World of Warcraft: The Battle for Azeroth

People have been asking me what I think about the next Warcraft expansion, Battle for Azeroth. I'm pretty excited about it, mostly because it seems Warcraft is finally at the point where they can do storyline updates for Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms without completely overwriting the older content, like they did in Cataclysm.

How big is an island?
Two new continents were announced at Blizzcon - Kul Tiras and Zandalar. As these are both actually islands, it is apparent that they mean continents in a game sense rather than a geographical sense. Places in Warcraft are not really to scale, or it would take us days to travel from Stormwind to Silvermoon. So despite the new places being islands, I expect they will be pretty big game-wise. 

The Seventh Kingdom
Kul Tiras! We've been waiting for Jaina's homeland to appear for a very long time. It is especially welcome after she was sidelined in Warlords of Draenor and unceremoniously replaced by Khadgar in Legion. It also means that all seven of the human kingdoms from Warcraft II are now in the game. (For those keeping track they are: Stormwind, Lordaeron, Stromgard, Alterac, Dalaran, Gilneas, Kul Tiras.)

The Banshee Warchief
How badass is Sylvanas in that trailer? Apparently she still has access to her old banshee form from Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. I think Vol'jin was right to appoint her as his successor at the start of Legion - she was the only person with the knowledge, experience and drive to lead the Horde to victory against the Legion. We knew she would be a problem afterwards, but that was something we only had to worry about if we didn't lose to the giant demon army. 
 
The Lion King
King Anduin Wrynn looks so young, because he is so young. King before his time...but he's stepped up in the wake of Legion. Its confirmed that despite his awesome lion-helmeted plate armour and considerable skill with his father's sword, the new king has not become a paladin. (I reckon he just transmogged Wrynn family heritage armour over his robes). The fact that he's a priest may be important for future story as it means he can access both the Light and the Void and understands that there can be balance between the two.

Who shot first?
You may have heard that it was 'confirmed' in an interview that the Horde starts the war by burning down the night elf capital Teldrassil - but that is just a rumour. We don't know whether the Alliance attacked Undercity in retaliation for Teldrassil, or if it is the other way around. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd actually go with the Alliance hitting Undercity first, as the siege of Undercity is what is depicted in the trailer, and the last few expansion trailers have shown how the story starts. I think it would be cool to do it that way around, as Genn has been pushing for an attack on Sylvanas since Cataclysm, and I got the feeling in Legion that Anduin's main reason for not attacking the Horde was that we had another bigger threat to deal with.

Counting the Cost
I feel for the night elves, as they have lost so much over the years, and now it seems they will lose their capital, and have to flee to the Eastern Kingdoms. But, they aren't necessarily going to be refugees. They provided a home to the Gilneans since Cataclysm, so I'm sure that they will be welcomed in kind. As for the Gilneans, they've now lost two homes to Sylvanas. If we can find some way to remove the taint from Gilneas, though, they can finally return to their original kingdom.   There's also the possibility of settling in Duskwood which has an old connection to the Scythe of Elune, and thus to the night elves and worgen. Plus, Duskwood needs new guardians due to events in Legion. As much as I feel for them, however, I think taking out Undercity and reclaiming Gilneas, Lordaeron and Stromgarde is worth losing our holdings in Kalimdor for. The night elves only had true control over Teldrassil and Feralas anyway, most of their other holdings in Kalimdor were already lost, or too heavily contested.

A broken Circle?
One thing I am wondering about is what will happen to Moonvale and Mout Hyjal. Both have traditionally been held by the Cenarion Circle, which consists of not only tauren and trolls, but also night elves and worgen. We don't know how Sylvanas will view the druid organisation. Will she just let them be, or does taking over Kalimdor for the horde mean that Moonglade is tauren and troll only now? Will the night elves even want to keep working with tauren after the Horde burns down a dragon-blessed world tree?

Allies for the Horde
The most exciting news here is that the Horde are getting nightborn, a branch of the elven race that is obviously based on the drow in other fantasy games with their elegant cheekbones, dark skin, white hair, and strong affinity to arcane magic. This gives the Horde another 'pretty' race, but more importantly, is the first time we've been given a playable race after we played though a lengthy endgame campaign involving them. Their story was a major part of Legion's first half, and though the fight moved to Argus for the second part, Argus pales in comparison to the Suramar campaign. It is widely considered to be the best storytelling WoW has ever done.

