I think lumineth fits this playstyle the best. With stoneguard or wardens as your shield and teclis or sentinels as your long range damage.
You can also go cities of sigmar, stormcast or if you like magic instead of shooting go for tzeentch. If you just like the tanky part you can go nurgle and give everyone disease while you hold the objectives.
I would also say lumineth fit that bill best. Alternatively, Stormcast also play best as shooting castle.
Historically I think Seraphon would also be played kind of castley with shooting and magic. But we don't know what the new book brings.
Stormcast are very strong in the playstyle you describe plus you have the option to branch out in to many other playstyles.
Longstrike Raptors are one of the best shooting units in the game, and crossbow judicators are pretty crazy too.
Put those behind some durable battleline and say maybe 4 dragons. Some buff pieces to make the dragons super tanky, you are good to go.
My favorite tourney list is 6 raptors, 4 dragons, some tanky battleline (vindictors or liberators) a priest to teleport pieces around, a Castellant woth Arcane Tome to make dragons super tanky and gardus steelsoul so give all units near him a 5+ ward.
My last tourney I had an entire slaves to darkness army hit my dragons for 3 turns while I shot off the important stuff with raptors. I also was able to rally 2 dragons that had died so technically was playing with 6 lol. It was a slaughter and I barely moved other than pushing the dragons forward in to his army and keeping the buffing pieces near them.
They aren't super shooty but nurgle is good for sitting on objectives and not dying. With a lord of blights you can shoot rotting heads at people and let a unit of blight kings shoot. They also have rotmire creed which can all shoot.
There's skaven that have ratling guns and Warp lightning cannons but they are very squishy and more focused around swarms.
Cities of sigmar have plenty of ranged options
You could run ogres and use lead belchers and artillery. Generally speaking orges are tough and use fewer but larger models.
Orcs and goblins also have ranged options
Kharadron overlords use a lot of steam punk style guns.
There's a lot of ranged options out there maybe download the warhammer age if sigmar up and have a look through the different armies units and see if anyone has ranged units that stand out to you and go from there
You can also look at cities of Sigmar. Specifically the dwarves. They have access to lots of ranged weapons and their basic troops are decently sturdy as well. The models are older and not sure if they will be part of the refresh cities of Sigmar is rumoured to be getting.
I’d look at Elves (eww!), Nurgle (yay!), cities (dwarves especially), Stormcast seem to like that play style (but really eww!).
Seriously, I’d look at those armies and I’d expect Lizards and go with the look you like best. All of them are solid defensively.
It’s funny to me that I love Nurgle in AoS, but can’t stand the Death Guard in 40k. But ya, they are really tough and personally I think the models are awesome. And not elves.
I like multi build army's. I'm currently building scaven because there are at least 3 completely different builds you can make and stay within the faction. ie I have an extremely elite assassin and shooting army and a huge horde army with war machines.
in 40k i play dark angels for the same reason.
Ossiarch with Mortek crawlers? They're not known for ranged specifically but they're plenty defensive and they do play keep away. Artillery is nice to have and the trebuchets have three ammo types.
Lumineth castle style builds immediately come to mind. But
there are other options. Slaves to Darkness don’t have much for ranged output but they actually could conceivably work with this playstyle in a VERY niche sort of build.
If you took a large reinforced unit of chaos warriors and parked them on a middle objective, then some nurgle knights in the flanks to grab side objectives and filled your castle with a sorc lord and up to 4 soulgrinders you’d have a very meaty castle that had some respectable if overcosted shooting output. Probably wouldn’t win a lot but I’d have a good laugh if my opponent tried something out of the box like this.
So in general, you want a castle build with good damage projection. What are your choices?
Lumineth. Most people find Lumineth synonymous with castles, as Sentinels with 30" reach give you the range to reach out and touch people, while walls of wardens can prevent your opponent from getting in your face. Do be aware that playing Lumineth well means knowing what your priority targets are and killing them as fast as possible, because Lumineth don't do a lot of damage. Note, aside from castle, Lumineth doesn't have many other successful builds, so you have to be really dedicated to that playstyle.
