The new Flesh-eater Courts get their debut on Battle Report this week as they scuttle to war against the doughty Fyreslayers. We caught up with Nick to get the run-down on how they performed.
Nick: For this game, we opened up the Flesh-eater Courts army set and used it in its entirety, in an open play game of Warhammer Age of Sigmar. Weighing in at a total of 745 points, it’s a perfect size for small games, and contains some pretty powerful units indeed.
We asked Dan from White Dwarf magazine to take command of the Flesh-eater Courts, as we were using the new Bunker Scenario Battleplan from White Dwarf 495 – Buried in the Fog – which was great fun to play. I highly recommend giving these scenarios a try!
The Flesh-eater Courts army has a wonderful mechanic called Noble Deeds. As the minions of the army look to their lords and masters, so do the heroes in the force take centre stage. Heroes can earn noble deeds points for casting spells, chanting prayers, and causing wounds in combat – up to a maximum of six at a time – and they use them in a few different ways.
The biggest buff is Feeding Frenzy, which passively grants extra attacks to your units when a particularly noble hero is nearby. You can also spend your hard-earned noble deeds points to replenish damaged minions – or even revive whole units, if your hero is an abhorrant!
That means the army revolves around your heroes – and my word, the two in the new army set are great. The Abhorrant Gorewarden is lethal in combat and a powerful wizard. He can zap himself and his Morbheg Knights around on Wings of Shyish, and drop out of the sky with his flying pals via Royal Hunting Party.
The Varghulf Courtier is fast, tough, and dishes out a serious punch in combat. He’s got five Damage 2 attacks and one Damage 3 attack, for a total of six – but of course, add one attack to each weapon if he’s affected by his or another hero’s Feeding Frenzy, for a total of eight. And thanks to his King’s Champion ability, you can add another two to each attack if he’s hunting infantry, for a total of twelve attacks – and a potential output of 28 Damage in one combat phase!
Morbheg Knights are terrifying when they bound in with a Shrieking Charge, spreading around mortal wounds before combat even begins. The Cryptguard are surprisingly tanky with a 5+ ward save, and as a Royal Bodyguard, they help make your heroes tougher too. Combine that with the Standard Bearer halving the amount of models that flee, and it takes a long time to cut them down!
What’s more, before a game begins, the Flesh-eater Courts pick a Delusion. Dan chose The Feast Day, which meant Feeding Frenzy activated for heroes with 4 noble deeds points, not the full 6. This turned out to be huge – Dan’s army almost always had an extra attack on every melee profile in combat, inciting a full-on slaughter.
It proved especially nasty on the Morbheg Knights, who applied the bonus to both their knightly lances and the fangs of their nightshrieker mounts. To think about the effect that would have in a larger army makes me shudder with fear…
Of course, just killing each other wasn’t the whole order of the day! The battleplan saw both sides searching for buried treasure in the fog of Ulgu… but if you want to know who eventually won, you’ll need to tune into Warhammer+!
But that’s not all for Warhammer+ this week! With Warhammer: The Horus Heresy – Legions Imperialis rolling out of the manufactorum soon, join Ed on Citadel Colour Masterclass for expert tips on weathering smaller-scale models to make them look beaten, battered, and war-torn. These tips are ideal for models for Legions Imperialis, Adeptus Titanicus, and Aeronautica Imperialis, so get your small layer brushes ready!
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