Hello everyone !!

Today let's review the Core rule set for Titanicus !

First thing first what is Titanicus ?

Adeptus Titanicus is a brand-new game based around combat between Battle Titans, the mightiest war machines in the Imperium of Man. It’s set during the Horus Heresy, where brother battles brother for the fate of Mankind – and it’s coming your way this weekend.

In Adeptus Titanicus, you are the Princeps Seniores of a Titan maniple, taking control of a number of war engines and interfacing with your models via unique Command Terminals. The game is designed to make you feel like the commander, issuing orders and directing your God-Machines to grind down the enemy, popping void shields and damaging their systems before making a definitive killing blow.

It's important to precise that Titanicus is a brand new game / range. It's not a self contained boxed game. I mean you can expect a lot of release and future extension if the game perform well.

The box

The Core box contain :
1 rule book (hard cover)
1 sprue of tokens, assets,...
1 Sprue of template. (3”, 5” ae, flamer template)
1 Pack weapon cards (lots of cards)
1 pack of asset/stratagem cards
2 control panels for each titans / knight (warlord, Reaver, Warhound, Knights)
Bunch of dices.

Rules

Adeptus Titanicus uses a system of alternating activations across distinct Movement, Combat, Damage Control and Stratagem phases. That mean that in each phase you are going to activate one model/unit and then your adversary is going to do the same. The best way to talk about the rule is to follow the different phases and see what's inside.

Generality

Rules are made by FW and are inspired by the old 40k/HH. Expect AE deviation, Flamer template, and a bunch of table rolls. They feel old school directly out of the eighties !

The phase

In Titanicus there is 5 Phases : Strategy , Mov, Repair, Combat , End.

Apart from the Repair phase it's a very classical GW turn ^^

Ps : When I was reading the rules 2 weeks ago, I was disappointed that phase were still so much present. I mean come on if we are using Alternate activation do we really need phase ?

Strategy phase

In the Basic rules, you just roll the initiative here. (Roll 1D, winner choose).
It's kind of important because if you choose to be first player you get to shoot first or move first (or charge first). But If you go second, you will be the last to move and to issue an Order, that can be super strong if you keep the movement of your Warhound last to flank a Warlord !!

In the Advanced rules you can use Order. These, grant you more option at a cost.
ex : You can shoot 1 weapon in the movement phase but can't turn or move.
Or you can repair right now, but can't attack if you move.
Apart from the introductory battle you should always use orders as they add a lot of depth to the game.
To use an Order you roll a D10 vs your command stat (knight are at 6 warlord at 3) If you fail you can't use anymore order this turn.

The order phase is quite fun and don't take too much time so it's good.

Move phase

In the move phase each player take to turn to move 1 model or unit, so the more you delay important move, the better. If you are the second player you can hide a warhound by running into cover and break LOS at last activation.

While the phase is really interesting and allow a lot of strategy there are a few problem with the measurements.

-Titans can turn 45° a certain number of time during his move (depending on his manœuvre stat)
-Titans can move in their front arc at normal speed.
-Titans can sidestep or back pedal at a 2 for 1 ratio.
-Front arc is 90° from the base using their weird widget.
We use oval shaped base !!!!

So for accurate play you need to mark your front center and back center on the base. And then 45° right and left for front and back. Finally on extreme left and right you mark center of the base to get a 45° accurate marking on a non round base ^^

I know the game is not aimed at new player and I am used to mark base from Warmachine but ho god !! Titanicus angle marking is un intuitive to say the least ^^
I would have preferred pre-marked base (with small 3d line) or round base.

Pushing The engine

If you look at a titan control panel you see 2 number in movement and maneuver.
The first one is the default value, the second cost 1 rank of heat. (it's more complex in the advanced rules but it add nothing to the game ^^)
Once the Engine is in red or Orange bad shit happen (you roll dice and hope for the best or get destroyed like a fireball).

I love the movement phase of titanicus, it's really interesting to try to bait the opponent. Also the difference in speed and agility is really well represented.

Repair Phase

Roll X dice representing your manpower inside the titan. If you get : a 4+ you restore engine, 5+ restore shield and critical, 6+ Restart downed shield.

Nothing super interesting here you roll dice and try to restore some stuff on your Titan.

Note : You roll dice before allocating the effect.

