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Arkhanist

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  1. Arkhanist
    Legends is going to change for 40k and AoS so that legacy units will have warscrolls and matched play points when they go across; but they won't be updated after that (bar major new system changes) Tournaments will be up to the TO, but they won't be recommended as they won't be part of the annual 'balancing' process. This will be a change from the existing AoS Legends setup.
  2. Arkhanist
    Well, I wouldn't say *heavily* believe it'll get reversed, just that I'm being cautious. The setup in Azyr and any reasonable reading of the rules is that's how it works currently; it's not written explicitly that you can stack the 1 in 4, but the interaction of the rules is pretty clear. I'm just a bit cynical; too many times I've seen a literal, reasonable and logical interpretation of rules that is uncontroversial be slapped down by GW in a FAQ, going 'of course that's not what it meant, it's this total other interpretation!' - and then for a near identically worded rule in another book and FAQ then ruling the other way. Admittedly most of that experience is in 40k, but I get the feeling from the whole allied battalions mess that it's not unknown in AoS. I guess it's better than when we didn't get FAQs at all and we had to live with sloppy or outright broken units and rules for years at a time, but a little consistency - or tighter rule writing in the first place - would be nice. In other words, I treat the initial release of a book as a beta, and wait until the FAQ/errata before spending significant money on new toys, just in case...
  3. Arkhanist
    Yeah, being able to have 1/4 CoS warscrolls, 1/4 stormcast, 1/4 kharadron and 1/4 conventional allies - with 3/4 being able to use CoS rules - seems suspiciously flexible. I'm avoiding any significant purchases on that front for now as there's definitely the possibility that could get tightened up given past behaviour.
  4. Arkhanist
    Not 100% clear. Main rules: And the FAQ for the core rules says: So far so straightforward. The problem is, they're explictly not allies. Tempest's Eye are excluded from taking Kharadron as allies on the last page, and the city allegience traits simply says So the precedent of allies in Battalions would say the gunhaulers don't count against your limit, but in the rules as currently written there is no exemption from the limit as the allies exception doesn't apply to the kinda-but-not-really-allies rules in CoS. Hopefully this will be addressed in the FAQ, and the logical answer is that they don't count against the limit - but that's not what the rules currently say. Run it past your opponent until clarified would be my suggestion.
  5. Arkhanist
    I'm a bit fuzzy on when exactly I started, as I first took part in a WFRP campaign for a while, then got into Space Hulk (1st edition) when I saw it in the local hobby shop while looking for a new miniature for my dwarf character, so that would have to have been in 1989. I do remember my first white dwarf vividly though (no 117, Sept 89) as I had them sorted chronologically for years. I did take a break for a few years and donated my old WD collection to the local GW shop to clear some space; they handed them out to the local kid players. So I started around 1988, when I was 12ish.
  6. Arkhanist
    I'm thinking of adding some shadow warriors to my duardin/freeguild army project, but I'm not a big fan of the helmets - remind me a little too much of coneheads... So I'm looking for alternative heads (in GW scale) that would fit with the shadow walker's helmet-free head - elven, with hair, male or female, and no giant crown (I could live with a sublte crown or hairband sort of thing). Sisters of the watch would work without the big crown thing, but with it makes the unit less WYSIWYG and risks confusion given it's the alternative build for the kit. Witch Elves; big crown, hard to fit that huge hair. Rest of the infantry elf units, the odd single champion head would probably work, but the rest all have even bigger helmets (corsairs, sisters of the thorn, black guard, phoenix guard etc etc). All the aeldari kits are out because, well, helmets. Looking at 3rd parties, spellcrow elves are bald, and maxmini elven heads are fine apart from the expressions which look they're got *really* painful constipation. Most generic fantasy elves aren't heroic scale. Closest I've got so far are wyches - which would fit physically, but look like, well, homicidal bloodthirsty warriors (as opposed to sneaky ranger/assassins). Or wildwood rangers, which again, risks confusion, and I'm not sure the hoods would fit with the neck-cloak thing. I could even live with thinner faced human heads, if I can cover up the ears. I've just spent all day looking, and simple elven heads that don't have some honking helmet or spiky things just don't seem to exist - or at least, not where I'm looking! Any ideas? Please?