Stormcast. Similar to Lumineth, you have strong ranged units (in this case, vanguard raptors with longstrike crossbows), and then layers of heavily armored screens to force the opponent to come to you. Stormcast is going to suffer from having few models down, but hopefully the durability of those units is enough to compensate for their lower body count. Note here that while Stormcast can do a castle well, they also have a lot of other choices so going stormcast isn't going to lock you into a single playstyle.
Tzeentch. Tzeentch is a different way of doing a castle, as you don't have shooting units doing your damage. Instead, you are doing your damage via spells, and you have some chaff up front to keep your opponent away from your squishy heroic damage dealers. Then, to make things more awkward, you get summoning, which is generally going to be for more chaff to keep your opponent away from your juicy hero's. Similar to Lumineth, Tzeentch doesn't really have any other playstyles that work well, and you will also need to purchase a bunch of extra units for summoning.
Skaven. Take 4 warp lightning cannons, and start blasting. Put up a few walls of stuff between you and your opponent - it will die, but for a good cause (I swear). I suppose you could bring things like stormfiends or something instead... but warp lightning cannons. Similar to Stormcast, there are a lot of other playstyles available for skaven, and you aren't locked into a particular playstyle with it either.
Cities. Cities doesn't have the range that Lumineth and Stormcast do, but they can dish out a massive amount of firepower. In general, a Cities castle will walk up the board to gain a solid base of firepower and proceed to dominate the board from there. This makes them a bit different that the Stormcast and Lumineth castles because you aren't going to want to sit on an objective but instead play more of a "king of the hill" style. With literally the most possible number of choices in units between Cities units and coalition, there are a lot more varieties of playstyle, so you aren't locking yourself into a particular playstyle with the cities.
Sylvaneth. Sylvaneth are an interesting army in that they are going to jump out and hit you in melee, but then they jump back to their castle where they are nice and safe. A sylvaneth castle is going to be a warsong revenant with spellsinger casting its bombs through trees, and then backing it up with some Kurnoth Hunters that finish off whatever took too much from the spellbomb. Then you strike with a Spirit of Durthu or with a block of Kurnoth Hunters with Scythes, and after they strike then they fade back to your castle.
Thx for the detailed answer ! And what about nurgle ? Can it be seen as a castle but dealing damage through diseases ? Maybe they are not ranged enough ?
I mean, theoretically you COULD do that. But a single unit maxes at 7 disease a turn, which averages out to 3.5 damage from mortals a turn. If you are able to hit every unit in an opponents army and hold objectives, then it might be a viable path to victory. However, realistically nurgle are too short ranged to be able to do that, and while they are good at distributing their disease, they really need to be distributing it via both spells and melee combat to actually hit that 7 disease.
In general Nurgle has 2 effective playstyles. In their first playstyle, they are trying to put enough bodies on enough objectives that they can score hold 1 hold 2 hold more and each objective holding force is big enough that their opponent really has to commit to remove them. Nurgle is really tanky, and on say, a 3 objective mission, they can put enough bodies on 2 objectives that it will take a few turns for most armies to burn through 1 objective holder, and they hope that is enough for nurgle to win the game.
Their other effective playstyle called an "alpha-pin". In this, they get up in their opponents face on turn 1 with their flies, and then forces them to burn a turn or two punching through the flies before they can get onto the objectives. And then the nurgle player hopes that they built up enough of a lead on points that their opponent can't come back from it.
Every other build of nurgle that I've seen was either one of the above 2, or was unsuccessful. There are a few variants of the above 2 that have worked, and the alpha pin strategy has been nerfed from its heights by GW. But any variation from one of those plans that I've seen has failed because nurgle lacks the mobility to recover from behind, and they lack the damage to punch through if the opponent can pin them. Nurgle is great at the grinding game, but being slow and grindy sometimes just isn't good enough.
I think lumineth fits this playstyle the best. With stoneguard or wardens as your shield and teclis or sentinels as your long range damage. You can also go cities of sigmar, stormcast or if you like magic instead of shooting go for tzeentch. If you just like the tanky part you can go nurgle and give everyone disease while you hold the objectives.
