Overread

Honestly part of me thinks that models like Morathi will come into their own in a few years time. When the AoS player base is more established and has bigger collections and GW tweaks the points to lower them across the board so that you can fit more on a table for a given points value.

I don't think that works well honestly. Remember the moved model has to be outside of 9 inches from any enemy model - that's a big ask for a very big base single miniature on a terrain dotted field that might land her even further away. Plus when it comes to her next movement phase Morathi then can't move in the following movement phase..... AND THEN I realise that it doesn't mention charging and that charging is a totally separate movement order in a totally separate phase of the game. It's still risky and something that I think works better for a unit of multiple smaller models, but could work on Morathi. It does get around her fragility in combat even if it means that she might no be buffing units unless you get a strike on your rear lines.

I think one trick with Morathi is to realise that she will become a warsnake. Like most of the DoK range she doesn't want to be sitting back and hiding. She has respectable close combat damage herself and buff spells and abilities coupled to her transformation where she loses most of her ranged abilities and becomes a monster in close combat. Plus don't forget her wounds double when she transforms (both assigned and maximum) so if anything you want to be moving her forward so that when she takes those first 3 wounds you are ready to transform her so that she can leap into combat. You don't want her transforming in the back-ranks and then having to rush her forward whilst she can't contribute as much. Losing a turn with her isn't viable for the amount of points she costs. I do agree that Daughter's have a lot of nifty stuff that is very high price and that can cut down on variety. Beyond witches, sisters and the hag queen the rest of their range is expensive and/or fragile.

Morathi is also a lot of points all in one place; whilst she's got survivability in her wound mechanic she's also big enough and juicy enough that an opponent is going to want to put all 3 wounds on her every turn they get. Plus once they know how she works she's not as much a damage soak as some other tanky units because once she has her 3 wounds your opponent has no reason to focus any more attention to her. So they are not going to spend a turn trying to take her down by focusing everything they've got on her; which helps her survive but also means she's not a tough distraction like some other tanky models. She's a very curious model even before you get to her transformation where she goes from a more skirmish/range unit to a full close combat beast.

I think Khinerai with a Shadowblade Assassin support is a decent way to threaten heroes or artillery or other ranged targets even early in the game. It's not cheap and its not going to last but it means for 160 points you can put two decent units down and be a viable threat. Granted unless you are lucky they won't stand up to much retaliation so it can be an expensive one-shot-wonder move. But if it cripples or takes out a few key units or even just one powerful hero then its done its business in helping protect the rest of your force. The other option is to load up on Blood Sisters which come with rending and glazetouch.

The main weakness DoK have is that they lack any kind of proper tarpit. Morathi is probably the most "tanky" of all the range because of her wound mechanic and when she is in her transformed state. So any unit that can regeneration, restore lost warriors or has a high defensive capacity is going to be tough. DoK rely on doing a powerful alpha-strike and doing significant damage then; with the view that the return damage is far reduced. If that's not the case then they can get cut down. I think the trick is to either avoid those units and try to go around them and secure objectives or strike at weaker units - making heavy use of high mobility. Or to focus a block of the army on those units so that whilst the enemy has a tough tarpit unit; the DoK get the first strike from multiple angles to cut it down to nothing. So either splitting the army up to go for other things; or focusing the army like a single blade on the enemy.

@Aspirant Snaeper consider allying in a Shadowblade Assassin. You can hide it (or even two, one in each) into one of the heartrender groups. That way when they land and strike you've got an additional punch in the group - especially if you send them hunting after a solo hero! Hit and run is their key function, but remember khinerai are super fragile so they aren't going to be able to weather much return attack. Use them to mob a single isolated target; or to sweep in and provide support for your snakes. I'd also say put one of those Blood sisters up to a 10 and add in a Hag Queen for some support and Witchbrew; or you could add in a Slaughter queen for support and a second spell unbind.

Just to note the way that the Doomfire Warlocks are built the legs and hips (ergo all the lower body) is part of the horse itself. So you can change the upper body but not the lower if you keep the original horses. Otherwise yes sisters of thorn might be a good conversion with some witch aelf parts and drakespawn

The Assassin can, however, have artifacts if you are running a Shadowblades Army

That is a massive mound of fantastic conversions - small neat ideas and bigger projects! Really great to see esp with the good painting on top. Love the fire elves twist that you've got going though the burning chaos critters at the very start really stand out

@syph0n approached me with the offer of several cold-one heads after I'd casually mentioned a desire for them in a thread relating to conversions. Paid him via paypal and he posted them very fast - all items arrived without any problem.

Here's a question for those in the know; being a new army and as the only points, for us directly, that changed are the Battalions (which can be easily found on the warscroll builder and errata) I'm wondering if the General's Handbook offers Daughters players enough to make it worthwhile getting.

To be honest snap-fit likely makes little difference to the price compared to regular parts; unless you get into the Malign Sorcery snap-fit which (I believe) is a slightly different plastic mix (it feels just a little different and the details are little softer on the edges).

*Reads all the chainrasp rage - goes and looks at the price for 10 rasps is £25* You guys know Daughters of Khaine players would be rejoicing if Witch Aelves were put down to that price right *currently 10 Witches is £35!*

How is the wording? To they have to fully cast and resolve and hit their target or just cast a spell itself? Depending on the wording Tzeentch wizards could generate for themselves one or two extra charges without having to have a viable target. Then again if they've got access to a spell lore as normal chances are throwing a buff on one of your units or on themselves is better than just wasting a casting.

