Hello everyone !!

Ravagers is the first Legion in the book, it's supposed to be the basic Slaves to Darkness army. Multiple Heroes and units with a focus on Marauders and Cultist.

As usual, let's start with the battle trait

Glory for the taking

This is the one passive power granted to the Ravagers Legion. Daemon Princes are excluded (+Be'lakor). That mean Archaon or Gaunt benefit from the ability.
Glory for the taking allow up to 5 heroes to get a command trait and they can use them even if not general. It's a neat ability, sadly there is only 6 Warlord trait for the Ravagers (no list for casters, warcry monster ....) . Also while the options are limited some are interesting.

As we are speaking of the Ravagers command traits let's look at them.

• +2 wounds is ok


• Free command ability but need to target cultists, also it's not gonna help them that much


• +2/-2 on the eye of the gods is quite cool on a Chaos Lord on Manticore

Rerolling wounds and Hits against order is very good, especially on a Karkadrak lord. Also Order is the most common army

• extra mortal on 6 to wounds, okish if you take a lord with a flail


• behh :/

As you can see the Warlord traits are not the best but there some good options.
The Second benefit of Glory for the Taking is General Switching ^^ It's a neat trick allowing to move the general bubble around the battlefield. But with the Aura being wholly within it's going to take a lot of training and positioning to get value out of it.

The ravagers legion also offer a command ability.

Rally the Tribes

This is the strong point of this Legion, you can summon 10 marauders each turn if you a command point.
Marauders are a good choice as you can appear wholly within 6'' of an edge and then charge at least 8'' (and 11" average) with boundless ferocity and drummer. That's 14-17" from each board edge under the threat of a Marauder rush.
Still, it cost one command point per turn and if you play 5 heroes you may want to use their command abilities as well.
As the power is limited to once per general you also have to switch your general and that start to make a lot of moving parts in this scenario.

It's a fun ability but kind of hard to capitalise on it considering the cost.

Relics

Ho my god, they are bad :(. Seeing all this shitty relics I wonder if the lists from Malign Sorcery are changing soon...On the other hand, it would be weird as they just sold the Mini Gaming Book with all the relics inside. (very handy book).

That's it for the Ravagers Legion !! only one left.

/Cheers.
Bob.

Slaves to Darkness Battletome review navigation :

Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
Slaves to Darkness Allegiance and spells review
Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello again everyone !!

Part 4 of the Slaves to Darkness review with this time the Despoilers Legion. The despoilers focus on Daemon princes and Monster.
This is a weird one, to be honest, Daemon princes are now very strong but quite expensive at 210 points. Also they lack the "Mortal" Keywords preventing them from benefiting from most of the Buff / Commands in the Battletome.
But the special rules they have are very nice, so let's check them out and see what we can do with it.

Sacrilegious Might

The second part of this power only works if the General is a Daemon Prince. Grant FNP 5+ and it's very strong so play a daemon prince general in here.

Blessed by the Unholy

Twisted Dominion

It's one of these powers that you don't realise the strength of it until you use it in-game. It's not limited to once per turn so multiple Daemon Prince can use it to block LOS just by staying in a terrain feature. Also Depoiler Monsters ignore the rules so you can still shoot with your Soul Grinder if you have one. Keep in mind that Twisted Dominion is a strong counter vs Spell Gun Line as you can easily block LOS from important spell caster.
Ie : You can fly a Daemon prince into a big terrain feature curse it and use the Daemon Prince Khorne command to prevent charging and run ^^

That's the 3 rules you get when playing Despoilers. With the updated profile to the Daemon Prince, I am interested to try this Legion. Something like 6 Daemon Prince 2 soul grinder + friends.
Daemon Prince always strikes first so having 6 of them improve the Alpha effect. Also with a bonus to hit on charge and bonus to wound with Khorne mark you are sure to deal a lot of damage.
Besides, you have some control with the Khorne Command ability halving charge and run distance.
I am not sure it would work all the time but damn it feel scary. Also, I always loved the idea of a Daemon Prince Flock !!

Also don't forget that DP don't have eye of Gods !

Warlord Traits

Relics

Again nothing really good here, I think I'll take the Ethereal Amulet for a 3++ and 5+ fnp ! Another strong option would be Sword of Judgment that on a 6+ to hit deal 1d6 mortal vs heroes and monster it combo nicely with the +1 to hit from the charge. The setup creates a very strong Heroes Hunter.

Conclusion

That's it for the Despoiler legion. There is not too much stuff to use but the quality of the Monster and the new Daemon Prince really help this Legion. It's super sad that no Warscrolls Battalion was made for this sub-faction. Also losing the eye of Gods is damn sad :/

/Cheers.
Bob.

Slaves to Darkness Battletome review navigation :

Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
Slaves to Darkness Allegiance and spells review
Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello again everyone !!

As seen in the previous post when building your Slaves to Darkness Army you get to choose 4 sub factions called legions. One of these is "The Host of the Everchosen". Yea that's Archeon Subfactions, Off course he can be played in other sub factions and you can plan this legion without Archaon but trust me, combine them profit ^^

In this Legion, there is no warlord trait and no Relics so if you have an unnamed general you lose the trait and have use Realm Relics. Anyway a Karakrak lord with Ghost amulet for a 3++ with reroll from a sorcerer lord is still a good choice.

The first battle trait is :

Exalted Grand Marshal Of the Apocalypse

Even if the name is a mouthful the effect is pretty simple. Archaon Mark aura is 18" if he is the General. Considering his base size you cover a pretty big area.

