Is balance an obtainable goal for AoS?

Welcome back to Hobby in the warp! It's been  a while since my last post so I'm looking forward to writing out my brains thoughts once again! Today I'm going to talk about my thoughts on the word "balance" and the discussion it brings about amongst the community. 

I'm going to be focussing on balance, specifically in regards to AoS. I don't think any wargame I've ever played has been able to escape the discussion but as each wargame has it's own levels to create "balance" it's hard to speak universally. With that in mind, let's jump right in.

What does "balance" actually mean?

The word balance I think means  different things to different people. Let's take a look at the hard definition - "situation in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions"

There are a few definitions to choose from but I think the above is most apt. Strictly speaking I think balance would mean that every army would be on a equal playing field, meaning you could simply turn up with any battletome and have a equal chance of winning an event as each other battletome. You could argue that further and to some people it may mean that you could simple use anything from any battletome, and you would stand as good chance as any other.  

Another route the term could take when referring to Age of Sigmar would be that every army has the same options as every other army. You would have a template for a melee, ranged, hero and add a dabble of flavour to each battletome while retaining very similiar stats. 

As the word balance is one that is truly hard to define and it's true meaning really being co-dependent on the context you're trying to explain, as well as it having it's own deterministic value of success that varies between most people I think it's truly a hard term to define in regards to table top gaming.  

I think that's part of what makes the discussion difficult, as the goal posts are different for people that engage in the discussion. My own view on the term is that in a ideal world we would be in a situation where every battletome has multiple viable builds that can compete for a 5-0 at a major. To give that phrase a mathematical value, I'd say that each army is within 5% of each other in regards to a win loss ratio, ranging from 47.5% to 52.5%.  Do I think that idealistic view is a practical one? 

 

Is balance possible within Age of Sigmar? 

Out of my own interest I did a quick google at how many battletomes we currently have in AoS. Right now we have 24 and we have a confirmed 2 more coming. If we consider modestly that each battletome has 4 subfactions and each battletome has 20 options that quickly lands us at 2080 different combinations of rules. That's a modest idea of the number of combinations, disregarding any allies. That's just the battletomes rules, warscroll rules and subfaction rules on top of that. You have of course spells, warscroll abilites, command abilities, endless spells, realms etc. 

Simply put whenever Games Workshop write a new battletome it's just very hard to have an idea how it's going interact with everything else out there in the game. Of course if you make a 100 wound unit for 10 points it's probably going to be very good but when you're making units that are "intended" to not be better then what exists thare is no way of measuring that. 

Keeping that in mind do I think that having my ideal of armies being within 5% of each other going above and below 50% possible? No I don't. I don't think GW have the playtesting power or have the tuning set up to be able to keep the numbers that close to each other. I think it would require a much more reactive approach, going to a digital rule set that enables very quick tuning of points. It would require intensive playtesting, with massive amounts of games being played each day to draw data from all the possible combinations that are there. 

A secondary route GW could go is simply reduce the amount of rules currently on warscrolls, army abilites and subfaction abilities and bring warscrolls a lot closer to each in terms of stats and rules. This would allow the balancing of points to a finer degree and reduce the amount of variables to test. The question is, do I really want the game to be balanced? 

Is balance what I want? 

The answer ultimately is - yes? I do want a game where you can bring any battletome and compete. The further question is what cost and is that cost worth it?

Kings of War is a game that I enjoyed for a while, it has a very elegant game flow and the game is fun. I think the game does a excellent job of balancing its armies but I think it comes at a cost. The units in Kings of War tend to be very similiar to each other, if you're a melee fighter you tend to have a very similiar statline to those roles in other armies. If you're a ranged unit you tend to have a similiar statline to those ranged units from other armies. There is flavour in terms of a special rule or too as well as a over arching army wide rule. This is where I think the game has lost a lot flavour at the cost of balance and where I would rather not have the loss of flavour at the cost of balance. 

