AoS 4th Edition is nearly here...

[Canas]

Yeah that's definitely fair. I guess I just always tend towards the more conservative changes for better or worse.

Hopefully when we see the full indexes theres more of the stuff you're looking for.

Tjah, let's hope so.

And fwiw, I think an entire separate profile and two different rules in a warscrolls that really only has one rule to begin with is relatively substantial difference between kroxigor warscrolls, but again I think that just comes down to the way we both look at "substantial".

I mostly mean that the "extra" stuff on the "real" warscroll isn't going to change how you use the kroxigor. Both the spearhead & the "real" warscroll are damage dealing monstrous infantry with a an anti-horde flavour. They just have slightly different numbers.

Which is fine; it'd be weird if spearhead differs a lot from the real warscroll. But it makes me worried about stuff like the carno. Simply putting say anti-infantry on one it's spearhead warscroll isn't going to suddenly make it good. But that's about the scale of the differences we can expect.

 

[Canas]

FEC:

Faction:

• Get noble deeds points for doing stuff with heroes
  
• +1 attack to nearby allies if a hero has 6 noble deeds.
• Ressurect 1 model to a unit by spending points
• Ressurect half a destroyed unit by spending all of 6 points at once.
• Heal all abhorants

The heal is a bit random. Why is this a faction ability?
The fact that wizards & priest get kinda screwed over is a bit silly. They generate far fewer points than a melee beatstick would.
Surprisingly, no real rule of one limitations

Subfaction

• Fight with 2 units instead of one whenever it's your turn to pick a fight during the combat phase

This is surprisingly good for a faction ability? The hell?

Spells:

• Corpse stampede endless spell
  • 10/5+/3+/-/1 attacks
  • 10 wounds, 5+ save
  • Deal D3 move to units you run over during the movement phase. You can run over a max of 3 units.

10 wounds is the highest we've seen for an endless spell so far. Still pretty squishy though..
The limitation for number of units you can stampede over is lame.
It's attack profile is borderline pointless, it's fully dependent on that stampede.

Units:

• Ushoran:
  • +1 attack aura from faction ability is larger than usual
  • Personal spell: cause an enemy to attack themselves. Funny but usually not terribly usefull.
  • Put strike last on some enemies
  • Give a situational buff to your army (e.g. +1 to save if they are contesting an objective.) 4 different buffs, pick one.
• Marrowscroll herald
  • When in combat choose: 1) give every ally that is in combat with this target strike first or 2) target is infected for the rest of the game, whenever it uses a CA spell or prayer roll a dice, on a 5+ it fails
  • Has stealth
• Cryptguard
  
  • Damaged enemies cannot use CAs
  • When near a hero BOTH get a 5+ ward
• ZOmbie dragon
  • Deepstrike ability
  • After a charge, roll a D6 on a 3+ move 2D6, still end in combat, deal D3 damage to a unit you moved through.

These are actually rather good? And fun? How the hell is this faction focus so much better than the others?

Spearhed:

• Simplified version of noble deeds, limited to the units in that box
• Morbheg knights:
  • Can still charge after retreating
  • Does not suffer damage from retreating

There seem to be a lot of units who can retreat without suffering damage...


Overal; a suspiciously good faction focus.

 

[Canas]

Ratling warpblaster

20" 3D6+3/4+/3+/1/1 crit autowound.
+1 to hit against units with 10+ models
Can be buffed to 6D6+3 attacks, but hitrolls of 1 deal 1 damage to it after it finishes shooting things.

I mean, it's very skaven, but depending on what buffs you can slap on this this could potentially be very oppresive, if a bit gimmicky.

 

[Egres]

Where is the non-spearhead kroxigor? Haven't seen that one.
Anyways I was talking more in general. Most of the warscrolls we've seen are pretty sparse with 1 maybe 2 abilities. So it's not like there's much to remove for a potential spearhead warscroll on most of these. Hence why I was/am expecting the kroxigor to not get that much extra on their full warscroll.


O sure, this is just based on paper napkin math.
But so far we have the following:

• Vastly more rend
• Saves no longer stack
• Ward saves are rarer & come at a premium
• A decent number of attacks seem buffed (especially melee stuff)
• There are less mortal wounds

Overal I would expect that to push damage higher/survivability lower.
However, it is possible that the change in mortal wounds has some unexpected effects. Especially when considering high-end play where things are min-maxed to a much greater extend and small changes like this have much bigger impacts than on average play.


