Detachment Focus: Kabalite Cartel

In this series of articles we take a deep dive into a specific Detachment for a faction, covering the faction’s rules and upgrades and talking about how to build around that faction for competitive play. In this article, we’re covering the Kabalite Cartel Detachment for Drukhari.

The True Kin are back with Codex: Drukhari, and while they may be last, they certainly aren’t least: you’ll have five Detachments to choose from (six, if you count Reaper’s Wager), each of which pushes the limited options available in the army toward unique playstyles, letting you make the most of what you’re able to bring. In this series, we’ll be looking at each of the new Detachments, their rules, and how best to play them.

Before we dive in we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of the Codex and the new models included in this article. We have also been provided with a provisional Munitorum Field Manual 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.

Detachment Overview

The Kabalite Cartel focuses (as the name suggests) on the Kabals, the mainstays of Drukhari life in Commoragh. The Detachment is themed around your army taking a contract for eliminating something – whether that’s characters, monsters and vehicles, or plain old ground-pounders (and uh, riders).

Detachment Rule: Murderous Agenda

At the start of the first round, you’ll accept a Contract that some enterprising Archon has put out on a unit from your opponent’s army. Then, based on the keywords that the unit you chose has, all your KABAL and BLADES FOR HIRE units get a bonus that lasts until your first Command phase after the target unit is destroyed, at which point the Contract is completed and you pick up three Pain tokens in the bargain. Don’t worry, though: when you complete the Contract, you can spend 1CP to choose a new target from your opponent’s remaining units.

The keywords that matter here are INFANTRY or MOUNTED, MONSTER or VEHICLE, and CHARACTER. If your chosen unit has the INFANTRY or MOUNTED keyword (and isn’t only made up of CHARACTER models), your affected units get SUSTAINED HITS 1 against any unit with either of those keywords as long as their target is alive. Choose MONSTER or VEHICLE, and you’ll get [Lethal Hits] against the same keywords. Choosing a CHARACTER works a little differently: if you do, you’ll get PRECISION any time you target that specific unit, but no bonus at all into anyone else.

While this Detachment isn’t likely going to be the go-to for competitive players, it opens up different playstyles and will reward cunning Archons who like to execute plans that have been several Battle Rounds in the making.

Skari: I played this Detachment into Jack Harpster, and I quickly learned how flexible this Detachment Rule can be. Being able to pick an easy-to-kill contract for early in the game gives the list an influx of Pain tokens and then with the Enemies Without Number strat (that you can use for free with your Archon) it is easy to change and re-apply. The contract completes in your command phase, so you basically have the benefit of the rule you picked for whole battle rounds at a time, and this is very useful for damage output. It also allows you to be very flexible turn to turn if you have killed your contract and then need to switch it to another to take advantage of the crit 5s strat as an example. 

Enhancements

• Leechbite Plate (5 points): A cheap, cute enhancement for a better armour save and ability to heal wounds, a useful bolt on for an Archon if you have spare points.
• Webway Awl (25 points): This will be familiar to Archon’s used to ingressing via Webway Walker in Reaper’s Wager, however this is better as the Rapid Ingress stratagem is free – Archon & 10 Incubi will love this.
• Informant Network (30 points): This enhancement allows up to three Kabalite Warriors or Hand of the Archon units to Infiltrate, opening up a pressure build reliant on scouting and infiltrating Kabal units to attempt their own jail archetype. Very handy if you use Venoms to split Kabalites and then have some cheap infiltrators to sacrifice and prevent enemy scouts and infiltrators instead of the more pricey Mandrakes. Push your enemy back and then pull your units to safety with Lady Malys.
• Towering Arrogance (20 points): Kabalites already got access to more OC in the Codex, but this enhancement allows you to push them up to OC3 (OC4 on the Sybarite with a Kabalite Icon). Even a Hand will benefit from this as well pushing them to OC4 on their picked objective. 

