Our wonderful and friendly discord has a channel designed to take your questions! Sometimes GW’s FAQs are slow to be updated, and rules are either unclear or simply not phrased well for non-English speakers. To that end, we have an excellent team of lawyers on hand to interpret the rules and answer questions you might have.
Below are the questions that were asked over the last 7 days from our discord server and the answers provided by our legal department*:
Q: Can Krethusa revive Morathi? A: Yes, but not the Shadow Queen. Morathi would essentially take damage like a normal unit, but it’s a way of getting a good caster back in the late game.
Q: Can you get multiple instances of +1 to Hit? A: You can, but you cannot benefit from more than one. You could have 5 different sources of +1 to Hit, but you’re still only going to benefit from a single instance. Multiple sources of +1 are only good for countering you opponent’s -1 to Hit, should that exist. (e.g. if you had +2 to Hit and your opponent gave you -1, you would have +1 to hit. If you had +2 to hit but no penalties, you would have +1 to Hit.)
Q: If a unit has Strike-First, what happens if an opponent’s ability gives them Strike-Last? A: The two abilities will cancel out. This is shown in the Core Rules, section 19.0.
Q: If a Beast of Nurgle is killed and then replaced, can Horticulous replace that Beast when it dies? A: No. Replacement units cannot be replaced.
Q: How does the weapon ability [SHOOT IN COMBAT] work? A: The unit can still use that ranged weapon to make attacks in the shooting phase if it is in combat with a unit (which normally would not be allowed). The attacking unit can only target the unit it is in combat with.
*Please note that the “legal department” is a joke. None of these people are lawyers, cannot provide real legal advice, and are not representing themselves as lawyers. This shouldn’t have to be said, but US law is dumb so there’s the disclaimer. Don’t come after us.
Our wonderful and friendly discord has a channel designed to take your questions! Sometimes GW’s FAQs are slow to be updated, and rules are either unclear or simply not phrased well for non-English speakers. To that end, we have an excellent team of lawyers on hand to interpret the rules and answer questions you might have.
Below are the questions that were asked over the last 7 days from our discord server and the answers provided by our legal department*:
Q: Can Ponitfex Zenestra use her Word of the God-King ability to banish a manifestations the turn it is summoned? A: Yes.
Q: Is Gift of Apoplexy triggered when a unit uses passive abilities?
A: This is another case of GW’s language being a bit inconsistent. In order to determine what would trigger Gift of Apoplexy’s mortal damage you need to understand two things: Is an ability being used? Who is using the ability?
To answer the first question, we need to understand what is meant when the prayer says an ability is used. For the purposes of this prayer, an ability is used when it goes through the Declare-Reaction-Effect steps. Passive abilities don’t do that, so will not trigger Gift of Apoplexy.
The second question is answered by reviewing the ability that is being used. Let’s take the “There is No Escape” ability provided by the Death Stalkers Nighthaunt battle formation. The ability allows the player to choose a friendly Nighthaunt unit to be the target. In cases such as this, the player is using the ability targeting a model, not a model using the ability targeting itself. In this case, Gift of Apoplexy would not be triggered.
For more detail on using abilities, read section 5.2 of the Age of Sigmar Core Rules.
Q: If a Varghulf Courtier kills an entire unit, can it use Victory Feast at the end of the turn?
A: It can use the ability, but it won’t benefit from all of the effects. The healing will always trigger, since it has no conditions other than killing an enemy model. The second half can only trigger if the Varghulf is still in combat, however. The Retreat ability requires that the unit using the ability is in combat. If the Varghulf did a good enough job of killing enemy models then it will have nothing to retreat from and will not be able to move.
*Please note that the “legal department” is a joke. None of these people are lawyers, cannot provide real legal advice, and are not representing themselves as lawyers. This shouldn’t have to be said, but US law is dumb so there’s the disclaimer. Don’t come after us.
Our wonderful and friendly discord has a channel designed to take your questions! Sometimes GW’s FAQs are slow to be updated, and rules are either unclear or simply not phrased well for non-English speakers. To that end, we have an excellent team of lawyers on hand to interpret the rules and answer questions you might have.
Below are the questions that were asked over the last 7 days from our discord server and the answers provided by our legal department*:
Q: Is “at the start of the battle” explicitly defined? A: There is no hard rule anywhere in the core rules or season rules that states when the “start of the battle” is. The generally accepted practice is that the start of the battle happens after deployment, but before the first start of turn phase.
