Sception

I didn't have anything in particular to put in this thread yesterday, but today... If I could change one thing I would keep (and iterate on) 3e style path to glory.

It's completely changed from the current system - in ways I hate. No more territories, no more quests. Instead they're going back to something more like the 1e/2e PtG system, which was just completely different. You get your 1 (one) hero, and whatever their personal retinue is. No word on how you build that retinue - in 1e/2e it was random, which, yes, was terrible. I'm sorely disappointed because I loved all that 'homework' stuff. It was like a little bite of the 'campaign management' half of total war: warhammer, a way you could engage with your army outside of the couple days a month when you can manage to get an actual game in at the store, and it provided a functional scaffolding to build an in universe narrative around the process of building your army up, which would have effectively covered the gap between spearhead and full size matched play games of AoS. And the quest system gave you gameplay objectives apart from whatever's baked into the actual missions your playing, even when playing your army in regular matched play games, which was cool and conveyed the 'general's personal goals and ambitions beyond merely winning this battle' concept infinitely better than any version of battle tactics or other secondary objective systems had. 'Primary objectives determine whether you win this battle, secondary objectives determine how your faction develops inbetween games' was great. Anyway, yeah. Bug thumbs down for this preview. Even on its own merits, as a leveling up system for an old 1e/2e style PtG these veteran abilities look flavorless and overpowered, the worst combination possible. Was it not play tested? Are we continuing the well established GW tradition of 'narrative rules don't need to be balanced, so we don't need to play test it at all'? If so, then I don't hold out much hope for the anvil of apotheosis rules either, as previous versions of those rules have been unbalanced to the point of being unplayable. I remember in particular the soulblight anvil from white dwarf that gave your custom hero the ability to have an entire unit of grave guard effectively charge directly into combat from off the table, when that unit was a glass cannon balanced only by the difficulty delivering them. Absolute mess stuff. I'm not saying Anvil ~will~ be bad, just that I won't believe it'll be good until I see it. Big thumbs down from me anyway. Sour note to end the week on after being so hype on the spearhead stuff.

Did anyone honestly like 1e path to glory? Maybe it had a fandom I'm just not aware of. I could get over my disappointment if there's some crowd of people who actually missed that system.

I hate this. First flat awful preview so far. 1e/2e style path to glory was garbage. The 'empire building' aspect of 3e path to glory - tracking your capitol, managing your territories, saving up glory points to add new units to your roster, choosing quests that give you campaign objectives to play for during games entirely apart from the normal objectives of whatever mission you're playing, that stuff was the good part! It built the unique story of your faction along with your army, pacing the process out and encouraging you to go pick up one unit at a time. 4e path to glory seems to abandon everything that made path to glory 3e so good. I hate it. It's awful. Anvil of apotheosis in each book is cool enough on its own, but those rules have always been balanced so poorly as to be practically unplayable (it's ~narrative~, nobody cares if it's completely borked, no need to play test it!), and I don't see that changing going forward, since the unit advancement rules they previewed here already seem painfully unbalanced to the point of being unfun. No. No, I hate all of this. 3e Path to glory was good, dang it. this sucks. 100 opposite of my feelings about spearhead, only I'm more upset about this than I am happy about spearhead, because no mater how good spearhead is it'll still probably be less engaging and less fun than warcry games played on the same table space in the same timeframe, so Spearhead will mostly function as an introduction/tutorial to AoS rather than a game of its own, and you only need to play a tutorial so many times before you're ready to move on. 3e style path to glory would have provided a fantastic, engaging, narratively rich context for the slow-grow process of expanding from spearhead up into full games of AoS, and now in that 'building up slot' between introductory spearhead games and full 2k games of matched play there's just kind of a wasteland. I mean, maybe they'll make regular 1k and 1.k games actually good somehow, but I'm not holding my breath on it.

Hrm. I like the look of it. Like, I don't know if it will make for good or balanced games, but at the very least it seems interesting to play. I had high hopes but very low expectations for spearhead, but I find myself getting more excited. Even so, Warcry will still probably end up being the better game system for that board size.

Seriously all their out of stock stuff should be handled made to order, with a note that the order may take 6 months or more. I'd much rather pay for something now and wait 9 months for it to arrive than sign up for email notifications only for the product to sell out again between the time I get the email and the time I've clicked through the link. The current system feels as though it's deliberately designed to favor scalpers, because scalping bots can stare at email inboxes all day every day and mash f5 on a store page the moment they receive something far faster than any human can. Maybe that's why the scalpers always have new unopened boxes of black knights / hexwraiths going for double or more msrp on ebay with plenty in stock while I haven't been able to order them from the GW web page for more than a year now.

Just so long as they balance it out well and design the scenarios specifically for it. my 3e small points/small table games have all been pretty disappointing events decided by turn one charges due to insufficient space between deployment zones and too much starting on the table. regenerating units & stronger stuff not showing up until half way through the game is a promising start at least. I expect the blood knights and vargheists in the soulblight box will be the same. Overall I'm hopeful, but not holding my breath.

Tomb kings may be the solution. Allies generally aren't allowed in tournament games, but Tomb Kings are allies for Vamp Counts, and their archers - regular, skirmished, and even mounted to use for mounted yoemen - are all core, so if you're just looking to add some bows for aesthetic value in regular games that could work for you.

That Old World Charm podcast reveiwed the Vampire Counts pdf this week: https://oldworldcharm.podbean.com/e/that-old-world-charm-episode-15-vampire-counts-are-busted/ They rate the army very highly. I'm not sure I agree with all of their takes (still listening through it myself), but some solid discussion to consider. .... One thing they heavily emphasize is stacking auras from the mortis engine & such. In general these sorts of rules do not stack with themselves in Games Workshop games, and while the rules as written do seem to have these effects stacking right now, I expect that will be fixed sooner rather then later, and would recommend that you take that into account before rushing out to buy your second (or third!) Mortis Engine. They rate vamp count spellcasting power much higher than I do seemingly entirely based on stacking mortis engine auras, and I just don't think you can build around that and expect it to stay that way.

