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World Eaters Review: Warlord Traits & Artefacts

Danny Ruiz

Hey everybody, Danny here from TFG Radio to once more delve into my favorite Traitor Legion, The World Eaters.  We are going to look over their new Warlord Traits, Artefacts, and finally a few lists to bring it all together.  Be sure to check out the Tactics Corner for a huge collection of resources to help you #gitgud. 

In previous articles, I went over the general special rules for World Eaters available to any formation/detachment, and then I went over the Butcherhorde, but to really get a full view of what the World Eaters can do, we need to see what else they bring to the table, and the answer is: Blood for the Blood God. 

Warlord Traits:

Wow, there is a lot of awesome in there.  I mean there isn’t a bad trait in the whole bunch.  Yes, Rampage isn’t amazing, but it certainly isn’t bad, and that is arguably the weakest one. Slaughterborn is situational, but it also stops your Warlord from ever becoming a spawn. It would be better if you could plan to get it as I’d spend 10 points for a Gift of Mutation to up a Lord’s attack by 1.  Unrivaled Bloodlust is just spectacular as out of activation movement can absolutely win your games (see Warmachine), so if you are canny with placement and timing, you can slingshot your Warlord and his unit into combat on your opponent’s turn.  Rerolling everything in challenges is pretty great as a Chaos Lord loaded-for-bear is going to put the hurt on just about any other character, and getting your Warlord both FnP and Eternal Warrior for being stuck in combat is amazing and lets him tank a bit in a fight.  Violent Urgency also synergizes so well with the army, ensuring that not only are you getting a reroll to charges, you get 3d6 and drop the lowest, pretty much ensuring you a 7 inch charge and radically upping the odds you start to hit 8 or 9 inch charges.  Just wow.  

Overall, you can roll on this chart and be pretty happy no matter what happens, but there are a few worth fishing for. I’d always take Violent Urgency over any other. 

Artefacts:

Ok, again, just a lot of wow in there, but with a bit more suck.  First off, the pistol is junk.  Sorry.  The Brass Collar is interesting, and while it could come in handy, there are too many other options here.  The obvious star is the Talisman of Burning Blood as you can build one hell of a super unit with it.  While it specifies “in the movement phase”, so you don’t get to use it for your Butcherhorde move, you can still theoretically get 9 extra inches of movement in Turn 1 for 25 points.  That’s insane.  Put this on a Khorne Lord in a Bike squad or Raptor Squad, and on average, your opponent cannot be more than 4 inches from their table edge if they don’t want to get charged on the Top of 1.  That’s just bananas with extra bananas with some Kill! Maim! Burn! thrown in for good measure. 

 The weapons are also pretty decent with the most dependable and solid being Gorefather.  This is a great weapon for barely more than a Powerfist, and being able to get Instant Death or tear through armor with ease is legit. If you expect to run into a Knight-heavy meta, giving Gorefather to a Daemon Prince pretty much makes him a Titan-Killer. I really like the Blood Feeder on any character where you have rerolls to hit, so maybe as a companion to Kharn or with a Dark Apostle. While it is swingy with the dice, the chance for just some absolute blender of death action is too sweet to pass up.  Finally, the Berserker Glaive is actually pretty interesting. Putting it on a Daemon Prince gives him S9 on the charge, AP 2, 5+D6 attacks at initiative 8!. Oh, and it gives him Feel No Pain. Since he’s already going to be solo, there is no real downside here.  Another interesting way is to run this on a Lord from the Raptor Talon formation. He may ride alone, but you can send him at anything without a 2+ save and watch him get to work, and while his charge out of Deep Strike is Disordered, he’s still Strength 6, AP3 with 3+D6 attacks. Of course, if he lives after the drop and charges again, he comes in at Strength 7, AP 3, with 5+D6 attacks. You could also do a suicide Jugger-Lord with it, but the Daemon Prince is probably better at that although to be fair, the Jugger-Lord is cheaper, 

So yah, there is a lot of solid wargear here, and let’s face it, Talisman is easily one of the best pieces of equipment in the entire Traitor Legions book. You can (and maybe should) build an army around it as with the right unit like Bikers or Raptors, you can almost guarantee a first turn charge with it. That’s insane. It’s also the World Eaters’ greatest meta-shift; it is not just “corner-case” to get a first turn charge with them; it is almost inevitable.

Ok, with all of this in mind, let’s build some funky, funky lists, all 1850 mind you. 

List 1: The Red Tide! 

