Blades of Khorne Review : Mighty Lord of Khorne & Korghos Khul

Hey everyone, Josh here to discuss the units that are available in the Blades of Khorne. This time we’ll be discussing two of my favorite Heroes, Mighty Lord of Khorne & Khorghos Khul. For more tactics articles, check out the Tactics Corner!

Lords of Khorne have faced the trials of Khorne. They have victoriously stood atop piles of skulls and chanted the name of their God in a blood fueled rage. It is then that Khorne descends, blessing them with the daemonic power they desire.

Korghos Khul is a lord worthy of the title. He has been granted long life by his blessed god of blood and through this blessing has battled in an untold number of bloody wars. Throughout the course of this seemingly endless and bloody campaign he has amassed a hoard of followers known as the Gore Tide. On his journey he has been gifted an Axe of Khorne as well as a flesh hound companion, Grizzelmaw. His only purpose is to cover the realm of fire in the blood of his enemies and conquer it in the Blood God’s name.

Both the Mighty Lord of Khorne and Korghos Khul have the same sculpt. There have been multiple revisions to this warscroll this month that caused me to delay this review. Aside from an altered description that forces you to substitute Korghos Khul in for the Mighty Lord while using the Gore Tide battalion, named leader keyword and ability “Aqshy’s Bane”, the warscrolls are currently identical. Make sure you download the latest version of this Khul’s warscroll before you decide to use him.

The Mighty Lord of Khorne’s main jobs are to sure up charges with his command ability and be a brawler on the front line. Usually players arm the unit with the Mark of the Destroyer to double all attacks made with both the axe and flesh hound. You’ll typically see the Mighty Lord of Khorne assaulting battleline units or trying to get lucky on a enemy behemoth with his Reality-splitting Axe.

Khorghos Khul is a more mobile and more killy version of the same unit. Re-rolling hit rolls and moving/attacking during the hero phase makes him pretty great for intercepting and slaughtering battleline units. That said, he costs 60 additional points. Crossing that 200 point threshold makes you think twice before taking that calculated risk and sending Khul into a one of your opponent’s heavy hitting units.

Unit Characteristics

• Wounds: 6
• Save: 3
• Move: 6
• Bravery: 9
• Points: 140-200**
• Min Unit Size: 1
• Max Unit Size: 1

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

• Axe of Khorne (1/3/3/3/1/D3)
• Flesh Hound’s Blood-dark Claws/Grizzlemaw (1/4/3/4/-/1)

Abilities

• Reality Splitting Axe – Surviving models that have suffered wounds from the Axe of Khorne during the combat phase are slain on a 5+.
• Collar of Khorne – Unbind spells in the same manner as a wizard.
• Command Ability: Gorelord – Choose up to 3 MORTAL KHORNE units within 24”, pick the best 2 of 3 dice when determining charges for this unit and the units chosen until your next hero phase.
• Aqshy’s Bane (Khul) – In each hero phase, you may pile in 8” and attack. Re-roll all failed hits.

Keywords

• Chaos
• Mortal
• Khorne
• Bloodbound
• Hero
• Mighty Lord of Khorne
• Khorghos Khul**

Tactics

The Mighty Lord of Khorne: Most of what is actually threatening about this model is actually tied up in his Axe. With -1 rend and D3 damage, the mighty lord can dish out some pain to battle line units. I Typically keep the mighty lord out of combat with high-rend units and let him supplement damage against enemy battleline forces.

Furthermore, the Reality Splitting Axe ability is a real wild card that in many cases will cause your opponent to make some poor decisions when it comes to positioning monsters, behemoths and heros rather than risk losing them to chance. It’s no surprise that most players who run this model equip it with the Mark of the Destroyer artifact. Doubling the number of attacks made with the axe doubles the likelihood that the axe will find it’s target and give you a shot at splitting reality and/or killing models to avoid becoming a chaos spawn.

Aside from the Axe, the Mighty Lord’s command ability is one of the better command abilities in the Blades of Khorne. Gorelord provides an average increase of 1.5 inches to the charge rolls of 3 Mortal Khorne units in your army in addition to himself. Rolling a best of 3 dice rather than two is arguably better than a re-roll, so you can forget about the need for taking Violent Urgency. Instead, take Slaughterborn and Mark of the Destroyer to create a mini Khul.

Khorghos Khul: Khul is an extension of the Mighty Lord. Aside from Khorghos Khul’s Aqshy’s Bane he’s identical. That said, Aqshy’s Bane is a pretty drastic change. Free movement turns Khul into the fastest unit in the Blades of Khorne and re-rolling hit rolls/free attacks provide more damage potential. This makes khule great for intercepting stray enemy battleline units, scoring objectives and playing defensive roles. If you’re attacked, keeping Krul behind your front line will not only provide potential pile-ins during your opponent’s combat phase but also provide you with opportunities to attack twice on subsequent turns as long as he’s within 8” of an enemy unit during your hero phase.

The Rules Lawyer: I often see a lot of conversation surrounding Khul’s pile-ins during the hero phase. Do you have to be within 8” of an enemy unit to do it? Currently, no, however there were versions of the warscroll with that requirement. Games-Workshop defines a pile-in as a type of movement with the following restriction:

Each model must finish the move closer to the nearest enemy model than they were at the start of the move.

