Hello everyone !!

Welcome to the review of Malign Sorcery, the Extension for AOS 2.0 about sorcery, spells and relics !

Malign Sorcery let you launch spell so big that they need models ! These new effects are called Endless Spell. As the name suggest they are spells that stay on the field until dispelled by either side. That's the trick, Endless Spell can be dispelled or moved by both players, meaning the you can cast a big spell and see it coming back into your line on the next turn and be forced to dispel it. Loads of fun expected !

The Malign Sorcery box is composed of 13 models (the endless spell) , 1 rulebook, 14 warscrolls cards.

Malign sorcery include matched play profile so it's considered an official addition to the Meta. With the release of Souls War and the Second edition of AOS it's difficult to foresee how these spells are going to fit it. But we can consider that with the nerf to Bolt and Shield, there is room for new forms of magic ;)

This set is a different take on magic in miniatures games and it's really interesting, the idea to use physical models available to every army is great. One of the big problems for a lot of allegiance (usually old one) is generating mortal wounds. With the nerf to Arcane Bolt (from 1d3 to 1 Mortal Wound unless 10+ on casting) Offensive Endless Spells are a necessity for some armies. Another difficulty if you play with a limited range of models in your faction is that sometime list building is repetitive. Lastly in some case your army just don't have specific answer to the meta.

This is why I really like this expansion, every faction can take Endless spell or Realm items. While I am sure some new armies have enough spells or relics already. Limited faction without a dedicated Battletome (like brayherds) are going to use them intensively.
Maybe you can see it as an old codex tax (point wise and money wise ^^) but the box is only 65€ and most of the spells are 40 to 60 pts. It also add to list building options. For the last 200 pts, do I want a Battalion ? Command points ? Endless spells ? So many choice for everyone.

To me the real gems are the Endless support spells !! The prismatic wall, the Chronomatic Cogs and The Balewind Vortex are all superb options ! Sure they are not as flashy as a Purple Sun but they really help any armies. Maybe the Cog is too strong for his points and the portals have too many scary interactions but it's going to be fun to test this !!

The book is divided in 2 parts, one about Endless spells (Fluff & Rules) The second is about Rules of the Realms (more Relics and Spells)

Endless spells

So yea Malign sorcery is about Endless Spells but there is a lot of good fluff about magic.

Fluff

10 pages of the book are dedicated to the Magic in the Mortal Realms. A lot of ground is covered here. You learn about all magic colors/types, different methods to see the magic flow, There is a double page on the Learning of magic for each Grand Alliance, another one on the different Realmstones and their Properties. 2 more on the source of Magic. The end of the chapter cover the Necroquake and it's consequences. Tales about Spell Bounty Hunters are also mentioned (it's a super idea for an AOS RPG !!)

After the general background the book go into the details of each spell, how it came to exist, where
it manifested, some tragic or great stories. What happen when you dispell one or summon another.
It's all very interesting and while biggest spells have bigger screen time ^^ each one of them have some backstory and a nice illustration.

Some exemple :

The non rules section of the Malign Sorcery Book end with pics showing Endless Spells on the battlefield and a few painting tutorials.

Hello everyone !!

it's time for our review of the GH2018 !!

Introduction

The General Handbook is a soft cover book with 137 pages. Good quality, in the line with the souls war material. A bit better than last year GH.
All the pages are used, even the last one have an Orruck Battalion on it ^^
The 3 ways to play are still present and approached in details from what we had in the Core Rule Book !

The 3 ways to Play !

Open, Narrative, Matched play are the 3 play modes in the GH2018.

Open Play

As described by GW : The best ideas are always the simpliest ! Open play ride on this idea. Take your models and play against your friends ^^
8 pages are dedicated to the open play.

Battleplan Generator
Generate a game in a minute !!
Roll from 12 deployments options, 6 objectives, 6 ruses, 6 sudden deaths and 6 twists.
No game should be the same ever(ish). To be honest after spending a few moments considering them, it's a fine way to play. You can even combine the generator with the points values of the matched play section for something more constructed and fair.

Aerial Battle !!!
I don't know why it's not in the Narrative part of the book, but it give you the rule for 2 types of aerial battle.
: Fly only map, ground troops are stuck in garrison and shoot at the main actors !
Overhead : 2 level of play, the flyer and the ground troops.

2 battleplans proposed, 2 tables of twists and objectives (1d6 each). Explanation on how to use the Battleplan generator for Air battle !

