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Hey folks, longtime 40k player here thinking about taking the plunge into AoS. I have the main rule book, which I have been reading, but haven’t made a decision yet on what faction I would like to play in AoS. I have been working on painting up a number of the Underworlds and Warcry war bands lately (which is kind of how I got sucked into thinking about starting an Age of Sigmar army), and I really enjoyed painting up the Chosen Axes. Thus, I am considering buying into Fyreslayers and painting a lot of naked dwarves. The other options I was looking at are Slaves to Darkness (new models look great and it would let me get double duty out of the warcry stuff, plus I kind of want to paint Archaon just for fun), Slaanesh or maybe Wych Elves (although I collect Dark Eldar, too, so maybe they are too similar?)

Anyway, I would appreciate some guidance from the forum on what is a good place to start for Fyreslayers, what are the good units, what should I avoid, etc. I tried searching the forum for similar posts, but I couldn’t find anything recent that discusses the army in detail. Thanks in advance!

Fyreslayers are mostly balanced between options, with one exception. Hearthguard berzerkers are notably overpowered and the more of them you run the stronger your list will be. That said, fyreslayers are hard to make a truly bad list with, the key is making sure units stay in range of the support buffs from your characters during play.

I’d say at least 2-3 Start Collecting boxes. In addition, be prepared to just shake your opponent’s hand if he brings Hedonites with a couple Keeper of Secrets against you; it’ll be your absolute worst nightmare match-up. But definitely start with the SC boxes. The army itself looks awesome, and Magmadroths are some of the coolest models AoS has to offer!

And I’m not saying that to scare you off-just don’t want to see you get disheartened if it happens. That’s just a worst case scenario for you.

Cool, thanks for the advice. I was definitely going to start with a SC box, as I want to paint that magmadroth and that is for sure the most cost-effective way to get them! I am okay with there being some bad matchups as I will not be playing in tournaments or anything. Just looking for a fun army to play, but I also don’t want to build my units “wrong” or anything.

Additionally, be aware that the Magmadroth can build up to 3 characters if you build a Runeson or Runefather on Magmadroth.

 Kanluwen wrote:
Additionally, be aware that the Magmadroth can build up to 3 characters if you build a Runeson or Runefather on Magmadroth.

Thanks Kan, what do you recommend for the initial build? Runefather? I am not really sure on the pros and cons of each one, although I assume I will probably acquire a couple more over time.

Runefather on Magmadroth, Runeson and Runesmiter on foot.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Fyreslayers are mostly balanced between options, with one exception. Hearthguard berzerkers are notably overpowered and the more of them you run the stronger your list will be. That said, fyreslayers are hard to make a truly bad list with, the key is making sure units stay in range of the support buffs from your characters during play.

Pretty much this.

As for the most competitive list I can think of is:

Go Hermdar to get strike first ability, run lords of the lodge to have a group of hearthguard berzerkers attack twice, and run 2 groups of 30 hearthguard berzerkers, one with flamestrike poleaxes the other with broadaxes. Give your battlesmith a nulsidian icon to ignore magical effects on surrounding units on a 4+. Add a runesmiter and 10 vulkites for the third battleline. Give your priests the prayer to run and charge, which is how you get your dwarves to move fast, very important. That will pretty much melt all armies. If you lose, it usually wont be because your army was killed (unless your opponent was able to snipe all your heroes)

Nothing in AoS can take on unit of 30 hearthguard head on. Your opponent will try to snipe out your heroes, or ignore you (which will be hard with 2 blobs), or try to block you with endless spells and terrain.

mikeownz wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Fyreslayers are mostly balanced between options, with one exception. Hearthguard berzerkers are notably overpowered and the more of them you run the stronger your list will be. That said, fyreslayers are hard to make a truly bad list with, the key is making sure units stay in range of the support buffs from your characters during play.

Pretty much this.

As for the most competitive list I can think of is:

Go Hermdar to get strike first ability, run lords of the lodge to have a group of hearthguard berzerkers attack twice, and run 2 groups of 30 hearthguard berzerkers, one with flamestrike poleaxes the other with broadaxes. Give your battlesmith a nulsidian icon to ignore magical effects on surrounding units on a 4+. Add a runesmiter and 10 vulkites for the third battleline. Give your priests the prayer to run and charge, which is how you get your dwarves to move fast, very important. That will pretty much melt all armies. If you lose, it usually wont be because your army was killed (unless your opponent was able to snipe all your heroes)

Nothing in AoS can take on unit of 30 hearthguard head on. Your opponent will try to snipe out your heroes, or ignore you (which will be hard with 2 blobs), or try to block you with endless spells and terrain.

A min unit of Auric Hearthguard as ablative wounds for a clutch hero also ensure sniping isn't happening until you're stuck-in, and your opponent is already on the back-foot for the rest of the game.

Thanks, this sounds like great advice! I will keep it in mind as I build up the army.