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.

Hey all,

With the current state of the game, we have over 60 factions. Some, like Seraphon, are a complete and fully fleshed out army. Others, may only consist of a single unit (Maneaters). So I wanted to make this post to get people's opinions on what it would take to get your favorite faction fleshed out, and if not complete then at least worthy of it's own battle tome and able to stand on its own. (Yeah, this will involve a healthy amount of wish listing).

I'll start;

Clan Verminus

Clan Verminus consists of 4 units right now. Verminlord Warbringer, Skaven Warlord, Clan Rats, and Storm Vermin. Forge World also has a Warlord on a Brood Horror. This is a solid backbone for an army with great infantry and heavy infantry options. That being said, it does lack in some key areas.

1. The faction has no ranged options. This isn't necessarily a unique problem, there are other factions with the same issue. Still, it would be nice to have options.

2. The faction has no ability to deal mortal wounds. This is a key ability for any army. While clan Verminus has several rend attack options, nothing in it can auto wound.

3. This army mostly lacks speed. The fastest thing in it is the Verminlord who can move 12. The next fastest is the Forge World Warlord that moves 8. Other than those two models, the entire faction moves 6 inches. There are no other deployment option available to shorten the gap either.

My Suggestions/Wishlists

1. Add ranged options. Traditionally, clan rats could take weapons team. This added range, and helped solve the mortal wound issue as well. This could still be an option, and in fact the Verminus Claw Pack basically allows this. However weapons teams are key worded as Skyre, and would interfere with having a pure Allegiance Verminus force. They may make some allowances if they ever get a battle tome, but it may just complicate things too much.

A second option would is to redo skaven slaves with slings . Right now they are legacy only. They are less point efficient now than clan rats, and aren't really needed as fodder. I would like to see them changed to "clan rat sling throwers", and have them trade in their shields for slings, and give them a single 9inch 5+/5+ rend- damage 1 Attack. Make them identical to clan rats in every other way, and battle line as well. I don't think they have repackaged the clanrat box yet for AoS, so all they would need to do is add a sprue with sling arms to the box.

Lastly on the range front, I would like to see some sort or artillery piece. Not a skyre warp sorcery type thing, but a run of the mill catapult/trebuchet/ballista style weapon that is used in traditional medieval warfare. This way it doesn't step on other clans toes, and fits their fluff as a soldier class clan. It would need a 30 inch range, and I would like to see it deal a d3 mortal wounds.

2. Add Calvary! I want to see more Skaven riding giant rats. Not as big as a Brood Horror, but normal Calvary sized. I can see a combo kit with two options. Rat riders (normal clan rat version), and rat knights (Stormvermin version). Let them move 12 like standard Calvary, and it would give them a mobile element.

3. Right now the Chieftain with a standard is a legacy model. I would like to see them add it permanently to the Verminus roster and not phased out. It's aura ability to allow nearby units to ignore battle shock is a godsend for a Skaven army. I just wish it was like other totem units and worked on a smaller radius when not planted.

That's about it. The only other thing I would have wished for would be an impressive mounted show piece unit, but Forge World delivered that for me, and it's glorious! With those changes, I think Clan Verminus would feel like a complete force, just like Pestilens and Skyre, but without changing the feel or fluff of the faction.

That's my Wishlist and thoughts on my chosen faction. How about yours?

A battletome.

Here is a second.

Deathrattle

Like Clan Verminus above, the Deathrattle faction officially has 4 units. 2 versions of a Wight King, Skeletal Warriors, Grave Guard, and Black Knights. This is a very solid core, and is a very resilient force. With the way death rattle banners work, they are natural tarpits are are extremely durable. Combine the Legion of Death Battalion and Allegiance Death abilities, and they become even more so. The faction has its short comings though. It has no casters, no way of dealing mortal wounds, no ranged options, and no behemoths.

My Suggestions/Wishlist

Really there is only one thing that is needed is this: integrate the Tomb King Deathrattle units. There is already some overlap. Skeleton warriors are basically the same between the two factions. Skeleton Horsemen are practically Black Knights, and Tomb Guard could easily proxy as Grave Guard. This allows Tomb Kings to integrate a lot of their units and find them a home. Here are the units I would like to see added. They could be remade as non-Egyptian units very easily,

1. Liche Priest. This would give the faction a caster so that it could participate in the magic phase and have access to all the benefits that brings, especially Death's summoning abilities. I don't much care for its spell (Danse macabre would be fantastic), but it almost doesn't matter. Aesthetically they could look like mini Arkhans.

2. Skeleton Archers. This would give the faction a ranged option that they needed, and would fit in perfectly with the factions feel.