Note: Archaon have to choose a Mark when the list is created, the default choice is Khorne for +1 to wounds roll and rr1 to hit, but decide that by yourself.

Fearless in his Presence

Do not take Battleshock test without range limitation, simple and effective ^^

The Wil of the EverChosen !

Unlimited range support with this one. Choose one ennemy unit, from now you reroll 1 hit / wound in melee against it. It's very handy if Archaon is busy and want to help on the other side the battlefield ^^

Dark Prophecy :

I already made a post when gw spoiled it earlier this week. We need a faq to use it in tournament and to resolve 2 Archaons Fighting. Still it's fucking Busted ^^

The Eight Circles of the Varanguards

With this power we learn that Varanguard are in fact intern and they get a spot in one of the 8 Circle once they have completed 8 tasks ^^

In game when you choose this Legion you give one Circle Keyword to all Varanguard in the army. So you can choose any circle from one to 8th. Each one grants an extra power.

First Circle

Free re-setup before the game start. Neat in some Battleplan.

Second Circle

Improve the Bravery Bomb and add 1d3 to the numbers of the models that flee. With Archaon already giving -2 you are on -3 + 1d3 on bravery test.

Third Circle

Interesting but would need a large number of Varanguards to justify it. but if you go full Vanranguard it's not bad.

Fourth Circle

The range is really short but if you are camping a cover with your cavalry it's nice.

Fifth Circle

Now we talk! full reroll against heroes and Monster is damn good.

Sixth Circle

My choice! The plan is simple, Charge, pile in, pile in a second-time Problem solved.

Seventh Circle

You need to destroy a unit not a model to trigger it. Sure it's not hard to destroy stuff with Varanguards..still, it's not that great.

Eight Circle

Classy ! and with small units you can easily fly over defence line and charge where it matters.

With the 8 Circle of powers, you have a bit more options for your Varanguards and it's cool. Still, some of them are not that great...

Warscroll Battalion : Overlords of Chaos

Overlord of Chaos is a Warscroll Battalion costing 120 points requiring 3-6 vanguards units. So it's 900 points + 800 for Archaon +120 = 1820 points for 10 models. The reward is that you can have a second Circle Keywords for flying & +1 dmg when charging Varanguards ^^

That's it for the Host of the Everchosen !! Some strong powers and a completely broken Command ability ^^At least we have now a good excuse to play Archaon ^^

/Cheers.
Bob.

Slaves to Darkness Battletome review navigation :

Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
Slaves to Darkness Allegiance and spells review
Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello everyone !!

Sadly due to the powers of the Chaos gods, my Slaves to Darkness Battletome review was lost in the warp :(. Having to start over this morning I'm going to change the review format and do it in 3 or 4 smaller posts.

Then Let's starts with the Warscrolls and points !! In the Slaves to Darkness Battletome, there are a lot of Warscrolls, most of them were changed. Also, Points for most of the units were also modified. A few recent warscrolls coming from Warcry were also added.

So let's starts with the Lords !!!

Lords & Heroes of Chaos

Lots of modification and a few new entries here !!

Archaon The EverChosen

Off course I have to start by the Destroyer of Worlds (or not if i account for the recent Old World Announcement). Anyway, Archaon is the boss, he was previously in a very small battletome and was sad to be alone :(
Now is back as the big Slaves to Darkness boss and he delivers the pain !

Change on his Warscrolls are interesting and his points went up a lot !
He's now perching at 800 points !!

• Only change on his stat line is the movement, he starts at 14" (was 12") and it goes down the more he takes damage.


• Slayer of King sword and Dorghar Claws are now, rend -2 and the 3 heads hit on a 3+.


• Armour of Morkar got a buff also with a 4+ against mortal and deal bounce one mortal on a 6.


• Crown is +2 -2 Bravery in a 12" zone.


• The Eye force adversary to reroll 6 so it's a bit better.


• Slayers of kings don't auto kill monster anymore only heroes.


• Three-Headed Titan rules was changed, now you don't need to eat something you just choose during the hero phase. The 1d3 heal each turn is very good ^^


• Old command ability Warlord Without equal is not a passive giving one extra Command per turn. Wow that's good.


• Still, a lvl2 mage and can choose spell from the Chaos Spell list.

Command Abilities
he has 2 but they work in duo ^^. By my Will is range less and allow one unit to fight when a model is killed (even if he already fight).
All-seeing Dominion is triggered when a command point is spent, you can spend one and use this command ability, and on a 2+ you get a free By My Will. A bit risky buy allow you to react during the opponent turn.

Yea Archaon is now a Monster and that is without talking about the new allegiance abilities offered by the Battletome. But he gets to choose one Chaos marks. Khorne make him reroll1 to hit and +1to wounds for exemple. He can also lead his own Sub Faction (and he should). More on this later...

Varanguard

Gaunt Summoner

Big new thing is that he can auto summon one unit of daemon or 6 furies once per battle. he gained one life, he spell was altered and deal one mortal on a 5+ and you roll for each model in the unit.
Alas he went +80pts now at 260. But the summon is a very good options

Chaos Lord on Manticore

Solid choice now !

Sorcerer Lord on Manticore

+60 points (260 now), Same change to the Manticore.
Orricular vision buffed to reroll all saves roll (and not only one) but ranged is the wholly within 12" (Ho god i hate this wholly within shit)
Still only a lvl 1 mage :( but Win of Chaos is so powerful now, range 18"and eat large unit !!!

