i don't know stomp, roar, the basti option the steg option we have a lot to get through before we run out
Thanks Erta for bringing it all here. Still reading, but I like what I am seeing. Some pretty bad blunders (GW gonna GW, after all), but there's some nice options and significant variety, and nothing blatantly overpowered that would need changing after four weeks. Back to absorbing more info... (channeling my inner Tyranid here, tasty infomass)
Have only skim read - but I have to say that I thought it was stupid that Saurus Knights only had 8" move. I think it's even more stupid that Aggradons also only have 8" move.
Kixi-Taka, my boy, massacred… His ability isn’t actually that bad, basically stealing an objective an enemy is on top of is pretty solid even if it’s once per game, but stripping away the priest keyword and all his other abilities is pretty bizarre? Especially when the Starblood Stalkers themselves traded their deepstrike and basically everything except the chameleon mortals for the ability to take wounds for him, he’s not a good fighter and his ability is one-and-done so you don’t actually need him around that long unless you’re using him as a battery for free wound/hit rerolls on Klaq-Trok (which admittedly isn’t bad I guess, it basically guarentees he always outputs 10 wounds per turn) but even then it doesn’t really feel worth the nearly 300 points. At least they’re no longer locked to Thunder Lizards, even if they’re still Coalesced and don’t really benefit from anything in either subfaction (apart from Klaq-Trok again, who is just an old blood on foot without the abilities- he’s kind of the only winner out of them.) Personal gripes aside, I think we came out of this book pretty well, a lot of the improved profiles like the Ripper are fun and it feels like there’s a ton of options now (they maybe even made the old-blood on carnosaur good!). I kind of expected Saurus Guard to get shafted since they’re old models that GW probably doesn’t want to sell that much of, but changing it so they can bodyguard ANY hero is great for them
Love how the artefacts in starborne are still named vestments of priesthood without a priest in the whole book
The Engine of the Gods seems pretty bad. For 300 points you can gamble on a 2/3 chance to summon 200 points of Saurus Warriors on turn three....
Welp... time to buy spare saurus warriors and make some generic ones. I have too many banners and drummers now.
I wonder if the text on Telepathic Summons (Coalesced Spell Lore) will get an immediate errata. No "9" away from enemy models" limitation? Poor Skinks. Not much going on with those guys anymore. Chameleon Skinks @135 for 5... Terrawings are even worse? Realmshaper is underwhelming... especially the Coalesced version? Terradon Chieftain is still useless. 6 Terradons deal 6 MW. With the Chieftain ability, it's 10. Which is once per battle, so a single chief can't even babysit several units. For the cost of the Chieftain you get three more regular Terradons. So nine Terradons deal 9 MW. Which have more wounds, more models, more regular damage. Haven't done the math on the Ripperdactyl Chieftain and Scar-Vet on Aggrodon yet, but I feels it's going to be similar. Getting flashbacks to the Loonboss on Giant Cave Squig in the new Gitz battletome. Someone at GW is too stupid to do basic math.
i think thats becouse it's already limmited in placment. same stuff as allways. star priest didn't go any were and the skink lore and leader enhancements are solid. just there to be a wall and somtimes make bights proc mortals on a 4+
What are our thoughts of the winning units in the book so far? Bastis look quite appealing with -3 rend, and while they have less potential output, hitting on 3s might make them more reliable. Skinks look like their time in the sun might be over. Without the bonus attack from being in large numbers, they will never do much except screen. Still thinking about the Saurus. Massed Coalesced warriors will be a hell of an anvil on an objective (at least to anything relying on multi-damage), but won't do a huge amount of damage themselves. Aggradons are weirdly slow and weirdly expensive for what they do. The rage mechanic is fun, but easy to counter. If your opponent is going to kill the Aggradons before they fight, it's worthless. If they're not going to kill / cripple the unit, they can retreat and the rage bonus is gone.
ark actualy does better damage over all and is 65 points cheaper. warriors can be amazing. fully buffed they are looking at 3 2" 3/2/-3/1
So Scar-Vet on Aggrodon... his once per game ability still only affects one unit. Damn. 9 models, two melee profiles each, so 18 bonus attacks from the ability. The Scar-Vet himself deals 5.2 damage for 170, another three Aggradons would deal 9.4 for 210, so 32/22 points per point of damage respectively, which isn't too hot for the Scar-Vet on first glance. But the 18 bonus attacks convert to 9.1 damage for the alpha strike. Looks like a sidegrade, so at least you are not shooting yourself in the foot by using him. Needs to have a Saurus General, though. Not worth it if Aggradons can only be reinforced once. /edit: Made a mistake, corrected.
Wohoo, guard get to guard other heroes. Finally they get to be more than a glorified slann upgrade. Personal spell of the slann seems somewhat odd, it's not bad, but why a purely defensive spell only for himself? The new way of getting summoning points is better. Involving more characters and actual gameplay. Ark of sotek finally seems like they finally thought of a profile that might actually be usefull for once. Troglodon seems like it might actually have a niche with it's debuffs now. It's personal spell is a bit underwhelming though. Spawn of Chotec is weird as artillery, it's at it's best in melee or at medium range? Kroak still has the exact same issues he's always had.
I for one am happy that Saurus Warriors finally got that second wound, and that the big dinos got tougher. Having to rely on subfaction rules was gimmicky as all hell and, given the trends seen in other factions over this past edition, it was inevitable that stuff like that would get sequestered away from the subfactions and baked into unit profiles. Same with that really annoying horde bonus for Saurus, and I'll also accept the changes to Jaw attacks quite readily since they were pretty garbage up to this point. That's not exactly me cheering on my own vindication for keeping my three 30-saurus spear phalanxes as they are, but anything that allows me to forego relying solely on chaff (aka skinks) to have a competitive edge while still having fun is a major win as far as I'm concerned.
Well I am excited to teleport a troglodon into the middle of my opponents line up turn one and have kroak fry any small heros and chip units down to size. 4 spells with 3 targets at D3 mortal wounds it a ton. Troglodons look like a pain to deal with between redeploy, healing and stench. Summoning points seem a lot easier to get and doesn't seem too hard to get a free spawn of chotec on turn 2 Free redeploys is going to be really good. Looking forward to playing fangs.
I'm reading right now the Coalesced artefacts: worms, crystal skull and even the coatl from the Slann kit are all included here! I love this kind of details. So far this tome is MAGIC.