I think one of the strongest things AoS has going for it's self is the amount of flavour, character and diversity the game has throughout the armies in it. The team have done a excellent job of each armies unique and different rules that allow the army to express it's self on the table. Whether it be the way it fights, the way it manuevers or the way it shoots etc. Those rules are what lure people into certain armies "Awhh man I'd love a whole army of goblins on spiders that do mortal wounds on 6s!". Those elements of flavour that really do distinguish  each force from one another on the table. 

I think flavour and difference between armies has a inverse relationship with how balanced a game can truly be. If we go to the core roots of tabletop gaming and look at chess, probably considered the most balanced tabletop game. You have two sets of pieces that do the exact same thing, move the exact same way and every "scenario" is the same. Everything is equal on either side. 

If we look back to Age of Sigmar it's the exact opposite, bar a mirror match with the exact same models under the exact same subfaction with the exact same battletome. Every match is played with two different set of pieces, which every one does a different thing, on a new scenario every game. I would not want to pay the cost of losing the flavour, diversity and character we have in AoS in the name of true balance. Do I think that is a bad thing?

 

Is not being a balanced game a bad thing?

My honest answer, no. Now you might be thinking "Are you mad why wouldn't you want each army to be equal in power level" and my answer would be I'd love it to be. Do I think we could achieve that without severy losing what I think is one of the strongest parts of the game? No. I don't think we could truly bring each army in line without cutting out huge chunks of flavour, diversity and character from each of the battletomes. 

Now you could argue that points should be able to keep armies within a certain percentile of each other. In a ideal world I'd say they should but I'd also say that it must be incredibly hard to point every new ability correctly. Then further to point that ability to internally synergise with the point correctly, then further point it that it doesn't synergise better for it's points in your battletome when compard to the other 25 tomes in the game. That's for one model, you need to that for every model in the whole army. All I'm saying is - if i wrote a tome tomorrow I'm not going to pretend I'd write a perfectly balanced tome either. 

Does that mean I think GW shouldn't persue balance and try make it as even playing field as possible? Not at all, I think GW do everything they can to obtain a balanced as game as possible while giving is that fantastic flavour and character they do well for their armies. 

With all that said, I ultimately accept I don't think AoS will ever truly be balanced. I don't think every battletome will ever be equal to one another and... I don't think it's a bad thing. There's something to be said about picking one of those weaker battletomes and pushing it to it's max. It's creates stories within events "Hey man, Joe just 5-0 with X battletome" is always something that is great to hear. 

It allows the game to keep each army distinct, with it's own quirky unique rules that are individual to it. On top of this with the nature of FAQs and erratas the battletomes that are at the top are a cyclic thing, new battletomes entering the meta shift the tiers of armies. The boogeyman of the current meta is a great thing to chase and tech against. The inbalance between armies creates stories, boogeymen and underdogs which I think the scene uses to tell stories. It allows us to create silly tier lists and argue why X is better then Y, it creates the friendly banter between tomes. 

The TL;DR

Do I think it's possible for AoS to keep it's character, flavour and diveristy and be truly balanced? No

Do I think GW should try there best to balance it why retaining the above? Yes

Do I think the inbalance is something we can use in the community to tell stories, create banter between tomes and create interesting dicussion? Absolutely yes.

Thank you so much for reading, it was a carthatic experience to explain how I feel on the ever debated topic and I hope you enjoyed the read.

Seraphon Battletome, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Hello everyone and welcome back to the blog, I hope you're all safe and sound in these rather uncertain times. I'm sure like myself you're desperate to be out there at events rolling dice again! Today I'm going to take a look at the Seraphon battletome, I'm lucky enough to have played just over 30 games with the new tome now, a whole 1 game on the physical tabletop and the rest on Tabletop Simulator.

My goal for this article is to give a overview of my thoughts and feelings towards the tome. What I think has been done well, what I think has fallen short (which isn't a lot) and a few of the unfortunate things to come from the tome. With all that said, let's just jump right into it.

