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Sometimes I do be playing Age of Sigmar.

Age of Sigmar, Battle Report, Competitive, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, General Speaking, Kevin Lathers, Order, Tournaments

World Championships of Warhammer Tournament Report: Fyreslayers

November 12, 2025 Kuhal 2 Comments

Credit: Games Workshop

Event and Venue

Whelp, I somehow acquired a Golden Ticket for the Championships. It’s in Atlanta, which is great because it’s 15 minutes from my bed to the play area. The event is very large this year with almost 150 players for AoS and hundreds or thousands more for everything else (including the 40k Narrative event).

Credit: Games Workshop

The event is in the Hyatt in downtown Atlanta. The venue itself is clean, large, and with access to multiple other larger hotels (via tunnel in case of weather). It’s also connected to a passable food court for lunch. Overall it’s a good venue for any tournament really, but quite suitable for such a large one.

More importantly buckets of five beers are $20 and I took advantage of that on days one, two and four.

This is a Games Workshop official event, so the terrain is all GW terrain. The setup is all on GW and the TOs/Judges including official Games Workshop staff (and rules writers). This makes it unique in how rulings come down but also unique in how little arguing people (normally) have with TOs!

I appreciate getting the TOs to rule on “Sacred Rites” for Fyreslayers players: it does not give a magmic token! I don’t appreciate that they refused to elaborate on why that is, but so it goes.

Honestly, going into the third year it seems like they really got all the kinks out of thing. Other than a technical problem during the preview show, everything seemed to run quite smoothly on the surface.

A lot of the staff helping run the event are actually my Georgia Warband clubmates, and a lot of us have lent out models to various participants. I guess we also have a hand in making it run smoothly: shout out to my teammates!

This is also a great chance for me to see some old friends and acquaintances. Hell, I might make some new friends: a new opponent is just a friend you’ve not played yet.

My List

As per normal, I am running Fyreslayers. I’ve been running various lists over the past couple of months. I couldn’t settle on one so just went with one of the recent iterations, which I sort of regret, but it performed well enough.

I wish I had had more time to practice, but other than the event a bit beforehand, work and life has me up against the wall and I just can’t take the time I really should to get reps in. I’m basically hoping my nonstop play with only this army for years can carry me.

Fyreslayers
Scales of Vulcatrix (10)
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Wounds: 112
Prayer Lore – Vulkyn Gifts
Manifestation Lore – Magmic Invocations

Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Restless Energy

General’s Regiment
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (320)
General
Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes (120)

Regiment 1
Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (280)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Regiment 2
Auric Runemaster (180)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Regiment 3
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (Scourge of Ghyran) (320)
Droth-helm (10)
Fiercely Competitive
Thickened Scales
Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes (120)

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

Regiments of Renown
Sky-Port Profiteers (320)
Grundstok Thunderers
2x Grundstok Mortar or Aethercannon
Grundstok Thunderers
2x Grundstok Mortar or Aethercannon
2x Aetheric Fumigator or Decksweeper
Codewright

The list functions closer in playstyle to older infantry Fyreslayers lists than it does a full magmadroth pedal to the metal list — though it can do that some, too.

The Thunderers, Poleaxes, and Flameseekers not only all do some damage but add heavy screening, point capturing pressure, and just wounds to the list. Opponents always have to be aware that the Codewright can teleport anyone from himself to a flameseekers unit (9-models) around the map.

The Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth adds heavy utility and defensive capability. The rampage is extremely good at adding pre-combat mortals on larger units which can thin their ranks before they swing. Further, the +1 wound (on a 3+) ability is useful and being priest (1) is extremely useful.

The Runefather and Runeson Magmadroths are, of course, the mobile hammers which skew it from an infantry list into a damage output game.

I took the Fiercely Competitive trait over the others, in retrospect I really would have liked Blood of the Berserker due to failing many MANY charges by 1, but on the other hand, Fiercely Competitive straight up wins me the mirror match against the other Fyreslayers player, so it wasn’t a BAD pick, just a situational one.

Thickened Scales and the Droth Helm continue to always pay dividends.

The list, at its core, isn’t about having maximum utility, objective holding, or damage, but a little of each. My hope is that makes it a good all-comers list.

The Tournament: Pod Play

I’ll note that the specifics on every game are sometimes misremembered or a bit fuzzy, so I’m doing my best to see through the haze of alcohol and brain cooking to remember everything in these sections.

(The deep recesses of the AoS area)

My big critique of this phase of the tournament is that they released the pods well-before the tournament but then shifted them around (due to drops I guess?). This caused a bit of confusion for many of us. Really, they should have just released lists but waited for pods to be shown the day-of. I felt like this maybe caused some inequality in list knowledge and expectation, but it didn’t overly affect me due to aforementioned lack of prep.

Day 1: Losing Game 1 is Relaxing

(Locked in)

Game 1: Loss Against Nighthaunt on Surge of Slaughter

My Game 1 opponent is David Demmel from Germany with a Pyregheists heavy list (like all NH players).

1990/2000 pts
-----
Grand Alliance Death | Nighthaunt | Quicksilver Gheists (40 Points)
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 3
Spell Lore - Lore of the Underworlds
Manifestation Lore - Infernal Sorceries
Battle Tactics Cards: Restless Energy and Scouting Force
-----
General's Regiment
Lady Olynder, Mortarch of Grief (300)
• General
Chainghasts (90)
Scourge of Ghyran Black Coach (300)
---
Regiment 1
Krulghast Cruciator (160)
• Brazier of Nagashizzar
• Ruler of the Spectral Hosts
Myrmourn Banshees (180)
• Reinforced
Pyregheists (150)
Pyregheists (150)
---
Regiment 2
Lord Vitriolic (120)
Chainrasps (200)
• Reinforced
Pyregheists (150)
Pyregheists (150)
-----
Faction Terrain
Nexus of Grief

David’s list is extremely good at accomplishing tactics and he can basically effortlessly get 4 of them with the other two being a bit harder, but not much. It also has one of the most points efficient units in the game in Pyregheists backed by Olynder being a very strong utility and damage piece that borders on unkillable without HEAVY mortal damage threat.

I know he can play the tactics game very well and so I play somewhat agressive into him. This works in turn 1 as he plays more passive, mostly screening and toe-touching objectives. I outscore him while eliminating his chainghasts.

But it falls apart in Round 2 when I fail nearly every single one of my very short short charges. I still do damage due to shooting, but it’s not enough. Further, I think my rune usage was poor here and that is the real thing that will haunt me.

This was a big misplay on my part and a valuable lesson: never ever consider charges guaranteed. I need to be much more cautious, especially around armies with such a strong hit back on damage output. I felt I had to play agressively into a shooting army, but I probably didn’t.

I think his positioning was okay but if I do make those charges I think I win the close game, but since I didn’t, his positioning seemed genius and his clap back kills my runefather droth as well as gaining him just an overall fantastic scoring and positioning turn.

From here on out I play the game of scrambling for points as my gameplan has gone awry and I do claw back but my lack of tactics adds up while he accomplishes them with ease and I end up losing a very close game while both of us have very few models left on the board.

David’s a strong player and I think once he saw where the pieces landed in Round 2 he knew as long as he didn’t make any mistakes it was game over for me going into Round 3.

Great opponent and a good close game. I think I played poorly into the battleplan, not helped by the underdog mechanic being useless against Nighthaunt.

I learned some real lessons here on being more meticulous and less gambling-prone and I credit David with out playing me for the lessons here.

Game 2: Win Against Seraphon on Lifecycle.

I am now fully relaxing heading into my game 2. With the weight of winning off my shoulders I can play to my strengths but not stress. It’s probably a character flaw of mine that I play better when winning a tournament is out of my reach. Technically I have a chance at top 16, but it’s now not fully in my own hands so I don’t stress it hard.

This game is against Erik Armstrong from Canada playing Seraphon.

Your list scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could include the Sky-Port Profiteers, they didn’t stop to think if they should 2000/2000 pts
-----
Grand Alliance Order | Seraphon | Eternal Starhost
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 3
Spell Lore - Lore of Celestial Manipulation (20 Points)
Manifestation Lore - Aetherwrought Machineries
Battle Tactics Cards: Restless Energy and Wrathful Cycles
-----
General's Regiment
Skink Starpriest (110)
• General
• Coatl Familiar
• Child of the Stars
Raptadon Chargers (260)
• Reinforced
Ripperdactyl Riders (220)
• Reinforced
---
Regiment 1
Sunblood Pack (150)
Kroxigor (200)
Kroxigor (200)
Kroxigor Warspawned (420)
• Reinforced
---
Regiment 2
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (120)
Saurus Warriors (150)
Saurus Warriors (150)
-----
Faction Terrain
Realmshaper Engine

I’m pretty comforted going into this matchup as I recently played almost this identical list so I’m quite familiar with it.

Erik is chill and quite competent in his deployment which tells me he’s a strong player. No wishy washy play here, he’s got a plan!

I deploy conservatively with knowledge I can double move if need be and that he basically can BARELY get one unit into me turn 1 if he gets the run/charge spell off so I’m not worried about an alphastrike.

In round 1 I basically toe touch the objectives with some throwaway units and ping some damage on his dudes. I do push the right side a bit harder with infantry and keep my middle hammers waiting for him to make a move while my other droth pushes harder on the left side.

This drags some of his units to deal with the threat on one side. He uses Saurus to screen the Kroxigors waiting for a nice opening. But he also used the -1 rend asterism so he can’t really step out of his own territory without great risk to himself, so the screen can’t be too far forward and he can’t walk into the middle of the map without getting blasted.

With this setup I can safely give the turn away in round 2 and be perfectly safe or take it and wipe him out pretty hard.

He gets the turn, he can’t do a ton and pings some of my units, but with the strikes first rune he knows he has to play safe. Sadly for him on the bottom of two I kill basically all the screens, especially his Ripperdactyls, and ping some other stuff.

I get the double and basically end the game right there by tabling anything of actual note he has. Some decent charges up the center ensure this.

Erik takes the loss like a true champion but apparently has places to be so sadly I missed my shot at buying him a beer.

I go out with some people and we grab some okonomiyaki, that’s some good food. The power of knowing the area, I guess.

Day 2: Opponent Game Win % is an Exciting Tie Breaker

Going into Day 2 I’m, again, fairly chill. What I am not excited about is the insanely early start time of 8:30 A.M. Bonkers, GW, bonkers. Humans were not designed for such hours!

Game 3: Win Against Gloomspite Gitz on Cyclic Shifts

(Shown: my confusion over Boingrot’s being so undercosted)

This game is against Ricky Fischer from the US on Gitz. I’ve played Ricky a couple years prior at Nashcon, actually and we had a good game then. Ricky always brings the HEAT when it comes to hobbying and he absolutely crushes me in that contest — a beautiful army from a beautiful man.

(Oh yea, I got btfo on hobbying)

2025 WCW 1990/2000 pts
Gloomspite Gitz
Squigalanche
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 2
Spell Lore - Lore of the Clammy Dank
Manifestation Lore - Dank Manifestations
Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Restless Energy
General's Regiment
Skragrott, the Loonking (200)
 • General
Doom Diver Catapult (160)
Gobbapalooza (150)
Rockgut Troggoths (360)
 • Reinforced
Rockgut Troggoths (360)
 • Reinforced
Regiment 1
Squigboss with Gnasha-Squig (120)
 • Fight Another Day
 • Leering Gitshield
Boingrot Bounderz (220)
 • Reinforced
Boingrot Bounderz (220)
 • Reinforced
Squig Herd (200)
 • Reinforced
Faction Terrain
Bad Moon Loonshrine

His list lacks chariots, which is great for me, but has lots of boingrots, which is less great for me. The doomdiver may also pose issues, though it’s far more swingy.

Still, I have high damage output and enough ranged power to at least force his positioning to be off if he wants obscuring of any kind and if he wants good positioning he’ll have to take the licks.

The story of this game is basically that Troggs do not form a good screen if they can’t have a ward. He has to screen his actual fast hammers and units from my very fast droths, but once the Troggs lose their ward even the breath attacks are clearing them.

He makes good use of his moon buffs and spells to keep me at bay a bit and play the objectives. In Round 1 we both play conservatively, but in round 2 I push the right side super hard forcing his hand on his turn to come deal with me. He forgets I have the fight first rune and pushes a bit too hard setting me up for some big turns.

Still, with some nice charges and positioning he kills a unit of thunderers, wounds some poleaxes, and puts wounds on a magmadroth. Sadly for him it’s the smiterdroth who can do lots of mortal wounds to large units before combat causing him to fail on the closing out the droth.

He pulls back on the left side and consolidates for a countercharge, but this does sacrifice his Loonshrine, so no recursion can save him here. I’m basically fighting him in his territory at this point and the game is gonna be lost on points even if he can finish clearing out my magmadroths.

But he doesn’t and I get to play whack-a-mole on his final dudes.

A good game, but I think the droth pre-combat damage + ranged pressure was too high for his list on this map.

Ricky is a great opponent and I know he won awards later for hobbying at the very least.

Game 4: Win Against Stormcast Eternals on Roiling Roots

(How the hell do you show a panoramic image on this thing?)

This game is against Joss Wheeler from the US on SCE.

From the top rope its sigmar with a steel chair. 2000/2000 pts
Stormcast Eternals
Thunderhead Host
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 2
Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Master The Paths
General's Regiment
Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear (290)
 • General
Aetherwings (80)
Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (180)
Vanguard-Palladors with Starstrike Javelins (240)
Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (200)
Regiment 1
Lord-Imperatant (110)
 • Banner of Sigmar
 • Shock and Awe
Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (360)
 • Reinforced
Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers (360)
 • Reinforced
Gardus Steel Soul (160)
Faction Terrain
Stormreach Portal (20 Points)

I read Joss’ list and felt doom wash over me. This list is VERY good against mine. Longstrikes aren’t going to kill a magmadroth (probably) but those wounds add up. The grandhammers can definitely kill a magmadroth though, easily.

Then there’s Yndrasta, the hardest hard counter to Magmadroths. Her spear toss alone SLAPS.

I know I have to do two things: play a very SPREAD game, abuse the 9″ bubbles, and second is push HARD if I see an opening to get as many points as possible, especially if I have the fight first rune up. I probably also have to pray to the dice gods for him failing some charge rolls (which he later does).

Joss wisely takes the top of 1 and bum rushes my front line to pin me in on the left/center. I pop the 5+ ward rune and he sees that my screening would have him killing some infantry and then dying horribly to magmadroths so he doesn’t drop his big boys.

He pins me with the palladors and Yndrasta pushes my right side, killing a hero and taking objective, getting him a solid lead.

I know better than to directly fight Yndrasta with a droth if I don’t have to, instead opting to shoot her a lot and strip her ward. Which I do, putting some damage on her. I finish off the Palladors and hold my line, we get to go to round 2.

Going into round 2 he has the top and I hit the fight first rune. This disuades him from dropping (too risky and no great openings) and he pulls Yndrasta WAAAAY back to safety and rallying her back up.

On my turn I push further up and clear more of screens/units on the board and spread waaaay out in fear of his drops still out there.

I get initiative into round 3 and RUSH his Lord-Imperatant killing it. This is HUGE for me. My flameseekers threaten the left side now and are chasing his longstrikes and his remaining objective.

He has a combeback chance if he can free the longstrikes, but he can’t. In one of the worst dice rolls he could get, his Gardus fails to do a single point of damage to some Flameseekers who in-turn kill the longstrikes. Further he fails all of his drop charges.

He gets the double into four but it’s too little too late, Yndrasta is JUST NOW getting back into the fight maybe and he needs some lengthy charges just to get onto two objectives, let alone take multiple.

The game is basically over on points and I go to 3-1. I view the standings and see: yep I’m WAAAAAY low on tie breaks (opponent game win % is the first one) so that ship has sailed and I have no shot at a shadow round. Let’s drink!

The Games: Bracket Play

After the pod play everyone is separated into brackets. The brackets are the top 16, then all 3-win players, all 2-win, and so on. I am in the “3-win players bracket.”

Day 3: Migraines Suck; If I Could Drop I Would Have

This day sucks terribly for me, not due to losses, I don’t care about that. I randomly get terrible migraines maybe three or four times a year. Whelp, I got nice timing on that.

I happened to get one the night before and got maybe 2 hours of sleep on top of the daylong incredible headache that medicine just couldn’t shake. Any other tournament and I would be dropping, but I can’t do this here.

Due to this, I really don’t remember a lot about this day — it’s basically a blur — and I’m sure I show my opponents some uninspired play and behavior. Thankfully reviewing opponents lists and battleplans somewhat jogged at least a little memory.

Game 5: Loss Against Nighthaunt on Passing Seasons

(it’s me, dying, and David, hopefully not dying)

This game is against David Demmel (again) with Nighthaunt. The list is the same as above. He actually went to the “shadow round” for a chance at top 16, but sadly fell just short.

Again, I don’t remember a ton but I lost to the same list twice so I believe it went roughly the same way. I do recall the end though: I misplayed very badly taking some units off my back objective compounded with him making a fantastic roll to drag his banshess over and grab my back objective which gave him the points needed to win.

I could make a comeback but only with a super long bomb charge with my droth and some hot rolling, which didn’t happen ending the game. David takes the game by 5 in part due to my error at the end.

David’s really nice and a good opponent. I was glad that if anyone would beat me it would be a skilled player and nice guy.

Game 6: Loss Against Lumineth Realmlords on Grasp of Thrones

This game is against Jos Chang from the US on LRL.

Can someone send me Jarod Brown’s discord info? He keeps making sweet LRL lists and I need to know the secret sauce.
My discord username is josbert
1970/2000 pts
-----
Grand Alliance Order | Lumineth Realm-lords | Scinari Council (10 Points)
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 3
Spell Lore - Lore of Hysh
Manifestation Lore - Manifestations of Hysh
Battle Tactics Cards: Restless Energy and Scouting Force
-----
General's Regiment
Ellania and Ellathor, Eclipsian Warsages (290)
• General
Alarith Stoneguard (120)
Scourge of Ghyran The Light of Eltharion (270)
Vanari Auralan Wardens (280)
• Reinforced
Ydrilan Riverblades (160)
---
Regiment 1
Scinari Enlightener (200)
• Silver Wand
• Flawless Commander
Vanari Auralan Wardens (140)
Ydrilan Riverblades (160)
-----
Regiments of Renown
Sky-Port Profiteers (320)
Codewright
Grundstok Thunderers
Grundstok Thunderers
-----
Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor (20)

I really like Jos but I really hate Lumineth. I am full doomer going into this game and you know what they say: if you don’t believe you will win then you won’t. That addage holds true here.

I don’t really recall the exact details but Jos played a great game. Very technical using obscuring and his heroes to full advantage as well as the Riverblades.

My Runefather got stuck on a single objective the WHOLE GAME. A huge mistake on my part to let him stay on that objective and get trapped. I should have played more passively and taken the objective in turn 2, then brought the sondroth to middle.

Just huge positioning errors on my part let the game get away from me right at the end for Jos to take it by 2 points.

