Joseph Mackay

alright, so i just had a very interesting game that may have changed my whole outlook in regards to enjoyment of the army. i wanted to try out a list i thought would be fun, i completely expected it would lose any of the battleplans ended up playing Total Commitment vs Stormcast -Runefather (General, Blood Of The Berzerker,Magmalt Ale) -3x5 Hearthguard Berzerkers (Broadaxe) -15 Grimwarth Berzerkers i dont remember the exact list my opponent took, but it basically had 10 Evocators, Gaverial Surecharge, Vandus Hammerhand, Knight Azyros, Celestant Prime and various units of Liberators, Castigators and Sequitors. he also started with a bunch of command points. his strategy seemed to revovle around keeping all the combat stuff close together and spaming Vandus command ability giving everyone a lot of extra attacks plot twist, i won in the first half of turn 3, and completely tabled my opponent at the end of turn 4. i had lost 5 Grimwraths, the Runefather, a unit a Hearthguard and 2 Hearthguard from another unit. most of the remaining Grimwraths were wounded i have a few updated opinions from earlier -Hearthguard Berzerkers. i think Broadaxe is better although the mortal wounds from Poleaxe is nice -Grimwrath Berzerker. i love his new rules, however i feel like you must take multiples as a single one will die before he gets to combat. i think his rules are fine, but when theres 15 of the crazy buggers lobbing heads off left right and centre it feels a bit too strong. all i can say is i really hope they dont eratta the fact he isnt a LEADER (sidenote, i wish the Battlesmith wasnt either, not so you could spam him but so you have more room for heros especially in a Lofnir list)

yes they can chant a warscroll prayer, a Zharrgrim Blessing and a Magmic Invocation in the same hero phase

Aos3 is a myth, and a ghost of gw's past as it were. people expect them to do what they used to in the old days and change editions every couple of years, sometimes without first updating all the armies. to be fair, yes they did that with aos2 however the changes to the rules were needed depending on the results of the survey, i think its not too far fetched to speculate aos3 is coming, as i suspect something is going to happen in regards to the double turn, choosing first turn and battalions. any of which would require more than just an faq/errata to change

another Death Battletome is coming this year though, that announcement was made after Flesh-Eaters. i know they said the images are not indicative of which armies are coming, however i believe that was a lie. Soulblight for Death and Ogors for Destruction (as well as updated Ironjawz and/or Bonsplittaz). Slaves To Darkness/Everchosen for Chaos i suspect is also coming im actually going to take a wild guess and say that old books updated to 2.0 are not counted for the 'at least 1 Battletome for each Grand Alliance' in which case my guesses are -Order: Disspossessed or one of the other Aelves (Light or Dark) -Chaos: Slaves To Darkness/Everchosen -Death: Soulblight or a brand new faction -Destruction: Ogors. combined book of Gutbusters and Beastclaw Raiders

although true (in my opinion), thats not what i was saying for me, the army just isnt as fun to play as it used to be. Hearthguard dont die as eailiy now and they actually feel like the elite units they were always supposed to be, but vulkites die too easiliy and feel overcosted. the Runeson was always disappointing in combat even though hes an awesome model. ive not played with Auric Hearthguard yet but they used to feel overcosted and for basically the same stats you could take Irondrakes who got more wounds and i think more attacks too? Magmadroths (my favourite model in the army and what made me start them in the first place) are still way too fragile, even more so nowadays with every second unit in the game throwing mortal wounds around (i know, a bit of an exaggeration). theyre now too expensive to use as a 'distraction carnifex' to draw attentention away from the rest of your army. obvilously they arent 400pts so shouldnt be on FEC monster level but something just feels off. i mean to be fair i feel like all onsters are way too fragile in the game. i dont think the set To Hit/To Wound system works, and giving monsters extra wounds to make up for the fact that anyone can hurt them just doesnt work. theres a lot of good stuff in the new book too however, its just that im not enjoying them, which is a shame as i really love the models and i really got into their lore the first time round in the old rules, it never made sense to me that only 'Berzerker' units had a damage save, as the fluff made it sound like it was the Ur-Gold Runes that gave them this ability in which case why didnt the other units and heroes have it?

someone said earlier about Soulblight being very unlikely as Death already got their book with Flesh-Eaters. the problem with that is the announcement of battletomes for each alliance was made after flesh-eaters was already announced, and they didnt say each alliance was only getting 1 book aside from a completely new faction, i think Soulblight is the most likely Death faction to get its own book seperate from Legions of Nagash and new models (on that note, i really hope they DONT allow the new Soulblight stuff into Legions of Nagash. as it is, in the next Generals Handbook i fear Nighthaught armies will be punished for the sins of Nagash and i really dont want that to repeat with Soulblight)

where are people getting 2+ rerolling saves or even 0+ saves from?

