We are back with the next Age of Sigmar fourth edition Battletome: Slaves to Darkness. A thank-you to Games Workshop for sending us a copy of the Battletome to review. 

Here it is: the first real battletome for Age of Sigmar fourth edition. Sort of. So far we’ve had Skaven and Stormcast, as expected, as the two launch factions for the edition where the rules have not been that different from their initial Faction Packs. Historically the first two Battletomes of any edition are simply more tame than all of the ones that follow, due most probably to real-world timelines attached to shipping physical products globally.

Also just to say that we are writing this fully before seeing what the points cost of any of these units are now. We’ll have a follow up article once we get those as well to talk about what may or may not be the “right” builds for lists.

What’s Changed?

When I first opened up the book to see what had changed I was pretty excited to see that the very first thing had changed drastically and what it would mean for the army. Then I kept reading and saw that, actually, most of the rest is simply the same as the Faction Pack.

So what is actually different?

Eye of the Gods and Marks of Chaos are now completely different in how they work and how you take them, respectively. The Eye of the Gods table and random abilities are now GONE and fully replaced by gaining Dark Apotheosis points (D3 of them) for one of your non-Unique Heroes each time they use a Fight ability or are contesting an objective wholly outside your territory at the end of your turn. Once that hero has 8 or more points you can either Heal them back up to full and gain a 5+ Ward for the rest of the game, or become a Daemon Prince that retains any Pledge to Chaos and Enhancements they might have. That’s it! Once you’ve done that you’re done tracking Dark Apotheosis points; yes, only one of your Heroes gets to do this across a game and if they die before completing it, then too bad.

Marks of Chaos are gone and replaced by Pledged to Chaos as mentioned right above. You do not get to give these to all of your units either. In your own hero phase, you pick a non-Unique Slaves to Darkness unit that doesn’t have a Pledge to Chaos already and then pledge to any of the Chaos gods: Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle, or Tzeentch. That unit gets an ability depending on their god which is, respectively,

• Khorne: +1A on melee weapons (all the time)
• Slaanesh: +1 number of dice rolled for a charge (max 3 dice)
• Nurgle: Gain a 6+ Ward (5+ if they already had one)
• Tzeentch: During your movement phase pick one Pledged to Tzeentch unit to make a mini-teleport ending wholly within 6″ of a point that you choose 2D6″ away, while also staying more than 9″ away from any enemy models

All of these are passive effects except for Tzeentch, and only one unit can use that teleport each turn. You also have to end more than 9″ away from enemies so it’s not amazing, and it’s a set-up so it doesn’t help with some Battle Tactics either. It’s not a Retreat move, so you can zap a unit away from combat without harm which is something. The units you expect already have these pledges on their Warscrolls: Gaunt Summoners and Mutalith Vortex Beasts to Tzeentch, Slaughterbrutes to Khorne. Funnily enough, Pledged to Khorne does not explicitly benefit Companion weapons, so it might not even affect Slaughterbrutes. Perhaps that’ll be FAQ’d, but for now it’s kinda funny. Daemon Princes can start pledged to a god, but they don’t have to be. Archaon is not pledged to any gods, fitting in with both his lore and role as a Unique character.

Ensorcelled Banners are back in a big way. Any of your Infantry or Cavalry units with a Standard Bearer keyword (sorry, Varanguard) can take a Banner, with a limit of one per army, and specifically only one of your banners in the unit becomes it so keep track! The options are:

• Enemy units in combat cannot use commands
• Gain Pledged to Khorne, +1 to wound rolls
• Gain Pledge to Slaanesh, +1 attack for the turn it makes a charge move
• Gain Pledge to Nurgle, enemies cannot score Critical Hits on the unit (they’re just regular hits instead)
• Gain Pledge to Tzeentch, 4+ ward against shooting attacks

Having the Slaanesh banner on a block of Knights is incredible since it boosts their damage output as well as their charge range; however that’s also incredibly useful on otherwise slower units like Chosen to help get them into combat that much quicker. The first one sounds nice and is a good effect, however it only gives one ability while the other four give two since they give a Pledged To keyword as well.

The only Enhancement to change is Favoured of the Pantheon, since Eye of the Gods is wholly different, and it now just gives the hero a full 3 Dark Apotheosis Points whenever they’d normally roll the D3. That does make it super reliable and gets you a Daemon Prince off the back of a cheap hero quicker, so long as they survive that long.

Warscroll Changes

These are pretty slim and most aren’t really even worth mentioning, but a few stuck out:

Daemon Princes don’t get an Eye of the Gods roll any more (that’s gone!) but instead have a Rampage for Fights First on a 4+ every fight phase. Having that up your sleeve will make your opponent second-guess charging in with weaker units that would otherwise take the last wound or two off your model.

Centaurion Marhsal’s ability to follow-up in combat with a unit after he’s fought now works on any non-hero Daemon or Legionnaires unit since marks/pledged has changed, keeping it more flexible.

Chaos Lord on Karkadrak’s ability for +2″ to charge rolls only works on non-hero, non-cavalry, units. This feels like a very odd change since a mounted hero leading mounted units thematically feels “right”. It’s a cute ability to get Chosen across the board quickly after Pledging to Slaanesh for an average 12″ charge on 3D6 with the +2. Still odd, though.

