RocketPropelledGrenade

I'd probably make the Sorcerers and Chosen Slaanesh marked instead. You lose the shooting protection from the banners, but I find the biggest losses to my chosen are usually either melee hammers or people with massive mortal wound dumps through spells (which the banner doesn't help with) like Tzeentch. Starborne are in the latter category, and their shooting is not as big a deal as it used to be. Meanwhile, Sorcerers already have many spells they want to cast even before this season that I can't see them typically being able to cast the teleport without sacrificing something else valuable. Between Daemonic Power, Mystic Shield, the lore spells and now the Andtor spells, there just isn't room. And the Slaanesh mark helps the Sorcerers get around the board with the run bonus and lets them order the Chosen to have good mobility as well. Can't speak as to the chariots, sort of intrigued by the idea, but also suspect any Chariot that rolls on EotG is gonna get blown to hell in short order before it can use it. Cockatrice is super toxic, but it's not your fault it exists. Other than that, looks solid? I am eager to play in this season with my Cabalists once I figure out how to capitalize on the new points changes myself. I was running a lot of Endless Spells before, but I don't think they'll survive more than one hero phase with Primal Magic Dice for dispelling. On the plus side, I think Primal Magic dice are going to be huge for making our spellcasting ever harder to stop when necessary and (probably more importantly) shoring up our defensive weaknesses in the magic side of things. If I'd known this was going to be how the season would shake out a few months ago, I might have been pushing more on getting my S2D painted for NOVA instead of falling back on my Soulblight again. I mean...I'm still super happy with the new Soulblight book (honestly glad they got nerfed--the meta chased my existing list this battletome go-around, and I don't like having everyone complain about me fielding an OP army when I didn't want to). But even so, Cabalists are super intriguing to me right now.

I'd be pretty shocked if any AoS army that made it this far got outright removed. A few that got turned into Cities subfactions might get further reduction/removal, but I don't see anything that made it into 3rd edition with a legal battletome of their own being cut.

I would send this in as a bug to the AoS apps team. I haven't always had great success getting the bugs I've found fixed, but I have gotten real responses before, including seeing fixes rolled out that addressed some of the stuff. Can't recall the email address offhand, but it's on GW's website.

This is my big hope for the design on Umbraneth. I would love a range (or at least a unit or two) like this.

For me, it's about a diversity of units and roles for those units. Some of this is gameplay, some of this is lore--this is an area they have some overlap. I tend to want an army that makes use of every resource a faction has, or that has a solid reason for not doing so. I like include a mix of blocks of infantry, faster scouts or outriders, ranged troops (assuming the faction has them), magical units such as priests and/or wizards (again, assuming the faction has them), and often some kind of big unit like a monster (usual caveat). It feels more like the faction is...well, putting the effort in. Really mustering their hosts. Some factions get a pass on one or more elements. Monsters, wizards, priests, and shooting are not part of every faction's roster or strategy. And while I might look askance from a lore and flavor perspective if someone made a Cities of Sigmar army entirely of heavy cavalry and wonder what their supply line looked like, a similar all-cavalry Blades of Khorne could be justified as feeding on the slaughter and desolation they leave behind by the power of Chaos imbued into them. But in general, skew lists feel less "army-like" to me unless the skew is around a theme instead of a unit type.

Umbraneth may or may not be what is officially used when that faction releases, we don't know. But it is a useful shorthand for discussing "Malerion's yet-to-be-released Shadow Aelves" that is less of a mouthful and tends to be understood. So I don't hold it against anyone who uses it.

I'm pretty positive on the new Battlescroll. My list got nerfed pretty hard, but as a Soulblight Legion of Blood player, I will freely admit that was a good change. And taking it out on the table against LRL incorporating some of their own changes, it felt like the changes were putting Soulblight in the right ballpark compared to other armies, which is where I'd honestly rather be. So kudos to GW for spotting and addressing problems.

If you look at the 5 point changes, they are all placed to remove 5 point increments from list building. Maybe they aren't in the right direction, fine. But you can't give up on 5 point increments and not make 5 point changes to the books that had them.

