Grotmas Calendar 2024 - New Detachments Edition

[TheMawr]

3 hours ago, AutumnEffect said:

I think it will be a Harlequin themed detachment.

 

Maybe one that's Aspect Warrior themed and another for Harlequins. 

 

Aspect warriors come with the codex, besides, this one has to work with the index as well.. and the index doesnt have the keywords for it. ( there is a lack of both aspect warrior and craftworld/asuryani keywords wich I assume returns in the codex.)

 

I think the second one has to be Drukhari tomorrow. We have 12 days left for 13 factions : Aeldari, Drukhari, Tau, Sisters of Battle, World eaters, Orks, Astra militarum, Genestealer cults, Black templars, Blood angels, Space wolves, Leagues of Votann, Daemons.
And 2 factions one one day seems to get graphical relevance ( see knights.) This isnt possible with any other combo.

[jaxom]

30 minutes ago, TheMawr said:

31 minutes ago, TheMawr said:

And 2 factions one one day seems to get graphical relevance ( see knights.) This isnt possible with any other combo.

 

I’m hoping for 4 detachments on Daemon day.

[TheMawr]

7 minutes ago, jaxom said:

I’m hoping for 4 detachments on Daemon day.

ofcourse there will be, they already said so.. I was talking factions (logos specifically) not detachments ;) I assume right now the 4 daemon detachments just use the daemon faction logo.

[Ming the Merciless]

"Farseers might be famously hard to get presents for… but they’ve planned for this."

 

Seer Council & Agents of Vect next?

[sairence]

Taking bets on the Drukhari detachment reveal being along the lines of:

 

"Grotmas came very early for Drukhari fans! We hope you continue to enjoy Skysplinter!" 

 

[TheMawr]

20 minutes ago, Ming the Merciless said:

"Farseers might be famously hard to get presents for… but they’ve planned for this."

 

Seer Council & Agents of Vect next?

 

I was mostly thinking a phyrric victory theme.. though I dont know how that works, especially not in an army ability agnostic envoriment ( where both SoF and battle focus are usable tools for a "oop, just as planned" vibe.

Seer council is confirmed to be in the codex ( it will be strands of fate, and strands of fate will be replaced by battle focus as an army ability.)

 

I actually had been wondering if the index army rule would change with the balance dataslate (it didnt.) before eldar get their detachment. Maybe tomorrow they go into it more ?

 

With friday being the day for "narrative developments" I do wonder/hope.. if eldar being on friday is no coincedence. There is a lot of reasons to get some story blurbs started out there, not in the least to lead up to emperors children.

[HeadlessCross]

4 hours ago, Karhedron said:

Wow, creations of Bile looks pretty tasty. Strong baseline ability and a good suite of Enhancements and Stratagems. I have never played Chaos but I have often been tempted. The lure of the dark gods is strong.

Definitely a strong detachment, and I'd wager maybe even equal to Raiders and Zealots. 

[Indy Techwisp]

They put them up early again!

 

Aeldari:

Armoured Warhost

This is an Aeldari Vehicle Detachment, plain and simple.

 

Drukhari:

Reaper's Wager

Ever wanted to Run Harlequins with your Drukhari, but didn't want to play Ynnari to do it? Now you can!

Edited December 13 by Indy Techwisp

[SvenIronhand]

9 minutes ago, Indy Techwisp said:

Armoured Warhost

This is an Aeldari Vehicle Detachment, plain and simple.

 

Certainly an interesting choice. 

[Indy Techwisp]

On 12/12/2024 at 11:08 AM, AutumnEffect said:

I think it will be a Harlequin themed detachment. 

 

Hey, you were right!

It was a Harlequins Detachment.

For Drukhari.

 

Edit:

Also literal first response from the Drukhari reddit about it is "Great, Harlequins I'll never use." so good to know we're 3 for 3 on people complaining about the Free optional Detachment letting them have a sip of 8/9th Ed Souping.

Edited December 13 by Indy Techwisp

[Casual Heresy]

I think I'm in love with the Aeldari Detachment.

