Tag Archives: Tactics

Fantasy, Games Workshop, Peter Holland, Tactics, The Old World

Old World Tactica: March Blocking

1 Comment

Following on from last weeks article where we discussed the unit redirct tactic, we return this week with another golden oldie; March Blocking.

March Blocking

To understand ‘March Blocking’ let’s first cover some of the mechanics around this.

Marching

Firstly, marching. A unit can march across the table if unhindered by dangerous terrain and the like. When a unit marches in The Old World, it can double its movement characteristic. If the unit is in a column formation (more files than ranks), it can triple its move characteristic. However, if a unit chooses to march, it can not shoot or charge. This is especially useful for those slower armies like Dwarfs with their 3″ movement being tripled to 9″.

Enemy Sighted

If a player wishes one of their units to march and it is within 8″ of the enemy (apart from fleeing units), it must first pass a leadership test to do so. If the test fails, it may move normally but importantly counts as having marches, so it would still be unable to shoot.

Hang On!: it’s important to note that units with the ‘Drilled’ special rule are not subject to ‘Enemy Sighted’ and can still march when within 8″ of an enemy.

The Tactic

So by now, you’re probably thinking that’s fairly simple, and you’d be right. The easiest way to stop armies from marching across the table is to place a unit within 8″ and slow the enemy down.

What’s even more effective is using fast units and flying units to do this. So units like Gyrocopters (Dwarfs) or Eagles (Wood Elves) are great to interrupt marches. If the enemy chooses to try and charge them as a response, their flee move should keep them safe (if you’ve positioned correctly) most of the time.

As a result, you’ll have an enemy that is struggling to move its force into the position they’d like, or they’re unable to move their key hammer unit into a position to be effective. Giving you time to respond with your own units and to take advantage of enemy units out of position.

Fantasy, Games Workshop, Peter Holland, Tactics, The Old World

Old World Tactica: Unit Redirect

2 Comments

Hopefully, this will be the first of many Old World tactica articles. With a few Old timers on the team who had a love of Warhammer Fantasy, we thought it may be worth to provide some tactics that were used in previous editions.

Unit Redirect

A ‘Redirect’ is used to force your opponent to make an uncomfortable decision when making their movement. The image below shows two units. An enemy ‘Hammer’ unit (a unit designed to be effective at clearing most enemy units in combat) shown in red, and a friendly ‘Chaff’ unit shown in purple.

The idea behind the redirect tactic is to tie up or ideally destroy the opponents hammer unit with as little points commitment from your own force and hopefully leave the opponents key unit out of position. In the case of the image above, you need your chaff unit to be as little points as possible.

In your opponent’s turn, they have a number of options;

1) They can attempt to charge the chaff unit with their hammer. This would resort in the Hammer unit being out of position and possibly vulnerable to a counter charge from another unit.

2) They can choose to ignore the chaff unit and continue their movement while hoping to remove the chaff with shooting or magic. This has the benefit of both committing their ranged and/or magic attacks to remove a cheap chaff unit. Plus, if they’re unsuccessful in destroying your unit, it leaves the Hammer unit open to a flank charge.

Warmachines

It’s also useful for engaging war machines. March your chaff unit up to the enemy war machines, and they either have to shoot the chaff and save your other units for another turn or suffer a charge.

Aaron Newbom, Age of Sigmar, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Ironjawz, Orruk Warclans, Tactics

Ironjaws Tech: Mighty Retreat

2 Comments

Ironjaws is an army defined, more than anything else by the ability “Mighty Destroyers”. Mighty Destroyers is a command ability used in the hero phase to Move, Pile in, or charge. Jaws are Infamous for crossing the board in a single turn and blowing up half your army in one explosive charge, but true followers of Gork know that Cunnin’ is the second half of brutal.

Masters of the Waaagh like Scooter Walters, Noah Singh, and Greg Brewer have long been utilizing a very Cunnin’ maneuver called the Mighty Retreat. To understand the Mighty retreat we have to dive into the mechanics of Mighty Destroyers.

When you issue the command, if the unit is outside of 12″ of any enemies it can make a normal move action. But if it’s within 12″ and outside of 3″ that unit must immediately make a charge move instead. What’s interesting here is that this occurs before the movement phase, meaning you can charge in, then retreat move in the same turn. You can give em the ol’ Goregrunta Reach around and get into some REALLY nasty positions with this surprise movement as most people don’t realize you can do this.

The charge

But merely getting into position won’t win you the games, u’z gotta Smash N Bash em. You have to be able to capitalize on that position, and here’s where the really interesting part comes in. As long as you’ve completed a charge move this turn, you can pile in, even if you’re not in combat. This means that you can retreat and end just outside an enemy unit, and then pile in during the combat phase to attack them.

The mighty retreat

Not only does this let you engage in unexpected places, it also allows you to mess with combat sequencing as your unit is technically outside of combat until you do your pile in, so your guaranteed to hit the enemy before they hit you. Adding this trick to your arsenal can help you sneak into juicy bits and prove once again that Green iz Best.

Age of Sigmar, Beginners army, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Getting Started with..., Kruleboyz, Orruk Warclans, Peter Holland

Vanguard: Orruk Warclans (Kruleboyz) – Beginners 1,000pt Army

Leave a comment

Why play Kruleboyz?

