The Front Line Rune Golem is some kind of unit upgrade because the golem already has that exact same brutal rule, it's interessting that we have his life and shields in the upper left corner and some other symbols on the lower left corner and i think they said it's a unit upgrade in one of those many videos.

And about excellent rules i'd say they are good but X-Wing and as far as i know also Armada had ships and cards that are considered bad, of course they fixed these with new upgrade cards.

Their balance tends to be good over time, because they are constantly tweaking it through errata and new cards. Individual models can still be out of balance temporarily, particularly when new. Also, different things become better or worse as the meta changes too. High PS in X-Wing has had a variable worth because it depends on what's being flown a lot at that moment for example. As new lists become popular, things that do well against them go up in value and things that do poorly against them go down in value. It's all a funky weird balancing act and I expect we'll see RuneWars go similarly.

Does anyone know if "assemble" means snap together (like Imperial Assault - well, some of the guys) or are you thinking sprues and glue?

In the bols video they said the figs would be easy to put together and no sprues.

So it looks like the upgrade cards can have an icon in the upper corner showing what units they can go on. Frontline Rune Golem has a Rune Golem icon. Terrifying Heraldry has nothing, so it can go on anyone? As far as I can tell you don't even need to have a Herald in the unit?

If that's correct it's disappointing to me as this seems to be a step backwards from the X-Wing upgrade system, un-thematic in the case of Terrifying Heraldry (which I would expect to require a Herald and also maybe be specific to certain factions), and also it means that not all cards will be faction specific which is a bad sign for upgrade card packaging.

For the upgrades the back of the cards tell you what upgrades the can have. The symbol in the middle of the card matches the back of the revenants 2 largest formations. The symbol on the bottom left matches the archers and revenants and spearman so I assume that means infantry and I assum the shield means humans. The red golem symbol in the top right I would assume shows that the golem model is used and replaces one of your infantry trays.

Which sounds really cool to me having a golem lead a swarm of spearmen

The Front Line Rune Golem is some kind of unit upgrade because the golem already has that exact same brutal rule, it's interessting that we have his life and shields in the upper left corner and some other symbols on the lower left corner and i think they said it's a unit upgrade in one of those many videos.

And about excellent rules i'd say they are good but X-Wing and as far as i know also Armada had ships and cards that are considered bad, of course they fixed these with new upgrade cards.

It adds a Rune Golem to a spearmen unit.

Terrifying Heraldry has nothing, so it can go on anyone? As far as I can tell you don't even need to have a Herald in the unit?

I think, if your unit's chosen formation has banner icon on back side of the unit card, than you automatically receive standartbearer in the unit. And you can take any banner upgrade for him.

It adds a Rune Golem to a spearmen unit.

I'd say, it swaps one stand of spearmen for stand with golem, and adds rule on the card for the unit. Golem can be killed by direct hits to him (and unit will lose rule from the card), but he has different defence and wounds profile.

So it looks like the upgrade cards can have an icon in the upper corner showing what units they can go on. Frontline Rune Golem has a Rune Golem icon. Terrifying Heraldry has nothing, so it can go on anyone? As far as I can tell you don't even need to have a Herald in the unit?

If that's correct it's disappointing to me as this seems to be a step backwards from the X-Wing upgrade system, un-thematic in the case of Terrifying Heraldry (which I would expect to require a Herald and also maybe be specific to certain factions), and also it means that not all cards will be faction specific which is a bad sign for upgrade card packaging.

As far as we know, that's not correct. From some of the videos we know that Front Line Golem may be used by Spearmen. I guess the information on who is allowed to use these upgrades is printed on the front of the card.

edit: And I kind of expect Terrifying Heraldy to only be available to the Undead, but that's really just a wild guess.

Ah, ok so the giant gold icon is the upgrade type then? I was mentally expecting something smaller and placed at the bottom or on a bar or something.

On the back of each unit card you can see the configuration of tray that you can take with that unit, then the cost next to it is how much that full configuration costs to field, so as the number of trays you take increases, the squad point cost per tray gets cheaper. Then next to that it shows what upgrade types that configuration can take, bigger units can take more/better upgrades. The shield icon on Front Line Golem means Daqan Lords only. Terrifying Heraldry can be taken by any unit big enough to have that icon. You can add the Rune Golem to the spearmen, however, you have to have a pretty big formation before they have access to the siege upgrade symbol. The rune golem tray replaces one of the spearman trays, so it costs 7 plus whatever the tray originally cost. He adds Brutal(blue runes[1 or 2]) to the whole unit. Since he would be in the front row, if the spearmen have multiple rows you can't attack the rune golem outright. You would have to roll an accuracy result (or have one dialed up as your attack modifier) in order to assign hits to him, then you still need to do 4 hits to get one wound against him (because of his defense higher than the spearmen units). Also any modifier that effects the unit also effects and upgrade figures added to that unit.

just noticed something watching the team covenant video, 33:50 minute mark they show the back of the archers, reanimates and Ardus.

