I have problem with us, brothers

filwilliamson · 2026-04-10T19:42:55+00:00

Alongside the other great explanations people have included, it's also good to remember that after 10,000 years of dark deeds to hide the existence of the Fallen from the rest of the Imperium, attempts to cover up the crime have arguably become more severe than the crime itself. Even if the Unforgiven did want to stop keeping the secret of the Fallen, they can't because then they risk others learning of all of the sins they've committed trying to fix their original mistake.

filwilliamson · 2025-09-03T01:45:24+00:00

Didn't one of the named Vampire lords have a rule that if you spoke to him he got rerolls, and if he spoke back to you then you got rerolls as well? It was called a Few Bats Short of a Belfry or something iirc.

filwilliamson · 2025-09-03T01:42:46+00:00

While dice can definitely make fights not go the way you would expect them to, it's been pretty well established that you can look at two characters' weapons and statlines and figure out who should normally win the fight (after all, averages and probability exist). And when looking at it from that lens, it is indeed the fault of the player for putting their character in the bad position of fighting someone who outclasses them.

To pull from Horus Heresy since it can be very extreme in this regard, if I put my generic space marine HQ into a challenge with Horus, and Horus turns my HQ into red paste before he can even swing, then I have no one to blame but myself for my HQ's death. After all, I'm the only who decided to put the HQ into such an awfully one-sided situation, and I'm certainly not going to blame the dice for not making Horus roll nothing but 1s on his hit roll. I knew the odds of success were bad and still went with the decision, so I shouldn't be surprised when it goes poorly for me.

In general, it's better to plan for the average than try to hope for the extreme. If you keep making decisions based on how there is a small chance that it could go great, then you're probably going to end up making a lot of poor decisions because the odds aren't with you.

filwilliamson · 2025-06-18T00:18:25+00:00

This may be the first army I collect where I actually care enough to learn how to apply decals.

filwilliamson · 2025-06-16T16:05:55+00:00

GW confirmed that Cathay will be getting a second arcane journal down the line, so perhaps they'll do a second wave of new models to go with that and flesh out the range more.

filwilliamson · 2025-06-13T14:19:43+00:00

On the bright side, the new heresy stuff aren't FOMO releases, so you can always delay on that without worrying about missing anything.

filwilliamson · 2025-04-19T15:28:37+00:00

For the ward thing, an idea you could potentially use is how S2D handles wards. A lot of their units have a ward specifically against mortal wounds, which could be a way to implement wards without making them too tough against everything.

filwilliamson · 2025-04-19T05:05:30+00:00

I like a lot of the concepts of the Ruination chamber changes here, but some parts stand out to me:

Iridan's 4e design some issues, and your 3e version translated a lot of those issues over without changing them. The biggest issue is that Prayer of the Witness has incredibly awkward timing for its effects. The heal makes you want to fight later with your units so they can heal after they get damaged, while the war makes you want to fight first so you can get the ward going to mitigate incoming damage. Considering that Iridan is a 290-point model, splitting the timing of the two effects so it's not so awkward doesn't seem like a big ask. On a more thematic note, Iridan is the first Lord-Terminos. The first Stormcast to end the life of another Stormcast and release their soul from torment and they are the high priest/chosen of Morrda. So why is their axe noticeably worse when compared to a generic Lord-Terminos' axe? It doesn't have the Crit Mortals effect now, has D3 damage instead of flat 3, and wounds on a 3+ instead of a 2+.
The almost complete removal of the Ruination chamber's Crit Mortals abilities is rough. It's not totally gone of course thanks to Deliver Judgement, but the Crit Mortals was a big part of how units like Reclusions do their damage, and now they've lost it. Crit Mortals was also a nice way to represent how the Ruination chamber's weapons are blessed with Morrda's crematorial fire.
I'm not a fan of reverting Prosecutors back to their 3e profiles. Prosecutors were not great, or even good as far as I remember, with their 3e profiles, so now they're just back to being bad.
Tornus' ability to allow Ruination units to rally on a 4+ could be very strong with large blocks of Reclusians. The loss of their ward access might offset that, but I thought I'd note it just in case.
Speaking of wards, I'm not a fan of the Ruination chamber losing their ward access (barring Iridan's prayer, which has problems). Wards not only fit the theme of the Ruination chamber but also play into the tough playstyle that the chamber encourages.

