Landohammer

Two looncurse boxes? Wow you are fortunate!! 20 block of spites and 2 tree revs is a great battleline. But to be honest you can't really go wrong with any of our battleline units nowadays. Twenty seems to be the magic number for Spites and Dryads. I actually prefer units of 3 greatswords, since only greatswords generate mortal wounds on 6's. However a unit of 6 scythes is also very strong and will benefit more from your Arch Revenant buffs.

So I debated taking the Arch Revenant in winterleaf during my most recent tournament. The Branchwraith is just so tempting (and cheaper!). However I have found Arch to be the perfect carrier for the Frozen Kernel. His tiny base and movement of 12" allows him to get that critical second-fight anywhere it needs to be. Other carriers can struggle to get into position without teleports (which are unreliable). I also surprised several opponents when he ran forward to grab an unprotected objective. Another trick: After you have used the Kernel, you can send the Arch Revenant on a suicide charge into a scary unit and let "My Heart is Ice" generate a bunch of mortal wounds. Its particularly useful vs really scary monsters. Worst case scenario Arch lives and holds the monster up. Best case scenario the monster rolls hot and bounces like 5 mortal wounds back onto himself 🤣

Just got back from a one dayer. I went 2-1 beating an Archaon and Nighthaunt but losing to Seraphon. I tied for 3rd overall. Quick takeaways -Winterleaf is insanely good. The exploding 6s are nice on dryads and spites, but they really start to shine on Hunters, Alarielle, and even Treelords. The frozen kernel won me the game vs Archaon as it allowed me to swing with Alarielle twice before he could retaliate. -Drycha is very reliable. Her volume of attacks make her less prone to whiffing. I usually ran her in shooty mode turn one, then switched to fighty mode from then onwards. -Hunters are absolute MVP. I used greatswords in groups of three. I had two of them put NINE wounds on Archaon. If you have Revenant and Alarielle support, they are rerolling 1's to hit and wound! -I think I may drop dryads in favor of spites for battleline. Dryads are really solid, but only outperform spites while near the woods. And despite summoning multiple woods each game, I never managed to keep them wholly within 6 of a wood during combat.

I hate it. Not so much for balancing reasons as it admittedly adds another level of strategy to first turn and endless spells. I hate it because it can force me or my opponent to spend long stretches of the game doing nothing (aside from rolling saves and combats they are probably losing) I have found double turning on turn 2 or 3 to be particularly brutal as those tend to be where the big charges, spells, and combats take place. AOS vets don't seem to mind it as much since they have learned to anticipate the effect. Its the newbies and casual players that really get burnt by it and I personally think that is a bad thing for the game overall.

A) Realm Effects - These aren't being commonly used in my meta even though I personally like them. IMHO they are fine as long as they are announced ahead of time. Its critical that TOs and League organizers provide guidance on these otherwise they shouldn't be used. I rarely use them in pickup games, and when I do I just re-roll the dumb ones. A lot of people complain about the impenetrable gloom one, (which is fair, its dumb) but if everyone knows about it going in then all is fair. Realm of origin artefacts seem pretty much commonplace in all lists now. B) Terrain Rules - Of the three FLGS I frequent, the only GW terrain they have are citadel woods. The rest is a hodge podge of custom and third party stuff. I have never been to a tourney where the table has multiple GW terrain pieces, so the terrain warscrolls are pretty irrelevant to me personally. I don't know of anyone who uses the special terrain dice rolls either (ie nullifying, cursed, whatever, etc). This may be a holdover attitude from WHF where they were insane and just discarded out the gate. C) Terrain Setup- This varies. For pickup or league games its done by whoever gets to the store first to save time. For tournaments its done by the TO before the tournament starts. So the official method is completely irrelevant to me. I have never seen this exploited and TBH someone who nitpicks over terrain placement is probably going to be a nightmare opponent anyway.

Awesome. Thanks for the clarification. That's what I figured. I can go look it up. Do you remember which FAQ it was specifically?

How is everyone resolving to-hit rolls of 6 with Drycha, Talon of Dwindling, Sundering Strike, and Impale when using Winterleaf Glade? I imagine a FAQ may be a while so just trying to determine the consensus for my games in the immediate future.

