BA - 8th Edition Review: Blood Dragons

[Sweeney Todd]

I know I'm late to the party but I like the idea of Shaolin vampires ATATATATATATATA-ing everyone to death. That said, isn't it strange that for all their fluff of being constantly trained for hand to hand they are only WS4? I propose their WS goes up to 5, just for fluff's sake.

PS: Seconded about Skirmisher rules in 8ed being absolutely retarded.

 

[Bishop]

75-ish seems to be in order... we can adjust it slightly. Though, I'd prefer to have them slightly over-costed then have them slightly under-costed.

 

[Dreadgrass]

Sorry for the late pickup, but they're missing a wounds characteristic, for the sake of completion.

75pts each for 1 wound models seems steep, though they've got a lot of nice abilities...

 

[Danceman]

Bump up WS to 5. Even with all their fancy stuff 75 is a lot for a single wound model. I think 70 points is reasonable enough, perhaps even 65 but then again I am pretty oblivious to how to accurately price stuff but for some reason 65 works... I dunno

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

I would say with WS5 we put them at 70pts and then see how they do in playtesting. Sound ok to everyone else?

 

[Danceman]

Sounds good to me.

 

[Bishop]

Sure, we can try that.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

OK, and how much should the upgrade to Abbot be? +25pts?

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Anyone? If not I'll go with 25pts and round up the rest of the army list changes.

 

[Pietr Von Carstein]

25 seems about right , same as a kastellan .

 

[Bishop]

Sure, 25 looks fine...

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

OK,

I have added the Blood Monks to the very first post. Do we think the list now has enough variety?

I was thinking that the GG could have an upgrade or something. Maybe one unit to Wight-at-Arms. They were the best warriors the Blood Dragon had before he was turned etc. Come equipped with Halberds, higher Initiative and may fight in 3 ranks?

 

[Count Lasombra]

@DON- that GG unit sounds like absolute murder.I think it would be cool to have a better version of skeleton warrior to represent the attention being given to the proper training and out fitting of an armies core.
Skellies with +1 WS +1 IN and heavy armor would be great,I'd pay 10 for that.

 

[Bishop]

If we added in an "elite" Skeleton unit as Core (with a restriction maybe, 1:1 ratio with normal skeletons), then that would allow the GG to be moved back to the Special slot, if we wanted too.

I think that an upgraded GG unit might be too much...

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Actually that is not a bad idea. A skellie based on some men at arms who never fell back, who were an unbreakable anvil. Bump the up their WS & I and give them a special rules which lessens the damage they suffer by crumbling, maybe all wounds caused by crumbling halved?

 

[Count Lasombra]

A 4+ ward save vs crumbling would be cool.

 

[Bishop]

Hmm. Not sold on a save vs. crumbling (that was obviously and purposely removed for a reason). Though, some special rule that helped might be okay.

 

[Count Lasombra]

How about they count as having an additional rank only for the purpose of denying steadfast?

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Hmmm, what about the following:

Skeleton at Arms

A skeleton unit may be upgraded to a Skeleton at Arms for +2pts per model. Each skeleton gains +1WS & +1I. They may also choose to purchase the following equipment:

Halberds +1pt per model.

Finally, when working out ranks for Steadfast, they count as having double the amount of ranks they actually do.

 

[Bishop]

Yeah, that looks decent to me DoN.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Should they be limited in some way, or the player allow to upgrade as many as they want to pay out for?

 

[Bishop]

I'd say limited... one upgraded unit per one regular unit of skeletons. I'd probably be okay without a limit except for the steadfast enhancement... imo, a restriction is required.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

Sounds good. Can you do the wording for the rule Bishop, you tend to be better than me at making sure the wording is crystal clear and can't be twisted etc.

 

[Bishop]

LOL... that's my 20+ yrs of gaming. Being a GM/ST for a long time helps a lot as well.

Will work on it. How's this:

Skeletal Veterans -10 pts/model (Other suggested name: Skeleton at Arms, any other ideas?)

Stat line - (no book handy, atm – basic Skeleton stats with +1WS and +1I)
Unit Size – (as per Skeleton Warriors)

Options:
Normal Skeleton Warrior options as well as the following option:
Halberds +1pt per model

The number of Skeletal Veteran units can not exceed the number of Skeleton Warrior units.

Special Rules:
As per Skeleton Warriors
Hardened Warriors

Hardened Warriors:
<insert fluff>
Skeletal Veteran units gain double their normal rank bonus for purposes of determining if Steadfast applies.

 

[Disciple of Nagash]

That's great, will update it into the first post.

Looking at what they have left I think the army list looks a lot better now.

Does anyone have anymore suggestions?