AoS Shorts: Your Essential Guide to Age of Sigmar

Skaven Battletome Review (Part 2)

The new Skaven battletome has reunited the clans and is likely to prove a defining moment for the future of Warhammer Age of Sigmar.  Skaven are unique Games Workshop IP and have always been at the core of the Warhammer world (literally and figuratively). Now they have properly been brought into Age of Sigmar with all the toys of Age of Sigmar Second Edition.  As we’ll see, there have been massive changes to both Skaven units’ warscrolls and the surrounding rules and abilities. This army has so many tools available to it that you will easily see it around the top tables at events.

In this post, we break down the book, the allegiance abilities, artefacts, spell lores, battalions and potential army builds.  All while picking out our favourite bits. This will only scratch the surface of the book and I’m sure I’ll need to come back and write more on the rats.  If you want a warscroll by warscroll breakdown you can check that out here. If you are interested in the other half of the Carrion Empire box-set, you can read my Flesh-Eater Courts battletome review.

Now I couldn’t have done this review without the informed help of two local Skaven experts – Aiden Nicol (unhealthily obsessed with Pestilens) and Julien Lestat (Skryre warlock and 2017 NZ Master).

And, as always, check out Dark Fantastic Mills for great 3D printed terrain perfect for wargaming.  Its super versatile and light so worldwide shipping is inexpensive. Use the “aos shorts” discount code for a further 10% off the already decent prices.

Age of Sigmar

Overall assessment on Skaven

So up to this point, Skaven armies at events have either been full Pestilens (having the benefit of a book, plagues and buffed up plague monks) or full Skryre pop-up mortal wound explosion.  That Skryre pop-up build is gone and the army is more balanced as a whole as a result.

What does new Skaven look like? Pure Pestilens is definitely viable and has increased in power,  mixed lists will be much more common and the army will gain the benefit of its new range of 2-cast spell casters.  Masterclan (the Verminlords, Thanquol and Grey Seers) are back with a vengeance and significantly powerful. I expect Skryre will now shift to long-range and support shooting sitting behind the walls of Clanrats and Plague Monks in suitable fashion (although I hear tales of Dan Brewer and Acolytes).

There are so many options in the Skaven book that I’m sure I can only scratch the surface in this review and I look forward to seeing what experienced players like Dan and others do once they have gnawed their way through the whole book and got games in.

The key quick points to note are:

  • The book has viable single clan armies as well as viable mixed clan army builds. Unsurprisingly, the battletome does not really have viable single-drop army builds, but you can get reasonably low.
  • Skaven are expected to have a defining impact on the meta.  The combination of spell-casting, long-range damage, brutal melee damage beasts, significant anti-horde capability and large numbers of bodies themselves mean current successful armies will need to adapt, and you will need to plan to face Skaven at events. Their specific ability will be the potential to neutralise the effectiveness of small buff characters that are so important to some of the top armies (such as Hags, Necromancers, Knight-Vexillor and Branchwraiths).
  • Thanquol is now an absolute combat beast against hordes with four warpfire throwers or an effective combined-arms force multiplier with joint shooting and combat options. The difficulty will be getting him in to or close to combat with full health and power.  However, he will be a massive threat and distraction piece at 400 points.
  • The Verminlord Corruptor is stand-out amazing.  At 260 points you get a highly mobile and deadly combat character for hero-on-hero/behemoth combats, a two-cast wizard with an anti-horde spell with substantial mortal wound output.  All other Verminlords are now much better. Which is awesome given how cool the models are.
  • Warp Lightning Cannons! ZZZZZAP! Points unchanged, more wounds and increased ability to do damage at 24″ with the risk of taking D3 mortal wounds back.
  • There are certain Skaven units which are no longer in the Skaven range.  In particular, the Deathrunner and the Poison Wind Mortar – both models are no longer produced for sale and no longer have profiles.  This reflects Games Workshop’s move to make the game more accessible for new players.
  • Another product direction is that unit rules  match the options available in their plastic kit.  For instance, you used to be able to equip Stormfiends within the same unit with identical weapon options, despite only one of each being available in the kit.  This led to people paying large amounts for spare parts for popular powerful options or custom-building their own to make up for the absence of parts in the kit.  Now the Stormfiends’ rules have changed so that you can only have one of each of the various options in the kit. This is main reason for the death of the Skryre pop-up build.

Allegiance abilities

In this section, we’ll go through the extensive options of the new Skaven battle and command traits.  There is now so much choice for a Skaven general.

Battle Traits

Battle traits are divided into two sections.  The first – the Teachings of the Horned Rat – comprises 4 traits/rules that apply to all Skaventide units.  The second – the Ways of the Great Clans –   comprises 6 traits/rules, one for each of the clan, which apply just to the units with the relevant clan keyword.  

While you will need units from that clan to use the rule, many of the rules have a wider, greater impact on your army.  For example, a single Grey Seer can generate extra command points using Skilled Manipulators from Masterclan, and a Plague Furnace will bring the Echoes of the Great Plagues to buff Clanrats. Therefore, there are incentives to taking a mixed clan Skaven force.

Teachings of the Horned Rat

The Teachings of the Horned Rat provide a collection of thematic rules for Skaven armies.  

  • Lead from the Back allows Skaventide heroes (that aren’t monsters) to benefit from Look Out Sir! In combat as well as from missile weapons.
  • Scurry Away allows Skaventide heroes to disengage from combat and retreat when they are activated in combat.
  • Overwhelming Mass gives units of 20 or more models +1 to hit and 30 or more models +1 to wound as well.
  • Strength in Numbers adds 2, instead of 1, to the Bravery characteristic of Skaven units for every 10 models in the unit.

Ways of the Great Clans

The Ways of the Great Clans are available for Masterclan, Moulder, Eshin, Verminus, Skryre and Pestilens units.  They work in a similar way to the battle traits in the Beasts of Chaos book in that clan units in a mixed clan Skaven army will still have the benefit of their battle traits.

  • Masterclan “Skilled Manipulators” – every time a Masterclan model uses a command point, on a 5+ you get an extra command point.
  • Moulder “Prized Creations” – at the start of the first battle round, each Master Moulder can pick a separate Hell Pit Abomination or Brood Horror and add D3 to its Wounds characteristic.  That monster can also re-roll hit rolls of 1 for its melee attacks.
  • Eshin “Masters of Murder” – your Eshin heroes can pick an enemy hero at the start of the battle and you get to re-roll wound rolls for all attacks made by any Clan Eshin unit against the chosen enemy hero.
  • Verminus “Mighty Warlords” – you can pick 1 unique command trait for each of up to 6 Clawlords (no doubling up your picks).
  • Skryre “Warpstone Sparks” – if you have Skryre heroes, you can generate D3+3 warpstone sparks at the start of the battle.  These can be used throughout the battle to do the following, however you can only use 1 spark per phase.
  • In the hero phase – re-roll casting, dispelling and unbinding rolls for a Skryre wizard until the end of the phase (useful for crucial times).  At the end of the phase, roll a dice and on a 1, the wizard takes D3 mortal wounds.
  • In the shooting phase – pick 3 different Skryre units within 13” of a Skryre hero.  Add 1 to the Damage characteristic of missile weapons used by those units until the end of the phase.  Again roll a dice at the end of the phase and on a 1 the hero takes D3 wounds.
  • In the combat phase – re-roll hit rolls for the Clan Skryre hero.  Again on a 1, D3 Mortal Wounds.
  • Pestilens “Echoes of the Great Plagues” – the Great Plagues are bonus effects that occur if the unmodified prayer roll for a Pestilens Priest is a 6.  If you roll a 6, you can pick 1 of the following Great Plagues (to be resolved in addition to the normal effects of the prayer). Each Great Plague can only happen once per game, and you can also only have one Great Plague per turn.
  • Bubonic Blightplague – sets off a chain of mortal wounds between nearby enemy units, jumping from one to the next.
  • Crimsonweal Curse – does 1 mortal wound a turn to the target unit, slowly chipping away at a key hero for instance.
  • Redmaw Plague – allows you to take over an enemy hero in certain circumstances and use it as your own until the end of the combat phase.
  • The Neverplague – re-roll prayer rolls for all Pestilens priests for the rest of the battle.
  • Undulant Scourge – pick an enemy unit and roll 1 dice per model in the unit, 5+s are mortal wounds.

Command Traits

Skaven generals have access to 3 common command traits.  In addition. there are 3 unique command traits available to each of the 6 Skaven clans.

The shared command traits are:

  • Re-roll wound rolls of 1 for the general’s melee attacks
  • An ability to bounce wounds or mortal wounds onto nearby Skaventide units
  • +1 to the Bravery characteristic of friendly Skaventide units wholly within 18” of the general

Of the unique command traits, my picks are:

  • MasterclanMaster of Magic: once per hero phase, add 1 to casting, dispelling or unbinding rolls for the general.  Although, the command point stealing and generation abilities are also attractive.
  • Skryre Overseer of Destruction:  At the start of your shooting phase, pick up to 3 friendly weapons teams wholly within 13” of the general.  Re-roll hit rolls for those units until the end of that phase. The Deranged Inventor does something similar but you select 1 Skryre unit (of any type).
  • Pestilens – Master of Rot and Ruin: Reroll all failed prayer rolls for the bearer. Pretty neat on a Verminlord if they have the Liber Bubonicus to let them pray. Pretty amazing on a Plague Furnace with Liber Bubonicus as they pray twice and reroll all fails.
  • Verminus Brutal Fury: Once per battle, at the start of the combat phase, you can add 3 to the Attacks characteristic of this general’s melee weapons until the start of that phase.
  • MoulderMoulder Supreme: When you use the Prized Creations battle trait and pick 1 friendly Clans Moulder Fighting Beat model for this general, you can either add 3 to that model’s Wound Characteristic, instead of D3, or add D6 instead of D3.  A nice little gamble there.
  • Eshin – All are pretty thematic.  Unrivalled Killer gives re-rolls to hit against the targeted hero, Incredible Agility which allows the general to fly and Shadowmaster allows the general to be invisible to units over 6” away if the general is hugging terrain.

Building a Skaven army

The Skaven book makes heavy use of the conditional “battleline if” formula for building armies.  Clanrats are generic battleline, Stormvermin are Skaventide battleline and then there are a range of other options depending on your army build.  However, most of these require you to pick an entire army from a single clan (no issue for Pestilens, bad for Eshin) with the only allowed exception being to take a Masterclan general.

