Double Misfire

Despite having never played Anvilgard, I've written a quick guide to getting the most out of them as part of my series exploring the different city allegiances. Let me know if I've missed anything obvious, would love to know what you guys think https://www.doublemisfire.com/2020/02/the-lonely-realmsphere-guide-anvilgard.html

Another city allegiance guide up, and this time for the very much maligned Anvilgard, focusing on capitalising on a couple of hidden gems to bring them to a competitive level. Big shout out to @dekay for helping out and casting an eye over it before it was published: https://www.doublemisfire.com/2020/02/the-lonely-realmsphere-guide-anvilgard.html Feedback very welcome as per

For the next edition of The Lonely Realmsphere Guide, we're visiting Anvilgard, the city commonly cited by Cities of Sigmar aficionados as turned up late when allegiance abilities were being doled out. That Anvilgard is underpowered is a sentiment I hold in contention, and I'd personally argue that the go to city for Dark Elf types who value modesty over metal bikinis has the potential to be CoS's most powerful, outshining even Hallowheart and Tempest's Eye, albeit on the basis of a couple of very powerful gimmicks. Why collect Anvilgard? Either you're a Dark Elf guy waiting for Shadowkin or Warhammer: The Old World to hit who's sensibilities don't extend to monstergirls, big on grimdark pirates, a committed monster masher who saw the battleline options, or just like good a challenge. Irregardless of what brought you to Anvilgard, what will keep you around are the pair of very strong options that when a list is tailored around one or both of them have the potential to delete the most armoured and/or insulated against mortal wounds units you opponent has going as if they were a screen of grots. Anvilgard's allegiance abilities are unique among the Free Cities, in that unlike Greywater Fastness and the Phoenicium's internally balanced array of rather milquetoast options, and the quartet of 'playable' cities having no wrong decisions when it comes to traits, artefacts and spells, Anvilgard's choices range from gamebreaking to dreadful, meaning I'm going to be pretty dismissive of some. As with my previous article on Greywater Fastness, I'll individually run though every unique option and rule available to Anvilgard before I expand on ideas for best utilising and creating lists around the two aforementioned standouts, though unlike Greywater Fastness I don't own or play with an Anvilgard army, so please treat the contents of this article as more theory than practice. Special thanks go out to Dekay (he of Storm-Aelves fame), the TGA Cities of Sigmar forum's resident authority on all things aelf for casting a cursory eye over this article and offering a few extra insights. BATTLE TRAITS We're off to a good start with Illicit Dealings, giving an Anvilgard army to the choice of one of three benefits. Black Market Bounty and Dabblings in Sorcery respectively offer a bonus artefact of power or Drakeblood curse ( mount traits by another name, covered below) each, meaning that if you've got two of either that you're particularly keen to include you don't have to drop 120 points on Anvilgard's sole somewhat rubbish battalion to do so. If you're good for magic items and monster mods, then Hidden Agents allows you to start the game with D3 extra command points, which everyone can use more of. Make an Example of the Weak is a convenient bonus command ability, allowing Anvilgard heroes to perform a Commissar style summary execution on a single rank and file model for an 18" Inspiring Presence bubble, useful if you're running a lot of large units and taking damage on all fronts. COMMAND TRAITS Blackfang Crimelord allows a second Illicit Dealing to be picked, which is handy if you're after two artefacts or curses and want to keep the bonus command points. Slayer of Monsters gives the general +1 to hit and wound against monsters, and as well as being underwhelming (monsters are exactly what you don't want most generals going near) also might not have any use at all in a lot of games, so hard pass. Secretive Warlock either unlocks all three spells from Anvilgard's Lore of Dark Sorcery for a wizard general, or allows a non wizard general to cast one of them (note that a general able to cast a spell this way doesn't become a wizard, gaining the keyword, so no unbinding attempts and no extra wounds from Darkfire Daemonrifts). Probably quite useful to add flexibility to a Sorceress general, or have a Dreadlord on Black Dragon, Freeguild General on Griffon, or Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix, able to fire off the lethal, but relatively short ranged Shadow Daggers. ARTEFACTS OF POWER The Drakefire Cloak is the standout here, giving a 5+ save against wounds allocated, and netting that handy Secretive Warlock Dreadlord on Black Dragon, Freeguild General on Griffon, or Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix a net average 33% more survivablity (not that the Phoenix needs it). By comparison the Venomfang Blade and Asphyica Censer feel like two of those not very good realm artefacts you skim over on your way to the Gryph-feather Charm and Ethereal Amulet. Restricted to Realm artefacts from Aqshy because that's where Anvilgard is, Anvilgard armies can of course use the Thermalrider Cloak to model wings on stuff that wouldn't usually have wings. Other handy Aqshian accessories include mortal wound shrugging Ignax's Scales (though I think I'd rather shrug off garden variety wounds as well with the Drakefire Cloak), the Magmaforged Blade, for a more consistent Venomfang Blade on a Dreadlord on Black Dragon with his command ability up; and the Smouldering Helm to dish mortal wounds back on a 5+ vs units with no rend if you include a second Dreadlord on Black Dragon or Freeguild General on Griffon and equip him with a shield (there's no reason not to outside of Living City lists). All in all though, artefacts available to Anvilgard that aren't the Drakefire Cloak are pretty unexciting, and should probably be forgone for command points or an extra Drakeblood curse. DRAKEBLOOD CURSES Pretty much identical to other allegiances' mount traits, Drakeblood curses allow one of three extra abilities to be handed out to an Anvilgard Black Dragon, Kharibdyss or War Hydra. The first, Acidic Blood, offers a chance to deal mortal wounds after taking damage, and is the weakest of the three. Jutting Bones' reliable chance of D3 mortal wounds on the charge gives monsters a solid shot in the arm, but isn't remarkable enough to go out of your way for. Fell Gaze, bestowing a -2 Bravery aura to it's lucky recipient might shock you to see revealed as the first of the two much hyped gimmicks promised in this article, as battleshock avoidance (and recently outright immunity) feels more like a core mechanic of AoS than battleshock itself. Don't worry though, I'm not crazy, there's another means of exploiting reduced Bravery scores available to Cities of Sigmar players that may not seem immediately obvious that I'll explain and detail the maximisation of in full, as soon as I've finished covering Anvilgard's remaining allegiance abilities. THE LORE OF DARK SORCERY Not everyone's botique spell lore gets a name as cool as Greywater Fastness' Lore of Smog. Sap Strength is a solid spell, offering a -1 to hit modifier that's cumulative with the Sorceress' Word of Pain and Hysh Battlemage's Pha's Protection, giving you multiple, stacking opportunities to force negative hit rolls on whatever enemy unit looks most threatening at the given time. Shadow Daggers has already come up a couple of times, and it's short range devastating payout goes great on a Secretive Warlock Freeguild General on Griffon, Dreadlord on Black Dragon, or even an infantry general like a Warden King or Black Ark Fleetmaster able to hang near the front lines, protected by an Honoured Retinue. Possibly even cast by a Celestial Hurricanum, though in an Anvilgard list packed with units making the best of the city's rather limited hand of advantages it's not likely you'll be able to afford to fit one in. Coming as less of a surprise as the second of my two vaunted gimmicks is the save roll negating Vitriolic Spray. Petrifex Elite? Completed it mate. Obviously ensuring you're able to get Vitriolic Spray off every turn is crucial, and owing to it's high casting value and long range, you'll want a blood sacrificing Sorceress casting it through an (amplified) Umbral Spellportal well out of unbinding range. Much more on Vitriolic Spray and the best units to capitalise on it with below. CHARWIND BEASTRUNNERS BATTALION Not even granting a particularly good conditional bonus against the monsters it may fight against, if this battalion needed a further strike against it, requires an awful lot of Black Arc Corsairs, a melee/missile hyrbrid unit continuing the unfortunate current trend of being mediocre at both. With artefacts, Drakeblood curses and command points available aplenty through Black Market Bounty I regrettably can't think of many reasons to field it, with even reduced drops and Scourgeruner Chariots not seeming like much of an incentive. Cool theme though! GIMMICK THE FIRST: THE TENEBROUS BRAVERY BOMB Easily sniffed at on its own, Fell Gaze's negative Bravery modifier is but one of the rather surprising plethora available Cities of Sigmar, making Anvilgard stand out with more stacking negative Bravery auras than any other army in the game, even the Legion of Grief. I'll run through the warscrolls that do this in a minute, but first I'd like to introduce the unit able to reap the benefits of those negative modifiers. Presenting... Yes, I've used the right image Rules for the Flesh-Eater Courts mercenary company the Tenebrous Court exist in both Forbidden Power and the General's Handbook 2019, allowing any army to run them as allies. Crypt Flayers (the big, flappy ghouls in the image above) have a special shooting attack called Death Scream, that rolls a 2D6 for every model in the unit against the target's Bravery, dealing mortal wounds equal to the difference. Even with a +2 modifier to enemy Bravery when the Crypt Flayers aren't in combat with them, with enough negative mods they can easily snipe characters, and have the potential to average a couple of wounds each on even normally implacable Bravery 10 targets. Crypt Flayers cost 170 points for a unit of three, making two units easy to slot into a 2,000 point game's ally allowance. An auto include in a bravery bomb list, Horrorghast, the endless spell that looks like a Nagash head that's been melted over a heated stove from Forbidden Power is inexpensive, and saps another two points of bravery from nearby units. The Kharibdyss (who can also be given the all important Fell Gaze), Dark Riders and the standing-out-by-not-being-a-Dark-Elf Freeguild General on Griffon all have -1 bravery auras able to stack with each other's, and so you'll want to squeeze in at least one of each. 'Oi, Franz, didn't you get the memo?! We've been on the same side for five years...' Sylvaneth Spite-Revenants have 3" a -1 Bravery aura and a unit of five can be cheekily squeezed into a 2,000 point game's ally allowance alongside two units of Crypt Horrors if you think they'll stay alive long enough to get any use out of it. With so many relatively low wound units integral to to pulling off a bravery bomb you'll probably want to find room for an Emerald Lifeswarm (healing D6 wounds under CoS) to keep them in the game (once those Crypt Horrors are gone they're gone). Fielding a mercenary company means you start the game with one less command point, and so picking Hidden Agents as your Black Market Bounty is probably pragmatic. Obviously if you do chance against an army vulnerable to battleshock then win/win with entire units running away after losing a single model and getting sneezed on. While I personally don't play Anvilgard (if you cut me I'd probably bleed Greywater Fastness), I'd love to see this concept in action on the table, and think that while it would require considerable finesse and practice to pull off, could seriously shake up the scene in the right hands, with very little most armies could stretch to counter it. Crypt Flayers even bear a passing resemblance to the original Dark Elf Harpy models from the 90s, so there's thematic scope to boot. GIMMICK THE SECOND: DEATH BY A THOUSAND UNSAVED CUTS Anvilgard's more popular crutch, Vitriolic Spray is entirely unique, rendering its target's save characteristic irrelevant, and making it ripe for a volley of Damage 1 Rend - attacks. Before building a list of low rend ranged units to fully take advantage, you'll first want to ensure that you can rely on casting it every turn. Even if Vitriolic Spray didn't have a pitiful range of 6", you'd still want to ensure it goes off well out of enemy unbind range, and Cities of Sigmar having endless spells better than everybody else's means you can cast from a corner with an amplified Umbral Spellportal. Vitriolic Spray having a steep casting cost of its own plus requiring an extra casting roll on the Spellportal's part means that you'll want them both cast by Sorceresses blood sacrificing a cheap unit of Bleakswords or Dreadspears. You'll typically be selecting a new target every turn as well, and will need to dispel the Spellportal in order to summon it again, and while a third Sorceress feels tempting in the role, you've only got one chance to dispel it, and so a Runelord with his +2 modifier is better for the job, with the added perk of providing wonderful buffs should you include a unit of Dispossessed. To max out on nonexistent armour saves, you'll want to load up on cheap, high volume Rend free attacks, ideally at range, and Darkshards or Freeguild Crossbowmen are your guys. Keeping consistent with Anvilgard's formerly-known-as-Dark Elves motif, Dark Riders buck the trend as functional melee/missile hybrids also put out a high volume of Rendless attacks and are speedy enough to ensure making it into combat with the unit you target. Despite already having a point of Rend Gyrocopters with steam guns also dish out a high volume of damage against hordes, and a unit of three is likely to wipe out a Vitriolic Sprayed target of single wound models. If you're going to build a list around Vitriolic Spray you're going to need to remember that the spell can only target a single enemy unit, and learn to pick the right one for it every turn, typically coming down to a decision between guaranteeing killing your opponent's linchpin damage or buff dealer, or getting a hard to shift unit off a valuable objective. It's particularly true of Age of Sigmar that games are won or lost on making the right decision at crucial moments, so practice hard and develop a knack for evaluating the payoff between shooting down an impending threat and denying your opponent victory points, being sure to learn from your mistakes in games you've lost having made the wrong choice at one of these junctures. BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER, OR NOT? It's a tight fit to create a 2,000 point list able to utilise both the gimmicks described above in tandem, with all the requisite endless spells needed to support them and the Sorceresses needed to cast those endless spells costing a fair whack, and while definitely manageable with the bravery bomb's Freeguild General on Griffon left at home, it's a very risky proposition, and will leave you with an army unable to do much else, that in the event of its Crypt Flayers being killed and/or an unlucky casting roll aren't worth the warscrolls they're printed on, and so it might be more prudent to play it safe with a list only incorporating one of the two into a more conventional selection of proven Cities of Sigmar units like Scourgerunner Chariots, Phoenix Guard, Dispossessed, and even Evocators. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS A uniquely 'spikey graph' among city allegiances, I maintain the opinion that with the right trait, artefact, curse, spell and most importantly unit selection, and a considerable amount of refinement and practice Anvilgard has the potential to be up there with Tempest's Eye and Hallowheart. Quite how, I'm not exactly sure, but I hope this article collates most of the pieces of the puzzle for a Dark Elf enthusiast willing to put the time in, or at the very least demonstrated to a new or prospective Anvilgard player who's been told their selected city's a write off that they don't have to paint their models blue and white to stand a chance of winning. If you're an Anvilgard player with any insights to add, or an unsentimental competitive type who thinks this article's overly optimistic theroryhammer tosh, then please leave a comment or get in touch, I'd love to hear your insights. View the full article