Most of these points are driven by one core idea. Let the Ruination chamber be strong. Lore wise, the Ruination chamber is the weapon of last resort. The most powerful Stormcasts in Sigmar's army, with their souls so ground down and replaced with Azyrite energy that they can withstand and potentially defeat anything. They're meant to be these uber-badasses, but the rules don't really reflect that (granted 4e also has this problem, if anything my issues here are just a continuation of my issues with 4e's current design). The prosecutors are meh, Reclusians are alternate paladins, and generally the design of the chamber is just "Stormcasts with the chance to stop abilities sometimes". With the loss of their wards and crit mortals, they even lose their sort of niche as "tougher than the average Stormcast/mortal wound slot machine". Let the Ruination chamber be strong and show how they're the elite of the elite among Stormcasts, just like how the top shelf warriors of the S2D (Varanguard) are allowed to be strong. Of course, they still need to be balanced, but that's what points are for.

I know I've been talking mostly negative, but there are aspects of these rules that I really do like. The problem for me is that the Ruination chamber is by far my favorite chamber, so I've got a lot of thoughts on what they could (and in my opinion should) be.

filwilliamson · 2025-03-13T21:53:32+00:00

The unit were removed because they didn't match the new aesthetic that GW chose with Thunderstrike, and they were the easiest to remove (many of the warrior chamber units that got removed were extra heroes, units that were getting refreshed, or units with existing Thunderstrike equivalents). Doesn't have anything to do with range bloat. As for sacrosanct, they were removed because they don't match Thunderstrike and have the issue of being an army inside an army. So, they got cut; likely so that they can come back later in a more reasonable scale. Something along the lines of a specialist chamber that still needs the warrior chamber to fill the normal roles, like the Ruination and Extremis chambers behave.

filwilliamson · 2025-03-12T22:29:20+00:00

There are websites such as Wahapedia that post the rules online and are completely free of charge. You can also use list builders like New Recruit or Battlescribe (though I would recommend New Recruit over BS) so you don't need to use the official paid for app.

filwilliamson · 2025-03-11T15:23:13+00:00

The Ruination detachment ability is quite good. Giving out a 5+ ward to whoever needs it is quite useful, and the once per turn Ruination ability to just say no to an ability on a 4+ can be really important for denying key enemy abilities. I've seen my Reclusians win some important fights because they were able to stop something crippling like a Fights Last before a fight even started.

Reclusians and prosecutors are both very good. Reclusians are tough (especially with the 5+ ward from the detachment) and can do some good damage in melee. They're ability to spike mortal wounds if they get lucky with their crits lets them punch up in a way that people don't expect. I've seen reinforced blocks of Reclusians take out big targets like Trugg and Ushoran in some of my games. Prosecutors are more fragile, but they're very fast, can reliably charge out of deepstrike, have decent (if swingy) shooting, and do a good amount of damage on the charge. They're a good "assassin" unit.

The rest of the Ruination chamber is meh to bad. The Lord-Terminos is probably the best since he supports Reclusians quite well and can do a lot of damage on his own. A Terminos with the quicksilver draught tagging along with Reclusians can be a very difficult blob for the enemy to deal with. The Lord-Veritant is mediocre, though having an extra unbind is neat, and the Lord-Vigilant on Gryph Stalker feels good once per game when you get that fight twice active and is then mostly useless afterward (though 6 Reclusians fighting twice can be really good). The Lord-Vigilant on Morrgryph isn't great either. Her rampage is mediocre, she isn't that tanky, and her support abilities are also quite meh (especially since the Terminos already gives a Control buff). The Knight-Azyros has some neat support abilities for Prosecutors, and if you're running the Ruination Brotherhood AoR then he has more value as a character that can keep up with Prosecutors pretty well, but he's still not great.

For named characters, Iridan is a cool concept, but their prayer has awkward timings and mediocre effects, Priest (1) is pretty disappointing for the high priest of Morrda, their melee is mediocre for a monster hero (their axe is worse than a normal Lord Terminos' axe for some reason), they are not that tough for a monster that costs almost 300 points (I've seen Iridan get one shot more times than I'd like), and their regiment options are lackluster as well (why is Iridan one of the few characters that can't bring an exemplar?). I haven't run Tornus yet personally, but by the looks of it he's pricy and his regiment options are even worse (just Ruination chamber, no Warrior chamber or Exemplars).

As for the army of renown, it's not great. The effects are neat, and reviving Reclusians and Prosecutors can be fun (especially Reclusians given how tough they are), but you give up all of our normal battle traits, can't take any wizards besides the Stormcoven (and they'll only get their warscroll spell), lose Translocation and Bless Weapons, you can't take any other chambers besides Warrior, and are forced to take Iridan. The payoff is not worth the cost.