Some great play from Jos here and a lesson in, as always, how awful LRL can be to play against, haha. But also in not giving up when you know you’re coming back.

I wish I could remember more specifics, but I was super checked out.

Some friends want Hattie B’s and I oblige despite not feeling well. Give the people what they want.

Day 4: Healthy and Get a Mirror Match

I got home around 10 p.m. the night before and immediately fell asleep clear through until 8:30 where I had to rush to the venue (dice roll at 9, allegedly). I feel great now, shaking off the headache and having plenty of sleep, I’m ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

Game 7: Win Against Fyreslayers on Creeping Corruption

(How many people does it take to move a model? Chris is finding out!)

This game is against David Sulava from Australia on Fyreslayers. Hell yea, my fellow Fyreslayer!

Scoville 9000 2000/2000 pts
Fyreslayers
Scales of Vulcatrix (10 Points)
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Prayer Lore - Vulkyn Gifts
Manifestation Lore - Magmic Invocations
Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Restless Energy
General's Regiment
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (320)
 • General
 • Blood of the Berzerker
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)
Regiment 1
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (330)
 • Droth-helm - (10) Points 
Regiment 2
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)
 • Incandescent Blaze
Regiment 3
Auric Runemaster (180)
Hearthguard Berzerkers with Berzerker Broadaxes (240)
 • Reinforced
Regiment 4
Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (280)
Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

I’ve played the FS mirror match a few times now. I also know this list he is running very well and realize I have the hard counter to David’s list: Flameseekers and Fiercely competitive.

He gives me the top of 1, I basically scoot around and faff about. I position such that if he does the same I can push on the next turn. I do teleport a unit to toe-touch his back objective and take it from him for a quick 10 instead of 8 points turn — I know he didnt deploy on it for a reason, likely to bait someone for his Runefather to get in combat with and grab an easy Restless 1, but I don’t mind as that drags one of his precious magmadroths way away from the fighting.

He takes the initiative and pushes hard into me, but with my fight first rune up he can’t do too terribly much on charge. But his shooting is potent and he nearly kills a flameseeker unit as well as my runefather droth. He charges the flameseekers to take my right back objective, but fails to kill them due to damage reduction. He also kills my teleported Thunderers, no big deal.

I win the priority and he uses the fight first rune. This is what I’ve been waiting for! I was actually fearful he’d use the 5+ ward/+1 save rune which would let him tank me and hit back. I put heavy shooting into his droth helm runeson, damaging it, then charge everything to the right and center.

With fiercely competitive, even though he has strikes first, I do, too. I easily dispatch his +1 hit aura magmadroth. This nerfs his other droths damage, though he still finishes off my runefather. My Runesmiter droth finishes off his second runeson droth and my flameseekers put the other one on notice with it being nearly dead and stuck in combat with them.

That’s game and he concedes. Even if he gets the turn all he can do is kill some flameseekers basically (maybe) and then Ill immediately kill everything but a remaining runefather who is way out of position.

A fast game, maybe 45 minutes, and I’m off to go drink! David is a really great guy and I’m glad I got to play him even if it was a shorter game.

Game 8: Win Against Seraphon on Bountiful Equinox

(Gonna be honest, the smell wasn’t great)

This game was against Thomas Burgett from the US on Seraphon. I now realize I was not ready to rock ‘n’ roll. It turns out 8 games in four days is a lot of AoS and I’m pretty done with the ordeal. I make this quite clear to Tom and that I’ll be probably full-sending if I see an opening.

P is for pandemonium 2000/2000 pts
Seraphon
Shadowstrike Starhost
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 3
Spell Lore - Lore of Celestial Manipulation (20 Points)
Manifestation Lore - Primal Energy (20 Points)
Battle Tactic Cards: Restless Energy, Scouting Force
General's Regiment
Slann Starmaster (260)
 • General
 • Incandescent Rectrices
Raptadon Chargers (260)
 • Reinforced
Raptadon Chargers (130)
Raptadon Chargers (130)
Raptadon Hunters (120)
Regiment 1
Skink Starseer (170)
 • Beastmaster
Kroxigor Warspawned (420)
 • Reinforced
Raptadon Chargers (260)
 • Reinforced
Raptadon Hunters (120)
Regiment 2
Skink Starpriest (90)
Faction Terrain
Realmshaper Engine

I’d met Tom a couple years ago when I lent him a grouping of all the Annihalators we could scrounge together in the Atlanta area. He’s a cool guy and I’m glad he’s back!

His list is way way more agressive than Erik’s, wow. I know those Raptadons can basically cross the board on turn 1 if they want.

With that in mind I… deploy agressively, let’s get this shit over with! He gives me the top but has screened heavily so there’s no real point in doing much. I move my guys slightly forward and screen.

He pushes hard on the right, kills a Codewright and loses the unreinforced Chargers for the trouble. It gets him a solid lead though and takes my teleporting piece off the board.

I win the priority into round 2, give it to him, and hit 5+ ward. He basically pushes his screens up a bit and puts some light damage down.

I get my turn and just send it, killing all his screens and powering through off an endless spell to take one of his objectives putting me up on points.

He gets the top of 3 and I hit fight first. He has to do something though because if he does nothing I’m killing everything on my turn, if he does something I.. might kill everything.

He chooses to try to kill my runeson on magmadroth, fails, and we shake hands. He knows on my turn I’m clearing the Korxigor, the raptadons, and basically everything I can off the board then we would have a priority that would no longer matter.

I finish the tournament 3-1 and 2-2 for a total of 5-3 and ranked 32. Not bad, but not amazing. I blame poor play on day 1 for missing my shot at the top 16, but I think I wouldn’t have done well anyway with the migraine on day 3, so maybe it was for the best.

The End or: How I Stopped Fearing and Learned to Love My Brain Being Cooked

I live close enough I bounce home for a shower and a snack before I head back for the award ceremony with my wife. My brain is now thoroughly fried and I exist in a state of unconciousness functioning solely on instinct, an instinct to drive too fast around Atlanta roads!

I missed top Fyreslayer for the event, which went to Philip Springall and his very cool list and a beautifully painted army — I’m quite happy with this as he’s nice and his list is far more interesting/different than mine! I love unique FS lists.

Philip’s list is here. A flamekeeper? What a chad.

Just a few handfuls of dwarves in my carry on.

2000/2000 pts

Grand Alliance Order | Fyreslayers | Forge Brethren
General’s Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Prayer Lore – Zharrgrim Blessings
Manifestation Lore – Magmic Invocations

Battle Tactics Cards: Scouting Force and Wrathful Cycles

General’s Regiment
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (320)

General
Mark of Vulcatrix: Thickened Scales
Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes (240)
Reinforced
Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes (120)

Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes (120)

Regiment 1
Auric Runemaster (200)

* Ash-beard

Regiment 2

Auric Flamekeeper (80)

Regiment 3
Grimhold Exile (120)

Ash-cloud Rune
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Regiments of Renown
Sky-Port Profiteers (320)
Codewright
Grundstok Thunderers

2 Grundstok Mortar or Aethercannon
Grundstok Thunderers

* 2 Grundstok Mortar or Aethercannon

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

I did, however, get top Fyreslayers in ITC and thought we would get an award for that as we have in previous years. They even mention it at the beginning of the award show but then just didn’t give one out, oh well. I was happy to cheer for all the winners!

WIth the event over I am more than happy to not play Age of Sigmar for a bit with my next event just being a charity event a bit away. I think my brain is cooked.

Will it come back to Atlanta next year? The venue seems perfect for it and few airports are as well connected as Atlanta’s.

That said, the Europeans seemed REALLY REALLY not keen on traveling such long distances so I suspect it will go to Europe (any other continent is probably just not even a consideration). If they do move it, I hope the new venue has buckets of beer for $20!

(Hell yea, Mexico wins team spirit! I hope my brother from the south can make it to Europe!)

Feel free to comment if you have any specific questions about the event. This is just a brief rundown of games, after all.

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Order, Tournaments

Tournament Report: Fyreslayers at Southern Fried Sigmar GT ’25

June 24, 2025 Kuhal 1 Comment

The Event and Venue

This was the 2025 Southern Fried Sigmar GT in Atlanta, Georgia. We had 42 people (after drops) in attendance! Not bad from less than 20 just a few years ago.

The tournament is actually part of a larger gaming event called “Southern Fried Gaming Expo” and your ticket comes with a badge to the expo. The expo itself centers heavily on arcade and pinball games as well as tabletop games and some vendors – it’s a small convention, but nice.

(they had like a billion arcade and pinball machines)

The venue is the Renaissance Waverly hotel which is… fine. It’s connected to a very very dead spooky mall. So if you like liminal spaces and slenderman, this is the place for you!

The actual tournament hall, seen below, is quite a good space. There is enough room between tables you can actually walk completely around them; you are not crammed in, shoulder-to-shoulder or butts-to-butts!

(there’s more tables outside the frame, fairly spacious for 21 tables)

My List

Fyreslayers
Scales of Vulcatrix
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Prayer Lore - Vulkyn Gifts
Manifestation Lore - Magmic Invocations

Battle Tactic Cards: Wrathful Cycles, Attuned to Ghyran

General's Regiment
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (320)
• General
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (310)
• Thickened Scales
• Droth-helm

Regiment 1
Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (280)

Regiment 2
Auric Runemaster (200)
• Ash-beard
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Regiment 3
Scourge of Ghyran Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (310)

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

Regiments of Renown
Saviours of Cinderfall (270)
Callis and Toll
Toll's Companions

I made six lists of various configurations: three 4+ droth lists, 1 2-droth list, and 2 1-droth list (i.e. infantry heavy). I then rolled a dice and this is the one I got to play! I think they were all competitive to some level and this one turned out to be more competitive than I anticipated. Still, a part of me wonders if the Auric Hearthguard augmented droth list would have been better.

This particular list is about options. At first blush the list looks as though it should play very aggressively; four magmadroths and the option for hero-phase-movement, on top of the run+charge rune, means you certainly can play this as an alpha strike or “go turn” list.

But that’s not all it has. Because of the new prayer lore allowing for hero phase movement as well as additional mortal damage when bleeding, on top of the regular flexibility of runes, the list can do whatever you need. If you need to sit back and watch things unfold, that’s certainly an option. If you need to deny opponents movement or tactics, it can do that. If you need to punch them in the mouth or absorb a hit, it can do those things too.

But it can only do each of those things for a very limited time and not quite as well as other lists. Thus, the list becomes a jack-of-all trades and master of none. But more than that it becomes a list that is even more reliant on positioning and timing.

Saviours of Cinderfall shore up the list’s one glaring weakness: inability to deepstrike and inability to hold an objective. Saviours accomplishes both these things, being both a deep strike threat (especially to support heroes) as well as an objective babysitter. You can plop them somewhere and say “everyone else is going to go do real work, you guys make sure no one messes with this, okay?”

In retrospect I think the tactic choice was lacking and if I could redo things I would definitely have not taken “Attuned to Ghyran.” But it also wasn’t the worst choice and I did accomplish 1 or 2 of them nearly every game.

The Games

Preface: I am usually half asleep in round 1 and have been drinking in the later rounds, so my memory is often foggy on the details.

Round 1: Win Against Sylvaneth on Surge of Slaughter

Sylvaneth
Lords of the Clan
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 4
Spell Lore - Lore of the Deepwood
Manifestation Lore - Aetherwrought Machineries

Battle Tactic Cards: Master The Paths, Intercept and Recover

General's Regiment
Alarielle the Everqueen (680)
• General
Tree-Revenants (100)
Treelord (220)

Regiment 1
Belthanos, First Thorn of Kurnoth (350)

Regiment 2
Scourge of Ghyran Drycha Hamadreth (320)

Regiment 3
Spirit of Durthu (330)
• Radiant Spirit
• Glamourweave

Faction Terrain
Awakened Wyldwood

Monster heavy Sylvaneth! Looks like we get to smoosh monsters into each other and boy did we! Landon’s list was quite strong and the new Drycha is a true monster. Her 18” aura of anti-charge or debuff is also quite strong. Drycha is a great inclusion in his list and put in real work.

I deploy heavily in the center, keeping 3 of my droths there and 1 to the right. I place the Shield Vulkites on the left to tag that objective and do nothing but hang out.

With my 5-drops I was obviously out-dropped. He gave me the top of round 1. I put Callis and Toll dead center (not knowing about Drycha’s ward removal, RIP) and basically barely moved the rest of my army, keeping them just a bit behind CNT. I do intentionally stay away from the center, I don’t want to score too much and give him the possibility of a double-turn while still becoming the underdog.

On his turn he plops down some trees, pushes up Alarielle on the left, Drycha, and Durthu in the center, and uses Belthanos and a Treelord to cap to the right side (near my lone droth). Alarielle kills most of my shield Vulkites, Durthu + Drycha clear Callis and Toll plus all but one or two companions and take the center objective. He’s now outscored me!

Priority roll goes off, I take the turn and proceed to kill Drycha, Durthu, and surprisingly, Alarielle. Durthu and Drycha nearly kill a magmadroth, but Alarielle folds like a house of cards to a Runeson Droth I send that way – bonus rend (from being the underdog) with anti-monster means I’m on rend 3 with the son’s axe into her. On the right side my other droth kills the Treelord near Belthanos. Drycha goes down to the lava blood + ichor prayer mortals and then Durthu is finished off with a Power Through from the Runefather.

While my Magmadroths are very thin on wounds, with me having used the 5++ ward and +1 save rune, they are still alive. He has very little and needs an Alarielle revive to stay in the game. He doesn’t get it.

Alarielle making no saves and dying so rapidly was a huge swing in the game. I was in a good position if she had lived, but her dying so swiftly sealed things. The fear of Drycha or Durthu coming back had me on edge, but making her have to bring herself back first means I was in a great spot. When she failed to even bring herself back the game was over.

Landon took his crappy dice rolls in stride and was a good opponent. A fun game and a good start for me. He proceeded to go 4-1! This is good since the tie breaker includes the opponent win percentage.

My win 54-25.

(Fred and Luna battle it out)

Round 2: Win Against Soulblight Gravelords on Grasp of Thorns

Grand Alliance Death | Soulblight Gravelords | Bacchanal of Blood
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 2
Spell Lore - Lore of Undeath
Manifestation Lore - Aetherwrought Machineries
Battle Tactics Cards: Attuned to Ghyran and Scouting Force
-----
General's Regiment
Vampire Lord on Nightmare Steed (190)
• General
• Immortal Ego
• Amulet of Graves
Barrow Knights (210)
Barrow Knights (210)
Blood Knights (440)
• Reinforced
Deathrattle Skeletons (100)
---
Regiment 1
Prince Vhordrai (490)
Vargheists (120)
Vargheists (120)
Wight Lord on Skeletal Steed (120)
-----
Faction Terrain
Cursed Sepulchre

I’ve come back from lunch with food and whiskey sour in me. The cocktail only empowers my dice when playing Fyreslayers!

John’s list is an interesting one. It can easily snag tactics, which is problematic, but it lacks a bit of punch in return.

I deploy, again heavily in the middle leaning to the left, away from his Vhordrai positioning on his right objective. I do put the flameseekers on the right in hopes that if he drags Vhordrai across on round 1 they’ll at least neuter his damage and lock him into combat.

He takes the top of 1, which I found unexpected, and makes me think he will go for an alpha strike: so I pop the fight first rune and chill. He proceeds to… chill on his side of the board and even pull back a bit. The fight-first rune is very scary. He does put the barrow knights in the center with the skeletal steed to get a tactic. They do have to fight my Infernoth, which they easily dispatch.

He’s way up on points and I plop CNT on the right side objective in my territory and proceed to dumpster the barrow knights + hero with three magmadroths. I also position in hopes he’ll get the next turn and charge the blood knights into my SmiterDroth and SonDroth on the left.

This turns out to be true. He gets the top of 2 and I take the underdog. I proceed to lock Vhordrai onto the back right objective where he can’t move. The underdog ability from the battle plan is VERY strong (locks units to an objective). He scoots around some units and charges the BKs into the two magmadroths. Their rampages alone kill 3 blood knights. The enhanced lava blood kills 2 more. The magmadroths then kill the other 5 knights easily and leave the lord alive on low health; a successful defense of my left objective. His vargheists are just doing tactics in the corners.

I go to my turn, kill his vampire lord, send one droth to the back left to cap the enemy objective there and the other two to the back right to kill Vhordrai. Vhordrai does kill one magmadroth but he dies to the other.

The game is basically over now. He scores some points with Vhargeists bouncing around, but they can’t win the game.

My win 68-41.

Round 3: Win Against Nurgle on Cyclic Shifts

Maggotkin of Nurgle
Plague Cyst
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 3
Spell Lore - Lore of Malignance
Prayer Lore - Bendictions of Sickness
Manifestation Lore - Aetherwrought Machineries

Battle Tactic Cards: Intercept and Recover, Master The Paths

General's Regiment
Scourge of Ghyran Rotigus (430)
• General
Putrid Blightkings (380)
• Reinforced
Sloppity Bilepiper, Herald of Nurgle (100)
• Unctuous Preacher
• Rustfang

Regiment 1
Bloab Rotspawned (300)
Putrid Blightkings (380)
• Reinforced

Regiment 2
Orghotts Daemonspew (280)
Rotmire Creed (130)

Faction Terrain
Feculent Gnarlmaw

A tanky list on one of the more spread out battleplans! Zain is on a quest to become more competitive and is on quite a win streak with the new GHB. I’m actually sad I couldn’t give him a cleaner and more coherent game, but I had maybe dipped a bit too hard into the drinking.

We both deploy towards the center on the same side. I know he’s slow so I have no fear of him crossing top of 1. We played the round 1 game of staring hard at each other. But I notice that he leaves a nice opening near Rotigus for two droths to fit through.

I get the top of 2 and take full advantage of this. I send The droths into Rotigus, nearly downing him and cleaning up some blightkings along the way. My left side is playing “hold the line” against Orghotts and doesn’t need to push. I plop CNT over there to help the shield vulkite unit out for when Orghotts possibly comes in.

Bottom of two he’s locked in here with me and applies some pressure with Bloab. But the three magmadroths in combat prove too much and with a (finally) successful rampage from the runefather, Bloab and Rotigus go down. It does cost me the runefather (and gives him a tactic).

With his right side folding he needs his left side to pick up, but it can’t. Orghotts is basically playing games with the Saviours and slowly winning, but that only can last until a magmadroth gets over there to pick him off. I’ve taken the entire right and center so primaries are mine.

Oghotts dies and the game is very over. Zain’s scramble to bring it back was admirable, but the huge positioning mistake with Rotigus at the bottom of one cost him the game when I exploited the magmadroth speed.

