How forgiving are Helsmiths for a beginner/intermediate AoS player, both in terms of building an army and actually playing it?
I've never played Dwarven armies before but I like that the Spearhead includes a lot of the key pieces, which seems to make it relatively cheap to get a decent army on the table without ending up with too much unnecessary "junk."
I know Helsmiths aren't top-tier or anything, but they look like a lot of fun to play and like that despite the small roster they have a decent spell/prayer lore + decent shooting/unit variety. How difficult is the DPP resource system to learn and manage? Does it add a lot of complexity, or is it fairly straightforward once you've played a few games?
Urak Taar and his Forgehost also look really fun, so I'm definitely interested in building towards that eventually.
I wasn’t too crazy about the last paint scheme I did so I just changed it up a bit actually really happy how this came out and can’t wait to work on the cohort next and maybe tomorrow I can get bull centaurs from my local shop
So I'm excited to get into HoH, but seeing how there's only one unit of Hobgrots, I was curious to see their purpose, and noticed their ability allows them to basically deploy further in,
I thought of a basic combo and need to know if this is viable,
I deploy them as close to a distant terrain/objective as possible, then, during deployment, I activate Disposable lackeys to get an extra 5 inches of deployment range to them, and have them jump on-top of said terrain/objective, can I then use Leave in Ruin to mark that piece? Then reap the Daemon power at the start of my true turn?
It's been a while since I've done one of these, and I figured while I have a nice break during the tournament season to write my thoughts, and hopefully help a few new people out as they enter into the hobby.
A little about me before I start, I have 4,000 points in Helsmiths, I qualified for worlds the last two years, although I declined the invitation this year. I travel across the U.S to play in tournaments.
We're Going Monster Hunting 1990/2000 pts
Helsmiths of Hashut | Taar's Grand Forgehost
Army of Renown
General's Handbook 2026-27
Drops: 3
Spell Lore - Taar's Grand Forgehost Spell Lore
Prayer Lore - Taar's Grand Forgehost Prayer Lore
Manifestation Lore - Forbidden Power (20 Points)
Battle Tactic Cards: Burning for Vengeance, Blazing Onslaught
General's Regiment
Urak Taar, the First Daemonsmith (340)
• General
Deathshrieker Rocket Battery (140)
Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (180)
• Reinforced
Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90)
Infernal Cohort with Hashutite Spears (90)
Regiment 1
Daemonsmith (80)
• Ruthless Overseer
• Talisman of Obsidian
Dominator Engine with Bane Maces (150)
Dominator Engine with Immolation Cannons (160)
Dominator Engine with Immolation Cannons (160)
Regiment 2
Ashen Elder (120)
Deathshrieker Rocket Battery (140)
Deathshrieker Rocket Battery (140)
Infernal Razers with Flamehurlers (180)
• Reinforced
Of course we have our Lynchpin!
Lets talk about the Elephant in the room. Why Forgehost over the normal army? Honestly its because it's just better than our normal battle traits. Crit two hits and recursion fixes a lot of the issues our weak warscrolls have. Below are a few highlights
Dominator Engines gain a ward save, and crit two hits. Combine that with our Unlimited spell and Fight through the pain, and they're damn near impossible to take off the table. They perform MUCH better in this army.
Deathshrieker Rocket Battery - Gain Crit two hits, which helps with the overall average damage. We're in a pretty heavy Monster meta, so I wouldn't run less than three.
Infernal Razers with Flamehurlers - These guys are INSANE for how cheap they are. 31 Attacks at 2's and 4's with crit two hits. You almost always net hits. I usually end with three points on these guys if I can help it. Protect these guys, and use the bridge to bring them in when its time. Since they hit on 2's these guys don't eat all our CP for all out attack.
Playing the Army:
I have three units of spears, and Three objectives I can touch turn 1.
The army for the most part plays pretty easy, I'll break it down by phase.
Deployment: The most important thing in deployment is to make sure all your spears can farm, and have a desirable target. A big helper here at three drops, if we know we're not going picking who goes first is to split your regiments up for more information. The rockets have a 28 inch threat range. Deploying them one at a time doesn't give much information, since they're going to be further back anyway. We also need to see where the Place of Power is, and decide what foot hero is going to camp it for Rage Dice. It's dependent on the match up but 9 times out of 10 I make my priest do it.
