Age of Sigmar: Daughters of Khaine Previews

Samstag starten die Vorbestellungen für die ersten Modelle aus Games Workshops neuer Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Armee: die Daughters of Khaine! Das muss natürlich gebührend gefeiert werden und so wurden diese Woche mehrere Previews gezeigt, in denen Aspekte dieser neuen Fraktion ausgeleuchtet werden.

Zuerst wurde die Fraktion allgemein vorgestellt. Ihr Hintergrund, wie sie in die Mächte der Ordnung passen und was ihre armeeweiten Allegiance Abilities so drauf haben:

Daughters of Khaine: Part 1 – Who are the Daughters of Khaine?

A shadow is falling on the Mortal Realms – the Daughters of Khaine have come. Infused with sadistic cruelty and holy purpose, these brutal zealots will soon be yours to command thanks to a new battletome, new units and of course, Morathi herself! In the first of a multipart preview series, we’re looking into just who these savage warriors are – and how their unique abilities are represented on the tabletop.

Shadowy Origins

The Daughters of Khaine are an army of aelven zealots combining the Khainite worship of their kin from the world that was with strange new powers drawn from the Realm of Shadow. Led by Morathi, they may serve Order, but their methods are extreme, and they think little of butchering the innocent populations of the Mortal Realms as they persecute the endless crusade for the shards of their shattered god.

The Daughters of Khaine came into being following the capture of Slaanesh. Morathi, having escaped the god’s clutches through magical means, helped weave the enchantment that caught Slaanesh, with Malerion, Teclis and Tyrion – ancient aelven warriors reborn as Gods of this new age – also providing aid. Together, they were able to free the aelven souls within Slaanesh, and each was rewarded with a portion to shape as they wished. Combining powerful magic with the sacrifice of her own blood, Morathi forged a new aelven race, and the Melusai and the Khinerai are the first among them.

The Grand Alliance

While the Daughters of Khaine crave bloodshed and murder, they serve alongside the forces of Order – albeit tenuously. As builders of cities and civilisations, the Daughters of Khaine have little truck with the rampaging forces of Destruction, while the cold chill of Death holds little appeal to a race brought back from the brink of extinction. As for Chaos, few hate it more than the Khainites, prosecuting their crusades with particular violence against the servants of Slaanesh.

Morathi’s armies are viewed askance by the other inhabitants of Order. Rumours persist of strange, shadowy mutants among their number, and indeed, many find themselves unfortunately slain in the Khainite’s grotesque rituals – whether they come from the Chaos Wastes or are snatched from the streets of the free cities…. As they stand, the Daughters of Khaine are more tolerated than accepted, existing in a shadowy twilight, too useful to cast out.

Expansion

Establishing temples across the Mortal Realms, the Daughters of Khaine scour the Mortal Realms for blood sacrifice – essential for creating more of their number – and the shards of their god, scattered across the Realms. Morathi claims to speak for Khaine, wielding his unbreakable iron heart, but none know that Morathi’s power is a lie, and Khaine is dead; the prayers that her daughters scream and the ritual offerings they make only serve to enhance her own power, not Khaine’s. Indeed, as long as Morathi bears the last vestiges of his power, there is little hope for his revival.

Writer Insights

The Daughters of Khaine were written by studio legend and long-time writer and designer Jeremy Vetock. We managed to grab him to find out more about how he transformed this shadowy cult into a fully formed army:

The Allegiance Abilities

On the battlefield, the Daughters of Khaine are part iron-disciplined warrior order and part fanatical cult. As battle progresses, they whip themselves into a frenzy, ignoring wounds and becoming steadily deadlier. This is represented by two new allegiance abilities. The first of these is Fanatical Faith:

This simple but effective allegiance ability helps your lightly armoured troops survive longer, as well as providing some very welcome insurance against mortal wounds. Where the Daughters of Khaine really come into their own, however, is through the Blood Rites battle trait.

The longer the Daughters of Khaine fight, the deadlier they become, as each benefit is cumulative. Get to round 5 or higher, and your army will be re-rolling 1s to run, charge, hit, wound AND save – and they’ll ignore battleshock to boot! Games against the Daughters of Khaine are going to be particularly thematic, as while you may be able to whittle their forces down, those left are only going to get stronger – and angrier.

