Using Balazar's Dominion for Wargaming | AoS (Community Content)

With such an expansive range of miniatures in our catalogue, our amazing community often finds creative ways to bring a touch of Bestiarum flavour into their other wargaming hobbies.

This article was created by a community member and does not represent the official position of Bestiarum Games. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with any other gaming systems or intellectual properties mentioned in this content.

Hi, I am SerKakapo and I've been involved in the world of tabletop games and miniatures since around 1999.

I owned a nerd shop and am currently managing two Age of Sigmar clubs for two different stores in Rome, a roleplay group where we play with actual miniatures and a new Trench Crusade community.

I Joined Bestiarum’s Patreon a few months ago since I want to use the setting for a roleplay campaign and the miniatures for both Age of Sigmar and various roleplay games.

Speaking of Age of Sigmar (AoS), I play the game quite a lot. I play at competitive tournaments, casual game nights and narrative campaigns (that I usually organize for shops) and I do think that Bestiarum’s miniatures are quite perfect to bring some of the grimmer aspect of the setting on the tabletop.

I'll be using Balazar's Dominion to fit in for a proper Hedonites of Slaanesh army, a project that I will embark on myself in a few months. The Hedonites are a faction of demonic creatures and their mortal followers; twisted individual that are all about extremes and debauchery, something that Balazar’s minions show quite well, especially in the body horror they apply to themselves.

The perfect way to make Balazar’s minis fit as a Hedonites army is to make an army that is both a nice showcase piece, with lots of different models and a nice centerpiece, but also a coherent and effective army to enjoy the game.

So, let’s start with a list of what each of the gorgeous Balazar’s minis can be used for and why:

• Exalted Spears: Myrmidesh Painbringers. (Elegant warriors with shields, you need five of them so you will have to mirror a couple of them when printing.)
  
  

• Exalted Archers: Blissbarbs Archers. (Fast infantry with bows, you need 10 of them plus a little supporting dude. I suggest using a Shattered Vessel for it.)
  
  

• Cabal Mage: Shardspeaker of Slaanesh. (This is extremely different as a miniature concept, but they are the mages of the factions so it’s still a pretty clear proxy on the table)
  
  

• The Sentinel and The Ravager: They aren’t great proxies for a Hedonites army, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t useful. They are both absolutely perfect to proxy for a Slaanesh Marked Chaos Lord and Exalted Hero of Chaos for a Slave to Darkness army. (More on it in another article maybe?)
  
  

• General Atraxes: Lord of Pain. (Commander with massive weapon and totem over the head)
  
  

• Cirxe, the Enchantress: Lord of Hubris. (Big blade, relaxed pose exuding confidence)
  
  

• Bouffon, the Hunchback Jester: The Masque. (Once again, it doesn’t fit aesthetically with the original miniature, but it’s a great horror twist having him puppetting an head as the “mask”, instead of wearing a common mask. It can also be used as a great Sloppity Bilepiper for a Maggothkin of Nurgle army).
  
  

• Balazar the Demon Prince: Glutos Orscollion: (Massive hedonist monster on a palanquin)
  
  

• Demonettes: Demonettes (Duh)
  
  

• Visage of Many Griefs: Daemon Prince without wings (it’s not technically an Hedonites unit, but it can be played as a great thematic ally in your games!)
  
  

• Demonic Siren: Viceleader (Small demonic and feminine support hero)
  
  

• Vorukhan and Selthara: Keeper of Secrets (There are different builds and version of this big and gorgeous Daemon, so having different Balazar’s monsters for it is great!)
  
  

• Exalted Warriors: Myrmidesh Painbringer or Chaos Warriors (They work perfectly for a less elegant, more brutal version of the Painbringers or they are spot on as Chaos Warrior for a Slave to Darkness army).
  
  

• Exalted Horrors: Slaangors Fiendbloods (Big deformed humanoid monster)
  
  

• Bekhetur: Daemon Prince with wings. (Again, it’s technically a Slave to Darkness unit but you can ally it).
  
  

• Balazarine Cabalists: Viceleader (It’s a single hero, but you can have different version of it if you like to play multiples of her, like I do!)
  
  

• Exalted Talons: Symbaresh Twinsouls (Double armed warriors with their face distorted, you need five of them so mirror two of them.)
  