3. Bone Giants. They aren't technically Deathrattle, but that can be easily amended. It's a perfect fit aesthetically, and would give the faction a much needed behemoth.

4. Screaming Skull Catapult. Also not technically a Deathrattle unit, but could easily be made into one. This would give them their artillery unit.

5. Tomb Herald. This would give the faction it's totem, and it fits perfectly in line with the resiliency of the army.

Of the other units, I wouldn't mind it if Skeletal horsemen archers, and chariots made it in, but I'm not sure that Necropolis Knights would find a place (though don't mind them either).

That would be what I would do. It would it would round out the faction, and allow them to stand on their own. It would also allow Tomb Kings players to partially integrate with the faction properly.

Those are my thoughts anyways.

Aelves: A codex. New models. Compelling fluff giving meaning to their existence and their motives. Right now there is so little its depressing.

buffalozap wrote:
Aelves: A codex. New models. Compelling fluff giving meaning to their existence and their motives. Right now there is so little its depressing.

I am willing to bet that there will be a big build up and production for them. I imagine Tyrion will force Slaanesh to purge all the Aelf souls that it devoured. Probably followed by a series of models being released along with a battle tome. Only issue is, that so much of the army has been broken down into various factions, that aside from Wood Elves there isn't enough to fill a battle tome with them. Stuff like this is what led to me making this post.

Khorne Daemons need a plastic herald. And something that's ranged instead of the goofy Khorne carts.

Painting up some Ogres/Ogors for AoS, and the destruction faction, in my opinion, is missing the following:

-Destruction aligned humans. We need non-chaos barbarians/raiders or just plain ol' mercenaries.
-Better keyword names, Ogres are gutbusters and I'm not keen on that name and Battletome: Gutbusters sounds kinda lame.
-More ranged options. Crossbow/regular bow orcs, Again with humans (pistols, handguns, bows)

And with made to order bringing things back:
-Orc raider with pig
-Orc raider with torch

Trying to find a community nearby to start playing, but yeah I feel destruction needs a bit more ranged weaponry outside of gobbos.

Bonzai wrote:

buffalozap wrote:
Aelves: A codex. New models. Compelling fluff giving meaning to their existence and their motives. Right now there is so little its depressing.

I am willing to bet that there will be a big build up and production for them. I imagine Tyrion will force Slaanesh to purge all the Aelf souls that it devoured. Probably followed by a series of models being released along with a battle tome. Only issue is, that so much of the army has been broken down into various factions, that aside from Wood Elves there isn't enough to fill a battle tome with them. Stuff like this is what led to me making this post.

Yeah, I read a post on BoLS about WH40K having too many factions, and the way AoS has split every faction from WHFB into several smaller subfactions seems like it'd just feed into the same issue. I really think they should have just kept some things, like the High- and Dark Elves, and the Ogres as complete factions like they did with the Lizardmen, and then add units to the faction until a proper subfaction emerges, then split that off. Or just give us the Warmachine option: run the entire faction (Cygnar, Lizardmen/Seraphon), or run a dedicated subfaction (Trenchers, Skinks) which limits the number of units you can pick from, but gives the remainders some kind of bonus.

But on topic... I feel like the Bloodbound should have some kind of short-range Ranged unit, something to soften up an enemy before piling in. Kinda like the Ogrun Warspears from Hordes in aesthetic.

Edit: And I'm still waiting on those Clan Eshin rat samurai - the "Samurat", if you will.

Slaves to Darkness are in decent shape, really, but a couple things I would like to see:

1) A proper battletome with more fleshed-out fluff and more Warscroll Battalions

2) Some form of ranged attack. Just any ranged attack. At this point, I'd settle for the ability to throw snowballs at my opponent.

3) A reliable source of mortal wounds.

4) Plastic Chosen and maybe updated Warrior and Marauder sculpts (pretty low on the priority list for AoS really, but as long as I'm wishlisting)

5) Plastic models for the Chaos Lord on Demonic Mount and Sorceror Lord on Chaos Steed

I feel like the overwhelming majority of players are going to say "a Battletome" followed by "the same sorts of fun bells and whistles that post-GHB Battletomes include" followed by "more units".

I play Ironjawz. I'd like some way to include non-Ironjawz units in my army that doesn't involve spending hundreds of points on generic Destruction Battleline units that don't fit the theme of my army. Wanting to add something like a Colossal Squig to my army, which I feel would be fluffy... it IS the 'ardest squig around, would involved having to purchase three generic Battleline units at 2,000 points. NONE of those Battleline units are going to fit in with my army... thematically or from a synergy standpoint. I don't really want to include Ogors or Savage Orruks or whatever as a "tax" because I wanted to add something thematic to my list.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'd also like some sort of ranged attack or artillery. Ironjawz are fun, but there is so little variety.

