Hey everyone, Danny from TFG Radio here, and well, the Red Angel has blessed me with a codex, the first ever standalone codex for World Eaters! From rampaging, roid-raging mortals to super-special not-possessed, World Eaters are here to put the Blood in Blood God. Today, we are going to do part 1 of my review, focusing on the larger archetypes and concepts within the book while part 2 will look at relics/stratagems/warlord traits, and of course, part 3 will be looking at the different lists and units that you can rock. Let’s get those skulls!
First, let’s admit a simple truth: this really feels like the first book written for a new edition of the game. There are only half of the total number of stratagems, relics, and warlord traits here, and there are only two sub-factions rather than a variety. To me, this signals a big shift for an upcoming edition where codexes are going to get smaller to cut down on rules bloat, which overall is positive Let’s get into it!
Faction Bonus:
+1 Attack and +1 Strength
So this is really a combination of the old World Eaters trait for +1 attack on the charge/charged/heroically intervened and the new Mark of Khorne from Chaos Space Marines, all in one package. While this isn’t necessarily the most eye-popping trait, it is direct and to the point, and well, that pretty much sums up World Eaters as a whole. WE is almost entirely built around melee, and what do you want when in a fight? You want more attacks and more strength. Our new custom-cultists, Jakhals, get a lot of mileage out of this as they are cheap enough to swarm the board, and they can produce a fair volume of attacks if they can get in there and maximize their frontage. In Arks of Omen, even some other odder choices now get a benefit like Lord of Skulls who can put out a ton of attacks, especially on their bottom profile or, assuming they will get the proper keywords, Blood-Slaughters and such.
It’s a one-dimensional, simple trait, but it works, and it works well. It is all about adding additional value to what you already pay for, and that can add up over the course of the game. This is also the same trait if you take the new sub-faction: Disciples of the Red Angel.
The biggest difference between a standard WE force and the DotRA is that for the Red Angels, Angron must be included and must be the warlord, and you can only take Khorne Daemon units, which means only Eightbound as basic troops, but at least Eightbound and Exalted gain Objective Secured. You also have Daemon Engines, which makes the list an odd mix of Monster-Mash really, but if you want to get a bit lazy and take Angron with 2 Lord of Skulls, this is an easy way to do so.
Blood Tithe
This is where the army really takes off, and the best way to imagine it is that WE are an engine, and it takes a bit of time to get going, but once it does, Blood for that Blood God. To earn BTP, you get 1 for every Unit that dies, and each phase, you score 1 additional BTP if a Character/Monster/Vehicle was destroyed, and an additional 1 BTP if a Titanic model was destroyed. The key part here is per phase, meaning if you lose a character to shooting, that’s 1 BTP for the Unit and 1 BTP at the end of the shooting phase for a Character, and if you killed a character in melee in that same player turn, you get the additional 1 BTP again at the end of the melee phase. You can really wrack up points quickly, even if you aren’t losing/killing as much as you think. Masters of Execution become interesting BTP generators as they can be cute little missiles that can offer up to 2 BTP when they die.
BTP allows you to buy the following upgrades that last the rest of the game:
2 – a 5+ save against Mortal Wounds.
3 – +1 Charge.
4 – 6+ Feel No Pain.
4 – +1 AP to melee attacks
5 – +1 to hit in melee
5 – Unmodified 6s to hit in melee generate 1 additional hit
6 – Unmodified 6s to hit in melee automatically wound
Remember, these are all permanent for the rest of the game, so all of a sudden, a relatively lackluster statline can become pretty burly. The biggest standout, to me, is one of the easiest to get, +1 to charge, as this army needs to be in melee to work, and it also has a fair few reserve tricks, so yes, you want this immediately. After that, it depends on who/what you are facing, but +1 to hit isn’t bad at all as is a 6+ Feel No Pain. If going against a lot of high Toughness targets like Knights, 6s to hit autowound can be clutch, and of course, if going against a Mortal Wound heavy army, a 5+ save against those has huge mileage. Some units seem particularly balanced against this mechanic as Jahkals are base WS 4+, so getting that +1 to hit really makes them far more effective, but Terminators hitting on 2+ and as core, access to reroll 1s to hit? Yes, please!
Let’s not forget the one other thing BTP can purchase:
6 – Place a destroyed Angron back into Reserve. He is no longer destroyed and has 8 wounds remaining.
This is what makes Angron playable. His Warlord Trait is good but not awesome, and he is 360 points in an army that wants to play MSU, but the fact that you can keep bringing him back pays off in huge ways, essentially always giving you that one big mega-threat that your opponent has to engage. While he does not get around wound-caps and such, the fact that you can keep bringing him back and throwing him into your opponent, often in Turns 4 and 5 where your opponent may not be able to screen out important objectives, means that you have constant pressure and more BTP generation. In my first few games, this mechanic certainly is what won me the game overall.
Secondaries
This is where World Eaters really, really shine. Each of the three Matched Play secondaries are achievable and complement what you already want to do.
- Blood for the Blood God (Purge the Enemy)
You earn 1 VP for every unit destroyed by a melee attack made by a World Eater, and you score 2 VP for every Monster/Character/Vehicle destroyed by a melee attack made by a World Eater, up to a maximum of 4 per battle round.