Lets kick off with the numerous positive things I have to say about the battletome. The first I'd like to discuss is how they have split the book into the two ways to play the army. The split allows one battletome to take two completely different paths when constructing your lists. The starbourne split very much keeps your old style of play, which keeps those who liked the current play style content. The coalesced brings in a much more Saurus/Behemoth style of play and list building. I think the split between the two was ingenious, essentially giving you two very different ways of playing one battletome. The further divisions in the two different choice of "chapter tactics" only goes to further diversify how you can play the one battletome. A single warscroll takes on different properties depending on what you have chosen, which means for so many different combinations. When you come to list building there is so many different things to try, I have tried both major splits as well as the minor splits and it allows you to have some very different styles of army all from the one battletome which is awesome.

Another very good thing about the book is how deep I think it is, I think bar potentially 2 warscrolls everything in the book has a place where it can shine. This is certainly helped by how many different styles of army you can choose to play. The warscrolls in the Seraphon tome are very average (bar 2 I'd say) and what makes the army cohesive and effective is those "chapter tactics" you add to the army. By having a few choices of how you want to add those warscrolls rules, I'd say you could happily see nearly all of the warscrolls appearing at future events as lists evolve and we see different compositions coming out of the tome. I certainly think the book is a list writers dream, with so much potential for different and exciting lists.

The last major point I'll put out here is I think by nature of how deep the book is with so many different avenues to take your list down it can play at any level. It's very capable of competing for 5-0 at events (I believe) and it's very easy take a honest list, that will just play the game and roll some dice. I suppose you could say any army can do this but I think it's worth that the tome does it very well. It's versatily in how it can perform and play on the table I think will be a boon for it's longevity for players. 

One small thing that is something I also really appreciate from the book is the lack of tying you to a specific command trait. You still have to take artefact of power if you decide to take one of the subdivisons of either starbourne or coalasced but the command trait is only if you have a Slann General, for example. That little bit of freedom I find goes a long way in not making you feel less restricted when building lists. 

All in all I think the book has been executed extremely well, it gives Seraphon players a extraordinary amount of options to choose from. It retains the core of what the old used to be, builds on it and leaves the player with a ton of good player choice.

Now what do I think is strictly "bad" about the battletome? Well in regards to purely what you want from a battletome, very very little. For all the reasons above I think anyone who prior to the new battletome already played Seraphon and is updating there battletome or any new Seraphon players should be incredibly happy with the new battletome.

For my self I have to bring up the realmshaper engine, which I don't see my self taking to events. I can't believe it was the intent of GW to make faction terrain that is a 50/50 to either help you, or your opponent. The OBR terrain is placed before sides but has no upside to the opponent so it makes sense. If you lose the  deployment roll after placing your realm shaper in a deployment you offer a building for your opponent to garrison in. Sadly for me going to events I just won't be bringing it, which is a real shame.

Lastly there is a is a couple of warscrolls, for myself both Saurus Warriors & Skink Oracle on Trogglodon both serem very weak for their points. Saurus Warriors are completely outclassed by Saurus Knights in simply everyway. The trogglodon for it's points remains very lackluster and I have not found a place for him in any of my lists I've wrote. There are certainly some other warscrolls I think will be niche and not seen often, such as the Engine of the Gods, Kroxigor or Ripperdactyls but I can see where I could potentially have some fun or some viability in them. For me the Saurus Warriors & Skink Oracle on Trogglodon sadly won't see any tabletime.

It's a very minor grumble and in reality GW have done very well to keep give so many warscrolls in the tome a place, but sadly I don't see a place for the above two.

The last things I'd like to discuss on the book is some unfortunate things about the battletome, all be it play style of the army in certain lists or bound endless spells being not all that fun or interactive to play against.

