Warhammer: Vampire Counts 9th Ed 1.0 out now!

Finishing up at a whopping 270 pages, Vampire Counts managed to even beat the Empire in terms of length (which is also part of why this book has taken quite a while to finish). This book contains material from all army books 4th-8th ed, as well as Night's Dark Masters, Liber Necris, Circle of Blood, various White Dwarfs and Citadel Journals. As such, you now have much extended background on all the Vampire Bloodlines and their history, as well more information about Sylvania, the Red Duke, and Heinrich Kemmler.

Do note that the majority of the background used in this book is based on the older Vampire Counts sources rather than the newer books from Black Library, and as such there are some discrepancies between them.

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The main change for the 9th Ed Vampire Counts book compared to the official 8th Ed is the inclusion of living troops! Your Vampires and Necromancers will no longer crumble to dust as they have done in the past, and Vampires all have Regeneration as fits their background. They can no longer be healed by means of magic, instead relying of drinking blood to sustain themselves. All the changes can be found below:

• New Lord choice: Liche Lord
• New Mount: Barrow Chariot (for Wight King).
• New Core Unit: Sylvanian Peasant Infantry (WS2 infantry that are not undead). 
• New Rare Unit: Lahmian Handmaidens
• New Special Character: Neferata
• New Special Character: Zacharias the Everliving
• New Special Character: Melkhior
• New Special Character: Sethep
• New Special Character: Walach Harkon
• New Special Character: The Red Duke
• New Special Character: Gashnag
• New Special Character: Luthor Harkon
• New Special Character: Dieter Helsnicht
• New Special Character: Helman Ghorst
• Vampiric gives the model Fear, Immunity (Psychology) and Regeneration (6+ to 4+).
• Units like Necromancers, Vampires, Bats and Ghouls are no longer Undead.
• The Hunger renamed The Red Thirs, works on a 5+.
• Several Vampiric Powers can now be taken by multiple Blood Lines.
• Lore of the Vampires renamed Lore of Necromancy (as it is not really used solely be Vampires, and was created by Necromancers, not Vampires).
• Invocation of Nehek only affects Undead units.
• Curse of Undeath regains 1 Wound for one unit within 6", rather than healing the caster. This means you can no longer heal your character through magic (as they are not really Undead to begin with).
• Undead can march if within 6" of a wizard with the Lore of Necromancy.
• Necrarch Vampires can use the Lore of Metal and Lore of the Heavens.
• Strigoi Vampires can use the Lore of Beasts and Shadow.
• Replaced Tomb Blade (which is already carried by Heinrich Kemmler) with the Frostblade. 
• Vigour Mortis is now a bound spell that gives skeletons and zombies +1 Attack rather than Always Strikes first (which was pretty poor considering the low Init value of zombies who would likely get to strike anyway in great numbers).
• Bat Swarms automatically Disrupt enemy units that it flanks.
• Skeleton Archers are removed, Skeleton Warriors can instead take bows and crossbows.
• Zombies are WS2, have the Fight in Extra Ranks (1) special rule.
• Crypt Ghouls are 6 pts.
• Dire Wolves have Slavering Charge again, do not count towards minimum core units.
• Corpse Cart have a 6+ armour save.
• Blood Knights have full plate armour and WS6 (one less than a Blood Dragon Vampire, and one higher than a Pallid Handmaiden), Ld8, 42 pts.
• Cairn Wraiths and Tomb Banshees have been split into separate units.
• Cairn Wraith may be taken as Heroes, can be mounted on a Skeletal Steed, and take magic items.
• Von Carstein and Lahmian Vampires are not wizards by default (Hero's only).
• Necrarch, Strigoi and Lahmian Vampires have -1 Ld. 
• Strigoi have Armour Piercing instead of Poisoned attacks.
• Master Necromancers can be upgraded to Master of the Dead.
• Lahmian Vampires may take Poisoned Attacks. 
• Wight King have T5, may take heavy armour, 80 pts.
• Fell Bats and Bat Swarms moved to core, do not count towards minimum core units.
• Zombie Dragons may be taken as rare choices. 
• Isabella von Carstein is no longer a wizard.
• Konrad von Carstein has the Ring of the Night magic item.
• Krell have W3, have the Crown on the Damned magic item.
• All Vampires can carry the Battle Standard. 
• Cheaper musicians for Undead units (as they have no use of the rally part). 
• Fell Bats and Spirit Hosts are 3+ in unit size.
• Varghulfs and Vargheists have Red Thirst.
• Vargheists 50 pts. 
• Varghulf 185 pts.
• Crypt Horrors 37 pts.
• Necrofex Colossus 240 pts, have the Vortex of Death special rule, can take Dark Souls upgrade.
• Black Coach is 170 pts (on account of being T5 like normal heavy chariots).
• Mannfred von Carstein have A4, Ebony Staff and Cloak of Darkness. He is no longer available as a Hero choice.
• Removed background on the War in the Border Princes - this part is never resolved until the End Times, and as such feels unfinished. 

