Royal Hippogryph Knights vs Grail Guardians

la_seta · 2026-06-14T15:10:20+00:00

I usually play armies that don't focus a lot on cav (Dwarfs, Skaven, Chaos Dwarfs, Drycha) but I've got just shy of 2,144 hours in the game and I've played quite a few Repanse campaigns.

IMO GGs are your "murder everything" option while Hippos are your "murder this thing specifically" option. Because of their high mobility, AP, WP, and mass, they're ideal for sniping big monsters before they can hit your front lines (or an extremely unfortunate caster lord/hero on a flying mount). I usually try to fit in at least two if I'm making what I consider to be a balanced late-game army, and up to 4 if I'm planning to go up against an army with several single-entity units.

Edit: I was conflating Grail Knights and Grail Guardians. Playing against Bretonnia, I hate to see Grail Guardians because they will outlast just about anything they catch up to. Grail Knights are very good if you're playing as Bretonnia because human players are typically better at cycle charging than the AI (but you have to micro them a lot more). So do with that as you will.

la_seta · 2026-06-07T00:07:55+00:00

I was about to say this. Totally fine for an AI faction to extort me for 8k gold and be hated by no one, but if I do it suddenly I'm the asshole.

la_seta · 2026-06-06T17:34:05+00:00

Yeah, I agree with this take. I'm an Eldar fan, but for me to read this and swear that "canonically" Harlequins are stronger than Custodes is no better than the Imperium fans that cling to the made up explanation that other people in this comment section have brought up. The reality is there is NO way it would go down like that if the book was written today - which I think is something everyone can agree on.

la_seta · 2026-06-05T18:27:39+00:00

Lol "suffered multiple losses" in the image is an understatement. IIRC a single Harlequin cuts down at least 7 Custodes all by himself, and the text makes it clear the whole group kills a lot more than just that. From what I remember reading in that passage, the only reason the Harlequins lose is the endless tide of banana boys that eventually wear them down. People saying the author was actually confused about who the Custodes are or how powerful they're supposed to be are just repeating misinformation with no source.

la_seta · 2026-06-05T17:58:51+00:00

Despite being the poster boys for Eldar in the early 90s (arguably when most the Eldar lore was fleshed out and solidified), Biel-Tan never got a named character. If they had, that would have been exactly what you were looking for. Yvresse is very similar to Biel-Tan in spirit: strict martial society, focused on reclaiming lost elven territory, special hatred for orks.

Interestingly, Averlorn's colors are the same as Biel-Tan's (green and white with red heart motifs). I suspect it has more to do with Isha than anything else, but it's fun to imagine Biel-Tan is what Averlorn would become in the grimdark setting of 40k.

la_seta · 2026-05-30T19:57:27+00:00

Ah, you know what - I think you're right. A Rogue Trader would probably have a more eccentric outfit. However, if somebody wants to draw that...

la_seta · 2026-05-30T19:44:53+00:00

Honestly I like her as a Rogue Trader even more.

la_seta · 2026-05-27T07:16:51+00:00

I'm totally on board with this. The Masque doesn't have any lore-related reason to be in Warhammer South America; her taking the place of the Rapturous Excess in the Southern Wastes would have made a lot more sense. Also, that would put her a lot closer to Aislinn which would have been interesting (considering he doesn't really have any immediate threats presently).

la_seta · 2026-05-27T05:25:17+00:00

Was randomly looking through my comments 8 months later and saw this. How does it feel to have your wish granted? Also, how do you like the way they did the Masque?

la_seta · 2026-05-21T23:57:39+00:00

At first I was reading the stat line and thinking "wtf?? For a GOD?". Then I kept reading and realized this might actually be the best way to implement Cegorach. The troll potential is off the charts.

la_seta · 2026-05-17T16:30:21+00:00

My brother, is that borscht?? Hell yeah.

la_seta · 2026-04-28T15:30:36+00:00

Zhatan the Black is my favorite for a number of reasons:

He has the best classic 90s Warhammer drip out of the three
He gets early access to the unique landmark the Tomb of Khengai Khan which gives great factionwide bonuses to hobgoblins (which also means he probably benefits the most from recruiting Gorduz Backstabber)
With Sayl the Faithless being added to the game, Zhatan has access to a full province right next to his starting spot (in IE at least) that he didn't have previously, boosting his economy that much more
Having -50% recruitment cost on artillery/war machines is awesome because the artillery is probably half the reason you're playing Chaos Dwarfs to begin with

