Arzalyn

It is still a little early to tell for sure, blades ability is really meta dependent and the meta is still shaping for this new GHB. By what I saw so far the meta seems to moving away from mass shooting, which make Grinning blades less good. I wouldn't be surprised if shooting comes back when the Lumineth and Tzeentch tomes drop, as both factions had pretty strong shooting before. This looks pretty interesting, I'm just not sure if it wouldn't change the sludgeraker to a more proactive role (fighting with krondspire to still be in range of Egomaniak) and make harder for him to support the boltboyz.

I may be a little biased towards this thanks to my local meta, but I think shooting isn't as prominent as it was last GHB. SCE, DoK, Idoneth, Seraphon, KO, Cities and some Sylvaneth lists (aka the order factions) are the ones that tend to have some shooting on their lists, but outside of KO and some Idoneth lists I'm not seeing list fully focused on shooting. Do you have more hobgrotz? Maybe you could change your sub to Yellers, reduce the gutrippaz to a MSU unit (to fill battleline) and put 2 units of 10 hobgrotz in place of the other 10 Gutrippaz you had? Hobgrotz work much better as a screen this GHB and 2 units should give you a better maneuverability.

Aethercast released last week a free battlepack extension for games up to 1.5k points. I didn't get to play with it yet, but I liked what I saw. Maybe it can help fix some of the issues people pointed before about games smaller than 2k (table size, number of objectives). For those interested here is the link to get it: https://ko-fi.com/s/f120b6f232 (The pdf is free, it is pay what you want).

At least for us I don't think it would change much, as you said, you can get basically this by going big waaagh (loosing the sub bonus and the dirty tricks basically) and its not big waaagh kruleboy focused lists are doing any better than pure kruleboyz. We really need units that we can buff with VEW and our other abilities to get some synergy going. The genestealer ambush makers would be so perfect for us! Maybe when we get our 4 edition tome we will get something similar to that. IMO changing the dirty tricks to "pick D3 units" rather rolling 3 D3 and picking for each 4+ and fixing the Gurtrippaz problem (making them cheaper and/or giving us another battleline) would go a long way to at least move us to the fat middle. It give me some hopes that those two could happen after the changes in the last GHB and in some of the tome celestials.

Anyone here had any success with using bladegheists outside of Scarlet doom? I really like the models, but not enough to get the 40+ most scarlet doom lists seen to use. I was thinking of using 2 MSU units of them in a Emerald host list has harassers, but I not sure they fit this role well without the mortals scarlet provides.

Warhammer Weekly had a cool show yesterday on Kruleboyz and what is holding them back competitively and could be changed.

Our FAQ is out and it confirms you can't teleport to the Lady of Vines (and to the kurnoths as well as they basically have the same wording just changing woods to overgrowth). https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/i9glN5rI974iVwyu.pdf

Yeah 2x10 gutrippaz are expensive, but maybe its the way to go until bounty hunters become less common (if they ever do during this GHB)? I like the shackles idea, but most of the games I tried them they don't last more than a turn, so they work to slow your opponent down but not that much to safeguard a zone.

Yeah, that is a problem. We gonna need to see how prevalent shooting will still be in this GHB. Covered in Mud and Pebble could help a little, but can be pretty unreliable. Honestly I getting tired of trying to make our tome work. It looks so out o place with the other 3rd edition tomes and in both GHBs so far it feels we are punished/left out of what that season promotes. I just hope we get more balance changes in the next update because I don't fell the changes to Grinning blades were enough.

Yeah I'm getting the same impression with my tests so far. Bounty Hunters just wreck Gutrippaz. Before they used to last some attacks at least, but every game I got on the new GHB they just melt once a bounty hunter gets near them. The visibility effect of grinning blades is good, but it it be all or nothing in the matches I played (or it really do work or it changes nothing cause the opponent don't have long range shooting/spells). I'm not sure yet it is worth the tax of having to take 2x Gutrippaz for the battleline.

