Thanks to Games Workshop for sending us these rules and the Skaventide box set for review. Over the coming weeks, we will be having experts provide insight into how they are building and running lists with each faction in Age of Sigmar. For this overview, we’re looking at what stands out for each faction, how much has changed, and how we might approach some key challenges on the tabletop.
Faction Overview
The Flesh Eater Courts faction pack will be very familiar to returning players from 3rd ed. Characters generate Noble Deed points by doing various acts of valor like fighting in combat or casting spells They can either bank those points to activate Feeding Frenzy, which adds an attack for all nearby units, or spend them to bring back dead models or entire units depending on the type of character they have.
Units largely also have the same roles as before. There are Serfs which act as expendable bozos but are easy to revive, Knights which are your more powerful elite units which can still be revived, Courtiers are your lesser heroes which are focused on buffing nearby units and refilling their ranks, and Abhorrants which are your faction leaders that can bring back replacement units (at half their original strength) in addition to being your wizards.
Army Rules
Battle Traits
These are the rules that are going to be the most familiar to last edition. First off we have Noble Deeds which gives characters Noble Deed Points for each wound caused in melee, and one whenever a prayer is answered or a spell is successfully cast, all to a max of six. The only small change worth watching here is, since prayers will often take more than a single chant to be answered (especially if you’re charging for the big effect) priests will be getting less passive points than before.
Next up is Feeding Frenzy which buffs all units wholly within 12” of a character with six Noble Deeds Points to give them an extra attack. Notably, this includes their Companion Weapons. While this is how it used to work back in 3rd, in 4th there aren’t a lot of buffs like these that work on Companion Weapons.
Muster Guard is another familiar one to returning players. In your Movement Phase you can select one unit wholly within 12” of a Courtier and return models to it based on the number of Noble Deed Points spent by that Courtier. This works at an exchange rate of one point for one model when targeting a Serfs unit (ghouls, cryptguard, etc), and two points for one model when targeting a Knights unit (horrors, morbheg knights, etc). This is slightly different than the previous iteration of this rule because, while it gained 2” on its range, it now requires you to be wholly within, which will restrict your range quite a bit on large units.
The other recursion ability is Summon Loyal Subjects which lets you spend six Noble Deeds Points from an Abhorrent to bring back a unit at half strength on the side of the board. Again, this is very similar to the ability in third but with one major change, you can no longer refill the returned unit using the Rally and Muster Guard ability. This means, compared to third, the recursion available to the Flesh Eater Courts is a bit more reigned in once the unit dies the first time, especially for Knights which will be coming back with just three models which will likely all die if any of them do.
Last up is simply Royal Blood which heals your Abhorrents D3 wounds in every one of your hero phases. This used to be a warscroll ability but is put here for ease of application.
Battle Formations
The Battle Formations are a bit of a mixed bag. Two of them are pretty boring, Cannibal Court giving you a Noble Deed Point at the end of enemy turn a character is enemy territory, and Royal Menagerie letting one monster in only your combat phase get Strike-First on a 3+. The first one seems alright for a deepstriking Gorewarden and Morbheg list I guess and the second seems way to limited and unreliable to be built around. The other two abilities though are very interesting.
Lords of the Manor makes it so any time you use an ability to return a model to a unit, you instead add that many plus one. Note that this doesn’t just apply to the Muster Guard ability, it also works when you Rally or even just using the warscroll ability on the Archregeant which returns one Knight or two Serfs. This is a really flexible ability that can be helpful in almost any FEC list.
Ghoul Patrol is the Battle Formation that was shown off on warhammer community and I think its one of the stronger formations available. It gives you the ability to select two units of Ghouls to fight in the fight phase instead of just one. Ghouls are a really solid chaff unit that can be loaded with a ton of models and being able to overwhelm your opponent with double fight activations can make for a strong strategy.
Heroic Traits
Most of the Heroic Traits are focused on giving a Hero a small buff by default and a larger one when they hit 6 Noble Deed Points. These are fun and further reward you for being aggressive with your heroes and notably Savage Beyond Reason gives exploding 6s of the bat, making it a strong pick even without the upgraded Crit (Mortals) version or Stronger in Madness which adds two to the unit’s health and gives it a 5+ Ward if they have 6 Noble Deed Points. The exception to that pattern is Cruel Taskmaster which gives any unit wholly within 12” three extra dice when they use the Rally command. This is really handy since this makes your average number of successful dice to 4.5, usually enough to bring back an entire knight model.
