NinthMusketeer

Do note that Aqua Ghyranis is far from ordinary water. For example, in Warcry "Flask of Aqua Ghyranis" is the strongest health restoration item in the game. As the name indicates it comes from the Realm of Life, and not just any random water from there either. It acts as a health potion, which gives it intrinsic value enough to make sense as a currency in a setting as diverse in AoS. Any simple material is liable to become extremely valuable or near-valueless based on where one is, but no matter where one is there are most assuredly things that can kill you. Being able to literally trade wealth for health would be appealing to almost anyone. Mechanically it also provides a built-in 'spend currency to heal' mechanic that makes sense in-universe and does not depend on a certain class, type of magic, or location to work. This largely eliminates the potential issue many RPGs run into where the group needs a healer to function properly.

Uh, Homebrew!

This allegiance should (and needs to) be worse than the ones from the corresponding battletomes to compensate for being able to freely mix & match from triple the unit roster. The cogmaster already repairs war machines and I do not see a particular need for role redundancy in that area. I am not totally set against it, but I feel like it would be rules bloat without an impact for most games. I strongly considered allowing the taking of artifacts from battletome lists, but decided it was not the best course. There is no rule precedent for taking an artifact from a different allegiance, and even the recent mixed daemon allegiance does not allow for them to take the daemon artifacts from their respective battletomes. It also becomes a case where it is exploited to take overly strong artifacts or not used. Both of these are bad for getting opponents on board. And finally there is a practicality matter of now needing three battletomes to access all of the content available to the army, verses as it stands where one only needs the above allegiance (the warscrolls being free). Being self contained also ties into getting opponents to go with it; when the whole thing fits on one page and there is no potential for a hidden exploit from some artifact in some battletome it becomes dramatically less menacing for someone on the other end.

First draft of Duardin allegiance abilities, let me hear your feedback! Should I make a separate thread for it? Duardin War Throng (best I could come up with, anyone have something better?) A Duardin War Throng army can include any unit with the Duardin keyword. These units gain the War Throng keyword. By Grudge and Whisker: All Duardin respect the quest to settle a grudge, and perhaps more so an impressive beard. When gathered together on the battlefield differences of method fall aside in face of need and authority. Command abilities used by War Throng models that normally affect Dispossessed, Ironweld Arsenal, Fyreslayers, or Skyfarers can affect any unit(s) with the War Throng keyword instead. Additionally, the Old Grumblers ability from the Longbeards warscroll may affect any unit(s) with the War Throng keyword as well. Contracted Transport: While a War Throng may travel by conventional means, even those unpracticed in airborne combat can appreciate the efficiency of skyvessel transport. Skyvessels may transport Dispossessed, Ironweld Asenal, and Fyreslayers units as if they the Marine keyword. However, the range of abilities and command abilities used by such units are reduced by 6" (to a minimum of 1"). This rule does not apply to Monsters or War Machines. Palpable Disregard: Duardin disdain for spellcraft is legendary, to the point for spells cast against a War Throng may be overcome by sheer obstinacy. Once per enemy hero phase, any War Throng unit may attempt to unbind a spell as if it were a Wizard. This rule ceases to function if there is a friendly Wizard on the battlefield. Exchange of Brew: Rare is the union of Duardin forces from different stripes that does not involve an exchange of alcohol. Indeed, so much time and effort goes into perfecting recipes to impress and outshine rivals that the competition even extends to the battlefield! After territories have been chosen but before the first unit is deployed, choose a set of brews to have been imbibed (in the name of friendly competition, of course). All War Throng units receive the indicated benefit for the duration of the battle. Potent Browraisers: You may re-roll battleshock checks for this unit, if the second result is lower than the first the check is automatically passed and no models flee. Steambroth Gutwarmers: If this unit runs and the result of the dice roll is a 1, 2, or 3 change that result to 4 before applying any modifiers. Numbskin Headthrobbers: Roll a dice each time you allocate a wound or mortal wound to this unit, on a 6+ that wound is negated. This rule does not apply if the unit already benefits from a similar ability (for example, the Duty Unto Death ability of Hearthguard Berzerkers). Command Traits: 1 - Spirit of the Ancestors: Add 2 to the bravery characteristic of War Throng units wholly within 24" of this general. 2 - Stubborn Toughness: Add 2 to the wounds characteristic of this general. 3 - Greatbeard: This general can use the Old Grumblers ability from the Longbeards warscroll. Runic Arms (Dispossessed, Ironweld Arsenal, or Fyreslayer models only) 1 - Rune of Might: Choose one of the bearer's weapons to possess a Rune of Might. Add 1 to wound rolls made with that weapon. 2 - Rune of Fury: Choose one of the bearer's weapons to possess a Rune of Fury. Add 1 to the attacks characteristic of that weapon. 3 - Rune of Cleaving: Choose one of the bearer's weapons to possess a Rune of Cleaving. Improve the rend characteristic of that weapon by 1 (rend - becomes -1, etc). Mastercraft Armour (Dispossessed, Ironweld Arsenal, or Kharadron Overlords models only) 1 - Enduring Plate: You may re-roll save rolls of 1 for the bearer. The first time the bearer would be slain, he is instead set to 1 wound remaining and any wounds or mortal wounds yet to be allocated to him are negated. 2 - Spellbreaker Gauntlet: Roll a dice each time the bearer would be affected by a spell or endless spell, on a 5+ ignore the effects of that spell or endless spell on this model. Additionally, if the result of the roll was a 6+ and made against an endless spell within 3" it is immediately dispelled (after resolving its effects on any other units). 3 - Longstep Legguards: Add 3" to the bearer's move characteristic. This bonus does not apply if the bearer makes a run move. Auxiliary Contracts (Fyreslayers or Kharadron Overlords models only) 1 - Behemocide Bounty: After deployment but before turn order is determined, pick one enemy Monster on the battlefield. You may re-roll hit rolls of 1 for the bearer against that unit or any other unit which shares its warscroll. 2 - Glintspotter Survey: After deployment but before turn order is determined, choose one terrain feature on the battlefield. Once per round, if this model is within 1" of that terrain feature it may use a command ability on its warscroll without spending a command point. 3 - Relentless Headhunt: After deployment but before turn order is determined, pick one enemy Hero on the battlefield. You may re-roll hit rolls for the bearer against that unit if he is within 3". Allies: Stormcast Eternals, Ironweld Arsenal.

