Age of Sigmar/Warhammer Fantasy discussion

[wander]

Whilst there is a thread for Warhammer 40,000 here, I decided to make a seperate thread for it's fantasy equivalent, since rebranded as Age of Sigmar for any players for that on-site.

With releases this year so far of the Maggotkin of Nurgle, the Daughters of Khaine and the brand new force of the Idoneth Deepkin (sea aelves!) with likely more stuff on the way, there's a whole bunch of stuff that is Warhammer that didn't until now have a place to chat on.

Recently I've dipping into the game myself with Path to Glory and also there is a local Escalation League kicking off (start at 500pts and then each progress adds another 500, until full 2,000pt games are being played).

In 40k I am a Nurgle player via the Deathguard and I'm wondering as a choice going forward on playing Nurgle Daemons (with maybe the odd Blightlord thing allied in), however I could also kick off Escalation doing Clan Pestilens. 500pts gives this;

Verminlord Corruptor - Hero (220)
20x Plague Monks (140)
20x Plague Monks (140)

Total = 500

Whilst I'm also a longtime fan of the Flesheater Courts, so a quick and easy line-up might be this;

Abhorrent Ghoul King (on foot) - Warlord (120)
Crypt Ghast Courtier - Hero (80)
10x Crypt Ghouls (100)
10x Crypt Ghouls (100)
10x Crypt Ghouls (100)

Total = 500

With options of bringing in other troops (with their courtiers) though mainly the Zombie Dragon/Terrorgeist for 1000pts onwards. The above list benefits from the Courtier to use it's Mustering special rule to bring back any Ghouls killed in the game with replacements.

Other thoughts for lists may be the Tzeentchian Disciples (as I love the Tzaangor models) or the Daughters of Khaine, which have an amazing line-up of beautiful miniatures now.

So, to kick the thread off past that, what armies do you paint/collect/play as and what are your current or future wishes for hobby projects for Age of Sigmar?

Also... Anyone collecting the new Idoneth Deepkin or have you fought against them yet?

Feel free to discuss here!

[HairyHeretic]

The last time I played any amount of Fantasy, my Chaos army consisted of mortals, beastmen and deamons all in the one list :) I think I stopped playing at all in .. 5th maybe? 6th? Quite a while ago anyway.

While some of the new models are really nice, I can't see myself ever getting back into Fantasy. Too many games and too little time as it is :)

[wander]

I get what you mean with games. I've been maining 40k with a bit of Bolt Action on the side, though every now and then I'd do a AoS Skirmish game to learn the rules some with my mate and get a feel for specific armies. It's easier when it's a handful of models on each side. ^_^

They brought back allies for Age of Sigmar at the end of last year, so that kind of Chaos army can totally be a thing and still keep all the Chaos special rules you want if you go for a specific Chaos God. :) (I have to ask if your old bois were Marked by a specific one ^^ ).

For a while they seemed to have squatted the Beastmen, which made me down (as I totally dig them), though it seems they were just repackaging and basing them for AoS from their old boxes as they seem to be available again now in the online store.

If I went Beastmen now though (I tried the mortals, now called Slaves to Darkness, before and did not like how not-at-all killy + squishy af they were), I'd likely go Tzeentch Arcanites and field a Tzaangor heavy force, both for ease of getting the models needed and more up-to-date and advanced special abilities to field them that way.

A quick n' dirty list for 500pts gives a Tzaangor Shaman as warlord and have his initial warband be 10x Tzaangor and 3x Tzaangor Enlightened (on discs because the discs are free and why the eff not, eh? ^^). Fairly elitey for 500pts admittedly, though Tzaangors are pretty damned killy and get 2 wounds each, which is nice. Plus you can turn the enemy into them to bolster any casualties taken... Plus Plus, I really love the beaky-faced blue goatmen  ;D

[HairyHeretic]

The last army I can remember playing was Tzeentchian. Sorcerer Lord, 2 or 3 other sorcerers, all in about 8 chariots and a unit of screamers for annoying war machine crew. I put it together for a tournament when I realized I had somehow ended up with that many chariots. It wasn't supposed to be a particularly serious force, but I think I placed 3rd with it.

[wander]

That's pretty neat. :)

If I went with ol' faithful Nurgle, I'd do Daemons as mentioned and have a Herald (unsure yet what one now there are multiple types), a squad of 10x Plaguebearers and 3x Plague Drones for the board coverage. A more proper sized army would of course have larger numbers of units, though the crux of my list would be that.

Summoning as a mechanic has had some changes in Age of Sigmar, whilst it was done like a magic spell, the rules of doing so becoming the 8th edition 40k psychic power activation (beat target number on a dice roll), it's basically a way to deepstrike troops already in your army list you may keep in reserve in matched play. If doing Narrative Play or playing Path to Glory (I adore Path to Glory), you can spam in units from thin-air as long as you make the summoning roll. It makes sides that use it (like daemons, the Seraphon or Flesh-Eater Courts) pretty horrifying to face, as each turn you can summon in a fresh unit if you make the spell roll for potentially an unending zerg-rush.

That's part of what makes Flesh-Eaters fun;
Having the Ghoul King summon in a new ghoul squad each turn past what's on the table at the start, then when they take fatalities, the Courtiers can muster the numbers back up. Have the original Crypt Ghoul units act as a meatshield/tarpit so the Hero models of the King and Courtiers don't get ganked and then when the new Ghouls show up, throw them at the enemy too. Spare units can go chase up the objectives and the beat-sticks come in from any Crypt Horrors and Crypt Flayers, along with the Zombie Dragon which has little reason (outside of the small scale 500pt games or Skirmish matches) not to be an auto-take.  :-)

[MiaKage]

I used to play Wood Elves, who were re-labeled at the wanderers now? Still sad that the lore is non existent for them  :'(

[wander]

Yep, they're Wanderers now. They got a bit of love in the new General's Handbook (including atop of relics etc, a neat special rule where they can exit a table edge and come back via one of your choosing), though yeah there's not much lore for them now, aside that Alarielle may be pissed at them and they're wandering the Nine Realms to put elven stones in each one, possibly to get back in her good graces.

One neat thing to do though is have some as an ally with another army (Sylvaneth is the most used option, they could also be a scouting party for some Stormcast Eternals) and give them your own fluff reasons for what brings a band of them to work with the other army. If you have a full 2000pt Wood Elf army, you could just use 400pts from that for a full Sylvaneth allied detachment, which if you have dryads/treefolk in your army anyway, would be super simple to do. Why are those Sylvaneth dealing with your Aelves? You decide. :)

I feel with the Idoneth Deepkin stealing the Scourge Privateer's 'Sea-faring Elf' schtick that some elements of the old elves may get shifted away, though the big Daughters of Khaine release with new models for it (the Khiterai and the AVATAR OF KHAINE!) gives some hope that some elements of them will be covered in the future. I feel worse for the Dorfs, as with the Fyreslayers and Kharadron Overlords, there's little reason to play Legacy Dwarf armies atm.

[Idej]

Been wondering when you all would start talking about Age of Sigmar.

I am not as knowledgeable of Age of Sigmar or Fantasy in general, but those Daughters of Khaine, Idoneth Deepkin models, and Vampire models do look sexy to me.

[wander]

Real quick of the rules is that most of them went on to inspire the changes in 8th edition 40k. The fluff, is fairly in-depth, especially in old Fantasy, though in Age of Sigmar it leaves some breathing room to allow you to make your own army/warband theme and go with Rule of Fun overall.

Essentially, in old Fantasy the End Times came, Chaos WON and the world crumpled in on itself when the Skaven decided to recreate their own version of Majora's Mask with a large magi-radioactive green moon. the main god for the humans, Sigmar (think Emps from 40k as Conan crossed with Odin and you're pretty much there) and the larger players embued by the literal winds of magic with the help of a flying space dragon remade their reality into Nine Realms, each embodying a wind of magic that specific now-deity embodied.

Some stuff happens with souls from the old-world and the races of old are reborn and reincarnate in the Realms, except the elves because Slaanesh gorged itself into a blob eating them all. Peace is lived for a time, then the Chaos Gods got hungry for more Reality and decided to crash the party and wreck this one too.

The last remaining trio of elves who are now Gods, were hungry for some sweet vengeance on Slaanesh, who was laying low as they got essentially obese from eating near every elf ever and couldn't do much. So the Elf-Gods booked it at the big battle to kick out Chaos before they could get their foot in the door to stop it shutting, deciding punching Slaanesh in the gut to hawk up dem elf-souls was way better than fighting cohesively with everyone else to keep Chaos the hell out entirely. Slaanesh lets out all the elves it swallowed whole, though a fair chunk are a little... off.

Chaos seems to be making massive progress taking over every Realm and splitting them between each other and whilst Slaanesh was MIA, the Skaven god the Horned Rat takes Slaaanesh's place in the four. Though the resident Champion of Chaos Archaon doesn't think much on him and told him where to go when the Chaos Gods were telling Archaon they'd totally have his back and let him join the club of Gods if he wanted. Archaon's too cool for that jazz though. He also costs 700pts as is and doesn't afraid of anything. Want the most elite army going? Field him and an entourage of 3 Varanguard for 1000pts!  :D

Sigmar hasn't given up though and takes the souls of mortal heroes that kicked ass in the Chaos Wars and makes them into his golden bois, the Stormcast Eternals and they use the Realmgates in each Realm (think Star Gates and that's exactly it) to spew forth from Sigmar's crib to lay some elitey smack-down on Chaos. They're joined then by the Slaan survivors from old Fantasy, who managed to jump on their Slaan pyramid spaceships and avoid the End Times entirely. They have new Slaan magic that summons up 'Seraphon', which are basically Anti-Chaos Daemons that look like the lizardmen of old.

Dwarves that were sorta hanging about see some coin in this and decide to go Merc for Sigmar in this venture of kicking Chaos in the teeth, the Orcs are still about and decide all this fightin' Chaos would be "a roit laff n' no mistake bruv" and when the Stormcast serve Khorne's boys some, the next stop happens to be the Realm of Life, where Nurgle is creepin' on former wood-elf turned Treelady Goddess Alarielle (as Isha being his missus may or may not even be canon right now also Isha in old fantasy is part of Alarielle, long story don't worry about it). She's another large scale model of LoW pts, rides a massive beetle, looks cool as really cold things and rules over not only the Realm of Life, though also the Sylvaneth, which are old timey scary fae dryads that also happen to be what happens when she decided to collect up some wood-elf souls when the End Times were occuring and plant them like seeds to see what happens.

