Tropical Ghost General

I think it's because it's so wonky, that it keeps drawing me back in 😂

Yeah, but then again they opened pandora's box when the dropped the skaven and fec books 😂

100% yes to this. I do feel that blades and harridans being 2 wounds would be a better option at a higher points costs though. Yes it doesn't work as well with our healing, but then we have options to revive full models, which I think pretty much every ghost player takes RotSH as their general's command trait. It would also give more options for the BC to heal other than hexs and SHs. The issue with single wound stuff is that it gives the unit with large bases and small reach no staying power. Large units can't get into combat and small units die instantly. They are elite choices but lack anything that makes them truly elite imo.

Death saves is all. Once fully powered it has some silly movement, as it has such a large base size, have a hero keep up with it and give it death saves is impossible. It doesn't hit very hard, so the option of artefacts might help to mitigate that weakness. Also being a hero with artefacts then makes it a contender for holding objectives in missions like arcane places of power, which is normally an auto lose for ghosts as we lack any big heroes. It wouldn't solve the problem but it would give a helping hand, the issue is is that our hero slots are precious enough as it is, I am often needing more than the 6 tbh, and competitive AoS is becoming very much a case of who can bring the best heroes, so having to use one of the hero slots for the BC also has it's draw backs, but it is what it is at the moment, a massively overcosted and beautiful model that lacks any real punch, as it has a very confused role in the army, it's not a pure healing machine, it's not a pure combat machine, it's not a pure buffing machine, it's a wishy washy mixture of everything, which is fine in less competitive games but at tournaments it's currently a big drain on points.

100% change warscrolls to match points. Too many models in games as it is, reducing points leads to longer games with the same weaker units

But if we did get a terrain piece, a guaranteed way to revive entire dead summonable units would be so good. A way to be immune to battleshock would be great as we could actually take hordes rather than MSUs. But I'm a realist and if we get anything I expect that it will just be something that gives -1 bravery (like sinister terrain) but a range of 12" rather than 1", but the affected unit has to be wholly within to be get the debuff. That way it falls in line with a lot of the other guff we have 😂.

It's no rumour. It was announced on Stormcast podcast thingy. We won't be getting any updates though. In the grand scheme of things we are a new army, with new models (a lot of new models) and a new book. Basically anything from. Maggotkin onwards is classed as updated, as that book was designed with AoS 2.0 in mind. So LoN, Deepkin, DoK are all in the same boat, released in 1st edition but designed with 2nd. A lot of the auras from ghosts and SCE are wholly within, so the only updates we might see to those older of the new books is changing those elements to match, but then again they've done a few FAQs since then and not updated it, so maybe they'll be left as is. In summary do not expect anything except maybe some points drops around August with the next GHB. 😭

OK, pretty solid start to a death riders list. Only change I'd make for now is change the GoS with nightmare lantern to the GoS with mortality glass. The GoS w/mortality glass has a movement spell that gives an extra 6" in the movement phase (or 9" if that unit is near the pendant of the fell wind artefact). I also think Reik would be a good addition to the mix. The amount of rasps could probably drop a bit as well. If you are building around a fast moving blob, rasps will slow you down rather than act as an effective screening unit. I'd look at maybe dropping 20 rasps and taking an additional dreadblade in the battalion and taking the other 60pts for another CP and an almost guaranteed triumph roll.

Yes. The lanterns are artefacts, but ones that are specific to the GoS with nightmare lantern. I'm not sure that the GoS with mortality glass can even use them. SO if you can only have 1 artefact and you use one of the lantern ones, then that's all your artefacts used up.

Yeah, old wispy hair degrades really quickly, like badly.

