Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Daughters of Khaine

NOTE: This army will be updated soon with new units and rules.

Allegiance Abilities

Battle Traits

• Fanatical Faith: Daughters of Khaine can ignore wounds allocated to them on a 6+. Sweet.
• Blood Rites: The fantasy variant of "Power From Pain". Every turn your units get a brand new special rule that stacks for the rest of the game.
  1. Quickening Bloodlust: Reroll run rolls of 1.
  2. Headlong Fury: Reroll dice rolls of 1 when charging.
  3. Zealot's Rage: Rerolls 1s to hit. In addition, an Avatar of Khaine always counts as being animated.
  4. Slaughterer's Strength: Reroll 1s to wound.
  5. Unquenchable Fervour: Your units rerolls saves of 1, and do not need to take battleshock tests.

Command Traits

• 1. Bathed in Blood: Increase your wound characteristic by 1 and you can heal 1 wound at the start of each hero phase. Good on a Cauldron of Blood, but there are better ways to get your wounds back.
  2. Zealous Orator: Friendly units within 14 inches can use the General's Bravery. Good, but you have good Bravery across the board as is.
  3. Bloody Sacrificer: Add 1 to the hit rolls of the General's weapons. Lot of good options here, but this seems like a waste of a Command Trait, given you can have other better options.
  4. Terrifying Beauty: Subtract 1 on hit rolls against the General. Putting this on the Cauldron of Blood will drive your opponent insane.
  5. Mistress of Poisons: Add 1 to the General's weapons Damage characteristics. A Slaughter Queen with this will wipe out a unit a turn.
  6. True Believer: Ups the turn number for the unit's Blood Rites. Good to get an Avatar of Khaine awake turn 2 and just generally a good choice.

Gifts of Morathi

• 1. Crown of Woe: subtract 1 from the bravery of enemy units within 7". This range doubles to 14" the first time the bearer slays an enemy model.
  2. Cursed Blade: one of the bearers melee weapons adds +1 to hit rolls. If the result is ever 7+ then the weapon does 1 mortal wound instead of the normal damage.
  3. Amulet of Dark Fire: the bearer negates mortal wounds inflicted by spells on a 4+.
  4. Crone Blade: one of the bearers melee weapons heals the user by 1 wound each time it slays an enemy model.
  5. Thousand and One Dark Blessings: the bearer gains +1 to saves. This should probably be your default option since you'll always have a use for it, and DoK suffer from mediocre saves in general.
  6. Bloodbane Venom: if the bearer wounds an opponent but does not slay them, roll a dice after the attacks have been made. If the number equals/beats the victim's wound characteristic then it is slain outright.

Warscrolls

The common keywords of these warscrolls are: ORDER, AELF and DAUGHTERS OF KHAINE.

Heroes

• Morathi, High Oracle of Khaine: After crawling out of the throat of Slaanesh, Morathi has done not bad for herself, she doesn't have much utility but exists mostly to cause carnage. As her most basic, she's a WIZARD with the ability to cast three spells per turn and unbind twice, adding +1 to her rolls and doubling the range of her spells. Her unique spell is Arnzipals Black Horror which basically smacks a unit with a random number mortal wounds. Her command ability allows her to pick two friendly DAUGHTERS OF KHAINE units within 14" and let them make an immediate shooting attack (Wanderers are in envy) or allow them to pile in an make a melee attack. In close combat, she's a devil, throwing out nine 3+/3+/-1/1 damage or D3 damage attacks between her Heartrender and her Bladed Wings (note she cannot fly though), all the while imposing a -1 to hit when enemies attempt to swing back at her and she can only take a maximum of three wounds per turn FULL STOP so that it is impossible to take Morathi out in a single turn of combat, to be sure, she is a handful. There is one (rather inconsequential) downside; Morathi cannot be healed by any means. Though spells which heal are often quite rare in most armies, so it isn't a huge loss; you want Morathi to lose some wounds anyway because the best is yet to come.
  • Stop. It says "allocated" so at least the 6+ Fanatical Faith roll applies here. This makes her even more awsome.

