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AoS: Stoneklaw’s Gutstompas Stomp Guts, Use Stratagems

4 Minute Read
Sep 22 2017
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Stoneklaw’s Gutstompas are a bastion of Destruction. One of their abilities is literally insane, check it out.

via Warhammer Community

Destruction might be one of the scrappiest Age of Sigmar forces out there. Obviously everyone loves Order, because they’re the good guys and also have an army of flying dwarves in power-armor, and if that’s not enough they also get crazy lightning-undead, and magic dinosaurs. And there’s all of you heretics out there who can’t get enough of those ruinous powers.

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But Destruction keeps soldiering on. It’s basically just Orks–I mean, sure there’s also Grots and Ogors but really, they’re just different kinds of greenskins anyway–and by gum they keep fighting for the sheer joy of it no matter what incarnation they’re at. And Stoneklaw’s Gutstompas are poised to take Firestorm by storm…hm, gonna need a better turn of phrase for this one.

Poised to take Firestorm by destructive tide. Well, we’ll keep workshopping it. The point is, Stoneklaw’s Gutstompas get to have a ton of fun in Firestorm. For starters, there’s their fluff. They’re led by an up and coming Gulgaz Gutstompa, who has come out of Path to Glory at the head of a colossal Destruction army and is ready to carve out an empire from the Realm of Fire.

And he’ll be doing it with all the cunning and tactical complexity you’d get out of an ork general.

Here’s how GW explains stratagems in Age of Sigmar:

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You may be wondering what Stratagems are. Stratagems are a new feature for your games of Firestorm that allow you to accumulate points between missions and spend them on carefully chosen benefits – this could mean setting up one unit before a game to ambush another, or even forcibly taking the first battle round! Representing the insane and contradictory tactical advice given to him by his totemic severed heads, the Gutstompas get to use a stratagem for free every game, and even allow you to use stratagems outside of Firestorm.

So already they’re amazing. They get insane advice from a bunch of severed heads, which is awesome, but they also get a free stratagem and can break the rules and use them outside of Firestorm.

Here’s a little more on how Stoneklaw’s Gutstompas will work out. GW recommends the Moonclan and a full regiment of cave squigs.

Which, I’m already on board with doing, but there’s a reason to the madness. Gutstompas can take advantage of stratagems like Reinforcements, which 40K Chaos and Ad-Mech players might find familiar.

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Yup, that’s basically Tide of Traitors or Fresh Converts but now it’s in Age of Sigmar. Which is interesting–the bleed over makes me wonder if we won’t see something like this upcoming for 40K in the future. Age of Sigmar seems like an incubator for ideas right now. GW takes a risk and experiments, then refines it for 40K. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a year or so, we see the fruits of Firestorm in 40K.

Anyway, lots of boyz are always handy for any Ork Army. Doubly so with the benefits of Stratagems.

Bonespitterz are probably the most reliable way to take advantage of your random stratagems. With a pool of versatile units – Arrowboys providing short-range missile support, Boarboys acting as fast cavalry – there are few Insane Advice results that won’t benefit the Bonesplitterz in some way.

Pretty spicy. And if the other stratagems are anything like the ones in 40K, the Gutstompas will have a pretty sweet (if random) tactical toolset at their disposal.

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Get ready to stomp some Guts with Gulgaz Gutstompa! ‘Ere we go! ‘Ere we go! ‘Ere we go!

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Author: J.R. Zambrano
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