I'll kick off with a couple of warscrolls, those being Lord Kroak & Salamander hunting pack. Both of these warscrolls really stand out as being incredibly good for their points. It might be that as the rest of the warscrolls in the book tend to feel fairly average they stand out more but without a doubt these two stand above the rest. Kroak is a absolute monster for his point cost and could probably do with losing a rule or two, I'd had games where he is casting 5 spells a turn at +4 to cast with + 12" range and +3 to unbind 4 spells a turn. He's incredibly resilent, he has a amazing warscroll spell, he gives you command points, he probably does too much. Salamanders raw output damage is just, very very high in both shooting and melee and point for point easily the highest damage output.

More than those warscrolls being very good I think the unfortunate thing is that every hard Seraphon list will contain Kroak and 2 x 3 Salamanders. I'm not sure how hard it would hit the book if both warscrolls took a change but it would potentially help list diversity at future events.
This is my own thoughts and when we get to events I could be totally wrong but I think we will be seeing a lot of the same foundation to the hard Seraphon lists, Kroak, Sallies, Skink Screens and bound endless spells. It would be great to see Kroak & Salamnders potentially given a small change to not be a auto include.

Moving on from that I'd like to talk about bound endless spells, when Malign Sorcery was introduced and we learned how we would interact with endless spells I was really excited. The more I have played with and against endless spells the more I love the interaction between players it brings in regards to the initiative roll. It can make a player think twice about taking a double turn, it can punish a player for positioning his own spell poorly, it can force a player to not take a double with one of your own well placed spells. Bound endless spells are completely non interactive and double down on the problem of endless spells blocking movement. I have played a few lists with multiple bound endlesss spells and have some feel bads for my opponents come form it. For an example in one I placed the Purple Sun, Geminids, Gnashing Jaws and Palisade in front of my opponent. The turn roll came about and no longer was there interesting discussion about the movement of the endless spells, I could take the turn with no penalty if I win the roll. On top of that I could simply leave my wall of spells in place and my opponent couldn't move them, regardless of who won the roll. I quite like the idea of the Slann being such masters of magic they can control them but sadly on the table it really can lead to some stinky "ermm well okay, I can't do anything about that" situations.

The only other thing I'd like to talk about is how some of the Seraphon armies can play. As I said above I think the harder armies will consist of skinks screens, bound endless spells, kroak, slanns and salamanders. I have played a lot with a mix of shooting and magic in my lists and I think armies taken from the starbourne split, which will focus around the hero and shooting phase may not be the most engaging armies to play against. Comets Call, the warscroll spell for Slann & Kroak allows you to pick models anywhere on the table, on a very reliable spell casting platform. It's very good at simply picking off heroes in a turn or two, with a lot of the time very little counter play from the opponent. Stellar Tempest a spell from the lore allows you to pick a unit within 24" (which can easily be 36") and roll a dice for each model in the unit, on a 5+ it causes a mortal wound. When paired with comets call, a Slann can easily put out 20 mortal wounds in a hero phase. Bound endless spells certainly don't help the issue, with you being able to block movement of your opponent when they get close. This is all paired with the shooting of Salamnders, which is incredibly reliable (2+ re-rolling 1s / 3s). I have had some games with my current "hard" list where opponents have felt pretty helpless. The list is as follows -

Allegiance: Seraphon
- Constellation: Dracothion's Tail

LEADERS

Lord Kroak (320)
- Spell : Stellar Tempest

Slann Starmaster (260)
- General
- Command Trait : Ancient Knowledge
- Artefact : Godbeast Pendant
- Spell : Celestial Apotheosis
- Ancient Knowledge Spell : Stellar Tempest

Skink Starseer (140)
- Spell : Hand of Glory

Skink Priest (70)
Saurus Astrolith Bearer (140)

UNITS

10 x Skinks (60)
- Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (60)
- Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (60)
- Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers
10 x Skinks (60)
- Meteoric Javelins Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers

5 x Saurus Guard (100)

12 x Salamander Hunting Pack (240)

12 x Salamander Hunting Pack (240)

ENDLESS SPELLS / TERRAIN / COMMAND POINTS
Bound Balewind Vortex (50)
Bound Geminids of Uhl-Gysh (70)
Bound The Burning Head (40)
Bound Purple Sun of Shyish (60)
Prismatic Palisade (30)

The list has multiple screens, it has protection for the incredible casting base via saurus guard, it has endless spells to block movement and it has a very very high damage output. The list can completely dominate the hero phase and it can manipulate the opponents movement phase via endlesss spells or simply being pushed out of zones by skinks (which can be replenished by summoning).