Yea 20 spites is definitely the magic number. It cost only 20 more points to get 5 more bodies. If your going to take 15, it would be better to just take a unit of 10 for a whopping 31 attacks. Then use the other 5 guys to meet battleline tax. At 60 points, they are one of the cheapest batteline units out there. Dang, I am continually impressed at just how good Spites are now. Especially with Glade rules (Dreadwood and Winterleaf come to mind) and an Arch Revenant. However we may see some wonky spite numbers in the meta for a bit since nobody currently owns any. 😝

Its probably best to determine what battleline troops you want in your army and then base your purchasing decisions on that. With the new codex, all three of our battleline troops are viable. Spites and Dryads are great for medium-large units. Tree Revenants are better in small units. If you want Spites/Tree Revenants. Then Looncurse is the way to go. Try to find someone to split it with, (or check ebay for just a Sylvaneth half). It also comes with Kurnoth Hunters and an Arch Revenant. Note that Looncurse boxes are getting tricky to find so you might not want to wait too long to buy. If you prefer dryads, then just pickup a Start Collecting box. Many prefer to convert the included Branchwych model into a Branchwraith, as its a bit more competitive. The new codex has the army in a good place. Pretty much all of our units are viable to some degree. Though some may argue that the Treeman Ancient is a bit overcosted. So just buy what you like! Good luck!

So as fun as Pyrofane list sounds, it is going to cost you 440pts in battalion tax alone. So while I love the fun special rules these battalions provide, i worry that it might be a bit of an handicap competitively since you only have 1560 points left for actual units. That being said, if you want a mortal character, consider the Ogroid Thaumaturge for killy fighting, and Gaunt Summoner for killy casting. If you somehow manage to squeeze tzaangors of any kind into your list, the Tzaangor Shaman is great for buffing them.

Hey guys, just in case you were still on the fence about the Gaunt Summoner with Familiars, looks like the new GHB 19 FAQ put it to bed. Q: "If a unit's Pitched Battle profile is not included in the General's Handbook 2019 or its Official Errata document, can it be used in a Pitched Battle? A: "No"

Problem with Warsinger is that you have to give up the option for a Glade to even get a command trait option. Since Glades lock in your command trait and there is no way to get second traits. As I mentioned early, I can't imagine any instance where you sacrifice the Glade buffs. Spiteswarm hive is definitely a cheaper alternative to cogs, but doesn't it also require a 3+ to trigger? Cogs is a guaranteed thing (once its cast). I hate that there are endless spells that require additional rolls to activate. Because you pay points, you have to get it off, not have it unbound, and then trigger the 3+. That's a lot of investment for something that fails 1 in 3 times. Fair point. Though personally I have just never been a fan of our battalions, and the glade buffs being free are just another nail in battalion's coffin. Maybe I am in the minority here.

Thats fair. The change has definitely pushed the Treelord from a solo tank into a support unit. Yea it seems a bit of a waste providing so many cool artefacts and command trait options, but then locking them out with Glades. The Glades are so good that I can't foresee anyone giving them up. Only instance it becomes an actual choice is if you field all named characters. But even then, Drycha with Winterleaf or Alarielle with Dreadwood are terrifying!

We may just use Tree lords differently. I send mine to tank big hordes or threats that other parts of my army can't deal with efficiently. I have found him ideal vs low rend/high attack hordes like Tzaangors, undead, or even Witch Aelves. I guess the ultimate question becomes this: What mitigates the opposing unit more? -1 to hit on all of their attacks, or the damage from a round of Treelord's attacks? Whats the average wound output of a fully healed Treelord? 6-7 wounds before saves? If you are fighting heroes or behemoths, I will grant you that its probably better to swing first (again, when fully healed). But if you are fighting hordes, the -1 to hit will be MUCH more beneficial than just pulling 6-7 models off the back rank.

So objectively, if I wanted something to womp for 200pts, I would just take Kurnoth Hunters. The tree lord is there to tank and grind, and the -1 hit to made it pretty good at that job. This effect became progressively more useful later in the game when the treelord had taken a lot of wounds and wasn't doing much damage. The change is even more apparent on the TLA who tends to struggle in combat, especially late game. Many times the -1 to hit has saved his bacon and kept him in the fight long enough to heal/teleport/get help. Now I'm not gonna say the new Treelord is bad. At his current price, you get a solid behemoth for what many armies pay for mediocre characters. But he is definitely worse at his job now.

