Points Changes
Death jester dropped in points......., OK, you’re still never going to see him!!
The more interesting one was the change in points for the Caresses and the Kiss. Seven points for a Caresse makes the decision between it and an Embrace more difficult. I suspect the answer is mixed units. At the moment, I run 5 man units with 4 Embraces - maybe 2 Embraces and 2 Carresses?
The Kiss is trickier. At 9 points it seems fairly priced. D3 wounds is good, and putting it on a Troupe Master, to ameliorate its low strength, would be the way to go. But AP -1 (I thought it was -2!), is still an issue.
But, hey - the Solitaire went down 7 points. At 110pts, he’s a steal!
Relic
The best place for this is probably on your Solitaire, so you can get it into the middle of your opponents army ASAP.
The -1 leadership is interesting. I have been thinking about “leadership bombs” recently, and this is another way to effect leadership. I’m thinking about Mind War on a Farseer. For those that dont know, you target a character, and each player rolls a d6 and adds their leadership. If you are higher than your opponent, their character suffers the number of mortal wounds that your roll exceeds their’s by.
It’s pretty situational, but, with a hit from a Phantasm grenade launcher (-1), a Hemlock nearby (-2), casting horrify (-1) and the relic (-1), the targeted character starts on -5. If you want to go crazy, add in Embolden (+1 to the Farseer’s leadership - although you would need to take a warlock), and a swooping hawk exarch (+1 to the Farseer’s leadership), and the starting differential is 7!! And then you shoot the Shadowseer’s Hallucinogen Grenade launcher at it!!
I suspect there are too many moving parts. One of them is bound to fail.
Warlord Traits
OK, I suppose. Better than the generic ones. But really, I suspect I’ll be finding a place for a Doomseer in most of my lists, who has a much better choice of warlord traits. Pity you can’t put it on a Solitaire!
Strategems
Now we’re talking. A 3++ if you advance for 1Cp, is golden!! The best use I think is throwing 5 Bikes with a 3++ into your opponents face turn 1, just to tie things up...! I still think that running Troupes across the board is a fantasy. Even with a 3++, they will still die to torrent. However, combining it with the other Stratagem has got me thinking.
Three CP’s to bring in a 10 player Troupe, with a Shadowseer. Drop in 9” away, cast Twilight Pathways, move advance and assault with a 3++. Ten players with a Caress each is more or less the same points as the 5 man Troupe I normally run, plus their Starweaver!
It’s a big investment in CPs, but could win you the game. Problem would be, when it’s not really what you want to do, you have a 10 man unit of Harlies running around without a Starweaver, which is less than optimal!
On balance, I think I prefer to keep the Troupes 5 man, in a Starweaver.
Summary
So, we have one fantastic Strategm, one that’s abit situational, a relic that’s got possibilities, and a couple of useful point drops. I’ll take that!
EYIG