Which is why I'm a bit sad that they went and joined the Horde. That said, the storyline reasons are valid, and I am happy they didn't make them a cross-faction race like the pandaren.

Zandalari trolls are cool. When they are not trying to murder us, that is. Remember that old trailer of Vol'jin walking away from the council of trolls all by himself? Oh how times have changed. Why exactly the Zandalari would join a faction that has largely been responsible for the downfall of four troll kingdoms remains to be seen - it's probably linked to events in the Horde campaign on Zandalar. It should be an interesting story.

As for the Highmountain tauren...as cool as they are, I really don't think that having moose antlers justified counting as a separate race. Why can't they just give the normal tauren race moose antler options?

Allies for the Alliance
We get Dark Iron dwarves! It's about bloody time we can play as them, as Moira's clan joined the Alliance seven years ago in Cataclysm, and more recently were instrumental in our victory on alternate-Draneor. Turns out they're actually decent chaps when they're not enslaved by Ragnaros, and they have turned out to be much better engineers than the Bronzebeards. We don't even need gnomes anymore!

We're not entirely sure what void elves are. They are the only one of the new races that we have not seen before, and they are associated with Alleria Windrunner somehow. Are they the high elves finally returning? Are they a group of blood elves who got addicted to void instead of fel and then defected back to the alliance? They certainly look cool, and along with the worgen and Dark Irons, make the Alliance just a little bit edgier.

It makes sense that Turalyon and the Lightborn would join up with their brethren.Turalyon is still the heir to Lothar's legacy, and there are not a whole lot of draenei still alive. But again, why are Lightborn a separate race? I doubt there is much difference between having a lifespan of over ten thousand years like normal draenei, and being immortal like the Lightborn, and the only visual difference between them is that their eyes glow yellow instead of white.

Nevergreen War Report

A couple of months ago, I was chatting to Rowan about Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, and mentioned that I wished they would do a campaign for AoS similar to the 'Fate of Konor' campaign for Warhammer 40,000. His reply was 'Why don't we just run one?'

And so we did.

As the General's Handbook 2017 had just come out, I decided to make each week based on one of the new matched play battleplans. The idea was that the armies were trying to locate a hidden fortress in the Nevergreen Mountains. They would start out at the Festermere Realmgate, and fight their way over Greywater Reach, through the Chiltus Forest, and then up into the mountains. There would also be painting challenges or each week.

Although the forces of tzaangor shaman Y'es Strangefeather took the early lead, conquering Festemere, Greywater and the Chiltus Forest, the darkling aelf Averlaine Silvermoon played the long game, overtaking them in the narrow and deadly Nevergreen Pass. Despite numerous losses and severe injuries, the ironjaws megaboss Dakkbest Ironcheekz' dogged persistance eventually overcame Y'es as well. In the end, Averlaine outmaneuvered Dakkbest Ironcheekz, just beating him (by two points) to claim the Unseen Fortress for herself!

Megaboss Dakkbest was not the best after all.

The campaign was not as popular as I had hoped, with only Rowan and I playing more than a couple of games and trying to complete the painting challenges. But it was still fun, and it did achieve the goal of teaching us all the new battleplans from the new GHB. I will definitely run another one next year after the next GHB comes out.

There is a special hero trait everyone who participated gets, as a special thanks for supporting the Unseen! If you missed out, remember, you can earn this reward next year too!


Veteran of Nevergreen - Add one to the hero's Wounds characteristic.

This is a special trait that can only be taken by the heroes below. This trait can be used even if the hero is not the general of your army. It can only be used in friendly games and campaigns, not in tournaments or any event that requires an entrance fee.

* Averlaine Silvermoon (Darkling Sorceress - Keith)
* Dakkbest Ironcheekz (Ironjaws Megaboss - Rowan)
* Harrowhorn (Treelord Ancient - Wade)
* Kroxoatl (Saurus Oldblood on Carnosaur - Kyle)
* The Unnamed (Vampire Lord - Andrea)
* Xihuitl (Saurus Oldblood - Celeste)
* Y'es Strangfeather (Tzaangor Shaman - Darrryn)


I am also writing a story based on the narrative of the campaign. You can read the first part here!

Nevergreen: The Coven

Anvilgard, Aqshy

Three aelves and a human sat around a large table of red-veined marble.

