7:20 good point in how competitive meta trends to filter down to casual play. I always find it a bit annoying when people say "if you're not playing in tournaments this doesn't matter" because, unless you have a really great group of regular players who are willing to do the work to balance their games together, you will be forced to be follow the meta to at least some degree or risk having no chance of ever winning.
Thank you. It’s one of my big things in wargaming, I think the narrative/competitive/casual tags get over used. They mean very different things to different people. You can have competitive players that are super narratively focussed as well, not all competitive players are tournament players (though they’re often given one single label), and you can play casually but also want a balanced game where there is a chance for both players to win. People also just like to win games, family Monopoly at Christmas teaches us all that 😂, so a way of balancing some things to encourage certain units/provide a more types of players options that work, is never a bad thing, and not just for tournaments.
@@MiniatureRealms oh definitely. In my case I tend to pick out a theme, or some units I particularly want to include, then build the best army I can around that/them. I want my army to have a believable narrative behind it, but I also want to be able to play my best and have a chance to win. To me, the role of game balance isn't too get everything to a perfect coin-toss, or even get that close. Ideally it's too slow people to enjoy their armies, and the things in their armies they like best (let people enjoy their toys essentially).
In general you balance the game with the scenarios you play and by knowing the opponent you play against. It is very different playing a game against an army you know you will face and probably you even know the models your opponent have. This make the game balance itself. You can't even begin to compare those with the scenario you play in a points match against a random person and a random army. Competitive probably means different things to different people... we play quite competitive when we play but by knowing the scenario and army you will face make for a very different type of balance. We also never play the type of scenarios you find in tournaments, those are not really fun.
The 'Nuln Statetroops' puzzle me a bit. I wonder if those were ment to be 'Nuln Ironsides' at one point but they couldn't get the old sculpts remade for one reason or another. One reason why I speculate they were ment to be one and the same is that Nuln Missile Troops must be equipped with handguns, but can fire from two ranks - which very much matches the appearance of the Nuln Ironsides with their kneeling front rank of handgunners IMO. Also the recent drama regarding the Nuln Ironsides in Total War Warhammer's last DLC where Creative Assembly had to make last minute changes to that newly added unit on behest of Games Workshop to match the appearance of the TT models more closely. Would have made more sense if GW originally had had plans to release those minis in proximity with the DLC, just like they did with the Slayers fromt he Dwarf AJ.
Maybe, I feel they would have still gone with Nuln State Missile troops as the 1+ then, and not regular, and the once per game on the two ranks is a bit ‘light’ of Ironsides were the original intention maybe?
I think it's a weak attempt at "pike and shot". Since there's no good abilities, point deductions, it'll be a 100 point sink (10 halberds + 5 handgunners) just to make the list somewhat viable.
its to stop handgunner spam i suspect, one of my regular opponents in the original nuln list regularly fielded 10 units of 10 handgunners with a hochland champion covered by some hellblasters and the pegasus wizard chap. Suuuuper boring to play against. So they make you take at least as many halberds as handguns, forgetting that state troops in general already sort of suck in OW :(
@@noserenda Heh - that was the latest version of my Nuln army - wall-to-wall handgunner spam, maximum artillery, and airborne lvl.4 wizard cabal. But my opponents found it depressing to play. But a Nuln army based around State Troop halberdiers is not going to be fun either.
You need to use scenarios where infantry and medium sized troops matter and it is just fine. Just sprinkle some VP locations you can only hold with units with a banner of at least 10 unit strength and then use break point instead of unit points, suddenly infantry will matter. Done!!
