annarborhawk

Agreed. Chaos Knights - at a minimum - should be made to be a reasonably effective hammer unit with even a modest buff. And if they need to be made 200 pts along with it, I'd be more than happy.

Those are some great ones! How about Varanguard can be given a Circle no matter what damned legion they are in. Make them worth 280 points outside Archaon/KoTET lists. Mostly, I'm hoping for a sea-change to the Aura/Mark of Chaos system. I'd like to see marked units just get some inherent buff. I would like for them to make it more worthwhile/doable to run an army that uses multiple marks. Get us further away from being better off using one of the 4 other books.

Well, as it stands, we can't really kill anything. So the least they can do for us make it difficult for us to be killed.... I'm using it until I can't.

Yeah, I'm re-marking to Undivided from Tzeentch for an upcoming game vs. LRL. It's going to be more about mortal wound defense than buffing normal saves, I think. Warrior blob can be 5+/6+/6+ vs. mortals with general's aura near shrine. Kark Lord general with amulet of destiny near shrine can be 5+/5+/6+/6+ vs mortals.

I suspect it was a choice of either nerfing the eye of shereen or raising his points. I'd rather have it this way than a 900+ point Archaon.

So we got even more defensive? Warriors now get a 5+ and a 6+ vs. mortals if backed by a shrine.

Did you drop something else other than the doom sigal to get the extra unit of knights? And did you not find coherency a problem for the 6-man Varanguard unit? Any further thoughts in retrospect on 2x3 instead?

I do indeed live in Ann Arbor.

I like it, but with the new coherency rules, wouldn't 2x3 Varanguard work better, realizing that I lose grasping plate on one of the them. Also, breaking them up gives you 2 shots instead of one at bringing on a new varanguard unit if they die. ???

Why does it turn off? If I go first in a round, then stuff dies near the Sigil, then I choose units to roll to buff. Then, doesn't it say that the extra attacks last until MY next hero phase? Wouldn't that mean that it lasts during the bottom turn of the current round, and then when my opponent gets the double, it is still "on" for the top of the next round ALSO? (Since my next hero phase is not until the bottom of the next round). The thing that turns off is the buffs that occur at the end of the bottom turn of the round - they are reset by the top turn of the next round as the same player has consecutive hero phases. As I see it, that just prevents BOTH players' choice of StD units to buff happening at the same time. What am I missing?

Same. For me, it's been hard to remember my army specific rules, when I'm trying to remember when/how to employ the new general 3.0 rules. I think it'll just take time. And I'm going to start using many more tokens. I need the visual reminder ON THE TABLE - not on a sheet I'll forget to look at in the literal heat of battle.

in my one game of 3.0 so far, it was my block of 10 chosen that did all the work. Exceeded my expectations. I marked them Tzeench, and with Orracular visions and mystic shield they suddenly became both hard-hitting and durable. Expensive in points, but from where else do we produce reliable wounds? After the game, seeing my block of 20x warriors still at about 12-13 models strong after being in combat much of the game, it occurred to me that I should have enhanced my warshrine to have "Curse" - then the warriors would act as near-Chosen, only more easily durable.

I'm thinking Archaon, 3x3 varanguard, and 3x5 marauder horseman to screen, cap objectives, etc. That would make for a mobile hard-hitting list.

The new unit coherency rule will make running such large units unworkable. Sucks for Skullcrusher's impact rule, but it'll be tough to get more than 4/6 or 6/9 into combat. Wrathmongers should be broken into 3x5 for the same reason.

So you're saying my three boxes of blood knights are not enough?

I'm sure you've all thought of this, but Belladona Volga's spell is our best counter to "Unleash Hell." That unit of Sentinals cannot "Unleash Hell" into our Blood Knights charging into the screening Wardens when two of them turned into direwolves chewing on their bowstrings. (You cannot use UH on a unit that is w/3" of a different enemy unit.) I didn't pick her up on release, but I'm thinking she might qualify as an "auto-pick" in a shooting meta.

I kinda doubt they would make players keep track of two different types of command points when they say they are streamlining things.

Seems like Soulblight Gravelords have a good counter to Unleash Hell. Belladama Volga has a 18" spell that can turn models in an enemy unit into dire wolves. That unit would then be in contact with an enemy unit and would not be eligible for Unleash Hell, e.g., against a unit of BLoodKnights chargings into screening wardens, or something. (As I think about it, I suppose the shooting unit could use "Reposition" (if that's a thing) and try to move d6" away from the wolves in the Soulblight movement phase???)

If unused command points are lost at the end of a battleround, then the player going second will not be able to use Unleash Hell (or other out-of-turn CAs) against the player going first in the battleround. Does this not make it even MORE important to get the double turn against a shooting army? Seems like a melee army's best chance to make into combat is to outdrop, choose to go second, weather top of 1 shooting, than use bottom of 1 and top of 2 to get your charges in without suffering unleash hell. Or maybe command points will be generated by both players at the beginning of each battle round?

From the article re venom weapons: "What's more, they gain this ability whether you field an army consisting exclusively of Kruleboyz or use them as part of a larger Orruk Warclans force." Maybe it's referring to Allied-in Orruks. Or maybe the rule applies to new "Orruk Warclan" faction? Or it applies to Kruleboyz only that are part of a generic Orruk force? You're probably right that it's the later. It says its a Kruleboyz Alliegence ability, so I'm not clear how it would still apply to Kruelboyz if you are fileding a "Orruk Warclan" Force, as they say.

Well, does it matter what they hit on? Looks like they can be given poisoned arrows too, so it's another volley of "6's are mortals" before the chargers (if any are left) can even get into the fight. How many Sentinal volleys will charging Cav have to take now before they even get to the Warden line?

Never been a death guy, but I'm about to jump in with both feet (or claws?). Would the following be reasonable? Kastelai: Mannfred Prince Vhordrai Vengorian Lord (rousing commander!) 3x5 Blood Knights 1x10 Dire Wolves 1x3 Vargheists Comes in a little shy of 2000. ....but I'd be buying everything tomorrow. gulp.

That's hilarious. What would be happening in a narrative sense? Some chaos champion finally earns apotheosis, only to find Be'Lakor possessing his body?

I hear where you are coming from, but with AOS people are generally not looking to recreate or to retell a historical (or historical-fictional) battle (though there is the narrative campaign system for that, where balance is never a thing). In match play, where people are concerned with points and balance, it is because they are looked at AOS as a competitive game system. In theory, I suppose, one could build a competitive asymmetrical system (n 1), but I think that would be much harder than just trying to find a modicum of balance. n 1. Just spit-balling, but how about for a modified version of match play, one player draws up two lists and a scenario, and the other player decides which list he'll take? it would require in-depth familiarity with both armies - but that might be interesting! (As an old-school hex-and-counter wargamer, I remember flipping sides after a first play-throuhh and replaying scenarios to sort of see who had the better insight on the dynamics of particular battles.)

Don't forget, he's also a 40K character. That market may justify the release w/o him fitting into StD. I can see him being the leader of a new chaos deamons faction in AOS. They certainly could do that. It used to be a separate faction in WHFB. So you have mortal chaos in StD. Deamons in their own. And then you could still have mixed mortal/deamon units if you run the god-specific tomes. personally, Blah!