This is why, as an example, a unit that moves outside of its deployment zone in the deployment phase doesn’t count as a Scout unit for the purposes of Scouting Force. Also, if you null deploy, your opponent automatically scores all of the Intercept and Recover targets, although this is such a niche case that it should be clarified with your TO.
GW very proudly talked about how they had split all of the abilities in the game into actions so they could have a standard language. This is a case where they abandoned that standard language in favor of allowing their players to argue about something. See also some vagaries on when a unit is using an ability vs. when the player is using an ability, but that is generally clearer cut.
Q: Can I declare the retreat ability and then not move? A: The generally accepted RAW would be that no, you do not need to move after declaring the Retreat action. This will likely be clarified in an FAQ or Errata by GW, because it makes a huge difference in the Attuned to Ghyran strike tactic. Declaring a retreat with two units while not moving them out of combat would allow you to score that tactic while still allowing the units that Retreated to fight and/or contest any objectives they might have been sitting on.
The wording of Retreat states that a unit can move after it suffers the mortal damage. If you had to move it would say that the unit must move. This will likely cause some arguments with your opponents, since the last sentence implies that the unit cannot end that move out of combat, but if you aren’t required to move then that last bit can be ignored.
Again, this is a case where you should ask your TO before doing it. Some TOs will use RAW, and some will use RAI, where the intent would seem to be that the retreating unit must end the action not in combat. You don’t want to grind your game to a halt because of some odd wording of a rule.
And that’s all we had for the week! We hope you found this helpful. If you have questions of your own, feel free to join our discord and ask away!
*Please note that the “legal department” is a joke. None of these people are lawyers, cannot provide real legal advice, and are not representing themselves as lawyers. This shouldn’t have to be said, but US law is dumb so there’s the disclaimer. Don’t come after us.
Our wonderful and friendly discord has a channel designed to take your questions! Sometimes GW’s FAQs are slow to be updated, and rules are either unclear or simply not phrased well for non-English speakers. To that end, we have an excellent team of lawyers on hand to interpret the rules and answer questions you might have.
Below are the questions that were asked over the last 7 days from our discord server and the answers provided by our legal department*:
Q: Can you use Whirling Destruction after having charged with the unit of Moonclan Stabbas? A: You can charge with the Stabbas then use this charge ability. Abilties in any phase are declared in any order you want, and are not all declared simultaneously.
Q: How do chanting rolls work? A: Roll a die, and on a 2+ you can either bank the points or chant the chosen prayer. If you roll an unmodified 1 you lose D3 chanting points and cannot chant the chosen prayer.
Q: If I have a reinforced unit of clan rats, how many do I bring back each round for Seething Swarm? A: Reinforcing a unit does not allow the unit to use the same ability twice in a phase. You would only be able to use Seething Swarm once per turn, so you would only be able to return D3 slain models.
Q: If my troll is positioned on a piece of terrain that has a section jutting out, is it within 3” based on the lowest point of the terrain, or based on the widest portion of the terrain? A: I’ll be honest, this one got a touch complicated.
You need to measure a straight line from the farthest point of the model’s base to the nearest point on the terrain piece:
Note that the reason for this is that not everything is measured with horizontal lines. The only measurements that are “horizontal only” are combat range and contesting objectives/terrain. All other measurements have to account for the difference in height.
Q: Can SoG Iridan be used in the Ruination Brotherhood Army of Renown? A: Yes. From the Battlescroll Summary:
So SoG Iridan could be included in the Army of Renown, but any Regiments of Renown use the specific warscroll included in the Regiment’s rules and cannot be replaced with a SoG warscroll.
*Please note that the “legal department” is a joke. None of these people are lawyers, cannot provide real legal advice, and are not representing themselves as lawyers. This shouldn’t have to be said, but US law is dumb so there’s the disclaimer. Don’t come after us.
