Guest review brought courtesy of Princeps Kraid.
Welcome devotees of the ruinous powers! We are in for a good time with today’s pre-release of two new battleforce boxes dedicated to two different chaos gods. The Poxwrought Vector for the devotees of Grandfather Nurgle and the Gorestorm Slaughterpack for the ravening worshipers of Khorne.
Games Workshop was kind enough to send us review copies of these boxes so in this article we will do a brief breakdown of both boxes then dive in to see what this force can do against the God Engines allied to the corpse on the Golden Throne.
Starting with the Death Guard, the battleforce clocks in at 780 or 790 points depending on which version of the bloat drone you use. The new model, the Lord of Poxes takes up 75 of those points. He was an interesting build, split up oddly but he looks good once you get him together.
Pay attention to the shoulder with the plasma pistol as it has to go in carefully, lest you break a section of the shoulder detail off. The rest of the kits are older so we can move on to some of the rules.
Death Guard have the Nurgle’s Gift army rule which gives them a contagion Aura that starts at 3 inches and expends by 3 inches for the second and third battle rounds. Any units in this bubble become afflicted. Afflicted units lose one toughness and gain the affect of the plague you chose at the start of the battle. The Rattlejoint Plague worsens the save of the Afflicted unit by one which will be helpful when fighting heavily armored units. With that in mind we will look at the units in the box to test their viability against a Warhound Titan.
Plague Marines are your best option for spreading affliction. They can choose one of the units they shot this turn to be Afflicted for the rest of the turn. They do have multiple weapons that could potentially deal damage to a Titan if they can get within 24 inches. If you attach a new Lord of Poxes to the unit their Shroud of Diseases ability will shelter the unit from ranged attacks until they are within 18 inches. His Gift of Poxes adds 3 inches to the contagion range.
Starting with the Plagueburst Crawler, oddly enough both the warhound and the crawler have similar saves starting at a 2+ and a 5+ Invulnerable save Meaning even the Warhound’s plasma blastgun won’t make survival impossible. The entropy cannon’s strength 10, AP3 attack will be the best bet of cutting through the Warhound’s toughness and its single attack could deal up to 7 damage at 36 inch range. If that Titan is being escorted, the Plagueburst Mortar can potentially deal splash damage to any units within 3 inches of it potentially dealing a D3 of damage
The bloat drone with heavy blight launcher is another vehicle with a 5+ invulnerable save and a Strength 10 weapon that shoots D6+2 times at AP2, dealing 3 damage for any hits that get through.
The Blight Hauler’s Tank Hunters ability adds +1 to the hit and wound roll when attacking monsters or vehicles. With a Strength 9 Melta and Krak grenade launcher with AP 2 and 4 respectively even this small daemon engine can be a nuisance. Its 10 wounds and 5+ invulnerable save giving it some staying power.
Blightlord Terminators will struggle a bit against a Titan if they have a character attached or have 5 models in the unit they gain 1 strength and AP against any afflicted units. This gives their Blight Launchers or Reaper Autocannons 7 and 8 strength respectively and a decent 2AP. Close range the Bubotic Blade at Strength 6 AP 3 would be your best bet to deal damage. At toughness 7 and a 4+ invulnerable save They will take some hits even after deepstriking close to the Titan but they have a good chance of getting in close unless the pilot of the Titan is smart and takes advantage of the Terminator’s slow 5-inch movement.
So how will they fare over all? They pose a moderate threat to a Titan provided of course that they can get within range of of the Warhound given their slow movement speed of 5 inches for infantry and 10 inches for the Vehicles.
Initially we thought the Slaughterbound was just going to be a larger Eightbound with some mutations. We were definitely wrong there and when we got the model in hand and put some paint on him, we realized we missed the mark. He’s easy to build with the only fiddly part being the Six stim canisters on his back with small tubes that then have to be connected to the molded ports on his arms. It wasn’t difficult though.
World Eaters have the Blessing of Khorne ability returning. Roll 8 d6 and spend the results on a variety of boosts. The abilities vary from re-rolling charges, having fight on death, or gaining Sustained or Lethal hits. Unspent dice are then discarded. The box contains 685 to 745 points depending on how you build your Eightbound.
The Slaughterbound is ready to jump straight into the fray even against Titanic foes. When attached to a unit with the World Eater’s Possessed keyword he grants them Deepstrike and Scouts 6”, meaning his unit can get really close to a Titan very fast. With 6 Strength 8 attacks with AP-2 he has a good chance of landing some of his hits. Again, if leading a unit he adds still more abilities. In your command phase one of his fallen bodyguard model returns to the unit. In addition to once per game he can activate the Possessed Lord ability to give him 3 more attacks with Devastating Wounds.
When attached to a unit of Exalted Eightbound they pose a real threat to Titans. A unit of 6 deliver 24 total attacks at Strength 8 with AP 3 and the Anti-Vehicle 3+ keyword One squad of these close combat monsters could strip a Warhound of a substantial amount of health in one round. Standard Eightbound give you 30 attacks total at AP 2. They lack the Anti Vehicle keyword so they will be relying on their Strength 8 to get the hits through but the weight of dice should get some damage through. Both varieties of Eightbound and the Slaughterbound have a 3+ save and a 5+ invulnerable save to keep them around for quite a while.
The Jackals in the box can get 60 attacks in but their low strength and maximum of 1 AP is going to mean that they will have to rely on the sheer amount of dice thrown to get any damage through.
All-in-all the deep-striking group of the Slaughterbound and 6 Exalted Eightbound can do a terrifying amount of damage even to a God-Machine. Out of the two boxes we feel that the World Eaters can more easily fight a Titan due to their fast movement, Deep Strike, and keyword synergies. Both boxes are a great way to start an army and the new models are fun to paint and look great. If you are new to Chaos or just looking for a way to quickly expand your force these boxes are a great way to get your army off the ground.
The Titan Owners Club would like to thank Games Workshop for providing these boxes and giving us an opportunity to review them.
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