Been/is busy. Will see if i have the time before Monday Obviously anything I write is considered not official and nothing, but personal ideas/thoughts.
Slighly random ramblings from a Taco (nothing to do with me being an ExB). Also this is a lot so not something that could be done in a small update Magic items needs to be looked into. They're boring and to me (as a former AS member) it was clear that the former ABC wanted more power instead of items that made sense to the army. Special rules Born Predator (possibly change name): The model may perform 1 attack at base strenght, using the models WS. Magic items: Sword of Dawn Ages - not a fitting name. Revert back to AP1 and MW2. Reduce price to appropriate and attractive level. Change name to something like "sword of a thousand teeth" Steggy helmet - impact hit on infantry model? Meh. Perhaps remove IH and add "models charging the wearer and who are in base contact takes a dangerous terrain test" (possibly on both 1 and 2, but this may make it very potent against chariots..). The reroll 1s magic item to be changed into a WHFB 8th Tetto'Eko variant, including the negative part. Banner changed into something Saurian Warriors may use - so a maximum of 25pts. I've thought about: Totem of the Apex Predator: When the unit charges it receives +2M to it characteristics (so not when pursuiting). This would allow M6 SWs when they charge (or M7 if with the corresponding totem), M9 raptor raiders. Add a magic that grants the wearer poisoned close combat attacks. The bolt thrower bow to gain poison. Perhaps reduce to S5 and reduce price accordingly. IMO poison is one of the key elements of our army - why was it ever removed from the bolt thrower on the taurosaur? Characters: Reduce attack of Saurian Characters by 1. They still have 5 attacks in total due to the BP special rule. They no longer reroll so: Price can be dropped on the model Great weapon is no longer the same issue and price can be dropped Saurian Characters should first and foremost be tough as hell. I can live without a reroll with the right price. Caiman Hero gets changed into a Caiman lord. The characer may not be joined by other characters or RnF units and have the special rule Not a Leader. The model may ambush from any piece of terrain (or possibly just water/forest terrain). The Caiman Lord have WS5, S6, T5, 5W, 5A. Scaly Skin 4+ and comes with a great weapon. Born Predator. Cuatl: That's a major one IMO. The guy doesn't have to be the "OMFG bestetz wizard evahhh!". It's to me much more important that the guy is versatile, flexible and FUN. Some things: No "this item cost 80% of your discipline allowance". In general the disciplines are cheaper and as such "weaker", but allow for greater flexibility Ancient Taruosaur mount option. "eternal guardians" discipline: the cuatl is born by templeguards and gain +4W, +8A with TG characteristic. Model must be placed in front rank (I haven't given this any deeper thoughts, but I like the overall concept and it allow people to bring back their old model). A discipline allowing the Cuatl to exchange its 4+ ward to Magic Resistance 3. Give back Ethereal discipline. Remove some disciplines and change others. Skink Priest to gain back BS5. Option to become camo chief with camo skink special rules and a blowpipe that does 4 shots. Core: Skink "Skirmishers": Units of 10 models. May take additional 5 models at X pts. May pick one upgrade Skirmish Poison Skirmish & poisoned javelins Skink Braves: Units of 10 skinks and 1 caiman, may tak another 30 skinks at X pts and for every 10 skink you must take 1 caiman. Combined Strenght special rule changed so that skinks are hit at -1 (which will make all units without lightning reflexes hit them on 5+, which cannot be made worse). Caimans can be hit as normal and may still be place anywhere in the unit. Skink do not have any ranged weapons. Upgrades: additional hand weapons poisoned melee attacks My conclusion is that the idea to have a big unit if of combat skinks is just not worth it. They'd need T3 and IMO T2 is a trait of the skinks that shouldn't be messed with. Yeah, they're squishy, but it's part of the deal. Saurian Warriors: -1 A. Born Predator. Price drop to make them attractive. 1pts spears because you now do not reroll and do not have 2A on front models. Jaguar & Crocodile Totem: Any characters joining the unit receive these benefits for free. Allow up to 40 models in a unit. Special Caimans: Either drop Attacks to 2 + born predator in conjunction with a considerable price reduction or remain at 3 with Born Predator in conjunction with a (slight) price increase. Templeguards, drop attacks to 1. Considerable price drop, because they'd be WS4 with 1 S4 & 1 S5 attack. Allow TGs to upgrade to great weapons. Allow up to 35 models in a unit. Remove Raptor Riders from Special and add to Rare. Remove "+1 To Hit" on blowpipes and add it as a special rule specifically to the Hunters. Call it "Big Game Hunters" or whatever. It's more fluffy that way. Change bound spell on the +WS Shield Turtle into the Luminos Bolts spell from Path of White. That's more in line with the WHFB 8th Bastiladon magic missile. Rare Make Spearbacks and Salamanders two units. Do something so that Salamanders aren't OP because that's what people are saying. Whenever this guys hit they hit like a truck due to the moving template. Spearbacks to not roll on a misfire table, but instead do a D3 roll and remove a "skink snack". May buy +1 skink snack. When all (3 or 4) skink snacks have been removed you remove the Spearback. When in a unit of 2 models you keep track of each spearback (so they do not have a shared pool, but a pool each). Raptor Riders to receive +1W on the Raptor. Reduce armour by 1. So that they're 2W with AS3+. Taurosaurs to have poison on their bolt throwers. Possibly S5.
