Age of Sigmar: Slaves to Darkness Battletome Review
The Slaves to Darkness have a new Battletome and I REALLY want to talk about it — so let’s chat about what to expect from this book.
I’m a Slaves to Darkness player. I liked the old book even though it had its flaws. And I think I’ve come around to the new book after sitting down with it and actually getting to play with it.
Slaves to Darkness Battletome Review
Normally, I’d wait until Monday to talk about a new Battletome from a brand new Army Box. However, I also know that this book leaked early and I’ve been trying to avoid spoilers from it because I wanted to form my own opinions on it until I had the physical copy in my hands. And now I do. And since I have this army I really wanted to dig into it with fresh eye. And I’m really glad I did.
I have a feeling that if you played Slaves to Darkness before you’re going to be a little conflicted about this book — I know I was. On first glance I was looking for what I had lost from the old book. A bunch of the +1 armor saves/re-rolls were gone. It felt like the synergies were stripped out of this book. But then I did a second pass and looked for what I had gained. And there are a lot of really subtle and interesting choices presented in this book.
Out With The Old…
For starters, take your old book and and just compare the warscrolls to their new versions. Because the newer versions are just better. And points-wise, they aren’t that far off either. A block of 10 Chaos Warriors was an annoyance to clear off an objective before. Now? They are going to be a problem. They have a 3+ save base and now have a -1 rend, too. They also hit and wound on 3s now. With two attacks base a block of 10 is a real threat and if you double-up on this battleline unit you’re going to march down most other Battleline units in a heads-up fight.
And that’s just the Chaos Warriors.
That same realization hit me as I compared my old army lists to a rebuild version. As a whole, the army didn’t seem like it had a lot of overlapping buffs and helping hands — aka synergy. But individually, each unit was just plain better. And when you start looking at what you can add back in that’s when things got even wonkier.
As an example, just look at all these Chaos Marks. They are tweaks of their old versions. I think both Nurgle and Khorne are going to be very popular options moving forward. But, don’t discount ANY of these marks. It feels like a Slaves to Darkness Army doesn’t need to be a mono-god build either as it doesn’t seem quite as punishing to split up your loyalties depending on the unit.
For example, Marking a unit of Chosen with the Khorne mark as a hammer unit but marking your Knights as Slaanesh for the extra speed seems like a simple combo. Have your Knights do the charging and pinning while your Chosen move in to finish the job. Mark your Wizards Tzeentch! That’s a no-brainer right there. Mark your battleline units Nurgle if you think they are going to be the anvil that breaks your enemy’s charge. And your Heroes might want to consider being Undivided for those Eye of the Gods rolls…
…In With The New
It’s stuff like that you need to look for in your new Slaves to Darkness Army. Otherwise you’re going to spend a lot of time lamenting about how good Oracular Visions was (and it absolutely was) and how the new version just doesn’t even come close (it’s a 6+ ward now). And yeah…you’re right. And that’s the point! You can still build the same army you did before — or something close. But it’s not going to play exactly the same. This is a new edition and a new version. It’s time to relearn some tricks and take that knowledge to the tabletop. And maybe try out some new units while you’re at it…
Ogroids – They hit HARD. You might want to check them out.
The last thing I’ll add is to take a good look at the warscrolls. Yeah, I know I said this already “they are better across the board.” Generally speaking, yes. But also take a REAL close look at the special rules, too. Here’s an example.
Read Unstoppable Momentum. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Now, on your first read through did you go “OMG – THAT’S SO MANY MORTAL WOUNDS?!” Because I did. As a person who’s been sitting on Gorebeast Chariots for a more than a few editions of Warhammer, I got REAL excited. But re-read that again.
The mortal wound dice rolls are based on how many chariots are in the unit and not how many models in the enemy unit that got run over. Yeah, so it’s not going to be quite the lawn mower that you hoped…but with the option to go up to 6 models in a unit (1 or 3, reinforced to 2 or 6) that still a lot of chances for mortal wounds.
Slaves to Darkness have a new Battletome and it’s good. It’s going to take some adjusting but that’s not a bad thing. Don’t be stuck in the past with your old book trying to rebuild your old combos. Try to look at this new one with fresh eyes and find the new hotness within it’s covers. Because it’s there — you just have to dig a little deeper for it.
Side note: I have a buddy running a Kickstarter. This plug is unsponsored and unrequested but you should still go check it out. He’s also a Slaves to Darkness Fan, too.
It’s a solid, new book. I can’t wait to take it out for more games!
Promotional Product Provided by Games Workshop, PLC