Chaos Lord on Daemonic Mount

up by 30 pts to 70 now, gained one wound and his regen ability was changed.

Chaos Lord On KarKadrak

New lord of Chaos from the Slaves to Darkness Star Collecting, Honestly super expensive at 250 pts !! but the amount of attacks he makes is great and he can deal D3 mortal wounds on multiple units close by. Still he's kind of slow, with only 9 wounds...

Chaos Lord

Only 110 pts now, gained one wound, lost the one per battle reaper blade attack.
But he gain : a strong attack profile fitting a Chaos Lord, a very strong fight again command ability, still hindered by the wholly within 12" but you can use it more than once per combat phase and not only during your turn. !!! Combined with by my Will from Archaon you could attack 3 times (4 with Varanguard ^^).
Very good choice now !!
Still i am not sure of his weapons options is it reaper blade + Steel or Flail or is it reaper blade + Steel or Flail Alone ?

Chaos Sorceress Lord

ALERT: This is the new King of Support! Costing 110 points now. Grant the Orricular Vision to reroll all save and Daemonic Power spell grant reroll to hit and wounds.

Bad points : Have no use as an allied now :(, can't use it on daemon prince and Belakor :(

Still it's a super strong choice now !

Orgroid Myrmidon

Cute new choice, 140 points is expensive but protect cultist from Battleshock ...Model is awesome starts are so so :(

Be'Lakor

240 pts (lost 40) is a nice buff but, rend nerfed, shadow form wording nerf him also sad time :( On the other hand, Dark Master is more reliable on a 1-4.

Daemon Prince

Lots of new toys for the Daemon prince, +1 to hit on the charge, Hellforged blade Buffed, fight first, Command Abilities based on the god. At least now there is a point to transform someone in a Deamon Prince!

Still +50 pts he's now at 210 ! But as you can use the Daemon prince Sub faction it's interesting !!

DarkOath Warqueen and Chieftain

Chieftain gets a weakened by my will that works only on Cultist and Marauders.

At least we have 2 extra Heroes if you want to play marauder and Cultist. They both cost 90pts (+1)

Ok that's it for lord and heroes now let's take a look at the Units!

Chaos Units

Warshrine

Small points increase (+10) he's now at 170. Aura went in wholly within Wording (behh) but the starting range is 18. Prayers were buffed A LOT, attack stat line of the Sacrificial blade is now very good (like super good !)
It's a win !!!

Chosen

Chariot Horse and Gorebeast

Both were buffed but their points skyrocketed they are now at 120 and 150 !!! So yea they move faster (+4" or +1") deal 2 damage with Chaos Greatblade, more reliable Mortal wounds on the charge...
Gorebeast lost the double attack on 8+ charge ...

Hmm so so

Chaos Knight

Glorious new models, 180pts for 5 (+20pts), new weapon option with for champion with Cursed Flail. Ensorceled weapons got a much-needed buff with +1 to wounds and -1 rend. Lances have the standard 2dmg rend -2 on charge but only 2 attacks.

Solid unit with awesome models !!

Chaos Warrrior

Buff everywhere and the price is now 100 pts for 5.
+1 bravery, +1 to wounds on hands weapons, +1 to hit on halberd, paired weapons is rerolling all attack and not just one. Same if you 10+ models you can reroll save ! Nurgle chaos warriors in a cover with altar super going to be super popular ^^ with 2+ RR save ^^ and 6+ fnp

Chaos Marauders

ALERT !! Incredible unit !! I don't understand why we don't have new marauders if they become so good! Price is 150 for 20 or 30 for 400.
Axe get an extra attack, Flail is 4+ 3+ now they get +1 to hit roll if they are 10 and -1 rend if they are 20 !

Also, they now have Boundless Ferocity: On a charge transform the lower dice in a 6 ! WTF? minimum charge is now 7 , average is 10. Stacking the Darkoath warqueen grant +3 threat range for a whooping: move 6 + charge 13 ! with +1hit, -1 rend. add a bit of buffing and they are super scary now (also you can summon some now)

Chaos Marauders on Horses

Less buff than Marauders on foot but they are quite good at 90pts for 5. in a group of then, they have a decent ranged game with 3+ 3+ rend -1 and 24" threat range.

Cultist

Same points cost the same rules. Honestly compared to Marauders why bother, they don't even get Chaos Mark. Unless I missed something it's incredibly poor integration.

Spire Tyrants could be Marauders for all I care, they cost 70pts for 9 models so it's more than Marauders ^^I must be missing something!

Warcry Monster

Both are at 100 pts and looks good ^^

That's it for the Warscrolls and points review. I am very disappointed by the Warcry / Cult rules why even bother? On the plus side Iconic Slave to Darkness, units are strong, marauders, warriors, knigts are all super good choice. The altar is incredible, lords are good... If you ignore Cultist it's brilliant Battletome.

In my next post (this afternoon) I'll do the Allegiance Abilities and the Spells !!

/Cheers.
Bob.

Slaves to Darkness Battletome review navigation :

Slaves to Darkness Warscrolls & Points review
Slaves to Darkness Allegiance and spells review
Slaves to Darkness legion host of the everchosen
Slaves to Darkness Despoilers Legion review
Slaves to Darkness Ravagers Legion review

Hello everyone !!

