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NinthMusketeer

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Everything posted by NinthMusketeer

  1. Presenting an opinion on such a subjective matter as a claim of fact undermines the legitimacy of the claim made.
  2. Ah, so alternate by unit and by phase, got it. You are correct--I misunderstood. Taking that and the responses let me refine my questions; -A large number of effects from abilities to endless spells to battleshock to objective control are based on a per-turn basis and thus happening twice per round, how does this system address that? If it does not, what would the response be to players who do not want to use it because of that? -Tying into the above, as it stands this system essentially doubles the offensive output of shooting & magic with no compensation for melee. What would the response be to players of melee-focused armies not wanting to use these rules because of that? -A unit has an ability that activates at the start of the opponent's phase, when does it trigger? -A player can activate a small chaff unit and charge them forward with the aim of pulling as many enemy units within 3" as possible, thus stopping any of them from charging themselves. Is there anything which accounts for this? -Returning to my secondary question above, how does the nerf to mortal wounds and healing tie into an AA structure? If they are distinct house rules it would almost certainly be better to have them elsewhere rather than as part of the rules that are being sold as AA. A big hole I commonly see people fall into is looking at their own system from the lens of people trying to make it work, and comparing it to GWs system from the lens of people trying to break it. A quality ruleset needs to be capable of staying that way even when players are left to their own devices, and that is the very factor which gets Warhammer rules into trouble so often. Which is to say if you want this to work it needs to be evaluated & designed not just from looking at the best case scenario but also the worst.
  3. I also do not see a particular connection between the mortal wounds and the healing to alternate activation, what about AA necessitates those changes?
  4. Some questions that come to mind, note these are not criticisms at this stage but points of consideration the rules need to cover or at least consider. How do abilities which trigger at the start/end of a given phase function? When do endless spells move? If a hero activates first and casts a spell that lasts until the next hero phase, could the player then activate that hero last on the subsequent turn, allowing for an effective two round duration on the spell? Many models have aura abilities that require they move forward alongside other units to keep them in range, how is this managed? How does activation work for units not on the battlefield? Summoned units? Is there any countermeasure to a player using MSU to bleed opponent activations before teleporting in a death star unit, then activating that unit first on their next turn for a guaranteed 'mini double turn'? Units normally shoot once per round but fight twice per round, how is this accounted for? Many effects trigger on a per-turn basis, of which there are two per round. How are these managed?
  5. It does get excessive but I try not to fault people too much for complaining--it is as justified to speak about someone one does not like as it is something one likes. And decent criticism is essential for improving the game. I think it is worth looking at each piece individually, because while there is a lot of negative commentary out there it is not created equal; honest feedback of 'I had this experience and it made me feel X' should be treated with the inherent validity it deserves. Rationalized criticism based on evidence should be considered and responded to in the same manner. The only part that is cancerous is the stupid negativity, the hyperbolic nonsense, the baseless theories, the unironic insults towards poorly defined entities, etc. But that is only a portion, and we shouldn't allow it to colour our perceptions of all criticism as that gives those opinions more power than they deserve. It is kind of like balance in a way; the overall picture is atrocious but there is a margin for good experiences which can be uncovered with a bit of extra effort.
  6. So the system creates incentives to want to obtain and hold territory, which is good because PtG territories provide very little in value (mostly only serving to increase unit limits). A big consideration here would be if a player loses territory and suddenly can't deploy an army at the points level required because it would go above their (now-lowered) unit limits. On the flipside the limits set by PtG are so lenient that the way to game this system is set up an army which only needs one territory, then stack glory while making sure no one hits the 9-controlled threshold while never needing to be concerned with losing any.
  7. Having a 42% chance of 'winning' because I chose second then won a single dice off is a pretty negative experience. It's not even a win in anything but name, it's just me & my opponent setting up a game only to not have one. Because bar inexperience or a really bad mismatch of power between armies, that is exactly what a 1-2 or 2-3 double is; automatic win. I remember all four times I've lost with a 1-2 double, because I seriously messed up in each of them. Some like the double because it covers over the terrible balance; even an army that is strictly underpowered compared to the opponent can win *sometimes* by virtue of a massive handicap given out at random by game mechanics. But for every unbalanced game it fixes, there is a balanced game that it ruins, so even at its best there is no net gain to that mechanic. End of the day, random initiative is a NPE generator.
