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 Berzerker Warband Detachment for World Eaters.
The Index Detachment for the World Eaters was the Berzerker Warband, and while those usually get new names when they’re updated in a Codex release, the tenth edition Codex kept the Detachment around, giving it only minor updates. That’s just fine, because the Warband served as a solid mixed arms Detachment with good support for Berzerkers.
Changelog
- 4-26-2025 (Latest): Updated for the 10th edition Codex
- 6-1-2024: Initial Publication
Detachment Overview
The Berzerker Warband is all about running Berzerkers. While there are a lot of rules in this Detachment which benefit other units, two key Stratagems – Apoplectic Frenzy and Berzerker’s Wrath – can only be used on Berzerker units. And given one of those lets you Advance and Charge, this is the best place to run your new 20-man unit of Berzerkers led by a Lord on Juggernaut. Otherwise, there are some solid utility pieces here, some powerful effects, and enough value for other units that this Detachment works well as a combined arms Detachment for World Eaters.
The Video Version
If you’d like to watch a video version of this Detachment Focus, we’ve got you covered here:
Detachment Rule: Relentless Rage
The Detachment rule for Berzerker Warband is very similar to the Index version, with one significant change. In the Codex, Relentless Rage now gives a WORLD EATERS unit +1 Attacks and +2 Strength on their melee weapons on the turn they make a Charge move.
With Khorne Berzerkers reduced to Strength 4 on their chainaxes and Terminators dropping back to S5 on Accursed Weapons, this rule is now even more important for getting them to punch up into harder targets. It was good in the Index and it’s good now too, helping every unit in your army, not just Berzerkers. Units with a lower volume of high-quality attacks like Daemon Princes, Helbrutes, Defilers, and Maulerfiends benefit a ton from these buffs, and Characters like Kharn and the Master of Executions really benefit from jumping to S9 when they charge.
Enhancements
The Enhancements have the same names as the ones from the Index version of the Detachment, but none of them has identical rules to those versions.
- Berzerker Glaive – The bearer gets +1 Attacks and +1 Damage for their melee weapons, excluding Extra Attacks weapons. Still straightforwardly good and the least-changed from the Index (albeit the dataslate updated version). This goes just fine on a Master of Executions but looks great on a Daemon Prince, where D4 Dev wounds and 10 attacks on the charge can do a lot of damage.
- Helm of Brazen Ire – Reduces the damage characteristic of incoming attacks by 1. This is a big step down from the Index version, which was half damage, but is a little cheaper to compensate. Also something you want on a Damon Prince or a Juggernaut Lord riding solo for the added durability.
- Favoured of Khorne – Each time you make a Blessings of Khorne roll, you can re-roll up to two of the dice as long as the bearer is on the battlefield. With fewer easy ways to re-roll dice in the Codex this is still an important ability… but not crucial unless you desperately need to get Angron back.
- Battle-Lust – You can re-roll Charge rolls for the bearer’s unit, and if the Unbridled Bloodlust Blessing of Khorne is active, you get +1 to Charge rolls as well. This is a useful one for your key game plan of getting guys into melee, and note that it is all Charge rolls, so if you choose to make a Heroic Intervention you have a little less chance of an embarrassing failure there as well.
Stratagems
Some of these are the same as the Index, some have the same function but a different name, and some are completely new. Frenzied Resilience is the only 2 CP Stratagem in the bunch but they’re all pretty solid.
- Blood Offering (Epic Deed, 1 CP) – Use in any phase on a WORLD EATERS unit from your army that was just destroyed while it was within range of one or more objective markers that you controlled at the end of the previous phase. Pick one of those objective markers to stay under your control until your opponent controls it at the end of a phase. No change here except for slightly updated wording, and a straightforwardly good Stratagem. Early in the edition the play was to take a Juggernaut Lord who could sit on an objective and be relatively durable, then if he was shot to death you’d use to sticky the objective. That’s still viable.
- Hack and Slash (Battle Tactic, 1 CP) – Use in the Fight phase on one WORLD EATERS unit that hasn’t fought yet and that made a Charge move this turn. Until the end of the phase, improve your AP by 1. A really useful Stratagem in an army where a lot of your common melee weapons are AP-1. Only getting +1 AP on the charge means this won’t be useful all the time (it won’t be triggered by a blood surge), but remember that it works after Heroic Intervention.
- Frenzied Resilience (Battle Tactic, 2 CP) – Use in the Fight phase, just after an enemy unit has selected its targets. One WORLD EATERS unit targeted by those attacks gets -1 Damage. Identical to the Index version except for the name, and just as good – while also being potentially easier to pull off as your foot Daemon Princes can now make it cheaper. That’s huge if you plan on going into something like a unit of Bladeguard with a Justiciar to give them Fights First. Dropping this against Power fists or some other 2-damage threat to turn 10 dead Berzerkers into 5 is massive.
