The army rule for 40K’s Drukhari is Power from Pain. Let’s look at the best combosfor it in the codex and why they work.
Power from Pain is a token based system where you collect tokens at the start of your command phase, when you kill an enemy unit, and when an enemy unit fails their Battleshock test. These tokens are then used to “empower” units during parts of the game and gain extra abilities. The fun thing about this rule is that if you have a character attached to the unit and “empower” that unit you get to use both the units Pain ability and the character’s as well. This gives you a two for one combo on a lot of these units and is most likely one of the building factors when designing your army. Let’s look at the top 3 of these and why they might be good for your Drukhari on the tabletop.
Archon + Kabalite Warriors
Let’s start at the top of the pecking order with the Archon and adding him to a simple Kabalite Warriors squad. The Archon’s Power from Pain ability is to utilize a Pain token in the fight or shooting phase and the unit he is attached to gains the ability to Reroll to hit. This is one of the few ways to get a reroll to hit which we know from Oath and other nonsense is very powerful. Now the Kabalite Warriors unit gains the ability to reroll wound rolls of 1 or if the unit is on an objective a full wound reroll. This is a pretty massive double stack of rerolls and when you add in fun things like a Blast Pistol, Blaster, and a Dark Lance throwing haymakers down the field with the Archon’s Blast Pistol and you have a pretty brutal death squad that jumps out of a Raider.
Drazhar + Incubi
Next let’s look at one of the old boogie men from a few editions ago with Drazhar. I remember this murder machine back in the day as he would run around the buildings and just get ready to wreck your face. He is a pretty gnarly model with a bunch of brutal Damage 3 melee attacks as well as a mean sweep option that is Damage 2. His Power from Pain or PFP for short is the ability for himself and the unit he is with to get a +1 to wound with their melee attacks. You attached him to his BFFs the Incubi and they get stacked on the ability to have Devastating Wounds versus Infantry for the Pain Point spent. This is a pretty easy way to come into a squad of plastic dudesmen and watch as a unit of 10 Incubi and Drazhar throw out 48 attacks that are wounding on 2’s to 3’s and as well as a waterfall of devastating wounds. There isn’t a lot in the game that could survive that mess and most opponent’s will be wary of coming anywhere close to that mean old Raider full of jerks.
Succubus + Wyches
Let’s look at Succubus and how she can combo with her Wych friends. The Succubus’ Power from Pain ability allows the unit to reroll Advance/Charge rolls in the Movement or Charge phase. As the Wyches Power From Pain ability works in the charge phase as well this can be spent to let the Unit Advance/charge and reroll that charge distance. This gives you a pretty good chance to get there and utilize Sustained Hits 1 granted by the Succubus to a squad of crazy Gladiators. That usually runs you 12 Anti Infantry 3+ attacks, 15 Gladiator Weapon attacks, and 24 Hekatarii blade attacks coming you. That is a pile of damage that should hurt most basic infantry in the game which is pretty gnarly.
Most of the other characters are pretty powerful in the units they are designed for. I wish we had gotten a Jetbike Archon or Jetbike Succubus to join the Reavers as well as Hellion Special character. Jetbike HQ options are one of those things I think a lot of armies still have army space for and I hope we see things filled out a bit more. I know we are tired of seeing more Space Marine characters and hoped those style of options would have filtered into all the other codexes.
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Thomas Reidy, aka Goatboy, the ever-evil member of BoLS. I do arts, play 40k, and even paint a lot of stuff. I have been playing Warhammer 40K since the 1990s, and have won multiple national events including Adepticon and GW GTs. I’ve been writing for BoLS for 15 years. Look at my Instagram to see what I am working on – or working on for someone. I am always doing something hobby related.