Finally, you’ve been patient and you want to see what we think of the big guy himself. The titular Kragnos is probably the most exciting part about this book (Although big new Kroak might have competition with him). Games Workshop made the surprising addition of releasing his warscroll well ahead of the book so there’s been a lot of buzz about what he could do. The thought on everyone’s mind has been “How much does he cost?”. Well now we know so we can do a full analysis. If you’d like to read along, the full warscroll can be found here.
The Stats
The god of hero rocks doesn’t disappoint, starting off here with a 2+ save. Nagash, Alarielle, and Archaon all sit pretty on a 3+ save, while Morathi lets the divine team down with a measly 4+. Pfft, pitiful. Sadly, though, Kragnos doesn’t have any damage prevention roll or ward save, and as far as we can tell has no way to get one other than Mystical terrain. 18 wounds is quite a bit, but it does have its limitations; he may laugh off a horde of rampaging orruks, but he’s going to fall to mortal wounds just like anyone else.
My general issue with high armour saves (aside from my beloved Ossiarch Bonereapers, of course) is that whether or not you can get through them is largely determined before you reach the battlefield. Some armies (Seraphon, Lumineth, Daughters of Khaine, some Chaos builds) can put out solid numbers that can ignore the 2+ and take down the big man without issue, while others (pretty much… everyone else) will seriously struggle to deliver the output to crack the shell and get to the gooey centaur middle. High saves also push the game towards a specific meta, where player interaction is lessened because you roll your dice and I just remove models, not a design space I can really support.
As for other stats, 10 bravery is functionally irrelevant, but the degrading 10” move… oofft. With no fly, and no run and charge, Kragnos is at the mercy of any small screen unit that gets in front of him. Don’t want him to hit your main lines? That’s fine, feed him your chaff while you kill the rest of his army because, for some reason, he has no way to ignore them. After seeing Blood Knights’ Riders of Ruin special rule I honestly expected him to have some way to walk over his enemies. His legs are long enough to stride over orruks; let the man charge unimpeded! And yes, every army in the game has something that can lock him down all day: Soul Snare Shackles.
The Weapons
Despite having quite a few awesome names on his scroll (‘Hooves of Wrack and Ruin’ being my personal favourite), we’re left with the fairly boring ‘The Dread Mace’ as his beat-stick of choice. Fortunately, he more than makes up for it in effect, with a potential 24 damage. In particular I’d like to draw your attention to the tasty, tasty Rend -3. Perhaps the best way to kill a Kragnos is with a Kragnos? Best of all, the profile doesn’t degrade, unlike the Hooves which… break, I guess? Starting with six attacks and going down to three, Kragnos probably has the most dangerous feet in the mortal realms. Only Rend -1, but a 2+ to wound means that your opponent will drown under pretty high damage attacks soon enough. In fact, all three of Kragnos’ weapons wound on a 2+ after hitting on a 3+. Tuskbreaker, Kragnos’ shield, has perhaps the weakest profile, relying on the ever dreaded D3 for damage.
While Kraggy has the output of a god of Destruction (hey, maybe he should apply for that job!) there’s something slightly odd about his weapon profiles. The Dread Mace has a range of 3”, but both other weapon profiles are only 1”. While, yes, the rock on a stick is very large, he can still barely reach the ground with it on his model, compared to his Hooves which, yknow… he can dance around with, presumably. Narratively, it’s tenuous, but mechanically? Not great, and kinda weird. “Sorry, I can’t hit that guy behind you. Yes, I know I’m a 30’ tall literal god of destruction, but that just feels rude.”
Also, everyone calm down about Gotrek and Morathi now. We get it. They’re good counters to Kragnos. Move along.
The Special Rules
As is suited to a god, we’re drowning in rules here, but fortunately you won’t have to remember most of them!
Bellow of Rage is first onto the chopping block; if you wound Kragnos, roll a die for each unit and defensible terrain feature within 6”. On an improving roll, starting at 5+ and going to 2+, the unit takes D3 mortal wounds or that terrain feature is demolished. D3 is nice vengeance when you’re wounded, but if anything in combat with Kragnos is likely going to be dead, so this is probably the result of a shooting attack, with minimal impact. Destroying terrain is a neat feature, but it’s less impactful than either Severith or the Gate-Breaker Megagargant, as it only affects garrisonable terrain, which you very rarely see outside the Seraphon Realmshaper Engine. Perhaps a hint at incoming terrain pieces in the new Age of Sigmar?
Destroyer of the Draconith Empire is possibly my favourite rule in the game right now, because it strongly hints at an expanded draconic… something. Re-rolling charge rolls and hit rolls just because he’s within 12” of a Stardrake, Drake, Dracoth, or Dracoline is incredible, even if they aren’t super common rules. Including Stardrake is just kicking the poor Stormcast hero while it’s down, but really looking forward to seeing what might come out of this. Please note however that Dragons, Zombie Dragons and Maw-Krushas are unaffected, so either GW forgot about those keywords, or they’re being narratively restrictive for… reasons. We shall see, Kragnos, we shall see…
Jumping out of order here, Icon of Destruction adds 1 to the Bravery of friendly Destruction units wholly within 12”. Yay? Destruction units tend to either be hordes such that they don’t care about losing one more model to battleshock (such as Gitz) or in such low numbers that they can basically ignore it (such as Ogors). I’m not entirely sure what the point of this rule is, other than narrative, and if that’s the case then maybe your god isn’t really that cool if all he’s doing to buff you is +1 Bravery…
The Shield Inviolate, also known as Tuskbreaker, is a nifty way of avoiding a bunch of mortal wounds, Kragnos’ one true weakness (other than small skirmishing screens of chaff). If you’re affected by a spell, roll 3D6 and compare to the spell’s casting value. If it’s higher, you aren’t affected by the spell. It’s important to note that this is unmodified, so Nagash’s potential +4 to cast is meaningless next to the might of a bit of aged bronze! Rolling 3D6 vs spell casters’ 2D6 is a pretty solid bet. Note that you don’t unbind or dispel the spell, just not apply its effects to Kragnos; Kroak’s Celestial Deliverance is still going to fry the poor grots next to him.
