As always we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of the Battletome. We have also been provided with a provisional Battle Profile list for the army to use when writing the review, but please note that these points are subject to change until they are published on Warhammer Community.

Daughters of Khaine are one of the older established armies in Age of Sigmar. They were one of the armies to get a Battletome in First Edition and have remained mostly consistent since. An army of paper thin murder elves than can usually cut through almost any enemy, but cannot take a hit in return. Led by their Matriarch Morathi, she has undergone a lot of changes, from a shapeshifter who later ascended to godhood, she has been one of the most notorious Anti-Heroes in Age of Sigmar.

On the table, Daughters of Khaine have had some of the highest highs and lowest lows. "Morathi and the Bow Snakes" was a meme for some time in 2nd and 3rd edition, but 4th has been unkind to them as the army often struggles to really come together. At least, unless you had like 120 Witch Aelves lying around.

Does the new book bring them into a new age? Or will they fall short?

Battle Traits

Historically, Daughters of Khaine have been one of the most consistent army mechanics in Sigmar. In brief, you had a series of stacking buffs that were introduced each round, making the army stronger as time went on. This never quite sat right with me, as thematically the army was a leafblower: rev it up by stacking all the buffs and charge in to clear the board. Having buffs you had to wait for the pay off seemed more in line with an army that wants to play keep away and delay things until the back half of the game.

This is the first major rewrite to the system and it's great. There's a lot going on but it basically has two pillars: The Anointed Ritualist and Blood Rites.

First, The Anointed Ritualist. At the start of the first battle round you pick a non-Unique Hero and they become Anointed, and then retain that keyword even if they're destroyed. If they are destroyed, you get to immediately pick a new Anointed hero. This does a couple of things, but initially the benefit is that Anointed units get to use the abilities of Anointed units that were slain if they have the new Exalted keyword (which is actually most of them now). This means that if your Heroes die, they get to pass on their abilities to another generic hero, allowing you to cobble together a powerful hybrid as time goes on. Another useful perk is that Anointed heroes have the Strident War Cry whenever they charge. They can pick a friendly Non-Hero unit within 12" (before they charge) and then once they're done charging, immediately order the nominated unit to charge, with rerolls! Importantly this works even if it's not your charge phase, which means if you're setting up a Counter-Charge your strong buff machine can join in with a unit.

Next we have the Blood Rites. These work very differently now and require a bit more initiative on the player's part. You are considered to have completed a Blood Rite if you do the following:

Destroy an enemy unit and your Anointed hero did at least one point of damage to it.
An anointed hero is destroyed.
A friendly unit contesting a unit you control is destroyed
Destroy an enemy unit and be contesting an objective you did not control
A unit (friend or foe) is destroyed within 3" of a place of power.

If you completed at least one of these at the end of the turn (no points for extra credit I'm afraid) you may cash it in for a Blessing of Khaine, which applies to your whole army:

+1 to Hit in Melee
+1 to Wound in Melee
+3" of Movement
5+ Ward if the unit charged that turn
-1 to be hit from Ranged Attacks
Can Charge and/or Shoot even if they retreated
+1 to Chanting and Casting Rolls

This is a massive change and for the better I think. Being able to jump immediately to the +1 to Wound or +1 to hit buffs are massive. There's also a strong mix of buffs for advancing your game state by destroying enemy units and grabbing objectives, but also to reward you for taking risks with your heroes and getting blown up. DOK are fragile, they need to charge and do their thing or risk getting destroyed, that's just how it goes.

The only real downside is the Anointed mechanic really relies on multiple generic heroes which the current list building system really does not like. If you want to run Krethusa or Morathi that's going to eat into your generic hero budget and that might be a problem. The Ironscale and Gladiatrix can be subcommanders for most heroes, which is good since that's the hero you generally want to hurl into combat anyway.

Battle Formations

Coven of Blood makes your units invisible to units more than 9" away when they are contesting an objective you control. Solid defensive pick, Daughters tend to hate it when they get pelted with arrows from afar so this forces your enemy to get relatively close for you to charge them.

