Tomb Kings
As with Beastmen at the beginning of this trek, Tomb Kings are considered really terrible for a tournament army. Which is sad, as they are very characterful and have some great figures. So, in order to make them slightly appealing they have the same option to start with either more points or a positive score. The only thing that really needs a hit that hasn't already got one is another of the Special Characters. Looking at this comp, I see no reason not to take Arkhan the Black. He is a fantastic caster, combines a Lvl5 of Death with being the General and Heirophant and having a higher Leadership than a regular High Priest to boot. No brainer choices deserve a negative in my opinion! Some of the other Special Characters though deserve bonuses, as do some of the other rarely seen choices. I'm not sure why the Heirotitan and not the catapult are hit with comp, as the latter are seen a lot more than the former. That may well be changed. The Light spam comp that has appeared here and in the Empire section is something I'm thinking about moving to the Generic Comp, as i don't see why only they are punished for it when High Elves (for example) can also do it and are not. But that's for the next draft...
-2 High Queen Khalida
-1 Arkhan the Black
-1 per Liche High Priest/Priest with Lore of Light after the first
-1 per unit of Necropolis Knights of 5 or more models
-1 per Casket of Souls
-1 for the 2nd Screaming Skull Catapult
+2 for a character mounted on a Chariot
+1 for a Tomb Herald Battle Standard Bearer
+1 for the first unit of 20+ Skeleton Warriors (not Archers)
+1 for the first unit of Skeleton Horsemen (not Archers)
+1 per unit of Tomb Swarms
+1 per unit of Ushabti
+1 per unit of Sepulchral Stalkers
+1 per Necrolith Colossus
+1 per unit of 20+ Tomb Guard
+1 Prince Apophas
+1 The Herald Nekaph
Vampire Counts
More undead! These ones though are pretty good. People say that this is one of the most balanced books GW has released this edition, and I tend to agree. There are a lot of decent options, and none that stand out as obviously overpowered. The main thing to comp is some of the character combinations. Whilst Vampire Lords should be good, having them be this good without some comp would be a bad idea! The only things I can think to add to the comp are the Blood Knights and some of the Special Characters. To be fair to the Tomb Kings (who got their SC Death Mage comped) I'm going to lump a negative onto Count Mannfred. Loremaster Death and Vampires is a bit too good to escape notice completely, even without a Ward save. The others though are going in the bonus section though, as long as you are being characterful!
-1 per Red Fury
-1 per Quickblood
-1 Ogre Blade
-1 per Banshee character
-1 per unit of Dire Wolves after the first 3 units
-1 per unit of Crypt Horrors
-1 per unit of 9+ Black Knights
-1 per unit of Hexwraiths
-1 per unit of 1 Spirit Host
-1 per Terrorgheist
-1 Count Mannfred
+2 per Zombie Dragon
+1 per Abyssal Terror
+1 per Coven Throne
+1 per Bat Swarm
+1 per Corpse Cart
+1 per unit of 15+ Grave Guard
+1 per Varghulf
+1 per Black Coach
+1 per unit of Blood Knights
+1 for Vlad and Isabella Von Carstein in the same army
+1 for Heinrich Kemmler and Krell in the same army
Warriors of Chaos
Monsters of Chaos next (seriously, when was the last time anyone saw any actual Warriors in a Warriors army?). The powerful things in this book are smash you over the head obvious, which is just what they want to do to you. The biggest hole here is Throgg. He's a pretty good choice anyway, and being able to take him with no penalty as well as a unit of Core Trolls for no penalty either is too much. That's going to change. The rest is tough, as Warriors are good almost no matter what you take. I'm going to leave the rest pretty much alone, with the exception of Special Characters as before. I'm half tempted though to make an exception to the "No Core Duplicates" rule for Chaos Warriors themselves - they're an iconic unit in Warhammer and if someone wants to bring lots of them then we should let them! I'll see how it goes for now allowing it, and if it proves comp breaking then I'll change it for the final release.