Great idea this aerial mode, of course as an Beast Herd player apart from a Jabberslythe i have nothing that fly ^^

Narrative

Around 20 pages of material. Complete what was offered on the Core Rule Book.
The main thing are 42 specials rules that you can add to your battle.

Narrative play special rules

Narrative special rules are new tools for customizing games.

There are a lot of them (42) , you can add as many as you want. The authors warn you about "bogging down the game pace" if you add too much. The idea is to spice up your game with new interactions and rules. Off course you can combine this with Battleplan generation, Mortal realms special rules, random objectives, Firestorm campaign, ...This is limitless and offer your quite a lot of freedom.

Historical Battle

Gh2018 offer 2 battleplans about 2 big historical battles of the Mortal Realms !
-The cascading path battle (nurgle vs sylvaneth)
-War in the Glymmsforge Catacombs.
Both are tempting and with an interesting background ! (really liked the Second siege of Glymmsforge !)

Gathering of Might

Gathering of might provide a set of simple modifications to the Warhammer AOS core rules that allows a massive game featuring hundred of models on either side to be played at a faster and more satisfying pace than would normally be possible.

Yes this is AosPocalyspe and it's offer a fair numbers of optimisations :

-Timed deployment / secret biding (you bid time ^^)
-Reserve start on second round and limited to own half.
-3 commands points per turn
-Double range of ranged weapons (with a -1)
-Simultaneous combat (everyone pile in and then everyone fight at the same time)
-Legendary Traits, artefacts, Gift of gods, spells
-2 Battleplans.

Off course i didn't tested this mode yet, but from 5000+ points per side it's better to go with these rules i think (unless you have a lot of time to play your game off course)

Matched play

No revolution here :
-Pitched Battle chart (no change)
-Battleplans (12 included) but if you random the mission it's 3 tables of 6 (The 6 first are in the Core rule book) so you need both book (weird)
-Points listing (models, formation, scenery, endless spells, shadespire)
-Allied table

Good stuff !! Nothing spectacular but it's what you hope to find in these parts^^
Points are increased on heroes, wizard reduced price on most of the battalions.
Some multi-wounds units got very good discount.
Hard to predict what going to happen with the nerf to the conga line ^^

With this end the 3 ways to play description. I am not sure even sure we need the distinction anymore.
Maybe GW could merge free, narrative and matched play and keep a tournament play mode. It's no big deal but the separation feel artifical now.

Conquest Unbound

Last but not least, this chapter cover :
-New summoning rules
-New scenery rules (include the obstacle keyword mentioned in the basic rules.)
-Allegiance + Battalion

New summoning rules

You already know the gist of it. All the summon mechanisms have been changed/removed.
Some warscrolls were modified to include a one time summon (like allariel.) It's a super interesting evolution and it's make summon great again. I am sure some fine tuning going to happen in the future but it's already really good !

RANT
Again Beastmen lost something :/ the summon beast spell was removed completely and replaced by a whip like spell. Not sure the spell worth it with the speed of the herd but could be usefull to extend the threat range of minotaure or Dragon. Baaahhhhh Anyway i am playing Nighthaunt now !

Scenery

13 Scenery warscrolls that allow to play the vast range produced by GW without problem.
Resolve some problems from the older version. Everything is neat now and include the obstacle rules from the core rules.

Allegiance Abilites

List of all the allegiance :

Note : the 4 grand alliance are not in the GH2018 but in the CRB (core rule book)

Factions specific Endless spells

In the Nighthaunt and Stormcast section of the pitched battle profile are listed 3 Endless spells

Nighthaunt have : Mortalis Terminexus, Shyish Reaper, Vault of souls
Stormcast have : Celestian Vortex, Dais Arcanum, Everblaze Comet (100pts like the Purple sun)

Conclusion

Gh2018 is a good Year !
Including scenery rules and apocalypse is a really good move.

On the bad side, not having all the Battleplans in the book is bad. Same has not having the Grand alliance.
The more i think about it, the more i find the rules spread too much. Again you also need the big Core if you want the rules for endless spells (general rules i mean as, how to dispel, who get the control the spell...).

Ok that's it for now
If you have questions ask them i'll try to respond without angering the inquisition !! :D

/cheers.
bob.

Hello everyone !!

I know i was supposed to write the GH2018 review but i was delayed and had to replace it with a quick Night haunt review.

