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Legion of Blood Preview!


TheKingInYellow

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Blood looks alright but kind of boring compared to the previously previewed legions.  Then again hordey and casty were always my preferences over elitey.  I do wish more of the spying and manipulation aspects of neferatas character showed here.  Maybe forcing opposing units to set up in reserve or the like.  Oh well.

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Just now, Lemon Knuckles said:

Someone told me Blood Knight points drop by 80.  No idea if that is true, but it would certainly help!  15 for the price of 10-ish!

If that is true then Blood Knights will instantly become one of the most overtuned warscrolls in the game. In terms of defensive efficiency, at 260 points they are already solid against rend - attacks but kinda mediocre against rend 1, 2 and mortals. At 180 points they'd be extremely efficient against rend - and moderately efficient against the rest.

On offense, at 260 points the Legion of Blood buffs already make them one of the most offensively efficient units in the game when charging. Usually to get the kind of offensive efficiency you see from charging Blood Knights you need to have a huge block of infantry with a horde bonus (which is hard to take full advantage of ) or something with buffs stacked on it. 

Just for reference, the charging WDR (a measure of offensive efficiency) for charging Legion Blood Knights at 260 points is about .111. 

Charging Dragon Blades have a WDR of .088 and Charging Gore Gruntas have a WDR of .085... and Gore Gruntas have a much  harder time getting their charge bonus. Without it they are only at .0637.

If Blood Knights dropped to 180 points their WDR would be an insane .16 which is the highest I've ever measured for an AOS warscroll by a fair margin.

I LOVE Blood Knights and would love to see them buffed, but an 80 point drop is just too much. I hope they do drop, but I hope it's by something reasonable that won't just make them the flavor of the month unit.

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Overall my reaction to LoB is somewhat similar to others here. I'm hopeful because there are more abilities than the ones shown. I love that they are making a new character without making a new kit for him. I also think the +1 attack to Blood Knights is a really big deal, not some minor bonus. Looking forward to seeing more!

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1 minute ago, swarmofseals said:

If that is true then Blood Knights will instantly become one of the most overtuned warscrolls in the game. In terms of defensive efficiency, at 260 points they are already solid against rend - attacks but kinda mediocre against rend 1, 2 and mortals. At 180 points they'd be extremely efficient against rend - and moderately efficient against the rest.

On offense, at 260 points the Legion of Blood buffs already make them one of the most offensively efficient units in the game when charging. Usually to get the kind of offensive efficiency you see from charging Blood Knights you need to have a huge block of infantry with a horde bonus (which is hard to take full advantage of ) or something with buffs stacked on it. 

Just for reference, the charging WDR (a measure of offensive efficiency) for charging Legion Blood Knights at 260 points is about .111. 

Charging Dragon Blades have a WDR of .088 and Charging Gore Gruntas have a WDR of .085... and Gore Gruntas have a much  harder time getting their charge bonus. Without it they are only at .0637.

If Blood Knights dropped to 180 points their WDR would be an insane .16 which is the highest I've ever measured for an AOS warscroll by a fair margin.

I LOVE Blood Knights and would love to see them buffed, but an 80 point drop is just too much. I hope they do drop, but I hope it's by something reasonable that won't just make them the flavor of the month unit.

________________________

Overall my reaction to LoB is somewhat similar to others here. I'm hopeful because there are more abilities than the ones shown. I love that they are making a new character without making a new kit for him. I also think the +1 attack to Blood Knights is a really big deal, not some minor bonus. Looking forward to seeing more!

It was mentioned in a Death FB group, and as we all know, everything said in online groups is always true.

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Blood Knights losing the ability to regen a model per turn kicks soulblight and the Legion of Blood in the teeth, which +1 attack on the blood knights does not make up for. I think they will probably go down to 220, but this army will still struggle immensely.  The army is not as 'elite' as elite armies like Stormcast and Sylvaneth, which have a ton of options to keep their models on the table for a long time. Blood Knights drop like flies to rending attacks (made up for with their regen, now gone). Currently I don't see the path these rules are taking us - it looks like Khorne with slower models, less punch, and less wounds. 

