Rors

A death frenzied doom-flayer could make a really good screen too. You don't even need to attack with it, just let it die, which activates an attack (use more-more), good odds that it's own attack also kills it and triggers death frenzy again. There's nothing in the rules I've seen that says a model can't be slain multiple times before being removed it just generally wouldn't happen. That's 4d6 reasons to make an opponent think about charging you.

Ohhh, yeah I'm not a hedonite player just looking through all the warscrolls and thinking about the new possible meta... Yeah, that's one trash unit

Looking through the warscrolls and this could be the meta where slaangor have some viability if large units become popular. They'd need to sit behind a screen like archers then pile on through the gap once the archers are dead but causing mortal wounds to every model in the unit on a 4+ is crazy. I know they're generally considered once of the worst warscrolls in the game and a lot of the time, they'll just die but still, if there was ever a time for them, it's probably this season.

I don't think that tiny points change to reapers is as impactful as the new season changes. They seem to be stuck in a really awkward space. You pay for the extra reach on their weapons which is now redundant but they're also really well suited to smacking hoards. However they're also great targets for bounty hunters to smack right back.. I can't work out if this is a good or bad season for them. Same goes for cairns who will love hitting large units but those large units now also get to attack him in two ranks.

Sorry, it's probably in the chat thread but I can't find it. What's the interaction between mortis engines and coven thrones and how does this relate to night haunt?

Knights won't get the second rank of attacks because they're mounted as thus not veterans. They're great contenders for +1 damage though.

Night haunt can play a more grindy style of game with models coming back if you lean into it but they're not focused around it. Our characters in particular can be super grindy when body guarded by spirit host who you can also bring back. That's probably the most soul blight akin play style in the book of you want to be resummoning stuff and playing an attrition game. On the whole, the army is more reliant on using debuffs and mobility for defense. It's a more techy army that uses rules over it's warscrolls for both offense and defense. Another point probably worth mentioning is there's multiple ways to get 5+ wards spread across units. Combine with the healing we do have and you could definitely play hoards of rasps that are very hard to remove, although you will feel their loss more than with soul blight if you do loose them.

It occurred to me that the serpent cultists when taken as battleline will be pretty killy. The more I look through our book the more I think we're in a really good spot for this upcoming season. Hopefully the new book only makes it even better.

So the new battletome has a command ability that gives a units always strike last. Kruelboyz have a way to duplicate commands. Gutrippas can now do 3 mortal wounds on a 6 (bounty hunter + sludgedraker). Could this be the start of something viable? Scratch that, you need to roll higher than the number of models you charged.. super situational

The synergy of the -1 save seems really good. The 1/6 chance to pop a character seems way too swingy to me, it's a great bonus but I'd never plan around it

Ah okay, is this an assumption or is it official? What you're saying makes sense though.

It's a max of three bounty hunters per battalion but there's nothing that stops multiple of the same battalion currently. With so much murdering happening (more models attacking on both sides) a slight buff for bonereapers is battleshock immunity being better in this meta. Opponents can only use the command to make one unit not roll battleshock so bonereapers will play kinda like the inverse of nighthaunt where you press multiple combats to force shock without having to take it yourself. Could be a good season for crematorians as they'll do well into grindy hoard match ups and the extra damage will help force more shocks.

The other thing I forsee is this edition is basically a nerf to support heros, especially ours. Additional ranks of attacks means they die faster, ontop of that bounty hunters will have +1 damage to spirit host so we'll loose our bodyguards faster as well. I think palisade is great but how it's used has changed. I think the main use for this now is "turn of unleash hell" with the added benefit of hanging around and being a nuisance. Make a dreadblade a wizard and you can always get it where you need it.

When the new book drops we'll also have giant bull dudes who will go up to damage 4.. I think this new meta is going to be extremely bloody. The damage output has increased a ton for basically every book. I think bounty hunters will do better than veterans though. Everyone must have battleline so they'll always get value but for a lot of books, the battleline troops are dependant on support hero buffs. Heros who themselves are now much easier to kill with multi ranks of troops swinging at them.