Skaven points are so janky. Literally make all points in all other books a head scratch moment 🤷‍♂️. Grims and rasps are properly pointed. Blades are maybe 10pts to expensive. Everything else needs a big drop. Heroes are odd because as mentioned the 260pts for verminlords set a precedent that would see Lady O easily go under 200pts. But tbh I'd rather not have to put more models on the table than I already do, it will only drag out already lengthy game times, I'd rather see rules tweaks than points drops. In my 40k group, after CA18 did points drops across the board for almost every unit, my local group changed from playing 2000pts to 1750pts games. Glaivewraiths retreat from combat but have 0 rend, blades are better and faster. They have 2" reach, grims are better and faster. Considering the horse skull I expected movement 10"+ and they'd need that or rend to be viable, even with points reductions. If cheaper then it would make me consider taking Death Stalkers again, which is a really good battalion but expensive to run with optimum unit size. As mentioned above, with so many units unaffected by harridans, blades are just a more solid choice every time. They need rules changes rather than points drops to be viable. Lady O is tricky because when she works she really works but when she doesn't she's so expensive and in the current meta/state of the game she just doesn't work consistently enough to be viable. When she casts reaping scythe on herself she is so good. I am currently already taking Kurdoss in my list. I resisted for a while but found that on average he steals 2CP a game, which is worth 100pts when list building, at worst he steals 1CP, so he actually only 170pts/120pts. He still needs a drop though, being over 200pts for a 7 wound non-wizard hero is rough. Especially as named characters who aren't wizards can't take objectives in hero/wizard focused missions. KoS on foot is a good option if we weren't hampered by 6 hero slots. If his warscroll was changed to +1 aura, similar to regular GoS I think he'd see more time on the table. No points drops could ever make the endless spells viable. Endless spells are already difficult to commit to for the fact that they can give your opponent the bonus just as easily as they can you, and they haven't had to pay the points for it. And our faction ones are just awful. Full rules re-write is needed. Honestly I've heard rumours of hefty points drops from many different sources and on various podcasts, so it does seem highly likely to happen but to what extent and by how much is pure guess work. But it's not points changes that are needed to help bridge the power creep, it's rules and warscroll updates.

Tbh I'd prefer not to get updates with spells and terrain. It will allow me to keep on moaning, which incidentally is a favoured pastime of ghosts 😂.

I reckon that they'll grant 2d6 mortals wounds to each DEATH unit within 24"

Yeah that pillar and scenery has Sigmar symbols all over it 🙄

https://aosshorts.com/forbidden-power-age-of-sigmar-supplement/ Apparently AoSshorts has mentioned that one of the spells previewed is actually a new terrain piece.

@Greasygeek preaching brother, preaching. The ghost hourglass spell, just add heal/revive models with wounds total to d6. Redo the Garden of Morr as the generic LoN and ghost terrain piece. Allow for healing/reviving or battleshock immunity and give it sinister, done. Forbidden Power is a mystery at the moment. They've announced separate endless spells other than the ones from Forbidden Power as well, so what it will be who knows, it even comes with a generic terrain piece all armies can use, so most will have 2 that they can now use, lol. I'm in no doubt that Nagash will lose, and SCE will win and behold all was well in the lands (yawn) but that was always going to be the case. Would be nice if they did a campaign like malign portents where the outcome was decide by the players themselves but that's not a good marketing strategies for the countless years of releases that they have ready to go.

@Qrow that's basically my Lord Ex bomb but one that can hit back.

Cogs is a double edged sword. I've stopped taking it due to the fact that it's great for us, but it then buffs your opponent and getting double turned by your opponent who is getting that much extra movement than they would do normally is painful 😂. We are generally a lot faster than most of our potential opponents anyway and we can cover the ground without the need for cogs. Playing games when both players bring them is really fun though, having +4 to move and +4 to charge is hilarious.

This will vary depending on the mission and the opponent (yay, super vague answer). Generally I like to leave 1 hero and 1 killy unit in the grave. Depending on whether I need to screen against my own opponent's deep strike type ability, I will also put some chaff in the grave as well. As we have to bring everything on by turn 3 it's not as flexible as I wish it was. I normally look at putting a fast unit in the grave as well (whether that also doubles as the killy unit or not), because being able to drop in a unit behind terrain or out of reach, knowing that the 8" or 12" move will help to close the gap is great. 5 blades are a great unit for hidding in the grave, due to their pure ambush nature. Keeping a hero to drop in is a must as it allows you to re-roll that 9" charge and aim for the 10+ WoT. What units are you generally taking?

