Legion Of Azgorh Mega-Thread

[Ben]

I think Great Weapons are by far the best option for the Bull Centaurs.  I played 50+ games with mine using shields and can't remember having a wound bounce back in a situation where it made any difference.  

I can remember lots of time where they failed to do enough wounds to kill an extra model that was needed though! -1 rend would be a great addition.  I'm thinking of converting the 6 I have.  

[Kaleb Daark]

I was just going to extend the weapon shafts to represent great weapons, anything more is major surgery.

[Kaleb Daark]

I thought I'd write to FW earlier this week, I essentially asked whether there would be any expansion on the Legion front with a battletome or similar to bring it fully into the current age.

Predictably the answer was suitably vague, but with respect to new writing for them it was a definite no, merely pointing me to the existing pdf compendium and match play points charts.

Needless to say, I was quite disappointed, since to be frank, I absolutely love the little guys, and I don't necessarily want new, but certainly I'd love a new book with fluff and batallion, and traits and item options in keeping with the AoS lore.

I recently played a 500 point game, with 30 fireglaives, castellan and bsb.  They excelled.   They're just so resilient and can dish out a surprising amount of damage.

I played afterwards a game with open play, where we just chose 7 warscrolls each.  I used my hellcannon  as a counts as dread quake mortar.  He played khorne mixed, and I wasn't sure about it until it landed a hit on his massive unit of blood warriors and prevented them from running ... then it won me over!  I had hoped with the games day model rebranded as  a 'sorcerer' and Shar'tor we were in for a Legion of Azgorh birthday.  OH well.

so consoled my self with the purchase of twenty Ironsworn a skullcracker, and some skin wolves for my slaves to darkness / Khorn-gorath army.

[Roark]

I can't praise my fireglaives enough as anti-monster specialists (per Ben's advice earlier in the thread). Took out a Hellpit Abomination in one blistering volley last weekend. It was just like the good old days when blunderbusses generated a withering wall of hot lead.

My Taur'ruk also had a great time popping units with his Chaos Runeaxe and Trample and Gore.

[RuneBrush]

8 hours ago, Kaleb Daark said:

I thought I'd write to FW earlier this week, I essentially asked whether there would be any expansion on the Legion front with a battletome or similar to bring it fully into the current age.

Predictably the answer was suitably vague, but with respect to new writing for them it was a definite no, merely pointing me to the existing pdf compendium and match play points charts.

Needless to say, I was quite disappointed, since to be frank, I absolutely love the little guys, and I don't necessarily want new, but certainly I'd love a new book with fluff and batallion, and traits and item options in keeping with the AoS lore.

I'd not read too much into that, generally the customer service team won't have any "insider information" so will know about as much as you and I.  Forge World have said in the past that they'll support model ranges whilst they're successful (such as Fimir) but only have a very limited resource pool to use - think it's down to just two sculptors currently.

[Kaleb Daark]

@RuneBrush, funny you say that as they did hint that there were more fimir on the way - which makes me very happy as that was going to be next...

 

[RuneBrush]

9 minutes ago, Kaleb Daark said:

@RuneBrush, funny you say that as they did hint that there were more fimir on the way - which makes me very happy as that was going to be next...

Have you seen the WIP sculpts of the Hag and Sorcerer?

Out of curiosity, how well would people say that LoA work with other Chaos factions?  I've seen a lot of mono-LoA but not many as part of other armies

[Kaleb Daark]

3 hours ago, RuneBrush said:

Have you seen the WIP sculpts of the Hag and Sorcerer?

Out of curiosity, how well would people say that LoA work with other Chaos factions?  I've seen a lot of mono-LoA but not many as part of other armies

Hag and sorcerer you say!!! That’s just made my day!

 

The original question regarding the fimir was that in the match play points list it said that they’re battle line if led by a diraich, which of course was in storm of magic but now has no warscroll.

 

I’m just trying to read between the lines although I know I’m seeing things that aren’t there really.

I was looking to use fimir and skin wolves in an army, as I think the visual would be superb.  I’ve looked at various destruction warscrolls and nothing really synergises with them from a faction point of view unless I’ve missed something.

