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As a side project to my other Age of Sigmar armies, I thought I might challenge myself to slow-grow an army that I paint meticulously, but only buy one unit at a time. So genuinely a long term project. I've done the same in recent years with my Tau for 40k, and it occurs to me that my wife and I, across all of our Sigmar armies, don't have a great shooting army.

So what do you guys feel make up the best, or most interesting shooters in AoS? I'm looking at Dwarves/Dispossessed/Ironweld as a thematic bunch of shooter that seem strong, but outside of their cannons and other artillery I am unfamiliar with how their mass shooters, Irondrakes, Thunderers, and Quarrelers, do. It seems, at a glance that large groups of Thunderers can be devastating, especially with the legacy-list Dwarf hero who adds 6" to their range.

I know Freeguild Handgunners can be spammed to great effect, and further buffed, but they're ironically the one aesthetic in their current model line that I genuinely dislike.

Any other suggestions across other armies? We currently have my Tomb King, largely Chariot based army, we have my wife's Seraphon (tons of options with how she runs them), lots of the former Dark Elves, and my old Ogre army. As I said though, we'd happily rebuild one of those armies with new items, or start a totally new one.

Bastillodons are pretty good shooters as well... If you wanted to add that to an existing army.

The new big kurneous (sp?) hunters are also incredibly efficient it seems.

Not just a shooting unit in its own right but as both a wizard and a unit buff the celestial hurricanum is awesome, +1 to hit for order units within 10 inches when it's fully healthy pairs fantastically with judicators.

If I do go a Dwarf-centric route, maybe with a Steam-Tank... do you guys think it might work? Does going very shooting-heavy ever work in AoS in your experience?

Skaven can be pretty heavy on shooting, and plenty of character to boot.

I have heard crazy things about the Bonesplitterz Arrow Boyz. They have 2 shots normally and come at 10 for 100 points or something. When the unit is over 20 (or 30) it becomes 3 shots. So for 400 points that's 40 2 wound models firing 120 shots a turn, on top of that there is a battalion that allows one unit to fire twice in the turn (once in the Hero Phase) so that's 240 shots - there's also a buff to shooting to be found somewhere and a spell (hands of Gork (or Mork) that flies them around with double or triple movement giving you a massive threat range.)

If you fancy painting 100+ savage Orc models, it could be the shooty army you want.

I am recycling all this information from the Facehammer podcast that has an amazing review of the book.

 Bottle wrote:
I have heard crazy things about the Bonesplitterz Arrow Boyz. They have 2 shots normally and come at 10 for 100 points or something. When the unit is over 20 (or 30) it becomes 3 shots. So for 400 points that's 40 2 wound models firing 120 shots a turn, on top of that there is a battalion that allows one unit to fire twice in the turn (once in the Hero Phase) so that's 240 shots - there's also a buff to shooting to be found somewhere and a spell (hands of Gork (or Mork) that flies them around with double or triple movement giving you a massive threat range.)

If you fancy painting 100+ savage Orc models, it could be the shooty army you want.

I am recycling all this information from the Facehammer podcast that has an amazing review of the book.

Never again!!!!

My wife had me paint her Ork army when she first discovered 40k.... I think we have 150-ish painted Boyz, amongst all the other stuff. :-p

Sounds brutal though!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Incidentally, what is the Ork-available shooting buff? I can't find one anywhere.

Do you have access to the Bonesplitterz book? I don't actually - I am just recycling what I have heard on the Facehammer podcast. They could have got it wrong (or maybe I am recalling it wrong) - it will be an artefact or trait or ability somewhere in there. Another way to get a bonus to the shooting is to use the damned terrain buff, taking D3 Mortal wounds isn't too bad when you have an army wide 6+ Ward against them and all your models have 2 wounds anyway. If there is an ability in the army too, as I remember the Facehammer podcast describing, then both would be stackable.

I don't know if you play with the scenery rules, but in my experience it is used in all games in the UK.

We actually don't, and play the General and Artifact tables as rolling, not choosing, one of the six. As such, no way to really ensure you'd roll said item when you need it.

