I think the "attacks" keyword is what solves this, it wouldn't work for spells, but it would for attacks that deal mortal wounds, ie hearthguard berzerjer hits on 6 deal 2 mortals, that would be 1
we all need more stegadons and GW shot itself in the foot by not including them in the Start collecting SKINKS box
Ok, now is my turn. 1. Splitting in Starborne and Coalesced. To be honest, instead of spending the effort and time on creating 2 armies in 1, they'd better made a single good army. I just have a bad feeling that we are getting two mediocre forces instead of a single good one. I just can't imagine how good the coalesced have to be not to need the LoSaT. But we'll see. Contemplation is not changed, which means Slann will still know only single spell from our lore. So much for the greatest wizard of Mortal Realms. Arkhan laughs at them, rolling on the floor, as well as no-name wizards from Hallowheart. Sacred Asterisms are great. The change was obvious and very much needed. I hope, there is a way to change them during the game too. "Specific units" line is very promising, so you can give Slann +1 for casts, +1 to charge for saurus blob and reroll 1's to hit to razrodons. Would be nice. What is plain bad is that they expicitly state, that there are only two universal abilities, which means that Masters of Order is probably gone (or just moved straight to the warscrolls maybe?) The shown abilities looks a bit meh. Why not just +1 attack? Saurus still has only single attack on their warscrolls. Why only jaws? It also makes us want to play around this ability, taking MSU 20-30 saurus blocks (maybe saurus are capped at 30 now?). Or just ignore bonus and take spears, since more models hitting is still better than +1 to-wound and rend, IIRC. I hope, they don't change woding of Carnosaur/Dread Saurian jaw attacks. And maybe they'll rename Cold Ones' bite to jaws too? Then it is way more interesting. But still looks a bit underwhelming. Scaly skin is nice, but it won't be useful against lots of D1 attacks, which are pretty common. And there are still so many units, like Plague Monks, which are like "I made a successful charge, please remove your unit". Looks ok. No bravery modifiers are nice too, but not much better than Unfeeling. It can be desicive against armies that use negative bravery modifiers as a base tactics like Legion of Grief. But they aren't tend to be too powerful anyway. The Starborne are not too exciting either. LoSaT is nerfed just because, but I can live with it. From the other hand, Arcane Vassal now holds more value. Unfeeling is ok. I like not to care for bravery at all. 2. Subfactions. Dracothion's Tail is great. I think, it worth sacrificing Great Rememberer for it, because it has enough deep strike capabilty in itself. And no more point taxes. Shooty armies will like it a lot. And you still can LoSaT slann/astrolith and summon from it. Great. Fangs of Sotek changed from saurus-centered to skink-centered. 3" move in the first turn doesn't looks like a lot, but it is still nice to move a Bastiladon 3 more inches and +3 move for Ripperdactyl combined with Hunter's steed will guarantee charges on turn 1 for the most battleplans. Almost like a shadowstrike, lol. Koatls Claw is now about Sauri but... +1 hit only on charges? Like, Petrifex get universal +1 to saves just because they have come to fight. I hate this "do a lot of stuff to get a bonus which other factions get for free". It could be at least charge or was charged. I wouldn't complain, if Warrions didn't have only 1 attack on they scrolls already. But this and Oldblood's command ability get's us to 2+ to-hit on basic weapon and 3+ to-hit on jaws. And our mounted units will love it. Especially if Scar-Veteran's ability remains unchanged. And, of course, Carnosaurs will rock. I really hope, I can build an effective cavalry list with 2x Carnosaurs and 20 knights as a base. Dominant predator is good, I guess, but we have to look at the abilities first. Thunder Lizard looks intriguing and I like the reference. I wonder if we can use Bastiladons as battleline too, since I don't have any Stegadons and my wallet won't handle them. 3. Top Warscroll Changes. If they are really the top, then we a screwed. But I hope, this is just GW's "be excited" thing. Trog's scroll hints however that Slann will have the same +1 to casts and unbinds and unlimited unbind range. And Kroak's spell is good. Even if he isn't a Hero, he is definitely useful now. Depends on price, but he looks like a nice support which can hurt, if needed, like Engine of the Gods. I covered Sarurus changes already. I need a bigger picture. 4. Bound Endless spells. This is great once again. Don't even need to comment. In general... well, I am still neither excited, nor dissapointed. Nothing is like "wow, this will rock" but not weak stuff either. Waiting for more, because any single trait, spell, command ability, artefact or warscroll tweak can change everything.
