Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Daughters of Khaine

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Grand Alliance Order

Daughters of Khaine

Much bloodier and less NSFW than it appears.

Lore
Tactics
General Tactics

Why play Daughters of Khaine?

Pros

  • Almost all of them are Hot Chicks and Monstergirls in bikinis (except the Doomfire Warlocks and Avatars of Khaine, but they're not mandatory units).
  • You miss the Dark Elves, and this is as close as it gets for now.
  • With the right unit choices your army is exclusively Hot Chicks and Monstergirls in bikinis!
  • You like the idea of playing an army of bloodthirsty, fanatical murders but don't like Khorne.
  • Some of the best melee in the setting; offensively they can rival the Sigmarines, crazy cannibals or the Khorne Flakes in combat.
  • They're a jack-of-all-trades able to fight in every phase with melee, shooting, magic, decent movement and bravery shenanigans.
  • You like the continuation of Morathi's story arc, and want to see her make her mark on the setting.
  • A monster that DOESN'T GET LESS EFFECTIVE IF IT TAKES WOUNDS (that also double as a giant angry statue of their god).
  • Plenty of movement tricks. Your basic troops (Witch Aelves and Sisters of Slaughter) have the ability to run and charge with only a musician, everything else except the heroes and Cauldron of Blood/Bloodwrack Shrines have movement 8-14, you can reroll 1s to run turn 1, 1s to charge turn 2, plus Deep Striking Khinerai, Khailebron's deep striking ability and Lore of Shadows spells that boost movement.
  • The new rules for shooting at characters give the enemy -1 to hit unless the target is a monster. Think the Cauldron of Blood or the Bloodwrack Shrine would count? Nope, they're not Monsters. Keep them close to a unit and watch them get to combat unmolested.
  • The Cauldron of Blood, with the right combination of relics, Command Traits and prayers is straight busted, coming in with a nightmarish amount of damage output both in shooting and close combat, powerful support abilities and the ability to heal itself through multiple avenues for 300-330 points.
  • Did I mention all of the Hot Chicks and Monstergirls in bikinis?
  • You want to win. As simple as that.

Cons

  • These chicks are almost as naked as the fyreslayers, but they dont have fancy runes or 2 wounds to tide them over. Apart from their 6+ fanatical faith save, they have the usual Glass Cannon problem of being flimsy. Our Infantry has a 6+ Save, and the other units - apart from Morathi - are softer than their equivalents in other armies unless you make the right choices (such as Hagg Narr and/or throw in a Cauldron).
  • They are rather expensive to collect in dollars, and even spending lots of money on models can still leave you with a comparatively low model count without durability like the Stormcast Eternals or as much healing as the Death factions or Sylvaneth.
  • Their shooting is limited and overall mediocre.
  • They do not play well with others. If you're playing Daughters of Khaine, you're playing them in a Daughters of Khaine Allegiance army. They are incredibly reliant on their faction abilities to turn them from a bunch of expensive fragile units with some pretty good close combat into a unified army with some of the most brutal close combat in the game. You can ally other stuff into them, don't ally them with other stuff. (Again not true, Khinari Heartrenders slot nicely into most Order soup lists as its a good deepstrike bully unit)

Rulebooks

The Daughters of Khaine Battletome has all the Warscrolls, Battations and Allegiance Abilities.

  • This should be supplemented with the Daughters of Khaine Errata and Designers' Commentary from the FAQs.
  • Matched play points are updated in the General’s Handbook 2019.
  • Alternatively up to date Warscrolls can be found in the WH AoS app. Warscrolls on the GW webstore match those in the Battletome.

As with all factions you'll want:

  • The core rules are either downloadable or in the Core Book.
  • Games taking place in a Realm need the Realm of Battle rules from the Core Book.
  • In you want to take advantage of realm specific artefacts you'll need the Artefacts Of The Realms section from the Malign Sorcery book.
  • Matched play battleplans are split across the Core Book and General's handbook 2019.
  • All books should be supplemented with any updates from the FAQs.