A few comments about the above: It's obviously not complete, but rather the rough idea I have in my head. Many point adjustments would have to be done. Furthermore the idea is to make saurian warriors and templeguards cheaper so they feel less like the dangerous investment they do now. Perhaps something like 80pts for basic SW of 10 models and 10pts for any additional models, which along with spears at 1pts result in a decent price reduction. Templeguards would need a cheap entry price as well. Something like 90pts for 10 followed by 12pts/model following that. No rerolls and less S5 attacks is imo quite a nerf, but now they cost 330pts for 30 models compared to 430pts we pay right now. I'd put great weapons at 2pts/model, since again - no rerolls and still only 1S6 attack/model from front rank. I think it's very much worth considering the weaker models if it allow us to field considerably cheaper units.
I have to say I like most of what you are suggesting! But I am not a big fan of the changed Born Predator. While making them cheaper and gaining weapon options is nice, I just feel that it would make the rule very complicated and it would be a bit of a nerf to some of the units forcing you to take one of the weapon upgrades. For instance, what would the point be in running TG with Halberd (1 S4 + 1 S5) or Great Weapon (1S4 + 1S6). Also how would initiative fare with this attack in case of Great Weapon? Does the S4 hit go first (at their I) and the Great Weapon hit last? Reducing Caimen attacks to 2 +1 at base S would be a pretty big nerf (even with price decrease). I feel that these guys are in a good place right now and shouldn't really be changed a lot. Same issue with GW and their Ini. Increasing their price to have the same amount of attacks + BP could be nice, but I am afraid that price increase would be too much. What happens to other models that have the Born Predator rule but do not use weapons? Would make for a bit of a strange wording and rule, losing an attack on the profile, but gaining one because of the BP rule? Personally I think we could give them a Born Predator but with a twist. For instance for the Carnosaur: -1 A; Born Predator: model gains 1 Attack with the MW D3 rule. Would bring fluffyness back to Carnosaurs IMO. Also look at the practical side of it: first rolling for the S5 / Spear attacks. Then rolling for the S4 attacks. Or, first rolling the S4 attacks and then the S6 attacks (in case of GW). You will be rolling dice more often and you will have to apply different modifiers which in the end can be pretty confusing. Curious to see what other people think
I think the thing I'm seeing here is that our units (some, not all) are overpriced for what they do and that's the bottom line. Slight point cost reduction across the board might be enough to balance it out, who knows. I think born predator is fine where it is honestly, rerolling ones is pretty good, but it's not the same as hatred, and I kinda feel like we are being charged for having hatred. The raptor riders definitely suffer from never getting their attacks in - perhaps take away the second attack from the mount and give them something like Lance of Bone - +1 str and +2 Initiative on the charge. Looking specifically at core compared to other armies - we have pretty limited choice, thus the request to add the knights to core (I would assume that the raptors are common enough in the jungle that at some point a lustrian army was comprised of a good amount of them). This still gives us a great amount of special choices, and adds a new layer to build variety. Personal nitpick - why does the baby carno have frenzy but the alpha doesn't? Can we just nix the frenzy altogether? >.> Take everything I say with much salt though, since I've only played a couple games so far with the current LM.
Giving the Raptor riders raptors : Born Predator might be something to consider. it sets up Combo Wombo stuff with Snake Altar and stygiosaurs. even if the issue is Survivability, it can be offset by more aggression. i'm feeling that skinks without poisened attacks might not be an issue. they have multiple ways of getting poisen. Carnosaurs should have mount's protection. Alpha Carnosaurs should get frenzy. Disciplines should be able to be taken regardless of other disciplines taken. Stygiosaurs are too cheap for what they offer. Temple Guards, should be able to take totems. like the warriors. These are my own opnions made after some 5-6 games. against Wotdg and the woodelfs and Vampires.
