Sception

I need between 1 and 3 more of nagadron's head (the head of Neferata's dread abyssal steed) for my counts-as necropolis knight conversions, as such: by any chance are there any fellow forumites out there with spares of the bit after assembling mortarch kits as Arkhan or Mannfred? I could offer paypal (say $5 per head plus shipping), or trade from my extensive bits box of chaos marines & miscelaneous undead - just tell me what bits you want & I'll let you know if I have any lying around.

Nighthaunts have a separate subforum now, you can find it here: https://www.tga.community/forums/forum/181-nighthaunt/

Bit of a long shot, but... For compulsive collector reasons, I'm looking for this guy, Garkorr, the 500th store limited edition Bladegheist Revenant: For trade I have new-in-box and completely unopened the similarly hard to find Darrakar, the 2019 store anniversary limited edition Guardian of Souls, the one with options to build with either the usual nightmare lantern or a 'mortality glass' instead. Ideally I would like the Garkorr to be similarly unopened, but given the model's obscurity I'm willing to accept assembled, just not already painted, so long as the model is undamaged and you promise to pack it in an extremely gentle but well supported fashion - Nighthaunt models being so frustratingly delicate. Alternatively, if you happen to be near Baltimore Maryland or Washington D.C. we could make a trade in person.

Is their an official faq on this? As is the rule is extremely ambiguous and could easily be read the other way. Zero plus one is one, after all. Also, how does it interact with harvester? Do you re-roll the trigger roll? That seems most natural, but that roll doesn't determine how much you bring back, just whether the ability happens, so a strict reading would have the roll come and go before nagash has a chance to interact with it. Do you bring back two morteks for every 4+? That doesn't seem right either. New nagash is a mess, & honestly needs a rewrite.

I would prefer both wards and mortals to become less common outside of specialized factions, even if it meant going back to the drawing board yet again for the zombie warscroll, but that's not the game we're playing these days. Even if we were, though, 6++ would still not be good enough to warrant the hassle of wholly within bubble management, imo.

The change to FEC was framed as a 'balance change', and Nighthaunts were low performing before the new book. If unconditional 6+ ward is being conceptualized as a balance change then I don't expect it to come to SG since we're not doing that badly. I'd like to see it as a QoL fix, 6+ ward is not a good enough benefit to be worth the hassle of maintaining wholly within bubbles, but yeah, I don't expect it. Especially since it would further undercut the relatively little value left in gravesites apart from as a deployment option.

I don't mind mental load, but yeah, it needs to be proportional to the effect on the game. A 6+ ward is almost nothing, you shouldn't have to expend effort maintaining it.

Isn't that GS objectively worse than the one that only reauires 3 GV units on the table at the end of the game? One less unit, with no restrictions on where they end up? I guess the 4 quarters one allows summoned vets while whe three units one requires them to be from your starter army, but while NH have some healing we're not really summoning a lot of units to the table mid game.

Sounds about right, though I feel host is neither up nor down, and the main problem for grieving is that the 30 model chainrasp or grimghast units they like to take are hard to fit in cruciator bubbles. There are still games that will be won by no retreat tho. It's just that kind of ability. Not convinced by squads of 30 GVs in general, especially of the 32mm base stuff, due to aforementioned difficulty fitting in cruciator bubbles. I mean, yeah, it's a big bubble, but 30x 32mm bases is so much table. Speaking of cruciator bubbles, these are vital this season. Maybe even 2+ mandatory? Not running them at all is right out, certainly. If you don't have one yet, now's the time to buy. .... Thought on hexwraiths? I very much like a unit or two of hexwraiths in anything. Fast as heck, mortals on the charge, don't give up extra damage to vets, 24+d6" sacraficial first turn move to box in enemy vets or hunters, whichever are more troublesome for you in a particular game, unless they can teleport or fly. Maybe I'm overestimating the value of that due to coming from obr, who are so slow that losing your first turn of movement is practically game right there, but still. Make them hunters, maybe have Reikenor toss a purple sun downfield, and they even have some halfway respectable output against enemy gelato vets. Grimghasts, crimson bladegheists, & quicksilver dreadscythes all do far more damage as hunters, but they're also vulnerable to enemy hunters so they have to play around cruciator bubbles, while hexwraiths are free to range out.