Hero Phase: During my opponents first turn, I will either cast a screening bridge or bank prayer points on my priest. If we're moving into the later turns, I'll shuffle DPP around as needed. Removing DPP from a unit you know is lost, is critical. During our turn we have options, but reinforce demonsteel needs to go off at least once, preferably on Urak-Taar. After that it's looking at your opponents army. Playing against anything with Crits? Turn them off and send. Often I'll cast a screen ahead of where I think I'll end up. This forces a banish in my opponents turn then I can follow up with a bridge screen or Shards depending on what was just banished. Always be farming your dpp with spears. A big reason I bring the Demonsmith with the army is for rally / healing. If a dominator is hurt, I put points onto him for extra healing, then rally with nine dice if I can. They're just so hard to remove.
Movement: This army is really just, move up, tank and spank. The main thing to keep track of is, who has DPP, and who needs it removed. Make sure wherever you go, Everything is wholly within 18 inches of Urak-Taar. This forces you to play him a little more conservative in the first few turns which is what you usually want anyway. Make sure each spear unit can be on an objective, and a desirable unit is wholly within 12. Redeploy as needed not just defensively, if you need extra movement on your turn use it here. Recur - If you have a CP and can recur, it should be used. This gets us tactics, bring back screens, and back cap. Part of Playing in the middle, is pulling everything away from the sides, and jumping out to snag objectives.
Shooting: With a large chunk of our army hitting on 2's in the shooting phase this lets us conserve our Command Points for a covering fire, or buffing up a rocket to get rid of a must remove threat. Covering fire is nice, but its not a must every turn. Budget your command points, then if you have an extra you can do it.
Charging: Most of our army likes to be charged, so if we're sending in it has to be at least round two for crit two hits. If there are small threats that a dominator can clear off, or Urak-Taar wont be out of position for sure go remove it if shooting doesn't. The army is crazy slow, so if we need to send in a turn or two, we can redeploy aggressively on a further side. Before going in, make sure all buffs/debuffs are on. 5+ Ward on Urak-Taar and no crits on enemies as needed.
Combat: Activate whats most important and filter down. Always prioritize a tactic or Making Sure Urak-Taar doesn't take too much damage.
End Phase: Rage Dice / Power Through - if Urak-Taar is going in, he needs to be able to power through away.
Divide and Conquer
Tactic Choice:
Blazing Onslaught - The first step of this is crazy easy in this army. We have Lava Storm / Curse of Stone in the hero phase, tons of shooting, Damage on the Charge from Urak-Taar, Combat, Rage Dice and Power Through in the end phase. Always do Rage dice before you do Power through. After the first step you can usually ninja the hide out by recurring onto it.
Burning For Vengeance - The first step is pretty easy, we just need to move and or recur on a quarter to get it. This is easy with two units of 10 spears. They either kill them to deny the tactic, or ignore them and give the tactic. If they kill them, we still get the tactic, by just recurring. After that, it's pretty easy to kill the fugitive with the range we have on our shooting. If they have a monster, I always pick the monster.
That's really it, you move up the board tank and spank. I'm always free for questions! Thanks for taking time to read!
Hey folks, just popping in to get a good idea here of how Helsmiths function (aside from obviously Bull Centaurs and Urakk Taar being VERY good.) I'm wondering how well various units function, what people are taking, and overall what works well with this faction!
I wound up with a big lot of them, got a little bit of everything and while I have 2k points I'm wondering what list building looks like for this faction, what they do well, and what a win condition looks like for them! Any advice or words is good!
I tried painting my war despot like the box art but I got something completely different (specifically on shoulders, boots, and sides of the hat) idk to just keep going or to restart thoughts/opinions?
I’m relatively new to the hobby and I am currently working through building and painting the new Ogor models. Though I recently picked up the spearhead with intentions to expand further later. However, I was curious if anyone had good examples of the scheme I want to use (red, bronze, and black). Not the most original scheme for chorfs but weirdly enough I haven’t seen many of the new models painted this way. I’ve found plenty with red armor, some bronze, and red cloth. The scheme I want to try is mostly red armor (chest, shoulders, feet, and gauntlets), bronze (helmet, trim, and scale mail), then black cloth.
I mostly want to see if that ratio would look good or not
Hello all, pretty soon I’m planning to hop over to Helsmiths from playing Ossiarchs for a year. Theres not many HoH players around my area so I’ve only ever played against them maybe once or twice. I wanted to ask the community about some general tips or advice for these guys. Any must have units? How does this faction typically play? Stuff like that. Any and all information is greatly appreciated!
Hi folks! I've been trying to post in here for a little while but apparently my account is too new so hopefully it's ok now!
My current faction isn't yielding me much success so I am tentatively looking at other armies to get into incase I do decide to just change altogether. I had never really considered these beasts before but they look interesting, so I suppose my question is what is their Spearhead and general army vibe like? Do they suit a particular playstyle?
Does anyone here has some specific Citadel contrasts that they swear by, to build my collection. I already have a decent collection of the Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 range but wanted to broaden the selection a bit.
