Born from the souls of the tormented and the flesh forges of the Fourth Circle, battle-proven in countless blood-soaked campaigns across the Abyss, they now march on the mortal realm to cause immeasurable havoc and woe.
Welcome intrepid adventurers to the Dash28 Riftforged Orcs preview. Expect a full tier list and army review in the next couple weeks as we get to grips with this exciting new faction, but for now a teaser of some of the things these beefy boys are all about.
Through Master Crafted’s excellent video, we’ve heard about the core soldiers at the disposal of someone looking to play Riftforged Orcs in Kings of War. So today, for a change, we’re going to look at the how they’re led, how they’re organized and what types of playstyles this information starts to give us about the army as a whole.
Stormbringer
Serving as the leaders of Riftforged Orc armies, Stormbringers start amongst the ranks of the Legionaries but rise to positions of authority through age, experience, success in battle, and general ability to whip the ass of opponents across the worlds.
On the Kings of War table, they serve as an incredibly useful mid-cost character option (especially when mounted). With Melee 3 and 5 attacks at Crushing Strength (2) they’re in good shape to stick a couple wounds on just about anything and make good backline defenders or utility pieces. Inspiring helps keep the troops in line and being Mighty allows for some ability to chaff when needed.
The true fun of the Stormbringer comes when you start looking at how stacking various spells, abilities etc…. Turns him from a useful mid-cost character into a supercharged agent of chaos ready to curb stomp unsuspecting opposing generals. Sure, 5 attacks is nothing to sneeze at, but with Host Shadow Beast comboing with the Stormstrike ability, a Bane Chant and 8+ hits at CS (3) is not far out of normal for this mini buzzsaw. Decent defensive stats means it will take actual effort to remove from the board, and as an individual, can be difficult to catch as it darts from target to target.
Overall, a great little character that received an absolutely boss miniature from Mantic.
Formation: “The Iron Boots”
At first this is a very straightforward formation with two regiments of your pretty standard Riftforged Legionaries and one of your more punchy Reborn Legionaries, a little nerve boost and some cheeky wild charge at a relatively small price point. But what this formation is disguising, is it fundamentally shapes the direction of your Riftforged Orc army building and represents a foundational choice in what type of list you want to field.
From what we’ve seen so far, we know an obvious and powerful unit to build an army around will be the Riftforged Legionaries at Horde size. With Melee 3, Defense 5, 25 attacks and built in Crushing Strength it is an amazing profile for infantry at Horde size and 2-3 of these units properly supported could dominate a battlefield without some of the traditional trade offs other units in that category have had to make. The main drawback of the unit is its enormous size, which makes it much harder to maneuver and protect. You can easily imagine a Riftforged Orc army bringing these enormous face stomping units, along with support options, characters, chaff and chaos agents (units whose main purpose is to disrupt and distract an opponents battleline) meant to ensure these aircraft carrier sized Hordes can effectively go about their business without being triple charged at first opportunity. Honestly, for that army, I’m not sure the formation is necessary. But fear not, as I also think this formation hints at another way.
While the Riftforged Legionaries profile is great at Horde size, I also sort of love it at Regiment size as well. They have just what you need for a solid infantry block to build a strong battle line on a budget. Good defense, built in Crushing for counterpunch and flank charges, Melee 3 for a reasonably reliable number of hits with only non-elite Nerve to contend with as a drawback on the unit. The formation ups their Nerve to a respectable 15/17 and you’ve got a great little unit there. They’re almost up to the profile of the greatest non-Soul Reaver infantry regiment of all time, Scottish Foot Knights, from the now-defunct Historical version of Kings of War.
The Reborn Legionaries in the formation benefit from the Nerve boost as well, and gain a Wild Charge Aura, which sadly does not affect the other two units in the formation, but gives themselves some extra threat range which can help break stalemates. It also works on Fight Wagons, which are now regular in the Riftforged list, giving them a potential 17” charge and also allowing them to equal or outrange their Chariot cousins 2/3rds of the time, worth a look.
Flooding the field with these medium-sized units (along with others with a similar footprint like the Thunderseers) could create a series of difficult to deal with board states for your opponent. The formation can also be used as a bare minimum core to your battleline, while you spend points on all sorts of fun and flashy other toys just hinted at for the Riftforged. Either way, it represents the basic building block in an alternative army style to the sort of “Carrier Battlegroup” style the Horde build above suggests. And this fundamentally does what I want Formations to do. They aren’t always auto-take, or overpowered, but they allow certain playstyles or list styles to be unlocked and be a little more efficient when you go that direction. You want the giant hordes of Orcs? You might want to leave the Iron Boots at home. Want a more MMU style list, they make a great option. In the end, formations like this allow alternatives, and with limited information, the Riftforged Orcs already look like they have some fertile ground for army design of all different types.
Hope you enjoyed our brief preview of just a couple of the new things coming in Clash of Kings 2022 for Riftforged Orcs, and look forward to more coverage from the Dash28 campus, including complete Tier Army Reviews for the new lists and plenty of other goodies.
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