Still, throwing 240 dice a turn at something, even on 5's and 4's, is going to do just fine. :-p

Still think i'm going to go with massed Thunderers, the dude who buff's their range from the legacy list, Irondrakes, and Cannons for my pew-pew list. :-p

freequild gunners are good though. duardin cannons and organ guns are nice backed by thunderers. I will usually put about 4-5 cannons and 2 organ guns. about 30 freeguild rifles and 20 duardin thnderers, its solid shooting. to "protect" them, 3 groups of 5 iron breakers.

skaven shooters are decent, ish, not had alot of luck shooting with them, and I dont trust em, but en mass they could be good.

wood elves are decent as well.

kairic acolytes can work well if you are lucky with dice and can stand their ground with help. but can be a pain to get enough of.

Yeah, +1 to freeguild gunners. put a squad (or better yet, 3 squads) in a state troop detachment, and with the general's command ability Enjoy your 2+/2+ Rend -1 shooting Even in smaller 10-man squads

 Brennonjw wrote:
Yeah, +1 to freeguild gunners. put a squad (or better yet, 3 squads) in a state troop detachment, and with the general's command ability Enjoy your 2+/2+ Rend -1 shooting Even in smaller 10-man squads

oh yeah. big time....and here I was trying to figure what to do with the empire

 thekingofkings wrote:

 Brennonjw wrote:
Yeah, +1 to freeguild gunners. put a squad (or better yet, 3 squads) in a state troop detachment, and with the general's command ability Enjoy your 2+/2+ Rend -1 shooting Even in smaller 10-man squads

oh yeah. big time....and here I was trying to figure what to do with the empire

Yeah, my 2k list is kinda a dick move, but fun:
1 state troop detachment for Infantry, 1 state troop detachment for ranged, steam tank, a wizard (or two ) and IIRC the dwarf artillery detachment or some cav.

 Brennonjw wrote:

 thekingofkings wrote:

 Brennonjw wrote:
Yeah, +1 to freeguild gunners. put a squad (or better yet, 3 squads) in a state troop detachment, and with the general's command ability Enjoy your 2+/2+ Rend -1 shooting Even in smaller 10-man squads

oh yeah. big time....and here I was trying to figure what to do with the empire

Yeah, my 2k list is kinda a dick move, but fun:
1 state troop detachment for Infantry, 1 state troop detachment for ranged, steam tank, a wizard (or two ) and IIRC the dwarf artillery detachment or some cav.

As an Empire player I know it is tempting to max out on artillery but I think with lists like that you'll struggle to capture the objectives. Take the first scenario where you both have an objective 9" off your centre. What 5 models would you use to capture it? You'll need something fast moving (I know you mentioned cavalry) because those troop detachments are going to take 3+ turns just to get there and won't be doing much killing on arrival.

 Bottle wrote:

 Brennonjw wrote:

 thekingofkings wrote:

 Brennonjw wrote:
Yeah, +1 to freeguild gunners. put a squad (or better yet, 3 squads) in a state troop detachment, and with the general's command ability Enjoy your 2+/2+ Rend -1 shooting Even in smaller 10-man squads

oh yeah. big time....and here I was trying to figure what to do with the empire

Yeah, my 2k list is kinda a dick move, but fun:
1 state troop detachment for Infantry, 1 state troop detachment for ranged, steam tank, a wizard (or two ) and IIRC the dwarf artillery detachment or some cav.

As an Empire player I know it is tempting to max out on artillery but I think with lists like that you'll struggle to capture the objectives. Take the first scenario where you both have an objective 9" off your centre. What 5 models would you use to capture it? You'll need something fast moving (I know you mentioned cavalry) because those troop detachments are going to take 3+ turns just to get there and won't be doing much killing on arrival.

true, but based on what I've seen in my few test games (mind you, not all to much ) a larger squad of swords on an objective isn't gonna be moving to quickly (4+ save rerolling 1's in CC is entertaining ;P), especially with the bravery buffs you can end up getting with Empire. I guess in the scenario you listed, I'd use my handgunners to punish any fast moving units the other player put on the objectives, then clean up with swords and/or halberds. But idunno, I really do have to play test a LOT more.