My win 66-39

(Nathan’s threat range is at least 44 inches)

Round 4: Win against Daughters of Khaine on Noxious Nexus

Daughters of Khaine
Arena Veterans

[Wrathful Cycles]
[Scouting Force]

[Lore of Shadows]
[Bloodshadow Rites]
[Manifestations of Khaine]

Krethusa the Croneseer [SoG] (240)
- 20 x Sisters of Slaughter with Bladed Bucklers (220)
- 20 x Sisters of Slaughter with Bladed Bucklers (220)

Slaughter Queen on Cauldron of Blood (320)
- 20 x Witch Aelves with Paired Sciansá (220)
- 20 x Witch Aelves with Paired Sciansá (220)

Bloodwrack Shrine [SoG] (230)
[General]
[Khainite Pendant]
[Zealous Orator]
- 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (80)
- 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (80)
- 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (80)
- 5 x Khinerai Lifetakers (80)


1990/2000pts

Fred and Walter are probably the best players in this tournament and DoK are one of the strongest armies in the game. I know this is going to be a hard game, but luckily it’s on a low objective count mission so he can’t abuse the Lifetakers being insanely fast and cheap to force me to spread.

I deploy center, as does he. I get the top 1, as expected, and proceed to do the usual of putting Callis and Toll on the far objective to babysit it until the end of time which they do and throughout the game that does net me 8 points plus the 10 at the end. Eighteen points! Great work CNT!

In the center in round 1 we both on our respective turns barely move. It’s not worth it to take objectives we can’t hold and it’s too risky to go forward. Fred is particularly fearful of the lava breath and flamespitter thinning Aelves before they can get into combat, so he hugs obscuring while failing to make the objective obscuring. I do spread the flameseekers right but keep the Shields back with the runemaster, they are Scouting Force deterrents.

I win priority on round 2 and give it to him. I pop fight first rune and let him move all his units forward to hold the objective. He can’t risk charging and mostly keeps the witch aelves back. I push forward on my turn, kill most of the sisters of slaughter on the right but my runefather proceeds to do almost no damage at all and fails to kill them all.

He gets the round 3 priority and tries to buzzsaw a unit of Witch Aelves into my magmadroths. Fortuitously for him my rampages all fail to go off and this allows him to have most of his fighting force around for combat. I also have been completely unable to banish his manifestation for -1 wound which is problematic. To make matters worse I haven’t gotten almost any prayers off the entire game except for Ichor. And thank Grimnir for that prayer!

The Witch Aelves nearly down two droths, but fall just shy of getting the job done (thank god for Mind Razor not going off). Krethusa’s prayer is super busted, as expected. Still, the droths punch back and kill nearly all the sisters of slaughter and the witch aelves.I do whiff hard on some attacks but thankfully Ichor had already thinned the Aelfs out pretty heavily. Honestly the dice have failed me hard this game outside an unbind, so thank god for lava blood turning those fails into a success!

He’s way behind on points now as my droths, while held down, clear him off the objectives in my turn.

Going into round 4 he NEEDS the priority roll… and fails to get it. This effectively seals the game as I can charge his remaining Witch Aelf unit and take them out. I also have been slowly killing his Lifetakers with shooting and my roaming unit of Flameseekers.

He still has his big heroes remaining and Krethusa, who revives a unit of Witch Aelves which proceed to charge and kill a droth because why not. But this won’t get him the points needed and the game is mathematically over here.

A tight game that could have gone either way in a few moments. I think I could have also blown it open at a couple moments but failed to capitalize. The new obscuring mechanic was an absolutely massive boon to him and the lava breath not being able to hit as much stuff as I’d like was rough. This was a really fun and techy game. I think it wrinkled my brain a bit.

My win 57-38.

Round 5: Loss against Lumineth Realm Lords on Lifecycle

(I bask in Watler’s glory)

Lumineth Realm-lords
Alarith Temple
General's Handbook 2025-26
Drops: 5
Spell Lore - Lore of Hysh
Manifestation Lore - Manifestations of Hysh

Battle Tactic Cards: Attuned to Ghyran, Wrathful Cycles

General's Regiment
Avalenor, The Stoneheart King (410)
 • General
Alarith Stoneguard (240)
 • Reinforced
Alarith Stoneguard (240)
 • Reinforced

Regiment 1
Scinari Cathallar (90)

Regiment 2
Scinari Enlightener (200)
 • Silver Wand
 • Flawless Commander

Regiment 3
Ellania and Ellathor, Eclipsian Warsages (280)
Scourge of Ghyran The Light of Eltharion (250)

Faction Terrain
Shrine Luminor (20 Points)

Regiments of Renown
Saviours of Cinderfall (270)
Callis and Toll
Toll's Companions

I haven’t played Lumineth in a long while, at least a few months. I’ve also never played this battleplan and Walter is a skilled player. I know this is going to be a rough game but at least Walter’s a gem.

Lifecycle has one of the more odd deployments in this GHB and I’m really uncertain how to deploy. Walter deploys heavy on the right so I choose to deploy heavy on the left. We get to go around in a big cycle.

I’m given the top of round 1. I put Callis and Toll right in front of his army on the rightmost objective. The plan is to hope that CNT can tank enough to hold him down so I can give him the top of 2. I move up on the left to take out his only unit of stoneguard but forget to shoot or even charge my Runefather droth on the left side – I was wrong, the Fred game smoothed my brain out! Everything else just sort of hangs out in the center and center-left. There’s no real openings to push into him otherwise.

On his turn he pushes up and easily crushes the Saviours of Cinderfell. Turns out The Light of Eltharion does infinity damage, huh. His left side plays keep away moving on to the back center objective.

I’m given the top of 2 but can’t really penetrate his castle. I decide to clear his center objective to push into his heroes but just roll super shit and cant kill almost anything. The swinginess of Magmadroths is really coming to light. I also try to put some invocations to block countercharges but roll nothing but 1s, I manage to get no prayers off.

To make matters worse, my positioning errors are stacking up and he counter charges Avalenor into my SmiterDroth (expected when I failed the fyrewall block) but isn’t in combat range of my SonDroth (unexpected, I should have been more careful on measurements). I also forgot to activate my 5++ ward rune (I thought about it but then sort of forgot, don’t drink and drive, kids). Avalenor does take a lot of damage from the SmiterDroth but nearly kills it. Still, I am holding him off the objectives and tactics for now which means I’m well ahead on points.

His turn comes around and since I forgot to activate the rune last turn I can at least activate the fight first rune (which I’d hoped to have for the next turn). He loses Avalenor (to lava blood trading with SmiterDroth) and Eltharion (also to lava blood I think). My positioning errors from the previous turns have stacked too much now and I don’t have a ton of responses. To make matters worse my Runefather has done basically 0 damage to the units he can hit and failed his rampage every combat. His lava blood has done more than he has! The battles on the back center and right side of the map have gone his way big time now.

Despite my mistakes I still have a chance to come back due to the living Runefather and Runeson droth and the prayers coming out. I’m up on points so if I can punish his units and heroes I can keep him off objectives long enough he won’t be able to catch up. My gameplan is sort of working, just not how I intended.

Walter gets the double though, uh oh, and brings back Eltharion (GW, pls explain) in round 3 and proceeds to finish off my remaining magmadroths except the (mostly useless) Runefather. I think this seals the game.

I do scramble for points and kill more stuff, as well as bog him down on the back objective, but I have nothing left that can deal with his heroes who are tough for a magmadroth to fight, let alone Shield Vulkites and Flameseekers. Still, my point lead and tactics denial means Walter has to work extra hard for those final few points. The twins have to kill a model to teleport to the objective on the left, if they fail it may well be a draw, but they nab a vulkite to do it.

Walter clearly had a plan (a good one) to rotate around the board clearing me out and it worked flawlessly. My plan to play aggressive fell apart and I need much better positioning to achieve it. The transition into tactics and points denial plan did almost work, but when you’re playing poorly you need a dice bailout and that’s just a gamble that won’t always work.

Walter is gracious in victory and it was a fun game. Very instructive for me, mostly that I need to try to reserve brain energy for game 5, but also learning how LRL works again. I definitely need more reps to see more stuff. A really close and fun game; I always like when a game teaches me a lot.

I lost 43-51. Walter wins the tournament!

Conclusion

(dem Georgia bois)

Very fun and very instructive tournament. Everyone was nice and the incredibly spooky convention center, hotel, and mall is actually a great place to host a GT. I don’t normally make full use of the convention, but it’s open until midnight so that’s certainly an option for some people.

I learned a lot about this GHB and can see some of how the current meta is developing.

I also started to get the hang of Magmadroths. They remain incredibly swingy, but when they pop off their damage is INCREDIBLE. The new prayer lore is also clutch with both Ichor (extra mortals on lava blood) and Blazing Impetus (hero phase move) being really powerful. I went into this thinking Ichor would be useless and instead it was the MVP. I think it did at least 15 mortals every game minimum, probably close to 25 in my game against DoK. Overall the list performed well even if I think the tactics choices were very wrong. Still it’s hard to argue with a 4-1 and I think I had a chance at 5-0 but just got outplayed.

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Kevin Lathers, Order, Reviews

4th Edition Faction Review: Fyreslayers

August 21, 2024 Kuhal Leave a comment

Do you like short people, axes, being angry, and really hate clothing? Well, crank your favorite Wind Rose and/or DragonForce song, it’s time to fight in the name of Grimnir!

(I painted this ‘one ‘droth in UV paint which will never show up on a table ever and maybe was a waste of time.)

Preface

Well, after only a couple GTs in with the Fyreslayers Index, I have thoughts.

Are they good thoughts? Maybe. It’s hard to place things in context with the game not even having its first balance patch.

But listen: this is the internet and bad takes are every person’s divine right.

Lore Blurb

Long ago Duardin (Dwarfs) worshiped many gods, one of them was Grimnir, the god of war. A lot of things happened that made a lot of people angry then blah blah blah Grimnir had to fight Vulcatrix, a gigantic lava god and “mother of Salamanders.” It was an epic battle and both died. Their essences mingled and exploded, dispersed as “ur-gold” across the realms. Fyreslayers pound this ur-gold into their flesh (metal af, ngl) to “use” its power in battle. They believe if they can use it all they will revive Grimnir (and some also want to revive Vulcatrix).

(The Chad Grimnir)

Playstyle

Aesthetically you may think Fyreslayers will be a faction about screaming forward into battle at maximum speed and giving everyone the best fight ever (see: Ironjawz), but their stunty legs generally deny this.

The faction’s playstyle is what I’d call a defensive toolbox. Most everything has a place — every unit and ability is a tool in this box and you just need to figure out when and how to use it. Thus, the army primarily operates off correct usage/timing of once per game buffs as well as unit synergy. You don’t get a lot of unit variance, but each unit is very important for its job.

Don’t get me wrong, the army does love combat and few armies can beat it purely in that arena: if you want to fight in glorious combat then few armies are better than Fyreslayers. That’s why most of the army’s play is finessing the battlefield and planning to get the fights it wants when it wants it.

Battle Traits Summary

Here we see the fulcrum on which all the Fyreslayers’ shenanigans rest: the MAGIC RUNES.

(This Scotsman from Samurai Jack is basically a Fyreslayer)

It’s good to remember that the runes are not supposed to have a set order. Is it common that you’ll use the Rune of Fury or Fiery Determination in rounds 1 or 2? Yes. Should you always? Absolutely not! In fact, in multiple games I have not used Fury (strikes first) until round 5.

The key bit about them is you can only choose one each round. That means you have to pick very wisely, not just which, you use but when you use it. You don’t want to pick the run+charge rune in a round when you REALLY needed it in a later round or when it did nothing at all, for example. Correct rune usage is paramount to winning games as Fyreslayers.

So when do the runes get used? Well, that depends on the board state and what your opponent can do.

Remember each rune can be enhanced as well by a Runemaster, we’ll get to that later, but it makes him a near automatic pick in every list.

Some generalities on when to use the runes:

Searing Heat: Used when you’re going to be in combat, lots of combat, and especially if you really need to punch through mortal damage. This makes your units go from decent, to the kings of Slaptown. This is particularly important if you’re already stuck in combat (e.g. no one’s really charging) or if you think you’re the one who is going to be doing the charges and getting the fighting initiative.

Relentless Zeal: Normally used when a key opening has presented itself. One or more of your units has a way to suddenly get somewhere your opponent very much does not want them. When those situations arise, you’ll know to burn this bad boy. Your Poleaxes going from 4″ move to 10″ can throw a wrench into your opponents plans as an axe into their head.

Fiery Determination: It’s the the top of the round and next turn your opponent is about to unload spells? This one. But that’s not all, it can be used to whether any storm really and is often a precursor to setting up for the Searing Heat or Fury rune. If you can bog down your opponents for a little longer than they like you can sometimes put the game away. A good example is if you were made to go first, moved to the middle, then you can use this with enhancement from Runemaster to have a 5+ ward and +1 save, this can make even Axes stick around.

Fury: Strikes first if charged is good. This rune needs more setup than you might think but may be the strongest of them all. This often will force opponents to NOT charge, setting you up for punishing them. It can also cause people to not take a double they otherwise would because they know you have this in your pocket. Saving it for the right time can be backbreaking to your enemies. They need to get you off points and kill you, with this they will be punished severely for it.

Farsight: Maybe the most niche of the runes, but when you need it you’ll be glad you have it. Many times I have had an opponent’s support hero sitting pretty on 1 or 2 wounds behind their lines and popping this can polish them off. Being able to kill a unit just out of reach, or at least put some mortal damage on them, can rarely shape the entire course of the game. It can also knock on wounds when no other rune really fits the situation.

Subfaction Traits Summary

Warrior Kinband is the go-to here: +1 to wound when charging is great. If you aren’t spamming magmadroths then you’ll often start here. Your infantry, even your heroes, all wound on 3s. Making them wound on 2s is a nice boost in damage and it can also counteract negative to wounds on things like Nighthaunt. This also works if you counter-charge, so that’s quite spicy.

Forge Brethren can be amazing on some battleplans, but not others. Its weakness on a few battleplans is what prevents it from truly competing with Kinband as a top tier subfaction. But it’s still strong and giving everyone +1 to save is great. This means with an enhanced Fiery Determination rune you’ll see your army having +2 to save, +3 with all-out defense, now that’s save-stacking! I can see this finding a nice place if you see a tournament pack using all battleplans that are half the board or if alpha-strike (particularly shooting) becomes the meta. If only it also worked on objectives and not just territory, shame.

Lords of the Lodge has potential, certainly. Making droths worth 8 and foot heroes worth 5 is great. With a runefather that makes a lowly Grimwrath worth 6-10 on an objective, now that’s some cooking! But the infantry heroes are bit too-high costed to perhaps make the best use of it. Still, I’m certain a list can be built to take full advantage of it. Outcapping a monster with a single runesmiter is not bad at all. If control reduction becomes common then this might also see more play.

Scales of Vulcatrix is where GW’s creativity decided to die. Two extra wounds on droths is nice, but that means with 5 droths your list has received a whopping 10 extra wounds… wow. The extra tank is appreciated but on the quite-expensive monster with a 4+ save and a 6+ ward, it’s just not game-changing. If Magmadroth spam ever comes back into the light you may see this one, though.

Prayers/Manifestations Summary

Prayer of Ash is the shining star as both an unlimited prayer and the most powerful. Getting -1 to wound to everything is powerful, full stop. Getting an additional rend reduction occasionally? Amazing! This prayer makes the army function so much better by letting you bog down opponents and survive shooting barrages.

Grimnir’s Fury is very situational and seldom used. It can be great, but it’s limited to foot heroes so often only used on a Grimwrath or Runefather, but the Fight-Last on a foot hero means it’s going to be very rarely see usage over prayer of Ash.

Wrath of Vulcatrix is really strong if you’re running heavy magmadroth lists. Two extra attacks (one on the jaws, one on the claws) is great, but if your droth is damage it can REALLY see some potency. It’s usage is still niche in that it’s droth limited, and companion attacks at that.

Flamespitter is what you put on turn one or two. It’s a second prayer to get off and can tack on damage to units. Is it amazing? No. Is it consistent? Yes. Worth getting out.

Runic Fyrewall is a shadow of its former self. It no longer does basically any movement blocking which is kind of strange; in fact it probably gives opponents MORE movement. What it does do is AoE mortal damage and OC reduction. Don’t sleep on this. The mortal damage adds up and the OC reduction can surprise opponents and thwart their plans.

Molten Infernoth is also a shell of its former glory, but still good. Need a 6 to chant for, it’s not coming out easily. But with some saving of points or a 4+ on a +2 Runemaster you can put it on the field. Its damage is decent, but it also can act as zoning piece. Multiple times now I’ve sat it somewhere just to prevent deepstrikes onto an objective or vulnerable unit. It also has a shooting attack now which isn’t bad. If you can get it out then it’s worth having.

Heroic Traits

Ash-Beard is amazing. It’s easily the best of the lot. Turning any hero into a priest is great! On top of that giving your runemaster +1, +2 near forge, makes Prayer of Ash go off on anything but a 1 and makes praying in the enemies turn incredibly likely to really push the magmic tokens harder. This is likely what you take the majority of the time.

Blood of the Berserker is good, but it’s not amazing. +1 to charge is always nice and this likely can see a slot in a Droth heavy list or perhaps to push the synergy with the enhanced Rune of Relentless Zeal even harder: +2 to charge!

Fiercely Competitive is far too niche. Maybe on a runefather droth? But droths just aren’t tanky enough or do enough damage to warrant this.

Artefacts

Ash-Cloud Rune is your anti-shooting piece. One, possibly two, turns of not having your infantry shot is backbreaking to some armies. Skaven, Lumineth, Slaanesh, etc. all do not want to see this. Extremely powerful.

Droth-Helm is what you want if you’re spamming magmadroths. You probably aren’t, but there’s this. Giving multiple magmadroths +1 to hit can be quite strong.

Magmalt is fine on a Runefather (droth or foot) or Grimwrath, but it being once per battle sinks its usefulness a lot. Getting 3 (possibly 6 with Grimnir’s Fury) extra attacks is nice, especially when they are 3 damage attacks, but it’s rare that it will change the flow of an entire game; unlike Ash-Cloud which can put a shooting army on its back foot.

Warscrolls

Key Warscrolls:

Auric Runefather (on foot): His Royal Retinue ability is very good. Giving +1 to hit to a unit is potent. This makes Hearthguard Berserkers or Auric Hearthguard hit so much harder. It also means that your Auric Hearthguard using covering fire get to negate the -1 to hit to stay at 4+; with priority target the Auric’s will be sitting pretty at +2 to hit and +1 to wound, that’s hard to pass up. Plus, this gives him a 4+ ward making the Runefather stick around so much better. This commanding presence ability is good. It won’t always come up, but when it does, *chef’s kiss* amazing. Nothing like entering round 5 and telling your opponent that your Runefather counts as 7 and the two AHG on a point count for 7. Good look taking that with your two horses, NH. At 160 he’s worth the price.

Auric Runefather on Magmadroth: while possibly overcosted at 350, he acts as such a potent support piece that he can make or break certain lists. His once per game attack aura is obviously incredibly, his rampage lowering save is a crazy buff to every unit in your army. He won’t act as the hammer he was in 3e, but he can still knock a few damage onto things. Still, he’s not the tankiest monster in the world and you need to be very careful with him.

