Jaskier

Out of curiosity, how do you guys rate the Krondspine for Stormcast in your games? The big lug getting a seperate release has really piqued my interest, but I'm not sure if the role it fills is one Stormcast actually want filled in most cases (or that 2 Stormdrakes couldn't semi-fill.) I know how strong it is elsewhere like in Slaanesh but not sure how well it fits a typical Stormcast list.

Funny timing on the Krondspine finally getting a seperate release a day after I unsuccessfully tried to convince someone to split that ghastly box set with me 🤭 I've already got my Lady of Vines so I'm good there, just not sure whether to pull the trigger on Arcane Cataclysm or not. Hopefully we see a few more Lumineth/Tzeentch rules soon.

I feel like some lists can get away with no Incantor. For example, I'm looking at a list that has a Lord Relictor with Arcane Tome, an Imperatant, 3x3 Annihilators, 2x5 Liberators and 1x6 + 1x3 Longstrikes. I'm not concerned about a Purple Sun or etc because the idea is my hammers get 'delivered' before they are hit back (and I expect them to die after they are delivered anyway) while the Raptors play keepaway, using Translocate and Liberator screens to survive. Most lists probably should think about it very strongly though.

I discovered yesterday that Mancrushers in Stomper Tribe + Bounty Hunters are absolutely vicious, especially if Kragnos is speeding them up. Just one of them with re-roll 1s from the general mulched 5/6 Crypt Flayers, leaving the last on 1 wound who unluckily rolled a 6 to fail their Battleshock (they'd run out of CP, not expecting to need it for IP on them) while another wiped multiple Ghoul units with ease. Just brutal. Funnily enough, the Bravery 10 from the Mantle completely negated the Flayers' Unleash Hell, which was a weird edge case benefit of it. I'll be running the same list at a casual tournament today for some fun after having bought Kragnos just a few days ago to round out my Gargant collection. Stomper Tribe Warstomper* (General) - Monstrously Tough, Mantle of the Destroyer Warstomper* - Ironweld Cestus Kragnos Mancrusher** Mancrusher** *Bosses of the Stomp - Magnificent **Bounty Hunters 2000/2000

The Sylvaneth rule triggers after the unit has fought, which comes *after* you've allocated wounds / damage and removed slain models. The Zainthar Kai rule triggers when a model is slain, so I assume it would still be in the allocation part of fighting. I might be wrong but as a primarily Sylvaneth player I think you definitely get to hit them on death before they fade out.

Yeah it's unfortunate, sadly almost all Chaos factions have very little synergy with each other despite the Coalition rules as theirs are far more restrictive compared to say Cities of Sigmar.

No, you can't make a Coalition unit your general, but you can give them an artifact. No, Coalition units do not get any allegiance rules from their 'original' faction, they only get the allegiance abilities of the faction they are taken in where applicable. In this example, the Beasts of Chaos units in a Slaanesh army don't benefit from much of the Slaanesh rules as most of them work off the Hedonite keyword.

Been a bit quiet in here, how's everyone's hobby going?

Command abilities without a listed range follow the standard rules for issuing commands, meaning unit leaders/elites can issue to their own unit, heroes can issue to units wholly within 12", and generals/totems can issue to units wholly within 18". In this case, as Nagash is always treated as a general, the range of Death Magic Incarnate is 18". To expand a bit, all the generic/core rule command abilities (like Rally, All Out Attack, Unleash Hell, etc) lack a stated range for issuing them and so use the same process to determine the range for issuing them.

