Age of Fantasy/Tactics/Eternal Wardens

Why play Eternal Wardens?

The Eternal Wardens are incredibly beefy. Each of your soldiers is incredibly strong and fairly well protected. While it's not like Grimdark Future's battle brothers in being a massive wall of unbreakable steel, you've got more than enough to keep them alive. Command groups do not exist for the wardens, so while you'll lose on their boosts in combat, you do have enough weapons to cover the gap.

<tabs> <tab name="Age of Fantasy">

Pros

• Lots of Heroes to build around
• Quality is always at 3+
• Plenty of good armor
• Even your infantry is an absurd Tough 3
• Plenty of casting

Cons

• Your troops are very expensive and thus you will be lacking activations
• Your unit sizes tend to be on the small size
• Heroes are very specialized

Special Rules

Wizard Spells

• Terrify (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit in shooting. Your army is quite vulnerable to getting shot to hell, so you'll be needing it.
• Thunder (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Star Chains (5+): Enemy unit within 18" loses 6" from their charging distance. It's pretty much made to limit charging distance to a very short distance.
• Lightning (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 3 hit. It's pretty much only made to snipe out special weapons and command squads Heroes...somewhat too.
• Shock Speed (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
• Storms (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 8 hits each, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Prime Warden: The most expensive hero, but they're also incredibly powerful. Tough 6 and 2+ defense makes them durable, while their weapons pack a punch at any range: The comet hammer gives you a flurry of AP 3 attacks and Fear lets you press the advantage in combat, enough to down monsters. The comet sceptre gives a decently ranged blast that can rip through some armor.

• Celestial Lord: Your most well-rounded hero. Melee is clearly his focus, as he has Furious and a pair of weapons (one of them giving AP 1). He's got a really potent option for shooting in his heavy bolt pistol (and no, we're not making that name up). They have an expensive power called Retribution, which proves incredibly strong since it adds a +1 bonus to melee for their unit.
  • Melee: By default, the celestial lord wields both a sword (A2) and a hammer (A2 AP 1). You can trade these off for a tempest hammer to make all their attacks AP 2. You can also buy a beast-hound, giving four more attacks and a 12" bubble to stop any Ambush setup.
  • Mounts: The great gryph gives you quite a bit of mobility with Fast and Strider and still provides +3 Tough so they're durable. The great drake is a bit of a bruiser, giving both some potent AP 1 attacks and Fire Breath. It lacks Strider, but Furious makes their role as an attack mount more viable. The star dragon makes you a general monster: Lots of attacks that shred infantry, Fire Breath and flight (though at normal speed) give you something of a compromise between the other mounts at a massive price hike.

• Order Lord: A bit smaller than a celestial mode, toting a single hammer for all AP 1 attacks, but without Furious. This makes them the cheapest of the many heroes the Eternal Wardens have, but that's a bit of a small margin. Their special rule is Engineer, making them give a friendly artillery unit within 12" add +1 to their shooting - a bit of a conflict of interest since they can't really shoot.
  • Melee: Aside from the hammer, you have two options. One is dual wielding, giving a flurry of hits. For the same price, you could instead get a astral greathammer, making the hammer AP 4 and capable of devastating absolutely EVERYTHING.

• Exorcist Lord: The first of the wizard heroes, this one stands out with the soul staff, a mid-range laser that can make a decent hole in most enemies.

• Enchanter Knight: This is pretty much identical to the exorcist lord. Their chief difference is their shooting: the enchanter has soul flasks, a very short-range Blast 6 attack to deter mobs before closing the gap.

• Arcane Lord: The best wizard of the lot, having a rating of 2. This guy only has a hand weapon to fight, but you can buy magic flasks, essentially the enchanter's soul flask but with AP 2, for short-ranged firepower. The arcane lord is also the only other character that gets mounts.
• Mounts: The great gryph is the same as the celestial lord's, but you get it a bit cheaper here. The draco-beast is similar to the celestial lord's great drake, but without Fire Breath or Fear and thus is much cheaper (actually, it's the same as the great gryph). The horned griffon is a bigger beast, giving both Tough 9 and +1 to defense, and Flying gives you some much-needed mobility.