  7. Arkhanist
    So basically you're saying I need both depending upon which army build I want to run at the time ;) I had another dig through my old boxes in the loft, and lucked out in finding 20 of the previous gen metal ironbreakers, which definitely still fit the part, especially if i give them the current ironbreaker shields. My old metal warriors are *really* old and small with short beards, but some I think are maybe re-usable with some greenstuffing. I've also found a chunk of the just squatted plastic warriors I didn't even know I had, mostly filling out my quarrelers. So I've ordered a bunch of longbeard heads for a grand sum of £5, and will basically be fitting the old plastic warrior bodies with current ironbreaker arms sans shoulderpads (chainmail fits!). Just need some suitably longbeard shields, maybe scibor, maybe some old ones with a runesymbol. So that gives me 30 hammerers, 30 irondrakes, 20 classic ironbreakers with new celtic knot shields, at least 16 converted longbeard warriors with better weapons and proper beards, whatever metal oldies I can give hair extensions and maybe an axe upgrade to that fit in, plus 20 miners which I'm definitely going to keep to run as longbeards with doublehanded weapons. That should give me plenty of heavy infantry options to (re)paint!
  8. Arkhanist
    I'm trying to decide which way to build my 30 unbuilt ironbreakers/irondrakes (2017 tempest's eye box and new SC box) as I currently have neither unit and could use some advice for my duardin heavy force, which I'm probably going to run as Tempest Eye or Greywater (custom paint scheme though I'm currently testing) Well, I do have a bunch of old marauder ironbreakers, but they really don't fit with the lighter armour, or the theme or size of modern duardin - they look more like warriors these days! I do have 30 hammerers which are going to be my big 'smash face' unit. I have a bunch of old 1st version plastic empire swordsmen, halberds, handgunners and crossbows. (I don't want to run my old thunderers/quarrelers as freeguild as I prefer WYSIWYG to avoid confusing an opponent, particularly as those warscrolls are still legal). I have probably 100 old metal warriors (many also marauder) and miners that could be converted to more longbeards with some greenstuff, and I do have some of those anyway. So I could run an entire army of longbeards if I wanted - maybe a fun project for later! So my current choice is basically either 20/30/2x20 irondrakes (2x20 if I buy another box) with freeguild swords or halberds in front as chaff screens, or inverted with small units of ironbreakers in front of freeguild crossbows/handgunners (could run either). I could do irondrakes and longbeards, but it seems the old grumblers are outclassed by cheaper freeguild buffed by a general or tougher, harder hitting ironbreakers as speedbumps. I wish I could easy reuse the leftover bits of the irondrake/ironbreaker boxes, but bodies seem to be more expensive from bits sites than just buying a whole new box! I do have 2 modern gyros (same boxes) unbuilt and several old ones, will be running a 3 steam gyrocopter unit I think. I will likely be buying a knight-azyros as a cheap target spotter, maybe with some new pistoliers as a cheap screen. I'll probably also kitbash an old anvil and new Hurricanum at some point later. I don't have any elves at all, (so no phoenix guard or darkshards!) I'd like to stay freeguild/duardin heavy for now, as that's what I have! Plenty of old wizards, runelords and warden kings for characters (and probably something I can run as a freeguild general) plus a stormcast incantor; also 6 prosecutors and castellant, neither of which seem that helpful to include. Anyway - irondrakes or ironbreakers, which would you choose?
