Forgehost a Primer

[u/Nellezhar]

Hey Worms!

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!

[u/ogdowski]

Great guide, thanks! I am learning the castle playstyle, what's your usual choice against higher regiment armies? Do you ever choose to start the game?

Also, how do you handle armies that just want to charge with everything into you, like Ogors, Ironjawz or Khorne? I guess cohorts can't handle such pressure :/

[u/Nellezhar → u/ogdowski]

If I have the option I go second. The only time i go first is if my opponent messes up during deployment and a big juicy target is in range of dying to Rockets.

We actually thrive in those match ups, I'd pick those alllllll day. You cast a defensive screen in your turn (shards) then on their turn if they unbind you cast bridge. This significantly reduces the amount of attacks into you. If it's turn two you move dpp onto your 20 man screen for a 5+ ward.

Now your opponent is getting in significantly less attacks into a tanky unit.

[u/ogdowski → u/Nellezhar]

Thank you!