• Herald Knight: Back to the celestial lord's 2+ defense and with a greatsword for a barrage of combat. The herald has a built-in power in Battle Horn, giving them the chance to move a friendly model on a 4+. This gives them a great means of support in a way that can't be shut up by wizards like Shock Speed.

• Relic Lord: This tough hero is equipped with a relic banner, a ranged blast attack that can blow apart units. Thankfully, they're still capable in melee with the order lord's hammer.

• Beacon Knight: The closest to a skirmishing hero. This guy has Flying, so they're pretty mobile for cheap. They have the Beacon rule, allowing allies to Ambush within 12" without an issue. This makes them quite useful as an anchor for your army, though this comes at the cost of having a relatively eh hand weapon as your sole weapon.

• Hunter Knight: The shooty version of the beacon knight. That hunter's bow (and the optional hunting eagle) give you quite a good range for shooting. That said, that shooting is now all the hunter can do. Fortunately, they can at least hold their ground in combat if they get charged.

• Banner Knight: The banner knight has an artillery banner like the relic lord, but this one focuses more on coverage instead of punch. This storm banner has Blast 6, so it can blow up infantry, but its usefulness runs into a wall against armor.

• Caste Lord: The Lantern the caste lord provides gives a unit Stealth, so it can make for a pretty good defensive boost. The shock halberd is just as powerful as a hammer and has Rending to give a better shot against armor, making them more than handy when in combat.

Infantry

• Liberation Squad: Absurdly expensive for what's supposed to be your frontline troops...until you notice that you got six Tough 3 bruisers. These guys have very versatile loadouts, so you can be ready for any situation so long as it's not shooting. Fortunately, you can mitigate a good bit of it by buying Ambush. Throw them around a beacon knight so you can ruin some days.
  • Weapons: If the hand weapons aren't cutting it (I mean, they're only 2A), then you've got options. Cheapest among them all are the hammers, which add AP 1. Halberds similarly add Rending. Spears provide Phalanx, making this burly mob of armored bozos into a right pain. Great weapons add AP 2 for five times the price of the hammers, which makes it kinda sad. Dual wielding hand weapons and hammers also ramp up the units cost by a considerable margin. If you plan to keep them cheap, focus more on their value as walls.
    • One of the liberators can also replace their weapon with either a greatsword for a flurry of attacks or the greathammer for a can-crunching AP 3.

• Sequitur Squad: Dropped to a 4+ defense, but Combat Stance can mitigate that by either granting +1 to defense or +1 to AP each turn they're in melee. Because of that, you're going to have to be more careful with how you play them because sequiturs lack Ambush.
  • Weapons: Your options for weapons are much slimmer than what the liberation squad has. Really, all you get for the squad are hammers. However, two of your models can instead pick up greathammers if you really want something dead. One of the models can also buy a soul cache, providing a very short-range shooting attack that can punch through most armor.

• Evocation Squad: Equipped with swords and staves to add Poison to their attacks - pretty good tricks if played right, but it'd be a gamble since you're at 3 models with 4+ defense. If you buy great staves, that doubles their output. You can also buy a Wizard so you have a means to cast outside of heroes. Also unique is their ability to ride draco-beasts like the arcane lord.

• Decimation Squad: Heavily armored bruisers and they mean it. Their shock axes give each model 3 attacks and with Furious you'll be doing more than most could hope for at a comparable pricetag. That said, charging is the only thing they're good at, so you need to clear the way for them to make the charge. You can buy two star maces (A4 AP 2 Rending) if you think you'll be needing to nail heavy armor.