Auric Runemaster: Auto-take in basically every list. A two-chant priest is amazing, a two-chant priest that also enhances your runes? Absolutely bonkers good. This should be in nearly every list unless you have good reason to not take him. The two BIG enhancements (though all are good) are: making Crit(mortal) rune also give 1 additional rend (incredible!) and the 5+ ward rune also give +1 save (amazing!). Those two things alone make him worth every point of 190.

Auric Runesmiter (on foot): You need to do tactics. This let’s you do them with his deepstrike. It also let’s you put a little fear into opponents so they can’t just deploy any way they want. Deploying in the hero phase is a brilliant change from GW and makes deep-striking a priest not feel so bad.

Flameseekers, Vulkites (both types): Your line infantry. You need them and they do what they should: damage and take points. They are fairly well-costed with flameseekers being the standout. Flameseekers are just better than vulkites: while their anti-monster abilities (rend and damage reduction) won’t always be useful, when they are useful it’s clutch. I

Hearthguard Berserkers (both): These are your hammers. They can get a 5+ ward, but that won’t save them from dying. Instead these exist to punish your opponents. Broadaxes are cheaper and can be buffed higher than poleaxes with their bonus attack near damaged heroes (e.g. a magmadroth), but Poleaxes are better in more situations, though it comes with a cost.

Auric Hearthguard: D3 damage shooting? Fuck yes. 12″ range is short, but if you make the most of your movement and redeploys you can abuse your opponents with these hard. Extremely good in a runesmiter regiment or with a Runefather to have always-on +1 to hit and possibly priority target.

Underrated Warscrolls:

Auric Flamekeeper: Perhaps a bit overcosted at 130, but still quite good. He can make Hearthguard Berserkers go from decent hammers to the stars of the show. Crit(mortal) on 3 damage swings is incredible.

Battlesmith: The aura for disallowing OC modification is fine, but not useful often. The rallying buff is very nice, though, particularly on magmadroths. But rallying back an extra one or two infantry due to this buff is very strong and he’ll often pay for himself throughout a game. He can also just hangout with Hearthguard and tack on some damage to anything nearby. At 110 points he’s not so expensive that you can’t be a little aggressive with him.

Probably Won’t See Much:

The Runeson (on foot) and the Doomseeker just aren’t in a good place. The Runeson suffers from being overcosted (130 is criminal) for what he does while also taking up a drop. If he could slot into a Runefather’s regiment (it’s bizarre he can’t) then I could see him maybe hitting the table, but he can’t. The Doomseeker just is a worse Grimwrath, so why take it for the same cost? It might see niche use, but not right now.

The Runeson on Magmadroth suffers a similar fate to his infantry brother: not only does he require an extra drop but he just doesn’t do a lot for his relatively steep cost. 300 points is a lot to ask for a unit that’s not particularly tanky, doesn’t do a particularly high amount of damage, and is geared to kill monsters with a super niche rampage in a meta that sees not many monsters. Will he see the board? Sometimes, but at 300 and in this meta, not a lot.

Tactics/Strategies:

It’s difficult to go over everything you need to consider when playing the army. But there’s one big thing you have to do when playing Fyreslayers: PLAN PLAN PLAN. You are too slow to live in the moment. You need to know where your units will be going one or two turns ahead of where they are. You have to know which tactic you’ll be getting on the next turn while you choose your tactic now. If you can make these plans come to fruition even if you don’t win you’ll find yourself completing tactics and being competitive. This index begs a Fyreslayer’s player to plan their turns 1 or even 2 turns ahead.

Example Lists

I’m just going to plop down my two Nashcon lists:

Fyreslayers
Warrior Kinband
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 4

Prayer Lore – Zharrgrim Blessings
Manifestation Lore – Magmic Invocations

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Auric Runefather (160)
• General
• Ash-cloud Rune
Auric Hearthguard (260)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Auric Runemaster (190)
• Ash-beard
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Weapons (140)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)
Regiment 2
Auric Runesmiter (120)
Hearthguard Berzerkers with Flamestrike Poleaxes (280)
• Reinforced
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Weapons (140)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

Regiments of Renown
Saviours of Cinderfall (230)
Callis and Toll
Toll’s Companions

This list makes use of Callis and Toll as well as a Runesmiter to give more mobility/board-coverage to the army, something it normally lacks. The AHG + Runefather combo is extremely potent and protected by numerous infantry lines and the ash-cloud rune. You can set them up in the center of the board and create a bubble of pew pew bad times for opponents. The damage this list outputs can surprise opponents and once you catch them off guard you can push press the advantage while getting easy tactics with Callis & Toll + their companions.

(Callis and Toll make great allies)

Fyreslayers
Warrior Kinband
2000 Points Limit
Drops: 4

Prayer Lore – Zharrgrim Blessings
Manifestation Lore – Magmic Invocations

Regiments
General’s Regiment
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (350)
• General
• Ash-cloud Rune
Hearthguard Berzerker with Berzerker Broadaxes (240)
• Reinforced
Regiment 1
Auric Runemaster (190)
• Ash-beard
Grimwrath Berzerker (110)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)
Regiment 2
Auric Runesmiter (120)
Auric Hearthguard (130)
Hearthguard Berzerker with Berzerker Broadaxes (120)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)
Regiment 3
Auric Flamekeeper (130)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Weapons (140)
Vulkyn Flameseekers (160)

Faction Terrain
Magmic Battleforge

This list makes use of sacrificial pawn units (e.g. Broadaxe MSU and Runesmiter+its drop) to power up a flamekeeper which can then buff Broadaxes or Vulkites. The Runefather acts as a mobile support mothership to buff the infantry even harder. This is a combo list that can take a bit of finesse to play but will out-combat almost anyone.

Games Workshop

Review of 4e Faction Focus: Fyreslayers

June 4, 2024 Kuhal Leave a comment

(Where’s his rules, GW?!)

Well, Games Workshop in their infinite wisdom has seen fit to share with us a faction focus on Fyreslayers fairly early on. Now, this is just a snippet of the indexes placed into an environment where we don’t have the full picture on anything, so a lot of this will be supposition. An example of things we don’t know: what the hell does the battle formation that allows you to “reinforce your territory by shaping barricades of molten stone” even mean? Why did the cowards at GW not show us Grimwrath Berserkers?

TL;DR

This is a pretty pretty good looking faction focus; I’m sorry for the cowards comment, GW. Fyreslayers made out quite well, especially when compared to other factions: they retained a lot of the flavor and playstyle of the faction and at the same time retained some key pieces that keep the power in a good spot.

Battle Traits

Runes – What Changed?

A lot. The biggest and most obvious change is the runes no longer activate at the start of your hero phase and last until your next hero phase. Instead they are activated during a certain phase and last the entire battle round (Farsight being the exception).

Further, the runes themselves have changed.

Searing heat no longer procs on the wound roll, but on the hit roll: the tradeoff being it lost working on ranged attacks. It also now is Crit(Mortal) which means instead of doing 1 additional mortal wound it does mortal damage equal to the weapon damage, that’s huge on units like a Runefather or Hearthguard Broadaxe.

Relentless Zeal no longer adds movement, but allows for faction wide run and charge which is just fantastic. The dream of run+charge Magmadroths has materialized.

With throwing axes apparently gone, Farsight is now an AoE d3 mortal damage rune. This one is interesting because if you have even one single Duardin hanging out somewhere then ALL the enemy units near them have a chance of taking mortal damage.

Fiery Determination is no longer a 6+ ward, but instead a 5+ ward, that’s a big upgrade! This pairs nicely with all Fyreslayers now apparently having a 6+ ward.

Fury is no longer +1 to hit, but instead is army-wide Strike-First. Now that’s a spicy rune!

Awakened Steel is deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeead. Well, not really. We’ll get to it, but it’s now been rolled into searing heat in the form of the Runemaster awakening these runes.

Analysis

The overall power level of the runes is about the same, some weaker, some stronger, some gone. But like the 3e book, none of these runes can be viewed in a vacuum and their synergies with the other abilities have to be considered.

But one thing that is less obvious this does accomplish is winning the information game. Previously if you used a rune it would be active until your next hero phase. In 3e when you use a rune your opponent knows precisely what rune you will have active if they take the top of round 2. If you used Searing Heat (6’s to wound do a MW), then if they take the top of two, you still have searing heat.

No longer! If you take Relentless Zeal in round 1 that has no bearing on round 2 beyond opponents knowing you can’t take Relentless Zeal again. If they take the top of two they don’t know what rune you’ll use, in fact you could use no rune at all if you so choose.

So while you won’t get to enhance awakened steel and then have it active for three turns, you will get to choose a new rune to fit a new situation. This is important because in the event your opponent chooses to take a double or you give them a double you can respond more appropriately to how the board changed previously. You’re not stuck with a rune that maybe isn’t going to be helpful now. You can also more easily bait opponents into traps you’ve set as they can’t know what play you’re aiming for in all instances.

Further, the Runemaster can enhance these runes even more taking them up a notch. Bless you, GW.

Battle Formations

Subfactions – What Changed?

I guess everything. This is the clear successor to 3e’s Vostarg. It loses the +1 to hit, but keeps the potent +1 to wound. Notably, it now is no longer keyword locked to Vulkites. I’ll call that a buff, possibly a large one. This now affects HEROES, Hearthguard Berserkers, even Auric Hearthguard.

The others: “Other battle formations can make your MAGMADROTHS more resilient, enhance the objective-capturing prowess of your HEROES, or reinforce your territory by shaping barricades of molten stone.”

So Magmadroths probably get more wounds, that’s nice. Heroes likely have a control score of 5 instead of 2. Only God and GW no what in the hell the last one does. I’m going to make a wild guess that it gives defensive bonuses to units in your territory or contesting objectives you control.

Analysis

Seems cool. Berserk Kindred seems cool. We didn’t get a peak at them, but we can assume Grimwarth Berserkers, Doomseekers, Grimholds, Runefathers, and Runesons will be quite excited to have +1 to wound on a charge.

It’s on the charge which is a slight limitation. But with the new counter charge command, that means you can make good use of this.

Incantations (wtf is an Arcana? Them’s fightin’ words)

Prayers – What Changed?

The prayer works functionally the same as it does now. However, it now has an added effect that if you save up Grimnir’s special boy points you can also give a unit the ability to reduce incoming rend. Yea, that’s good.

Oh, it’s Unlimited now. So multiple priests can cast it multiple times.

Analysis

Considering how many units now wound on 4’s this is very strong. Debuffing wound rolls has always been potent, though, but never before could Fyreslayers get this prayer off multiple times. When rend is also getting mostly reduced across the board, then reducing rend seems pretty damn good as well. Overall, this one’s a banger. Here’s a quick example of how this affects incoming damage on a unit of 12 squigs (well, 10 + 2 herders).

Against a unit with a 5+ save, the fully enhanced Prayer of Ash is reducing the damage they do by 3.5 on average, from 8.63 to 5.15.. That’s nearly a 40% reduction in damage!

Unit Focus

Father Droth – What Changed

Tons. Though, notably the unit did keep the +1 attack once per game aura.

Roaring Fyrestream is no longer based on model count, meaning it can actually do damage to single units.
Movement has been reduced by 2”, though it no longer brackets.
Claws and Horns went from 3+/3+ to 4+/2+ which is basically the same thing.
Blazing Maw lost attacks but also is no longer d3 damage.
The Grandaxe has an additional rend flat without runes or artefacts.
Raging Inferno is a fucking awesome monstrous action. It functionally is adding one rend to everything in your army that attacks the target. That’s crazy powerful. This ability alone would, in a vacuum, make any other changes to this unit worth it.
Volcanic Blood, the iconic ability, has seen a big change. I would call this overall a nerf, but also more of a sidegrade. It no longer procs on each wound/damage applied but instead on each saving roll of 1.
Built-in 6+ ward!
Warmaster!

Analysis

Fantastic. The save remained the same. But when even Kragnos has been demoted to a 4+ save then staying at a 4+ save is amazing. The Raging Inferno rampage is fantastic. A+ work, no notes.

The big change to the unit people may grumble about is Volcanic Blood. The reason this is somewhat a sidegrade is due to the change in functionality meaning two things: this now causes mortal damage before ward saves and this punishes weight of dice far more than hard single hits. Someone throwing 50 rend 0 attacks with 1 damage at a magmadroth is gonna fear this far more than someone throwing 5 rend 3 attacks with 3 damage.

When paired with an enhanced Rune of Searing Heat (enhanced from Runemaster below), and All-Out Attack, this unit is going to be a monster on the battlefield. Assuming it gets off its rampage it will be swinging with rend 3 and 4 against targets and bleeding mortal damage on any slap backs.

Hard not to like a unit keeping its spot in the batting line-up.

Runemaster – What Changed?

As expected, the bonus CP is gone. Oh, and his save is 5+ now. But other than that, this is straight gas. Priest (2)? Fuck yea, that’s hot. This means you can save goodest boi points or get two of these precious magmic power tokens in one turn.

But the important bit is the rune enhancements. These are effects you can add to the battle trait runes. You just have to pray to Grimnir successfully three times to them. While these don’t stack, it is notable that multiple Runemasters could be acquiring magmic power tokens to hedge bets on chanting a 1 or just to have back-to-back enhancements.

Analysis

Priest (2) is already a straight buff. Being able to chant for two prayers, often one an invocation, is amazing.

Rune Enhancements are where this unit becomes an absolute must have. Assuming you chant twice in your round 1 turn and once in your opponent’s turn, you can have 3 magmic tokens by round 2 for a quick enhancement ready to go! With the Forge (below) you can get +1 to these rolls and if also near a place of power you can get +2 to chanting rolls making rolling a 1 the only thing you have to fear.

The notable enhancement here is the Rune of Searing Heat enhancement. Not only would it now do mortal damage on 6s to hit, but the weapons would have an additional rend to boot. This is basically combining the rune of searing heat and awakened steel from 3e into one. That is very nice.

Rune of Fury enhancement is also very nice. This turns your Fyreslayers into defensive power houses while the rune is up. Not only do they get Strikes-First but they also get +1 to wound. That’ll make opponents think twice on engaging and make engagements you force all the more potent.

With Priest (2), even if not aiming for enhanced runes, you can certainly aim for enhanced prayers. Using Prayer of Ash as an example, with the aid of the Forge, you only need to roll a 6 on 2d6 to get the enhanced prayer. That’s quite nice. This means that if you desire to throw a magmadroth into the mix on turn 1 you can make it extra tanky.

Hearthguard Berserkers – What Changed?

These guys had the most controversial changes in the Fyreslayers chats. No longer do they have a 4+ ward near heroes. Instead they, and an accompanying hero (ANY INFANTRY HERO NOW!), have a 5+ ward if the hero is wholly within 3” of them. That’s a, uhhh, tight spacing.

Further, they now gain +1 attack if they are within 3” of any damaged heroes. That’s nice.

Sadly, their save was knocked down from the already low 5+ to the worse 6+, though they did gain an innate 6+ ward.

What’s more notable is what wasn’t changed: their combat profile. If you walk on over to the other faction focuses you’ll find that good ol’ humans are slapping on 4+/4+, Aelfs on 3+/4+, and everyone else on some permutation of these numbers. Hell, the hyper elite SCE are hitting on 3+/3+. So keeping a 3+/3+ profile and the innate rend on the broadaxe is incredible.

Analysis

The change to the bodyguard ability to work on any hero and not only on Runefathers is perfect. Hearthguard Berserkers are now going to give wards to everyone, including your priests and your Grimwrath berserkers. They will be the ultimate in backline protection as well as front line supporters. I foresee at least one single un-reinforced HGB being often taken just to protect the Runemaster and his other support heroes.

Further, toss on the Rune of Searing Heat or Fury, especially if either is enhanced, their Fires of Vengeance and the Runefathers bonus to attack and you got a unit that has 4 attacks each, hitting on 3s (with Crit(Mortal)), wounding on 3s or 2s, and rending at 1 or 2, slapping the snot out of opponents.

While the 4+ ward will be missed greatly. The unit overall still has a nice spot in the army and has gained a lot of utility in bodyguarding more than a runefather/son.

Molten Infernoth – What Changed?

Everything. EVERYTHING. RIP my slot machine, you glorious beast, you gobbler of foot heroes, you bane of Mannfred. You will be forever mourned. But this is actually a pretty solid change.

This is now, effectively, a free unit that gets to go muck around enemy lines and possibly debuff them. Oh, it gained FLY, that’s nice.

Analysis

Raging Torrents is fairly short range at 8” and not very potent, but I can see it being a nice way to knock a couple wounds onto something. A shooting attack on this is certainly interesting though. Since it’s flying it also ignores obstructing terrain, too. Maybe he can kill the pesky wizards, still.

Molten Claws, now that’s an attack profile for a free unit. With Crit(Mortal) this thing is going to burn some people down.

Yea, even against a 2+ save this is punching through 3 damage. This is important because FLAMESCARRED triggers at the end of the turn if something does take damage. This gives minus one to wound rolls for a unit that has suffered a damage from this until the end of your next turn. That’s right, not until the start of your next turn, but the end of it. Incredible. When stacked with prayer of ash you’re looking at -2 to wound rolls against your units from this thing’s targets. Love it!

Battlesmith – What Changed?

We are going to assume that the abilities here are the same, or close to, the non-Spearhead version. With that in mind this is going back to the old 2e Battlesmith and gaining a +1 save Aura. Considering the above Hearthguard Berserkers’ save got worse, this fixes that right up.

Further, it can give out a 5+ ward aura. This part is iffier, at least as it’s written here, of surviving to the regular army. I would expect this to at least get Once Per Battle (Army) if anything so you can’t have multiple Battlesmiths using it.

The lack of bonus to rally rolls here is concerning, but it’s hard to say if that will come back or not. Too many pieces of information could change with a spearhead warscroll.

Analysis

In an edition where GW claims save stacking is significantly reduced, getting a +1 save aura seems very good. This rectifies the Runemaster back to a 4+, the HGB back to a 5+, and puts the Magmadroth on a 3+. Combined with All-Out Defense and the enhanced Rune of Fiery Determination (Runemaster effect) and you can have +2 to save on multiple units and +3 to save on one unit. That’s some nice save stacking that Fyreslayers lack even in 3e.

Hopefully he keeps the Nulsidian Icon, but that’s outside the scope of this.

Bonus: Faction Terrain

Forge – What Changed?

Sidegrade from +1 to chanting rolls wholly within 18” to +1 to chanting rolls on one priest within 3”. But this also gives Wizard (1) for unbinding. Unbinds are always welcome.

Burning the forge down now heals all Fyreslayers for d3 as well. Oh, and it has Cover, Impassable, and Obscuring.

Analysis

Overall a sidegrade with a tinge of buff. Being able to heal the entire army is nice, but it’s only d3. Still, that can be clutch in certain instances.

More importantly, giving out +1 chanting is still around. Parking a Priest (2) Runemaster next to this thing looks quite nice. +1 to chanting two prayers is a lot of priestly points acquired. Further, FS always lacked unbinds and this fixes that issue.

The obscuring trait is also a good add-on for this terrain. This allows you to park a hero behind it, right in its little arm crook, and have it hidden from shooting from almost the entire battlefield. That’s quite nice.

