Brother Glacius

I'm having indecision paralysis so I figured I'd post up my thoughts on what I have available and see if any of the comments can sway me one way or the other. Core Armies: Tomb Kings: I used to own a big TK army and sold/traded it away. So now I'm starting new. I have the new starter set on the way and a few units from End Times that I added to my VC. I have lots of STLs to print additional units as well. One of the reasons I love the TK is because of the traditional army aspect of them. They have rank and file troops, archers, warmachines, cavalry, chariots....and then a smattering of really interesting constructs. To me, they are a stunning concept and visual army. I'm a bit worried about the inconsistency of the model styles as I mix 3d prints with GW....plus, I have to do 3D prints as I won't have enough actual GW models to round out a 2K army. This army should also be fairly amazing to paint. Orcs and Goblins: I'd probably go with a night goblin army for this. I've got a ton of night goblins that I think would be a real fun army to play...probably not too competitive, but would give me pure license to play like a sneaky git the whole time and pull every dirty trick I could think of because as soon as those gobbos get stuck in, everything will fall apart. Probably the biggest pain would be getting the right movement trays for these guys because I'd have to get creative with unit sizes I think. I've done some test painting of NGs in the past, but nothing lately so I'm even excited to see how speedpaints will work with these models. Also in the pro column would be all official GW models. Wood Elves: This is actually my first warhammer army. I even have a good amount of really old metals painted. I've tried to collect newer models as the editions went by, but never got back into playing these guys. I did bring them out for maybe the last Club Challenge though and did decent with them. So I've got newer models I could use, or try to work with my older metals (which I have extras in blister still in order to expand on some units). That being said, the paint jobs are also fairly old and not very good. Dwarfs: Now this army I actually brought to a GT but there are definitely new units I would need to paint up as well as do additional shading and highlighting on the existing models. I ran out of time originally and never finished them These guys have some solid rules and would just be a brick of an army to play. Dwarves have been my favorite for a while and I think they got good rules with Old World. The downside is that the play style for them is a bit limited due to slow speeds and knowing that charge wise, I'm always going to be on the receiving end. Probably my #1 army for the good guys though. High Elves: This is one of the last armies I collected during 8th edition. I think they were part of the starter set and thus there were lots of cheap plastics to be had. They also had a cool new dragon rider model and elf wise, they are a bit like the TK in that they are a true army. They have their rank and file units, cavalry, skirmishers and warmachines. Like most of my armies, purely unpainted so will be a big painting chore to get them ready. No problem to field 2K points with the models I own. Empire: This was the last army I collected after GW discontinued fantasy battle. I was lucky enough to get a great deal on pretty much a full army, assembled, and unpainted. I grabbed a few extra units here and there to round them out. I've never actually played them, not even once though. This is also the signature army though for fantasy battle. So many options, so many directions you can go with them....a great army spoiled for choice. Legacy Armies: Vampire Counts: my absolute favorite army of all time. I actually sold off quite a bit of the painted stuff I had for this because they had released so many great new models for it with 7th and 8th edition. So what I have now is a large unpainted army. The fact that it is legacy stings a bit and I wasn't too happy how some of the units ended up. That being said, they are my number one army for fantasy. Dark Elves: Again, I snagged these guys during End Times because I've always liked the dark elves. It was actually the second time I collected the army as well, so I have most of the new plastic units that were put out at the end. This is another solid rank and file army with more monsters than high elves. Great models, good variety, and pretty much solid play. I think they edge out high elves for overall coolness factor, but these guys are legacy vs core and I've yet to really look at their list much. Another army I have lots of options with. My very first thought was to go with TK because I was getting the stuff right out of the gate and already will have an army book for them as well. Nothing like official material to help keep an interest going. But then there was my favorite army VC sitting right there, dying to made table ready once again (pun intended). And then as I start reading the army lists, the night goblins jumped out as a fun option, and then the dwarves seem so tough and capable....and I got stuck in the "but what about..." cycle. I need something that sticks with me so that I'm not changing my mind in two weeks and going off in another direction. As you can see, I'm absolutely great at collecting armies, not so great in getting them table ready. The Ordo Club Challenge, Rogue Trader Tournaments and Grand Tournaments are how I got the painted armies I do have. I think I need a good goal, and I think a good one might be to get at least 1500pts done for each of my armies. That would be enough points to have fun, casual games with them, and not too far off in case the need every came to do larger force.