Blood of Baal is the third instalment of the ongoing series Psychic Awakening. The series is the aftermath of the galaxy post-Cadia/Indomitus crusade. The first episode was on Eldar and was moderately interesting, the second book about CSM & Black Templars was not great and I hope the third one will have some good fluff.

The situation in a nutshell

The Red Scar is a section of the galaxy that got hit by a tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan. This is the largest Nids invasion recorded (made by leviathan) and of course, at the core, there is Baal (the whole thing is named War Zone Baal).

To be honest, the fluff is not very detailed. It briefly talks about the event of Cryptec, where BA and Necrons allied together to defend those worlds. Then the hive fleet comes to Baal (Devastation of Baal). from there the timeline and the details are a bit foggy. But in a nutshell, Nids attack, all hope is lost.

In this version of the fluff, Blood Angels were saved by the Warp this time. When the great rift appeared after the fall of Cadia everything went upside down in the zone. When radars started working again, the Tyranids Motherships were gone...Nids were nom nom nom by the Big Warp. No words of Ka'Bandha leading an army of Khornate daemons to clear Baal Prime

Still, there were innumerable numbers of Nids everywhere in the sectors. And while they had reversed to animal behaviour because of the loss of their motherships. The situation looked grim for the Blood Angels. Again they are saved and this time by Gulliman and his Primaris. Together they took back half of the planet Baal giving the time to the BA to regroup.

If you want more details, read these wikis :

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Devastation_of_Baal
https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Blood_Angels
https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Rift
https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Hive_Fleet_Leviathan

Dark side action

Then we a few short stories about how it goes from there :

-Some Flesh tearer combats descriptions.
-Guilliman appoint Dante as Imperium Nihilus Regent
-Dante and other chapter master make a plan to take back Angel halo and then all the sector.
-Everyone Obey Dante now.
-New Psychic beast draining Astropath and obscuring a full planet.
-No more black ship cruise the Nihilus Imperium.
-SM librarians are doing scan for Psykers in the population, especially in all the refugees camp.

-An abnormal amount of human psyker is appearing. Even if the Black ships were here it would still be too much!
-Primaris fall to the black rage like other marines, meaning they are true sons of Sanguinius. Eliminator sergeant, Chaplain are examples given in the fluff.

Conclusion

The book is interesting fluff wise nothing earth breaking but in 20 pages you see what the situation is in the zone, what are doing the Blood Angels and give some hints of what's going to happen.

Have questions ? Just ask !

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!!

Mortek guards are the main foot troopers of the new army the Ossiarch Bonereapers. GW presented the model and sprues as easy to build and highly customizable. Having a sprue of them inside Feast of Bones I wanted to show you what could be the future of "basic" troops in GW games.

Awesome models but kind of small

The models are highly detailed with lots of character. I think they found the sweet spot between personality and the simplicity needed for a battleline unit.
I never noticed on the image but the mortek guard is small, thin and based on 25mm.

ps: I know it's supposed to be a Models/hobby focused post but being on 25mm is very strong. You can pile in more of them in combat, they are a lot easier to fit in a wholly within 6" or 12"! Even the 3" from the Harvester is a lot easier to trigger !!

In love with the mortek Guard !

Sprue design from the future

As you can see, each of the 10 bodies is made of 2 parts, these two parts are fixed so don't mess up the numbers and follow the manual. All 10 have different poses and even if some are pretty close they are a bit different and that's acceptable (i think)

The heads, shields and weapons are all different and all interchangeable ! you don't even need the guidebook once the bodies are glued. Also, Weapons arms are freely posable and you can glue them in a bunch of distinctive position.

ps: The blade or Spear arms are kind of hard to glue because of the freeness allowed.

ps2: Call me Crazy but maybe I want to magnetize the spears and the blades! I am not sure yet I need to run some test!

10 models use 2 sprues (heads are on the other sprue)

Assembled and Primed

One Hekatos

Note that the Hekatos is defined by his shield, sword, head (2choices). So that means i could have used a different body.

Here 2 models assembled they are primed light grey with a white zenithal from the top. I want to paint them with contrast paints, I'll post my recipe once done!

That's it for now!

Mortek guard is a very fine kit! mixing perfectly simplicity and customisation. Maybe the models are a bit small but once i have 120 of them on the table it will be ok i think :D

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

A new army in Age of Sigmar is always a big event. On the other hand, the expectaction are higher than for a battletome remake. Will this Battletome be Great? or simply ok? let's dive in right away because there is a lot to say!

Introduction

The book is Hardcover, around 100 pages with excellent illustration and very good finish. As usual nothing bad to say about the quality, everything is very well made.
Content is fluff, photos and rules.

Fluff start with some general info on Death and the Ossiarchs then you get one page for each sub-faction and Warscrolls.

There is even a nice Hierarchy Pyramid. Addendans and Exiles are at the bottom but are not in the Battletome so maybe for the future. Fluff in the book is quite nice with a lot of info.

He goes to war on Foot!

That's it for the non-rules part so let's get to the interesting part!

Ossiarch Bonereapers Allegiance Abilities !

-Nagash and Arkhan are in the book and gain the Ossiarch keyword.
-Legion : 6 legions
-Deathless warriors: Fnp 6 if you are wholly within 6" a unit champion or wholly within 12" a hero. Strong but the range is small for big units.
-No battleshock test.
-Discipline points, work like command points. Each turn, you generate one per hero, 3 for katakros and then you roll 1d6 per unit (including heroes) on a 6 you gain 1. You can only use them on Ossiarch ability, so can't use the one from the rules book or Realms rules. But you can spam them as most of your units have access to one or two.
-Unstoppable Advance: Command ability can be used by any unit with a champion or by a hero. +3move. (can't stack it off course)

The allegiances abilities are interesting and allow numerous strategic decisions :

Warscrolls

I usually don't bother with warscrolls as they go online at the same time but this time full warscrolls spoils :

Also, note that both Morghast versions are in the book as well as Nagash and Arkhan.

