The armies of the Under-Empire gather for war. Here is part 2 of the "End Times: Thanquol" review

It's time to dive back into the "End Times". AoS is in full swing and for once I'm glad to be back, reviewing the fourth installment of the Old World-shattering event.

In this article I'll be covering the special army formations that "Thanquol" gave us, called "Battlescrols". There are quite a few and each of them brings something new to the tabletop. But are they any good? Well, you'll have to read this fine and completely unbiased wall of letters to find out.

1. Thanquol's Uprising (Skaven)

The Skaven came under new management

The first organized Skaven force in history, this army represents Thanquol's bid for power in the Under-Empire. Of all the various forces available in this book, this one is pretty sweet. Lead by Thanquol himself and supported by Screech Verminking, the strongest of all the Verminlords, it allows the controlling player to ignore the 25% requirement of Core units. Not only that, but any unit within 6'' of Thanquol (but not Skreech) will be Unbreakable thanks to "Failure Is Not An Option!". This is awesome, as Skaven are notoriously easy to brak. Now with buffed up Thanquol (more on him next week) breaking the Rats has just became much more hard to achieve.

Also there's more! "Lektrik Coven" allows you to take 3 to 13 (nuts!) Warlock Enginees, one of which has to be a Level 1 Wizard, equipped with a Warp-Energy Condenser. However only one model can be upgraded in such a way. Warlock Engineers are very good units on their own, and taking a whole unit of them is a great thing for any Rats player.

The rest of the army is medicore but functional. A single unit of Clanrats, Giant Rats and 3 Rat Swarms should be used as tarpits, while Stormfiends can work great as either line breakers or bodyguards to Thanquol (not that he needs special protection, being a badass mofo that he is now). Gutter Runners are always useful, tough I think that this army should really work as a hammer, leaving all pretense of finese and stealth. You simply charge towards your opponent firing all guns and using spells, which you'll have a plethora of with Thanquol, Skreech and the single Warlock. Overall this is a good army and worth taking a look at. My only comlaint is that there are no Stormvermin, which is ratrher weird, given how many importnat HQs are in this one.

2. First Clawpack of Clan Mors (Skaven)

Prepare to have your ass kicked hard!

Led by the always awesome Queek, the headtaking Skaven Warlord, this is force is as blunt as possible. There are no casters here, just good, old fashioned, fuck-your-shit-up hardcore units. The tactic here is pretty simple - a single unit of Warplock Jezzails lays down covering fire, while everything else, inlcuding Queek, a single unit of Stormvermin, Poison Wind Globadiers and 2 units of Clanrats charges forward. Thanks to the "Unleash Terrible Violence" special rule, every unit that is within 12'' of Queek can re-roll charge range. That's good but then there is the "Withering Hail of Fire", granting both the Jezzails and Gas-Rats TWO shooting attacks once per battle, if they are within 12'' of their boss. Holy shit! Not only that but they can also be directed at different units each. I guess Skaven took some lessons from Imperial Guard.

I personally love this army and would definetly field it, if I was playing Skaven and not the glorious Realms of Men. The only bad thing here is a complete lack of any casters. Prey that you close your distance with those pesky Mages fast, or else you're done. Espeically in End Times, where magic is the new black.

3. The Dwarf Throng of Karaz-a-Karak (Dwarfs)

Nobody puts Dwarf in a corner!

We interrupt the Skaven advertisement program to present you with our new and awesome Dwarf host of the Everpeak. Not only is it lead by the High King Thorgrim Grudgebearer, it also has the new Incarnate of Fire, Ungrim Ironfist and Josef Bugman! Consisiting of a single unit of Dwarf Rangers which have to be upgraded to Bugman's Rangers, 1 unit of Hammerers and Irondrakes and 3 units of Slayers, this is a nice counterpart to Queek's First Clawpack. As usual there is no mandatory core requirement. As for their special rules, they are kinda... iffy. "Last Chance For Glory" lets the Slayers and Ungrim to re-roll a failed To Hit roll, when making a Deathblow attack. This is a Slayer-exclusive rule and it is situational as hell, since our favorite Red-beards have to close with the enemy in the first place to be able to do this, and since they are the epitome of Glass Cannons it's not likely. The second rule, "The Great Armouries of Karaz-a-Karak" is also a mixed bag. On the first glance it's nice, allowing a re-roll of 1's on To Wound and armour saves. However it only works on the Core units! This means that the only units that benefit from this are Hammeres. Also wouldn't it be better, if it'd allow a re-roll for every failed To Hit roll? Keep the armour save rule, but don't make it exclusive for a single unit in the damn force. It's useless like that.

