Grimrock

Yeah, not saying it's definitely a squat spear or anything. GW does like to bury the lead on these a bit though and there have been a ton of them that looked blatantly obvious that ended up being something else entirely (most recent I can think of is the StD centaur tail that everyone was 100% sure was a new tyranid). I'd lean to seraphon as well but the haft and dangly bits to have enough similarity that I wouldn't be surprised.

Someone posted up on the 40k reddit suggesting that it might actually be a squat spear. There are certainly some design overlaps with one of the pictures they put up on their article today. The image from Reddit: I'm not sure if I'd lean that way or not, but it's definitely possible. With the league being put up as sort of a fancy high tech I could see this being a highly advanced power weapon of some type.

Gossamid archer warscroll spoiled on the AoS subreddit. I appreciate that GW has heard the complaints that people are getting sick of 6's to hit triggering a mortal wound and they have addressed the issue. Now 6's to hit cause d3 mortal wounds instead. See! Fixed! Jokes aside they look pretty binary. They're crazy expensive for their damage output, but they're also more or less invincible against a melee army. A unit of 10 easily kills an average hero with little recourse unless your opponent has shooting or good magic. Won't do much against tanky units and die to a stiff breeze though.

I am really disappointed for Skaven and the fact that we got no indication whatsoever on the fall tomes. However one thing I am really happy about, the sylvaneth release is the first instance of an actual new unit (ie. not a lone character model) being added to an AoS unique faction other than Stormcast (which really don't count) and Lumineth (which was honestly one release that was arbitrarily split into two for some reason). That's pretty exciting and gives some hope for factions like Ironjawz or Fireslayers that there isn't some company mandate to never update existing factions. Edit: Nevermind, the crossboos exist and I'm sure I'm missing something else. Ok, just disappointment then haha.

I mean the points for AoS have always been free with warscroll builder. I guess this just puts it in a download and keeps GW from wasting paper by printing it out.

Ok, so we didn't actually move to a new realm but effectively it's exactly what I expected. Instead of monsters getting buffs now it'll be infantry. Makes sense, I'm looking forward to seeing what the changes actually are.

I wish, but you gotta check out those keyword requirements on the spells. I have seen a unit of 6 varanguard with daemon weapons in knights of the empty throne roll through my Maggotkin pretty hard. Even with my pile in shenanigans messing with them they pretty much steamrolled my army throughout the game. The biggest problem is they were the only thing doing damage so I was able to bully the rest of the army and still won on scenario despite the varanguard killing 1000ish points worth of models.

As long as they're about the right size (which I think they are) I can definitely see picking up a few torments to use as chaos spawn.

Super rough mock up but I put the god marked heads on the AoS prince body. I think they're all going to look pretty solid and miles ahead of the generic one (although the generic 40k one is also pretty awesome). From the sounds of it I don't think there's going to be anything other than the heads for god-specific customization which is a shame, but the heads do go a long way. Some good painting and a few bits from the box and I think you're going to be able to do a ton with this kit. Like the Tzeentch prince is just begging to replace the axe head with a staff and I'm already picking out spots for nurglings. I don't think you're going to need to do anything for the Khorne prince though, it's already pretty much set.

Yeah in theory the extra attack is nice, the problem is he's so slow and his aura is so small that you're going to have issues getting that +1 attack out to anyone that matters (like the chaos knights or the chaos lord on manticore). A bloodstoker is the same points and gives reroll to wounds (which I think is pretty comparable to +1 attack) while also giving +3 to charge and not costing any command points. You need to plan your positioning a turn in advance, but after the buff is applied the units can run off and go wherever they want. Alternatively with the points you freed up you could take a chaos lord with mark of khorne instead. He's got similar issues to the deathbringer but his fight twice is generally way better than an extra attack and he's StD so he'll gives you access to another summon and gets a free trait. Up to you though, maybe you can figure out a way to make the deathbringer work. Based on your opponents I think the list could do pretty well. Nurgle and Stormcast might be tough since they're so bloody tanky but otherwise nothing really jumps out at me. Let us know how it goes!

