The Order of Azyr combines two releases, Hexbane’s Hunters from Warhammer Underworlds (previously available only as a Bladeborn warband in Warcry) and Saviours of Cinderfall, a miniatures box that ties into the Hammer and Bolter episode Undercity (as well as three novels). Similarly there are model sets for Dark Oath tying into the Monsters episode, and the Black Talons box recently released. I like the model tie-ins to the cartoons; it’s a great way to add new characters to existing armies, it allows the studio to flex their sculpting muscles and it adds more models to ranges that, in some cases, need a bit more (looking straight past Stormcast, who don’t need anything, to Cities of Sigmar and bog standard Chaos peeps with no shirts).
In Warcry terms this gives us occasional influxes of new models that can shake up the meta by either providing new warbands (as combining Saviours of Cinderfall with Hexbane’s Hunters does) or new cool allies (looking at you, Neave Blacktalon). It also raises the possibility of adding character sets to existing factions to heavily shake up the metas for them as well as people being able to play out the cartoons in Warcry, which would be a really easy game to pick up for younger players. I’m also hoping we see some 40k character sets at some point (looking at you, Angels of Death).
Table of Contents
Abilities and Reactions
The Order of Azyr has a very triple-heavy list of abilities, and only one double that can be used by one model. Some of the triples are incredibly good, but the lack of doubles means you will likely want to take an ally with a double ability, or spend wild dice on raising doubles to triples rather than winning initiative.
Reaction
Grim Resolve allows you to roll a D3 and remove that many wounds from a fighter after they are targeted for an attack but before dice are rolled. You can’t go above your initial number of wounds, so to use this reaction you have to have taken damage. It’s situational, and counter is out there as well as an option. This is also only useable by models with the Warrior runemark, so five out of the twelve models you can take don’t have access to it.
Abilities
Double – Explosive Bolts: The only double available to the warband without taking allies or using generics, and it’s only useable by one model, Quiet Pock. You use it when making a ranged attack at a target and get a hit (and Quiet Pock has a range of 15 and strength of 4, rolling two dice, so getting a hit isn’t that unlikely) you allocate half the value of the ability to all fighters within 3” of the target. This is great for targeting a titan surrounded by chaff, or just a group of models on an objective, as extra chip damage can make them that little bit easier to clear off, and there are a number of reaction based warbands that love to clump up.
Triple – Brand of Righteousness: Until the end of the fighter’s activation, add the value of the ability to damage from critical hits from melee attacks. This is for Leaders only, and can only be used by Hanniver Toll and Haskell Hexbane, both of whom have four attacks. This ability is high risk high reward, and best used if you are about to use two melee attacks back to back.
Triple – Right Tool for the Job: Select an enemy fighter within 3″ of this fighter. Melee attack actions made by this fighter this activation that target that enemy fighter score a critical hit on a 5+. This can only be used by Hanniver Toll, and while it’s nice given you have 2/5 damage and 4 attacks, there are better triples available to the faction. Again, best if you use when you are going to double melee.
Triple – Give ’Em Both Barrels: This fighter makes a bonus ranged attack action. The Range characteristic for that attack action is double the value of this ability. Only useable by Armand Callis, if this were useable by any model it would be a slam dunk to use on Quiet Pock. A 3 dice Strength 4 2/3 ranged attack at between 2” and 12” is nice, but not super good.
Triple – They Will Break Upon My Shield: Until the end of the battle round, subtract the value of this ability from the damage points allocated to this fighter by each hit and critical hit from attack actions that target this fighter (to a minimum of 1). This is where we get to the real good stuff. Only useable by Valius, a Toughness 6, 30 wound model, this is an ability that lets him soak damage from things like titans, brewgit-boosted destruction models, etc. This means he can sit on a central objective or hold a treasure and not get killed. As Valius has four Strength 5 3/5 attacks to dish out, it lets him go toe to toe with monsters and low dice/high damage models (the Ogor Breacher etc), shrugging off their attacks while hacking lumps out of them back.
Triple – Secrets from the Shadows: Pick a [double], [triple] or [quad] from your opponent’s ability dice. Roll a dice and add the value of this ability to the roll. On a 7+, that [double], [triple] or [quad] is discarded. Only useable by Mistress Verentia, this lets you just take away your opponents quad on a dice roll that ranges between 6+ and automatic depending on the value of the ability.
Triple – Tangle Them Up: Pick a visible enemy fighter within 3″ of this fighter. Until the end of the battle round, subtract 2 from the Attacks characteristic (to a minimum of 1) of melee attack actions made by that fighter. Only useable by Lyssa Revenya, this is great against models with powerful attacks, but a low number of dice, like titans and monsters. You don’t have to stay within 3”, so you can drop the ability and run using the Fly runemark the model has to get up or over terrain.
