GW News: Lizard preview #NewAoS

I've stopped engaging with posts or people speaking with that mentality. It was the hip and cool thing to use AoS as a personal privy during the terrible launch, but after the subsequent releases and the game actually became solid with its rules, it just reeked of fanaticism, and an inability to accept that the original opinion is no longer valid.

Not to say that AoS is a perfect game, it has its issues... and what we've had with this 4th edition has had me frowning in some concern, as its not quite ticking my boxes (but I am withholding judgement for the actual release and when I have a copy of the rulebook in hand)... but that's the joy of letting myself like multiple things and not sticking myself firmly to a single ruleset, I can simply... switch to Kings of War if the fancy tickles me. Or The Old World. Or OnePageRules. Or heck, maybe if Steamforged Games do a good job with their relaunch of Warmahordes, I might give that a try.

 

Probably the wiser approach

 

Anyways; Slaves to darkness:

faction:

• recieve blessings from the gods after killing something. Beasts and non-hero monsters can't be blessed
  
  • No rule of one limtation? A miracle.
    
  • roll a dice, get a buff. You can re-roll but if the re-roll is a 1 you suffer damage
    
  • buffs:
    • heal
    • +1 to hit
    • 6+ ward, or a 5+ if you already have a ward
    • +1 to rend (companion attacks are not excluded?)
      
    • Pick an effect you'd like
  • Effects last the entire battle, and stack
• Marks of chaos:
  • Pick a mark when list building, some units have a predefined mark (e.g. belakor is undivided)
    
  • undivided +1 to wound against monsters & heroes
  • Khorne +1 attack when charged
  • Tzeentch 4+ ward against mortal wounds from spells and endless spells (so regular attacks from endless spells don't get protected? bit silly)
  • Nurgle -1 to wound defensivly
  • Slaanesh +1 to run & charge

A miracle; fun & thematic rules and they're also fairly decent.

Subfaction:

• defile an objective you contest
• Then deal damage to enemies near defiled objectives

Also surprisingly fun & thematic. However, it needs clarification if you can defile the same objective twice.
Also; depending on the number and layout of objectives this is either quite good, or quite terrible.
The fact that you can only defile 1 objective per turn kinda sucks. Would be nice if you could spread the tokens more easily.

Spells:

• give a unit an extra dice when charging
• 12" range

It's fine... Given that you cast it before moving and it's a charge buff the short range isn't as much of a problem. Still not terribly inspired though.

Units:

• Belakor:
  • Very reliable profile (8/3+/3+/2/2 crit (auto-wound) and 2/2+/2+/2/2 charge (+1 damage))
  • Ignore safe roll modifiers
  • Rampage: strike-first for belakor and some allies
  • Dark master remains
  • Personal spell: -1 to hit & crit-rules don't work. Has 18" for some reason.
• Daemon prince:
  • 6/3+/3+/1/3 crit (mortal) is pretty solid
    
  • Can have a trophy rack or wings:
  • Wings: fly & +2" move
  • trophies: weapon gets anti-hero
  • Ability: bless a non-hero unit using the faction ability
  • No wound table
  • 3+ save
• chaos knights:
  • +1 rend and +1 damage on the charge for its lance
  • 3+ save
  • Again, pretty reliable profile: (Lance: 3/3+/3+/1/1 Hooves: 2/5+/3+/-/1)
• Marauders:
  • 2/4+/3+/-/1
  • +1 to rend FOR THE REST OF BATTLE if it charges with a natural 8+
  • while near a darkoath hero: deal mortal wounds when a model dies

Spearhead:

• Tweaked Blessings; but they don't stack
• Chaos warriors:
  • 3+ save
  • 2/3+/3+/1/1
  • +1 to wound against enemies that control an objective you don't contest

So; definitly an above average reveal.
The blessings are nice & fluffy. Having them last the entire game is nice. And most importantly; the mechanic isn't immeadiatly undercut by a rule of one style limitation. Watching units become truly blessed throughout a game is an great idea.
The daemon prince being able to bless as well is cool.
Belakor's personal spell is having anti-crit on top of a boring -1 to hit is great. That anti-crit actually has fun interactions if you throw it on the right target.
Marauders are honestly kinda cool for basic canonfodder.
Chaos warriors being specificly good at taking objectives is a nice touch.

