Bradifer

I feel like Flesh Eater Court Ghouls are so close to Nosferatu fiends already. Wouldn't mind an army of thralls or Igor's that can specifically help the Vampires. We've got plenty of chaff, we're Death. Would be nice to see playable elite units that feel like vampires. Slender proper human-looking vampires that can transform into Vargheists would be fun. Emphasis on making the battlefield "NIGHT TIME" could be an amazing mechanic. I love my VLOZD but we have plenty of 350+ point units as it is. A vampiric mind control to use the enemy's shooting would be fun. Big fan of the self-sacrifice themes i.e. warlock/necromancer in other games. "Blood Bags" that are dragged along to keep the Vampire's health near full is another concept. Vampire pirates just seem so goofy. They work in the video game, but is an army of shooting really what GW needs to be adding? Shooting is awesome to have, I'm just not sure that the world's strongest death vampires should have to rely on plain ol' guns.

Hey TGA! It's been a while since I've been deep into AOS. Wanted to jump into the discussion with my take on Legion of Sacrament with Dolorus Guard. To optimize a list I understand it may be more viable to add Grimghast Reapers pr big blobs of Skellies/Chainrasps, I just don't own those units at the moment. I also own 4 Morghasts, 3 Vargheists, 1 Morits Engine, and the Mortachs all with magnetized butts. Mortarchs are challenging to put into a list when they steal your better VLOZD's stuff. Other units don't have summonable keyword so they seem to have been tossed aside from GW for the moment. At least the Morghasts are even cheaper these days Spirit Hosts seem great with the changes to bringing back units. Maybe better if you're running Arkhan as they've updated him. Lots of points increases across the old LOS battalion, can't imagine that's viable now. 9 hosts could be great, but that's a lot of bases to get into combat, and realistically I'll never get to re-summon this unit because 9 will never die. Having multiple big targets for Vanhel's seems like it's ideal for list building. 6 Spirit Hosts + 20 Reapers would be nice to fit in, but Dolo guard isn't cheap and the Necro's are quite expensive now. Would you choose Wristbands over the Shroud on the VLOZD? Seems pretty meta dependent. How would you fill the remaining 260 points? What changes would you make here to optimize this list? -I've yet to play with Endless spells. I don't own them yet. It's on the fun list, but I've no idea how they fit into a competitive list. --------- Allegiance: Legion of Sacrament Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon (440) - General - Deathlance & Shield & Chalice - Command Trait: Mastery of Death - Artefact: Shroud of Darkness - Lore of the Vampires: Vile Transference Necromancer (130) - Artefact: Wristbands of Black Gold - Lore of the Deathmages: Fading Vigour Necromancer (130) - Lore of the Deathmages: Overwhelming Dread 40 x Skeleton Warriors (280) - Ancient Spears 5 x Dire Wolves (70) 5 x Dire Wolves (70) 5 x Hexwraiths (130) - Allies 5 x Hexwraiths (130) - Allies 6 x Spirit Hosts (240) The Dolorous Guard (120) - Allies Total: 1740 / 2000 Extra Command Points: 1 Allies: 380 / 400 Wounds: 122 260 points remaining. ---------

That nerf hits Death across the board but is guaranteed to hit Lords of Sacrament. I wonder if they'll drop the points on the battalion or Mortis Engine if the list goes quiet.

Looks like the GH 2019 points changes are going to hit the Lords of Sacrament units pretty hard. LoN points increases: Nagash up 50 points Arkhan up 20 points Necromancer up 20 points Dire wolves up 10 points Court of New Lahmia up 40 points The other death changes are in the spoiler below. So Archon + Necro + Necro + Dire Wolves + Dire Wolves appears in a number of Lords of Sacrament lists I've seen, at least the ones focused on the battalion. So a 60 - 80 point nerf is going to hurt a bit, but we'll figure it out. Grimghast Reapers also increased in price. How will you guys be changing your lists? I will probably add the Morghasts back in or try out the Hexwraiths again.

