Following on from Declan’s article last week where he covered a competitive list that could be made using the Start Collecting! Ogor Mawtribes boxed set, we continue this week with a look at the Start Collecting! Anvilgard set.

What’s in the box……!?

1 Black Ark Fleetmaster

1 Kharibdyss, this can also be built as a War Hydra

10 Black Ark Corsairs

1 Scourgerunner Chariot, this can also be built as a Drakespawn Chariot

13 miniatures, including a hero a chariot and a monster.

One of the best things about the Start Collecting! boxes are the savings. In this case, (as of 18/12/21 in GBP) the box is £60 and the collected contents, if purchased individually, retail for £100 giving a sweet £40 saving (or a free Kharibdyss/War Hydra, if you prefer).

What is Anvilgard?

Anvilgard is a subfaction of the Cities of Sigmar faction in the Order Grand Alliance for Age of Sigmar, to play the army you will need a copy of the Cities of Sigmar Battletome.

Anvilgard, also known as the City of Scales was a port city in the realm of Aqshy on the Charrwind coast. The city is surrounded by jungle and the Ironweld Arsenal constantly pump out defoliants which shroud the city in a stinking fug. The city was dominated by Blackscale Coil crime syndicate and has some interesting rules which align with this lore. This City of Sigmar fell to the forces of Morathi during the events of Broken Realms: Morathi but is still a playable subfaction in the game.

The background and the rules for Anvilgard encourage the use of our monster and the Privateers, so the box actually fits really well with the lore for the city.

Fans of Warhammer Fantasy will note that if they have an old Dark Elf army (and didn’t burn it), then Anvilgard may be a good entry into Age of Sigmar…. though not the only possibility.

Here’s a quick rundown of our units, please note this article was written on 18/12/21 and points etc. may change:

The Black Ark Fleetmaster is not a world destroying hero but at 70 points they are cheap and importantly have the Scourge Privateers Keyword. This means that, if used as your General, they make both Scourgerunner Chariots and Black Ark Corsairs Battleline. Furthermore, if your Fleetmaster hangs around with their Corsair buddies, they have a buff which will improve their fighting abilities.

Kharibdyss/War Hydra: The Kharibdyss comes in at 165 points and the War Hydra at 170. So, which one should we build? Well, sadly neither of these are brilliant in terms of their rules at the moment but they are great models and incredibly lore friendly for the city. Both are monsters, so can use the monstrous rampage actions and can give you bonuses in five of the eight core Battle Tactics. On the flipside, monsters give away points when slain and these are not particularly survivable so be cautious. Both of these monsters have some limited healing, though the Kharibdyss only triggers if it slays a model and the War Hydra does have a ranged attack. Playing Anvilgard, we get access to Drakeblood Curses, this gives us an extra buff which we can put on our beasties to make them a little more impactful such as improving their charge or debuffing enemy bravery. Personally, I would build the Kharibdyss purely because I prefer the model and it plays so nicely into the nautical theme of Anvilgard.

Scourgerunner Chariot/Drakespawn Chariot: The Scourgerunner Chariot and Drakespawn Chariot both come in at 80 points. Sadly, there isn’t much, in my opinion, to recommend the Drakespawn Chariot. If you would like to theme your army around a Dreadlord on Black Dragon then these do become battleline but unfortunately, they aren’t terribly impactful (no pun intended). The Scourgerunner chariot, however, becomes battleline with our Fleetmaster General and has a few things in its favour. Big Base Action, with a 120 x 92mm base the unit can be handy for blocking up the table and is quick with a 12″ move. Furthermore, its shooting attack is quite nice, two shots with a reasonable chance of hitting and wounding and d3 damage plus a chance of causing D3 mortal wounds.

Black Ark Corsairs: Our ten corsairs come in at 85 points for ten models on 25mm bases and can be armed with either vicious blade and handbow or vicious blade and wicked cutlass. An argument can be made for the ranged version but our first unit, I would recommend building with the blade and cutlass. The reason for this is the Black Ark Fleetmaster, our Fleetmaster can buff the Corsairs with +1 to the attack characteristic of their melee weapons, so it is definitely worth bearing that in mind.

So, our army list looks like this:

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Anvilgard (Illicit Dealings: Black Market Bounty)
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Black Ark Fleetmaster (70)*
– General
– Artefact: Arcane Tome (Universal Artefact)
– City Role: General’s Adjutant
– Lore of Dark Sorcerery: Vitriolic Spray

10 x Black Ark Corsairs (85)*
– Vicious Blade & Wicked Cutlass
– City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)

1 x Scourgerunner Chariots (80)*

Kharibdyss (165)*
– Drakeblood Curse: Fell Gaze

*Battle Regiment

Total: 400 / 750
Reinforced Units: 0 / 1
Allies: 0 / 100
Wounds: 33
Drops: 1

I gave our General the Arcane Tome to make them a wizard and made the Corsairs their honoured retinue, to make the Fleetmaster more survivable. The Kharibdyss has received the Drakeblood Curse of Fell Gaze, this will stack with the native ability of the beast and will make battleshock a scary proposition for low bravery armies. This would be a fun start to an Anvilgard army but could also be used as a nice start for any Cities faction, though particularly Har Kuron (excellent if you want to port over a Dark Elf army as you can include your Witch Elves) or Misthavn.

