As always we’d like to thank Games Workshop for providing us with a review copy of the Codex. We have also been provided with a provisional Battle Profile list for the army to use when writing the review, but please note that these points are subject to change until they are published on Warhammer Community.

The subjects of the New Summercourt are here to liberate us from the chains of oppression and they’re as…eclectic as ever. This book gives us a full revamp of the Flesh-eater Courts army with a slew of new Battle Traits, Army Abilities, and Warscroll updates. There’s a feast of content here, so let’s dig in.

What’s New

We’ve got another Battletome where just about everything has changed. FEC have gotten a completely new suite of Battle Traits and almost every Warscroll has been adjusted in some way. The good news is it’s almost all for the better and the army identity has been preserved and pushed more to the forefront. Here are our main takeaways:

• Delusions are back. You no longer have to bring Ushoran to get half your army rule. Instead the different heroes you bring dictate what your ghouls are imagining they’re doing, giving you a flavorful and flexible toolbox to work with.
• Everything is slightly more elite. Almost everything in the book got a glow up in some way but costs have risen to compensate. 
• Monsters are good. Do you have five Terrorgheists? That’s still way too many but now you can feel less bad about putting them on the table.
• Nobles and courtiers might be a skip. Every non-Abhorrant hero that you take is now leaving rules on the table, and with weak Warscrolls and Charnel Vestments no longer being mandatory, they’re a tough sell.

Faction Rules

Battle Traits

Everything except Noble Blood (which is just a catch all to heal all your Abhorrants in your Hero Phase) is different here from the index.

The biggest change is Delusions. A Kingdom Deluded has you select a Delusion you have available to you at the beginning of the game (more on that in a second), and then at the beginning of every turn you roll a D6: on a 1-2 you have to pick a new Delusion available to you, on a 3-4 you have to stay in the same Delusion you’re currently in, and on a 5-6 you get to pick to either keep or change Delusions. This means that every time you roll you have a 2/3s chance to get the result you want, either by force or by choice. That said having to roll this every turn makes for a very chaotic rule which adds a bit of drama to your games.

The Battle Traits give you two Delusions to pick from. First is A Splendid Pageant which lets you treat a 1-3 result on a run roll as a 4 while a unit is wholly within 12” of a Flesh-Eater Courts Hero and Infantry Heroes count as not being visible outside 6” as long as they’re in combat range of an infantry unit with 5 or more models. This is great for getting your guys into position and keeping your Heroes safe. Your other option is A Glorious Banquet which gives a +1 to hit on the charge while your units are wholly within 12” of a Flesh-Eater Courts Hero. A lot of your stuff in this book will help you charge and relies on charging, so this is a great Delusion to open up with. Outside these all your other Delusions will be found on specific Abhorrants. Each comes with their own Delusion to add to your toolbox which creates a really cool way to tailor your army rule to a particular build or meta.

The rest here are tweaked versions of index rules. Summon Loyal Subjects is now a Command that costs 1CP, which brings in a replacement Serf or Knight unit wholly within 6” of a battlefield edge and outside 9” of enemy models. This is vastly simplified compared to its Index counterpart and lets you plan your turns much easier. Muster Guard is now automatic in your Hero Phase, allowing you to select every Noble and then pick either a Serf unit wholly within 12” or a Knight unit wholly within 12” and return three or one models to the unit respectively. The downside is you can’t select the same unit for this ability in a turn, so no more refilling a Morbheg Knight unit from just one model. That said this is again, much simpler and much more predictable than the old Noble Point system. Last up is Feeding Frenzy which is now a very simple once per game +1 attack wholly within 12” of a target hero. This is probably the only straight downgrade of the group here. But getting it on command for your go turn is very welcome and allows for some brutal alpha strikes.

Battle Formations

Lords of the Manor is the only one here that’s still the same as it was in the index. This probably falls off a bit considering you can no longer stack Muster Guard procs to fill units more efficiently. The good news is the rest of the formations get major glow ups for the first part.

