We’re here for round eleven of the Grand Alliance Throwdown! Today’s battle: four sharpshooters who believe the best fight is one they don’t have to be in.
Welcome in, Generals of the Realms! We’re back again with another Grand Alliance battle royale. We’ve seen mounted knights, heavily armored elites, and powerful tanks in our previous roundups. Today, we’re tackling the sting of this war scorpion: the ranged contingent. Though not every army relies on ranged combat, it is a powerful asset. Many brave warriors have thought they had a battle won in swordplay, only to see the sky blacken with arrows. Whether it’s the thunder of black powder or the twang of a bowstring, these units are the best of the best when it comes to killing from afar.
Order: Hurakan Spirit of the Wind
Order has no shortage of powerful ranged options. From the archers of the Stormcast to the riflemen of the Kharadron, Order has no issue dealing death from range. However, when it comes to sheer destructive ranged power, I have to give it to the fox spirits of the Lumineth. These aetheric warriors wield massive bows and can zip across the battlefield with breathtaking speed. If you need an assassin, this is the creature for you.
With an 18″ movement, the Hurakan is one of the fastest units in the game, allowing it to find the perfect position for raining down arrows. Said arrows can be shot in combat and have a startlingly high Rend. Against Monsters, the Rend increases, and the damage changes from a d3 to a flat 3. If you need to hunt your enemy’s finest beasts, this is the warrior for you.
Chaos: Ratling Gun Team
OK, I’ll fully admit it; this might not be the BEST ranged unit in Chaos. That honor should probably go to the Exalted Flamer, Blue Horror, or Tzaangor Skyfire. However, the sheer destructive power combined with the hilarity of the rapid-fire ratmen puts them in the top spot. Skaven warmachines are always deadly and silly in equal measure, and the Ratling Gun is one of the originals. If you want to eliminate an entire squad of enemy warriors (and don’t care much about your own troops), grab a few of these verminous killers.
Like its larger counterpart, this deadly machine gun is a powerful anti-infantry blender. It can lay down a withering hail of warpstone bullets, turning the enemy to paste. If you’re feeling particularly devious, you can have an Engineer overload the weapon, doubling its rate of fire at the risk of blowing itself up. But then, that’s just the Skaven way.
Death: Craventhrone Guard
Death with, unfortunately, another miss. When it comes to anything NOT infantry or magic, Death doesn’t have much going for it. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a contender for this category. Rising up from the ranks of the Nighthaunt are the crossbow-wielding Craventhrone Guard. While they won’t hold a candle to some of the other entries on this list, they are certainly no slouch and a welcome addition to the Nagash family.
Though their weapons are a bit mediocre, they have a surprising trick that makes them deadly foes. They only do 1 damage, and like all Nighthaunt weapons automatically wound on crits, but that’s nothing to write home about. However, they don’t need to be able to see their target in order to shoot, and nothing can reduce their hit chance. Their shots may not hit the hardest, but by gum they’ll HIT.
Destruction: Man-Skewer Boltboyz
I have to say, when it comes to deadly snipers, Orruks are not the first AoS race I think of. The greenskins aren’t known for their patience (or their aim) so it’s a little strange to be putting them on this list. However, the Kruleboyz are in a league of their own, and their filth-encrusted Man-skewer Crossbows have seen the end of more than one enterprising warband. Though they aren’t the finest warriors in the Orruk Warclans, it is a folly to count them out entirely.
Unlike the rest of their kin, Boltboyz prefer to remain still, lining up the perfect shot before firing. When they do, they get to add 1 to their hit rolls, and they already have fairly decent aim, even by non-Orruk standards. When they shoot, they can choose to rapidly fire their weapons, sacrificing accuracy for speed, or line up their shot, firing a single, well-placed bolt. Whichever choice they make, it will end badly for the poor saps on the receiving end.
Did your favorite unit make the cut?
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From North Carolina to Texas and back to North Carolina again, Clint lives the life of a traveling artist. An avid gamer, writer, actor, pyrotechnician, and general nerd, he has finally turned his love of EDH into a career. When not busy being a clueless cowboy, Winterfell Bannermen, or whatever else acting life throws at him, he enjoys reading folklore from around the world, writing narratives for his Wargaming armies, or running D&D 5e games as a professional DM. Look for his storytelling podcast, By the Dancing Fire, or find him on Twitch at FeybornPhyrexian, where he produces MTG content.
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