They arrived! They're big...
KevinC , I realized what you did with these guys when I was reading through my WoC book last weekend (first time I've looked through it in a while). You took the Chosen profile and rules and mounted them on Daemonic steeds.
I like the idea of an eye of the gods roll before the game starts, it allows you to hopefully roll a stat boost that will help them against whatever they're fighting that game. No idea how to cost this ability though...though +1 armor is useless on them.
I don't know if it's too over the top but I was thinking about a statline for these guys on the way in to work this morning:
M WS BS S T W I A LD
4. 7... 3.. 5 4 3 6 4. 9
Keep them mounted on a daemonic steed, I think it's a perfect mount choice.
Here's my line of thinking:
They're supposed to be "warlords of incredible power and menace...they command the respect of mortal lords and kings, Daemon Princes and Daemon Kings".
With your free roll on the EotG table you can never make these guys T6. I think that's a good thing. (so...another "wasted roll") They can hit S6 (7 with ensorcelled weapons) which I think is acceptable. That much strength is largely wasted and not necessarily a good choice, however it gives you the option to go monster/knight hunting if you need it.
Also because they can never take a mark they have NO access to things like ward saves, extra attacks, and will always be hit on a 4+ in combat unless they're fighting someone ws3 or less. I think that a decent statline compensates for this.
They also have no access to a command so no standard for that mission that needs it and they're already down a point of combat res in combat (probably at -4 cause they won't have ranks. They'll need to kill 5 models and not take any wounds back just to win combat by one!)
I was initially thinking chaos lord stats but that's crazy in a rare choice where you can have 2+ of the guys. I think that an Exalted Champions stats accurately reflect these guys. An exalted can easily be a "warlord of incredible power"; he just hasn't been exalted to a chaos lord yet...maybe because he's been at Archaons beck and call this whole time?
I view these guys as Chaos's answer to things like demigryphs and those crazy stormhost drake rider guys (that should be their name). they get 7A from rider/mount all at WS5 so I feel that 4 WS7 and 3 WS4 attacks are fair.
MAYBE...I don't know...I see these guys coming out in large games where a general can't be everywhere but possibly give them inspiring presence? They're supposed to "command the respect of mortal lords and kings, Daemon Princes and Daemon Kings" and LD9 and/or inspiring presence (maybe just a 6" one?) COULD reflect that. most chaos is already ld8 so it won't come into play much if they're LD8; LD9 shows that maybe they've followed the "path of command" a little more than a standard exalted hero. Just spitballing here though.
They're supposed to be armed with 3 different choices of weapon, here are my thoughts on each one:
ensorcelled weapon: we already know what this is and what it does.
fellspear: this is probably just meant to be a lance like knights "hellglaive" and crushers "bloodglaive"
daemonforged blade: I see this as either being more attacks OR multiple wounds. I think the daemon weapon of old was +1WS, +1S, and +1A. WS8 doesn't matter much, the extra strength can (and probably will be) overkill against 90% of their opponents, but the +1 attack is always useful. Just my thoughts.
Well...this went longer than I though it would.
In closing: All of this is open to debate, I've just pointed out one-mans opinion of how these guys should perform. I'm thinking somewhere in the 150-180 point threshold is where these guys should land; if it's the consensus that this iteration is too powerful for those points then they should probably be toned down a little bit. But I don't think they should cost more than around 180 points each, and that includes weapon choice.
I'm also looking for basing ideas! I'm planning to do the one on his forelegs leaping over a hedge, the one that's running will be chasing down a fleeing imperial (I [should] still have that model from the giant kit, I don't think I've given it away and I know I haven't used it). But what about the guy who's rearing up? Any thoughts?
EDIT: S6 at Initiative all the time may be too much. I kind of like the idea though of these guys going after the elites of the enemy; the knights, the monsters, etc... it's fluffy. Leave the chaff clearing to the skullcrushers.
