Everything I have heard in regards to this upcoming release from Mantic has been positive.
Yesterday I listened to "Countercharge" podcast and they interviewed the book's author, Nick Williams. What we got was a very good in depth view of the supplement's contents and more importantly the rationale behind them.
Obviously the most impactful are the new rules and rule amendments. Last week I discussed the three items that were disappearing - a big tick from me - but there is so much more.
The inclusions can be split into a number of core areas:
- Artefacts - three disappear but ten more are added. I'm not a big user of artefacts but I am happy that the three have disappeared as they were "crutch" items. The meta must shift due to their demise. The new items sound interesting and importantly, far less no-brainers than 6+ De or regen on Dragon or +1 to hit on a shooting Horde
- Spells - there are three new spells but far more meta shifting is the change to the existing Bane Chant. Now you need two successes to get +1 Piercing while Crushing Strength requires the current one success. This is a great change and will introduce risk into the Mage sitting behind the shooting Horde. Well done guys.
- Change to 4+ to Hit with no modifiers - now there is a cover modifier. Again a big cheer from me. Meta affecting, it will shake things up.
- Limits on Duplicates - now scaled, and a max of two of the same Monsters, Warmachines, Characters at 2000 points. Great stuff.
- Army Mods - changes to Army wide rules and individual unit rules will address some of the external and internal balance issues identified by the Rules Committee
- New Scenarios - six new scenarios and changes to some existing ones is a fantastic change. I love Scenarios and having a wide variety is the best composition tool you can have. Variety encourages combined arms and a balanced list.
So Nick and his team have done a great job with this addition. I love this approach to ensuring things don't get stale.
I've preordered from Mighty Ape and am looking forward to this hitting my doorstep.
Posted with Blogsy
The only thing I'm a big lukewarm on is that every spell caster will get access to all three new spells. I can understand why they took that approach, but it seems to somewhat undermine the individual flavour of each army.
ReplyDeleteAlso, minor quibble but one of the new spells is called 'Soul Drain', but apparently is totally unrelated to the Well of Souls' special rule known as 'Soul Drain'.
I was thinking The Herd did pretty well out of the new rules. None of the "dial backs) really impact them.
ReplyDeleteLightning nerf is (arguably) a small buff to Herd chaff. Getting access to a rallying item won't hurt.
ReplyDeleteWe are just starting our kow journey this year at the club, so I'm a relative kow noob. Do we know if the changes are optional (as per the cok 2016 pack), or if they will be written into the main rules (as per errata)?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that it is the first. The rules are optional rather than errata.
DeleteCheers
ReplyDelete