Azamar

Gunhauler done! This conveniently takes my painted KO models to exactly 2000 points, right before the next GHB comes along and stuffs it all up again! Also a WIP of Brokk, who’s starting to come together

My pledge this month: finish my gunhauler- making good headway on this already. After that, I’ve picked up Brokk Grungsson. I want to take a bit of time over him so I doubt I’ll get much else done this month. edit: progress on the gunhauler so far.

I think hearthguard are a little dependent on having heroes nearby to really shine, so you might struggle against an army that can take out your two heroes quickly, especially magic heavy armies. might it be worth trying to squeeze in an extra hero? Or having at least one unit of Auric Hearthguard to try and keep tour heroes on the table a little longer?

Just finished basing my last unit (for now) of fyreslayers. Having spent the last few months painting mostly beards and skin, time to start on something that has neither...

He gets an extra trait for the battalion as well

Well said. (Although at least one other battle line choice in the ghb would be nice- there’s a few aerial force ideas I could play around with if I didn’t need an obligatory 30 arkanauts in every list)

You are right- it is not a save so the gimlet lens would not affect it. No specific faq, but put it like this, if the gimlet lens removed the bonus, then things like the battlesmith would also boost it. Which is definitely not the case.

Ah, sorry that went a long way over my head then. It is a lot of fun though- once it’s done it’s primary job (keeping your other units alive until high tide) push a lord of the tides or two it’s way then throw it into the mix like a big scaly battering ram. For an army that relies on precision strikes it’s quite unsubtle really. Deepstriking it will definitely give your opponent pause for thought as well.

I will argue to the ground that the turtle doesn’t suck. I’d even say it’s rather good. I can see the argument that it’s not optimal for it’s points, but that only really matters if you’re playing competitively I think. Against other lists that aren’t min/maxed you’ll get by fine with units like the leviadon and shark thrown in

Struggling with motivation for the last few slayers for my pledge this month, but the endless prayers are done!

Dragon blades and shadow warriors yes, and perhaps eternal guard, corsairs and drakespawn knights. Phoenix guard are pretty nasty even being a conditional battleline unit, I don’t think them being a basic battleline would be particularly balanced.

To my knowledge, command abilities do effect the model using them if they fit the keywords, so yes. I would say shields for bigger units, and paired axes for 10 man units. 20 vulkites with shields dropped in by a runesmiter are tough to shift, so seem like a good choice to get your model count up, and nab objectives on the other side of the table whilst needing little in the way of support to do their job. Paired axes meanwhile seem like decent damage dealers- with a runic empowerment they’re 3+/3+ with rerolls on everything, and especially nasty on the turn you use the rune of awakened steel. Throw them at something nasty, get in the first swing (if you can) then with berserk fury they’ll attack a second time as they die. I don’t think having paired axes in units larger than 10 will be that useful though as you’ll struggle to get enough of them in range to be worthwhile.

That was commendably fast by the faq team then. I was just about to comment about how they’d inadvertently bricked the forge, although anyone in their right mind would have ignored that anyway. And common sense prevails for the battlesmith. The question on berserk fury feels bizarre as well. Surely it would have been easier to just say “no, you can’t activate in twice in one phase” Regarding the question on prayers- does that mean a runesmiter/ runemaster can only cast one prayer of any kind a turn, or can they cast one blessing from the book and the one on their warscroll (like dok and Bok priests)?

Has it been confirmed how the mercenary system works, as if not it might be worth waiting until we know before taking the plunge. Assuming it works the same as allies, then I second grimwrath berserkers as a good choice. Otherwise I wonder if Auric Hearthguard might be a good idea as they fill a role (ranged support) that khorne don’t have many options in, and are handy anti-monster units. Otherwise both types of berserkers are fine choices- vulkites are cheaper and can be taken alone without losing too much. hearthguard are stronger, but their main selling point (durability) drops off if there’s no fyreslayer hero, or the one you take gets killed. @baloon dwarf- I like the look of that list and I’d be tempted to try it out myself, although I’m not sure how much mileage you’d get out of two battalions in one list, especially with Greyfyrd. Warrior kinband is ok, but is it worth considering a runesmiter to help with board control, or a unit of Auric Hearthguard instead?

This month my pledge is 5 Auric Hearthguard and the fyreslayer endless sp.... I mean Magmic Invocations. After that I think I’ll be done with slayers, but my stretch goal will be to start on a gunhauler I have sitting waiting to be built. I was late posting the ens the end of my April target, but did finish off another 5 hearthguard in April. I also quickly threw some paint at a magma forge, seeing me through to this month (with the final touches going on today)

In case anyone is still concerned that Vulkite Berzerkers don’t have a place in the new book: I tried a Hermdar list yesterday and a unit of 20 with shields dropped by a runesmiter is amazingly tough with very little support needed. Would work with any lodge, but the battleshock immunity from Hermdar if you drop them in your opponent’s territory makes a big difference

If you added a start collecting set and built it with a runefather on the magmadroth and both foot heroes, you would have exactly 1000 points. Don’t know if that will be effective necessarily, but it’d be a good start. Probably worth checking out the vostarg lodge if you like aggressive playstyles.

