Age of Sigmar: Flesh-eater Courts – New Rules Have Them Coming Out Swinging
The new Flesh-eater Courts must have added some hot sauce to their diet because their new rules are looking mighty spicy!
Games Workshop dropped some rules teasers for the Flesh-eater Courts (appropriately) during Thanksgiving Week. And now they are also showcasing a few more rules that are used in their weekly Battle Report on Warhammer+. We’re gotten a chance to digest these rules and now we want to talk about the kick that they are going to provide to this army.
The New Flesh-eater Courts Rules
Noble Deeds
This is the first and most important rules update for the Flesh-eater Courts. It’s really the main thing that the rest of the army will play off of. Noble Deeds are points that characters can accumulate (up to 6) and then they can use them to trigger various effects. They can be generated by successful spell casting, successful prayer chanting, and (most importantly) by fighting and doing damage to the enemy.
Players are probably going to want to keep a different colored set of dice to help track these because you’re going to need them.
Battle Frenzy
One ability that is going to play nicely with those Noble Deeds points is Feeding Frenzy. Each Flesh-eater Courts Heroe with 6 Noble Deeds points now generates a 12″ bubble of +1 attacks for melee weapons for units wholly within range. The game play loop here is straightforward: Charge a unit with your heroes and your unit, have the hero cap out on Noble Deed points (if they weren’t at 6), then the entire unit gets +1 to their attacks characteristic. That’s gonna be spicy!
Muster Guard
These points are just used for a nice buff either — you can spend them! Noble Deeds points can be used to bring back models as well. This happens at the end of the movement phase, too! Why does that matter? That means you’ll actually be able to generate some points in the Hero phase via spells and prayers. And then you’ll be able to move into range and spend them to heal units. That might seem like a small thing but lots of armies would LOVE to be able to trigger abilities after they move into position.
Furthermore, if the Hero happens to be an Abhorrant, they will be able to bring back entire units of Serfs and Knights. Serf units are troopers like Crypt Ghouls and Cryptguards. Crypt Flayers and Crypt Horrors or the new Morbheg Knights are examples of Knight units.
Oh and speaking of these new Morbheg Knights, they also have a nice charge bonus for their rules:
The denial of Unleash Hell combined with the bonus chance for Mortal Wounds makes them a great option to take. And there’s also a few more ways to ensure they can snag those charges, too.
Courts of Delusion
Crusading Army is nice because it adds that +1 to run and charge rolls for your FEC units. And if you’re on the defensive, you can use Defenders of the Realm to get +1 to save rolls while contesting an objective.
If only there was a way to get within a reasonable charge distance for those Morbheg Knights on turn one…
Oh look at that: A couple different ways to drop in a unit of Knights within 9″ of an enemy! That might seem like a long charge but with the +1 to charge rolls it’s not that crazy of a chance. And you could always spend a command point to re-roll it if you need to. It’s a risk but pinning an enemy unit in their backfield so the rest of the army can move up can be invaluable. Plus if the unit does get killed, you can spend some Noble Deeds points to bring it back. Seems like a win-win to me.
A Few Unit Stats
The Varghulf Courtier has a few stats that GW dropped. First up, he’s got 5 attacks that each do 2 damage. He’s also got another attack that does 3 damage base. And yes, all those attacks are subject to Feeding Frenzy so you could get up to EIGHT (8) total swings with a total potential of 18 damage. But wait, there’s MORE. There’s a King’s Champion ability that the unit has that can grant another two attacks for each melee attack pulling your grand total up to 12 attacks! And that bring his total potential damage up to 28! That’s impressive from one model no matter how you slice it.
Did you know that Cryptguards have a +5 ward? Because they do! They also have the Royal Bodyguard ability which sounds like it’s going to help keep your heroes on the tabletop. Additionally, the Standard Bearer halves the number of models that flee for battleshock, too. I have a feeling this unit is going to be surprisingly tanky for a lot of folks to deal with.
The rule teasers thus far for the Flesh-eater Courts are showing signs of an army that’s got some speedy tricks and a lot more staying power than you might expect. There appears to be some good synergy between aggressive heroes who want to get into combat and the units that will be joining them. We’ll have to wait to see their full rules but this could be a very aggressive army that puts the pressure on early and is able to maintain it the whole game!
What do you think of the Flesh-eater Courts rules previews?
