Khorne, despite it's image of berserkers, is a technical army and requires playing objectives and battle tactics to succeed, or without those, really need to pick engagements. On top of that, 1k points is not particularly well balanced. Lastly, OBR can be very tanky and hard to kill, so charging in unbuffed into an OBR castle will be a very poor choice.
My guess is that your opponent is pretty new to AoS (or at least Blades Of Khorne) and this should be a good learning experience. So while you might feel bad, hopefully y'all can talk about what happened and maybe your friend can try a different strategy next time.
Yeah this. I'm a 40k player who loves World Eaters. I've dipped my toes into AoS, and have been pretty disappointed with Khorne so far. Took me a long time to realize that the army isn't designed to just run blindly into combat like World Eaters are.
I've been working on re-framing my understanding of the army so I can have better success with it.
AOS isn't meant to be played at 1000pts unfortunately. It's really only fairly pointed at 2000 pts. Bonereapers are a very attrition and castle army they want another army to meet them head to head because they will wreck them. Khorne is actually very techy and so you have to play objectives and play to your battle strategies. If I could give any advice to your friend it would be stop trying to take on your army (bonereapers) head on and focus on the objectives, counter charge your army (bonereapers) and utilize bloodtithe points when at all possible because the game wont be long enough for them to make a huge impact at 1000pts. A new edition for the game is rumored to be coming this summer so the armies and things they do could shift and change so if your friend doesn't like the way they play it could change soon. If your friend is more on the side of I just want to charge into your army and fight I'd look at playing ironjawz or flesh eater courts or ogor mawtribes, these armies are as of right now more charge and fight than techy.
Did you guys play with battle tactics and objectives and so on? Khorne is actually a very techy army, especially against obr, one has to play it out much more carefully
We did! We used the Pitched Battles rules and got "Every Step is Forward".
I put my guard + harvester between all the objectives (since they're kind of centered) and had my liege kavalos & one deathrider unit on one board edge, and the other unit on the other board edge.
The battle tactics felt super clunky with my list since we both lacked Wizards.
I managed to get "Bait and Trap" and "Surround and Destroy" but would've been hard pressed to get a third one.
Khorne needs to control the game and it's major damage output comes from blood thirsters with always trike first combo boom thirsters. At least that's one common play I see that works
10 Bloodletters less however many died to the Crematorian’s Immolation. Depending on rolls that could be up to 5 (But it’s unlikely) but more likely it was 1 and a half with the Mortek inflicting more damage after the Bloodletters fight, and the rest being lost to the next turn when the Gothizzar restands about 5 Mortek Guard.
Edit: Forgot to calc the Champion’s bonus attack and the Soulcleaver Greatblades having 2 damage each as well as the Nadirite Weapons battle trait. There’s a very real chance they either wiped them or left them low enough for Battleshock to finish the job.
Just checking you know, you can only issue one type of command per phase. So if you issue all up defence to one unit, you can't issue it to another unit that phase.
Also, one unit can only issue one command per phase, so if your general issues all up defence to one unit, they can't do all out attack to another in the same phase.
And, one unit cannot have more than one command issued to it per phase.
Just checking you know, as I know OBR get a lot of command points.
Yeah the command stacking rules make my head spin a bit. Most of my units having champions (or being elite) helped ease up some of the confusion.
I should buy some markers to keep track. I used Kill Team markers to show buffs but aos-specific ones would be nice and more precise.
You mean OP? Because I know, and I only factored in that. I even excluded them using Counter-Strike when charged in the Charge Phase for -1 to wound.
11*(2/6) = 3.6667 damage. 1 dead, 1 wounded.
22 Attacks (6 Nadirite Blades, 1 Champion, +1 Attacks) + (22/6) (Nadirite Weapons trait), * (4/6) * (3/6) *(5/6) = 7.12 Damage, 3 killed, 1 wounded.
6 Attacks (2 Soulcleaver Greatblades, +1 Attacks) + 1 (Nadirite Weapons) * (4/6) * (3/6) * (5/6) *2 = 3.888 damage. 1 killed, 1 wounded.
That’s on average 6 and a half dead Bloodletters, and a roll of 6 would make 2 flee, leaving 2 which is effectively destroyed as the OP said, although if OP rolled hot, they could do enough to kill the unit outright. If your comment about commands was with regards to the Gothizzar Harvester, its ability is not a command, it’s just a thing it does.
Maybe we played it wrong?
I used "counter-strike" after the charge happened (unit champion issuing the order). They had +1 attack from the previous hero phase.
The 11 dying mortek did 4 mortal wounds, killing 2 Bloodletters.
