While the craftworld Aeldari escaped the doom of their empire and managed to avoid the worst aftershocks of Slaanesh’s birth, the Drukhari felt it much more keenly. They suffered a great spiritual rend in their souls that continues to slowly but surely drag their living essence into the Dark Prince’s realm. The only way to stave off this crawl into eternal damnation is to bask in waves of extreme emotional expression, feeding on pain, horror, and sorrow to infuse themselves with strength and vitality.
On the battlefield, this gives raiding Drukhari a serious power boost once they start culling hordes of their lessers – bound up into the updated Power From Pain army ability. How you gain these vital Pain tokens is similar to before, stemming from a steady diet of destroyed and Battle-shocked units, but rather than applying one of two generic abilities to anyone you spend your tokens on, each datasheet now has its own Pain ability.
ARMY RULES:
POWER FROM PAIN
Gaining Pain Tokens
If your Army Faction is Drukhari, you gain Pain tokens as follows:
1 Pain token at the start of your Command phase.
1 Pain token each time an enemy unit is destroyed.
1 Pain token each time an enemy unit fails a Battle‑shock test.
Each time you gain a Pain token, keep it to one side – this is your Pain token pool. Each time you spend a Pain token, reduce your Pain token pool by the same amount.
Empowered Through Pain
Each Pain ability will state when you can spend Pain tokens to Empower that unit. When you do, until the end of the phase, that unit is Empowered and all Pain abilities it has take effect. While an Attached unit is Empowered, the Pain abilities of all Leader and Bodyguard units in that unit take effect – you do not need to spend additional Pain tokens to activate each of those Pain abilities.
These are in addition to the unit’s normal abilities, and every unit has one, from the lowliest Kabalite to the Queen of Knives herself. The former earn re-rolls to wound, while Lelith Hesperax supercharges the entire squad she’s leading with extra Strength and Armour Penetration.
KABALITE WARRIOR:
SADISTIC RAIDERS (PAIN)
In your Shooting phase or the Fight phase, when you select this unit to shoot or fight, you can spend 1 Pain token to Empower this unit. While Empowered, each time a model in this unit makes an attack, re‑roll a Wound roll of 1. If the target is within range of an objective marker, you can re‑roll the Wound roll instead
LELITH HESPERAX:
BRIDES OF DEATH (PAIN)
In the Fight phase, when you select this model’s unit to fight, you can spend 1 Pain
token to Empower that unit. While that unit is Empowered, each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack, improve the Strength and Armour Penetration characteristics of that attack by 1.
As for Detachments, Realspace Raiders is much the same as it is in the index, but it now gives you a larger bounty for mixing and matching Kabalite, Wych, and Haemonculus units in your army. The Spectacle of Spite leans into Wyches with army-wide Combat Drugs – giving your gladiators a cocktail of thematic buffs – while the Covenite Coterie trusts in the natural resilience of the Drukhari’s flesh abominations to outlast your opponent.
The Skysplinter Assault reaches into the classic Drukhari playbook of lightning-fast simmer assaults by powering up units that freshly disembark, visiting a Rain of Cruelty on unfortunate heads. As many Drukhari ranged weapons already wound easily with variations on the Anti-Infantry rule, this detachment ability instead strips away enemy cover to deny them a handy save bonus, or bumps your wound rate up when you leap out of the Raider straight into the melee.
DETACHMENT RULE
SKYSPLINTER ASSAULT:
RAIN OF CRUELTY
Few warriors in the galaxy are as adept at launching punishing skyborne raids as the Drukhari. Before their prey even realise the peril, the killers of Commorragh are amongst their lines like grinning ghouls. Splinter fire lays low defenders still scrambling into position. Quicksilver assaults leave dozens screaming in maimed agony. Often, the battle is over before it has even truly begun.
Each time a DRUKHARI unit from your army disembarks from a TRANSPORT, until the end of the turn:
Ranged weapons equipped by models in that disembarking unit have the [IGNORES COVER] ability.
Melee weapons equipped by models in that disembarking unit have the [LANCE] ability.
Enhancements and Stratagems further enhance this synergy with transport vehicles, providing useful bonuses for those stood nearby after disembarking or even to the transport itself, increasing both their damage and durability.
Kabalite Cartels are known for their mercenary ways, and are especially adept at hunting down high value targets. This Murderous Agenda rule gives you the chance to put a bounty on an enemy unit’s head, directing all of your focus towards them and awarding a chunk of Pain tokens when the job’s done.
DETACHMENT RULE
KABALITE CARTEL:
MURDEROUS AGENDA
Kabalite forces often prize particular targets amongst the enemy ranks, whether as a macabre trophy, the target of a contract killing, or for some other devious reason.
At the start of the first battle round, select one of the Contracts below, then select one unit from your opponent’s army that matches the ‘Contract’ description in that Contract. Until that Contract is completed, that unit is your Contract unit and KABAL and BLADES FOR HIRE units from your army have the ability stated in that Contract. At the start of your Command phase, if your Contract unit is destroyed, that Contract is completed and you gain 3 Pain tokens.
Trophy Hunters
Contract: One CHARACTER unit.
Ability: Each time a KABAL or BLADES FOR HIRE model in this unit makes an attack that targets the Contract unit, that attack has the [PRECISION] ability.
Sow Fear and Terror
Contract: One INFANTRY or MOUNTED unit (excluding units containing only CHARACTER models). At the start of your Command phase, this Contract is completed if all non‑Character models in that unit are destroyed.
Ability: Each time a KABAL or BLADES FOR HIRE model in this unit makes an attack that targets an INFANTRY or MOUNTED unit, that attack has the [SUSTAINED HITS 1] ability.
Show of Strength
Contract: One MONSTER or VEHICLE unit.
Ability: Each time a KABAL or BLADES FOR HIRE model in this unit makes an attack that targets a MONSTER or VEHICLE unit, that attack has the [LETHAL HITS] ability.
All four of your Enhancements make Archons as deadly and devious as possible, moving units around during deployment and regenerating lost wounds. The Stratagems are a catch-all collection of useful tricks, playing around with your Contract unit and making sure your troops have enough focused firepower to not disappoint whichever joker thought it would be amusing to put a hit out on Angron.
Remember, Codex: Drukhari and the new Realspace Raiders Battleforce – which includes the new Archon miniature – are coming up for pre-order this weekend.