O, and they got rather good stat-lines.

 

Ironjawz:

Faction:

• Move a unit 3" once per turn
  
• Pick a hero; +1 to charge and +1 attacks for orks near that hero. Once per battle.

I guess the simplicity fits with orks? Terribly boring though.

Subfaction:

• Natural charge of 8+ get an extra attack permanently for non-heros.

If this stacks, it's reasonably thematic. Fits the whole "waagh" nonsense.
On the flipside; this can also quickly become stupidly oppressive if you get lucky a couple of turns in a row.

Spells:

• The millionth spell with 12" range, a casting value of 6, and a basic buff as its effect. Such an unexpected reveal.

Seriously, what is the point of showing a spell for each faction if they're all going to be so similar?

Units:

• Gordrak:
  • rampage: half the companion attacks for a monster.
  • +1 to hit for nearby orks after you use a WAAAGH ability
    • Once per game
    • The only waagh ability shown is the +1charge +1 attack faction ability
  • If it damages a unit, and that unit is destroyed by the end of the turn; +1 attack. Stacks up to +3 attacks.
• warchanter:
  • if it kills something get some extra ritual points for your prayers
    
  • Their old beats abilities are now prayers
  • That's it. The warscroll is basicly empty.
• Brutes:
  • 1 in 5 models has a bigger axe
  • Enemy units with a health of 1 or 2 can't hold contest while fighting brutes
• Maw-grunta
  • when it runs or charges it gains momentum max of 3 momentum
  • +1 damage to its tusk for each momentum (5/4+/2+/2/2 baseline)
  • Lose 1 momentum at the end of a round
  • Rampage: Can move in combat; does not count as retreating; does damage to enemies.

No spearhead, cuz the ork spearhead is kruleboyz. But GW swears its two different factions.

I guess the maw-grunta is vaguely interesting with its momentum minigame and its ability to just run rampant using its rampages.

Brutes being able to stop units with 1 or 2 health from contesting objectives is stupid. Applying the bullying of lesser greenskin to external factions isn't great. It might work with a random human, but like an SCE or Saurus really shouldn't be impressed by a brute trying to bully them.
Also it seems rather powerfull to be able to stop 90% of units from contesting objectives at no real cost.

 

As another alternative to stompy brutes than monster mash dinos, I am actually pretty shocked by how simple and boring the Ironjawz battle traits are. I guess it makes me much happier at how fortunate the Seraphon were with their traits. However, I'm particularly jealous of how good the maw-crusha is compared to our Oldblood

 

Sylvaneth:

Faction:

• Heal units near forests
• Teleport a unit in combat using forests
• Teleport a unit that's not in combat using forests

Teleports happen at different moments, so you could teleport one unit back and forth.
Nothing exciting, but it's fine.

Important note; you can only use "friendly" forests. So in a mirror matchup you won't get anything extra.

The heal being able to affect unlimited units is good I guess.

No mention of starting the game with any forests is a bit weird.

Subfaction:

• Monsters heal 3 instead of D3 with your faction heal

How boring. Also, you have a grand total of 2 monsters that aren't named characters. So this is totally going to encourages varied and interesting lists....

Spell:

• Place a forest, or heal all forests if you already have 3 forests.
• Unlimited casts

I guess it's a better spell than most of what we've seen. So that's something.
Shame that it's basicly mandatory, as there don't seem to be any other ways of generating forests.
Also, being able to heal damage or just immeadiatly summon back destroyed forests really undercuts the destructable terrain mechanic.
This might be one of the few spells where a rule-of-one style limitation is actually good.

