What is the Slaves to Darkness?

The Slaves to Darkness is a release for the Chaos: Grand Alliance in Age of Sigmar.

The army merges the Slaves to Darkness and the Everchosen. This means the Everchosen Battletome is about to become outdated (it pretty much was already).

The Slaves to Darkness are the armies of Archaon, the Grand Marshal of the forces of Chaos in the Mortal Realms. Before the Age of Sigmar, during the Age of Chaos, they dominated almost all of the Realms, and they still march anywhere Archaon leads them.

The Slaves to Darkness can be both a horde army and an elite army (and anything in between).

The Everchosen and the elite Varanguard are powerful chaos champions that can take anything the Realms could throw their way.

The shamanistic barbarian hordes of aspirant Chaos worshippers such as the Darkoath Barbarians and the warbands of the Eightpoints find their strength in numbers and their devotion to gaining Archaon’s favor.

The warriors of the Slaves to Darkness all have one thing in common, though: every single one of them, from a captain of the Varanguard to a plainsrunner of the Untamed Beasts, are on a quest to gain enough attention to be favored by Archaon and the Gods of Chaos.

They are all the individual heroes of their own path to eternal glory.

In the recent lore articles from GW on the Slaves to Darkness, there is much focus on the Varanspire, Archaon’s mighty fortress in the middle of the Eightpoints.

It’s his seat of power, but he is never there (since he is out conquering all the time), and now the forces of Death are preparing an invasion of the Eightpoints.

It seems the ongoing story of the Slaves to Darkness is going to be about enduring a siege of the Varanspire.

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When did the Slaves to Darkness release?

The new Start Collecting box, the battletome, the Endless Spells, the Warscroll Cards and the expanded Warcry infantry boxes will be available for preorder on December 7 and release on December 14, 2019.

There might be more releases after that, but none are officially confirmed.

What new miniatures will be in the Slaves to Darkness book?

The New Start Collecting box will contain:

10 new Chaos Warriors, 9 regular and 1 Champion

5 new Chaos Knights

1 new Chaos Lord on Karkadrak

The new miniatures will be monopose assembly, much like the starter sets, but with several head options for each model and an option to assemble one Warrior and one Knight as a Champion.

The release ties strongly into Warcry, the Warcry Chaos warbands such as the Iron Golems and Untamed Beasts will be playable in a Slaves to Darkness army.

Updated boxes for the warbands with double the sprues from the original box will be available for preorder at the same time as the Start Collecting: Slaves to Darkness box.

The Warcry warbands will not be battleline units, however, so a full Warcry army isn’t an option.

The full list of models that will have rules in the Slaves to Darkness Battletome includes:

Archaon Everchosen

Chaos Lord on Manticore

Chaos Sorcerer Lord

Exalted Hero of Chaos

Godsworn Hunt

Thedra Skull-Skryer

Chaos Lord

Darkoath Chieftain

Darkoath Warqueen

Gaunt Summoner on Disc of Tzeentch

Lord on Daemonic Mount

Chaos Marauders

Daemon Prince

Gorebeast Chariot

Chaos Chosen

Chaos Chariot

Raptoryxes

Furies

Chaos Warriors

Iron Golems

The Unmade

Splintered Fang

Untamed Beasts

Chaos Marauder Horsemen

Corvus Cabal

Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore

Chaos Knights

Chaos Warshrine

Varanguard

Fomoroid Crusher

Ogroid Myrmidon

Mindstealer Sphyranx

Spire Tyrants

Chaos Lord on Karkadrak

Slaves to Darkness Terrain

There have been no hints of new Slaves to Darkness terrain so far, and no faction-specific terrain is going up for preorder on the same day as the Battletome: Slaves to Darkness.

Slaves to Darkness Endless Spells

The Slaves to Darkness release will feature a box of three faction specific Endless Spells:

The Darkfire Daemonrift is a Predatory Endless Spell that deals D3 mortal wounds to anything it moves over or ends within 1 inch of at the end of its move. It deals additional mortal wounds when near Wizards or spells being cast.

The Realmscourge Rupture is a Predatory Endless Spell that has to move in a straight line in a direction decided at its deployment, but it deals mortal wounds and halves the movement of any unit it passes for the rest of the battle round.

The Eightfold Doom-Sigil is an Endless Spell that allows a player to roll a dice for each slain model close to the Endless Spell at the end of a turn. For each 3+ roll, a unit of that player’s choice gets +1 attacks to its melee weapons until that player’s next hero phase. Confusing but thematic.

What other items will be released for Slaves to Darkness

A new battletome has been confirmed. It will be available as both a standard version and a limited edition.

Warscroll Cards are also confirmed, and a box with Warscroll Cards for all the units of the Slaves to Darkness army alongside a sheet of tokens will be available as part of the initial release.