Hello everybody, Danny from TFG Radio again to talk to you about the World Eater Detachments from Traitor Legions! Of course, if you want more tactics, head over to Frontline’s Tactics Corner!
With the release of Traitor Legions, all of the nine traitor legions receive their own Decurion style detachment, and we are going to go through the World Eater’s and overview their special rules for taking this Decurion and the formations available to them! I will focus primarily on the formations that really sing Khorne’s praises and add the most bang for the buck. Fluffy is cool and all, but having the tools to win never hurts.
World Eaters Butcherhorde
Core: Chaos Warband. Maelstrom of Gore
Command: Lords of Chaos
Auxiliary: Helforged Warpack. Heldrake Terror Pack. Cult of Destruction. Fist of the Gods. Raptor Talon. Terminator Annihilation Force. Favoured of Chaos. Trinity of Blood. Lost and the Damned. Spawn.
Special Rules:
Blood Mad!: After deployment and Infiltrate but before the first turn begins, all non-vehicle models may immediately move 2d6 inches (roll for each individual unit). Also, all non-vehicles (except for Walkers) get to reroll failed charges!
So, the big thing here is obviously that you immediately get move anywhere from 2-12 inches before the game begins. As World Eaters want to get up close and personal, this really helps them close the gap immediately. It also doesn’t count as a Scout move, so units are free to charge, and well, Raptors, Warp Talons, or Bikers now legitimately have a chance (not a great chance) at the first turn charge. The re-roll charges also helps that, but even outside of trying to get a first turn charge, a reroll to charge never, ever hurts.
So, with two Core choices, both are very much worth considering. The Maelstrom of Gore is the quintessential World Eater formation, featuring Kharn or a Chaos Lord with 4 to 8 units of Khorne Berserkers. As part of the formation specific bonuses, Berserkers gain Fleet (a bit redundant with the Detachment benefit, but if they need to run, this makes it much more likely they won’t just shuffle forward 1 inch), and they also add 3 inches to their charge rolls, so now you have a unit that can consistently hit a 10 inch charge without much of a problem. That’s a roughly 16 inch threat range on an infantry unit! And let’s not forget the Decurion’s benefit of 2d6 before the game, and now all of a sudden, you could have 15 Berserkers with Kharn 32 inches passed your deployment line by the end of Turn 1! Granted, that’s all super, super corner case, but in a larger tournament format, it will happen at some point. Suddenly, Berserkers on foot are actually viable!
The other is the standard Chaos Warband, and the interesting thing about this formation is that it brings massed Objective Secured to the table. This suddenly makes the World Eaters an army that doesn’t just punch things but also wins the maelstrom. With all of the layered buffs on World Eaters, even your basic CSM squad with pistols and chainswords suddenly are a distinct melee threat all while having that sweet, sweet Obsec. Let’s not forget the 2d6 pre-game movement to allow better positioning to camp objectives. They are cheaper than Berserkers and hit just hard with more special weapon options, but they are only WS4, not 5 like Berserkers. I can definitely see a foot-slogging horde of CSMs in this formation being a great answer to Battle Company. You also get to take Raptors or Bikers in the Warband, and both get the 2d6 move, so with them, you can easily build for the chance of some major first turn charges. Not too shabby at all, and a Chaos Lord on Juggernaut definitely likes to have some meat shields.
So, there are the standard 8 auxiliary choices, but let’s focus on just a few that really work for World Eaters.
The first is the Raptor Talon. You need a Lord (who gets a free Jump Pack) and 3-5 units of Raptors or Warp Talons. Warp Talons are far too pricy for what they bring to the table, but Raptors with Fearless are 100% better, and being able to assault out of Deepstrike? Very nice. Yes, yes, they are Disordered when doing so, so no Rage or Furious Charge, but you have to think two turns ahead. If a squad drops down, targets a small, weak unit that it can kill in 2 rounds of combat, once it is free, now you have the full power of Raptors that have 4 attacks and Strength 5 on the charge. Let’s also not forget that even a small 5 man squad is a great delivery system for a Chaos Lord, especially one with some of the shiny weapons that World Eaters get. The disordered charge doesn’t matter too much when you have 4+D6 attacks from the Lord. This is not a formation to put your Warlord into, but a cheap, hard hitting Chaos Lord with 3 small, backfield-disrupting units is not a bad thing at all. Heck, if the Raptors just Deepstrike to take a corner objective from your opponent, that’s a net positive.
