N18 House of Blades (General discussion)

Baffo

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We've now seen the first few pictures and teasers about the upcoming House of Blades, so like last time round, here's a thread for all our random speculations, predictions, wish-listing and rumor-mongering :)

To start with overnight we got the Reveals from Gama expo:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2020/03/10/revealed-at-gamagw-homepage-post-3fw-homepage-post-4/

Pretty pictures:
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Take the Death-maidens – Eschers returned to life through vile science in order to lend their deadly services to their gangs once more...

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...and the Wyld Runners, bold explorers who hunt the Underhive.

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Or these little critters – aren’t they sweet? Known as phelynx, these cat-like monstrosities are cracking for bringing down rival gangers.

There should be more revealed later today in the Necromunda preview article on Warhammer community, so stay tuned for more teasers:)
 
My immediate impressions is that the bow wyld runners look great, but they're probably prospects so probably BS5 so pretty naff :(

Not sure about the death maidens. But I love pistols, they fit my agile, aggressive, short ranged playstyle tons tee. So they can't be that bad by my book. Although I'm not a fan of needle pistols.
 
Yes, I also assume the Wyld Runners to be Escher's Prospects, while the Death maidens are most likely Escher's Specialist champions.
Based just on their short text blurb I am guessing the Death maidens will have the Fearsone skill built in their fighter type (mainly because both the existing Intrigue and Racket relating to 'ressurecting' fighters also give Ferasome) and seem to focus on Toxin (the Needle pistols and the Clawed gauntlets).
This is just a wild guess, but what if the Death maidens were Close combat specialist acting as a Toxin/Gas bomb, as in when they go OoA they cause a Toxin/Gas hit on any models nearby (just because of the skin color they are painted in - granted that could just be to represent the fact they are effectively well preserved Zombies).
So Fearsome CC specialists focused on using Toxin weapons: that could counter Goliath pretty hard (since we know Andy said on the last Warhammer TV, that during play-testing he accidentally made an Escher hard counter to gene-smited Goliaths, this might be what he meant?).

Personally I like the Wyld runners models best out of this lot, I am not yet sure how I feel about the Death maidens (they might be good conversion material for the Pale consort of the Corpse guild, which might very well have a Strong alliance with Eschers and therefore get its retinue released by Forge world parallel to the Escher releases). The new Pets I don't quite like, but I am guessing they will be an addition (possibly even be included on the frames of the Escher reinforcement box?) and maybe linked to the Wyld runners.
 
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The new Pets I don't quite like, but I am guessing they will be an addition (possibly even be included on the frames of the Escher reinforcement box?) and maybe linked to the Wyld runners.
I belive they are part of the sprue, if you look one of them has a pice of senery on the base, same senery is also on one of the death-maidens
 
so do we thing the phelynx replaces Phyrr cats or are they a new thing and we will get phyrr cats from FW?
It would be odd for them to use a new name if these were going to be the Escher exotic pet. Maybe these are going to be furry melee-torpedoes, more akin to the bomb rats? Actually, the bottom right prospect looks to have a spiked phelynx collar (see top left rat-cat) on the end of that rope so they may be a prospect-only weapon/pet. That prospect looks to have a whip and throwing knives, so she does have that 3rd weapon slot.

The diorama image at the bottom of pg71 in the hardback rulebook appears to show models of both a phyrr cat and giant rats (unless those are from a skaven kit that I don't recognise). I assume the cat is a model at least; if it's been drawn in then the dull static pose makes even less sense than if it's a sculpt. So hopefully the delay is due to a resculpt, rather than an IP issue - I don't imagine there's been a repeat of GW not owning the Kal Jerico IP as happened around 2002. Or since the 'zerker got released alongside HoC, maybe forgeworld are holding it (and if they've been organised, the khimaerix) back for the HoB release.
 
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Those were the Phyrr cat models that were shown (and then scrapped) a while ago:
ugly-cats.jpg

I believe the leftmost one is the one they used for that picture on page 71.

