Hi all,
It’s time for another narrative review! Today we are looking at the Blades of Khorne (BoK) Age of Sigmar Path to Glory rules!
Army Special Rules:
The BoK have an interesting rule that allows you to roll half the dice for casualty rolls if you win the battle. The flip side of this is that if you lose you must roll double the dice! Your warlord also gains Rewards of Khorne for each model slain. At each multiple of 8 you gain a reward which can add up very fast. There is no cap on the number of times you can get this reward and the results largely boost your glory points or the renown of your units. The higher level rewards are very good netting free stronghold upgrades, 4D6 glory points and free artifacts.
Quests:
The BoK get four quests:
- Glorious Slaughter: This can never be completed, instead you get 1 glory point for every enemy unit killed and 2 if it was a hero
- The Great Game: You gain a reward of Khorne if you get a major victory against an enemy general that was marked by one of the other three chaos gods (but not the Horned Rat, interesting).
- Karanak’s Hunt: Sets up the quest battle.
- Pyramid of Skulls: An odd quest, this is gated behind a certain territory. You need to kill 87 enemy models, with the 88th only coming when you earn a major victory and kill your opponent’s warlord. After that you get to upgrade your territory and get 15 renown and 15 Glory Points.
A lot of interesting quests here, it’s cool that they mesh with your army special rules nicely.
Custom Mission:
In this custom mission you are going on a hunt with Khorne’s bestest boy Karanak. You are hunting down one randomly determined enemy hero (you can reveal who it is to get some bonus Blood Tithe points). If the enemy hero lives, the opponent wins. The BoK player wins if the enemy unit is within 8″ of the board edge or is dead. When the unit is killed all BoK units with 8″ get 1 bonus renown point. If the quarry lives it gains 8 bonus renown points.
Veteran Abilities:
The BoK get a full, 6-option table:
- The Edge of the Axe: get a free move in the hero phase
- Rune-etched Weapons: + 1 Rend
- Merciless Killer: Fight twice
- Reapers of Blood: +1 Blood Tithe point per unit killed, once per game
- Go Down Fighting: Bloodbound only, get an additional dice for each Murder Roll
- Seething Hatred: Revive D6 slain Bloodletter Host units
These are some really good options and each has an application. I am fond of Edge of the Axe but Merciless Killers is also amazing. These tables have really gotten more useful as the edition has gone on.
Territories:
The BoK get a full table with six options here:
- BLASTED WASTELAND: Free recuperation for 1/2 Blood Reaver or Flesh hound units.
- SLAUGHTER PIT: One unit gets a free Renown point on a 3+, but takes an injury on a roll of a 1
- BLOOD TEMPLE: +2 Priests and after each battle one priest in that battle gets D6 renown points. If you roll a 6 you also get a free invocation.
- INFERNAL FORGE: +2 Warmachines and get cheaper Bloodcrushers, Skullcrushers and skull cannons
- POOL OF MOLTEN BRASS: +D3 glory points after each battle, when upgraded you get +1 Hatred of Sorcery rolls.
- SKULL-MARKED MOUNTAIN: No effect until upgraded via the Quest. You get +1 Blood Tithe point at the start of each of your Hero phases
These are all quite good and, unless you don’t want some of the cheaper units, can really buff your army. The mountain takes a lot of work but it can grant some great buffs!
Conclusion:
Even though I have a Hedonites army, I kinda like the Khorne rules better. There is a good synergy here between the fluff, army rules and the narrative rules. That being said, they don’t add as much of a narrative as the Hedonite rules do. Their quests are all quite good and the abilities are also amazing. I think this army can really steam roll if they get some good initial rolls, but can also get trapped in a negative cycle if they lose too many early battles. In the same fashion BoK are at the mercy of the kinds of armies their opponents run. If you fight a lot of zombie armies you will quickly become unstoppable. However, if you mainly fight gargants……this will be a painful campaign.
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