Also recently Nagash, god of Death, had been plotting to expand his Realm ownership too. He's 800pts to field, will lose you friends to deploy and fielding him with 6 of his Morghasts is a legal 1,500pt army. Morghasts have 6 wounds each and look like this;



That's a quick rundown of the premise of the fantasy lore as it stands now, where a beer n' pretzels miniature battlegame has literal Gods as your Lords of War.  ;D

[MiaKage]

Yep, they're Wanderers now. They got a bit of love in the new General's Handbook (including atop of relics etc, a neat special rule where they can exit a table edge and come back via one of your choosing), though yeah there's not much lore for them now, aside that Alarielle may be pissed at them and they're wandering the Nine Realms to put elven stones in each one, possibly to get back in her good graces.

One neat thing to do though is have some as an ally with another army (Sylvaneth is the most used option, they could also be a scouting party for some Stormcast Eternals) and give them your own fluff reasons for what brings a band of them to work with the other army. If you have a full 2000pt Wood Elf army, you could just use 400pts from that for a full Sylvaneth allied detachment, which if you have dryads/treefolk in your army anyway, would be super simple to do. Why are those Sylvaneth dealing with your Aelves? You decide. :)

I'll have to pick up the new handbook! My army is 95-98% wood elfs, I have one tree man (old metal model) and 20-30 dryads, and 6 custom treekin. I was never really big on the tree spirit side of things, and don't really care for the sylvanith.

Alarielle wasn't a wood elf, she was the high elf queen. Ariel was the wood elf queen, who fused with Alarielle before dying from being poisoned, and was the avatar of Isha.

[wander]

If you want to play Age of Sigmar with points, rather than fielding freeplay or narrative games, the General's Handbook 2017 got you covered, it has points for every valid unit you can play, the rules for allies, relevant stuff for armies that don't have battletomes currently (such as the wood elves/Wanderers) to keep them competitive and in general is the way to go for playing with points again, like Old Fantasy had and 40k uses.

I believe to keep the synergy rules for the Wanderers keywords on your battlescrolls (read 'unit statblocks'), a normal 2000pt army can have 400pts of allies.

This is my go-to link for army building, used to be a fan-made thing, then as so many people were using it, Geedubs grabbed it up for their Warhammer Community site;

https://www.warhammer-community.com/warscroll-builder/

It lists points and legal configs for 2000pt armies, lets you know how many models are in the unit you pick, with wounds and lets you mark up allies for easy reference.

400pts nets you a Treelord and 10x Dryads (370), or you can get 30x Dryads and 5x Revenants (either spite-revenants or tree-revenants), which totals 350 (fielding the 30 Dryads as 1 unit nets you the blob-bonus for fielding a larger unit and saves you 30pts). You lose the Treelord, though most of your Sylvaneth models are used that way (using your custom treekin as a unit of Revenants).



My bad on Alarielle.  ;D I forgot and as she's now with the Sylvaneth as their big Hero, I always tend to think of her as wood-elf now.  :-)

As an aside, she's 600pts to field, so too expensive for allies, though with her synergy you want her in a Sylvaneth-main army anyway.

[MiaKage]

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

LEADERS
Waywatcher (100)
- General
- Command Trait : Eagle-eyed
UNITS
30 x Glade Guard (360)
30 x Glade Guard (360)
20 x Eternal Guard (160)
10 x Wild Riders (280)
10 x Waywatchers (160)
10 x Wardancers (120)
20 x Dryads (200)
- Allies
BATTALIONS
Waystone Pathfinders (240)
TOTAL: 1980/2000 WOUNDS: 145
LEADERS: 1/6 BATTLELINES: 3 (3+) BEHEMOTHS: 0/4 ARTILLERY: 0/4
ALLIES: 200 / 400

Based on what I can think of off the top of my head, and having no idea what the relics are for lords, this is a quick list I threw together. I also have Orion, but I've never got to use him in a game, so not sure if he's any good.

Has there been anything new about Araloth? Last I heard, he took a group of Wood Elves and escaped the End Times and became a god. o.o

[wander]

One thing I'll say is the Battallion 'Waystone Pathfinders' you picked there is basically extra points you spend if you meet prerequisite unit choices to get extra special rules. I don't have the Order Main Faction book that particular battallion is in to say if you meet those or not. The warscroll builder sadly doesn't mark either way if you legally cannot have it or if it's okay.

The Araloth model itself now functions as the nameless 'Nomad Prince' model.

As for the lad himself, sad news. Whilst he did leave the End Times thanks to Lileath to start a new reality with her chosen few and the Bretonnians who came along to be the new Asuryan and Human Pantheon respectively, Be'lakor happens to learn of the pocket dimension where they all went, let's the Chaos Gods know and the pocket reality gets easily destroyed, slaying Lileath, Araloth, their daughter and squatting the entire Bretonnia faction from AoS.

Happy news; In White Dwarf when the Seraphon were introduced in a battle report Be'lakor is slain by Ripperdactyl riders dropping rocks on his head. Battle Reports tend to go toward forming some fluff of past events and are mostly canon, so there was some skub about Be'lakor going out that way and if he may have been 'teleported away to safety' ala the legendary fight between Abaddon and Eldrad Ulthuan from 40k back in the day.  ;D

[MiaKage]

Boo, that's not cool! That means the Wood Elves that I love are officially dead :'( , also dunno why they introduced Araloth if they were just going to off him immediately after.   >:(

I have enough models that I think I could probably make a legal Waystone Pathfinder list, still need to pick up the 2017 book anyways, hehe.

[wander]

Back in the 2016 General's Handbook (now out of print) I'm sure they gave points for Araloth, as you could field him using the rules from the free Wood Elves legacy pdf. The main fluff reason why you could field models of characters including those who actually died in the End Times event was due to many heroes being reincarnated in the Nine Realms. Now though his model is called 'Nomad Prince' and has slightly changed rules.

Because I like helping out, here's the Wood Elves pdf for you to save. :)
Note the units don't have point costs, though you get them in either the General's Handbook or via the Warscroll Builder link above. Note you can totally field Araloth as given in this pdf in a Freeplay or Narrative match, as they don't use points and are more like doing recreation battles from the lore or just fielding whatever you have to have fun times.

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Compendiums/warhammer-aos-wood-elves-en.pdf

[MiaKage]

Thanks! I actually have the app on my phone, but I think there are a few differences in keywords from what I've seen in that pdf.

I'm actually curious, did any named characters make it through
the end times?

[wander]

The app is actually more up to date, so always refer to the keywords and rulings there, the pdf was initial release and things have been errata'd and playtested since then. :)

A fair few characters made it through, the main ones who did became the new Gods of the setting, though there are an odd few out there still. Morathi has made her return to the setting as the leader of the Daughters of Khaine for example and is a playable character (with updated models, she can turn into a huge Gorgon-styled centre piece model).

Pretty much all of Chaos' characters made it, given they won the battle over reality last time. I'd have a time trying to find every character and seeing if they're still playable though, most aren't and their model now is used for a generic commander now though.

The Order faction has only a few, Lord Kroak being the lone lizardman character to make it into the Seraphon army for example. The other Order characters to make it are Drycha who is now with Alarielle in the Sylvaneth list and Durthu made it to join them too. The Twilight Sisters are technically still legal too as they got supported with points, however good luck finding a model of them or a player that'll let you use their ancient warscroll stats.

I haven't looked through Destruction or Death characters, though I assume a similar small handful was kept for them too. I know from the Death faction that the Flesh-Eater Courts have no special characters whatsoever. Though they belong to the same Grand Alliance as Nagash, who does have a model and is playable, though best kept for bigger games due to how expensive points-wise he is.

[Mfable]

A Warhammer store recently opened up down the street from me and the owner convinced me and my girlfriend to start getting into Age of Sigmar. I bought her a Vanguard Brotherhood box to start her off, but I don't have an army of my own currently. I was going to play a Death army, but decided I would rather play Seraphon instead. I just need to save up to get an army.

Did you see that they announced a new edition of AoS?

[wander]

I did see. I think it'll consolidate a lot of the stuff General's Handbook etc has added to the game into the second edition, as it seems that the current battletomes released will still be useable, which is great... As I still need to pick a tome up for the escalation league happening in my store (which is probably a gateway drug into 2nd edition in all honesty).

I'm leaning heavily to start with 500pts of Clan Pestilens; grabbing a Verminlord Corruptor (a nice big model, a wizard to unbind enemy spells and a neat 13" ranged spell 'Plague' that's cast on a 6+ on 2d6) accompanied by two units of 20x Plague Monks (they start at Bravery 9 due to the army's strength in numbers special rule, plus the squad leaders, banners and musicians give some awesome buffs to throw buckets of dice for attacks at the enemy). Their one weakness is they auto-fail armour saves, though they're an offensive army not defensive. Makes playing to Objectives sucky, though I plan in battles to line the one unit up as a meatshield to absorb hits and counter-charge as needed, as 100 attacks from a full single unit in a charge should kill pretty much anything due to sheer number of dice, even though they're 4+ to hit. ^^'

Seraphon are awesome for the ability to keep units behind in reserves and summon them in if you have a Slaan amongst your Heroes. If you're playing freeplay or narrative play, you can summon more dino-men out of thin air and don't have to worry about spending points to buy your reserves beforehand. ^^ I personally dig their pterodactyl riders (there are two different types), they make awesome cavalry that are fairly killy to boot.

Flesh-Eater Courts from Death have a similar mechanic, where you can summon new units, then with the Courtiers ressurrect any fallen, which is neat in matched play as bringing back dead models doesn't cost you in reserve points, so they're pretty unkillable (Necrons in 40k have a similar ability).

I don't know much on Stormcast Eternals (which the Vanguard Brotherhood are a part of), though they're pretty tanky due to massive armour saves and Bravery (so they ain't fleeing any time soon when they take casualties) and fairly killy though somewhat more elitey (meaning less numerous) than other armies on the whole to make up for it. They're also fairly easy to paint too.