Hello, I have been away from Warhammer for a while, both the hobby and the gaming sides. I'm looking to paint some Skeleton Warriors and Dire Wolves to match the rest of my Death Army. Most of the death army was commissioned so I'm not as skilled as the pictures might imply, really I'm just looking to get back into Age of Sigmar and I'd love to finish up the battleline units so I could play a tournament in Fall. Pictures should be posted, but the colors are generally black with purple tint and the Ethereal Soul/Nighthaunt color on the spirits. With skeletons we could go with the classic bone color or try something darker that lines up with the Mortarch mount/Morghast look. For the Dire Wolves, I'm actually using Thunderwolves. They look a lot beefier than the Fenrisian Wolves or the old vampire counts Dire Wolves. My wife and I discussed trying to paint the wolves as spirit wolves, I just haven't really seen any other spirit wolf miniatures to compare that idea. TL;DR What is your opinion on a good matching paint job for 50 Skeleton Warriors and 10 Dire Wolves (Thunderwolf model) ?

How's Legion of Sacrament doing these days? There's been a lot of new releases between DOK, Grots, FEC, Skaven... Did we ever reach consensus on the best combination of endless spells and debuffs for our armies?

Has anyone tested the new endless spells enough to know which ones work out with the Lords of Sacrament Battalion? I'm seeing a lot of lists drop the battalion because of the mortis engine tax, but I'm wondering if the extra spell casts are better than before with the new spells.

Vargheists don't hit hard enough to really kill anything and are too expensive for how easy they are to kill. Solid casual option and they can hit hard but often they will get screened and then immediately wiped out via shooting or a big charge. I think Morghasts kill things better than Vargheists and Hexwraiths/Black Knights/Dire Wolves work as mobile units.

What's interesting to me is that he could have gone - 6 spirit hosts (240) +1 Necromancer (110) +Lords of Sacrament Battalion (130) But I think he had a nighthaunt heavy list before so this could have just been a crossover. Or maybe 3 units of 6 hosts is just too much to break through with wolves, VLoZD and spells going nuts. Russ's list for reference: England - Russ Veal Allegiance: Legion of Sacrament Realm: Shyish Leaders Arkhan The Black Mortarch of Sacrament (320) - General - Lore of the Dead: Fading Vigour Vampire Lord On Zombie Dragon (440) - Deathlance - Lore of the Vampires: Vile Transference -Artefact: Ethereal Amulet Necromancer (110) - Lore of the Deathmages: Overwhelming Dread Battleline 5 x Dire Wolves (60) 5 x Dire Wolves (60) 5 x Dire Wolves (60) Units 6 x Spirit Hosts (240) 6 x Spirit Hosts (240) 6 x Spirit Hosts (240) Behemoths Mortis Engine (180) Endless Spell Geminids of Uhl -Gysh (40) Total: 1990 / 2000 Here's the rest of the 6 Nations lists in case anyone missed them: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o6QN3xQ8-7ZoCq5XHms-oKn8syebY5HU/view

This is where I'm aiming until I buy some endless spell stuff, which might be a while. Arkhan The Black Mortarch of Sacrament (320)- General- Lore of the Dead: Overwhelming Dread (Deathmages)Necromancer (110)- Artefact: Wristbands of Black Gold - Lore of the Deathmages: Fading VigourNecromancer (110)- Lore of the Deathmages: DecrepifyVampire Lord On Zombie Dragon (440)- Deathlance & Shield & Chalice- Artefact: Shroud of Darkness - Lore of the Vampires: Vile Transference40 x Skeleton Warriors (280)- Ancient Spears10 x Dire Wolves (120)5 x Dire Wolves (60)6 x Spirit Hosts (240)Mortis Engine (180)Lords of Sacrament (130)Total: 1990 / 2000 I still think Morghast Harbinger & Hexwraiths are generally underrated and should be considered. VLoZD loses a lot of value with heroes being more survivable, he's got a big target as usual. But he still hits hard and survives for a long time. Synergizes well with Mortis Engine's ability to heal. Can sprint up field and summon slow spirit hosts. With command abilities costing resources, the VLoZD can now use his powerful Dread Knight on select units to act as a second Van Hels in a way. Really what you want then is multiple units that hit really hard when buffed, I think that will be a key strategy with Death moving forward. As your summonable units hold the lines and win attrition wars, your s I think the biggest candidates are: 40 Skelly 4 Morghast Harbinger w/ Halberd 10+ Hexwraiths 6-12 Spirit Hosts 15-30 Grave Guard This is what I'll be trying. If you want to try the purple sun, drop the 6 hosts and -5 direwolves for 5 Hexwraiths and the 100 for Purple Sun.

