Age of Sigmar: Kharadron Battletome – Why I’m Excited
This Saturday, the new sky sheriffs arrive when the Kharadron Overlords Battletome drops alongside Aether War and the Tzeentch release. Here are three things I’m jazzed about, based on preview we got from GW.
A long overdue release, the Steampunk Duardin are bringing some spicy new tricks down from the clouds with them, and I’m very here for it.
New Hero
Alongside the Magister on Tzeentch, the Kharadron Overlords are getting a brand new Aether War hero called the Endrinmaster with Dirigible suit. Aside from being able to keep pace with the flying skyvessels he’s charged with repairing, this gent is a veritable arsenal by himself, boasting 8 shooting attacks! The nastiest of his guns in my opinion is definitely his Aethercannon, which only fires once but hits on a 3+, wounds on a 2+, has a Rend of -2, and deals d3 damage, potentially cutting a footslogging Stormcast hero to half wounds with a single shot, and then he has 7 more to back it up. All his shots hit on 3s, meaning he’s almost certainly going to be hitting with most if not all of his missile weapons, and his strongest shots wound on 2s and deal d3 damage a piece. This guy is going to be a real game changer, and I imagine I’ll see several KO lists with more than one in the near future.
Updated Rules
While we don’t have a report on the full new rules for the KO, the ones we’ve seen so far are going to bring a lot more punch to the tabletop. One of my favorite things is the new rule for skyvessels, which have always been some of my favorite looking models but were a little too easy to shut down. With the new rules, skyvessels that have taken less than 7 wounds can take to the skies in the movement phase, dropping down anywhere outside 9” of enemies. That means they can’t be gummed up in combat and can shoot a priority unit or go warmachine hunting. Another updated ruleset is for the Grundstok Thunderers, who are a scary frontline unit that gets an extra shooting attack against enemies within 3”. That makes them ideal for guarding objectives as they will get benefits to shooting nearby units and can repel anyone that comes to nab the objective from you.
New Army Options
KO were one of the first armies to introduce subfactions back in the day, and now they are getting snazzy updated ones to line them up with more recent releases. All of the subfactions are bent towards a specific goal, like Barak-Zon, which boosts wound and hit rolls for some of its units on a turn they charge, or Barak-Thrying who can bring in Duardin from other factions to bolster their forces, like Fyreslayers. My personal favorite is probably Barak-Zilfin, which allows you to bring Arkanaut Frigates as battleline, and as I said before I love the skyvessels so having an army of them definitely appeals to me, especially with the updated rules that Behemoths don’t have limits if they’re battleline. I can’t wait to see what the other skyports do, and how they interact on the tabletop.
Will you be picking up the new battletome?