• Retribution Squad: Essentially what happens if you halve a liberation squad and give one half shock hammers for AP 2. They can also buy Ambush so you have a (slightly) smaller squad to go for surprise assaults. Like with the decimation squad, you can also grab star maces to add a few more swings.

• Protection Squad: Stealth gives these guys much more protection than others. The fact that they have shock halberds with Rending is really just icing. You'll want to take them so you can buffer against shooting. Again, you can buy star maces for better heft.

• Hunting Hawks: Poorly armored, but they're relatively cheap and can fly to wherever they need to be so they can tie up the enemy. Don't expect them to do anything else though.

• Beast-Hounds: Essentially cover a similar role to the hawks, though they do it better. They get more attacks and they have a 4+ defense. More important is their Howl ability, which denies Ambush units anywhere within 12" of them. Since there's more of them, you get a bigger bubble of rejection than the order lord has.

• Judgment Squad: Equipped with bolt crossbows, rather short-ranged weapons that pack a punch with AP !. If you're more keen on range, then you can instead equip them with the bolt bows for free; they get better range but lose out on a shot. You can also buy one model either thunder crossbow or bolt bow based on whether you plan on hitting bruisers or mobs.

• Castigation Squad: The aether greatbows give slightly better range and AP 2, which is a decent get for mid-range but suffers from any further since they lack any alternatives. In fact, their only upgrade is a pet beast-hound. This isn't so bad, since it still has Howl for protection against ambushers. Just be sure to defend them against less-concealed threats since they're at 4+ defense.

• Raptor Squad: The cyclone crossbows give you a bunch of attacks where the Judgment and Castigation squad tend to focus more on quality shots. That's not to say that such is beyond them, not when they could instead get free precision crossbows for a bundle of Sniper shots. They also have an option for more melee attacks, but it's considerably less useful since it only adds two more attacks to a squad with no business in melee.

• Prosecution Squad: While the shock javelins they have don't sound so hot compared to all the crossbows, being able to fly over and blast the enemy has its own charm, especially when you buy a shock trident to grant a bigger punch. If you want more shots, you'll need to buy sky hammers to double the output. Melee, unfortunately, is limited to merely hand weapons and one model's option for either a greatsword, greathammer or greataxe.

• Hunter Squad: Unexpectedly, you've got a pack of scouts. Scout and Stealth give them a good combination so they can shoot as soon as they can since their bolt pistols (again, yes, OPR did call them that) have a rather short range. If you're going for melee, you might want to reconsider with only one attack each - thankfully handaxes are a cheap way to bolster that.

• Gryph Riders: Not quite light cavalry, but they are more mobile with Strider. These guys can also buy either bolt pistols or shock javelins so you can shoot away while riding around. Simply put, making them charge is more of a desperate act than it would for most.

• Drake Riders: Truly heavy cavalry. Their mounts have dangerous claws, their Impact value is at 3 and they're Tough 6. Fortunately, you can swap off their hand weapons with more potent shock hammers, shock halberds, or shock glaives for more melee bite. You can still shoot with them as well, with options for volley crossbows for short range dakka and the option of either lightning breath (for short-range anti-armor) or storm breath (for mob control).

Vehicles

• Ballista: Your singular piece of artillery. It's got a decent range and a few shots that can rip up medium armor with AP 1. That said, it's not likely to down entire squads, so you'll be needing the grunts to cover what it can't.

Army Building

Tactics

</tab>

<tab name="Skirmish">

Pros

• Lots of Heroes to build around
• Quality is always at 3+
• Plenty of good armor
• Even your infantry is an absurd Tough 3

Cons

• Your troops are very expensive and thus you will be lacking activations
• Your unit sizes tend to be on the small size
• Heroes are very specialized

Special Rules

Wizard Spells

• Terrify (4+): Enemy unit within 12" takes -1 to hit in shooting. Your army is quite vulnerable to getting shot to hell, so you'll be needing it.
• Thunder (4+): One enemy unit within 12" takes 2 AP 2 hits.
• Star Chains (5+): Enemy unit within 18" loses 6" from their charging distance. It's pretty much made to limit charging distance to a very short distance.
• Lightning (5+): One enemy model within 12" takes a single AP 3 hit. It's pretty much only made to snipe out special weapons and command squads Heroes...somewhat too.
• Shock Speed (6+): One friendly unit within 12" can immediately move 6". This gives you a desperate escape button or possibly an easier charge.
• Storms (6+): Two enemy units within 6" take 8 hits each, making this hell for mobs of grunts.