So I predicted a couple things, saurus getting buffed at the cost of teleport also I was pretty sure skinks being able to retreat would be gone but that will still need to be confirmed. The article references saurus warriors as being heavy infantry so they will probably have some changes to their warscroll besides just the extra rend and horde change to 15, plus the coalesced buff. Probably as mentioned they will get at least +1 to their save. Troglodon looks fun. Just being able to unbind every turn is a nice buff for him plus being able to cast. I'm pretty hyped that the Slann and kroak will get some cool new spells baked into their warscrolls. Ive played both Tzeentch and Seraphon with heavy endless spells when endless spells first came out. It is really really strong. Now we don't have to worry about them coming back and hurting us..... This alone is sooo huge. Really depends on how many endless spells we can have bound to us. Will it be 1, 1 per wizard or a set amount or as many as we pay for? You can literally choke the board up. 3-4 endless spells, our ziggurat making terrian scary for them, troglodon dropping comets, our slanns doing who knows what. No where will be safe and they will have a hard time moving. That can stop a horde army. I fought khorne as Tzeentch and filled the board with endless spells he could only get 2 units into combat and only 1-2 model per unit into combat. Scaly skins as mentioned will be really nice on our multiple wound big monsters. Im thinking a list with 2 stegadons and either a block of warriors or gaurds, 2 carnasors, and 2 bastilidons(I'm betting stegadons don't count as bohemoths when they are battleline... maybe). I don't think there is any reason to worry about modeling skinks with blowpipes being void. Maybe they baked all their weapons into 1 and it won't matter or maybe they are just using what models the interns built for the heavy metal team to paint? I'm really curious if you will be able to summon with a coalesced army. Im thinking you will be able too, but maybe the staredust lizards getting a buff to it along with the benefit of summon and teleporting that unit. I'm also thinking of a list with a big block of temple guard, a Slann, trog, starpriest, and a bunch of endless spells will be tasty. Maybe throw in some stegadons or bastilidons. Can't wait to get the book and some point cost so I can build some list! My favorite part of the hobby is soon to be upon us fellow lizards. Prepare for theorycrafting. The stars are aligning!
Older kit, keeps them off the shelves taking up space, and less likely for them to be sold at decent discounts if they aren't sent out to stores regularly.
I like the idea of terradon bombs = anti-horde. As well as stampede stegadons. Having those two options would make the army pretty well rounded as the rules look now with spells/CP abilities allowing us to make decisions on the fly.
Would be hilarious how GW keeps hyping up the Stegadon list, and then they won't get a bonus to holding objectives. I am going to hurt myself from rofl-ing too hard.
I understand your concern. Usually, when you have more options, one of them is the best one and in the end it's the one that's used 90% of the times, and it would be a pity. To be fair, units as Plague Monks are the bane of AoS, as such unbalanced units hurt the game and spoil the fun. I don't want us to be broken as PM, i want PM (and units like them) to be nerfed into oblivion.
+3" Movement to Ripperdactyls, Terradons, Steggadons, EotGs, Troglodons, and Skinks during the first battle round sounds very tempting.
I'm of a similar mind, though I hope that Terradon bombs still do MWs, just more to hordes. Stegadons hopefully get to keep all their stomps and their horns. Bites are becoming a thing, so perhaps they will have more overall attacks.
meh, I hope it's not the only special rule the fang of sotek gets. It seems underwhelming if all constelations get is 1 whole rule... even if it's a a good effect it's just kind of dissapointing if that's all our subfactions bring.
Hm, does it sound tempting, though? Getting on the board to establish control/presence can be done without the 3". Getting Rippers to the enemy lines sure, but getting a ton of other T1 charges off doesn't sound too hot when most of the units with Skink keyword will trade rather unfavourably against other armies' heavy hitters. Presuming no new abilites for us to influence combat order, what am I missing?