Hello everyone !!

Ravagers is the first Legion in the book, it's supposed to be the basic Slaves to Darkness army. Multiple Heroes and units with a focus on Marauders and Cultist.

As usual, let's start with the battle trait

Glory for the taking

This is the one passive power granted to the Ravagers Legion. Daemon Princes are excluded (+Be'lakor). That mean Archaon or Gaunt benefit from the ability.
Glory for the taking allow up to 5 heroes to get a command trait and they can use them even if not general. It's a neat ability, sadly there is only 6 Warlord trait for the Ravagers (no list for casters, warcry monster ....) . Also while the options are limited some are interesting.

As we are speaking of the Ravagers command traits let's look at them.

• +2 wounds is ok


• Free command ability but need to target cultists, also it's not gonna help them that much


• +2/-2 on the eye of the gods is quite cool on a Chaos Lord on Manticore

Rerolling wounds and Hits against order is very good, especially on a Karkadrak lord. Also Order is the most common army

• extra mortal on 6 to wounds, okish if you take a lord with a flail


• behh :/

As you can see the Warlord traits are not the best but there some good options.
The Second benefit of Glory for the Taking is General Switching ^^ It's a neat trick allowing to move the general bubble around the battlefield. But with the Aura being wholly within it's going to take a lot of training and positioning to get value out of it.

The ravagers legion also offer a command ability.

Rally the Tribes

This is the strong point of this Legion, you can summon 10 marauders each turn if you a command point.
Marauders are a good choice as you can appear wholly within 6'' of an edge and then charge at least 8'' (and 11" average) with boundless ferocity and drummer. That's 14-17" from each board edge under the threat of a Marauder rush.
Still, it cost one command point per turn and if you play 5 heroes you may want to use their command abilities as well.
As the power is limited to once per general you also have to switch your general and that start to make a lot of moving parts in this scenario.

It's a fun ability but kind of hard to capitalise on it considering the cost.

Relics

Ho my god, they are bad :(. Seeing all this shitty relics I wonder if the lists from Malign Sorcery are changing soon...On the other hand, it would be weird as they just sold the Mini Gaming Book with all the relics inside. (very handy book).

That's it for the Ravagers Legion !! only one left.

/Cheers.
Bob.

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Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
Slaves to Darkness Allegiance and spells review
Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello again everyone !!

Part 4 of the Slaves to Darkness review with this time the Despoilers Legion. The despoilers focus on Daemon princes and Monster.
This is a weird one, to be honest, Daemon princes are now very strong but quite expensive at 210 points. Also they lack the "Mortal" Keywords preventing them from benefiting from most of the Buff / Commands in the Battletome.
But the special rules they have are very nice, so let's check them out and see what we can do with it.

Sacrilegious Might

The second part of this power only works if the General is a Daemon Prince. Grant FNP 5+ and it's very strong so play a daemon prince general in here.

Blessed by the Unholy

Twisted Dominion

It's one of these powers that you don't realise the strength of it until you use it in-game. It's not limited to once per turn so multiple Daemon Prince can use it to block LOS just by staying in a terrain feature. Also Depoiler Monsters ignore the rules so you can still shoot with your Soul Grinder if you have one. Keep in mind that Twisted Dominion is a strong counter vs Spell Gun Line as you can easily block LOS from important spell caster.
Ie : You can fly a Daemon prince into a big terrain feature curse it and use the Daemon Prince Khorne command to prevent charging and run ^^

That's the 3 rules you get when playing Despoilers. With the updated profile to the Daemon Prince, I am interested to try this Legion. Something like 6 Daemon Prince 2 soul grinder + friends.
Daemon Prince always strikes first so having 6 of them improve the Alpha effect. Also with a bonus to hit on charge and bonus to wound with Khorne mark you are sure to deal a lot of damage.
Besides, you have some control with the Khorne Command ability halving charge and run distance.
I am not sure it would work all the time but damn it feel scary. Also, I always loved the idea of a Daemon Prince Flock !!

Also don't forget that DP don't have eye of Gods !

