SentinelGuy

That is some awesome work!

I have decided that I will try and make Viridian Pathfinders work and I will do it whilst avoiding the usual copy/paste lists 😅 (ok, it's probably going to suck, but it's getting really stale watching the same style lists play over and over). Here's the list, the "back of a cigarette packet" plan follows after. Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar- City: Living CityMortal Realm: GhyranLeadersNomad Prince (120)- General- Command Trait: Druid of the Everspring - Ironoak SkinSorceress (90)- Lore of Leaves: Lifesurge- City Role: General's AdjutantLord-Aquilor (170)- Artefact: Spear of the HuntBattleline20 x Wildwood Rangers (260)- City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)10 x Wildwood Rangers (130)10 x Wildwood Rangers (130)5 x Sisters of the Thorn (130)- Lore of Leaves: Cage of Thorns10 x Darkshards (100)Units10 x Shadow Warriors (110)6 x Vanguard-Raptors with Hurricane Crossbows (280)6 x Aetherwings (80)BehemothsTreelord (180)BattalionsViridian Pathfinders (140)Endless Spells / Terrain / CPsChronomantic Cogs (80)Total: 2000 / 2000Extra Command Points: 1Allies: 0 / 400Wounds: 123 Plan - The 3 Ranger units and Prince stay off board to use the Viridian Pathfinders ability. The Treelord stays hidden and the Shadow Warriors do their thing. That leaves the Sorceress and her Darkshard sacrifice unit, the Thorns, Aetherwings, Raptors and Aquilor on the table at the start. The Sorceress gets Cogs out ASAP, the Rangers and Prince pop up, as does the Treelord. The Aquilor uses his command ability and redeploys along with the Raptors (and their 54 shots). The Thorns, Aetherwings and Shadow Warriors can be wherever I need them the most, using their speed or deployment options to move as needed. Those birds are actually quite useful at supporting the Raptors, I didn't realize their protection ability kicked in at such a distance! If the dice gods are about, I should get the Rangers, Prince, Aquilor and Treelord into combat, and almost everything else up there shooting, spell casting or just getting in the way. The Sorceress and Darkshards can just hang back on an objective or in cover. One thing I still have to decide is which magic item to take as my second. Our magic items really do suck. So yeah, that's what I'm trying next.

My gaming group plays AoS so I end up playing it

The AoS lore is bland and the novels are almost universally terrible. I'm not keen on many of the AoS models, they are cluttered and the rules are as unbalanced as ever. The original arguments for AoS such as it being cheaper and requiring fewer books have all been shown to be false. Bring on the Old World and square bases. My Book of Grudges has been opened and I may be able to use all my old minis again.

Does the 1 in 4 limit on Stormcast get rounded up? E.g if I have 7 units in total, can 2 of them be SC?

Even old school wood elves needed a combat unit or 2 to really work.

Rending cold ones might actually make the knights and chariot worth it. I shall try it out in my next game.

Yeah spears are the weakest choice for freeguild, I'm using my old DoW/Empire army pikemen and I really don't want to buy any new models, so I'm stuck with spearmen. I've had a look at my old knights (metal Bretonnian errants) and I think I may be able to convert them to dark riders as I have some spare repeater crossbows.

I haven't played a meeting engagement yet, but I've been thinking about the following list. Like you, I also tried to make a Tempest's Eye list, but the first turn buffs don't really help a great amount. I've reached the point where I think Hammerhal is the only good option for meeting engagements because the buffs are there all the time. Although the CoS list first appears really broad, I don't think it is in reality because there are units that always feature in every 2000 point list you see posted. They're essentially the crutch of CoS, and ME games don't let us use them to the best of their ability because of weird deployment options and limited points. In ME games I think you're probably better off just playing a basic Order list if you aren't playing Hammerhal. At least that way you can take units that don't appear in CoS and aren't held back by the 1 in 4 for Sylvaneth and Stormcast. Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar- City: HammerhalMortal Realm: AqshySpearheadSorceress (90)- Spell: Lore of Cinder - Wings of Fire (Hammerhal Wizard)- City Role: General's Adjutant (Must be 6 wounds or less)10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)10 x Black Guard (140)Main BodyAssassin (80)Freeguild General (100)- General- Trait: Blood of the Twelve- Artefact: Ignax's Scales20 x Freeguild Guard (160)- Spears and Shields- City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)20 x Freeguild Guard (160)- Spears and ShieldsRearguard5 x Drakespawn Knights (170)Total: 1000 / 1000Extra Command Points: 0Wounds: 85

My local group is starting up a meeting engagement based campaign and I'm considering the following list. I know freeguild spearmen are the worst, but the old DoW pikemen I have are so pretty that it seems a waste to leave them in the cupboard. Couple of questions though - 1) the spell. Wings of fire seems like it would be useful for getting my knights and black guard into combat, but is it a bit weak? Should I be going for one of the other options? The Sorceress already has her own combined damage and de-buff, which leads me to think that wings is probably more use, especially with her command ability. 2) the artefact. Twin stone looks quite a poor choice for this list as the spearmen and black guard already have plenty of hit buffs, and the healing ability is wasted on 1W infantry. Ignax's scales gives me mortal wound protection which looks useful. What do you recommend? Allegiance: Cities of Sigmar- City: HammerhalMortal Realm: AqshySpearheadSorceress (90)- Spell: Lore of Cinder - Wings of Fire (Hammerhal Wizard)- City Role: General's Adjutant (Must be 6 wounds or less)10 x Freeguild Crossbowmen (100)10 x Black Guard (140)Main BodyAssassin (80)Freeguild General (100)- General- Trait: Blood of the Twelve- Artefact: Ignax's Scales20 x Freeguild Guard (160)- Spears and Shields- City Role: Honoured Retinue (Must be 5-20 models)20 x Freeguild Guard (160)- Spears and ShieldsRearguard5 x Drakespawn Knights (170)Total: 1000 / 1000Extra Command Points: 0Wounds: 85

@Mjolnertf Why shouldn't every unit in the book be useful? These are supposedly experienced games designers and they charge a premium price for their product. It's not as if they can't get similar units to work in other armies. Let's face it, the game is pretty basic as it is, it really shouldn't be a challenge to get these things ironed out before the book even goes to print.