 

With regards to your second question, in a chaos grand alliance they do great.  In matched play they of course are battle line only in a Legion army – so in this respect if you want to take ironsworn or fireglaives as battle line you are forced to go solo legion, but in truth I as are many others would prefer it that way.

 

Being a warscroll compendium rather than a new spanky battletome the synergies that you might find in other battletomes isn’t there in this. Well it is, but not to the extent that you will find in say bloodbound or the new tzeentch desciples.

 

However that said and done, (and I think @Ben ) brought this up, they work best when you look at the whole army working in unison as one big synergy – that’s how I approach it.

 

The castellan and bsb together make for a great buff on big infantry lumps and ironsworn are awesome screens for fireglaive units.  Get the crown and lord of war battle traits and things get a whole lot more interesting as well.

 

I played witch elves the other day, he had a big moster slab of them with cauldron, and to be honest I was nervous – I’d come across that shenanigan in 8^th and it wasn’t funny.

 

However, 20 Ironsworn, with inspiring presence, mystic shield, with +1 to wound  and re-rolling wounds, and +1 to hit was massive.  With the dreadquake basically stopping them from running, it buys you such serious gunline time, and the spite shields actually paid off with chucking another five free wounds into the pile which couldn’t be sniffed at when they finally did get into melee.

 

In a slaves to darkness army you get the fun of rocking the sorcerer’s spell for even more rage from your opponent.  I think they'll work better with a slaves army over a dedicated khorne etc which is no surprise really as it brings back the great Tamurkhan grand alliance feel of the book, or when you're my age - the original slaves to darkness lists from realm of chaos

[Kaleb Daark]

I'm going to cobble a list together and see how it flows

you got me thinking now....

[Furious]

Thing is, fluff wise it becomes a reach when you add in other Chaos factions. Forget daemons altogether - don't the CDs hate all other gods? Skaven could make sense with an interesting enough backstory, but again, conflicting, exclusive gods. The only ones I'd think "yeah, that could make sense" are Slaves and Bray/Warherds, or one-off factions like Dragon Ogres.

[Kaleb Daark]

if you haven't already try and find a copy of tamurkhan, amazing book - I'm sure there's one floating around on off somewhere

 

the he thing that can get them to join your army is the prospect of gaining slaves, that's why they joined tamurkhans stinky nurgle horde.

they do hate every thing, and see it as contemptuously beneath them. Every thing is there to be enslaved.

demons definitely, but they add a huge amount to a slaves to darkness unit with artillery and hard as nails units like fire glaives to complement warriors.

The daemon smiths are great insofar that the whole army is geared to slowing an opponent down so he can be tenderised with the artillery and set them up.

admittedly it doesn't make as much obvious sense as it used to as ash storm doesn't work the same way it used to- made enemy units flammable, take damage and unable to charge... And all your missile attacks were flaming.... So...

i still think they have bags to offer,

but then again, I'm biased!

[Ben]

The legion summoning Daemons if kinda thematic.  Binding them to their will and all that jazz

[Furious]

Yeah. I guess it would make sense that any other faction would be a slave in a mostly LoA army. 

I'm taking mine out to the store for the first time tonight. I only have 1000pts ready to go, so I'll be using:

Leaders
Daemonsmith (100)
- Darkforged Weapon
Infernal Guard Castellan (120)
- Darkforged Weapon & Spiteshield

Battleline
20 x Infernal Guard Ironsworn (200)
- Battleline (Legion of Azgorh)
20 x Infernal Guard Fireglaives (200)
- Battleline (Legion of Azgorh)
3 x Bull Centaur Renders (160)
- Scalding Hand Weapons
- Battleline (Legion of Azgorh)

War Machines
Iron Daemon (200)

Total: 980

 

I think it will do okay, I guess. I'd like have my magma cannon, but it's not painted/assembled yet (and if there's anything I learned while painting the Iron Daemon, it's that YOU PAINT THESE THINGS BEFORE YOU ASSEMBLE). Chances are it will be a three or four person game as well, which isn't always the best way to judge how well an army can do - I won one with pure Greenskinz while there was a Glotkin, Stardrake and Vamp on Zombie Dragon on the table. So... but I'm looking forward anyway! Never played with them, I'm going in blind in terms of strategy. I plan on using the Renders to screen the fireglaives and the Castellan while they go after any nasty monsters on the table, while the ironsword have the mind on objectives and objectives on their mind, with the Iron Daemon and Daemon smith supporting. I'll report back!

