40K: Skull Altar Rules Reveal
If your gaming board is lacking skulls then Khorne has the perfect accessory for you. Check out the Skull Altar in all it’s gory glory!
The Skull Altar is a new Fortification option for your Khornate forces to bring to battle. It’s got some pretty interesting rules on the 40k side of things that make it different from your standard fortification – for starters, you can summon this thing on to the tabletop!
The Monument to Slaughter rule not only makes the Skull Altar immune to attacks (it also doesn’t have a statline, unlike in AoS) it also allows it to be summoned on to the table. Furthermore, when you summon it on, if it was summoned by a Khorne Daemon Infantry Character, that character can be placed on the platform of the Skull Altar. That’s going to be important for later.
Nexus of Dark Glory doubles the range of a model’s Locus of Rage ability while they are within 8″ of any Skull Altars. And in case you were wondering what that ability is:
Re-roll those charge distances! That’s kind of a nice boost for an army that is pretty dependent on getting into close combat to be effective.
Witchbane is a straight-up -1 for Psychic tests taken within 8″ of any Skull Altars. Seems appropriate!
Conduit to Khorne’s Domain is a free re-roll for any of the dice used by a Chaos Character who is attempting to summon a Khorne Daemon unit to the battlefield while they are within 8″ of a Skull Altar.
Champion of Murder is the icing on this Skull-filled cake. While there is a Khorne Daemon Infantry Character occupying the Skull Altar, they get their Invulnerable save improved by +1 (to a max of +3). In addition, Khorne Daemon units wholly within 16″ of an occupied Skull Altar get to add +1 to their attacks!
If you’re running a Khorne Daemon heavy contingent, this seems like a no-brainer to add. Have your forces move up and get within attack range of the enemy. Then have your character summon the Skull Altar in, immediately occupy it, get an extended charge re-roll, and enjoy the bonus attacks for each of your Khorne Daemon units. All of the other effects are great but those bonus attacks are really going to add-up.
That seems like a great job for a Herald like the Bloodmaster to to fill. You’ve got to weigh the difference between his attacks vs the bonus attacks he can generate. Most of the time, I think sacrificing his attacks for the bonuses granted by the Skull Altar are going to be worth it. Plus, he can always attempt to summon in more units while he’s on top of the Skull Altar – with a re-roll for all those dice, you could drop some pretty deadly stuff in fairly consistently.
So what do you think of the Skull Altar? Khorne Daemons players – will you be picking this one up for your armies?