Cooking With These Ingredients

It seems Fyreslayers will retain their identity as a hard-to-remove combat army. The magmadroth is extremely potent and the Hearthguard Berserkers, especially with fight first and defensive buffs, will outfight anyone.

Just putting together what is shown you could have a list of a Runefather, Battlesmith, Runemaster, and Hearthguard Spam and it would absolutely smash things – assuming the points aren’t wildly overboard.

That’s very encouraging. If the little tidbits we have can already build something meaningful then adding more will only spice up the pot.

Imagine a line of Hearthguard with 5+ ward, +1 (+2 save with all out defense), and -1 to wounds against them as well as possibly -1 to rend against them: that’s actually very tanky. For perspective, a Reinforced Squig Herd – which is no slouch in damage – would punch through only 7 wounds on average against that, killing 3 Hearthguard Berserkers, assuming you didn’t get to fight before them – with Strikes-First a 5-man Hearthguard unit wipes almost the entire Squig unit out before it even gets to kill those three Duardin.

These can be backed by a Runefather on Magmadroth which can swing for the fences and reduce enemies saves even further. With the new ability of all units to hit within 3″, placing a Droth behind a line of Hearthguard Berserkers is maybe not a bad idea — hand out the rampage and if opponents attack the Magmadroth instead they inadvertently buff the Hearthguard’s damage profile.

And don’t forget a Molten Infernoth handing out -1 to wound and mucking about in the opponent’s lines. Even if they banish it in their turn the -1 wound should persist.

Fyreslayers have always been about how all the units can work in concert to make your opponent’s life hell and there appears to be no change to that here.

That said, we are missing a few key ingredients here. The Runesmiter is MIA and his deepstrike is always an important consideration. Auric Hearthguard, the only shooting unit in Fyreslayers, is missing. Grimwrath Berserkers have a place in many players’ hearts: will they still be spammable? Will they keep their oaths? Who knows.

But a big one not shown here is the Flamekeeper. He has been a big boon to nearly every Fyreslayers list in 3e, with many running two. His ability is extremely potent and in 4e would see him be a near must have. Even one flamekeeper would cause Hearthguard’s searing heat Crit(mortal) to do three mortal damage on a 6, now that’s a big hit. Here’s hoping.

Conclusion

Good stuff. Please show us more. No further notes.

Games Workshop

Tournament Battle Report: Fyreslayers at Warzone Level-Up Games 2024

April 25, 2024 Kuhal Leave a comment

The Setting

This event was held at Level-Up games, a game store in Duluth, GA. which is a Northeastern suburb of Atlanta. This was the first time the event had been run but it managed to pull 50 people, selling out the tournament.

The venue is a game store with all the usual trappings that come with that. Level-Up is unique in that it is massive as far as these things go and not only was able to hold our 50-person GT but also large card gaming events at the same time.

Calvin rambles on about nonsense while I try not to sleep

Surrounding the store is one of the largest Koreantowns in the US. Generally amazing food of all varieties can be found in the area. This usually leads to good after-tourney meal times.

The List

In retrospect, due to differential scoring, I likely should have made this list Vostarg as it can often smash harder and run up the score better. But it’s hard to complain about a 5-0, so the list did what it had to do. I somewhat wish I’d taken my Ionus list from Cherokee simply because GW leveled a targeted nerf at that list specifically, with me being the only person who ever even took it to a GT. Sort of bizarre on GW’s part, really.

This list is a bit more control oriented while having multiple hammers still. High wound count infantry supplemented by a magmadroth and once-per-game-hit-super-hard-Grimwarth Berserker makes opponents’ choices in which hammer to deal with difficult.

The gyrocopter is there for a tactic and a little harassment. It’s cheap, it gets the tactic, it’s a fun little guy.

The Grimwrath also allows for Wizard-finders in addition to, instead of replacing, double warlord battalions. This was generally useless except for one instance where it became VERY useful, so I guess that was worth it.

When the pieces are put into place it turns into a big wall of dudes you can push around the board waiting for the right openings to smash the opponent’s key pieces.

- Army Faction: Fyreslayers
     - Subfaction: Greyfyrd
     - Grand Strategy: Masters of the Forge
     - Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
     - Nullstone Adornments:  Pouch of Nulldust
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (340)**
     - Artefacts of Power: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
     - Mount Traits: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runemaster (130)***
     - General
     - Command Traits: Master Priest
     - Artefacts of Power: Volatile Brazier
Battlesmith (140)***
     - Artefacts of Power: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Runesmiter (110)***
     - Runic Iron 
     - Artefacts of Power: Ash-cloud Rune
     - Prayers: Ember Storm
BATTLELINE
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)*
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)*
OTHER
Grimwrath Berzerker (110)*
     - Artefacts of Power: Draught of Magmalt Ale
Vulkyn Flameseekers (140)**
Gyrocopter (80)***
     - Brimstone Gun
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Molten Infernoth (50)
1 x Runic Fyrewall (60)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Wizard-finders of Andtor
**Warlord
***Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

Games Summary

I would end the tournament going 5-0, but these were not easy games. My win against Stuart was by 1 point and against Dave by 2.

Game 1 vs. Sung Kang’s Daughters of Khaine: Hagg Nar – My Archenemy

Game 2 vs. Sam Osborne’s Starborne: Fangs of Sotek – Best Sport Winner

Game 3 vs. Connor Tolbert’s Cities of Sigmar: Lethis – Best Painted Winner

Game 4 vs. Stuart King’s Cities of Sigmar: Misthavn – Top of 4 win bracket

Game 5 vs. Dave Jones’ Sons of Behemat: Stomper Tribe – Top of 3 Win bracket

Day 1: I Brought the Alcohol

Things start off with me attempting to not fall asleep because I hate waking up before 11 a.m. I did locate coffee, so things are looking up. There’s a players’ meeting, who listens to that? Not me, that’s who.

It’s a big store

Game 1 vs. Sung Kang’s DoK on Lines of Communication

In which naked men beat up naked women

Opponents List:

- Army Faction: Daughters of Khaine
	 - Subfaction: Hagg Nar
	 - Grand Strategy: Conquered in the Name of Khaine
	 - Triumph: Bloodthirsty
LEADERS
Bloodwrack Medusa (140)*
	 - Spells: Mindrazor
High Gladiatrix (90)*
	 - Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
Hag Queen on Cauldron of Blood (270)**
	 - General
	 - Command Traits: Zealous Orator
	 - Prayers: Crimson Rejuvenation, Heal
Slythael Shadestalker (200)**
Krethusa the Croneseer (170)**
	 - Prayers: Crimson Rejuvenation, Sacrament of Blood
BATTLELINE
Witch Aelves (110)
	 - Hag
	 - Sciansá and Bladed Buckler
	 - 2 x Death Pennant Bearer
	 - 2 x Hornblower
Witch Aelves (110)**
	 - Hag
	 - Sciansá and Bladed Buckler
	 - 2 x Death Pennant Bearer
	 - 2 x Hornblower
Witch Aelves (330)**
	 - Hag
	 - Paired Sciansá
	 - 6 x Death Pennant Bearer
	 - 6 x Hornblower
BEHEMOTH
Avatar of Khaine (130)
Avatar of Khaine (130)
Avatar of Khaine (130)
Avatar of Khaine (130)
OTHER
The Shadeborn (200)
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Heart of Fury (50)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: 1990/2000

Sung is a chill dude and usually comes up with fun lists. He’s also the first person I ever played against when I started my Age of Sigmar journey at the very start of 3e: he beat my ass with Gitz. On that day I vowed to never lose to Sung again, and so far I have upheld that promise.

His list is actually quite tricky. The Avatars push a similar angle to Grimwrath spam: high wound count MSU single model units which can slap decently in their own right. He also has Witch Aelves, including a unit of 30, which are known to muderzone anything and everything.

Thankfully, between fighting on death and a Runefather Magmadroth the 30 block of Witch Aelves died in one round of combat while the Avatars were bogged down and slowly killed elsewhere.

Of all the battleplans Sung would want to engage me on, this was not it. A three-objective plan means I can sit on two objectives and force his Witch Aelves to run into the buzzsaw of fight-first vulkites. That is not ideal for them at all.

Fyreslayers win 28-16.

Game 2 vs. Sam Osborne’s Starborne on Fountains of Frost

Sam won this while playing Starborne. Ruminate on that.

Opponents List:

Army Faction: Seraphon
	- Army Type: Starborne
	- Army Subfaction: Fangs of Sotek
	- Grand Strategy: Spellcasting Savant
	- Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Skink Oracle on Troglodon (270)
	- Spells: Cosmic Crush, Speed of Huanchi
1 x Slann Starmaster (310)*
	- General
	- Command Traits: Shaman of the Chilled Lands
	- Artefacts: Spacefolder’s Stave
	- Spells: Comet’s Call, Mystical Unforging
1 x Skink Starseer (160)*
	- Spells: Merciless Blizzard, Speed of Huanchi
1 x Lord Kroak (440)**
1 x Skink Starpriest (130)**
	- Spells: Merciless Blizzard, Hoarfrost
1 x Saurus Astrolith Bearer (160)**

BATTLELINE
10 x Skinks (90)
	- Skink Alpha
	- Boltspitter
	- Celestite Dagger and Star-buckler
5 x Raptadon Chargers (150)
	- Raptadon Charger Alpha
	- Icon Bearer
	- Hornblower
5 x Saurus Guard (140)**
	- Saurus Guard Alpha
	- Icon Bearer
	- War-drummer
ENDLESS SPELL
1 x Aethervoid Pendulum (50)
1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (50)
1 x Suffocating Gravetide (30)
TERRAIN
1 x Starborne Realmshaper Engine (0)

Sam is a super fun guy to be around. After this game I invited him out to the parking lot for some, what we’ll say is light, tailgating. I had brought a cooler with sweet tea vodka and peach moonshine. The moonshine was amazing. Sam and I, along with some others, managed to kill the jar and I got a nice buzz in the process.

His list is a Highlander (only one of each unit) version of an otherwise typical starborne list. This is a matchup that is quite desirable for my list due to my heavy anti-magic bend and high amount of wounds. Even if he does burn my heroes down he probably doesn’t have enough dps to punish the infantry. If he punishes the infantry they are still getting rallied and spell ignores.

This battleplan has 3 objectives on each side and I just don’t have the tactics which would let me sit on my side, he would definitely win that race. Instead, Round 1 sees me push hard up the middle since I know I need to break his fort apart. I keep the sides a bit back with a little infantry protection and protect against summons/deepstrikes. He throws out a bunch of spells, accomplishes not a ton, and then we move to round 2.

He had plopped down a double layer of Skinks in an effort to protect his heroes against any of my hammers. Sadly for him I rolled a double on my molten infernoth OBLITERATING one of his skink screens. The other is then easily thinned by built-up magmadroth breath and throwing axes.

With Kroak et al unprotected the Grimwrath and Magmadroth make quick work of Kroak, his guard, and his Troglodon. When it goes to his turn again I have an ash-cloud rune to block any blizzards which mostly secures the game by this point.

He backs up to protect the Slann after a horrible miscast and other horrible dice failures. At this point I barely have to do much as his dice are doing him in more than I am, but the game is already over, so his only chance was some massive dice swings in his favor and this just wasn’t it.

I pull a victory: 25-15.

Game 3 vs. Connor Tolbert’s Cities on Nexus Collapse

Connor’s army and board are amazing

Opponents List:

Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
	- Army Subfaction: Lethis
	- Grand Strategy: Banners Held High
	- Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Galen Ven Denst (160)*
	- Prayers: Morrda’s Embrace
1 x Haskel Hexbane (180)*
	- Prayers: Morrda’s Embrace
1 x Alchemite Warforger (100)**
	- Artefacts: Mastro Vivetti’s Magnificent Macroscope
	- Spells: Merciless Blizzard
1 x Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal (120)**
	- Prayers: Curse
1 x Freeguild Marshal on Griffon (270)**
	- General
	- Command Traits: Grizzled Veteran
	- Freeguild Lance
	- Artefacts: Sigmarite Warhammer
	- Prayers: Heal
1 x Pontifex Zenestra (180)***
	- Prayers: Morrda’s Embrace

BATTLELINE
5 x Freeguild Cavaliers (180)*
	- Arch-Knight
	- Cavalier Herald
	- Arch-Knight’s Blade
5 x Freeguild Cavaliers (180)*
	- Cavalier Herald
	- Arch-Knight
	- Arch-Knight’s Blade
5 x Freeguild Cavaliers (180)*
	- Cavalier Herald
	- Arch-Knight
	- Arch-Knight’s Blade
10 x Freeguild Steelhelms (100)**
	- Sergeant-at-Arms
	- Steelhelm Herald
	- Battle Priest
11 x Wildercorps Hunters (130)***

OTHER
1 x Doralia ven Denst (160)*
	- Prayers: Morrda’s Embrace
5 x Hexbane’s Hunters (180)*
6 x Freeguild Command Corps (200)***

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Warlord
***Battle Regiment

Connor is a slightly newer player but is quite good. His army also absolutely SMASHES mine in the hobbying department, but sadly I can’t roll dice to make up for that skill inequality. I’m going to be honest, I’m still quite buzzed from the moonshine and only vaguely remember this match. So apologies to Connor if this is all bullshit.

His list is fast, it hits hard, and it has ample priests to attempt to banish my invocations; problematic to say the least. To make matters a bit more complicated, we’re on the thinking man’s map: Nexus Collapse, where the goal is to score less than your opponent until basically rounds 4 and 5, but not too much less.

Connor’s game plan becomes pretty clear right on deployment: just straight outscore me and push hard forward, not even play the stupid score-less-game thing. With that I have basically one goal: castle as hard as I can and hope to burn him down to bring the score back round 4 and 5.

Sure enough, he comes out the gate swinging, denying me a tactic on turn 1 then getting right in my face. I deleted his two objectives, but he was already leaving those in the dust anyway.

His general pushes a bit too hard though and this results in it getting mulched by a unit of buffed vulkites while my magmadroth with a rend rune takes his cav out behind the shed to old yeller them boys.

My gameplan works out in my favor, though it is a VERY close call and I think a few dice rolls going differently might have seen me not able to catch back up.

My Victory: 20-14. That’s pretty high scoring for this battleplan!

Day 2: I’m Very Tired

The gods of sleep have forsaken me, but I have acquired donuts, so things are okay. I think I actually doze off for like 30 seconds while my game 4 opponent sets up the terrain.

The Final Game for 1st place and also me or something

Game 4 vs. Stuart King’s Cities on Geomantic Pulse

The Dojo has cooler shirts than GAW

Opponents List:

Army Faction: Cities of Sigmar
	- Army Subfaction: Misthåvn
	- Grand Strategy: Reclaim for Sigmar!

LEADER
1 x Sevireth (270)*
2 x Callis and Toll (350)*
1 x Alchemite Warforger (100)*
	- Artefacts: Shemtek’s Grimoire
	- Spells: Merciless Blizzard
1 x Haskel Hexbane (180)**
1 x Galen Ven Denst (160)**
1 x Freeguild Marshal on Griffon (270)***
	- General
	- Command Traits: Grizzled Veteran
	- Freeguild Lance
	- Artefacts: Sigmarite Warhammer

BATTLELINE
10 x Freeguild Steelhelms (100)*
	- Sergeant-at-Arms
	- Steelhelm Herald
	- Battle Priest
11 x Wildercorps Hunters (130)**
5 x Freeguild Cavaliers (180)***
	- Arch-Knight
	- Cavalier Herald
	- Arch-Knight’s Blade
5 x Freeguild Cavaliers (180)***
	- Arch-Knight
	- Cavalier Herald
	- Arch-Knight’s Blade

OTHER
3 x Toll's Companions (350)**
5 x Hexbane’s Hunters (180)**
1 x Doralia ven Denst (160)**
1 x Gyrocopter (80)***
	- Brimstone Gun

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Warlord
**Battle Regiment
***Battle Regiment

Stuart’s a super nice guy and I have played him in a couple tournaments now. I actually played him at the last Warzone tournament in Marietta. I was playing a much different list and he was playing CoS shooting in which I won through shear speed and dice luck.

Turns out the lists change but winning by dice luck stays the same. Stuart’s list is very different, but quite effective. The chip shooting is enough to be annoyingly dangerous while his army is fast and tanky.

The battleplan is Geomantic pulse, which is problematic for me, a slow as hell army against a very fast one.

I castle up on the left and just hold the line trying to eke out points while I try to wear Stuart’s forces down through attrition and superior wound count. Luckily for me I win basically every priority against him to control the speed of the game.

This lets me deny him a double, which I probably shouldn’t have done, and pick up his general. But doing so also leaves my own army completely out in the open against him. This costs me most of my Vulkites and most of my objective control.

But denying Stuart the 2-3 double I prevent myself from straight out losing and bring it back around in my favor. Still, Sevireth is annoying as hell, his heroes shoot well and slap hard, and I just can’t keep my heroes in the right spot as I try to spread across 3 of the 4 objectives.

My only saving grace in the end was my vulkites killing his cav on the right side means that he has nothing left to hold the side as the pulse moves along. In round 5 he holds the adjacent objective but not the pulse which I do hold. This gives me the one point win while I’m basically tabled. This is also why it’s often a great idea to leave intimidate the invaders for last: you only need one unit to get it!

I won 29-28 in a match I believe I was outplayed and only saved by dice.

Game 5 vs. Dave Jones’ Sons of Behemat on No Reward Without Risk

Ladies want to be with Dave and men want to be Dave

Opponents List:

Army Faction: Sons of Behemat
	- Army Type: Stomper Tribe
	- Grand Strategy: Slaughter of Sorcery
	- Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Warstomper (440)*
	- General
	- Command Traits: Monstrously Tough
	- Artefacts: Club of the First Oak
1 x Gatebreaker (500)**
	- Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon

BATTLELINE
1 x Mancrusher Gargant (130)*
1 x Mancrusher Gargant (130)*
1 x Mancrusher Gargant (130)*
1 x Mancrusher Gargant (130)*
1 x Mancrusher Gargant (130)**
1 x Mancrusher Gargant (130)**
1 x Mancrusher Gargant (130)**
1 x Mancrusher Gargant (130)**

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (1980/2000)

Games against Dave are always fun but always a grind. My last game against Dave saw him unable to kill a single Auric Hearthguard with a mega-gargant, which while highly amusing is also sad.

This game proves to be very back-and-forth with the final result being both of us nearly tabled. My only remaining units being a magmadroth, a battlesmith, and a gyrocopter to his single mancrusher.

He takes the top of 1 and smashes into my lines, unexpected. This does allow me to follow up with a HARD counter punch, but not hard enough. My dice fail me and I find myself sorely missing Vostarg for its buffs. On top of that he roars away 5 vulkites with a boxcar roll against their bravery: back breaking!

Still, if I can get the double, the game is over. I do not. The game turns into a slog. I just can’t take the objectives off his gargants and fall deeply behind in points. Further, I lose every priority allowing Dave to completely control the game’s pacing, similar to what I’d done to Stuart. I guess I’d used up all my luck!