When i opened the box and saw the sprues my first impression was mixed. Yes ! the models looked like cheap empty plastic thing (Duh they are ghost !). Off course details were crisp and everything, but i wasn't that much impressed. I assembled a first grunt (no glue), sprayed black did a white zenithal in 1 minutes and wow the thing was looking like ghost and was super awesome. I painted the model quickly (paint used in another post) and boom it was one of the best model i ever painted.
Did i get better overnight ? nope the Nighthaunt just look very cool with a minimum of effort. I then painted another chain grunt + the knight on horse and OMG they are "cute" to quote Atia.

After these 5 lines of self congratulations i'd like to add that this Nighthaunt line is maybe the most refreshing model ever made. The idoneth Avatar was already super fresh^^ but this time it's all the army. All these ghosts are real ghosts models they just are perfect at what they are supposed to be ^^ It's an automatic must have for me. I think i am going to betray the herd and go for the Ghost !!

One thing i am not a big fan of is the push fit. The assembling is delicate with these frail models (i didn't break any^^) and the push line are visible and need extra work to make them invisible.

Without a complete Battletome it's hard to give an impression on the game side but the change to the 2.0 are perfect for them !

ps : you can add them in Nagash legion and get the right keyword !

edit : adding more pics but server is overloaded ^^
edit2 : Yes knight is still wip i still have to do the gold, the leather, the hoof, and the hourglass ^^

/cheers.
bob.

Hello again everyone !!

Gaming material included in the Rule book !

~100 pages dedied to it.
-The side of the pages have a different color than the fluff part so it's easier to find the right section.
-The book present you the 3 ways to play
-The rules are the same 20 pages you get on the ageofsigmar.com

Conquest Unbound

This is a new section of the rules book ! Filled with Allegiance, Realms rules, specials spells and so on...

Order, Chaos, Death, Destruction

A light version of what's inside the General Handbook. For each Grand Alliance :
-The Allegiance Abilities of the 4 Allegiances.
-Commands traits.
-Artefacts.

Realms of Battle

Before the battle you can decide that the battle is going to take place in a specific realm, adding a few rules, event, spells, Command abilities for both players.

The following realms of battle rules can be used for battles fought in the mortal realm of

One page per Realm with each time :
-A spell every wizard know.
-1 to 2 commands
-1 random Realm Scape Feature (roll 1d6)

These Realm rules look optional to me but are super interesting !!! And some are super fun to use.

Endless spells

Open Play

-Still a Yolo mode where you play what you want. It's fine if you are playing with good friends (and sensible).
-There is an open war Battleplan Generator (well made)
-Multiplayer games : Coalition of Death ! (always super fun). The twist is to choose a warlord by faction that get final words for pile in order, or charge order. + 3 battleplans.
-Ladder Campaign. (mini campaign mode with a ladder ranking)

Narrative

Narrative mode can be played in Open play or in Matched play it's up to you. But the accent is made on the background of the game.
Scenery is important too as you are trying to tell a story. A bit like you would do in a pen & paper rpg.

GW give some advices :
-Games Masters : advocate the use of a game master in charge of managing the game.
-A bit of advertising of the old realm book
-Exemple of the war in the Glymmsforge Catacombs.
-Quest of Ghla Maraz Narrative Battle.
-Campaigns in the Mortal Realms by using Season of war Firestorm.

Sieges in the Age of Sigmar

-6 pages on how to do sieges battles (YAY)
-Different siege phases (pre-battle) where you can use tunnels, gather supplies ... It's similar to siege in Firestorm Campaign (IIRC)
-3 command abilities for the attacker 3 for the defender.
-2 BattlePlans.

Darkest Depths

The Landscapes of the Mortal Realms are often riddle with subterranean tunnels and caverns. Frantic Battles are often fought to control these darkened passageways, turning the underground world into a battlefield that is just as bloody as any found on the surface

Yay Underground battle ! I still remember this mission in the old warhammer battle game (on SNES?) fighting against hordeeee of skavens in an underground tunnel.

In a nutshell : No fly, Shorter range, Random monster, Falling stuff, 4 command abilities + 2 Battleplans.

Triumph and Treachery

Still my favorite way to play with friends !!
Mostly the same rules but with a few extra tweak to make the game smoother !!
Now you can even bribe other player with Command points !.
They added a table of secret objectives (1d6 options.)
+ 2 Battleplans !

Matched Play

The last 10 pages of the book are dedicated to matched play !
Pitched battle chart (points, leader, battleline, allied units)
6 Battleplans are included in the rulebook
The rule for converting points in extra command points.

One Battle strategies

: Very interesting, it's random objectives generation during games on D66.

