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4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Chaos, Disciples of Tzeentch, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Kieron Bailey, Reviews

4th Edition Faction Review: Disciples of Tzeentch

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Intro

I’ve been playing Tzeentch on and off for about 18 months, drawn to the spells, summoning and shenanigans this faction is known for. I was originally hoping to go with a Kairos and Lord of Change list, but when the 3rd edition battletome came out, there wasn’t really any reason to start the battle with 2 of these big birds. I say start, because my most successful lists were those from the Guild of Summoners, with the gimme battle tactic to go along with the gimme Grand Strategy. Grand Strategies are gone, Guild of Summoners are gone but there might be a viable reason to have that Kairos and Lord of Change build from the start.

Who are the Disciples of Tzeentch?

An excellent question and one for which the answer is always changing. Tzeentch is one of the four original Chaos Gods, focused on change and manipulation of his own servants and those of others. These subtleties put him at odds with Khorne, with the latter’s hatred of sorcery consolidating the enmity between these two factions. It is never clear exactly what Tzeentch’s end goals are as their machinations are as likely to have their worshippers be defeated at the right time and place as to march to victory after victory. The only consolation is that it is ‘All as planned’.

There are two factions within the Disciples of Tzeentch that vie for their master’s favour: Daemons and the Arcanites. Daemons are the stuff of magic itself given form, with the ability to twist and shape raw chaos to their will, resulting in magic spells or blasts of wyrdflame to ignite their foes. Arcanites are the mortal followers of Tzeentch, including the mutated Tzaangor and the Kairic Acolytes who use magic to reshape their own bodies.

Why play the Disciples of Tzeentch?

Disciples of Tzeentch is a faction that heavily relies on magic, not necessarily for damage dealing directly, but to further their subtle plans for victory on the battle field. They do not have the raw combat power of a Destruction army nor do they have the ranged prowess of many Order factions. What they do have is a range of tools that can be selected to take on a variety of challenges and, Tzeentch willing, come out on top.

Battle Traits

Masters of Destiny

One of the Disciples of Tzeentch’s most notorious ability, Destiny Dice, returns in 4th edition. In the deployment phase, you roll 9 dice and can use the outcome of these dice to use instead of a dice roll. These can include casting rolls and charging rolls, though you do need to spend 2 of these dice to do so. These can be hugely influential, guaranteeing a charge when really needed (though not a counter-charge), making a 6+ save to an attack that could wipe out a key piece or making sure an important attack wounds its intended target. 4th edition sees an interesting change to this mechanic because while there is (almost) no way of returning Destiny Dice, which was very straightforward in 3rd, there is also no need to hoard dice in order to get the Grand Strategy at the end of the game.

Conflagration of Tzeentch

The defining ability of the index for Tzeentch is the ability to light an enemy unit up, literally. If a weapon with the Wyrdflame weapon ability does damage, that unit is now burning. There are also a couple of ways of adding burning in the combat phase too. Importantly, only one unit per phase can have the burning debuff added. Potentially, you could cast a Wyrdflame spell in your opponent’s turn; shoot them with a Wyrdflame weapon with Covering Fire; fight them with your combat source of burning and then do all of that again in your turn for 6 potential units per battle round. Realistically, if you could get 3 units burning, that’s good going.

Burning Wyrdflame

So what does the Wyrdflame do? At the end of every turn, on a D3 roll of a 2 or 3, a unit takes that much damage but on a 1, they manage to put themselves out and are no longer burning. Yes, it’s only D3, but that could be enough to swing an objective or complete a battle tactic. If you do manage to get a good spread of burning going, these could all add up. If you take the Wyrdflame Host battle formation, you are probably better off choosing NOT to activate the D3 roll so as to keep the debuff applied.

Quenching the Flames

In addition, Wyrdflame shuts down any healing, with the healing ‘quenching the flames’ instead. This would shut down the prodigious Soulblight healing as well as making Rally a 1cp – please put me out, I’m on fire command ability.

Battle Formations

Tzaangor Coven

Screeching Warflock is a passive that means that every time a friendly Warflock (anything Tzaangor related) uses Rally, you roll an extra 3 dice. Obviously the more Tzaangor you take, the better this is, but you can expect to be able to bring back 2-3 normal Tzaangor, but the extra 3 dice pushes you up the point at which you’ve been a little unlucky not to being a Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc or Skyfire back. The Enlightened on Disc aren’t what they were, but they’re still a good unit and with access to this recursion, can be quite a tricky one to get rid of.

Wyrdflame Host

Mutagenic Inferno is another passive that subtracts 1 from wound rolls made by attacks from Burning units. The utility of this one will be determined by how hard you choose to lean into the Wyrdflame mechanic. Choosing Pinks as your screens, choosing the Lore of Change (see below) and even your artifact choice can make the enemy significantly debuffed, throwing off the expectations your opponent may have from that hammer unit that has just charged you.

Arcanite Cabal

Another passive, Sinister Counter-hexes, allows you to add 1 to unbinding rolls for friendly Arcanite units and, if successful, that unit can immediately use Magical Intervention without a CP being spent. Again, economies of scale will be important here, although taking Kairos alongside a Curseling is quite a potent anti-magic duo. The only potential downside is that if you face off against a faction without magic…you have wasted your battle formation choice.

Change Host

The only battle formation with an active ability allows you to remove a Daemon unit from combat on a 3+ and set it up again but still in combat with the enemy units it was in combat with. I may be missing something huge here, but there aren’t really any Daemon units that you want in full on combat and even if you do, why would you want to essentially do a fancy pile in with them and only on a 3+. All the other battle formations seem to offer a lot more.

Heroic Traits

Cult Demagogue

Similar, but different is how I would describe Cult Demagogue. The downside is that if you roll a double (that is not a miscast) then you only get +3 to cast instead of the cast not being able to be unbound. The upside is that, if you have a two cast wizard, it works on both casts. With Destiny Dice being the best way of getting that double on the cast and Destiny Dice being less commonplace, this is probably an overall positive change.

Illusionist

Amazing on a first-read, until you see the word ‘wholly’. It is -1 to hit while units are ‘wholly’ within a unit’s combat range, i.e. 3”. I was initially very excited until I remembered how to read as, sadly, most of anything you’ll want to protect with this has a base size of greater than 3” or a footprint larger than this. There’s still some play with it and it is not just shooting but combat too, so maybe a Curseling or a Ogroid Thaumaturge might get a little extra survivability with this.

Nexus of Fate

Roll a dice in Your Hero Phase an replace one of the Destiny Dice with the roll. With the loss of battleshock as a phase, there isn’t a lot of use for Destiny Dice of 1, so this may help make these a bit more useful. If Destiny Dice are key to your plan, this is a good one to pick and, if you don’t want to risk getting losing a good Destiny Dice…you still have good Destiny Dice!

Artefacts

Ambition’s End

An artefact that is itself lacking in ambition as it can do D3 damage to a wizard the bearer is in combat with and subtracts 1 from casting rolls for the rest of the battle. Rest of the battle is great, but better to just kill the wizard and not be able to cast for the rest of the battle. Hard pass.

Nine-eyed Tome

Adding 1 to casting and banishment rolls is always good and consistently so. Combine the Curseling, Arcanite Cabal and Kairos with this artefact and the Curseling could have +3 to unbind, which is not to be sniffed at and then could immediately cast back with +2 to cast. Solid artefact and likely to be the default pick.

Wyrdflame Blade

If you are going all in on Wyrdflame, this artefact can allow an enemy unit to receive the Burning keyword if any damage points are put through. Don’t put this on an Ogroid as they can already add Burning in combat, but if a Curseling has it, they can add Burning in each of the three main phases of the game.

Spell Lore

Lore of Change

Tzeentch has the choice of two spell lores, with one great spell in each, one decent spell in each and one spell that you would never choose if you didn’t get the other spells with it.

The great spell for the Lore of Change is Fold Reality, which gives Tzeentch a teleport, something they were lacking for all of 3rd – Ephilim the Unknowable’s spell does not count! It goes off on a 7, but with Kairos nearby and/or casting it, it’s a pretty reliable spell and movement is always great. While units set up this turn cannot score tactics such as Take their Land or Take the Flanks, putting a hammer unit within 9” and being able to guarantee a charge with Destiny Dice is pretty good. Typically, about two months after I put all my Enlightened on Foot on discs!

The good spell is Bolt of Tzeentch, which is a straightforward D3 damage spell with an 18” range and a generous casting value of 6. Crucially, it has the unlimited keyword, so can be cast by every wizard and it is Wyrdflame, so you will want this spell if you are focusing on Burning.

Transformed to Spawn is the meh spell and that is being kind. 12” range is really short and you might be able to bring a Spawn in, that you still have to pay for. Spawns are pretty awful, so why you would want to pay for one to use with this spell, I do not know. Bring in a Manifestation instead, which is much better than a Spawn AND free!

Lore of Fate

Shield of Fate is the best spell in probably both lores as it gives the target a 5+ ward AND -1 to hit (if you have 4 or more Destiny Dice), both of which last until the start of your next turn. This is a great spell and a good candidate to be cast in your opponent’s hero phase using Magical Intervention. Lasting for potentially two player turns is also fairly uncommon, adding to the value of this spell.

The okay spell, good would be going too far, is Infernal Gateway, which is a 12” range damaging spell, where you roll the number of dice equivalent to the number of Destiny Dice you have (minimum 4), which each 4+ being a mortal wound. If there was a way of getting dice back (without running out entirely first) this would be good, potentially great. As it is, it is a good spell for the start of the game that either requires you to not use your Destiny Dice or to get gradually less effective as time goes on.

Glimpse the Future asks you to put aside your Destiny Dice of 6 and then gamble with the others. This could be a great way of getting out of a sticky situation and getting something usable to play with, but it only give you an actual dice back once you have none left at all. And if you don’t have any left at all, Infernal Gateway is toothless and Shield of Fate is only the 5+ ward. Not a good spell.

Despite Shield of Fate being so good, the utility of teleporting and the ability to maximise Burning units means that the Lore of Change gets my vote unless you have something very particular in mind, for example, assassinating a 5 wound character with the Changeling and a lucky dice roll T1.

Manifestation Lore

Burning Sigil of Tzeentch

The first of two static manifestations is the Burning Sigil of Tzeentch, which goes off on a 5 and needs to be placed wholly within 12” of the caster. Every movement phase it is on the board,  you roll 2 dice and choose one outcome to apply to all units with 9”, friendly and otherwise, ranging from reducing move, subtracting from hit or wound rolls or, causing D3 damage, but making that unit angry and adding 1 to their attacks characteristic. As it is a static manifestation it can be placed within 9” of the enemy and even into their combat ranges. Potentially this could shut down counter-charges, but will cost the Sigil as it only has a 5+ save and a 6+ ward with 6 health.

Daemonic Simulacrum

The good news is if the Daemonic Simulacrum hits a Slann, it will have 7 attacks, 4s/3s, rend -2 for D3 damage, which gives it a pretty good chance of eating the frog. Into anything else, it’s just 4s/3s, rend -1 for D3. It is a manifestation with a 9” move so it does need to be set up outside 9” of the enemy and 12” of the caster. However, if you choose the Lore of Change, a caster could potentially teleport close enough to an enemy wizard that they can put the Simulacrum down within 9” and then use Destiny Dice to guarantee a charge as they do have the Disciples of Tzeentch keyword. With pretty much everyone taking a wizard to get access to manifestations, this is worth a look.

Tome of Eyes

The second static and third manifestation is similar, but different, just like the Cult Demagogue heroic trait. Instead of just a +1 to cast, Tzeentch generals can choose to add 1 or 2 to the casting roll for a wizard (and it can be multiple) within the combat range of the Tome, and then roll the number of dice equivalent to the buff i.e. for +2, you roll 2 dice. For each 1 or 2, allocate 1 damage point to the caster. What’s great about this and the timing of various abilities is that you can cause 2 damage to a unit and then rally them, practically guaranteeing they are back at full health. In this way, you can see the 1cp as adding +2 to cast. Put Kairos nearby and that’s +3 to cast.

Krondspine Incarnate

It’s also worth mentioning here that if you do take Kairos (and you probably will want to) then Kairos’ Mastery of Magic passive means that you only need to roll one 4 on 2d6 to summon the Incarnate. This still works on your opponent’s turn as he gives the +1 to cast to himself too.

Units

This won’t be an exhaustive list, but one that looks to highlight the units that will probably become the core of your army with one or two reasons why you might want to choose them.

