3-1 score on Warhammer Fest tournament (55 player, Q2 2023)

Dagger:

Trueblood

Iron Legionary

Iron Legionary

Shield:

Iron Legionary

Iron Legionary

Iron Legionary

Hammer:

Dominar

Slaughterpriest with Bloodbathed Axe

Iron Legionary

Tips, Tricks & Tactics

Powerful Reactions – Your Iron Legionaries have access to very strong faction reaction that makes this already tanky fighters into immovable objects. Every time your opponent is attacking your Iron Wall you can decide whether you want to remove crits from equation or use counter and hit back this way. Engaging already activated powerful fighters with your Iron Legionaries will force difficult decision next turn as lifting Iron Legionary that is using Clashing Iron will most probably require more than 2 attack actions of competent fighter, also using abilities to buff number of attacks will only make counter stronger. If your opponent will decide that getting elsewhere is way more important than wasting time on hitting your Iron Wall then Strike Them Down is also a great option.

Ensnaring Net – As this list is not running Ogor Breacher there might be a problem with killing bigger enemies and to not let them became big problem you can simply net them from safe distance and ignore. For 1” range targets Trueblood can also attack them from outside their range.

Bloodbind – Pulling your opponents can not only reposition enemy treasure bearers or bring opposing fighters in range of your fighter weapons, but you can pull a Brute that used “You messin’” or any other fighter out of objective, you can pull fighters away from battlefield center in Strong-Arm the Competition, you can force fliers that hide on elevated platforms down or you can mess enemy combos (for example: pull KO hero that used Fight from Profit away from his Thunderer friends and from objective).

3-1 score on Warhammer Fest tournament (55 player, Q2 2023)

Dagger:

Witherlord

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield

Shield:

Bloated One with Raker-Claws

Bloated One with Raker-Claw and Hooked Net

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapons

Hammer:

Witherlord

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield

Mirefolk Outcast with Bilewood Weapon and Shield

Tips, Tricks & Tactics

Blowpipes – Ability that all of your Mirefolk could use that has 75% of doing half ability value of damage. It may be very helpful in finishing off heavily wounded enemies. Mirefolk with shield have a significant potential to kill weaker T3 chaff in one activation thanks to this ability. After using 2 attack actions against T3 opponent followed by Blowpipe (with double of fives or sixes) there is 48,56% of doing 8 damage and 29,3% of doing 10 damage. I suggest to resolve your attacks first and in case of some critical hits that will lower the target to “kill range” using Blowpipe. The other benefit of this ability is potential to improve Lethal Injection chance of success.

Lethal Injection – This ability has insane damage potential, but against tougher fighters has quite a low chance of doing significant damage. Because of this it is often better to rely on the opponent fear of that ability more than the ability itself. With your Witherlord unactivated and high triple available your opponent will hesitate to position their most important fighters nearby, as even with T5 there is a risk that your Blowpipes could decrease that Toughness and then Witherlord will have higher chance to do massive damage with Lethal Injection.

Hooked Net – This ability gives you potential to immobilize key enemy fighter. Stopping someone (especially Brute from Ironjawz) from reaching objective may be a game winning play. On top of that this ability can deal damage, so in some cases it can be used to finish off enemy fighter.

3-1 score on Warhammer Fest tournament (55 player, Q2 2023)

Dagger:

Slaughterpriest with Wrath-Hammer and Hackblade

Bloodreaver with Meatripper Axe

Bloodreaver with Meatripper Axe

Shield:

Centurion Marshal

Bloodreaver with Meatripper Axe

Hammer:

Blood Warrior with Goreglaive

Blood Warrior with Goreaxe and Gorefist

Blood Warrior with pair of Goreaxes

Tips, Tricks & Tactics

Bloodbind – Slaughterpriest have access to very powerful double that is able to mess up opposing player plans (turn off You Messin’ by pulling Brute away from objective), drag important target into attack range of your strong fighters, force it to leave the safety of high platform or simply drag someone away from your treasure. The strongest part of this ability is that opponent will most likely try to play “around” it which will lead to “sub-optimal” decisions.

Net – Centaurion Marshall has net ability with 3″ range and strong melee attack with the same range. With 10″ of movement it can often approach most dangerous fighter of your opponent, immobilize it and start damaging it from outside retaliation range.

Ability usage – The basic plan for spending ability dice with this warband is very simple: use doubles on your 2 strongest fighters and in case of rolling triple update it to Rampage for one of them.

This list finished Quest for Talaxis Tournament with 3-0-1 result

Dagger:

Twistbray

Screamer of Tzeentch

Blue Horror

Shield:

Iridescent Horror

Blue Horror

Hammer:

Pyrocaster

Blue Horror

Tips, Tricks & Tactics

Split – in this guide we are assuming that TO is accepting Split reaction to be used on your Iridescent Horror, but as at the moment of writing this the runemark is not yet fixed (and is an obvious mistake as no fighter in faction have the runemark required to use split reaction). Contact TO before the tournament that you will be able to use this reaction.

Reaction itself is the most powerful activation trick in the game. At the cost of single action of a fighter that is getting attacked you can take down your attacked fighter (even after you see that your opponent attack will kill your horror) and set up 2 new fighters. This fighters can be setup engaging your enemy to stop him from stealing potential treasure, they can be setup outside his attack range if he has more actions and the best part of this ability – the new fighters can still activate later that turn. Split again is a bit less powerful as it only grants you 1 fighter, but as more of your fighters have access to it it will be used more often.