Spear looks cooler. All other arguments are invalid.

A more recent quote (Adepticon Q&A IIRC) said mostly humans but explicitly confirmed others.

While I acknowledge Destruction's thematic boundaries are not as well defined as they could be, I also feel like a lot of the interest in putting new factions in Destruction stems from a desire for symmetry and/or Destruction fans feeling left out, rather than because those new factions are or would be good fits. And as a fan of the setting itself as well as the game, I think balancing the Grand Alliance population count should be a distant second, if that, to maintaining an interesting and cohesive world.

There's some similar thoughts I've been thinking about a few Soulblight things, so I really hope the next batch of FAQs comes soon.

It could be done in Starborne, but might be better in Coalesced, depending on the exact models taken. --The Troglodon (which does not have a riderless version, unless I missed something) works for both in different ways, as does the Astrolith Bearer. --Slann are good in both, but way better in Starborne. However, Temple Guard are basically a Slann tax--you don't want to field your frog without them, doubly so if you try Kroak. For floating chair guys who don't require Starborne, the Starseer is good, but not remotely a Slann replacement. --The Raptadon Chargers are probably fine in both, and the Hunters are gonna suck in both. --Spawn of Chotec I'm not sure about--probably fine in both? I personally would run them in pairs supported by an Oldblood on Carnosaur so both spawn can All Out Attack in the same phase to make the Glob of Flame Acid more reliable, but the Carnosaur is a strongly Coalesced piece. --Much like the aforementioned Carnosaur, Saurus units in general get much better support in Coalesced. Some may still be decent in Starborne, but they all seem to be priced assuming they get -1 Damage, as their armor saves are not generally worth the price without. --Hunters of Huanchi I'm not sure about, honestly. Terrawings are fine in either, cheap chaff is always welcome. I'm not sure I see a coherent whole from the options you want to stick to in Starborne, mostly because of the Temple Guard being a necessary tax on Slann but not within what you said you wanted. If you'd be willing to include them, then a castle with some forward elements in the forms of Raptadons and a Troglodon becomes very possible. However, I'm not sure that's the kind of list you are looking for, from the sound of it. TL;DR answer to your question: Maybe, I guess.

Where do spikes fit on the frequency list? 😛

I could get behind some of this, but other stuff I would hate. Love the current Neferata kit, for example. Losing that would suck. And while I want new Grave Guard, getting them just months after I finally finish my last batch of them (which is a current project) would sting a bit. Finally, I know a lot of people don't like Warclans as a book, but I am a Big Waaagh enthusiast and would be a bit miffed at losing that. Decent structure of the allegiance abilities to allow functional allying between them would make it a maybe okay by me. Of course, that's all purely personal preference stuff. Not going to say anyone else has to like it or agree. And overall, I agree with the point that some new non-hero kits would be nice.

I think Aggradons would be much more solid if they just made the rage stacks last. Or even made them decay slowly, so that the Scar Veteran could bump them up for a total of 2 gained in a turn and they'd lose 1 at max. They're a little too expensive, especially without the damage reduction for Coalesced, but a brawl-y cavalry unit that wants to get stuck in is interesting design space. As It is, I think they'll still have decent play, even if they won't be the best unit ever. They're not Varanguard, but for just over 2/3 the price, they shouldn't be. And I don't agree with the perspective that math and warscrolls alone show the whole picture of how a unit works on the actual tabletop. That is not, and has never been, how the game works.

Those are great, but they also show just how much improved the base GW grave guard would be with nothing but better posture. The differences honestly aren't that dramatic. Kind of a shame.