The problem with non-battleline stalkers & immortis is how many points in obr armies are already spoken for by the time you're done with the battleline you're required to take and the hq's you need for rdp the battleline in particular is even more onerous than it appears because you're effectively obligated to over-invest beyond the absolute requirements since none oc the available units are cheap enough to just fill slots, they also have to do work. So you take, on the low end, what? 2x20 morteks, 5 riders a soulmason and/or kainan, and probably either katakros or arkhan plus a liege, depending on Praetorians vs. Petrifex? Is that still close to the standard set up? I need to keep reminding myself to not give the impression that I have my pulse on everything because I really don't, orthodox obr core set up may have drifted significantly, though I'm not really sure how you get away with less than that, and if you are taking all that then it's alraady forcing some hard decisions on whatever else you take. So, like, at that point stalkers or immortis are competing for space with crawlers (much weaker in 3e, but still obr's best option for projecting oower & threatening support heroes), harvesters (vulnerable to shooting, but strong recursion for nearby morteks, a decent enough beatstick, and a rare source of monstrous ramoages), & harbingers (a hammer unit with a long enough charge range to not be overly bothered by Redeploy. Much easier to fit them in if they can replace some of the morteks or the deathriders - stalkers not being as fast as deathriders but at keast faster than morteks & with a helpful charge phase CA, so trading riders for them doesn't completely kill your limited mobility options, particularly if you were going to take some harbingers.

Immortis Guard suffer from doing a bit too much - tanky, fighty, bodyguard. Doing all of that at once pushes their points up, and points inefficiency is the number one thing a bodyguard unit doesn't want. That's why the new nighthaunt spirit hosts are so good - they do absolutely nothing other than add wounds to nearby heroes, and as a result those wounds come nice and cheap. By comparison Immortis aren't much cheaper per point than the characters you're shifting wounds off of, unless you're running Arkhan. Stalkers are more focused, and thus more efficient, and points efficiency matters a lot in an army that doesn't have much slack to work with after the essential core & support options are down. Still, Immortis, while not great, are a lot better with battleline and 2 rank fighting, or at least you can field 3 to 6 of them without having to sacrifice more important support options. Plus they look cool as heck and they're very thematic as the tanky elite unit in the tanky elite army. Aesthetically, I really prefer having them there.

That feels like a pretty significant change. Doesn't change the fact that we're still stuck in 2.5 while everyone else is playing 3rd edition proper, but at least that makes for some new build options to try out. I'm still probably sticking to nighthaunts this season. Just can't see playing the game without a cruciator with with +1 damage bounty hunters running around. But if this change and over the shoulder melee attacks outlast the gelato season I could definitely see mixing a six man squad of stalkers into my ossiarch lists, where previously I've been having trouble fitting them at all.

That, or keep your gelatin vets in aura range of a krulghast cruciator, no? Nighthaunts seem pretty unique in having a support option that reduces weapon damage in an aura. Heck, I could see running multiple cruciators for the season, but for my desire not to double up on the exact same hero model.

Eh, we'll see. My understanding - though I could be wrong - is that you only get a max 3 units of the hunters. Tie them up with horses, or use proving grounds to deny them objectives. Doesn't matter if they've killed your morteks if you're going to win on objectives anyway. Plus, morteks themselves can be hunters. If both sides of an infantry fight get +1 damage against the other, I think I'm still gonna give that to petrifex morteks or praetorean morteks under katakros a lot of the time. It'll be uglier than before, but still. Alternatively, the 'count as 3 for objective holding' battalion would mean even 4 morteks left in a unit would still out-capture a unit of 10 hunters. And, again, with proving grounds even a single mortek out-captures any number of non jelly vets. I think it's a better season for soublight or nighthaunts, sure. obr struggle while they're stuck with a book that doesn't know how to play 3rd edition. I don't think anybody expects that to change until a new battletome for them is out.

