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Caveat: I don't personally own it so this post is going off memory which as I've proven time and time again in YMDC is suspect. Luckily, I just finished going over it so most things are still fresh-ish. Friend of mine has it on his iPad. It finished downloading about 2 hours ago, so naturally we flipped right to the rules pages. There's like 70 pages of fluff this time around, by the way. I think that's kind of neat. It's not just a handful of things, but an entire chapter history both pre- and post-downfall. I'll let you know my feelings on that once I get a chance to go through it.

Edit note: Was able to get the names of all the rules and some clarifications posted. Plan to post again later with Cities of Death/Planetstrike rules and extra missions tonight.

Upsides:

"Harbingers of the Tormented": Your entire army has Fear. It's worded ALL MODELS. The idea of having someone assault your rhinos then somehow being smitten by abject terror is delicious. On a practical level, I see this being rather useful for Cultists at the very least.

"Slaves to the Voices": Your possessed are troops rather than Elites, and rather than Vessels of Chaos, they have a new table you roll at the beginning of your turn rather than beginning of combat.
D3:
1= "Spirit Beacon." Unit and any vehicle embarked on gains Shrouded til beginning of your next turn.
2= "Beast Form." Unit counts as "Beast" type until beginning of your next turn.
3= "Incorporeal Bodies." Unit gains Rending and invulnerable save increases to 3+

"Draznicht's Ravagers": You can upgrade a Chosen squad's aspiring Champion to Draznicht for +10 points. As long as he's alive, the entire unit gains Preferred Enemy. On a practical level, could be quite fun on Chosen spamming Plasma or Melta.

-Downside:
"Renegades of the Dark Millennium": Cannot take Veterans of the Long War on any unit except Khorne Berserkers, Plague Marines and Noise Marines. (Note: Thousand Sons have it default, so that's why they aren't mentioned here.)

Relics:
Typical "you select from this table instead of from Codex: Chaos Marines" applies.
Crozius of the Dark Covenant: Dark Apostles only, 30 points. Gives 6" bubble to the Zealot effect from Dark Apostles. Verdict: Not worth it because they priced it forgetting that Dark Apostles are already wielding a power maul.

"Blade of the Relentless." 30 points, Chaos Lords only. Is just a basic power sword to begin with, but you mark how many kills it causes in a game. At 1 kill, gains +1 strength. 3 kills, goes to AP2. 5 kills, gains another +1 strength. 10 kills, gains instant death.
Getting the 3 kills with it is pretty likely, I think, and makes you an at initiative power axe. Not bad.

"Slaughterer's Horns": 15 points, user gains Rage, Furious Charge and Hammer of Wrath. Comparable to Mark of Khorne without actually being a Mark of Khorne, so I can see this being used on a lord charging out of Land Raider or something.

"The Balestar of Mannon": 25 points, sorcerers only. Lets you reroll failed psychic test, but you cannot Deny the Witch as though you were a Psyker. Also, lets you roll on Divination table. Is essentially a slightly worse Spell Familiar (it's not reroll any psychic test, so you can still perils on snake eyes) and for an extra 10 you gain divination with f***ing chaos marines. Totally badass.

"Daemonheart": 30 Points. user gets 2+ Armor and It Will Not Die. Can't give it to Daemon Princes. Essentially Artificer armor with It Will Not Die for an extra 10 points on top. Pretty cool, and has a lot of potential abusable builds with it. Definitely makes any biker/God Steed lords harder to take out.

"Prophet of the Voices": 30 points, gives Daemon special rule, Fleet and user rolls on the modified Possessed "Slaves to the Voices" chart. Clearly designed if you want a lord to run alongside some Possessed from a fluff standpoint, especially as it restricts you to only being able to join units of Possessed.

