“Private Pyle I’m gonna give you three seconds; exactly three-fucking-seconds to wipe that stupid looking grin off your face or I will gouge out your eyeballs and skull-fuck you! ONE! TWO! THREE!“

~Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, Full Metal Jacket

The December Patch introduced some impactful and interesting new rules for Honor Guards: Field Sergeant and Prized Beasts.

Rules credit GW, as always

Of the two Field Seargeant seem more likely to shake up the meta¹. A reason to take largely-forgotten support heroes and a bump for long-suffering foot slogging armies? Brilliant design, and the best part of what may well prove to be the best patch in AOS history.

So what better way to celebrate than another fine example of the hack writer’s best friend², the listicle? To make a simple task even easier I even asked the Craichouse Patreons for their suggestions. Unfortunately the majority of the Craicheads are flaming Destro-Sexuals who spend their time thinking about how much they enjoyed watching The Phantom Menace.³ Their tactical nous doesn’t extend beyond putting Kragnos into any list for a 3D6 charge. Still I was able to scrape together a few suggestions. As always I will be establishing a few criteria for what you should be looking for in a Field Sergeant (Sarge). This should pad out the article to the preferred length for people who read Plastic Craic articles while hiding in the toilet at work.⁴

Criteria

1: Value

The Sarge gives a big movement bump to infantry but it’s only valuable if you are pushing multiple squads of infantry across the table. Any Sarge is incredibly good for Fyreslayers, while Stormcast have a ridiculous number of Sarge options but nothing much in the way of net-listy infantry heavy builds. +2″ infantry movement just doesn’t do much for deep striking Praetor/Karazai/Longstrike outfits. I’m sure there is a decent infantry-heavy Stormcast build, but I’m not going to write it for ’em.

2: Accessibility

Sarges are unlocked by taking regular heroes, and their quality depends on what you have to take to get them. You really want an unlocking hero you would take anyway. or one with the lowest points tax and impact on list building. FEC are the gold standard here with a good range of Sarges unlocked by the Abhorrent heroes you can’t run an army without. Khorne is a sort of middle ground where 130pts gets you a pretty useful Mighty Lord with a range of hero options. Ogors are, as always, sucking hind with a deadshit Tyrant⁵ unlocking an even more useless Bloodpelt Hunter. 290pts for a movement buff is a tough sell.

3: Utility

What does your Sarge bring to the table besides the movement buff? As a class, Sarges are typically neither Wizards nor Priests⁶, but have an interesting array of abilities besides the traditional “Make a unit fight after you do” shenanigans. While the best Sarges are ones you would take anyway, you are really looking for added value here.

4: Durability

As a class support heroes won’t go around tanking reinforced hammer units, but if you are counting on the movement buff you want something that wont die to a stiff breeze. I had a bit to say about resilience in my Nurgle Review and there is a bit more to it than wards, wounds and armor. Still if Sarges become popular, people are sure to put more effort into knocking them off and you want the toughest one you can get.

5: The X Factor

Be it an interesting strat, a goofy rule or just a super cool model, a good Sarge should bring a little extra to the table. To be clear this isn’t the final judgement on a Sarge. The Fyreslayer Doomseeker is cooler than a Polar Bear sipping a milkshake in a snowstorm⁷ but a unit whose purpose is to die in combat makes for a terrible buff piece. It’s more a question of hey, this dude also comes with a pet Octopus, carrying a knife.

I almost don’t hate Elves when I look at this guy

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Now let’s go through them in reverse order.

5. Saurus Astrolith Bearer – 130pts

Bleh, as a long-term hater of the Seraphon⁸ I despise this Chode and all of the tedious Netlists he has appeared in over the years. Still there is no denying that he ticks all the boxes:

• There are plenty of Lizard builds that benefit from a buff to infantry movement.
• You unlock him with the Slann you were going to take anyway (whose ward he also buffs.)
• He throws up a 12″ ward and control buff for all of the troops you were going to keep him in range of for the movement buff anyway.
• Plus he is about as tough as Sarges get without access to better wards or shenanigans.

He faces stiff competition from the Skink Starpriest at 100pts but I think the Astrolith bearer gets over the line through sheer dull usefulness. Like a lot of lizard units he is notable for his complete lack of any X factor, but this will trouble Seraphon players about as much as the look of exhausted contempt on their opponents’ faces as they are rolling out another bunch of Kroak mortals.

He’s casting again?

4: The Grimhold Exile – 130pts

Value puts this guy in the Top 5. More than any other army Fyreslayers need the Sarge buff, and this awful model is the pick of the litter IMHO. You can unlock him with almost any other useful Fyreslayer Hero. Utility-wise he has a very useful once-a-game charge buff for an army that absolutely needs to make its important charges:

Like most Fyreslayer heroes the Grimhold is not particularly durable, but remember you absolutely need a Sarge and he is the only option with 6 wounds. He does have some pretty stiff competition for his slot with the Battlesmith in particular coming in at 100pts. Still, the Battlesmith gives out a who-the-hell-cares-if-you-aren’t-running-Droths Rally buff. The Grimhold has a huge advantage with a massive X factor.

It may not happen often, but being able to do a big monster for half its health is pretty awesome. With Gargants lumbering back into the game there is a pretty good chance you can go to a 5 rounder and stick King Brodd with 20 mortals. The stuff that dreams are made of.

