This article will detail Kragnos, a powerful hero belonging to the Grand Alliance Destruction who can be used in any army from that alliance. We will start from its lore, going into detail of its rules and seeing its usefulness in the armies it belongs to.
For a complete run-down of the different armies available in Age of Sigmar, consult our Age of Sigmar army overview article.
In this article we will refer often to Matched Play and other technical terms like allegiance abilities, command points, army roles in building a list, core battalions, Endless Spells/Invocations, etc. We assume the reader will be knowledgeable with those terms, otherwise please refer to the relevant guides for more details.
Overview and Lore of Kragnos, the End of Empires
Kragnos, the Living Eartquake, is the embodiment of Destruction, a true divinity bent to wreak havoc to all civilizations. He is the last surviving member of the Drogrukh race, once a potent race of centaurs that lived in harmony in Ghur, the Realm of Beasts.
Exiled by his own father, the King, because beat to a pulp his own brother over a mare, he spent multiple years with his most trusted companions roaming across Ghur and completing all sort of feats, still depicted in the walls and crude memories of the followers of Gorkamorka, the divinity of all Destruction armies.
In these times, his abilities grew considerably thanks also to a diet of amberstone and monster marrow, granting him powerful abilities like summoning earthquakes while charging, hence his name as god of earthquakes. He also retrieved his shield able to repel magic after being chipped by Gorkamorka, Tuskbreaker, and forged his weapon from the heart of a geomantic nexus in Ghur, the Dread Mace.
Kragnos led Orruks and his Drogrukh companions in uncountable wars, making entire civilizations disappear in an instant but eventually there was only one worth opponent left: the Draconith, a race of dragon-like sorcerers.
The battle between the two races brought both to the brink of extinction and was only with the help of the godbeast Dracothion and the most ancient Slann Lord Kroak, that the Draconith princes were able to imprison him forever in a timeless prison deep inside Twinhorn Peak.
Centuries later, Alarielle’s rite of life, an important surge of magical energies that cancelled all the necro-energies previously summoned by the Great Necromancer across all realms, cracked Kragnos’ prison just enough to allow him to escape.
He was now in a new world that barely remembered him, with all his people lost and forgotten. The Avatar of Destruction is on a rampage in search of revenge, attracting a Big Waaagh! of all sorts of greenskins and Destruction supporters.
His first task was to destroy Excelsis, that he almost managed after taking by force Gordrakk’s Waaagh! and leading it personally to the gates of the city that he smashed. The city was spared only thanks to Lord Kroak and Morathi who tricked him in charging through a portal that instead of bringing him to the Draconith lair, sent him in the swamps of Thondia.
Rules for Kragnos, the End of Empires
Kragnos, the End of Empires, is a powerful melee fighter. If your army needs a hammer to throw to your opponent, then Kragnos is the centaur for you.
He counts as a Warmaster, allowing him to be fielded in any Orruk, Ogor, Gloomspite Gitz or Sons of Behemat army as a general. New in the new edition, he has a warscroll for each Destruction army allowing him to benefit from their battle traits.
His characteristic rampage which allows him to allocate up to 36 mortal damage to a monster after charging is back! Bit swingy as you multiple the values of 2D6 (like rolling 3 and 4 would make 12 mortal wounds), while against non-monster units it’s a straight D6 damage (on a 2+).
He also maintained the The End of Empires ability which allows all friendly Destruction units within range to roll 3D6 when charging instead of 2D6, this time with no draw-backs.
Defensively, apart from a 4+ save and 5+ ward, he has also a 3+ ignore effect of a spell and cannot be automatically destroyed, instead he would take 6 damage points with no ward.
Kragnos role in Destruction armies and verdict
Kragnos is an excellent model with a great lore that is worth exploring (there’s also a novel dedicated to him and a Broken Realms tome where he was first introduced) and a great melee fighter.
His ability to buff charges favours armies who want to go straight into the melee and not many Destruction armies today are successful with this simple playstyle. For the first 6 months of Age of Sigmar 4.0, the most successful Destruction lists were a Gloomspite Gitz turtle list with Troggoths accompanied by some Squigs, and Kruleboyz with plenty of shooting, neither really would benefit from Kragnos.
The fact that now can at least use the battle traits of the faction he joins, is a great improvement, but remains a model that visually does not synergise with the rest of the armies and being basically a god, he is appropriately point-costed.
He is also not immortal, considering the high rend of some armies, and the absence of a regenerative ability, some armies will not struggle to remove him from the battlefield. In saying, so he does get some play, particularly in Gloomspite Gitz and Ogor, to compensate more disappointing warscrolls.
If you are playing a narrative campaign with high count of points, then Kragnos would be an amazing model to lead the Destruction side of the table.
Other resources
Some excellent information that we often use from articles like this one comes from YouTube channels like Warhammer Weekly with Vince Venturella, AoS Coach and of course The Honest Wargamer.
If you are interested in the competitive standpoint, when we talk about statistics, a tremendous effort is done by Rob from the Honest Wargamer, Ziggy and Tsports Network! in the AoS Stat Centre with precious information, constantly kept up to date.
Really good informative material is also collected by Dan from AoS Shorts.