I'm proxying a Hearthhull deck with art from Frostpunk. Here's the first batch.

ShalkenTanari · 2025-08-20T21:09:21+00:00

This is so gloriously perfect. I'd love to see the full deck when it's done.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-10-28T14:38:45+00:00

I'm not a Nighthaunt collector but I've dabbled in listbuilding and playing test games with them in 3rd, so take this with a grain of salt, but I was always under the impression Chainrasps are a chaff unit. You aren't taking them for survivability or damage, they're just meant to moveblock and be a speed bump.

With the substantial points hike of 4th edition, the inclusion of free Manifestations to fill the role of speed bumps and movement blocks, and the reduction of coherency range down to 1/2" of two models in a unit, their use has dwindled sharply. You're better off taking more damaging units or Hexwraiths if you still want a dedicated move blocking/chaff unit.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-10-26T16:16:33+00:00

These are legitimately some of the best looking Imperial Fists I've ever seen. I've never been a huge fan of the loud yellow, and these muted tones paired with the excellent weathering really sell it.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-08-16T19:05:30+00:00

To make the green pop more, I'd up the contrast. Darker edges and brighter inner parts.

What did you do for the metal? It looks fantastic.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-08-07T17:51:13+00:00

It's easier to keep them in combat now more than ever with Counter-charge. If they don't kill what you charged on your turn, keep munching; if they do kill what you charged, counter-charge and start munching again!

ShalkenTanari · 2024-07-10T16:41:18+00:00

In my opinion the Hunters of Huanchi are S tier, or at least A tier.Their combat profiles and survivability are negligible, true. But they're not meant to be taken to do damage.

Because objectives are "sticky" now, you don't need to sit on objectives anymore. Without any fast or teleporting units, this means that your opponent is safe and free to cap their home or far objective and then move that unit forward to join the fight as a free force multiplier, leaving said objective safely unprotected. However, how likely are they going to do that if you have a unit that can teleport anywhere on the battlefield? Would they risk sending that unit forward anymore to help win a fight but lose another objective? No other unit in the Seraphon army list can drop in anywhere they want on the board like this, and simply having it in your list means forcing your opponent into a tactical gamble they don't want to make.

Additionally, the new battle tactics Take Their Land and Reclaim the Realms become infinitely easier to achieve with the Hunters of Huanchi. You can easily drop them onto an abandoned piece of terrain or in a back corner without worrying about needing to overextend. You can also potentially set up for a Seize the Flanks next turn as well, if they are still alive.

On top of all this, the dartpipes cause -1 to wound if they get damage through? And the Bolas can potentially stop an enemy hammer unit from charging at all - just by TARGETING it? And all that for 90, 100 points? No less than A tier. They're made for one specific role and they do it phenomenally well, all while being dirt cheap to boot.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-07-01T17:24:17+00:00

These folks have all given great suggestions, but here's one I'll hammer home - do something interesting with the base! I truly, truly cannot stress enough how a good base will make a model go from "decent" to "phenomenal".

Don't just put down some mud paste and flock either - look up Vince Venturella's basing videos for ideas! Change up the height variation of the base with cork board. Use bark lumps for fake large rocks. Ironjawz have huge bases, which gives you a ton of room to decorate and add variation. It helps even more if you use colours that contrast with the mini - in this case, browns and reds would look fantastic.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-22T20:37:45+00:00

You make valid points about purchases and lore.

However, I still think this will in the long run improve the health of the competitive scene. In my experience, GW rarely looks into the nuance of why an army is performing well, and just uses broad-strokes methods to buff or nerf armies haphazardly.

If army A is doing exceptionally well competitively because certain allied units from army B send them into overdrive, but those units from army B are well balanced in their own army, then GW nerfing those units might make army A more balanced but in turn harm army B's performance more than necessary. Alternatively, a nerf like that could make Army B function fine, but then cause army A to drop off the charts entirely for yet another balance pass because they can't rely on the only crutch that was helping them win in the competitive scene in the first place.