For info: the SA staff will look through this thread, so if you have any direct info you want them to know, feel free.
Just noticed... Why does our caiman champion have more attacks than a caiman ancient? Also - Why exactly are the baby carno mounts so expensive compared to things like the wyvern or tusker? O&G Wyvern may be 20 points more (for a hero, it's actually 15pts cheaper than our carno on a lord), but it can fly, doesn't have frenzy (which imo is more of a detriment than any sort of boon - frenzy that is) and has a higher weapon skill, not to mention a smaller base. I'm not complaining, just trying to understand why things are priced like they are. The tusker is a mere 40 pts and is arguably better than the carno. Proposed changes -Give caiman ancient 1 more attack at least. I like the idea of a caiman lord added in as well. - Remove frenzy from baby carnos (doesn't make sense to me why they'd have it anyway), reduce cost by 10-15pts to match up with other lord level mounts more closely. OR, remove frenzy and give it +1 ws and leave it the same cost. - Caiman upgrade for braves reduced to 45 pts instead of 50..we already have to buy more skinks, why make these cost 5 pts more than normal ones? it doesn't make much sense. - Give caimans access to totems perhaps, instead of the +1 armor save, reduce upgrade to 5 pts per model. Gives a little more variety and flavor. - Cuatl lord - this guy is just too expensive. Every time I try to build a list around him, there is something else I can do that gives me practically the same thing for less. It feels like this guy got overly punished for being a decent caster in 8th. I'll add more as I study through the different army books and ours.
Characters: It seems weird that one of the carnosaur has frenzy and the other doesn't. These should probably be the same (would prefer no frenzy). It feels weird that the baby carnosaur doesn't provide any mount's protection. That being said the model is already to expensive for what you get, so I'd rather not get mount's protection if it would mean increasing the cost Core skinks: Poison Jav and Skirmish should not be mutually exclusive. Even if it means changing the current entry to something like: May choose (one choice only): Replace Javelin for Poisoned Javelin 2 / model Skirmish (max 15 skinks and no Caimans) 2 / model Both of the above 5 (or 6) / model Give bows the option to be poisoned. Back when skinks came with bows they were always poisoned, seems very weird to not even have the option now. Core Saurus: May be fine as is, but they probably cost a touch too much for what you get. Making the unit 80(or 85) pts base + 10pts /model seems reasonable. At 1 pt/model for spears I'm not even sure I'd take them very often so 2 pts seems silly. Special Temple Guard: Feel very overcosted for what you get Special Caimans: Seems very strange that this unit has access to a standard bearer and musician. Special Raptor Riders: Feel overcosted for what you get. How is a raptor not a born predator? The idea of making this core is popular (though truthfully I'm not personally a huge fan). If you do it I'd suggest making it so that only 1 unit of raptor riders can be core and maybe also cap the size of the unit taken at core to a smaller unit size. Special Rhamphodon: Seems counter intuitive that the rhamphodon isn't a born predator Special Thyroscutus: Burning Brightness kind of blows... can we get something that does more than tickle the enemy here? I'd be fine paying a bit more points for it. Rare Salamander and Stygiosaur Can probably cost a few more points - especially if it means making our shittier unit types a bit cheaper A few general comments The current born predator rule is awesome. It fits the fluff and it's easy to implement. 10/10 would not want to see changed I miss skink cold one riders. I know this may not be an option due to model availability, but back in 5th ed skinks were the only ones able to ride cold ones since saurus weren't "smart enough". Now skink cold ones aren't even an option =(
Similar to most people's just giving my +1 cautl - reduce the cost of wandering path, I'd like to see it around 55 - 65. The spells aren't game winning and are low cost so easier dispelled. Being able to fit in another discipline would be perfect (as well as WP) Saurian warriors-1 pt per spear Skink braves- skirmish AND poison option Raptor Riders- Put them in core (our core options are considerably limited) AND make them worth their point cost OR reduce their point cost. Temple Guard should get a totem option. Ramphodon Riders- please increase the unit cap to 6 AND lower the point cost for extra models OR give them shields. I think all across our roster there are some over costed units.