-1 per character with a 3+ ward save, with an additional -1 should that character have 3rd Eye of
Tzeentch or a 1+ armour save
-1 per Daemonic Mount in the army
-1 per Gorebeast/Chaos Chariot after the first 3
-1 per unit with the Mark of Nurgle
-1 per Chimera with Regeneration special rule
-1 per unit of Skullcrushers of Khorne
-1 Throgg the Troll King
-1 per unit of Chaos Trolls taken as a Core choice
-1 per Daemon Prince, with additional penalties for the following options taken;
-1 for Level 3 or Level 4 magic user
-1 for Daemonic Flight
-1 for a 2+ Armour Save or better
+1 for the first unit of 20+ Marauders
+1 per unit of 15+ Chaos Warriors
+1 per unit of Dragon Ogres
+1 per unit of 6+ Chaos Ogres
+1 per Manticore
+1 per Giant
+1 per Shaggoth
+2 per Slaughterbrute
+2 per Mutalith Vortex Beast
+1 Archaon
+1 Kholek Suneater
+1 Sigvald the Magnificent
+1 Valkia the Bloody
+1 if your entire army consists of units/characters with the same Mark (not including Undivided)
Note that the following can all be included in such an army without costing it this bonus;
Dragon Ogres Shaggoths
Wulfrik the Wanderer Warhounds
Slaughterbrutes Mutalith Vortex Beasts
Wood Elves
On a serious note, that was exactly the right thing for Rollcall to do. The book was release a week before the deadline for lists, so there wasn't time for an informed decision to be reached. Now however, the obvious filth has emerged, so there will be comp!
With that in mind, this is the first set I'm effectively writing rather than modifying, so I will explain my thoughts a little more than before. As with the other Elves, a Lvl3 or 4 on Death is going to be hit, but for the Wood Elves they have the extra tricksiness of the Moonstone and Acorn of the Ages to comp too. The real strength in the Wood Elf book is it's ability to shoot and avoid combat - this does not make for a fun game. Despite the many arguments, I am of the opinion that the special arrows can be duplicated amongst units, but lots of the same type can be over the top so comp will be applied to the most likely offenders here. Waywatchers and Waystalkers also will feel the comp stick. The final thing to comp is the Wood Elf equivalent of Warlocks. Not because they are broken, but because the can make a very effective character-protection avoidance bus. This is tough to get points from, and therefore should cost you TPs if you choose it.
As far as bonus units go, I think that all the Forest Spirits need some help. They used to be such a characterful part of the army but are just not seen anymore. Any unit of Elves that doesn't have a bow is also a pretty good option for a bonus! Add in some of the Special Characters, and I think we have a first draft for them.
-1 Spellweaver on the Lore of Death
-1 Moonstone of the Hidden Ways
-1 Acorn of the Ages
-1 for each mounted character after the 2nd
-1 for more than 20 models with an arrow from the following list:
Trueflight arrows, Hagbane tips, Arcane Bodkins
This is increased to -2 for more than 30 models, -3 for more than 40 models, -4 for more than 50 models etc...
-1 for more than 15 Waywatcher models, increased to -3 for more than 25 Waywatcher models
-1 for each Waystalker after the 2nd
-1 for each unit of 7+ Sisters of the Thorn
+1 for the first unit of 20+ Eternal Guard
+1 for the first unit of Dryads
+1 per unit of 15+ Wildwood Rangers
+1 per unit of 10+ Wardancers
+1 per unit of 6+ Treekin
+1 for each Treeman (including Durthu and Treeman Ancients) after the first
+1 per Branchwraith (up to +3)
+1 Orion
+1 Araloth
+1 Drycha
And that's it! If you feel I've been overly harsh, please let me know. I don't have time to play a lot of games with this comp to test it, I'm relying on you lot to do that for me. I'd be happy to hear the results of any games you played and any suggestions you have for improving this pack. I've already had some great feedback so far, and once I'm back from my holiday I'll collate it all together on here and we can see where we are.
You can reach me on Twitter (@sandals_ajw - DM is best if I follow you, if not just ask and I will!), through the comments section here or via my email address - mrajwilson @ gmail.com
Thanks for reading!
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