In culinary establishments
of a certain pretentions (or aspirations of grandeur) you are often served a palate
cleansing sorbet between two flavoursome courses to allow you to fully appreciate
other aspects of the meeting. This
refreshing morsel is nothing to write home about (no one congratulates a chef
on the quality of his sorbet), but then again, who doesn’t like a bit of
sorbet?
As the keen
eyed reader will undoubtedly have gathered – yes, High Elves are the
aforementioned sorbet. Nice, clean, and, I’m afraid to say, rather lacking in
flavour.
The Grimdark
that GW does so well, and has left its traces on almost the entire Warhammer
world, left High Elves completely untouched. They are, in many ways, the purest
‘High Fantasy’ army out there – classic elven tropes throughout. Under any objective
measure, they were, quite simply, rather dull.
Now, don’t get
me wrong. It wasn’t all bad. Some of the fluff was fine (even good at times).
Some of the art was fantastic. Fundamentally they suffered gravely from ‘Mary
Sue’ syndrome – being the best at everything is, at the end of the day. High
Elves had, arguably, four even vaguely interesting characters (Teclis,
Eltharion, Alith Anar and Imrik)… and nothing else.
It is important
to note that, as with that sorbet served to you delicately by a waiter who
somehow makes it politely known he despises you, a lack of flavour is by no
means a bad thing in itself. In a world full of bright colours and meaty
flavours, relaxing with a bunch of dress wearing elves for a while is no bad
thing – I know I have been drawn to them for periods for this very (subconscious)
reason.
Just as a
critic will not wax lyrical about his mid-meal sorbet, I too shall leave my
thoughts on High Elves there – there is not much to say. It’s the ‘High Fantasy’
elven ideal. If you like that, great.
I had no
doubt that scheming powerbrokers controlling the 9th Age would have
no trouble adapting these Ultramarines of Warhammer into the new game in their
reincarnation as Highborn Elves. And I wasn’t wrong. Within the parameters of
the new game things seemed to work as they should. The ones with bows shot
things, the big burning birds swooped down and caused devastation to infantry
hordes, the chaps on Dragons were suitably dragony. They even did some very
cool things – giving axe-wielding woodsmen skirmish made a lot of thematic
sense; the master swordsmen of the magical tower became true embodiments of
martial skill that they are meant to be (of course, this made them over powered in the game, but that’s
why they are releasing these balancing mechanics).
From a
personal point of view Highborn Elves seemed to have a lot going for them
(elves generally getting bucket loads of special rules for what seemed no cost
helps of course). Crucially, they all have what I consider the single most
powerful rule in the game – Lightning Reflexes. Factor in other cool
things like a ward-save totting, potentially reincarnating Lord on a big
flaming monster, and I thought they were a-OK. Sure, they seemed to lack the
power of some of the DE lists I have seen, but that’s ok. Solid (rather
vanilla) army.
What awaits
the secret scions of Guilliman?
•“Last
of Their Kind” was added to reduce flying monster spam (a trend throughout the
project). The rule limits the number of dragons and phoenixes available to the
HBE player to max 2 in any combination.
Not close to
convinced that flying monster spam was the power build with the book, but that’s
ok.
•The
Lion Fur Cloak was deemed problematic because it was under-costed (especially
good with Master of Canreig Tower) but also because it breaks the theme of the
army. The 6+/5+ innate defense gave HBE characters access to better armour than
what armies that are considered to be the well-armoured have access to. Heavy
armour + Lion Fur is in fact better armour than the plate armour of DH, EoS,
and WDG. The Elven characters come with other great properties and are
therefore not supposed to excel at defense.
Not sure a
solution is mentioned here, but yes, highly armoured Elven characters have been
amongst the most unforgivable of recent shifts.
Honours
•Master
of Canreig Tower saw a price increase and One of a kind restriction to reduce
the number of duplicate spells which could be spammed. This was demonstrated to
be taken in preference of an Archmage was and often an auto-include.
Seems sensible
•High
Warden of the Flame: Bestowing Divine attacks to the unit he joins was
considered a bit too good and overstepping existing item, so it got swapped for
another weaker unit buff ability (magic attacks).
Magic attacks
by themselves seem rather dull (though my pet wraiths are feeling very
victimised)
•Queen's
Companion: Added poison darts & scout to make the unit unique.
Sure, why
not?
•Royal
Huntsman saw a swap in rules and will benefit from being the only character
with access to Lion Fur (because he’s a Huntsman). Added immunity to fear and
terror for him and the unit he joins. He'll no longer be able to do multiple
wounds on chariots, but instead focus strictly on Monstrous/Monster hunting.