[Kaleb Daark]

Aye, the only good daemon is an enslaved one.

[Furious]

Last night, with my aforementioned army, I went up against:

Leaders
Moonclan Grot Shaman (60)
Orruk Warboss (140)
Black Orc Big Boss (100)
- Deff Choppas
Orruk Great Shaman (140)

Battleline
10 x Orruks (100)
10 x Orruks (100)
20 x Orruk Ardboys (360)
- Ironjawz Battleline
 

We played a homebrew scenario: basically, three objectives down the middle line. For the first two turns, only one objective scores a point (most models within 6") determined by a roll of a D3 at the end of the battle round. At the end of the third battle round, another D3 determines which point is taken from the table, and both objectives give a point.

I won by two points I believe. He clumped his entire army together, going for two points. I had my Ironsworn ready to take the third with the Smith (and the Crown of Conquest). Everything else was closer to his army. I won't give a play by play, but rather what each unit did:

Fireglaives

The stars! These guys took out so many Orruks. I loved using them. I was hoping he'd bring a giant for me to shoot at, but either way. Double damage came up quite a bit, and the Naptha bomb was super helpful as well. They did ****** in hand to hand, maybe getting one wound through. Such a good, fun, and cool unit. Twenty felt like a good number, but I could see 30 in one. The only thing that would make me hesitant is the 16" range being a little short. Which is a good transition to...

Castellan

I'm not sure if I would bring this guy again. Probably, to fill out points, and if I did I wouldn't put him with the Fireglaives. The command ability range is too short, that I was only able to use it once. He seems like he would have fared decently if he got into a tangle with the Orruk warboss, but I forgot to charge - and he might have died quickly with his measly 5 wounds anyway. I'll try him supporting my Ironsworn next time, since he should be able to debuff whomever they're getting up close with pretty easily...

Ironsworn

These guys were out of action for a lot of the game, because I deployed them so far. And they're slow as hell. The 4" move is noticeable - they weren't able to get into combat to help out my Iron Daemon in time (more on that later). When they were in combat they were fine for a battleline unit - I pitted them up against 20 black orcs buffed to high heaven (three attacks each hitting on 2s, wounding on 3s, -1 rend... ouch). They held out, though, and with Mystic Shield, I must have killed at least four black orcs with the Spiteshield ability alone.

Iron Daemon

I need to figure out how to play this. It looks like a close combat unit, but it really isn't. Again, up against a roided up black orc mob, they chewed through it before it could fire its guns a third time. I think it should be more of a support unit that shouldn't get focused, to stand back and fire or block. I love the model, though, so it's always going to be sticking around for me.

Daemonsmith

Arcane bolt/Mystic shield caddy (no ranged attacks on the other side). 100pts isn't too bad for that, and although I didn't get to use it, if I needed to the Blood of Hashut would have helped.

Bull Centaur Renders

Good for their speed (comparatively...), but generally under performed as well. They were useful as a hero hunter, taking out the sole grot in the army, but got taken out pretty easily by the distracting black orcs and the warboss.

 

I had my mind failing me last night and forgot a bunch of things. Oh well, first game with them. I underestimated the black orc mob - there were a few moments there when I thought for sure that he'd take me out, after chewing through my Renders, Iron Daemon and Ironsworn. But the Fireglaives saved the day. I loved playing this army, it was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to getting my magma cannon into action and seeing the destruction it causes.

So my question for those of you who have more experience with these little guys, is: Bring a Castellan? What do you do with him when you do, who does he support, and why is this better than another Daemonsmith? Luckily if I do decide to ditch the Cast, the models are ambiguous enough that he could just be another Daemonsmith anyway.

[Kaleb Daark]

Brilliant Furious

I'm glad you enjoyed playing with them and yes, I totally get your findings.  All my battles have never been clean flawless victories, and I've often though that they were about to cark it any moment.

