Welcome to Optimal Game State Today we’re looking at the new Darkoath faction in Warcry. This sub-faction of the Slaves to Darkness appeared earlier in the year with a big box release and now we finally have the rules for them in Warcry.
If you’re not aware, we’ve just had a big FAQ arrive for Warcry and along with it we’ve had some new factions including the Darkoath. This is separate to the Darkoath Savagers which look very similar but should be considered maybe their own tribe or something. This is also distinct to the Chaos Marauders who are part of the Slaves to Darkness warband, despite these new miniatures being the clear replacements to the very dated marauder models.
If you check the Warhammer-Community website there are two pdfs we’re interested in for this faction, the Darkoath pdf which has the rules for the main Darkoath fighters that appeared in that big box and we have Brand’s Oathbound which was a single box release with 5 character models that appear in the new Darkoath book and some also appear in the Warhammer plus video Monsters. So the first pdf has all the generic fighters and the second pdf has a small number of models that can each only be taken once, similar to a bladeborn warband but without the option for other chaos factions to ally them in.
Before we get stuck into the numbers, I thought it might be worthwhile to talk about who the Darkoath are. These are replacing the older and dated chaos marauders who were chaos worshiping clans from the northern wastes of the old world. The Darkoath are somewhat similar, but I think a far more interesting approach, at least from what I could glean from the Darkoath novel. These are essentially the survivors of the great betrayal when Sigmar and the ‘good’ gods walked away from the realms and took refuge in Azyr. In this new world the tribes learned to fight to survive. They also began to better understand the gods of chaos, fickle and callous as they are, they were the only ones who answered when the Darkoath called. Unlike the many chaos cults across the realms, the Darkoath seek to strike a careful balance. They swear oaths to the chaos gods and if those oaths are fulfilled, the gods aid them. They do not however, swear allegiance to the gods, for that would mean losing themselves. So it’s a delicate game, give the chaos gods enough to gain their aid but not so much that they would become their slaves.
Here we have our plot, As you can see it’s a decent spread across the board and a lot of the fighters are near the top of the damage bracket which is always good to see. Notably we don’t have anythign less than 70 points, so no cheap chaff. On the other end we have the very expensive and crazy damage Wilderfiend. That’s what happens when you lose the game to the chaos gods.
There are two generic abilities that almost anyone in the warband can use. I say almost, as both have a clause to prevent the Wilderfiend from using them. The first in a double Oath of Murder. This is where they swear to the chaos gods they are going to kill an enemy fighter. The become Oathed for the remainder of the battle. We should probably get a token or something to go along with it. If they manage to kill an enemy, they then lose the Oathed trait and isntead become Favoured. That will be relevant later. As a gift from the chaos gods, the warband gets a double 1 which can be used for a rush or onslaught or as an Oath for another fighter.
The second ability we have here is the reaction Glorious Death. This is a reaction after being targeted for a melee attack and if that attack would kill your fighter then you get a double 1. If you lost a hero then it’s a triple 1 and if the fighter is favoured it’s a quad. Reactions are tricky to use because it usually uses an action, but if you’re expecting to die it’s a good time to use one. We will see more abilities as we go on that will be looking for the favoured trait.
To go back to the Oath of Murder, there are a few different ways to look at this. The first is, of course, to use the double when you think you’re going to get a kill. So you take a non-oathed fighter, like your annual performance review you promise to do the thing you’re expecting to do anyway, and then that fighter becomes favoured and you get the double back to use later.
The second way to use this is to take doubles that you don’t have a plan for, for example when you’re moving into position on turn one, and oath up some of your fighters. Maybe get a marker or something to keep track of it. Then in later turns when your fighter gets a kill in, you get the double back and escalate that turn. You could potentially oath up 3 fighters turn one and in turn 3 explode with abilities as those fighters get kills giving you more doubles to use. Fun stuff. Of course it does all rely on getting a kill, so it’s a big win more strategy and probably will involve having your heroes pick on some chaff early in the game.
Notably, this warband does not have a battle trait. Presumably they were designed around the same time the Darkoath came out which I think was April and then Battle Traits were designed later but only including the factions which out at that point. We think the Darkoath may eventually get the Slave to Darkness battle trait which gives +3 to the value of abilities while more enemy fighters are taken down than friendly fighters. That would turn all those double 1s into double 4s which could be useful. Regardless, right now the Darkoath have no battle trait and it might be another 6 months before they get one.