This is the top three AoS lists for the Cataclysmic Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament that took place in Spain on the 1st and 2nd of February 2025. It saw 53 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Flesh-eater Courts Lords of the Manor Drops: 2 Spell Lore – Lore of Madness Prayer Lore – Rites of Delusion Manifestation Lore – Aetherwrought Machineries
Regiment 1 Abhorrant Ghoul King on Royal Terrorgheist (340) Morbheg Knights (320) • Reinforced Morbheg Knights (320) • Reinforced Morbheg Knights (160)
Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Wing Drops: 2 Spell Lore – Lore of the Storm Prayer Lore – Prayers of the Stormhosts Manifestation Lore – Primal Energy
General’s Regiment Karazai the Scarred (480) • General Praetors (150) Vanguard-Palladors with Starstrike Javelins (480) • Reinforced Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (400) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Knight-Relictor (120) • Mirrorshield • Envoy of the Heavens Stormcoven (210) Vigilors (130)
Faction Terrain Stormreach Portal
Connor Irwin: Congrats to Jorge for an excellent 4-1 showing for Stormcast Eternals. With no easy matchups this certainly highlights the versatility and power that SCE can bring to bear.
The nuts and bolts of this list starts with the Vanguard wing formation, which offers a 3+ teleport once per sce turn, a major boon later in the game to get the longstrikes or palladors into better position for primary or secondary scoring as the table opens up. Jorge chose the primal energy manifestation lore, likely to push out the lifeswarm for some added healing to keep those expensive vanguard units at full steam a little longer.
Starting from the bottom, the knight-relictor leads a utility-focused regiment. The knight is a one chant priest with access to a very useful lore but his best feature is arguably the ability to reduce ward rolls of a nearby enemy unit by 1, making bodyguard and centerpiece monsters much easier to chop down. The stormcoven brings magic support with its fight first/last spell, access to useful manifestations , and a dash of shooting muscle. vigilors are dual purpose buffing and screening units that grant friendly storm cast units a +1 to hit units they damage, a huge boon for focus firing down problem units with longstrikes.
The generals regiment is led by the warmaster murder machine karazai the scarred, with his requisite praetors. This combo has been strong since 4th launched, as you can play karazai aggressively in your turn and due to his massive base still keep your praetors close enough to keep their bodyguard rules all working. This means karazai sits on a 3+ save, 5+ bodyguard ward, and -1 to attacks for enemies in combat with him, with the ability to make one unit -2. -2 to attacks will defang any countercharge threat in the game and makes his 20 health feel more like 200. On top of all this he just gets scarier the closer he gets to the grave. Sharing that regiment are the reinforced vanguard-raptors with longstrikes and vanguard-palladors with javelins. Both are expensive but durable and highly mobile with 3+ saves and run/retreat and charge/shoot, they combo nicely with the support pieces and can score tactics and project DMG table-wide all game.
Sylvaneth Lords of the Clan Drops: 4 Spell Lore – Lore of the Deepwood Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration
General’s Regiment Alarielle the Everqueen (680) • General Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Scythes (400) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Belthanos, First Thorn of Kurnoth (350)
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This is the top three AoS lists for the GAF Jamboree 2024 that took place in the UK on the 12th and 13th of October. It saw 36 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
Peter: I’m very pleased to say that we’ve been joined by top US player Mckenzie Ewing (who you’ve probably seen appear quite a few times on our top 3). Mckenzie will be helping us out with comments on Lumineth, Idoneth, and Sylvaneth.
Mckenzie Ewing: So the list is very interesting as Mike is using the mobility of foxes even with the nerf. However, with Teclis as a magical powerhouse able to throw out the Morbid conjuration spells with ease, it creates a multitude of threats for the opponents to attempt to deal with. The sentinels provide an excellent range damage battery that your opponent has to deal with while you are getting mortal wound bombed by Teclis and Shackles thrown at your face. I like the variety of units post battle scroll and happy to see Mike pilot the list to a 5-0, job well done!
Stormcast Eternals Vanguard Wing Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of the Storm Manifestation Lore – Twilit Sorceries
General’s Regiment Karazai the Scarred (480) • General Praetors (150) Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows (340) • Reinforced
Regiment 2 Neave Blacktalon (340) Lorai, Child of the Abyss Neave’s Companions
Connor Irwin: Congratulations to Dominic for an excellent showing for the shiny champions of Sigmar at GAF. Let’s take a look at what he brought to the table.
