Games Workshop has previewed Warhammer 40k 10th edition World Eaters army rules, in Friday’s Faction Focus article on the Warhammer Community website. Blood Tithe Points are gone, replaced by Blessings of Khorne, which provide similar buffs but in a much more chaotic manner.
Six Blessings of Khorne are available to the World Eaters, each one providing a buff to your whole army for one battle round. You’ll roll a pool of eight dice, and activate abilities by spending a certain combination of dice: a pair of matching dice, a double 4+, any triple, and so on.
Those buffs have a lot of names in common with the Blood Tithe Abilities that appeared in ninth edition 40k, like Warp Blades and Total Carnage. Those cost Blood Tithe Points, which you earned by destroying enemy units or when your own units were killed, and lasted for the whole game.
Although the new Blessings of Khorne seem a lot more random than the Blood Tithe, the maths is actually quite reliable. When rolling eight dice you’re guaranteed at least two doubles or one triple in every roll, so you have pretty reliable access to three buffs: ‘Rage-fuelled Invigoration’ for +2” movement speed, ‘Wrathful Devotion’ for Feel No Pain 6+, and ‘Total Carnage’, which gives your models a chance to lash out and fight when they’re slain in melee.
The WarCom article reveals the datasheet for the Khorne Berzerkers – and not much has changed. They’re still melee blenders. When they’re shot at, they can still make a Blood Surge move D6” towards the nearest enemy, though now they have to suffer a casualty from the fire. Their Icon of Khorne allows you to reroll one of your Blessings of Khorne dice if your Berzerker unit is holding an objective.
It is pretty lore appropriate for the Blood God to grant more impressive blessings when his followers can raise their bloody banners high across the battlefield. This is the latest of several mechanics WarCom has previewed that give basic infantry units stronger interactions with mission objectives in Warhammer 40k 10th edition. On Wednesday we saw the Battle Sister Squad, who grant the Sisters of Battle additional Miracle Dice when holding an objective.
We also get to see the new datasheet for Angron, daemon Primarch of the World Eaters. He remains a melee blender, but one of his flagship abilities has been reworked. Previously, you could spend six Blood Tithe points to reincarnate Angron with half his starting wounds. Now you’ll need to spend three sixes from your Blessings of Khorne roll. There’s about a 13% chance of rolling three or more sixes on eight dice – though if he does show up, he will at least come back with all his wounds.
Angron will still have his choice of three Wrathful Presence auras, which will now trigger in the Charge phase, allowing him to activate them after Deep Striking. The Righteous Slaughter aura has been tweaked – instead of making it impossible for units to fall back, it now grants World Eaters rerolls to hit in the combat phase.
Unlike the other Warhammer 40k Faction Focus articles, Friday’s post doesn’t give any hints about the World Eaters first Detachment. We do know the name – Berzerker Warband – and the article reveals one of its Stratagems, Blood Offering. When one of your units is destroyed while controlling an objective, you can spend one CP to retain control of that objective until your opponent can claim it with their own footsloggers.
The World Eaters were the final army to receive a Warhammer 40k Codex rulebook in ninth edition. and – as we predicted in our Codex World Eaters review – their slimmed down sub-factions foreshadowed a lot of what we’re seeing in the new Detachment system for 40k 10th edition.