Daemon Prince: A 12" Flying Melee fighter, Always fighting before everyone else. With their CA they can rush forward and slow enemy within 18" by halving their run & charge rolls, making it harder to charge first or run away. Strictly speaking, that is straight up one of the best CA in the game, even though Khorne is an army that needs to get in combat as quickly as possible, watching your opponent struggle to move around the board and capture objectives all while watching that unit of Kurnoth Hunters fail the 6" charge to massacre your Bloodsecrator is precious. The DP does his best work as a General in the Goretide to screw with enemy movement while your 'reavers run everywhere and he gets that +1 damage on all his weapons with Hew the Foe. He also works in an all out Brass Stampede army to make sure your Skullcrushers get that charge. He comes with a weapon choice of an Axe hitting with a 3/3/-2/2 or a sword that has a 4/3/-1/d3 attack profile and does 2 MW on a 6, if you put Dimensional Blade on his claw (3 attacks with 3/3/ - /2), suddenly you have two high rend attacks on 3's and 3's (just saying). Oh yeah, he also gets +1 to hit on the charge. So basically you get a fast daemon that with a little tweaking can become a massive beatstick with one of the best CA in the game... for 210 points (and he's only $41 on GW's website...) He can smack your opponent in the face before anything else in your mortal army can or you can fly him after lines are met to crush your opponents throat in (or sneak him between enemy lines to slap Nagash in the face) the possibilities are as endless as the rivers of gore he will surely create.

Bloodbound

• Mighty Lord of Khorne: (140pts) The Mightiest of Khorne Lords (we assume), your standard Lord of Khorne has a dog friend to accompany him on the battlefield. The Flesh Hound he takes along with him is all well and good with 4 3+/4+ attacks (Even more if the blood is flowing). The real feature here is the Lord's Axe, which has a possibility to rip a hole in the fabric of reality to suck in a victim after they take an unsaved wound (Watch Nagash go POOF!). That means all you need to do is Inflict one wound on your opponent's Lord-Celestant and roll a 5+ to send one of Sigmar's finest to the Realm of Khorne himself. You might not be able to pull this off in every skirmish, but the look on your opponents face when you do is well worth the price of admission. Stormcast Eternals will be giving your Mighty Lord of Khorne a wider berth after witnessing that once or twice. And do not underestimate his Command Ability: vastly improving the charge of three MORTAL KHORNE units within 24" AND himself can make or break many a game, and is less of a one-time thing than you may think. You should also consider the incredible gift of his Flesh Hound's collar, which lets him unbind spells like a Wizard once per hero phase. You know how with Wizards you have to do a careful dance of positioning to make sure they're close enough to the other Wizard to unbind but far enough not to get ripped to shreds? Charge him right into the fray, unbind spells and smashing puny casters in the face. Between him and the Bloodsecrator, they put a hamper on casters.

• Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut: (160pts) Oh heck yes. 8 goddamn Wounds with a 3+ save to make for a tough motherfucker, even more so since he's got a 5+ save against magic bullshit. Then he's got some great melee capability, especially with all the buffs this army's got going and finally he has a Command Ability that grants up to 3 Mortal Khorne units +1 to Wound in melee so long as they charged this turn. Pick Valkia and Skarr Bloodwrath and watch the enemy lines shrink to nothing.

• Bloodsecrator: (120pts) This guy is the meat and potatoes of your forces: A Bloodsecrator can stand in the back of your forces and wave his giant honking banner around to boost your infantry to unimaginable amounts of damage. Just by being within 12" of the Bloodreavers they gain an extra attack, but activating Rage of Khorne brings them up to three attacks each. And if the blood is already flowing? A group of twenty of these crazed cultists is going from 21 attacks to a grand total of 61 attacks!!! in just one combat phase. And on top of all that, he also fucks with enemy casting. Just send the Rage of Khorne coursing through your forces and watch your lowly knife-wielders turn into full-on berserkers that will gladly throw down their lives in the service of the Blood God. Does a Bloodsecrator even have attacks? Who cares. He can't move for a turn? Good thing you have more than enough Bloodreavers for a blood-soaked daisy-chain all the way to your back line. Does he have a Save? Yes, actually. 3+ even, making him pretty tanky. Now shut up and open another portal.
  • Something else to consider: The Bloodsecrator targets KHORNE units with his ability, not MORTAL KHORNE. You know how the only negative thing about Bloodletters, the lesser Daemons of Khorne is the fact that they only attack once and Khorne Daemons dish out no buff to increase that? Good thing your Bloodsecrator very much does. Now your Bloodletters can swing their scary swords with twice the attacks...so why do I want Bloodreavers again?
  • The Crimson Plate on this guy in cover gives him a 2+ Re-Rollable save. Nuff said.

• Exalted Deathbringer: (80pts.) Not so much a general as a trusted lieutenant, Command notwithstanding. Unless you're fighting a magic-heavy army (and I mean, very heavy) then you should always take the Ruinous Axe & Skullgouger, as it's basically the best thing about him, letting him deal a rather disturbing amount of damage by simply passing his safe, or the or Impaling Spear that on unmodified 6's to wound dealing D3 mortal wounds on top of his normal damage . Keeping him near a Khorne general gets him +2 attacks. These guys won big as second in command killers while also keeping your marauders from running away.

• Aspiring Deathbringer: (80pts) An Exalted Hero with slightly weaker weapons but increase Battleshock casualties and His Command Ability also makes other MORTAL KHORNE units wholly within 12" of him gain a +1 attack, which makes every deadlier. Taking him to boost Khorns DPS even further.
  • Alternate Take: Bloodstoker is better in combat and doesn't need command points to use his ability Or get an Exalted Deathbringer with exceedingly better weapons and the invulnerability to battleshock trait that just became way more useful. Unless you're running a list that is going purely for jacking up attack characteristics, there are better options and this model can be used to still represent one of those.
  • On Second Thought: Khorne's methods are a game of capitalizing strength. This is the hero you bring to make a morale phase into a serious problem, always active but usefulness depends on the enemy. On the other hand for the price of a command point suddenly that extra attack to both his weapons and Mortal Khorne 12" around him can make a significant difference.

• Slaughterpriest: (100pts.) This guy's not meant for killy but a profane cheerleader, adding to Khorne's Heroic buff squad. You use him to unbind magic (because Khorne hates magic) and knows 1 prayer + a prayer force an enemy to run towards your nearest unit by 3-6" (one of the better tactical pryers despite appearances). Remember the Lash of Submission from 40k? Yeah, it's just like that, but even meaner. He's how you funnel your enemies to a battle they can't win if they suck at fighting or bang up a big guy.