Warlord Traits:
I like them compared to what's in Codex Chaos Marines. That one has a singular good power and several godawful ones, while all of these are pretty useful.
1) "Murderous Hatred": Warlord and unit he's joined to gain Hatred. Against Dark Angels, reroll all failed misses in all combats. (Better than Hatred Incarnate in case you play against any silly Dork Angels.)
2) "Maelstrom of Torment:" Enemy units within 12" of Warlord have -1 Leadership Penalty, and also -2 Penalty vs. Fear tests. The way it's worded, seems to me it'd essentially be -3 Leadership vs. fear, which considering your whole army has it now, not half bad. Does nothing against Space Marines but anyone else, have a blast. Also potentially fun alongside any Telepathy psyker.
3) "Maddened Rage": Warlord gains Furious Charge and Rage. Downside is cannot shoot at and much charge any unit within 12". This is the worst warlord trait in the supplement as it can be made redundant should you buy the Slaughterer's Horns, but at least you still gain legitimate benefits otherwise.
4) "Merciless Slaughter": Warlord and any unit he is joined to has Crusader USR. I think the best fluffy way to use this is make a Possessed Lord with the Prophet of the Voices relic. Fleet and Crusader work pretty well together. (You mean I get to roll 2d6 and choose the highest for runs, AND I can reroll my run results? Oh frabjuous day, calloh, callay!)
5) "Spectral Assailants": Enemy Models in base contact with Warlord take D6 S3 AP- hits at initiative step 10 in each assault phase. I rather like this one. It's got a lot of potential against T4 or lower models. Would probably be upset if I rolled this while wielding the Blade of the Relentless, though.
6) "Pall of Mist": Warlord gains Shrouded. Worth noting, Shrouded confers to whole units if a single model has the USR, so this one is great if you roll it on cheaper lords there to provide Fearless to some Cultists holding objectives on your side of the map, among other silly uses.

EDIT NOTE: Plan to go through all the Cities of Death Strategems when I get another free moment.

Cities of Death strategems:
Only one I remember is the Armory one gives you Ectoplasma. All Plasma weaponry hits at S8 instead of S7. Not that a lot of people do Cities of Death when netlisting, but still worth mentioning because hey, you pay for it if you get a supplement.

Altar of War and Fluffy Missions:
I remember thinking some of them were cool, but my friend with the iPad works at our FLGS and they were closing by the time I got to reading this part. Will post what I can later.

TL;DR Final Verdict:
It's a supplement, so it's never "worth it's price" though there is a substantial amount of fluff which is always fun to read. They make possess a significantly better unit. Worth taking? Probably not, but they will actually matter on the table now. Their improved Vessels of Chaos thingy is a lot better IMHO, because they can actually make it around the map on their own/in a transport better than they ever could at the cost of being slightly less capable in melee. Also, scoring. scoring helps. The Relics are cool, too. Hard to argue with 2+ IWND on a Chaos Lord/Sorcerer, especially if you run it on a Juggernaut/Bike/whatever. Kranon's sword was also pretty cool I thought. Also, booyah divnination, hell yeah.

Honestly I rather like this supplement. And fek there were a lot of missions. I'm not sure if I'm sold on raising the Chaos Marine Banner again, but a the very least I'm keen on going back and reading all the background stuff I forced myself to stop reading when I was working on my review.

Are either of the relic weapons Daemon Weapons? For 30 points, they seem like they should be (also every other relic weapon is a daemon weapon).

Some of that sounds nice. Honestly, losing VotLW isn't the end of the world I suspect, though granted Fear isn't the best thing ever. I'd be much more tempted by this supplement than by Black Legion, personally.

 McGibs wrote:
Are either of the relic weapons Daemon Weapons? For 30 points, they seem like they should be (also every other relic weapon is a daemon weapon).

No Daemon Weapons of any kind in the book.

 Charles Rampant wrote:
Some of that sounds nice. Honestly, losing VotLW isn't the end of the world I suspect, though granted Fear isn't the best thing ever. I'd be much more tempted by this supplement than by Black Legion, personally.

What's hilarious is that it's Fear on all models in the Crimson Slaughter detachment. So even your Cultists and Rhinos cause Fear!

