Kasper

But how long in advance did we know about S2D, KO and Tzeentch? I don't think it's unreasonable that they suddenly tease it at the start of february, faction focus etc. mid february and then pre orders end february. Light Aelves were teased now because it's a completely new thing and people have been asking for "proper" Aelves for ages. There are multiple other armies that didn't have all of their finecast/metal models updated to plastic, so I could certainly see a world where Seraphon is suddenly released with a couple of new sculpts, some endless spells and updated rules.

There are 2 conditions to piling in: The unit is within 3" and hence in combat The unit has made a charge move earlier in the turn Unit Z can decide to pile in 3" and claim the objective despite no units being around, since it has made a charge move earlier in the turn.

Brutes and Ardboyz are close to each other, but you trade damage vs utility. Both are useful. Completely different scenario and not what I was refering to at all. I'm talking about warscrolls that have the same purpose/role but objectively worse by a long shot. If you only care about fluff or how a model looks, that's great and all, but as I initially said, I don't see the value in it. That's obviously from a matched play perspective.

Not really. A lot of the warscrolls are flat out terrible/significantly worse than others, hence the "illusion of choice" and why in reality you're looking at significantly fewer warscrolls.

The most broken part is that it is effectively a doppelgangers cloak when you pull it off. Land outside of 3” of a Keeper of Secrets or whatever - He isnt allowed to pile in and attack unless within 3”, so you will always strike first. As I see it, it isnt too easy to pull off and wont happen that often. Warchanter charge buff is specifically in your charge phase. It means you likely have to wipe a unit in your opponents combat phase which frees up your unit for your hero phase, meanwhile being rather close to another unit.

I personally dont see the value in the amount of kits/warscrolls an army has. Yes, in a perfect World it would matter and give you more choices and options. As it is, it just means an illusion of choice and more pages to go through when army building. Cities doesnt have 59 proper warscrolls to pick from in reality.

So I played my list vs Slaanesh with 1 Keeper, Archaon, Sorc on foot and daemonettes. I lost, but it was rather close, even though I screwed up my deployment and he also played Excess of Violence completely wrong - He played it like you could use a CP and fight right away, instead of waiting for his turn to pick a unit to activate with. Having both a Keeper and Archaon piling in twice before you really get to do anything is rather insane. The game would've been different if he had used the Keeper CA correctly. I managed to charge Archaon with 10 Ardboyz buffed with the Warboss and Warchanter. They chopped him down to 2 wounds remaining. If only a couple more could've gotten into melee with him. It's so insane when they hit on 2s, wound on 2s, reroll 1s to wound with 3 attacks and 2 damage each! I really miss not having a Maw Krusha to shoot off into a vulnerable position. But I guess I just need to learn that Ardboyz fully buffed will almost munch anything, so should be a lot more aggressive with them. In general I think it is a mistake hanging back. I used the Balewind on my Wurrgog which is also a waste. He already casts 2 spells, no need for a third. If I had casted it on my Weirdnob, he would've been able to puke and teleport a unit, almost securing a charge.

Considering his mount is to the right of him in the background, I think you are Reading too much into the art.

The core rules specifically mention a retreated unit cant shoot or charge - No mention of fight or pile in.

The 4+ on Ardfist isnt ideal, but without a Maw Krusha I dont see as much value in multiple MDs tbh. It will mostly go on the pigs. On average I should get at least 1 unit back, which is gonna mess with my opponent. It could be trash and never happen, but there will be games where I roll 2-3 4’s and it will likely win me the game right there and then. Im not sold on the Megaboss either, but gonna give him a spin. Its very rare I have more than 2 units in combat at a time due to lack of Smashing and Bashing or other ways of striking first. I havent tried yet where the Warchanters got shot off the table early game. The extra BW pts is certainly nice, but this list will already give me the 6++ on turn 1 which Im happy about.

Tzaangors were updated for DoT back when the BoC book dropped. Think its very likely it will affect BoC.