How are people finding the lack of magic defence? Is it pretty much essential to take one of the artefacts in every game? If so, which one is your preference? I found the Nulsidian icon to be a bit limited in my first game- hasn’t against any damage spells that came my way, but given the amount of buffing spells that the enemy (DOK in this case) had available I can’t help but feel a chance to unbind wound have been better. I guess against certain armies - tzeentch and LON in particular- the chance of getting a successful unbind with so bonuses is so low that a flat 50:50 chance to ignore is better. I might try the ash cloud rune for my next game, but I still find it slightly frustrating that I’m always having to burn an artefact choice just to have some magic defence (or allies points I suppose)- is this overthinking it and would it be better to just take the hit from magic and just take whatever artefact suits my army the best?

I finally took my fyreslayers out for their first 2000 point game yesterday. We were playing the reclaim the forge scenario from the book, so I built an army based around 2 runeson brothers setting out to reclaim a lost stronghold and start a new lodge. This was also an excuse to put every Vulkite berserker I had in the force to see how they got on. I was up against DOK Ultimately I lost- I was nowhere near careful enough with my runesmiters, and lost both by turn 2 with only one brazier alight. With Morathi in full on beast mode and hanging out near the forge my chances of lighting were pretty slim, and I never quite made the roll. that’s not to say fyreslayers are slouches- they dished out and soaked up an impressive amount of damage, and were it not for Morathi, and the scenario command ability allowing units to return at will there would not have been many DOK left on the table by the end, although the close distance between armies at the start of this scenario definitely helped me there. I don’t really feel the need to talk much about the hearthguard, as everyone and their dog knows that they’re incredible now, although I have to say I found the broadaxes more reliable damage wise despite the smaller unit. Vulkite Berserkers are.... ok. They’re not going to be the unit everyone is talking about, but they’re far from useless. I was hampered by some abysmal dice (at one point, 13 wounds against a 4+ save and I failed 11 of them!) but they were solid throughout, did reasonable damage. The unit of 20 with shields could soak up a lot of punishment, especially if I managed to get them in range of the battlesmith. The smaller units of 10 were better for board control, can operate away from the heroes without losing much, and could be particularly nasty if awakened steel is active. I’m not sure the warrior kinband will be a good choice in the long term, but for now it’s a more forgiving way to learn when best to activate their ability, with a second bite of the cherry if you get it wrong the first time. I can’t comment on how the prayers were as I failed to cast Emberstorm at every attempt, and my runesmiter on foot died before he even reached a hero phase. Oh well, next time.. my list and a couple of shots from the battle below!

I went Javelin for a mounted runeson and axe for one on foot- I feel the axe benefits the most from his own command ability.

I used the crested heads as much as possible, as I prefer the look of them- it means both the ishaen and morrsarr have the same helmets, but I made sure to use different enough colour schemes so it’s still easy to spot which is which. I’ve seen some amazing colour schemes online for the mounts, and it’s a faction that really encourages you to try stuff out. I went with rich bright sea colours on mine, but search around for fish colours and you’ll likely find something to inspire you- I based my ishlaen on a picture I found on google images of an eel for example:

I think others have already covered why those other units with one wound don’t really compare points wise to a unit with 2. Whilst it’s not always a great idea to compare point costs across factions, the closest equivalent units all cost a similar amount to vulkites- ardboyz are the same at 160 for 10, and tzaangors and chaos warriors sit at 180. Blood warriors make vulkites look cheap at 200 points for 10. The only 2 wound infantry I can find that are cheaper are bonesplitterz infantry. So I don’t think they’re overpriced by those standards. On paper I think the only thing I’d change would be to take the hoard discount off the hearthguard and add one to vulkite berserkers. But I’ve got my first game with them in a few days, so I’ll take a vulkite heavy list and see how they perform, and get back to you on that.

I’ve noticed that most of the lists people are thinking of have a lack of Vulkite berserkers- any thoughts on why this is? It looks to me there really should be room for them in any list still. sure, hearthguard have gone from a noticeably weak choice to a great one, but Vulkites can operate away from heroes without suffering too much, and are a good deal cheaper per model. As far as board control goes, they’re surely a valid choice still?

They’ll benefit from allegiance buffs and can also help keep your battlesmith alive, so in this case I’d say yes.

The arkanauts don’t fill out your battle line requirements, so you would need to replace them, or split the 20 hearthguard into 2 units. I’m not even close to being an expert on tournament lists, but I suspect most might look something like this- 50 hearthguard potentially hitting someone on turn one, with one unit attacking twice, is going to be a scary prospect. There’s probably better ways to spend those last 240- 300 points than the arkanauts though.