I've played a lot of AoS games since the game released, and I find myself surprised that a lot of people assume that strategy is dead just because the rules are simpler. However my games against as many different and diverse armies as I could get matched against has taught me that not only is strategy still valuable, it's downright necessary to win against some models or units. Now there's still the obvious maneuvering and pre-planned tactics, but a good opponent can easily turn a battle on its head or reveal an ace in the hole. To that end, I find that it's necessary to ensure that your army contains models that are able to fulfill a variety of roles to make sure that you're ready for any eventuality. I'll use example models from the Seraphon and Stormcast armies to highlight how to make use of these roles. Assassin: The Assassin is exactly has the name suggests, a model or unit that can specialise in sniping enemy heroes. As AoS Heroes tend to give their army's mooks buffs that, especially in bulk, can really make a huge difference when it comes to the armies' deciding clashes, a unit or Hero that can effectively assassinate enemy heroes can often severely weaken the enemy's overall army, turning the tide. At the very least, it can be used to assassinate enemy wizards and the Command Ability-wielding general, which all armies typically have. To this end, Assassins must have either the ability to very suddenly close in on a target and deliver massive amounts of damage in one turn before reinforcements can arrive or the Hero can escape, or the ability to reliable chip away at enemy heroes' wounds constantly. Assassins include Lord Kroak thanks to Comet's Call, Salamanders w/ Handlers that can be summoned to deliver powerful D6 damage ranged attacks on a single target that's more than capable of killing heroes, Engine of the Gods' D6 mortal wounds at 25". Highly Valuable Monster Hunter: The Monster Hunter does exactly what it says on the tin, hunts monsters. In 8th, cannons were how people dealt with monsters. However now in AoS, cannons are more appropriate for damaging larger grouped units, so when that big scary monster comes a-calling, it's up to the Monster Hunter to take it down. These models are similar to Assassins in that they require the ability to deal massive damage to a single target before the target can fight back, but Monster Hunters don't require the same level of maneuverability since, more often than not, monsters will come to you. All you require here in terms of maneuvering is that your Monster Hunter is in the Monster's path, and that it attacks first to at least weaken the Monster's retaliation with the damage table, if not kill it outright. Some units and models do have special abilities that makes them ideal for killing monsters, but these are relatively rare and don't exist in every army, so such abilities are not required. Monster Hunters include Carnosaurs thanks to their ability to pin enemy monsters (Kroq-Gar is best for this as his Carnosaur hits at damage 3 rather than D3, making it more reliable,) Paladin Protectors with their anti-monster abilities, Salamanders thanks to their powerful ranged attacks again, Stegadon w/ Skystreak Bow. Highly Valuable Crippler: Some monsters are, quite frankly, far too strong and capable of dealing insane levels of mass destruction. These are things like the Ogre Thundertusk, whose frost breath causes an instant 6 Mortal Wounds, or the Chimera which automatically causes D6 Mortal Wounds to a target unit, both of which can instantly kill most heroes, and are ranged attacks and don't need to get dangerously close to their victims. However such units are typically bound by a common weakness, that these OP abilities are weakened very quickly as the monster suffers wounds. And that's the Crippler's job, to weaken these rare but exceedingly dangerous monsters quickly and safely before the enemy has a chance to devastate your units with them. Cripplers must be able to deal a very quick burst of damage from a safe distance to weaken the enemy monster before it devastates your front line, allowing the Monster Hunters to finish it off safely. This must be done as quickly as possible in order to be effective, though often one only needs to deal around four wounds to do the damage. While these monsters are rare and Cripplers may be extremely specialised in their role, they are invaluable should you be unfortunate enough to encounter such a monster and can easily be the difference between victory and defeat. Cripplers include Lord Kroak with his Comet's Call able to cherry tap and cripple monsters from across the map before they are able to be used, The Knight-Venator for his D6+3 Damage Star-Fated Arrow, Salamanders again (seriously, these things are awesome and easy to summon, take them for your Lizards.) Downright Necessary There are other roles, such as the anti-horde units and the tanks, but they're easier to figure out on your own. Feel free to add any more roles that you think need to be fulfilled.
