That'll teach me to write my post and then get caught up on the messages I missed. Lions and Lambs mentioned this trick yesterday.
New FAQs are out for khorne, kharadron, slaanesh and the general’s handbook. Nothing really relevant for us, beyond monstrous arcanum no longer being useable and a weird “white dwarf regiments of renown” passage replacing it (I guess because we’ll get those sometime?)
We are not officially released so no FAQ for us yet. I think we will have all our models out in June so a July FAQ is probably the most likely.
Just read the Khorne FAQ and karanak let's you summon flesh hounds within 9" of himself even it that it within 3" of an enemy meaning telepathic summons will let you bring a unit down within 3". Now we will have to see if we can use that through a spell portal or skink wizard.
I think we’ll have a day 1 FAQ as well, that seems pretty standard with the latest couple battletomes and is probably where we’ll see a bunch of the questions popping up now clarified
you think June will be the release? would be nice, a lot is missing. Astrolith, Kroxis, Aggrodons, Spawn of Chotek, Skink Starseer, warriors, raptodons and the slann
it'll probably get FAQ-ed for the spell portal/skink wizard eventually. Endless spells ran into a similar issue.
artefacts and command traits don't apply to mounts unless specified (like prime warbeast). Hm. It's obviously super subjective but I think armies like: LRL, gitz, khorne, KO, BoC, Obr, and SBGL all probably have stronger matchups across the board. Maybe slaanesh. I think seraphon feels more like it's in that space between ogors and slaves, at least in a general sense. The starborne lists seem like they have a lot of gas tho, so i might be underselling them a bit. I think their prevalence will just depend a lot on how it deals with khorne/lrl/ko. I think both sides of seraphon are just pretty polarizing right now. Starborne depends a lot on spell dom and suffers when armies can deny that. Coalesced gets a lot of benefit from scaly skin and can suffer when armies aren't hit particularly hard by that.
A section I found while going through the new battletome, where they talk about Kixi-Taka being a Starpriest and a wizard (and also alive and the one who personally destroyed the Beastgrave setting for Underworlds). I wonder if he's supposed to be a wizard and is just missing the keyword (though he'd probably have a warscroll spell if that were true), or if they intended to just shift him into being a named Starpriest instead of a named Priest like before and something changed between writing the fluff there and the final version's warscroll. It also could just be an error i guess, but making him a wizard would solve like half the problems the warband has. His actual little description on his warscroll calls him a lowly skink priest, though, I think just like the old warscroll one
Battleshock Wargaming battle report. Seraphon (Starborne) vs. SBGL (Legion of Blood). Nicely painted armies. Spoiler: Spoiler Lizards lose 19-26. They do some work with spells, but it just isn't enough against 2 Zombie Dragons, Neferata, and 30 skeletons.
Tabletop Tactics battle report. Seraphon (Starborne) vs. Nighthaunt (Emerald Host) Spoiler More of a casual and fun game, which is nice to see. Seraphon dominate the points on this one. Cleanse the Realms is really a powerful feature.
I feel like everyone is automatically gravitating toward the spell lists, but I'm thinking that when up against the hard-hitting armies Saurus blocks backed up with spells or shooting is going to do better. Having all your damage output being focused on doing potentially 4-5d3 mortal wounds to multiple units is good, but it's not going to clear infantry blocks or take down monsters.
I think Starborne lists could definitely struggle with Vampires, like in the Battleshock video. If you don't magically kill that Zombie Dragon in one round, it's going to be tough to stand up to it with just a few units.
Well in the battleshock video they got the general vampire down to 1 wound on turn one. Then he charged his Saurus warriors into it and let it heal up 6. Yes you would expect 10 warriors to do 1 wound but really outside of coalesced unbuffed suarus just don't really do anything. Had he not made that mistake I think he would have killed the general turn two and won the game. More over I really don't like the grand strat to protect the realmshaper. The Trog Bomb list does need to work out it's infantry. The battleshock list had no Saurus guard which is fine against vampires but would probably die very shooting lists. But if you spend too much on guard you have no points left for anything else.
I have been thinking about Starborne lists that are more balanced, and not focused on the Troglodon bomb. Raptadon Chargers have a lot of damage output and could easily claim lightly guarded objectives. In Dracothion's Tail, beaming in a Troglodon, Starseer or Starpriest to an objective creates a Cosmic Node there. Cast some offensive or debuffing spells to soften the targets or provide defense against a counterstrike: Celestial Doom, Blazing Starlight, Primordial Mire, Celestial Deliverance, Comet's Call, Mystical Unforging and Stellar Tempest are all good candidates, depending on the situation. From there you can summon units and/or pull them from reserve. At least one unit of Raptordon Chargers within 7" for the nearly guaranteed charge (at +1 to charge with their musician). A Spawn of Chotek if the target's a large unit, for Stream of Fire. Some skinks or Saurus Guard to screen and protect the wizard (remember that the Guard can absorb wounds for any non-monster hero now, so they can do that for the Starpriest and Starseer). Kroxigor Warspawned just behind the skinks can pile in and use their 2" range to counterstrike if the enemy chargers your skink screen, getting the +1 to attacks since the skinks would have just taken losses. If they get right up against the skink bases, they could even be in bite range of an enemy on the other side of the skinks. Even a Bastiladon with Ark of Sotek could join the fun if needed. With Fangs of Sotek, there is no reserve (except chameleon skinks), so there's a lot more moving skink screens and skink calvary around the table. But they are masters of movement and can effectively block attacks with skinks and counterstrike with Kroxigor or Raptadon Chargers, all the while supported by powerful magic and Bastiladons with Solar Engines or Spawns of Chotec from behind the screens. They can still teleport wizards in and summon a unit to support their forces when they're about to move on objectives. Everyone is very excited about the Trog Bomb, but these more balanced play styles could be very effective for Starborne, and you could still throw around a lot of spells and gather a lot of CPP to summon or heal your forces.
My biggest problem with starborne outside of the Trog Bomb list is that it doesn't really have any good hammers or anvils. I love chargers and think they are great at what they do but they are not brawlers, they are hit and run cavalry, designed to hit a flank and let something else in or wipe up already wounded units. They are a great follow up punch to the Trog Bomb but they are not the initial assault. I see no reason to play starborne outside of the Trog Bomb list. Coalesced is tougher and hits harder. The only good thing starborne has is speed of huanchi for turn 1 raptordon charges but coalesced has vengeful defender for turn 1 carnosaur charges. Coalesced has Heavenly frenzy which is the poor man's speed of huanchi but can work on suarus too. There are not enough skink only buffs to make a skink army work which is really sad.
It's true that they have a weakness here. But I wonder how well they can quickly claim and hold objectives. With a wizard beamed to an objective and a defensive perimeter of Saurus Guard, Astrolith Bearer for ward and spell potency, skink bodies and debuffs, they may be pretty hard to clean off. A few units of 5 Guard around each wizard can absorb wounds and all of them can get replenished with Azure Light each turn. Meanwhile, mortal wounds from spells accumulate and summoned units keep joining the fight. I haven't tried this yet, but I'm not writing it off until I've tried it a few times. Obviously, the matchup could make a big difference.