Kruleboyz are one of the few armies which enjoy dishing out mortal wounds in buckets. It’s also the one Orruk army which enjoys a tonne of shooting attacks. They are a glass cannon however, and suffer from the odd breeze. They lack any serious screening but enjoy a surfeit of monsters that both dish out the damage and buff your troops attacks.

What’s in the Vanguard Box?

In the box you get:

  • Killaboss on Great-Gnashtoof
  • Murknob with Belcha-Banna
  • 10 Gutrippaz
  • 3 Man-Skewer Boltboys
  • 1 Beast-Skewer Killbow

All for £85 at Games Workshop. Unless you wanted to buy it through our affiliate Element Games, in which case it would cost you £72.25.

The total points of these units under the current battlescroll comes to just 540 points, so we’ll need to buy a fair few more units to get up to the 1,000 point mark.

Next go and pick up the Age of Sigmar Harbringer Set, it’s great value and you’ll get the difficult to source Swampcalla Shaman as well as 10 more Gutrippaz and 10 Hobgrots to act as a screen. This brings us up to 870 points. For the final spend, pick up another set of 3 Man-Skewer bolt boys.

Your total spend through Games Workshop will be £215 (if you include the Orruk Battletome which you’ll need for the rules). But as mentioned, if you use our affiliate link with Element Games, you’ll get all of this for just £176.25 (including the Battletome).

Don’t forget though, you can probably get at least £20 back for selling the Stormcast half of the Harbringer box. So consider this 1k army as £150ish with the Tome.

The List

Faction: Kruleboyz
Subfaction: Grinnin’ Blades
Grand Strategy: Defend What’s Ours
Triumph: Inspired

LEADERS
Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof (120)*
– Warlord
– Command Trait: Slippery Skumbag
– Mount Trait: Fast ‘Un
– Artefact: Mork’s Eye Pebble
Swampcalla Shaman and Pot-grot (100)*
– Nasty Hex
Murknob with Belcha-Banna (70)*

BATTLELINE
10x Gutrippaz (150)*
– Wicked Stikka
10x Gutippaz (150)*
– Wicked Stikka
10x Hobgrots (80)*

ARTILLERY
Beast-Skewer Killbow (80)*

OTHER
3x Man-Skewer Boltboyz (120)*
3x Man-Skewer Boltboyz (120)*

CORE BATTALIONS
*Battle Regiment

TOTAL POINTS: 990/1,000
Wounds: 89
Drops: 1

First off, we’ve chosen Grinnin’ Blades to nullify your squishy army from getting popped outside of 12″.

We’re then wrapping them all up into a single drop Battle Regiment. In theory this should give you control of the first turn. If you’re facing another ranged army like Kharadron Overlords or Lumineth Realm-Lords this can mean you actually opt to give them the first turn, force them to move closer but stay outside of their ranged attacks, then on your first turn have your Man-Skewers and Killbow take down some fools. If you’re lucky you may even get th priority into the second turn…

The Units

Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof

Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof Painted By Woehammer Peter

This fella is great, and it’s a model I personally love. With a 10″ move, he’s not particularly fast, so we’ve given him the mount trait Fast ‘Un to get that one extra hero phase move. Meaning, in theory you could potentially pull a move and charge off against an enemy 27″ away.

Rather than the traditional Supa Sneaky you often see on a Kruleboyz warboss, we’ve gone for Slippery Skumbag. This is to maxmise the Savage Hound ability which gives the unit +1 to its hit rolls if it made a charge in the same turn. This means if you’re locked in combat, you’ll be able to retreat out, and then charge once more in the same turn.

Swampcall Shaman and Pot Grot

Painted by Woehammer Peter

This guy is going to be key to maximising the amount of damage your units can kick out during the battle. Using his Poison ability means that the unit you buff will cause mortal wounds from their venom-encrusted weapons on a 5+ instead of the usual 6+. During the early stages of a game, you’ll want him giving poison to your ranged Man-Skewer Boltboyz. Follow this up late game with the Gutrippaz when they make combat and watch the colour drain from your opponent’s face.

We’ve also given him the spell Nasty Hex, so if you do come up against any armies with ward saves, he’ll have a chance of turning them off before your Poison enhanced units pick them apart.

As a last little gift, this guy will sticking close to either your Man-Skewer Boltboyz or your Gutrippaz, so we’ve given him the artefact Mork’s Eye Pebble. Meaning once per game in a single phase, the Swampcalla Shaman and all units within 12″ will have a 5+ ward save. Not bad for a bit of extra survivability.

Murknob with Belcha-banna

Credit: Games Workshop

Under the current General’s Handbook (Season 23/24), this model has improved in value. With the amount of Wizards now able to cast various spells without too much difficulty, it helps to have a source of ward saves against them. Make sure you keep him near your key damage dealers like the Gutrippaz and Man-Skewers so they benefit from that 5+ ward save against spells.

On top of that he can dish out some mortal wounds alongside the Gutrippaz with the Breath of the Mire-drakes ability. Just don’t rely on it too much.

Gutrippaz

Painted by Woehammer Peter

I hope your woman loves you like Woehammer Pete loves Gutrippaz

– Pete Atkinson (PlasticCraic)

It’s true, I love these guys. I’ve found so many times that people underestimate the amount of damage that they can kick out (that’s why I have a list with 60 of them…).