  8. This is the same sort of rules design that GW so often runs into problems with; sweeping generalized solutions for specific and/or nuanced problems, without thinking out the ramifications. Content like this is where the sentiment 'house rules are bad' comes from.
  9. Also ridiculous, since giving units wards against mortal wounds only requires "against mortal wounds" to be added. Three words GW. Three. ******. Words.
  10. It remains absolutely ridiculous that units dealing MWs are more common than units with rend -2.
  11. Here's a fresh negative play experience: when kruelboyz players compare what 90 points of gutrippaz do compared to 105 points of spite revenants.
  12. But HAVE you been able to convince them to try PtG? Have you been able to use the PtG content in a meaningful way? Also, them making out like Matched is anything resembling balanced... Well I'd equate it to standing in the shallow end of a swimming pool saying not to go to the deep end because it might be wet XD
  13. The Road to Renown warband tables for Skaven and Sylvaneth have been updated! Due to technical issues they can currently be found in a separate document at the bottom of the list.
  14. There are a lot of potential sources for NPE in AoS resulting from design elements. Many are just a case of extremely bad luck or a niche matchup and I don't think these are critical, while others may rely on bad luck/matchup but are likely enough to happen with some regularity and should be looked at. However the most important in my eyes are mechanics/abilities that create NPEs of their own accord, reliably and without a specific context needed. Several systematic ones I can think of; -6s to hit dealing MWs (particularly on shooting). It is generally agreed that MWs are a decent if not good mechanic but there are way too many of them, and the biggest source for MWs isn't spells. Making it on the hit roll allows the attack to skip two subsequent rolls (wound and save) while also resulting in extremely swingy offense based entirely on the luck of how many 6s were rolled. Shooting is particularly bad as it bypasses hit penalties designed specifically to prevent shooting from being exploited in sniping characters or unleash hell. When the majority of damage output comes from 6s to hit, penalizing the roll means little. -Magic dominators. These would be setups where the casting player cannot be reasonably stopped and bar the occasional unlucky roll will reliably get off all their spells without the other player having any meaningful counterplay. Nagash, Teclis, and Kroak are the big offenders here but there are others. Added NPE since they often work to shut down opposition magic just as easily. -First turn combat. This is one that is more subtle, but I feel the closer starting distance has resulted in a situation where mass combat is happening near immediately and it creates a massive front-load of game time that I do not feel is healthy. I have generally seen that games where action is spread more evenly between round are consistently enjoyed more, while games where literally the majority of play time is spent on rounds 1&2 simply do not tend to be as much fun. But all of those things, plus all the other bespoke issues with certain factions/units, combined are still less than the double turn. Without question double turns are the biggest source of NPE. After time/money constraints it is even the single most common reason I hear for why people are not playing AoS. I'd bet that someone's ego at GW is stubbornly keeping this mechanic around and it is definitely holding AoS back.
  15. ****** rat ogres god dam. They are the worst kit in the range and they didn't even look good in 6th edition. Even saurus knights and night runners look better than these guys and that is really saying something. Further they can't be readily converted unlike a number of others I could list (runners, varghulf, grave guard) or simply ignored as they aren't essential or even viable anyway (saurus knights, half the Beastmen roster). A Clans Moulder list simply needs these guys and Island of Blood unfortunately remains OOP. Freeguild guard/shooters lumping these together since they are really different equipment on the same base model. They are ok models but they don't mesh with the AoS aesthetic, despite being the archetype for 'human soldiers of the realms'. Fortunately GW has already announced this is in the works. Skryre acolytes. There are a lot of other models I considered putting here but these guys won out. Not because of looks as they have aged reasonably well but because it is not financially viable to use them. These guys literally cost $1 per point, and that just does not work. This would be one thing if they were some support unit but a Clans Skyre army isn't really viable because this unit is basically unusual due to impracticality. As a Skaven player I will admit to some bias here, but I will also say that GW has very clearly made out single-Clan armies to be a thing that exists quite commonly in the fluff and something that supposedly should work on the tabletop.
  16. I have three big problems with gameplay in the new GHB, of those only the most minor is subjective and might not play out but is also relatively easy to address. The other two are systematic and lie outside the bounds of the GHB. Meanwhile the new GHB mixes things up without being 'buy tons of battleline NOW!' as some black knights suggest, sticks with a large number of scenario archetypes that work while also experimenting with some new things--in a creative and restrained manner. I get the sense that the developers really care about the rules quality, play the same game we do, and are making good faith efforts to improve.