[Mfable]

I was reading through the Vanguard Brotherhood Warscrolls a couple weeks ago and they are super mobile. Many of them can be set aside and deployed on later turns within a number of inches of any side of the table, the larger units can move through enemy units, etc. I am not looking forward to playing against them.

After Seraphon, I might go Clan Pestilens and/or Demons of Nurgle.

[wander]

Yeah, the Stormcast are known for being pretty mobile. They're elitey though, so every casualty will hurt them. I linked above the warscroll builder which gives points for every model, unit and battallion formation special. I'd probably recommend a good ranged blob army to see what they can do. Kharadron Overlords are a tough army to play for new players due to how their transport airships work with them, though they happen to also have good armour and good ranged ability. Fyreslayers are also tough as nails, though you need to know what you want out of them when making a list for them.

I can recommend some good army choices if I know what playstyle you enjoy... Of course the only way you'll know that is to have experience in the game though. Honestly, I'd say have fun playing with what you got, then when you know what sort of unit you need, look into getting your faction's battletome or I can recommend another army that may be more what you need depending on what you're after. :)

Each army on first glance is mostly the same, so you're pretty fair to get whichever models look coolest for your first game (honestly when assembling and painting your doods, you're gonna want an army you like the look of or are excited about to be motivated to do it over and over again with your main battleline blobs). It's when you look at the special rules that armies get (most are in the General's Handbook, due to the older battletomes not including special army rules, warlord traits or artifacts, which later tomes did, the Handbook got everyone equal in that regard) that you'll see that the army's fluff and schticks will be more obvious.

[Tolvo]

I've been wanting to learn more about AoS. I know some people are really mad about it but I am sorta into Warhammer Fantasy after getting into it through the Total War games. Is AoS just getting a lot of negative backlash for restarting?

[wander]

Pretty much, Tolvo. That it began removing the points mechanic and did a whole 'play whatever models you want!' thing when it first came on the scene didn't help either. The rules were also pretty simplified, though I find it about the same in complexity as 8th edition 40k, if not a lil more now as you need to remember much of your units special rules when you play. Tomb Kings and Bretonnia are squatted entirely, though a whole load of brand spanking new armies have now joined the roster to make up for that.

Now we're a few years into the new setting and the lore is growing the beard again slowly... What was originally a generally blank canvass of the nine realms to do narrative freeplays on your terms has gained back the points for Matched Play (8th edition 40k cribbed the term from AoS infact) for balanced gaming (GW went to tournaments that formed their own mechanics for army balance and took notes, then playtested a whole bunch and released them in the General's Handbook supplement, which gets updated every year) and forming up proper army lists with a nice alliances mechanic thrown in, whilst adding a lot to the nine realms and factions to really give your armies character again.

It still gets slack for those butthurt over losing the old setting and lore, though the new stuff I think actually gives a lot more room to do 'Your dudes' armies whilst there are a few campaigns that have pushed the narrative of the setting onward. Also you'll find those still butthurt at this point aren't actually playing the game, or did so in it's early days when it was admittedly reduced to a 'beer and pretzels' throwdown with whatever models you and your mate had at hand.

The Warscroll Builder I linked above for building army lists with points and Geedubs happens to print the warscroll statblocks for every model and unit as free downloadable pdfs on each model and unit's page on their site. If you want the cool extra stuff like the army fluff, warlord traits, artifacts and other special rules you'll still need to buy the army's battletome (or grab the General's Handbook for older battletome releases and legacy armies) though you can effectively get all the units rules for free, legally from Geedubs and make an army list for free on the Warscroll Builder. Need the models? Geedubs does 'Start Collecting' boxes which are bloody bargains when compared to getting the models seperately and gives you a good starting mix of things to play right away.

Also I posted above a pretty irreverant take on the lore as things stand up above too.  ;D

[MiaKage]

It still gets slack for those butthurt over losing the old setting and lore, though the new stuff I think actually gives a lot more room to do 'Your dudes' armies whilst there are a few campaigns that have pushed the narrative of the setting onward. Also you'll find those still butthurt at this point aren't actually playing the game, or did so in it's early days when it was admittedly reduced to a 'beer and pretzels' throwdown with whatever models you and your mate had at hand.

I'm still butthurt over what they did to the Elves >w< , but the game itself looks a lot easier to get into and play. I've played a couple games right after it came out, but it's been ages since I had a chance to play the updated rules. One thing I miss from the old system is the movement trays and how everything moved in a formation. The way cannon balls worked as pretty fun too.

[wander]

Well, the elves are still around, as the old factions (they're all supported in the General's Handbook) plus updated Daughters of Khaine (the new Khinerai models are damn awesome) plus the Idoneth Deepkin are pretty cool. :)

The rules are still the same, just points have been added in and a few little plug-in things can help augment your game as you like it. 2nd edition may contain more optional rules.

I'm a 40k player so the round bases actually give more freedom of movement IMO, like you can form battlelines in more tactical formations than blocks.

[MiaKage]

I understand that the elves are still around, but I miss the old lore of Athel Loren, and how the wood elves were super isolationist and didn't really care for the other elves. Just seems the end times ignored a lot of animosity that the wood elves had for the high elves, and I don't understand how Drycha is being nice to Alariel since she hated elves. Ever since the End Times the lore has been really weird for me, especially with the realms being all split up and stuff.

I do like the new Daughters of Khaine, though I don't understand how they are part of the Order alliance.

[wander]

Well Ghyran, the Realm of Life of which Alarielle is a goddess of, has all sorts of areas in it's woods, it's basically one big Athel Loren, or you can have your Wanderers from a section of Ghyran that is basically an Athel Loren expy. :)

I haven't read the Sylvaneth battletome, so I admittedly don't much on the current lore on Drycha... ^^;

The Daughters of Khaine are with Order mainly as they hate Chaos and fight against them and will ally with the other elf factions to do so and against any other threat the elves may face. They aren't nice by any stretch and will join Deepkin in raiding innocents, though they HATE Chaos, especially Slaanesh, for obvious reasons. Morathi has also teamed with Malerion (read: Malekith) plus Tyrion n' Teclis who are all gods of their own two realms and are main proponents in kicking Chaos and Slaanesh. Order tolerates the Daughters mainly as they're awesome at killing Chaos things and removing them from the Grand Alliance would really put them back a bit in their battle against the Four Gods. Some Daughters are actually sociable and they get along with the Sylvaneth well as they're a strong defence for Ghyran and can't sacrifice dryads as they don't have blood to shed. ^^'

[wander]

Decided to throw up a list of each faction available for quick viewing for anyone who wanted to have a quick reference. The Underlined factions are 'main' ones, many have full support from a battletome or are popular enough to be easily still bought. Allies are basically stuff that is pretty elitey or just offcast models that make up a faction though are best used as allied into your main faction than played alone pure.

CHAOS;
brayherd + warherd (Beastmen), Clan Pestilens, legacy skaven clans, Chaos Daemons (all four chaos gods),
Chaos Mortal Armies (includes Tzeentch Arcanites, Nurgle Rotbringers and Khorne Bloodbound with slaves to darkness).
Allies: Archaon's Everchosen, Gargants, Thunderscorn (Dragon Ogors).
Forge World: Legion of Azgorh (chaos dwarfs) + Tamurkhan's Horde (elite Nurgle stuff).

ORDER;
darkling covens (+ legacy dark elves), Daughters of Khaine, free peoples + devoted of sigmar (legacy Empire),
Fyreslayers, Kharadron Overlords, Idoneth Deepkin, Seraphon, Stormcast Eternals, swifthawk agents (+ legacy high elves),
Sylvaneth, wanderers (legacy wood elves).

DESTRUCTION;
Beastclaw Raiders, Bonesplitterz (savage orcs), gitmob grots, greenskinz (basic legacy orcs),
gutbusters (on-foot Ogre army), Ironjawz, moonclan grots, spiderfang grots.
Allies: gargants, lots of ogre types, monsters of destruction, Troggoths (elite trolls army).

DEATH;
Flesh-Eater Courts, Legions of Nagash including; deathlords (lords + morghasts), deathrattle (wight-led skeletons),
soulblight (vampire stuff). Plus Nighthaunt (an army of ghosts) battletome has been announced.
Allies: Necromancers + Deadwalkers.

I'm hoping this makes an easy reference for what's out there going into 2nd edition Age of Sigmar.

[Cold Heritage]

I was led to believe that there is only one faction in the Age of Sigmar and that faction is the Sigmarines and that that is the way Sigmar intended it.

[wander]

Stormcast Eternals have got a fair selection of model releases, this year so far has been more about Aelves and Death, both woefully underutilised and supported before now.

I see Slaanesh Daemon Hosts being the big up-and-comer with 2nd edition currently. The daemons are pretty alright units and with 2nd edition now doing summoning via action points generated in game for matched play (rather than needing to set aside reinforcement points from your list to deep strike in your pre-chosen gribbly-gals and wibbly-steeds), infinite daemonette-zerg rush is a bit of a horror scenario.

Flesh-Eater Courts also got a heck of a lot more competitive too.

[wander]

1,500pts Clan Pestilens List
Allegiance: Pestilens.

o Verminlord Corruptor (220)
> General
> Warlord Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin
> Artifact: Bilous Bell

o Plague Furnace (200)
> Bonus Congregation Artifact: Liber Bubonicus

Troops:
(all plague monk units have a plague scroll, contagion banner and bale-chimes. The units of 40 have 2 banners and 2 chimes)

40x Plague Monks (240)

40x Plague Monks (240)

20x Plague Monks (140)

20x Plague Monks (140)

1 x Plague Claw Catapult (180)

Battallion: Congregation of Filth (140): special rules affect the plague furnace and the two units of 40 monks.

Total = 1,500pts.

[wander]

Something neat;

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2018/05/30/30th-may-rules-preview-artefacts-of-the-realmsgw-homepage-post-2/

Announced this week was the ability in 2nd edition Age of Sigmar to announce which of the Realms your army hails from (not including Realm of Heaven which has been untouched by Chaos, or the Realm of Chaos itself). So that's a choice of Seven Realms and for this the army can replace an artefact of theirs with one from their home Realm, with each Realm having six magical weapons and six magic trinkets each to choose from.

