Ganigumo

I guess it is only melee I missed that part, they still hit and wound on 3s and I did the math for them with no buffs so it doesn't really change anything. They bench pretty similarly to boltboyz, and have nearly the same offensive profile as blissbarbs and reavers for around the same points. They still have a role in dwarf builds, but don't have the same kind of buff stacking the fusiliers have access to. The problem with the dwarf stuff in the book (and elf stuff to a lesser extent) isn't so much the points as the lack of support. I'm not saying some of the stuff didn't get worse, just that the points don't feel off for most of the units. You can't fix bad allegiance abilities or incentives through points, and we have examples of this in stuff like kruleboyz and old BoC, spiderfang come to mind as well. These changes really do solidify irondrakes as the dwarf shooting unit, since it matches their playstyle. The old buff and teleport strat was just something you threw irondrakes into any cities list to do. The armies around units have a big effect on their usefulness, and you really feel it sometimes. Marshcrawla sloggoth is a perfect example, absolutely useless in warclans, but tons of armies would kill for a big aura of +1 to hit, and dropping the points down to 90 or whatever to try to get kruleboyz to take it is bad for the game. You can't just point irondrakes at 120 because the dwarves can't buff as well as the humans, because then you just end up spamming them because of the raw warscroll efficiency, and they start warping the entire army around them. There have been a few times in the games' history when this has happened and it is always a disaster.

130 points for 10 1 wound models on a 3+ is fine, and the potential for the 4+ ward is really good at those points. 100 points for 10 dudes on a 4+ is pretty standard for dudes who get in the way and stand on objectives, and you pay a little extra for the higher save and potential ward. Sure you need a hero to stand near them, but thats how the army works, and you don't need to give orders to your ranged dwarves since they are both melee focused. Its only during the enemies turn, but during your turn you control combat priority, and the army has a bunch of fights first/last, and you can just retreat if you need to, so you don't really need it on your turn. Irondrakes are still on 3+/3+/-1/1. The runelord still has a +1 rend prayer, it just chants on a 4 now instead of a 2 for some reason, and there are tons of ways for dwarves to get +1 to hit. The loss of the teleport shenanigans sucks, but they seem to be making an effort to kill that game-wide with the changes to bridge and lauchon, so while they're worse if you play them the way you used to, the book pushes dwarves into a playstyle where you support durable dwarf units with irondrakes and blast anything that comes near you, and if they don't you advance slowly, and I think the warscroll works for that. They're pretty comparable to 6 boltboyz actually. 6 boltboyz using hasty shot do roughly the same damage as 10 irondrakes with 2 attacks, the boltboyz do a little more but cost 80 more points. 1 shot irondrakes do about half the damage of those 6 boltboyz using aimed shot. 20 Irondrakes cost the same as 9 boltboyz and do more damage with the 2 attacks, and only slightly less with the 1 attack. Fusiliers are on 4+/4+ vs reavers and blissbarbs on 3+/3+. But with the command trait your all out attack also gives +1 to wound, so if you're building into fusiliers they'll be on 3+/3+, which is slightly worse than blissbarbs and reavers who can get AoA to be on 2+/3+. That said fusiliers have a much better threat range, 24", with an order to get +3 move and still be fortified, giving a threat range of 32", which is further than blissbarbs running 6", and there are 2 ways to increase the shooting range on top of that, and they can shoot back in the enemy shooting phase if something gets shot, or apply strikes last (maybe). Also if you really want the damage you can take the dirt cheap alchemite warforger who you'll be bringing in multiples anyway to hand out orders and +1 save auras and try to cast his spell for mortals on 6's, which pumps a unit of 10 fusiliers up to 10 damage, or 30 up to like 30 damage. So they do slightly less damage, with better range for less points than blissbarbs, plus they actually have a frontline to protect them. Thats not to say blissbarbs aren't too powerful either, which they are, in large part due to the allegiance abilities letting them spam CA, the bonus mortals from temptations, and the blissbarb seekers shredding armor for them. So fusiliers are like Reavers+ in an army that better supports a gunline strategy.

