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So I've snagged the Khorne Bloodbound and Goreblade Warband start collecting boxes, and the new battletome on an impulse ebay deal.

Been reading what I can on sites like 1d4chan but of all the 4 gods, Khorne is the one I'm least familiar with. I'm looking for someone's advice.

How should I build the units with weapon options? What sort of lists can I play at around 1000pts? Any tactical advice? What should I buy next?

The models I'll have are:
1 x Mighty Lord of Khorne
1 x Bloodsecrator
1 x Bloodstoker
1 x Slaughterpriest with Hack-blade and Wrath-hammer
1 x Khorgorath
3 x Mighty Skullcrushers
15 x Blood Warriors
10 x Bloodreavers

I understand what are you doing, i'm doing in a way the same thing as you.

You have enough Blood Warriors but you need more Bloodreavers.

You need to have find where you want to go with the warscroll bataillon and build your army around it (Gore Pilgrims will be the best for a low price investment).

The first thing I'd ask you is are you trying to be competitive and play in tournaments?

If yes then most mortal units are not that good. The skull crusher cavalry is good. The gore pilgrim batallion is "ok". Competitive tournament builds typically feature lots and lots of demons backed by 2-3 blood thirsters.

If the answer is you are playing for fun then you'll probably want more blood reavers and then start building out units that you enjoy building and the look of.

Gore Pilgrims is the one that stood out to me first but I'm open to anything!

I'm more a casual player but I like to have competitive options. Wasn't aware the mortals weren't amazing. Everything I've read has pointed towards going mortal/bloodreaver heavier lists.

Skulltaker, Herald and Bloodletters are something I'm quite interested in getting. Perhaps even a Skullgrinder.

Don't want to get into it too much but how does Khorne fair in the current meta? I know it's early days because the battletome is still new but I'm just curious.

 CrabSlap wrote:


Don't want to get into it too much but how does Khorne fair in the current meta? I know it's early days because the battletome is still new but I'm just curious.

Who care about the meta... you play Khorne, charge... kill... die... got blood, call daemons... BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD, SKULL FOR THE SKULL THRONE...

The khorne book is a fun book but middle of the road. It can do well with a really good player but it is mathematically out classed by a few other books and requires either the demon heavy list or if going mortals, a lot of priests and skull crushers and a bloodsecrator.

auticus wrote:
The khorne book is a fun book but middle of the road. It can do well with a really good player but it is mathematically out classed by a few other books and requires either the demon heavy list or if going mortals, a lot of priests and skull crushers and a bloodsecrator.

Middle of the road is good enough for me! Put my Idoneth on hold because there's an over saturation of them and that makes them a little boring.

My plans for the future are to add bunch of daemons, get more priests and load up on as many Skullcrushers as I can!

Another question: Exalted Deathbringers, yay or nay? Particularly like the model and rules for the spear one.

Been playing around with 1000 point list ideas. Here's what I've come up with for most of the models I'll have.

Any thoughts, comments or criticisms?

For me Exalted Deathbringer depends how likely you are to need his Immune to Battleshock ability, personanly I almost never need to make more than 1 unit immune, so don't help that much. If you decide to bring him, might as well make him fun. I done the Axe one, pushing his 3 attacks with 2 dmg to 9. 2 for being close to general, 2 from artifact, 1 from Bloodsecrator and 1 from Wrathmongers, once he has that I put + hit and reroll wound rolls on him.... Been fun, done the same with Skullgrinder, opponent looked wierd when the 2 between them did 27 in 1 combat phase.

Not super strong lists, but a couple of Slaughterpriests for mortal wounds and then buffing cheap melee heroes has made a mortal list work fine in my local meta.

I found the new book to have better internal balance than before. If not playing top lists you should be able to make a lot of things work.

i will removed the Wrath Axe and use the Skull and try to find some space to have Karanak (for dispel and have a free unit of Hounds)

What are your go to blessings for Slaughterpriests? Since it's not magic, can the same one be cast more than once per turn?

The Exalted Deathbringer and Wrath Axe cost the same as Karanak so I'm happy to swap out either.

