Slaves to Darkness Darkoath Army Set Unboxing and Review – Warhammer Age of Sigmar (2024)

Forsaken by the God-King Sigmar, the vicious tribes of the Darkoath pledge their souls to darker powers as they mass under the banners of the Slaves to Darkness.

We might be towards the tail end of the 3rd edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar, but we still have some releases before the 4th edition comes out this summer. Today the Slaves to Darkness Darkoath Army Set is up for preorder, containing not just some awesome new models but also a mini battletome supplement that gives Slaves to Darkness players rules for these new units.

In this post we’re going to be taking a look at the set, checking out the new models and seeing what the units are like in game!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a free early review copy. If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We’ve also filmed a full unboxing of the Darkoath army set, which you can see just below or over on YouTube.

So make your pledges to the Dark Gods as we dive into the Darkoath Army Set

Slaves to Darkness Darkoath Army Set Review

The 4th Edition of Warhammer Age of Sigmar is on the way, but the Slaves to Darkness have got some love with today’s pre order with the Darkoath Army Set.

Over the last year we’ve seen a gradual transition of old Warhammer Fantasy kits getting phased out and replaced with kits that are designed for Age of Sigmar and capture the aesthetic and theme of the Mortal Realms. The Cities of Sigmar saw a bit shift from old kits, and with the Darkoath Army Set we see a similar thing happen for the old Chaos Marauders (Which are quite dated now). I suspect we will see this continue throughout 4th edition in order to further differentiate between Age of Sigmar and The Old World, with many of the older kits being retired in order to be reboxed with square bases.

The Darkoath Army Set clocks in at £120 and contains all new kits for the Slaves to Darkness – The Darkoath Chieftain on Warsteed, the Darkoath Wilderfiend, Darkoath Fellriders and Darkoath Marauders (2 sprues of 10 models each)

The kits are really nice, and surprisingly were really quick to build – the Marauders for example are only in 6 or 7 pieces per model and have some easy connection points on the weapons that make putting them together a dream – something that always annoys me with large units is when weapons are fiddly to attach, but there’s no such issue here. They also have a lot of customisation with enough heads to outfit an entire army if you did want to go fully Darkoath. Even the two bigger kits in the box, the Chieftain and the Wilderfiend have enough parts to build a couple and have them look different.

Sadly I didn’t manage to get the painting on these finished before the review was due, but the kits are really good fun to work on with loads of nicely thematic detail – if you’ve enjoyed the other Darkoath kits in the range such as the Warqueen or the Savagers then you’ll love these, they share many of the same design ques while still capturing the feeling of the old school marauders, just modernised and given an Age of Sigmar look. I’m really hoping that when the next Slaves to Darkness book comes out for 4th edition AOS that we see the last few remaining kits such as the Warshrine get phased out and replaced with something with more of an Age of Sigmar vibe.

Also included in the box is a set of Warscroll cards, tokens and a full battletome supplement. There’s no surprise models in here, so you’ll be disappointed if you go into this expecting more teases for the future of AOS, and its worth pointing out that this is just a paperback 25 page supplement and not a full battletome – but there’s still a lot of great stuff contained within those 25 pages.

Like with most Battletomes, the first half contains lore, and I really enjoyed this section as we learned a lot more about who the Darkoath are and how they operate. The Darkoath do not worship any one aspect of Chaos, but instead will make oaths and pledges to whatever dark entity is listening. This could for example be a local spirit or entity that sacrifices are made to in order for crops to grow. Or maybe a tribal god that has been worshipped for centuries within these peoples. I really like this aspect of Chaos, that it is not necessarily the 4 named gods, but sometimes elements of those gods worshiped in different forms.

We also learn about the Wilderfiends, these are former Chieftains that have fallen to the gifts of the chaos gods and now have become feral creatures that act as both protectors for the tribe and as something of a boogeyman to strike fear into the hearts of their enemies. It reads very much like a new take on a more “intelligent” chaos spawn with a new aesthetic that fits much better with the current Darkoath look.

We get 4 new warscrolls in the book (Which can be seen above) to reflect the 4 new units.