Frenzied Devotees is a specific silver bullet option, you can pick an enemy priest or Wizard and roll a number of dice for each objective you control. For each 3+ you get to subtract 1 from their rolls. I want to like this, its very powerful in the right matchup, as you can absolutely shut down spell heavy armies but this hopes you get paired into one. The number of objectives also can affect how useful this is, but that's less important. Even a -1 is useful. However it won't do much if you get paired into a list who just forgoes magic, or say, Kharadrons.

Fervant Ritualists is an OK option. At the end of both players turns you can pick each unit contesting an objective and return D3 models if they have 1-2 wounds, and 1 model of its 3 wounds (this is Melusai units). It's solid, works on both turns, rewards you for locking down objectives and is basically a rally that works even in combat. It's basically a more complex Coven Zealots from Scourge of Ghyran so if you want to use this, use that one for the time being as it does the same thing without needing to do work.

The final one is probably the winner, Cold-Hearted Murderers. It gives your Anointed Hero the "fight after me" most lords get these days, but if you utilize it, it grants the unit who fights after them Crit Auto-Wound. Even better, if they have Crit Auto-Wound they get Crit Mortals instead. Crit Auto-Wound is actually shockingly easy to set up with a Hag Queen, so you're all but guaranteed to have Crit Mortals on demand if you take this.

Daughters of Khaine Hag Queen. Credit: Corrode

Enhancements

Heroic Traits

These are all brand new and I actually really dig them. First we have Shadow-Blooded which makes it so units wholly within 12" can turn a 1-3 on a Redeploy into a 4. This is pretty big since DOK really do not want to get charged most of the time, and turning that deep strike into a 13" charge, impossible in most scenarios, is well worth it to save one of your bigger hammers.

Hand of Khaine is an interesting high risk, high reward ability stolen from the High Gladiatrix. In the combat phase the hero can target an enemy Hero they're in combat with, roll 2D6 and if they beat the targets health characteristic it automatically explodes. If they succeed at this, they get 2 fight abilities. Pretty gnarly on a Gladiatrix or Ironscale.

The final one, Murderous Duelist is also a combat ability. They can target any unit with 1 model (so not necessarily a hero, but often) and roll 2D6 over their control score. If they succeed the foe enemy must fight them. This is probably pretty good against stuff like Monsters or enemy combat heroes if they've been properly debuffed, and the bearer is properly buffed. The problem with this (and Hand of Khaine to some extent) is because your Heroes are often expected to die, you're putting them at heavy risky here. Better hope they help kill something.

Artefacts

Crimson Draught gives the bearer reroll charges. Simple and effective, plays very nicely with the Anointed mechanic so anointed heroes get to reroll their charges too, all but guaranteeing both them and their accompanying unit can get in.

Darkling Elixir can be used at the end of both turns. On a 3+, a unit wholly within 12" can immediately retreat. Usually Daughters will try and make sure the unit they charged into dies, but sometimes things just don't go to plan. Sometimes you didn't roll as well as you hoped, or you got locked into combat with 2 units, this is basically a free power through each turn (without the damage) so you can go and snag an objective or just get the hell out of there. A gamblers choice but potentially a huge take, I'd say practically an auto include if it wasn't for the dice roll and Crimson Draught being so flexible.

Witchbrew is unusual in being a defensive pick. In you Hero phase pick a Non-Unique unit wholly within 12" and on a 3+, ignore negative modifiers to save. Requiring a roll is already putting it on thin ice, but at least its in the Hero phase so you know before you start planning your moves and charges if it worked. DOK saves aren't great but because this is negative modifiers only and there are ways to stack saves in this army, you can get something like a unit of 20 Blood Hags on a 4+ unrendable save and a 5+ ward (with a fair bit of investment), and that turns a squishy unit into a bit of a tank.

Spell Lore - Lore of Shadows

Steed of Shadows (CV6) makes it's return mostly unchanged. Unlimited spell, unit wholly within 12" gets Run and Charge. The change to the casting values is a nerf, but it's still your bread and butter spell, you'll use this a lot.

Mindrazor (CV7) also returns, granting the +1 Damage on the charge but it lost the bonus rend. As a conciliation prize, it ticked down from a casting value of 8 to 7, making it a bit more reasonable to cast. You're still going to cast this on your biggest unit every turn before you charge.

The final spell is new, kinda. Black Horror of Ulgu (CV6) was Morathi's warscroll spell in past editions but it's completely different here. You pick a point within 18", and then up to 3 enemy units within 3" of that point and turn off their ability to run. Genuinely really solid, it has long enough range to be able to disrupt the enemy on turn 1, and it's really gonna hurt if they rely on run and charge/shoot as part of their strategy.

