New Article up

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/3/8/the-ghosts-of-the-past/

Reanimate Archers got nerfed. They lost a hit modifier. Pretty big freakin deal. Still a really strong unit, but eases my suspicions of them possibly being oppressive.

pre-order your copy of the Runewars Miniatures Game Core Set at your local retailer tod

Who is tod? Is he responsible for this painfully long boat ride? Is FFG going to be making all our friendly local game stores hire someone named tod? Are they going to force name changes upon people?

"Even when these champions fall, their legacy endures in Waiqar’s army. Dark priests and necromancers render the champion’s bones down to dust, and fleshwrights and bonemasters then use this essence to reanimate the bodies of fallen enemy warriors. In fact, the remains of a single Deathborn champion is enough to reanimate thousands of enemies. Built upon the bones of lesser foes, Reanimates do not match the prowess of the Deathborn, but they fill the ranks of Waiqar’s armies with untiring dedication all the same."

That just cemented my plan to be painting the infantry with mixed in colors of the daqan baronies...I hope there is a few different baronies in the lore book...

The pure grindyness in Waiqar is pretty interesting. They can really just absorb a ton of attacks by having pretty decent defensive values/traits and then being able to use the blight tokens to reduce enemy damage output. Which normally, I'd say doesn't really mean that much, but considering how victory points are scored seems to be pretty effective.

Quote

Ardus even influences your army-building—a dark host of crows flocks above him, drawn by the scent of carnage and inspiring the other undead. While Ardus leads your army, each unit can access more upgrades than it otherwise might have.

So the way that sounds, you will pick a hero as the leader of the army? I wonder if that will be required in each battle or if you just have the option for a leader and if you don't want the benefit of the list building you can just opt to run the heroes only in units...I know I will rarely not take Ardus as a lone hero...WHEN DO WE GET THE RULES....waaaaaah

The good pictures of dials and cards are nice.

I'm most excited, however, about that part at the end where they said the next previews will be about expansions! Can't wait to see the new cards and stuff get spoiled!

Just now, jek said:

So the way that sounds, you will pick a hero as the leader of the army? I wonder if that will be required in each battle or if you just have the option for a leader and if you don't want the benefit of the list building you can just opt to run the heroes only in units...I know I will rarely not take Ardus as a lone hero...WHEN DO WE GET THE RULES....waaaaaah

You pick a hero exactly like you'd pick any other unit. They're not required or anything. Ardus just happens to give you an army-wide buff that applies during army building much like Kari's 'Amyhelin Allies' ability.

I had to go back and check if anything else got changed. The only other thing I noticed is that Oathsworn Calvary got a massive price decrease in their higher tier formations, which actually makes them very tempting.

Just now, Willange said:

You pick a hero exactly like you'd pick any other unit. They're not required or anything. Ardus just happens to give you an army-wide buff that applies during army building much like Kari's 'Amyhelin Allies' ability.

I understand that part I'm just wondering if there will be a command structure element like WFB or a commander requirement like in Armada (is that still in the game?) and if you can have multiple list building skills

1 minute ago, jek said:

I understand that part I'm just wondering if there will be a command structure element like WFB or a commander requirement like in Armada (is that still in the game?) and if you can have multiple list building skills

None of that has ever been mentioned in a gameplay video or preview article, so I'm willing to say 'no there won't be' on that. I doubt they'd have let a huge feature like that go totally unmentioned this far into previews.

YES! Mwahahahah

Yep, that Carrion Lancer dial is funky. Its going to be a bit lurchy to run, and a mite unpredicatble I think. It has no white modifier, thats going to be crazy!

41 minutes ago, jek said:

I hope there is a few different baronies in the lore book...

I really hope the lore book covers the different baronies in detail.

30 minutes ago, Willange said:

I'm most excited, however, about that part at the end where they said the next previews will be about expansions! Can't wait to see the new cards and stuff get spoiled!

Will be truly new territory. Will they be new units or the new factions? Either way I hope we find out soon.

7 minutes ago, Muz333 said:

I really hope the lore book covers the different baronies in detail.

Will be truly new territory. Will they be new units or the new factions? Either way I hope we find out soon.