Combat phase

You take turn activating one model/unit. Once activated you can shoot at 1 target with as much weapon you want. If you used the split fire order you can target multiple enemy.

You are not allowed to measure until you have announced target and which weapons are firing

1) hit rolls

-1 modifier for light cover > 25%
-2 modifier for heavy cover > 50%
Each weapon cards have a range modifier.

2) Shield save.

The rule is not very well written in the book. In a nutshell :

Shields always deflect shots !! For each shot deflected you roll a 1d6 to see if you loose a shield level. Once shield level is 0 you can go to wound rolls on your next weapon attack.

Ps: Some weapons ignore shield and attack from within 2” ignore shield as well.

3) Localization roll

If you hit and the target don't have shield up you roll a localization (all shot from the same weapon hit the same spot).

You can do a called shot (with -2) to choose the localization (it's good for finishin a wounded Titan).

4) Wound roll :

For each hit you do a weapon strength+1d6 vs armor value. Depending on the result you do 1dmg, 2 dmg or 2 dmg + a critical.

You get bonus for attacking the side or back (+1 / +2) and some incremental bonus if you attack an already damaged zone.

You really feel that FW still play the old 40K edition as wounding titan look a lot like attacking tanks in the 7th (40k)

5) Critical

Crits give malus to the titan (minus to hit, speed, random turn, weapons offline).

Destroying a titan is a long process and only the 4th critical hit on a single localization make you roll on the “Catastrophic damage” table. Then you got a good chance to make the titan explode,

Combat phase in a nutshell

I'll be blunt but there are too much rolls in this phase, it's kind of long to shoot each other. After a few turn when the titan are close to the end you get the excitement but when you start attacking an untouched titan it feel like a grind. (And it should be, I know ^^)

It's a bit of a let down because the movement phase is fun and very strategic (once you have marked 45° on everything) .

We played 1,5 full game with custom made base and proxy. But the center of the game is pretty much : Shoot with dakka to bring the shield down then shoot with powa to do critical dmg. Or rush in with a fast titan/IK to shoot from inside the shields.

End phase

Some unimportant stuff happen in the end phase but don't forget it !

Conclusion

Titanicus is the start of something grand and new. I really hope the game become popular because I love stompy robots game a lot !!!

There are a lot of possibilities to this game : the different Maniple formation, the assets, the house rules , the weapons, the knights, the scenery.

I am quite hyped by the light maniple formation with 5 Warhound and 1 Reaver ! (each time a Warhound down a enemy shield the Reaver can shoot ^^). The different weapons load-outs are going to be really fun to test with this one.

The order are great too and I didn't talked much about it but IK charge are devastating !! even on a Warlord Titan :D

Finally with the official terrain i m sure it's going to smooth game play a lot !!!

I am sure the game is going to work, I know the prices are not great for now and the faction choice are limited but it's just the start and I want to be optimistic on this one !

See you on the Battlefield.

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

Part 2 of the Kill Team Review . (still wip as i have trouble uploading image from where i am)

After looking at the core rules in the previous post, in this section we are going to focus on the differents way to play, the scouting phase, the kill zone and Squads creation.

Scouting phase

The scouting phase happen before the battle, it represent the efforts of the squads before they engage in direct combat.
it's an interesting addition as it spice up match up and increase replayability.

The scouting phase happen after you have selected your kill team, the mission and set up the battlefield.
Each player choose secretly an option from 6 possibles.

Kill Zone

When you have chosen a mission, you can decide to fight in a specific kill zone. The Core Book include the rules for killzone : Sector Imperialis.
You just roll 1D6 on the environment table and apply the result. It's interesting to note that the table consider you have the imperialis Board and the plastic ruins from the set as they are referenced in the rules.

ie : Tunnels result allow models to move from a manhole to another one. The fun is that manhole are represented on the board.
With the Munitorium already announced i fully expect rules for this kill zone too and maybe more rules with physical counterpart.

Making a Kill Team

Creating a kill Team is super easy you select up to 20 models sharing a common Faction Keyword, you equip them, give them speciality and note their cost. There is no point limit here.

When you play you have to select a Battle-Forged Kill Team that must adhere to the following restrictions :
-3 to 20 models
-One (and only one) leader specialist
-Up to 3 others specialist
-Respect max number of models (gunner, leader)
-100pt max
-One faction keywords.