This force's special rules are definetly kited towards Slayers which is somewhat weird, seeing as the chance of them reaching an opponent in any numbers to make a decent killing, is rather small. 3 units is a lot, and Slayers are not known for their survivability. Not to mention the lack of magic protection in this army. A single unit of Rangers, even Bugman's, won't make a whole lot of difference. In my opinion there should be more standard troops here, maybe some Ironbreakers or even Warriors. As it stands this army is a bit schizophrenic. Its player will have to make the best out of the available terrain to close with the enemy, as the Stunties are not known for their speed and open terrain is a death sentence for them. Enemy magic can also be problematic. Sorry Dwarfs, but Skaven are really outclassing you here.

4. The Red Host (Lizardmen)

Unfortunately this picture is for propaganda purposes only

Another gimmicky army, the Red Host of Tehenhauin, the Prophet of Sotek, takes its mission of cleansing Lustria very seriously. Shame that it's only comprised of Skins, which kinda sucks. Tehenahuin leads a single Skink Chief, 1 Skins Cohort, 1 Salamander Hunting Pack,a unit of Chameleon, 2 Ripperdactyl Riders and 2 Bastiladons. Once again there are no Core restrictions. Aside from that the controlling player cannot take Kroxigors for the Skink Cohort and the Chief must join them, thus giving them all a +1 to WS, thanks to the "Red Shields" special rule. It wouldn't be a bad thing, however we are talking about Skinks here, hardly the masters of close combat. A single Chief won't really make a difference here.

Another rule, "The Living Bastions", prevents the Bastiladons from exchanging their Arks of Sotek for Solar Engines, but makes them stonger. Instead of inflicting 2D6 Strength 2 Hits, they now inflict 3D6 Strength 2 Hits. This is actually pretty sweet, especially against a low Toughness armies like Empire and Skaven. While we're at it, its worth noting that the whole Red Host hates Skaven. While this does make them more useful against the Rats, it still dosen't mitigate their abyssmal CQC capabilities. When faced with the First Clawpack of Clan Mors or even the Thanquol's Uprising, Tehenahuin and his chaps will go down faster than a Ripperdactyl with its wings torn. At least Tehenhauin is a Level 3 Wizard so the Lizards are somewhat protected against magic, but compared to Thanquol or Skreech Verminking he won't last long.

5. The Defenders of Middenheim (The Empire)

Defiant to the very end...

One of the last armies of Men, the Defenders of Middenheim are led by Valten in his final form, Gregor Matrak, Empowered by Ulric (on foot), and a Grand Master of the White Wolves. Thus far it is the only special formation available to the Empire and it's not bad. At this you can all guess that Core is not mandatory and you can skip the usually required 25%. This force is comprised of a single unit of Knights, which have to be upgraded to Inner Circle and armed with Great Weapons (not good IMO, as it really limits their survivability), 1 unit of Halberdiers with 2 Crossbowmen Detachments, 1 unit of Free Company and 1 unit of Swordsmen. On the first glance this force is nothing special, since it dosen't even have warmachines and only one caster. However its special rules are worth the look.

First we have Gregor Matrak's unique spell called "Icy Blast of Ulric" which is cast on a 5+ and deals D6 S5 hits at a range of 12''. The unit hit by this spell also suffers a -1 to Hit for both shooting and CC and recieves a -1 penalty to its Leadership, until the caster's next Magic Phase. Units that do not have to test BS for shooting, only fire successfully on a 4+. This is a perfect spell to synergize with that morale-breaking charge, especially against low WS and LD armies. Then we have the real tarpit make, the "Stubborn Faith", granting all units that are within 6'' of Valten (including the man himself) the Unbreakable special rule. Also as long as the valiant Blacksmith is alive, every single, friendly Empire unit the Stubborn special rule. This one's really great as it makes the normally LD-low Empire units much better at withstanding protracted combat against (usually) stronger opponents, Bear in mind that this force of Men is much better suited as allies for a standard (read: war machine heavy) Empire army, than a standalone one. After all the squishy humans really suffer when there are no Canons or Steam Tanks around.

All in all I think that these armies are a really nice addition to the game. None of them can be considered OP or broken and the ability to take them as allies is also great. Shame that Dwarves and Lizardmen are marginally weaker than the Skaven, but that's just how it is. After all the special character on the cover is Thanquol and not some Dwarf, Lizard or Human.

Next week I'll conclude my review of the fourth installment in the "End Times" series, with the new and old (but improved!) special characters.

Until next time

Xathrodox86