My assumption is that it will be in depth info about the already spoiled expansions like how they do previews for xwing. Announce the wave then preview individual details separately. Regardless this is exciting!

1 hour ago, jek said:

pre-order your copy of the Runewars Miniatures Game Core Set at your local retailer tod

Who is tod? Is he responsible for this painfully long boat ride? Is FFG going to be making all our friendly local game stores hire someone named tod? Are they going to force name changes upon people?

Tod is german for Death. Seems he is a retailer nowadays, i mean i know he was the Hogsfather (aka Santa Claus) on the Discworld an he is quite the philosopher but that is a new one for me.

Haven't finished reading yet, but I just had to post after I read the name Waiqar Sumarion. I recently acquired his disk in Diskwars. Here is what he looked like before his curse took hold.

Haven't finished reading, but really hoping that the Deathborn that were mentioned show up as an elite infantry unit somewhere down the line!

2 hours ago, Obscene said:

Reanimate Archers got nerfed. They lost a hit modifier. Pretty big freakin deal. Still a really strong unit, but eases my suspicions of them possibly being oppressive.

didn't notice it when comparing with Rafpark pictures... you talk about the archers command dial, right ?

I think it is compared to the gencon preview

1 hour ago, Elliphino said:

Haven't finished reading, but really hoping that the Deathborn that were mentioned show up as an elite infantry unit somewhere down the line!

Probably mostly as heroes.

Ardus Ix'Erebus is Deathborn, for instance.

3 hours ago, Willange said:

None of that has ever been mentioned in a gameplay video or preview article, so I'm willing to say 'no there won't be' on that. I doubt they'd have let a huge feature like that go totally unmentioned this far into previews.

I don't know if anyone has really asked in the previews from cons about army limits or heroes in particular. Thus far the previews are pretty general and we might know once they reveal army building or tournament building. Maybe in the next preview article that should be about upgrades or terrain.

I think I'd be fine with some sort of limit on heroes in armies. Something like 1 hero per 150 or so points. That way, if FFG raises army limits, you get that additional hero. It would also allow the company to produce more heroes without the game turning into just heroes on both sides rather than focusing on units.

I think point limitations and objective control will balance out overuse of heroes. If someone wants to cram a different hero into every unit, let them, you can focus on numbers and outflanking.

8 minutes ago, drkpnthr said:

I think point limitations and objective control will balance out overuse of heroes. If someone wants to cram a different hero into every unit, let them, you can focus on numbers and outflanking.

That depends entirely on the new heroes dials, their abilities, and upgrades. Both Kari and Ardus fared pretty well so far. Kari alone looks fantastic at outflanking (with her upgrade) and can pretty much deal with other skirmishers (small units) with her surge. Ardus can hit like a truck.

The two heroes are roughly about 40 points (rounding up for some upgrades) so you fit about 5 in a 200 point army. That will probably be the average of units in most armies of that point scale unless someone is focusing strictly on skirmishers helping a death star. Now, it will probably be quite a long time before we get that many heroes for a single army.

I'll also add the passive effect from heroes and how that can be a bit deluded when you start letting more and more be included. Forcing players to only be able to use a single hero would make that choice more important. Of course, for right now, only Waiqar benefit from a hero's passive.

I see the passives as not being too overpowering if layered. Granted, we haven't seen the back of Hawthorne or Ankaur's cards, but they have some powerful activated abilities, so I wonder if they will have significant passives. With Ardus' power, it has greater value if you spend more points upgrading formation units, which discourages you from having a lot of independent heroes. With Kari's power, she just gets a force option, which still requires you to spend points to add the unit.

10 hours ago, drkpnthr said:

I think point limitations and objective control will balance out overuse of heroes. If someone wants to cram a different hero into every unit, let them, you can focus on numbers and outflanking.

I would be surprised if there was a point limit on hero upgrades in units but I'm mainly interested to see if you can benefit from multiple list building skills or if you can only have a single free roaming hero that augments your list building. They haven't discussed list building mechanics other than saying the standard is 200 and points are on the back of cards. Rank and File games are one of the few types of games that I see structure requirements as somewhat making sense because there was pretty much always some general present giving orders to the troops. So with that in mind I would understand seeing a leader requirement in army building. I hope the next update is either about army building or they release the rules finally...