This time I'll talk about two things: Legend (the role-playing game), and the new Vampire Counts armybook!
I'll start with a review of the new armybook.
I'm using a scale of 1 - 10, where 5 would be average, 10 would be strictly better than every other book, and 1 being unacceptable. 7.5 is... above expectations/very well done/me gusta.
For simplicity, let's go from front to end.
It starts out... Bad. The front artwork, I hate it (more or less). The Vampire's hair, his weird arm-pose, the bone-spikes on his armour and the stupid amount of blood running down his hand, looking like a glove... Sigh. 3/10 here.
But then I opened it.
The page layout is pretty good-looking actually, and the first pages are the fluff pages. I have to admit I haven't had the time to read them through, but it seems to be just like the last edition, which was good (although they still focus a bit too much on the von Carsteins...) 7.5/10.
Army special rules:
Undead - Okay, so no difference here, that's good, except for marching is only allowed within 12" of the General. I'm fine with that.
The General - Forcing me to take Lore of the Vampires on my General.. I don't prefer it, but it's okay since it's rather fluffy. But what's good at this part is that you're now able to have backup-generals. That is, your general is now not an auto-lose button. Sure, if he dies it'll hurt you, on the first crumbling. But, if you have another Lore of Vamps-wizard, he'll take over before the next crumbling. Sweet.
Battle Standard Bearer - No difference. I wanted him to be of little more use to the Vampire army that he was before, but I guess not...
Vampiric - Here be Vampires.
It's hard to grade the army special rules... So I'll just say I like them.
Unit entries: Okay, so for this section, I wont rate the rules, just the... entries.
And that's some entries, I tell you! The artwork here is amazing! All-colour and fantastic, it makes the cover even worse (for good and bad). Solid 9.5/10, and these pages actually made the price tag acceptable for me.
Lore of the Vampires:
For me, this is a slight step back... Being able to spam spells was unique for the Vampires, giving them more personality. They kept the power level roughly the same, but pushing the book into being more.. generic, if I may say so. As for the spells themselves...
Invocation of Nehek: Now targets an area around the caster, and that's fine. I'm good. Also raises D6 + Caster level on infantry, 1 + Caster level on everything else that's not Vampiric, Etheral or Large Target (whom only regain 1 wound). Also the Signature.
Vanhel's Danse... Nerfed. Argh! They removed the possibility of chargin with it, and you ONLY get re-rolls to hit in CC. But you're capable of extending it to target every unit within 12"... But that doesn't make up for charging in the magic phase being gone.
Hellish Vigour: Re-roll to wound in CC. That's nice in combo with Danse. Approved.
Gaze of Nagash: As worthless as usual.
Raise Dead: Raising 2d6+3 Zombies, cool. Also able to extend and make those zombies skeletons, cooler. Do not award Victory points, awesome!
Curse of Years: The same as before. Still kind of cool.
Wind of Death: This spell is... odd. A vortex causing D6 S3 hits per rank (no armour saves allowed) on any unit it touches? So... For maximum efficiency, you'd want it to just barely touch as many units as possible? Weird. Also extendable into S4, large template.
Lore attribute restores a wound to a character within 12" for every successfully cast spell.
Spell rating: 7.5/10
Vampiric Powers and Magical Items:
We still have roughly the same amount of powers, while our magic items section has been cut down... As for the powers, I like them. Very well priced, fluffy and useful.
The Magic Items... I know some people mourn the Drakenhoff banner, but not me. In fact, every item here is cool. I like The Cursed Book (casts one out of six spells randomly by sacrificing D3 power dice)... The only item I don't like is Skabscrath, because it's slightly overpriced... I think. 6.3/10 (lesser rating due to less items... But that goes for every 8th ed. book).
Miniature showcase: Same painting on every mini as always. The only thing that struck out to me was how badly painted the standard showcase-Hexwraiths actually are. The two other examples of them look way better. 5/10
The army list: I'll write a little about every entry, trying to keep it as short as possible. But I'll skip Special Characters... Because my eyes don't register those.
Lords:
Vampire Lord: Ah, the ever-present DIY Vampire. Love him, still do. One magic level lower (but still access all the way to lvl4), one more attack and a slight price increase but access to mundane items and two more spell lores... At first I was kind of disappointed with him, but after running some numbers and trying some builds, I'm proud to say that he's at least as good as ever.
Master Necromancer: A pretty cool guy for the Necromancer-lovers out there, also a easy access to a level 4 wizard.