Great review Stuart! 🤩 Fantastic book! My one tiny, nitpicky gripe is some of the naming of certain characters and magic items. And this is coming from someone who has played since the early 90s and read most of the literature. I know that Warhammer has funny names and built-in humor. Always have and I love that. But it used to be more cleverly done. They kept the goofy names in German, the established in-universe language of The Empire. Now the puns sometimes feel a little forced or outright nonsensical. Examples: "Von Trickschotte" is supposed to be a reference to trick shooting I suppose. But "Schotte" in German means Scotsman. It makes zero sense. Or what about "Squintsoffen"? That's just straight-up English. I mean, sure, "haha". I get it. But it's not very clever IMO. It's not in line with the writing of previous iterations. Boris Todbringer wasn't "Boris Deathbringer". Sigmar Heldenhammer wasn't "Sigmar Herohammer". Louen Leoncoeur wasn't "Louen Lionheart". And so on... The names were kept in the established in-universe languages (German for Empire, French for Bretonnia, etc). Now, did I as a 12 year old get all the jokes or references immediately? No. They weren't handed to me on a silver platter. I'd have to look stuff up. I'd have to apply myself. I'd have to learn new stuff. But guess what, it just made the world that much more immersive and interesting to me. And it broadened my awareness of other languages. Is this a massive issue of new Warhammer writing? No of course not! It's a nitpick of mine, I admit that. But I hope they'll try to smarten up the puns just a bit going forward. Don't dumb it down for us, GW. Let us work for it a bit. That won't kill us. Anyway, just my 2 cents 😃
That’s fair enough, I hadn’t considered it that deeply. I’m not sure the names compare, and they’re not trying to be a funny, but I’m sure there were plenty of examples that are pretty silly from earlier books as well, not sure they have all worked linguistically. Interesting point though.
Hmm... I hadn't spotted that but it's a good point. I played throughout The Enemy Within campaign years ago with, amongst others, a native German speaker, and it was great fun having them react to character names with a mixture of horror and humour 😂
@@perfidy1103 Exactly! I'm a Dane, I don't speak German fluently or anything. But one thing that got me interested in learning some was actually Warhammer 😆 I think my broader point is: Don't lower the barre in entertainment. Let the audience figure stuff out by themselves. It's more fun that way. At least to me.
@@MiniatureRealms PS: The writers of the old Warhammer books all had degrees in Humanities or the Arts. They were scholars to some extent. Linguists, literature majors, Priestly is an archeology major I believe. I think that came across in the writing. As silly as it was, the jokes were just a bit more refined IMO 😄 But it's just an observation.
Great review Stu. Can’t wait to see your Nuln army at Throne of Skulls; that mixed arms, mixed cultures force is definitely how I imagine Nuln too. All in all I’d say it’s an exciting book for Empire, which gives them a lot of tools they’ll be able to use to great effect should the game as a whole shift away from the current monster focus.
Awesome video Stu!! I can’t wait to see how your Nuln army develops because it’s looking awesome already! I loved to hear your thoughts on the competitive scene. I think about it much in the same way. For me 40k seems to be the real competitive game and Old World is the game I can turn to to play a game with the flavor and fun that is missed in 40k. I like following the competitive scene just so I can improve my own play style in making a unit viable on the table but I can never see myself going full competitive. Either way Empire is looking awesome and hearing your thoughts was great!
In its narrative battle the Orcs & Goblins AJ gave us a teaser for the upcoming reveal of the Dwarfen Pony Carts. I'd love to believe that this book here is doing the same with the Beastmen herdstone. I know the chances are low, but I'd love to see GW bring back the discontinued herd stone model with the Beastmen's AJ.
I bought one shortly before they became absurdly expensive on eBay simply because they make for great scenery in TOW. There's not really anything on them that's obviously AoS coded. So I hope you're right
Quite interesting that one of the scenarios in the book is calling for a 2500 beastmen army which isn’t actually available to purchase yet and could be a little bit of a wait (hopefully not too long). They are in a unique position because they aren’t in AOS either which means purely 3rd party, 2nd hand or existing armies owned by players
@ probably the fairest way to have written these as well. It would feel a bit off if they only listed factions that were available but I particularly noticed as the points value was on the higher side and beastmen were in their own unique situation
I’m very interested in the subsumed factions - love the Nordland blue and yellow. They mentioned that would still work with Old World lore on Warhammer Community. Does the Arcane Journal give any clues on how? Any background would help me scope an army! I think clever competitive folk are seeing some interesting opportunities in the knightly orders. They give you more access to tough, punchy knights. I love the Nuln army. Really evocative as you say - I’d have fun running trolls at that. :)
Not loads of info with the smaller areas (in this time period), but I guess that’s also deliberate in some ways, those that know about them have room to make up their own lore that fits with their projects etc. More stuff might come later on as well.
Great review Stu. I was looking forward to your take. I could see giving Nuln a go but perhaps using other state troops etc as proxies since I’m not sure what colour scheme I want to paint my army in. I really want to use my existing Teutogen Guard minis plus add to them whether that means trying out a Knightly Order army I’ll have to see. I think I have a unit of metal White Wolves somewhere, I will have to go digging.