Still waiting for a single example of a unit that actually uses this specialisation properly instead of throwing even more rend on an attack that already has a bunch of rend. I really hope the warscrolls shown so far have not been representative for the implementation of the anti-X rule.


O I understand that they're doing it for balance reasons; but if the only way you can balance a mechanic is by sticking limitations on it that significantly undermine the intended fantasy then the mechanic just isn't very well designed.

Tzeentch's fire is probably the best example of this. The whole fantasy is setting the entire enemy army on fire, or at least large parts of it. The rule-of-one limitation activly undermines that fantasy. So find a different way to balance it, or change the fundamentals of the mechanic.But don't make a mechanic that so clearly wants to be spammed and then stick a rule-of-one type limitation on it.

Also, I'm just annoyed that they seem to be throwing rule-of-one on nearly everything vaguely interesting shown so far. Has GW forgotten there are other ways to balance things?


It's fine for Krondys to get anti-infantry stuff. But why put it on an attack that already has 2 rend. It doesn't specialize the attack when it already has such high rend baseline. If instead that attack had 0 rend, and he get anti-infantry (3) then it'd be a good use of the mechanic.

Also, so far most of the anti-x examples seem to suffer this problem. Which really annoys me cuz I really like the concept of specialized attacks, but they're completly wasting the concept like this.


Out of the 10 or so wizards we've seen, the only ones with a personal spell where the named wizards like Kairos & Nagash.
And the personal spells we've seen have not been terribly mind-blowing.
And that's just the lack of flavour on wizards. So far, it's not been promising....

But yeah, who knows, maybe the remaining warscrolls will be much more interesting.

Also minor caveat; there is some cool stuff. Like the steelhelms or the knight arcanum. But for every fun steelhelm there are seemingly boring 10 units with a "modify the control score by X" type rule... (Seriously, GW is heavily pushing the control score...)


Sure, just so far they haven't been particularly exciting. In general, GW kinda sucks at building hype when releasing rules. They're way better at building hype when releasing models or stories.


O, there is some fun stuff. But again, heavily limited by rule-of-one, or other limitations like how low CP generation will be.
Which is a shame. I want to do more than 1 cool thing per turn.

Its in one of the rules description page

 

[Canas]

Fyreslayers:

Faction abilities:

• ur-gold, each effect can be used once. Only one can be used per turn:
  • Strike first on all units fighting an enemy that charged (should this not be on all fyreslayers that charged?)
    
  • Deal D3 mortal wounds to every enemy within 10" of a fyreslayer
    
  • 5+ ward save
  • Charge & run
  • Crit(mortal) on all melee attacks
  • You pick them at different points (e.g. the ward save can be activated in the hero phase, the charge & run in the charge phase)

One of the few examples where the rule of 1 limitation makes some kind of sense.

Subfaction

• +1 to wound for infantry units that charged

How boring

Prayers:

• Summon starlight, but -1 to wound rolls. Also -1 to rend if you use the powerfull version.
• Again 12" range...

Not particularly exciting.

Units:

• Runefather on magmadroth:
  • -1 to saves for an enemy
  • +1 to attack for allies (once per game)
  • Save rolls of 1 damage the opponent (Another rule that seems to be inverted, shouldn't this be on a 6?)
  • Anti-infantry on its ranged attack, which already has rend of course...
• runemaster:
  • get tokens for praying succesfully
    
  • Spend tokens to buff the ur-gold abilities (e.g. the ward also gives +1 to saves).
  • Requires 3 tokens so can't use this immeadiatly
• Berzekers:
  • While near a hero, both get a 5+ ward
  • +1 to attack if the hero is wounded
• Molten element endless spell:
  • -1 to wound for enemies that got wounded by it last turn
  • 10 wounds/5+/6++ making it relativly sturdy for an endless spell
  • Fairly solid damage profile for endless spells

Spearhead:

• Simplified runes & enhancement effects
  
• Battlesmith:
  • +1 to save for nearby fyreslayers
  • 5+ wardsave ( once per game)

Fairly boring again. The inverted rules are odd but have some potential I suppose.

 

[Canas]

Idoneth

Faction:

• Another deepstrike. Surprisingly common as a faction ability. Was it this common before?
  
