Hello Everone! the Dak here, back from the international accordion championship to talk about one of Games Workshops new releases. Today, we are talking about the new and improved Keeper of Secrets. thats right, we are finnaly getting an updated mini! however thats not all thats changing as the Kepper of Secrets is also getting a rules update as well. One thing is for sure, 2019 is shaping up to be a good year for Chaos.
The Crunch
Well, I know a lot of you are eager to see whats changed stat wise so lets start with that. So, the first noticable change is that The Keeper of Secrets has gained some more wounds. This is somthing that is always nice, sometimes a wound or two makes all the difference. Additionally, their streangth no longer degrades along with the damage table so you always hit at at least streangth six. Though the witstealer sword is now always streangth eight, which allaows you to reasonbly threaten knights and other toughness 8 models. Another change was to how The Keeper of Secrets generates extra attacks. Now, instead of rolling a D3 you just go off the chart that starts at 4 and goes down to two. Even then, its still way more reliable than rolling a D3 so I would say its a flat upgrade. Not to mentionThe Keeper of Secrets now is a little faster too, which for such a big target is very important.
The Sharp Pointy Bits
The Keeper of Secrets’ standard loadout reains largely the same aside from an improvement in Ap. However, the biggest change is the inclusion of wargear options and quite a few at that. Normally greater Deamons would come in differnt varients and have fixed set of rules and wargear, but not the new Keeper of Secrets. The options include a living whip, sinistrous hand, ritual knife and shining aegis. while the rules for most of these still elude me, I do have the sinistrous hand.
This seems very good, as a big problem with greater Daemons is they tend to be big targets and being able to go up on the damage bracket or get another turn with one is really helpful. If i had to guess, id say that shield bumps up your invuln save and the whip adds a ranged attack similar to a Bloodthirsters.
But Wait There’s More
That image up there isn’t just any old Keeper of Secrets, its a new named character. Thats right, after what seems like forever we finally have a named Keeper of Secrets. Everyone meet Shalaxi Helbane, who happens to be the first named slaaneshi greater Daemon thats gotten a mini.(Not counting the Lord of War option Zarakynel of course) while we don’t have the statline for Shalaxi we do have the info for his special spear
Nice! this weapon hits seriously hard and seems particularly mean when used against characters. This seems especially useful against tank and dreadnought Characters, or a nice little boost against a knight with the character keyword. Thats not all though!
Seriously, anything that subtracts one from being hit or wounded is good. While these are specific to the fight phase they are no less helpful. Its also worth mentioning that mesmerising aura is universal to all Keeper of secrets, not just Shalaxi. All and all the New Keeper of Secrets and the corresponding named character are looking really good.
The Looks
Ok, this one is a no brainer. You saw the featured image up there, and I don’t need to tell you how much better the new miniature looks. In fact i have one of the old ones and the new sculpt is lightyears ahead of it. It was always weird seeing the old stubby model punch open tanks next to one of the new bloodletters. It just doesn’t look right, and I know a lot of people went to Forgeworld for their Keeper of Secrets. The new model looks slick and is a flat upgrade.
The Verdict
Ok, so if you are still running the old models then this is the mini for you. Even if your starting a Slaanesh army having ones of these is going to be really useful, and make a fantastic centerpiece to boot. For a while now Slaanesh has been sidelined in both 40k and AoS, probably due to Slaanesh not exactly being family friendly. Seriously, the old daemonetts are all cleavage and claws. So, its no surprise that they needed to give Slaanesh a bit of a rework. That aside, I would say its a definite buy even if you just want to have it as a display piece. At least now the Keeper of Secrets wont make guests feel uncomfortable when they come over. Cough*Cough*(Zarakynel’s 6 boobs hanging out)
If you loved this article, and can’t wait to get more awesome Nights At the Game Table Content, click here to join our Members Area!
Want to polish up your tactics, and painting? Want to know how to save money on miniatures? Come check out our FREE guide by clicking here!
As always, a big thanks for to Games Workshop for the images used in our article