@ I also think that army would look really cool too which is important. Out of all the Knightly order ones I think the White Wolves probably have the best chance of working…will have to read the book in more detail etc but it seemed that way
Don't sleep on the Knights of the Fiery heart. Reroll 1s and +1 Initiative is pretty great. White Wolf seem more effective for MSU's, but it also depends on the width you're running, as you won't be able to take full advantage of Furious Charge.
Thank you. Just the way it goes sometimes I suppose. I’ve enjoyed watching all that content, and while I’d personally I probably wouldn’t have been the source of a leak of someone had sent it to me (obviously prior to NDA), I’d have normally made content on a second hand leak, so it’s been odd keeping quiet 😂.
@@MiniatureRealms Definitely! Not the end of the world or anything, I'm watching your review despite having seen all the rules already, and I'll watch/listen to a few other people I enjoy for TOW content. By the way, I don't know that I've commented before, but your channel is great!
I see what they are trying to do with Nuln in trying to make players use 'pike and shot' renaissance infantry blocks. Except that State Troop halberdiers are already the worst infantry in a game where infantry are already at a big disadvantage. Competitive Nuln players will just field a single unit of 10 halberdiers. But even then, not having a lvl.4 wizard to dispel means a Nuln army is unlikely to be viable.
7:20 good point in how competitive meta trends to filter down to casual play. I always find it a bit annoying when people say "if you're not playing in tournaments this doesn't matter" because, unless you have a really great group of regular players who are willing to do the work to balance their games together, you will be forced to be follow the meta to at least some degree or risk having no chance of ever winning.
Thank you. It’s one of my big things in wargaming, I think the narrative/competitive/casual tags get over used. They mean very different things to different people.
You can have competitive players that are super narratively focussed as well, not all competitive players are tournament players (though they’re often given one single label), and you can play casually but also want a balanced game where there is a chance for both players to win. People also just like to win games, family Monopoly at Christmas teaches us all that 😂, so a way of balancing some things to encourage certain units/provide a more types of players options that work, is never a bad thing, and not just for tournaments.
@@MiniatureRealmsto be fair Stewart, monopoly is designed to create arguments as it’s designed to be anti capitalist, but these are all good points.
@@MiniatureRealms oh definitely. In my case I tend to pick out a theme, or some units I particularly want to include, then build the best army I can around that/them. I want my army to have a believable narrative behind it, but I also want to be able to play my best and have a chance to win.
To me, the role of game balance isn't too get everything to a perfect coin-toss, or even get that close. Ideally it's too slow people to enjoy their armies, and the things in their armies they like best (let people enjoy their toys essentially).
💯
In general you balance the game with the scenarios you play and by knowing the opponent you play against. It is very different playing a game against an army you know you will face and probably you even know the models your opponent have. This make the game balance itself. You can't even begin to compare those with the scenario you play in a points match against a random person and a random army.
Competitive probably means different things to different people... we play quite competitive when we play but by knowing the scenario and army you will face make for a very different type of balance.
We also never play the type of scenarios you find in tournaments, those are not really fun.
The 'Nuln Statetroops' puzzle me a bit. I wonder if those were ment to be 'Nuln Ironsides' at one point but they couldn't get the old sculpts remade for one reason or another. One reason why I speculate they were ment to be one and the same is that Nuln Missile Troops must be equipped with handguns, but can fire from two ranks - which very much matches the appearance of the Nuln Ironsides with their kneeling front rank of handgunners IMO. Also the recent drama regarding the Nuln Ironsides in Total War Warhammer's last DLC where Creative Assembly had to make last minute changes to that newly added unit on behest of Games Workshop to match the appearance of the TT models more closely. Would have made more sense if GW originally had had plans to release those minis in proximity with the DLC, just like they did with the Slayers fromt he Dwarf AJ.
Maybe, I feel they would have still gone with Nuln State Missile troops as the 1+ then, and not regular, and the once per game on the two ranks is a bit ‘light’ of Ironsides were the original intention maybe?
I think it's a weak attempt at "pike and shot".
Since there's no good abilities, point deductions, it'll be a 100 point sink (10 halberds + 5 handgunners) just to make the list somewhat viable.
its to stop handgunner spam i suspect, one of my regular opponents in the original nuln list regularly fielded 10 units of 10 handgunners with a hochland champion covered by some hellblasters and the pegasus wizard chap. Suuuuper boring to play against.
