RocketPropelledGrenade

If they'd done that, people would have said that they were ignoring the community and their concerns and it would have fueled fear and speculation anyways.

IIRC, unique enhancements are stuff outside the generic categories. So Ensorcelled Banners are a unique enhancement. Infernal Treasures are just flavor text for artifacts.

Defining "elite units" would be a nightmare there, unless you go in and rewrite battletomes to do it on a case-by-case basis.

Not really. I've worked in a social media job as well as currently working as a tabletop game freelancer. I have many friends in both industries. They literally can't say anything new or beyond official announcements without getting in trouble. I personally interpret that comment as urging patience rather than warning anyone off, but it's extremely vague and honestly no one should read anything into it (not even me). Also, looping back to the earlier comments about the S2D print release, while an electronic option would be best for the environment and consumers, trashing a print run for minor errors would be beyond irresponsible. It would cost a small fortune for GW which their shareholders would insist they make up for in other ways and be a colossal waste of resources. That's not to mention that consumers frequently overestimate the speed of print runs--odds are low that a print run intended for November could be corrected by January (and there's no guarantee a new issue wouldn't slip in. Copy-editing is harder than most people give it credit for).

No real idea, other than restocks being hard to predict. That being said, I've had some success on difficult stuff by hitting the "email me" option on an out-of-stock item in the GW online store. That has gotten me notifications when I needed them, even on quick-to-sell-out items like Malign Sorcery.

High tech stuff is common or at least present among some factions, but Orruks typically don't bother with it in AoS. Ironjawz in particular are known for not even forging their armor, just beating it into shape with muscle and stubbornness. If you want to be compliant with known lore, that would most easily be represented by modeling over the tech bits. However, AoS is also big, and unknown elements of the lore are a prime place to put "your guys." I don't think the idea of looting tech and sticking it into a beast to see what happens is far from being Orruk-y.

I think the gulf between different marks on the same units in this tome is gonna be waaaaaay lower than the gulf between warscrolls was last time. A ton of power is just baked into the units independent of their god choice. Sure, mirror matches might be tilted one way or another, but funnily enough, Slaanesh and Tzeentch are the best candidates for messing with Khorne, since being out-charged or charge-blocked make the mark much worse.

There was a similar loophole in Tzeentch with summoning Kairos that was closed. It won't survive the FAQ.

If you have three units fighting on your turn, and two of them get fight first, you fight before your opponent with all three. Two in the fight first sub phase, then one as your normal selection.

I think Tzeentch Ravagers could be a sleeper hit, honestly. There's some really crazy movement/move-block possibilities there, and that is a big deal. Spend your reinforcement points on big blocks of Iron Golems an/or Splintered Fang and season with other stuff where needed. Probably a Daemon Prince with the trophy rack to lead plus a cheap support hero or two. If I was less into the armored side of things, I'd give it a try. As it is, my current list looks something like this: Sub-faction: Cabalists Grand Strategy: Take What’s Theirs Triumph: Bloodthirsty *Warlord (Spell Enhancement) **Bounty Hunters *Chaos Lord on Karkadrak Undivided General Command Trait: Idolator Lord Prayer Scripture: Curse Artifact: Conqueror’s Crown Spell: Daemonic Speed Spell: Chaotic Conduit *Chaos Sorcerer Lord on Manticore Undvided Spell: Chaotic Conduit Spell: Binding Damnation Spell: Daemonic Speed *Chaos Sorcerer Lord Undivided Spell: Chaotic Conduit Spell: Ghost Mist Spell: Binding Damnation (Allies) Ungor Raiders (Allies) Ungor Raiders *Chaos Warriors Undivided Murderous Weapons **Chaos Knights Undivided **Chaos Knights Undivided **Chosen Undivided Reinforced x1 Ensorcelled Banner: The Dread Banner (Endless Spell) Chronomantic Cogs Total Points: 1995 Models: 53 + Endless Spell Wounds: 126 Drops: 9

So do I, but I'd rather advocate for variety by pointing out use-cases than pretend people aren't already gravitating in specific directions. That's what I was trying to communicate, and if I sounded like I was going in the opposite direction, my bad.

Chosen are slow, but not as slow as Paladins. They have an extra inch of base movement, a charge bonus, and the potential for more charge bonuses from Eye of the Gods. Are they fast? No, definitely not. But there is value in a unit that can hold midboard objectives and just delete everything that attempts to take them away, I think. I've had two test games (vs Tzeentch and Idoneth) with Chosen so far, and while not a large sample size, they did good work in both. They also take less popular marks well. Khorne and Nurgle are everyone's go to picks, but Slaanesh can make Chosen surprisingly aggressive for infantry, and Tzeentch Chosen can be teleported ahead of your lines by a Manticore Sorcerer or another mounted hero with Tome/Cabalist casting. I'm going to keep trying my 10 block for more data (I have a game set up against a friend's Skaven for this Wednesday, and another possible game with S2D on Friday that I expect to be against Sylvaneth). Ultimately, I think they are good so far--they aren't Varanguard, but the 50 pt discount on them vs Varanguard feels about right. Certainly reinforced Chosen vs reinforced Varanguard is a big discount given the high cost of many S2D units.

