Dark Aelf (Shadowblades)

[Sarkazim]

On 10/31/2016 at 3:43 AM, Bowlzee said:

How on earth did he do this!? My Treelords rarely deal 18 wounds in a game

Cast Awakening of the Wood (2 Mortal wounds), Woods roused (2 Mortal Wounds), Doom Tendril Staff (3 wounds, -1 Rend so I needed 6's only rerolling 1's) , All 3 Sweeping Blows landing (11 Wounds, -1 Rend, need 6's, and re-rolling 1s and 2s didn't help).

It's going to be worse next time since he's taking the House Battalion that says I can't retreat.  I'm still confused if units can benefit from two different battlions, but I'll be a better prepared.  Since Dark Aelfs don't have a Path To Glory table, we've agreed as a group to let me use the Skaven one, since it seems to fit the theme with the mobility of my army.  I've just got to go through and change the names to something appropriate.  Since I won, I took a roll on the unit and got the one that allows me to bring the unit back.  Should be fun.
 

On 10/31/2016 at 8:27 AM, chord said:

You could add the war hydra to your shadowblades army and I think it would fit the overall style. Plus it would cause your opponent to focus on that freeing the other units up to claim objectives, etc.

This thought has crossed my mind.  I've decided that I'm really enjoying AoS much more than I thought, even after this game.  I'm still on the fence about going Nighthaunt or Order Serpentis.  I really like the Nighthaunt and how easy it is to teach people how to play with that army.  With Order Serpentis, I'd be expanding my Dark Aelfs and with the Dragon I got for free it's a huge chunk out on the Wallet.

I really like the idea of adding in Shades to be honest.  Since they were a part of my Watchtower list I played years ago.  I just purchased some Glade Guard for the heads, so I have these Wood Elves that I could convert pretty easily.  I just don't like the 100 per 5 price tag on them.

Here's the Order Serpentis list I'm thinking about:

Quote

Dreadlord on Black Dragon - Lance/Shield
2x War Hydras
30x Drakespawn Knights (3x10)
2x Drakespawn Chariots

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I'm not really upset that he took the 2+ Re-roll save with Regenerate.  It makes sense considering we had to pick our Champion and to stay that way through the whole event.  I'm just upset that he did it at 500 points.  I think it's something that most of the AoS armies have a hard time with, but as the points go up, he'll balance out as most other armies will have access to Wizards to shut down casting, and ways to deal Mortal Wounds.  Something that I don't have access to with my current setup.

Thanks all for keeping up.  I'm still very impressed with how positive the community is.

 

[Nico]

Quote

I'm just upset that he did it at 500 points.  

500 point games are where you really need to have a discussion about whether it's appropriate/worthwhile to take that 300 point model.

That said, many 3 unit lists with a big monster will not be able to score on some battleplans. 

[chord]

13 hours ago, Sarkazim said:

This thought has crossed my mind.  I've decided that I'm really enjoying AoS much more than I thought, even after this game.  I'm still on the fence about going Nighthaunt or Order Serpentis.  I really like the Nighthaunt and how easy it is to teach people how to play with that army.  With Order Serpentis, I'd be expanding my Dark Aelfs and with the Dragon I got for free it's a huge chunk out on the Wallet.

 

One of the great things about the grand alliance is that you can just throw in the war hydra without adding other units if you wanted.   So you wouldn't have to have an Order Serpentis list, just use your current army and add it in.

Looking forward to hearing more of your battle reports

 

*Edit* just noticed that you would lose your battle line with a different allegiance.  That's lame and problem I have with some of these smaller factions.

 

[Sarkazim]

Not disagreeing with that.  

Not that it matters for the Path to Glory campaign, but doing so would make my Dark Riders not count for Battleline.  I'd be getting the War Hydra just for the campaign and wouldn't be able to use it in matched play until I commit to doing the Serpentis list.  That and I'm trying to resist putting more than the 65 models I already own in addition to the four 40k armies on my paint table.  (I think my Crons are getting jealous, since they're 90% done...)

Stormcast are up next, no time set to play yet.

 

[chord]

Do you know what the stormcast list looks like?  (Super interested in you winning it all for some reason)

[Sarkazim]

I PM'd you a link @chord 

I just checked.  Looks like he's running the Seraphon portion of his stuff.  So it'll be Carnasaur/Skink and some Cold Ones, and not Stormcast.  We've played before so he knows what he's up against. 