Glad I haven't painted my army of rats yet, I'd love to see more on what's available and give them a fitting paintjob to reflect the Realm they have their gnaw-tunnels running through.  ;D

[wander]

I figured I'd post some thoughts on the changes to the main rules now for 2nd edition.

The biggest change outside of the command point additions which hasn't got coverage is the anti-daisy chaining happening in this edition. Basically, if a unit going into the battleshock phase is out of cohesion, then models need to be removed (and counted as slain) from that unit to get it back into cohesion. Thus, for those units that try and daisy chain, if they take too many casualties, that kind of play is going to suffer (generally seen when trying to get a Hero bubble buff and stretching out to get control of an objective at the same time).

Shooting can be done within 3" though it must be at the unit that is 3" or less away. Makes sense for immersion to fire those bolts and arrows at a squad hacking at the archers, rather than them ignoring the crazy barbarians to shoot across the field as they're being charged and killed. ^^;

Look out Sir! is a nice -1 to hit buff to a Hero if they're within 3" of a unit with 3+ models. Doesn't count for Monsters, so whilst my Verminlord Corruptor doesn't get it, funnily enough my Plague Furnaces will be able to Look out Sir!, despite them being big ol' models themselves, they have the Behemoth keyword, though not the Monster one. ^^;

So, mainly the Split Unit rule is the biggy. Personally, I'm hoping Pestilens will get a Spell Lore come the release of the new General's Handbook. I'm lax to switch to Maggotkin and lose the cool Pestilens stuff.

[MiaKage]

What about lore? Did they do any crazy updates with it? n.n

[wander]

Not sure yet. The main rules are available (see below), though not the full corebook, which is out for preorder this Saturday and will hold all the lore, actual battleplans and other things outside the basic rules to play.

For sure when I get my hands on the big hardback, I'll be talking about the lore and my thoughts on it. With three years to build up a new lore, the corebook will be consolidating it and building more of the new narrative. I think from what I've seen and heard though, that really it'll be expounding and going into more detail on events already told. Factions will be getting a few pages to explain how they fit in and the Mortal Realms will have a few pages each too, including some maps and also sample images of what a regular person of the Realm in question looks like.

Click here for the new official site for the game, where in the downloads section you can get the updated main rules legally for free as a pdf.

https://ageofsigmar.com/

[wander]

Also, here's my 1000pt Escalation League list.

By time the League hits 1,500 the new General's Handbook will be out, so there'll likely be a few changes from my earlier planned list. Unsure whether or not there'll be an Endless Spell thrown in, we'll see.  ;D

Clan Pestilens 1000pt Vanguard
Allegiance: Pestilens

Leaders (2/4);
Behemoths (2/2);
Battleline (2/2+);

o Verminlord Corruptor (220)
> General
> Warlord Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin.
> Artifact: Bilious Bell

o Plague Furnace (200)
> Bonus Artifact: Liber Bubonicus.

o 30x Plague Monks (210)
> Foetid Blades & Woe-staves.
> Plague Scroll, Contagion Banner, Bile-chime.

o 30x Plague Monks (210)
> Foetid Blades & Woe-staves.
> Plague Scroll, Contagion Banner, Bale-chime.

o Battallion: Congregation of Filth (140)
> Affects Plague Furnace + 2 units of Plague Monks.

Total = 980pts.

[MiaKage]

How does this look for a 1500 point game? I don't know the rules for Artifacts just yet, so they are subject to change.

Allegiance: Wanderers
LEADERS
Waywatcher (100)
Wayfinder (100)
- Artefact : Starcaster Longbow
Spellweaver (80)
- Heartwood Staff
Spellweaver (80)
- Heartwood Staff
Waystrider (80)
- Artefact : Splinterbirch Blade
UNITS
30 x Glade Guard (360)
30 x Glade Guard (360)
20 x Eternal Guard (160)
5 x Wild Riders (140)
SCENERY
Sylvaneth Wyldwood (40)
TOTAL: 1500/2000 WOUNDS: 115
LEADERS: 5/6 BATTLELINES: 3 (3+)

[wander]

Looks cool! Lots of Heroes, though that may work out.  :-)

I got the General's Handbook, which has the Wanderer Artifacts, I'll message them to you when I'm more awake and refreshed. ^^

In general, you get one Artifact, though for every Battallion you take, you get a bonus one also. As with my Pestilens list, my Verminlord has an artifact and because I bought a Battallion, I get a bonus one to add to my Plague Furnace. :)

[MiaKage]

Oooh ok, I have the generals handbook too, just didn't look into how many artifacts you get n.n;

In that case, I'd probably switch the Splinterbirch blade with the forget me knot, shutting down a big hero guy sounds really nice n.n

[wander]

Nice. :)

So, what would be the strategy on your army, how would you play it in a game?  :-)

[MiaKage]

Mobile hit and run, if my Eternal Guard could get onto an objective that is also in cover, they would root themselves onto it and I thiiiink they would be hard to uproot. I'd probably use my one shot abilities pretty early on to get the max use out of them. I don't know AoS enough to have a strong idea of how to play, but keeping my old style of being speedy shooty elfs being a pain in the butt seems like fun n.n

[Metro Mech]

I mostly wish that they had kept my favorite race to play which is the bretonnians, all that Cavalry and fancy knight armor while yelling at all the peasants to go do their job. Sigh that was the most funny part of Warhammer fantasy. 

[wander]

MiaKage; Nice. ^^ I hear on the grapevine that the new General's Handbook is nerfing the Wanderer's teleport to be for one unit rather than all of them.

The Waywatcher is a great defender for your squishy aelfs with his -1 to hit bubble and the Wayfinder also has some synergy with your archers. I think the Waystrider is a lil superfluous as he's more for melee builds. I'd personally replace him and the 2nd Spellweaver with 20 Eternal Guard (or 5 Wild Riders as I dig the stag cavalry loads), although having two Wizards is a good idea incase one gets ganked. Spells are pretty powerful depending on faction and having the ability to unbind some nastiness can keep your aelves alive.

The Age of Sigmar subreddit has posted the point costs to the new Endless Spells and their stats are available for download from Geedubs now too, if you wanted to see what they may offer. They're decently cheap to fill in holes in a list if you have points left (though now every 50pts left over gives +1 Command Point to a list, also if your list has less points than your opponent, you get your free once-per-game Triumph).

Metro Mech;
Tis a shame the Brettonians got ganked, though funnily enough the Flesh Eater Courts see themselves as fancy knights and men at arms, despite being mad cannibals... :D I recommend checking out their lore and seeing what you think of them. I very nearly picked them as my first army just based on them delusionally seeing themselves as white knights fighting for the glory of their King and Nagash... :D

[MiaKage]

Yeah, I looked at swapping him our for weaver, but forgot the name of the melee hero, lol. I noticed the new command points thing too, having two spell weavers would give me two auto dispels per game! I only have the 20 eternal guard, otherwise I would throw a 2nd unit in. I'll have to hunt my wildriders, I think I might have 8 in total, I made two into sisters of thorn to use as spellsingers on mounts back in 8th edition. I may add a unit of wardancers in, not sure how good they are but I always loved their concept n.n

[wander]

With the Endless Spells being a thing for sure having more Spellweavers will help to cast or dispel them, depending on if you take one or not. Point costs for units may change come the end of this month, so it's something I know I'll need to factor for my Escalation Clans Pestilens list. Currently I have 20pts over and potentially I could fill that gap with an Endless Spell atm, though I'll have to wait and see what does get changed and what will stay the same.

I know as I have a battallion, I'll get +1 Command Point going in, which is nice. Pestilens really benefits from both the Verminlord's 'Gouge-Tear their Eyes!' ability along with the very important 'Inspiring Presence' as my Plague Monks auto-fail armour saves, so whilst they do hit like a truck, if they go second in combat they can potentially end up in trouble and whilst they get buffed Bravery, the more they lose in a unit, the harder their Bravery drops for Battleshock.

Wardancers are technically phased out of the Wanderers list, they're a legacy wood elf unit now. They cost 60pts for five wardancers, though you may find depending where you'd play they may not be allowed, also they do not have the Wanderer keyword anymore and won't benefit from the army allegiance abilities.

Whilst they're expensive points-wise, take a look at the Wildwood Rangers if you want an elite melee unit that has Rend. 180pts for ten, they do d3 damage versus Monsters if you know you're going to be going up against things with that keyword.
Otherwise I highly recommend just getting more Wild Riders for melee badassery, they're probably one of the best units at great value for the Wanderers.

[MiaKage]

The AoS app says wardancers are still wanderers, unless my app isn't updating right. Either way the people I play against are friends, the store I used to play at closed down which is why it's been ages since I've played. I'm not looking to buy anything new till I get my group back up and playing again, but the Rangers are something I'll defanitly pick up since one of the guys loves to bring monsters.

[wander]

Gotcha. Yeah, that's the main thing is to have fun with friends.  :-)

I've grown to be pretty eager for the release of Malign Sorcery now. Not only will it contain the Endless Spells, it also contains Spell Lores for each Realm that wizards can use when using the Realm Battle rules in the corebook to activate special rules for playing in a particular Realm (something that the current General's Handbook contains in the Narrative Play section in a smaller scale under 'Times of War'). So there's that, along with special additional Artifacts if you choose your army to have hailed from a particular Realm. For sure I'll be going through those Artifacts and considering what would be swapping in, which will also affect future unit colour schemes to make my ratbois look all nice thematic.  ;D

Hopefully the Realm rules get balanced. Right now my Clan Pestilens are very weak to Chamon's Steel Rain. ^^; However, on the plus having a battle set in Ghur is stupidly fun thanks to it's Monstrous Beasts special rule and my Verminlord casting 'Wildform' on my Plague Monks is a terror to those that face me.  8-)

[MiaKage]

I took a look at those endless spells, I like the healy bugs n.n

Also having a giant flaming head roam the map is kinda funny to imagine. the swinging pendulum looks like it'd be fun, but kinda hard to use. Since wardancers aren't Wanderers, are Glade Riders taken out too? I could use them as wild riders if that's the case.