Starting from the bottom, Neave and her companions are an interesting choice. The RoR is widely considered more effective outside of a Stormcast army but brings with it an IDK wizard with a neat warscroll spell but no lore. Not to worry, free access to three interesting manifestations keeps Lorai busy. Twilit Sorceries isn’t one you see every day (ie Morbid… Still) and includes the spell portal, geminids, and palisade. All interesting tools for blocking and slowing down an unwelcome advance. Neave herself is a blender in the right company, and the whole package is capable of taking and swinging a punch, especially with some of the close proximity objectives have to wyldwoods in this season’s battleplans.
Moving up the list, big daddy prime perches in a regiment with some good stuff tech. Cheap and useful hounds to screen and win tactics, the knight-vex with all the trimmings (mirror for shooting cover, staunch for an in-territory OC boost), and lastly the ascendent vigilors to boost the hit chance on an unlucky enemy target in their sights for other stormcast units.
Speaking of Karazai, that murder machine with anger issues that would turn a Mangler squig green, sits atop this list as warmaster-general, unlocking the still-auto-include longstrikes and taking a unit of praetors for good measure. The combo here is Bodyguard for the Honour Guard 24-25 GHB season rule, putting in enemies in combat with the massive 140mm based Karazai while the praetors are wholly within 6″ of him (they always are) at a -1 to combat attacks. This pairs nicely with the praetor bodyguard mechanic (5+ ward for both them and Karazai while in combat range of him) and Karazai’s rampage lowering a unit in combat with him’s attacks by -1 as well. So Dominic flies his 20 health ragebeast on a 3+ save to somewhere useful, drops in his praetor safety blanket from azyr to turn on the brick wall and dares someone to try and lift him. If you don’t succeed in one go you’re probably in trouble since damage only adds more jaw attacks, Karazai’s best weapon. There are simply not a lot of armies that can pull that off, since very few reinforced hammers are still viable at -2 attacks. Coupled with longstrike covering fire support and vigilor +1 to hit buffing (frees up all-out-defense) you can see how these overlapping features are a recipe for success.
Important to note the absence of the stormportal, as this event was prior to the new tome, points, and unit releases… which all would hurt it not one bit. Love to see Stormcast good stuff getting it done so congratulations again to Dominic for the excellent results.
Kruleboyz Light Finga Drops: 3 Spell Lore – Lore of the Swamp Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration
General’s Regiment Killaboss on Corpse-rippa Vulcha (290) • General • Slippery Skumbag Man-skewer Boltboyz (220) • Reinforced
Noel Fundora: The double teleport and slipper Vulcha makes this list a nightmare to play against for pure melee armies. The death riders evidently had the speed to hunt them down, but the others not so much. And the big brick of Gutrippaz backed by Sludgey makes for a great hammer. Dense blob of wounds that’s -1 to be hit and packs a serious punch. MKs ever the efficient unit play a wonderful role as always.
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This is the top three AoS lists for Sigmar at the Arena that took place in Australia on the 24th and 25th of August 2024. It saw 42 players vying to be crowned champion in a 5-game tournament.
Before I jump into the Top Three AoS Lists, I wanted to remind everyone of our friendly Discord server where you can join in the conversation with the Woehammer crew and suggest articles or series for the website.
If you like what we’re doing, why not join our Patreon and help keep it going?
Also if there’s a one day or two day tournament you’d like us to cover drop us a comment on this post and we’ll have a look at it for you.
The Top Three AoS Lists
Nighthaunt Death Stalkers 2000 Points Drops: 2 Spell Lore – Lore of the Underworlds Manifestation Lore – Morbid Conjuration
Regiments General’s Regiment Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (880 Points) • General Bladegheist Revenants (300 Points) • Reinforced
Regiment 1 Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (180 Points) • Ruler of the Spectral Hosts • Lightshard of the Harvest Moon Dreadblade Harrows (160 Points) Hexwraiths (320 Points) • Reinforced Hexwraiths (160 Points)
Fittsy: We’ve got Thomas taking a 1st here with a 5-0 with a Nagash list. We’ve got a lot of the standard choices in this list to go together with Nagash. Reinforced Bladeghesists and Hexwraiths who are great for returning at full or half strength. Together with a single Dreadblades and another 5 Hexwraiths. The Knight of Shrouds is a common enough pick with a list like this to be the bearer of Ruler and Lighshard (OPB return half a unit and OPB +1 attack). The KoSoS’ speed helps it to stay out of trouble and be where it needs to be to ping off that +1 attack or chain activate the Hexwraiths with a +1 to hit.