So they make you take at least as many halberds as handguns, forgetting that state troops in general already sort of suck in OW :(
@@noserenda Heh - that was the latest version of my Nuln army - wall-to-wall handgunner spam, maximum artillery, and airborne lvl.4 wizard cabal. But my opponents found it depressing to play.
But a Nuln army based around State Troop halberdiers is not going to be fun either.
You need to use scenarios where infantry and medium sized troops matter and it is just fine. Just sprinkle some VP locations you can only hold with units with a banner of at least 10 unit strength and then use break point instead of unit points, suddenly infantry will matter. Done!!
Great review Stuart! 🤩 Fantastic book!
My one tiny, nitpicky gripe is some of the naming of certain characters and magic items. And this is coming from someone who has played since the early 90s and read most of the literature. I know that Warhammer has funny names and built-in humor. Always have and I love that. But it used to be more cleverly done. They kept the goofy names in German, the established in-universe language of The Empire. Now the puns sometimes feel a little forced or outright nonsensical.
Examples: "Von Trickschotte" is supposed to be a reference to trick shooting I suppose. But "Schotte" in German means Scotsman. It makes zero sense. Or what about "Squintsoffen"? That's just straight-up English. I mean, sure, "haha". I get it. But it's not very clever IMO. It's not in line with the writing of previous iterations.
Boris Todbringer wasn't "Boris Deathbringer". Sigmar Heldenhammer wasn't "Sigmar Herohammer". Louen Leoncoeur wasn't "Louen Lionheart". And so on... The names were kept in the established in-universe languages (German for Empire, French for Bretonnia, etc). Now, did I as a 12 year old get all the jokes or references immediately? No. They weren't handed to me on a silver platter. I'd have to look stuff up. I'd have to apply myself. I'd have to learn new stuff. But guess what, it just made the world that much more immersive and interesting to me. And it broadened my awareness of other languages.
Is this a massive issue of new Warhammer writing? No of course not! It's a nitpick of mine, I admit that. But I hope they'll try to smarten up the puns just a bit going forward. Don't dumb it down for us, GW. Let us work for it a bit. That won't kill us.
Anyway, just my 2 cents 😃
That’s fair enough, I hadn’t considered it that deeply. I’m not sure the names compare, and they’re not trying to be a funny, but I’m sure there were plenty of examples that are pretty silly from earlier books as well, not sure they have all worked linguistically. Interesting point though.
Hmm... I hadn't spotted that but it's a good point. I played throughout The Enemy Within campaign years ago with, amongst others, a native German speaker, and it was great fun having them react to character names with a mixture of horror and humour 😂
@@MiniatureRealms I'm deeply nerdy when it comes to stuff like that, I know 😅
@@perfidy1103 Exactly! I'm a Dane, I don't speak German fluently or anything. But one thing that got me interested in learning some was actually Warhammer 😆 I think my broader point is: Don't lower the barre in entertainment. Let the audience figure stuff out by themselves. It's more fun that way. At least to me.
@@MiniatureRealms PS: The writers of the old Warhammer books all had degrees in Humanities or the Arts. They were scholars to some extent. Linguists, literature majors, Priestly is an archeology major I believe. I think that came across in the writing. As silly as it was, the jokes were just a bit more refined IMO 😄 But it's just an observation.
Great review Stu. Can’t wait to see your Nuln army at Throne of Skulls; that mixed arms, mixed cultures force is definitely how I imagine Nuln too. All in all I’d say it’s an exciting book for Empire, which gives them a lot of tools they’ll be able to use to great effect should the game as a whole shift away from the current monster focus.
I can’t wait to get the army finished, just hope I can do it in time (or all be bringing the Dwarfs).
Awesome video Stu!! I can’t wait to see how your Nuln army develops because it’s looking awesome already!
I loved to hear your thoughts on the competitive scene. I think about it much in the same way. For me 40k seems to be the real competitive game and Old World is the game I can turn to to play a game with the flavor and fun that is missed in 40k. I like following the competitive scene just so I can improve my own play style in making a unit viable on the table but I can never see myself going full competitive. Either way Empire is looking awesome and hearing your thoughts was great!
