Interview by Peter Atkinson

Hayden McMurray took King Brodd’s Stomp to a powerful 4-1 at a recent GT in Northern Ireland, playing off for the event on Table 1, Round 5 and coming within a whisper of winning the whole damn thing. Today we’ll catch up with Hayden in our “Six Questions For…” format, finding out what makes his list tick, how Hayden plays it on the table and some photos of his unique blue Megas.

It’s a really cool list and Hayden plays it in a very specific manner, so let’s get around it!

The Belfast Giants 1980/2000 pts
Sons of Behemat | King Brodd’s Stomp
Drops: 2
Prayer Lore – King Brodd’s Stomp Prayer Lore
General’s Regiment
King Brodd (520)
 • General
Warstomper Mega-Gargant (460)
 • I Can Do That Better
 • Lucky Shiny Hat
Regiment 1
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (500)
Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant (500)

Q1: I’ve heard you managed some eye-popping numbers of mortal damage over the weekend. How many did you crack out, and where did they come from? 

It was only a few mortal wounds, a sprinkling I would say! But yes I dealt 357 mortal wounds over the five games. For context I ran Brodd, Warstomper and double Gatebreaker. The mortal wounds come from a few sources:

• From warscrolls you can get Smash Down, Pulverising Strike and Hurled Body. 
• I’d say the majority came from Brodd’s Stomp’s battle traits, Watch This followed by Smash it All to Bits.

The awesome Smash it All to Bits is great for sniping out heroes while inflicting mortals on enemy units on scenery, but the amazing Watch This is the true source of mortal damage. This allowed me to tally mortals quick time, especially against the Nighthaunt player running blocks of 20 Bladeghiests!

Q2: So there’s a few rules in there keying off terrain. How do you optimize that on the table?

The list really keys off deliberately playing around terrain to maximize the amount of mortals I can cause against enemies.

I try to position my Gargants so that when enemies engage they will be on or beside scenery:

• If I use the Smash it All to Bits Rampage, any unit on the scenery suffers D3 mortals
• I could then use a Gatebreaker’s Smash Down to inflict another D3 mortals on non-monsters within combat range of the scenery

It means the likes of a Gatebreaker could really pump out the mortals with the combo of Smash it All to Bits, then the shooting element of Smash it All to Bits and then Smash Down.

Planning around terrain from the start might seem like a really basic thing, but it can change the way you approach this army in quite a significant way. Terrain has such an impact for KBS and you should be planning the flow of the whole battle around it.

Even just the -1 to hit from woods can make a Mega way more survivable, and one time when I managed to get a Mega into Obscuring terrain and Longstrikes couldn’t get him, it was glorious!  It’s the simple things that matter.  If it means a few extra mortals every turn, that’s going to add up quickly.

Q3: Love it. Now here’s a nice underarm delivery for you.  How have you succeeded with Giants where others fail?

Big open question so best put my big head on for it!

I would put it down to experience and my playstyle.

I’ve been playing Sons of Behemat since they came out, in fact I’ve taken them in 99% of my games of Age of Sigmar since. I’ve ran every Tribe and every version of a list. I’m confident in knowing more about my Sons of Behemat than my fiancée.

My playstyle is where I’m sure I differ from a lot of Gargant players. Every game I go in with my goal and two methods to ensure the goal is completed.

The goal is simple, score points. I know it sounds stupid but a lot of people seem to forget or plan poorly for it.

To complete my goal I have two methods:

1. Reaction-based play style 

2. Keeping the big boys alive

Sticking to these methods help me maintain healthy scoring no matter the battleplan, opponent or army. 

So what do I mean by reaction-based play style? Pretty much tackle each game differently, there are a ton of factors to winning a game and yet a lot of people will have a gameplan they try to apply to every game, and it just doesn’t work like that.

