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Well there have been a lot of posts about the other gods and their respective armies (I even started up the chat about Mono Nurgle at some stage) but little has been said about Mono Khorne other than the supposed weakness of the Bloodcrushers.

I think we have some hidden gems here.

I'll start off with the HQs.

Skarbrand.
Much maligned by other players due to the Rage and Hatred being a boon for both sides, but look at what he brings... Rage and Hatred for your entire force within a bubble. That's two loci for everything. Nothing else does this in the entire army. This can be a great thing for us as we have numbers on our side as opposed to MEQ. In a Daemon Blob force I really think he is our go to guy. He is also able to destroy tanks like old MC could. Yes he is wingless, but look at his points cost compared to a regular Thirster. A skillful player could really make use of him.

Skulltaker.
The character killer who can kill characters that don't have a 2+ save. He is insanely quick with super high initiative, going before most characters. His only weakness is the AP 3 sword, which limits his capabilities somewhat. He might even not earn his points back as 90% of the time he will be in challenges in cc.

Bloodthirster.
Murder machine but costs a lot of points. Usually the go to choice for HQ.

Heralds.
Murder machines that can either support squads or form a unit of murder that can butcher just about everything. I've been toying around with the idea of a unit of them on Juggernauts. While expensive, they could act as a fire magnet and off an icon, deep strike just where you need them, killing everything on the following turn. They're not particularly needed in squads, but if you're not taking Skarbrand, put them in a squad of Bloodletters or if mounted on a Juggernaut in a unit of Hounds or Bloodcrushers.

Karanak.
I don't know enough of what he brings to comment as yet.

Blood Throne.
It's got its benefits, but it's very fragile. The great thing is the Loci bubble, but it will get destroyed and much easier than a Herald in a squad or a certain wingless Thirster.

Bloodcrushers.
Arguments of fluff aside, I believe that they have a new use. Obviously they don't need to be set up at the start of the game, deep strike them off an icon in a unit that is going to charge. Place them behind the unit that is going to charge and then after the charge, that cc is blocking line of site to your Bloodcrushers. The next turn will have your Crushers smashing through the lines as they will have far less ground to cover.
I've seen this first hand and it does work.

Bloodletters.
Our troops choices. Take them in large squads and always with s Bloodreaper with Etherblade.

Hounds.
I don't know enough about them to comment.

Cannon of Khorne.
Take no more than two. Great template vs light infantry but it's great for ignoring cover and effectively giving a unit Frag Grenades.

Soul Grinder of Khorne.
This is the reason why you don't take three Cannons. This is our anti air and our Battle Cannon. The "mark" is free which isn't bad and it can hold its own in CC too.

Overall I think the army could work, it just needs a good tactical mind to get over some of the weaknesses.

Just bear in mind that a lot of this is theory work and I am still proxy testing.

It's the combination of Skarbrand with Cover that makes him iffy. The Demons charging into cover to strike last while the opponent has Hatred is brutal on the chargers. The loss of 1A from the previous Dex means that you should probably take larger squads to counter this.

The addition of the Cannons giving 'grenades' to any unit that charges the target is a great boost to mono-khorne armies. So a minimum of 2 would be recommended. I'd suggest 1 Cannon for every 2 units that you intend to assault with, but this is my theory. It keeps more options open since it's rare that you'll have more than 2 units charging 1 unit, and will compensate if you lose one. If you do run 3, then that means no Soul Grinder, but this is dependent on whether a player is planning to ignore flyers and run 6 Assaulting units, or are going to be playing dual FOC.

Hounds and Bloodcrushers do the same thing in my mind. They roam out ahead, use their movement to tie stuff up, till Skarbrand can get in there. They'll usually be out ahead far enough to prevent the enemy from gaining Hatred from Skarbrand. It's just a matter of keeping em cheap and hope they survive (Hounds), or significantly more powerful but costly (Crushers). Personally I like the Bloodcrushers, since I thought I saw that Skulltaker can be put on one.

Everything else seems spot on, and are generally good recommendations.

A number of people are fans of Flesh Hounds and Karanak. These are Khorne's Seekers so to speak. They get up in the enemy's line fast and hit em hard.

I also find it amusing that you didn't mention Daemon Princes as HQs or Heavy Supports. Something I realized is, unless you are going full flying circus, you aren't going to use them anymore.

