Warhammer 40K Hot Mess – Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage
Let’s take a deep dive into a hot mess of a 40K unit and some thoughts in how we can fix them up. Let’s chat about that Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage and what we can do to fix it.
How many of you read the fluff? How many stories are there about Bloodthirsters coming down from the sky, the enemy messing up their pants, and a giant axe getting business done. Of course how many of those stories happen during a game? Isn’t the story something like I moved my Bloodthirster 12+ inches, it got shot by a bunch of things, and I moved it off of the table? Or how about the story of coming into an assault, missing with half your attacks, and the enemy flipping you the bird as only a single marines fell over dead? It is just depressing for a center piece model who is a daemon of war, death, and blood just does nothing in a game. So what the heck can we do? Well let’s talk about juicing him up.
Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage Basics
First we’ll change the name to “Big Axe Bloodthirster” as I am tired of time the whole extra bits of his name. This guy is a big daemon of death wielding a giant axe. Back in the older editions the Axe was a “D” weapon that could ignore saves. This was useful as it gave you a way to murder stuff that was set up to be too tough to kill. Now he just throws around a chance to do a lot of damage if he hits or can do a sweep attack that just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore. He also flies, has access to some cool exalted rules, and has a decent-ish statline. You move this guy forward and hope you hit the exalted power to only take 3 wounds a turn because if you don’t he will most likely get shot to pieces.
How Do We Make the Big Axe Bloodthirster Good?
Well the first thing to do is amp up all the stuff he should be good at. He needs to be fast, tough, and cause a crap ton of damage. He should be a giant red meteor of attitude that screams thru the battlefield and wrecks face when he gets there. There is nothing subtle about this guy.
- He has an axe.
- He needs to place it into a skull somehow.
- Repeat!
So how do we juice him up? Glad you asked let’s get started.
Make His Attacks SUPER Good
He already has two profiles for damage but lets make them better. First of all the big Axe hit should be for each hit that it causes it does 3 mortal wounds. This way the Axe can always do something even if someone saves. I know what you are saying it means this guy could do a ton of damage but this monster is carrying a huge Axe of Khorne. This needs to come in hot and wreck your face with damage. The Sweep attack also needs to do more with upping its damage to 2, upping the amount of attacks to 3 per one, and upping its Ap to -3. All of these things makes this guy a terror to deal with and a threat when he gets close.
Make Him Tougher!
Hey instead of degrading and losing attacks why not just make him get madder. Yes you should make him slower but as he is damaged make his output that much deadly as he gets closer. This guy is supposed to be super pissed and getting some bullets shoved into his no no place would make anyone upset. On top of that he should just have a 2+ armor save as well. A lot of stuff has crazy AP and daemons are not getting Armor of Contempt no matter how much they argue in court. 2+ Armor save is ok and lets him survive the small basic crap. Anything huge shooting him will tear a giant hole in his reality. So it isn’t nearly as back breaking as it once was.
Give Him Cool Abilities!
Warlord traits are neat and I am sure the new Daemon Codex when it comes out will have a ton. Why not give every greater daemon in your army a Warlord trait without having to spend CP? Then let there be a true Warlord one that has united these jerks so they get a second one without burning CP? Make them super themed to their God and just watch as people come up with custom awesome sets of neat Warlords on the battlefield.
Explosions!
When this guy dies he needs to explode somehow. It should just be a Death Throes and just happens when he eats it. If he is shot and dies too he can explode and hurt his friends too. He needs to just be about death and destruction.
Who knows when the Daemon book can come out but let’s make Bloodthirsters scary once again. That model is friggin sweet and it needs to shine on the table top in the grim dark universe of 40k.
Let us know how you would fix the unit, down in the comments!
