Age of Sigmar: Wrath and Ruin – Why I love the Grimwrath Berserker
Of all the great heroes in the Fyreslayers Battletome, my favorite by far is the Grimwrath Berserker. Here’s why. His lore is fantastic (being the angriest and toughest of a group of crazed berserkers is a feat by itself) and his on table rules mean he can go toe-to-toe with some of the heaviest hitters in all of Age of Sigmar. Here are my favorite uses for the Grimwrath Murderstick in my games of AoS.
Ain’t got time for shoes.
Assassin
If there’s one thing this guy is great at, it’s taking down your enemy’s precious heroes. Khorne, Soulblight, and Idoneth can bring some compelling characters to the field, but this guy can tangle with the best of them and usually come out on top. Since he has four two damage attacks with a -2 rend and hitting and wounding on 3s, it’s very probable that he can knock down most characters in a single round of combat. However, what makes him great as an assassin is his ability to take a second attack turn at the end of the combat phase if there are any enemy models within 3”.
So you’d think if you kill him quickly enough, you could avoid this right? Wrong, because the Grimwrath also gets a pile-in and attack move if he loses his last wound before you remove him from the battlefield. If you want to make him really terrifying, go Vostarg lodge and let your Berserker carry the Vosaxe. This will increase his rend to -3, meaning even the thickest armor in the game is getting reduced to a 5 or 6, but also increase his attacks to damage 3 whenever you roll a 6 to hit. Partner that with his second pile-in move (or third if you brought a priest with the Prayer of Grimnir’s Fury) and you’re going to make even a Bloodthirster soil its Daemonic Loincloth.
Pictured: future Fyreslayers rug.
Monster Hunter
Similar to the Assassin role for this guy, hunting enemy monsters is the bread and butter of a Grimwrath Berserker. Monsters bring a lot of wounds and a lot of damage to the table, and it usually takes full units a couple of turns to bring them down. However, not so for this angry scion of Grimnir. As with the previous post, this guy is scary enough with his basic profile, doing four attacks with 2 damage and -2 rend, likely twice, will spell doom for most monsters that can pop up on the field. But if you need to increase the already astronomical killing power of your Grimwrath against the great gribblies, hand him a Beastslayer. While wielding this ax, every hit he scores is doubled. That means a potential of sixteen hits for two wounds a piece. There isn’t anything out there that can shrug off 32 wounds easily, so if you really want to turn your opponent’s monsters into a fine red mist, unleash this kit and let him play golf.
Hello friend – it’s combo time.
Backfield Menace
This is less a different role and more a delivery method, but this guy can do just as much damage to a backline defense unit as he can to a lone juicy hero. What you do for this one is pair him with an Auric Runesmiter, especially one that knows the Prayer of Grimnir’s Fury mentioned above. Since Magmic Tunneling doesn’t specify non-hero, you can use your Smiter to deliver a guy far into your opponent’s territory, right where they don’t want him. A 9” charge is admittedly a little rough, but having this monster back there will be threat enough for your opponent, and they will likely want to deal with him immediately. Once he’s engaged, he will be a little more challenging to keep alive, but should he circle back to the next hero phase, have your Smiter hit him with the prayer, then watch him mince whatever unit your opponent haphazardly threw at him.
Bonus point here is that the Berserker’s FnP save gets better when he’s engaged in combat, so keeping him alive isn’t as difficult once he’s stuck in. Against a small model unit or a warmachine, this tactic will clear a lot of threats off the field quickly, leaving your Magmadroths and other relatively slow footsloggers free to charge up the board.
~Do you agree with these tactics? What is your favorite Fyreslayer hero?