As for winning, it's simply not going to happen.  They're giving a bonus for when you play with fully painted lists.  I'm a long way off from that and I'm not going to rush it to win points.  They ARE checking on a game by game basis though, so if it goes long enough, then it might slow down if others add unpainted units, but it gives a pretty huge headstart early on.

 

[chord]

13 hours ago, Sarkazim said:

I PM'd you a link @chord 

I just checked.  Looks like he's running the Seraphon portion of his stuff.  So it'll be Carnasaur/Skink and some Cold Ones, and not Stormcast.  We've played before so he knows what he's up against. 

As for winning, it's simply not going to happen.  They're giving a bonus for when you play with fully painted lists.  I'm a long way off from that and I'm not going to rush it to win points.  They ARE checking on a game by game basis though, so if it goes long enough, then it might slow down if others add unpainted units, but it gives a pretty huge headstart early on.

 

First awesome site!!!

Yeah against the Carnosaur it will be hard for you to dish out enough damage. But if the battleplan is number of models near the objective you should be able to score some points.  Especially with the ability to recycle your 15 model unit.

 

[chord]

How did your other battles turn out?

[Sarkazim]

Haven't happened yet.

My Car tried to destroy itself, I picked up a second job, and some personal constraints have slowed things down.  I've rescheduled my Seraphon game for this weekend so I'll post that soon enough.  Daylight Savings has also cut into the amount of time I have to paint, but I'm making slow progress on the Horses.  It'll pick back up when I invest in a good painting lamp.  I've still got the drive, and my other priorities will soon be back where they should be.

 

[chord]

Sorry to hear about the car. Yeah I've not had much time for painting at all the last few weeks

[Sarkazim]

Got two games in.  My opponent was running late and there was another guy there so we played a game while waiting for the 2nd.

Game 1 vs. Tomb Kings (1000pt) - 4 Objectives, control all 4 at the end of T3.
Settra
Sphinx
Liche Priest
2x10 Skeletons

I ran 3x10 Dark Riders with 2 Assassins.  I switched back to Hoarfrost for this one.

Game ended on Turn 3.  I drew him in to the middle and had one massive combat, I won the initiative on turn 3 and gave it up.  Paid off as he failed to kill my second unit.  I retreated out and ran for a total of 18", stealing the 4th objective at the end of T3.  To be fair, we both thought the Scenario was wrong, I thought you had to be within 3", he thought that you had to have a unit on each objective, not that it was claimed until stolen.  Settra did have the -1 to hit from Hoarfrost for the remainder of the game, but with the TK bonuses, it didn't matter.  His Lichepriest handled 10 Dark Riders for 3 Turns sitting in a wood though.  Might have to offer them up to Khaine...

* I want to give recognition where it's due.  I COMPLETELY forgot to mention the Assassin issue, and we discussed it in length after the game.  All I did was make my point, and he ran with it.  On his own time, he went and compared elements that he was familiar with, my arguments, and also feels it's a legitimate interpretation (until we hear otherwise).  Even if it's not legit, it's no broken or overpowered so has no problem.

BOTH Assassins only managed to score 4 wounds on Settra because of his 5+ save against Wounds.  Both got to attack 2x in the first round they were revealed, but one got axed as it drew the Sphinx in.  The second one died after he got to swing on the following turn.  Good game, but it reminded me that I need to always focus on the objective where possible.

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Campaign Game vs. Seraphon (750pt) - 2 Objectives, each 9" from center of players DZ.
Carnasaur
Skink Priest
3x5 Saurus on Cold One
* Formation that grants +3"
5xChameleon Skinks.

I only had 20 Dark Riders (15/5), and the one Assassin (w/Hoarfrost).  This was more of a problem with the Campaign only going up 250pts.  Since any combination of Riders/Assassins is greater than 250, I'm stuck at 640.  I do have the bonus of bringing the 15 Rider unit back in once per game as a result of the Sylvaneth game.  Players that are stuck playing lower points get re-roll bonuses, but there were more re-rolls than the Assassin would ever use, so every other advance, I shouldn't have to play with a huge chunk of points missing.

Downside:
This game did NOT go well for me.  Due to time constraints, I took some unnecessary risks.  He never lost the initiative, so was able to keep the pressure on my by holding the center of the board.  Losing the Initiative on Turn 3 is where we hammered it out so I could get to where I needed to. His unhurt unit of Saurus got the bonus from the Carnasaur, and both of them hit home on the large unit of Riders, while the smaller units went after my objective and finished off the 5 man unit.  I COULD have brought the 15 unit back on to grind out to a minor victory where he would hammer on my since I then wouldn't be able to leave my objective as long as he had models there, and wouldn't be able to claim both with just the 2 units.