There is a lot to say :
1) Katakros is awesome and weird at the same time! (500pt)
2) Boneshakers are awesome !! (130pts)
3) All these command abilities spam are creating a huge amount of synergies and units are a lot stronger on the table than on the warscrolls.
4) Stalkers are crazy! (200 pt for 3)
5) Huge units of Morterk Guard could be hard to use with the relatively short-range and wholly within keywords of the command abilities. (13pts up to 40models with discount)
6) No ally
7) Kavalos riders are kind of cheap at 180 for 5 and a discount at max strength

Items & relics

Each hero have one list of relics and there are a lot of very strong options like :

Helm of the Ordained: +1 to hit wholly within 12" of the bearer(liege)
Artisan key: pick 2 unit to heal or 1 unit to heal twice (Boneshaper)
Lode of saturation: pick one unit, they get fnp on 5+ for the whole turn (boneshaker)
Gothizzar Cartouche: +1 to wounds for friendly death units ww 9" (Soulmason)

Spell lores

1) Arcane command: diff 5, gain 1d3 command points
2) Super Nadirite weapons: diff 5, range 24", friendly unit affected score a double hit on a 5+ (4+ for cav on charge)
3) Protection of Nagash: diff 6 self shield, 5+ FNP vs wounds and mortal wounds
4) Reinforce Battle Shield: diff 6, one friendly unit within 24" get a 5+ against mortal wounds
5) Drain Vitality : Target enemy within18" , diff 6, they must reroll 6 to hit and save ^^
6) Mortal Contract : Curse one unit for all the game, each time the cursed unit inflict on a ossiarch dmg they take 1d3 mortal on a 3+ at the end of said phase. Wierd but fun spell.

Lots of nice support spell, no super-strong attack spell so maybe you'll have to buy an endless spell for aggression.

Also : Endless spells are Cheap : (20 to 40)

Battalions

As the question was asked : battalion !

• Ossiarch Cohort 100pts :
It's the big one where you need multiple other Battalion and give 1d3 Commands points per turn
• Mortek Sheild Corps 120pts
1 mortisan and Vokmormtion + 3 Mortek : once per turn you get a free shieldwall command abilities. This one is kind of stupid because 120 points, is the price of a Stonemason granting 1 point per turn ^^
• Mortisan Trident 110pts

One of each Mortisan and 1 Gothizzar Harvester , while the Gothizzar is within 3" of ennemy models and within 18" of a Mortisan from this Battalion it can cast an extra spell.
• Katakrosian Deathglaive 80pts
2 stalkers units and 1 Harbringer units: Free 6" move before the start of the battle
• Aegis Immortal 80 pts
2 Immortis Guard and 1 Archai : The Archai get the Soulbound abilities from the Immortis (no range) and on 5+ the wounds is simply negated. This one is actually ok
• Kavalos Lance 120pts
Liege or Zandtos and 2 Deathriders unit : Retreat and charge while wholly within 12" of the Liege. Also one free Deathrider Wedge per turn . This one is ok but the price is steep :/
• Mortek Ballistari 100pts
1 Boneshaper , 1 mortek, 2 Crawlers : Mortek can transfert wounds from the Crawler on a 4+ if within 3 Or 2+ if the stone mason is within 3"

Ok, that's it for the Ossiarch review. The army is super cool, very interesting with a lot of depth. While the number of units limited it's still large enough to allow different setup. The inclusion of Nagash and Arkhan also open lots of options.

Ask questions!

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!!

Today goes on pre-order Phoenix rising the first chapter of Psychic Awakening.
Psychic Awakening is the Warhammer 40000 campaign dealing with the aftermath of the Great Rift cutting the galaxy in two. This review will first look at the fluff and then the rules added to the differents Eldar Factions.

Introduction

Phoenix rising book is 80 pages long with hardcover. The quality is normal GW so nothing bad to say. There is a lot of illustration in it (old and new) making it a very good looking object! The rule section cover both Eldars and Dark Eldars only Harlequins are left out.

Fluff

To me, the fluff is the most interesting part of the book and Games Workshop hyped it quite a lot. I don't want to copy all the story in the book but here are the juicy info, skim down if you don't want to be spoiled

spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil

• Book confirm that you need the 5 Crones sword from morai heg or kill all Eldars to revive Ynnead


• Last (5th) Crone sword has been stolen by Slaanesh and stocked in his palace


• Yvraine admit the mass suicide is now the only way (i am not sure yet)


• 5 or 6 pages of details on what are doing famous Craftworlds


• Shalaxi Helbane and Syll lead a Slaanesh Hunter party to kill Yvraine and the Avatar


• Dark Eldar are close to civil war as a lot of them join Yvraine


• Vect sent Drahzar to kill Yvraine and was very very close to succeeding but Jain Zar saved her


• 1 harlequin exiled from Cegorath join the band, accompagnied by a Human Female Psyker in Black power armour (and white hairs). The human has super strong psychic power, they also warn Yvraine of a new foe



