Goonhammer has received some of the launch content, via Games Workshop, to create this review and overview. Over the coming weeks, and with the benefit of having played dozens of games, we will be having faction experts provide insight into how they are building and running lists with these factions. For this overview we’re looking at what stands out for the faction, how much has changed, and how we would approach dealing with some of the common threats that are present in all wargames.
We’ll be covering all of the armies so check out our other articles for the other Grand Alliances to see how your army, and maybe the army of that one friend/opponent/person-down-the-club, looks on the table.
First to say, and remind you, that summoning is gone. This is particularly pertinent to Chaos players. You no longer need to have a sideboard of a random assortment of extra minis to bring in mid-game!
Hedonites of Slaanesh
Hedonites are in a strange spot because they’ve received a strong rewrite in the faction pack and the daemon side has a lot of cool abilities with higher price tags while the Sybarite side has some lower cost units but not as many cool abilities.
Sybarite Hedonites players might want to put together some Slickblade Seekers (180 points) and Blissbarb Seekers (160) as these highly mobile 4 wound units are much lower in points compared to at the end of third edition. Slickblade Seekers are the kind of unit that can get supercharged as they get an additional damage on the charge and can do mortal wounds with the unlimited spell. The Blissbarb Seekers get access to a Rend 2 attack if they shoot a unit that contests an objective that you don’t control. Blissbarb Archers have come down in points to 140 but they don’t have the triple unleash hell and other uses as before.
Top end heroes have seen a lot of changes with Glutos (470) and Dexcessa (230) being pretty close to where they were before while Synessa (280), Shalaxi (490), Sigvald (260) and the Keeper of Secrets (440) all seeing an increase in points. However, most of these increases come with either useful abilities of their own or interact with new commands better. The Keeper of Secrets can, on a 4+, bring back a daemon that started with three or more models at half strength in each of your hero phases and also reduce the control characteristic of enemies. Shalaxi has an absolutely insane reaction ability that allows her to move in combat with an enemy hero.
It’s hard to call the chariots “losers” despite an increase in points since they have access to Power Through and the Hellflayer (180) can move over infantry units. Many of these higher health units saw a bump in points, probably because of just how powerful Power Through is.
Hedonites seem to feel about right at their cost and the mix of abilities they have now will likely take a while to figure out. Better players than myself are going to crack this thing open but a simple person like myself, who likes fast moving units that hit hard, would go pretty hard into the Sybarite side with a heavy dose of the Slickblade Seekers: 180 points for 20 health that moves 12″ can find a place in almost any army.
Disciples of Tzeentch
A lot of the points for units have come down, meaning that you can take advantage of all the new abilities that Tzeentch has provided. Even Chaos Spawn, one of the few units that needs to be taken to activate a spell, is 20 points less at 60 points in this edition. Spawn, regardless of god-alliance, are also just about the only sub-100 point units in the game able to fill awkward points gaps.
Tzaangors (150) saw a substantial drop and even Skyfires (170) and Enlightened on Discs (170) have seen a small drop. This makes building into a Warflock to take advantage of the extra rally rolls more viable. Many of the Wyrdflame units are much lower in points this edition compared to the last edition. Flamers are 120 vs. 160, The Burning Chariot is 140 points, and Screamers have been reduced by 10 points to an even 100. The Exalted Flamer is now 130 points but serves to buff other Flamers.
Arcanites came down in points with the two-cast Curseling dropping from 200 to 170 points. Kairic Acolytes (110) are down 10 points but feel relatively more expensive since other models have dropped more.
Pink Horrors (140) with Blues/Brimstones (120) come in at a cool 260 for the whole package, making them feel pretty cheap for all that health, especially with Pinks at two per model.
Kairos, with his battle tactic modifying ability, still costs 440 points while the Lord of Change is 360 points. The Gaunt summoner of Tzeentch has lost the natural +1 to cast and dropped to 170 points.
Building lists for Tzeentch should be a lot of fun with so many extra points to divide among your units. Even better, Tzeentch players were often paying a tax of 100-150 points to take endless spells in the prior edition that are now just free.
Maggotkin of Nurgle
A lot of increases here. There are some decreases but for the most part those don’t make up for the much-more expensive heroes.
To rip off the disease-addled band-aid, Great Unclean Ones have increased by 70 to an even 500 points but will be a staple in any list with multi-model daemon units to return them back to the field at half strength. On the other hand, Glottkin has continued to get cheaper every single time it’s had points updated since their third edition battle tome, and is down at only 550 now. Each of the Maggoth Lords (Bloab, Morbidex, and Orghotts) each see a very minor increase which is fine for what they do. Your daemon support heroes, Sloppity Bilepiper (110), Spoilpox Scrivener (100), and Poxbringer (130) each got cheaper or stayed the same; the first two especially will continue to be staples in Daemon lists so it’s nice to see they haven’t gotten prohibitively expensive.
For your units you’re looking at slightly cheaper Blightkings (200) which makes sense with their lower health, despite having a 3+ armour save to help compensate. Plaguebearers (140) are going to be very popular as a reinforced unit, even being a bit more expensive having Crit (Mortal) built-in with 3″ melee ranges they’ll all be fighting, easily, with great buffs from heroes. The one that I’m really not understanding here is Beasts of Nurgle (150) getting a third more expensive for a unit that was never very popular…it has a nice free counter-charge type ability but costs you more than 20 health of Plaguebearers and doesn’t really help you score points either. Lastly the only real ranged units, Rotmire Creed (130), are slightly cheaper to take. Their ranged attacks aren’t going to be picking up enemy units but they’re one of very few ways of spreading Disease at range.
