Sword of AntiHeros

With 50% lords and heros an option now, I expect to see more character star units, and have been considering the Sword of Anti Heros.

With 3 characters in my guts I have always avoided units with the sword of anti-heros, but I have recently realized I can just leave my characters in the second rank and then they don't trigger the sword benefits.

Likewise, if my character is in the 2nd rank and issues a challenge, I stay in the 2nd rank as you only move a character that accepts a challenge, and only if it is possible to move them into base to base.You fight the challenge as if you are in base, so I suppose in the challenge your opponent should get the +1+1

I consider the SoAH a great buy on a tyrant as it is only 10pts more than the +1 attack or +1 strength and gives both when only facing 1 character. Facing 2 characters in your typical General+BSB unit, a tyrant with SoAH is 7 St 7 attacks. Pair this with the OTS and 4+ ward (or 5+ ward and Giantbreaker) and smash face.

Anyone have any experience running it at tourneys?

Yup (although you often get pushback on the challenge thing - you're absolutely correct by the letter of the rules but honestly it may not be worth the aggro)

I use it fairly frequently and it really depends on whether I want my tyrant to be mashing characters or splatting bozos. Against rank and file I prefer sword of striking and greedy fist and that's still very solid against characters. Sword of Anti-Heroes is great for deathstars but can leave you a bit "meh" against tough targets like 1+ saves, but it does leave you more points overall for defence.

I don't think I've ever regretted the SoAH badly but Sword of Striking is nice for those 2s. Still it can pay dividends against enemy deathstars. I'm not sure the 50% lords and heroes has really pushed up the number of deathstars appreciably though. It frees up some options but mostly I see a lot more free range heroes like dragon lords being taken rather than crazy deathstars.

I'm actually considering Trickster's Helm in future. Throw Trollguts (or even better Pann's Pelt) on there and that's pretty damn hard to kill. It's as good or better than a 4+ as long as the enemy is not wounding on better than a 4+.