Conclusion

That complete the review of the Aos core book !
I wanted to keep it short because GH2018 is the important book.
The Gaming section was shorter and it's normal since they have another products for this purpose (General Hanbook).
If you are starting AOS, the rulebook is the perfect starting points. Off course it's even better with the soul war box but if you have an old army and want to test the AOS it's perfect !

Next step is the GH2018 (i hope tonight!)

/cheers.
bob.

Hello everyone !!

This is the first of a series of review of the new AOS2 material.
These reviews should cover (in no particular order) and could take 5 to 10 days to make all (depending on the drive)
Considering the amount of info already revealed by warhammer community and the uptodate ageofsigmar.com i will not spend too much time on the things previously covered.

Index :
-Rule book fluff
-Rule book gaming
-Soul war fluff and rules
-Nighthaunt models
-Sacrosanct chamber
-Malign Sorcery.
-Matched Play in a nutshell (there is a lot to say)
-Factions change.

There is a lot to talk about so let's jump !

Introduction

The rule book is present in the soul war box or as a single item. It's hard cover with 320 pages and 220 pages about worlds, factions, myths and legends.
It's a fabulous Rulebook.

Fluff in the new rule book

220 pages of illustrations, story, maps...it's establish the setting for the new edition and cover pretty much everything that happened in the different books and the aftermath of the Necroquake.

The first section is about the Tales of AEONS (the story of the worlds) the second is about the differents factions of the mortals realm. Both section are ~100 pages.

Tale of Aeons

Again 2 sections here : The storyline (age of myth, chaos, Sigmar) and 45 pages on the different realms.

The story line

Age of Myth

It's the shortest but the coolest, it's 11 full page color illustration with text snippets on the creation of everything !
It's on a cosmology scale with a touch of humanity ^^

Age of Chaos

In the age of chaos the narration focus on Sigmar demise with the breaking of the Pantheon, the battle of Burning Skies.

The section is, while interesting is quite short (less than 10 pages)

Age of Sigmar

The biggest of the 3 sections. Retrace the recent history since the return of Sigmar !
-Stormcast return
-War in the land of life
-Godbeast
-8 points war
-Creations of differents cities
-Info about Teclis and Malerion traveling between the lands of Light and Dark (in Uhl Gysh)

Raven clan in the fluff, Atia going to be happy ;)

-A few more pages about Necroquake and Magic unchained are present too but i prefer to not post them yet for spoil reason (i am not sure they spoil, but i need to check what i know and what a normal reader know ^^)

The realms !

Second aspect of the fluff presented in the book is the geography and details on the 8 realms !
For most of the main realms you get a map and 1 to 4 pages of fluff and backstory + some arts. Some realm like Ulgu and Hysh are less explained (i guess to keep the mystery). page 78-118.

Favorite part of the book, instantly ignited a RPG fire to play in the mortal realms ! (i would have liked more pages)

Factions of the Mortal realms

All the faction are here (no TK or Bret). Off course the biggest faction get the greater number of pages (hello Stormcasts) but it's very well made and really give a great insight of the different factions !!!

Conclusion

Time to conclude the Fluff part of the review !
I hope you liked it as i liked reading this book. It's and awesome Core Book, so good it's sad AOS wasn't at this stage when they released it 3 years ago (already 3 years ? damn time passed so fast) !

This book is a definitive must have for grasping the magnitude of the Mortal Realms.

GG GW !

/cheers.
bob.

Hello everyone !!

At 80% on the Knight Valiant !

-Still some air brushing to do on the upper central carapace. (correction of the tone and brightness)
-2 turrets and 2 missiles to finish
-Copper parts
-Some lining on the feet
-skulls
-few extra pieces to complete and glue.
&
the base :)

4 to 6 hours i think.

This model is such a pleasure to paint it's going to be hard to not paint another Dominus after this one !

Can't wait to field it ^^

/cheers.
bob.

Hello everyone !!

Tomorrow Imperial Knight codex is on pre-order (or this night depending on where you live).
The review is going to be divided in 3 parts :
-Arts
-Fluff
-Rules

Let's go !

Introduction

The book is 120 pages, hard cover.

Check the Summary to see what inside !

Arts

In the recent GW codex the illustrations were very good, the Harlequin codex had a lot of interesting one but....
This codex have incredible arts. The style is perfect and you get this sense of towering majesty from most of the knights shown. Even the usually meh armory sketch are this time super good !

Let's have a look at these beauuuuuty !

