The New Skaven Battletome, Terrain, Model & eSpells!

[Kirjava13]

Assuming his warscroll doesn't change: get an Arch-Warlock near a Gnawhole. Get him up on a Balewind Vortex. Enjoy your +2 to cast. Warp Lightning Vortex is now cast on a 6 and then there's always warpstone tokens. Ya beat me to it @Num! Funnily enough I think its biggest benefit might be its ability to deny running and flying, rather than the paltry D3 mortal wounds it might inflict. 

I wonder if there will be any other buffs to cast we might be able to stack... In the above scenario, Vermintide goes down to a 5 and the bell goes down to a 4. I hope Archy can still cast two spells.

[Requizen]

7 minutes ago, Num said:

What about a Balewind Vortex 1" from a Gnawhole?? +2 to spell casting. Do you think we can teleport the wizard along with its baleqind vortex through the Gnawhole?

Knowing GW expertise in rules design, I'm sure we will plenty of shenanigans to abuse until they get FAQed

RAW, nothing prevents you from moving a Balewind through the tunnel. It's not a Move, nor does the Balewind say anything about removing/setting up.

[bushman101]

In not sure how I feel about the bell. Seems like it will dispell itself a good bit

[Ajay29]

5 minutes ago, bushman101 said:

In not sure how I feel about the bell. Seems like it will dispell itself a good bit

Chance of a 13 on 3d6 is juuuust less than 10%, not bad at all.

Plus it’s skaven, their own spells blowing themselves up is thematic!

[bRock_320]

Immunity to battle shock for skaventide units within 13'' of the bell? I think I'll be putting that next to my two 40 strong units of clanrats and who cares if it blows up especially if it also hurts the enemy!

[Malakithe]

How many of those holes can be taken?

[Requizen]

12 minutes ago, Malakithe said:

How many of those holes can be taken?

Three come in the box, that's all we know for now. Given the rules, I'm imagining you set up to three up at the start of the game with some restrictions - probably one in your zone, all more than X" away from other terrain pieces, that sort of thing.

 

Edit: I should say, when they showed off the Gnawholes, they showed off 3 together, which would indicate 3 come in the box. They could be separate, but it wouldn't make sense to sell a box with just 1 in it considering you need at least 2.

[Ajay29]

7 minutes ago, Requizen said:

Three come in the box, that's all we know for now. Given the rules, I'm imagining you set up to three up at the start of the game with some restrictions - probably one in your zone, all more than X" away from other terrain pieces, that sort of thing.

 

Edit: I should say, when they showed off the Gnawholes, they showed off 3 together, which would indicate 3 come in the box. They could be separate, but it wouldn't make sense to sell a box with just 1 in it considering you need at least 2.

I’m like almost positive it was said somewhere that you start with one and Skaven wizards (or priests maybe as well) can summon more... can’t remember where I read that though

[Charleston]

I like the spells mechanics and the gnawholes in general. Althrough the storm will be a mess to transport without breaking something off I really like the wide range of are denial we get here. For my planned Skryre the Gnawholes are awesome as Stormfiends may get through the board pretty fast. Also easier casts are always welcome. The only thing missing now is a charge reroll.

[Nikobot]

1 hour ago, Ajay29 said:

I’m like almost positive it was said somewhere that you start with one and Skaven wizards (or priests maybe as well) can summon more... can’t remember where I read that though

It would seem like you'd start the game with at least 2? Armies without wizards etc might lose the whole mechanic then. 

Good if you can summon more though 

[Nikobot]

@Gaz Taylor should we start a new discussion thread for Skaven discussion for the new tome and beyond?

[Overread]

My thoughts:

1) Gnawholes- my ONLY problem with them is that they sort of invalidate the warpgrinder, esp as Gnawholes are free. That's my only issue; that they are free and thus will appear in 100% of skaven armies from today onward unless there are some other costs. However it does really giev Skaven a flavour of popping up wherever they want! If it was Old World they'd just be gnawholes with mud instead of warp. I assume there must be some cost or limit otherwise you could, in theory, just fill the whole rear of your deployment in them for some nasty super fast movement.

They sound great, a booster for rearguard mages and the ability to move units forward quite easily; more reliably than the grinder. They sound great and look great and I can see them being a very key element in games.

2) Vermintide sounds fun! And for a predatory spell its also quite well protected in that it won't harm other skaventide units; so barring civil war match ups its going to be a very popular predatory Endless spell for skaven I think. At best your opponent can only stall it. 

