Trumpets call out in fanfare as noble steeds trot through the streets of the Mortal Realms, and loyal squires and peasants tend to their every need. Overhead mighty Knights riding Pegasus circle through the clouds and a regal King leads his household to glory.

This is what the King and his followers see, but those who look on in horror see something much different. Rotting ghouls growl and hiss, tearing chunks out of carcasses and leaving a trail of blood in their wake as nightmarish bat like creatures carry heavily armored monsters into battle, all led by a gore splatted lunatic who believes he is a king…

Today, the Flesh-Eater Courts Army Set for Warhammer Age of Sigmar is up for preorder, containing not just a range of brand new models for the FEC, but inside the brand new 3rd Edition Battletome! In this review we’ll be checking out the contents of the box, seeing what they look like assembled and painted and be taking a deep dive into the new battletome, seeing how the army plays and what new goodies we have for them!

Massive thanks to Games Workshop for sending us a free review copy to check out on the site. If you would like to support the site then why not order your copy through our affiliate Element Games and save yourself some money too?

We have also filmed a full unboxing and video review of the battletome too, which you can see just below or over on YouTube

So without further ado, let’s gather our royal court as we delve deep into the Flesh-Eater Courts Army Set

Flesh-Eater Courts Army Set Unboxing and Review

Hot on the heels of the recent reveal of the brand new Flesh-Eater Courts range is the Army Set, and it’s jam packed with new miniatures! One of the things that has often put people off starting a Flesh Eaters army is the fact that many of the models are very old. In fact, the majority of the range dates from Warhammer Fantasy, and up until recently there’s not actually been many Age of Sigmar specific kits for them, leaving the range looking a little tired

I’m happy to say that is no longer the case, with this Army Set containing a good chunk (but not all) of the new models getting released for them in the new year (Army sets tend to be a way of getting “early access” to a new Battletome and miniatures in advance of the main release)

Here we get the new Abhorrant Gorewarden, a new plastic Varghulf Courtier a unit of Nightshrieker mounted Morbheg Knights and two units of Cryptguard, the new infantry kit releasing alongside the range.

The models look absolutely gorgeous in the flesh and are oozing with character and style. I’ve been looking forward to seeing new models for the Flesh-Eaters and these fit the bill exactly, with all of them being ace, but the bat riding knights being a particular favourite that I’ve wanted to see for a long time! The models are pretty quick to paint up too – For this review I painted up the contents of the box in around 14 hours – there’s more I can always go back and add, but they are nice and quick to have looking ready for the tabletop, and that’s always an important consideration with picking a new army to play!

Both the Morbheg Knights and the Cryptguard can also be made battleline, so if you only want to use newer Flesh-Eater Courts models for your games you are now able to, which again may be a win for peope who are not a fan of the classic Ghoul kit!

Alongside the battletome we also get two decks of cards in the box, one of Warscrolls (Containing every warscroll in the book, not just the stuff in the box) and another containing not only all the enhancements, but also all the core army mechanics – I think this is the first time I’ve seen this, but it means that all the core gameplay elements that you would normally see in the Army Rules section of the Battletome also have a card too allowing you to have these spread out on the table in front of you without needing to consult the battletome mid battle. This is a great idea and works as a great memory aid for when you might forget a core army concept during the heat of battle!

The other thing in the box is, of course, the Battletome – presented as ever in a limited edition format within the box. I really like this cover with the front showing what the Gorewarden looks like to others, and on the back what the Gorwarden thinks he looks like (This is also repeated on the sleeves for the cards and in “playing card” style on the smaller cards themselves.)