• Yvraine group is now 5 Champions: Jain zar, Visarch, mysterious exiled solitaire, Lelith Hesperax


• Multiple fights happen on Exodite Worlds to save them from chaos (3 Phoenix Lord fight together there)


• Lots of Eldars are gaining more psychic power since the big rift


• Dino riders are mentioned multiple time


• Exodite ride to wars with the Eldars now



• the Last Stand happen on Iathglas a Hexodite world with a lot of spiritual power


• Big fight Dnd fight happen, the 5 champions vs Hellbane, while a bunch of other Eldars sacrifice themself to hold the Slaanesh horde


• Jain Zar start using the power of the dead to buff her now


• , In the end, Shalaxi Helbane is banished but it was only a shard of his power and he was only having fun.
  Wtf? he was super close to winning vs Jain zar, Vizarch, avatar, Lilith, solitaire (KIA) and Yvraine and it was only a "glamour of his real self". Yea sure, why not just coming for real and delete reality


• Story close on Eldars factions blaming each other

Fluff Conclusion
The story was nice even if the ending was a bit of a letdown, still not sure about the Title "Phoenix Rising". Still It gives a good idea of what Eldars have to do now. Also, I am pretty sure that the mission "Save the last Crone Sword from the Slaanesh Palace is happening onde day"
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil
spoil

Rules

3 parts here, Craftworlds, Dark Eldars and Ynnari

Craftworlds rules

• Updated Datasheet for Jain zar and the Banshee

Banshee are 13 points , jain is 115
• Each sort of Aspect Warrior Exarchs get to choose new powers. You can exchange the standard power against a different one from a list of 6. All temple also have stratagem to stack 2 Exarch power .
• Rune of Power: New Psychic Discipline representing Eldars getting new minor powers that are easier to manifest
• Create your own Craftworld with these new attributes. Choose 2 from a list of 22 and build the one you like the most



• Runes of Fortune

Instead of Smite, you can choose one from the table below :
-Reroll one roll
-add 2 Dmg to one psyker weapon (oO)
- Bonus + 2 charge rolls (hello Banshee !)
-Roll 3 dices on a 5+ deal one mortal wound (characters only)
-Bonus 2 for unbind spell
-Force one enemy unit to shoot at closest target unless the target is within 18" (trash^^)

Drukhari rules

Dark Eldars get updated Datasheet for Drahzar and Incubi. Like the Craftworlds cousins, they get traits to customise their: Kabals, Cults, Covens.

• Drazhar and Incubi

They are now at 16pts and 120pts. Drazhar was already spoiled and he's a beast in melee if he can connect.

The master of Blade power is super strong allowing Incubi (and Drazhar as well) to wounds more reliably

• Obsessions

There are 3 lists of 8 Obsessions to choose from and you select 2. One list for Kabals, one for Covens and one for Cults.

A bit of everything in these lists, still i think you'll be able to customize your force to your liking.

Ynnari rules

Children of Ynnead allow you to field a mixed force of Eldar under the banner of the God of Death! Or mix the Trio into a Craftworlds, Harlequins, Drukhari army!
The rule is so complex that I prefer to post a full image of it (have fun ^^)

Good luck with that one ^^

Also you gain :

• Objective Secured for troops


• Strength from the death : +1 to hit and fight first in a turn you lost an unit.


• 6 Ynnari Warlords traits

*Fnp5+ and heal 1 each turn
*+1A & +1S while Strenght from death is active (yvraine)
*5+ cashback on CP spent and 1 rr per turn
*-1 or -2 to LD within 6" (Ycarne)
*pile in 6"
*6 to hit score 2 hits (visarch)

Decent list, Fnp5+ is interesting or maybe warden of soul to 1 A and 1 S on your general (Solitaire ?)

• Revenant Discipline, all psyker in this army must select from this list

Gaze of Ynead : 1 , 1D3 or 1D6 mortal wounds
Storm : 3d6 per enemy psyker around on a 6+ 1mw
Word or the Phoenix: Heal D3 or revive one model on a 4+
Unbind Souls : Debuff one target unit, reroll wounds against it for friendly Ynnari
Shield of Ynnead 5++ for units within 6" (ho yea!)
Grace : Buff, target friendly unit reroll 1 to hit.

Gaze, Shield and Unbind souls are very strong and will help a lot.

• 2 pages of stratagems

The Ynnari army looks interesting but to be honest, my Eldar List Building is quite weak. I have no idea on how to build an Eldar army (except Flyers spam of course ^^)

That's all for the review of this small campaign book. It is a must-buy if you play Eldar and still quite a good read if you are interested in the fluff.

ps: There is very little fluff in this book about Drazhar and Jain Fight. So I don't know if she was raised from dead by Yvraine if she won or if the fight was interrupted and the fluff didn't progress (like usual ^^)

ps2 : I'll complete the review tonight with more infos, (running late right now)

/Cheers.
Bob.

Psychic Awakening Navigation :

Psychic Awakening: The Second Prophecy Klaivex
Psychic Awakening: The First Prophecy Banshee Exarch
Psychic Awakening - Phoenix Rises
Jain Zar is Back !
Drazhar Master of Blades
Psychic Awakening - Harlequin enter the dance
Psychic Awakening - Blood of the Phoenix
Psychic Awakening - Blood of the Phoenix box price

Hello everyone !!

Today we are going to do a quick review of Cities of Sigmar Battletome for Age Of Sigmar. I know it's a bit late but as you maybe know I was at the WTC this weekend and came home Monday morning.