  • Moulder: Giant Rats and Rat Ogors
  • Eshin: Gutter Runners and Night Runners
  • Pestilens: Plague Monks and Plague Censer Bearers
  • Skryre: Skryre Acolytes and Stormfiends

Artefacts

The Skaven battletome also has 6 artefacts available for each of the different clans.  These are unique to each clan and give you a massive 36 options to choose from. Note the artefacts are just dependant on the keyword of the hero, so you don’t need to have a full Pestilens army to put an artefact on a Plague Priest or an Eshin artefact on an Assassin.  Our picks are:

  • Masterclan – Suspicious Stone: a wound and mortal wound save on a 5+ for a series of units who already have something similar, turning your average Screaming Bell into a mobile fortress. The Verminlord Warpseer will be a tank.
  • Skryre – Vigordust Injector: Pick a SKAVENTIDE unit wholly within 12”, it adds 1 to all hit and charge rolls this turn, at the cost of d3 mortal wounds at the start of your next hero phase. This bad boy is a returner with a tweak, it used to only target SKRYRE units. Now this can hit Plague Monks, Rat Ogors and even other Verminlords. Cheeky.
  • Pestilens – Blistrevous, the Living Cyst: Add 2” to the bearer’s move, and reroll all failed hit rolls. From the second battle round onwards, it shifts to any Pestilens hero within 13”, even if that hero already has an artefact. Verminlord Corruptor with Sword of Judgement being passed this little trinket by a Plague Priest at the start of turn 2? It’s more likely than you think.
  • Verminus – Rustcursed Armour: Reroll save rolls of 1 for the bearer. Furthermore, if an enemy hero within 3” of the bearer at the start of the combat phase has an artefact of power you can roll 3D6. On a 13 that artefact is destroyed and its effects are lost for the rest of the game. Neat on a Verminlord Warbringer, who will have many heroes equipped with artefacts being sent to try and manage him (regardless of how slim your chance of actually rolling that 13 is (9.7%)).
  • Moulder – Snap-Snap Snarepole: Start of each combat phase, pick an enemy model within 3” of the bearer. That combat phase they subtract 1 from hit rolls. Good for managing hero and behemoth models, just remember you can’t hit a whole unit with it.
  • Eshin – Gnawbomb: Pick a terrain feature within 6” of the bearer. Until the next hero phase it gains all the scenery rules of the Gnawhole Skaven terrain in addition to its own rules.

There are also a myriad of Realm artefacts which will be useful for Skaven armies and I’m sure many great combinations to be had. Unfortunately, given the amount of information in the Skaven book, I just haven’t had a chance to sit down and crunch through it.


Spell Lores

Skaven have a total of 9 spells available to the army, as well as 3 Skaven Endless Spells. There are 6 spells of Ruin.  These are exclusive to models with the Grey Seer keyword, while the spells of Warpvolt Galvanism are exclusive to Clan Skryre. Our picks of the bunch are:

Lore of Ruin (Grey Seers)

The Lore of Ruin is just so good it is hard to pick!  However, they are mainly short range (one at 6”, 4 at 13” and 1 at 26”) so you need to make sure your Grey Seers are in the right positions and well-protected (or able to Gnawhole away to safety).

  • Skitterleap: The iconic Verminlord Deceiver spell can now be taken by any Grey Seer, though it’s had some tweaks.  It’s cast on a 6 and you can pick 1 friendly Skaventide hero (with a Wounds characteristic of 12 or less, yes Verminlord, no Thanquol) within 13” of the caster and visible to them.  Remove that hero and re-set-up the hero anywhere on the battlefield more than 9” away from the enemy. Still so useful.
  • Death Frenzy: Cast on a 7 (not hard in Skaven).  Pick a friendly unit within 13” and, until your next hero phase, when a model in that unit dies (from anything, combat, shooting, magice etc) that model can immediately pile in and attack.  Incredibly useful for units like Plague Monks with a lot of attacks but that will die in droves due to a weak save.
  • Both Scorch (cast on a 5) and Plague (on a 7) can do great damage to hordes.  For both spells you pick an enemy unit within 13” and roll a dice for each model in the unit.  With Scorch, 6s are mortal wounds, with Plague 5+s are.
  • Finally, Warpgale (8 to cast) has a great range (26”) and allows you to do D3 mortal wounds to a unit, but more importantly any run or charge rolls for that unit are halved until your next hero phase.  AND the unit can no longer fly. Bam!

Lore of Warpvolt Galvanism (Skryre Wizard)

In the Skryre lore, my favourites are:

  • Chain Warp Lightning (cast on 6): D6 Units within 18” take 1 mortal wound. Fantastic for spreading mortal wounds across a large amount of mass units and heroes.
  • More-more-more Warp Power (cast on a 7):  If successfully cast, pick 1 friendly Skryre unit wholly within 12 of the caster that they can see.  Re-rpoll hit and wound rolls for that unit until your next hero phase. That unit takes D3 mortal wounds at the end of your next hero phase.  Great for when you really need something to die and you need your Skryre warmachine to work!

Skaven Endless Spells

As with all new books, Skaven got three race-specific Endless Spells: Vermintide (a predatory board control wall which Skaven units can ignore), Warp Lightning Vortex (mortal wounds and movement restriction) and Bell of Doom (an Inspiring Presence bubble that might occasionally do some mortal wounds).

Both Vermintide and Bell of Doom look great value at 40 points.  The Vermintide offers you a lot of movement control and some cheeky mortal wound output to enemy units (with no risk of getting hurt yourself).   The Bell of Doom covers a gap in the Clan Verminus and Clan Moulder lists by giving battleshock protection. Other clans have their own ways of mitigating bravery or are too mobile to make effective use if the Bell.  At 100 points, I had initially dismissed the Warp Lightning Vortex – however, several people I trust have suggested I reconsider. Seems it may be quite viable even at 100 points.

Generic Endless Spells

If we have a quick look at which generic Endless Spells will benefit Skaven armies.

  • Spell Portal will help with overcoming the generally short range of Skaven spells (like Dreaded Thirteenth Spell)
  • Aethervoid Pendulum is always a good pick for damage output with little downside (and thanks to casting buffs inside the Skaven army will not be too hard to cast)
  • Chronomantic Cogs will help those big blocks of Skaven get across the board quickly to establish board control.
  • Geminids complements the armies ability to threaten low wound buff models from other armies as well as the always reliable -1 to hit.

Gnawholes

Movement in Age of Sigmar is arguably the most important of all attributes.  Gnawholes are the Skaven race-specific terrain piece and they come in threes.  They are tunnels through reality that allow Skaven units to move around the Realms, and now the tabletop. They provide Skaven with board control and presence potential.

Setting up Gnawholes

After territories have been chosen but before armies are set up, you can set up your Gnawholes:

  • wholly within 8” of the battlefield
  • more than 3” away from enemy units or objectives
  • more than 1” away from any other terrain features

If both players can set up army-specific terrain, then you roll off and the winner chooses the order that the terrain is set up.

How Gnawholes work

At the start of your movement phase, you can use one Gnawhole to transport 1 friendly Skaventide unit.  That transported unit must be wholly within 6” of the Gnawhole, and a friendly Skaventide hero must also be within 6” of the Gnawhole.  You can then set up the transported unit wholly within 6” of a different Gnawhole and more than 9” away from enemy units. That counts as the move for the transporting unit in that movement phase.

The Gnawholes also count as Arcane for Skaventide units (useful for all the Skaven casting) and also add 1 to the prayer rolls for Skaventide priests. Enemy units count them as Deadly terrain.

Making the most of Gnawholes

Given the set-up restrictions on Gnawholes, I expect we will see people using Gnawholes in their own backfield in order to support their own casting and move crucial support heroes where they are needed late game.  You could place one in your enemy’s deployment zone in order to divert some of their resources to keep it occupied. Finally, there is an Eshin artefact (the Gnawbomb) that allows you to turn another piece of normal terrain into a Gnawhole.  This would allow you to create a Gnawhole nearer to the centre of the board and objectives.


Skaven Clan Run-down

Ok, now let’s check in with each of the Skaven clans and how they are sitting with the new battletome.

Clan Pestilens

The dark mirror of Clan Verminus, Pestilens is a horde army that trades the durability and discipline of the warlord clans for total destructive power at the cost of basically no survivability. Powerful support heroes back up a swarm of cheap bodies that with the right support can put out more damage than anything else in the book. An army not for the faint of heart, Pestilens rewards a willingness to commit 100% to every engagement just as well as it punishes any attempt at restraint. The Clans Pestilens are willing to pay for their victories with the blood of every last rat to don the cloth, the Great Corruptor cherishes no soul that does not fall to him in the pursuit of bringing about the Final Rotting. A Pestilens army can take many forms, but against them one can expect to see large Plague Furnaces surrounded by Plague Monks pushing them into combat, their support Plague Priests running up alongside the rest of the army keen to bring their deadly plague magic to bear.

Clan Moulder

Skaven artwork often depicts the Skaven soldiery fighting even as they half-wade through a tide of mutated rats swarming down across the enemy. You know have the power to BE that horrifying horde of biological monstrosities. Forged in the disgusting lairs of twisted scientists freed from petty mortal constraints of right and wrong, terrible creations of flesh, blood and warpstone drag themselves from the hell-pits to lay waste to the Mortal Realms in the service of the highest bidder. A Moulder army is all about swarming the table with cheap annoying rats while your hulking abominations march across the table, whipped into battle by Master Moulders and their Packmaster subordinates who oversee their twisted creation’s devastating effectiveness in battle… from a safe distance.

Clan Moulder is now a viable standalone army should you wish to run a tide of mutated rats at the enemy.

Clan Verminus

While bravery and discipline are rarer than honor and integrity in the dark places under the earth, rats have ran in packs for longer than even the Skaven have walked on two legs. Clan Verminus make use of that self-same mentality, massing Skaven into rank and file and putting their fragile pack mentality to deadly use. Ferocious Clawlords herd ranks of ill-equipped Clanrat infantry into the enemy, goaded on by the lethal Stormvermin elite and watched for signs of cowardice by their Verminlord Warbringer masters, horrifying rat-warlords from beyond the veil of reality and sanity. An army given to large numbers of quality (as far as one expects from a rat in rusted armor) infantry, Clan Verminus fight always in close combat, their abilities favoring mass charges like the Clans Pestilens, but with a dogged sense of self preservation that will see them cut and run to more favorable engagements with the turn of the tide. Discretion as ever, is the better part of valor.

Clan Skryre

Skaven with a predilection for fearsome displays of technological supremacy, Clan Skryre are just at home spraying the enemy at range with scintillating magical fire that consumes all in it’s path as they are driving enormous weaponized wheels directly into the thick of combat. Less given to enormous hordes, Skryre’s “infantry” are hulking monsters armed with the most deadly technology possible and well armed bombardiers armed with toxic gasses. A Skryre army trades numbers for overwhelming firepower and nightmarish shock infantry. Playing Skryre is all about embracing the “shock and awe” of mad science, embracing the fact that you are likely to lay half as much devastation at your own feet as you do the enemy, with most Skryre units having the ability to massively overload their potential… with no small risk. But the lives of rats are cheap, and there is always more besides. The Skryre Arch-Warlocks know that no life (save their own) is priceless in the cause of ultimate victory and discovery.

Clan Eshin

Striking from the shadows to lay the heads of the enemy at the feet of their allies, the Clans Eshin are the masters of the shadowed way, the skitterleap, and the blades in the dark. Favoring a unique playstyle that values hit and run combat and heroes ambushing from the centre of seemingly diminutive ranks of infantry to sink as many throwing stars, knives and punch daggers as possible into the enemy general before disappearing into the shadows. An Eshin army fights on the move, hurling waves of throwing weapons and harassing the enemy until they are ready to close the distance and cut the head from the enemy army in one sweep.


Potential Skaven Army Builds

The Skaven army presents a number of viable options for budding Skaven generals – whether magic heavy, Moulder rat swarms, Pestilens Plague Monk combat and magic builds, or straight mixed arms armies which can do a bit of everything.  I’m not going to try and prescribe or pick any of these as a winner at this stage (unlike with the Flesh-Eater Courts book where I felt more comfortable to make a call). However, there are a number of viable components which we can go through.  

Skaven Battalions

The Skaven battletome has 8 battalions in it.  There is a large mega battalion for Clan Pestilens (made up of 2-3 smaller battalions) and other battalions for Skryre, Verminus, Moulder and Eshin (similar to the old large scale Clawpack battalions).  Skryre’s battalion is unique in that it allows you to choose 2-5 Enginecovens (collections of Skryre units) to unlock certain Skryre abilities. As such, the battalions are all frameworks for building armies around for players interested in (largely) focusing on a single clan.