Kairos Fateweaver

The biggest of the big birds has several things going for him. He retains Mastery of Magic, which makes the lowest D6 of a casting roll the same as the highest D6, so a roll of a 1 and a 6 turns into 2 6s. Added to his Beacon of Sorcery ability to give +1 to casting AND unbinding, you’ve just cast something on a 13. Bonuses to unbinding are very uncommon, so it makes him a very potent wizard and a Wizard (3) at that. He also has one of the most powerful spells from 3rd edition as his warscroll spell, Arcane Suggestion. While it does go off on an 8, with Mastery of Magic this is going off 75% of the time and allows you to choose one of the following debuffs: the target cannot use commands; subtract 1 from hit and wound rolls; subtract 1 from save rolls.

However, this combination of abilities is overshadowed by his Oracle of Eternity ability. Kairos can, once per battle, do one of two things. Either choose a battle tactic that has already been completed OR choose two battle tactics you can try to achieve without burning that second tactic. This is huge. Scoring 5 battle tactics is really hard to do in 4th so being able to double up on Take the Flanks with 200 points of Screamers for 8 points is a great position to be in. In my opinion, this is the path to victory for Tzeentch: score all 5 tactics and hold 2 objectives all game for 40 points (in most cases). Debuff the enemy sufficiently that they drop a couple of tactics and don’t take objectives and that should be enough to win.

Lord of Change

In the introduction I mentioned that I wanted to have the opportunity to run both of these units in the same list and Disciples of Tzeentch have followed the pattern for Chaos that the named Greater Daemon has abilities that fit the lore and then the unnamed ones largely do the same thing – return units in lieu of summoning. For one Destiny Dice (so this is what those 1s and 2s can be used for) a Lord of Change can return a Daemon unit at half strength, wholly within 12” and outside of 9” of the enemy. The best candidates for this are probably 20 Pink Horrors or 6 Flamers. The slightly lesser big bird also throws out a -1 to hit debuff when targeting Daemon units in combat wholly within 12”. Couple this with the Wyrdflame debuff if you choose Wyrdflame Host and your opponent will be at -1 to hit AND wound, and potentially unable to do anything about it because of Arcane Sacrifice from Kairos. It has lost access to the Mastery of Magic ability, so casting is a little harder, but if you take the Nine-Eyed Tome, cast the Tome of Eyes and are wholly within 12” of Kairos, that’s +4 to casting rolls. The spell, Tzeentch’s Firestorm is fine, generally doing D3 mortals, with the potential to spike for more, but it is unique and it does have Wyrdflame to add this debuff. What also has Wyrdflame is the Rod of Sorcery, which is the option you want to take on the LoC, with 2D6 shots at 18”, 3s/3s, rend -1 and 1 damage.

Changecaster

While the Herald on Disc has gone to Legends, the Changecaster is a plastic model, so survives! The first of two reasons you would want to take these are for 3 extra dice when rallying when wholly within 12”. From 9 dice (appropriately), it’s reasonable to expect 4 health back, which could be two Pink Horrors or two Flamers. Flamers are particularly interesting as they shouldn’t really be in combat, so rallying in both turns to get 4 back for 2cp feels pretty decent. The second reason is that you can add 1 to hit rolls that target a Burning enemy unit when the Burning enemy unit is within 12”. While there aren’t really any Daemon units that can take advantage of this (though Screamers would help) it would also apply to any variety of Tzaangor you might be able to throw in, who are more dangerous in combat.

The Curseling

For 170 points, The Curseling is a good investment of points as a 2-cast wizard that cannot always be targeted as he is a foot hero of only 6 health. He also has a 3+ save, so is relatively tanky for a Tzeentch hero. His ranged attack crucially has the Wyrdflame keyword for its D6 attacks and his melee profile, while a little underwhelming, can potentially do 15 damage at rend -2. His other ability, Disrupter of the Arcane, allows him to reduce the power level of a wizard by 1, to a minimum of 0, until the next Tzeentch turn. It is only on a 4+, but with the Arcanite Cabal battle formation and Kairos’ +1 to unbinds, the odds are that spell is being stopped. With Arcanite Cabal, The Curseling would then immediately be able to cast a spell without spending a command point. Finally, to get another phase where Wyrdflame could be added, the Wyrdflame Blade is probably best on The Curseling if you are taking it.

Ogroid Thaumaturge

A quick mention for the other ‘combat’ hero as a decent ranged attack has been added, though sadly without the Wyrdflame keyword, but the Ogroid’s combat attacks do add Burning. While 3 attacks, 4s and 2s is a little swingy, if the Ogroid has lost any health (and not just in that phase or turn), he gets +1 to hit and wound. On the charge, the Great Horns and Cloven Hooves also do 3 damage. There is also the staff in combat that would be 3s and 2s for D3 if damaged.

Tzaangor Shaman

The final hero that I’m going to take a look at here as it features in one of my lists below is the Tzaangor Shaman. Being only a Wizard (1) it isn’t going to dominate the hero phase nor does it have its own warscroll spell. What it can do is to give a Tzaangor unit on foot run and charge, which can be really handy on Enlightened on Foot, one of the more efficient warscrolls of the index. The other ability synergises well with the Tzaangor Coven battle formation as it can bring up to 3 models back to a unit. If you can get this off in range of some Enlightened on Disc, that could be 170 points this is bringing back to your army AND it can be done by multiple Shamans AND at the end of every turn.

Pink Horrors

Pinks are significantly different to what they were in 3rd. They can split, but only if they join a nearby blues and brims unit that has taken enough casualties for the extra blues to fit in the unit and not take over its starting strength. And if you combine the points cost for pinks and blues at their current value then they are the same cost (260pts) as pinks were at the end of 3rd. Pinks on their own, however, are only 140pts and they do have 20 wounds in a unit of 10 instead of just the 10 and they have a 6+ ward as standard. So they can be a bit of a tarpit, as 40 wounds in a reinforced unit is not nothing, particularly if you choose the Lore of Fate and add Shield of Fate. Set the unit attacking you on fire with their Wyrdflame attacks and throw in All out Defence, 40 wounds on a 5+ save, 5+ ward and -1 to hit and wound is actually quite survivable. If a melee hammer does come over and kill them all, on a 4+ you can inflict 1 mortal damage on a target that is in combat with them…then bring half back with a Lord of Change!

Flamers of Tzeentch

A reinforced unit of 6 has 18 attacks, 3s/4s, -1 against infantry for D3 damage and +1 to wound against targets that are already burning, which could be decent. They are, however only 12 wounds on a 5+ save, 6+ ward, so will go down quite quickly. On the bright side, if a Changecaster uses the rally command on this unit then you’re probably bringing 2-3 back. They’re also quite fast too, with 9” move, so they can potentially hide somewhere relatively safe before accelerating forward to shoot (and then probably die!)

Burning Chariot of Tzeentch

While we’re talking about setting stuff on fire, a quick mention for the Burning Chariot as for 20 points more than 3 flamers, you get 4 Wyrdflame shots at 16” instead of 12” and 12 attacks (admittedly pretty poor ones!) in combat. However, if you were to take the Chariot, it would be for its ability to give the Burning keyword to an enemy that it moved over in Your movement phase on a 3+. Probably a few too many hoops to jump through for me, but worth mentioning as another source of Burning.

Screamers of Tzeentch

With the Beast keyword, these will not be able to snatch anything but an uncontested objective, but they still do have some uses. They are only 100 points, with a 5+ save and 6+ ward with 3 health, so they are not entirely trivial to get rid of and their 14” move can be really handy for Seize the Centre, Take the Flanks and Take their Land. If you have Kairos in your list then they could score one of these twice, making a 200 point investment for 2 units good sense and worth including in most lists.

Tzaangors

From the heady heights of Hoarfrost-induced murder at the end of 3rd, Tzaangor have take a bit of a fall from grace. They now only have 2 attacks, 4s/3s, rend -1 for 1 damage, but do get Crit (2 Hits) if the unit is wholly within enemy territory…if they live that long or Reality if Folded to teleport them across the board. A unit of 20 is only 300 points though and, in a Tzaangor Coven with Shaman support, those 40 wounds could hang around a bit.

Tzaangor Enlightened on Foot

Point-for-point, this is as efficient as it gets for Tzeentch as for only 10 points more than their speedier brothers on disc, you get twice the number of spear attacks AND they have kept the shut down commands ability that all Enlightened had in 3rd – albeit on a 3+ and only when charging. Compared to 10 standard Tzaangor, they are only 2 fewer wounds and they’re on a 4+ save rather than a 5+. Their problem always used to be the delivery mechanism you would use to get them into combat and with Fold Reality as a spell plus Destiny Dice to guarantee a charge this is no longer a problem. If you’re starting a Tzeentch army for 4th and you’re into goats, 6 boxes of these will only be 540 points of models for the most efficient ¼ of your army. In fact, you could practically create a whole army just using this kit…

Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc

Much faster than their footslogging kin, they also have a couple of D3 damage disc attacks too. They are also damage 3 when the Tzeentch player goes second OR is the underdog. Having at least one unit to zoom around the board assassinating choice targets is definitely a build option particularly when coupled with…

Tzaangor Skyfires

The same speed and defensive profile of the Enlightened above, but with two 18” bow attacks that ignore any modifiers to hit and to wound. A unit of 3 can do the same skirmishing job of 3 Screamers, while still being able to do some damage at range. Where they truly shine, however, is that they give +1 to hit rolls made by friendly Warflock units that attack the unit the Skyfires did damage too. There is no limitation on how many times this is used, so two Skyfire units patrolling the flanks could mark targets for their melee cousins, bringing the Enlightened on Disc up to 3s and 3s on their 3 damage spears.

Sample Lists

For the sample lists, I’ve brought a Daemon variant and an Arcanite one.

Disciples of Tzeentch – Daemons

Wyrdflame Host

Kairos Fateweaver 440

[General]

– 1 x Changecaster, Herald of Tzeentch 140

– 20 x Pink Horrors 280

– 20 x Pink Horrors 280

Lord of Change 360

[Nine-Eyed Tome]

[Illusionist]

– 6 x Flamers of Tzeentch 240

– 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch 100

– 3 x Screamers of Tzeentch 100

Lore of Fate

Manifestations of Tzeentch

1940/2000pts

2 drops

This list is trying to debuff as much of the enemy as it can with Wyrdflame while scoring 5 tactics, manipulated by Kairos. The choice between Lore of Change for the D3 Wyrdflame spell and teleport and Lore of Fate and the 5+ ward and -1 to hit was tough, but getting the extra resilience for the pinks won out in the end. Each Tzeentch movement phase, one unit of Daemons can potentially come back at half strength, so up to 500pts or so of recursion available in this list if the Lord of Change’s illusionist ability keeps him alive.

Disciples of Tzeentch – Arcanites

Tzaangor Coven

Tzaangor Shaman 160

[General]

– 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened 180

– 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened 180

– 20 x Tzaangors 300

– 20 x Tzaangors 300

Tzaangor Shaman 160

– 6 x Tzaangor Enlightened on Discs of Tzeentch 340

– 3 x Tzaangor Skyfires 170

– 3 x Tzaangor Skyfires 170

Lore of Change

Krondspine Incarnate

1960/2000pts

2 drops

This list doesn’t have access to the -1 to wound debuff or Kairos’ Oracle of Eternity, but it does have access to lots of rally rolls and 2 Shaman to potentially bring 6 models back per turn. The 5+ ward, -1 to hit spell would be great on the 20 Tzaangor blocks, but the teleport of the Enlightened of Foot is probably more important to try to eliminate threats instead of surviving them. With only two casts and no bonuses in this list, the Krondspine is the choice of manifestation to get rid of any enemy manifestations while the goats kill the actual enemy.

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Destruction, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Pete Atkinson (Plastic Craic), Reviews, Sons of Behemat

4th Edition Faction Review: Sons of Behemat

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Pete Atkinson of Plastic Craic fame. Have you got Fee-Fi-Phobia? Let Pete ease those fears so you can finally look up to the gargants. We’ve beanstalking Plastic Craic for a while, and we loved their Sons review!

This link will take you to the Plastic Craic website, where you can enjoy the article in full.

by Peter Atkinson It’s been a hell of a ride, hasn’t it? Sons of Behemat have a hard-earned rep from the early days of 3rd Ed when any clown could walk onto objectives and stand there for a while, and score a 4-1 with minimal effort. The game and the army has moved on a […]

Massive Flex: Sons of Behemat AOS4 Faction Review
4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Death, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Fittsy, Games Workshop, Nighthaunt, Reviews

4th Edition Faction Review: Nighthaunt

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Intro

My name is Fitts and I like to say Awoooo when I’m charging in AoS and this is my story (actually, it’s a faction review for the 4th Edition rules but that just doesn’t roll off the tongue the same way)…

You may have seen some of my Kharadron articles around but I started my own personal AoS journey with Nighthaunt. When looking at factions, I was down to either them or Ogors (by Ogors I mean Stonehorns) and in the end I went with Nighthaunt, in part because they looked like a good way to get into painting again after a 20 odd year break. Back when I started there were 2 heroes, 2 troops, and a Monster… and that was it. It was an odd choice for an army at the time! As we all know, Nighthaunt got a fantastic expansion in terms of new models, lore, and army rules going into 2nd Edition!

