This month is bringing a massive host of updates to Age of Sigmar as the setting transitions to Ghyran, the realm of life. Each army is getting two whole pages of additional rules including optional alternative warscrolls for you to use in your games and we are very excited about all of it! Before we get stuck in, a thank you to Games Workshop for providing us with these rules as an early release to review.
Fyreslayers were my first army in Age of Sigmar when the range first came out and even though we’re on a break at the moment I’m very excited for what they’re getting in this. Is it everything that they needed? No, not really. Is it cool and helpful? It’s certainly cool. In the last couple weeks since all of this was announced it’s been fun seeing groups predict/wish what their army’s alternate warscrolls are going to be and I don’t think a single Fyreslayer player said “I really hope it’s the Runeson on Magmadroth!” but that’s what we got. A new prayer lore is certainly interesting and I do actually like that a lot, it gives another level to list building which I was expecting back when we first saw the fourth ed core rules.
I am actually really happy to see mount traits back for a Magmadroth, that’ll help out any build with any number of Magamdroths though I think the magic number now is going to be three-to-four; one Runefather and then Runesons, maybe one Smiter for mobile prayers. If you’re someone just spamming Magmadroths then more power to you, that is not a kit I could build half a dozen times.
Mount Traits – Marks of Vulcatrix
They’re back! To me this is the best part of the whole document. Something that I loved about the previous edition and really helps these mid-level monsters out.
Incandescent Blaze
My least favourite of the three simply because it’s a once-per-game ability and I honestly think it would have been fine to using during every shooting phase, or at least during each of your own since it’s only 10″ range and not a shoot-in-combat weapon. For the turn you do use it you double the attacks of the unit’s Roaring Fyresteam attack and the damage goes to a flat 3 instead of D3. It’s nice but you’re also going to need a CP into that turn’s shooting as well for more reliable hits and that just becomes a whole thing.
Thickened Scales
Easily the best. This is the one you’ll be taking. It’s simple and just works all of the time: subtract 1 fron the rend of all weapons that target the Magmadroth. All. Of. The. Time. That’s ranged and melee attacks. Stack some buffs and you’ve got a very hard to kill Magmadroth. Do that with the new Runeson variant and you’ve got a chance to do a lot of damage, too, while being a pain to remove.
Peerless Lineage
Your magamdroth gets to pick a second target for its Rampage immediately after using a Rampage. The best choice here is probably a Runefather who can run into a couple enemy units and smack two of them with -1 save (just roll 3+’s) or the new Runeson into a few multi-model units doing a fair bit of mortal damage (don’t forget to roll those 3+’s) before attacking. Because of how specific the Magmadroth ramapges are, though, you’re probably still better off with the -1 rend.
Prayer Lore – Vulkyn Gifts
A new prayer lore that you can choose to take and realistically only if you happen to be running a few Magamdroths; preferably if one of them is a Runesmiter, too, so he can use these on himself. I do like that the Unlimited one is very easy to cast at a low value of 3/6 to deal a serious number of mortals back to enemies that dared attack you.
Ichor of the Ur-Salamander – 3/6+
One Magmadroth wholly within 12″ is affected and until the start of your next turn whenver an enemy unit suffers mortal damage as part of the “Volcanic Blood” abilitiy (rolling 1’s on saves when being attacked) they suffer an additional 3 mortal damage or D3+3 if you answered on a 6+ instead. It’s solid. It makes those incidental mortals a bit more important and can start causing some serious harm back.
Fury of Vulcatrix – 4/8+
This one technically works on any Fyreslayer unit…but only affects Companion weapons, so really it only affects Magmadroths; I’m not going to even consider you’ll be choosing to use this on a Flameseeker’s Emberteeth attack so don’t @ me with that. Also has to be a unit wholly within 12″ and gives those Companion attacks +1 to hit rolls and on the 8+ adds 2 to their attacks characteristic, too. This is actually fantastic and something you’ll be wanting to slap onto the new Runeson (below) every single turn that you can for a max potential damage of 55 damage. That’s a lot and all you have to do is hit and wound with every dice and also have your opponent fail every save! But really, this guy can do a serious amount of damage.
Blazing Impetus – 5/10+
This one does actually work on any Fyreslayer unit and you may actually want to slap it onto some Flameseekers or Hearthguard Berzerkers. You get to pick one unit wholly within 12″ or two units if you answer on a 10+ instead. The target gets to make a “Normal Move” as if it was your movment phase. So you can’t run with it, just move, but extra movement for some otherwise very slow movements is fantastic and makes Magmadroths incredibly fast, too. Remember that this can be used as a magical intervention and getting some free movement in your opponent’s hero phase is incredibly good. Getting to move your Magmadroth 10″ to safety is nothing to sniff at. Out of sequence moving is always good.
Alternate Warscroll – Runeson on Magmadroth
When I got this through I immediately scrolled right to the bottom to see how Vulkite Berzerkers may have changed, or the Flamekeeper, or maybe the Doomseeker. What I was not expecting to see was a Magmadroth and least of all the Runeson. This might sound like I’m really down on this scroll but I’m not, I actually think it’s really good if you happen to also take a Runefather on Magmadroth. If you don’t then you can stop reading right now and move on with your life!
First off, none of the stats are different on this guy. From health to weapon profiles they are all identical to the normal warscroll which keeps that nice and easy. He also keeps Volcanic Blood and the same Battle Damaged effect, too.
What’s different is the rest of his abilities. Starting off with the best one is Fire, Blood, and Vengeance (the one on the warscroll forgot the Oxford comma, but we believe in the use of it here at Goonhammer Dot Com). You get to use this during your Deployment Phase and it’s not Once Per Army so can use it with multiple Runesons which is cool. You pick a Runefather on Magmadroth and as long as he’s been damaged, is dead, or is even just in combat then the Runesons get +1 Damage on all melee weapons including Companion which is just fantastic. Boosting two profiles to damage 3 and the last to damage 4? You love to see it; your opponents, in fact, do not love to see it. I love that this works when the Runefather is dead, too, removing the chance that he gets targeted down early and you’re left with nothing.
The Rampage on the normal Warscroll is cool and potentially game-winningly-swingy if you can place it right but it’s hyper specific and hard to pull off, too. This one is easier and will work on everything, it’ll just work much better on units with more models in them. Pick a unit in combat, roll a 3+ and then roll a dice for each model in that unit with each 5+ causing a point of mortal damage. It’s even solid on the more elite units that come in 10’s like Chosen since it bypasses their typically-good-save and will still pick one up before you attack.
Fyre, Blood, and Vengeance?
Really this is all pretty good at the end of the day. I still believe that Fyreslayers need a little more love and realistiaclly need a gap filled in their range that sits between stubby-slow infantry and mid-sized monsters. Or something that’s just bigger. I don’t have all the answers here but these updates are still really nice to have! This is the first time I’m looking at what could-be a three-to-four Magmadroth list as something I’d actually have any interest in running.
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