It's still going strong in my area, although precisely how strong depends on which of my local stores I go to. There's certainly room to improve--there always is and I don't want to deny that! But I have been really happy with 3e and so have a lot of people I know.

Also, at that point his damage per point goes way down because the cost is effectively 80 points higher (or thereabouts, presumably you can get additional use out of the allied unit, but still). Speaking of 80 pt allies, I'm actually looking at Ungor Raiders for screens. They're now cheaper than Untamed Beasts for the pre-game move use, and the ranged attacks (while terrible natively) work well if you can get Curse off through an Idolator Lord. Plus, they're both fast and cheap for sitting on objectives, and theoretically knock a wound or two off something lightly armored while waiting for Curse to hit. Basically, I don't ask for much at that price, especially if the only synergies it requires to punch above its weight are things I was already taking for other reasons.

Incidentally, just ran the numbers on foot lord damage, and he does very comparable damage with his good loadout (Daemobound Steel and Reaperblade) per point to the Karkadrak Lord, and significantly more than the Lord on Daemonic Steed, even assuming you get the charge with the Cursed Lance. The problem is, as I noted in my last post, the other two have a ton of things going for them that aren't damage and don't require investing enhancements or taking a specific subfaction, and marks are probably a wash at best in comparison. If you want to get value out of him beyond the occasional multi-fight, I think making him a wizard through Tome and/or Cabalists is the best bet. This actually can be quite good, because he can Draw on Power to push spells through and then shunt miscasts to his retinue, who may well have a real ward against the damage. The second best is having a retinue of Chosen, fighting with the Chosen, then follow up with Lord + Chosen's second fight, since that can negate Strike Last per the FAQ. You can, of course, do both, and that is something I am considering if I end up changing around some points.

The issue with the Chaos Lord on foot and getting in maximum damage before your opponent can strike is that his damage per point is not especially great*, and his low mobility makes him hard to synergize with a mounted lord's charge. So frequently you are spending points on a gimmick, and would be better off saving them towards reinforcing a troop unit and just fighting with those reinforced knights or chosen when you would select the chaos lord to fight anyways. He's much more useful as a bearer for Conqueror's Crown/Arcane Tome/Cabalists subfaction that can incidentally buff combat than he is as a straight fighty piece. If you want to use him and try and trigger the quad-fight, I hope you enjoy it on the occasions when it goes off and don't have too much frustration when it doesn't. I really do. I just don't think he's worth the effort, even as a player who really loves those goofy fun moments. *As foot heroes go, he's actually not bad, but foot heroes are notorious for having inefficient combat profiles. I'd have to do some math to be sure, but I think he has similar damage-per-point to the Karkadrak without the mobility, extra wounds, ward that doesn't kill more efficient models to be used, or legitimate strike-first effect.

Common mistake I keep seeing--the foot lord doesn't enable a unit to strike first like the mounted lords do. At best, he removes strike last (which is still good on Chosen and in some other circumstances, like against Sylvaneth or in the mirror). As for my MVP units, they are a bit less reliable than some people's choices, but I think Undivided Chosen with the Dread Banner are going to be spicy. Reduces their chance of the free EotG roll being wasted, and any future ones they get by killing heroes or taking objectives are more likely to be good as well. I'd happily take any of the results of 4+ on a 1d6 EotG for Chosen, and two bites at that is much better than one.

That's fair. They did warn people there would be errata, but having it up sooner would have been better. I for one bought it for the models and general playstyle, not for overpowered Host nonsense, so I really didn't care, but I can see there being others who might have been impacted negatively, and that is not great.

To be fair to GW, the same day the NDA embargo on rules reveals went out, they revealed the errata. That's as good transparency as you can reasonably ask for--the leaks were outside their channels. They've done crappy things at times, but I don't rate this as one of them at all.

I'm always down for Underworlds previews, and I doubt we'll be seeing any more previews for AoS proper for a bit, given the roadmap said this weekend's preorders were all we get for 2022 (I could see previews for a 2023 Battletome coming out, but not until very late this month or even December). So yeah, that'd be cool.

Stonehorn rend (or more accurately non-Stonehorn rend) is one of the things that protected me from being tempted to buy into Ogors on this battletome release. I like Thundertusks a lot, but can't stand the Stonehorn model. All for the best, though, given the state of my backlog.

The 4+ Rally and probably also the Nurgle Banner really needed those nerfs, though. And I say that as an S2D fan. I'm a little sad about the casting number increase on Speed of Chaos, but at least the Lore of Consistently High Casting Values the Damned is actually usable now with Draw on Power. Overall, I'd say the changes were very healthy for the state of the game.

Speaking of FAQs, once the book officially releases, the community should probably make a list of good ones to send in. I've already compiled a few about Eye of the Gods (mostly Daemonhood interacting with Enhancements, but some other stuff) and one about the Cabalists bonus that I plan to submit.

I feel like relying on the Khorne ally tricks is just asking for disappointment the moment the new Blades of Khorne book comes out. It'll hold together until then, but I certainly would plan mini purchases around that sort of thing unless you're aiming to podium a tournament in the next few months or something.

Not wrong. I painted 20 Grave Guard over the summer and have started 10 more, but I would happily redo all 30 if they were Sons of Velmorn quality.