• Morathi, the Shadow Queen: Morathi's true form, comes in the box along with the High Oracle version, since you aren't actually allowed to set up the Shadow Queen variant on the table at the start of the game. Instead you roll a dice at the start of each hero phase and if the number is equal to or less than the number of wounds Morathi has taken then replace the High Oracle model entirely with the Shadow Queen. The giant snake monster is a 12 wound beast (unfortunately any wounds taken carry over and are doubled) that can Fly and has a lot more dangerous melee attacks and comes with a ranged attack, Heartrender alone has the capability to cause 18 points of damage in a single round of combat, but she also has her venomous tail and the serpents in her hair for more damage, all of which still hits and wounds on a 3+ and are subject to Blood Rites making her all the deadlier as the game progresses. Her ranged attack is worth mentioning, simply removing an enemy model of your choice from an enemy unit if a dice roll beats their wounds characteristic, no ifs or buts... The Shadow Queen is still a spellcaster, albeit diminished by casting/unbinding only one spell per turn and she has lost her Sorceress Supreme and Enchanting Beauty rules. Either way, she is still a force to contend with, especially as like her smaller version, she only takes a maximum of THREE wounds per turn, so short of weapons with cause instant death or remove her from play, so depending on the number of wounds she started with it is practically impossible to take her out in anything less than three turns, added to the fact that the High Oracle version also has this rule you can guarantee that no matter what your enemy throws at you, Morathi will still be on the table in one form or another by turn four in EVERY game she is involved in.

• Slaughter Queen: The old Death Hag got split in two, the Slaughter Queen has pair of weapons: The "meh" Blade of Khaine which is pretty much a bog-standard weapon, combined with the a stronger but ridiculously named "Deathsword" which has a slightly better profile and does D3 damage; She is your primary priest, always casting on a 3+ but wounding herself on a 1. Unfortunately her prayers are... weird, she isn't really a fantastic buffer for friendly units. is an incredibly unreliable way of tossing Mortal Wounds at your enemy and the other is a buff. That can only target her. Though to be fair, the buff is pretty good, increasing her meh knife's damage to D3, essentially matching her Deathsword, which will put the lady at 7 damage D3 attacks, enough to kill bigger units all on her own. Her other good prayer is the ability to fight twice in the combat phase, which you should use if she goes up against hordes rather than monsters. She can also use this ability as a command trait, allowing a friendly unit to pile in during the hero phase. The last prayer is an odd one, forcing your opponent to play "guess which hand" or suffer D3 mortal wounds... essentially a bizarre throwback to old legacy rules. In short, altogether she is a death-blender but the lady is a glass cannon, but an entertaining glass cannon that helps you out in every Battleplan that grants Priests additional abilities.

• Hag Queen: The slaughter queen's little sister and budget supporting choice. She doesn't have the Deathsword, the Dance of Doom prayer, the ability to unbind spells, or any command ability. Instead has a chalice of Witchbrew which allows a friendly DoK unit within 3" to re-roll wounds for a phase. She can also still play "guess which hand" with your opponent or buff her little knife to D3 damage, so she's not entirely useless. You take her because she's cheap and a good supporting unit for someone like Morathi; also because you might have taken an Avatar of Khaine and need someone to animate it.