Undeadified Brettonian armies were one of the more common themed Vampire Counts armies back in the old Warhammer Fantasy days, and they always look great. In particular, you'll have an easier and probably cheaper time converting Black Knights out of Brettonian Knights + skeleton parts than you'd have trying to find the official models, they've been out of stock from GW and going for double or more MSRP from scalpers for years now. I think this should work out fairly well for you. On the larger end, converting a suitably brettonian rider for a zombie dragon may present a bit more difficulty, and might converting a mortis engine if you want one of those and aren't content to just put a damsel on the regular model. Pegasus Knights make for pretty good Vargheist stand ins, though I'm not sure you'd want to run Vargheists anyway - fast + flying + frenzy is a bit of a tricky combination, though if you can manage to keep them on target they do hit pretty hard. The two main disappointments of Brettonian Vamp Counts are 1: no good archer equivalent, and a brettonian themed army feels like it's missing something without them, and 2: no lance formation for your knights. Brettonian knights still look good in normal ranks, but they lose a lot of their brettonian feel. ... All in all I say go for it! It's a good hobby project with a strong tradition, and between Merovech of Mousillon and the Red Duke you've got plenty of in game lore to draw on.

I feel the same. If we haven't seen further expansion on the Tomb Kings, particularly with these two characters, by the time I'm done working on my Vamp Counts Arcane Journal, then my next project will be a narrative campaign supplement detailing a hypothetical war with Arkhan and Neferata teaming up to attack Nehekhara while Settra and many of the tomb kings loyal to him are away on campaign in the Old World, with Khalida and Khatep leading the effort to hold them off until Settra returns. The project would include homebrew special character rules for each of the four major characters involved, and Armies of Infamy for Arkhan, Neferata, and Khalida - Khatep's army already being well covered by Mortuary Cult list from the arcane journal.

