WM/H's long 2015, Part 02 - The errata from the Khador PoV

   But first things first *ahem*...
NAILED IT!!!
   Thank you. I was referring the change that happened to Calandra's theme force, EE. But this is not an article to talk about salty Trollplayer tears (well, maybe it still will be). We're going to talk about what in the errata matters for Khador players. More after the break.
   I will ignore those changes that can be considered "largely cosmetic" (Pistol Wraith, Garguantan Power Attacks etc.)

The change to Wold War
   Interestingly, PP has shown both ways of addressing Theme Forces this Errata. Here, they straight-up changed a benefit. Since Sentry stone units no longer start the game with Fury on them, the obnoxious as hell forest wall that came before his army for one to two turns? Gone. Thing of the past. This doesn't take away from Bradigus' strengths, but less obnoxiousness is good.
   Will it affect Khadoran list building? Most certainly. Irusk2 will still be good, but he may no longer be our best bet. This has certainly increased the number of ARM-cracking Lists that can be played into Bradigus with a reasonable chance.

The change to EE
   Here, they went the other way: Swapping tier benefits around. Exactly those which I predicted. So you're now only getting the Points reduction with the Mountain King, and you're getting your choice of an Elemental Effect for one round in Tier 1. The list will still be the pits. You can play to Tier 3 and still field nine lights. At the very least, Trollbloods aren't 11 points up anymore this way.
   This is very relevant for Khador. A) The elemental thing will protect EE from a bunch of things during round one. Whilst probably not as potent against us (lacking long range Fire, Lightning, or Corrosion type guns), protection from stationary and other cold based attacks (frostbites, mostly) are a thing to be taken not too lightly. B) This errata doesn't mean that EE won't show up again. It probably will. Calandra is still are real P.i.t.A. (well, Starcrossed is, to be precise). It merely deals with the points being skewed against you so heavily.

   Sidenote: This is something that could happen to Mad Dogs of War as well.

The change to Man-o-War Bombardiers
   They gave MoW Bombardiers CRA. Is this great? I don't think so. Does it help them? Probably. I'd rather have taken the Deliverers Ability which grows the size of the template depending on the number of models CRAing. To explain my thoughts: CRA allows the unit to get into RAT ranges where they can hit something on their own, and most likely kill it (we're talking about anything between one CRA with RAT 8 and (virtual) Pow 17 and one with RAT 7 and (virtual) Pow 16 to one CRA with RAT 10 and (virtual) Pow 19). The CRA, providing a bonus to the damage roll, also adds to the blast damage rolls. This makes for a interesting shooting threat thanks to arching fire.
   There's a number of issues, though. They're still 7/11 points, and the CRA advocates a full unit. They are still a 3/5 man unit on medium bases. They stronger their shots gets, the less shots they have which is bad, if you're firing at really hard targets. It seems the just got better against heavy infantry and lights, which was about the only thing they could conceivably threaten before. They still are only AoE 3", which, when you hit directly, generally turns into AoE 0, so the CRA bonus on the roll is irrelevant, and is more likely to become thusly the higher the bonus is.
   My current verdict: Obviously, Bombardiers are now better than before. They still aren't actually good, just no longer disasterrific.

The change to Doomshaper3
    He got changed from (IIRC, I'm not a Trollbloods player) being a Warlock and attachment to being a unit, which is, in his case, a straight-up nerf. That's because he now has to give orders, which can interfere with the Scroll bearers ability to use the minifeats, and the timing when he has to use them (in a given turn).
   If anything, it means less potential stupid tricks from the enemis of the Motherland.

The Runeshaper change
   This basically reduces the kd-threat range of Runeshapers by a good amount, though it becomes automatically successful as a return.
   KD was never the main point runeshapers, I feel, it was more about throwing rocks, so... I don't think this'll be a big thing to us. (It will be to them, though. ;))

The Warder change
   Warders no longer have weapon masters. That came really unexpected, but it can easily be seen why - they pretty much invalidated Champions on their own instead of being a suitable alternative. At P&S 10 (which is low, I always thought they were 12's), they're good against softish infantry, and at not dying, instead of being potentially able to kill whatever they touch, after they didn't die.
    This is significant to us since now, if whatever you chose to throw into the warders did not kill them, you won't lose it in return. At least, not to THEM.

The Twins change
   Saeryn & Rhyas are now also unit as per the rules. This might actually mean that the assassination against me with Rhyas at ClogCon might not have worked (as well as it did). It may also mean (I have no proof for that) that you can't have both Psychic Vampire and Occulation on them at the same time anymore.

The change to the Splatter Boar
   When an enemy warbeast fails his threshold check due to being hit by psychoactive gas, it frenzies during it's controllers next control phase. This both disables using him as a threat extender (for Gargantuans, nonetheless), and really cleans up any questions it caused (if it frenzies outside the player's turn, does it get to activate, for example). It also turns him into a respectable control piece against Hordes.
   We could only employ him when taken with Rorsh & Brine, and in a ARM cracking list, his main role would've been to help against Hordes by turning their beasts either against them or pulling them out to be killed. He now only does one of those things. That's not to say he's bad, it's just... since he has to come with R&B, I don't think he's worth it anymore for us, seeing as he doesn't really do stuff against the majority of the game.

And this is the end to my day-after thoughts on the January errata. Hope you liked reading it, and if you have any thoughts, feel free to leave a comment.

And until next time,
farewell.