Warlord Traits

Relics

Again nothing really good here, I think I'll take the Ethereal Amulet for a 3++ and 5+ fnp ! Another strong option would be Sword of Judgment that on a 6+ to hit deal 1d6 mortal vs heroes and monster it combo nicely with the +1 to hit from the charge. The setup creates a very strong Heroes Hunter.

Conclusion

That's it for the Despoiler legion. There is not too much stuff to use but the quality of the Monster and the new Daemon Prince really help this Legion. It's super sad that no Warscrolls Battalion was made for this sub-faction. Also losing the eye of Gods is damn sad :/

/Cheers.
Bob.

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Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
Slaves to Darkness Allegiance and spells review
Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello again everyone !!

As seen in the previous post when building your Slaves to Darkness Army you get to choose 4 sub factions called legions. One of these is "The Host of the Everchosen". Yea that's Archeon Subfactions, Off course he can be played in other sub factions and you can plan this legion without Archaon but trust me, combine them profit ^^

In this Legion, there is no warlord trait and no Relics so if you have an unnamed general you lose the trait and have use Realm Relics. Anyway a Karakrak lord with Ghost amulet for a 3++ with reroll from a sorcerer lord is still a good choice.

The first battle trait is :

Exalted Grand Marshal Of the Apocalypse

Even if the name is a mouthful the effect is pretty simple. Archaon Mark aura is 18" if he is the General. Considering his base size you cover a pretty big area.

Note: Archaon have to choose a Mark when the list is created, the default choice is Khorne for +1 to wounds roll and rr1 to hit, but decide that by yourself.

Fearless in his Presence

Do not take Battleshock test without range limitation, simple and effective ^^

The Wil of the EverChosen !

Unlimited range support with this one. Choose one ennemy unit, from now you reroll 1 hit / wound in melee against it. It's very handy if Archaon is busy and want to help on the other side the battlefield ^^

Dark Prophecy :

I already made a post when gw spoiled it earlier this week. We need a faq to use it in tournament and to resolve 2 Archaons Fighting. Still it's fucking Busted ^^

The Eight Circles of the Varanguards

With this power we learn that Varanguard are in fact intern and they get a spot in one of the 8 Circle once they have completed 8 tasks ^^

In game when you choose this Legion you give one Circle Keyword to all Varanguard in the army. So you can choose any circle from one to 8th. Each one grants an extra power.

First Circle

Free re-setup before the game start. Neat in some Battleplan.

Second Circle

Improve the Bravery Bomb and add 1d3 to the numbers of the models that flee. With Archaon already giving -2 you are on -3 + 1d3 on bravery test.

Third Circle

Interesting but would need a large number of Varanguards to justify it. but if you go full Vanranguard it's not bad.

Fourth Circle

The range is really short but if you are camping a cover with your cavalry it's nice.

Fifth Circle

Now we talk! full reroll against heroes and Monster is damn good.

Sixth Circle

My choice! The plan is simple, Charge, pile in, pile in a second-time Problem solved.

Seventh Circle

You need to destroy a unit not a model to trigger it. Sure it's not hard to destroy stuff with Varanguards..still, it's not that great.

Eight Circle

Classy ! and with small units you can easily fly over defence line and charge where it matters.

With the 8 Circle of powers, you have a bit more options for your Varanguards and it's cool. Still, some of them are not that great...

Warscroll Battalion : Overlords of Chaos

Overlord of Chaos is a Warscroll Battalion costing 120 points requiring 3-6 vanguards units. So it's 900 points + 800 for Archaon +120 = 1820 points for 10 models. The reward is that you can have a second Circle Keywords for flying & +1 dmg when charging Varanguards ^^

That's it for the Host of the Everchosen !! Some strong powers and a completely broken Command ability ^^At least we have now a good excuse to play Archaon ^^

/Cheers.
Bob.

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Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
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Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello everyone !!

Part 2 of the Slaves to Darkness Battletome, you can check the first part here if you want.

Slaves to Darkness Battle Traits : There are 3 of them, the first one is simply the obligation to choose a sub-faction, the Aura of chaos is buff aura based on the Chaos Marks and lastly eye of the gods is the road to Daemonhood during a battle. After Battle traits, we'll check the spell list granted to Slaves to Darkness

Damned Legions

There is 4 sub-faction to choose from, and you must choose one of them, gaining the corresponding Keywords.