An alternative to using Soul Grinders as your only anti air, you could run an ADL with Quad Gun and Comms Relay with a Herald + Bloodletters. The Herald has an incredibly high BS, and the Comms Relay gives you re rolls on your reserve rolls.

Completely forgot about Khorne Princes.

I'll add them in two ticks.

The biggest issue I can see with ignoring flyers is that Daemons can't ignore them. They are very vulnerable to many of the fliers out there, specifically the Heldrake.

One thing of note about Bloodcrushers...

Stick two to three heralds on Juggernauts and add them to a large Bloodcrusher unit. Add Skarbrand and run them up one side of the field. This will probably distract the opponent away from the Bloodletters.

The above is from a tourney playing friend of mine who is testing stuff with me.

Any opinions on this?

The Heralds on Juggs attached to a unit of Bloodcrushers would suffer from majority toughness though.

That's what I thought. Might be good on a deepstrike.

The more I think about it the more interested I am at the thought of running 4 Heralds on Bloodthrones granting a 6 inch aoe buff, rather than giving the buff to a single unit. The Bloodthrone may not be overly tough, but it can regain HPs, has 5+ Invuln, and would draw a decent amount of attention.

Only downside to that is you still can only have one loci at a time. But I see where you're coming from.

It seems that Khorne uses a lot of unit distraction and unit redundancy to make the army successful. More skill redundancy actually than unit redundancy.

In general I'd only really use the Greater Loci, but it could be fun to have Skarbrand drop down near by and grant Hatred to a 12' bubble.

I was thinking of a core looking like this. Bloodcrushers and herald with grimoire of true names, give those "weak" crushers a 3++ invuln. Charge upfield drop in a max bloodletters squad and instrument bring in another max squad. Saving 40 BLs from 2 rounds of fire and being really far upfield. Naturally bring the no scatter wargear where they need to apply.

It's risky, but doable.

The main problem comes from the Grimoire rolling every turn and the lack of supporting units could be dangerous.

I'll give it a try.

Karanak is a force multiplier, or support character.

Add him to a squad of 'letters. Add a herald on a jugg to a squad of Khorne dogs.
Karanak passes 'scout' onto the 'letters. The Khorne dogs pass 'scout' onto the herald.
Scout your two squads up 12". On turn 2, you can move the Herald or Karanak to join either squad. Both squads will be able to assault on turn 2. Even the 'letters.

This is how it works. You start 24" from the enemy deployment zone.
6" scout move
6" normal move turn 1
3.5" run turn 1.
6" normal move turn 2
6+d6" charge turn 2 (average of 9.5")
This means your 'letters will have an effective assault range of 31" from their deployed area. They will be assault nearly anything turn 2, just like your khorne dogs.

Oh, and Karanak also bones psykers. I think he triples the chances of perils, but I'm not 100% sure of the math off the top of my head.

 labmouse42 wrote:
Karanak is a force multiplier, or support character.

Add him to a squad of 'letters. Add a herald on a jugg to a squad of Khorne dogs.
Karanak passes 'scout' onto the 'letters. The Khorne dogs pass 'scout' onto the herald.
Scout your two squads up 12". On turn 2, you can move the Herald or Karanak to join either squad. Both squads will be able to assault on turn 2. Even the 'letters.

This is how it works. You start 24" from the enemy deployment zone.
12" scout move
6" normal move turn 1
3.5" run turn 1.
6" normal move turn 2
6+d6" charge turn 2 (average of 9.5")
This means your 'letters will have an effective assault range of 37" from their deployed area. They will be assault nearly anything turn 2, just like your khorne dogs.

Oh, and Karanak also bones psykers. I think he triples the chances of perils, but I'm not 100% sure of the math off the top of my head.

Bloodletters only get a six inch scout move. Units scout move following all the normal rules for their unit type, up to a maximum of 12".

Puscifer wrote:
It's risky, but doable.

The main problem comes from the Grimoire rolling every turn and the lack of supporting units could be dangerous.

I'll give it a try.

I was talking that as a core, of course you need support units and other threats for your opponent to focus on.

I think I would build a mono Khorne army around a large unit of crusher backed up with a herald on throne using the grimoire and several packs of puppies to move up the field as fast as possible to tie up enemy units.

You have the option to either save bloodletters for deep strike to avoid being shot up while also risking the rest of your army being focus fired OR saturate the table with lots of models and deploy the entire force.

I love the idea of a Khorne horde, advancing and running, but vs "look at my gunline lol" armies they should fall very bad.

