Order: Daughters of Khaine Part 3 - Traits, Relics and Spells (Warhammer Age of Sigmar Battletome Review, 1st Edition)

So, let's finish this shall we? We have done the lore, we have done the units, so this will be a brief look at the remaining sections on the whole. While the overall skeleton of the army consists of its varying unit choices, many victories will depend on the qualities which follow. The abilities and modifiers which grant them additional durability, enhance their killing potential and also give them an edge in taking certain rewards under the right circumstances.


Battle Traits

Fanatical Faith: With this one, the Daughters of Khaine can ignore wounds inflicted on them with the roll of a 6+. This is your standard "Fragile Yet Indomitable" quality found in these armies where they can shrug off the strongest blows but be brought down by lesser ones. It's not fantastic, but given how commonplace it is, and the fact it's not another Feel No Pain variant, it's not too bad.

Blood Rites: You probably recognise this as a reworded "Power From Pain". Well, a retitled one at any rate. With this one, your units are granted a new special rule that stacks for the remainder of the game. Every turn no less. It's an interesting quality due to the aforementioned fragility of the Sisters, meaning that as your numbers ultimately dwindle, these guys gain more and more benefits. This offsets the inherent aggression required to properly use their best qualities. A few fun tactics can be created by using this as a kind of fall-back counter when things go wrong.

Quickening Bloodlust: You re-roll runs if you get 1 as a result. Simple, direct but welcome given the lack of armour.

Headlong Fury: R-eroll dice when charging if the result is a 1. Same as above, but it's more directly offensive.

Zealot's Rage: You re-rolls 1s to hit. Another basic modifier, but it comes with the added advantage that the Avatar can move on its own if it gets this. So, that removes one big weakness there.

Slaughterer's Strength: Same as above but it counts for wounds.

Unquenchable Fervour: You do not need battleshock tests, and you also re-roll 1s for saves.

Overall, it's simple but unremarkable. There's a few too many rules which follow the same basic premise here for my liking, and while all of them certainly work, it really seems as if something more ambitious could be put in their place. Still, it gets the job done so you can't complain too much about that.


Command Traits

Bathed in Blood: This focuses on survivability above all else, as it gives a model an additional wound, but also allows them to heal a single wound at the beginning of each hero phase. This is a more useful option for your bullet (or arrow, in this case) magnets such as the Cauldron of Blood, but consider it as a bonus rather than an essential. Still, it's good on the whole.

Zealous Orator: General's Bravery is now extended to 14", but the problem is that it's only a minor buff. You don't get that much of a benefit as Bravery throughout the army is notably quite high and units will rarely break. It's worth it against some armies with plenty of options which downgrade this stat, but otherwise, pass on this.

Bloody Sacrificer: Add an additional +1 to the hits made by your General's weapons. Useful if you're using them as a hero killer or mob annihilator, but not so much if you want to use them as something to support the troops. As such, this is very dependant on your play style, but it's not inherently bad.

Terrifying Beauty: -1 to hits against the General. This is an exceptionally useful one in many cases, as it can be stacked with more than a few other abilities to cause your opponent all kinds of hell. This is worth it on most options, even the budget ones.

Mistress of Poisons: ... Well, there has been a distinct lack of poison up to this point. This one adds a +1 to Damage characteristics of your General's weapons, giving them a chance to inflict more damage. The same comments as Bloody Sacrificer apply, but this can be more broadly distributed to different lists.

True Believer: Above all else, this is the one you will want. This increases a unit's Blood Rites rolls up by several turns, speeding up their bonuses and the number of special rules which can be applied. This is worth it with almost everything, but it is best used with the Avatar to wake it up and get it moving ASAP.

Overall, it repeats many basic modifiers as the above option, but it at least is more viable and flexible for most army list outlines.

Gifts of Morathi

These options can be given to any Hero unit in the army.

Crown of Woe: This is a useful one for forcing more typical fodder options to run. It modifies the Bravery stat of all those within 7" (not allied ones of course) by -1, and this can be increased to 14" once the focus of this manages to kill someone. So, basic but pretty damn good in helping to break through frontlines or flanks.

