Age of Sigmar: Three Big Changes We Want For The Ossiarch Bonereapers
The Ossiarch Bonereapers are getting a new Battletome soon. I really hope Games Workshop gets these skeletal legions right.
When GW revealed that the Soulblight Gravelords and the Ossiarch Bonereapers were both getting their Battletomes soon I had some mixed feelings. On one hand, as an OBR player I’m looking forward to getting a new Battletome — just like everyone else! On the other hand, I’m still a tad bitter about the core rules update from AoS 2.0 to 3.0 that basically “borrowed” the OBR’s rules and then didn’t really allow them to use the new versions.
Yeah, that 3.0 FAQ for OBR was pretty lacking…
Needless to say, I’ve got opinions on the matter. Anytime you get a new Battletome you get a chance to fix things and to update an army to the newest edition rules. That said, aside from all the standard updates, here are my three specific things that I really hope Games Workshop nails down for the new Battletome.
#1 Relentless Disciple And Command Points
This is probably the BIGGEST complaint/change I hope GW fixes in the new book. RDP and CP are basically the same. The issue is that the Ossiarch Bonereapers just don’t interact with Command Points the same as everyone else. That also means that they just don’t play with the new 3.0 rules like everyone else when it comes to issuing Commands or spending/impacting Command Points and Command Point generation.
I’m not sure what the fix is here but the Bonereapers need to interact with the generic Commands and Command Points again — and not just in a “we deny you CP every turn” kind of a way. I REALLY hope GW tweaks the RDP system to give us some more options and access to the core rules of AoS 3.0. If this system didn’t get a massive overhaul then it would be a huge missed opportunity from Games Workshop.
#2 Rebalance The Ossiarch Bonereaper Legion Abilities
Did you know there are other Ossiarch Bonereaper Legions besides Petrifex Elite and Mortis Praetorians!? Because when the army first launched there was a very clear winner in the “which Legion should you play” category. Petrifex Elite had a truly bonkers Legion ability that was subsequently changed to be less good. That’s really when you saw the rise of the Mortis Praetorians. And sure you might have seen some of the other Legions pop-up — and if you played one, more power to you! — but those two Legions were pretty dominate.
I just hope Games Workshop goes back and re-evaluates each of the Legions and gives us reasons to run each one. I’m not asking for every option to be as bonkers as the Petrifex Elite were at launch, I’m just asking for legit builds and options for each one. The Null Myraid and Crematorians always seemed like they were on the cusp of being viable but they never panned out for me. Let’s cross our collective fingers and hope that’s different in the new book.
#3 Healing The “Big” Guys
Okay, this always bugged me. The Ossiarch Bonereapers have a lot of ways to heal D3 wounds or return single-wound models back to units. That’s cool and thematic for the army. But why not for the bigger guys? Units like the Necropolis Stalkers or the Immortis Guard, or even the unit that basically started it all the Morghasts! Healing those units was always really tricky as most of the heals just wouldn’t work on those units. Sure, you could heal them for D3 wounds…if the model still had wounds left. But you never had the option to return missing models from that unit.
I found this particularly annoying for my Necropolis Stalkers who had 4 wounds. Sure, I could heal one of them back up to full if it managed to survive with 1 wound remaining. Or I couldn’t target them anyway because they weren’t summonable units. My solution ended up being to just take more than 3 per unit…but whatever.
I know there’s probably a much better solution out there for healing the big models. They are still bone-constructs and the entire army is built around these Mortisans who can repair bone constructs and re-infuse them with magic so they keep fighting…you’d think they’d know how to do battlefield repairs on some of their heaviest-hitting units. Just sayin’.
The new Battletome is coming soon. There’s bound to be lots of changes — both big and small. What are you hoping Games Workshop tweaks in the new book?
