Ganigumo

looks similar to Skragrott's cloak, the cloak from the great bray shaman, the inside of the wurgogg cloak, kruleboyz cloaks, and gargant patch cloth. the stitches aren't the right scale for gargant stuff though. Swampcalla shaman on Gnashtoof, WITH 10 WOUNDS! exactly what the KB players have been asking for, and what the army needs!

Yeah I agree we didn't really need another moonclan/squig support hero. Maybe he specializes in command abilities? Although that makes the squig herd a bit of a weird inclusion in the box.

Maw grunta looks rad as heck, i'm a bit worried it will do exactly what maw krushas already do but it wont stop me from getting and painting one (or more). The gitz hero was a bit disappointing? He looks good but the reused assets really jumped out at me with this one, and i'm not sure gitz need another moonclan support unit. Edit: a bit sad not to see a new warclans book on the horizon

Ruleswise its pretty clear that Sigvald in this scenario would fight at strikes first, and then at "normal" priority. The first time he's affected by strikes first, and the second time by both strikes first and strikes last, and the core rules explicitly state that the two cancel out in that scenario. It would need an errata to make it not work this way, either by changing the core rules, sigvald, or the keeper command somehow.

Maybe they plan to take out Life and death to control both and go on an Endless WAAAGH!, seems like a pretty orky thing to do. We could maybe even get a new Azhag

IMO armies shouldn't grow to those sizes, it makes them all feel too similar, since they all have most of the same tools, and makes the game too symmetrical. I'm not against expanding ranges or anything but I like how many of the factions have a focused playstyle. There's a place for mixed arms forces, but there's also a place for specialist armies like Ironjawz. Its a good mix.

I think at ~400 points you'd at least consider dropping him to fit in more stuff, but he would still probably be playable. I've found him to always be good, but still be inconsistent. In a game against a weak magic army he feels incredible, and horribly undercosted, but against armies with solid magic he's still worth the points, thanks to the CPs and moon control, and possibly moon aura depending on your list. He's honestly a little frustrating as an auto-include, because we just can't get those tools elsewhere, and trying to skimp and sub him out just leaves you with something that performs worse for nearly the same points (Moon + shaman for moon aura, Webspinner on arachnarok for casting, double fungoid for CP, etc). He's a warscroll that is going to be problematic at any cost I think.

I don't even know if I'd want a bonesplitterz refresh. I've got an army of them, with about 2000 points painted, but honestly all the plastic stuff still looks fine, and even some of the finecast stuff looks like, even though the quality of finecast is awful. I'd much rather just see an expansion, revamp a couple of the heroes, add in some bonesplitter brutes, maybe a unit of wildboyz or something that have taken on some beast aspects, a "gobbapalooza" style unit of shamans/seers/leaders/etc, and a proper centerpiece. Narratively they have a really strong identity they just need to push a bit harder on it, and make the rules match. Playing bonesplitterz should make you feel like being a hunter. Ironjawz aren't going anywhere, they're very popular, with a really well defined playstyle. They were doing a bunch of small releases in early AoS, and while a bunch of those armies feel like they could/should have expansions or are missing something, they really hit IJ out of the park and they feel pretty complete as a faction. The sylvaneth release showed they're willing to expand on some of those early armies too.

Definitely warclans. Thats an orruk face (just look at the teeth on the bottom that are slightly hidden) and the symbols for Ghyran and Shyish. IIRC whitefang made a cryptic comment that might have referenced warclans too. I hope its a new warclans book, but I'll take new models too.

Double post

hobgrots going to 20 for 120 would be a nerf I think, sure its more wounds/models per point, but the reason we're so reliant on hobgrots is because they're the cheapest screen we can get our hands on. If they went that way I'd be looking to gitz for spider riders again I think. It might open up some heavy hobgrot builds though, and I know when dominion came out some people wanted to do that with the army. I could see vulcha's getting a reserve rule yeah, I'd like to see some put into the dirty trick options as well, like a board's edge ambush (like BoC) or hiding infantry units in terrain at the start of the game. If we don't get a larger rewrite, I was thinking that maybe just making the grinnin blades subfaction ability an army-wide one, and rewriting/rebalancing the subfactions could do a lot. Meta-wise KB are almost more defined by that than they are by anything else. I got smashed by them on the weekend with my gitz, which was mostly squigs so I guess that makes sense. 3 back-to-back combat phases of them fighting first was more than my list could deal with (high tide + d3 activate alongside the king).

no, the ability specifies "Instead of making 1 of the rolls from the list below for a friendly DISCIPLES OF TZEENTCH unit" so it can't be used on them since they don't gain the "Disciples of Tzeentch" keyword.