• Skullgrinder: (80pts.) You know Age of Sigmar hasn't lost the Warhammer touch when you see that the sacred smith doesn't attack with his hammer, but HIS ANVIL. He swings it so hard he gets 2 3+/2+/-1/3 attacks. Yes, that's damage 3, not D3. He also adds +1 Bravery to other Mortal Khorne units within 12", which won't make your Bloodreavers brave or anything, but it might help your Blood Warriors and Skullreapers a bit. He's also got this neat special rule where, if he kills an enemy Hero or Monster, he gives all Mortal Khorne units within 8" the ability to roll 2 wound rolls if they get a 4+ on their Hit rolls for the rest of the game. Get him a few bonus attacks and that Hero/Monster kill is either assured or your opponent will be running the hell away from your Skullgrinder, both of which are great outcomes. Note: Skullgrinder's ability doesn't just apply to close combat attacks, team him up with some Marauder Horsemen with Javelins to give your opponent a nasty surprise!
  • Got nerfbuffed from the battletome update. He's completely lost the ability to give extra hits after slaying a hero, that ability graduated somewhat to the new 8 Blood Tithe point cost Slaughter Triumphant. In return, he's gained an extra attack, and the ability to bitchslap any single Hero/Monster within 2" with D3 Mortal wounds on a 2+.

• Bloodstoker: (80pts.) Need a little more rage in your blood? Have the Bloodstoker whip your other guys into shape. Most people seem to focus on the fact that he lets the unit he whipped reroll Wound rolls, but his other buff is actually much more potent. +3 to run and charge helps you out A LOT with getting your guys into melee, especially if you picked the otherwise painfully slow Skullreapers. And every turn you're in melee is a turn you're winning, so him getting you there faster is wonderful. That said, don't discount the rerolls and do remember that he targets MORTAL KHORNE. Also, the guy himself is actually a decent fighter by virtue of having two weapons and thus profiting doubly from all your attack buffs and can actually use his whip to fight from the second row, even behind big models like Wrathmongers. And when you think you've had enough fun whipping shirtless guys around you can always throw the Bloodstoker to the wolves in order to keep the blood flowing.
  • Do you like chaos Chariots? Great, because the Bloodstoker does, too. They will outpace him but applying will add 3 more dice to its impact hit, letting it deal more mortal wounds on top of rerolling to wound.

Slave to Darkness

• Chaos Lord: He is a big brute, putting out a lot of killing with ether weapon option. He is good for other mortal Slave to Darkness as his CA let a unit swing twice during combat and Khorne does have many Melee buffs.

• Lord on Daemonic Mount: Your budget (for a Slaves to Darkness character) mounted Lord. With the new update, cursed warhammer now has the potential of mortal wounds on 6s to hit, with the added bonus of healing d3 wounds for killing whelps with your big mallet. Also great for other Slaves to Darkness units as his command ability only affects the mounted options, but provides a re roll to their charge and +1 to hit. Combined with Killing Frenzy to ensure all your swings get a chance to kill.

• Chaos Lord on Karkadrak: The new mounted lord has arrived, and he rode in style as a fully plastic kit. Wow does this character scream build around. Movement 9", 9 wounds and the always welcomed 3+ save, this lord on battle lizard loves keeping up with his fellow cavalry and bring nothing short of utter destruction. Without any adages, this character boasts no less than 13(!) attacks across 4 profiles, has mortal wound potential both on the charge and with his sword, and can heal with his attacks with his big axe. Sporting classic mortal wound protection that Slaves to Darkness units are spoiled with, and the same command ability as his horse riding brethren, he is an excellent pick for a Slaves focused army. Pair him with some Chaos Knights or Chariots and reap all the skulls you can.

• Chaos Lord on Manticore: The Lord on Manticore can have a choice between Flail and Sword, with the Sword being better in most circumstances and a choice between Runeshield, Daggerfist, and Lance. The Lance might be awesome, but since everyone and their grandma will be gunning for your Manticore, the 5+ save against Mortal Wounds might be the best choice. The Manticore is no slouch itself in addition to rerolling Hit against Monsters for its Claws and Jaws attacks. His Command Ability allows a unit of Chaos Warriors wholly within 18" to reroll charge and Battleshock rolls.

• Exalted Hero of Chaos: A shit Aspiring Deathbringer with D6 3+/3+/-1/1 attacks and can fight twice. He gets a +1 to hit vs Characters and Monsters and if he somehow kills one he heals D3 wounds. Yeah probably don't?

Beasts Of Chaos

Must be included in a Brass Despoilers battalion.

• Beastlord: (90pts) Although slower and will reach battle a turn after the other gors, he is a stong fighter and grant lets other Brayherd wholly within 18" re-roll all wound rolls if he kills something, giving you another re-roll the turn after using the Brass Despoilers.

• Doombull: (100pts) Fast moving 7" of monstrous beef wielding a big axe that deals mortal wound and inspires slightly smaller monstrous beef to wound better.

Troops

Battleline

You're going to need at least three units of Battleline in a 2k points list. These are often the core of your army that dictate how you'll build the rest of your list out.

• Bloodletters: (Daemon, Min:10, Max:30, 110/300pts) Your standard choppy Khorne daemon, min unit size 10 and coming in with MV 5, a 5+ save and the Bravery 10 all daemons share. The Hellblades they wield are 4+/3+/-1/1 which are pretty great for infantry, but they only make a single attack each. The unique ability this unit has is that unmodified rolls of 6 to hit are automatic mortal wounds, but you continue the attack sequence on that attack. They have the standard array of musicians, standard bearers and champions with the champ gaining a second attack, the musician forcing your opponent to re-roll battleshock test of 1 within 6" and two banner options: The first allows you to add D6 bloodletters to the unit every time you roll a 1 on a battleshock test the other grants you +1 to any charge rolls you make every time the unit slays a Hero. As a unit can carry multiple banners there's no reason not to take both. Remember, the Locus of Fury lets them reroll hit results of 1 if a Daemon Hero of Khorne is within 12" (16" for a Bloodthirster) which is almost needed due to the low number of attacks Bloodletters get. If you take a blob of 20 or more, they get a plus one bonus to hit, so it may be worth taking a few large units rather than multiple small ones.
  • The nerf to Bloodletter's Mortal Wound melee attacks is a large blow to the Bloodletter Bomb, effectively killing it once and for all. Bloodletter hordes are still scary and when buffed can remove other unis, but they are now an accompaniment unit and not your entire army. One unit in your army shouldn't be bearing the entire load; diversify!
  • For summoning lists: units of 20 Bloodletters are still a very valuable summon because, even unbuffed, they are a force to be reckoned with. A late-game blob suddenly encroaching on an objective can turn the tides of battle very quickly.
• Flesh Hounds: (Daemon, Min:5, Max:20, 100pts) Now Battleline all the time! For nearly double the price of a bloodletter, you get a 2 wounds little beast with an 8" move (which is pretty fast for Khorne) and 4 (3+/4+/-/1) attacks, an unconditional re-roll on their charge range, and their pack leader barks an 8" 2+/4+/-/1 missile attack. In addition, they can unbind spells, getting a +1 to this if they have 10+ models. These guys are pretty damn killy, recommended to bring one or two to grab objectives and deal with pesky magic.