Taking some inspiratio from Andrew and Skumbaagh, I'll be toying around with this list: I'm not entirely sold on Ardfist, but I think it can give some sustain in longer matches and it also messes with the opponent, since removing a unit of Ardboyz could very well result in them returning from a board edge in an ambush style, or for grabbing objectives. 6 pigs buffed by a Warchanter + Warboss with his banner aura + extra attacks CA will shred anything to pieces. Ardboyz with the same buffs will also mince most stuff. There is a fair bit of magic in the list and with a Wurrgog on Balewind you're looking at picking off at big horde units from 30" away or fight last vs nasty units from 24". I'm not too sold on the Megaboss on foot and if Ardfist doesn't feel good, I might trash both and go for more Ardboyz and an Ironfist batallion. I'm a bit worried that I'm spread too thin with this list but testing will show that.

Sounds alot like how I play my list. Im using 4x10 and a Maw Krusha instead. Im looking into getting more boyz and potentially running Ardfist too. Those souped up boyz really punch above their points cost.

Makes sense, I was just worried he wouldnt really keep up with the pigs. I guess it depends on how aggressive you are with them.

@Andrew G How much use are you getting out of the Megaboss on foot? I guess you mainly use the Brutish Cunning to have him move 8” a turn? I havent tried the foot guy myself, but could imagine the points being spent better elsewhere which would also unlock a more useful trait. Normally im a huge fan of BC, but on a more mobile hero like the Maw Krusha.

It is obvious they made a tradeoff of quality vs quantity in 2019 - Their goal was to release as many books as possible, which obviously meant they lacked a little polish. Im okay with this - I would much rather have average-good quality on almost every faction, instead of only maybe one third books being released at top notch level. The last bit doesnt matter to me, and would rather see as many people as possible being able to enjoy their toys properly. In general I dont really agree on the quality being poor - Loads of the books are AMAZING. They hit the nail on the head both fluff wise and how the armies play in many of the books. A lot of warscrolls feel great. S2D is an example of a book that is awesome where they really captured the essence of chaos being able to corrupt and mutate terrain and the opponent as you play on the table. The 2 week FAQ is obviously annoying, but there is no way they can playtest armies and push every warscroll/trait/batallion to the limit the same way our community does it. In general the 2 week FAQs arent really surprising. You can guess the majority of the fixes with a little bit of common sense and it is rare they mess up a warscroll of a unit. I think you are a madman if you truly see 2019 as a failure in any way.

You already have some viking vibes from Orruks, Beasts of Chaos (Gors in general) and especially Marauders in Chaos. You could quite easily kitbash/convert Marauders into viking-cast and slap stormcast shoulderpads/shields etc on. I think your odds of GW introducing an entire line like that is as close to 0 as it gets.

Isnt that 3 spells from the Weirdnob though? From what I recall the free Green Puke is at the end of the hero phase, so after a unit has been teleported already. Been looking at ways to do teleport and give the Ardboyz mad as hell move, but doesnt seem possible beside Endless spells or giving weirdnob 2 casts and spend one on normal puke.

Yep the Zap Em! is really great too. I won a game the other day because I sacrificed D6 pts to give shaman +2, resulted in me getting a teleport spell off on the Maw Krusha - Sent it outside of 12, used his Brutish Cunning to sit outside of 3” of his unit. What list have you been running with? I really want to include a Wurrgog and Balewind.

I have had pretty much same experience as you @Skumbaagh I just did a casual 3 game tournament and Big Waagh feels so good. The 6++ FNP looks weak at first, but the amount of wounds it has saved me throughout the games is crazy. I have only ever played Ironjawz, but after my last 4 recent games as Big Waagh, Im really not looking back. At first I didnt like the idea of fielding the Orruk Warboss in Big Waagh because it felt like an obvious loophole, but since they havent fixed it in the recent changes where they had the chance, coupled with the fact most other people I play with are using rather cheesy lists, Im gonna say ****** it. Building the guy on a warboar as I type this. 😂 Edit: In regards to Ironjawz vs Big Waagh, there has been rather few situations where I wished I had Smashing and Bashing. The army wide buffs more than makes up for it imo.