Yesterday I tried a blob of 6 Spiteriders with Alarielle, ethereal Durthu with the Crown, some Battleline and a Spiteswarm Hive in Gnarlroot running the Dwindling. It turns out that you can get Spiteriders to fight in two ranks if you perfectly tri-point them, and they're lethal in Bounty Hunters but still quite nasty outside of it. 6 of them shredded right through a 2+ save Katakros (they did about 12 unsaved damage and Durthu did the rest) and were mauling entire 20-blobs of 3+ save re-rolling Mortek Guard with zero difficulty. The utility of strike first in conjunction with other hammers like Durthu or Alarielle is easy enough justification for the unit over Revenant Seekers for those still on the fence about the Lancers. Alarielle really does feel better than ever with that simple change letting her self-resurrect because it lets me play a lot more freely with her; the utility she brings with the spells (the Gnarlroot and Dwindling combo work wonders for her) summon and shooting are still very handy, but having such a mobile beatstick (not the best but decent) that can keep up with and support the Lancers is great. It's a nasty one-two punch thanks to the Lancers' strike-first on the charge. In that situation I'm more than happy to be fading the Lancers and leaving her as with save stacking she's quite tough as it is and if not killed outright will just heal back anyway or resurrect on a 2+ on turn four if the worst occurs. Obviously Ossiarchs aren't in a great spot at the moment and Morteks' high tankiness does get neutered a bit by Bounty Hunters, but the game did show how a natural Rend 2 on the Lancers is so valuable as even a 3+ re-rolling save counted for naught against them - and that was without a Treesong setup. I think the tradeoff with them and Kurnoths is that it's much easier to get them around the board after fading away, being less reliant on teleports and a Spiteswarm and/or Warsinger to hurry them along, but their output (except as Bounty Hunters) isn't as good. Given that we can never rely on spell combos or endless spells in a tournament where Tzeentch and other strong magic lists abound, I do think the ease of use for Lancers is a big reason to use them over Kurnoths as your main hammer. I'll have to do more testing to really decide which way to lean for events. Finally, I think going second and keeping the turn order (i.e. not taking the double so you can't get doubled later) with this army is a must. In that game I passed on a double turn into round two for this reason. If you know your opponent will only get 1 turn before your next one, it's much easier to plan your movements aggressively and where you'll strike and fade. You do not want your key pieces getting caught out, as it falls apart quite quickly to actual sustained pressure. This naturally lends itself to the more mobile units, so Alarielle and our cavalry are looking really strong in the right kind of list, otherwise I think you need to make sure your teleports and Spirit Paths are viable/not being blocked and netting you the kills or points you need each turn. Lastly, the three 'free' overgrown terrain bits on top of the starting wyldwood make it less of a burden to "get the woods out" than ever, though things like the Acorn and, honestly, the Treelord Ancient to guarantee you get more down to ensure you can spread your "zone of control" are still really valuable. I do think if the meta does stay as Galletian Veterans not being prominent as a sort of soft counter to Bounty Hunters, prioritising the one drop is absolutely key. Go second and don't let yourself get doubled!

I mean, that's fair, but it's not like other factions in 40k never get the limelight. As you mentioned, Sororitas got a huge sustained marketing campaign, a big 'preview' limited box set, and a decent chunk of store space for what ended up being a near complete overhaul of their entire range from metal/finecast into plastic. The same has happened recently (as in past five years) for Necrons, Genestealer Cult, Death Guard, Chaos Space Marines (the previous big set of releases) and even recently with Eldar. It wasn't that long ago we were reading weekly hype articles for Eldar a long ways out from their full release. I think the issue is that even despite those big releases, while those armies will absolutely sell more now than if they didn't get the attention, they almost certainly still aren't even in the same conversation as Space Marines as far as popularity or sales metrics are concerned. It's hard to say if years and years of sustained support will ever rein in the imbalance but that's just the way it is, and it's why Space Marines will continue getting the lion's share of model support and attention. To note, I'm not arguing with you in terms of what I want GW to do or think they should do, just offering perspective on why they do it. As a side-note, I would say there are absolutely heroic Space Marines, either individuals (like Dante) or chapters (Salamanders and Crimson Fists come to mind) but they very much are the exception and not the rule.

The last time I worked for GW, it was a known fact that Space Marines - not counting the kits from offshoots like Grey Knights, Dark Angels, Blood Angels, Space Wolves, their Chaos alternatives, etc - just Space Marines made up roughly half of all GW's total sales. As much as we always clamor for them to do more with other 40k factions, the reality is even when factions get the Dark Eldar treatment (i.e. a near complete range update) they still don't come anywhere close to Space Marines in terms of sales. It's just the nature of the beast, and the Space Marine centric nature of 40k will never change unless they find a good monetary reason to do so. I'm thankful AoS doesn't really suffer that issue; Stormcast get a lot obviously but we've gotten so much non-Stormcast stuff since AoS launched that I can't really complain.

