“We’re a species that rushes through everything, then complains that time flies.”

~ Steve Maraboli

There’s a whole bunch of changes to universal Manifestation Lores that were kinda skipped over in the excitement of all the new GHB stuff. I know I certainly flicked straight past them in sweaty-palmed excitement when the PDFs started landing in everyone’s group chats last week, and I doubt I’m alone, but with the full warscrolls and points now out in the wild I’ve had a proper look at them.

In a nutshell: GW has applied overly-broad “Across the Board” nerfs to almost all Universal Manifestation Lores. They clearly want you to start using your own army’s Lore, which is fair enough; and as more and more armies do have access to their own, GW are slowly ramping up the morphine on these universal options. They’re not ready to put a pillow on their face just yet, and there’s still some gold in there, but it does feel like the first step down a path that leads towards their removal from the game, or at least their designed obsolescence.

The headline changes are:

• All Universal Lores now cost +20 points (except Aetherwrought Machineries and Twilit Sorceries)
• All Universal Manis now hit on 4s
• All Universal Manis now have a 6+ save and 6+ ward

As with so many areas in wargaming and in life: half-assed policies lead to half-assed outcomes. This across-the-board treatment does not nerf everything equally, so let’s look at the winners and losers.

Side note: Why this matters

Bear in mind that you’re not only weighing up between your Faction’s own free Mani lore vs Aetherwrought vs 20 points for a premium Universal (although this article certainly aims to give you the tools to assess that). If you’re running an Army of Renown, they tend to have a shit version of their Faction’s own Mani lore; so in those cases, the maths changes significantly. If Thanquol’s Mutated Menagerie could take the full Skaven Manifestations, that’s one thing, but when they only get Vortex then that’s a different conversation. So these universal Manis will continue to be very relevant if you like the AORs.

What’s copped a whack?

Hitting on 4s

The move to hitting on 4s is relevant for fightin’ Manis that hit on 3s or better previously:

• Quicksilver Swords (Primal Energy) used to hit on 3s. It keeps Crit Mortal and ignoring wards.
• The Burning Head (Primal Energy) has gone from 2s to 4s on both weapon profiles.
• Purple Sun (Morbid Conjuration) could kinda fight, and has moved from 3s to 4s.
• Suffocating Gravetide (Morbid Conjuration) could definitely fight, and has gone straight from 2s to 4s. This is a big one.
• Malevolent Maelstrom (Morbid Conjuration) is less of a bruiser, but also jumps from 2s to 4s.
• The Horrorghast (Forbidden Power) hits on 4s with its shooting attack instead of 2s. This one matters because its Command-switchey-offery ability requires models to have been killed in that shooting phase. Note that you can still score those kills with another unit though – you can target and miss with the Horrorghast, and still proc the ability, as long as you’ve got Moar Dakka in your list to pitch in.

If I’ve missed any, they probably couldn’t fight worth a damn anyway. Two notable combat Manis – being the Krondspine and Ravenak (Primal Energy) – are not affected, since they already hit on 4s.

6+ saves

Krondspide however is a big loser from the move to 6+ saves. It used to be a tough nut with 12 health on a 4+ save, and you do want to throw it into combat. It’s also vulnerable to being fucked right off by Zenestra‘s shiny new Word of the God-King ability.

There are loads of other Manis that were on 4+ or 5+ saves, but none of them matter as much and Krondalicious which proactively impaled itself on enemy units. Forbidden Power is another noteworthy loser from this 6+ Save Policy: Soulscream Bridge, Lauchon and Shards were all more burdensome to get rid of than they should have been on their 4+ saves. The Bridge in particular specialized in being an annoying lump of plastic that was inserted into annoying places and took an annoying amount of attention to bin off. At least it’s still a bit of a bullet sponge, with 12 health and a 6+ ward, and definitely fit for purpose.

Specific nerfs

Purple Sun now hits the armour saves on your own units too. It always seemed overly generous that it only targeted enemy models, but then Morbid Conjuration always was “Overly Generous: The Manifestation Lore”.

