GHB 2023

[nekekami]

All the news here: www.warhammer-community.com/2022/12/21/generals-handbook-2023-a-time-for-galletian-champions/

Looks like it's time for minibosses.

[StepwisePilot]

So, instead of veterans, it's champions now? Also, I haven't played in a while, so am out of the loop, but does the local community play with these special rules introduced in the Generals Handbook?

One part that is worded weirdly:

"Fittingly, there are two new Heroic Actions to choose from this season. Strike at the Opening lets a GALLETIAN CHAMPION fight in the hero phase – turning the tide by striking at a weakened or overeager foe. You can’t use it to fight in the hero phase, however, and that champion suffers the strike-last effect for the rest of the turn.**"


So, they say you can use this option to fight in the hero phase, then immediately states that you can't use it to fight in the hero phase. The actual rule blurb clarifies it by saying you can't fight a second time in the hero phase, but you have to admit that GW could have worded that better the first time around.

[dave]

Personally, I've been enjoying AoS a lot more since we abandoned the last GBH, but that one is pretty terrible. I would be willing to give this one a try, but they will have to do better than last time to keep my interest.

I'm glad they restricted the "hero" battlepack to only buffing small heroes, but I'll reserve judgment until I see what armies and units are really going to be able to run with it.

The article is missing a word there. They are trying say that they can't fight TWICE in the hero phase, even if they have an ability that would allow it. Then strikes last applies the next time they're up in the combat phase. Editing has never been their strong suit.

I actually made a joke a while ago that this season would focus on minor heroes, but as a "balance" GW would implement a new battalion for ranged units allowing them to ignore look out sir and do d6 mortals on 6's to hit. I'm glad they didn't actually take my idea, but I do hope they don't repeat last season and add a hard counter to the "buffed" units and completely disincentivize anyone from taking them.

[sean]

Yeah it looks like it could be interesting, should be good for factions with strong on foot combat heroes like ogres and Chaos. And the not being sniped out should be good for almost everyone.

On a specific to Khaine level it makes the Melusai Ironscales, buff if she kills something actually useful. Which is nice.

[Jack Shrapnel]

hmmm this doesn't seem to bad at all... I'll try it as written when it comes out for sure to see how it plays.

[distractedcarnifex]

I guess it keeps it fresh, but the churn...

I think there will be a counter-battalion to the Galletian Heroes. Hopefully they don’t make the Galletian Champions (?) unplayable...

[Hi I'm Derek]

Not a fan of this system. 40k's is better, you get rules improvements and rebalancing to go with the new missions/secondaries, not seasonal pushed units selected by via dart board.

If the ranked fighting thing is a good idea put it in the core rules. If 40k look out sir is a good idea put it in the core rules. If these are skew mechanics that don't belong in the core rules because they warp the game... then don't put em in the game. My take anyway.

[dave]

So the entire book has leaked at this point. Reviews are out there. The honest wargamer had a pretty comprehensive one. Ironically all the youtube channels who don't get their stuff early from GW are at the advantage here. In a world where so much is leaked in advance, the ones without the privilege of the freebies, and consequently the NDAs, actually get to drop their content first.

Much like the last GHB, they have baked a hard counter for the "pushed" unit into the rules. The new battalion allows up to three units to ignore the gally champ's rule that makes them untargetable by missile weapons.

Not sure if that will be incentive enough for those armies with elite shooting to pick it up instead of going for the battle reg though. For a lot of armies it's mostly meaningless, as they don't have any shooting worth putting into the battalion.

I'm hoping the pack has some fun missions, but overall the champion stuff doesn't actually end up impacting the game all that much. At the moment I'm not planning to buy it anyway. Rules aside, I'm just not down with buying a $60 mission pack twice a year. There are too many other things (more plastic!) that I'd rather spend my hobby budget on.

Edit: also just wanted to add that half of the missions, battle tactics, and grand strats were carried over from the last book. So less to learn, but also less value.

[Hi I'm Derek]

I didn't look it up but if it's just permission to shoot it's merely turning off battlepack rules which is annoying but less warping than the bounty hunters who almost single-handedly rendered foot battleline combat ineffective. I still don't think it's a good concept though, just like the ranked fighting the snipability of support characters is a problem with the core rules that they are clearly aware of but choose not to fix :/

Also I haven't bought any of the GHBs in 3.0 I have my stack of 2.0 ones I didn't realize they were $60 now holy cow.

[dave]

Yeah, the price went up to $60 the same year they decided to do 6 month seasons. Funny how that works.

And yes, the battalion just turns off the seasonal rules. It certainly wont be as game warping as the last one, but the new missions do revolve around scoring with those little foot heroes, so there's extra incentive to snipe them out.

I love AoS 3.0, but the GHB scenario is a real blemish on a fun core system with great battletome design.