You might need to test them over a few more games. Sounds like the dice were just not in your favor. Also I find most death units are very much about how the affect the battle/objective. So if your spirit hosts/hexwraiths just hold down part of the board and demand specific answers, they are doing their job, so the rest of your army can do its job. Don't forget you can always just retreat hexwraiths and fly out of combat, maybe do some mortal wounds, and regenerate for a turn or two.

Spirit Hosts are either really efficient or inefficient depending on who you put them up against. If they're tarpitting big rend units and they don't have -1 to hit, you're winning the value war, so you should pull ahead in the rest of the battle. If your hosts are stuck against -1 attack debuffs or enemy infantry with rend (-), then they will die faster than they will kill, so that's where they're not efficient. The gravesites may not rez models often, but they can still heal up damaged hosts. I think the main argument here is spirit hosts vs. hexwraiths and when to pick one over another. Spirit hosts should be battleline, but since they're not it makes the decision easier. Hexwraiths are easier to bring back with DI, are faster, and have decent attacks some 6+ mortal wound attempts. Overall slightly more damage to units without a great save - but spirit hosts are better vs units with high save. I think it revolves a lot more around what your strategy is going to be on every mission. Hexwraiths are fast and can still fly, so now you have a very strategic unit that uses mobility, damage, and durability to win objectives. So I think it's more of an overall army composition think. Are your units arriving in waves? How do hexwraiths affect that-which wave do they arrive? Or do you need objective holders that mostly stand in place? Hosts are more efficient for that job, but are they really if hexwraiths are easier to reanimate? What's your plan with summoning units from gravesites? Hosts get more value from this because they are slow. Well now you need a hero to reliably move up and summon hosts out of the grave, etc... Lots of decisions but that's why I think GW did a good job making them both good units but not auto-include skyfire/kurnoth hunter level units.

Might just be preference, but if the casting costs stayed as "5" or "6" instead of "B B B B B B" that is way easier to see on the fly. People might just ignore it, but at a glance it's easier to see the number instead of symbols.

Very well done. Thanks for doing this! Fun blend of GW art and other fantasy art. Is there an easy way to pick and choose just the cards you want if you're only going to need appx ~ 18 cards or so?

Member wise, I would prefer a one time or once a year/every 6 months payment. I don't want to be charged monthly, but if it's once a year for $10-20ish or whatever, that's more convenient.

The spiky "collar" looks alevish or undead to me. I can't help but feel that its supposed to be a large shoulderpad i.e. Warcraft pauldrons. Either way we can tell it is pretty small based on the detail and picture quality, so it's not the top of a ship or head crown of a behemoth.

As much as I would lik forit to be death, it doesn't seem like it. It looks like it's very alive. Looks like its from chaos, if the nautical barnacles and/or chains are related. I imagine a big chained up sea-beast or a wet-moist creepy crawly that is now imprisoned to do mean things via chaos mean people. Could be Nurgle, could be a modified Skaven Clan Moulder-style behemoth. Those grafts of skin tell me there is something sinister and nasty with the creature. Really leans towards Nurgle imo. I'm all for Slaanesh too, but it would seriously be a new direction because it looks like the opposite of speed/sleek/sexy/aelvish.

I've never played WHFB, but I like the Forests blocking LOS terrain. And really you can both agree, point a terrain piece, and say "that is a forest". Put one tree on it if you like, as long as you agree. For clarification and simplicity purposes, I would say something like "Forests block LOS 100%, except for Behemoths. Behemoths can be targetted as normal." Tree's aren't infinitely tall, and giant fat Maw-Krushas are still easy to hit. Behemoths don't benefit from terrain cover, nor do they benefit from tree LOS. The other way to rule it, as that the "Forest Trees are infinitely tall, and just say they always block LOS." Maw Krusha is big and all, but seem trees are thousands of years old, and are much bigger than a house sized dragon, they're as tall as 20 houses. ^On of these actually sounds like a really fun rule I may see if my group wants to integrate it.