Many thanks to Rune for helping me go through and fix quite a few things in the book before release!

Warhammer: Dwarfs 9th ed 1.0 out now!

Updated to 1.11:

• Rangers have BS3 again (as their fluff does not really mention them being elite marksmen compared to other Dwarfs, only that they are more versatile). Cheaper crossbows.
• Fixed bug with Deathblow for Slayers in the Bestiary.
• Veterans for Quarrellers and Thunderers have A2, just like the Warrior Veteran, which is the same as the official books. Dwarfs are limited to BS4 on their lords, so it makes sense that normal Dwarfs do not become more proficient than BS3.

 
Updated to 1.1:

• Fixed multiple bugs with incorrect statlines.
• Deathrollers inflicts D6 hits every turn.
• Nerfed stats of brewmasters.
• Fixed points cost for magic items.
• Kazador is S4, his hammer causes Multiple Wounds (D3).
• Grimm Burloksson gives +1 To Hit, not re-roll To Hit.
• Increased cost of Rune of Might.
• Thunderers and Quarrellers cannot take medium armour (like 6th and 7th ed).

Rejoice Dawi, for the day of Reckoning is here! Ahem...

Clocking in at 230 pages, Warhammer: Dwarfs is the second longest book I've finished, so while you Dwarf players had to wait for those pesky Elves to get their books out first, you can feel happy in that your book is the longest of the lot. This book contain background from all four editions of Dwarf army books, Grudgelore, Book of Grudges from WFRP, Stone and Steel, Citadel Journal and various White Dwarf articles.

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This update changes the following:

