Post by oncomingstorm on Apr 27, 2017 20:04:11 GMT
My quick, knee-jerk thoughts:
1. Goreshade4 seems underwhelming. Arcane vortex seems like a powerful field marshal, but in reality means that he just wants to run Hydras to avoid wastage of focus...and Hydras don't synergize with him aside from Mage sight. Seems like the best feature of AV is keeping him from getting spell-assassinated. His feat is a pile of garbage (definitely a contender for worst feat in Warmachine) which means he's relying on the spell list to pick up the slack, and...I'm not seeing it. Ghost walk and frost field are cute, but he has no damage buff or threat extension. Decidedly meh IMO.
2. Fane Knight Guardian: not much to say here - some casters (Garryth, Issyria now that Hemera is out, Thyron) will take him instead of Sylys. I like him, wish he was a little bit more interesting though.
3. Hemera: clearly a decent piece with Issyria, but I have mixed feelings about it with other Casters. It's very expensive for just an arc node, crit dispel is unreliable, and it has almost no hitting power in melee. On top of that, that casters I'd initially want to take it with (Rahn, Helynna) benefit immensely from playing in theme, which means they can't take her. I dunno, if she was just a regular jack I'd be thrilled, but being a character restricted to Issyria in theme...we'll see. It probably won't be the first thing I pick up off of this list of releases.
4. Ryssovass: Cool models, disappointing rules. Same speed as sentinels, but with less ability to get where they're going (tough vs. iron zeal is no contest,) share a weakness to the auto-point abilities that wreck sentinels, and do less damage when they hit, while not being able to be sped up with vengeance (which also means that whatever DOES get there will do less work.) Oh, and no pathfinder, so they need support from the caster to do what sentinels do natively. Not impressed.
5. Ellowuyr + CA: I actually quite like these guys. Themes seem to be pushing us back towards seeing more infantry, and Ellowuyr eat infantry for breakfast. The minifeat is interesting, practiced maneuvers is...a thing...and blade shield makes them surprisingly resilient against non-blast shooting. The issue I see with them is that they're in direct competition with Houseguard halberdiers, which are more flexible, hit harder, hit faster, and in theme contribute towards free stuff (WHY couldn't HES count towards theme bonuses?!) Nice models, though.
6. Spears: I was initially skeptical (stealth, shield guard, arm 11...what?!) but now I'm seeing some serious possibilities with these guys. Def 17 in melee is...silly, they can have Eiryss for AD, and they hit reasonably hard. Shield guard is more there to screw with the opponent's mind than anything else, IMO - they can trigger vengeance more or less whenever they want to, so it's an additional consideration for an opponent trying to shoot your stuff. I can see places for them - mostly in mage hunter theme.
7. Arcanist unit: I mean, they're arcanists...that are harder to kill...with a better CMD...and an inaccurate nuke instead of concentrated power. some lists will love these guys, but arcanists are still essential. Rahn will like 'em, anyone who spams jacks will like 'em, other than that most people will stick to arcanists.
8. Aelyth Vyr: he's a solo. He murders people good. Your opponent can't rely on him staying down if he kills him once, which combined with last strike has some hilarity potential. However, he's slow, his only defensive ability is tough, and he's a PS12 weaponmaster with cleave, which seems a wee bit confused in terms of role. He seems very corner case, though I suspect he'll get taken in a Nyss theme if and when that happens.
9. Priest of Nyssor: If you have the points, he can buff Nyss hunters. That's about all he does, since Ryssovas seem bad. Again, might get taken as a free solo in theme.
1. Goreshade4 seems underwhelming. Arcane vortex seems like a powerful field marshal, but in reality means that he just wants to run Hydras to avoid wastage of focus...and Hydras don't synergize with him aside from Mage sight. Seems like the best feature of AV is keeping him from getting spell-assassinated. His feat is a pile of garbage (definitely a contender for worst feat in Warmachine) which means he's relying on the spell list to pick up the slack, and...I'm not seeing it. Ghost walk and frost field are cute, but he has no damage buff or threat extension. Decidedly meh IMO.
2. Fane Knight Guardian: not much to say here - some casters (Garryth, Issyria now that Hemera is out, Thyron) will take him instead of Sylys. I like him, wish he was a little bit more interesting though.
3. Hemera: clearly a decent piece with Issyria, but I have mixed feelings about it with other Casters. It's very expensive for just an arc node, crit dispel is unreliable, and it has almost no hitting power in melee. On top of that, that casters I'd initially want to take it with (Rahn, Helynna) benefit immensely from playing in theme, which means they can't take her. I dunno, if she was just a regular jack I'd be thrilled, but being a character restricted to Issyria in theme...we'll see. It probably won't be the first thing I pick up off of this list of releases.
4. Ryssovass: Cool models, disappointing rules. Same speed as sentinels, but with less ability to get where they're going (tough vs. iron zeal is no contest,) share a weakness to the auto-point abilities that wreck sentinels, and do less damage when they hit, while not being able to be sped up with vengeance (which also means that whatever DOES get there will do less work.) Oh, and no pathfinder, so they need support from the caster to do what sentinels do natively. Not impressed.
5. Ellowuyr + CA: I actually quite like these guys. Themes seem to be pushing us back towards seeing more infantry, and Ellowuyr eat infantry for breakfast. The minifeat is interesting, practiced maneuvers is...a thing...and blade shield makes them surprisingly resilient against non-blast shooting. The issue I see with them is that they're in direct competition with Houseguard halberdiers, which are more flexible, hit harder, hit faster, and in theme contribute towards free stuff (WHY couldn't HES count towards theme bonuses?!) Nice models, though.
6. Spears: I was initially skeptical (stealth, shield guard, arm 11...what?!) but now I'm seeing some serious possibilities with these guys. Def 17 in melee is...silly, they can have Eiryss for AD, and they hit reasonably hard. Shield guard is more there to screw with the opponent's mind than anything else, IMO - they can trigger vengeance more or less whenever they want to, so it's an additional consideration for an opponent trying to shoot your stuff. I can see places for them - mostly in mage hunter theme.
7. Arcanist unit: I mean, they're arcanists...that are harder to kill...with a better CMD...and an inaccurate nuke instead of concentrated power. some lists will love these guys, but arcanists are still essential. Rahn will like 'em, anyone who spams jacks will like 'em, other than that most people will stick to arcanists.
8. Aelyth Vyr: he's a solo. He murders people good. Your opponent can't rely on him staying down if he kills him once, which combined with last strike has some hilarity potential. However, he's slow, his only defensive ability is tough, and he's a PS12 weaponmaster with cleave, which seems a wee bit confused in terms of role. He seems very corner case, though I suspect he'll get taken in a Nyss theme if and when that happens.
9. Priest of Nyssor: If you have the points, he can buff Nyss hunters. That's about all he does, since Ryssovas seem bad. Again, might get taken as a free solo in theme.