21 Varanguard face down ELITE OBR | Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Battle Report

[@joebetz6317]

Super interesting game that shows how to not dive into the teeth of a super-charged castle. OBR, when their buffs are up, are so tough to crack, but it was great to see STD try! Cheers everyone.

[@Whorabl3]

Gotta use blugeon at the start of the combat phase FYI.

[@RomainTribes]

The Varanguard can’t all out attack in turn 1 due to the presence of Morghasts.

[@kharryg6955]

definitely, wich was the good point of placing them like that.

[@RomainTribes]

Morghasts strike first (due to 10" charge) in OBR turn 2 so Jordan should pick another unit to fight.

[@Martinezz94]

I was looking for something to watch while building varanguards...that list is convinient 😂

[@kalebwalters]

Ouch, Charging into a 0 up save Immotis block supported by Morghast......

[@SeasonofWar]

Hopefully it served as a valuable lesson for everyone watching! XD

[@Eternal5602]

Yea, anti-command point abilities are solid against OBR 😂

[@WindsOfMagic]

Josh is a national treasure.

[@Gam3Therapy]

OBR has to use Bludgeon at the start of the command phase even though Jordan uses it mid-phase every time

[@KevinPotter-w5c]

Must say thought the varanguard would be out much sooner but good to see as all a learning curve which is a must 👹👍

[@philipbowles5397]

It would be good, when theme armies like this come up, to hear more about the reasons for choosing this sort of list and matchup. All in all, a salutary lesson in why GW was wise to move away from the skirmish game, nearly exclusively melee style of AoS 1 - small numbers of models a side that don't do anything but bash each other, on a mission where objectives give little incentive to move away from the centre, aren't very interesting.

[@SeasonofWar]

Just like at events, missions and matchups on the channel are fairly random - we aim to showcase the reality of AoS as a whole, not just curate a small sample of 'balanced' matchups. We want to show the good and bad, as there's always something to be learned, especially for newer players!

[@philipbowles5397]

@@SeasonofWar Even so, the player's thought process behind something as off-the-wall as a hero-less army (which I didn't even know was possible) with 21 of the same model would be worth explaining, especially as not everyone is familiar with the unit or army in its current form - people who follow events won't have seen much Slaves to Darkness recently, say. Someone mentioned below that Varanguard are considered the best unit in that book - I hadn't even known that, but even the best unit in a book is only the best because it performs a specific role well. Being the best hammer doesn't suggest that an army of nothing but your best hammers is going to be even vaguely viable, so I'd be interested in knowing more about why the player went down that route.

[@colinc9885]

How was Jordan wounding on 2s in round 3 for both Kat and Morghasts? Or at all? Base wound is 3+ for both Kat and Morghasts, fighting into nurgle banner should be 4+. Edit* nevermind forgot about the Ossifector lol

[@SeasonofWar]

Yeah he's a sneaky little jerk making everything even more deadly for the low cost of an artifact haha

[@colinc9885]

@@SeasonofWar lol yup and tiny so he hides on the board. Doesn't help I watch your videos while building new models so not paying attention the closest

[@jasonmclaughlin5647]

IM HELPING

[@garrgravarr]

Absolute champion ❤

[@SeasonofWar]

You are a LEGEND my man - you can't imagine how much this helps the channel!

[@BritishBrush]

How do you think this OBR list would do in a tournament?

[@SeasonofWar]

I honestly think it's very mission dependant, so hard to say - if there are mostly low objectives count missions then it helps a ton!

[@garrgravarr]

I play mixed arms Slaves and have no idea how I would deal with this OBR army...

[@ammaridris2841]

Love y'all's videos, they're what inspired me to get into this. Once 4th edition drops you guys should totally do a series focusing on new player engagement - how to play, a sample playthrough with more explanation, etc.

[@Peter.B.S]

That was... a beating for sure :p

[@WindsOfMagic]

Josh is still being punished for the gargant game.

[@aaronpowell8398]

I mean, I think this game is just a middle finer to GWs balance team lol.