Also been asked to mention some other more general niches and roles, which is fine. While those first three should exist within every army, in my opinion, other roles are necessary in order to bring some capable fighting to the army, rather than just picking a unit because its statline is decent. Anti-Hordes: Exactly as it sounds, really. Anti-Hordes require the ability to deal lots of damage very quickly to as many models as possible. These attacks don't actually have to be especially powerful, they just have to hit the enemy a lot. Some Anti-Hordes are clearly fitting for this role thanks to weapons that are only useful against larger groups of enemies, but really any model capable of dealing quick and heavy damage to the opposing front-lines will do, as well as medium-sized units with a lot of defensive power and a pretty good attack that's capable of holding the line against the horde while fighting them back. This latter tanky-type of anti-horde are required to have decent numbers and massive saves because hordes typically hit extremely hard and will hit a lot thanks to sheer numbers, but tend to lack any rending ability (the only rending horde I've come across was a Plague Monk w/ Bale Chime horde, and they couldn't be summoned back like zombies anyway so it was fine,) so a high armour can really cripple a horde's effectiveness. The danger with tank-type Anti-Hordes, though, is that enemy reinforcements can always help the horde break your lines. My tanky anti-horde works fine on zombies, but when a Morghast unit joins the fight, I fall apart quickly. However, unlike the more aggressive anti-hordes, especially the ones that are only good against large numbers, tanky units tend to have more utility as they can be used effectively in most if not all games, even should your enemy have no hordes. Of course, you could always combine a tanky anti-horde with a more aggressive and specialised ranged anti-horde for maximum zombie-killing. Anti-Hordes include Stegadon w/ Sunfire Thrower and Paladin Decimators with both attacking every enemy model in range, Bastiladon w/ Solar Engine thanks to its high range and high damage attack even though its number of attacks can be fickle sometimes (combine with a Saurus BSB for those rerolling hits and the Engine is much more effective,) Temple Guard w/ nearby hero and Arcane Shield and Priestly Rites for a rerollable 2+ save with immunity to Rend -1 (Temple Guard are literally the best defensive unit in the game, trust me, I checked. And they hit hard too, making them brilliant anti-horde choices, although they do need multiple heroes to dedicate to buffing the TG unit above all else, so it is a potential over-commitment if your opponent exploits this,) Liberators w/ Lord Castallant buff. Tanks: Tanks are big scary monsters that bait you into charging them and that never bloody die. The thing about tanks is that, thankfully, most armies don't have them, especially thanks to how the new rules make taking damage a much easier thing to do. But for those few armies that do have Tanks, they tend to make an extremely valuable asset. I'm going to break the mold for a moment here and actually specify how to deal with tanks due to their rarity. Don't get baited into attacking them, and kite them as far away from the bulk of the fighting as you can. Sacrifice expendable units to them, it doesn't matter. Just don't get baited, because if you do commit troops to trying to kill it, those troops will be stuck in an endless fight against something that takes far too much energy to kill, and your opponent will have plenty of free time to just surround your tanked unit and crush it with reinforcements, assuming the tank itself doesn't just outlast its attackers. But back to the tactics of using them, when they're on your side, do the exact opposite of that. Don't let your tank get kited, shove it ahead of the main line, and bait people into attacking it so you can trap them in combat, surround them with your attackers, and charge them from all sides for a handy massacre. The effectiveness of this unit is downright shocking if you can use it right, taking seemingly infinity hits with no problems and laughing in the faces of Monster-Hunters, because from my experience there is no counter to Tanks apart from strategically avoiding fighting them until you've killed everyone else. For added use, ensure that you throw whatever defensive support you can at these meatshields to help them in their roles, that only makes them more effective. Arcane Shield and Priestly Rites are a necessity for Lizard tanks. If your army is one of the rare armies that can have tanks, get a tank. They're just