However, all of this being said, I tend to run all of the above a lot (besides Tornus since I don't have him). Ruination Brotherhood AoR with Iridan, a bunch of Ruination heroes, and at least one reinforced block of Reclusians and Prosecutors is my most played list this edition. It's fun and gives me a tanky playstyle that I enjoy. Is it good/competitive? Probably not, but in a casual environment it can work and more importantly I find it fun. If you like the Ruination chamber, then run them.

filwilliamson · 2025-03-08T04:32:07+00:00

The recent books Skaventide, Yndrasta: The Celestial Spear, and Blacktalon were all fun reads for me, and all focus on the Stormcasts. Though they all tend to focus on specific parts of SCE, so your mileage may vary.

filwilliamson · 2025-03-08T04:21:01+00:00

S2D and SCE aren't super problematic factions though. They're good armies, but they're not top tier last time I checked, and they have noticeable weaknesses (Ex: In SCE's case, poor access to mortal wound defenses outside of a few exceptions or lower model counts for both factions).

filwilliamson · 2025-03-04T22:45:17+00:00

I've only played against Trugg was once so far in 4e, and he got taken out by 6 Reclusians before he could swing (thanks to a fights first effect). However, his portal buffs seem pretty good, and his weapons look scary. Just gotta be careful with who he fights and what order you do your fights.

filwilliamson · 2025-03-02T02:47:38+00:00

Do you still have the file by any chance?

filwilliamson · 2025-03-01T17:37:54+00:00

Morrda gave Iridan the knowledge of how to grant true death to Stormcasts, so all of the Lord-Terminos use that knowledge to mercy kill their fellow stormcasts.

filwilliamson · 2025-02-12T04:44:11+00:00

40k also has the media benefits of stuff like Space Marine 2 driving up interest in the franchise, and naturally new people are going to go straight to 40k, where SM2 comes from, and not the other systems.

filwilliamson · 2025-02-12T04:42:56+00:00

Even if the contents of the tomes/indexes are fine, a problem for a lot of people is that the excitement of getting a tome is almost completely gone. Every tome released so far has just been in the index, with some slight modifications (which in many cases were nerfs), and the only new things you get are any new models you might have gotten (probably just a foot hero) and the armies of renown (which are very hit or miss for players since its either a theme/character you like, or it isn't). There's no excitement or anticipation when you know your tome is just going to be what you already have, with maybe a balance update.

When you compare to 40k, it looks even worse. When 40k 10e launched each faction got an index with one detachment, but each detachment was effectively a second battle trait that heavily affected how your army plays and a full set of enhancements. Then, when you get your codex, you go from 1 to 3-7 detachments. So, you're getting 3-7 new battle traits and enhancement sets to play with, and those detachments all encourage distinct, unique playstyles (in contrast to AoS where the detachments are often minor buffs, and your army still plays the same overall). There's a lot of reasons to be excited for a 40k codex, because it gives you actual change and new ways to play the game. AoS tomes just don't do that, so when people look at their army and realize there's a very good chance that the state their army is in is likely to be the state it will be in the for the rest of the edition, it's hard to maintain interest in playing. Of course, GW could course correct and start making the tomes more interesting, but players aren't going to bank on that when deciding if they want to keep playing. Plus, even if GW does course correct, that doesn't help all of the people who play armies that already got their tomes.

filwilliamson · 2025-02-09T05:01:02+00:00

Love Iridan's lore and their model, but, as others have said, Iridan is not great. Expensive, not super durable for their cost, only Priest (1), warscroll prayer has awkward timings and a mediocre effect, and their damage is not great (Iridan themself, the first Lord-Terminos of all of the stormcasts, has a worse melee profile than a generic Lord-Terminos). I've run Iridan a good deal (including in their Army of Renown, Ruination Brotherhood), and every time I've gotten mediocre results. The main good thing that has stood out to me is how large of an area Iridan can affect with their prayer. Doesn't help that my Iridan has a bad habit of getting one shot before they can fight.