While these battalions fit a rather large number of units, comparatively to other recent books, they are light on heroes.  And Skaven armies need support heroes to maximise the ability and efficiency of the main units. Therefore, I expect Skaven armies will be low-drop, but there won’t be any easy one-drop armies around.  One-drop armies are truly a thing of the past (just wait for the next Sylvaneth battletome).

Some likely popular battalions are Clawhorde, Congregation of Filth and the Fleshmeld Menagerie.

Clawhorde

If you are willing to paint a lot, lot, lot of models (it’s a lot), this is for you. The quintessential Clan Verminus battalion takes a Clawlord, some Stormvermin, and more Clanrats than one could shake a Thing-Catcher at. The bonus for this is that the Clawlord’s command ability affects all eligible units within range of it, rather than just one. This battalion will turn your Verminus army from a 15 drop list to a 5 or 6 drop list, nothing to shrug at and create a solid bunker which, if equipped and marshalled properly, won’t care about battleshock.

Congregation of Filth

The mainstay Pestilens battalion before the book, and so it remains. A Plague Furnace accompanied by at least two Plague Monk units confers each unit with a 6+ ward save for staying within 18” of the Furnace. Monks need all the durability they can get, and with the Battalion specifying no limit on Plague Monk units… go wild.

Fleshmeld Menagerie

This basically allows a bold Moulder player to One-Drop their army and enhance their Master Moulder’s potent command ability.  You can use the command ability once per phase when a friendly CLANS MOULDER PACK unit is destroyed. Roll a dice and on a 5+ a new unit identical to the one destroyed is added to your army.  Set up the new unit wholly within your territory and wholly within 6” of the edge of the battlefield, more than 9” away from the enemy. In the battalion, you get a new unit on a 4+ instead.

Top Artefact + Trait combos

What follows is some combinations of units, artefacts and abilities that jump out of the page.  There are others and this is no way intended to be comprehensive. Partly this is due to familiarity.  I expect there are some awfully nasty things you can still do with Skryre and Warp-Lightning Cannons.

Verminlord Warpseer with Suspicious Stone and Supreme Manipulator

  • Has a rerollable 4+ armor save, a 5+ save against wounds and mortal wounds, and a further 5+ save against wounds and mortal wounds. Good luck getting through all that.
  • Farms command points, generating an extra one per turn on a 3+ or d3 on a 6.
  • The extra command points he earns can be spent on his amazing command ability.  At the start of the battleshock phase, you do not take battleshock tests for friendly Skaven units while they are wholly within 26” of the Warpseer in that phase.
  • Then on a rerollable 5+ he gets the command point back for other command abilities to make use of after him.
  • 260pts nets you all of the above plus his unique spell (which does mortal wounds and halves enemy run and charge rolls and prevents flying units from flying), two spellcasts, powerful close combat and a once-per-game d6 mortal wound attack.

Verminlord Corruptor with Sword of Judgement and Verminous Valor

  • Every 6 to hit inflicts 1+D6 mortal wounds, and he rerolls all fails with his command ability active.
  • 12” move undamaged means he can easily close distance to get to targets.
  • Verminous Valor ensures the enemy can’t shave him down too easily as was the case pre-battletome.
  • 260pts is a steal for the most deadly character in the game for hero-on-hero/behemoth combat.
  • Also has two casts and an anti-horde spell to stop him getting bogged down.

Plague Furnace with Liber Bubonicus and Master of Rot and Ruin

  • Prays twice, rerolls all fails.
  • Has access to all four of the prayers available to the various priests.
  • Confers battleshock immunity to nearby Skaven while enhancing them with support prayers and laying the pain on the enemy at range.
  • Ploughs into something and hits it with a MINIMUM of 5 mortal wounds.

Warpfire Throwers

One other thing that I think we will see is groups of Warpfire thrower weapons teams wrapped up in Clanrat units for a shield.  The Warpfire throwers can then get nice and close before unleashing their very powerful short range damage. Ratling guns also have a lot of potential attack output, but suffer from a bit higher price point.

Allies and Forgeworld

Finally, let’s have a look at the Skaven allies and options hidden away over on the Forgeworld website. The Clawlord on Brood Horror, Brood Horror and Wolf Rats all remain unchanged outside of receiving the appropriate keywords. The Clawlord on Brood Horror is essentially an ordinary Clawlord but with the attack profile of the Brood Horror and healing profile to boot added, making him a powerful Clan Verminus general. The Brood Horror without the rider has the FIGHTING BEAST keyword for the Moulder allegiance, which makes it potentially even MORE survivable than it was beforehand, and Wolf Rats remain their blisteringly quick and hard hitting selves. The Forgeworld Moulder units embody the lore of the clan itself, you can have the most powerful and twisted monsters to ever walk the mortal realms… for the right price.

Skaventide can take Nurgle allies if the Skaven general is from Clan Pestilens, though the efficiency of this has been somewhat clipped now that Clan Pestilens can get powerful casters simply by taking a Masterclan wizard as the general. Niche options remain like using Epidemius to enhance the effectiveness of Plagueclaw catapults, but the trade-off is not being able to take incredibly powerful wizards like Thanquol and the Verminlord Warpseer.  It seems to me that the need for allying in Nurgle units is now gone.


It has been an incredible whirlwind of two days to try and read and digest two new battletomes for Age of Sigmar.  I hope these reviews are useful and I’ll come back to revisit both these books in a few months time.

Gloomspite Gitz Review: Part 3 – Synergies

Hi all, just a quick Gloomspite Gitz post while I am on the way to CanCon – the world’s largest AoS event ever at 200+ players! When I started my Gloomspite Gitz coverage, I said I would have a series of posts covering different aspects of the battletome. Now I’ve already covered the Top 10 and Allegiance Abilites, but today I have the synergies.


Gloomspite Gitz Synergies

Last week, I joined Vince and Tom on Warhammer Weekly (the best Age of Sigmar YouTube channel) to talk all bout Gloomspite Gitz synergies, combos and army builds. Check out the show here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsACcIRFTZg

I’ll return to add some bullet points about what we covered in the show after CanCon.

Masterclass: Ben Savva on Daughters of Khaine

Hey everyone, welcome to another Masterclass show.  Ben Savva joins the show to talk Daughters of Khaine, list-writing, strategy, the GT finals and Realm Rules.  Ben recently won the Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament Grand Final in the UK, won Angelcore, and will soon be in the top 5 of the UK rankings.  Check out the Grand Final and Angelcore coverage for more details.

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I’ll add more pics of Ben’s army shortly, as well as links to his upcoming appearances on The Honest Wargamer and Warhammer Weekly when they happen.

#sohotrightnow

Angelcore
Ben Savva – DoK

Masterclass

And, finally, as always, check out Dark Fantastic Mills for great 3D printed terrain perfect for wargaming.  Its super versatile and light so worldwide shipping is inexpensive.  Use the “aos shorts” discount code for a further 10% off the already decent prices.

Age of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar FAQs Round-up

Hey all, on 24 July Games Workshop released the latest round of Age of Sigmar FAQs, errata and commentary for Warhammer Age of Sigmar Second Edition.  These FAQs are comprehensive – over 50 PDF files for each of the main books, expansions, & factions.  To make it easier to digest, I’ve compiled all the current Age of Sigmar FAQs into one single PDF that is text-searchable and bookmarked so you can jump to the file you need.

While the suite of FAQs was released on Second Edition launch day at the end of June, the FAQs have now been updated to address a small number of negative play experiences which emerged in the first month of the new edition.  In short, the most recent FAQs fix the emerging problems.  In this post and podcast episode, I cover the main things you need to know from the 24 July FAQs.

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Before I get to the blog post, I just want to mention that Dark Fantastic Mills, the top 3D printed terrain and trophies is partnering with AoS Shorts.  Dark Fantastic Mills produce amazing terrain, perfect for Age of Sigmar, in five main ranges – Basilisk Wastes (Metal), Immortal Realms, Death Temple, Giant Fungi and Flora and Savage Realm.  I’ll have some video reviews up soon, but in the mean time, check out the site, follow them on Twitter, and you can use the discount code “aos shorts” to get a further 10% off and also support the show.

Age of Sigmar


Age of Sigmar FAQs

As I mentioned in the introduction, I’m not going to go through everything you need to know in all the FAQs, just the most recent changes on 24 July.  The Age of Sigmar FAQs are split into errata (normally changes to scrolls) and designer commentary (answers to questions) and cover 50+ different files.  If you want a full rundown I highly recommended checking out Warhammer Weekly on YouTube, who have done deep-dive sessions on all the FAQs.

The current FAQs have removed a number of negative play experiences that emerged at the Age of Sigmar Six Nations where particular rules mechanics and combinations were pushed beyond what was probably intended.  The most obvious talking points were command ability stacking, the power of Lord Kroak, and the obvious strength of some of the Endless Spells and Malign Sorcery artefacts which created “auto-include” choices.   These have all been addressed.

Command ability stacking

With the new edition of Age of Sigmar, there is much more freedom to use command abilities – you are no longer limited to just using your general’s ability and have a new resource of command points to spend.  Its an enjoyable new mechanic but a couple of things slipped through whereby you could produce absurd results by stacking the same command ability multiple times on the same unit.  This issue has been dealt with by either:

  •  completely rewriting the ability (see Grot Warboss);
  • limiting the ability so that it can’t be used on the same target more than once in the same turn; or
  • limiting the ability so that it can only be used once a turn.

Malign Sorcery

Let’s start with the early auto choices in Malign Sorcery – Banishment, Lens and Portal.  They have all been tweaked to try to make them playable, but not super powerful.

  • Banishment (Hysh spell)
    • Old Rule – Cast on 8 – pick an enemy unit within 12” of the caster that is visible to them. Remove that unit from the battlefield and set it up again on the battlefield, more than 9” from any models from the caster’s army and more than 24” from the caster
    • New Rule – still 8 and 12” but now opponent must remove it and set it up again more than 24 and 9” away– opponent picks where unit goes.  Still useful for forcing units off objectives or out of combat
  • Lens of Refraction (Hysh artefact)
    • Old Rule – Each time a friendly unit within 6” of the bearer would suffer any mortal wounds from a spell cast by an enemy wizard roll a d3 and reduce the number of mortal wounds suffered by the result.  Basically you could make a large portion of your army immune to magic.
    • New Rule – once per battle round the first time a friendly unit within 6” suffers any mortal wounds, roll a D3 and reduce number of mortal wounds suffered by the result
  • Portal (Endless Spell)
    • you can only cast through the Portal once per phase – no more spamming large numbers of spells through the portal; and
    • Endless spells can’t go back and forth or move again once sent through the portal. 

Other important changes and points to note with Endless Spells are:

  • in order to cast an Endless Spell you need to know the spell and pay the points for it in your army list – no stealing from others;
  • range buffs don’t increase the range in which Endless Spells can be set-up;
  • you can’t set-up an Endless Spell for the first time through a Portal (or use any other way of changing where the spell is set-up from)
  • Geminids no longer can affect the same unit if you move both of the pieces over the same target
  • Mortahi’s Iron Heart of Khaine doesn’t work against Endless Spells when they move at the beginning of the battleround;
  • unbinding distances are measured to the caster.

Lord Kroak

Lord Kroak received a lot of press in the first month of Age of Sigmar Second Edition because he was able to easily do 50-100 mortal wounds in a single magic phase.  This high damage output was because he can cast his Celestial Deliverance spell up to three times (warscroll rules trump core rules) and had several ways to increase his chances of casting (command ability re-rolls and Astrolith Bearer) and his range (balewind and portal).  All these elements have now been tweaked:

  • Celestial Deliverance is now harder to cast (8, 9, 10), hits fewer units, in a shorter range and with less damage;
  • Kroak’s command ability generates command points now instead of re-rolls; and
  • Astrolith Bearer ability doesn’t stack.

