Monday 23 March 2020

Warhammer Skaven 9th Ed 1.4 out now!

This update required me to redo pretty much the whole layout of the book, but adds a massive 74 additional pages of lore (for a total of 252 pages), art and short stories, making it now contain all White Dwarf sources on Skaven and much besides. I have also added headings, HD cover, and updated the page backgrounds, army list frame and the fluff blurbs so looks a bit nicer.

Ruleswise, this update changes the following:
  • Models belonging to each of the Clans (Pestilens, Eshin, Moulder, Skryre) treat each other as Suspicious Allies. In addition, Characters belonging to each of these Clans may only join units belonging to the same Clan.
  • Added Rat Hound Bodyguard upgrade.
  • Clarified that Warplock pistols are pistols.
  • Screaming Bells and Plague Furnace do not give armour saves.
  • Stormvermin start with hand weapons, can pick halberds and/or shields. Can take Weapon Teams. Cost 6 pts.
  • Skavenslaves Command Group upgrades cost 5 pts. May take polearms for 1 pt.
  • Skaven can voluntarily target ranged attacks at enemy units engaged in close combat with Skavenslaves (but no other friendly troops) even if they are further than 4" away. However, if they do so, they will hit their Skavenslaves on To Hit rolls of both 1's and 2's rather than just 1's.
  • Rat Swarms are S1, T1, W10, A10.
  • Clan Pestilens weapons have no effect on Animated Constructs.
  • Added Plague Banner upgrade for Plague Monks.
  • Plague Censer Bearers do not have Strength in Numbers.
  • Plague Furnace's billowing death follows the rules for breath weapons, does not risk hurting its own troops.
  • New Lord Choice: Eshin Sorcerer Lord.
  • New Rare Unit: Eshin Triad.
  • Assassins may have blowpipes.
  • Added Weeping Blades, Warpstone Stars, Smoke Bombs and Infernal Bomb upgrades for Assassins.
  • Gutter Runners have Dodge (6+) and Assassins have Dodge (4+).
  • Added snare-nets to Gutter Runners.
  • Things-catcher is a pole-arm.
  • Added Shock-prod and Electro-Whip upgrade for Master Moulders.
  • Giant Rats are S2, T2, cost 2 pts.
  • Rat Ogres have Stupidity. Added upgrade options.
  • Clarified that Stormfiends are W4. Stormfiends are not skirmishers, have strength in numbers. Have I5. Double the Death: As each Stormfiend has two of each of their weapons, they may re-roll all failed rolls To Wound with them. Have medium armour, cost 50 pts.
  • Warlock Engineers have a full page of upgrades, containing Warpmuskets, Warpistols, Warpforged Blades, Warlock-Augmented Weapons, Warlock Optics, Warp-Energy Condensers, Warp-Power Accumulator, Brass Orb, Death Globe and Doomrocket.
  • Poisoned Wind Globadiers do not have light armour, cost 8 pts. Models hit by a Poisoned Wind Globe must pass a Toughness test or suffer a Wound. On the To Hit roll of a 1, the Globadier hits himself (including when firing into close combat). However, Globadiers get a +2 bonus to any such Toughness tests they need to make. Poisoned Wind Globes have no effect on Animated Constructs.
  • Weapon Teams do not have the Strength in Numbers special rule. A Weapon Team must be deployed at the same time and within 3" of the unit it was bought with. After this the Weapon Team is free to move and counts as a normal unit for all purposes. In addition, they follow the "Look Out Sir!" rules for Shooting at Lone Characters.
  • Warpfire Throwers may move and fire, but is slow to fire. Fuel Leak happens on a 3-4, Pppphhtt! on a 5-6.
  • Poisoned Wind Mortar is Move or Fire and Slow to Fire. Range is 8-36". Models hit by a Poisoned Wind Mortar must pass a Toughness test or suffer a Wound. However, the Poisoned Wind Mortar get a +2 bonus to any such Toughness tests they need to make. Poisoned Wind Mortars have no effect on Animated Constructs. Has no effect on Animated Constructs. Cost 60 pts. Wildly off Target: The template scatters 3D6" from its original position. Resolve any hits as normal.
  • Warpgrinder does not have the Permanently attached special rule.
  • All Warp Lightning Attacks are Lightning Attacks.
  • Great Pox Rat has M7. A model mounted on a Great Pox Rat is treated as an Infantry model for the purpose of 'Look Out, Sir!'.
  • Thanquol can choose two versions of Bonerippers, either as a MI bodyguard, or Monster Mount.
  • If Queek is in your army, you may upgrade one of your Stormvermin units to the Red Guard. These Stormvermin has +1 Strength on their profile. Queek must join this unit if it is taken, and may not leave it during the battle. Queek has heavy armour, 225 pts.
  • At the start of each of his turns, Throt must pass a Toughness test or start to eat one model in base contact of your choosing. This model suffers 1 Wound which Ignores Armour Saves and does not allow Ward Saves.
  • Snikch have warpstars.
  • Ikit Claw has medium armour, 310 pts.
  • Skweel Gnawtooth's Rat Hound bodyguard has a separate attack profile, A2.
  • New Lore of Ruin Spell: Flensing Ruin
  • Warp Lightning is cast on 8+.
  • Increased casting values for Scorch and Cracks Call to 11+ and 13+.
  • Curse of the Horned Rat is a unique grey seer spell, is not part of the lore of Ruin. The unit suffers 3D6 Hits, though no single model can be Hit more than once. Each model Hit is automatically slain with only Ward saves being allowed.
  • The Lore of Stealth is a full lore with signature spell and lore attribute.
  • New Magic Item: Dwarf Slayer.
  • Warpstone Amulet: At the end of each of your turns, roll a D6. On the result of 1, the character succumbs to the mutating power of the warpstone and suffers a Wound with no saves allowed. Cost 30 pts.
  • Fixed a lot of minor bugs with spelling issues and inconsistencies between the bestiary and army list.