I agree with @Salyx on the warriors, they really should be in units of 20 to ensure they have their shield bonus for as long as possible. I'd go a step further and suggest taking mark of Tzeentch on them and the Sorcerer. If you keep the sorcerer near them they'll be re-rolling 1's on their save, and with stacking armor on them they should pretty much always be at a 3+ save re-rolling ones. It makes theme extremely difficult to take down. I think you'd be fine grouping two units of 10 together and then either making the one unit have two hand weapons and mark of Khorne or maybe dropping them entirely for a different unit. I'd also agree on the Heal prayer, in theory the Curse one should be better to get the warriors working. In the end though I've always found myself just using the shrine Undivided prayer since it's better in 95% of situations. I disagree that the knights should have lances though. Even with the lances they won't take down anything substantial unless you get a bunch of buffs on them (which is dice dependent and often seems to fail right when you need it the most). Ensorcelled weapons make them better at grabbing and holding objectives, which in this list you really need. Plus if you're using the old models I kinda like the look of ensorcelled weapons more haha. I will say from experience that the Aspiring Deathbringer is, unfortunately, absolute garbage. He'll struggle to keep up with anything you actually want to buff and he will do absolutely no damage to anything. Pretty depressing considering how cool the model is. You'd be much better off running a Bloodstoker instead or, if you drop the warriors for something cheaper, putting in a Bloodsecrator. Either would be significantly more helpful. As far as competitive goes it's tough to say. The biggest thing slaves struggles with is lack of damage. There isn't a lot of consistent rend or mortal wounds across the faction so we struggle to kill big stuff like giants or Archaon tier models. We are really tanky and will hold objectives well though so if you play a very conservative game and focus on the mission rather than killing things you might have some success. It'll probably come down to what is common in your local gaming group. He's fine with enhancements. All priests get a free prayer just like all wizards get a free spell, so the only extra one he's taking is the second artifact which is covered by the Warlord battalion.

For a playtester, why in the world would GW ship a fully finished book to a playtester 6 months before it releases? It just doesn't make any sense. I could sort of see the employee angle, but think about it. You have a completely honest employee who has a book 6 months in advance. For some reason. Then they give it to their buddy and they're like... "Here take a look at this book that's coming out later this year. Also, I'm going to go to the bathroom for just enough time for you to take pictures of new warscrolls with varying levels of quality from super high res to total potato. Please don't take any pictures." It's not impossible but it just seems so improbable to me.

The thing is we haven't seen anywhere near everything. If it were just some random leaker then why don't we see the full army book like the nighthaunt one? If someone has the book at home (and they've already proven willing to show off a few new warscrolls), why haven't we seen the legionnaires? Or the changes to Chaos Warriors? Or the new allegiance abilities? All stuff your average StD fan is chomping at the bit to see. I get it's way way far in advance, but the extremely limited scope on the StD leak, and the fact that it's coming out of the official army book and not some playtester sheet, makes me think at least this one is intentional by GW.

Well based on the way that new sub factions are structured it's not impossible, Nurgle introduced a weird hybrid unit in one. On the other hand I don't see idolators specifically in the list of damned legions so who knows. On the plus side you have until winter before the book is released so lots of time to enjoy it. The leak definitely looks weak but there's so much we don't know that I can't really make a call yet. Marks could get better, and with the prince having access to traits and artifacts there's a chance he might be pretty great. That being said anything that buffs him will also buff the Lords on manticore and karkadrak, so it's tough to believe he's going to be the best choice. The malefic talons have the best chance due to the number of attacks and no rend, but we'll see how it goes. I'm hopeful for the book, there are a lot of problems with the current one that were identified almost immediately by the community. With any luck the developers will have heard the complaints at some point in the last couple years and will fix the problems. Dare to dream right.

Yeah, if you get rid of the face so you can't see it, the rest of the model actually looks pretty amazing. The derpy mouth/eyes/weird lips really ruin it.

Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. It wouldn't take too much. I mean if the mark of khorne stays more or less the same and there's a new artifact that gives one weapon rend -3 and he'd go from super meh to fantastic, but seeing these stats on face value just gives a super sinking feeling. Also someone posted a high res image on reddit, he is definitely missing the monster keyword. For some reason. If they leave it on the Fomoroid or the Mindstealer but he doesn't get it... yeesh. Looks like a non-wing version of the prince to me. Foot position is the same and it looks like it has a skull rack on the back (which is the alternate option to wings). Could be wrong though.

Yeah I hate to say it but the rules for the prince look kinda... really bad? They already weren't particularly good to begin with outside the Khorne prince, but they've nerfed it pretty significantly. I'm happy that they got rid of the Khorne command ability (it never made even a lick of sense, Khorne keeping the enemy units OUT of combat? really?) but it was pretty much the only reason you took a prince. Having all their interesting abilities shifted to heroic actions and giving them a super bland combat profile is pretty concerning. Like the Maggoth lord mounts are drastically better fighters than the prince is. Their mounts are better fighters than a daemon prince. There's still a lot to be seen of course, it's possible the re-worked allegiance abilities make a big difference and maybe they got a big points drop but it's a shaky start for sure. I am super excited for plastic chosen though. I've wanted some of them for years but never had the bits pile required to do justice on a proper conversion. More ogroids are always appreciated too, a hard hitting glass cannon elite unit would be great for the faction assuming they don't get the slaangor treatment. Assuming the warriors (and hopefully marauders) get a proper resculpt I'm really looking forward to the release.

I think giving bonuses to mono mark armies doesn't really seem completely necessary. It's a nice thought, but the mono god armies already exist in the game and they have full access to almost everything in the StD book anyway. I think keeping the mixed flavour is key to making slaves unique and viable. Heck I'd be happier to see the bonuses from a hero affect all units regardless of what mark the unit has. For the harbinger I think you're definitely better off running it as a chaos lord on daemonic mount. As is it's already one of the worst units in the whole Maggotkin book, and at least there it gets a 5+ shrug, a heal, disease points, and access to traits/artefacts. In StD you'd be buying a hero that has no synergy with the rest of the army, does next to no damage, and is painfully slow. Sure it effectively has a roar monstrous action, but that's not worth the points. The fact that the ability to give some extra cp is only for the first round when you rarely ever need more than one or two is a real kicker. If that was every round then maybe it'd be worth running one with ravagers or despoilers, but as is there just isn't much point.

Honestly I think you could just change this to +1 attack on all profiles and you'd be ok. With the way coherency has changed in 3rd edition we're losing a bunch of attacks anyway. Maybe if it were too strong then rework the bloodsecrator to do something other than extra attacks like your shielding idea on #3. I really like this idea, it's already a bit of a staple on khorne but giving it to everyone would be really fluffy. Honestly it makes more sense too. Being super angry all the time doesn't make you fight any better, in all likelihood the exact opposite as you're more likely to make mistakes, but it might help keep you moving just long enough to take someone with you. I don't think it'd be too strong either, blood warriors already have it and they're still total trash. Even bloodthirsters would be fighting at bottom bracket when they die (at least they do in the current rules) so they're not doing a ton of damage. Maybe a little broken on Skarbrand but then again he should be terrifying to get into combat with. Agree on both of these. Like most people I'd want to see the tithe change so you don't have to spend everything every time you use it. I'd also like to see some more thought go into the 8th level as the current rule is just never relevant. Having an army buff that shows up when you've typically lost more than half of your army just isn't worth it. Maybe make it a big damage effect like the brass meteor on steroids. I'm imagining something like the giant flaming sword ability from total war 3. Pick a non-hero unit (khorne doesn't like character sniping, they're the best fights and deserve to get into combat), it takes 8 mortal wounds and any enemy non-hero unit within 8" takes d8 mortal wounds on a roll of a 4+. Then they could bundle a d8 into the khorne dice pack haha. Also as an aside for anyone that hasn't played total war 3 yet and loves khorne, you should totally pick it up. The game has some launch issues but Khorne feels absolutely amazing in the game. Going on massive map wide rampages, summoning in hosts drawn to the slaughter of our enemies, and playing as Skarbrand just all feels so right. Watching Skarbrand just rush in and drop kick people to death while throwing his axes in rage and screaming fire at people makes me so happy.

