[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

Free terrain piece that does most of what Gore Pilgrims does? Called it! :-)

This brings Khorne in line with other 2.0 battle tomes and possibly back to top tier, subject to a reworking of bloodtithe to be less limiting. 

Fitting the terrain piece and 3 x judgements into the carry case, in addition to extra daemons for summoning, is going to be a challenge but a welcome one!

Gore Pilgrims may get a rework or be deleted entirely, or it might remain as is for those who dont want to use the new terrain and still want to reroll prayers.

Really looking forward to this release!

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

You can always summon more bodies when needed!

[AoS 2 - Slaves to Darkness / Darkoath Discussion]

A chaos lord or sorcerer lord on a 2 headed chaos dragon is a good shout as a centre piece. The old 2 headed chaos dragon doesnt have a place in AOS at the moment which is a shame.

Lords riding chariots would also be great, especially if you can upgrade to daemonic steeds (Juggernauts, Discs of Tzeentch, etc) like in the good old days. Ive been meaning to convert one of my old chariots to be pulled by a juggernaut to count as a Gorebeast chariot in my khorne army. Would love if this could double as Lord on Chariot in a Slaves army. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

Im not knocking priests, they are one of our best units when taken in Gore Pilgrims and I take them often. But a dice roll is still a dice roll so not 100% reliable.

Same with the Lord on Juggernaut. Its one of the best command abilities out there but comannd points are a finite resource so there will be times when you are not able to guarantee the buff. 

Buffs are nice to have, but elite units (those with a 170 points for 5 price tag) need to be a bit more reliable without buffs in my opinion. Its a fluff related issue as well. Elite warriors representing the god of war who hit on 4+ with no rend... Its just not right. I know ppl love their Skullreapers and Im not taking them away from anybody, just pointing out why I think they need improving from a rules and fluff perspective. 

As for the Bloodstoker, I rarely leave home without him. No doubt hero slots are precious and its always a tough call who to take and who to leave out. But in a game where movement and objective capturing is key, the guaranteed movement buff he provides (no roll or CP needed) can be game defining. Especially when coupled with a wraith of khorne bloodthirster's command ability. He is also a hero who flies under the opponent's radar which is great for scenario's where you need heroes for objectives. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

No doubt with all those buffs active they are wrecking balls, even before the rerolls activate,  however just about any unit in the game is going to hit hard with +3 to hit and +1 to wound. Throw in a Bloodstoker for rerolling 1's to wound to prevent the self harming mortal wounds. Problem is the +3 to hit is dependent on dice rolls and the +1 to wound needs a CP.

My point being ELITE units should be competent on their own merits and not need 460-540 points worth of heroes to get them there.  

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

I just dont get Skull Reapers. Elite Khorne infantry whose daemon blades hit on 4+ with no rend and a chance to mortal wound themselves? The rerolls and all that are awesome however until they get there they are a bit meh as far as elite units go. 

I would like to see them pulled in line with other elite troops, hit on 3+ with daemonblades, have -1 rend and mortal wounds on unmodified 6s to hit without the risk of self harm. There needs to be a reason for ppl to consider Gore-Slick blades so maybe those grant an extra attack and -1 rend. You could keep the reroll 1's for either option however this becomes redundant as soon as stage one of Trial of Skulls activates so wouldnt mind if this was left out. They could go back up to 180 points for 5 with those changes if need be. 

This is probably too far down the wish list path however something needs to be done with them as they will no doubt be on unmodified 6's to do mortals. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

5 hours ago, Bjornas said:

Just please no "shrines" or "worshipping", the whole prayer to Khorne concept is already so shoehorned. Make it a pile of freshly severed heads with a planted banner, something practical, and move away from the religious tendencies.  Pretty please GW

I'm no religious fan so I get it, but at the end of the day Khorne is a "god", so prayers and worshiping do seem kind of appropriate. Even a pile of severed heads or skulls is essentially an "offering" which has religious connotations any way you look at it. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

Thats fair but OP abilities would be in keeping with other new battle tome armies wouldn't they. Why should Khorne miss out? The herdstone gives -1 rend and battleshock immunity within an ever increasing bubble, as well as providing the mechanic for summoning, in addition to free allegiance abilities. By comparison a Khorne Skull Shrine covering the Portal of Skulls ability so the bloodsecrator becomes less auto include is no more OP then that. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

8 hours ago, Holy_Diver said:

The Portal of Skulls a terrain ability? 