Yeah I'm still having nightmares about how broken those kruleboyz were when they came out. I hugely disagree with this assessment. Units aren't just pointed for the warscroll, but also for their potential. Ironbreakers are 130 for 10 wounds with a 3+/4++, sure they only get the 4+ ward half the combat phases, but they're also 40 points cheaper than phoenix guard with a better armor save. Irondrakes are 10 points cheaper than they used to be, and only lost 1" range, and they saw plenty of play The dreadlord on dragon can be built to slap, but also has a 14" flying move and access to an ability that makes units attacking it take a mortal wound for every missed attack. There are units that will just immediately die when they attack that thing, and its fast enough to get into those fights. The human stuff is probably almost entirely undercosted too. The foot marshal is 90 points for a free command on each of your turns, which seems pretty fair, and you need heroes for the armies' orders. The kruleboyz killaboss is 90 points and he only helps with battleshock on paper thin units. Savage Big boss is 80 points, and does literally nothing but carry a command trait he doesn't need to survive to use. Megaboss on foot is probably a closer comparison, having similar CP efficiency, but is 140 points and slaps harder. The Command squad is overcosted, but you're bringing it for the battle tactic I think, so its a tax on the BT. Its bad design but it is what it is. Steelhelms are appropriately costed for 10 1 wound models on a 4+, but have access to a 5+ ward and a ton of save stacking potential. Fusiliers are fantastic, and you can triple all out attack them, and get +1 to wound, with a mid game reroll ability. some of the points you're suggesting would be gamebreaking. Although I do agree that some of the older elf/dwarf stuff doesn't do much, and the warhulk seems pretty bad.

The average damage of the pontifex (d3 mortals on a 3+) is 1.33. That's ignoring the fact that it hits multiple targets, and can easily spike damage, or that you can bring other long range effects that don't target, so you can finish things off if you do spike. Also this is in addition to an 18" 5+ ward aura, which is the primary reason you bring it, and the pontifex would still be undercosted if that is the only thing the prayer could do. A prayer on a 3+ is more reliable than a spell on a 7. Mystical terrain can bump her up to chanting on a 2+. Sentinels are a different kind of unit. This ability is more akin to comets call from seraphon. The core rules were basically changed so sentinels can't shoot heroes anymore, and sentinels are kind of good against everything. Warforger is ridiculous. Just compare him to the Swampcalla shaman. Warforger is cheaper, has AOE STACKING mystic shield, and a spell for mortals on 6s in addition that works on ranged weapons, meanwhile swampcalla hands out mystic shield, but the unit can't be in combat, and neither can the swampcalla, it doesn't stack, even with the offensive buff option, and the warscroll spell is much worse. I think pontifex might be better than skragrott if you don't take points into consideration at all. Skragrott just has the unique effect of being a bad moon aura, so if you want to reliably have allegiance abilities you basically need to bring him. Pontifex can still chant in your opponents territory. You get to pick 2 of the 3 effects if she's within your opponents territory, but only 1 if she's in your territory

The pontifex is absolutely cracked, and the points only make her more so. Mass aoe mortal wounds are great, and the fact it targets many of those little support heroes is great too. The ward will usually be the best option, but she can pick 2 of them depending on position, and some armies run a lot of small wizards, and/or have wizard units, like lumineth. If you combine it with any other amount of splash mortal wounds, like the stormcast with the banner, you can snipe a ton of little important heroes. The problem is that the prayer multi-target, and has no range or sight restrictions. Merciless blizzard requires you to get within 12", so outside of a few gimmick strategies like hero phase moves or teleports, means you can position to be out of range. Even when combine with things like hero phase moves and teleports you can do a lot to avoid it on a valuable piece. With this prayer there is no avoiding it, and most of the targets have 5 wounds.

exciting, hopefully there's more than just ironjawz, I'd love for bonesplitterz and/or kruleboyz to get a little love too. Although I'd be fine if KB got some rules updates and no new models. No clue what to expect from new IJ units though, they aren't really lacking for anything. Maybe a named foot megaboss? Then da Choppaz can get the foot boss, and bloodtoofs can have a unique big pig variant.

Gnashtoof is still pretty divisive. I'm definitely not sold on it, but other than that yeah thats pretty much the list. Minus the gnashtoof you have about 400 points of wiggle room. If you can get one of those swamp lurkers boxes thats most of what you need. Gnashtoof is definitely undercosted at the current points, but it brings your drops up and it still doesn't do a lot other than exist efficiently, and this is an army that wants to be low drop I think. If you don't care about drops I could see running multiple gnashtoofs.

Not a lore figure, but a while back WH weekly were spitballing new units, and the idea of a "Lady" being a non fec woman being carried around by ghouls who think she's the lady of the lake or a princess or something handing out boons is such a good concept.

IMO supa nasty venom is a trap option. Just take a hammer that doesn't cost your command trait. Which is a bit sad since I love spiderfang. Then I think it depends more on your GS choice. Glowy Howzit troggboss is easily the safest option to score chasing the moon, which I think is our easiest GS. Clammy hand is fantastic value though, and is even pretty good outside of kings gitz, and is honestly stronger than being in kings gitz. You get the same chance to bring one thing back, and the same chance to fail, but also a chance to bring 2 things back. I've played clammy hand on a foot loonboss and it was ok? using his AoA on bounderz is super good, but even with the 18" range you struggle a bit with being close enough to them and the shrine.

maybe warlocks should've gone into cities too? They'd have more of a role there I think.