For the next edition of The Lonely Realmsphere Guide, we're visiting Anvilgard, the city commonly cited by Cities of Sigmar aficionados as turned up late when allegiance abilities were being doled out. That Anvilgard is underpowered is a sentiment I hold in contention, and I'd personally argue that the go to city for Dark Elf types who value modesty over metal bikinis has the potential to be CoS's most powerful, outshining even Hallowheart and Tempest's Eye, albeit on the basis of a couple of very powerful gimmicks. Why collect Anvilgard? Either you're a Dark Elf guy waiting for Shadowkin or Warhammer: The Old World to hit who's sensibilities don't extend to monstergirls, big on grimdark pirates, a committed monster masher who saw the battleline options, or just like good a challenge. Irregardless of what brought you to Anvilgard, what will keep you around are the pair of very strong options that when a list is tailored around one or both of them have the potential to delete the most armoured and/or insulated against mortal wounds units you opponent has going as if they were a screen of grots. Anvilgard's allegiance abilities are unique among the Free Cities, in that unlike Greywater Fastness and the Phoenicium's internally balanced array of rather milquetoast options, and the quartet of 'playable' cities having no wrong decisions when it comes to traits, artefacts and spells, Anvilgard's choices range from gamebreaking to dreadful, meaning I'm going to be pretty dismissive of some. As with my previous article on Greywater Fastness, I'll individually run though every unique option and rule available to Anvilgard before I expand on ideas for best utilising and creating lists around the two aforementioned standouts, though unlike Greywater Fastness I don't own or play with an Anvilgard army, so please treat the contents of this article as more theory than practice. Special thanks go out to Dekay (he of Storm-Aelves fame), the TGA Cities of Sigmar forum's resident authority on all things aelf for casting a cursory eye over this article and offering a few extra insights. BATTLE TRAITS We're off to a good start with Illicit Dealings, giving an Anvilgard army to the choice of one of three benefits. Black Market Bounty and Dabblings in Sorcery respectively offer a bonus artefact of power or Drakeblood curse ( mount traits by another name, covered below) each, meaning that if you've got two of either that you're particularly keen to include you don't have to drop 120 points on Anvilgard's sole somewhat rubbish battalion to do so. If you're good for magic items and monster mods, then Hidden Agents allows you to start the game with D3 extra command points, which everyone can use more of. Make an Example of the Weak is a convenient bonus command ability, allowing Anvilgard heroes to perform a Commissar style summary execution on a single rank and file model for an 18" Inspiring Presence bubble, useful if you're running a lot of large units and taking damage on all fronts. COMMAND TRAITS Blackfang Crimelord allows a second Illicit Dealing to be picked, which is handy if you're after two artefacts or curses and want to keep the bonus command points. Slayer of Monsters gives the general +1 to hit and wound against monsters, and as well as being underwhelming (monsters are exactly what you don't want most generals going near) also might not have any use at all in a lot of games, so hard pass. Secretive Warlock either unlocks all three spells from Anvilgard's Lore of Dark Sorcery for a wizard general, or allows a non wizard general to cast one of them (note that a general able to cast a spell this way doesn't become a wizard, gaining the keyword, so no unbinding attempts and no extra wounds from Darkfire Daemonrifts). Probably quite useful to add flexibility to a Sorceress general, or have a Dreadlord on Black Dragon, Freeguild General on Griffon, or Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix, able to fire off the lethal, but relatively short ranged Shadow Daggers. ARTEFACTS OF POWER The Drakefire Cloak is the standout here, giving a 5+ save against wounds allocated, and netting that handy Secretive Warlock Dreadlord on Black Dragon, Freeguild General on Griffon, or Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix a net average 33% more survivablity (not that the Phoenix needs it). By comparison the Venomfang Blade and Asphyica Censer feel like two of those not very good realm artefacts you skim over on your way to the Gryph-feather Charm and Ethereal Amulet. Restricted to Realm artefacts from Aqshy because that's where Anvilgard is, Anvilgard armies can of course use the Thermalrider Cloak to model wings on stuff that wouldn't usually have wings. Other handy Aqshian accessories include mortal wound shrugging Ignax's Scales (though I think I'd rather shrug off garden variety wounds as well with the Drakefire Cloak), the Magmaforged Blade, for a more consistent Venomfang Blade on a Dreadlord on Black Dragon with his command ability up; and the Smouldering Helm to dish mortal wounds back on a 5+ vs units with no rend if you include a second Dreadlord on Black Dragon or Freeguild General on Griffon and equip him with a shield (there's no reason not to outside of Living City lists). All in all though, artefacts available to Anvilgard that aren't the Drakefire Cloak are pretty unexciting, and should probably be forgone for command points or an extra Drakeblood curse. DRAKEBLOOD CURSES Pretty much identical to other allegiances' mount traits, Drakeblood curses allow one of three extra abilities to be handed out to an Anvilgard Black Dragon, Kharibdyss or War Hydra. The first, Acidic Blood, offers a chance to deal mortal wounds after taking damage, and is the weakest of the three. Jutting Bones' reliable chance of D3 mortal wounds on the charge gives monsters a solid shot in the arm, but isn't remarkable enough to go out of your way for. Fell Gaze, bestowing a -2 Bravery aura to it's lucky recipient might shock you to see revealed as the first of the two much hyped gimmicks promised in this article, as battleshock avoidance (and recently outright immunity) feels more like a core mechanic of AoS than battleshock itself. Don't worry though, I'm not crazy, there's another means of exploiting reduced Bravery scores available to Cities of Sigmar players that may not seem immediately obvious that I'll explain and detail the maximisation of in full, as soon as I've finished covering Anvilgard's remaining allegiance abilities. THE LORE OF DARK SORCERY Not everyone's botique spell lore gets a name as cool as Greywater Fastness' Lore of Smog. Sap Strength is a solid spell, offering a -1 to hit modifier that's cumulative with the Sorceress' Word of Pain and Hysh Battlemage's Pha's Protection, giving you multiple, stacking opportunities to force negative hit rolls on whatever enemy unit looks most threatening at the given time. Shadow Daggers has already come up a couple of times, and it's short range devastating payout goes great on a Secretive Warlock Freeguild General on Griffon, Dreadlord on Black Dragon, or even an infantry general like a Warden King or Black Ark Fleetmaster able to hang near the front lines, protected by an Honoured Retinue. Possibly even cast by a Celestial Hurricanum, though in an Anvilgard list packed with units making the best of the city's rather limited hand of advantages it's not likely you'll be able to afford to fit one in. Coming as less of a surprise as the second of my two vaunted gimmicks is the save roll negating Vitriolic Spray. Petrifex Elite? Completed it mate. Obviously ensuring you're able to get Vitriolic Spray off every turn is crucial, and owing to it's high casting value and long range, you'll want a blood sacrificing Sorceress casting it through an (amplified) Umbral Spellportal well out of unbinding range. Much more on Vitriolic Spray and the best units to capitalise on it with below. CHARWIND BEASTRUNNERS BATTALION Not even granting a particularly good conditional bonus against the monsters it may fight against, if this battalion needed a further strike against it, requires an awful lot of Black Arc Corsairs, a melee/missile hyrbrid unit continuing the unfortunate current trend of being mediocre at both. With artefacts, Drakeblood curses and command points available aplenty through Black Market Bounty I regrettably can't think of many reasons to field it, with even reduced drops and Scourgeruner Chariots not seeming like much of an incentive. Cool theme though! GIMMICK THE FIRST: THE TENEBROUS BRAVERY BOMB Easily sniffed at on its own, Fell Gaze's negative Bravery modifier is but one of the rather surprising plethora available Cities of Sigmar, making Anvilgard stand out with more stacking negative Bravery auras than any other army in the game, even the Legion of Grief. I'll run through the warscrolls that do this in a minute, but first I'd like to introduce the unit able to reap the benefits of those negative modifiers. Presenting... Yes, I've used the right image Rules for the Flesh-Eater Courts mercenary company the Tenebrous Court exist in both Forbidden Power and the General's Handbook 2019, allowing any army to run them as allies. Crypt Flayers (the big, flappy ghouls in the image above) have a special shooting attack called Death Scream, that rolls a 2D6 for every model in the unit against the target's Bravery, dealing mortal wounds equal to the difference. Even with a +2 modifier to enemy Bravery when the Crypt Flayers aren't in combat with them, with enough negative mods they can easily snipe characters, and have the potential to average a couple of wounds each on even normally implacable Bravery 10 targets. Crypt Flayers cost 170 points for a unit of three, making two units easy to slot into a 2,000 point game's ally allowance. An auto include in a bravery bomb list, Horrorghast, the endless spell that looks like a Nagash head that's been melted over a heated stove from Forbidden Power is inexpensive, and saps another two points of bravery from nearby units. The Kharibdyss (who can also be given the all important Fell Gaze), Dark Riders and the standing-out-by-not-being-a-Dark-Elf Freeguild General on Griffon all have -1 bravery auras able to stack with each other's, and so you'll want to squeeze in at least one of each. 'Oi, Franz, didn't you get the memo?! We've been on the same side for five years...' Sylvaneth Spite-Revenants have 3" a -1 Bravery aura and a unit of five can be cheekily squeezed into a 2,000 point game's ally allowance alongside two units of Crypt Horrors if you think they'll stay alive long enough to get any use out of it. With so many relatively low wound units integral to to pulling off a bravery bomb you'll probably want to find room for an Emerald Lifeswarm (healing D6 wounds under CoS) to keep them in the game (once those Crypt Horrors are gone they're gone). Fielding a mercenary company means you start the game with one less command point, and so picking Hidden Agents as your Black Market Bounty is probably pragmatic. Obviously if you do chance against an army vulnerable to battleshock then win/win with entire units running away after losing a single model and getting sneezed on. While I personally don't play Anvilgard (if you cut me I'd probably bleed Greywater Fastness), I'd love to see this concept in action on the table, and think that while it would require considerable finesse and practice to pull off, could seriously shake up the scene in the right hands, with very little most armies could stretch to counter it. Crypt Flayers even bear a passing resemblance to the original Dark Elf Harpy models from the 90s, so there's thematic scope to boot. GIMMICK THE SECOND: DEATH BY A THOUSAND UNSAVED CUTS Anvilgard's more popular crutch, Vitriolic Spray is entirely unique, rendering its target's save characteristic irrelevant, and making it ripe for a volley of Damage 1 Rend - attacks. Before building a list of low rend ranged units to fully take advantage, you'll first want to ensure that you can rely on casting it every turn. Even if Vitriolic Spray didn't have a pitiful range of 6", you'd still want to ensure it goes off well out of enemy unbind range, and Cities of Sigmar having endless spells better than everybody else's means you can cast from a corner with an amplified Umbral Spellportal. Vitriolic Spray having a steep casting cost of its own plus requiring an extra casting roll on the Spellportal's part means that you'll want them both cast by Sorceresses blood sacrificing a cheap unit of Bleakswords or Dreadspears. You'll typically be selecting a new target every turn as well, and will need to dispel the Spellportal in order to summon it again, and while a third Sorceress feels tempting in the role, you've only got one chance to dispel it, and so a Runelord with his +2 modifier is better for the job, with the added perk of providing wonderful buffs should you include a unit of Dispossessed. If you're interested in a more detailed analysis of the Runelord and Dispossessed, then check out my Lonely Realmsphere article looking at them here. To max out on nonexistent armour saves, you'll want to load up on cheap, high volume Rend free attacks, ideally at range, and Darkshards or Freeguild Crossbowmen are your guys. Keeping consistent with Anvilgard's formerly-known-as-Dark Elves motif, Dark Riders buck the trend as functional melee/missile hybrids also put out a high volume of Rendless attacks and are speedy enough to ensure making it into combat with the unit you target. Despite already having a point of Rend Gyrocopters with steam guns also dish out a high volume of damage against hordes, and a unit of three is likely to wipe out a Vitriolic Sprayed target of single wound models. If you're going to build a list around Vitriolic Spray you're going to need to remember that the spell can only target a single enemy unit, and learn to pick the right one for it every turn, typically coming down to a decision between guaranteeing killing your opponent's linchpin damage or buff dealer, or getting a hard to shift unit off a valuable objective. It's particularly true of Age of Sigmar that games are won or lost on making the right decision at crucial moments, so practice hard and develop a knack for evaluating the payoff between shooting down an impending threat and denying your opponent victory points, being sure to learn from your mistakes in games you've lost having made the wrong choice at one of these junctures. BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER, OR NOT? It's a tight fit to create a 2,000 point list able to utilise both the gimmicks described above in tandem, with all the requisite endless spells needed to support them and the Sorceresses needed to cast those endless spells costing a fair whack, and while definitely manageable with the bravery bomb's Freeguild General on Griffon left at home, it's a very risky proposition, and will leave you with an army unable to do much else, that in the event of its Crypt Flayers being killed and/or an unlucky casting roll aren't worth the warscrolls they're printed on, and so it might be more prudent to play it safe with a list only incorporating one of the two into a more conventional selection of proven Cities of Sigmar units like Scourgerunner Chariots, Phoenix Guard, Dispossessed, and even Evocators. CONCLUDING THOUGHTS A uniquely 'spikey graph' among city allegiances, I maintain the opinion that with the right trait, artefact, curse, spell and most importantly unit selection, and a considerable amount of refinement and practice Anvilgard has the potential to be up there with Tempest's Eye and Hallowheart. Quite how, I'm not exactly sure, but I hope this article collates most of the pieces of the puzzle for a Dark Elf enthusiast willing to put the time in, or at the very least demonstrated to a new or prospective Anvilgard player who's been told their selected city's a write off that they don't have to paint their models blue and white to stand a chance of winning. If you're an Anvilgard player with any insights to add, or an unsentimental competitive type who thinks this article's overly optimistic theroryhammer tosh, then please leave a comment or get in touch, I'd love to hear your insights.View the full article

Dispossessed units are also a great fit for Tempest's Eye, with a handy +1 attack spell that plays to their strengths and the extra movement in the first turn going a long way to offset their tiny legs.