It can feel very opressive and I have certainly had opponents that have said they have very little to do with the actual game. It's worth noting that this issue is probably limited to the harder lists and the battletome is very capable of making honest lists that just want to run at you and charge.

Well that's my rundown complete, overall I want to end on a very positive feeling towards the battletome. GW have produced a excellent book which will give new and old Seraphon players a absolute ton of different choices to make when it comes to lists. There is just so many different ways to play the battletome you can absolutely find something for your self regardless of your own playstyle.

The battletome has managed to keeps it's old identity while evolving as a battletome to explore different ways to play. I think GW have smashed it out the park and I'm extremely happy with it! I still have so many different things I want to try and I can't wait to see all the dinos when we head out to events again.

Thank you so much for reading, until next time.

Seraphon list breakdown - 2K Shooty Kroak

Hello all and welcome back to the blog, today I'm going to breakdown my current Seraphon list I'm testing out. I can't tell you how happy I am with the new book! The coalesced / starborune split is a ingenious way to allow one book to play in two seperate ways. On top of that the subdivisions of that split further diversify the army, allowing for two different ways to play on top of the original two. 

I don't feel like the warscrolls in the book are particuarly strong in isolation bar maybe a few stand out ones (Kroak jumps to mind), but the power lies in the sheer amount of rules you're allowed to layer onto the army. Your main divison, your subdivision, your asterism each turn as well as all the internal synergies inside the army. The army feels very buff heavy, which turns the mediocre warscrolls from, well mediocre to scary.

I have so many lists I'd like to try, I certainly have a Fangs of Sotek list to try with a blob of 40 skinks. Thunder lizard screams monster mash with double firing bastiladons and I think Cold One Knights could turn up big in Koatls Claw. The army I'm going to speak about today is part of the Starbourne split, using the subdvision Dracothians Tail. The Starbourne makes your army bravery 10 across the board, as well access to Lord of Space & Time and summoning. It's the closest the army books plays to it's old style, with summoning (all be it very much reduced) and most likely skink screens. It is however the least restrictive subdivison, offering essentially any army a bonus in the ability to deepstrike units and powering up your Slann general if you take one.

Let's get into the list, as discussed before its under the Starborne using the Dracothians tail subvision.

Leaders

Lord Kroak - 320.
Spell - Stellar Tempest.
General

Saurus Astrolith Bearer - 140.
Artefact - Godbeast Pendant.

Skink Starpriest - 120.
Spell - Hand of Gory

Skink Priest - 70.

Units

10 x Skinks - 60.
Metoric Javelins, Celestite Daggers & Star Bucklers. - x 4

12 x Razordon Hunting Pack - 240. - x 2

Behemoths 

Bastiladon - 220.
- Solar Engine. - x 2

Endless Spells

Balewind Vortex - 40.

Bound Burning Head - 40.

Bound Gemenids of Uhl-Gysh - 70.

So that's the list and lets kick off with the leader selection and Lord Kroak for 320 points. I initially didn't like Lord Kroak for one reason, I really liked the Comets Call spell on the Slann Warscroll and when I first missed the spell on Lord Kroak it was enough for to stick with a Slann. Then I read it again and saw he had Comets call, so I was in. Lord Kroak is a pretty fantastic warscroll, fairly tough to kill with a 4+ save, 7 wounds and a 4+ damage prevention roll. He cast 4 and unbinds 4 spells a turn with a flat +1 to cast, unbind AND dispel. As per typical Slann rules he can unbind from anywhere on the table. Already I think the value is there with paying 80 points per wizard level on a tough and reliable platform. On top of all this at the start hero phase you roll 3 D6 and any 4+ is a free command point and against large units he's not bad in a fight due to his melee attack gettign a attack per mode within 3" on 3/3s -1 1 damage.