So if you play "Matched" in a tournament you come with a Roster and decide who to pick secretly when you know the mission and the adversary. In Narrative mode you can lvl up different sort of models to answer different situation.

Note : Off course if you play in Free Play you are not forced to be Battle Forged but heh.
Note 2 : Some mission in narrative mode (campaign mode) allow you to take more than 100pts and be battleforged to represent to represent Ambush and camp raid.

Command points and Tactics

Command points

Commands points are spent to use tactics.
You gain 1pt each turn.
For every 10 pts of squad value difference you gain one extra points at the start.
Unused points are saved for next turn.
You can get 1 extra points each turn with specialists Leader lvl 1 (so everyone get it).
Leader lvl 3 : grant 5+ refund CP spent.
Comm Specialist offer 2 extra way to get CP : 5+ each turn, or 6+ refund.
Veteran Specialist lvl 2 : Get 1 extra cp per turn (but only for him^^)

Tactics Everywhere !!

Specialist

You also get a bonus based on your specialist lvl. All specialists start lvl 1 and can finish lvl 4. you get a new power each time you lvl up. There are multiple choices
ie :
Comm lvl 1 : once per turn grant +1 hit roll to a friendly model within 6.
Comm lvl 2 : Each turn on a 5+ get a CP
Comm lvl 3 : -1 ld for all enemy on the battlefield. (wtf this is super duper strong)
Comm lvl 4 : Choose one.

Game Modes

Matched Play

Sold as the Balanced and Competitive Game mode. Allow 2-4 players.
You roll the mission, select models to get a battle forget team, play the scouting phase and your good to go.
It's very nice that each Matched Play mission include up to 4 players deployments.

Narrative Play

As a Necromunda player for the last 20 years this is the game mode i am the most interested.

Winning the campaign

The Campaign objective is to be the last non-guerrilla faction/player. How does it work ? Each player start with 8 pts in each resources. You have 4 types: Intelligence, Materiel, Morale, Territory. Each time you play a mission you can win or loose points from these pools. As soon as one of them get to 0 you become guerrilla faction and loose. (you can still win if sudden death happen)

Post battle phase

-Update resource rating and check if a player win the campaign.
-Casualties : Roll(D10) for each taken out model : 1 = dead, 2 = miss next game, 3-8 full recovery, 9-10 full recovery and +1 xp.
-Experience :
Each specialists in the kill team (that survived) gain 1 xp if you used a specialists tactics on this model it gain 1 extra xp. You gain new power at 3/7/12 xp.
Non specialist also gain XP

Fire Team

-If everyone in the Fire Team die all the Xp are lost.
-New recruit have to do a mission and survive to gain benefit of the XP.
-It's nowhere as good as Specialist power but if you play horde kill team its very useful !.

I think that's it for the Kill Team Core Book.
I'll do a post on scenery wednesday when i get home !

/cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

Kill Team is on pre order tomorrow and GW sent us a starter Pack last week.
The box is Super Heavy !!! with 2 squads (Mechanicus and Cult) lots of scenery, cards, Board and a massive rulebook(softcover), it's a very good deal and allow you to start playing right away.
In this review i'd like to focus on the kill team mechanism. There is a lot to say about them as it's an interesting hybrid of classical GW games and alternated activation gameplay !

Introduction

The kill Team Rules are new, this is not an adaptation of 40k or Necromunda, it's a totally brand new game.
Still Kill Team use big sections of the 40k rules. This review will follow the 6 rules chapters representing the 6 phases of the game : Initiative, move, psy, shooting, melee, morale.

Initiative

Movement Phase

Movement phase is the first real phase of the game. There is a lot going on there. To be honest this phase is kind of weird, all shooting/fighting happen in alternated activation. But the Movement phase is not like that. If you have the initiative, you move all your models first ,then, the other player move all his models. To add to the weirdness, charges and reactions happens also during this phase. It result in a very busy part of the game, with a lot of little rules.

Let's start with basic movements :

Simple Movement

This is a simple example of movement, as you can see there is no special rules for going up. You just measure the vertical distance and move.

-If you fly you ignore vertical distance.
-If you walk over a terrain no higher than 1.5" and no longer than 1.5" you ignore it.
-can't move closer than 1" from an enemy.
Once you have moved, you place a move token next your model (it's very important.)