• Cauldron of Blood: A centerpiece in every sense of the word. It draws the eye and is absolutely essential for turning an assortment of powerful units into a coherent army. Basically a straight upgrade for one of the Queens with an Avatar of Khaine strapped to the same model; needing to be animated with prayers each turn (or wait for Blood Rites to kick in by turn 3) This also means that there is practically no situation where the Avatar will be without a Priestess to animate him since they are both sharing the same model in this case, making it a safer bet than marching either of them around solo where one or the other can get picked off. It also has extra attacks thanks to the attendant sisters and an added charge bonus which inflicts Mortal Wounds. It also allows DoK units within a diminishing range to add +1 to their save rolls, so this unit is definitely worth having considering how fragile the army is in general, though there really isn't much more to say beyond the standard rules for the Hag/Slaughter Queens.
  • If you are still considering which way to go between the Shrine or the Cauldron. You are mostly weighing up whether you want the Aura of Agony for causing mortal wounds in a radius, or the Bloodshield for giving your sisters a +1 to saves. Everything else is pretty much the sum of the model's parts since the actual Shrine/Cauldron itself has mostly the same profile and attacks in either version simply added to whatever hero is mounted on top of it, which you could have deployed separately. However one big factor to remember is that the Cauldron of Blood can still move around the tabletop without having to animate the Avatar, leaving your Priestess to use a different prayer in her hero phase if you want to.

• Bloodwrack Medusae: Pretty damn good and if you have a Cauldron of Blood you'll have one of these spare in any case. They are pretty scary in melee, being basically Trolls, but their real danger is at range, as they roll a D6 for every model in the target unit and every 5+ deals a Mortal Wound. Yikes. Use two of these ladies to more than halve those Saurus Guard, Greatswords, Bestigors etc. They are also Wizards now, being able to cast/unbind a single spell per turn.

• Bloodwrack Shrine: While you should probably get a Cauldron of Blood first, if you wanted to keep the Queens and Avatar separate you will be left with a Bloodwrack Shrine, either that or you bought a second model. It's only 80 points more than the Medusa on her own. It costs you 2 inches of movement but it more than doubles your wounds, gives you the Shrinekeepers attacks, the Bladed Impact rule AND gives you the Aura of Agony, which causes D3 mortal wounds ALL ENEMY UNITS within a 7" radius on a diminishing die roll, starting at 2+, which coupled with her Bloodwrack Stare means that the Shrine has the potential to be doling out a lot of mortal wounds in a given turn. They are also Wizards now, being able to cast/unbind a single spell per turn.

Troops

• Witch Aelves: BATTLELINE The new battletome went and mixed it up a bit, giving Witch Aelves the Bladed Buckler rule which used to be unique to the Sisters of Slaughter. If you take the Buckler then they get a 5+ save with any roll of a six causing an immediate mortal wound on the attacker. This and the Fanatical Faith allegiance ability has increased the Witch Aelves survivability somewhat. If you'd rather have them be more killy, you can swap the buckler for an extra sacrificial knife which grants them another attack, up to three per model, which makes them rather choppy for a cheap unit, this can be further upgraded thanks to the Frenzied Fervour rule which grants them another extra attack whenever they are within 8" of DoK Hero in the combat phase, with each potentially throwing out four 3+/4+/-/1 attacks per turn with rerolls depending on what turn it is, which isn't too terrible for a front-line unit. No matter what option you take they are still fragile though.
  • It's worth bearing in mind that if you took bucklers you should always take your save even if the enemy has a good rend value and your Witches actually have no hope of surviving. The save inflicts the mortal wound on a six after any rerolls but before modifiers such as rend or debuffs, thus you might get a free mortal wound or two on your opponent even though your ladies are caught in the headlights and can't do anything about it.

• Sisters of Slaughter: BATTLELINE The counterpart to the Witch Aelves took a bit of a nerf with the recent update. They lost their bonus to saves in close combat and are just as fragile as Witch Aelves, who now share the Bladed Buckler rule. On the plus side, they are still superior to Witch Aelves since their choice of weapon is either the Shield and Barbed Whip which has the same profile as the knife but comes with a 2" range, so they already throw out the same number of attacks, at longer ranges when compared to Witches with shields. Or they can trade the shield in for the Sacrificial knife, which makes gives them an additional short ranged attack at the expense of some durability. Their unique special rule is that they can be chosen to pile in and fight up from up to 6" away rather than 3", which means they have a massive threat radius without even charging and can jump on to the enemy during his own Combat Phase. A good use of these ladies might be to hover around your own units and perform a counter-charge whenever one of your weaker units gets threatened, dog-piling on the enemy when he thought he had the advantage.