Dave masterfully puts to work each individual mancrusher and burns down my vulkites with me unable to spread the buffs out efficiently and more dying to shooting. I just can’t do enough DPS to take each mancrusher down.

My saving grace turns out to be the magmadroth’s ability to murderzone things and my grimwrath berserker single-handedly killing two mancrushers. But even with that it’s not until the end that I scratch my way back and through denial of a tactic pull off a win. If he had managed to hurl a body in one turn then it turns into a true draw!

My victory 24-22!

Conclusion

The final top 10 players

Sadly Fyreslayers are not an army that wins by smashing opponents, at least not this list, unless they just mindlessly walk right into your buzzsaw. So it was always going to be difficult in a point differential system to take first place here. Still, it’s hard to complain about second place!

Best Order Prize: Cool trophy and some really cool measuring sticks by TifiretsTreasures

Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Kevin Lathers, Order, Tournaments

Tournament Report: Fyreslayers at LVO 2024.

January 24, 2024 Kuhal 2 Comments

The Tournament and Setting

Some of us GAW people

The ~~2023~~ 2024 Las Vegas Open Age of Sigmar Championships had the most participants ever! Since the last LVO I have played in a few more GTs and they’ve become a bit more routine but still fun.

This tournament uses the GHB 2023-2024 (aka Andtor aka “God I hate blizzard”) and a battlescroll that has passed its expiration date. Once again it was held at the Rio, an off-strip hotel in Las Vegas. The Rio is still kind of a dump, but it’s improving! We celebrate improvements here, folks. I personally stayed on the strip in the (cheap af) Flamingo.

I was attending with some of my Georgia Warband teammates (big congrats to teammate Jon Anderson on his stellar 5-0 with LRL). Sadly we had fewer of us going this year, but still enough to be called a crowd. I got in a few days early to do some hiking this time instead of Vegas shenanigans. The parks were cooler than the hotels anyway, so that was well worth it.

It’s da desert

I ended up going 4-1, placing 56th out of 345 (lower in the 4-1 bracket) in the main event, and 3-0 in the doubles, placing us 5th out of 65.

My List

Army Faction: Fyreslayers
- Subfaction: Greyfyrd 
- Grand Strategy: Masters of the Forge 
- Triumph: Inspired
LEADERS
Auric Runemaster (130)*
- General
- Command Traits: Master Priest
- Artefacts of Power: Volatile Brazier 
- Prayers: Heal 
Auric Runesmiter (130)*
- Forge Key 
- Artefacts of Power: Ash-cloud Rune 
- Prayers: Prayer Of Ash
Ionus Cryptborn (400)* 
Battlesmith (150)**
- Artefacts of Power: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
- Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome 
Auric Runeson on Magmadroth (320)**
- Ancestral War-axe
- Artefacts of Power: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
- Mount Traits: Coal-heart Ancient
BATTLELINE
Auric Hearthguard (360) 
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)*
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)** 
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Molten Infernoth (50)
1 x Runic Fyrewall (60) 
CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord (+1 artefact)
**Warlord (+1 artefact)
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000
Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App

Dragon

Fyreslayers are not in the best spot in the meta, but I still had a couple lists to choose from. While more match-up dependent, I decided on an Ionus ally list because he’s cool and I like dragons. This year I got a little more practice so I at least knew the gist of the list. An alternative list idea that seemed to work well was a Flameseeker spamming Greyfyrd or Lofnir, but I was uncertain about it with so little practice.

This list itself plays as a grinding control list. It’s attempting to shift the battlefield in such a way that Ionus, the droth, and the AHG are all frustrating opponents, hurting their damage or objective staying power, while you slowly grind them down. Further, Ionus’ ability to instantly put out invocations means that on turn 1 you can use your Runemaster for either invocation (depending on needed ranges and invocations) and then not worry about failing the other.

Ionus’ breath attack + soul burn, his -1 attacks characteristic ability, and his halting of inspiring presence all add up to make him a potent ally in Fyreslayers. Not only does it add to the army’s ability to take a hit, but it ensures that any damage hangs on the opponents sticks. Killing 20 skeletons and watching the rest flee to battleshock is very nice. He also adds ranged mortal wound output on top of the infernoth’s and AHG’s (with searing heat) to burn down high save targets.

The list is tricky to play though: it has fewer wounds than most Fyreslayers lists and damage is concentrated in three key hammers. The single flamekeeper means that Vulkites can become somewhat of a hammer too, and that turned out to be very important in a couple matchups. But with fewer bodies, getting them there is tricky when they might well be the unit that dies. The flamekeeper also means that even the AHG can hang some two damage attacks onto opponents. 31 attacks at a 2 damage isn’t anything to ignore even if they have no rend.

Games Summary:

Every one of my opponents were great and fun. I liked all my games. I do have awful memory so the exact details of these events are probably slightly different from reality, but this is as best as I can remember. Sometimes memories blur the rounds together.

Game 1: Win vs. Jules Nguyen on Kharadron Ovelords. 
Game 2: Win vs. Landon Jennings on Ossiarch Bonereaper.
Game 3: Win vs. Steaphen Isaac on Ogor Mawtribes. 
Game 4: Loss vs. Gavin Grigar on Cities of Sigmar. 
Game 5: Win vs. Josh Chournos on Soulblight Gravelords.

Day 1: Games 1-3

Tourney space: it’s big and full of nerds

Game 1 vs. Jules Nguyen’s KO on Power Flux

Army Faction: Kharadron Overlords
- Army Subfaction: Barak-Zon
- Grand Strategy: Rule the Skies
- Triumphs: Indomitable
- Stick To The Code (Amendments): Prosecute Wars With All Haste
- Stick To The Code (Artycles): Settle the Grudges
- Stick To The Code (Footnotes): There’s No Reward Without Risk
LEADER
1 x Aetheric Navigator (100)*
- Artefacts: Voidstone Orb
1 x Arkanaut Admiral (140)*
- General
- Command Traits: Stormcaller
- Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon
1 x Endrinmaster with Dirigible Suit (170)**
BATTLELINE
6 x Endrinriggers (120)*
3 x Endrinriggers (120)*
10 x Arkanaut Company (90)**
- Skypike
6 x Endrinriggers (120)**
- Mizzenmaster
3 x Skywardens (130)**
- Custodian
BEHEMOTH
1 x Arkanaut Frigate (300)*
- Heavy Sky Cannon
- The Admiral's Flagship: The Admiral's Flagship
- Great Endrinworks: Prudency Chutes
1 x Arkanaut Frigate (300)**
- Heavy Sky Cannon
OTHER
1 x Grundstok Gunhauler (170)*
- Drill Cannon
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Jules was a fantastic opponent who took the impending infernoth incineration like a champion. Her list was a mostly-melee KO list which can be quite potent and could potentially get around my screens to dismantle my key pieces.

With that in mind I set up with a HEAVY screen surrounding my core, setting up my vulkites to ensure a top of 1 attack will do nothing but kill them at best while getting bled for some wounds with their fight on death. Her shooting could potentially clear some of them, but probably not enough to completely remove a screen. I measure to ensure my infernoth will easily be getting into range of at least one boat as well.

With that, she gives me top of turn 1 and I proceed to end the game through sheer luck. I plop the Molten Infernoth between her two boats, roll doubles, and proceed to kill half her army. I did somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 mortal wounds total, possibly more. I note her bravery and losses, then move Ionus up to ensure no inspiring presence, the rest run. I also manage to put soulburn on some stuff and lock him in a spot to tank her if she does want a reprisal. But that’s basically the game.

KO being KO she still completes multiple tactics as she instead opts to just score points and avoid combat at all costs. As your battle points are based on tactics achievement/denial, this does deny me some points and garner her some. Very clever on her part and just good play in the face of a bad situation in which she was diced. Hats off to her for not only staying cool but staying fun.

I win a major victory, 25-10.

Game 2: Win vs. Landon Jennings’ OBR on Fountains of Frost

Fyrewalls are dickbags

Army Faction: Ossiarch Bonereapers
- Subfaction: Ivory Host
- Grand Strategy: Overshadow
LEADERS
Arkhan the Black (380)*
Liege-Kavalos (180)*
- Artefacts of Power: Marrowpact
Mortisan Soulmason (160)*
- General
- Command Traits: Aura of Sterility
- Spells: Hoarfrost
BATTLELINE
Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
- Necrophoros
- Mortek Hekatos
- Nadirite Blade
Morghast Archai (440)*
- Spirit Halberd
Immortis Guard (220)*
Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
- Necrophoros
- Mortek Hekatos
- Nadirite Blade
Kavalos Deathriders (190)*
- Necrophoros
- Mortek Hekatos
- Nadirite Blade
ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (50)
TERRAIN
1 x Bone-tithe Nexus (0)
CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: 2000/2000

A non-null myriad list! Actually one of my larger fears as this gives tanky/strong OBR access to more tools that could destroy me. Meanwhile, null myriad does nothing against me. Ivory Host is particularly potent and allows for the deathriders to absolutely SLAP.

Landon decides to give me the top of 1 and I proceed to plop a fyrewall immediately in front of his Immortis. I move up and toe tap objectives while I keep my guys spread out and behind terrain. Sadly I make a massive misplay here and forget to account for the drop location of my AHG, causing them to be weirdly split by terrain.

Still, I have screened my big boys well and his only option is to kill the AHG and shield vulkites while also getting hit back by my own monsters. He rams the deathriders down my throat and picks up a large amount of my Auric Hearthguard. Luckily my Shield Vulkites stay strong and hold him. He also runs the Morghast to get over the terrain and positions for a double.

He gets the double, brings back a deathrider and heals his boys up. I deny him crucial spellcasting with Ash-Cloud Rune; this puts his plans in a bit of disarray as it catches even some of his own units disallowing mystic shield. I had specifically dropped my AHG earlier than I wanted just to have the ash-cloud in place for this. He sends the Morghast in along with the Liege-Kavalos and finishes off the AHG and most of the shield vulkites. However, importantly, Ionus, my droth, and my axe vulkites live.

On the bottom of two I proceed to dumpster his deathriders with axe vulkites + flamekeeper, his morghast with the magmadroth, and Ionus seals Arkhan back in his tomb. His morghast don’t completely die, but they die enough. The Immortis are locked up doing the slow walk around the entire back end of the board while trying to keep their hero in range of the shrug.

Round 3 sees me finish tabling his army with his only remaining units being his general, and the Immortis. At this point he’s on his back foot and can’t get enough done in this round to do much to me.

Round 4 and 5 are basically a talk out at this point and I win a major victory, 23-18, denying him his grand strategy.

Game 3: Win vs. Steaphen Isaac’s Ogors on Lines of Communication

Allegiance: Ogor Mawtribes
- Mawtribe: Boulderhead
- Grand Strategy: Ready for Plunder
- Triumphs: Bloodthirsty
Leaders
Butcher (140)*
- Cleaver
- Lore of Gutmagic: Blood Feast
Huskard on Thundertusk (330)
- Blood Vulture
- Mount Trait: Rimefrost Hide
- Prayer: Pulverising Hailstorm
Frostlord on Stonehorn (460)*
- General
- Command Trait: Touched by the Everwinter
- Artefact: The Seat of Alvagr
- Mount Trait: Rockmane Elder
- Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline 
4 x Mournfang Pack (340)*
- Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists
- Reinforced x 1
4 x Mournfang Pack (340)*
- Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists
- Reinforced x 1
4 x Mournfang Pack (340)*
- Culling Clubs and Hackers with Ironfists
- Reinforced x 1
Endless Spells & Invocations
Suffocating Gravetide (30)
Faction Terrain
The Great Mawpot
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
Total: 1980 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 3 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 108

Steaphan is probably my favorite opponent of the event. A cool guy and I appreciate how chill he was. This match is a grind and basically hinges on me being able to slowly, but surely, do wounds to his army before he can table me with charges.

This works great as he has low mortal wound protection outside his two mounted heroes.

I also opt to counter-deploy far from his Stonehorn and Huskard, I know this will eat up one whole turn for him to run them over. This gives me the screening potential to eat up a double and be completely fine.

As expected the game devolves into us both smushing our armies together in the center. Through the power of a 3+ ward and an enhanced rend rune (fyreslayer heroic action) I am able to kill his Stonehorn and then his Huskard. The attack reduction from Ionus is CLUTCH and is an immense help in letting me tank his army. Premeasuring to always ensure any hits onto my vulkites/AHG receive a -1 attack is great. Proper screening goes a long way here.

Once his stonehorn and huskard die the mournfangs aren’t long for this world and I proceed to table him. While it comes at great cost to me, I still am able to clear him from the table. The slow soul burn, shooting damage, fight on death, and magamdroth swings really help the list grind. I win a major victory, 24-19.

Day 2: Games 4-5

Game 4: Loss vs. Gavin Grigar’s Cities of Sigmar on Limited Resources

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
- City: Hallowheart
- Mortal Realm: Ghur
- Grand Strategy: Reclaim for Sigmar!
- Triumphs: Inspired
Leaders
Battlemage on Celestial Hurricanum (260)*
- Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
Battlemage (100)**
- Arcane Trinkey: Realmstone Orb
- Lore of the Collegiate Arcane: Wildform
Alchemite Warforger (110)*
- Lore of Primal Frost: Merciless Blizzard
Steam Tank Commander (270)**
- General
- Command Trait: Divine Champion
- Artefact: Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope
- Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Battleline
Steam Tank (230)*
Steam Tank (230)*
Steam Tank (230)**
Steam Tank (230)**
Units
6 x Freeguild Command Corps (170)*
6 x Freeguild Command Corps (170)**
Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment
**Battle Regiment
Total: 2000 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 118
Drops: 2

A night of drinking and eating sees me entering day two a bit hungover but having a good time. I find that I get my worst possible match-up: CoS tanks. I know full well they can not only shoot me off the board but also fully heal any and all mortal wound damage I can apply while tanking on a 1+ save.

Round 1 I set up the fyrewall to block and bank on it not going away. However, I have a choice: put Ionus up far enough to hang his prayer on the opponent if he doesn’t die or keep him back and get a few more points next round but he can’t accomplish anything effectively.

I choose poorly. His tanks easily do 16 wounds to Ionus, taking only 3 tanks to kill him despite +2 to save. Almost all wounds are from the mortal wound output of the alchemite warforger, so there isn’t a lot to be done.

Ionus goes down and he gives me the top of 2. I can’t accomplish anything except a tactic and point capture as I have no way to do damage to his tanks. I hang some more wounds on the tanks, which he heals. He kills the droth.

At the top of 3 I accomplish another tactic then scoop. He was easily going to table me in his turn. My army has no way to deal with shooting damage of that magnitude, especially against a great player with good target selection. Major Loss, 27-17.

Game 5: Win vs. Josh Chournos’ SBGL on Geomantic Pulse

Army Faction: Soulblight Gravelords
	- Army Type: Legion of Night
	- Grand Strategy: Empire of Corpses
LEADER
1 x Vampire Lord (150)*
	- General
	- Command Traits: Master of Magic
	- Artefacts: Morbheg’s Claw
	- Spells: Hoarfrost
	- Aspects of the Champion 
1 x Vampire Lord (150)*
	- Spells: Merciless Blizzard
1 x Mannfred Von Carstein (400)**
	- Spells: Fading Vigour
BATTLELINE
30 x Deathrattle Skeletons (110)**
10 x Deathrattle Skeletons (110)**
3 x Fell Bats (90)**
20 x Deadwalker Zombies (150)**
OTHER
10 x Grave Guard (160)
5 x Black Knights (130)
20 x Grave Guard (160)**
CORE BATTALIONS:
*Andtorian Acolytes
**Battle Regiment
TOTAL POINTS: (1990/2000)

The benefit of losing is that you are free to drink to your heart’s desire. My heart has a great desire! Josh is chill and really nice. So it’ll be a good match.

His list relies on swamping down opponents with his deathrattle then hammering the enemy with grave guard. Theoretically this should be potent, but I have enough damage and tank that I think I can deal with it.

As always, I punish my opponent for giving me turn 1 by walling them off. But the wall has to be 1” from terrain so his skeletons can still swarm around it. My infernoth goes off and does a lot of mortal wounds to various units on his side of the board. Most will come back but it’s a good start. I shoot the black knights, killing a few and slowing them.

His turn sees him just running forward and banking on a double by dropping his units from the graves and smashing into my screens. He then proceeds to nail a 9+ charge on some guard.

He gets the double and it’s looking grim after those charges. But he fails to kill my smith by 1 wound and can’t touch Ionus or the droth. This is his doom as I turn it around, killing basically everything in his army with Ionus, the droth, and my vulkites which had swung wide to deal with the zombies. The infernoth plus Ionus prayer and shooting finish off all of his heroes.

I get the turnaround double here and he calls it. Even bringing back units he wouldn’t be able to do anything and I notch the win. We talk out some objective play and tactics then go to eat and drink more! I win a major victory, 28-14.

Day 3: Doubles Event

Big naked guys and little naked guys burn down a forest and beat up some murderous women.

I am roped into the doubles event on day 3. I initially did not sign up, but my teammate Fred convinced me as he was injured and could not play in the main tournament. He has one arm, so between us both we have three. I name the team “Team Eric” in honor of my good friend, and usual doubles partner, Eric Urbas.

He plays King Brodd’s warstomp and I play a cobbled together slapfather 1k list. It’s a good time and I maintain a “slow drip” of beer buckets. By round 3 I am quite drunk against our final opponents.

Round 1 sees us play “The Everchosen.” An Ironjawz and S2D combo that could be a potent round 1. However, with proper screening and the ability to tank anything for at least one combat, Fred and I clear them. Oh, not to mention an early infernoth double that clears a lot of models off the field. Major Victory, 24-20.

Round 2 sees us play “Bigs and Littles” which is a match of King Brodd’s in a mirror plus Squiggy Gitz. Both Gargant armies do basically nothing. Between two King Brodds almost no damage is applied. I particularly enjoy both just not hitting anything with terrain ever. Luckily a magmadroth fighting twice can down a gargant. Once that happens their army falls apart and we get a win. Awesome dudes, though. Zachary’s ward saves will haunt my nightmares forever. Fred is amped and I’m happy it’s a good time.

Round 3 has me slurring my words and entering a match versus “Season of War’s” Sylvaneth plus DoK combo. Oliver and Jordan are cool guys and very chill. In stark contrast to Fred who has gone off the deep end and destruction is in his veins now. Fred hits full ahead on the gargants, losing their ward as they spread. Luckily my magmadroth easily clears the Swords and through the power of lava blood kills the Cauldron. King Brodd dies, but he tanks long enough. We end up clearing all of DoK and leaving Belthanos to try to do it on his own. But he can’t and we end up winning it. Major Victory, 27-24.

Oh, and in all three rounds we had King Brodd throw the forge at the opponent’s. It was free ammunition!

We manage a 3-0 somehow and finish 5th out of 65 teams. A good showing.

Conclusion:

Good times with good people. I did worse this year than last, but the only way to do better was a 5-0. I think one was in the cards, but sadly I fell short.

The list itself turned out to be quite potent. I feared it was actually an 0-5 list, but it performed admirably. Still, it has a huge hole against mortal wound shooting armies, so it just wants to dodge those matchups. Sadly, one of them happens to be meta at this moment.

