Massive gratitude for this! Having all of them in one place for a review really helps with perspective. Excited to give these a go, especially to have undying flame puppies!
This is the sort of thing to which the Community site should have dedicated an article. Had it not been for my semi-weekly swing by your channel, I would not have heard of this change. Good stuff, overall. Interesting to see the designers all but formalize the separation from the original Warcry ideal that the only passive information for any given fighter be the numbers on the card, which has been increasingly suggested by the recent warbands. It's a complication, but one that was probably necessary in order that certain factions have their flavors represented in the game, and to enable newer warbands to distinguish themselves from the rest. In many if not most cases, the battle trait doesn't replace an ally for "optimized" listbuilding. This is especially so in cases where they opted to reinforce the theme of an already one-dimensional warband (e.g., Riverblades), because the inclusion of allies is typically to bring a profile type or ability that your warband otherwise lacks (I don't think that even allies can help the Riverblades, but it was the first example that came to mind). In other instances, though, it's a strong incentive to play "mono-faction" (e.g., Ironjawz). I think that you have misinterpreted the Bonesplitterz ability. The "initiative roll" -- though that term does not appear in the rules that way -- refers to the six dice at the top of the round that become singles (for initiative) and Ability Dice -- hence "each result." It's a pretty good trait.
It definitely felt like the designers managed to sneak this one under the radar for us. They were going to be doing the book anyway so it definitely didn't require any additional budget like presumably even something small like a pdf on the website might need. Going through them it also felt like these were in the works for a while, presumably pre Cities of Sigmar change which would explain why that was weird and why the Blacktalons and Order of Azyr weren't there. Maybe they weren't part of the original warcry plan. You're right about the changes in development too. If I recall right, it was Jervis Johnson first with the original concept, Sam Pearson to make it a reality. Then second edition Dave Sanders joined the team. Hard to tell what was his and what was Sam's out of the changes but he's definitely in the list for that massive rebalance which I did like. Now we have John Bracken as the face. Although it's likely there are lots of people in the background in GW unnamed who also deserve some credit. I have been enjoying the current series of stuff, but every so often something does appear which bothers me like an ability you need to track the value of throughout the turn or triggers that have to happen which could be easily forgotten. Anyway, another topic. Thanks for steering me straight on the Bonesplitterz ability. I keep thinking of the Initiative Phase as being the Hero Phase (it was that in first edition right), so I totally missed that. It definitely looks a lot better now and certainly fits what seems to be the overall theme. If you made it this far, thank you for listening to my ramble XD
I'm a big fan of this update as an idea - I think it's a fun way to incentivise taking less allies - I just wish they were a little more consistent - some of these abilities are really flavourful and useful, and then others kind of just feel like they ran out of ideas 😅
i think you misunderstood the bonesplitters ability, it is actually pretty interesting IMO. so lets say you roll a double 1, a double 5 and a 3 and 4. Before it is decided whohas the initiative and assigns wild-dice first, you get to choose to reroll the ones, in a hope of maybe get another six to make it more likely to get a rampage. So still pretty minor as it is only 1's but an ability that can be usefull in all four rounds and can give you a better chance of tripples and quads. So pretty fun IMO. Apart from that, nice video run-down. I really like these on theory, but i wish they were slightly more balanced. A kurnoth hunter leader getting a free teleport in the first round to immedeately move and attack, compared Askurgans maybe being able to heal or Claws making disengage slightly worse is just one example of some pretty weird balancing. I thought for sure they would have used this to give better abilities to weaker warbands
Yes! I totally missed that. Thanks for explaining it :) I still think of the Initiative Phase as the Hero Phase which is what totally confused me. As to giving the better versions to the weaker warbands, I suspect that was the intent but they can't always hit the mark everytime.
For JO, healing the bearer is really good. If only you culd use the ability. The priestess killing something and using the triple never, ever happened to me in the year I have been playing JO. You don't want the priestess in combat. Only t3 means she dies fast and you want her alive. If she kills something, it's luck, on executing a fighter with a few wounds left. The Bloddy Tribute triple is so hard to use it never gets used, and as such their battle trait will be the same, I think. The only way to heal you bearer is to put the pristess in danger, not the best deal
![Assassination [Warcry Battle Report] | Cinematic Tabletop](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/E4DFI1PKkWI/mqdefault.jpg)
Massive gratitude for this! Having all of them in one place for a review really helps with perspective. Excited to give these a go, especially to have undying flame puppies!