I need to play a bit more with herds and manglers, but next time I'd probably still bring a mixed list since I'd run a troggboss general for the easy grand strategy.

Ended up going 2-3. Game 1 I got absolutely smashed by a great player with a heavy shooting slaanesh list with belakor. 50 blissbarbs + 5 blissbarb seekers, triple AoA, triple run 6 & shoot, tons of CP and a double turn on t2. I almost killed belakor t1, but failed by 2 damage, and he used the double to do tons of shooting, but also to get belakor into my shrine to smash it. Game 2 was vs idoneth. Threw buffed up hoppers at 20 reavers, did 1 damage and pinned him in a little. T2 I took some objectives and small units, but couldn't get into any important pieces. Then on his turn he rushed forward and used an ability to fight with 3 things after. Then he rolled the double and fought first armywide. I probably should've tried to be more aggressive on t1/t2 to cripple him before then. Game 3 was vs a super cool narrative dispossed army with gotrek, i got into his irondrakes early and snowballed from there for a win. Game 4 was vs nurgle. I got a super buffed unit of bounderz into him t1 for a good start, then we got into a big brawl. It felt pretty close but the points weren't, it was on jaws of gallet and he struggled to keep the edge objectives so I won handily on points. Game 5 loss vs KO. Incredibly close game, my bounderz failed the t1 alpha, but tanked the shooting phase denying my opponents tactic. Outside of that I got all the tactics and objective points on my turns, but I failed to deny his grand strat and he blocked mine so I lost by a single point. It was nice to really get some games in with the new book. My general choice was a mistake. I was trying to do too much with him between AoA and clammy hand, it was rare that the bubbles lined up, although whenever he did AoA the bounderz it was pretty good. Protect da shrine isn't always easy, its very much a win-more that can be tough in close games, I can see why the dankhold with follow da moon is so popular. The rockguts didn't do much, they usually just covered a flank or side objective. In retrospect a sloggoth would've done much of the same while also handing out +1 to hit. I definitely made some mistakes my first few games too. I eventually figured out that holding back the 10 man bounderz for later as a counter charge was a mistake, since the difference in output is very noticeable and they hit like noodles if caught flat footed. The choice between bounderz and hoppers is still tough. Hoppers lose so much output, but that extra 3" move makes those alpha charges so much easier, and unless you're low drop you really need that t1 threat, it feels like a good balance. +3" move on the squigboss was very clutch, I kind of wish the loonboss on squig would get it back. The playstyle feels a lot different. We've still got the same board control tools, but while our scrolls are better it really feels like we need to superstack buffs for our units to get where we need them. Like Unless I got the trolls to at least +2 save they still felt squishy, and unless the bounderz were charging with at least all out attack they tended to do very little. We can actually get the units there which feels good, but good players, especially with access to mobility and/or shooting, can target our support pieces or things other than the stacked up unit, and then things tend to get tough. I don't think I like skragrott after playing with him though. I think he's pretty much auto include, and he's fantastic, but his performance varied wildly between games. The command points are great, the moon aura was fine, it rarely mattered though, between being able to control it and the shrine, and +1 to cast is just enough to abuse weak magic armies, but not enough to do much vs anyone with good bonuses. I often consider cutting him, but there really isn't an alternative. The difference between 0-1 decent tactics (like my kruleboyz) and 2-3 is massive though, its hard to even explain the difference in options. Overall the book felt pretty fair to me, all the catastrophizing seems like an exaggeration, although some of the BTs and follow da moon are probably too easy, but thats an issue with army specific BTs and GSs generally.

do these two abilities stack? My initial read was that they didn't, because its an ability that triggers on 6's and only 1 thing can trigger off of that roll, and generally buff stacking doesn't really work anymore, but reading a bit closer if they didn't stack, because its multiple abilities triggering on a 6, the ability wouldn't work at all. Spider Venom: Totem of the Spider God: Venom of the Spider God:

This is what I ended up submitting I'm a little worried about castle build matchups, but we'll see how it goes. I need to try out some manglers when I get a chance too.

no, I've got mine primed but haven't gotten around to painting them or playing with them. I've been wondering if they pair well with fellwaters though. You can push the fellwaters up and have the snarlfangs stand 4-5 inches behind and pile in after the troggs take a hit and unleash hell on whatever charged them which will help snarlfangs with the lack of rend. Snarlfangs also have 2" reach on the jaw attack for some reason, so you can reinforce them. That's a good callout, I might do that since it'll give me something that really appreciates the snuffler buff.