The book itself has some pretty big changes as to how the Flesh-Eaters play, along with lots of new lore – so let’s jump in and see just what has changed

Flesh-Eater Courts Battletome (2023) Review

Now Flesh-Eater Courts are one of the few Age of Sigmar armies I’ve never dipped my toe into in the past, I always liked the concept but the old models put me off, so getting to drink up all the lore here was really fun and gave me more of an insight into the background of the faction. Essentially, back in the day Nagash had three vampires doing his bidding, Mannfred, Nefarata and Ushoran – and it’s Ushoran who we learn quite a bit about in this book. He was seen as a Paladin, and turned unbelievers to Nagash’s cause, gathering quite the following in his Summercourt. One day Ushoran left the court to attend to matters dealing with the theft of Gravesand from his master Nagash, but when we returned he was changed. Now insane and raving about imagined conspiracies slights against him, Ushoran went on a rampage destroying many of Nagash’s lands and servants. In a bid to cure Ushoran’s sickness (Though most likely to simply hold him as a wild beast, with some whispering that it was nothing but a torture device) Nagash constructed the Shroudcage in order to fix his mind and repair his glorious Paladin back to his former state – however, intervention by Sigmar smashed the cage and shattered what little remained of Ushoran’s sanity. Fast forward to the Era of the Beast and Ushoran has once again returned to his court, fully under the delusion that he is a mighty king with a kingdom at his bidding. To make matters worse for the Mortal Realms, it seems that agents of Nefarata have started to poison people across the realms with the concentrated blood of the Flesh-Eater Mortarch, driving the victims mad and leading them to seek out the Summerking in order to pledge themselves to him. The lore section is great fun, especially after having read the events of the Dawnbringers series as there’s some hints here as to what is happening in the background there.

We also get a fantastic painting guide section in this book that goes a lot further than simple battle ready schemes but instead goes though multiple highlights and effects in order to get models looking as good as those in the showcase section. This is really nice to see as while Flesh-Eaters can easily be knocked out with contrast paints in a night or two, there is the potential to go to town and make them look really special. By having a range of different techniques in the book it makes it easier than ever to paint up the contents of the box, with the only thing really missing being a paint guide for the Shriekers (Through these can easily be adapted from other schemes)

Allegiance Abilities

With the Flesh-Eater Courts being an older Battletome, it’s no surprise that we get some considerable changes in how the army works. While some of the abilities are the same or similar, the core mechanic really changes how the force opperates.

For those panicking about everything changing we do have some holdovers – for example the entire army still has a 6+ ward save, but where things start to get very different is with the Noble Deeds mechanic

Noble Deeds basically captures how each member of the court is trying to build their influence and power by winning the heart of the people (Even if they are in reality filthy flesh eating cannibals) and how they can then expand that power in order to control them. This replaces the older summon mechanics, and I really like how these work.

Each character generates a resource called Noble Deed points by doing the following: casting a spell that is not unbound, chanting a prayer successfully, or for each wound or mortal wound cased in combat. These points cap at 6 and can be spent in order to summon models.

Courtiers can spend a single point to return a model to a unit of Serfs (So things like Ghouls and Cryptguard) or spend 2 points to return a Knight to a unit (Flayers, Horrors and the new Morberg Knights) – there’s no rolling involved, you simply deduct the points and add the models to a unit within 10″, and crucially there is no cap to this – you could example spend 6 points to return 2 Morberg Knights to a unit that is almost destroyed, and also return 2 dead Cryptguard). If you can reliably cause 6 wounds a turn with a couple of Courtiers then you have a decent battery for returning dead models each and every turn.

Abhorrants are a little different – they instead spend 6 points in order to put half (rounded up) of a destroyed unit within 6″ of the battlefield edge as a brand new unit. Usual restrictions apply such as being more than 9″ away from enemy models, but what’s really cool is that the remainder of the unit can then be added using the above Courtier rule (This is called out specially as allowed in the book). So for example, if you have had a unit of 6 Morbheg Knights destroyed, at the end of the movement phase an Abhorrant could spend 6 Noble Deep points in order to bring back 3 of them as a new unit. If you also had a Courtier within 10″ you could then spend 6 of the Courtiers points to bring back the other 3 to the unit. Each unit can only be brought back one, but this means that you can be really aggressive with your units as with clever use of Noble Deed points you can just bring them back again – and it’s really not hard to get those points with all the spell casting and decent combat skills you have! On top of this, you can also use Rally to return missing models from summoned units too, making the Flesh Eaters really good at coming back from the dead!