- Skulls for the Skull Throne! (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Fight phase, just after a WORLD EATERS unit from your army destroys a CHARACTER or MONSTER model. Make a Blessings of Khorne roll and activate one Blessing of Khorne to be active until the end of the battle round in addition to your existing ones. Helpful, but make sure you are aware of a key change from the Index – you can’t use this to resurrect Angron any more, as his Reborn in Blood ability only works at the start of the battle round now. This is fine, and what you really want this for most of the time is to activate 6” Consolidate moves. It can also be helpful if you’re going second and can pop this in your opponent’s turn.
- Apoplectic Frenzy (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Use in your Movement phase, just after a Khorne Berzerkers unit is selected to Advance. That unit can Advance and charge. This is super important now that you don’t have access to this through the Blessings of Khorne, and one of the only ways to advance and charge in the army. Paired with 10” movement on Berzerkers led by a Lord on Juggernaut, this is how you get those nasty turn 1 charges.
- Berzerker’s Wrath (Strategic Ploy, 1 CP) – Use in your opponent’s Shooting phase when a Khorne Berzerkers unit would make a Blood Surge move. Instead of rolling a D6, your unit can automatically move up to 8”. A smart opponent will be playing around Blood Surge, but being able to get a guaranteed 8” off will make that a lot harder to do. This essentially makes it impossible for them to keep you out of range while being on an objective with you.
Credit: Robert “TheChirurgeon” Jones
Playing This Detachment
If there’s one Detachment where you want to take the 20-model unit of Berzerkers, it’s this one. The recipe here is easy: 20 Berzerkers with four Khornate Eviscerators, led by a Lord on Juggernaut. They move 10”, through walls, with the ability to Advance and Charge. You’ll want to keep a Daemon Prince nearby to pop Stratagems like Frenzied Resilience and Hack and Slash on them. Do you actually want to run one of these? Or two? That’s a tougher question. You definitely want to build around Berzerkers in this Detachment, but some of those will naturally want to be in Transports. The Master of Executions is quite the beast he used to be, but he’s much cheaper now and worth adding to your Berzerker units for the ability to re-roll blood surges and to just get another model with a 2-damage attack in the unit. If you take a second unit, look at Kharn as a way to get re-rolls and I’d strongly consider looking at a single unit of 3 Eightbound for their +1 to hit and wound aura.
Because the +2 Strength/+1 Attacks benefit works on everything in your army, it’s worth pointint out that a ton of other units – Daemon Princes and melee vehicles like the Helbrute and Maulerfiend – really benefit from this benefit, and can do their best work here. That makes the Berzerker Warband your best combined arms Detachment, even if you get some niftier buffs from the Goretrack Onslaught. [LANCE] after disembarking won’t do anything for a Defiler. The benefit is also great on Jakhals, who need the extra boost to be legitimate threats – and having them at S5 is a huge improvement that lets them punch way up.
Strengths
- Advance and Charge. This is the only place you’ll find it, and only on Berzerkers. But it’s still huge.
- Melee buffs. That +2 Strength/+1 Attack on the charge is a huge buff, and something that every fighty unit in your army wants. Even Land Raiders suddenly look scary with 10 attacks hitting on a 3+ and lethal/sustained hits.
- Enhancements. You’ve got some strong Enhancements here to work with. The Berzerker Glaive is a favorite, and on a Daemon Prince it takes him to an eye-watering damage output each time he charges, capable of casually dropping 5-16 devastating wounds’ worth of damage.
Weaknesses
- You need to be charging. The army rule requires you to charge for a benefit, and that means if you aren’t charging, you’re not getting much out of it. That’s a problem if your plan is to Blood Surge into the opponent, and you may find out pretty quick that S4 Berzerkers aren’t ideal.
- Berzerker-focused. A couple of key Stratagems here only work on Berzerkers. And that’s a problem because…
- Berzerkers. As a unit, berzerkers are kind of underwhelming. Imagine Assault Intercessors if they didn’t have re-rolls to wound. Yeah. They can do damage in volume, but you need stacked buffs to make them work. And they die quickly.
A Sample List
Here’s the list I ran for this army in testing.
”Berzerker
The idea here is to run one big blog of Berzerkers as your hammer with the two units in Rhinos as scrappy support around the outsides. The Daemon Prince and Forgefiends are here to take out big targets the Berzerkers don’t want to scrap with.
One area to consider changing this list is to find room for a 3-model unit of Eightbound, but at 150 points that’s an insanely tall order – I’d rather have a Forgefiend in almost every scenario. Still, having them to buff the 20-man Berzerker unit would be huge – though potentially overkill against a lot of targets.
Final Thoughts
The Berzerker Warband offers an exciting and balanced way to play World Eaters, and while it’s thematic, we don’t think it will be the best way to play the army. Still, there’s plenty here to work with and we suspect we’ll see some solid competitive lists come out of it.
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