Knightly Echelon replaces the old Cannibal Court, choosing to focus on Knights instead of Heroes, giving a Knight unit +1 Rend on the charge if the unit is wholly within 12” of a Hero. If you’re a Crypt Horror enjoyer like me my eyes popped out of my skull when I read this one. Your knights are some of your strongest units but FEC has always struggled with having relatively low rend. This formation lets you create some horrifying situations for your opponent.

Next up is The Royal Hunt which provides a familiar ability letting your Serfs do an extra Pile In if they’re in combat and do D3 mortals on a 2+. This is less interesting than the old Ghoul Patrol and is a bit of a miss, but extra movement is always valuable.

Lastly, there’s Royal Menagerie which lets non-Hero Monsters use their Rampage abilities even if another Monster has used the same one and gives them Strikes-First if they charged this turn and the result of the Charge was a 9+. There’s a lot of bonuses to charge in this book and both monsters have received massive glow ups so you can absolutely build around this Formation.

Heroic Traits

Everything here is new! First up is Stronger in Madness, giving you the ability to ignore the first damage point that would be allocated to the model each phase and no weapon abilities that aren’t Companion have any effect on this model. This rules incredibly hard and is very fun on the new big monster characters. Next up is Savage Beyond Reason which gives you +1 attacks if you didn’t fight last turn and +2 if you didn’t fight at all. This also affects companion weapons! So once again the Ghoul King on Terrorgheist stays winning. Lastly there’s the familiar Cruel Taskmaster which now just gives a unit reroll charges in your charge phase. This is less splashy but if your heroes don’t plan on going into combat this is a good move.

Artefacts of Power

Charnel Vestments is still here and still does the same thing but the other two choices are new. The Splintered Femur lets you, at the end of your turn, roll a D3 targeting an enemy unit in combat to be the target. On a 2+ you can either; do that many mortal wounds, subtract 1 from the target’s power level, or auto banish a manifestation. This is nice and flexible and a really nice add. The other pick is the more combat-focused Grisly Pennant which lets you roll a die targeting an enemy unit if you charged this phase and if you beat their control score, or on a 6, they get -1 to hit and your units get +1 to hit them. In the faction pack it was Charnel Vestments or bust, but with the monster heroes being so much more viable now these combat options suddenly shoot up in value. 

Spell Lore

The spell lore is largely the same. Deranged Transformation is identical to its index iteration, which is great because it’s a fantastic unlimited spell. Charnel Feast now only works on reviving serfs now so it loses some utility there. Meanwhile Miasma of Madness is fully simplified to now inflict a mortal to the target for each 1 they roll while fighting. This is a welcome change from the old version which was frankly just too much work for not enough effect. 

Prayer Lore

The prayer lore received a bit of an overhaul. Your unlimited prayer is Excommunication! which lets you ignore positive save modifiers and wards if you chant it on a 10+. This makes for a great debuff you can pass out, but the heal will be missed. Charnel Conviction is still the same, giving you a 5+ ward on something, or two things on a 10+. With Noble Deed Points gone, Summerking’s Favor gets an overhaul. It now gives a hero (not Nagash, unfortunately) +1 damage and on a 10+ you can instead use two fight abilities this turn. This is a neat little buff especially on your more combat oriented nobles. 

Endless Spells

The endless spells get revisited in some really interesting ways. Cadaverous Barricade is largely unchanged, although it now has a 5+ save and has a banishment characteristic of 8+. This is largely a wash, but having the ability be the same is great because this is one of your strongest options in the lore. Corpsemare Stampede meanwhile is completely different and way cooler for it. In your charge phase it can do a special charge where it moves 2d6” toward a board edge and does mortals to things it passes across on a D3 2+. Where it gets neat is it adds the value of the charge roll to the number of attacks it has in combat, and every round it sticks around gives it another D6 on the roll. This can make for a really scary combat piece if left unattended. Lastly there’s the Chalice of Ushoran which targets an enemy unit in the fight phase and on a 3+ they either lose weapon abilities or you can score critical hits against them on a  5+. Its a bit of a niche use case where both of these are bad, but if you have a terrorgheist fighting some cav that just charged you can do some brutal stuff with this.

