Let`s chat: Anvilguard

[zedatkinszed]

5 hours ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

.I'm also taking units of 5 Liberators as my battleline option, not for any tactical reason but because they're relatively cheap to pick up second-hand and also quick and easy to paint. The disadvantage is that they have a smaller footprint than other battleline options so we're not making the most of our Implacable March ability. Poor battleshock rolls can also wipe out the unit very quickly, I find.

1

I agree with this all round. Thing is from a lore perspective they make a lot of sense too.

[syph0n]

Having read through the thread, I have a few Qs that need clarifying if anyone is able!

1) Can allies outside of the Anvilgard be taken? For example: Reaper Bolt Throwers.

2) Do you still need to build around a particular Faction first, as opposed to mixing battlelines? For example: 2x5 Drakespawn Knights (OS battleline) and 1x20 Corsairs (SP battleline) to count as the 3x Battleline for larger scale games?

3) Provided you have enough to meet requirements, you can take a Battalion in addition to Anvilgard allegiance, in addition to Order Artifacts? For example: Dragon, Hydra, 2x Drakespawn knights, 1xDrakespawn = Ebondrake Warhost, but also can use Implacable March and give the Dreadlord on Black Dragon a Relic Blade or whatever?

Thanks kindly!

[Double Misfire]

43 minutes ago, syph0n said:

Having read through the thread, I have a few Qs that need clarifying if anyone is able!

1) Can allies outside of the Anvilgard be taken? For example: Reaper Bolt Throwers.

2) Do you still need to build around a particular Faction first, as opposed to mixing battlelines? For example: 2x5 Drakespawn Knights (OS battleline) and 1x20 Corsairs (SP battleline) to count as the 3x Battleline for larger scale games?

3) Provided you have enough to meet requirements, you can take a Battalion in addition to Anvilgard allegiance, in addition to Order Artifacts? For example: Dragon, Hydra, 2x Drakespawn knights, 1xDrakespawn = Ebondrake Warhost, but also can use Implacable March and give the Dreadlord on Black Dragon a Relic Blade or whatever?

Thanks kindly!

1) Anvilgard is a bonus allegiance ability you can take on top of an existing army using the basic Order allegiance abilities if it only contains units from the listed 7 factions and no named characters, and not an allegiance on it's own. A matched play army can choose to take Order allegiance abilities after being built using a faction specific allegiance. For example you could put together Free Peoples list with Demigryph and Greatsword battleline, and then choose to take Order allegiance abilities instead of the faction specific Freeguild allegiance abilities; if you did this and had taken only allies from the 7 factions available to Anvilgard and no named characters, you could then choose to take the Anvilgard bonus allegiance abilities on top of the Order ones.

Reaper Bolt Throwers do not have a keyword belonging to any of the 7 factions and so can not be taken in an Anvilgard list.

2) See above re: allegiances for the purposes of matched play list building. If you chose to build a matched play list with Order Serpentis or Scourge Privateers allegiance you could respectively take Drakespawn Knights or Corsiars as battleline. You could not take both as battleline.

If you chose to take a matched play list built with either OS or SP allegiance and had not taken any Daughters of Khaine or named character allies you could then choose to take the Anvilgard bonus allegiance abilities on top of your existing Order ones (neither has a set of allegiance abilities of their own). (though @Jamie the Jasperwould call you uncharacterful for not taking a cosmopolitan mixed Order Anvilgard list. )

3) Of course you can. What on Earth would prevent you from taking a battalion?

[syph0n]

Thanks @Double Misfire. I was pretty certain this would be the case for all points, but wanted to check. My only hope would have been that I could take a mixed battleline of Corsairs/Drakespawn but I can see why that might not be very 'fair'.

I would rather not take a cosmopolitan list if I can avoid it as 1) I don't mind being uncompetitive (as long as I'm not stomped week after week) and 2) I want to use the models I already own before I go buying a load of other faction models!

 

[Kaleun]

8 hours ago, syph0n said:

Thanks @Double Misfire. I was pretty certain this would be the case for all points, but wanted to check. My only hope would have been that I could take a mixed battleline of Corsairs/Drakespawn but I can see why that might not be very 'fair'.

