Kâhl

Bearing grudges into the 41st millennium and beyond

Replacing the Squat Warlord on tabletop, a Kâhl is a prominent figure in the Leagues of Votann, leading Kin Oathbands to war for profit, resources, and that age-old dwarfen pastime of settling a score.

Fluff

Kâhls are members of the Leagues of Votann who have proven their merit in either combat, strategy, or politics, such that they are able to be trusted to lead forces of the Kin into battle with their innumerable foes. Wielding some of the finest artifice and armor that the Brôkhyr can put together, a Kâhl is the rough equivalent of a Space Marine Captain. A Kâhl has total operational control over an Oathband during an engagement, but their selection is not quite as hidebound as it is with the Adeptus Astartes. Kâhls only gain their rank on merit and worthiness, and should they prove lacking in their duties there is nothing preventing their League's Votannic Council from putting the (metaphorical, sometimes literal) hammer down and busting them back down to janitor if that is all they merit. However, being the meritocratic little buggers that they are, a former Kâhl can gain back their old position should they earn it back, but the Kin and especially the Votann have long memories, and regaining that station after losing it would be a task of Sisyphean proportion.

Crunch

A Kâhl is an HQ choice for the Leagues, and they are in essence a must-take for the army (especially since we're getting one in every League army box). They have a respectable statline of 2+ WS/BS, S4, T4, 5W, A4, and a 3+/4++ to give them some decent durability on par with a Space Marine Captain. They even let <league> CORE and <league> Biker re-roll hit rolls of 1 wihin 6" of them, just to make the comparison even more blatant. With that out of the way, here's the juicy stuff.

A Kâhl comes base with a Forgewrought Plasma Axe, which can be swapped out for a Mass Gauntlet in case you wanted to flip some Rhinos with your pint-sized powerhouse. They can also take their choice between an Autoch Pattern Combi-Bolter to burp out some rocket-propelled death, or a Volkanite Disintegrator if you long for the days when more than just the AdMech had access to Volkite weapons. They can then get their choice between a Teleport Crest which allows for deep-striking and stratagem fueled movement shenanigans, or a Rampart Crest to give your troops and bikers a 5++ against ranged attacks as well as giving the Kâhl the Shield Crest keyword.

Finally, your Kâhl is gonna be your most reliable source of Judgement Tokens, since he can huck out one on an enemy unit he can see once-per-command phase. Seeing as this gives everything in your army the opportunity to get auto-wounds on a token'd unit, you'd be an idiot not to take one. If you want to add 2PL or 40 points to your army, you can upgrade him into a High Kâhl which grants him the Chapter Master reroll, but more importantly lets him lay down 2 Judgement Tokens per command phase, and if he gets the killing blow on a unit with tokens he can shift one of them to another enemy unit that he can see right then and there. Taking a High Kâhl also lets you get around the restriction of only having one Kâhl per detachment, which means that you could potentially be putting out 3 tokens each command phase before getting into strats and Warlord Traits that can throw them out as well. Suffice to say that these guys are vengeful little fucks.