I've had this blocked off on the calendar for quite some time. looking forward to it.

I'm going to be organizing my collection soon and inventorying stuff, my wife is going to lose it a little bit when she sees the piles. But I doubt she'll toss away 24 years over it. 😉

No more auto dispel scrolls! Thank the gods. I've always hated them. Now they just give you a better chance to dispel. Oh happy days.

I don't have any luck with mindtaker's calendar. It only shows the current month despite me trying to advance it and the search bar doesn't find anything. If there is somewhere else to find that stuff, please let me know.

To be clear, my thought of having a wide unit like that is because its a poor troop and needs all the help it can get. Kings of War taught me you don't put a unit like that in the center so that it can get multi-charged. You put it out on the flank. Imagine that unit getting in a clip charge, or just sharing the frontage vs a small unit. And of course, this is all situational, based on your opponent's army and what they are bringing. I simply see uses for a large frontage spear unit.

Even with Horde, you max out at +3 combat result from ranks. Also, if you want to benefit from is it combat order or close order...I think its combat order, you have to be wider than deep. Lots of stuff to consider now when deciding on how to form your unit and what role its going to play. I have to say, the new rule of an entire fighting rank getting to attack is a much more elegant way of handling the old wrapping around rule. It makes sense that warriors up front are going to get into the fray even without someone in front of them, and it makes the table cleaner.

extras? maybe. Right now my fantasy stuff is buried under a ton of 40k stuff (15 years not needing to pull it out). That being said, I can dig my way in there and find my box of dwarf extras. I'll see about getting in there this weekend. Right now, due to construction, my basement is quite full, but in the next month it should hopefully thin out and I can start inventorying my collection again. Time to start trimming it down.

Yes, spears should be bought as well as wide frontages. I was reading the rules last night, and if I read them correctly, ALL models in the fighting rank get to attack. So if you have a 10 wide frontage, and a 5 wide unit hits you, you get all 10 guys up front fighting. Now, here's the best part. Models that have supporting attack just have to be behind a model in the fighting rank. They don't have to be behind a model in base contact with the enemy. So that means with a spear unit, you get 20 guys who are able to fight. I think I can see cheap infantry going that route a lot. Go 30 troops, 8-10 models wide, spears. Tough nut to crack.

Looking to see if anyone has ones that they are willing to part with. I have tons of models to trade, fantasy and 40K. Looking for the old metals and maybe the new plastics. Long shot I know, but if I don't ask, I won't find out.

So yes, I can confirm, I sold/traded those models long ago. *sob* I did find some good STL replacement models, but I may have gotten a hold of some of the plastics I wanted. My current issue is too many models stashed in too many places.

because I really liked the new plastic sculpts they made for them in 8th edition. They looked like the dwarf warriors on the box art from long ago which was just the coolest! So I figured it was okay to sell them since I was going to replace them....I was young and foolish!

Wow, so finally was able to look through the army lists last night and man, those dwarfs are tough. Just across the board, solid units, great leadership, and lots of flexibility. I mean they are slow...they are sooooo slow. But damn...talk about an army that can basically say "charge me bro" and then beat the crap out of you. Oh man am I looking forward to playing with these guys. The best part is I already have a painted army I brought to GT's ages ago. I'm a little worried I might have sold my ironbreaker unit (old metal models) and that will break my heart once I confirm. Oh man...getting excited about playing this game! Gotta remember Sons of Ymir from myminifactory in case I need to print some cool dwarfs.

