overtninja

the one on the reddit page is big, but if you upload it here it's tiny, dunno what's up with that :s

Well, this gives me all the encouragement I needed to paint up my Sylvaneth army, finally. 😛 Then i can start on the pile of lumineth boxes i have yet to even open

This is how I use my WHF Wood Elf collection, it works pretty well! I use my Waywatchers as Shadow Warriors, but otherwise I basically field all my old units (except Glade Guard, which i have scavanged for parts and conversions). The one issue is that Living City's special talent is 'you can deploy part of your army from the table edge' and there are a few missions that say 'no, you can't', and you'll probably lose those games because the army is so focused on special deployment. Outside of that, it's a great way to use an old but fantastic range! by the by - Drycha is worth every single point she costs, just as good as Durthu imo and generally more effective!

Realistically, Nagash can't win, because it would mean endless death, forever, everywhere. Those are explicitly Nagash's goals, and the entire setting would end if he succeeded in any of his schemes, because he never goes for partial victory, he goes for high-stakes 'if my complext and lengthy ritual succeeds, all life shall be instantly and eternally snuffed out and I shall rule supreme forever!!!' gambits. Therefor, Nagash can never succeed in his goals, because it's even worse than Choas succeeding and obliterating the world.

I think in more recently released books you see a lot more micro-factions within factions, consisting of a unit or two with a hero that buffs them, and perhaps a battalion that further imrpoves them. This kind of arrangement encourages groups within your army that synergize well, which is pretty satisfying in play and also avoids the lynchpin hero problem, where your entire strategy relies on a few key buffs and your army ceases to work in it's entirety if those models bite it.

I'd like a further emphasis on secondary objectives, because objective-based mission design promotes dynamic listbuilding that requires players to plan for various scenarios and needs in their lists. These sorts of things would also encourage people not to lean their list so hard in one focus whilst neglecting other aspects, which is part of what skews Tournament Balance so far to extremes. I'd also like some more terrain considerations as well - I genuinely like having a terrain-dense board, and I'm glad warcry terrain is part of the advised terrain that can be randomly seeded on the table. Given how mobile most armies are these days, and how much ranged attacks impact the game, the table can really use more stuff that makes positioning important. I also would love an expansion of the Anvil of Apotheosis rules to include custom units, because they are rad, though I fully understand why the rules were intended to be narrative-only. The more you let players make loadout choices and customize their models, the more moving parts you have in the balance considerations and the less likely for any sort of balance to occur. Still, I enjoy the rules set and it's fun to design new things and encourages people to hobby even harder than they'd otherwise do, even if it is narrative-only. I'm not a fan of rules to make shooting not a thing in the way WHFB8e made shooting not a thing, or make magic not a thing, or basically change the game to heavily de-emphasize a certain phase or role, because the end result of that sort of design is that those units never see the table - in the same way that most shooting units that don't have at least a 3 to hit or wound on their attack profile don't see play currently. It is better to tone down the rules that accompany them - ranged power with mobility, ranged power ignoring line of sight, and ranged power with teleports or ambushes, which presents much of the problem currently. As a corrolary to the above, do keep in mind that in tabletop wargaming, your cool dudes are going to die, a lot, and be removed from the table, and if this happens a lot it is as much a result of your decision-making as your opponent's, often inflated by whatever imbalances you percieve in the game. For example, if Karadron shooting is a problem for you where you play, you can generally mitigate a lot of it by designing a list to screen heavily. If Lumineth support sniping is a problem, you can bring lists with reduntant support to ensure it's there when you need to use it. Trying to get entire phases removed or nerfed into unfeasability is a non-starter, and really should be, because whiplashes of design are what sunk WHFB in the first place (along with the cynical pursuit of selling tons of models and rewarding huge collections, which alienated most newcomers entirely). Anyway, I'd like more reasons to include well-rounded lists in matched play through secondary objectives and continued focus on objective-based play, additional terrain to make the battlefields more dynamic, visually interesting, and tactically satisfying, and I'd like more 'custom my-dudes' rules for narrative play, if only to give what many narrative players already do a bit of framework and legitimacy.

yeah that's my bad, i thought he had multiple arms but it turns out that's certainly not true, oh well :s

I think continuous rules updates, narrative campaign releases, an evolving storyline, and expanding model ranges are a good reason to buy books, and probably a good way for GW to continue to generate revenue as well. It's not as if every book is a must-buy for each player, either, given that each one has rules for a small number of factions each. Realistically, each group of players needs to buy each campaign book one time, and this being 2021, if you don't buy it you'll still find any rules you care about in... various ways.

