I really dislike the changes from an army building point of view. It feels like the changes have gone through with a far bigger consideration to external balance than internal balance. My main gripes are: 40/50 points for a raptor and then another 15 points for a lance, when a raptor and rider with lance only cost 34 points??? Saurus with spears are the same price as temple guard. I hate the way skirmishing is optional. Basic skinks are 5 or 6 points for the same thing? Don't we have the initial cost to balance scalability? I dislike the way that carnosaurs and alpha carnosaurs have such different rules (combined profile vs ridden monster) given they're called the same thing. It's also going to be hard to change away from what 8th edition was (big slaan and lots of cheap high armour, high ward save cowboys) but that's just my lack of experience. Can I also ask if lowering the armour of characters is going to be a game wide thing eventually or is it just a balancing thing for us?
I feel we have lost was good , they just made spears very good (compared to shield/sword) and instantly they put a tax on it on 2pts/model!!! that is huge when other armies can get it for free (empire of sonnstahl, and have option for halbred)?!? our close combat need to be turned up or others significantly down for us to be compeditive! our characters has taken a huge blow over the last couple of betas, and now our magic is hampered by the lowered mage levels, eventhough we can get to +4 to casting with disciplines and tome, but that is 380 model just for that, and then we still "need" a scroll caddy and/or more disciplines. my general opinion of this is that we are a tad overcosted compared to WoDG and i would like to see more magical items, High Elves have some powerful artefacts...
I'm really baffled at the fact that WoDG are not further Nerfed. I can only assume this is a mistake, since they had put a deadline on this update and such couldn't make all of the Nerfs.
I don't like that the saurian warlord now only has a 5+ innate defence. Change it back to the 4+, even if that means going back to 160 points base. The heavy armor option is all right, but not really needed. It does make sense that we might be able to make and use heavy armor, but maybe, insted of taking away our innate defence, then give some kind of other debuff, like lower initiative, because of the added weight on top of our "heavy skin" or something. The 50 point raptor is just ridiculous. Skink hunters is also wierd, why can't they have shields if they have skirmirsh, are they too good? then just raise the price for them to get shields. Generally I have liked what I have seen so far, but this time they done goofed, the only change that makes a little sense, is the alpha carnosaur now having WS 5, although I don't know if that was needed.
I like the WS5 on it. Makes it easier to hit those pesky infantry models. He is now better able at going for infantry blocks. He is still primarily a monster hunter but hey, something is not getting nerfed for a change so I am glad
I wonder if a lot of the balancing is just happening based on win/loss numbers, like a lot of the popular competitive video games these days. If so, then I would imagine the sort of "all in" builds for WoDG would contribute to them being nerfed less. Their builds typically either stomp their opponent, or are hard countered. WoDG seems to usually come down to a small number of critical ward saves, which if failed, will usually lose them the game. Compare that to more traditional armies where failed saves balance out better due to the number of saves involved and the law of averages, and perhaps that's why we might see WoDG not needing nerfs. This is all speculation however since I have yet to play against WoDG in 9th, but all my 8th games against them were major victories or major defeats, never a close game.
Not quite, they just restructured the options of skink hunters.... You can still take Skink hunters as skirmishers... but now you have the option not to.
I'm not too happy that the newest edition of 9th age nerfed my poor hellcannons. There are a lot of overpowered things available in the WoC army but the Hellcannon is not really one of them.
hey had some questions about the new Skrox unit, as its one of my favorites to field, and could see some really cool synergies with the new bastiladons. its unclear in our document if you can give toughened scales to the Caimen that join the skink braves unit. also if the Caimen Ancient (still this guy is way too weak for the points). Joins this unit can he be in the second rank with the other Caimen? thanks!
Yes, he is little bit more expensive, that it should be, but he is ok. He is just a support character - other caimans will use his WS, place thyroscutus near them - and you will have WS5 unit of caimans. And that is something that can hit really hard.
says they only recieve his base WS of 4 modifiers such as the sun engine/ fencers blades do not count. I could see the cost making sense if you could bury him in the second rank so you couldnt intentionally distribute attacks to him, then you could build him strictly for damage and be fairly safe. as the rules are now, it dosnt seem like he benefits from the combined strength rule?
As far as I understood, caimans will have his WS4 (if you will give him WS10 swords - he will give other caimans only his WS4), and also can be a target of buff that will be after it (such as thyroscutus).
what i was thinking was more taking them in a unit of skink braves with poision and additional hand weapons and just marching the 2 or three different thyrosctus along side of the unit since it dosnt say that their buffs dont stack you could get your WS4/5 caimen with poison on a 6+5+ if you get the spell off and I5 WS3/4 skinks with 2 attacks poison on a 5+4+ with the spell, alternatively you could just take 3 of the poison ones and have poison on. dont even need the caimen ancient for that, and I think the Thyrosctus are probably more versatile since that unit would be super susceptible to focus fire or high I things like elves or WoDG. would be a fun flanking monster hunting formation tho also javs poisoning on a 4+ could be incredibly evil. >
multiple sun engines and poison arks aren't going to stack, but buffing a unit with a single buff of each kind should be possible and would be interesting. Expensive, though
You should be capable of getting your Caiman Ws at 5, but they don't stack with multiple tyroscutuses. As mentioned you don't ad any modified Ws to the caiman uni, just the characters base Ws, but they still allow added Ws from the engine as far as I recall
I'm a bit suprised that the carnosaur can enjoy a 1+/4++ since he is a combined profile, but the alpha basically makes defensive gear on the rider useless because he is a ridden monster. I don't understand why these mounts are treated so differently.
An idea - here we take cohort with poisonous attacks, keep bastiladon within 6" AND cast bound spell onto the cohort - voila, 4+ poison Combining it with hatred from high skink we get an unexpected powerhouse Edit: crap, that was already mentioned. Sorry T_T Also, as most lvl4 wizards only get +2 to cast, with arcane book (+1 cast/dispel) and one of the disciplines (60 pts one, can't recall the name) Slann can cast with +4. Those pesky wizards won't be able to dispel reliably Combine this with Engine Of Gods decrease in spells price, and magic phase is totally yours.
The good news is that now alpha's rider doesn't have to buy defensive stuff - keep it as cheep as possible, perhaps with just relic lance.