Cursed Blade: +1 to hit rolls but only on one of the carrier's melee weapons, but if this boosts the result to +7, then this is modified to a bonus Mortal Wound over normal damage. Situational admittedly, but it can help with Slaughter Queens.

Amulet of Dark Fire: An exceptionally useful one, this grants the carrier a 4+ save against Mortal Wounds. For a unit so valued and costly as a decent Hero, this is a must buy if you intend for them to slow down or bring down heavy hitters.

Crone Blade: This is somewhat useful depending on what you are fighting. In effect, every time you slay a model with one designated weapon, the Hero regains a wound. This is good because you can't exceed your total wounds, but it also specifies "slays" over wounds inflicted. As such, against single wound squads it can allow them to last longer in melee. In multi-wound elite options, this is not going to be as useful on the whole.

Thousand and One Dark Blessings: It's a +1 to saves from all attacks. It's self-explanatory, and this should likely be one of the two "go to" options here for making sure your Hero lasts long enough to make their points back.

Bloodbane Venom: This is an odd one as it looks good on paper, but it becomes a bit trickier in practice. In effect, every time you inflict a wound which doesn't kill a target, then you can roll a dice. If the number equals their remaining wounds or beats it, then they're instantly killed.

This is very irksome in many ways, as it has an obvious counter, but it still seems like a very cheap way to kill big, tough targets. As such, it's difficult to place down as this isn't broken, but in tournaments or the like I can see it being used to rack up a few quick victories.


Artefacts of Shadow

So, that's the Heroes done, now we're onto the wizzard weapons. 

Shadow Stone: A major plus in favour of casting and getting spells off, this allows the wielder to re-roll 1s while attempting to cast spells and adds +1 when casting from the Lore of Shadows. This makes it extremely useful for making sure your usual tactics don't backfire on you, and getting your wizard to do more than die to bad luck. On the whole, a solid go-to option but there are better ones on here.

Rune of Ulgu: This immediately gives the wielder an extra Lore of Shadows spell. Nice, and it's certainly a useful way of giving them a bit more variety, but the same result as above.

The Mirror Glaive: This one is surprisingly situation as, each time the wielder unbinds one of their spells, they can immediately attempt to cast Arcane Bolt or Mystic Shield. On the one hand, this can be done in more or less any phase, and a successful result means that the spell cannot be unbound. The problem is that the Medusas will be your main option for using this, and they can only attempt to do this with one spell per turn. It's not a bad choice by any means, but it does leave you lacking some of the firepower you might expect.

Seven-fold Shadow: This is the only real dud here, as it just adds one more of something the army already has plenty of. Rather than moving, once per battle you can have them teleport to anywhere else on the board more than 9" from their enemy. In most lists this would be excellent, but as the Daughters have no end of this sort of thing, it's probably best to forgo this in favour of another option on here.

Crystal Heart: A surprisingly risky yet excellent choice, this allows your wielder to fire off a second spell in the Hero phase if successful. Each time, however, you need to roll a D6 otherwise you will take D3 Mortal Wounds upon getting 1 as a result. This gives added risk, but it makes them all the more effective in games.

Shade Claw: The Whisperclaw on Meduas now Rends at -1, which gives them a massive bonus in melee. It's worth taking in a list which utilises these, especially if you plan on using them to get stuck in.

Relics of Khaine

So, here we are with the Priests options. These are usually an interesting alternative to the big options as a rule, but here especially it helps to contrast and compare them with the spells above. Unfortunately, in this case they line up rather exactly in a few cases, which is hit and miss. On the one hand it's sticking to a solid format, but on the other its forging creativity in favour of reliability.

Blood Sigil: One additional Prayer for the wielder. A decent option to be sure, and a nice extra.

Iron Circlet: The Priest re-rolls the results of a 1 when seeing if her prayer is effective, and they also manifest on a 3+. Speaks for itself really.

Rune of Khaine: It gives you a suicide bomber priest. There is a terrible, terrible joke which could be made here, but the chances are you have already thought of them.

