HollowHills

I'm not saying WHFB models should have rules so bad they are a total joke. More like if you have two equal skilled players and one is playing an old WHFB army and the other an army made for aos then the aos army should be better on paper. Is it really good for the game that a new player to aos who picks up either Nighthaunt or Stormcast will soon discover they are far worse than ancient WHFB armies like cities of sigmar or skaven?

OK well basically no one agrees. I'll try to go back to having good ideas like Tyrion being in charge of the Idoneth.

I did lol. Also I don't want it all to be squatted, just to be worse than armies designed for aos until they receive a thematic update. I don't want skaven to cease existing, just for them to be weaker until they get thematic update.

The only reason I am responding to this post is to debunk any rumours about new armies selling badly. There is absolutely no evidence for that. What we do know is that GW profits keep increasing dramatically over the last few years. Now why would GW persist with a strategy of releasing new armies each year if a significant proportion of the new armies released thus far sols badly? Why would they decide the solution to elves selling badly is to release more elves? Why dilute your elf playing base? You would instead try to sell the existing elves as you've already spent a lot of money paying designers and building moulds etc. Alternative take the elves actually sold well so they want to replicate those profits by tapping into the same vein. This actually matches the picture of increased profits rather than the doom and gloom.

I get what you are saying. I'm not suggesting they should make these armies unplayable. More like they should be lower tier than the new armies. And not that the newest army is always the best. Just a clear line between armies released before summer 2015 and armies released since then. Basically so the old armies are there for people who want to use their old models, but not to encourage them being chosen over the newer factions. Does that make more sense? Genuinely not a troll topic. I am most familiar with idoneth out of all the new armies, so I used them as an example. I am dissatisfied with their battletome, but not because it isn't competitive enough. I wish it had better balance and its a shame that such a small model range is made smaller but dodgy rules, but that isn't the point. I believe many of the new aos armies should have better rules, stormcast, KO, Nighthaunt...

To be clear I'm not saying old armies should be squatted. I liked in more in aos 1 where you could play old models but doing so meant you didn't have access to a battletome and solid rules. Then if GW decides to refresh the concept with a new model release the army gets a battletome. Basically like gloomspite. It seems mad to me now that as a new player you might be better off buying some 20 year old plastic kit that barely fits the aos setting than picking up stormcast, fyreslayers or idoneth. For example phoenix guard, an old high elf kit, are about three or four times stronger than nemarti but are only slightly more points. Plus they have better buffs from cities of sigmar than thralls do from the idoneth tome. To me these new armies should be the most competitive and then old armies should only be supported enough to let you use an existing collection. Not to encourage new players to buy them over proper aos armies. You also have a load of players hanging around now who don't really like AoS and like to hurl insults at stormcast, idoneth etc. Salty WHFB players who are probably the most negative people still in the hobby. (to be clear I'm not saying everyone who plays an old army is like this, just that these people exist and would only play old armies).

I was thinking this today while stewing over the issues in the idoneth battletome. Also thinking about how the KO book is decent, but not likely to be top tier. It doesn't seem right to me that leftover armies like skaven and cities of sigmar should get battletomes with top tier rules with lots of options , while newer armies are limited to one or two competetive builds. Don't we want these armies with a lot of their ugly old kits to die out? Players to move over to the new aos armies that look a lot better on the table and suit the setting? In other words I'm basically saying that new armies deserve better rules than WHFB armies. Discuss.

There are cthulhu old ones in aos?

This is what I want. I posted in the other thread but it makes sense. Tyrion is the blind god, so many of the idoneth are blind. The idoneth are also likely to be more martial than the pure Teclis aelves. I also think that Tyrion might have more sympathy for the idoneth because he was possessed / corrupted himself during the end times. The other two ideas I have for idoneth. 1) They manage to find a way to save themselves and resurrect mathlann through soul magic. Probably too similar to Ynnari in 40k. 2) They find some kind of ancient sea god / entity who helps protect and shelter them in return for some kind of service. In other words they go full cthullu elves. I know none of these are really likely and GW don't tend to move narrative forward in that way but I find them cool.

You say flaws, I say natural benefits. Who needs hair it would only catch and drag you back while swimming. Eyes can be useful, but the endless dark is a blessing.

I hope this doesn't mean idoneth are getting abandoned. If the narrative is just "Teclis fixed elves these guys are perfect" it will be a real shame.

So I've got an MA in literature, used to write a bit and am very much an avid reader (maybe more audio books at the moment). Here is my view on black library. Bear in mind I've only read one black library novel (the court of the blind King), part of one black library compilation and the malign portents stories. Basically the stories are packed with stereotypes and clichés. At no point do they ever subvert my expectations and I can't remember the name of the characters because they just fall into such basic archetypes. The court of the blind king took a possibly really cool concept and did nothing with it. Instead of traumatised elves doomed to survive by destroying the very life force of others we got generic fantasy snooty court drama. The plot is like a bad mash up between Hamlet and Macbeth with random pulp stories thrown in. People die, there are big battles and schemes blah blah it doesn't matter because you don't care about any of the characters. They have no real personalities and the events of the story don't change them at all. There is no heroes journey because the hero is the exact same person at the end except he has more stuff. There has been no transformation, no emotional advancement, no learning. I can think of a million things that could have been more interesting than what we got. 1) What's it like living with the legacy of slaanesh? Do you have nightmares? Are you afraid to connect emotionally? Do you secretly long for pleasure yet also fear it? How do these things impact the society in which you live? Is it something the protagonist needs to deal with? How will s/he overcome it? 2) what's it like being true souled vs being nemarti? Have you seen loved ones die due to withering souls? Are you afraid of bearing half soul children and losing them? Do the nemarti repulse you? If a nemarti, do you resent your masters or see them as gods and saviours? Do you have memories of another half remembered life? 3) what kind of society would you have? Do they hate their creator for turning against them? Do they live in fear of his wrath? Are they secular and democratic? What moral norms are there and how did these come about? Are there dissenting voices? You start asking questions like this and you start being able to imagine what your characters might think and feel at the start of your story. Then you ask what outside forces might challenge that status quo and you think how your characters might react. Are there any consequences of those reactions? Are there conflicts? Black library has none of this stuff. It's just an endless stream of "and then and then and then". And then he fought nurgle and then he fought the sylvaneth and then he fought a giant shark. It's childlike.