With Poison from the SwampcallaShaman a unit of 10 of these boys they dish out the following damage on average:

v SaveGutrippaz (Wicked Stikka + Poison)
2+7.29
3+7.58
4+7.88
5+8.17
6+8.46
–8.75

At only 150 points a unit, they’re great. Their downside is their lack of bravery, but this can be compensated for by the Killaboss on Great Gnashtoof‘s ability All Part of Da Plan.

Hobgrots

Painted by Woehammer Peter

These are here as a simple screen, but to be honest they’re not even too great at that. They won’t stick around and they won’t do too much damage. They’re not bad for protecting your Man-Skewer Boltboyz and Beast-Skewer Killbow, or for claiming home deployment area objectives. But otherwise don’t expect a great deal from them.

Beast-Skewer Killbow

Painted by Woehammer Peter

It’s a lot cheaper than it used to be, but don’t expect great things from it. Really, it’s only use is against multi wound monsters and even then you have to pray that it hits. IF it hits, and IF you roll a 6 on that to hit roll, you’ll be laughing though as every wound caused will be mortal…

Man-Skewer Boltboyz

Painted by Woehammer Peter

These are your early game damage dealers while the enemy struggles to get to grips with you. Get the Poison on them from the Swampcalla Shaman and fire at long range at first. If you have your target within 12″ though, make sure you shuffle them to ensure you’re using the hasty shot. Doubling the amount of shots means you’re fishing for those all important 6’s for the mortal wounds (5’s if you’ve given them Poison from the Swampcall Shaman).

As an idea as to what just 3 can do in terms of damage:

v SaveAimed Shot (+Poison)Hasty Shot (+Poison)
2+3.565.19
3+4.005.44
4+4.445.70
5+4.895.96
6+5.336.22
–5.336.22

What Next?

When you’ve had a few games and you’re looking to expand your list up to 2k, I would seriously consider purchasing Gobsprakk. In the current meta with his Mork Sez No abilty and Primal Dice being able to enhance this he’s an absolute menace to enemy casters.

You may also want to look at getting a Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker, they’re beasts in combat and their Sludgeraker Venom means that the venom-encrustd weapons of any units nearby will be causing one additional damage each. That means your Gutrippaz could be causing 2 damage and your Man-Skewer Boltboyz 3 damage.

Most lists also run 2 Swampcalla Shamans to maximise the Poison output. If you also like running lots of Gutrippaz, I’d consider buying a Killaboss with Stab Grot or two for the bravery benefits.

Painted by Warhatter
Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Meta Analysis, Order, Reviews, Seraphon

Tome Talks: Seraphon

Leave a comment

Welcome to the latest in our ‘Tome Talks’ series, in which we review a battletome via a balanced discussion – and with the benefit of a little hindsight and some hands-on testing.

Danny Wadeson: So – we’ve had the book for a while, but now seems a good time to judge it properly now that the new Season is underway and recent changes to things like coherence have allowed a lot of Seraphon units to really shine.

As we’ll be keeping this relatively high level, let’s start with the overall standouts. What, to you, are the things that make Seraphon, Seraphon – and where does this book really sing? Sell it to me!

Patrick German: I think to really look at Seraphon you can either dig into a few units, or look at the book as a whole. Seraphon have always been a flexible force, jumping between elite infantry and cavalry, huge monsters, and powerful wizards. I can say for sure that all of these still exist, but I’ve seen a lot more “magic castles” than anything else.

Lord Kroak still exists, and is a lynchpin unit for the book. Backing him up with another frogman, some skink wizards, and an Astrolith bearer can turn him from being a sniper and artillery piece into a factory that produces more skinks as it kills units.

I’ve always been a more flavor-over-competitive player, and I love the idea of putting a load of big monsters on the table. Stegadon is still a thing, and while it isn’t the most competitive choice, it’s good fun to throw seven or eight stegadons on the field and have them waddle around killing your opponent’s models is great.

Peter Holland: I think the appeal of Seraphon cannot be ignored. The model range is gorgeous, and really appeals to that 6 year old inside. After all, what 6 year old wouldn’t want an army of Dinosaurs?!

Coupled with that, in this particular GHB, they’re proving they have some tricks up their sleeves to compete at the top tables.

Patrick: I will say: the model range is gorgeous now. I was really happy for Seraphon players when they got so many new sculpts, because the old ones were looking very dated.

Danny: Yeah. They look GOOD. But how do they play? Obviously there are two very different flavours – the ‘magic (bouncy?) castle that Poots mentioned and the more bitey-fighty Coalesced. The former is high on movement and summoning shenanigans and can bring overwhelming amounts of magic to bear while the other has good old fashioned durability and toe to toe offence.

Peter – I think i know the answer but for the benefit of our readers – what do the stats say about which is getting more play and what’s tickling the podium?

Peter: It’s an interesting one. Fangs of Sotek are by far the most popular subfaction with 56% (45 players) of tournament players choosing them. They’re also overly successful with a win rate of 60%. However Dracothion’s Tail currently has the most success with 68% win rate.

While Starborne is seeing success, players who have taken coalesced are struggling.