The hero's even Drazoath are all nothing to write home about compared to some of the other factions challenge monsters.  The star of my show is always the Taur'uk,  he makes the centaurs shine.  Bull centaurs need to get that charge off, then with a Taur'uk they become wrecking balls as their hooves suddenly deal d3 wounds.

 

When you get your magma cannon built you'll see the full joy of the Daemonsmith, as it's range increases to 24".  Deathshriekers are also good as they're basically daemonic heat seeking missiles - great for sniping out characters as they don't need to have line of sight.

 

Castellan and BSB stack together quite nicely.  So the castellan as you know will give you +1 to wound rolls with his martial contempt ability.  If he has the lord of war trait then he can give the +1 to hit as well.

The BSB will give you the joy of rerolling wounds on any order or Destruction unit.  I never get him into hero to hero combat as that's not what either of them are about, they're there to make the rest of the troops tow the line.  I run him and the BSB behind my fireglaive line, with ironsworn in front of the fireglaives.  I'm really glad you had the spiteshields work their magic as well.

So the castellan could have nominated an enemy unit under martial contempt and both ironsworn and fireglaives get the +1 to wound on them, that and the Lord of War giving +1 to hit helps no end.   In the larger games the blackshard warhost battallion gives them re rolls on hit rolls of 1.

Daemonsmith is best near his warmachines I have found, which is where the iron daemon comes in as you can haul the warmachines around.  I think in an earlier post Ben said that he used his iron daemons as funnels to force opponents to go a certain way.  I don't have one but I get why you're going to keep using it, I've ordered a skullcracker and will pretty much do the same thing however bad it is.

[Furious]

Hey thanks for the tips. I've been wanting to do up a Taur'Uk, but his command ability seems a little lacking, tbh. I did get my BCRs (huh... not Beastclaw Raiders) to initiate the charge, and none of their hooves connected (all game, I think...). Six attacks of 4/4 and no rend isn't reliable enough on paper, for me to put one of them in charge. Taur'uks look like they hit pretty heavy, though.

I was wondering - the ability to truck around the artillery pieces seems to really conflict with the proximity Daemonsmith buff. Those ****** are slow, and once you pull the artillery piece away it'll be a turn or two before it catches up, even if you don't move it. But I'll have to put it to practice.

I'll keep giving the Castellan opportunities to impress me - I'll try him out palling around with Ironsworn, and maybe even engaging in combat with them. A BSB might be due as well - if I'm not up against Death or Chaos...

[Kaleb Daark]

I have to say that I never really move my artillery pieces.  I try and make sure that I can cover two thirds of the board with their range.

The way I see it is that if they're at the back of a 4x4 table then first off your army is outside of their minimum range ( not including magma cannon)

An enemy will have to advance his heroes with his troops if they want their buffs, for tricksy hiding heros then there's always the daemonic heatseekers known as Deathshriekers - I never leave home without them for this very reason.  Hellcannons are another one, albeit a bit pricey on the points front. However a warmachine that can fight its own battles is not to be sniffed at!

Be aware that until FW give us a battletome or some such new writing, we have the luxury (apart from hellcannon) that our crew and machine are one profile... think about that.

Now your daemonsmith has effectively a six inch bubble to play with and still benefit from his cover save, with him in the centre. With a magma cannon at the front it has effectively a 30" reach from your board edge, and most of the time your opponent will be moving into that field of fire by end of turn 1.

Especially if they've played you before, as they know how easily you can turn them into sieves if they hand around too long.  Dreadquakes are good for that as they will stop a unit from running if they take a single casualty - very handy for large blobs where you just need them to behave and stand still while you shoot them up.

I generally use my bull centaurs to smash those annoying outflanky things like spider riders and such like, or small units which I'm confident I can smash in a turn.  The Taur'uk I've had a lot of fun with but he nearly always get smashed down to a wound!

 

When your army grows, (proxy them first) Kdaai.  Like bull centaurs they're more fragile, but they're annoying as hell.  With their 3+ save to anything without rend and fly, they're a great skirmish and warmachine hunting unit. Their greatest party trick is the 3" reach.  fly them in 3" away, they can still hit, and best of all at the end of every combat phase the enemy unit takes a mortal wound for free if its still within 3.  I have two units of three, but I'd like another two.

but i'm digressing.  let the magma cannons worry about the close and mid range and the rockets and mortar worry about the stuff he's got sitting around at the back.  Look at the hauled carriage rule as the opportunity to get the warmachines to do a runner if things get a bit too hot for them.