Nighthaunt.

Need a wizard badly.
Black coach is buffed by spells yet have no access to them.

My primary force is khorne though I'm painting up chaos dwarves for next year.

For khorne bloodbound... we are pretty much outclassed in every way against min/max forces. Since the min/max forces aren't going to be toned down...

* we have no way to dish out mortal wounds like candy like the top min/max armies do

* we have no way to dictate the flow of battle. We pretty much run across the table with little range, no magic, and have to weather a ton of ranged attacks and mortal wounds, meaning by the time we engage with the enemy we are at a fraction of our starting numbers.

* our durability is average at best. This ties into the above point. For an army that relies on having to run across the table with little to no magic or ranged support, we need some defensive buffs.

* our damage out put is mostly average at best. We aren't dealing many mortal wounds, especially compared to the nasty top min/max forces. Our output overall sits at the average to slightly below average curve.

* our own magic artefacts / command abilities for faction that can give us some of the above.

Overall khorne bloodbound needs to mix other factions in to have good games against a power game list.

Warherd could use some mortal wound ability and a ranged unit that isn't a behemoth. A wizard and a banner bearer couldn't hurt either. Currently if you kill the doombull the army starts to fall apart dad so more synergies would be great.

Death in general.
Artillery Pieces, Trebuchet, Catapults.
Rangeds options that are not spells, like Seriously, give us Archers.
Some Battle Engines that are not spells.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, their Blisters available in stores. Every FLGS I go too has a small amount of blisters, even smaller amount of AOS, recut their sprues or repackage so stores will carry them.

Devoted of sigmar need one more standard battleline unit then they would nake a fully complete faction with options. Gryph hound pack? Priest novices? Mercenaries?
Nighthaunt need the mortis engine
Spiderfang need the grot scuttlings from Silver Tower
Troggoths could use a proper hero unit
Aleguzzler gargants could use 1) a name change 2) lose mandatory drunkeness and 3) given options for ranged and hero units

Scourge Privateers:

- They should be moved to Destruction, because there is no thematic overlap with the other order factions and as reaving pillagers I'd consider them to be pretty destructive. Also, with the Scourge Privateers being monster hunters/trainers, they should be able to actually include monsters in their armies.

- A Battletome would, of course, be nice as well. Their plastic range is still one of the best in GW's lineup and I could see them receive a similar treatment like Flesh Eater Courts: A minor release with a start collecting box and some nice sprue-swap-surprise (Corsairs with spear and shield option, maybe)

- Corsairs should be Battleline without Affiliation

- A slight buff/different equipment options or even a mount for the Fleetmaster would be nice

BertBert wrote:
Scourge Privateers:

- They should be moved to Destruction, because there is no thematic overlap with the other order factions and as reaving pillagers I'd consider them to be pretty destructive. Also, with the Scourge Privateers being monster hunters/trainers, they should be able to actually include monsters in their armies.

While I doubt it will happen I think that's a really good idea. It would round out destruction well too, without giving them access to units that would break balance if included.

 auticus wrote:
My primary force is khorne though I'm painting up chaos dwarves for next year.

For khorne bloodbound... we are pretty much outclassed in every way against min/max forces. Since the min/max forces aren't going to be toned down...

* we have no way to dish out mortal wounds like candy like the top min/max armies do

* we have no way to dictate the flow of battle. We pretty much run across the table with little range, no magic, and have to weather a ton of ranged attacks and mortal wounds, meaning by the time we engage with the enemy we are at a fraction of our starting numbers.

* our durability is average at best. This ties into the above point. For an army that relies on having to run across the table with little to no magic or ranged support, we need some defensive buffs.

* our damage out put is mostly average at best. We aren't dealing many mortal wounds, especially compared to the nasty top min/max forces. Our output overall sits at the average to slightly below average curve.

* our own magic artefacts / command abilities for faction that can give us some of the above.

Overall khorne bloodbound needs to mix other factions in to have good games against a power game list.

Yeah, I've decided to jump in, finally, with Khorne Bloodbound, and I'm not seeing nearly as much nastiness and synergy that one would gets from, say, Nurgle Daemons, but I like their background so I'll deal with it. It would be nice to get those Wyvern Riders (even though they were Tzeentch forces) that they mention in one of the books as a flying option at the least. Another option would be do see Chaos Dwarfs completely subsumed by Khorne, and we could get some ranged options of some sort that way.