  17. Well I am pleased by the recent balance warscroll. I like that they are playing it cautious because GW has a history of overcorrecting, and I get the sense that there really is a good-faith effort to improve things behind it. While there is still much to be desired in Warhammer balance it is nice to have a quarterly update which meaningfully improves things.
  18. All of the maps have tons of locations with no lore behind them other than being on the map. Sometimes they get filled in later, other times they are left 'hollow' and players can fill them in with their own narrative. At any rate, I do not recall anything regarding that particular location. Could be a reference I forgot though, or in some of the online-only short stories.
  19. These are stories and narrative content I am writing up for the Road to Renown leagues I run in my local community, sharing them here so others may enjoy. Feel free to make use of this content for your own games or narratives, and I would certainly love to hear about how it went if you do! [Lore] The Locust Gate: Famine Walk, Alarielle’s Tithetaker, Chitinskull Bloodgnawing, and countless other names has it gone by, but most commonly the Locust Gate. A storm-sized cloud of insects which darkens the sky for days on end as it moves through a region, the Locust Gate exists simultaneously in Ghyran, Ghur, and Shyish, acting as an erratic realmgate between them. Those swept up in the Gate’s migrations may find themselves deposited elsewhere along its trail—within their own realm or another. The swarm includes an untold variety of chitinous creatures alongside the eponymous locusts, the composition continually in flux depending on season, diet, and the local winds of magic. Being predominantly herbivorous the swarm poses little direct threat to peoples it passes (though Sylvaneth are known to emerge ‘bald’) but rapidly devours food supplies and soft vegetation, leading to widespread famine. This is further exacerbated by forces the mobile realmgate leaves behind—forces which are commonly disoriented and bereft of rations themselves. While nomadic populations are often most susceptible to food shortages caused by the Locust Gate’s passage, landed peoples fair little better. Fortifications can have regiments or entire armies displaced to another realm while population centers attract attentions of the swarm’s more carnivorously-inclined elements. Even the forces of Death are not immune to the Locust Gate’s passing; untold numbers of larvae crawl across and beneath the ground in a frenetic search for sustenance to fuel their maturation, chewing through graves and bursting into tomes to consume what would be raw materials of Nagash’s armies. So it is that the Locust Gate is followed by an inexorable wave of conflict and upheaval, an effect rendered all the more violent by the surges of savagery amidst the Era of the Beast… [Story] Mossweaver Crusade - Prologue Setting out from the free city of Ashen Rise in the realm of life, the Mossweaver Crusade was named for the travelling robes, cloth spun from dried moss, given to its laborers. The Crusade’s initial route was to cross through well-patrolled lands to a nearby realmgate leading elsewhere in Ghyran. Due to an abundance of working-class Dawners but relatively few troops to protect them the city offered plentiful mercenary contracts for additional guards. Given Ashen Rise’s frontier status and realmgate to Aqshy such individuals were not difficult to find. Upon setting out the core of the Crusade was defended by forces from the city itself but the long trains of additional workers, and supplies to sustain them, were watched over by an eclectic mix of hired warbands. Travel began smoothly, with merely a dozen attempted raids from hostile forces and little more than the occasional brawl disrupting unity among the diverse mercenaries. While it was known the Locust Gate was in the same region of Ghyran at the time it was expected to be half a continent away. A sudden change of trajectory was not itself surprising, but through some combination of unforeseen factors the Gate’s path altered such that the Mossweaver Crusade was engulfed only weeks after setting out. This did not come completely without warning, but with only days of preparation there was only so much that could be done. Each portion of the crusade was warned to take cover, secure their supplies, and be ready for ensuing conflict. After the Locust Gate had passed the Crusade’s leadership would send out messengers to restore cohesion as quickly as they could. Despite hopes and prayers that the Crusade would be passed over or merely translocated elsewhere in Ghyran, few were so lucky. While some portions were separated and spat back out in Ghyran or Shyish, the bulk of the Crusade was dumped unceremoniously into Ghur. Alongside them were all manner of folk; many hostile warbands had drawn close to investigate the Crusade’s sudden halt and there were also warriors or travelers the Locust Gate had picked up elsewhere in Ghyran, Ghur, or Shyish. Many were fragmented; bands or even individual warriors finding themselves alone when they had