The Elves march to war. The armies of "End Times: Khaine" stand ready to do battle!

You know what they say: even if the beginning is bad, the outcome may be worth it. Unfortuantely it is not os with the third installement of the "End Times" as "Khaine" continues to dissapoint.

Las time I've covered the special rules which have included in the third book and now it's time to move to more juciy parts of the crunch that's been presented within its pages. In today's post I'll be covering the three new armies that are available to all you Elf fans out there: the Aestyrion, the Host of the Phoenix King and the Host of the Eternity King. Bear in mind that this one will be a tad shorter than my usual entries but I'll try to make it up to you in the next week's conclusion to "Khaine".

So let's get to it. Here are the three elven armies and their special rules.

1. The Aestyrion

This is the army led by Tyrion, after he picks up the Widowmaker and becomes the Avatar of Khaine. Er... more sucessful Avatar of Khaine than those that most fans know.

Poor guy...

For starters it should be mentioned that the Aestyrion are Forces of Destruction. This means that it can be allied with all the nasties of Warhammer World like Undead for example. It is comprised of units from High Elf and Dark Elf armybboks. Note that all Elven Hosts DO NOT use special rules from their respective army books, but those from the "End Times: Khaine" supplement (for example Wood Elves lost the Ambush from the World Roots special rule). But don't worry, they are still 8th edition Elves and they are still broken as hell, now even more so in fact.

Th general rules for building an army are still the same. Lords and Heroes can take a total of 50% of its points but a minimum of three units must be present so nothing surprising here.

The main theme of the Aestyrion is of course the combined strength of Asur and Druchii. This means that now you can deploy your Tiranoc Chariots alongside War Hydras and have Tyrion rub his shoulders with Lokhir Fellheart. Aside from the Dragon of Cothique you can also field the aformentioned Dark Elf Pirate, Morathi and Korhil. The rest of the army is essentialy the combination of High Elf and Dark Elf units from both armybooks. I'm still trying to figure out why the hell they've allowed Shadow Warriors in here, since Alit Anar is in another castle... or should I say in another Elven Host. Actually in two of them. Whatever.

Aestyrion's special rules are quite simple but nonetheless deadly. All units in the army hate Elves. All Elves. Yeah, that's nice isn't it? Martial Prowess has been replaced with Murderous Prowess. Say hello to re-rolling all 1's To Wound in CC. Fuck me. This is some nasty stuff, but wait! There's more. How about a 2+ ward save against all Flaming Attacks? The Fireborn rule grants that. Bright Wizards just became obsolete, as well as a huge portion of Tzeentchian lore and many more at that. What the hell GW! A 2+ ward save? Seriously?

Then there's the Herkarti's Blessing which grants +1 to all Dark Lore casting attempts. Likewise the Lileath's Blessing grants a modifier of +1 to casting of all High Magic spells. Nasty, especially now with the "improved" magic phase. Yes I'm being sarcastic.

Sarcasm? What's that?

Finally we come to the Valour of Ages which grants re-rolls to all Panic, Fear and Terror tests if your opponent has at least one elven unit of his own. With Elves generally high LD skill and the 8th Edition's retarded rules for Terror, this one is pretty meh, but I guess it can be useful... sometimes.

In my opinion Aestyrion's biggest strengths are Tyrion as the Avatar of Khaine (I know, I know - no stats yet, but stay tuned) and the two new rules - Murderous Prowess and Fireborn. This army is a perfect Elf killer, which fits its fluff I guess, but is also great against Daemons and anything with lots of Flaming Attacks thanks to the Fireborn special rule.

2. The Host of the Phoenix King

Now we come to the fist army which consisit of all three elven factions. This force is supposed to represent the "loyalists" gathered behind the true (ya rly) Phoenix King - Malekith. Just... roll with it. These Elves are opposed against Tyrion and his murderous, Khaine-loving army of douchebags. Again, this one is just an amalgamation of High Elf, Dark Elf and Wood Elf units with a few special characters and rules. Except for Malekith the Phoenix King, you can also field Imrik the Crown Prince of Caledor, Alarielle the Avatar of Isha, Shadowblade, Caradryan, Alith Anar, Naestra & Arahan, Araloth, Durthu, Drycha, Hellebron and Teclis for that sweet, sweet fratricide action. That's quite a lot of specials in one place, eh?

Clearly he's a guy worth following

The rules for this one are also spectacular. By that I mean that they are spectaculary broken. Instead of Aestyrion's Murderous Prowess they retain the "Martial Prowess" special rule. You know how this works - one extra rank for both CC and shooting. This works quite nicely with the Arrows of Isha which grant magical attacks to all units with this rule, as well as -1 armour save to all Forces of Destruction forces which are being shot by said units. Great stuff, especially given the ammount of Undead and Daemon armies that are present in the "End Times".

Additionally every unit with the Forest Stalker special rule instead gets Forest Strider AND Martial Prowess. This one's not too shabby.

Next rule, "Blessings of the Ancients", is surprisingly weak, as it only works in forests. Generally any unit with this rule can add +1 to all casting attempts. This one's highly situational and almost requires the controlling player to always have a forest in his possessions. Not too good but if you play on a forest-heavy board then maybe this one can be useful for you.

Next up is Eternal Hatred which is friggin' great. It grants the Hatred special rule that lasts for ENTIRE CLOSE COMBAT and just first turn. This one is so hillariously broken that it's almost funny. Almost. How about some more re-rolls? Also overruning just became all that much easier for Elves. Christ...

The last unique rule for the Host of the Phoenix King is Forest Spirit which grants the Forest Strider and gives it magical attacks in CC AND a 6+ ward save and Immune to Psychology if it's not a mount. Yes, yopu've read that right. It is now possible to have an elven army that has a 6+ ward and is Immune to Psychology. Oh and it can kill ethereal units without any problems. The best part? This army also has all the rules from the Aestyrion army list including the fucking Fireborn and both blessings!

I... I can't even comment on this. This is it people. You are seeing the "we don't give a fuck anymore" attitude of Games Workshop in full action. Can you imagine playing against such army with anything else than the exact same one or the Aestyrion? Which sucks by the way, when you compare it to this one. I've seen fan-made supplements balanced better than this. Who the fuck greenlighted this shit? Was it even playtested? I sincerely doubt that.

Here we see Malekith crushing the last hopes for balance in future Warhammer games

3. The Host of the Eternity King

Finally we come to the last army available to all those who love winning beyond anything else. The Host of the Eternity King practically combines the last two armies, meaning it has ALL of their rules but not every special character which they've possessed. Martial Prowess, Murderous Prowess, Fireborn, Arrows of Isha... all these and more can now be used by High Elves, Dark Elves and Wood Elves which comprise this grand army of assholes. I'm not even kidding. The only thing it lacks is the placement of a single forest terrain that Wood Elves normally have. Oh my, what a loss. Oh and Morathi is not present since she got eaten by Slaanesh before Malekith united all three elven factions under his rule. Oh and Korhil's gone too, tortured and execued by Tyrion, while he was still under the influence of Khaine. No big loss, given the fact that with all three pointy-eared armies combined the possibilities for creating the ultimate cheese list are endless but I'm honestly too pissed off and mad about it to even consider what can be done with Banner of the World Dragon and a unit of DE's Black Guard of Naggarond.

The Elves are back in town, but now I'd like them to leave. Forever

Yeah, no thanks.

Until next time. I'll be finishing the review of "Khaine" and then it's time to visit the Under-Empire. I've heard that the Rats are up to something nasty...

Honestly I just can't stand Elves anymore. Even Skaven are better and that's saying something.

"Yes-yes we are, foolish man-things!"