Reading into Karanak more, I like his rules. The free flesh hounds mesh quite well with this list I feel. Also, it gives me a reason to pick up some flesh hounds so I have something to spend blood tithe on.

 CrabSlap wrote:
What are your go to blessings for Slaughterpriests? Since it's not magic, can the same one be cast more than once per turn?

The Exalted Deathbringer and Wrath Axe cost the same as Karanak so I'm happy to swap out either.

Reading into Karanak more, I like his rules. The free flesh hounds mesh quite well with this list I feel. Also, it gives me a reason to pick up some flesh hounds so I have something to spend blood tithe on.

I'm struggling between Bronzed Flesh and Brazen Fury…. +1 armor save or +1 bravery….

 hellpato wrote:

 CrabSlap wrote:
What are your go to blessings for Slaughterpriests? Since it's not magic, can the same one be cast more than once per turn?

The Exalted Deathbringer and Wrath Axe cost the same as Karanak so I'm happy to swap out either.

Reading into Karanak more, I like his rules. The free flesh hounds mesh quite well with this list I feel. Also, it gives me a reason to pick up some flesh hounds so I have something to spend blood tithe on.

I'm struggling between Bronzed Flesh and Brazen Fury…. +1 armor save or +1 bravery….

Bronzed flesh. It only needs to save one model for it to be functionally equivalent to +1 bravery. More broadly, it can really help your battleline stick around, or make units like skullcrushers a nightmare to shift.

Deathbringer is good if you are running many units of Mortal Khorne and need that extra fearlessness.

Regarding prayers I always go for Killing Frenzy and Bronzed Flesh. However, now that we have Endless Judgment I think Hexgorger Skulls are awesome and are super fun against Tzeentch and other spell armies. Blood Boil is also a surprise for me most of the time.

I usually run at least 2 Slaugherpriests(often running Gore Pilgrims even if I am going Daemon heavy) and the Altar is a must for those rerolls.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, Banner of Wrath on Bloodsecrator is pure lulz. That single thing has killed so much that there are people who now auto-target my Bloodsecrator before he gets in too close.

Thanks for the prayers help! Bronzed Flesh certainly seems like the go to. Read the battletome and it does seem each can best cast once per turn.

Next step for me is picking up another Slaughterpriest and the Alter now. Possibly the judgements next.

After that? Daemons, daemons, daemons!

Next question: Not seen Wrathmongers and Khorgoraths spoken about much. What are people's thoughts on them?

Khorgoraths are generally trash. Which is sad. Wrathmongers are pretty solid actually. For a mortal khorne unit anyway.

In a narrative / toned down environment they are a lot of fun. If you are going to be playing adepticon power lists though I'm not sure that they will be as useful to you.

That's a shame. Will enjoy painting it anyway.

Don't think I'll be playing them competitively. More of just a fun/passion project.

If its for fun then I think you should definitely field them. I always speak about the competitive angle simply because thats always typically assumed and I like to be clear.

Take the wrathmongers. They boost your close-by units on attacks and swing away when they're killed. They also don't boost your opponent anymore.

auticus wrote:
Khorgoraths are generally trash. Which is sad. Wrathmongers are pretty solid actually.

I have to disagree with this, 3/3/-1/2 with 5 attacks, 8 wounds, 6 movement and 4+ save base isn't trash. I run 4 in a Skullfiend tribe. One CP gets you re-roll all hits and all wounds in an 8' bubble. Most of our other non hero damage dealers need way more investment in buffs.

Surprised to see the humble Khorgorath get such a bad rep. In the old tome it was often a surprise unit that did much more damage than most people expected.

 Eldarsif wrote:
Surprised to see the humble Khorgorath get such a bad rep. In the old tome it was often a surprise unit that did much more damage than most people expected.

Its just a personal opinion from one poster just like my opinion is they have a place in a Knorne Army especially if you run Skullfiends, I think sometimes its forgotten they do full damage even after 7 wounds, can heal a wound and can shoot as well.

As to the OP's army you have a good starting point for a mortal army but take a look at the demons, fleshounds are cheap, fast, anti-magic and battleline and I don't know if your aware Slaves to Darkness Khorne marked units are not classed as allies so your buffs will work on them.