He keeps the Slann Warscroll spell, casting on a 7 allowing you to pick D3 units on the table and each one taking D3 wounds. The numbers of units you're allowed to pick going up to D6 if the casting roll is a 10+.
I absolutely love this spell, it's perfect for picking off 4-6 wound heroes off the table, there is no where to hide from it. Due to the casting bonuses in the army from Sages Staff asterism (+1 to cast, dispel and unbind), Saurus Astrolith bearer or Arcane if you can get it it quite often hits that 10+. A really great spell, on average 4 mortal wounds or 6-8 each turn if you hit the 10. Those buffing heroes are perfect targets for this, or a model with 1 wound left tagging a unit hindering movement etc. I really like this spell and it's probably not as good as Kroaks Signature spell!

Celestial Deliverance is cast on a 7 and can be cast up to three times in one hero phase, each time increasing the casting value by 1. It has a range of 10 and you pick up to three units within 10" and on a 2+ they take D3 mortal wounds, or a flat 3 if the target is a daemon. When I first read this spell I was underwhelmed, then I thought about it more. What if I throw Kroak on a Balewind to make the spell 16" range, what if I add a Astrolith bearer to make it 22" range. What if I position a skink to use the Arcane Vassal rule. With a very easy access to +3 to cast and a 22" range with further extension by skinks, this spell is killer. A average 16 mortal wounds a turn if hit three targets with each spell with just huge potential for damage against daemons.

Lastly his spell from the lore I've given him is Stellar Tempest, a typical roll 1 dice per model in the unit and on a 5+ it causes a mortal wound. These sort of spells are typically on a 6+, so the 5+ is very nice and the base range of 24 is also very good. That becomes 36" on top a Balewind, potentially through a skink oracle or wizard. All this amounts to Kroak being a absolute dominating force of the hero phase, both offensively and defensively. Defensively sititng at 4 unbinds with a +2 from masters of order and if chosen the sages staff. Offensively if you're popping off 3 deliverances, a comets call and a stellar tempest that can be quite reliably from 27 - 40 mortal wounds in a turn. Stone, cold, killer!

The other leader choices have less to discuss (I'm sure you'll be glad to hear). The second being a Saurus Astrolith bearer, the warscroll seeing significant changes in the new book. The bearer is very much a support piece but in a different way. As I've touched earlier on in the book he increases the range of spells cast by seraphon wizards within 12", as well as providing +1 to cast. His other warscroll ability provides a 6+ damage prevention roll to units wholly within 12". He also brings D3 Celestial Conjuration points a turn, shifting the averages to allow you to summon 10 skinks a turn. At 140 points he can seem expensive but will on average bring around 90 points of skinks to the table by himself each game. I massively rate the flat +1 to cast for Kroak and the Starpriest, as well as the range extension allowing to Kroak each further out. On top of that 6+ damage prevention roll can be clutch to save wounds on heroes and the Razordons.

Third on the leader list is a Skink Starpriest a absolutely golden unit for its points. A level 1 wizard, with a very useful spell, casting on a low 6 and range of 18" applying -1 to hit on a enemy unit. Casting on a 5 and range 24" due to the astrolith bearer, it's just golden. His lore spell on top of this is fantastic, casting on 6 and range 18" allows one of your own units to reroll hits of 1 until your next hero phase. Absolutely perfect for a unit that is to be buffed and teleported to a critical location. The versatility he bring for just these two spells is huge and that's before you get onto his Serpent Staff. With no roll required, simply pick a unit wholly within 12" and until your next hero phase if that unit rolls a 6 to wound, it causes a mortal wound on top of additional damage. Fantastic for any high weight of attack unit, something like Saurus Knights in Koatls Claw would absolute tear up with this. In my list, it's typically placed on Razordons, which turns up those 6D6 shots to 11.