• Tides effect. Nothing unexpected; but of course Ebb tide gives them the ability to ignore damage when retreating. There are rather many ways to ignore that damage...

Subfaction:

• +1 to hit for sharks.

Thematic, but boring and minor

Spells:

• A teleport. Not subject to the rule of one?

Units:

• Eidolon:
  • +1 to casting
  • Personal spell: -1 to saves for enemies against melee attacks. Of course, again 12" range
    
  • Rampage: Prevent an enemy from using command abilities... very original.
  • ignore negative modifiers to control score for nearby idoneth.. again very original and exciting.
• Tidecaster:
  • garbage support stats
  • 1 whole ability.
    • Isharan ritual roll (is this different from a prayer?)
    • Three possible effects:
      • Can't shoot at idoneth unless you're close
      • +1 to run and charge
      • Deal an extra D3 damage to enemies that retreat
• Sharks:
  • O look, more anti-X rules on attacks that already have rend.
  • +1 to shark attacks while near a wounded or recently killed unit
    • Fun fact; if you are near say 10 skinks, and you kill 1 skink you get +1 attack. If you kill all 10 skinks you do not get the buff. Bit silly.
  • -1 dice for monsters/cavalry units that got shot by the gun.
    • Does not care if you take the anti-monster or the anti-cavalry gun. Again, bit silly.
• Akhelian guard
  • More anti-X on weapons with rend...
  • -1 to attack for a nearby enemy
  • 5++ if it charged

Spearhead:

• Simplified tides effect
• Namarti thralls:
  • +1 damage against monsters
  • But also: anti-infantry
  • Because that combination makes sense on the same weapon....

This is honestly just a mess, not to mention just uninspired & boring.

 

[Kilvakar]

Yeah, kind of uninspired on the things they're showing. But to be fair about the Namarti having anti-infantry and extra damage vs. monsters, the Idoneth have 2 infantry options, one ranged and one melee. It suppose it makes a bit more sense to make their single melee infantry option able to fight both monsters and other infantry...

 

[Canas]

Yeah, kind of uninspired on the things they're showing. But to be fair about the Namarti having anti-infantry and extra damage vs. monsters, the Idoneth have 2 infantry options, one ranged and one melee. It suppose it makes a bit more sense to make their single melee infantry option able to fight both monsters and other infantry...

This is part of the spearhead rules. The spearhead contains both sharks & eels. Sharks are anti-monster, eels are anti-infantry. The thralls really don't need this bonus.

More broadly speaking; it's just a less interesting version of the current sweeping blows rule. Plus, they've now lost the fluff explaining the anti-infantry, which makes it feel a bit silly. Which is kind of a general issue with the simplified warscrolls; previously every ability, came with a bit of fluff explaining why this unit is good at at hing. Now that the warscrolls are simplified a lot of that fluff is gone, making some units feel a bit odd (e.g. why do the eels have anti-infantry on their sword? What makes them especially good against infantry?)

As an aside; I just noticed the thralls have the keyword "reinforcements"... what the hell is that supposed to be.

 

[Canas]

Nurgle

Faction:

• Infect enemies with disease
  • Infect an enemy near nurgle unit
  • Infect an enemy near a diseased unit
  • ONLY INFECT 1 PER TURN
  • If everyone is already infected deal 1 damage to all sick units
• Healing a diseased unit removes the disease
• Deal mortal wounds to all diseased units at the end of a turn.

This is just Tzeentch's fire ability. Why would you make these two faction abilities so increadibly similar?
Also, the rule of 1 rears its ugly head again, undercutting the thematic flavour.

Worst of all; I like it. Just why would you introduce this ability twice?

Subfaction:

• +1 damage for your end of turn disease.

Spells:

• Heal a target
• If the target is already full health -1 to wound for attacks targeting it.
• Again, 12" cuz GW clearly hates supports in 4th.

I like that it has dual use. That's neat.

Units:

• Great unclean one:
  • Ressurect destroyed nurgle units with 3+ models at half strength
  • Mortal wounds to nearby units
  • A spell to disease enemies
• Bilepiper:
  • Minor buff for an ally. Pick one of 3 effects.
  • Both offensive and defensive options, which is neat.
• Harbringer of decay
  • -1 to move, -1 to run, and -1 to charge for 3 units. This inexplicably has 24" range?
  • More control score nonsense. This time as a prayer.
• Blightkings:
  • Control score ability... very exciting...

