Games Workshop Warhammer Age of Sigmar - Idoneth Deepkin: Namarti Thralls

Product Information

These two mighty heroes will decide the fate of Ryftmar at the head of two forces comprising a total of 43 miniatures. Hit your peak on the turn you want –Rituals have been changed to now be a once a game ability used on a specific turn of the game, allowing you to put all your energy into the turn you want to dominate in. With the Dwarves Duardin out of the way, let’s have a look at their foes. There are no fewer than 22 Idoneth Deepkin miniatures in the box, one of which just so happens to be a heavily armed and armoured shark. Akhelian Thrallmaster Armed with a brazier axe, the solemn Flamekeepers are responsible for removing the ur-gold runes of fallen warriors. They can harness the power of lifeless runes to bestow blessings upon their fellow duardin, all the while bellowing litanies from beneath their grim death masks.*

This unit has been split down to two warscrolls, which we’ve seen happen with other units in the past. Both units have the same throwing axes with the change mentioned above, the same bravery of 7 and movement of 4” with 2 wounds. They keep Berzerk Fury to fight when they die which needs to be activated at the start of the combat phase once per game and their musician still adds 1 to charge rolls. He’s a nice model, too: covered in details and sculpted really well, his flaming axe really helps add to the overall gravitas of the figure. He’ll look smashing at the front of your armies. Auric Hearthguard

Spells

In addition to the new hero, there’s a fair few changes to the included warscrolls. Since the box contains all 3 units Fyreslayers have access to that aren’t heroes it’s a compartively large overhaul for the army. The only change that they share is that throwing axes now hit and wound on a 4+ instead of a 5+ which is a cool little buff to all these units, but pretty minor. Vulkite Berzerkers As the Tides of Death ebb and flow throughout the battle, the Idoneth’s fighting style adapts. These start at Low Tide in Battle Round One, and will progress through Flood Tide, High Tide and then Ebb Tide as the battle continues, before resetting in the fifth round. Each Tide provides a different bonus, and they are huge bonuses. The Thrallmaster shifts stances to effortlessly counter whichever opponent he faces, instructing his Namarti followers to follow suit. For example, a 1” round base, x 5 models can be stretched 13” long in a straight line, and maintain coherency. When it comes to denying deep strike effects, you get an oval-ish shape 31” long, and 19” deep. Against them is an Idoneth raiding party consisting of 10 Namarti Thralls , 10 Namarti Reavers , and a blood-thirsty Akhelian Allopex .

Crusade rules, including rules for harvesting souls to spend on minor buffs on the post-battle phase. And, of course, we’re basing the value of the box solely on the models inside it, discounting the Warscroll Cards, the Campaign Book, the Core Rules (which I’ve found to be an exceptionally useful resource) and the tokens which would only further increase the overall value of the box. Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Fury of the Deep Review – Where to Next?If you want to field an army that combines elven majesty and oceanic monstrosity, this guide to the Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Idoneth Deepkin faction will tell you all you need to know. Reavers are usually combined with Namarti Thralls into the formations known as Namarti Corps, each corps is led by an Isharann Soulrender, whose magic can be used to revive fallen Namarti. Such a corps tends to comprise half the strength of a Idoneth Phalanx. [1c] The models are excellent. Sure, one or two of them have a couple of fiddly bits that don’t go together as well as one may like, and the accursed flight stand on the Alloplex is a pain, but persevere and you’ll be rewarded with some truly brilliant and unique miniatures. As you’d expect with any aelven force, they’re fast, lightly armoured and hit hard – making the most effective use of these guys will come down to knowing how to combine them with your allegiance abilities. For one, these guys are ideal for screening – keep them in front of your most valuable units and they’ll absorb fire thanks to Forgotten Nightmares, a rule we previewed earlier that applies to all Idoneth Deepkin. For another, you can reduce casualties by making sure they’re in close combat in the third game turn – thanks to High Tide on the Tides of Death table, they’ll get to strike first!

As you’ll see with the range rulers below as well, I feel like a ball was definitely dropped somewhere between the artistic direction of the rest of the Fury of the Deep box and the push-out tokens and range rulers. Sure, they do what you need them to, but they’re so boring. There are a few ways to manipulate them, or grant bonuses “out of turn” such as Ionrach allowing you to hand out the effects of Flood Tide or Ebb Tide, or the King granting High Tide. For the most part, however the goal is to understand what bonuses you’ll see in each of the upcoming phases and plan your turn to take the most advantage of them. Although the title is frequently seen as an insult, it affords great freedom to those who bear it. A Thrallmaster can roam far and wide in search of fresh soul-matter, mastering the pelagic lore of the ocean’s currents. Many will tame vicious sea creatures like the Snapjaw Eel, and even tattoo themselves with tidal maps to prove their navigational skills.* But one does not require the ability to see souls to recognize a Namarti, as each is forced to wear an iron collar and a half-soul rune is found upon their heads which are placed upon them when they are given new souls. This is often taken a step further, as many collar fittings will involve the Namarti being ritually scarred to further mark them as mere thralls. [1a] [1b]Pete Brizio – Stomper Tribe (4-1): My good friend and club mate Podium Pete is at it again with the Gitz RoR plus a Monstrougly Tough Warstomper, King Brodd and a Kraken-Eater Stephan Kintzel – Fangs of Sotek: Standard double slann summoning list that skips Bastiladons to run a Troglodon The Thralls, much like the Reavers, are made of only a handful of components each. However, the vast majority of the Thralls go together far easier than the bow-toting brethren with whom they share a box. Components are, on the whole, both far larger and fewer in number, which makes the Thralls very easy to assemble. Clear instructions, as well as a thoughtful sculpt, make all the various components slot together easily. And once he’s together, he makes for a pretty impressive model. Akhelian Allopex

I am dearly hoping that the impending battletome takes these changes and makes them make a little more sense over all like we saw between Maggotkin Warscrolls and Allegiance Abilities. If the Flamekeeper didn’t hand out a 6+ ward ability I would have hope for an army wide 6+ ward to make some of this make a bit more sense. Competitively speaking this brings Fyreslayers down a couple pegs, an army which was already not competing without allying in Stormdrake Guard for the most part. Auric Hearthguard no longer protecting heroes and doing half their damage now to Monsters takes away one of the best tools the army had for facing Mega Gargants and is sad to see go. These added together definitely make this a weaker unit that’s now much easier to kill and much harder to keep wards on them especially when making charges. Aside from the slight throwing axe buff this unit has gone up in cost and lost effectiveness. Uli Petereit – Befouling Host: Horticulous (extra tree), Gutrot (deep strike utility), then Glottkin and a shit load of individual Beasts of Nurgle reach on all the Orruk units does help a great deal in mitigating that, as does the lesser used but occasionally useful Mighty Destroyers while in combat to allow a pile-in in the hero phase – useful in helping a corner charged unit adjust and let the full brunt of the unit get in range to murderise some smelly daemons. Result Changing to 2” bases, you could have a line 18” long, and a deep strike denial area in an oval-ish shape 36” long and 20” deep.Being a Priest, the Isharann Soulscryer can take advantage of Heroic Willpower in addition to unbinding enemy spells and banishing invocations. This provides more magical defence than ever before. Y’all know how this be goin’ now, we’ve done dozens of these together so you know the format. Here’s the box.