Before we get stuck into the fighter profiles, just as a point of reference this is what I consider the baseline for any fighter. As I understand it, if you work out the points based on the damage and the points based on the wounds and average them out you get a starting point. You then make some percentage adjustments based on other factors, such as how fast the fighter is or the range of the weapon. So this means going fast is going to cost more points if you’re a Chimera than if your a grot which does make sense. This is my best guess at working out how the GW guys do it, and it’s my frame of reference when I’m trying to work out whether a fighter is worth playing or not.
Our first fighter to look at is the Darkoath Chieftain on Warsteed. So this is kind of what I’m taking about. The wounds are about the cost of a 233 fighter, the weapon damage is about the cost of a 150pt fighter. Those average out to 192. That toughness 3 is below the standard 4 so -5% to the points, that speed 10 is super fast and I estimate around +35%, so it’s 192 with a 30% adjustment which ends up around 250. So that’s how I form my first impression. In this case, we often like to compare mounted fighters to the classic Varanguard with Daemonforged Blade and honestly this fighter does compare favourably on base stats. The chieftain has 3 less toughness and 2 less wounds but that 28 wounds are still going to take a while to chew through. The attack profile is a step below the 7.5 average damage of the Varanguard but a 20 point Might blessing would bring the damage close to it at 7.3. So I think it’s valid to look at this fighter as a potential cheaper Varanguard.
Where this fighter differs of course is with the abilities, the Varanguard has a double to increase attacks by half the value of the double and a triple Champion of Darkness which gives an extra move and attack after getting a kill. Great abilities. For the Chieftain things are less exciting but certainly interesting. We’ve already seen the generic Oath of Murder ability, and this fighter is a good contender to be in the right place to get a kill in. He also has a special Triple Warleader, I’ll go into the ability properly in a second, but it’s a variation on Inspiring Presence which isn’t getting extra attack dice or extra actions, so while I do quite like the stats and the model unfortunately this isn’t the Varanguard model I was hoping for purely due to the abilities. That said, I did pick up this model so I have every intention of trying it out.
Another option for the Chieftain is the version on foot. 80 less points at 140 but with the same damage, 8 less wounds, and a walking pace of 4 inches. Weirdly the armour increases. For both damage and wounds this is slightly above the baseline which is nice but not particularly special. This is an old classic model that I think came out first with the Warhammer Quest Silver Tower. There is another profile of the same name in the Slaves to Darkness warband which is interesting, but the ability is different.
Now bear with me on this one as it’s a bit awkwardly worded and potentially needs some errata. So we pick a friendly figther within 6 inches who has not yet activated. You can activate that fighter immediately after this fighter ends, that’s just the normal inspiring presense so far. The next line gives you a bonus if the Chieftain is favoured, then you get to pick two other friendly fighters as well. Those aren’t getting to activate but will benefit from the next step which I do think kicks in even if the Chieftain isn’t favoured. Otherwise the ability would be the same as inspiring presence. Until the end of the battle round, each fighter you picked can use the inspiring presence ability without needing or using any ability dice. Here is the next complication, you need the hero runemark to use Inspiring Presence. Is this ability which says the fighter ‘can use the’ ability giving permission to use it without the hero runemark? Right now the community isn’t sure, but seems to be leaning towards the assumption that the intention was to give permission but the rules as written don’t allow it. I suspect the idea here is to give the bonus action to a nearby fighter and pick out your other two heroes anywhere on the battlefield and let them get free inspiring presences as well. It’s an interesting idea. Inspiring presence is an ability that has won me games before, but it’s one I look to use every game. We’ve also seen the chain activations theme appear with the Claws of Karanak without much success. So it’s an interesting idea I think, but often I’d prefer to use other abilities with my big heroes. As I mentioned, the Darkoath Chieftain also has a profile on the Slaves to Darkness warband, so if you’re not interested in this ability and already have a Darkoath leader you can actually take the Slaves to Darkness Chieftain as an ally instead.
