Drukhari Preview: Kabals, Haemonculus Covens, and Wyches Cults!

Wow, ton of new info on the the upcoming Drukharie dex.

This information was originally published on the Warhammer-Community site. Check them out for loads of additional content!

Kabals are the closest thing Commorragh has to a standing army – part militant cell, part crime family, part macabre hunting lodge. It’s the Kabals that hold the majority of the political power in Commorragh, not to mention the firepower, and the vast majority of realspace raids will feature at least one Archon and his chosen warriors.

In Codex: Drukhari, your Kabal Detachments will form the backbone of your army, and you’ll be able to choose from no less than four Drukhari Obsessions to dedicate them to – or combine them with a variety of devious strategies…

As the most powerful Kabal, the forces of the Kabal of the Black Heart benefit from treating Power From Pain as one turn higher than it’d usually be. In practice, this allows you to re-roll Advance and charge moves from the very first turn, which opens up all sorts of insidious tactical possibilities. We’d recommend deploying as much of your army as possible in reserve on Raiders, deploying them with Screaming Jets, then charging each Raider into the softest of your opponent’s infantry in order to help screen them from shooting in the next turn, or to deny a more dangerous unit a shooting attack!

Speaking of Stratagems, if you’re looking to make the most of your Command Points, you’ll find this Kabal ideal thanks to the Labyrinthine Cunning command trait.

In short, the Kabal of the Black Heart is the ideal choice if you want to beat your foes through cunning and clever manoeuvring.

One of the most fun things about playing a Drukhari army is poisoned weaponry. What Toughness is the opponent you’re shooting at? Who cares? You’re wounding them on a 4+ anyway (just watch out for vehicles). Monsters and swarms of infantry alike have a lot to fear from massed splinter rifle fire. If you’re looking to make the most of your poisoned weapons, look no further than the Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue. It gets better when you mount up in Raiders, thanks to the return of splinter racks – a simple upgrade that makes this vehicle even more effective as a shooting platform.

Even Characters aren’t safe from your splinter weapons thanks to Soul-seeker, a powerful Artefact of Cruelty that’s ideal for slaying enemy leaders.

This is the ideal Kabal for a traditional Drukhari army; pack as many gunboats as you can and unleash a salvo of splinters on your foes (just make sure to include a couple of dark lances while you’re at it…).

If you’re mounting your army in Transports, you’ll want to make sure to check out the Kabal of the Flayed Skull.

Not only will units firing from Transports be more accurate, but your flying units will be able to negate any cover. We’d recommend taking a couple of Razorwing Jetfighters to take full advantage of this. Should anyone try to challenge your aerial superiority, shoot them down with Masters of the Shadowed Sky.

You’ll get the most out of your Kabal of the Flayed Skull by mounting multiple small units of Kabalite Warriors in Venoms armed with a blaster per unit. As well as offering you loads of Command Points, you’ll be able to benefit from the much-improved weapon profile for this powerful darklight gun.

It’s effectively now an Assault krak missile launcher. For less than 20 points, it’s a steal, but if you’re feeling particularly insidious, take a blast pistol on as many Characters as you can. Having received a similar enhancement, you’ll be able to win any duels your Characters find themselves in by disintegration – the true Commorrite way. If you want to go all-out, Scourges have received a points reduction. Though a unit with four blasters and a blast pistol won’t benefit from your Kabal Obsession, they will certainly melt any armour they come across.

Don’t fancy fielding loads of vehicles? Don’t worry – there’s a Kabal for that. By using the Kabal of the Obsidian Rose, you’ll be able to protect your Kabalites by keeping them at range while benefiting from Rapid Fire at 15″ (not to mention 24″ blasters and 42″ dark lances).

We’d recommend using larger units of 20 Kabalite Warriors. You’d think this would make you vulnerable to a bad Morale test, but well, this is where things get fun.

For a mere Command Point, you’ll be able to transform a potentially devastating failed Morale test into a huge swing in your favour – and best of all, you only need to slay a single model not to fail!

Meanwhile, Kabal of the Obsidian Rose Archons are nothing short of nightmarish to displace. If you didn’t think trying to break a shadowfield was hard enough, consider if you also had to reckon with -1 to your hit rolls?

The Armour of Misery indeed! For extra fun, keep a few Sslyth nearby to intercept the wounds that do get through…

With these Kabals on your side, you’ll have a terrifying number of ways to destroy your enemies – and if you can’t pick which one you like the best, you can just stack up Patrol Detachments. You can kick off your Kabal with a set of Kabalite Warriors. Come back tomorrow, when for even more insights into the new Drukhari codex.

The Haemonculus Covens are one of the most sinister and influential factions in Commorragh. Through their mastery of arcane surgery and fleshcraft, they ensure that no Archon stays dead for long and are constantly inventing new (and horrifically creative) ways to draw suffering out of the living. Indeed, the Haemonculus Covens are the only Aeldari to universally refuse the offer of the Ynnari, instead pursuing their own mysterious agendas…

The new Drukhari codex brings the Haemonculus Covens to life through three Drukhari Obsessions that suit a variety of styles of play, allowing you to make the most of these gruesome units.

Haemonculus Covens units have always been durable, boasting great Toughness for Drukhari and solid saves. Trying to chew through a horde of Wracks allied to the Prophets of Flesh is going to be very difficult indeed – keep a Haemonculus nearby and you’ll have a horde of Toughness 5 bodies with 4+ invulnerable saves, followed by a 6+ backup against wounds thanks to Power From Pain.