Hi @Icefighter, welcome to Cities of Sigmar! You've got great taste The three units you've listed at all stalwarts, and perform pretty well as part of an army from pretty much any city, though Pistoliers become battleline and gain a battalion option with extra special rules in Tempest's Eye armies. Beyond that, just go with the city you like the look/feel/rules of the most, though be warned before going for Greywater Fastness, the Phoenicium and Anvilgard, as the popular view is that Hammerhal, the Living City, Hallowheart and Tempest's Eye are the better/more competitive cities.

Ok, revisiting this thread after it's lain dormant for a while, the most commonly agreed on changes seem to be: Phoenix Guard going up by 10-20 points, possibly losing the horde discount, as they're on a par with Tzangor and much better than the other CoS elite infantry options. Either Freeguild Handgunners going up by 10 points or Freeguild Crossbowmen going down by 10, as both compete for the same spot, and the Handgunners are the more popular/commonly perceived as better unit. Scourgerunner Chariots are universally agreed on as a bit good, and should go up by 10-20. Longbeards and Ironbreakers going down by 10-20 points each, as apparently they're quite immobile and don't do a lot of damage. Dark Riders going down by 10 points to compete for the role they share with Pistoliers and Outriders. Flagellants and Black Arc Corsairs dropping 10-20 points a piece if it doesn't mean too cheap a source of conditional battleline. The Helblaster Volley Gun and Helstorm Rocket Battery both struggle to compete with the same points worth of non artillery shooting (with and without requisite hero buffs), and could either go down 10-30 points a piece or see the price of other shooters pushed up. The Assassin getting a significant points drop, possibly as many as 40, as he's cute, but entirely useless. The Sorceress on Black Dragon and Battlemage on Griffon dropping 20-40 points, as they don't see use over either monster's martial equivalent, or other kinds of wizard. The Whitefire Retinue battalion getting a significant points increase, possibly as many as 80, as it's currently a no brainer for Hallowheart players, and even at 220 points a lot of them would probably still use it. The Charwind Beasthunters, Phoenix Flight, and Viridian Pathfinders battalions dropping by 40 or so points, as they don't see a lot of use, and Anvilgard and the Phoenicum are commonly perceived as two of the weaker city allegiances. Would everyone agree that this is a favourable consensus?

@Kramer I agree with @dekay about merging the Executioner units. The Venomfang Blade activates on wound rolls not hit rolls and is generally a bit pap, so I'd swap it out for the Drakescale Cloak on the Dreadlord for on average a third extra wounds, and give the dragon Jutting Bones instead of acidic blood. Also a lance and a shield if you can model them on, but if you think two weapons looks cool then stick with two weapons. I'm not sure how an artefact benefits your Sorceress, so you might be better off being illicitly dealt extra command points. Reliably getting Vitriolic spray off every turn is crucial, so I'd' definitely want to think about dropping something (perhaps the Fleetmaster and Corsairs) for an Umbral Spellportal and 10 Dreadspears.

Legions of Nagash with the Nighthaunt units they're able to use 😉

Morning all, I've resurrected an old article series I tried out back in the Season of War: Firestorm days (admittedly only producing a single article for), examining how to get the most mileage out each of the different city allegiances, kicky off with my much beloved Greywater Fastness: https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-lonely-realmsphere-guide-greywater.html Feedback very very welcome, I'd love to know how informative and/or entertaining this guide was, and if I've missed anything obvious out.

'Sup Greycaps, I've put together a new blog post delving deep into getting the most out of our (next to Hallowheart's) pretty so-so pile of allegiance abilities. Check it out in the link below if you fancy it, and please let me know if you think there's anything obvious I've left out. https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/the-lonely-realmsphere-guide-greywater.html