shooting is a massive weakness of Fyreslayers and Flesh Eaters too, and Khorne and Ironjaws, and Daughters Of Khaine, really any combat focused army as for weather slaanesh being older means they deserve models more than the newer ones? i know slaanesh players dont like this answer, but you can take Slaanesh marked Slaves To Darkness and Beast Of Chaos units which massively bump up your unit counts (although this also applys to the other chaos armies, you cant use that as a reason to pretend they dont exist). the differince is you can take those units without affecting your alleignce, whereas Flesh Eaters and Fyreslayers dont have that option

the complaints about slaanesh mortals is hard to sympathis with when you have things like: -Flesh-Eater Courts - 12 warscrolls-7 are heroes,4 kits - most of the heroes are made from the Ghouls or Horror boxes, which doing so leaves you with models you cant use -Fyreslayers - 13 warscrolls-10 are heroes,7 kits- rediculously small model range but more heroes than you can fit in a list -Skaven - at the very least should have had some of the metal/resin models redone in plastic just to name a few. Fyreslayers needed some new units to break up the repetitive nature of building and painting them. Flesh Eaters could have done with some new stuff too although im not too sure what, maybe some small Dire Wolves type unit? i understand the current plan seems to be update the old books to 2.0 as quickly as possible, whuch means not every army will get new models, but it seems those who need them the most are the ones who miss out also, Slaanesh are looking like they wont be a fun army to play against, most of the rules previewed so far are all about turning off your oppenents rules. i got put off Flesh Eaters due to complaints about them being op and that sucked all the fun out of playing them for me, its looking like i best avoid slaanesh for the same reason

since 2017 until late last year, Fyreslayers were my main army in aos. sadly i was getting a bit bored of them, within my group i basically auto won in Duality of Death and lost everything else. i dont think the army was bad, it was definately down to how i was playing them. however i did get bored of them and moved on. after playing 2 games with the new book vs Stormcast and Beasts of Chaos, heres a bit of what i think -Throwing Axes: disappointed they were nerfed to 5+ -Runes: small complaints. movement one nerfed to 2" and the throwing axes one was nerfed to bring the axes back up to 4+ why? -lack of magic defense really hurts a lot more now than it used to pre endless spells. at least our one artefact for it is no longer once per game -Magmadroths: cool that you can take 5 with Lofnir. the abilities being tidied up is good, the extra wounds, attacks and most of the mount traits are great, still die to a stiff breeze as always -Hearthguard Berzerkers: they always felt overcosted b efore but now i think theyre great. theyve survived better than vulkites -Vulkite Berzerkers: extra wound is great, normal axe attacks are better, no damage save hurts a lot (see below about points costs), Berzerker Fury is a bad rule, ours is once per game yet khorne get it all the time on a unit thats much better -Infernoth: my favourite model of the prayers and i think it hs great rules. my only issue is you need a lot of priests to really take advantage of this and the other prayers -Grimwrath Berzerker: greatly improved, my favourite foot hero. i look forward to game 3 where i plan to try a list using 10 or more of them (since they dont have the LEADER tag, you can take as many as you want but they cant be your general) -Points: so heres the real dowside to the new rules (apart from not getting any new units). it feels like the points are based on what the units used to do and not what they do now. Vulkites cost too much at 160 without the damage save, Hearthguard Berzerkers could maybe go up by 20. magmadroth points are around the wrong way Runesmiter should be the cheaper one. battlesmith isnt worth 140 for what he does now (+1 save instead of reroll saves) ive got a coule of list ideas i still have to try out before i fully form my oppinion, but so far im not enjoying playing them as much as i once did and i feel like i might end up going back to my Flesh-Eaters

The Chosen Axes, has a Vulkite Berzerker with a 2-handed axe (cant remember its name but nothing else in the army has that weapon)

thats a Secret the Keeper holds

see thats interesting that people think the Nightvault releases mean anything towards main aos more than Shadespire, considering (apperently) the shadespire models were originally designed as aos releases but turned into a side game instead. by comparison, Nightvault models will have been designed specifically for underworlds

i think the Fyreslayers battletome that just came out confirms that Underworlds models dont nessarily mean anything in regards to future releases. The Chosen Axes have a Vulkite Berzerker with a 2-handed axe however we didnt get that as a unit in the new book