Ardus is 37 points and has 2 equipment slots 1st looks like a helmet and the other looks like the armor icon from master crafted weapons.

he also seems to have an Army ability:

"each unit in your army is treated as....

the available upgrades in the row...

table with the next highest cost...

there is no cost..."

it was cut off and a little blurry but it seems like he gives his army better upgrades for the smaller units.

so if you take a 2 worm unit at 27 pts you can give them there special upgrade that you normally need a block of 4-6 for.

so depending on if that's a good upgrade you could min max

Ardus @ 37pts

2 worms @27 +upgrades (10)

2 worms @27 +upgrades (10)

2 worms @27 +upgrades (10)

2 worms @27 +upgrades (10)

+ 15 pts left over for a single worm or 15 pts of upgrades on ardus

or if you want to get crazy and not worry about upgrades you could do 5 units of 2 worms (27x5) 135 and 4 units of 1 worm (15x4) 60.

or just 13 solo worms for 195

also archers are 2(2x1) 4 (2x2) 6(3x2) trays upgrades and points were a little too blurry to read

reanimates seem to be the only unit that gets musician standard and champion upgrades. they might end up being included in the reanimates box, especially if the unit boxes are more than 2 trays I'm thinking they may end up being 4-6 trays.

Matt Nott just posted some pictures in the RuneWars Facebook group, including the unit card back and command tool for Kari Wraithstalker:

Updated the OP with them, thanks Matt!

Hmmm. Kari's ability seems to be a bit spoilerific.....

I don't see what the rules are for one of the icons. It's the white one in Kari Wraithstalkers modifier dial. What does that do?

I don't see what the rules are for one of the icons. It's the white one in Kari Wraithstalkers modifier dial. What does that do?

That's "Rally" - it removes all banes and refreshes upgrades. If you have (lost) neither, you get an inspiration token.

Has anyone noticed that the Spearman and Reanimate command wheels has a white Skill as a modifier? The basic unit cards does not have any skills on. Must mean that some upgrade cards will require a Skill action to activate, and a Rally action to refresh.

Every command wheel we've seen has a skill on it somewhere, yeah, although only the Carrion Lancers and Rune Golems actually have skills on their cards. Presumably upgrades and/or heroes will have skills to add to units.

Speaking of, in the BoLS video you get a pretty good look at Ardus' wheel, although the FF guy is always fiddling with it so it's hard to get a clear shot of everything at once. He's got Yellow Skill at initiative 2, Green Reform at 3 and Shift 1 at 5, Red Melee at 3, and Blue Move at 2 and Move at 3 - a bit slower on the whole than Kari, although hit melee attack hits quicker. Blue modifiers are the same as hers, Red is Hit or Surge, and White is Defense +1 or Rally.

Bumping this back to the top for visibility. A lot of good pictures and information in the OP for new people checking out this forum for info.

Does anyone know if "assemble" means snap together (like Imperial Assault - well, some of the guys) or are you thinking sprues and glue?

I think I remember an interview where the FFG guy said the models will require some gluing.

Given the posing of miniatures and how mouldmaking works, I predict some peg-and-socket joints for stuff like a spear arm here and a head there, nothing major and most certainly no sprues. Same as the larger Imperial Assault stuff, really. You can push-fit your Bantha, but it's prone to popping apart occasionally unless you glue it down.

I hope that soon more information FFG

Filling out most of the details on the cards and wheels from this and this excellent summary video made by KrisSherriff:

Kari

Golem

Calvary

Spearmen

Ardus

Carrion Lancer

Reanimate Archers

Reanimates

Finally, here is a pic of an additional "Modifiers" reference card that hasn't been updated on the main post.

For those that are looking into the points.

Starter Boxes Points

Undying

15 Carrion Lancer

18 Ranimate Archers

26 Reanimates

37 Ardus

96 points

Humans

17 Rune Golem

20 Calvary

30 Spearmen

32 Kari

99 total points

Interestingly, you can mess with the point totals by splitting up your units. For example, if the Undying player broke his Reanimates into 2 8 model units instead of 1 16 model units,the point value for his army would be 102 points.

Thanks for more info! Threat is equal to frontage width of a unit yeah?

Thanks for more info! Threat is equal to frontage width of a unit yeah?

I think that is correct.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is the number of dice you roll for damage. The number of ranks allow you to re-roll bad rolls, making damage more consistent. As you lose models, I think you take them away from the back ranks, which will reduce the numbers of re-rolls available but will not reduce your threat until you have lost models from your front rank. This has the effect of creating "sweet spots" in the formation listing.

For example, Reanimates at 2 trays and 4 trays do the same top end damage, but 4 trays is just more consistent because of the rerolls. The top end damage jumps at 6 trays, but not at 9 trays. Finally, at 12 trays, the top end damage jumps again. Compare to Spearmen, who only have a single top end damage jump from 4 to 6 trays.

For this reason, I predict that you will generally see Spearmen in units of 6 trays and will see Reanimates in max formation of 12 trays. The Regeneration mechanic also makes large units of Reanimates more likely. Note that a 12 tray unit of Reanimates is a very large unit, even by Skaven (in Warhammer Fantasy) standards....48 models.

Thanks for more info! Threat is equal to frontage width of a unit yeah?

I think that is correct.

Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I think that is the number of dice you roll for damage. The number of ranks allow you to re-roll bad rolls, making damage more consistent. As you lose models, I think you take them away from the back ranks, which will reduce the numbers of re-rolls available but will not reduce your threat until you have lost models from your front rank. This has the effect of creating "sweet spots" in the formation listing.

The number (and color) of dice you roll is shown on the unit's stat card. You multiply the damage result with the threat. The number of ranks indeed grants you rerolls.