Faction Terrain

Lastly there’s the Charnel Throne which sees a rewrite with Noble Deed points leaving the book. Instead you can move a non-hero unit D3” in the movement phase or D6” if you set that unit up this turn. This is an insanely powerful ability. There’s also a bunch of bonuses to charge in this book now, so there’s quite a few combos you can do with this on things getting set up. On top of that there’s no stipulation on if the thing is in combat or not and the only restriction is it can’t move into combat with that move which means you can leave combat with Fly unit if you roll well enough and positioned correctly, allowing you to then move elsewhere. If you don’t already have a chair, get one.

Warscrolls

What’s New

We only have one new unit, High Falconer Felgryn. For some reason he has a 4+ save (he’s wearing a shirt I guess?) and he has a shooting attack at 4+ 4+ no rend D6 damage which can oopsie snipe out something but will do nothing most of the time. Otherwise he’s a standard Abhorrant profile with not a ton to write home about there. Ability wise, he has a token, adorably named Grype, which he can put on an enemy unit in the Hero Phase and while it’s bothering an enemy unit they don’t get Ward rolls for attacks made by Felgryn and Serf units. This is a bit too niche to be particularly helpful unless you’re looking to spam Cryptguard and even then there are games where it won’t be relevant. His Delusion, Sir Felgryn is Abroad! gives enemy units -10 to their control score if they’re in combat with Serfs, non-Hero Monsters, or Beasts. This can be really strong in a Serf heavy list, but for the most part he seems like a bit of a niche pick.

What’s Not

Almost every Warscroll that isn’t Nagash and Crypt Ghouls got one change or another so settle in.

Heroes

We’ll start with the big man, Ushoran. He keeps his potent combat profile, his ability to hand out strikes last, and his Warscroll spell that makes an enemy unit fight something nearby. Otherwise though, he gets his own Delusion which gives all friendly units +1 to run and charge rolls, -1 to run and charge rolls for enemy units, and Anti-Charge (+1 Rend) for Serfs in friendly territory that didn’t charge. This is a really strong one, and is the only one that affects enemy units. In addition, you can change the roll for determining your Delusion by +/- 1. This means you’ll get the Delusion you want one way or the other as long as you don’t roll a 1. Overall this makes Ushoran move from an auto take, necessary to every list, but keeps him a very powerful piece on the table that’s very much worth his points.

Both Ghoul Kings on monster mounts see massive glow ups, to the point that all my test lists so far have included a Ghoul King on Terrorgheist, so lets start with him. The Terrorgheist itself sees its maw move to D3+3 damage and simply gains Crit-Mortals instead of its old rule. While this is less splashy, it’s way more consistent and there’s a few ways to add more attacks to this profile. The Skeletal Talons also pick up Crit-Mortals. Where things get nutty is its abilities. The Delusion on this Warscroll grants +1 attacks for companion weapons within 12” of a Hero, fantastic on other Terrorgheists or a unit of Morbheg Knights. Wicked Predator comes standard on all Terrorgheists and gives its skeletal talons +1 attack for each Champion, Standard Bearer, or Musician in the target unit to a max of 10. Notably that’s the highest number of attacks that profile can get unfortunately. Lastly, its rampage gives +1 to hit for Companion weapons on the model, allowing your Maw to get that much more consistent. For those counting at home, with the Delusion, Stronger in Madness, Feeding Frenzy, and Savage Abomination from the Scourge of Ghyran Monstrous Traits you can get the Maw to 8 attacks which can be suitably brutal.

The king on zombie dragon meanwhile stays a more buff-focused piece. Its companion weapons pick up Crit (Auto-Wound) and the jaws gained an attack and a point of damage. It keeps its run and charge aura but it only applies to non-hero monsters. As a rampage, it turns off commands for a unit if you roll above its control score. Lastly, its Delusion gives Knights and Monsters +2 to charge within 12” of this unit and +1 to charge within 12” of other Heroes. Notably you can stack this for a +3 to charge, which makes the Royal Menagerie charge bonus that much easier to achieve.