[@daisuke133]

Guys, I have a question regarding the Impenetrable Ranks command, which is described as so : "You can use this command ability when a fridendly OBR unit is picked as the target of an attack (...) until the end of that phase, add 1 to ward olls for that unit for the purposes of the Deathless Warriors battle trait." When does that phase ends precisely ? When the attacks are done, or when the phase in which the attacks are done ? Also, can I use All out Defense as well as Impenetrable Ranks for the same unit ? I know you can't normally use two commands at the same phase, but since the phase isn't specified for this command, I find myself unsure how to properly use it.

[@biowiener7825]

super happy to see slaves again but id love to see a list without varanguard. i get that they are the best unit but man im kind of bored seeing them, no offense ofc

[@bruhlee700]

they are sooo cool tho, apart from the game, they belong to belakor now and belakor stripped some stormcast eternals their souls and gave them to the varanguard so if they die they just respawn like the stormcast eternals but in black lightning and the eternus model omfg literal chaos space marine of belakor on mount haha^^.

[@biowiener7825]

@@bruhlee700 absolutely, love their lore, the models are great aswell imo and their warscroll is amazing, its just that you litteraly see them in every list (apart from mine lol) and its just getting a bit repetitive. again, no offense to the player, 21 varanguard is such a meme list which also performs fine and i totally get that he did it.

[@bruhlee700]

@@biowiener7825 i have one list with eternus and a warlord on karkadrak and one on daemonic mount with 9 varanguard, 10 chaos knights and 12 furies but i didnt test it out, its supposed to be an anti magic and anti range missile list.

[@mortenlarsen2889]

How do you respawn the Varanguards?

[@philipbowles5397]

@@bruhlee700 They don't belong to Be'lakor - there was a recent WD short story in the Dawnbringers series where a Varanguard character was the antagonist against a group of Be'lakor's followers. Varanguard are specifically Archaeon's private army - Be'lakor's Legionaries and Eternus are different (and I don't think any of them other than Eternus respawn). It seems likely that Varanguard will get a range expansion of their own - the character in that story seems to be a key behind-the-scenes antagonist in the Dawnbringers series called Her Majesty of Ruin, and plot summaries of book 5 seem to suggest she and a group of flying Varanguard will play a role in the next part of that storyline.

[@Stryder467]

Is it just me or is OBR just a better version of what the Fyreslayers do? They both run fairly low model counts. They're supposed to be good at defense(Jury is still out on whether Fyreslayers are sturdy, honestly), but OBR just smacks so much harder when the melee does begin, and they have bunches of extra command abilities that are generally better than Fierce Counterattack. Either way, good match.

[@rotm4447]

They keep going up for a reason, they'll continue to go up until they're so expensive they're unplayable.

[@assistantref5084]

The good (well, good is maybe an exaggeration...) Fyreslayers build is the one with lots of vulkites that can get like 4 damage 3 attacks on 2s and 2s each (admittedly with low to no rend) and then do it all again when they die, which can literally kill half an opponent's army with a single 300 point unit over a single combat phase if you're able to line it up. That army has more like 55+ models (sometimes even like 70-80 if you go all in on the vulkites), so it's actually on the high end for AOS, not the low one. But overall yes, OBR is clearly better than Fyreslayers. The reason Fyreslayers have to rely on the flamekeeper/vulkites thing is because it is the one thing in the book that they actually do better than anybody else, everything else they have is generally very mediocre compared to more recent 3.0 books.

[@raylendt]

No giants Josh? :P Wishing you the best bud.

[@grenzclobberbottom738]

Couldn't the Varanguard just use their mobility to stay out of range of the castle until mid game? If the Morghast tried to break out, they would have been deleted without support. Seems like the S2D player unnecessarily charged in all aggro for no reason and threw the game in round 1.

[@rotm4447]

he has almost no tactics he can do, he has to table early to win.

[@mattkowalyk9066]

Sick shirt Josh!