I've got to lock in my list tomorrow, I find this new book tough to figure out though. This is what I'm brewing at the moment. In general I've been finding the points very awkward, a bunch of my tweaks end with lists that are like 80 points under, this one is only 45 which is probably fine for a triumph bid. I've been toying with a mangler, since the rampage lets you dive deep, but i'm already 45 points down, and fitting it in is wierd pointswise. I could fit the loonboss version by cutting 2 units of trolls, but then I've got the loonboss version which seems overcosted, and I still want clammy hand to take advantage of kings gitz and the MSU build I have going so he wouldn't be the general to take fight another day.

He's a gutrippa unit champ, he might work as a killaboss on foot if you can find a stab grot and a 40mm base for him.

Got another game in with kings Gitz vs khorne on position over power, I took a pretty heavy double on t2 but managed to push through into his backline. Game was running a bit late so I didn't get to finish but it was looking like he'd be able to pull out a close win if we kept going. Bounderz with a loonboss are phenomenal, but keeping him in range can be a bit of a challenge, even though I made him the general. 10 are more than enough to be your hammer in my experience. I tried running 2x12 squig herds. I know the big strat at the moment is a big unit of 36, but being able to push multiple units forward to screen and cap objectives with the squigboss feels pretty good. I haven't had much luck with them damagewise, probably because you need to support them with jaws of mork and the squigboss mortals.

The idk tome has fallen hard, not sure why though since i'm not familiar with the book. They certainly have the tools to succeed but maybe they're overcosted or something. Fyreslayers are doing fine though. Although even though what you suggest is probably somewhat right, kruleboyz have been bad from the start. Stormcast have fallen a bit but are still mostly fine if you ignore the unsolveable internal balance issue of that many scrolls. Ironjawz have fallen on hard times too and bonesplitterz have issues too. The one strong BS list was a skew drakkfoot big stabba spam list in a meta with prevalent ward saves and the whole army got nerfed hard for it, plus nobody plays the army so the sample size was always too small to really tell if its a problem. I think its mostly that the warclans book was rushed out unfinished. It really needed a few more balance/editing passes.

What could be coming for AoS? more dawnbringer stuff, our new incarnate/season of war, the start of a narrative campaign, FEC reveal, new army teaser?

The Kruleboyz release was all kinds of messed up imo. What they actually are is a Greenskinz reimagining. So they're to orcs what lumineth are to high elves. If you analyze the units there are clear parallels for everything except the sludgeraker, mirebrute, & sloggoth, who wouldn't have felt out of place in greenskinz anyway. For some reason when it came to kruleboyz though they seemed to be avoiding making that connection, unlike with lumineth where they clearly said what their intention was. They also pushed the narrative of them being particularly sneaky and cunning, despite the models not really reflecting that at all. Cruel looking? yes. Swamp dwelling? yes. Kunnin? a little. Sneaky? absolutely not, how are monsters and big infantry blocks supposed to be sneaky. We know GW tends to do the models and identity first, and the rules/narrative second, so its a bit baffling what happened here. My speculation is that when they got to the rules they felt that if they followed through with the greenskinz reimagining they wouldn't do enough to differentiate them from ironjawz or bonesplitterz.

The only problem with VEW is how it skews damage. It's reliant on rolling 5's and 6's, so it makes damage very unreliable. You can't expect to roll average damage with kruleboyz very often and will constantly underperform or overperform, but the math favors underperforming, and the punishment for underperforming is usually much higher than the benefit of overperforming. not killing a unit costs BTs, objectives, and maybe even units, but overkilling one usually doesn't have much benefit. If VEW is changed it should be to something that can help mitigate this a little, which is why I like it being an additional mortal on a 6. You can still lean into it and stuff like gutrippaz will have swingy damage but then stuff like boltboyz and monsters won't be as reliant on it to deal damage and you can buff them with more traditional means. Yeah this is a big one for me too, and I think its mostly because of how terrible listbuilding is for the army, and how terrible gutrippaz are. Getting sludgeraker or Vulcha battleline would instantly open up the monster build, and it wouldn't be tough to open up a troggoth build either. Plus we have plenty of good debuffs in the army, they're just locked behind rolling 7s on wizards without bonuses.

I was thinking yesterday about how to update kb, and I think changing VEW to 1 mortal wound in addition on an unmodified hit roll of 6 would be better for the army. I haven't crunched the numbers but in general it favors low damage attacks instead of high damage ones and reduces the damage variance by a lot. You'd still have units that try to spam mortals, like gutrippaz, but our heavy hitters could have their base profiles buffed to compensate.