Koatl’s Claw has had good representation (2nd most popular subfaction), but their win rate is in the doldrums at 38% currently.

I will add that Dracothion’s Tail and Thunder Lizard are very small sample sizes.

Patrick: I’m not surprised that Fangs of Sotek is doing so well. Out-of-phase movement is a very strong tool to have (just ask your friendly local Khorne player). The ability to redeploy three times in response to your opponents movement can set you up for excellent counter-punches or provide cheap screens as a roadblock, preventing a charge onto an objective. The fact that the first two instances of redeploy are free makes it even better.

Danny: They’re fun. Movement shenanigans are fun. It just gives you lots to do in the opponent’s turn too.

I can see why competitively Starborne are the go-tos – hero phase teleport, loads of summoning so that you can react to the board state and the above very strong sub-faction ability, combined with an excellent spell lore are hard to resist.

Let’s not forget the excellent Star Power abilities too, which give you just a wild suite of options. However – even for an experienced player like myself it can be quite draining to keep track of everything – spells, a parallel economy, and LOTS of separate aura ranges etc. And it can all fall apart quickly if a couple of key spells go wrong or the opponent has enough threat projection to get into you before the summoning ramps up.

Having just started trying out Coalesced recently, I’m glad to say that it offers a more chill, but still strong, playstyle. 20 Warriors are a helluva drug, and the added durability makes for a more ‘traditional’ and forgiving game.

On that note, let’s talk about Thunder Lizard – it’s been a wild ride for anyone with big dinos since the end of the last book and the new one – namely it’s much harder to buff them now and their sub-faction rule is totally different, with double monstrous actions which are of dubious utility.

Also, the Engine of the Gods had been…I don’t know how else to say it other than ‘fucked up’. Stegadons still feel ok – the ‘counts as ten’ is great for objective stealing but they feel expensive on the board. The less said about the Stegadon Chief, the better – which is a shame as vanilla Stegs feel like they need a force multiplier. Why? What did they do to my horny boys?

Patrick: Conspiracy says that GW likes to downplay the units that were doing well last edition. Skink Chiefs and EotGs were great, and now they are less great. Personally, I think that in an effort to find better internal balance in battletomes GW tends to try to move the good/bad/ugly more towards the middle. Sometimes they overshoot, though, like I feel they did with Kroak, who I feel is an absolutely steal at 410pts.

Danny: Kroak is probably still a bit too good – but the main thing is, he’s fun now. Varied abilities and less book-keeping, and FINALLY two excellent lores to know all of.

The spells were one of the huge weak points of the 2e book, but now they’re full of fun effects, leaving aside for a moment the whole ‘is it fun casting the same MW Spell 4 times in a row’ – the lores are banging – what are your highlights?

Patrick: Tepok’s Beneficence is a fun dark horse for me. Boosting a cheap screen to make the screen last a little longer can be great. Mystical unforging can have a similar effect as a debuff instead of a buff.

On the skink side, Cosmic Crush can be surprisingly good against durable units, hitting SCE unit, especially. Speed if Huanchi allows for more out-of-phase movement, and we’ve already touched on how good that can be.

Peter: Having done the breakdowns on lists that achieve 4+ wins the most common spells in those lists are:

– Merciless Blizzard (10)
– Hoarfrost (9)
– Speed of Huanchi (8)
– Comet’s Call (8)
– Cosmic Crush (6)
– Drain Magic (4)
– Rupture (4)
– Stellar Tempest (2)
– Tepok’s Beneficence (1)

Because hoarfrost on skinks is the bomb. Hoarfrost on units of skinks that can redeploy is the double bomb.

Tie that in with Lord of Celestial Resonance (which nearly every list takes) and the ability to generate Cosmic Power increases so that the Seraphon play can summon in yet more Skink units nearly every other turn.

Danny: So yeah, the Lores are great and plenty of good candidates for Hoarfrost. The question is, does the book support you getting these spells off? And the answer is, sure, in Starborne – where the combo is, cast Equilibrium with the Slann to give your other casters (probably a Skink Starpriest and Starseer, and possibly Kroak) +1, have everyone in the +1 to cast bubble from the Astrolith bearer, and then enjoy your native +1 on the Slann and +2 on Kroak, for something like 6 casts at +2, and 4 (from Kroak) at +4.

So what about the actual units? Seraphon have access to a pretty deep model selection although more than ever they’re very much split between Starborne/Coalesced. To some extent this is cool as it provides a distinct feel but it can also mean that, if you want to experience everything the book has to offer AND lean into the syneries, it feels like collecting two armies.

For example, my Starborne list is lizard wizards, Astrolith, 2x Chargers, skinks of various varieties, an Ark of Sotek, and a few flex points that I usually fill with a Salam…sorry, Chotec. My Coalesced lists are kroxigor and saurus warrior heavy, with only 1-2 wizards, and a Carnosaur – sometimes a Laser-don. Some of that stuff makes sense as a Summons in Starborne which does somewhat ease the pain of buying and painting them…

But either way, there are definitely some interesting warscrolls in the book. Before I do a screed – are there any stand outs you guys want to highlight, either from a competitive, design or other perspective?

Patrick: I mentioned earlier that the army had a well-deserved makeover when the new book came out. The new kits are absolutely gorgeous, and I think they capture the aggression and intimidation that an army of dinosaurs would have.