previously marched among a vast host. Some had unknowingly been transported forward through time as well; the Gate having picked them up weeks, months or occasionally even years previous. What had already been a mix of varied forces guarding or pursuing the Mossweaver Crusade became a complete riot of scattered warbands, many of them rather confused and all of them infuriated by the latent energies of Ghur (on top of their untimely transport). The ensuing conflict was as chaotic as it was predictable, each force attempting to locate and rally lost regiments or simply like-minded troops while also fighting off or attacking those that did not fall into such a category. Workers would attach themselves to whomever could offer some level of protection, providing a ready source of labor (or fodder) for warbands to capitalize upon. Casualties mounted quickly and what one warband left behind on the bodies could prove quite valuable to another, not to mention the attentions of local scavengers. Such incentives, combined with Ghur’s natural disincentives towards static defenses, saw warbands of all types actively searching the landscape for opportunities—and being drawn into battle whether they wished to or not. [Story] Mossweaver Crusade – Part I The Mossweaver Crusade was hurled from structure to anarchy; scattered across Ghurish wilds by the Locust Gate (along with numerous foes) conflict was immediate and unavoidable. While Stormcast of the Auroric Bastion quickly consolidated around the Crusade’s metaliths it would be weeks before core logistic elements were able to assert some semblance of command through the haze of aggression prompted by the realm. At this point forces could be (very) roughly divided into two categories—those who saw fit to defend the Crusade and those who did not. Notably, the urgency of the situation did not allow the Crusade’s leadership to confirm the exact nature and membership of their ostensible allies as well as they would have wished… Through celestial scrying and astromantic observation the Crusade’s Lord-Ordinator was able to divine their location and get its metaliths on a path toward the Gastrian Highpass; a ruined but still functional roadway leading towards a Realmgate to Ghyran. Though the Mossweaver Crusade found itself in a vastly different location its ultimate goal remained unchanged and the Realmgate represented a crossing of ley-lines appropriate for settlement or at the least transport back to native realmscapes for the majority of the Crusade’s civilians. Word was spread to friendly warbands of the Crusade’s new destination, though this information almost immediately passed to hostile forces as well. Both converged on the Crusade’s path and skirmishes were constant, with the Battle of Byway being the most notable. A sizeable Khornate host, given incidental aid by Kruleboyz and Gravelords (their commanders opportunistically striking while the bulk of defenders were preoccupied), was thrown back from the palisades of Byway by an eclectic mix of cultures. Gaunt soldiers from Shyish fought with eerie calm as they held to their vows of silence, hails of missiles from atop the defenses ripped through the oncoming horde, celestial weapons crackled with Azyrite energies as Stormcast and Seraphon held the front line at significant cost, and a seemingly mercurial tribe of arcane-minded warriors demonstrated their loyalty in throwing back outflanking Skaven with conjured waves of silver fire and obscuring clouds of glittering mist. This brought a brief lull in outright warfare; defenders still sought to travel on and regroup, antagonists were distracted by looting the plentiful remains, and both suffered harassment from scavenging wildlife drawn in by fresh carrion. A sudden inundation of rain from belligerent stormfronts brought this period to an end, flooding the Gastrian Skullswamps and sending a fresh wave of undigested detritus out onto the Gurgis Floodplain. When skies cleared the Mossweaver Crusade entered a new phase; they needed to gather as much supplies and forces as they could before moving on the realmgate proper. Official word was that scouting had reported surges of bestial aggression amidst the Realmgate’s surroundings and such resources would be needed to create a network of support and discipline to hold the Crusade together. On the other hand, persistent rumors suggested this was merely an excuse; a distraction to buy time while it was determined how to deal with a particularly powerful entity sighted in the Realmgate’s vicinity. [Lore/Rules] GASTRIAN SKULLSWAMPS: The Skullswamps of Gastraeba are pools filled with, put simply, predatory digestive fluids. At their most mild waters of the Gastrian Skullswamps may only cause the equivalent of a harsh sunburn, but more concentrated pools can strip the flesh from a body in seconds. Other threats lurk in these mist-shrouded wilds as well; scavenging fliers pluck strips of half-digested meat from bodies yet to sink but become highly aggressive against perceived competition, while clumps of Itcher Moss coat scattered areas of vegetation that they may cling to unwary creatures moving