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.

Fyreslayers might seem like, at a glance, just a mass of angry mostly-naked dwarfs and you’d be absolutely right: they are. They’re also an army that continues to rely heavily on buffing your units to make them really work. That’s to say that you’re still going to be taking a handful of characters every single game to get the most out of your Vulkite and Hearthguard units. The only way to sidestep this is you just lean heavily into Magmadroths, but even then they simply work better when you’ve got some support on the board! 

If you enjoy carefully planning out where your units will move (slowly, mind you) and when you’re going to activate various effects throughout each turn of the game then this might be the faction for you. Praying to their dead god Grimnir and activating powerful runes at the right time are key to any Fyreslayer game plan, always has been and still is! 

I’ve been playing Fyreslayers since their first iteration when running 90-120 Vulkite Berzerkers was necessary. Very glad we’re through with that. This is probably the coolest set of rules that we’ve had as an army and I am very excited to get them back on the table. You’re able to lean hard into an all-footslogging army (my personal favourite) as well as heavy Magmadroth lists and not feel like you’re missing out. Returning players will instantly notice that there is now only one way to run and charge with your units and only through the Rune of Relentless Zeal, a once per game effect. 

Army Rules

Some of what this army can do was shown in the Warhammer Community Faction Focus but there’s plenty more to dig into. While not a battle trait by name it’s important to point out that the entire faction has a 6+ ward. Considering their lack of armour it’s great to have built-in. The army’s trait is activating Ur-Gold Runes to empower your units further with exactly the right buff at the right time:

Battle Formations

Warrior Kinband

A simple +1 to wound rolls for your Infantry units when they make a charge. Very straightforward and frankly very powerful. There isn’t too much in the game that can give +1 to wound rolls and this largely moves your wound rolls from 3+ to 2+ with potentially devastating attacks. The only time you won’t consider this is if you’re leaning on Magmadroths.

Forge Brethren

Your infantry units gain +1 to save rolls while wholly within your own territory. On some maps this is amazing but on others you’ll hardly make use of it. Far too situational to take reliably, especially when you remember you’re going to go and take objectives to win any games too. I’d have liked to see this boost Auric Hearthguard or Priests in some way, but the other three are great so it’s fine.

Ancient Bloodlines

All of your Magmadroths gain +2 to their Health Characteristic. Simple and good. Magmadroths are all 14 wounds base so boosting up to 16 wounds keeps them in the fight a bit longer, especially now that they all have a built-in 6+ ward! 

Lords of the Lodge 

My personal favourite of the bunch and what I’ll be taking most of the time. Fyreslayer Heroes get +3 to their control scores and these scores can’t be modified by your opponent at all. There is a lot of play around Control Scores in this edition so having unmounted heroes counting a 5 each and Magmadroths as 8 each without being modified is huge for taking and holding points. The Runefather on foot pairs really nicely with this ability as well giving a 12” aura of additional control score equal to the battle round number for infantry; that makes himself count as up to 10 by the end of the game which can’t be modified. 

Heroic Traits

Blood of the Berzerker

Simply a 12” wholly within aura of +1 run and charge for all of your units. Best on a Magmadroth for that larger base size and aura effect. You want most of your units in combat most of the time and this helps them get there. This trait pairs nicely with a Runeson which gives an 18” aura of +1 charge after he’s made a charge giving a wide effect of +2” charges for a few of your units. 

Fiercely Competitive 

My favourite of the bunch for theme and feel on the table. If your hero is in combat with any enemies that have Strike-First then they also gain Strike-First; if in combat with a unit that used All Out Attack then your hero adds +1 to hit rolls for the rest of the turn. Throw this onto a Runefather or Runeson on Magmadroth and it’s an easy way to get +1 to hit rolls or make your opponent think twice about activating it, potentially keeping them alive a bit longer! 

Ash-Beard 

The hero becomes a Priest (1) or gets +1 to chant rolls if they already were. There is no cap on the bonuses you can get to chant rolls so a Runemaster next to your Forge will be getting +2 to chant rolls on both chant rolls each turn making it incredibly easy to summon manifestations and buff your units; and more importantly generate those tokens to super-power your runes! 

