Tropical Ghost General

Yes, but the trouble is that as he no longer knows the spells of other DEATH wizards, his usefulness isn't what it once was. Also for the points cost your almost better looking at one of the other two main mortarch, Neffy or Mannfred, as their warscroll abilities are good (either -1 to hit or re-rolls 1s to hit and wound), plus both are much better in a fight than Arkhan, and both are slightly cheaper in points.

don't forget to add CoS and Nagash OBR to those magic doms, plus any order army that allies in kroak. And to an extent Khorne for shutting down weak/average casting. And then the fact that a lot of people will be using one of those armies in games, especially at events you'll expect to face one of those armies in probably 2 of the 4/5 games (more if you actually do well with the spooky bedsheets). The issue with the mourngul is it's durability. It can die in a turn very easily and the nerf to it's minus to hit (models within rather than units within) means that it needs to be in close to have any effect. Neffy is a solid choice, but the lack of a ward save on a 4+ hero with 11 wounds, is very risky. As all DEATH heroes have a ward save when taken in their allegiance, I don't understand why they don't have it when taken as an ally in another death army, I really wish they would, as it's hardly game breaking. To get more reliable minus to hit, replace geminids, shards and 3 SHS, for a unit of blood knights. Or my ultimate troll before GHB20, was Lord Ex in execution horde with miasmic blade/gryph-feather charm for minus to hit. Do 3 x 9SHs in the battalion to act as a body guard. Artefact made him -1 to hit. Battalion made him an additional -1 to hit. Look out Sir gave an additional -1 to shooting. Heroes were an additional -1 in combat due to warscroll ability. The Lord Ex was then -3 to hit in combat for heroes, -2 for standard units in combat. -3 to hit with shooting and had a 4+/5++ for mortals/6+++ward. Obviously the no ward save stacking reduces his survivability and the loss of the realm artefact reduces this as NH don't have a generic -1 to hit for both shooting and melee artefact. But I used to create the ultimate tarpit by having him as the general with RotSH for healing back the SH body guard. It's wasn't perfect as 5 wounds is still squishy but it was glorious to watch wave upon wave of dice rolls do nothing 😂

The issue with any magic based lists is that unless you are one of the magic doms (Honest Wargamer term for super strong magic armies), it's pointless building a list based around buffs caused through magic spells going off. NH aren't alone in being one of the magic subs, so having magic is OK, but at the moment there is so little point in building a list around it, even Reik is not a reliability (especially if you get the 6+ ward save and negate the +3 to cast). Chatting to my lizard playing friend tonight about his list ideas and I honestly can't think of how to deal with any of it, other than use another army 😂

Currently the ruling is any WD content published prior to the current GHB is no longer valid in matched play unless you get permission from your opponent beforehand. Wrath of the Everchosen is different, in that the rules inside are an expansion to the game (similar to FP). They haven't had a more recent publication of those rules that replace them, so they remain valid (even though they aren't specifically listed in the current GHB). And going forward, any WD content released now, as it's after the most recent GHB is valid for matched play if it has points, and they won't need consent from your opponent beforehand (unlike stuff like dolorous guard, RIP). GW could really help their player base by using terminology that isn't confusing or by releasing a glossary of terms, as the wording 'older publication' is incredibly misleading if English is your first language, let alone for anyone who doesn't have English as their native tongue.

Don't worry everyone. Additional FAQ has been released that clears up everything

So basically it's back to running 120 grims 😩🥱

Also, the FAQ above the WD battalions is pretty much RIP to the Forbidden Power armies

RIP WD Battalions. ☠️☠️☠️☠️

I struggle to understand how ghosts, who are meant to cause fear and terror, are uber susceptible to battleshock, even at bravery 10, partly due to squishy heroes being shot off by turn 1 or 2, so no inspiring presence options and partly due to being uber squishy themselves. So many of their army mechanics rely on bravery bombs, yet they can't get higher than -1 without assistance from allies. The command trait Terrifying Entity is just a pure example of WTF rules writing. I would love to see an overhaul to bravery and battleshock, as my main army is meant to use it as a resource for their unique abilities and currently can't.

A bit off topic, but anyone know when the GHB20 FAQ will be out? I thought that it's normally on the Tuesday, after 2 weeks of it's general release date (roughly 17 days). Anyone know the reason why it's not released yet? (And busy with 40k is not an acceptable answer 😂)

Well I've asked the rules team to hopefully get some clarity on the issue, but in the meantime I'll play it as 6+ ward save prevents the ability going off. 😢

So the ward save will stop it happening then?

@Sauriv so having done more research, as well as asking others in my local group, it seems that the Hallowheart FAQ sets the precedent for this. The Hallowheart FAQ mentions mortal wounds suffered and not negated. Because Reik's ability doesn't include 'not negated' he can still use his ward save and potentially heal the wound suffered. I file this situation under 'GW wording confusions'. Using suffered, instead of something like inflicted, leads you to believe that a mortal wound must be suffered and not negated in order for the ability to take effect. But this seems to not be the case.

Yes. Because it's worded 'Roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to friendly, etc.....' Because you allocate the wound, you have to roll.