Well I shall get to work!

Hey fellow Duardin lovers! I have been playing AoS since before it was cool (as in, back when we wrote our own points), have all the battletomes, experience making homebrew content, and strong enough rules knowledge that I have been a judge at several major tournaments. I say this not to brag, but to express a certain degree of qualification before I ask this: If I made a full set of allegiance abilities for mixed-Duardin armies (as in, everything with the Duardin keyword) would anyone be interested?

Stormfiends with first edition rules, when all models in the unit could have warpfire throwers (which shot 2d3 MWs). Plus their considerable ability to beat things up in melee. It was at a tournament, so I do not fault the other player for doing what he did. In a friendly game yeah a bit TFG, but at a tourney that is the sort of cheese one needs just to survive.

Something to keep in mind is that any time a single model or unit takes up such a large portion of a list the balance will be wonky--it could be very strong or very weak based on context. That is simply the nature of having so many eggs in one basket. Taking this further it means that when properly pointed Nagash will simply end up being weak sometimes. If he was always strong that would be a massive red flag. Second, and this is BIG: Nagash is pointed assuming realmscape rules are in effect. That means he has seven additional spells to draw from based on the realm you are playing in. This increases his utility by an immense margin. Now said rules are not for everyone but understand that if you are not using them that IS a house rule, and one that penalizes Nagash more than any other model in the game. As for LoN overall. One game I played against them and my opponent had a unit of 30 grimghast reapers which I killed despite him bringing back models to it from gravesites. For 1 cp he returned the unit to play at full strength, and I killed it again despite him bringing back models to it from gravesites. For 1 cp he returned the unit to play at full strength again, and I was well into killing it off a third time when the game ended. He paid points for 30 grimghasts and ended up deploying over 100. As his opponent that was not fun for me. At all. An army with allegiance mechanics of such potency will never be balanced because the units need to be pitiful to compensate, which just creates a whole new set of issues.