• Blood Sisters: BATTLELINE if your general is a Bloodwrack Medusa. Your gorgon snake-chicks whose job is to be the army's elite melee anchor unit. Armed with Glaives and their Crystal Touch attacks, they can throw out a reliable amount of damage every turn. Glaives have three 3+/3+/-1/1 attacks at 2" range which would be decent before you consider rerolls from Blood Rites or further buffs from prayers. The Crystal Touch is a kicker though, causing an instant mortal wound on every hit. The main problem is that they cost quite a lot for only a few models, yes they have two-wounds each but they are still fragile with a 5+ save so you will be feeling the loss of each one heavily. Keep them protected.

• Blood Stalkers: The ranged snake ladies. Yes you also have Khinerai Heartrenders now, but the Stalkers have the longer range and fewer rules for moving about, making them your primary fire support unit rather than the mobile harassing unit of harpies. Rolling 6+ to hit makes the bow do a mortal wound instead of the normal damage, which is nice to have but shouldn't be relied upon since you can't do massed ranged firepower like some other armies can. The squad leader also gets a Bloodwyrm, which is a little dragon-pet that adds a single reliable close combat attack to her profile, but little else, kind of at odds with the unit's purpose as they are only average melee combatants. Don't expect a whole lot of mileage thanks to a combination of small squad sizes, few attacks and the fact they can't be Battleline units.
  • As ranged units, they are probably best compared to Stormcast Judicators with Skybolt Bows, rather than the mass ranged units found in Free Peoples or Wanderers - they are 2-wound models with decent single-fire range attacks. Stalkers are superior to Judicators at range and in melee, as well as being quicker (8" move) and balsier (8 bravery vs 6 bravery). With Fanatical Faith they are probably just as resilient, though that really depends on the Rend value of the weapon attacking them.

• Khinerai Lifetakers: One of the new Khinerai Harpy units. Lifetakers behave pretty much like flying Witch Aelves. With a pair of average attacks and a version of the Bladed Buckler called the Heartpiercer Shield, which is essentially the same thing; granting them a 5+ save that causes mortal wounds to attackers on six. Strictly speaking they are worse in close combat than Witch Aelves, but they can FLY for one, as well as bein able to Deep Strike onto the battlefield anywhere more than 9" from the enemy. The real draw with Lifetakers over other similar units is that they gain +1 damage whenever they charge into combat and can also fall back from combat after they have completed all of their attacks on a die roll of 4+, so you can escape during an enemy turn and just charge them again on your own. Get enough of these together and they'll be taking anything down.

• Khinerai Heartrenders: The other of your two new Khinerai Harpy units. The Heartrender variant are your ranged specialists who can fling their barbed javelins up to 12" doing decent 3+/3+/-1/1 damage; although that's only one attack each. While this is actually pretty decent when you compare them to a similar unit like Prosecutors with Stormcall Javelins, Lifetakers come with even more special rules that make them useful. Firstly, they can Deep Strike, arriving anywhere on the table more than 9" from the enemy when you feel like, which is still happily within their shooting range, which also has their Rend characteristic boosed to -2 for that alpha strike attack. Allowing you to genuinely strategise with where to put them and what they can hurt. They can also shoot after running and fall back after shooting on a die roll of 4+, meaning that although 12" is quite a short range for a ranged weapon you have a chance of darting in and out an inevitable counter-charge when the enemy gets annoyed with you. They also have the Heartpiercer Shield which makes them more resilient though admittedly you don't want this unit in melee because they do so much better as a harassing unit.

