Thomas Lyons

SCE Endless Spell.

Points from the starter look like they are: Stomcast Knight-Incantor --140 Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-charger --240 Castigators --3 for 80 (18 for 400) Celeste Ballista --120 Evocators --3 for 140 Sequiturs --3 for 80 (18 for 400) Nighthaunt Chainrasp Horde --10 for 100 (40 for 360) Guardian of Souls --120 Knight of Shrouds on Ethereal Steed --140 Lord Executioner --100 Glaivewraith Stalkers --5 for 80 Grimghast Reapers --4 for 60 Spirit Torment --120

Ok. I will consolidate all future rumor info/leaks to this rumor thread.

I assure you that 40 points is its new cost. That said, it now only extends range by 6" and grants one additional spell per round to be able to be cast. It can also now be dispelled on a 6+. So it is quite different.

Here is some more info on the Endless Spells. Endless spell costs will range from 20 to 100 points, with a handful (3) of the endless spells clocking in at 20 points and Purple Sun being the only spell to clock in at 100 points. The new Balewind Vortex comes in at 40 points.

No official idea, although I suspect they'll answer that he can go on it because he doesn't have a Wounds value above 8 (since it is *).

Here are some 2.0 rumors/leaks that have come my way: At the end of each turn, you will lose as many models as it takes to return that unit to coherency. When a general dies mid game, you will select a new one. Confirmation that command abilities can be used more than once. Bale wind vortex adds +6" and one additional spell per round for the wizard on it. Wizards on it cannot have a wounds characteristic more than 8 (thus no Morathi or Eidolon). Enemies can banish it on a 6+ in their own hero phase, but they must be a wizard and it takes a casting attempt to do so. The six Matched Play scenarios in the core rulebook are those from the GHB2016. This leads me to speculate that of the 12 in GHB2018, 6 will be those from GHB2017 and 6 will be new. Monsters and Warmachines over 8 wounds will no longer gain bonuses to saves from cover. That's all I have right now.

It is and this is exactly what I have been warning folks about for the last couple years. If they are going to have rolling discontinuation with older factions, we can expect them to roll some "current" factions into compendium/discontinued status in the coming years, which severely limits my interest in building a majority of the armies in the game :-/ Not true.

'Right, but it let me travel an additional 15" to claim the objective.'

This lines up with the other rumors I've heard and reported on. It would make sense with a "Phase 2" that there would be a new starter box, especially if the focus is shifting towards the threat of Nagash. Vince and I reported on the significance of the updated AoS branding on Warhammer Weekly back when Malign Portents was announced. Logo/branding changes aren't things that happen on a whim; they mark a major marketing shift. We even suggested that a soft AOS reboot may be coming with this; looks like it may pan out as such. That said, I think that people may have expectations too high on the new death that is coming. If I were a betting man, we'll see an update to all of the old GW sculpts in Legions of Nagash like the Black Coach, Bats, Zombies, etc. The book specifically calls out that only units with warscrolls in that book can be used in that allegiance. This is the first time this has ever occurred, where allegiance is based on what is in a battle tome rather than on keywords. They won't release a new set of death models clearly in alignment with Nagash that aren't in that book. Now, if it is a rebellious upstart faction, ala Flesh-eater Courts, then I could see a new book. But if it is the new Black Coach, as many are expecting, I anticipate it will be a range update (that may have not been ready when they wanted to release the LON battle tome).

Heya friends! As many know, this past weekend was the Holy Wars 2018 narrative event in the Chicago-area. Holy Wars is the premier narrative hobby event in North America that miraculously balances the highest levels of hobby with the highest levels of competitive play. This year was certainly no different. I've posted some photos at the end of the page with stand out armies at this year's event. Photos of @Holy Hammer Hern's beautiful tables can be found in my Holy Wars 2017 posts from last here (found here, here, and here). Vince and I have done a lot of coverage thus far so I don't see a reason to repeat those details here. On the drive home from the event, Vince and I covered each of our games in a blow by blow coverage over the course of two videos. On Wednesday, we had Steve Herner (@Holy Hammer Hern), who is the creator and driver behind this event along with his club the Holy Hammers, on to Warhammer Weekly where we talked all things Holy Wars and his experiences as a ringer for the event. Finally, last night we @Rob Symes's Honest Wargamer show where we talked about the event and our experiences (Apologies to David Griffin for getting our score wrong on Rob's show; it was 14-6, not 20-0). The links to all of this coverage can be found below: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/234249072 While I didn't perform as well in the games as I would have liked, I was honored with the Hobby Hammerist Award for a second year in a row. I was super honored by it as there was such stiff competition at the event in the hobby categories. Thanks for such a great weekend everyone who attended and participated! Now enjoy a handful of the awesome looking armies that were present at the event!