The whole army rests on the things not yet previewed. Really good offensive spells will make or break this army. Blood Knights currently sustain soulblight entirely, and now without regen they become nothing more than overcosted kamikaze bombs. Blood Knights already started to struggle after the VLoAT got nerfed out of the army, but even with the double move spell this army still doesn't have a lot to stand on. Without greater protection than the 6++ to sustain this army it will be an 'elite' army that just dies. Soulblight is one of the death armies whos #1 need is new models and units, and a couple kit bashes and re-names are not going to cut it. Some key spells, extra rules, great battalions, point cuts and model updates might make it a decent army, but all of that is a lot to ask for and quite unlikely. 

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13 minutes ago, WoollyMammoth said:

The army is not as 'elite' as elite armies like Stormcast and Sylvaneth, which have a ton of options to keep their models on the table for a long time. Blood Knights drop like flies to rending attacks (made up for with their regen, now gone).

I will second this.  On the charge they are terrifying.  If you can survive that shock though, there is a good chance you'll decimate that unit of Blood Knights.  The ability for them to regen a model, retreat to an advantageous position for next turn, regen another model, then charge their target of choice was what made them so strong.

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10 minutes ago, WoollyMammoth said:

The whole army rests on the things not yet previewed. 

A lot of pronouncements about how the army will shake out.

The former is true about all of the previews we have seen. In each case we've gotten access to part of the special rules and a handful of artefacts/command traits/spells. We don't even have the points costs yet. 

You're also talking about Soulblight here as if it was the army that was previewed today. It wasn't. We don't know what the Soulblight abilities will be at all! Legion of Blood clearly does not rest entirely on Blood Knights. It still has access to skeleton/zombie hordes etc. It may lean on Blood Knights, but that doesn't mean that it's suddenly not viable. 

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Guys, this was not the preview of Soulblight,it was the Neferata's Allegiance, which I would assume trades some amount of potential vampiric buffs to be able to use all of the units in the grand alliance. I would be very surprised if the actual Soulblight doesn't have some tweak to to deathly incantations as it is so central mechanism and they don't have any summonable units that we know of.

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2 hours ago, smucreo said:

Oh, also the article mentions terror for Mannfred, so it's possible he can terror bomb specific units with big debuffs to bravery attached to deep-striking units! 

Now, back on topic, I do believe that unless there's more to this allegiance it's the weakest in the book right now. The +1 melee attack is a bit weak considering the mounts of the vampire lords and of the blood knights don't also get the bonus... 

Why wouldn't they? It says they get an extra attack on all melee weapons and does not mention an exclusion for mounts. At least not one that I can see.

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2 hours ago, smucreo said:

Now, back on topic, I do believe that unless there's more to this allegiance it's the weakest in the book right now. The +1 melee attack is a bit weak considering the mounts of the vampire lords and of the blood knights don't also get the bonus... 

Depends on whether it's a battle trait, in which case the mounts benefit, or a command trait, which only affects the riders.

58 minutes ago, Tittliewinks22 said:

Is there a range limit on amulet of screams?

I'd say that really depends on the reading of "instead of attempting". Does it mean that you must be able to attempt to dispell? If so, I'm far less impressed with the amulet.

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2 hours ago, Lemon Knuckles said:

First time I've felt decidely "meh" about the new goodies.  Very underwhelming.  Kinda disappointed since I love my Blood Knights and VLoZD and my Vargheists....  Maybe some more goodies here yet to be revealed, but more likely that I'll need to be looking at the other allegiances.

I'm thinking this Legion is deliberately underwhelming because of finecast knights and no plan to release new plastic ones. 

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7 minutes ago, Grimnaud said:

 

I'd say that really depends on the reading of "instead of attempting". Does it mean that you must be able to attempt to dispell? If so, I'm far less impressed with the amulet.

Yes, that's what it means.  In order to do something in the stead  of (instead of), that thing must be present/available/an option.

To use this item instead of unbinding,  you have to qualify for unbinding.

 

Now then,  they could easily issue an errata to change it,  but as worded,  the above is true. 

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4 minutes ago, Sleboda said:

I'm thinking this Legion is deliberately underwhelming because of finecast knights and no plan to release new plastic ones. 

I am pretty new to the hobby and finecast blood knights were the very first models I built and painted.  I had hoped that all of the complaints about finecast were just internet drama, but oh boy, my hobby life was almost very short-lived!

 

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2 minutes ago, Sleboda said:

Yes, that's what it means.  In order to do something in the stead  of (instead of), that thing must be present/available/an option.

To use this item instead of unbinding,  you have to qualify for unbinding.

 

Now then,  they could easily issue an errata to change it,  but as worded,  the above is true. 

I agree with this interpretation.

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