Figuring I'd take a break from writing about Teclis and get some actual Cities of Sigmar content up, presenting the first instalment of the Cities of Sigmar edition of The Lonely Realmsphere Guide, resurrecting a feature I'd started on TGA in the pre battletome days of Season of War: Firestorm, on getting the most use out of each Free City's allegiance abilities, kicking off with my preferred environmental disaster, Greywater Fastness. Why collect a Greywater Fastness army? You could have seen the duardin on the start collecting box and thought I'm having a bit of that, be a true artillery aesthete (to the continued exasperation of your gaming group), already have a lot of models painted up in Averland colours dating back to before Averland's status as protoplasmic goo, straight up hate Wood Elves, or in my case be afflicted by a combination of the above. Patrician taste in Free Cities assured, how are you supposed to get the best mileage out of a set of allegiance abilities, that let's face it, ain't exactly Hallowheart? When thematic 'chapter trait' options are given to an army, it's sort of the rule one set shines head and shoulders above the rest, and Cities of Sigmar are a comparatively fortunate exception, in that their stronghold choices are pretty evenly divided into a two tier system. Perhaps less fortunate for Greywater Fastness, Anvilgard and the Phoenicium, all squarely stuck at the bottom, but hey, at least we don't have a Petrifex Elite. Despite Greywater Fastness not getting doubled in value wizards or a fight twice command ability, I'm not the type to say my army's from Hallowheart but wearing loaned Greywater uniforms, and see squeezing as much mileage as I can out of the hand of relatively grounded traits, artefacts and spells they do get as a fun challenge. Empire Great Cannons. Don't exist anymore, but you get my point DISCLAIMER: S.A.D. ARMIES: A term popularised by players of the original Warhammer in the early 2000s, S.A.D. or Shooty Army of Doom, doesn't need a lot of explanation, with an acronym perfectly eunicating its intent, being that while 'gunline' armies cramming in as many artillery pieces and long range missile units, might seem an appealing prospect to collect and play with, by contrast provide a pretty bleak experience for anyone unfortunate enough to play against them, and are commonly regarded as all kinds of boring to play against, but also requiring very little skill. Because let's face it, games where your shiniest, best models are get shot off the board before you've had a chance to do anything with them ain't fun Not only burdening regular opponents to the point of not wanting to play/talk to you anymore, S.A.D. armies are also deliberately curbed against by many tournament organisers, with the practice of ensuring that at least one game played over the course of an event will use a range reducing Realmscape Feature from the Realm of Shadow, resulting that in addition a guaranteed sports score of zero, a S.A.D. army taken to an event will be certain to loose at least one game. While I'll be covering all of Greywater Fastness' abilities and options available in full, obviously a lot of them lend themselves to improving the S.A.D. capacity of a lot of already S.A.D. inclined units, and reading this article you may find that I've given disproportionate attention to achieving victory through other means, potentially saving both you social life and tournament career in the process. Pony conferring no additional in-game bonuses. Probably rolls more 1s to run than he would on foot BATTLE TRAITS We're off to a great start with Rune Lore, and the Rune of Unfaltering Aim, giving the Runelord, already an indispensable utility character in Dispossessed heavy lists (able to buff units offensively and defensively, ward off hostile spells and dispel your own souped up endless spells free of charge to free them up to be recast), an extra function free of charge in giving a nearby unit Ironweld war machines +1 to hit in addition to the prayer he'd normally be able to cast. Fantastic when cast on a unit of three Gyrocopters with steam guns early game, and then used to support a Steam Tank moving alongside a block of Hammerers, or an artillery piece camped out with Irondrakes, Rune Lore effectively being free means that if you're weighing up whether to build your Greywater Fastness army around a core of Freeguild, Disposessed, or one of the various aelf factions, the duardin lead by a hair's breadth. Salvo Fire is a solid, if uninspiring command ability, further boosting a unit of Irondrakes or Freeguild Handgunners' status as CoS preeminent shooters with +1 to hit, and comboing nicely with the generic Volley Fire. However, if you're inclined to max out on those units (both typically hitting on a 3+), you're probably going to be looking at running them alongside a Celestial Hurricanum, which will already max out their to hit rolls, and facing up to the fact that the Tempest's Eye command trait Hawk-eyed gives +1 to wound bonus for largely the same effect, doesn't cost a command point and stacks with the Hurricanum. Hawk-eyed alone means Tempest's Eye probably has the ability to make better conventional gunlines than GWF, and so we've really got to get what we can out of the few advantages we do have, bringing us nicely to... Home of the Great Ironweld Guns, adding 3" to the range of Ironweld war machines, is easy to disregard when the first place your mind goes is Helstorms Rocket Batteries and Helblasters, but affords a nice boost to a Steam Tank's steam gun, and even repeater handgun, and significantly ups the game of steam gun armed Gyrocopters (conceivably the only way to build the Gyrocopter/Gyrobomber kit), allowing them more flexible placement when incinerating the largest hordes. COMMAND TRAITS Consistent with the previous battle traits, none of Greywater's command traits offer anything in the way of game breaking combos, but all three are solid, offering neat bonuses when tailored to the right force. Seat on the Council is my personal favourite, and when combined with an adjutant can turn a general into a veritable command point farm almost up there with Hammerhal - command points, you can never have too many. Drillmaster's reroll 1s to hit aura works best on a Cogsmith supporting multiple Helblaster Volley Guns (typically in an Artillery Company battalion), as each Helblaster is an individual unit. A large block of Irondrakes or Handgunners may be better off with a Seat on the Council general and accompanying adjutant firing off Volley Fire to reroll 1s when needed. Though that said, a well applied Knight-Azyros circumvents the need for either. Ghoul Mere Ranger's a funny one, and a command trait I wish I had the painted models to necessitate using, if only for the cool narrative image the name inspires. Allowing units near the general to run and still shoot, it's a little pokey due to most CoS shooters being granted conditional bonuses on standing still, meaning they're only going to want to move through a Soulscream Bridge most of the time. I can imagine it would prove handy in helping a Steam Tank heavy force capture objectives and still shoot early game. ARTEFACTS OF POWER (or Ranald's whiskers, why don't we have pigeon bombs?!) Of Greywater Fastness' trio of artefacts, there's a standout winner in the Steam-piston Platemail, transforming a Steam Tank Commander, a less thematically inclined (but arguably much more useful) Freeguild General on Griffon or Dreadlord on Black Dragon, or even Stardrake into a literal tank with a 2+ save and enough wounds to capitalise on. Runic Munitions would be wonderful if any of Cities of Sigmar's component subfactions still had access to a hero with the ability to volley off a large volume of damage 1 shooting attacks like the former Wanderer Waywatcher hero, but as it stands is still an appreciable option in the hands of a Knight-Venator. The incontestable best named artefact in the game, Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope is probably what I'd go for to pick up an extra command points if I lacked a behemoth hero or Knight-Venator to slap either of the aforementioned artefacts on, and didn't fancy any of the Ghyran options. Like the Runic Munitions the Macroscope would be great if we had more dedicated ranged heroes. Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope! Greywater Fastness armies are restricted to Realm artefacts from Ghyran because er, that's where they're from. Nothing immediately jumps out, but in games I'm without a behemoth hero I like to run Ghyrstrike on a Warden King general who's bodyguard can protect him enough to let him get stuck in, the Hypersnare Seeds can throw a serious fly in the ointment of enemies infringing on your ranged units if you get lucky, and the Jadewound Thorn compliments a Freeguild General on Griffon with a Sigmarite Runesword and his command ability active nicely for five chances to do a mortal wound on a 5+. THE LORE OF SMOG I love the imagery the name of this spell lore evokes. Descending Ash Cloud is the standout here, offering a -1 to hit modifier that's culmative with the Sorceress' Word of Pain and Hysh Battlemage's Pha's Protection, giving you multiple opportunities to force negative hit rolls on your opponent's biggest, baddest unit or monster, often stacking. Eroding Blast and Choking Fumes are fairly similar in function horde killers; personally I'd veer towards Choking Fumes, as Eroding Blast's scenery requirement feels situational. Both may work best on a behemoth mounted wizard, more likely to be on the front lines, and covering a larger range footprint. THE GREYWATER ARTILLERY COMPANY BATTALION If you're going to hand out only a single battalion to each city, it only stands that Greywater Fastness' should have an Ironweld focus, but why S.A.D., why did it have to be S.A.D.?! We could have had a brigade of Steam Tanks, or even a formation of Gyrocopters acting as spotters for artillery, having to get up close and personal in order to give shooting bonuses, at least making it dynamic S.A.D., but nope, straight up garden variety cluster of artillery deleting anything hapless enough to deploy opposite it S.A.D.. Personal hangups aside, the Greywater Artillery Company is about the only time Ironweld artillery is going to outperform the equivalent points spent on Freeguild Handgunners, and so if you're going to use what's already quite a pricey battalion, it would be prudent to go all in on it, fielding the maximum four artillery pieces available and building the rest of your list around it. With the battalion's Gunmaster as your general with Drillmaster, Helblaster Volley Guns become the infinetly preferable option for your four artillery pieces; you'll want to include a Lord-Ordinator or Celestial Hurricanum for a bonus to hit, and consider a Soulscream Bridge (cast by a Sorceress sacrificing minions to guarantee it happens on turn 1), with plenty of minions to screen your artillery on the other side, to be hitting on a rerollable 2+ on your double shooting first turn. If Greywater Fastness had a better range of artefacts and/or heroes to use them on at its disposal, then a 'minimal' artillery battery with only two Helblasters, coming in at 420 points might be a viable way to stock up, but as it stands doesn't quite past muster. UNIT SELECTION As you can see in the preceding parts of this article, Greywater Fastness has a narrower spread of units to grant benefits to than the 'one size fits all' allegiance abilities of say, Hammerhal, or Tempest's Eye, and I've collated a few options and combos that I think stand out: Gyrocopters with steam guns Steam guns are the main beneficiaries of Home of the Great Ironweld Guns' extra 3" range, and work great both a cheap solos, and in discount squadrons of 3. Though obviously running on a situational curve, the steam gun is still frighteningly potent when used against large units of multi wound models, and a unit of three Gyrocopters with +1 to hit from an early game Rune of Unfaltering Aim, or Hurricanum aura will on average take out a third of a unit of Brutes, and almost half a unit of Chaos Warriors, allowing you to capitalise on battleshock. Always remember to fire your steam guns at a target before any other missile troops to capitalise on casualties mind! I have yet to figure out how Gyrocopters with brimstone guns or Gyrobombers are worth their points by comparison. Runelord The Rune of Unfaltering Aim on its own obviously isn't enough of a reason to take a Runelord, and so it comes a huge relief that the guy's a 90 point Swiss Army knife, and probably my favourite warscroll of all time. The reliably cast defensive Ancestral Shield and rend boosting Forgefire can not only be used in the same turn as the Rune of Unfaltering Aim, but also stack, meaning that if you're running a Dispossessed heavy list you can add as many 6+ special saves or points of rend to a large unit of Hammerers or Irondrakes as you have Runelords. The best unbinding bonus this side of named characters who are also gods means he'll be able to throw a spanner in your opponent's best laid magical plans; and being able to dispel endless spells for 'free', without having to give up casting anything in the same way a wizard would, with a +2 to modifier lends to great defensive and offensive applications. Defensively shutting down threatening endless spells speaks for itself, but the ability to dispel spells offensively might require some explaining. Dispelling an endless spell you've cast in a previous turn frees the spell up for you to cast and activate it again, giving you a second activation of the spell for twice the mortal wounds or Emerald Lifeswarm heals. Dispelling happens at the start of the hero phase, so obviously remember to do it before you do anything else! A Runelord's also unlikely to stray too far from the side of a Warden King if you're running one, making him a great adjutant candidate. Knight-Venator and Knight-Azyros Unlike the other six cities with allegiance abilities, Greywater Fastness doesn't have a named Stormhost in residence, whether there's one planned, or the Changeling didn't leave room for a Stormkeep when he was mapping the city we have yet to find out. Regardless, Greywater Fastness armies can still field Stormcast, so I assume they do at lest visit, and the duo of winged heroes both fill solid niches in a Greywater force, working in conjunction or alone. The Knight-Azyros is a zippy objective grabber, with a lantern possessing a short range aura that negates the need to for a Drillmaster general, and a one time mortal wound bomb to make opponents wary of committing too many units to him. The similarly speedy Knight-Venator's bow is the best spot available for Runic Munitions, doubling its normal damage output, and giving a small boost to the Star-Fated arrow. With the Knight-Venator's 2+ hitting shots directly benefiting from the Azyros' lantern, it makes sense to run them as pair, and they have the makings of a solid general/adjutant duo, with the Azyros, who's inclined to be that little bit closer to the enemy in order to be in lantern range as general, protected by an Honoured Retinue of Dark Riders or similar speedy cavalry. Seat on the Council would be the command trait to go for here for maximum command point farming, though I'm not sure what kind of chair he'd be able to park on with those wings. Other Useful Units The Celestial Hurricanum and its +1 to hit aura are the Cities of Sigmar equivalent of HP Sauce, going well with just about everything. If you're considering a Lord-Ordinator for your artillery, stump out 50 points more than he and the wizard you would have taken anyway cost for a +1 to hit bubble that doesn't just extend to your gunline, and a bunch of mortal wounds to throw out. A mobile Hurricanum could also be used to support steam gun Gyrocopters especially with the increased range GWF offers them, and it's something I fully intend to explore when I've finished converting and painting my Hurricanum. Steam Tanks are a trademark Ironweld Arsenal, and by extension Greywater unit, and a pretty weird warscroll, falling into the trap so many hybrid melee/missile units do of not being particularly great at either, and bizarrely probably being better off in Living City lists than under any other city. They get incrementally better the more of them you field, with at least one Commander, allowing them to take advantage of Target Sighted en mass. I'm not trying to make out that the Hurricanum fixes everything, but I can imagine a Steam Tank cosied up to one for a bonus to hit in melee and shooting ain't half bad. A unit you'd be in less of a hurry to associate with Greywater Fastness would be Shadow Warriors, but without access to allied Tree-Revenants, if you're going to build your list around shooting it sure is nice to have some backfield objective grabbers, and hitting on 2s when set up in cover they're made to take advantage of Drillmaster otherwise. MERCENARIES AND ALLIES If you find it frustrating that Greywater Fastness is all about cannons, has visible cannons on its city walls in the only piece of art ever specifically created for it, and not somehow is only able to take cannons when they're mounted on the front of a Steam Tank, then fret no more, Greywater Fastness can in fact take actual cannon cannons (of the Olde Worlde Dwarf variety), courtesy of the Blacksmoke Battery mercenary company with rules in the pages of The General's Handbook 2019. The Blacksmoke Battery has a whole bunch of shared keywords and synergies with Cities of Sigmar, Greywater Fastness in particular, that I've already written an entire blog post about, which if you're interested you can find here. While their respective movement enhancing and healing spells mean Gotrek is probably better suited to a Hammerhal, Living City or Hallowheart list, I've used him to great effect in several games alongside a Greywater Fastness army, and he's no slouch. Gotrek runs (and charges) on command points, and a Seat on the Council/adjutant combo suits him fine. Be sure to include an Emerald Lifeswarm, and a Runelord to dispel it, and if you're really worried about him shedding wounds consider the Ghyran artefact Wand of Restoration. No small part thanks to their penchant for deforestation, Greywater Fastness lack access to the current allied backfield objective redeployer du jour in Sylvaneth Tree-Revenats, but that might be a blessing in disguise, freeing up the spot for the actually-quite-good new Grundstock Gunhauler warscroll, in 2,000 point games able to be fielded either as a pair, or carrying half a dozen Skywardens or Endrinriggers, able to deal damage from deal damage from the most distant objective. I can't wait to get mine painted up and try them out. Well, there you have it. Probably competing with the Phoenicium for city with the least going for it on the table (contrary to popular opinion I will maintain to my dying day that Anvilgard are utter filth), but certainly the one with the most panache in their codpieces. I hope this article has at least entertained, and if it's persuaded even only one of you to buy three Gyrocopters and crack open the Averland Sunset, then it's done more than its job. If you feel I've made any obvious omissions, or have any other feedback, please get in touch. Until next time!View the full article