This is the sort of thing to which the Community site should have dedicated an article. Had it not been for my semi-weekly swing by your channel, I would not have heard of this change. Good stuff, overall. Interesting to see the designers all but formalize the separation from the original Warcry ideal that the only passive information for any given fighter be the numbers on the card, which has been increasingly suggested by the recent warbands. It's a complication, but one that was probably necessary in order that certain factions have their flavors represented in the game, and to enable newer warbands to distinguish themselves from the rest.
In many if not most cases, the battle trait doesn't replace an ally for "optimized" listbuilding. This is especially so in cases where they opted to reinforce the theme of an already one-dimensional warband (e.g., Riverblades), because the inclusion of allies is typically to bring a profile type or ability that your warband otherwise lacks (I don't think that even allies can help the Riverblades, but it was the first example that came to mind). In other instances, though, it's a strong incentive to play "mono-faction" (e.g., Ironjawz).
I think that you have misinterpreted the Bonesplitterz ability. The "initiative roll" -- though that term does not appear in the rules that way -- refers to the six dice at the top of the round that become singles (for initiative) and Ability Dice -- hence "each result." It's a pretty good trait.
It definitely felt like the designers managed to sneak this one under the radar for us. They were going to be doing the book anyway so it definitely didn't require any additional budget like presumably even something small like a pdf on the website might need. Going through them it also felt like these were in the works for a while, presumably pre Cities of Sigmar change which would explain why that was weird and why the Blacktalons and Order of Azyr weren't there. Maybe they weren't part of the original warcry plan.
You're right about the changes in development too. If I recall right, it was Jervis Johnson first with the original concept, Sam Pearson to make it a reality. Then second edition Dave Sanders joined the team. Hard to tell what was his and what was Sam's out of the changes but he's definitely in the list for that massive rebalance which I did like. Now we have John Bracken as the face. Although it's likely there are lots of people in the background in GW unnamed who also deserve some credit. I have been enjoying the current series of stuff, but every so often something does appear which bothers me like an ability you need to track the value of throughout the turn or triggers that have to happen which could be easily forgotten. Anyway, another topic.
Thanks for steering me straight on the Bonesplitterz ability. I keep thinking of the Initiative Phase as being the Hero Phase (it was that in first edition right), so I totally missed that. It definitely looks a lot better now and certainly fits what seems to be the overall theme.
If you made it this far, thank you for listening to my ramble XD
I'm a big fan of this update as an idea - I think it's a fun way to incentivise taking less allies - I just wish they were a little more consistent - some of these abilities are really flavourful and useful, and then others kind of just feel like they ran out of ideas 😅
i think you misunderstood the bonesplitters ability, it is actually pretty interesting IMO. so lets say you roll a double 1, a double 5 and a 3 and 4. Before it is decided whohas the initiative and assigns wild-dice first, you get to choose to reroll the ones, in a hope of maybe get another six to make it more likely to get a rampage. So still pretty minor as it is only 1's but an ability that can be usefull in all four rounds and can give you a better chance of tripples and quads. So pretty fun IMO.
Apart from that, nice video run-down. I really like these on theory, but i wish they were slightly more balanced. A kurnoth hunter leader getting a free teleport in the first round to immedeately move and attack, compared Askurgans maybe being able to heal or Claws making disengage slightly worse is just one example of some pretty weird balancing. I thought for sure they would have used this to give better abilities to weaker warbands
Yes! I totally missed that. Thanks for explaining it :) I still think of the Initiative Phase as the Hero Phase which is what totally confused me.
As to giving the better versions to the weaker warbands, I suspect that was the intent but they can't always hit the mark everytime.
For JO, healing the bearer is really good. If only you culd use the ability. The priestess killing something and using the triple never, ever happened to me in the year I have been playing JO. You don't want the priestess in combat. Only t3 means she dies fast and you want her alive. If she kills something, it's luck, on executing a fighter with a few wounds left.
The Bloddy Tribute triple is so hard to use it never gets used, and as such their battle trait will be the same, I think. The only way to heal you bearer is to put the pristess in danger, not the best deal
Sad but true. I suspect we'll see an FAQ update for these soon enough, so fingers crossed we'll see a change for JO there.
Dyslexia got you on the skaven timestamp it’s actually at 34:03
Ah! Thank you, updated now. I believe with numbers it's dyscalculia!