[wander]

Someone showed off the Pitch Battle costs for Endless Spells the other day. You can see them here;

https://imgur.com/a/v59J5Aa

I'm a fan of the Chronomantic Cogs and same with the Emerald Lifeswarm. Both are 60pts though, so a lil... eh for including for myself. Soulsnare Shackles though is a nice cheap Endless that can help in defensively keeping away combat-experts away from my Plague Monks and for 20pts I may slip that spell in.

On the Glade Riders, yeah you'd need to use them as Wild Riders. Which isn't so bad, as I still think the Wild Riders are one of the best units the Wanderers have for pure stats and they're fairly cheap points-wise too.

[wander]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2017/09/26/make-your-own-free-city-the-easy-way-sep26gw-homepage-post-4/

Old article on Warhammer Community, though it's doing the rounds atm as 2nd edition comes in and the promise of more fluffy armies thanks to Malign Sorcery and the increased lore on the Realms in the corebook.  :-)

So, whilst I play Pestilens and they don't dwell in a free city, I figured I'd roll a free city for fun and maybe my ratmonks have a gnaw-hole that's under it maybe.  ;D



I rolled for the place the name of 'Sun Forge'... Very Sigmar!

It's located in the Realm of Shyish, the realm of Death... A Sprawling Metropolis and it's populace include Aelves, Duardin and Seraphon. Weird mix. I wonder just what this trio of peoples are doing in such a large sprawl in the Realm of Death...

It's a Legendary Location whose most notable feature is a Notable Freeguild. I suppose the humans are there purely as a garrisoned guard and aren't actually residents of the metropolis proper. I expect some hefty crowns come from Sun Forge to pay for a notable guild force!

Surely something big is here if both the Freeguild and Seraphon are watching over such a large place when Nagash and his Legions are such a credible threat! Duardin are the experts in technology and Aelves are gifted in magic usually. Could be a place of expert manufacture and exporting to other Realms and Shyish is where the amazing Shadeglass stems from.

If Pestilens turn up at my games in Shyish, perhaps Sun Forge may make a cheeky appearance.  ;D

So, with 2nd edition coming, I figure now would be a good time to make up a free city, maybe involve it in your narrative in a future game and build up some lore for your army.  :-)

[MiaKage]

Seer's Heart, a Town in Shyish, (we can be trade partners!) Home to Stormcast Eternals, Duradin, and Aelves. Within it's walls it houses a Legendary Library, a Renown Gunnery school, a Notorious Thieves guild was the Sight of Great Battle, and home to Legendary Monster Hunters! n.n

I also noticed Sisters of Avelorn had their names changed to Sisters of the Watch, I now have something to use my Waywatchers for n.n

[wander]

Lol, awesome!  :D

Perhaps the Duardin there are Fyreslayers, who are known for taking down monsters... Your free city seems really interesting!

And yes, the Sisters of the Watch would be them and that's a great proxy unit to field them. The Sisters are an aside very expensive points-wise, though they may get a point drop in 2nd edition and are actually really good at what they do, so they're worth the points if you can afford to put them in your force.  :-)

[MiaKage]

I wish they would bring back Wardancers, such a fun unit n.n

I need to look into the new dwarf stuff for my dad, he has a decently sized dorf army. I saw some rules for the displaced and they seem kinda scary x.x

[wander]

The Dispossessed? That's the old dwarf units that aren't the artillery stuff. Hammerers, Warriors, Longbeards etc. So yeah, the classic dwarf units.  :-)

I quite like me the Fyreslayers, they're a very cool army. Their only real flaw is a real lack on the magic/unbinding stuff (same as the Kharadron Overlords, who are also Duardin), however you can ally in them shiny new Stormcast Wizards when 2nd edition drops with them to cover for the magic lack. The Fyreslayers are also decent points-wise and if your dad has Slayers in his old army, they make cool proxies to give them a shot. :)

[MiaKage]

That's what I told him, he's a bit grumbly about having to learn the game over again, lol. He even has a special dwarf slayer that would be perfect for a Grimwrath Berzerker! Saw a battle report featuring them, they are really cool. Slayers were my favorite dorf unit n.n

[wander]

I feel the game is super easy to learn and pick up and play now though. With the removal of S and T being admittedly a bit of skub, a basic roll to hit and roll to wound with your defensive capability kept on armour save is very quick to do without referring to tables or having any janky Herohammer happening.  :-)

'Course it's easy to learn the basic rules, though mastery comes from synergising your list and knowing which Heroes and Allies can benefit your force.

I'd recommend going for a 500pt game first to learn some basic unit special moves together, don't worry so much on winning/losing than getting the odd rule change down.

There's some things you may miss, like not being allowed to normal move within 3" of enemy units (you have to specifically wait for the charge phase and roll your charge on 2d6 to close the gap), the ability to shoot without penalty into a melee (though now in 2nd edition if your archers are in melee they can only fire at those they're in melee with) and also a charge doesn't mean that unit goes first in combat, in the combat phase of your turn the first unit to go is always yours and you go back and forth with the opposing player until you're both done.

Battleshock is super simple, merely roll a d6 for each unit that lost models, adding that number as a modifier. For each digit over that unit's Bravery, one model gets removed as slain, so there's no routing and running away and regrouping, those models are assumed to be killed whilst they fled from their unit.
Also remember for every 10 models currently in a unit when you battleshock test, you'll get a +1 buff to your Bravery.  :-)

That's pretty much everything that may be easy to miss for a returning player. ^^

[wander]

Had a game of 2nd edition with my Pestilens force...

First thing was Command Points become a very important, if rare, commodity. I decided to go without using the Verminlord's 'Gouge-Tear their Eyes!' Command Ability to cover the cost to use 'Inspiring Presence' in the battleshock phase to skip needing to roll for it... However that was a mistake, as I was pumping out less attacks and facing Khorne, I had a bit of a back-lash to face up.

As such, going up to 1,500pts I may need to consider what extra Command Points I'm bringing, to cover a heavy attack and battleshock. Second mistake wasn't putting my Heroes more central to buff both units of Plague Monks, however due to the scenario in play I needed to veer the Heroes away to Objectives.

I blob up and don't daisy-chain usually and my friend had an elitey Khorne list, so the Split Unit rule never came to pass. I won the battle after, though I really felt I should have had more Command Points to cover my list. However I also liked 'Inspiring Presence' being moved to use in the battleshock phase, so I didn't need to guess and put a gamble on placing it on a blob in the hero phase and potentially it getting wasted.

[MiaKage]

What are your thoughts on the Kharadron Overlords? I've been looking more into some of the new armies AoS introduced, and they seem really neat n.n

[wander]

They are really awesome to look at, though I feel you need to be an experienced player with them. They synergise a lot with their airship models and you kinda need to know how to use transports the best to really gel with them.

Also, whilst they make a great gunline army, which is fairly rare in AoS, they don't have their own wizard, which is a weakness all Duardin armies have, as they favour technology. Essentially though, the Overlords are the 'ranged dwarves' and the Fyreslayers are the 'melee dwarves' and you can have either be an ally of the other, which can cover some gaps you may have in a list.

Their Code rules are fun, where you make a contract they follow which essentially are Warlord Traits going in and they have specific City-Ports where you say they hail from one and you get a unique rule for doing so.

What I would say is they're not a cheap force to buy, their airships can be a bit of a bastard to build, so I highly recommend playing them with proxy models at first to get a handle of them and then if you get a feel for them and know how you're gonna go, then look into buying and building the models for the force.

[wander]

2+ Tough on Youtube has been doing a series of videos this week on the opening Realmgate Wars narrative that opened AoS. I'll put them all here in a spoiler tag for those to catch up tomorrow night, before the big launch of 2nd edition.  :-)

I've tweaked around a 1.5k and a 2k list for my Clan Pestilens (I'll be going Hysh for their home-realm as I want the Aetherstone Brooch as an artifact. It's power is you roll 1d6 when you spend a command point, on a 5+ you get it back. I'll give that to my Verminlord Corruptor as tbh, I keep forgetting about his Bilious Bell artifact to use it and the Hysh artifact is more useful for what I want from my army)...

2000pts, I end up with 160 Plague Monks!

I'll be posting my adapted 1,500pts list some time after the official release. I'm feeling the Verminlord will be casting the Chronomantic Cogs Endless Spell and I'll be allying in Ratling Gun Weapon Teams from Clan Skryre rather than gambling on the Plagueclaw.

[MiaKage]

That's a lot of rats o.o

This weekend I'll be playing my first game in a couple years! n.n

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Allegiance: Wanderers
LEADERS
Nomad Prince (80)
- Artefact : Starcaster Longbow
Spellweaver (80)
- Heartwood Staff
Waywatcher (100)
Waywatcher (100)
UNITS
20 x Eternal Guard (160)
20 x Glade Guard (240)
20 x Glade Guard (240)
TOTAL: 1000/1000 WOUNDS: 80
LEADERS: 4/4 BATTLELINES: 3 (2+)

[wander]

Ja, Clans Pestilens is a horde army, it's four blobs of forty rats each. However they get +2 Bravery for every ten rats in a squad when doing Battleshock, so they're tarpits and now in 2nd edition you can wrap around as long as you're still the same distance away from the closest enemy model.  8-)

8 boxes of plague monks though... Well 7 boxes after grabbing a Start Collecting box for the Plague Furnace and 20 monks.



Which Command Trait will you be using? (p.134 of General's Handbook) I think either Masterful Hunter or Eagle-Eyed are pretty good.

Is your Nomad Prince your Commander? It's less important in 2nd edition, tbh though you still need to know who's your Commander to put the Command Trait on them.  :-)

Also if you don't message back before your game, good luck and I really hope you enjoy it and get a good feel with where you'll take things going forward!  ;D

[MiaKage]

I'm actually thinking of dropping the Nomad Prince and replace him with another Spell Weaver, then swapping a Waywatcher with a Waystrider as my general with the Masterful Hunter trait for Hail of Doom Arrow hitting on 2+ n.n

[wander]

Sounds a plan! You'll want to keep your Waystrider near your Eternal Guard. If you're playing 2nd edition rules you can partake in all Command Abilities even for Heros that aren't your General and so you'll want them to buff the correct units.