I would rather not take a cosmopolitan list if I can avoid it as 1) I don't mind being uncompetitive (as long as I'm not stomped week after week) and 2) I want to use the models I already own before I go buying a load of other faction models!

 

If you are interested, the Anvilguard boxed set is a bang for the buck. I can recommend it. It gets even better if you get some discount on it.

[syph0n]

28 minutes ago, Kaleun said:

If you are interested, the Anvilguard boxed set is a bang for the buck. I can recommend it. It gets even better if you get some discount on it.

I had a look, you're right it is. It's probably the direction I'll expand into, that or darkshards for Order Battleline and then I can take whatever I like. I'm just looking to keep my existing models at the minute and build lists around them, which I can comfortably do up to 1500 points. I'm not competitive, but if I keep losing I might be a bit more aggressive with army selection and purchases! 

[Guest]

21 hours ago, Double Misfire said:

If you chose to take a matched play list built with either OS or SP allegiance and had not taken any Daughters of Khaine or named character allies you could then choose to take the Anvilgard bonus allegiance abilities on top of your existing Order ones (neither has a set of allegiance abilities of their own). (though @Jamie the Jasperwould call you uncharacterful for not taking a cosmopolitan mixed Order Anvilgard list. )

 

When I first joined this thread I was surprised that mono-faction lists (or lists heavily skewed towards a single faction) seem to be the norm, just because I was drawn to Anvilgard for the opportunity to create themed mixed Order lists. As we all tend to do, I wrongly assumed that my motivation would be shared by most people and when that turned out not to be the case I found it a bit jarring at first. Particularly as I didn't even realise that mono-faction Anvilgard lists would gain access to their own specific battle line options until you pointed it out.

It still seems to me that the main reason for taking a mono-faction Anvilgard list is to gain the greatest advantage from the Implacable March ability, which is a totally legitimate reason, but is anathema to me in terms of the way I approach the hobby. Of course, I do want to maximise the usefulness of Implacable March, but within a set of constraints that I've created for myself - I want all of the Anvilgard factions to be represented in my army to show a cross-section of Anvilgard society, and to challenge myself to build and paint a cohesive looking army made up of models from lots of different factions. For me personally, a mono-faction Anvilgard list would be a wasted hobby opportunity. But I no longer expect everyone else to think in the same way!

Edited March 6, 2018 by Guest

[syph0n]

17 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

 

When I first joined this thread I was surprised that mono-faction lists (or lists heavily skewed towards a single faction) seem to be the norm, just because I was drawn to Anvilgard for the opportunity to create themed mixed Order lists. As we all tend to do, I wrongly assumed that my motivation would be shared by most people and when that turned out not to be the case I found it a bit jarring at first. Particularly as I didn't even realise that mono-faction Anvilgard lists would gain access to their own specific battle line options until you pointed it out.

It still seems to me that the main reason for taking a mono-faction Anvilgard list is to gain the greatest advantage from the Implacable March ability, which is a totally legitimate reason, but is anathema to me in terms of the way I approach the hobby. Of course, I do want to maximise the usefulness of Implacable March, but within a set of constraints that I've created for myself - I want all of the Anvilgard factions to be represented in my army to show a cross-section of Anvilgard society, and to challenge myself to build and paint a cohesive looking army made up of models from lots of different factions. For me personally, a mono-faction Anvilgard list would be a wasted hobby opportunity. But I no longer expect everyone else to think in the same way!

Hi @Jamie the Jasper! The idea of the cities having a cosmopolitan make up is really interesting and a good break in some ways from Dark Elves = Evil, High Elves = Good and they all hate each other's guts so unless GW had a big narrative, don't ally them and they certainly don't live together.

For me though, I feel a bit cynical about the SCE models and, as someone who came into the hobby and was force-fed Space Marines at the age of 11 (), they're a bit much to take. I wouldn't proxy the models either just to benefit from the rules, so I think in my mind I'd be keeping it to a DE army purely from a modelling perspective anyway. I've got a narrative in my head that a Dreadlord on a dragon, in command of a knightly order, would probably never want the SCE around interferring in something they can manage on their own, least of all humans or Duardin. I have included Kraken imagery co-incidently, so that at least meets that Anvilgard 'look' and my Aelves are suitably dreary!

