World literally collapsing

Holy news spam.

First, and most significantly, we have errata with actual nerfs/buffs:

 - Shake Effects: Blind and Shadow Bind have been added to the effects that you can shake with a focus or fury.

Sizable nerf to Gorman, whose "piece trade" stock was just completely off the charts as you could trade his activation for a Gargossal/Heavy activation almost ad infinitum. No longer - now you just trade it for -1 focus or fury on those things. Still a really excellent 3pt solo for 2pts, all things considered.
This also nerfs Morghoul2, and is therefore my favourite errata of the lot.

The second effect shake is a nerf to Cryx, specifically Denny2 and the War Witch. Still a superb feat, although almost entirely removes that 'insta scenario win' potential. Brings her down a good notch.

-Pack Fury: Brings the warbeast packs in line with warbeasts to prevent you from gaining fury from killing warbeast pack models with friendly model.

I have never seen warbeast packs played in person but I assume this is an actual errata. Neat.

- Major Victoria Haley (Haley2): Changed Major Haley’s feat so that the Haley player no longer chooses the order of activations for models/units.

Probably the most significant nerf in here. I agree it addressed the core problem of player agency, but I don't know if I would have gone that far as to remove that part of the feat entirely. I assume they playtested the shit out of multiple alternatives though and ended up with this, so we shall see how it pans out.
Either way, this will change the meta a lot, which is what I like to see.

- Major Prime Victoria Haley (Haley3): Changed the wording of Temporal Flux to clarify that it grants the unit and friendly FACTION models within 5" of one or more models in the unit +2 DEF.
Changed Time Projection to clarify how Haley Past and Haley Future can allocate focus and use arc nodes.

Mostly a nerf to Acosta, who looked cocoa butter bananas with that +2 DEF. Haley3 is one of the few Cygnar casters that loves Cygnar infantry due to Revive + the smoke wall so the nerf isn't as much a nerf to her gameplan as it is to all the OP 2pt Merc solos that would hang out near her.
The other stuff is actual clarification that we've known about for a while.

- Flank: Fixed Flank on Trench Buster and Sergeant Nicolas Verendrye to prevent them from flanking with themselves.
Another actual errata. Neat.

- Bone Shaker: Asphyxious the Hellbringer (Asphyxious3) and Calaban the Grave Walker have been updated so the wording of Bone Shaker is consistent across all models.
Holy balls, did Calaban just get a BUFF? It seems that when you kill a guy with Bone Shaker during feat, if that zombie dude kills a guy while zombie dude is in Calaban's control area, then Calaban gets a fury from the dead target (still doesn't get one from zombie dude, who gets RFPed at 'boxed')

Still not enough to make him worth playing (getting fury on the feat has never really been a problem), but it's a minor reduction in Skornergy. At this rate, he should playable by 2022.

- Pistol Wraith: Death Chill was changed to stationary to allow a model with Focus: Shake Effect or Fury: Shake Effect to remove the effect.

Another nerf to Cryx. I approve in principle. Pistol Wraiths don't see play so much anymore though, but they should. Or should have, prior to this nerf. 3pts is hefty. Still better than the Brigand UA though.

- Thyron Sword of Truth: Added duration to the feat.

- Mountain King: Gained Assault.

 Most impressive. I think this is the first time a model has gained a full, entirely new rule (Rhyas gained reach, but that's a property of the weapon *technicality*). This opens the door to more aggressive errata in the future, I hope.
Does this make the Mountain King playable? I think it does. Does it make him good? We will see. It's an interesting change for sure and changes his dynamics.

- Siege Animantarax: Rage Tokens can be gained from friendly attacks. Rage Tokens can be used to boost any attack or damage roll.

Sweet buff. This makes the model not as bad, but perhaps still bad. Will this become significant for the developing Skorne ranged game? It could be like a different (and overall crappier) version of the Sacral Vault.

- Archangel: Draconic Aura changed from Righteous Flames to causing Continuous Fire to enemy models within 2”

Cool, the model now has an animus. Situationally good if you can get like 8+ guys on fire for 2 fury.