When the Priest is killed you immediately roll a dice. On a 1, nothing happens. On a 2 through to 5, the unit which kills them takes D3 Mortal Wounds, while on a 6 this is upgraded to D6. What is interesting is that this works against any attack, and isn't limited purely to melee engagements, so you can hit a squad of archers from half the board away. It's not a bad final option, but you rarely want to ever sacrifice your Hag Queens due to the bonuses they offer. Viable in big games, but the random chances involved means that it's something left to make up points costs over an immeidate choice.

Crimson Shard: The Blade of Khaine gains the ability to wound on a 2+. You will rarely want to give this to a Queen on their own, but hand it to one on a Cauldron and they become utterly beastly in melee. A good choice, especially in bigger games.

Khaineite Pendant: Boost Prayer use up to three times in the Hero phase. However, this isn't without a possible downside here, as you instantly take D3 Mortal Wounds upon rolling a 1. Still, it's a good option as a spell spammer.

Hagbrew: This is another one best left to the Cauldron of Blood, as it adds +1 to wounds when in melee. Give it to a Slaughter Queen, stick her on a Cauldron and watch heads go flying. There's really no downside to this one.


Lore of Shadows

This is largely unchanged from Fantasy, and it retains that lovely, lovely Pit of Shades which was the doom of Steam Tanks.

Steed of Shadows: This has a Casting Value 5, which allows the wizzard to Fly in a single 16" move.

Pit of Shades: With a Casting Value 7, this allows you to pick an enemy within 18" of the wizzard. While they need to be in line of sight, you then roll 2D6, and promptly inflict a Mortal Wound for every point more than their Movement value. Dear lord this thing is hilarious to use.

Mirror Dance: A Casting Value of 4 this time, as it allows you to pick two heroes within 24" of the caster. So long as they are beyond 6" of another unit, you can instantly switch their places. Useful if you know what you're doing, but you need to carefully set it up.

The Withering: This has a Casting Value 7 and once again an 18" range. From then until the next turn, all attacks against the enemy unit they target gains +1 to wound.

Mindrazor: With a Casting Value 7, it allows you to pick out a Daughters of Khaine unit (a friendly one) within 18" and gives them -1 Rend to all weapons. They also gain an additional extra point of damage if they target something with a lesser Bravery score, which is a great many units.

Shroud of Despair: With a Castling Value of 4 and, you guessed it, 18", this one allows you to inflict -1 to Bravery on a unit. This lasts until next turn, and if your result was an 8+ then its a D3 result instead. Combined with Mindrazor, this can be deadly.

Prayers of the Khainite Cult

Catechism of Murder: Pick out a single Daughters of Khaine unit within 14" of the Priest in question, and for the rest of the turn any 6s to hit they inflict explode, and deal 2 hits. It's inclear if this keeps working from there on, but hopefully it will.

Blessing of Khaine: Same range as above, but you now re-roll results required for Fanatical Faith.

Martyr's Sacrifice: Same range again, but roll a D6 for every model killed in melee. If the result is a 5+ then it deals a mortal wound which stacks with the Bucklers. Now this is just nasty.

Crimson Rejuvination: 14" again, and it works in everything save for Morathi. You instantly heal D3 wounds. Not the best option really, as there's more viable choices on here.

Covenant of the Iron Heart: Same as above, this one isn't the best in the world, as it's limited to 14" and prevents a single unit from needing to take Battleshock tests for a turn. It has its uses, but there are better options.

Sacrament of Blood: 14" yet again, and the effects of this one allows you to count a single unit as a point higher in determining Blood Rites effects. This stacks, which makes this very useful in working in combination with a few others.


The Verdict

The same theme as the entire book rings true here. It's good, but not great. It really seems like this is a book where the developers are still testing the waters and trying to create a stable and equal basis for armies. That's not a bad thing by any means, but we have seen much more creative concepts emerge despite that mentality dominating certain armies. If you're a Dark Elves fan then this should please you, and it's a good alternative Order choice for those who want a token evildoer among their lot. That said, I think it's only going to flourish in later Editions.

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