They seem like better screens than hammers to me. The damage buff on the horses won't translate into that much because the hit and wound profile isn't great and it doesn't change bthe mortals for charging. That said if you have them in your list anyway, it's still a bonus. The damage boost will be most effective on units that already do damage. If the meta shifts to hoards of battleline the average save will go down. If large units on a 5+ save becomes common then harridans will be bonkers.

Ohh boy, I probably sound like a broken record but damage 3 myrmourn here we goooooo.

I think warriors could actually be in a good place. There's two ways to run them that seem very good with the new handbook. Tzeentch warriors counting triple in objectives is going to be very hard to remove. Khorne warriors still have no rend but if the meta is moving to hoards of battleline they'll do much better because the average save will be worse. With an extra rank fighting the old combos of blood secretor and lord gets doubled in effectiveness. A unit of 20 is putting out 121 attacks hitting on 2s rerolling 1 then wounding on twos. That's overkill but these guys can absolutely blender. Heck you could chuck a warshrine in there for curse too if you wanted.. or make them bounty hunters and damage 2 against battleline Quick bit of math and bounty hunter khorne warriors with a secrator and lord will do 40 wounds in a round of combat against a 4+ save.

Not specifically NH but does anyone know the full rules for the battalion that gives +1 damage against battle line (veterans)? What's the selection requirements and is it for one round or the whole battalion for the whole game? Given that this new meta will lean heavily into battle line hoards it seems potentially really powerful. Every army must bring battle line so you'll always get value from it.

Oh, I didn't notice the bit about it only being battle line

As an avid fan of myrmourn I'm biased but I think they will be big winners of fight in two ranks. There was never a reason to take a unit of 8 before but in units of 4 they die very easily. A unit of 8 will put out way more damage than people will suspect and with 8 there's a better chance of them surviving retaliation. Which means healing to bring back models becomes a lot more viable. Being points to wound the most expensive unit in the book, bringing them back is a really good investment. Then again, with double rank fighting going both ways, they might not actually be any more survivable so maybe not. I'm definitely going to give it a try though.

On paper gutrippas with poison on 5s and double poison on 6s looks nasty.. I guess it's just too slow and too many points in a combo that's relatively easy to pick apart?

Not played with or against Kruelboyz but I'm considering them as the model line is so nice. Is there a competitive list that doesn't involve spamming bolts in big yellas? Everything I've seen on the net seems to suggest it's the only way to run them outside of very casual games.

So it's only on T1 that you can claim an objective but not have that unit on it at the end of turn? I.e. unit deploys on the objective then moves off it in the movement phase. If it's just T1 then yeah there's no benefit from the teleport. If it's not there's very little in the way of benefit outside some very niche scenarios. I'm trying to think of things that are triggered by movement because what it basically boils down to is you can trigger these things and position yourself elsewhere to have the cake and eat it too. There's really not much though. Does the harrows copy a command count as also issuing the command? If it doesn't then you could theoretically copy the generals command (in the movement phase, like the run one) then position somewhere else to give all out attack? I'm fairly sure the harrow can only do the one command though even if it's the free copy the general ability so you can't issue run to a unit then teleport somewhere else to use another command using CP. Probably not helpful currently but it's something worth keeping in the back on mind as any unit that can respond to your moment or actions that can be triggered by movement will be relevant if they emerge in the future.

I thought you can move units off objectives and still have claimed them. For example turn one deploy on an objective then move up the board still counts as that units owning the objective. I've been playing that wrong the whole time then.

Not much comes to mind. You move him forward and trigger redeploy and your opponent moves a unit more than 9 away he can teleport to get a little bit closer, not that handy though. Also technically I guess he could move onto an objective then teleport onto another but you can't control multiple objectives with the same unit as far as I'm aware. He could contest an objective though, situationally, he could also have some play in missions where objectives get burned. He could also teleport in the deployment zone after taking an objective so that you both claim and objective and get the battle tactics for units in their deployment.