Grimrock

There's a ruling in the core FAQ yeah, on page 5. Summoning an invocation counts as a prayer for the priest. Seems like my slaughterpriests are officially relegated to the shelf until we get a new battletome, too bad really.

Do you have a page number for that? Because the only rule I've ever seen is a side text bubble saying units can't exceed their max size with absolutely no definition of what a max size is.

Really depends on what the benefits will be for the new faction specific core battalions. If they stick to the standard list from the rule book and just introduce special unit combinations then yeah, it's unlikely they'll be anywhere near as absurd as the previous version. However we already have precedent in the GHB with the Ghur battalion that has a special rule, so I see no reason why they wouldn't do the same in the faction specific ones. Will SCE get to shoot one unit in the hero phase? Will Khorne get increased range on their bloodsecrator? Who knows. All I'm sure of after this announcement is that dropping the old battalions from matched play was a ploy to get people to buy new models, plain and simple. Destroy the way that every list was written, force people to adapt, then slowly re-introduce it book by book. It's classic GW through and through.

They did the same thing for 40k chaos marines. Released a set of beautiful sculpts in the Dark Vengeance starter box and then went total radio silence on the faction for like... 5 years until they eventually revamped the standard kit along with most of the rest of the faction. Wouldn't be surprised at all if that's what happens for StD. The way I see it, GW tests the waters on an old faction to see if people like the new sculpts. If they sell well then the full refresh gets a green light and a few years later it's on the shelves. Either that or the schedule was full and they decided to throw a bone to the players because they knew it'd be a long time until they could get the resculpts sorted.

It occurs to me that they just put up some really nice shiny new coalition rules for the chaos books that allows them to more freely take beasts units. What better time would there be to do a full range refresh and a bunch of competitive new rules for BoC? Most chaos players would scramble to pick up a few units to compensate for the issues that the new rules created in their books, and hey, maybe they'll get a few more and then they have a full beasts army too. It'd certainly be a pretty smart marketing decision on GWs part.

I've been focusing on slaves to darkness so saves have come up a fair bit. My chaos warriors have been all stars sitting on central objectives with a +1-3 to save and reroll 1s, and a 5+ mortal ward save, meaning even against dedicated high quality units they just sit there and take it for an average of about 4 rounds. My chaos lord on manticore with the amulet and a command trait for 2 extra wounds has also been a real champion. I regularly dump a lot of resources into him to make that happen though so I'm not sure of he's great or anyone would be great in that position. I went up against an elite soulblight build last week with mannfred, vhordrai, blood knights and assorted support. It was pretty rough actually. I didn't seem to have anything to crack Vhordrai who was on a 2+ save most of the game. I did chip him a few wounds a turn, but they were always healed almost immediately. The blood knights just refused to die as well and hit really hard. Combined with his massive magical superiority I felt like I was on the back foot most of the game. If it weren't for the save stacking on the warriors I would have been tabled by turn 3, but with them I was able to focus on scenario. Even then I was constantly bleeding assets and just holding on by the skin of my teeth as he steadily ground me down. It ended really close and I only lost by a single point at the end of round 5, so playing for scenario absolutely matters, but a few more failed saves on my warriors and I wouldn't have stood a chance.

As others have said, the StD units do become Nurgle but it comes down to how the rules are written. Be sure to read carefully and make sure you clearly define how the teams relate to eachother. For example you'll need to decide if a teammates models count as 'Friendly' or not because some models like the Glottkin only affect friendly Nurgle units, whereas other abilities like the putrid blightkings healing affects all Nurgle units within 3". For the Gnarlmaw in particular, the FAQ has updated the 'Entropic Chimes' ability to only work in the commanding players charge phase, so it would only work if you're sharing phases with your teammate.

Totally agree GW has the right to protect their IP and copyrights, but as others have said it's possible the youtube channels may have had separate agreements with GW that allow them to put the books up. After all GW was the one sending them those books more than a week before they were released, so there must have been some sort of discussion. They may not be particularly creative but they are incredibly helpful for me when I'm deciding how to spend my limited hobby budget and I really hope they are allowed to continue. I did notice that the new Ork codex in 40k hasn't been shown off yet even though it went up for pre-order in the bundle last weekend, so that's making me a little nervous.

I'm assuming it means that any reviewer that shows the book and discusses it will no longer be receiving those free copies, so the 'Man reads book' videos that come out on pre-order day will no longer be happening. It would stand to reason that if the channels want to continue to get those free early copies (so they can do a pre-order day battle report for example), then they will need to stop showing the book off page for page or discussing stats before the release. Personally I think that would be thoroughly unfortunate considering how incredibly helpful those videos have been for planning purchases or deciding whether or not to invest in an army, but maybe GW thinks they'll get more sales if the customer has no idea what they're pre-ordering.