Overall, great lore. 3 spells that will see a lot of use in pretty much every game.

Prayer Lore - Prayers of the Khainite Cult

Catechism of Murder (CV3) is your unlimited prayer, and a unit wholly within 12" gets crit (Auto-wound). Witch aelves used to have this built in, but lost it, which leaves them a bit worse off by default but lets you spread the love around the army. The improved version on a 7 let's them crit on a 5+ in addition. Powerful stuff, worth bringing a priest alone for this.

Covenant of the Iron Heart (CV3) returns, but instead of stopping negative modifiers to control it now just adds 10. The souped up version on a 6+ lets the unit ignore the first point of damage. This is generally better since the buff for the base version is just better with the improved version a nice little bonus, but not necessary. 10 control is a lot, but the other prayers on offer here let you straight up murder things, and dead is the most powerful status effect.

Finally Dance of Doom (CV4) gives +1 attack in melee, and on a whopping 10 hands out Fight Twice. Probably not worth trying to bank it that long unless you roll really lucky but even the base version is insanely powerful and yet another reason you need a priest.

Credit: Dan Richardson

Units

We got 2 missing units here, the Doomfire Warlocks are gone, banished to the Legends Realm. They saw some play and were the only Cavalry unit in the army, but were always a bit off theme. With the new kits in the book, it does feel like GW are starting to shuffle those old fantasy battle kits out of the army. GW didn't give us an alternative warscroll so presumably they will keep their current one until they are officially discontinued in April 2027. The Avatar of Khaine has also been re-assigned, he's a manifestation now and not a Monster.

What this means is there's really only 2 types of units in the book, Infantry and Heroes. So we're going to break them down more by keyword so it's less of a mess to sort through. That said the Melusai and Khinerai keywords are actually extinct, and while a few abilities still call out Aelf units, they are far less common which makes the army work more holistically than it did before.

Unique Heroes

In probably the most controversial change in all the book is that Shadow Queen loses her invulnerability. That's right, she no longer is limited to 3 wounds, instead it gets a little weird.

As before, you take both the Shadow Queen and Morathi. The Two Bodies, One Soul ability as stated above no longer limits her to 3 wounds per turn but instead it can bring back either Morathi or the Shadow Queen once per game if you've completed 3 or more Blessings of Khaine, even if the Shadow Queen is dead. We initially thought that through some rules lawyering you could do this multiple times (since a returned Shadow Queen would be a new unit) but it says Once Per Battle (Army) so I'm erring toward no. Beyond this, she remains a beat stick, but in many ways is far more threatening. She lost her laser eyes, but instead gets a Rampage where on a 3+ she can get Crits on a 5+ against those enemies. Pretty good since she retains Crit Mortals on the Heartrender and just gained it on her Tail too. While the Crown of Serpents attacks are gone (not a huge loss), instead she can roll 5 dice, and on each 5+ (3+ if her Rampage succeeded) inflict a debuff from a pretty great list:

-1 to hit
-1 to Wound
Random Characteristics for Damage are always a 1.
D3 Mortals
Units cannot heal or restore dead models for the rest of the turn

These options just make her absolutely terrifying to deal with in combat and while she may not be invulnerable anymore, your opponents will still need to approach her with a plan.

Over to Little Morathi, she's still a Power 3 wizard, decent in combat and received a 4+ Ward to make up for her damage no longer being capped. Her +1 to cast can now be loaned out to another Wizard or a Priest if you need to, but can still give it to her if you prefer which is nice. The Iron Heart of Khaine is where her real utility comes in, any time you complete a Blood Rite you can choose a buff:

Become untargetable to outside to spells and ranged attacks
Heal D6 to herself or the Shadow Queen
The Shadow Queen can immediately move or retreat.
Teleport Morathi (outside of 9" as usual)
Boost her Control Characteristic to 5 and the Shadow Queen to 15.

Finally, she has a Warscroll spell where on a Casting Value of 7 she can either pick the Shadow Queen wholly within 12" and have it fight, or pick a non-hero unit wholly within 12" and have it deal D3 mortals to an enemy units in combat with it. The latter effect is less great, but might have some niche applications if they got trapped in combat with 1 model with 1 wound left or something (we've all been there).