Okay, so basically like I had originally stated, if you have ranks of 5 and spears, you could expect 10 attacks if charged, minus the amount of casualties you suffer. Kind of a shame though. It was more interesting to me to have supporting attacks always be able to attack.

So I have a few options when it comes to creating tomb king units. I bought the Army of The Sands kickstarter a long time ago, and also pay for OPR minis and pretty sure I have access to all of the mummified undead units. That should give me full coverage for any units of the TK army. That being said, I also will have GW models as well. Will it be unappealing to face an army that has mixed models like that?

I'm going to go with the conversion trays. Most of my guys are unpainted so really, rebasing wouldn't be a huge issue, but I really don't want to. For the sake of compatibility with older editions and Kings of War, I'd rather keep them with the original size and upsize with a tray. Once you rebase to the new size, you can't really go backwards. Also again, shogunminiatures (I posted the full link somewhere) does bases and trays and I know they are updating for The Old World.

Gah, not having my rulebook is starting to chafe. Thanks for the info. RAW, spears are awesome right now, especially for poor troops like goblins, skaven and skeletons. I really hope GW doesn't change that with an FAQ. It would make spears really worth the 1pt you are typically paying for them, plus it would give armies with poor troops some dice to roll in combat other than break tests and flee rolls. Even it if does get FAQ'd and changed, I'll see about keeping it as a house rule for friendly games.

Does anyone know if there is the hand weapon + shield bonus armor save like there was before?

Yes, a huge motivation for this question is because I'm a big VC player. Of course I wish Vampire Counts had been a core army...or I should actually say, Undead. I remember when there was just an Undead book and not Vampire Counts and Tomb Kings. Not that TK aren't cool...they very much are...I even used to own the army, but they just seem odd choice to include now. I don't recall ever reading of TK invading the empire or Brettonnia. I know the Brets did a crusade into the realm of the TK....but is that really enough to make them a core army? I mean wouldn't it have just been better to have an Undead book (not vampire counts specifically) but instead focus on the Necromancers that were in the old world around that time. Sure, the vamps are quiet and reeling from their major losses....get that. Keep them as minor characters in an army...make the focus on necromancers...but it seems much more logical to have an actual old world undead force than to try to bring in TK from way out in the fringe. Most of this is coming from the Devil's Advocate side of me. I'm stoked to have TK back in the spotlight...I nabbed their army when they first came out. I only got rid of them when I came to the realization that between the two undead armies I had, the VC were going to win out with my time and effort...and so having two undead armies didn't make sense to me (I know, stupid man...should have kept them anyways). So happy to have that army back. But in this new era of Legacy vs Core...I'd much rather have TK as a Legacy army than the Vampire Counts (Empire Undead). Hmmm, maybe that is the direction I'll take my VC legacy army. Skip the vamps and just go with necromancers and other undead. Won't be as strong martially, but maybe will be an interesting opponent. I'll have to play around with some lists. Anyone else have thoughts on why they went with Tomb Kings over Vamps?

https://old-world-builder.com/ Found this and so far seems to work well.

I feel 25 years younger talking about warhammer rules once again. 🙂

Based on the wording, I think the trickier question is what happens if the first 10 guys are wiped out (assuming ranks of 5). Strictly by the rules, only the models that move to the fighting rank (ie 1st) can't attack. But the models that move up to the second rank would still be able to attack due to the supporting rule. That would make spears well worth the investment. Clearly something that needs to be FAQ'd. As it stands now, I'd have to go with the strict wording and only deny attacks from models that move to the front rank if they have supporting rank rule.

I think CD players should be pretty happy...they finally have a somewhat modern list.

Yeah, I didn't see anything that made me go "huh??"

Also, if you want to get really technical about it, then that first screenshot proves it. It says "models stepping forward into the fighting rank..." There is only one fighting rank, the front rank. So only those stepping forward into the fighting rank cannot attack. Models stepping forward into a non-fighting rank can still make support attacks.