Pickle The Hutt

If you can see any part of the model from the shooting model, then you have line of sight. It's hard to stay out of LoS in the above ground scenarios, but the Catacombs walls make it harder to have LoS everywhere. If there's terrain between the two models (and the shooting model is not right next to the terrain), then the defending model gets a +1 bonus to toughness.

My FLGS still has several original starters on the shelf. I don't think any organized play ever started (and certainly not during the pandemic) so there hasn't been a ton of interest.

I bought way too heavily into Warcry and have quite a bit (mostly still new in shrink) to get rid of. I don't have a long history on TGA (joined just for Warcry) so I have a link to my Geek Market listing where I do have a long history. Items of note being NiS terrain sets and all of the original card packs. https://boardgamegeek.com/geekmarket/product/2129183 Edit: All sold.

Onslaught is just better than most doubles (and doesn't care about value) so is probably too good. It really comes from GW undervaluing attacks (crits are so important) and overvaluing toughness/strength. In fact, I'd still use it over most doubles if it only affected one activation instead of multiple.

It seems too good. Just comparing it to the Ogor Breacher, it only costs a little more but is faster, tougher, has more health, and hits harder. I can't see very many games where you would even attempt to take him down unless it's required.

I understand why now since each box just takes already made sprues from other boxes, it's just annoying as a casual non-AoS player that I can't get all units listed on the faction card from the Warcry specific boxes. I was fine with it when there weren't Warcry boxes for the AoS factions, but I really wanted the warband boxes to have at least one (depending on build choices) of each type of unit like the chaos warband boxes.

From the image, it looks like the Stormcast box doesn't have a Gryphhound? That's disappointing, I feel like any Warcry specific faction box should at least be able to build 1 of each unit.

While the FAQ answers the question for many abilities, there are some (like the above) that do not use the language "for each". I believe that means that it only applies once for the entire attack action as the FAQ specifically calls out "for each" which many abilities have, while this and some other abilities omit the "for each" language. This is either sloppy inconsistent writing or an intended difference. The above ability does indeed seem broken if it applied to each hit/crit (as does the Gitz Sneaky Stab) and I assume they deliberately left out the words "for each" to bring them in line.

Exactly. I have to believe that the word "each" was specifically left off for this reason as it's well beyond anything that any other quad provides otherwise.

The player with initiative does assign all dice first. The word any is there to make it clear that you don't have to assign all of them and can save them for a future round. On a related note, I've seen lots of errors made regarding initiative after wild dice. If there's a roll-off to determine initiative before wild dice, then the other player must end with MORE singles to take initiative. You never roll-off again. If one player started with fewer singles, but after wild dice is tied in singles, then you roll-off. The important point is that you will never roll-off for initiative more than once per round.

I don't mind it as much if that's all the quad does. I have a serious issue with those that interpret the "Sneaky Stab" Gloomspite quad as adding to each hit/crit. Note that their ability does not include the word each, so I don't believe it is intended to add to each. It would be beyond broken if it did add to each as it already allows a bonus move and a bonus attack. Adding to each would effectively make it the equivalent of the universal quad combined with the other "add to each" quads. I would absolutely refuse to play with someone insisting on an "add to each" Sneaky Stab.

This is the 3rd time I've posted this answer in this thread. ALL 3 core sets share some universal cards (i.e. Hold Objective 1-5 cards, Annihilation, Conquest, etc Objective Cards as well as Confusion, Great Strength, Great Fortitude, etc power cards. Since these cards appear in all sets, they WILL NOT cycle out and can be used with any warband. With those and the faction cards, you can make a legal deck for any faction you want for the life of the game without EVER buying another pack. Many people hope/think that GW will re-release packs for old factions that include updated abilities and a full 12 card faction objective deck (they originally only have 9 faction objectives) to match those in Beastgrave (all warbands going forward will have full faction playable power and objective decks).

The only Shadespire factions that were re-released in Nightvault were the 2 Shadespire core set factions, Steelheart and Reavers. The Nightvault boxes for those have different universals than in the core set and those cards (as they are Nightvault cards) are not rotating out in Beastgrave. As others have said, faction cards will never rotate out. You can use any of the Shadespire factions, you just can't use Shadespire specific universals with them. You can use any Nightvault universals as well as any Shadespire universal that also exists in Nightvault or Beastgrave (like Hold Objective X, Great Strength, etc.). This means you can always make a legal deck for any warband by taking the faction cards and adding in some of the universals that aren't rotating out.