• Blood Warriors: (Bloodbound, Min:5, Max:30, 100/520pts) A band of Chaos Warriors with a Khorne-approved coating of blood and the ability to attack before going down. They're normally equipped with Goreaxes (Chaos Hand Weapons with a Gorecoat that grant rerolls of 1s to Hit if a model has two axes), though many of them can also take a Gorefist so that save rolls of 6 now cause mortal wounds back to the enemy (a big improvement from the last battletome). Which one you take is up to you really. Mortal wounds is always nice, than again hitting better is always good (especially since they have the potential to attack twice) since these guys don't exactly pack the biggest punch. One per ten can also grab a Goreglaive, which is a Goreaxe that Wounds on 3+, -1 to rend and causes 2 damage. Also, as with the Stormcasts, thanks to the wording, you can give that Goreglaive to your champion, who gets an additional swing with any weapon he wields. Updated warscroll gives Champion +1 attack to Goreaxes specifically, so not anymore.
  • Honestly as cool as Khorne Themed Chaos Warriors are...the sad truth is they are awfully expensive for their damage output. The fact that they can only have 1 weapon per TEN models really sucks (despite the fact that they are taken in 5 min increments). And they are often outcompeted by Bloodletters and Bloodreavers in the damage department. Especially when reavers are backed by a Totem (they'll die like flies but they're cheap as chips). However, what truly redeems this unit is that these guys are the closest thing a Khorne army is going to get to a shield wall. With a 4+ save a and two wounds these guys make excellent objective holders and charge breakers for holding the line. Your other choices are just too fragile to really whether the enemy attacks (sure Khorne wants things to die but sometimes you need a unit to hold the line and the objectives without crumbling instantly). The change-up to gore-fists only made them even better in this role as attacking them will likely lead to a bunch of mortal wounds back to you along with any slain models getting some attacks back before they die.
  • TL;DR: In essence leave the foreguard killing to the reavers and bloodletters, take Blood Warriors to hold objectives, escort characters and deter enemy counter-charges as they are basically designed to take a frontal assault to the face and laugh it off.

• Bloodreavers: (Bloodbound, Min:10, Max:40, 70/240pts) These guys are essentially Khornate Marauders who are too manly to wear armor (but now they have a 6+ Save, Khorne be praised!). Their leader gets another attack, and you can add an Icon Bearer (Adding +1 to their Bravery) and/or a Musician (+1" To Run and Charge), both of which are very useful bonuses you should always take. As for weapons, you could either run with the Reaver Blades (which re-roll hit rolls of 1) or take the Meatripper Axe and gain -1 Rend (probably the better option, which is, of course, the reason the guys in the Starter Set come with the other one). They also gain an extra attack if they are 12" from a unit which has the Chaos Totem keywords (Bloodsecrator and Chaos Warshrine being the most practical examples, though a Beastmen BSB would work too, just for shits and giggles You can no longer take the Wargor battle standard bearer).
  • Pro-tip: If you have a Warshrine dedicated to Khorne, take Meatripper Axes, because the Warshrine's prayer grants you full reroll to Hit (The Warshrine only buffs a Mortal Slaves to Darkness unit and gives it +1 to Hit if it's Khorne as well), add the bonus for having a Chaos Totem around and you still get the better Rend from the Axes.
  • These Dudes stand out as your *cheapest* source of Blood Tithe at 70 points/10W, 6+. They combo well in a 40-strong blob. But definitely consider the MSU approach for screening, speedbumps, and the sweet, sweet Blood Tithe.

• Chaos Warriors: (Slave to Darkness, Min:5, Max: 30, 100pts.)without support, they have better protection, Hitting, Run & Charge, hoarding in hordes, and protection against mortal wounds. If you have more support STD then BLOODBOUND in your list, take Chaos Warriors

• Chaos Marauders: (Slave to Darkness, Min:20, Max: 40, 150pts.) without the BLOODBOUND Support goons, Marauders hordes beat Bloodreavers as they have better armour, hit harders when in hordes, and their charge distance is aways 8+".

Beasts Of Chaos

Must be included in a Brass Despoilers battalion.

• Gors: (min:10, Max:30, 70/200pts) Not as much DPS as other marauders but they have claim ground faster with their 7 +2d6+1" Run & Charge and their shield grant them a 4+Sv in melee, make cheap sacrificial chaff to stall as the rest of the army make their way.

Cavalry

Your fast attack units. Sometimes you need something that can jet across the board at high speeds with a blade swinging.

• Bloodcrushers: (Daemon, Conditional Battleline:Skullmaster is your General, Min:3, Max:12, 120pts) Bloodletters on mounts, gain 3/3+/3+/-/1 juggernaut attacks, +3" movement, 3 wounds and a 4+ save. They have a faux "Hammer of Wrath" attack: when they charge, on a 2+ they cause a mortal wound on an enemy unit within 1", or D3 mortal wounds if this unit has more than 6 models - but this roll is done per charging Bloodcrusher and mis be resolved after each models charge movement, and each one can pick a different eligible target unit.

• Remember, wounds are resolved at the end of the charge phase for you "hammer or Wrath" ability but rolled after each individual bloodcrusher is moved your opponent my try to take away models to make your other crushers have a harder time with there charge movement. Just keep track of how man MW were inflicted untill the end of the phase/charge movement.

• A little math hammer 6 charging in has a potential to do 18 mortal wounds!! This is before combat also since the ability is in the charge phase. Charge and weaken down your opponent with MW then clean up with attacks. (I recommend taking squads of 6 it's hard to pass up the D3 MW even if they are expensive)

• Mighty Skullcrushers: (Bloodbound, Optional Battleline: Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut general, Min:3, Max:12, 160pts.) Your cavalry. Their mounts as much damage than the riders, striking pretty much with the same profile as a Skullreaper. Do however remember that despite being Cavalry, your Skullcrushers aren't all that fast, moving only 8". The riders themselves have either the same weapon profile or with more Rend but worse Hit rolls. Your choice really. Their banner grant +2 Bravery. They have a faux "Hammer of Wrath" attack: when they charge, on a 2+ they cause a mortal wound on an enemy unit within 1", or D3 mortal wounds if this unit has more than 5 models - but this roll is done per charging Skullcrusher, and each one can pick a different eligible target unit.
  • Quick modeling tip: After the reboxing, Skullcrushers now come in boxes of 6, but their Warscroll still specifies that they come in units of 3+, so you can comfortably take one of those six and make him into a Juggerlord, which would normally be a resin model that costs an arm and a leg. (Though you'd have to pay for a full unit of 6 if you used them in matched...)

• Chaos Knights: (Slave to Darkness Min:5, Max:20 180pts.) Cavalry on Horses? In my Khorne army? It's more likely than you think! They're 2" faster than Skullcrushers, 3 wounds and have the same 5+ mortal wound save as Warriors. Two weapon options, Enscrolled Weapons (Now wounding on 3s and have rend -1!!) or Lances (2x 4+/3+/-/1) that upgrade to 4+/3+/-2/2 on the turn they charge. These guys suffer from some identity issues honestly and it's hard to see a place for them when Mighty Skullcrushers point for point are better offensively and defensively. With the new kit coming in from the start collecting, the Chaos Knight champion now has the optional Cursed Flail, bringing d6 attacks with the same stats as the lance. Probably not the best option, but can provide some bonus swings into some lighter units and it certainly looks sick!!
  • Actually on a second glance Lance/Glaive Chaos Knights do scary damage. Skullcrushers may be better in a prolonged fight, but 5-10 chaos knights on a charge with even one of the many buffs khorne has can do a lot of work. The fact that there are at least 5 models is also important if you say give them a +1 attack buff from the Aspiring Deathrbinger (don't forget it also affects mounts!). That's 10 more attacks!

