GW News: magic and prayers in #NewAoS

I've been looking at the first article on Warhammer Community about the new Beastmen, and they are already becoming quite a bit stronger than they were before, both in AoS and in Fantasy. Marks have returned for Beastmen from 6th Edition as you can choose one of 4 battalions that dedicate themselves to a particular god. Herdstones also are pretty useful as they make the Beastmen immune to Battleshock and decrease the save rolls of the enemy as the battle goes on. Here's the full article:

https://www.warhammer-community.com...ds-of-allegiance-abilitiesgw-homepage-post-4/

 

meh, I hope that battleshock immunity won't end up being far too powerfull. Being able to ignore it rather rapidly spirals out of control in terms of how devestating it is. Not to mention it outright invalidates certain abilities that play around it which is just a tad lame.

It's neat that they can be used in any major chaos army though similar to the slaves of darkness, being able to dedicate it to a god makes it rather interesting.

 

Beastmen aren't alone in this - Fyreslayers have several abilities that can give their units Battleshock immunity, including the Exemplar of the Ancestor Command Trait and the Rune of Fiery Determination.

 

I know. Limited immunity can work. But given it's ever increasing range I fear that they'l quite quickly end up in a situation where they are effectivly immune for the entire game if they can position their herdstone conveniently with respect to the objectives. And permanent battleshock immunity that can't even be broken by for example killing the general seems really really good.

 

I was guessing though that the Herdstone would have a wounds value so that enemy armies could attempt to destroy it and banish the magicks it produces. I maybe wrong about this, but that could be a way to avoid it being unbalanced. In any case, the battleshock immunity only occurs in a wide range in the very last few turns of the game, so you have a chance to attack and break the Beastmen before the powers of the Herdstone take hold, just as Exemplar of the Ancestor can be broken by killing the general and the Rune of Fiery Determination only lasts for a turn.

 

Depending on the objective of the game and how you're allowed to place it it can still cover the entire area where you're effectivly fighting. It's rare for the entire battlefield to see action so if you can dump it on the objective you need to defend, or in the middle you might be free of battleshock for quite a significant portion. It depends a lot on if this means you can avoid say 30% of all battleshock tests this game, or 90%.

The save-reduction I'm less worried about, assuming at least they don't get a crapton of rend as well. If a significant chunk of their units have rend by default that'l be problematic as well...

I do hope they add in some interaction mechanic for the opponent to tear it down, would be both thematic and a fun way to balance I think.

 

Certainly the Khorne battalion allows you to take a load of minotaurs led by a Doombull and with optional monsters with no need to take any of the smaller Beastmen. I’ve always been interested in a pure Minotaur army as they remind me of the Tauren in Warcraft III and I really like the plastic models.

 

Looks like a lot of the units are good against Order units. Much useful if I ever did a future game with a certain player

 

Dayum, there is also a solid SC! for Beastmen, replacing the allied set one.

Quite tempting for me to be fair. To bad University and free time aren't on the best terms for me right now.



And with this it seems we've got this year's fourth Battleforce confirmed.

You can check out more of this week Beastmen relaunch pre-orders here.

 

yup that is solid

 

Can't wait, excited for the book. Seeing the marks also persuades the mass collecting as I have a bit of Nurgle, Tzeentch and Slaanesh… could also say Khorne but I only have the Bloodletters. SC are just great to get a selection of miniatures without spending a ton.
Now limited edition or not? Also want to pick up the Endless Spells and that.....

Update: Well resisted getting the Limited Edition because it's just a fancy cover and all. Picked up the Beasts of Chaos essentials and the Herdstone

 

Such is the fate of those who thread carelessly through the fields of AoS.

 

As you should!!!