too valuable to not field. Tanks include the Ogre Stonehorn (this bloody git is what taught me what a pain a Tank can be, 12" movement for getting ahead easier to bait you, 12 wounds, 4+ save naturally, and that damn Stone Skeleton rule halving all damage including Mortal Wounds, it basically has 24 wounds with a 3+ save from a Wizard,) and the Bastiladon (which was my answer to the Ogre player's Stonehorn, this is easily one of the best models in the game. 8 Wounds, but with a 3+ natural save that is totally immune to any Rend and still gets a 4+ save against Mortal Wounds, buff that save to 2+ with a Wizard and use Priestly Rites for the save rerolls and this thing just will not die. For added effect, drop a Curse of Fates on it too so if you do roll two 1's in a row, you can add +1 to it and pass anyway. And with a powerful Solar Engine, this baby causes enough damage that your enemy can't afford to ignore it, making it great at baiting. Only problem is the slow movement, 5" is too small. That said, even if it does get killed, you can just resummon it, this thing is somehow the easiest monster to summon at a Casting Value of only 8 before modifiers. Movement aside, this is the best tank in the game. And it's ours!
I think the Razordons deserve a mention in several of these categories, due to the sheer volume of attacks these guys can dish out.
Not been here since September, but about a month ago I discovered a new role that's honestly vital to any Aggressive army. Figured it out in response to people challenging me to figure out how to beat my Temple Guard line in order to prove that Seraphon are not OP. Line-Breaker: The Line-Breaker's role is very simply to be the antithesis to high-armour defensive lines that normal aggressive units such as Saurus Warriors can't break through. As such, a Line-Breaker must either possess the ability to rail off a lot of Mortal Wounds in a single round of combat, or must possess a very high Rend. In either case, they must be able to penetrate high-armour lines without much trouble. What sets the Line-Breakers apart from other roles, however, is that it's entirely possible to field a Line-Breaker army, creating an entire fighting force specialising in smashing through high armour targets. These Line-Breaker armies will always be aggressive, however, as the Line-Breaker specialises in overpowering attack. Line-Breakers are a valuable asset to almost any army, and are vital for any aggressive army. Examples include: Saurus Knights w/ Lances and Battalion (2 Mortal Wounds on each 6+ To Wound,) Forest Goblins (see the Tactics for Other Armies thread for reference to how many Mortal Wounds they can pump out,) Stegadon (Rend -3 at full Wounds, -2 when wounded. Even when wounded it can still shatter armour, but at full Wounds it will shatter lines with ease,) Celestant-Prime (Rend -3 with theoretically infinite attacks and massive Damage,) and Salamanders (Rend -2 and very high damage.)
@Bainbow thanks so much for all the tactical insight. I've got one question for you: where do you place our beloved Kroxis? Instinctively I would put them somewhere in between tanks and anti-horde. Prob not line breakers since their Rend is not huge… yet if you use 6 of them for instance, with 4 attacks each (plus the hammer for 1 out of 3, hitting every single model in range and applying a -1 rend) that cause 2 damage for heavier units, I guess they may also qualify as line breakers, or even monster hunters (8" movement allows them to move about fairly quick, they can take a bit of damage…). Speaking of which, against units with only 1 wound per model, would a weapon with a damage value of 2 kill 2 models, or would you be wasting 1 damage point? So what are your thoughts? I'm trying to figure out if and how to use them in my army. (I hope i'm not asking too much here, if so please say so )
It would kill 2 models, you do 2 damage and all the damage points need to be allocated on the targeted unit.
One of the things I've found with Krox is that they dont have the survivability of other troops in the seraphon list meaning that i have to keep a close eye on them. A good way of doing this would be to keep a skink priest (with cloak) near them at all times, allowing them to re-roll saves, and the all important charge roll, also granting them re-rolls of 1 to wound. The only slight downside to doing this is that your skink priest does very little else and he's not the easiest thing to keep alive himself with only 4 wounds. In answer to your question- i would use a unit of 6 krox, (1 with a moon hammer maybe) and use them as an anti heavy infantry and monster unit thank to their jaw special rule.