Artefacts of Power
The Artefacts here are mostly bland, with Grim Garland debuffing nearby control scores and Heart of the Gargant granting a once per game extra attack (including companion attacks). However the one you’ll be taking every game is Charnel Vestments which gives something the Priest keyword or +1 to chant rolls if they already are. Considering how much more interesting prayers have become, and the solid Prayer Lore Flesh Eater Courts have access to, this becomes a must take.
Spell Lore
The Flesh Eater Courts get some fantastic spells in their Faction Pack. Deranged Transformation for example returns from 3rd, granting a unit +2” to move and +1 to wound. This can’t target monsters, but it does have the “Unlimited” tag, meaning you can cast this as many times as you want. This is a great fallback spell if you’re not sure what to cast especially since you can cast it as many times as you want.
Charnel Feast is another standout, allowing you to do D3 mortals and select an Infantry unit nearby and return a model to it for each wound dealt. With Crypt Horrors and Crypt Flayers being infantry, you can potentially return 12 wounds to a unit with this spell or even 16 if you’re running Lords of the Manor.
Miasma of Madness is the only real middling one here. you roll seven dice and if you get a double you do a mortal wound, if you get a triple you inflict -1 to hit, if you get four dice of the same value you also get -1 to wound. There’s too much randomness here in addition to just the casting roll that this spell shouldn’t be where you’re looking initially.
Prayer Lore
There’s some good buffs here like Blessed Feast giving you a wound back per model slain in target unit, or D3 if you get to 10 on your chanting roll. Charnel Conviction is a returning favorite from 3rd, giving a unit a 5+ ward or two units a 5+ ward if you charge to a 10. Lastly The Summerking’s Favor gives a friendly character extra noble deeds points for slaying models, or gives out noble deed points in an aura if you get the chanting roll to a 10. This feels like one you always want to hit the bonus effect for since most of the time when you fight you’ll hit 6 noble deed points.
Manifestation Lore
I’ll be honest, the manifestation lore is probably the biggest let down of the army rules. Chalice of Ushoran gives a unit a control score buff based on the number of models slain near it (not really enough to justify the cast to be honest). Corpsemare Stampede is somewhat interesting with an ability to move every turn and when it does, go over units and d3 mortals but it wants to get close to units and its save and melee characteristics are bad. The best of the bunch is probably the Cadaverous Barricade which can be shoved next to the enemy army since and prevents the use of run and retreat abilities while also halving movement. This is a great disruption piece, but I don’t know that it’s better than getting a purple sun in the list.
Warscroll Spotlights
Marrowscroll Herald
Ah the humble Marrowscroll Herald, he used to be your cheap courtier you can stuff in lists and put charnel vestments on for a nice mobile priest. He’s much the same here, but there’s a couple key changes. One is The King’s Entreaty which lets you target a unit and either cancel commands and spells or give nearby units strike first against that unit. This now goes off on a 3+ and you get to choose instead of giving your opponent a choice. More significantly is his Don’t Shoot the Messenger rule which makes him invisible while hes near other infantry models. This is the same as its 3rd iteration, but now you can’t fight in melee without seeing your target, meaning you can shove him up front and get some shenanigans going with a unit that can be in combat but can’t be fought.
Royal Terrorgheist and Zombie Dragon
Both of these units are a favorite of Flesh Eater Courts players and for good reason, the models are rad as hell. Both of these guys get sidegrade-improved melee profiles, the Terrorgheist’s shriek can now actually be helpful, and they both picked up and extra ability. Zombie Dragons get the ability to move 2d6” when they fight and do d3 mortals to something they passed over, and Terrorgheists can do a smattering of mortals to an infantry unit their near and if you roll well enough, impose a -1 to hit. This and a more forgiving degrading profile, makes them much more attractive picks
Nagash
Nagash’s warscroll was teased on Warhammer Community and frankly its very long so I’m not gonna go over all of it, but he notably has the Flesh Eater Courts keyword now. This means he can benefit from targeted abilities available to other Flesh Eater courts units and can accumulate Noble Deed Points. He can’t use Muster Guard or Summon Loyal Subjects because he’s lacking the proper keywords, but he can proc Feeding Frenzy, which he’ll get quickly with his 9 casts.
Outro
Since Flesh Eater Courts were released so close to the launch of fourth edition, its not surprising they haven’t changed much. They’re still an army focused on sending wave after wave of rabble into your opponent and eventually grinding them down through attrition. FEC players should continue eating well, if messily, in the next edition.
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