Another choice that will meld well with the Butcherhorde is the Helforged Warpack. This formation lets you bring 3 Maulerfiends (the only legitimate choice here) and a Warpsmith tax. The key here is that the Maulerfiends get to reroll charges (both dice), they move 12 inches inherently, and one gains a 4++ save. Not too bad at all, plus if the Alpha dies, the others gain Rage. This formation lets you add some faster armor that will either be ignored by your opponent until it is too late or act as some nice fire magnets as the rest of your army closes the gap. They also bring some great Anti-Tank in melee, which the World Eaters don’t have as much of besides Strength 9 Powerfists. Is it the most competitive choice? No, but it adds some great flavor and character to a World Eaters army.
Now, this choice is definitely for Funsies, but it may actually work better than you imagine with World Eaters. That is of course the Favoured of Chaos, 1 Daemon Prince and 3-5 units of Possessed. First off, the Possessed and the Daemon Prince get the 2d6 bonus move and reroll charges, so this is damn nice to begin with. Giving the Prince wings means that he now has a real chance at first turn charges as well, and getting a Prince into combat is super delicious. When I go into the Artefacts in my next article, this will only be truer. The Possessed get all of their mutations when within 12 of the Prince, so now they are Strength 5, rerolling to wound, AP3, 3 attacks base and Initiative 5 base. Oh, and since they will have the Mark of Khorne and VotLW, you are looking at adding Furious Charge, Rage, and Counter-Attack onto it. Not too bad at all. They are killing Marines on 2+ on the charge; that’s not shabby. Yes, I did just say maybe consider running some Possessed, but hopefully you see the method to my madness.
The next worthy choice is the always awesome Heldrake Terror Pack. World Eaters want to move forward and apply chainaxe to face, but this makes them very one-dimensional. 2 Heldrakes give them the opportunity to threaten units all over the board, and with a Strength 7 Vector Strike, the Heldrakes are a legitimate threat to flyers as well. They gain no benefits whatsoever from the Butcherhorde, but they answer a lot of questions that a typical World Eaters build may have. If you really want to ensure that you have the tools to make it to the top tables in an event, I’d argue you have to have this formation.
As for the others, well, I don’t think they offer World Eaters anything too interesting. Raptor Talon, Terror Pack, Favoured of Chaos, and Warpack all provide some moves to the World Eaters and keeps well inside of their theme, namely Blood for the Blood God. Next time, we’ll take a look at Artefacts, Warlord Traits, and a few lists to see what magic we can make out of all of this glory.
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Solid review thanks. Where do you feel the Lost and the Damned fits in this review? Feels like it could be a strong choice given they benefit from the 2d6 move? Also gives you a lot more opportunities for first turn charge.
I really like the Lost and the Damned for some builds. I have one where I use a huge Cultist squad with Kharn, a Lord with the +3 movement amulet, and the Apostle with the “kill yourself” axe for so early board control. It hits pretty hard, is relatively inexpensive, and there are still waves of CSM behind it. It can get pricey, but it definitely adds some fun.
Ahh such lovely auxiliary detachments.. and yet I still only have points left for a single khorne spawn.. sigh.
So random question; the FAQ clarified that KDK models count as the faction one would assume (CSM and Daemons respectively), but can KDK CSM choices be taken for CSM formations? Specifically, is it possible to take a Maulerfiend from KDK in the Helforged Warpack? I assume not as KDK is labeled as its own codex, but I wanted to put that question out there. If you can, there is a Legacy of War in the IA13 book that gives all daemons of Khorne within 6″ +1 to their invuln. I can tell you that three Maulerfiends charging at you; 1 with a 3++ and 2 with a 4++ is fucking brutal.
