Blades of Khorne Review : Blood Reavers

Hey everyone, Josh here to discuss the units that are available in the Blades of Khorne. This is the first of many articles to come, and we’ll be discussing Blood Reavers. For more tactics articles, check out the Tactics Corner!

Blood Reavers are Bloodbound’s light infantry unit. These cannibals are brutal warriors who move from village to village slaughtering people, eating their remains and hoping to be blessed with Khorne’s daemonic gifts. You can think of them a like Chaos Marauders with a more aggressive twist.

At first glance, Blood Reavers look like a powerful glass-cannon unit. You can use them this way if you’d like, but I find it’s more important that they’re cheap, fast and have a high model count. I believe they are a multi-purpose unit meant for location denial, capturing objectives and occasional combat.

Unit Characteristics

• Wounds: 1
• Save: 6+
• Move: 6
• Bravery: 6
• Points: 70
• Min Unit Size: 10
• Max Unit Size: 40

Weapons (Range/Attacks/To Hit/To Wound/Rend/Damage)

• Reaver Blades (1/1/4/4/-/1)
• Meatripper Axe (1/1/4/4/-/1)
  

Unique Models

• Chaos Champion –  makes 2 attacks rather than 1
• Icon Bearer – adds 1 to Bravery
• Hornblower – adds 1″ to run and charge rolls

Abilities

• Frenzied Devotion – if the unit is within 12″ of a Chaos Totem from your army then models from this unit make 2 attacks rather than 1 and the chieftain makes 3 attacks rather than 2
• Reaver Blades – re-roll hit rolls of 1

Keywords

• Chaos
• Mortal
• Khorne
• Bloodbound
• Blood Reavers

Tactics

A cheap price tag combined with high mobility are the Blood Reavers greatest strength. They’re fast and expendable. This combination alone makes Blood Reavers the perfect unit for blocking your opponent’s greatest threats from reaching the heart of your army or denying mobility to your opponent by getting in their way. 

These perks also makes them excellent candidates for holding or threatening objectives. Say that rather than using any Blood Reavers you decide to use another battleline unit like Blood Warriors. They cost 100 points for 5 rather than 70 points for 10. By using Blood Reavers, you’re freeing up 30 points for better units that could be better for collecting skulls for the skull throne instead of sitting on picking daiseys around the objective.

If supported, Blood Reavers have decent wound output. They have the option of taking weapons with -1 rend at the expense of the accuracy, and their high model count synergizes perfectly with the attack characteristic buffs that Bloodbound tends to specialize in. I tend to count on them doing reasonable damage against models with a low save. Just don’t count on them surviving the strike back.

My Top 5 Unit Synergies

1. Bloodsecrator – provides attack characteristic bonuses while protecting your bloodreavers from battleshock tests
2. Slaughter Priest – provides +1 to hit rolls with the Blood Blessing, Killing Frenzy
3. Bloodstoker – provides +3″ to run and charge rolls as well as re-rollable wound rolls of 1
4. Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut – the only unit in  Blades of Khorne that provides +1 to wound rolls
5. Aspiring Deathbringer – provides attack characteristic bonuses while on the move

Cons

Blood Reavers hit and wound on a 4+. They need lots of buffs to hit and wound wound rolls if you’re going to consider them a serious source of damage. You’ll need to commit to one unit while the rest of your army goes largely unbuffed. I don’t like providing lists, but if you’re hell bent on making the craziest Blood Reaver list ever then consider something like the following list to gain as many buffs as possible.

Allegiance: Khorne

Leaders
Lord Of Khorne On Juggernaut (140)
– General
– Trait: Violent Urgency
Bloodsecrator (120)
Slaughterpriest (100)
– Bloodbathed Axe
– Artefact: The Brazen Rune
– Blood Blessing: Killing Frenzy
Slaughterpriest (100)
– Bloodbathed Axe
– Artefact: Talisman of Burning Blood
– Blood Blessing: Killing Frenzy
Slaughterpriest (100)
– Bloodbathed Axe
– Artefact: Talisman of Burning Blood
– Blood Blessing: Killing Frenzy
Bloodstoker (80)

Battleline
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
– Meatripper Axes
10 x Bloodreavers (70)
– Meatripper Axes
20 x Bloodreavers (140)
– Meatripper Axes
20 x Bloodreavers (140)
– Meatripper Axes
20 x Bloodreavers (140)
– Meatripper Axes
20 x Bloodreavers (140)
– Meatripper Axes
20 x Bloodreavers (140)
– Meatripper Axes
20 x Bloodreavers (140)
– Meatripper Axes
10 x Blood Warriors (200)
– Goreaxes

Battalions
Dark Feast (100)
Gore Pilgrims (80)

Total: 2000/2000

Blood Reavers have a 6+ save and 1 wound per model. They die fast. If you plan on sending them into combat then you’re going to need to either keep them within range of a Bloodsecrator or find a way to protect them from battleshock tests.  Don’t count on them surviving multiple rounds of combat. Blood Reavers are dependent on your Bloodsecrator(s).

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