  9. Arkhanist
    Battalions are a complete and utter mess - see recent topic for discussion. For our purposes, the most relevent part is the core rulebook FAQ, bolded So the warthrong can't be taken, as you say, as at a minimum a) unforged can only be taken as dispossessed b) dispossessed is not allowed as allies (which also blocks warriors, and ironweld units like vanilla organ guns from grand alliance order etc). Strict reading of the FAQ means the battalion allegience is dispossessed, while our army allegience is CoS, so ALL the units in the battalion would count as allies and be barred as they're not in the allies list. For non CoS allegience armies (other than grand alliance, who can do what they want with Order units), it's straightforward for the Kharadron battalions; you'd have to take the kharadron (and any stormcast) units as allies, plus they don't benefit from your allegience rules, lacking the appropriate keyword. Same with stormcast battalions, which due to a different ruling in the same core rules FAQ all have the stormcast eternals faction allegience. For Cities of Sigmar though, yikes. SCE and Kharadron units don't count as allies in Tempest's eye. AND they get the CoS keyword, and count as part of the army for allegience purposes. But the army as a whole is not using Kharadron or Stormcast allegience, it's using CoS. So you could interpret the conflicting combination of the FAQ and CoS rulebook to mean a) Yes, you can take those battalions as long as you fill it with units that follow the CoS restrictions and have the CoS keyword (e.g. no more than 1 in 4 units are kharadron and 1 in 4 stormcast, non exclusive. FAQ doesn't apply to CoS weird new hybrid half-allies rules. b) Nope, core rulebook FAQ takes precedence - Kharadron Battalions *must* go in your allies slot, units and points wise. Tempest's eye can't take kharadron as allies, so no battalion for you. The rest of the CoS allegiences, they are takeable as an allied battalion, so do that. Stormcast battalions are verboten for every CoS city as they're not in the Allies list for any due to their special rules. Clearly this is a problem. They specifically avoided the core rulebook FAQ problem with the Beasts of Chaos errata so the battalions could be used in chaos God lists, but that doesn't apply more generally. TL;DR - maybe don't buy any models intending to use them for allied battalions until the Cities of Sigmar FAQ, where hopefully they will clarify this mess. Oh, if only they keyworded battalions to make it clear who could and couldn't take them. (or reverted to AoS 1 style, which was much simpler) On a positive note - love this idea! Might use a Knight-Azyros instead of a hurricanum (thinking of using one as a cheaper target designator for irondrakes anyway, and could optionally guard him with pistoliers). Love the ironclad model, so definitely tempted! Must resist and paint rest of army first...
  10. Arkhanist
    @MaturinDepends on perspective I guess! As a old WFB dwarf player who was distinctly unimpressed with the old lackluster hafhearted duardin allegience abilities (and how all the old war machines units got hived off to ironweld) I've rather changed my opinion on CoS somewhat after being entirely hacked off that they squatted a bunch of my remaining units. Fortunately I also have a bunch of old freeguild models, so can substitute those for my lost thunderers etc. And many of my squatted models were from marauder minitures, so they have done loyal service over many years and deserve a retirement, they're nearly in a different scale to current models. Some may still return as longbeards with some greenstuff! I do think it would have been a lot better if they'd gone all the way to making CoS heroes buff all Cities units a lot more, instead of sticking to their old racial factions only, and having Stormcast be able to buff cities units would have been really good too. I can understand your disappointment, I am still sad at what's been lost and what could have been; I keep looking at SCE units in particular and wanting to include them (call me a sucker, but I do like the aesthetic as a small amount of elite allies) but can't quite justify it yet. That all said, there is still a fair bit of flexibility with different sections of the army that can buff each other, and there is a LOT of warscrolls you can take. I think they intended the buffs to come from city command abilities, spells and city allegiences themselves, rather than warscroll hero buffs and were worried about that being too good and allowing some stupidly overpowered combos. As it is, I think CoS has a number of competitive builds in it, and depending upon which city you take (and units) you can build some really very different style armies, much more so than say stormhosts or other equivalent abilities, olr keep the option of the flavour of your old army if you choose. And there's very few objectively bad choices, they've done a decent job of balancing units across the book so the options are strong in different ways, mostly. So we could have hoped for more (as we often can from GW!), and I do hope the strong sales of the book encourage them to make the models more easily available again, but I've actually unboxed my old WFB models and started painting a whole new scheme with some previously never used models, and intend to repaint some (very) old models in my new scheme, and will probably buy some 'new to me' models from the tail end of 8th like a hurricanum and convert it to make it more duardiny. I've even started on some fluff for my own City and scheme, as I'm not sure yet whether to play as Tempest's Eye, Greywater Fastness or Living City. Each has some very useful buffs that tie in nicely to a majority duardin/freeguild army and I don't want to be locked into one choice yet, yet want to start painting now! Given I've sat out AoS entirely so far as I didn't want to buy a whole new army from scratch, that's got to be a good thing.