A simple, easy to accomplish tactic for an army that absolutely wants to murder things in melee. You are rewarded for following through with the basic game plan of the army, murder, so this is one is almost an auto-take each time unless playing against a super-heavy based list. Otherwise, Bring it Down is likely better, but in a lot of games, this is an easy secondary to get at least 10 points on. Since you are capped at 4 per turn, even if you score 0 on Turn 1, you can still max 15 it by scoring 4, 4, 4, 3 in some combination on Turn 2-5.
- The Blood God’s Due (No Mercy, No Respite)
At the end of each player’s turn, you score 1 VP for every objective on the board that had a unit who started the turn in range of that objective die (except for vehicles).
This one can be tricky, but it also can again reward you for doing what you already want to do as well as reward you for your opponent doing what they want to do. While a bit wordy in its full form, the fact that this scores every player turn means that it can add up really fast as you piece-trade over important objectives, especially in missions that have a central objective. This really rewards an MSU style list where you can have small units that hold objectives, and when they die, you score points, and when you take objectives from your opponent, you also score points. Another interesting tidbit here is that this one directly rewards shooting, which WE aren’t known for but do have access to some decent firepower. You can use a Lord of Skulls if going big or even other smaller shooting platforms like Helbrutes to peel off little objective holders and score while your melee go elsewhere. Especially against another MSU army, this can be an easy, easy secondary that again rewards you for following the basic game plan of murder death kill. Cheap units like Spawn or even a Master of Executions are great for camping an objective and asking your opponent the question: do you want to deny me primary points here and give me secondary points and BTP or just let me have the primary?
You probably don’t want Grind instead, but depending on the opponent, No Prisoners can also work instead of this, but in most games against most matchups, if you have an MSU style list, this is a solid choice.
- Pile the Skulls (Battlefield Supremacy)
At the end of your turn, spend 1/2/3 BTP. For every 1 spent, gain 2 VP, up to a maximum of 5.
This is just gold and almost always an auto-include if you have an MSU style force. As you can score 5 per turn, you don’t even need to start using this until Turn 3, giving you plenty of time to accumulate BTP on Turns 1 and 2, getting that +1 to charge or bringing Angron back. Even just giving up one BTP Turn 1 and 2 can mean that you can be a bit more spendy in the later turns. The only time this isn’t a good choice is when going against an army that isn’t going to generate a lot of BTP like Knights. Otherwise, especially if you are leaning into an MSU style build, this is so good. If you get 9 BP, you can score 15 on this, meaning even if you are getting tabled from the start, as long as you last 3 turns, you can get 15 on this secondary, which can be awesome for WTC-style team events where scoring differential is at play.
If you are running MSU, Engage on All Fronts can replace this well enough, but Pile the Skulls is a lot easier to dictate as even if you are pinned into your side of the board, you can still score it consistently, and realistically, even if the tables turn on you, and most of the blood is yours, you can still score points on this secondary. Raise the Banners can also work if you have a lot of infantry, but if you are doing more big guys and Angron, that is a no-go that Pile the Skulls can replace.
The key feature of these secondaries is the simple truth that games are often won and lost by your secondaries, and well, WE actually have solid, achievable secondaries if you build for them. If you are taking Angron and some Lord of Skulls, they may not work very well, but if you are leveraging what the army can really do, then these are all achievable, and since WE are a highly, highly aggressive army, it really helps to have secondaries that actually reward aggression rather than just board control/presence.
Overall
The big takeaway for me is that World Eaters really shine as an MSU style army where you aren’t heavily investing in one or two big threats but rather utilizing the high trade-value of our smaller units. Just 5 Berserkers with no upgrades at all put out 26 attacks on the charge at S6 AP-2, D1, and once you start getting Blood Tithe bonuses going, these can be hitting on 2s, -3 AP, autowounding on 6s to hit and/or exploding 6s to hit. That becomes a lot of threat out of 110 points, so instead of taking a big block of Terminators to drop down and go for a hit, taking 2 minimum squads gives you more threat over the course of the game. With the secondaries that WE have, MSU again is rewarded as you want to go out and kill stuff, but you also want units to die, especially on objectives, so leaning into a lot of small threats that you can throw out is key.
Really, to say it another way, most MSU armies rely on piece-trading and board control, which WE do as well, but the biggest difference is that MSU armies tend to start running out of steam as the game goes on, but WE can actually become stronger as the game progresses as you start getting BTP and turning on your buffs, so the minimum squad of Eightbound left on Turn 4 suddenly become far more problematic than they would have been on T1. Add in that the one really expensive piece that you may want, Angron, has a mechanic to return means that you can have a lot of small units running around while still yo-yoing the big man around the board, especially if going against a really hard-target heavy list like Knights where you can piece-trade Angron over and over again while your small units take objectives and help chip away at the big boys.
Of course, there are other builds as well such as a shooting heavy build leaning into Lord of Skulls and Helbrutes/Contemptors or the new Disciples of the Red Angel, going hard into Eightbound, so you have options. You can even go a bit whacky and do a true Herohammer list of Abbadon, Angron, Kharn, Invocatus, and either a Wound-Cap Bloodthrister or Skarbrand. For a mostly melee army, I really do enjoy how many different ways you can go with this codex, and it has more tricks than you might think.
Thanks as always for reading, and next time, I’ll dive into those tricks, so stay tuned and be sure to keep up with everything that Frontline does. I cannot wait to see what WE show up at Cherokee Open 23! Oh, and maybe there will be World Eater things given away over at TFG Radio.
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