Dankboss

I've said before but using Doombringer Blade with Be'lakor is pretty dangerous for enemy monsters/ heroes, as with 14" move he can jump them pretty easily. There's almost always a high priority hero/ monster in most lists, and i found it makes life for said hero/ monster hard even without Be'lakor going for them, since everything is rerolling against them.

I think Be'lakor is decent and capable, but no longer the auto include he was. Personally I think that's for the better. Those who like him can still build around him and get results, I'm sure. He's certainly no stab in the foot.

I'm afraid Be'lakor doesn't count, he's not a StoD Daemon Prince in name, only in keywords. The battalion isn't keyworded.

We tried the Doomsigil with Be'lakor but it's not worth the hassle, from what we found.

Yeah it really makes me hesitant to move the Hero/ Monster forward, as everything gets rerolls hits/ wounds against them, so even 2 knights did like 6 damage.

That's similar to my regular opponent's list. I've now played 2 games against new Be'lakor. Doombringer Blade is actually really good for Be'lakor to assassinate other heroes. He went through my Troggboss with Glowy Howsit pretty easily. Also means he can benefit from an Artefact without being able to take it.

The forums look a bit janky on my end.

My regular opponent favors Ruinbringer Warband for his battalion as he likes his knights.

He does

Yep, testing out to see if it's worth it. Giving him a 5+ ward as the general is kinda a big deal. When my opponent does that however, he normally makes his knights Slaanesh since they're operating off of power pairs so it's not a problem.

Copy pasted from THW Discord: Despoilers vs Glogg's Megamob. Normally my trolls rinse StoD since they kill knights like they're flies, so it is a decent challenge for StoD to face them. This was Starstrike. Be'lakor projecting a big bubble of 6+ ward was actually the thing keeping his army alive. My Rockguts pasted his marauders for 27 damage and he somehow rolled 10 ward saves. Luck aside, he took a battalion so had Doombringer blade and marked my Troggboss; he also had Call to Glory. Be'lakor managed to jump my Troggboss and assassinate him in one go with reroll hits and wounds, through his Glowy Howsit. My Hag tied him up long enough for him to not be able to kill off some important trolls holding an objective, although Be'lakor managed to kill her too. I won the game but by a hair's width. Be'lakor getting stuck right in actually was quite significant. He healed something like 7 wounds over the game as any chip damage got healed up. He stopped my other unit of Rockguts to prevent them being a threat, however I hand of Gorked them out the way so they were safe from counter attacks. Aside from horrible casting rolls, Be'lakor performed pretty well. My suspicions were right, in that Be'lakor can assassinate other big heroes or monsters when he gets full rerolls.

Aside from Archaon, he's the only real caster who can properly utilize those 12" StoD spells, since the manticore lord dies to a stuff breeze. So he can get up close without the risk of instant death. The extra durability lets him utilize things like Enfeeble Foe, which is very powerful. Before, Be'lakor was always cowering in the back and forgotten, only brought along for his gimmick. Now he's his own man and can actively participate in the fight. He's also a source of -2 rend, which StoD severely lack in any consistent capacity. He'll also be the one and only time Call to Glory gets cast for when he wants to throwdown with other heroes and monsters. Before he was 240 points of one big ability and the occasional spell, for the price of a sorcerer lord on top you get someone who can actively participate in the game and fight when he needs to. In Despoilers he works well with lots of Marauders, since he'll get a 5+ ward and give a 6+ ward to them and prevent battleshock, which saves on CP. The rest of the army can be other marks.

Since you've got a lot of trolls, you could test out Glogg's Megamob, which lets you give a 4+ spell save to trolls and return half a unit when they get destroyed. a 5+ ward save combined with a spell save should make them very tough for Tzeentch magic to handle. How many trolls do you run in a unit? Rockguts are ideally run in units of 6+ The Troggboss is a super-heavy foot hero as opposed to a big scary monster, so keep him reserved in the middle-back of the board until later turns when he can start fighting, when most other things are wounded or dead.