Overall I like the new Morathi. Her invulnerability loss is a huge deviation from how she was in the past, but I think she's actually more threatening now. You will have to be more careful with her, but she has more tools in her kit to improve her damage output. The only problem is her whopping 730 point price tag. Still a price drop from before, but that's a huge chunk of an army that now really wants a bunch of non-unique Randos.

Switching gears to the other Unique hero, Krethusa lost her Aelf bias and now has better synergy with the entire army. Like Morathi, she gets buffs when the army fulfills a blood rite she gains a Prophecy Token. Gain 2 and she can't be targeted by spells or ranged attacks, gain 3 and she can reroll 1s for chanting and with 4 she can only be hit with hit rolls of 5 or 6. Much like her SoG version, her Warscroll prayer is a modular ability with 3 different abilities (picking 2 if you get a 10+ on the chant):

Subtract 1 from an enemy Wizard or Priest's Power level within 18"
Free Move for a unit wholly within 12"
Turn off Critical Hit for an enemy unit within 12"

She kept her Power level 2 from the SoG version but her combat capabilities are in line from the old Faction pack. At 220 points now I'm not sure either her passive or her prayer are quite spicy enough, especially when we get to the synergies available to the cauldrons at similar price points.

Infantry Heroes

The 3 Big Commanders return with total Rewrites: The Hag Queen, Slaughter Queen and Bloodwrack Medusa. First the Priests: If the Hag Queen she sees a friendly unit wholly within 12" Fight, she can give a Ritual Point to herself or to another nearby priest. The Slaughter Queen let's you temporarily activate a Blessing of Khaine until your next turn on a 3+ and turn on two if you have 3 already. I probably don't need to explain why this is good, plus this is an Exalted ability so even if she dies, you can still keep doing it. It's early game ramp, and in the late game it really charges. This is an Exalted ability so even if she dies, you can still keep doing it.You probably will need to take one of these, the Hag is 20 points cheaper at 110 but doesn't offer anything like the utility.

The Wizard, the Bloodwrack Medusa has been given a bit more of a combat edge. Her ranged attack has been replaced by a ranged ability that does D3 mortals and then if it kills a model, will kill one additional model. It also gains +1 to cast for Manifestations and has the much sought after +1 to banishing manifestions which is a huge improvement for her.

The two martial Heroes, the High Gladiatrix and the Melusai Ironscale can be taken as Subcommanders. The High Gladiatrix lost her instant slaughter ability (since that was given to a Heroic Trait) but her +1 Rend ability got what is arguably an upgrade. It now works on any infantry, and while it is a 3+ if she is not in combat, it automatically works if she is in combat, further encouraging you to get her in combat as an Anointed Hero and not just hang back like a coward. The Ironscale got done a bit dirty, as now it simply grants explode on death on a 5+ to units within 3" of it. While you do get 2 dice for each dead model if its a Melusai unit, it's not exactly encouraging when they're 3 health each now. The Gladiatrix went up to 120 which is a mild shame for a unit you're likely to sacrifice early, but the Ironscale did get a good chunk cheaper at 110 now so could be your hero bozo of choice should you want one.

Credit: Dan Richardson

Warmachine Heroes

Same as before, each of the Priests/Wizards get their own platform to ride on. These all work very differently from before and don't even match abilities with their foot versions, meaning there's a lot of argument to mix and match these as you need to.

The two Priest variations kept their Avatar Sword Swings (Though they are companion weapons now) but compressed the other attacks together. You get 9 attacks at the better stat profile of Rend -1 Damage 2, but no Crit Mortals. This works out to be very similar to the old profile for both the Sluaghter and Hag Queen variants, but a lot more consistent. The Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood no longer hands out the +1 to save and chanting rolls, but it now gets to hand out a 5+ Ward without a roll. This isn't quite as good as it was since you don't need to wait for round 5 to get the ward anymore, but it does potentially free up your ritual economy for the offence. As a cheeky bonus, if you have a Slaughter Queen on Cauldron on the battlefield, you can give two eligible units the 5+ ward. It also can make one of your DOK manifestations immune to Banishment for the turn, so that's nice if you brought those. The Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood did keep the +1 to save aura but not the +1 to Chant. It's a much bigger aura though (12" instead of 9"). It now grants a boost to Rally with 3 extra rolls, and an additional D3 rally points if you have a Hag Queen's Cauldron anywhere on the field. Not bad overall, good incentive to take both. These things aren't cheap, both sitting 20 points shy of 300, but that's a huge decrease from where they were. Taking one of each, a pile of your melee infantry of choice and a cheeky wizard is a really obvious army combo.

