Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

ERJAK wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I'd be down for every faction getting terrain if it was an option rather than mandatory.

Technically it is an option. It's just an option you'd be stupid not to take.

Also, is it just me or are Sigmar battletomes...pretty garbage lately? DoK was a dumpster fire of removed options and unnecessary nerfs, Slaanesh as far as I can tell was the same but worse, this book is a random hodgepodge of 3/4ths legion of Nagash and 1/4th utterly baffling design decisions. Lumineth was boring and straightforward while also being massively powerful. Seraphon, which seems to be the best designed of the recent books, still ended up with dreadful internal balance.

Did they fire the guys that did all the 2018-2019 battletomes and bring back the 7th Ed 40k team or what?

Have you actually played the DoK book? Because it doesn't sound like you have.

Yes, significant nerfs to all melee options and forced terrible relic choices in exchange for a few very paltry points drops. Mindrazor getting better the one out every 8 games you'll actually get to cast it without it being unbound (even using Morathi) is apparently somehow supposed to balance out functionally removing witch brew. Hagg Narr and Kellebron remain the only temples worth taking (despite Hagg Narr being nerfed and Kellebron being even more gimmicky than it used to be.) except now there are a couple of trap temples people are going to spend the lifespan of the book trying to make work because they seem okay on paper(but...but...muh -1 rend on the charge...:( ). Oh, and priests can only use 1 prayer post FAQ(massive nerf to Cauldrons especially).

Even just changing all the aura abilities to wholly within was a significant(if understandable/necessary) nerf to both speed and flexibility.

Morathi+Bloodstalkers was the most common list before the book because it was arguably OP. Now it's because all the melee units are excessively mediocre.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:
The last two tomes appear to be taking out auto-take army compositions and working toward flatter internal battletome balance.

That is DoK now have options outside of just taking lots and lots of witch aelves; Slaanesh outside of taking lots and lots of leaders (mostly keepers).

Sure this can seem more bland because there's no big show-stopping army composition choice. However in reality its far more exciting because now you've a lot more real choices and options and variety when building the army up.

This has been trotted out since the book came out and it's always been wrong.

DoK always had more options than just taking witch aelves. SoS and Blood Sisters were both excellent options, if less 'set it and forget it' than witch aelves.

Now NONE of those units are options anymore. You take blood stalkers and Morathi or you accept that you're mostly just there for funsies.

 DaveC wrote:
Yeah it's posed to be standing straight up and the tactical rock looks like an after thought at least only one leg is attached to the rock so it's easy to remove it.

 Wha-Mu-077 wrote:
That should at least make it easier to repose him on flat ground, right?

Yes, that's certainly the bright side to it.

My problem with new army battletomes is that AoS was the wacky game without balance that I played because it was fun, compared to 40k.

Where are my Kharadron shooting at terrain and moving to it with their grapel hooks? Where are my bloodpriest becoming better at chanting prayers to khorne after killing stuff in meele? Wheres my chaos lord unleashing the power of his demonic spear and ascending to demon prince? When I did that last one in a 2vs2 games it became one of the most memorable moments of all my AoS gaming life for me.

They are streamlining and streamlining the game, removing the more esoteric and wacky stuff to put in place some form of standarization that at the end of the day it just makes things more similar and boring. Why have a ton of vampire characters for half of them to be copypastes without personality? Why remove most of the options in the game and just change them for 6 to hit do 1 MW?

And for what? What have we gained with the change? Balance is at a worst. The state of the game is horrible with magic and shooting completely dominating it. Back in the day the balance in AoS was nearly just as terrible but at least the game was fun. Is like people wants AoS to become a more balanced game without accepting that deeper mechanics are needed to make enyojable a more balanced game. You can't have the cake and eat it too.

EDIT: And I'm surely not defending the old slaanesh battletome. I'm talking about this trend with books like new slaanesh, this book, the "new" khorne book, etc...

No Dire Wolves this week? Are we getting another week of undead next, or are the Dire Wolves put off until later?

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
No Dire Wolves this week? Are we getting another week of undead next, or are the Dire Wolves put off until later?

I would think a second week of releases.

The skellies sprues look great but zombies still don't do it for me.
The big vampires scale sure is as big as I thought they would be, just one sprue though?
Fellbats are nice but I sculpted one recently so I think I'm covered there, then again I blew the money on art supplies already so will have to wait. XD

The most baffling thing to me about the skellies, is that clearly the sprues should provide some decent variety, with the legs, torsos, heads and both arms being separate and at least somewhat interchange-able, and yet GW seems to have been dedicated to making a bunch of clones with diffrent weapons for their promotional photos.

 Overread wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
No Dire Wolves this week? Are we getting another week of undead next, or are the Dire Wolves put off until later?

I would think a second week of releases.

Thinking second week with characters, Mounted Wight King and Dire Wolves.

Where are the sprue pics? I didn't see any of these for pre-order when I went to GW's site.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Where are the sprue pics? I didn't see any of these for pre-order when I went to GW's site.

For me they're in the gallery for each kit, just like GW usually does it.

Might just be a lag with the GW US site (or even my PC). It only shows Necromunda pre-orders. I even tried searching Vampire and only got the one on Zombie Dragon.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Where are the sprue pics? I didn't see any of these for pre-order when I went to GW's site.