Moving to our foot heroes, we’ll start with the sanest, most responsible vampire, Grand Justice Gormayne. Combat-wise he’s unchanged, nothing much to write home about. Ability-wise he has Arrest those Miscreants! which lets you pick an enemy unit within 18” and on a 3+ you can give it Strikes-Last as long as it’s in combat with a Hero and a Serf or a Knight. This sounds like a lot of set up but in practice this isn’t too hard to do if you’re bringing some combat characters. His Delusion is an interesting one. Accusations of Regicide gives Serfs and Knights +1 damage if they’re wholly within 12” of a Hero that took damage this turn. This can be devastating on a double wide unit of Cryptguard or even just basic ghouls if you can set it up. I spent a while trying to come up with a way to hurt your own dudes to try and get this off, and best i could come up with is Launchon the Soulseeker (from the Forbidden Power lore) which can skate a hero into position for the low low price of one wound. Overall though Gormayne’s biggest asset is his cost. At 110 points he’s a great list filler and a great candidate to sit in the big chair for your movement buffs.

Probably the biggest dropoff in the book, or at least tied for it with the Vargulf (we’ll get to this sad sack later), is the Abhorrant Archregent. He lost a point of health and is now a Wizard (1) but at least his Countless Servants ability is untouched. His Warscroll spell is gone as it’s mostly just baked into the chair and instead he has his Delusion which gives -1 to hit for units within 12” of a Hero which is a bit situational but very useful in those situations. He’s far from a bad unit and sees a points drop appropriately but far from the auto include he once was.

The humble Ghoul King on foot continues to try and stay relevant. His Code of Honour ability moves to being a Delusion which now grants +1 damage to any non-Unique Hero targeting a Hero and he also allows a nearby Serfs unit to fight right after him with +1 to wound. The +1 damage can be cute but the pool of units its useful for is relatively small.

The Gorewarden gets a bit of a rewrite. Instead of teleporting units around, he now allows any two units in his regiment to go in reserve with him and they can come down wholly within 12” of him and outside of 9” of enemies. He gets a nice bonus where he can pick a unit to come in outside 6” instead of 9”, making your deepstrikes a bit more flexible. Lastly his Delusion gives units +1 to charge near Heroes or +2 if they were set up this turn. This has been a staple of my test games since it not only works on the stuff he brings in, but also works on your teleporting units (of which there’s a few now) or even just replacement units you summoned in. The only downside is you cant take the Scourge of Ghyran version if you want an objective play bozo. If that sheet gets the new Delusion, I’ll absolutely start struggling to pick between the two.

The Abhorrant Cardinal has a very simple but effective +1 to chant outside of 6” of enemy units and his Delusion grants +2 to Banishment rolls and a 4+ ward against damage inflicted by spell, prayers and manifestations. The prayer lore being what it is and the +1 to chant absolutely make this unit worth taking, especially considering he makes a great chair sitter, but the Delusion can be a fantastic thing to have in your back pocket and is a great consideration in a spell-heavy meta.

Moving away from our Abhorrants, our first Noble is the Marrowscroll Herald who sees a bit of a nerf. He loses his invisibility while near allies as that’s been rolled into one of the base Delusion abilities. The Kings Entreaty ability no longer requires the Marrowscroll to be in combat and instead has a 6″ range, which will keep him alive a little bit longer if you want to use it. The downside is that whilst it still activates on a 3+, your opponent now gets to choose between one of two effects. The first is a debuff that causes spells, prayers and commands to get cancelled on a 5+ for the rest of the game and the second is strike-last. This makes the Herald a bit more niche and he probably falls off a couple lists.

