The Everchosen, in particular, have a deadly advantage in the new edition with the Overlords of Chaos warscroll battalion. Made up of Archaon, a Gaunt Summoner and a unit of Varanguard – all great units in their own right – this formation means that turn priority is always fifty-fifty, rather than providing either player with an advantage, as well as letting you know if you’re going to get a double turn or not. Following the War of the Allpoints in which Archaon gained control of the newly renamed Eightpoints, the Varanspire was raised during the Age of Chaos. [3b] [3c] [4a]

These Battletomes are the same as the Army Box version, apart from the cover, and the day-one errata applies to both the standard and limited editions. The other, Draw from Power is a bit more dangerous. You can roll 3D6 to cast but if you get 1 on 2 of those dice, the Wizard fails the spell and takes D6 mortals! Worth taking a chance if you really need a specific spell to go off. The odds of rolling 2 1s is about 7%, which means it’s more likely than rolling snake eyes on 2D6s, with far harsher punishment, but it can also get you a number high enough that the spell cannot be unbound no matter what. Chaos Warriors are stronger infantry options, in between the Marauders and the Chosen, filling a profile that may not be needed in this warband. But if you are short in points for the Chosen and have enough numbers, they guarantee damage and survivability. Burning nations and tortured peoples are reflected in the cruel helms of the Reavers of Chaos, Fourth Circle of the Varanguard and merciless pillagers of the realms. [2b] Fifth Circle With the new Vanguard box replacing the old Start Collecting! box, the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak has been unchained and now roams free, grazing his reptilian beast on the corpses of his slaughtered foes. This bruiser is a solid choice for any Slaves to Darkness list.*** Eternus, Blade of The First Prince

The Rulebooks

The Start Collecting! Slaves to Darknesskit lets you build 10 Chaos Warriors with Chaos Hand Weapons and Runeshields, which look far better and more dynamic than the ordinary Chaos Warriors, but they’re limited to wearing Runeshields, even their Leader option. It also builds you a Chaos Lord on Karkadrak and 5 Chaos Knights with Cursed Lance and Chaos Runeshield, with the option to build one of the Knights as a Doom Knight. Second Circle - Torture and fear are the meat and drink of the Souls of Torment, Second Circle of the Varanguard. They are the slayers of hope and the bringers of despair. [1b] [1e] Daemon Princes get their own. Not to Be Denied may be the practical, letting the General carry out a heroic action even if another has been performed this turn. If the book has one major flaw, it’s that it overburdens itself with Heroic Actions and the Daemon Prince is a particularly bad culprit. Probably an auto take with a Daemon Prince, just to get to use the abilities on his warscroll. Bolstered By Chaos is certainly…interesting, an extra 2 wounds for the General and they’re a Monster, for all that entails. Since we’re out of the first season where killing Monsters gave extra VP, this is mostly an upside, except for some matchups. Radiance of the Dark Glory turns them into a heal bot, healing nearby models 1 wound on a 3+, and 3 for Monsters. It’s fine, though probably won’t heal enough to be worth the trouble. Diabolic Majesty might be the most exciting of the bunch. The Prince must be Undivided but once per battle they can use the heroic action of any of the gods instead! The Chaos Marauderslets you build 20 (!) Chaos Marauders with either Barbarian Flail or Barbarian Axe and Darkwood Shield, including a Marauder Chieftain. The Chaos Marauder Horsemenkit lets you build 10 Chaos Marauder Horsemen with either Barbarian Flail, Barbarian Axe and Darkwood Shield, or Marauder Javelin and Darkwood Shield, including a Horsemaster.

The kit includes plenty of interchangeable components – three helmeted heads, three bare heads, three spears, three swords, two axes, a hammer, six shoulder pads, and three steed heads – ensuring you can build unique emissaries of Archaon! We’re goThe great thing about Slaves to Darkness is you can gradually include the various units in your existing army until you feel like switching over for a game. It would be extremely easy to pivot to Cabalists from the initial Start Collecting! list, and building a Host of the Everchosen army is pretty self explanatory. The odd one out here is Despoilers, as some of the monsters are kinda crummy, but there’s nothing wholly unusable on the tabletop or that won’t find a place in another list. Seek Glory Through Battle The starter set for Warcry (if you can find it) is a great way to get some terrain to play on, but the pair of Cultist units, Furies, and Raptoryx inside aren’t necessarily the best way to start a Slaves to Darkness army. They’re fun units to use in-game (if not exactly the most effective, compared to Marauders) but this set is not going to give you enough bodies, points, or characters to really get an army off the ground. However, if you already have it and play Warcry, you should try giving Age of Sigmar a shot. Slaves to Darkness: Harbingers of Ruin Overall solid choices here. Death-Dealer seems the most obvious, and Not to Be Denied will be a huge relief for Daemon Princes trying to get their unique abilities off. Artefacts

Second is Belakor’s Legion of the First Prince . Predictably, it is nothing like it used to be. While I am saddened by the loss of a dedicated Chaos Daemons legion, it couldn’t stay as balancing it was a goddamn nightmare. So what does it do now? Well, 2 things. The Favour of the Four lets you turn any Undivided unit’s Mark of Chaos keyword into one of the 4 gods for a turn instead, which grants them a lot of versatility which your opponent may not anticipate. Allied basic daemons also benefit from Marks of Chaos, which may play well with Plaguebearers. Overall, an interesting faction choice for those who like playing games with their opponent. These are a unique Enhancement, which we haven’t seen a lot of so far. Think like Holy Commands in the Stormcast book, you get one of these for free in your army if you have a Chaos Warrior, Chaos Knight or Chaos Chosen with a banner. There’s a total of 6, one for each mark of Chaos (including Undivided) and one for anyone to take. The most important Behemoth in the list. The prayers have been massively pared down, presumably for ease of readability. Instead of a primary ability for any unit and a secondary for those with a specific keyword, it just works on one specific keyword. This is a bit of a problem because it’s going to limit its flexiblity. End it off on everyone’s favorite of Archaon’s bodyguards. These guys didn’t change a whole lot and quite frankly? Didn’t need to. They are super charged Chaos Knights, who can fight twice once per game. Now their spears get increased rend and damage on the charge, heavily incentivizing taking this route. They no longer get +1 to hit from Archaon which could be a problem, but you’ll find other ways to get that +1. Their mortal wound ward is also a 4+ now instead of 5+, making them even harder to kill from range. At only 10 points more, these guys still do their job better than almost anyone in the book. Endless Spells Eightfold Doom SigilHorus Lupercal has drunk deep of the power granted by his dark patrons to become Horus Ascended. The next release in the Horus Heresy Character Series is the Primarch of the Sons of Horus, the Emperor’s traitorous Warmaster, at the peak of his powers. Pledge to the Dark Gods allows you to roll 3 and drop one for the Eye of the Gods table if you roll on it this turn. Niche, but an excellent choice if you know you’re going to get a shot at rolling on the table, either from killing a Monster or Hero, or another ability. spells in total with 2 offensive spells and 3 buffs. All the spells have a 12” range, to avoid redundancy. Which ever of these you choose you'll be getting the rules for Archaon and his warriors as well as some scenarios to play out following his story and part to play in the ongoing narrative in Age Of Sigmar. A Reminder Of Days Past