I thought the same thing when I went through the rules, but unfortunately the Disciples of Tzeentch FAQ prevents it: Q: Can the same Horrors of Tzeentch or Kairic Acolytes unit use the Chronomantic Cogs to cast Channelled Pink Fire or Gestalt Sorcery more than once in the same hero phase? A: No

It had to be changed because the definition of a faction changed. Before the term 'Disciples of Tzeentch army' had no real meaning because the faction was defined around the Tzeentch keyword and had nothing to do with the units in the Disciples of Tzeentch book (which was confusing for a lot of people). Now that they've changed the definition of the faction to simply be whatever is in the pitched battle profile of the book the term 'Disciples of Tzeentch army' actually means something, so any reference to 'Tzeentch army' (the previous definition) now needs to be 'Disciples of Tzeentch army'. The allegiance abilities themselves haven't changed, just the definition of the faction that uses them. With the Warmaster ability Archaon can be included in that faction, and as long as he meets the pre-requisites of the abilities themselves (a 'friendly TZEENTCH unit' for destiny dice) he can use them just without issue.

Haven't heard anything, but in 40k they've just started releasing the starter box sprues even though they have the awkward contents. For example the poxwalkers box they just released a few months ago still has a half a plague marine on it from the 8th edition starter. They've also released the indomitus specific models as grouped kits. The Necron one has the skorpekh lord, plasmancer, cryptothralls and reanimator while the marine one has the chaplain, judicator, bladeguard ancient, bladeguard, and eradicators. I wouldn't be surprised to see them do the same thing in AoS, easier to sell the awkward bonus models/parts than it is to do a fresh sculpt for all the heroes. Honestly after all these years I'm really surprised they're still making the same mistakes when they create the boxes in the first place.

Got another game in last night, this time nurgle against slaves to darkness. A few of my thoughts on the game in no particular order: - Coherency was definitely an issue through the game, but it didn't eat up too much time. Combats regularly lost 2-3 attacking models and trying to maneuver a 10 man unit of blight kings was particularly troublesome. Maybe not a huge impact but losing 2-3 models can make a big difference in a combat if those models are blight kings or have a bunch of buffs like the plaguebearers. The units of 5 cavalry seemed like a breath of fresh air in comparison since they didn't have to worry about coherency at all - I saw a huge opportunity for Redeploy to make a big difference in the game, but rolling poorly on it made the play useless. I'm wondering how often it will be used competitively since it's so inconsistent. Maybe in future tomes we'll see fast units have abilities that add +2 to the roll or something? - Command points and abilities continued to feel great. The slaves player had plenty to summon on their free units (they were running the Ravagers sub faction) and Nurgle had lots to put out the generic abilities and keep plague bearers around with Inspiring Presence - Endless spells continue to be a question mark for me. I used the lifeswarm and it regenerated some plaguebearers, but the ability to unbind in both hero phases meant it went away the next turn and never came back. I've yet to see one really run amuck, they're always shut down before they can make a big impact. I'm thinking you really need to have a casting focused army and 2 or 3 spells to overwhelm your opponent - Battle tactics did lead to some interesting back and forth in the game. For example I passed on taking the double turn on turn 2 because there were no viable tactics available. Going second allowed me to free up a unit in the slaves turn and then use it to score Sieze the Center on the bottom of 2. The slaves player intentionally tried to lose a fragile unit on their turn to try to avoid giving up an easy tactic later - The FAQ has significantly changed a number of units. Plaguebearers for example are extremely tough now, like ridiculously tough for their points. Locus of Corrosion reducing rend, a free +1 to their save if they're near daemon heroes, and a flat -1 to hit if they have 10 or more models made them extremely difficult to shift. Similarly the changes to slaves that took away re-roll saves reduced their survivability. Definitely need some more games to get to grips with the changes Edit: - One more thing of note. On the third turn the chaos lord on foot popped Finest Hour and charged into a damaged Great Unclean One. He tanked all the GUO's attacks and then managed to chip off the last few wounds to get the kill. He promptly rolled a double 6 on the Eye of the Gods table and ascended to daemonhood! Just about the most thematic way possible haha

I think slaves to darkness can do some work in the new edition. Be'Lakor is solid now that he has access to a few combat buffs and went down in points, and he can handily counter single death starts or super powered hero monsters for a turn. The khorne daemon prince can also massively abuse redeploy with his command ability making even a roll of a 1 become a minimum 8" charge. Otherwise the army doesn't have much in terms of ranged attacks or speed, but it is seriously resilient and can put out good damage with the right units. It also has a ton of variety and options between the number of units and different choices in marks which makes it more resilient to shifts in the meta.

Hexgorger skulls are still solid, but yeah the other two are pretty much done. Slaughter priests are also massively less appealing with only being able to chant once, might take one in my list now but even that's not a sure thing.

Yeah this is what I've seen so far. Screens of 10 32mm base models have simply been dropped for 5 man units of cavalry turned sideways. Combat units running in triangles to maximize attacks. Large units mostly skipped in list building in favor of mass MSU to avoid loss of efficiency. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it absolutely doesn't look like the rank and file armies from the old WHFB days.