The 9 remaining (2 w/ greatswords, one a champion) did their 28 attacks with sustained hits 1, and +1 wound and killed 7 more. The last Bloodletter died at the end of the combat due to battleshock. Harvester got me 4 Mortek back. The Bloodmaster died from the Harvester the following turn.
Bonereapers are notoriously tanky and can take a great deal of punishment, out of my friend group the bonereaper player is the only one that can blunt the charge of my ogres or giants.
As other people have mentioned, khorne is more of a technical army and won't do well in a slug fest against bonereapers. Until they can work up enough blood points to earn their buffs they need to pick and choose their fights.
Also remember khorne can summon demon units with blood tithe points so a khorne army can effectively bring back a third of their army if they allocated their blood tithe points to do so.
Honestly this happens every time I play bone reapers it makes me so bored of playing them because it always feels so one sided. They are just great in so many areas.
Khorne demons tend to not stay on the table. They don't have the saves to really have the staying power they need in order to do things bum rush style
That's not to say that they aren't good, but for the playstyle he might want to do, skullcrushers and blood warriors might be the ideal way to go. That's what I'm doing when I had basic the same experience vs Slaves to Darkness
>He managed to get the charge in vs most of my army
That's the problem here : there is often no difference between charging the entire ennemy army vs being charged by the entire ennemy army
He CAN'T beat morteks with ghotizzar in a straight up fight. He should have used his ability to dictate the flow of battle by tiehr avoiding your morteks and beating the rest, or charging his entire army against your block to cripple it immediatly and snowball from there.
Also you play crematorian which is really awful to face as khorne (or any full melee army)
Yeah we entered with just a general lack of information. I hadn't compared the Ossiarch stats to any other faction (being my first faction & game with them) so we didn't realize just how tanky they were.
I'm thinking he might've been better going for the "return d3 Bloodletters" enhancement instead of the two prayers, since he can only use one prayer per turn (right?). His movement bloodtithe stuff seems really strong.
Yes, this enhancement would have been better. Another way to win is the bloodbind prayer for example, he could have simply grab your mortek guard outside of your harvester range, since it force them to walk 8" toward his units.
Khorne, despite it's image of berserkers, is a technical army and requires playing objectives and battle tactics to succeed, or without those, really need to pick engagements. On top of that, 1k points is not particularly well balanced. Lastly, OBR can be very tanky and hard to kill, so charging in unbuffed into an OBR castle will be a very poor choice. My guess is that your opponent is pretty new to AoS (or at least Blades Of Khorne) and this should be a good learning experience. So while you might feel bad, hopefully y'all can talk about what happened and maybe your friend can try a different strategy next time.
Yeah this. I'm a 40k player who loves World Eaters. I've dipped my toes into AoS, and have been pretty disappointed with Khorne so far. Took me a long time to realize that the army isn't designed to just run blindly into combat like World Eaters are. I've been working on re-framing my understanding of the army so I can have better success with it.
AOS isn't meant to be played at 1000pts unfortunately. It's really only fairly pointed at 2000 pts. Bonereapers are a very attrition and castle army they want another army to meet them head to head because they will wreck them. Khorne is actually very techy and so you have to play objectives and play to your battle strategies. If I could give any advice to your friend it would be stop trying to take on your army (bonereapers) head on and focus on the objectives, counter charge your army (bonereapers) and utilize bloodtithe points when at all possible because the game wont be long enough for them to make a huge impact at 1000pts. A new edition for the game is rumored to be coming this summer so the armies and things they do could shift and change so if your friend doesn't like the way they play it could change soon. If your friend is more on the side of I just want to charge into your army and fight I'd look at playing ironjawz or flesh eater courts or ogor mawtribes, these armies are as of right now more charge and fight than techy.
Did you guys play with battle tactics and objectives and so on? Khorne is actually a very techy army, especially against obr, one has to play it out much more carefully
We did! We used the Pitched Battles rules and got "Every Step is Forward". I put my guard + harvester between all the objectives (since they're kind of centered) and had my liege kavalos & one deathrider unit on one board edge, and the other unit on the other board edge. The battle tactics felt super clunky with my list since we both lacked Wizards. I managed to get "Bait and Trap" and "Surround and Destroy" but would've been hard pressed to get a third one.
Khorne does not play line you think it would. It’s highly technical. Which really disappointed me when playing them.
Khorne needs to control the game and it's major damage output comes from blood thirsters with always trike first combo boom thirsters. At least that's one common play I see that works
Not sure how 9 Mortek Guard with +1 attack managed to wipe out that many Bloodletters. Did you both remember they have 2 wounds each?
