Marcvs

ok, leaving aside the (justified) negativity about the bad hand that GHB 2020 battleplans dealt to SCE, I think Starcast (with two dragons) is actually better placed to play in those -ofc, if we forget about the issues with how the meta is evolving and (my main issue atm) the loss of artifacts. Sure, the ones where battlelines are relevant/necessary go from bad to incredibly bad, but they are for all present iterations of SCE, however those where leaders and behemots are important really make our dragons shine, or at least faintly glow. Fun fact: in the new Scorched earth the enemy cannot burn your objectives if you have a leader within 6" of those. Considering the base size of the Stadrake, you can keep 2 objectives from being burned by placing him in the middle. [starts whistling "Always look on the bright side of life"]

Ahah correct, it literally just appeared for me too!

anyone knows when we'll be able to buy the GHB on the Azyr app? I can't see it yet, although it's out on epub on the website (I'm on android, if that matters)

yep, that's it, I also see people talking of other battleplans which reward having your leaders or behemots -which is cool for Starcast build, but for other SCE builds not so much

sigh! (I so much hate to play Total Commitment vs Changehost or Starborne: since the distance between the two armies was not huge already, you don't get your one time deepstrike, but they get teleport every turn) I must say, I am not overjoyed by what I am seeing coming out of the new battleplans so far

I would personally go with the first, mainly for the magic protection. I would alsoswap the command point for aetherwings oor, if the future in your local meta shapes to be a lot of oppressive magic (hence, you don't get to cast the comet very often) I eliminate the comet altogether and take something else with 150 points (if they are a possible ally, 10 LRL archers, or 20 skinks, or an heraldor + aetherwings, stuff like that)

just saw the new Better Part of Valour (chumphammer on twitter) and it's battlelines only to grab and control objectives (plus needs a move, so no dropping libs there with scions). That's a little depressing

Not a native speaker here and I would lean in favour of interpreting this formulation as an ON/OFF switch, but good to know!

In that role I would pick the Thundershock spell too, to give (another) -1 to hit to units in 6"

The problem (from my perspective of Starcast player) is also that with all the counters to support heroes popping up (Seraphon comets, LRL archers) more armies will have to consider this threat and potentially build around it, making it harder to pull it off also with Stardrakes / everblaze / prime

I think the staff of Azyr only gives -1 to hit notwithstanding the number of spells you cast, but kudos for the victory!

I am still not convinced by the Prime. Even at 300pts it seems like a lot for doing 3-6 MW and then dying While I wait for the test of the battlefield concerning my doubts about the enduring feasibility of magic-heavy starcast, I would rather replace Kroak (in case he becomes too expensive) with a Slann + saurus guards (no need for balewind and spellportal then) and, if my back of an envelope calculations are correct, upgrade one/two liberators to bow judicators or add aetherwings

if you mean something like "6s to hit give +1 damage" there is a modifier for that (unmodified rolls of {} for {characteristic} result in a bonus of 1 to {bonusToCharacteristic})

well you can give the shockbolt bow 1d6 attacks, for the purposes of the multiplication it's the same

Yeah, not sure about the choice of the tauralon (the +1 flyover is quite difficult to use in practice and generally means suicide ), but I agree with general idea

You can go for 2 drops with Skyborne slayers and add an incantor / a veritant / a kroak -but then you are practically only running MSUs, so don't know if that's viable

Not much to go on but a few random ideas for GA:Order mostly coming from the Stormcast battletome: -Stardrakes give +1 to cast to all friendly wizards -Knight Azyros : rerolling 1s to hit for friendly units targeting enemies within 10" -TECLIS personal spell (protection of Teclis) gives a 5+ FNP to friendly units (no keyword limitation) in 18" -Celestant prime gives +1 to bravery to ORDER units wholly within 18" -Lord ordinator (+1 to hit to friendly WAR MACHINES) -Protectors give -1 to hit against shooting to friendly units wholly within 6" (if they are closer to the enemy) -I think many Battlemage buffs can still target "friendly units" - Phoenixes get their bonus if a friendly wizard casts a spell (and the frost one gives the -1 to wound to friendly models)

plague monks?

sure, but you could have at least the same number of units with hailstorm battery and: -castigators -aetherwings -130 points left (although probably not enough to have 14 units and 4 ballistas + LO + gavriel + evos in the sky)

yeah but the battalion is doing nothing for you (being meant to buff sequitors, of which you have two min-size units + the evos are going in the sky and drop somewhere far away...). You could swap 2x5 sequitors for 1x3 castigators, go hailstorm battery (still does nothing but ends up being cheaper) and save some points for additional support heroes or the fourth ballista

Not saying that the list is bad (it isnt) but at first blush I fear there are some glaring weaknesses, notably against everything that can deploy outside 24" (let alone 30") and still be threatening -leaving you the choice between taking turn 1 initiative and doing half damage with deepstriking or giving them initiative and lose a lot of your stuff. The absence of Incantors' scrolls adds to this. Out of the top of my head, only listing stuff I have fought on TTS in the past couple of months: a Slann/Kroak/Oracle casting their comet: since now you have multiple units, it's easy to lose a third of your raptors with a 10+ comet. (AoE) Spells cast through an umbral spellportal (even worse if empowered), or an everblaze comet OBR catapults Soulscream bridge in CoS KO fly high Teleporting flamers (or even pinks if you don't screen) in changehost Salamanders in Starborne (even worse in Dracothion’s Tail) -to a lesser extent, screening them is possible LRL archers Suppose my point is: this is probably very strong in certain matchups, but IMHO it's not the bunker in which we'll comfortably wait for the new battletome

yep, checked it in the leak and it's actually reroll 1s to hit -literally the generic CA. Sooo, is this a sign that they are reworking generic CAs?

In my experience, Kroak brings a lot even if he never casts deliverance (the comet is really the one thing I want from him + the magic protection). I bring both umbral and the balewind vortex to complement this and it goes like: turn 1: comet, portal, deliverance/arcane bolt (depending on range), mystic shield on templar; turn 2: dispel everblaze comet, balewind, comet, deliverance/arcane bolt, mystic shield. As you can see, there's not much space for deliverance anyway, although it can get very useful if the enemy closes in and you have lost the incantor. Possible alternatives: 1) add a runelord to dispel the comet (plus a nice unbind at +2); 2) add an exorcist (same price as the runelord now, lol, also gives you a second wizard to cast the comet); 3) bring a Slann (much more fragile but does everything we need); 4) more options (Sentinels) if LRL as allies is confirmed

Personally I like them but not for their informative value, just because it's fun to discuss them

Ok seems the rest of the realm artifacts have leaked (don't have a source for this apart from a post in the roumour thread). They are generally uninspiring but it's fun to notice that 2 are still straight improvements over SCE ones (Syari Finelame > Blade of Heroes; Tiara of Renewal > Seed of Rebirth) and one is identical (Foil of the Aigrefin = Fang of Dracothion). Silver lining: the "tax" of taking a Stormhost is now (almost) exclusively "not having Staunch Defender" EDIT: here's the source (in French) https://war-of-sigmar.herokuapp.com/bloggings/4654