Like last LVO, the molten infernoth is a monster that can’t be stopped or reasoned with. It simply must destroy all.

The real takeaway for this list was that deployment is THE most important game time for this list and how you move on turn 1 can make or break things. Properly spacing and screening won me most of my games more than anything.

My highlight might be the hiking before LVO. The desert’s beauty is in stark contrast to the usual tree-filled east coast. Such an alien landscape was a treat to explore in The Valley of Fire.

ROCK AND STONE!

It seems that no one can escape travel frustrations during LVO. Our flight was delayed, but luckily it was with friends and we played narrative Age of Sigmar in the airport. Azyr is now without power after the Big Waagh! orruks stuck a fork in it. Otherwise we got home safe and everyone started getting LVO-Covid, as is tradition.

Airport Narrative Event: Plugs are the objectives

Will I go to LVO again? We’ll see. I may skip next year and instead go to Japan or something.

Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Kevin Lathers, Tournaments

Tournament Report: The Georgia Masters Team Tournament

October 4, 2023 Kuhal Leave a comment

By: Kevin Lathers

TL;DR

It was a great team tournament! My team finished in third place with a 3-1 record. I personally went 3-1 with Fyreslayers (Vostarg). The venue was good and the people were good-er.

(My team got a little third place trophy)

The Setting

The Georgia Masters is a team tournament that the Georgia Warband (Atlanta/Northern GA AoS club) is attempting to make a yearly spectacle. This is the first year of it so we were hoping to have solid attendance and a good time. I’d say we achieved both of those.

It’s in the Northern suburbs of Atlanta at a relatively new hotel: The Holiday Inn. The event space was a bit cramped, but not uncomfortable.

Day 1 included a dinner buffet with the ticket price, and I gotta say that was well worth it. I ate so much salmon and shrimp. Lunch could be purchased at the venue, it was good, though perhaps overpriced; it’s a hotel so it do be like that.

(Food were had)

There was a Wendy’s a 2-minute drive away, so that fulfilled some needs otherwise (fuck yea Frosty).

Having a bar immediately outside the event room was helpful, though we still ended up drinking SoCo out of the back of a car in the parking garage as a supplement. C’est la vie.

It’s early October in Atlanta, so the weather is perfect. That means we all got to enjoy the cozy patio on the Hotel’s roof to its fullest after our games. It’s a good place to just hang out and chillax.

(Note: All these people are cool)

The People & My Team

I was on team “5 o’ Clock Somewhere.” This a very subtle and clever play on the fact that we have alcohol issues. This also meant that a large portion of my time was spent drinking and being drunk.

The team consisted of myself on Vostarg Fyreslayers, Daniel on Null Myriad OBR, Mike on Thunder Lizard Seraphon, and Jacob on drums… er Jaws of Mork Gitz.

I would describe us as – to use my friend, and local dad, Andrew’s terminology – a “goofus” team. Here’s our team chat’s very careful planning:

While none of us are the most competitive people, we are all veterans of the game and familiar with our own armies. Despite our complete lack of planning or team organization, we figured we could take some games just off having a pretty wide gamut of armies all being piloted at least semi-decently.

Many, though far from all, of the attendees were the Georgia Warband guys. They are a lovable batch of people who generally are there for a good time. It seems oddly surprising to people that you can be both competitive and affable. Everyone else was also super cool, it was only to their great benefit and my own great detriment that I couldn’t speak with many of them more.

The event was being run by Calvin Rarie and his Co-TO Andrew Simmons. Calvin’s a great guy and good friend. The tournament went smoothly and his choice in location was perfect for both the size and the location. Andrew is always a treat, I last saw him at the Cherokee GT, so it’s good to see him again. The TOs got to play good cop bad cop, though there didn’t seem to be a ton of TO rulings. I think we’ve all mostly figured out 3.0 by now.

(beautiful)

At some point the spirit of Gorkamorka began flowing into the room and things got too intense.

(you may not like it, but this is what peak AoS looks like… I think)

My List

(I am buying these even if their rules are awful)

- Army Faction: Fyreslayers
- Subfaction: Vostarg
- Grand Strategy: Masters of the Forge
- Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)*
- Artefacts of Power: Master Rune of Unbreakable Resolve
- Mount Traits: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Flamekeeper (90)*
Auric Flamekeeper (90)*
- Nullstone Adornments: Hand-carved Nullstone Icon
Auric Runemaster (130)**
- General
- Command Traits: Master Priest
- Artefacts of Power: Volatile Brazier
- Prayers: Curse
Auric Runesmiter (130)**
- Runic Iron
- Prayers: Ember Storm
Battlesmith (150)**
- Artefacts of Power: Nulsidian Icon

BATTLELINE
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)
Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)*
- Fyresteel War-pick and Bladed Slingshield
Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)**
- Karl

OTHER
Skywardens (130)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Molten Infernoth (50)
1 x Runic Fyrewall (60)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Warlord
**Warlord
TOTAL POINTS: 1980/2000

I wouldn’t say Fyreslayers are in a great spot right now, though not an awful one. The issues, and this is somewhat borne out by their win-rate (45%) as of writing, are: the GHB’s tactics are somewhat difficult, Fyreslayers tactics are situational (barring one), and their point costs are just a bit too high. This turns a somewhat difficult to play army into a real uphill battle; you generally feel on your back foot for most of the game every game and only pull wins out of the jaws of defeat by capitalizing heavily on your opponent’s own mistakes or abusing hard trades.

With that said, I find Vostarg leans into that the best. Vostarg is generally the “trading” list as all the Vulkites can fight on death (once) and the flamekeepers can jack their damage WAY up. Meanwhile the Runefather on Magmadroth can act as a mobile hammer to hopefully rend through things the Vulkites cannot. This style of play means that win or lose, the matches will generally be close unless your opponent truly messes up. Thus, the army is not a bad “anchor” because you can generally keep any match to within a few points.

To add to this, after accidentally discovering them in a joke list, I’ve added Skywardens. These help a lot with scoring a couple tactics and can generally act as cheap cavalry, something Fyreslayers greatly could use.

This actually means Fyreslayers are a great team army. While you may lose games, you’ll never get trounced. In a singles tournament that… ain’t great. But in a team tournament? That can be fine if your team can do the dunking while you eat up the “bad” matchups (e.g. OBR or SBGL).

The Rounds

Day 1: Round 1 Against Ogors on Geomantic Pulse (Team Win)

At this point the pairing process is a true mystery to my team. Who do we put forward? No one knows. We know I don’t want to play Khorne due to their ability to stop my Grand Strat and we can’t have Mike play Grinnin Blades. So I’m put forward first and we hope for the best. It seemed to work out.

Starting things off strong against Travis Rogers’ Ogors. Travis is a great guy and we both decided we really liked rolling poorly. So throughout this game we both rolled just a ton of bad stuff, which ended up making for a fun and funny game.

He’s playing BCR Ogors, while not a bad matchup they are not a good one. It can be tricky for Fyreslayers to deal with their incredible speed compared to Fryeslayers own 4” moves.

His list is a Huskard on Thundertusk, FLoSH, Butcher, and 3x SH Beastriders. The list itself can put out serious mortal wounds and its combat damage, especially if the units charged, is also not to be trifled with. His spellportal is an odd choice, but then I realized he was attempting to cast the Butcher’s spells through it.

Turns out the spell portal wasn’t too much of a worry, the couple times Travis managed to roll high enough to cast anything I would just unbind it.

The map was Geomantic Pulse and I knew one of Ogor’s bane is their being so few models. Yes, they count for a lot on objectives, but they can’t contest more than one each and they still have to deal with my point sitters. Thus I placed units way on the edges of both A and B while holding my units way back in the middle, spreading his units way out because he couldn’t know whether A or B would be active.

Once either of them was active I locked his Ogors behind both a fyrewall and infernoth (he can’t banish both at once and might fail), and tried to deal with them separately.

This strategy generally worked, though it almost collapsed at one point. He pushed hard on my right side with the huskard and a beastrider, took two beast riders in the center, and his FLoSH on the left. I locked up the right side and hammered the middle with a single unit on the left for him to have to fight.

A fully buffed Runefather on Magmadroth can bring down a Stonehorn Beastrider, so that wasn’t an issue. But even with coal-heart ancient he will take a pummeling from a FLoSH. Luckily, this all costs Travis time and wounds. The poor trades had to happen and he couldn’t kill both the Droth and the vulkites.

By the time his Huskard + Beastrider were freed from the right side I had already held the middle too long and killed the others. He was lifting my units, but it was too late.

I managed to pull out the win 27-20. Mike’s Thunder Lizards are sacrificed to Fred’s Sylvaneth. We know his Coalesced will neuter Fred’s damage and even if Mike loses, it will be a relatively close match, though the map is very against him. My team pulls it out.

(Caught him off guard with this selfie for bingo)

Round 2 Against SBGL on Nexus Collapse (Team Loss)

(I don’t have pictures of this game, here’s Troggs, look GW: it’s hobbying!)

I am VERY drunk at this point in time. I honestly do not remember the pairings process whatsoever. I also don’t really remember most of the first half of the round. I have vague images of wolves and vulkites.

My opponent is apparently chosen to be Cory on SBGL. I like Cory, he works at a nearby store and is a positive dude to be around. He’s running a Vyrkos list with Wolves, Skeletons, Grave Guard, oh my. Cory, god bless the man, has to deal with me during this trying time.

Going off my memories of later in the round. I’m confident I only win this game by nailing a 13” charge with my Vulkites and basically flying them across the map to lift up the Grave Guard he thought were safe. Fyresalyers, oddly enough, are also a somewhat natural counter to SBGL. Their great power is lots of bodies and the one thing Fyreslayers do well is lots of damage.

Also, Ivy Volga is fucking crazy at dunking on monsters. I was starting to run away with things until she basically turned my Runefather into a big useless model worth 5 points on objectives.

Cory also fails some of his “bring back dudes” rolls and I think that’s likely why I win this matchup. It’s a close game, far closer than the score lets on, and I think if not for me dicing my opponent a bit things could have gone the other way. This game existed on a knife’s edge.

I won the game 26-19. I am the only one who wins. We had a bit of pairings snafu (apparently) and probably paired into some of the worst matchups we could (Squigs into their OBR and our OBR into BoC).

Day 2: Round 3 OBR on Spring the Trap (Team Win)

I am the sacrificial lamb here. During the pairings I take OBR. We know Squiggs can deal with SBGL well enough so I’m set to try to play a close match with OBR. And a close one it is.

My opponent is Walter Brock, a true gentleman and a scholar, running OBR: Null Myriad. You likely know the list already just by those words: Katakros, Arkhan, Ossifector, Immortis Guard, and Deathriders.

I am in a rough state. I’m also attempting to cure a hangover with more alcohol. Walter, to his great credit and my deep thanks, lets me get away with a lot of mistakes. I make quite a few both for and against myself throughout the game, most notably forgetting who even has the unbinds in my list (I should not have had one of those unbinds happen), not realizing that my battlesmith was alive (therefore forgetting wards/spell ignore for a round), and then not even knowing what round we were in so I was like “hehe, I’ll be tricky, take the round, tie this baby up and call it a day” only to find out its round 4 not 5 and I’m about to get dunked on because I left myself hanging.

Outside of this, the game itself was mostly lost at deployment. I had the chance to set up terrain and did it poorly. That, on its own, would have been fine: you should never bank on terrain being in your favor. But then I put my units on the wrong side of the board and strung them out a bit too much. To make matters worse, Walter is a skilled player who sets up well taking full advantage of my mistakes.

The idea, and a good deployment would have done this, is to funnel him into my Vulkites in a way that they constantly punish him back and he’s slowly left with nothing. My poor deployment means he can swing around them where need be and split my army instead of the other way around.

The game still becomes a bit back and forth due to the runefather managing to lift one of the units of Immortis. The Skywardens are also a godsend and not only keep an objective in play for me, but get me two tactics this game. But my inability to capitalize on my vulkites + flamekeeper combo due to my poor positioning means Walter quickly takes advantage and crushes my lines.

I lost the game 26-24. To be honest, I should have lost by more. The only reason I didn’t was Walter being a gracious opponent. He purely outplayed me and I deserved every bit of that loss.

My team does far better and OBR cleans up skaven, Squigs dunk on Zombie spam SBGL (one of the hardest counters to zombie SBGL tbh), and Seraphon bulldoze S2D with their damage reduction. Shoutout to Seth’s S2D, he’s new to the tournament scene as well as GAW, and watching him gain skills through this tournament was heartening.

Round 4 OBR (… Again) on Power Flux (Team Win)

Through the power of anime, alcohol, food, and hatred of Death, I am starting to wake up. A Wendy’s frosty was truly the nectar of the gods.

The pairings process here involves one main thing: do not let Kragnos pair into Thunder Lizards where he will kill them all, rip and tear, leave no survivors. Thus Mike is put forward first. This results in me getting OBR… again (with basically the same list). Though it’s always a treat to play Luna.

Luna is relatively newer to the scene than my previous opponents and she’s been improving rapidly. I just got done playing OBR and am ready to learn from my mistakes.

To that end, I set up terrain to favor me a bit more and my ability to wall things up with invocations. I also deploy a bit more heavily on one side of Vulkites and separate out the Magmadroth, this means I can have my droth hammer on one side and Vulkite blob on the other. This is important for forcing the OBR opponent to spread wider than they’d like or threaten to flank them with one or the other. This works well.

Luna, to her great credit, sees my machinations and takes the top of 1, denying me fully locking her up behind the terrain. Oh well, I still can get disruptive with things.

Luna taking first means I get to choose the flux and choose wide. This means if she wants max points she has to at least send some Deathriders over which she does. These are easy enough to clean up with a magmadroth while my vulkites dont engage, just hold the point.

I win priority and give it away so I can keep the flux wide. I know she can’t accomplish a ton due to the positioning of my shield vulkites blocking my droth from some immortis and two units of vulkites clogging up the right side for two more units behind them.

She hits the shields and the vulkites as she has to to take the point, which she will. But it also dooms her because it means I will have the next turn with fully engorged flamekeepers and a juiced magmadroth.

I get my turn, finish off the immortis and some death riders. Still, Arkhan and Katakros are enough on their own to be threats. So the game isn’t over yet.

Luna wins the round 3 priority. Oof. No double for me here. Katakros slaps the shit out of my magmadroth, but thanks to a 3+ ward it lives and hits back some. Arkhan cleans up some more vulkites, but due to her rolls being too good she finishes off the Skywardens leaving no easy target for her Harvester to accomplish the tactic of killing something.

I take my turn, play “stand on 6” circles.” And do nothing.

Then I get the double and the game is basically over now as I kill Katakros with a Runefather on Magmadroth.

I win it 23-11. My team wins some real nail biters, matches I have no idea how they did it. Jacob gets absolutely beat down by Troggs though which makes the point differential a pure tie, thus we end up winning by the tie breaker: wins, our three to their 1.

Conclusion

(I don’t know if this good advertisement or bad advertisement)

So our team managed to claw its way back from 1-1 to a respectable 3-1 finish taking the third place trophy… despite my best efforts. Overall, good games, good food, good friends: the quintessential tournament experience! I went 3-1 personally so it’s hard to complain but sometimes I still do. I’ll give all my win credit to my team captain, Daniel Chabucos, for the pairings and to my opponents for being cool people.

The list itself has become a bit routine for me. Magmadroths have fallen off in the current meta. Power creep has meant they just can’t hold up and GW is loath to decrease FS points or improve their rules. This leaves FS with the hard choices of infantry types and personally I enjoy my hordes of Vulkites.

Team tournaments are definitely a much different experience than individual ones. For example, in my game vs. Walter: I could have gone for a big play and maybe won it but I went for the safe play for a tactic and a couple points. The safe play is better because even if I lose I keep it close and let my teammates do the heavy lifting.

It also means you can list build a bit more safely knowing you can dodge match-ups. Normally Thunder Lizards might suffer if they get matched into Kragnos, but in this setting we could have them dodge it and it’s no problem.

This isn’t my first team tournament, but I think it was my more competitive one. Overall I had fun and we took third place.

Shout out to the winners: Team Mega Best Friends. They deserve all the glory. Not only did they beat some astoundingly good players in Team Degenerates, but they did it with a replacement. Our great friend Eric Urbas, a loveable man who deserves the best, is sadly in the hospital, so Ryan filled in for him at the last minute with Skaven: based.

Will I go to next year’s GA Masters? Absolutely and I’d love to see you there.

(The Glorious Victors)

Age of Sigmar, Battle Report, Fantasy, Fyreslayers, Games Workshop, Order, Reviews, Tournaments

Tournament Report: Fyreslayers at LVO 2023!

February 4, 2023 Kuhal Leave a comment

By: Kevin Lathers

The Setting

The 2023 Las Vegas Open for Age of Sigmar had the most participants ever! It was a new experience for me, as it was my first Grand Tournament with over 50 participants and this one had over 300 competitors. This tournament used the 2022-2023 Season 1 GHB, with a standard 5 rounds, followed by a knockout tournament for the top 8 competitors.

The event was held at the convention hall connected to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. If Vegas is a “sinful theme park,” then the Rio can be described as a dumpster of depression therein. However, the convention hall was nice; silver linings or something.

I’d be attending with a fantastic group of beautiful people: The Georgia Warband. A big shout out to my friend Josh Bennet for finishing 10^th! My team all did great, and it was a lot of fun. I’m personally very happy with my 12^th place finish and 4-0-1 record for my first LVO.

As a preface, the exact details of matches are sometimes fuzzy or forgotten, so the reports are to the best that I can do with my awful memory.

The List

I had a few lists in mind for the event. I seldom take cookie-cutter lists and so indecision struck me hard; I like being a special snowflake. This was further compounded by being unable to practice while in COVID isolation. In the end I simply asked my wife, “what should I bring to LVO?” to which she responded, “lots of naked men.” Thus, Vostarg was selected with a list I had used variations of on a few occasions.

Allegiance: Fyreslayers
– Lodge: Vostarg
– Grand Strategy: Master of the Forge
– Triumphs: Inspired

Leaders
Auric Runemaster (130)*
– General
– Command Trait: Master Priest
– Artefact: Volatile Brazier
– Universal Prayer Scripture: Heal
Auric Runefather on Magmadroth (360)*
– Artefact: Axe of Grimnir
– Magmadroth Trait: Coal-heart Ancient
Auric Runesmiter (120)*
– Runic Iron
– Prayer: Ember Storm
Battlesmith (150)**
– Artefact: Nulsidian Icon
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**
Auric Flamekeeper (90)**

Battleline
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (150)***
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)***
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)***
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)****
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)****
10 x Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (160)****

Endless Spells & Invocations
Runic Fyrewall (40)
Molten Infernoth (40)

Core Battalions
*Command Entourage – Magnificent
**Command Entourage – Magnificent
***Expert Conquerors
****Bounty Hunters

Additional Enhancements
Artefact
Artefact

Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 0 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 162
Drops: 12

This list would hinge on how many Bounty Hunters I would face, but I was confident there would be few. This proved to be a correct assumption, as the tournament had very few Bounty Hunters overall. Part of me feared the mirror match against a 3-BH Runeson Lofnir list.