If I wasn't using models I already owned, I could well imagining picking a city and unifying them however - that does present an excellent opportunity.  The Scourge Privateers particularly suit the Anvilgard theme - Aelven 'pirates' using the city for their benefit? Definitely. 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, syph0n said:

Hi @Jamie the Jasper! The idea of the cities having a cosmopolitan make up is really interesting and a good break in some ways from Dark Elves = Evil, High Elves = Good and they all hate each other's guts so unless GW had a big narrative, don't ally them and they certainly don't live together.

For me though, I feel a bit cynical about the SCE models and, as someone who came into the hobby and was force-fed Space Marines at the age of 11 (), they're a bit much to take. I wouldn't proxy the models either just to benefit from the rules, so I think in my mind I'd be keeping it to a DE army purely from a modelling perspective anyway. I've got a narrative in my head that a Dreadlord on a dragon, in command of a knightly order, would probably never want the SCE around interferring in something they can manage on their own, least of all humans or Duardin. I have included Kraken imagery co-incidently, so that at least meets that Anvilgard 'look' and my Aelves are suitably dreary!

If I wasn't using models I already owned, I could well imagining picking a city and unifying them however - that does present an excellent opportunity.  The Scourge Privateers particularly suit the Anvilgard theme - Aelven 'pirates' using the city for their benefit? Definitely. 

 

Yeah, I imagine that the Stormcast Eternals that garrison Anvilgard would be heavily outnumbered by the irregular troops of the general populace, so if I was going with a fully balanced representation of the factions I'd probably have no more than 20-25% of the models in my army made up of SCE. And I'd assume that my army would need to be led by a SCE hero because they're the only ones able to keep the various races in line and working together as a coherent force. That's pretty much the route I'm going down with my Anvilgard army, although I probably have too many SCE at the moment just because I needed some cheap models (money wise) to fill out the army quickly for a local campaign, and SCE are generally pretty cheap on ebay. Eventually I plan to add some bigger units of non-SCE infantry like Dreadspears and Flagellants to help me get back within that arbitrary 20-25% area.

Your army sounds cool, got any pictures?

[syph0n]

25 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

 

Yeah, I imagine that the Stormcast Eternals that garrison Anvilgard would be heavily outnumbered by the irregular troops of the general populace, so if I was going with a fully balanced representation of the factions I'd probably have no more than 20-25% of the models in my army made up of SCE. And I'd assume that my army would need to be led by a SCE hero because they're the only ones able to keep the various races in line and working together as a coherent force. That's pretty much the route I'm going down with my Anvilgard army, although I probably have too many SCE at the moment just because I needed some cheap models (money wise) to fill out the army quickly for a local campaign, and SCE are generally pretty cheap on ebay. Eventually I plan to add some bigger units of non-SCE infantry like Dreadspears and Flagellants to help me get back within that arbitrary 20-25% area.

Your army sounds cool, got any pictures?

It's in my signature, but currently a million miles from completion! 

It's 1k to start, Dreadlord on BD, 2x5 DKnights, Hydra and probably a Chariot. Could go 2x Assassin, 1x Assassin/1x Sorceress instead of Chariot. Expanding from that (1250) would definitely be Chariot, plus a combo of heroes, beyond that more DKnights/chariots I'm guessing and definitely another Hydra!  I can then start to make use of Ebondrake Warhost Battalion, and the Implacable March and probably a Balewind Vortex (though this might lose me friends, I've not played a game of AoS since 2015!)

I've got a Fleetmaster and 20 Corsairs, but not sure how to make this work with the above list as I lack regular battleline units to make a DE Order list. Probably buy Darkshards, or more Corsairs to make it a Scourge Privateer army with Serpentis allies... Who knows!

[Guest]

Just now, syph0n said:

It's in my signature, but currently a million miles from completion! 

