I am seeing the new army hold its own in competitive tournaments. I have seen both infantry-focused and cav-focused versions of the army win with above average rates and give tough battles. My son (with a tough Lizardman army) went 4-1 one major Indy GT tournament in June with his only loss to empire and went 3-2 in another in early August with one of his two losses to empire (He has won two second best general awards and one best general awards in major-40+ player tourneys this year). We've also play-tested it and run simulations of the units in combat. One no longer feels a like it is a "cheesy" army to play against where one has no chance if the dice roll well ifor the empire player n the first two turns of the game (with the old stank, waltar, and cannons and mortars with engineers combined with dispel dice spam making it such that you sometimes had no chance if the dice were lucky), but the army, when well designed, always gives one a tough fight. Now, subtle army design choices and tactics seem to matter more than before with this army.
My observations are as follows:
1. You have more effective options than before in terms of designing a competitive army from an infantry-focused to a cav-focused build.
2. They really nerfed or hurt:
A. War alter +AL combo by nerfing VHS, taking away unbreakable, making you pay for the ward save for the AL on top - With the new rules, it really does not pay to risk the general on a Walter when one is likely to see cannons on the table (dwarves, empire, and ogre ironblasters) and does not pay to run a Walter with another general. It is still worth playing a Waltar for the prayer bubble but you take a big risk.
B. Crossbowmen and handgunners-especially with the move or shoot and points cost increase
C. Flaggelants were totally screwed up with the combo of the new martyr rules and points cost increase (plus can no longer be core unti)-they should be special but maybe ten points a model and allow a war priest to join the unit (typical GW deal where a unit complained about-although I wasn't that impressed with them before-and going overboard)
D. Mortars were totally screwed up -they should have increased the points cost like they did with cannons, not nerf and increase the cost
E. Engineers-now must declare what war machine they attend to in advance and cannot join a war machine crew, basically means that engineer is only worthwhile with a HBVG and a cannon (cannon when the HVBG is not in range and HVBG always otherwise) and you cannot shoot when the re-roll misfire is not needed
F. Free company are not worth an extra point and swordmasters wen from being an obvious choice for core infantry to less preferred relative to spearmen and halberds. By increasing the cost of most of the militia and state troop models, they are effectively forcing you to rely on war priest prayers and/or augment effects like the hurricanum to make a heavy infantry army viable.
G. They did not need to increase the points cost of greatswords.
3. They gave you:
A. DG knights-they need to be run in single ranks because of the loss of attacks of the mount in supporting attacks, but they are one of the most points efficient models in the game right now-However, why did they not allow for a DG mount for a character, especially a marshall or captain. It basically means you can only run a character on peg with the unit to get a look out sir and then only with 5+ DG knights (not champion)
B. War priests have better prayers in terms of augmenting their units instead of primarily benefitting the war priest-The bound 3 instead of 4, no longer RIP, prayers makes them easier to cast and a war priest can cast them all in a single phase, instead of only one. The loss of dispel dice was predictable, but the prayers are really good and dramatically increase the effectiveness of the units they are in. Also, the ability of a prayer to benefit a parent and its detachments is quite important.
C. Hurricanum and Luminark-I initially thought these would not be worth playing, but the combination of an augment with a DD or PD and a decent chariot is under-rated. I am especially impressed with the hurricanum, the +1 to hit +1 PD is worth a lot in an infantry heavy army and a S5 T5 and 5 wound chariot is excellent. Both models are worth their points. I ran a bloodletter horde into a deep parent unit with two detachments in two battles and was shocked at how effective the +1 to hit with hatred and re-roll to wound prayer were when they got off.
D. The ability to transfer psych abilities of parents to detachments in range really makes a lot of sense and is a tremendous boost.
E. The hold the line abilty is under-rated but it is often not worth spending the points on extra captains or a separate general to get it across the army in different units.
F. Reiksguard cav-Totally annoying, try dealing with a unit one or two wide (music and standard in front rank) with a captain and war priest with a DG knight unit at the same time.
G. Inner circle knights as core - guy went 5-0 running a large block of these with two units of DG knights, a stank, cannon and HBVG, and reiksguard. He would run them narrow with a crown of command character and BSB and full command and use the leadership bubble to support two units of DG knights.
H. The new steam tank is surprisingly effective but not so broken the opponent gets frustrated against it. It can still do something after taking a few wounds but the random movement and art dice/steam malfunction makes it a bit less predictable and reliable. It is fairly priced and has a role in the army but you do not have to play with a steam tank if you do not want to. You have options with a more viable cannon and a steam gun to do some damage out of combat.
I. The new HBVG with an engineer is a fearsome weapon combo, even if it is not cheap.
There are a lot of things about the new army book that bug me (over-nerfing mortars and flaggies, no option to mount a character on a DG, raising the points cost of infantry models already not points efficient, and too gimmicky new models-why not a war wagon chariot model with the benefits of the hurricanum and luminark as options for the model and without the goofy bound spell?- and characters). However, the bottom line is you no longer have those easy, auto gunline wins where the mortars splat the infantry hordes and the cannons take out the high value targets before they threaten your main line of cheap infantry and the enemy has nothing to deal with the stank and it holds up indefinitely the one unit you fear dealing with. But you have a competitive army that is not an easy win against hardly ever with a lot of options and tools to deal with any of the competitive armies.
BTW, the comments on outriders and pistoliers were off base, especially pistoliers. Quick to fire means pistoliers can march and shoot without suffering a moving penalty and they can bait and flee and protect war machines from scouts and light and fast units. They are a cheap bait and flee and redirection unit that can do some damage with shooting. S4 and AP getting shot by a brace of pistols at short range (in the flank or rear) can really hurt.