Note : Some Warscroll may have already a different Damned Legion Keywords. In this case you can still use the unit but can't apply the bonus. There is a lot to say on each Legions so i'll keep it for the next post.

Aura of Chaos

Older Warscrolls had the Mark Of Chaos already included and you could choose one effect depending on the God. Now it's an army-wide rule.

Each Slave to Darkness heroes in the army has one of the following Aura. Each aura has a first power and a second if you are the general.

Khorne

Maybe the strongest aura, reroll 1 bubble on every khorne hero and +1 to wounds bubble on the General is tasty. Off course the Wholly within shit is hard on a 12" ae :(

Nurgle

For the general it's more meta dependant Aura, having a -1 to hit bubble against ranged is interesting if you need it.
The +1 wound on a 6 when rolling wound is good if you have a large volume of attacks.

Tzeentch

Again the general aura depends on the Meta but between Cities and Nagash spell spam, it's good.

Reroll save roll of 1 is ok, not great considering the number of way to can reroll save in the army but still it's solid.

Slaanesh

Slaanesh Daemonette aura for everyone wholly within 12" is cool especially if you have high-value attacks, like Archaon, for example, ^^ or Lance during a charge. Reroll charge is a very good ability and having an aura bubble is going to be useful.

Undivided

Wow not bad, Immune to Battleshock test for Heroes aura and FNP6 for the general and wholly within 12".

Eye of the Gods

Eye of the Gods is the Chaos Rewards mechanism. It's funny I still remember the gift cards from the Chaos Box from Warhammer. Ho god, i loved these. Anyway, each Era had some sort of mechanism.

Today this is :

Apply to heroes with Eye of the Gods Keyword. That all the heroes but Archaon and Gaunts. If you slew a hero during melee phase at the end of the phase you roll 2d6 and check the table

Honestly, the rewards are very good !! Good enough to justify that you hunt enemy heroes with your own! Sadly roll of Seven and duplicate will give nothing :( Still it's a very good rule if you remember it during the heat of the battle ^^

Spell Lore : Lore of the Damned

6 Spells, each wizard can choose one from the list.

Binding Damnation

Spite Tongue Curse

Whispers of Chaos

Mask of Darkness

Call to Glory

Ruinous Vigour

Very good spell list with a lot of different option. To me, Binding Damnation is Vital if you plan to chain pile in with Varanguard or Chaos Lord.

That's it for the Allegiance and spells rules. Will do the Mini faction tonight i think!

/Cheers.
Bob.

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Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
Slaves to Darkness Allegiance and spells review
Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello everyone !!

Sadly due to the powers of the Chaos gods, my Slaves to Darkness Battletome review was lost in the warp :(. Having to start over this morning I'm going to change the review format and do it in 3 or 4 smaller posts.

Then Let's starts with the Warscrolls and points !! In the Slaves to Darkness Battletome, there are a lot of Warscrolls, most of them were changed. Also, Points for most of the units were also modified. A few recent warscrolls coming from Warcry were also added.

So let's starts with the Lords !!!

Lords & Heroes of Chaos

Lots of modification and a few new entries here !!

Archaon The EverChosen

Off course I have to start by the Destroyer of Worlds (or not if i account for the recent Old World Announcement). Anyway, Archaon is the boss, he was previously in a very small battletome and was sad to be alone :(
Now is back as the big Slaves to Darkness boss and he delivers the pain !

Change on his Warscrolls are interesting and his points went up a lot !
He's now perching at 800 points !!

• Only change on his stat line is the movement, he starts at 14" (was 12") and it goes down the more he takes damage.


• Slayer of King sword and Dorghar Claws are now, rend -2 and the 3 heads hit on a 3+.


• Armour of Morkar got a buff also with a 4+ against mortal and deal bounce one mortal on a 6.


• Crown is +2 -2 Bravery in a 12" zone.


• The Eye force adversary to reroll 6 so it's a bit better.


• Slayers of kings don't auto kill monster anymore only heroes.


• Three-Headed Titan rules was changed, now you don't need to eat something you just choose during the hero phase. The 1d3 heal each turn is very good ^^


• Old command ability Warlord Without equal is not a passive giving one extra Command per turn. Wow that's good.