Thanks mate🙂
In its narrative battle the Orcs & Goblins AJ gave us a teaser for the upcoming reveal of the Dwarfen Pony Carts. I'd love to believe that this book here is doing the same with the Beastmen herdstone. I know the chances are low, but I'd love to see GW bring back the discontinued herd stone model with the Beastmen's AJ.
Good spot, and I think that could be very likely, definitely something cool to hope for!
Great thought!
I bought one shortly before they became absurdly expensive on eBay simply because they make for great scenery in TOW. There's not really anything on them that's obviously AoS coded. So I hope you're right
Quite interesting that one of the scenarios in the book is calling for a 2500 beastmen army which isn’t actually available to purchase yet and could be a little bit of a wait (hopefully not too long). They are in a unique position because they aren’t in AOS either which means purely 3rd party, 2nd hand or existing armies owned by players
Yes very true. I very much doubt when that was written that they knew the full availability of some items, so just went with what they wanted.
@ probably the fairest way to have written these as well. It would feel a bit off if they only listed factions that were available but I particularly noticed as the points value was on the higher side and beastmen were in their own unique situation
I think they made 1 empire road warden for Mordheim. If you want to see what GW did
Oooh did they, I’m going to go search for that now. Thank you.
I’m very interested in the subsumed factions - love the Nordland blue and yellow. They mentioned that would still work with Old World lore on Warhammer Community. Does the Arcane Journal give any clues on how? Any background would help me scope an army!
I think clever competitive folk are seeing some interesting opportunities in the knightly orders. They give you more access to tough, punchy knights.
I love the Nuln army. Really evocative as you say - I’d have fun running trolls at that. :)
Not loads of info with the smaller areas (in this time period), but I guess that’s also deliberate in some ways, those that know about them have room to make up their own lore that fits with their projects etc. More stuff might come later on as well.
Looking great, Stu. But it's still High Elves I am waiting on, I think :)
I'm very excited for this book
Looka really nice and thematic. definitely picking up a copy in the new year
Great video. I was hoping they would bring back the nuln iron sides.
Me too ☹️
Great review Stu. I was looking forward to your take.
I could see giving Nuln a go but perhaps using other state troops etc as proxies since I’m not sure what colour scheme I want to paint my army in.
I really want to use my existing Teutogen Guard minis plus add to them whether that means trying out a Knightly Order army I’ll have to see. I think I have a unit of metal White Wolves somewhere, I will have to go digging.
Thanks mate.
I think there’s great options for doing White Wolf/Middenhiem armies using the the Grand Army or the Knightly orders lists.
@ I also think that army would look really cool too which is important. Out of all the Knightly order ones I think the White Wolves probably have the best chance of working…will have to read the book in more detail etc but it seemed that way
Yep I agree 100%, at least at first look they seem to have more obvious outcomes on the table.
Don't sleep on the Knights of the Fiery heart.
Reroll 1s and +1 Initiative is pretty great.
White Wolf seem more effective for MSU's, but it also depends on the width you're running, as you won't be able to take full advantage of Furious Charge.
Comment for the algorithm god!
I do feel bad for the people with NDAs with GW that they've had to sit by, watching non-NDAers review all the rules.
Thank you.
Just the way it goes sometimes I suppose. I’ve enjoyed watching all that content, and while I’d personally I probably wouldn’t have been the source of a leak of someone had sent it to me (obviously prior to NDA), I’d have normally made content on a second hand leak, so it’s been odd keeping quiet 😂.
@@MiniatureRealms Definitely! Not the end of the world or anything, I'm watching your review despite having seen all the rules already, and I'll watch/listen to a few other people I enjoy for TOW content.
By the way, I don't know that I've commented before, but your channel is great!
Thank you very much 😊
Nooooo I really want to watch this but don’t want to ruin the surprise when it gets posted through my door!
I can understand that, for what it’s worth I only skim over the lore parts (that will be a separate lore video).
Hmm, no spearmen in the Nuln army?
That's disappointing as I have quite a few of them from my old WFB 6th ed days....
No for the army of infamy, I would have certainly run them if they were there, but appreciate they’re trying to build theme before balance here.
I see what they are trying to do with Nuln in trying to make players use 'pike and shot' renaissance infantry blocks. Except that State Troop halberdiers are already the worst infantry in a game where infantry are already at a big disadvantage. Competitive Nuln players will just field a single unit of 10 halberdiers.
But even then, not having a lvl.4 wizard to dispel means a Nuln army is unlikely to be viable.