Spearhead:

• Part of your spearhead cannot be setup at the start, similar to the ogers.
  
• Simplified disease mechanic
• PLaquebearers:
  • -1 to hit for shooting attacks

Right, so this one is weird. On the one hand; I like the disease mechanic. On the other hand Tzeentch already has this as a faction mechanic. And having 2 factions with the same mechanic is stupid....

The great unclean one's spell is nice; one of the rare examples of interaction shown in these spotlight. But the fact that it's a personal spell on a GTO confirms that diseases are going to be capped by the rule of 1. Which undercuts the theme...

I like the healing spell.

It is a mystery why the harbringer gets such a massive range compared to other support abilities.

And the rest is just the usual boring stuff.

 

[Putzfrau]

And the rest is just the usual boring stuff.

My man is just the 4.0 hype killer. "i like the healing spell" about the nicest thing you've said hahaha.

As an aside; I just noticed the thralls have the keyword "reinforcements"... what the hell is that supposed to be.

It's part of the spearhead rules. Units with the reinforcement rules can come back onto the table after they've been slain. Keeps the spearheads balanced.

 

[Canas]

My man is just the 4.0 hype killer. "i like the healing spell" about the nicest thing you've said hahaha.

I like the FEC faction focus. That one actually had some fun stuff
I also like the idea behind the Tzeentch fire & Nurgle's disease. I just hate that two factions have basicly the same faction mechanic & that both themes are immeadiatly undercut by the rule of one limitation.

I also really like the QoL improvements, but that's not something to get hyped over

But yeah, the reveals so far are not really building any hype for me

It's part of the spearhead rules. Units with the reinforcement rules can come back onto the table after they've been slain. Keeps the spearheads balanced.

Ah, I vaguely remember that. Weird that this is the first warscroll we actually see with that keyword. Would've expected to have run into it more often.

 

[Canas]

SoB

Faction:

• Timber is now a faction ability. Also, big monsters can avoid it.
• 3 Rampages to do damage
  • 1 just does damage, but requires charging
  • 1 allows you to move a unit but can only be used against monsters and war machines
  • 1 is an anti-horde ability.
• Stop someone from using CA (..sigh...)

Nothing spectacular, but then again, SoB much like Fyreslayers are very one-note. So not unexpected.

Subfaction:

• Give an artifact during deployment, not during list creation

I guess the writers are going for a "change your artifact depending on your opponent" kind of rule; which has some potential? Maybe? If the artifacts are good?

Artifacts:

• Run and charge. Once.
• Summon an endless spell. Once.
• +1 to hit for nearby units. Once
• +1 to attack, rend & damage for your stomp attack
• 1 mortal wound on a save of 6
• +1 attack to melee when IN COMBAT WITH a hero

The passive ones are decent-ish. Nothing exciting though.
Also; the +1 attack against a hero is badly phrased. It's one of those rules where you don't need to actually target the correct opponent to get the bonus...

Units:

• King brod
  • Decent personal prayer
  • Cannot be the target of an enemy rampage
  • Cannot be instantly killed
  • Longshanks
  • Anti-X rules on attacks that will already flatten most opponents anyway..... God this mechanic is wasted on GW.
• Gatebreaker
  • More pointless anti-X rules.
    • Hilariously, an anti-faction terrain. All the faction terrain shown so far is very fragile. I get that it's thematic for a gatebreaker, but what's the point? It has 6/4+/2+/2/4. Does it really need the extra rend against terrain that tends to be in the range of 10 wounds with a 5+ save?
  • Can't be instantly killed
  • Longshanks
  • Pulverising strike: used to be an alternative to regular attacks. NOW ITS A BONUS.
    
  • An ability to deal even more damage against faction terrain. Because GW is really going for overkill hear. Also deal damage to every non-monster unit near it, which is neat I suppose.
  • Fun fact; it only has bonusses/abilities against faction terrain. Regular terrain is safe for some reason.
• Warstomper
  • O look, more anti-X rules on attacks with high baseline power.
  • Same basic rules as the other giant
  • For its club: add 2 attacks for every 5 models in the target unit. So a unit of 40 clanrats gets to face 20/4+/2+/2/2/anti-infantry from one single weapon. Against 10 clanrats its 8/4+/2+/2/2/anti-infantry; so basicly the warstomper is just going to delete your infantry units. And then still has 2 weapons left to kill some other stuff...
    