I suppose everyone has different goals in mind. I don't hate shooting, but I think it's a bit of an eyeroll when it is unrealistically accurate at sniping a model with a hat on surrounded by men without hats on, at ~30" range. Primarily because the lax rules means there is a lack of counterplay. My hero standing out in the open and dies? My fault. My Hero standing behind 3 ranks of soldiers, in a forest and dies just as easily? GW's fault. Are Shooting units supposed to be hero snipers or ranged volleys? Give them a choice to pick between the two i.e. Longstrike Crossbows vs. Hurricane Crossbows or other rules. My goals are for The rules to matter i.e. there is an impact, adds diversity to the game via player skill, army composition, and terrain diversity vs. no terrain. The rules to be very clear and concise (not interpreting 25/50/75 % model showing). The effects be very consistent/flat number changes or yes/no's. Examples I.e. Is the model on terrain? Yes? OK +1 Save. Can you see any part of the model? Yes? Ok shoot it. Is the model behind the base of another model? Yes? Ok +1 Save. Is the shooting unit within 3" of an enemy? Yes? Ok -1 to hit with shooting. (Unless warscroll says "This unit has close combat shooting" or something similar.) Cannons/poison breath could get an "Ignores cover bonuses from terrain/obscuring models" which is both more realistic and adds diversity among shooting warscrolls. Arrows and bullets would probably not get this. Something like that. Even though it's not perfect, it lets players PLAY THE WARHAMMER GAME and not READ THE RULESHAMMER BOOK DURING THE GAME. Seems GW is getting better at pushing rules in that direction, but I'm newer to GW in general.

Much like the debate to reduce shooting effectiveness while shooting units are in combat, I think simplicity is key. My idea for shooting in combat was "If Shooting unit is in combat i.e. within 3" of an enemy, it makes -1 to hit with its shooting attacks." Another idea was to give shooting a minimum range i.e. 3" for certain weapons like bows, but give certain weapons a minimum range of -" such as hand pistols and throwing axes. ---on topic--- I wouldn't want to impose too much -1 to hit in a game as it can be one sided and devastating. I would prefer to give units a cover save a la 40K. A blatant simple cover save. If there is terrain or units in front of the model attempting to be shot it gets +1 to save. Shooting units may bypass this rule by having a special rule on their warscroll. Alternatively, units may choose to use terrain to gain a height advantage any bypass the rule, but that's adding more rules to the game and more options for interpretation. I think if they want heroes to survive, they should give more heroes a shooting and magic Look-Out-Sire with something high like a 4+ or 5+. That many rules tacked against shooting seriously alters a metagame but allows for plenty of diversity as well. And I think we all wish heroes were more survivable, particularly vs. shooting armies (Kurnoth, Skyfires, Dwarven/free people guns/artillery, Skyre stuff, Warp Lightning Cannons, Thundertusks).

Units cant be within 3" unless they're in combat with you. I think that is correct. A unit at minimum distance that fails a " charge is technically like 3.001 " away, therefore fire away. I also quite enjoy 1500 pt games, an find 1000 and 1500 pt games are faster, easier, and more common if you are not with very experienced/competitive players. --------- Another idea for matched play would be to let players choose either 3 battleline units at 2000 pts or ~400 points of battleline units, distributed however. I think you might see more armies with 2 strong battleline units rather than 3 weak ones. I.E. Seraphon: 3 units of 10 Saurus Warriors becomes One block of 30 Saurus Warriors & One Block of 10 Saurus Guard Death: 3 units of 10 zombies becomes One block of 40 Skeletons and One Block of 20 Zombies & Points to summon more zombies Sylvaneth: 3 Units of Tree Revenants becomes Two Blocks of 20 Dryads Really it would be up to the player to determine if they want to spend more points, or have more units. Either way I think GW still requires the sale of BattleLine models, because you benefit by stacking Battleline (I.e. See Clanrat rules or zombie rules). This system would allow: Allow further flexibility in army building Still simplistic rules ("Hey Player A, do you have 400 points of Battleline?" "Yes I have Soulblight allegiance and on big block of 10 Blood Knights". Can be more easily variable via Matched Play Points size. (I.e. 1k Game = 2 battleline units or 200 points, 2K Game = 3 Battleline units or 400 points, what about 1500 Game? 3 battleline units or 300 points?) You could evn drop down to ~750 point games. Expands diversity for the higher and lower tiers of competitive play. If a guy loves elite units but dislikes hordes, he can stick to one big expensive battleline. If somebody just wants Troop filled army, but only has enough Saurus Warriors to make 2 good units, rather than 3 weak ones (i.e. 60 total).