“It's in Ghyran,” said Crisselda, an elderly crone with bone-white hair who exuded an aura of dark, oppressive menace, “A place called Nevergreen. Ever heard of it, Lorren?”

“Mountain range, west of Hammerhal,” grunted the human, a grizzled grey-stubbled man who was clad in black sigmarite plate edged with gold. A charcoal-feathered gryph-hound lay on the floor next to his seat, and a lantern-staff rested against the wall, signifying his position as a Lord-Veritant, one of the few amongst the Stormcast Eternals who were trained to fight sorcery.

“Could we could use their Realmgate?” asked Averlaine, a striking red-headed aelf sorceress. She was the youngest in the room, but seemed to be the most powerful, the air around her literally crackling with sorcerous energy. An ornate sigmarite chalice sat on the table in front of her, the liquid within shedding a pale blue-green light. Faint susserations emanated from it, whispers of the aelven spirits captured within, sequestered safely from the dark god Slaanesh.

Age of Sigmar: First Impressions of the General's Handbook 2017

I've been very excited about getting my hands on the new General's Handbook, mostly for the new Darkling Coven allegiance abilities. The Warhammer: Age of Sigmar General's Handbook 2017 has some significant changes in all three forms of the game.

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.

Blood Bowl News: Banshees Win Championship, put the 'Star' in Starfire

Breaking News - The Banshees have become the first Unseen League Champions, beating the Green Unseen 2-1 in an action-packed final game. The Banshees struggled in the first half, as Dextra Windstrike and Malace Shade found themselves hip-deep in a swarm of goblins, unable to break free. The second half swung the game in their favour, as Kate Khaine scored an early touchdown, followed by Avele Rainjackal pulling off one of the Banshee's infamous 'banshee blitzes' to put the game 2-0 in favour of the dark elves. The Greens pulled out all the stops, sneaking a chainsaw onto the field on multiple occasions, and even blackmailing witch elf Hecate Shrike into blocking one of her own teammates, but were only able to pull one back in the dying moments of the game, when Burt the troll smashed a path clear for Wado to score. Sadly, Wado was killed soon after this by an exploding goblin grenade.

Hot on the heels of her previous achievement, Banshees' runner Korandir Starfire was awarded the prestigious status of Star Player, ending the season with a total of fourteen completed passes, three touchdowns, one casualty and three 'most valuable player' awards.

Earlier, the Orange Rats had their hopes dashed in the semifinals against Green Unseen, when gutter runner Rat Lee fluffed an easy touchdown by fumbling the ball twice in the dying moments of the first half, allowing the Redcaps to coast to a 1-0 victory.

A new Blood Bowl season will start on April the 7th, at this year's Icon By the Sea.

- Rooters

Blood Bowl News: Playoffs Decided, Starfire Earns Accolade

With the results of last night matches, we now know what the playoffs will look like, with league leaders the Banshees coming up against the fourth-place Gunnar Uffe on Saturday, and the Orange Rats playing the Green Unseen on Sunday morning. The winners of each semifinal will face each other in the finals on Sunday afternoon, with the final winner receiving the coveted Invisible Trophy.

The coveted Invisible Trophy

After her team's 2-0 win against Gunnar Uffe last night, Koriandir Starfire, runner for the Banshees, became the first league player to earn the status of Emerging Star. The match, in which she completed two passes, scored a touch down, and earned 'most valuable player' was one of the Banshee's bloodiest yet, leaving kicker KJ Blackthorn and witch elf Hecate Shrike hospitalised, and lineman Laalia Tyrin-Stillwater dead.

In an interview after the match, Starfire called her accolade 'a team effort', saying that she could not have done it without the help of Dextra Windstrike, Hecate Shrike and Veera Voidfire, before stating "Laalia paved the way for us, and we will always remember her." When asked about facing Gunnar Uffe again on Saturday, Starfire said "We aren't scared of them. We are the Banshees. We are invincible."

Starfire has scored four touchdowns, completed seven passes, caused one casualty, and been awarded MVP twice this season. The Banshees play the Green Unseen on Friday, before going on to face Gunnar Uffe in the semifinals.

Blood Spatter: Week Four

Greetings sports fans, and welcome to Blood Spatter, your weekly look at Blood Bowl! I'm Bill Billingham, and alongside me is Erin Eventide. Hello Erin!

Hello once again, Bill!

