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 and 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.
A perennial favourite on both tournament and casual tables, Slaves to Darkness have enjoyed a reasonable amount of success in Age of Sigmar for quite a while. If there’s one criticism, it’s that lists tend to be very focused around the pretty standard list construction of Big Hero (Be’lakor or Archaon), reinforced hammers (Varanguard and/or Chosen), tarpit (Knights or Warriors), plus objective scorers/chaff (usually Furies) and maybe a wizard. The joy of them being so popular is that you do see other things on the table, but the more recent Darkoath side of the faction is particularly underserved and underpowered, and I’d say it’s easy to guess what a tournament list looks like 90% of the time.
Let’s see if their Scourge of Ghyran offerings are going to do anything to change that.
Battle Formations
It’s two new formations for the Slaves to Darkness – one focused on mixing Darkoath and Warriors of Chaos, and one beefing up your foot heroes.
Chaos Horde
The Chaos Horde gets the Devotees of Ruin ability, aiming to drag some more efficiency out of your Darkoathunits. Once per turn (army), in your hero phase, you can pick a friendly WARRIORS OF CHAOS unit, then pick up to two visible un-pledged DARKOATH units wholly within 12″. Until the start of your next turn, those DARKOATH units get the same Pledge to Chaos keyword as the WARRIORS OF CHAOS unit. In both cases this is the broad faction keyword, so this can also trigger off of Varanguard, Chosen, Archaon, etc.
I really like this. The Battle Formations are arguably the weakest part of the Slaves to Darkness book, or at least the least compelling part, so it’s nice to have some new options. I do think this will struggle against the unfortunate power of mathematics. Four blocks of Savagers with two under the Khorne pledge just about keeps up with a reinforced unit of Chosen in terms of damage output, and even saves you 160 points (you could get another unit of Savagers, perhaps). And then you factor in the critical turn where the Chosen get to fight twice, and they just blow the Savagers away by comparison. On top of that they’ve still got a 3+ save to protect them, and are a single unit so more efficient for All Out Attack/Defence.
Of course it’s not all Khorne. Extra defence, more reliable charges, and teleports from the other god pledges could all help to squeeze some more impact out of your Conans.
Away from the efficiency-obsessed top tables, this is a great formation for a Chaos fan to get a mix of models on the table and use the Pledges more efficiently – perhaps the Warriors of Chaos units are the truly blessed members of the Darkoath tribe, back to lead their compatriots on the path to ascension?
Champions of Chaos
Quite a simple one – Paragons of Darkness is a passive that adds 2 to the attacks characteristic of melee weapons used by friendly non-Monster Slaves to Darkness Heroes. This is a straight upgrade that helps the lesser-seen heroes like the Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount to be more efficient in combat, but given that herohammer is not Slaves to Darkness’ usual MO this might be quite a rare one, outside of an extremely funny skew list.
How many Daemon Princes do you own? Perhaps it’s not enough any more.
Artefacts of Power
Three new Fell Artefacts for the spiky fellas.
Amulet of Chaos
At the end of any turn, pick a visible enemy unit within 12″ to be the target, and pick a friendly DARKOATH INFANTRY unit in combat with the target. On a 2+ on a D3, do that much mortal damage to the target and return that many slain models to the Darkoath unit. A bit situational, this one, but if you’re running something like the Chaos Horde above it might be useful! I’m always a bit wary of enhancements that need both positioning chess and a dice roll to have an effect. It’s nice to have it on both turns of the battle round, though.
The Varanite Shackle
Friendly non-WARRIORS OF CHAOS S2D units get a 6+ ward while wholly within 12″ of the bearer. Again, nice for hordes of Darkoath, although the Savagers can give themselves a 5+ ward pretty easily anyway. I don’t see a huge use case for this one really – maybe protecting some Fellriders around a Chieftain on Warsteed? A 6+ isn’t saving them against any concerted effort to kill them though.
Head of the Unworthy
If a friendly Slaves to Darkness Hero with any Dark Apotheosis points is destroyed, give this unit 8 Dark Apotheosis points. Stick this on a backline wizard, send a foot hero on a doomed mission to capture an objective turn 1, lose them to the clap back, and in your next hero phase enjoy your free Daemon Prince with a pledge. Very, very funny, A+.
Abraxia, Spear of the Everchosen
She’s here, she’s feared, and she can’t let go of her spear. Abraxia is campaigning in Ghyran, and she’s got a shiny new warscroll for it.
Combat wise, this is a glow up. Gorbolga the Accurs’d gains a point of damage, but also keeps the Anti-Hero (+1 Rend) and Charge (+1 Damage) from before. So far so good, but the Thanatorg isn’t being left behind – its claws now wound on a 2+ instead of 3+, and it’s up to Rend 2. Abraxia definitely feels like more of a threat now. Technically the old Gorbolga rule could have potentially had +1 damage and crit mortals, but only if you rolled a six I’ll take the more reliable profile over a game of chance anyday.
It’s a combat focus for the warscroll abilities too, and they’ve all been replaced (except for Battle Damaged). Abraxia now deals D3 mortals in the charge phase to something she’s charged, then can move 2D6″ through that unit as long as she ends up in combat. She doesn’t have to stick with the original unit if she’s got the movement to get somewhere else, which is great for threatening backline support units. In addition, she can give an unpledged friendly unit +1 rend while they’re contesting an objective you don’t control.
She now also heals D6 at the end of every turn while she contests an objective you don’t control, helping to keep her in the fight for longer. Thanks to the specific timing of the end of turn (abilities, then control, then scoring) this triggers even if she’s about to claim the objective she’s just taken from something. Which is quite likely, because if she damages but doesn’t kill a unit she can also give it a maximum control score (score, not characteristic) of 1 for the rest of the turn. She’s an objective-seizing machine, in other words.
For this combat glow up Abraxia goes up by 40 points, to 360. It’s expensive, but what isn’t in Slaves to Darkness? Definitely worth a try, I reckon this makes her a more compelling alternative to Be’lakor as your central hero.
Final Thoughts
Overall I’m pretty happy with this as an update to Slaves to Darkness. It’s still going to be hard to tempt people away from the high quality hammer units they have to offer, but the Abraxia scroll is pretty compelling. My favourites are her, the Head of the Unworthy, and the hero formation for pure fun. The Chaos Horde I do think will see play among Darkoath enthusiasts, it’s a nice way of making a combined force feel more impactful. Overall, a decent addition.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.