Thought I'd share some hobby inspiration for a change On the subject of the Enrapturess, she's always been decent - she's great in conjunction with friendly wizards to help shut down enemy casting, and she's a constant source of 2-3DP per turn - cop a mortal from the Fane for 1DP that also buffs her shooting, then either shoot 1 unit to reliably get 1 extra DP, or split shot 2 units to fish for 2 extra DP. The new edition favoring endless spells, particularly one that has a mighty 8+ casting value, makes her almost a no brainer inclusion.

Most lists I'm seeing either go straight 1-drop with just a Battle Regiment or they mix Bounty Hunters in with either a BR or some other battalions. I think you'll have to plan for it either way as the Battleline we want to be using are all Galletian Veterans by default. Playing against a mate's Gitz the other day, 10 Boingrots with a supporting Sloggoth and All Out Attack (to negate our -1 to-hit Locus) and bonus attacks from Sneaky Snufflers (so six Damage 2 attacks per model) managed to chew through most of a 10 Pink Horror unit in one go (they got down to about half Brimstones/half Blues) and obviously there are many other Bounty Hunter units in the game that can hit harder than those, so it is potentially a concern. However, Horrors in Expert Conquerors are straight up just absurd so it probably evens out. I should also note regarding that game that when his other Boingrot unit charged another Horror unit that had re-roll saves (Shield of Fate) and Mystic Shield (to negate his Rend) they completely whiffed even with buffs and got mulched by the return attacks so you can at least do things to mitigate the weakness. Side-note, having seen how Sylvaneth and other 3.0 tomes handle subfactions, I'm curious to see if the new Tzeentch book will still let me keep the combo of no-retreat and the bubbled re-roll casting/unbinding that Hosts Duplicitous offers. As cool as I find the other subfactions, that combination for HD with my predominantly demonic collection is just too good to pass on. I know I can fork out for Cogs but paying to lose out on re-rolling unbinds bites. I'm also really curious to see how they handle the Lord of Change and Fateweaver; they do feel stronger than ever thanks to how they dominate spells/endless spells in a season that seems to favor that more than it has in a long time, but the update that the Great Unclean Ones and Rotigus got in the Maggotkin book seems like an indicator GW wants to raise the power bar for greater daemons. Like, surely the Great Unclean One won't be the sole greater daemon in that ~500ish bracket? I just wonder how you would even go about powering up the Lord of Change beyond what it already does short of just stat boosts.

Having run the 4 Stormdrakes and 4 Fulminators list prior, I'm gonna try something very different next - Living City (for the ambush) with 30 Darkshards and some other shooting elements in conjunction with either Krondys casting a Purple Sun at +3 or a Sorceress with Master of Magic plus a Stardrake to cast at +3 with a re-roll. The main benefit to Krondys is he has his own -1 to saves spell to combo for -2 to saves with the Purple Sun. We have super efficient shooting in terms of forcing wounds but the tradeoff has always been lack of Rend outside of Irondrakes, but with the -1s from Purple Sun and/or Krondys it can really tune up otherwise decent shooting units. The nerf to Living City as a combat list hurts but I'm willing to give the rend-stacking a try. I don't think it'll be that competitive but I'm gonna give it a run anyway!

The profile you are thinking of was a fake. The one in your book that has an ability called "Rite of Life" is correct.