Quad – Hallowed Vengeance: A fighter can only use this ability if an enemy fighter’s attack action took down a friendly fighter in the previous activation. Each friendly fighter with both the Warrior and the Order of Azyr runemarks can make a bonus attack action that must target that fighter. Note that this applies when any friendly fighter, including allies and beasts, are taken down. It applies to both melee and shooting attacks. As the restriction is Warrior models the free attack applies to Toll, Valius, Callis, Hexbane, Quiet Pock, Aemos and Brydget. Of these seven models, five of them have ranged attacks. If you can get the ability to go off with 3-4 models in range, it gives you a lot of free actions to kill an enemy model.
Bear in mind you don’t have to use this at the start of an activation after you lost a friendly model. You can move Valius next to the big guy who squashed one of your models, trigger it so everyone in range shoots them and Valius attacks, then finish them off with Valius’s second action if they made it. Better than rampage if you have a good target like a Titan, not great used on a chaff model which would go down to a stiff breeze anyway.
Heroes
You have a choice of two very similar leaders for the warband, Hanniver Toll and Haskel Hexbane. Both models have Move 4 and 20 wounds (fairly standard for a Warcry leader model) and a Range 8 three-attack Strength 4 1/3 gun. Both have access to the Brand of Righteousness ability. Both have Range 1, four attacks and Strength 3 in melee, but different damage values. They both cost 125 points, and are pretty decent fighters for the points level.
Hanniver Toll
Hanniver Toll has Toughness 3, making him easier to kill, but 2/5 damage in melee, giving him a higher damage output. He also has the Right Tool for the Job ability, which can spike his damage output by giving melee crits on a 5+, and is very nice with two melee attacks. A decent leader model with decent damage output, with the weakness being Toughness 3. If you roll a low triple and are about to do two melee actions, Right Tool for the Job is very nice.
Haskel Hexbane
Toughness 4 and 2/4 melee, more survivable but less killy and no Right Tool for the Job ability.
It is really up to you which leader you go with, though Toll with better damage output and an additional ability swings it for a lot of players, especially playing against elite warbands with a lot of strength 5 or 6 where being toughness 3 or 4 makes no difference at all.
Fighters
Valius, The Keeper Aqshian
A very interesting semi-titan, he has Toughness 6, 30 wounds and 4 dice Strength 5 3/5 damage in melee. So far, so Stormcast you say, how is he better than an Annihilator Prime? Well apart from being faster with Move 4 and lasting longer with 30 wounds, he has the triple They Will Break Upon My Shield which can massively reduce the amount of incoming damage, making Valius a great anvil for enemy attacks to break on, particularly where your opponent has invested in models with low numbers of attacks and high damage output (titans, monsters, models with great weapons of some kind) where with a triple 3 a melee of 2/4 becomes 1/1.
This is a great beat-stick model for dishing out damage, grabbing a vital objective and tarpitting a big mean enemy threat or two. A high-value ability can mean sitting there tanking hits from multiple titans/monsters and stopping them taking an objective or chasing after your other models.
If Valius was also a hero you would be seeing him turn up as an order ally fairly frequently, as he’s a great anti-titan model.
Armand Callis
A points-efficient fighter when compared to similar fighters, and with a ranged attack with no minimum range that is better than his melee attack (certain reactions are keyed to melee attacks, so this can avoid triggering reactions on some fighters). Give ’Em Both Barrels gives you a bonus ranged attack, and if the ability is high-value (range is double the value so it is between 2 and 12”) can be at greater than normal range. 18 wounds and Toughness 4 makes him fairly tough, and Callis is a solid skirmisher for his points cost.
Mistress Verentia
A model you are taking for its ability, she isn’t great at shooting (3/6 but strength 4 and a single dice) and is okay at melee if a bit spaghetti-armed (three dice, 3 Strength, 2/4 damage). She’s Toughness 3 with 15 wounds, and so is better than a lot of the lower-end fighters out there in terms of damage output and flexibility, but for 100 points she is pricey for her combat abilities. The ability to ruin enemy abilities using Secrets from the Shadows is great, but is it investing-10%-of-your-points great? Particularly when it means you not using one of your triples?
Lyssa Revenya
A great chaff model (75 points, Move 4, 15 wounds, Fly, 3” range weapon) with a net style ability Tangle Them Up that reduces an enemy models attacks by 2 to a minimum of 1, this model is great for putting out attacks from outside enemy melee range and then bouncing over terrain to get away. 75 points for everything you get is a bargain, and bouncing into 3” of a monster/titan, triggering her ability, then bouncing out again is great for reducing enemy damage output. Chaff that can Fly is also great for taking advantage of scenery and staying away from the enemy.
Balthus
A points efficient gryph-hound that loses 4 wounds but drops 20 points against the stock model. He’s still 95 points and competing against 55 point doggos that can provide more activations and be in two places at once.
Quiet Pock
A virtually compulsory model with a serious ranged attack, Quiet Pock also has the only double in the warband, Explosive Bolts. With a 15” range on his crossbow, ideally you want him on a vantage point of some kind firing explosive bolts into groups of enemy models or picking off chaff. 15” is a massive range in Warcry, and you should exploit it as much as possible.