I'm not sure their hand was forced. The leaks were last night and the article was today, and while its possible they wrote it in that time, its far more likely they had this article, with all of the remaining models in it, prepped. IIRC we saw images of the box, without spoilers or leaks, a few days ago from people receiving them, but didn't get any leaks until yesterday. It looks a little like maybe part of the NDA was listed for todays date (August 4) and because of time zones/late night someone beat warcomm to the punch.

This is a good sign for bonesplitterz right?

Gotta remember WFB giants are dumb as rocks and often drunk, and BB likes to play on some of the wackier stuff.

Kruleboyz had one last year, and there isn't much they could do to make it different from the last box that had a vulcha and sludgeraker. My exact thought

nurgle had an old one, and there's the recent harbingers box, so another nurgle mortal box would be a lot. Nurgle daemons would be neat? Or beasts of chaos, now that they have a non-bray shaman plastic hero. Maybe a warherd box with 2 cygor/ghorgon, 6 bullgor and a beastlord if the value works out right. Slaves to darkness with the new knights/warriors/daemon prince isn't out of the question either imo. Gargants make sense, not sure what it would be though, a single mega and 1 or 2 mancrushers? If not that I could see them skip destruction entirely. Fyreslayers should just do a box of 20 hearthguard and a magmadroth

I agree. IMO the vanguard boxes are generally a worse deal. The early ones had similar savings, but the real killer is the price point. SC boxes were the right price point to get into the game with. They're undoubtedly going to try to pull something like the 40k combat patrol game with the vanguard boxes too, but I don't think thats worth the higher cost of entry. Especially since the game really is balanced around 2k points, and things get weird if you're playing low points.

usually with new armies I think they wait, let the customers really into it buy all the kits separately at full price, then when things calm down a little they release the vanguard/SC at a discount.

They could do kits with different markings on shields and icons and stuff, but they haven't done those kinds of kits in years. I suspect the skaven update will come in waves. Focus on one or two clans for the first update, and the rest later.

The Khorne ones were updated with the slaanesh ones, when they did wrath & rapture in 2019. I think the bloodletters & daemonettes were late fantasy or early aos. The horrors are newer, not sure when they came out, but the screamers and flamers are plastic versions of the 2000's ones.

I could see malerion in the aos4 starter box. Theres a lot of speculation about stormcast/skaven, but they tend to like putting something new in those boxes, and we haven't seen order vs order yet. Separate battletomes would be better because they'd have longer to cook. I don't hate the idea of warclans if the writers are given the extra time to make a book like that work. For night goblins its basically just the grots and madcap shaman that are old. Most of the demons were updated around end times/early aos weren't they? I think its just a handful of resin characters and the tzeentch daemons that are lagging behind. Daemons are cross system too so the logistics of updating them tends to be a bit harder.

Oh I hope they don't reset, although the only reset we've ever gotten for "fantasy" was the shift to AOS. I think the reason 40k gets so many resets is because of, to put it bluntly, bad rules writing. The power level of the 9th edition books were off the wall, but also the core rules always find a way to jam in a bunch of bloat that just makes the game worse, even the 10th ed rules, which they cut back on stuff for to reduce bloat, still had a lot of bloat. From what I can tell though (even anecdotally) a lot of 40k players claim to enjoy how complex the game is, and dislike the idea of cutting even the bad complexity. To the point where GW felt the need to make addressing that a part of their marketing push. Thats not to say AoS is completely innocent in terms of bad complexity, there's definitely some stuff added in 3e that should just get the axe. I find theres a massive difference in how the AoS and 40k players see their games too, the AoS community is seems much more informed about good game design, and a lot of the AoS content creators will talk not just about the rules and power of the stuff, but also if things are well designed, and AoS players are often happy when bad complexity is addressed. Meanwhile I rarely see 40k players or content creators talk much about the design of the games.

Ah right it might get dominated by 40k, but I think cities will probably be earlier than that? Sometime in september maybe?

There's often a big release in the late october-November timeframe isn't there? So FEC being there isn't surprising.

Why would we need new fellwaters when old world can recycle these beauties!

Jade Obelisk are bad because they aren't horrors. Their abilities want them to be a kind of durable chaff/anvil, but they'd need to be like 30-40 points cheaper to get somewhere you might take them over horrors.