 

I've sworn for years that I would hold out on a xenos army until Exodites happen (give me my space elf dinosaur knights GW you cowards!). But I love the Aeldari Vehicle designs so a fleet of Grav tanks, Shining Spears and a Farseer cosplaying as Techmarine is very tempting.

[Indy Techwisp]

2 minutes ago, Casual Heresy said:

I think I'm in love with the Aeldari Detachment.

 

I've sworn for years that I would hold out on a xenos army until Exodites happen (give me my space elf dinosaur knights GW you cowards!). But I love the Aeldari Vehicle designs so a fleet of Grav tanks, Shining Spears and a Farseer cosplaying as Techmarine is very tempting.

 

It's a shame that the Bonesinger went to Legends, they'd fit right in with this one.

[Wormwoods]

Ooooh, OK this may actually be a useful alternate detachment for my in-progress bike-and-tank Eldar army! 

[Indy Techwisp]

Quote

Enjoy these gifts, feast, and carouse this season – but not too much. Look how that went for the Aeldari. Tomorrow the Orks are returning us to the true meaning of Grotmas. Namely: Waaagh!

 

Orks tomorrow and no real hint this time.

Well, besides WAAAAAAAGH! but that was expected.

 

Instead of speculating on that, I'll instead throw out a prediction for T'au when it rolls around.

IMO, T'au will either get a "Combined Arms" Detachment which buffs both T'au and Auxiliaries, or a "Demiurg Traders" Detachment in line with this Grotmas trend to add a Detachment which let's you steal from another Faction, in this case being Leagues of Votann.

Edited December 13 by Indy Techwisp

[TheMawr]

I think the hint is before the Waagh : "the Orks are returning us to the true meaning of Grotmas"

Gretchin detachment probably.

 

Way in the beginning I speculated there would be a lot of Allies detachments, there werent as many as I thought so far. ( and yes, I did also say the Tau Votann as Demiurg thing, and while I still think the Tau will be an auxillery detachment.. I wonder if potential ally rules wont just be a very plain and limited Gue'vesa one as that has been a popular demand for so long.. votann would fit better as is though, but even then I think its something like only the 2 or 3 units available. edit : I think this because how limited the Imperial knights one was.)

 

Back to the Eldar, tanks are not my thing so I dont have a lot to say about it, I tried to piece together hints through it.. but the only hint I'd guess from the detachment rules is that the Battle focus army rule probably is limited to infantry. ( I cant remember if it was before, and havent had time to look it up yet.)

 

The Drukhari detachment is definitely with the future eldar codex in mind, right now I think the other two drukhari detachments are better when including harlequins ( wich you can currently with the travelling players ally rule, however the ally rule is very weirdly not in the drukhari index, but in the aeldari index detachment.) but I think the ally rules are definitely dissapearing, at least from the Aeldari codex, where drukhari army ally rules shouldnt be in in the first place.

Its a fun thematic mechanic that at first sight does very little ? havent checked the stratagems though, probably these interact with the wager more.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 13 by TheMawr

[Jscarlos18]

1 hour ago, Indy Techwisp said:

 

Orks tomorrow and no real hint this time.

Well, besides WAAAAAAAGH! but that was expected.

 

Instead of speculating on that, I'll instead throw out a prediction for T'au when it rolls around.

IMO, T'au will either get a "Combined Arms" Detachment which buffs both T'au and Auxiliaries, or a "Demiurg Traders" Detachment in line with this Grotmas trend to add a Detachment which let's you steal from another Faction, in this case being Leagues of Votann.

Seconded on the Auxilaries soup since I think the codex doesn't have it, just a Kroot detachment. Also lore accurate if they can use some of the LoV units.

[redmapa]

The hint is WAAAAGH!, what's a rather large waaagh!?  A green kroosade! KROOSADE DETACHMENT CONFIRMED!

 

 

[The Yncarne]

Most craft world players seem salty on that detachment. Hard for me to know if that’s justified or just the usual kvetching from warhammer players when things change and don’t meet their ideals. 

[Karhedron]

58 minutes ago, The Yncarne said:

Most craft world players seem salty on that detachment. Hard for me to know if that’s justified or just the usual kvetching from warhammer players when things change and don’t meet their ideals. 