I'll mess around with the Khorgorath in a few games and see how it does. I'm a casual player but I don't mind getting competitive.

On paper they don't look so bad and if anything, it's a blood tithe point that can swing a few punches.

As to the OP's army you have a good starting point for a mortal army but take a look at the demons, fleshounds are cheap, fast, anti-magic and battleline and I don't know if your aware Slaves to Darkness Khorne marked units are not classed as allies so your buffs will work on them.

I've just finished assembling Karanak and 5 Flesh Hounds Trying to think of how best to add Bloodletters, Heralds and maybe Skulltaker.

Not sure how I feel about Bloodthirsters. The model is nice and yeah, they wreck face, but what purpose do they actually serve?

I know there's another recent thread on this too so I don't want to go on about it, but does anyone have a TL;DR on each variant?

Honest opinion about Karanak and the 5 fleshies: just put Karanak in your list. As soon as he gets close to his intended target the 5 flesh hounds pop out, for no points. The only requirement is that you get within range of your target. If you're running some scary stuff, nobody is gonna blink at a 3-headed dog until he drops a unit of 5 right next to them, and by then they're feasting.

Exactly the plan. It's almost like starting the game with 3 blood tithe points. The plan is to mark a wizard, run around the back with Karanak then have him and 5 Flesh Hounds clear the wizard and move up from behind.

 Hesh_Tank_On wrote:

auticus wrote:
Khorgoraths are generally trash. Which is sad. Wrathmongers are pretty solid actually.

I have to disagree with this, 3/3/-1/2 with 5 attacks, 8 wounds, 6 movement and 4+ save base isn't trash. I run 4 in a Skullfiend tribe. One CP gets you re-roll all hits and all wounds in an 8' bubble. Most of our other non hero damage dealers need way more investment in buffs.

we will see a lot of Khorgoraths when GW will sell them in pack of 1 or 3 models.

Aye, getting Khorgoraths now is annoying as you'll end up with a lot of Blood Warriors, Reavers, and Bloodsecrators if you aim for a few Khorgoraths.
Ultimately the thing about Khorgorath is that it's just a no frills machine. It kills and kills good, but it doesn't offer anything more beyond some small tricks of its own.

Going to second the Karanak. Karanak and Flesh Hounds are slowly becoming stables in my army due to the fact that I can also unbind with them. It is also delightful to summon them with Blood Tithe and then let the Paw Patrol loose upon your enemies.

let the Paw Patrol loose upon your enemies.

I will forever call them this now!

The more I think about it, the more I really like Karanak and Flesh Hounds

Karanaks' free hounds aren't as easy as you think. It's occurs in the hero phase, think about that. You have to move him within range of his quarry, go through your whole turn, then go through your opponents entire turn, hope he lived and is still in range of the quarry, only then can you get the free hounds in.

Khorgraths are great, shame they went from 90 up to 100 points but still good value. Get more.

Have at least 20 reavers. Run them in 10 man units, they get no bonuses for being in anything bigger.

If I were you I'd get some skullreapers. They are a good, solid heavy hitting unit. And they only got better with the latest tome. (Again, shame they went from 170 up to 180).

The blood stoker is kinda wasted here, it's the re-roll 1s to wound that makes it good. Khorne has an unpleasant trend at wounding on +4. Best used on a hammer unit (bloodletters, skullreapers, especially things are trigger effects on 6ers.)

At 1000 points I'd use no battalion, but if I did, the bloodmad or slaughterborn battalion it is.

Nathanbateup wrote:
Karanaks' free hounds aren't as easy as you think. It's occurs in the hero phase, think about that. You have to move him within range of his quarry, go through your whole turn, then go through your opponents entire turn, hope he lived and is still in range of the quarry, only then can you get the free hounds in.

It really depends on his target and/or mission, a cowardly wizard hiding behind the frontline is difficult but a close combat hero that needs to get into your lines is the perfect target, double turns help a lot and also the blood-tithe move in the hero phase.

Nathanbateup wrote:
The blood stoker is kinda wasted here, it's the re-roll 1s to wound that makes it good

It's re-roll all wounds on Mortal units, your slipping back into the old Tome.