The Royal Decapitator maintains largely the same role as a character hunter to go with your Serfs. His ability to let Serfs fight directly after him now also gives the Crit (2 Hits) which unfortunately doesn’t stack with Crit (Auto-Wound) most serfs have, which is… mathematically the same so might as well not be there. His auto kill a hero ability now requires a 2d6 roll over their wounds characteristic but now happens right after he fights instead of the end of the turn so he doesn’t have to survive combat to pop off.

The Crypt Haunter Courtier is the same as he was. He still lets Crypt Horrors fight after he does with +1 to hit and Heals on each of your turns. The Crypt Infernal Courtier sees a buff however, his +1 damage for nearby Flayer shooting now only requires you to do damage instead of slaying a model and now when Crypt Flayers teleport nearby (yeah they do that now) they get to move D3” which is really neat combined with the D6” extra move from the chair. Combine this with the Gorewarden and you can do nonsense like bringing the Infernal down with the Gorewarden, teleporting over the Flayers and have them moving d3+d6″ with a +2 to charge from the Delusion.

Overall your Nobles are all kind of a miss. Between debuffs and the glow ups to Abhorrants I’ve largely been skipping them in my lists. While I lose access to Muster Guard I gain a lot more flexibility in my delusions and most of the time my units are either fine or dead and I just respawn them for a CP since it doesn’t require Noble Deed points anymore. Crypt Infernals are probably the best of the bunch since they work really well with the Flayer gameplan, and the Decapitator is cheap enough to throw into Serf heavy lists where Mustering is more useful, but otherwise I’d rather have more stuff.

The Rest

You may have noticed the Vargulf Courtier wasn’t in the Hero section; well, that’s because he’s not a Hero anymore. Our main batman has been downgraded to a Beast along with the Beast rule to max his control score to 1. He no longer pseudo-flies and Victory Feast sees a major downgrade, no longer giving you a free retreat, and instead giving you a 10” move that has to end in combat if you were in combat and a 10” move that can’t end in combat if you weren’t. If this dude were still a hero, some of this might make sense,  as there are a ton of really great combos and buffs that would do wonders for him. But not being a character and not being a Serf or Knight means he gets almost nothing with no stat or ability buffs to make up for it. Pour one out for our lanky friend, he’s gonna be hanging on the shelf for a bit.

Monsters see very similar changes to the Hero versions of them. The Terrorgheist has the same increase Skeletal Talons ability as the Hero version and also gets the ability to do mortals to an infantry unit by rolling for each model and doing mortals on a 6. As an added bonus the unit gets -1 to hit if three or more mortals are done with this ability. Meanwhile the Royal Zombie Dragon gets a more technical role, with the ability to teleport in your movement phase (even if its in combat!) and the ability to move 2d6” on a 3+ if it charged and do some mortals on the move. This makes both these sheets interesting for their 230ish cost and I expect to see these on the table a lot more now.

Let’s move to Serfs. Crypt Ghouls stay the same, providing a cheap chaff unit that can be surprisingly lethal in the right context. As if they weren’t already great, Cryptguard see a buff with their weapons picking up Anti-Charge (+1 Rend) and Crit (Auto-wound). Their Royal Bodyguard ability unfortunately sees a pretty significant change, only working on non-Monster Heroes now. That said their old ability to turn off commands if they do damage is replaced with the ability to, on a 3+ turn off their wards but give themselves Strike-First. This makes for a unit that you very much Do Not Want To Charge. Lastly Royal Beastflayers see a bit of a dive, losing their Royal Flaymaster ability, but they stay a good choice if you find yourself in a monster heavy meta.

Knights all see some changes. Starting with my personal favorite, Crypt Horrors, these guys see a major glow up. They no longer heal, but picked up a point of rend on their weapons in addition to Anti-Cavalry (+1 Rend) and now roll 2 dice per model at the beginning of combat, adding 2 to the roll if you target Cavalry, and on each 5+ do a mortal. A mortal spike and being rend 3 with Knightly Echelon makes these cavalry murderers par excellence. As well as these guys being a great damage piece, the mental image of a large naked man full on tackling a horse to the ground to beat it to death rules incredibly hard. 

