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Daemons of Khorne Teams

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Cultists

Bloodletters

Bloodthirster


Background
Not content with the destruction and pain the warriors of Khorne were inflicting, Khorne sent forth his most devout followers. Those who had been rewarded and given a 2nd life as a Bloodletter, marshalled by the Greater Daemon of Khorne - The Blood Thirster. A team that will truly reflect the power and destructive force of Khorne.

The Daemons of Khorne stalk The World with only destruction in mind. They have no home arena; playing all their games on the road, and by the time the Daemons have finished playing their brand of Bloodbowl in a territory most opponents have no players, arena or fans left.

They are the most feared team in all of Bloodbowl though their winning record leaves a lot to be desired. But this does not interest Khorne. His sole interest in the sport is collecting skulls.

Rationale
First of all - The reason this league has not used the cyanide Khorne roster is because that was largely based on the Savage Orc roster that we are using in this league anyway, so there is no point in having 2 rosters that are so similar to each other, also the Khorne Warriors of Chaos list is also quite similar to Cyanide one in some ways. Last of all the Cyanide roster is a terrible representation of the players in the roster and it is completely devoid of fluff. Now on to the rationale behind this roster.

As a Daemons of Khorne roster it was obvious that Bloodletters and the Bloodthirster had to be included. For those that don't like Bloodthirster playing BB change his name to daemon prince. This only left one spot to fill which is the Linemen. Because Khorne has no equivalent to Blue Horrors or Nurglings i.e. something weak. I had to go for Khorne Cultists. I considered Chaos Thugs and Marauders but they are too closely tied with Warriors of Chaos and cultists just seemed more appropriate.

Having read through almost every piece of Khorne related background dating back to the book Slaves to Darkness I found numerous references to Khorne followers attacking each other. In fact there are many passages that say Khorne particularly favours those that kill his other followers and allies. There are also many passages about how Khorne construct nothing, they live only to destroy everything. So this team would never have a stadium, they would roam the land with the purpose of destroying teams with little care for winning.

Although this will not be to everyone's taste this is what must be done if staying true to their fluff.

After reading Slaves to Darkness in particular it became clear that Bloodlust must be given to both the Bloodletters and Thirster. But unlike vampire teams they do not have thralls to feed on. They are not feeding on anyone at all really. When a player fails their blood lust roll they go on a rampage and attack friend and foe. If they are unable to do so the player rampages through the crowd killing everyone in his path. Because they do not need thralls as such, every player in the team is considered a thrall, the Bloodletters can attack each other, though I didn't give thrall to the Bloodthirster because no one would dare attack him.

I also felt that the Bloodletters and Bloodthirster should have no inclination to go for the ball at all. They aren't even aware that it is on the pitch, and trying to score or even win the game is not considered for a moment. No Hands was given to the two positionals to represent this, not because they have no hands, but to represent their nature, their blinkered mental state whose sole purpose is killing.

This means that if the team wants to win it needs its Cultists need to do the scoring and this is the balancing act of the team.

Bloodletters - Bloodletters were given the stat line above as it is the best representation of their stat-line in every GW game. Their Ma is always average, the same as a standard human, so Ma6 fit perfectly. Similarly their toughness is average, again the same as humans so Av8 is right. Ag3 was a must, they are fairly agile creatures again the same as humans but also an ag2 player with bloodlust would be too difficult to control. St4 was given because they are extremely powerful and difficult to hit, even St5 wouldn't be too much if staying true to the fluff. Though St4 seemed appropriate.

Horns was not give to them (even though they do have horns) because the horns are decorative only. I have found no reference to Bloodletters ever using their horns to attack, let alone using it as their primary attack. In fact in Slaves to Darkness it specifically lists their modes of attack as a weapon (if carrying one), claws and a bite. Which leads us on to why they have Claw. Claw was given because there are many references to the Bloodletters having claws which rip through armour with ease. These references go from the current WFB daemons rule book right back to the Slaves to Darkness book and as this is exactly how the Claw skill works in BB it seemed a perfect fit. Frenzy was added for obvious reasons and is a must on a Bloodletter as they represent the most frenzied killers in the GW universe. Regenerate was added simply because they regenerate.

