AoS: A Cut Above – Best Heavy Infantry Units From Every Grand Alliance
We’re here for round ten of the Grand Alliance Throwdown! Today’s battle: four heavy hitters that are the hammer and the anvil all at once.
Welcome in, Generals of the Realms! We’re back again with another Grand Alliance battle royale. While mounted warriors are all well and good, sometimes what an army really needs is a squad of implacable iron shields. Whether it’s duardin gromril, brilliant Sigmarite, or dubiously sourced pig iron, the heavies of Age of Sigmar are armed to the teeth (sometimes literally). These implacable warriors are the lynchpin for many strategies, allowing the faster cavalry to get into position. When you need a point held, these are the folk to do it.
Order: Stormcast Annihilators
Thanks to their relatively large pool of armies, the Forces of Order have had no shortage of units to choose from for this list, and heavy infantry is no exception. Loathe as I am to put the Stormcast at the top, it’s hard to deny that the Annihilators are the finest heavy hitters in all of Sigmar’s army. Whether striding into battle with Greathammers or Hammer and Shield, you know that wherever these gents want to be, they’ll be there, and no one else will.
How these warriors perform, and what role they play in your army, depends on which kit you take. If you opt for the shield option, you sacrifice some hitting power (but not much) for a 2+ save and the ability to slow down enemy chargers. With the greathammer option, you go down to a 3+ save, but your weapons hit harder and you can slow down your target instead. Either way, when the unit arrives, they explode with fiery radiance, incineration nearby units. This squad takes death star to a whole new level.
Chaos: Stormfiends
So I’m sure you expected me to put Chosen here, and you wouldn’t be far off. The deadly Chaos warriors are certainly a thing to behold on the battlefield. However, when it comes to utility, power, and survivability, I have to give the edge to the walking arsenals that are the Skaven Stormfiends. These deadly Skyrye abominations combine a Rat Ogor’s ferocity with the Warlock Engineers’ arcane technology. There’s not much that can weather a charge from these deadly foes.
Each unit of Stormfiends brings at least one heavy close combat option and one ranged, with a wild card thrown in as well. You can unleash a hail of bullets from a Ratling battery, a gout of Warpflame, or a ball of deadly Poisoned Wind at high speed. Once they charge, the heavy blows are augmented by spinning blades or electrified Shockfists. These are rats you certainly don’t want to corner…or want to corner you.
Death: Immortis Guard
Death is, as usual, not incredible in this category. Most of their units are chafe, designed to slow an enemy down while the undead generals get into a better fighting position. However, Nagash refuses to be outdone by the goody-two-shoes Forces of Sigmar, and his Ossiarch Bonereapers have a wealth of heavy options. At the top of that list for me, however, are the four-armed, shield-wielding warriors of the Immortis Guard.
The Guard are a phenomenal unit. Not only do they have a nasty suite of attacks capable of dealing up to 12 damage PER MODEL, but they can keep your heroes alive so long as they stay close, thanks to their shields. They bump the ward save of nearby heroes, meaning you can keep your important casters closer to the fight. They don’t call them the Guard for nothing.
Destruction: Ironjawz Brutes
Let’s be honest; when it come to heavy infantry, they don’t get any heavier than the Ironjawz. This pig-iron wielding Orruk warriors are the toughest and strongest around, and their rules show it. Strongest of all are the Brutes, the big guys that keep the smaller Orruks in line. They’re so tough they even frighten away other units, even the supposedly fearless Stormcast.
The Brutes are a deadly shock unit, one of the strongest in all of AoS. They can reduce the control score of enemy units, they hit with the force of an avalanche, and they have armor for days. On top of all that, their health tanks, able to weather a hail of attacks even if their armor fails. The only solace is that their unit size is usually small, but even that is little consolation for the beating they dish out.
Did your favorite unit make the cut?