Stratagems

• Double-Cross (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): Use in the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets, and pick one KABAL or BLADES FOR HIRE unit that was targeted and one friendly DRUKHARI unit (except VEHICLE units). That unit needs to be within Engagement Range of the attacking model too. Until the end of the phase, instead of making armour saves, the second unit takes mortal wounds equal to the Damage characteristic of the attack. There’s a LOT of riders to pay attention to here, but the effect is that instead of taking saves on one of your units in combat you can pass the wounds off to another unit that’s also in combat – just bear in mind that you take mortal wounds equal to the Damage characteristic, so something swinging with high-Damage weapons can easily pick up loads of models. Your main use for this is going to be to protect something from a Counter-offensive, and it’ll require some set-up, but it can potentially be important if deployed correctly. Try tricking a unit of Talos or Cronos to take these wounds as they will be able to use their Feel No Pain ability!
• Taken Alive (Battle Tactic, 1 CP): Use in the Fight phase on one of your DRUKHARI units which hasn’t been selected to fight yet. Until the end of the phase, your models get +1 to Hit, and if they destroy your Contract unit with those attacks everything in your opponent’s army takes a Battle-shock test. There’s a rider here that you can’t gain more than 3 Pain tokens as a result of this, which seems optimistic, but there you go. This rewards planning ahead and attempting to kill your Contract in your opponent’s turn so you can attempt a clean sweep at the Primary.
• Tailored Toxins (Epic Deed, 1 CP): Use in your Shooting phase of the Fight phase on one of your KABAL or BLADES FOR HIRE units not selected to shoot or fight yet. Until the end of the phase, attacks against your Contract unit score Critical Hits on an unmodified 5+. Did we mention this Detachment rewards planning? Hunt down your Contract with a unit of Incubi which are potentially getting both Sustained Hits and Lethal Hits on 5s, or bring in the now fashionable Dissie Ravager.
• Enemies Without Number (Epic Deed, 1 CP): A stratagem with several stipulations, this allows you to create a new Contract when you have killed your Contract unit and it needs to be your Warlord Archon. This allows you to maintain pressure by either herding the prey and focussing down a weak unit for extra pain tokens or helping to add bonuses against a tougher foe. Because your contract does not complete until your command phase you have a lot of flexibility once your contract has been killed. Warlord Archon can then use this strat for free with their datasheet ability. Very handy, just keep your Warlord Archon alive (and on the battlefield).
• Making a Point (Battle Tactic, 1 CP): Use in your Shooting phase on a KABALITE WARRIORS or HAND OF THE ARCHON unit which hasn’t shot yet. Until the end of the phase, that unit improves BS and AP of its ranged weapons by 1 each. Obviously to use this your unit has to be in the danger zone of being on the actual table instead of sensibly hiding in a transport, but it’s a good effect – blasters on a 2+ to Hit and AP-4 are a lot scarier, and your dark lance may even hit if it’s on a 3+ instead of a 4+. Splinter weapons having AP isn’t bad, either.
• Deadly Deceivers (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP): 18” lone op on any KABAL or BLADES FOR HIRE unit, what’s not to love. Great for holding your natural expansion on more open battlefields. Also really handy for Dark Lance Scourges who can set a point to stay on, be relatively safe from long range shooting and have a chance to use the HEAVY rule on their weapons while your Ravagers can shoot while remaining safe.

Playing This Detachment

Pay attention to that Detachment rule – for Sow Fear and Terror and Show of Strength, the effect works against all INFANTRY/MOUNTED or MONSTER/VEHICLE units in your opponent’s army, not just the one you picked as the Contract. You might find that your best bet is to pick something you don’t especially want to kill, so that you can keep the effect up against other things in your opponent’s army. Equally, you may find that there’s one thing from your opponent’s army that you really want dead, so bear in mind that you can utilise Enemies Without Number to get a new Contract, including one which you have already completed, so you may just want to go down the simpler route of spending a CP each time to get a new Contract and hammer down whatever unit has displeased you the most.

A Sample List

Here’s a list cooked up by Sky Serpent which focuses on getting the most out of your KABAL and BLADES FOR HIRE units in a pressure list with Kabalites and Hand of the Archon shards infiltrating and/or scouting ahead with some powerful melee characters and good shooting plus a large unit of Incubi in the Webway.

Cartel Jail - Click to expand

Final Thoughts

This is a really fun Detachment, with interesting choices and a solid core mechanic that will help your units punch up. Although it’s Kabals-focused, it gives some great options to Blades for Hire units too, making it a flexible choice to maximise the power of your mercenaries.

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