The Army: The Vampire Counts of the Old World are the classic Warhammer Fantasy Undead in all their dark glory, an eclectic mix of undead horror staples - necromancers and wights, skeletons and zombies, ghosts and ghouls, all shambling to war under the banners of Vampiric Lords and Ladies whose names and legacies are written in great bloody gashes across the history of the old world. The armies of the Vampire Counts are typically comprised of slow but implacable undead infantry - individually weak but more than capable of grinding their foes down in terrible battles of attrition while the necromancers behind the lines raise their fallen back to the battle and the vampires and wight lords in the front more than make up for whatever offensive power is lacking in their troops. It's not all slow meat grinders, though, as the Vampire Counts also boast effective cavalry options in the efficient black knights and terrifying blood knights. Blood knights in particular are among the most potent heavy cavalry in the game, and that's before a nearby necromancer starts raising fallen blood knights back to their saddles. The army also has effective fast chaff units in dire wolves and fell bats, and can field potent monsters in the varghulf, terrorgheist, and monstrous Zombie Dragon, along with more esoteric niche options like banshees, spirit hosts, corpse carts, and black coaches. You'd be surprised how long a single ethereal spirit host base can hold up an entire enemy unit, even one with characters attached, so long as they don't have access to magical weapons. The magic of the undead is worth calling out, as it has been a particular strength of the faction in past editions. You'll want necromancers for their ability to heal your units, and you have further options to augment or enhance your available spellcasting with corpse carts or even a towering mortis engine. However, while you have solid magical options the Old World's Vampire counts can't quite manage top tier arcane power on the level of high elves, slaan, tzeentch daemons, or Tomb Kings Mortuary Cults. Magic will always be part of your game, but will never be the cornerstone of it. What the army doesn't have ready access to is ranged options. Banshees and terrorgheists can leverage their lethal shrieks, undead spellcasters can loose their magic missiles, but dealing with enemy chaff before their able to hamper your battle line's advance or cut off your heavy cavalry's charge arcs can be a challenge. You also must be careful in how you balance your top level hero options. You only get one Vampire Count, Ghoul King, or Necromancer Lord per 1,000 points, and must weigh the combat power of a fully kitted out Vampire Count or Ghoul King against the arcane strength of a level 4 Necromancer Lord. You can try to split the difference with a Vampire Lord or Ghoul King raised to level 3, but even a level 3 spellcaster can struggle against an enemy level 4, and that spellcasting power will cost you armor options and eat into your character's pool of vampiric powers. Furthermore, while there's plenty of variety already present in the Grand Army, the Vampire Counts' status as a Legacy faction means they won't be seeing an Arcane Journal to further supplement their options any time soon, at least not an official one. The Lore: Where the Tomb Kings are an unending Curse upon the living, the Vampire Counts are more like a plague. Not only can infect other humans, spreading their vile bloodline from one to another like a literal disease, each is also by its very nature a beacon of necromantic power, stirring nearby dead to life and ensnaring ghostly spirits by their mere presence alone. A single vampire left unnoticed can become an entire army of the undead within a week, and only by luck, valour, and tremendous sacrifice have the mortal races of the Old World held the threat of the Vampires in check. In just the last few centuries Brettonia and the Empire alike have both faced multiple Vampiric outbreaks - Merovech of Mousillon's betrayal in and the return of the Red Duke in Brettonia, and Walach Harkon's Blood Dragons and later the legendary Von Carstein wars in the Empire. With those threats defeated, but the memory of their horror still relatively fresh, the nations of the Old World are especially vigilant against the threat of the vampire, with witch hunters and crusading paladins exterminating any they find. Unfortunately these inquisitors tend to ensnare more than a few innocents in their zealous fervor, but better a handful of innocents be burned than one vampire go free to potentially doom thousands. Even so, the threat of the Vampire Counts persists. Neferata, the Queen of Mysteries, still presides over her Silver Pinnacle, and though many of her Lahmian agents have been caught up in the purges more still have managed to stay hidden. Across the sea Luthor Harkon reigns as Pirate King over Lustria's Vampire Coast, his maritime empire extending all the way to the shores of Tilea and Sartossa. Walach Harkon's dread banner is said to fly over an isolated keep in the boarder princes - though surely that must be just some villain attempting to capitalize on the Blood Dragon's fell reputation. In the wild outskirts and forgotten corners of the Old World, mad Ghoul Kings lead tribes of their cannibal kin in their bloody feasts, and dream of one day restoring the dark glory of old Strigos. In the ruins of Sylvania, commoners whisper of black coaches carting sealed coffins through the night, and wonder whether the Von Carsteins are truly gone forever. While not as physically powerful or hypnotically imposing as vampires, rogue necromancers such as Dieter Hellsnicht are still more than capable of raising an army of the dead and launching a new war of undead conquest. Like a plague, the horror of the Vampire counts rises until it is burnt out. But while the threat to the Old World has for the moment been contained, there's no telling when or where the next outbreak will appear. The Models: The Vampire Counts model range saw a dramatic overhaul in the 7th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battles. This was late enough that these models still hold up fairly well today, and thanks to the faction's rebirth as the Soulblight Gravelords in Age of Sigmar, many of those old models are still available. The AoS range saw a further significant overhaul late in that game's second edition, with new plastic skeleton warriors, zombies, dire wolves, fell bats, and blood knights which all look great in Old World Vampire Count armies - though admittedly the new skeleton warriors can be a bit of a pain to rank up, so if you have access to the older Vampire Counts skeletons you might prefer those. With much of the Soulblight Gravelords range readily available (though good luck getting your hands on Black Knights for anything less than double the msrp), while most of the Tomb Kings models are presently sold out with no word on when they'll be back in stock, at the time of posting it's actually much easier to collect a first party army of the Legacy undead faction for the Old World than it is to collect the 'fully supported' Tomb Kings. And the army you'd end up with would arguably be made up of better looking models. And that's just first party options. As always, if your regular gaming events are conducted a home, club, or independent venue instead of at official warhammer stores or events then you also have a wide range of third party and 3d print options to choose from - often at lower prices. In terms of painting, there's a lot of variety between rusting metals, tattered cloth, spectral ghosts, decayed flesh, and dusty bones to keep things interesting, and most of that can be pretty easily painted with contrast, washes, or drybrushing. With so much going on, you'll have to take care that your overall army still has something of a cohesive look to it - in this way painting a Vampire Count army is almost the opposite experience from painting Tomb Kings. Sample List: Below is a sample 2000 point Vampire Counts army. It's not made to be a competitive tournament list, but rather to highlight the faction's iconic units and play style, giving you a sense of how the Vampire Counts work more broadly. It features the typical battle line of undead melee infantry - a hoard of cheap zombies and a regiment of semi-elite grave guard, bolstered by powerful melee heroes in the front ranks - including the army's Vampire Count general - and supported by a master necromancer bunkered in a smaller unit of skeletons behind. The army also features faster flanking elements in a unit of powerful Blood Knights and a monstrous Terrorgheist, a corpse cart and a wailing banshee as additional support pieces, and dire wolves, fell bats, and a spectral spirit host as chaff, charge redirectors, and in the spirit host's case a resilient tar pit. These smaller units are critical in attempting to control the table space available to enemy chaff, limit the charge arcs of enemy hammer units, and distract & disrupt their ranged units, so that your own battle line anvils and flanking hammers can get to where they need to be intact. Again, this is just one way of running Vampire Counts - one built in the style of classic Vampire Count and Warhammer Undead armies of old. There are many alternatives you could try instead, for example going heavy into ethereal units with multiple ghostly heroes and units of spirit hosts, or powerful fast offense army with multiple units of blood knights and one or even two zombie dragons, or a ghoul king led list with skirmishing ghoul infantry, monstrous infantry horrors, and greater access to a terrorgheists & hard hitting but difficult to control vargheists. One list that's seen recent tournament success is leadership bomb +screams, with two master necromancers on mortis engines, two Banshees, and two Terrorgheists, combing leadership penalties from Necromancy spells and reserve move from Hellish Vigour, allowing all 6 flying and screaming units to move up, focus their voices on a debuffed unit to scream it off the table, and then move back out of range or behind terrain. And this is still early days - there's likely still more creative lists waiting to be devised. ...... Brief introduction to the faction done, the floor's open for any and all Vamp Count conversation. Who's running Vampire armies in the old world? What units have you fielded, and how have they performed on the table? What do you think of our pdf rules, do they hold up well enough to the official factions? Any hobby or painting tips, or particular 3rd party model sources to recommend?