Also Grotesques renamed, meaning we get more Grotesques in the future! Legion players everywhere rejoice/fall to your knees and weep!

If there's anything that can be learned, it's that if you complain enough, eventually you will get what you want. A valuable lesson for everyone in life.

Notice how the buffs are all to huge based, really impressive looking models? The ones that look cool and you WANT to play them, but then get frustrated when you do because their rules are bad? Then you go on the forums and bitch for 2-3 years about how your huge-based centerpiece isn't even useful as a paper weight because you live in a high wind turbulence area and the resin/plastic components fall over in the face of a strong breeze? Size matters, folks. Maybe when they release a terrible Manowar Battle Engine, things will happen in that department.

The extra shakeable effects is also a systemic buff to jacks and beasts, which I like to see.

Secondly, Core Rules to the game finally made free after many years: http://privateerpress.com/the-rules-are-free

I guess this is the first step towards a "living rulebook", and makes sense all things considered. The business model has caught up, at least partially.


Third, and most significantly, Jason Soles exits from his cave and interacts with the public:
http://privateerpress.com/community/privateer-insider/insider-8-20-2015

My favourite part of the article, except for the fact that it is written by Jason Soles, is that it includes the quote: 
" We do not like to make changes during or right before a major convention or an organized play season."
on a document released literally one day after World Team Championship (probably the biggest, highest profile Warmahordes tournament in the world) lists are locked and released to the public. Pure class.

Hopefully now when I talk about my greatest inspiration, or use my Soul tokens, people will know who I am talking about. Hopefully.

Farrow Warlord - SS, DD

Filler post!

The Farrow Brigand Warlord was just released at Gencon, and with it followed a wave of emotions (mostly positive for myself personally as a Gator player who does not play Pigs at all, but as a player of the game, a little more sombre).

 

This was the first thing released to the interwebs, posted on Twitter by Will Shick before the Gencon shop opened. 

Reactions were mixed: on one side, Gang and Reform are both really good abilities for any unit with some melee capability, and Prowl is also useful on a (potentially) Pathfinder unit. 

On the other side, these abilities don't particularly synergize with Brigands, who are at base a pretty weak unit. Reform breaks Dig-In, Prowl more or less depends on a forest being on the table (since Pigs have no cloud creation available), Gang is good but not great on a non-reach unit without melee focus. I mean, there are great synergies with Carver - reform is awesome with Quagmire, and Gang is great with Overtake + Weapon Master. But giving them CRA alone already made them decent with Carver, so they really needed to be more useful with other warlocks thatn even better with Carver.

Overall, at this point my opinion of the UA coincided with Immortan Joe's:

 

There was some discussion about whether he would be worth it for 2pts, and probably a good option for the unit at 1pt. Then 12 hours later, we got the front of the card:

3pts. Pigs - Same Shit, Different Day.

On the positive side, he is a pretty decent model with good stats, 2 RNG:10 POW12 gunshots at RAT 6, Gunfighter for 3 POW12 attacks and some decent options with all his abilities and access to Prayers. If he had everything he had with the unit, minus the unit, he'd be a good 2pt combat solo.

On the side of reality, there is no reason for this guy to cost 3pts as a UA. He brings the unit up to 1pt per model and doesn't really provide them with a specific use. Sure, it makes them even better with Carver and as noted previously, the abilities he grants are not bad. They are just not the right abilities. It makes them relatively worse with everyone else in Pigs. It is not what the Brigands needed to be useful or interesting. It makes them bad Trenchers, a different kind of mediocre.

Much like the Razor Boar's animus, this is wasted design space. 

What stings the most (other than the inexplicable 3pts) is not what is there, but what isn't.

Why is this a UA? A UA is supposed to either improve or redefine a unit.
For example the Legion Warspear UA (2pts AND a better model, trololol) makes them a lot more numerically efficient and gives Relentless Charge, both issues the unit previously had compared to other Legion options (and Gatormans). He brings a previously underpowered unit up to par.
On the redefinition side. Tyrant Vorkesh (Cetrati UA) is a model than make the unit better in some lists and worst in others, depending on its intended purpose and matchups. He allows you to use an already good unit differently, in different lists, against different matchups.