Abraxia’s battle-damaged effect for less attacks now affects her mount instead of her spear. It makes a lot more sense thematically and also is just flat-out better.

Removed from the Book

Some things are simply gone.

• Chaos Lords and Sorcerer Lords on Manticores
• Soulgrinders
• Chaos Warshrines

These are no longer in the book and assumedly have been rotated to go live in the great Old World in the sky or, in the case of the Soulgrinder, to exist for 40k instead. Honestly, the Giant Robot Hell Crab always felt very strange in Age of Sigmar (and Warhammer Fantasy before it) being as mechanical as it is. It is sad to see Manticores and Warshrines go, however, as they’ve been pretty iconic to the Chaos army aesthetic for so many years. No shortage of players have converted their own from Tahlia Vedra, and they’re bound to be disappointed.

The Spearhead, as we’ve seen with Battletomes so far, has also been replaced and is no longer printed in the book. Instead of Chaos Warriors, Knights, etc you have a Spearhead made up entirely of Darkoath models. It’s incredibly cool, but it would be nice to have a more traditional plate mail horde available in the Battletome as well. Spearhead’s more casual focus likely won’t present a problem though. If you want to keep playing with the “old” one, just make sure to download it from the Games Workshop site before it’s removed as a download! For anyone with Fire and Jade it will live on eternal in that binding.

Armies of Renown

There’s just one Army of Renown in the book, the Legion of the First Prince. If you take it you get access to Be’lakor, Daemon Princes, Eternus, Varanguard, Sorcerer Lords, Legionaires, Furies, Centurion Marshalls, and Legion of the First Prince Daemon units. The daemon units are the crux of what this AoR has going on, allowing you to take some standard S2D units alongside daemons. You only get a small slice of the daemon roster however. You have access to: Plaguebeaerers, Beasts of Nurgle, Bloodletters, Blood Crushers, Flamers of Tzeentch, Screamers, Fiends, and weirdly Hellflayers. This is a great spread of Daemons. Plaguebeaerers provide a cheap tarpit, Flamers provide some good damage (they’re modified to have a flat +1 to wound against a unit you pick each turn and deal D3 mortals after shooting), and Beasts of Nurgle and Fiends provide some nice tech for the army.

As for the battle traits themselves, you get some great abilities. First off First-Damned Prince gives Be’lakor the ability to shrug off damage on a 4+ to a nearby daemon unit, unfortunately you can’t ward these wounds away, but using plaguebearers to keep Be’lakor in the game has a ton of value. Storm of Blackened Blades requires Eternus to be on the battlefield, but gives him and two other non-daemon units within 12″ +1 attack once per game. This is fantastic for juicing your Varanguard for the go turn since you won’t have access to marks. Daemonic Reinforcements is a fantastic addition, letting you return a daemon unit at half strength for a CP in your movement phase. Lastly, Bestow Favor lets you select a unit to get +5 control score and either +1 to save if they’re a daemon or a 6+ ward if they’re a mortal.

On the enhancements side you get one Heroic Trait Dread Marshall which gives three units within 12″ +1 to charge in any charge phase. The fact that this also works in your opponent’s turn will let you set up some nasty counter charges. The Artefact, Black Ritual Dagger, lets you reroll a failed casting roll at the cost of one mortal wound on a nearby unit. Notably, you can ward away this one which is a nice little bonus.

The Spell Lore is a bit of a mixed bag. Dark Cantrip is your unlimited spell. It allows you to deal 1 mortal wound to 3 targets within 18″. This seems more cute than good as it requires a lot of wizards to get real mileage out of it but it can be useful for finishing off stuff that’s just barely hanging on and at least its always a little helpful. Shroud in Darkness on the otherhand is a banger. You select a unit within 12″ and they get a free D6″ move and cannot be seen when they’re more than 12″ away. This is great for keeping your important units online when playing into shooting armies and extra movement in the hero phase is always valuable. Lastly you get the Eightfold Doom-Sigil manifestation, which is not exactly the standout of the lore but there might be some edge case uses for it.

Regiments of Renown

Lord Skaldior’s Chosen

The first RoR gives you a Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount, 5 Chaos Knights, and 10 Chaos Warriors. In addition, if they’re on an objective you control you get +1 to save rolls and if they’re on an objective you don’t control they get +1 to wound. There’s not a ton to say about this one. This is a fantastic addition to any army looking for a durable anvil and lethal hammer to spice up their lists and is as effective as it is simple.

Godmarked Ascendant

The other RoR simply lets you take a Daemon Prince in the other cult Chaos armies (sorry skaven). In addition to getting your army’s keyword, they also get an upgrade depending on which army they’re in. Khorne grants +1 attacks, Tzeentch makes it a Wizard (1), Nurgle gives it a 5+ ward, and Slaanesh gives it +1 to run and charge. This is a really nice addition considering it was odd that the other armies couldn’t give daemon princes to the most devoted followers of each of the Chaos gods. Competitively though, carving out an entire regiment for just one hero is a bit of a tall ask, basically guaranteeing you move to at least three drops and lose control of the first turn decision. 

