Forrix

He was one of my top picks too. I loved painting him up. Here's to hoping for a plastic maneater kit whenever his clampack gets released.

The community website got the poll up and I found it be a pretty hard choice. Loads of good models and it made me realize just how much 40k we got this year too. Wound up going with Keeper of Secrets since I feel they pulled off a difficult concept (monstrous/beautiful) quite well. Skullmaster, some of the 40k chaos stuff, and basically all the Gloomspite Releases were up there for me too. Just wondering what and why other people picked.

I'd also say that he's looking at it from a pretty competitive level. If you're playing against Anvilgard Dark Elf lists and such then the book is fine. I'd certainly say the book is noticeably weaker than most other battletomes released this year and seems to have a bunch of unnecessary limitations (famously the Tyrant reroll hit/wound command trait). But even then it has a few moderately competitive builds (like that 2 stonehorn list). Its only garbage tier if you're set on going 5-0 in GTs (or your friends play Slaanesh/OBR :P). There's also a lot of room for point drops for future FAQs....

Yup, I'm okay with them only getting +1 hit when Archaon is around just because its so easy to get reroll hits/wounds but they feel lacking without the circles.

My personal tinfoil hat theory/hopeful wishing is we are going to see 2nd waves for all the factions with unreleased box set heroes this year. So come Feburaryish we'll get the long awaited warlock Bombardier release and plastic acolytes to go along with him. FEC will get the Arch-Regent clampack and some proper plastic courtier models.

Can't find too much recent discussion in this thread on Fiends. Has anyone been taking them? I really like the models and are one of the reasons I've been eying a Slaanesh army. But they seem very expensive for what they do.

Same here though I've been moving specifically towards Ironguts, FrostLord of Stonehorn, and tons of chaff. Gluttons look good on paper but they've been a disappointment in every game I've taken them. They die too easily for their cost and the lack of rend and difficulty in getting enough into combat means they always fall short when I need them to kill something.

Personally I rate Iron Golems pretty high for this since they don't require Sorcerer Lord support for rerolls or unit size/points issues (10 chaos warriors being 200 points). The Ogre in the unit having 3 wounds also helps reduce battleshock vunerability the first time they're hit.

Total speculation but I could see them really hurting OBR and Fyreslayers if one of those factions produces a bent/broken ranged shooting/magic unit/combo. Hell, with OBR becoming SUPER popular in my area that could push me over the fence into buying one of those factions (I was planning on collecting both when they came out but Cities, Slaves, and Ogors have more than filled up my painting table).

Hahahaha!! *cries*

Those are definitely Ogor bits on his boot. I'm interested in what he's standing on though? Id say its the hunter but I don't see him standing on a platform.

Every single Stormcast model has been released since the start of AoS. Not a single Cities model has been. Slaves are mostly 8th edition fantasy models (less so if you count the Warcry warbands). Legions of Nagash are all old models except for Nighthaunt and same for Skaven minus the Bombardier (which isn't available). Hell, Skaven have a significant number of metal and resin miniatures still. 30x is hyperbole but Stormcast have received a level of support in AoS that puts them in a league of their own. Only Khorne comes even remotely close. I'd be fine with Stormcast getting another book release as they could use one but if they get another another Sacrosanct style release while Fyreslayers are still building all their units out of 2 sets of 5 identical bodies I'm going to go to Lowes and buy a pitchfork.

I thinks worth noting that GW dropped their price in the Winter FAQ despite CoS being so new. I think they've caught on that Drakespawn are Capitol B bad. Hopefully in the GHB 2020 they'll get buffed again and be playable.

Yeah, I dont know 40k enough or the IH stuff to comment on the actual rules but I heard they were over an 80% winrate. By comparison I think DoK peaked at 77% and they were the highest we've seen in AoS. Slaanesh and OBR have been hovering just under 70%.

To be blunt, I think Iron Hands were only nerfed because the ITC said they were so busted they were banning them from tournaments (ITC being a huge deal in 40k). That is why Rob started his #banSlaanesh thing. If there was a coordinated tournament system through which a vast a majority of AoS tournaments were ran and it had decided to ban Slaanesh then GW would have responded much quicker.

If this is the passage you all are referring to on Archaon (I don't have my book with me) then that explicitly refers to only one Aura of Chaos if a unit has more than one Mark of Chaos.

Pretty much my thought. He would also still be able to be apart of god-specific armies without using ally points with just the Mark of Chaos ability same as the other units with Marks. Definitely a good FAQ question.