Reinforcements have arrived for the Kharadrong Raiders! Previously, the younger element of the remnants of the Grimharaz lodge were represented in the predominately Kharadron core of the army. With this new flight, more of the whole spectrum of the lodge is represented. Let's take a look! The traditionalists of the lodge, still adamantly aligned with Runefather Zharrik, are represented in the Fyreslayer Vulkite Berzerker and Auric Runesmiter units. Take note of the protective ur-gold runes flaring up and covering their upper torso in a magma-like crust to protect them from the blows of their enemies! This patterning is all freehand work. The Auric Runesmiter can be seen holding his Forge Key aloft as the molten crust parts before him and he emerges from the magma tunnels. This Runesmiter is converted from from WHQ Doomseeker and is appropriately equipped with both his Forge Key as well as his smoldering Latch-Axe. The younger generation, those aligned with Runeson Thrundrik and who more fully adopted the way of the sky fleets, are reinforced with the arrival of Thrundrik's very own Flagship, the Gorog Varrbarag ("Party Boat!"). You can see one of the crew as imbibed a tad too much and lays flaked out on the deck. And still, there are still other remnants of the broken lodge that have returned after their long exile. Some, like the Runelord Agrhun, have continued to practice a variant forms of rune magic although it has been decades since many shaped Ur-gold as the lodge's Runemasters once did. Others, jaded by age and broken dreams, have forsaken the traditions of runic empowerment and taken up the finest arms and armor in all the Mortal Realms. These grumbling Longbeards take every opportunity to remind the Shattered Lodge of what was lost. While still others, particularly the youngest and progressive of Thrundrik's followers who have spent a significant amount of time amongst the cities of the Firestorm Plateau, have worked to bridge the gap between technology and the magic of the Mortal Realms. The young upstart Hazgal, foremost student of this emerging discipline, has learned to harness the very energies of Hysh through rune craft. The culmination of his experimentation is found in an endrin-powered Luminark, a prototype war machine that Hazgal has managed to build and hopes to reproduce to reinforce Barak-Zharr and the remnants of the Grimharaz lodge. Such experimentation is looked askance by the traditionalists and only heightens the tensions present amongst the reunited lodge. Only time will tell if the remnant will survive.

Possibly new terrain in the Aelf video?

Nope. But you can ally him in to get +1 to hit.

