The World Tree

I never saw anyone in the UK use that in 'normal' 2000 point gaming from 6th-8th edition. Not to discredit what Sleboda said.

Yes. I wasn't suggesting otherwise.

Chosen and Chaos Warriors should just be the same warscroll imo. The competition for an elite infantry slots leaves one or both redundant

If your opponent deploys within distance (at least in the first hero phase) then more fool them

This would be a good change. My understanding is that they have been adusted.

Yup, and in answer to the OP really Petrifex is obnoxious on two units - Mortek and Nagash. On everyone else it is strong but counterable.

As a Vanguard fan, I like it. Having played it in 2500 pint lists I know it is jut obnoxious.

Don't be dramatic. There are ways to make Archaon really influential and important in Slaves armies. You can make him a total nightmare in Tzeentch/Khorne but is it actually a better army?*I've yet to see compelling evidence of that. Slaves is an odd book and there are some big nuisances in it - rend of warriors, the marauder warscroll - but it has performed pretty well with a variety of lists. It isn't a top tier book (thank goodness!) but it isn't a stinker. *I've beaten the Archaon khorne reapers build with an Archaon/Varanguard list.

I would suggest you have to reroll wounds yes,

Dreadwood is by far the best glade in my experience. Though I do think most of the glades are nicely designed in terms of internal balance

In the UK, where the majority of playtesters appear to be based, there doesn't tend to be prizes of cash value for winning.

Yes, Petrifex are too strong. They were somewhat overshadowed by Tzeentch. More specifically, mortek guard are too strong. Petrifex is tough but less problematic on the other units (well, Nagash too). They just feel awful to play vs. They get durability, rerolls (RP is barely a resource), immunity to battleshock, bringing back models and can be hard hitting. There are of course ways around Mortek - high mortal output and extreme durability. However both of these pull the game in a bad direction. Normal armies just cannot cope.

Fair point. In my head it was just that Stormcast can ally in each individual faction, but yes I do believe you are right. I don't think I've ever actually used allies in over 200 SCE games, now that I think on it!

Don't think they can ally with anyone but Deepkin, no?

I definitely don't agree. Teclis' rules just seem dumb though.

There's no evidence Cities is going away. If they wanted rid of those armies they would not have invested time in designing and releasing a book for it. They didn't have to. There's plenty that has been cut away.

Yes. Some armies are designed to have weak warscrolls that are boosted by combinations of synergies and allegiance abilities. Others have strong warscrolls spported by weaker allegiance abilities. We have barely got an allegiance ability and most of our scrolls are barely changed from AOS1.

I prefer the sacrosanct design, but this is absolutely true. Although, if you are playing non-Hammers of Sigmar stormhosts, there is a lot more detail on the warrior chamber.

The downside to grouping up warscrolls is point costing becomes harder. I'd recommend combining similar units so that you have combat dracoth and range dracoth for example. Condense rules, where possible and make balanced weapon options. Really, they need to cut some units. I'd do this; all named units removed except Prime (-6) Prosecutors can become one (-1) Dracoth riders become 1 melee/1 shooting (-2) Paladins = 1 unit (-2) remove castigators (people can use them as judicators/vanguard hunters anyway) Vanguard raptors become 1 (-1) Another alternative would be to make them an upgrade to judicator units? Make Lord Exorcist and Incantor same warscroll but alternate loadout (-1) Make Lord Relictor and Veritant same warscroll but alternate loadout (-1) Remove Drakesworn Templar (-1) Remove Knight Questor/Errant Questor/Zephyros (-3) This is quite aggressive, but I like it. It clears out 18 scrolls. I don't like all the duplications of Lord Arcanum/Celestant, but maybe that is ok. Perhaps the arcanum on gryph charger/celestial dracoline can be alternative builds. For the love of god, we don't need more units, especially not heroes!

This is simply not accurate.

I enjoyed your article. I've only played vs. Seraphon rather than with, but it mirrors most of my thoughts. They've definitely become a more interesting army to face because of the removal of retreat from combat. Slightly disagree on Salamanders - they need a point rise, but have a defined weakness (bravery from killing handlers) at least. Kroak is probably 100 points too cheap. Bound endless spells should be limited to 1 - they were a bad idea in OBR and are a bad idea here.

It needs more space to breath imo - it feels cramped and top heavy. But I've seen your models on one of your blogs so I'm sure it will look great

My mistake. Man, it will look stupid on a 32mm.

40mm

It is definitely a strange design choice for S2D book to encourage mono god armies!