We have focused a lot on the daemons of Khrone in the new battletome, but for this latest army list, I wanted to dive into the mortals for 2000 points.
Personally, I have always liked the aesthetic of the mortals more than the daemons. The original starter set was the first AoS miniatures I painted, so the Khorne mortals have a special place in my heart.
Let’s start by looking at what new special rules Khrone brings to the table:
Special Rules:
Blood Tithe Points: You gain a blood tithe point every time any unit is removed from the battlefield. There are two tables in the new book for you to spend Blood Tithe points on. One which does a variety of effects from an auto dispel to adding attacks to all Khorne units. The other table is a summoning table, where you spend something like 2 points for 5 bloodletters to 8 points for a bloodthirster. Once you choose one though you use all your blood tithe points even if what you choose costs less than the number you have.
Unique Artifacts, Command Traits, Prayers, and you can choose a “slaughterhost”.
Locus of Fury: You can re-roll hit rolls of 1 for attacks made by Khorne Daemons while they are wholly within 12” of any friendly Khorne Daemon Heroes, or wholly within 16” of any friendly Khorne Greater Daemons.
Skull Alter: A zero costing scenery piece that lets you re-roll prayers and judgments for Khorne Priests within 8” of it. It also subtracts 1 from casting rolls for wizards while they are within 16” of it.
The First 1000 Points:
For me, the best place to start is always either a starter set (no longer available) or a start collecting box. So, for this let’s pick up two start collecting boxes and build off from that.
- 6 Mighty Skullcrushers: Battleline 1 of 3, 360 Points
- 10 Bloodwarriors: Battleline 2 of 3, 200 Points
- 10 Bloodwarriors: Battleline 3 of 3, 200 Points
- Slaughterpriest: Leader 1 of 6, 100 Points
- Slaughterpriest: Leader 2 of 6, 100Points
- Total of 960 Points
Mighty Skullcrushers: Move 8”, 3+ Save, 6 Bravery, 5 Wounds
They have either the Axe: Range 1”, 3 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, for 1 Damage, or Glaive: Range 1”, 3 Attacks, Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 1 Damage. Then the Hooves: Range 1”, 3 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, for 1 Damage. The leader adds 1 to his attacks, banner adds 2 to their bravery, and the horn adds 1” to run and charge rolls. When this unit completes a charge roll a dice for each model on a 2+ they deal a mortal wound, or D3 mortal wounds if there are 6 or more models in this unit.
Bloodwarriors: Move 5”, 4+ Save, 6 Bravery, 2 Wounds
They have Goreaxe and then a single model (1 in 10) carries a Goreglaive. The Goreaxe is” Range 1”, 2 Attacks, Hitting on a 3+, Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage. The Goreglaive is Range 1”, 2 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 2 Damage. If they carry duel axes you re-roll hit rolls of 1 otherwise whenever you roll a 6 on a save roll you deal a mortal wound back to your opponent. When a model is killed in this unit it can pile in and make an attack before it is removed from play. Finally, the leader adds 1 to his Goreaxe attacks and the banner adds 1 to the Bravery of the unit.
Slaughterpriest: Move 6”, 5+ Save, 8 Bravery, 6 Wounds
Armed with either a Bloodbathed Axe or a Hackblade and Wrath-Hammer, the axe is Range 2”, 3 Attacks, Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 3+, for 2 Damage. The Hackblade: Range 1”, 3 Attacks, Hitting on a 3+, Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage. Wrath-Hammer: Range 3”, D3 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage.
I love this as a starter set as you get two battleline units (big enough to include the special weapon) and one of my most improved units with a block of 6 skullcrushers. You will want to take them in blocks of 6 to make sure you can get the D3 mortal wounds on a charge rather than just 1.
Finishing out the List:
Let’s make your Skullcrushers a battleline unit by picking up a Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut and making him your general. Then we will add a couple more leaders with a Bloodstoker and a Bloodscecrator. (look for these on eBay to buy them individually, otherwise, the only place to get them is to start collecting goretide) After that let’s round out our remaining points adding 10 of the always sturdy Skullreapers and some more attack buffing Wrathmongers. For our last leader slot, lets go crazy and add the hard-hitting Skullgrinder
- 6 Mighty Skullcrushers: Battleline 1 of 3, 360 Points
- 10 Bloodwarriors: Battleline 2 of 3, 200 Points
- 10 Bloodwarriors: Battleline 3 of 3, 200 Points
- 5 Skullreapers: No Unit Type, 180 Points
- 5 Skullreapers: No Unit Type, 180 Points
- 5 Wrathmongers: No Unit Type, 140 Points
- Slaughterpriest: Leader 1 of 6, 100 Points
- Slaughterpriest: Leader 2 of 6, 100Points
- Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut: Leader 3 of 6 (General), 160 Points
- Bloodstoker: Leader 4 of 6, 80 Points
- Bloodscecrator: Leader 5 of 6, 140 Points
- Skullgrinder: Leader 6 of 6, 80 Points
- Total 1920
Skullreapers: Move 5”, 4+ Save, 7 Bravery, 3 Wounds
They have two attacks the first is a blade attack: Range 1”, 4 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, for 1 Damage. Then the leader has a Vicious Mutation: Range 1”, 1 Attack, Hitting on a 3+, Wounding on a 4+, with -1 Rend, for D3 Damage. You can re-roll hit rolls if the target unit has 5 or more models when you roll a hit roll of a 6 it deals a mortal wound in addition to regular hit, and the banner adds 1 to charge rolls for the unit. This unit is immune to battleshock. In addition each time a model for this unit is slain and on a5+ that enemy unit suffers D3 mortal wounds.
