Artifacts - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

[Major]

So what is everyone opinions on the new Artifacts? I am looking to taking a list containing The First Cohort battalion but am struggling to pick an effective artifact. I mean, I don't think they are all trash, I don't think they are all super hot, I just think... meh. Usually it's easy to select but now, I just cant choose! lol

[Honk]

My necro ran with the hourglass inside the 40 skelli bubble, but maybe the Diadem for extra staying power through the opponents onslaught 

[Sception]

hourglass is always amazing, generally pulling a key support hero down to where a single arcane bolt will finish them.  Diadem's great if you run a lot of skeletons.  Terrorgheist mantle is great with our multiple bravery debuffs, i really like it on a winged vampire lord who stays under nagash's cost tails until a prime opportunity arises to jump forward and scream something to death.  The balefire lanturn is also great, and with a range long enough for a support ypur melee units from behind the front lines, though you'll definitely be in sniping range.

All four of these artifacts are amazing, and you really can't go wrong with any of them.

[Major]

Me personally I am stuck deciding between Grave-Sand Timeglass and Ossific Diadem. I am using a unit of 40 skellies and one of 20 which would be handy, but I also have Nagash, Arkhan and a necro so the added mortals from this could really help them just clear off those key heroes at range.

[Arentius]

I tend to use the balefire lantern, that combined with overwhelming dread puts enemies at -1 to hit (-2 if it double casts) and the lantern puts them at -1 to wound, you don't need the extra save from the Diadem with that much power reducing your opponents offensive capabilities.

For a second artefact I take either the Hourglass or a Terrorgiest mantle. -1 to -2 bravery from Dread > -1 for banner > -1 for morghasts = Many mortal wounds for free in the shooting phase.

[themortalgod]

I personally find it frustrating with AoS with how each artifact has the exact same cost. (That cost being a limited artifact slot in the army)

This creates a situation where you always just want to be taking the most powerful artifacts and any that are not super powerful are pretty worthless. I miss the days when magic items had points costs. This created situations where lower power items could be just as attractive as higher power ones because they were cheaper. 

That said, as it stands, in my opinion. Balefire Lantern and Ossific Diadam outclass the others to the point that you might as well ignore the rest. I'd say Diadam is probably the king. On a big based model like  VLoZD you are getting an almost 30" bubble of 16% increased toughness to your army. That is pretty huge. In my opinion, it is probably one of the strongest items in the game in a skeleton themed list. (useless in non-skeleton lists) In all other lists, I think Lantern is the best choice. 

I feel like Terrorgheist mantle can be good, situationally, but wish it was in Legion of Blood where Bravery debuff stacking is more of a viable strategy. 

Timeglass can also be situationally pretty good, but I'm not a fan of infinite range MW sources that have almost no counterplay. It isn't fun for the opponent. That said, on average it won't kill most heroes on its own in a single game. I feel you will get more mileage out of the Lantern on something like a VLoZD than timeglass will ever offer.

Amethyst Shard feels a bit "meh" because it is only a single melee weapon. If it was +1 to hit and wound for all attacks for a turn it would be amazing. 

And Chain just doesn't do it for me. It basically reads +0-6 wounds. I suspect most of the time it might give 1, but I find heroes either go down fast and hard or not at all so a trickle of wounds isn't very helpful.

 

Overall though items in the book offer tons of great options. I can't really complain. Compared to my poor Slaanesh where it feels like all 6 items are trivial the power of many of the items in this book is refreshing. They can really matter and impact the game, which is fun.

[Sception]

Shard and chain are meh, but for each of the others I've seen at least one person arguing that its the obvious best, so personally I think the balance for most of these is fine.  Bravery debuffing is perfectly viable in grand host, with -3 being relatively easy to come by when even -2 is enough to make the mantle a real terror against many opponents.

Timeglass is less to kill enemies outright, and more to weaken them to the point that a single offensive spell will take them out.  The point on it being frustratingly non-interacrive for the opponent is fair, but that doesn't make it bad.  In a first cohort list, which typically lacks the numbers of skittles needed to get much use out of diadem, and might only have a single generic hero as a spell caddy bunkered too far from the action to carry the lanturn or mantle, it might be the best one.

[Arentius]

8 hours ago, Sception said:

Shard and chain are meh, but for each of the others I've seen at least one person arguing that its the obvious best, so personally I think the balance for most of these is fine.  Bravery debuffing is perfectly viable in grand host, with -3 being relatively easy to come by when even -2 is enough to make the mantle a real terror against many opponents.

Timeglass is less to kill enemies outright, and more to weaken them to the point that a single offensive spell will take them out.  The point on it being frustratingly non-interacrive for the opponent is fair, but that doesn't make it bad.  In a first cohort list, which typically lacks the numbers of skittles needed to get much use out of diadem, and might only have a single generic hero as a spell caddy bunkered too far from the action to carry the lanturn or mantle, it might be the best one.

The hourglass isn't terrible to counter, just kill the bearer and it stops working and it'll typically be on a necro or wight king so shouldn't be too hard to snipe out.

My favourite thing about the cohort is if Dread double casts and you position right you can -4 an opponents bravery and the mantle will shred people. I'm actually considering adding a banshee so I can take advantage of this.

[Sception]

If you can convince your opponent to play in the realm of the dead, there's an extea -2 debuff to use their.  I last played the mantle in a realm of the dead game, in the week of dread solstice with the bravery debuffs, dropped some chaos monster, I forget what one exactly, to bravery zero, and screamed it off the table with a single acream after a soul siphon.  Kind of unique circumstances, but still, it was fun.  For me, anyway.