Round 5 has seen Thomas go up against NH… a matchup in which Nagash has come out on top to round out the 5 wins, nice work there Thomas!
Kieren Coates: Skaven is in an interesting place right now, with a variety of lists going 4-1 and a variety of different units, so by no means is this the only way to play the book, but one that I have found works nicely for my play style
Inspired by Mechrat (Keegan) and Warpfire Mini’s (Jordan) and fusing the best parts of all of our lists, we came together with a stable core of 1600ish points with our lists differing on the last 400 to suit each local meta
In a world where no-one runs chaff or models, the list is designed to easily score with 100+ models, recursion, movement tricks, while also being able to use scalpels to take out key hammers and slow the enemy down
The monks job is to not die, get in the way and survive on the objectives, use their end of turn pile in to move from out of combat and lock enemies in combat in their turn (note – this may not still be true in the new book).
Monks deal mortals on pile, mortals on death, and a high volume of low rend attacks, so they’re surprisngly reliable for getting damage in
Jezzails in priority target means they are able to kill enemy general regiments quickly, as well as provide cover fire
Thanquol is a great all rounder, especially at using skitterleap during the opponents turn at +1 to cast – if the enemy makes the fault of killing him or the deceiver for a tactic, just teleport them out to safety
The deceiver is incredibly tricky, and as the list is designed for control games failing 1-2 tactics for the enemy is often enough to call it game, and with our mobility and recursion most armies struggle to stop skaven scoring later in the game
Again – skaven is a great toolbox list and there has been 4-1 lists using over half the book, so there’s plenty of options, and with a new book on the way it’s a great time to worship the horned rat
Blades of Khorne Murder Host 2000 Points Drops: 4 Prayer Lore – Blood Blesssings of Khorne Manifestation Lore – Judgements of Khorne
Regiments General’s Regiment Bloodthirster of Unfettered Fury (440 Points) • General • Favoured of Khorne • Ar’gath, The King of Blades Bloodletters (400 Points) • Reinforced
Regiment 2 Herald of Khorne on Blood Throne (210 Points)
Faction Terrain Skull Altar
Patrick German: As a fan of Bloodletters myself, it’s nice to see a list that digs into them so heavily do well. Bloodletters are a very straightforward melee unit with a decent stat line: 2W on a 5+. 6+ ward going to a 5+ after they fight with the formation. hitting and wounding on 3s with crit (mortals). All of this combines for a unit that can weather an incoming unit’s attacks while delivering some punishment of their own. Their recursion also helps with that survivability, so long as you don’t completely wipe what you attack.
Past there you have three heroes that are just there to buff the bloodletters. The Fury-thirster provides a much-needed 3d6 charge that can easily land your letters in combat early. The bloodmaster has a fight phase double-activation that allows those bloodletters to ignore enemy wards. Finally, The Blood Throne provides even more recursion by restoring a destroyed unit at half strength.
Overall this list seems more straightforward than what we saw from Khorne last edition, but clearly met the needs of the tournament, given the 3rd place landing. If you’re looking for inspiration to get a survivable force on the battlefield to tarpit your opponent while you wear them down, this list would be a great way to accomplish your goal.
So you want to drown your opponents in a furious and e-fish-ent assault of eels, sharks, teeth, and water? To scare your opponents with the sheer scale of your military might and tactics? Well, flounder no more, Patrick has the low down on the Idoneth faction.
Who are the Idoneth Deepkin?
The Idoneth Deepkin is a mysterious and tragic faction created by the aelven god Teclis to repopulate the elven race lost during the World-That-Was. However, they were flawed creations, leading many to suffer from soul starvation. To survive, they raid coastal settlements to harvest souls. Living in hidden underwater enclaves, their society is secretive and avoids contact with other races. Their aesthetic blends traditional elven features with marine elements, and their armies include various units like Sharks, Eels, and Giant Turtles. Their tragic history, enigmatic nature, and blend of elven and oceanic themes define their identity.
Playstyle
Float like an Allopex, Sting like a Fangmora.
The Idoneth Deepkin vied for the title of “fastest army in town” throughout the second edition and third edition. In the new index, they may well hold the record. The slowest unit you can bring moves at 6”, the fastest are swimming at 14”. During turn 2, you can run and shoot and/or charge (a marked improvement from the tides of the past). You have easy access to teleportation, deep strikes, and pulling units into reserves.