Upside:
I learned a few things.  While I still finished deploying first, I chose to let him go first because of his bonus move and charge.  This gamble worked well as it forced him to spread out his units to deal with where I MIGHT go.  I had the opportunity to then pick him apart, but the dice were not with me as much as I had hoped.  I am actually surprised how good the 5+ save with Dark Shields re-rolling 1's and 2's in Combat is against units that don't have rend.  It was a fairly even match until the Carnasaur jumped into the match.  I can't trade 1 for 1 and expect to last too long.  At the bottom of Turn 2, I pulled a 'Sneaky Git' move.  I retreated my core unit toward his objective, 3" away from the Skink Priest, dropped the Assassin within 3" of the Priest and had him eviscerated.  I had a good chance at winning the game if I had won the initiative, but it didn't go well.  The last thing, and I was rather happy with it, was his reluctance to commit his Carnasaur to the combat not knowing where the Assassin was.  

So progress was made, met a new player with a painted army, and learned some more tricks with a 2 unit list.  
 

[chord]

Sounds like a couple of good matches. 

It sounds like the not knowing where the assassins is makes the opponents more wary and cautious.  A great strategy!

How well are the assassins doing in combat?

 

[Sarkazim]

The Assassins are doing fine with certain combinations.

1- Being able to Attack normally the turn they arrive has been the biggest thing.  While I'm glad to have groups that allow it, this is also turning out to be a double edged knife.  Yes, it's great to have a model that can bring my opponents heroes down to where the Riders can finish them off, it's costing me heavy casualties on the delivery unit.  After selecting the Assassin as my first pick for the turn, my opponents have gone after the Riders he was hiding in.  Setters was an extreme example, but he killed 5 Riders.  Not worth the 3 wounds the Assassin put on him after 12 Attacks.  So I'm already seeing situations where I'm going to have to use the Assassin as a distraction, or a block to prevent other units from getting to the Riders.

2- Double Assassination attempts.  I'm personally finding this tactic more reliable despite its cost, but hiding two Assassins per unit has been helpful.  First one pops out does his thing.  If I'm not happy with the result, or can go for the kill, I can then decide to reveal the second one.  The Drawbacks are that I don't kill the target after selecting one of them to finish off the target, which has usually cost me the second Assassin from swinging.  Or that I kill the Target, and there is nothing else within 3", so never get the opportunity to select them again anyways.  There is a possibility that the riders will draw in a unit, but it hasn't happened yet.

3- Artifacts.  I'm trying the different Artefacts on one of the Assassins.  The -1 rend has been helpful unless I'm playing Seraphon who ignore it.  I like the idea to the -1 Hit when wounded on a Hero, but that usually turns him into a normal unit and doesn't save me, or he dies and I never get to see the effects of it.  I'm eyeing the +1 Damage which will make the one Assassin useful in non Hero killing.  Haven't done it yet since I'm still focused on the Hero killng part.  The damage could nice vs heroes pending a wording debate, but still struggle getting any hits through.

Other than that, the only things that they've been able to kill with just Hidden Murderer are casters.  With the Dark Riders I'm having zero issue getting to them.  They are usually alone so no second swing. As support units they only seem to slow my opponents down.  In the Seraphon game for example, he did some bonus to the Saurus, and the removal of that had very little impact on what was killing me.  It's been more effective to just shoot Casters and save the Assassins for a worthwhile target.

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On a fearful note, both the Skaven player and the Death player have been able to add 20+ models to their forces using the 250 points.  Looking forward to the challenge, but compared to me only able to add 5 Dark Riders it seems bleak.

[chord]

Good analysis.

I think that you can use the Riders as a delivery mechanism through some skillful placement.  For example if you win the turn roll you could retreat the riders leaving the assassin to stop the nearby units from moving and locking them up for an extra turn.  You could also depending on how you place the riders, remove the models closes to the opponent and thus moving them out of combat range.

You could also hide an assassin in an assassin although probably very risky if the first one dies.

I think the -1 rend is probably the best option regardless since even against non-heroes you should be more likely to have them fail the saves.