3) Bell of Doom - again sounds great; a bonus aura that can blow up; risky but in keeping with general skaven wizardry

4) Warp Lightning Vortex. This is the big surprise for me as it isn't what I thought it would be; however it is very neat. It's a strong area denial spell. The kind you throw down somewhere on the board where you are not going to move into to really mess with your opponent. If they can't dispell it then anything entering its vortex area suffers until the spell is gone. Making it a risk for enemies and giving the skaven player room to move more models against another flank or region of the map. 

 

Honestly all four items sound very solid choices and things that a player is going to want to use in armies. 

[Ajay29]

18 minutes ago, Nikobot said:

It would seem like you'd start the game with at least 2? Armies without wizards etc might lose the whole mechanic then. 

Good if you can summon more though 

I’m beginning to doubt myself here but I could have sworn I read that somewhere...

Even if you do start with one, it’s still free arcane/deadly terrain. Plus there could be any number of ways of getting more. Maybe we get something like Horticulus who plonks more gnawholes down?

[Nightcast Eternal]

On 2/4/2019 at 2:27 AM, Russrmc said:

Lol

Gamers : we want stuff! 

Gw: here's stuff! 

Gamers : we hate it! 

GW: YOU HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN IT YET 

Gamers: ... 

Gamers : we want stuff! 

That's exactly what I'm thinking. Mostly I've just seen "Let's hate on a release that we haven't even gotten yet"... annoying really.

[bitchparty]

4 hours ago, Num said:

What about a Balewind Vortex 1" from a Gnawhole?? +2 to spell casting. Do you think we can teleport the wizard along with its baleqind vortex through the Gnawhole?

Knowing GW expertise in rules design, I'm sure we will plenty of shenanigans to abuse until they get FAQed

Balewind Vortext does not add +1 to casting in the current edition. It allows the wizard an extra spell.

It'll still be very good next to a Gnawhole. 

[Major]

13 hours ago, Num said:

There were some complaints about the leaked prices of the gnawholes, but I just realized something.

We actually see one gnawholes on the right. Its base size seems similar to Thanquol's, and it is half Thanquol's height... And you don't get one in the box, but three!

I'm sure that it would look massive and scary on the battlefield. I'm definitely going to get some!

AUSTRALIAN PRICES:

CLANRATS (REPACKAGE)		55
CARRION EMPIRE		265
BATTLETOME: SKAVEN		70
BATTLETOME: FLESH-EATER COURTS		70
ENDLESS SPELLS: SKAVEN		55
SKAVEN DICE		49
SKAVEN GNAWHOLE		90
ENDLESS SPELLS: FLESH-EATER COURTS		55
FLESH-EATER COURTS CHARNEL THRONE		60

 

I won't spend time moaning but I will say this, the price gouging in Australia and New Zealand needs to stop. Thanks to GW greed I've seen more chinacast hitting tables than ever before.

[Kirjava13]

1 hour ago, Nightcast Eternal said:

That's exactly what I'm thinking. Mostly I've just seen "Let's hate on a release that we haven't even gotten yet"... annoying really.

Then you need to improve your reading comprehension.

[Grimrock]

Guys, I don't think you're reading the Warp Lightning Vortex correctly. The damage happens to every unit in range on setup and EVERY movement phase thereafter. Skaven turn included. If it goes off that's a chance for 2D3 mortals to every unit, some happening on 2+, in the skaven turn alone. Then again if the skaven gets a double turn.  If  you can't roll the unmodified 9 to remove it in your turn it happens one more time before you can move. Think about  it, any unit inside the triangle will likely take 2-4D3 mortals before  it even has a chance to move. Then they'll take at least 2 turns to get away from the aoe because they can't run. The damage output from this spell is absolutely insane.

 

The range is unreal too, you can reach out and touch something over 40 inches away. You can snare a small based hero inside the triangle from about 32 inches away. You can create a line of effect about 22 inches across your opponents deployment line on turn 1, hitting the majority of their army. 

 

Honestly I think the spell could be 200 points and it's still be the strongest endless spell in the game by far. 

[The_Yellow_Sign]

6 minutes ago, Grimrock said:

Guys, I don't think you're reading the Warp Lightning Vortex correctly. The damage happens to every unit in range on setup and EVERY movement phase thereafter. Skaven turn included. If it goes off that's a chance for 2D3 mortals to every unit, some happening on 2+, in the skaven turn alone. Then again if the skaven gets a double turn.  If  you can't roll the unmodified 9 to remove it in your turn it happens one more time before you can move. Think about  it, any unit inside the triangle will likely take 2-4D3 mortals before  it even has a chance to move. Then they'll take at least 2 turns to get away from the aoe because they can't run. The damage output from this spell is absolutely insane.

 

The range is unreal too, you can reach out and touch something over 40 inches away. You can snare a small based hero inside the triangle from about 32 inches away. You can create a line of effect about 22 inches across your opponents deployment line on turn 1, hitting the majority of their army. 

