Warhammer 40K: Detachment Breakdown – Mastering the World Eaters’ “Vessels of Wrath”
Goatboy here to breakdown the 40K Advent Calendar Detachment – the World Eaters ‘Vessels of Wrath’ with tips, tricks, and a sample army!
With this 2024 Advent Calendar of fun stuff for Warhammer 40K coming out, it’s time to review the detachments as they come out. We’ll do as usual a Good, Bad, and Ugly little break down for each one then a look at the type of list I would play for this army. I will begin with one of the detachments and as the weeks go on break down a few in batches as they come out. I am very excited to see some new rules and maybe some new ways to play an army and create something new and unique. Right now the game is sorta of locking into “best” of style armies and while we do have some innovation from time to time it feels like the same tricks are what is going to carry “best of” armies to the top.
‘Vessels of Wrath’ – The Good
There is a lot of good in this World Eaters detachment as it still uses the Blessing of Khorne table and adds some things. The detachment has one rule – Wrath of Khorne – and it is doozy. The rule allows you to pick a certain amount of non special characters and unit leaders (Berzerkers, Eightbound, Exalted Eightbound, Terminator Champion) and let them become a Vessel of Wrath. The normal Strike Force games let you pick three and these models and the units they are part of gain another Blessings of Khorne of their choice. That’s right – these units basically get three Blessings of Khorne they can utilize during their turn.
What this really means is that you could always make sure you have three units get the “go turn” powers of +2 movement, Sustained Hits, and Advance and Charge. Or you could always make sure Feel No Pain is on and you get to use some other power to activate things. Being able to control a bit of the random nature of the rolls is a powerful rule and while losing +1 attack and +1 strength from the old Index Detachment is huge these World Eaters are already pushed pretty hard on the combat side of things to more and make up for it.
The new Detachment has four new Enhancements and while they are not terrible there is nothing you really need to build your army around. Archslaughterer is the close combat upgrade that lets the character gain an extra pip of Armor Penetration and if they are the Vessel of Wrath they get another pip of Damage. We have a CP regen sort of option in Vox-Diabolus that lets the character get a chance to gain a CP if they destroy a unit with their Melee attacks. Avengers Crown lets the bearer fight on death on a 2+. The only one that could see some use is the Gateways to Glory that lets the bearer ignore models and terrain when moving. This lets you get some use out of a Juggernaut Lord attached to one of the Eightbound units. It is the cheapest one and again dependent on how you have your army set up.
We got six Stratagems that are all pretty interesting. They all run 1 CP and while there isn’t anything as sweet as auto 6” advance or -1 damage there are some bangers in here. Aspire to Infamy is a 1CP Strat that has a Berzerker or Jakhal unit that is when 8” of a character gets an extra pip of AP on their weapons. Overshadowed by None is another 1CP that lets an Infantry, Mounted, or Daemon Prince model get to reroll wounds versus a monster of vehicle. They get their own type of Sticky objective in Gory Dedication where if you kill an enemy unit on an objective and now control the objective you can make it sticky. Punish the Craven is a 1CP that if your opponent chooses to fallback from your unit they have to make a desperate escape test. If the unit has a Vessel of Wrath it is -1 to that test. Brazen Contempt is a 1 CP Strat you can use in your opponents shooting phase that lets the unit get a -1 to be wounded if the strength is higher or just a flat -1 if the unit getting shot has the Vessel of Wrath. Finally the one that will probably push this Detachment to get used is Meet Force with Force which gives an Infantry, Mounted, or Daemon Prince the d6 Blood Surge rule. If the unit is the Vessel of Wrath they can reroll the blood surge move.
‘Vessels of Wrath’ – The Bad
I do wish there was more Vessels of Wrath sort of things – especially pushing it on Daemon Princes and their Aura abilities. It would have been neat to just include it within their own 6” aura to help spice up these bubbles of angry World Eaters. This detachment is also not really some place you want to throw in Angron as the chance for him to come back would be lower than the old index one of killing a unit and getting another Blessings “roll”.
‘Vessels of Wrath’ – The Ugly
Why aren’t there more weapon Enhancements or something to let you create a cool “Eightbound” Chaos lord like thing? Why not give me something else to paint up dang it!
Sample Detachment Armylist – Vessels of Wrath
World Eaters
Vessels of Wrath
Strike Force
CHARACTERS
Lord Invocatus (140 Points)
• Warlord
• 1x Bolt Pistol
• 1x Coward’s Bane
• 1x Juggernaut’s bladed horn
BATTLELINE
Jakhals (65 Points)
• 1x Jakhal Pack Leader
◦ 1x Autopistol
◦ 1x Jakhal chainblades
• 1x Dishonoured
◦ 1x Dishonoured chainblades
• 8x Jakhal
◦ 8x Autopistol
◦ 8x Jakhal chainblades
OTHER DATASHEETS
Eightbound (140 Points)
• 1x Eightbound Champion
◦ 1x Lacerators
• 2x Eightbound
◦ 2x Eightbound eviscerators
Eightbound (140 Points)
• 1x Eightbound Champion
◦ 1x Lacerators
• 2x Eightbound
◦ 2x Eightbound eviscerators
Eightbound (140 Points)
• 1x Eightbound Champion
◦ 1x Lacerators
• 2x Eightbound
◦ 2x Eightbound eviscerators
Exalted Eightbound (155 Points)
• 1x Exalted Eightbound Champion
◦ 1x Paired Eightbound chainfists
• 2x Exalted Eightbound
◦ 2x Eightbound chainfist
◦ 2x Eightbound eviscerator
Exalted Eightbound (155 Points)
• 1x Exalted Eightbound Champion
◦ 1x Paired Eightbound chainfists
• 2x Exalted Eightbound
◦ 2x Eightbound chainfist
◦ 2x Eightbound eviscerator
Exalted Eightbound (155 Points)
• 1x Exalted Eightbound Champion
◦ 1x Paired Eightbound chainfists
• 2x Exalted Eightbound
◦ 2x Eightbound chainfist
◦ 2x Eightbound eviscerator
World Eaters Chaos Spawn (70 Points)
• 2x Chaos Spawn
◦ 2x Hideous mutations
World Eaters Chaos Spawn (70 Points)
• 2x Chaos Spawn
◦ 2x Hideous mutations
World Eaters Terminator Squad (360 Points)
• 1x World Eaters Terminator Champion
◦ 1x Combi-weapon
◦ 1x Power fist
• 9x World Eaters Terminator
◦ 2x Chainfist
◦ 5x Combi-weapon
◦ 2x Paired accursed weapons
◦ 5x Power fist
◦ 2x Reaper autocannon
World Eaters Terminator Squad (360 Points)
• 1x World Eaters Terminator Champion
◦ 1x Combi-weapon
◦ 1x Power fist
• 9x World Eaters Terminator
◦ 2x Chainfist
◦ 5x Combi-weapon
◦ 2x Paired accursed weapons
◦ 5x Power fist
◦ 2x Reaper autocannon
‘Vessels of Wrath’ Tactics
This is a pretty simple list that is based off of the 30 Terminator World Eaters list we have seen running around as of late. With the push to try and abuse “3 blessings” units we might as well have as many tough ones as we can. You will be pushing for a 2-3 wave style approach with at least 3 Eightbound, Invocatus, and 2 Exalted Eightbound as your initial wave while the 2 Terminator bricks hold back field and come in with wave 2 or 3 as needed. The Spawn and Jakhals are there to help hold backfields, be a pain in the butt, and just the right amount of bodies needed.
Download the Detachment Here
