Thunderlizard looks like fun. I never played warhammer fantasy but I remember an old edition being dubbed "hero hammer" is there any concern over a meta moving towards "age of heroes" instead of sigmar? or are these all nice, fresh benefits to monsters and heroes
Man, that Roar.... That's so good. Already I can see the Dread having a place with these. Use the Monster roar to pick a unit you want to kill (a mob/horde even) and then in the BS phase, RoR to halve their Bravery. Now they can't be Battleshock immune, and they're halved -1. I'm pretty hyped to try that Dread and Double Carno list I've been kicking around.
i see cheep monsters going in a lot of lists just because of roar. primarily as a defensive ability but also if you need to crack a nut like saaaaay fyreslayers
Hero's that have the monster keyword are also going to be pretty valuable, since they can benefit and use both of these new rules. Perhaps the rumors of the points in Kragnos being for the new edition were not so bunk after all. Doesn't mean they're well done of course.... The leadership hero ability is interesting too. It's not glamorous, but it's one you can use consistently. Could give more gas to Koatl's Lists. Wish it was a 3+ instead of a 4+ though.
Neat. Though why are there only 4 monstrous rampages yet there's still a rule of one. Bit awkward for some of the monster-mash lists that go over 4 monsters. Also, some more variaty there would've been nice. Also, why does this yet again involve a rule breaking terrain? Who plays with enough terrain for these things to be all that relevant outside of a handfull of games? And does heroic recovery not work if you roll higher than your bravery? So its basicly useless in say skaven and grot armies? While in say starborne and daemon armies it adds D3 healing to basicly all heroes?
Its best to temper expectations. Unless monsters get more survivable, i dont see their usage numbers changing much. Well everyone should have been. AoS 2.0 was balanced around tables with 40k levels of terrain. 10-12 pieces of different sized Terrain that would have special rules and be garrisonable, and block los. We played this way at our lgs and it made the game so much better. Most people did not play this way however, and it made some stuff stupid oppressive. That was one of AoS 2.0's greatest failures.
How do you even fit 10-12 pieces of terrain + two armies at 2K on the table, especially if you're using horde armies? And that's ignoring the fact that most of the small terrain is fairly irrelevant ruleswise. So there's little point in breaking their warscroll. Having 3-4 terrain pieces with relevant warscrolls already seems like a lot, and at least one of those is probably your own faction terrain.
Terrain has always made the game better. And yet people continue to play without it. Pretty easily, since most horde armies aren't rigid like they were in WHFB. Blobs conform to the shape of the vessel they're put into/around. That and the terrain can be a wide range of things. They're not all uniform size and shape, so it would also depend on that.
Honestly, that makes it worse. It allows hordes to have an absolute massive footprint, quickly resulting in a very full table.
I see KC more interesting now that Leaders can issue a command. Are you being charged to your Saurus and no Leader is on their way? Just issue +1 to hit as you did a charge or even a 2nd round. Now, even FoS skinks can make a suicide entrance: buff 'em, teleport them on your movementy phase and shoot. Next turn their are gonna be charged, Parting Shot on your face. I'm still crafting a TL with Kroak, I think I'll be making two, one with a Thunderquake and another with the Stampede, to have two Primal Warbeast.
Some of these changes are really good / interesting. 3.0 it's going to change a lot the gameplay, lists composition and even balance of certain armies, that's for sure