The Warlord neither improves nor redefines Brigands. He gives them more tactical options, for quite a few more points. Unfortunately, Brigands are an underpowered, ill-defined unit that needed improvement, or could have done with some redefinition.

Much like the Farrow, this release lacks focus. 

Nobody really knows what the design of Farrow is supposed to be. Some say chaos, some say combined arms, some say Mad Max, some say cool models, some even say just being bad.

It's like they designed this sweet mini-Carver solo, and attached him to a unit as an afterthought. There is no particular synergy between the two.
He's a pretty bad ass fighter, but his best two abilities are Granted rather than Tactics, so you really don't want to get him sniped (and he is a pretty good target to snipe out) therefore keep him back (reducing his combat potential until after engagement).
He has gunfighter, but it doesn't stack with gang

The more you think about it, the more you focus on what isn't there, rather than what is there. That is the sign of missed opportunities, and it probably all comes back to 'it's probably too good with Carver'.

TL;DR

Pigs are the joke that keeps on giving. Except the joke is more of a Comedian / Joker style of joke, or Rorschach's Palliaci joke.

Sorry, Farrow players. I understand your loss.
But then again, I just don't understand why you keep at it. Just on the other side of the pond, we just got Croak Raiders - who are better than Brigands with the UA, for less points, for every other faction in Hordes. GG.

Rot 'n' Roll Presents - Faction Power Rankings: A Completely Original Production

1. Cryx - this faction is overflowing with BS. I mean, who designs this crap? Jason Soles - that's who. Following the MkII Field Test cycle, where Cryx players cried so hard you would think that PP had just backed over their pet dog, Cryx has been dominating the game of Warmahordes with their retardedly powerful casters, ridiculously overpowered spammable infantry, and a slow stream of releases with stat cards that have more text than the Magna Carta. This only goes to prove an Axiom of Games Design (and customer service in general) - if you complain really, really loudly, you will get what you want eventually.

2. Circle Orboros - it's like Cryx, but with heavies. If you love Stalkers and Goraxes, you will love Circle. These days, you also have to love Wolds and Sentry Stones. Yay! Breaking into Mk2 with the above mentioned Stalker/Gorax combo (usually piloted by Kromac), it's been Circle Christmas ever since, with a chunk of super top-notch releases holding them at the front of the pack and providing radically different playstyle options. Despite having their entire faction nerfed via a minor change to Shifting Stones, they still do everything they have ever wanted to do, in new and unexpected ways.

3. Trollbloods - you know a faction has made it when you read threads complaining about one of their units being so awesome it invalidates another one of their also really good units. That, and MAT 11 troops. The main strengths of Trollbloods are:
a) the faction looks unremarkably crap and unexciting on paper while actually being super synergistic and complex on the table, so nobody suspects them (let alone their own player base), and
b) being beloved by the Theme Force God. First Runes of War, and then Evolutionary Elementalism. Points reduction up the wazoo without giving up much. They take a while to get popular because you have to spend several hundred dollars to run them, but then you can run them for like 4 years straight because they are so fundamentally good (kinda like Gators).
No matter how much they win, their players will never let you forget that the Mountain King is and always will be MAT 5. Also, Warders.

4. Legion of Everblight - Legion is like Cryx except with a soul, which is ironic given the Soulless rule on most of their beasts. Legion was insanely good in Mk1 and then nerfed into the ground when  Mk2. This statement, combined with Legion's high placing, lets you know how stupidly strong Legion was in Mk1, when Flight ignored free strikes and AD was 12" (amongst other things).
The best design decision about Legion is that while most of their warrior models are butt-ugly elves, these never actually have to put on the table since their entire faction revolves around sexy leather-clad female warlocks handling multiple giant dragon beasts that spew hot liquids all over the place. Well played, PP.

5. Cygnar - the natural enemy of Cryx, Cygnar has really come into its own since discovering that it is much more efficient to let their national army sit at home and pay Mercenaries to do the work. Carried to great heights by the power of plot armour, Cygnar's godlike casters lead their mighty warjack (singular) to blow everything up with Big Guns and POW12 placable AoE templates while simultaneously contesting every scenario zone on the table. Meanwhile, their paid lackeys take the bullets.