But the cost of all of these new features? Slightly less damage output compared to the last edition and maintaining the frailty that they have always struggled against. Both of these can be alleviated, however, through careful use of teleportation and buff bubbles around your units.
Historically, Idoneth has found success as an “oops all eels” army (2nd edition) or an “oops all sharks” army (3rd edition). There are arguments now to say that Idoneth works especially well as a mixed-arms force. There are lots of solid rules interactions between units. Look at how a unit of Ishlaen Guard reduces attacks while cutting some damage into whatever you’ve charged. Follow that up with an Allopex to get additional hits against the injured unit while being protected by the eels.
There is plenty to love in this index, and I think Idoneth players should be overjoyed with the delicious morsels we have been given.
These all rock. We’ve seen marked improvement from the last edition in our tides, and an innate reserves mechanic provides awesome tactical flexibility. We lost Forgotten Nightmares, but we’ve gained enough utility to accept that loss.
Idoneth’s battle traits are split in half. The first half is a combination of Ethersea Voyagers and Raiders from the Deep. The second is Tides of Death.
Ethersea Voyagers allows you to set up one regiment during deployment and place them in reserves. Raiders from the Deep allows you to take a unit in reserves and set them up in your Movement phase wholly within 9” of the edge of the battlefield and more than 9” from all enemy units. The second restriction can be mitigated with the inclusion of a Soulsrcyer, which will be discussed below, and using the Soul-raid ambush formation will allow you to continue moving units in and out of reserves throughout the game.
This is an amazing ability and provides some early tactical flexibility that can not be underestimated. If nothing else, it forces your opponent to consider where their own units are placed and how an Idoneth unit popping up at a board edge might cause problems for something like back-line support heroes. Note that there is no restriction on what round a unit has to arrive from reserves, so you can reserve a critical hammer unit until round 3 to benefit from High Tide.
As with any army, however, you need to be careful about committing to massive deep-strike. A clever opponent will know how to screen your units from coming in on the board edge and if you are facing an opponent that also can bring mass deepstrike you are looking at the possibility of being struck by the Kroot conga-line that we’ve all seen. Also, remember that you have to commit a full regiment to this tactic, and you don’t want your opponent to block you out of deployment just because they can effectively screen the edge of the board.
It’s probably best to consider this ability in two forms: 1) you are up against a slow army or an elite army that will have a hard time screening you out, in which case you can be aggressive with your reserves and hit their backline. Or 2) you can use this ability against mobile or ranged armies to keep some key units safe for the first turn or two. You can’t kill what’s not on the board.
Speaking of High Tide, Idoneth’s Tides of Death have seen some minor tweaks since the last edition. They still provide buffs during a round and require you to control the flow of battle as much as possible. The five tides are shown in the image below:
Take a clip of the Tides of Death Table and place it here
Things to note for Idoneth players coming from 3rd edition: Low Tide now has a clear restriction that the bonus goes away if you charge, so use round 1 and five to score some movement tactics and focus on shooting. Flood Tide now allows you to shoot AND charge after running, which is a massive buff for units like Allopexi and Leviadons that are carrying pretty strong shooting and melee attack profiles.
High Tide is exactly the same as the last edition and will be the source of complaints from all of your opponents. Army-wide strike first is going to be incredibly powerful and may allow you to remove your opponent’s hammer units through careful combat placement before they have the chance to hit back. Ebb Tide has seen the same improvement as Flood Tide, allowing both shooting and charging after falling back.you can use this in concert with abilities like Soul-raid Ambushers (discussed below) to continue your movement flexibility and potentially score late-game battle tactics and primary objectives, depending on objective placement.
Formations
Just like everyone else, Idoneth have four formations to choose from during army construction. Two of these are very good, one is decent, and one will almost never see play.
The first is Namarti Corps. This allows your Namarti units to re-roll run and charge rolls so long as they are wholly within 12” of an Akhelian unit. The bubble size is very forgiving, and if you are bringing Namarti in from reserves with an Akhleian King or Thrallmaster, you are increasing the odds of that 9” charge from ~25% to ~50%.
Akhleian Beastmasters was previewed in the faction focus article and provides your Akhelian companion weapons with +1 to hit. This is a decent buff if you are bringing a lot of sharks and eels, and there are enough sources of -1 to hit in the game that this will keep your friends biting hard against your opponents.