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. Note that neither this nor turn 3 say "In close combat" so feel free to reroll those shots with your Blood Stalkers.
  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. Stacks with the existing -1 against shooting for heroes close to a unit, meaning that everyone shooting at you will have a -2 to hit you.
  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

(Can be given to any Daughter of Khaine Hero)

  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. Makes Heroes mounted on an Cauldron of Blood difficult to take down without a lot of rend or mortal wounds.
  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.

Artefacts of Shadow

(Daughters of Khaine Wizards, meaning Bloodwrack Medusa since Doomfire Warlocks and Morathi can't take Relics, only)

  1. Shadow Stone: Re-Roll dice rolls of 1 for Casting attempts and add +1 to any casting attempts for Lore of Shadows spells. Helpful for making sure you get an important spell off. +1 to Casting the Withering is never a bad thing. Best way to get Mindrazor off, which doubled the already hit damage output of Aelves of Sisters!
  2. Rune of Ulgu: Bearer knows one extra Lore of Shadows spell. More options are never a bad thing.
  3. The Mirror Glaive: Each time the Bearer unbinds a spell, they can attempt to cast Arcane Bolt or Mystic Shield as if it was the Hero phase. If successful this spell can't be unbound. Sounds awesome but the Medusa can only attempt to unbind one spell a turn. Situational.
  4. Seven-fold Shadow: Once per battle, instead of moving you can set them up anywhere on the battlefield more than 9" from Enemy units. This uses up thier movement phase. You already have dozens of ways of teleporting units so this is a pass.
  5. Crystal Heart: Bearer can cast a second spell in the Hero Phase. If they do they roll a d6, taking d3 Mortal Wounds on a 1.
  6. Shade Claw: The Medusa's Whisperclaw is now -2 Rend. Helps out your Medusa in melee, so worth considering if you have them on a Bloodwrack Shrine.

Relics of Khaine

(Daughters of Khaine Priests only)

  1. Blood Sigil: Bearer gains one additional Prayer. More options is never bad.
  2. Iron Circlet: Bearer re-rolls 1's when seeing if a prayer is successful. Prayers Manifest on a 3+ and all have very useful buffs so this can be helpful
  3. Rune of Khaine: Bearer exploded on death. Roll a dice. One 1 nothing happens. On 2-5 the unit that killed them takes D3 Mortal Wounds. On a 6, the unit takes D6. Works against any attack and doesn't have a ranged restriction so going by RAW, your Hero can explode and do the Mortal Wounds against something across the table.. Main problem is that you want your Hag Queens alive as much as possible because Witchbrew is just that good. Witch Elves are your cannon fodder, and should really be dying instead.
  4. Crimson Shard: Bearer's Blade of Khaine wounds on a 2+. Pretty solid on a Cauldron as they will be getting stuck into melee anyway.
  5. Khaineite Pendant: Bearer can Pray three times in one Hero Phase, but the fiurst time you roll a 1 to manifest a prayer, they take d3 Mortal Wounds instead of 1. Extremely useful as your Prayers are all very useful. Being able to spam them is awesome. Probably your default choice.
  6. Hagbrew: Add +1 to Wound Rolls for the Bearer's melee weapons. Nice on a Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood. Turns thew Slaughter Queen on Cauldron into a death machine.

Lore of Shadows

The Lore of Shadows we all know and love is back! Note that Doomfire Warlocks are Wizards and can take a spell from here despite not being a Hero unit.

  1. Steed of Shadows: Casting Value 5. Caster can Fly and has a 16" Move.
  2. Pit of Shades: Casting Value 7. Pick an Enemy Unit within 18" of the caster, within line of sight, and roll 2d6. That unit takes 1 Mortal Wound for each point the 2d6 exceeds their Movement. Awesome against tough, but slow units. That Death player who keeps tarpitting you with blobs of 40 Skeletons? This spell was designed for you, followed up with a Bloodwrack Stare.
  3. Mirror Dance: Casting Value 4. Pick two Daughters of Khaine Heroes within 24" of the Caster. As long as they aren't within 6" of any other unit, switch their places on the Battlefield.
  4. The Withering: Casting Value 7. Pick an enemy unit within 18" of the caster within Line of Sight. Until the next Hero Phase add +1 to Wound Rolls for all attacks that target that unit. You should always have this.
  5. Mindrazor: Casting Value 7. Pick a friendly Daughters of Khaine unit within 18" of the caster. All of that units weapons gain an additional -1 Rend, and all of their weapons gain 1 extra damage if hitting something with Lower Bravery. It's very easy to pump up the Bravery of your MurderElves anyway. Awesome Synergy with the below...This can double the damage out put of Witchaelves or SoS. Wins games, looses friends :)
  6. Shroud of Despair: Casting Value 4. Pick an enemy unit within 18" and within Line of Sight. They take -1 to Bravery until the next Hero Phase. If the Casting roll was 8+, they take -d3 Bravery Instead.