Figuring I'd take a break from writing about Teclis and get some actual Cities of Sigmar content up, presenting the first instalment of the Cities of Sigmar edition of The Lonely Realmsphere Guide, a resurrected tactics feature I'd started on TGA in the pre battletome days of Season of War: Firestorm, on getting the most use out of each Free City's allegiance abilities, kicking off with my preferred environmental disaster, Greywater Fastness. Why collect a Greywater Fastness army? You could have seen the duardin on the start collecting box and thought I'm having a bit of that, be a true artillery aesthete (to the continued exasperation of your gaming group), already have a lot of models painted up in Averland colours dating back to before Averland's status as protoplasmic goo, straight up hate Wood Elves, or in my case be afflicted by a combination of the above. Patrician taste in Free Cities assured, how are you supposed to get the best mileage out of a set of allegiance abilities, that let's face it, ain't exactly Hallowheart? When thematic 'chapter trait' options are given to an army, it's sort of the rule one set shines head and shoulders above the rest, and Cities of Sigmar are a comparatively fortunate exception, in that their stronghold choices are pretty evenly divided into a two tier system. Perhaps less fortunate for Greywater Fastness, Anvilgard and the Phoenicium, all squarely stuck at the bottom, but hey, at least we don't have a Petrifex Elite. Despite Greywater Fastness not getting doubled in value wizards or a fight twice command ability, I'm not the type to say my army's from Hallowheart but wearing loaned Greywater uniforms, and see squeezing as much mileage as I can out of the hand of relatively grounded traits, artefacts and spells they do get as a fun challenge. Empire Great Cannons. Don't exist anymore, but you get my point DISCLAIMER: S.A.D. ARMIES: A term popularised by players of the original Warhammer in the early 2000s, S.A.D. or Shooty Army of Doom, doesn't need a lot of explanation, with an acronym perfectly eunicating its intent, being that while 'gunline' armies cramming in as many artillery pieces and long range missile units, might seem an appealing prospect to collect and play with, by contrast provide a pretty bleak experience for anyone unfortunate enough to play against them, and are commonly regarded as all kinds of boring to play against, but also requiring very little skill. Because let's face it, games where your shiniest, best models are get shot off the board before you've had a chance to do anything with them ain't fun Not only burdening regular opponents to the point of not wanting to play/talk to you anymore, S.A.D. armies are also deliberately curbed against by many tournament organisers, with the practice of ensuring that at least one game played over the course of an event will use a range reducing Realmscape Feature from the Realm of Shadow, resulting that in addition a guaranteed sports score of zero, a S.A.D. army taken to an event will be certain to loose at least one game. While I'll be covering all of Greywater Fastness' abilities and options available in full, obviously a lot of them lend themselves to improving the S.A.D. capacity of a lot of already S.A.D. inclined units, and reading this article you may find that I've given disproportionate attention to achieving victory through other means, potentially saving both you social life and tournament career in the process. Pony conferring no additional in-game bonuses. Probably rolls more 1s to run than he would on foot BATTLE TRAITS We're off to a great start with Rune Lore, and the Rune of Unfaltering Aim, giving the Runelord, already an indispensable utility character in Dispossessed heavy lists (able to buff units offensively and defensively, ward off hostile spells and dispel your own souped up endless spells free of charge to free them up to be recast), an extra function free of charge in giving a nearby unit Ironweld war machines +1 to hit in addition to the prayer he'd normally be able to cast. Fantastic when cast on a unit of three Gyrocopters with steam guns early game, and then used to support a Steam Tank moving alongside a block of Hammerers, or an artillery piece camped out with Irondrakes, Rune Lore effectively being free means that if you're weighing up whether to build your Greywater Fastness army around a core of Freeguild, Disposessed, or one of the various aelf factions, the duardin lead by a hair's breadth. Salvo Fire is a solid, if uninspiring command ability, further boosting a unit of Irondrakes or Freeguild Handgunners' status as CoS preeminent shooters with +1 to hit, and comboing nicely with the generic Volley Fire. However, if you're inclined to max out on those units (both typically hitting on a 3+), you're probably going to be looking at running them alongside a Celestial Hurricanum, which will already max out their to hit rolls, and facing up to the fact that the Tempest's Eye command trait Hawk-eyed gives +1 to wound bonus for largely the same effect, doesn't cost a command point and stacks with the Hurricanum. Hawk-eyed alone means Tempest's Eye probably has the ability to make better conventional gunlines than GWF, and so we've really got to get what we can out of the few advantages we do have, bringing us nicely to... Home of the Great Ironweld Guns, adding 3" to the range of Ironweld war machines, is easy to disregard when the first place your mind goes is Helstorms Rocket Batteries and Helblasters, but affords a nice boost to a Steam Tank's steam gun, and even repeater handgun, and significantly ups the game of steam gun armed Gyrocopters (conceivably the only way to build the Gyrocopter/Gyrobomber kit), allowing them more flexible placement when incinerating the largest hordes. COMMAND TRAITS Consistent with the previous battle traits, none of Greywater's command traits offer anything in the way of game breaking combos, but all three are solid, offering neat bonuses when tailored to the right force. Seat on the Council is my personal favourite, and when combined with an adjutant can turn a general into a veritable command point farm almost up there with Hammerhal - command points, you can never have too many. Drillmaster's reroll 1s to hit aura works best on a Cogsmith supporting multiple Helblaster Volley Guns (typically in an Artillery Company battalion), as each Helblaster is an individual unit. A large block of Irondrakes or Handgunners may be better off with a Seat on the Council general and accompanying adjutant firing off Volley Fire to reroll 1s when needed. Though that said, a well applied Knight-Azyros circumvents the need for either. Ghoul Mere Ranger's a funny one, and a command trait I wish I had the painted models to necessitate using, if only for the cool narrative image the name inspires. Allowing units near the general to run and still shoot, it's a little pokey due to most CoS shooters being granted conditional bonuses on standing still, meaning they're only going to want to move through a Soulscream Bridge most of the time. I can imagine it would prove handy in helping a Steam Tank heavy force capture objectives and still shoot early game. ARTEFACTS OF POWER (or Ranald's whiskers, why don't we have pigeon bombs?!) Of Greywater Fastness' trio of artefacts, there's a standout winner in the Steam-piston Platemail, transforming a Steam Tank Commander, a less thematically inclined (but arguably much more useful) Freeguild General on Griffon or Dreadlord on Black Dragon, or even Stardrake into a literal tank with a 2+ save and enough wounds to capitalise on. Runic Munitions would be wonderful if any of Cities of Sigmar's component subfactions still had access to a hero with the ability to volley off a large volume of damage 1 shooting attacks like the former Wanderer Waywatcher hero, but as it stands is still an appreciable option in the hands of a Knight-Venator. The incontestable best named artefact in the game, Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope is probably what I'd go for to pick up an extra command points if I lacked a behemoth hero or Knight-Venator to slap either of the aforementioned artefacts on, and didn't fancy any of the Ghyran options. Like the Runic Munitions the Macroscope would be great if we had more dedicated ranged heroes. Mastro Vivetti's Magnificent Macroscope! Greywater Fastness armies are restricted to Realm artefacts from Ghyran because er, that's where they're from. Nothing immediately jumps out, but in games I'm without a behemoth hero I like to run Ghyrstrike on a Warden King general who's bodyguard can protect him enough to let him get stuck in, the Hypersnare Seeds can throw a serious fly in the ointment of enemies infringing on your ranged units if you get lucky, and the Jadewound Thorn compliments a Freeguild General on Griffon with a Sigmarite Runesword and his command ability active nicely for five chances to do a mortal wound on a 5+. THE LORE OF SMOG I love the imagery the name of this spell lore evokes. Descending Ash Cloud is the standout here, offering a -1 to hit modifier that's cumulative with the Sorceress' Word of Pain and Hysh Battlemage's Pha's Protection, giving you multiple opportunities to force negative hit rolls on your opponent's biggest, baddest unit or monster, often stacking. Eroding Blast and Choking Fumes are fairly similar in function horde killers; personally I'd veer towards Choking Fumes, as Eroding Blast's scenery requirement feels situational. Both may work best on a behemoth mounted wizard, more likely to be on the front lines, and covering a larger range footprint. THE GREYWATER ARTILLERY COMPANY BATTALION If you're going to hand out only a single battalion to each city, it only stands that Greywater Fastness' should have an Ironweld focus, but why S.A.D., why did it have to be S.A.D.?! We could have had a brigade of Steam Tanks, or even a formation of Gyrocopters acting as spotters for artillery, having to get up close and personal in order to give shooting bonuses, at least making it dynamic S.A.D., but nope, straight up garden variety cluster of artillery deleting anything hapless enough to deploy opposite it S.A.D.. Personal hangups aside, the Greywater Artillery Company is about the only time Ironweld artillery is going to outperform the equivalent points spent on Freeguild Handgunners, and so if you're going to use what's already quite a pricey battalion, it would be prudent to go all in on it, fielding the maximum four artillery pieces available and building the rest of your list around it. With the battalion's Gunmaster as your general with Drillmaster, Helblaster Volley Guns become the infinetly preferable option for your four artillery pieces; you'll want to include a Lord-Ordinator or Celestial Hurricanum for a bonus to hit, and consider a Soulscream Bridge (cast by a Sorceress sacrificing minions to guarantee it happens on turn 1), with plenty of minions to screen your artillery on the other side, to be hitting on a rerollable 2+ on your double shooting first turn. If Greywater Fastness had a better range of artefacts and/or heroes to use them on at its disposal, then a 'minimal' artillery battery with only two Helblasters, coming in at 420 points might be a viable way to stock up, but as it stands doesn't quite past muster. UNIT SELECTION As you can see in the preceding parts of this article, Greywater Fastness has a narrower spread of units to grant benefits to than the 'one size fits all' allegiance abilities of say, Hammerhal, or Tempest's Eye, and I've collated a few options and combos that I think stand out: Gyrocopters with steam guns Clarified in the CoS battletome's errata, Steam guns are the main beneficiaries of Home of the Great Ironweld Guns' extra 3" range, and work great both a cheap solos, and in discount squadrons of 3. Though obviously running on a situational curve, the steam gun is still frighteningly potent when used against large units of multi wound models, and a unit of three Gyrocopters with +1 to hit from an early game Rune of Unfaltering Aim, or Hurricanum aura will on average take out a third of a unit of Brutes, and almost half a unit of Chaos Warriors, allowing you to capitalise on battleshock. Always remember to fire your steam guns at a target before any other missile troops to capitalise on casualties mind! I have yet to figure out how Gyrocopters with brimstone guns or Gyrobombers are worth their points by comparison. Runelord The Rune of Unfaltering Aim on its own obviously isn't enough of a reason to take a Runelord, and so it comes a huge relief that the guy's a 90 point Swiss Army knife, and probably my favourite warscroll of all time. The reliably cast defensive Ancestral Shield and rend boosting Forgefire can not only be used in the same turn as the Rune of Unfaltering Aim, but also stack, meaning that if you're running a Dispossessed heavy list you can add as many 6+ special saves or points of rend to a large unit of Hammerers or Irondrakes as you have Runelords. The best unbinding bonus this side of named characters who are also gods means he'll be able to throw a spanner in your opponent's best laid magical plans; and being able to dispel endless spells for 'free', without having to give up casting anything in the same way a wizard would, with a +2 to modifier lends to great defensive and offensive applications. Defensively shutting down threatening endless spells speaks for itself, but the ability to dispel spells offensively might require some explaining. Dispelling an endless spell you've cast in a previous turn frees the spell up for you to cast and activate it again, giving you a second activation of the spell for twice the mortal wounds or Emerald Lifeswarm heals. Dispelling happens at the start of the hero phase, so obviously remember to do it before you do anything else! A Runelord's also unlikely to stray too far from the side of a Warden King if you're running one, making him a great adjutant candidate. If you'd like a more detailed look at the Runelord and his Dispossessed compatriots, then hit up my Lonely Realmsphere article delving into them in detail. Knight-Venator and Knight-Azyros Unlike the other six cities with allegiance abilities, Greywater Fastness doesn't have a named Stormhost in residence, whether there's one planned, or the Changeling didn't leave room for a Stormkeep when he was mapping the city we have yet to find out. Regardless, Greywater Fastness armies can still field Stormcast, so I assume they do at lest visit, and the duo of winged heroes both fill solid niches in a Greywater force, working in conjunction or alone. The Knight-Azyros is a zippy objective grabber, with a lantern possessing a short range aura that negates the need to for a Drillmaster general, and a one time mortal wound bomb to make opponents wary of committing too many units to him. The similarly speedy Knight-Venator's bow is the best spot available for Runic Munitions, doubling its normal damage output, and giving a small boost to the Star-Fated arrow. With the Knight-Venator's 2+ hitting shots directly benefiting from the Azyros' lantern, it makes sense to run them as pair, and they have the makings of a solid general/adjutant duo, with the Azyros, who's inclined to be that little bit closer to the enemy in order to be in lantern range as general, protected by an Honoured Retinue of Dark Riders or similar speedy cavalry. Seat on the Council would be the command trait to go for here for maximum command point farming, though I'm not sure what kind of chair he'd be able to park on with those wings. Other Useful Units The Celestial Hurricanum and its +1 to hit aura are the Cities of Sigmar equivalent of HP Sauce, going well with just about everything. If you're considering a Lord-Ordinator for your artillery, stump out 50 points more than he and the wizard you would have taken anyway cost for a +1 to hit bubble that doesn't just extend to your gunline, and a bunch of mortal wounds to throw out. A mobile Hurricanum could also be used to support steam gun Gyrocopters especially with the increased range GWF offers them, and it's something I fully intend to explore when I've finished converting and painting my Hurricanum. Steam Tanks are a trademark Ironweld Arsenal, and by extension Greywater unit, and a pretty weird warscroll, falling into the trap so many hybrid melee/missile units do of not being particularly great at either, and bizarrely probably being better off in Living City lists than under any other city. They get incrementally better the more of them you field, with at least one Commander, allowing them to take advantage of Target Sighted en mass. I'm not trying to make out that the Hurricanum fixes everything, but I can imagine a Steam Tank cosied up to one for a bonus to hit in melee and shooting ain't half bad. A unit you'd be in less of a hurry to associate with Greywater Fastness would be Shadow Warriors, but without access to allied Tree-Revenants, if you're going to build your list around shooting it sure is nice to have some backfield objective grabbers, and hitting on 2s when set up in cover they're made to take advantage of Drillmaster otherwise. MERCENARIES AND ALLIES If you find it frustrating that Greywater Fastness is all about cannons, has visible cannons on its city walls in the only piece of art ever specifically created for it, and not somehow is only able to take cannons when they're mounted on the front of a Steam Tank, then fret no more, Greywater Fastness can in fact take actual cannon cannons (of the Olde Worlde Dwarf variety), courtesy of the Blacksmoke Battery mercenary company with rules in the pages of The General's Handbook 2019. The Blacksmoke Battery has a whole bunch of shared keywords and synergies with Cities of Sigmar, Greywater Fastness in particular, that I've already written an entire blog post about, which if you're interested you can find here. While their respective movement enhancing and healing spells mean Gotrek is probably better suited to a Hammerhal, Living City or Hallowheart list, I've used him to great effect in several games alongside a Greywater Fastness army, and he's no slouch. Gotrek runs (and charges) on command points, and a Seat on the Council/adjutant combo suits him fine. Be sure to include an Emerald Lifeswarm, and a Runelord to dispel it, and if you're really worried about him shedding wounds consider the Ghyran artefact Wand of Restoration. No small part thanks to their penchant for deforestation, Greywater Fastness lack access to the current allied backfield objective redeployer du jour in Sylvaneth Tree-Revenats, but that might be a blessing in disguise, freeing up the spot for the actually-quite-good new Grundstock Gunhauler warscroll, in 2,000 point games able to be fielded either as a pair, or carrying half a dozen Skywardens or Endrinriggers, able to deal damage from deal damage from the most distant objective. I can't wait to get mine painted up and try them out. Well, there you have it. Probably competing with the Phoenicium for city with the least going for it on the table (contrary to popular opinion I will maintain to my dying day that Anvilgard are utter filth), but certainly the one with the most panache in their codpieces. I hope this article has at least entertained, and if it's persuaded even only one of you to buy three Gyrocopters and crack open the Averland Sunset, then it's done more than its job. If you feel I've made any obvious omissions, or have any other feedback, please get in touch. Until next time!View the full article

Don't go and make Gyrocopters better in another city than they are in GWF. THEY WERE ALL WE HAD DAMN IT, ALL WE HAD 😢

Two isn't enough. I'd motion for either three or lots.

A Destruction playing friend was bemoaning none of the classic Orc and Goblin characters having survived the transition to Age of Sigmar in the same way Order, Chaos and Death's biggest players had, and between that and the 40k Ghazkul teases I now feel like one of those Morglum Necksnapper grognards who didn't like Grimgor back in the day, wanting Grimgor to wake up under a big rock, having reunited his head and neck (do orcs even have necks!?) through sheer 'ardness, and smack Gordrakk around so hard he's demoted to a generic Megaboss on Maw-crusha weapon option. Also Grom, because if there's anything right on GW's fans will accept them embracing, it's probably body positivity.

Grimgor has a twin brother?! 😳 PLOT TWIST!

The title says it all. I've missed out on the chance to buy one of these kits twice (didn't even realise it had been discontinued again until just now), and am desperate to buy one. If you've got one you're willing to sell for less than the kidney ebay's asking for, or even keen to trade then hit me up. I'd prefer painted/unassembled, but am happy to buy one that's already been painted/put together for the right price. Based in the UK, but happy to pay for shipping from anywhere. Thanks for looking. EDIT: FOUND ONE, SHUT THE THREAD DOWN

@Sorrowlol @Acid_Nine Aw shucks, thanks guys, you're way too kind. Riding on the Lumineth hype, I've got a series covering both Eltharion and his nemesis Grom planned next, though it may be a while, as I've got three novels and the entire End Times left to cover for Teclis. 😳 When I originally had the idea for the series, I was going to cover Archaon, but looking at the reading material (in the spoiler below) I may put out shorter articles on his supporting cast of rival, hype man and older brother with severe adult learning difficulties in Valten, Crom and Be'lakor while I work my way through. Part 5 and Part 6 of Great Canon: Teclis are now live, covering Teclis' appearances in two editions of WFRP, and the new origin he Tyrion got in 2008's Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos: https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/great-canon-teclis-part-5-founding.html https://doublemisfire.blogspot.com/2020/02/great-canon-teclis-part-6-new-origin.html As always, feedback and errors more than welcome.