Best use is to do a bit of conversion work then use them for counts-as rockgut troggoths, which perform well above their point cost and are strong even in a tournament setting. And no, I am not joking. The reality is if you want a place where you can use your favorite models and not worry about being obliterated by the meta, Matched Play is not the game mode serving that niche. It is simply not designed to accommodate that type of play, there are others ways of playing and other resources to do that with.

Indeed, choice of City or Starborne/Coaleced, etc is not the same as a subfaction. Certainly not what I was referring to with my original comment.

Getting an extra CP or extra artifact for going without a sub-faction would be interesting.

Personally I feel that sub-faction benefits are good enough these days that they should simply eat your first artifact choice as a cost. Armies with a sub-faction do not receive an initial artifact for free, but can still access them via the normal bonus from battalions. Sub-factions which currently force an artifact choice instead gain that artifact as an option they can pick in addition to the regular ones. Too many armies players are basically forced to pick a sub-faction, because they are strictly stronger than not doing so, which is more restrictive than not having them at all and also ties overall army performance to how strong the VERY inconsistent benefits of sub-factions it happens to have. Adding a more notable cost than 'you have to take this command trait/artifact (which may be as good or better than your other options anyways)' would be far from fixing things but it would at least help. And before the argument gets made; "that would unfairly penalize sub-factions which are already bad" yes, it would. But that would have little to no effect because people would go from not using them... to still not using them! As for the original line of discussion involving command traits; IMO allow people to pick a normal command trait instead, but at a cost. Something like "The general may select a command trait off the appropriate table instead, but the army does not receive the normal command point in its first hero phase, and cannot purchase an additional command point in Matched Play."

IMO, the abilities of the guys on top are fine but the maggoth itself is too lackluster. The claw attacks should deal d3 damage and all three characters should heal d3 per turn automatically. Neither their point cost nor their base size is particularly large so they do not need massive buffs to make an appropriate impact in combat (they all should definitely be surrounded by other friendly troops anyways). And we do not want to buff them so much that they need a point increase because Nurgle is already point-crunched when it comes to big stuff anyways. And give them each a battalion for good measure. (I want Nurgle's Deluge back dammit!) Finally make Morbidex unlock Nurgling battleline if he is the general. It wouldn't be good, but it would be thematic and very entertaining.

Excited to see what you have in store.

Thank goodness for that FAQ, it was so weird before.

New Seraphon tables are up! Unfortunately it may be some time before I get a chance to playtest them due to coronavirus shutdowns.

Updated Seraphon tables coming tomorrow. Some notes: -Initial followers for champions will be divided into two columns; one for Coalesced and one for Starborne. Fortunately the differences are small. -Not sure how I am going to do bound endless spells yet. -If you have any observations or ideas let me know!

I let people use those in my Path to Glory leagues, can be really fun when implemented properly.

Been continuing to kick ass with my Splintered Fang against all sort of opponents. Snake swarms are awesome, the leader's auto-success net is awesome, and snake charmers simply have solid stats for their points. As a chaos band they also have access to the cheese that is the bray shaman, but I had to start leaving him out for being too game-breaking. For those looking to make additional swarms, the old jungle swarms from lizardmen have a number of snakes in them while the current bastiladon kit has a bunch of extra snake bits that the Seraphon player is unlikely to need since the laser gem is better.

Make gargantuan models immune to 'snare' effects (stuff like nets that prevent movement). Make it so they can opt to simply destroy terrain of 1" height or less by moving over/landing on it. Also, skill tree mechanics. Any good ones out there? Someone has to have made something by now!

TBH I would not be sad to see it go. The vortex was always something that went largely unused unless it was being exploited abusively. Usually by Tzeentch.

Extremely happy to hear things are going well! Magmic invocations is an oversight on my part, thank you for bringing it up. I will get to work on them right now, hopefully they will be added by the time you read this. Edit: Done! Also, Dropbox weirdly made me re-upload everything; please let me know if there are any formatting issues. For quick reference: 1-2 = Molten Infernoth 3 = Runic Fyrewall 4 = Zharrgron Flame-Spitter 5+ = Choose result

I feel the narrative point of Path to Glory involves writing the story of your own champion, instead of a named character. At the same time named characters often have some of the most fun & thematic rules. It is something I will have to think on. In the meantime I would recommend 2 as his starting followers.

I apologise, I missed your previous post. That is a very reasonable request and I will go back to remove what I posted.

Please do, I would love to hear it!