It's 1k to start, Dreadlord on BD, 2x5 DKnights, Hydra and probably a Chariot. Could go 2x Assassin, 1x Assassin/1x Sorceress instead of Chariot. Expanding from that (1250) would definitely be Chariot, plus a combo of heroes, beyond that more DKnights/chariots I'm guessing and definitely another Hydra!  I can then start to make use of Ebondrake Warhost Battalion, and the Implacable March and probably a Balewind Vortex (though this might lose me friends, I've not played a game of AoS since 2015!)

I've got a Fleetmaster and 20 Corsairs, but not sure how to make this work with the above list as I lack regular battleline units to make a DE Order list. Probably buy Darkshards, or more Corsairs to make it a Scourge Privateer army with Serpentis allies... Who knows!

I've only played a few games with Anvilgard myself, all around the 1000 pts mark, so I'm not the best person to offer suggestions on list building! What I will say is that I expected the Fleetmaster to be completely useless, but I've actually fallen in love with him! Having a 40pt throwaway character that has no particular purpose and which your opponent won't see as a threat is great for sneaking onto objectives or holding big monsters up in combat while you shoot them from afar. He's surprised me by being at least somewhat useful in every game so far! 

[syph0n]

11 minutes ago, Jamie the Jasper said:

I've only played a few games with Anvilgard myself, all around the 1000 pts mark, so I'm not the best person to offer suggestions on list building! What I will say is that I expected the Fleetmaster to be completely useless, but I've actually fallen in love with him! Having a 40pt throwaway character that has no particular purpose and which your opponent won't see as a threat is great for sneaking onto objectives or holding big monsters up in combat while you shoot them from afar. He's surprised me by being at least somewhat useful in every game so far! 

Well that's reassuring! I can afford a Fleetmaster if I go for a Chariot to finish my above list, rather than Sorceress/Assassin(s). I was gonna have him 'walk the Hydra' then see what happens, be it throw him to the lions, sneak off to objective or just be a little thorn with a crossbow. 

I have a Dreadlord painted with a lovely Sea Dragon Cloak, but now I'm thinking it's a good excuse to paint Lokhir Fellheart up... He does have that awesome Kraken helm, very Anvilgard. 

[JackStreicher]

We‘re playing a narrative-matched play campaign in my club in which each game unlocks +1k points. (it‘s 3 Games, so 3k will be max)

currently my list ist the following:

Allegiance: Anvilguard

Warden King - General

Sorceress

10 Dreadspears

10 Bleakswords

20 Ironbreakers 

10 Irondrakes

1 Scourge Runner Chariot

ES: Prismatic Pallidade (for trapping and Endless Advance-killing the enemy)

990 points

the army will later on receive a hydra, Black guards, more battleline elves and Stormcasts.

currently I am not sure what is better to trap the enemy: Soulsnare Shackles or the Prismatic Pallisade.

Edited September 16, 2018 by JackStreicher

[Double Misfire]

Good call on trapping the enemy with endless spells @JackStreicher. Anvilgard continues to impress!

If I had to choose between Palisade and Shackles for trapping enemy units I'd probably pick both.  

 

If anyone wants to write an Anvilgard guide for the Free Cities in AoS2 thread I'd be super grateful as I don't play them and they're too different from anything else in AoS to write about in detail if you don't know the ins and out of Implacable March.

[JackStreicher]

On 9/16/2018 at 2:02 PM, Double Misfire said:

Good call on trapping the enemy with endless spells @JackStreicher. Anvilgard continues to impress!

If I had to choose between Palisade and Shackles for trapping enemy units I'd probably pick both.  

 

If anyone wants to write an Anvilgard guide for the Free Cities in AoS2 thread I'd be super grateful as I don't play them and they're too different from anything else in AoS to write about in detail if you don't know the ins and out of Implacable March.

I might do that once I gathered some experience with this city myself =}

[Charlo]

Trapping people with Palisade is positively EVIL.

I LOVE IT.

[JackStreicher]

Okay. I had 2 games at 1k points so far.

 

Game 1, 1k points VS Beasts of Chaos

First one was VS the new Beastmen and we played the "open war cards" scenario where you have to capture the flag from the middle.
Deployment was outside and middle. Since my opponent said it would be boring if he took the middle since he could just take the flag and run (without me ever having a chance to catch him due to beastmen are way faster than me) he gave me the middle. The middle turned out to be perfect for my ironbreakers which tanked his whole army for 4 turns while only losing 5 models. I won and the Implacable March killed off his last Ungore Raiders which I managed to trap with the wall (my lord dwarf stood alone and they had to flee from him...it's kind of strange to imagine that... XD).
It was still a nice game and I only won due to the scenario was much in my favour.