• Chaos Marauder Horsemen: (Slave to Darkness Min:5, Max:30 90pts.) Much lighter Cavalry and one of your few ranged attack options in the army. 12" move (4 more than Juggernaut Cav) 5+ save and 2 wounds each. They can have the same flail or axe as marauders on foot but the best option is their javelins giving them 2 4+/3+/-/1 ranged attacks each. They shoot and charge on a turn they retreated. A nice cheap skirmisher and objective grabber in an army saturated with heavy cav.

• Chaos Chariots: (Slave to Darkness Min:1, Max:3 120pts.) 12" move and a once per game Run & Charge mean these are pretty nippy, especially compared to other Khorne stuff. It's decent enough at taking out enemy heroes with its charge MW and greatblade and, with the flail, it can potentially pack a bit more punch but only on a lucky roll so it is probably not worth it.

• Chaos Gorebeast Chariot: (Slave to Darkness Min:1, Max:1 150pts.) Slower than the Chaos Chariots but a killer mount. With 9" move it'll keep pace with your skullcrushers. If you roll a high charge range the gorebeast hit harders. Very good at things like Swordmasters. I'd still take the greatblade too since you're better off with the rend.

• Varanguard: (Min:3, Max:12, 300pts) Super Warriors lent out by Archaon. They are giant chaos knights with 5 wounds 3+ armour and ignore magic on a 5+, able to Fight twice once per game and get +1 to hit if you have Archaon. Each model can be armed with an Ensorcelled Weapon for consistency, Fellspear for better charge damage, or Daemonforged Blade can more inflict Damage and MW with good RNG.

Beasts Of Chaos

Must be included in a Brass Despoilers battalion.

• Dragon Ogors: (Min:3, Max:12 140pts.) Five Wounds with a 4+ save, okay Bravery and scary weapons. Each has what is basically a Chaos Knight's horse bolted to it and in addition fights with a big weapon. You get either Ancient Weapons which are three Double-Hammer Liberators in one, Glaives which exchange 2 attacks with 1 more inch of range and a Rend of -1, or Crushers which only have 3 attacks, but with 2 damage each. Although you can't take a shaggoth in Blades of Khorne, you still reroll 1s to hit for the battalion.
  • Glaives have an interesting use in that you can hide your dragon ogors behind your 25mm/32mm based guys (just in case may want 2 ranks of 25mm bases to have maximum distance). Enemies with 1" weapons won't be able to touch your DO, while the glaives let your DO wack enemies (though you do lose your claw attacks).

• Centigors: (Min:5 Max:20 80pts.)The fastest unit you have, 15+d6" of movement and still able to charge is ludicrous fast, nothing is unreachable. They may not nearly have the same punch as other cavalry, but they will reach anything turn one. Use them as a roadblock while your slower, tougher units get on the objective.

• Tuskgor Chariots:(Min:1 Max:4 60/200pts.) an incredibly cheap chariot, only coming the closest to having the same effectiveness as a seeker chariot the turn it charges a ten man+ hoard of order guys.

Elite Infantry

Your expensive, specialized, heavy-duty troops that make your opponent sweat when they see them approaching. They aren't the fastest units you've got (in fact they're some of the slowest) so you'll have to be a lot smarter with these on the board than your other, cheaper units.

• Skullreapers: (Bloodbound, Min:5 Max:20 180pts.) Pretty cool. Stat-wise they're pretty decent, with a Wound and a point of Bravery over Blood Warriors along. Their weapons (4x 3+/3+/-/D1, unmodified 6's to hit inflict mortal wounds in addition to their normal damage) And this gets even better when combined with their now modified Trail of Skulls ability. Now much more simplified from the previous battletome (where you had to keep a tally of total models you killed) now it is just a straight reroll to hit when your opponents unit has 5 or more models, meaning more chances for mortal wounds. Additionally, the champion gets another weapon on top that's pretty powerful but only gets one swing. They also have a reasonable chance of inflicting mortal wounds if they die in combat. These are your elite infantry. They're powerful and can lead your charges. Get a Bloodsecrator nearby and watch everything around them melt.

• Wrathmongers: (Bloodbound, Min:5 Max:20 140pts.) The angry cheerleaders can infect other people with their RAGE. In-game terms, every Khorne model wholly within 8" of them gets an extra attack with all their weapons but this doesn't affect the Wrathmongers. Offensive wise they have 4 good melee attacks that get better on the charge. Also, their Blood Fury ability can Deal mortal wounds when they die to get a little more damage. A unit of five gives you a pretty massive radius. They also gained an interesting synergy with Skarr Bloodwrath, being able to attack upon death similar to a Blood Warrior.

• Chaos Chosen: (Slave to Darkness, Min:5 Max:20 140pts.) Chaos Warriors with some really good axes. 3 attacks each 3+/3+/-1/1 that cause additional mortal wounds on a hit roll of six and if they slay a model SLAVES TO DARKNESS wholly within 12" re-roll failed wounds. Not to be sniffed at, especially with a Bloodstoker to give them re-rolls to wound and if you're running anything they can buff. These guys pack a big punch for their price essentially being your equivalents to Stormcast paladins, only 60 points cheaper a unit.

Beasts

A mix between fast and elite, these units are unique in nature and utility.

• Khorgorath: (Bloodbound, Min:1 Max:6 100pts.) "Somewhat underwhelming," said nobody ever. Khorgoraths are actually one of the punchiest units available to Blades of Khorne at a rock bottom price. It has two unique traits: it heals a wound when it removes a model in the combat phase, and it reduces bravery in an area when it deals damage. Though they may seem tailor made for removing smaller foes with their five attacks rending with damage two, but they're also great at killing multi-wound models and shaving off wounds from larger monsters as well. Because of their great statline they really don't need buff support to function well, but this also means anything you give them fires them up even more. They're also one of the only monsters in the game where up to five can be taken in a single unit. They also become even better in a Skulltake Battalion.
  • Khorgoraths are one of those units where it's best to take more over less. Individual models will hurt other units badly, but a unit of 3+ are a steamroller. In smaller games you can get away with a single model, but if you're playing 2k you should experiment with slotting these in as your hammer.

• Chaos Spawn: (Slave to Darkness, Min:1 Max:6 50pts.) That Which Must Not Be Named. Not actually terrible anymore, though far from reliable. A Move of 2D6" makes for potentially fast movement. Similarly, 2D6 attacks per Spawn is potentially strong, but even better is the special rule these attacks come with: If you roll a Double, instead of Hitting and Wounding on 4+, you Hit and Wound on 3+. Just think about it, 12 attacks apiece with good Hit and Wound rolls... Also, five Wounds with a 5+ save to make for pretty hardy models.
  • While unreliable in almost every single aspect of their horrible existence, they do make a cheap, weak Blood Sacrifice target!