Darkoath Raiders Spearhead

It’s a new battletome and that means a new spearhead! This one sort-of replaces the “old” Slaves to Darkness spearhead and is incredibly different: all Darkoath! And this looks very good too. Go download the Slaves to Darkness faction pack (if you’re able to, depending on when you read this) if you want to keep playing with the previous Spearhead in friendly games. If you haven’t played Spearhead yet, absolutely do, it’s not “small intro AoS” even though it acts really well as a way to start; it’s a great wholly-separate game that’s worth playing. I’ve gotten really into it and recently participated in an eleven game league with a bunch of friends, it was excellent.

So, all Darkoath, what do you get?

• Darkoath Warqueen
• 10 Darkoath Savages
• 5 Darkoath Fellriders (with reinforcement)
• 10 Darkoath Marauders (with reinforcement)

Your Warqueen gives a +1 to hit to a nearby unit from your Hero Phase for the rest of the turn; so it won’t last into your opponent’s turn but helps your 4+ hit units go down to a 3+ for some more reliability. Savages roll eight dice and each 6 becomes a re-roll to hit/wound/save until your next turn. You’re only likely to get one but it’s a fun little reading-the-runes thematic ability. Fellriders and Marauders both have reinforcement so can come back once each after being killed. Being able to charge in headlong with your cavalry, lose them, then bring them back again to do the same thing is just fantastic; they’re also -1 to be hit by any shooting attack helping them get into combat too. Marauaders on the other hand do basically what you expect: die. And that’s ok! Keep them wholly within 12″ of your Warqueen and they’ll deal mortal wounds when do on a 5+ roll.

The battle trait was shown off by Warhammer Community a few days ago and it’s just incredibly good. Spearhead operates off of you having a hand of 3 cards each with a very strong ability and a secondary objective to score. You can normally use these cards for either and being able to use them for both any number of times in a game is huge. Needing to show it to your opponent isn’t a big deal either since normally the moves you’re making will give away the objectives you’re trying to score and there isn’t that much counterplay in Spearhead during your turn.

You get the choice between one of two regiment abilities:

Rage of Arkhar lets you pick a unit in every combat phase to have an extra point of rend on all non-Companion attacks. Very simple but very strong! Being able to choose this every fight phase makes it extremely flexible and makes your Fellriders especially hit very hard when they charge in. I think this is broadly the better of the two traits.

Fearless Invaders on the other hand lets you choose a unit that’s in combat during your movement phase to Retreat, not take any mortal damage, and still use Charge abilities later in the turn. Despite the small board size Spearhead is played on a lot of the objectives want you doing things that are not in combat so being able to leave safely and keep the flexibility of going elsewhere is pretty big.

Then you pick one of four enhancements to take for your Warqueen:

Bloodthirsty Blade gives her Rune-etched Axe an improved rend of -2. If you wanted to use the above regiment ability that takes her up to rend -3 when you need it and since she’s throwing out five attacks at damage two that could do some serious damage.

Godshadow Talisman gives her a 4+ ward instead of the 5+ that she comes with. It’s nice, and she is pretty important to your Spearhead, but I think you’ll typically pick one of the others unless your opponent is able to hit her with mortal damage at range.

Champion of Raids gives her a Charge Phase ability to allow a friendly unit wholly within 12″ to re-roll charges for the rest of the turn. Incredibly good! There’s only one card that allows you to re-roll a charge and being able to re-roll into a success can be game winning. This is only during your own charge phase, though, so no re-rolls when you have Counter Charge in your hand.

Fell Ritualist lets you mess with your battle tactics cards, a pretty rare ability (and I think maybe the first of its kind?). While she’s on the battlefield whenever you were to draw a battle tactic card you can draw one additional card. With your hand of four cards you place one back onto the bottom of your deck. That deck is only 12 cards, so play them well and you’ll go through them all in a game anyways! Being able to have any manner of control on what you have at what point in the game is an incredible amount of information and is the best choice here between the four options.

This spearhead, when set up right, really does it all. You have fast and hard-hitting cavalry, two units of 10 dudes that can spit out some damage and gum up the board a bit, and a hero that places buffs where you need them. The downside to this spearhead is that it all has a 5+ armour save with no wards (aside from your Warqueen) so you’re going to have to play with it intelligently and precisely. This is definitely one I’m very keen to try out!

Back in Darkness

So this is good overall. There still aren’t any massive changes to how the army plays and that’s probably a good thing overall. I’m mostly interested to see how people get on with the Be’lakor Army of Renown because it looks like it could be really, very, good. It’s great that Daemon Princes can be taken in their respective mono-god armies again, though a shame it’ll cost you an entire regiment to do so. New spearhead looks great and the Path to Glory rules, while not covered here (we’ll have that separately later) look like great fun for the narratively-minded Chaos player.

We’re starting to see Battletomes that have had more time away from the Faction Packs at release and I’m very interested to see how far the other tomes start to stray from that initial release. Just have to wait and see for now.

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