Naturally the Bloodwrack Shrine has some notable differences, and steals stuff from the (superior) Scourge of Ghyran version. It borrowed its ranged attack, while also adding in a passive ability that reduces the control score of enemy units hit by it to 1 on a 3+, ouch. It also just passively blocks Manifestations from being placed near it rather than needing to cast a spell, and throws in a 4+ ward to damage from manifestations for good measure. Finally, it has access to one of the most unique abilities to date, a Manifestation unique to this unit only, the Avatar of Khaine. Khaine lost his ranged attack and starts with fewer attacks (3 instead of 5) but they do scale up, gaining an attack for each Blessing you have. Despite being a manifestation, it is still affected by Blessings and you can keep bringing him back, so that's not too terrible of a loss at the end of the day. You also can summon multiple ones if you have multiple Bloodwrack Shrines. This is super cool, but comes at a huge price increase and it now sits at 280 like the other shrines. Being wizard (2) is really handy, but I suspect you might struggle to fit this into the way the army wants to be built now.

Aelf Infantry

Witch Aelves and Sisters of Slaughter finally had their variant warscrolls consolidated, so there isn't a different warscroll for having shields and not. Quite frankly, that was always unnecessarily confusing and I'm glad it's dead. The new statlines assumes the version with an extra attack rather than the shield, but model them how you want.

Witch Aelves remain mostly unchanged, with Rend 1 if you charged that turn. They did lose crit Auto-wound, but you have ways to gain that back now so you just have to be a bit more cautious with it. Sisters of Slaughter are upgraded from their shielded version and give -1 to hit and wound rolls to enemy units that charged them. The difference is clear, Witch Aelves are for offense, Sisters of Slaughter are your screening unit. However, there is a bit of an elephant in the room with regards to these warscrolls...

The new girls on the block are the Blood Hags and they are very interesting. They gain Anti-Charge when near a Cauldron of Blood or their terrain piece, so the implication seems to be to use them as a screening unit but I don't think that's their best application. They have the Crimson Offerings ability which makes it so if a unit was destroyed by their combat attacks, you gain 2 Blessing of Khaine instead of 1. That's absolutely insane value in and of itself for their 140 points but when we hit the statline you've got a 5+ save (better than both Witch Aelves and Sisters of Slaughter), a shooting attack and melee equal to Witch Aelves but with the rend built in. Given these are only 20 points more than Witches, they seem really pushed. You can happily combo multiple blocks of these in the twin towers list for synergistic fun time, or use them solo to beat up small stuff and grab 2 Blessings.

Khainite Shadowstalkers are basically unchanged. Their teleport ability is now once per turn (army) instead of once per turn, which does hinder the shenanigans of multiple units. They did pick up an extra rend on their melee attacks, which is appreciated since they're often outside of the aura range of their priests once they teleport.

Melusai Infantry

Blood Sisters are mostly the same, but with some key changes that make them a lot better. Their Strike Last ability now only works on Infantry and Cavalry but procs if you meet or exceed their Health characteristic rather than just beating it. Overall a very mild buff, as there aren't that many other unit types with health low enough for them to have affected previously. The big deal here is jumping up from 2 Health to 3, giving a reinforced unit a pretty meaty 30 Health. When your saves are low, every bit of health matters, and with these staying at 140 they feel a lot more interesting, as they're a unit you can really build around.

Blood Stalkers at least are quite different. Same shooting statline, but now if they shot all their bows at 1 target, on a 3+ you can subtract 1 from the dice of that unit's charges until your next turn. You can put your thumb on the scale and make it a 2+ if a different Blood Stalkers unit shot the same unit first, but this is a once per turn ability so you don't get retries for multiple attempts. It's a good ability, I think good enough you bring a minimum sized unit just to screw with the enemy and protect your guys from getting run over. They did lose the 5+ crits and have gone up in cost to 150, so it feels like a bit of a needle change to being a defensive unit rather than a potential shooting powerhouse.