Nighthaunt have been my main army ever since and I’ve dabbled in Skaven and Kharadron Overlords but I’ve always come back to my friendly ghosts. I’ve taken them to tournaments over the last 6 years and have persevered with them through thick and thin with my highlight being taking 3rd place in my first GT with Emerald Host before the combat range buffs. I took an off-meta list during a tough time for Nighthaunt but I enjoyed that uphill climb with them.

My end of 3rd ed NH army was a wacky list but worked well for me

Anyway enough about me and Nighthaunt, let’s get into the spirit of things and dive down into the depths of the faction as it is today!

(Abbreviations: I’ll try to use full names where I remember in the article but Knight of Shrouds and Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed will be shortened to KoS and KoSoS respectively! I might drop a NH in for Nighthaunt from time to time too. Ah, I’ll also just use Bladegheists and Harridans.)

Who are the Nighthaunt?

A bunch of ghosts who are pretty pissed about the world. They might be pissed at their enemies or they might be pissed at Nagash, sometimes I think they’re just angry about being ghosts. During the Soul Wars, Nagash took the feral masses of spirits haunting all corners of the realms and weaponised them against his enemies. He raised Lady Olynder to be his Mortarch of Grief to lead the forces of the Nighthaunt. Nighthaunt have had some good presence in battles from time to time and I really enjoyed their involvement in the stories prior to the start of 3rd edition… especially in the joint assault with the Ossiarch Bonereapers on the all-points.

To be fair, the individual lore of the ghost factions is a little sparse and at times I’ve found it hard to make my own stories about my Nighthaunt battles. I like to take the perspective that many of the forces may legitimately think they’re the good guys (sounds a bit like FEC I know) defending souls or territories against the forces of order, chaos, and destruction. I like how that ties in with stories like those around “Nagash: The Undying King” where it gives a bit of an impression about life in Shyish and how the forces of Death tie in with the realm and Nagash, himself.

Why Play Nighthaunt?

Do you hate needing to walk around terrain? Play Nighthaunt. Do you hate needing to do maths to figure out what your save roll is? Play Nighthaunt. Do you think ghosts are cool? Play Nighthaunt. There’s plenty more reasons to jump on the Nighthaunt Coach and play them as an army. Personally, I do love the models ever since laying my eyes on the Spirit Hosts I’ve wanted to have some. They can be a tricky army to assemble with some of the models being notoriously difficult (Spirit Hosts and Hexwraiths) and others having some rather nasty seams (Bladegheists and Grimghast Reapers). On the other hand they really let you paint them how you want and there are some nice options out there for quick schemes and some really nice complicated schemes. From a gameplay perspective, they are relatively fluid on the tabletop and the breadth of warscrolls can let you play in a variety of ways. They’re often touted as a good beginner army because of fly and ignore rend (I do find it hard to play other armies where I can’t just walk over the top of my own units) but are also an army that tends to see success at tournaments with players who dedicate their time to get the reps in with the army. They can ironically feel a bit fragile when it comes to being hit with lots of attacks or mortals. With the new edition, the Nighthaunt feel has changed again a little and if you like the new options, now is a great time to start haunting your opponents.

This great shot of Lady Olynder and friends is from Johnny Juhlin from the NH FB group!

Battle Traits

Ethereal – “What’s your rend?” Oh, I ignore it. It can lead to a bit of feels bad for the opponent but ignoring -3 rend and dodging big damage is a great feeling when it pays off.

Discorporate – a 5+ ward just as handy as ever… will be better on larger units (as now NH isn’t as inclined to go towards MSU as it was in 3rd). The downside I see is the higher demand on the Command Points than before.

Wave of terror – this is a new and somewhat confusingly written rule. It’s quite nice though being able to take a unit in combat and make a charge roll to then charge them into another unit or just using it as an extra pile in or triggering the Auras of Dread it is also nice! It’ll get less use if taking the retreat and charge battle formation but a bonus rule is a bonus rule.

Auras of Dread

These are reliable debuffs which you trigger when charging in your own turn. Their each single use across the army so you can’t stack them and their also only useable in your own turn. What is great is that it’s largely controllable where you use them (especially with retreat and charge)

Shriek can be tricky to get off because of needing to have more models which looks good on hordes of chainrasps but otherwise might not be coming up as often as you’d like except against heroes and monster lists. This is particularly important because where you often want a -1 is on big blocks of troops throwing out lots of attacks which most ghosts are allergic too (since a large number of attacks with low rend makes the ethereal less useful).

The other 2 are limited by the number of pieces you will have to potentially proc them, less inclined to take a high number of heroes and cavalry/warmachine is limited (although there are a few heroes who can use this one too.

Battle Formations

Vanishing Phantasms

Really nice for teleporting units around, this is a good pick but the others look better. Could be nice on a reinforced unit of Craventhrone Guard who can then teleport around each turn… On the other hand we have access to the teleporting with Coach, Dreadblade Harrows, and Awlrach already. This could also be interesting if you want to try and build up a super mobile army where most of the army is teleporting each turn. However, a wily opponent will be locking you into combats which will be painful to retreat out of.

Hunters of the Accursed

This is a bit of a replacement for the Emerald Curse but can only pick heroes and need to have friendly heroes within 12” which reduces its viability. However… it’s possible to change the targets end of every turn. Every turn! So it’s happening twice a battle round if you’re able to keep those requirements fulfilled (edited 28/07).

Death Stalkers

Run and charge plus retreat and charge… this is a winner. The run and charge is very nice for lots of the units… especially faster ones such as Hexwraiths or the Coach and Bladegheists who want to always make charges. Retreat and Charge was one of Nighthaunts best tricks in 3rd and with this Battle formation it still can be. Expect to see this used a lot, especially with competitive lists.

Procession of Death

This is the one to take if you want a Black Coach or two backed up by lots of infantry units. This goes nicely together with Chainrasps, Grimghast Reapers, and Spirit Hosts who have high wound density per point.

The Black Coach is an amazing model and it’s great to see a Battle FOrmation based around it (pic care of TabletopWars via the NH FB group)

Heroic Traits

A bit of a funny one here is that you may struggle to choose who should get the heroic trait because our named heroes are pretty tasty, leaving less slots free for those non-uniques in our lists.

Ruler of the Spirit Hosts (RotSH)

This one is great and I’ll be taking this on a decently tanky hero like the KoSoS or the Krulghast. Bring back half a unit for a command point… that’s just good value. Bringing back 10 Bladegheists or 5 Hexwraiths will be particularly good. It will paint a big target on that hero though.

Cloaked in Shadow

This one is nice for reducing damage into one of your heroes… that’s nice on it’s own but it’s effectiveness is increased for the general itself helping to make those battle tactics more difficult. I think I will try this on a KoSoS with 20 Hexwraiths in a General’s Regiment

Terrifying Entity AKA The other one

You can do two Aura of Dread abilities but it’s not going to come up as often and I don’t think I’ll be taking this even if it has some utility.

One of my favourite Nighthaunt pics! Credit: Games Workshop

Artefacts

Lightshard of the Harvest Moon

+1 attack on all melee units for all Nighthaunt units within 12”… this is simply solid. There will be a few lists where this has less impact but it’s a good choice for many lists.

Covetous Familiar

This one is retaliating against enemy units in combat… this can be nice on a hero who is going to go in and get in combat like the Executioner / KoS / KoSoS. Will be very good against some opponents but against plenty of armies this will only have a minor effect.

Soulfire ring

Maybe good on an Executioner to keep it healing up. The hero needs to kill a model which just doesn’t happen as much as you’ll want and is useless into some matchups.

Spell Lore

Shademist

-1 to wound on a unit. Solid. Especially on blocks of Rasps or reinforced Hexwraiths. Also useful in the opponents phase to mess with them trying to kill one of your units. It’s also until start of your next turn so if you’ve got a few wizards you’ll be able to get this onto quite a few units with “unlimited”. Pretty nice!

Spirit Drain

Generic army specific, roll for every model in a unit and do a mortal on a 5+. Handy sometimes.

Spectral Lure

This used to be the GoS’ signature spell… now everyone has it, and it makes having some wizards with the option to cast this. At a 6+ again, it’s nice to potentially cast in the opponents turn.

Manifestation Lore

All casting on a 6+ is pretty good. Makes it easier to get these out and mess with your opponent in their turn.

Mortalis Terminexus

I love a +1 on a charge… this one couples well with the retreat and charge or the teleports available in the army. Unfortunately it only works in your own turn but it also has an optional heal (3) which is pretty nice.

Vault of Souls

It’s a static manifestation but has a chance to do some nice damage if you can get it lobbed in behind the enemy’s front line it’s got a good chance to do some decent mortal wound damage.

Shyish Reaper

On a charge it gets 3 attacks with 3+ 2+ 2 4 which can make some owies but otherwise it’s just there to get in the way of the enemy with a decent base size.

PSA: The Manifestations don’t get ethereal as they’re not treated as a unit for that!

My favourite in 3rd Ed and my favourite in 4th Ed!

Units

I won’t go through every unit in this article… but as I splurged out my thoughts on the page it’s turned out to be quite a few! I’ve tried to focus on combos and the things which have stood out to me as I’ve read the warscrolls over and over again 😀

Cairn Wraith and Grimghast Reapers

The Grimghast Reapers really want to fight into infantry with 5 or more models where they start to get quite dangerous… on top of that the Cairn Wraith when in combat gives out an extra attack to all Grimghast Reaper units within 12”. I can understand why people are excited to put this on the table. I’m excited to have a reason to use the first AoS model I ever painted again and I’ll definitely be trying this out!

On the other hand, I don’t think they’re as good as plain Bladegheists… can form a defensive line as their skills aren’t charge dependent. I will play around with both and I’m sure we’ll see trends in the meta.

Bladegheists

I just like Bladegheists… from back when I was deep striking units of 5. I almost always have them in my lists. People know that they’re dangerous on the charge and that helps to force a decision onto the opponent. You can’t talk about Bladegheists without bringing Harridans up. I prefer to keep my buffs simple so Bladeys are my pick. Also I just really like the model. Feel free to use Harridans too!

Have a problem unit in your enemy’s army? I prescribe a liberal application of Bladegheists! These ones come from Matteo Pavani over on the NH FB group

Awlrach and Bladegheists

Want to make Bladegheists (or Harridans) better.. bring our old friendly boatman. I’m happy to get this combo going… both thematically with the 2 nautical units but also being able to drop them in outside of 7” which with the Mortalis Terminexus can bring it down to 6” charges. This’ll give an early teleporting threat that later enables objective grabbing. Awlrach can get bogged down and become ineffective if he ends up in combat so try to avoid that where possible (or use it to bait your enemy into attacking him or moving where you want them to… use your weaknesses to your advantage, my fellow gheists). It is only in your turn though so let me introduce you to…

Dreadblade Harrows

So… they teleport in both your turn and your opponents turn. I only see one decision to make here, 2 units of 2 each or 1 unit of 4. Oh yeah, they also can teleport out of combat.

A fantastic Reikenor painted by one of the original NH fanatics, great fella, and dedicated NH Admin: Kain Fincher

Reikenor

Ouch! Reikenor got seriously dangerous in combat, especially if he starts to get into enemy wizards or priests. He’s still got his candles and now they can give him an extra power level… also, he’ll often play aggressively forwards so he’s great to try and get manifestations out in the middle of the enemy.

Hexwraiths

Talking about ghosts riding ghost horses… These fellas with a good move and 3 wounds are going to be great. They form a block of about 15” across when set up sideways and will be really hard to shift.

This won’t be the first time I build a force around Hexwraiths 😉

Black Coach and foot heroes

On the theme of horsey units, The Black Coach now has an ability to resurrect dead friendly heroes if it kills an enemy unit. I feel like if I want to lean into this, I’d go for quite a few foot heroes, 2 coaches, and the Cavalcade Battle Formation. I think this could result in a strong build… I’m just not quite sure what it is yet.

Glaivewraith Stalkers

Nah, I’m just kidding… but they did get better when pulling off a charge and I find myself slotting them in here and there because of their low points. I’m not going to build my lists around them.

Spirit Hosts

Their role hasn’t changed since 3rd but how it works has gotten better. Now they throw out a 4+ ward on infantry heroes (bummer that it doesn’t work on the Cavalry and Warmachine heroes). This is just generally interesting especially for buddies like the Guardian of Souls who needs to be in combat range now for the +1 wound buff.

