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Assuming that troops are balanced through some sort of point system, which do you prefer and why?

Would you rather have a big monster - 10+ wounds? Heroes in the 5 or 6 wounds range? Elite troops (2-4 wounds each)? Or 1 wound rank and file troops?

AoS has unit synergy possibilities, either through units and/or formations, so your answer could be a combination of these?

A smaller elite force is easier to paint and more maneuverable. But many point systems tend to favor rank and file troops for raw durability.

Well for me I see it as there are Four types of units, Anvils, Hammers, Tar Pits and Support.

A anvil is a big unit that has to be dealt with by the enemy but they are punished by taking care of it either because it takes a while to die, it does wounds to nearby units when it dies/takes wounds or its just hard to kill. I like to take one of these at least. Units that fall in this catagory are things like the Necrosphinx, Jabberslythe, Skarbrand, Terrorgheist and Fel Abomination.

A tar pit is a unit with many models that aren't particularly the most useful. They are designed to hold off Anvils until the higher priority targets are dealt with and then they can be ganged up on. Units that fall in this catagory are Sisters of Slaughter, Savage Orcs, Zombies, Ogres, and Pink Horrors. A unit that's good for a tarpit are things like Sisters of Slaughter who can damage those who attack it. Things like zombies who can restore their own model counts and thinks like Savage orcs who have the potential for high damage with their Big Stabbas but are mostly just average units, they can also make saves against mortal wounds or have high bravery/inspiring presence.

Hammers are units that are very fragile but hit very very hard. Things you want to protect and send against high priority targets. Things like Black orcs with their incredibly high hit rate, witch elves, goblin fanatics and many others. Usually things with a horrid save but high hit rate/good synergy/good rend/good damage. This also includes siege units.

Support are units that provide synergy with your other units. Usually heroes with 5-7 wounds. Grimgor Ironhide, Banner Carriers, Warbosses, Shrines, Priests. Some factions have more synergy than others.

On a game of 8 warscrolls using the age of balance system I'll generally take 1 anvil which usually takes up 2 warscrolls, 1 support unit that takes up 1 warscroll. Between 1-2 Tar pits, taking up 1-2 warscrolls. 1-2 Hammers taking up 1-2 warscrolls and the rest is really based on faction.

So your terminology actually aligns pretty well with mine.

Anvil = Big Monster

Tar Pit = Rank and File Troops

Support = Heroes that provide synergy

Hammers = Fragile hard hitting troops

Other = all the rest, non-support heroes, smaller monsters, elite troops that aren't hammers or tar pit, etc.





Automatically Appended Next Post:
Taking this analysis a further step, I have the following Khorne Bloodbound army in a Path to Glory Campaign.

Mighty Lord of Khorne (general, support)
Skull Grinder (support)
Slaughter Priest (support)
Exalted Death Dealer (Anvil)
10 Blood Warriors (Anvil)
20 Blood Reavers (Tar Pit)

So using your methodology, I don't really have a hammer in this army (no glass cannon). The reavers are fragile, but they don't have much offense either, so they don't qualify as a hammer. Once I recruit a Blood Secrator into the army, the reavers could change from a tar pit to a hammer.

The general can fight other monsters and heroes, but he is really more valuable in a support role for inspiring presence on the reavers and for the unbinding of spells.

The Slaughter Priest can also unbind spells, and has the ability to do either a quasi-magical attack or a long ranged taunt.

The skull grinder is an interesting support hero. He gives a bravery buff to my units, and gives an even better buff if he kills a hero or monster.

Not entirely. That was just the examples I used. For example the Chaos warriors have a 4+ save. They also ignore wounds on a 5 or 6 roll. They also have a decent hit rate. These make excellent anvils. Difficult to remove but aren't as useless as tar pits. Put them in cover and give them mystic shields and they are at a 2+ save. Give them the tzeentch keyword and add in the Chaos warshrine and then they reroll failed saves. Making them nearly impossible to kill as long as the warshrines on the field. Even with mortal wounds they get a save roll. So anvils aren't just big monsters. Its anything that can still do damage while being difficult to remove.