  • Use enemy models as ammunition for a ranged attack. Only works with models with 3 wounds or less.
• Mancrusher:
  • Can run and charge while near a gargant
  • Slay a random model, again, only works with models with 3 wounds or less.
  • The only giant without anti-X apparently.

Spearhead:

• A rule to turn one of your giants into a general since you only have mancrushers.
• A basic ability for your general
  
• A simplified rampage.
• Mancrushers:
  • Timber rule added
  • reinforcements rule added (really reinforcements? On SoB?)

Anyways; fairly one-note on account of the simple design of their faction. So not unexpected.
A massive waste of the anti-X rules.
I hope to god that pulverising strike will be FAQed to work like the old version; cuz as an extra attack it is just silly.

Other than that; really it's the same problems SoB always have had due to their inherent design flaws caused by creating an army that consists of 3 models in total.

 

[Canas]

Ossiarchs

Faction:

• Their special command abilities are now "regular" abilties.
• This is the same fundamental mechanic as CoS' orders...
  • Differences:
    • CoS 1 hero commands 1 unit. Different units can get different commands. Different heroes can give different commands
      
    • Ossiarch; only 1 hero gets to use 1 command, but can command all nearby units at once
    • CoS commands get bonus effects depending on race commanded, Ossiarchs don't.
  • Effects:
    • +2" move
    • Charge & retreat
    • +1 to charge rolls
    • anti-charge
    • +1 to wound rolls
    • 5++ ward
• Army-wide wardsave, and crit (2 hits) on weapons has been moved to the individual warscrolls

Reasonably fun mechanic, but dissapointingly similar to CoS's commands.
Also, the rule of 1 limitation combined with the short range is a bit odd. A 12" bubble does not feel like it'll be enough to command an entire flank unless you play in really tight formations. On the bright side; there isn't much AoE effects in AoS so I suppose this could work if the objectives allow that kind of playstyle?
Also, it feels more powerfull than the CoS commands. For example, the CoS defensive command also gives a 5++ ward, but comes with strike-last as a punishment.

• Subfaction
  • +1 to infantry wizards.

Why are the subfaction abilities so boring in 4th...

Spell:

• empower nadrite weapons
• No longer subject to the rule of one

Units:

• vokmortian
  • Pick an enemy; for the rest of the turn non-fight core abilities cost 1 CA. (once per battle)
    • So, like casting a spell costs 1 CA then? This is confusing.
  • Personal spell: bind an enemy to an ally unit. Whenever the enemy uses an ability against that ally, deal mortal damage.
• SoulMason
  • Spell: give a unit first-strike
• Necropolis stalkers
  • Pick an effect:
    • Command score nonsense...
    • -1 to hit rolls for attacks targeting this unit
    • No ward save for an enemy attacked by this unit
    • get anti-hero
• Mortek crawler
  • 24/4/4+/2+/1/D3+2/anti-infantry, crit(2 hits)
  • Give an enemy you shot at strike last

Spearhead:

• Some units need to stay in reserve
• You get special ossiarch CA points
• Deathriders:
  • Ossiarch CA:
    • can move over infantry as if it can fly
    • Trample damage on a charge

The faction mechanic is fine, assuming that it actually works in practise and doesn't turn out to be too short ranged/limited by the rule of one. Just a shame it rips off CoS.

Aside from that; the units shown give a very blue-mana vibe. They all have abilities that are designed to interupt the enemy (e.g. remove wardsaves, strike-first/last, increase ability cost etc.). It does result in some more interesting rules than most of what we've seen; but blue-mana stuff does tend to be obnoxious for the opponent to suffer through. Especially since there doesn't seem to be much of a downside to any of those rules for the ossiarchs.

Also; this is one of the first faction focusses, where it's become obvious that some parts of the warscrolls are secretly faction abilities. With it explicitly pointing towards the nadrite weapons. Which I guess gives some hope for the factions with the more boring faction abilities; maybe you get lucky and you have a secret faction ability hidden in your warscrolls.

 

[Putzfrau]

Ogors seem to really be the odd army out so far. Everything else has looked pretty nice. Fyreslayers have gotten some great updates, Giants work well and seem to be just more of the same which potentially is going to be very strong with the lack of overall damage we've seen on scrolls. IDK is competing for best looking army so far, and it matches some of the rumors i've heard.

