Hey there! I’m Kian Alden (the Intern) and I’m here to talk to you about my newest, and most ambitious army: The Blood Pact! In this article I’ll be going over my history as a gamer, and how I came to decide on a Blood Pact army, as well as some list building and tactics.
I started playing Warhammer 40k way back when I was nine years old, and the first army that I chose to drown in glue and thick paint was a Chaos Space Marines force. I’m not entirely sure why I chose Chaos, but something about them and their story called to me and has always brought me back to the ranks of traitors, heretics, and madmen time after time. When I first picked up Chaos the legendary 3.5 Codex was still in use, and so I was spoiled for choice with awesome characters, units, alternate force orgs, Legion specific rules, and fluffy wargear. Unfortunately the state of bliss that was the 3.5 Chaos book was not to last, and I feared it would never be seen again….but my prayers have been answered!
At the start of my three month period of servitude…I mean “internship,” I possessed nothing but a ramshackle Ork army and two 300 point Infinity forces. I quickly realized that my time with Reece and Frankie was the perfect moment for a rebirth, a reawakening of my love for Chaos and the joys that I had playing them in all their fluffy glory. I set about myself for knowledge, scouring the latest tomes of dark knowledge and once my eyes found the unholy pages of the re-release of The Siege of Vraks I knew I was home. As I read the fluff and army lists of the Vraks book, my thoughts flew immediately to my favorite fluff event in the entire canon: The Sabbat Worlds Crusade. The Sabbat Worlds hold a special allure to me because they created the most fearsome human (read: not Astartes) military organization available to Chaos; the Blood Pact.
| Khorne Renegades (Kain’s Chosen) | ||
| Unending Tide Detachment | Size | Cost |
| HQ | ||
| Renegade Command Squad, Master of the Horde, Khorne Devotion | 5 | 65 |
| Elites | ||
| Blood Slaughterer w/ impaler | 1 | 135 |
| Blood Slaughterer w/ impaler | 1 | 135 |
| Troops | ||
| Renegade Infantry Platoon | ||
| 1x Command squad | 15 | 45 |
| 3x Infantry Squad of 15 w/ 3 flamers | 30 | 180 |
| Renegade Infantry Platoon | ||
| 1x Command squad | 15 | 45 |
| 3x Infantry Squad of 15 w/ 3 flamers | 30 | 180 |
| 2x Renegade Veteran Squads of 5 | 10 | 70 |
| The Purge Detachment | ||
| HQ | ||
| Renegade Command Squad | 5 | 40 |
| Elites | ||
| 2x Renegade Disciple Squad of 5 | 10 | 70 |
| Heavy Support | ||
| Battery of 2 Earthshakers, 7 crew | 16 | 128 |
| Battery of 2 Rapier Laser Destroyers, 2 crew | 6 | 56 |
| Battery of 2 Rapier Laser Destroyers, 2 crew | 6 | 56 |
| Battery of 2 Earthshakers, 7 crew | 16 | 128 |
| Detachment Totals | 166 | 1333 |
| Khorne Daemonkin CAD | Size | Cost |
| HQ | ||
| Herald of Khorne | 1 | 55 |
| Herald of Khorne | 1 | 55 |
| Troops | ||
| Bloodletters | 8 | 80 |
| Bloodletters | 8 | 80 |
| Fast Attack | ||
| Heldrake | 1 | 170 |
| Fortification | ||
| Aegis Defense Lines w/ Comms Relay | 1 | 70 |
| 510 |
Grand Total: 1843 points
Note: I can’t legally run this list (yet) as per ITC rules and am waiting on one of two things to happen: first, if the latest ITC vote rules that I can take two of the same detachment, I’ll switch The Purge to a CAD and throw the second blood slaughterer in there and move a battery into the Unending Tide, and second, if Forgeworld gets off their asses and releases an FAQ for Khorne Daemonkin I can move both Blood Slaughterers into the KDK CAD. In the event that neither of the above situations comes to pass, I have a plan to tweak the list slightly.
This army list is what I came up with to represent a Blood Pact army ready for war. I felt that in order to represent the fanaticism, and Khornate nature of the Blood Pact I needed a way to flood the board with soldiers who didn’t care if they died. The Unending Tide formation allows me to do just this. I can literally drown my opponent in bodies while hammering them with artillery and anti-tank fire, using my Khorne Daemonkin to harass, secure objectives, and as shock assault support when I can tie targets up with my troopers. My favorite units in the list, the Blood Slaughterers, use their impalers to score charges on the turn that they deep strike by pulling an unfortunate target into base-to-base with them. The Slaughterers have excellent synergy with Khorne Daemonkin who can use blood tithe to summon units of Daemons with icons (and icons, unlike homing beacons, work immediately) that allow them to deep strike with no scatter. The Heldrake allows me to summon within 12″, and then the Slaughterers appear where they are needed most without scatter.
I’ll be posting further to talk about how the army plays, but for now I’ll just show you some photos of the work that I’ve done so far on the army!
Army shot showing the ranks of Pactsmen, with the Master of the Horde and his Command Squad in front.
Another shot, showing the Renegade infantry units, Cuddles (Slaughterer 1), and some of the artillery
All but one of the Infantry squads is shown here (I still need 15 more bodies), should have them ready in the next two days.
Another photo of Cuddles, showing the majority of the Daemonkin CAD with the two Heralds of Khorne in the front. I’ll be spraying the Daemons tonight.
The Earthshaker Batteries, and showing off my least favorite model in the army: The Heldrake (I hate painting this one)
The rest of the Earthshaker batteries, and the units of Khorne Daemons used for Blood Tithe.
The other twin, Snuggles!
As you can see, most of the models have at least a base coat down, and although I really should be speed painting these guys with a three color maximum, I’m doing many more coats and colors because I honestly can’t stand three color models.
NOTES ON MODELS:
I used mostly GW models and bits for this project, but the heads that I settled on are a blend of: MaxMini Fallen Legionaries heads, MaxMini Gas Mask heads, and Warhammer Marauder Horsemen heads. For my Earthshakers, I used four Tamiya WW2 German Flak 36 88mm cannons. For the Rapier Batteries (not pictured) I’m using Mantic Games Forge Father Support Booster artillery.
So that’s where I’m currently at, and I’m planning on attending the Pasadena GT next weekend so I’ve got a lot of work to do in the next six days. I’ll be posting articles in the future about Chaos (specifically Khorne) hobby projects and tactics so stay tuned for that!
As always, please give me feedback on any aspect of the article and let me know if you want to see any more pictures of anything specific!
The Intern,
Signing off!