Beasts Of Chaos

Must be included in a Brass Despoilers battalion.

• Bestigors: (Min:10 Max:30 120/300pts.) Elite Gors in heavy armour and more anti hoard killy.

• Bullgors: (Min:3 Max:12 140pts.) Get the same Bloodgreed rule as the Doombull, а weapon choice of great axes (2x 4+/3+/-2/3) or axe(s)(3x 4+/3+/-1/2) with the option of an additional axe to reroll hit rolls of 1, or bull shields which add +1 to the save rolls against attacks from melee weapons. These options are in addition to horn attacks made by each bullgor (2x 4+/4+/-/1). But the really interesting trait is their Drummer and Banner Bearer abilities: namely, they give +1 respectively to charge rolls and +1 Bravery for each enemy unit within 12" from them.
  • Other than that, they're fast, have more raw, balls-out power than almost anything in the game and have lots of Wounds. The high Wound-count combined with the meh Save also means that targeting them with Mortal Wounds will almost feel like a waste to your opponent, which might keep them safe longer.

Behemoths

The big boys. The mad lads. The "you can only take up to four of them in a 2k list" fellas. More expensive than a beast, more powerful than an elite, just the right amount of blood for the blood god.

• Slaughterbrute of Khorne: (Monster, Behemoth, 170pts) They bind to one Slaves to Darkness HERO. Clocking it at just under the cost of two Khorgoraths, the Slaughterbrute can dish out almost exactly the same amount of wounds as them in melee combat. The Brute's weakness is its 4+ save and 12 wounds, but its degenerating profile is actually very forgiving. It stays fast and killy until you shave off a good 8 wounds! Just be aware your big boy in red is not a shock trooper and will need an escort to the enemy lines. however, the Slaughterbrute is truly Bloodsecrator's best friend. The Slaugtherbrute is at its most dangerous inside the Bloodsecrator area of effect.
  • Too bad he lacks very good rend. Seriously he doesn't have access to Rend -2 despite his huge size and his JAWS are rend-less!

• Chaos War Mammoth: (Slaves to Darkness, 320pts)This monster has 22 wounds! Although it's only packing a 4+ save. All of his attacks cause at least D3 wounds, making it an exceptional monster-killer when at full strength. Its real strength lies in supporting a Marauder charge, however - as well as imposing -2 to any Battleshock tests to any unfortunate unit that gets charged, the Mammoth can also help Marauder or Marauder Horsemen get in a little extra movement and increase their damage output in combat. Wounding and even killing this thing just makes it cause more damage. If you're playing with a big Chaos horde then there's no finer feeling than running this guy into the enemy's biggest and toughest-looking infantry blob, although expect a few dirty looks for doing so. Keep in mind that he doesn't like magic missiles or war machine fire, however.

• Gigantic Chaos Spawn: A strong but unreliable monster burdened with random movement, random attacks, and regeneration. He can put out a fair amount of damage with a mix of its tongues and maws, and has 12 wounds and has a good chance to regenerate and possibly gain more wounds each turn. It's worth remembering that he can be given any Chaos God as a keyword, which opens up amusing possibilities like running a Khornate Spawn alongside a Bloodsecrator.

• Chaos Warshrine: (Totem, Priest, Behemoth, 170pts) If you play with caps on Heroes, this is a huge advantage. What it does is pretty cool, too. First, it has an Aura that grants Mortal Slaves to Darkness an additional 6+ save after their normal save. It Can also pray for buffs to Mortal STD units. There is one buff for Undivided and every God. The Undivided buff is the best by default, granting rerolls of To Hit and To Wound. However, the God-specific buffs can be cast on whatever you want, but get better if you cast it on a unit of the same God. The favor of Khorne allows reroll changes, but if the unit it's used on a Khorne mark, you can also reroll all To Hit rolls. And yes, this does mean a Shrine can bless units of rival Gods, just for shits and giggles. Also of note is the fact that this thing can easily hold its own in combat with a monster-like profile and a bunch of strong attacks. Awful Rend, yes, but they plow through low armour tarpits like nobody's business. The model is a Priest and can cast Khorne prayers inaction to its own.

• Soul Grinder: (Daemon, Behemoth, 210pts) Ever wanted a beast that can throw ranged shots AND be great in melee? This daemon might be for you. Same price as a Daemon Prince but with less special abilities. It makes up for it by giving you a boatload of attacks for very good damage. Two ranged attack profiles, one at 20" and six at 16", the 20" does flat 3 damage the rest do 1 damage. CC has six attacks for 1 damage each, 1 attack -2 Rend for D6 damage, and either: two attacks -2 Rend flat 3 damage, OR 4 attacks -1 Rend D3 damage. Big, ugly, and killy, he fills the hammer role. The biggest downside for it is the mostly 4+ to hit. And since it is a Daemon, it can't benefit from CSL Demonic Power spell or the Warshrine. But at 16 wounds and a 4+ save, you can probably find a spot in the army.

Beasts Of Chaos

Must be included in a Brass Despoilers battalion.

• Cygor: (140pts) Can unbind two spells in each Hero Phase: If he manages to do it, he deals a mortal wound to the caster healing a wound for himself. He can also reroll hit rolls when attacking wizards, which he really really needs, having Hit rolls of 4+ across the board. Two of them can add some okay shooting, but the fact that the damage table influences his range makes him unreliable at best.

• Ghorgon: (160pts.)Same Blood Frenzy as Doombull and Bullgors, but deals d3 mortal wounds on an unmodified 6. Also, he can slay a specific model within 1" after he makes all his attack if he rolls a dice equal or greater than its wounds characteristic, do remember that it's a model so you can chomp on any leader or musician you can get your grubby hands on. This thing is your sledgehammer, with insanely strong attacks, but very slow for a monster. If you manage the charge and a Doombull is nearby, this thing can rip apart whole units, otherwise, it will stop cannonballs with its face for two turns and then die.

Artillery

You can take up to four of these in a 2k list. There's nothing more to say about this section. Its got Skull Cannons. They got buffed in 2.0, so you may start seeing (or even using/summoning) them!

• Skull Cannon: (Deamon, Min:1 Max:3 130pts) This is an interesting unit: it's a cannon that can do significant damage at the range but has a melee statline with special rules that make it look as though it's made for close combat. In truth, it's a hybrid unit made to do both. Starting off with the basics, the Skull Cannon is a 7 wound model that has a single shooting attack 30"/1/3+/3+/-2/D6; however, when shooting at units of +10 the Skull Cannon adds +1 to its hit rolls, making it hit on a +2. Moving on to its melee profile, it has the standard Hellblades with 2/+4/+3/-1/D1 with hit rolls of 6 or more causing a mortal wound. In addition, it has a single Gnashing Maw attack 1/+4/+3/-1/D3. Pretty mediocre, until you read its special rules: its melee rule Grind their Bones, Seize their Skulls allows the cannon to make an additional shot at the end of the combat phase if it killed any models with its close combat attacks. Furthermore, due to the strange rule set for AoS, you can still use ranged weapons in the shooting phase even if you are locked in combat. This essentially means that you can fire the cannon, charge, eat their skulls, and fire additional shots with your skull cannon while continuing to do so in subsequent turns.
  • Hilariously, a nearby unit of Wrathmongers makes your Bloodletter crew shoot twice as fast, meaning that you can get up to 6 cannon shots per model per turn (4 in your Battle Round, 2 in your opponent's).
  • They stopped that nonsense with an FAQ (wrathmongers are for melee only).....despite the WRITER OF THE BOOK saying it was 100% intentional. It's almost like GW doesn't want people to spend money on 4 skullcannons!