Well we're getting close to the playoffs, and the Banshees have been playing hard, taking on both Gunnar Uffe and the Glenwood Okes.

I think the Banshees underestimated Gunnar Uffe. They kicked first and tried to pull off a blitz kickoff, with Sinestra Windstrike breaking though the Norse defensive line, only to have the Norse push her into the crowd. The Banshees pride themselves on avoiding crowd pushes, so this was quite upsetting for them, especially as Sinestra was injured.

They haven't come up against another team that uses frenzy, and I don't think they were prepared for it. The game had barely started, and they were already down one of their best players. Fortunately, they kept possession after the throw-in, and pulled off a right-wing push. The Gunnars pulled one back, but were eventually outplayed by the Banshees, ending with a 3-1 score, with touchdowns by Veera Voidfire and Wisla Moondragon. Interestingly, most of the touchdowns in this game were scored by linemen, as the Gunnars marked the Banshees' witch elves and blitzers very effectively.

It was a pretty brutal game Bill, the Banshee's armour was really put to the test as the Gunnars put constant pressure on their defensive screens. On the other hand, the Banshees really struggled to bring the Gunnars down. There was a lot of blood, but no casualties. I guess that's what happens when two really tough teams clash. I do feel that the Gunnars didn't use their yhetee very strategically, they need to work on controlling him better, using him to take out well-armoured foes.

I don't think that Gunnar Uffe are quite there yeti.



I am going to murder you.

Well...anyway. Onto the next game, Banshees vs Glenwood Okes. The Okes chose to kick, meaning the Banshee's couldn't do their typical defensive stalling start. Instead they went for a quick touchdown, via Avele Rainjackal. But they really struggled to hold the left wing without Sinestra Windstrike. At first they put Kate Khaine there, but she was unable to stop Longstrider from breaking past her and levelling the score at 1-1.

It was a real weak point in their line, Bill. Daala Darkleaf held the centre really well as usual. She's pretty tough, as she takes a lot of hits, and often has to face down much bigger opponents. But this time she inflicted a casualty of her own, smashing Sylvana Willowwand's hip pretty badly. Dextra and Shrike did well on the right, those two are a really good team.


Realising she had to try something else, Tess Ravenblade put herself on the wing, only to suffer a blow to the head from one of the Okes twins, Edric Foxblade. With their Captain down, Dextra and Shrike went for a superb running play down the right, with Shrike scoring a second touchdown for her team, hoping that Ravenblade would be able to come back on.

Unfortunately Tess' had suffered a mild concussion, and was off for the rest of the game. Things only got worse after Longstrider's tackle broke Kate Khaine's arm. She refused to stay off, however, and made the Banshees' apothecary pump her full of painkillers before going back out again.

I'm not sure Khaine is entirely sane, Erin. But the Banshee's left wing woes were far from over. At the beginning of the second half they put Rainjackal there, but she immediately suffered a nasty eye injury after a tackle - again from Edric Foxblade - and it's severe enough to make her miss the next game too.

Fortunately Sinestra will be back by then. Rainjackal is useful, with her ability to strip away the ball from a carrier, but the Banshees do have other players with similar skills. They might have to consider risking Starfire on defense though, if they don't want to lose their speed advantage against non-elf teams.

Wisla Moondragon was next off the field, also with a broken arm, caused by the Okes' journeyman, Elena Oakenrun. With the casualties mounting up, the Banshees defense was faltering, and they resorted to fouling the wardancers and pulling off a heel turn to keep the Okes at bay. Despite being bloodied, Dextra Windstrike scored another two touchdowns, the second one set up by amazing tackle by Shrike deep in the Banshee's half, where she scooped up the ball and passed it off to Dextra.

That was a great play, Bill! Starfire's performance this game was...not great, most of her passes were unsuccessful. Fortunately, Dextra, Shrike and Khaine played amazingly, showing how much depth there is in the team. The Okes were a bit unlucky not to score a couple more touchdowns, they came close quite a few times.

So, how is it looking for the playoffs, Erin?

Well, Bill, the Banshees are undefeated and firmly in first place, no one can catch up to their 22 league points. They will play against the fourth place team in the semis - either the Glenwood Okes or Gunnar Uffe. That leaves the Green Unseen to play the Orange Rats in the other semifinal.

Well, that's all we have time for folks! She's Erin Eventide, and I'm Bill Billingham, and this has been Blood Spatter!