On top of this, any hero with 6 Noble Points also acts as a +1 attach aura to all Flesh-Eaters within 12″. So you’re going to want to invest in lots of characters in order to have some dedicated to summoning and restoring units, while others inspire your entire army to hit with more attacks.

In addition to this we also get the return of the Courts of Delusion too – with players picking one of 5 abilities at the start of the game, and most have been improved since the last incarnation of them.

The Royal Hunt adds 1 to wound rolls against Monsters – This used to be reroll 1s, so much better now!

Crusading Army stays the same with +1 to run and charge rolls

Defenders of the Realm adds 1 to save rolls of models contesting objectives

The Grand Tournament adds 1 to hit rolls on heroes that charged

The Feast Day means that Flesh-Eaters only need to be near a character with 4 Noble Deed points to get the extra attack bonus. This is the one I’d probably go for myself, but as you can pick at the start of the first battle round, it gives you some flexibility to pick based on what army you are facing.

There’s also a couple of Heroic Actions, one that has a chance of granting every other hero within 12″ a Noble Deed point, and one that allows the hero to move D6″ towards an enemy unit

Likewise we also get a couple of new Monstrous Rampages. The first causes D3 mortal wounds on a 3+, healing the monster for each wound caused (Though can only be used on targets with 2 or less wounds) and the second one subtracts 2 from the bravery of the target on a roll of 3+

Enhancements

We get a lot of Enhancements for the Flesh-Eater Courts, which should give players lots of options for building their lists. As far as Command Traits go we get 3 for Abhorrants and 3 for Courtiers.

Abhorrants get the ability to not be visible if more than 12″ away from the enemy, a bonus +1 to casting that increases to +2 if they have 6 Noble Deed points, and the ability to return Monsters through spending 6 Noble Deed points, though they return with 6 wounds allocated that cannot be healed in any way. Still, the ability to bring back a Terrorghiest with 8 wounds left on it is pretty cool for 6 Noble Deed points!

Courtiers instead get the ability to have 2 extra wounds and a 5+ ward if maxed out on points, to reduce the cost of summons by 1 (so a Knight costs 1 point) or in the case of a 1 point summon it instead brings back 2 models. Or finally for every hit of 6 to get an additional hit (or 2 more hits when maxed out on Noble Deed ponts)

There’s also a trio of Artefacts for each hero type. Abhorrants are able tosubtact 2 bravery from units within 9″ (Stacks really well with the monstrous rampage), a once per battle 2D3 heal, or a once per battle +1 attacks (Which while it also effects their mount seems a bit poor considering the hero gets an extra attack for 6 Noble Deed points anyway)

The Courtier ones on the other hand look really good, one allows them to spend a command point for free once per battle round, the next gives all Flesh_eaters within 12″ re-rolls to charges and the last one gives them the Priest keyword.

We also get a trio of spells, down from 6 in the original book.

Miasmal Shroud is similar to the old one with some tweaks, it goes off on a 6 and you roll 6 dice (Roll 8 if it goes off on an 10+) and if you get a double you cause a mortal wound, a triple makes them -1 to hit and a quad makes them -1 to wound. Very random and swingy but can potentially be very powerful.

Deranged Transformation increases a units move by 2 and makes it +1 to wound, and if it goes off on a 10+ you get to pick 3 units to apply it to.

Finally Crimon Victuals is a ranged damage dealer that does D3 Mortal Wounds (Or 2D3 on a roll of 10 or more) with you able to return a 1 wound model to your unit for each wound caused.

With us now having Priests, we also get a trio of prayers – one has you pick an enemy unit, and each wound caused to them heals a wound on a nearby FEC unit. The next makes a hero gain an additional Noble Deed point for each model they kill (note that is models killed, not wounds caused as per the usual Noble Deed generation – so this is more effective against 1 wound models) and the final prayer gives a target unit a 5+ ward save.

We also get 3 Dragon mount traits and 3 Terrorghiest mount traits – the Zombie Dragon ones including increasing the rend of it’s breath by 1, making it able to “deep strike” or giving it a 12″ +1 to hit aura for friendly monsters, which is ace in a Gristlegore army!

