Mutton

What if it's like a nautilus/Jules Verne-themed Death army---part steam punky, part skellingtons.

I don't want to resurrect old factions. I want new and creative ideas.

I love the idea of endless spells being their own monsters. I just want them to be good enough to warrant using (unlike the Infernoth, which is a dope model with meh rules that'll likely never see the table).

Blood Stalkers are dreadful, and I don't really know how anyone can defend them. A 5-stalker unit can (at max) do 5 wounds per shooting phase...and this assumes every single one of them hits and wounds their target. Statistically, they'll do 1-2 wounds per shooting phase. For 160 points. As I said, these would be terrible stats even at 100 points. They were clearly "balanced" during the time when GW was stamping down on shooting in general, and they desperately need an overhaul. Morathi doesn't need balancing in that way. Characters already have the disadvantage of not being able to use artifacts or command traits. In the current world of DoK, you would NEVER want Morathi as your general because she wouldn't get the Hagg Narr command trait (which is part of why temples need to be revamped and she needs to come down in points). Secondly, Blood Sisters aren't going to be considered op just because they're battleline. People use them as battleline already with Medusae. DoK players NEED more ways to play than just spamming Witch Elves, I think everyone will agree on that, and more options is not a bad thing.

Been playing DoK for a year, here are my suggestions for bringing down some things that are overperforming and lifting up things that are underperforming (or not being played at all). Hag Queen goes up to 100 points. Witch Elves go up to 120 OR take away the horde discount. Blood Stalkers go down to 100 OR revamp their warscroll to make them decent (they're one of the worst units in the game cost/damage output) At least at 100 they wouldn't feel like as much of a tax for the Temple Nest battalion. But hell, I would still regret taking them at 100. Please fix these lasses. Cauldron with Hag and Slaughter Queen go up to 320/360 respectively. Make it so Slaughter Queens don't have to be the general to use their command abilities (right now SQ's on foot are useless). Bloodwrack Shrine could come down to 200 to be slightly more appealing. Avatar on foot goes down to 160 to be slightly more appealing (it's a 180 point beat stick that has to be activated each turn just to do anything). Completely redo the Temple abilities, traits, and artifacts (maybe even give us some command abilities to use, because damn we've got none that are reasonable, plus this fixes the biggest problem of Hagg Narr being the flat best). Otherwise, just make the Hagg Narr ability wholly within (this doesn't really fix the issue, but is at least a sloppy band-aid until a new battletome). Melusai should be battleline if Morathi is general Morathi comes down to 440 (probably controversial, but I think she's a tad overcosted for what her role ends up being). The least important change in the list. I unfortunately don't see GW changing many warscrolls or battletome rules outside of a new tome itself. Which is a shame, because the BIGGEST problem with DoK is Hagg Narr. So much could be resolved if they just fiddle around with those temples a bit.

Maybe the picture implies they'll just re-release the same old Varanguard so they aren't roughly $5,000 per box.

It feels fair, because remember the enemy can't do anything about our prayers at all. We at least have the option to spend an artifact to deal with their spells, which they don't have to deal with our prayers. Now, I could go on about how Khorne kind of ruins this whole thing by being amazing at everything prayer/spell-related, but I'll save that for now.

Most things nowadays are bursting with rend or mw's. It's probably why our little beardos have to be so tanky. Never forget a Skaven cannon can ZAP any of our heroes from across the board.

That sounds hilarious, I'll have to give something like that a try. But I don't know where I'd get 15 Grimwraths!

Anyone else find the small section about rare Fyrequeens "who hold mighty powers" interesting? Love to see a model for that (not that we really need more heroes, but it still sounds cool). Give me a Fyrequeen riding a winged Magmadroth any day of the week.

Probably two runesons on magmadroths. Keep them within 6" of each other and they're rerolling all hits. Until you have 3 or 4 magmadroths, Lofnir isn't really worth it, and it'd probably be better to go with Vostarg until you get more droths. I'd wait until you get the book to plan out what you want your eventual list to look like. There are a lot of considerations to make with battalions, who to make your general, etc.

This is why I'm thinking it might be a good idea for every army to include at least 1 unit of Auric Hearthguard to pass wounds off of your valuable foot heroes.

What dispel prayer? I haven't read anything that suggests we can even dispel endless spells.

But one unit of 10 vulkites is 20 wounds, plus a 4+ save with shields (or mw's on the charge). They aren't amazing for dealing damage, but they're now meant to be giant meat walls, standing on objectives and weathering the storm. Even with just a battlesmith you get them to 3+ saves, plus whatever other armor buffs you can conjure. Even with the 4+ ward saves for hearthguard, their models won't last as long. I think Vulkites are still needed for capturing objectives.

Does anyone know where it says the terrain is impassible? Maybe I'm just a fool and keep missing it on the warscroll.

You'll notice that with anything in life, the more people get, the less satsified they are with it over time. People will always expect more and more, new standards are set, maybe even ones that can't ever be lived up to. I've also noticed negativity increase with each release since Gloomspite, and I think it's just because they set a new precedent for what could be done for an older army. Now everyone expects that. Everyone wants everything for the army they love, it's not an unfair desire, but it's not realistic.

Question: Is the Fyrewall impassable for all normal units?

You know instead of wallowing and focusing on what wasn't in the release, people should embrace the joy of what they did get. Leads to a much healthier life and outlook.

Which will ruin everything.

This might be FAQ'd, but honestly, I'd like to see more anti-double-turn tech like this in other armies. If we're going to keep double turns around, it'd be nice to have some ability to protect yourself. Also as someone mentioned above, we might finally be getting an elite army that can perform well, aside from Stormcast. Almost every "elite" army in AoS wanes when put up against horde-focused armies, for a variety of reasons. The problem is usually that fewer models who are only slightly better are outperformed by big units who are slightly worse. With Fyreslayers units looking like they'll be pretty beefy on multiple fronts (but with fewer models), they should be able to stand toe-to-toe with the big names in horde-play.

I also agree that Bonesplitterz doesn't really seem to be a popular army, and it would surprise me if they weren't rolled into another Destruction faction like Ironjawz. They have an even more limited selection than Fyreslayers. I know zero people in my community who play Bonesplitterz or even have a passing interest in them, and I'd probably rank them below even something like Wanderers in popularity. But hey, maybe there are a lot more fans in the woodwork than I'm aware of.

What? You mean a real rumor? Are those allowed?

How would people feel about alternating phases instead of turns? Like the winner of the battle round roll takes their hero phase first, then the opponent takes their hero phase...continue through movement, shooting, etc. My biggest issue with the double turn is having one person just sitting and waiting for half an hour or more.

People like to say they're just "naked dwarfs," but to be fair, they do have magical god-metal infused into their bodies. But I do think that rule will get changed.

Let's allow the faction be out for a couple months before crying "OP." People are smart and find counters to things, that's what's going on with Gristlegore and Skaven right now. New rules need time to breath on the tables. So maybe we all calm down and enjoy the wash of excitement that we'll have yet another dope army to play with/against.