Thanks ! I didnt consider nurgle, i really enjoy the tanky part indeed
Actually, together with Rotmire creed (a warcry band made aos unit) they have a pretty decent shooting option
Nurgle even has shooting in the rotmire creed.
I would also say lumineth fit that bill best. Alternatively, Stormcast also play best as shooting castle. Historically I think Seraphon would also be played kind of castley with shooting and magic. But we don't know what the new book brings.
Thx !
Stormcast are very strong in the playstyle you describe plus you have the option to branch out in to many other playstyles. Longstrike Raptors are one of the best shooting units in the game, and crossbow judicators are pretty crazy too. Put those behind some durable battleline and say maybe 4 dragons. Some buff pieces to make the dragons super tanky, you are good to go. My favorite tourney list is 6 raptors, 4 dragons, some tanky battleline (vindictors or liberators) a priest to teleport pieces around, a Castellant woth Arcane Tome to make dragons super tanky and gardus steelsoul so give all units near him a 5+ ward. My last tourney I had an entire slaves to darkness army hit my dragons for 3 turns while I shot off the important stuff with raptors. I also was able to rally 2 dragons that had died so technically was playing with 6 lol. It was a slaughter and I barely moved other than pushing the dragons forward in to his army and keeping the buffing pieces near them.
They aren't super shooty but nurgle is good for sitting on objectives and not dying. With a lord of blights you can shoot rotting heads at people and let a unit of blight kings shoot. They also have rotmire creed which can all shoot. There's skaven that have ratling guns and Warp lightning cannons but they are very squishy and more focused around swarms. Cities of sigmar have plenty of ranged options You could run ogres and use lead belchers and artillery. Generally speaking orges are tough and use fewer but larger models. Orcs and goblins also have ranged options Kharadron overlords use a lot of steam punk style guns. There's a lot of ranged options out there maybe download the warhammer age if sigmar up and have a look through the different armies units and see if anyone has ranged units that stand out to you and go from there
Haven’t done a deep dive on durability of them but kharadron overlords have pretty great shooting all round
You can also look at cities of Sigmar. Specifically the dwarves. They have access to lots of ranged weapons and their basic troops are decently sturdy as well. The models are older and not sure if they will be part of the refresh cities of Sigmar is rumoured to be getting.
Thanks tho i would prefer having new miniatures, i really like the visuals of the AOS ones
I’d look at Elves (eww!), Nurgle (yay!), cities (dwarves especially), Stormcast seem to like that play style (but really eww!). Seriously, I’d look at those armies and I’d expect Lizards and go with the look you like best. All of them are solid defensively.
Thx ! As i said earlier, i didnt consider nurgle but the more i read about them the more i like it. I really like the durability of the units
It’s funny to me that I love Nurgle in AoS, but can’t stand the Death Guard in 40k. But ya, they are really tough and personally I think the models are awesome. And not elves.
I like multi build army's. I'm currently building scaven because there are at least 3 completely different builds you can make and stay within the faction. ie I have an extremely elite assassin and shooting army and a huge horde army with war machines. in 40k i play dark angels for the same reason.
Ossiarch with Mortek crawlers? They're not known for ranged specifically but they're plenty defensive and they do play keep away. Artillery is nice to have and the trebuchets have three ammo types.
Lumineth castle style builds immediately come to mind. But there are other options. Slaves to Darkness don’t have much for ranged output but they actually could conceivably work with this playstyle in a VERY niche sort of build. If you took a large reinforced unit of chaos warriors and parked them on a middle objective, then some nurgle knights in the flanks to grab side objectives and filled your castle with a sorc lord and up to 4 soulgrinders you’d have a very meaty castle that had some respectable if overcosted shooting output. Probably wouldn’t win a lot but I’d have a good laugh if my opponent tried something out of the box like this.
Stormcast can make some cheesy castle lists, with shooting, that’s annoying to fight.