For the Terrorghiests we get +1 attack on their maw attack, a 2D3 heal with Royal Blood or the ability to retreat and charge!

Grand Courts

We get 4 Grand Courts in the book, and in addition to granting some abilities, these also unlock some battleline options to make building lists more interesting.

Morgaunt – This gives any hero that is contesting an objective 1 Noble Deed point at the end of the turn, and in addition unlocks Cryptguard as battleline (Perfect if you only wanted to use newer models in your army – and coincidentally makes this Army Set a legal army out of the box)

Hollowmourne increases the damage of Knights by 1 on the charge (Don’t forget Horrors and Flayers have the Knight keyword), and this unlocks Crypt Horrors as Battleline

Blisterskin gives all Abhorrants the Priest keyword and unlocks Crypt Horrors as Battleline

And finally Gristlegore unlocks Zombie Dragons and Terrorghiests as Battleline and allows a single monster per turn to have Strike-First

There’s a nice mix here and options to build an army that suits your play-style. I personally like Morgaunt for those battleline Cryptguard and passive Noble Deed generation to keep your heroes topped up.

Path to Glory

We get some fun Path to Glory content in the book with the main mechanic revolving around the Intigues of the Court, with your heroes falling in and out of favour with the court, with those who are in favour gaining additional Noble Deed points.

We also see a cool mechanic representing the fact that agents of Death are trying to corrupt other cities with the cursed blood. With this you actually make a roll for each territory that your opponant controlls, and there’s a chance that a portion of their population defects to join the Summerking – which in game terms grants you the ability to replenish any slain models with their own people! You can also use this to reduce the cost of adding a brand new unit to your army too.

I really like Path to Glory mechanics like this that capture the flavour of the army while still having a fun in-game effect

Matched Play

As ever we get 3 Grand Strategies that replace the old one – First up we have Legendary Exploits that requires at least 3 heroes to have 6 Noble Deed points at the end of the game. I feel this one is pretty easy to get, as by that point you’ll have brought back most units anyway – and it’s just a case of making sure they are topped up

Expand the Kingdon is a little harder, you need an Abhorrant in enemy territory and the enemy general cannot be within your terrirory

Finally, Defend the Throne has you garrisoning a Charnel Throne and ensuring no enemy are within 6″ – again this one seems a little trickier to do, though with the summoning mechanics there’s easy ways of getting units close to your Throne if you bring them back on your board edge

There’s 6 battle tactics, again with some seeming easier than others.

Screamed to Death does what it says on the tin – kill something with a ranged attack

Valiant Slaying has one of your Abhorrants trying to kill a monster

Overrun is pretty hard and requires every enemy unit to be within 3″ of a Flesh-Eater unit

Glorious Feast means that every unit has to be within 12″ of a hero with 6 Noble Deeds – this is a good last turn pick if you have picked Legendary Exploits

Lance Formation requires two Knight units to make a charge of at least 7″ – theres ways of granting rerolls to charges, so this seems a pretty easy one to do

Finally Ties of Chivalry requires you to take a selected objective with a unit of Serfs, a unit of Knights and a Courtier – super specific on the units needed to do the task, but you’ll probably have groups of all 3 moving around the battlefield together anyway.

Warscrolls

So let’s take a look at the new Warsrcolls! I’m mostly going to focus on the new units, but I will be calling out any major changes on old units too!

Nasgah – The Lord of the Undead is in the book still rocking his 3rd edition profile. He’s a massive points investment but a really cool model

Ushoran – Talking about cool models, we get a profile and awesome new kit for the Mortarch of Delusion himself! He’s very much a force multiplier for the Flesh Eaters with him granting the +1 attach from maxed out Noble Deed points to all units within 24″ rather than 12″, and also each turn he can pick an additional delusion that affects all units within his aura (starts at 30″)

Remember all those cool bravery lowering abilities earlier? Well the Summerking Ushoran lowers the bravery of all units within 3″ by 1, and then he rolls 2D6 for each unit within 1″, if he beats their bravery they get the Strikes Last ability, making him really dangerous if supported by other units – and he’s no slouch in combat either, while he hasnt got the greatest rend, he does have a stack of attacks with the potential to put out 38 damage a turn if he is lucky (or 46 with maxed Nobel Deed points)

He also has a nice spell that punishes heroes that are hiding behind units, or units that are close together, you pick a model and get to attack with a single melee weapon against a unit within range. Very good if someone is careless with positioning a powerful hero.