Of perhaps more interest in the Darkoath Warqueen. This is an even spicier profile. Damage and wounds are about right for 165 points and that shield gives her a toughness of 5 which will make her a little harder to kill. Her ability is Rally the Tribes a Triple that will give nearby darkoath with the Warrior Runemark a bonus move. As a bonus, if the Warqueen is favoured then those nearby fighters count as 1 additional fighter for contesting objectives. As we’ll see later, the normal rank and file Darkoath have the Warrior runemark and this fantastic Warqueen is giving them bonus moves and making them count as 2 for objectives. No notes, this is a fantastic piece. Turn 1 you’ll use her ability to get fighters into position and later turns you can use her ability to hold or steal objectives which could be big depending on the mission. To do that you are going to need to get a kill with her but she’s got a decent stat line so that shouldn’t be too hard. Remember, prey on the weak.
Next up we have the Felrider Champion with Axe. As often happens with the mounted troops we have a fast fighter with lots of wounds but not much damage. That 3.3 we’d expect to see on an 80 point model, so we’re paying a lot for that move 10 and 20 wounds. The ability is a double which will remove wounds equal to half the ability value, so half of what you’d get with the universal triple respite but without the annoying clause of being outside melee. If the fighter is favoured you get to heal an extra +3 which is really nice. That means if you get a double 1 from getting favoured you can then spend it to heal 4 wounds which is very nice. The synergy is nice but unfortunately I think this profile isn’t worth it. I’m a big fan of the Sylvaneth Kurnoth Hunters big scary things with the Sylvaneth double that heals points equal to the value of the ability. This could be similar if it was on a better profile but alas it’s not.
The non hero version of the Fellrider is similar, fast and chunky but with low damage for it’s points. I absolutely love the models for these but I’m not sure how to fit them into a list. Maybe they’re fast objective holders, with 18 wounds they certainly wouldn’t be easy to kill and that ability will let them heal up if they take some damage. While the damage is bad for the
Back to a leader version here we have the Javelin instead. In this case that’s a ranged attack as a second profile. The melee damage is a little worse and the points are 5 more. Again really limited by the weak damage for the points.
This time we do get a different ability though, another double this time called Swift Attacker. It can only be used after making a move action that gets you into melee and it lets you makie a bonus ranged attack action against a target in melee. As we can see that’s only 1.6 average damage so while free attack is a free attack it’s not great. If we’re favoured we get to add the ability value as damage points to each hit and crit. So a best case double 6 will significantly increase it to 7.6 and then you follow with a 2.6 melee swing. That’s pretty cool, but it only works when you charge in and spend a double, and you have to already have a kill to be favoured. So no, again I think this gets let down by the basic profile it has.
As before, we also have a non-hero version which has the same ability but stats are a little weaker. Here the melee ability is the same which is a plus for this profile, as the javelin was getting most of it’s damage from the ability anyway, I’d be likely to take this profile over the other fellrider versions. All the suffer from the same issues but look at that model!
Moving out of the cursed cavalry, we finally get into the marauder box. These are the two variants of the hero version and broadly both have the same issues as we saw with the cavalry but not quite as bad. The weapon damage is below the curve for their points while their health is about the curve. The difference between them is trading a little damage for some reach which I usually consider a good deal. They do have the Warrior trait which opens them up as a target for the Warqueen which honestly is a big deal. Since there isn’t any special hero ability in this warband lets move on to the non hero version.
Again we have a spear and a sword or axe version, both at the same price of 70 but with difering damage. For both the wounds are about right for 80 points while the the damage is something like 65 points for the melee and 50 points for the spear. For reference I pulled out the Iron Golem’s Legionnaire who is 75 points does slightly less damage but has 5 toughness and 2 more wounds. The Legionnaires aren’t particularly exciting but they do get the job done. In this case, the Marauder does benefit from that bonus move of the Warqueen which does increase their value. I have 10 of these, so they are going to be forming the core of my warband one way or another. Basic, not super exciting, but solid.
Then we have the Wilderfiend. This is a chunky beast at 300 points so it’s a considerable investment. For that you get 5 toughness and 35 wounds, so near un-killable. It’s 6 move and has an average damage of 13. That’s better damage than a Megaboss although at considerably more points. Unlike the Megaboss which has move 3, this thing is fast with move 6.