15 comments:

  1. I have a couple questions regarding the Clan Enmity rule:

    1) does it work together with the Fragile Alliances rule from the Rulebook, i.e. is subject to degrading ?

    2) can Assassins, Warlock Engineers and other Clan characters join Clanrats, Stormvermins and similar "neutral" units ? That is, how do we decide to which clan they belong ?

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    Replies
    1. 1) No, as you still only play as one army.

      2) Yes. Will clarify this.

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    2. Ok, thank you. A bit of a pity for n°1 though, it would have been fun to see the Skaven Clans descend into bickering and infighting as the battle draws out.
      If they're winning they fight for the spoils, if they're losing they fight to shift the blame. Very Skaven-like.

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    3. Feel free to play it like that if you prefer, I've just tried to keep it simple :)

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  2. 1) Verminlord Deceivers gain bonuses when casting Skitterleap, but don't have access to the Lore of Stealth to actually take it.

    2) Clan Pestilens models gain a +1 bonus on Toughness tests against plague censers, but a bonus on a test is a bad thing because you want to low roll, is this intentional?

    3) Shock-prod refers to itself as a Things-catcher on the Master Moulder page.

    4) There is no space between the Shock Gauntlets and Warpfire Projector entries on the Stormfiend page.

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  3. Nice to see that you are still chugging along on this thing. By the way, I asked a couple of times but never got an answer: Was there any information on the Hinterlands of Khuresh in the other books? Do you plan to put that info in a book in the future? Again, there are mentions of Snakemen, maybe for Arcanum. Maybe.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, I've no plans for Khuresh I'm afraid. The only mentions of them are a few paragraphs in the monstrous arcanum.

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    2. Is there a book on different regions? Separate from the army books? Maybe. Perhaps Games Workshop can expand on it. Maybe.

