Games Workshop - Warhammer - Age of Sigmar -Warcry: Spire Tyrants

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The 3” whip enables the Venomblood to fight at a greater distance. While nowhere near as killy as the Spear-armed variant, the whip is a good applicator of Paralysing Venom. Smear toxins across your lash and give the enemy a taste from behind the safety of a Chaff screen. The Spire Tyrants have many unique fighter types for a Chaos Warcry warband, which means you have very few options for diversifying your warband with just 1 box. The Chaos Lord on foot and on Manticore are both solid. The Manticore has a good anti-horde spell while on foot has a great buff spell and is cheap to boot, despite a recent cost increase. The slaves to Darkness spell lore is very good so you’ll probably bring at least one of these guys.

The armor panels were highlighted along the lines where it connects to the silver trim with first Wild Rider Red, then very carefully with Fire Dragon Bright. The launch of third edition and subsequent months saw the release of some unit changes that work to the armies’ benefit. Your poster boy, Archaon, has been changed substantially which we will go into in the units section. Warcry warbands are easier to use, as with the Tome Celestial from White Dwarf it’s easier for them to get Battleline status and Marks of Chaos. Otherwise it’s a lot of the same changes that are sprinkled in every other book: lots of rerolls changes to +1s and a few units with streamlined weapon profiles, limiting them to one weapon type per unit.The Pit Veteran with Shield is an elite fighter of the Spire Tyrants warband, and you can build 3 of them from a single box. It is also one of the most versatile fighters in the warband. Within the colossal edifice of the Varanspire – Archaon’s vast citadel and base of operations in the world of Warhammer Age of Sigmar – thousands live, die and labour for Chaos. Fighting pits in the depths of the Varanspire are home to endless battles – those who survive the arenas eventually form groups and sally forth into the Bloodwind Spoil, seeking glory and bloodshed that not even gladiatorial combat can provide… Introduced in the new season of Warcry, Reactions are things that can be done in certain circumstances, but always during the enemy turn. They cost one action, so they can be used only by fighters that have not activated yet or are waiting. There are 3 universal reactions and one specific to each warband: I basecoated the armor plates Mephiston Red, the armor trim and metals Iron Hands Steel, the skin Cadian Fleshtone, the fur Russ Grey, the leather Gorthor Brown, the cloth Jokaero Orange and the horns Zandri Dust. In scenarios that revolve around killing the enemy warband/leader, you’re in your element. In objective-based scenarios you are still better off deploying as aggressively as possible. This will disrupt the enemy ability to do the same, which you cannot afford.

This can be a good way of adding some damage to a double move action, which is often a good idea since the Pit Veterans can survive pretty well in a melee with their Toughness 5.

The Splintered Fang: One Cut, One Kill

To win ideally you remove the objective where your opponent has the most models and hope they don’t do it to you. Also the less models your opponent has left to put around the objective, the better, just saying. The sweet spot is 8-12 activations. You want plenty of ‘useful’ models with good abilities, high strength, high toughness and punch (though you won’t get all of these outside of very pricey models) and some jobbers to push buttons, act as speed bumps and play the objectives. This complexity is fantastic if you like a challenge and want to show your mastery of the game’s systems, but it also makes the Spire Tyrants a warband that’s difficult to recommend for beginners. You will inevitably run across some warbands with high toughness and high strength, but they will usually have small numbers and possibly low speed. They’re also pricey, so losing a single model hurts their ability to control objectives significantly more than it would hurt you, and disposable speed bump models to tie them up and stop them moving around the board is a viable strategy.

They have been raised as fighters in the pits of the Varanspire, and have spent their whole lives trying to catch the attention of Archaon with their victories in battle. This also defines the way the Spire Tyrants look as a warband: they don’t style themselves after an animal God or a specific element, but are quite varied in appearance with the only common trait being their Spire Tyrants symbol on their belts and some vaguely Chaos Warrior-esque armor. The leather was highlighted with Karak Stone, and finally, the cloth was highlighted with Bestigor Flesh, and then I applied a glaze of Iyanden Yellow Contrast all over to give it a warm yellow/orange hue hue.

Spire Tyrants Deployment Tactics

They come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from the hero-posed muscle man that leads them to some very skinny pit fighters, and they even include two non-human models, a Beasts of Chaos Bestigor and a Chaos Duardin. The shields wielded by Venombloods fulfill a dual purpose. With their sharp edges smeared in venom, the line between defensive tool and weapon of murder blurs to nothing. Armed with a whip or spear, these fighters do not hesitate to apply poisons from the safety of distance. The first step to an effective Splintered Fang warband is deciding which direction you want to build them in. The warband direct from the box is fine against other boxed Warcry warbands but the moment you face an optimized list you will go down hard. The two key ways to build a Splintered Fang warband are choosing to prioritize the strength of your infantry, or the unique nature of your Serpent Caller. Personally I opted to play around with infantry, so that is the list we will go over.

No Punch –The closest thing you have to an Elite Threat is the Serpent Caller combo. No single model in this warband has the “Threat Factor” of a First Fang, Blissful One or Luminate.

Combat Flexibility –The Splintered Fang have a wider range of fighter options than the other warbands. This means their Roster Building is far more engaging than the other boxed warbands.