They're not up for preorder until 1pm Eastern in the US. Same as always.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Might just be a lag with the GW US site (or even my PC). It only shows Necromunda pre-orders. I even tried searching Vampire and only got the one on Zombie Dragon.

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Soulblight-Gravelords-Blood-Knights-2021
https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Deathrattle-Skeletons-2021

Here, have a direct link to Skeletons and Blood Knights, see if it works

People have been looking at the New Zealand webstore, because of the way time zones work.

Most everyone else will see them in about 2 hours, if you don't want to change your flag and feel bad about the absurd prices at the bottom of the world.

 DarkStarSabre wrote:
I seriously appreciate the idea of weapon profiles being the same regardless of equipment. It's nice, it's simple and it means that you can use older minis without hassle.

I don't mind the same profile, but the new sheet says 'blades' only. So, technically, every vampire with mace is illegal. Honestly, if they want it to just be one option, they should do what 40K 5th edition did and just say 'Lord's weapon' or 'Melee attack' or something...

 Irbis wrote:

 DarkStarSabre wrote:
I seriously appreciate the idea of weapon profiles being the same regardless of equipment. It's nice, it's simple and it means that you can use older minis without hassle.

I don't mind the same profile, but the new sheet says 'blades' only. So, technically, every vampire with mace is illegal. Honestly, if they want it to just be one option, they should do what 40K 5th edition did and just say 'Lord's weapon' or 'Melee attack' or something...

I mean, technically, that mace has blades on it...

Thanks for the links, Wha-Mu-077. Those are some damn nice skellies. I guess GW's "paint five models and photoshop them to make ten models in the ads" really made them look a lot less customizable than they really are.

I'm still not okay with having only 5 torsos for Blood Knights and not having fleshy heads for their nightmares.

But I am quite happy with them dropping from 99 freedom bucks to 60.

If only Varanguard had a price drop of at least 10...

 CMLR wrote:
I'm still not okay with having only 5 torsos

How many torsos you need for five models?

 Crimson wrote:

 CMLR wrote:
I'm still not okay with having only 5 torsos

How many torsos you need for five models?

If you want more than 5, it would be good to have literally any options so they all don't have the same ones.

I'd rather additional head/weapon options on a unit than torsos myself. I don't really notice duplicate torsos in a unit.

Yeah, the lack of variety with the blood knights is really a deal-breaker for me. I'm also not thrilled with the dancing poses on the skeletons, though I already have plenty of skeletons anyway. I guess after waiting this long for a Vampire Counts army to translate over to Age of Sigmar, I'm pretty disappointed in the new stuff.

Main thing I don't like about the Blood Knights is they look really weedy next to the big random pointy bits on their armour.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I'd rather additional head/weapon options on a unit than torsos myself. I don't really notice duplicate torsos in a unit.

Honestly, this above. Besides, even when Warhammer Battle was still around, duplicate torsos in a unit were kinda the exception rather than the rule.

So when people are complaining about it now for Blood Knights, I find it weird...though I think it's certainly linked to the fact that one of the torsos is female and they have to use it.

 Crimson wrote:

 CMLR wrote:
I'm still not okay with having only 5 torsos

How many torsos you need for five models?

Six or seven is a sweet spot, more considering that one of the torsos has plated boob armor.

Kabalite warriors have multiple gender locked chest pieces options and they are older kit: yes, they are infantry, but at least you can make two squads fully made out of male and female space dark elves.

If they really wanted to go for the route of diverse Blood Knights, they could have deleted the metal bra and go for regular chest armor or add two so you can have more than one single.

If we are talking about modern AoS cavalry, this doesn't happen with Dawnriders, who all have the same armour and look fine, and are not posing with open arms like the Bloody Knights are.

 Crimson wrote:

 CMLR wrote:
I'm still not okay with having only 5 torsos

How many torsos you need for five models?

For just shy of forty quid a box; more than five!

I'm curious, though. How many kits are out there - even on the alternate market - that give really duplicate torsos in modular plastic kits for free ? Like, in comparison to all the kits on the market ?

Not sure they were that many some people would expect it should happen here.

Why bringing it here for the Blood Knights specifically ? It's not like having the same bland torso would have made it better either. Or 7, for that matter - you would still have duplicates anyway. And it's not like the old Empire Knights plastic kit wasn't forcing you to use the same torso designs over and over again (well, I guess I was used to remove the "Sigmar" writing on those for my Knights of the White Wolf with a modeling knife, in those days).

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Main thing I don't like about the Blood Knights is they look really weedy next to the big random pointy bits on their armour.

Yeah, it certainly doesn't help that the pointy armor looks pretty bad on some of those torsos.

I feel like the halberds should have more range than a sword. I guess it's cool that you can mix the units together and it doesn't affect the weapon profile.

Funny how the champion from this set, whose just a nobody, has a much nicer and fancier halberd than the Watchkeeper from Cursed City. Not that I'm complaining; one lesson reason to pick him up off ebay.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
No Dire Wolves this week? Are we getting another week of undead next, or are the Dire Wolves put off until later?

There'll be a second week of releases, for sure, and we'll find out tomorrow if they go up for pre-order next week.

I'm half-hoping for AdMech to be next week, just to get it out of the way, and then finish this SBGL release the week after.