In one of my games I cast warding brand on a unit of 16 freeguild crossbowmen and charged them into a treeman. They took an absolute beating, but so did he 😂, definitely one of the best spells in the book. As for the earlier question about dealing with enemies at range, large units of freeguild crossbowmen backed up by a hurricanum and/or knight azyros seems to be the best way at the moment (even better if you can get a freeguild general in the mix as well). You could try darkshards with a sorceress if you want more mobility at the expense of range.

After playing a few games I've reached the conclusion that drakespawn knights are one of the worst units in the game. It's hard to believe that GW took an already weak unit and actually made them worse, even more so when the designers think they have improved them. There's not a single reason to take them when demigryph knights, pistoliers and wild riders all exist in the same army book for cheaper or similar prices. At this point I'm convinced it's just deliberate trolling on the part of GW because they hate gamers who still want to play knights on normal sized horses/cold ones. My excitement for the book has been somewhat diminished after a few test games. They've cut out too many useful units and there's little synergy in what's left. Overall it feels half-baked, plenty of useless spells and artifacts, weak and/or overcosted units (drakespawn knights, drakespawn chariot, freeguild spearmen, hellblaster, hellstorm, phoenixes without riders, executioners). A few standout cities and units that everybody will take. They should have kept the old high elf general and standard bearer boxes in circulation and added the excelsior warpriest to the army. At least that way it would be possible to build an elven hero with a bow and have a hero on horseback to support the cavalry units. Then we could have had access to some cool magic banners that affect all CoS units and a supporting prayer list for the priest.

Forget new models, I'd be happy if we got some of the old warscrolls back for CoS. Cannons, bolt throwers, knights on horses, elven heroes with bows, human and elven heroes on horses or cold ones, warrior priests. All of these feature in the lore so there's absolutely no reason for them to be missing. It strikes me as rather silly that freeguild generals must ride a griffon or walk about on foot, or that dreadlords only ever ride dragons.

I think this is definitely one of the stronger cities. Anvilgard and Phoenicium look like the weaker options, I can't see a reason to choose either of them.

With Ghyrstrike he's chucking out 3 attacks that hit and wound on 2s and deal 6 damage each at -2 to saves. Plus he has the talon attack and a stomp which makes a unit in 3" attack at the end of the round. He can also use his decent shooting attack combined with the Living City command ability to get extra movement. He does work best with trees nearby, but he's still fearsome in CoS. Edit: he works differently in CoS, but thinking about it some more, I don't think he's necessarily worse. He always heals 1W a turn, can deploy up the board without needing nearby trees, he has the ability to take a spell that heals himself or another unit, and he can use the command ability for movement. The self healing options means that he stays at full power for longer without requiring a friendly wizard nearby to heal him. So, in effect, he deals better but fewer attacks in CoS, and he tanks better without support. If you're able to get a sorceress within 18" of an enemy unit that's just out of his reach, chuck cage of thorns on them to keep them in place for Durthu to attack.

My gut feeling is that small units of flagellants will be killed before they ever see combat, so you won't get the buff from their deaths.

It's the same in the undead book where they mention skeleton archers 😭 Back on topic, a Spirit of Durthu general with Ghyrestrike and Druid of the Everspring Circle (choosing Life Surge spell) sounds like a real pain in the butt to kill. He heals 1W each turn, +D6 if he can cast the spell. That's tanky. Another combo I'm liking is a Sorceress (choosing Cage of Thorns) and some sacrificial Darkshards to help guarantee the spell goes off and provide cover fire.

You could convert up the old anvil of doom into a luminark or hurricanum and count the runelord on it as a mage

Yes, you are right, the total lack of synergy between races is my main gripe with the new book. I've taken another look at my list - 1 freeguild general on griffon, lance and shield 1 battlemage 1 battlemage 20 freeguild halberdiers 10 freeguild swordsmen 5 pistoliers 5 pistoliers 1 scourgerunner chariot That takes me up to 1000 points exactly. What spells would you take?

I'm just getting started in a 1000 point campaign at my local club and I'm thinking about running this - 2x5 pistoliers 10 darkshards 20 freeguild halberdiers 1 sorceress - aura of glory 1 knight azyros 1 dreadlord on black dragon - general, lance and shield, hawk eyed, patrician's helm 1 extra command point The pistoliers and dragon lord make a pretty fast hammer. The sorceress accompanies the halberdiers and darkshards, boosting the number of attacks or handing out mortal wounds and debuffs. The knight azyros stands wherever he's needed most at the time. I did contemplate the freeguild general on griffon instead of the dragon, but I have a dragon converted that I'd quite like to use and it looks like the dragon is the slightly better fighter for fewer points.

The knights problem really makes me question their playtesting, especially considering that GW actually noted how bad knights were previously and the new warscroll was supposed to fix them. They need another attack or a hefty points drop.

Is there any chance the basic troops will have bows do you think?

Has there been any news about how stormcast will feature in the new book? Do you think it's likely that they will be relegated to allies?

That FB post just confirms what we already know. Those units are for all intents dead unless you want to run generic order and handicap yourself. They'll never get updates, their points won't get adjusted, it's a poor attempt at pacifying gamers.