AoS: Flesh-eater Courts Battletome Review – Let the Feast Commence!
The Flesh-eater Courts Battletome is here. Grab your best cutlery; it’s time to go questing with the noble knights and brave peasantry of the Summerking’s Court!
Welcome in, ghoulish generals! If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting for this week’s release for a very long time. The Flesh-eater courts have always been a bit on the outside of Age of Sigmar lore, and their rules were either obscenely overpowered or laughably weak. But the Lord of Death provides, and we finally have a book worthy of our noble bearing. While some of the things in the book are nerfs, this feels like the most balanced the ghouls have been in a long time. Love it or hate it, this is exactly what the Flesh-eater Courts needed. Plus, we got a host of new models to boot, to sink your teeth into.
Flesh-eater Courts – The Good
First and foremost, Ushoran is here! The original Strigoi vampire and sire of a twisted bloodline in the World that Was, Ushoran has returned as a bright and noble paladin called the Summerking. In actual fact, he is a massive and terrifying Mortarch with a mace made of the remains of his meals. A twisted bone crown grows from his head, and his terrible delusions are so strong they can affect even the enemy armies.
Alongside him is a veritable feast of new heroes and units, like the winged Gorewarden and bat-riding Morbheg Knights from the Army Box. This gives the Flesh-eater army a new and unique style of combat, allowing them to move with predatory speed across the battlefield to ambush the unwary.
If you want to stay classic, you can still employ hordes of loping cannibals, as well as the new Cryptguard. These Mordant ghouls with just enough humanity remaining to wield rusted weapons in service of their lords. The new army book has so much to customize your army, from new army-wide delusions to powerful magic items. I’m especially fond of the Command Trait Shadowy Obfuscation, which makes your general invisible until he’s within 12″. That lets you get your mighty lords into combat quickly and safely, where they can generate the new noble deeds points you need to summon and buff your army.
Flesh-eater Courts – The Bad
Unfortunately, a lot of the things that made old-school ghoulies great have been severely dampened in this new book. Summoning can only be done when a leader has accumulated enough noble deeds points. While this doesn’t sound like much, they can be hard to generate without some luck. Also, the “Feeding Frenzy” ability that made ghouls stronger in combat is based on noble deeds as well. While this certainly isn’t game-breaking, it means you’ll need to be more careful with your heroes. This is nothing new for death, but many of the FEC heroes are a lot more fragile than your bog-standard Vampire Lord, so careful positioning is key.
Flesh-eater Courts – The Ugly
As much as I love the new models, this is Death, and they are very fiddly. You’ll need to take special care not to bend or break each piece, and some of the required joints are VERY small. I would suggest building this over a bowl to make sure any spare parts don’t hit the carpet. While this is general advice for building anything, it is ESPECIALLY true with the newer pieces. The Vargheist in particular can be difficult, but trust me, it’s worth the effort. The models are gorgeous when built.
Will you be joining the Summerking’s court?
