This morning I sat down and read the v0.99 beta for The Vermin Storm for T9A.
I will say that they pretty much read as I expected them too - in that there were no surprises or WTF moments. The army book lets you build an army that with units and models would not look out of place in the Warhammer World.
One caveat - I have not read the main rules so my comments should be viewed in that context. I'm guessing "Insignificant" means doesn't count for Core and "Toxic Attacks" is some variant of poison.
The individual entries are 99% what I thought an ETC comp team would do if let loose on the Skaven book. Largely everything is dialled back one or two notches while the misfire consequences are amplified a touch. The randomness has been squeezed down a lot and layers of special moves removed. What this means is that you get a far greater KoW feel with T9A Skaven than with WHFB v8. For instance the Hellpit Abomination (now just the Abomination) looks like it will play far more as generic monster A than in 8th where it was unique.
Does this mean that things are good or bad? I've no real idea if Vermin Swarm will play like a rat horde than under 8th. I suspect it will be smaller given the changes to Slaves. Certainly I don't think it is as random as it was previously but there are enough people who remember Skaven randomness as solely beneficial that when a committee got hold of it it was only ever going to be dialled back.
Looking forward to seeing what people make of the list and how armies distill once it is up and running.
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Insignificant just means that they don't cause panic in units without the rule when they die or flee etc and characters without insignificant cannot join insignificant units. E.g. sort of like Orc's not running away when Goblins fled in 8th and no Orcs joining Goblin units.
ReplyDeleteToxic attacks are a bit confusing, something to do with wounding easier I think.
I was looking at the wood elves (they have a new name but it's easier to use the old one)
ReplyDeleteTreemen are better and useable again
Dryads are able to skirmish again and have there s4 back
Archers aren't as good as the really good ones in the 8th book but can be upgraded. By and large about all of it seems good nothing great
Reading the main rules it looks and feels like warhammer. Etc warhammer but still like the game we used to play before. Unlike the kow and aos alternatives that are completely different games
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