Age of Sigmar: Ushoran’s Rules Revealed And Flesh-eater Courts Are Eating Good
The new Mortarch of Delusion is coming to Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and he might be crazy but he backs it up with a lot of beef.
Games Workshop dropped Ushoran’s warscroll for free today and we’re taking a closer look at what he’ll be doing on the tabletop. For 460 points he need to do a lot of work. Thankfully, once he gets into the thick of things he’s going to be able to slap the enemy around. Let’s get into his stat block and special rules because this Mortarch might look busy, but he’s always ready for lunch.
Kicking things off, he’s got 16 wounds with a base 4+ save. Spoiler alert: he also has a 5+ ward which we’ll get to later. He comes with a 10″ move and a 10 Bravery. Considering he’s on a 130mm round base that’s quite a large area he fills. He’s going be able to reach out and touch quite a few units thanks to his two melee weapons. First up, the Sceptre of the Carrion King has a 3″ reach with 3 attacks and a beefy profile. Rend -2 and D3+3 damage is good.
If you max out your hits, wounds, and damage that’s a potential of 18 damage. I also really like that each successful strike is a minimum of 4 damage. D3+3 is such a consistent damage amount that I would like to see that in more “heavy hitter” attack profiles…but that’s another topic to dissect later.
Monstrous Claws and Fangs “only” has a 2″ reach with a variable number of attacks it starts at 10 and drops down to 4. It’s a +3/+3 with -1 Rend and 2 Damage. This is perfect for clearing out chaff or just overwhelming you opponent with attacks. At the top bracket that’s also a potential 20 damage. Combined, if Ushoran has some hot dice, he could drop 38 damage — and that’s before we get to any other nonsense from the army rules or his special rules.
Ushoran’s Special Rules
As far as special rules, I’m chopping this block up a bit because we need to jump around. He’s a Wizard that can cast and unbind 2 spells which is great for FEC to start. He’s also Warmaster — so he always counts as the army’s general even if he isn’t selected as that to start. He also has Epicenter of Delusion which allows you to use the special Courts of Delusion battle trait table and apply that to FEC units within range. You might recall this from the previews but here’s a look at a few of the abilities from the chart to give you an idea of what this is for:
With The Carrion King ability he also gets a special bonus with the noble deeds points when has 6. The Feeding Frenzy battle trait apples to units of FEC out to 24″ instead of 12″. Let’s not forget that base size he’s on — all of his aura abilities have a MASSIVE footprint on the tabletop.
Moving of from there, we have a look at The King’s Chalice which is where he’s getting that 5+ ward from as well as a 2D3 regen! Ushoran isn’t going to go down without some serious attacks on him already and now if you don’t finish him he’s going to heal-up. He also has his custom spell of Glimpse of Delusion. This attack forces an enemy unit to hit another enemy unit within range. Talk about friendly fire!
Finally, we have the Shroudcage Fragment. This is Ushoran’s crown and it’s got some nasty effects on Bravery. First up, at the start of the combat phase enemy units within 3″ lose 1 Bravery until the end of the battle. I might be understanding this one wrong but I’m pretty sure that this can cause a unit to just keep losing Bravery the longer they are in combat with Ushoran. Which makes the second part of this ability even meaner. You also roll 2D6 vs the enemy units (now lower) Bravery if they are within 1″. If the result is higher than their Bravery, they now are effected by strike-last until the end of the phase.
Again, for 460 points Ushoran has to do a lot to earn his points. But I think with his rules and the army rules he’s got players are going to have a fun time doing just that.
What’s your hot take on Ushoran’s rules? Do you think he’s going to be an effective use of 460 points?
