OkayestDM

There's been some lively and very interesting discussion about this recently in a few other places on the forum, so I thought I'd make a proper thread for the topic. There's always room for improvement with any system, and there are also personal preferences that - while not necessarily practical changes - are nonetheless fun to talk about. A simple change I'd like to see in the game - and that I've definitely dedicated way too much time thinking about- would be to make Totem models a more significant part of each army (and, by inference, to make sure that each army got at least one.) This is purely a personal preference thing, but having the hero model with the really cool flag/banner/icon function as a more central figure in the force would be really fun and thematic. Give each one an aura bonus (or an enhancement table from which they can choose an aura bonus) that supports the army's play style(s), and give each Totem a built in once per game warscroll ability that they can use (like the Stormcast Knight Vexillor, or the Lumineth Bladebanner.) For extra fun, an additional/ optional rule could be that the opposing player earns bonus VP if they slay the Totem model while in melee combat, effectively stealing/destroying your army's banner. So, what are some crazy (or, you know, perfectly reasonable) things you'd like to see change or make their way into AoS?

I also thought Freeguild when I saw him, and to @Red Bull's point, my second thought was that he'd make a good conversion for a Vanari Lord Regent.

One unit of 10 or one or two units of five both seem like decent options, though I'm not sure if we'll ever want much more than that. A 10-man unit could reliably drop 7-9 mortal wounds with perfect strike, which can kill a number of mounted heroes outright, and could also clear units like Annihilators (high damage but low wounds) very effectively. The mortal wound output from the Flurry of Blows makes them much more appealing and more useful, especially if you've got a Lord Regent there to buff it. A 10-man unit using Flurry of Blows could deliver some serious hurt under the right circumstances. They aren't the all-purpose infantry hammer I had hoped they would be, but I'm honestly pretty happy with where they stand.

To be fair, it's part of the lore that the Lumineth and the Cities are finding themselves at odds with each other, both because of the Lumineth's willingness to sacrifice others in order to purge chaos from the area, and because several of the Dawnbringer Crusades are being manipulated by Tzeentch to encroach on Lumineth territories. I'm also a little sad that the two can't ally, but at least it matches the lore.

Interesting. That's a break from the tradition to elf races ending in "-neth". It does share space with Kurnothi, however. I don't know if that actually means anything, but it's an interesting distinction and certainly sets the Ulgurothi apart from their other aelven cousins.

The old rumor engin with the "feathers" was too vague to read, but the new one with the fin has me thinking these may be for AoS. It's too elegant in design for the Grimdark future, they typically favor much more utilitarian and/or industrial themes.

Windchargers do not deal mortal wounds. That said, if they are taken as an ally in an army with a priest, the Priest might Curse a unit, and then the Windcharger attacks could deal mortals. That's why the ability is worded that way. As the rule is currently written, both the ranged and melee attacks deal mortals on 6s. I'm sure folks will be asking about this and that it will be clarified in the FAQ - a month or two form now. Bladelords are slightly better than before. Perfect Strike has become Mortal Wounds, and they Flurry of Blows now benefits from Sunmetal weapons, making their attacks more reliable and effective. They're not crazy good, but they can be useful now. More of a utility unit than a dedicated melee hammer. Wardens trigger their ability if they attack an enemy unit that charged that turn. Note that the unit doesn't necessarily have to have charged them, it just has to have made a charge. The Wardens get no buff if they charge. Correct. Teclis's ability remains the same, but his options available for autocasting shrink as he takes damage now.

I don't think it's quite that bad. You're definitely right that Teclis remains largely the same, and there are still a few NPE rules options left (why is Total Eclipse still a thing?) But the book is much better than it was. The rules mental load is a matter of personal taste. I'm happy that they've been simplified from what they were, but I also enjoy the process of making the complexity work. It's one of the things that appealed to me from the very beginning with LRL. I suspect this book will be like most everything else released for 3E, lots of folks predicting doom and gloom before the book has hit the table, then everybody realizing that, outside of a few things, it's actually in a pretty good place and not nearly as bad as folks predicted. But fair is fair, and we'll have to wait and see. Unfortunately, LRL earned itself that bad reputation, and only time will tell if enough has been done to pull it out of the doghouse.

It's less that the Stoneguard are expected to be heavy hitters, and more that they're expected to be usable (which they weren't really before.) We don't think they're going to single-handedly change the power-structure of Lumineth armies. We're just glad that our cool units will actually be able to do some work! Also, synergies and buff stacking may not be the most optimized way to operate, but they're really fun to pull off, and now we'll actually be rewarded for investing in it.