Skill access was obvious for the Bloodletters, the only bone of contention was whether or not they should have access to mutations. I elected not to because Bloodletters are basically just walking mutations, they were once mortals who have been turned into Bloodletters by Khorns favour. Although there are references to Bloodletters being awarded gifts of chaos they are few and far between and I have never seen a Bloodletter model with mutations in any edition of any GW game. Also when Bloodletters are awarded with gifts from Khorne most references suggest they are transformed in to Bloodthirsters or Daemon Princes, rather than being granted tentacles for example. This is basically the same story for the Bloodthirster.

Bloodthirster - Basically this guy has to be the most powerful big guy in the game. As the Deathroller is St7 and Treeman is St6, a Bloodthirster must be St7. Ma5 was given just because of the Bloodthirsters bulk. He also does not need to fly at any point in a Bloodbowl match because everything is within killing distance already. Av9 was a must again because he should be one of hardest things to hurt in the game, also why Thick Skull was added. Frenzy and Regenerate were added for the same reason as the Bloodletters, similarly horns was not added for the same reason as the Bloodletters. Claw and Mighty Blow is also a must on this player, anything less is a betrayal of the background material.

Although the team is obviously very destructive I believe it will be difficult to win with them in a similar way to how Khemri performed in LRB4. Also not only is the team destructive it is also very self destructive and with the expensive re-rolls will be a tough juggling act.

Blood-Lust Re-write for Khorne - After a player with this skill declares any action they must roll 1 D6. On a 2+ they may complete their action as normal. On a 1 they will attack any player on their own team noted as a Thrall. If your player fails to reach a team mate to attack by the end of their action, or they end up prone for any reason then the player warps out of existence, the teams turn ends and the player warps back in to the Stadium and goes on a killing frenzy before re-joining its team mates at the next drive. This is believed to be a temporal instability that the daemons suffer, though others believe this is controlled by their god for failing to appease his thirst for Blood. (The rest of the rules work the same as Bloodlust, just different fluff behind it).

Season2 Changes
After season 1 Khorne had played 620 games with a win percentage of 42% and the highest cas per game ration of all teams of 3.25. This is exactly how I wanted them to perform, so did not really feel they needed a change. However too many people that played Secret League wanted the Blood Thirster to be made a little weaker. So I added Wild Animal to his skill set. This is rolled before Blood Lust, so just means 1in 6 block/blitz attempts will fail and moving around the board using move actions will require a 50% rolls. I was fine with this as it did not make him weaker if looking at his raw hitting power. Though it did mean he will not be as good at the positional side of the game as he was. From a fluff standpoint this makes perfect sense.

The team however was performing as a low Tier 2 team does so making them worse would be a little harsh. So I reduced the Blood Letters price by 10k so encourage teams to be more Letter centric. this should boost their win percentage ever so slightly. The Letters used to be 10k too expensive intentionally for fear the roster may be too good. So removing this 10k cost was a straight forward choice and no skill or stat changes were needed.

Seasons 3
624 games played, win percentage 42.69%. Again the team is performing exactly as expected. They are comfortably a tier 2 team, which is where I wanted the Daemon teams to sit (with the exception of Daemons of Slaanesh). The two khorne teams are still doing more cas than any other so they are working as expected. This team is now locked in, no changes needed.

Season 2 (2020 Edition) Changes
The only changes to the team were changing Blood Lust to Animal Savagery and increasing Loner to 5+ on the greater daemon. I did not allow the Daemons to have Pa access in line with the background written above. I also gave the Blood Thirster Mighty Blow 2+ as they are the most deadly creatures in the world. I later added blood Lust when it became available in this edition.

Team roster designed by Garion and Neoliminal.
Rationale and Background by Garion.
Icons by Cowhead and Fanky