God Focus: Khorne

With the Dataslate now out in the world, I thought it was time to look into the units of each God and talk about their viability and best uses in game competitively.

Today we are going to start with the Blood God and all his blood thirsty minions!

Skarbrand: 9/10

Good old Skarbrand, he was great pre-dataslate, but now a 40pt drop makes him very interesting. His damage is great, the no fall back ability forcing to enemy units within engagement range of him to pass a leadership test or be stuck in combat, has great potential and then his synergy with non-monster/Vehicle Khorne units giving them +1 attack is amazing! Not to mention being able to get between damage 3-5 sweeps with rendmaster buffs is nuts!

Bloodthirsters: 7.5/10

So truthfully, I'm not a huge Bloodthirster fan. Their huge base and wings span makes them quite hard to manoeuvre around the board, their random damage and no real source of re-rolls also means they are very capable of fluffing combats they should be winning (as I have experienced on an insane amount of occasions). Their +1 to hit aura for Khorne units is great though and relentless carnage for good potential mortals definitely helps when it comes to putting out some good damage. Definitely a good force multiplier for Mono-Khorne lists boosting the damage potential for your Khorne units.

Skulltaker: 7/10

So, something I've mentioned before is that while the Khorne herald characters have some good abilities, they are hampered by the fact the one unit they can join is just way too expensive. Skulltaker is an absolute beast at wrecking characters and giving out devs to his unit is a decent bonus, meaning 10 Letters could walk through Marine equivalents quite nicely.

Bloodmasters: 7.5/10

Exactly the same as skulltaker when it comes to decent ability, hampered by the unit they can join. +1 to wound though definitely makes Bloodletters alot stronger, at strength 5 means you're wound T6-9 of 4+ making them good against light vehicles and heavy infantry units. Not to mention even better when combined with the strength boosts from a rendmaster. +6" to consolidation while niche could definitely help with contesting and stealing objectives aswell as tagging other units.

Rendmasters: 10/10

Rendmasters were decent anyway, but now that their Blood Throne ability has been confirmed to stack, they are insane. Really boosting the damage of Khorne units immensely and able to set up some pretty great combos with a potential of +3 strenght, AP and Damage for your Khorne units! More so you can get Bloodthirsters and Skarbrand to damage 5 sweeps which is pretty hilarious, makes units like Hounds alot more of a serious combat unit and actually make Bloodletters abit more worth their points.

Skullmasters: 8/10

Another T7 body with an extra potential d3 mortals, dev wounds on the crushers horns which when paired with rendmaster buffs make them super tasty, and then forcing battleshocks on the charge which could be great for wound re-rolls from draught of Terror.

Karanak: 6.5/10

I mean, he definitely buffs up a flesh hound unit, put him into a blob of 10 dogs and buff with rendmasters and you have a nasty brick, but at the same time I don't think you need him.

Bloodletters: 6/10

Yea... I just can't behind letters until they hit 100pts or their unit size increases to 10-20. Once again, Rendmasters instantly up the output of Khorne units, and Bloodmasters make letters hit much harder so a decent damage missile. But more than one unit feels meh.

Bloodcrushers: 9/10

I mean they have definitely been the shining star for Khorne this edition. The potential mortals on the charge is massively useful at bypassing 4+ invuls and damage reductions. Adding the skullmaster ups the lethality of their bladed horns, and the potential to battle shock a unit then allowing you to re-roll wound rolls from draught of Terror potentially ups their damage output considerably. They of course have the set back of being mounted, but get some shadows up and deepstrike them down for those juicy 6" charges with the +1 from the horn.

Flesh Hounds: 8/10

Speedy beasts that can heroic for free, even if you have already used heroic in the same phase, and having a decent number attacks make then good skirmisher units that can go foward early to try and contest objectives. Again, their damage potential can become nuts with rendmasters getting up to str8 ap-4 damage 3.

Skull Cannons: 7/10

So their damage leaves alot to desired, though it atleast gives you a source of some ranged damage. The best part about these guys is forcing a battleshock on one unit that they hit, combined with the shadows makes it abit more likely to fail, causing d3 mortals but more importantly opening up wound re-rolls from draught of Terror!

I think Bloodcrusher/Rendmaster heavy lists will be a common sight for abit, the damage out of that archetype is pretty nuts though can be very restricted against a good opponent.