The Waystrider however has lost some utility now that Inspiring Presence is used for a Command Point in the battleshock phase to auto-pass a battleshock on a unit, so no more gambling and their Command Ability loses some utility as you'd use it for rolling a battleshock and hoping you get a 1 to pile-in again with the Eternal Guard. You're gonna be lucky if that happens once a game though.

Btw the Wayfinder has the Hail of Doom arrow, not the Waystrider. However good call if you add the Wayfinder in as a general.  ;D Give him the Falcon of Holthaven rather than the Starcaster Longbow if you do. The Wayfinder is a ranged beast and your Command Trait and basic ranged attacks will serve him well. The Falcon can dish out the odd Mortal Wound against anyone who tries to get near the Wayfinder and is a neat way of keeping him from harm. Have him near your Glade Guard to buff them, though like the Waystrider realise his buff isn't the most useful though may do in a pinch.

[MiaKage]

Wayfinder! that's what I meant, not sure why I said strider, even have finder in the modified list, hehe

I'm going to be going up against dorfs (dispossessed) and was thinking of taking the Shawl to add a bit of range defense, since I know he will bring at least one organ gun, and most likely some thunderers.

[wander]

That makes sense. I feel you have good numbers there, remember also your buffs.

The Eternal Guard's 'Fortress of Boughs' will allow them a 4+ save, which is pretty much the best save in the game, plus if they have Glade Shields (and they should always have them), they can reroll saves of 1, or 1 and 2 if in cover. Their standard bearer also gives them +2 Bravery in Cover, so if you have 20 and say you lose 2 and have 18, you're rolling Battleshock with Bravery 7 +1 for 10+ models +2 for Standard in Cover = Bravery 10.  8-)

Remember whilst your Glade Guard have all 20 members they have 3+ to hit on archery rolls. That's gonna make them a target however, they have a 6+ save so get them in cover to make it a 5+ save and then get the Bravery buff from their Penant Bearer too (Remember your Spellweavers can use 'Blessing of Life' to bring dead Wanderers back to life too, arm them with Mystic Blows not the Heartwood Staff as the Mystic Blows will make contact more often. You lose rend, though saves are often low enough not to worry about.)

Also with your Glade Guard, save your Arcane Bodkins to break the Dwarve's support units. Dispossessed have 4+ across the board, so the Arcane Bodkin will negate the armour save of your target, meaning you just need to score enough wounds to delete the target or wreck it enough to reduce the threat.

If you're playing to objectives, get to claiming them, camp there and take cover and don't move out. Wanderers are a Gun-line army and are actually all about getting to where they need to be early as they get buffs from staying still behind cover, so initial placement is key.

[MiaKage]

I plan on using the Eternal Guard as a buffer, hopefully holding off the dorfy throng. I believe they get a 3+ save if they are in cover, don't they? Needing 20 to get that 3+ to hit with glade guard is one of the reasons why in a larger game, I plan on taking them in groups of 30. They may be quick, but they is super squish! hehe

[wander]

Yeah, they would get a 3+, with the +1 buff the Fortress gives and the +1 for cover.

That's exceptionally nasty...  :o

As a Pestilens player I don't get much Rend to reduce that back down, though the Plague Furnace's Great Censor deals mortal wounds. Plague Priests have -1 Rend and my planned allied Ratling Guns also have -1 Rend. The thing with Pestilens though is they're made to throw out buckets of dice. In 2nd edition there is better ability to wrap around smaller units in the Combat Phase now, so whilst having a 3+ save is great against the usual 3-5 saves a unit may get, Pestilens pump a lot more made 'to wound' rolls into the enemy...  >:)

You shouldn't have that with vanilla Dorfs so much though. Just remember Mortal Wounds skip over armour and are automatic. Not sure what kind of output the Dorfs can do in that regard, though always be prepared for them nevertheless.  :-)

[wander]

As promised for the release going on right now for 2nd edition Age of Sigmar, here's the rundown of the opening saga that opened the Age of Sigmar. Not long after the end of this series, the Tzeentch Arcanites were released soon after this series came to a close.

The Realmgate Wars Saga

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0VxOoUpdxo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at299Ov426U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx3ToZBvcWk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OChnFYUYu1Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8dhoYzNluA

You can read what's been happening since then leading up to Soul Wars here;

https://malignportents.com/stories/

Which details the run-up and eventual fallout of the Malign Portents campaign that went by most recently. There's stories for pretty much each of the main factions and they're lil mini-stories, so can be read a few at a time.

And that should give you all the lore you need to get stuck in! ^^

[MiaKage]

I won! So it was 2 x 20 glade guard, 20 eternal guard, 2 x spellweavers (which did nothing >3< ), Waywatcher, and Wayfinder vs 20 longbeards, 20 warriors, 20 thunderers, a gyrocoptor, 2 x runelords, and a warden (i think, the dorf lord)

I got first turn, put my eternal guard into defense mode inside terrain, moved my glade guard up a little to get in range and killed nearly his entire thunderer unit with 42 shots, the ones that didn't die, ran. He moves up and shoots my eternal guard with the gyrocoptor, killing one. He gets a charge off with the longbeards but not the warriors, but only killing two. Eternal guard in response ends up killing 5-8 I think after battleshock. I only got one spell off the entire game due to his runelords getting +2 to dispel >3<

My Wayfinder did get to use his hail of doom arrow ability, getting a wopping 6 attacks! and killed one dorf with it, hehe. Waywatcher completely failed as well, don't think he ever got kill anything. Eternal guard did hold out like I hoped they would, really like them n.n

[wander]

Gonna jet for the night currently, though I'll be back tomorrow to talk more on the Corebook and new General's Handbook! I have both! ^^

In the meantime, hope you had a fun time Mia, what Battleplan if any did you play and what would you change if anything in your army now you've played with them?

[MiaKage]

We just did a simple pitched battle, just till we get the rules down. I'm not sure I'd change anything, I'd need to play a few more games. I got super lucky with my rolls, so I cut down most of his army before he got to me.

I did get the 2018 handbook on the app, happy to see drops in points for my Infantry, super sad to see point increases for heroes >3<

[wander]

Gotcha. I recommend for a second game to try a Battleplan as it'll involve Objectives, usually you net victory points for having a unit control them. Limit the game to five turns and you'll be able to see more on which units act well in specific scenarios and may survive until the end of the game. :)

It's super helpful especially to have something to act as a tracker for whose turn it is and what game turn it is also. As AoS does a roll-off each turn to see who goes first, rather than a traditional 'you go, I go, you go, etc' way of play. I have a piece of paper that I drew a line of 10 boxes, five for my round in the turns, five for my mate's. Then we move a coin through the boxes at the start of our turns.

Pestilens got buffed in the 2018 Handbook, the Plague Furnace and Plagueclaw both dropped by 20pts. The Congregation of Filth went up by 30pts though (mildly annoying as the other Pestilens battallions went down in cost, though they're all rubbish ones tbh). However the 'Master of Rot and Ruin' Command Trait I put on my Verminlord Corruptor now gives him the Priest keyword, so when I roll for Pestilent Prayers with him, he can now activate the Echoes of Great Plagues!  8-)



The new Corebook is huge, it's a brick of a tome... Nearly 220 pages of pure fluff and lore at the front, which has some pretty awesome things. First 75 pages is the history of the setting, from the Realms forming and Sigmar being taken to them by Dracothian, to the recent Necroquake that has given birth to the Endless Spells.
The Realms follow next, with a fair amount of fluff on each. The main ones already seen a lot in lore get maps and what a sample denizen of that Realm looks like. They're Fire, Life, Metal and Death. Sadly the Realms of Shadow, Light, Beasts, Heaven and Chaos get around two pages each. Makes sense as those realms aren't as prominent in the current narrative, outside the Realm of Beasts, which is where the Greenskins mostly dwell. I was surprised to not get more on that.

Factions are next. Wanderers get a little bit more on them than we had before. We learn more about the ley-lines they're trying to restore by planting waystones through the Realms and that they have a symbiotic relationship with free cities as they act as scouts and guerillas in exchange for food and shelter. They're still hoping one day to be forgiven by Alarielle for retreating when Nurgle invaded the Realm of Life.

Skaven got a two page spread, though lumped together as a whole. This was a little bit disappointing to me, as the Major Clans get merely a sentence each in flicking through. I'll read up and see what new fluff they get soon though. It'd be nice to get a Skaven Battletome, though I worry it'll leave the Pestilens force I have underpowered if they do consolidate like that.

Past the Main Rules (which can be downloaded in the free pdf) there's the Grand Alliance allegiance abilities.
Then the Realms of Battle rules, for having a battle in a Realm of choice, which was last in the 2017 General's Handbook, though now they're in the Corebook and seven Realms are there (all except Heavens and Chaos) and expanded to have a Spell that any Wizard can use for the battle, a Command Ability to use and then you roll a d6 to see what Realmscape Feature happens. ^^
This has actually simplified using the Realm rules down that I'd really love to give them a go as soon as I can, as whilst the General's Handbook listed a whole bunch of things, now you roll for just one randomly (My Pestilens boys still don't like the Realm of Metal's Steel Rain, though now they get a 6+ save against it so it won't instadelete the plague monks and it may not even appear as it needs to be rolled for now ^^). Way less unique special rules to try and remember, making a game using them smoother. Still optional, though now they seem way more fun to try.

The Open War Battle Generator for random rolling a Battleplan seems fun. May try it for my next friendly game in a Match Play battle. The Siege and Darkest Depth rules (with sample Battleplans for both) appear in the Narrative Play section and also seem like a fun addition. Me and my friend are trying to forge more of a narrative now, so these could be fun to add down the road. The Coalition of Death, Triumph and Treachery and the Pitched Battle rules are all in the rules section here now. These have Battleplans too, with the Pitched Battle as the main default of play having the 1d6 table to choose randomly which of the six Pitched Battle Battleplans to play. Essentially consolidating what was optional from the former General's Handbook into the Core Rulebook now after some minor balancing tweaks.