Isharann Council is a flop. Your Isharann units (only the Soulrender and Tidecaster will benefit) get +1 to their warscroll abilities so long as they are within the combat range of another Isharann unit. If the combat range restriction was lifted, this would see some good play, especially because these units will see regular use from their respective abilities. The main trouble is that the Tidecaster generally wants to hang back and cast spells while the Soulrender wants to be in the thick of it with your Namarti. I expect that some bold players will run lists with this formation, but it likely won’t see as much competitive success.
The final formation of Soul-raid Ambushers provides you army with the ability to return one infantry or cavalry unit per turn (only your turn) to reserves. This is tremendously strong and ramps up the mobility of your army well beyond what we already have access to. The ability to use Steed of Tides to launch a unit of Reavers halfway up the board, have them launch a volley at an enemy unit, then dip back into reserves to stay alive another round is an ability that shouldn’t be underestimated. If nothing else, you will make your Sylvaneth friends jealous at your newfangled Strike-and-Fade.
Spells
Before we get into the specifics of spells, let’s look at a fun new command for the 4th edition called “Magical Intervention”:
Why am I bringing this up? Because Steed of Tides is a spell that exists.
Steed of Tides allows you to pick an Idoneth unit wholly within 12” of the caster and teleport them anywhere on the battlefield more than 9” from all enemy units. This is important because of three elements: 1) There is no restriction saying that you can’t use this on a unit that is currently in combat, 2) there is no restriction on what units you can use this on, and 3) this spell has the Unlimited keyword..
Don’t like where your leviadon is sitting? Throw him to the far end of the table. Don’t want that unit of Namarti to get slapped in the combat phase? Remove them from combat during yours or your opponent’s hero phase. See a convenient objective marker all the way over there? You see what I’m getting at here.
Our other spells are not quite as world-shattering but are still useful. Arcane Corrasion reduces the rend of a target’s melee weapons, keeping your squishy aelves alive that little bit longer. Pressure of the Deep is your standard issue horde-clearer, with the usual restriction that you’re dealing with single mortal wounds on 5+’s. This isn’t terrible. it’s just worth keeping in mind that even using this against a reinforced unit of clanrats, you will still only deal an average of 13 mortal wounds. There is nothing to sniff at. There just might be better uses of your limited spells.
Enhancements
All of our artefacts and heroic traits are good, but we should expect to see two float to the top in most competitive lists.
Armor of the Cythai is incredible and universally useful. This blocks an opponent from using any weapons abilities on your heroes (with the exception of the “companion” rule). Removing your opponents anti-hero, anti-infantry, anti-monster, or crit () abilities will make a huge difference in keeping your hero alive. Couple that with the heroic trait Ancient Pride, which prevents unmodified hit rolls of 1-3 from ever hitting your hero, and you have a King or Eidolon that is very difficult to put down.
Our other artefacts are much more situational. Delicious Morsels will do a lot to keep your cavalry units alive, but you obviously won’t be taking it if you don’t bring a lot of cavalry. It also has the restriction that it only works on a unit within the combat range of the carrier, so your King can’t lob a snack any great distance and let your eels spread out. Dritchleech is functional but even more situational. The -1 to casting rolls is good against some armies, and the 18” bubble is substantial, but against armies that aren’t bringing any wizards, you are stuck with an artefact that provides nothing. If you’re in a local meta where everyone is bringing Wizards, you will get a lot of mileage out of the one, but at larger events we’ll need to see what magic meta shakes out.
Units
I want to start with something sad before we get on to the rest of the units. The leviadon is sick and needs lots of bed rest. Lay him on your shelf on a comfortable blanket and admire him from a distance while he recovers.
Frankly, I’m not happy with the turtle. At 500 points, I think it becomes a liability. For something to be worth 25% of your army, it needs to be game-changing, and in its current form, that isn’t what we’re looking at. The limitation for units to be wholly within 6” to receive the ward buff is too limiting to be useful on the units that need it, and the rampage is underwhelming. It’s still going to be an incredible tank with 16 wounds, 3+ save, and 5+ ward, but it needs something to make it more capable.
