Age of Sigmar: Bastian Carthalos Mini Spotlight
Come take a closer look at the Lord-Commander of the Hammers of Sigmar, the Thunderborn himself, Bastian Carthalos!
The Stormcast Eternals are the reforged souls of heroes from ages past. Each one is imbued with the spark of life by Sigmar and forged from magic of Azyr to battle for the Mortal Realms. The Stormcasts are a fighting force unlike any other so you’d think that the Lord-Commander of the Hammers of Sigmar would be quite the Hero – and he totally is! Meet Bastian Carthalos:
Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos
We’ve talked about some of his rules and also his background a bit already. We’ll touch on that briefly again here to talk about his warscroll and then we’ll get into his model and some tips on building it.
Bastian Carthalos has a couple of really cool things going for him on the tabletop. First up, he’s got some serious survival skills. 8 Wounds doesn’t seem like a lot in the grand scheme of things. However, he’s an Infantry character and that puts him right up there for characters on foot. He’s also packing a 3+ save along with a 4+ ward. Suddenly those 8 wounds are sounding pretty solid. When you combine that with his Mantle of the First Storm ability which heals him to full if he slays a model in a phase, he’s going to stick around!
The Thunderborn is an interesting ability as well. You could use it on a low wound unit in an attempt to get a kill but really you want to drop this on a high wound target. Hitting something with a ton of wounds increases your chances of landing some 6s to generate some mortal wounds. It also softens up that target for when you want to charge in there later and smash it with your hammer! Uskavar, the Sunderer is no joke either. With that profile and a flat 4 damage per wound, it’s going to kill most enemy infantry heroes no problem. It’s also surprisingly effective against hordes!
His last two abilities are great for support. Castellan of Azyr allows for some redeployment shenanigans while Voice of Thunder allows for him too issue a command to a Hammers of Sigmar unit anywhere on the battlefield without spending a command point!
Bastian the Model
Model-wise, Bastian is pretty cool. He’s BIG. He stands over a head above your typical Stormcast Liberator and he’s on a larger, more scenic base, too. He’s got a few different options for building him as well. With two head swaps and two options for holding the hammer, he does offer a bit of customization on that front.
Assembly-wise, it’s a pretty easy model to build. I recommend using plastic glue vs super glue as you’ll get a better bond. The cuts and bits all fit really well and there are plenty of “guide pegs” to make sure you’re getting a proper fit. The only tricky bit was one of the ribbon-bits. It goes on the chest but it fits under the left shoulder pauldron. I’d suggest you glue that bit in before you attach the left pauldron.
It’s that bit right there.
For our build, I went with the two-handed hold with the Mask/Helmet. I felt like the two-handed hold was more imposing and I liked the helmet as it reminded me of a stoic warrior with a slight dwarven slant. Metal beard man!
Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos is up for pre-order this weekend from Games Workshop and makes a great addition to any Stormcast Army but he really finds his groove in a Hammers of Sigmar force.
Lord-Commander Bastian Carthalos