If you bought the standalone Steelheart box (the Nightvault one), then those cards are still allowed. Only Universals from Shadespire boxes have rotated out and that box was a Nightvault season re-release. If you're playing casually (probably so if you only have 4 factions), then you can use whatever you like with whatever season rules you like. If you want to play competetively, then you'll need to buy the new stuff anyway. Note that only season 1 Universals (not faction cards) are rotating out, but only those that were not reprinted in season 2 or 3. Cards like Hold objective x, Great Strength, etc are still fine from Underworlds.

The Untamed Beast's First Fang's Harpoon Snag allows you to "pull" an enemy toward you. The ability says that the target makes a jumping move toward the First Fang to do this. Since this is worded as a move, does it mean that you can't pull an engaged enemy away? Normally a fighter can't move away when engaged, they must disengage (or move but end closer or as close to an engaged enemy than they started). Does this rule apply to a "forced" type move as well?

Onslaught is better than almost all faction doubles. Due to crits being so important, number of attacks will almost always be more valuable than strength. It's unfortunate that abilities and points weren't balanced a bit better (attacks being undervalued with strength/toughness overvalued pretty much across the board).

Yeah, you're right about initiative. I completely missed that sentence.

For me, having 12 faction objectives is a big deal. That way I don't have to share objectives between decks, build specific decks for each faction, or have my friends choose 3 objectives from a common pool before each game. They can just grab the warband they like, I can toss them a full deck ready to go, and we can start playing. It may not seem like much, but I hate deck construction for competitive games (I always supply everything to the group) as we only play casually. Having ready to go warbands out of the box solves my only issue with the game. While I won't actually throw universals in the trash, I won't ever use them.

Yes, there will be universals for deck building as always. The difference is that warband expansions going forward will have full playable faction decks in addition to the neutrals. Before this, warbands only had 9 faction objectives so using neutrals was required. The new info posted today about Beastgrave says warbands will come with 12 faction objectives as well as full faction power decks. I can just throw all universals in the trash and play with faction cards only with friends with no deck building needed.

The new info posted about Beastgrave says that all new faction expansions will come with a full playable deck of faction cards (i.e. 10 ploys, 10 upgrades, 12 objectives). This is what many people (myself included) have always wanted as I only play the game casually and don't want to deck build for everyone coming over for game night. I hope they rerelease the older factions with new boxes that also have full objective decks as I stopped collecting in season 1 once I had enough factions I liked for 4 player games.

Deluge should make your models move slower, not faster. Climbing a 3 inch piece of terrain would take 6 inches of movement (rain makes climbing harder). Also, I don't think you can let your opponent go first if you win initiative (that's a Warhammer Underworlds thing).

As to the Sneaky Stab Gloomspite Quad, I firmly believe that the intent is to only add the bonus damage once and not to every attack as it would be such a hilariously broken ability otherwise that there's no way it could escape playtesting. Stormcast using onslaught from long range was broken enough to get fixed and Sneaky Stab adding to all hits/crits is massively more broken than that. I will flat out refuse to play against anyone that wants to use the broken interpretation. In fact, I think it's so bad that I would refuse or auto-concede even if GW clarifies that the broken interpretation is intended (although I can't imagine this being the case).

I feel like the Chaos boxed warbands are very well balanced with each other, but the non-chaos are less so (both with each other and against Chaos). I'm not sure how much of this comes from the models/abilities and how much from the customization and optimization possible by bringing AoS models of choice and number to the game. I've only played a few times but have watched dozens of batreps and almost all Chaos bands are using a single box (so you can't bring multiple Rocktusk Prowlers, Drillmasters, or other great units) compared to the other warbands consisting of specifically tailored unit composition. Stormcast were borderline broken before the FAQ, now they're just strong. Gloomspite are strong as well, but a lot of what I've seen is using their Quad, Sneaky Stab, in a way that I don't believe is intended (i.e. adding to each hit/crit instead of just adding extra damage once). I would flat out refuse to play with someone that wants to use the broken interpretation of that ability even if GW were to clarify that the broken interpretation is in fact in intended.

I feel like most of the narrative stuff (and the non-symmetric cards in general) are only roughly balanced (even then they can be off quite a bit) using chaos warbands from only a single box. As soon as you custom build warbands from multiple boxes or bring in AoS units, it seems a lot of the non-symmetric scenarios fall apart.

I feel it's against the spirit of the rules (and of the general gaming covenant) to alter your deployment groups for this purpose. Usually, you decide dagger, shield, hammer before knowing the set-up at all, so I would encourage your opponent to choose these as if it was just a normal battle. Alternatively, you could randomly decide after choosing groups whether you're playing your convergence or a "regular" game to encourage a more typical set-up.