Should your Wrack horde begin to look a bit thin – well, just bring them back with Black Cornucopians:

You’ll want to ensure you have enough Command Points ready at all times to pull this off – for that, you’ll want to ensure you have a Haemonculus with Diabolical Soothsayer in your army:

Remember, Drukhari armies can have more than one Warlord, so by combining Detachments and utilising a Kabal of the Black Heart Archon, you’ll be able to keep even more Command Points available.

The Dark Creed open up a new kind of Drukhari (or indeed, Aeldari) list – one that focuses on crippling the morale of the foe. There are all manner of insidious uses for this on the battlefield, and we’d recommend keeping some allied Hemlock Wraithfighters nearby to reduce enemy Leadership even further. You’ll also want to take some phantasm grenade launchers. You can drop enemy Leadership even more with a particularly nasty Stratagem.

That’s far from the only trick up the sleeves of the Dark Creed, however, and if you’d rather slay enemy Characters from a distance, take a unit of Talos Pain Engines with two heat lances and melt your foe using An Esoteric Kill, Delivered From Afar.

Whether you’re looking to inflict additional casualties in the Morale phase or building an army focussed on driving terrified enemy forces off the table, the Dark Creed is for you.

The Coven of Twelve excels at tearing through enemy armour and are great at tackling more durable foes, either by drowning them in attacks from your Wracks or making every hit with your Grotesques and Talos count.

We’d opt for taking a combination of units, occupying the enemy’s front ranks with Wracks, then firing into their unit with what, for our money, might be the most awesomely named Stratagem in Warhammer 40,000.

It’s not just fun to say in an arch voice – it’s also very effective on the battlefield! Just imagine surrounding your opponent’s favourite tank with Wracks, then destroying it from afar with haywire blasters while they’re powerless to shoot back.

The Haemonculus Covens in the new Drukhari codex are great as either the core of an unusual and powerful melee army or as a deadly allied Detachment for your main Drukhari force. If you’re looking to start one yourself, you can hardly go wrong with a Talos Pain Engine – get yours here.

There are still more previews to come – so keep an eye out tomorrow for more insights from the new codex.

The Wych Cults have an essential role in the economy of Commorragh, turning the vast influx of slaves and captives in the Dark City into life-sustaining suffering through their constant gladiatorial games.

In order to keep the ever-fickle denizens of the Dark City entertained, each Wych Cult develops its own distinct fighting style – techniques you’ll be able to represent on the tabletop with three distinct Drukhari Obsessions:

If the new Drukhari codex does anything, it makes Wyches more awesome. You’ll be able to benefit from a reduced points cost AND an extra Attack – pretty nifty, eh? A unit of 10 Wyches will be putting out 31 Attacks for a mere 80 points, and that’s BEFORE you factor in any fancy weapons or synergies.

The Cult of the Cursed Blade ability allows them to tear through anything with a Toughness of 3 or 4 with ease. Indeed, thanks to the wound roll table in this edition of the game, you’ll even be able to reliably threaten Toughness 7 foes with your sheer volume of attacks. We think that Hellions are particularly awesome with this Drukhari Obsession, which (thanks to their hellglaives) can boast a mighty Strength of 5 – enough to compromise vehicles with a sufficient number of attacks.

Meanwhile, your Succubi will be much more threatening. As well as having received a marked points cut and being able to wield the much-improved blast pistol (which, like blasters, have much more damage potential than before), you’ll have some Relics and Warlord Traits to play with. We like the Traitor’s Embrace for shredding anyone that dares to kill you:

As we’ve said, Wyches can put out a LOT of attacks in the new Drukhari codex, and if you dedicate your armies to the Cult of Strife, you’ll be able to put out even more.

You know how we said earlier that Wyches had got MUCH better? We didn’t even give you the whole of it – they’ve also got a 6+ invulnerable save against shooting now:

Take a large block of Wyches in a Cult of Strife army and you’ll be able to eviscerate enemy units – a unit of 20 can dish out 81(!) attacks, and if you manage to destroy an enemy unit, you’ll be able to immediately dish out 81(!!) more:

Drukhari armies are FAST – and Cult of the Red Grief armies are REALLY fast.

You’ll be able to cross the tabletop in no time with this Drukhari Obsession, and we’d recommend using it with Reavers in particular. With an 18″ Move characteristic and an automatic 8″ Advance, you’ll often be able to charge on the very first turn – and if you really want to make sure that you do some damage when you arrive, combine the Adrenalight Combat Drug (which provides +1 Attacks) with the new Hyperstimm Backlash Stratagem.

As with all the Drukhari Obsessions in the book, the Cult of the Red Grief are ideal when combined with other Detachments. For example, you could combine the jetbike strategy we’ve discussed above with a horde of Wyches from the Cult of Strife! We reckon you’ll have a lot of fun tweaking and balancing your lists to be as efficient as possible.

If you’re itching to kick off your Wych Cult, we can think of no better place than Gangs of Commorragh, a boxed game that’s not just fun – it saves you money on the kits inside, too!

Of course, we have one more preview for you tomorrow, so come back to get your final taste of the new codex before you can pre-order it this weekend.

And remember, Frontline Gaming sells gaming products at a discount, every day in their webcart!