Hello everyone! Zak Ludick here from Cape Town, South Africa and this is a Warhammer 40k - The Great Unit Review Wheel! post!

However, on the 26th one, I have decided that it is big enough to call this series a Library!

What is it all about? It is not there to just give a stat. It is there to give MY review of the unit!

In this series, I will review one unit at a time, picking them randomly.

So let me spin the wheel again and see what I get:

Chaos Space Marines, Khorne Lord of Skulls

10th Edition Index Cards

The first Titanic Unit to be reviewed for the Library! Titanic units, like the Khorne Lord of Skulls used to be something you would only see on massive Apocalypse scale games, but no longer!

Armies can choose to include something as large and scary as this Lord of Skulls, or to invest those points into several units.

Now I KNOW the question that some of you might ask in this case: Is it better to field units like this or is it better to go for smaller units?

There is no straight answer here but I can say this: These big guys ARE difficult to deal with and that makes them an asset. However, should your whole army be made up of these units, it may restrict you in a tactical sense where other armies will throw chaff at you, just to keep them busy and score points all over the board.

So let's jump in and have a look at this massive beast!

Stats

Movement 8" is fair for something this size
Toughness 13 - This is massive and a great defensive attribute all on its own, cutting down the number of weapons that can easily wound the KLOS (Khorne Lord of Skulls)
Save 3+/5++
Wounds 24 - Another massive number on the statline. Once you get past the toughness and the saves, you need to grind down 24 Wounds to kill it!
Leadership 6+
OC 8 - A fair bit of OC to hold an objectives, however, this is the same as most armies's 4x Battleline units. You can buy a lot of blobs of 20 Guardsmen for the points of the KLOS.

Weapons

Weapons is where the KLOS shines as well.

For ranged it has 3 Body Gun options and 2 Arm Gun options:

Body Guns:
Gorestorm cannon
24" Range, Attacks D6+3, Hitting on 3+, Strength 10, AP -2, Flat 3 Damage
Blast rule, so extra attacks against hordes.

Daemongore cannon
18" Range, Attacks D6, Hitting on 3+, Strength 14, AP-4, Damage D6+2
Blast rule, so extra attacks against hordes.

Ichor cannon
48" Range, Attacks 2D6, Hitting on 3+, Strength 7, AP-2, Damage flat 2
Blast

To me the Ichor Cannon is a waste of time and should never be considered. Yes it has a potential for lots of shots, but 2D6 means an average of 7x S7 shots, the variety that kills Space Marines in power armor easy... but bad at taking down other opponents. The KLOS is not scared of close combat so keeping it 48" away from the enemy is no good.

Both the other two options are good. I would probably err on the side of the Daemongore cannon for its ability to down any sort of target

Arm Gun options:
Hades gatling cannon
Range 48", Attacks 12, Hitting on 3+, Strength 8, AP-2, Damage Flat 2
Sustained Hits 1 - Thus can generate additional attacks.

Skullhurler
Range 60", Attacks 2D6, Hitting on 3+, Strength 14, AP-3, Damage Flat 3

If you wanted to kill Space Marines the Hades gatling would be far better than that Ichor cannon. The Skullhurler again... potentially a Terminator Killer I think still calls to me, and can again kill just about anything.

Maybe a mix of damage types would be wise. Gorestorm and Skullhurler combo or Daemongore and Hades Gatling Cannon combo.

Melee:

When striking in melee, you choose either a Strike or a Cleave attack.
Basically, kill something big, or kill lots of smaller targets.

Great cleaver of Khorne — strike
5 Attacks, Hitting on 3+, Strength 16, AP -4, Flat 8 Damage

Of course, this attack is for the big stuff, which it does really well.

Great cleaver of Khorne — sweep
15 Attacks, Hitting on 3+, Strength 8, AP-2, Flat 2 Damage

This is great to mow down the mobs, even if they are mobs of Space Marines!

Abilities

Plough Through the Enemy
If the KLOS kills something in combat, all enemies within 6" must take battle-shock tests. It is terrifying!

As a Space Marine player, I have some weapons in my arsenal that could be used to deal with this threat but not all armies will have that ability!

It also depends heavily on whether or not your army has an answer for units like this. I could name a lot of units that can deal with it, but if you just don't have them in your army, you will be doomed!

Thank you for reading!