Blah. Everything I was worried about is basically true. AoS is just "40k, but fantasy" now. The majority of the rules are just copied over from 40k. They want you playing monsters and heroes (which does sound fun, to be fair), but no more hordes. Just a bunch of little elite squads running around the board.
I guess at the very least the core rules are a bit more simplified, but this new edition is going to do the same thing to AoS that 9e did to 40k. Armies that have been built for the new edition already (Lumineth, Soulblight), or those that get updated fast (Stormcast, Orruks), will be kicking butt while armies with older rules that don't play well with the new rules will be in the trash heap until GW gets around to updating their books. Some armies with special rules or subfactions that happen to mix well with the new rules will probably be ok though. Ogors, Gargants, Gristlegore FEC and Seraphon Thunder Lizards all benefit, but any army that relies on buffing hordes or using the same key buff on multiple units is utterly screwed.
Everything about this new edition feels so... limited. No big units, no buff stacking, no using the same CA more than once, no giving the same unit more than one CA... It really feels like they want everything to just be based off the warscrolls and get rid of synergies as much as possible. The writer of that review was saying the same thing that GW has been touting, that these rules will somehow force more "variety" in your lists, but in reality all that will happen is that people will spam multiples of the same unit that has the best base warscroll profile and can function the best on it's own. Yes, the lists in this edition will be *different* than what we see now, but there absolutely will not be more "variety" in people's armies. They will just stop using the units they're currently spamming and switch to whatever units fare best in the new rules. What they're actually doing is trying to force you to re-buy your army by forcing a change in unit efficiency. Before, why would you spend the money and points on multiple MSU of super-elite models when you could get better effects by buffing up hordes of cheaper troops? Well now you can't run cheap troops effectively anymore, so you have no choice but to go and buy those expensive models that cost $50-$100 for a 3-5 man unit. And since you can't get most of your strength from "normal" battleline anymore, I imagine GW is hoping to see big sales increases on their more expensive stuff. But I've heard a lot of people say they switched to AoS because they didn't like the direction 40k was taking, now they'll probably lose those people all together.
Also, I don't know if GW did it for this reason, but everyone I've seen defend the new coherency rule basically says it's "because it looks better" to have tightly-ranked units rather than spread-out lines. To me, that's just dumb. "Oh, let's make our infantry nearly useless in actual combat, but won't they just look lovely marching across the battlefield?" Utterly stupid.
Maybe not that stupid, being able to throw Stegadon Helm, All-out Defence, Mystic Shield and Armored Crest on a Stegadon Chief makes for a hilariously resilient monster.
We can't do that. Saves are also capped at +1, but negatives to saves are not capped. Yet another reason good base warscrolls are going to be all-important this edition. Rend was already good, now it's even better.
Now, I'm sure some people are going to take this as me complaining that Seraphon specifically are boned with the current rules, but that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that I personally hate the entire playstyle I'm seeing from 3rd edition, I think it's a worse game as a whole. If anything, my favorite way to play Seraphon, Thunder Lizards, has gotten better overall. But I was really hoping they weren't going to push for AoS to be even more of a skirmish game than it already was, and that's exactly where they went.