Why not? Every other new battletome army gets a free terrain piece (or several) that cant be removed from play. Why should Khorne miss out? Especially when its very thematic to have a Skull Shrine or Blood Pool on the field.

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

I would love to see the current Bloodsecrator made redundant via a free terrain feature (a Skull Shrine or similar) that granted +1 attack and battleshock immunity within a radius with some mechanic increasing the range so the army doesnt have to camp around it (similar to a herdstone, perhaps +6" for each priest within 8", basically gore pilgrims in a terrain feature, or the range increases with units killed or blood tithe spent, something thematic like that). That essentially frees up a hero slot for one of our many cool hero options.

Meanwhile so the bloodsecrator model is not made redundant, the banner could have a different effect, similar to the short range banner artifact options available to him (e.g. reroll charges or +1 to hit within 8"), and he then functions like a crazed standard bearer charging into battle alongside the troops instead of sitting back watching the action. 

However given theres been no indication of a terrain feature for Khorne I guess this is a pipe dream 😞

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

Council of Blood allows both Bloodthirsters to use their command abilities for free and none of the other characters have a command ability. Given you will start the game with 1 from the battalion plus 1 for your fist turn, the spawn is probably a good shout. Fits with the fluff of the list and gets you a bloodtithe point. Also a 4th unit to capture an objective while the heavy hitters do their thing. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

Goretide would be cool and I would consider running the mighty lord of khorne for the first time with those buffs. Heres a question; does the mighty lord benefit from both of those abilities (Aqshy's Bane and Hot-Headed Conquerors)? He is a a Goretide unit afterall and the wording doesn't exclude him from the second ability- it feels a little abusive and prob not the intention but who knows for sure?

Skullfiend and Bloodlords are both cool but its a bit janky to only get a single attack with one melee weapon. Just let us attack normally in the hero phase.

Bloodcrushers now have the Reapers of Vengeance unstoppable charge rule as standard but the hero phase movement buff would be awesome. 

For me  a big factor will be any mandatory command traits and artifacts and what these do. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

@TheHarrower I have no doubt 80 reavers buffed that way will do a job for you. Therein lies the problem though (for me anyway), painting 80 reavers? No thanks! I'm happy with the minimum 20 and 5-10 Blood Warriors for gore pilgrims. Thats the beauty of this game though, so many possible army builds to suit whatever your flavour happens to be. 

Priest reliability is a big thing for me because they are such a threat. The flexibility of blood boil/blood bind is great and getting killing frenzy/bronzed flesh/blood sacrifice off can be key to your strategy. Outside of gore pilgrims I feel that priests become a "nice to have but not going to rely on" type of unit which is a shame and makes the requirement of taking one in Dark Feast a bit of a tax for me. having said that, its great to see you loving and being successful with one of the lesser used battalions.

I have no doubt that many people have incredible stories of damage caused by Insensate Rage Thirsters but I bet there are plenty more stories of him whiffing his 4/5 attacks and getting immediately cut to pieces, or not even making it into combat before being focus fired on by an aware opponent. I am interested to know what you think the appropriate points for Insensate Rage is, especially if (when) the mortal wounds are no longer on 6+.

I have mixed feelings on khornes current situation but mostly happy and not wanting too many changes. We have great command traits/artifacts/prayers, multiple battleline options, multiple hero and unit options, some useful battalions, BUT lots of redundant/unuseable battalions, a good number of unused heroes, a poor (albeit fitting) and limited allegiance ability when compared to similar armies.

