When the mark of Chaos takes hold of you, it never lets go! We recently reviewed the Slaves to Darkness Army Set, which contained the bulk of a new army for Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Now, Games Workshop sent us along a slew of new models for the army, including the hulking, terrifying Daemon Prince. We've put them all together and scoured their stat lines, so follow along for our thoughts on everything we received.
Slaves To Darkness - Daemon Prince
The Daemon Prince is an absolute beast on the battlefield, with options to outfit him with huge wings that give him a fly speed of 12", a trophy rack completely ignoring battleshock tests for friendly units within 9" of him, and a choice of three weapons: a Daemonic Axe, a Hellforged Sword, or Malefic Talons. With 10 wounds and a 3+ save (and a 6+ ward save), he's a hearty presence on the field. One of my favorite aspects of the Daemon Prince is his head -- when building him, you have the option to build him with one of five different heads - each one representing one of the four Chaos gods (and a fifth representing Chaos Undivided).
A huge model, he can absolutely sew a lot of discord on the battlefield, especially when equipped with wings. Swoop him in, smash your enemies to bits with his giant Axe or slashing talons, and call it a day!
Slaves To Darkness - Eternus, Blade of The First Prince
Eternus, Blade of the First Prince is a mighty Hero to bring to the table. Mounted on his dreadful beast Drakocephalus, he has a movement of 10", 9 wounds, and a 3+ save. He's armed with a Deathglaive and a skull flail, and has "strike first" if he's completed a charge this turn. Also, with a little luck, he'll be hard to keep dead, as his "Veins of Black Lightning" special ability allows you to roll 2d6 when he's slain, and on a roll of 8+ you set him up anywhere on the battlefield with all wounds allocated to him removed! That's huge, meaning with a single good roll of 2d6 you could completely turn the tide of battle.
Slaves to Darkness - Chaos Chosen
The Chaos Chosen are those among the Slaves to Darkness whose prowess in battle have earned them a high place of honor among the warriors of Chaos, and each come armed with the (amazing looking) weapon Soul Splitter. They have 3 wounds each, a 3+ save, and their Soul Splitter deals an extra 1 mortal wound on every roll to hit of 6. You can also outfit each unit with one standard bearer (which adds 1 to their bravery) and one absolutely rad-looking musician banging a skull drum, who adds 1 to charge rolls for this unit.
Slaves to Darkness - Chaos Warriors
The Chaos Warriors are, essentially, the "grunts" of this army, though it's so full of strong, hard-hitting models that its hard to truly consider any a simple grunt. Along with a choice between a halbred with a 2" range or a "murderous weapon" with 1" range that's a bit easier to land your to-hit roll with, these models sport two wounds each, get +1 to their attack characteristic when within enemy territory or within 12" of an objective, and have a 5+ ward save against mortal wounds. Truly wild.
Slaves to Darkness - Chaos Knights
The Chaos Knights are hell on horseback, and charge deep into enemy territory to wreak havoc on their foes. With a 10" move speed and three wounds each, they hit hard with their cursed lances. They can also target foes deeper into a group of enemies thanks to their "Riders of Doom" special ability, and improve their damage and rend characteristic by 1 if they attack after completing a charge. These iron-clad nightmares also have a 5+ ward save against mortal wounds, and should be used to slice apart your enemy's formations on the battlefield.
Slaves to Darkness - Ogroid Theridons
Finally, the Ogroid Theridons scream their way onto the table. These big (really, the models are much larger than we initially thought from looking at them online) brutes can either be armed with powerful Great Axes, or a sword and Falchion. They add 1 to their wound rolls for each wound they themselves suffered in the same phase, can unleash their savagery once per game (adding one to the attacks characteristic until end of round), and you can build in a standard bearer and a musician, who do much the same as the Chaos Chosen. With 5 wounds each but a relatively low (6) Bravery and Save (5+), it's best to rush them in, smash your foes apart, and move on.
What Are Our Final Thoughts On The New Slaves To Darkness Units?
The Slaves to Darkness army, as a whole, is really a lot of fun to pilot. You stomp around the battlefield with smaller units (who are still full of plenty of wounds and have plenty of attacks to dish out), unleashing your ferocity on your opponent. It feels very straightforward (not in a bad way), with clear goals and a clear path to victory. Smash hard, ward save against all kinds of nasty attacks, and use your mounted units to outrace your opponents to key positions on the battlefield. The nice thing is, once you get to those positions, it's much easier to stand your ground than other armies who benefit from speed. I love the look of these models (basically every "musician" model in these sets is, to put it plainly, just pretty cool looking), and while we still need to fully playtest them, they seem like really strong additions to the Slaves to Darkness Army.
Surprise! Horus Ascended!
But wait! Before you go, there's a certain Warmaster who would like a word with you. Also up for preorder this week is the massive, absolutely gorgeous new model for the man himself, Horus. For use in Warhammer Horus Heresy (check out our Guide to the game here), this premium resin figure is, first off, a beauty to behold. Depicting the Warmaster and great betrayer Horus as he ascends into his most evil self as a full-on traitor to the imperium of man, With the option to stand him atop a pile of bones and ruined ceramite, Horus comes equipped with Serpent’s Scales, the Warmaster’s talon, and his giant battle mace Worldbreaker. This model is considered an upgrade from the Horus model that already exists for the game, bumping his point cost up to 1000 points. But with powerful attacks and special abilities that allow him to stay in the fight, he's a bold presence on the table. Plus, as we're building him (and we'll go into more detail about builds and painting at a later date), we're most tempted just to keep him on the shelf as a show piece.
The products used in the creation of this review were provided by Games Workshop
Review Summary
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Giaco Furino joined the TechRaptor team as a Staff Writer in 2019 after searching for a dedicated place to write and talk about Tabletop Games. In 2020, he… More about Giaco
