So, while I was at work I was thinking over the various things in the Warscrolls and a few things have come to mind that where interesting to me. I have two main forces that I've got, my main Skaven force and the second being those miniatures I'm painting as part of my army painting challenge (although that challenge sort of ended when my brother gave up on his Daemons of Khorne). So let's start with the easier of the two.
The Empire
First of the bat are the Wizards. There are no longer Hero and Lord versions anymore, just Battle Wizard, but more importantly is that each wizard type only gets one spell based on their Lore of Magic. Yep, instead of a bunch of spells you can roll for, once your wizard picks his Lore he gets one extra spell based on that lore. This bugs me greatly cause when I think of Fantasy, I think Magic and Monsters, so for this magic to be so limited just feels disappointing. Speaking of disappointment, I also noticed that wizards can have horse mounts, but no other. The last section states that if you want to use your wizard on a Pegasus (which I have the parts and was going to convert a Celestial wizard lord on a Pegasus), you have to use the Balthasar Gelt rules. Sort of takes the feeling away when your Celestial wizard is based on the lore of metal.
On the other hand, the Celestial Hurricanum is still great, with some minor tweak to the rules so it only effects certain allies. The Storm of Shamtek is a shooting attack and you roll to see just what kind of damage is done. More interesting is if a Wizard is mounted on it. Apart from counting as a hero (and points no longer matter), he counts as a normal wizard (can cast one spell, unbind one spell), but he knows the spell Comet of Casandora (a normal Celestial wizard has Chain Lightning). Though the spell isn't as deadly as in 8th edition, it is guaranteed to do damage that turn. Which brings me to an important point, why would you not add a Wizard too it? I mean, there doesn't appear to be any restrictions on Heroes, so why would you leave it out? If so, should I alter mine to have one?
Troops seem to be fine, but then I get to the Cannons. With this new game, war machines done have a section, just there own rules. I admit, I was never good remembering rules for how war machines worked, so I'm not too torn up by these changes. Instead, it's a normal roll to hit, but this time the number of cannon crew actually counts, with two/three enableing the cannon to shoot two cannonballs (which do D6 wounds at -2 save) where as having just one lets you shoot just one and no crew means no shots. A lot more simpler and probably more fun in my opinion.
The Witch Hunter and Master Engineer seem good and the few other planned units seem fine enough. No real hard hitters compared to some forces (or those new units), but still seems a good force.
The Skaven
Any changes to this group was what really effect my opinion on this game and there are a few problems, but most of my army is still usable, so let's have a look.
Skaven Warlords are the main combat Hero with the Chieftain limited to just holding the Battle Standard. The Warlord gets three weapon options and a shield option, though I'm confused if no matter what option you pick, can you still add the shield? He is also no longer mountable. If he had a warlitter, then he counts as a normal Warlord. If he was on a Rat Ogre Backbreaker, then he counts as a normal Rat Ogre, so poor Skrag has been left behind on guard duty instead of the battlefield.
As was in the previous article, I'm happy with the Warlock Engineers and Ikit Claw, though Ikit now has a nice claw attack, which is great as my Skith Warpclaw redesign was to include a claw made of Warpstone, so this will work out great. Likewise, most of Clan Skryres inventions have benefited from this Warscroll, with the number of side effects and misfires reduced or even removed. I admit that this has left me somewhat disappointed, as I enjoyed playing with an army which mostly self implode by turn 3 (more of my Skaven have died to misfires, butterfingers and slave breaking then actually being killed by the enemy). While there are still a variety of mishaps, you could easily play and avoid them, though to hell with that I'm going all out. Bring on the mayham.
Assassins can either use Fighting Claws (more attacks and can re-roll hits of 1, but only does 1 damage per wound hit) or Weeping Blades (less attacks the fighting claws, but does D3 damage per wound hit). Good against other heroes. Rat Ogres are alright, though you can add a Warpfire gun to each model for free. Clanrats are good, though musician is replaced by Bell Chimer (which is weird since one of the Blood Island musicians has a drum). Standards mean you can retreat and then charge in the same turn and they get bonuses to their 'to wound' rolls if you have the unit size of 20+ and 30+. Shields work differently too, with them granting +1 to save vs attacks that just do 1 damage (attacks who's damage stat says 2 or more ignore the shields bonus).
Skaven Slaves have where melee failure break changed. Instead, for each model that flees, roll a die. On a 6, the nearest unit within 6" (friend or foe) takes one mortal wound (mortal wounds ignore saves). This is means my slaves will last longer in combat and while less likely to kill my units, still can cause some mischif. Considering their bravery is three, perhaps I could be wrong about lasting longer. Meh, that's what slaves are for.
Weapon Teams have a unique change in that you no longer need to purchase a unit in order to feild them. Instead, you can now purchase each one as it's own unit, which is great for the most part. Interesting to note is that although a Warp Grinder is a seperate unit, it can still tunnel and have a second Skaven unit join them in tunneling.
Overall
I'm still annoyed about those few problems mentioned, but for the most part I'm just glad my forces are usable. If anything, I'm interested to see how allying the various forces will work. Given that Empire is part of Order, can I mix them with those few Dwarf heroes I've got? Can those Deamons and Chaos Warriors I have join my Skaven? Will this allience thing and lack of points be complete BS when people go to actually play games?
Probably, but it really depends on how you and you opponent want to play. Me, I'm just going in to have fun.
Also, if Grey Seer Scratchnsniff where to use the rules for a Grey Seer, then he'd technically have a command ability which would let friendly Skaven withing 26" who fail a battleshock test and flee to roll and on a 4+ to ignore it. Apparently the text says they would be more afraid of the Grey Seer then the enemy, though in my opinion it's more that they'd be embaressed having to deal with him then scared.
I heard that Man-thing. Soon we see who scares who.
~Grey Seer Skratchnsniff
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