Specifically, I’ll call out the Kroxigors and Aggradon riders. Two units that had good rules, but the models themselves looked like they had just been pulled out of bed and weren’t fully awake. The new models are incredible, and I would give GW’s design team a huge amount of credit for finally making these monsters feel like monsters.

Danny: Agreed but I have issues with the warscrolls of each of those examples! Not from a strength standpoint – I’ve tried both and they have the right numbers in the right places – but I find their abilities frustratingly designed – and this is the start of a specific thread of bad design that you can trace through the book. It’s like they tried something new, and doubled down on it before testing and then couldn’t be bothered to change them.

For example – the Warspawned have an ability that gives them an extra attack if a skink model nearby dies. It’s a nice nod to the lore and older editions, and it’s not particularly hard to achieve – use skinks as a screen, have Krox just within 3″ behind them – job done.

But the issue in reality is that, on the actual board, this usually results in only a couple of extra attacks. And in Coalesced, there’s just no real other reason to take skinks, so soon as they’re dead, the ability can no longer be procced. The other rule that nods back to their WHFB formation is that Kroxigor can’t issue themselves commands (big dumb dinos!) but Skink unit champions can. Meaning there’s actually CONFLICT between the two rules – do you use skinks as a screen, given Krox aren’t particularly tanky, or keep them behind as a mobile command-giver? And In Starborne, it’s really hard to include Kroxigor and there’s no other synergy with them. So even though I love Kroxigor as a unit in their own right (in Coalesced), it’s just a frustratingly designed scroll.

Aggradons have a similar problem. They gain bonus attacks if they remain engaged at the end of a turn, but lose them whenever they end a turn out of engagement. In reality, I’ve found this has precisely one use – when you charge them in, they don’t kill something, they survive the hit back, and you win and take the double.

So, sure, it’s a neat little bonus to make up for lost models in a protracted engagement in a very specific circumstance but it’s very annoying that you could easily go multiple games without their signature ability ever coming into play.

And the book tries to carry this conceptual blood frenzy into the battle tactics – which are fine, overall – but the one that baffles me is ‘Pack Hunters’, which wants you to pick an enemy unit within 3″ of an Aggradon unit and for it to be within 3″ of 2 Aggradon units at the end of the turn.

When you think this through, that’s such a niche scenario as to be practically nonsensical. ‘Stampede of Scales’ – ‘have 3 monsters run and each to end within 6″ of one of those monsters, AND be wholly within enemy territory’.

Now, given there’s no way to make Seraphon monsters run and charge, this is basically asking you to run your three precious monsters into enemy territory and… do nothing else. I can see this working well when you’ve tabled the enemy already but otherwise… how does this interestingly play into your strategy?

The book enhancements have a slightly different design issue, and it’s one that has unfortunately reared its ugly head in a fair few other books. Simply put, they’re divided into ‘fluffy but a huge gamble’ (and these are usually once-per-game effects) and ‘overwhelmingly obvious competitive choice’. I’m all for supporting fluffier options but I stand by my claim that it’s more fun for everyone involved if there’s an actual meaningful choice between varied effects – that would also lead to more varied (and therefore fun) list building.

Rant over..!

Patrick: Which is where conversations about internal balance come into play as a whole. I’ve said for a long time that the Idoneth Deepkin tome is one of the better examples of internal balance. Everything has a place and a use, and we see that in GT articles where no two Idoneth lists look the same.

Peter can provide specific detail(and let me know if I’m wrong) but Seraphon were mono-build for a long time. Take Lord Kroak, take Thunder Lizard, take three Bastiladons, take Cogs, push the “win” button. I’m afraid that the book hinges so thoroughly on Kroak and spellcasting that it’s still competitively mono-build.

Proper internal balance is hard to achieve, and GW frequently misses the mark.

Peter: Yeah, I agree. Looking at the competitive lists that go 4+ wins, Lord Kroak, the Astrolith Bearer and a Slann Starmaster appear in every list. Along with usually, two units of Skinks and a unit of Warriors. On top of that, they all take Malevolent Maelstrom as well. This brings the points of your core competitive units to 1215. Leaving possibly only 785points worth of true choice.

LEADERS
Lord Kroak (410)
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)
Slann Starmaster (275)

BATTLELINE
Skinks (90)
Skinks (90)
Saurus Warriors (180)

ENDLESS SPELLS & INVOCATIONS
1 x Malevolent Maelstrom (30)

TOTAL POINTS: 1215

Patrick: Every. List.

That goes beyond a balance problem. We’re fully in over-tooled and under-costed territory.

Peter: Every Competitive List that goes 4 wins or more.

Patrick: Fair point.

Danny: And it doesn’t necessarily mean Kroak is OP – it’s rather that the other options, especially Coalesced – don’t have a good viable alternative.

But either way, in summary – a real mixed bag in terms of enhancements, with most of them being consigned to the ‘maybe one day for fluff bin’, and the usual spread of pointless Grand Strats with one competitively decent if not terribly inspired one (have a Seraphon unit in each quarter). Mostly good warscrolls with some glaring lowlights, design if not efficiency wise.

And one last time I’d like to say – what were they thinking with the Engine of the Gods? You get #feelsbad just looking at the ability table on the scroll.