Falling Back

If you start a move within 1" of an enemy model you must fall back (you can decide to not move of course). Note you can't fallback if you were charged this turn. But the model could have reacted to the charge and retreated (more on this in the charge reaction part)

Use of tokens The game use a large numbers of tokens that are vital to the game. When you fall back, you place the corresponding token next to your model. This way you remember that you cannot advance, charge, be rdy (more on this later) or shoot this turn

Readying

If you don't move a model during your movement phase you can ready it. A rdy model shoot first in the shooting phase. If more than one models are ready they take turn shooting starting with the player having the initiative. If you ready a model place a tokens next to it.

Charging

Yea that's right, charge happen in the Movement phase and if we talk about charge we also have to talk about charge reactions.

Charge works like in 40k : choose one or more targets in 12" (you don't need LOS). Target can react, and then you move the distance rolled on 2 dices. If you get in 1" of the target, the charge is a success.
Don't forget that in KT you do all your charge and then the adversary do the same,

Note : You can't shoot in melee, so a charging models is "safe" until the fight phase.
Note 2 : Charge are successful when you get within 1" of the target.

Reactions

KT allow 2 reactions against a charge.

Overwatch : hit on 6+ happen before the move.
Retreat :





Retreat is a new form of reaction. There a lot of conditions and consequences of using it but it add a lot of depth to the game. It's like Fall Back but against charge and only if you didn't moved yet this turn.
This rule reward smart placement because you force your opponent to declare charge against nearby models in case you retreat behind them, allowing them to overwatch too.
note : Place a Fall Back token next to the model that did a retreat.

Advanced rules

There are a few extra rules that you can use once you are familiarized with the game. Difficult terrain, Dangerous terrain, Climbing, Barriers, Gaps, Leaping, Falling damage, Jumping down.

Nothing really complicated here but add a little extra fun to the game !

Closing of the Move Phase

Don't worry i am not going to spend as much time on other phase than on the move phase. Psychic, Shooting and melee are simple, you take turn shooting or fighting. But the move phase deserve some closing words.

1) You need tokens to play this games. You can use token from the box, self made or bought online but you need them.

2) Use tokens for every actions !!! You move ? place a move token, you run ? place a run token. Declare a charge ? place a token, made a retreat ? place a token. You are ready ? place a token, you shoot ? place a token. You get the idea, so much happen in the movement phase that influence the rest of the turn that you absolutely need tokens for clean play.

3) There are "Tons" of tricks and depth in the move phase ,depending if you have the initiative, terrains, weapons. The first game is going to feel bad, but trust me after a few turns you will discover a whole new game of mind tricks, hiding, retreats !!! We only played 3 games and the difference was huge !!

4) To be honest i kind of like the tricky aspect the the movement phase in kill team but i am not 100% sure^^ . I don't understand why we are not moving by alternating activation. Also we could simply remove all the phases to do a "move + action" alternating activation.

It's like i said in introduction, the game is "Hybrid"

Psychic phase

Activate 1 psycher per player and per battle round.

-Smite does 1 MW to the closest visible enemy model in 18". 1d3 mortal if you make a 11+ roll.

-Perils is double 1 or double 6 and super nasty (1d3 mw +1d3 within 3")

Deny is 24" and don't need LOS.

Shooting Phase

Bang Bang Bang

Generality

Shooting phase is in alternate activation ("I go you go").
There is a sub phase for ready models that shoot before non-rdy models.

Shooting is hard as you often get :
-1 to hit from target in cover
-1 if more than half range.

You also get -1 to hit per flesh wounds and another & -1 to hit if squad is broken (^^).

Once the initiation game is over you can forget about shooting without malus.

You can split your shots between multiple targets in 2" of each others but before rolling any attacks.

Weapons type are the same as in 40k but you can use only one grenade per turn.

You are not forced to shoot the closest visible target like in necromunda.

wounding and saving

Exactly like 40k. But there is no cover save

Injury roll

Injury roll is a specific mechanism for Kill Team. Once a model is reduced to 0 wound you must make a Injury roll. Any future wounds will also force an injury roll.

Roll 1d6 : 1-3 = Flesh wound and 4-6 = Out of action.