Fluff

I was never super interested in the imperial knights fluff and Atia was supposed to write this part ^^
But Atia is busy with life and i had to do it :D
After reading it, i am bit ashamed for my prior lack of interest. The fluff is super interesting and was a very good read !

From what Atia explained to me lot of the background is from Alan Blight writing !

Origin

-Knight come from STC used by the settlers in the first wave of space expansion.

-There are 3 patterns for knight in the book : Armiger, Questoris, Dominus. they are the most used one.

-The Throne (piloting computer) had a weird secondary effect of transforming pilot in superstitious real Knight ! hence the first wave of colonized worlds transformed into knight world with kings, courts, baron, serf...

-The Throne haunt you with the past pilots and old memories (sound a lot like IA ^^).

-When the human civilization collapsed du to Psykers, IA, Gene war, Knight worlds were relatively safe. Yea they burned psykers, didn't trusted IA, didn't altered their genes.

-When Horus Heresy happened it was again their mindset of "Knight of the world that was" that saved them. Only a few number of houses turned against the emperor and loyalist purged traitor themselves before joining the good fight ^^

-The sacristan Orders. This is a really interesting part of the story. When the Emperor Crusade re-discovered the knight worlds, they witnessed local artisans repairing knights armors. These artisans were recruited by the Mechanicus and formed. They became the Sacristan Orders of their own world. In a sense they are a bit like Space Marines, they are formed in the closest Forgeword and work for their HouseHold only.

-Knights Preceptor New variant of Questoris, close ranged power house, piloted by the local pilot teacher/drill sergeant. (This is gonna be a dual kit with Canis Rex).

-Nowadays : A Mechanicus vs Necron fight went bad and it's now a full war with mountains of Necron awakening on a lot of forge world !

-There is 9 houses HouseHold in the book with a full pages for each of them.
-Each Knight model get a full fluff page too.

Ok that's all i have to say on the fluff, Atia will pitch in and add more details.

Rules

General rules

-All knights must choose a Questor Allegiance : Mechanicus or Imperium. Doesn't change much but grant access to different Artifacts, stratagems.
-HouseHold : All knights must choose an HouseHold or be a FreeBlade.
-If you choose an Household you get a special abilities (there is 9 options)
-If you go the FreeBlade way you get a Quality and a Burden (1 or 2 depending if you roll or choose.)

Knight Lance

Warlord Traits

Relics

This could be a very cool combo ! The new preceptor class grant reroll to hit for Armiger and this one grant +1 to hit. The Armiger Autocanon is 2d3 s7 ap-1 Damage 3. each on have 2 Autocanons ^^ So 4d3 attacks that hit on 2+ RR1 with 60" range per Armiger. Moarr dakka !

Stratagem

stats

-Preceptor knight is a new guy models and use the new Laz weapon from Hekthur (it's the generic Hekthur)
-Canis Rex is the only 2+ 2+ in the codex.
-Only one way to reach 2+ 2+ is by going the freeblade way and roll a 6 at the start of the game.
-The Gallant was improved a lot, reduced base price and 2+ ws, +1A

Conclusion

Let me say it right now, the codex is weak ^^ . Not in an absolute power way, as you still field Frigging Imperial Knights ! But in the Synergy way. Off course there are cute combo. Most involve the Scout class knights or the Gallant. You can still try the freeblade Castellan and hope for a 6 (for 2+ BS castellan). But all in all the synergies are quite mild and it's totally normal. The knights are so powerful that a single synergy is nearly game breaking.

For exemple : I am pretty sure that the Gallant bombs with a 16+3d6 threat range are going to be scary.
Only regret with the codex is that sacristan are missing from the rules section :(

My conclusion is : "Fuck this i am starting a knight army right now ! " (see my next post )

Thanks for ready Charge all the things !

/cheers.
bob.

Hello everyone !!

Earlier this week GW sent us the Harlequin codex that go on Pre order Saturday.
For this review i am going to start with arts & fluff, then will do a rules preview.

Let's get to it !

Note : Harlequin codex is an hard Cover book, 80 pages.

I) Arts

The art in the codex is quite good, even more than usual. There are tons of illustration spread all around the book giving a good atmosphere to it.
Off course as usual it's subjective, not everyone is a fan of space elves escaped from Venice carnival !

One show case image ^^

The models look soooo good !

I think illustration of Harlequins are always tricky. I find it hard to render these weirdos ^^. When you read the fluff , it's impossible to put ourselves in their shoes and it must be tough for the artists.