It's not even an intended vs written argument. The language is very clear, she MUST be your general to use her command ability. This will remain the case unless GW issues an update to change that wording. There really isn't any debate here. In general if people argue about rules just ask them to show you where its clearly printed. IF they start going on about "Well that's what the rule says, but I'm sure its intended...." then you are fully within your right to deny them and play to the rules of the game (esp since many "intended" arguments are often just people trying to impose their own personal preferences on the game).

If I recall right one big issue is power supply due to works by the local council so that could be one key thing that is holding them back; and might well be something that they can't just buy extra machines to cover. Might be those works finish some time this year or next and thus let them get that factory back to full production capacity. I also think that they don't want to invest too much in machines and new staff only to ride out this big wave of purchasing and find that it eases off in half a year or more; leaving them with excess production capacity (which means having to let staff go - or operate at higher than needed running costs or even have machines sitting around empty!)

It's a pain but thankfully the Assassin is still very good even on its own without any artifacts

Asides which even if they were forgotten and left out - you can just re-release them later with a big fanfare. Also lets not kid ourselves the balance and rules for Sigmar at launch were laughable (quite literally most of the rules were jokes). They could have thrown down random numbers and had them statted up in less than an afternoon. Plus the whole multiple realms structure makes is insanely easy to add new factions and new worlds. A random gate is found in some unknown corner and BAM new world with undead mummies. It's not like the Old World where there was one world, one lore, one visual theme (ok 2 if you include the chaos realms) Nopes I still hold that it was part of a longer term plan to basically make Sigmar a boutique line of models with a very limited range. Possibly with a view that Lord of the Rings would be pushed up again to become the fantasy standard game (only possibly since that range is always under the threat of licence loss). Or just to let 40K take the lions share of everything. The TK just got the short straw as the first to go fully.

Aginor if you cast a spell and there is no legal target then clearly the spell does nothing and ends. The wizard simply stands there and finds themselves a fool with no legal target and lets the energies flow away. You still count as having cast the spell so; 1) You have used up that spell casting count for the wizard. 2) You have actually cast the spell, so you also cannot recast that same spell in the same turn and must wait until your next magic turn to cast it once more. So its a double gamble not just on the wizards spell cast counter, but also on the spell itself.

Page 233 in main rule book under Wizards section of the rules (also in the pdf online) Casting spells - "In order to cast a spell, first say which spell the wizard is going to attempt to use (it must be one they know). To cast the spell, roll 2d6. If the total is equal to or greater than the casting value of the spell, the spell is successfully cast." Most spells state then if they are successfully cast select a target within x inches etc.. Ergo technically speaking yes you can cast a spell without a target; though in the real practical world players measure range and will likely declare targets before attempting to cast (though technically you don't have to). In theory this means that yes you can measure the distance to several units to your wizard and then cast a spell without telling your opponent the target of the spell until after you've attempted to cast and they have either allowed it or attempted to unbind it. You are not required to tell your opponent the target of the spell until after the casting phase (which includes the counter casting) is completed. Of course if the spell is target self then you will have to declare as that is information on the spells warscroll and thus openly known to all players. Note because measuring distances is freely done at any point if you don't measure and just declare you're casting a spell your opponent is free to read the range from the spell description and measure possible targets to your wizard before they choose to unbind or not. Note 2 this appears to be how spells are intended to work, however its likely one of those mental leaps most players won't realise until after its shown to them as otherwise many are going to copy-cat how ranged attacks work where you declare targets before attempting to hit. edit - note that most spells state something along the lines of "if successfully cast pick a target within x inches" this implies quite strongly that if there is a legal target for the spell then you must use the spell if it is successfully cast. There is no choice built into the language. Therefore you cannot attempt to cast and then not use a spell if there is a legal target within range of your mage for the spell. So you can't trick your opponent by moving a mage close and then wasting your spells to get them to waste their dispels.

The last rumours I've heard are all 40K. I figure we've got the remaining nighthaunt and Stormcast stuff and then its the new Titan game with at least one or two weeks of August and then its right into Space Wolves and likely then Cultits and Orks. Along that way we might see smaller Sigmar releases; I'm thinking things like Endless Spells, but that depends how fast GW wants to roll them out for other factions.

@Kyriakinnot to mention that many of those were quite new models in the range - TK were not a back-burner faction like Sisters of Battle, Dark Elves (who have been turned around for a while now ) or Bretonnians

Yeah they got 3 new kits which are very good kits; they've fleshed out well but I've a strong feeling that we'll see more for Daughters- esp if the story setup between them and Slaanesh is twinned to a big release! Granted at that release I would fully expect Slaanesh to have the lions share, but even one new kit for Daughters would be good and I'd not begrudge Slaanesh getting multiple kits. The big thing would be that the story for Sigmar would thrust both factions into the light for a while. I'm assuming its daughters and slaanesh because of how the lore currently has Morathi syphoning off souls from Slaanesh and the demons and legions that remain are raiding the shadowlands where Morathi and here people make their most powerful and primary home. Therefore it stands to reason that those two factions would be the focus of a big release. Heck the inside cover art for Daughtesr is daughters VS demonettes

I thought Daughters were doing well despite the fact that they've got one of the most expensive basic troop types. That said they are partly overshadowed by the fact that sea-elves came out hot in their heels and huge turtles, eels and frekkin sharks (with harpoons on their backs) might have distracted some buyers. The Blood Coven is gone, but it appears to still have quite a bit of stock in the distribution network; but it sells out pretty quick from most stores that I've seen so they are selling good. I think that at present most fans want to see more sensibly priced witch Aelves