2 modifiers apply :

+1 to the roll for each flesh wounds the victim already have.
-1 to the rolls if you are 1" from a cover or a friendly model.

That mean that the first time a model in cover get shot down 1-4 is a flesh wound and 5-6 is out of action.

ps : Don't forget Necron are restored to 1 wound and healed of flesh wounds on an unmodified 6. Yea good luck killing a necron in cover ^^ 1 2 3 4 = flesh wound, 5 = out of action , 6 = back to life. I'll add that you can get a -1 to wound rolls as a immortal zealot lvl3 (1-5 fleshwound, 6 reanimation protocol)

Multi Damage

Fight phase

Everything is like a 40k fight phase. Charging models fight first, then non charging fight.

The only difference are the modifiers :
-1 to hit if there is intervening terrain (terrain preventing you from getting base to base)
-1 per flesh wounds
-1 if kill team is broken.

Nothing more to say on this, it's business as usual ^^

Morale phase

2 Brand new morale mechanisms :

Broken Squad

If your kill team is broken, all your models have -1 to hit ranged/melee.
Your squad is broken if everyone have a flesh wound or is out of action. If 50%+ of models have flesh wounds or are out of action you roll vs higher LD value still on the board. Once a squad is broken, it last for the all the game !

Shaken

This roll is modified by :

-Each other friendly shaken or out of action is +1 on the roll.
-Each non shaken friendly within 2" is -1 on the roll.

The rule is nasty but prevent games that last forever with one model running and hiding ^^

Conclusion

This conclude my review of the core rules. Kill Team is a brand new take on the skirmish gameplay in GW. It's super interesting and the game is a lot better when you play it than when you read the rules. At first i was a bit puzzled by some rules and was in a WTF mind set when we started the first game. After 2 hours i liked the game a lot more, i can't wait coming back from holy day to play more games of KT.

And maybe start a Campaign !!

Next post : Kill Team part 2 : Games mode.

/Cheers.
Bob.

Hello everyone !!

Welcome to the rule review of the Stormcast Battletome. SE are the main protagonist in the fluff, releases and rules. Thus they have an enormous Battletome boasting 192 pages (English version).
Atia already did the fluff for them so I just say they get 100 pages of fluff and 100 pages of rules.

So what is changing for the SE in this new Battletome ? What are the effect of the 2.0 ? what bring the sacrosanct chamber ?

I am will try to answer all these questions by looking first at old SE units in this Battletome and then will look at the Sacrosanct Chamber.

Let's jump right in !

Older units in this new Battletome

Allegiance Abilities and other bonus

Allegiance Abilities
Substantial change in this section !

First, the Scions of the Storm rule doesn't need a roll anymore but happen at the end of the movement phase. Except this, it's identical as it still count as your movement for the phase and the models must be set up more than 9” away. Also note that if you didn't deployed at the start of the 4th turn they count as lost.

Shock and awe : -1 hit roll against friendly SE that were set up on the battlefield during the same turn.

Stormhosts : 8 hosts you may choose from that add each: 1 ability , 1 command ability, 1 command trait that you must use and one artifact of power you must take,

Exemple for

Celestial Vindicators :

And for Celestial Warbringers

Command Trait

Nearly the same as before, the change ensure the compatibility of these Command Traits with the new AOS edition.

Ex: consummate Commander is 1 extra command points on a 4+.

&

Ex: Staunch defender at 1 to save roll to SE units in 9” but have to be wholly within. (bigger range but with the new wording.)

Let's move on

Artifacts of Power

7 types of Relics !

-Weapons

Nothing really exiting here, just the usual stuff.

-Armor :
No magic armor in the list grant +1 to sv but there is a dispel shield that grant 1 extra dispel attempt and it's good !

-Artefact of the Tempest.
A bit of everything, I like the Luckstone that allow to change a dice result to anything you want (only for hit, wound save roll that affect the bearer). But there is not much to say !

-Standards (only for totem hero)
One very good allow to re-roll run and charge wholly within 12”

-Mystic Lights
Reserved to the heroes that have a Lantern.

The last 2(staves and scrolls) are reserved to Lord Arcanum and Knight Incantor and will be in the second part of the review.

Prayers

Prayers are like spells as you can the attempt the same one only once per turn even if you have multiple priest with the same prayers.
But you can't Dispel them !