• New Hero: Brewmaster (support character, based on Warhammer: Quest)
• New Special Unit: Firethrower (weapon team, based on 3rd ed)
• New Rare Unit: Rune Guardians (MI, based on WFRP)
• New Special Character: Alrik Ranulfsson
• New Special Character: Kazador Thunderhorn
• New Special Character: Byrrnoth Grundadrakk
• New Special Character: Kragg the Grim
• New Special Character: Grombrindal
• New Special Character: Burlok Damminsson
• New Special Character: Kadrin Redmane
• Resolute lets Dwarfs take any break test in the first round of combat on 3D6, disgarding the highest result.
• Relentless works the same as in 8th ed (always march). While I'd like to give Dwarf players more options to go on the offensive, letting them march faster than Humans probably is not the best way to do it. Due to not being allowed to re-roll marching attempts as easy as in 8th ed, this still means Dwarf players won't lose out too much as they cannot be march-blocked.
• Shieldwall is no longer an army-wide special rule, it has instead been given to the Ironbreakers to replace gromril shieldwall. It only applies in the first round of combat.
• Multiple new Runes added from previous editions. Some points adjustsments and tweaks to existing runes.
• Warriors, Miners, Rangers, Quarellers and Thunderers have light armour by default, can upgrade to medium armour. Longbeards and hammerers start with medium armour, can upgrade to heavy. Pts have been adjusted by 1 pt for this purpose.
• War machine crews do not have armour by default (as hardly any of the models do). Can upgrade to light armour. Are no longer stubborn.
• Runesmiths/Runelords counts as a lvl 2/lvl 4 wizard for the purposes of dispelling, meaning you can now channel twice the number of dispel dice and get +1/+2 to dispel on top of the +2 Dwarfs currently have. This means that a Dwarf Runelord is twice as good at dispelling as a normal wizard, giving them a needed boost against magic.
• Rangers have BS4.
• Dragon and Daemon Slayers can choose from a multidude of different Slayer skills.
• Ungrim Ironfirst allows one unit of Slayers to be upgraded to Brotherhood of Grimnir. 
• Irondrakes have 12" range. 
• Cinderblast bombs only scatters half the distance on the artillery dice, min range it 5" (thus avoiding situations where the bomb could scatter behind the thrower.
• Slayers may skirmish.
• Runesmiths and Runelords starts without armour, can wear up to heavy armour. Runelords have MR (5+), Runesmiths have MR (6+).
• Thunderbarge uses the bombing run rules for Gyrobombers, have only one cannon, W8, T6. High Flyer rule does not block LoS of other units from moving through it. 275 pts.
• Deathrollers have W3, 80 pts.
• Grudgebreaker rolls artillery dice to determine attacks and movement, follows the rules for chariots, 275 pts.
• Thorgrim Grudgebreaker 500 pts. 
• Thorek Ironbrow 350 pts.
• Belegar Ironhammer 290 pts.
• Thorek does not have MR (4+).
• Ungrim Ironfist has WS8, medium armour, T, 315 pts.
• Grimm Burloksson have heavy armour and S4, 95 pts.
• Josef Bugman have medium armour and S4, restores 1W per turn rather than D3, 170 pts.
• Removed background on the Shadow of Nagashizzar - this part is never resolved until the End Times, and as such feels unfinished

Overall, I've tried to keep the armour levels on the Dwarfs more WYSIWYG, rather than having all models have heavy armour (as normal warriors just wear a simple chainmail and the new hammerers almost wear complete plate armour) and gromril armour (which only fits a few of the character models). It always struck me as very odd that Josef Bugman with his chainmail shirt would be having just as good an armour save as an Ironbreaker covered in gromril plate.

Anyway, enjoy, and let me know of any bugs and other issues I've missed as usual!

Warhammer: Skaven 9th Ed 1.32 out now!

Updated 13th August:

• Rat Ogre Bonebreaker W3, A4, 75 pts (it was frankly ridiculously cheap for its stats, on par with a Griffon at barerly a third of the cost).
• Hell Pit Abomination will only need to roll on the berkserk chart on a double 1 or double 6 (I was way off on the math regarding the chance of going berserk on any doubles), W6, 250 pts.
• Brood Horror has Poisoned Attacks by default, S5, can take upgrades from Monstrous Arcanum, 150 pts.

Updated 1st August:

• Fixed bug with clanrat spears cost.
• Fixed special rules bug for Brood Horror as a mount.
• Vermin Lords have Doomglaive by default, no longer mandatory to upgrade.

I decided to hold off on the new layout, art and background for now, and publish the latest (and much needed) rules update earlier instead, which means I will be able to finish the remaining army books sooner. Once Daemons of Chaos are finished, Skaven will get a new graphical upgrade.