Prayers of the Khainite Cult

  1. Catechism of Murder: Pick a Friendly Daughters of Khaine unit within 14". Any 6's to hit explode and deal 2 hits.
  2. Blessing of Khaine: Pick a friendly Daughters of Khaine unit within 14". They re-roll failed FNP rolls from Fanatical Faith. With Hagg Nar, bucklers and the Cauldron buff, your units now have a 4+, then rerollable 5+ saves. You can take a charge quite happily, then murder whatever dared getting close in your turn with ease...
  3. Martyr's Sacrifice: Pick a friendly Daughters of Khaine unit within 14". Each time a model is killed in the Combat Phase, roll a d6. The dead model deals an extra Mortal Wound on a 5+. Stacks with the Bucklers.
  4. Crimson Rejuvination: Pick a friendly Daughters of Khaine unit within 14", except for Morathi in either form. That unit heals 1d3 Wounds.
  5. Covenant of the Iron Heart: Pick a friendly Daughters of Khaine unit within 14". That unit does not need to take Battleshock tests.
  6. Sacrament of Blood: Pick a friendly Daughters of Khaine unit within 14". That unit counts the current battle round as being 1 higher for determining Blood Rites traits. Stacks with other abilities that give this effect.

Temples of Blood

Each has unique special rules for your army, a new artifact and allows you to upgrade one of your Warscroll Battalions

Hagg Nar
When you get to Zealot's Rage on Blood Rites (turn 3) you get to reroll all hits as opposed to 1s. Your general's command trait MUST be the Hagg Nar one, Devoted Disciple: Your general, and all units within 7 inches, get a 5+ Fanatical Faith save as opposed to a 6+. Cauldron Guard may take a Cauldron of Blood OR Avatar of Khaine. Hagg Nar allows your key unit to do its fanatical faith on 5+ combined with blessing of khaine and the +1 save from you cauldron your 30 witches will have a 5+ save and a 5++ (Reroll fails) fanatical save making the unit able to survive longer. By turn 3 your army is a killing machine and would be already in combat this is when things swing dramatically for Hagg Nar any unit with just a simple witch brew and being hagg nar will be rerolling their hits and wounds. on a unit of 20 witches that is 80 attacks (reroll hits and wounds) and if you add mind razor into the mix no single opponent can survive that number of paper cuts. The fact that Hagg Nar is the most frequently quoted temple needing a nerfbat to the face suggests that it's pretty good.
Draichi Ganeth
Add 1 to your hit rolls when you charge and if you have a Slaughter Queen, she must take the relic The Darksword, which gives her Deathsword 4 attacks instead of 3. Slaughter Troupe may take up to two units of Witch Elves. One of the better ones as its restrictions are easily worked around (don't want to have to take the Darksword? Don't take a Slaughter Queen) and a lot of practical applications (hitting on 2s, rerolling 1s on turn 3 will make almost every attack hit). Snake heavy armies take note- combine with Hag buffs for Crystal Vision mortal wounds on 3+, 6's count as two and reroll 1's. That's some scary MW output before the sneks start swinging.
The Kraith
If you're still within 3 of an enemy after you fight, roll a D6. On a 6, pile in and attack again. In addition, one of your heroes must take the relic The Venom of Nagenda: Once per battle, you can use it to make one of your melee weapons only do 1 attack, but does D6 Mortal Wounds if it hits. Cauldron Guard may take any number of Hag Queens and Slaughter Queens. When the ability goes off, you'll feel like a god, but it'll only go off if you didn't wipe out the enemy unit AND if you roll a 6 and thus isn't as useful as Hagg Nar or Draichi Ganeth (which help you win the fights you already got into) or Khailebron (which helps you get to the fight in one piece).
Khailebron
Your enemy gets -1 to hit in the shooting phase against Khailebron units and your General's command must be Mistress of Illusion: Choose a friendly unit within 7. If they're not in combat, pull them off the battlefield and Deep Strike them anyplace outside of 9 inches of the enemy. Works well on Morathi in caster form. Then you transform her, and her bigger base means she is suddenly only 7” away, ready to charge something, tie it up for a long time, if not outright killing it. The possibility alone will mess with your enemy who has to keep lots of stuff back to protect objectives. Temple Nest may take to two additional units of Blood Sisters or Blood Stalkers (or mix). This plugs one of your army's major weaknesses (getting shot to pieces) and the Command Trait can lead to some fascinating tactics, where your opponent never feels safe.