With the start of the new year, I figured it was time to formally introduce the world to my newest army and current project: The Kharadrong Raiders. No, I didn't spell their name wrong. This post will cover their conception as an army, the initial round of photography and finally the background lore I've whipped up for them. Putting the Pieces Together So, what are the Kharadrong Raiders? The Kharadrong Raiders are obviously my take on the Kharadon Overlords. When this army was first previewed last April, I was torn. A year prior I had been working on a Dispossessed force during the PMP's Budget of Sigmar Contest and I desperately shared my desire for a dwarven airship. Jokingly I said during a Warhammer Weekly: "Make it happen GW!" Little did I realize that we would have not only a Dwarven airship,but an entire faction a little over a year later. But as I said, I was torn. Despite wanting this army so badly, there was something to be desired with their aesthetic. Don't get me wrong, I like metal. I'm a dwarf player, of course I do. But I also like beards and a little bit of skin. I wanted a connection to more traditional dwarves and Barak Thryng seemed like such a rejection of this (given that is is like 1% of the total KO population). So I was on the fence and the Monopoly-man head of Brokk just pushed me over the edge with initially rejecting the army. Then I felt a little bit guilty, as one might anticipate given my prior intense desire for an army just like this. I mean, how often does GW deliver just what someone asks for?1 So, I sat down and tried to figure out how I could remedy this and make these guys work. I had also long been interested in a Fyreslayers project, and as I mused on what this could look like, Sigmar's inspiration struck! What if I reimagined what Long Drong's Slayers might look like if they were modernized and brought into the current AOS aesthetic. For those who don't know Long Drong's Slayers, Long Drong was a slayer pirate who captained his own ship and led a Dogs of War mercenary company in the Old World. I realized this project allowed all the pieces to fit together! I could do my Airship fleet of KO, have the hair I was looking for even with closed faced helms (because of the Slayer mohawks), and I could have definite ties/homages to the Old World while still being firmly seated in the Mortal Realms. I could even do a Aqysh-based force with orange glow effects (which I had been experimenting on with the Phoenix Temple models). The only challenge standing in the way of this project was cost. Fyreslayer mohawks are understandably in-demand on the secondary market, which meant that I was going to likely have to buy a whole host of Fyreslayer boxes. I lucked out when I found out that 14 mohawks came per box of 10 Vulkites. That said, to make a base 10 infantry troops for my army, we're talking about $105 MSRP retail. So I mused on it for a week or so. It was such an awesome concept that I realized I also couldn't not do it. So, I tightened my belt and got to work with an initial test model last May. Things came together better than I could have imagined. The mohawks weren't difficult to line up. Weapon conversions were pretty much snip and glue. The Bases weren't difficult to produce. And the color scheme popped! Thus I committed to the project and pulled the trigger my new army.... I've designed the project to come together in multiple flights and I use events to plan my projects. The first event on the docket was Holy Havok, the team event put on in Chicago at the beginning of November of each year. The Holy events, put on by @Holy Hammer Hern and the Holy Hammer club differ from standard tournaments in that they have a more narrative focus (not unlike RAW in the U.K.) and the Holy events are the premier Hobby events in the U.S. Steve's tables are lovingly assembled and customized to the various mortal realms. This event was a highly competitive hobby environment and the perfect place to premier the Kharadrong. My co-host @Vincent Venturella rose to the challenge and assembled his own force to pair with mine. I'll cover this event and the results of that event in a later post. Assembling A Sky Fleet So I set about finishing the first round of models. Here are the results of these first models: In the midst of this work, I experienced a setback. Literally days after I completed my second full unit, the GHB2017 dropped with the "adjustments" to Thunderers which made my unit (that I had converted to all have different poses) unplayable. It wasn't just that they got their power adjusted down; the unit I had painted was literally illegal under the new rules. The changes also threw into question the competitive viability of the whole project. To see this thing through, I would be hobbying on it for the entire year and there was a chance I would be taking a sub-par army to these events. The prospect was less than enticing and I considered scrapping the whole project. Luckily, I didn't. I loved the concept of this enough that I resolved to see it through, even if it was sub-optimal in competitive play. The silver lining was that Fyreslayers under the new system were highly competitive and their aesthetic was baked into my forces. The allies system dovetailed perfectly with the hybrid lists I was already considering. If the KO thing was a dud, I could always redirect my work to pure Fyreslayers. So I pushed through and here is what I came up with: Background Lore Now I needed a story to launch these pirate slayers into the AOS world. This is what I've initially come up with: Kharadrong’s Raiders are a mercenary band made up of the remnants of the Grimharaz Lodge, who’ve recently retaken their ancestral hold of Barak-Zharr. Their name is honorific of an ancient mythical hero, Long Drong, who similarly led a band of slayer mercenary pirates on sailing vessels to plunder and to victory. As a Dogs of War force, the Kharadrong’s Raiders have found common cause with Trapjaw’s Barnyard Busters in the mutual pursuit of gold and glory. The origin of the Kharadrong’s Raiders is a long and tragic story. Decades ago, the Grimharaz lodge came under assault by Tzeentch daemon hordes in what would later become known as the War of the Wyrdquartz. While many of the lodges held their ground, Grimharaz was at the heart of the conflict and sustained heavy losses. Despite the intervention of Kharadron Overlord fleets, the lodge’s hold of Barak-Zharr was lost under the press of daemon flesh. The remnants of Grimharaz, now homeless and hopeless, disseminated amongst the Baraks of the Kharadon Overlords and picked up work where they could find it while the Grimharaz’s Runefather, Zharrik, went into a self imposed exile. For years the remnants of the Grimharaz lodge toiled amongst the Overlords, and many served aboard Overlord vessels as mercenaries. Over time, the sons of Grimharaz adopted the means and methods of the Kharadron. They learned to sail the aethersphere under the skilled guidance of Zilfin navigators and distill the essence of aethergold from the Khemists of Urbaz. Despite their exile amongst the Overlords, the Runeson Thrundrik never forgot the halls of Barak-Zharr. Thrundrik and his trusted brother-in-arms Varag set about re-gathering the lodge with the goal of reclaiming Barak-Zharr. Even in these early stages of re-formation, Thrundrik saw that many of the younger generation had assimilated to the ways of the Overlords, while the older longbeards held strong to the ancient traditions of the lodge. To help bridge this division, Thrundrik sought out Runefather Zharrik and reunited the lodge under Zharrik, knowing full well that the tension between the new and the old could not be maintained indefinitely. But the unity held and the combined arms of young and old, aethermatics and ur-gold runes side by side, retook Barak-Zharr. Years have passed and the lodge persists amidst the tensions. New and old have found an odd peace in the firescorched halls of Barak-Zharr as ancient stoneworks have been restored and aethergold furnaces installed. The Grimharaz lodge has found unlikely allies with a neighboring Ironjawz warband led by Trapjaw but the take is good and the Orruks (or at least their lust for gold) is trustworthy enough. Recently, Thrundrik has caught wind of large remaining deposits of Wyrdquartz nearby and has sent a joint force led by his brother-in-arms Varag and Trapjaw to investigate. It was Tzeentch’s desire for Wyrdquartz that led to the loss of the Hold the last time around and Thrundrik refuses to let it happen again. He hopes that Varag and Trapjaw can get in front of this situation and maybe even make some profit while doing so. Final Descent With everything else in place and putting the final touches on my last couple units, I needed to finally bring the legendary Barak-Zharr to life. I spent most of the month of October hobbying away on my board for Holy Havok. Ultimately, I think things came together fairly well, but I'll let you judge. And the rest of the finished units in the first round of models: I hope you enjoyed this introduction to my current passion project. In future posts, I'll provide some behind the scenes glimpses while various stuff was WIP, as well as detailing Vince and I's Holy Havok 2017 experience, and I, of course, have new additions to this force I've completed in the meantime. I mean, Holy Wars 2018 is indeed coming next month! 1: In no way do I actually think that GW designed the KO for me or at my suggestion. The timing is simply humorous.

