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How to Play AoS: 1000 Points Eldritch Council

By Travis Perkins | June 27th, 2017 | Categories: Age of Sigmar, How To Tutorial, Tactics

TeclisToday we’re going to be covering your first 1,000 points in Age of Sigmar for your Eldritch Council. Come take a look at a great way to start your new army.

The Eldritch Council army is a little unique in that it is very limited to the models you can take (5 different kinds) but I would hope GW is going to expand on this army down the road. That being said by choosing Eldritch Council Allegiance you are giving up an artifact and bonus command trait for the Swordmasters to be a battle line unit to make this army legal.

Diving right in let’s start with your two battle line units: Luckily these came with the Spire of Dawn set so you can find them on eBay pretty cheap. ($15 for 10 models including command)

  • 10 Swordmasters: Battle Line 1 of 2 (200 points)
  • 10 Swordmasters: Battle Line 2 of 2 (200 points)

Swordmasters: 6 Move, 4+ Save, 7 Bravery, 1 Wound. They hit hard with 2 attacks each, hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend, for 1 damage. You get to reroll hit rolls of 1 with the unit and re roll failed saves against missile attacks. The champion gets a bonus attack, the banner add 1 to bravery (2 if within 8 inched of another Eldritch Council Banner) and the horn blower lets you re roll 1’s when running and charging.

After that we need to back them up with a heavy hitter with an Archmage on Dragon and then some support in the form of an Archmage and Loremaster. Luckily the Archmage is also part of the Spire of Dawn set, and can be found for about $5 on ebay. The Loremaster is not bad at $20 new from GW, and the Archmage on Dragon is around $40 on ebay.

  • Archmage on Dragon: Leader 1 of 4, Behemoth 1 of 2 (340 points)
  • 1 Archmage: Leader 2 of 4 (120 points)
  • 1 Loremaster: Leader 3 of 4 (100 points)

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Archmage: Move 6, Save 6+, Bravery 7, 5 Wounds. Has a seerstaff with range 2, 1 attack, hitting on 4+, wounding on 3+, -1 rend, for 1 damage. He adds 1 to all his unbinding rolls and brings a unique spell to the table called Elemental Shield. This casts on a 6 and if successful creates an 18 inch bubble around him where anytime any friendly model inside the bubble suffers a wound or mortal wound on a 6+ it is ignored.

Archmage on Dragon: Move damage table (14 to 6 fly), 5+ Save, 7 Bravery, 14 Wounds. A variety of attacks the first being a Magestaff. With range 2, 1 attack, hitting on 4+, wounding on 3+, -1 rend, for D3 damage. Then you can choose to outfit with an arcane book (bonus spell) or sorcerous blade. The blade has 3 attacks hitting and wounding on a 4+ for 1 damage. Next the Dragon has claws with range 2, damage table attacks (6 down to 2), hitting on 4+, wounding on 3+, with -1 rend, for 2 damage. Finally a jaw attack with range 3, 3 attacks hitting on 4+, wounding on damage table (2+ up to 4+), at -2 rend, for D6 damage each. He adds 1 to his unbinding rolls, and bring a unique Drain Magic spell to the table. Casting on a 4+ it removes any continuous effect spells from enemy units (Mystic Shield type), if they have the daemon keyword, it causes D3 mortal wounds. Finally the dragon can spit fire in shooting phase within 12 inches that auto hits. Rolling a D6 a 1-2 is 1 mortal wound, 3-4 its D3 mortal wounds, and a 5-6 is a D6 mortal wounds.

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Loremaster: Move 6, Save 4+, 5 Wounds, and 7 Bravery. He has a greatsword with 2 attacks hitting and wounding on a 3+, with -1 rend, for 1 damage. He can re roll failed save rolls against shooting attacks. Finally he has a unique spell called Hand of Glory, which casts on a 5+ and lets a single model within 18 inches reroll all failed hit and wound rolls.

Loadouts: Try and get an Archmage on warhourse because it adds to his movement and gives him a steed attack. That being said the one on foot is really cheap (see Spire of Dawn set) and he should not ever be in combat anyways so it is not a deal breaker if you can’t find one. For your Archmage on Dragon I would go with the Arcane Book to be able to cast two spells. As Drain Magic is pretty situational, you still can cast Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt which is much better than a crappy sword attack.

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Tactics: Try and keep your Swordmasters within 8 inches of one another so that their bravery is 9 instead of 7 to prevent any unlucky battleshock rolls. At 200 points these are expensive battle line units but they have a fast movement and can take out hero characters with 2 attacks and rend. Your Archmage should be behind these two units with his bubble up at all costs, and if possible get your Dragon and Loremaster inside as well. A 6+ save against everything is a nice bonus and makes everything a little more survivable.

Your Loremaster should be keeping up with the Dragon as much as possible and casting Hand of Glory on him. This will really let your Dragon bring the pain and use his superior reach to attack over sword masters or around meat shield troops. Be careful though his 5+ save is not great so keeping Mystic Shield up and staying inside the bubble from your other Archmage is key to survival.

There you have it a 960 point Eldritch Council army that is pretty quick, heavy hitting, has lots of magic, and is relatively cheap at right around $100.

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About the Author: Travis Perkins

An avid homebrewer and Detroit sports fan (yes even the Lions). I am new to the world of wargamming and very much enjoying the journey. If you have any suggestions or comments feel free to comment on the article or email me at perki116@msu.edu