Introduction

Cities of Sigmar is the latest Order Battletome. It covers all the Order units from Warhammer Battle that Games Workshop wants to keep in Age of Sigmar. Of course, that doesn't include units from Chaos, Death or Destruction. In more details, you can find warscrolls from Empire, Wood Elves, Dwarfs, High Elves, Dark Elves all mixed/Classed by Theme (or City)

The Battletome offer a very Large choice and you can build an immensity of Army with it. Not only you can use a large number of old units from Warhammer, but you can include Stormcast, Sylvaneth, and Kharadron Overlord.

The book is incredibly thick with options and choices. After examining the Allegiance Abilities and the unit roster, the review will be articulated around each city.

Free Cities Allegiance Abilities

All the cities in the book get a few general rules :

• Amplified Sorcery :

Endless Spells cast by Cities of Sigmar Wizard always benefit from the Realm bonus! This is insane, the different movement spells get huge benefit from the Realm improvement (Bridge with 24" range^^). Emerald Lifeswarm bumped to healing or resurrecting 1d6 wounds. Also Geminid and Burning head benefit a lot from this ability.

Overall it's very cool!

• Honored Retinue

If you play a general with less than 7 wounds you can pick up a retinue. On a 4+ the general can allocate the wound or mortal wound he suffers on the retinue. Handy to keep the frail Old World heroes alive ^^
• General Adjutant

If you play a general with less than 7 wounds you can pick up a hero as a lieutenant.
At the start of the turn, if the hero is within 3" of the general you can a command point on a 4+
• Fixed Realm

Each city comes from a specific realm and you can't change it.




• Stormcast

One every 4 units can be a Stormcast Note that the SCE is getting the cities of Sigmar keyword and the specific city keyword.

Including the full Stormcast roster to the very large Cities of Sigmar army is remarkably fun, imagine the number of combination you could do ^^ It makes my head spin.

Free Cities Unit Roster

While Cities Of Sigmar regroup many armies from the Old World. A lot of units were not included, i don't know what does it mean for them but i guess it can't be good ^^ Also remark a notable points reduction across the board on a large number of units.

See the number of Battleline entries, nearly half the Warscrolls can be made Battleline if you have the corresponding: City/General.

Hurray for the Steam Tank Army!

The Sigmar Seven

7 Cities of Sigmar are described in the book, for each of them you get a fluff page at least and the usual: Rules / Traits / Relics / Spells

Hammerhal : the Twin-Tailed City

This is the most described city in the book. The City is dual realm so you can choose Aqshy or Ghyran as a realm (from the sorcery book).
Rule wise they are super solid, not skewed on a particular strategy with a very strong command Ability. Standard strat would be, get some extra commands points and spam the Hammerhal command for value.

Rest of the rules are very good as well, for example, a trait gives +1 to hit when charging for unit wholly within 12".

Also check the twinstone :

Another +1 to hit.

Edit: Strong incentive to Bring a big pack of Desolator !! you can bring them to 2+ to hit, they gain extra attack from their number and you can use the Command Ability to make them attack again !

Desolator Warscroll

The Living City

The city from the realm of life. Can include Sylvaneth and Stormcast units (1/4). I am sure some incredible combos are possibles ^^

The different powers are decent, nothing groundbreaking but the real value is, I think, having Sylvaneth/Cities/Stormcast all mixed in one army.

Having multiple wounds unit is very valuable in this army as you can heal from Attuned to nature. Also the Lifesurge spell allow your wizard to heal 1d6 wounds. The Endless spell Emerald Swarm heal/rez 1d6 also. Maybe you can set up a nice Attrition / Ranged attack list.

Greywater Fastness

Sad :(, that the dwarf canon is not included in the Battletome, but if you plan to field Artillery and Steam Tank, Greywater have you covered.

The Rune prayer is awesome if you stack it with Lord ordinator +1 to hit. That means, Hellfire hitting on 2+ rerolling one if shooting at one target ^^ (need lord ordinator, Cogsmith aand rune lord package) but you can apply aura from Ordinator and Cogsmith to multiple Artillery unit.

You can also combine it with this Battalion (120pt) ^^

So 4 Hellfire Battery shooting 6 times hitting on 3+ (2+) with reroll wounding on 3+ with -2 rend and d3 dmg ^^ 39" Range + 3" move for 42" threat. That just First turn ^^and it's only 30% of your points.

I really think this combo is going to be meta bending. If you have a way to mitigate the first turn Barrage you can play the game, if you don't, you lose turn 1. Greywater Fastness armies are maybe the iron hands of AOS, strong and the First Turn Alpha is maybe a bit much. Will see ^^

The Phoenicium

The City of Elves and Pheonix, rules are ok but not great. Phoenix got a nice points reduction so maybe that's enough to make them good. I am not sure ^^

Again, the best strategy is focusing on healing I think. with a 4+ FNP on your battleline and an endless spell returning 1d6 Phoenix Guard to life, it's super-efficient. Also, the Phoenicium Spell list includes a very good healing spell: healing 1d3 wounds to all friendly units within 12" of the caster. Off course Anointed are extraordinarily useful if you plan to focus on healing attrition strategy.

The Living Idols Command ability is especially powerful, I'd love to try some Flaggellant jank or Some Freeguild Greatswords accompanying the Phoenix Squadron ^^ Even Some GyroCopters could be handy to harass, provide the +1 +1 when they die.
Outside the fact that Pheonix is incredible models, I am quite convinced you can build some very interesting Pheonicium armies!