edit, delete, added to prev post

Yeah, the double ranks thing isn't to relevant to the gravelords. Yes it works for dire wolves, but they're not super threatening regardless, and all the other potential veteran units are on 25mm bases so they can fight in two ranks anyway. Those battalion's, though, I think single drops won't be quite so common. Good thing Soublights don't care too much if they go first or not. Make me go second? That's fine, lets me gatekeep the double turn, with a faction that /hates/ getting double turned. Make me go first? Gravesite deployment lets me dominate the mid field objectives and you'll be praying for the double turn to have any hope of making up the starting advantage you just gave me. .... Or nighthaunt. Make me go first with nighthaunt and the new 24" hexwraith move will have me walling off all your stuff - big infantry hordes? assassins (who don't get extra damage against hexwraiths since cav can't be jello vets)? Doesn't matter. Unless you fly, deep strike, or teleport, if you make me go first you're not leaving your deployment zone for at least an entire game round, maybe two even, while my ghosts soak up objective points. But if you make me go second then a double turn of wave of terror charges is hanging over your head like the Sword of Damocles. Having a strong position regardless of who's going first freeing you up to take the hew battalions seems like a pretty big deal.

Blood Knights with +1 damage grinding up enemy veterans with repeat-charges still sound pretty solid to me.

Pictures confirm, fake is possible but unlikely. Making all the mortisans 115, when the soulmason is so obviously better and the soulreaper so obviously worse, is just bizarre to me. The endless spells, particularly the shriker, might see some more play, especially considering the white dwarf update. Otherwise I don't see any of the remaining changes being large enough to make a big difference, but I'm no expert on the current competitive scene.

Cruciator definitely going to be a must take in the new season, yeah.

Looking at the ossiarch numbers... Post-nerf Nagash is still above 900 points when I'd have a hard time justifying him at 800 even, so at least on my end he's still stuck on the display shelf. Not a major complaint, he got plenty of play in second edition and is taking a break in the narrative as well, so if anything that's fitting. But all the mortisan spellcasters at the same points cost? Despite the soulmason being by far the best of the three and the soulreaper being by far the worst? And Vokmortian's still more expensive than any of them? Ossiarch spellcaster pricing is all out of wack if the leaks are accurate. everything else is unchanged or nudged up or down by not enough to make a difference. The overall faction is still probably stuck on the bench pending a new battletome that actually works with the 3rd edition core rules instead of struggling so painfully against them.

Count me as another voice hoping the dawnbringer crusades / CoS rebranding still has a mix of humans, elves, and dwarves, even if the focus is on the humans. I like the idea of Azyrite civilization incorporating a mix of peoples, to me it helps them stand out both within the AoS setting and from their oldhammer counterparts.

That's still consistent with one general's handbook and one narrative campaign book per year, both including a matched play battle pack. And if future campaign battle packs find the same traction that thondia did - ie very little - then we'll still be looking at 12 month cycles based on GHBs exclusively as the most common practice, even if it's not the official company policy.

Pretty sure it was supposed to be 1 ghb, 1 campaign (like thondia). Most places/events seem to have ignored thondia's matched play battlepack. If that pattern continues then 12 month ghb seasons will still be the norm in practice. Personally, I'd prefer if they were the norm officially as well, with campaigns focusing on narrative - maybe with some new stuff usable in matched play, but not an entire battlepack intended to replace the previous one. But if people don't play the campaign pack anyway, it hardly matters.

A new start collecting (or whatever they're called now) box is coming out with a bunch of chainrasps, some grimghasts, some spirit hosts, and a knight of shrouds on foot. You don't need the hosts (you have plenty) or KoS (infantry version bad), but depending on the box discount it may still be worth picking up for the battleline infantry ghosts. Alternatively, paint your army red and buy a bunch more bladegheists, since Crimson Doom bladegheist spam looks to be very tasty in the coming matched play season.

Just ordered 20 grimghasts, not sad about it. Crimson doom, & to a lesser extent quicksilver dead, are definitely the big winners in the new matched play season, and I'm absolutely happy for them. For my armies though I still prefer diversity over single unit spam and multiple build options over monobuild auto-selections. Crimson Doom are cool as heck, but I'd get bored painting and playing so much of the same unit. I'll still be running emerald host and/or grieving legion in the new season, when I'm not playing Gravelords, so bladegheists aren't battleline for me, so they don't benefit from the new over the shoulder attacks, so they're still hobbled by the 3e coherency rules. Hopefully over the shoulder attacks become a standard thing going forward, battleline or no, so I can make use of the one or two units of bladegheists I'd otherwise like to mix into an army of other stuff.