Enoby

I don't know what it is with rules writers and some Chaos armies, but it seems like there's a conscious effort to ensure the warscrolls are muted and on the weaker end. Not the case with Tzeentch and Nurgle, but Khorne and S2D have warscrolls that are statted about the same as a normal human unless the cheerleader squad comes by. I don't know why they decided Chaos should be about teamwork rather than individual power and personal glory. Most people I've asked would prefer Chaos Armies to be more like Stormcast, wherein they are much stronger per warrior, but there are fewer of them (higher points), and for heroes to be expensive killing machines. When I think about the Mighty Lord of Khorne's stats, I imagine that he's the only one who calls himself mighty as a self esteem exercise

No problem - I, for a brief hopeful moment, thought it was all attacks too until reading it again

For those interested, here is the average damage of the daemon prince vs a megaboss on foot. No buffs included (including heroic actions). Saves for from 2+ at the top and - at the bottom.

The daemon prince has 5 attacks, not 18 The Megaboss has 8 at a similar quality.

Oh yeah, I agree that was the main problem. Though it is what I was talking about in this case too - one of the biggest complaints I see about S2D is that they don't feel like a dreadful horde of superpowered mortals on Chaos. They feel like kind of tanky pillow fisted chumps who just so happened to employ a whole host of sprinters (marauders) and have a strong boss (Archaon). Other than that, S2D are often seen as quite dull when it comes to warscrolls and not the threatening killer vikings they're described as. I'm worried that new S2D will continue this trend, where selling your soul to chaos doesn't make you meaningfully stronger. It's a very similar problem to Khorne in many ways, but S2D are actually fun to play even if they're narratively not fitting.

Doubled his damage? Are you sure? He does around 3 on average against a 3+ save. Just to check, are you giving him claws and axe/sword? He only gets one option out of all of them now.

Not a massive fan of the new Prince, looks a bit gormless - like they've been sent down to battle but got concussion on the landing so decided to pose for a while. Think it's mostly just the face and its expression, so I'm really hoping for alternative heads.

What to people think about the new Daemon Prince leak? Personally, I think it looks really weak unfortunately. The book could well change all that around with allegiance buffs, but it's still a massive disconnect from the lore wherein these are meant to be the strongest a chaos lord can ever reach. The pinnacle of power only bestowed upon a select few, with a price most could not hope to bear. In game, they're a beatstick hero who's about as good as the average lord character in combat, which is to say, not very good. ... I have a bit of a bad feeling about this book from a narrative-rules standpoint.

I agree. I don't want to be a downer about this because model-wise this all looks really exciting, and I have a massive S2D collection so this should all be up my alley. On the other hand though, I'm worried this may end up as a Slaanesh 2, wherein the models are great but the rules... kind of not so much. Now, we cannot say anything for definite with just a single bad scroll without the context of the rest of the book. Maybe the "Mark of Chaos" ability will double all attacks, or there'll be a special faction that massively buffs daemon princes, or the prince is only 150 points - there's loads we don't know. No arguments there and I really hope my gut reaction is wrong, but I'm just getting a bit of a sinking feeling when the generic big bad of Slaves to Darkness is kind of... bad? It seems to have lost some good abilities while gaining 2 wounds (which could be a bad thing in some circumstances). I don't think it has the monster keyword (hard to tell with potato cam) either, and its damage is poor. One of my biggest hopes would be that a daemon prince felt closer to Belekor in power level, but now it seems like that won't be the case. Again, maybe it'll all be fine and this will seem silly once the full rules are out - and I hope that's the case - but I got the same feeling I did looking at Slaangors as I did this daemon prince. The feeling of "oh... is that it?".

It looks like a really great release for Slaves to Darkness players (including myself). Will definitely be picking up the new units. Not sure if I like the Daemon Prince model (but the pictures I've seen aren't high quality so that may change), but the Daemon Prince warscrolls looks pretty weak without context unfortunately (average of 3 damage against a 3+ save with no real tricks, and losing inbuilt always strike first and +1 to hit on a charge).

While mortal wounds on 6s to wound for daemons would be nice, I think it would be a shame for mortals to not have their own special rule. Don't get me wrong, daemons are weaker - they're absurdly pointed for their meek stats and rarely worth taking over just summoning. On the other hand, all of our allegiance abilities include or revolve around them. If their points were significantly reduced then they would have considerable bonuses over mortals, with benefits from the locus and the only ones with access to improved Euphoric Killers (though this is by oversight rather than design). It would be good for mortals to have a niche baked into a new allegiance ability - even if it was a tankier niche. Even not taking power into account, a lack of allegiance abilities specifically for mortals when daemons have that leaves them with a reduced sense of identity.

I think a points drop would be our greatest bonus, besides something totally unrealistic like +10 damage on all Slaanesh melee attacks. However, at my most optimistic, I could see a solid addition to our allegiance abilities such as "After a friendly Hedonite unit completes a charge move, add 1 to the rend characteristics of their attacks for the following combat phase". Something like this would be a strong addition that doesn't shoot us up too high into the meta, but would be an interesting start at least and could help a lot in the long term with how generic it is.