Myrmourn Banshees

Not as fantastic at eating up spells as they were… they’ve now become a threat to low wound casters and might give your opponent a tough decision or another as when they unbind they dish out D3 mortal damage.

Nagash and Lady Olynder discussing tactics on this amazing display board from JoJo
(via the NH FB group)

I guess I have to mention the two following characters:

Nagash

He pretty much makes up half an army if you choose him. I’m not a big character player so this doesn’t lend itself towards my playstyle. Lots of people do find him favourable and I see him featured in a lot of the lists. He looks like he might combo well with the potential flooding the board with Hexwraiths.

Lady Olynder

Lady O looks interesting… in a way that I’m not finding myself drawn to her but she’ll definitely have use especially when used to reduce control scores. Grief Stricken is good but I feel like other spells will just be a higher priority. She is a good potential Manifestation Caster with 2 casts and she’s hard to take down.

Overall considerations

There are some clear winners from the new warscrolls and I’ve got a clear personal bias. In our Nighthaunt Facebook group, we had an interesting table posted which helps to give an idea of the points vs combat effectiveness. Showing both wounds per point and damage per point. This of course isn’t the be all and end all of whether a unit will be effective and some unit abilities will make them shine regardless (there’s also a little typo under the Glaivewraiths, I’ll update this if there is a new version).

Thanks to Jean-Vincent Frucot from the Nighthaunt Age of Sigmar Facebook group.

From a wounds perspective Hexwraiths are killing it… I do expect a points adjustment there as couple with their huge move they’re a fantastic unit. On the damage side, it’s a pick your flavour scenario of Bladegheists or Dreadscythe Harridans where the Grimghasts shine when they’ve got their buffs up but that is more restrictive than the other 2.

My ghastly additions to my army in 2023!

Sample Lists

Fitts’ “I want to use these units” List v0-1 (1970 points)

Army: Nighthaunt
– Battle Formation: Death Stalkers
– Spell Lore: Lore of the underworlds
– Manifestation Lore: Cthonic Sorceries

REGIMENT 1
Hero: Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed (180)
– Heroic Trait: Ruler of the Spirit Hosts
– General
Unit 1: 10 Hexwraiths (320)
– reinforced
Unit 2: 10 Hexwraiths (320)
– reinforced

REGIMENT 2
Hero: Awlrach the Drowner (160)
Unit 1: 20 Bladegheist Revenants (300)
– reinforced
Unit 2: 10 Chainrasps (100)
Unit 3: 2 Dreadblade Harrows (160)

REGIMENT 3
Hero: Reikenor the Grimhailer (210)
Unit 1: 10 Chainrasps (100)
Unit 2: 4 Myrmourn Banshees (120)

TOTAL POINTS: (1970/2000)

I’ve thrown in a lot of my favourite warscrolls and combos from the unit review up above. Honestly, I think most of my considerations got captured up there. The general is going to get a lot of heat… but on the other hand it’s also a regiment that is really hard to shift and if they want to kill one of the units off it’s going to take them quite a bit of work. I’d play the Bladegheists really aggressively with Awlrach with the plan to bring them back with Ruler of the Spirit Hosts. At the same time, the Hexwraiths are going to be getting up on objectives and making things tough for my opponent. I’m a bit unsure about the Chainrasps… it’s 2 units of 10 instead of the Hexwraiths to give myself some better screening but I don’t like the way the points land and I’ll play around with this for a bit (always at least 4 games for me) before looking to optimise it further. My best thought would be another unit of Myrmourns or the Pyregheists.

Looks like I’m going to need to paint up an Awlrach! Here’s one from the NH FB group by Rob Bush!

I’m only one fella with a pretty biased point of view so I got Lakey (an old mate and fellow Admin of the Nighthaunt Facebook group) from Lakey Wargames to throw me a list and he’s definitely given me something tasty for this article!

Army: Nighthaunt
– Battle Formation: Cavalcade Of Death
– Spell Lore: Lore of the underworlds
– Manifestation Lore: Krondspine Incarnate

REGIMENT 1
Hero:Lady Olynder – 300
– General
Unit 1: 20 Dreadscythe Harridans – 300
– reinforced
Unit 2: 8 Myrmourn Banshees – 240
– reinforced

REGIMENT 2
Hero: Reikenor The Grimhailer – 210
Unit 1: 2 Dreadblade Harrows – 160
Unit 2: 3 Spirit Hosts – 130

REGIMENT 3
Hero: Tomb Banshee – 150
– Heroic Trait: Ruler Of The Spectral Hosts
– Artefact of power: Lightshard Of The Harvest Moon
Unit 1: 10 Chainrasps – 100
Unit 2: 10 Chainrasps – 100

TOTAL POINTS: (1950/2000)

From Lakey himself: “The idea behind the list is to have a really strong centre in the form of the Harridans, Banshees and BC. These will be supported by the Tomb ĺ will be trying to shut off commands on any key units coming in to engage them. Lady O will be there to support and make sure controlling is going in our favour. Reikenor will be there to bring his strong magic support and try and get the incarnate into play ASAP (I opted to stay 50pts down to get the extra CP turn one to get a shot at casting on the enemy turn too) He and the incarnate will be able to provide a strong flanking punch as and where needed due to good movement speed and set up potential. The Harrows will be looking to teleport in and score help scores, take the flanks, and take their land. After that, depending on how the game is going, they will be able to lend a hand in capture weight and fighting aside the others. Two units of rasps are there for cheap screens/objective holders and just general fodder. Because there’s so much strong stuff going in on the middle, I felt I needed more bodies in the list. I bought Spirit Hosts because it just feels wrong to not bring some. But they only benefit the Banshee, so they might not be worth it. But we shall see.”

End of the article

Having gone back and forth over the new abilities and warscrolls… I really think that Nighthaunt have legs (ironic I know). They can be built into a couple of different options and feel like they’ve got a few good tricks out there. I think there will be a good variety of lists performing well in tournaments in the near future… I’d even hazard a guess that we’ll need to see Nighthaunt get a few point increases. Get out there and start haunting your local scene and have fun making “Awoooo” noises when you charge!

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Celefaze, Chaos, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Hedonites of Slaanesh, Reviews

4th Edition Faction Review: Hedonites of Slaanesh

1 Comment

By Trish Celefaze

Introduction

Hedonites of Slaanesh are the servants of the god of excess, depraved flocks of hedonists committing wanton chaos in service and in search of their absent deity. They’ve had a storied history of once having rather overtly strong rules in the early portion of 2nd edition and struggling with intensely punitive rebalancing for each following iteration (with brief periods of strength in-between). Has Slaanesh finally escaped the clutches of the Realm of Nerfs? Let’s explore.

Playstyle

The Hedonites of Slaanesh are a risk versus reward faction, featuring one of the few Battle Traits with a noticeably negative downside. This results in a faction that can empower itself to some truly effective levels, but can trip over the flexibility and raw power afforded to their opponent when doing so. Our three primary playstyles will likely come down to massed evasive cavalry, darting in and out of combat to pick their fights as they please, large mobs of daemonettes stacking buffs to become battlefield blenders, and multiple small units of sybarites stacking control score bonuses high enough to keep even mega-gargants from taking their staked claims.

Battle Traits

The Battle Trait for the forces of Slaanesh comes in two separate parts, both linked inextricably into what functions as a single ability:

The first listed and the active ability of the two is An Excess of Depravity, which allows you to designate up to three of your units to become Euphoric, which will become important later. For each unit you do so with, you grant your opponent a temptation dice, which each allow your opponent to replace the roll of a to-wound, run, save, or ward save with a 6, or to spend two at once to allow your opponent an automatic charge result of 12. This is distinct as being a powerful detriment to the Slaanesh player.

The upside to this is Euphoric Killers, a passive ability that solely serves to provide what benefits the euphoric status provides. These are significant, granting the unit crit (2 hits) on all attacks (at least, those without the companion ability), as well as enabling the unit to charge or shoot if they used a run ability previously in the turn. The unlimited use spell for the faction can boost this further, however we’ll go over that in the spell section.

This ability is odd. It requires careful strategic consideration on the part of the Slaanesh player, as granting your opponent the defensive buffs of automatic success can blunt some amount of the advantages gained; but even more impactful is the ability for your opponent to have an automatic 12-inch charge. Without careful planning on the hedonite player’s part, this can be utilised with counter-charge to by the opponent to cause battle tactics to fail, and combats to become far less in the Slaanesh player’s favour, despite the boons provided by the euphoric status.

Battle Formations

The Hedonites of Slaanesh do have the benefit of some impactful Battle Formations.

Possibly the least of these is the Depraved Carnival, whose ability, The Ecstatic Throngs provides sybarite infantry units with a +1 to hit if they are damaged or any of their models were slain in the same turn. This has some amount of play with our self-inflicted damage from our faction terrain, but is difficult to engineer on the level that allows for a consistent benefit. Of our Battle Formations, this is the one I would rate lowest.

The next is one that provides a nod towards our old summoning-based playstyle in previous editions, Epicurean Revellers, which provides an additional 3 dice when using the rally command on a unit of non-hero daemons. As we will get to, Daemonettes are incredibly powerful in mass numbers in our latest incarnation, and this does allow us to keep those numbers up for longer into the game. This formation is perhaps more situational than the next two, but it has a solid place, even if it does require a certain amount of resource cost to see any benefit from.

The Seeker Cavalcade is an incredibly strong formation, allowing our cavalry units to retreat and charge, and critically to that effect they do not suffer mortal damage from retreating. This is very powerful, as it allows our cavalry (which have received significant improvements) to be an unpredictable and highly mobile threat that can strike where and when we want. Combined with the mobility of our battle trait, as well one of our most potent spells, this will be high on my radar as a go-to formation moving forward.

The formation I feel will be most impactful for the highest number of lists, however, is Supreme Sybarites, which provides +3 to the control scores of non-hero units in the combat range of a friendly hero. Note that this is a bonus to the control score, which is the sum of control values for models in one unit contesting an objective, not to their objective control characteristic. This is a decent buff on a singular unit. A little control advantage is a boon for sure. However, this becomes far more powerful with multiple small units, taking advantage of the distinction that it is “within” and not “wholly-within” combat range. It also stacks with other sources of control score increases, which we’ll touch upon in the unit section.

Spells

Like most of the indexes, we have only 3 spells to hand, with one that can be cast any number of times, and two that are once per turn.

Sadistic Spite is our unlimited spell, and allows a euphoric unit to trade in its crit (2 hits) ability for crit (mortals) in melee only. This is not a strict upgrade, and will require careful consideration to ensure that you’re using the right option for the right target.

Overwhelming Acquiescence is a very powerful spell that debuffs an enemy unit to be wounded at +1 from any attacks, melee or ranged. This is an excellent way to shore up our rather lackluster 4+ to wound on most of our units, and is great for any type of army. Good stuff.

Phantasmagoria is the hidden powerhouse in our spell lore. Another debuff that targets an enemy unit but provides us with the benefit, this allows us to mark a unit so that when it is selected to make an attack action in combat, we select one unit that can move a mostly unrestricted 2d3”. This allows us to backslide out of combat, providing incredible utility for choosing our fights. Combine this with the new command ability that allows for casting a single spell in your opponent’s turn, and you can have two units with this debuff on at once, allowing the Slaanesh forces to play at Sylvaneth levels of combat evasion. 
Our manifestation lore is decidedly not as potent as our less-than-endless spells.

Mesmerizing Mirror has seen much better days. Unable to move, it sits in place wholly within 12” of the caster, and punishes enemy units wholly within 12” of it for ending their move actions further from it than where they were before with d3 mortal damage. The wholly within 12” is easy to avoid, and typically puts them in range of the next ability, that picks specifically an enemy unit in 6” to receive d3 mortal damage, in exchange for +1 to hit for the rest of the turn (combat and shooting). This is simply too big a buff to hand out for so little damage. It could have some utility on small non-combat heroes, but doesn’t have a lot of general use. At least it’s optional.

Wheels of Excruciation flies around the board at 8” speed, rolling 6 dice for each of up to 3 enemy units it moves over and dealing a mortal damage for each result that is less than their save characteristic. It also boasts a flurry of 2d6 attacks at 4/4/-/1. A decent enough spell, especially with saves having become overall fairly worse with the edition shift.

The Dreadful Visage is very similar to its previous incarnation, but diminished somewhat. Now it rolls 6 dice for an enemy unit in combat, with each 4+ being a mortal wound. If any models die from this (as opposed to previously only needing to be damaged), the unit will strike-last for the remainder of the turn. Boasting 8 attacks at the same profile as a daemonette on top of that, this is a fairly solid spell, providing some useful utility, if not against all targets.

