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I like the rules. Reminds me of playing Khador in Warmachine (and Skorne to a lesser degree). Slow and steady, thick armor, hit hard, big war machines, have to come up with movement shenanigans to get them anywhere,

It feels comfortable so far.

I think for reapers the case will be that they will have access to some speed boosting (and they've got cavalry too); however it might be that the only way they can do it is with points (endless spells) and with in game abilities that are likely limited in application.

So the reality is that they might be able to boost speed on one or two units to secure a point, but won't be able to boost their whole army.

This would be important since otherwise they'd have a hard time securing objectives early enough in the game to be able to compete with objective scores into the mid and late game.
It also means that if the opponent bunches up and goes for a kill and charges at the enemy, then the Reaper player can, in theory, speed a few units in to block and start killing and then simply march the rest up behind - basically an attack column style of war. Though in that case its more the opponent playing into the Ossiarchs strengths.

Part of the game is always learning an enemies general weaknesses and strengths and doing your best to avoid playing into them.

Did a bit of mathhammer on the Necropolis Stalkers with their different weapons and stances against a 5+ save target and then a 4+ save target.

Results favored the Precision Aspect for both weapons overall, against all targets. If there's a way to grant rerolls of any kind in the army and give it to the stalkers, it'll only make the choice that much more clear. Looking like the choice will be between Precision or Blade-Parry. However, the difference was only by a wound at most, usually getting in to percentages of a wound, so it's not that big of a difference yet. Rerolls on top of Precision would make it so much better.


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https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/10/24/ossiarch-bonereapers-the-sub-factionsgw-homepage-post-1/

Well hot damn, those are a bunch of solid Sub-Faction traits.

Dread Legion, Petrifex Elite, Stalliarch Lords, Ivory Host and Null Myriad... All look so awesome. Only one I'm meh on is the Crematorians. I'll be hard pressed to pick just one trait to stick to

From the previews, these things look ridiculously OP even by GW standards. Like ridiculously good.

Just wait until you see the points costs before you start crying OP.

Really like the Petrifex color scheme. Is that a black/grey base they have going on?

Ivory Host make me think of Tyranids for some reason. Kinda plain.

Null Myriad look like machines.

Crematorians look like a pain in the butt to paint.

TBH if I was going to do this army I'd do like tarnished gold, ivory bone, and a turquoise i.e. Tomb Kings colors.

Right now I want the crematorian scheme, but reversing the white and black bone. Give them amethyst eyes and I'm very tempted to make the white bone more like the Ivory colour they've used.


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Don't forget they are slow (and if you go with subgroup that gets to move faster you're not getting some of the other defensive bonuses). To my mind the are a walking hammer. Steady, relentless and hit hard when they hit.

Tackling them is likely a case of tarpitting them; miss directing the opponent to strike a spot harder than they might when its not that important to you; flanking and skirting around them or even just stepping back and firing off ranged attacks/spells at them.

Meanwhile if they bring mobility boosters from endless spells then you've got a chance that they fail to cast or lose control for a turn etc... on the predatory ones. So you've still got benefits and ways to counter and tackle them.



They are certainly not an army you want to just blindly charge into.

I'm going with a simple Skeleton Horde contrast for the bone, Aethermatic Blue for spirit bits and red plate armor. For cloth I'm feeling a nice dark blue or a purpleish pink colour Undecided on weapons, but I've been liking how Naggaroth Nightshade straight on to white primer's been looking. Examples of this are on the first page, one of my posts has a spoiler with pics.

Luckily enough not too similar to any existing scheme so I can feel free to pick whatever trait I want for different builds

Eh I'd never tie anyone down to sub-groups based on paint scheme. Considering that most are one or two abilities in the book and that's it the rest is identical I don't see a point. If someone puts a cematorian army down and plays them as petrifax I'm 100% ok with that. I don't think people need to buy 6 or 7 full armies just to vary the sub-army rules to vary their builds.

I'm in the same boat as you, I care not for colour schemes tied to rules, I'd prefer seeing any painted army on the table. But, I want to avoid official colour schemes now in any game, due to there being a big mess in the 40k Community and tournament scene over Colour Schemes being tied to rules now, in official GW publications. Just to future proof myself, all my armies are 'custom chapters/factions' that sometimes use special characters from the army.

