AoS Second Edition

Right, but I'm saying that, as written currently anyway, the Astrolith Bearer has quite an efficacious role beyond spell buffing in Proud Defiance. And your last sentence seems to me to be crucial to how we're going to build our lists from now on. Turning a Slann into a Summoner as opposed to a caster is probably exactly the design space GW was seeking to create/exploit with this mechanic.

 

If you have a list where you take most of our ranged beasties have them shooting from objectives in your territory the proud defiance and Slann banking points isn't too bad. Mystic shield isn't what it used to be so my not cook points for a turn or so summon a road block in front of your gunline and then rain magical hell on them once they are close enough for the spells!

 

mm, ah welll, it heavily depends on any possible interactions. If this is all the point generation we're going to get then it'l be well.. mediocre at best. If our EoTG and various skink heroes can actually interact with it and fairly significantly increase the point generation it might actually be worthwhile. As it stands the only "viable" approach I can think of is just taking a bastiladon and stegaon heavy army like @Wazz mentioned so they can stand on objectives and bombard stuff while the slann does nothing but just summon hordes of skinks which just stand in the way of your opponent...

Also, why the hell is there no benefit to having 2 slanns or 2 astrolith bearers. Diminishig returns would be fine, but really, no benefit whatsoever?

Also minor sidenote; that list is weird. 3 terradons is just as expensive as a skink starpriest.. I wouldn't say those two are exactly similar in value. Plus where's saurus warriors. Based on that list they're deemed more expensive than 3 terradons which unless we're going to summon 20+ of em seems rather a stretch as well...That list raises more questions than it anwsers.

 

I could see 20 warriors be a thing only bc they would have at least one of their unit buffs(unless they get a change) the starpriest for 12 is kinda cool bc you can set him up for clutch arcane vassal. I was that guy and squinted and saw the Skink Priest was 12 as well.

 

Im wondering if this is 10% of the new points value.
120 for a starpriest
60 for a razordon
60 for handlers
120 for Terradons

 

The facebook team said the EOTG is getting a rule change to its summoning ability. Not sure what the change will be but it sounds like it will provide another means of generating points.

 

summoning 1 unit of 10 skinks is in the second to last turn is barely a bonus... I mean it's better than nothing obviously, but if that's the "average" extent of summoning it's fairly terrible. Imho it shows one of the biggest issues they seem to be creating. Summoning point generation is so slow that often it ends up being too little too late for what should be a fairly impactfull mechanic..

 

Maggotkin can reach 6 + 2D3 from turn 2 onward if their first turn is a bit lucky, if you add in some of the extra mechanics (e.g. the guy on the snail that can plant extra trees, or better yet his battalion) you can get far highter than 12, especially if you then spend your summoning points on more trees. See what I posted here. It is possible to reach a point where you gain enough points per turn to summon an unclean one (addmittadly it takes till turn 5, but still). And that's with just the base-generation and summoning trees, there's no extra hero or battalion helping out yet.

What's more important though is that they generate points by doing what they're going to be doing anyway. Summoning those trees doesn't just generate more points it also gives control over the battlefield as those trees will make your guys faster while hurting your enemies plus they can be used as cover or even to flat out block a choke-point. Even without the generation of summoning points that's beneficial. Similarly a lord of plaques can generate points simply by scoring wounds on an enemy. It's a front-line hero, 'he's going to be punching people regardless.

In our case however we're stopping a slann from doing the one thing they're supposed to be doing. Which is counterintuitive to say the least.

 

Use nurgle's menagerie, you now get a free tree per turn, tada you can now summon a great-unclean one from turn 4 onwards (provided some luck with the D3's). Plus they get to summon a whole bunch of other stuff while working towards it. We would only get to summon 1 carnosaur for that.

with the menagery you ge the following:
turn 1: 4 +d3 = 7, summon 2 gnarlmaw
turn 2: 6 + 3d3 = 15, summon 3 gnarlmaw, 1 points left over
turn 3: 6 + 6d3 = 24, summon 4 gnarlmaws, 1 point left over
turn 4: 6 + 10d3 = 36 summon unclean one, summon 1 gnarlmaw 8 points points left over
turn 5: 6 + 11d3 = 39, summon unclean one, summon gnarlmaw 19 points left over from this turn and the previous one.

Anyway, point being they're not really sacrificing anything to get the unclean one. They're simply using the entirety of their (summoning) mechanics to works towards it, while simultaniously getting benefits along the way. We gain no benefits while building up summoning points and are explicitly sacrificing alternative actions for it. Us sacrificing two full turns of a slann's magic is relativly steep a price to pay given that a slann 'doesn't do anything else.

 

No, at least the text doesn't say they can stack,
"you obtain 1 Celestial Conjuration Point if your GENERAL is a SLANN and is on the battlefield, and D3 Celestial Conjuration Points ir there are one OR MORE friendly Astrolith Bearers on the battlefield."

 

astroliths bearers don't stack.

Ah well I just hope that they've simply given us too litte information and the actual mechanic is far more impressive.

 

Your hope will lead you to great disappointment...... Games Workshop left their intentions very clear on the first comical scene of this video