Just remember that this army's hero's are no hero's!  they're pretty rubbish at standing on their own two feet, but they shine when the army works as one.

[Furious]

Great advice, thanks!

I'm looking into the K'daai - I'll be converting some up with some leftover Ironsworn (I do love the FW K'daais, but they're $$$ expensive and it looks like only three poses? The same reason I won't be getting any of their Renders either; plus I like an army that looks fairly uniform). Can't say no to free mortal wounds. Looking forward to trying everything out as my army grows, seeing what does and doesn't work!

[Furious]

I had my second and third game on Friday. I took a similar loadout:

Leaders
Daemonsmith (100)
Infernal Guard Castellan (120)


Battleline
20 x Infernal Guard Ironsworn (200)
- Battleline (Legion of Azgorh)
20 x Infernal Guard Fireglaives (200)
- Battleline (Legion of Azgorh)

War Machines
Iron Daemon (200)

Magma Cannon (140)

Total: 960

 

Just replaced the Renders with a Magma Cannon. I went up against the same army, twice in a row:

Leaders
Neferata Mortarch Of Blood (440)

Battleline
30 x Zombies (180)
30 x Zombies (180)
20 x Skeleton Warriors (160)

Units

Total: 960

The first game didn't make it to his second turn - I got the double turn Round one into Round two, and after suffering two massive shots from the Magma cannon, Neferata was easily finished off by the Fireglaives. He conceded, and we restarted.

The scenario was Border War. Neferata wasn't as careless, and my Magma cannon wasn't as lucky - it missed her my first two turns. While my Daemon was blocking a zombie charge on my Fireglaives, she managed to reach them and make quick work of them and my magma cannon and Smith. Meanwhile, the Iron Daemon held up against 4 rounds of a 30 zombie horde, ultimately taking only 4 wounds. It killed a load of zombies, which, of course, came back.

The Ironsworn were on the other side of the battlefield with their fearless leader. He was a star this game - he actually got into combat, and with his Great weapon, solo'd 20 skeletons, while his Ironsworn slowly hacked their way through 30 replenishing zombies. They regained the capture point, but it was too late, as Neferata had already made it across the field to secure enough points for a Death win.

 

Post mortem: The Magma Cannon is both vicious and a dud - you better roll those 4s 5s and 6s. A couple of 1s or 2s could lose you the game. I have an appreciation for the Castellan, too, with the great weapon. He landed all three of his -2 rend 3 damage attacks easily, clearing out 9 skeletons. His CA was a huge help for the Ironsworn, too.

 

Which brings me to another point - I contacted FW about ambiguous rules. Here was the response I received:

"While we can't give you any official answers as these would only be published in an errata/faq by out studio, we can give you our house rule interpretations for what we believe the intentions were for the way the rules were written.

For the Pyrelock Weapons rule this should really say '...rolls of a 6 or more' so please treat this rule as such.

For the Goblins used in Legion of Azghor armies treat them as having the CHAOS keyword in addition to anything else."
 

So there's that. Hopefully they FAQ it soon, but that's good enough for me. I'd like to see unique Hobgoblin (Hobgrot?) warscrolls at some point, if not models too.

[Jesper77]

