Tips and tricks for using a Bloodthirster!

Today let's talk about the angriest of greater daemons, the bloodthirster.

They got a serious glow up from the last codex and are the serious combat monsters you'd expect the chief of Khornes Daemons to be!

Stats:

They have that magical fly keyword with a 12" move. The usual 20 wounds but with a very nice T8 and 4+ daemonic save vs ranged and in combat.

8 attacks aswell is great but what you'd expect.

He also has an inbuilt shout which is d6 str5 ap-2 1 damage auto hitting shots at 12". 

He also has a fantastic ability, relentless carnage. At the end of the fight phase pick an enemy unit in engagement range and roll a d6 (subtracting 2 if the target was an infantry character), on a 2+ you cause d3 mortal wounds. This is great if you don't quite manage to kill something, this has the chance to knock those last couple wounds off of something.

Wargear:

So the Bloodthirster has a few options. Either a great axe or an axe and a flail/whip.

Great Axe of Khorne:

StrX2 ap-4 d3+3 damage. Or you can sweep for double attacks at str8 ap-3 2 damage which is a great profile allowing him to deal with big threats and smaller units. 

There is also a Relic we'll go over later that makes this a ridiculous weapon choice. Overall though the great axe is probably the better of the options available.

Axe of Khorne:

The smaller version of the big axe, again with two profiles. Str+4 ap-4 d6 damage or str8 ap-3 1 damage with double attacks. D6 damage is dodgy and the sweep is only 1 damage. But the weapon Relic boosts this up fairly nicely and you also get that extra weapon option.

Bloodflail:

1 Shot at 12", strX2 ap-4 3d3 damage. The kicker is the damage spills over, which makes this quite good into chaff squads and hitting and wounding most things on 2+. This is actually fairly good into vehicles and monsters aswell.

Lash of Khorne:

6 shots at 12", str8 ap-1 2 damage. It's not bad, though pretty meh into power armoured targets. If you're not taking the big axe, I think the Bloodflail is the way to go.

Exalted Traits:

Indomitable Onslaught:

Let's start with the best one, this model can only take 8 wounds a phase. This is of course fantastic and makes him incredibly difficult to deal with in match ups vs armies that can't do significant damage in one phase.

He great for shoving you're opponents throats if they are running a list that will struggle to do damage across those multiple phases allowing the rest of your force to get into important positions.

Rage Unchained:

This model is considered to have double the amount of wounds when determining it's characteristics.

Unfortunately the Bloodthirsters biggest issue is its degradation when it takes damage. This reduces the impact of that which allows him to function at higher quality for longer.

Master of the Blood Tide:

Whenever this model makes a charge, is charged or performs a heroic intervention, add one to the strength and attacks characteristics. This isn't bad, but no where near as good as the other two.

Warlord Traits:

The Bloodthirster has some good warlord Traits available to them, though like the Lord of change, suffer with the fact that there is one stand out good one and the restrictions on only being able to take one trait.

Brazen Hide:

This warlord gains a 5+ feel no pain. Amazing! Pair this with the 8 wound phase cap, and the fact he is T8 with a 4+ daemonic save and this guy is a real pain to shift. 

This allows you to protect your weaker assets in the psychic phase by forcing your opponent to put powers like Smite into him while still having some defense against those mortals.

Especially with Indomitable Onslaught where they can't do more than 8 wounds but he stops any other unit being targeted by those powers with the "target the closest enemy unit" caveat. This is a good combo to help combat armies like Tsons and Grey Knights.

Devastating Blow:

Rules that ignore wounds cannot be used against melee attacks made by this model.

So this ignores feel no pains and more importantly, wound caps! Making this guy a real threat vs C'tan, Abby, those pesky phoenix lords and Ghaz.

Immense Power:

+1 to wound in melee for this model. May be abit overkill on a guy who can swing at Str16, though if you're not taking the Relic weapon, may have some use. 

Rage Incarnate:

Add 1 to advance and charge rolls for this model, in addition each time a khorne core unit declares a charge against a unit in engagement range of this model, add 1 to the charge.