"The player whose turn it is picks a unit to attack with and attacks with it's ranged weapons, then the opposing player must attack with a unit using their ranged weapons, and so on until all eligible units on both sides have attacked once each....(More Snipped)" AoS is a simple game. That is a complete overhaul of the sequences of each turn, and it's pretty complex at that. That is a very complex redesign that would require rebalancing of offensive/defensive potential and movement of every unit in the game. The opposite of a GHB 2.0 "patch" or rules tweak, if you will. I think the easiest fix is to either give shooting units -1 to hit while enemies are within 3 in. or to give shooting a minimum range (say this on each warscroll.) Some units would have special powers which lets them shoot in close combat i.e. Dracoth breath, pistsols, hand axes etc...

On Summoning: The goal is to make the mechanic a risk vs reward system, but not underpowered/overpowered. Also, not a very complex mechanic. It's simple as it stands. GHB 2.0 could give certain summon-oriented units the ability to extend your Total Points for your army by marginally small amounts. This gives incentive to summoning that only applies to pointed games (Matched Play) and doesn't muck with narrative/open. Example 1: (This text would be in GHB 2.0, not on warscrolls). Arkhan the Black adds 40 points to your reinforcement pool. These points cannot add to the total value of your starting army. (If this makes Arkhan OverPowered, you can raise his points by ~20, and then give ~60 points of summoning instead.) This adds risk i.e. higher points invested in "summoning oriented units" while allowing higher rewards (bonus summoning pool size). "Bonus reinforcement points are always consumed before pitched battle points are." - Verbiage stating something like that, allows bonuses i.e. +1 summoning while you have bonus points available. (This may not be necessary if its too complicated, but adds potential rules diversity. Example 2: (This text would be in GHB 2.0, not on warscrolls). Slann Starmaster adds 40 points to your reinforcement pool. These points cannot add to the total value of your starting army. Almost the same example. But Most Seraphon units cost ~100+. So he effectively needs to start an army at 1940/2000, + 40 "free" reinforcement points gives him the ability to summon Saurus Warriors more easily. "Slann Starmaster has +1 to summoning Saurus Warriors or Saurus Guard while bonus reinforcement points remain in the pool. If Slann Starmaster or Lord Kroak is your general, you may dedicate a battleline unit to start the game not-deployed on the table, instead it can only be added to the field via summoning. (Additional mechanic that totally fits a summoning-oriented army's theme.) This specifically rewards players who wish to summon battleline troop like units (or whatever GW designates) and provides no bonus to X units such as a Bastiladon or Old One on Carnosaur. Example 3: (This text would be in GHB 2.0, not on warscrolls). Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead (Or a Deathlords/DeathRattle Battletome Allegiance Spell) gains the spell: Reanimate Undead. 18" range. Choose a point within range. All Skeletons, Grave Guard, Zombies, and Zombie Dogs within 6" of the point, may regenerate D6 wounds worth of models. (May or may not exceed past starting limit, depends on how strong we want spell.) I don't play any TK but I understand they have something along these lines. On Ranged: I think we could make one clause that's not overpowering but simple. Example 4: (This text would be in GHB 2.0, not on warscrolls). Units within 3" of an enemy unit, have -1 to hit in the shooting phase. This rewards models that could be made with a retreat-and-fire rule (i.e. new Aelves?) but also allows counterplay to ranged spam via deep striking units, or fast flanking units (i.e. Gore Gruntas/Cavalry/Fast Units). Additional Counterplay would be to rework swarm units like the Death's Vampire Bats that gives -1 to hit in enemy shooting phase, but instead it is to allied units within ~X inches, rather than the bats being near the enemy. Any thoughts?

I wouldn't personally play this, but I would want it to exist. I imagine it closely resembling the Haradrim from Return of the King (The arab-looking guys with the Oliphants). Seems like it's pretty easy to make human sized models, it's a different aesthetic. Sandstorm could be a theme. Plus there's plenty of desert-like options that we don't see much of currently. (Elephants I guess? Not really desert.) Jihns/Genies, Flying Carpets, curses, maybe even tomb-hunters that disturb mummies and curse who ever they get in combat with.