New format with Harrowdeep?

[Malarks]

Looking at the webstore, the card backings in Harrowdeep are different than anything else they have printed.

Has anyone got any insight in to this? Was it just a "whoopsie" in image editing for the store listing?

EDIT: Did some poking around and the language on the Community page is non-specific (at least it is not clear enough to assuage any concerns, sans photos)

There is a new "Rivals" mode - but nothing is saying that the backings of these cards is any different than any other set...

So Harrowdeep still has mysteriously different card backings for no discernible reason(?)

Albeit... Card backings are a non-issue when sleeved...

[dave]

It's a bit obnoxious for those of us who bought clear sleeves, but there's no specific reason other than wanting new art. Universal cards from Direchasm are still legal, Beastgrave cards have been cycled out. Faction specific cards from any era are cool with that warband.

Rivals is meant to be new player/quick play friendly. Rather than building a deck, you use everything that comes with the new warband and just hope GW balanced them all well enough. Older warbands are supposed to use the card expansion decks they plan to release in the future, or Silent Menance, the one already released.

It will be nice if the side effect is that the universal cards a warband comes with are all fairly decent for use with that warband. Certainly hasn't always been the case.

But, back to the new card art, no real meaning other than a shift in design, and a clear signal that these are cards from the current season.

Also, just as an aside, I'd love to get back into Underworlds. Like, for real this time. Not really interested in the new core set warbands, so I'll probably give the season 5 box a miss. Curious to see how they price the new warbands too. New box went from $100 to $125, so I doubt the warbands will stay at $50, which had already pushed them beyond my casual purchase range. So I'll likely be looking to play regular format and skip Rivals anyway.

[Malarks]

The other day I played a game with the Sepulchral Guard vs Hedrakka's Madmod, using default decks... It was a complete wash... Yeah... "Rivals" is going to go great... A good thing GW has such a priority on releasing additional generic card expansions... The Warbands need to get updated, as well...

I think I'll be sticking with playing older editions, avoiding "Rivals" and any great disparity in editions between warbands...

[shakes head] Good ol' GW doing what GW does... Just gotta pick and choose the parts that are fun and ignore the rest, I guess...


(Following new releases from GW is always so depressing, disappointing and over-all frustrating as an experience...)

Edit:


I doubt Warbands are going to be under $50 in price. It may be worth trying to find older editions and Warbands, printing out any cards you may need. (but that is my own personal view on the matter.... And we all know I'm fucked in the head)



I know a few folks who are not happy about having to set up opaque sleeves for their decks. I sympathize with this and am also unimpressed with this "for no reason" change.

[dave]

Oh I know the warbands wont be going down in price, but I was just coming to terms with $50, and now they're going up again. 5 years doesn't feel like enough time to justify the increase from the original $35, but they have gone up each season, so not really surprised any more.

If they stick with the warbands being half the price of a core box, as they have in the past, they'll be coming out at $62.50? Gross, but I wouldn't be shocked. Also wouldn't be buying them as just a fun painting project like I have in the past.

I'll have to resleeve my cards if I end up getting new ones. Such is life, I suppose.

There has definitely been power creep between season 1 and 4, so I'm not too surprised if the original warbands don't quite stack up anymore. Sadly the sepulcral guard were pretty lackluster from the start. They felt like a worse version of the skaven. Cool sculpts though. Zarbag's gits was a much better attempt at a horde warband.

I've got the original stormcast, bloodborne and skaven from season 1. Tzeentch from 2. Beastmen, daughters, and rippa's from 3. And then elves and slaanesh from 4. Was eyeing up a few more season 4 warbands, but yeah, $50 and my hobby budget is already tight.

So on the bright side, I have lots of old warbands and cards to put together a game sometime if you're up for it.

Also, good call on just printing the cards. I never actually got around to doing it, as I didn't care too much about putting together a great deck. Knew a couple of guys who did though. Print them on cardstock, use an opaque sleeve, and they will be indistinguishable from the originals anyway.

[Malarks]

Yeah.... $65 for a Warband is a bit much...

Resleeving is, at the very least, pretty trivial a thing to have to do. I know folks do not like having to sleeve their cards... And so long as the new stuff is not mixed with old, I see no explicit need to commit to sleeving the cards.

Hehehe, Zarbag's is fun. I haven't had much success with them yet, but the models are tonnes of fun! It would be nice if they updated the previous Warbands alongside their decks... I'll not be holding my breath, though. Power creep and GW seems to go hand-in-hand, so I am not at all surprised by this development - though, it is still disappointing and frustrating.

We could try getting a game in, sometime, for sure. I have some personal stuff to get through before I commit to playing games though - we can table this idea until then

[dave]

I like to sleeve mine just because it cuts down on wear. I'm less likely to bend a corner or otherwise mark them, but I do prefer clear sleeves. I can appreciate that this is particularly annoying for those who like them unsleeved.

I'm just guessing on the new price of course. I would have figured $55 for this season before I saw that the core box went up $25 instead of the usual $10. But it didn't go up at all between 3 and 4, so I guess they have to make up the difference plus interest. Now I'll put my guess at $60 for warbands.

I'm pretty sure the intent is to never update the old warbands. Or at least until they run out of new ideas and figure they can resell the old ones with new cards. That's why they retire after two seasons, and can only be purchased without the cards as an AoS unit. Does let them focus on trying to balance fewer options, so that's probably a plus, really. I'm just glad that they say they and their faction specific cards are still fine to use. Not that it would stop me. I look forward to getting my skaven back on the board.

Yeah, no rush on the games. Whenever you're ready and able. I'm currently trying to psych myself up to get back to gaming in person. 40k just isn't doing it for me at the moment, so I'm focusing on AoS and hopefully underworlds.

[newguy]

I'm down for some underworlds. I gave my old stuff away to some cousins but will start over with harrowdeep if people are playing.


Need a new game to focus on now that xwing seems to have jumped the shark.

[newguy]

Bought Harrowdeep today. The S and M orruks are hilarious.

I have another friend in town who is not on this forum that will play as well.

[redshirt2375]

I should have paid more attention, I didn't realize Harrowdeep was already out

[Malarks]

On one hand, I am worried about power-creep, but on the other... I do want to play...

[newguy]

I listen to path to glory which is a pretty solid podcast and from what I'm hearing is that some of the older warbands do feel a little dated, but for the most part all are playable. Sepch Guard, fire dwarves and a couple of the sigmar bands (but there are what? 50 of them now ) are considered low tier while some older ones like the briar queen, lady harrows and the rats are all considered very good.

And with the new illusion upgrades godsworn hunt could be bonkers.