 

Game 2, 1k points VS Stormcast Eternals (my brother) Celestial Vindicators.-

We played the "Battle for the pass". I went into lead quite early. He shocked in his troops behind me and failed all charges. He shot one irondrake off a building which made the entire units utterly useless... starting with turn 3 his 10 Sequitors started stomping my entire army. They easily slaughtered 20 Ironbreakers with shieldwall. They overkilled my Warden King after the first charge (though he was pretty well  screened by bleakswords, but he managed an 11" charge an surrounded me). My last dreadspears were shot into pieces by the ballista which they bound in combat near the 4 Vicotry point objective inside his deployment zone. The Chariot (as in game one) did absolutely nothing, utter waste of points.
I wasn't able to do anything after all once the sequitors startet to wreak havoc. And he won 34 to 23 Points.
We had a long talk afterwards to think about what I could have done differently and came to the conclusion that there was nothing I could have done.
Conclusions: Sequitors are 20 points too cheap. All Darkling Covens and Dispossessed units should get a plain 20 points cost reduction (while not getting an additional reduction for max size) against all Armies with a battletome just to even things out.

 

After all Implacable march is okay as a bonus ability, though it's utterly useless if you can't block the enemy and it is even hurtful to yourself if Units that get a charge bonus are affected (or Nighthaunt), though the City's Races really restrict you too much. Anvilguard would need access to the Ironweld Arsenal and or Shadowbladesto be fine. Also there really should be an update for Drakespawn Knights, both Chariots and Darklings really need more Heroes than a Sorceress or a super bad Sorceress on retarded flying Dog. Same goes for Order Serpentis (having a Lord on foot and on Drakespawn would be just nice.)

Edited October 9, 2018 by JackStreicher

[CarlosHewso]

Is their still any love out there for Anvilgard? I have been building up a Scourge Privateers force and would love to be able to include more dark elves, like darklin covens and order serpentis. Could this still be effective? Doesn't have to be competitive, just not completely useless?

[PlytheFly]

There’s an Ally limit unless you go GA so you’ll probably have to pick. That said, Drakespawn nights CAN abuse the charge more in Anvilguard. If you have Enless Spells, a Sorceress and some Darkling Coven Pawns to be sacrificed, you can get off difficult spells easier more than most.

[Osprey07]

What are the first impressions for Anvilguard in the new cities book?

[Kaleun]

6 minutes ago, Osprey07 said:

What are the first impressions for Anvilguard in the new cities book?

Well its looking fine! 

(I can speak for the dark aelf factions living in this city)

City Allegiance: Anvilgard (Aqshy)

The Tortuga of the Mortal Realms.

Battle Traits

• Anvilgard armies must be from Aqshy.

• Illicit Dealings: Choose one of the following:

1. Black Market Bounty: 1 extra ANVILGARD Artefact of Power
2. Dabblings in Sorcery: 1 additional ANVILGARD Dragon/Kharibdyss/War Hydra can have a Drakeblood Curse
3. Hidden Agenda: D3 extra command points

• Command Ability: Make an Example of the Weak: At the start of your Battleshock Phase, pick 1 friendly ANVILGARD unit wholly within 12" of an ANVILGARD hero. One model is slain, but ANVILGARD units wholly within 18" of the targeted unit ignore Battleshock.

• Drakeblood Curses: One Dragon/Kharibdyss/War Hydra, plus one per Battalion, can have a Drakeblood Curse. No model may have more than one curse, and no curse may be taken more than once.

1. Acidic Blood: Roll a dice each time the unit is allocated a wound that wasn't negated. On a 4+, the damaging unit takes 1 mortal wound.
2. Jutting Bones: After the model makes a charge, pick an enemy unit within 1". On a 2+, target takes D3 mortal wounds.
3. Felgaze: 12" -2 bravery bubble.