Sylvaneth Wyldwoods and Double-Pinning

Before rounding out the rest of the changes, it is important to highlight two points which have caused a large debate out of these latest Age of Sigmar FAQs.

  • Sylvaneth Wyldwoods now block line of sight (relevant for shooting and magic) unless the units concerned fly.
  • Double-Pinning: If a model is equidistant from two enemy models (for example, two enemy models in base contact) it must remain equidistant or more closer to both models when piling in.

The Wyldwood change fits from a verisimilitude perspective but gives the Sylvaneth player the ability (against some armies) to screen off parts of the board or camp on objectives.  This ability is naturally limited however by the amount of terrain pieces on the table.  A well-populated table will not allow a large number of places for Wyldwoods to go.

On double-pinning, I like the change for base contact in combat, I don’t like it if (*not if, when) people create equidistant crescents around an enemy model to pin it in place from 3″ away (safely out of the reach of its weapons).  Check out this Warhammer Weekly episode for a fuller discussion.

Other Age of Sigmar FAQs points to note

Some other Age of Sigmar FAQs points to note are:

Army-building and Allies

  • its now clear that if you have a “Battleline if” unit which is conditional on your army being a particular allegiance, you cannot use other allegiance ability (for instance, using Judicators as Battleline you can’t use the Order abilities);
  • Allies has now been defined as any unit that doesn’t have the keyword of the army’s allegiance (excluding Endless Spells and Scenery).  This means it is now super clear that units included in mixed-faction battalions from outside the main faction don’t get spells, artefacts etc.  However, these units don’t count towards the ally limits in matched play;
  • the Everchosen battalions (Plaguetouched, Fatesworn etc) no longer will be seen in Nurgle, Tzeentch, Khorne or Slannesh matched play lists at 2,000 points because the battalion and all its units count as allies;

Scenarios

  • Named characters don’t have artefacts for rules purposes (so non-wizard named characters can’t capture objectives in two of the GHB18 scenarios);
  • The Places of Arcane Power scenario has been changed so that the hero or wizard has to stay near the objective to hold it and can’t just capture it and move away.

Death

  • Curse of Years auto wipes a unit when the roll gets down to 1 but mortal wound saves are allowed against damage from Curse of Years

Order

  • Deepkin ships can no longer be placed within 6″ of an objective or closer than 6″ from another shipwreck.  So no building walls any more but you now get to place them after territories are decided to compensate.
  • Seraphon – Rippers are now D3 additional hits (but don’t generate further hits after that).
  • Seraphon – Engine of the Gods edited to make sure summoned units can’t move after they are summoned.
  • Seraphon – Starseer “guess the number of re-rolls” game has now been removed and the new command ability just generates command points.
  • Stormcast – Evocators get Lore of Invigoration and the command abilities for Anvils of Heldenhammer, Celestial Vindicators and Hammers of Sigmar have all been amended to stop stacking abuse.

Correction – on the podcast I said that Tzeentch and Khorne can now mix-and-match artefacts between daemons, mortals etc.  They can’t.  Sorry.

Age of Sigmar

Age of Sigmar Second Edition Matched Play Preview Video

Hi all, today I’m lucky enough to be able to bring you an initial preview video  of Age of Sigmar Second Edition – the Core Book and Malign Sorcery.  In this video, I cover the new things that we learn about Age of Sigmar matched play from the Soul Wars Core Book and Malign Sorcery – what’s changed, what books do you need to pre-order etc.  

There are two initial provisos to give important context to the video:

  • this video was recorded on Friday 15 June and is based on the Core Book and Malign Sorcery.  I do not have a copy of General’s Handbook 2018 – which is obviously a vital tool for Matched Play.  However, there is still lots of good new information on Age of Sigmar matched play in the Core Book and Malign Sorcery;
  • there has been a deluge of content from Games Workshop, and the community, over the last few days in particular.  I couldn’t possibly cover it all in a (relatively) short video.  For a full run-down of all the key changes with Age of Sigmar Second Edition, check out my compilation page and the Facehammer podcast’s Core Rules review.

I recorded the preview at Vagabond Games in Auckland, New Zealand.  If you are a local player, check out Vagabond at www.vagabond.co.nz, www.livewiregames.co.nz and in their central city store for all your Age of Sigmar Second Edition needs.

Given this was my first video recorded on location, there is a little bit of rustle and background noise about two minutes from the end of the video., but hopefully its not dramatic  The winds of magic must have started stirring with all the talk of Malign Sorcery.  Enjoy and let me know any feedback you have, either through the website or at @AoS_Shorts on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Initial impressions on Age of Sigmar Second Edition and Malign Sorcery

Before I dive in, I do want to give my overall impressions:

  • Aesthetic and design choice
    • Clean – removing exceptions to rules, streamlining, clarity of thought with rules
    • Maturity – coming of age – confidence

What is in the Age of Sigmar Second Edition books?

  • Core Book
    • Rules for Open Play, Narrative Play, and Matched Play Rules
    • 18 page Core Rules (also in separate book in box and available free online)
    • Battle Strategies – add VPs
    • Conquest Unbound
      • Allegiance abilities for the four Grand Alliances
      • Realms of Battle Rules for seven of the Realms – Aqshy, Chamon, Ghur, Ghyran, Hysh, Shyish and Ulgu
      • Endless Spells
  • Malign Sorcery
    • Endless Spells
    • Skirmish at the Realm’s Edge and Path to Glory at the Realm’s Edge
    • Spells of the Realms
    • Artefacts of the Realms
    • Two new pitched battle battleplans
  • General’s Handbook 2018
    • Points (although on Warscroll Builder)
    • Warscroll changes – Gaunt Summoner, Horrors, Great Bray, vortex beast, Lord Skreech, Screaming Bell, Everqueen, branchwraith etc
    • Summoning rules
    • 6 new matched play battleplans
    • 6 reprinted and tweaked GHB2017 matched play battleplans
  • Errata
    • Errata online at day 1 covering warscroll changes.

So what books do you need for Age of SIgmar Second Edition?

  • Probably all three – if you aren’t using realm rules, then you won’t need Malign Sorcery for realm spells, but you could still need it for artefacts (subject to the house rules of any event and General’s Handbook 2018).
  • Folded some in, but still a bit of a missed opportunity

The Realms – How they impact games of Age of Sigmar Second Edition

  • Realms of Battle Rules are Optional – You can pick a realm for the battle – if you are using
  • If you can’t agree, roll-off and winner decides
  • Realms also contain Regions of War (sub-areas which may have unique rules)

Realm of Battle Rules

  • Realmsphere Magic – each wizard knows an additional realm-specific spell (different from the spell lores in Malign Sorcery).
  • Realm Commands – each HERO can use the realm command abilities in addition to the command abilities they are not normally allowed to use.
  • Realmscape Features – the person who chose the realm can roll a D6 to generate the realmscape feature

Malign Sorcery Realm Rules

  • Realm Artefacts
    • After choosing the allegiance for your army, you can decide it is from a specific realm – if you do, you can select any of your artefacts from either list – THEREFORE allied heroes can’t be given a realm artefact.
  • Spell Lores
    • IF you are in a Realm, each wizard knows ALL of the appropriate realm spells!

Core Rules

  • What’s inside?
    • Rounds
    • Attacking
    • Wizards
    • Triumphs
    • Terrain (including obstacles and garrisons)
    • Rules about battleplans – OBJECTIVES
    • Warscrolls rules – characteristics, saves of -, abilities (rules of one for exploding attacks folded in)
    • Warscroll battalions
    • Realm of Battle Rules
    • Allegiance Abilities
      • Battle Traits
      • Command Traits
      • Artefacts of Power
      • Spell Lores
      • Unique Abilities
  • Rules of one folded into core rules – if you get an extra attack on a 6, you don’t generate another attack after that.
  • 6” vertical coherency
  • Cover – no cover for monsters or war machines with wounds characteristic higher than 8

Writing a list in Age of SIgmar Second Edition

  • Pitched battle chart the same.
  • Everything goes on the list.
  • Can’t nominate a new general if general dies during game.
  • Battalions
    • set up some or all at the same time – now clearer than before, but no restriction on how you drop – could drip feed and then drop all in one go.
  • Artefacts – rule of one built in.
  • Allies – clarification
  • References to 1 in 4 units vs 25%
  • Cant be general and cannot use or benefit from allegiance abilities 
  • Reinforcements can be allies
  • Mixed faction battalions – the units count as allies, but do not count against the allies limits.  So now you can’t rely on a liberator unit in a shadowhammer force as a battleline unit?  We will see.

Hero Phase

  • Command abilities – allies can use.  No limit on multiple of the same ability (unless new rule of one in GHB).

Magic

  • Magic – rule of one for spells now in core rules
  • Dynamic of dispelling and unbinding now real

Endless Spells – how do they work?

  • How paid for?
    • All wizards know the spell
    • Matched Play – Can’t have two of the same Endless Spell
  • How cast and unbound?
    • One Endless Spell cast per wizard per turn
    • If you can’t set it up it doesn’t work.
    • Can’t be affected by abilities
  • How many can you have at once on the table?
    • One of each per side
  • How dispelled in subsequent turns?
    • Dispell – no modifiers, just beat casting value – 8 for Purple Sun
    • Cross a battlefield edge
    • A method on warscroll is used to remove it from play (not all of them have a way)
    • Can you dispel yourself and cast again?
  • If dispelled can it be recast without paying points?
    • Yes
  • How do they move?
    • Start of battleround, alternate players choosing
  • Comment
    • Impact on Bravery debuff lists – LoN, Endless, Spell portals
    • Blob to protect your heros – with LoS and with spells

Attacking

  • Shooting – chaffing up and shoot order is important
  • Multiple weapons – controlling player chooses order – used to be roll all at once but occurred at the same time – now is that you resolve separately

Combat Phase

  • Combat
    • Pile in – tagging on both sides and then can’t move
    • Pick or Pass
      • Pick or pass (can’t pass if eligible unit able to fight – i.e. is within 3” or made a charge – no more refusing to fight)
      • If pass – do nothing and option goes back to opponent
      • If both players pass then phase ends
    • Passing? Indicating abilities in future?
      • Hypothetically, let’s say there is a unit that has a special rule “retaliating strike”
      • They can choose to trigger it after they have been chosen as the target of an attack in the combat phase
      • the rule might say ” once per game, after the enemies attacks have been resolved, the unit can choose to immidiately attack back”
      • So having a mechanic where players need to pass makes sense
      • That is how some of the shadespire units play, and it could indicate abilities in the pipeline.

Battleshock Phase

  • Battleshock – split units – at end of turn must remove models out of coherency – go go Stardrakes and Treelords
  • New Inspiring Presence  impacts – in battleshock phase (nice tweak that doesn’t change target priority), fine for bravery effects outside of the battleshock phase.

Further Age of Sigmar Second Edition coverage

 

 

Masterclass: Andrew Standiferd on Stormcast & the current tournament scene

Hey everyone, welcome to another Masterclass show.  Andrew Standiferd joins the show to talk Stormcast tournament lists, the current meta (pre-Deepkin) and how to get better as a tournament player.  Andrew is a two time winner of the Las Vegas Open Age of Sigmar Championships, which this year had more than 90 players from across the US and even the UK.  You can find all my coverage of the LVO here.

