Age of Magic faction review: Masters of the Underearth

The archetype

Any cave-dwelling or underground type army is represented here, as well as armies with a bit of technology in them.

Options

This list has firearms in common with the Great Kingdoms list and these can be carried by warriors rather than levy. Warrior can alternatively take either great weapons or crossbows. The lieutenant is called an Alchemist and comes with a unique fore bomb attack ability not seen elsewhere.

Hearthguard have a heavy weapon option and may also be mounted. The Masters of the Underearth list also has war machine, creature and monster options along with a special Destruction Team unit, which can hurl out impressive attacks or else destroy itself in an explosion.

The Battle Board

The Masters of the Underearth board is one of my favourites. The Tactical Withdrawal ability lets you resolve a move action without generating fatigue if the unit has already fought melee or resolved a shooting attack in the turn. Experimental Techniques means each 6 you roll on a shooting attack is two hits instead of one, and Cave Dwellers lets one of your units benefit from cover until the end of the turn, even if they can’t normally benefit from cover.

The models

If you’re a Warhammer player with Night Goblins, Dwarf, or Skaven armies you’ll find this list was made for you. Destruction teams do a fair job of representing skaven weapons teams, the fact that warriors have firearm, crossbow or great weapon options means your dwarf units can all be fielded, and the goblins get their chariots and spear throwers.

Sample army

SAGA Age of Magic, Master of the Underearth, 8 point army

For this army list the theme was basically ‘goblins and spiders’. I chose an orc warlord to lead the army, mainly as I couldn’t find a suitable goblin model.

While the Masters of the Underearth list seems squarely aimed at Warhammer armies like Skaven and Dwarfs, you can go far beyond those options. Here I’ve spent 3 points on 6 creatures, the giant spiders standing two to a base. Then a further point has been spend on a behemoth – the spider queen. To this I added an orc shaman and three points of armoured goblins as hearthguard.

At 21 models and 8 points this list is light on numbers but heavy on smack.

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