He needs to suffer the mortal wound. If it gets negated with a ward save then he hasn't suffered the mortal wound. A similar example would be Arkhan the Black's Curse of Years spell. Originally it wasn't FAQ'd that ward saves could stop the amount of dice that rolled, so if you roll three 6s, you then roll 3 dice to fish for the 5s. Then the FAQ change to mortal wounds suffered, so if any of those three 6's that were rolled were saved using ward saves, then you roll less dice, so for example if you rolled three 6s, they save one of them, you only roll two dice to fish for the 5s. The same principle applies here. It's mortal wounds suffered in order to get the casting bonus

@Thamalys what can I say? An upperty statement was made, I felt it needed calling out as it was verging on 'gatekeeper' territory, so I called it out (maybe a bit strongly,) and it's been acknowledged and we hopefully just move on. It's the Internet and disagreements happen, it's part of the joys of modern global communication. Do I dislike @EnixLHQ because of the statement, of course not, it's a forum for one of the most sub par armies, with one of the most poorly written and boring books, for a game with toy soldiers that has tiny global audience, this forum is not a device used to measure the moral integrity and allround decent-ness of a person. But when I see statements that come across as snobbish I call it out. To invalidate someone's opinion, because you claim that when you play your opponent's never make obvious errors, and therefore your opinion holds more authority over another person's, who you perceive isn't on the same expertise level, is basically gatekeeping BS and I call it out. It's not the first time and it won't be the last. The more in depth response that was given, was soooooooo much better as a method of expressing the reasons why @EnixLHQ held a different opinion to my own on Mr.K and it didn't come across sounding like an upperty numpty, which the initial response did, and I think the humbleness shown in that latter response is due merit, so well done @EnixLHQ.

So your opponent's always have their general's perfectly bubblewrapped throughout the entire game and are never ever left open at any point? Come on, that's some nonsense right there. Also, it's some snooty elitist language claiming that the your standard of play is consistently so high that errors, such as general's being left exposed, are so below the level that you play at. Seriously, what good does it do to flaunt that kind of attitude, especially regarding one of the worst performing armies in the game. It's some proper upperty nonsense.

Kurdoss is not a deadweight. He's pretty much an auto include in most of my lists. He punches hard, has -2 rend and can run solo. I've had him one shot my opponent's general turn 1 so many times. Use him as a suicide bomber style of fighting and he rarely fails to earn back his points.

So the leak was spot on, but also apparently these FAQs were date stamped to around a month or so ago, according to someone who is a tech wizard and was able to see that kind of info (well above my knowledge level of computers). So what was the reason for not releasing them at the same time as the main book?

All of the bits we want to know will be with the main GHB20 FAQ. They hopefully released the points today because of online backlash from all over, but who knows why it was done today. I wrote in asking loads of questions (poor rules team 😂). Stuff about WD battalions and the such, but also stuff like why is the Briar Queen the only caster without the wizard keyword? RAW she can't take a spell lore spell or cast endless spells 🤪

So more recent publications supercede older ones. The whole thing of stuff not being in GHB started last year with GHB19. That as a rule will supercede that FAQ if the FAQ was prior to GHB19. The reason I say this, is that had the FAQ superceded the GHB19 decision, we would have seen the mortality glass all of last year, but we didn't.

But I did didn't I 🤦🏾‍♂️😂. Yes CoS are equally horrible

So bare in mind that my gaming recently has been a bit mute due to covid, Shooting lists. This is KO, Tzeentch and especially lizards. As so many of our units rely on hero support to function, whether that's for re-roll 1s, 6++ ward save, etc...and as they are so squishy, it's not very difficult for shooting armies to pop out heroes in turn. I lost 4 out of 6 in one turn to lizards in a recent game. The only reason the other two didn't die,w as because they were in the Underworlds waiting to come onto the table. Most of these armies have units that either have the range or have the ability to get into range very easily. There isn't much chance of blocking or countering it, it just happens. You have to hope that you can roll well. Magic Doms. This is lizards, OBR, Tzeentch and soon to be lumineth (and in a way Khorne a little bit). We are a weak casting army, even with Riek, who gets 1 cast, and most of our spells are at 12" range. Teclis for example has unlimited unbinds, can auto-cast spells (varies depending on level, either four at 10+, two at 12+ or one auto which can't be unbound). In a game where you try and out play your opponent, saving your best spells to be cast when your opponent has ran out of unbinds, or is unable to reach you to unbind, these magic dom armies can basically shut down any magic. So if you are relying on being able to cast that spell, to buff the unit, to get them to do what you want, it's pointless even trying. And the mortal wound output from some of these casters is just gross. Again our squishy heroes have no chance of not getting one shooted. In fact it's even easier to take them out with magic, than it is via shooting. Resilience. The new lumineth stoneguard (hammer dude) can be made to ignore up to -2 rend. iirc they can be given +1 save. As there is so little -3 rend in the game, this effectively makes them 3+ ethereal dudes. They are 100pts for 5 guys, but they are 2 wounds a pop, which makes our bladegheists awful by comparison. They are just one example of incredibly resilient units that have come around. Even with the new rules to stop ward saves stacking, there is a lot of units in the game that we can not take out in a turn, even with a 10+ charge. And these aren't fringe units, they are often core units, such as mortek. So it becomes a situation of how to engage with an enemy that can punch you in one hit, but it's going to take you multiple goes before they disappear. There is some other bits and pieces, like Focal Points scoring extra for behemoths, which we just can't compete in as a mission, and being an army that is going to struggle without the WD battalions, stacking ward saves, realm artefacts. Leaders score more points, but all of ours die to a stiff breeze, so getting them in range to score more make them more likely to die in your opponent's turn. It's basically come to battleline are very good in GHB20. We have lots of good battleline options. Fly and fast movement is good, we have that in abundance. So we have to play to those strengths.

In regards to the rest of our points, no. They are a very good unit and mince things reliably. In regards when compared to the basically ethereal lumineth stoneguard, yes, most definitely yes.

@EnixLHQ it will work amd yes it is boring. It was dull to play with 2yrs ago, but matched play is less about rule of cool and more about spam what's good. Every army does it, eels, FLoSH, wytch aelves, mortek, etc....