40K: The Kabalites of Commorragh – Drukhari Kabals Preview
The Backbone of Commorragh are the Kabals of the Drukhari. It’s time to examine how they will work in the new Codex!
Kabals are the closest thing Commorragh has to a standing army – part militant cell, part crime family, part macabre hunting lodge. It’s the Kabals that hold the majority of the political power in Commorragh, not to mention the firepower, and the vast majority of realspace raids will feature at least one Archon and his chosen warriors.
Games Workshop is teasing 4 Kabals in this preview and from the looks of things, each will get unique obsessions, relics, warlord traits, and stratagems to match. So lets take them one at a time.
Kabal of the Black Heart
Without knowing what the final Power From Pain chart is, it’s hard to gauge just how hand this will be. Fortunately GW did say that “In practice, this allows you to re-roll Advance and charge moves from the very first turn,” so we know that they are going to be fast. One tip GW tossed out was using Raiders from this Kabal in conjunction with the new Screaming Jets stratagem to get some first turn charges – if only to deny your opponent some shooting for a round.
If nothing else, it’s neat to see the return of the Deepstriking Transport. On top of that, The Kabal of the Black Heart can also get back spent CP with their unique warlord trait:
Kabal of the Poisoned Tongue
The Drukhari Army is known for it’s poison weapons and this Kabal makes those weapons even deadlier. Poison already allows you to wound non-vehicles on a 4+ regardless of Toughness. Now you’ll get to re-roll wound rolls of 1 for those weapons. Their unique relic plays off this theme as well:
Look out Characters – you can’t hide from this weapon! If you’re looking for a “traditional” army of gunboats loaded to the brim with warriors this might be the Kabal for you. Oh – and don’t forget the Splinter Racks upgrade while your at it:
Lots of shots. Lots of wounds. It’s going to be a bad time to be on the receiving end of this army.
Kabal of the Flayed Skull
Speaking of firing from transports the Kabal of the Flayed Skull just might interest you. They get a bonus 3″ move to units with Fly. But more importantly, units embarked on transports get some nice buffs, too. In addition to getting to re-roll hit rolls of 1 they also ignore cover saves bonuses. Again, combine with Splinter Racks for even more shooting pain.
Masters of the Shadowed Sky is a unique stratagem this Kabal gets as well:
This will help you establish air superiority just in case you need it! One more thing – this Kabal screams for the return of Kabalite Warriors in Venoms and if you’re doing that (because based on the rules from yesterday, why wouldn’t you take a bunch of patrol detachments) then you might also want to consider taking the improved Blaster to deal with pesky armor:
Kabal of the Obsidian Rose
If you’re looking for more a gun-line approach then this Kabal might be for you. Getting an extra 6″ to your Assault, Rapid Fire, and Heavy weapons is pretty great for this army. You’ll be able to stay back and out of range – or increase the effectiveness of your Rapid Firing weapons at 15″ which could come in real handy.
Okay – this stratagem is pretty sneaky. When you think those Drukhari are about to bolt, instead they get to attack again – and if they slay any models, they all get stick around instead of running. Well played.
Their unique relic is also going to cause some headaches on the tabletop too:
That’s all for this preview – what do you think of these 4 Kabals?
