Age of Sigmar: Darkoath Army Set - An Oath Unfulfilled
With the Cities of Sigmar release now firmly settling within the roster of available factions within Age of Sigmar, it’s about time that their dark counterpart were given true credence. As we get a view of life behind the high and thick walls of the cities or order, we are now treated to a glimpse of life within the Mortal Realms throughout the wilderness, the places forgotten or abandoned by Sigmar and his light since the Age of Myth.
This presents a wonderful opportunity for the chaotic mortals of Age of Sigmar to be ushered in with a true sense of ceremony - to stand out from their heavily-armoured brethren of the Slaves to Darkness. Despite the interesting, bitter plight of the Darkoath and their honest turmoil to survive, the release of the Darkoath Army Set has taken what should be an exciting and enticing supplement and marred it. The contents, though modest, are terrific and the rules are thematic and intriguing. Unfortunately, it’s everything that takes place outside of the box that has sullied this release through no fault of the Darkoath themselves…
Tribespeople, Chieftains and Beasts
If you’d sworn an oath to your chaotic deity of choice that these models would be superb in their customisation and detail, then consider your oath fulfilled, chieftain! Within the box you are granted a Darkoath Chieftain on Warsteed, a wicked Wilderfiend, five Darkoath Fellriders and twenty Darkoath Marauders. All of these models together look to be a fine and upstanding horde of wild-dwelling barbarians, out to strike against the faithful of Sigmar for their cowardly and treacherous ways.
The juxtaposition against the Cities of Sigmar spearhead is about as subtle as a battleaxe to the jaw, but I’d have it no other way. These two boxes would look spectacular on opposing ends of the same table. Something that Age of Sigmar has sorely needed is more presence and representation of the mere mortal folk, the not-so-spectacular and so on. To have these two factions makes great strides for this and to have them on such opposed ends of the scale is delectable.
The mounted units are as imposing as you’d expect, having your Fellriders with swords or spears be led by your Darkoath Chieftain paints a most vivid picture of ululating barbarians charging into the thick of their prey. Whilst the Darkoath Marauders are a damn-sight more gorgeous than their predecessors. Together, alongside your Slaves to Darkness models (or your Warcry warbands!) the Darkoath Army set provides an abundant and cromulent rabble for your chaotic armies. The old imagery of Heroquest barbarians and wilderness-dwelling exiles could not be more prominent or profound than they are on these models.
Combine the above with the sheer amount of customisation you get for most of the kits in this box and you could field a diverse and unique force of Darkoath with relative ease. Marauders can equip “Raider Weapons” or “Darkiron Spears” which have their own weapon profiles, but they also come with a cavalcade of options for heads and shields, so no two units need ever look the same.
The Fellriders have a similar level of customisation, including armour plating for the horses themselves. The riders can wield broadswords or javelins. This presents a nice ranged option in what is otherwise a totally close combat army. The javelins have the potential for D3 damage per attack, which is definitelynothing to dismiss.
However, the spotlight for this box rests unwaveringly (though I’m sure shakily) on the Wilderfiend, a grotesque creature imbued with chaotic power, feeding on sacrifices and death whilst bounding across the battlefield like some ferocious wendigo of the pantheon. This creature steals the show with little contest in what is already a gaggle of superb models. The head options give a minimal sense of customisation but it’s hard to not be enamoured with the sheer malice that this beast exudes.
Swear Your Oathes
What would our Darkoath be without their oathes to swear? The four units within the box are kitted out with rules that justly portray their savage and brutal feats in battle. The Darkoath Chieftain on Warsteed barrels into the fray, Cursed Weapon cleaving as he goes, trampling and crushing anything in the way of his mount. He is able to perform two heroic actions rather than one, or can do the same one twice as he flexes his prowess and standing in battle. But what makes the Darkoath stand-out is their oathes.
The Chieftain, for instance, has “Oath of the Warleader” where if he is the first friendly unit to fight in your combat phase then his oath is complete and Mortal Darkoath units wholly within 12-inches can add 1 to their wound rolls in melee. The Fellriders have Oath of the Raider, improving their weapons’ rend characteristic should they finish a charge move within half an inch of an enemy unit. Whereas the Maruaders have the unsubtle “Oath of the Marauder” in which their weapons actually go from nothing to -1 rend, providing they complete an unmodified charge roll of 7+. All of these oathes give the models within the Darkoath Army Set suitable flavour whilst they all have their own rules in addition. Fellriders are -1 to hit when targeted by missile weapons whereas the Marauders, upon death, deal Mortal Wounds on a 5+ to an enemy unit within 3 inches providing that there is a friendly Darkoath Hero nearby.