It could be that the Lumineth teaser showed both wind temple and river temple models, which would essentially round out the whole range. also, it looks like you're getting a lot of militant models, so it wouldn't be too surprising if Tyrion ends up in the mix as well, to complete the faction. I wouldn't put it past GW to actually put out a full model range for Lumineth, given the clear unified visual and thematic design for the entire range .

The latter idea would lead to people killing tornadoes with shooting attacks though, which is an absurdity If the above image of the swirly cloud behind the cowasaurus rider hero is indeed the wind spirit, it would appear to be a single tall model, probably of the same scale overall as an Aralith spirit. Also, the wind spirit is supposed to be a 4-armed ranged hero wielding two bows, as per the excerpt from the battletome, so it would make sense that it would be a smaller model with a big wind swirl. I'd love a redeployment option though, Lumineth have lots of tools at their disposal but actually moving up the field and challenging objectives is their primary weakness. I'd prefer it remain that way, because every faction needs a weakness to be comeplling to play, but it would be nice to have it as an option on a single model.

Yes, Roo Riders and a cowasaurus rider with a sword so those general traits aren't wasted on a Cathallar!

I'll take a unit or two of fantasy battle-alpaca cavalry and a mage riding the Flying Nimbus, please also, I'd love if they made more of the elemental spirits, I'd love to field the double bow-wielding fox wind spirit from the battle tome

The primary reason people like to bring 6 scythes in a single unit is that the 2" range of scythes allows every model to attack fully. If you run swords, I'd run them as 3. For bows, as has been said above, they aren't accurate or damaging enough to really be a threat to anything unless you run 6 or more (in multiple units), but having 3 to threaten lone heroes and snipe chaff away isn't a bad idea, especially if you are running Alarielle and can summon them onto the field as extra bodies.

In my Sylvaneth lists, Durthu consistently underperforms. He either duffs his attacks in combat or he dies out of combat, which isn't his fault because it's smart play to remove lethal monsters, but it's still a disappointment. Next to Drycha, who not only casts spells but also does her job reliably at range and in melee, Durthu us a chump. In CoS, my Wildwood Rangers have traditionally failed to do what they needed to, but I've not played them since they were buffed. I suspect with flat 2 damage to monsters they'll be rather great. In Lumineth, whilst my army remains unbuilt, the Stoneguard seem extremely unappealing from a damage-dealing perspective. In every battle report I've seen them used, they've simply not done what they need to do to be a backbone of an army. If anything, they are best as a bunker and home objective holder, while the Auralan units do the serious lifting. It means you'll need like 3 cows to do your damage for you, or you'll need to bring lots of archers to do damage.

Warhammer armies are not an evergreen product, once people buy a given range they run out of things to purchase, and if nothing else appeals they are essentially out of the hobby as a customer for models. This is what killed WHF after several decades - people had literally bought everything they wanted, and the cost of buying into the hobby became too high to start. This isn't really a problem with SoB - if they release more giant options, people who want them will buy them. The range as presented currently lets you play at 2k easily. No army is going to be infinitely expandable.

dude, magneto dressed as a nun is 100% the Teclis aesthetic

Yeah, I'm not feeling it. Plastic lighting looks like tree roots rather than being anything resembling electricity (the Sanctum of Amyntok endless spell has the same problem). Also, you would need to custom build the wings, and the face, and the body, and the weapon, and remove the tail and the whole mechanical parasite/minder thing from the model. Basically you'd have to scratch-build more than half the model, and at that point you might as well just 3d-print a new model to your specifications instead of buying an expensive kit to hack apart. I honestly think to do Teclis proud and not have him be an androgynous space being that looks like an antagonist from Reboot, you'd have to just use an entirely different model.