Command Traits

Your General chooses one of:

1. Blackfang Crimelord: Pick 2 Illicit Dealings instead of 1.
2. Slayer of Monsters: +1 to hit and wound rolls if you target a MONSTER.
3. Secretive Warlock: If the general is a wizard, they know all the spells in the Anvilgard lore. If not, they know one.

Artefacts Of Power

One hero, plus one hero per battalion, chooses one of:

1. Drakescale Cloak: 5+ FNP
2. Venomfang Blade: Pick 1 weapon. If the wound roll of the attack is an unmodified 6, it deals D3 mortal wounds in addition to any normal damage.
3. Asphyxia Censer: At the end of the combat phase, each enemy unit within 3" of the bearer on a 4+ takes D3 mortal wounds.

Spell Lore

Each wizard knows one of the following spells:

1. Sap Strength: CV6. Pick a visible enemy unit within 18". They get -1 to hit until the start of your next hero phase.
2. Shadow Daggers: CV7. If cast, pick a visible enemy unit within 9". They take D6 mortal wounds.
3. Vitrioc Spray: CV8. If cast, pick a visible enemy unit within 6". Until the start of your next hero phase, they have a save characteristic of "-". Use your sorceress's sacrificial dagger to make sure it goes through!

 

Source:
https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Cities_of_Sigmar
 

Anvilguard is now also a very thematic city. Especially the Scourge Privateers and the Order Serpentis might feel very comfortable with those upgrades especially for our monsters.

The Spell Vitrioc Spray is very interesting. Generally speaking the former Dark elven factions have a big rend problem. This spell could be a solution. If you do not like the Spellcaster factions you can give the spell to a Dreadlord or a fleetmaster if you wish via Secretive Warlock. 

Generally speaking the new book gave the footslogging factions access to cavalry and artillery and vice versa, which is great. 

[Mikkl]

40 minutes ago, Kaleun said:

Well its looking fine! 

Nice to hear, I haven't heard to many good things about Anvilgard so far, I was starting to feel like everybody had just dismissed it and the Scourge Privateers. And to be fair, it does not look as powerful as the other cities, but I am new to all of the order armies, so 'm not the best judge. I was hoping somebody had some cool ideas for using the city.

I'm fairly disappointed with the Kharibdyss and Hydra warsroll, they seem to have a very low damage output. I was really looking forward to use them as Battleline (I still will, but im sure there are more powerful options).
 

[Rhivan]

I'm curious as to everyone's thoughts on Drakespawn Knights? They seem durable but overall eh in damage potential (at least from what I've been reading) 

Beyond that what are some combos/builds you guys are interested in?

[Kaleun]

@Mikkl

Nah it always depends on the level of competitive gaming that you set with your playing group. If options of Cities of Sigmar are trounament worthy... we will see. On the fluffy side of army lists we got a lot. Imagine building an army list of a pirate sloop constisting of Corsairs, ship command unit (with maat äh adjutant) and some brought volley guns from the ship while Dark Raiders accompany them.

(to be honest with you Dark elves hate blackpowder weapons because of their noise and clumsiness, but you know the story with the Reaper bolt thrower...)

Black Dragons get a impact attack with Jutting Bones which gets some much needed mortal wounds in the army. 

@Rhivan

Drakespawn Knights got a point reduction in the last GH2019 and now got a buff to their save (now: 3+) if I am not mistaken. There is the thing with the damage. In general I really miss the big damage dealers in this new book. Everything does just so litte damage compared to the other battletome armies sadly. 
So we must help the Knights do get their much desired killing power. How we do that is the big decision.
From my point of view while army building you should aim to wipe units per turn with the Knights. So we need a bigger unit size, well placed models and buffs and debuffs. 

The buffs are something we could work out together here. I find the Vitrioc Spray and the Celestial hurricanum very appealing. Tyrannical Ruler is also nice, so you can big and important units immune to battleshock (Command ability at the cost of one model).

[Kaleun]

PS: just checked the old warscroll of the Drakespawn Knights. They are A LOT better now. Not only they got a -2 rend now on the charge plus double damage, also the wound characteristic improved. Also the Dreadlords Lance received the same buff. Defnitly worth a try on the battlefield.