Yeah as the other armies start upping model count you'll have to be really creative to snag the objectives

 

[Sarkazim]

20 hours ago, chord said:

Good analysis.

I think that you can use the Riders as a delivery mechanism through some skillful placement.  For example if you win the turn roll you could retreat the riders leaving the assassin to stop the nearby units from moving and locking them up for an extra turn.  You could also depending on how you place the riders, remove the models closes to the opponent and thus moving them out of combat range.

This is proving trickier to actually do than pull off.  Retreating is definitely a key element of this army and it's always a gamble, especially on smaller point games.  In the larger games, I have multiple units to shuffle in the way to protect the units that are retreating.  Or deal damage to the unit I just left to make life more difficult to catch up and deal damage.  My 1k list for example, does MUCH better running 3 units of 10, instead of the 2 units of 15.  

The hardest penalty for Retreating is the loss of attacks.  I believe that most Battleline units aren't as penalized by retreating here because they only have 1-3 attacks per model, gunline or not.  Each Dark Rider model is 6 attacks that I'm trading, half of which are decent shooting.  So it's going to take some practice, mental math, and review of the current situation to really weigh in whether stalling my casualty count is going to swing in my favor.  Something that's easier to do when I have more options with Smaller units.

The best time to retreat, and I feel this is true for any army, is when you go second.  The only advantage I've seen from Retreating when winning the roll, is to prevent his other units from joining in on his turn, which restricts your mobility options later in the game.  Something that I have more control over with my mobility and shooting, and should be looked at long before I even get into combat.  It's the only immediate situation I've seen where the loss of models outweighs the loss of the attacks.  In addition to keeping the enemy units roughly where they are leaving the board open.

Going second means you can setup with the hope that that will win the next turn.  This right here is why I despise any talk of removing Initiative.  Yes, it's a HUGE gamble, and will often cost me the game.  The vision of making the attempt to retreat and the enemy sees the ruse and capitalizes on it vs breaking away, turning around and attacking again, often on a different unit, is something I really like to vision.  Leads to some great storytelling.  Also really tests my patience since I need to be less aggressive for a turn or two to really take advantage of it.  Something that seems to work better when I have more options.

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The Assassins are the Wild Card, when it comes to leaving them behind.  5W/5+ makes them as squishy as most Casters.  For a unit that needs to be in CC it's easier to predict their death.  So leaving them behind to tie up a unit while the riders retreat is incredibly hard to rely on, unless my opponent ignores them to go after the Riders.  I see what you're saying, but it simply hasn't happened yet.

However, the REVERSE of that has been pretty effective.  The Assassin is quite capable of clearing out a Hero or models when placed correctly, to the point where he will survive the round.  On my turn, I then retreat with the Assassin against non Hero models leaving the Riders in the combat.  Losing the 6 Attacks that aren't great against line units is less of a blow.  It does force me to decide to eliminate my opponents shooting or mobility as a priority, which I'm still learning. The games where my Assassins have survived to the end of the game have been because of this.  I even drew an Azyros out of cover to kill the Assassin, allowing my Dark Riders to kill him.

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That said, with all of the Battalions out there, the biggest hurt for my army is simply not having one to play around with.  I'm not going to argue the probably hasty decision of GW thinking that a straight Shadowblades army being a playable option.  I'm sure there are other two unit lists out there.  It's reason enough for me to know that it is, and run with it.  

It would be nice if there was some other bonus for actually doing it.  A buff for the Assassins to make them more lethal in a list that doesn't have any Rend, Magic, or Mortal Wound options would probably be the first go to for 'balance' reasons.  If I had a wishlist, it would be to allow the Dark Riders to shoot when they retreat.  Even would be happy if it was restricted to the unit that they just left Combat.  This is based purely off Skaven having an option to Retreat and still charge, so it's not out of the Realm of possibility.

Either way, it's a legacy army and like the others, Dark Aelves will get their update along with its own accompanying cries of cheese.  I just hope they don't forget Dark Riders when the time comes.

[chord]

Very good points.  I agree the way the Aelves were split into tiny factions seems very odd but I imagine they must have some grand plans for the Aelves down the road to do that.

"The Assassins are the Wild Card, when it comes to leaving them behind.  5W/5+ makes them as squishy as most Casters.  For a unit that needs to be in CC it's easier to predict their death.  So leaving them behind to tie up a unit while the riders retreat is incredibly hard to rely on, unless my opponent ignores them to go after the Riders.  I see what you're saying, but it simply hasn't happened yet."