Khinerai Infantry

Khinerai suffer the worst in the new book. Both lost the ability to deep strike, which was pretty much their entire purpose. This elevates Shadowstalkers a great deal, their ability to teleport now an exclusive property to them, but the Khinerai did pick up some new tricks to compensate.

Heartrenders at least get a 2D6" move instead of D6" move but their Javelins lost Auto Wound so the pretty mediocre statline just got worse. Lifetakers get an interesting new ability where they get to move their full 12" and any units they fly over take D3 Mortals on a 2+. This is a Fight ability so it's like a less good power through, but considering they rarely survive combat anyway, the ability to pin down an opponent so they can't charge, or use them as a launch pad to steal an objective and get a 24" move out of it is actually really compelling. All for 100 points!

Manifestations

All 3 manifestations are Wizard only now, rather than a mix of a Priest manifestation and 2 Wizard Manifestions, which does aid in book keeping a bit.

The Bloodwrack Viper is way more gnarly now. It picked up an extra attack, and its Strike Last ability now works on any Hero or Monster! Even better, it crits on 4+ if the Strike Last ability went off, meaning it can very easily tear enemy Heroes to shreds if it gets its claws into them.

Bladewind lost Crit 2 Hits, and is way more situational now but you'll be glad you had it when it comes up. If it successfully damages a foe they lose ward rolls for the rest of the game. Wards aren't too rare and if you run into them you'll be glad you had this.

The Heart of Fury remains old reliable, subtract 1 to wound rolls to friendly units within 12" of this. Make it harder to kill your delicate dudes, and now that it's accessible to Wizards it's probably easier to cast it.

Terrain

The new Terrain piece, the Shrine of Dark Tribute is exceptionally good. Each of your Hero phases you can pick a Wizard or Priest who is within 3" of it and reroll all their casting or chanting rolls for the turn. It also lets you swap out one of your Blessings of Khaine for another in your Hero phases, allowing you to remain versatile and pick defensive buffs early and then switch to offensive buffs when it's time to press the advantage. It does cost 20 points so maybe not an auto include, but you can probably find space in the budget.

Morgwaeth's Blade-Coven Hag Queen, Credit: Richyp

How They'll Play

Despite some sweeping rules changes, probably pretty similar to their old playstyle. This is still a glass cannon army that likes to stack buffs onto its units over time. You get some more control over the timing of which buffs hit when now, and that's only a good thing. Some people might be disappointed in the change to Morathi, given the iconic nature of her old iron heart ability, but quite frankly it's a good thing for the army and the game. The old 3 wound cap let DOK players stomp newbies who didn't know how to play against it but meant that she was always on a timer vs experienced players. In many ways this feels like a transitional battletome - some of the older units are definitely afterthoughts vs the shiny new stuff and frankly are kits that are past their time in Age of Sigmar.

Rules of Renown

We got two Regiments and two Armies of Renown to look at here. Admittedly the Armies of Renown feel a bit sparse given the army actually lost units and now lacks a lot of variety, but they do have some interesting ideas.

Army of Renown - Champions of the Arena

You can only bring foot aelves, and even then only non-named ones and no Shadowstalkers. The general mechanic is a weird hybrid of the old blood rites and Khorne. You have 5 Arena of Slaughter buffs that stack up in a linear fashion, but instead of based on what round it is, it's based on when a unit dies (Friend or foe). Morathi cares not from where the Blood flows!

The limiter is that the buffs aren't army wide. It only applies to units within 9" of the terrain piece and then increases by 3" every round. So while you could theoretically throttle it and unlock them all Round 1, you won't be able to stray far from your terrain piece.

You get some Recursion, Frenzied Restoration which lets you bring back a dead hero and drop them off by your Terrain piece. Finally, you get Explosive Fury which lets a Slaughter Queen and all units within 12" and all Hag Queens pile in 6". This is free so it's not a bad perk.

For enhancements we get the Heroes of the Killing Games which grants +1 to Attack, Rend and Damage when fighting heroes but you must target all attacks on enemy heroes if possible. The Artefact is a Death Razor which makes it so if the bearer kills any model in the fight phase they can nominate a Priest within 12" and the next Prayer they use they can automatically chant it on a 10!

