A positive perspective on 8th edition

[HemoRager]

Fear died ... weep ... lets look at some of all the good stuff.


Terrain / scenarios
Less shooting / gunlines
Better use of ethereal units


Stepping up
Comparatively favoring weak/slow infantry units (that us !)
More casualties favors selfreplenishing troops


Easier warmachine hunting
Attacks on crews allow for 6 models facing.
Go bats !


Casting system changes
"Cheaper" high level spells.
Example for at 4th level caster: Wind of death now costs 2.3 PD ((12-4)/3.5) as opposed to 3.4 PD (12/3.5) before*.
7th: Spam ION with all dices
8th: Cast big spells, untill you have [Number of casters]*(1+1/3) PD left -> Then spam ION on 1 dice


Curse of the years
Basic rules promoting hordes -> More targets for the spell
Moreover the curse stays in play without penalizing the casting wizard.
Size 40 infantry dying on 6+, anyone ?


Forbidden lore
Ultimate versality with vastly improved spells.
NO uncertainty on spells, allows very specialized tactics (see below)


New VC cruise missile
[warseer idea leeching ON]
Setup:
- Vampire hero + Forbidden lore (Death) + Scroll of "Miscast"
- Options: Talisman of lycni and/or Crimson gem
Use:
- Run towards enemy when with 12"
- Release Purple sun (5" if lucky)
- Collect 1 PD for each 3 wounds (5+ roll)
- Remove vampire (most likely)
[warseer idea leeching OFF]



* Mathhammer: WOD using 3 dices will be cast succesfully 74% (3rd) / 84% (4th) of the time. 7th edition would have required 4 dices and with a 2x chance of miscast.

 

[Darkos]

I'm not sure about less shooting.

Now ALL ranged weapons shoot in 2 ranks, and you can deploy a 20 archers ranked unit and make 16 of them shoot. (as per rain of arrows rule)

Also, all template/area weapons are now auto-hit (no more partials), making those catapult glacing hits more deadly.

Yes, those "one tenth of an inch" LOS are gone (or penalized, at least), but i expect to see a lot more shooty units in the field.

Otherwise, i like a lot the Stepping up rule (40 poisoned attacks? at WS 7? yes, please), and the new combat sequence, that takes casualties from back rank, allowing front models to figth.
I always feel a bit strange when a unit of 5 knigths killed the front rank of my 40-strong ghoul unit, and none of 35 survivors could strike back. Nice it be fixed.

 

[Johnny B]

Fear isn't dead, its just different. A chance every turn to reduce your enemy to WS1 is nothing to be sniffed at, particularly with Aura of Dark Majesty and spells that reduce Ld. And lets face it, I can't remember the last time someone actually auto-broke from my units in 7th; everyone was bloody immune.

 

[HemoRager]

Fear isn't dead, its just different. A chance every turn to reduce your enemy to WS1 is nothing to be sniffed at, particularly with Aura of Dark Majesty and spells that reduce Ld. And lets face it, I can't remember the last time someone actually auto-broke from my units in 7th; everyone was bloody immune.

Same here, allthough i have a sneaking suspision it had something to do with my unit sizes :lol:

Good point with the aura: The enemy is actually within range of the aura, when fear has to be resolved. However i am a bit uncertain about how large the occasional effects of enemy WS1 will be ... and as you put it everyone is bloody immune.

 

[Fodderboy]

WS 1 means any of our units better than a skelly is being hit on 5's, so they're losing 1/3 of thier hits. That's a big defensive bonus right there.

Not only that, but we're hitting back on 3's, gaining 1.5 - 2x more hits back, offering many more chances to wound.

When fear works, it is a huge bonus to offense and defense. The current mechanic seems to be about thrashing the enemy instead of breaking and chasing. And for doing that, fear is our buddy.

 

[Dklyn]

[/quote]

Good point with the aura: The enemy is actually within range of the aura, when fear has to be resolved. However i am a bit uncertain about how large the occasional effects of enemy WS1 will be ... and as you put it everyone is bloody immune.
[/quote]

If Aura of Dark Majesty works anything like our helm of command, then keep in mind that if the general is further than 6" from the vamp, then the unit you are in combat with can use the general's unmodified ldr, which in essence nullifies this power.

Personally I think a major blow to fear is having any units within 12" of the BSB reroll any failed ldr (including failed fear test). This can cut the chance of having a fear test work on a big fight go waaay down. I'd suggest trying to introduce your enemy's BSB to the sword of kings if possible.

 

[Kalandros]

No, leadership modifiers affect whichever leadership is used, unit uses general's leadership, it then gets a -1 modifier.

 

[Dklyn]

Any chance I can get a reference for that? I'll have a hard time defending helm of command works one way but ldr works differently.

 

[Papadoc]

The corpse cart is sick in this edition. It not only ramps up to level 6 quickly. My was level 5 by the end of turn 2. It also can effectively shut down ur opponents magic phase by stealing power dice. This happened twice during a game against the warrios of chaos I was playing. The downside is that it steals ur dice during ur magic phase but if u have the skull staff, forbidden lore, dark acolyte and the black periapt on another caster with the necromancy lore (the most expensive spell is 12+) you can compensate for the loss of power dice to the coach. It was real effective.

---

Sorry last post was meant to say black coach not corpse cart although I like it as well.

~Avoid double posts where possible please~Capt Rubber Ducky

 

[Count Darvaleth]

Papadoc, you know you can just edit the post.... just click edit, then change it. That way you don't have to double-post.

And no, Black Coaches are now awful. We have the Unstable rule, BC sucks.