Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Edition 1.0/Fyreslayers

For your new half-naked Dorfs in the Age of Sigmar setting.

Want an army that is visibly different from your standard issue Dorfs and still much closer to their Old Norse origins? Well, these might be the army for you, mixing the best elements of forge-crazy, greedy and insane berserker-rage.

Fyreslayer Warscrolls

Heroes

Auric Runefather on Magmadroth: The big lizard with the big boss on top. The Runefather himself is already a beast in combat with his damage 3-axe that can break enemy weapons in order to permanently lower their Hit rolls and on top of that you get the Magmadroth. 12 Wounds at a 4+ save, high movement, a strong melee profile and an outrageous amount of Mortal Wounds. If can breathe fire which causes mortal wounds, swipe with its tail which causes mortal wounds and it can bleed fire on enemies which, you guessed it, causes mortal wounds. It is sort of fragile though, considering it's a high-priority target and huge. His Command Ability (rerolls for all Battleshock tests and Saves of 1) may seem weak at first, but it works in a 40" bubble, so it will affect almost all your army, and a little bonus that affects a lot of units is in fact a huge bonus.

Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth: Make no mistake. The Runesmiter is a support hero and the Magmadroth is probably wasted on him. If you do use them together, the Magmadroth becomes a sort of walking altar from which the Runesmiter can cast his blessings. This blessing lets a friendly Fyreslayer unit reroll To Wound (so by itself it's better than most Command Abilities) and once per game he can make that ability affect (also) ALL Fyreslayers around him, which can be PAINFUL. Always give him the Key, so the re-roll ability works at 20".

Auric Runeson on Magmadroth: Probably the best candidate for the Magmadroth as the Runeson wants to be in the thick of it. In addition to the Magmadroth, he either brings another great melee profile or an awful melee profile that can also be used as a decent anti-monster ranged weapon. His Command Ability (charges for Fyreslayers within 10" are made with three dice, discarding the lowest) can be very good in an army like this, that wants to be in melee as soon as possible.

Auric Runefather: Aside from not having a Magmadroth, the Auric Runefather exchanges his defensive-minded Command Ability for a more offensive one that allows your guys better pile-in moves and gives a sort of Look Out, Sir! to the Runefather because, you know, he doesn't have a huge fucking lizard to soak up damage (as written, unlike similar abilities, this one lets the unit protecting the Runefather still take their saves/saves-after-the-save, so most times you'll avoid the wound completely). Other than that, even without the Magmadroth, the Runefather is a beast in combat who can trade blows with the best of them.

Auric Runesmiter: This guy is probably better on foot, as he has a really mean special rule that basically allows him and another Fyreslayer unit to deep strike at least 9" away from the enemy, which is unfortunately slightly too far to use your throwing axes that turn. All he sacrifices for this awesome trick is the whole "once per game he can use his buff on all the Fyreslayers at once" thing.

• If you think Fyreslayers are too weak and limited, because they don't have any Wizards, artillery, long-range shooters and whatnot, just take a Runesmither and twenty Auric Hearthguard. First turn, emerge from a tunnel 15" to that unit you think is unfair, then shoot 40 blasts of lava at it, and watch how it melts. Now which is the unfair army?

Auric Runeson: As it says on the tin, it's a Runeson without the Magmadroth. This also means that you really should not give this version the Javelin, because he doesn't have the Magmadroth's melee to fall back to. He's only good as General against Ogres or other multi-wound (or Hero-filled) armies, otherwise pass.

Grimwrath Berzerker: This guy wants to be right in the middle of your opponent's army. He has a save-after-the-save that gets better the more enemy units there are around him (MSU-playstyles beware) and if he kills enough, he can potentially pile in and attack a second time in each combat phase. And the guy can keep fighting even after he's killed, for one more turn.

Auric Runemaster: Skip. Seriously. He is awful at melee and range and his main gimmick aids the enemy more than you. Your opponent picks one of his units to carry some Ur-gold. That unit can reroll To Wound-rolls of 1. If your Runemaster gets close to that unit, all Fyreslayers get an extra attack with all their melee weapons against that unit. Your opponent can easily use this to his advantage by, for example, picking a war machine. If you manage to charge a backfield war machine, it's dead even without bonus attacks and until you get there, his cannon has a better chance of blowing you to shreds. His other special rule of summoning magma underneath a terrain piece is potentially useful but not worth putting up with the other one.

Battlesmith: In terms of killyness, the Battlesmith is awful, but that's okay, because he's a support Hero and support he does. So long as he's alive, Fyreslayers around him reroll saves, which is pretty good. If he bites it, Fyreslayers can decide to not move away and protect his banner, meaning they have to stand still but get to reroll all To Hit and To Wound rolls. If you think this sounds perfect for Auric Hearthguard, you are doing it right.

Doomseeker: Probably the most choppy hero, 5 wounds with only his 4+ armor also makes him the most fragile. Up to 12 attacks a turn ( not including his throwing axe) with two different weapons, one with rending, and the other can deal extra damage if he has already managed to kill something. If you're playing a shooty army, leave him at home, if it's going to be a tooth and nail fight, he's the best, non mounted choice.

Infantry

Vulkite Berzerkers: Your standard infantry who come with several different loadouts: You can either pack them with slingshields and axes, slingshields and picks or two axes. The axes and picks are pretty similar, with the axes wounding better and the picks having some Rend, so the real question comes down to shields or two weapons. Unlike most units with these options, Vulkite Berzerkers with two weapons get to reroll all failed To Hit rolls, not just 1s, so these make your Dorfs much killier outright. The shields on the other hand grant you better saves in melee AND can cause mortal wounds on a charge, which is unreliable, but potentially powerful. No matter how you equip them, they also gain a save-after-the-save that grows better the more Dorfs you have in the unit, though to reliable keep the highest setting, you need to field units of 30, and they can take throwing axes, like just about everything else. They're milquetoast, but if your whole army has them, they add up.

Auric Hearthguard: These are probably the best unit in the Fyreslayer list. The normal Dorfs have Irondrakes, who are almost universally acknowledged as one of the most powerful ranged units in the game. Auric Hearthguard leave them in the dust in terms of sheer killyness. Not only can they take throwing axes along for even more shooty, they also have their great big Magmapikes, which make them halfway decent in melee and utter murder at range, with 2 shots each at 4+/3+/-1/1, with bonuses To Hit if their target is near a Fyreslayer Hero. Keep in mind now that most ranged units lose efficacy if they move or enemies are too close. Auric Hearthguard doesn't. They can charge right in and finish the job if their shots only almost killed something. And in addition they can use their shots to trap enemy monsters in magma, halving their movement and lowering their Hit rolls.

Hearthguard Berzerkers: The first time you read through the Fyreslayer rules, you think Hearthguard Berzerkers are the elite infantry to the Vulkite Berzerkers' basic infantry. The second time you look through them, you wonder just why they barely do more damage than the basic infantry. The third time you realize that they aren't that killy because they're not the elite version of Vulkite Berzerkers, they fulfill an entirely different role. Where Vulkite Berzerkers are only tough in numbers, Hearthguard Berzerkers have a 4+ save-after-the-save even at minimal unit size so long as there's a Fyreslayer Hero close to them, which there always should be anyway. Where Vulkite Berzerkers have tons of attacks, Hearthguard Berzerkers have few powerful knocks that can even inflict Mortal Wounds on top if you pick the right weapon. Vulkite Berzerkers are the all-purpose infantry, Hearthguard Berzerkers are there to hold the line and smash up the stuff with the big saves.

Monsters

Your only monsters have Heroes sitting on top. Therefore, you find them in the Heroes-section.