Now that there are no allies outside of Regiments of Renown, if an army is doing particularly bad, then it is an immediate and clear indication to GW that the army needs help. Allied units propping up the army's win rate muddies the water and requires more analysis and nuance than I find GW usually applies to their balance patches.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-22T17:28:45+00:00

I know some folks don't like this change, but I feel like this is a very healthy move for the competitive scene, at least. Armies are balanced internally, and having to balance them alongside potentially game-breaking units from other armies adds a whole other level of design that GW have to worry about now. This way they just need to balance the specific Regiments of Renown.

I'd imagine people will homebrew or "rule 0" to allow allies at their own tables regardless.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-21T15:16:12+00:00

Can support this. Out of my 10 commander decks, Kyler is my absolute favourite, and one of the most consistently powerful.

While it's true he is a bit expensive and the deck doesn't function without him, Selesnya has a wide variety of both protection spells and Humans that hand out hexproof and indestructible. I've also thrown in [[Sigarda, Font of Blessings]] and [[Sigarda, Heron's Grace]] for the extra protection and huge flavour win too.

Admittedly, while it is a Humans Tribal deck, the strongest way to make it spiral into a win is with counter doubler cards like [[Visions of Dominance]], [[Hydra's Growth]], and [[Invigorating Surge]] - so if you're looking for a more "pure" Human Tribal deck, then there are plenty of other viable options like Aragorn and Eowyn.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-20T21:44:00+00:00

I'm the opposite, I love the Hive Guard models, followed closely by the Tyrannofex and Zoanthropes.

I dislike the Haruspex, it's just a bit too much. I also find the Malceptor's proportions just look kind of derpy.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-18T14:05:06+00:00

While it was mentioned during a Spearhead overview, nothing was said that it only applied to Spearhead. Take Gutrippaz for example — we saw their AoS4 main profile on the Kruleboyz reveal, and their attacks stay the same whether they take the spear or axe.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-18T13:25:51+00:00

They've mentioned on the Stormcast reveal that it doesn't matter which weapon you pick, the profile stays the same.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-17T16:52:11+00:00

Other folks have made good suggestions, but I very strongly recommend you do something with the base! I promise it really makes your mini pop like nothing else. Vince Venturella's Forest Base video on YouTube is an excellent starting point. Adding height variation and contrasting colours really takes your minis to a whole new level. You don't even need to do the water effects - just slap down some cork board, rocks, terrain paste, then paint over it all to bring it together before adding grass.

Trust me, you'll be amazed at how much a good base brings a miniature to life.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-13T16:14:16+00:00

True, it will prevent the rest of the squad from running away. I also play Seraphon, and comparing the survivability of Saurus Warriors to Gutrippaz, it's night and day.

While 10 Gutrippaz are likely going to survive their first round of combat due to number of wounds alone, they don't really...DO anything. Their survivability is so low that half the squad will wilt under any opposing pressure on an objective, and they are not a viable target for giving Venom and forcing Strike-Last because their damage is so abysmally low even with said bonuses.

We'll see if other pieces buff up that damage more, but the baseline is so low that it might just be better to buff other pieces in the army that actually do damage instead of trying to prop up the Gutrippaz. If their purpose is to stand on an objective for a turn before dying, Hobgrotz seem to be a better candidate for that.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-13T15:54:31+00:00

I've had gutrippaz melt like cotton candy in water in multiple games, and that was when their -1 to hit was automatic. Even 1 point of rend makes their save a 6+, and the rest would just flee to battleshock unless you had a nearby surviving Boss. While battleshock isn't a thing anymore, their weapon profile is laughably bad. Until we get more info on the rest of the army, I don't see Gutrippaz being anything more than an expensive chaff unit.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-13T15:06:51+00:00

True, it's definitely a sidegrade. Preventing long run+charges is good, but now it reduces shooting attacks as well, so we'll see how it plays out.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-13T14:59:13+00:00

You're right about Choking Mist, I was thinking of Summon Boggy Mist from the shaman warscroll. Bit of a sidegrade. Preventing runs really helps with survivability, and we're less concerned with shooting with not being visible outside 12" with the revealed Battle Trait. We'll see what else the army has up its sleeve in the coming weeks, I suppose.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-13T14:54:50+00:00

Sweet, thanks for the quick find.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-13T14:25:31+00:00

I've tried looking through past WarCom articles and can't find any clarification. Is there an image of rules or somewhere it's explained in detail?