im sorry, what? alleigence abilities are made up of Battle Traits, Command Traits, Artefacts and Skyports (or Stormhosts, Khaine Temples, Fyreslayer Lodges etc for other armies). they most definately do have battle traits that can affect more than just deployment

i think weather or not Ironjawz and Bonesplittaz are combined, depends on if Ironjawz get any new models, and unfortunately i dont think any exisisting battletome armies that get updated this year, will recieve anything other than a new character within a dual box like Flesh Eaters and Skaven. my thoughts are that Fyreslayers werent combined with other dwarfs as they may not be sure what to do with dispossed yet, and so they got a disappointing release. Flesh Eaters were sort of the same, they couldnt be combined with anything to make the book bigger as within their lore most of them despise nagash. basically my prediction going forward is that the following armies will only get terrain and/or spells with their battletome -Seraphon, Sylvaneth, Khardron Overlords, Tzeentch, Bonesplittaz, Ironjawz Beastclaw Raiders will probably be combined with the other Ogors in an upcoming book that probably comes with some new models Everchosen will be combined with Slaves to Darkness and come with new models (mostly Darkoath and Varanguard on foot) Soulblight will most likely see a standalone release, or a brand new death army will come out as a side note, can Kharadron Overlords please stop going on about how desperately you NEED a new book and expecting to be the next release. except for Khorne, theyre updating the aos1 books without allegience abilities/those who got them in the ghb first, which means youll be one of the last few to be updated.

i and the chapterhouse lawsuit, disagree with you that basically nothing in the model range is copyrightable. i dont fully understand how foreign laws work around copyrights/trademarks as its a bit different here, but i believe the way it works is that the models in isolation cant be protected but in the context of a miniatures game with the background etc, they can be. Fyreslayers as an example, is obvilously a very uninque theme that id never seen before (aside from the warhammer fantasy slayers that inspired them). fact is egyptian skeletons and plate armoured knights cant be protected, nor can aztec dinosaurs which is why lizardmen were changed in the story. and besides, Stormcast have basically taken over the plate armoured knights them of bretonia only instead of horses they have reptiles and bird creatures

look, we all get it. its unfortunate that Tomb Kings and Bretonia were discontinued, but the fact is they are NEVER coming back (at least not as you know them- cough Flesh-Eaters are Bretonia cough 😛 ) they were discontinued for 2 reasons. heres the main reason. you can blame people like Chapter House Studio or whatever they were called and all the the people who bought third party products instead of GWs. thanks to that lawsuit, gw changed their whole release plans, mainly if if doesnt yet have a model it doesnt get rules. this saw the 7th edition Dark Eldar and many other codex in 40k gutted of their named characters. effectively what happened is CHS decided they could make models gw made rules for but had not yet released the model for (tyranid creatures, named characters). after the lawsuit and that situation gw renamed anything that was 'too generic' to copyright (Imperial Guard became Astra Militarum etc), Tomb Kings and Bretonia were deemed too generic to be protected by trademark/copyright and thats why theyll never be back the second is most likely low sales. they wouldnt discontiue something that was selling very well

just fyi The Chosen Axes, Fyerslayers warband from Shadespire. the leader is a Auric Runefather while the other 3 are Vulkite Berzerkers, one of which has a 2-handed axes(fyresteel Greataxe? or something) which has no mention of exisiting in the battletome and isnt an option for normal Vulkite Berzerjers

personally, i say update all the books whose allegience abilities are printed in the generals handbook first so they dont have to keep reprinting them every year and it frees up space for other content

is there a way to make an Ahkelian King a wizard? like one of the artefacts from malign sorcery or something? i would like to use magic but dont want to break my theme of Ahkelian units only

i dont know where the rumor came from or how valid it is, however if we assume its true, i wouldnt expect any army that had alligence abilities printed in their battletome to get updated, with the exception of maybe khorne due to Wrath & Rapture (the changes from that will no doubt be applied to the other daemon units making the whole book near useless due to the amount of erratas). id expect the following battletomes to get updated: -Everchosen (rolled into Slaves To Darkness with the rumored Darkoath release) -Skaven Pestilens (rolled into a combined Skaven book like Beasts Of Chaos) -Fyreslayers -Ironjawz -Flesh Eater Courts -Seraphon (i expect a retcon of their background making them phyiscal living creatures once again and removing the daemon keyword) this is just speculation on my part, but it makes sense to update these before things like Sylvaneth, Beastclaw Raiders or Kharadron Overlords

forgeworld models are not fair comparisions (they may have got better at rules writing lately, but theyre generally either undercosted or overcosted)

instead of going heavy on Witch Elves, you could try the Medusai units, theyre still powerful but arent op

the steam tank is crewed by humans though?