The Stoneguard also deal Mortal wounds in addition, making them significantly better.

I mean, I see your point, and obviously models are their primary source of revenue. That said, the amount of rulebooks being release compared to the number of models being released tells a slightly different story.

Interestingly, the Wind Spirits are listed a Leaders in the points section of the book. I wonder if they got the hero keyword? If so, that actually makes them much more appealing to me. EDIT: Never mind. Double-checked the Facehammer review. No Hero keyword.

I know that a lot of production has been getting pulled out of China over the last few years, so it's possible that they've had to be selective in where they focus range expansions until they bring the new facilities fully online. I think there's also the fact that GW is making a concerted effort to bring all of the factions into better balance overall, which is easier to do with smaller ranges. Once a faction is in a good place, it's a lot easier to introduce and balance new units than it is to try to manage both at the same time.

With the changes to Shining Company, it's impressive just how swift our army can be now, which is very gratifying. Speed of Hysh and Teleportation Vortex give us some solid maneuverability options, as does the entire Hurakan side of the range. Have an Enlightened double-tap Speed of Hysh to get two units exactly where we want them. That was one of my gripes with the first book. Hysh is supposed to be a place of physical and mental alacrity, but old shining company made our forces quite slow. Once again, GW has done a good job of making the army play the way you think it should.

It's future-proofing in case someone finds an interaction with allies or spells that would allow the Windchargers to do mortal wounds. They don't actually do MWs, but if someone finds a way to give them that ability, the rule already covers it.

Agreed! I'm pleased that many of the units in the army seem much more viable now. We took some hits to a few of the favorites, but a lot of other units got some nice buffs as well. Much of the NPE fuel has been purged from the book (though I confess to being surprised that Total Eclipse wasn't touched.) I was looking forward to having an army that was more straightforward to play, though I was also worried that we would loose the toolbox of options available to us. Somehow, GW managed to streamline things and cut away a lot of the fat while still leaving us with the crunch that made the faction rewarding to play.

Sir, are you insinuating that something about Tzeentch might . . . change?! I- uh, I'll let myself out . . .

They aren't our outright killiest ranged option, but they have a 24" shot and 16" movement for a 40" threat radius, which is nothing to sneeze at. They are ideal for outmaneuvering the enemy and sniping out heroes, or dealing chip damage to key targets. They're more if a scalpel unit now, similar to Vanguard Raptors in Stormcast, but much faster.

I'm sure that's what they're shooting for, but we'll see. They've already had to shift it back once.

I mean, it counts as an article. I was a little disappointed that it was exclusively a fluff piece without any information regarding rules changes, but I guess I can wait for Man-Reads-Book this weekend to have my curiosity sated.

Honestly, I see Secret Agendas migrating over to our Path to Glory rules. I think they could be made to work much better there.

Same. I'm still quietly hoping that we actually do het to take one or more of them for free, because that would be amazing, but I doubt it. Hopefully, they account for the fact that not having one in the list would eliminate one whole faction ability (though to be fair, unless those spells had a truly exceptional glow-up, it's not going to hurt us much.) If they stay true to their normal procedure, we should be getting one or more articles covering our alliegance abilities, command traits and artifacts, and Path to Glory rules. Maybe even another article touching on a few notable unit changes, though some of that was already touched upon in last week's article. Tzeentch is a tricky faction to get thematically right while remaining balanced, but to GW's credit they've done pretty good with the other releases for 3.0 overall. If they manage to find the sweet spot for Tzeentch, then I have high hopes for the rest of the battletomes incoming.

Perhaps, but it's being done across the board with each new book. I doubt we'll be excluded.

I like that the ability is close range and can only work against a hero who has actively attacked the Gaunt Summoner in some way. Yes, it can ruin somebody's day, but the opposing player can avoid it by just throwing units at the GS instead of heroes, or just killing them outright (they're a fairly fragile hero, as I recall.)

Not for nothing, but it's kind of a missed opportunity that they didn't make the Tzeench Endless Spell a free addition to the army (like faction-specific terrain features.) That would have made perfect sense with Tzeentch, been both thematic and unique, and would synergize well with the fact that you can cast it for free in the first turn anyway. (Unless of course they actually do end up doing that, but I feel like they would have mentioned it.)