Army of Renown Confirmed

Warcom article here has confirmed that Haemonculi are getting an army of renown in the next war zone nachmund book - Rift War.

Should be interesting, covens have a fairly limited choice of units already, considering that most AoR don't allow certain types of units, I'm curious as to what the limitations will be.

Not to mention of course interested in what new relics, strats, and traits we get

I wonder if it will breathe any life into what is currently the world's most boring HQ choice?

Soulless Samurai wrote:

I wonder if it will breathe any life into what is currently the world's most boring HQ choice?

Cato Sicarius?

The limitations will probably be in terms of not being able to bring kabal or wyche units in the army.

That leaves not much left. Wracks, Grots, pain engines and blades for hire...

Zenotaph wrote:

That leaves not much left. Wracks, Grots, pain engines and blades for hire...

Yep. But that is what I'd expect from a 'Coven Coterie'. Hopefully there are some good unit customization options to represent modifications/experimentations.

I would imagine it will be similar to the Cult of Strife army of renown. Just a detatchment that only allows Coven/Blades for Hire.

Would be nice if it helped deal with Aircraft, our current kryptonyte. Otherwise, I would be afraid it would put us back into S Tier so we go through another round of nerfs (because obviously CWE and Harlie players would just soup it in, messing with our win rates)

fisheyes wrote:

I would imagine it will be similar to the Cult of Strife army of renown. Just a detatchment that only allows Coven/Blades for Hire.

Cult of Strife was a codex supplement/expansion for the Cult of Strife.

Armies of Reknown tend to work a bit differently, as far as I can tell, in that their rules affect the entire army rather than just a detachment. So, I doubt that it will be able to be souped in.

I'm looking forward to it! I hope it'll be as interesting as the 7e supplement.

Also, the limitation could simply be: no blades for hire! no other detachment etc...
So only a pure Coven list
Limited, yes, but well..that would make senses even if not THAT good.
anyway, we'll have all the proper answers in a maximum of 2 weeks, until then, it'S all only speculations we can do.

Take the TS army of renown with Tzaangors centric theme, the no vehicle clause remove some options from an already no option codex, that could be the same with us (and i doubt the Tzaangors AoR will be that good after all......fun: yes, good? not that sure!)

... and they release this as they just pulled the grots off the shelves .... I'll bet this AoR will be centered around wracks and/or cronos

Archon_91 wrote:

... and they release this as they just pulled the grots off the shelves .... I'll bet this AoR will be centered around wracks and/or cronos

Hopefully it supports the entire range. I've got three grotesques coming in the mail, and I really want to use them. Besides, rotating out grotesques and urien is basically giving people carte-blanche for converting their own grotesques and using the latter as a counts-as haemonculus, so I'm cool with it. Actually, I wonder if the army of renown is going to give grotesques special upgrade rules like wyches have.

I'm wondering if these rules were written well before the nerfs to pain engines, so might have weird inconsistencies, like assuming pain engines are core, or assuming that the haemi aura affects them.

Archon_91 wrote:

... and they release this as they just pulled the grots off the shelves .... I'll bet this AoR will be centered around wracks and/or cronos

If GW shelves Grotesques never to be seen again then this would be a mercy killing.

The Strange Dark One wrote:

If GW shelves Grotesques never to be seen again then this would be a mercy killing.

Oh they will be seen again, just as a plastic release sometime late next year along with either individual or a box set of plastic court of the archon ... Urien will make his appearance in a box set along side a brand new coven engine (2) about 15 wracks and a set of the new grots as the "bad guys" ... probably faced up against guard or <flavor> space Marines... followed by an individual release with our next codex, beasts and beast master will be a set release along side their next "Nachmund" type story arc (then broken out into individual boxes)

Please note this has all been wild speculation and none of it is remotely based on anything

Plastic Mandrakes will slither in from the shadows during a Slannesh vs. The true kin type thing where they will somehow be set up as "psychers but not really" and can interact with the Psychic phase

Archon_91 wrote:

The Strange Dark One wrote:

If GW shelves Grotesques never to be seen again then this would be a mercy killing.

Oh they will be seen again, just as a plastic release sometime late next year along with either individual or a box set of plastic court of the archon ... Urien will make his appearance in a box set along side a brand new coven engine (2) about 15 wracks and a set of the new grots as the "bad guys" ... probably faced up against guard or <flavor> space Marines... followed by an individual release with our next codex, beasts and beast master will be a set release along side their next "Nachmund" type story arc (then broken out into individual boxes)

Please note this has all been wild speculation and none of it is remotely based on anything

Poor Mandrakes, their Plastic Awakening will have to wait it seems

The Strange Dark One wrote:

If GW shelves Grotesques never to be seen again then this would be a mercy killing.

Finecast Grotesques aren't that bad. I think they look really nice, even. I'm looking forward to getting the 3 I ordered in the mail and adding them to my army. Hopefully, they'll be as fun on the table as they are to look at.

Wrack_Enthusiast wrote:

The Strange Dark One wrote:

If GW shelves Grotesques never to be seen again then this would be a mercy killing.

Finecast Grotesques aren't that bad. I think they look really nice, even. I'm looking forward to getting the 3 I ordered in the mail and adding them to my army. Hopefully, they'll be as fun on the table as they are to look at.

The only issue that I have with the grotesques is that the monopose on them looks a little silly when you place a bunch of them together.

12:02:19

Sorry, couldnt resist.

Is that a conversion?

Either way, it looks outstanding. The design and the paintjob are both wonderful.

In fact, I actually much prefer this more feral/bestial look to the more traditional Grotesque design.

Actually, I dont know. Someone posted the pic about a year ago and I just saved it.

Those Grots are from a Russian studio, cant remember which one.

I am pretty pumped for the AoR. Will be up early Saturday to watch Skari review it on youtube

Goonhammer have put out their review for rift war here

Rules are as follows:

Can only take <coven> or blades for hire units in your army- this was kinda expected, but interesting to note that it means no urien.

Instead of an obsession, while units are under half-strength they get a 4+++... this is kinda meh, also everything gets fall back and charge.

Warlord traits:
1. Re-roll 1s to hit for CORE units within 6"
2. 5+ refund cp
3. CORE within 6" can re-roll number of shots

Relics:
1. An ichor injector that permanently reduces S, WS, BS for a non-vehicle unit
2. Start of morale phase pick an enemy unit within 12" - they get -4 morale
3. Stinger pistol w 5 shots that gives extra point of ap to units that fight the target that turn
4. Pick a non-vehicle unit at start of game and your CORE and characters get +1 to hit against it

Stratagems:
-Requisitions:
1. Character gets +3" to auras and abilities
2. CORE gets 3+ poison weapons
3. CORE gets +1 S to ranged weapons

-Strategic Ploys:
1. Pick a model that did wounds to a haemonculus in any phase, until end of next turn CORE get re-roll charges, hits, and wounds against it
2. Fight-phase, enemy units gets -1 to wound if one of your units destroys a model from it
3. remove obsec from an enemy unit
4. perma 4+++ on a unit if they destroy an enemy unit
5. Reduce attacks of an non-vehicle enemy unit if a poison weapon causes it to lose a wound

All of these cost 1 CP.

Overall I feel it's pretty weak, it almost feels like these were intended before pain engines lost CORE, and even then the replacement obsession is very... alright.

Why no Urien? I guess that PROPHETS OF THE FLESH is a <COVEN> keyword, isn't it?

Same way that rules specify <coven> or Urien for things like stratagems