Another thing to consider is that most players want to go second in Age of Sigmar for the chance to get two turns in a row giving you an advantage. Therefore you will want something in your army to punish the enemy for making you go first if they win the initiative roll. Most factions have war machines for that. Vampire counts can summon Morghast Harbringers 18'' and then charge up to 18'' for a first turn surprise attack. As for your army...


I'm assuming you mean Khorne Lord of Juggernaut because he's all I can find.
He's a pretty decent general. Khorne doesn't have too many good options on the side of good generals. His command ability is pretty nice. Not too many things give +1 to wound. The 8 wounds scare me but he has a good save and a spell save as well so he wouldn't be that easy to remove. Id say with a mystic shield he's durable enough to put into melee combat as well. He doesn't offer much support so I'd say hes closer to an anvil than anything. 8 wounds 2 save with mystic shield, 1 save in cover. Then magical save as well. Decent damage. His support really only applies in the charging portion and then theres basic inspiring presence which is mediocre but you don't have enough units to really need it. It really benefits units with 30+ units as opposed to 10 or 20.

Skull Grinder, with this guy you wouldn't need inspiring presence as much/at all. I personally don't like this model. The support he offers is really nice but only if he kills a hero or monster. Hes definitely not strong enough to do that on his own. Depending on what comp system you are using his slot is taking up a warscroll/points/wounds. In my opinion this is just a bad unit. The benefit he offers doesnt synergize with the +1 to wounds the general offers and its such a rare chance of it actually happening its like a wasted model.

Slaughterpriest, Decent unit He's a combination of support and glass cannon. D6 mortal wounds is a lot of mortal wounds. Also the other spell can be used very strategically. He can't mystic shield though which sucks but he also can't be unbound. Depending on the comp system you use he could be good for the D6 mortal wounds, since most spells only do D3.

Exalted Deathbringer is definitely not an anvil. If anything he would be a better general and Lord of Khorne on Juggernaut would be the anvil. His command ability would eliminate the need of inspiring presence with Skull Grinder. 9 Bravery is a ton. Ontop of that it would damage anyone near him. However 5 wounds and 4 save is far too low for an anvil. I wonder if his ability would work to get two extra attacks if he is the general, probably not though. Another model I don't find particularly useful. His to hit rate is no better than a regular model, his command abiltiy is mediocre. He can basically ignore spells, but not war machines which would just destroy him. Personally I'd use this guy as a general or not at all.

Blood Warriors are actually a really good tar pit unit. Take forever to take down they aren't hard to kill just take forever to kill, if you kill them they still pile in and attack and have a chance of reflecting damage back, albeit a small chance. Then the glaive does some nice damage. I'd take more of these depending on the comp system you use.

Blood reavers would indeed be a tar pit. Good synergy with Lord of Khrones command ability giving them +1 to wound. That way they reroll hit rolls of 1, hit on 4, wound on 3. Pretty basic unit but depending on the comp system that means you can get more of them.

All in all I think you are lacking a lot of good synergy you're missing. For support you'll want things that give +1 attack characteristic, +1 hit, +1 to wound, closing the gap faster since khorne just want to get into combat as fast as possible and hit hard. I wouldn't worry about battleshock being your enemy too badly. The only unit that are susceptible to it are the blood reavers. Chaos Warshrine is a good synergy unit and an anvil.

Then you'll want something that does damage from far away. Skull Cannon is probably one of the best war machine units in the game.

Then you'll want some units that add variables to the game. Like Scyla Anfingrimm can attack a ridiculous amount of times,gets stronger the more hes wounded and can pile in OVER enemy units attacking things protected by phalanxs but albeit hes not the strongest unit so would need protection from divine shield which you dont have. Wrathmongers also are great units. They provide support by building a phalanx formation right behind blood warriors. They can attack from 2 inches so they can attack right behind them, while providing support to the blood warriors. Valkia is another unit to consider. She can hide behind allied units as well with a 2'' attack and when she charges her damage is ridiculous. Give her +1 to wound with the general, reroll failed hit rolls of 1 with the chaos shrine and most of her attacks will probably land for d3 damage each. A glass cannon unit. Only good depending on which comp system you use. Then warriors of darkness have a lot of good units that can take the khorne keyword to add to your army.