On Ambush, From Beneath the Sands, and The Terrors Below I've seen some confusion on how these rules work, and how they interact with each other, including a few battle reports online that get things wrong, so I figured it was worth going through them a bit. Ambush: Ambush is a rule that many Tomb Kings units have, and many more can purchase. When deploying your army you may choose to set up such units as normal with the rest of your army. Alternatively, instead of placing your unit on the table as normal during deployment, you man instead set a unit with Ambush off to the side as 'Reserves'. Starting from Round 2, you roll a die for each unit in reserve during your Start Of Turn subphase to see whether the unit will arrive. On a 4-6 they arrive that turn, on a 1-3 they are delayed, and you'll roll again next turn. You do not roll on turn 5, any remaining units in reserve will arrive that turn. Note that this roll is made is in the Strategy Phase, before the Movement Phase, and before the Command Subphase. Arriving Units ARE NOT immediately set up. Even if you roll the 4-6 for an Ambushing unit in reserve, they are still off the table and still in reserve until the Compulsory Moves subphase of your Movement phase that turn. During the Compulsory Moves subphase, ambushing units are placed on any table edge, but must be more than 8" from any enemy models. The unit can still move as normal during your Remaining Moves subphase, as it comes after the Compulsory Moves subphase. However, Units arriving from Ambush CANNOT charge in the turn they arrive, as they are not set up on the table until the Compulsory Moves subphase, and that is after the Declare Charges / Reactions and Move Charges subphases. ..... From Beneath the Sands: From Beneath the Sands is a special rule possessed by Liche Priests - both High Priests and Mortuary Priests, which can affect other units in your army with the Ambush rule which are currently still in reserve. During the Command Subphase of your Strategy Phase, each of your Liche Priests that is not engaged in combat may choose a single friendly Tomb Kings unit with Ambush that is still in reserve and roll a leadership test. If the test is passed, then the chosen unit is immediately places on the table wholly within 12" of the Liche Priest but more than 6" from any enemy models. The unit CANNOT charge that turn, counts as having moved for the purposes of shooting, but may otherwise act as normal, including making a normal move during the Remaining Moves subphase of that turn's Movement phase. If you fail the leadership test for From Beneath the Sands then the unit is delayed that turn and may not be set up on the table unless it is Round 5, in which case they will still be set up during your Compulsory Moves subphase using the normal Ambush rules. Important notes for FBtS: You may attempt to use FBtS with your Liche Priests even if it is the first turn of the game. If the Liche Preist is within range of a Tomb Kings Battle Standard Bearer they may re-roll this test. You still have to make normal reserve rolls for each of your reserved units during your start of turn subphase starting in Round 2. The FAQ specifies that you must do so unless the reserved unit itself has a special rule that changes how units arrive from reserve, but that isn't the case for FBtS - it's the Liche Priest that has such a rule, not the reserved unit. You may however attempt to deploy an Ambushing Unit in reserve using FBtS even if you made the 4+ reserve roll for that unit during the Start of Turn subphase earlier that turn - they are still 'In Reserve' and thus a valid target for FBtS until they are set up on the table, and that doesn't happen until the Compulsory Moves subphase, which is after the Command subphase. If you fail the leadership test for FBtS, you cannot then place them as normal ambushers during the Compulsory Moves subphase unless it is Round 5, as FBtS otherwise delays them for another turn. Any units that you made a 4+ reserve roll which you have NOT targeted with a Liche Priest's FBtS rule MUST be set up as normal for Ambush during the Compulsory Moves subphase of that turn. You may not choose to hold them back just because you would prefer to deploy via FBtS in a later turn. Because failing a FBtS roll delays the target unit until the next turn even if they rolled a 4+ reserve roll, you can if you wish guarantee that at least one Ambushing unit per Liche Priest will arrive via FBtS, provided you succeed on the leadership test by Round 5. However, if you have more ambushing units than liche priests then there's always the chance that excess units might force their way onto the table via normal ambush deployment. For example, if you have two lich priests and three ambushing tomb scorpions, and in Round 2 you roll a 4+ for each scorpion, then at least one of those scorpions will deploy that turn via the normal ambush rules, since you'll only be able to make two FBtS rolls. From Beneath the Sands is a confusing and not perfectly written rule (the clause about units automatically arriving 'at the start of Round 5' is particularly awkward). Take your time learning it, and its somewhat janky interactions with the Ambush rule as it is quite relevant to Tomb Kings, especially Mortuary Cults. There's also lots of room for your opponent to interefere with FBtS deployment by engaging your liche priest in combat or simply surrounding them with chaff units so that there's no room to deploy reserved units wholly within 12" but more than 6" from all enemy units. There's also potential counterplay via stacked leadership penalties and assassinating your BSB. As such, FBtS shouldn't be a cornerstone of your battle strategy. It's a useful tool, but you should always have a back up plan for if your reserved units need to deploy via the regular ambush rules. ..... The Terrors Below: This is an optional upgrade available to Tomb Scorpions and unridden Necroserpent units only in a Mortuary Cult Army of Infamy for +2 points per model. If a unit with this rule is set up via the From Beneath the Sands special rule within 8" of an enemy Normal Infantry or Heavy Infantry unit, then you may choose for one such unit to have to roll a number of initiative tests equal to the unit strength of the arriving unit, and for each failed test one model in the target unit is slain. As the unit strength of both scorpions and