  11. Arkhanist
    This is similar to wording in other battletomes. It's so that if there is a named hero in future with a fixed city, you can still take it but it won't benefit from the city allegience rules that apply to the rest of the army, or its existing fixed allegience. This is akin to how many named SCE have hammers of sigmar on the warscroll, but can still be taken in a SCE army with a different stormhost allegience. They just don't benefit from that stormhost specific allegience abilities (as they don't have the necessary keyword) and also don't benefit from their fixed stormhost allegience abilities either due the last part of the quoted rule. It's a bit moot at the moment as there aren't any named CoS units with fixed city allegience, but who knows what the future holds; Aventis Firestrike could conceivably gain the Hammerhal keyword, for example, or we could see new named heros. This wouldn't work, in matched play anyway. The first is how you pick your army allegience, just before the section you quote. "When you choose a Cities of Sigmar army, you must give it a city keyword from the list below. All Cities of Sigmar units in your army gain that keyword..." Since all the CoS units in your army (at the moment) don't have a fixed city keyword, this rule will force all your units to have the Hammerhal keyword, so they then cannot take Living City. Since none of your units are Living City, you can't then take the Living City battalion as that requires Living City keyword units. I presume you can't take them as allies either, since they're not in the Allies list (last page) unless there's some rule that allows you to ally units in from your own book I don't know about? (still fairly new to AoS) If there was a Living City battalion you could take that used units with fixed Living City allegience on their warscrolls or something similar, then they wouldn't benefit from either set of city allegience abilities - because they lack the Hammerhal keyword in the example, and the last part of the fixed city rule blocks them using Living City too. They would benefit from the generic CoS allegience abilities though such as empowered endless spells, and their battalion rules.
  12. Arkhanist
    Old worldwide WFB campaign with an accompanying campaign book where Archaon lead a huge Chaos invasion of the Empire in the world-that-was. GW uh, leant on the scales quite heavily (because chaos kept losing in the submitted battle results) to keep the story moving forward as intended. They wrapped it up with Archaon killing Valten, supposedly Sigmar re-incarnated, but then getting defeated by former ally orc warlord Grimgor headbutting him. Then Archaon ran away. It rather stuck in the community memory.
  13. Arkhanist
    Never said it was a _good_ battalion 😁
  14. Arkhanist
    Ah gotcha. Yes, looking again, the Freeguild Regiment belongs to the Free Peoples, which is not a faction keyword on the CoS warscrolls. I stand corrected!
  15. Arkhanist
    That's taking a new battalion from a new battletome, and trying to put it into an older one. The equivalent would be trying to put a CoS battalion into an old Freeguild army, which won't work because they're tied to a specific city keyword. In this case, it's taking old battalions from Grand Alliance: Order and using them in a CoS keyworded army. The listed battalions in GA Order specify units, but not a common keyword requirement. The Freeguild Regiment, for example is usable in theory as all the necessary units (bar archers, but they have alternates of crossbows or hangunners in the detachment) are available as Cities of Sigmar units. I don't have the CoS book though yet, so it may say specifically that other battalions other than the included ones are not allowed. But if not, and it's not FAQ'd, I see no reason why they shouldn't be usable in the rules as written. And for RAI, the Freeguild regiment description - "When the cities of the Free Peoples are threatened they can call upon the disciplined ranks of the Freeguilds, stalwart warriors that stand shoulder to shoulder against enemies of Order".
  16. Arkhanist
    Math hammer for steam tank does indicate it is a bit lackluster for its points alas. You could put the wizard on a hurricanum, it's a great source of mortal wounds and the +1 to hit aura would buff your irondrakes nicely. Some people are going to convert a frigate with the orrery to make it more dwarfy, I'm thinking of converting one with my ancient wheeled anvil of doom.
