GW just revealed the first new rules for the Chaos Slaves to Darkness battletome. How do they look? Check out the first wave of goodies on the way!
Warhammer Community gave us a first look at the next AoS faction to get overhauled. Here is everything we’ve seen for Chaos and Slaves to Darkness as far as rules go.
Auras of Chaos Gods
The Aura of Chaos ability allows Slaves to Darkness heroes to enhance nearby units that share their Chaos mark. The General has an even stronger Aura of Chaos than their kin, rewarding you for fighting in close formation with some brilliant abilities.
To show an element of their chosen god’s favor, Slaves to Darkness heroes and generals are getting brand new auras that boost nearby allies. The aura of Khorne makes your melee capabilities pretty brutal. Getting a free reroll of 1’s and +1 to wound is a nice little bubble to keep handy next to some dudes that you know will find their way into combat.
The cool thing is that you can mix and match different auras of gods (and even Chaos undivided) in-game.
Each god, along with Chaos Undivided, has a mark (a sign of favour, if you will). You can mix and match these within your army, offering loads of thematic and tactical variety for your forces. For instance, your fast-moving forward troops could possess the Mark of Slaanesh, while your Wizards could bear the Mark of Tzeentch. What’s more, the Mark of Chaos keyword allows you to interact with a number of allied units.
It Looks Like Heroes Can Receive “Gifts” Mid-Game
GW didn’t go into detail, but it looks like after your hero does something to get noticed by the Chaos gods, they can choose to give them a gift by rolling randomly.
Roll after you slay a hero or a monster and you could see some incredible new powers, including transformation into a Daemon Prince. Or you might transform into a Spawn – the gods have a sick sense of humour like that.
Archaon Looks to Have a New Home in the Book
Archaon might finally be in the right book now and won’t be a part of that awkward list-building any more. Based on a short quote, it looks like Archaon is just a normal option for the army.
To you, perhaps Chaos is about insanity-spreading menageries of monsters or hyper-elite vanguards led by Archaon himself. The new Slaves to Darkness book lets you represent all of it with four new sub-factions!
Ravagers Sub-Faction Gives Your Plenty of Rules Options
Ravagers are Warriors that all bring something different to the table. As long as you’ve loaded up on Mortals and non-named Heroes, you can give up to five Command Traits to the characters of your army. Keeping things fluid and to show the sudden rise and fall of power in the battlefield, each turn, you can select which hero to be your General for the round.
Another awesome added bonus is that Generals can summon in Marauders, Marauder Horsemen, or Warcry Warbands to the field. They have to come in from a table edge though, to show that your General has plenty of followers nearby that will hear his calls for help.
Cabalists Can Hijack Endless Spells
If you’re magic-hungry, the Cabalists might be your pick. With Endless Spells not going anywhere and most players not having any problem bringing them in games, the Cabalists Wizard can actually overtake Endless Spells and control them…at the cost of a few lives.
Despoilers Focus on Daemonic Powers to Their Disposal
Despoilers focus in on drawing their power from Daemonic forces. And with that, their Daemon Princes are looking to be particularly nasty. If you’ve got a bunch of Daemons you’re just waiting to use, blow the dust of those Daemon Princes and watch them reshape the terrain in-game around them. They can turn off LOS for units and possibly get a few free mortal wounds in. (Note that Twisted Dominion says A terrain feature). meaning that you can use these abilities on your enemy’s faction terrain. For the most part, that won’t come up in games too much, but for the missions with weird deployments, you have to remember that their own terrain feature is a valid target!
Archaon Will Help You Control the Game
And big man Archaon himself is getting the Dark Prophecy Command Ability. This ability is worded a little weird as you roll the die, hide it, and then play out the battle round. Once that is done, you CAN reveal what you rolled and potentially take a double turn or force your opponent to play their round before you. This is a weird, gamey aspect of controlling the game, but very powerful with some devoted thinking.
Overall, we’ve just scratched the surface on the faction and should be seeing even more in the days ahead. But based on what’s been previewed, what do you think is the strongest rules set of all the sub-factions? Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, and sign up to get your free hobby updates newsletter (with discount coupon codes) each morning as well!
About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