The last leader choice is a Skink Priest who has two very potent abilities. His command ability is huge for the above list, simply +1 to hit until your next hero phase for a unit with the Skink keyword. This includes the Razordons and Bastiladons in the above list as well as the skinks. Turning Razordons to hitting on 2s rather then 3s is so good when you keep in mind the ways you can reroll your 1s to hit available to you. Bastiladons going from 4s down to 3s as well is great and make those 9 shots a very conistent thing. The Skink Priest also has a hero phase ability similiar to the Starpriest, this one on a 3+ allowing a unit to run, shoot and charge as well as providing +1 to the save rolls until your next hero phase. The 3+ does not make this super reliable but it's very useful when it comes, even if you're not planning on running and charge turning Razodons into a 3+ save, or Kroak in a pinch.

Onto the units and I am kicking off with 4 units of 10 skinks, just fantastic units. 60 points for 10 bodies, able to move a flat 8" in a turn. There isn't much to say about the skinks as they speak for themselves. Fantastic screening with a nice small base size to be teleported into small spaces to steal the gold from your opponents.

Onto the Razordons which I think should be considered the meat of the list. A unit of 3 with it's 9 handlers is pushing out 6D6 shots a turn, with a respectable 18" range and 8" move with the potential to run, shoot and charge as well to be teleported all buffed up. 3/4s - Rend 1 damage, gaining -1 rend within 6". On the face of it, fairly average before you start piling on buffs! The Skink Priest command ability allows the unit to hit on 2s, with either hand of glory or a burning head letting them re-roll 1s. Applying the Skink Starpriest Serpent Staff then means any wound rolls of a 6 pop out a mortal wound, as well as usual damage. The list is 1960 allowing for a potential triumph, re-roll wounds is fantastic for this unit.

It doesn't stop there with the Razordons, as they can shoot at the end of charge phase if a enemy unit ends within 3" and no enemy units were within 3" at the start of the charge phase. It is however only D6 shots each, but when you're hitting on 2s rerolling 1s that can give a opponent food for thought. Better yet, it's only even your enemies charge phase! Yep, you can shoot, charge with these guys, then shoot 3D6 shots and then hit in melee. At 3 attacks per Razordons 3/3 -2 2 damage each they're even great in melee, especially when buffed up.

I really like the unit of Razordons, versatile in melee or shooting, proving very good poke, proving a very good unit to layer buffs on and a very good target for Lords of Space and time when buffed to simply remove a unit when necessary. The Asterism The Hunters Steed (I prefer the Great Koala) provides your amry with +1 to run and charge, making those charges a 8" after being teleported. They are however fragile, paying 240 points for 18 wounds.

The next unit are Bastiladons, which have recently seen a FAQ essentially enabling 2+ unrendable save until bracketed. The shooting on these guys is fairly average, 9 shots, 4s 3s -1 2 damage. The damage becomes a flat 3 when against daemons (cough, flamers, cough). The bastiladons range however is 24", which provides some real decent poke at a very long range. In melee it's no slouch, with 3 attacks 3s 3s - 1 D3 damage each. A 220 points I really like the Bastiladons, they're very good targets for my buffs, they're amazing roadblocks to allow my continual poke to happen and they put out respestable damage when the buffs are applied. Using Lords of Space and Time on one of these guys circumvents the slow movement and can enable you to snipe a key hero really easily, with the Skink Priest they can be on 4/3s even with Look Out Sir applied, re-rolling 1s to hit with Hand of Glory. That paired with one or two turns of Comets Call can really apply serious pressure to the enemy back line.

Lastly I'll talk about my endless spells and then wrap this all up (it's a lot longer then I expected!). First off the Balewind Vortex doesn't need a lot of explaining, 40 points for a 6" range exension of Kroaks potential 5 spells a turn I'm already in. The +1 save increasing Kroak to a 3+ save is just icing on the cake.

