Khazalite Holds Rules Arrive Before Pre-Orders, and D&D Tries Modern Horror
Games Workshop is letting players read the rules for its new Age of Sigmar army before anyone can buy the box, and that is the right way to run a launch. If you are going to spend money on a new faction, you should get to see how it plays first. The Khazalite Holds are the clearest example this week, and they are the story that matters most to anyone with a duardin army on the shelf.
The army runs on grudges, and Warhammer Community has now spelled out how. According to its battle traits article, units collect grudge marks in a handful of ways: when a friendly unit is destroyed, when damage is allocated to your general, or when your Kromdron and Grimmdron units hold objectives and survive charges. Marks then switch on bonuses written into individual warscrolls. Thrynn, Steadfast Retribution adds attacks for each other marked unit nearby, up to a cap of three, while Valayan Guardians hand out a 5+ ward save to nearby infantry and war machines while marked. There is a catch built in as well. A unit that retreats loses a mark, so the army is rewarded for standing its ground and punished for backing off.
The second half of the design is Ancestral Vows. Warhammer Community described them as once-per-battle abilities, and Bell of Lost Souls picked up the follow-up look at them along with more warscroll teasers. We are not going to guess at the specifics before reading the full text, but the shape is clear: grudge marks are the steady engine, and the vows are the single big moment each game. Whether that balance holds up at a real table is something only play will answer.
On the buying side, the details are still thin. Warhammer Community says the Army Set goes up for pre-order on Saturday, which makes it the first place to get the new battletome. The set contains Hjulda Drakkblud, ten Clanshields, three Gholems of Gazul and an Oathkeeper Cannon, plus a cover-exclusive battletome and 53 warscroll cards, and it is sold only while stocks last. The page we saw lists no price, so check the store before you plan a budget. The “while stocks last” line is worth noting for anyone who has missed a limited box before.
The people with the most to lose here are Fyreslayers players. As Bell of Lost Souls reported, one of the original factions is being folded into the Khazalite Holds, and its headline counts seven units leaving the range. Warhammer Community also has a Fyreslayers piece tied to the new battletome. If you own a Fyreslayers army, read what carries over before you assume your models are still playable as they are. Folding a faction in is a real decision, and the hurt lands on people who bought in years ago.
Over on the D&D side, the news is a different kind of waiting. Bell of Lost Souls says Project_Lamordia, an experimental take on Ravenloft, arrived on D&D Beyond this week as a modern-day reimagining of the Dread Domain of Lamordia, home to Viktra Mordenheim. It describes the feel as a classic PlayStation-era survival horror game. Wargamer compared the earlier trailer to Control, with labyrinthine labs and cyberkinetic experiments. What the pieces we have do not settle is the format, the price and how much a table gets for it, so treat the contents as unconfirmed until you see the product page.
One smaller note for the long-memory crowd: Bell of Lost Souls also dug up the original 1998 Dark Eldar army from Third Edition, back before anyone said Drukhari. It is a reminder of how far these armies have come, and how many of us still own models from that era.
Put together, the week sorts into what we can plan around and what we cannot. Games Workshop has shown its hand on rules and contents, and has left price and the full release date open. Wizards has shown a mood and left the details for the product page. Read the rules, wait for the numbers, and spend once you know what you are getting.
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Header image: Photo by Matias Luge, via Pexels.