Abhorrant Ghoul King on Terrorghiest/Zombie Dragon – These units have been reworked a little, with both now having 16 wounds. Mounted on a Terrorghiest they now have a spell that allows hits with the Maw to be re-rolled, which is great for fishing for 6s. The Dragon gets the biggest rework with the Breath attack now getting D6 attacks that can do 3 damage each, these now hit and wound as usual. In addition the enemy cannot use inspiring presence within 3″ of a Dragon, so again stacks well with the bravery debuffs on offer. Finally when mounted on a dragon the Ghoul King has a spell that allows a monster to run and charge.

Grand Justice Gormayne – The new Court Judge with his grisly headdress – This guy can basically enact a judgement each turn that has one of 4 abilities that they can pick from on a successful roll of a 3+: Make all Flesh-Eaters get +1 to wound on a target unit, Make all Flesh Eaters run and charge against a target unit, give all Flesh-Eaters +1 to hit on a target unit or increase the damage of all Flesh-Eater weapons by 1 on a unit that has slain an Abhorrant. Has the Abhorrant keyword himself so can be used for bringing dead units back, though unlike most isnt a wizard

Abhorrant Gorewarden – This is the new model in the box and comboes well with the new Knights as he can be used to allow them to “deep strike” and also has a spell that can be used to remove a unit of Knights and himself from the board and set them up again anywere outside of 9″ of the enemy.

Abhrorrant Archregent – Again, this guy has been reworked quite a lot. Rocking only 5 attacks, but they are all damage 2 now, and he heals D3 wounds a turn rather than 3. But he is still pretty good at keeping units topped up returning 3 models to a serfs unit, or a single model to a Knight unit in the hero phase. He also works really well with the Gorewarden as he has a spell that allows any unit that is set up to immediately move D6 inches. Teleport knights with the warden and bounce them nearer for an easier charge.

Abhorrant Ghoul King – This guy is now somewhat of an assassin, he can choose to duel any hero, and he gets plus 1 damage on all his attacks (Which are now damage 2 base) – if he duels he can only target that character, but when he can put out up to 15 damage (18 if full of noble dice) then he is a very real threat to heroes. This is buffed further with his spell that gives him a 3D6 charge and strikes first!

Abhorrant Cardinal – This is the new Priest character, in addition to the Enhancement prayers he also gets one on his warscroll where you pick an enemy unit and every time a command is issued to them it fails on a 4+. I reckon this guy could be really annoying to face if he gets that off on a key unit, though 50/50 chance isnt the most reliable here.

Marrowscroll Herald – This is the new character from the Dawnbringer series and he is used to either give an enemy unit unit a decision to make, either give all flesh eaters within 3″ strikes first, or instead to have to beat bravery on a 2D6 roll if they want to issue or recieve a command, cast a spell or chant a prayer. While he has to get close to do it, this guy can be really annoying. Has the Courtier keyword so can bring dead models back to units too

Royal Decapitator – A nice assassin Courtier, this guy let’s a friendly unit that hasnt fought yet attack immediately after him, but his main gimmick is that if he wounds a hero then they are slain at the end of the combat phase on a roll of 5+. He’s a little squishy, but get lucky and he has a 1 in 3 chance of taking out heroes far more expensive than he is!

Crypt Ghast/Infernal/Haunter Courtiers – all three of the Courtier heroes have changed. the Ghast now allows a unit to fight after him and does D3 damage with 5 attacks at rend 1, the Haunter now allows a unit of Haunters to fight after him, and now packs 5 attacks at damage 3 with 2 rend, and finally the Infernal has 4 attacks on his ranged weapon at rend 2, and also adds 1 to the damage of nearby flayers.