Since as for now there isn't any bloodbound alliegance stuff I find that Khorne daemons add a good chunk pf missing bits to my Bloodbound. Skull cannons for shooting, better skullcrushers (imo) because the bloodletters can dish out mortal wounds, just add a a flying khorne daemon prince or a herald pn crusher to give them their rerolls and you have a bit of speed and ranged attacks. The khorne dogs might be good too

The bloodsecrator and bloodstoker can buff most of em too, so there's a bunch of synergy there

Fyreslayers

magic and/or unbinding
faster mov cav or elite (Mv 6 at least, please)
start collecting box
war machine - magma thrower maybe? like, a stone thrower, cannon or even bolt thrower type thingy
tankier heroes, or at least, way to hair save (ward) magmabomb heroes
another output for mortal wounds
something like gryph hound's warning call ability that's from our battletome (though I have grown fond of using the excelsior priest and his GH from silver tower vs. skaven or teleporting stormcasts)

Dracothian Guard as Battleline.

Brets and Tomb Kings need to be re-supported. I mean death isn't really a grand alliance without TK, as of now it's just Vampire Counts.

ERJAK wrote:
Dracothian Guard as Battleline.

Unless that comes with a point increase... yeahno.

I dont get it. My Bloodbound misses out on a few things, but I get those from skavens, slaves to darkness or via the hell cannon.

I like these ideas. Giving the deathrattle faction skeleton archers and a screaming skull catapult along with an army standard bearer would really make them into a decent faction. Best of all, that would allow people to carry on using their tomb kings models without any issues whatsoever.

Same thing for Clan Vermininus. Give them clan rat sling throwers and maybe some sort of traditional style artillery weapon and they're good to go.

Deathrattle needs more synergies, primarily more ways to buff skeletons without breaking allegiance, as well as some harder-hitting options for melee and/or some solid ranged support. In the meantime, having a battalion which includes a necromancer would be a good way to prop up Deathrattle allegiance without having to do a full release.

I play beastclaw raides, the only thing I wish I had was some kind of a magic creature which could help me unbind spells. Don't need magic but the chance to at least unbind spells would be nice QQ

Night Haunts are another faction that are close to being complete. They have 5 units, 3 leaders, and one battle line. Forgeworld gives them a 6th unit, and one of the best Behemoths in the game. They actually have a decent variety with a short range unit, a Calvary unit, and a fantastic behemoth. They also have several ways of dealing mortal wounds. It's biggest glaring weakness is a lack of casting ability. Especially when looking at the black Coach. Here is what I would do;

1. Remove the Hero key word from Cairn Wraiths and Banshee, and allow them to be taken in units of 1-3 again. Also remove the hero keyword from the Black Coach. This gives the faction a heavy infantry unit, a short range unit, and black coaches are basically chariots. Having them as Heroes is just too restrictive.

2. Mortis Engines do have the Malignant keyword, but are listed under the death mage army list instead of Night Haunt. They need to be allowed in a night haunt allegiance and treated as part of it.

3. They need some sort of caster Hero. Maybe more than one. Mortis Engines and Black Coaches are designed around caster synergies. What shape that Hero takes I am not sure. Some King of specter or Shade that looks impressive and can cast. I also wouldn't mind one of the deceased characters being brought back as a new Ghost character/ mortarch. Regardless they need casting in a bad way in this army. I would like to see a Debuff and or a healing mechanic as far as spells go.

5. I would like to see some sort of fast moving chaff units. Willo'whisps or something similar. Make them move/fly 12, 4 wounds (they are a swarm), units of 3, 6's to hit, 6's to wound, 3 attacks, 6+ save. Etherial, -1 to hit against them in combat (they are distracting). Should be about 80 points. This unit's job is to be a speed bump that lets you tie up a unit for a turn or two. It's not going to kill much but it's fast and comparatively cheap. Kind of how Necron Scarabs used to be in the 3rd edition dex.

These changes would round out the faction, giving it nice offense and speed, but without the resilience of other death units. It would feel pretty complete.

Anyone feel like the Rotbringers are incomplete and need to be expanded to Bloodbound levels of variety? They've got a number of named characters and 3 generic ones, and only one unique unit. This unit (Putrid Blightkings) seems to be level with Wrathmongers and Skullreapers. What about bloodreaver and bloodwarrior equivalents with a couple more generic characters?

Rotbringers are in-between their Khorne and Tzeentch counterparts. Unlike mortal Tzeentch they have a decent range of character options, but unlike Khorne those are not backed up by a decent range of troop options. Where does this leave them? Going with just blightkings works if one is a 'rotbringer purist' but ROTBRINGERS is not actually their keyword, MORTAL NURGLE is. This means that Slaves to Darkness models with mark of nurgle can effectively be considered part of rotbringers (certainly in the fluff they are included). Personally I feel this gives them solid identity as a faction that, while needing improvement, puts them on a lower priority for being expanded.