Forrix

Yeah, that said even with the double shots if the unit has 10+ or more models and a 4+ or worse save (I think). I'll point out though that the Ironblaster is better in melee with the Ogor attacks and the Azyr app says Ironblasters get 2 attacks for the Rhinox Horns while the Scraplauncher only gets 1 attack. I think that's a typo but I don't have my book on me. Also, does anyone feel like the Ironblaster and Scraplauncher competing against each other is like a wrestling match between two people with Cerebral Palsy?

1.) I'm not sure how bad this will actually be since Curse of Stele is once per battle and if you don't string your units out you won't lose coherency. I DEFINETLY see this being a major "Gotcha" ability though that will tilt some players. In a broader point is killing units that are out of coherency really necessary anymore? It feels like that was introduced to stop people from abusing buff bubbles but the change to "Wholly Within" does the same thing and is less punishing. 2.) Yuuup… Realistically the whole unit won't be in range of both Harvesters so you'll only need to kill a handful of guard but math wise its still insane (I've seen some calculations for 5 model) and most lists will be running at least one hero who can hand out 3 model resurrections. I expect this will get Errata'd when their initial FAQ comes out but as its been pointed out Petrifex Elite is still going to make balancing this battletome difficult as it is such a powerful sub faction.

The metal tips on the horns look very familiar to me. I swear I've painted them before but I can't quite place it and am work.

I thought he was on a 50mm base now? I can't find anything online but in the battletome I'm pretty sure he's on 50mms in the pictures.

You can take both in a unit of 6 as it specifically states one of each per 6.

I'm expecting rules supplements and rounding out existing armies with new armies. I think we'll get small model release waves for armies that got single new characters but not much else this year like Skaven, FEC, Slyvaneth, and Mawtribes. This would also provide an opportunity to rerelease the those new characters outside of the box sets. So maybe something like plastic skyre acylotes to be released alongside the bombardier and FEC could get the Arch-regent and clam packs for the other courtiers. Mawtribes could get plastic Butchers and Maneaters. Seriously, give us a plastic Butcher/Slaughtermaster kit please!

I really hope they spend the next year or two tweaking balance and shoring up model lines. Nurgle, Nighthaunt, Idoneth Deepkin, and Gloomspite could all use supplements or major FAQs/Errata to help with internal balance, allegiance abilities, or other shortcomings. Skaven, Beasts of Chaos, and MawTribes all have a lot of finecast or metal miniatures in there line up. The occasional new faction is great but it does make wonder about their production capacity. At some point they will have to cut armies to make room for new armies.

Hell, this will be the first time we've seen a story arch that isn't Stormcast vs someone. It feels like GW is acknowledging that not everyone has a massive, raging, hard-on for Sigmar.

Arkhan, Nagash, most importantly, the Mortisan Boneshaper (a 130 point hero) also bring 3 models back per turn. The Gothizzar Harvester brings a model back to a unit within 6" whenever a model within 3" is slain. Multiple Harvesters can rez off of the same model so if you overlap the 3" bubbles of 2 Harvesters on a unit of Mortek Guard they become effectively immune to damage :P.

So not tactics related but wtf is up with Leadbelchers going for $24 (for 2) on ebay? I was hoping to get pick up some cheap ones due to Feast of Bones but MSRP is 4 for $40.

I learned about Warhammer through Dawn of War (which I literally brought because it reminded me of StarCraft) and got caught up in the lore and thought the models were super cool. I didn't start playing though since I was in college and broke. Years later, a friend of mine wanted to get into fantasy and I decided to jump in with him. Played that until the End Times then switched to 40k but didn't like that as much. Quit playing for years but kept painting minis off and on as I really liked that aspect, mostly painting Malifaux minis and playing the rare game of that. When I the new Nurgle models came out with the Maggotkin release I decided to look back into AoS (I played Nurgle Daemons/Warriors of Chaos in 8th edition) and found the community had come back (and was bigger than fantasy ever was in my area) and the game played pretty well now too.