Stormcast tournament list

When I get a chance, I’ll return and update this blog post with the key bullet points of Andrew’s discussion.

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Andrew Standiferd’s Stormcast list from the Las Vegas Open

Las Vegas Open 1

Stormcast tournament lists in the current meta

We recorded the show in the lead up to Adepticon, so it reflects the tournament scene as it stood with Maggotkin, Legions of Nagash and Daughters of Khaine released but Deepkin as yet unknown in any great detail.  We also didn’t touch much on the Les Martin TM Stormcast build (which is still proving effective – check out the results of the Warhammer GT Heat 2), but that is covered in lots of detail over on the Facehammer podcast and elsewhere.

More Age of Sigmar tournament reading

  • If you are interested in other tournament lists, check out the tournament list archive.
  • If you want to see which events are coming up around the globe, check out the calendar.
  • For more Masterclass interviews with Tony Moore, Gary Percival, Rhellion and others go to the Episodes Index.
  • Check out the Rolling Bad podcast, on which Andrew guest appears.
  • Andrew has changed his Twitter handle since the show, you can find him here now.

 

 

Age of Sigmar Team Tournaments

Hey all, we’re back with a show on Age of Sigmar team tournaments. Jack Armstrong and Tom Loyn join the show to advise on how to select a team for an Age of Sigmar team tournaments, how to write army lists tailored for the event and how to master the pairings process.  Also we end the show with an update on the London Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament, there are still the last few places if you are keen.

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How to choose a team for an Age of Sigmar team tournament

  • Reliability
    • make sure that you have players who will turn up and not leave the rest of the team in the lurch.
  • Performance
    • In a 4 person team you can control 1 match-up but have less control over the other match-ups, therefore you need to have confidence that your players will be able to achieve wins.
    • You may be able to carry one list that has one unfavourable match-up (for example, a Kroak list is poor against Fyreslayers and KO one-drop armies) but generally you want strong all-round lists.
    • In team events with more players you have greater freedom to control match-ups
  • List balance
    • Choose the lists comfortable with play style and practice.
    • Something unexpected or misunderstood. Element of surprise.
    • Bully list – A list so feared and powerful that it can help control match-ups – KO
      Nico team going all 1 drops to give match up issues
      Skewing can work – tom’s monster mash – playing vs the meta.

Age of Sigmar team tournament packs

  • One of each grand alliance?
  • No duplicate warscroll between lists?
  • Scoring system
    • Major vs minor wins
    • Proportional system could come back in some form via secondary objectives in order to allow more granularity in scoring.
    • Secondary objectives
      • Max 2 and score capped at 30 – so if major, then any secondary gives nothing.
      • Allocate to losing match-ups to get 3 majors and get 1 card – to cap out 100. Even if drawing – could get 90.

Check out my previous Blood Tithe coverage for all the pack details.

How to prepare for a team tournament

  • First match up and then scan over top lists
  • Less prep needed at 4 as fewer permutations at table

How to master the pairing process

  • Each team controls 2 match-ups in a four player tournament
  • You put 1 up, and 1 in hand will face the 2 given to you. Therefore you have 100% control over what you face.
  • However, you lose control over the pair you put up.
  • Who has the single worse match-up but with no other problems> i.e. They can put up two and I’d always want to play one of them. This is army up first.
  • Which 2 armies are most competitive against all of them? They are the counter.
  • Other list, some good or bad, held back in hand.

Nagash – his story, lore and background

Hi everyone, in today’s show I’ve decided to do something a little bit different, mainly thanks to the amazing help of local master of Death, Tim Lind.  As part of the Legions of Nagash release, and before we all get swept away with Daughters of Khaine, I wanted to record a show on Nagash, his lore, background and the Mortal Realms.  

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Nagash: mortal man to God of Death in the Mortal Realms

Nagash is a pillar of Warhammer – so we could easily have hours of in-depth coverage – but I’m going to stick to AoS Shorts form and try to distill the story into a show around 20 minutes long.  The first half of the show is background, it tells the origin of Nagash from the world-that-was through to the End Times.  Given it is ancient history for those living in the Mortal Realms, this part is told as a saga.  The second half of the show is more descriptive and lets you know the main Nagash story from the Age of Myth through to Malign Portents and the Time of Tribulations.

Expanding AoSShorts.com to cover all of Age of Sigmar – lore, hobby and tactics

This experiment is part of my aim for 2018 to expand aosshorts.com into a resource for all of Age of Sigmar, including lore and background summaries, book reviews, articles and hobby tutorials.  It is a lofty goal but I have some great people who have already offered to help.  If you are keen on writing a page or so on your favourite Age of Sigmar topic let me know – it could be a good fit 🙂  The project is a work in progress through the year, please drop by the site and let me know what you think – is the page layout intuitive? Are we covering all the major topics you are interested in? What more would you like to see in order to help new and established players understand the scope and depth of the Mortal Realms?

Upcoming shows and new list archive

In terms of the rest of the podcast, I have plenty of tactics and strategy content lined up as well for the coming months, including the return of Masterclass shows with top UK and US gamers. In the last few weeks I have also added an international Age of Sigmar tournament list archive to the site, where you will find tournament packs, lists and analysis from the biggest events in the US, Australia, and New Zealand so far.  The archive will be a complement to the Bad Dice archive which covers the major UK tournaments and will hopefully be useful for those wanting to gain inspiration or scope out the meta.

Twitter competition – win a set of Realmgates!

I’m also running a competition over on my Twitter feed for a brand new set of Realmgates to run with the new release.  Simply follow me, and quote retweet this tweet with #aosshorts and your best tactics advice, lore snippet or epic battlefield tale that will fit in a tweet.  The competition runs to 3 March.  All the details are in the tweet.

Nagash

Anyway, let’s start with the saga of Nagash.

The Saga of Nagash

Even the gods have beginnings.

The dread Master of Shyish has origins in a long-destroyed world, in an Age Before Time. And yet, there are those who remember them.

There are the Few – members of an empty pantheon, ancient in their own right, but whose memories of that time are well-guarded. And there are the Many – the souls of those tormented, oppressed and destroyed under the tread of The Great Necromancer’s monstrous ambition, who linger yet in the deepest catacombs of the numberless Underworlds of Shyish.  It is with them that answers can be gleaned, for those with the tenacity and bravery to seek them, and those with the nerve to listen to the tales they have to tell.

It began in Nehekhara

Such tales have but one origin – the land of ancient Nehekhara, where the second son of a 3rd dynasty monarch usurped his kingdom and his gods over a lust for power and a forbidden union. Corrupting the religious and superstitious rites of his own death-obsessed culture, with an ill-gained knowledge of Dark Magic harnessed from the very winds that covered the world, Nagash secured the loyalty of disaffected noblemen and military officials – plying them with an addictive, life-extending elixir that granted them power (at the cost of dependence and obedience). The most loyal of these was a wastrel son of a minor lord, who saw in Nagash a second chance at a life wasted.  Arkhan found new purpose in his service to the Usurper – an unshakeable bond that could survive even the end of the world.  Together, they took the throne of Khemri.

Nagash

The Black Pyramid rises

As his cult continued to refine their control of the Dark Winds, the tyrannical reign of Nagash soon became decades, and then a century. An enormous Black Pyramid was erected from blocks of black warpstone and the mortar of a thousand-thousand slave corpses – not to honour the glorious dead, like the monuments of his predecessors, but to draw the Winds of Magic to Nehekhara.

Gradually, this colossal arcane locus killed the land around it. For the other Priest Kings of Nehekhara, this was one crime too many. They allied against Nagash, and in a decades long war, managed to kill his black lieutenants and sack the Black Pyramid.

Warpstone, Nagashizzar and transformation

Vowing vengeance, he fled north through the desert, and passed from the world of the living. But Nagash had transcended death. His magic-infused body refused to untether its final shackles, and he had at last become immortal. He explored the Sour Sea region, discovering a mother-lode of warpstone, and using it to enhance his studies into Dark Magic. Without the limits of a normal lifetime, he pushed the use of magic in ways the mortal races seldom achieved. Experimenting on the local tribes during this time, he became the first and greatest practitioner of Necromancy, and as the centuries passed he transformed the region into a land of death, building the great fortress of Nagashizzar with his new labour-force. As the land changed, so did his body, and Nagash became a towering, monstrous sorcerer-lord.

Nagash

 

Ratmen from the under-kingdoms laid siege to Nagash’s new stronghold, eager for the vast warpstone riches within. After decades of warfare, and entire generations of Skaven spawned and slaughtered for this cause, The Great Necromancer struck a bargain with the verminous Council of Thirteen, and an uneasy alliance was forged. Slowly, Nagash’s attentions settled once again upon his former homeland.

Regaining Khemri and Nehekhara

An invasion was launched from along the coast – skeletal ships delivered legions of walking dead to the southeast, where the defences were weakest. Several of the royal lines of Nehekhara were revealed to be under Nagash’s sway, as they had experimented with the dark knowledge they found in the Black Pyramid. A war unlike any other on the face of the world was fought – the dead against the living. As the living died, the army of the dead grew. However, thanks to the charismatic Priest King Alcadizzar, Nehekhara was united, and Nagash’s war of attrition ultimately failed.

Furious, Nagash unleashed a punishment worthy of the most spiteful of tyrants upon his foes. His Skaven allies poisoned the River Vitae, decimating the population of Nehekhara. When he next marched upon Khemri, we was unopposed. Alcadizzar was hauled back to Nagashizzar, and made to watch as the Great Necromancer’s final plan came to sinister fruition – the resurrection of an entire continent; men, women, children, all his to command. An army he would use to conquer the living.

Nagash cut down

Nagash would learn much of betrayal in his long unlife. However, it’s possible that his first was the greatest. His Skaven allies, fearful in the wake of his Resurrection spell, released Alcadizzar and armed him with a blade, mighty and lethal beyond description. Nagash was cut down in his moment of supreme triumph, his remains burned, and his artefacts of power scattered.

But Nagash had transcended death. It took millennia, but his body finally reincorporated within his Black Pyramid. He awoke to a different world. The armies he had risen from the dead refused to obey. Travelling north, he discovered Nagashizzar overrun with Skaven, his massive warpstone reserves depleted. In order to regain his lost power he journeyed further north, in search of his artefacts, and found his crown in the possession of another charismatic warrior king (and oh how he hated charismatic warrior kings…).

The first engagement with Sigmar

This ‘Sigmar’ had united the tribes of men into an Empire, against which Nagash once again made war. He almost succeeded in killing this new rival, but was undone by the potent dwarven weapon wielded by the warrior king, and was once again banished to a millennia of reconstitution.

Arisen in the End Times

This time, Nagash ruled from beyond the grave with the patience of a god. He manipulated world events through his many puppets, until he deemed the time was right. His plans had to be accelerated with the advent of a new Everchosen, a chaos champion with the power and ambition to threaten his own existence. Guided by his unseen hand, Arkhan had gathered his staff, sword, crown and armour, and in a mighty ritual he was reborn. This time, his power was greater than it had been for over 2,000 years, for he had incarnated within a massive portion of the Winds of Magic – the Amethyst wind;  Shyish.

Legions of Nagash

Time, he sensed, had grown short, and even this amount of power was not enough. Nagash made his final return to Nehekhara, and destroyed it. Utterly. He sought what remained of his people’s gods in the underworlds, and devoured them. He sought the god-seed of the Dwarven god, Valaya, and devoured it. Even this was not enough to halt the tide of darkness on the horizon.

