Warhammer 40K World Eaters Gorestorm Slaughterpack Review - Gory Goodness

Of all the Chaos factions in Warhammer 40K, none are as fueled by pure hatred, violence, and pain as the World Eaters. We're also covering the virulent release of a new Death Guard battleforce, and now, with our review of the new Gorestorm Slaughterpack Battleforce set, we wade through the blood and guts to see if this new set for is worthy of the Blood God.

Gorestorm Slaughterpack Battleforce Contents:

The Gorestorm Slaughterpack contains the following miniatures:

• 1x Slaughterbound Miniature
• 8x Eightbound Miniatures (Can Be Built As Exalted Eightbound)
• 20x Jakhal Miniatures

Gorestorm Slaughterpack - NEW UNIT: Slaughterbound

What do you get when you take a hardened World Eaters warrior and mix him with the pure carnage and rage of a Bloodthirster? You get a Slaughterbound, a possessed leader (attachable to an Eightbound or Exalted Eightbound unit) who goes to great lengths to get their slaughter on.

Slaughterbound Stats: Move: 10” / Toughness: 6 / Save: 3+ (5+ invuln.) / Wounds: 6 / Leadership: 6+ / OC: 1

Slaughterbound Melee Weapons: 

• Lacerator and daemonic claw: Attacks: 6 / WS: 2+ / Strength: 8 / AP: -2 / Damage: 2

Slaughterbound Key Abilities At A Glance:

• Lord of the Eightbound: If this model is attached to a World Eaters Possessed unit, during the Declare Battle Formations step, until the end of the battle, this model has the Deep Strike and Scouts 6" abilities.
• Rage Eternal: While this model is leading a unit, in your Command phase, you can return one destroyed bodyguard model to that unit.
• Possessed Lord: Once per battle, at the start of the Fight phase, this model can use this ability. If it does, until the end of the phase, add 3 to the Attacks characteristic of melee weapons equipped by this model and those weapons have the Devastating Wounds ability.

Play Tips For Running The Slaughterbound:

Maybe stating the obvious here, but this heavy-hitter serves very little function if not attached to an Eightbound or Exalted Eightbound unit. That being said, the thought of making an Exalted Eightbound a Deep Strike unit is pretty nasty! And using his Possessed Lord ability to give Chainblades an extra 3 to the Attacks characteristic (plus Devastating Wounds) could result in pure carnage!

Gorestorm Slaughterpack Unit: Eightbound

The Eightbound are truly dedicated to the lure of chaos, pain, and rage, as they've invited eight daemons of Khorne to possess their bodies. Talk about a crowded room!

Eightbound Stats: Move: 10” / Toughness: 6 / Save: 3+ (5+ invuln.) / Wounds: 3 / Leadership: 6+ / OC: 1

Eightbound Melee Weapons:

• Chainblades: Attacks: 5 / WS: 3+ / Strength: 8 / AP: -2 / Damage: 2

Eightbound Key Abilities At A Glance:

• Beacons of Rage (Aura): While a friendly World Eaters unit is within 6" of this unit, each time a model in that unit makes a melee attack that targets a unit (excluding Monsters and Vehicles), you add 1 to the Hit roll. If that attack targets a unit (again, excluding Monsters and Vehicles) that is below half-strength, add 1 to the Wound roll as well.

Play Tips For Running Eightbound:

This is really just your classic, beefy, meat-and-potatoes melee unit. Get them into the fray and start hacking up your foe. If you can get a few units in (these can consist of 3 - 6 models per unit) close proximity to each other, or spread these units out to create a sort of bubble of rage, you can use these bad boys as a walking, chopping buff for your other units.

ALT BUILD: EXALTED EIGHTBOUND

Looking to spice things up? You can also build the units in this kit as an Exalted Eightbound unit instead. The difference being all about focusing on Monster or Vehicle units. Where the Eightbound don't impact those units as much, these guys do! How so?

First, their Chainblades have Anti-monster 3+ and Anti-vehicle 3+, and they lose the Beacons of Rage ability listed above for the Rend and Tear ability, which forces enemy vehicle or monster units that Fall Back from this unit to make a Desperate Escape test.

Gorestorm Slaughterpack Unit: Jakhals

You didn't think this box of 40K miniatures wouldn't include any miniatured with a ranged weapon, did you? Fear not - though grist for the mill, this box set comes with 20 Jackhals miniatures armed with the small but mighty(??) Autopistol!

Jakhal Stats: Move: 7" / Toughness: 4 / Save: 6+ / Wounds: 1 / Leadership: 7+ / OC: 1

Jakhal Ranged Weapons:

• Autopistol (pistol): Range: 12" / Attacks: 1 / BS: 4+ / Strength: 3 / AP: 0 / Damage: 1

Jakhal Melee Weapons:

• Chainblades: Attacks: 3 / WS: 4+ / Strength: 3 / AP: 0 / Damage: 1
• Paired Manglers: Attacks: 4 / WS: 4+ / Strength: 4 / AP: 0 / Damage: 1
• Mauler chainblade: Attacks: 3 / WS: 5+ / Strength: 4 / AP: -1 / Damage: 2
• Skullmasher and Mangler: Attacks: 2 / WS: 4+ / Strength: 4 / AP: -1 / Damage: 2

*The standard melee weapon for a Jakhal is the Chainblades, but limited swaps of the other melee weapons are available

Jakhal Key Abilities At A Glance:

• Objective Ravaged: At the end of your Command phase, if this unit's within range of an objective marker you control, that objective marker stays under your control until your opponent's OC level beats your at the end of a phase.
• Icon of Khorne (Wargear Ability): Each time the bearer's unit destroys an enemy unit, gain 1 Bloodshed point. Each time you make a Blessings of Khorne roll, roll one additional D6 for each Bloodshed point you have, after which you lose all your Bloodshed points.

Play Tips For Running Jakhals:

I don't think we really need to reinvent the wheel here with describing how to run a unit of Jakhals - swarm your enemy, let these little dudes get picked off, maybe harass an objective point with your "Objective Ravaged" ability... but mainly, these are just skulls for the skull god.

Gorestorm Slaughterpack Battleforce - Final Thoughts

While the new Slaughterbound unit is cool and could make an impact on the battlefield, this is, overall, a fairly straightforward, unsurprising box set. I do like that it's filled to the brim with Jakhals, which helps make this a good value vs. buying these units separately, but the Eightbound are really the star of the show here. If you're just getting into building a World Eaters army, this box is an easy way to get about 700ish points on your way there!

If you've already got enough Eightbound, I would just wait for the Slaughterbound to get released individually.

The copy of World Eaters Gorestorm Slaughterpack used for the creation of this review was provided by Games Workshop.