As a beast it can’t open doors, which is probably good for my nightmares, and it can’t carry treasure. It does not get to swear oaths and it cannot become favoured. It doesn’t have the Warrior runemark so it can’t benefit from the Warqueens bonus move. So it completely lacks synergy with the warband, which in a way makes thematic sense. This is a Darkoath warrior who played games with the dark gods and lost. They are now feral monsters that roam the borders of their tribes territory, just as likely to murder their old kin but still with the last spark of loyalty protecting their clan from other monsters.
It does have one ability unique to it. It’s a quad which I always recommend you ignore, but with this warband if one of your Favoured can trigger their reaction before they die, you get a free quad which we could use here. Alright, this is a long one. You get a free inspiring presence, so after the Wilderfiend is done another friendly fighter within 6 inches can atc. You can also pick a target and do some damage to them based on dice, on average it’ll be 1.5 times the ability dice value. You also get to add 2 to attacks by this fighter for the rest of the turn, if you’re getting two attacks with that it’s almost a full extra attack and will be around 8.6 extra damage. So it’s a really nice option if you’re already in combat, expecting to do more damage and want to get a little bit more out of it.
Overall I really like this fighter, but it is a bit frustrating to have all the stats on a fighter than can’t use the abilities and the abilities on fighters that don’t have the stats.
Alright, that was all the generic darkoath out of the release box. We still have 5 more fighters to look at from Brand’s Oathbound. I have this box myself and absolutely love the model, but it is quite an expensive one so keep that in mind. Broadly these are all themed around existing fighters, so Brand is a Chieftain and Tanari is a warqueen for example. Each are unique, so you can only take one Brand in a warband. Hopefully though we do see some extra options here.
Gunnar Brand is the leader of his tribe, he has made the hard decisions to take power to protect his people but always risks being overcome by the gifts the gods give him.
Gunnar is 25 points more than the Chieftain, does a little more damage and has 5 more wounds. He loses the Warchief ability and instead gets a triple Carve a Path to Glory. This adds half the value to his attacks, he already has 5 attacks so you’re getting around 1.3 damage per attack dice. And that will be for the rest of the turn rather than just the next attack which is nice. That will help us get those kills which will help him get favoured. When he his favoured instead of half the value, you get the full value so he’s going to do even more damage. Now for that, turn one you’ll want to use the Oath of Murder double with him, then you’ll use the Triple in later turns to power him up. So he is going to be ability hungry but he is going to do a lot of damage with it.
Singri Brand is his daughter. She has the same steel within her as her father, but where he has fury and action she has a sharp mind and the patience of a hunter. Her profile is modeled on the javelin fellriders which is an unfortunate start but she does have a much more impressive range at 18 and her ranged profile is better than her melee profile. Being able to move 10 inches and having 18 range gives her a massive board range but comes at a pretty nasty cost, on top of that she has 25 wounds. At 200 points she is actually under-costed and this profile probably should be closer to 270. That’s still only doing 2.6 average damage though.
If we look at the ability we see it’s another Triple. This warband is going to be hungry for triples and it’s doubles they will have plenty of. It’s called Uncanny Shot. For the rest of the turn add hjalf the ability to the attacks, so kind of like Brand and as her damage is low at 2.6 but her dice are also low at 2 we’re seeing a similar bonus of 1.3 per attack dice. This also changes to the value of the ability rather than half, if she’s favoured but nicely it also works if the target is in melee with Gunnar Brand. Unfortunately, due to the rules around missile attacks, to be able to do that she needs to get within 3 inches of the target. It’s a nice little father daughter thing, but as they’re both competing for the Triple I think we end up spending them on Gunnar instead. Note: OffMetaMusings disagrees and would spend the triple Singri who is his MVP for this team!
Warqueen Tanari actually comes from another Tribe that for a long time the Brand’s had as enemies, but circumstances lead them into an uneasy truce and later maybe something closer to respect than actual friendship.
Tanari is 30 more points that the Warqueen losing her Rally the Tribes triple and instead getting her own unique one. She has 5 more wounds, one less toughness, and is 1 move faster. Her weapon profile is the same which did surprise me as I was hoping the spear would give her reach.
The ability is a Triple called Warqueen’s Fury. She gets a bonus melee action against every enemy target within 1 inches of her. If she is favoured that extends to 3 inches and her weapon gets reach 3, I guess this is where the spear kicks in. That’s pretty good for a triple. You don’t necessarily need her favoured, but being able to get bonus attacks on a triple is fantastic, especially as getting 2 targets isn’t that hard.