3. Kritza the Rat Prince – 70pts

Good old Kritza, the stuff James Herbert’s nightmares were made of. Early Michael Jackson chart toppers aside, Kritza is a very solid pick for a Sarge. He is one of the cheapest units in the game at 70pts. The only heroes that can unlock him are Radukar the Beast (300), Belladama (220) and Radukar the Wolf (150). The Beast is over-priced trash but the others are solid units. 290 or 220 is a good price to pay for a useful hero and a speed buff for the walking dead.

Kritza doesn’t buff anything but shines at resilience. He is a Vampire with the improvable ward and healing that entails. More importantly …

He has a very good chance of walking his crusty ass out of any combat he doesn’t want to be a part of and going somewhere useful with the extra 2″ movement from his own Sarge buff. As for X factor, he has one of the cooler abilities in the game:

It may not happen often but you will remember the time you charged into combat with an Eidolon, lifted its Armor of Cythai and retreated out of harm’s way while it stood around muttering “But I fight first this turn.” In truth all of the Vyrkos retainers make solid Sarges for different reasons, Kritza is just the cheapest.

2: The Aspiring Deathbringer – 90pts

I thought long and hard about this one. There are a lot of Sarges in the “Combat support hero that makes a unit fight after you” bracket. Editor Pete was a strong advocate for the Savage Orruk Big Boss, but my journalistic integrity wouldn’t allow me to include units from joke armies. Plus he just needs to let them go already. The Ardboy Boss was a good choice but I’ve heard nothing but whining about the new Warclans book, so fuck ’em. It came down to a choice between the Chaos Lord, the Darkoath Chieftain and the Aspiring Deathbringer. The Deathbringer won out on value, utility and because he worships a legitimate God instead of roaming the land like some bearded hipster in jean shorts looking to open a micro-brewery.⁹

If I’m being honest the Bloodstoker is probably the pick for Khorne Sarge, but the Aspiring Deathbringer is a fabulous example of the sort of “May as well” effect that rules changes can have to list building. The extra movement from Sarges is damn handy for a foot slogging Khorne army, and he cheapest way to get it is a 130pt Mighty Lord of Khorne, so you may as well give it a go.

Without his famed Reality-Splitting Axe, the Mighty Lord’s main ability is making a Gorechosen hero fight first. May as well take one as a Sarge so you can use it.

Turns out the Gorechosen Sarge that benefits the most from striking first is the Aspiring Deathbringer. He can make a unit of Blood Warriors fight after he does. May as well take some.

Blood Warriors are ok, not the hardest hitters but if you are going to have them striking first you may as well have a reinforced unit. They do hit pretty hard with their buffs up.

Thanks to statshammer as always

The final combination of 20 Blood Warriors, Aspiring Deathbringer and Mighty Lord costs 640pts which is a big change to any list. They hit pretty hard and bring a degree of resilience that can be lacking in Khorne lists. I don’t think I’d try them without the Sarge buff. 640pts is 15 Skullreapers after all, but it’s a great example of how looking to take advantage of the Sarge rule can open up list building. I’m sure we will be seeing more footslogging armies for the rest of the GHB. I can’t say they will be more competitive than the current dominant builds, but at least it will be interesting.

Plus the Aspiring Deathbringer, like all Bloodbound heroes, is a great looking model. Hopefully there will be a lot of cool stuff like him coming off the shelves soon.

1: The Marrowscroll Herald – 120pts

No surprises here. The FEC were big winners of the December patch between points drops and rules changes, and they also draw a massive dividend from the Sarge rules. Any of their Courtiers, or Grand Justice Gormayne, can be Sarges but the Herald is the pick of the litter. He’s not the toughest or the prettiest but he has a few unique abilities. First up…

The Herald is the John Cena of FEC heroes and I don’t mean he is a surprisingly good straight comedic actor who has done an amazing number of Make A Wish things. You can’t see him. Assuming you can keep him next to 3 FEC models there are very few things that can touch him in those crucial early turns when you get the most out of the Sarge movement. Once the armies lock up you can use his second freaky ability:

Any charge phase. You charge, your opponent charges him. Your opponent carefully avoids him and you countercharge. You have a 3+ chance to make your boys strike first.¹⁰ In a game dominated by reinforced hammer units, this one will win you battles. Sure it only goes off on a 3+ but if you don’t want to roll dice, go play Tzeentch. Even if it doesn’t work your opponent will develop stress constipation worrying that it might. This is an amazing ability; I’m always shocked when I see a FEC list without one of these guys. And all for a lousy 120 pts.

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So there it is. Agree? Disagree? Let Editor Pete know in the comments on Reddit. He can’t get enough of reading those things. At the very least we can all hope the Sarge rules inject a bit of life and variety into a meta that became fairly stale surprisingly quickly.

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1. Although our colleague at Plastic Craic Joel McGrath did just win Cancon with a list boosted by Prized Beast. Did we mention that yet? ↩︎
2. Besides thinly-veiled plagiarism ↩︎
3. Boys, you also enjoyed shitting in a nappy and drinking breast milk when you were young. Either move on or acknowledge that you have a fetish. ↩︎
4. 80% according to recent polls. The remaining 20% being unemployed. ↩︎
5. Why yes. I am still sore about what they did to my beloved Tyrant, thanks for asking. ↩︎
6. Except for the Order ones as per usual. ↩︎
7. Thanks Outkast. ↩︎
8. The only short-term haters are people new to the game. ↩︎
9. Also the best fun with S2D heroes is turning them into Daemon Princes, which defeats the purpose of a Sarge. ↩︎
10. The other ability would be pretty cool against Nagash but I’m assuming you will use the Strike First most of the time. ↩︎