Unit Analysis

Heroes

• Celestial Lord: Your most well-rounded hero. Melee is clearly his focus, as he has Furious and a pair of weapons (one of them giving AP 1). He's got a really potent option for shooting in his heavy bolt pistol (and no, we're not making that name up). They have an expensive power called Retribution, which proves incredibly strong since it adds a +1 bonus to melee for their unit.
  • Melee: By default, the celestial lord wields both a sword (A2) and a hammer (A2 AP 1). You can trade these off for a tempest hammer to make all their attacks AP 2. You can also buy a beast-hound, giving four more attacks and a 12" bubble to stop any Ambush setup.

• Order Lord: A bit smaller than a celestial mode, toting a single hammer for all AP 1 attacks, but without Furious. This makes them the cheapest of the many heroes the Eternal Wardens have, but that's a bit of a small margin. Their special rule is Engineer, making them give a friendly artillery unit within 12" add +1 to their shooting - a bit of a conflict of interest since they can't really shoot.
  • Melee: Aside from the hammer, you have two options. One is dual wielding, giving a flurry of hits. For the same price, you could instead get a astral greathammer, making the hammer AP 4 and capable of devastating absolutely EVERYTHING.

• Exorcist Lord: The first of the wizard heroes, this one stands out with the soul staff, a mid-range laser that can make a decent hole in most enemies.

• Enchanter Knight: This is pretty much identical to the exorcist lord. Their chief difference is their shooting: the enchanter has soul flasks, a very short-range Blast 6 attack to deter mobs before closing the gap.

Infantry

• Liberatior: Absurdly expensive for what's supposed to be your frontline troops...until you notice that you got a Tough 3 bruiser. These guys have very versatile loadouts, so you can be ready for any situation so long as it's not shooting. Fortunately, you can mitigate a good bit of it by buying Ambush. Throw them around a beacon knight so you can ruin some days.
  • Weapons: If the hand weapons aren't cutting it (I mean, they're only 2A), then you've got options. Cheapest among them all are the hammers, which add AP 1. Halberds similarly add Rending. Spears provide Phalanx, making this burly mob of armored bozos into a right pain. Great weapons add AP 2 for five times the price of the hammers, which makes it kinda sad. Dual wielding hand weapons and hammers also ramp up the units cost by a considerable margin. Last on the list are the greatsword for a flurry of attacks and the the greathammer for a can-crunching AP 3.

• Sequitur: Dropped to a 4+ defense, but Combat Stance can mitigate that by either granting +1 to defense or +1 to AP each turn they're in melee. Because of that, you're going to have to be more careful with how you play them because sequiturs lack Ambush.
  • Weapons: Your options for weapons are much slimmer than what the liberation squad has. Really, all you get for the squad are hammers. However, two of your models can instead pick up greathammers if you really want something dead. You can also buy a soul cache, providing a very short-range shooting attack that can punch through most armor.

• Evocator: Equipped with swords and staves to add Poison to their attacks - pretty good tricks if played right, but it'd be a gamble since you're at 4+ defense. If you buy great staves, that doubles their output. You can also be a Wizard so you have a means to cast outside of heroes.

• Decimator: Heavily armored bruiser and they mean it. Their shock axes give each model 3 attacks and with Furious you'll be doing more than most could hope for at a comparable pricetag. That said, charging is the only thing they're good at, so you need to clear the way for them to make the charge. You can buy a star mace (A4 AP 2 Rending) if you think you'll be needing to nail heavy armor.