Have now played two games against Bonereapers, one with. Both games against were Petrifex, I played as Mortis (mostly because I haven't finished all the Immortis I want to field in my Petrifex list). I like both subfactions. The counter charge was very useful, even against an older-style KO list that wasn't focused on assault boats, and the Petrifex bonus was a really powerful one to see in action. The game where I played against Petrifex as S2D was a blowout for the other guy-- I got all my charges off into a double turn, only finished off a single unit fully. Then he regen'd the majority of his reinforced Immortis block holding the center line and just rended my 3+ saves to oblivion. I maintain the book has some potent weaknesses and a few design issues, but there is definitely some real strength in it. Also confident Battleplans are going to matter a lot, as I predicted. One of the reasons the S2D matchup went so bad is the objective setup in In the Presence of Idols made a slugfest in the middle pretty necessary, while my game against KO would have gone a lot worse in Position Over Power if my friend had been focusing even a little bit on the flank objectives (he's not a super experienced player, although he is learning).

Several of those are technically second edition releases. Kragnos and Be'lakor were Broken Realms, and Lauka Vai was from the final 2E battletome. Should be around 7 Eastern if I got my conversions right. Depends on what you mean by that. Chameleons don't exist any more, only Hunters of Huanchi. One could certainly argue that the unit changed names when it changed sculpts, if that's what you mean.

I think Kastelai's big disadvantage right now is that Blood Knights are overcosted. They have good options--multiple good command traits, Vhordrai being amazing, a great monstrous rampage, etc. And Blood Knights are in fact good. They're just not 230 points good. A 10% points cut on them in a faction that likes running big/multiple units of them would do wonders, and help balance the need for Summonable tarpits with the Blood Knights that could come along and clean enemies out of those tarpits (which I think would be a great strat if the costs get to where they should be--just clog the midboard with bodies you force the enemy to charge, then counter charge with Blood Knights. Resummon tarpits and repeat).

That'll be FAQ'd. Also, the Slann is too many points for something that isn't a chompy dinosaur.

The axes don't really do more damage than the sword, sadly. I don't mean that in a competitive optimization way, I mean that in a "the math barely differs offensively" way. 4+/4+ vs 3+/3+ is a world of difference, and the extra attacks do not make up for it. So basically you hose yourself defensively to no benefit.

I think that makes a lot of sense. Blood Knights, Vhordrai and VLoZD are the archetpyal Kastelai stuff, but honestly anything Vampire keyworded gains synergy. It's probably not enough to save Vargheists, for example, but I think the Vengorian Lord if a great pivot. Similar thinking to adding the warcry guys to the roster.

I sent a variant of this question to GW for an FAQ a couple weeks ago, relating to the Chaos Lord on Karkadrak and the Death Dealer command trait. Hopefully they will include it in the next round of updates.

It looks like I might have a friend who would let me borrow some of their Seraphon for proxying, so I can get a better sense whether investing in the army soon is worth it for me. Been kicking around some lists in the meantime, and I think I've found some options that make me pretty happy. One is just going full nuts with angry dinosaurs, and the other is similar but with some extra magic and movement/screen options to help with the combined arms aspects. Both are gonna be Coalesced, Koatl's Claw. Thunder Lizard is sort of tempting given the high number of monsters, but it's much less useful if you aren't taking a bunch of different kinds of monster and are just loading up on Carnosaurs (plus Koatl's Claw is honestly just strong). First list: Oldblood on Carnosaur 285 --General (probably Prime Warbeast command trait) --unsure of artefact, either Blade of Realities or Amulet of Destiny Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur 255 Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur 255 Saurus Warriors 200 Saurus Warriors 200 Aggradon Lancers (reinforced, with spears) 420 Spawn of Chotec 125 Spawn of Chotec 125 Spawn of Chotec 125 Second list Oldblood on Carnosaur 285 --same deal on this guy as the other list Scar Veteran on Carnosaur 255 Skink Oracle on Troglodon 270 Skink Starseer 150 Skinks 85 Skinks 85 Saurus Warriors 200 Aggradon Lancers (reinforced, with spears) 420 Spawn of Chotec Spawn of Chotec A couple random thoughts--Oldblood on Carnosaur has some nice synergy with the Spawn of Chotec, letting you All Out Attack multiple Globs of Flame Acid. Also, I know the Aggradon Lancers are probably better off in MSU because of the mount attack range, but I like the visual a reinforced unit would give.