Knight Scáthach of Fimm

Not sure if it's been mentioned yet, but a good combo for wizards with Wings of Fire is the Balewind Vortex; not because of its bonuses, but because of the line of sight it grants with its height. Wings of Fire has infinite range provided you can see your target, so Balewind will help keep line of sight being an issue. Also means you can stay on the board edge and avoid dispelling.

I haven't received one yet. It's a shame, as you can probably tell by my username, I'm sad. But it's not something I haven't considered; honestly I'd rather it end now than be drawn along thinking those new models will come out some day. I have my Trolls, which is good enough. Question is, do I sell my Fimir collection or let them gather dust til the day they're considered a rarity?

So where does it say they're getting removed?

Trolls require less synergy than IJ but require excellent positioning. You'll need good game mechanic knowledge to really make trolls shine. Pinning targets and good use of Itchy Nuisance is also a big deal; Dankholds are good pinners while Rockguts ought to be your main fighters. That means a Dankhold on the corner of a target while the other trolls hit them head on; this reduces the enemy's ability to fight back as they are dragged from multiple angles. If you are good with your positioning, then trolls can be annoyingly persistent and grindy juggernauts, in comparison to the speedy juggernauts that are Ironjaws.

I think this is a slave of some kind judging by the shackles. This may be filling the niche the Fimir had in chaos, that being cyclopean brutes. Fimir have evolved in a new direction, so a replacement to fill the gap they had seems likely, and offers an interesting design space. I like this more than say just chaos trolls. I imagine this will be a one off model, but I really hope it's useful.

This is a more classical depiction from 1912.

Well the good news is that he will be usable in AoS, as all Warcry is. I'm expecting 8/9 wounds, 4+ save. Some kind of punching melee attack, and when within 3" of a terrain feature, he can throw a boulder/ tree. If it's something like the rockgut trolls then it'll be useful. I'm hoping it's like 18" 3+ 3+ -2 3 damage as then it'll have utility. 100-120 points.

I would say that the old lore of Fimir has been entirely retconned so their questionable reproductive methods are no longer canon. This also did distance them from Chaos, yeah.

So this big chungus was just teased for Warcry, and it's clear based on its name and appearance, that the Fomoroid Crusher is based on the Fomorians of Irish myth; specifically, Balor of the Evil Eye. This may tie into Fimir, although the only similarity is name origin and single eye. I hope this is a relative of the Fimir in one way or another. It appears to be a 60mm base, so he's just a little smaller than a Dankhold Troggoth. Post your speculations below.

That's true. I hope the strongest builds come from taking a city and building as intended, and not the cherry picking or 'my executioners are now greatswords because better rules' approach. This is mostly enforced by keyword locked buffs which is fortunate. I can't really see other faction units being useful in my Freeguild, aside from those like Collegiate that were always there.

Something I've noticed is that, while the lines between factions are blurred, I think there's a clear representation of all the old factions in each city. Hammerhal for example clearly is suited to Freeguild, specifically fielding lots of infantry, the Demigryph highlights/ battalion, and that the traits and items look to favor the Griffon general. Living City is clearly about Wanderers, even though, like all cities you can take anything you want. Greywater is all about dwarfs and their guns. Phoenicieum... I don't need to explain that one. Anvilgard, anything dark elf. Hallowheart and Tempests Eye are a little more blurred, but to me it's clear that the cities really are representing each faction, even though the stamp of 'take anything' is there. Hell, doesn't Greywater even get a Runesmith prayer? The old faction allegiance abilities are here in a new form one way or another, it's just which city you pick corrosponds to which faction is the star of the show. I think this is a good way of looking at it when some people call it soup, or a cheap filler to stop old army players complaining.

So my Hammerhal Freeguild list works out relatively similar to how I normally played in terms of size. Hammerhal Freeguild General -100 Griffon -320 40 guard with swords 280 30 Greatswords -420 30 Handgunners -300 (ha-ha I knew not caving to crossbows was a good idea) 10 Guard with Halberds -80 6 Demigryphs -360 1 Battle Mage -90 1950 (by my reckoning) So I can't squeeze in my Luminark, and while I still have no MW protection, I think all these buffs Freeguild got will make up for it. This list is basicaly the same as my normal one, minus the Luminark. This list has 110 infantry in it (all of which are in the process of being repainted for Hammerhal((I started this before I knew the rules, check my receipts for dettol)), and still has some beef/speed in Demis and the Gryphon. I'd rather not have ANOTHER command point to start, so maybe I'll get an endless spell. I was fortunate in that the stars aligned for me and my army, and I see how in some ways it didn't for others. This book seems extremely solid, although I have a sneaking suspicion something busted is going to show up out of Phoenicium but i don't know how or why. Greatswords and Demis are the real winners for me, even though they went up a fair bit, they also became incredibly potent. While I could field the Lancer battalion and go extra-Hammerhalian, I feel, while it's decent, it's unnescessary. Also Griffon for the most part was a straight buff, although piercing bloodroar is nerfed. I saw someone saying the foot general isn't worth it anymore, but his command ability is 100 points no matter how you swing it. Also, base infantry will be bravery 7 around him and elites 8 which gives some protection vs Mind Razor and other bravery debuffs. For Hammerhal, the battleshock modifiers Freeguild could take before really aren't a big loss, since with the potential for 13 banners, I'll be raking in those CPs like no one else. I can really see Hammerhal being the army if you want to field a huge amount of infantry, because they themselves are contributing to CP generation. That's an average of like 3 CP a turn banners + normal generation, then there's the retinue +1 on a 4+ then there's other traits etc etc. Personally, I love Banners Held High as it makes the huge infantry force feel cohesive in a way. I am very satisfied with Hammerhal, and it feels (as a Freeguild army) very reasonably balanced with clear strengths that will contend with the top tier armies. Now, do I feel like Living City and Tempest's Eye will be where the meta lies... As I said before, I will have to trade my magic and magic defence for the new rules, but it's worth it to me.

