AoS: 3 New Daughters of Khaine Battalions
The Daughters of Khaine are bringing some new toys to the battlefield, and they certainly don’t plan to play nice. Come see what’s new for murder aelves.
With the unleashing of the Aelven Cobra Kai, the Daughters of Khaine are getting a collection of new warscroll battalions, and they’re pretty powerful. The Zainthar Kai are Morathi’s chosen enforcers, and the battalions definitely reflect that. Here’s my quick review of the three new DoK battalions from Broken Realms, and which ones I think are the strongest.
Vyperic Guard
This battalion represents the closest of Morathi’s Melusai guard, and the most elite of her warriors. It consists of the Shadow Queen herself (in both forms, now that she is a double model), 1-2 Melusai Ironscales and Bloodwrack Medusae (on foot only) in any combination, and 2-3 standard Melusai in any combination for an extra 140 points. Once per battle, one of the included heroes can use a command ability without a point being spent, which is pretty good but not game changing. Morathi’s ability is a good candidate for this, allowing one of the included units of Melusai to attack in the hero phase and soften up the foe, either with glaives in combat or bows from far away. It’s also a good choice for the All-Out Attack or Defense trait, since Morathi lets you pick two generals rather than just one, in case you get pulled out of position. Not my favorite battalion on the list, but a very good one nonetheless, and it could make your army single drop.
Scáthcoven
Now THIS is a battalion, by far my favorite of the three new releases, and for good reason, as it combats the main problem with a small elite army like Zainthar Kai. It includes a single Melusai hero, even a Shrine if you want, 1-4 Blood Sisters, 1-2 Blood Stalkers, and 0-2 Khinerai of any flavor. All the units you selected are immune to battleshock, which is pretty incredible for the double wound but slightly expensive Melusai or the lower Bravery Khinerai. Also, not having to worry about failing battleshock is always a good thing, and lets you preserve your precious command points for other more important abilities like re-rolling charges or Morathi’s Worship Through Bloodshed. For a low model army, this is perfect, and at only 140 points definitely gets my top marks for the new book.
Shrine Brood
We have seen this particular battalion in previews, and it comes in at the cheapest, costing only 120 points. It includes 2 Bloodwrack Shrines, 2 Melusai units in any combination, and 2 Khinerai units, which is an interesting combination with an interesting ability. In your hero phase, you can pick any number of units within 6” of one of the Shrines to sacrifice a model. For each Khinerai you sacrifice, your Shrine regains a wound, and for each Melusai it regains 2. This isn’t a bad ability of you have big units and want to keep your Shrine up, but it seems like the Khinerai and Melusai can do more damage on their own, so it’s a bit gimmicky. But if you absolutely need to keep your Wizards alive, this isn’t the worst ability, and could save you from some scary spellcasting (looking at you, Tzeentch).
Will you be using any of these battalions?
