Open Play has a new section on the Open War Cards, which are pretty cool. It does, however, require you to buy said Open War Cards. There are also a lot of new optional rules for Open Play, including something called 'the Fog of War' which limits communication between allied players to messages sent to each other via units on the battlefield.
I was hoping for a battleplan in the Narrative Play chapter that was on the level of Death of Nagash from the first handbook, but they have gone in a different direction. Instead of recreating key battles from the storyline, they have opted for outlining rules that allow you to decide where your battles are taking place, with Time of War rules for seven of the mortal realms. Azyr is the only realm with no rules, as it is safely sequestered behind sealed realmgates. This chapter also has rules for Siege battles, that are flexible enough for you to create anything from the siege of a Chaos Dreadhold to an attack on a Sylvaneth Wyldwood.
The new rules in Open and Narrative Play can be combined to make your battles seem more realistic - by which I mean, it draws you into the idea that these are battles taking place in a specific place and time in the mortal realms, with armies that have something tangible to gain or lose.
The new Matched Play battleplans look interesting. It gives us new things to try out, as the battleplans from the first handbook were getting a little stale. I don't think I can give a lot of feedback on them until I've tried them. Concerns have already been raised about certain army builds being able to win Scorched Earth on turn one. We will have to wait and see if it is a big enough problem to warrant a change.
Most of the point adjustments are sensible. A lot of unit that were not played often dropped in price. A few key powerhouses were made more expensive - Kurnoth Hunters went up by 40 points, for example. The big change is that most Warscroll Battalions went up by at least 100 points. I think this is a sensible change, as not only do they grant access to new special rules, they also let you pick an extra Artefact of Power, and allow you to deploy faster.
The new ally rules breath new life into a number of minor factions that never get played on thier own due to a small number of options or expensive models, such as Collegiate Arcane and Aleguzzler Gargants. It also gives armies that lack units to perform certain roles a way to make their forces more balanced. Darkling Covens, for example, can now take some mounted or flying units to compliment their infantry, Wanderers can add a Treelord to give them a behemoth, and Stormcast can slot in a wizard or two to give them some spells.
The chapter on new allegiance abilities is very exciting. Quite a few armies had battletomes that were released before allegiance first appeared in the original GHB. Though the posterboy armies of Khorne and the Stormcast Eternals got new battletomes with allegiance abilities, every other army with an early codex had a problem. Before, it had felt like an advantage to have one, now it felt like a disadvantage. The GHB2017 fixes this by giving allegiance to Seraphon, Fyreslayers, Skaven Pestilens, Ironjaws and Flesh-Eater Courts. (Everchosen is notably absent from this list, but the default Chaos abilities suit them fine.) In addition a few armies that are not expected to get thier own codexes also recieved some welcome abilities - Darkling Covens, Dispossessed, Free Peoples, Wanderers, Brayherd, Slaanesh, Slaves to Darkness, Skaven Skyre, Nighthaunt and Soulblight.
With regards to the generic allegiance abilities of the four Grand Alliances, the rather lackluster Order abilities got a boost. Order's battle trait now lets them reroll battleshock for any unit in their army - they no longer have to be near the general. The inspiring command trait was therefore reworked to now make anyhing within 6" of the general ignore battleshock completely, which is quite powerful. Most of the Artefacts of Order are unchanged, except for the Phoenix Stone, which was buffed to heal one wound in every hero phase.
The Chaos battle trait has been adjusted, instead of being 8" from a hero, it now works 12" from your general, and 3" from any other hero - emphasising the importance of your general. Command Traits are mostly unchanged. For artefacts, Daemon Weapon was severly nerfed (and simplified), it now deals a mortal wound on wound rolls of 6+.
The Destruction battle trait, Rampaging Destroyers, has been changed almost beyond recognition. To be fair, it was insanely powerful.It allowed Ironjaws and Beastclaw Raiders to surge across most of the map in a single turn, and there was little you could do to stop the first turn 'alpha strike'. Instead of it being a free D6 move for anything within 6" a hero, it now requires your general and each of your heroes to roll a dice. If you somehow manage to roll a 6, then one of the units within 6" of your hero can either move 6", charge, or pile in depending on how close it is to an enemy unit. The general does get a +2 to this roll, making it a 4+ for him. The Ravager command trait adds an additional 2, for a 2+ roll, which is the only thing that makes this ability reliable in any way. The infamous Battle Brew is a lot more risky too now, it deals D6 mortal wounds on a double swig instead of just 1.
Death's battle trait now requires units to be within 6" of a Death hero instead of 10", and Ruler of the Night extends this to 12" instead of making it a 5+ save. Red Fury is now a straight 5+ roll instead of being based on the number of wounds dealt. Before, big Deathlord heroes like Mannfred could easily deal more than six wounds, making Red Fury a guaranteed extra set of attacks. Now it only works 1/3 of the time. The Tomb Blade artifact has also been changed to only heal on wound rolls of 6+. The Ring of Immortality has been altered too, it now requires a 3+ roll to activate, and it is now worded so it doesn't require reinforcement points to use. So, technically a nerf overall, but a buff for matched play.
I will be taking a closer look at the main Warhammer factions who gained new abilities in the weeks ahead.
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