Hey folks, I've obviously been radio silent on this blog and on this project for awhile. The long and the short of the project is that Vince and I have around 35 pages written and we were in the testing phase when I put a pause on the project. Two things essentially brought the project to grounding halt. The first was the realization that the underlying mechanics of the established Skirmish system kept essentially getting in the way. The base warband composition rules lended itself to spamming Unit Champions. This was coupled with the fact that some units were simply not balanced with this game in mind (i.e. Pink Horrors, Knight Azyros, etc.). This, coupled with the fairly flat progression and easy access to your larger Grand Alliance (which often created diversely homogeneous warbands, i.e. One Pink Horror Champion, One Blight King Champion, etc.) cause all kinds of developmental and balance hurtles. Ultimately, I was finding that our design was fighting against the underlying mechanics of the core game and it was a losing battle. The second was me finally taking the time to read through the updated Path to Glory rules and book and realizing that what we were designing fit as part of the Path to Glory system much better than the Skirmish system. Much of our design for this expansion was ported over from Vince and I's prior Mordheim AOS project from Fall 2015, right after AOS launched. For anyone that is familiar with our Mordheim project, if you've read the updated Path to Glory rules, you'll notice that GW's Path to Glory warband composition bears a striking resemblance to our own warband composition rules from Mordheim (namely a hero leader and 4 "unit" choices, where additional heroes or more heroes take up one or more of these four choices). Accordingly, I guess it shouldn't be surprising that our rules from Mordheim seems to port so seamlessly over to GW's Path to Glory system given how the design intent between the two is so similar. This, I think, is good news for the next steps. My hope is for us tighten what we have created and make it a free community Path to Glory expansion for exploring the ruins of Shadespire with your forces. In the mean time, I'll be posting snippets of what we did complete for Skirmish, for those that are still playing Skirmish and want some fun content. These rules and tables are not complete, but they should be mostly usable. The first of these Skirmish tables is a rewards chart for exploring the Scrimshaw Mines region of Shadespire. 2d6 Roll Scrimshaw Mines 2 Secret Tunnel Network: It was long rumored that Shadespire was underpinned by a massive series of tunnels. You find an entrance into part of those legendary tunnels. During your next engagement, you may hold any number of units in reserve. During your hero phase on turn 2 and every turn after that, you may attempt to have those units sneak up into the battlefield. Roll a dice for each model you want to come up that turn, if you roll a 1, that warrior is lost and does not participate in this battle, but is otherwise uninjured. If you roll a 2+, you may place that warrior anywhere on the battlefield at least 9” away from all enemies. This warrior may not move or run this turn, but may otherwise act normally. 3 Abandoned Ur-gold Stash: Gain a Fyreslayer mercenary, regardless of allegiance. Leaves after the first permanent injury. 4 Vein of Shade-ore: You find a vein of the precious shade ore. The refinement process to produce shade glass is lost, but the raw material is still highly valued for all manner of arcane rituals. You gain 1d3 additional renown. 5 Wiped Out Dispossessed Camp: You find the remnants of a Duardin camp. It is clear there was a fight hear but there are no bodies. Their equipment and stores look surprisingly untouched. Roll a dice: ● 1-2: Ale Store: You find a full store of dwarven ale, enough to last for months. Your warriors may imbibe the hearty brew before battle to gain +1 bravery. ● 3-4: Magical Artifact ● 5: Ancestor Shield: Increase the armor save of the warrior by 1 to a maximum of 3+, save against mortal wounds on a 6+) ● 6: Great Rune Weapon: As per the Dwarf Lord warscroll (3A, 3+ to Hit, 3+ to wound, -2 rend, 3D, may not use a shield or other close combat attacks when this weapon is used). 6 Mining Tools: You find well worn but still useful tools for mining. The next time your scenario is played in the Scrimshaw Mines, you may choose both your deployment area and what player has the first turn. 7 Bottomless Pit: weird huh? 8 Sheltered Oasis: You find a peaceful and secure oasis hidden in the caves. Shelter from the blistering sands and roving warbands of shadespire. You may replace 1d3 injury rolls with a roll of 45 on the table. 9 Derelict Slave Tenements: You find abandoned slave tenements from the miners that worked tirelessly to pull the shade ore from the depths of the mine. They were allowed to keep little of value, but many hid the precious gems that were of less value to the Katophranes. You receive 1d3 additional renown. 10 Undying Laborers: You find a section of the mine being worked by eternal undying laborers. Skeletons set to a task millennia ago that have never stopped or rested from their only reason for existence. Their mining has revealed little of true value other than massive piles of rocks, but they have built up at least one cart of precious metals. You receive 1d3+1 additional renown. If you are a Death alliance warband, you may also add 1d3 skeleton warriors to your warband. 11 Skaven Nest: You find a nest of skaven clan rats, burrowing into the city. You can attempt to barter with them for information on the mines. Roll a dice, on a 1-3, they reject your offer and drive you from the mines as they swarm en masse. On a 4-6, they are willing to trade information with you and allow you passage through their tunnels. If they do, you may choose your deployment area in the next scenario as well as who goes first. 12 Forbidden Laboratory: Deep within the shadows and twisting tunnels of the mines, you find an old laboratory where someone was attempting to recreate the secret of Shade Glass. There is no sign of what became of the arcanist, but the research and everything else in the lab remains curiously intact. You may choose to steal the research. If you do, roll a dice. On a 2+, you gain 1d6 additional renown. On the roll of a 1, you have incurred the wrath of Nagash and you must roll once on the Mental Injury table for each hero in your warband. Enjoy and keep rolling those dice!