Had a game the other day, been so long since I've had a proper one with Sylvaneth so was super rusty; idea was to try out all the new units and see just how strong some combos are. To keep it short I'll just rate how each unit went plus overall impressions; The Lady of Vines - A quite literal centrepiece in the sense she can sit in the middle with a Dryad screen and, 5++ or not, just provide so much to the army. I failed the 2+ summon but she was still fantastic, those 3" melee attacks are so good. I'm considering going the Dwindling over my default Reaping pick if using her to have better odds on the 5++ as it's an enormous bubble that even took me by surprise. Dryads - That -1 to be wounded is mathematically superior to the +1 save they used to get in some cases. 10 of them still died to a Terrorgheist scream and 20 buffed Ghouls but they do feel like a must have (at least one starting unit) with the Lady as they cover a lot more space and are more tanky than either Revenant infantry unit thanks to counting as being near woods next to her. Branchwych - She feels better than ever with that 5+ mortal output. I miss the Wraith but the Wych is in a good spot. Tree-Revenants - Not much to say here other than that free All-Out-Attack did help a lot in one turn to assassinate a hero. They functionally are still the same as ever, just better. Kurnoth Hunters (Scythes) - I tried the 6 blob and, well, they're absolutely ludicrous. The potential to charge off a teleport (Spiteswarm Hive is a must for this) then immediately teleport back after striking with a unit that has high odds of killing almost anything in the game is nuts. Just Heartwood and being near an Archie for her two buffs is enough to let them murder up to an Archaon depending on how save-stacked he is; I've never had access to that kind of power in Sylvaneth before and it feels so darned good. I probably would stick to MSU if it weren't for how utterly bonkers the fade-away army rule is in conjunction with the unit. Will depend on meta/rest of army but I can't see myself not taking at least 6 in every list split however-way. Arch-Revenant - I'll keep it short; you should run her provided you run any Kurnoths or cavalry. Her buffs are fantastic, and while she best supports Kurnoths, +1 attack per weapon lets her supercharge both our cavalry units. 6 wounds straight up rather than a conditional 6th and an optional 4+ ward in combat make her deceptively hard to kill and thus even better at supporting. I can't see myself making a list without her. Spiterider Lancers - The talk about how our army is tanky in a way it never has been before got proven in a big way by this unit - even without the resurrect from the Seekers, just healing all wounds after killing a model on a unit of 5 wound 4+ save models is already bonkers. Three of them screened half the board for me and absorbed a charge from a summoned Flayer unit then promptly killed them without taking any actual damage thanks to the heal, forcing my opponent to over commit to them just to ensure they couldn't retreat, heal up, rally on a 5+ and get a model back from the Seekers. I didn't get to use their strike first but already it's obvious how good that will be with the healing ability after killing any models; soften a unit up so they can't actually kill a model in return, heal back up to full and attrition the foe down. Even at Damage 1 their 3+ 3+ -2 profile with 4 attacks is reliable and doesn't require buffs. Small units of these and Seekers are going to be a right pain for most armies. The fact the heal triggers at the end of the phase is key, as striking first lets you soften a unit up on the charge before reprisal to guarantee the heal later after reducing their return damage to them. Revenant Seekers - Same idea as the Lancers, just with slightly better damage and an amazing resurrection ability at the expense of the fight first ability. Hitting on a 4+ with less attacks makes them feel swingy even though their averages are mathematically better than the Lancers; Heartwood or saving All-Out-Attack for them feels like the right way to use them, as even 3 of them put out some great damage with buffs. Gossamid Archers - Being a costly unit with spike damage on 6s means how useful they are will come down to rolls and meta as they obviously will melt to shooting. For me, they screened my Seekers and did the trick of Unleashing Hell then fleeing on a 2+ and forced my opponent into a bad situation; I positioned the Archers so charging them would leave whatever did just within 3" of the Seekers, meaning for a horde of Ghouls they'd be forced to engage and even with the GV rules they'd lose most of their attacks. You can also do this in a way where whatever unit you're screening stays out of 3" so there is no way your opponent can get to the unit behind the Gossamids, but that can be tricky to do properly depending on what it is that's charging (i.e other flying stuff.) Still, a very nice utility pick. 5 feels fine, but moreso than the other new units they feel more matchup dependent. Spiteswarm Hive - Despite the nerf to only affecting one unit, this thing is still golden. Combo with Gladiurthu, 6 Scythnoths or even a sacrificial unit to improve the odds of an objective steal, it will win games. New allegiance rules - To keep it short; Sylvaneth are back :) Good heavens what a facelift this faction got! This is the best they have ever felt, bar none. As a lapsed player this is all I could have asked for and more. The three overgrown terrain features, teleport after attacking in your turn, blocking line of sight as always (but not for yourself through Wyldwoods which is such a nice QoL change) and more make this army tick in a way it simply never has. Oh, and the command traits, spells and artifacts are both great and no longer locked by subfactions. What a time to be alive.