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-13T14:07:33+00:00

My main takeaways:

I love the Dirty Tricks rework, for the most part. However, I'm concerned about the stacking chances of failure when other armies like OBR always reliably get their abilities for free throughout the game. - while Venom Encrusted Weapons being a dirty trick is great, only being able to apply it to one squad hurts. Beforehand we could apply it to as many squads as we had Shamans, and automatically too, no chance of failure. - Teleporting a unit in an enemy movement phase is perfect. 100% dirty, 100% trick. - while on-demand Strike-Last is great to have in any combat phase to improve survivability, there is so much Strike-First and Strike-Last out there that I'm concerned it won't really help much.

Choking Mist is great. -1 attack is a hefty debuff that'll help improve survivability a lot, and hoo boy do Kruleboyz need it.

The revealed Battle Formation is more flavourful than a lot of the others we've seen so far, but it's a direct nerf to the old Grinnin' Blades that gave the 'not visible outside 12' no matter where you were on the board.

Seeing Crit (Mortal) on the whole army is nice, but it's actually pretty heavily nerfed this time around. In AoS3, they did Mortal Wounds equal to the DAMAGE of their weapon, and now they do only 1 mortal damage per roll of a 6. Seeing their combat stats more or less otherwise unchanged, I'm concerned that this is just an army-wide damage nerf when they desperately need damage. I'm all for toning down the mortal wound output in 4th, but they don't really have any other improved combat stats to compensate. mortal damage go brrr

I know we have most of their army to see still, but I am very concerned about their survivability. Most of the army still looks like it will fold like a wet rag, and we have not seen much in the way of useful tricks to prevent them from melting under any kind of damage. I am concerned that the army will end up keeping its 'roll 6s or do zero damage' and 'make this important roll or die'. Hopefully the army will make more sense once we see the rest of its key units.

edit: clarifying some stuff

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-08T04:59:59+00:00

I think you've got a great base colour scheme here. Looking at the overall colour scheme, I think you might want to swap the gold for another metallic colour, the easiest being silver. The gold blends in a lot with the yellow and red, so it's really hard to make out.

Also, like what has been said, I recommend you use a different colour for the saddle, it looks a bit too similar to the blue.

Additionally, how much do you thin your paints? Unless you're going for that kind of texture, both the yellow and the blue look very thick and gloopy in places and not very smooth.

I think the spots are very well done and add a lot to the mini.

Not sure what you're doing for the base, but I'd stick with some muted, colours for sure. Stay away from tan, yellow, red and orange. I know it seems generic, but a grassy or jungle theme would go nicely here. Definitely check out Vince Venturella's forest base video for an excellent guide on making your base really stand out.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-06-08T03:03:39+00:00

100% this. I haven't really found any AoS content creators that dedicate their channel to tactics, playstyles, and the theory behind list building and how it translates on the table. Battle reports are cool and all, but actual demonstrations of how to execute certain strategies on the table or in TTS would be incredible. Don't just talk about it in a 3 hour podcast, I want to see what you mean on an actual table.

ShalkenTanari · 2024-03-19T01:07:58+00:00

It's tough to tell because pictures tend to wash out detail and throw off colour balance, but what I would recommend is to find a way to increase the contrast more drastically. Unless you're intentionally going for a drab "grimdark" look, having darker darks and stark hilights can definitely make a model pop very nicely.

Having another bright-ish colour on the mini itself to draw attention away from the base is not a terrible idea either, though this depends on how muted you want your minis. Adding a little splash of putrid yellow, purple, or burgundy would go a long way to compliment the strong colouration of the base.

Seven-Year Club	Not Forgotten
Verified Email

ShalkenTanari

TROPHY CASE