Hi, totaly new to this forum and have started a chaos dwarf army in AOS after getting tired of 40k. I must say that i realy love the models and are in process of painting em now. Ive just managed to play a couple of games, one against a stormcast army for a 1500p mathed play and the second against a 2k Dark elvs army. Both ended with victories and both games we played 3 places of power. The first game I Killed of the Heroes from the stormcast player, one with a magma cannon and fireglaves the secong due to the Tauruks mighty axe. The second game we tried out alot of units as we both are quite new to the game of AOS. He had 2 Dragons and 2 Hydras and 15 cold ones in a blob of 10 and a blob of 5 and something else it think  I played the arty formation with 2 magma cannos beside the iron daemons. I also played a unit of 30 ironsworn and 2x20 glaves, Tauruk and 3 renders. He started the game but made the misstake of advancing the 4 behomths to far so in my first turn I removed a Hydra and a dragon with cannons and glaves. I made the choice of advancing and charge the large group of cold ones with my ironsworn as I wated em tied up in cc so they dont got to my machines. Made alot of misstakes in the CC, forgetting they got more bravery due to numbers, even reading the wrong line when making the attack ;/ The cold ones a realy deadly and killed alot of em. I got second turn and the magic double. My cannons killed of the second hydra with support of glaves. My Iron Damon shot into the cold ones and charged em. In his second turn he charged one group of glaves with his 5 man unit of cold ones. Dragon and Cold ones killing of almost  every ironsworn and the Daemon. After round 3 we decided to end the game. I killed of his last dragon with cannons combined with renders. The 5 man unit of cold ones got charged by my tauruk.

I forgot about alot of things this game and made some mistakes. But my main goal was to try out the arty formation. Its solid formation when you use the magma cannons and reroling ones. You only miss when rolling a 2 if you dont role a second one or two  I was a little bit dissapointed with the daemon engines. maybe it was me who expected more from em. Overall i liked the formation but i think its kinda expensive in points.  As i write this my army consists of following

Drazoth

shartor

Tauruk x2

Daeonssmiths x4

Castellan x1

40 glaves

30 Ironsworn

9 Renders

Iron Daemons x2

Magma cannons x2

Death shrieker

Hell cannon (how do you use this one as it dont have Azgorh keyword?)

Kdai Destroyer

 

Any suggestions on lists to try out or units to invest in? Was thinking of getting me a quake mortar to? Will add some pics later when ive painted more of em. 

[Kaleb Daark]

That's an awesome roll call of models there Jesper.  Just to let you know the Kdaai Destroyer is now counted as a great Taurus statline in the compendium which is a shame.  Just out of interest did you play points or open play?

 

However our beloved legion isn't dead!

I've just finished listening to the awesome Garagehammer podcast - Allgates and there is a mention of our beloved legion.  Thanks for a great podcast  @Spirit of Grungni

[Ben]

On 30/01/2017 at 11:55 PM, Jesper77 said:

 

I forgot about alot of things this game and made some mistakes. But my main goal was to try out the arty formation. Its solid formation when you use the magma cannons and reroling ones. You only miss when rolling a 2 if you dont role a second one or two  I was a little bit dissapointed with the daemon engines. maybe it was me who expected more from em. Overall i liked the formation but i think its kinda expensive in points.  As i write this my army consists of following

 

I'm not sure you get to reroll 1's on the Magmas.  They don't make a 'to hit' roll.

[Ben]

I've not been playing my legion for a while and am looking at what I can add when I pick them up again.  

I currently have a bunch of infantry models to finish painting but I am also looking into using some summoning options.  

What are you guys doing with this? 

My initial ideas are:

3-400 points to allow a bunch of Kddai Fireborn or other Daemons.  It also gives the option to get a Daemonsmith up on a vortex to make use of his 20/40" range -2 to hit spell vs Shooty armies like Disiples of Tzeentch and Stormcast.

I'm also considering "SHOCK HORROR!" Going to Chaos Alliance.  I think this means keeping the big guns but dropping the Infernal Guard to clan rats (Chaos Battleline) This lets me add things like a Blood Thirster, or some Skyfyres or other fun chaos Stuff.

I think Sayl the Faithless might have a place in the list too.  He would be useful for letting the Fireglaves run across the table and shoot off monsters

Does anyone have any suggestions for Chaos Battleline units that might be a good fit in the list? 

 

[Kaleb Daark]

Reading the tamurkhan again,  got me thinking about this a couple of months ago, but I wanted to see how far I could go with a pure Legion army.

Sayl would definitely be in keeping with the whole middleman pulling everything together role.

I always thought the signature spell of the Slaves to darkness mage would make ironsworn quite frightening.

I'm a fan of the tin can army so warriors would be a go to for me, but I think marauders aren't to be sniffed at especially if marked khorne and backed up with a bloodsecrator and mr whippy.... and throw in a mammoth for the fluff