The Slaves to Darkness are invading Warhammer Age of Sigmar 3rd Edition with a big batch of new models. You’ll find 14 of them, plus the revised battletome, in the new Slaves to Darkness army set, and in this review and unboxing we take a closer look at the box’s contents.

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Slaves to Darkness army set unboxing & review
This item was provided by Games Workshop. Thoughts and opinions are our own.

The Slaves to Darkness army set will be available for preorder starting Saturday, November 5 2022, and be on sale one week after. Inside this Age of Sigmar army box, you’ll find 14 all-new models, the new Slaves to Darkness battletome with a special collectors edition cover and gilt edging, and a set of warscroll and enhancement cards.

Slaves to Darkness army set contents
© Copyright Games Workshop Limited, used without permission

Slaves to Darkness army set unboxing

The Slaves to Darkness army set comes in the typical large cardboard boxes like the two army battleboxes, but the box is not particularly deep or heavy. Besides the battletome and cards, 14 new miniatures are included: 1 Daemon Prince, 3 Ogroid Theridons, and 10 Chaos Chosen.

New plastic Daemon Prince review

Probably the most spectacular model in the set is the new plastic Daemon Prince. This model comes on 3 medium size sprues and a 60 mm base. There is a bucket load of customization options, with a variant for Warhammer 40k as well.

First, you choose between two pairs of feet, either hooves or clawed feet. Both left feet are resting in a slightly different way, which will change the pose of the model slightly, making it turn either left or right. The right arm can be built either raised or lowered, and you can choose between an enormous sword, brutal axe, or clawed open hand. For the Daemon Prince’s back, you can choose between either giant wings or two trophy racks (to which you can attach either a Stormcast or Primaris helmet), similar to the previous model. There is a total of six heads, two generic undivided ones, and one for each Chaos god. There is a matching tail tip for each Chaos god plus a generic one, and there is also an icon for each Chaos God plus an undivided icon that goes on the shoulder pad. So much attention to detail!

Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince Comparison
Some of the 40k and AoS themed loadouts you can build from this kit © Copyright Games Workshop Limited, used withour permission.

Now the instruction manual only explains the Age of Sigmar configurations, but the kit has all the parts to 40kify the model. From what I can see, you can change the armour of the upper body to be more power-armour-like, including power-armour-style shoulder pads, a pair of arms with longer claws and a large gun fused to the left forearm, and a mutated power-armour-style backpack.

Such a fun kit to play around with, I expect this to become a fan favourite.

Chaos Chosen review

The Chosen come on two medium size sprues with five sculpts on 40 mm bases each, and you get each sprue twice. Like most modern Games Workshop infantry sets, upper and lower body are fused into a locked pose, with each arm pair designed for a specific body. Each set of heads is also intended for certain bodies, but if you cut away the small pegs, you can also exchange the heads freely.

Plastic Chaos Chosen sprues from the Slaves to Darkness army set

As per five models, you can build the following:

  • The first model can be built either as a Champion or regular Chosen. The Champion has a raised axe and a choice between two large horned helmets and a bare head, while the regular Chosen holds a sword in a two-handed grip and has a choice between a helmet and bare head (which are different from the Champion’s heads).
  • The second model can either be a Standard Bearer or a regular Chosen. The Standard Bearer can either carry a large 8-pointed arrow icon or a textile banner, and there are little marks of each Chaos god plus a generic undivided daemon face icon you can attach to both. The regular Chosen wields a large two-handed hammer, and there is a choice between a helmet and bare head.
  • The third model can be a Musician or regular Chosen, the regular Chosen has a large two-handed axe, and there is again the choice of a helmeted or bare head.
  • The fourth model has a choice between two two-handed axes and a helmeted and bare head, while the fifth model can be assembled either with a two-handed mace or hammer, with a choice of either helmet or bare head.

As mentioned earlier, you get each sprue and thus each model twice. With two build options for each model, you can build ten unique models with the contents of the army set. After that, you will have used up all of the unique combinations though and will have to repeat poses.

Plastic Chaos Chosen & Chaos Warriors scale comparison

Here you can not only see Garfy’s fantastic paint jobs, but also how the new Chosen Warriors scale up with other Chaos models. As you can see, they are slightly taller than the updated Chaos Warriors from the Start Collecting set, swole with Chaos power on their ascension to dark glory.

Ogroid Theridons review

We’re already familiar with the Ogroid Myrmidon from Warcry, and now with the Ogroid Theridons a whole unit of these monstrous slaughterers follow in its wake.

The models come on three medium size sprues and 50mm bases. You start by building the three bodies, and then you can choose between Goroan Falchions (and shield) and Great Axes. You can build either three regular Ogroids with falchions or axes or build a champion, standard bearer, and musician, all with a choice of falchions or great axes as well.

Customizability doesn’t stop there – the interchangeable heads are two-piece, with four freely interchangeable faces and four horns, plus a fifth horn-face combination for the Champion. The shoulder pads and shields are interchangeable, and the Champion can also have an optional leering daemon face on his shield. Last but not least, there are four small icons for each Chaos god and an undivided icon for the standard, and the three great axe blades are interchangeable as well. Amazing kit.

Slaves to Chaos battletome flip-through

Unlike many other army set exclusive books, the limited edition Slaves to Darkness battletome not only has an alternate cover, but also a beautiful gold print, gold edges, and a ribbon bookmark.

Limited edition Slaves to Darkness battletome and warscroll cards from the army set

With 128 pages there is a lot to delve into, there is new lore on Belakor’s machinations, a showcase section, a few pages of painting guides (which unfortunately were only carried over from the last battletome and not updated), as well as the rules and warscrolls. By the way, there are no new sculpts lurking in the book that haven’t been unveiled yet.

As usual, we’ll leave the rules review to those who are more into the gaming side, but briefly a few things that caught my eye: There are many new warscrolls for the new models and units, including rules for all new warbands from Warcry’s 2nd edition. Underworlds warbands are also included, but the Darkoath from the Gnarlwood box are missing. However, many units with old models are still present, i.e. Marauders, Soul Grinders, Manticores, Slaughterbrute and Mortalith Vortex Beast. The only thing missing at first glance are Forsaken, but that was also the case with the last book.

Value

The RRP of £120 / 155 € / $200 isn’t a surprise, as the price is the same as the last couple of army sets. Of course, 14 models are not exactly a lot, even if they are all relatively large sculpts. Instead of 5 more Chaos Chosen, I would have preferred ten of the new multipart Chaos Warriors, but on the other hand many Slaves to Darkness collectors probably already have a lot of Warriors.

As we do not yet know individual prices, it is difficult to determine the exact value of the products included. But with the previous army sets, the saving was usually around 25% compared to buying them individually (plus whatever the special edition codex is worth to you), and with the Slaves to Darkness set, the value seems to be similar.

With the additional saving of up to 20% on Warhammer products at our partner stores Wayland GamesElement Games, and Taschengelddieb the box becomes even more attractive:

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Pros

  • 14 all new models plus a brand new codex
  • The Daemon Prince and Ogroid kits are fully of customization possibilites
  • No price increase over previous army sets
  • Gilt edging exclusive battletome

Cons

  • Chosen are quite limited in their build options
  • People who don't fancy buying a big box have to wait for the individual releases

Final Verdict

Another army release, another army set. Even though the box feels a bit spare with only 14 models included, all models are completely new and the limited edition battletome stands out with its lavish gilt edging and gold print finish.