If you're going for some Tau-like shootiness, I like Skaven clan Skryre. Lots of rending or mortal wounds. Stormfiends are a rat-man's battlesuit that can kitted for any scenario (if you magnetize or don't care about WYSIWYG). Plus they can be battleline with skryre allegiance. Lightning cannons just blow up priority targets like a good ol' Hammerhead railgun. But perhaps I'm just biased since I'm working on a skryre army...

Savage arrow boys with some buffs from new bonesplitterz book are kinda cheese sounding.

240+ shots a turn rolls of 6 or higher give an extra shot, see buff from warboss, get plus 1 to hit from new spell, and get reroll 1s (everything if a double) spell from maniak weird nob.

This leaves you with hitting on 4s rerolling 1s and a 5 or 6 gives you an extra shot. and you get 2 turns with unit from kunnin rukk formation.

Oh and did I mention you can achieve this in a 1000 pts game, with the hands of gork/mork spell.

10 savage boys
10 savage boys
40 savage arrow boys
war boss
maniak weird nob
wurgozz prophet
kunnin ruk.

sisters of avelorn vs chaos

You can make a really shooty Tomb Kings army if you want to, with Khalida, Liche Priests, Skeleton Archers and Skeleton Horse Archers.

Otherwise I would suggest Wanderers - I haven't played these guys, but they seem absolutely amazing for a guerilla play style. Their shooting units are amazing, and they have a very interesting (and strong) formation that lets them shoot some extra every turn. I don't have the Grand Alliance: Order book, so maybe someone can verify, but I think that the formation let's your Glade Lord point at an enemy unit in the hero phase, and each of your units that is withing firing range can shoot at it immediately. It's basically an extra focused fire shooting round, pretty insane.

Edit: I think Wanderers would also fit well with your plans of taking your time and putting effort into the models, since they are absolutely gorgeous if you do them justice.

Tomb kings can do a hilariously good shooting army
Take
Settra
Khailida
2 tomb kings
And a cliche priest as well as a necrotact maybe
Fill out the rest of the army with archers and 3 mine sized zombie units
Settra allows all mummy characters to use their command ability as if they are the general so you have Khalida use hers to make the archers hit on 4s then you have the tomb kings use theirs to make them hit on 3s. Have the liche priest cast righteous smiting on one of the units and keep the necrotact within 1" of all your catapults

Champion of Slaanesh wrote:
Tomb kings can do a hilariously good shooting army
Take
Settra
Khailida
2 tomb kings
And a cliche priest as well as a necrotact maybe
Fill out the rest of the army with archers and 3 mine sized zombie units
Settra allows all mummy characters to use their command ability as if they are the general so you have Khalida use hers to make the archers hit on 4s then you have the tomb kings use theirs to make them hit on 3s. Have the liche priest cast righteous smiting on one of the units and keep the necrotact within 1" of all your catapults

In this example, a unit of 20 archers fire 40 arrows and hit with 27. They then fire 20 more arrows because of righeous smiting, hitting with 13 which yields a total of 40 hits. They then score 20 wounds on average per shooting phase.

This is a pretty extreme and one-sided type of army though, it would probably be better and more fun for both you and your opponent to play a less extreme version. By excluding Settra and the Tomb Kings you can still make it very shooty, but you'll be able to have other options in the list too.

Champion of Slaanesh wrote:
Tomb kings can do a hilariously good shooting army
Take
Settra
Khailida
2 tomb kings
And a cliche priest as well as a necrotact maybe
Fill out the rest of the army with archers and 3 mine sized zombie units
Settra allows all mummy characters to use their command ability as if they are the general so you have Khalida use hers to make the archers hit on 4s then you have the tomb kings use theirs to make them hit on 3s. Have the liche priest cast righteous smiting on one of the units and keep the necrotact within 1" of all your catapults

The Tomb King's buffs to-hit are for the combat phase only. Technically a Khalida led army of archers is ok, but you don't want her as your General, because Settra as General extends far more benefits.

I find that a lot of people who use TK heroes for buffing don't really realize that a lot of the common buffs they dish out work only in specific phases.