[@randykeeling1916]

Dude what in the world are OBR. Nobody local plays them and I've always glazed over when I go to read anything about them. There's no way they get all those buffs willy nilly like that lol

[@LokiJonesIB]

Ugh…I guess that was a battle.. OBR are ridiculous and I am not sure why they need to be so not fun and OP…and saying that vs Varangard is…weird.

[@bumgilligan]

$700 varanguard.

[@SeasonofWar]

< buying models second-hand !

[@The_ZerGhoul]

That's funny, I'm currently debating a heavy cavalry S2D list (12 varanguards, 12 knights, chaos lord on karkadrak, demon prince, unmade) and a similar OBR list to my next event so I was very curious about this video. I like to run elite lists and that OBR list is identical to one I wrote (I have a magic heavy variation with Arkhan+boneshaper instead of Katakros, maybe 3 more battle tactics reliably unlocked + blizzard but not as tanky) aside from the command trait and splitting the Immortis Guards in 2 groups of 3 (more control over bodyguard wounds for recursion and extra CPs 1st round). My main concerns are about scoring points. Having a pure melee army charge you in a choke point was the dream scenario there. If OBR needs to chase after an opponent on a map with more objectives, the +1 wound aura becomes almost useless, it becomes impossible to keep the +1 rend on the Archai after round 1 and they won't get their extra ward from a nearby hero either as Katakros and the ossifector cannot keep up with them. There are also almost no battle tactics achievable with this setup (Led into the maelstrom is almost only possible if the opponent charges you early). I would have been curious to see how you would have handled such a scenario with a list like that.

[@DaHobbles]

Morghast are hands down thee most fun unit to pilot in the game and anyone who says otherwise just hasn’t played with them 😂

[@Kinhussar]

It's like playing Ironjawz but in strong. Actually feels bad beating better players by just having insane threat range and damage potential

[@salsathe4th]

Spoiler alert: Fun 2 rounds of AOS.... If there were 5 or 6 objectives maybe varanguard could bounce around and avoid the big center block better but only 3 objectives is rough.

[@SeasonofWar]

Yep this turned out to be a bad situation for them, and with hindsight perhaps could have danced around and forced OBR to break the castle instead of trying to crack it. It was an enlightening lesson for us all haha

[@lewisevans8006]

Poor bat rep

[@Sniperwolf00]

Two filthy lists.......at first I was happy to see the Varanguard get their just desserts but then I felt sorry for them and realised which army was really.....just......wrong! lol

[@andrewaugust1326]

On one hand, why would you charge *anything* into a 0+ castle. On the other hand, OBR needs to be yeeted into the sun and never played again. :P

[@marksullivan3608]

Because they will always be a 0+ castle, and if you just do nothing, you will also lose. OBR is not fun to play against. Why they do everything better than everyone else makes no sense. They shouldnt have casting, high saves, high recursion, high damage, and decent movement. Not to mention better commands and no battleshock.

[@rotm4447]

@@marksullivan3608 They're moderately slow and moderately low on bodies in some builds, and this season doesn't favor them. That's enough to keep them from winning the most competitive events too often. So people who compete on that level have an excuse to defend the state they were written in. I like this game showing how literally the most aggressive melee army you can possibly make is complete garbage against them. Like not even a real game, are you memeing level of competitiveness, and this was after multiple rounds of nerfs. Imagine the complaining if Stormcast were doing this, but its a smaller faction so they get away with it.

[@fredfenryll3983]

Probably the worst Battle report off the channel, sorry Jordan If you want to try to make a fun repport with 21 VG don't put OBR which is probably an awful cancer matchup for them

[@theDEUBabides]

Oooffff

[@thedoubleop]

What a weird game. Great match.

[@ImperiumPainter]

Pretty boring StD list, not gonna lie :/

[@WellosStudios]

you are jealous that this is what peak chaos army looks like according to khorne

[@brokengod420]

Everyone has different preferences 😊 I like calvary armys as well

[@stedes1513]

to Ossiarch player: your list is not really a fun list but instead is a competitive one. it'S intresting to see a fun std list against a competitive list... 🥱