necroserpents is 3 per model this ~can~ be highly effective, but it is highly dependent on your opponent. Dwarves and undead hate having to make initiative tests, elves mostly don't care. On top of that, positioning and timing is even more tricky than FBtS already is. You have to have an ambushing unit with Terrors Below that is still in reserve. Your opponent has to have a unit of normal or heavy infantry worth targeting - cavalry, monstrous infantry, monsters, chariots, war machines, and swarms are all completely immune, high initiative models might as well be, chaff units and tar pit hordes don't mind dying anyway. So there's really only so many units in the game that are good targets for this, and plenty of enemy armies that won't run any of those units at all. You have to have a Liche Priest who isn't in combat, and at least one decent target unit of enemy normal or heavy infantry set up perfectly relative to each other such that you can deploy the summoned unit wholly within 12" of the priest, more than 6" from all enemy units, but within 8" of the target enemy unit. If you keep your Liche Priests safely bunkered behind your front lines then there may not be possible until later turns of the game, and by then all your Terrors Below ambushers may have arrived on the table already. But if you let your Liche Priests range forward - perhaps a High Priest riding a bone dragon, or Mortuary Priest BSB in the front rank of one of your battle line units - then they're likely to end up locked in combat an unable to roll for FBtS at all. Perfectly placing the ambushing unit becomes much more difficult the bigger that unit is, which is a problem for what are otherwise the most threatening Terrors Below users - large units of Necroserpents. five serpents for 200 points of compulsory core allotment forces 15 initiative tests, and on average that's 10 dead dwarf ironbreakers, 7 black orcs, or 5 dead chosen - without saves of any kind. But only if you can place them within range of one of these units, and only if your opponent has such units worth targeting to begin with, which is again very match up dependent. Brettonians are mostly cavalry, ogre kingdoms and Troll armies are mostly monstrous infantry. Elves mostly have such high initiative that they just don't care, etc. Altogether, the Terrors Below is a highly situational ability. In the situations where it matters it can be very powerful, so you'd like to have it available as an option. Mortuary cults are required to field at least one scorpion per thousand points, so any that spend the 5 points to ambush might as well spend the 2 extra for Terror Below. Mortuary cults can also have trouble filling their core requirement since they lack access to grave guard and have to take chariots as a special choice. Yes, you can fill core points with one unit of Ushabti, but while greatbow ushabti can be useful they're not exactly points efficient for their damage output, and warblade ushabti kind of want the venerable upgrade which puts them back in special slots. So yeah, a Mortuary Cult army might find itself light on core points, in which case a unit of 2 to 4 necroserpents with Terrors Below might be worth the investment, just to have it as a threat. If you do want to try to make use of this ability, and particularly if you're ambushing a unit of 3 or more necroserpents, then you really might want to consider taking the scarab brooch on one of your liche priests. it's a 20 point magic item to extend the range of that priest's From Beneath the Sand rule to 18" instead of 12". Since the raised unit can still move that turn, regular FBtS usually doesn't have too much trouble with the normal 12" range, but the extra 6" range makes a huge difference with the added requirement of placing the unit within 8" of an enemy unit for Terrors Below. ..... Example in Play: Imagine you are running the following Mortuary Cult army: Note that I'm not suggesting this as an ideal MC army, just an example for the purposes of demonstrating Ambush, FBtS, and Terrors Below. Imagine you set up against dwarves: say a front line with two blocks of great weapon longbeards and one of ironbreakers with runed up king and runesmith, and a back line on a hill with an anvil of doom, 20 thunderers, 2 cannons, and an organ gun. We'll say the front line is about 4 inches back from the edge of their deployment zone, and you deploy as far forward as possible, so there's 28 inches between your front line and theirs. You start with four ambushing units in reserve: one unit of 3 necroserpents, one unit of 2 tomb swarms, a tomb scorpion, and another tomb scorpion. You have a small core battleline of a 5x5 block of skeleton warriors with full gear, full command, deathmask, war banner, and a tomb prince with a unit of four melee ushabti to one side and a bsb priest on a skeletal steed in a unit of 4 skirmishing horse archers offering support from behind. This priest has a heiratic jar to double-raise once per game and the scarab brooch to make FBtS easier from behind your lines. The non-ambushing unit of tomb swarms will deploy nearby to empower the priests spellcasting, as will the casket, which also can shield the small battleline or blast enemy units. In addition to the small battleline, you also have a fully kitted dragon priest with illusion and a lore familiar to guarantee doppleganger with its deadly serpent staff, plus a necrosphinx to double up on fast, flying, high toughness threats. The dragon and sphinx can pair up to tag team on one flank, or move in from both flanks to pinsir around your small battleline. During deployment you make sure sure your high priest on the dragon is within range of the BSB on your first turn. For the sake of convenience, we'll assume you go first. In Round 1 you don't roll for reserves, but you can roll for FBtS, and your high priest does so, with the BSB reroll to help them succeed, placing the reserved tomb swarm unit forward, outside of your deployment zone, in the direction the priest intends to move that turn. Your prince gives your skeletons +1 movement with my will be done, your priest and casket buff up, your level 2 priest is able to cast Incantation of the Desert Wind on the 10+ value thanks to +1 from the casket and +3 from sepulchral animus, damaging the normally deployed tomb swarm unit, your line moves 10" forward (now 18" from the dwarf front line - the mortuary priest in the horse archers behind your ushabi is 22" away), your necrosphinx and dragon priest march way out to one flank, the scarabs that just emerged from the sand scuttle along after to make sure your dragon priest will have them in range to buff his casting next turn. Dwarves shoot, taking out, say, half your skeleton unit and damaging but not killing your dragon priest. Round two you have to start making reserve rolls, and there are three units to roll for - both scorpions and the necroserpents. We'll say one scorpion and the necroserpents roll the 4+ to arrive from ambush this turn. Thanks to the extra reserve move from Incantation of the Desert Wind and the extra 6" range from the scarab brooch, your mortuary priest is within range to try for Terrors from Below with your necroserpents even from behind your front line, and even though the dwarves haven't advanced at all. Thanks to the reroll from the BSB you succeed. The three necroserpents emerge 7" in front of the ironbreakers, forcing 9 initiative tests - your opponent rolls average and six ironbreakers are slain. Your High Priest could also attempt a FBtS roll this turn. If you want to maximize terrors below you could roll for the scorpion that's going to arrive normally otherwise - if you pass the check it will emerge from beneath the sands within range of the high priest, causing 3 initiative tests for terrors below to the unit of longbeards closest to your dragon lord, and if you fail it will be forced back into reserve to try again next turn. However, you choose to prioritize trying to get both your scorpions onto the field as fast as possible, so you instead make a FBtS roll for the scorpion that failed the reserve roll instead. This time you fail the FBtS roll, and your high priest is no longer within range of the BSB, so that scorpion remains in reserve while the one that passed it's reserve roll shows up from the opponent's table edge, 8 inches away from their organ gun. Also in your command subphase your prince again enhances the movement of your skeletons, your bsb priest double heals the skeletons up with their jar, and the high priest heals itself a wound. Your high priest tries to cast the 'don't charge' spell on the ironbreakers but fails thanks to that darned dwarven resistance (and the fact that you're conserving tomb swarm wounds for doppleganger). Your BSB priest and casket buff up your line. Your dragon and necrosphinx charge the longbeards on that flank, your snakes that just emerged from the sand this turn move forward then turn to the side, explosing their flank but stretching 300mm long just an inch in front of the ironbreakers & second longbeards unit to prevent them from positioning or charging anything else on their turn. Your scorpion moves up stopping just a couple inches from the organ gun. the high priest's scarab swarm moves up to be within animus range for the coming combat. Your monsters smash the longbeards, thanks in part to doppleganger forced through via 3 wounds to the scarabs, but a few of the stubborn dwarves remain and pass their break test, giving ground 2 inches, and you follow up with both monsters to avoid the dwarves shooting. On the dwarf turn the scorpion is shot off the table, some skeletons die, the rest of the longbeards are slain and the necrosphinx overruns into the anvil while the dragon turns to face the ironbreakers and the ironbreakers and second longbeard unit charge and destroy the necroserpents, with the ironbreakers tilting to just barely get the dragon in their front arch while the longbeards overrun, ending up just a few inches in front of the skeletons and ushabti but at least preventing them from charging the ironbreaker's flank. Round 3, and you roll reserve for the remaining tomb scorpion and once again fail. But this time you pass the FBtS roll - on the BSB's leadership w/ reroll - bringing up the scorpion in front of the ironbreakers and killing another two with terror from below rolls. ...... We could continue talking out this hypothetical game, but the purpose is demonstrating how ambush, from beneath the sands, and terrors below might play out in a game, and there are no more units in reserve, so we'll stop there. This hypothetical game shows was imagined to highlight the potential strengths of these rules. Ambush allowed a Tomb Scorpion to deploy behind your opponents line on turn 2, threatening their ranged unit and war machines, and though they shot it off the board before it could charge, it did distract more than 77 points worth of shooting from your main units. From Beneath the Sands - on turn one - let you deploy a unit of scarabs far enough forward that the unit could still be in range for sepulchral animus of your High Priest on a dragon on round 2 even after a long distance flying march move in round 1. It also let you position a 120 point necroserpent unit in a way to block the movement and charges of multiple more expensive enemy units for a turn, letting your flying monsters pick up one flank for free and letting your infantry battleline get into position for their own charge. Terrors below picked off half of the enemy's most dangerous melee unit, and while that unit is still threatening you were well positioned to take them out in Round 3, with charges from dragon and ushabti for damage, skeletons with prince for combat res, and a scorpion to threaten a possible killing blow on one of the heroes. On the other hand, this is was an ideal match up. Dwarves are low initiative, making them prime targets for terrors below, and this dwarven army chose to turtle up in their backfield, which made forward deployment options like Ambush and From Beneath the Sands ideal, even with a delay. a More aggressive, higher initiative, or less infantry based opponent would not have highlighted the strength of these rules the same way, and indeed if you were playing the same sample army against a cavalry or monstrous infantry heavy aggro army you might choose not to reserve /any/ of the possible ambushing units, preferring instead to have them on the table normally in Round 1 in order to position them to block or redirect charges going into round 2. Ambush, From Beneath the Sands, and Terrors Below are nice tools to have access to in a list, but they're not always the right tool for the job, and you don't have to use them if deploying normally makes more sense.

