Intro
I would be hard-pressed to find another set of models I am more excited to see return with new, and, hopefully, improved, rules than these. Khagra’s Ravagers have some of the most iconic chaos warrior sculpts GW has ever made, and offer callbacks to iconic sculpts and characters like Slambo and Harald Hammerstorm. Their previous iteration had an undercooked mechanic focused on desecrating objectives, but generally demanded aggressive play from them and didn’t really get to fly before mechanic and season design left them behind. Now returning to us as a take-and-hold warband, lets see how they work.
Warscroll
Inspire
While we can’t really parse this ability until we see how the next ability works, the immediately important thing that should jump out at us is that we can’t inspire earlier than the end of round 1, and much like before, if we don’t get it done in the first round we are likely in for a rough game.
Razed Realm
Once per power step, Desecrate a treasure token you hold. This is thematic, but as Desecration means nothing by itself, this ability is a bit of a nothingburger, although given that we know this is how we inspire its serviceable enough. It is a nice halfway step between a more “sticky” concept of holding objectives just by standing on them once and needing to constantly be in the same place.
Ritual Desecration
Another way to Desecrate treasure tokens, this one requires enemy fighters to be slain. Interestingly, while it was clearly written with attacks in mind, as you can Desecrate the token an enemy is on or the token you attacked from, you could desecrate the token an enemy is holding if you finished them off with a ping ploy – something interesting for the future perhaps.
Dark Approval
Once per game, draw power cards equal to the number of Desecrated tokens? This is nutty good. Even if it just draws 2 cards it means you are reliably seeing more of your deck, and I think frequently this will draw 3 cards. 10/10, genuinely.
The Eye of the Gods
This is certainly nice to have, as for an important Desecration you might want the extra attack dice and obviously you’ll spend time holding so the option for a better save roll is good, but it feels a little underwhelming for something that can only happen once per game. I wish this one too would scale somehow with how much you’ve already Desecrated tokens.
Ravaging Advance
To play any type of hold strategy requires good pushes, so its always nice to see one on the warscroll. Once per game is a bit rough, but scaling with Desecration is nice. I think its a bit unfortunate that this has the limitations on where you can push with it, but in general you’ll usually want to run to a token or get in an enemy’s face, and if you really are trying to survive an enemy charge, at least this will help you get in position to receive +1 save from The Eye of the Gods.
Fighters
Starting off with our eponymous Leader, Khagra starts with a fairly middle of the road profile: average move, save, health, and a standard attack profile of range 1, 2 hammers, 2 damage. Once inspired, however, she becomes a threat, jumping up to 2 save, gaining a range 2 attack with 1 base damage, and gaining Grievous for both her attacks. She’s not the scariest fighter out there but she’s no slouch, and 2 glory will feel pretty fair for her if you can get her inspired to enjoy the superior defensive profile.
Next up, Khagra’s traitorous sister, Zarshia, has the worst save in the warband with just a single dodge, and the lowest damage output – both her attacks only deal 1 damage. However, she does start with a range 2 melee attack and a range 3 ranged attack, both of which can offer her more flexibility in hitting people while staying put on a token. Once inspired she gets improved accuracy on her ranged attack, and both her attacks gain stagger. Being worth only 1 bounty and having the greatest ability to attack from relative safety should mean she survives longer than her save dice would suggest she will in many games.
Cragan starts off a bit underwhelming for 2 bounty, with average move, save, and health just like Khagra, and attack that is slightly less accurate. Once inspired, however, he gains an attack dice, edging out Khagra for accuracy, and while he doesn’t improve his save he does gain +1 move, so his threat range will be equal to Khagra charging to use her range 2 inspired attack. While it can be a bit niche, Cragan’s higher move and attack dice profile while inspired can let him use Overrun more often, helping to swing tokens back to your side.
The final fighter of the warband, Razek starts off with the lowest health (3!) but is still worth 2 bounty. Like the rest of the warband, he has a fairly average attack profile and unexceptional physical stats. Once inspired, he not only gains an additional point of health, he also improves his save to 2 and gains cleave on his melee attack, becoming a very respectable fighter indeed. I think you’ll have to hold him the farthest back as he really has the most to gain for inspiring and you have the most to lose by risking 2 glory for only 3 health early.
Conclusion
All in all, Khagra feels like they’ve gotten a solid streamlining of their core gameplay and identity, but it does feel a bit bad that they’ve lost stats overall. Still, they are looking quite solid but not quite fully competitive just yet. I don’t think their warscroll is particularly lacking although as always I’d love for Desecration to have been more meaningful or synergistic throughout their design – they just seem to be loacking a take-and-hold focused deck that really suits the way they want to play. Until that arrives, I will be trying to brew everything else with them.