Shooting – Outside of reaction this warband has access to powerful shooting, that can be improved by Locus of Sorcery. Pyrocaster is the main target of this ability and with some higher value double can became quite formidable artillery.

Other abilities – As this warband lack powerful Triples and naturally rolled Triples will most probably became Quads (Rampaging Pyrocaster can trim enemy chaff well) it leaves some spare doubles that you could use. One of such doubles can be spent to buff your Twistbray ally with Uttered Words of Arcane Power, but only in case of performing single attack action. With double attack actions Onslaught will probably be more usful.

1st place on Warkraj2023, 25 player tournament in Warsaw (Poland)

Dagger

Demolisher with Flamehurler
3x Shatterer

Shield

Ruinator Alpha with Heavy Flail

Demolisher with Flamehurler

Shatterer

Hammer

Slaughterpriest with Wrath-hammer and Hackblade

Demolisher with Flamehurler

Shatterer

Tips, Tricks & Tactics

Powerful triples – This list has access to two great abilities in Ash bomb and Engulfing Flames of Dark Artifice.

Depending on the need and value of triple this abilities let you chose area of the map and instantly get big advantage there by weakening enemy fighter stats or dealing massive damage. If you manage to have 2 triples with good values one turn then simple Flamehurler can win you the game by using Engulfing Flames of Dark Artifice in a key area and waiting to use the ability again next activation.

Pull – After you maxed out your triples with wild dice and still have some “leftover” doubles then most likely it will be used on Bloodbind, one of the most universal abilities in the game.

Pulling your opponents not only reposition enemy treasure bearers or bring opposing fighters in range of your fighter weapons, but you can pull a Brute that used “You messin’” or any other fighter out of objective, you can pull fighters away from battlefield center in Strong-Arm the Competition, you can force fliers that hide on elevated platforms down or you can mess enemy combos (for example: pull KO hero that used Fight from Profit from his Thunderer friends and from objective) or pull opponents into the range of your deadly triples.

Range – Every fighter in the warband has over 1″ range which makes your forces more durable (your opponent still has to move to you even though you can attack him) and wastes enemy activations. Positioning is also way easier as you can move directly where you need to be in future and attack nearby enemies from range instead of zigzaging from one enemy to another.

Threat – The Abilities described above are very powerful and impact the game beyond how you will use them. Knowing you have access to such tools will influence the way your opponent deploy (keeping over 2″ distance to lower the impact of Engulfing Flames of Dark Artifice), order of his activations (out of fear of Bloodbind he will not make key moves early) and his plans (grouping valuable units in one area becomes risky)

Winner of 2023 Adepticon

Dagger:

Nurglings

2x Plaguebearer

Shield:

Sloppity Bilepiper

3x Plaguebearer

Hammer:

Chimera

Example of play: You can observe how this warband works piloted by a man behind Salty Sea Youtube channel (I heavily recommend to check out other videos) here:

Abilities: When playing any monster almost every possible ability dice is consumed by the strongest ability in the game – Drag and Maul

This ability is extremely universal and also an ultimate way of saying “offence is the best defense”. Why should you worry about some big fighter threatening your Plaguebearer carrying a treasure, when you can Drag and Maul + attack for tones of damage. It can grab enemy treasures, remove fighters from objectives, mess up enemy combos and go around “bodyguard” abilities. Having 2 triples is better than quad and a double. Speaking about doubles, your slow Plaguebearers can move a bit faster thanks to another great ability – Jolly Gutpipes

Dagger

4x Stormvermin with Rusty Halbard and Clanshield

Shield

3x Stormvermin with Rusty Halbard and Clanshield

Hammer

Rat Ogor

Master Moulder

Stormvermin with Rusty Halbard and Clanshield

Tips, Tricks & Tactics

Denying your opponent secondary objective points: In Predator and Prey and especially an early grave sidequests you have a lot of tools to deny your opponent some Victory Points mostly because of durable chaff with T5, Hired Bodyguard and Scurry Away abilities and Musk of Fear reaction. Whenever possible with Predator and Prey in play try to deny your opponent ability to hunt down your isolated fighters by moving in groups of two. Most warbands have only one very mobile and killy threat like Varanguard or Akhelian King, but by moving in pairs you can try to deny your opponent ability to move-attack with their scariest fighter by using Musk of Fear to disengage right after the move action. To make this kind of play possible its important to finish movement in places where full 3″ disengage is possible so dense boards can be very difficult to do it (keep in mind that this 3″ of free space should be left in direction directly opposing the scariest enemy fighters as they will most likely arrive in straight line, if you expect another “angle of attack” you must adjust your plans). Try to save both actions of the fighter in pair of your opponent pray  to have the ability to react if your opponent will try to position his fighters in a way that would make full 3″ disengage from the biggest threat impossible and if needed try to reposition his “pray” so using reaction later is possible again. When you win initiative in this kind of sidequests it may also be a good idea to activate your vulnerable fighter first (if he is in combat), Scurry away and double-move to a safe position or in case of early grave sidequest to start with Hired Bodyguard ability.

General plan: Try to counter enemy numbers with your mobility by abandoning the objectives that are close to enemy horde and grouping around objectives that you can win. Try to deny your opponent best attacks with your reaction and use “Crack the Whip” every turn on enemy chaff to lower opposing forces. Whenever possible position your Rat Ogor and your Stormvermin within 3″ of themselves so in case your opponent will finish movement withing 3″ of one of such Stormvermin you can use reaction to move your Rat Ogor closer to enemy chaff. Skaven reaction is a difficult and complicated dance that experience opponent should be able to disarm, but whenever used successfully is certainly one of the most rewording moments in the whole game.