Units:

• Allarielle
  • Spear has a similar profile to every other hero.
  • The beetle's antlers hurt. 6/4+/2+/2/4. Seems excessive.
  • Start of a turn: pick one effect; +1 to casting, heal 2D3 wounds
  • Personal spell: deal 2D3 damage, if you destroy the target, you can immeadiatly use the summon forest spell
  • Ressurect destroyed units at halfstrength in forests on a 4+; if you ressurect a monster give it 8 wounds
  • rampage: do some damage on the charge
• Spirit of Durthu
  • Ranged attack: 12"/5/4+/3+/1/2
  • Melee: 4/3+/2+/2/5 (anti-monster) and 2/4+/2+/2/3 crit (mortal)
  • rampage: give a monster -1 attack
  • +1 to hit if the target is near a forest
• Spite-revenants
  • stop enemies from using command abilities
• Spiterider lancers
  • Heal 3 per turn
  • Strike fast on a 3+ if you charged
  • 3/3+/4+/1/1 charge (+1 damage) anti-cavalry
  • 3/4+/3+/1/1 charge (+1 damage)

Spearhead:

• modified heal & teleport to compensate for the lack of forests in spearhead.
• Kurnoth hunters bows:
  • 18"/2/3+/3+/1/2
  • 6++ ward while contesting an objective

Well, the forest mechanics aren't surprising. Though the fact that they can just immeadiatly resummon (or heal) them with little to no limitations seems a bit much. It's thematic for them with the wild growth and all that; but it does mean that destroying them isn't really going to be worth the effort a lot of the time.

Allarielle literally just has a better version of the slann summoning/ressurecting mechanic.
Her personal spell is great. This is the first personal spell that's actually cool.
Her damage output seems a bit much. Especially with the much more limited damage tables in 4th (she'll lose 2 attacks when damaged...)
The fact that every single hero seems to get more or less the same attack profile for their main weapon is getting a bit stale though. This should have more variation.

Both she, Spirit of Durthu & the ironjawz Gordrak make our carnosaur look a bit sad as a monster killer.

Spiteriders seem pretty solid.

The spite-revenants are pretty boring.

 

Khorne:

Faction:

• Blood tithe points
• Effects:
  • Unbind a spell, 2 points.
  • +1 attack permanently, or summon a dead bloodthirster 8 points
  • move 3" 1 point
  • Do some damage 3 points
  • +1 rend permanently 6 points
• Only use 1 effect per turn

Its thematic, but unless there are other ways to get (way more) points this is kind of terrible for a faction mechanic, at least as the sole mechanic. Especially in certain matchups.

Subfaction:

• Have a mortal unit fight immeadiatly after a daemon unit fights. Once per turn

Fine I guess.

Prayers:

• Summon hexgorgers skulls
• GW doesn't actually show the warscroll for hexgorgers skulls

Well, this is a new low.... whats the point of this?

Units:

• Bloodthirster of rage
  • 5/3+/2+/2/5 anti-infantry
  • Crits do an extra D3 damage
    
  • Rampage do some damage, if its infantry do more damage
• Bloodletters:
  • Ress D3 units when in combat each turn
• Karanak:
  • 6/4+/3+/1/2 anti hero
  • Pick a hero to be prey
  • If the hero moves during regular movement, karanak moves closer to the hero
  • +2 to charge for fleshhounds, fleshhounds ignore the "beast" rule.If only we knew what that meant.
• Blood warriors:
  • do some damage when they die
  • 3/4+/3+/1/1 or 3/4+/3+/2/2 for the ones with a big axe (1 in 10 models)

The spearhead is mentioned but doesn't actually show any warscrolls or anything.

Well... this is a definitly a new low. They seem to have forgotten to actually write significant parts of the article.....
As for the actual rules; I like the bloodletters ressurecting while in combat, that's a neat touch. That's about it.
What a terrible faction focus.

 

Getting the impression they've burnt themselves out with writing all these focuses back-to-back, and if they've been writing them only days beforehand (unlikely but possible given corporate mandate) then they might also be reading opinions that are discouraging then.

Honestly, I'd have preferred the faction focuses be drawn out over a longer period and not be so... Meh. But as I said earlier, everything about this new edition hasn't been ticking the right boxes for me, so that meh was purely my subjective take.

Objectively though, this focus was worse than meh.