OBR i thought looked great. Flat aura buffs is a much cleaner change and means you have to be a little bit more particular about your hero placement so everything you want isn't getting all the commands you want, whenever you want them. Would have liked to have seen kata or arkhan but it is what it is.

 

[Canas]

DoK:

Faction:

• CA: 1 unit can fight twice. Once per battle. 2nd time it has strike last.
• Blood rites that slowly give buffs over the course of a game, e.g. +1 to run, +1 to hit. Buffs change every turn

The CA is weird. Didn't we see a SCE who had that as a regular ability?
Blood rites is fine, I suppose, but if that's all its a bit limited. Maybe this is another faction where half the faction abilities have moved to the warscroll (e.g. the old army-wide ward might've gone there.)

Subfaction:

• Unmodified charge-rol of 8+ gives melusai and khinerai strike first.

Simple, and a bit boring. But also far more powerfull as a subfaction ability than most of the things we have seen. Even if it is unreliable.

Spells:

• Bladewind:
  • 7 wounds 6+/6++ save/ward. Lol....
  • Reasonable enough melee profile
  • After charging; ignore positive safe modifiers on a nearby model

The charge effect is good, especialy since it isn't limited to just the bladewind. But this also seems to be the extend of what it can do given its horrible defensive stats; which is a bit dissapointing.

Units:

• Morathi khaine (so, elven form)
  
  • +1 to casting
  • Wounds go to the snake form
    
  • Personal spell: swap places with snake form
  • level 3 wizard
• Morathi Snakeform:
  • max 3 damage per turn.
  • Rampage: deal some damage, if it kills something nearby khinerai and melusai get +1 attack.
  • Does not have a damage table
• Sister of slaugher
  • -1 to hitrolls in melee
  • save rolls of 6 deal 1 mortal wound to the attacker
• Heartrenders
  • Deepstrike
  • can move D6 after shooting. Can't move into combat this way.
• Damage profiles are all pretty similar to the old stuff.

Spearhead:

• Simplified bloodrites
• Blood stalkers:
  • 18"/3/3+/4+/1/1/crit (auto-wound)
  • Shooting crits on a 5+ if they didn't move

Surprisingly little changed for these.
I like the normal units. They're simple, but they have enough going on.
The endless spell continues GW's streak of dissapointing with Magic. The effect isn't bad, but it very much seems to be a sacrificial spell you purely use to get that charge effect and then forget about.

Morathi still has the same design flaws she's always had; but without a damage table her ability to tank damage is even more annoying to deal with. You need to deal 12 damage to achieve anything whatsoever, but focusing her down is impossible thanks to her iron heart. Really weird that the damage table is just flat out gone.

Also, GW really needs to show an actually decent wizard. Or at the very least show us a full spell lore or an interesting combo or something, so we can actually tell what the point is of having a level 3 wizard. Cuz based on Morathi's warscroll it doesn't serve any purpose, and it's not like Kairos looked better.

 

[Canas]

Lumineth

Faction:

• 2 units fight at a time mechanic stays
  
• Pick one buff (facet of war) that lasts the entire round. Choose from five buffs
  • I swear we've seen this mechanic on like 4 factions now.
  • One of the few factions that can use the same buff multiple times

Subfaction

• You can use Enduring Rock in addition to a 2nd facet of war as your faction ability

Spells:

• Sanctum of Amyntok
  • Can now be cast on other heroes
    
  • Gives the target +1 power level if it's a wizard, 4+ ward save, dispell it when the target moves.
    
  • An endless spell that can't be destroyed by dealing damage. Because of course the Lumineth need to be special....

Units:

• Ellania and Ellathor
  • Pick which models has the lead:
    • Ellania: 4+ save, +1 power level
    • Ellathor: add damage equal to the battleround to an 5/2+3+/1/2 attack
  • Sudden translocation:
    • If you slayed an enemy heal D6 wounds, then teleport. Ellania must take the lead next turn
  • Total eclipse personal spell:
    • The first CA used within 18" costs an extra CP
• Sevireth
  • Can't be targeted by ranged attacks from more than 9". It's own attack is 12".
    
