I see... Yeah, from a certain pov is disappointing, because it flattens somehow the magic phase. Of course, there are the unique spells that each army got, so there's still variety, but not the huge range of possibilities we were used to. The 2 positive things in this (IMO) are: the system is easier for beginners and favors easy play, AND magic finally is no more that thing that in 8th was able to turn the tide by itself. Because frankly, i don't miss battles losed by an irresistible purple sun or a 13th.
mm, I like the simplicity of the magic system in so much that it's a fairly quickphase to go through and casting doesn't require you to know complex rules. But I do think it lacks a bit in terms of variety, power & specialisation of the wizards themselfs. It doesn't look like you'd be able to field a army where your power lies in the mages with the rest of the troops just being meatshields to keep them safe while they bombard/banish/cc the enemy into oblivion with how simple the current system is. Admittadly 1 spell turning the tide of battle would be the other extreme, but right now it feels like a single mage won't ever be able to do much. At the very least it needs to buff a second unit and then have that second unit rampage through the enemy.
Having played a few games now with my Seraphon and what is holding me back to purchase a Slann is the amount of available spells. With the 3th rule of one, most supporting spells can also be cast by my Skink starpriest. Leaving the Slann cast-wise useless. But looking at all the other units, there are a lot of decent synergies between them. Which help a lot in dealing with treats. Get those camoskinks and notice the difference
Since the general's handbook vame out I have used my slann less and less, but still a great unit to have. Chameleons however are a fantastic investment. You will get a lot of mileage out of them.
Yeah, chamo skinks seem the way to go, though I'l have to figure out a way for them to safely assasinate ranged guys given how squishy they are. Even with the save bonus from terrain using them to take out a proper ranged unit seems like it's liable to end in half your chameleons dead from return fire (unless you're Lucky and wipe out the target). Especially if the chameleons are the only ones that are a real threat to the ranged unit you target. And that's provided your opponent doesn't take the hint & stays out of range of terrain. They do seem wonderfull if you can summon back the losses or against melee targets though. Also given what I know of the rule of one (still need to get that book or find a pdf, only noticed it existed after ordering a bunch of stuff...) I think I'l ignore it and instead use a house variant that simply stops you from stacking buffs upon buffs (e.g. a unit can ony be under the effect of 1 mystic shield, so you can't just stack a bunch of shields and have a guaranteed save), but you can cast one on unit 1 and another on unit 2. Rule of one seems to make a magic focussed army completly impossible, and I don't like that..
A magic based army while nerfed you might find works better if you add some battlemages or other order mages to expand on the spells. The slann with the constellations would definitely be an asset there.
It just seems weird that I can't take 5 mages of type X to cause havoc by having them all lob fireballs at my opponent, or each of them casting mystic shield so my entire frontline is buffed instead of just 1 out of the 5 units forming the frontline. The fact that you need 5 different mages just to have them even be able to actually cast a spell and not just stand around all day is a bit odd.. Also, it seems to me that outside of the empire with their battlemages who can specialise in various spells noone really has the variaty in spells to actually pull that off easily. And the empire isn't exactly the most magical of factions. So it's a bit odd.
You do have great points. I honestly thought that GW would have come out with character warscrolls for different Leaders. Like take you generic Skink priest and make him High priest so and so and give him a specialized spell or an oldblood, give him a name and a different profile with a new command ability. Which would get you more bang for your buck, plus add new depths to the armies. Especially the ones that haven't had the luxury of new models ir a new book
Agreed, we have all the named characters that died during the end of the warhammer world, along with everyone else, now the Slaan summon the rank and file back but they can't remember the named characters? Literally doesn't fit the lore that GW have given us for the Seraphon. Given they didn't do that then yeah even basic characters which we could upgrade with some weaponry or spell, etc. would be great. The problem is I think GW oversimplified AoS, like there is no depth to the armies at all, like here's a unit, they all take either clubs or spears, some have drums, some have banners, one is the leader, except some is never defined so you could give it to all of them and still be within the rules, don't pay any extra points for doing so, your leader gets an extra attack and that's about it, no further upgrades. I understand WFB and 40K can get stupidly complex with 1pt for this, 2pts for that and so on but AoS is too simple and removes so much that I do understand why some people refuse to play it.
Yeah, customisation seems limited in AoS. It does make the entry level for playing a bit lower, but it's unlike it's going to stop people from crushing newbies with optimized armies. Also I have another question. I got quite a lot of limbs left over from the saurus warriors I build, is there any real use to them or a way to get a bunch of bodies from somewhere outside of scouring ebay and praying someone is randomly selling just bodies?
Mm, but no (semi-)official sellers? Odd, especially given the large amount of spare or interchangeable parts that ship with most units. Any other way to utilitze them? At least the left over skink oracle formed a full guy that I could stick on a base, unlike the 40-odd arms, shields & heads I now have left for warriors (but no bodies...)
You are not wrong, but despite the semplifications, many factions can offer a decent amount of magic. Tomb Kings' liche priests, have just a single personal spell, however I can field 3 of them and have all of them casting something different each round (they also know spells that let them heal warstatues and raise dead models). A Tzeentch army can probably cast 7-8 different spells each round. Orc armies can have a nice selection of different damage spells. That said, yes, magic variety has been nerfed in AoS and it has been furtherly weakened by the rule of one (which was a sort of necessity, to stop certain lists with arcane bolt spam). Magic in AoS is decisely a mere support of the army, the only army where magic can be the backbone is probably just Tzeentch.
Sadly not, I don't know if you've been around in the hobby long enough or not but Games Workshop used to have a massive parts ordering service, you could literally order anything you wanted from the tiniest metal component up to complete plastic sprues but they stopped that in 2007. Lord knows why as it was such a useful service and from personal experience saw frequent use. I can only imagine it was a cost cutting measure since they don't do metal models any more and they'd rather you buy a whole new box than individual sprues anyway. Perhaps with new GW starting to listen to their customers they'll bring the Bitz service back but who knows.
Meh, I get that they'd rather you buy a new box, but then I don't get why I currently have like 25 saurus warrios heads left. Which essentially means I got 50% more heads than I have bodies. Seems a bit wastefull, at least the arms with clubs I could potentially have used instead of the spears. but these heads I couldn't even have used if I wanted to. Ah well...
Yeah from my memory of the sprue they give you six heads for four bodies. One is intended as the Alpha while there other is for a little more variation. But yeah I understand the frustration of wasted plastic. I find myself equally frustrated with how much open space some sprues have to the point they could have easily fitted another complete man in but didn't. The warrior body sprue is one of them that could actually fit another two bodies on with only minor movement of other pieces. Given that they design in digital these days you'd think sprue efficiency would be higher than it is.
Mostly it annoys me cuz at this point I have a box full of spare parts that I'm not sure what to do with. Especially cuz a lot of them are so frustratingly close to being a full model. For example I got an oldblood on foot for which all I'm missing is his tail/back from the starter set. Having one or two spare arms on 50 guys, sure, having half my model's worth in spare parts but not a single complete one is kind silly though....
Only thing I could recommend is use them somehow... I use shields and weapons that are left over for scenery and terrain and for basing... So you can at least use so of the plastic you bought... For body parts... Have you heard about green stuff? ...but even if you are good at sculpting you will always end up with a big box of left over parts...
Yeah the oldblood annoys me. Entirely different parts for the foot model but uses the same body. Someone did contact me here but never heard more from them. I still may try taking a mold and casting one myself as I want to buy the model but I want some variation in my army too.
Put them on Goblin spears and banners It is very annoying the amount of "spares" you are left with, I have a complete plastic drawer full of bits!