Welcome back,
Correct me if I'm wrong but the Wolves CID was after the man o war one, right?
Well wolves of winter is great now, Vlad2, Sorscha1 and Old Witch2 are the best pilots for the list. If your opponent doesn't have too many guns it's a great theme and it plays very well in the current scenario package.
Armored corps needs a discussion, the theme is in a weird place right now, it's not bad per say, but it does struggle very much on which scenario is being played it does great on say bunker and invasion but it's terrible in king of the hill and anarchy where just bricking in the middle doesn't work, these scenarios require you to split up and armored corps doesn't split up very well. By now I'm guessing we'll skip right ahead to SR2021 because of COVID, I really hope brick style lists become a bit more viable because at the moment it's way too scenario dependant.
That being said, Sorscha3 is good to run the theme, I find her to be the best to run the theme, by a fair margin (don't get me started on Vlad2 here, just run him in Wolves and be done with it) she runs a great central brick style of list, with the new way requisition works she can more easily run Beast09 than before without hindering herself by cutting requisition choice like before.
For the theme, get the tankers, get the units but skip the chariots, they're bad and not worth it, even fringe build that try to make them work are ok at best, they had kind of their place before when they could benefit from advance move, but since the theme force change they can't benefit from it anymore, so they lost their niche.
Bulkhead doesn't seem bad, but that he doesn't benefit from advance move from the theme is really an issue.
We got two new mixed faction theme and even though the caster restrictions on them are very limited, both themes are SOLID. One of the thing that makes these theme solid is their ability to help against gunlines, something we really struggle to do with pure khador themes.
Warrior of the old faith is great, the sad thing is that the menite models are mostly just better than the khadoran ones here, Vlad3 is great to run the theme, he runs the judicator very well and his feat is so terrible that you don't even care that it doesn't benefit from the feat. I've seen a lot of different build for the list, some run more solos and the battle engine (the gun carriage because it's great, don't waste your time with the man o war chariots here), I run more units, both versions seem to perform well in the tournaments and conventions where I've played the theme and seen it played.
What makes warrior of the old faith work better than the typical khador theme against shooting is having access to the initiates and vilmon as great shield guard, can't take the initiates as a requisition choice so no initiates spam like menoth does in faithfull masses, but still taking one or two unit is great, and the other thing is access to the choir.
I know a lot of people snob this theme because it sadly ends up being mostly menite models with a couple of khador models included, I personally don't care about it, it can hit your wallet to get all the models to run the theme, it's like buying a new mini faction but I've got the models and I don't care, I like how the theme runs. It's also our only way to field two menite archon and have them friendly faction, menite archons are great, menite archon under dash are even better.
Sadly:
Judicator > Victor/Conquest: There's not really any contest here expecially with the menite archon helping buff the damage on the sprays
Vengers > Ulhans: The vengers don't need to stick in base contact to be sturdier than the ulhans and that's big for board presence, they are just superior, sorry ulhans, as you are there's just no reason to run you in the theme
Champion of the wall > Man o war drakhun: The champion extra sturdiness and Vilmon elite cadre makes them a better option than the drakhun in the theme
Outrider = FlameBrigners: This is the one saving grace for khador, outriders and flamebrigners are both very good and benefit from Vlad's kit, they are different but they both have their use in the theme
Fenris and the fun carriage are both great in the theme and are khador models
I've played less flame in the dark, but it's a great theme, it has a lot of built in damage buff so it's fine that Zerkova1 doesn't have a damage buff, it's also our best theme to play into guns with both cheap disposable shield guard, strong sturdy shield guard, clouds and Zerkova's feat. The vengeance on all the units and the shield guard models attached to these units makes triggering vengeance very easy, the theme also doesn't lack magic weapon and has somme innate upkeep hate with blessed and purgation available on models in the theme. It's also a theme where you can take a lancer with Zerkova1, she can still use her artefact when arcing spells, it's great really, Zerkova always wanted an arc node to utilise her kit.
This theme is also like buying an other mini faction with plenty of new models.
The riot quest models are nice, in a vacuum most of them are great but some of them suffer from being in bad themes...
Bulkhead is cool but as previously mentionned armored corps has it's problems.
Ol Grim is amazing but only plays in jaws of the wolf and winterguard kommand and both themes are really meh at the moment.
Underboss Vizkoya is ok, I like that he's on the cheap side and can potentially be very disruptive if left to do his thing, that being said, I don't expect him to kill much but he should impact the table just by being there so I like him, he can also take the merc slot in other themes, so I could see myself trying him in a wolves of winter theme.
Butcher4 is weird, I haven't been impressed by him so far, he's just too slow for the typical speed of the list even if he hits like a truck, I play Wolves of winter mostly with Vlad2 where I'm not sure he's the best pick, I could see him being a better pick in a Sorscha1 list.
Yuri the hunter, he's going to be auto include in warrior of the old faith, he's great, he helps jaws of the wolf with scenario presence, but jaws' is meh. But in a great theme like warrior of the old faith, he seems like a solid addition to an already great theme.
There are a couple of other riot quest models that are worth it even if they are just merc and not khador models
Scythe, she's great and she fits incredibly well in wolves of winter that's very merc friendly with puppet master, guidance and brittle frost not caring about her not being a faction model.
Harlowe, same thing than Scythe, less raw damage output, but he makes up for it with versatility, both are solid pick for a merc choice.
Also Archons, we can field 4 different kind of archons, all of them are great in their theme, get them you won't regret it.