But overall, I do think Starborne feel like cosmic wizard lizards and by and large, Coalesced now look and feel like big stompy chompers, so in terms of overall player fantasy, it’s probably largely a success. Both internal and external balance issues can be address to some extent with future points changes, but can never account for the design failings.

Any last words from you gents before we make like a skink and re-roll our redeploy out of here?

Patrick: I’m not a fan of competitive mono-build, but overall I’m pleased with the book. The model range and magic are great, and hopefully we see some changes in the future to boost the less-used units.

Peter: I think the book is OK and the models are great. This particular handbook may be favouring them slightly more than past ones, but that’s the way of things sometimes.

Danny: My final final_finalV2 thought is that, yes we know double frog is good with Krondspine but I don’t want to even get into it. Overall I think there are 3/4 strong sub-factions. I still think further points tweaks are needed, and even though I’m disappointed in some of the design space – fangtastic new models, a variety of play-styles and a good core internal balance (with just a few outliers on either end) make for a fun book with depth and character. Now someone go forth and find a Thunder Lizards build!

Aaron Newbom, Age of Sigmar, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Order, Stormcast Eternals, Tactics

Stormcast Tech: Tele-Guarding

1 Comment

Stormcast are known for two things. Dragons and Paladins. Today’s article is about both and a super nasty way to get the most out of the combination of the two.

Everyone loves Karazai and Krondys. Beautiful sculpts with compelling lore and super dope abilities, but they have a critical flaw that’s kept them from seeing much competitive play. 18 wounds, even on a 3+ save, is surprisingly easy to kill.

All too often your badass centerpiece model would get blown off the table in a single shooting/hero phase leaving you missing your key hammer. Several top players found an elegant solution to this: Praetors.

Praetors are a bodyguarding unit that sucks wounds away from your heroes, and Krondys/Karazai are indeed stormcast heroes. But even then, Praetors are slow, and your dragons are trying to fly about the battle wreaking havoc. So what are we to do to keep your dragons from being vulnerable once they’ve gone aggressive?

Well here is the really clever bit. By bringing along a lord relictor with translocation, you can teleport up those Praetors to remain in bodyguard range of your dragons.

“But once my dragon charges in those Praetors will be left 9″ out and won’t be up front with my hero!”

There is truth here, but also a really cool interaction.

Krondys and Karazai are on MASSIVE bases. Approximately 6.5 inches across. What this means is that even if your dragon charges into the fight, the back of their base will still be just 2.5″ away from the Praetors, allowing the bodyguards to stay out of the fight (where they might be targeted by opposing attacks leaving your dragon vulnerable) but still keep your dragons alive so they can rip the heart out of the enemy army.

If you’ve been wanting to field those 520 point terrors but haven’t been able to keep them alive, try this strategy out in your next game!

Aaron Newbom, Age of Sigmar, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Kruleboyz, Orruk Warclans, Tactics

Kruleboyz Tech: House Hopping

3 Comments

Following on from Aaron’s article last week on Big Waaagh stacks, this week, his gaze shifts to the Man-skewers of the Kruleboyz.

Kruleboyz, and more specifically Man-Skewer Bolt-Boyz, have had a critical weakness since launch.

Man-Skewers feature two shooting profiles on their warscroll, Aimed shot and Hasty shot. Aimed shot has a range of 24″, but unfortunately cannot be used if the unit has moved. What’s a Bolt-Boy to do if the opponent simply hangs out 24.1″ away? Cry? No, a true Swampboss is never bothered by nonsense like “playing fair” and “good and honest fighting”. Instead we are going to abuse poorly worded terrain rules in a proper Mork-y way.

Hopping in


Defensible terrain, also known as Garrisons, allows you to enter instead of a move action if you’re wholly within 6″ of the terrain. What’s important about this is that it does not count as moving. That means you still get to shoot a full 24″. Additionally, your range can be drawn from any point of the terrain piece, so all 9 of those big yellers bolt Boyz can draw from a 1mm point on the corner of a building. If the building is 6″ long, counting the hop in, you have extended your range by 10-12″ farther than your opponent expected.

Hopping out

Even better, hopping out doesn’t count as a move action either. When you leave a garrison, you only have to be within 6″, not wholly, meaning your range is further extended by 7″. Opponents hoping to hang outside your range can find themselves under heavy fire they didn’t expect and too far away to punish it.

This technique is excellent for sniping away supporting characters. The aimed shot is not exactly high damage, but it’s accurate and consistent, making it the perfect tool to pop 5-6 wound wizards and buff pieces. It’s also a great way to have your Bolt Boyz manoeuvre to contest objectives without giving up entire turns of shooting.

Finally, there is another big advantage to holding up in a den of destro sneakyness. Unleash hell can be drawn from any point setting up disgustingly powerful anti charge fire, and your Boyz are -1 to hit and +1 save while in that garrison. On top of that, you can exit a garrison even if tagged in combat and still shoot as it was neither a retreat nor a move. This really makes aggression into your juicy bits a lot less rewarding and much more heavily punished than it otherwise would be.

So get out there and pretend it’s 2006, flip some houses and rain green death on your enemies.

