I’ve been thinking about this one a lot, ever since it was revealed at LVO:

That Ancient Barrow Curse is something fresh, and I really like what they’ve done here. Let me explain why.

How it works

You’re chucking 5 dice and need to hit at least one Crit. The maths of hitting one or more natural 6 on five dice is 59.8%

The effect is pretty nuts and you’re talking about a 60:40 chance that he drills it, which seems pretty fair overall to me.

Why it’s cool

It’s cool because rolling Crits is fun. A lot things in life are complicated, but this is not one of them: Grab dice, roll dice, see picture on dice. Boom. It’s a tactile game and we’re all here for the toys, but the physical act of rolling dice is a quiet pleasure of tabletop gaming too.

My dear friend Pat wrote a recent piece on Listbuliding in AOS4 that touched on the Timmy player type, in which he correctly identified playing with big, stompy monsters as the archetypal Timmy experience. I humbly put it to you that tossing a fistful of dice and looking for Crits is also just about as Timmy as it gets. That’s why I’m personally looking at Gloomspite tarpit lists right now, but can’t quite let go of the Squig module in there. Cool things happening on Crits is fun. It just is.

Why it’s innovative

So while these kinds of abilities do come up from time to time, it’s that Crit trigger that makes the Great Wight Hope stand apart.

The Fellwater Troggs for example have a similar rule. Their Noxious Vomit goes further because they also switch off positive modifiers; but on the flipside, it’s time-limited until your next turn, whereas the Wight King lasts for the rest of the battle:

The big difference, though, is that the Fellies have to push some damage through for this ability to function. Given that the whole point of this ability is to bork an elite armour save, Noxious Vomit is at its least effective where it’s most needed. Any clown on a 3+ armour save is going to AOD against your shooting to preserve their armour, so by the time you miss a couple of wound rolls, if they jag a few 4+ saves (after rend) you’re going to be raging.

I’m well aware that it’s still likely that the Fellwaters do push through that crucial pip of damage, even against a 2+ save (the modern classic 3+ with AOD). A unit of 3 will average 1.67 damage into a 2+ save for example, so it’s definitely more likely than not that the Noxious Vomit does its thing.

But I don’t care. I just like the Wight King’s version better, and as long as the maths is in the same ballpark, I’d take that Crit trigger over the damage trigger every time. It’s cooler, it’s less open to frustration and regardless of the maths, the vibe is better. I fully acknowledge that this is where my argument gets shaky – or at least subjective – but I do value the fact that Ancient Barrow Curse operates independently of your opponent’s dice, and you get that excitement of punching out a bunch of dice and just nailing it. And that’s why I really like this design direction.

Haven’t we seen this kind of stuff before?

Yup, this is an evolution rather than an entirely new concept. AOS Longbeards will remember the Grab and Bash where a Megaboss could grab you with his claw¹ by rolling a hit, and indeed the Screaming Skull Catapult just had to target enemies to send them running for the hills.

In modern AOS, note that Zoggrok already has a broadly similar trigger with his Ward-Smashing Choppa:

This particular ability is a mere footnote in history because you will never get this fella into combat – Zoggy is a backfield buffing hero and you’ll generally take the Tongs. You just can’t deliver him: he’s plodding along with an aggressively slow move, whereas the Wight King is zipping around at 10″. If you can’t see the difference here, then I’m sorry to be the one to tell you that 4″ is not enough.

So of the various iterations, I’d argue that rolling one or more Crits is the best expression, because it sits in that nexus of crunch and cool: the probability lands quite nicely and hitting it feels like something special has just happened.

It’s tickles our brains in the same way from the cradle to the grave: it’s what keeps nanas sitting at Poker machines all day and it’s why we’re enthusiastically turning our own brains to mush with screen time. I did a good thing, I can see the pretty picture on my dice – now reward me with flashing lights, thumbs-up Likes, ka-ching ka-ching gold coins and debuffed armour saves.

Is it overtuned?

So is the Ancient Barrow Curse too good? Maybe? I don’t really mind because you can have better or worse versions of the effect which can then be reflected in a unit’s points, so I see that as a secondary issue from a design perspective.

For example you could easily make the effect last for the rest of the Turn rather than the entire battle, and if you think that’s more appropriate then I wouldn’t argue with you; but the key point here is that Crit trigger, and they’ve absolutely nailed it.

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So let me know what you think? If you don’t like the rule and you think I’m full of shit, go for it, but all I ask is that you consider the trigger and the effect individually. It’s possible to appreciate the Crit trigger even if you think the effect should not last for the whole battle, for example. And if you prefer the Fellwater version over the Wight King – I disagree, but I’m happy to hear your reasoning.

Keep an eye out for this happening more in future: GW loves nothing more than giving a unit something unique, then rolling it out across the entire game. The dice maths makes it most fitting where a unit is throwing 5 or more attacks² – i.e. The Support Hero Zone – and I think GW have really cracked the code for how these should work.

So in summary: Great ability, great design, more of this please.

And while we’ve got our Armchair QB hats on, we’ll be back on Friday with ROCKMAN’s warscroll redesign wishlist, so keep an eye out for that one. Have good week, nerds.

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1. A founder member in the pantheon of beloved Ironjawz rules that have been wrenched away from the army, along with Smashing and Bashing, Mad as Hell and Destroyer. The streets will never forget. ↩︎
2. If you’re wondering: it’s a 66.5% chance with 6 dice, so that’s very similar to rolling a natural 3+. It goes up to 72.1% with 7 dice, or 76.7% with 8 dice. ↩︎