Crypt Flayers move toward being more of a utility unit, with the new ability to teleport in each of your movement phases. Meanwhile Morbheg Knights change a bit as well. They’re the same melee powerhouses they were, but they can no longer fall back and charge and no longer do mortals on the charge. Instead they now can retreat for free at the end of your opponent’s turn and deal D3 mortals on the way out. This may seem functionally the same, but it means that if you get the double you’ll be stuck in combat and it makes any retreat and charge Battle Tactics harder to do. On the other hand, in normal turn order, you effectively get another 12” of movement out of them, allowing them to zip around the table. This is an interesting change and I’m keen to see how it shakes out.

Sample List

Crazy Like a Fox - Click to Expand

This list aims to do one thing: Hit your opponent really really hard and keep the pressure up all game. There’s a sizable amount of mortals this list can output too, between the King on Terrorgheist and the Crypt Horrors. Goremayne can help things pop off once the Terrorgheist gets stuck in, allowing you to juice your Serfs and Knights with his delusion and letting you remove the ability for important threats to strike before any of your knights. The list also gives you the option of coming down with the Crypt Horrors along with the Gorewarden to apply some really scary threats to your opponent’s backline. If this list is missing anything its more casts, it may be worth dropping one of the knight units and adding more casters or even Ushoran. 

Rules of Renown

Armies of Renown

First up for your Armies of Renown is The Knights of New Summercourt which is your Ushoran-focused Army. You have to take Ushoran and can’t include any Serfs or named Abhorrants but otherwise you’re pretty free with what you can take. For Battle Traits, there’s some really flavorful abilities here. First there’s The Summerking’s Colors which gives all friendly units wholly within 24” of a unit with a banner you select at deployment +10 to their control scores but all units get -5 if all the standard bearers are destroyed. This de facto has to go on Morbheg Knights but you were probably bringing a bunch of those anyway. A Duel Good Sir has to be used if Ushoran is in combat with the enemy general, giving your opponent the choice to either have their general put all their attacks into Ushoran and Ushoran put all their attacks into them, or the general gets Strike-Last for the rest of the turn. It’s a bit niche and honestly more often than not a drawback but who am I to argue with the Summerking. In Their Sire’s Shadow gives you a once per game counter charge with Ushoran and up to 2 Knight units. You have to move Ushoran first and the Knights need to end in combat range of Ushoran but this can be a pretty terrifying prospect for your opponent to stare down. The Knight’s Vow is an interesting one, having you roll a D6 for each unit that didn’t charge this turn and if you roll a 6 you stop rolling and that unit gets two fight abilities this phase. Very neat but can easily result in you getting nothing useful. Nightmarish Charge is the real juice here. Giving units -1 to hit in the turn they charged, this can be brutal on Ushoran or a King Terrorgheist, or anything really. Lastly there’s Red Errantry Hosts which lets you respawn a knight unit in every one of your movement phases.

For your Heroic Trait you get Tip of the King’s Lance which lets it move 2D6” in the combat phase if it charges but it has to end that move in combat and for your Artefact you get the Feted Coronet which gives a unit a 4+ Ward until another friendly unit is destroyed. Put both of these on a king on Terrorgheist, full stop. For spells, you get both Deranged Transformation and Miasma of Madness which are great picks, and for your prayer you have Excommunication which I wish was Charnel Conviction.

While this is a very strong list of rules, the biggest drawback is you lose out on Delusions, effectively removing a rule from all the Abhorrants you take and two from Ushoran. That said there’s a very strong list here with Ushoran, a King on Terrorgheist, maybe a King on Zombie Dragon and a bunch of Morbheg Knights. I wouldn’t be shocked to see this pop up in Competitive Innovations after this book comes out.

