For Chaos! For Pony!

This blog is for a friend. Apparently, me getting interested in AoS has dragged some others in. I figured the least I could do was tempt him by writing some lists for armies that he is interested in.

Criteria:

Smallish model count

Fairly straight forwards to paint

No models that make him want to vomit his brains out.

Right. First two are no problem, third… umm…. Moving on. He had been thinking about Khorne, Nurgle and Tzeentch, along with Kharadron Overlords, though they already failed the fiddly paint criteria.

Like before when I was planning my own army, each of these will be built for 2000 points rather than planned incrementally.

 

Khorne time

Research:

Khorne likes stuff to die, getting Blood Tithe points that they can use later (friendly deaths count, glorious carnage!).

Okay, this army is confusing. It seems to be three armies in one (Daemon/Mortal/Bloodbound). Luckily, we have the “no faff to paint” clause, so I’m going to make a Daemon army.

Actually, I’m going to make two.

Building the armies:

There’s two we’re looking at here, one because I want to and the other that is probably closer to Rich’s goal. The first will be FIVE BLOODTHIRSTERS BECAUSE ITS SO COOL. And expensive. The second will be Skullcrusher heavy… and probably expensive too. Let’s found out.

Bloodthirsters first, and we’ll be taking the battalion Tyrants of Blood within the Baleful Lords Slaughterhost. This allows us to take 5 behemoths so long as all are Bloodthirsters, and let’s the five run and charge.

For this list, we’ll have Skarbrand, the Wrath of Khorne Bloodthirster and a combination of three of the Unfettered Fury/Insensate Rage Bloodthirsters (they cost the same points). Our battleline is three units of five Flesh Hounds and… well, that’s 1930 points spent. Cool, add in a CP and we’re done.

That’s just 20 models, five of which are monsters, but costs £515 at GW prices. Ouch!

 

Next up, the Bloodcrusher army. First, we want these boys to be battleline, so Skullmaster will be our general. Second, we want to maximise their impact, so we’ll be using the Bloodthunder Stampede (means that there’s no chance of failure for their charging abilities, I love removing chance from the equation). That’s half our points spent. How does one round out a Khorne army?

First, let’s add something swift in to harass the enemy (so five Flesh Hounds), then lets look at the heroes. Frankly, I think if you can take a Bloodthirster, you should. The Insensate Rage has an ability to help charges go off, and deals out meaty damage (the shock, I know) so let’s add this little chappy in.

And Skarbrand. We have the points, he has the axes and will keep pace with the Bloodcrushers, in he goes. You know what’s funny? Karanak, the named Flesh Hound character being 140 points and being able to summon in 100 points worth of Flesh Hounds. That kinda makes him 40 points, right? In he goes.

That leaves 270 points to spend. Personally, I’d add a Soul Grinder to get at least some ranged threat into the list, and then use the last points to buy a CP in the game.

This army is:

Skullmaster

Bloodthirster of Insensate Rage

Skarbrand

Karanak

6 Bloodcrushers

6 Bloodcrushers

6 Bloodcrushers

5 Flesh Hounds (plus another five to summon)

Soul Grinder

So that’s 28 models for £456. And neither list has included models that your blood tithes can summon.

Man, Blades of Khorne are expensive.

 

The aftermath:

So that’s it! The six lists are planned (and an extra four to boot), now it’s time to stop procrastinating and actually make a decision on what army to play. First, let’s list them solely in the order they appear on my spreadsheet:

MagmaDwarfs (dwarves led by two Magmadroths)

SnakeElves (serpentine Daughters of Khaine list)

Treesharks (Idoneth Deepkin and Sylvaneth together in a truly rubbish manner)

DinoRawrs (big stompy Seraphon)

The Squiggening (All the squigs. And some more.)