Nagash

Preservation was ever Nagash’s ultimate goal, and this time circumstances dictated an alliance with the living. In what would become the final stand in the survival of his world, Nagash stood alongside gods and kings, enemies old and new, and lent them the last of his power.

Nagash

But the souls of those tormented, oppressed and destroyed under the tread of The Great Necromancer’s monstrous ambition were many, and betrayal was ever close at hand. The Incarnates failed, and the world at last was lost.

However, Nagash had transcended death… and even the gods have beginnings.

Nagash

Nagash in the Mortal Realms

Nagash in the Age of Myth

After the cataclysm of the world that was, it was Sigmar who first came across Nagash’s shattered essence, buried under a mountain-cairn in Shyish.  The God King, Sigmar freed Nagash.  Nagash joined Sigmar’s pantheon and took responsibility for protecting Shyish from Chaos.  Since that day, Nagash has laid claim to all of Shyish.

Shyish

Through this Age, civilisations thrived, even in Shyish. Nagash tolerated their existence, and maintained his marriage of convenience with Sigmar, while pursuing all the other gods of death and consuming them.

In his mind, all souls belong to Nagash as the rightful god of Death. Souls are what has granted Nagash his formidable powers and are the resource he uses for his macabre creations and weapons of war.  Aelf-souls are particularly powerful and blaze with potential, but were almost completely consumed by Slaanesh in the End Times.

Nagashizzar is Nagash’s capital, the centre of his power, a foreboding shadow-shrouded necropolis that echoes to the screams of tormented souls.  A fortress city of looming spires and twisting, mist-shrouded alleys populated by the risen dead.  Cathedrals of bone and vast underground mausoleum palaces.  No living creature can approach its walls as it radiates dark magic that would wither flesh in an instant.

Its creation was made possible by the discovery of vast deposits of Shyishan realmstone at the far edge of the Realm of Death – grave-sand, sand-of-time, mortis ash – pure crystalline death (or amethyst) magic.  Nagash directed the construction of colossal inverted pyramids constructed from vitrified grave-sand which float in the skies about Nagashizzar.  These pyramids are beacons for dark energy.

Nagash in the Age of Chaos

Then came the invasion of the Chaos Gods.  Sigmar’s pantheon fractured as its members pursued their own goals – Nagash sought his own power, Gorkamorka revelled in war, Alarielle retreated into the glades of Ghyran, Tyrion treated it with indifference, Malerion sought to subvert it and Grungni retreated into exile believing his people’s hope rested in their own autonomy.  

The Battle of the Burning Skies – Betrayal

Nagash abandoned Sigmar at the Battle of the Burning Skies, where the forces of Chaos won a climactic victory.  The Shyish Arcway is taken by Chaos.

Feeling betrayed, an enraged Sigmar hunted Nagash across Shyish and began the War of Heaven and the Underworlds.  The Great Necromancer proved elusive, however, and the war only served to deplete the strength of both former allies. Sigmar withdrew, his hunt ending in a futile stalemate.

War rages across Shyish

Meanwhile, Archaon had seized the All-Points in Sigmar’s absence. As Sigmar withdrew from Shyish, The Everchosen began pouring his own forces through the All-gate, and so began the War of Bones.

Also known as The Barrow Wars, the conflict fought between Chaos and the Legions of Death raged on for centuries, and the Legions of Nagash were forced back to the deepest underworlds.  

The Everchosen lays low the Great Necromancer

At the gates of Nagashizzar, in the Battle of Black Skies, Archaon the Everchosen cut Nagash down in an eruption of necromantic energy.  His armies collapsed and Nagashizzar was toppled and left a burning ruin.  Only a desperate counter-attack by Nagash’s Mortarchs drove Archaon’s forces back long enough to recover Nagash’s remains.  

The Undead forces retreated to the forgotten underworld of Stygxx.  Nagash’s consciousness was shattered, and it took centuries for him to regenerate his lost powers and physical form.  

Nagash in the Age of Sigmar

When Sigmar’s Tempest swept out from Azyr, Nagash emerged from the Starless Gates and death magic swept across Shyish once more. As his consciousness unfragmented into cogency once more, the Chaos forces in Shyish were dragged down one-by-one by an unending tide of bleached bone and grave-worn steel. In a sense, Nagash is a part of Shyish, and Shyish is part of him, and invading armies like Nurgle’s Knights of the Fly faced a hostile environment that literally haunted their every step. When Nagash’s wandering consciousness, which up to now had been harnessed by his Mortarchs in defence of the land, finally coalesced once more into singular purpose, Shyish fought back in earnest. The eight black-iron keeps around the ruins of Nagashizzar were torn down and the Chaos Lords crucified on the city’s walls to spend eternity in spirit-searing balefire.

Nagash

Nagash has spurned all requests to join the wider fight against Chaos and instead concentrated on consolidating his plans for Shyish.  He even went so far as to actively sabotage Sigmar’s attempt to regain the All-gate by leaving the Anvils of Heldenhammer to assault it unaided, condemning them to defeat.

Nagash’s agents spread through the Realms

To further his ends, Nagash has dispatched agents across the Mortal Realms searching for clues to the true nature of the Stormcast Eternals, and to investigate reports of other souls disappearing from his grasp.

With Chaos pushed back, the reconstruction of Nagashizzar occurs at pace – millions work to that end.  Neferata and Mannfred have been dispatched to the Prime Innerlands of Shyish on vengeful crusades against Chaos.  Arkhan raises new inverted pyramids using hordes of undead servants to collect grave-sand from Realm’s Edge.  Trails of endless marching ants carrying the precious resource grain by grain.

Now Nagash seeks to claim his revenge by bringing his war to every corner of the Mortal Realms.  The Mortarchs have been unleashed.  

Neferata’s influence widens

Neferata’s blood cults and vampire covens have infiltrated all of Sigmarite society.  The Azyr-born Gestout dynasty in Anvilgard, the Pale Prince of Hammerhal, the Sanguinary Choir of Excelsis.  These intriguers, assassins and spies pave the ways for the Legions of Blood.

Mannfred leaves no survivors

Mannfred’s Legion of Night descend on mortal armies in bloody ambushes.  Wiping out frontier towns and fortified outposts overnight.  Culchasia burns.  Voltisgrad is a skeleton.  The twin fortresses of Crowfeast Peaks are strewn with corpses.  Mannfred has evaded all pursuing Stormcast forces sent to combat him.

Arkhan seeks knowledge to further the masterplan

Arkhan and his favoured Black Disciples seek forbidden knowledge, looting ancient tombs, hidden library cities and arcane reposities.  Armies pour into Ulgu.

With the pieces in motion, Nagash prepares for his intricate and devilishly cunning plan.  The coming moves will see the result of thousands of years of preparation.  Confident of his impending success, Nagash has dispatched spectral Heralds, the Knights of Shrouds, to the inner sanctums of  nations he deems suitable to serve him.  Those that accept are marked with the Nekrosene Mark – a magical brand that ensures their soul is given to Nagash at the end of their days.  Their fate is set to Nagash.

Malign Portents – The Time of Tribulations

A dark solstice has dawned, a season of discontent that has cast its palour over the realms – referred to as the Long Helsnacht or the Hexensendt in Shyish, the Ash-smother in Aqshy or the Glimmerdun in Chamon, or simply the Time of Tribulations across the free cities.

Death waxes ascendant,  The time is coming for Nagash’s final reckoning, an era of vengeance that will remind all traitors and pretenders who truly commands the spirits of the fallen.

Malign Portents

Further Community Coverage

There has been a lot of great coverage of Nagash in the wider Age of Sigmar community.  Some of the best content is linked below.  If I have missed something get in touch and let me know 🙂

The Mortal Realms podcast

  • Episode six – covers Prisoner of the Black Sun, Sands of Blood, Lords of Helstone and Bridge of Seven Sorrows
  • Episode thirteen – covers All-Gates and the finale of the Realmgate Wars

Fjordhammer podcast

Mengel Miniatures’ reviews

Contact – get in touch!

As always you can contact me through this site, AoS Shorts on Facebook, or for the quickest response, on twitter at @antipodean7.  Love to hear from you.

Bibliography

  • Cavatore, A., Johnson, J., King, W. & Pruinen, T. (2006). Liber Necris: The Book of the Dead in the Old World. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • Games Workshop Design Studio. (2014) The End Times – Volume 1: Nagash. Games Workshop, Nottingham.
  • Games Workshop Design Studio. (2014) The End Times – Volume 5: Archaon. Games Workshop, Nottingham.
  • Games Workshop Design Studio. (2016) Grand Alliance: Death. Games Workshop, Nottingham.
  • Games Workshop Design Studio. (2018) Battletome: Legions of Nagash. Games Workshop, Nottingham.
  • Games Workshop Design Studio. (2018) Malign Portents. Games Workshop, Nottingham.
  • Johnson, J. & King, W. (1994). Warhammer Armies: Undead. Games Workshop, Nottingham.
  • Lee, Mike (2008). Nagash the Sorcerer. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • Lee, Mike (2010). Nagash the Unbroken. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • Lee, Mike (2011). Nagash Immortal. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • Reynolds, J. (2014) The Return of Nagash. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • Reynolds, J. (2015) The Lord of the End Times. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • Reynolds, J. (2016) Nagash: The Undying King. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • Reynolds, J. (2016) The Realmgate Wars: Mortarch of Night. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • Werner, C. L. (2016) The Realmgate Wars: Lord of Undeath. Black Library, Nottingham.
  • (2018) Legions of Nagash: Battletome 
  • (2018) Malign Portents

 

Legions of Nagash Review

Hello! In today’s show I give my initial impressions and review of Battletome: Legions of Nagash!  I hope to return to the army in a few months for a more detailed Legions of Nagash review once we have all had a chance to playtest and shake the kinks out.

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The battletome fundamentally changes the Death grand alliance and provides incremental upgrades across the board.  There are a number of changes which seem to return the Death grand alliance towards its narrative roots of strong, but fragile, characters, surrounded by an undying and regenerating rabble.

What is clear after a few days with the book, is that there are few stand-out tier 1 unit choices or army builds – there is plenty of choice here.  The army is going to reward clever list-building and generalship and, if I was to guess, sit in the tier 2 range of armies.

In this show, I’ll cover:

  • the structure of the army: the Legions
  • Allegiance Abilities
  • Gravesites
  • the Lores of Death
  • Summoning
  • the new Battalions
  • some warscroll changes and
  • some potential army builds

The Legions of Nagash

The Legions of Nagash battletome covers rules for six different allegiances:

  • Grand Host of Nagash (Nagash and friends)
  • Legion of Sacrament (Arkhan and casting)
  • Legion of Blood (Neferata and her attendants)
  • Legion of Night (Mannfred and crazy choppy)
  • Soulblight (Vamps, vamps and vamps)
  • Death Grand Alliance (the hodge podge / everything else)

Legions of Nagash

If you take Nagash, you have to run the Grand Host, he can’t be chosen in any of the other Legions.  In turn, the other Mortarchs must be the generals in their respective Legions (if you have them in the army) – no appointing a Necromancer or Wight King to deputise for them. You can run the Legions without their Mortarchs if you wish.

The Legions only include models from the Battletome.  So you won’t see any Tomb Kings, Mournguls (who are relegated to Death Grand Alliance) and Flesh-Eaters who stay with their own battletome.  Nighthaunt remain in General’s Handbook 2017.

Each of the Legions have Flesh-Eater Courts as their only ally.  If you run Soulblight, you get more choice in that you can ally with Deadwalkers, Deathlords, Deathrattle, Deathmages,  and Nighthaunt.