This Vostarg list operates by forcing opponents to make tough decisions where they often believe both are the bad choice. Killing the Vulkites – which must be done to capture points and slow damage – only counts up flamekeepers to make the remaining Vulkites more powerful. But focusing heroes, such as flamekeepers, means the Vulkites continue to hold objectives while still outputting high damage. Combine this with a Runic Fyrewall to block undesirable movement and a molten infernoth to pressure foot heroes/low wound units, and you have a list which forces opponents to be aggressive.

But aggression only leads to death between fight on death, first-strike, and flamekeepers. This is a high damage list and these Vulkites can table an army that is not playing carefully. For any higher save units, the Runefather can be juiced up to -4/-3 rend swings. When the Runefather goes full bane mode there’s few things he won’t kill.

In play the most important pieces seemed to be the Expert Conquerors which often held objectives against swarms or monsters while forcing opponents to fight them. The Molten Infernoth is the true MVP though: for 40 points it did more than it should in nearly every game.

Games Summary:

Game 1 vs. Karl Rohr, Slaves to Darkness: Cabalists – Major Victory
Game 2 vs. Alexander Gonzalez, Soulblight Gravelords: Vyrkos – Draw
Game 3 vs. Cam Reid, Flesh-Eater Courts: Blisterskin – Major Victory
Game 4 vs. Seth Monegue, Maggotkin of Nurgle: Blessed Sons – Major Victory
Game 5 vs. Matthew Barker, Maggotkin of Nurgle: Blessed Sons – Major Victory

Day 1: I Feel Chill, My Heart Says Otherwise

(Yes, that’s my heart rate on day 1)

Game 1 vs. Karl Rohr, Slaves to Darkness: Cabalists on The Presence of Idols

Opponents List:

Faction: Slaves to Darkness
– Subfaction: Cabalists
– Triumph: Inspired
– Grand Strat: Take What’s Theirs

Leaders
Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore (265)*
– General
– Mark of Nurgle
– Master of Magic
– Binding Damnation
– Daemonic Speed
Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Chaotic Conduit
– Binding Damnation
Chaos Lord on Manticore (270)
– Mark of Nurgle
– Flame Weapon
– Sword and Spear
Chaos Lord (115)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Spite-tongue Curse
– Reaperblade and Daemonbound Steel

Battleline
Chaos Warriors (440)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Sword and Shield
– Eroding Icon
– Reinforced Once
Chaos Marauders (85)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Sword and Shield
Chaos Marauders (85)*
– Mark of Nurgle
– Sword and Shield

Units
Chaos Chosen (480)*
– Mark of Khorne
– Reinforced Once

Endless Spells
Gnashing Jaws 70
Cogs 70

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total 2000/2000

Karl is a great guy and was running an awesomely kitbashed army. It was probably one of the coolest armies I’d seen at LVO. I sadly took no pictures during LVO, I don’t know why, but I assure you his army was dope.

Karl’s list is interesting: two manticores! Reinforced Nurgle Warriors are also going to be no easy task to chew through. Luckily I am playing Fyreslayers so few things can’t be murderzoned.

I get the chance to put terrain on the board. I put it such that two large impassable pieces lock both players from the long-ways objective from their deployment. This allows me to make use of invocations to block lanes.

Karl outdrops me (as does everyone in the tourney) and takes the top of 1. This is what I meant by “tough decisions.” He, correctly, sees that I’m going to drop a Fyrewall to completely lock off the center of the map from him. He has no priest and no way to stop it if I take top of 1. So he has to do it. I proving grounds (PG) the bottom-right objective, as the left is blocked to him by impassable terrain.

The only unit he can take the PG with is Chaos Warriors, forcing them onto it, while his Chosen and Manticores move up the middle. But I’ve deployed back far enough they cannot reach me. He plays it cautious and toes the objective.

In my turn I auto-run EC vulkites to the upper-left objective and put two units of Vulkites on the center with a 5+ ward up from the battlesmith. My molten infernoth goes off and slaps some wounds on various things.

Round 2 proves decisive for me. I push hard forward, wiping out his chosen down to one guy and holding the center, denying him the central objective. He counter punches and wipes out some vulkites, but that only powers up my army. He’s already behind and needs some big moves in round 3 to stage a comeback.

Instead, I take priority and my molten infernoth rolls doubles: this immediately kills both his manticores, one from full health, which was a very nice roll for me. Further, I finish off the remaining Chaos Warriors with some flamekeeper buffed vulkites. The game is basically over here, though he can still steal a couple tactics, there’s no way he can come back with no Chaos Warriors, Manticores, and one living Chosen.

Fyreslayers nab a major victory, 28 – 14.

Game 2 vs. Alexander Gonzalez, Soulblight Gravelords on The Prize of Gallet

Opponent’s List

Allegiance: Soulblight Gravelords
– Lineage: Vyrkos Dynasty
– Grand Strategy: Vampiric Conquerors
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
Vampire Lord (140)***
– General
– Command Trait: Pack Alpha
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– Universal Spell Lore: Levitate
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions
Radukar the Beast (310)***
Mannfred von Carstein, Mortarch of Night (400)***
– Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour
– Lore of the Deathmages: Decrepify
Cado Ezechiar, The Hollow King (140)***
– Spirit Gale
– Lore of the Vampires: Amethystine Pinions

Battleline
10 x Dire Wolves (130)**
10 x Dire Wolves (130)**
20 x Deathrattle Skeletons (160)**
– Reinforced x 1

Units
1 x Corpse Cart with Balefire Brazier (80)***
20 x Grave Guard (280)*
– Great Wight Blades
– Reinforced x 1
1 x Vargskyr (110)*
1 x Vargskyr (110)*

Core Battalions
*Bounty Hunters
**Expert Conquerors
***Warlord

Additional Enhancements
Spell

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 137
Drops: 11

Alex is energetic and fun. He’s a good dude who offers me a Corsairs die at the start of the match. That dice proceeds to roll 6’s like no other! I’ve decided to stop using it, fearing it’s actually weighted. He is the first of two Corsair team members I play against.

Alex’s SBGL is exactly the type of list I fear: BH heavy and has a big, fast, disruptive control piece in Manny. Further, I have no way to shoot him off the board, the infernoth and axes will have to do the work.

I once again set up terrain, doing it in a way to block off lanes. He gives me the top of 1. I place the Fyrewall to block off his units, but don’t really pay attention and leave some spots open for wolves which come back to haunt me later. It pays to be precise with this thing! I spread out to lock out grave summoning from my lines and objectives while he activates the center objective.

He pushes forward in the bottom of two and we just trade the center objective doing little damage to each other. Mannfred does hit my left side and kills 5 or 6 Vulkites, but takes a couple wounds from their fight-on-death. His flying skeletons (via levitate) are the real MVPs here.

I’ll take the bottom of round two and activate my home objective. He moves to contain me fully within my starting zone with wolves on my right and basically everything that isn’t graveguard on my left and center. The vulkites, with fight on death, fight first, and a little tank manages to hold the lines.. Further, my nulsidian icon completely nullifies his offensive spellcasting and the center. This is a huge deal as it will enable my runefather to maintain high damage. I proceed to push onto the center objective and wipe out nearly everything on it, including Cado. The molten infernoth comes down and, in one of the best rolls of my life – rolled doubles into a lot of 6’s for d3 mortal wounds per 6, DUMPSTERS Mannfred. With him gone the game is now back in my favor, I’d say.

As round three kicks in, he takes the bottom and activates his own objective. The wolves are still flanking right and I clear them with the magmadroth as well as some Vulkites. His army has mostly begun being tabled except for some wolves and the grave guard still in the graves.

However, in round 3 he gets a very long charge on his graveguard to not only get into a unit of Vulkites, but spread out across three units of Vulkites. This proves to be disastrous positioning for myself and he proceeds to kill them all with BH Graveguard. Still, I hold both side objectives going into four. But we are basically out of time. Both of us are playing slooooow armies and we don’t have time for another fourth round.

It’s a close game, we talk it out. We both will get our GS for certain. It’s hard to say who would win with the grave guard coming in like they did. I’m confident I can kill them, but its possible I don’t. As we can’t really agree – and indeed, it’s hard to even say what would happen! – and don’t have time to play it out, we just score what we know we can do (tactics and certain objectives). The result is a true draw! What a fantastic game.

Alex is a super great guy, when my molten infernoth rolled that bonkers roll he kept whatever salt he may have had inside, which is better than I would have done! Great dude and lady luck paid off his sportsmanship with a dope charge later. He was also a fantastic general and I think he outplayed me for the most part. It was only by luck and vulkite power that I kept that game so tight.

Fyreslayers draw with SBGL.

Game 3 vs. Cam Reid, Flesh-Eater Courts on Silk-Steel Nests

Opponent’s List

Army Faction: Flesh-eater Courts
– Army Subfaction: Blisterskin
– Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs
– Triumphs: Inspired

LEADER
1 x Abhorrant Archregent (240)**
– Spells: Spectral Host
1 x Crypt Infernal Courtier (130)**
1 x Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (450)**
– General
– Command Traits: Hellish Orator
– Artefacts: Eye of Hysh
– Mount Traits: Gruesome Bite
– Spells: Deranged Transformation

BATTLELINE
9 x Crypt Flayers (540)*
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**
10 x Crypt Ghouls (80)**

TERRAIN
1 x Charnel Throne (0)

OTHER
5 x Blood Knights (200)*
– Kastellan
5 x Blood Knights (200)*

CORE BATTALIONS:
*Bounty Hunters
**Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Cam’s list is an interesting one. Cam seems like a fun guy so I know this will be a fun match, which proves to be true! His list has three BH which will prove to be trouble for me as even the horses do 2 wounds. It’s also a list type I’ve never seen out of FEC and I’m not quite certain how it works to my own detriment.

The Molten Infernoth did so much in the last game but would do nearly nothing in this one, often rolling no mortal wounds at all. I guess luck comes and goes.

Cam lets me set up the terrain and I do what I always do: block lanes that a large base wants to be in. I set up defensively knowing he has speed and hoping if he does take first to bait him into bad positions.

Instead, he takes the bottom and I set up the usual castle with the battlesmith ward. He moves forward in the bottom and we both just get two points plus tactic. He gives me the top of two, sadly, and I push further up on the right to begin threatening those objectives. I accomplish little. Meanwhile on his turn he hits my left side HARD and wipes out my shield vulkites which take a few Flayers with them. He’s now a point ahead on VP.

I take the top of three and punish him for his aggressiveness. My magmadroth kills his general terrorgheist. I also kill a few Flayers and push the center and right to threaten his home objectives. Sadly, his Flayers double activate (didn’t know they could) and kill my magmadroth as well as most of my vulkites on that side, though on death they do kill his courtier.

On his turn the blood knights wipe out the vulkites threatening his objectives, taking some wounds in return. The decisive moment comes here though. He charges my line of foot heroes on the lower left. This allows me to combat-charge my vulkites that are behind the heroes into the flayers and pump their damage as well as activate their fight first. They kill the flayers down to one remaining.

He takes the top of four and retreats the flayers as well as brings up blood knights to wipe out more vulkites. On my turn I’m pushing back on the left and center while the right side has stalemated. But by auto-running a flamekeeper with the movement rune I take a center objective though. Movement rune once again being clutch late game. Funny, I used it and almost forgot to add the movement (2” is important!).

I win the priority roll into five which allows me to take more objectives and gain more tactics. At this point there’s no way for him to outcap me on anything and he has to choose between objectives or tactics. My final vulkite unit which has been sitting holding the bottom right the entire game is Expert Conquerors ensuring his blood knights can’t auto-run to cap any objectives.

Another nail-biter against a death army. Cam played a great game. I feel like my ignorance of his army definitely hurt me here and I should have deployed more heavily to counter the flayers.

Fyreslayers nab a major victory, 27-26, a one point win.

Day 2: My Brain Has Finally Stopped Functioning

I head into day 2 after a night of drinking, eating, not-sleeping, and spending too much money.

Game 4 vs. Seth Monegue, Nurgle on Realmstone Cache

Opponent’s List

Army Faction: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Grand Strategy: Spread Rampant Disease
– Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Gutrot Spume (170)*
Lord of Blights (150)*
Lord of Blights (150)*
– General
– Command Traits: Overpowering Stench
– Artefacts of Power: Arcane Tome
– Spells: Plague Squall

BATTLELINE
Putrid Blightkings (500)*
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer
Putrid Blightkings (500)*
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer
Putrid Blightkings (250)*
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer
Putrid Blightkings (250)*
– Icon Bearer
– Sonorous Tocsin Bearer

TERRAIN
1 x Feculent Gnarlmaw (0)

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 1970/2000

I’m confident going into this game against Seth. Fyreslayers generally don’t have issues with damage and there’s only one center objective to kill things on for two rounds. Seth’s cordial and we both seem burnt out from the previous day. Math becomes arduous for us both.

This game proves to be a quick one. Seth takes the top of one in order to prevent me locking him off the objective with a Fyrewall. A wise move considering which army he is playing. He pushes onto the center objective with two units of 10 blightkings, the other two units of five being off board at the moment. I push forward and simply take the center objective and knock a few wounds off some Blight Kings. I keep my walls up so he can’t deep strike into anything important.

Both Nurgle players I had as opponents made the same mistake: counting their blight kings as two on objectives even when they are four wounds each (the bonus wound spell not being on them at that time or on a different unit). I didn’t know they only should count as one until after the tournament. This forced me to commit too many models in both games against them, but it’s not a huge deal.

I gave him the top of two and he pushed into my lines. Between a 5+ ward, fight on death, and a gigantic molten infernoth blocking a huge lane, he doesn’t get much done. He hangs some wounds on the magmadroth and kills some vulkites which fight on death to kill a couple blightkings and push wounds onto a hero.

On the bottom of two I pop my flamekeeper buff, my Runefather +1 attack buff, the rend rune, and basically anything and everything else I have ready. This juices my army so massively that I kill all the remaining blightkings, I believe there were 18 or so on the board, and his general. Four damage swing Vulkites (BH + flamekeeper buffs) with four swings each is potent.

The game is basically over here. I’ve lost a unit of vulkites and he’s lost his general and both of his main blight king units. We talk it out and go grab a drink!

Fyreslayers win a major victory, 26-16.

Game 5 vs. Matthew Barker, Nurgle on Nidus Paths

Opponents List

Allegiance: Maggotkin of Nurgle
– Subfaction: Blessed Sons
– Mortal Realm: Ghyran
– Grand Strategy: Tend the Garden
– Triumphs: Bloodthirsty

Leaders
The Glottkin (650)*
– Lore of Malignance: Rancid Visitations
Lord of Afflictions (230)*
– General
– Command Trait: Overpowering Stench
– Artefact: The Splithorn Helm

Battleline
10 x Putrid Blightkings (500)*
– Reinforced x 1
2 x Pusgoyle Blightlords (250)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (130)*
10 x Rotmire Creed (130)*

Units
3 x Nurglings (100)*

Core Battalions
*Battle Regiment

Total: 1990 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 1 / 4
Allies: 0 / 400
Wounds: 116
Drops: 1

Matt’s probably my most enjoyable opponent of the tournament. He’s a great dude and the second member of Corsairs that I play against. We both are clearly running on very tired hamsters at this point and will make frequent mistakes throughout the game. A couple of funny ones are me forgetting to even put my forge down and him choosing a tactic that can’t be accomplished (I let him pick a different one in like the charge phase and he lets me put the forge down when I notice something like round 3). Mostly the game is just a fun one at this point.

That said, Matt is probably the most skilled of any of my opponents (no disrespect to any of the others). While I usually find Nurgle an easy match for Fyreslayers, this one will prove difficult. It turns into a real chess match and Matt knows his army well. He also does not commit any of the mistakes the previous Nurgle opponent makes. He is crafty and knowledgeable, and this makes the game truly fun.

I place terrain and set the middle up with two large pieces exactly 6” apart to help block movement in the entire center of the board.

He gives me the top of round 1. I drop a Fyrewall to block the entire center of these terrain pieces ensuring his Glottkin and blightkings have to go around. I push hard to the top left, leaving one vulkite in the rear to block the nurglings. I also bring over some shield vulkites on the right to hold the objective.

In the bottom of 1 he brings his flying units left along with his rotmire and Glottkin. His blightkings go right but won’t be able to affect too much yet. On the left the attack kills some vulkites but doesnt take objective due to the 5+ ward basically. Positioning here is weird for us both as the table has a gigantic dip in it making our models fall over.

At this point my brain is fried and I don’t recall the exact order of how things go down. But I can summarize by location.

On the upper-left: his Glottkin is a true thorn in my side and I can’t retreat and rally Vulkites because he’ll movement-phase charge. This means I have to sacrifice any units already in combat. Still, my magmadroth and the vulkites in the area, combined with flamekeeper kill everything but the Glottkin at first, and eventually do take down the Glottkin. His Rottmire hangs onto the objective a bit longer than I’d like but will fold.

On the bottom-right: His blightkings fail a charge and can’t take the objective from my EC shield vulkites. They then make a charge and wipe out the vulkites. But by this point a bounty hunter group of vulkites makes its way there and nearly wipes out the blightkings. The remaining shield vulkites give enough wounds to hold the objective.

On the bottom-left: He never gets a chance to threaten this objective and I teleport in round four a unit of vulkites from here across the board.

On the top-right: The vulkites I’ve teleported here will take this objective in round four or round 5. There’s not a lot he can do to stop this as the rotmire he ran back to stop this can’t hold out if they do get charged and can’t out-cap the vulkites.

We talk it out and just due to objective holding power I take the win. A fantastic match! Not my closest, but probably the most fun.

Fyreslayers win a major victory, 25-19.

Conclusion

Some great games, some great players, and overall a fantastic experience for my first LVO. While I missed the 5-0, I went into this event with no expectations and would be happy with a positive finish. So ending 12th place with a 4-0-1 record had me thrilled. I nearly brought Lofnir, feeling it may have performed better, but it’s hard to argue with results.

The list itself ran great and while it was difficult to pilot, showed the true power of Vulkite Berserkers. If there’s one major downside, it’s how it makes you and opponents feel. I explained the flamekeeper before every single game. But when you use a combat round charge or fight on death with them, the opponents always feel like you have gotcha’d them. In fact, a lot of once per game abilities in FS feel that way and it’s difficult to talk about them all as there are so many.

The molten infernoth proves once again to be worth its weight in ur-gold. Killing Mannfred on its own was probably one of my favorite Fyreslayer moments.

The shield Vulkites proved to be a perfect inclusion. They were able to tank and hold objectives where axes could not. While axes can throw damage out on death, sometimes you just need to hold an objective with models, not with damage.

Expert Conquerors was critical to the list’s success and is/was probably the most underrated part of this entire GHB. Its loss going into the new season means this list loses a ton of power, even without BH still around.

Will I go to LVO again? Probably, but I hope it’s not in the Rio.