Eidolons are great. Both serve their purpose, are excellent vehicles for the above heroic traits and artefacts, and both occupy a niche that you will instantly find a use for. The Eidolon of the Sea is the best spellcaster you can bring, and his large base size means that he has a generous bubble for Steed of Tides, and is tanky enough to survive in the thick of combat. The Storm is a melee monster outperforming the King on paper and a great rampage that hits your opponents with Strike-last for the turn.
The Akhelian King has seen better days, but Volturnos is now sitting at a point where he will regularly see tables. The King is meant to be taken for damage output, but when hit with the math-hammer, he does comparable damage to the Eidolon of the Sea. Volturnos, on the other hand, has high quality damage output with a once-per-battle ability to increase the attack characteristics on 3 other units. He is also providing a free +1 to hit aura for Akhelian units wholly within 12”, which is a generous range that will be easy to fit your eels and sharks within.
All of the foot heroes lost their wards coming into the new edition. All of them will die to a stiff breeze, and none of them will put out any form of respectable damage. None of that matters, though, because you aren’t taking foot heroes in Idoneth armies to deal damage. All of our foot heroes provide solid buffs, and I feel like we’ll see regular use for all of them.
The Soulscryer is universally good, reducing the deep strike restriction to 7”, meaning that you will get your charges off much more frequently. The Tidecaster is now your only source of Isharann Rituals, and they only work on a 3+, but getting +1 to run and charge on the turn you need it will be clutch. If you’re taking thralls, the Thrallmaster’s ability to give them Crit (2 hits) drastically boosts their damage output and allows them to threaten heavy targets.
Speaking of Thralls, on paper, they look like they’ve dropped in power from the last edition. Wounding on 4+s makes them less viable than in 3rd, and without proper support, they won’t see much use. They are a perfect buff-sponge, however, and with the backing of a Thrallmaster and Eidolon, you could easily see a unit of Thralls dropping a monster or massive infantry unit in a single combat. Just don’t throw them at cavalry unless you completely lack other targets. They get bonuses against infantry and monsters but will struggle to deal with cavalry in any real capacity.
We have no bad cavalry options, and all three of our units serve their purpose in the niche they are meant to fill. Ishlaen Guard reduce the number of attacks of enemy untis in combat with them and get a 5+ ward after charging. Morsarr do mortal wounds on the charge (every charge, not just once per battle) and are infantry-hunting terrors. Allopexes (Allopexi?) are great units to hunt with a unit of Ishlaen Guard to act as a one-two punch. Let the Ishlaen scratch a wound or two into a unit and reduce its attacks, then have the allopex bite down with its bonus attacks.
All in all, I think Idoneth players should feel very good about the index we’ve been given. We have some strong movement abilities, decent damage output, and the “wow” factor that a well-painted army will bring to the table (seriously, I cannot understate how much I love the Idoneth model range). The army will require even more finesse than it did in previous editions, but in the hands of an experienced player, they will absolutely shine.
Sample List
Akhelian King
1×3 Ishlaen Guard
1×3 Ishlaen Guard
Eidolon of the Storm – Warlord with Ancient Pride and Armor of the Cythai
Each Datacard has three distinct sections; Charge Chance, Resilience and Average Damage Output.
Charge Chance
This graph shows the move and charge distances each unit can achieve and shows the chance of them achieving this distance as a percentage.
Resilience
This table shows how much damage would be required on average to destroy the unit. This is split into the various rend types most commonly found in Age of Sigmar. For example, the unit shown in the image above would need 18 damage from -2 rend weapons for the enemy to have a chance at destroying it.
This can be cross-referenced with another units average damage output to see what kind of damage they’ll do to it.
Average Damage Output
This simply shows how much damage on average the unit is expected to inflict after saves against the various save types. If there are multiple load-out choices, then these are shown separately, as is any missile damage.
Each Datacard has three distinct sections; Charge Chance, Resilience and Average Damage Output.
Charge Chance
This graph shows the move and charge distances each unit can achieve and shows the chance of them achieving this distance as a percentage.
Resilience
This table shows how much damage would be required on average to destroy the unit. This is split into the various rend types most commonly found in Age of Sigmar. For example, the unit shown in the image above would need 18 damage from -2 rend weapons for the enemy to have a chance at destroying it.
This can be cross-referenced with another units average damage output to see what kind of damage they’ll do to it.
Average Damage Output
This simply shows how much damage on average the unit is expected to inflict after saves against the various save types. If there are multiple load-out choices, then these are shown separately, as is any missile damage.