Is it worth buying multiples of these?

I would say yes to picking up a few if I wanted to build into Anvilgard. I should note, though, that if you are going into this Start Collecting! you are probably already accepting you are not playing at the competitive ‘Bleeding Edge’and you are leaning further into that. A second box will allow you to bulk out your Corsair unit to the maximum twenty for an Honoured Retinue and give you an extra Scourgerunner (which I would probably use as a separate unit, rather than increase to a unit of two). The only potentially questionable second unit is the Fleetmaster as the Command Ability to buff the Corsairs cannot be stacked so they may find their way on to be traded or sold. You could, of course, convert your Fleetmaster to something else as you will have plenty of spare bits from the Corsair set and they might look nice as an alternative crew model in one of your Scourgerunner Chariots. A third box could be useful, especially for the Chariot and you could convert the Corsairs into some nicely themed Shadow Warriors with a head swap with left over bits from other kits.

Looking to expand further, I would consider adding a Sorceress to our fledgling army, her warscroll spell debuffs an enemy unit’s to hit roll and also does D3 mortal wounds, she could be the Fleetmaster’s Adjutant and provide some extra Command Point generation as well. If taking a Sorceress, it’s worth remembering she can get buffs to cast by shanking her comrades with the Darkling Covens keyword, so give her some pawns to sacrifice! Cities of Sigmar also get +1 to cast Endless Spells, so it is worth perusing those to see which you might like and which might support your playstyle. I would suggest vitriolic spray as her chosen spell, removing enemy armour saves is not to be sniffed at, despite the short range. I like the idea of pairing her with Darkshards who can provide good sacrifice fodder while giving some shooting.

One of the most beautiful models still around from Warhammer Fantasy, in my opinion, is the Dreadlord on Black Dragon and they nicely line up with our theme. The Dreadlord is also quite strong and their buff works nicely on other Order Draconis and themselves, so consider some Drakespawn Knights for flavour. Picking up the Black Dragon, in combination with our two Kharibdyss, also opens up more Battle Tactics to us.

I would also consider branching out a little into Daughters of Khaine for a bit of fun and variety, the Khainite Shadowstalkers are beautiful models and their teleport ability is a great addition to any army.

This is what our 2K army might look like, add in Regiments to taste:

Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar
– City: Anvilgard (Illicit Dealings: Dabbling in Sorcery)
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Inspired

Sorceress (95)
– City Role: General’s Adjutant
– Lore of Dark Sorcerery: Vitriolic Spray

Dreadlord on Black Dragon (290)
– Lance of Spite & Tyrant Shield
– Artefact: Drakescale Cloak
– Drakeblood Curse: Jutting Bones
– Mount Trait: Foetid Breath

Black Ark Fleetmaster (70)
– General
– Command Trait: Blackfang Crimelord

20 x Black Ark Corsairs (170)
– Vicious Blade & Wicked Cutlass
– City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)
– Reinforced x 1

1 x Scourgerunner Chariots (80)

1 x Scourgerunner Chariots (80)

20 x Darkshards (230)
– Reinforced x 1

10 x Dreadspears (90)

Kharibdyss (165)
– Drakeblood Curse: Fell Gaze

Kharibdyss (165)

5 x Drakespawn Knights (125)

10 x Shadow Warriors (120)

5 x Drakespawn Knights (125)

9 x Khainite Shadowstalkers (120)
– Allies

Chronomantic Cogs (45)



Total: 1970 / 2000
Reinforced Units: 2 / 4
Allies: 120 / 400
Wounds: 149
Drops: 8

I think this can be made more competitive with the addition of a Hurricanum, perhaps a Runepriest and an Anointed on Frost Phoenix instead of some of the Aelf units but this does somewhat compromise the theme for me and I truly enjoy this theme, if you are looking for a very competitive list then Anvilgard is probably not the place to start in any case.

To sum up, this is an excellent Start Collecting! with some great models and a good discount but it doesn’t have the most competitive choices and it doesn’t line up with the most competitive of factions. If you enjoy the aesthetics, lore and theme of Anvilgard though, it does fit them perfectly and is 100% a great buy.

All the Best and for the Witch King *cough* Sigmar!