Again, the real centrepiece of this box is the Wilderfiend. Previously mortal heroes that have been so twisted by the powers of chaos that they become these huge monsters that crave flesh. Possibly my favourite rule in this entire box is the Wilderfiend’s “Cursed Origin”. If your Wilderfiend has been slain and then subsequently a Darkoath Hero is slain, then on a 2+ the Wilderfiend returns to the battlefield fresh and ready for more slaughter. More than this, it also utilises “Sacrifice Points”. If nearby models are killed then it accrues Sacrifice Points per model, even moreso if the slain models are Darkoath. Getting to a maximum of six Sacrifice Points, the Wilderfiend can then use these in your Hero Phase to grant dark blessings to nearby units. These blessings can be healing nearby friendly models, granting friendly units strike-first or even dishing out Mortal Wounds to enemy units within 18-inches.
The above makes the Wilderfiend a wonderful utility piece in your army that stops the whole box being a “charge-and-fight fest”. The Wilderfiend sets the Darkoath Army Set beyond the Cities of Sigmar equivalent because, rather than simply having a big ranged gun, you instead have a monster that can buff friendly units, reliably butcher enemies and all whilst the Fell Aura rule means that it is not visible to enemy models that are more than 12-inches away! I can see these guys being a popular pick.
Cruel Fate
Darkoath tribes do not have it easy within the Mortal Realms. Living rough in the wilderness, every single day is a colossal struggle to merely survive. The hardships of the Darkoath tribes has seemingly transcended from the tabletop and into the physical realm. At the risk of repeating myself, the Darkoath Army Set is a great box and, whilst much smaller than their Cities of Sigmar opposites, are a great chance to add some flavour to your Slaves to Darkness armies. Nonetheless, it is my unfortunate understanding that the box is set up to fail for a myriad of reasons.
Firstly, this will likely be the last army box of the current edition of Age of Sigmar. With 4th edition recently announced, updated mechanics being drip-fed and hype levels climbing, the rules for this box will likely be completely out of date and superseded within the next 2 to 3 months. That’s a bitter sting for anyone buying the box for the rules, although it is currently unclear how the rules will be distributed beyond this box, if at all for the current edition. No code is included in the supplement book and so I can only presume that the rules will be accessible in the Age of Sigmar app either for free or reliant on the purchase of a Slaves to Darkness battletome and redeeming the code within.
Secondly, the box itself is admittedly quite sparse with content. What you do get in the box is very nice and to the usual quality where the models and print are concerned, though debatably the actual box itself is the most glorious inclusion thanks to the astonishing artwork adorned across it. Whilst the meagerness isn’t a surprise, since the box has been shown and broken down since its reveal, the price point could simply make or break this box. If this comes to the price of £120~ (GBP) as other army set releases have been, then this would be a somewhat ludicrous price point. For that price, in similar boxes, you get the models along with a full limited edition/collectors battletome containing the full rules for your army. With the Darkoath Army Set, you’re getting the models but these are instead accompanied by a scant 28-page booklet that supplements a book that you must buy separately (the Slaves to Darkness battletome, about to be made redundant by the new edition). Worse yet, we don’t know how you access the rules via the app and if this requires an additional purchase then that would make this otherwise terrific box the worst army set yet in terms of value.
The chance to end the current edition in a cataclysmic bang appeared ripe for the plucking. Whilst I think there’s a poetic sense to the Darkoath being the pallbearers to the current edition of Age of Sigmar, I only wish they’d been given the accoutrements to carry such a weight. Rather than having the third edition of Age of Sigmar be a chapter closed with a mighty thump, it is instead clumsily and awkwardly hurled aside, dashed away to make space for the shiny and new to come. At the risk of sounding ungrateful, I’d combat such accusations by once again reiterating that the Darkoath Army set box is a solid box filled with great models. It’s just such a shame that they’ve been packaged with minimal rules and perceptibly at a price point that would leave a foul taste in the mouth of anyone who would witness it.
I would honestly love nothing more than for the box to be released at a more reasonable price point that would better encourage prospective Darkoath Chieftains to begin pledging themselves to their upcoming deeds and challenges. This would bestow so much favour on this box. However, to call this an army set alongside other releases, even as recent as the Tau or Cities of Sigmar army sets is unfair to hobbyists and to the faction. If this is the precedent to be set moving forward, then I worry about the future that such boxes could be veering towards as the current iteration of Age of Sigmar is laid to rest.
Games Workshop provided us with a Darkoath Army Set for preview purposes. For more reviews, news and lots of painted models - be sure to check us out on Facebook.