They look sweet.

I personally look forward to being more isolated from humanity and enjoying our ever closer relationship with the rising sea.

I mean a gargant faction sort of makes sense. What else can they put in destruction? It's not something I'm personally interested in at all. That said if we get it well done aos team for actually supporting all the grand alliances with big releases, as opposed to 40k and the space marine spam. I still sincerely hope that the rumour engine with corals and barnacles is deepkin related though. We've suffered a lot from being the last book to release pre 2.0.

Ah yeah, very similar. I guess it is Ogors then. Maybe Warcry will get warbands for other grand alliances this year? Just a guess as it would seem weird to do the new book and everything then have a random kit later.

Looks like an orruk shield with a dwarf shield attached. Definitely more ironjawz than Bonesplittez.

Adepticon will announce 40k 9th Ed which will be a soft edition (like aos 2) that allows existing codices to be used, but makes some core rule tweaks. The big summer release window will tie into 9th Ed 40k. So there is no intent to do a new aos edition or anything like that this year. I suspect we will get pointy elves, then campaign books and hopefully a few more battleboxes with new battletomes.

I think most people would agree that the demon Prince command ability was not intended to constantly spam d3 mortals into your opponent. I also thought this faq was the original intent of the rule. That said I think it's fair to feel aggrevied when you see nonsense like bonereapers come out and then your army book you've waited for is so kuch worse. This is how I imagine the office... Rules Guy One: "Hmmm if I give them reroll 1s vs 2 wound units that gives an extra 2 to 3 wounds, I think that's OK". Rules Guy Two: *hits crack pipe* EVERYONE GETS PLUS ONE SAVE ALL THE ****** TIME. AND REND AND AN EXTRA ATTACK AND ALL SPELLS ARE CAST ON 5 AND ****** SCENERY PLACEMENT JUST PUT IT ANYWHERE! ****** ME I LOVE THIS JOB.

Given there are quite a few abilities that deal a mortal on a roll of 6 and you roll 1 dice per model in the unit I think this would have worked. Reduce it to 1 mortal rather than d3 and it can only be used on a unit once per turn. Makes it really good vs hordes but ****** against most elite units and heroes.

I posted this elsewhere but I'd like Nurgle vs Idoneth. Blightwar is so long ago now I don't think it matters, plus it would be nurgle mortals. The story would be Briomdar vs Maggotkin in the realm of life. Idoneth contents 1 isharann embailor (new sculpt) 2 x allopex 10 thralls Nurgle contents 1 plague gargant (new sculpt) 5 blight kings 2 drone riders Both armies get new endless spells and battletomes to release along side. That said I personally hope we move away from year+ long exclusivity windows. Some armies you basically can't start now without putting aside £40 to buy a unique sculpt.

It would be OK in the new form if it didn't cost a cp, now you're basically paying 1 cp to do 1 or 2d3 mortals. So it's basically gone from incredible to terrible. I'm not really sure what more they could have done other than rewrite the ability entirely though.

If idoneth are in a box the new hero will be an embaillor. They have no model but are very important to the lore in the battletome and recent black library stories. Probably a non-wizard hero unit that has a damage bonus vs bonuses and abilities which support idoneth beasts. A good concept for a box set would be Briomdar vs Nurgle. They could do the narrative around the Green Gulch war, it would tie into the recent book story quite well and update two factions that could use some minor rules love.

Some people are down on eidolon of the storm but I've always found him to be useful. The ability to retreat and still charge is great, the wound rerolls are really great if not using Fuethan and still quite good otherwise. Plus he is a fantastic model and every idoneth player should own an eidolon.

I wouldn't really recommend subscribing beyond issue 5. It's probably worth subscribing until you get the exclusive stormcast as she may be difficult to find in the shops / on forbidden planet given how it went with the space marine. Bear in mind the AoS collection includes way more scenery than the 40k one. Unless you're planning on building a gaming table at home or run a club then you probably won't use a lot of that scenery and it doesn't have that much resale value either. You'll also get paints way too slowly to actually paint the army properly and the paints you do get won't necessarily be ideal. So you will need to buy a load of extra paints unless you're content to wait a year or two to have a painted army. It's also hard to build a decent force out of the models you get. For example, you will almost certainly never use the thorns of the briarqueen in an AoS army and will need to purchase cards separately on ebay etc to play underworlds. I don't think you can even use the coven throne / mortis engine in a pure nighthaunt army. Units like castigators never see play. You get a load of liberators which are etb and are just worse versions of the sequitors you already have. If you want these armies you are probably best buying individual issues on Forbidden planet to get the good units, then just ignore the rest. Also as others have mentioned there is the hassle of art books, binders etc being added on for extra cash.