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. At 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 if they're within 3" of an enemy it allows them to pile in an make a melee attack. She can't use this command ability on herself though. 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.
  • Wounds negated by Fanatical Faith no longer count as allocated.
  • Note that while she can only suffer three wounds per turn, there is a way your opponent can get around this. After being cast, predatory endless spells are moved at the start of each battle round, and this happens between turns, so any damage that happens here won't count towards the three wounds per turn.
  • Morathi LOVES the Khailebron Temple and the Khailebron Temple loves her. The biggest problem with Morathi is her point sink. If you don't transform her at the right time, you risk losing out on her contribution to combat in the late game. Khailebron solves that by teleporting her wherever she needs to be to rip things to shreds, in addition to making her nearly impossible to shoot before that time comes. Let her hang out in the backfield (next to your General, i.e. do not make her your General!), flexing that 36 inch Sorceress Supreme magical range to snipe enemy heroes or buff your own units, then morph her into Shadow Queen mode and pop her up right behind whatever is left of your enemy's lines.
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. Alternatively, you can choose to transform her willingly. 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 (note: turn, not battleground, so you will die in two battle rounds, but you will kill a lot in return in that time as well!), 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.
  • Nearly broken in the new meeting engagement format as the game ends after 4 rounds. Sure she takes up nearly half your army but there is almost nothing your opponent can do about her without any instant slain mechanism. And since the board is smaller, she will easily land a charge with her mobility. Unless she comes in at the start of Turn 1, you are always better off transforming her immediately.
  • Morathi is a great counter to the Slannesh Greater Daemon that forces you to fight last on a 2+. Whenever possible, transform her and chase it down. Your opponent can only score 3 depravity each turn from Morathi.
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 have this ability as a command ability, 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 5 wound 5+ save model who will die to angry thoughts if she gets to close to an actual combat. Leave her at home unless she's your general or you're running Shadowhammer compact; IF you take her as general her command ability makes your Witch Aelves kill more than what a Hag Queen would do, making her a better option in this case. *One thing to remember is that priests get an extra prayer from the list of khainite prayers, and therefor can actually pray twice in your hero phase.

She can also attempt to unbind one spell in your enemy's hero phase as if she were a wizard, which is nothing to be sniffed at. If you have Bloodwracks as well, you can effectively shut down your opponent's magic every turn.