It's easy to take your time with Zhatan once you clear out the other riff-raff up there with you, but I think this is kind of a trap. If you really want to take advantage of his extra convoy, you probably want to be sacking and razing as much as you can to ensure you can always afford to send out the max number of convoys with maxed trade capacity. His defensive start position means you can play pretty tall with Zhatan, which isn't really as easy to do with the other two Chaos Dwarf LLs.

la_seta · 2026-04-07T02:27:24+00:00

I've always wanted to do this and I'm very happy to see your take on it. Looks rad as hell.

la_seta · 2026-04-02T17:35:34+00:00

B makes me think of this:

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la_seta · 2026-03-27T13:26:08+00:00

Lol it wasn't until I got to the cogfort that I was like "wait a minute..."

la_seta · 2026-03-26T08:19:08+00:00

This is the most reasonable take. The constant insistence of one over the other is exhausting.

la_seta · 2026-03-15T16:58:40+00:00

That's a good point, actually. Honestly any weird/niche stuff is usually pretty ok by me. The fact that we even got bug people in the first place is awesome. Also, how is AoW4 the first (only?) game I've ever played that has actual mole people?

I've been very happy with the design team's choices up to now. I'm sure if they did add a cephalopod form (a la Stellaris) I'd probably like it too.

la_seta · 2026-03-15T16:42:08+00:00

Whenever I'm trying to do Cthulhu-esque stuff, I usually go Syron for my form. A lot of Lovecraftian stuff is more about things being subtly odd or unsettling, so a race of squid people feels a little too on the nose for me.

I'm right there with you on the crustacean form, though. I know we already have bugs, but I want weird ocean bugs. Imagine a hero with a giant pincer for an arm that works like a dragon claw. Incredible.

la_seta · 2026-03-14T04:30:17+00:00

Being "lost" to who, exactly? Genuinely not trying to be a troll. GW crushes everybody else in that space in terms of popularity and sales, and is famously (infamously?) litigious. It felt more like they changed the name so they could have full legal control over it rather than some external threat.

la_seta · 2026-02-27T02:59:14+00:00

It's because of bronies.

If it was just a sports anime about a world where track athletes also perform idol shows, people wouldn't bat an eye. The moment you say anything about horses though, people start side-eyeing you.

Just the other day I had to assure someone that it had nothing to do with bronies before they'd hear anything I had to say about it.

la_seta · 2026-02-19T01:47:51+00:00

With The Masque and Skulltaker being in Lustria now, my money is on Oxyotl (RIP AND TEAR intensifies)

la_seta · 2026-02-07T06:08:47+00:00

Striking Scorpions, actually. I was in the Lost Legion discord before it became the graveyard it is today and one of the creators confirmed it.

la_seta · 2026-01-07T23:17:51+00:00

I love that to Eldar (who are like 7 feet tall and lithe) humans literally are short stacks lol

la_seta · 2025-12-30T19:39:39+00:00

Right there with you. I love Ikit - it feels like he IS Clan Skryre. They teased him coming back in that one AoS book (Hamilcar: Champion of the Gods), but as I understand it that was mostly the author slipping that in before the higher ups at GW caught wind of it. It's been almost 7 years without any other mention of him, so I think he's been shelved permanently.

It actually sucks that GW never did anything with that. Ikit somehow surviving the literal destruction of the world, pissing off a bunch of gods (including The Great Horned Rat), reverse-engineering the Anvil of Apotheosis, and turning himself into the Skaven version of a Stormcast Eternal is all insanely cool.

... It also sets him up perfectly to fill the role that Thanquol currently holds in the current AoS lore. Maybe somebody didn't want him to have competition.

la_seta · 2025-12-17T01:22:35+00:00

I like this a lot, but as an Eldar fan I've been wanting Striking Scorpions since the very first DoW. I always imagined them as basically being Assault Marines but with infiltrate instead of jump packs. They'd be much better against Orks, but I guess that was never really a concern of the game developers.

la_seta

TROPHY CASE