Looking at the battleplan and working out what objectives to hold (hint: it doesn’t have to be all of them), learning about your opponents’ armies and abilities, deploying to negate their threats in Round 1, deploying with a battle tactic in mind.  This is super important: Take the Flanks and Take Their Land are normally easiest for Gargants.

Keep this reactionary play style going throughout the game, each time reacting to maximize your own scoring, or to negatively impact your opponent’s game plan.

It does sound simple and truly is. Don’t just try to smash or stand on circles, react to what your opponent is doing and you will have a much better play experience.

As for the second point, keeping the big boys alive: It’s common knowledge the best way to beat Gargants is to kill them fast, so we have to negate that and die slower. Keeping the Megas alive will increase the odds of scoring Primary and battle tactics later in the battle, so it fits with our goal of scoring points.

So how do you keep them alive? Redeploy is your best friend here.  If you’re staying out of charge range or increasing their charge distance, you’re not losing wounds.  Obscuring terrain features work in our favour too, so use them as well, and always be healing.  Rally and Brodd’s prayer both go a long way.

The best way to keep the big lads alive longer overall is to minimize combat. You don’t always have to charge!! Why give your opponents free attacks for a chance to kill a few models? Unless you know you can take a major bite out of a hammer unit, can wipe what you charge or need to charge to score big this turn, then I generally wouldn’t charge. Also use Retreat a lot: D3 mortals isn’t bad compared to fighting Varanguard or dragons in your own turn!

Retreat and score points.

Q4: A motto to live by.  So do you consider Brodd’s Stomp to be the most competitive way to run Sons right now? 

I would say it is the most competitive. Compared to the main faction pack, Brodd’s Stomp offers you a better toolbox of abilities that interact with more phases of the game and provide a better source of mortal wounds via their battle traits. This tool box just allows you to react to your opponents in a much better way than the basic battle traits.

Regardless of what Tribe, I do think King Brodd himself is essential in every list.  He’s a great force multiplier with his Prayer giving you more tools in your kit, he can be pretty punchy in times of need and the extra wounds are always nice.

The only time I would run without him is if I ran 4 Gatebreakers.

Q5: Ah yes!  I reckon at some point, every Gargant players worldwide has dreamed of running 4x Gatebreakers, and living by the rule that you MUST Smash Down every single time. 

So what other list styles do you like for Sons? For example, do you rate the Rabble Rowza ROR?

I’ll be harsh here, I don’t rate any Regiments of Renown in a competitive Sons of Behemat list. To take a regiment you can’t take Brodd’s Stomp so you are already on the back foot. 

For me there is only King Brodd! Gargants purist here ¹.

As for MSU Mancrusher builds: I have a love-hate relationship with the Mancrushers.  With fresh points discounts and an improved charge-mortals Rampage, they can be useful scoring units, but they still die far too easily for my liking!

Q6: I guess modern Mancrushers are essentially Vertical Light Cav, but they are at least priced accordingly nowadays.

So what’s got you most excited about recent Battlescroll updates from a Sons of Behemat viewpoint? They got a little bit of love in their own right, plus Prized Beast helps a lot too, right?

Nice and easy one here, Gargants got buffed with extra Feet attacks and the Beast-smasher got an extra attack with his club.  Happy days!  I’ll definitely be running a Beast-smasher now.

Beast-smasher vs Gatebreaker is actually a tough one post update.  I do love both and it’s been a hard decision to pick between the two.

I think the Gatebreaker has still got a better role due to its Pulverizing Strike working against every unit, whereas the Beast-smasher’s can only target enemy monsters. With the latest update though I will be replacing the Warstomper with a Beast-smasher!

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Thanks for the interview mate. Anything else you’d like to say to wrap it up?

I’ve got a rivalry with the all-Ireland Grand Master Solomon.  He managed to dodge me last time but I’m the one destined to dethrone him – me and King Brodd’s Ultraviolent Mob will be coming for him.

And lastly my hobby page is on insta: @cat_hair_studios

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1. I hope your woman loves you like Hayden loves King Brodd ↩︎