AnvilGard

The dark port city in the land of Aqshy. The theme here is Monster and Dark Elves Mix. A bit of everything and War hydra as Battleline. I am not sure what do do with this city, I guess spamming dark dragon hydra and Dino rider would work just fine.

One novelty is the Drakeblood Curses, 3 different abilities that you can give to your monsters.

Hallowheart , the Radiant City

This City is from Aqshy as well and is the home of the most powerful spell caster.

See for yourself :

And the innate Spell list :

Each wizard get 2 spells from the list!

This city is a Very good meta drop against Death spell spam with the Eldritch Attunement rule that can get buffed to 4+ !! Honestly, the spell list is very very good.

The Sacrifice ability is fun too if you have a few hard to cast spells or strong magic opposition!

With the Amount of Spellcaster you can choose from in this Battletome or from the Stormcast Battletome, plus the number of endless spells or Realm Spell lists, the variations are endless ^^

A very exciting type of list!

Tempest Eyes : The Aetherguard !

At last the seventh city, Still from Aqshy and the one including Kharadron Overlord!

Not much to say about this one, just run/shoot or charge I guess ^^.

Still, one of their spell "Aura of Glory" give +1 melee attack to units wholly within 12". This is huge, so maybe there is something to do with some Demygriff cavalry or a pack of Stormcast Concussor.

I am sure someone shall make something super cool out of the Tempest Eyes city!

That's it for the quick review of the different cities.

Conclusion

To be honest I never expected Cities of Sigmar Battletome to be this enjoyable. It's hard to predict what type of army (if any) are going to be strong. There is so many choices, options, benefits, battlelines. And I didn't even talk about the traits, relics and the alliance between cities. It's mind-blowing to imagine the different armies you can build with this Battletome! I'll try to complete the review at a later time but that will have to do for now.

Yea, the Free Cities make you Freeeee !

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

Today go on pre-order the season 3 starter for the excellent Warhammer Underworlds game: Beastgrave! Third season and the games have become a staple for competitive play in the Warhammer Franchise.

To review this box we are going to look at the content of the box, the Backstory of Beastgrave, the models, the rules changes and the cards.

Beastgrave Content

The starter provides everything you need to start playing right away. 2 warbands, 3 sheets of tokens, 2 double-sided board, Rules, assembly instruction and a learn to play mini-book. Everything is of good quality and well made.

Beastgrave Fluff

The fluff is: A mystic mountain in Ghur got infected with the Katophrane curse and call different warbands and bind them into an eternal fight ( until season 4^^ )

Some mysterious shadows are hanging around, Also one of the board sides is named after them.

Silent People

Interesting and could serve the development of realm fluff in the future. Sadly there is no page showing all the different warbands.

But there is 2 fluff snippet for Rippa's and Grymwatch

Also are mentionned :

• Ogor of Voracia (Hungering gullet)


• Athmora of the Fanged steppes (follower of the one that lurk below


• Fushola (no more info)


• StoneSpeaker peoples


• Ghanua

I guess that next 2 warbands are Rippa and Watchgrave and the rest will come after.

Beastgrave Models

Excellent quality, easy to build a bit smaller than I imagined but that's me. The Beastmen models are so damn good, I want my fingers to be like them now (and good).
Centaur is also great and I can't wait for the centaur army! ;)
note: Now that I have the model in hand, I think, that, satyrs are a lot better than on the pics.

Beastgrave Boards

Beastgrave Rules Changes

This was already covered but :

• Guard action buffed, now prevent push


• Both player get to place a lethal hex before the game start


• Feature hex : Now objectives counter are double sided with Lethal on the other side, some card transform them


• Hunters/Quarries keywords : Cards can give you one of the two keywords for exemple this card



It's a good themed mechanism in Beastgrave and allow to threaten the super buffed character the opponent plan to build.

• Superaction / Charge nerf



Now the combination of two actions is called a superaction and are treated as a single block! For checking is the Inspire condition is met or not.

• Surge Objective

It's not in the book but if you play tournament format the Surge Objectives are getting limited to 6 per deck.

Note: A surge objective is one that you score immediately when the conditions are met.

• The Stack in underworld

The stack is a priority management concept used in Magic the Gathering and other good cards game. Beastgrave have some lines on it in the Reactions section. Good first step
• Combat sequence

Gw included an amasing flow chart for resolving actions :

Beastgrave Cards

The different online deck builders are already updated and the all of the Beastgrave cards are here

https://warhammerunderworlds.com/deck-builder/

Conclusion

Solid core set, love the Ghur Theme and I'm eager to see more info on the realm and is habitant.
The Season 3 comes with a rotation on all the common seasons 1 cards( they chose to keep the season 1 warbands) so for sure it's going to create some interesting meta.

The game is great and it's a good time to play it!

/Cheers
Bob.

Beastgrave navigation :

Beastgrave : Card Rotation on Release
Beastgrave announcement at nova
Learn to Play Baestgrave with Becca Scott
Goblins riders warbands for Beastgrave
Beastgrave pre orders
Beastgrave pre orders
Ogre Warbands underworlds season 3 beastgrave
Daugther of kaine Warbands underworlds beastgrave
Complete warhammer underworlds beastgrave cards list
Beastgrave : The Grymwatch Flesh Eaters courts
Beastgrave age of sigmar warscrolls
Warhammer underworld Beastgrave review