• Doomfire Warlocks: The only males in the faction. These guys are actually incredible. They are excessively fast at 14" and they now come with two-shot crossbows they are still great, as they're pretty tough and units of them are collectively Wizards. This makes them incredibly versatile already, letting you play small units to either shoot Mortal Wounds or buff your squishy ladies, but the really great part is their unique spell. First, it's casting value 5, so very easy to get off, then you get +1 to cast if the unit has 10+ models and then its a damage spell that scales to your unit size, topping at a flat 6 Mortal Wounds at 10+ models. Six. Mortal. Wounds. If your opponent sees that even once, he will focus your Warlocks down, but that's alright, since it means ignoring your Sisters of Slaughter and as soon as those ladies are in melee, your Warlocks are safe again.

Behemoth

• Avatar of Khaine: So you built a Bloodwrack Shrine and had the statue of Khaine left over? Well GW have fixed that for you. Like 40k Eldar players you can bring your very own incarnation of war and murder to the tabletop. Except this one is an spiky iron golem animated by the prayers of the nearest Death Hag rather than a burning daemon animated by the soul of a dead warrior. This means that the Avatar NEEDS to be accompanied by a Priestess and keep her protected, otherwise it stands on the battlefield doing nothing each turn and you'll have wasted your points. This becomes less of an issue if you have the Blood Rites allegiance ability, which automatically animates your statue from turn three onwards, but seriously, you want this thing moving before then because it's a heavy hitter. In close combat it throws out four attacks at -2 rend and 3 damage, making it your primary character slayer. It also has a ranged attack that spews blood all over the enemy, with six shots at 3+/3+/-1/1 it is nothing to scoff at, making it the near equivalent of whole ranged units in other armies (for example: it causes more wounds than a 10 man squad of Glade Guard).
  • One problem? The Avatar does very little other than be a simple beaststick, it does provide Daughter of Khaine a +1 bravery bonus within 7" although bravery is not one of the major problems the Daughters have to face (poor saves come higher on the list) though thankfully the bravery bonus applies whether the Avatar is animated or not, because it's still a giant religious icon of their war god.

Battalions

Bloodwrack Sisterhood

A Cauldron of Blood, a unit of Bloodwrack Medusae, a Death Hag, and 3-6 units choose between the following: Witch Aelves Doomfire Warlocks or Sisters of Slaughter.

During your hero phase roll a D6 for each battalion unit within 3" of an enemy unit and within 9" of the Cauldron of Blood. On a 6 that unit can immediately pile in and attack as if it were the combat phase. This does not stop them from piling in and attacking again later that turn.

Army Building

Start out with one box Sisters of Slaughter and two boxes Doomfire Warlocks. If you happen to have the Mistweaver Saih from Silver Tower, add her.

Then, add a second box Sisters of Slaughter and a third box Doomfire Warlocks. You now have twenty crazy murder ladies and fifteen crazy mounted murder mages and possibly a Wizard to keep them company.

Next, add a Cauldron of Blood, basing the Medusa and the second Death Hag on their own.

If you desperately want Witch Aelves, get thirty of them at once. That MIGHT be enough to get them into combat.

Allied Armies

• Darkling Covens:

• Idoneth Deepkin:

• Order Serpentis:

• Scourge Privateers:

• Shadowblades: You wont really have any need of Shadowblade allies, they only have two units and one of those is made using the same kit as your Doomfire Warlocks, which are better than Dark Riders in most respects. Unless your are especially looking for sneaky deployment of an Assassin, it wont do much more than a Slaughter or Hag Queen could not already do, as Daughters of Khaine pretty much have melee units covered.

• Stormcast Eternals:There are two things Stormcast Eternals can do for you: Tough units to weather attacks for you and ranged support via the crossbows. Both are worth a look, if you don't mind Stormcasts.

External links

Rules are here

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-caludron-blood-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-witch-aelves-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-sisters-slaughter-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-bloodwrack-shrine-en.pdf

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/aos-warscroll-doomfire-warlocks-en.pdf

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