Allegiance Abilities

Each of the 6 allegiances have their own set of six command traits and six unique artifacts (unlike the Maggotkin of Nurgle or Disciples of Tzeentch books, there are no duplicate or shared command traits and artefacts).   As you would expect, these are all tied to the theme of the army

The Grand Host and the three Legions share two battle traits, an ability and a command ability:

  • Deathless Minions – roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to a firendly DEATH unit within 6″ of your general or another friendly DEATH HERO.  On a 6+ the wound is negated.
  • Magic: All wizards know an extra spell from the Lores of the Dead
  • The Unquiet Dead – the Legions get beneficial terrain called gravesites (more on these later)
  • Command Ability – choose a gravesite within 9″ of the general.  You may return a friendly Summonable unit that has been destroyed to the battlefield and set it up wholly within 9″ of that gravesite and more than 9″ away from enemy models – I suspect this won”t see much use as you still need to pay reinforcement points for the unit, but there may be some situations where this gets you out of a pinch.

Legions of Nagash

The Grand Host

With the Grand Host, Nagash can select three further spells from the Lores of the Dead.  Also, any Morghast in the Grand Host get an extra Attack for all their melee weapons.  Finally, in your hero phase, you may roll a dice for each friendly Grand Host Summonable unit on the battlefield.  On a 5+ you can heal up to D3 wounds that have been allocated to it.  For units with a Wounds characteristic of 1 return 1 slain model to the unit for each wound that would have been healed.

Grave Guard are battleline in a Grand Host army and Morghast are also battleline if you have Nagash as your general.

For each of the allegiances, I’m going to pick a few of my favourite command traits and artefacts. I won’t go through the full lists (buy the battletome for that).

Command Traits
  • Bane of the Living – re-roll wound rolls of 1 for the general for attacks against non-DEATH units.
  • Lord of Nagashizzar – add 1 attack for melee weapons of friendly Deathrattle units within 6″
Artefacts
  • Grave-sand Timeglass: useful for sniping away enemy heroes anywhere on the battlefield
  • Ossific Diadem: roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to a friendly Deathrattle model within 12″ of the bearer – on a 6+ the wound is negated.
  • Amethyst Shard: once per battle, in hero phase, fuse the shard with the bearer’s melee weapon – add 1 to hit and wound rolls for that weapon until the next hero phase.

The Legion of Sacrament

Legions of Nagash

The Legion of Sacrament is your main choice for a magic heavy army (outside Nagash).  Led by Arkhan (with his extra casting), several Necromancers and a Mortis Engine you will pump out a lot of spells.  The most beneficial battle trait is that all your wizards have +1 to cast.  You also have the possibility of returning destroyed summonable units to the battlefield.

Command trait
  • Dark Acolyte: a wizard may take another spell from the Lores of the Dead.
  • Mastery of Death: At the start of your hero phase, all friendly Death units within 6″ of the general may make an immediate move up to 3″.
Artefacts
  • Shroud of Darkness: subtract 1 from all hit rolls for attacks targeting the bearer in the shooting phase if the attacking unit is within 8″.  Subtract 2 from hit rolls from further away.
  • Wristbands of Black Gold:  Roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to the bearer in the shooting phase.  On a 4+ the wound is negated.

The Legion of Blood

 

Legions of Nagash

The Legion of Blood are Neferata’s court and its traits revolve around getting up close and personal with the enemy.  The main battle traits are that enemy units within 6″ of your army are -1 bravery.  You also get +1 attack for your Vampire Lords and Blood Knights.

Command traits
  • Swift Strikes: Each time you make a hit roll of 6+ in the combat phase for the general, you can make an additional hit roll for the same weapon against the same target.
  • Aristocracy of Blood: Re-roll failed charge rolls for friendly Soulblight units within 9″ of the general at the start of the charge phase.
  • Walking Death : if the hit roll for an attack made with one of the general’s melee weapons is a 6+, then the attack causes a number of mortal wounds equal to its Damage characteristic (rather than needing to roll to wound etc).
  • Sanguine Blur: Add 2″ to the general’s move characteristic.  In addition you can re-roll failed charges for the general.
Artefacts
  • Soulbound garments: re-roll save rolls of 1 for the bearer.
  • Orb of Enchantment: once per battle, at the start of the combat phase, you can pick an enemy hero within 3″ of the bearer.  In that combat phase, that hero may not pile in, attack or use abilities.

The Legion of Night

Legions of Nagash

 

The Legion of Night is Mannfred and his ambushing forces striking from Darkness. The main battle trait is that you can set up to 3 units in ambush, rather than on the battlefield at the start of the game.  At the end of any of your movement phases, you can set up any of the units in ambush wholly within 6″ of any battlefield edge and more than 9″ away from any enemy models.  The second trait is that you can add 1 to save rolls for Deathrattle units wholly within your territory (very useful for camping on your home objective).

Command traits
  • Swift Form: add 2″ to the general’s Move characteristic, and 2″ to all runs by the general.
  • Unbending will: Friendly units Legion of Night units within 12″ can re-roll failed battleshock tests.
  • Merciless Hunter: re-roll wound rolls of 1 for the general.
Artefacts
  • Vial of the Pure Blood: once per battle, in your hero phase, you can declare that the bearer will drink the bial.  You can add 1 to hit and wound rolls for the bearer until the next hero phase.
  • Shard of Night: subtract 1 from the hit rolls of all attacks that target the bearer in the shooting phase [no use against hero phase shooting though….].

Soulblight and Death Grand Alliance

I’m not going to spend much time delving into the last two allegiances.  Both have just been updated to deal with the Summonable mechanic and do not get to access gravesites and the other benefits of the Legions of Nagash allegiances.  Soulblight gain access to the Lore of Vampires but otherwise keep their Deathless Thralls battle trait, their bloodlines, six command traits and six artefacts.  Death Grand Alliance keeps Deathless Minions, six traits and six artefacts.  The Grand Alliance is the only way that you can mix in Nighthaunt units or a Mourngul etc.

The Lores of the Dead – Spells

The Legions of Nagash have access to two spell lores – the Lore of the Deathmages (for Deathmages…) and the Lore of the Vampires (for vampires….).  The Deathlords (Nagash and the Mortarchs) can access spells from either lore.

Both lores benefit from the Locus of Shyish – a rule that says if the unmodified casting roll for a spell is a 9+ (and the spell is not unbound) then you resolve the effects of the spell twice.   You can choose the same unit, or a different target.  Because it is the unmodified roll that counts, you won’t be building a list solely around this ability, but it will certainly be a useful boon in the 27% of rolls it goes off.  You can expect to have it work a few times each game.

Each lore has its own character.  The Deathmages lore is all about debuffing the enemy at a 12-18″ range.  Some particular standouts are:

  • Overwhelming Dread – cast on a 5 – pick a visible enemy unit within 18″, until your next hero phase that unit is -1 to hit and -1 bravery.  Very useful against anything which receives benefits on 6s to hit.
  • Fading Vigour – an enemy unit loses an attack from their melee weapons (down to a minimum of 1) and can only roll 1 dice when charging.
  • Soul Harvest (for a combat Nagash) – cast on a 7 – every enemy unit within 3″ takes D3 mortal wounds.  For each mortal wound that was allocated, and not negated, roll a dice.  On a 5+ the caster heals a wound.

The Lore of Vampires is more short range and offensive.  My current favourite is the Amaranthine Orb – you draw a straight line from the caster for 12″ and each unit under it suffers D6 mortal wounds on a 4+.  I suspect this will be a favourite on Arkhan given that he gives spells an extra 6″ range.  The Soulpike may also get some use.

Gravesites

As is the way with Sylvaneth and Maggotkin of Nurgle, the Legions of Nagash have their own terrain pieces which interract with the army.  For Legions of Nagash, these are gravesites.  Gravesites have benefits for both summoning and healing.

After territories have been determined, but before any units have been set up, you may pick up to 2 points in your territory and up to 2 points anywhere on the battlefield to be gravesites.   There is no set size for gravesites, but Games Workshop suggest a suitable marker (perhaps a modified base, or one of the little chapels from the Sigmarite Mausoleum kit).

First up, you have flexibility in where you place 2 of your gravesites.  Depending on the scenario, you could choose to place one or two of these:

  • in enemy territory near an objective, in order to require your opponent to divert resources to that part of the board; or
  • in your own territory if you want to maximise the defensive benefits of overlapping healing.

Summoning

Instead of setting up a Summonable unit on the battlefield, you can place it to one side and say that it is set up in the grave.  You can do this with as many units as you wish.

At the end of your movement phase, for each DEATH HERO within 9″ of a gravesite, you may pick a single unit in the grave and set it up wholly within 9″ of that gravesite and more than 9″ from any enemy models.  If a unit is still in the grave at the end of the battle, it is considered to be slain.

Given the restrictions on placing models, I don’t see you leaving large units in reserve in summoning.  Much more likely to see smaller units of 10 Grave Guard or late game objective capturers such as dire wolves.  This will be especially important in scenarios where you get additional points for holding objectives in later turns.

Healing

Invigorating Aura:  At the start of your hero phase, pick a friendly summonable unit within 9″ of this gravesite.  You can either heal D3 wounds that have been allocated to it or, if no wounds are currently allocated to the unit, you may return a number of slain models to it that have a combined Wounds characteristic equal to or less than the roll of a D3.

This is likely to be the greatest benefit of the gravesites.  Four gravesites in your own territory could restore 4D3 wounds/slain models to your grave guard or skeleton units (keeping them at full size and maximum output for those skeletons).

Summoning

The Legions of Nagash battletome brings a large overhaul to the summoning rules for Death.

Previously, you could set aside a number of reinforcement points and summon the units you needed when you needed them.  The ultimate toolkit to face your opponent’s army (as long as you had the models with you).

Now you have to name the units you intend to summon on your army list (and pay the points for them in your list).  The toolkit is gone.

You can also only summon units with the Summonable keyword.  These are Bat Swarms, Fell bats, Zombies, Black Knights, Grave Guard, Skeleton Warriors, Hexwraiths, Spirit Hosts and Dire Wolves.

In exchange, you no longer have to cast a spell in order to bring the unit on to the table.  You need to have a hero within 9″ of the gravesites and set the unit up wholly within 9″ of that site.

Warscroll Battalions

The warscroll battalions are themed around similar lines to the Legions of Nagash.

I suspect the First Cohort will see the most play initially.  This battalion is 160 points, and requires Nagash, a unit of Morghast and 3 units of Deathrattle.  Once you have filled out those Deathrattle units you won’t have many points left, but you do get a one-drop and abilities to transfer wounds from Nagash to the Morghast and stronger healing of your units.  The army will revolve around Nagash’s output.

The Lords of Sacrament is your main magic-heavy choice.  The battalion requires Arkhan, two Necromancers (a powerful choice) and a Mortis Engine.  Your wizards can cast an extra spell if they are within 6″ of the Mortis Engine.  You can also add 1 to save rolls for Arkhan and the Necromancers if they are within 6″ of the Mortis Engine.

The Deathmarch gives you extra movement, but includes a unit of Black Knights (which is a bit of tax).

If you fancy a crazy combat choice, try the Castellans of the Crimson Keep.

Warscrolls

Right, on to the warscroll changes.  There have been quite a few little changes.

The largest change is that most heroes now have the Deathly Invocation ability which allows them to heal Summonable units.  The number of units that can be healed, and the range of the ability varies depending on the strength of the hero.  Nagash can heal five units anywhere on the battlefield, Necromancers are 2 units within 6″ for example.   All this healing stacks so you’ll be quickly returning large numbers of models to the table.