Are you relying on the Bloated Blessings to do your work? Because honestly I dont see a whole lot of threat in that army. There will be loads of bodies, but if you are blocked from parking those bodies on an objective, you will likely have a hard time getting to them as I see it. Wheres the hammer?

Anyone else been toying around with Big Waagh alligiance? It honestly feels alot stronger than Ironjawz and I dont really miss Smashing and Bashing as much as I thought I would. Im not even dabbling into the Bonesplitterz, besides a single caster to get access to their fight last spell. Everything hitting on 2’s, wounding on 2’s, with an army wide 6++ ontop is honestly so good. I have never been a fan of the alphastrike gameplay, so I guess thats why this alligiance speaks alot more to me. It rewards a slower/tactical gameplay for sure.

I got my first game done as Big Waaagh and it felt awesome with all those buffs! +1/1 and ++6 is sooo good. My opponent played an S2D list consisting of Archaon, Be'lakor, Gaunt Summoner on disc, 3x 20 Marauders and some other heroes and Endless Spells. His list wasn't optimized tbh and it was his first game with the new book. It resulted in a rather one-sided game. We played on Focal Point where he pulled ahead in turn 1 and 2 on Victory Points, since I deployed at my backline and didn't bother to challenge the middle point until the top of turn 2. 10 Ardboyz with +1/+1 and Violent Fury easily munched a whole unit of Marauders. I had deployed so my entire army was in a tight ball with a layer of Ardboyz around it. Once +1/+1 was online I moved the Ardboyz forward and started clearing the Marauders. My Maw Krusha and Pigs were ready to be sent in as wave 2. Eventually he had to respond to the buffed up Ardboyz by sending Archaon in to murder a squad of 10 Ardboyz, but my following turn meant he got charged by 6 Pigs buffed with +1/+1, Violent Fury and +1 attack from activating the Waagh. He died. It was glorious to watch 800 points crumble before 6 Pigs. At the end of turn 3 he was pretty much tabled and with the help of a teleport spell buffed with +2 from Waagh ability (rolling a 1 is so sweet!) and +1 from artefact, I had every objective beside the middle one, and he had 5 Marauders, Be'lacor and a Gaunt Summoner on disc vs my entire army minus 15 Ardboyz and 2 Pigs. We called it here since I caught up in points and he had no chance of removing my models and he would be tabled entirely in my 4th turn. Thoughts on Big Waagh: It felt awesome all around and 10 Ardboyz is really a lot of muscle with hitting on 2s and wounding on 2s. They soak up a lot of damage with double 6++ FNP saves (shields + Big Waagh) and provide a reasonable threat all around. I didn't have to sacrifice my Maw Krusha or Pigs and could afford to just sit back and wait for him to respond to my Ardboyz, then get countercharged and destroyed by "wave 2". The Wardokk didn't succeed in a single +1 casting dance, failing every turn. He managed to cast his fight-last spell once, but Archaon bounced it off with his ability. Even though bad luck got the better of the little fella, I think I'm better off replacing him and the 5 Ardboyz squad with a Wurrgog Prophet. His warscroll spell is honestly insane vs horde units and he's a double caster too. I wasn't sure how Waagh points generation would be in actual play, but it turns out the list does it fairly easily. I get 5 passively with this list, plus D6 from the general and 4 from 'Ere we go CA. Thats 12,5 on average per turn. That's without any charges or combat with the Ardboyz/Maw Krusha.

I don't have this feel at all with Ironjawz. Sure in a lot of other armies you have the illusion of choice, unless you just want fluffy army lists. But if you want to play with competitive lists, the majority of armies might as well only have 3-5 warscrolls because you wont touch the other ones.

After Q1 2020 all armies will have their 2.0 book (you can argue some of the first “2.0 books” arent up to par) and Im hoping they will spend 2020 updating/expanding current armies