 ClockworkZion wrote:

 Charles Rampant wrote:
Some of that sounds nice. Honestly, losing VotLW isn't the end of the world I suspect, though granted Fear isn't the best thing ever. I'd be much more tempted by this supplement than by Black Legion, personally.

What's hilarious is that it's Fear on all models in the Crimson Slaughter detachment. So even your Cultists and Rhinos cause Fear!

Thought that's how it read. I plan to go copy down all the pertinent rules info later today when I get a chance and modify my first post. Couldn't remember if it was just non-vehicle models, or all models.

I can't wait for someone to assault my Rhino and then fail their fearcheck so they too are also WS1 and therefore only hit on 4+.

Is it still basically £24.99 for a warlord chart, minimal force org adjustments and some relics?

AlexRae wrote:
Is it still basically £24.99 for a warlord chart, minimal force org adjustments and some relics?

If you want to boil it down that way, that's how all codex supplements are honestly. This has been the first one I've read in a while were just skimming the backstory had me end up reading it properly instead and I honestly love the Crimson Slaughter color scheme (that glowing blue looks great next to that red!) so for me this may turn into a proper investment.

Oh and this one has the most extra missions (not to mention contains Cities of Death and Planetstrike stratagems as well, a first from what I've seen) I've seen put into one of these. Not to steal the thunder from the original poster, but I've got all the rules, wargear, stratagems and missions laid out in the review in my signature. The only reason I'm not just reposting it here is because it'd be a pain to reformat all of that to be properly readable here.

The way that the Prophet of the Voices relic is worded (the one that makes your HQ possessed) it seems that he adds an additional Slaves to the Voices roll to his unit (the D3 ability roll). The possessed unit gets a roll, and the result applies to the whole unit. Then the HQ gets a roll, and the results apply to the whole unit.

Seems it would make for much more reliable rolls when fishing for that beast mode.

 McGibs wrote:
The way that the Prophet of the Voices relic is worded (the one that makes your HQ possessed) it seems that he adds an additional Slaves to the Voices roll to his unit (the D3 ability roll). The possessed unit gets a roll, and the result applies to the whole unit. Then the HQ gets a roll, and the results apply to the whole unit.

Seems it would make for much more reliable rolls when fishing for that beast mode.

The way I read it is that the HQ just gains the rule and the unit and HQ would just roll for the rule all at once. But maybe I missed something.

 ClockworkZion wrote:

AlexRae wrote:
Is it still basically £24.99 for a warlord chart, minimal force org adjustments and some relics?

If you want to boil it down that way, that's how all codex supplements are honestly. This has been the first one I've read in a while were just skimming the backstory had me end up reading it properly instead and I honestly love the Crimson Slaughter color scheme (that glowing blue looks great next to that red!) so for me this may turn into a proper investment.

Oh and this one has the most extra missions (not to mention contains Cities of Death and Planetstrike stratagems as well, a first from what I've seen) I've seen put into one of these. Not to steal the thunder from the original poster, but I've got all the rules, wargear, stratagems and missions laid out in the review in my signature. The only reason I'm not just reposting it here is because it'd be a pain to reformat all of that to be properly readable here.

Going from the Iyanden, Farsight and Sentinels of Terra supplements that I purchased, the background 'fluff' is always absolutely excellent and GW can be proud of that side of things. But 300page novels from Black Library don't cost this much. So they really need to give a bit more in terms of rules.

AlexRae wrote:

 ClockworkZion wrote:

AlexRae wrote:
Is it still basically £24.99 for a warlord chart, minimal force org adjustments and some relics?

If you want to boil it down that way, that's how all codex supplements are honestly. This has been the first one I've read in a while were just skimming the backstory had me end up reading it properly instead and I honestly love the Crimson Slaughter color scheme (that glowing blue looks great next to that red!) so for me this may turn into a proper investment.

Oh and this one has the most extra missions (not to mention contains Cities of Death and Planetstrike stratagems as well, a first from what I've seen) I've seen put into one of these. Not to steal the thunder from the original poster, but I've got all the rules, wargear, stratagems and missions laid out in the review in my signature. The only reason I'm not just reposting it here is because it'd be a pain to reformat all of that to be properly readable here.

