Surprise! It’s a rules update. Here at Goonhammer Dot Com we’re big fans of the W’adrhŭn, greatest of Conquests armies (Editor: Sockbert wrote this hot take, didn’t they?), and it’s always good to see Para Bellum doing a bit of what we call active management of the game. The overall theme of this update appears to be small tweaks to re-open some list building spaces after some of the internal synergies in W’adrhŭn got closed off in February.
Running Through the Changes
Brood of Omgorah drops from 45 point to 25. The Brood upgrade was at best only questionably worth 45 points before the February update when it could be used to let a character riding it score even when embedded in Raptor Riders, and its value tanked the moment character weight classes were removed. At 25pts, this upgrade is still expensive, but no longer prohibitively so. While Predators already have a mounted option that the Brood is mostly a sidegrade to, Chieftains and Matriarch Queens can join cavalry units much more effectively now, potentially opening up some neat plays like accompanying Thunder Riders without needing a 160pt Thunder Chieftain or giving up the incredible Tribe’s Pride rule on the Foot Chieftain, and we can maybe see a world where Raptor Riders are led into battle by a Matriarch Queen with a bit of punch.
Mantle of the Devoted can now be taken by cavalry characters, which in practice means either a Thunder Chieftain (Mounted Predators remain somewhat… lacking) or a Foot Chieftain with Brood of Omgorah (taking Long Lineage to allow the Mantle as a second upgrade, and still coming out only 10pts more expensive than the Thunder Chieftain while retaining Tribe’s Pride and an extra attack, but giving up linebreaker, trample etc). War and Famine are both outstanding cults for this regiment, with War turning them into an incredibly durable brawler unit with high defence, high resolve, and massive potential in a protracted melee. Famine, by comparison, can lead to some horrific triceratops action where your Thunder Rider unit hits Tier 3 Famine and gets Impact 6 with Brutal Impact 2 and Terrifying 1 at Clash 5 – who needs a clash action at that point?
Thunder Riders drop from 250 points a unit to 230. Points drops are always appreciated, and this helps offset the cost of a Mantle of the Devoted, but you’re still paying a whopping four hundred and thirty points for three Thunder Riders and a Thunder Chieftain. Yes, it’s damn good, but it’s also a fifth of your army, and you probably want a slightly larger unit to get the full impact (eeyyyy) of those Impact attacks. You absolutely need to have a plan with these guys and an army built around them; it’s very tempting to just slap a unit of these in, but at that point you’re almost playing a 1500 point army and a 500 point army, and you lose a lot of synergy at that point. Or, go all in and go all cavalry and monsters. Let your murder dino flag fly.
Tying a few of these changes together, there’s one key thing to note here. You cannot have Cult of Conquest if you are a cavalry character. While Voice of Conquest lets you take the Cult of Conquest for the character and their regiment, the PDF rules (not the app) is clear that Teachings of Conquest are for infantry characters only. No triple activation Thunder Riders for you!
Raptor Riders go down 10 points to 180 and Huntress upgrade is now free. We’ve seen some neat tricks locally with a couple of Raptor units pushed up early to try and mulch enemy Lights and disrupt or pin Mediums coming in (side charging enemy regiments with Flurry is a hell of a drug), and now the unit gains a free extra attack and reroll to charges to help that out. 180 points is still a lot, but the total package might just be appealing enough now to do something like slot into a Predator warband where they’re mainstay and unlock Slingers. That’s… actually pretty neat, when you consider just how mobile and valuable a small unit of them can be. Now if only they could still score…
Does This Move the Needle?
…maybe? The Mantle change was something promised some time ago, with the devs noting it was a slight overcorrection coming off the back of the dreaded Mantle Tontorr, and its return alongside the other updates open up a bit more versatility in list construction. Fanatic Thunder Riders were popular in the United States before the February update and while the full Chieftain warlord synergy that previously enabled them is still split between buffing cavalry or infantry and monsters, we expect to see this regiment re-emerge as something to be feared in those lists that can afford it.
In terms of where the faction sits in terms of power level, the W’adrhŭn still live in a world with Spires, Dweghom, and Old Dominion. Extra options matter, and Fanatic Thunder Riders being back on the table are a big change, but our earnest take is that if we see more W’adrhŭn players on event podiums in the near future, it’s more because the update is resulting in them being played more than that their power level has spiked. And that’s good! More varied lists are more fun, a faction that’s more fun gets played more, and a faction that’s played more invariably sees interesting results off the back of more player innovations. In short, any rules tweak that opens up new options is awesome and we’re excited to ride forth into a new cavalry W’adrhŭn world.
Para Bellum have also let slip that the next big update is in October, so let’s ride the lightning all the way to Halloween!
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