Games Workshop

Chat with the Champs: Playing Against Soulblight

1 Comment

Following on from last week’s article, I asked our resident pro AoS players how they approached their games against Soulblight Gravelords.

Nico Cavada 🇵🇭 (Maggotkin of Nurgle): I’d say the dragon, but being unrendable and it healing is insane. I guess if you can reliably do Mortal Wounds at a safe range I’d go for that first.

Justin Clark 🇦🇺 (Blades of Khorne): Yeah don’t bother grinding out against the big vamps, unfortunately. Drop them in 1 or chaff them up.

Fabien Barbusse 🇺🇲 (Blades of Khorne): Giving advice against SBGL is tricky because there are 3 subfactions that are performing very well and play quite differently:

  • Legion of Blood: more elite build with 3+ ethereal and a lot of heal for the monsters
  • Vyrkos: bodies spam with 5+ ward, just sitting on objectives
  • Legion of Night: teleport and counter charge shenanigans, usually with a lot of bodies as well

Raymond Lane 🇺🇲 (Maggotkin of Nurgle): Kill their heroes. Dent their movement and bile ins with bile piper or blight krieg. Plague claw and stench/geminids are amazing counters. Drones are the best demon choice into them.

Colin Klären 🇩🇪 (Nighthaunt/Nurgle/Sylvaneth): So, for me, I’ve played 5 Times against really good players with Soulblight and won all of them with Nurgle Glottkin, Belakor, Beasts of Nurgle spam and Sylvaneth Alarielle Winterleaf. I‘m playing armies which like to go against close combat armies because of abilities like no pile in, no retreat, counter charge, and so on, which is not only good against Soulblight. In my opinion, our whole meta shifts more to a combat meta with Soulblight, Khorne, OBR, FEC. Maybe there will be a change with Cities in November, but who knows 🤷🏽‍♂️.

Jeremy Lefebvre 🇺🇲 (Cities/Slaanesh): Kill the killable heros, and try to screen them out of objectives. Try not to get stuck in a grinding combat that is not on an objective, so if they want to stay on the objective, they have to stay in combat and risk losing the objective in the combat phase.

Lance Martin Tan 🇵🇭 (Ironjawz): The match-up for ironjawz isn’t great, but you can collapse on their deathrattle skeletons with the hunt and crush pile-in after to mitigate models from returning next combat phase.

Joshua Bennett 🇺🇲 (Slaanesh): For slaanesh it’s a fantastic matchup. Slaanesh has the speed and dps to be able to deal with the problems.

Keegan Graves 🇺🇲 (Skaven): For me, as a skaven player, I have the body count to contest the objectives against them. I use my guns and ranged mortal wounds to take out the heroes. That’s always the first priority. The second target is grave guard if possible. Clanrats and zombies will just slap each other on the objectives forever, and clanrats usually come out on top. The match-up usually just comes down to proper positioning and being ready to deal with the tricks SBGL brings.

Dalton Kahle 🇺🇲 (Gloomspite/Tzeentch): Goblins have the ability to outmaneuver them and still sit on objectives, I think Troggs will struggle slightly due to less speed, but they also have the damage output to put down a unit a turn of the small stuff, the dragon is where Troggs would struggle.

Aaron Newbom 🇺🇲 (Idoneth/Kruleboyz): I would say the most important thing to understand in terms of fighting SBGL is that they are, at heart, a board control army. They’re seeking to outscore you while you’re trying to grind through legions of dead dudes.

You have to play accordingly. You must be scoring points early. Playing too scared will lose you the game but so will being too aggressive

You’re almost definitely not going to kill enough of them to shut them down. Going super aggro will make it hard for you to stop them from stealing your objectives and steadily beating you on points. Playing too far back does much the same.

Play according to the knowledge that they want to hold board space over you.

There’s no one single trick, and every army is going to have to take that idea and apply it differently, but it’s a good place to start.

Jon Anderson 🇺🇲 (Idoneth/Lumineth): Pretty easy, play Lumineth. Bows? Wrong. Teclis? Straight to jail.

Luis Mendoza 🇲🇽 (Stormcast): Don’t charge to the zombies 😂.

Brett Martin 🇦🇺 (Woehammer Writer): For SCE, it’s Everblaze and/or Longstrikes to deal with long-range mortals. Judicators and Vigilors let everything get a little close. Holy command is as effective as ever. You can use it to reposition a unit away from their slower units. Knight Incantors can blunt their magic quite a bit, and lists with at least 2 should be pretty common.

Luis Mendoza 🇲🇽 (Stormcast): Also, resistant units combined with a solid ward are a good mix to face the inevitable combat with zombies. Position to block the graves is a good start.

Raymond Lane 🇺🇲 (Maggotkin of Nurgle): If you roll enough 5ups you’ll beat anyone and remember grandfather loves you

Walter Brock 🇺🇲 (Ossiarch Bonereapers): For OBR, they have a couple of nice things in their toolbelt. Arkhan casting a 12-inch bubble of no reserves or summons lets him lock down one objective for a bit of time. Arkhan, being good at spells, lets him do a good job of shutting down Soulblight spells. The Soulstealer carrion can stop zombies from contesting objectives when near it. The large amount of recursion lets them pretty much be immune to their zombie damage.