As a result, banners in units now don’t provide healing, but instead provide a bravery debuff to enemy units within 6″ of the banner (so expect units now to have multiple banners in them).  While large battleline units are improved by this change (and skeletons are now cheaper), units like Blood Knights can no longer be healed or returned (although they get an extra attack to ameliorate the loss).

Zombie dragons have now been brought in line with the zombie dragons in the Flesh-Eater Courts battletome.  No more confusion about which scroll is in play.

Terrorgheists have also received a significant buff to their Gaping Maw ability – Each time you make a hit roll of 6+ for this model’s Fanged Maw, the attack is automatically successful.  Determine damage normally (do not make a wound or save roll) but increase the weapon’s Damage characteristic to 6.  Try to pair this with Damned terrain and other ways to buff the hit roll.

There are two new warscrolls –  Prince Vhodrai (special character Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon) and a Bloodseeker Palanquin (combination of the existing big kits).  I suspect we will see a lot of Prince Vhodrai, as I’ll touch on more below.

Possible army builds

And finally, what are we likely to see on the tabletop.  I’m sure I’ll come back to revisit this section in the next week or so, but here are some initial thoughts:

  •  Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon – a popular choice for people who don’t want to run Nagash or Mortarchs.  14 wounds, 3+ save, can move up to 27″, fly, and decent damage output.   It also has a great command ability – allowing a friendly Death unit within 15″ to re-roll failed hit rolls until the next hero phase (very useful when paired with a Terrorgheist).
  • Prince Vhordrai – the same base as the VLOZD, a 3+ save, heals wounds, does mortal wounds… While the Prince doesn’t have the re-roll failed hit rolls command ability, he can give another unit +1 to hit and +1 to wound rolls, and also select that unit to immediately pile in and attack in the hero phase.
  • Necromancers are excellent.  I can see many people running multiple Necromancers.  While the Death army can debuff opponents well, and restore or ressurect its units, it can struggle with producing high damage output.  The Necromancer’s Vanhels ability allows you to have units pile in and attack twice.  Crazy good on a unit of 30 grave guard.
  • Grave Guard – massive damage output from a small base size, really allowing you to maximise your attacks from your large units.  The large units will be the most resilient, especially with gravesites nearby but they can also have a role in MSU style units of 10 which can be summoned into small gaps and be healed as required.
  • Morghast Harbingers – flying, rolling extra dice for charges and halberds with -2 rend and straight 3 damage.
  • Skeletons in units of 40 – lots of attacks if they stay above 30 models (which is even easier now with healing and gravesites).
  • Dire Wolves – grab objectives quickly
  • Bat Swarms – still useful if you have a strong local shooting meta (-1 to hit for shooting attacks within 12″)
Phew…. that’s a long review.
Further Reading

 

Malign Portents: An Introduction

Hey there, work is super busy at the moment, but I still wanted to put out a short show covering all that we know about Malign Portents so far and the great news out of the Studio Preview at the Las Vegas Open, Daughters of Khaine and more!

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Between recording and releasing the show, Warhammer Community put up a new article on the pre-releases for Malign Portents and Legion of Nagash.  All the information and pictures are covered in an addendum to the show.

This show also reflects where I want to see the AoS Shorts website growing over 2018.  The podcast will remain focused on succinct tactics and strategy advice for Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.  But the website is expanding into the Age of Sigmar background and hobby.  Over the year, you’ll find coverage of all the major events – Malign Portents, Legions of Nagash, Daughters of Khaine – and summaries of all you need to know about the Mortal Realms – the people, the places, the cities and the agriculture (expect a crop rotation chart).  So keep checking out the website as it grows over the year.

A couple of final notes before we delve into the show:

  • I’ve added a list archive to the site to contain tournament lists and packs from events outside the UK.  This will hopefully be a complement to the Bad Dice UK archive, and you’ll already find lists for Cancon, the first 100+ player Australian event, and the Australian and New Zealand Masters.  Soon the Las Vegas Open lists will be added, and then Adepticon.
  • Games Workshop have announced that Warhammer Age of Sigmar will also be receiving two large FAQs a year (in January, i.e. now, and July), with erratas released within a couple of weeks of each new battletome.  It is great seeing this coming to keeping the game clear, balanced and accessible.

Malign Portents: an Introduction

Malign Portents has recently been announced by Games Workshop as the major focus for Warhammer Age of Sigmar through 2018.  From what we know so far, Malign Portents is a book, global campaign and so much more.  It is an advancement of the Age of Sigmar lore and an introduction to the Realm of Death, Shyish.  We can expect a number of model and book releases, presumably for each of the Grand Alliances.  At the moment, Malign Portents looks like a fantastic re-launch of Age of Sigmar.

The Malign Portents story

Malign Portents is a season of new developments to “deepen” and expand Warhammer: Age of Sigmar.  The storyline will run through battletomes and publications this year.

Already, Games Workshop have released a series of Warhammer TV videos, Warhammer Live interviews and a series of free and downloadable stories from the background team over at the Malign Portents website.  These stories have focused on the battle between Nurgle and Death to start but have given an interesting insight into the lives of normal people in Shyish.

The Malign Portents website also has a timeline and overview of the Mortal Realms if you are new to Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

Shyish, the Realm of Death

The story arc is set in Shyish, the Realm of Death.  From the start it is important to realise that the Realm of Death does not mean that it is the Realm of Undeath, such as we associate with Nagash.  There is such a thing as neutral and good death.  Think civilisations that can communicate and interract with their ancestors.  Shyish contains hundreds and thousands of underworlds (or afterlifes) for the Mortal Realms.  These are slowly being taken over by Nagash.

Nagash has plans, big plans!

Nagash is still, shall we say, a little peeved at Sigmar denying him the souls of the dead through the reforging process of the Stormcast Eternals.  However, Nagash has a plan and has been studying that reforging process.

Also, Nagash has been expanding his influence in Shyish and is distorting the normal balance of the realm.  He has commanded Arkhan to collect all the Realmstone in Shyish (think black sand) in order to build massive citadels and monuments, not least of which is a colossal inverted black pyramid of vitrified realmstone.  Now realmstone is powerful stuff.  It can impact the lifespan of those around it – it can sap your energy and decay you, or prolong you.

As a by-product of Nagash’s plans inhabitants of the Mortal Realms are experiencing weird visions, omens, prophecies and dreams of disaster with the occasional glimmers of hope – something nasty is coming.

Malign Portents

The Malign Portents book

The Malign Portents book will cover this story of the gathering maelstrom in the Realm of Death, and includes new Time of War rules for fighting in Shyish, from life-sapping wastes of Shyish to interpreting fell omens to aid your army.  These have been referred to as “prophecy points”.  The book will cover both narrative and matched play.

Malign Portents book

The Characters – the Harbingers

Harbingers

Malign Portents introduces four new heroes to Age of Sigmar, one for each Grand Alliance.

  • Vorrus Starstrike, Lord-Ordinator, Order’s Champion – an engineer for fates and destiny as well as warmachines – part astronomer, engineer, and warrior.
  • Keldrek, Knight of Shrouds – a betrayer and traitor who turned on his own people by doing a deal with Nagash,
  • Snazzgarr Stinkmullet, Fungoid Cave Shaman, a magic mushroom addled visionary; and
  • Marakarr Blood-Sky, Darkoath Warqueen, a charismatic tribal leader of Aqshian tribes coming to challenge Nagash

Now while these characters are named – they are one of hundreds in their roles, so their warscrolls are for generic heroes.  The warscrolls have been leaked, but I’m not going to cover them here in isolation.

Dread Solstice: the Malign Portents Global Campaign

Dread Solstice

Games Workshop have described the Dread Solstice Campaign is a “choose your own adventure” story style campaign with a branching narrative, where the games you play and models you paint can be used to decide where the story goes next.   Just as the Season of War campaign influenced the Age of Sigmar narrative, so will the Dread Solstice campaign.

Dread Solstice

 

The Campaign runs for 6 weeks from 15 February, in three fortnightly chapters.  These will tie into the painting competition that we know about.

  • 10 February: Start Collecting set painting competition finishes
  • 3 March: Harbinger painting competition closes
  • 31 March: Painting competition to complete your force

Also, don’t forget the Coalesence Global Narrative event on 17 March.

Finally, I’m keeping all the Malign Portents information in one place (because its a bit scattered over Games Workshop’s various platforms).

There is more Malign Portents swag coming too!

Legions of Nagash

Battletome: Legions of Nagash will revitalise (joke intended) the Death grand alliance.  And it looks like we can expect the book to arrive in February.

Battletome: Legion of Nagash

Legions of Nagash: new allegiances

The book contains all the warscrolls for every Death model “(so far…)” and the rules for six allegiances (including four new ones):

  • the Grand Host of Nagash;
  • Legion of Night;
  • Legion of Sacrament;
  • Legion of Blood;
  • Soulblight; and
  • General Death.

Legions of Nagash

Each of the new legions corresponds to a Mortarch (or Nagash himself), and each allegiance, while using a mixed pool of Death units, will feature its own unique in-game mechanics and abilities.

Now a large number of the warscrolls have leaked due to an early update of the Australian Age of Sigmar app.  I won’t be covering them here because I don’t believe there is much point in isolation from the allegiance abilities and points costs.  I’d rather cover everything in one show at the time of release.  However, the new scrolls do demonstrate changes to faction keywords, command abilities, summoning and ethereal.  So the book promises a big shake-up (which we all know Death needs).  So you don’t get too worried, a few locals have commented that the changes look like they are returning the Death factions closer to their roots in the Warhammer background.

I’ll keep all the official information on Legions of Nagash as and when we know it over on my Legions of Nagash page.

Daughters of Khaine

Now you have to have been living under a rock not to have seen the epic release videos and pictures for Daughters of Khaine that surrounded the Las Vegas Open this weekend.  If you haven’t you seriously need to check them out here.

Morathi!

Morathi, one of the coolest characters from the World that Was, is back and the Daughters of Khaine are getting a battletome.  Morathi, the Shadow Queen, and outspoken representative of Khaine, the Bloody-Handed Aelven god of Murder,  has returned for revenge but she is no longer quite what she was – having been held captive by Slaanesh.

Khaine

I highly recommend you check out Warhammer Weekly’s breakdown of the reveal, but the high points are:

  • 2 new Medusae units – a combat and a range variant
  • 2 new Harpy-style units – with a strong, dynamic Sisters of Slaughter aesthetic
  • what appears to be 2 forms of Morathi – based on current theorising one is an illusory aelven form, and the second is a transformed/ascended large serpentine/drake form
  • the battletome itself

So, what’s to come?

Looking forward, the Las Vegas Open Studio Preview confirmed that a second Aelf faction is coming.   We’ve had a bit of chat on Twitter as to whether this is a link to the Aelfs, Collegiate Arcane or something else.  In any event it is a great piece of art.

Malign Portents Aelf

From my personal perspective, and with no inside knowledge, I suspect we will get a Moonclan battletome this year too.  Moonclan were not in General’s Handbook 2017, they have a champion in the Malign Portents narrative and their models are showing up in White Dwarf battle scenes.

We can expect to learn more with reveals at the Warhammer World Age of Sigmar Open Day (March 3), GAMA (March 12-16), and Adepticon (March 22-25).

Finally, we know that one of the most beloved Warhammer terrain pieces, the Skullvane Manse, is coming back into production.  We may even see more Age of Sigmar terrain this year (if you look closely at the Daughters of Khaine videos).

 

Conclusion and Further Reading

Thanks for listening – get in touch and let me know what you think.   The easiest way is to find my on Twitter.