That’s terrifying enough on a Witch Aelf, but on a combatant like Morathi, it’s deadly indeed. We’ll be taking a look at the Shadow Queen in detail tomorrow, so make sure to come back then – in the meantime, follow the Warhammer Age of Sigmar Facebook page to ensure you don’t miss any updates.

 

Dann kam natürlich, keine Sekunde zu früh, der Star der Show an die Reihe: Morathi, die Shadow Queen!

Daughters of Khaine: Part 2 – Morathi, Shadow Queen

A shadow is falling on the Mortal Realms – the Daughters of Khaine have come. Infused with sadistic cruelty and holy purpose, these brutal zealots will soon be yours to command as you’ve never seen them before, thanks to a new battletome, new units and, of course, Morathi herself! In the second of a multipart preview, we’re looking at this legendary master of shadows – in BOTH of her forms…

The Story of the Shadow Queen

Morathi is one of the handful of survivors from the world-that-was, an inveterate schemer and betrayer who has served countless masters and hatched countless schemes. Morathi has been high priestess for the aelven gods of old, served Slaanesh, conspired to put Malerion on the throne (back when he was still Malekith) and only survived the transition to the Mortal Realms through sheer cunning. Powerful enough to claim a place amid Sigmar’s Pantheon, Morathi would abandon her former allies following failed attempts to manipulate them and even and even bitterly parted with Malerion, who claimed the Shadowlands of Ulgu and the capital of Druchiroth for himself.

Now, Morathi has reformed her uneasy alliance with Sigmar and the Pantheon of Order, but in truth, seeks only power and glory for herself. She may have the same empire-building impulses as the rest of Order, but her ultimate aim is revenge upon those who have spurned, scorned or tormented her – and a dark apotheosis, filled by the blood sacrifices made in Khaine’s name…

Morathi, High Oracle of Khaine

Rather than choosing which form of Morathi you use, you’ll start every game with her in her High Oracle of Khaine form. In this shape, she makes for an invaluable commander and spellcaster, gaining bonuses to cast and unbind. While she’s a little fragile, with a mere 6 wounds, her Enchanting Beauty and Iron Heart of Khaine abilities make her impossible to kill in a single turn and difficult to pick off with ranged attacks:

Where Morathi, High Oracle of Khaine really shines is in her command ability, Worship Through Bloodshed:

Keep Morathi in her High Oracle of Khaine form long enough for your heavy hitters to reach the enemy lines, and you’ll be able to obliterate your foes. Watch out for your wounds, however – while you can transform Morathi deliberately, she has a chance of losing control when damaged. Luckily, this is likely to be far worse for your foe than it is for you:

Morathi, The Shadow Queen

Morathi’s true form is that of a winged serpent, twisted by shadowy magics and the depredations of Slaanesh. In this shape, she is possessed with furious, blinding rage, capable of driving her spear through solid stone or crushing foes to death with her tail.

In game, Morathi’s Shadow Queen form is nothing short of a close combat monster, boasting 12 Wounds and some potent melee attacks.

The Gaze of Morathi is a particularly potent ability, slaying smaller enemies instantly and providing particularly useful for picking off Standard Bearers, Hornblowers and similar models.

While you’ll lose out on your command ability and enhanced powers of sorcery, you may want to consider transforming Morathi as soon as possible to take full advantage of the Iron Heart of Khaine, which she retains. With this in hand, it’ll take a minimum of four turns to kill her off without some special abilities, like Nagash’s Hand of Dust, making her quite possibly the most durable unit in Warhammer Age of Sigmar!

You’ll be able to pre-order Morathi for your own Daughters of Khaine army this weekend – in the meantime, check back tomorrow on Warhammer Community for a closer look at the Melusai, chosen guard and hidden spies of the Shadow Queen…

 

Weiter geht es mit diesen Damen:

Daughters of Khaine Preview: Part 3 – The Melusai

A shadow is falling on the Mortal Realms – the Daughters of Khaine have come. Infused with sadistic cruelty and holy purpose, these brutal zealots will soon be yours to command thanks to a new battletome, new units and of course, Morathi herself! In our latest preview, we’re looking at the shadow of the Daughters of Khaine – the serpentine Melusai.

