Reworking of Legion of Everblight

So, Privateer Press has changed Warmachine. Most of the changes are points costs. Check out Warmachine UPDATE Fall 2021 – (warmasters.uk) for a breif overview and a link to the PP article.

I’m going to put some thoughts on all the changes from legion below.

Over all though its a great set of changes. Its a quick and dirty rebalance. Very few rules were changed, but in the few places they were its been largely done with good care. If the rest of the factions have been reworked in as clever a fashion we should be on a good path for the next few years.

WARLOCKS

The following Warlocks were changed:

Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight (Abby2)
Abby got changed so she can now steal Essence from things as well. Which is OK. Not a huge change because she is unlikely to charge an infernal master (because they will hide) . It is very useful though because of Feat turn she can more easily kill an infernal horror to proc alpha hunter.

Bethayne, Pride of Everblight (Beth2)
This is a bitter pill. All the nerf’s were previewed early, except this one, and its the biggest. The Feat has been changed from totally amazing to “Meh, its OK I guess”. Instead of infinite transfers between 8 models, you get a number of tokens to assign where every you want, that can be used to make transfers. The models with unspent tokens are immune to stationary and knockdown. Its a lot worse. She is still an amazing caster – but I expect people will be bitter and not player her for a bit.

Fyanna Torment of Everblight (Fyanna2)
Blast damage changed game wide by removing things like Blast Immunity and giving +4 arm vs blast instead. No other changes.

Kallus, Wrath of Everblight (Kallus1)
Everytime Kallus casts a spell he can remove one of your incubi from the table, and he reduces the cost of that spell by one for that casting. this is cool as it lets him upkeep Ignite, cast darkguidence and still have 2 fury. And its kind of cool.

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight  (Lylyth1)
There is a new rule “Synergistic Magic that about 12 casters have gained.” When they kill something, they get a free point towards upkeep spells they can spend when they like. This really helps Lylyth, as Parasite and Pursuit cost 3 and 2 and she has a total of 5, so if she kills 2 people she could cast both may be? but well… then she has to hit. I think it helps ALITTLE bit. But I like her a lot. Other changes also help her (lesser warlocks especially)

Lylyth, Shadow of Everblight (Lylyth2)
Privater Fixed Soothing song so its an ability you can use at any time in your activation phase, i.e. at the end of your turn more or less after all the beasts have gained fury. They also gave her Vanish. With the lesser warlocks, and her kit not caring if you are in her battle group or not – I think she rather rocks.

Rhyas, Sigil of Everblight (Rhyas1)
Changed to Fury 6. Thats it. Thats alot.

Saeryn & Rhyas, Talons of Everblight (Twins 2)
Feat fixed so they can be returned from removed from play. Very big. Rhyas 2 also changed to Fury 6. Also very big.

Thagrosh, Prophet of Everblight (Thagrosh1)
Feat changed so warbeast can activate fully, EXCEPT it can only be forced to use its animus. This is a very dynamic change.

Thagrosh, The Messiah (Thagrosh 2)
He gained 3 beast points. This is neat. its a free harrier? (28 total)

Vayl, Disciple of Everblight (Vayl1)
CMD12. This I think makes Incite extremely good. She was the first caster to have this spell I believe, and all the others came long better at it that her due to higher cmd, higher speed (she can’t even charge) or it being free as part of their feat. I think this might be extremely potent.

Beasts

In simple terms – there is a rebalance going on here. If you were around 10 points you dropped 1 point if you were around 20 points you dropped 2 points.

The only rules changes are: Protues Animus, Ravagore Mat, Afflictor PS up 1 AND overtake, and Blight wasp PS up 2. All very minor. Ravagore the most exciting. And well its not that exciting but deserved.

Blightbringer went down 2 points to 30. Archangel remains at 35. Most collosals moved a few points down. I think 30 is the cheapest and 35 the most expensive. I like this for legion.

To Heavies tended to drop 2 points in Legion, and in a lot of hordes factions.
Golab, Azurel, Carnivian, Ravagore, Sycthean, Typhon all dropped 2 points. The Ravagore also gained a Mat.

Angelus, Seraph, Proteus and Zuriel only dropped 1 points. Proteus gained 1″ on his animus range (from base to base)

Neraph is our only heavy that didn’t change its cost. It remains good value.

Our lights all got cheaper, except for the Raek and the Afflictor.
One point off: Night Lurker, Bloodseer, Protector, Teraph.

I think the Protector remains bad but I’m past caring, but the other changes seem good. -1 cost keeps things in line with the heavies and the rest of the game (though most warmachine lights didn’t get cheaper)

Afflictor gets stronger and overtake. So what? I think its kind of nearly OK with the new beast mistress and a global buff like Vayl1/Kryssa. But i think it needs a push somewhere else. Def 14 would do it for me. Or being 5 points. its nearly there.