  • Rampage: Deal damage to enemies its in combat with, -1 to wound rolls if its damaged
  • Nearby Hurukan units can shoot/charge and run/retreat. Also, don't suffer damage from retreating
• Stoneguard:
  • 5+ ward when fully contesting an objective
• Wardens:
  • 2/3+/4+/-/1 anti-charge, crit (mortal)
  • If it didn't charge itself, but was charged, roll a D6, add 1 if the charging unit was cavalry. On a 4+ get strike first

Battle traits:

• Different set of buffs. (facets of war)
• bladelords:
  • Perfect strike remains
  • Flurry of blows: 3/3+/4+/1/1 crit(Mortal) anti-infantry
  • while near the general both the general and the bladelords get a 5+ wardsave

No idea why facets of war exists. The "two units strike at once" is already better than most faction abilities. Nor is it particularly unique or thematic.
No idea why Sanctum of Amyntok is the only endless spell that can't just be destroyed. It's also one of the few (only?) examples of a 4+ ward we've seen so far. Wards have been rather tame so far. I like that you can put it on a different hero than the caster though.

Ellania's and Ellathor's personal spell continues GW's streak of magic just being an utter dissapointment. I don't care if it's powerfull or not, show us an interesting spell already instead of the same effect you've already shown 10 times.

Sevireth just seems obnoxious to deal with; a ranged unit that can't be shot at. If you engage it in melee it damage you & gives -1 to wound. And nearby Hurukan units are massivly buffed just cause, of course this means he buffs himself as well. It just looks increadibly annoying.

Stoneguard are weirdly simple compared to the rest that's shown.

Wardens are fine; but is that strike first really needed? Like it's thematic and all, but also just really obnoxious to play around for melee armies. Especially to stick something like that on the most basic troop there is. At the same time, armies like KO will just shoot them off the table without any problems. Such binary design is never good.

Bladelords seem rather powerfull for spearhead. Aren't spearhead units supposed to be simplified and a bit weaker?

 

[Kilvakar]

Well, Lumineth were massively overtuned when they first released, and their playstyle was always "I get to do all sorts of powerful things that you can't stop, AND I get to stop you from doing what your army wants to do as well." lol!

 

[Canas]

Well, Lumineth were massively overtuned when they first released, and their playstyle was always "I get to do all sorts of powerful things that you can't stop, AND I get to stop you from doing what your army wants to do as well." lol!

Yeah, GW's elven bias seems to continue into 4th edition

 

[Canas]

Slaanesh

Faction

• pick up to 3 targets, they become euphoric
• For each target: give your opponent a temptation die which they can trade in for a roll of 6
• When using a dice, roll a D6 on 1-2 the unit that replaced a die suffers damage
• Remove the remaining dice at the end of a turn
• Euphoric units have: crit(2 hits) and can run and charge/shoot

Seems like they finally realized that temptation dice should be an actual temptation where the victim could get lucky and not suffer.
Unlike the older implementation where the victim suffered regardless of what they did.

Subfaction:

• +1 to hit for sybarite infantry units that are damaged or lost a model

Thematic, but relativly uninteresting mechanicly.

Spells:

• Turn the buff from euphoric into crit(mortal) instead
• No rule of one

Could be worse I guess.

Units:

• Shalaxi hellbane
  • o look, anti-hero on a 6/2+/3+/2/3 attack... seriously does GW not understand the basic concept of "specialization" type rules?
  • -1 to hit rolls in melee
  • Personal spell: +1 to wound rolls against heroes, +1 to save rolls against attacks from heroes
    • A personal spell that's thematic, and has a vaguely interesting mechanic? A miracle
    • Still pretty freaking minor though... the fact that this is limited to a personal spell on a named character really indicates how gutted magic is....
  • Give a unit the ability to fight twice, second time is strike last (I swear we've seen this ability like 5 times now...)
  • Reactive rampage: If an enemy hero charges within 9" (does it need to end within 9" or start within 9"? Unclear.) get a free 2D6 move. You need to end within 1/2" of that hero. That hero no longer counts as having charged, if it has a charge ability it doesn't count either. And shalaxi count as having charged instead
• Fiends
  • melee profile: 4/4+/3+/1/D3 anti-monster (companion)
    • A unit that only has mount attacks basicly? Weird.
  • Give an enemy strike last when in combat
  • -1 to unbinding for enemies wizards within 12". Presumably everything that isn't a wizard but can unbind does not suffer this effect
  • Maximum control score of 1
• Symbaresh twinsoul
  • If this unit didn't charge:
    • enemies get -1 attacks when in combat with it
    • It gets a 5+ ward
• Fane of Slaanesh
  • Deal some damage to a nearby hero in exchange for a minor buff (e.g. +1 to casting)

Spearhead:

• The old depravity point system with the old temptation dice for some reason? But only the buffs, no summoning
• Slickblade seekers: Basic cavalry unit, reroll charge rolls.