If the opponent ignores the Assassin who they are in combat with to move after your Dark Riders they are technically retreating and thus won't be able to shoot or enter combat unless a special ability allows them to.  This would give the advantage back to you.  But like you said that hinges on the Assassin actually surviving the next round of combat.

[Sarkazim]

6 hours ago, chord said:

If the opponent ignores the Assassin who they are in combat with to move after your Dark Riders they are technically retreating and thus won't be able to shoot or enter combat unless a special ability allows them to.  This would give the advantage back to you.  But like you said that hinges on the Assassin actually surviving the next round of combat.

I guess something got lost is the 'Possible Scenario' situation.  I believe I see your point now.  If the Assassin is alive and I win the initiative roll, I could retreat with the Riders, leaving the Assassin behind to force my opponent to kill him, and buy time for the riders?

This isn't much of an advantage, outside of saving the riders.  With the Assassin there, my opponent could still use the Assassin to charge in with another unit essentially leapfrogging toward the riders.  Then I'm back to square won if he wins the initiative roll, only now he's advanced on my Dark Riders that gave up their attacks, and had covered more ground to choke the mobility options of my Dark Riders.  While this isn't bad, it makes it difficult to use my mobility to isolate another unit by still having to deal with the additional losses.

It's hard to describe what happens when I play in rare situations like this.  Having the mobility to completely ignore a threat for the first turn or two is phenomenal, but I have to capitalize on it early in order to maintain that throughout the game.  Something that I've already done, but confirmed in the Seraphon game.  I approached the wrong side of his army, split the attacks, and didn't take advantage of eliminating a unit while minimizing the damage done.  The result was trading models, which puts me on a losing track for the game.  Had I moved to the smaller side, I could've eliminated one unit of his Saurus without too much loss.  I fell for it and thought the smaller unit was the harder target because they were shielded.  I went right into the jaws of 2 units, which cost me too much.  While I did a fair bit of damage, I lost a model for each one I killed.  

 

[chord]

Some very good points.  Retreating is so situational it's hard to say when it's good and when it's not.  A couple of weeks back if I had retreated my hero I would have won the scenario but I got too caught up in the combat and didn't realize it till the game was over.  Probably the only time I've had where retreating was the winning choice.

[Sarkazim]

The amount of support and encouragement for running a Shadowblades list instead of a more powerful one has been awesome.  The thought process that someone bought the army after the GHB is odd.  I just really like the models, the old fluff.  While the tactics are not only different to what I'm used to, they're also very different on the board from what people are used to seeing.  Regardless, there are quite a few people interested in seeing me succeed.

Of course I had to pick up an army that seems to have more ambiguous rules that I originally thought.  Not having to reveal all of the Assassins before using them was the first obstacle.  After the first or second game, everyone I have played is happy with it.  The second one is being able to attack with the Assassins normally in the same turn they use their ability.  I've been surprised on this one, because the initial response is an immediate 'No', but everyone has listened to the argument, then has played a game to SEE the impact.  One player went so far as to do his own homework referencing his own army to admit that it might be legit, and he doesn't have a problem with it.  It does appear to be a double standard though, as most of the fear stems from 'If the Assassins work that way, then how does it affect other units in other armies'.  Most have admitted that it's fine for me and my army, but they'd have to look at other units and check it on a case by case basis.

With that said. another player shot me a message about stacking 'Sow Terror and Confusion'.  Having this bonus has proven to be frustrating to me because it's a 1 in 6 chance that it will even trigger.  The army puts out over 180 shooting attacks a turn, but struggles to get more than 10-15 wounds, which barely scratches multi wound units.  When the enemy actually does roll a one to use the ability, they've either been Bravery 10, Undead which will banner more models back, or Demons that can replace models when they roll a 1.  I just put the rule in the back of my mind thinking that it's one of those things that is better served to help more Diverse armies.

I know we've already discussed it here, and I agreed that they didn't stack because the wording doesn't mention what to do when there are multiple units of Dark Riders on the board.  I got a message on a different forum to look into it, but don't feel comfortable posting in Troll territory.  While this person doesn't agree that the ability stacks, he mentioned it because my group might allow me to play it and see if it has an impact.