• Still, a lvl2 mage and can choose spell from the Chaos Spell list.

Command Abilities
he has 2 but they work in duo ^^. By my Will is range less and allow one unit to fight when a model is killed (even if he already fight).
All-seeing Dominion is triggered when a command point is spent, you can spend one and use this command ability, and on a 2+ you get a free By My Will. A bit risky buy allow you to react during the opponent turn.

Yea Archaon is now a Monster and that is without talking about the new allegiance abilities offered by the Battletome. But he gets to choose one Chaos marks. Khorne make him reroll1 to hit and +1to wounds for exemple. He can also lead his own Sub Faction (and he should). More on this later...

Varanguard

Gaunt Summoner

Big new thing is that he can auto summon one unit of daemon or 6 furies once per battle. he gained one life, he spell was altered and deal one mortal on a 5+ and you roll for each model in the unit.
Alas he went +80pts now at 260. But the summon is a very good options

Chaos Lord on Manticore

Solid choice now !

Sorcerer Lord on Manticore

+60 points (260 now), Same change to the Manticore.
Orricular vision buffed to reroll all saves roll (and not only one) but ranged is the wholly within 12" (Ho god i hate this wholly within shit)
Still only a lvl 1 mage :( but Win of Chaos is so powerful now, range 18"and eat large unit !!!

Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount

up by 30 pts to 70 now, gained one wound and his regen ability was changed.

Chaos Lord On KarKadrak

New lord of Chaos from the Slaves to Darkness Star Collecting, Honestly super expensive at 250 pts !! but the amount of attacks he makes is great and he can deal D3 mortal wounds on multiple units close by. Still he's kind of slow, with only 9 wounds...

Chaos Lord

Only 110 pts now, gained one wound, lost the one per battle reaper blade attack.
But he gain : a strong attack profile fitting a Chaos Lord, a very strong fight again command ability, still hindered by the wholly within 12" but you can use it more than once per combat phase and not only during your turn. !!! Combined with by my Will from Archaon you could attack 3 times (4 with Varanguard ^^).
Very good choice now !!
Still i am not sure of his weapons options is it reaper blade + Steel or Flail or is it reaper blade + Steel or Flail Alone ?

Chaos Sorceress Lord

ALERT: This is the new King of Support! Costing 110 points now. Grant the Orricular Vision to reroll all save and Daemonic Power spell grant reroll to hit and wounds.

Bad points : Have no use as an allied now :(, can't use it on daemon prince and Belakor :(

Still it's a super strong choice now !

Orgroid Myrmidon

Cute new choice, 140 points is expensive but protect cultist from Battleshock ...Model is awesome starts are so so :(

Be'Lakor

240 pts (lost 40) is a nice buff but, rend nerfed, shadow form wording nerf him also sad time :( On the other hand, Dark Master is more reliable on a 1-4.

Daemon Prince

Lots of new toys for the Daemon prince, +1 to hit on the charge, Hellforged blade Buffed, fight first, Command Abilities based on the god. At least now there is a point to transform someone in a Deamon Prince!

Still +50 pts he's now at 210 ! But as you can use the Daemon prince Sub faction it's interesting !!

DarkOath Warqueen and Chieftain

Chieftain gets a weakened by my will that works only on Cultist and Marauders.

At least we have 2 extra Heroes if you want to play marauder and Cultist. They both cost 90pts (+1)

Ok that's it for lord and heroes now let's take a look at the Units!

Chaos Units

Warshrine

Small points increase (+10) he's now at 170. Aura went in wholly within Wording (behh) but the starting range is 18. Prayers were buffed A LOT, attack stat line of the Sacrificial blade is now very good (like super good !)
It's a win !!!

Chosen

Chariot Horse and Gorebeast

Both were buffed but their points skyrocketed they are now at 120 and 150 !!! So yea they move faster (+4" or +1") deal 2 damage with Chaos Greatblade, more reliable Mortal wounds on the charge...
Gorebeast lost the double attack on 8+ charge ...