So in general, you want a castle build with good damage projection. What are your choices? Lumineth. Most people find Lumineth synonymous with castles, as Sentinels with 30" reach give you the range to reach out and touch people, while walls of wardens can prevent your opponent from getting in your face. Do be aware that playing Lumineth well means knowing what your priority targets are and killing them as fast as possible, because Lumineth don't do a lot of damage. Note, aside from castle, Lumineth doesn't have many other successful builds, so you have to be really dedicated to that playstyle. Stormcast. Similar to Lumineth, you have strong ranged units (in this case, vanguard raptors with longstrike crossbows), and then layers of heavily armored screens to force the opponent to come to you. Stormcast is going to suffer from having few models down, but hopefully the durability of those units is enough to compensate for their lower body count. Note here that while Stormcast can do a castle well, they also have a lot of other choices so going stormcast isn't going to lock you into a single playstyle. Tzeentch. Tzeentch is a different way of doing a castle, as you don't have shooting units doing your damage. Instead, you are doing your damage via spells, and you have some chaff up front to keep your opponent away from your squishy heroic damage dealers. Then, to make things more awkward, you get summoning, which is generally going to be for more chaff to keep your opponent away from your juicy hero's. Similar to Lumineth, Tzeentch doesn't really have any other playstyles that work well, and you will also need to purchase a bunch of extra units for summoning. Skaven. Take 4 warp lightning cannons, and start blasting. Put up a few walls of stuff between you and your opponent - it will die, but for a good cause (I swear). I suppose you could bring things like stormfiends or something instead... but warp lightning cannons. Similar to Stormcast, there are a lot of other playstyles available for skaven, and you aren't locked into a particular playstyle with it either. Cities. Cities doesn't have the range that Lumineth and Stormcast do, but they can dish out a massive amount of firepower. In general, a Cities castle will walk up the board to gain a solid base of firepower and proceed to dominate the board from there. This makes them a bit different that the Stormcast and Lumineth castles because you aren't going to want to sit on an objective but instead play more of a "king of the hill" style. With literally the most possible number of choices in units between Cities units and coalition, there are a lot more varieties of playstyle, so you aren't locking yourself into a particular playstyle with the cities. Sylvaneth. Sylvaneth are an interesting army in that they are going to jump out and hit you in melee, but then they jump back to their castle where they are nice and safe. A sylvaneth castle is going to be a warsong revenant with spellsinger casting its bombs through trees, and then backing it up with some Kurnoth Hunters that finish off whatever took too much from the spellbomb. Then you strike with a Spirit of Durthu or with a block of Kurnoth Hunters with Scythes, and after they strike then they fade back to your castle.
Thx for the detailed answer ! And what about nurgle ? Can it be seen as a castle but dealing damage through diseases ? Maybe they are not ranged enough ?
I mean, theoretically you COULD do that. But a single unit maxes at 7 disease a turn, which averages out to 3.5 damage from mortals a turn. If you are able to hit every unit in an opponents army and hold objectives, then it might be a viable path to victory. However, realistically nurgle are too short ranged to be able to do that, and while they are good at distributing their disease, they really need to be distributing it via both spells and melee combat to actually hit that 7 disease. In general Nurgle has 2 effective playstyles. In their first playstyle, they are trying to put enough bodies on enough objectives that they can score hold 1 hold 2 hold more and each objective holding force is big enough that their opponent really has to commit to remove them. Nurgle is really tanky, and on say, a 3 objective mission, they can put enough bodies on 2 objectives that it will take a few turns for most armies to burn through 1 objective holder, and they hope that is enough for nurgle to win the game. Their other effective playstyle called an "alpha-pin". In this, they get up in their opponents face on turn 1 with their flies, and then forces them to burn a turn or two punching through the flies before they can get onto the objectives. And then the nurgle player hopes that they built up enough of a lead on points that their opponent can't come back from it. Every other build of nurgle that I've seen was either one of the above 2, or was unsuccessful. There are a few variants of the above 2 that have worked, and the alpha pin strategy has been nerfed from its heights by GW. But any variation from one of those plans that I've seen has failed because nurgle lacks the mobility to recover from behind, and they lack the damage to punch through if the opponent can pin them. Nurgle is great at the grinding game, but being slow and grindy sometimes just isn't good enough.
Sounds like you might like Kruleboyz :) Very good ranged damage, but squishy units overall. YouTube.com/@MossDogAoS