All prayers succeed on a 3+, only Bless Weapons need a 4+

Abjuration work on a 3+ but require to roll for the dispel as well, pretty terrible if you ask me :/

Mount traits

6 tables of 3 traits so 18 mounts traits !! And some of them are super powerfull !!

Old Warscrolls and Battalion

Battalion

Each Chamber have his own Chamber Battalion composed 3-4 Battalions for huge battle.
Then each chamber have 2 to 3 Battalion composed of units of his own chamber.
There are 22 Battalion to choose from and all with matched play costs.

All the Battalion have been updated to AOS2 and use command points & “unmodified rolls” ,
A good example would be, Lord of the storm ! generate command points each turn (on a 4+)

Warscrolls

Image of some interesting Warscrolls in the new Battletome.

I am not going to comment on every Warscrolls but you can observe a few important changes. Command abilities usable in other phase than Hero. Named characters reserved to the Hammer of Sigmar host but with generic Warscrolls available. Lots of wholly within and unmodified hit/wound rolls.

That's it for the old stuff, Let's starts on the new sacrosanct chamber !!

The Sacrosanct Chamber

Bonus and abilities then Warscrolls,

Bonus and abilities

Lord arcanum and Knight Incantor have acces to specific items, staves and Scrolls.
Both category have 3 options each.

Staves

Each one of them is interesting have could see some use. One is once per game +1casting +1mw, the second is once per game choose a caster in 12” and he can't cast this phase. Third one is -1 to hit if casted a spell.

Scrolls

3 one time use item nothing special to say (and lost the image^^)

Now that we have a complete Battletome with a large amount of relics choices , I think going back to a points cost for magic item would be a good idea. And maybe even for trait. It's really hard to even have 6 balanced choices how could you hope for 20+ relics to be balanced between them.

Mount trait

Dracoline mount have a super strong trait, granting +1 to hit to Dracoline units while they are wholly within 9” and it combo perfectly with his command ability ^^

Spells Lore

2 spells lore are inside the new SE Battletome, Lore of the Storm and Lore of Invigoration.

Lore of the storm have 6 spells and “Cannot be cast by units of Evocators” (useless mention as Evocator Warscroll say can only cast Empower)

Most interesting spells in the lore of storm are :

Lightning Blast is 1d3 to closest visible enemy “NO RANGE LIMIT” so you can cast it turn 1 ^^,

Stormcaller against army with a lot of heroes and small units.

Invigoration Lore have 2 very strong spells :

Sexy time !! The last 2 are super duper good

Sacrosanct Chamber Battalion

3 new Battalion are available all 3 with very good bonus !!
see by yourself ,

Yea image cut is not perfect ^^ but you can still see the important part :D

1)+1 to casting roll is great and you can pile this sort of bonus to +3 easily to start casting Arcane Missile doing 1d6 Mortal wounds (SE caster get a special rules that say 1d6 dmg if casting is 10+)
ex : This battalion + Celestial Warbringer command+ Stardrake = +3 to casting already ^^

2)Re-rolling those short range Ballista shots with the +1 from the Lord Ordinator. (4attack at 4+ with RR dealing 1d6 hit each)

3) This one is crazy ^^ you can have 2 Evocators units cast Empower on 2 Sequitors units granting them reroll to hit and wound and then you can channel into the shield to reroll save ^^

Sacrosanct Chamber is super strong but all models cost a lot of points. I guess it should make them balanced (I hope ^^).

Warscrolls

Conclusion

This new Battletome is a beast ! Huge number of rules, options, traits, items, battalions...
The new sacrosanct chamber is really well made and promise a large number different list. If you include the Realm selection, the Endless Spells, the Battleplan you get a real good depth.

/cheers.
bob.

Sorry for the delay, but the start of the holiday reduced my blogging time ^^

Hello everyone !!

The Nighthaunt army is the latest addition to the Mortal Realms,
Atia already covered the Fluff and the Arts I'll do the gaming side.
So how The NH Battletome is going to fair ?
It's one of the first book specially designed for AOS2, It include new wordings like ''wholly within'' for buff and “Unmodified 6” on hit or wound roll it's going to modify the list building for sure. Combine this with the rules modification on unit split in half, nerf to the conga line, command points, beware messire, counter spell range, endless spell, shield/bolt nerf, i am pretty sure the meta is changing !

