Not 100% sure if this should be general discussion or in the War Council forum. I'll let the moderators decide if it should stay here or be moved.
Mid-week I managed to pick up my first Age of Sigmar battletome: Slaves to Darkness. I have had a chance to go through it some and want to write about my thoughts for anyone that wants to discuss it. I did play a little before the tome came out, but I haven't played enough to know where the average power level that a 100 points are worth as the game stands right now.
The Lore
I have only really skimmed through this section, but it seems nice. The more I learn about the lore of Age of Sigmar (bare bones as it is right now), the more I like it. I am a very long time player of D&D, so to be frank, I always kinda felt like the Old World was any given
AD&D 2nd edition world that every
DM handcrafted at the time. Which is to say it is D&D, but ________ is different. I know that isn't really fair nor true and this is neither here nor there. Suffice to say, I probably would never played any Old World miniatures game. Heck, I didn't even like the half-dozen Warhammer Fantasy 2nd ed
rpg games I played. Everyone's taste is different. I just wanted to give some context.
What I can say I like about the lore is I like the idea that most of the lands are ruled by Chaos worshiping mortals. Be they the ancestors of the northern men that always believed in the dark gods or the sons and daughters of those abandoned by Sigmar. I like to think most lands could easily be old heavy metal album covers with extreme weather and landscapes filled with mutated, savage beasts. I myself am thinking of having my army be one that were followers of Sigmar until they were left behind. Now spurned, they follow Chaos is a cruel mockery of the Old World claiming to be Defenders of the Realm and Paladins of the Spurned Kings. I imagine most of the background for my games will be my forces staving off foreign invaders.
The Photo Spread and Painting Guide
I am not super impressed this section of the book given I live in the 21st century with easy and constant internet access. The whole section feels like filler to me as I can Google any of it and get more and better detailed pictures and information online.
Aura of Chaos and Damned Legions
The Aura of Chaos have been updated as to be more generally more useful. Gone are the god specific wholly within ranges which made Slaanesh's all but worthless. They are even buffed to be more than just re-rolling 1's compared to the old stuff too. In general, these Auras seem really good and well worth keeping active. I will note my disappoint in that Slaves of Darkness still have a bunch of different ways to get the same buff. Which feels really off in a game that I get the impression wants to be about combos and synergies, and really feels off/punishing to players that want a more fluffy army. What I mean by that is for example: A Khorne unit of Chaos Warriors are very likely to already take two hand weapons giving them re-roll 1s to hit. So, big deal having a Leader with Mark of Khorne as well. Pretty much all Auras have 2 stages of buff, one for any given Leader and one for the Warlord. If I had my druthers, I would have probably gone the route of if the unit already has the first level buff, any Aura effect added to them gives them the second level buff. Then just maybe I would take Mark of Tzeentch and not feel like it is a waste having a big groups of Chaos Warrior in my army supported by Sorcerer Lords.
The Eye of the Gods table seems fine to me. I would have liked something like that in
40k in 7th ed. I am not going to comment much as I think it may be pretty rare that it occurs in my games. I also can't say much for the spells. There doesn't seem to be any standout ones to me compared to the spell that comes with Sorcerer Lords: Daemonic Power which I really like.
I like all the Damned Legions groups. They seem both flavorful with decent rules for each type of army they encourage. I can see me trying out all of them over time. I can't say I have a favorite right now as each one has something I like while also having issues with the collection of models I have right now. Ravagers is probably my default even though I simply don't have the Cultist models to make great use of it. The same goes with Cabalists. Despoilers seems fun too, but I lean toward Chaos Undivided and this Legion makes that awkward. Finally, Host of the Everchosen which I really like but don't have the models built/owned to make it work. What I do want to say about Damned Legions is there seems to be one missing. There is no Chaos Warrior/Chaos Knight Legion. Ravagers is a sort of best fit, but I think that one works far better for Marauders/Cultists that Warriors/Knights.
Battalions
I haven't given battalions too much consideration. They seem very army restrictive as well as costing more points than I care to consider. I maybe they are more powerful than I give them credit, but I can't help to dismiss them out of hand until they are like half the points cost they are now. The nearly cross the board 20% points increase to most of my non-Leader units makes Slaves to Darkness a very point-pinching faction that can't afford to get the most out of anything that cost three figures in points. Perhaps as I get more games in (or discussion here) and can be persuaded to give Battlions more of a chance, but I am not seeing it at the moment.
Warcrolls
The spoiler basically includes everything I have for my Slaves to Darkness army. I will mostly limit my discussion to those units, and I probably won't even talk about all of them. Note: I have the Alter of Skulls only because I think it looks awesome. I do hope to place it on
AoS tables and even use the rules for it even if technically I am not allowed and it generally hurts my army since I typically run a couple of Wizards.
Leaders:
The Chaos Lord of Karkadrak (or kayak lizard) seems good if a little expensive. The unit seems like a nice combat/support hybrid leaning more combat. I am going to try keeping my lance/glaive knights within his Command aura to do the most to get that charge off.
The Chaos Lord seems really good to me. Relatively cheap to give a unit a Chaos Mark buff and a very good Command Ability.