KDK are a seperate codex, so no mixing and matching (although there are some mixed formations in the warhammer worled special)
Maulers boosted by the legacy of the 1st war of Armageddon are no joke. the trick is finding a suitable unit to run near then. Can’t be anything with daemonic possession.
havent been making it to too many tournies lately, but was thinking of an all foot troop army to fully use the blood madness rule.
World Eater Butcherhorde (all with mark of Khorne)
Chaos Warband
Chaos Lord – Jump pack, 2x Lightning claws, Talisman of Burning Blood
8 Chosen – Power Fist
8 Chosen – Power Fist
8 Chosen – Power Fist
8 Chaos space Marines – Power Fist
8 Chaos space Marines – Power Fist
8 Raptors – Power Fist
8 Raptors – Power Fist
5 Warp Talons
8 Havocs – 4 missiles, flakk missiles
Auxiliary – 1 Spawn
should be able to get a couple first turn charges in, plus, everthing but the spawn is obj. sec. think there is 269 points of free veterans of long war.
any chance this can work?
I’d swap the havocs for a Helbrute with the legacy of the perfidus anomaly or waht ever its called. This gives you a reroll to your seize or forces your opponent to reroll their seize. This also frees up points to buff up your squads, i would find a way to fit kharn personally as he will be the number one deterrent to knights.
While this is pretty cool, there are a few minor things I feel I should point out. First, this is from the Traitor Legions supplement, not Traitor’s Hate. This is way better than what CSM got in Traitor’s Hate. Second, MaulerFiends already have Fleet, so the re-rolls from the Detachment add nothing for them. Still very fun to use. Finally, it feels to me like this actually makes Berzerkers themselves pretty much useless. At this point, they’re paying an extra 4 Points per Model over MoK CSM to get WS5 and worse weapon options.
WS5 isn’t a small thing, but it wouldn’t be worth the 4ppm on its own. However, I think the real bonus of Berzerkers in the decurion is that they can be used with the Maelstrom of Gore core detachment, which has some excellent synergy with the other bonuses. It’s fairly trivial to put a Chaos Lord with the Talisman of Burning Blood in the unit and open up some very plausible first-turn charge: you move 2d6″ before the game, 9″ on the first turn, and then charge 2d6+6″. That means that with a middling roll on the pregame move (say 6″) you are able to reach anywhere up to 9″ deep into the enemy deployment zone, which is about as far back as most people can plausibly deploy. And with rerolls on the charge, your chances of landing one of the longer ones are a lot higher.
I don’t think it’s fantastic or tournament-winning, but it is a lot faster than most people will expect and isn’t unreasonably points-intensive.
I think you can get a fairly similiar result, by sticking a lord with talisman in with normal WE CSM or something else and ally in the astral grimoire and some cultists for the backfield.
Allot more involved of course, the allied Detachment with two marked unit of cultists and a sorc with MOT and the astral grimoire will set you back close to the cost of a land raider.
Yeah, and for both mechanical (i.e. cost) and fluff reasons I don’t think that will be as popular of an option, although doubtless some will try. But since you can easily access Raptors and Warp Talons via the detachment already, it seems a bit needless to try and bring in something else to essentially duplicate their functionality.
You can still stick those Khorne Lords on Juggernauts or give them Jump Packs. So 2D6″ pre-game move. 15″ on the first turn, then 2D6″+6″ with Fleet and no difficult terrain penalty for the Juggernaut or just the re-roll to charge with the Jump Pack.
That is a good point. I forgot about the stacking bonuses with the Maelstrom of Gore. Outside of that Formation, tho, the point stands.
Sure, although by the same token very few players take six squads of Tactical Marines outside of a Battle Company. The nominal point of formations is to encourage the use of units that might otherwise be subpar, and I think that the Maelstrom’s bonuses are decent enough that armies have a reason to at least consider using it.
Kinda too bad it didn’t get a “if you take the maximum number” bonus like the Kakophoni/War Coven/Plague Host, though.
I would have liked to have seen the same. Something fluffy but good like +1 attack if you take all 8 units would have been legit. I tend to favor CSM squads for the Obsec, but a unit of 20 berserkers with characters and +6 to charge is also just mean as hell.