By interview, I meant job interview as a lead designer, not marketing interview - wasn't very clear

I think you're right @Jaskier, in that we shouldn't get our hopes up too high. While they were taking notes, we have no idea if they'd even have time to put them into the article (if it's already written); they could have been taken for general interest, or for supplements in the future. Regardless, this White Dwarf may be very soft touch, with minimal changes and some close to useless allegiance ability (like "add 1" to pile ins after you complete a charge"). However, as said, it's well known by the team that Slaanesh is in a bad place by the team (hence the balance update specifically trying to help us). This will hopefully mean a large change in the GHB, in addition to future support in supplement books down the line. In addition, hopefully it will lead up to a Nurgle style rewrite of the battletome, where the new one revamps the entire faction. This could take a long time, but I don't think I've ever seen a battletome more negatively thought of as this one. I do wonder if it will just be points drops in the GHB - almost certainly, but it would be nice to see a Slaangor rewrite.

Some hopefully hopeful news is that someone from the Slaanesh community directly talked to the writer of our White Dwarf article as part of an interview and gave their stark opinions on our weaknesses, and the writer apparently took notes. Even if the White Dwarf was already written, at least the message is getting through.

Congratulations on the new job! I'm only passingly interested in a lot of AoS lore, but I really enjoyed Thondia's - an enjoyable read with every faction that's involved coming out looking good.

Just got the book - I've not had a chance to properly look through it, but am I correct that they've missed out Slaves to Darkness as an option? The "Mortal" keyword only includes the Chaos God armies...

Thanks It's a shame that they haven't really updated it much. Not to go too off topic, but I think things like this can sour community's perception of rules. Same as battletomes where very little changes. It feels low effort and as if they only want to fix what's there, rather than improve it. Old Anvil was good, no doubt, but they had the opportunity to allow more options for Ghur heroes, as well as things like 'narrative-only' options which could afford to be a little less balanced and more fluffy.

Anyone else not had their Thondia book arrive? I preordered it but it's not come yet. I imagine Easter probably got in the way. For those who have it and have looked through it, how is Anvil of Apotheosis?

Glad we're back! Also, for those who haven't already seen, the Incarnate and skeleton scenery are huge! The base is the same size as a Megagargant.

The app's been out for a good few months, and while it has been kept updated with new warscrolls and FAQs, and the addition of 2e allegiance abilities is nice, it seems to have relatively basic amount of functionality. I thought it'd be interesting to go over the parts of the app that could do with some tweaks, changes, or additions. Matched Play For Matched Play, the core is there - points are available, and the list builder fully works with matched play. What they could add is a game tracker, where you can enter the battleplan and track victory points turn. This would allow you to check the battleplan rules quickly and make it easier to keep track of points and what battle tactics you've used. If you could import your list from the listbuilder, you could track casualties and wounds too. Potentially, if they felt ambitious, they'd allow functionality to track army specific things like the various summoning points. In addition to this, a scenery generator would be useful. Open Play Open Play is a bit odd in that it's sort of the "anything goes" style of AoS, and so you would think it wouldn't need much support from the app. I would argue this is untrue. In addition to the battle tracker (for open play games) and a collection of open play rules, a very useful function of the app would be a quick open battleplan randomiser. These wouldn't always be balanced, but would provide unique games with potentially interesting twists to them. I think one of the reasons Matched Play is a dominant force is because it's the easiest to set up. Saying "just bring 2k" is universally understood by players, whereas Open and especially Narrative require more effort to start. Having an Open Play generated, perhaps with a suggested army split, would take some of the barrier away. Narrative Play This is the big one, in my opinion - and perhaps the game mode that could see the most use of the app. I'll break this into points: - As above, a narrative game generator and tracker. A way to record game results would be especially nice here. - An army roster, especially to write down glory points and for these to be automatically deducted when taking a new unit into the roster. Path to Glory is a mathematical system - everything revolves around numbers, including the territory and boons. Everything can be automated digitally. This would be a huge boon to campaigns, allowing people to properly track their roster rather than forgetting to add things or losing their sheet. Being able to name heroes, units, territories etc would be a given. - A Anvil of Apotheosis creator. For those who play table top roleplaying games, you may well have a digital character creator downloaded on your phone. These are very useful to keep track of stats, as well as plan out what you're going to do. This rings true for Anvil of Apotheosis - the ability to create and save a hero from the ground up and then add them to your lists (complete with your own photo) would be a massive boost to the system. AoA in the past have required someone to find a warscroll creator and type it in manually, with the possibility of mistakes which require further editing. Either saving these or printing them off can leave them prone to being lost. With everything in the app (with the ability to print), this would increase the accessibility and longevity of the system. - A campaign tracker. Like a game tracker, but with a clear goal in mind and a way to track multiple players. --- Each of these, while they would take a while to add, would boost the qualify of the app considerably and bring it above Warscroll Builder or Battlescribe. I think that's it for my list - what do others think?

Unfortunately I couldn't say - it may have been an interview, or potentially just hearsay at the beginning of 3rd. Regardless, I agree the app is currently wasted potential. It works fine, and that's good, but it could be so much more. They said that there are three ways to play, so it's a shame the app doesn't support two of them.

Not quite a rumour (but kind of is), but a while ago they said they wanted the new app so they could properly support Path to Glory. I don't believe there has been any P2G support yet, but this new book would provide a fantastic opportunity. Not only that, but if they could allow us to create and save our own heroes (with the option to add our own photos) using Destiny Points on the app then that would be fantastic. In fact, this is my number 1 want from the app.

I'm no expert on Skaven, but I thought the Verminlords were daemons? Could be totally wrong there, mind.

Sometimes I think this staggered hype thing that GW does draws attention to the fact there aren't many releases and diminishes hype from the product. I'm looking forward to seeing what's coming up, but the more "nothings" we get hyped for, the more it seems like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel for AoS. Personally, I'd love some witch hunters.