DemetriiTZ

That was an 8th ruling. We'll see how 9th shakes out.

Many events have already adopted the smaller table size.

10 on the charge -- Hateful Assault. Try 'em out with Prescience, Warptime and Blades!

You can have up to 3 relics, and DG have veeeery few stratagems to use, so you rarely have CP shortage as Nurgle. New stratagems and relics are going to be the goldmine -- a warlord trait that meaningfully competes with ArchContam would be fine, though.

PA did wonders for Drukhari. Dark Techno and certain Haemi Cults are insane now. No clue on the "nearly" exceptions.

Yeah, but the "can't kill nuffin" issue may be solved in the Psychic Awakening release. We don't know which rumors pan out and how they interact with the new comtent forthcoming.

Good question. I'm not sure they need it, though. Aren't they already 3W T5 2+/5++ or somesuch?

Some rumors I have heard from about 3 different leak sources: Chapter Approved will: *Bump all "Cult" Troops to 2 Wounds, claiming this is due to the Cicatrix Maledictum supercharging "the most devoted servants of the Gods". Standard CSM with or without Marks now represent the equivalent of non-Primaris Marines. *Decrease Mortarion in points -- he's "manifesting more easily". *Bump "Cult Terminators" to 3 Wounds, with the same explanation -- they gain +1 wound from Terminator armor, and +1 wound for being good boys to their Gods. 3 Wound 'Shroud and Blightlords will be good times. *Possessed gain Disgustingly Resilient AND +1 WOUND. They are rumored to basically be a weird, "fast" version of Aggressors with no shooting. *Daemon keyword once again unlocks access to Daemon stratagems (this sounds weird, but could be true.) *Cultists drop to 4 points per model. *Poxwalkers drop to 5, and can be taken in squads of 30 or 40 -- rumor just says they increase in squad size and drop in points. *DisRes becomes nearly army-wide.

This was recently FAQ'd, I believe

Blightlords are tough bully units and work well in ITC. They are there to land on an objective and fire combibolters at chaff all game, meaning they earn 1-2 points per turn by themselves at range while being effectively unkillable by their ideal targets (weak infantry). You place them so their charge is a bonus to the stuff they should accomplish by existing, not a requirement.

Too bad on the Forgeworld thing: Loyalist versions already get Chapter traits, so Iron Hands Leviathans already rock a FNP save. We need it for parity, tbh.

Eh, we all get rule updates very soon. We'll see what happens.

Case-by-case. If the enemy has screens, they're fine to slog into, because eating chaff and laughing at return fire is their ideal. Versus Knights, and stuff with low model count, DS can be a good option. Long board deployment also sometimes demands it.

Yeah, you have to get good at corraling enemies. If Blightlords do not make their charge from DS, it's not a big deal. They are fine as bullet sponges who can advance on an objective, and any CC they manage is incidental for me.

Well, the trick is to use the Plague Marines to cordone off a large swathe of the board, which funnels people into a location where Blightlords can corner them. In ITC, it isn't always about simply tabling someone, and Blightlords are primarily a way to nearly guarantee removal of 1-2 chaff units per turn with combined firepower from other Plague Marines in concert, while largely remaining focused (as an army) on board control overall. Princes are bullies and "traders" -- they jump out, kill something, and usually die afterwards. Marines, however, often benefit from cover, and can deal damage at a very comfortable range while on the move. CC happens, for this army, around Turn 3 or 4, after I have presumably dumped around 400-600 shots into the enemy. Now that we have double the number of attacks on Plague Marines in combat, and considering Arch-Contaminator basically means every Marine is equipped with a Plaguesword, they actually can do work on tougher targets, AND chaff stragglers. I have more playtesting coming up on Saturday, so I'll let you guys all know how that goes.