Judging by warscrolls alone and the Hammerhal rules, I am satisfied with the new book. Not even counting what we don't know yet. I imagine points won't be fluctuating by much. I did bait myself into buying another box of demis and converting a guildsmarshal but now i have 9 demis and a fancy preceptor. I'm glad that repainting my freeguild as Hammerhal paid off, because that would have sucked if it hadn't!

It may be a typo, but handgunners went to Bravery 4 while Crossbowmen are Bravery 5. Now technically, they would be more likely to be less experienced/ cheaper troops if using handguns, compared to crossbows and bows, but I doubt this is the case. This is based on the historical context of guns vs bows.

Brutes are 140 points, so I think it's technically an improvement to them even if they lost some base stats.

Unlikely, although AoS could do with some more brand new rules as so far it's just been a variant of +1 save or a dpr or if you're spicy, charge at 18" when it comes to unit/ faction special rules. It was becoming monotonous with how linear some ruling could be, since I knew how it worked from the books previous.

Also, don't call people power fans because they have a different opinion and view point to you. That's no way to win an argument and dropping the mic sure does nothing for your position on it.

Drakkfoot, in my opinion, was a great move by GW, because they saw the prevalence of and near total reliance on damage prevention saves, almost to the point where units were being checked off as bad if they didn't have one. The chances of you going up against Drakkfoot in a tournament while you're running 90 witch elves and Gotrek is going to be slim, at least after the smoke has settled. We're seeing less and less Gristlegore as it is. The reason why this rule is so important, is not because of what it does, but what it threatens to do. If you're flipping the table over a single rule and calling it the end to some armies, you need to either reassess the situation, or adapt to your enemy; the thing generals are supposed to do. This is not even mentioning the fact that Bonesplittas are a very low rend army atm, and I doubt they will gain some if any in the new book. If anything, GW got themselves into a hole with all these save after saves, and this was a natural answer with the most streamlined of processes, as it changes relatively little while threatening a lot, and said threat is very rarely going to genuinely manifest. If it makes top tier armies pause for thought and reassess their dominance, how can it be a bad thing? And if it all goes wrong, why shouldn't Bonesplittas be king for a bit? The game changes all the time with every new book, so why is adapting to them so much different? We all complained about how nuts Warp lightning cannons were, until they weren't. In conclusion, if we can deal with Daughters, Skaven and FeC, we can deal with this too. It's just a matter of good generalship on the field, and if you can't fight your way around this rule, then that's your problem, not the game's. There are far more rules and armies that smother any hope of victory from other armies, just by being superior to them. Also, I really do not like Orruks in AoS so I'm no fan of them.

If we're being honest though, this Bonesplitta rule is actually incredibly important as a mediator of the game, particularly in tournaments, because it gives armies like death and daughters of khaine pause for thought. We'll see more cautious army builds I'm sure, and hopefully this might reduce the focus on damage prevention saves that many favor. At least it will make Fyreslayers and Daughters players play more conservatively and shake up the list building when in a tournament.

Gotrek was good for five minutes before Bonesplittas show up

We are still in the establishment phase of Age of Sigmar; the whole game is still being built. We're almost at the end of the construction period, where every army gets their tome etc, so yes, in the future when all armies are fleshed out and have their rules we will most definitely get new sporadic kits; whether or not they are re-sculpts is another question. GW are rather preoccupied with getting the groundwork done for the most part, but 40k is a good analogy, since as far as I know, every codex is out.

People seem to be getting the wrong idea of what I said; I don't like the notion of using one painted faction as another or choosing factions for the strongest abilities. I find it irritating when I see it, but that's it. There's no arbitrary enforcement here, and I don't tell people what's what.

See I can't stand that, unless you're just trying to find the most suitable for your own scheme. Most of the time, it's people taking the strongest option and not caring for the city itself. Now I know there's nothing inherently wrong with that, I just really dislike the notion. Especially if it was a clearly painted Hammerhal army playing as Anvilgard, that's especially irking. Personally, I redid my army to match a ruleset to solidify the coherency of my army.

I literally decided to strip my Freeguild army down and repaint them as Hammerhal 3 weeks ago so this risk seems to be playing out well...

As in proportional to itself? Because there's really nothing to compare it to to decide how it should look. I'd argue many tyranids have a similar problem if that's the case. I reckon it'll look more cohesive irl, since the cart on its back takes up a lot of space. I'd say it has the proportions of a flightless bird, and it works for me.