The Skaven book was rightly criticized for several issues, mainly oversights on my part, that needed addressing. As such, this update changes the following:

• Warp Lightning Cannons functions the same as 7th ed.
• Hell Pit Abomination will need to roll for Berserk on the roll of any double again (so a bit more risky). This means you are likely to roll a double around 1 time per game, (as you probably won't be moving every single turn to begin with) though only 50% of the time it will actually be a real drawback (as in, not moving, or moving backwards). Feed does not Ignore Armour saves. Flailing Fists no longer gives -1 to Hit, is Random Attacks (2D6) instead of 3D6. Avalanche of flesh gives the Abomination Random Attacks (D6) instead of an improved Stomp. Can take Warpstone Spikes upgrade. Removed Impact Hits, 225 pts.
• Brood Horror no longer has Stubborn, Poisoned Attacks or Regen (as none of these things are ever described in the fluff, nor do they really make much sense for what is essentially a Monster-sized Giant Rat), WS3, 175 pts. The previous version was really underpriced (based on Forge World's rules minus the impact hits).
• Weeping World Sores is a large template that scatters.
• Verminlords can be taken without a Grey Seer.
• Grey Seer 220 pts.
• Warlock Master 160 pts.
• Night Runners have a Unit Size of 10+, are not skirmishers by default. Have the Strength in Numbers special rule.
• Screaming Bell's Deafening Peals only affect units within 12". This makes it more balanced in bigger battles, and makes the risk of blowing up your own war machines less likely (given that you attempt to march the Bell into the enemy's side of the battlefield at least).
• Giant Rats 4 pts (meaning they no longer are much better slaves at only +1 pt).
• Eshin Sorcerers may be upgraded to level 2 wizards.
• Clarified Storm Banner a bit better so that cannons and the like that attempt to fire while within 24" of the banner must roll a 4+. Cannons outside the storm banner's range can still fire onto units that are within the storm as normal (which makes sense, as a cannon ball really isn't going to alter it's course that much due to the wind).
• Doomwheel gets Impact Hits (D6) like a normal chariot. Only rolls one artillery dice for the bolts. Each bolt causes Multiple Wounds (D3) instead of D6. This makes it somewhat safer to use, but less deadly.
• Wolf Rats 8 pts, can take various upgrades.
• Plague Furnace wrecker attack is no longer a Stomp, instead works like in 7th ed, but only to the unit's front.

This should address pretty much all criticism I found from the previous book. Warp Storm and Cloud of Corruption are still very similar (both based on official spells), but they are in different lores, and as such can be taken by different wizard. The Hell Pit Abomination has been nerfed yet again, but it's somewhat cheaper now.

Warhammer: High Elves 1.1, Dark Elves 1.1 and Wood Elves 1.12 out now!

Note: these updates are for the 9th ed books.

This update changes the following for High Elves:

• Added Elven Grace army special rule (6+ parry).
• Removed "Shadow of the Nagashizzar" from the background section, as this cuts off mid-battle and the story is not resolved until the End Times.
• Silver Helms 24 pts.
• Dragon Princes 29 pts.
• Warriors with additional hand weapons can skirmish.
• Warriors with shields can upgrade to medium armour.

This update changes the following for Dark Elves:

• Added Elven Grace army special rule (6+ parry).
• Witch Elves 9 pts.
• Cold One knights 33 pts. 
• Bloodwrack Medusa has a spear, does not suffer any To Hit penalties with Bloodwrack Stare.
• Sisters of Slaughter have 5+ ward in combat (4+ with elven grace).
• Scourgerunner Chariot 90 pts.
• Dark Elf Fleetmaster has WS8 and A5, making them better fighters than dreadlords at the cost of armour and flexibility, 170 pts. This also fits in with their background as being skilled swordsmen.
• Toxins no longer replace Assassins' Poisoned Attacks.
• Manbane 10 pts.
• Tullaris now gains +1 to his combat resolution score each time he scores a successful Killing blow.
• Spiteful Conjuration Lore Attribute causes S2 hits instead.
• Fixed bug so Medusa have Ld7.
• Rending Stars 25 pts.
• Dance of Doom forces enemies to re-roll successful To Hit rolls.