So I actually like this one a fair bit, if you're running alot of Khorne core this can help make those charge rolls just that bit more reliable, nothing worse than failing those key charges am I right.

A good trick here could be using a Warp Locus to drop the thirster and Letters in, and then charge him in giving the nearby bloodletters the bonus to charge.

Relics:

The Thirster has some pretty decent Relics on offer, definitely one that stands above the rest but some decent options none the less.

Ar'gath, King of Blades:

This replaces a melee weapon the Bearer has. Increase the damage of that weapon by 1. When this model makes a melee attack, you can choose to ignore any or all modifiers to the hit and wound rolls.

This is seriously good on the great axe, making your sweep attacks damage 3!! Scaring even Terminators. It also makes the big attacks d3+4 damage, making each attack minimum 5 damage!

This is amazing paired with immense Power to ignore feel no pains and wound caps!

8 attacks at str16 ap-4 d3+3 damage that ignores hit and wound modifiers and ignores feel no pains and wound caps is incredibly strong!

Blood-drinker Talisman:

Each time this model fights, after resolving the attacks roll a dice for each model destroyed as a result of those attacks. On a 5+, the Bearer regains a wound up to 6 max.

This is one of those Relics that look great on paper but don't quite match that in practice. It definitely has some play though and in those games when he is sweeping killing a hand full of guys, he will just be near unkillable with the phase cap. Remember the amount of wounds regained are capped, but not the amount of dice rolled, so if he manages to kill 10 guys, you roll 10 dice. Combined with Brazen Hide and Indomitable Onslaught, this is has the potential for a real tanky build.

Using your sweep into chaff units and even splitting attacks amongst multiple units if you know they won't have any saves is a good way to maximise this Relics use.

Armour of Scorn:

Each time a wound is allocated to this model with a damage characteristic of 1, you add 1 to the saving throw against that attack. In addition, each time this model would lose a wound as a result of a mortal wound caused in the psychic phase, roll a dice, on a 4+ that wound is ignored.

This makes him abit tougher vs small arms and helps with a weakness of the psychic phase against armies like Thousand Sons, Grey Knights, Eldar and Tyranids.

The same tactic as talked about under brazen Hide can be used here making him a screen vs combat armies.

Skullreaver:

This replaces your standard axe of khorne, has the same big profile but turns to strength x2 and d3+3 damage when targeting a vehicle or monster.

Its sweep profile is the exact same as the standard axe. This isn't bad, if you really want to take a flail, then this is a way to keep some punch vs the biggest targets.

Skarbrand: 

So Skarbrand is an absolute beast, while he can't have the wound cap or feel no pain, he is still T8 with 22 wounds and a 4+ daemonic save and gains an extra d6 auto hitting shots for his shout. His real strengths is the fact his attacks go up when he drops in wounds from 8 to 9 and then to 10!

His combat is amazing with a big profile of strX2 ap-4 d3+3 damage and ignoring invulnerable saves (which you'd expect since he hit Khorne with the power to split a planet in two!!). This makes him one of the few individuals that can go into The Silent King with both Menhirs at full strength and pick them up with relative ease. He can also sweep for double attacks at str8 -2 2 damage.

Skarbrand can also never targeted or affected by psychic Powers, meaning you can place him fully in front of your entire army against those factions that rely on closest target witchfires and they cannot do anything. He also can't be hit with maledictions which can definitely hinder your opponents game plans!

There is a drawback though, while units (not just friendly) are within 6" of him, all models in those units gain +1 attack. These units automatically pass morale tests and cannot fallback from combat.

Let's also remember he is a Warp Locus aswell, so using him to bring in a wave of Bloodletters 6" away is of course incredibly strong.

This seems great, but remember a good opponent can use this to your detriment. I've playedĺĺ against Skarbrand a few times and everytime he has been a far bigger benefit to me than my opponents.

Overall Skarbrand is fairly decent but just requires abit of finesse (I know, Khorne and finesse are not words synonymous with eachother) to use.

Overall I think my favourite build if brazen Hide for the 5+++, 8 wound phase cap and ar'gath on a great axe for a pretty tough hard hitting bulldozer.