Broken Nadja is the shaman of the tribe, she reads the signs and watches for the whims of the gods. She has a pretty typical caster profile with the 3-7 range but the damage is actually really good for a ranged attack at 3. She is slow but she’s got decent wounds for the points. The ability is another triple, unfortunately way too many triples in this warband. It’s a straight point and do damage ability with a range of 9 inches. Damage on average will be 1.5 times the value on the ability dice, just like with the wilderfiend. If Broken Nadja is favoured that goes up to around 2.3 per value. It’s not bad, but again I think I’d spend my dice elsewhere. I do like her as a ranged fighter though.
Last up we have Dendrel Direbrand. The Direbrand as a family within the Brand tribe. I’m not sure if I picked this up right from the book, but I got the impression that the Direbrands were once part of the Cities of Sigmar and due to harsh circumstances ended up joining the Brands and were accepted into the Darkoath, probably many generations ago. Either way, Dendrel is a smith within the tribe and is a voice of some influence. His wounds are about right for 150 points and his damage for about 130 so he’s well stated.
Alas it’s another Triple here. So either we accept that some of our fighters will not get to use their ability or we try be a bit more optimistic and think of this as options in how we apply our one triple. The ability itself is quite interesting, essentially you ignore strength and toughness and instead this fighter always hits on a 3+ so it’s like giving him infinite strength. If he’s favoured then crits happen on a 5+ which essentially adds 1.2 extra damage. The ability does let him be a can opener for any nasty high toughness targets you might find.
Alright, lets talk about this warband in total. I do not like the mounted fighters apart from the mounted chieftain. The standard troopers at 70 points the marauders are kind of vanilla, not super exciting but not bad by any regards. The Warqueen bonus ability is super good, both for the move and the contesting objectives, and it significantly increases the value of the marauders. I also like Gunnar Brand and Warqueen Tanari, so I could happily pick three out of those 4 heroes, add in a bunch of the Marauders and have a good time. Nadja and Dendrel are decent options depending on the points and the Wilderfiend looks like it could be a lot of fun even if it doesn’t synergise with the rest of the warband.
Without any low cost fighters, it’s also quite tricky to get this to 1k without using blessings. Gunnar, a Warqueen, Marauder Champion, 4 Marauders, and a Wilderfiend will do it. That’s 8 models and some very scarey fighters in there. Turn one the triple goes into the Warqueen to get her group of Marauders moving. Doubles to Gunnar first and the Champion second to oath them. Then we can use triples to boost gunnars damage as soon as possible and get him favoured. Which will free up more doubles to oath more fighters and hopefully we can chain all this into the last turn with lots of dice to use.
We do of course have the normal options to ally in or take these heroes as allies for another chaos warband. So you could add Vexmor or a Crusher but there isn’t really anything in this warband that plays nice with others. Note: @lordhusee in the comments of the video pointed out the Master Moulder from the Skaven works very well with the Wilderfiend. Similarly, you can’t take the Warqueen and add her into another warband as she requires Darkoath fighters. Gunnar and Tanari are decent options for other warbands as they’re self focused and can oath and use their triples without worrying about the other warband. That does let you bank a double into an oath on turn one which I really like for this warband.
It’s also quite nice that the reaction will sometimes lets you turn a dead hero into a triple, which does help with the demand on the dice. So in a best case, you’re getting doubles when your oath of murder is fulfilled and triples when heroes die letting you power your other heroes. I quite like that getting the doubles is a win more since you’ve just killed an enemy and the reaction is a come back since you’ve lost a fighter. Unfortunately, a lot of the triples are dependent on values, so getting extra triple 1s isn’t really helping. Now if we ally in another hero who can use those triple 1s effectively then that might be worth looking at.
I do think the oath idea is nice, but it maybe could have been a little better developed maybe with some generic abilities that key off of favoured rather than all this unique ones. Maybe we’ll see more if this warband gets a battle trait.
So is this warband going to win tournaments? I doubt it. Is it going to look great and be fun? Absolutely.
If you have any comments or feedback please post them in the comments section below. Check us out on the Optimal Game State website, instagram, and YouTube channel for more discussion about the Games Workshop Specialist Games.