I've lost almost all my hope. My wish is a complete change of the general mindset about our army (talking about the ones who actually make decisions, not users). I've already told that i want to play an army that feels like mine, and at the moment SA don't. If things stay this way maybe i'll play T9A with other armies, and use my beloved reptiles in oldhammer. Or maybe i'll just quit T9A, but it's hard since i've really hoped for its success. Balance is not the only important thing to me, and i'm growing the convinction that T9A isn't the game for me, because it's all around balance and doesn't care about fluff and "traditions" of the armies. Also the fact that they permitted to a single guy to revolution our armybook with huge and unjustified nerfs still feels bitter to me. Not to talk about the general whining about skink spam when they don't let us have other winning strategies. I'm really unpleased and i have poor hopes for september
September isn't going to save your day. It's mostly about fixing the immediate issues (extreme builds etc). I can tell you that the entire structure of how the rules related teams will change. I can't foresee the future and say that you'll have your wishes granted, but I know the current idea is that fluff will drive the rules and not the other way around. Currently it's been "figure out the rule and we'll tweak the name to fit". That's going to change. Furthermore we want to listen more to the community. That's not to say this never happened, but one of the most biggest issues so far have been the extreme stress on the RT and ABC teams. This will hopefully change soon and allow for a more stable update process. Finally the new teams will not solely be based on "ETC players" (not all of the current ABC members are quite at that level), but also allow for casual players. Obviously things may change, but the current ideas seem promising. It's my impression that the RT is happy with the current status of balance (not perfect and still issues, but it's getting there), which mean that they can work more on other aspects. What I want to stress is that all this happened within a year. A goal was set and have been met. It didn't satisfy everyone, but that's just the hard truth. The game isn't meant to only be for hardcore competitive players. If that was the case we would've never bothered spending the amount if time it takes to create a single full army book. Things just take time and it's all been done by volunteers. I know I've said that before, but it's a very important fact. It's just not possible to run a full time job + a second full time job in order to satisfy everyone. Things will slowly develop and perhaps right now is not the time for you. Perhaps you'll be more satisfied in a year or perhaps never. But regardless it's important to let things develop and let the team learn by their mistakes. The old argument about "putting everything on one guy" honestly gets a little tiring. It's the first year and we expect this to continue for many years into the future. Things may slip, but we'll definitely try and bounce back. The new structure will never allow for a similar occurrence.
Maybe september isn't going to save my day but your answer helps: reassuring words, or at least satisfying ones. Sorry about that "old argument", but i keep thinking that it was a bad and gross move and i'm not going to forget it soon (maybe my chaos dwarf part is keeping some grudges). Hopefully that won't happen again! That being said i do -and always did- recognize that we're just at the start of the project and that there are tons of issues, everyone's voluntary, and so on. If i didn't i would have already quitted T9A, but i still think it can improve (even if not immediately). Moreover, as already said, i really wanted and still want it to have success, so i will keep bothering people on T9A forum for a while hoping that my opinions can prove to be useful to someone even if sometimes they could be annoying to read
I have many of the same thoughts around the ins and outs of our units. They are over costed and have some silly rules most other books don't, the caiman ancient is a great example of this. Hes silly we got to pick one thing to add we picked that and the committee was unhappy with it at that point they should have just gone with skink horned one riders in core. For our book to be one of the few to only have 3 core options and one of them is a swarm? This is my biggest disappointment it gets old playing with the same core options we have had for 15 years. I have played lizards since 1999 I believe and I love tradition but we either have to have more competitive core options or more sub par options I'm fine with either one but pleaseeee fix our core!!! While you are doing that have a look at the temple guards they are pretty terrible compared to other special comparable options and I honestly think core saruian are better for the points which we know how I feel about our core. I will say i love the predatory fighter rule, love the option for lv3 priest even like the spike lizards I find them and the old trog to be huge improvements in this book. We just have some work left to do that is for sure.
I agree that there is still a lot of work to the book. But as Pinktaco mentioned, all of this has been done by volunteers in a very short time span. Yes it is annoying that the current book basically was one person, but this should be solved when the changes to the update process come through. I am looking forward to getting at least the most unusable things in the book fixed. I really want a reason to field a Caiman Ancient
Funny enough, I started taking a caiman ancient in my most recent list and he's done really well. I just stick the gambler's armor on him or the taurasaur helm. Leave him with a halberd, stick him in with 7 other caiman. The unit just rolls through stuff most of the time. I just don't want the stygiosaur touched ;; Esp after all the work i've put into the two I have. lol