Aemos Duncarrow
A very points-efficient bruiser. For 105 points you get three attacks, Strength 5 and 2/4 damage on a Toughness 4, 15 wound model. Great for whacking on chaff with his Strength 5.
Brydget Axwold
Another model with a shooting attack better than their melee attack and no minimum range, Brydget has two dice Strength 5 2/3 guns with a 6” range, so is great for putting holes in things from outside of a range where she can be hit back. 95 points means she’s fairly points-efficient.
Grotbiter and Ratspike
55 point chaff models great for sitting in table quarters, on objectives or burning actions to draw your opponent out. With Move 6 and 6 wounds they are fast but fairly vulnerable to catching a case of being dead from missile fire or a single melee strike.
Example Warband
Building the warband you have to choose between Toll or Hexbane as the Leader, but are then fairly flexible as to the makeup of the band. I feel Valius and Quiet Pock are virtually compulsory, Lyssa and the Doggos provide chaff, and you can spend the remainder of the points to your tastes.
From Hexbanes Hunters and Callis and Toll box only.
- Hanniver Toll
- Valius
- Quiet Pock
- Lyssa
- Grotbiter
- Callis
- Aemon
- Brydget
This leaves 45 points for blessings (Swiftness on Lyssa to make her Move 5, Might on Quiet Pocks Crossbow to make it strength 5, Resilience on Toll to make him Toughness 4). This gives an eight model warband with a couple of fast chaff models, four models with ranged attacks, a big melee threat and 124 wounds to chew through. It isn’t the most competitive band you could choose, but has a nice mixture.
With a single ally you could go for the following:
- Hanniver Toll
- Valius
- Quiet Pock
- Errant-Questor with Grandaxe
- Callis
- Lyssa
- Grotbiter
- Ratspike
This leaves 25 points for blessings, and Ferocity on the Grandaxe makes them four attacks with 2/5 as the second big damage dealer. Again eight models, though there is more chaff in this band and less guns in exchange for access to some very useful doubles and another tough melee threat. You can swap Callis out for a second ally, and a Kharadron Overlord or Dispossessed character would give you access to either Fight for Profit or Over My Dead Body. However this roster gives a strong mix of abilities with a single Errant Questor providing Thundering Strides to give out a free move action to help get models like Valius in position.
Overview and Suggested Allies
The obvious allies are ones that add more punch, ones that have good double abilities (as you can’t always roll triples), and ones that increase the action efficiency of the warband.
This pushes you towards things like a Questor Soulsworn, with the Thundering Strides and You Won’t Even Slow Me Down Double abilities, both of which give you an extra action. The Errant Questor with Grandaxe is a good choice at 165 points, and with good melee damage output gives you another heavy hitter in the warband. The Errant Questor Duelist with Twin-Blades is seeing a lot of use as its ability, Face Me, Cowards!, is missing the words ‘Until the end of the Battle Round,’ which means if it is activated in the first round it just remains in effect for the entire game.
Calthia Xandire is a go-to ally for Order in a lot of warbands due to Co-ordinated Strike to give out bonus move or attack actions to friendly fighters within 9″, possibly with Dhoraz Giant-Fell as another beat stick for the force. While it adds another triple to the list of things to spend a triple on, if you are going with fewer models that bring abilities and more models that bring violence, Calthia can be a good choice.
Any Dispossessed hero (and they can be as cheap as 110 points) provides Over My Dead Body, and a Kharadron Overlord Company Captain can provide Fight For Profit for 90 points if you have set up a little fire base with Quiet Pock next to an objective or while the Company Captain is lugging some treasure, boosting Pock to 4 dice per shot in order to absolutely nuke enemy models with less than ten wounds.
You can build the warband in several ways, maximising abilities, adding as much ranged firepower as possible, or building for brawn. The models are unique and some of them are very good for their points, while there are also three cheap chaff models (Lyssa + Doggos) that provide more warm bodies, objective holding and activations. I would highly recommend adding an ally to give access to useful doubles.
I think the warband has significant potential in competitive play due to Valius, Quiet Pock, the sheer range of abilities available, the cheap chaff models available in the doggos, and the solid allies order can bring in. It has great potential as an anti-Titan/Monster warband with Valius as an anvil and either Lyssa to cut down the attacks a big dude can dish out, or Valius tanking damage using his ability while the rest of the warband run around doing the mission.
Conclusion
This is a very interesting way to add another warband to the roster, and gives us a warband with a lot of abilities comprised of unique models. The list needs an ally or two for some good double abilities, but making up a force of just the Order of Azyr gives you a lot of options for how to play.
I think we’ll see some interesting competitive builds around exploiting the abilities these models bring to the game, and with Hexbane’s Hunters already seeing a lot of table time in order warbands as allies I’m certain some players will dive in with full Witch Hunter warbands.
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