I run two units of 24 squig herd in my Gloomspite which are 48 wounds at a 6+ save. Its been surprisingly durable and useful. Its not unkillable by any stretch but I've never lost them in one turn of combat and they usually hold out for a couple of battlerounds. On the MawTribes front I think they will be useful as an all rounder unit though I suspect gnoblar screens will be mandatory in any list aiming for top tables (also, there's the leadbelchers vs Gluttons debate, Gluttons win atm for me due to $$) to protect against the worst, like fully buffed up units of the above. I've just found facing such units with all their buffs up to be much rarer than the internet makes it out to be, even in tournaments. On a side note, I'm tempted to try going Tribeless so I can run a Butcher with Questionable Hygiene wedged between a screen of Gluttons and a counter charging unit of Ironguts.

Hence why they have to take it away :P. More to the point the Khorne change was similar in that it killed a potential competitive build and rendered Skull Cannons largely useless for seemingly no reason legitimate reason and after the rules writers said it was intentional for the cannons to benefit from Wrathmongers in a live stream. Though considering how negative reactions were to that they may be more hesitant about doing something similar again. I just wouldn't run out and buy 4 Ironblasters until we see the FAQ unless you just really love the model. Slaanesh aside, I think the Frost Lord on Stonehorn w/ ethereal amulet is strong enough to keep Mawtribes close to a 50% winrate. A lot of army builds are going to struggle with that dude running into their face.

To be fair, TheHonestWargamer didn't exactly say Gluttons were bad its just that he feels Leadbelchers fill the same niche and are just a bit better so he doesn't see a point in taking Gluttons from a min/max perspective. Ironblasters I'm on the fence about. Both Ironblasters and Leadbelchers are shooting units that will need to get into melee if you actually want to get your points worth out of them (I would say Leadbelchers are a melee unit with a ranged attack tacked on). I can see an underguts + Tyrant with trophy rack build giving Ironblasters enough ranged power that when combined with their melee attacks makes them worthwhile but I don't think they will see the table outside of that build. Also, I this might just be the bitter Khorne player in me but I'd wait for the FAQ before loading up on Ironblasters. I feel there is a very good chance that Trophy Rack will get errata'd to just work on melee attacks.

I've always felt like Flying is a very difficult ability to assign a points value too when there isn't any consistency in how terrain is set up/what is used (I know there are some loose rules for terrain set-up but I haven't been in a tournament or gaming group that actually uses them).

Frostlord on Stonehorn is the clear competitive win I think. You could always get a 2nd one, its cheap as far as big centerpiece models come and is in the Start Collecting.

I'm thinking of converting some though I really want to see a new plastic Maneater with them being based off the Mortal Realms. So you'd have like a Fyreslayer Maneater or an Idoneth Deepkin Maneater. Most importantly, there would be a Female Daughter of Khaine Maneater. Preferably, eating a Freeguild soldier.

App is bugged. You have to have a BCR general for battleline Ironguts in it currently.

My only complaint with Gloomspite is it feels like I'm playing without an Allegiance ability most of the time, otherwise I agree. There's a variety of lists I've been toying with and people have specifically told me they enjoy playing against it. Its a little early to tell but I really like the internal balance of MawTribes, particularly that it has subfactions but I don't feel like I have to take a particular one or even one in general. I like my Fyreslayers but it just feels like I'm making the wrong choice if I don't go Hermder and the idea of going Lodgeless is just crazy talk, effectively rendering all the non-lodge command traits a waste of ink. Khorne was just load up on Slaughterpriests or go Tyrants of Blood.

The new Tyrant is amazing if you can get ahold of him.