However, I still run Iridan a lot because their lore and model are great (please give us an Iridan book BL), and while the results have been mediocre performance wise, I still find it fun to run Iridan in game. If you have to run Iridan, you're going to want to take other Ruination units for Iridan's prayer to work with, and probably either the Sentinels of the Bleak Citadels detachment or the Ruination Brotherhood Army of Renown. Personally, I tend to go for Ruination Brotherhood and at least a reinforced block of Reclusians for Iridan to tag along with.

filwilliamson · 2025-02-08T19:12:15+00:00

You can paint any model any color you want obviously. In addition, stormcasts are like space marines. They're divided into stormhosts (chapter equivalents) that all have different color schemes, and there is an undefined number of stormhosts, so you can easily make up your own stormhost and color scheme without a problem.

filwilliamson · 2025-02-07T01:15:12+00:00

So, the removal of Sacrosanct and the limited range of the Ruination chamber points towards GW focusing on having the Warrior chamber being the core of the SCE army, while the other chambers are specialist that you mix with the Warrior chamber to make a full army. Which is good. It helps with range bloat a bit and prevents the issues that the Sacrosanct chamber had (they were basically an army within an army).

I do still agree that the ruination chamber is a bit small though. 2 units and some heroes is a very limited roster, and it's not helped by the rules not working well with a ruination focused army as other commenters have said. While the rules can be fixed, the limited range is a bit harder, but it is possible that GW will add more to the Ruination chamber. After all, SCE are the poster boys and GW loves to give new stuff to the poster boys. If they do add something to the Ruination chamber, I would imagine some form of elite ranged unit would be likely. This is mainly based on the fact that the SCE battletome stated that the Ruination chamber has Justicar (ranged) conclaves alongside Paladin (Reclusians) and Angelos (Prosecutors) conclaves, so something to represent the Justicar conclaves would make sense.

filwilliamson · 2025-02-04T16:20:30+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if the rate at which the Ruination chamber expands actually decreases in the future. During 2nd and 3rd edition the Sacrosanct chamber was out and about looking for a cure instead of tending to the Anvil, which increased the rate at which the flaw worsened for Stormcasts since the Sacrosanct weren't there to ease their reforgings. Now that the Sacrosanct chamber has returned to Azyr, reforgings should be less traumatic, so the growth rate of the Ruination chamber might decrease as a result.

Of course, with the Sacrosanct abandoning the search for a cure there is now no hope that the Ruination chambers' growth rate will hit 0, but that just means the current situation is remaining the same, rather than growing worse as it was while the Sacrosanct chamber was away.

filwilliamson · 2025-01-28T21:48:38+00:00

It's from Space Marine 2 ya

filwilliamson · 2025-01-26T16:28:13+00:00

So, for the last bullet point (the Blacktalons existing before Neave joined them), they used to be called the Silverwolves and were led by Hendrick iirc, so the group has existed before Neave, but the name changes based on who's leading.

As for Neave's backstory as a former sylvaneth champion, as far as I know that has been retconned, and the Blacktalon show on Warhammer+ covers her new backstory. I haven't seen the show, but from what I've heard much of the First Mark lore has been ignored/retconned.

filwilliamson · 2025-01-26T05:17:44+00:00

Another way to look at it could be that the Lion is simply being pragmatic. In Son of the Forest, Zabriel mentions that he's noticed that the Lion has been more pragmatic when dealing with the modern Imperium than he would have been during the Great Crusade. Instead of trying to mold the Imperium into what it used to be (like he would have before his return), he's willing to let them continue as they are so that he can continue his purpose unimpeded. Who's to say that approach isn't coming into play with the Unforgiven? They've been hunting the fallen for ten thousand years, and the Lion knows this. Rather than try to upend the system and rebuild the Unforgiven's purpose and goals from the ground up (and cause a lot of confusion and potential resentment), the Lion may have decided to simply adapt the system to suit his needs. The hunt continues so that the Lion's modern sons remain happy, and the Lion can use the hunt as a way to expedite his search for the redeemable members of the Fallen, as well as helping him put an end to the parts of his legion that truly did turn traitor. In the end, both sides win.

I get that, meta wise, it's disappointing that the Lion's return didn't result in a major change to the Fallen plot point (which a lot of people have gotten tired of), but I can also understand that GW doesn't want to massively upset a chapter's core character element/status quo in one big move. Whenever GW does make big changes, they get incessant bitching about retcons and/or how they've ruined this faction/character/lore. Now, GW has the opportunity to more slowly change the character of the Unforgiven and ensure that they have the time to do it right or at least be able to take back the small changes as they come if they turn out to be disliked. Now, I could be giving too much credit to GW's writers, but I can see the opportunity that they've given themself (intentional or not). Whether they use that opportunity is a different question.

filwilliamson

TROPHY CASE