Oh apologies! I went back a few pages but obviously not far enough. I will go catch up. I do wish the codex shipping issues would resolve so we can all get on the same page. The derpy part is more about just the attack itself. The always strike last component of stomp is pretty cool. I actually however, do prefer the old -1 to hit. Mostly because it was useful vs multiple units and tended to multiply the Treelords survivability. I don't really bring treelords to wipe out units before they swing, i bring them to tank scary stuff.

Not sure if this has been discussed yet, but per the leaked Durthu rules on Reddit, looks like Groundshaking Stomp and Massive Impaing Talons are significantly changed. These will be assumable shared with Treelords and TLAs. Ground shaking Stomp - At the start of the combat phase, pick 1 enemy unit within 3" and roll a dice. On a 4+ that unit fights at the end of the combat phase, after the players have picked any other units to fight. Massive Impaling Talons - 1A 3+/3+ R2 D1 - On a unmodified roll of 6 the attack does d6 mortal wounds. This kind of explains why there was such a significant drop in the Tree Lord points. No more -1 to hit and Massive impaling talons is pretty derpy without a natural 6. Hopefully Sweeping blows remain unchanged.

@Caspeur Agreed. Its sloppy. It puts the burden onto your opponent which makes things awkward. But what happens when someone ends up on a top table in a tournament and their opponent refuses permission? Like would they just not field the model? The GS is particularly tricky since many people field him as their general. Personally, until we get clarification, I am just going to field the regular non-familiar version. I don't want there to be an asterisk by any of my games. The GS is already an effective enough model IMHO.

Thats rough man. Could you maybe use the wolfriders as spider riders? Are those still around? Might take some base engineering but you could also maybe use them as squig riders. I have found that most players are pretty accommodating when it comes to models with discontinued rules. We have all been there.

I don't necessarily disagree, and I am sure a FAQ will clear this up soon. But the sentence on page 1 of the pitched battle profile booklet specifically says that it cannot be taken without opponent's permission. The intent of that sentence can't really be argued, at least not for now. I don't think we can rely on the existence of Warscrolls in the App as justification for the units belonging in matched play. Warscrolls are used by all play styles. I am actually more annoyed that GW even releases matched play profiles for limited models. It leads to situations, such as the Gaunt Familiars, where some players have access to highly competitive models that others don't.

RAW the familiar version is no longer legal. So in matched play there is only one option if you want Infernal Flames. (at least until we get an FAQ or a new codex) However I recommend you give him Arcane Sacrifice and, if you have the points maybe Balewind Vortex. If you keep him relatively near the LOC, and use Arcane sacrifice, then you end up with a rerollable cast with a +1. So you have a pretty good shot at hitting that 8.

RAW: You cannot use models that are not in the Pitched Battle Profiles 2019. Though make sure you check the "Destruction" section. Sometimes legacy stuff is stripped of key words and dumped to grand alliance (aka some older woodelf units losing wanderer keyword)

@GoddammitGary Yes but this would have filled the "later publication" clause since FAQ's are definitely publications. Additionally this very specifically applies to the Errant Questor and wouldn't necessarily apply to other models. Hopefully the incoming FAQ in July will address this (and all other) issues. I for one am kind of hoping they retire the GS w Familiars. Its in nearly every Tzeentch list and the model is difficult to procure. Also the model itself is a bit confusing since its 5 models that effectively act as 1 and its OP to boot. So its just a lot of trouble altogether lol.

The Gaunt Summoner with Chaos Familiars discussion is a hot topic over in the Tzeentch section. I think its pretty straight forward: The Gaunt Summoner with familiars is not in the Pitched Battle Profiles, therefore it is not legal for matched play. The only real argument against this is if you consider Warscroll Builder/Azyr a "publication". I do not. I know this is heresy as a Tzeentch player, but I always felt like the version with Familiars was kind of an oversight anyway. It was literally just a better version of the Gaunt Summoner for the same cost.

Gaunt Familiar aside, other notables changes (at least for me) -Cogs went up 20, which puts it at a whopping 80pts. Spell Portal, Swords, Nids, Shackles and other favorites also went up. However, note that Balewind Vortex remains at 40pts. So this makes a regular GS + Balewind still a relatively good deal. -Soul Grinder went down 10pts. Not a huge fan of the model but at 250pts this guy is pretty effective. Also note that Azyr isn't necessarily 100% updated. The Tzeentch section appears done but the Sylvaneth section hasn't been touched yet. (not sure if related to their pending codex or what)