Strigoi Ghoul King: Now this was unexpected for me. Slightly more expensive than your DIY Vamp, but with a 5+ reg, poison and Infinite Hatred, but no access to armor... He's cool, and good to see some non-Carstein love around in these parts.
Heroes:
Necromancer: Slight point increase, access to two lores and no longer picks spells... He's good.
Vampire: Same points, access to two more lores and mundane items. Solid.
Wight Kings (my forever beloved Wight King): Point increase, and.. that's it. But he's still the Wight King I know and love!
Cairn Wraith and Tomb Banshees: Cool guys. Cairn Wraith add a good punch to any unit, and Tomb Banshees seem solid to fly around solo, screaming at stuff.
Coven Throne: For some reason, my eyes always just graze past this entry. Probably because it seems so... Un-special to me. Chariot, can move through terrain, 4+ Ward save, cool leadership-tes stuffs... Cool, I guess. I believe I'll mainly use it as a Hero-vamp-mount, if I'm going to use it at all.
Core:
Zombies: Point decrease, stat increase. Cool. Finally, worthy tarpits and character-bunkers!
Skeletons: Point decrease... And that's it. They're still the Skeletons I know and love!
Ghouls: Point INCREASE (Yes, you heard me). But they're still cool, though I don't use them.
Dire Wolves: Now this is the shiny part of the Core for me. I love the Dire wolves sculpt. I love outmanouvering, redirecting and blocking charges with small, fast units. And now the count towards minimum core, have +1S on the Charge and a Vanguard move! I approve, approve a lot!
Special:
Corpse Cart: Whenever affected by a Lore of the Vampires spell, it grants ASF to every unit within 6"? Cool. But it is now a Chariot, and has ha point increase.
Grave Guard and Black Knights: Point decrease on both? I approve with joy.
Fell Bats, Bat Swarms and Spirit Hosts:
Fell Bats, if I don't recall incorrectly, have gotten a hefty point decrease, making them viable. Spirit host is still the same. Bat Swarms give ASL to any unit they combat, a special rule I've been very tempted to try and make good use of... But I don't know how.
Crypt Horrors: Like Ghouls, but BIG!
Vargheists: Like a Varghulf, but SMALL!
Hexwraiths: The unit I cannot bring my mind around. I want to use them, but not sure if they're worth it. They inflict auto-hits on any unit they pass through, and are fast cavalry... So they're the perfect flank/rear harrasser... But they're pretty worhtless against rank-and-file... And can't march by themselves... So, they're risky. I'm going to try them out when I can, because the concept of them is cool.
Rare:
Varghulf: The same as always, the perfect choice for a Strigoi army.. But I belive we'll be seeing a little less of these, since it no longer grants a marching bubble.
Blood Knights:
Same as before, but with a small point decrease. Personally I'm a little afraid to use them...
Cairn Wraiths: Same as before.
Black Coach: Same as before, and that means cool.
Terrorgheist: The cool, flying, giant, screaming bat? Cool, but overpriced if you ask me. Or, a little too unsurvivable. He needs more protection.
Mortis Engine: The to-go for any spellcaster! Increase all your spells, and mess with the miscasting table! Also grants AND improves regeneration saves! GET YOURS TODAY!
Units with rules get a solid 8/10 for being very well balanced and allowing for fluff in many directions.
Overall, the new Vampire Book is a good Armybook, with the glaring exception of the cover.
Now that's that taken care of, I'd like to include a little note on the roleplaying system of Legend. Not knowing it, I was the GM for this weekend's session, and I decided to use that opportunity to introduce, and try to learn, Legend.
Legend, for those of you who don't know, is a new, free, roleplaying system. I love it, personally. It's based upon the OGL of DnD, and is an improved version of it according to me. It enables for more individuality in characters, whilst still simplifying it (not that in this case, simplify does not mean dumbify, as it usually tend to do).
My players seemed to like this new system, and it's pretty much straight up usable together with DnD and PF. I even used monsters from the DnD wiki, as I was unprepared. Feats and skills are too easy to implement.
The main problem is that, as the game is in it's first iteration, it has some balancing issues here and where... But nothing a little houserule can't fix. Really, saying "Your spell is too powerful. I limit it." isn't as hard as I would have expected it to. I also decided to use the Weaponry from DnD, as I found the Legend Weaponry lacking.
Overall I found the session, although unprepared, to be quite good. The players quickly came up with cool character concepts. I believe it will take a little while before we've figured out and balanced Legend to suit our tastes, but I'm certain the journey will be a delightful one!
And that's what I have been doing and thinking lately.
Until next time!
~Pro maior risor~
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