Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Old/Order/Scourge Privateers

Warscrolls

The common keywords of these warscrolls are: ORDER, AELF and SCOURGE PRIVATEERS.

Heroes

• Black Ark Fleetmaster: The first thing you notice is that the Fleetmaster, like most Aelf Heroes, is not a powerhouse. He has five attacks, all with Damage 1, which is not too scary. He is also not too tough, even with his cloak. What he does, however, is to buff your other stuff to high heaven by giving one of your Privateer units rerolls To Hit, not specifying melee or range. Think of him mainly as a tax, as he's infinitely worse than anything else in this faction, but necessary to make the faction work.

Troops

• Black Ark Corsairs: Your crazy corsairs come in two basic flavors: Knife and Crossbow or Knife and Sword. No matter which you pick, they always come stock with a 5+ save that rerolls 1s against shooting and they gain +1 To Hit in melee only if their unit size is 20 or up. Thanks to this, most would agree that the sword is superior to the puny 9" crossbows even though they get two shots each, but that is not quite justified. Simply put, you need both. At best you want a big 30+ unit of Knife'n'Sword, fanned out wide as a dragnet to contain incoming charges and then you deploy one or two minimum size squads with crosbows behind them. Remember, you are allowed to shoot into combat, so nothing is stopping your crossbow-Corsairs from pincushioning the shmucks caught in melee by the sword-wielders. Just remember, BIG melee units, SMALL ranged units, because their unit-size-bonus helps the melee guys more.

• Scourgerunner Chariots: The first thing you will notice about these chariots is that they are comparatively harmless in melee; getting no charge bonuses and having only a bunch of meh attacks. That's because they're not really chariots. They're highly mobile platforms loaded with lots of ranged weapons that can also charge if necessary. Thanks to their comparatively high ranges of 16" and 18", combined with their rapid 12" movement, these things are what you use as fire support, as swift war machine hunters and to use hit and run tactics. For the Realm Reavers Battalion, a unit of at least 3 is advised. Otherwise, just run them each solo as the leaders gain +1 To Hit and if they're run solo, each one can be a leader of his own imaginary posse.

• Kharibdyss: Wound-per-Wound the Kharibdyss is by far the strongest unit in this list, with a bunch of terrifying attacks, potential for healing and a nice Bravery-lowering skill to make more chumps run away screaming once it tears into them. It is also slightly faster than your Corsairs, though comparatively slow for a monster, so it can still be out-maneuvered if you aren't careful. Wound-per-Wound, the Kharibdyss is also the most efficient target for the Fleetmasters' At them, you Curs Command. Unfortunately, since Corsairs tend to be fielded in units of more than 12, they are still the most logical choice for the Command ability. On the other hand, the Kharibdyss is already plenty scary without it.

Battalions

Realm Reavers

A Black Ark Fleetmaster, 2 Black Ark Corsairs, a unit of Scourgerunner Chariots and a Kharibdiss. Reroll wound rolls of 1 vs monsters, fleetmaster can make a unit within 8" either move, shoot, charge, or pile in/attack in the hero phase.

Army Building

Start off with two boxes of Corsairs and a Fleetmaster. This gives you a great core upon which to build. After that, slowly add Chariots, Corsairs and a Khribdyss. After that, your standard 75 Wound-army should look like this:

1 Fleetmaster (5)

30 Melee Corsairs (30)

10 Ranged Corsairs (10)

3 Scourgerunner Chariots (18)

1 Khribdyss (12)

organized as Realm Reavers. This grants you a big centerpiece melee unit that can take a couple of hits without losing Flashing Steel, some second row fire support, some long-range fire support and war machine hunting as well as a superb buffer and a big scary monster. And if the enemy is dumb enough to focus on your Kharibdyss and ignore the big honking blob of Corsairs, he deserves whatever happens to him.

If you want to add to this list, some more Chariots and a Sorceress for some magic support can help out greatly. If you want to stick to the water theme, you may want to add either some River Trolls or go for broke and add a Forgeworld Merwyrm, which goes terrifyingly well with the overall motif.

External links

Rules are here