I think the fact we are getting a new battletome shows that GW recognized that Khorne had been left behind in the AOS2 meta and overall am fairly sure it will be a positive update. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

I get you! I guess Karanak's new rule fits that bill and agree it would be awesome to see more of our unbinding units doing damage following successful unbinds. 

A way to dispel endless spells once on the table would be good too although I agree with many who have suggested one of our new endless "somethings" might do that job. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

I dont think Khorne could be any more-anti magic. Between the Bloodsecrator banner effect, Brazen Rune, 2 Bloodtithe option and unbinding options from Wraith of Khorne Bloodthirster (+2), Flesh hounds (+1 in units of 10 with rerolls from daemon hero), Slaughterpriests, etc. I've shut down Tzeentch and Undead magic regularly with these options. Any more anti-magic at this point is surely just overkill. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

@TheHarrower You dont even need to "ally" in a warshrine if it has mark of khorne. Dark Feast is nice but its only buffing Reavers and doesnt help the priest become more reliable. The mortal wound output offered by Gore Pilgrims is unmatched at the moment. 

@Forrix The Insensate Rage Thirster is a bit swingy, needing 6's to wound with only 4 attacks, and dies easily so 260 is probably about right. 

@Coyote yeah pretty much no unbuffed unit deleter currently available. Even 30 x Bloodletters needed extra attacks, if not bonuses to hit, to really shine and that was when the mortals were on 6+. 10 x Skullreapers can do a job but hitting on 4's means they need their rerolls happening before they really shine. A Wraith of Khorne bloodthirster with +2 Damage (Immense Power + Death Dealer) can put out a heap of reliable damage without further buffs, especially if he can use the breath and whip before charging.  But why talk in unbuffed terms anyway? AOS is all about buffs and debuffs and its pretty rare, especially for a hammer unit, to operate without any buffs on them.

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

@Killax I reckon you are close to the mark with those sub-factions. The abilities won't be OP and hopefully none of them is a more obvious choice over the others. My biggest concern is that choosing a sub-faction will force us to take a unique command trait and artifact. If the Stormcast book is anything to go by these generally range from OK to Meh! and that would be a shame for us as currently our command traits and artifacts are some of the best things about our allegiance. Things like Immense Power & Brazen Rune among several others are really powerful and I would have to think twice about losing access to these in exchange for weaker ones and free sub-faction abilities. Of course our current traits/artifacts might be reworked although I doubt the review will be that in-depth. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

2 hours ago, Louzi said:

quick question: wrathmongers are killed, I activate bloodfury and chose enemy model to attack itself. Does the enemy model still has +1 attack because of crimson haze or is it gone?

If the enemy model is still in range of a living Wrathmonger then yes it would still get +1 attack.

If it was the last Wrathmonger that died then I would say no extra attack. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

Any guesses for what the sub faction abilities will be?

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

I just hope they improved bloodtithe.

The only other hint is the choice of various khorne sub-factions, similar to stormcast chambers I guess. 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

And summoned khornate phenomena (aka khorne's answer to endless spells)

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

With a new Skulltaker model 

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

New battletome announced at LVO!!!

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

I find Violent Urgency to be a pretty useful command trait in 1000 point games and so I would probably make the Bloodstoker your general. He represents the least threatening target compared to the priest or bloodsecrator and can move up with the units he is looking to buff. 

If you expect to encounter magic then Brazen Rune is the best artifact choice and I usually stick it on the Bloodsecrator.

[AoS 2 - Blades of Khorne Discussion]

Plan sounds good. A khorne player with a mixed list just won Cancon so yes, khorne is competitive in AOS (although the second khorne player finished 51st so its swings and roundabouts).

Blood throne is just trash rules wise- never see ppl use them. In addition, when you build the skull cannon you don't use the Herald that would stand on the throne so you just need a 40mm base for him and you're sorted :-)