If you are banking on having lots of woods, you should probably bring a TLA or a caster with an Acorn of the Ages. You are right about it being unreliable to cast, though if you are bringing Big Al you can usually punch it through after you cast Throne of Vines - and she can also try and turn people into trees as well.

This list is a lot better as a Dreadwood list, without the spellportal and with an Arch-Revenant and either swapping the TLA for Durthu, going with the Skrullroot or even Hive endless spells and getting an extra command point, and swapping your 6 sword Kurnoth for scythes. You are basically concentrating all your striking power into a few models, so you want to maximize the number of dudes you can get into your opponent turn 1. If you are going maximum bully, you get a woods out forward, teleport Durthu up in there freely, teleport Drycha into the same woods, Command Point teleport your Kurnoth into position on a flank, fly Alarielle up 16", and then go for an all-or-nothing multi-charge with half your army into their lines. Send Alarielle into a mass of infantry, pop her command ability or the Arch-Rev's ability, and mow down as much of your opponents as you possibly can. For even more bully, have Alarielle summon some sword kurnoth with her Soul Alphorae and send them in too. Hell, if you are feeling saucy, you can even bring the Spite-Revenants out of the woods too and let them plow in to help Drycha bully even harder. All the tactical complexity of a direct meteor impact, and all of the damage unless the dice hate you.

Yup, that's correct! Even so, most of your battle line units are going to want to cast power of hysh anyway, but if one's not going into combat you can definitely pull off the ward save - also, you can always pop your aetherquartz to cast twice, and get both! That's going to be my plan for my big block, I suspect.

My reasoning was that since Protection of Hysh is a bubble, it would be a good idea to have multiple people who can cast it so you can decide where you want that bubble to be at any given turn. If you are playing Zaitrek, this isn't a bad idea at all, since your casters know two spells anyway, and that includes all your units.

MWs seem to be the bane of a LRL army, so it's probably a good idea to bring as many ways to ignore wounds as possible - I'd suggest bringing Protection of Hysh on more than one unit (not on heroes even, but from units themselves), so there's always a way to cast it in the thick of combat and give yourself a bubble of ward saves. I'd also bring more than one Cathallar to keep everyone from getting weepy, since they are fragile as all get out. I might have to buy/make another one since I'm leaning heavily on casting and infantry. Also also, I see no reason to put Sentinels anywhere near the front lines ever, since their whole deal is 'I sit in cover out of line of sight and rain 5+ MWs on whoever I want'. You don't care about negative hit modifiers because you only care about the dice roll numbers themselves, and if they are in a ruin or a wood or something they can do their job with impunity.

I have yet to play (or even unpack) my new Lumineth, but just going by their limited movement and inherent durability I'm inclined to use them as a backfield protector role that won't die to deep-strikes, and as a personal guard to my Stonemage, who is going to be ruining my enemy's movement or bravery all the time. If I really need to rapidly redeploy a unit of Stoneguard for some reason, Speed of Light +run should do it. If it doesn't, then I'm far enough outside position that I'm probably in serious trouble anyway. 😛

Hate to say it, because that's a really nice job you did with the green stuff, but the head itself is too big, I'm worried he's going to look like a bobble-head.

I have been planning on using the 10 I have with a Stonemage as basically a mobile wall - scoot them into position on an objective by running and stand there guarding it, teaching anyone who rolls up how to slam. The Stonemage can roll with them and position herself to sling spells to further hamper anyone trying to take the objective. I've also considered just bringing 5 and having them be my 'home guard', even without a Stonemage they can tank pretty hard and their movement isn't a problem if I'm using them on the backfield anyway. If I don't bring a Stonemage, I can bring my Dawnriders, who are looking really juicy with their 3 lances and 4 hooves each, with an extra 4 guardian swords, as well as being another caster. I'd consider the Stoneguard to be a semi-mobile bunker rather than an offensive force unless you're going Ymetrica and you want to RP as The Rock.