Terrain

• Skull Altar: Ironically, it lacks the amount of skulls one would expect. You may place one of these down, for free, anywhere in your deployment territory to benefit from its two abilities. First is to let Khorne Priests re-roll any prayer rolls while wholly within 8" of the altar. The second is that it forces wizards within 16" take -1 to cast. Best of all? It's free, so it's worth taking just for the area of casting denial even if you're not running Slaughterpriests. Even if you do, they (or any hero with less than 8 wounds) is able to hide inside the altar. Recently been upgraded to also allow a hero garrisonned inside it to summon Judgements like a priest, benefiting from the reroll, very handy for demons-only warbands.

• • It can also be used when summoning units with Blood Title points - they can arrive near the altar instead of near one of your heroes, if that helps.
    • Take a lesson from the way Beasts of Chaos are running their Herdstone and put this bad boy a little up the table to maximize its radius.

Normal Battalions

Battalions were smacked with a point increase in 2017 and smacked again for good measure in 2018. If you plan to take one, go all in to make the most of it.

Due to how Battalions are now universal, expect see the whole lot of this on the trash bin outside of narrative games. Bonus rules, traits and doodads are going to be likely added to the faction rules as default.

But, hey, battalions are now FREE.

Daemons of Khorne Battalions

Murderhost (160pts min. 600pt.)

1 Bloodletter hero, 3-7 Bloodletters, Crushers, Hounds, or Cannons

Change in new version - only adds 2 to run and change rolls while within 16" of the Bloodletter Hero. For sure less impactful.

Bloodthunder Stampede (140pts. min. 730pt.)

1 Skullmaster, 3-7 Bloodcrushers

Hard nerf in the new version, but still pretty good - Makes the Murderous charge and Slaughterous charge abilities automatically go off, instead of on a 2+. And I bought all those expensive bloodcrushers..

Council of Blood (min. 930pt.)

3-8 Bloodthirsters (including Skarbrand and the Exalted Greater Daemon)

HARD NERF - Now Called Tyrants of blood - Just allows your Bloodthirsters to attack in succession. Like still pretty powerful, but not even close to the wrecktastic voyage that was the previous version.

Whoever wrote the above is legitimately clueless about the fundamentals of AoS matched play, Tyrants of Blood is immeasurably better than Council ever was. Always fights first and/or fight twice with 1,000+ points of Bloodthirsters, is far better run & charge (which you can still effectively get anyway with the Unfettered Fury command ability, along with retreat & "charge")

Blood Hunt (120pts. min. 880pt.)

Karanak and WoK Bloodthirster, 3-8 Bloodcrushers or Flesh Hounds

Adds 1 to wound rolls to attacks targeting Hero units. Nerfs for the Nerf god

Gorethunder Cohort (120pts. min. 680pt.)

Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne, 3-8 Skull Cannons

Re-roll hit rolls for all cannons wholly within 12" of the throne.

Blood Host of Khorne (120pts. min. 1080pt.)

Bloodthirster (any), 7+ any other Khorne Daemon Hero (except Karanak for some reason) or unit

Re-roll charge rolls while within 16" of your Bloodthirster. Get the F in there.

Charnel Host (140pts. min. 900pt.)

Bloodmaster, Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury, 3-8 Bloodletters(any)

Re-roll wound rolls of 1 while within 16" of the Bloodthirster.

Skullseeker Host (120pts. min. 930pt.)

Bloodmaster, Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage, 1-3 Skull Cannons, 2-5 Bloodcrushers

Re-roll ALL wound fails that target a Monster. Big ass skulls for the big ass skull throne.

Khorne Bloodbound Battalions

The battalions in Khorne Bloodbound have been replaced with the below. This means the old battalions are no longer legal. Sorry, Bloodstorm! Most of our battalions are around 700 points minimum, so once again be sure to make the most of them if you're going to take any! While the battalions themselves have gone down in points, some of the mandatory units have had their points values raised, so keep that in mind. NOW ALL UPDATED

Gore Pilgrims (140pts. min. 630pt.)

Bloodsecrator, 2-3 Slaughterpriests, 1-2 Blood Warriors, 1-2 Bloodreavers

The battalion to end all battalions got jumped by GW in an alley and had its knees broken. Now it only adds 8" to the range of the Bloodsecrator's abilities while they're within 8" of one or more Slaughterpriests. No more cumulative range bonuses, no more re-rolls to prayers from the battalion. While its effects are easy to re-create, you no longer need the Gore Pilgrims for it. Still a good battalion, even if it's no longer the auto-take it used to be.

Bloodforged (120pts. min. 580pt.)

Skullgrinder, 1-3 Blood Warriors, 2-4 Wrathmongers

Finally, something I like. After a Wrathmonger has attacked, if its wholely within 8" of the Skullgrinder, it can make a 2nd pile in and attack, before the other player. WHAAAAAAAAAA.

The Gorechosen (110pts. min. 750pt.)

Exalted Deathbringer, 7 from the following: Aspiring Deathbringer, Bloodstoker, Bloodsecrator, Skullgrinder, Slaughterpriest

Not actually legal in 2k games, this battalion lets you pay a premium to add +1 to hit (while within 12 inches of another unit from the battalion) and +1 attack to every unit within it. Ideally you would take front-line Heroes to get the most from the battalion. Useful in larger games, useless any other time.

Brass Stampede (140pts. min. 780pt.)

Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut, 3-7 Mighty Skullcrushers

A pricey battalion that adds more killing power to your already deadly cavalry units. Now it makes it so their Murderous Charge and Slaughterous Charge rules automatically occur.

Dark Feast (110pts. min. 500pt.)

Bloodstoker, Slaughterpriest, 3-6 Bloodreavers

Adds 1 to attack characteristic of all Bloodreavers within 16" of a Slaugherpriest . Hordes of little dudes flowing across the field.

Skulltake (140pts. min. 680pt.)

Bloodstoker, 0-2 Blood Warriors or Bloodreavers, 1-2 Khorgoraths, 2-3 Skullreapers

Unmodified wound rolls of 6 deal an extra damage while within 12' of the Bloodstoker. Churn em out!

Slaughterborn (170pts. min. 710pt.)

Exalted Deathbringer, 2-4 Skullreapers, 1-3 Blood Warriors

Worsens rend received in melee by 1. Solid battalion for boosting the defense of your army and can fit all your battleline.

Red Headsmen (120pts. min. 580pt.)