Hmm so so

Chaos Knight

Glorious new models, 180pts for 5 (+20pts), new weapon option with for champion with Cursed Flail. Ensorceled weapons got a much-needed buff with +1 to wounds and -1 rend. Lances have the standard 2dmg rend -2 on charge but only 2 attacks.

Solid unit with awesome models !!

Chaos Warrrior

Buff everywhere and the price is now 100 pts for 5.
+1 bravery, +1 to wounds on hands weapons, +1 to hit on halberd, paired weapons is rerolling all attack and not just one. Same if you 10+ models you can reroll save ! Nurgle chaos warriors in a cover with altar super going to be super popular ^^ with 2+ RR save ^^ and 6+ fnp

Chaos Marauders

ALERT !! Incredible unit !! I don't understand why we don't have new marauders if they become so good! Price is 150 for 20 or 30 for 400.
Axe get an extra attack, Flail is 4+ 3+ now they get +1 to hit roll if they are 10 and -1 rend if they are 20 !

Also, they now have Boundless Ferocity: On a charge transform the lower dice in a 6 ! WTF? minimum charge is now 7 , average is 10. Stacking the Darkoath warqueen grant +3 threat range for a whooping: move 6 + charge 13 ! with +1hit, -1 rend. add a bit of buffing and they are super scary now (also you can summon some now)

Chaos Marauders on Horses

Less buff than Marauders on foot but they are quite good at 90pts for 5. in a group of then, they have a decent ranged game with 3+ 3+ rend -1 and 24" threat range.

Cultist

Same points cost the same rules. Honestly compared to Marauders why bother, they don't even get Chaos Mark. Unless I missed something it's incredibly poor integration.

Spire Tyrants could be Marauders for all I care, they cost 70pts for 9 models so it's more than Marauders ^^I must be missing something!

Warcry Monster

Both are at 100 pts and looks good ^^

That's it for the Warscrolls and points review. I am very disappointed by the Warcry / Cult rules why even bother? On the plus side Iconic Slave to Darkness, units are strong, marauders, warriors, knigts are all super good choice. The altar is incredible, lords are good... If you ignore Cultist it's brilliant Battletome.

In my next post (this afternoon) I'll do the Allegiance Abilities and the Spells !!

/Cheers.
Bob.

Slaves to Darkness Battletome review navigation :

Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
Slaves to Darkness Allegiance and spells review
Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello everyone !!

If you look closely at the image you can see a Ogroid Myrmidon on the right. That probably mean they are in the Slave to Darkness army (i hope for a Warherd keyword as well ^^)

Love this model !!

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

GW released today a small preview of Slave to Darkness rules. As usual we get a mix of Aura buff, conditional rules and so on...
But they also previewed one command ability, the one Archaon Himself can use if he's the general of the army. I really think this command ability is cumbersome to use as written in a tournament. The fact that you have to keep the dice secret for up 2 player turns is incredibly unpractical in a big event. Ho, I agree the rule is super interesting and allow you to take total control of the game ...
Even if you roll 1 to 3 you can still bluff force your adversary to play defensive. If he doesn't take the bait the power is optional and you can still roll the dice^^ and the opposite is also true. Imagine you roll a 5 but don't want to go first next turn you can fall back on rolling the dice.
All of this happens while your dice result is kept secret...What happens if you bump dice or if the opponent bumps the dice? Do you call a ref to check the result each time you roll ?

Also what happens if each player play one Archaon? Yea the rule is super cool but awkward to use ^^ I'll wait the 15 days errata before planning an army on this power ^^

Other than that the Khorne Aura is pretty tasty, is that the Chaos Mark for heroes and General?

What do you think ?

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

What an amazing box, the details are great, loads of extra heads with male, female, helmeted !! To be honest I like these face a lot more than the Sisters.

Chaos Warriors

Chaos Knights

Damn that Optional Champion is incredible !! and the knights are super great !

Chaos Lord

This one is maybe the best AOS model for a long time since the Avatar and the Keeper maybe.

Conclusion

The Slaves to Darkness range is awesome, I hope they add a few more things. But between Archaon, The Varanguards, The Warcry units, the Monsters from warcry and some old Slaves Units there is a very large choice.

I'M ALL IN

(and i just started an IronJaws Army ^^)

/Cheers.
Bob.