I think part of the issue with Bonereapers is that GW wanted to make an attrition faction in a meta that has become extremely high damage. Coupled with the fact that it is a brand new army and they probably wanted to make sure it didn't fall flat lead to them overshooting the mark. Also, these books might have been released simultaneously but I doubt they were written simultaneously. Looking at how they streamlined the Mega-Boss on Maw-Crusha's warscroll in Orruk Warclans but didn't with the monsters in Mawtribes makes me suspect that Mawtribes was written before Warclans. Or it could be my other theory that there are multiple rules writers/teams for AoS that have different design philosophies and don't communicate with each other. On the fairness of it, I don't really mind it too much as long as the "less favored faction" (for the record I think MawTribes has much better internal balance between its subfactions and no subfaction options than Bonereapers ) doesn't get forgotten about for years on end. Off the top of my head, Nurgle, Nighthaunt, Idoneth Deepkin, and Gloomspite are all 2.0 battletomes that are either noticeably behind the power curve or dependent on one or two builds. I don't want to have to wait for AoS 3.0 for these factions to get revisited or even another battletome. Nurgle's allegiance abilities are fine, really just some warscroll and points adjustments could work wonders. On the flipside, Gloomspite seems fine warscroll wise but its allegiance ability seems not even factor into most of my games with them. Both of these could get handled in the Winter FAQ/GHB 2020 though it seems like GW has been very conservative with those lately.

I think The Honest Wargamer is skewed towards very high end competitive play in his outlook (considering he covers GTs and such). If you were hoping to regularly have a solid shot at 5-0 with Ogres this book is an absolute let down. Pairing its release with a book that could regularly go 5-0 emphasizes this even more. I do think we'll see the occasional Mawtribes on the podium, its just going to be a once in awhile thing. He did sell me on Leadbelchers. I think there's room for points cuts in a lot of areas too. Basically, most of the monsters except the FrostLord on Stornhorn seem a little overcosted to quite a bit overcosted but okay warscroll wise. You could cut their points decently and they'd still be at a points level that makes sense for big monsters. Stonehorn beastriders would probably start to make their way into my even at 280. Though Thundertusk beastriders are just doomed. Edit: Another point but I don't feel making a new post so soon: I'm not sure on the order and timeframe these books were actually written but I feel like there are distinctly different design philosophies being simultaneously pursued by the rules writing team. In Orruk Warclans we saw the Mega Boss on Maw-crusha warscroll get simplified into 3 attack profiles: The ranged attack, the Mega-Boss Attacks, and the Maw-Crusha attacks. In Beastclaw the Stonehorns still have their Horns and Crushing Hooves (which is still random number of attacks with random damage) separated out into two profiles. The Frost Lord likewise, still has his spear attack profile then the mostly pointless Punches and Kicks. In terms of general balance it feels like the writers were very careful with Mawtribes not let anything be over powered. The -1 hit Mawtribe is specifically in Friendly territory and only against shooting. In Bonereapers, they were just like "+1 save sound cool? Yeah, just slap it on everything all the time". I've said this before but it bears restating: There is some sort of communications breakdown going on in GW. Whether its due to information silos or personality conflicts or whatever the Left Hand and the Right Hand are off doing their own things.

I really hope they go back and start doing small releases to round out factions. Painting up the new Mawtribes Tyrant made me appreciate how terrible the current butcher and slaughtermaster are.

I'm surprised his damage out was low. Looking at his warscroll he looks like a very killy hero for 160 points.

Yeah, the box is a pretty incoherent force but still a cool selection of models. I'd be getting if I hadn't loaded up on Squig hoppers/Bounderz when Looncurse came out. I suppose I might still get it if the savings are good enough. I've been playing a Squig army for awhile now. Its fun but not very good. The Battalion can be a life saver for Boingrot Bounderz. There have been a couple of games where I have a good charge coming up and then roll snake eyes for my Bounderz's movement. Drop wise the Battalion sucks, you'll still be finishing deployment 2nd most of the time with it. Side note on squigs lists- I've found Bounderz to be pretty disappointing. I've been running them in 2 units of 10 but they seem to just lack the damage to kill anything important though with movement buffs I've pulled off some crazy rear line charges. I'm thinking of switching them out for 1 unit of 15 or just 1 unit of 10 and using them as a secondary hammer/assassin unit. 1 or 2 min units of Squig Hoppers are awesome for ninja'ing objective points and just being a nuisance in general. Squig Herd have been my surprise mvps in every game so far though. They have been surprisingly tanky thanks to their wound count and deal pretty good damage due to being on 25mm bases and getting so many attacks in. Manger Squigs are great damage dealers though mine has the tendency to wiff an amazing amount of the time (he's done 0 damage multiple times on the charge at his top bracket. I think its due to me being cursed rather than bad stats).