So what does it mean for the NH ? Let's try to find out by looking at the different aspect of the new Battletome, first the Allegiance powers then Warscrolls

Allegiance powers

First thing first the allegiance abilities and there is a lot to say about them^^

Allegiance

In the recent Battletomes there are usually 2 to 3 abilities linked to the army keywords, and 1 linked to the different sub-factions/clan/cities/fleets/hosts. Here it's not, there is no subfaction, they are 6 allegiance benefits and you get them all !!!

-1 Bravery within 6 of NH units.

-6+ fnp against wound and mortal wounds if you are wholly within 12” of a NH hero. Interesting, it's the same as the Death allegiance with +6” range but now the affected unit need to be wholly within (that mean that all models must be completely inside the radius). Consequence is that heroes must be very close to support large unit and you have to avoid spreading them to much because of the conga line nerf ^^

-50% of your units can be placed in reserve for deep strike at the end of the move phase.

-1W heal if a friendly hero is within 6 of an enemy unit missing a Battleshock test. Not much but still a good power as you heroes have to stay close and work well with the -1Bravery

-Wave of Terror : Extra Fight phase for a charging unit is awesome even if you only have 16,66% chance of rolling a 10+. Consider that with the new command ability in the charge phase you get ~30% chance to get a 10+.

-The last one is an extra command abilities to teleport units near your general and it's very cool ! Could be useful for save unit from being destroyed, reposition on a objectives, save a support hero.
When you think about it, each NH hero get : 3 commands power from the rulebook, this one, and the one they could have on their Warscroll crazy number of options.

-Returning Slain models : NH are a recursion themed army and they get a snippet on how place models.

You can't engage a unit with summoned ghost but you can create a congo line using the last model to gain range (and contest objectives or get extra threat range on a charge). Possibilities are great !

Command traits

As usual there are 6 Command traits for your general.
My favorite is off course restore D3 slain models to a unit. Notice it's 1d3 models and not wounds worth of models. Spirit Host are like 40pts with 3 wounds per model, Hexwraiths and ChainGhasts are 2 wounds and very good target for this Trait.

Spell lores

There is 6 Spells for the NH lore.

Nothing incredible but a few spell have a lot of potential.

My 2 favorites are :

Soul cage

Is good because its a perfect spell to setup a general assassination. The spell allow to fight with multiple small heroes/units before the big bad target and prevent retreat ^^

Spectral Tether

Heal 1d3 wounds on a friendly hero (NH only). Very good with low hp supports hero even better if you have a 4+ ignore rend and a 6+ FNP.

Weapons

Some good options, I really like the Shrieking Blade on a lord executioner to make him a very good tarpit hero (-2 to hit, 4+, 5+ on mortal, 6+ fnp against normal.). But that works on a support hero as well (as they need to stay close).

Relics

Lanterns

Very cool Category for the Guardian of souls. 3 options here,
The 3 options are really good !

ps: doesn't remove the standard lantern on the guardian of souls.

Battalion

A very good selection of Battalion Do i want a Battalion ?, Endless Spells ? Command points ? so many good options.
I can't spoil everything but these two seem cool enough :D

+1 to charge rolls is super duper good in in this army. Also you can trigger the instant fight on 9 and get deepstrike charge on 8+ (6+ if you have the Cogs endless spell). Only problem is that Hexwraith don't strike too hard but count as battleline & if you support them with the 3+move relic you get 15" of flying move that generate mortal wound and you can charge after ^^ You can affect multiple enemy units.

Another funny Battalion, If you plan to play the recursion. Add d6 models returned by lure spell and temporal translocation. With the right lantern, one lure spell return 2d6+3 chainrasp a turn ^^And with a 24” spell range you can stay out of dispell range !

Warscrolls and Combo

Generality

The strong points of this army are :

-All your army fly !
-All your army ignore save modifier and have a 4+ save (only the chainrasp have a 5+)
-All your non hero models are Summonable (Coach is non hero and non Summonable),

Ignoring rend is huge and the Mystic shield nerf is actually a benefit to you.

Warscrolls

A few Warscrolls for you eyes :D

Interactions

With the new wording on hit/wound the combo potential is lower than before but still they are some cool interactions that deserve a few lines.