Going from the Iyanden, Farsight and Sentinels of Terra supplements that I purchased, the background 'fluff' is always absolutely excellent and GW can be proud of that side of things. But 300page novels from Black Library don't cost this much. So they really need to give a bit more in terms of rules.

They hit pretty much every section in terms of rules, the only way they can really do more is if they made it a full codex and added new models specific to it.

Updated it with all the pertinent rules for basic 40k after meeting friend with iPad for lunch. Will go over Cities of Death/Planetstrike/Altar of War stuff when I get another free moment later tonight. Gonna borrow his iPad while he's at work tonight.

Also threw in your tidbit about Prophet of the Voices, McGribs. Thought it was interesting, and cool.

Looking at the rules again, I don't think Prophet of the Voices works that way. It only confers the rule Slaves to the Voices which treats the unit as a collective whole and is done at the start of the turn. To be able to get a different rule on the Lord he'd need to not be in the Possessed unit at the time the roll is made, and then even if he does attach there is nothing that transfers the rule over between him and the unit.

Why would anyone buy a supplement when it's just some random tables and a handful of artifacts....

 TedNugent wrote:
Why would anyone buy a supplement when it's just some random tables and a handful of artifacts....

I did it to review it, but I'm going out on a limb and say "because they want to play a fluffier version of that faction".

 TedNugent wrote:
Why would anyone buy a supplement when it's just some random tables and a handful of artifacts....

And about 60-70 pages of story, and several new game modes.

I don't know about you, but I'm sick to death of the 6 Echoes of War missions in the BRB.

And besides, wondering "WHY WOULD SOMEONE BUY THAT?" is really a silly thing to ever say in a hobby where we literally collect plastic space men and tiny tanks.

 ClockworkZion wrote:

 McGibs wrote:
Are either of the relic weapons Daemon Weapons? For 30 points, they seem like they should be (also every other relic weapon is a daemon weapon).

No Daemon Weapons of any kind in the book.

 Charles Rampant wrote:
Some of that sounds nice. Honestly, losing VotLW isn't the end of the world I suspect, though granted Fear isn't the best thing ever. I'd be much more tempted by this supplement than by Black Legion, personally.

What's hilarious is that it's Fear on all models in the Crimson Slaughter detachment. So even your Cultists and Rhinos cause Fear!

Well, in the 3.5 CSM codex there was a tank upgrade called warp amp causing leadership malus.

It is possible to have squads of khorne berserkers or noisemarines and squads of possesed for a possesed khornate or slaneeshi lord in the troops section at the same time with other allies than csm/crimson slaughter or vice versa?

It would have been nice if that ectoplasma rule applied to their plasma weapons normally.

This is the first supplement I've seen that I think is worth it. It is, as always, very expensive for a few pages of rules, but in this one you have a lot of new, awesome stuff. Possessed become viable, you get army-wide fear and PE Chosen, and there's loads of really useful artifacts too. On top of that, the fluff section is one of the best I've seen.

I'm still not a big supplement fan, but this one is actually very good.

Maguma Danos wrote:It is possible to have squads of khorne berserkers or noisemarines and squads of possesed for a possesed khornate or slaneeshi lord in the troops section at the same time with other allies than csm/crimson slaughter or vice versa?

Any FOC changes from having Marked Lords still work as normal. The only additional change is Possessed are troops.

Medium of Death wrote:It would have been nice if that ectoplasma rule applied to their plasma weapons normally.

Oh gods yes. I was sad to see that stratagem and not see it as a wargear option. I'd pay a couple extra points to have S8, AP2 Plasmaguns!

The Shadow wrote:This is the first supplement I've seen that I think is worth it. It is, as always, very expensive for a few pages of rules, but in this one you have a lot of new, awesome stuff. Possessed become viable, you get army-wide fear and PE Chosen, and there's loads of really useful artifacts too. On top of that, the fluff section is one of the best I've seen.

