Got my Book in!

[Nick!]

This thing is massive- about 400 pages.  The rules are pretty much the same, and the army lists have all the addons from the expansions in them.

Warmachines got a lot more reliable- they all have 2 attacks now, but half the blast value.  Other shooters got downgraded- very few shooters have a 4+ shoot skill anymore, and most shooting units are irregular (so they don't unlock monsters and heroes).  Large Infantry and Large Cavalry give slightly fewer unlocks than regular-sized folks.

Most characters seem to have a point or 2 less nerve now, and most lists have guys in them who double their attacks against individuals.

Overall, I'm pretty excited!

[Gordianus]

You lucky dog! Did you get it direct from Mantic or did you get it locally? 

I'm looking forward to getting my copy!

[Nick!]

On 10/27/2019 at 9:36 PM, Gordianus said:

You lucky dog! Did you get it direct from Mantic or did you get it locally? 

I'm looking forward to getting my copy!

Direct from mantic.  Got the spell cards and tokens too.

 

I am quite glad I'm building a new nightstalkers army; Empire of Dust had a bunch of models removed.  In all fairness, it was crappy stuff only I was dumb enough to take, but still.

[Kremmet]

6 hours ago, Nick! said:

I am quite glad I'm building a new nightstalkers army; Empire of Dust had a bunch of models removed.  In all fairness, it was crappy stuff only I was dumb enough to take, but still.

Oh no, plenty of people were stubborn enough to bring Scorpion Husks even though they had zero purpose in the list, but now we have the freedom to use scorpions as something useful! We're free!

[Nick!]

What would you use the scorpions as?  I guess you could stack two of them into a bone giant.  Scorp-ception!

The loss of the wurm riders is harsh though.  I guess I could use them as Chariots.

Also, I liked the skeleton cav.  Move 9 and nimble, plus surgeable, plus def 4+ and nerve -16 made for a good objective grabber.  That said, Revanant cav is objectively better.

One big thing to note- lots of units are irregular, and don't unlock units now.  For instance, all Goblins in the Ogre List.  Nearly all shooters, as well.

 

I am super stoked to start our escalation league this month!

[Kremmet]

Red Goblins were always Irregular so there's no change there, but in general it's a big change (along with regiments of Large Infantry unlocking nothing).

Skeleton Cav were...bad. Like, really bad. Move 9 and Nimble is OK, but being Shambling it was almost always better just to bring Goblin or whatever cav if you wanted them as a late-game objective grabber (-/16 isn't all that important with damage output that low). I'm glad that their stats have been rolled into the archer cav and the melee roll replaced by Revenant Cav who fulfill the same aesthetic role, but with significant mechanical upgrades.

The loss of the riders is pretty irrelevant in terms of power scaling due to how competitive EoD worked and the buffs to Guardians in 2019. Aesthetically, I'll miss em, but I just popped my worms off and put them on a cav regiment to run as Revenant Cav. Pretty cool thematic unit that way.

I would use scorpions as unit filler to be honest. Adding interest to skeletons can be difficult while maintaining the whole regimented-in-death look so finding thematic elements that don't overpower the skeletons themselves in the motif is important.