This month is bringing a massive host of updates to Age of Sigmar as the setting transitions to Ghyran, the realm of life. Each army is getting two whole pages of additional rules including optional alternative warscrolls for you to use in your games and we are very excited about all of it! Before we get stuck in, a thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with these rules as an early release to review.
Next up: Kharadron Overlords! This is an army that by all accounts I should love. They’re dwarfs! That’s it, that’s the reason. It’s also an army that has been difficult to get “right” since their inception. Something about being a predominantly shooting army with high mobility in a fantasy, largely melee, setting makes it hard to balance being far-too-good or too much glass and not enough cannon. Often they’re in the latter camp, than the former, which has largely been true so far through fourth edition. Does this help change things? A little, maybe? The biggest thing here probably is finally allowing Kharadrons to play with Manifestations without taking any Regiments of Renown for a wizard however it is heavily restricted compared to what everyone else gets for free. Also boat enhancements. Love a boat upgrade.
New Artefacts of Power
The original three, which are all still options of course, are all once-per-game abilities that are generally quite strong but needs you time them right. Good news, one of these isn’t once per game. So that’s something!
Spell in a Bottle
Long-standing Kharadron players have been asking for this since day one of fourth edition, and for good reason! Since manifestation lores are just free and every other army out there has access within their book to either wizards or priests to summon them in it’s been very easy to feel like Kharadron Overlords play with less in their list. Because they do. Outside of taking an expensive regiment of renown to be able to have a wizard and take a lore this army list just has no play with them and very limited play against them too.
Well you’re in luck! You can now summon one manifestation, once per game, in your own hero phase as if the wielder was a Wizard (1). It auto casts on a casting roll of 7 and cannot be modified or unbound. That’s a short way of saying that this is very restrictive and you’ll have to choose your single manifestation very carefully too. This comes from the manifestation lore that you chose in your list so it has a little flexibility in that you don’t have to pick the one single manifesation before the game starts that you’ll be bringing out; because it’s a lore you chose you can’t take any army-specific ones either. Casting on an unmodifiable 7 means you’re not taking the Purple Sun, Suffocating Gravetide, or Krondspine. This only goes off in your own hero phase, too, so things like Shackles which are often best cast during a Magical Intervention are also not very useful, either. So what manifestations might you consider? Primal Energy is a strong one to consider here, bringing out Gnashing Jaws for some extra damage or the Emerald Lifeswarm for some much-needed healing at the right time would be a great boost to the army and I expect to be a popular pick.
Karst-Bana Aether-Powered Combat Rig
This might be the longest name for an enhancement to date? Kharadron have a history for long names, being inventions named after their in-universe inventor. The only one that works all throughout the game t grants the bearer a 5+ ward and +1 attack on all melee weapons. That’s a great little boost for an Endrinmaster (especially with Dirigible Suit) or an Admiral who you want to keep alive; the extra attack is also nice to have but not something you’re often relying on with any Kharadron character.
Emberstone Flare
This is a once-per-game that I think is a lot of fun. The army is already high mobile but this is a get-out-of-jail free card giving your character a flare gun to pull any Fly unit that is not in combat back towards the bearer wholly within 9″ of the bearer and more than 9″ away from enemies. It goes off in the Movement Phase so you can Retreat with the Fly unit before using it, getting them out of combat (even if suffering some damage) and to a much safer place on the table. It does “set up” the Fly unit however so they won’t be able to move after using it. This could also help you bring more of your force over towards a part of the table to lay down more firepower to help with battle tactics.
Skyvessel Enhancements
You’ll get one of these on top of your normal artefact allotment and are, as named, enhancments that any of your Skyvessels can take one of during list building. In my very humble opinion the first option here seems the strongest and will likely see the most play unless none of your opponents use wizards.
Voidstone Repulsor Vents
I think this is the strongest of the bunch, personally, and adds some much-needed anti-magic to the army. It’s a Reaction to be used whenever a friendly unit (not just Kharadron but any friendly unit for those using regiments of renown) is picked as the target of a Spell within (and not even wholly!!) 12″ of the skyvessel. On a 4+ the spell’s effects are ignored and the caster suffers D3 mortal damage. It can be used multiple times during the same phase, just only once per friendly unit per spell cast. That’s very very good. Slap that on an Ironclad and you’re ignoring 50% of spells coming anywhere near that with the added danger of pinging back mortals which those little foot-wizards might be too scared to even try.