Artefacts of the Lodge

Ash-cloud Rune

Once per game friendly infantry cannot be targeted by shooting attacks while they are wholly within 12” of this hero. When it comes up it’s amazing and you’ll be very happy you have it, some games though your opponent just won’t have any shooting and it’ll feel like  waste. It’s fine and maybe you take it over the Magmalt? Up to you.

Droth-Helm

Add 1 to hit rolls for companion weapons used by friendly fyreslayers while they are wholly within 12” of this unit. For when you’re taking multiple magmadroths, keep them near each other and just do more damage. Those attacks hit on a 4+ so an innate +1 to hit is great.

Draguth of the Finest Magmalt

Once per game +3 attacks until the end of the turn. Drink that in any Fight phase and your Grimwrath Berzererker will be making six extra damage two attacks across both times it gets to fight. Also solid on a Runefather Magmadroth to really just pick something up.

Prayer Lore

Speaking of chanting, all of your Priests know these three prayers at all times. They are all answered on a 4+ and get their better-effect on an 8+ instead. Prayers have been overhauled this edition and while your opponent still can’t stop them you have the option to either answer the prayer immediately or build up a pool of power to use later on. When you roll your D6 chant so long as it’s not a 1 you can just store that D6 value on your Priest and use it later, adding it to another chant roll for a more powerful effect.

Prayer of Ash 

A nearby friendly unit is -1 to be wounded. If you get the next tier effect they also subtract 1 from the Rend of any enemies attacking theme. This is the “unlimited” prayer so you can attempt to chant (and do so successfully, if lucky) once with each of your priests creating a very difficult to wound line of infantry or extra tough magmadroths. The rend negation isn’t very useful on your infantry but incredibly good to have on a magmadroth! 

Prayer of Grimnir’s Fury

As ever this prayer is for infantry heroes only but this edition allows the hero to fight twice this turn, with Strikes Last applying to the second lot of attacks; the better version gives +1 to wound rolls as well. There will be times when you want this but it will be rare that you attempt to chant it over Prayer of Ash or summoning a manifestation. Typically when you really, really, need to kill something for a battle tactic and it just gives you that much more of an edge to do it. 

Wrath of Vulcatrix 

On the opposite end then this is only for Magmadroths: ignore the target droth’s Battle Damaged ability and get +1 attack on each profile. That’s only the mount’s profile, not the rider. The better version gives +1 attack per 4 damage points currently suffered. That’s up to 6 total extra attacks total (and still ignores the battle damaged ability too, so nothing is decreased either). 

Manifestations

If you’re a returning Fyreslayer player then you’ll understand when I say that I rushed to read this section. Manifestations is the new catch-all term for what-was Endless Spells and Magmic Invocations. You get these as part of your army list now, you don’t have to try and reserve points or anything to take them. Each Priest can attempt to summon one in place of chanting another prayer, and each can be attempted each turn so long as it is’t already on the table. Unlike prayers they don’t have an extra ability for casting them on a higher value, you either summoned it or you didn’t! They also have Health now, and normal attacks, and move, shoot, charge, etc like any other unit in your army. Much simpler! They also all have Banishment values of 7+ for your opponent to remove them from the table instead of attacking them, however this is the coward’s option. 

Runic Fyrewall

You get it on a chant of 4+ and place wholly within 12” of the priest making it relatively short ranged considering how long it is. It doesn’t move, sits still, and doles out mortal wounds to up to 3 enemy units during your opponent’s movement phase each turn as well as subtracting control scores from them. Slam this onto an objective, make it a real pain to your opponent to have to deal with and/or walk around, and win. 

Molten Infernoth 

A more difficult chant on 6+ but it’s meaty now. You set it up wholly within 12” like the others but because it does move and can charge also has to be more than 9” away from enemies. It has the Fyreslayer keyword so abilities such as the Runeson’s +1 charge and all of the Ur-Gold Runes will work on it as well. Solid melee attack profile, a cute shooting attack, but the best bit is after it’s attacked, if it cause any damage to an enemy unit that unit subtracts 1 from wound rolls with melee weapons until the end of your next turn. That could be a long time to depending on when this went off and who has priority…

Zharrgron Flamespitter

Summons wholly within 12” on a 4+ and makes 8 shots at 18” range which Crit with 2 hits. It gets a bonus to hit and/or wound rolls if shooting at a unit with 10+ or 15+ models in it. Likely the one you’re summoning turn 1 to start plinking damage off enemies but the other two will often be better to attempt. 