If you looked at the previous Army of Renown and thought, “Man I hate huge guys, I want a bunch of tiny weirdos,” I have great news, The Equinox Feast might be for you. You have to take High Falconer Felgryn and can only take non-Unique non-Monster Heroes and otherwise can only take Serf Units. For Battle Traits, each round you get access to a new ability but that’s the only Battle Trait you get that round. In the first round you get The Equinox Parade which gives +1 to run rolls for each other friendly unit that ran this phase and +D6” on retreats. That second ability would be really cool if you weren’t drawing in regiments in this Army and it wasn’t only available in round 1 where you’ll almost certainly be going first. In round two you get an ability to use in your opponent’s charge phase called A Display of Falconry which does D3 damage on a 2+ to everything that charged. Not wowed so far. Ritual Dance gives you a 6” Pile in against units with champions, standard bearers or musicians in round three. This is good but somewhat situational. In round four you get Eat Your Fill! which lets you heal a unit D3 or return 3 models to a unit that isn’t damaged every time you fight. This is good but we’re so deep in the hole at this point, its not really enough to dig us out. Lastly there’s Make Merry ‘Til The Morn which gives units a 4+ Ward while they’re within 3” of two other visible friendly units. By this point, if you have three units to use this ability, they either are so small they don’t matter, or you already won. I’m not crazy about this set of rules but it could make for an okay jail list with a bazillion ghouls, I suppose.

For your Heroic Trait you have Lord of Revelries which lets you ignore the first damage point you receive each phase. This is just worse than the base rules’ Stronger in Madness. Your Artefact is the Broken Scepter of the Solstice which lets you revive a unit once per battle at full strength. This is probably the best thing in this Army of Renown, so treasure it. You get a unique prayer, Midsummer Mania which lets you return D3 models to a unit or D3+3 if you chanted the prayer on an 8+. This is unlimited and is probably your bread and butter for keeping your Serf units full. Solarite Flares is your unique spell which has you pick a point and everything within 3” (friendly and enemy) gets -1 to hit. Again this is unlimited and is key for keeping your chaff in the game.

Overall this just doesn’t have enough juice to overcome the really strong rules you’re giving up. On top of that, the playstyle seems really boring, just having you rush a few hundred Ghouls up and then just stand there and get hit until the game ends. I would just run the base ruleset.

Regiments of Renown

There are two Regiments of Renown to pick from here. Other Death armies can get a Terrorgheist called The Horror of Hallow’s Watch. It has to charge if it has the ability to, unfortunately, but can get extra attacks on its shooting if it somehow manages to kill a whole unit with it. This is cute and provides some extra punch but most of the armies it can go in would rather just have units that get their army rules.

Meanwhile The Scarlet Jury, Goremayne, a Royal Decapitator, and 10 Cryptguard, can go with an eclectic group of hosts: Any Death army, Cities of Sigmar, Kharadron Overlords, Slaves to Darkness, and any Destruction army has access to these and they get Goremayne’s Delusion at all times. Unfortunately your options for “damaged hero” are Goremayne, who does not want to be in combat, or a Royal Decapitator that will just die the second anything is dedicated to killing it.

Final Thoughts

Overall this is a fantastic book. The rules writing team clearly had a lot of fun with this one, and a lot more units have a reason to see the table now than before. I’m particularly happy with the glow ups to monsters who now feel like a unit that won’t get recurred as opposed to the wet noodles they were before. The Delusion system also feels really flexible, and I’d love to see more armies play with their Battle Traits in similar ways in the future.

Chimp: Dropping in at the end of the review to echo Norman – this is my favourite Battletome of the edition so far. Something about Flesh-Eaters brings out the best in the design team, and you can feel the love and fun crammed into the rules. We’ve seen concern from the community over the new Delusion system being a bit random, which it is, but being unshackled from all of your battle traits keying off of the also very random Noble Deeds mechanic is a fantastic change. The key for me is that the delusions you have access to are totally under your control, they’re built into your list writing. You might be forced to change delusion every round, but it’s not some random new ability, it’s one you can choose from a list that you created. It’s a neat way to have an army that should feel chaotic do so without taking away a too much control from the player.

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