I'm still not a big supplement fan, but this one is actually very good.

I agree that this is the best one so far by far. If this is where supplements are going I'll happily support them all the way.

It sounds pretty well done, for a supplement. If I was inclined to play Word Bearers or even a more general Chaos Warband, I'd probably try it out.

 Medium of Death wrote:
It would have been nice if that ectoplasma rule applied to their plasma weapons normally.

Then we would have shooty slaughters, sounds more like chaos (or nids...) and less like those khorneheavy Warlord Traits and relics.

The relics are surely nice and such, but i would have really liked to see at least 1 deamonweapon if they even have possesed as troops. crozius and relentless blade have nice effects but are still missing something unless you throw your relentless possesed horned lord with 2 hearts at some cultists or guardsmen to get some souls and that small bubble for the crozius has a high cost .

Minor flaws from my point of view:
Prophet could have given at least strength +1 (POSSESED LORD is weaker than his squad... so the ultracool horns are a must-buy)
Daemonheart another rule like eternal warrior, that price for 2 rules makes the lord even more expensive
Horns are right the way they are, maybe it could have been nice if they pushed already existing hammer of wrath a level in strength.
balestar could have given the sorcerer maybe some added durability. this and maybe the heart on a sorcerer easily nukes 200 points for a w2 model..

Does the supplement say that they worship Khorne?

I don't get that vibe from them. They seem to be influenced by the full power of Chaos rather than one aspect.

Them trying to drown out the voices with excessive amounts of slaughter somewhat reminds me of Slaanesh and the rampant mutation Tzeentch.

 Medium of Death wrote:
Does the supplement say that they worship Khorne?

I don't get that vibe from them. They seem to be influenced by the full power of Chaos rather than one aspect.

Them trying to drown out the voices with excessive amounts of slaughter somewhat reminds me of Slaanesh and the rampant mutation Tzeentch.

According to the novels featuring them, they're Undivided. The curse thing was basically an alliance of all the Chaos gods (minus Nurgle) to corrupt them (have to read between the lines in Crimson Dawn to see this)

Maguma Danos wrote:

Minor flaws from my point of view:
Prophet could have given at least strength +1 (POSSESED LORD is weaker than his squad... so the ultracool horns are a must-buy)
Daemonheart another rule like eternal warrior, that price for 2 rules makes the lord even more expensive
Horns are right the way they are, maybe it could have been nice if they pushed already existing hammer of wrath a level in strength.
balestar could have given the sorcerer maybe some added durability. this and maybe the heart on a sorcerer easily nukes 200 points for a w2 model..

He's "weaker" than his squad, but he's also the only one capable of buying wargear and therefore having an actual AP value. Making it give a flat +1 strength would be super nasty, actually, as it'd make a mere power sword totally awesome and push a Power Maul a melee Autocannon.

As I pointed out with Daemonheart, it's essentially artificer armor with IWND tacked on for +10 more than artificer armor. I feel it's priced accordingly.

The Balestar DOES give the sorcerer some added durability. It lets you reroll failed psychic tests, and gives you access to divination. More reliable sorcerer + a psychic table that helps buff your army more so than anything Chaos currently has = more durable. It's +10 points over getting a spell familiar. If you ever think a Spell Familiar is worth it, I don't see why this wouldn't be. Lvl 3 psyker with this relic = 135 points. That's not out of whack with what the unit is capable of, in the least. If you want to drop even more points to give him an invulnerable save, that's your prerogative.

Does Kranon have special rules?

No, just baseline Chaos Lord with specific upgrades.

Like most of the previous supplements I was really expecting this to be a load of rubbish. However from reading this and other reviews I actually want to pick the supplement up.

Trouble is that would mean starting yet another new army, which I really don't want to do. I've already got 6 mostly unbuilt/unpainted armies (Eldar, 3x Guard (Tallarns, + 2 using non gw models), Iron Warriors and Necrons) and 3 in need of significant changes (Black Templars, Thousand Sons and Vanilla Marines). I really don't need any more projects.