So; the faction ability seems an improvement, at least where the tempation dice are concerned. They also removed Shalaxi's stupid challenge mechanic. Though in exchange it now has that weird charge reaction thing.
The fiends only having mount attacks is weird...
Not a fan of the twinsouls out of principle. Debuffing an enemy simply for standing next to him, especially a major debuff like -1 attacks, is always annoying.

The fane of slaanesh is absurdly minor, and it makes me wonder how terrible most faction terrain is going to be.

The spearhead is weird; why is it using the depravity point system and the old temptation dice?

 

[Canas]

Kruleboyz:

faction:

• You can use 1 dirty trick per phase.
• tricks get harder to use the more tricks you use in 1 turn
• Tricks:
  • Charge: pick an enemy that charged, it suffers damage and can't benefit from charge (1 damage)
  • Hero phase: buff an infantry unit, it crits on a 5+
  • Movement: teleport a unit of infantry to a piece of terrain (max 10 models)
  • combat: Give an enemy strike last

Funny & thematic, a bit unoriginal (the it currently works it's basicly just CoS commands. For like the 4th time or something...), but it has potential.
The rule of 1 limitation is a bit sad.
But most importantly; there is no oppertunity cost or way for the opponent to interact with it.
Punish the kruleboyz for failing a trick; give the opponent ways to block tricks, etc.

crits on 6's has been moved to warscrolls, but is basicly just a faction ability.
I really hate that they don't even mention this is in the faction focus. Like just state "all units in this army have this one rule" or something.

Subfaction:

• give kruleboyz stealth while near terrain.

Funny, but most people simply do not play with enough terrain for this to work.
Also, if you do play with a lot of terrain it quickly gets absurdly powerfull in the right circumstances

Spells:

• -1 to attacks for the target
• A support spell with 18" range? How rare..

The spell is fine, but at this point I just want to see an entire lore or a combo. Seeing 1 vaguely interesting spell after seeing so many boring examples is not very exciting.

Units:

• Gobsprakk:
  • Melee profile:
    • 4/3+/4+/-/D3 anti-wizard crit (mortal)
    • 7/4+/2+/1/2 anti-wizard (companion)
    • 1/3+/2+/1/D6 companion
  • Pretty solid for a wizard.
  • barely affected by it's wound table (it losess 2 of it's wewakest attacks.. who cares?)
    
  • Also, the anti-wizard seems a bit of a waste; wizards aren't exactly known for being sturdy. Though at least for once they're using anti-X somewhat correctly.
  • Once per battle use 3D6 to unbind
  • rampage: kill a random model with max 5 wounds.
  • Deal damage to the caster when you unbind succesfully
  • Personal spell:
    • 18" range?
    • Roll dice equal to the targets health (max 10 dice, cuz fun things like oneshotting Nagash isn't allowed...)
    • Deal damage on a 4+
• Killaboss on gnashtoof
  • While contesting an objective nearby infantry get +1 to hit
  • Add some control score to a unit....
  • Melee profile is surprisingly similar to a carnosaur? How bad is our spearhead carno?
• Murknob with belcha-banna
  • nearby allies have a 6++ ward
  • Does mortal damage to a nearby unit
• Gutrippaz
  • give enemies -1 to hit when targetting them in combat

Spearhead:

• Give your general and 1 unit strike first, once
• beast-skewer killbow
  • 24"/2/4+/2+/2/D6 crit (auto-wound)
  • 6 damage instead of D6 against monsters

So; faction ability is fun but doesn't go far enough. And since it doesn't go that far, it ends up being kind of unoriginal.
Subfaction ability is neat, but depends heavily on how you use terrain in your games.
Gobsprakk is one of the few examples with a halfway fun personal spell.
Killaboss makes our carnor look rather bad.
Other than that there isn't really all that much to say.