The World Eaters are the furious, frothing, and blood-mad warriors of Khorne, and today we’re going to be looking at all of the upcoming rules for them in Faith and Fury. We’re going to go over their Warlord Traits, Relics, and Stratagems, and then close out with a bit of a breakdown for a couple combos so that you are prepared to claim plenty of Skulls for the Skull Throne when Faith and Fury drops.
WARLORD TRAITS
Slaughterborn- Just like it is in the Codex, when your Warlord kills a CHARACTER, MONSTER, or TITANIC model, they get +1 Attack and +1 Strength.
Arch Slaughterer- At the start of the Fight phase, if there are more enemy models within 3” of your Warlord than friendly models, your Warlord gets +D3 attacks.
Disciple of Khorne- When your Warlord is attacking a CHARACTER or any model with 5 or more Wounds, they can re-roll their Hit and Wound rolls.
Violent Urgency- When an Advance or Charge roll is made for a WORLD EATERS within 6” of your Warlord, add 1 to that result.
True Berzerker- Your Warlord takes half damage, rounded up, from all melee attacks.
Battle Lust- Your Warlord can perform 6” Heroic Interventions instead of 3”, and they always strike first in the Close Combat phase.
There’s a few noteworthy Warlord Traits here. True Berzerker is probably your best go-to if you want to keep a Warlord alive, Violent Urgency helps you make all of your Charges, and Slaughterborn or Disciple of Khorne are great if you want to push a CHARACTER to just do as much damage as possible. You’ll have to choose which one is right for you based on what you want your Warlord to do.
RELICS
Crimson Killer- Upgraded Plasma Pistol, fires a single Strength 9, AP-3, Damage 3 Shot with no chance to kill yourself. On a Wound roll of 4+, inflict a Mortal Wound in addition to other damage.
Gorefather- Upgraded Chainaxe, Strength +2, AP-2, Damage 3 and when you roll a natural 6 to Wound you inflict 3 Mortal Wounds instead of doing 3 Damage. However, the weapon has a -1 to hit.
Banner of Rage- Upgrade for a Dark Apostle, allows him to broadcast a 6” +1 Attack Aura once per game instead of attempting a Prayer.
Berserker Glaive- Upgraded Power Axe or Axe of Dismemberment, it’s a Strength +1, AP-2, Damage 2 Weapon that also gives the bearer a 5+ Feel No Pain roll.
Helm of Furore- INFANTRY only, the bearer gets +2 Strength and must Charge if there’s an enemy unit within 8”.
Bloodhunger- When the Bearer destroys an enemy model in the Fight phase, they recover a lost Wound on a 4+.
World Eaters actually only have 2 Relics that really jump out here. The Berserker Glaive is a great choice for making a one man army, and Bloodhunger sets up a Demon Prince that just refuses to die if you couple it with True Berzerker. Gorefather is an okay discount Thunder Hammer, but the rest of these aren’t great. Crimson Killer is actually a decent upgrade for a Plasma Pistol, but you have stronger choices, the Helm of Furore is just bad, and the Banner of Rage is rather use impaired.
STRATAGEMS
Scorn of Sorcery- Just like it is in the Codex, 1CP and you can turn off a Psychic Power on a 4+.
Apoplectic Frenzy- 1CP, this is used during deployment when you set up a WORLD EATERS INFANTRY unit. That unit gets to move 9” at the beginning of the first Round.
Skulls For The Skull Throne!- 1CP, use when a WORLD EATERS CHARACTER kills an enemy CHARACTER. Gain D3 Command Points.
Red Butchers– 2CP, once per Battle, lets you make a WORLD EATERS CHAOS TERMINATORS Unit into Berzerkers, giving them Strength 5 and the free Double Fight that Berzerkers have.
Kill! Maim! Burn!- 1CP, Used when a WORLD EATERS unit Consolidates. They Consolidate 6” instead of 3”.
Wild Fury!- 1CP, used when a WORLD EATERS units fights. All attacks from that unit receive +1 AP (E.G. AP-1 Chainswords, AP-2 Chainaxes).
Stoke The Nails- 1CP, used when a WORLD EATERS INFANTRY or BIKER unit fights. Their Death To The False Emperor ability triggers against anything in the game, and it triggers on a 5+ against IMPERIUM units.
Blood For The Blood God!- 2 CP, used when a WORLD EATERS unit destroys an enemy unit in the Fight phase. Until the start of your next turn, all WORLD EATERS units autopass their Morale Test.
A lot of the Stratagems here let you push your melee threats into overdrive, but there’s not a lot to help to actually get you there. Apoplectic Frenzy is a great addition for WE, but it would have been better if it could be used on a Transport. The only Stratagem here that flat out fails to pull its weight is Blood For the Blood God!, as it’s a really weird version of Insane Bravery. If it was 1 CP, there might have been a payoff here, but at 2 you’re better off just waiting to see what the Morale Tests actually look like.
THE BREAKDOWN
As you would expect for an army dedicated to Khorne, WORLD EATERS are incredibly good at killing things up close. They have tools for boosting their damage both in terms of attacks in Stoke The Nails and in quality of their attacks in Wild Fury. However, their tools to get into melee are surprisingly low. Apoplectic Fury is almost an excellent tool, almost. Most of your melee threats are going to be rather fragile, and although Apoplectic Fury lets you get closer, it requires you to be outside of a Transport. And on a similar note, Violent Urgency does help you guarantee your charges, but it’s nowhere nearly as powerful as some of the tools that other Legions have to close in.
To find success with World Eaters, you’ll have to come up with clever ways to get your threats into your opponent. Taking a detachment with some Psykers for access to Warptime would certainly help, but it’s frowned upon by Khorne. The Host Raptorial actually has some appeal here, as a couple Jump Pack Characters and some Warp Talons will result in practically guaranteed Charges. Plus, Warp Talons re-rolling all hit rolls, getting bonus hits on hit rolls of 6+, and AP-3 Lightning Claws will run over almost anything in the game. You can also run a couple units of Bikes for some up front Turn 1 Threats, if that’s more your speed.
Finally, there should be some consideration into how Red Butchers is used. At first glance, you put it on some Terminators and call it a day. However, if you want to go all in on making a Warlord that just crushes everything in his path, you can take a Chaos Lord and put him in Terminator Armor, and then use Red Butchers on him instead! Couple this with the Berzerker Glaive and True Berzerker, or perhaps take Bloodhunger and some Lightning Claws and enjoy your extraordinarily difficult to kill Warlord! It should be noted that Red Butchers specifically says TERMINATORS, not TERMINATOR, so you could argue that this requires a unit of multiple TERMINATORS. That will probably get FAQ’s shortly after release, so be on the look out for that.
All in all, the World Eaters rules are reasonable. Compared to some of the other Legion’s, they’re going to seriously struggle to actually get into combat quickly and efficiently, which hurts them as a competitive choice. However, the raw damage potential here is astronomically higher than in any other supplement, so even if only half of your army makes the distance you should have more than enough to kill, maim, and burn your opponent in the name of Khorne!
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