• Retributor: Essentially what happens if you give a liberator a shock hammer for AP 2. They can also buy Ambush so you have a brutal ally for surprise assaults. Like with the decimation squad, you can also grab star maces to add a few more swings.

• Protector: Stealth gives these guys much more protection than others. The fact that they have shock halberds with Rending is really just icing. You'll want to take them so you can buffer against shooting. Again, you can buy star maces for better heft.

• Hunting Hawk: Poorly armored, but they're relatively cheap and can fly to wherever they need to be so they can tie up the enemy. Don't expect them to do anything else though.

• Beast-Hound: Essentially cover a similar role to the hawks, though they do it better. They get more attacks and they have a 4+ defense. More important is their Howl ability, which denies Ambush units anywhere within 12" of them. Since it's easier to get more of them, you can get a bigger bubble of rejection than the order lord has.

• Judge: Equipped with a bolt crossbow, a rather short-ranged weapon that packs a punch with AP !. If you're more keen on range, then you can instead equip them with the bolt bow for free; they get better range but lose out on a shot. You can also buy either a thunder crossbow or bolt bow based on whether you plan on hitting bruisers or mobs.

• Castigator: The aether greatbow gives slightly better range and AP 2, which is a decent get for mid-range but suffers from any further since they lack any alternatives. In fact, their only upgrade is a pet beast-hound. This isn't so bad, since it still has Howl for protection against ambushers. Just be sure to defend them against less-concealed threats since they're at 4+ defense.

• Raptor: The cyclone crossbow gives you a bunch of attacks where the Judgment and Castigation squad tend to focus more on quality shots. That's not to say that such is beyond them, not when they could instead get a free precision crossbow for Sniper shots. They also have an option for more melee attacks, but it's considerably less useful since it only adds two more attacks to a squad with no business in melee.

• Prosecutor: While the shock javelin they have doesn't sound so hot compared to all the crossbows, being able to fly over and blast the enemy has its own charm, especially when you buy a shock trident to grant a bigger punch. If you want more shots, you'll need to buy a sky hammer to double the output. For melee, you can go for either a greatsword, greathammer or greataxe.

• Hunter: Unexpectedly, you've got a recon guy. Scout and Stealth give them a good combination so they can shoot as soon as they can since their bolt pistols (again, yes, OPR did call them that) have a rather short range. If you're going for melee, you might want to reconsider with only one attack each - thankfully handaxes are a cheap way to bolster that.

• Gryph Rider: Not quite light cavalry, but they are more mobile with Strider. These guys can also buy either bolt pistols or shock javelins so you can shoot away while riding around. Simply put, making them charge is more of a desperate act than it would for most.

• Drake Rider: Truly heavy cavalry. Their mounts have dangerous claws, their Impact value is at 3 and they're Tough 6. Fortunately, you can swap off their hand weapons with more potent shock hammers, shock halberds, or shock glaives for more melee bite. You can still shoot with them as well, with options for volley crossbows for short range dakka and the option of either lightning breath (for short-range anti-armor) or storm breath (for mob control).

Army Building

Tactics

</tab> </tabs>

Age of Fantasy Tactics Articles
General:	General Tactics
Dwarves:	Dwarves - Sky-City Dwarves - Volcanic Dwarves
Elves:	Dark Elves - Deep Sea Elves - High Elves - Wood Elves
Greenskins:	Goblins - Orcs
Havoc:	Beastmen - Clans of the War Cry - Havoc Dwarves - Havoc Warriors - Rift Daemons
Humans:	Chivalrous Kingdoms - Duchies of Vinci - Eternal Wardens - Humans - Kingdom of Angels
Undead:	Ghostly Undead - Mummified Undead - Ossified Undead - Vampiric Undead
Other:	Giant Tribes - Halflings - Ogres - Ratmen - Saurians - Shadow Stalkers