A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about how I came to love the game of Age of Sigmar. The game mesmerized me with it’s high rate of player interaction, interesting scoring system and even it’s double turn system. The army I chose to go with for Age of Sigmar has been the Kruleboyz from the Orruk Warclans book. They are an interesting type of Orruk who value cunning, stealth and trickery over the more traditional Orruk values. One thing in particular drew me to these new swamp dwellers, and that was their ability to use their tricky ways to manipulate the game in ways other armies just can’t in Age of Sigmar. Some of these abilities are more useful than the others, but they all have their uses.
Dirty Tricks:
This ability is chosen after players receive their Command Points during the first turn. The important thing to note here is that when you pick one of these abilities (you get one per battle) you will know if you or your opponent has selected the first turn.
Noisy Racket: This Dirty Trick is simple, but can be extremely effective. Giving you opponent -1 to their wound rolls against your army during the first Battle Round gives the Kruleboyz a huge defensive buff against the heavy shooting armies in the meta like Stormcast, Lumineth, or even fast close combat armies looking to get engaged with your army quickly. There isn’t a lot of trickiness about this one. If your opponent is going to do a lot of hurt to your army in the first Battle Round, and you don’t have any other way to mitigate that damage, pick this.
Lethal Surprise: Oh man, I thought this was so good when I first read it. Doing D6 mortal wounds to an enemy unit the first time they come near a terrain feature or an Objective sounds nice, but then you tell you opponent it is only when a unit finishes a Move within 1 inch of the center of an Objective or of a terrain feature. Unless they absolutely have to you move onto terrain, or onto the exact middle of an Objective, this is usually easy for an opponent to avoid. The last time I took this against Gargants my opponent just kept his models clear of an inch of terrain and Objectives.
Disappearin Act: This one won’t get used all of the time, but it will be pretty obvious when you should pick it. Does your opponent have some screening units you would rather not deal with right away, or some fast moving units that might get a little too close to you before you can fill their army with poison bolts? Pick them out and tell you opponent you will see those units next Battle Round and send them right into Reserves. Note that this cannot be used on Reinforced units, and there are some units you just can’t roll above their Wounds characteristic. This one can be especially effective if you have a redeploying Rouge Idol in your army (using the Command Train Supa Sneaky) by using this Dirty Trick to remove a screen. Now that Rouge Idol can go stomp the important units in your opponent’s army instead of some chaff.
Covered in Mud: Covering my Boltboyz in mud has been my go to Dirty Trick while playing this army. Making a unit or two of Boltboyz un-targetable FOR THE ENTIRE GAME as long as they are in terrain is powerful. Kruleboyz ranged units put out a lot of hurt, but are definitely not the most durable units in the game. Any rule that protects your Boltboyz and lets them stay on the board longer to keep shooting is amazing for this army. I would argue that this should be your default choice, and to pick something else when your opponent has zero ways to interact with your units of Boltboyz from across the table.
Command Trait: As it is another way the Kruleboyz can be sneaky I think the Command Trait Supa Sneaky should also be taken into account when picking your army’s Dirty Trick. This is my go to Command Trait for my Kruleboy general. Redeploying a unit anywhere on the table, outside of 9 inches of enemy units, is an amazing ability. There are some timing issues that a Kruleboyz player needs to keep in mind though.
Your unit is redeployed before the first Battle Round, but BEFORE rolling to see who goes first. It is important to note this when selecting what unit you chose and where you chose to redeploy them. If you know you hold the decision to who goes first for the game you can be extremely aggressive with your choice by throwing a Rouge Idol into the middle of your opponent’s army Turn 1, or by getting a unit of Boltboyz within range of a powerful buffing Character who isn’t too resilient. If you don’t have the choice of going first or second you will have to be a little more careful in your placement of your redeploying unit. Sometimes the best offense is a good defense, and the redeploy should be used to put a big unit of Boltboyz way outside of harms way before the game begins.
Kruleboyz has been an amazing army to get into Age of Sigmar with, and I cannot recommend them highly enough for other players looking to get into this game. While they are more fragile than most other armies in the game, the pre-game tricky abilities this army brings to the table (along with their insane shooting abilities) makes every game a blast even if you are just getting stomped on by Gargants.