Chainghast + Spirit Torments

This Hero/unit combination is really interesting :

-Spirit Torments summon 1d3 wounds worth of models (or heal) if 3 models where slain. You need 3 casualty for each Spirit Torments you want to activate the summon.
-ChainGhast act as a conduit for the Spirit Torments buff,
-ChainGhast have a good ranged weapon (15”, d3, 4+,3+,-2, 1) reroll 1 if they are near a SpiritTorment.
-In melee they murder large pack of models (on small bases^^),
-You can deepstrike them or teleport them with the command ability.
-They are 4 models MAX per units.

I really like them, they are super expensive at 40 pt each but with 2 wounds and the warlord trait that pop 1d3 models per turn they are durable. you get a very nice snipping unit to finish wounded hero, kill wizard, drop an health level from a behemoth.

Summon me an army

Playing the recursion game is super valid even more if you include a Mortarch ally

List of the Way to summon in the Army :

-Lady Olynder command summon 1 model to each unit in 12”
-Any old Mortarch Summon up to 4 x 1d3 wounds/models.(only once per unit)
-Ruler of the Spirit Host command trait summon D3 Slain models
-Guardian of Souls, Spectral Lure spell : return 1d6 wounds/models.
-Beacon of Nagashizzar add +3 to the spectral lure spell from the guardian of souls.
-Spirit Torment : return 1d3 wounds/models in 6” for each 3 enemy models slain on the whole battleground but it's before Battleshock test.
-Black Coach return 1d3 models (with level 1 power, see warscrolls.)

Conclusion

The NH army is going to be very fun with at least 3 synergies axis : Bravery debuff, recursion and Devastating Charge.
The amount of move shenanigan with deepstrike , the teleport command ability and Dreadblade harrow ensure a lot of objectives controlling/contesting.

On the other hand I am disappointed by the new wording on attack/wound roll. It remove a lot depth in the game and reduce the strength of the Lord Execution to a very low level (even if at 80pt he's not that bad)

In the end I really liked this Battletome and with the quality of the Nighthaunt models line, I am super hyped to play NH in AOS2.

At last I am released from my curse of Brayherds being my main army for 15 years. Bye Bye shitty goats you can stay in a box now, the cute ghost are taking your place in my heart and on the Table !!

/cheers.
Bob.

Howdy Guys and Girls - time to talk about the new fluff, art and heraldry. This Battletome is thick - and it gives you an overview for all four sub-types of Stormcasts released so far - the normal Stormhosts, Chamber Extremis, Vanguard and the new Sacrosanct Chamber, as well as an overview on the timeline for the first edition of Age of Sigmar.

Something that I want to point out right now - the whole book feels far more grown-up than the original writings of AoS back when it came out. They really flashed out this army and it feels like they listened to community feedback. What just started as “Space Marines in Fantasy” evolved into something more. From tribal markings to female models (both in art and sculpts), all in all they really got an upgrade compared to their initial occurrence. Well done GW!

And now - let’s dive a bit into the newest additions to the Stormcast Eternals - the Brothers and Sisters of the Sacrosanct Chamber!

Howdy Guys and Girls :)

Of course the glorious Stormcast Eternals have new models too. Something that's clearly noticeable - they shot for a great mix of male and females this time. Hopefully we are gonna see some updates to the other chambers too down the line, even if it's just E2B!

Stay tuned for some fluff and artworks aswell as rule reviews later today (Bob's doing the rules parts)

Regards,
Lady Atia

Howdy Guys and Girls :)

Edit: added the GW video too.

Hello everyone !!

All the hype is about the new Nighthaunts models (and for good reasons). The whole line is completely new and the floating ghost concept is perfectly executed by GW.

But tonight i was assembling some Stormcast and was really impressed with the crispness of the soul wars stormcasts. It's true the NH are the new cool kids, but the Sacrosancts are crazy good. To be honest they are so good that most of the old SC line is kind of dulls now :/

Outside of the fabric they wear, the differences are small, but the bracers, the legs bottom, boots have some tiny variations. Maybe it's just the general aesthetic of the models but now the Sacrosanct casts look more like human in an armor and less like armored golem.

If i wanted to start a new SC army now, i'd try to use the new models only and convert other units by using Castigators and Sequitors body and arms !!

I took closeup of the sprue so you can zoom on them and decide for your self.

/cheers.
Bob.

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.