I can back him up here, he has been very helpful so far as have all the guys posting in the tactics thread.
Due to their lack of Rend, you naturally want them fighting low armour enemies, especially with that damage they have being able to smash multiple troops with ease. The Moon Hammer is a great tool against groups of enemies too. So I'd put them in Anti-Horde, have your Moon Hammer get stuck in to range against as many enemies as he can, then have the others support him. You could double them as slight Tanks with Celestial Rites and a Mystic Shield to have them hold up the enemy horde, with a 3+ rerollable Save, 4 Wounds each, and a Bravery of 10, they wouldn't go anywhere fast. You could use this to hold the horde up while you outmaneuver them, while getting some horde-slaying action done thanks to those weapons the Krox use.
thanks guys so it def sounds like in a small or medium sized host (70-100 wounds), guards and kroxis have too similar a role to be used together, right? (I promise I wont go over my interrogations much further here as its more of a personal question about the balance of my army list than a general discussion of specialist roles, lol… looking forward to opening a new thread to ask for such enlightening advice in building my host, though, I should do that soon! )
I don't think you need a Krox unit in a Guard army, no. You can take them if you want to just because they're cool, of course. That's definitely something Age of Sigmar allows. But competitively no, a Guard army will fulfill that role anyway. Keep the Krox for a Skink, Knight, or Warrior army. Speaking of, what army are you leaning towards making? As in between Skink, Knight, Warrior, or Guard?
Lol I don't know if I should start talking about this a lot if I wanna avoid spamming this thread But it's an interesting topic so... Let's go I'll make it short if I can ^^ On reading your response I came to the same conclusion : krox would do great with warriors or Knights. But I read the Knights discussion on other threads and, being new to aos as to wh, I don't think I'm good enough a player to start with them without getting frustrated.. and my bank account keeps glaring at me so why not play it safer As for warriors, I d feel ok with them but they seem less exciting than skink, Knights and guard star host as far as playing style and synergies go, plus painting and converting. As for skink, I'm not quite sure I'm experienced enough to make the most of them either, as they're pretty fragile. Guards have nice synergies, cool painting and converting potential, and I also think that being less numerous than warriors they can allow for a greater 'experiment potential' within the same army wound count (progressively trying various and numerous other units. ).. while, as you said earlier, being very tough, which I'm used to as a former astartes player from 40k. So seems like a good compromise. Hope I didn't lose you here XD I might create a different thread, seriously..
I'd like to implement Bainbow's great work, with another very important role. Deep Striker: The concept is well known to 40k players. A deep striker, is a unit with the ability to arrive (almost) everywhere in the battlefield, without impediments by the enemy, and do its job: the roles of a DeepStriker can be assassin, or monster hunter / crippler, but also to harass deathstars from behind, redirect, bait, and so on... it depends on the strenght and the kind of attacks of the unit that has the ability. Deep Strikers are really valuable units, not only because they are a powerful tool to force the battle in the direction you want, but also because they have a nice psycological effect: your opponent will play more cautiously, because he doesn't know from where you will attack him. Or he doesn't care, and then you'll hit in the place you need the most. I play with at least one unit of DS everytime I can, not all the armies have them, but they're a powerful and valuable asset for the ones that can field them. Dwarfs have Bugman's rangers; Tomb Kings have Scorpions, Stalkers and Carrions; Stormcast Eternals have lighting strike + knights Azyrs / Vexillor. Seraphon Deep Strikers include: Chama skinks and terradons / ripperdactyls from Shadowstrike Starhost. Remember: the DS ability is the important thing, and it depends on the kind of unit, how you will put such ability at use. You will employ a unit of chama skinks in a totally different way than a unit of TK's scorpions, but they both will strike behind enemy's lines.