We may be much better suited using one of the other manifestation lores available, with significant utility being provided by Twilit Sorceries to extend the range of our spells (particularly Phantasmagoria) and reduce the impact of shooting, and Morbid Conjuration for the crucial save debuff to really turn Daemonettes up to 11.

Enhancements

Our enhancements are less impactful than our spell lore, and with a few exceptions mostly suited to the keeper of secrets.

Of our Heroic Traits, Glory Hog stands out as the only way to make any of our units euphoric without the tradeoff of providing temptation dice to the opponent, by making the bearer euphoric for the rest of the game as long as they slay a hero. Good stuff. Strongest Alone is still not terribly good, requiring the bearer to be 6” from all friendly units to receive +1 to hit and wound. A decent buff, but worrying at best to engineer. Into the Fray is inconsistent, but quite good when it goes off, providing strike-first to the bearer if they make an unmodified charge roll of 8+

Our Artefacts of Power are all quite useful, without a single dud in the bunch. The Icon of Infinite Excess provides amazing synergy with Daemonettes, with a one-per-game granting of +1 to attacks for a non-hero unit wholly within 12”. Given the once-per-game nature of it, you really want to take this in a list that capitalises on large units with a lot of attacks. For lists that don’t have such units, but favour a more defensive style (such as those focusing on our control score bonuses), look no further than Threnody Voicebox another one-use artefact that subtracts one from the attacks characteristics of enemies in combat range. Combined with bodyguard Twinsouls you could potentially bring a 4-attack unit down to swinging a single time each, an incredible amount of defensive utility for a key turn. The Pendant of Slaanesh by contrast can be used every turn, and provides Heal (3) at the end of any turn in which the bearer took damage. Excellent for builds where a Keeper of Secrets might want to be in constant combat (and perhaps a use-case for Strongest Alone?).

Units

Many of our units have received glow-ups (and a few dimming-downs), and both Shalaxi Helbane and the standard Keeper of Secrets have received incredible buffs compared to their previous iterations. Shalaxi is our method of attacking twice now (and only with non-hero units) and boasts some incredible damage output of her own, in addition to a free modified form of counter-charge that works to interrupt enemy hero charges with one of her own. The twins, Dexcessa and Synessa have become excellent support pieces, with Dexcessa providing their sibling with +1 power level if fielded together, as well as +1 to the attacks characteristics of 3 non-hero daemon units wholly within 12”. Synessa has a spell that makes an enemy hero easier to take down in combat, and an ability to provide +5 or -5 to the control score of either a friendly or enemy unit respectively.  Glutos Orscollion changed significantly, with regrettably all companion attacks, losing a point of save as well as the -1 to hit aura. However this is buffeted by a buffet of buffs, with a running track of cumulative bonuses for sybarite units wholly within 12”, escalating through +1 run and charge -> +3 to control score -> +1 to hit -> +1 rend to melee attacks. This can combo with Supreme Sybarites to provide eligible units with an incredible +6 to control score each. Stack 5 small non-hero units on an objective alongside him and enjoy 30 control score before even accounting for the models themselves. Syll’Esske has dropped the “mini-game” aura of the previous edition in exchange for being a utility beat-stick, with appreciable damage and the ability to allow the use of the same command to be used twice in a phase split between one sybarite and one daemonic unit.

Our smaller heroes remain tech pieces, though not nearly as mandatory as before, with the Lord of Pain providing only +1 to wound in melee, though the Lord of Hubris has a slightly more flexibility with their You First, I Insist ability giving the opponent a hard choice of striking first and only at him, or strike-last. The Shardspeaker remains a save debuffing piece, but will struggle to find a spot in many lists with the new nature of regiments. The Masque and Sigvald both remain mostly unchanged, remaining a deep-striking early threat and a charge-happy anti-ward beatstick respectively. The daemonic heralds are all rather so-so, the Contorted Epitome now far less effective than before for any of its roles, the Bladebringer serving as support for a very specific list focusing on chariots, and the Infernal Enrapturess perhaps the most usable of the bunch, now allowing you to see your opponent’s casting roll and choose to react, forcing a potentially damaging re-roll.

For non-hero units, Daemonettes are one of the great stand-outs of the bunch. Losing their native run and charge, they instead gained +1 attack on a turn in which they charged. Starting at a base of 2, this can be boosted through both Dexcessa and the Icon of Infinite Excess to a staggering 5 attacks on the charge, possibly with either crit (2 hits) or crit (mortal). That is incredible output. Slickblades and  Hellstriders are both appreciable cavalry damage units, with the latter losing a little resilience in exchange for +1 health and -3 to the control scores of enemy units they charge. Also, whips and spears are the same profile, which is a godsend for those frustrated with the fragility of whip-bearing models. Hellflayers are quite effective now, able to roll over multiple units and deal mortal damage while doing so, and boasting an improved melee profile overall.

Seekers, Seeker Chariots and Fiends all saw significant downgrades in their damage output and/or speed, with Fiends getting hit particularly hard by the shift to beast status, but picking up an reliable once per turn (army) strike-last debuff. Symbaresh Twinsouls now cannot charge if they want their debuffs, but remain an appreciable tech-piece, whilst Myrmidesh Painbringers traded extra save for the offence of +1 rend when storming a hostile objective.

Blissbarb Archers are no longer the stars of the show, having seen some downgrades to their offence, losing run and shoot and +1 to wound in favour of a fragile -1 to be hit by shooting ability. They are cheap enough to run en masse however, and benefit from euphoric killers, so could remain a threat into the new edition. Blissbarb Seekers are no longer debuffers, but receive additional rend against targets contesting hostile objectives alongside a small buff to their melee output, which shifts them to appreciably aggressive push pieces. Slaangors return to the bench, boasting a fairly limited number of damage 2 attacks on a fragile chassis that can move once when receiving damage from outside combat.

The Fane of Slaanesh also bears mentioning here as improving significantly, trading d3 unwardable damage to provide one of a plethora of buffs, +1 run and charge, +1 to wound in melee, or the incredibly rare +1 to both casting and unbinding. No longer does this model awkwardly take up real estate on the board. It has a use for as long as your opponent is willing to let it stand.

Sample List

This is a list from my own private vintage, showcasing a particularly terrifying amount of offensive might:

List Name: Will it Blend?
Battle Formation: Epicurean Revellers
Manifestation Lore: Morbid Conjuration

Shalaxi Helbane 490 (General)

Dexcessa 240
Daemonettes x20 220
Daemonettes x20 220
Daemonettes x20 220

Shardspeaker 130 (Icon of Infinite Excess, Glory Hog)
Hellstriders x5 150
Hellstriders x5 150

This list hits hard, fast, and strong. Screening early with Hellstriders, the Slaanesh player is striving to line up a payload turn, charging with the Daemonettes for a ceiling of 280 attacks on the charge, all potentially with either crit (2 hits) or crit (mortals) depending on the target. Shalaxi allows the unit benefiting from the Icon of Infinite Excess to attack again at strike-last speed, mopping up any unfortunate survivors from the last volley of crab-clawed death. The Purple Sun and the Shardspeaker can both provide -1 to saves, allowing all of this to be done with an effective rend of -3 if everything goes right. I almost feel bad showing this one off, as it’s simply filthy. If you’re willing to cram quite a lot in the general’s regiment you could condense this down to two regiments you could swap the Shardspeaker for an Infernal Enrapturess, though with the emphasis on killing units in the general’s regiment I’m hesitant to advise that.

Faction Focus, Fantasy, Forces of Fantasy, Games Workshop, Kingdom of Bretonnia, Reviews, Royal Rich, The Old World

The Old World: Kingdom of Bretonnia – Arcane Journal Review

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Lore Review

Bretonnia is a feudal kingdom in the west of the Old World known for its chivalric knights, mystical enchantresses, and… well… and peasants. Its knights live by a code of honour known as, “The Code Chivalric” that defines its society, promising to protect the weak from the wicked and to defend the lands of Bretonnia.

Once these lands were occupied by the High Elves of Ulthuan, who built many harbours and cities along the western coast and thrived on trade with the Dwarfs, however when this relationship broke down (impressively…) the land became a wilderness which orcs and humans fought to control until the Bretonni tribe emerged triumphant.

There are three distinct flavours of Bretonnian army playable with the release of the new Arcane Journal, with options for you whether you want to run a traditional Bretonnian army of the sort that is constantly fighting to protect its borders and forests, or a more focused force representing knights participating in an Errantry Crusade, or the forces of an outcast lord establishing his place in the Border Princes.

The lore section of the Arcane Journal focuses initially on the codes of chivalry that the knights are beholden to, before expanding into exploring the various areas of Bretonnia, from mountain frontiers to the great forests and walled towns that dot its landscape.

The main focus of the lore in there is on the Border Princes and the description of a crusade force riding to battle the undead legions, for which there is also a narrative battle plan to allow you to recreate the battle. The section on Outcast Nobility is somewhat shorter (2 pages vs 8) but gives some great ideas as to how and why a Lord may become an outcast and leaves plenty of narrative hooks for you to establish your own Lord’s background.

The Book

As with our Tomb Kings review, the core rules for an army from the Kingdoms of Bretonnia exist within the appropriate tome, with this one being the “Forces of Fantasy” book that also includes rules for Dwarfs, Empire, Wood Elves, and High Elves.

As a supplement to that, and the focus of this article, the Arcane Journal for the Kingdom of Bretonnia includes two alternative ways to represent the Bretonnians, either as part of an Errantry Crusade or as Outcast Exiles.

Besides containing two new “Armies of Infamy” as these alternative compositions are known, there is a selection of named characters, and a slew of extra magic items that can be used both for these armies of infamy, many of which can also be selected as choices for your standard Bretonnian army lists.

Armies of Infamy

The Armies of Infamy offers novel and thematic approaches to constructing your faction’s army lists. Introducing unique army-wide special rules and granting access to upgraded units that enhance specific playstyles. However, opting for an army of infamy imposes greater restrictions on your army composition compared to the base books by excluding certain units.

It’s important to mention that these Arcane Journals differ from traditional army books from previous editions. They act as supplements to the unit lists and army rules found in Ravening Hordes and Forces of Fantasy books. Playing a game in the Old World only using the Arcane Journals is not possible, as they rely on references to the special rules from Ravening Hordes and Forces of Fantasy. These journals provide new ways to play your faction, including special characters, but they don’t provide details on specific rules.

Bretonnian Exiles

The immediate standout for this army is the ability to bring outcast wizards and artillery. An army of Exiles will likely be looking to leverage the powerful Border Princes Bombard alongside some of the other unique units in this book.

Special Rules

Banished Lords – Barons and Paladins lose access to the Grail Vow, and instead, they and several other units get access to the Exiles Vow, granting them the Stubborn and Veteran rules, as well as not having to take panic tests from units with Levies or Peasantry rules.

Reclaimed Glory – Exiles cannot pray for the Blessings of the Lady at the beginning of a game. Instead, if a unit with the Blessings of the Lady special rule runs down an opponent’s unit, they get the benefits of this rule as if they had prayed at the start of the game. Alternatively, a character killing an enemy character in a challenge will do the same for them (and any unit they have joined)

List Composition

As a result of the army representing outcast nobility, there are restrictions in place on Grail Knights, Dukes and Prophetesses (Not present) and Damsels (1 per army).

There are enough changes to the general composition that it would make it a dull read to list them all here, but some highlights are that Yeoman Guard replace Men-at-Arms as a mandatory core choice, mounted yeomen become an optional core choice, battle pilgrims are more limited (0-1 per 1k), and Questing Knights move from Special to Rare.

Free Company Milita and Empire Archers can also be included as Mercenaries.

Unique Units

Outcast Wizards give the option to include a level 1-3 wizard in your Exiles army, with access to a wide variety of lores. These roll an extra dice when rolling on the Miscast table and discard the highest, but at 105pts for a level 3 come in very cheap.

Yeoman Guards seem to be more professional versions of Men-at-Arms… they lose Polearms as default and instead take a spear or halberd, but can buy them back for a point. BS and LD increases aren’t hugely important by the time you add a Yeoman to a unit of men at arms, so if we take that into account then, they gain an extra WS and Veteran for 2 points as well as having access to a 25pt magic banner. The extra WS may not seem huge but can offer significant defensive benefit vs other WS3 units (now hit on a 4+), or WS5 units (hit you on a 3+ instead of a 2+)

Border Princes Brigands are a rare choice in an Exiles army and have a huge amount of variety when choosing weaponry and special rules. They come default with Open Order but can change that to Close Order or Skirmishers, can Ambush, Scout, and have Motley Crew so can take a mix of weaponry within the unit. That weaponry can consist of anything from the default hand weapon to additional hand weapons, shields, pistols, blunderbuss, and crossbows, giving you many ways to run these. I’m interested to see what people come up with!

