How to Play Fyreslayers in Warhammer Age of Sigmar (4th Edition)

The Fyreslayers' signature battle trait is a set of five ur-gold runes. Each rune is a powerful, army-wide buff you can trigger, but the catch is the rhythm: you may use only one rune per battle round, and each individual rune only once per battle. That makes rune selection the core decision of every game — you are effectively spending a limited resource turn by turn.

The five runes cover different needs:

• Rune of Fury — lets your units strike first / fight before foes who charged, punishing enemies that come to you.
• Rune of Fiery Determination — a defensive rune granting a ward (roughly a 5+ save-after-save), turning already-tough duardin into a brick wall.
• Rune of Relentless Zeal — a mobility rune adding movement and enabling charging after a run, patching the army's biggest weakness for one crucial turn.
• Rune of Searing Heat — an offensive rune granting Crit (Mortal) to melee weapons, spiking your damage against tough targets.
• Rune of Farsight — a ranged/offensive rune that lets you throw axes for mortal damage at range.

Your priests amplify this. An Auric Runemaster is a High Priest who can chant multiple prayers and bank power tokens; those tokens can be spent to empower a triggered rune, pushing its effect further. Because the runes are one-per-round, the skill ceiling is high — plan which rune each round needs before the game starts, not reactively.

(Exact ward values, ranges and empower costs shift with errata — confirm them in the current faction pack.)

Fyreslayers have four battle formations in the 4th Edition faction pack. Each nudges the army toward a different plan:

• Warrior Kinband — rewards aggression, adding to wound rolls for infantry that charged that turn. A common default because it directly boosts the army's core melee damage.
• Scales of Vulcatrix — makes your Magmadroth monsters more durable (added health/wounds), for lists built around one or more of the big lizards.
• Forge Brethren — a defensive formation improving save rolls for infantry (associated with holding your own territory), leaning into the grinding, hold-the-line game.
• Lords of the Lodge — boosts the objective-control score of your heroes/monsters and can protect it from enemy modification, great for objective-heavy missions.

Rule of thumb: take Warrior Kinband for an infantry-forward damage list, Scales of Vulcatrix if Magmadroths are your centrepiece, and Forge Brethren or Lords of the Lodge when the mission or your meta rewards grinding defence or objective-holding. Confirm the exact bonuses in the current pack, as formation values have been touched by Battlescrolls.

• Auric Runemaster — the priest that makes the army tick, chanting prayers and enabling empowered runes. Near-auto-include; protect it.
• Auric Runefather / Runeson (foot or on Magmadroth) — buffing heroes; the foot versions hand out hit/attack auras, while the Magmadroth-mounted versions add a monster threat with rider buffs.
• Auric Runesmiter — priest support, valued for the tunnelling/teleport-style deep-strike option to reposition a block of infantry (a partial answer to the army's slow speed).
• Vulkite Berzerkers — the core battleline: cheap, tough, respectable damage, and your objective-holders. The backbone of most lists.
• Vulkyn Flameseekers — a newer infantry option; a flexible line/utility choice.
• Hearthguard Berzerkers — elite hammer infantry and your primary damage dealers (broadaxe vs poleaxe builds trade reach for output). Buff them and charge.
• Auric Hearthguard — the army's main ranged unit, providing scarce shooting/mortal output.
• Battlesmith — support hero offering rally/battle-shock resilience and control-score help.
• Magmadroth (various riders) / Magmadroths generally — durable monsters with a breath attack and rampage effects; anchor points and objective-grabbers, especially under Scales of Vulcatrix.

Fyreslayers are a slow, defensive-toolbox brawler. You will rarely win the movement phase, so you win by controlling where fights happen and by out-damaging and out-grinding the enemy once contact is made.

A typical gameplan:

1. Deploy for the mid-game. Because your legs are short, plan positioning one to two turns ahead. Screen with Vulkite Berzerkers and hold the centre. 2. Sequence your runes. Decide which rune each round needs. A defensive rune (Fiery Determination) early to weather a charge, a mobility rune (Relentless Zeal) to force a decisive engagement, an offensive rune (Searing Heat) on the turn you commit your Hearthguard. 3. Fuel the priests. Keep the Runemaster chanting and banking tokens so you can empower the key rune on the key turn. 4. Pick your fights. Feed cheap infantry to tarpit, then land your buffed Hearthguard hammer where it matters. Use Runesmiter repositioning to threaten a flank or an objective the enemy thinks is safe. 5. Hold and grind. Your durability, wards and battle-shock resilience let you sit on objectives and win on points over several rounds.

Common mistakes:

• Using runes reactively. The one-rune-per-round limit punishes indecision — decide the round's rune with intent, not in a panic.
• Forgetting to bank/spend priest tokens, so your biggest rune turn goes un-empowered.
• Over-extending on a charge without a defensive rune or ward up, then getting counter-charged and ground down.
• Ignoring the slow speed and deploying without a multi-turn plan, arriving at objectives a turn too late.

When they struggle:

• Fast, evasive, and heavy-shooting armies can kite your infantry, take objectives you can't reach, and shoot you off the board before you engage — your only real ranged answer is Auric Hearthguard.
• Hero-sniping opponents can cripple you by killing the Runemaster/Runefather, since so much of the army leans on hero and priest support.
• Objective spreads that demand mobility force you to split a slow army thin. Lean on Runesmiter repositioning and Lords of the Lodge control bonuses to compensate.