What counter argument are you referring to? Archaon doesn't have the Mark of Chaos rule on his warscroll, he just has the god names in the keyword section. The Mutalith Vortex Beast can only have the Tzeentch keyword but still has the Mark of Chaos rule on his warscroll. The only argument I see for Archaon not benefiting from multiple keywords is on Warscrolls with the Mark of Chaos rule its says "following Mark of Chaos keyword(s): [god names]" which implies God names alone qualify for being a Mark of Chaos. This does seem to be the RAW however it creates a pretty bad scenario where how a Warscroll works is limited by the specific wording on a different warscroll and not anything in the allegiance abilites or core rules. I wouldn't want to tell an opponent in a tournament that his list doesn't work the way he thinks it does because a rule written on a different warscroll from Archaon's implies that Archaon is effected by a limitation of the Mark of Chaos rule even though Mark of Chaos is an ability that is not on Archaon's warscroll.

I think that books with deep benches are going to have lower winrates due to more room for people to take sub-optimal lists for whatever reason (playstyle, favorite models, "being bad", ect.). I've shelved my Gloomspite army for now due to being terrible but there is a Gloomspite army build that does well at tournaments (Tons of Grots and spells) but I'm not interested in playing it. I suspect we'll see something similar with Slaves to Darkness. I think there's some powerful builds in that battletome but a lot of not very effective options too. Cities is probably particularly hard hit by this though for aforementioned reasons of people trying to play just one subfaction due to being returning players and only having their old fantasy battles army.

Another unit question for you all. As I endlessly toy with Cities list I'm looking at some elf themed ideas but I find Phoenix Guard, Black Guard, and Executioners all seem to serve a similar role in my army. Phoenix Guard are of course, the tanky variant that can also put out some pretty good damage with the Anointed reroll wounds ability. Black Guard are faster with run and charge but cost the same as PG in units of 30 however, they are cheaper at 20 and still a threat. Executioners though... I'm not sure what their role is. They are cheaper than either though not by much until you hit 30. That said, with no rend and the attack sequence ending on a 6 to hit for the mortal wound they really don't seem that damaging. Especially since they only have a 1 inch attack range compared to the 2 inch of PG and BG and won't be able to take advantage of their unit size as well. So basically its take PG for big 30 blocks, BG for 20 man scalpel/alpha strike stuff, and take Executioners for ?? I haven't played any of this out on the table (been slowly building up my model collection) yet so its all theory craft. Anyone here like Executioners for something other than looks?

To clarify some points about Fyreslayers: Hermdar is the fight first lodge (comes with -1 wound command trait too). This is the way. +1 rend is an allegiance ability that is used once per game in your hero phase and lasts until your next hero phase Reroll wounds is the warscroll prayer for Auric Runesmiters. These guys suffer critical existence failure in the presence of crawlers (5 wounds, 5+ save) but can be mounted on a Magmadroth for a significant increase in durability and cost. This is more Fyreslayer tactics discussion than has occurred in the actual Fyreslayer thread for months.

My big fear playing Fyreslayers against is losing my battlesmiths. Battlesmiths normally have a 3+ save but need a hero phase to turn on their buff bubble. Unbuffed a Battlesmith with look out sir dies to a complete unbuffed Mortek Crawler 53% of the time. If the Crawler is at +1 hit and reroll 1s (I know that's possible but I'm not sure how realistic that is turn 1) then it jumps to 68%.

With the rend rune, reroll 1s command ability, and reroll wounds prayer on the HBG with broadaxes you're looking at 18 to 30 damage, most likely 22-26 using druchii dice calculator, before deathless saves and a Harvester save if there is one. On average 20 dead guard after deathless saves, 10 with Harvester. If you're charging with a lords of the lodge battalion and attacking first with Hermdar then yes, you should be able to wipe the unit before they can activate assuming there is no Harvester (very popular in my group but not universally taken and killable for Fyreslayers). Its a lot of work but it is a possible counter.

On the subject of Tier lists I have two "bold" predictions for this season (aka until GHB 2020). 1.) OBR will be the new bogeyman #1 army. 2.) Fyreslayers will improve in the tier rankings and, for an actually bold prediction, hit a 60% win rate. Though new battletomes could throw a wrench into this, KO, Tzeentch, and Seraphon are all traditionally associated with Non-combat phase damage and/or teleportation stuff that could really mess up either of these two armies.

Fyreslayers don't have much mortal wound output, especially against singular models, other than those poleaxes. In my meta at least 3+ ethereal save big monsters are very common and poleaxes are the only reliable way I've found to deal with them. Plus, they were handy against Nighthaunt players back when we had them.