 

The Detachment is pretty weak. It provides a speed boost to units that are already pretty fast but takes away the good stuff that comes in the Battle Host detachment. If you want to play an Eldar armoured company for thematic reasons then fair enough but competitively it is quite a bit weaker than the Index detachment and even that is now running at well below the 50% winrate.

 

Ironically, is almost exactly the same rules I proposed a few days ago for a BA Lucifer armoured company. These rules would have been better on the slightly slower and tougher Astartes tanks.

[TheMawr]

You can make at least one thing I have seen people want previously. a Lone operative Farseer skyrunner ( to sneakily hide between your vehicles while fixing them.)

Personally I dont know much about why people wanted that, its beyond my knowledge of the actual game currently, but it was suprising to see no celebrating of that option after often seeing the "demand"

[Lord Marshal]

Art of War leaked on their premiere title that the name of the Ork Detachment is 'Taktikal Brigade', so probably something Blood Axe themed?

[Dr. Clock]

I agree that the Armoured host leaves something to be desired, mostly to the extent of feeling like a 'hat on a hat'.

 

I also appreciate the extent to which writing a detachment to bridge between two massively different Army Rules would tend to produce unbalanced results on one or the other end. The army rule is known to be changing to Battle Focus, which may key off Assault weapons to the extent that this becomes the premier move-shoot-move detachment. I can definitely see a world where some Eldar detachment rules are largely defining who gets Assault added to their weapons to tee up move-shoot-move and/or advance and charge on part of the army.

 

Like maybe the Ranger detachment gives THEM assault weapons and Battleline so that you can shoot and scoot a heap of them all over the board and still run away when anything gets close... And maybe Swordwind makes a bunch of Aspect stuff Assault that isn't at base so that you can dance in and out of sight with Reapers and Dragons, or push within 9" after shooting from DS with hawks for objectives, or advance and charge after shooting with Banshees/Scorps, but only in that detachment.

 

So I guess I'm at least hopeful that this one is 'better in the Codex', acknowledging the fact that my army is not set up to make best use of it even if it does get better. I'm classic Ulthwé all day so I'll continue maining the Fate Dice detachment at first and sliding over to Swordwind with the new Spider & Dragon sculpts. I might play this at some point as a combined Corsair/Ulthwé thing, but realistically I'm at least 1 tank and ideally 3 war walkers away from getting enough out of this detachment that it's a pass from me for the foreseeable. I give it a B- right now, because as a buildaround it could be interesting, but open to revising as connection to new codex becomes known.

 

Turning to Reaper's Wager, it's a B+ for me. The micro management and bookkeeping part is what keeps it from being an A overall, since the enhancements and strats are all quite good. It is somewhat interesting to think through building an army with good balance where both factions can do both shooting and assault in order to switch who's winning multiple times per phase... So I could see a world where you do like 3 Ravagers and 3 voidweavers so that you can probably kill something with Ravs first, then something with Weavers, then open up with Drukh transport decks until something dies, then go for harlie transport/bike shooting or whatever. Basically I just don't have the minis for this, and I'm not going to in the next 2 years... I also just think I don't value re-rolling 1s as much as I likely should I guess? Anyway - it should exist, and I'm glad it does, but it's not something I'm going to take as my tastes run decidedly more to Corsairs and Exodites than Harlies.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor

[sairence]

GROT REVOLUSHN! DA RED GOBBO WILL RISE AGAIN!

[HeadlessCross]

6 hours ago, Wormwoods said:

Ooooh, OK this may actually be a useful alternate detachment for my in-progress bike-and-tank Eldar army! 

Hard disagree there. The vehicles they have are already fast enough that you hardly need Assault to begin with, let alone have to advance a lot. 

Outside a Warp Serpent dropping off Wraithguard 6" away from a target you want super dead, there just isn't a lot of tools in the detachment vs the Index one. 

 

HOWEVER, the Dark Eldar/Harlequin one is a different story. I see some potential there. 

[The Yncarne]

Battle focus or fire and fade may change the value in the codex.  Some of us will see. Glad to see the Drukhari get to play with clowns too. I’ve enjoyed that in the other game.