The Border Princes Bombard is perhaps the highlight here and the one that I think most people taking an Exiles army may be attracted to. Effectively this is something between a Cannon and a Great Cannon, with the strength and range of a cannon, but with the armour piercing and damage of the Great Cannon.

Errantry Crusade

A little less dramatic a change than with the Exiles, the main distinctive feature of Errantry Crusades are that Knights Errant are likely to be in much greater prevalence, and you can run a higher than normal points value of rare choices such as Grail Knights.

Special Rules

Crusading Knights – The majority of units, anything from Mounted Yeomen to Grail Knights, gain the “Crusader’s Zeal” special rule and can swap their knight’s vow with the crusader’s vow.

Crusader’s Zeal increases a unit’s charge range but gives them impetuous meaning they have to charge, a nice bonus to have, but with a significant drawback.

The Crusader’s Vow gives a unit the Veteran ability and makes them immune to panicking peasantry or levies.

Earn Your Spurs is the final special rule and is very useful, boosting Knights Errant by giving them re-rolls of 1 to hit when within 6” of a Lord of Bretonnia or a friendly model with the Grail Vow. Additionally, should they capture an enemy standard, it’s worth 100 points rather than the normal 50 points at the end of the game.

List Composition

Characters remain unchanged in the main although Paladins become 1+, you were likely taking one anyway though given they retain the ability to upgrade one Paladin to a Battle Standard Bearer for no cost.

Core and Rare immediately jump out as the percentages for these have changed, with you requiring 33% minimum in core, and up to 33% in Rare, rather than the usual 25% for each of these. That shouldn’t be a huge problem however as your mandatory unit is Knights Errant (1+ per 1000) and you will likely be building around an all-mounted force, with no requirement for Men-at-Arms or Peasant Bowmen in an Errantry Crusade. Notably, you could take a unit of Battle Pilgrims as core, but I feel most players will be spending their core on a mixture of Knights Errant and Knights of the Realm.

You retain the ability to run Pegasus Knights in Special, which I’m sure will continue to be very popular.

Empire Knights and Inner Circle Knights are available as Mercenaries should you wish to bring some knights along to support your knights…

Unique Units

N/A – No change here

Special Characters

The main army composition lists found in Ravening Hordes and Forces of Fantasy notably lacked the array of special characters that enthusiasts have grown fond of within their cherished factions. While it’s understandable considering the shift in time period, with many of these iconic figures potentially not yet existing, it leaves a void in the hearts of fans longing for something extraordinary to connect with. The Arcane Journals address this gap by introducing a selection of special characters, both familiar and new, to their respective armies

The Green Knight

One of the most recognisable characters and models available for Bretonnia, the Green Knight comes in at 275 points and is available to any Bretonnian army. Interestingly you don’t deploy him at the start of the battle but begin to roll from the first turn. On a 3+ he appears completely within a “natural” terrain feature (on most tables I imagine this will be a forest or water feature). He can’t (Edit: We stand corrected! 16/07/24) He can charge that turn. Being able to appear from nowhere, or even just the threat of him doing so, will keep an opponent thinking.

When removed from play, the Green Knight is not slain and may continue to appear, but becomes weaker each time, with -1 to the roll and -1 wound when he appears.

With ethereal, a 5+ ward, and terror, he can potentially hold up whole units by himself, and with the Dolorous Blade giving him a choice of D6 extra attacks (potentially 10 at ap-1) or +2 strength and multiple wounds, he can put out some hurt as well.

Sir Cecil Gastonne, The Worm Slayer

A named baron and the leader of the army of Bretonnian Exiles that stood in the path of Settra’s legions, Sir Cecil has a profile typical of a Bretonnian Baron, except for an extra weapon skill (WS7)

Notably, he is unmounted and comes with the Exiles Vow (Stubborn and Veteran) and a Dragonhide Cloak (a 3+ ward save vs flaming attacks as well as reducing AP of attacks against him by 2 and making him immune to Killing Blow and Multiple Wounds)

Sir Cecil wields an axe known as “Sorrow’s End” which means he’ll be striking at strength 5, with -1AP, Monster Slayer, and multiple wounds (2)

Overall though at 165 points and without an option for a mount I’m not sure how much we’ll see of the Wyrm Slayer.

Lady Élisse Duchaard, Prophetess of Brionne

Lady Élisse is a little different in that as a Prophetess she is not available to an army of Exiles, although will find a place in generic Bretonnian lists and Errantry Crusades. She was tutored by the Fae Enchantress and as a result, is exceptionally gifted at dispelling an enemy’s magic.

225 points is expensive for a level 3 wizard but with 5 wounds, the ability to switch two of her randomly generated spells rather than one, and the “Arcane Backlash” special rule that allows her to dominate an opponent’s wizards, it feels like she is great value.

Likely, the reason that you’re bringing Lady Élisse (other than that awesome model!) is her ability to dispel. She dispels at +4 due to an additional +1 to the roll, but more importantly, any natural double on that roll (not including a double 1) means the spell is immediately unbound and additionally the caster immediately loses a wound.

Magic Items

Within this section are 18 new magical items usable for Bretonnian armies. Of these four are usable only in an Errantry crusade army, six are reserved for Exiles, and the remaining eight are freely available to any Bretonnian army. I’ve picked a few that jumped out at first read below:

The Frontier Axe, reserved for Exiles and acting similarly to a great weapon with an extra point of AP, Multiple Wounds (2) and without Always Strikes Last (S+2, AP -3, MW(2), Requires two hands) which at 30pts seems pretty solid.

Ironspike Shield, another that’s locked to Exiles, is a shield that causes a strength 3 hit at AP-1 whenever an opponent rolls a natural 1 to hit or wound.

Crusaders Clarion, an enchanted item reserved for Erranty Crusade armies and giving mounts in the unit +1 strength when they charge

Of the items not locked to an Army of Infamy, I don’t feel many are particularly competitive, perhaps the choice is the Banner of Honourable Warfare which for 25pts gives re-rolls to hit in the first round of combat if the enemy is equipped with any missile weapons.

Wrap Up

Overall I think the book delivers well, two Special Characters are likely to see play, both Armies of Infamy bring something new to the table, and we’re seeing some good results competitively from them. (As I write this there’s an Errantry Crusade army undefeated from the first four games in a 100-player online tournament)

I do think I would have preferred if the armies of infamy locked down the Pegasus Knights in the same way that the Orc and Goblin book restricts access to Night Goblin Fanatics, as I feel they seem so much better than other units in the book it’s a shame to see competitive lists rush straight to take as many as they can so perhaps a missed opportunity there.

Given the relatively low cost of the Arcane Journals and the amount of lore and new play options, it feels worth picking up regardless of the army you collect.


4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Ethan Armstrong, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Order, Reviews, Sylvaneth

4th Edition Faction Review: Sylvaneth

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Ethan gets to the root of the Sylvaneth faction and covers the elementree traits and enhancements that’ll help you decide what to take in your first games with them.

I’ll leaf now…

Introduction

Rumours of our demise have been vastly overstated! Welcome to the Sylvaneth Faction review, we’re going to try not to miss the forest for the trees but it is probably pertinent to mention up top that this index has been pretty broadly panned by community figures and its regular players. With that in mind, we’ll stay realistic here and point out where things aren’t great but this will largely focus on what Sylvaneth still can do rather than dwelling below that point.

Playstyle

Sylvaneth in 3rd edition were known for a guerrilla playstyle focused around using strike and fade to leverage high value units against single targets and then move back to safety before reprisals could occur. This relied on a combination of movement tricks and charge buffs and was heavily dice gated and reflected in the points values of sylvaneth units. Some aspects of this play pattern remain but key changes to the way the army’s battle traits function have meant that in 4th edition we’ll be a more take-and-hold faction, relying on expanding areas of control through a combination of magic and high threat range units to threaten from a castle.

Sylvaneth have excellent tools for completing battle tactics with well planned play, however we’ve lost some durability in the form of recursion since last edition meaning that, despite the lethality of the game coming down overall, you’ll have to play smart with your resources lest deforestation come for your troops. 

Battle Traits

Credit: Warhammer Community

As mentioned above, key changes have occurred for the Sylvaneth battle traits, most specifically the timing of the Strike and Fade ability moving from immediately after a unit has fought to the end of the turn. Constraints including being wholly within 6” of an Awakened Wyldwood (henceforth AWW) and being in combat at the end of the turn produced mass outcry amongst the Sylvaneth player base and I can happily announce after playing some games with this that it is horribly awkward and a real pain in the ass to use, but very much useful and fine for reasons that we’ll go into shortly. 

Walk the Hidden Paths is largely the same in flavour with a slew of major differences, the inclusion of the Core keyword means that sylvaneth units may not move into range of an AWW and then teleport afterwards. You start there or you don’t teleport. This is largely alleviated by the removal of the requirement that woods be placed outside of 3” of your own units, making placement a fair whack easier if you’re able to get the spell off. Additionally, the requirement that you not be in combat to use this limits some popular 3rd edition uses of the spell and means that you’ll be relying on Strike and Fade to “rescue” units tied up in combat. Endless growth is cool, extra cool when combined with rally, that’s the review, back to the fun stuff. 

Spirit of Durthu by Ed

Battle Formations

I did say back to the fun stuff but the Battle Formations are a real sore point for Sylvaneth. None of the four stand out as particularly powerful and often double up on effects we can access through other means. This does make for a force multiplier in some cases but the majority of the time it leaves you wanting something a little more thematic or impactful to support the different playstyles available to the faction. 

Lords of the Clan healing monsters is nice but Treelords becoming heroes, even with the battle formation allowances has made the old Oakenbrow style rather stymied. Expect Alarielle, Durthu and Friends in this subfaction. 

Forest Folk is for all of the dryad lovers in the audience. Ever wanted to run 120+ dryads? This is the subfaction for you. Also, I hope you brought bandaids. Jokes aside, this feels like a miss from GW, who must have had concerns about how Kurnoth hunters would work within the subfaction and instead made something that is for no-one. 

Outcasts Despite the name this doesn’t interact at all with Drycha and her spooky cohort which is thematically a bit of a miss but, on the table, makes this my personal favourite of the four options. It’s nothing huge and exciting but singular tree revs/cavalry/Kurnoth Hunters being able to contest your opponent’s monsters and knowing you’ll always win the Primary battle in a faction which cannot afford to commit multiple resources to a single objective is plainly powerful in a way which isn’t entirely intuitive until you get it on the table. 

Last is Free Spirits which allows you to give run and charge to a unit of cavalry. Belthanos does this on his warscroll and if you’re not running Belthanos I’d be shocked. Sadly a bit redundant. 

Spells

This is where it gets a bit spicy. Sylvaneth rely on being near AWW for ALL of their allegiance abilities. I personally have found our warscrolls to be strong enough that not having access to these all of the time is ok, but it is completely galling that we have one way in the entire army to summon Wyldwoods and it can be stopped by enemy spellcasters. 

Treesong summons woods. WW 18” is a fine distance on the new maps and the ability to attempt to do this in your opponent’s turn makes it more achievable than in the past, especially with the unlimited tag. The trees themselves are pretty good, there is much maligning online that the trees can be killed, but to push back on this sentiment slightly, summoning 8-12 wounds, with a 4+ save, on a 6+ CV that your opponent then needs to chew through is not a small number of wounds over the course of the game. Opponents are forced to make meaningful choices about targeting your woods or your units and if they focus the units, abilities from various warscrolls make the units inside said woods far more powerful. Additionally, the new terrain maps make pre-planning of placement far easier. No longer the days of travelling for an event only to find that the TO was a bit overzealous with terrain and your army was unable to play, though the loss of overgrown terrain does mean that wizards are borderline mandatory in the army this edition and a great deal of your casting will be spent on making new woods. 

The other two spells in the pack are relatively straightforward, providing a much appreciated rend bonus and anti-horde spell to the army. They’re fine and a nice tertiary casting option if you don’t have trees or manifestations you’d prefer to be casting. 

On the note of manifestations, they Sylvaneth lore is… Ok? The Gladewyrm is a power pick that carries the manifestations while the skullroot is niche and the spiteswarm more a bonus than anything. I will say as one of the many who suffered at the hands of the spiteswarm’s 2+ in 3rd edition the fact it has been so massively tuned downward and still retains the 2+ roll is pretty jokes. Good one Jimothy Workshop. 

Enhancements

Heroic Traits

All three of these are solid. Spellsinger giving a nonwizard a cast is a powerful interaction with unlimited spells allowing you another chance to create an AWW while the +1 to cast on units like the Warsong Revenant is powerful in 4th. Warsinger (Choir anyone?) gives +2” movement which, while nothing mindblowing, is always excellent. Especially so in a faction with ready access to run and charge through Belthanos. 