Welcome to the sixth instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. This time Teclis and Tyrion receive a new origin story predating their original rise to prominence ahead of the Battle of Finuval Plain in the unlikeliest of sources... Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos. Best remembered for its unforgivable power levels driving the game's other armies to redundancy, Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos, released in May 2008, for the 7th edition of the game was the first of its kind, and a strange sort of beast. Daemons had spent most of their former existence in both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 as part of a larger spread of Chaos troops, and while the option to field entire armies of them had existed sporadically, few players had done so, largely owing to the lack of variety in daemon models and units, especially when accounting for most folks' unwillingness to include daemons aligned to different Chaos Gods. Warhammer Armies Daemons of Chaos, and 40k's Codex: Chaos Daemons, released at the same time, did a heel turn on all that, bringing armies of polytheistic daemons to the fore, with no option to field them alongside anything else in conventional games. In Warhammer's previous background daemons would only show up outside of the Chaos Wastes in significant numbers if things were starting to look undesirably think, like bordering on the apocalypse undesirably thin. Matt Ward, the book's author does a great job with its background, presumably having been instructed with finding a way to work the new party line on daemons into Warhammer's then fairly watertight history, solidly peppers the setting's 8,000 year timeline with significant daemonic incursions, many building on previously existing events, characters and locations; giving examples of entire armies of daemons aplenty, but ensuring that their presence in the mortal world is a big deal, and not something that's always sort of around the corner like orcs or beastmen. One of the new timeline events chronicled in detail, is N'kari's Revenge, in which N'kari, the Keeper of Secrets defeated by Aenarion early on during the Great Chaos Incursion, and future recurring foe of Teclis and Tyrion would claw its way back into reality 10 years into Finubar the Seafarer's reign in IC 2173, over a century before the Great War Against Chaos, to wreak vengeance on Aenarion's heirs, Teclis and Tyrion included. Bill King had, in their vaunted and oft reprinted introduction in White Dwarf 156, referred to the twins 'youths' at the time of the Great War Against Chaos and here they're described as 'scarcely beyond childhood by the exacting standards of Elves'. King has since stated that it was his original intention for the twins to have been very young and untested heroes at the Battle of Finuval plain, but hey, shared authorship and who knows how elves age. Opening as a great black storm wracks Ulthuan, and as elves are slain by fallen masonry and lightning bolts, the great waystone atop Mount Antorec, with a cloud of Chaos Furies, followed by N'kari himself clawing their way out of the wound rent in reality. N'kari siphons the magical essence of the Storm to both gorge himself on, and summon a host of daemons to do his bidding. His first target is the nearby provincial holding of Tor Annan, Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers making a quick mess of the defenders, and all but Eanith, the local lord and his household guard not fleeing in disarray. N'kari easily snaps the elf lord's sword and devours the Eanith's still beating heart before his dying eyes as the town is left a bloody ruin. From there N'kari and his army use the tides of magical energy present on Ulthuan to cross the continent, laying siege to Tor Yvresse, with the fortresses defenders able to hold the daemons at bay with aid from neighbouring Cothique and Hoeth, N'kari withdrawing his forces at the battle's height and retreating to the Annulii Mountians. Over the next month, N'kari develops a pattern of attacking outposts across Ulthuan in Averlon, the Dragonspine Mountains and beyond, suddenly abandoning each battle almost at random, often when about to achieve a crushing victory. Finubar orders his seers to meditate on the greater daemon's motivation, eventually realising it to be the same Keeper of Secrets who had lead Ulthuan's invasion 6,000 years prior, believing it to be reborn a being of pure vengeance, consumed by the need to enact terrible revenge on the descendants of Aenarion; the seemingly random nature of his attacks actually being precision strikes against members of Aenarion's bloodline, allowing his targets to be spirited away to be eternally tormented by Slaanesh while the towns and fortresses of their residence are under attack. Many of Aenarion's line have fallen from status over the years, allowing the true nature of N'kari's attacks to have gone unnoticed, for what's one vanished and otherwise unremarkable elf on a battlefield of hundreds slain? Finubar's seers determine that the majority of Aenarion's known descendants are accounted for, either having already fallen victim to N'kari, or not currently on Ulthuan. The only two heirs remaining on the island continent are a very young Tyrion and Teclis, described as twin princes, respectively a warrior born, and weak of body but adept at magic. Mentioned for the first time here is the twins hailing from the woodlands of Cothique, a quotidian outer kingdom in northern Ulthuan (it ain't exactly Chrace or Saphery), made reference to in many of their subsequent appearances. A significant unmentioned oversight here is the presence or lack thereof of the Everqueen, who also carries the blood of Aenarion, being descended from an unbroken line of firstborn daughters, dating back to Yvraine, child of Aenarion and the first Everqueen Astarille. While she can easily be No Prized as having been overseas at the time, the Everqueen seems like too significant a descendant of Aenarion not to get at least a passing mention. Teclis and Tyrion are hurriedly summoned from Cothique and taken to the Shrine of Asuryan, where an army of Ulthuan's finest is waiting to protect them. Quite why the normally fractious High Elves would go to such lengths to protect two (then) relatively inconsequential juvenile nobles isn't made clear. Within a day of Shadow Warriors initial reports of daemons within the Eataine mountains, N'kari is in sight of the Shrine, sending intoxicating visions to the elven defenders, causing many to throw themselves from the battlements, or march blindly forward to be torn apart by waiting daemons. Lords of Change under N'kari (implying this is a pretty impressive daemonic horde) throw spells around, as Furies and Nurglings do... whatever Furies and Nurglings do, and Daemonettes and Plaguebearers battle against valiant Phoenix Guard and Swordmasters of Hoeth in hand to hand. As hard as the elves fight, the Shrine's gate is eventually breached by a Beast of Nurgle, that proceeds to tie up the Captain of the Phoenix Guard in combat as Bloodletters burst through. Within the shrine, elves desperately fight back to back, as the cleansing power of Asuryn's flame weakens and banishes many daemons. N'kari however, isn't phased, and climbs the Stair of Eternity to the Shrine's inner sanctum. At the centre of the Shrine, only a thin line of Phoenix Guard stand between N'kari and the twins, quickly dismembered and incinerated by the greater daemon's claws and spells. Watching the last Phoenix Guard fall, Tyrion realises it's up to him, mouths a quick prayer to Asuryan and charges in. Despite Tyrion being faster, it's a one sided fight, with N'kari parrying every blow against him with ease, and revelling in taunting Tyrion. Fully engaged with Tyrion, N'kari fails to notice Teclis summoning a bolt of 'all the sorcerous fire he could muster' which blasts the greater daemon off its feet. Tumbling an catching an arm in the Flame of Asuryan itself, N'kari's entire body to blackens and crackles, giving Tyrion the opportunity he needed to wail on the Keeper, his sword taking up Asuryan's flame, and each new cut opening up fresh wounds. Overwhelmed by agony, there's little N'kari can do but scream a lot and stagger back from Tyrion, eventually being driven through the Shrine's great arch overlooking the Sea of Dreams, and plummeting into the ocean thousands of feet bellow. N'kari's strength no longer holding them together, the daemonic army's hold on reality quickly dissipates in the presence of the holy energies of the Asuryan. As the elves celebrate their victory and mourn their losses, Teclis and Tyrion are silent, knowing that their destiny has been forever altered, and that one day they will both have to face N'kari again. Given N'kari's prominence in not only the army book, but also Warhammer and 40k's histories (he boarded the Vengeful Spirit and fought the Emperor with Horus, read all about it here), it stands out that he didn't receive rules as a special character in Daemons of Chaos' original army book and Codex - especially when Slaanesh was the only Chaos God to not receive a greater daemon special character in those books. Maybe he wasn't deemed significantly different enough from the baseline version in the way Skarbrand or Kairos Fateweaver are, but by contrast is Teclis really anything more than a much more powerful High Elf mage with a fancy backstory? Every subsequent daemon or Slaanesh release N'kari fails to be a part of feels like a missed opportunity, and I'd love see what he was getting up to under Slaanesh's absence during AoS; but hey, we got Shalaxi Helbane I guess. Give it up for Shalaxi Helbane everybody! Late 2009 would mark the release of a third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, licensed by Games Workshop to Fantasy Flight Games. Universally reviled by fans of the two previous editions for its seemingly dumbed down card based mechanics, and feeling too heroic for a system who's previously most popular class had been a Rat Catcher, WFRP 3rd ed nonetheless contained some fairly solid background. Tome of Mysteries, one of the four rulebooks included in the game's Core Set at launch focused on magic from an Imperial perspective, and frequently made use of the term 'Teclisian' when describing laws, theory and technique taught to humanity by Teclis; as well as including several extracts on the various lores of magic from an in universe book written by Teclis titled The Founding of the Eight Orders. Not pictured: Twister™ mat included with book Warhammer's 8th edition came out in September 2010, and despite the High Elves facing off against Skaven perhaps the strangest starter box matchup ever put out, GW were content to keep the release of the edition's army books slow, with High Elves not seeing a new one for two and a bit years. Summer 2011 saw Warhammer: Storm of Magic, a supplement for with additional rules for fighting special battles in borderline apocalyptic conditions as the Winds of Magic wracked the battlefield. Failing to make much of an impact, Storm of Magic was dismissed by background aficionados as an outlandish cashgrab inconsistent with what had come before, and largely ignored by the playerbase due to the host of new options introduced being restricted to use in fixed 'Storm of Magic' games. These included special arcane scenery, bound monsters, cataclysm spells, and the option to form 'Sorcerous Pacts' allowing for an allied contingent of undead or daemons to be included in any army fighting in a Storm of Magic game. Which would lead to... ...this; featured in an article in White Dwarf 380 highlighting players' ability to do exactly that. While a baffling choice, Teclis teamed up with a Bloodthirster is obviously intended as an example of what players could do writing army lists for Storm of Magic games, and probably shouldn't be taken as canon by anyone's standards, but I thought it was a funny enough footnote to include. A snapshot of what most people would look back on as Warhammer and Games Workshop's 'Dark Age', the issue also featured another example of a Sorcerous Pact where Tancred of Quenelles (the Bretonnian character with a mad-on for undead) had allied with the Red Duke, and a battle report where Balthasar Gelt a had summoned a small contingent of Khorne and Tzeentch daemons to help the Empire fight Vampire Counts on the Sylvannian border. I hope you've enjoyed this instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. If Teclis throwing his lot in with the servants of Khorne seems bleak (if only for the purpose of an article on army lists), then fear not, as Part 7 sees Bill King's triumphant return to the character, with Blood of Aenarion, the first in a trilogy of novels centred on Teclis and Tyrion's adventures leading up to the Battle of Finuval Plain. If you've got any feedback, feel I made any mistakes, or think I was just too plain harsh on Storm of Magic, feel free to get in touch. Until next time, thanks for reading!View the full article

