When Byron Orde gallivanted his way to immortality when he won the Grand Tournament with a mixed Order list that heavily featured a focus on phoenixes, I was curious. Would it be possible to build a list around these majestic, obnoxiously invincible and gorgeous models? Clearly. Could it be done while remaining in the Phoenix Temple allegiance? Probably harder but lets take a swing.

Where to start?

As ever, we need at least a single hero and two battleline. The heroes available to the Phoenix Temple are the two phoenix variants being ridden by Annoited, and the Annoited on foot. Now oddly, there's no price difference in points for mounting an Annoited on a phoenix, so there's no point magnetizing them. Both phoenixes have the ability to enhance their saves if a spell is cast near them, and the fire phoenix gets to deal mortal wounds if it glides over someone while the ice phoenix is harder to hit. I would start with the Frostheart, and add the Flamespire as the list develops. The only available battleline are the super elite Phoenix Guard. They get two saves and are immune to battleshock if hanging out near a hero from their allegiance. They're very expensive so stick with using them wisely, hold objectives and behave sensibly.

Where to next?

Phoenix Temple has one of those big batallions some armies were assigned in the opening days of the game. The Spyreheart Warhost is built from an Annoited on foot, 2 units of Phoenix Guard and between 2 and 4 of the Phoenixes with or without Annoited riding them. The benefit of this is the Phoenixes get to band together and shoot fire at a nearby enemy, growing stronger for every phoenix within 9 inches of said enemy unit. At 130 points, this batallion is cheap enough to justify taking two of for the extra relics and command points.

What do we ally?

Easiest question all day. Cheap, mobile spellcasters. If they have good spells, neat. But their real purpose is making the phoenixes imposible to harm with their save buff. The top picks here are the Loremaster (Hand of Glory is a great spell on a phoenix), the Wanderers Spellweaver (Auto-Unbind scroll for the win), anything from the recently open Sacrosanct Chamber for the Stormcast, and if you truly want to go balls to the wall, an Archmage mounted on a dragon. Being able to ally in cheap units to spam for objectives would be desirable, but we need the spellcasters so its hard to justify. Lets see what I managed to whip up.

Already we can see this list's weakness, it's lack of bodies. We knew that going in, this is NOT a horde army. With every unit being super durable, it's at least a bit more forgiving in that regard. The goal here is to get the 3 Phoenixes up in the enemy's face while the mages keep them saved up and dangerous. The Phoenix Guard make use of those command points to roll 6s to run and take objectives quickly before the enemy can reach them.

But wait, there's more!

One last thing. If you've bothered to read my previous posts, I've talked about the Firestorm Allegiances. It just so happens this little list I've built happens to fit the requirements for one of said Free Cities...

Yeah, take your magic and shove it where Sigmar's holy light doth not shine you wretched Maggotkin/Arcanite/Lord of Sacrement. Magic is going to be HUGE this edition. Quote me on that. Screenshot it if you must. Magic is going to be LETHAL. And this right here is what we might call an insurance policy. Better yet, it's just a free allegiance ability. This costs you nothing, you still get to keep the Grand Alliance Order rules and traits. Mix in the fact your temple is from Hysh (Hallowheart isn't in Hysh but just roll with it) and take that Lens of Refraction and your oponent just won't get a word in.

Take it for a spin. As always, I am not responsible for your actions and don't tag me in your YouTube video where you barbecue your army.