Hag Queen
The slaughter queen's little sister and amazing supporting choice. She doesn't have the Deathsword, the Dance of Doom prayer, the ability to unbind spells, or any command ability. Instead she has a chalice of Witchbrew which allows a friendly DoK unit within 3" to re-roll wounds until your next hero phase AND makes your units immune to battle shock. Even at 90pts the Hag Queen is still arguably the best hero in the game. She can turn a unit of 30 Witch Aelves into an unstoppable orgy of slaughter. Until AoS2 comes in, two Hag queens are mandatory in pretty much any DoK list. AoS2 is here and Hag Queens are still excellent, especially since they're harder to shoot (although you still probably want a Cauldron in addition).
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. The Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood is almost always going to be the general in any Daughters of Khaine army. It's buffs, bulk, command ability, and output are just too good not to use.
  • 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.
  • If you want a rapetrain, make a Slautgherqueen on this thing your general, then give her Mistress of Poisons, the Crone Blade and Catechism of Murder, wait for Turn 3 then charge something; you'll get +1 to the damage of all your melee hits since Mistress of Poisons works for all of the cauldron's attacks, and with Crone Blade on the Avatar's attack you get more than a chance to cause casualties and recover wounds, since it now does 4 damages per non saved attack, compensating for your fragility ( you still have 13 wounds with a 4+ save but some generals can be tougher); factor in Catechism of Murder ( solid, given this model has 19 attacks) and a self cast Orgy of Slaughter and... well, you won't regret skipping one of the temples for this. IF you don't care about the Crone Blade, take a Hagbrew instead.
Bloodwrack Medusae
Your generic Wizard, capable of tossing off a spell that makes it harder for the enemy to wound you, which is also nice, plus Mindrazor or whatever you like. Also, you know how Wizards tend to be useless in close combat and shooting? Well this is Daughters of Khaine and everyone has to pull their weight. Has an absolutely brutal shooting attack, where you roll a dice for every model in a unit and every 5+ is a Mortal Wound, and has a metric ton of close combat attacks, with a theoretical maximum of 16 wounds (average dice rolls will probably render it closer to 5 or 6, depending on what turn it is). You already want her slinging spells left and right, and she can easily be used to quickly clear out a unit of archers or something while your more important units take out tougher enemies. Definitely needs to be on your list.
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.
  • If you've got an extra Cauldron to assemble as one of these, remember that it's only 80 points more than a normal Bloodwrack Medusa, trading in those 80 points and 2 points of movement for double the wounds, the Shrine Keepers attacks and the Aura of Agony. That's pretty cheap all told, and since it's not a monster, it's still harder to shoot in AoS2, so it's worth considering.
  • Remember that a Bloodwrack Shrine can cast Steed of Shadows on itself to fly 16" and get that Aura of Agony + Bloodwrack Stare where it would hurt the most.