The Bound Burning Head is absolute steal at 40 points in my eyes, a moveable re-roll 1 to hit aura that my opponent can't touch. Later in the game it can turn into a offensive spell, just golden for 40 points.

Last but by no means least the Bound Geminids of Uhl-Gysh, the geminids we all know and love that only I can control, yeah I'm in. Side note here but I'm not sure If I like the bound spells, I think one of the best things to come of new edition was the interaction of endless with the turn roll. The bound versions of the spell completely remove this and infact make a double turn even more opressive, enabling me to take a double AND move all my spells. On the flipside if I get doubled I can move all my spells which is nice but yeah, not sure if the bound spells were good for the game.

Well that's the overview of the list, it has a lot moving parts but remains very adaptible. I feel like I can play each phase of the game, having a potential very destructive hero phase, moving into a potentially nasty shooting phase and a combat phase which can be used to tag, or destroy units.

The list has incredible reach and can deal signficant damage from 22" away, even able to push wounds on the able from 36" away. It can wittle away from a incredible range and very effectively move in for the kill when things start approaching. Lords of Space and Time furthers the lists felixiblity, with the threat of any buffed unit being teleported across the table at any time. The pressure from Comets Call paired with the teleport can very efficiently snipe key heroes, and do it in time that my screens still stand.

I adore the playstyle of this list, very cerebral, calculated and positional based play. Due to the very high drop count of the list you're always planning two turns ahead. You're always playing for the scenario, applying pressure on the very back of the board to the very front. It's probably the best fun I've ever had playing AoS.

Thanks you so much for reading, I hope it gave a good insight to my current list I'm playing around with. Expect more soon as I play around with other lists in the Seraphon book!

Hobby in the warp, what's the deal?

Hello everyone mad enough to read this! My names Aaron Wilson, I'm 27 from Harlow and I have a huge passion for tabletop gaming. I've been playing tabletop games since I was 11, walking past a local gaming store and seeing some space wolves fighting tyranids. I was instantly hooked and new I needed more of it in my life.

Going on from there I got my first kits and well the rest is history! I've played every game I can think of along the line, starting with Warhammer 40K, progressing to WFB, then Warmachine & Hordes, Bloodbowl, Malifaux, Bushido and well the list just continues. I have tried a looooooooooooot of games and throughout my journey and the games I currently play are Age of Sigmar, Guildball, Horus Heresy, MESBG & Warhammer 40k.

In regard to my own pedigree I don't have a huge amount to boast about. However, I was lucky enough to be the captain for Team England at the 2018 World Team Championship for Guildball. Apart from that I'd like to think I'm a competent tabletop gamer, drawing on a wealth of experience and tactical acumen in each game. 

I'm certainly a player of the game, more than anything else. I enjoy making models, I'm learning to enjoy painting, I absolutely love playing. I love the player decision it brings, I love the social aspect of going out to meet new people, I love list discussion. What I'm getting at is, I love this hobby! It's really a huge passion of mine and I'd nothing more than to talk about it all day every day.

Which brings me nicely onto why I created this blog, you may ask why? Which is a valid question and I don't think I really have a conclusive answer for you. I love this hobby, building, modelling, painting, list discussion, playing, events, meeting new people & making memories.  I would absolutely love one day to work in the tabletop environment be it social media, marketing, etc etc. I don't think this blog will bring that but it's a way of getting myself out there and hopefully showcasing some of my passion and love for the hobby as well as potential writing / social media skills. 

I don't have a structured plan for the blog as it will cover well... everything and anything hobby. My own modelling, building, painting, unit breakdowns, list discussion, battle reports and about anything else you can think hobby related.

I have a lot of events lined up, as well as a fair few one dayers for AoS, Guildball & MESBG I have SCGT, Heat 3, LGT, War in the heartlands & GG Masters coming up. All awesome opportunities for me to cover them for the blog, provide some list discussion, unit breakdowns and battle reports! 

A massive thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read this today. I really hope this is the start of a great journey for me and I'm not sure where it plans to end. Until next time gang.