Those skink/rat hybrids are probably somehing completely different (and smaller, as they appear to be on 25mm bases while the cats were on 32)
 
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If nothing else, the new models give us 3 new Escher poses, 2 of which will easily work with both one handed and two handed (aiming rifle) poses!

I'm dying to learn more about the bows, they look awesome!
 
If nothing else, the new models give us 3 new Escher poses, 2 of which will easily work with both one handed and two handed (aiming rifle) poses!

I'm dying to learn more about the bows, they look awesome!
For the Bows I am guessing Range S: 8'' L: 16'', +1 to hit in Short range, S2-3, no AP, with Toxin, Chem delivery and Silent traits.
As for the thowing knives they'll probably be the same as the Delaque's throwing knives.
Along those lines I would expect Escher to have some House exclusive debilitating Chems to use with Chem delivery weapons, revolving around stunning/paralysing the target, since GW apparently ramped-up their Beast hunting/taming aspect.
Furthermore, the Death maidens Gauntlet surely has Toxin and probably Chem delivery as well; in fact I expect most Escher Weapon lists will now include discounted Chem delivery darts for all their Needle weapons.
 
For the Bows I am guessing Range S: 8'' L: 16'', +1 to hit in Short range, S2-3, no AP, with Toxin, Chem delivery and Silent traits.
I'm hoping the bows have fighter strength-based range (like grenades); wouldn't really matter much in terms of in-game effect (until you get flesh wounds), but it would make sense for such a weapon, I think.
 
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@Baffo that sounds like so much fun! Super sneaky ninja toxin/chem Escher sounds much better than lasgun spam!

I wonder if the changes to toxin/chem delivery will improve the perfume-sprayer from the original sprue...
Anything sounds better than lasgun spam to me. (They could finally do away with it and I would be quite happy.)

I'm also hoping for an improved chem thrower. I keep insisting on using it because I like the way that it looks more than I like what it does. It has its uses but never lives up to its points cost.
 
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Facing the chem-thrower, I've found it to be plenty nasty on ZM tiles. If they abandon the tile system now that they want to sell plastic ZM terrain, the chem-thrower and flamer both could see a price reduction (maybe the combat shotgun too).

HoB-specific speculation:
  • I could see Escher being able to give throwing knives the Toxin trait using the chem-synth.
  • Perhaps there's a toxin/chem upgrade to boost the 'wound' roll by +1; combined with the current chem-synth rule, that wound be a pretty effective counter to T5 on goliaths.
  • Chem ammo with the Limited trait for Toxin weapons wouldn't surprise me.
  • I really hope they don't wind up duplicating the rad-phage rule by a different name.
 
I'm worried they give us a new, slightly different needle pistol. Because we don't have enough weapons.
Necromunda over on FB just confirmed they are a new extra pet
Having 2 house-specific pets is unprecedented. Seems to be a bunch of them, does this mean they are equally powerful as the familiar (take as many as you can get your hands on), or still situational, taken once in a while for fluff reasons (like most other)?
 
Facing the chem-thrower, I've found it to be plenty nasty on ZM tiles. If they abandon the tile system now that they want to sell plastic ZM terrain, the chem-thrower and flamer both could see a price reduction (maybe the combat shotgun too).

HoB-specific speculation:
  • I could see Escher being able to give throwing knives the Toxin trait using the chem-synth.
  • Perhaps there's a toxin/chem upgrade to boost the 'wound' roll by +1; combined with the current chem-synth rule, that wound be a pretty effective counter to T5 on goliaths.
  • Chem ammo with the Limited trait for Toxin weapons wouldn't surprise me.
  • I really hope they don't wind up duplicating the rad-phage rule by a different name.

Biggest problem with the chem thrower is that it doesn't pin or set on fire. Fail to take the target down and you get shot at point blank range or charged. The flamer is just better for 5 creds more.