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The Daughters of Khaine were formed by Morathi from the aelven soul essence drawn out of Slaanesh when each of the Dark God’s captors took a portion to shape to their will. While, in the Age of Sigmar, many aelves are born by natural means, some of those first aelves to be formed by their gods still walk the Mortal Realms.

The Melusai are among the first such aelf-souls to be reborn – not quite reincarnations of those consumed by Slaanesh, but new beings imbued with centuries of hatred and an unquenchable lust for revenge against the servants of Slaanesh. Melusai are twisted in spirit and body, hence their strange mutations, but have powerful magical abilities, such as the Blood Sisters’ ability to transform their foes into statues of living crystal or the Blood Stalkers’ uncanny ability to strike the hearts of their foes with their arrows.

Blood Sisters

Blood Sisters are an elite, fast-moving unit, possessing both a strong normal attack profile and the ability to dole out mortal wounds with ease. Each model in a unit of Blood Sisters can make a Crystal Touch attack as well as striking with its heartshard glaive – if the former hits, it’ll deal a mortal wound to the foe. You’ll want to use these warriors to deal with your enemy’s heavily armoured units while your Sisters of Slaughter deal with the rest of their infantry.

Blood Stalkers

The Blood Stalkers, on the other hand, provide an invaluable source of ranged support to the Daughters of Khaine – after all, charging the enemy head-on is one thing, but previously, the army would struggle against foes that protected their more fragile support units, like Wizards and War Machine crews, safely behind their lines. Few are safe from the Blood Stalkers, each bearing a deadly heartseeker bow. While this makes for a powerful weapon in its own right, the Heartseekers ability is where it really shines, providing you with a source of mortal wounds at range.

Between these two units, you’ll be able to diversify your Daughters of Khaine army lists and master new strategies – pick the right general and you’ll even get to use Blood Sisters as Battleline in your matched play army. They’re far from the only new servants of the Shadow Queen, however…

 

Abgerundet werden die Previews von den Khinerai:

Daughters of Khaine Preview: Part 4 – The Khinerai

A shadow is falling across the Mortal Realms – the Daughters of Khaine have come. Infused with sadistic cruelty and holy purpose, these brutal zealots will soon be yours to command thanks to a new battletome, new units and of course, Morathi herself! In this part of our preview, we’re checking out the savage Khinerai: 

As a result of the taint of Slaanesh, many aelven souls are permanently marred or twisted and, in physical form, mirror the vile Daemons of the Great Enemy. Yesterday, we took a closer look at the Melusai – the elite guard of the Daughters of Khaine, but they are far from the only mutants to serve the cult of Khaine. The Khinerai are winged aelves, descending from the skies to enact the wrath of the Shadow Queen, wherever her enemies hide…

Khinerai Heartrenders

Heartrenders are the second ranged unit to be added to the Daughters of Khaine, but while the Blood Sisters are patient, long distance combatants, the Khinerai Heartrenders excel at hit-and-run attacks. Firstly, thanks to their wings, the Khinerai aren’t just fast, but versatile – you’ll be able to set your unit up in reserve before bringing it onto the battlefield wherever you please in your movement phase.

This works superbly with Death From Above, which makes the barbed javelins wielded by the Khinerai particularly potent at piercing armour on the turn they’re set up:

Best of all, you’ll be able to dash away from the foe after firing with Fire and Flight, making enemy repercussion very difficult indeed:

Khinerai Lifetakers

If you’re looking to face the foe more directly, Khinerai Lifetakers fill a similar role to their sisters, except in melee. Like the Khinerai Heartrenders, these elite ambushers can set up in reserve before descending to the battlefield, but they’ll receive a hefty bonus every turn they charge rather than just when they’re set up:

With these in your arsenal, you’ll be able to grab objectives, slay distant foes or harry your enemy flanks with impunity. They’re not the only new tactical tools available to the Daughters of Khaine, however – come back tomorrow, when we’ll be taking a closer look at the new shadow magics available to these death-crazed warriors.

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Quelle: Warhammer Community