It looks like Katakros can be under any subfaction, but his command ability is best if he's in his proper Subfaction. All Ossiarchs get +1 to hit, and it doesn't say just in combat phase... Artillery line maybe? But if he's Mortis Praetorian, the 18" bubble also gives +1 armor saves.

Maybe a hint that special characters aren't forced to be under some subfactions?

Anybody want to fathom a guess as to when they'll see inevitable WarCry rules? I'm hoping around Christmas/ before the end of the year.

What better way to get your new toys on the table for a spin, right?

Smaller scale skirmishes gives me an excuse to try painting groups in all the various color schemes and see what I really like... or just come up with my own.

Presumably in the next warcry supplement which is essentially the 'faction rules update'.

Not sure what I'll do for the armor and shields. Part of me wants to do basic gunmetal (that and a basic bone will make painting fast), but another part of me wants to do brown/grey leather to match ancient Chinese armor (as I'm doing the faces as opera masks).

I'll probably run Stalliarch Lords for the boost in speed. Should pair nicely with having my leader hero use Cao Cao's mask.

Contrast has some nice brown leather colours you could use, right out of the bottle on to white primer works fine, edge highlights/drybrush would be an easy extra step to make it look better. Maybe going for a more reddish brown colour would help it pop out more from the skeleton bone colour, unless you're making yours more on the white side as opposed to Skeleton Horde contrast or a Sepia coat look. Other than gunmetal or leather for the armor, had you considered gold or a burnished bronze or coppery sort of metal, or a blue-ish looking steel? Google seems to pull up a lot of gold, copper or blue steel for ancient Chinese armor.

One other thing I liked about the subfactions, they don't really seem to benefit one type of unit over all, they have big benefits for all models shown in the army. Recent Sylvaneth and even Idoneth Deepkin subfactions sort of dictate how you want to build your army while these ones look to be an icing on top of the army you already built.

Edit/Update

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/10/25/rules-preview-new-endless-spells-and-scenerygw-homepage-post-3/

New mechanic for endless spells, Soul-Linking. Wonder if it will be added to other endless spells.

The spells shown for Ossiarchs seem quite powerful, especially the +1 to hit aura against enemies within 12" of it, and the D3/D6 mortal wound in 3" on a roll of 2+

Soul linking is interesting, I like it.

 Thadin wrote:
Contrast has some nice brown leather colours you could use, right out of the bottle on to white primer works fine, edge highlights/drybrush would be an easy extra step to make it look better. Maybe going for a more reddish brown colour would help it pop out more from the skeleton bone colour, unless you're making yours more on the white side as opposed to Skeleton Horde contrast or a Sepia coat look. Other than gunmetal or leather for the armor, had you considered gold or a burnished bronze or coppery sort of metal, or a blue-ish looking steel? Google seems to pull up a lot of gold, copper or blue steel for ancient Chinese armor.

One other thing I liked about the subfactions, they don't really seem to benefit one type of unit over all, they have big benefits for all models shown in the army. Recent Sylvaneth and even Idoneth Deepkin subfactions sort of dictate how you want to build your army while these ones look to be an icing on top of the army you already built.

I was going for more Han Dynasty era armor, much of which was leather and iron. Although, all the pictures I find show red trim. Perhaps a dirty metal (leadbelcher with thinned brown contrast) with red trim?

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Soul linking is interesting, I like it.

The main problem with most Endless Spells is how inherently unreliable they are - just as likely to damage yourself as the enemy in some cases! When you're paying points for that, it's just not good enough. The only truly usable ones are the ones that can't be highjacked so easily such as the bridge and a few others.

Soul Linking completely removed that downside. Whether these spells are actually any good will depend on the rest of their rules and of course their point cost. But in principle they could be pretty good. It does make me a little bitter, as having (optional?) soul linking be a wider mechanic on a lot of Endless Spells would make so many more of them at least a little viable.

The line of sight guy I'm not sold on - if it increased range too that would be something, but line of sight alone is very rarely an issue for spells in my experience. Too niche to spend points on before the battle.

Definetly, the bird looks like a dud unless there's some very powerful spell damage dealing spell Ossiarchs get... But, the other two look like they could be powerful in the 40-60 point range. Maybe the +1 to Hit aura against enemies would be more.

These days the only Endless spells I pay for are Cogs, or Faction specific endless spells that cannot hurt me.