Fluff ? let's talk about it !

II) Fluff

That's the real good point of the codex if you ask me, there is fluff and story on all the important dates of the Eldar fall.
That's not all, you get cosmology, details on every roles in the troupe and lots of little lore snippets from the enemy point of view.

This passage of the book really highlight the life of a troop member.

If you are after good lore about the Harlequins the book is for you !

III) The rules

If you are an Harlequins player, sorry ! Everything is nearly identical of the index. On the other hand it make sense as profile were already good and nothing felt really wrong about their stat line. One thing was wrong in the index, their points cost !! the kiss was 14 points IIRC in the index ! crazy expensive, even with 4 attacks in melee.

Still there are a few changes :

Change
-All melee weapons lost the fixed strength and got a modifier.
ex : kiss went from : s4 ap-1 D3 to S+1, ap-1 D3

-Death Jester got a little buff in the form of a -2 LD debuff on Shrieker kill.

-Shadowseer know smite and 2 powers from the new pyschic list. (huge buff)

I think that is all, i may have missed a few things but profile are all identical.

Points Change

GW heard the Harlequins players, points are going down !

1) Kiss price is halved !
2) Death Jester -30pts !
3) Troupe -2 et another -1 as the basic sword is free. yea the basic Troupe member went from 16 to 13. And the kiss equipped one from 29 to 20 !!! that's a huge discount.
4) Solitaire -10
5) Skyweaver -5.

In a nutshell everything is becoming cheaper even the Shadowseer get a -9. Only 1 unit became more expensive, the troop master got +10.
When you think about it a full Troupe(12) with basic equipment is only 156 points !

Good stuff !

Psychic phase

Just one word : "Solid"
Yea the list is super good, one Seer can take 2 powers, but it's still a difficult choice.
Seer become super support in this codex, they still have the -1 to wounds aura, and they can grant -1 to hit with 2 spells or a 6 FNP bubble.

Note there is an Relic in the codex that increase aura based power size of the bearer by 3" (silent shroud only)

I have an hard time imagining going to war without 2 of them.

Stratagem

Loads of them as usual, increasing the durability of the army, giving dmg buff or movement trick.

2 stratagems grating 3+ inv
1 stratagem grating -1 to hit.
2 stratagems allowing teleport.

ps : There is 2 Webway stratagem that both break the 9" rules ^^

Rules and combo

-i didn't talked much about masque form because GW already spoiled them all here : Link

-Staking -1 to hit seem like a good idea. I have the feeling Starweaver are super hard to kill with proper setup.
Even basic troop feel tanky with Shadowseer support, -1 to hit and wound and 4+ inv. you would need 100 bolter shot (from marines) to kill 12 of them buffed.

-Troupe leader is a must have too ! allowing to re roll wound in melee is super useful when most of the time you wound on 4 or 5. On a 4+ it's a 25% increase in wound roll success.

-Solitaire bomb : Everyone know the solitaire is crazy but you can do a lot worse now ^^

Yea getting reroll wound on 8 (10) attacks hitting on 2+ is quite good ^^ but there is mooorreeee.

One stratagem (2cp) allow a killed model to fight one last time as if it was the melee phase. If the model was killed by chaos or was a Solitaire you get +1 attack and strength. Yes we are looking at 17 to 21 attack hitting on 2+, S5 then 6 rerolling to wound dealing 3 dmg on Inf ! (or 1d3 on the rest).

-The Death boat / Pistol boat

As you know, one masque allow to run and shoot inside transport without penalty and transform pistol in assault weapons. That mean that you can rush a side of the table with bunch of weaver and focus a small zone with a bunch of dakka. You get a a 22" move (run included) and all your weapons are assault or count as assault.

-Hallucinogen grenade spam !

There are multiple way to debuff the LD of enemy models in the army. Combined, each Shadowseer can easily deal 1d3 mortal wound per turn at 18" range. Having 3 or 4 of them generate good MW damage.

Hello everyone !!

This week GW sent us the DeathWatch codex for review (thx).
I'll start with the fluff/illustration and then the rules.

Illustration & Fluff

There are a lot of very fine artwork in the book. I know this is open to interpretation but i personally liked the visual of the book. Especially all the fighting scenes that look like early 2000 comics !

Images

Fluff

There are a few tidbits of fluff on how the DW works, stay vigilent and so on..

The most interesting part is of course the Primaris question :

Here a force organisation of a fortress.