Lastly, and my personal favourite is Radiant Spirit which provides a complete spell/prayer ignore on a 3+, something I haven’t seen as an aura effect in any other faction. It goes without saying that this effect is very powerful, being able to ignore effects like -1 to hit, wound or reducing charge dice is massive and avoiding incidental mortal wounds is pleasant icing on the cake. 

Revs by KC

Artefacts

These are far less thrilling but do a job. The Seed of rebirth is nice on small support pieces but far more impactful in monster mash where Durthu standing back up at the end of the enemy combat phase allows 3-6+ points of healing before he can be targeted again. Crown of Fell Bowers requires the hero using it to be in combat but provides a very powerful +1 to wound to all units targeting the chosen unit on a 3+. With how GW internally seems to be valuing +1 to wound effects, this artefact sits behind a number of gates which may see it struggle to be used effectively, but remains powerful nonetheless. Lastly the Greenwood Gladius. Look how they massacred my boy. From Durthu’s right hand blade in 3rd to now, the Greenwood gladius is now the much-memed “roll a d3, on a 2+ inflict that many mortals.” It isn’t bad by any means but everyone who was salivating at the thought of a buffed up Durthu biffing his way through a game must have been equally disappointed by this item’s depowering.

Units

Let’s start with the best of the best. As alluded to above, the use case for Strike and Fade has changed massively, rather than slingshotting units to delete your opponent’s units and then leaving before they can do anything about it (a playstyle which was always absolutely shithouse to play against, despite the end of edition <45% win rate, and I won’t hear otherwise), Strike and Fade now exists mainly as a means to reposition, for battle tactics at times and most commonly in my experience to rescue our new, old favourite unit Kurnoth Hunters with Kurnoth Greatbows (henceforth Bows, please.) who lack the shoot in combat keyword, have 18” range now, and have – in exchange for these limitations – learned to absolutely ruin heroes whenever they damn well please. Bows require some babysitting to make work but their combination of hero sniping, pure output and synergy with the way the Allegiance traits now work make them my highlight of the index. 

Without getting exhaustive, other notable standouts are Alarielle herself, who is a powerful beatstick in addition to being our best wizard. Her resurrection ability is too inconsistent to plan around, but as a listbuilding tool she synergises incredibly well with big punchy monsters such as Durthu and Belthanos. As an aside, I’ve seen far too many times statements online that due to Alarielle’s base size, she’s unable to benefit from the Allegiance abilities. You can overlap your base with a Wyldwood so long as you’re not trying to place the base on the trunk of the tree. Jesus Christ people. 

My last major highlights are my personal favourites, with Belthanos playing a key role in most lists. An amazing model, and great beatstick who, despite losing his ward, still plays a key role in the army by creating an AWW from a terrain piece which cannot be destroyed. Clutch. The Lady of Vines also got a glow-up for 4th edition, with a far punchier combat profile and a better rampage which either debuffs attackers with -1 to hit or allows all sylvaneth +1 to hit a certain target. She has paid for this however in becoming a monster in a ruleset where Look Out Sir! no longer cares about wound counts and simultaneously losing wounds, leaving her at a very fragile 8 wounds, very difficult to keep alive outside of woods against popular options like Jezzails and Longstrike Crossbows. That aside, her ability to count as a Wyldwood, Ward aura and otherwise well rounded profile make her one of my favourite picks in the new edition. 

Sample List


Sylvaneth
Subfaction: Forest Folk
Manifestations: Morbid Conjuration

The Lady of Vines (280)
– 20 x Dryads (220)
– 8 x The Twistweald (130)

Warsong Revenant (210)
– 5 x Tree-Revenants (110)

Drycha Hamadreth (310)
– 10 x Spite-Revenants (220)
– 8 x The Twistweald (130)
– 8 x The Twistweald (130)
– 10 x Gossamid Archers (240)

1980/2000

Thanks to our patron A..k who suggested this list.

You can get your Spite-Revenants or Twistweald up to rend 4. The focus of the list is turning these crappy, cheap units into potential hard hitters.
Twistweald have really decent damage for their points and you can potentially triple stack their negative charge effect.

20 Dryads to be a pain to shift with 5++, 5 casts, Drycha is a strong force multiplier for the Twistweald and Spites,

The Gossamids are for hero sniping and screening, but can also get all the buffs onto them shoot, and then charge, for a respectable 14 damage into a 4+ save average.

You’ve also got a decent amount of shooting across this list

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Death, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Madigan Mason, Ossiarch Bonereapers, Reviews

4th Edition Faction Review: Ossiarch Bonereapers

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Step into a world where bones rattle with purpose and skeletal warriors stand tall with unwavering resolve. Meet the Ossiarch Bonereapers, led by the enigmatic Katakros. These bony battlers bring a bone-chilling intensity to the battlefield, armed with marrowvellous formations and a bone-fide dedication to their cause. With their bone-appetit for victory, they’ll leave their adversaries shaking in their boots, proving they’re not just humerus, but truly bone to be wild!

Who are the Ossiarch Bonereapers?

All Ossiarch Bonereapers are built for a specific purpose and assigned a role based on the souls from which they’re formed. This is codified through a caste system, with Nagash at the top, the highest ranking Ossiarchs underneath him and various ranks beneath that.

While many Ossiarch Bonereapers are warriors, there are castes of crafters, like the Ossifact, or preachers, like those in the Priad caste.

There is movement between castes, but only downwards, as a punishment for failure. A Liege Kavalos who fails in their mission, for example, may be remade as a Kavalos Deathrider, or as a steed, if he has truly disappointed the Great Necromancer.

The Ossiarch Bonereapers can be found all across the Mortal Realms, aiming to conquer everything from Azyr to the Eightpoints. At present, the main factions of the Ossiarch Bonereapers are concentrated in Shyish, inhabiting the great nations that surround the Shyish Nadir. This allows them easy access to a vast source of magical power and establishes them as a permanent garrison around this most valuable of territories.

Playstyle

As in the shift to 3rd, the 4th edition ruleset has introduced dramatic changes to the command point system. As a result, the mechanical identity of the Ossiarch Bonereapers has undergone a shift…. no longer can they spam commands with impunity. In addition, their durability and recursion have both taken a hit. However, their melee combat prowess and adaptable toolbox remain their great strengths

Battle Traits

The Ossiarch Bonereapers have what is effectively one large battle trait – Relentless Discipline. Comprising of six separate abilities, you are presented with a strategic choice in your movement phase, the charge phase, and the combat phase. Each option provides an effect within a 12″ range of a Hero of your choice in your army. In your movement phase, you may pick between an additional 2″ to your units’ Move characteristics or the ability to use Retreat abilities and still Charge (though your unit will still take the associated mortal damage for using the ‘Retreat’ ability). In the charge phase, you may pick between +1 to charge rolls and Anti-charge (+1 Rend). This is generally going to be the +1 to charge rolls in your turn and the Anti-charge (+1 Rend) in your opponent’s turn, but the ‘Counter-charge’ ability means that occasionally you may plan for more unconventional tactics. In the combat phase, your options are +1 to wound rolls for offensive power and Wᴀʀᴅ (5+) for defensive power. Both of these are powerful buffs, although it’s not uncommon for them to end up being redundant.

Battle Formations

Like every other faction pack, the Ossiarch Bonereapers have four battle formations to choose from. Each of them focuses on different units in the army, but none of them are strong enough on their own to feel like build-arounds.
• Mortisan Council – This formation gives all your Ossiarch Bonereapers Infantry Wizards +1 to their casting rolls. I believe that this is likely to be the ‘default’ subfaction for lists. It provides the most universally applicable bonus, as most lists are likely to be running at least one of our Mortisans (or Vokmortian).
• Mortek Ballistari – The Mortek Crawler is actually a solid damage dealer this edition. Unfortunately, it comes with a steep points cost at 280. As a result, it’s not particularly viable to spam. However, even with only one Mortek Crawler, it will still save you the CP you would have spent on an ‘All-out Attack’.
• Kavalos Lance – This formation gives all your Ossiarch Bonereapers Cavalry a 6″ pregame move. I cannot really ever see taking this formation even in a Kavalos-focused list unless none of the others provide any effect to you.
• Mortek Phalanx – Having access to replacement units of Mortek Guard is powerful even if you only take a unit or two. Unfortunately, the random nature of it means it can’t be relied on to score tactics. Even so, bolstering the ranks of what is often an army a bit short on bodies can be incredibly helpful if you get your 5+ rolls off.

Enhancements

Heroic Traits

• ‘Diversionary Tactics‘ is a returning all-star this edition, albeit nerfed to only subtracting 2 from charge rolls instead of 3. It’s still an incredibly powerful effect, especially with the looming threat of ‘Counter-charge’ ever-present.
• ‘Aura of Sterility‘ also returns in a lesser fashion, subtracting 1 from wound rolls for shooting attacks that target your units wholly within 12″. This is more a meta call than anything – I don’t quite think it’s worth taking anymore, as it’s still useless in many matchups while no longer being such a silver bullet against others.
• ‘Mighty Archaeossian‘ rounds it out with a defensive ability allowing the bearer to only take hits on a roll of 4+ – a powerful effect, but only really meaningful at all on a Liege-Kavalos.
I think ‘Diversionary Tactics‘ is generally going to be the pick among these three heroic traits, unless you’re being personally victimized by Kharadron Overlords.

Artefacts

• ‘Helm of Tyranny‘ is probably my favourite of the artefacts. Subtracting 2 from the control scores of all enemy units within 12″ helps make up for the often poor board presence of Ossiarch lists, and the wide range means that even if this is on a Mortisan it can do its job while staying safe in your backlines.
• ‘Lode of Saturation‘ gives out Ward (5+). While a solid effect, Mortisans aren’t tanky enough where the better ward will save them if anything substantial hits them, and it’s somewhat redundant with other abilities in the army.
• ‘Marrowpact’ is too niche to be particularly useful in comparison – once per battle, it reflects mortals to the attacker on hit rolls of 1-2. You could try to put it on a Liege-Kavalos and have it charge into a horde, but this isn’t a particularly efficient plan.

Spells

The Lore of Ossian Sorcery has three returning spells, all great. ‘Empower Nadirite Weapons’ is the Unlimited option, and provides the target unit critical hits on rolls of 5+. Unfortunately, it’s received a massive nerf in the form of its range – it’s now wholly within 12″, and Arkhan no longer has his range extension. As a result, while this is an incredibly potent spell combined with the Crit (2 Hits) ability most of our units have, it really requires you stay castled up close to your Wizards until you’re ready to go in swinging. ‘Drain Vitality‘ still gives -1 to hit and save rolls, although with the range once again shortened to 12″. This can often be a nice option to cast with ‘Magical Intervention‘ if there’s a unit you’re concerned about. The final spell is ‘Shard Storm‘, which was formerly the Mortisan Boneshaper‘s warscroll spell. It is a 5+ horde clear spell at 18″ range – a solid damage option.

The Horrors of the Necropolis is also a very solid manifestation lore – each provides unique utility, and can be summoned fairly reliably. The Bone-tithe Shrieker gives units -1 to ward rolls, which given the prevalence of wards in this edition is a fairly ubiquitous ability. It also has a shooting attack with a 12″ range, which means that it can shoot the turn it is summoned. The Soulstealer Carrion subtracts 5 from the control score of all enemy Infantry units within 6″ of it, which is a strong effect to have in many of the more elite Ossiarch lists. The Nightmare Predator is the damage-dealer of the bunch, and has an ability to try to come back at the end of the turn if it was destroyed. Manifestations whose job is damage can struggle to be effective since they need to make a 9″ charge to get into combat and are often destroyed before they can do anything, so this is a nice effect to have on.

Units

The Ossiarch Bonereapers have a relatively limited roster to choose from, but their units have pretty distinct roles. As far as Heroes go, our three centrepieces all look very solid. Nagash is finally worth playing again – being able to return a full reinforced unit is incredibly potent. The Mortarchs are also great despite losing their healing potential, but I can’t really see lists running both anymore. Arkhan is still a great caster and has a variant of the Null Myriad ability on his scroll that provides a spell ignore for all nearby units, allowing him to provide both magical prowess and anti-magic defense. Katakros extends the range of Relentless Discipline abilities he uses, buffs the control score of nearby units, has a chance to steal CP, and is one of the few valuable ways to save stack – a veritable command centre of abilities.

Of our smaller Heroes, the Mortisan Soulmason stands out to me the most. It has a warscroll spell (rare for a non-Unique Wizard!) that gives a unit wholly within 12″ Strike-first. Unfortunately, it only lasts the rest of the turn, but it can be very backbreaking to let you double-tap in your turn or to try to push through a devastating ‘Counter-charge’ in your opponents. It also natively casts 2 spells and has an extra health compared to our other Mortisans.

