AoS: Firestorm Focus: The Armies of Anvilgard
The Armies of Anvilgard are coming in the new Firestorm expansion for Age of Sigmar – Get ready to put your opponents between the Hammer or the Anvil!
The Anvilgard are a mixed force that combines “the Stormcast Eternals, Free Peoples, Devoted of Sigmar, Dispossessed, Darkling Covens, Scourge Privateers and Order Serpentis.” It’s a mix of very rough and ruthless sub-factions that can bring the hurt to your enemies. Especially combined with their new alliegiance ability Implacable March:
On a +5, you can force your opponent’s unit to take a 6″ move in the hero phase. After the move is finished, if any enemy models that are within 3″ of an Anvilgard model, those models are slain! That’s an amazingly powerful tool if you can pull it off. On a very basic level, it’s a great way to force your opponents back so you can setup a charge, get them to disengage, or maybe even fall off an objective. But, cunning generals will want to use this ability in an attempt to surround an opponent and get a bunch of “free damage” as the enemy unit is forced to remove MODELS. Yes, multi-wound models are going to HATE this ability. Now, it doesn’t apply to Monsters, but everything else might want to consider covering their flanks or they might get surrounded…
Ideally, the units you’re going to want to take are going to be able to work together to pull of this “surround and pound” strategy. Games Workshop suggests a unit of Liberators as an anchor and then some fast moving units like Drakespawn Knights or Chariots to help “pin” the enemy models. You could also just go with a mass of bodies like Freeguild Guard and just play the “board control” game. Hey, if they can’t get away, they just lose models!
For Order!
Age of Sigmar has really tried to embrace this idea that all of the Order Factions are indeed under the same umbrella. I know for me personally, it’s somewhat confusing to see Dark Elves along side Stormcasts or (formerly known as) Empire units. However, this is now the direction the lore and the game is heading. You can still run an effective army of “just Stormcasts” or “just Dark Elves” – but these new allegiance abilities are an attempt to bridge that gap and make these sub-factions work together to form a more cohesive army. I like the theme of this list and the fact that these former enemies can come together to rally around Anvilgard and fight for their home. That’s a pretty powerful concept and it is one I hope we get to explore in more detail. Plus, I think the Anvilgard Icon looks pretty cool, too.
Units that have more loyalty to their city than to their parent faction? Hmm…that sounds like the start of something very interesting…