So naturally you must have some good prayers to make use of this right? Sure do! Divine Rush lets a unit make a free D6" move if they're not in combat, or Pile in if they are. On a 6+, you get to pick two units. Call of the Arena grants +1 to Run to units wholly within 12" of the Priest, and +1 to charge on a 6+. These stack with the Arena of Slaughter Buffs giving a +2 to both rolls, which is nice. Shield of Blood is probably the nicest, giving a 5+ ward to a unit and on a 10, giving it to 3 units. There also is a 4th prayer that basically just rolls all the Endless Spells into one prayer, and on a 10 you get to cast 2. Neat.

Overall this feels...pretty limiting. No Wizards, and you're horribly tethered to your terrain piece. If an opponent has a way to destroy it that pretty much ends your game plan then and there. Some cute ideas, but not the best execution.

Army of Renown - Zainthar Kai

Morathi's personal Temple and basically the polar opposite of the Champions of the Arena, here you get no Aelves! You must take Morathi, and then you can take any Melusai or Khinerai unit. This faction is less complex, because it really is there for those who want to play a more Morathi focused playstyle (who is already pretty strong herself) and more elite troops.

Morathi benefits from Dark Majesty which makes her unable to be hit on a 1-4, meanwhile if the Shadow Queen is near a non-hero unit, both gain a 5+ Ward. Morathi can spend a command point on Matriarch of Zainthar Kai for a few buffs, like the ability to fly, to use the Iron Heart of Khaine Immediately, or revive a dead Hero. Finally, everyone gains Cursed Heritage dealing D3 mortals to any enemy unit in combat with a non-Unique unit. A nice little tap if an enemy unit failed to die like they should have.

For Enhancements we have the Heroic Trait Khaine's Inheritor which grants a shooting attack that does D3 Mortals on a 2+, and halves movement characteristic of the target. Not shabby. Amulet of the Bladed Queen gives 5+ Ward and +1 to save, perfect for an Ironscale or Bloodwrack Medusa.

Opposite of the Arena, we get spells instead of prayers. Ethereal Grace gives +2 movement, On Wings of Shadow is a teleport and Speed of the Scathborn gives Strike First. All of them work on any target, which is really nice, especially on the Shadow Queen. There also is a spell that rolls all the Endless Spells into one, similar to the Arena's prayer.

Overall I like this a quite a bit more. It has less room for complexity, but that's not it's intended goal. It's for people who like Morathi and the Bow Snakes and want that feeling back, if just a little bit.

Regiments of Renown

Both Regiments of Renown can be taken by any Order army. The Crimson Lash includes:

1 High Gladiatrix
10 Sister of Slaughter

Pick an objective wholly outside friendly territory to become the Amphitheatre. While contesting that territory everyone in this regiment gets Crit Mortals, if you control it, they can only be hit on a 5 or a 6. It's not bad and I like the flavour and once they lock down the objective they could be annoying to remove, though are ultimately still 1 health models with a 6+ save. Probably plays well in more elite armies who might like a disposable unit to lock an objective down, but quite frankly at 220 points almost every army can do better, especially with the High Gladiatrix not doing the funny auto-kill move any more.

The Khinerai Death Flight includes

5 Khinerai Heartrender
5 Khinerai Lifetakers

Basically, whenever one of these unit kills a model, the other one gains Crit (Auto-wound) and they keep trading off. Problem is that these guys kinda suck at killing stuff and it's one of the few regiments of renown that is more expensive than the base units. Unless your army just somehow lacks a fast cheap unit for objective grabbing, it's just not worth your time. If these were cheap-cheap we could be on to a winner as chaff, but alas.

Final Thoughts

Overall I like this book a lot. I think the new mechanics are unique and engaging in a way that the previous iterations of the army failed to capture. They also feel more in line with what the army is supposed to do. It rewards risk taking and making risky, potentially lethal charges and being rewarded for spilling blood (yours or theirs).

Some of the radical changes like to Morathi seem to demonstrate a willingness to experiment bigger. The last few Battletomes have not shied away from trying to really big thing and this is probably one of the biggest shifts in the design space yet. I think the army is going to go over very well. Unless you love Doomfire Warlocks.

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Tags: battletome | daughters of khaine