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  4. -I'm not sure if I remember right but didn't you make Strength in Numbers not affect tests to reform, restrain pursuit, change charge targets and similar which makes sense since logically, having a lot of numbers won't help with discipline problems, only with stopping units from routing.
    -Does the Rat Hound bodyguard attack its owner if he rolls any ones on his attacks or only if the rat hound rolls a 1 on its attack?
    -Have you given thought to Level 2/3 Apprentice Grey Seers who don't know Curse of the Horned Rat? Also, why is the Grey Seer Initiative 5?
    -The Curse of the Horned Rat should only replace units if the whole target unit is wiped out, not if the number is higher but some of the unit survived due to having a ward save. Also, it should say that the spell only affects Infantry units. Read as written, it can affect any unit with the additional ability to affect infantry units despite no such restriction existing. Also, the last sentence says no saves, despite it earlier allowing Ward saves.
    -Characters on a Shrine use the Toughness and Wounds value of the shrine and if the shrine is destroyed, they are killed along with it so the last sentence of Above the Masses on the Screaming Bell needs to be changed to reflect that. Also, when Triples are rolled, the Grey Seer shouldn't take a S5 hit. Lastly, if 18 is rolled, the Screaming Bell should still cause the effect of rolling triples. It makes sense that the ones closest (those pushing the bell) suffer more than any others nearby.
    -I think that which lore a Verminlord uses should depend on its type. Warpseers and Warbringers use Ruin, Deceivers use Stealth and Corrupters use Plague.
    -The Plaguelord and Plague Preist should follow the statline of other Battlemages (Albion, Amazons and Beastmen). As such, the Plague Preist should be Toughness 4 (same toughness as a Plague Monk, just like how Druids, Serpent Priestesses and Bray-shamans have the same toughness as a human or Gor) and the Initiative of the Plaguelord and Plague Preist should be reduced by 1.
    -The Plague Censer and Plague Furnace should not give a +1 modifier to the Toughness test for Clan Pestilens members. They are already tougher than normal Skaven and read as written, they are actually LESS likely to survive the Plague Censer.
    -The Plague Furnace has a grammar mistake in the first sentence of the paragraph describing the Wrecker attack. Remove the "use" word.
    -Can Snare-Nets reduce the attacks of a model to 0?
    -The Shock Prod gets called a Thing-Catcher in its description.
    -I don't think Double the Death is necessary with the Stormfiend as that rule can be represented in the weapon profiles, and generally it already is. Doomflayer Gauntlets provide +2D3 attacks and if you want two to be represented, increase the impact hits to +2D3. The Warp Grinder inflicts 2D3 hits each round. The Ratling Cannon represents the fact that Stormfiends have three by the fact that they each roll 3D6 for the number of shots. The Stormfiend using two Shock Gauntlets can be represented by having it wield two of them for 5 attacks. The Windlauncher forces successful Toughness tests against it to be reloaded. The only thing that needs the re-rolls To Wound are Warpfire Projectors though maybe it would be better for them to inflict two hits per model struck rather than one.
    -Warp-Blades should grant the bearer Lightning Attacks. Maybe have that replace the +1 Strength bonus.
    -The Death Globe is called a Brass Orb in its description. Also, it should demand Toughness tests like a regular Poisoned Wind Globe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. -Poisoned Wind Bombadiers should have their Gas Masks worded a bit better. I'd have it say: "Gas Masks: When a model with this special rule must take a Toughness tests due to a Poisoned Wind Globe, Windlauncher, Poisoned Wind Mortar, Plagueclaw Catapult, Plaguecenser, Plague Furnace or Warpfire Braziers, they gain a +2 bonus to their Toughness for the purpose of that test." Poisoned Wind Globadiers and Poisoned Wind Mortars have it. Maybe give it to Warlock Engineers/Masters as well.
      -There's a grammar error in the italized text for the Pavise. I'm not sure if I remember right but are Pavise's described in the main rulebook, in which case describing it here is unnecessary?
      -When the Doom Flayer suffers a power failure, it should lose its armor save since the movements of the blades are what provide that save. When the ZZZZzap! result happens, the hit should be a Lightning Attack rather than be Armor Piercing.
      -The Doomwheel says that the Warlock Engineer can make a leadership test to prevent the Warp Lightning Generator from firing but a Warlock Engineer isn't part of the crew. Maybe just say that "The crew may choose to make a Leadership test"
      -One sentence says that Boneripper has two Warpfire Throwers and another says he has four. Maybe make it that he only fires one template but each model touched by the template suffers four hits.
      -If Boneripper is equipped with Warpfire Braziers, they should just provide +3 attacks due to the four limbs.
      -Ikit Claws Storm-Daemon should have the Lightning Attacks special rule rather than ignoring armor saves. When it overloads, the hits should also have the Lightning Attacks special rule.
      -Thanquol and Boneripper should be 480 points with Boneripper being free and Boneripper MK II being 105 points since someone must take Boneripper and therefore, the unofficial price of them is 480 points, not 320.

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    2. Why not just wrrite your own book mate 😎

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  5. I just realized that you have worked on this project for 10 years. I have been following your work since 2015.
    As always, thank you for your efforts :)))
    These are tough time, I wish you will always healthy and get through this epidemic.

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  6. Here, here. Your workrate and the curation of cannon lore are exceptional and highly valued by the community. Great job.

    ReplyDelete

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