Fortress description

They have Primaris : Watch captain, Librarian, Chaplain (spoiler, nearly all the Primaris released yet are present in the codex)

Let's jump to the rules part !!

The Rules !

This codex is first a space marines codex, so you get most of the options you would find in a chapter codex.
Chapter master, captain, librarian, chaplain, all the Primaris Marines entry (but lieutenant and gravis captain), Dread, LR, Corvus.
-They get the usual special rules : Combat squad and Atsknf.
-Special issue ammunition for every bolter.
-Troops get defenders of humanity if battle forged + mission tactics (reroll wound roll of 1 against a selected type of target)
-They get some nasty stratagem against xenos.
-Multiple stratagem grating +1 to wound rolls vs a type of target.

There 4 entry that i want to look closely : Veteran squad, Intercessor squad, Terminator squad, bike squad.

Hello everyone !!

(WIP had to save because of power loss that already happened twice :( )

Part 2 of the battletome review : The rules.

The Idoneth Battletome is interesting because after my first read, i wasn't that impressed or stimulated like i was with the DOK or Maggotkin. Off course there are a few cute interaction like the threat range booster or the Bravery manipulation but it felt a bit lacking. Then i remembered why i felt that.

it's because their allegiance abilities are totally BUSTED and grant the army a very solid base outside of any combo or Battalion. After that i looked again with the 2 allegiance power as a base and everything made sense !

As a reminder :

1) Forgotten Nightmares

Allow you to shield your army from most shooting attack. During the 2 you can easily get a good alpha and still protect good units and support from shooting. This is amazing !

I see 4 methods to capitalise on this (i am sure there are more.)

1) Akhelian Ishlaen guard :

The defensive eels, up to 12 models, 140 for 3 riders with a 4+ save and IGNORE REND. Go to 3+ when charging (last a turn). With cover from the first turn and the Mystic shield you have an unit with 2+ armor save, ignore rend. With the basic Battalion "Akhelian corps" you get to reroll 1 per phase to mitigate even more a bad luck streak ^^

Bonus : The unit stay super solid in the second battle round as you can charge with an Infinity sanded mystic shield for 2+ ignore rend for turn 2 and 3 (3+ in turn 3 if you can't charge)

Infinity sand : Once per battle, grant an extra turn duration to spell lasting until the next hero phase. it's very very good because you can cast a spell outside of unbound and can have 2 mystic shielded unit at the same time for one turn !

The crazy part is that they are a double shield, you can't really kill them without spamming mortal wounds and if you use your mortal wounds source on them that mean you can't snipe support heroes because you must still shoot the closest enemy unit if you shoot at an Idoneth Deepkin.

2) Recursion thrall spam !

An alternative is playing the thrall recursion. You can get a unit of 30 (360 pt and Battleline), choose the Mor Phann Enclave and recruit 1 to 3 soulrender(100pt each)

Each one give back 1d3+3 thrall that cost 14 pt each(12 with the discount). So if you can protect them from spell for 2 round they are basically free.

And you cant ignore the dmg potential of the namarti thrall.
The only weakness is the morale so make sure you take care of it (see below).

3) The soup !

If you read closely the Nightmare Ability, you notice the second condition of the rule say enemy unit, and not Idoneth unit ^^

So with this enclave :

Allied units get tide bonus and you can use them as a meat shield ^^.

Any Stormcast unit can go to 2+ against shooting during first turn with mystic shield, protector even get a -1 to hit.
Prosecutor with javelin can shield first turn and charge turn 2 with 12+4d6 with fly ^

I am not saying it's the most optimized plan but it's quite fluffy to see the elves using Stormcast as meat shield !!.
Bonus : you can get to 2k points faster if you have a stormcast unit painted already ^^.

4) The turtle !

380 pt, 16 wounds, 3+ grant cover to everyone within 12", fly , move fast.
You place one in front of the army with mystic shield, 2+ save ^^, that's do the job (but it's less fun than the other options.)

The Tide

The tide is other big power from the Battletome.
It's timed by battle round so initiative roll doesn't affect it.

Turn1
Everyone get cover, nothing special to say about it. Just that you can be more agressive in your placement.

Turn 2 :
Time to alpha ! there is an important initiative consideration in the turn 2 that you have to prepare in the turn 1.