As for general strategy. You don't want to send your hero against an enemy hero, your monster against an enemy monster. You want to send your crappy blood reavers against the enemy monster because if they even damage it, it gets weaker and then your monster has an advantage. You want to keep your synergy heroes alive and send your damage heroes in only if they are in cover or wont get counter attacked for more damage than they do.

Just a quick compilation of units I put together keeping the khrone theme and using what you have as well as good units.... don't put too much heart into this, it wasn't optimized just quickly put together.

Lord Khorne on Juggernaut - General

Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore - Spellcaster/Anvil (Need that mystic shield)

20 Blood Warriors

5 Wrathmongers - Position them right behind the first row of blood warriors and keep them together in a Phalanx. As Blood warriors die, fill in the space with wrathmongers.

20 Blood Reavers

1 Valkia the Deadly - Engage a monster or something with the Blood Reavers then as it gets low, charge with Valkia to finish it off or charge 5-6 wound heroes with Valkia.

1 Skull Cannon

Marauder Horsemen/Slaughter Priest - Need some ranged damage. Marauder horsemen would be better since they have good ranged and melee but you don't have them and may not want them so Slaughter Priest can do D6 wounds in ranged phase with a 50% chance but is way more fragile.

Flesh hounds of Khorne - Need something that can move fast and flank, these also have the added benefit of unbinding spells and hit hard.

Thanks for the excellent comments.

We're using the Path to Glory Chaos Warband Campaign system Digital Download from Black Library.

We selected our general and then rolled the warband randomly.

I picked Khorne and the general from the starter set. I tried to roll randomly to recreate the boxed set forces. I managed to get the rank and file troops (blood warriors and blood reavers), but ended up with three different heroes instead of the Blood Secrator and Blood Stoker.

I'll be able to add troops in the future, but for now this is my warband.

I think some of your comments (i.e. regarding general and heroes) may be more applicable to larger scale games. I think my general and heroes are comparable in durability to the heroes the other 10 or so people in the campaign have. I think 8 wounds is the most anyone's general has (unless there is one person with a manticore rider).

There are some dangerous monsters in some of the other warbands (Giants, Cyghons, Doomgors, etc.), and I don't currently have a monster, but I should add a monster to my warband after a couple of battles. I also want to get a Chaos Warshrine which you mentioned.

None of the warbands have daemons as part of their army, but it is possible to summon daemons.

Some of the warbands have elite troops which I don't have: Chaos Knights, Minotaurs, Juggernaut cavalry, Wrathmongers, etc.

I'll have to rely on tactics to shore up the weaknesses in my randomly rolled army. On the plus side, the other armies were also randomly rolled.







Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also from a tactics perspective, we'll probably be using one of the four Blasted Wastes Time of War locations. The time of war locations give a significant benefit if you are a follower of the God whose location it is (Khorne warband at home will be tough to beat by worshippers of another chaos god, etc.). So unless both warbands are following the same Chaos God, the location will likely influence who wins the game.

We'll definitely be using one of the following battleplans: Lair of the Beast (capture a young monster to add to your warband), The Rewards of Chaos (capture 3 of 4 altars to win), Trial of Champions (4 player last survivor wins), or Monolith (finish building the pyramid or watch your enemy cast it down).

Monolith is a race if you are on offense ... Need to get across the board as fast as possible. That's the only time limited battleplan.

The Rewards of Chaos is an interesting battle plan in that you need 3 objectives to win. You could split your army to defend two objectives, but then you aren't winning. If you split your army in three and the enemy splits his army in army in two, you could lose a fight while your third army isn't doing anything.

Lair of the Beast has a monster lair protected by a guardian monster (and a young monster in the lair). After the guardian monster is slain, the winner is the warband closest to the lair. After who takes the first turn is rolled for, we then roll to see who controls the guardian monster every turn. It is possible for both warbands to lose this battle (if the monster defeats both warbands).