GoatBoys (Elite Lumineth force with Eltharion and two behemoths

On a Pale Horse (Cavalry Ossiarch Bonereaper list)

SkeleBang (foot troop heavy alternate Ossiarch list)

Stonehorn Express (Mounted ogors)

The Funbus (not-mounted ogors)

The Definitely Nots:

Quick and easy, some lists are definitely out. First off, the Ogors. They are just not my bag but were suggested by some friends. Next up, both Bonereaper lists. Despite researching and writing two very different lists for them, I still cannot decide if I like the range or not. That’s enough of an answer to avoid using them as a basis for a project, so they can get in the bin with the Ogors.

Goatboys now. Expensive range that didn’t grab me, and the list feels like it is getting in its own way. Also, this last weekend revealed a significant expansion to their range coming this year, which would likely make me want to change up the list anyway, adding more expense to the army. Off they trot.

Finally, there’s the TreeShark list. As fun and different as the modelling project could be, this army could suck a golf ball through a garden hose (I do wonder if anyone gets these references, then I remember that they amuse me and that’s enough). Buybye, TreeSharks.

 

The Final Four:

So I’m down to four choices: MagmaDwarfs, SnakeElves, DinoRawrs and The Squiggening. Time to look at these more closely and remember my initial criteria for the army I pick: Stompiness, Aesthetic appeal, Popularity, Low model count, Competence and Rule of cool

Stompiness:

The Seraphon list is the clear winner here with six monsters of five different varieties. Dwarfs next with two Magmadroths, yes the Squiggening technically has the same number of monsters too but the Mangler Squigs just aren’t on the same scale for me.

Aesthetic appeal:

I’m going to change this one slightly, as I like the aesthetics of all four choices. Instead, I’m going to look at the variation within the army to keep me interested in painting them. Squigs are dead last here, swiftly followed by the Magmadwarfs. Both have just two types of model variants, but I’ll give bonus points to dwarfs here because those Magmadroths are so damn awesome looking.

Now between the Snakes and the Dinos its tough. The Dinos have a greater range, but personally I feel the sculpts are now showing their age. To me, the SnakeElves slightly edge it into first place.

Popularity:

I’m looking at tabletoptournaments.net for my figures here, filtered to the last six months. It’s hardly accurate given the pandemic, but I gotta work with what I have. From the four armies of choice, the popularity on a descending scale is: Seraphon, Gloomspite Gitz, Fyreslayers and then Daughters of Khaine. Obviously that may change with the new book, but at a local level I can also say that there are nearby Seraphon and Gitz players, so I’ll follow that order.

Low model count:

Uncomplicated option this, DinoRawrs is lowest with 22 (6 Big Guys), then Magmadwarfs with 55 (2 Big Guys), SnakeElves with 59 (1 Big Guy) and bringing up the rear it’s the Squiggening with 71 models (2 big guys). Honestly, I thought there would be a greater difference between the squigs and the dwarfs than 16 models.

Competence:

Tough to judge this time, what with my complete lack of experience for AoS as it currently stands. The Squiggening feels like the least competent and most meme-worthy of the lists (though still functional) and the Magmadwarfs feel like the closest to a tournament list. Between the dinos and the SnakeElves, I just don’t know so I’ll call that a tie.

Rule of cool:

This was a gut-judgement about the army as a whole based. Last place goes to the memes, third to the DinoRawrs (as dinosaurs are cool, skinks are not, nor are the resin models in the list), second to the Magmadwarfs for their fiery monsters of doom but first has to go to the teleporting SnakeElves of doom.

Seriously:

The scores are given and we have a very tight top three. Bottom place is Squigs with 22 (we want low scores). Third place goes to the DinoRawrs with 13. And with 12 points its….

 

SnakeElves AND Magmadwarfs.

Seriously. Over 7500 words written on this project, 11 previous blog posts and a spreadsheet with more tables than I can be bothered to count, this ends with a tie?

Fine. There’s two easy tiebreakers, both of which are won by the SnakeElves. Cash? Its £290 to £325 and desire to paint, well, one has 55 naked dwarf butts compared to a varied army with snake bodies (something I have never painted).