When I first started Age of Sigmar, I had come from having played 40k, and 6th/7th edition was the most recent at the time. I had played since 4th, but I never found that Deathstars were a thing before 6th/7th. Seeing that, in AoS, there were wounds that armor/ invulnerable saves could not save, and that ward saves tended to be 5+/6+ and not the likes of 3++ invulnerables etc etc, I immediately found the game far more fun than 40k ever had been. The game was so much less open to abuse, because it was so much easier to kill units, in particular the kind of problem units that in 40k, would have made the game unpleasant to play. AoS, for the most part, did not have that problem. So yes, mortal wounds are a good idea and I'm glad they exist. I've never had more fun playing warhammer than when I switched to AoS. However, naturally, there are now too many mortal wounds flying around these days, and it needs to be reigned in.

The Hag appears to be available here in the UK, at least for the time being. She did appear in the Glogg's Megamob article, namedropped, discussed and had lore for her, however that's no guarantee that she won't become out of production. I reckon the current curated FW selection will stick around; otherwise even Vorgarroth and Skalok are at risk (though the Fimir Noble had a lifespan of 3 years). If anything I'd have expected the Bonegrinder to be long gone, but FW's methods are an enigma so... Saying that, there's usually at least a year of a OOP model still being legal in the GHB. I recall the OOP Fimir being around for a year before the GHB removed them. I don't think I'll be that sad if she does go, at least means I won't have to wonder if she's sticking around or not.

No worries, I really mean what do you see in that allegiance over the Grimskuttle Tribe? How does it change your game compared with a specific subfaction. Granted, Grimskuttle Tribe isn't as good at Jaws of Mork or Glogg's Megamob.

What is Gutstompa's doing better than the WD spiderfang allegiance?

There are ways of keeping his ability without keeping it a negative play experience (which it is, massively). If it were changed to say, once per turn you can pick a unit and half its move, I'd say that'd be both more powerful and less of a negative experience.

One Eyed Grunnock works in Slaves to Darkness as he provides consistent -2 rend and a massive combat Hero, which the army lacks outside of Archaon; Manticores aren't quite enough. My regular opponent runs him beside 40 marauders for a nasty double-whammy. For the cost of Archaon you can get him and the marauders, which is a fair choice. He's usually taken in Ravagers. When deciding on taking a mega gargant, you need to consider what they are doing for the army, and what does it provide that the army otherwise lacks? As with StoD, it's consistent rend and the ability to get into the thick of it without the threat of being picked off, which can happen to things like Karkadraks and Demon Princes. Grunnock can function as a self-contained section of the army and can be left to his own devices if need be, while also being able to use generic command abilities like Inspiring Presence. Having devised the strategy myself, and having played against it many times now, I actually find I focus down the things like the marauders and knights early for objective purposes, which allows Grunnock to persist into the late game, which is a significant detriment, as by then there's not as much to handle him. If I kill him, it's because I hit him early. If he's not addressed by the start of turn 3, chances are he's sticking around. His bubble of -1 to hit he generates is also a big deal in preserving Marauders, so they pair well.

I would take Heroes who have ward saves, to mitigate the likes of Terrorgheists a bit. Chaos Warriors may be useful since they have one too, although if you're new I'd aim for a more well rounded all-comers list, not just tailoring to one specific army. I would say Be'lakor would be a great choice to turn off Terrorgheists, but he's due for a new model and an update so best to hold off for now. Instead, a Khorne Daemon Prince would be good to reduce the chances of them getting into combat with you.

I think his Blade of Shadows should actually be the Blade of Shadows, like 40k's version. 6 attacks 3s 3s -3/-4 3 damage 12 wounds with a 4+ ethereal and a 5++ ward. His disruption ability should be reworked due to NPE to something like once per turn pick an enemy unit, on a 2+ its movement is halved. With the same unit not being chosen twice. That would spread its impact across the game and not be an auto-win vs certain armies that rely on a big model. I'd reckon it'd actually be more powerful than before overall.

Unfortunately that won't happen.

Looks like 100mm to me.

All of the trolls bar the hag can go into the battalion, leaving the grot units out. I like to run 2 units of 20 as screens, but it can be played as a 4 drop with a unit of 40. The Hag is a tough Hero, which is important for an army with low bravery. She is good at pinning targets, and Hag Curse is incredibly powerful when it goes off. Ideally she'd have Scrapskuttles' Arachnacauldron but this list doesn't have the points. That said, she is still overall mediocre, but what nets her a place in this list is her ability to take the mandatory artefact, so the Trogg Boss can get Glowy Howsit, and because she can be returned via the Loonshrine.

Sold.