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.
The Ossiarch Bonereapers are one of the factions with some pretty solid internal balance. Almost every unit is viable and multiple enhancements are utilized, based on personal preference and what threats you expect to encounter. The faction is largely held back by being very expensive, including Katakros being considered damn near essential which immediately leaves you with 25% of your points spent and too many characters competing for the Wizard on foot slot.
So this warscroll addresses two units that do need the help, Mortek Guard and Mortisan Boneshaper. It also includes two new subfactions and a brand new lore.
Battle Formations
Ossiarchs suffer a bit in Battle Formations, even if it’s not a problem exclusive to them. Mortisan Council is just really good for basically every list, so much so it eclipses almost everything else except the Mortek Ballistari with some lists built around it. So these are pretty welcome additions.
Both subfactions are useful for almost everyone and offer far more engaging gameplay than a simple +1 to cast. However, both do not help units with FLY, which seems targeted to deal with the fact that damn near every list has Morghast Archai these days.
Tithe Guards
This offers the Once per Turn Hero Phase ability Plentiful Bone. Pick a non-Unique Wizard (so not Arkhan) and then 3 non-FLY units (So not Morghast or, again, Arkhan) wholly within 12″. Roll a D3 and then on a 2+ either heal that many wounds or if there are no wounds, bring back a number of models with a combined wound characteristic equal to the roll.
So this mostly is going to work for lists of smaller wound units, like Mortek Guard and Kavalos Deathriders, but it still helps chonkier units like Immortis Guard. Not targeting Flyers is brutal however, since Morghast are a major part of most lists, so if you use those you may choose not to go with this one.
Hekatos Drillmasters
Again, this gives a one per turn Hero Phase ability Disciplined Hekatoi. Pick a non-Hero, non-Fly unit and give them one of 4 buffs until your next turn:
- Ward 5+
- +1 to Charge
- +1 to Wound
- Gain Anti-charge (+1 Rend)
You may notice that these are all Relentless Discipline abilities. In short, this lets you gain multiple buffs from Relentless Discipline on a single unit. Want both the 5+ Ward and the +1 to wound? Now you can! In the Charge Phase you can also use it to gain +2 to charge since there is no limit on stacking those. Since OBR tend to be very low drop armies this can be a huge boost to power, particularly in the combat phase.
Spell Lore – Lore of Necrotheurgy
Including a new spell lore does feel like an odd choice, since the Ossiarch spell list is actually shockingly good, with a strong buff, debuff and damage spell. I’m not sure they needed another one, and this one doesn’t really shine nearly as well.
To avoid redundancy, all of these are Casting Value 5, so they are at least very easy to cast.
Bolster Creation
Pick a unit wholly within 12″ and until your next turn, ignore the first point of damage each phase. This is your Unlimited spell and well…are you really going to take this over Empower Nadirite Weapons? Not likely! It’s just not great and it is very rare that 1 point of damage is going to change whether a model survives or not.
Invigorate the Ranks
Pick a unit wholly within 12″, add +1 to attacks characteristic until next turn. This is a good one, and possibly the one that will justify the lore if nothing else. +1 attack is just an incredible buff on anything. It’s a shame you aren’t going to be able to stack it with Empower Nadirite Weapons, especially since Empower can be cast on multiple units.
Soul-Claim
Stolen from the recent Regiment of Renown, pick an enemy unit within 18″, and then a friendly unit wholly within 12″. Deal D3 mortal wounds to the enemy and then if it kills a model, then you can heal 3 to the friendly unit or return a number of models with a combined wound characteristic of 3.
It’s solid as both damage and healing. Notably, like Rally, you do not need to remove damage first. If you have a point of damage on Deathriders and would rather bring back a horse, then do that.
Warscrolls
The two warscrolls are the perfect picks. The Mortek Guard and the Mortisan Boneshaper are some of the least used units in the army and to see an alternative take on them is very welcome.
Mortisan Boneshaper
The default Mortisan Boneshaper was a bit of a dud. Heal (3) on a 3+ is not great, even for an army really lacking in options for healing. There’s also 3 other foot casters in the army, so it’s not even a design space struggling for a slot to fill.
So what do we got now? First, Legion Quartermaster lets you add 3 dice to a Rally roll for a unit wholly within 12″. This is a huge buff to most units, especially ones with higher wound counts which have lacked a reliably way to bring them back. On average you’ll heal 4.5 wounds now instead of 3, which makes Immortis Guard and Stalkers a better than 50% average now. Morghast are still probably out of reach, but certainly not impossible.
The other buff is a new Command Ability, also named Boneshaper. It brings recursion into the mix, by letting you bring back a unit of Mortek Guard at half strength wholly within 12″, outside of 9″ of the enemy. This basically obsoletes the subfaction that does this, but that ones bad and you probably weren’t taking it anyway. Now you can get that and something good!
Overall, this is just a straight upgrade. Even with a point hike, Legion Quartermaster is just so much better and helps Ossiarchs of just about any type. The only downside is the entire character is a bit Command Point Hungry, as both abilities require you to spend a command point to benefit from them. This is still better than a healing ability that doesn’t work a third of the time.
Mortek Guard
Mortek Guard are bad, right? Like I feel like that’s not a controversial opinion? You’d think the army that struggles for bodies would want for something that can hold objectives but shockingly, no. By default their ability Shieldwall is a real mixed bag since it forces a 4+ unmodifiable save, which in most cases is fine but you can’t shut it off in the circumstances it would be helpful to do so. Their combat stats are pretty garbage too, only getting Anti-Charge which is something the army grants effectively for free with Relentless Discipline.
So what do we got with this? Well, first they scrapped the Anti-Charge and gives them Anti-Cavalry. As stated above you probably got Anti-Charge already through Relentless Discipline so this makes them reliably -2 rend against charging Cavalry. Pretty nice.
Instead of Shieldwall they now receive Shields of the Legion. Once per phase a friendly Mortisan, Monster or Warmachine unit within 3″ who has been targeted by an attack can have that attack’s rend blunted by 1. This does include shooting attacks, which can really help protect the Ossiarchs as they crawl slowly up the field. The limited number of units this applies to means it’s still likely to only be useful in certain lists, but it’s definitely a far more interesting buff than a 4+ ethereal.
Overall, this is less of a straight up buff. If you just want dudes to stand on circles then the base version is better, but if you want guards for your Casters or Catapults, pretty good.
Final Thoughts
This is pretty much the ideal for these Scourge of Ghyran buffs. Isolate what’s not seeing play in the army and offer a new version, and find what’s chosen 90% of the time and try and give more tempting alternatives.
Both new subfactions are interesting for people who don’t want to use Archai. Especially in Kavalos Deathriders lists they will really shine. The new spell lore is a bit of a dud, but not completely without merit. +1 attack still isn’t nothing, and healing in a faction badly crying out for some is a welcome addition.
The new Boneshaper may be able to compete with the Ossifector now, as both are Power 1 casters, but the ability for improved Rally is a very tempting offer versus an additional rend on your Archai. The Mortek Guard are more niche but in some lists (like dual Crawler Lists) they may be able to shine.
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