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. Big units of 30 are currently staples of the tournament scene so make sure you take big unit so they can reach the enemy.
  • 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.
  • If you do the math, bucklers are better: slightly lower damage output ( a difference of decimals even when counting stacks of bonuses to attacks) but they double your odds of surviving a hit, which will leave more witches on the table for more attacks and chances of mortal wounds; consider giving the buckler to all of your witches or at least most of them.
Sisters of Slaughter
BATTLELINE The counterpart to the Witch Aelves took a different role 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. They can trade their shield in for the Sacrificial knife, which 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. Their long pile in means that they're also one of the only units in the game that can bypass the Idoneth Deepkin's Turn 3 combat priority or the weird Gloomspite Gitz Fanatic "Always Strikes First" ability.
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. Making Blood Sisters the ones you want to throw at the enemy elite to get maximum advantage of the Crystal Touch (wasting it on cannon fodder units is just a gross waste of mortal wounds in most circumstances). 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(unless you bring a cauldron, which you should) and even with Fanatical Faith they really don't have a ton of staying power (for example despite being an elite unit they are less durable than a Liberator or Chaos Warrior) so you will be feeling the loss of each one heavily. Keep them protected with the massive number of buffs you can pile onto them. Large units are also a must simply because of the MASSIVE discount they get in groups of 20.
  • This is where all your buffs go. Even 5 snake ladies are a strong close combat unit but their damage output can be increased to ridicules levels. 10 snakes with catechism of murder, mindrazor and witch brew in a Hagg-Nar list will have 30 -2 rend 2 Damage attacks, 10 crystal touch attacks, all with re-rolls to-hit and to-wound plus exploding sixes. Sure, lots of eggs in one basket. But if you manage to get this off at the right moment the game will be over as they will have killed everything they can get their scaly hands on. *Don't forget the defensive buffs, with a Cauldron, Haggnarr, and the reroll prayer you can make a big unit of the snake ladies 4+(3+ if you can find a nice big terrain piece) 5++,5+++ which makes them actually ridiculously tough.
  • Consider Draichi Ganeth’s charge bonus for mortal wounds on 3+ rather than 4+.
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. They do have a reasonable movement, allowing them to get into desirable firing positions easier and with a high bravery they can good backfield objective holders while delivering ranged support to the front. And while not amazing given their small unit sizes they have reasonable combat abilities for a ranged unit, so there is some consolation in that. Overall don't expect a whole lot of mileage thanks to a combination of small squad sizes, relatively few attacks and the fact they can't be Battleline units, but given they this army isn't heavy on long range shooting just accept them for what they are and just don't go expecting miracles.
  • 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 quicker (8" move) and balsier (8 bravery vs 6 bravery) and better in close combat. However they lack the Judicators overall shooting versatility and damage output (they have no alternate ranged weapons or powerfull special weapons). With Fanatical Faith they are probably just as resilient, though that really depends on the Rend value of the weapon attacking them. Anything with even a rend of 1 will pretty much negate the bonus of Fanatical Faith to virtually nothing and these guys aren't really cheap enough to just throw away without thought. And as always Stalkers aren't battleline like Judicators, which is a shame really.
  • With the recent points adjustment to match Blood Sisters, they are now viable in Meeting Engagement. They have an effective range of 32 which allows you to easily land shots on almost anything on the smaller board. Just kill of at least one model and not die from return fire, you will win the Victory Points for having slain models with higher wound count.
  • Take note the Krone has a +1 to hit. This means she hits on a 2+ and score a mortal wound on a 5+ making it possible to land mortal wound on enemy hero who has a Look Out Sir -1 modifier against shooting.
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.
  • In the new meeting engagement format, these ladies are golden. At 14" movement and a smaller board size in meeting engagement, you are better off deploying them at the edge of the board with a Hag queen. Buffed with Witch Brew and Catechism of Murder, a small unit of 5 will rip any light unit of 10 to shreds. Battleshock will finish the job and you even have a 50/50 chance of backing off to capture the nearby objective. Since they are just 1 wound per model, it works to your advantage when counting wounds to compete for victory points in meeting engagement.
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.
  • At 90 points, it's not hard to get your points back for this unit in ways other than simply killing something outright. Drop two Draichi Ganeth Slaughter Troupe 5-Harpy (each with an Allied Assassin) units in your opponents back field and pepper a hiding hero with your Javelins until you can aggro one of his units to come take care of you. Note: Be mindful of your surroundings and don't drop into a bunch of gun lines... but if you do, they'll spend a turn shooting two 80 point units rather than your 300 point blobs of Witch's and Sister's. Anyways, if you get something to bite, let them charge you, then fly/run/retreat out of there towards your opponents now-isolated Hero, drop your Allied Assassin's on him/her and decide where to go from there.
  • Heartrenders can also serve as line backers, able to move and support your units where needed. Use this when faced against armies that put out more damage than they can handle, sitting them behind your hordes of Witches/Sisters to take the brunt of your opponents abuse and chucking Javelins at them then moving into combat to mop up whatever is left.
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.
  • Buff your Avatar with Mindrazor and watch him wreck everything in range. Thanks to his high bravery, his attacks will nearly always be four attacks with -3 rend and 4(!) damage each. Unless you're up against undead. Or daemons. Or Seraphon. Bravery 11 (10 + 1 thanks to "Idol of Worship") will beat the bravery 10 of any of these units (when not affected by debuffs).

Battalions

From Start Collecting

Blood Coven (not legal in pitched battles)
A Hag Queen, one unit of Witch Elves and a Bloodwrack Shrine.

From Battletome Daughters of Khaine

Cauldron Guard (540pt. min.)
A Hag Queen, two units of Witch Elves and two units of Khinerai Lifetakers.

Adds 1 to the units in the Cauldron Guards run and charge rolls. Anything that lets you move into combat faster is good. The Witch Aelves can charge after running, making them ridiculously fast (especially with rerolls of 1s) and now your Lifetakers make their charge on an 8 rather than a 9 after landing, letting them more consistently get the charge and their charging bonuses.

Slaughter Troupe (630pt. min.)
A Slaughter Queen, two units of Sisters of Slaughter and two units of Khinerai Heartrenders.