Final bit of the Corebook has rules for 'Battle Strategies', which is essentially playing the AoS version of 'Maelstrom of War' from 40k. A d66 table of random player objectives for a turn is presented for a more dynamic way of battle and claiming victory points. I had no idea this was going to be in the book, so it was a really nice surprise. I expect a 'Battle Strategies' card deck will be released soon to coincide with this.

[MiaKage]

I did find a video on youtube that told one of the stories about the wanderers that I thought was super neat. The group were checking around (can't remember which realm) and some scouts found a cave full of bugs and moss and other cave dwelling plants/creatures. They go back and let the lord know and he brings everyone to the cave to place a Waystone, but find out some ogre thing moved into the cave and it's presence killed all the life there or froze it or something. They had a big fight with it and thought the location was a lost cause for the waystone, but then the corpse pooted, which then gave the Leader an idea. When they left, they describe the waystone being planted into the belly of the ogre, because it needs life to feed off of in order to work I think, and since the ogre was a decaying body, it had the nutrients needed to invigorate the stone n.n

[wander]

That's Arvandus, I saw that vid too! ^^

Arvandus does small fan-fictions and explanations of each faction on youtube. They have a whole channel of videos that do that and they're really awesome at what they do.

Here's their video for muh ratboi faction.  ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5466gFq8Ug

[wander]

Escalation is moving to 1.5k so I've been hard at work bringing a list in for 2nd edition Pestilens.

Right now I'm going forward with this;

Points: 1,500pts.
Allegiance: Pestilens.
Home Realm: Hysh.
+1 Command Point.

o Verminlord Corruptor = 220pts
> General.
> Command Trait: Master of Rot and Ruin.
> Artifact: Aetherquartz Brooch

o Plague Furnace = 180pts
> Bonus Artifact: Liber Bubonicus.

o Plague Priest = 80pts

Troops;

30x Plague Monks (plague scroll, contagion banner, bile-chimes) w/ foetid blades + woe-staves. = 210pts

30x Plague Monks (same as above) = 210pts

30x Plague Monks (same as above) = 210pts

Ratling Gun Weapon Team = 80pts (Ally)

Ratling Gun Weapon Team = 80pts (Ally)

==
Battalion: Contagion of Filth = 170pts

Chronomantic Cogs Endless Spell = 60pts

+500pts was a lot to play with, though I can see the army taking more of a shape now and at the full 2k at League's end, it'll look very similar to this build.

The Verminlord now has the Aetherquartz Brooch from Hysh (as seen in Malign Sorcery) as their artifact now. This was partly as I kept forgetting to use the Bilious Bell and I like the Brooch's ability to roll a d6 for each Command Point used and on a 5+ it is returned. Allows more uses of 'Gouge-Tear their Eyes!' and also 'Inspiring Presence' for super-killy monks that won't flee when hit back! (I also get a nice bonus Command Point at the start of the game because of my battallion).

I decided to add a Plague Priest in as a cheap way to possibly get more Echoes of the Great Plagues out. Now that the 'Master of Rot and Ruin' command trait allows the Verminlord the ability to summon them like the Plague Furnace (who can do two prayers with the Liber Bubonicus now), there should be ample chances for some Great Plagues to hit.

We have more Plague Monks and this time I have some Ratling Guns allied in. I'd rather have two Ratling Guns than a Plagueclaw as whilst the threat range dips by 6", rather than gambling the Plagueclaw's better damage on a single attack (which could fail on turns I need it), I now get to roll many dice for ranged attacks. It's totally worth gambling on a d6 to get double attacks, to total 8d6 rolls to hit total for the two Weapon Teams.

The final add, of which I was debating to do it here or save it for 2k though which I think is pretty amazing, is the Chronomantic Cogs Endless Spell which my Verminlord Corruptor will be able to cast and have kept near him (the Cogs are a non-moving spell) for him to manipulate. The main ability for it is 'Speed Up Time' which gives all units +2 to their Move and +2 to charge rolls. This is for the obvious benefit of getting the Plague Monks into melee sooner and just giving more board control. Casting roll of 7, so may not go off immediately, though could be good to have if only to use 'Slow Down Time' and get a reroll for the Verminlord's 4+ save.

My only concerns are again wondering if I have enough Plague Monks to be a credible threat, however 90 Monks seems fine for this level. 'Look out Sir!' should be able to protect the Plague Priest.

It'll take time to snap everything up for the army though, so probably not many batt-reps incoming from me for a good while for this particular build yet.

[Andol]

Question... I still mostly play old school Warhammer Fantasy... is that still cool as well bros... XD

[MiaKage]

I really like old school Warhammer Fantasy n.n

[Andol]

That was when the Skaven had way more hero and Lord choices... but still Thanqoul and Boneripper where the best XD

[MiaKage]

Wood Elves had named characters back then too, I miss the sisters of twilight  :'(

[Andol]

Me to... given they could revive each other over and over again... like a boss. Plus don't forgot Fantasy's version of THE EMPEROR!!!!

[Neysha]

Question... I still mostly play old school Warhammer Fantasy... is that still cool as well bros... XD

It's very cool. Especially compared with what came after...  ;D

But yeah Age of Sh... Sigmar is the law of the land now. Soon all of the old Warhammer Fantasy awesomeness will be flushed down the vortex.

The worst part is I never played any tabletop warming. I literally was a Total War computer game fan who reluctantly purchased Total War Warhammer two years ago and I just fell in love with the game... And then fell in love with the lore. Own loads of the core books and the like. Not to play, just for reading. :)

[Beorning]

Regarding Warhammer Fantasy / AoS: has anyone here played Shadespire / Nightvault? Could you guys tell me more about this game?

On another note: recently, I ordered quite a lot of Warhammer models, as I got into Dragon Rampant and needed a fantasy army :) I admit that some of the new models are cool: I got myself Morathi, a Verminlord, a Darkoath Warqueen, one big Start Collecting: Sylvaneth box, even some Stormcast Eternals. Fluff for these models will be mine, though - basically, I'm building an army for a Dark Queen :)

BTW. I'm looking at this girl at the AoS rulebook cover and she looks so sad:



I bet she has a heart-wrenching story to tell! I guess these big golden paladins aren't as bright and holy as it may seem... Scary stuff must be going on with them out of sight! ;)

[Andol]

Make sure to have a generals handbook if you want to play... or at least I did. So I could some attempt at using my old favorite models in the new system... I guess...

[wander]

Necromancing my own thread to give a quick rundown on how things have changed for me since last being here!

I've been playing Pestilens for a while now and I've enjoyed the changes for the most part that the Skaventide battletome did to Skaven in tightening up their rules and giving them new options with their Gnawhole terrain pieces and their new Endless Spells.

My own 2000pt army is as follows;

Allegiance: Skaventide
Realm: Shyish
Total Points: 2000pts
Extra Command Points: +1

Heroes:

Plague Furnace (200)
- General
- Master of Rot and Ruin
- Liber Bubonicus

Plague Furnace (200)

Verminlord Corruptor (280)
- Shyish Artefact: Ethereal Amulet.

Units:

40x Plague Monks (blade + staves) (280)
> both musicians
> both banners

40x Plague Monks (blade + staves) (280)
> both musicians
> both banners

40x Plague Monks (blade + staves) (280)
> both musicians
> both banners

20x Plague Monks (blade + staves) (160)
> doom gong
> icon of pestilence

1x Plagueclaw Catapult (160)

1x Congregation of Filth (160)

I was debating on dropping the Congregation to instead get an extra 10 Plague Monks on the final blob (80pts), then getting the Chronomantic Cogs Endless Spell (80pts) for my Verminlord to cast to get the Plague Monks up the field quicker, with their Doom Gongs already giving them +1 inch to advances and charges.

The smaller squad of Monks would therefore get a +1 to wound, due to the Strength in Numbers army ability, though I'd lose the perks of the battallion giving the Monks a 6+ FNP, along with the bonus Command Point (which aren't all that important since the changes brought on by the Skaventide battletome) and the bonus artefact I can give or take.

I went with Shyish for their Home Realm and the Ethereal Amulet as I didn't need to worry on Command Points since Skaventide changes the Verminlord's ability of 'Gouge-Tear the Eyes' to a prayer for the Plague Furnace called 'Rabid-Rabid!', thus me grabbing two of the things, as getting +1 attack to both weapons makes the Monks delete anything they can attack. Instead I like the thought of a chosen Hero having an amulet that gives them an Invulnerable Save, though it's not that huge a buff to take.

The Plagueclaw is there as the Skaventide battletome stops Pestilens being mandatory battleline if they take on non-Pestilens units, so I had to drop my Ratling Gun allies. I didn't want the army to be pure melee so I bit the bullet and got one. I want to play a few games and see how it performs before considering the worth of a possible second one. I'd never deploy more than two Plagueclaws though, they're too expensive points-wise and aren't all that great in all honesty.

[wander]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/09/22/coming-soon-middle-earth-mortal-realms-and-more/

Coming up for pre-order is not only Cities of Sigmar battletome (souping the old Empire, Elves and Dwarves together) and Orruk Warclans battletome (souping Ironjawz -aka Black Orcs- and Bonesplitterz -aka Savage Orcs-), though also the Age of Sigmar Gaming Book, consolidating the most important gaming rules for matched play (and I expect some errata and FAQ clarifications will be thrown in there to make it the most up to date resource alongside it's 31 different battleplans).

I forgot to ask in my last post also if anyone has jumped on or plan to jump into playing Age of Sigmar?

2nd edition has really brought things together after a shaky start and the 2019 Battletomes have all been really strong.

[Hemingway]

Nagash would like a word with this thread...

So, I recently got into Age of Sigmar, and just played my first game. I lost pretty terribly, but it was a blast*.

Wot I played...

Stormcast Eternals (Hammers of Sigmar):

Heroes
Lord Arcanum on Gryph-Charger
2 x Knights-Incantor

Units
5 x Sequitors
5 x Sequitors
5 x Evocators

... that's it, for a tidy 980 points.

Crowning moment of awesome was my two Knights-Incator both suiciding with their flasks to instantly wipe out 2 enemy heroes and 5 Khorne Blood Warriors (I rolled an incredible 3 6s). Just like that.