We save it for our viewers I'm assuming you're referring to the leak we received at the tail end of the show last night from a fairly reliable source that we'll see some type of death-associated Stormcast (i.e. Deathcast Eternals™) very early on in the month of January (January 3rd was the date named; we'll see if this actually happens). We'll see if it does indeed pan out

I think I might more describe our show as a varietal where we do some news and rumors each week, cover things people are working on, highlight new blogs and videos related to the hobby and then a discussion piece about some aspect of the game/faction/interview. I think we kind of structure it as a Daily-Show-esque offering for our hobby. Does that make sense?

Thanks! We love doing it :-)

Just saw an image on FB from the new White Dwarf with new terrain bundles going on preorder next week. These are: Citadel of the Everchosen* ($660 USD): not sure what is in it as it wasn't visually depicted. Apparently this was revealed on the community site. See image. Ruins of Elixia ($149 USD): Dragonfate Dias, Baleful Realmgates, Ophidian Archway, and Numinous Occulum. *Marked because it is misspelled as "Evechosen"

I love to see these getting use! We'll hopefully have a more formal pack out for people to download soon.

We are getting a book. It isn't clear how many, if any, new models will be present.

I know :-/ We're working on formatting and editing right now. Hoping to have this out to people soon.

Just curious: what makes you say its amazing?

Maybe. I still think there is a Urbaz list out there with masses of Company stacked with Light Skyhooks (which haven't been nerfed...yet) and having multiple Khemists buffing.