Detachment: Butcherhorde

Core: Warband

Auxiliary: Lost and the Damned

Command: Lords of the Legion

So this list is all about bringing bodies to the table and drowning your opponent in a sea of blood. The massive cultist unit is home to all the characters, making it a scary proposition to fight. On it’s own, it is pumping out 140 attacks on the charge, and while it can’t hurt anything T7 or above, most things aren’t T7, and the unit gets to reroll their attacks. With the reroll, the Apostle with the Blood Feeder is far less likely to kill himself, and Kharn himself hits everything on a 2+, meaning he can even do damage to the inevitable invisible deathstar. With the Talisman, this unit also moves 2d6 before the game, up to 9 inches in the movement phase, and either runs d6+3 or charges 2d6+3. All dice being average, if your opponent has a unit less than 8 inches away from their deployment line, you can get them on the top of 1. Imagine your opponent’s face when on Top of 1 you wipe his Deathstar before it has the chance to power up or even just severely cripple it. 

Of course, it also brings another wave of 30 CSM to help out, and with the Obsec Terminators and Bikers, they can steal objectives late game or do a bit of tank hunting with the meltas. Of course, once the cultist die, they have the chance to just come back, so this list is all about attrition after turn 2. One super fast, early game push followed by 4 or 5 turns of grind. Not a bad combo, yah?

List 2: What hell is that? 

Detachment: Butcherhorde

Core: Warband

Auxiliary: Raptor Talon

Auxiliary: Favoured of Chaos

So this is more of an oddball list designed to use models that you almost never see in a competitive environment, but it has some trickiness to it, and it also hits far harder than it may appear. You have a big bike unit that moves 2d6 before the game, 15 in the movement phase, and then charges 2d6+3. That’s damn fast, and while it doesn’t fight all that hard, it does bring 41 WS4, Strength 5 attacks on the charge and then 5 WS6 Strength 9, AP 2 attacks. This is more than enough to pick up a Riptide on the top of 1. This is not a deathstar but rather a concentrated strike, so don’t expect it to take on any super units. The Daemon Prince also gets to fly across the table, and with the Glaive, he is T5, 3+ armor, 5++, and FnP with IWND. Oh, he also strikes at Strength 9, AP2, with 6+D6 attacks on the charge, all at initiative 8. Great googamooga, that’s a beatstick. The 3 small units of Possessed also hit like champs when they are near him, and overall, it is easy to ignore these units until they are in your teeth on turn 1.

The second (or third) wave is the Raptor talon where you have a Lord with Gorefather charging from Deepstrike with a unit of meatshields, and these little squads can respond anywhere on the table. They are best at picking up small, objective grabbing squads that may have outflanked you or come in from reserve on their own (like Warp Spiders). So this list really does through a 3 punch combo: An early big hit with the bikes, a second cross with the Daemons and Possessed, and the last parting shot of the Raptors.

List 3: Flying World Eaters

Detachment: Butcherhorde

Core: Warband

Auxiliary: Heldrake Terror Pack

Command: Lords of the Legion


So this is another odd take that utilizes the best transport that CSM have: The Dreadclaw. Flying Obsec is a huge win, and it gives you a lot of moves to win a mission. Let’s not forget that they are also assault vehicles and that the squads do not have to disembark like Drop pods (but don’t forget they can mishap and die far easier than Drop pods). You can drop in, sit there, and either take off to fly and Heat Blast enemies or stay in Hover mode and drop off 10 screaming lunatics into your opponent. You also have the Biker unit of punch things on Turn 1 with a bit more heat as you have the Talisman Lord and a Gorefather Lord, so now this unit can do real damage to anything other than a dedicated Deathstar, and hell, if you can get them Top of 1, you can possibly cut the legs out of the unit before it powers up if they position their characters poorly. 

The other big addition here are the Heldrakes, which add some much needed ranged support as well as Anti-Flyer tek. Heldrakes are amazing at burning out entrenched objective campers, and with a Strength 7 vector strike, they can do real damage to other flyers. For some Anti-Tank, you have a squad of suicide Chosen with 4 meltaguns that can pop out of the Dreadclaw and get to work.

This list could be a solid tournament build primarily because it rewards generalship. With the flying Obsec, you can always sneak away with a win even if Khorne abandons you.

So there you go folks, a few list ideas to get you started (and there are hundreds more, so experiment).  I fully admit I might try a Possessed-star just to see how it goes. Let us know how the World Eaters have been treating you, and hopefully soon you can check out TFG Radio to see how my World Eaters do on the table top. Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!

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