Warhammer: The End Times - Khaine

Warhammer: The End Times #Background & Rules Vol.III

by Games Workshop

Ulthuan teeters on the brink of ruin as Daemons run rampant across its Ten Kingdoms. Meanwhile, in the grim north of Naggaroth, Malekith the Witch King prepares to face his destiny once and for all. Everything you think you know about the Elves of Warhammer is changing.

Warhammer: Khaine continues the epic saga of The End Times. The fate of Ulthuan is described over two hardback books which are presented together in a sturdy slipcase.

Warhammer: Khaine Book 1 is a 144-page book which details the third chapter of the End Times,the final reckoning between the Elven races.

Warhammer: Khaine Book 2 is a 48-page rules book that contains six new scenarios and orders of battle based on the events in Warhammer: Khaine Book 1. It includes Magic of the End Times, a new spell lore available to all armies, and new army lists, allowing customers to field a unified Elven army drawn from Wood Elves, High Elves and Dark Elves to match different parts of the narrative. It also includes newly updated special character rules for Malekith the Eternity King; Tyrion Avatar of Khaine; Imrik Crown Prince of Caledor; and Alarielle Incarnate of Life.

Genres: Fantasy

Hardcover

First published November 1, 2014

About the author

Games Workshop Group PLC (often abbreviated as GW) is a British miniature wargaming manufacturing company. Games Workshop is best known as developer and publisher of the tabletop wargames Warhammer, Warhammer 40,000 and The Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very nice fluff, great artwork.

Now wondering what's going to happen to the other armies.

[Ben Stoddard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best book in the series so far, and I'm not even an elf player. The writing was a lot more solid in this book and the battles were more meaningful. It felt as though in Glotkin they were trying desperately to make battles meaningful and turned even some minor skirmishes into spotlight battles (I'm looking at you savage orcs and goblins). The Khaine book adds a lot of earth shattering (in some cases literally) events, and pulls absolutely no punches. I like the idea of the winds being attached to specific individuals and I look forward to finding out where the errant winds that escaped from Teclis end up. I'm still having a hard time reconciling the dark elves being chummy with the other two, and the way that they "rescued" several of the different animals and monsters that each army uses, but even so it all seems to work. It did feel a bit weird that Morathi was getting it on with her great great nephew, but hey, they're elves and they're kinda weird that way.

I don't have any major complaints about this story, the writing seems tighter than in the other two books, and the story is much more intense than Nagash (who had a lot of setup for the ET setting) or Glotkin (which seemed like a filler book with way too many unimportant battles being spotlighted). In this book there were a couple of battles that weren't pivotal, but that made sense in the course of the story and were exciting on top of it all, so it isn't really a problem. The only reason that I don't give it 5 stars is because it's not anything great, it's a really good action story with lots of exciting scenes, but I never once felt sad or worried for any of the characters, I didn't see any real growth in anyone and the only character who wasn't static was Tyrion.

That being said, I was almost expecting an Obi-Wan and Anakinesque moment where Teclis could be seen screaming "You were supposed to be the chosen one!" to his brother as he leaves him on the lip of a volcano and Morathi came to get him after Teclis left. The ending was not as gut wrenching as it could have been although it was unexpected. I didn't feel that connection with any of the characters to the point that I was sad to see them go, this could be because I am not an Elf player, but there was no development of any of the characters to the point that I felt connection with any of them. But as far as fluff is concerned, this was top notch!

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a cataclysmic change to the Warhammer storyline. Games Workshop seems to have stumbled onto the fact that if you finally move the storyline a bit, people will flock to read your material. Everything changes for Ulthuan, Naggarond, and Athel Loren in this story. Lots of main characters and even gods perish in this story. The companion book also contains massive changes to the Warhammer game as well as 3 new army lists and about a dozen campaign scenarios. As an elves player, I fully enjoyed this book set. I am not at all sad about the army changes, but I found myself a little melancholy after reading the fluff book and seeing some favorite characters go. Great read if you can get your hands on a copy.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with Nagash, Malekith the witchking would have been the main villain of the story if it had not been warhammer where he too must play a secondary role to wider conflict between chaos and order. I am a bit on the fence with how the threeway split between elves was resolved but where it ended up did make sense but its hard to keep track of time, whereas the previous books takes place in months this one takes place over decades whilst sometimes characters act as if things are happening right one after another.

In the end I do like the bold choice they made, I would argue the boldest one they did in the end times, for resolving this loose end of the warhammer fantasy setting but the execution could have used a final touchup before settling on how it played out.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

tireins motives wher horribly

[Michael Dodd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Following the template laid down in the the Nagash and Glottkin books, the third in the series of Warhammer End Times background books is Khaine, which unsurprisingly focuses on the fate of the elves during the End Times. A new chapter in a story thousands of years in the making, it sees the three elven races drawn back together in a battle for the soul of their combined race. The elven gods play out their own battle through mortal avatars as Malekith risks everything in an all-out assault on Ulthuan while the high elves reel from the latest daemonic assault and the wood elves reluctantly venture forth from Athel Loren to join the fray.

Read the rest of the review at https://trackofwords.wordpress.com/20...

[Dann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elves die. Gods die. Ulthuan is in peril. This is indeed the End Times. Though written by Matt Ward, this book is definitely written with love to the source material. Lavish battles, character development and even at times, majesty. I was, and still am, undecided whether or not I enjoyed his Dark Elf Army Book, but I do love Khaine. I almost feel guilty for enjoying it as much as I did--I could not pry my eyes away from my beloved characters as they almost descended into a Shakespearian madness! Fun, brutal and tragic. A definite recommendation for lore buffs. Rule wise...Matt Ward will always be Matt Ward.

[Maetco · Rating 3 out of 5]

In combination with Curse of Khaine I would give them 5/5. On its own Khaine isn't that great but does a good job at describing what went on in Ulthuan in a pretty entertaining and interesting way.

The new rules in this book are pretty bad and game breaking.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read, particularly watching the haughty elves take a fall and learning the truth about Malekith. (Though that makes their prime god a bit of a DB given what his race went through).