The hard part is when OBR fight them on a 4 or more objective mission. SBGL can play to places that OBR aren’t while being able to strongarm themselves onto objectives with bodies to get the points they need. It’s an uphill walk in the snow both ways, but they have the tools to get there with smart play and a bit of luck.

Peter Holland 🇬🇧 (Woeful Writer): There we have it! Want to ask our pros a question? Perhaps you want to ask a particular pro a question about their faction? Drop them in the comments below, and we’ll do our best to answer them.

Aaron Newbom, Age of Sigmar, Destruction, Fantasy, Games Workshop, Orruk Warclans, Tactics

Big Waaagh Tech: Waaagh stacks

1 Comment

Big Waaagh is an army that relies on building stacks of Waaagh Points, which slowly applies stacking buffs until every unit in your army becomes Big Green Murder Machines. There are many ways to generate Waaagh Points, from landing charges to heroic actions, and especially by having units stuck in at the end of combat.

That last method is what has created the technique known as Waaagh Stacks.

A Waaagh Stack is when several units (typically a screen and several heroes) are tightly confined near each other so that when you engage with one, you engage with them all. In most situations, this would do more harm than good—a single unit tying up multiple units (restricting their movement)—so what’s the benefit in doing this?

Two characters, less than 3″ from an Arboyz screen

The answer lies in Waaagh points and how critical they are to your army! For each of those units stuck at the end of the combat, you get an additional WP. Even if they can’t do damage (shamans, wurrgogs, etc.), they’re still stacking buffs for the rest of your army. The difference of 2-3 WP early game is huge, often reaching your powerful buffs a whole turn earlier, allowing you to take control of the game much sooner than your opponent might have expected.

Even outside of the early game, an early WAAAGH can be detrimental to your opponent. This technique has allowed me to hit full stacks, twice, in multiple combat-heavy games. Getting +1 to charge, cast, and hit at the top of round 2 instead of round 3 has cascading results as your army chops your opponent down instead of dawdling and trying to accumulate resources.

Many of the risks from the Waaagh Stack technique are mitigated by natural functions of the army. For example, Orruk characters tend to be pretty tough and fighty, so a few stray hits reaching over your screen are very unlikely to actually kill your units.

Additionally, mechanics like the Wurrgog stare and teleports from the Big Green Hand of Mork can get you unstuck and ready to fight on your own terms. This prevents your opponent from gaining a strategic advantage off of their plays while you reap the rewards.

Every small edge matters in a game of Age of Sigmar, so remember, Stay Stacked or Get Clapped.

Games Workshop

A Thought About Army Points and Committing Your Units in AoS

4 Comments

I’m currently in the early stages of developing a series of articles that do deep dives on individual warscrolls, in a very similar vein to some I did last year, but with more detail.

While doing some of the mathhammer behind these warscrolls I began to develop a couple of terms that I wanted to explain in detail.

Army Points Required (APR)

No, not that APR….

In this case we’re talking about the amount of points you would need to spend in the list creation stage to give yourself the ability to pull off certain synergies during the game.

For example, you may be wanting to create a Kruleboyz army which focusses on buffing the Venom-Encrusted Weapon ability of your Man-Skewers and Gutrippaz units. You’ve made the decision that you want two reinforced units of Skewers being buffed by a couple of Shamans so that instead of causing mortals on 6+ they cause them on 5+. For this the army points required would be:

  • Reinforced Man-Skewer unit (240)
  • Reinforced Man-Skewer unit (240)
  • Swampcalla Shaman (100)
  • Swampcalla Shaman (100)

That’s a total of 680 points you’re including in your list to pull of those synergies. This 680 points would be referred to as Army Points Required (APC)

Army Points Committed (APC)

No, not that APC…

There’s a limit of five turns in Age of Sigmar, where each turn your units may be doing different tasks. You may want your Shaman to buff some Man-Skewers with its poison ability to fire on some Endrinriggers in turn one . But turn two you may want that poison on your Gurippaz instead when they charge some Arkonauts?

Here’s where the difference comes in, each turn you’re committing a fifth of that units points value (Five turns in AoS) to completing its individual goal, in this case buffing either the Gutrippaz or the Skewers. In turn those units are committing their points value in carrying out their own goal.

Example

Turn 1, you decide you’ll use the Shaman’s Poison ability to give the Man-Skewers the chance to cause mortal wounds on 5+ instead of 6+. By doing so, you’re committing 20 points of your Shaman to do so (100/5 =20). The Man-Skewers fire at the Endrinriggers, in turn committing their points to do so (120/5=24). A total of 44 points have then been committed to destroying those 3 Endrinriggers worth 120 APR. You’re lucky and pluck 2 out of the air. That’s 80 points of Endrinriggers destroyed for a commitment of 44 points, not bad!

Turn 2, and you decide instead of buffing the Man-Skewers again. You’ll buff the Gutrippaz who’re going to charge some reinforced Arkonauts. So again, you’re committing a fifth of your shaman to the task (20 points) and a fifth of the Gutippaz points cost (150/5=30 points). Your APC is therefore going to be 50 points to try and whittle down the 200-point Arkonaut unit. You manage to kill a perfectly average 8 Arkonauts. You’ve removed 80 points by committing 50. It was not as good a trade as the Skewers earlier, but it was still positive.

Think Moneyball….