Pretty cool list! I can imagine it working with Harvestboon as much as Heartwood with the amount of bugs you have there. "Take what is theirs" from the GHB is a good one for us, as we can easily be in our opponent territory with our teleports and the bugs. About the spells, I don't like regrowth very much if you don't have a Treelord variant or Drycha. Your list in particular don't need it much, as both seekers and riders can heal back to full wounds with their ability. I would suggest you take Verdurous Harmony to bring back a extra model if needed. I agree with @KarrWolves on the artefacts, the Warsong should be able to get the important spells out with his +1 and the reroll (unless you regularly face Teclis and Seraphon with higher casting bonuses). Arcane tome is pretty good with the spellsinger to get more use out of it. I also like the accorn with spellsinger when you don't have a TLA as it can give you a extra woods to serve as a portal (and a extra Treesong area as well). The battlemage in place of the wych is also a good suggestion, if you are ok taking allies in your list. Do you plan on taking battalions? You could go battle regiment for the 1 drop or get a extra artefact + bounty hunters + expert conquerors.

It need to be GW models or are you open to 3D models? Fleshcraft studios and Cult miniatures have some 3D models that could work. With GW models I just saw one that used dryads with Spite arms. Honestly if you don't plan on using dryads I imagine they could work pretty well as spites. Glad to hear it work well! Did you find the Bounty hunters with the treelords useful? I not finding too much GV that it help kill in my games, so I'm starting to considered going back to the 1 drop lists. Also, would you change something in it after your games?

@KarrWolves summarized her uses pretty well. She is definitely playable. She is a great utility piece with a good damage, but she can die pretty easy if you are not careful with where you send her. As long as she don't die before summoning and doing some casting, she should do well as you can bring her back on turn 4~5. Also I recommend trying to get some casting bonus for her, be it the gnarlroot 3d6 or the dwindling or cogs rerolls. Now about the list you suggest, I think it can have legs, but I wouldn't go all in with the Hunters. The balance between our units roles favors a more balanced play style rather than spamming a unit, from my experience so far. Hunters are resilient hammers, but they are pretty slow and lack the mobility some of our other units have. My personal list with her in Heartwood is pretty similar to the one Karrwolves posted, I just changed the bows + cogs for scythes and the season to dwindling (I avoiding bows so far mostly because the players I usually play are getting tired of shooting).

Hmmm that is possible, didn't think about it on the first read. If this is the case it could fit perfectly if we consider the spider gitz as filling the gitz space for both symbols (or maybe the khorne one is the one that will be left out as it was just at the corner of the image). We will probably know once we the ox is out if there is any lore about the other warbands in it (like happened with the spire tyrants and the scions of the flame). Its not impossible, but in the article its pretty clear that the warband will be comming in those duel boxes. So far all warcry warbands were brandy new sculpts and unit for AoS, so I wouldn't expect repacking or even just updates of existing units with it.

So with the image from the other day with the faction symbols we may be able to guess the next 6 warbands. The only thing is that we seem to have more than 6 symbols. We had: - Nurgle (probably the rootmire warband we alredy saw) - Chaos (Probably the Hashut warband) - Tzeetch - Khorne - Gitz - Mawtribes - Orruks - Soulblight - Spider (another gitz?) - 2 skull symbols that don't see as easy to fit into a single faction 11 Symbols, so 3 of those will be left out I assume? Any guesses on which one are more likely?

I would expect Kruleboyz to fill the "new destruction army", but a update to a existing one is still possible. If the symbols in the map turn to be true we can expect at least a warband for Ironjawz (I assume that is the Ironjawz symbol rather than a generic orruk one), Gitz and Ogors, which basically mean a extra unit for each. I doubt Orruks will get much more has they got a 3 edition book alredy. Gitz is one of the big armies of the game model/warscroll wise, so I doubt they will get much more than the warband + a hero if they get featured in a double box. Giants is kind hard to expand on if they want to keep the low model count monster army, so a upgrade sprue or a single kit would be the max I would expect. Mawtribes is the one that would need a update as it has some pretty dated kits, so I would say they are the most probable to get something big between the destruction factions.

Yeah, Sun is specially bad for armies with lots of expensive heroes like ours... I been trying Oakenbrow for a couple of games and I think it has some legs. Doubt it will be our most competitive glade but as long as you don't focus to hard on spamming treelords it work pretty well. I think if you try to limit yourself to 3-4 treelords variants among 1-2 Durthus, 1-2 Treelords and 0-1 Ancients it should be more than enough to benefit from the allegiance while still having space in the list for other units.

Two more Gossamids done! Decided to give each one a unique pattern on the wings (which make them take even more to paint 😅).