Magmic Battleforge

Faction terrain is always a bit odd and this is the smallest one in the game with a very simple, and frankly minor, effect to boot. A Priest within 3” of it can get +1 to chanting and also count as a Wizard to unbind a spell in your opponents turn. It’s a nice bonus to have but depending on your battleplan you may only be using this turn 1, maybe turn 2, with a need to keep your priests at pace with your army as they advance up the board. 

Warscroll Spotlights

We’ll be going through the army in much more detail later but there were a few warscrolls that I wanted to pull up and dig into a bit more to show off.

Runeson on Magmadroth

The true anti-monster unit in the army list. The son’s attacks get extra rend against monsters and gain +1 attack for the game after killing a monster. That’s all fine and good but the tech comes in with his Rampage. At the end of every turn pick an enemy monster within combat so long as the enemy has suffered more damage points and the runeson has and subtract 10 from its control score for that turn. That’s huge. Some armies fully rely on their monsters having large control scores to take objectives and just shutting that down is huge. Likely more than anything it will mean that the enemy will do whatever they can to kill the Runeson or inflict more damage onto it…leaving your other units nearby safe from harm. Win-win in my book. 

Auric Flamekeeper

Gone are the days of keeping a tally of dead duardin next to this model to activate abilities. It’s now much simpler. In your own hero phase, if any friendly units have died then roll a dice and if it’s’ equal to or less than the number of dead Fyreslayer units (not just friendly ones, making mirror matches amusing) you get to pick an infantry unit within 12” and apply an effect until your next hero phase. These are 5+ ward, +2 charge rolls, and +1 damage on melee weapons.

Vulkite Berzerkers

Probably the biggest improvement in the entire book: both variants of Vulkite Berzerkers have the same exact melee profile: 4+ hit 3+ wound Rend 1 Damage 1. With shields they have a better save at 5+ and deal mortal wounds to enemies when they die in combat, with double axes they instead get +1 attack when they charge. Dead simple now and both are solid but the shields seem the better pick since you’re no longer losing attacks and keep the better save. With melee range being 3” across the board a reinforced unit can comfortably attack most enemies to full effect. Imagine buffing a reinforced unit of double axes with the Flamekeeper’s +1 damage on a Rune of Searing Heat for 61 attacks with Crit Mortals. Gross. I can’t wait. 

Auric Hearthguard

Ok so I lied to you. This is the biggest improvement. If you don’t already have 10 Auric Hearthguard (or more?) you’ll likely want some now. Magmapikes like most shooting in the game are a bit shorter range but are now damage D3 while slowing enemy units down on critical hits. They also thankfully have the Shoot in Combat ability and a point of rend in melee too. Worried they won’t get in range? Tunnel them up mid-game with an Runesmiter where you need them to shoot something. 

Battle Tactics in the Lodge

Battle tactics have been overhauled while still feeling very similar to returning players. Factions don’t have them any more (a good move) and instead each grand alliance has two to choose from on top of the six in the general’s handbook. 

A quick side note, I really love how this General’s Handbook has come in a card pack with each Battle Tactic card having the six generic as well as the two grand alliance ones listed out. Simple to reference. More of this please.  

Fyreslayers typically have a rough time with battle tactics and this is sadly not very different. Mostly due to lack of mobility. Runesmiters tunnelling units helps move around for later-game scoring and Magmadroths are fast enough but often you want them fighting, not rushing to the sides of the board. Fortunately there’s a few fighty tactics so after the first turn you’ll be in decent shape to score a few. 

Grimnir’s Fury

I am incredibly pleased with this faction pack overall. The army has really kept the same feel while adding in some new fun tricks to play around with. On the tabletop they still feel like Fyreslayers. It takes a bit of finesse timing all of the buffs correctly and getting those aura abilities in range with each other but when you pull it off you’ll deliver a death blow to whatever happens to be on the same table. 

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