Finally, and most awesomely, Rampaging Destruction. Once you charge, roll a dice for each unit within 1” of Kragnos. For each 2+ the unit takes D6 mortal wounds, which is awesome; clipping three enemy units is a potential 18 mortal wounds, plus Kragnos’ already amazing output. Where this really shines is if you charge a monster; instead of rolling a dice for each unit within 1” you can instead roll 2D6 against a single monster you’ve charged and, unless the roll is a 7, multiply the two dice to do that many mortal wounds.
Holy hell.
Sure, 17% chance you do nothing at all, but that’s basically just needing to roll another 2+, and a 28% chance you do eighteen mortal wounds. I am giddy at the maths here.
| Mortal Wounds | Valid Combinations | Chance to roll | Damage or More |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 6 | 16.67% | 100% |
| 1 | 1 | 2.78% | 83.34% |
| 2 | 2 | 5.56% | 80.56% |
| 3 | 2 | 5.56% | 75% |
| 4 | 3 | 8.33% | 66.67% |
| 5 | 2 | 5.56% | 61.12 |
| 6 | 2 | 5.56% | 56% |
| 8 | 2 | 5.56% | 50% |
| 9 | 1 | 2.78% | 44.45% |
| 12 | 2 | 5.56% | 41.67% |
| 15 | 2 | 5.56% | 36.12% |
| 16 | 1 | 2.78% | 30.56% |
| 18 | 2 | 5.56% | 27.78% |
| 20 | 2 | 5.56% | 22.23% |
| 24 | 2 | 5.56% | 13.89% |
| 25 | 1 | 2.78% | 11.12% |
| 30 | 2 | 5.56% | 8.34% |
| 36 | 1 | 2.78% | 2.77% |
Numbers are rounded to the second decimal place.
The Points
Talking about Kragnos’ points so far down this article is what we journalistic types refer to as ‘burying the lede’; it’s where you hide a key piece of information further into a story because if it was up front, no one would read the rest of the article. So, here it is then, the factor that makes the End of Empires entirely irrelevant.
Kragnos is 760 points.
Seven hundred and sixty. In a world where Morathi is 600 and Archaon is 800, and in a book where Alarielle is better and cheaper at 740, I can’t decide whether this is hilarious or actively criminal. If we were being generous, Kragnos looks like a 500 point model to us; sure, he’s violent as all get out, but he can’t buff anyone, he can’t’ be buffed, and he is so vulnerable to screens throwaway units that a great many armies can just ignore the poor man. This might just be a hint towards higher points costs in the next edition of Age of Sigmar, but judging just by this book he is entirely non viable.
Bottom line
Magos Sockbert: Make no mistake, this is a model which, on a good turn, can delete God. His output is quite possibly the highest on average we ‘ve yet seen, but if you look at him as more than just violence he isn’t even a shoe in.
Yes, Kragnos is an incredible model. Yes, he can destroy almost any model you throw him up against one on one, but this isn’t a game where single models clash against each other. Age of Sigmar is a game of fantasy battles, where epic armies clash to control key points of the battlefield, and Kragnos is just one model. He can’t be everywhere at once, and he can’t even contest an objective against two grots.
Kragnos, the End of Empires, will likely never see the top table at an Age of Sigmar event. And that just makes me sad.
RagnarokAngel: I must concur with Magos here. His warscroll was certainly impressive but his power is mostly at the fact he can reliably kill other monsters, or do significant damage to a large group of enemies. That really is all well and good and if your goal is to murder as much of the other side with one model he can certainly do that. Age of Sigmar is about objectives and when dedicating 760 points worth of your list to one model he better be able to carry his weight. While I think his ability to kill a bunch of models will feel good in the moment, it wont win you a ton of a games unless your opponent is foolish enough to keep charging into him.
Maybe I’m wrong though, it’s happened before!
JoeK: His 3” attack profile is great. The rest of his attacks being 1” is weird and not great. His bravery 11, x18 wounds and 2+ natural save is great, his movement 10 not flying is a joke. Destroyer of Draconith empires is a cool name for a rule that will probably never matter at (2nd Ed) events, Don’t ever let this mans charge ya monstas. They will almost certainly die to his impact hits. He will ignore most* spells. But when he doesn’t, he’s gonna feel it. And also, doesn’t have the longshanks rule or fly, so, looks like soulsnare shackles is back on the menu bois* (boys/girls/people)
All that told, he is just not worth 760. But I bet some players will disagree.
Wrapping Up
And with that, we come to the end of the Broken Realms Campaign. It’s been a wild ride from the rise of Morathi to godhood, to Teclis’s duel with Nagash, and the machinations of Be’lakor. With a new god released upon the Mortal Realms, and a new edition on the horizon it feels like changes are only starting to occur in the Mortal Realms. It’s an exciting time to be an Age of Sigmar player and Broken Realms: Kragnos is well worth your time and money to pick up if any of the content was discussed today is of interest. Games Workshop has assured the books will continue to be useful into Third Edition so definitely look at picking this up.
We’re done with Kragnos content for today but that’s not all. Next week we’ll talk about the lore and the final act of the Broken Realms Storyline, and the narrative components within. See you then!
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