Aspiring Deathbringer, Skullgrinder, 3-6 Blood Warriors

No more flavor involved, and I really enjoyed that "worthy foe" thing. Heroes and Monsters killed by this battalion grant double blood points. I like that.

BloodMAD Warband (160pts. min. 910pt.)

Aspiring Deathbringer, Bloodsecrator, 1 Skullreapers, 1-2 Bloodreavers, 3 Blood Warriors

NERFBAT NEW VERSION - Add 1 to all attack characteristics if they charged in the same turn. Still, okay, but just not the same.

Goreblade Warband (140pts. min. 600pt.) (Open Play Only)

Bloodsecrator, Bloodstoker, Mighty Lord or Khul, Blood Warriors, Bloodreavers, Khorgorath

You can re-roll charge rolls for the Goreblade Warband if any of its units made a successful charge in the same phase. If any units are wiped out during the combat phase, you can add 1 to the Attacks characteristic of all melee weapons used by the Goreblade Warband for the remainder of that combat phase. Its restricted to Open Play and contains the starter set units only.

Beastman Battalion

Brass Despoilers (190 p) (Min: 620.pt. Max: 10770.pt.)

1-4 combination of Beastlord and Doombull; 3-8 combination of Bestigors, Bullgors, and Gors; 0-8 combination of Centigors, Dragon Ogors, or Tuskgor Chariots; 0-2 combination of Cygors or Ghorgons.

Confirmed by FAQ, that it can be taken in a Blades of Khorne army. Give all units in this Battalion the Khorne keyword and grants them re-roll hit rolls of 1 if the unit is wholly within 9" another unit from this Battalion. Also once per battle, during the hero phase, you can extend the re-roll ability to also include all failed wound rolls until the next hero phase. the only way to get Khorne Beastmen. Gors grant chaff that covers more ground than traditional Barbarians. Tuskgor Chariots and Centigors provide speed. Cygors help with anti-magic while Ghorgons dish out a lot of damage.

The Key to this battalion is to take advantage of min sized units of Bestigors as chaff destroyers (5-6 attacks on the charge!), or Bullgors with their BF Axes for the high rend attacks that Khorne can buff (and lacks in it's non-Heroes). The Doombull is also a great choice. Watch out though, as a lot of buffs that work on Mortals and/or Daemons will not work on the Beastmen.

Slaves to Darkness Battalion

Bloodmarked Warband (180pts, Min 990pt.)

1 Mortal Slaves to Darkness Khorne Hero, 8 Mortal Slaves to Darkness Khorne units

If a hero from this battalion slays any models during the combat phase, you can pick a unit from this battalion wholly within 12" of said hero. That unit gains +1 attack until your next hero phase. A unit cannot benefit from this more than once per battle round. This can range in terms of usability, so choose carefully. However, this can stack quite well with the Bloodsecrator and turn some normal units into absolute blenders. If you want to use this, go all in. Marauders, Knights, and Characters will benefit the most from this.

Super Battalions

Battalions OF battalions. Adds additional bonuses for an additional point cost. 2.0 slapped these with increased points, making them harder to take in a balanced list.

Daemons of Khorne Super Battalions

Don't expect to take any of these in a normal sized game. The bonuses make them pretty great, but the point cost puts them in a realm beyond any rational point limit.

Blood Legion (min. 3090pt.)

1 Blood Host of Khorne, 3-7 other Daemon of Khorne Battalions excluding the Blood Host

The MEGA battalion of Khorne Daemons should only be considered if you're playing a 5k+ points game, and even then you may want to first consider what life choices you made to be playing such a game. You get two bonuses: first, if any units are wiped out in the combat phase, all units in the super battalion get +1 attack, and second, you gain a Blood Tithe point at the start of each of your hero phases. Hey, there are worst ways to spend an entire weekend... All units with the Decapitating Blow ability trigger it on unmodified hit rolls of 5+ rather than 6...... Woot de doodle dandy for min 3090pt it's not really worth your time or money, unless you realllly love you some khorne demons.

Mortal Khorne Super Battalions

2 out of 3 of these may be taken in a 2k game, but only 1 has any real potential by itself.

Bloodbound Warhorde (min. 3770pt.)

1 Mighty Lord or Juggerlord or Skarr Bloodwrath, Korghos or Valkia, 1 Gorechosen, 1 Bloodbound Warband, 3-7 other battalions

For this absolutely insane abomination you get one Blood Tithe pointanytime your Slaughterpriests or Mighty Lord unbind a spell. Additionally, any unit from the super battalion can unbind spells. To top it all off, you get +1 attack in the combat phase if a unit has been wiped out for everyone in your super battalion. A super battalion for the collector looking to use his entire collection. each of your turns.

Tactics

Maim, Kill, Burn! Maim, Kill Burn!! That's all!

Actually it isn't, as the Bloodbound are actually a pretty engaging army (Khorne is the biggest nerd of the pantheon, what did you expect?). The Khorne Bloodbound are an army that specialize in very powerful hero's that either buff your already strong melee units or murder the enemy. Specifically, what makes this army unique is the amount of synergy that your army works within.

Sure, your basic strategy is very simple: Charge in as fast as possible, as soon as possible and inflict as much damage as possible. If you simply toss Bloodreavers at your opponent they will die as even Skeletons fight better than unsupported Bloodreavers. They rely heavily on keyword synergy and need to work extremely well together in order to fight at peak efficiency. And in order to do that you need your Heroes.

A good rule of thumb is to use at least 1 but no more than 2 Heroes per 25 Wounds. Start off with the Bloodsecrator. He's just about the best force multiplier you have (some might argue that he's the best non-special character force multiplier in the game) and add 20 Bloodreavers. Then, add two Heroes of your choice, one of them with a unique Command Ability, like the Mighty Lord or better yet, the Khorne Exalted Hero, who's bound to get a new name soonish like the "Lord of Plagues" did. Then, add Skullreapers. If you want to keep sticking with Blood Warriors, get a box, assemble five of them as Blood Warriors and add them to the ones from the starter box, then use spare parts to convert the other five into MOAR Skullreapers. As far as Heroes go, the Exalted Deathbringer is great regardless of whether he's your general or not but in different ways, the new Slaughterpriest is about the closest to ranged capability you have and pretty killy for a Priest and the Skullgrinder gets disturbingly powerful with all those attack buffs you've got going.

Even more important is that you use the right heroes with the right units: The Bloodstoker was pretty much made to boost Skullreapers with Daemon Weapons. The Juggerlord works better for Skullreapers with non-Daemon Weapons and for Blood Warriors. The Warshrine is best for Wrathmongers and Bloodreavers with Meatripper Axes. Everything with a bonus to attack numbers works best on Skullcrushers. The Bloodsecrator works well with everything, but best with Bloodreavers of all flavors. The Skullgrinder works best with units that Hit on 4+ and no better, specifically with Wrathmongers and Daemon Weapon Skullreapers. Mighty Lord, Exalted Deathbringer and Slaughterpriest are somewhat out of the loop, supporting everything equally and fitting absolutely everywhere, though the Deathbringer's only real use is as a beatstick, as his Bravery-conferring is infinitely worse than the Bloodsecrator's flat-out ignoring of Battleshock.