I'm working on getting my army up to 2000pts right now - primarily by beefing up my Sequitors to units of 10 and adding in another unit of Evocators, for a Cleansing Phalanx of utter destruction. I'll need another battleline for that - not sure what that will be yet.
I also might change the setup entirely - I'm building towards a Grand Convocation, but it's a bit ... ehh, so I might retool my army to include some shooting.

[Egoiste]

Huge fan of Warhammer, but I only ever played back in the days of Hero Hammer, 4th ed mainly, before I got completely carried away from the war game by Warhammer Fantasy Role-play. I still say The Enemy Within is the best pre-written campaign in Role-playing history, and Shadows Over Bögenhafen is the best pre-written adventure. As things stand Warhammer Total War scratches any and all itches I have for epic battles in this setting and I should be uploading a couple of campaigns to my youtube soon. I just hope they fix sieges and do something about the absurd resilience of routing units before the third game comes out because as issues go they're genuinely horrible blights on what is otherwise a near-perfect game.

[Hemingway]

Warhammer Fantasy is coming back in 3-5 years. ;) It's being rebranded as Warhammer: The Old World.

... for my above list, I've somewhat arrived at the following:

Heroes
1 x Lord-Arcanum on Gryph-Charger (possibly Astreia Solbright - she's cool!)
1 xKnight-Incantor
*

Units
10 x Sequitors
10 x Sequitors
5 x Evocators
5 x Evocators
5 x Judicators
5 x Judicators

Warmachines
1 x Celestar Ballista

Battalions
1 x Cleansing Phalanx

Endless Spells
*
*

The overall goal here is to get the absolute blender that is the Cleansing Phalanx stuck into combat with the baddest enemies. With that battalion, empowered Sequitors reroll all their (already impressive) hits, wounds and saves. In scientific terms, that's a lot of hurt, and the staying power to keep dishing it out against all but the toughest enemies. And that's without counting the Evocators, that are even more terrifying on their own, dishing out wounds and mortal wounds like it's going out of style.
The shooting (Judicators and Ballista) are there to provide support and harass enemies. My game yesterday really showed the need for something like that - my opponent was able to keep objectives locked down with squishy units while my melee elements were tied up across the map. That just won't do.
This list also has a ton of magic. While none of the wizards are especially strong on their own, there's 4 of them in this list. That's a lot of potential for mischief no matter what. Stormcasts have a couple of decent offensive spells, and some really nice support spells to make the melee even more terrifying.

This leaves me 130pts to play with, which is probably going towards a hero, but I'm undecided as to which one.
Lord-Castellant seems like a decent choice to beef up the already tough Sequitors' saves.
Knight-Venator seems like it could make for a decent hero/monster assassin.
Neave Blacktalon doesn't really fit, but her model is absolutely boss, which is about 2/3 of the game to me.

Otherwise, picking up two Endless Spells seems worthwhile (and would put me at 2000pts exactly, which is satisfying).
1 x Dais Arcanum (which would beef up the Knight-Incantor)
1 x Everblaze Comet (which ... it's a comet. That blasts things. What's not to love?)

Overall, I think this is pretty balanced. It's not a competitive list, though. Experienced players might've noticed the lack of 4 Celestar Ballistas + Lord-Ordinator. This is because I'm not a monster, and I like having fun more than I need to win. ;)

[wander]

Come, rise from your grave, thread! Nagash demands it!

So, I figured I'd see with Geedubs getting all new folks into the hobby to pass time in quarantine and that the AoS:Soulbound rpg has been out for a while to get things going again for the fantasy side of things, for those who want to chat the GW stuff not set around 40k.  ;D

Age of Sigmar 3rd edition got announced officially earlier this month, though the Broken Realms books that have been dropping these past months hinted strongly to the new edition with how similar they were to the 40k Psychic Awakening books.

You can read a general overview on AoS 3e here;

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/05/10/4-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-next-edition-of-warhammer-age-of-sigmar/

We got Soulblight Gravelords (read: AoS Vampire Counts) in the interim and as for the current metaplot in-game, rather than write it down here, I'll drop this recent article which talks more on the set-up going forward...

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/05/25/as-the-new-edition-dawns-where-does-each-grand-alliance-stand/

Pretty nice to see a new big guy (for you) with Kragnos, God of Earthquakes. He's a centaur-like monster the size of a Gargant model and works an independant model for Destruction Armies.

As for me, I still got my Pestilens army and it still uses the same list with a minor tweak of the Verminlord is going to have a new artefact now that the one he has isn't for Matched Play any longer.

Skaven are really an afterthought it seems now sadly, no changes since I last posted for my Pestilens lads, rules-wise.

So, anyone getting into the fantasy side of GW - if not in AoS, then in Warcry, or Underworlds? Any lucky few manage to get the new Warhammer Quest before GW quickly squatted (if you know, you know)?

Let's chat, lore... Army lists, model painting, fave factions/characters, let's get a-going!  ;D

[wander]

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/06/03/how-warhammer-age-of-sigmars-new-edition-turns-monsters-and-heroes-up-to-11/

New stuff for Heroes coming in 3rd edition with 1 Hero of each player getting to do a 'Heroic Action' along with tweaking of how use of Command Points works (also going second now gives +1 command point, which is a nice concession, as the occasional alpha strike is a thing with certain armies atm). Now using them actually feels like the commanders in an army are issuing actual orders rather than simple +1s or rerolls etc.

My only concern is the added aura ranges for commaders giving orders via Command Point use may lead to turtling up, which some armies don't deal well with. Though I'm sure it'll shake up the meta in interesting ways...

Also Monsters get a cheeky melee buff with choosing a 'Monstrous Rampage' action after charging... Oh, looky... My Verminlord Corruptor has the 'monster' keyword!!  XD
Of these, I see 'Stomp' (roll a d6, on a 2+ do 1d3 MWs to a target unit within 3") and 'Smash to Rubble' (roll a d6 and on a 3+ destroy a faction terrain feature that's within 3"!!  :o ) as particularly useful.

Now I can picture my Verminlord booting a hole right through an army's fortifications and then rip-tearing until it is done with his Plaguereaper blades!  O8)

[Andol]

I think any of the Verminlords would have a lot of fun with that rule... I can't remember does Lord Skreech have that kind of monster keyword?

[wander]

Lol, Lord Skreech does have the Monster keyword!  ;D

I'd be surprised if the Verminlords all had it and the big daddy version didn't in all honesty. XD

You can see his warscroll for free for GW in their warscroll builder. Linking him here as it's kosher to do so, given it's from the devs direct.  :-)

https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls/AoS_Skaven_Warscroll_card_Lord_Skreech_Verminking.pdf

Verminlords and Skreech are all Heroes too, so they get the command point auras in 3e too.

[Andol]

I could see Skreech and the assassin based Verminlord making stupid good use of that rule given how well they can just pass out the wounds in close combat.

[wander]

Yeah, my Verminlord Corruptor is a pretty capable beatstick.

I'm kinda glad he qualifies for the monstrous rampage, originally he was in my army as a tough unbind anti-wizard, though you can use a Heroic Action to do an unbind now.

Still, saving on command points to go full Gargant against the enemy along with unbinding whatever spell they want to send my way is a nice thing.

What are you playing, if any faction atm, Andol?

[Andol]

Skaven myself... though my leaders are usually Thanqhoul and Boneripper, or Lord Skreech... or both if if I have the points. I haven't really had a chance to play in a while, plus now I am starting up a 40k army anyway since that is what people play at my local game stores.

[wander]

Wew lad, Thanquol is 390pts and Lord Skreech is 320pts...
710pts just on two Heroes!  :o

I say that and I got 680pts on three Heroes myself in my Pestilens list...  :D

I actually haven't played in a while myself, plague times and all. Still, with Soulbound out and 3e around the corner, I'm surprised it's only us two chatting on things here. I actually far prefer AoS to 40k.

[Andol]

Well if you think about it they are a worthy combo piece together. Since Thanghoul can use the spells of other Wizards on the field I believe?... Correct me if I am wrong, and so by running him with Skreech I could just have the pair of them spam the Dreaded Thirteenth Spell. Now that is unless I forgot the rule and you can only do each named spell once per turn. I only played Age of Sigmar when it first came out.

The reason I stopped was a combo of lack of people to play against and that I prefered the complex min/max nature of 8th edition. That is the other reason I switched to 40k... since it still has that style of play XD.

[wander]

Phew, I'd need to look it up on their warscrolls... Assuming you were using the ones from the Skaventide battletome from 2nd edition.

40K is just gunline and alpha strike... I prefer AoS as in general it's much more melee based and has far less janky crunch.

It falls kinda moot though. Noone else wants to talk more on it here.

[Andol]

Heck I am always willing to talk about it.  >:) I may not play the game, but that is only because of lack of people to play with. Like did you see the new model and rules for Lord Kroak. I was like... dude... can you make him any harder to kill. Yeah the whole thing about potentially losing him in one shot sucks, but... if you put him in a position that he takes that much damage... you are not playing him right. Aka the skink priest cannon fodder tactic that was so deadly in 8th edition as well.

The design of that model though, man is it ever worthy of the oldest thing in Warhammer Fantasy if I am correct on the lore. Since by being the oldest 'living' Slann... he came from a time before any of the other beings... well... not counting Chaos Demons... XD

[wander]

I had not seen Kroak's warscroll, though yeah the model is... Pretty neat.  ;D

His dais has that Nu-cron look to it.

The Azyrite Force Barrier's number of attacks rule though... My Plague Monks would be fucked if they charged him! And yeah, he is pretty indestructable with that Dead for Innumerable Ages rule too.

Though yeah, essentially he's a wizard turned terrain piece the enemy commander just has to leave alone and keep away from.

[AlizsahTheBard]

So I won't be focusing on AoS and instead of potential of Warhammer Old World, we already know Kislev and Cathay are returning. Do you think we could more Bretonnia story-wise or perhaps further exploration of Eastern Nations like Nippon and Ind. I am curious to see the War of the Three Emperors being so readily highlighted - that implies they are reconsidering how events turned out. I would also love for Albion to have more written for it. Because of Total War: Warhammer 2 I've become a mega fangirl but I love the nations less was written on and like most old fans I hate how the mess of how End Times was written.

Did you know that the Bretonnia side of the end times book was cancelled, then again at least they got mentioned and not forgotten like Skarsnik?