If you play second during the turn 2 it's a no brainer just engage everything you want because in the next turn it's the high tide and you fight first on all the fight even if you are charged ! (lol)

If you play first, it's trickier, if the adversary offer is neck, take it ! but if he's positioned safely don't over commit ! This is why i love the Akhelian Ishlaen guard. Even you are first to play T2 you can just charge with a mystic shielded unit dealing respectable dmg with a 2+ ignore rend followed by a 3+ ignore rend on the opponent T2.

Option : If you are playing Nautilar enclave you could even be tempted to play the waiting game with your main force, using a line of eels as a defense.

Turn 3 :
You want the have the most models alive and in melee or on objective for this turn, because no matter what happen you get to fight first TWICE ! with all your army !
If you are Nautilar enclave it's even more dangerous to engage your units (if you are charged you get to reroll hit against the charger)

Cute Combo

There are not as much as in DOK but 2 jump to your face when reading the book !

Bravery/hit manipulation

I think it's going to be a very effective way to play the ID, you have multiple source of bravery/hit debuff that you can stack easily.
There is at least 3 easy way to debuff enemy bravery.
3 spell for hit malus and 1 relic (one use only)
An Ironrach Eidolon of the sea can pull it off quite easily (with the +1 to spell and reroll)

1-Tsunami of terror from the Eidolon. -1 bravery -1 hit 1d6 target (crazy spell)
2- Nightmare legacy (command trait) -1 bravery 12" aura
3- Tide of fear. spell -1 Bravery, -1 hit 1 target.
4- Riptide (Tidecaster) -1 hit + 1d3 mortal (18").

There is even a 1 time usage item granting an extra -1 to hit to 1 enemy unit.

The plan here is to stack the -1 to hit malus on the most dangerous unit and reduce the bravery of multiple unit to cause extra loss. Off course the Eidolon Tsunami is pivotal to this plan (better protect him). Ironrach is important here too for the +1 cast/dispel, the Eidolon can reroll casting too. the tide caster have an 18" range so you can be outside of dispel range.

The Ultra long range mortal wound bomb not making friend edition ^^

First you pick 1 Isharan Soulscryer
can give +3 extra range on CHARGE, usable during the charge phase, it's a perfect combo with the other power to ambush from any side 6" from the table edge 9" from enemy. But even if you didn't used the deep-strike power it's still super useful.

Then you use this battalion the Royal Council : giving +3" extra move to 3 friendly unit as a command power.

Finally you pick 1 unit of Morrsarr guard ! (160 per 3 eels.)

Eels move 14" with fly.
add +3 +1d6 from running to a 18"-23" move.
Followed by a 2d6+3 charge ! (with reroll)
For a total threat range of : 23" to 38"

Super long range threat with good bonus on charge, but that's not all !

Look at their Biovoltaik Blast ! :) For each model in the unit, roll 1 dice, 3+ = 1 mw, 6+ = 1d3. The target have to be 3" from the eels unit !! (Not from the model). In practice you have to use it have the start of the combat phase (before pile in) and only one Eels need to get to the target for all the unit to be able to unleash the pain. You choose target after rolling so no over kill too.

A full eels unit is 12 model (160*4), deal 10 mortal wounds on average + the multiple attacks after you piled in. To get 100% value of this, you need to train a little for good placement. Engaging a main target and enough secondary value target to offload the Voltaic Bomb.

If you do this turn2 as a second player that feel like a super strong option ^^

Weakness

Off course the deep elves have one weakness !

Morale

All the units are Bravery 6, with expensive and frail units ^^
Perfect target for Bravery Manipulation strategy !.
There is quite a number of way to mitigate this problem. Off course it cost point, but don't prevent much of the good combo the faction can do.

Volturnos grant +3 Bravery 18"
Eidolon of the sea, grant +3 Bravery 9"
Command trait grant +2 Bravery to wholly within ID
Lotann add 1 bravery ! 12"
Standard Bearer grant reroll to battleshock test.
Liandra Last Lament (relic) : 18" bubble don't make battleshock test.

Yea an Eidolon of the sea with the Command trait grant +5 Bravery ^^.

Conclusion

No doubt about it, the codex is going to be very strong, i am not sure how it will fare at the top end of the meta but you should be fine against nearly anything. The rules are really well made with minimal filler units. Ok maybe the archer and the shark are not that "wow" at first sight but i bet you can do something funny with them !

Ok that it for the review of the Battletome let's get to the sprue now ! (yay)

ps : Sorry the post is in WIP stage i still need to correct a lot of thing, but i have computer problems and i had to publish to save it :(
ps : will add more pics at the bottom.

/cheers.
bob.

Ask question in comment i'll answer asap :D