Being within range of an enemy unit is not a restriction for a pile-in unless you’re choosing a unit to attack during the combat phase. Therefore, Khul can always move 8” during the hero phase regardless of enemy unit proximity unless he is in base to base contact with another enemy unit. The only restriction is that he ends his move closer to the nearest enemy model.

Additionally, remember that the attack during the hero phase doesn’t trigger Khul’s Reality Splitting Axe ability. The only time this works is during the combat phase. Keep that in mind when buffing him. Furthermore, there was an update to this warscroll. The Reality Splitting Axe now triggers immediately after Khul has made attacks with the axe instead of at the end of the combat phase.

Khul is especially threatening when you run him in the Gore Tide Battalion. He already gets 8” bonus movement during the hero phase. The extra D6 movement can be pretty crazy if you roll a 4-6. I was in a game where my opponent moved his warpfire throwers up the field on turn one. I scored the double turn and killed four warpfire throwers with Khul in one turn. With a solid Gore Tide roll Khul can cross the battlefield in a single turn.

My Top Unit Synergies : Now, usually I like to pick at least five synergies for each unit, but both of these units are pretty self sustaining. So, instead I just tried my best to come up with what I saw was best for each.

Mighty Lord of Khorne

1. Bloodsecrator : Two attack profiles makes Rage of Khorne twice as good.
2. Bloodstoker: Whipped to fury is kind of expensive to use on on a single model, but there aren’t any other ways to sure up wound rolls. This ability is especially great when combined with Slaughterborn and Mark of the Destroyer.
3. Slaughter Priest (Killing Frenzy) : Making sure those hits happen is a huge boon. Again, this is especially helpful when the Mighty Lord is equipped with the Mark of the Destroyer. Although it’s mostly irrelevant if you use the Slaughterborn command trait.
4. Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut : Suring up those wound rolls with the Juggerlord’s Blood Stampede is nice. Especially when the Mighty Lord is equipped with the Mark of the Destroyer. Although this isn’t viable if you run the mighty lord as your general.

Khul

1. Bloodsecrator: Two attack profiles makes Rage of Khorne twice as good. Remember that Rage of Khorne only triggers during the combat phase. So, you don’t gain bonus attacks during the hero phase.
2. Bloodstoker: Whipped to fury is kind of expensive to use on Khul, but he already re-rolls hits and re-rolling wound rolls of one is going to make sure that those hits in the hero phase deal serious damage.

My Top Artefact/Command Trait Synergies (Mighty Lord of Khorne ONLY)

1. Mark of the Destroyer : There is no other artifact I’d rather take on this guy. Doubling the attacks for both the axe and the flesh hound is sure to kill models in the combat phase.

My Top Command Trait Synergies (Mighty Lord of Khorne ONLY)

1. Slaughterborn – This ability is pretty sweet. Turning your Mighty Lord into Khul for 120pts feels good.
2. Berserker Lord – The Mighty Lord has a pretty low wound count. This could add some much needed resiliency. Adding a ward save on a 5+ effectively makes him an 8 wound model.

Cons

Mighty Lord of Khorne

The Mighty Lord of Khorne’s command ability, while good, isn’t much better than the violent urgency command trait. Khorne has so many ways to buff charge rolls that his command trait might be a “win-more”. So, what’s a “win-more”? A win-more is when you have a successful outcome that’s practically guaranteed (in this case making a charge with a Khorne unit) and you spend resources to make it even more likely. Between Bloodstoker’s Whip, the Talisman of Burning Blood and Violent Urgency you simply don’t need any more buffs to your charge rolls. If you’re going to use this guy as your general just make sure you don’t get to redundant on the charge bonuses.

The Mighty Lord is slow for a 140 point brawler hero. With only a 6” move, it’s as if he’s intended to be more of a support unit than a brawler. Considering keeping him behind your front line, move up the battlefield and supplement damage where you can.

This guy has a pretty has a pretty low wound count and and no resiliency outside a 3+ save. Mortal wounds and high rend attacks can kill him quickly. Consider the Berserker Lord command trait if your opponent is running hero sniping units like Thundertusk or Vanguard-Raptors.

Khul 

Khul has a deadfully low wound count for a 200pt hero. Furthermore, his abilities practically beg you to throw him into close combat. Choose your engagements carefully, and identify units with high rend or abilities that do mortal wounds. He moves fast, and He dies fast.

Khul is a named character. He can’t use command traits or artefacts. This isn’t a huge deal though. He practically has Violent Urgency with his command ability and he re-rolls all hits via Aqshy’s Bane. However, I wish he could utilize Berserker Lord.

Khul’s worst aspect is the way he was released. Prior to the release of Khul, the Mighty Lord of Khorne would become Khul if you used him with the Gore Tide battalion. Imagine Khul without the “named character” restriction. You were able to equip him with both the Mark of the Destroyer and Berserker Lord. You could make 14 attacks with him in both the hero and combat phase and save all wounds suffered on a 5+. It was awesome. GW jumped on the hype train for about two weeks promising new warscrolls for Khul himself. They delivered, he’d been nerfed pretty heavily and the cost went up 60 pts. The portion of the playerbase that was paying attention was dissapointed. It’s always sad when a unit that isn’t winning gets the hammer. That said, he’s still pretty good, and at least they did Vandus Hammerhand some justice.

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