Varghulf Courtier – This guy gets a new model along with some new rules, with extra attack on this claws and damage 3 on his fangs this is a really good noble deed generator. He can now always get 2 extra attacks on all his weapons, but only when fighting things with 2 or less wounds, he does not have fly but can move as if he has fly, and now deals D6 wounds if he kills any models. Really like this guy, and dont forget you could make him a priest with an artefact too! Comes in the Army Set

Cryptguard – This is a really nice unit, 2 attacks each hitting and wounding on 3s with 1 rend and 1 damage, and if they wound a target then that unit cannot issue or receive commands until the end of the turn, making it work really well against some of the bravery debuffs we have seen. In addition them and any heroes within 3″ have a 5+ ward save in addition to their base 5+ armour save. Very much an “elite” unit of ghouls and not bad at all points wise. 2 units are in the Army set too!

Morbheg Knights – This is another new unit in the Army Set and are essentially Pegasus Knights in Age of Sigmar! They are pretty quick with movement 12 and can retreat and charge making them good for slingshotting onto objectives. Their main ability though is shutting down Unleash Hell, as any unit they charge cannot receive it! In addition they roll a dice for each model in the unit and on a 4+ do D3 Mortal Wound. A unit of 6 of these can cause a lot of pain to any annoying ranged units! They are also Battleline if you take a Gorewarden and get plus 1 damage on the charge in Hollowmourne

Crypt Flayers/ Crypt Horrors – both of these units are the same bar some tweaks to the ranges on Chosen of the King for the Horrors. Flayers are cheaper, but Horrors have gone up in points for some reason

Crypt Ghouls – These are pretty much the same as they used to be, but now have to be taken in units of 20+ which actually makes them one of the most expensive battleline options.

Royal Beastflayers – These retain all the rules they got from the Warcry release, essentially these are monster hunters who reduce turn off Monsterous Rampages and reduce the damage of nearby monsters.

Royal Terrorgheist/Royal Zombie Dragon – These have the same changes the mounted versions have, though the unmounted Dragon can also “deep strike” coming in anywhere on the battlefield outside of 9″ of enemy models

Cadaverous Barricade – This now stops units from running or retreating in addition to halving movement – really nice for forcing units to stay in combat with you

Chalice of Ushoran – rules stay the same in that it can heal wounds or return dead models for each roll of a 4+ based on how many models are slain near it, but it can now move 8″ and Fly

Corpsemare Stampede – This stays the same, though has gone up in points a little

Charnel Throne – This is still the unique faction terrain piece, though the rules have changed a little now with it’s ability giving a garrisoned hero D3 noble deed points each turn. Can be a good way of getting your heroes back up to full deed points if they have done a big summon.

Summary

So what do I think of the Flesh-Eater Courts Army Set, and in particular the new Battletome? Well for a start the Flesh Eaters have been long overdue a new battletome and miniatures range. As mentioned earlier in the review, most of their range is from Warhammer Fantasy and look a little dated compared to other Age of Sigmar armies. With this release they get a much needed injection of new kits that really capture the deranged delusion vibe of the army while also filling out some more different unit types for flavour. In an army that really works around multiple different supporting heroes, it’s great that all options are great with the new heroes (Arguably, some of the courtiers built out of the old kits are less attractive now) and it’s going to be hard to decide just who to include in the army! I’m really looking forward to putting together a few different lists, though I really do see Cryptguard as a replacement to the old plastic Ghouls, and I wonder if these will disappear entirely from the range some time.

The Nobel Deed mechanic is really fun too, offering an interesting new take on a summoning mechanic while also capturing the feel of these various characters trying to get the attention and adoration of those around them as they do various heroic events during the battle.

I’m really excited to the rest of the range being released in 2024 so that I can build the royal court of my nightmares!

The Flesh Eater Court Army Set is up for pre order today and is released Saturday 18th December, just in time for Christmas.

Games Workshop provided Sprues & Brews with a free copy for review purposes.