The real winners though are the Bolt Thrower 9 points, and the Soldier 7 points. I think both of these make it very worthwhile considering running 2+ of these beasts.

Then finally Harriers and Mekkashredders remain the same. Blight wasps become PS10, Shredders and Stingers become 3 points. I like this generally. Blight wasps should also get +2 arm and Gang Fighter instead of their odd rule, or be 5 boxes and 2 points. But for a low effort quick pass – things seem OK.

Over all on beasts I think Legion did really well. Disappointing the Seraph didn’t gain ROFD3+1 or RoF2 or 12 points. The Afflictor isn’t good enough but is much improved. But other things seem really good.

Solos

Theme changes mean we can not longer take Virtue Champions for free. This and the Hellmouth are the only theme changes for Legion

Beast Mistresses can run lights. And only cost 2 points. This is pretty big.

Blight archons cost 9 now. This is OK. Already I often ran just one, sometimes will run none now.

Shepherds and Forsaken gained defensive tech. Shepherds Arm2 and get Blast resistance if they are within 3″ of a beast. Forsaken gain +1 arm for each fury on them. I love these changes. No points change needed these guys are much more playable.

Just point change for everything else:
4 point combat solos: Nyss Warlord, Fyanna the Lash, Warmonger War Cheif. The best I can say about all of these is at least they are better than the 3 point req choices may be if you don’t really care. Not sure thats true really. I think all these modesl are waiting for some kind of leadership to help out their theme better.
4 point incubi. OK. This is value. With the points change they may be needed to drop to 5 to maintain their already OK value, but dropping to 4, makes them quite compelling.

3 Point combat solos: Strider DeathStalkers. Groteque Assasin.
I really like both of these. I think they used to be a bit too expensive. Now they might just be right.

Units

Primal Terrors units

HELLMOUTH is no longer a free choice.

Chosen are unchanged. This is a bit of a shame because they are now more expensive than all our warbeasts, and all other heavy cav in the game dropped to 17 or 18 points.
Warmongers and warspears drop 2 points for 5 man units. This is annoying as Warmongers are just at least as good and probably better than Warspears by everyones reckoning that I’ve spoken to. The Warspear UA didn’t change at all (but is a req point if you need it). Howlers in Infernals have alot of rules and are the same points as Warspears. Skorne Heavy Infantry is aggressively priced too. I think warspears were missed out this time, which makes me sad as they are cool.
Rot Wings dropped to 9 points. Which is amazingly cheap.

Children of the Dragon Units

Raptors got cheap 9/15 These will see play here and I think more in Ravens of War.
Blighted Nyss Scather Crew 3 points. I think this will see play. 3 points for an OK gun that scan score zones seems fine. I think these should have had Lure on them rather than the Striders in Ravens.

The bad thing is Blighted Nyss Swordsmen didn’t change. I think a spd increase (to 7) or a points drop would help them greatly.

Chidren of the Dragon or Oracles Units

Spawning vessel got cheaper – this keeps it up to speed with the cheaper shredder/stinger. Which is good.
Ice Witches dropped to 5 points. This is big. These guys are very good value now. 2 units will be seen if a few of my lists. You get 6 icewitches for 1 more point than the 3 blackfrost shard. I think the Shard are cool, but its alot more icewitches.

I’ve also taken a careful look at the minions changes and Croak and Farrow have got cheap. Slaughter Housers, Brigands (gained advance deploy), and Commandos all look very payable in Oracles.

Ravens Units

Ok, so we’ve already mentioned Rotwings (who dropped to a very cheap 9 points) and raptors who dropped to a great value 15 points. So for my first list i may well run 2 units of both of these guys. Not sure which caster yet or what battlegroup. There are alot of cool choices.

There were also some other changes for the Ravens units.

Grotesque Banshees got a point of rat and defence and went down 1 point to 12 Seems strong, but i’ve never seen them played much.

Grotesque Raiders got the +1 Def and went down a point to 11 for the max unit.

Strider Blightblades dropped from 10 to 7 points, and still nobody cares. These guys are probably fine. May be required to murder Kossite woodsmen the turn after they deploy…? (Kossite woodsmen got real good!) I think these guys should have gained Crit Bane on their weapons. That would be bad but funny, and some times great.

And strider scouts dropped 1 points to 8 points and for some reason (no one knows why) gained Lure. Lure is the same as Bloodlure. It lets warbeasts charge the target hit for free. It doesn’t replace meccakashredder or Hellion sufficiently and requires that you roll to hit. The unit remains interesting without it and not too expensive.

Then PP look at attachements seperately, and I’m largely following their lists:

Gorag Rotteneye 4pts (-2) Will always be a requistion slot I think because primal terrors is so low on good options.

Strider Scout Officer & Musician gain Lure Whatever. This UA gives 2 attacks, Repo, Hunter and “Instep” musician rule. Still seems good.

So its a lot of stuff.