PanzerLeader wrote:
Bloodletters only get a six inch scout move. Units scout move following all the normal rules for their unit type, up to a maximum of 12".

Curses! Your right :\

DakotaBlue wrote:
I love the idea of a Khorne horde, advancing and running, but vs "look at my gunline lol" armies they should fall very bad.

Most Daemon armies have this issue. Good thing is that we got deepstrike and if we attack on mass on a flank, we should cut them in two.

Bloodcrushers with Grimore of True Names casted on them will be almost unstoppable, just make the herald that is NOT in their unit casts it on them. That way, the herald that IS in their unit can benefit from it (the caster of the Grimore can never be affected by it)

Just need to make sure they grimoire guy is well protected, wont take long for a savvy opponent to know to pick off the character holding it asap.

I like the idea of the Crusher centre.

A massive unit with Herald or Heralds (one with a Grimoire) would be pretty good. Also backing this up with some other serious threats could keep the shots off them.

Lots of threats prevent adequate response from opponents.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wait... if the Grimoire bearer is in the unit, will the rest of the unit get the benefit?

Khorne does have a lot of fast units now. Puppies, princes, Thirster, crushers and chariots. Thats a lot to deal with in a short period of time.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Puscifer wrote:
I like the idea of the Crusher centre.

A massive unit with Herald or Heralds (one with a Grimoire) would be pretty good. Also backing this up with some other serious threats could keep the shots off them.

Lots of threats prevent adequate response from opponents.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wait... if the Grimoire bearer is in the unit, will the rest of the unit get the benefit?

Pretty sure everyone in the unit benefits just not the bearer.

How would I run an all Khorne army?

Simple. 4 heralds with the rage loci and an Ap2 sword.
4 squad's of 20 bloodletters for them to go in, with another AP2 sword in each.

Any other point's go to A bloodthirster, and any remaining after that if at all, would be in anti-tank/flyer, so naturally, soulgrinders.

So so so much killy.

I think you would need more mobility, that's one shortfall of bloodletters.

Either that or you just need to use your units to box fast enemies in.

I would love to play a massive bloodletter horde though, that would be quite the sight.

 Evileyes wrote:
How would I run an all Khorne army?

Simple. 4 heralds with the rage loci and an Ap2 sword.
4 squad's of 20 bloodletters for them to go in, with another AP2 sword in each.

Any other point's go to A bloodthirster, and any remaining after that if at all, would be in anti-tank/flyer, so naturally, soulgrinders.

So so so much killy.

Definitely agree. I'm just trying to think out of the box.

Puscifer wrote:


Bloodcrushers.
Arguments of fluff aside, I believe that they have a new use. Obviously they don't need to be set up at the start of the game, deep strike them off an icon in a unit that is going to charge. Place them behind the unit that is going to charge and then after the charge, that cc is blocking line of site to your Bloodcrushers. The next turn will have your Crushers smashing through the lines as they will have far less ground to cover.
I've seen this first hand and it does work.

Sadly an ongoing combat does not block LoS, it only confers 5+ cover save so unless you are deepstriking them behind a building/hill or anything they are going to get shot to death. They being cavalry helps them a lot more thou, being able to DS then run with a re-roll on the die to seek cover and then once they can charge move 12" and get fleet on the charge. Still I think they are a very expensive choice

Really? Well then I'm owed many a victory. My opponents always enforce that rule.

Puscifer wrote:
Really? Well then I'm owed many a victory. My opponents always enforce that rule.

It used to be like that in 4th ed, no shots could pass through a close combat, however they changed it in 5th and didn't bring it back on 6th so yeah, you only count as firing though a unit which means cover 5+

 Evileyes wrote:
How would I run an all Khorne army?

Simple. 4 heralds with the rage loci and an Ap2 sword.
4 squad's of 20 bloodletters for them to go in, with another AP2 sword in each.

Any other point's go to A bloodthirster, and any remaining after that if at all, would be in anti-tank/flyer, so naturally, soulgrinders.

So so so much killy.

what about replacing all those heralds with another 'thirster?
Use your FMCs for busting armor or flyers and 'letters for light armor and infantry.

Two Thirsters is too many points and a little pointless as you miss out on Loci.

Omg.. Daemon Flying Circus 2.0.

2 Thirsters and 3 Daemon Princes of Khorne.

Letters for Troops and one of the few times I'd put Juggernauts on the table without deep strike.

That sounds pretty awesome.