Welcome to the sixth instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. This time Teclis and Tyrion receive a new origin story predating their original rise to prominence ahead of the Battle of Finuval Plain from a unlikely source... Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos. Best remembered for its unforgivable power levels driving the game's other armies to redundancy, Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos, released in May 2008, for the 7th edition of the game was the first of its kind, and a strange sort of beast. Daemons had spent most of their former existence in both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 as part of a larger spread of Chaos troops, and while the option to field entire armies of them had existed sporadically, few players had done so, largely owing to the lack of variety in daemon models and units, especially when accounting for most folks' unwillingness to include daemons aligned to different Chaos Gods. Warhammer Armies Daemons of Chaos, and 40k's Codex: Chaos Daemons, released at the same time, did a heel turn on all that, bringing armies of polytheistic daemons to the fore, with no option to field them alongside anything else in conventional games. In Warhammer's previous background daemons would only show up outside of the Chaos Wastes in significant numbers if things were starting to look undesirably think, like bordering on the apocalypse undesirably thin. Matt Ward, the book's author does a great job with its background, presumably having been instructed with finding a way to work the new party line on daemons into Warhammer's then fairly watertight history, solidly peppers the setting's 8,000 year timeline with significant daemonic incursions, many building on previously existing events, characters and locations; giving examples of entire armies of daemons aplenty, but ensuring that their presence in the mortal world is a big deal, and not something that's always sort of around the corner like orcs or beastmen. One of the new timeline events chronicled in detail, is N'kari's Revenge, in which N'kari, the Keeper of Secrets defeated by Aenarion early on during the Great Chaos Incursion, and future recurring foe of Teclis and Tyrion would claw its way back into reality 10 years into Finubar the Seafarer's reign in IC 2173, over a century before the Great War Against Chaos, to wreak vengeance on Aenarion's heirs, Teclis and Tyrion included. Bill King had, in their vaunted and oft reprinted introduction in White Dwarf 156, referred to the twins 'youths' at the time of the Great War Against Chaos and here they're described as 'scarcely beyond childhood by the exacting standards of Elves'. King has since stated that it was his original intention for the twins to have been very young and untested heroes at the Battle of Finuval plain, but hey, shared authorship and who knows how elves age. Opening as a great black storm wracks Ulthuan, and as elves are slain by fallen masonry and lightning bolts, the great waystone atop Mount Antorec, with a cloud of Chaos Furies, followed by N'kari himself clawing their way out of the wound rent in reality. N'kari siphons the magical essence of the Storm to both gorge himself on, and summon a host of daemons to do his bidding. His first target is the nearby provincial holding of Tor Annan, Bloodletters and Bloodcrushers making a quick mess of the defenders, and all but Eanith, the local lord and his household guard not fleeing in disarray. N'kari easily snaps the elf lord's sword and devours the Eanith's still beating heart before his dying eyes as the town is left a bloody ruin. From there N'kari and his army use the tides of magical energy present on Ulthuan to cross the continent, laying siege to Tor Yvresse, with the fortresses defenders able to hold the daemons at bay with aid from neighbouring Cothique and Hoeth, N'kari withdrawing his forces at the battle's height and retreating to the Annulii Mountians. Over the next month, N'kari develops a pattern of attacking outposts across Ulthuan in Averlon, the Dragonspine Mountains and beyond, suddenly abandoning each battle almost at random, often when about to achieve a crushing victory. Finubar orders his seers to meditate on the greater daemon's motivation, eventually realising it to be the same Keeper of Secrets who had lead Ulthuan's invasion 6,000 years prior, believing it to be reborn a being of pure vengeance, consumed by the need to enact terrible revenge on the descendants of Aenarion; the seemingly random nature of his attacks actually being precision strikes against members of Aenarion's bloodline, allowing his targets to be spirited away to be eternally tormented by Slaanesh while the towns and fortresses of their residence are under attack. Many of Aenarion's line have fallen from status over the years, allowing the true nature of N'kari's attacks to have gone unnoticed, for what's one vanished and otherwise unremarkable elf on a battlefield of hundreds slain? Finubar's seers determine that the majority of Aenarion's known descendants are accounted for, either having already fallen victim to N'kari, or not currently on Ulthuan. The only two heirs remaining on the island continent are a very young Tyrion and Teclis, described as twin princes, respectively a warrior born, and weak of body but adept at magic. Mentioned for the first time here is the twins hailing from the woodlands of Cothique, a quotidian outer kingdom in northern Ulthuan (it ain't exactly Chrace or Saphery), made reference to in many of their subsequent appearances. A significant unmentioned oversight here is the presence or lack thereof of the Everqueen, who also carries the blood of Aenarion, being descended from an unbroken line of firstborn daughters, dating back to Yvraine, child of Aenarion and the first Everqueen Astarille. While she can easily be No Prized as having been overseas at the time, the Everqueen seems like too significant a descendant of Aenarion not to get at least a passing mention. Teclis and Tyrion are hurriedly summoned from Cothique and taken to the Shrine of Asuryan, where an army of Ulthuan's finest is waiting to protect them. Quite why the normally fractious High Elves would go to such lengths to protect two (then) relatively inconsequential juvenile nobles isn't made clear. Within a day of Shadow Warriors initial reports of daemons within the Eataine mountains, N'kari is in sight of the Shrine, sending intoxicating visions to the elven defenders, causing many to throw themselves from the battlements, or march blindly forward to be torn apart by waiting daemons. Lords of Change under N'kari (implying this is a pretty impressive daemonic horde) throw spells around, as Furies and Nurglings do... whatever Furies and Nurglings do, and Daemonettes and Plaguebearers battle against valiant Phoenix Guard and Swordmasters of Hoeth in hand to hand. As hard as the elves fight, the Shrine's gate is eventually breached by a Beast of Nurgle, that proceeds to tie up the Captain of the Phoenix Guard in combat as Bloodletters burst through. Within the shrine, elves desperately fight back to back, as the cleansing power of Asuryn's flame weakens and banishes many daemons. N'kari however, isn't phased, and climbs the Stair of Eternity to the Shrine's inner sanctum. At the centre of the Shrine, only a thin line of Phoenix Guard stand between N'kari and the twins, quickly dismembered and incinerated by the greater daemon's claws and spells. Watching the last Phoenix Guard fall, Tyrion realises it's up to him, mouths a quick prayer to Asuryan and charges in. Despite Tyrion being faster, it's a one sided fight, with N'kari parrying every blow against him with ease, and revelling in taunting Tyrion. Fully engaged with Tyrion, N'kari fails to notice Teclis summoning a bolt of 'all the sorcerous fire he could muster' which blasts the greater daemon off its feet. Tumbling an catching an arm in the Flame of Asuryan itself, N'kari's entire body to blackens and crackles, giving Tyrion the opportunity he needed to wail on the Keeper, his sword taking up Asuryan's flame, and each new cut opening up fresh wounds. Overwhelmed by agony, there's little N'kari can do but scream a lot and stagger back from Tyrion, eventually being driven through the Shrine's great arch overlooking the Sea of Dreams, and plummeting into the ocean thousands of feet bellow. N'kari's strength no longer holding them together, the daemonic army's hold on reality quickly dissipates in the presence of the holy energies of the Asuryan. As the elves celebrate their victory and mourn their losses, Teclis and Tyrion are silent, knowing that their destiny has been forever altered, and that one day they will both have to face N'kari again. Given N'kari's prominence in not only the army book, but also Warhammer and 40k's histories (he boarded the Vengeful Spirit and fought the Emperor with Horus, read all about it here), it stands out that he didn't receive rules as a special character in Daemons of Chaos' original army book and Codex - especially when Slaanesh was the only Chaos God to not receive a greater daemon special character in those books. Maybe he wasn't deemed significantly different enough from the baseline version in the way Skarbrand or Kairos Fateweaver are, but by contrast is Teclis really anything more than a much more powerful High Elf mage with a fancy backstory? Every subsequent daemon or Slaanesh release N'kari fails to be a part of feels like a missed opportunity, and I'd love see what he was getting up to under Slaanesh's absence during AoS; but hey, we got Shalaxi Helbane I guess. Give it up for Shalaxi Helbane everybody! Late 2009 would mark the release of a third edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, licensed by Games Workshop to Fantasy Flight Games. Universally reviled by fans of the two previous editions for its seemingly dumbed down card based mechanics, and feeling too heroic for a system who's previously most popular class had been a Rat Catcher, WFRP 3rd ed nonetheless contained some fairly solid background. Tome of Mysteries, one of the four rulebooks included in the game's Core Set at launch focused on magic from an Imperial perspective, and frequently made use of the term 'Teclisian' when describing laws, theory and technique taught to humanity by Teclis; as well as including several extracts on the various lores of magic from an in universe book written by Teclis titled The Founding of the Eight Orders. Not pictured: Twister™ mat included with book Warhammer's 8th edition came out in September 2010, and despite the High Elves facing off against Skaven perhaps the strangest starter box matchup ever put out, GW were content to keep the release of the edition's army books slow, with High Elves not seeing a new one for two and a bit years. Summer 2011 saw Warhammer: Storm of Magic, a supplement for with additional rules for fighting special battles in borderline apocalyptic conditions as the Winds of Magic wracked the battlefield. Failing to make much of an impact, Storm of Magic was dismissed by background aficionados as an outlandish cashgrab inconsistent with what had come before, and largely ignored by the playerbase due to the host of new options introduced being restricted to use in fixed 'Storm of Magic' games. These included special arcane scenery, bound monsters, cataclysm spells, and the option to form 'Sorcerous Pacts' allowing for an allied contingent of undead or daemons to be included in any army fighting in a Storm of Magic game. Which would lead to... ...this; featured in an article in White Dwarf 380 highlighting players' ability to do exactly that. While a baffling choice, Teclis teamed up with a Bloodthirster is obviously intended as an example of what players could do writing army lists for Storm of Magic games, and probably shouldn't be taken as canon by anyone's standards, but I thought it was a funny enough footnote to include. A snapshot of what most people would look back on as Warhammer and Games Workshop's 'Dark Age', the issue also featured another example of a Sorcerous Pact where Tancred of Quenelles (the Bretonnian character with a mad-on for undead) had allied with the Red Duke, and a battle report where Balthasar Gelt a had summoned a small contingent of Khorne and Tzeentch daemons to help the Empire fight Vampire Counts on the Sylvannian border. I hope you've enjoyed this instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. If Teclis throwing his lot in with the servants of Khorne seems bleak (if only for the purpose of an article on army lists), then fear not, as Part 7 sees Bill King's triumphant return to the character, with Blood of Aenarion, the first in a trilogy of novels centred on Teclis and Tyrion's adventures leading up to the Battle of Finuval Plain. If you've got any feedback, feel I made any mistakes, or think I was just too plain harsh on Storm of Magic, feel free to get in touch. Until next time, thanks for reading!View the full article

In Part 5 of my series exploring the aelven god of magic's prior existence, Teclis' founding of the Empire's Colleges of Magic is expanded on in a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and he makes a cameo in another global narrative campaign. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or WFRP to aficionados is Games Workshop's cult Warhammer World set roleplaying game, which having previously been licensed out to various publishers in relative obscurity for over a decade was relaunched to great fanfare with a brand new edition in March 2005, by Black Industries, a short lived subsidiary of Games Workshop's Black Library. WFRP's 2nd edition was distinctly set in a post Storm of Chaos Warhammer World, with the modern version of the setting explored through it in more detail than ever before. Realms of Sorcery, the game's appropriately titled magic supplement was released the following November, and included an expanded history of the founding of the Colleges of Magic, also detailing Teclis' part in the Great War Against Chaos. On traveling from Ulthuan to the Old World with Magnus the Pious' ambassador Pieter Lazlo on the ship Sigmar's Hope (known to its crew a the Folorn Hope), Teclis, Yrtle and Finreir are taken to Talabheim, where Magnus is gathering troops to his cause. Immediately establishing himself as a font of sage advice, Teclis explains to a sceptical Magnus that the men of the Empire need to be taught to wield magic with skill and safety in order to be able to combat the Aethyric horrors they'll be facing in the north. Magnus is convinced by Teclis, and requests the three Loremasters promise to destroy any human students showing even the slightest hint of Chaotic corruption. Teclis replies in a chilling tone that any tainted creature going near him or his colleagues would be obliterated beyond human understanding. Authorised by Magnus, and with begrudging support from the rest of the Empire, Teclis and his fellow mages, through magical and mundane means put the word out across the Empire of amnesty, pardons and training offered to any and all hedge wizards and petty magicians able to answer the call. Teclis politely opts to leave alone the clergy of the Empire's various faiths, able to channel magic into what they call prayers and miracles bestowed upon them by their gods (much to Yrtle and Finreir's amusement) - later on in the book a quote ascribed to a lecture given by Teclis to human students details Teclis' discrete, nonetheless dismissive view of the prayers of human priests being subconsciously channelled spells by priests who didn't realise they were Aethyrically sensitive, in line with Warhammer's approach at the time to gods and daemons being subconscious reflections of sentient races collective psyche. Many of the human magic users making their way to Talabheim already show signs of corruption, handing themselves over to Magnus and the elves authority as a desperate last hope, and only meeting swift annihilation at the hands of Teclis and his fellow mages. As the elves begin to instruct their new students in the ways of spellcraft, many of the Empire's templar orders, particularly the infamous Witch Hunters look on in horror, but are powerless to do anything, the elves having received Magnus and the Grand Theogonist's blessing. The three elf mages teach their assembled human pupils relatively simple offensive spells in the form of fireballs, lightning bolts and loud noises, as well as healing magic to aid the wounded. Teclis' two standout students are Volans, who would go on to become the first Patriarch of the Light College and overall Supreme Patriarch; and Friedrich von Tarnus, the warrior mage previously established as having crafted the Silver Seal for Magnus, and his own Armour of Tarnus, here expanded upon as the shamed former commander of the Carroburg Greatswords, and future first Patriarch of the Bright College. At the forefront of the Empire's armies in the coming battles, the newly trained human wizards and the elf mages themselves show a willingness to spill their own blood defending the Old World from Chaos, Yrtle himself being beheaded in battle by 'some clawed fiend of Chaos' as he incinerated it with magical fire, and being buried in Ostermark with full honours. The forces of Chaos thoroughly beaten back to the Northern Wastes, Magnus and the new human Magisters are heralded as the saviours of the Empire, and on ascending to the office of Emperor, Magnus asks Teclis and Finreir for their assistance setting up an institution where Imperial citizens can be properly trained in the now invaluable battlefield art of spellcraft. Consistent with his White Dwarf 156 characterisation, Finreir is resistant, with Teclis agreeing with Magnus and arguing that the safety of the Old World, and in the long run Ulthuan lay with the the Empire, as the most populated and powerful nation on the continent. After much private debate Finreir relents, and in the summer of IC 2304 Magnus announces that Aldorf would house the nascent Orders of Magic (Aldorf, though usually thought of as the Empire's capital was not at the time, with Magnus' seat of power residing in his home city of Nuln - chosen for good reason should something go wrong and Magnus wish to distance himself). Riots erupt on Altdorf's streets, and are only put down by martial law as Teclis and Finreir alter the fabric of the city's reality to accommodate the new College buildings, rendering it permanently unmappable, with locals forever more forced to rely on landmarks rather than any conventional means of urban navigation. The buildings of the eight Colleges being erected by Teclis and Finreir or the Empire's human citizenry is unclear, and while I won't detail them here, all are ostentatiously prenatural by Warhammer's potato sack low fantasy standards, and at first glance might (appropriately) feel more at home in the Mortal Realms. September 2006 saw the 7th edition of Warhammer hit shelves. The only noteworthy piece of Teclis content in the game's hardback rulebook would be the above photo of a High Elf army, with Teclis' original Jes Goodwin model used to represent him (having previously turned up in White Dwarf articles simply credited as 'Mage'). This would be a publication quirk and not a new precedent though, with Gary Morley's 6th edition model continuing to represent Teclis for the foreseeable future. Teclis would play a very minor part in The Nemesis Crown, summer 2007's (significantly lower key than the previous Storm of Chaos) global campaign, involving the Warhammer World's various factions slugging it out across the Empire's Forests in order to track down the titular magical crown, hewn from warpstone in order to contain the power of the almighty Rune of Ages by the Runelord Alaric the Mad thousands or years prior, a source of great shame to the Dwarfs, and thought lost until now. The High Elves' agenda in the campaign was to secure the Nemesis Crown to use as a bargaining chip with the Dwarfs in order to negotiate the return of their own Phoenix Crown, taken by the Dwarfs as a trophy at the end of the War of Vengeance, with Finubar dispatching Teclis to patrol the Sea of Claws and stave off Dark Elf and Chaos invaders (apparently on account of him being so well travelled). The High Elves did not discover the location of the Nemesis Crown, with the Dwarfs winning the campaign and claiming it unassisted, placing it under lock and key in Karaz-a-Karak. If you were worried I'd forgotten about Lileath watch, then don't be, as the following September's ecclesiastic WFRP supplement Tome of Salvation would see her named Lileath the Maiden, Goddess of Dreams and Fortune for the first time outside of Warhammer 40,000, as well as describing her as prayed to for clarity, prophecy and foresight, and worshipped as part of a triumvirate alongside Isha and Morai-heg. If your name isn't Bretonnia, new editions usually herald a new army book, and the High Elves' would drop in November 2007, with the background section consisting of mostly recycled content from the original 1993 Warhammer Armies: High Elves, and you guessed it... Bill King's White Dwarf 156 article introducing Teclis and Tyrion. Reprinted with a twist this time, King's story received a few minor editorial tweaks, to reflect the subsequently established Dark Elf background, with instances of the Dark Elves worshipping Slaanesh and Chaos replaced with overall more ambiguous depravity. Along with the rest of the High Elves, Teclis' 7th ed rules were far more conventional than his 6th, with Sariour, Charoi and the Curse of Aenarion jettisoned entirely; and the conventional ineffective combat statline of a wizard - with the bonus demerit of Strength and Toughness 2, to reflect that he was/apparently still is pretty feeble, I guess...? Warhammer's players stigma against special characters being fielded in pickup tournament games was starting to thaw with 7th edition, and with Teclis' High Loremaster special rule and the War Crown of Saphery taking all the usual randomness out of spell generation and the magic phase, he was a regular source of of groans and mumbled 'beardies' from anyone unfortunate enough to be on the opposite side of the table. Included on Teclis' rules page is an informative bit colour text about Lileath, who is described as the eternally young daughter of Isha, with the Moon Staff apparently once bestowed as one of three gifts by Lileath to the elves of ancient past, with the universal vision granting Star Crown, and cleansing Amulet of Sunfire having been lost to history. The most significant development for Teclis and Tyrion in 7th edition's High Elf army book is a timeline snippet dating to the 10th year of Finubar's reign (IC 2173), 128 years before the Battle of Finuval Plain, detailing N'kari running amok across Ulthuan, in an attempt to eliminate the descendants of Aenarion, before being eventually put down in a climatic battle at the Shrine of Asuryan, with survivors telling of the bravery of a pair of young elf twins. This would be expanded upon in great detail in Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos, released the following year, and the subject of my next post. I hope you've enjoyed what has been a comparatively mundane instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. If you're concerned that the rest of the series will be this humdrum, then please don't fret. Part 6 sees Teclis and Tyrion receive the aforementioned brand new origin story, predating their earliest adventures. If you have any feedback about this or previous instalments in the series, or have spotted something I've got wrong or omitted then please contact me. View the full article