In this edition there's a chance that rerolling 1's could be handy due to the cap on +1 to hit but considering the new coherency rules, the fact that they wound on 4's, and the fact that they have no rend, I don't think you should be looking to blood warriors to actually do damage in combat. I'd go gorefist all the way (at least until they swap them to make the second axe more viable in the next book like they did with the fists in this one). Back to the wrathmonger conversation, I think I've found the best reason for them to not affect ranged attacks. If you pick a chimera as your Beast of Chaos inclusion (previously impossible, but they might very well work if the wording on the article is anything to go by) then the wrathmongers would double up their shooting allowing an automatic 2d6 mortal wounds to anything within 14". The damage scales down pretty quickly as they take wounds, but the Chimera is only 220 points and has a ton of melee profiles to benefit from bonus attacks as well. You could easily fit two in a wrathmonger bubble and that alpha would be back breaking for a lot of armies.

I've always wanted to add in some bullgors or bestigors for a solid punch that has some good rend, but it just occurred to me that the coherency rules do a number on them. I think if anything I'd probably look at bringing in a Ghorgon or two to get some non-character monsters. Ungor raiders could be an interesting choice since they add a little ranged punch and can get onto objectives early. Centigors could be an option as well but I think flesh hounds might be a better choice.

If I'm not mistaken, I think the wording on the bloodsecrator and aspiring deathbringer always specified melee attacks. That made it pretty obvious the wrathmonger ability was intentional (even without the developer confirmation). If they all worked on melee attacks it would be waaay too broken. Four shot skull cannons would destroy the world.

Yeah, which made it a real bummer when they nerfed it last time. I do understand that skull cannons might be a little OP with it, but I'm hoping that they didn't mess up and it was intentional. Having viable shooting in Khorne would be a really exciting shakeup and could make for some really interesting lists. Soul grinders could be interesting, maybe even ungor raiders or a cygor. That being said I don't trust war-com at all so I guess we'll see.

Is that based on the Khorne article they just put up? The wording on the wrathmongers ability looks like it did pre-faq when the book was released, so I think it's more likely they just goofed and put up the old text. Definitely wouldn't be the first time that they made a mistake on these articles. If it is correct though and they reverted the FAQ then skull cannons would become seriously strong. Two shots each, hitting on 2's with All Out Attack or when targeting large units and re-rolling 1's for the locus. A unit of two could kill a hero per turn without much effort just by shooting, and combined with their melee attacks they could be absolutely devastating. Back them up with a Wrath of Khorne thirster for the double swing on his flail and better locus range and yeah... good times. I'm pretty happy to read about the BoC too, I think this is a much better way to do things. No more fiddling around with huge battalions completely dominating your list, just dragging and dropping a unit or two feels way better. Now I just have to see if I can resist getting a unit of bullgors or bestigors.

I've used Skarr quite a bit along with a Bloodforged battalion, but I think the most I've ever gotten off him is one death and a resurrection in the late game. In theory he could die quite a few times, but in practice it takes a few attempts to roll that 8+ and your opponent doesn't usually try to give you free blood tithe by attacking him directly. Still a solid little model though, and he can do some shockingly high damage to small based chaff/screen units. I think his biggest strength is when he does eventually die he forces your opponent to stick to their objectives for the rest of the game. If they step off and he respawns he can just pop up and steal it from them. Given that losing our battalions killed all incentive to take any of the deathbringers or the skullgrinder, I'd definitely rate him as our best combat hero by far. I've wanted to run a Slaughterbrute for a really long time but never thought they were worth it. However at 165 points with all the new abilities I'm seriously considering it... The biggest trick for Khorne is having to take an expensive StD master that can keep up with the brute. Like you said though, maybe taking a lord on manticore and having the two run around could be solid, or maybe a lord on karkadrak? It'd certainly look thematic having a great powerful chaos lord running around with his faithful murder dog the size of a house.

Well don't drop out right away, the great unclean ones benefit a lot from the new changes to monsters, heroes and wizards. They put out a lot more damage, heal more, and are more resilient. You certainly lose out on the improved plague wind, but the new improvements are significantly less dicey and you don't have to keep the models close to each other anymore. Honestly considering all the other greater daemons and what they lost with battalions, I think triple great unclean ones came out the best of the bunch. Definitely worth trying out a few times at least.

For me it's a mix. I agree, I generally can't just sit down and watch a report from start to finish, but I can have it off to the side while I do something else. I like seeing well painted models on a detailed and interesting board. If you're watching the right group it can also be really entertaining to listen to the banter or jokes or whatever. Plus if the players actually know what they're doing it can be very instructional and you might learn a new tactic or see an army used in a way you might not expect. With respect to the army builder on the app, my biggest concern is they get rid of warscroll builder. I know they've kept their 40k list builder around, but that's because they have power level in 40k as a substitute for points. There's no equivalent for that in AoS and warscroll builder is miles ahead of anything their app will ever be, so they might drop it to avoid self competition.

Yeah I'm pleasantly surprised by the service but I'm not sure if I'll be subscribing day 1. Really rolling in the app subscriptions is probably the most interesting component and does help quite a bit as their app costs have always been way too high. With warhammer+ if you discount the cost of the miniatures and split the remainder two ways that alone is like 1 buck a month for each app. If the rest of the content turns out to be high quality and entertaining then I'll probably pick it up.