With the AoS The Hunt battlescroll rules update officially out, let’s check out what it will change and how to take advantage of them!
Last week’s Games Workshop released a new Battlescroll: The Hunt which added some new rules to your Age of Sigmar matched play games. Today we are going to cover those and my thoughts on what they might do for your games.
Priority targets are worth points if you kill them with non-priority targets and prime hunters which adds additional victory points if you take out a prime target with that unit. It is a nifty idea that is kind of fun, and it makes these tough units shiny targets on the battlefield.
Order: All the “Good Guys”
Starting with the Stormcast Eternals: Dracothian Guard Fulminators, Stormdrake Guard, and Vanguard Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows. I defiantly see these guys being worth more as they are very good at deleting units and are pretty much taken in most upper-level play.
Longstrike Crossbows will still be deleting units by getting to shoot twice but those units that deep strike can benefit by going after these lists, though they might just run Gryphhounds or screen better and shoot your deep striking units off the table. Stormdrake Guard and Fulminators make sense as bonus points as both are shiny and elite so they fit the bill narratively.
With Lumineth Realm Lords: Hurakan Spirit of the Wind and Sevireth, Lord of the Seventh Wind you have heroes that basically cannot be charged, so if you do manage to kill them kudos to you. Daughters of Khaine: Has blood stalkers and Morathi- Khaine, which is basically the top Daughters of Khaine list right now, though Morathi is still nigh unkillable so maybe ignore her and go after the little snakes if you can?
Finally, for the AoS The Hunt rules for the good guys, we have Seraphon: Bastiladon with Solar Engine and Salamander Hunting Pack, which Bastiladon is on point as it is a big dinosaur and has all sorts of defenses, it’s like taking out a big ship with tiny fighters. The Salamander just seems like Games Workshop’s way of saying hey these guys are good for their points so don’t take them unless you want to risk giving your opponent bonus points. Finally, your Prime Hunters are the Sylvaneth which are going to struggle to kill anything in the above list anyway, so doesn’t help them much.
Chaos: Basically, Legion of the First Prince
Starting with Slaves to Darkness: Be’lakor, the Dark Master and Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince with Mark of Khorne. The Daemon Prince with that mark is incredibly powerful basically halving your opponent’s charges almost guaranteeing you get the charge in your turn, and then Be’lakor is a very good unique character so I agree with both of these.
Then you have Tzeentch: Pink Horrors and Kairos Fateweaver, which pink horrors is a 50 wound block of models that are battleline so arguably one of the best battleline options in the game. Then you have Kairos Fateweaver who is another incredibly strong unique character that can change the dynamics of the game with his pick any value on a single dice ability and his spell that dishes out mortal wounds.
Then for hunters, you have Hedonites of Slaanesh and Skaven, which really bolsters the Slaanesh armies out there and could make some Skaven lists a bit better.
The army that this really screws over though is Blades of Khorne in that how they are not considered a hunter is beyond me, along with that Slaves to Darkness Daemon Prince with Mark of Khorne is pretty much a must take in a lot of their lists so they are giving up potentially more points to their opponent.
Destruction: All the Giants
Looking at Orruk Warclans you have the Megaboss on Maw-krusha which is very thematic considering he would be a prime target. On top of that for their point costs, they are one of the best values for points unit in the game so I can see that. Then you have Sons of Behemat: Gatebreaker, Kraken-eater, and Warstomper all worth 2 points. Thematically I get them being worth extra points as they are these towering giants that have a huge presence on the board, but 2 points each seems like a lot.
On top of that, they are certainly not as good as some of the other units listed so why are they worth more than the others. For Prime Hunters, you have the Gloomspite Gitz which needs all the help it can get, and the Orruk Warclans: Bonesplitterz which is the most thematic in all the armies they have chosen to make hunters. It is literally in their background that they are savage hunters that are only looking for the next big kill.
AoS The Hunt Rules- Death: Has No Prime Targets
Lastly, AoS the Hunt rules for Death are a little different. Them not having any prime targets really shows the kind of state that they are in, and they have two armies in the prime hunters. Nighthaunts certainly could use some love, but they are in line to get a battletome update soon, while the Bonereapers could benefit from this but they really need to be adjusted to reflect the 3.0 rules before they can be really improved.
My overall take on this is that it adds an unasked-for element to the game that is going to add another page of rules to games. It seems rather lazy on Games Workshop’s part because they need to address why these units are being taken by the top lists repeatedly rather than trying to put a band-aid on it. I mean do you really think a Sylvaneth army is going to come close to taking down Morathi? Anyone outside of maybe Slaanesh running armies with Prime Hunters in it is not going to have a snowballs chance against these lists that contain Prime Targets.
Also, how do they come up with the reward points in that a salamander hunting pack is the same amount as a Megaboss on Maw–krusha or Morathi, it makes no sense. Maybe I am wrong, and it will change some things up, but I don’t see it affecting the game much, what Games Workshop needs to do is address warscrolls more often and create a living rule book that is updated consistently to deal with things that are broken rather than waiting 6 months to a year to change it.
Finally, what happens to this list if say the new Nighthaunt book is good and suddenly, they become top tier and are considered Prime Hunters. Will Games Workshop update this quickly or will it sit for a while until they get around to it?
Check out all the other AoS Battletome rules updates inside previous White Dwarf Magazine for Age of Sigmar.
- Slaves to Darkness New Rules for AoS 3.0
- Sons of Behemat New Rules for AoS 3.0
- Seraphon New Rules for AoS 3.0
- Cities of Sigmar New Rule for AoS 3.0
- Beast of Chaos New Rules For AoS 3.0
- Blades of Khorne New Rules For AoS 3.0
More AoS How-To For Beginners & Veteran Players!
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