The Chaos Sorcerer Lord has been my bread and butter Leader since I started playing
AoS. Here we see perhaps the worst of redundant special abilities with Oracular Vision, Mark of Tzeentch (on a Wizard?
), Mystic Shield and Chaos Warriors x10+. Like how many times does something need the re-roll Saves ability? Granted, some are re-rolling ones and others are re-rolling fails but that is still
lot of overlap. That said, I have already used this guy in my army with the new warcrolls and Daemonic Power had my units hitting and wounding on everything except maybe one or two attacks. I lean toward large, elite units so it should be devastating as long it I am not playing Nurgle who has a good counter with all their save buffs.
The Daemon Prince costs a fair more amount of points, but I think it is worth the cost in general. I am a Chaos Undivided even in
40k, so I don't really like this whole daemons have to serve one of the four gods things
GW is leaning more and more into. It just makes me hate Be'lakor more as he has to be a special snowflake. You're not special Be'lakor. A couple of weeks ago my Daemon Princes were like you but awesome. Now, I am in an awkward position that I have an army with Sorcerer Lords and Daemon Princes that can't all be Undivided. Nor can they be all Khorne (my next god of choice). I feel dumb with Tzeentch since I already have a boat load of Save re-rolls and don't need more Wizards. As a player I kinda hate Nurgle. So it kinda leaves me forced to play a Slaanesh army. Which isn't bad but not really what I want to do.
Battleline:
Chaos Warriors have been the core of my army since I started playing
AoS (like a month ago). They cost a little more now, but also hit a little better and are no longer the huge unwieldly blob you needed to have to get the Save re-roll (which I think was just 1s before too) for a single attack before losing it. I think dual-wielding warriors are viable though strangely not as much with Mark of Khorne with Leader support. I think Warriors are more of what they used to be, a tough-as-old-boots unit that place somewhere to keep the enemy from having that same bit of land. At the same time, I think they can be scary supported by a Sorcerer Lord or Chaos Lord which are almost cheap enough easily babysit them.
Chaos Knights are a bit more frighting now that their weapons aren't a carbon copy of Chaos Warriors. However, I am still not convinced that lances/glaives are all that great since their is a risk to Charging, it is tough to make use of all knights in a group of ten or more and my limited experience is they rarely run down what they charge away ways to not get bogged in a fight. I suppose they can Retreat and re-Charge (that's a thing in
AoS right?) but even then I am not sure the damage out is all that greater than ensorcelled weapons if they are buffed with something like Daemonic Power. I also fail to see what 2" range is going to do for them since they are on pretty big bases, but I have played with the new rules yet to know completely. Finally, I am not convinced that the Cursed Flail (or weapon if I make use of it) is all that worth it. I think the basic ensorcelled weapon is better for the Doom Knight since it is a consist 4 attacks with Rend -1 and he on point in my charges so I never need the 2" range anyways.
Other:
Furies have some interesting movement malarkey they can manage, but seem bit too expensive for it. Or more precisely, the faction is too expensive to have the free points to want to include them generally. I mean I managed to use them to nearly go the length of the table with a 12" move, an 11" charge and another 12" Sneaky Little Devils move, but I am not entirely sure how useful that is game to game. I suppose it does make it infuriating toward any opponent attempting to table Slaves to Darkness so there is that. And I really like that denial as it seems kinda easy for some armies to table in games.
Raptoryx seem like a cheap point filler slash
NPC unit you place on the table to make the game more interesting. They aren't exactly bad, I just don't know if they bring anything their points could be better spent on.
Iron Golems seem like Cultist unit that could work in larger numbers to be a sort of Jack-of-all-Trades workhorse. I have my doubts that at minimum size since I don't think all their toughness is going matter much though.
Untamed Beasts seem like a decent Ravager
Rally the Tribes to pick off a weak leader that has become out of position.
Endless Spells
The Eightfold Doom-Sigil doesn't really seem like something that works well with my army as I built it to be really hard kill. However in a more Cultist centered one I can see it being a good choice.
Darkfire Daemonrift seems pretty good. Though, I imagine it won't last very long if it gets to use the Fuelled by Sorcery effect with unbindings.
I don't know why but I Like Realmscourge Rupture. I am not sure how effective it would be after the initial attack since it doesn't move super fast. I suppose you could aim it to hit something upon summoning it and then in a couple of rounds have it maybe clear a path to an objective. I think this will be the one I tryout first when I get mine built and painted.
Summary
I think the Slaves to Darkness battletome has buffed the faction quite a bit. However, with increased point cost of a lot of stuff if might be 2-3 steps forward one step back. My big complaints are the lack of a Warrior/Knight specific Damned Legion and the continued redundant Marks/Special Abilities/Powers which seem to limit fluff reasons to take them as they feel like the right choices for for _____ Chaos god but usually give the same buff in a different way not really making it worthwhile. And the other personal complaint is Undivided Daemon Princes going away. Which in a game where Leader aura seems kinda important affects my army building process more than I like. I don't know how Slaves to Darkness now stack up in Age of Sigmar, but at least I don't feel playing Bonereapers is a waste of both my and my the Bonereapers time yet. It still might be, but at least I willing play a few games to fine out rather than just suggesting any potential OSB player we not even bother since my army wouldn't even offer any kind of challenge.