The Darkoath Chieftain is the new hero choice for the Darkoath tribes and he is an excellent choice for leading the army. He shares the Deathblow rule we see on some other Darkoath characters that inflict mortal wounds on a hit of a 6, but where he is really good is with the two new abilities he has. Oath of the Warleader continues the “Oath” theme that is seen across all Darkoath units – essentially there is a condition that has to be met in order to fulfil the oath, and once done it activates a rule that lasts for the rest of the battle. Oath of the Warleader is triggered when the Chieftain is selected to fight first in your hero phase, and if you do then all darkoath within 12″ get +1 to wound, which is really good! This will also affect his own weapons too, making him wound on 2s.

Where the Chieftain gets really good however is with his Destined for Glory rule – this allows him to do 2 heroic actions, which seems designed to fit nicely into the Ravagers subfaction. In this, for a heroic action you can return a slain Darkoath unit to the battlefield at half strength, and the fact that the Chieftain gets to pick 2 heroic actions then it doesnt reduce any combat effectiveness by making you choose between that and finest hour for example.

The Darkoath Wilderfiend is the big gribbly in the box, and while at first glance he looks like a nice combat unit, its actually more of a support and debuffing selection that is really hard to get rid of. His main mechanic is Feed on Flesh – which this you gain a sacrifice point everytime a model dies nearby, or 2 points if a darkoath model dies. These cap at 6 and can be spent in the hero phase to trigger one of 4 different abilties. You roll a number of dice equal to your sacrifice points, and for each ability a dice roll of a specified number or higher will trigger something, Eye of the Dark Patron allows you to give a unit Strikes First on each result of 5+ which comboes really well with things such as the Warqueen who is able to pick someone to fight after she does. Mind Shroud has you pick a unit for each roll of 4+ and stop them from issuing or receiving commands. Warping Balefire deals a Mortal Wound for each 3+ (These do not generate additional Sacrifice points however) and Dark Might has the Wilderfiend heal 1 wound for every 2+ with every 6+ increasing it’s wounds by 1 for the rest of the battle.

It’s pretty hard to get rid of too – it cant be seen of you are further than 12″ away from it, and if it is ever slain then there is the chance that it returns to life through the corpse of a Darkoath hero. If a darkoath hero is slain on a 2+ you can return the slain Wilderfiend back to the battlefield with no wounds suffered – what’s really cool here is that it is the same Wilderfiend, so any additional wounds it has gained will still stand, and it can return multiple times if it does die again!

Darkoath Marauders are the new battleline option for the Darkoath, clocking in at just 80 points they are cheap with a pretty good attack profile for the cost, especially considering you can make them wound on 3s by standing them near a Chieftain who has completed their oath, and if they make a 7+ inch charge they get to increase their rend by 1 too. Finally, whenever one is slain in combat they deal a mortal wound on a 5+

Really like these guys, and the models are ace too

Finally we have the Darkoath Fellriders – these are the new Darkoath cavalry and can be built either as a pure close combat unit that has more attacks and hits a little harder, or can trade an attach and hit on a 4 rather than a 3 in exchange for a single 4+/4+ ranged attach each with rend 1 and D3 damage. Personally I’ve gone for the ranged option as I feel these can be really annoying and with D3 wounds could cause some threat. The rend can increase to 2 if you complete their oath by charging a unit that is more than 3 inches from other units.

They are also pretty pesky with an innate -1 to hit from ranged attacks, and they can only be hit by units that Unleash Hell on a 6+

Summary

This might be the final army release for Age of Sigmar outside of the final Dawnbringers book, but it’s a great one to end Age of Sigmar 4th edition on. While the rules may not be around for long in the grand scheme of things, the models are brilliant and are a great improvement on the old Chaos Marauder models. The box is £120 for approximately £150 of models, which is a decent saving on getting them separately. For those wanting to play with these before 4th edition drops we still have a couple of months left before it comes out, and the included warscroll cards and tokens are always handy to have for those – it’s just a shame that after the summer these will be out of date

The Darkoath Army Set is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 4th May

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes