Acrozatarim

They're just as 'historically accurate' as old Empire models were, inasmuch as the phrase is worth anything; they're drawing more heavily from the 14th-15th Century Burgundians, by the appearance of things, with bits and pieces influenced by other regions and centuries. Only their shield designs really throw things off.

I'm not sure why people think the Collegiate Arcane is going anywhere.

I strongly suspect the next Lumineth update will add phoenixes and related troops as part of Tyrion's lot, yeah.

Huh, I really like them. I wasn't expecting that, from the earlier previews of the 'bits' that we'd seen, but these really are great, and with a nicely distinct aesthetic from the old Empire style.

Might be a Harrowdeep Underworlds warband for Nighthaunt, but I definitely hope it's heralding cool stuff for a new Nighthaunt tome instead.

So, count how many of those 16 dice rolled a 5+, then add 2 to that number - so let's say 6 of your dice came up a 5 or 6, that'd be 6 + 2 for a total of 8 damage. If that damage total would be over 12 (because you rolled really well) then you reduce it down to 12. If you rolled a 6 to hit on the attack roll, that damage all becomes Mortal Wounds instead. So in this case, you'd have hit for 8 MWs.

Yeah, if you roll a 6 you calculate the damage as normal, it then all becomes Mortal Wounds.

Having a big dwarf throw-down would be pretty great.

I'd put IDK as likely; they're a very old tome and limited range.

That comment re Deepkin comes from a previous /tg/ 'leak' that is almost certainly nonsense, although we'll find out soon enough if the next Chaos battletome is what they predicted it would be.

Speaking of mount traits, while Fast 'Un seems so strong in general, my opinion of Mean 'Un went up a lot after my last battle. Consistently slamming in a larger number of mortal wounds before the enemy actually get to fight really helps even out poor dice rolls overall, and if you're rolling well, it turns the Sludgeraker into a bit of a bulldozer.

The section in the Warclans book about Mount Traits specifically says you only get to pick one hero to have one of the traits. I'm pretty sure the core then classifies them as an enhancement, ie you can get extras via the usual ways of adding enhancements through the relevant battalions.

My experience with Gutrippaz has been honestly pretty positive. Overpriced? A little. But they've got serious punch just while hanging around within 12 of a Sludgeraker, no need for a shaman babysitter as well (though it's nice).

Started a 1000pt Path to Glory campaign today, and got in our first battle; rolled up the Breakthrough battleplan. Noisy Racket definitely helped take the bite out of the enemy's first turn, and the 10-man Gutrippaz did some serious work while keeping within 12" of the Sludgeraker, mowing through a 20-man Mortek Guard unit and its attendant Mortisan. The poor Sludgeraker just couldn't catch a break though. Never rolled so many 1s on attack rolls, and didn't roll a single 6 on his attacks all game

How has Gobsprakk performed for you? Has he been worth it compared to another, cheaper Killaboss on Vulcha with more melee killing power?

Can you explain a bit about how this army list works in practice and what its strengths/weaknesses are? I'm struggling slightly to envisage what the overall strategy is, particularly wrt to the big birds.

Someone was saying on that thread that it's not the same as the NDA people were signing last week at Gencon, either. So it'd have to be super-recent if it is legit.

You can't really ignore the mortals, though; they're absolutely crucial to Boltboyz and Gutrippaz both. Ignore them, and you might as well replace your Boltboyz with Hobgrots as well, because if it were all 'just' regular wounds the Hobgrots do more damage there too! But the mortal wounds are there and they're absolutely critical to the way the army functions, and to the synergies with the Sludgeraker and shaman. The Sludgeraker aura alone causes Gutrippa damage to absolutely take off, even in just a 10-man unit, and Gutrippaz get more out of the aura than even Boltboyz do. I agree that Hobgrots are decent - hence why I referred to them as skirmishers as well rather than just chaff/screens - but they aren't going to do the job of Gutrippaz, and I think relying on Hobgrots alone to hold back the enemy army while your Boltboyz shoot is probably not going to work out all that well in play. I would always want some Hobgrots in my army, so I'm really not trying to rubbish them. Edit: Ironically enough, I was mostly preparing myself to be defending Hobgrots in this thread rather than be talking them down at all

I mean, you take Gutrippaz with Big Yellers because for their points they're more resilient and more killy in melee, hilariously more so when in 12" of a Sludgeraker. Hobgrotz are great as screens/skirmishers and bodies on objectives, don't get me wrong, but I'd be really worried with an army that's nothing but missile troops and screens that there's so little to counterpunch with - especially if the enemy have missile troops of their own and can just shoot your Boltboyz.

While Gutrippaz are probably a bit overcosted, I think generally people are underestimating them as well. They're genuinely pretty solid - just fiddlier to use than the simplicity of the Boltboyz. But I suspect really shooting-heavy Kruleboyz armies are going to struggle.

Honestly, assuming a 4+ armour save, unless the smaller hero has a good number of Wounds - like, 10 or more - Killbows are worse at small hero sniping than Boltboyz. 9 Wounds or less, which is where most smaller heroes lie, the Boltboyz are going to do more damage on average, and have a higher potential spike damage for that kind of target. However, the Killbow can do it by pointing and clicking from within 24" (or, let's face it, 27") range, whereas the Boltboyz need to close to their shorter range band to get that sort of killing power. Edit: Got the calcs for Wounds when shooting a target with LOS wrong!

The Killbow is basically a very powerful hunting rifle. You want to fire it at tough targets where its higher Rend and high damage potential can make large holes in things. The Killbow also has a range-based advantage. While it still has to target pretty high-Wound units to actually pull ahead of Boltboyz on damage, notably that's calculated against Boltboyz firing Hasty Shot - which they need to get within that shorter range for. The Killbow fires at maximum efficiency within its longer range. There's also the psychological impact. I'm not convinced the Killbow is better than another unit of Boltboyz in a lot of situations, but the potential to reach out and tear massive chunks out of usually-resilient targets at considerable range is probably going to have an effect on how opponents react to its presence.

Worth noting that Skumdrekk's weapon is slightly worse than a regular Snatchaboss's - he has 4 attacks at damage 2, while the Snatchaboss has 3 attacks at damage 3.

I'm not so sold on the superiority of the vulcha-riding Killaboss. He's good, don't get me wrong, but I don't think he's a must-pick. Compared to a Gnashtoof-rider he's about as resilient (4 more wounds but the Gnashtoof hits the extremely good 3+ save watermark). If the Gnashtoof gets a charge, then the vulcha-rider is only .4 wounds ahead of the Gnashtoof on average against a 4+ save target (7.8 wounds vs 7.4 wounds). The vulcha-rider also has a very large base which can be handy for spreading that battleshock resistance around, but is also more difficult to bubble-wrap with screens, and more difficult to fit into a densely-packed warband gathered round a Sludgeraker to give that battleshock resistance to in the first place. What you're getting for your 70 points is the flying, it being a monster for VPs, and the (really good!) command ability power. Since a Killaboss seems to be often getting slotted in primarily for the battleshock resistance, though, I'm not convinced that every list is going to have the 70 or 130 points left over just to give him a prestige mount when those points could go on more shooting or towards another Sludgeraker. Or, indeed, on Gobsprakk, since plenty of folks do seem to see him as pretty solid regardless.

I figure he'll find his way into lists if folks start testing a lot and find the Kruleboyz come up short on CPs, but I don't think we're necessarily a CP-intensive army. Killabosses obviate the need for the battleshock command, and AOA isn't as appealing on units engineered to be VEW Mortal Wound delivery vehicles.