Lets all the units in the Battalion fall back and still shoot/charge. Given that in 2nd Edition of Age of Sigmar, you can only shoot at units you're in combat with, this lends the Heartrenders a lot of versatility, but the real kicker is in a Draichi Ganeth army (which can also add up to 2 units of Witch Aelves to this Battalion). They get +1 to hit on the charge, allowing you to yo-yo units in and out of combat to keep getting the bonus.

Temple Nest (870pt. min.)
A Medusa, two units of Blood Sisters and two units of Blood Stalkers.
Every to-hit roll of 1s made by a enemy unit in close combat (after re-rolls before modifiers) causes a mortal wound. Basically Bladed Bucklers/Heartpiercer Shields for your snake ladies. Useful to make your opponent nervous about directing a lot of attacks at these units. With the new generic Command Ability All-Out Attack that allows enemy to re-roll hit rolls of 1s, this may work towards or against you. If your opponents are starved for CP, you can bait them into using CP to avoid Mortal Wounds, denying them the opportunity to use CP for other purposes.
Shadow Patrol (770pt. min.)
Two units of Doomfire Warlocks and a total four units of Khinerai Heartrenders or Lifetakers.

One per battle round, you can pull one of these units that's more than 3 inches away from the enemy and set them up anywhere outside of 9 inches of the enemy. Good for making your enemy never feel safe since your units can surround them easily and worth remembering that the wording on both this battalion and the Heartrender's Death From Above rule means they interact: Dropping a unit of Heartrenders with this Batallions means they get -2 rend on their Javelins.

Shadowhammer Compact (1080pt. min.)
Two units of Witch Elves, one unit of Blood Stalkers, one unit of Khinerai Heartrenders, two units of Liberators, one unit of Judicators and one unit of Prosecutors.
In each Hero Phase you select one Daughters of Khaine unit and one Stormcast Eternals unit - both units do one of the the following, it must be the same: Move, Shoot, or Charge/Pile in.

From Grand Alliance Order

Bloodwrack Sisterhood (940 pt. min.)
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.

Super-Battalions

From Battletome Daughters of Khaine

War Coven of Morathi (3160pt. min.)
Morathi, one Cauldron Guard, one Temple Nest, one Slaughter Troupe and one Shadow Patrol.

Army Building

If it ever come back in stock, begin with the Daughters of Khaine Blood Coven box, and magnetize the Cauldron/Shrine so you can reconfigure it as needed.

Start out with ten 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.

If you desperately want Witch Aelves, get thirty of them at once. That MIGHT be enough to get them into combat. With Khailebron, you are not so vulnerable to enemy shooting = more surviving Witch Aelves, and you can buff them and then teleport them to take out any key units the enemy has (preferably on turn 2+ for that secure charge). Peachy says that he has seen a full unit of buffed Witch Aelves go through a Great Unclean One in a turn, so Witch Aelves are definitely not "bad" as an unit choice. But still take them in groups of 30. Witch Aelves are expen$ive as fuck, though, so look for bargains or used models if you want several boxes worth of them.

Two boxes Khinerai Heartrenders add even more ranged damage and allow you play a Slaughter Troupe.

Allied Armies

  • Darkling Covens: Darkshards and Sorceresses give you good ranged support, but their melee infantry moves too slowly to work well with yours.
  • Idoneth Deepkin: Ideally you want to grab some Ishlaenn Guard, as those guys will soak up obscene amounts of damage for you. Nothing else is really worth considering.
  • Order Serpentis: Provide you with a fast moving anvil (Knights, Chariot, Hydra) and an even bigger hammer (Hydra, Dragon). Your own units give them much-needed mobile ranged support.
  • Scourge Privateers: Their chariot is nice (but not strictly needed), the rest Order Serpentis does better.
  • 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.

Mercenary Companies

  • Blacksmoke Battery:
  • Greyfyrd:
  • Grugg Brothers:
  • Gutstuffers:
  • Nimyard’s Rough-Riders:
  • Order of the Blood-Drenched Rose:
  • Rampagers:
  • Skroug’s Menagerie:
  • Sons of the Lichemaster:
  • Tenebrous Court:

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
Order
Chaos
Death
Destruction
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