Yeah honestly the endless spell bit is more of a gimmick than anything else. The risk of hurting it means you're never going to attempt it on spells with a high cast that you actually want to get rid of (like a warp lightning vortex), and your opponent should be savvy enough to keep low cast spells away from it. I'd be much more worried about it taking out monsters. Even if it gets charged it's guaranteed to get one round of attacks out at full strength since it doesn't take damage until the batttleshock phase. At Primal tier with all out attack (because why wouldn't you) it averages about 16 damage against a 4+ save. That's more than enough to pick off the vast majority of monsters in one shot and heal it up one tier right away. If your opponent has a couple monsters running around this thing is going to be an absolute nightmare with very little opportunity to counter it. If this thing had dropped with a little better model and as a solo kit I think you'd be seeing one every single game. Of the 5 factions I play every one of them would love to have this thing running around, even Maggotkin with their brand new book. The fact that it's bundled in a big massively overpriced terrain box might be the only thing saving us.

That's the hope yeah, that it's only taken by bottom tier armies that have no other viable choices. However with all the bonus rules it has there's a definite chance it'll outclass the majority of monsters out there and become a list building staple. Impossible to say without seeing the full rules. I just know how it feels generally playing armies that are hard countered by Gotrek and having him available to all order armies. Taking that concept and extrapolating it out to a model that can be taken by every faction is concerning. Edit: Just to be very clear on what I'm worried about: This is a high points cost model and historically GW has had a very hard time balancing high point cost models. The fact that this model is available to all factions in the game makes this very dangerous, as if it is too strong then many people will use it and the game will get extremely monotonous and repetitive. If that doesn't happen then I'm happy.

Not really sure if it'll be any good at this point, but I'm not really a fan of the idea that there will be a 400 point model available for all factions. If it's awful then great, only people who want it for flavor or really like the model will take it. The problem is if the rules are good then it's going to massively change how the game looks when half of all players are spending a huge chunk of their points to have the exact same model in their army. We haven't had that problem with endless spells because they're relatively cheap and usually do one specific thing, but this seems all over the place to justify that 400 point cost. It'll probably be fun for a bit but it'll get old super fast, especially if you're playing an army that gets countered by it (for example a lot of casters that use endless spells).

It kind of looks like that skull tower that the magewrath throne used to come on, except with a different spiky top instead of the throne and maybe some extra putty work to make it more rocky. Original for an example:

Usually if you're going to bring in an ally from another book you want it to do something that your current army can't do. With Maggotkin the biggest flaws are a general lack of speed and no really cheap source of bodies. Untamed Beasts are good for this because they're only 70 points for 10 wounds and have the pre-game move combined with the ability to run and charge. Chaos warhounds are possible as well. Another thought I've had is using marauder horsemen as a screen since they take up a massive amount of board space relative to their cost. That being said I'm not sure it's ever really going to be worth bringing in allies for maggotkin. Sure they can get to the objectives faster turn 1, but with the smaller board size none of our units really struggle to get to the mid line turn 1 and when they do they're vastly more resilient than any ally we could bring in. They can get to the opponents side of the board quicker of course, but it's pretty unlikely they'll actually be able to grab and hold an objective while there. Plus we have nurglings that pull that off reasonably well while also helping generate contagion points.

I'd usually lean towards a good unit that gets stronger with buffs because buffs are never a guarantee (you can fail a prayer, get a spell unbound, be left out of range with a charge, the buffing hero can be sniped, etc), but lately I'm starting to think it's better to have a good unit without access to any buffs. At this point I'm hoping the new Khorne book gets rid of 75% of the buffs and just puts decent stats on everything to begin with. I'm sick of having to take a bloodsecrator and bend over backwards to stay wholly within a 14" bubble while also tracking my bloodstoker location and maintaining slaughterpriest ranges while also keeping them wholly within 8" of the shrine.