I had to go into the rules to see if this would still work against spells that failed to cast due to the reaction’s timing however under 2.0 Spells it says “Enemy reactions can only be used if the casting roll equals or exceeds the spell’s casting value” removing that potentially very funny possibility. Sorry Kharadron players! Still, it’s great.
Blazebeard and Sons Ejector Pod
An escape pod! It’s a once per game ability that lets you pick a Kharadron Hero wholly within 6″ of the skyvessel to be removed from the table and shot out to end up wholly within 18″ and more than 9″ from enemies. The mental image of this is just wonderful of a Navigator clammoring up a Frigate to be shot out the other side to relative safety. The timing makes it even better, because it happens during the combat phase before any attacks are made, so you really get to get away from danger if you want. Especially fantastic if it scuppers your opponent’s battle tactic.
Zonbarcorp ‘Dealbreaker’ Battle Ram
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. The battle ram is back babyyyy. Returning Kharadron players will be familiar with this fantastic little upgrade and it’s something you’ll be slapping on a Frigate in a heartbeat if you’re ignoring the Vents above or just wanting to play a more aggressive force. When your boat charges you pick an enemy in combat and roll a number of dice equal to the charge roll with each 4+ inflicting one mortal damage. Fantastic. Average charge is going to be 7 and slapping 3-4 mortals onto something before you get to attack (with a lot of Strikes First thanks to the Frigate ability) is not a bad thing at all. It could even swing and do a silly amount of damage. I love it.
Alternate Warscrolls
When we started to go through these I was really hoping to see an alternate Arkanaut build that was more melee focused but maybe that’s something we’ll see in the future instead. Today, we have a variant Gunhauler and Codewright. The former has had it rough this edition so far so having a different choice is nice while the latter has never felt like he really had a place in the army so makes sense to have a new version to play with.
Grundstock Gunhauler
Coming in at 140 points this is one of the few alternate warscrolls costing the same as the normal version. It loses its transport capacity for +2″ move and doesn’t make you choose between a cannon or drill simply having “sky ordnance” instead which is just better too with 3 shots and flat 3 damage; however it doesn’t have carbines so there’s no Shoot in Combat here. In combat it uses “bombs and boarding weapons” giving it a better profile there with rend 1 and damage D3. While wholly within 12″ of another Gunhauler it can Shoot even if it ran; after shooting it gets to make a move of D6″ but then can’t charge in the same turn.
I can see someone taking four of these in an army, running two of them next to each other either flank or just all going after one target to remove it early game. They’re skirmishing skyvessels able to get around into good position easily bringing to bear some reasonable firepower. I like that it’s moved away from needing to move over units to drop bombs, removing the temptation to get close for the sake of a couple mortals, much more easily staying at that perfect 15″ mark moving after shooting. Just wonderful.
Codewright
I’m still not sure this guy is going to see much play, unfortunately, cause the model rules. He comes in at 110 points which is more expensive than his normal variant with all the same stats but that’s expected since it’s abilities that this guy cares about and these are wholly different. During each Hero Phase he gets D3 vexed points and then once per turn (army) during any hero phase you can spend either 3 or 6 vexed points to target an enemy within 18″ of him as long as there is a friendly non-Hero Kharadron unit wholly within 12″ of him; literally just so he can lecture someone about what’s happening, that kinda rules. You get to use one of two abilities then:
- Spend 3 points to subtract D3 from the target’s move or spend 6 to halve their move instead.
- Spend 3 points to subtract 1 from their melee wound rolls or spend 6 to subtract 1 from their rend as well.
Both are pretty strong abilities and last until the end of the turn but getting those 6 vexed points is swingy on those D3s. The earliest you’re using it is the second hero phase of the game and that’s if you roll that big 3 both chances you have. There will absolutely be games where you roll nothing but 1’s instead and then it might be too-little-too-late for those abilitites to do much for you. The 3 points effects are fine but you’re really wanting the 6’s for a better chance of survival. Bringing fast cavalry or monsters down to half their move is just so good. Making strong melee units both -1 rend and wound rolls makes it suddenly much harder to punch through your very-important hulls.
Final Thoughts
There is plenty of good additions here to make most Kharadron admirals excited for a bit of a refresh. Dusting off gunhaulers and maybe putting a codewright on the table again (or for the first time!). I’d really like to get this on the table and try a bit before casting too much judgement on that Codewright but Kharadron lists are already running so elite it’ll be difficult to find the room for him in any of my lists.
The biggest win here, for me, is the Vents enhancement giving a much-needed anti-magic protection to the army that has been seriously lacking this edition. Very curious to know what you, a Kharadron player, are looking forward to using the most here.
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