In Part 5 of my series exploring the aelven god of magic's prior existence, Teclis' founding of the Empire's Colleges of Magic is expanded on in a new edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and he makes a cameo in another global narrative campaign. Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, or WFRP to aficionados is Games Workshop's cult Warhammer World set roleplaying game, which having previously been licensed out to various publishers in relative obscurity for over a decade was relaunched to great fanfare with a brand new edition in March 2005, by Black Industries, a short lived subsidiary of Games Workshop's Black Library. WFRP's 2nd edition was distinctly set in a post Storm of Chaos Warhammer World, with the modern version of the setting explored through it in more detail than ever before. Realms of Sorcery, the game's appropriately titled magic supplement was released the following November, and included an expanded history of the founding of the Colleges of Magic, also detailing Teclis' part in the Great War Against Chaos. On traveling from Ulthuan to the Old World with Magnus the Pious' ambassador Pieter Lazlo on the ship Sigmar's Hope (known to its crew a the Folorn Hope), Teclis, Yrtle and Finreir are taken to Talabheim, where Magnus is gathering troops to his cause. Immediately establishing himself as a font of sage advice, Teclis explains to a sceptical Magnus that the men of the Empire need to be taught to wield magic with skill and safety in order to be able to combat the Aethyric horrors they'll be facing in the north. Magnus is convinced by Teclis, and requests the three Loremasters promise to destroy any human students showing even the slightest hint of Chaotic corruption. Teclis replies in a chilling tone that any tainted creature going near him or his colleagues would be obliterated beyond human understanding. Authorised by Magnus, and with begrudging support from the rest of the Empire, Teclis and his fellow mages, through magical and mundane means put the word out across the Empire of amnesty, pardons and training offered to any and all hedge wizards and petty magicians able to answer the call. Teclis politely opts to leave alone the clergy of the Empire's various faiths, able to channel magic into what they call prayers and miracles bestowed upon them by their gods (much to Yrtle and Finreir's amusement) - later on in the book a quote ascribed to a lecture given by Teclis to human students details Teclis' discrete, nonetheless dismissive view of the prayers of human priests being subconsciously channelled spells by priests who didn't realise they were Aethyrically sensitive, in line with Warhammer's approach at the time to gods and daemons being subconscious reflections of sentient races collective psyche. Many of the human magic users making their way to Talabheim already show signs of corruption, handing themselves over to Magnus and the elves authority as a desperate last hope, and only meeting swift annihilation at the hands of Teclis and his fellow mages. As the elves begin to instruct their new students in the ways of spellcraft, many of the Empire's templar orders, particularly the infamous Witch Hunters look on in horror, but are powerless to do anything, the elves having received Magnus and the Grand Theogonist's blessing. The three elf mages teach their assembled human pupils relatively simple offensive spells in the form of fireballs, lightning bolts and loud noises, as well as healing magic to aid the wounded. Teclis' two standout students are Volans, who would go on to become the first Patriarch of the Light College and overall Supreme Patriarch; and Friedrich von Tarnus, the warrior mage previously established as having crafted the Silver Seal for Magnus, and his own Armour of Tarnus, here expanded upon as the shamed former commander of the Carroburg Greatswords, and future first Patriarch of the Bright College. At the forefront of the Empire's armies in the coming battles, the newly trained human wizards and the elf mages themselves show a willingness to spill their own blood defending the Old World from Chaos, Yrtle himself being beheaded in battle by 'some clawed fiend of Chaos' as he incinerated it with magical fire, and being buried in Ostermark with full honours. The forces of Chaos thoroughly beaten back to the Northern Wastes, Magnus and the new human Magisters are heralded as the saviours of the Empire, and on ascending to the office of Emperor, Magnus asks Teclis and Finreir for their assistance setting up an institution where Imperial citizens can be properly trained in the now invaluable battlefield art of spellcraft. Consistent with his White Dwarf 156 characterisation, Finreir is resistant, with Teclis agreeing with Magnus and arguing that the safety of the Old World, and in the long run Ulthuan lay with the the Empire, as the most populated and powerful nation on the continent. After much private debate Finreir relents, and in the summer of IC 2304 Magnus announces that Aldorf would house the nascent Orders of Magic (Aldorf, though usually thought of as the Empire's capital was not at the time, with Magnus' seat of power residing in his home city of Nuln - chosen for good reason should something go wrong and Magnus wish to distance himself). Riots erupt on Altdorf's streets, and are only put down by martial law as Teclis and Finreir alter the fabric of the city's reality to accommodate the new College buildings, rendering it permanently unmappable, with locals forever more forced to rely on landmarks rather than any conventional means of urban navigation. The buildings of the eight Colleges being erected by Teclis and Finreir or the Empire's human citizenry is unclear, and while I won't detail them here, all are ostentatiously prenatural by Warhammer's potato sack low fantasy standards, and at first glance might (appropriately) feel more at home in the Mortal Realms. September 2006 saw the 7th edition of Warhammer hit shelves. The only noteworthy piece of Teclis content in the game's hardback rulebook would be the above photo of a High Elf army, with Teclis' original Jes Goodwin model used to represent him (having previously turned up in White Dwarf articles simply credited as 'Mage'). This would be a publication quirk and not a new precedent though, with Gary Morley's 6th edition model continuing to represent Teclis for the foreseeable future. Teclis would play a very minor part in The Nemesis Crown, summer 2007's (significantly lower key than the previous Storm of Chaos) global campaign, involving the Warhammer World's various factions slugging it out across the Empire's Forests in order to track down the titular magical crown, hewn from warpstone in order to contain the power of the almighty Rune of Ages by the Runelord Alaric the Mad thousands or years prior, a source of great shame to the Dwarfs, and thought lost until now. The High Elves' agenda in the campaign was to secure the Nemesis Crown to use as a bargaining chip with the Dwarfs in order to negotiate the return of their own Phoenix Crown, taken by the Dwarfs as a trophy at the end of the War of Vengeance, with Finubar dispatching Teclis to patrol the Sea of Claws and stave off Dark Elf and Chaos invaders (apparently on account of him being so well travelled). The High Elves did not discover the location of the Nemesis Crown, with the Dwarfs winning the campaign and claiming it unassisted, placing it under lock and key in Karaz-a-Karak. If you were worried I'd forgotten about Lileath watch, then don't be, as the following September's ecclesiastic WFRP supplement Tome of Salvation would see her named Lileath the Maiden, Goddess of Dreams and Fortune for the first time outside of Warhammer 40,000, as well as describing her as prayed to for clarity, prophecy and foresight, and worshipped as part of a triumvirate alongside Isha and Morai-heg. If your name isn't Bretonnia, new editions usually herald a new army book, and the High Elves' would drop in November 2007, with the background section consisting of mostly recycled content from the original 1993 Warhammer Armies: High Elves, and you guessed it... Bill King's White Dwarf 156 article introducing Teclis and Tyrion. Reprinted with a twist this time, King's story received a few minor editorial tweaks, to reflect the subsequently established Dark Elf background, with instances of the Dark Elves worshipping Slaanesh and Chaos replaced with overall more ambiguous depravity. Along with the rest of the High Elves, Teclis' 7th ed rules were far more conventional than his 6th, with Sariour, Charoi and the Curse of Aenarion jettisoned entirely; and the conventional ineffective combat statline of a wizard - with the bonus demerit of Strength and Toughness 2, to reflect that he was/apparently still is pretty feeble, I guess...? Warhammer's players stigma against special characters being fielded in pickup tournament games was starting to thaw with 7th edition, and with Teclis' High Loremaster special rule and the War Crown of Saphery taking all the usual randomness out of spell generation and the magic phase, he was a regular source of of groans and mumbled 'beardies' from anyone unfortunate enough to be on the opposite side of the table. Included on Teclis' rules page is an informative bit colour text about Lileath, who is described as the eternally young daughter of Isha, with the Moon Staff apparently once bestowed as one of three gifts by Lileath to the elves of ancient past, with the universal vision granting Star Crown, and cleansing Amulet of Sunfire having been lost to history. The most significant development for Teclis and Tyrion in 7th edition's High Elf army book is a timeline snippet dating to the 10th year of Finubar's reign (IC 2173), 128 years before the Battle of Finuval Plain, detailing N'kari running amok across Ulthuan, in an attempt to eliminate the descendants of Aenarion, before being eventually put down in a climatic battle at the Shrine of Asuryan, with survivors telling of the bravery of a pair of young elf twins. This would be expanded upon in great detail in Warhammer Armies: Daemons of Chaos, released the following year, and the subject of my next post. I hope you've enjoyed what has been a comparatively mundane instalment of Great Canon: Teclis. If you're concerned that the rest of the series will be this humdrum, then please don't fret. Part 6 sees Teclis and Tyrion receive the aforementioned brand new origin story, predating their earliest adventures. If you have any feedback about this or previous instalments in the series, or have spotted something I've got wrong or omitted then please contact me.View the full article

DOGS OF WAR PLS

Obviously because Mannfred von Carstein had kidnapped the Everchild, the High Elves had travelled the world failing to get her back a bunch, and cut of from their allies were making a last ditch attempt to rescue her from the vampire's fell clutched before he could sacrifice her in a ritual to resurrect Nagash, sheesh. 🙄😉