Wrathmongers: Move 5”, 5+ Save, 7 Bravery, 3 Wounds
They have a flail attack: Range 2”, 4 Attacks, Hitting on a 4+, Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 1 Damage. Add 1 to hit rolls if they charged this turn, the leader adds 1 additional attack, and when a model is slain from this unit roll a dice on a 2-5 the enemy suffers 1 mortal wound and on a 6 D3 mortal wounds. Finall,y add 1 to attacks of all Khrone units wholly within 8” of this unit.
Lord of Khrone on Juggernaut: Move 8”, 3+ Save, 9 Bravery, 8 Wounds
He has an Axe: Range 1”, 3 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+ (wound rolls of 6 do 3 damage), with -1 Rend, for D3 Damage. Then Hooves: Range 1”, 3 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, for 1 Damage. Whenever this model suffers a wound or mortal wound from a spell on a 5+ ignore it. When you complete a charge roll a dice on a 2+ this model deals D3 mortal wounds. Command Ability: Pick 3 friendly Khorne Mortal units wholly within 16” that made a charge this turn. You can re roll wound rolls of 1 for them.
Bloodstoker: Move 6”, 4+ Save, 8 Bravery, 5 Wounds
He has two melee weapons the first is the torture blade: Range 1”, 3 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, for 1 Damage. The second is a Blood Whip: range 3”, 3 Attacks, Hitting on a 3+, Wounding on a 4+, for 1 Damage. At the start of the movement phase, you can select 1 Khorne Mortal unit wholly within 8” and add 3” to run and charge rolls, and allow them to re-roll failed wound rolls.
Bloodscecrator: Move 4”, 3+ Save, 9 Bravery, 5 Wounds
He has 1 melee ax attack: Range 1”, 4 Attacks, Hitting and Wounding on a 3+, with -1 Rend, for 1 Damage. All Wizards within 16” of them have to re roll successful casting rolls. All Khrone units wholly within 16” add 1 to their attacks.
Skullgrinder: Move 5”, 4+ Save, 8 Bravery, 5 Wounds
He has 1 melee weapons the Anvil: Range 2”, 3 Attacks, Hitting on a 3+, Wounding on a 2+, with -1 rend, for 3 Damage. At the end of the combat phase pick 1 enemy monster or hero within 2” and on a 2+ they take D3 mortal wounds. Finally, add 1 to the Bravery of all Khrone Mortal units wholly within 12” of this model.
For the last 80 points, I would take some Judgements, going with the skulls and bleeding icon if you are going to face a caster heavy army, otherwise, it is hard to go wrong with the wrath axe.
Loadouts:
For this army, I am going to select the Goretide slaughter host and give my general the artifact making him a tank. After that, I will take the gorefists on my blood warriors to dish out the mortal wounds, and then the glaives on the skullcrushers for the rend. For the slaughterpriests use whatever weapon model you can find the cheapest and then give one the Resanguination prayer to heal hurt hero models, and the other brazen fury to make a unit immune to battleshock.
Tactics:
For me, the goal is to whip the Mighty Skullcrushers and get them into combat on a charge turn 1 if I can and dish out those sweet mortal wounds. If you cannot do that set them up for a turn 2 charge as they dish out the most damage when they charge. The blood warriors are good for holding objectives so I would push forward with them and try and take any middle ground objectives with one or both units of them. The Slaughterpriests are great at dishing out mortal wounds and summoning those judgements so make sure you place them accordingly.
You Skullreapers can do some serious damage if buffed so you can whip them and or place them within buffing distance of the Bloodscecrator and Wrathmongers. The Skullgrinder is there to boost your bravery and packs a huge punch but with only 5 wounds keep him close to another unit. He can reach over the tops of Bloodwarriors and Skullreapers though with a two-inch reach and that is where I would want to put him. Finally, one thing you are lacking is a big model count unit or a large behemoth type of model, to fix that I would save up 7-8 blood tithe points and plan on summoning either a block of 20 bloodletters on an objective or summoning a Bloodthirster for some board control.
There you go a 2000 point list of mortals that starts with very affordable start collecting boxes. If you go this route I could see possible swapping out the 10 blood warriors and a unit of Wrathmongers for another block of 6 Mighty Skullcrushes as that D3 mortal wounds ability is hard to pass up. But I think this is a solid list that is able to adapt to most scenarios in matched play.
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