6. Protectorate of Menoth - the faction that never seems to get good releases, except for almost every book. Almost everything they do is frustrating as hell for their opponents and seems undercosted, yet somehow Protectorate players derive no enjoyment from this. This puzzles me tremendously.
PoM is the home of Purification, which as we know breaks the game and hearts and minds everywhere. Despite this, it's not enough to push this faction further up the rankings since when you break it all down, it's a pretty honest faction that requires skill to play (except Harbinger, which requires Tough rolls).

7. Mercenaries - the name is a bit of a misnomer. This faction should really be called "The Earthbreaker and Galleon Ultimate Tag Team Extravaganza", because their Colossals carry them harder than Bryan Cranston carried the first 20 minutes of Godzilla. Unfortunately for Mercs, without the Colossals, the Merc faction is a bit more like the rest of that craptacular film. Having said that, those Colossals are legit as hell (just like Bryan).

8. Skorne - once a Cryx-style infantry spammer in Mk1, then a PoM-style heavy buffing faction in early Mk2, Skorne is now also a Troll-style bastion of medium-based infantry spam. The Skorne Empire has had good showings in tournaments worldwide under the dual leadership of Supreme Grand Master Ultimate Champion Dominar Molik Karn, First of His Name, King of the Andals and the First Men, and Lord Tyrant Martin Hornacek, the Slovak Scourge of Central Europe. Unfortunately, if neither of these two are on the table, then Skorne is a little.... scorned?

9. Khador - the true combined arms faction, Khador's speciality is in its PR. With the image of big stompy robots and its catchy "For The Motherland!" campaign, the reality of Khador is that there isn't much more than the peasant rabble of small-based infantry and some superhuman warcasters. It's like Cryx, but everyone is just waiting to die so they can come back as a Bane or Lich Lord and be better for less. Except Orsus, because Toruk is (understandably) afraid of Orsus. Their lack of an explosive tournament presence may be because they put all their best warriors in steam-powered armor suits, which to the best of my knowledge they use to heat houses rather than fight wars.

10. Retribution - elves in space suits, basically. In a game that's all about playing like you have a pair, a faction full of eunuchs is going to be at a disadvantage. They like to be suave and dance around, but lack the staying power to really stick it out and fight in the middle of the table, which is what many games come down to. This might be changing soon, as the Elf people slowly realize that they can build large robots that don't die to 2 Gatormans.

11. Convergence - arguably the faction that relies more on efficient list design and good play decisions that any other, Convergence's single biggest sin is being a limited release and thus not stimulating the nerd brain sufficiently. This leads them to being forgotten and cast aside despite being pretty legit and having one of the single most baller warcasters in the game in Lucant and very few (if any) "bad" models. I suppose having a shallower bench might also have something to do with their low ranking.

12. Minions - it's times like these that Gators are sad to be packaged together with Pigmans in this faction. Gators have been played and ranked well in high-profile tournaments all over the world thanks to an amazing core unit and some crazy strong warlocks, but unfortunately the design disaster that is Pigs drags Minions to the bottom of the pile like the deadweight on Jaga's spell card. Seriously, why are Pigs beasts so crap? I do not understand.

Now backed by science:

 Source



totes srs post (c) 2015
Thanks to the Astra Gaming Team

First Minions Podcast

Tired of having your faction of choice (or circumstance) dismissed out of hand on every Warmahordes podcast, blog, forum?

Did you as a Ret player live through the experience of continuously losing to Rask, only to have your experience denigrated by your fellow elves?

Do you love playing highly limited and highly restrictive forces, and/or building deep affections for crappy warlocks and models?

Do you like playing the game on hard mode, and/or sexy Swedish accents?

If you answered yes to any of the above, do we have something for you!

A Matter of Pact is an all Minions, all the time podcast that will satisfy these forbidden urges, and more. The only downside is that it will make you want to buy Pig models.

Link to Website

Link to Facebook

 Link to a relevant Exhumed song

First episode features discussion of the Efaarit Scouts, Gobber Raiders and Croak Raiders. Check it out.