As soon as you add Battalion rules, things get real crazy, as you suddenly have to add questions like "do I let my Bloodstoker get killed off in order to get some bonus attacks from "Khorne Cares Not From Whence The Blood Flows"?" to your list of considerations, in addition to the standard gaggle of "which unit needs to attack when it order to deal the most damage to what?".

Age of Sigmar's real meat lies in combat, so an army specializing in combat is no less complex than one that can also pepper the enemy with arrows.

• The Khornemower: <This is out of date info but interesting to see how it used to work anyway> Units of 30 letters are offensively one of the best units in the game right now. All you need is a Slaughterpriest who knows killing frenzy, a Bloodsecrator and a Daemon hero of your choice (like you weren't taking them anyway). 61 Attacks hitting on 2's re-rolling 1's causing mortal wounds on a FOUR to hit. (mortal wounds caused by decapitating blow only happen on a unmodified 6 plus). For 270 points. On average you will kill Nagash or Archaon in one round of attacks and they HAVE saves vs mortal wounds. The only thing that will stand a chance at all against that density of mortals is mass Chaos Warriors, though on average you will kill TWENTY ONE of them in one round of attacks i.e. they will make 140% of their points back. You're welcome.
  • Just a note Bloodletters aren't great defensively, if you anticipate a lot of ranged think about investing in another Slaughterpriest or two to give them bronzed flesh. if you think your opponent fights fair then a blood warrior or Bloodreaver screen to take any enemy charges is a good idea. If you expect magic, take another unit of 30, in fact take 2 units of them anyway, there's really not much they aren't good against.
  • If you're playing over 1000 points take the gore pilgrims for Khorne's sake and at 1500+ consider the Murderhost with some flesh hounds to give your Bloodletters a bit of movement at the games start, the hounds make a great screening unit too as well as being a source of unbinding and generally being a pretty scary thing an opponent may choose to shoot instead of your actually scary guys.
  • While this was a viable strategy for years, 2.0 has made it very expensive to pull off. Most savvy foes will also deploy in such a way as to give you no good choices to charge, and the charge itself CAN fail even with all the additional "to charge" bonuses. This list is a good way to force your local meta to play smarter, making games closer and more enjoyable for both sides, but there is a point of diminishing returns. HOWEVER, going ABOVE 30 Bloodletters to multiple units has been shown to work in some cases. If the idea of hordes of Bloodletters is your thing and you want to keep up with other armies, you'll have to go big or go home.

• Summoning: With 2.0 Khorne Summoning has very clearly overshadowed many of the other Blood Point options. The ability to summon in waves of Flesh Hounds and Bloodletters to grind down your opponent's army cannot be underestimated. It's also possible to summon a pretty obscene amount of Daemons per turn should you focus on the power. You'll have to sacrifice what makes Khorne armies so powerful to begin with, however: buffing prayers. Give your Gore Pilgrims Slaughterpriests Blood Sacrifice, grab a Warshrine and give it Blood Sacrifice as well, and give them some Bloodreavers or Chaos Spawn to toss into the pot. Why Spawn? Low point cost and low wounds plus mass Blood Sacrifice equals more Blood Points. BBBBALSDARGGH.
  • Your goal with this list is simple but difficult: turn your mortal army into a hybrid army and then into a daemons army over the course of the battle. Every turn you'll be spamming Blood Sacrifice to pump up your Blood Points and spending them in the following Movement Phase. Even if you only get two Blood Points, spend them on either MSU Bloodletters or a Bloodmaster. Use your summons to either zone your opponent (Bloodletters, Bloodmasters, Flesh Hounds), reach out and touch them where they thought they were safe (Flesh Hounds have rerollable charges), or setup future summoning (Bloodmasters, Skullmasters).
  • CAUTION: there are several traps involved in this strategy.
    • Blood Thrones and Bloodcrushers (and to a lesser extent Skull Cannons) are still not worthwhile even with summoning. Skull Cannons have situational utility with their large bases blocking backfield deep striking while they deal long range damage, but they are very, VERY hit or miss. Flesh Hounds can zone more space and move just as fast as Skull Cannons when they need to.
    • You will be tempted to save your Blood Points until a game comes when your opponent gets a double turn and your points hit 8 and start being wasted. Always spend your points asap!
    • Your MSU Bloodletters won't be moving other units off objectives or dealing many wounds on, well, anything. Save your small groups for objective holding or speed bumps. If you want to deal actual damage, you'll need the 20 man summon with a nearby Daemon Hero unit. Biting the bullet at 7 Blood Points for a big unit can make or break your games, so choose wisely!
    • Flesh Hounds, while able to spit out a high number of attacks, have no rend and only a Daemon save of 5+. They're not terrible at clearing weaker units if they get the jump on them, but even with 2 wounds each don't expect five of them to last very long. When it comes to your doggos, it's quantity over quality. Summoning MSU Flesh Hounds to overwhelm your opponent can be very effective as a pincer maneuver.

Allied Armies

• Beasts of Chaos: While all Beasts of Chaos can ally with Khorne, it's better to add 'em to your army under the Brass Despoilers Battalion (which is also part of the Khorne Allegiance) with a healthy dose of Doombull, Bullgors and Ghorgons. However, if you take Dragon Ogors, it might be beneficial to ally in a shaggoth

• Nurgle:

• Slaves to Darkness: Archaon is Daemon, Mortal, Khorne, Monster, Hero, Scientist, Philantropist and Playboy. Any StD able to choose a mark of Khorne will also be part of your main force. The Warshrine being a Totem will buff any nearby Bloodreaver while still buffing any Khorne-marked StD units with it's prayer. It will also get a Blood Blessing and be able to summon Judgements of Khorne. Adding a Bloodsecrator to a Khorne-marked StD army as an ally is also a worthy addition.

• One-Eyed Grunnok: A Warstomper Mega-Gargant available to all Chaos factions. Recruit your own monstrous centerpiece at the cost of your entire allied points allowance. He’s a best used right in the heat of combat where he can throw enemies at each other and disrupt enemy formations. Re-rolls jump attacks of 1, plus enemies within 6" get -1 to hit if jump attacks were made earlier in the same phase.

Age of Sigmar Tactics Articles
General Tactics	Tactics Realm Of Battle Malign Sorcery Path to Glory Skirmish
Order	Cities of Sigmar Daughters of Khaine Fyreslayers Idoneth Deepkin Kharadron Overlords Lumineth Realm-Lords Seraphon Stormcast Eternals Sylvaneth
Chaos	Beasts Of Chaos Blades of Khorne Disciples of Tzeentch Hedonites of Slaanesh Maggotkin of Nurgle Skaven Slaves to Darkness
Death	Flesh-Eater Courts Nighthaunt Ossiarch Bonereapers Soulblight Gravelords
Destruction	Gloomspite Gitz Ogor Mawtribes Orruk Warclans Sons of Behemat
Others	Monstrous Arcanum Legends Old Rules