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 and 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.
Deepkin have been a bit of a sleeper success story for 4th edition, with pretty mediocre initial results that have crept up over time to an army that can succeed – but with a very limited selection of warscrolls. The beautiful and clever people who play Deepkin have settled on a winning formula of a tooled up Eidolon of Mathlann (typically an Aspect of the Storm), Leviadon (or two) and Morrsarr Guard. Reaver spam isn’t real, and it can’t hurt me. Allopexes have been paying for the sins of the past and were initially very expensive but have come down a bit now, whilst Namarti Thralls have been even more nowhere than they’ve been before and that’s also meant the gaggle of heroes designed to support them are nowhere to be seen. So obviously, this Scourge of Ghyran update is seeking to redress the balance.
Battle Formations
The default pick for Deepkin so far has been Akhelian Beastmasters and it’s really hard to say no to a flat +1 to hit for your very good companion attacks.
Deep-Sea Stalkers
A really unusual effect here, whilst any of your Idoneth Deepkin units are wholly within 9″ of a battlefield edge your opponent is -1 to hit them unless you charge, and they get +2″ move. Deepkin have lost a bit of speed this edition and -1 to hit always helps, this is mostly better with Namarti build but especially Reavers, who want to be arriving with a Soulscryer on a table edge to fulfil that requirement and like both the protection and the extra move (9″ plus run and shoot is some real hustle on the turn after they arrive). Reaver spam isn’t real, and it can’t hurt me.
Ethersea Predators
This is fully dumb but I love it. At the end of any turn, if you’ve lost a unit or destroyed an enemy unit you can spend a CP to pick an Allopex that has been destroyed earlier in the game and set up a replacement wholly within 9″ of a board edge. Recycling Allopexes is very very funny. Shark spam has been a thing in the past and they are a more reasonable cost now, one of the historic problems with shark spam was the pace at which the army could collapse once you started to lose sharks and this does solve that problem. Competitively I’m not really convinced, as much as I think it’s hilarious. Allopexes have lost 2 shots and a lot of range from their guns compared to previous iterations and without Akhelian Beastmasters you’re back to hitting on a 4+ with the low volume of quality bite attacks.
Heroic Traits
A new batch of traits is welcome as every Deepkin player will currently take Ancient Pride to make an Eidolon only ever be hit on a 4+. That doesn’t really change for an Aspect of the Storm, but the options here give you reasons to take a trait on a different model for a change.
Merciless Raider
This lets you powerslide a hero into combat – if your hero is within 6″ of a damaged enemy in the combat phase it can make a 6″ move that can pass through the combat range of enemy units and must end in combat with a damaged enemy. A fun ability, though most Deepkin heroes that aren’t an Aspect of the Storm don’t really want to be in combat. This also doesn’t count as a charge, so the combat heroes you do have lose out on the +1 damage they would get.
I think most people will stick to Ancient Pride for the defensive power, but this does open up a lot of interesting options – you can run a unit up and just slide into combat without having to worry about making a charge roll, plus it’s yet another thing for your opponent to think about in their own turn as it works in any combat phase.
Lord of Storm and Sea
Each time an ability returns a slain model to a friendly unit wholly within 12″ you can return an extra model to that unit. Makes a rally on Morrsarr Guard horrific but really the obvious intent here is to slap it on an Isharann Soulrender surrounded by lots of Namarti units and heal ’em up. If this is good really lives or dies on if Namarti units are any good. Reaver spam isn’t real, it cannot hurt me.
Endless Sea-Storm
Once per battle in any hero phase you can either become a wizard or get +1 power level if you already were. Either way, you also get +2 to the next casting or banishment roll you make. Deepkin spells aren’t that amazing so the power level is OK – taking the Aspect of the Sea up to power level 3 can open up the utility spells you never usually cast. The nice bit here is that +2 to cast, as it can help you get off an early summon on something big like a Krondspine Incarnate or even cast the warscroll spell for the Sea, which is an 8.
Warscrolls
Akhelian Thrallmaster
A minor profile change for the Thrallmaster, losing its fish attacks for an extra attack with the spiky polearm. Mathematically this is better but it is a devastating loss, as every Deepkin player will attest that getting kills with fish profiles is one of the finest experiences in life. Rules wise the stance concept has gone, and we’ve not got a passive -1 rend for enemies units that target Namarti units wholly within 12″ of the Thrallmaster. With this, a Gloomtide Shipwreck and Leviadon you can make Namarti surprisingly durable for their paltry 5+ save, 1 health profile. Throw in Deep-sea Stalkers and you can get your Namarti up to -1 to be hit, +1 to save, -1 incoming rend and a 5+ ward.
There’s also a deployment phase ability to pick the Thrallmaster and up to 3 units of Thralls to make a normal move. Getting a free 6″ move is nice, but somewhat predicated on whether Thralls are actually worth taking.
Namarti Thralls
The extra damage against monsters is now gone, replaced with Lanmari blades having both anti-infantry and anti-monster (+1 rend). Giving up on these being a really damaging unit is probably for the best for their design space, though perhaps not for the design space of all the little heroes that want to build around them. The ability they pick up in exchange is actually really potent, as it straight up lets you make a 6″ move after resolving the unit’s attacks, on a 3+. The move lets you do the usual thing of passing through combat ranges, though if you end the move in combat it has to be with the unit it was in combat with at the start of the move. However, you don’t have to end the move in combat at all.
This ability lets you be a real menace with the unit as a screen (if you can roll a 3+). In your own turn it lets you hit whilst keeping safe and maintaining a screen afterwards, and in your opponents turn it’s something for them to think about with activation order. Do note that if your opponent is charging the Namarti they still get to make a pile-in move even if you’ve scooted away and because Namarti only move 6″ if your opponents models were in base contact after the charge they might still get to hit you.
Final Thoughts
Mixed feelings on this selection of new rules for Deepkin, and the likely result is that the needle on list building isn’t going to move very much. I like the new Heroic Traits the most of everything here, and I can definitely see Merciless Raider showing up a good amount. If the primary goal was to push Thralls I’m not sure we’re there. They’re an improvement over faction pack Thralls for sure, but a 3+ roll to do your entire deal is hateful even if the deal is very strong.
Overall for Thralls I feel like there’s two issues: they’re still not a unit you can build an army around and therefore all the itty bitty heroes (including the Thrallmaster, really) are throwing too many good points after bad; and Deepkin list building in its current iteration makes throwing a couple units in as a screen quite difficult. In the current meta, asking players to throw away hammer units is a difficult one. Maybe if we see overall shifts in how armies are constructed competitively, Thralls could find a place. Similarly for shark spam, the nature of Deepkin’s keyworded listbuilding makes it difficult. Heroes that can bring Akhelian units do just trend to being more expensive.
Reaver spam isn’t real, it can’t hurt me.
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