Hobby post. A few minor tomb kings conversions: Plus my old Arkhan on a chariot conversion for AoS, waiting for a partial repaint and an adapter base to make him playable in Old World as well: Maybe run him as a High Priest on a dragon? Eventually I want to do some homebrew rules for him, but that'll wait until after my vamp counts arcane journal is done. .... bonus: 1000(ish) points of Mortuary Cult, waiting for basing & primer. Old vamp count skittles used for their better proportions. They'll look Nehekharan enough with TK shields.

The Army: The Tomb Kings are the Old World's premier undead faction, and one of two launch factions for the first edition of the game alongside the Brettonians. The Tomb Kings benefit from a diverse Grand Army list supplemented by two compelling Armies of Infamy in their Arcane Journal, making the Tomb Kings a surprisingly flexible force on the table. The Old World's take on the Tomb Kings combines the legendary implacability, recursive resilience, arcane potency, and frightful psychological weapons of traditional Warhammer Fantasy undead, but without the usual lack of options in the shooting phase. To be clear Tomb Kings won't be out-shooting wood elves, empire, or dwarves, but between skeletal archers, horse archers, greatbow ushabti, and the screaming skull catapult, the Tomb Kings are well equipped to clear screens had sweep away chaff. This opens the field to the Tomb King's unbreakable battleline units, deep phalanxes of skeleton warriors and wide ranks of elite tomb guard, who are happy to grind opposing regiments down in battles of attrition with just a little support from combat heroes bolstering the front ranks, spellcasters healing from the backfield, and maybe a charge from a ponderous warsphinx or devastating warblade ushabti. The other classic weakness of Warhammer Undead, a lack of speed, is also heavily mitigated by fast moving options including carrion, chariots, skeletal cavalry, necropolis knights, and of course the mighty Necrosphinx, which, along with Bone Giants, War-Sphinxes, and the all new Skeletal Dragons, mean Tomb Kings are also well equipped to compete in the early Old World monster spam meta. These are further supplemented by more niche utility pieces, from the burrowing Tomb Scorpions which hit remarkably hard for a unit cheap enough to also be sacrificed as chaff if necessary to the classic Casket of Souls, a powerful support piece that buffs your wizards, shields your battle line, and unleashes arcane death on your opponents. This versatility is even further expanded by Army-of-Infamy specific units like the Royal Host's heavy hitting Tomb Guard chariots or the Mortuary Cult's deceptively deadly Necroserpents, which make up for the loss of their Necropolis Riders with lower points cost, core slot allocation, and the 'terrors below' special rule, which is absolutely devastating to low-initiative infantry. The Lore: In the half-buried streets of Nehekhara's long dead cities, sand-shades and the fragmentary remains of commoners still sleepwalk through a grim parody of their daily toils, while serried skeletal legions emerge from their willing entombment beneath the burning sands to answer the call of the same mummified monarchs they once served in life. Some of these tomb kings and princes have forgotten that they ever died, while others are fully aware of the horrors they have become and roar their eternal grief and rage against the grim shadow that cursed them all. Either way, these kings and queens of the dead wage war - against the same rivals the battled in life, against their own ancestors or descendants for control of their cities and necropoli, against interlopers who have come to steal their treasures. Across the sands of Nehekhara, only the unbending determination of Settra the Imperishable is able to impose some semblance of order. Now Settra leads the combined legions of Nehekhara north in a campaign that will take them from the boarder princes all the way to the frozen shores of Norsca in what will eventually be remembered as 'The War of Sand and Snow', reclaiming the stolen treasures of Nehekhara, proving that the first human civilization is still the greatest and most powerful, and reminding the barbarous northern peoples of the true king of kings to whom all humanity must kneel - whether living or dead. At least until the Great Necromancer returns to stake his own claim at the end of all things. The thousand year history of Nehekhara preceding its tragic downfall, with multiple generational dynasties ruling over various combinations of city-states each with their own history and identity, means there's no end of canon lore to draw from when building your Tomb Kings collection. There's also plenty of room to make up your own Tomb King, Dynasty, and long forgotten Necropolis City if you prefer the freedom of a homebrew army background. The Models: Where classic Warhammer Fantasy undead and Vampire Counts are a mish mash of horror staples, the Tomb Kings maintain a strong Ancient Egyptian theme and aesthetic that lends the army a distinct personality. Admittedly, some of the old tomb kings models don't hold up so well. The old skeletal warriors and horses in particular, while I'd argue they still have some nostalgic charm, are well past their 'best by' date, and that can be a bit of a problem since they make up the bulk of your core units, including faction staples like chariots, archers, and horse archers. However, many of the oldest models still hold up quite well, and a few have even seen remaster from the current old world team. The Casket of Souls, for instance, is still a faction seller in itself, the carrion fully sell their decrepit concept, and the screaming skull catapult, while a bit of a bear to assemble, remains an impressive and eye-catching kit. The Tomb Kings also saw a significant expansion to their plastic range in the 8th and final edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and many of those models also hold up well, including the tomb guard and the imposing necrosphinx. The new Bone Dragon, while not what I had hoped to see for the faction in terms of new model kits, is also large and impressive on the table, and imo much better looking in person than in 2d images. There's also multiple ranges of independently produced tomb kings substitute models that cropped up in the years since the GW range was retired, so if you play in a venue where 3rd party models are allowed you really have no end of options to choose from. You also won't have to with the hassle of GW's current restock issues. In terms of painting, the classic sun-bleached bone with gold or bronze metalics can be very quick and easy to paint using washes, contrast paints, and-or drybrushing, while accent colors on the decorative designs - perhaps the traditional blue and red of Khemri or the somber black and red of the mortuary cult - can let you flex your skill and hone your painting hand, creating a colorful and cohesive look that is striking on the table even if some of the model sculpts themselves are showing their age. Alternatively, something dramatically different like blackened or gilded bone, or an army glowing with unearthly arcane purples and greens can give your collection a unique feel. No matter how you paint your force, the unifying egyptian aesthetic of the model range will help keep your army looking coherent, while the variety between lightly armored skeletal infantry, the more heavily decorated elite tomb guard, cavalry, chariots, tall ushabti, and towering monsters will ensure your collection has enough visual variety to keep it interesting. Sample List: The following list isn't intended to be tournament competitive, but is rather a varied force built to include and highlight some of the most iconic Tomb Kings units. The greats are all here, from chariots to archers to ushabti to the necrosphinx and casket, giving you a broad sampling of those units that have come to define this army. In terms of gameplay the Tomb Guard with the Necrotect attached plus the unit of Ushabti form the core of your line, with the High Priest joining the horse archers to dance around the flanks and rear of the formation, keeping the priest's line of sight open to cast spells while keeping out of charge arcs, and relying on -2 penalty (-1 from skirmishers, -1 form teh orb of Ptra) to keep your all important heirophant safe from ranged threats. Meanwhile skirmishing skeletal archers and the catapult provide supporting fire - and an additional leadership penalty from 'skulls of the foe' that stacks with that imposed by various necromancy spells - and the casket of souls provides further support with its special rules and bound spells. On the flanks your Tomb King general and his loyal chariot retinue move fast and hit hard, especially when paired with the devastating necrosphinx. Finally a pair of swift carrion can keep pace with your flanking force and block an unfavorable countercharge, while an ambushing tomb scorpion can either rise from the sands at your heirophants call to redirect a charge or threaten a deadly countercharge or alternatively can be left to its own devices, ambushing from a board edge to threaten the enemy's backfield support units. This is far from the only way to run Tomb Kings, especially with the extra options made available by the Arcane Journal. Hoard infantry units are possible with multiple elite tomb guard and skeleton warrior units, with warsphinxes to further anchor the line. The Royal Host can field a lightning fast assault army of multiple chariot units plus the elite tomb guard chariots. Mortuary cult can consume their own tomb swarms and stone units to power some of the strongest spellcasting rolls in the game. With access to dragons, sphinxes, and bone giants Tomb Kings are among the most effective monster mash armies in the game, with distinct builds in that style from both the Grand Army and the Mortuary Cult. And that's just scratching the surface - if you dig beneath the sands you're sure to find new builds and strategies all your own, especially in these early experimental days. ................... So that's a brief introduction to the Tomb Kings, and the floor is open to discussion or commentary. Any thoughts on the faction? Who all is starting the Old World with Tomb Kings? What are you running, and how have your games gone so far? Any interesting conversions to show off, or a favorite recipe for painting bone to share?