 

Honestly I think the spell could be 200 points and it's still be the strongest endless spell in the game by far. 

200 points for an endless spell is pretty crazy: that's 40 clanrats, and I don't think its effect justifies losing 40 rats.

[Kirjava13]

56 minutes ago, bitchparty said:

Balewind Vortext does not add +1 to casting in the current edition.

Oh bother, you're right. Well... still, get the Arch-Warlock up on a Vortex next to a Gnawhole and throw Cogs out as well! Then he'll have four spells a turn (with a choice of four plus any realm spells and other endless spells), +1 to cast and unbind, and +6" to all his spells, as well as a 2+ save rerolling fails. That's not counting any artifacts which may improve-benefit casting in some way, yes-yes! 

[Grimrock]

5 minutes ago, The_Yellow_Sign said:

200 points for an endless spell is pretty crazy: that's 40 clanrats, and I don't think its effect justifies losing 40 rats.

If you catch 3 units inside the triangle and they don't dispel, it will cause an average of 7d3 and 1 d6 mortals (3 rolls per unit going off on a 2+) before those units move, prevent them from being involved in the game for at least an extra turn, and potentially hit them for another 3d3 each as they try to get away. Plus any units even remotely close to the triangle can take damage as well. Sounds like it's better than 40 rats to me.

[Riff_Raff_Rascal]

Let me hit ya with some knowledge. 

Anybody here already try land-locking heroes or monsters with Shackles? Well guess what. Lock 'em in, then surround them in the Warplightning Vortex. Target eliminated (pending a pesky dispel). 

That vermintide is so great because of how slow it moves AND how huge the base is. Imagine  having it on your front line with your clanrats just barely cropping out to the sides of it. When your opponent charges you with numbers, you've mitigated how many models pile in. When its your turn to move the clanrats you can free roam around it. Also, if you cast it near the majority of your forces, the likely-hood of your opponent being able to move it at all at top of round is close to nill. 

The Bell single-handily free-frees up our dependence of Crown of Conquest while also freeing up an artifact slot. Now we'll be avoiding Grand Alliance chaos altogether and so this endless spell makes me confident moving forward concerning battleshock. Mind you its not perfect (its dispel-able) but its a 26'' bubble, so heck yeah. Oh and it was commented earlier that the chance of it exploding is less than 10%, once every 10 turns, in a 5 turn game. And again, its skaven, so you should'nt care either way. 

[Nightcast Eternal]

4 hours ago, Kirjava13 said:

Then you need to improve your reading comprehension.

ok, yikes, sorry for offending you...

[The_Yellow_Sign]

 

5 hours ago, Riff_Raff_Rascal said:

Let me hit ya with some knowledge. 

Anybody here already try land-locking heroes or monsters with Shackles? Well guess what. Lock 'em in, then surround them in the Warplightning Vortex. Target eliminated (pending a pesky dispel). 

That vermintide is so great because of how slow it moves AND how huge the base is. Imagine  having it on your front line with your clanrats just barely cropping out to the sides of it. When your opponent charges you with numbers, you've mitigated how many models pile in. When its your turn to move the clanrats you can free roam around it. Also, if you cast it near the majority of your forces, the likely-hood of your opponent being able to move it at all at top of round is close to nill. 

The Bell single-handily free-frees up our dependence of Crown of Conquest while also freeing up an artifact slot. Now we'll be avoiding Grand Alliance chaos altogether and so this endless spell makes me confident moving forward concerning battleshock. Mind you its not perfect (its dispel-able) but its a 26'' bubble, so heck yeah. Oh and it was commented earlier that the chance of it exploding is less than 10%, once every 10 turns, in a 5 turn game. And again, its skaven, so you should'nt care either way. 

The probability of rolling 13 on a 3d6 is 9.72%, but over a 5-round game the probability of it blowing up at least once is 40.03%.

 1-(1-0.0972)^5=0.04003

[Mayple]

On 2/4/2019 at 6:26 AM, Throt the Unclean said:

Also, my prediction is that Skaven are going to be just inept as they've always been. The quirkiness and chance of self-harm is cute and a fun and interesting characteristic that makes them stand out, but it's always come at the expense of their competitiveness.

I'll counter with my own prediction:

Stronger than ever baby! We've been clawing for scraps for years, punching far above our weight class through sheer stubborness and pushing what little we've had as far as possible. Over-analyzing every aspect of skavendom back and forth, in and out.

It doesn't matter how well the new book will perform in the hands of a generic player. Skaven players will suddenly find themselves equipped with actual weapons of power, as opposed to the wet sponges they're used to - and that is a terrifying prospect all on its own.

We can only go up