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

The Helsmiths run on a resource loop built from two things: Desolation Tokens and Daemonic Power Points (DPP).

• Leave the Land in Ruin: once each turn, a friendly unit that is not in combat and is contesting a terrain feature or objective can place a Desolation Token on it. This is how you 'mine' the board for fuel, so screening pieces sitting on objectives are doing real work.
• Harness Daemonic Power: at the start of your turn you clear off existing DPP, then generate new points based on your Desolation Tokens and allocate them to your units. Each non-Hobgrot unit can hold a maximum of 3 DPP.
• Reserves of Daemonic Power: a command that tops up a unit with points (reported as giving DPP to a unit that has none), useful for getting a key unit to its threshold in a hurry.

The payoff: almost every warscroll gets meaningfully better per point it holds. Launch coverage describes points buying things like +1 Rend on Infernal Razers' guns, +1 to Bull Centaurs' charges, or unlocking a Ward on an Infernal Cohort. Hobgrots are the deliberate exception. They cannot be empowered, which is the whole point of them. Verify exact values against current warscrolls.

The battletome offers several battle formations, and they share a design: each hands a big bonus to a unit type, but only once those units are sitting on the full 3 DPP. So your formation choice is really a choice about which unit type you intend to keep 'maxed out'.

Reported formations include:

• Daemonsmith Cabal - +1 to casting, unbinding, banishment and chanting for maxed Wizards/Priests. Widely flagged as the standout, turning heroes like Urak Taar into a serious magic engine.
• Castigation Battery - +1 Attacks on maxed War Machines' ranged weapons (with extra munitions rules), for a gunline build.
• The Bullfather's Horns - +2" Move for maxed Cavalry and Monsters, a mobility/hammer build.
• Hashutite Host - extra Rally rolls for maxed Infantry, a resilient board-control build.
• Others reported include Domination Force (Power Through) and Industrial Polluters (protecting units near War Machines).

Start with the formation that matches the units you enjoy fielding, then build the list to keep that unit type topped up.

• Hobgrot Vandalz - cheap, expendable screen. A pre-game move lets them start desolating turn one, and their 'Disposable Lackeys' rule makes them a speed bump. They cannot take DPP, so they exist to buy time and generate tokens.
• Infernal Cohort (Hashutite Spears) - defensive backbone; strong anti-charge/anti-cavalry and good at holding objectives (and extracting more from them).
• Infernal Cohort (Hashutite Blades) - the pushing variant, with a forced-march style option to offset the army's slow feet.
• Infernal Razers (Blunderbusses / Flamehurlers) - short-to-mid ranged infantry that scale hard with DPP (e.g. added Rend).
• Bull Centaurs - heavy cavalry hammer; charge and movement bonuses reward getting them to 3 DPP.
• Anointed Sentinels - defensive counter-charge cavalry that can strike-first, punishing overextension.
• Dominator Engine - centrepiece war-engine; reported to be able to fight twice, extremely durable when supported.
• Tormentor Bombard / Deathshrieker Rocket Battery - long-range artillery; the Bombard is called out as brutal into infantry.
• Daemonsmith / Urak Taar, the First Daemonsmith - wizard heroes and the army's magic core; Urak Taar is a warmaster-tier caster and support piece.

Play the Helsmiths as a fortified firebase that advances behind a shield. You are Chaos-through-extraction: spread Desolation Tokens, convert the board into fuel, then pour that fuel into the right unit at the right moment.

A typical rhythm:

1. Screen and mine. Push Hobgrots and objective-holders forward to plant Desolation Tokens early and keep the DPP economy flowing. 2. Grind forward. Anchor with Infernal Cohorts and artillery; use the Blades variant or movement tools to close distance without breaking your line. 3. Detonate. Once a target presents itself, dump DPP into one unit (guns, bulls, a caster, or a Dominator Engine) to turn it into an annihilator for a phase, then re-allocate next turn.

The skill ceiling is in allocation and timing: deciding which unit gets the points, and holding discipline so your backfield keeps producing tokens even as the front engages. Think two to three turns ahead rather than committing everything at once.

• Over-investing DPP too early. Because points reset each turn and are capped at 3 per unit, dumping everything turn one wastes the economy. Feed the units that will actually act this turn.
• Neglecting the token engine. If you push every unit into combat, you stop planting Desolation Tokens and your whole army goes flat. Keep support/objective pieces alive and mining.
• Trading your elites carelessly. Most Helsmith units are expensive and precious; that is what Hobgrots are for. Losing empowered units to a bad trade is very hard to recover from.
• Slow feet. The army is not fast. Against highly mobile or alpha-strike lists you can get out-tempoed if you don't plan movement and use the mobility tools deliberately.
• Fragile without the loop. If an opponent denies your objectives/terrain or kills your screens fast, your empowerment engine sputters and units perform at their unbuffed baseline.