Makes
thematic sense (and as I have mentioned before, that’s the most important of
all the sense to make)
•Prince
of Ryma: As the flying circus is a specific play style, it was important not to
remove it as an option for players: therefore, theHonourwill counteract the
default restriction on the Last of their Kind rule so someone wishing to focus
on this style can still do so.
Ummm. Ok… I
am not going to point out how ‘Southlands’ was a play style for Lizardmen for
decades, and there seems to have been no consideration for allowing them to
continue to do so, because I would sound bitter if I brought that up. Just as
well I didn’t.
•Order
of the Fiery Heart: Removal of Fire Phoenix from mounts as it overshadowed the
dragon mounts by a long shot, removal of damage and missile keywords for
casting into CC he is part of is a big thing, as it goes well with the warrior
mage image as well as adding the option to purchase the Dragon Armour.
Sad sad
times. I liked the Fire Archmage on a Fire Phoenix. I mean, sure, I love the
idea of casting fireballs into combat with an armoured dragon riding fire
wizard (I am not sure there is much in the game I like the sound of more (other
than truly cool vampires), but still, I feel sad about the ikle fire phoenix.
Units
•Some
of the Core units were slightly tweaked in the points domain to encourage
smaller units. Sea Guards lost Quick to Fire in exchange for a new rule, as it
was observed of being the go to choice of core infantry. No big changes were
done since the Citizen Spears and Citizen Archers were at the desired power
level, so Sea Guard had to be tweaked to fit in.
Sure, why
not.
•Swordmasters:
A change to their Sword Sworn rule, as it was seen as problematic, but they
still keep their role as anti-infantry shock troops. They now ignore Parry and
Distracting rules, which gives them a steady damage output against their
intended targets.
Sensible –
these have officially (the internet being as official as it gets) *broken* Warhammer
at least twice before, and I heard a lot of tears about them in 9th
Age too. Steady damage output is massive in the world of distracting and
parry, so it sounds like they will still be good.
•The
loss of skirmish for QG was implemented as they were too good in shooty avoidance
lists, as well as a price increase for longbows so as not to be an no brainer
auto include. Gained access to a 25 pts magic banner.
Ummm. Sounds
a bit painful, but sure. I hear they were good.
•The
Sky Sloop was deemed too weak and uninteresting. It used to be a mobile
shooting platform that did not bring anything of great value to the army, so
its design got a little twist. The Sky Sloop will have Volley Gun option only,
but it is increased in strength and reduced in number of shots - although its
keeps AP(1) - so in terms of shooting power it is around the level of the RBT,
with a preference for heavily armoured targets. Secondly, the chariot's base
strength was raised so that it can work as an actual CC support unit. Thirdly,
since it is not a well protected model(T4 W4 AS 5+), it got theHard Target
special rule to be able to survive in hostile territory a bit and kept Quick to
fire as to remain a solid shooting platform.
The
greatest design change, however, was giving the Sky Sloop buyable options to
become sort of a buff wagon:
•Storm
Pennant is giving the model lightning attacks in CC (both impact hits and
regular attacks), and the bound spell (Thunderbolt) at PL(5) for increased
ranged damage potential.
•Aldan
Warhorn is a passive aura effect that reduces WS of all enemy units within
6" of it, providing an edge for our CC units as both a defensive and
offensive boost, depending on the situation.
•It
kept the option of being a mounted option, but only for characters with the
Fleet Officer Honour, and it lost the 5++ save.
Flat out
very cool. Awesome model, awesome concept – I would love it if it ends up being
taken as a result of this. Quite exciting really.
Actually, ‘Quite
exciting’ doesn’t overly cover it – this idea is pretty awesome
Dragons
•Keeping
with the traditional image of HE being masters of dragons we’ve worked to make
this image a reality on the battlefield. In this update you’ll be able to field
the Young Dragons as Monstrous Beasts and therefore be able to utilize armour
and equipment from the rider (it's ok dragon lovers: breathe).
This is flat
out awesome. Of course in practice this means that Young Dragons will probably
suck (that Cabal always has its eyes on that pesky ‘Balance’ they are so keen
on), but the visual is cool, and that’s (not to overuse the word), cool.
So, nothing
brain melting here – though I expect a few brains have melted online over the
past week or so (I take that as a given though). Seems like they have added
some flavour and clipped the odd wing here and there.
Sure, it
remains a sorbet, but looks like it will be a nice tasting one at least.
Until next
time
Raf
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