My Age of Sigmar army will be a Melusai heavy Daughters of Khaine army.

 Now I need to figure out a colour scheme...

So what was the idea that had me look into yet another army? Well, it was a battalion in the Idoneth book, Alliance of Wood and Sea. It blends Sylvaneth with the Idoneth Deepkin, and immediately I wondered how you would model such an army. Trees drenched in seaweed, growing barnacles? Treemen that are massive coral structures maybe? Sharks flying out of trees.

Heh. TreeSharks.

Goal:

To make a weird yet cool TreeShark force.

Research:

I’m just going to put this into the Building a list section.

Battalions?

Yep, the Alliance of Wood and Sea.

Building the list:

This battalion is expensive and full of units. I’ll start with the Sylvaneth for ease. They need, conveniently, a start collecting box plus a few more dryads (treelord ancient, Branchwych and two units of Dryads). Okay, thinks I, that’s two battleline units down and-wait, they aren’t battleline because they are allies? Okay, well at list I have two casters that… oh. Have no additional spells.

Well, this is not shaping up well so far. What do the Sylvaneth units do in this list? Gain the benefits of Tides of Death (the Tides rule) so let’s look at that closer:

Low tide – units count as being in cover. Cool, whole army benefits here. Possibly even more as most of the list can’t be targeted due to the Forgotten Nightmares rule for the Deepkin.

Flood Tide – after running, can either shoot or charge. Okay, the dryads are an anvil unit, the Treelord Ancient is a caster, not a fighter (having at most 4 melee attacks) and the Branchwych… okay, she might use it. Gee, such benefit. Only the Treelord Ancient can shoot.

High Tide – Units fight at the start of the Combat phase. As above, these models are not really close combat focused but if they are in combat, this won’t hurt.

Ebb Tide – after falling back, can shoot or charge. Yeah, these benefits would be great for, say, Kurnoth Hunters to use but being tied into these models means we aren’t getting a great benefit from the battalion.

Anyways, let’s add in the Idoneth, which means an Isharann Tidecaster, 2 units of Akhelian guards (opting for the Ishlaen variety solely because they are cheaper), a unit of Akhelian Allopexes (three please, they are sharks after all), a unit of Namarti Thralls and a unit of Namarti Reavers… So a kitchen sink approach then.

This gives us three heroes (only one is Deepkin though) and just one battleline for 1630 points. Woah. Bugger. I had hoped to fit an Eidolon in this list but they do not unlock additional battleline options.

Let’s see. If I make the Tidecaller the general, then the Reavers become battleline meaning only 1 more option is needed or I take an Akhelian King/Volturnos which makes the Ishlaen Guards battleline too. I think this is the better approach, and this eats up the remaining points, leaving just enough for an endless spell or two. 

The Army:

Volturnos

3 Akhelian Allopexes

3 Akhelian Ishlaen Guard

3 Akhelian Ishlaen Guard

Branchwych

10 Dryads

10 Dryads

Isharann Tidecaster

Namarti Thralls

Namarti Reavers

Treelord Ancient

This is 53 models and comes to £270 (using the Bloodsurf Hunt box from the Morathi release as well as a Start Collecting box for both Idoneth and Sylvaneth). However, that does not include the Gloomtide Shipwreck (£30) or Awakened Wyldwoods for the Sylvaneth (if I’ve read it right, this army can summon them and then use teleportation shenanigans, £32.50).

Pros:

It would be a unique army and as I said at the start, a real chance to design a unique looking force.

Cons:

I mean, the list sucks. It does nothing well, the dryads normally rely on numbers but are only units of 10, the Sylvaneth heroes are lacklustre in faction and suffer even more in this army.

I really wish more thought had been put into this battalion as the concept is great. There could easily be some lore crafted around the two factions weaving a close knit alliance for some reason (take a look at the Living City, able to draw in Sylvaneth and Stormcast Eternals for their armies) and a less prohibitive battalion used to represent it. As it stands, there are too many required units to be able to customise the army into something vaguely competent.