@Qrow I played SCE the other day. I took harridans and was thinking that I might have a chance to use their ability, but the player took a chamber that gave the entire army +1 bravery, so they didn't get to use it once. In a perfect world I would ask that nighthaunt causes -1 bravery to each unit in 6", as we could then bravery bomb so many of our abilities that are reliant on low bravery, but that will never happen 😂.

@Qrow I wish that shrieker host could work 😩. I do feel that GW are making lots of strong options easily available in most of the new books. I feel that the power creep is not going to be kind to us.

@Neck-Romantic Having a way of passing off the wounds onto the troops would be great. Tbh I think a big help would be a general immunity to battleshock. Fluff wise it makes no sense that an army that causes fear is so susceptible to it. As more and more of the newer books are giving options to make units and entire armies immune to battleshock, maybe they might add it that ghosts don;t get effected. It would allow us to take big hordes and not worry about losing 10+ models to battleshock or having to spend CP to keep them on the board. Having that would be a great substitute to having such limited healing/reviving. The weakness to battleshock is what has made me take lots of MSUs now. I rarely go above 10 models in a unit because it's not worth it, we lack enough guaranteed potent healing/reviving to keep the big units alive when they lose numbers and needing to keep CP in the bank just in case we bottle isn't worth it. Also having lots of MSUs forces your opponent to split their focus and their attacks.

It's around late June/early August time. Tactical: Dreadblade as a general is a must. I'm struggling to see why you would take anything else at the moment when we have the ability to draw multiple units towards where the general is. Hypothetical: Revival would be a game changer for us. It's why ghosts do better in LoN, due to the reviving. I've given up taking large units due to the lack of guaranteed healing and the CP required to stop the larger units running from battleshock. Also agree a way to give our heroes some more staying power would be nice. On the Death Riders, basically you want both units to stay alive as long as possible. Giving the dreadblade general RotSH command trait, teamed up with the black coach will help a lot to keep reviving dead models. Units of 5: Pros - Smaller size means no battleshock and can get into tighter areas when attacking. Cons - Will die very quickly and lack enough punch to delete targets. Units of 10: Pros - Will be really unlikely to succumb to battleshock, Can tie up most things and survive a round or two of combat. Cons: Will still die if attacked by a big nasty, may struggle to get each fighter into range to attack. Units of 15: Pros - "What is dead may never die" basically they will survive a long time with the BC and the general reviving models. They should be able to mince through large blobs of hordes. Cons - They are going to be a big target. You'll need to keep CP spare for battleshock. Not every fighter is going to be able to get into range. 15 hexwraiths is a large footprint on the board. Summary: If it was me I'd run a blob of 15 and a blob of 5 and see how they fair in the game. You'll be able to gauge whether you need to bulk up or trim down the units more quickly by taking the two extreme options rather than going in the middle. You really should try the Lord Ex blob though if you get the chance, as he has a 5+, then 6+ against mortals. It's genuinely been such a game changer for me having an almost indestructible tarpit.

@Greasygeek Death isn't in need of a massive update, but the main book, LoN, was released prior to AoS 2.0, so while it s still doing well at tournaments it isn't without some big flaws. None of the units really got updates to the warscrolls, and since it was released we have faction specific terrain pieces and spells which they haven't had yet. GW don't tend to go back on themselves, so they will never admit that the ghost spells are awful, so as the current narrative for Soul Wars is still focused around our Lord and Saviour, Nagash, it is probably a way of giving Death some extra bonuses so they don;t have to worry about doing faction specific spells or terrain.

So in an attempt to keep things active, let's create 2 discussion points, 1 hypothetical and 1 tactical. Hypothetical: Forbidden Power seems like an update for DEATH in general. What are we all hoping for? Personally I'm hoping for a decent buff and debuff endless spell that we can use and a source of reviving. Tactical: Total Commitment (the one with no reserves), how much does this change your general battle plans? And what do you do to compensate? Personally it messes up my normal plan of action big time. I end up playing a very defensive game early on, sacrificing chaff to get points early and then use our flying and speed to be super aggressive from turn 3 onwards.