The bird has more! Check the GW site as the warscroll is up. Basically each turn you roll a dice if there are any dead destruction/order/chaos models within range and the bird then on a 1-2 heals its soul-linked mage; 3-4 deals mortal wounds to all models in a range around it (excluding ossiarchs) or on a 5-6 it does both.

It went from "meh" to "OOOH!" for me and its only around 20 points!

This army is everything I wanted from a new death faction:

Highly elite this time (and they even drove the point home by not giving you battle line manipulation and no allies to make up for low bodycount). Absolutely perfect... Also means you have to play without any cheap screen units, so a very obvious downside to them.

Strong magic still.

slow, but steady advance.

Very different mechanisms through the new "not command points" command points system, but one that can become really rewarding.

One of the most interesting warscrolls for a character I've seen in a long time with Katakross. Ignore him at your own peril it seems, but if you engage him, you're in for a nasty surprise.

Artillery that actually seems to be good!




I had a feeling I was going to get some of these guys, but the rules I'm seeing combined with their looks (who are very much a love it or hate it sort of deal), I'm all in on this release too!

Got a look at the battletome. Not a thorough read through, but enough to get the jist. Petrifax elite are as OP as they seemed from the preview, and the army as a whole is going to crush opponents who lack significant rend and/or MW output. It has the tools to bring lists OP enough for tourney play, though again MW spam is their downfall. However, IMO it is also a very easy army to lose with both in listbuilding and on the field. Not a good one for new players. Overall I like it, it's about as well balanced as one can expect from GW and loaded with a ton of theme options. Unit choice is slim but a good selection of battalions and sub-factions make up for it. Every unit is useful, and none of them can simply be spammed to win.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Got a look at the battletome. Not a thorough read through, but enough to get the jist. Petrifax elite are as OP as they seemed from the preview, and the army as a whole is going to crush opponents who lack significant rend and/or MW output. It has the tools to bring lists OP enough for tourney play, though again MW spam is their downfall. However, IMO it is also a very easy army to lose with both in listbuilding and on the field. Not a good one for new players. Overall I like it, it's about as well balanced as one can expect from GW and loaded with a ton of theme options. Unit choice is slim but a good selection of battalions and sub-factions make up for it. Every unit is useful, and none of them can simply be spammed to win.

I’m a new player (to AoS) and I’m picking it up... if I lose some, oh well. I have always loved death and this is exactly the kind of army I wanted. Durable, hard to kill, can fish out damage. Perfect for me.

One spends more time looking at their army than they do playing it, and more time playing it than they do winning. If that's the one which inspires you, play it, and don't let wins or losses get in the way. Ultimately if you enjoy using the army everything else will fall into place one way or another.

I think Ossiarchs, once they are properly out, will be an army that generates a lot of talk about how to use them. Not just army builds but actually might encourage chatter about the actual game itself. Even if its going to be about timing and using abilities and such.

GW has tapped a little into the warmachine territory I think with the Ossiarchs. Plus I think that their heavy hitting but very slow nature is going to make them possibly more delicate to use than, say, your typical glass cannon army. A glass cannon army (eg daughters) is, whilst careful to use, essentially a powerhouse that just needs to get its charges off first.

Reapers I think will suffer because they will put few models on the table; can't take allies for cheap chaff and they are majority slow moving. A player will have to be smart to use them; sure if they get into combat they will deal out a lot of damage; but a huge Skaven hoard could more easily (for example) tarpit all those reapers behind a wall of clanrats whilst securing objectives and at least contesting them.

They aren't that slow; a generic command ability gives +3" movement to a unti and their discipline mechanic both gives them plenty of not-cp to use.

Does the book have anything for Path to Glory? Skirmish? WarCry?

Was there anything in the book about Katakros and retinue being separable from the base?

I fear the cost of trying to get all the little guys from bits sellers.

Path to Glory is in there, though TBH I didn't give it much of a look since I make my own charts now anyways.

Any verbiage in the book that enables Ossiarchs to use generic command abilities? My instincts were that they did not have access to them, since they don't have command points. Battleshock immunity isn't relevant to them obviously, but no access to an auto 6" advance and/or re-rollable charges seems notable.

So Bonereapers can't take any allies at all. If it's not in the tome, there's no way to get it (except mercenaries I guess).

I'm fearful it will likely work the same the other way around too - so no Mortek Crawlers for my Legion of Nagash army. If that's the case, it's completely killed any hype for this release for me. Not in the position to start a whole full army, but I was really excited to try a few of the units as allies.