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.
Age of Sigmar 4.0
This article has not been updated yet with the newest rules and discoveries from the fourth edition of Age of Sigmar. We will be reviewing all articles and updating them really soon.
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. He cannot however benefit from their allegiance abilities.
Let’s look at some of his abilities, starting from The End of Empires that allows all friendly Destruction units within range to roll 3D6 when charging instead of 2D6. While this ability would make you think that Kragnos loves to be surrounded by friendly greenskins, Bellow of Rage can do area damage to any unit (yeah including yours) too close to Kragnos any phase he is injured.
Apart from this, he has the usual God-level protections: 6+ ward, if a spell or ability would slain him without wounding first then they do only D6 damage, and any ability from a spell or endless spell cannot affect him if he rolls greater than their casting value with 3D6. And of course, when contesting objectives, he counts as 30 models at top bracket, decreasing to 18 when he is heavily injured.
Where it becomes interesting is when he charges, as Kragnos can do the usual D6 mortal wounds to any unit he completes the charge move close-by. But if it is a monster, then it rolls 2D6 and multiplies its values, for example: 2 and 6 would become 12 mortal wounds. Ignore if the sum is 7, but in all other situations it has a chance to perform from 1 to 36 mortal wounds against a monster!
In melee Kragnos hits like a train. With a simple +1 to hit (heroic action Finest Hour for example) all his attacks go to 2+/2+ making him certain to make a mountain of wounds especially considering his high rend.
As a Hero and a Monster, Kragnos has access to both heroic actions and monstrous charges. For more information please consult our guide.
Kragnos role in Destruction armies and verdict
Let’s start in looking at how well Kragnos plays with others. On one side he can really buff charge rolls making those dreaded 9” charges much easier, on the other, his Bellow of Rage can quickly wipe out your army if you are too close. A good opponent army is able to do at least 1 wound to him per phase, meaning that any other unit caught in his retaliatory shriek can get 3D3 or 4D3 damage every turn.
Granted that the rage starts at 5+ so it is not so easy to splash damage on the first turns, but you definitely want him in combat with as many enemy units as possible while keeping yours far enough to be outside damage range. And good thing the Gloomspite’s Loonshrine is not defensible anymore, otherwise it was at risk too.
Despite this drawback, Kragnos is a hammer unit, it can do a lot of damage, but he still is a one-man unit. At full health he will take control of an objective and can hold it for some time, but suffers from receiving mortal wounds despite the 6+ ward.
Sons of Behemat have already other options to buff charge rolls and they have plenty of high wounds monsters, Ogor Mawtribes have their own Beastclaw Raiders scary monsters, so the army were Kragnos fits the best is Orruk Warclans, probably more in Kruleboyz to buff them up and provide some hammer time. Squigs in Gloomspite Gitz will also love the charge bonus to fly to the enemies as fast as possible.
The summary for Kragnos is that he is an astonishing model, 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. He does not directly fit any specific army and it is a pity, but as most God-level fighters in Age of Sigmar, 2000 points are not enough for units that cost a third of more of your budget.
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, otherwise, he competes with the Incarnate of Ghur for an outsider spot in your army.
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.