through. The pools do not digest bone or metal--this has led to both the Skullswamps' name and to deposits of skeletons and equipment readily put to use by a variety of factions, provided they can claim it. Strange tides occur as the pools themselves seek to flow into other areas or overwhelm each other, exposing such deposits for brief periods. These are hot spots for conflict, as even otherwise more cautious forces must rush to grab what they can before the acidic fluids return. *Setup* - A Gastrian Skullswamp battle should be terrain-dense (approximately d3+1 pieces per quarter on a full size board) of which the majority must be water features. *Predatory Digestion* - At the start of each round, each *model* on any water feature suffers 1 mortal wound. This does not affect models which can Fly. *Territorial Fliers* - All terrain features are treated as Deadly to units which can Fly (in addition to any other traits). Flying units suffer 3 mortal wounds from Deadly terrain (instead of d3). *Itcher Moss* - Forests (or other terrain features with dense plant growth) have the Itcher Moss trait (Thondia, page 57). [Lore/Rules] GURGIS FLOODPLAIN: In the Age of Myth this silt-dusted expanse was merely part of the Gurgisea, a body of water now pushed north as part of Ghur's ever shifting topography. Kept from rainfall by the encroaching mountains on either side, the Gurgis Floodplain is mostly dry save when monsoon storms pass over the Gastrian Skullswamps to its south. The resulting floods wash out of the Skullswamps and cover the floodplain, depositing a tide of detritus alongside ancient shipwrecks and once-sunken bones. This provided some pickings for scavengers during the Age of Sigmar thus far, but little else to draw interest of warring parties. In the Era of the Beast, however, this has changed. Ghur's awakening has drawn long-buried deposits of realmstone to the surface, a factor largely unnoticed outside the region until the recent passing of the Locust Gate. With a dizzying variety of warbands swarming the land this knowledge quickly became known to a great many factions, resulting in the arrival of scouting forces that are subsequently drawn into the larger maelstrom of conflict. The Amberbone realmstone itself magnifies Ghur's already infectious mentality of predation, urging forces to pounce on others with sudden aggression they may not normally display. *Setup* - A Gurgis Floodplain battle should have sparse terrain (approximately 2d3 pieces total on a full-size board); terrain based on bones or shipwrecks is ideal, hills or rocky outcroppings are also appropriate. *Amberbone Deposits* - Battles on the Gurgis floodplain use terrain features for objectives (ideally bone-based ones); players can either agree which terrain feature(s) are best to serve as objectives based on the scenario or randomly select features equal to the number of players minus one. These terrain features have the "Realmstone Desposit" trait (Thondia, page 57) in addition to any other traits. [Lore/Rules] GRAVENBLOOD MOUNTAINS: Darkoath and other Slaves to Darkness claim dominion over the Gravenblood Mountains, warring tribes with ever shifting territorial claims while Beastmen and other savage warbands survive in the margins. While their varied pantheon contains representations of all the Ruinous Powers it is Khorne worshipped most prominently, interpreted by their culture as the War-King. The War-King is a god of disciplined conflict; merely hunting prey is a matter for lesser men and only those who exalt in battle itself, pushing aside blind savagery to focus on the greater war, can claim his favor. This interpretation of Khorne could be seen as cultural remnants from the Age of Myth when these warrior-tribes favored Sigmar or as a survival mechanism allowing humans to claim victory against physically superior foes but has seeped its influence into the land regardless, as local crimson-leafed flora may suggest. ‘To shed blood is to live, to live is to make war’ goes saying of local tribes and combatants of any faction can find themselves invigorated from the act of conflict. *Setup* - A Gravenblood Mountains battle has an average amount of terrain (approximately d3 pieces per table quarter on a full size board) with uneven elevation, hills, rocky terrain, ruins and forests (red foliage is ideal). *Favor of the War-King* - Units may use Heroic Recovery and receive the Rally command even while they are within 3” of enemy models.
  20. The next Warcry book is supposedly a big update, so it may supersede the Grand Alliance books. At any rate the ongoing support for Warcry from GW remains strong and game is a hell of a lot of fun, really well designed rules. The card sets were limited runs from a long time ago so no surprise they are gone (they can still be found in box sets though), the real trick will be getting a copy of Tome of Champions 2020, which has the better campaign rules (called 'Trial of Champions').
  21. Source for that info on Hyshian deserts & Lumineth/Hedonite garb? Not intending to express doubt, I just want to go read it.
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