This update changes the following for Wood Elves:

• Sisters of the Thorn 26 pts, have 4+ ward by default again (Elven grace won't help them against shooting, so they have 4+ ward instead).

Wood Elves 9th Ed 1.11 out now!

This update changes the following:

• Marksman Prowess changed to Asrai Archery from 6th, meaning you ignore -1 to hit for moving and shooting. This keeps WE from becoming too much of a stand and shoot army rather than the guerilla force they are supposed to be.
• Clarified that Elven Grace applies to mounted models as well.
• Added Forest Dragon as a stand-alone rare choice.
• Sylvan Hunters moved to Rare.
• Sisters of the Thorn have a 5+ ward save (4+ with elven grace), fixed BS and A value, 24 pts.
• Arcane Bodkins 2 pts/model (due it being a bit too good at killing knights).
• Swiftshiver shards 3 pts/model (due to the combination of Asrai archery).
• Hagbane tips 4 pts/model (due to multiple shots).
• Added enchanted arrows to warhawk riders.
• Skaw ignores all To Hit penalties for his hawks.
• Warhawk riders can take enchanted arrows, are T3 in bestiary.
• Fixed stat-bug for Great Stag in bestiary.
• Fixed stat-bug for Unicorn in bestiary. Unicorns gain +1 Strength to their Impact Hits through Impale.
• Fixed bug where Araloth had M9.
• Conjoined Twins fixed - "If Naestra and Arahan have been reduced to less than 4 Wounds at the end any turn, they will be restored to 4 Wounds." For this reason, Gwindalor has W4, as MC uses the highest W available. 175 pts by default, 320 pts for the Dragon, 100 pts for the Eagle.
• Naieth's Othu allow re-roll of 1's to Hit.
• Changed ranks to unit strength for Twillight host.
• Fixed bug where Helm of the Hunt only give Frenzy the first turn. Also gives Forest Spirit special rule, allowing you to field a Wild Rider character, 50 pts.
• Hail of Doom Arrow is no longer armour piercing, 35 pts.
• Forest Dragon 320 pts,
• Added Spites to army list for affected characters.
• Added Warhawk to character mounts.
• Glade Guards can not take magic banners.
• All 5" forests have been changed to 12", so the Citadel Wood can be used.
• Sylvan Hunters have Unit size 3+.

Warhammer: Wood Elves 9th Ed 1.0(1) out now!

Updated July 11: Fixed bugs mentioned in the comments.

Coming at 186 pages, this book is your ultimate go-to source for everything Wood Elves (barring the excellent Defenders of the Forest from WFRP, which you should check out for even more background on them). This book contains all the background from all tree editions of the Wood Elves army books as well as additional background from White Dwarfs and some WFRP articles. I have also removed the background on Mallobaude's invasion of Bretonnia, as this is something that is not resolved until the End Times (which, as we all know, was just a fever dream caused by inhaling too much plastic glue).

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As far as rules are concerned, this update changes the following:

• New Army Special rule: Elven Grace - giving a 6+ Parry save against enemies with lower Initiative. This rule will be given to both High Elves and Dark Elves as well to balance out their current high cost. I'd like to get feedback on this special rule overall to get an idea if this is good or not, or if Elven Grace should be represented by something else like +1WS, +1 To Hit or -1 To be Hit or anything else. If you are interested, you can find the forum discussion about it here).
• New Special Unit: Tree-Revenants
• New Special Unit: Spite-Revenants.
• New Special Unit: Sylvan Hunters.
• New Special Character: Ariel (frankly ridiculous that she was not included in the 8th ed book already seeing how much she is mentioned in the background)
• New Special Character: Naeith the Prophetess
• New Special Character: Thalandor
• New Special Character: Lothlann the Brave
• New Special Character: Scarloc
• New Special Character: Scaw the Falconer
• New Special Character: Gruath the Beastmaster
• Blessings of the Ancients replaces Blessing of Isha, gives +1 to cast in forests.
• Forest Sprits cause Fear by default.
• Removed spite swarms; instead spites makes a return as character upgrades from 6th ed (and no, the Annoyance of Netlings do not effectively give you a 2+ ward save in challenges now). 
• Removed beastmasters; their background has instead been transferred to Alters, whom it fits better with.
• Return of Swiftshiver shards, allows models to fire multiple shots when moving/ignore penalties for multiple shots when standing still. 
• Return of Starfire shafts, forces enemies to re-roll sucessful panic tests caused by them.
• Trueflight Arrows have the Ignores Cover special rule.
• Tree Kin has gotten their old 6th ed background back, the 8th ed fluff (with the whole "dead elf" thing being moved to the Tree-Revenants).
• Dryads have T3, can instead shift into different tree aspects which gives them +T, +A or -1 to be Hit.
• Alters are Infantry and skirmishers, can shift into different animal aspects.
• Waywatchers have regained their trap rule form 5th ed, can place traps in forests. 
• Waywatchers regained their forest stalker special rule from 6th ed, making them -1 to be hit, and can deploy within 12" as long as they are within a wood.
• Waywatcher have Killing Blow on their missile attacks like in 6th ed, rather than multiple shots and no armour saves.
• Waywatchers can take Enchanted arrows.
• Waywatchers do not have two hand weapons by default, 18 pts.
• Orion is MI, not Mo.
• Warhawk may be taken as a character mount. 
• Glade Lords and Captain start without light armour and bows for WYSIWYG purposes, 5 pts cheaper. 
• Orion 485 pts. 
• Durtu have WS and BS6, A5 to be closer to a Treeman Ancient in stats. Have the Sword of Dath magic item, 335 pts.
• Araloth has light armour, 230 pts.
• Drycha has W2, cost 180 pts.
• Spellsinger 85 pts.

As you can see, I've added most of the Age of Sigmar models, but with rules and rewritten background to fit the Old World, as well as a slew of updated special characters from 5th ed.

I will be giving both High Elves and Dark Elves some updates shortly with the new Elven Grace special rule, followed by updating their Ravening Hordes lists as well. After that, I will be on a break for a few weeks to have time to finish the video games from the last Steam sale (though I will still be tinkering with the books at work when possible). I've done most of the work on the Skaven already as far as rules go, though there's quite a lot of graphic and layout changes that are needed to fit new artwork and background from various White Dwarf issues.

Anyway, enjoy, and let me know of the horrible game-breaking bugs I've missed!

8th Ed Ravening Hordes 1.1 updates for Empire, High Elves and Dark Elves out now!

Note on Blogger comments: Due to either the new annoying GDPR-law or a bug from Google I have not received any comment notifications for the last month. If you have posted a comment since May 25 and have not gotten a reply I will get back to you ASAP. In the meantime, you can contact me though email as normal if needed.


Been a long time coming, but as promised, I've finished these updates before publishing the Wood Elves book. These updates contains the latest rules changes that was done to 9th Ed, as well as the new units. It's been a while since I worked on the 8th edition stuff now, so let me know if there are any bugs in the Ravening Hordes list that I've missed from 9th Ed.

I've decided to hold off on including the Special characters; these will instead get a separate download. This is due to Special Characters not being all that common in most players' games, and all their magic items and special rules taking up a lot of space in the Ravening Hordes list. I don't have a date for when the Special Characters for 8th ed will be out yet, but in the meantime, feel free to either use their 9th ed rules (where applicable) or the official 8th ed rules for them.

As for the Wood Elves book, it's (still) nearly finished and should be out later this week. I have the day off from work tomorrow so should be able to put in a few hours working on it, and will likely be able to finish it this weekend if I'm not too busy at work.

Quick note about the Wood Elves (July 3rd); I did unfortunately not have as much time as I had planned to work on the book this week, so it's still a few more things left to finish. I hope to have that sorted out soon (as in, this week most likely, I'd hate to postpone it further).