Here is the reason it MIGHT stack: (From the FAQ, and the Dark Rider Warscroll)

Quote

Q: Are the effects of multiple duplicate spells and abilities stackable against the target?
A: Yes, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Quote

Sow Terror and Confusion: Enemy units within 14" of Dark Riders are terror-struck; if any of these units take a battleshock test and the roll for that test is a 1, you can roll a dice and add its score to the unit’s battleshock test result.

So it came down to interpretation.  The 'Sow Terror and Confusion' rule doesn't specify ANY Dark Riders, or EACH unit of Dark Riders.  What was previously overlooked was that each unit of Dark Riders has this ability.  So back to the 'Hints and Tips' like we did with the Assassins, we have multiple units with abilities that resolve at the same time. As the controlling player, I can choose the Order to resolve them.  

What is not 'specifically stated otherwise' is when the first Ability resolves, does the 'within 14" of Dark Riders' count for other units also in range?  Or do we check to see if they are in range of the first Ability, and add a D6 when the one is rolled.  Then we get to the next unit and check if they are in range of 'Dark Riders', and add a D6 when a one is rolled.  Is it specific enough to count otherwise?  Or is it not specific enough to allow it?  

I've already found 3 players that are going to let me try it.  I feel comfortable enough not getting trolled to bring it up publicly before I play, since the discussions are both respectful and informative, instead of endless repetition to bully me into the mainstream way of thinking.

I'll report back on how it goes when I get around to playing the guys who've agreed to let me try it.  If this is True, then the Shadowblades army has found it's killing method and I don't feel bad at ALL about not having any Rend, Magic, or Mortal wounds.  It's still not nearly as powerful as the other combo's out there. I just REALLY gotta hope they roll a '1' on their battleshock test.  

[Nico]

Quote

Enemy units within 14" of Dark Riders are terror-struck; if any of these units take a battleshock test and the roll for that test is a 1, you can roll a dice and add its score to the unit’s battleshock test result.

This looks a lot like a yes/no condition - it's not worded the way that the Bloodsecrator is worded for example, which is the classic example of a buff that does stack.

I strongly doubt that it stacks. If it just added 1 to the test result, then that might be something you could get away with, but since the result would be absurd - adding say 4 D6 to a Battleshock test - I wouldn't even try it in a tournament. Obviously what you do with your friends is up to you and them. You've chosen a fluffy/underpowered army to start off with, so it might well be better balanced that way anyway. 

[Sarkazim]

I hope you understand that I'm not trying to find a loophole.  I didn't even think of this, it was just brought to my attention and I just want to find out how it works.  I can easily see it going the non-stack way.  When we get to the second use of the ability, it tells us to add a D6 and add it to the total.  A D6 that is already there, and the check is enough to qualify that it has already been done.  ie. The wording of the ability makes the order the abilities are resolved in irrelevant.  Is a '1' rolled?  Is there a 'D6' rolled?  It's done.  I see both being valid.

I'll check the Bloodsecrator when I get a chance.  What other units have either a yes/no condition, or non-stackable wording that I can compare?  What other units will break the game if the Dark Riders can stack?  Like the above, the fear isn't from allowing the Dark Riders to do it as it could be the balancing factor for the army.  The fear is what other units are going to abuse it.

As for my friends, they've only agreed to playing it once to SEE if it impacts the game.  They don't believe that it stacks either, but we're not putting the idea down.  Just exploring it at this time.  Having a knowledge of other units that could do the same thing might give them something to try out.

[Nico]

Not criticising you - just warning off others who might try to jump on an exploit. 

Deathless Minions doesn't stack (although that's uniquely worded); the Portents of Battle Ability on the Hurricanum doesn't stack, nor does its Locus of Azyr ability.

[chord]

the wording of it makes me lean towards it not stacking. But stacking would be aligned with the fluff, so it might be a nice house rule

[Sarkazim]

Prior to the FAQ, I agreed that it didn't stack.  The angle the FAQ tells us is that Abilities stack unless stated otherwise.  Is there anything in there that would prevent it from stacking?  It's a definite possibility, but it's not very direct.  

Either way, I've got enough to go on and do some homework.  Hopefully I'll have a better idea after looking at it.

Thanks both of you.

[Nico]

All the FAQ does is confirm that if it did stack before the FAQ - based on the wording of the rule - it still does post-GH.

If it didn't stack before, then it still doesn't now.

If the missing "any" were in the rule, then it definitely wouldn't stack. There's a bit of leeway as they left out the any - but it's still closer to the non-stacking yes/no condition than the Bloodsecrator style rule.