Following on from part one this one will look at special characters. I know many people on the internet will tell you that you can't compare units from one book to another but that is exactly what I am going to do. I am going to compare units from their 4th edition incarnation to the new 6th edition one. Something really strange is going on this didn't post in the correct formatting!
Abbaddon the Despoiler.
The big bad. Mr Chaos himself, the 40k Archeon. Lots of different names, lots of special rules. Lets look at how he measures up to his old self. First thing to note is that his statistics line is more or less identical to before. The only difference comes from his wargear. He now costs ten points less, which noone will complain about.
Equipment wise he has lost his personal icon, but keeps his combi bolter, the Daemon sword Drach'nyen and the Talon of Horus. He now differs in that you will need to choose which weapon to use in combat. Before he combined both weapons to be a mighty whirlwind of destruction. Now you either choose to kill terminators and use Drach'nyen, or for anyone in power armour or worse, the Talon of Horus. While you can still use the Daemon weapon against other units, since it adds a whole bunch of extra attacks, it has a chance of injuring its wielder. I would personally recommend using the Talon of Horus unless you really like running a risk.
Special rule wise, he has the same rules as before, with the addition of Champion of Chaos and veterans of the Long War. These rules will be looked at later on, but suffice to say they are both beneficial special rules. He is still in possession of Mark of Chaos Ascendant which does the same as before. He comes with a fixed Warlord Trait, which in this case is Black Crusader, a good special rule against Space marines, but does nothing against anyone else. He has a special rule which allows him to take Chosen as troops, but I don't see this being used all that much. Would have been far better to have Black Legion terminators as troops, but I surpose you can't have everything.
So the question is, should you use him? The answer is it depends. While cheaper, he is still very expensive. In no way is he worse than he was in 4th edition and he is cheaper to boot. For all intents and purposes he is the most powerful character in the book, but he only influences a small area of the table. His ranged abilities are somewhat limited. You will want to build your army around him, in a unit of chaos terminators ideally.
Rating: 4/5
Huron Blackheart
In what appears to be a direct copy of Abaddon, Huron has the same statline and is ten points cheaper. He has the same special rules as before with the addition of Veterans of the Long War. He loses his personal icon. His warlord power is pretty good and allows you to infiltrate some units.
The biggest difference here is what the Hamadyra does. Before it gave Warptime, now you have to randomly generate a power every turn from three spell lore’s. I would say this is not an improvement. You may end up with a power you can't use.
The Tyrants claw has changed almost completely. It is no longer a powerfist with built in heavy flamer, but instead it is a unique power weapon with built in heavy flamer. It has the strength bonus of the maul combined with the ap of the sword, along with special rules like shred and armourbane making it a good utility weapon. Is it better than before? Yes, except against terminators and monstrous creatures. Importantly it doesn't strike last.
Should you use him? Well I don't see why not. He is not massively expensive, and the Tyrants Claw is a very effective weapon. It is a bit of a shame it isn't a daemon weapon but I surpose you can't have everything!
Rating: 4/5
Kharn the Betrayer
Wow, a character with a different stat line! Kharn loses an attack from the 4th edition book, he also only becomes five points cheaper. So not a good start.
Special rules wise, he is fairly similar to before. He also has the same equipment, except Gorechild is strictly improved. Not suffering the ignominy of striking last, his power axe hits on initiative and has armour bane for cutting through tanks. Not too shabby!
His warlord power grants him and his unit hatred, which is always good! Being a Khorne lord he moves Beserkers into troops choices.
Blessing of the Blood god is slightly worse, now requiring a dice roll to prevent psychic powers affecting him and his unit rather than being immune. Mark of Khorne will go someway to remedying his missing attack, but as per every other marked character, to get the full advantage of the gods ability you need to be in a unit with an icon. Speaking of which, The Betrayer special rule has changed, where other friendly models in combat can also be hit, so there is no advantage for separating Kharn from his unit any more. You might as well keep him with them.
So is he worth it? He has taken a hit on some of his more exceptional abilities and doesn't appear to have gained anything overly spectacular. Indeed most of his gains seem to be there to offset his reductions, eg in attacks. I still think he is a very strong character, very few enemy HQs will be able to stand up to him, unless they strike first. The advantage is, most HQs who strike before him, won't have the AP to get through his armour, protecting him from his fairly poor invulnerable save.
Rating: 4/5
Ahriman
Same stats as before but with a twenty points price cut. So nothing to complain about with that so far. It is beginning to be a trend this!
Special rules wise, he is more or less the same, has veterans of the long war like all of the special characters so far. His warlord power is the same as Hurons allowing infiltration.
Wargear is the same as before, except the Blackstaff has changed. Due to casting rules changing in general it is perhaps not as potent as before. It just allows the casting of up to three witchfire powers, but you have no guarantee you will even have three witchfire powers. Its combat usefulness is limited because it is a force staff. You get four spells, from either Tzeench, Biomancy, Pyromancy or Telepathy decks, which is the same selection as a normal Tzeench sorcerer. No Divination which is really annoying given he should have this lore!
So is he worth it? Probably not. On paper he is very good, but you can field a level three sorceror of tzeench for a considerable amount less points, with better equipment options and same access to spells. However he can, with the right spells cause a massive amount of destruction with three witchfires per turn. He also has a better stat line than a normal sorcerer.
Rating: 3/5
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