Nighthaunt won’t care about that, since they ignore modifiers, so yet again they come out smelling of roses. They’re going to be an absolute menace.

Did anything catch a bump?

Shards of Valagharr now pushes back deepstrikes by 9″ (instead of 6″)¹, in line with all predatory Manifestations. Being static itself means that it’s easier to place than mobile Manis, since it can’t be zoned out, and that’s a nice bump to Forbidden Power for sure.

Beyond that there’s a couple of edge cases. Emerald Lifeswarm is inherently more useful where you have Wards, so that gets a situational buff on Passing Seasons:

Linked Ley Lines allows the underdog’s Manis to fight first, which is a boon for all combat Manis and therefore the apex of that genre, the Krondspine:

I suspect that Passing Seasons in particular will be rarely-seen in a competitive setting, but if you know that either or both are in your tournament pack then eh, it’s a factor.

What about the free Lores?

Aetherwrought Machneries is actually pretty good. Bearing in mind that the Pendulum moves in both players’ phases, it’s like Murderlust in a jar, jumping out to tag your opponents before they can charge². I’ve had real-world success with this tactic which is illustrated here. Cogs is handy for almost any army thanks to the charge rerolls, and Quicksilver Swords has always been nice for scything through Wards, although it’s a big loser from the 4+ to Hit Policy.

Twilit Sorceries might have some play in Magic Dom armies but even at 0 points it’s going to be rarely seen. So if your list is sitting at 1990 or 2000 points, I’d just look at Aetherwrought.

So are the main Lores worth 20 points?

The Big Three are still gonna Big Three. After what, three waves of nerfs now(?), Morbid still has a lot of utility. The Gravetide can fight a bit even on 4s, you can engineer situations where Purple Sun hurts your enemies more than you, and Shackles alone is worth the price of admission. It borks movement in a movement game, and it acts as mortal wound artillery. Everything else is all gravy.

Primal Energy continues to look good as the Bi-Lo Morbid. Ravenak smashes out those charge mortals and damage 2 attacks. This one has always hit on 4s, and it’s not like the 5+ save was elite armour. The Burning Skull has lost ground but that was already the least commonly cast. Emerald Lifeswarm is a great piece and better than ever on Passing Seasons (as mentioned above). If you’ve got a big-hitter with a good ward, you’ll still want to consider Emerald for the extreme value you get from every wound that it’s adding back in. Kraggy and Rotigus spring to mind.

Perhaps best of all is Forbidden Power. I’ve said it before but every time you see someone rocking the FP, you know that they are going to be a good player. The 6+ Save Policy doesn’t help but all of its core tech remains valid: it’s the movement Lore in the movement Handbook of a movement game. The Bridge continues to exist as two large lumps of plastic that can be placed on the table in awkward spots to make your opponent’s life difficult. Forbidden Power as a whole is not really there to fight, so the 4+ to Hit Policy is neither here nor there. It’s clutch if you don’t otherwise have access to teleports, and I’ve got one draft list for the new Handbook that I’m very excited about, which makes specific use of this tech.

Beyond those, the Krondspine is still worth taking if you can’t be bothered with the stress of the Manifesation game. It’s just a nice, simple additional combat unit, and fit for purpose even on a 6+ save. I’d pay 20 points for that in most lists.

So in a nutsack: the ones that cost 20 points are all worth 20 points if you have room in your list, and Forbidden Power is the one I’ll take most often because its tech is undefeated. Krondspine is still fine at 20 points if you cbf thinking about Manis too much and / or have few spellcasts in your lists. And if you don’t have 20 points burning a hole in your pocket, Aetherwrought Machineries is worth a look.

Army of Renown players or anyone without access to a teleport, you are on high alert.

Hope that helps, and catch you all soon!

~ Pete

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1. Thanks to both Grant (Farmhammer) in our Discord, and Catharsis Chaser on reddit, for flagging this one up. Much appreciated. ↩︎
2. Not Nighthaunt though. See what I mean? An absolute menace. ↩︎