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Hello there!
A humble 40k player here wondering about the power level of AoS.

I was taking a look at Forgeworld's new models when I stumbled across Scaarac the Bloodborn, now from an outsiders perspective: he looks OP. He gets 2d6 attacks hitting on 3+ wounding on 3+ with -2 rend and 2 mortal wounds and if he gets a low role on his attacks he still has 6 stomp attacks. From what I know of the mechanics of AoS, this guy is a curb stomper.

However I am not that well versed in the AoS competitive scene, is this guy a FW gem that will be used by people who can afford him to trash other armies or is this guy quite tame compared to other AoS characters. Or, as a third option, he is a beast but there is a reason you wouldn't take him in comp games.

Please be patient with me, I am still not completely sure how points work in AoS (some people say there are no pointd and others say there are, which is it?) and I don't know many of the rules.

Thanks.

For comparison, his cost is about 500.

Skarbrand is 100 points under that.

You could almost take two Bloodthirsters of insensate rage for his cost.

He is really good, but he is also really pricey.

There's a hefty price for all that curb stompage.

How do AoS players know the points cost? It's warscroll on the FW website has no points cost.

 mrhappyface wrote:
How do AoS players know the points cost? It's warscroll on the FW website has no points cost.

There is the GHB, and there are some documents somewhere on the GW/FW sites to update this...

Easy does it, is my moto, here you can check mostly everything and make your armylist in an easy way

http://scrollbuilder.com/

Yeah, most of the time I look in the depths of my crystal ball, but sometimes I just click on the "Matched Play Profiles" button on the FW site

https://www.forgeworld.co.uk/resources/fw_site/fw_pdfs/aos_warscrolls/aos_matched_play_points.pdf

 mrhappyface wrote:

Please be patient with me, I am still not completely sure how points work in AoS (some people say there are no pointd and others say there are, which is it?) and I don't know many of the rules.

Thanks.

There are two "main" ways to play AoS. With Narrative play there are no points. It's a bring what you want throw down with relaxed rules compared to Matched Play. Narrative play can have some crazy combos and has no restrictions on anything. Some would say it's more a beer and chips style of game or the kind of game you have between friends. I personally find it the best way to the play the game and the most fun even between players who don't know each other. Just don't be "that guy" and talk with your opponent if you think things are unbalanced.

Matched play is where the points are along with more rules to pull back on the crazier stuff you can find in Narrative. Points in Matched play do not work like 40k, instead of Points Per Model its Points Per "Block". For example: a Block of basic Infantry is 10 Models and these 10 models are costed at 100 points. For every Block of models you add into a unit you add another 100 points to its cost. However, if you don't have enough models to fill the entire Block you still pay full price. So a unit of basic Infantry with 15 models would cost the same as one with 20 and both cost 200 points. Upgrades have no costs so take all the musicians and standard bearers you want. Matched play also limits the number of types of units you bring depending at which point amount you are playing.

Thanks.

To kind of expand on what BomBomHotdog said, Narrative Play isn't so much "anything goes". That would be the third style of play: Open Play. It's the AoS equivalent of Unbound. Narrative play is more about telling a story. This can be anything from running "historical" scenarios from the lore to campaigns like Path to Glory

Also keep in mind that this is a game where any unit can damage any other one. There are no 40k style Death Stars, and no joining units. Characters are independent models that can be targeted and dealt with. Plus no hiding in combat either, so as strong as he looks he can and will go down to targeted assaults.

To answer your more general question, the power level of AOS varies a lot. I would say in general that there are a few battalions that are pretty grossly overpowered, and variety of units/monsters that are somewhat overpowered when compared to "average". My understanding though is that the balance is generally much tighter than it is in 40k at the moment.

Skaarac is not one of the prime examples of a grossly overpowered monster, imo. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. His defense is medium at best. 16 wounds is a lot, but a monster of that size really can't hide. He has nothing to protect him from mortal wounds, and even low powered shooting can get through his 4+ save when you focus fire.

2. His offensive potential is huge, but it's very random. On average it's good but not insane. Average rolling will result in about 6.22 rend 2 wounds (NOT mortal wounds) and 2 rend 1 wounds. Compare that to a Vampire Lord on Zombie Dragon with the Red Fury command trait, who deals something like 16 rend 1 wounds and 4.67 rend 2 wounds on average when charging (and that's without using his command ability on himself!)

All of that given that he costs 500 points (which is a massive amount of points) makes him not all that OP in my opinion. He's certainly no Mourngul, that's for sure. In fact, on average a Mourngul will absolutely eat Skaarac for lunch.