Don't much care for battle tactics, and what I see here doesn't change that. But at least none of the previewed ones require your units to charge into combat then turn around and punish you for killing the unit you charged, so better than 3e tactics even if I'd still prefer they be dropped outright. As with the current tactics, I don't like that you can't re-attempt a tactic you've failed. I was hoping that at least would change. IMO/IME failing a tactic in the first place was already punishing enough, especially for factions that might not have the tools needed to reasonably achieve all of the available tactics to begin with.

Slow progress after the initial burst of energy, as I work to get my core pdf vamp counts (& tomb kings) armies together, as well as getting my soulblight collection in ahape for aos. That said there may be a blood bowl league starting up near me, and I picked up the vampire team, only to find what will probably be my solution to the 'first party conversion' option for blood knight infantry / depth guard. the team box comes with 6 vampire players (2x3 but with different heads), with scale & armor aesthetic more or less matching the plastic blood knights & other more recent aos vampire stuff. One bloodbowl box, a couple spare bloodknight swords, plus, say, one box of crimson court should make for a reasonable unit of ten. It should also be possible to combine a bloodbowl vamp lower torso with a blood knight upper torso. Anyway, that's one problem solved. Probably still going to be a few weeks before I'm able to come back to make more progress on this, but def open to suggestions in the mean time.

If faction tactics go away then battle tactics lose their value as a balancing lever, which is the only thing I currently like about them. 😛

I still think the realmgate holds up pretty well, but maybe that's just me.

The scenery suggestions are nice, but I'm very worried about the terrain rules. I'd love to have some simple but intuitive rules for basic terrain like forests, walls, hills, ruins, water features, defensible buildings, letting people use their own terrain in a way that makes sense. But I'm worried we'll instead get a bunch of hasslesome and arbitrary rules for specific weird terrain feature models that GW sells, or pretends to sell (but is perpetually out of stock), or used to sell (but never will again), similar to the stronghold rules from the recent dawnbringers book, which in no way generalize to the sort of generic terrain that most game stores, even most warhammer stores, typically have available for players to use.

sadly battle tactics are as if not even more important than they were before. I know they're a convenient and remarkably effective balancing lever for the devs, but in terms of the raw gameplay experience I kind of hate them in 3e. Will have to wait for the specific battle tactics article (later this week?) to see if they've somehow changed them for the better, but I'm not holding my breath.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2024/04/24/heres-how-battlepacks-battleplans-and-the-generals-handbook-work-in-newaos/ Battlepacks/plans article is up. heavy weight to battle tactics, which I as a battle tactics hater don't like. Core rule battleplans are 4 rounds, which sounded like a good/exciting move to me, making games shorter & thus more likely to complete, but actual tournament/generals hadnbook plans are still rounds so bleh.

I like the concept and gameplay of underworlds, but the way the game is structured to require you to buy each and every product in order to keep up with available cards, only to watch those cards rotate out or updated to new versions - which require you to buy entirely new products, or sometimes buy the exact same products again? Like, the updated cards for the models you already bought and painted are only available in a box that comes with and charges for another set of exactly the same models? It was just way too much to keep up with. By the time they started to address this with newer limited formats I was already out entirely. If I wanted to play a game with that kind of constant purchasing cycle I'd play magic - a much better game that I already quit for basically the same reason, one that doesn't tack on arbitrary extra toy purchases to the cards, and that lets you play old versions of the same cards if they get reprinted, with online errata if need be. Warcry on the other hand is a fun skirmish game in the AoS universe, but it's terrible for on-boarding new players due to the rules being completely different and the warbands getting wonky afterthought rules in AoS and the first edition or two of the game having been fully dedicated to weird outlier units for a single AoS faction instead of bringing all the AoS factions in - and the more they fix the latter the weirder and wronger it has felt that like fully half the available warbands were variously themed chaos cultists. Warcry's basically one of the weird hyper-focused and super-thematic side games, like say Gorkamorka or Necromunda, that got slowly and awkwardly forced into the position of being a generically themed & non-focused skirmish game due to the there not already being an AoS kill team equivalent to fill that niche, a niche made necessary in the modern incarnations of both 40k and AoS due to how poorly they scale down to small game sizes, and now with the retiring of the 1e warbands we're finally seeing that transformation completed as the last vestiges of unique thematic focus are trimmed away and it really does just become 'AoS: skirmish'. I make that sound like a bad thing, but if there had already been an AoS version of kill team to fill that niche and Warcry had been allowed to stay its own separate fenced sandbox then the whole game would have likely been retired by this point anyway, as so many similar niche side games had done before it. I doubt it would have had the stand alone longevity of an outlier like bloodbowl.

Hope springs eternal, and the initial release ~does~ seem to have been a lot more positively received than GW was expecting, so we may yet see expansion beyond the limited scope that the game finally launched with. I certainly wouldn't complain if we see a return to something closer to the scope that the Old World was initially previewed with, including entire new ranges for Kislev and maybe even Cathay, and more legacy factions returning to full support as their ranges are slowly replaced or retired from AoS. But even if The Old World persists more or less as it is now, I'm still pretty happy with it.

Rather than a horus heresy type future, I expect more of an eventual middle earth style status quo - a good game that plays well sleepily persisting on a mostly static old model line available exclusively through the online store, seeing rare updates and even rarer new releases, yet well thought of and well appreciated by its players. A game largely unbothered by the constant meta uphevals of regular new army books, editions, and balance patches that the main games get - on the down side lacking the hype that drives new player interest, but on the up side you can buy a unit without worry that its in-game abilities will change dramatically by the time you get it painted. We'll see, though.