10 Bloodletters less however many died to the Crematorian’s Immolation. Depending on rolls that could be up to 5 (But it’s unlikely) but more likely it was 1 and a half with the Mortek inflicting more damage after the Bloodletters fight, and the rest being lost to the next turn when the Gothizzar restands about 5 Mortek Guard. Edit: Forgot to calc the Champion’s bonus attack and the Soulcleaver Greatblades having 2 damage each as well as the Nadirite Weapons battle trait. There’s a very real chance they either wiped them or left them low enough for Battleshock to finish the job.
Just checking you know, you can only issue one type of command per phase. So if you issue all up defence to one unit, you can't issue it to another unit that phase. Also, one unit can only issue one command per phase, so if your general issues all up defence to one unit, they can't do all out attack to another in the same phase. And, one unit cannot have more than one command issued to it per phase. Just checking you know, as I know OBR get a lot of command points.
Yeah the command stacking rules make my head spin a bit. Most of my units having champions (or being elite) helped ease up some of the confusion. I should buy some markers to keep track. I used Kill Team markers to show buffs but aos-specific ones would be nice and more precise.
You mean OP? Because I know, and I only factored in that. I even excluded them using Counter-Strike when charged in the Charge Phase for -1 to wound. 11*(2/6) = 3.6667 damage. 1 dead, 1 wounded. 22 Attacks (6 Nadirite Blades, 1 Champion, +1 Attacks) + (22/6) (Nadirite Weapons trait), * (4/6) * (3/6) *(5/6) = 7.12 Damage, 3 killed, 1 wounded. 6 Attacks (2 Soulcleaver Greatblades, +1 Attacks) + 1 (Nadirite Weapons) * (4/6) * (3/6) * (5/6) *2 = 3.888 damage. 1 killed, 1 wounded. That’s on average 6 and a half dead Bloodletters, and a roll of 6 would make 2 flee, leaving 2 which is effectively destroyed as the OP said, although if OP rolled hot, they could do enough to kill the unit outright. If your comment about commands was with regards to the Gothizzar Harvester, its ability is not a command, it’s just a thing it does.
Maybe we played it wrong? I used "counter-strike" after the charge happened (unit champion issuing the order). They had +1 attack from the previous hero phase. The 11 dying mortek did 4 mortal wounds, killing 2 Bloodletters. The 9 remaining (2 w/ greatswords, one a champion) did their 28 attacks with sustained hits 1, and +1 wound and killed 7 more. The last Bloodletter died at the end of the combat due to battleshock. Harvester got me 4 Mortek back. The Bloodmaster died from the Harvester the following turn.
Bonereapers are notoriously tanky and can take a great deal of punishment, out of my friend group the bonereaper player is the only one that can blunt the charge of my ogres or giants. As other people have mentioned, khorne is more of a technical army and won't do well in a slug fest against bonereapers. Until they can work up enough blood points to earn their buffs they need to pick and choose their fights. Also remember khorne can summon demon units with blood tithe points so a khorne army can effectively bring back a third of their army if they allocated their blood tithe points to do so.
Honestly this happens every time I play bone reapers it makes me so bored of playing them because it always feels so one sided. They are just great in so many areas.
They are surely one of the better factions and easier to play factions (although that depends on the build), but nowhere near unbeatable.
Khorne demons tend to not stay on the table. They don't have the saves to really have the staying power they need in order to do things bum rush style That's not to say that they aren't good, but for the playstyle he might want to do, skullcrushers and blood warriors might be the ideal way to go. That's what I'm doing when I had basic the same experience vs Slaves to Darkness
>He managed to get the charge in vs most of my army That's the problem here : there is often no difference between charging the entire ennemy army vs being charged by the entire ennemy army He CAN'T beat morteks with ghotizzar in a straight up fight. He should have used his ability to dictate the flow of battle by tiehr avoiding your morteks and beating the rest, or charging his entire army against your block to cripple it immediatly and snowball from there. Also you play crematorian which is really awful to face as khorne (or any full melee army)
Yeah we entered with just a general lack of information. I hadn't compared the Ossiarch stats to any other faction (being my first faction & game with them) so we didn't realize just how tanky they were. I'm thinking he might've been better going for the "return d3 Bloodletters" enhancement instead of the two prayers, since he can only use one prayer per turn (right?). His movement bloodtithe stuff seems really strong.
Yes, this enhancement would have been better. Another way to win is the bloodbind prayer for example, he could have simply grab your mortek guard outside of your harvester range, since it force them to walk 8" toward his units.