  17. Arkhanist
    In theory nothing stops you taking a battalion from the GH if you can meet the requirements with CoS keyword units, I.e. the new warscrolls. No way to do a grudgebound war throng though; no mandatory unforged in CoS, and (old) dispossessed aren't on the allies list. So he'd block you taking the CoS allegiance. Obviously you can still do it using the squatted units and doing Order or dispossessed allegiance, but CoS is far stronger. We'll see what happens with legacy units (and battalions), they probably won't make it into GH2020.
  18. Arkhanist
    Yup, official release date is the 5th. It's been a fair few years since I worked GW retail, but usually UK FLGS would be getting it today. It's presumably sent out earlier to other countries to arrive in time. I've sometimes had stuff posted in time to be delivered on the Friday, but usually it's timed to arrive on launch day. Reviewers get it early of course, and GW stores certainly used to get stuff at least a week extra in advance (sooner for really big launches) so they were ready for questions/to get demo stuff painted, but it was held until general release before they'd give out pre-orders (or Friday, if you were very very nice to the staff) Your LGS was rather naughty letting you have it Monday, but good on them!
  19. Arkhanist
    Codex Battletome isn't actually released until Saturday (my copy will likely arrive Monday-ish). I imagine warscroll builder will update soon after the official release.
  20. Arkhanist
    No worries! One thing I forgot is that is city impacts some units as battleline if, e.g. freeguild pistoliers and outriders are battleline in tempest eye. Most are tied to the general as usual, list is here. I believe If you make your own painting scheme up for your own City, then you can 'count as' any other city so you're not locked in permanently. I'm kinda torn between Greywater fastness and Tempest's eye for my existing duardin, so I'm planning on my own city with fluff (and a repaint) that I could run as either.
  21. Arkhanist
    No, they're not. All cities can pick from all warscrolls in the book, but some will benefit more from the city rules than others, e.g. Greywater Fastness rules specifically name Ironweld Arsenal in a couple of places for bonuses. There are a few differences on the new semi-ally thing. Tempest's eye can take 1 in 4 as Kharadron units that gain the CoS keyword and aren't counted as allies, the Living City similarly with Sylvaneth, while all can take Stormcast in this fashion.
  22. Arkhanist
    I think it's the app that's wrong - GMG vid review screenshot from the CoS book matches to the updated website warscroll with the 3+ but no re-roll.
  23. Arkhanist
    Indeed, and I think that's a bit of a missed opportunity given several stormhosts are literally based in CoS. I guess they thought it would be too powerful for SCE heroes to buff CoS units. That is the weakness of allies though, you take them for what they can do on their own rather than how they buff your main force.
  24. Arkhanist
    Likely yes, the same as you can if they're just normal allies. Endless spells themselves aren't part of the faction keyword system for picking allegiance, and don't take up an ally slot. When you buy them for matched play, all wizards in your army 'know' them. The faction-specific endless spells are restricted by caster keyword on the warscroll instead - e.g. for everblaze comet, "Only Stormcast Eternal Wizards can attempt to cast this spell." while generic ones can be attempted by any wizard. So as long as you've got a suitable Stormcast or Sylvaneth wizard as necessary to cast it, and there's not a specific rule in CoS saying otherwise (which I've not seen brought up anywhere in the pre-release reviews) you're fine. Strictly speaking there's no reason you can't pay points for ANY faction-specific endless spell; but unless you have an appropriate faction wizard, you'll never be able to cast it!
  25. Arkhanist
    Good question. GMG reads the relevent rule from page 63 (too small to read though for me). They do get the relevent city keyword, but don't get to pick a host keyword. So there's nothing stopping you taking a named stormcast character, and they will have the stormhost keyword that's hardcoded in their datasheet (most being Hammers of Sigmar) - but other stormcast units won't. So in Aventis' case, you could use all his abilities, with the exception being his Command Ability, as that only works on friendly Hammers of Sigmar - which you won't have any of. Unless you use it on himself, of course, or if you took a 2nd named character from HoS. Stormcast units can't take advantage of any stormhost allegience abilities though, which is presumably the primary reason for them not getting that keyword. They may also FAQ so it strips an existing fixed stormhost keyword, rather that just stops you adding one. But stormcast, including named characters can take advantage of relevent CoS keyword stuff, so they're more integrated than usual allies, and the only restriction is the 1 in 4 units limit.
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