  

• Weaver of Binding: Contorted Epitome. (This is a bit of a stretch. They are both big oracle heroes, but the similarities are not that strong… it’s up to you if you think this is appropriate.)
  
  

• Shaezarin, the First Concubine: Syll’Esske, the Vengeful Allegiance: (This too is a bit of a stretch. She is the right size and it has a theme of multiple models with a massive demonic centerpiece… but yeah, this too is up to you!)

As a final rule, I will say that all those gorgeous models could also made into other AoS units with just a bit of kitbashing or converting works, but right now I am just considering the raw models.

Now that we have this nice list, how can we use it for playing the game?
I want to show you one of the MANY possible armies you can make with those models. It’s an army that will offer you quite a lot of variety on the field and a big centerpiece model; this way it should be fun to paint and collect but also fun to play.

For a standard 2000 point game (the balanced and most played game format) we can go like this:

Balazar, Lord of Ecstasy (Glutos Orscollion)

Cirxe the Enchantress (Lord of Hubris)

20x Demonettes

20x Demonettes

General Atraxes (Lord of Hubris)

10x Exalted Archers (Blissbarb Archers)

10x Exalted Warriors or Exalted Spears (Myrmidesh Painbringers)

10x Exalted Warriors or Exalted Spears (Myrmidesh Painbringers)

Lamashtu (Daemon Prince)

This is a full 2000 points list with a lot of options to play the game.

You have Balazar as your centerpiece, an incredibly resilient unit that will be extremely hard for your opponent to deal with and can march along the center of the battlefield. Anything that is walking along Balazar will be buffed by his powerful aura, making your infantry faster and more deadly as the game goes on. Balazar will also be a powerful wizard, helping you unleashing spells and stopping the enemy mages from casting.

Cirxe and Atraxes will be your two smaller heroes, each of them a very capable warrior and a great leader for your units of Exalted Spears. Those Exalted Spears will be your main infantry units, charging along the battlefield to conquer the mission objectives and defending them from your enemy.

While those units slowly advances to take control of the field, you have two large units of Demonettes that can swiftly flank the enemy. They are easy to kill, but they are fast and they hit HARD when they manage to surprise your opponent with a quick charge. Their role will be hunting down any enemy unit that is out of position, steal far away objectives or flank enemy units that are already stuck against your better armored Exalted Spears!

Lastly, you have two aces in the hole.

The first one is a unit of fast moving Exalted Archers. They dish out quite a bit of damage and they can help your fight even if they stay back, defending some objective in your territory.

The second one is the Lamashtu, a powerful warrior that fights so quickly that often your enemies will receive damage and be killed before they can even attack him, even if they charge her, making her a perfect unit to send forward alone and force your opponent to diverge his attention on her!

In the end, I have to say that I personally love to put a deep emphasis on Horror in my miniatures, showcasing the more visceral brutalities of the setting I play in AND I love facing (and playing) more unique miniatures to avoid finding the same models on both ends of the table. Sure it's fine when you find yourself facing the same army that you also play, but it can be a bit dull, especially when it comes to unique heroes. It's way more fun when one of the player is playing his dudes from another region of the Mortal Realms, and even if there surely is just one Glutos Orscollion in the settings, surely there are many more daemonic champions that followed a similar path and try to rob him of his spotlights. In my view, this makes even casual games more narrative, showing what can be an internal struggle in a nation with different pretenders to power, instead of a more “gamey” look of identical miniatures clashing against each other.

The AoS setting is absolutely huge, with each different tribe and daemon having hundreds of different regional and cultural differences and using the models above perfectly captures this aspect of the lore. The most important thing to nail when you make a “proxy” army, is to capture the feeling and theme of the faction and nothing screams insanity, elegance and excess like Balazar and his depraved followers. Balazar’s miniatures tell a story and it can easily be the story of your personal army!

Well, that's all for now folks, I hope that you will have fun with this army or the others that you can build with the vast list of units at your disposal in this collection. Happy wargames!

By SerKakapo

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This post was written by one of the lovely members of our community. If there's an article, guide or other feature you'd like to share, reach out to us at contact@bestiarumgames.com!

Editing by Sam Franquet

This article was written by a member of the Bestiarum community and reflects their personal views only. It does not represent the official position of Bestiarum Games.

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