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Preference for More Heroes on Foot


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It seems as miniature designs have improved, its enabled GW to make centerpiece models less, well, "miniature". Am I the only one that misses the days when many of your greatest heroes would be slogging it on foot with your infantry, or at least riding on a normal sized horse?

Thinking of, for example, the amazing picture of Archaon below, I find it disappointing that there will likely never be a model that renders him in all his glory fighting on foot. Battles just don't feel quite as gritty to me when you've got your leader on some massive beast instead of in the thick of battle. What does the community think of this trend, and do you think we'll ever see the pendulum swing back?

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I definitely understand your feelings on this, but I'll offer a counter or two.

1. Most (all?) armies still offer heroes on foot, so you have the option to skip the bigger guys and stick to the smaller ones.

2. AoS is a big shift from WFB. In the old Warhammer days, many gamers I knew really wanted huge monsters and heroes, but not only did the setting and rules not encourage them as much, but the technology and materials of the time didn't allow for them. That's all different now and I think GW is just letting decades of wishful thinking be fulfilled - and I, for one, am very happy for this.

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It is a bit of a shame. I like the kits you can get for lotr where the hero comes on foot and on a horse.

Centre piece models are great and all, but I think there is a definite trend that the leader has tk be at the very least oversized compared to their troops, if not the biggest model in the range.

My theory for why this has happened is that GW design studio have gradually turned into orks.

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This is something I've talked about with my local hobby group a few times alongside that low wound heroes die can be killed relatively easily.  I think what's happened is that AoS has moved away from being a game about "Heroic Combat" TM and is now a game about impressive armies.

I can't actually see the game going back to how it used to be.  What I could see is a expansion ruleset be written that allows you to play smaller games with more of a heroic slant on it (possibly sitting between Warcry/Skirmish and Meeting Engagement).

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As others have said, there are more than enough heroes on foot in the game. Wizards and other support heroes are almost always on foot. 

I mean, the only new FEC kit is the Arch-Regent on foot. 

The fact that there are enough small heroes aside, I like the current situation. Big heroes and faction leaders stand out and are easily recongnizeable. Which, in my opinion, is much better than the opposite case where I may confuse my general and a squad leader. 

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6 hours ago, Nighthaunt Noob said:

Battles just don't feel quite as gritty to me when you've got your leader on some massive beast instead of in the thick of battle. 

I agree wholeheartedly.  As irrational as it may sound, the number of combat heroes on foot is one of decisive factors for me when deciding whether to start collecting a new army.  So no Bonereapers for me... 

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yeah I have the same. It's gut feeling, nostalgia and very irrational. But if the mount outfights the rider*... the rider feels more of a guide than a hero. Also in general foot soldiers fighting feels more cinematic to me, so I want that but cooler for my heroes I guess. 

How does that Celestant pummel stuff with his hammer on that big of a stardrake 😂
At least a frostlord has a spear to poke down. 

EDIT: But the models are definitely cool, so can't have both I guess. Although Things like the greater daemons straddle that fine line. 

*which it always does as we know 😂

Edited by Kramer
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Never going to happen but Iv always thought it would be cool if heros could dismount or their mounts could be killed separately like the witch King in LOTR, would be broken as hell but so awesome 😂 

 

Imagine bringing down a black dragon then having the dreadlord striding out from the crash to keep going like a boss haha

Edited by Gypsy_Pistolero
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1 hour ago, Gypsy_Pistolero said:

Imagine bringing down a black dragon then having the dreadlord striding out from the crash to keep going like a boss haha

I'd like it, perhaps add a trigger to every wound bracket that the monster and hero lose. Doing leadership tests, if the mount is still willing to fight and when the final wound is removed you roll to see, if the mount or the rider survives with one remaining health or maybe they're both slain.

I miss my high mage on a horse, he was amazing. I'd like to see more encouragement to field heroes on foot or lighter category mounts.

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1 hour ago, Gypsy_Pistolero said:

Never going to happen but Iv always thought it would be cool if heros could dismount or their mounts could be killed separately like the witch King in LOTR, would be broken as hell but so awesome 😂 

 

Imagine bringing down a black dragon then having the dreadlord striding out from the crash to keep going like a boss haha

It would also be cool to have a foot hero suddenly summon a Dragon -mount (or similar) down from the skies midway through the battle, perhaps by using an item or prayer on a roll.

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I dunno... I play mortal Khorne more than anything and that whole army revolves around a supporting cast of 5 wound heroes on foot that you must keep alive. I have had some pretty epic foot fights keeping those guys alive for another turn.

Stormcast has probably the most foot slogging heroes of them all (also a lot of mounted) and those guys can be super clutch and fun.

I see the move towards bigger more extravagant models as a way to draw attention to the game and pull in potential players. Also Sam Wise's over the top super heroic art featured in the best selling fantasy game of all time WoW probably has something to do with it. (Think weapons and armor that is too large and crazy to actually be practical for combat)

Also on a side note i really enjoy smaller games around 1k and for the most part big high cost models are not present very often giving your wee lil foot sloggers center stage.

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4 hours ago, Eevika said:

I really love the large models way more fun to paint and look very interesting. Fyre Slayers are very much an army of on foot heros and its visually the most boring army ever when you cant tell anything apart.

There is a lot of difference between a battlemage, general, warpriest, engineer and witch hunter.

They were still the same faction.

The reason Fyre Slayers are a bit indistinguishable from one another is that the entire visual reference for the faction was one unit in Fantasy, not that you can't make distinguishable foot heroes.

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15 hours ago, Gypsy_Pistolero said:

Never going to happen but Iv always thought it would be cool if heros could dismount or their mounts could be killed separately like the witch King in LOTR, would be broken as hell but so awesome 😂 

 

Imagine bringing down a black dragon then having the dreadlord striding out from the crash to keep going like a boss haha

This used to be the case, and resulted in pages of rules and clarifications to handle some the possibilities. I am not saying I didn't like the option, but the trade off for a single profile model is worth it for me.

For many years at the end of WFB there were players (me included) looking at the trend of combined profiles and wanting it to come for mounted heroes (like King on Chariot or Sphinx) as well. Then it happened! 

I don't want to go back.

Edited by Sleboda
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57 minutes ago, Sleboda said:

This used to be the case, and resulted in pages of rules and clarifications to handle some the possibilities. I am not saying I didn't like the option, but the trade off for a single profile model is worth it for me.

For many years at the end of WFB there were players (me included) looking at the tend of combined profiles and wanting it to come for mounted heroes (like King on Chariot or Sphinx) as well. Then it happened! 

I don't want to go back.

Fair enough, I didn't know that I'm fairly new to gaming, dabbled in 40k back at school but fantasy always put me off sounded very confusing until age of sigmar. 

 

If I were to suggest a rule system for it I'd probably go the route of transports in 40k, so the riders weapons couldn't be used while mounted except for ranged attacks/abilities, then when the mount dies roll a dice on a 1 he's crushed under his beast, otherwise you get a foot hero. 

 

Gives a trade off of saving a hero for late game where assets may be short and protection from sniping (kinda lol we all know they can be nuked 😂) with the inherit risk of him dying too without much use

 

I just like it for theatrics, I quite like the current system I love my sneaky little loonboss on foot as well as his big ol troggboss bodyguard who's totally not the real general no matter what lies have been said! 😂 

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22 hours ago, Nighthaunt Noob said:

Am I the only one that misses the days when many of your greatest heroes would be slogging it on foot with your infantry, or at least riding on a normal sized horse?

Khorne Bloodbound would be perfect for you. Heaps of heroes on foot!

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