Yeah, the vulture is better for the waaagh for sure, I was wondering more how frequently you are getting to use it to its full effects with 3 melee units in combat. It may be my bias as the games I got were mostly with the Big Yellers shooting list which never got much use of it. What command trait would you take with the vulture as a general? I imagine egomaniak may be a little counter intuitive with its high move and i'm not sure its resilient enough to make use of slippery. Maybe super sneaky to set some gutrippaz ahead so they can keep up with the general? Or even just putting some hobgrots as road blockers if you end getting to go first.

It's good to hear you struggled less with your last game. I imagine the games will flow better for you once you start adding more units that contribute more with damage, as your units so far are mostly utility/buff units. Just wanted to ask, how were the Stormvermin doing 2 damage against the Kurnoths? Did your oponente had anything that increased their damage as their attack profile is 2/+3/+3/-1/1 normally.

Are you using the Waaagh a lot to justify giving up the trait? I imagine that egomaniak would be pretty important for keeping the sludgraker alive vs lists more shooting/magic heavy opponents (although grinning blades should already help against those lists). Our Waaagh is pretty good, but I'm not sure it's worth warping your list too much around it.

I'm not sure RAW mean that, as it make it count as a objective for grand strategies, battle tactics and abilities and looking at the warscroll in the App the set up part come before the Abilities section. The warscroll on the book don't have this differentiation, but going by the App I would say you could set up the woods just fine as the setting it up isn't a ability. I fell this will appear in a future GHB FAQ, but until we have that there will be a need to check with the TO before. How your TO ruled it @Landohammer?

I was questioning the same thing yesterday. I played two games so far and Durthu did a lot of work in both of them, as did the Kurnoths, but I felt having both was a little overkill... In my Oakenbrow list he is a no-brainer thanks to the subfaction, but in a list like yours I can see taking him out. I will try my heartwood list without him to see if the Kurnoth alone are enough there. In your list, the Ancient could be interesting as it would synergy well with Spellsinger, but maybe them you could drop the battlemage, as you have just the kurnoth as targets for the charge buff and the hive do it cheaper.

And we got our own sub-forum now! It works really well when you are against a opponent that fail to wipe a unit in one go, specially if they focus too much on the kurnoth/seekers and forget about the rest of your army. On paper returning one model with Verdurous Harmony or the Seekers may not look like much but we are basically getting a 5 wounds model back rather than the normal 1 wound you get with death factions. We can play the attrition game pretty well against some opponents.

Got a test game this week using an Oakenbrow list vs my friend double Maw-krusha Ironjawz. Mission was the ghb 2022 Turf Wars. The list I used: He ended conceding at the bottom of turn 2, has he had just 3 goregruntas, Warchanter and Shaman alive while I had lost only 1 and 2 Kurnoths in each unit respectively. I did a Kurnoth + Treelord tag team as each side of my deployment and Durthu in the middle to threaten his alpha strike. He went first and sent a mawkrusha at each of them Kurnoth + treelord. One killed 2 Kurnoths and the other did around 7 damage to the treelord. I got really luck and rolled 5 6s with one of the Kurnoths units and left both mawkrushas with 3~6 wounds left. Finished both of them in my shooting phase (Lady got a 6 with her lance and finished one of them) and Durthu finished a pig unit nearby that was just outside his reach in the last turn. I won the priority roll and moved near everything to take his other 2 pigs units and a 10 brutes, while the Tree-revs went to his field to threaten his shaman and the lady secured one of the objectives with her dryads. My take ways from this game: - The Treelord are pretty consistent with their damage (around 5~6), but the Kurnoths did all the heavy lifting. Still, the combination of some shooting + consistent melee output + good support ability make them pretty good. I liked 2 of them in this list but I wouldn't go above 2 and could see myself changing one of them (plus the wych) for a TLA. It would require further changes to fit another battleline in tough... - Burgeoning was pretty handy against a alpha strike, but I wasn't super impressed with it. I will try going with Everdusk next time, as the Treelords also have a 6" range to use their teleport anyway and It can give them a nice damage increase. - Not super impressed with Gladius on Durthu, when you get 3 attacks it is great, but when you get 1 its pretty lackluster. Will try the Crown next time as it benefits other units as well and I tend to send more than one unit.