Just on the subject of the 5++ ward, it's important to note that just because a few of our better units wouldn't benefit from it doesn't mean it's worthless, especially if you reach the total at the end of one of your turns/leading into an opponents' double turn. It still affects Blissbarbs, Myrmidesh, the Twins, any daemons you might summon (obviously will depend on just how many DP you rack up) and both Hellstriders and Exalted Seekers. All those units getting a 5+ ward can mean the difference for them surviving to another turn to give you a DP and potentially Rally later, which given how marginal a lot of games can be regarding DP totals is potentially a big deal. It's one of those things you don't plan around but can absolutely save your bacon if it triggers when you need it, i.e. the aforementioned having it active during an opponents' double turn scenario.

He can as he has the right keywords (Slaanesh, Mortal, Hero) and Coalition units can take enhancements unless specified otherwise.

The best way to look at the Fane is it's a free Depravity point every turn assuming you park either Synessa or an Enrapturess next to it (as both are fine with sitting back) and an extra summon point which is always useful. Our Tome Celestial is better than people give it credit for precisely for the reason @KrispyXIV says; you will typically reach the first two benefits very quickly, and you get to benefit from them before you spend your Depravity points. A 5+ Rally in this new meta with our significantly cheaper infantry is great, and they also benefit the most from the +2" movement to get to objectives or combat a bit quicker. The 5+ ward isn't unfeasible to get in round two and very likely in round three, especially with how cheap Blissbarbs are now; you will often lose it to summon, but when it's active it is a big deal as it makes our units that little bit tankier to feed the Depravity farming. The Tome by itself was a nice boost but held back by our infantry - the main beneficiaries of it - being overpriced, but now that they've received dramatic point reductions it's going to make the Tome rules really shine. It's not going to propel Slaanesh to the top of the ladder or anything but the changes are absolutely pushing them up a rung or two. I've gone from ignoring them for my "serious" tournaments to actually considering them again; the problem for me is my Daughters of Khaine, Nighthaunt and Sylvaneth have all been updated too - the latter two getting a new lease on life similar to Slaanesh - and my Tzeentch are just around the corner too. I've gone from "I'm gonna play Stormcast for a bit" to "oh god I have four other armies I need to play ahufzkgtoyyctsd6ys54s47d8c" 😬 Definitely exciting times for Slaanesh though!

Yeah conditional Battleline units specifically lose their other battlefield roles, so Treelords in Oakenbrow are Battleline but not Behemoths.

She's not physically a Wyldwood/overgrown terrain feature, she just lets units that have abilities that trigger near them use her to trigger instead. The key is the wording; "...you can pick 1 friendly Sylvaneth unit that is wholly within 9" of an overgrown terrain feature or friendly Awakened Wyldwood..." She counts for this because units near her are treated as being wholly within range of a Wyldwood/overgrown terrain. "...If successfully cast, pick 1 friendly Awakened Wyldwood within range of the caster." She doesn't count for this because she is not physically a Wyldwood model, she just lets friendly units near her count as being wholly within 6" of one. As for the Vengeful Skullroot's bonus mortal wounds, she doesn't count for them because they trigger off of enemy units being near a Wyldwood, and her Verdian Crown only affects friendly units.

For tournaments, you'd need to bring an Ancient for sure as there's no other way to reliably set up a wood, and you can't rely on there being preset overgrown terrain on any given table. It's a shame because the Ancient is just not very useful and despite her buffs the nerf to StMA means Alarielle probably isn't that good in Living City anymore either. Even with an Ancient, having only one wood to pop back out of is a big risk as it's that much easier for an opponent to block.

Winterleaf by itself is a very nice tool because retreating in general remains a big part of board control, and blocking it is always a strong ability to have up your sleeve. Leaning further into it with Everdusk presents a big downside with the 6" ranges effectively forcing you to play a lot more carefully near your woods as it's much harder to stay in range for abilities, however the exploding 6s are mathematically equivalent to a +1 to-hit buff, and the expanded no-retreat affecting actual teleport rules like Kharadrons and in particular other Sylvaneth turns it into one heck of a matchup dependent hard counter. It's been discussed already but Scythe Kurnoths and the Lady of Vines are big beneficiaries of Everdusk so they are good options to explore for it. Overall I think in the right hands (meaning someone who can play around the 6" bubbles) it's going to be an absolute menace of a subfaction.

Other than stabbing myself a few times, I didn't have too much trouble building my Exalted Chariots. Now, painting them? Different story.