Overall armies will typically look quite similar, though perhaps with slightly fewer models on the table.
Blades of Khorne
Alright, here’s where we see some big increases. That will likely not be a shock either following our coverage of Khorne’s new abilities and seeing just how powerful some of those heroes are now.
Let’s start with the Bloodthirsters, which will be making up the core and punch of many lists. Between the Wrath of Khorne (420), Insensate Rage (470), and Unfettered Fury (440) these are all up at least 90 points each and mostly over 100, which is no small increase. Would be rude not to mention Skarbrand who comes in at a whopping 510 points this edition. I know some Khorne players have been talking about trying a quad-Bloodthirster list with the Wrath of Khorne to make the best use of its ability but that’ll run you 1680 points at the minimum. These are all just absolute monsters now, though, with 16 health, 4+ saves, and 5+ wards with impressive damage output. Really hoping some mad man just runs Skarbrand and 3 Bloodthirsters of Insensate Rage at 1920 points, taking the extra CP turn one and wrecking face. Or losing horribly? Try it and let us know, please.
For actual units, your Blood Warriors (210) aren’t cheap but those 32mm solid-profile units are going to be big this edition with 3″ melee reach, easily allowing a reinforced unit to hit with every model. Wrathmongers (150) and Skullreapers (220) might now be the largest points differential of a non-hero dual kit. Both Skull Cannons (180) and Skullcrushers (260) get a 50 point hike. The original Age of Sigmar starter set Khorgorath (170) is nearly double its third edition cost with just about every other unit seeing a pretty minor hike rounding up to an even-hundred or just over.
Skaven
This faction is going to have some heavy sticker shock, with most units having seen a pretty heavy 20% or more increase across the board and some of the lower cost options like rat swarms having been eliminated altogether.
First, let’s point out the Skaventide box and see how many more points in rats you’re going to need. Some of the biggest increases include the humble Clanrats (160) a getting a huge increase in points. Rat Ogors (170) now have three models in a unit so they’ve technically gone down in points per model. The Warlock Engineer (150) has seen another 60 point increase and the new Warplock Jezzails (150) have gone up 40 points per unit. Add in the new Clawlord on Gnaw-beast (170) and Ratling Warpblaster (190), and this means that the entire box is worth 1,320 points.
We have to judge Skaven on what we have, not what we’re going to get in the next few months. The units in the box aren’t the only ones getting a big increase, with a Plagueclaw (150) going up 60 points, the Deathmaster (160) getting a tax, and the Hell Pit Abomination (270) no longer being pointed like a model that rolled two dice to move.
So now some good news. Thanquol on Boneripper (360) has seen a decline in points and the Doomwheel (140) looks like a relative bargain compared to last edition. Plague Monks (140) are cheaper compared to clanrats and Stormvermin (130) only went up 10 points. Most of the Verminlords have only gone up 20-40 points.
The best news is that Stormfiends (260) have lost 50 points. While they don’t have a shooting attack that ignores line of sight and have much shorter range, you can at least mitigate some of the increases in points that have occurred across the board.
Skaven players are going to need to rethink how they build armies with several older warscrolls having been retired (including the popular underworlds warbands) and get used to having an army with infantry coming back through the Gnawholes.
Slaves to Darkness
Expect to see a 20-30 point increase in all of your units with Heroes getting a much bigger increase in points. Darkoath characters can only take 0-1 monsters and other Darkoath models in their Regiments – your Chosen aren’t going to listen to some upstart barbarian Most regiments are limited to 0-1 monsters, unless you want a monster mash led by an Ogroid Myrmidon (190). The whole section is a little labyrinthine, as Brand’s Oathband (280) is broken up into 3 different units that have to/can only be taken together, and Be’lakor’s bunch of Chaos Legionnaires (90), Eternus (230), and a Centaurion Marshal (180) have some interplay that’s a little confusing to parse out. This is one of those bits of army construction that reflects the background but is also a little confusingly laid out
Archaon, the Everchosen (890) still takes up the bulk of your list if you choose to field him and the Be’Lakor (410) saw another bump. Other big points increases come to The Daemon Prince (280) and and Abraxia (360). Abraxia is generally useful enough that she’s worth her price point, even moreso if you lean into expensive Varanguard (310). The Darkoath Chieftain on Warsteed (180) saw a big increase beyond what we typically saw with Heros increasing.
On the plus side, the popular Chaos Chosen (250) and Chaos Knights (250) only saw modest increases in points but choosing between them is difficult. Another winner are the Darkoath Fellriders (150) with a third wound and the Darkoath Wilderfiend (190).
Overall Slaves to Darkness are a chaos soup with warscrolls at every price point and some difficult list construction choices if you’re attempting to be low drops and avoid Archaon.
Putting It Together
With allies being completely gone points can be entirely made to balance within its own faction, which is great. Typically units within a faction seem to be balanced well between abilities and cost and even if your favourite units got more expensive try to remember that that’s broadly true of most factions. Your armies are going to look overall very similar unless you were running some sort of weird skew list, maybe one less hero on the board or one less unit.
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.
