Hurrah! It’s Battleforce day! For those of you who have not had the pleasure before, Battleforces are a bit of an annual tradition here – Yuletide releases that encompass a massive army.
This year there are four Battleforces available for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, and they’re going to be available in December – making them perfect candidates for any Warhammer+ vouchers you’ve been earning this month.
That is a whole lot of miniatures. Let’s take a closer look at what each of these contains for prospective generals.
With a love of all things claret and a predisposition for gifting,* vampires are the ultimate festive force. The Revenant Legion is a party in a box with 66 models including a bestial Vengorian Lord, five barded Blood Knights, 20 Deathrattle Skeleton warriors and, count ‘em, 40 Deadwalker Zombies.
That’s enough to conduct a wonderfully macabre choreography with. When vampires aren’t making their thralls dance, they use them to overwhelm their opponents with sheer numbers, while the elite Blood Knights tear the beleaguered remnants of their foes to gristly ribbons.
Every day is a carnival of excess for the followers of Slaanesh – they do nothing by halves, and this Battleforce is a testament to living life to the fullest. This entirely mortal complement is ready to inflict – and take – grievous wounds in order to call forth Slaanesh’s daemons, all in the name of a good time.
Led by a Shardspeaker, this box also nets you three Slaangor Fiendbloods, ten Blissbarb archers – plus a lowly homunculus – and five Exalted Seekers which can be built as either Slickblades or Blissbarbs. Then there are ten elite warriors you can build as Mymirdesh Painbringers or frenzied Symbraesh Twinsouls.
The aelves of Hysh reflect the aspects of Tyrion and Teclis when they wage war. The Vanari are the shining blade of the Lumineth, all elaborate hats and gleaming metal. These elite fighters can still juice themselves up with spells, but most of their fighting is done via stabbing and hacking, albeit in an elegant, aelvish way.**
With Vanari Auralan Wardens, Bladelords, Dawnriders, and a Starshard Ballista, all led by a Vanari Bannerblade and a Lord Regent, this is the perfect Tyrionic hammer for newly arrived Realm-lords.
Where other armies give the gifts of depravity, ancient curses, and gleaming sunmetal, the Ossiarch Bonereapers are all take, take, take. Specifically, they like to pilfer the bones of those Nagash believes owe him. If you’ve watched the recent Loremasters episode on Nagash, you’ll know that that’s everyone.
Commanded by a Mortisan Boneshaper and a Soulreaper, these immortal debt collectors include 20 Mortek Guard and three Necropolis Stalkers – or three Immortis Guard, if you prefer. A Gothizzar Harvester refashions errant bones into new constructs for the army, while the Mortek Crawler hurls the gift of caskets of screaming souls at besieged enemies.***
These mammoth Battleforces are to be stuffed into delivery cannons near you very soon, so keep an eye on Warhammer Community for more information.
But there’s one more thing. The Grandfather is always waiting, because in the end, all things return to him, including articles about stunning boxed sets. Not wanting to miss out, he has unleashed a festering canker-sore into our world, in the form of Vanguard: Maggotkin of Nurgle, a complete starter army in a box much like Warhammer 40,000’s Combat Patrols.
Look forward to more Warhammer Age of Sigmar Armies getting these in the near future.***
* Vampiric gifts, unlike Christmas gifts, have a tendency to turn you into a shell of your former self. Vampires are not popular at parties in the Mortal Realms.
** Lots of pirouetting.
*** Honestly, Da Red Gobbo needs to find a way into the Mortal Realms and educate these people on gift-giving etiquette.