For non-Hero units, the Teratic Cohort stand out to me. They’re only 10 points more than Mortek Guard, but have a deepstrike ability. With a little setup, these are great for scoring battle tactics and can chain Take Their Land into Take The Flanks or Inevitable Demise. For combat prowess, Morghasts seem the winner. Morghast Harbingers reclaimed their 3D6 charge and can benefit from Relentless Discipline abilities anywhere on the battlefield, making them an excellent cruise missile. A reinforced block of them pairs wonderfully with Nagash. Morghast Archai recieved a ward against spell damage as well as a 3+ Save characteristic, making them the option if you’d rather keep them in your castle.

Kavalos Deathriders have also gotten a glow-up in combat with their Charge (+1 Damage), and are another great option if you want a cheaper mid-tier hammer. If you want to invest in ranged pressure, the Mortek Crawler is a dependable but expensive choice. It does approximately 10 damage to an Infantry block at a quite respectable range of 24″, and can hand out Strike-last to boot. ‘Covering Fire’ can apply this in your opponent’s turn, rendering it difficult to approach a castle backed up by one.

Sample List

Battle Formation: Mortisan Council
Manifestation Lore: Horrors of the Necropolis
Spell Lore: Lore of Ossian Sorcery

Regiment 1
Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead [880pts]
General
Morghast Harbingers [540pts]
Reinforced

Regiment 2
Mortisan Soulmason [160pts]
Teratic Cohort [140pts]
Teratic Cohort [140pts]
Teratic Cohort [140pts]


TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)

Nagash and Morghast Harbingers are a powerful combination. The Morghasts can go out and smash whatever they need to, die, and be brought back. Their speed and manoeuvrability makes them incredibly hard to play around, and the threat of a 3d6+1 countercharge leaves them unable to be ignored. While CP-intensive, the Mortisan Soulmason can even give them Strike-first with the use of ‘Magical Intervention’, letting them obliterate their target in your opponent’s turn before it even gets to fight. The Teratic Cohort round out the list by being cheap and versatile units that score battle tactics well, helping offset the eliteness of the list.

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Idoneth Deepkin, Order, Patrick German, Reviews

4th Edition Faction Review: Idoneth Deepkin

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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.

Credit: Miniatures by Carl

Battle Traits

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

Credit: Warhammer Community

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”:

Credit: Warhammer Community

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.

Turtle by Ben Adlem

Sadness over. Let’s talk about Eidolons.

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

  • 1×6 Morrsarr Guard
  • 1×3 Ishlaen Guard
  • 1×3 Ishlaen Guard

Soulscryer

  • 1×10 Namarti Reavers
  • 1×10 Namarti Reavers

———————————-

Soulscryer

  • 1×10 Reaver
  • 1×10 Reaver
  • 1×10 Thralls

Volturnos, High King of the Deep

  • Lotann
  • 1×6 Morrsarr
  • 1×6 Morrsarr

Tidecaster

  • 1×10 Reavers
  • 1×10 Reavers

Manifestation: Incarnate go brrr

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Chaos, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Reviews, Roland Rivera, Slaves to Darkness

4th Edition Faction Review: Slaves to Darkness

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By Roland Rivera

For those that remember such ancient times, Games Workshop stores of the 90s had a specific feel (and smell) to them when you walked in. They also played LOTS of rock music. If you could wrap all of that up into an Age of Sigmar faction, you’d get the Slaves to Darkness (and possibly a little bit of Nurgle…).

UPDATE (07/23/2024): This article has been updated to better reflect the high-performing units in the faction, the strongest manifestation lores, and alternative playstyles.

Playstyle

As befits a faction with such a wide model range, Slaves to Darkness has a variety of playstyles available to it. I believe many players will gravitate to an aggressive playstyle using cavalry units such as Chaos Knights and Varanguard. This is pretty straightforward: you do horrific amounts of damage on the charge, so you charge your opponents and knock them over. The rest of your army is there to support the big scary cavalry by providing buffs, standing on objectives, or scoring Battle Tactics.

The army is also capable of a more defensive/controlling playstyle employing Chaos Chosen and Chaos Warriors to control territory, as well as control pieces such as Be’lakor and the Mindstealer Sphiranx to disrupt your opponent and quality chaff units like Chaos Furies to tie opponents up in melee. This playstyle also employs manifestations extensively to block off sections of the board and engage units that refuse to fight your formidable combat blobs.

Last but not least, the Darkoath part of the army is nominally capable of putting large amounts of troops on the table that can be brought back using the Darkoath Horde Battle Formation, but I find that playstyle to be quite a bit weaker than the two styles mentioned above and won’t talk too much about that one here.

Be’lakor by Luis Mendoza

Battle Traits

Slaves to Darkness only has 2 Battle Traits, but they’re both pretty good ones: Eye of the Gods triggers whenever your units destroy an enemy unit and offers an array of potent buffs. I recommend always taking the re-roll on the table, as it gives you a greater than 50% chance of getting the buff you want. Aggressive units will likely want the +1 to hit first in order to maximize your resource efficiency. Once you have that, target the +1 Rend. Defensive units will likely want to stack those wards.

The Marks of Chaos lets you choose from an array of buffs associated with each Chaos god. Khorne and Nurgle are the standouts in offence and defence, respectively, and they are the ones I would choose from when given a choice. For the units locked to a particular Mark, Undivided is respectable, and Tzeentch is conditional. I don’t see a reason to choose Slaanesh other than the mark-specific prayer on the Chaos Warshrine, which is not enough incentive.

Let’s look at the Nexus Chaotica since it’s a de facto faction ability. Its ability to charge up and grant bonuses to cast is OK, but the benefit I like the most is the ability to generate mortal damage bombs on objectives. Additionally, it somewhat functions as a free screen with its ability to occupy space and absorb damage on your behalf.

Subfaction Traits

We have access to 4 subfactions (known as Battle Formations), but one of them stands head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion. The Godswrath Warband turns an objective that you’re contesting into a mortal damage minefield, and as far we know, it cannot be interacted with further. This extra damage source on objectives can make it difficult for your opponent to retain control of them, which helps you accomplish your primary objective (scoring points) via the thing this army is best at (killing their stuff).

In the event that you wish to consider something other than Godswrath, the Darkoath Horde has a potent unit revival effect in Rally the Tribes for Darkoath units. I consider the abilities of the Despoilers and Legion of Chaos Battle Formations to be too conditional and not sufficiently impactful to compete with Godswrath or Horde.

Spells

The Lore of the Damned has an obvious all-star spell in Daemonic Speed. While the casting value make it something you can’t necessarily rely on, charging on 3D6″ is quite a potent effect. Spite-Tongue Curse isn’t the strongest spell, but the threat of casting it multiple times in the same turn can make it a decent Hero sniper, and the threat of it can influence your opponent to hide their Heroes. Lastly, Binding Damnation‘s ability to put down the strikes-last debuff can swing a key combat in your favor (though beware of the short range).

Our native manifestation lore (the Manifestations of Malevolence) is nothing to write home about, in my opinion. While the Realmscourge Rupture has a useful conditional debuff in -1 to hit and the Eightfold Doom-Sigil can get you +1 Attack in a turn where you sequence your combats cleverly, I find it to be overall weaker than some of the generic lores. The generic lore par excellence in my opinion is Morbid Conjuration, which has the Purple Sun of Shyish for save penalties, Malevolent Maelstrom as a mortal damage bomb, Suffocating Gravetide as a horde thinner, and Soulsnare Shackles as a movement disruptor that is particularly nasty when cast on your opponent’s turn. I also think Primal Energy is a strong lore for us, as Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws is a durable threat that can’t be banished in one shot and Emerald Lifeswarm meshes well with our high-Health models. A Lore that I have a bit of a soft spot for is Forbidden Power, which has the Soulscream Bridge for moving units (especially slower ones like Warriors and Chosen) around and Horrorghast to provide you with a bit of shooting and the chance to shut down command abilities (disallowing an opponent from using a Counter-charge, for example, is a potentially game-swinging play).

Last but not least, if you’re planning to go light on spells and just want to defend yourself from enemy manifestations, I think the Krondspine Incarnate of Ghur gives you the best bang for your buck.

Nexus Chaotica by PCjourney (Alen)

Enhancements

In the Artefacts section, I think the choice is pretty clear: this is an elite army that will struggle on objectives, and The Conqueror’s Crown helps shore up that weakness. An argument can be made for the Infernal Puppet if you feel that you don’t have enough protection against opposing spellcasters, but the fact that it is once per game and triggers I don’t think it’s enough of a disincentive. The Realmwarper’s Twist-Rune is niche tech at best.

The Heroic Traits section, on the other hand, is a bit trickier. If you have a fightier Hero such as the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak or the Daemon Prince, Deathmonger is a nice way to make them more threatening. Radiance of Dark Glory is good if you have lots of high-Health models, such as Hero Monsters. I rate Favoured of the Pantheon below those options, but it’s hardly bad.

Units

My opinion is that the most efficient warscroll in this army is Chaos Knights. I find that you get a great deal on points for how fast, durable, and damaging they are on the charge, especially if they are marked Khorne (which they should be!). I begin virtually every list with 2 units of 5, and suggest you do the same. Another standout unit is Chaos Furies, who are blazing fast (which makes them excellent for completing Battle Tactics or contesting faraway objectives), and have a retreat ability that makes them very hard to take out in melee. Not every Hero has access to them, but every list should.

The other heavily armored units are also potent. Varanguard are the best overall hammer unit in our army and capable of a terrifying amount of damage, Chaos Warriors are efficiently priced objective grabbers that do more damage than you’d think, and Chaos Chosen can dish it out as well as they take it. If you’re looking for cheaper units, the Darkoath Fellriders have great speed, solid damage to pick off low-save units and small Heroes, and are an efficient source of health that can get revived in the proper Battle Formation. Another option in the cheap unit department is Furies, which perform a useful function as cheap, fast fliers that can waste opposing combat activations.

On the Hero front, Be’lakor strikes me as doing quite a lot for his points, with solid damage, being a Wizard (2) with a good warscroll spell, and powerful abilities such as The Dark Master. Staying with casters, I believe the Chaos Sorcerer Lord on foot and the Gaunt Summoner on foot are both very efficient. The Sorcerer’s Oracular Visions almost feels like a very powerful second spell, and the Gaunt is an actual Wizard (2) with a neat ability for moving some of your slower units (like Chaos Chosen) around. I also think the Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount is pretty efficiently priced, especially for those cavalry-heavy aggressive lists. Last but not least, Archaon the Everchosen costs a ton of points, but he is also an imposing enough presence on the board to make him running him worth it. He hits hard, moves fast, is incredibly durable, and has great abilities, especially his ability to put down opposing manifestations with ease.

Daniel Patterson’s Slaves to Darkness

Sample List

Here’s a sample list that features some of the premium warscrolls and synergies in the army.

Army: Slaves to Darkness
– Battle Formation: Godswrath Warband
– Manifestation Lore: Primal Energy
– Spell Lore: Lore of the Damned
– Honour Guard Rule: Priority Target

REGIMENT 1
Hero: Be’lakor (410)
– General
Unit 1: 6 Varanguard (620)
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
– Reinforced
– Honour Guard
Unit 2: 5 Darkoath Fellriders (150)
– Broadswords
Unit 3: 6 Chaos Furies (100)
Unit 4: 6 Chaos Furies (100)

REGIMENT 2
Hero: Chaos Sorcerer Lord (120)
– Heroic Trait: Radiance of Dark Glory
– Artefact: The Conqueror’s Crown
– Mark of Chaos: Tzeentch
Unit 2: 5 Chaos Knights (250)
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne
Unit 3: 5 Chaos Knights (250)
– Mark of Chaos: Khorne

TOTAL POINTS: (2000/2000)


Coming in right at 2000 points, this list is an offensive powerhouse. Be’lakor and the Sorcerer Lord need no introduction, Knights and Varanguard bring the pain (especially when the Priority Target rule is live to give them +1 to hit and wound), Chaos Furies are a premier screen and objective grabber, and Fellriders are a somewhat bulkier unit that can harass Heroes and threaten opposing chaff. As this list is very fast and full of beefy multi-Health models, I favor the Primal Energy manifestation lore because of the Emerald Lifeswarm‘s ability to heal your guys as well as Ravenak’s Gnashing Jaws for some extra damage.

4th Edition, Age of Sigmar, Faction Focus, Fantasy, Fittsy, Games Workshop, Kharadron Overlords, Order, Reviews

4th Edition Faction Review: Kharadron Overlords

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I’ll update this ol’ page after a few more games with KO… for now, do go check out the First Impressions article in between shooting opponents off the table!

Fittsy’s Kharadron Overlords New Book First Impressions