New Lumineth Realm-Lords army rules are here along with a ton of news for the Army Box that’s releasing soon as well! Check out the latest on these Aelves.
Warhammer Community has been rapid-firing previews and the Lumineth Realm-Lords have been a part of those announcements. We’ll be taking a closer look at some general faction rules, new units, and their sub-factions.
Lumineth Realm-Lords: News & New Army Rules
Broadly, the army is a killer defensive force that excels in tackling enemy charges head on, punishing them with deadly firepower from surprisingly durable core units. This is an army for tacticians and strategists, rewarding you for fighting in formation while disrupting enemies with withering shooting, infantry-shredding cavalry and devastating magic. But how does it all work? First up, your allegiance abilities!
For the army’s Allegiance Trait, they’ll have an Aetherquartz reserve, which looks to be a single-use ability that you can pop on a unit once per phase. If you do this, you’ll activate a special ability but have to subtract 1 from their bravery so there is a slight trade-off. We don’t know exactly how many bonus rules there are, but we’ve seen two previewed so far.
Heightened Senses will let them get +1 to hit in shooting or fighting. Partnered with All-Out-Attack for a CP to have these guys reroll 1’s will make them a devastating unit…whatever unit you pick.
Another option is Lightning Reactions which can only be used in the Combat Phase. This ability lets you pick two units to fight with before alternating back to your opponent. This is an incredibly powerful ability. Especially if your opponent only charged with two units. You’ll get to fight first against them always.
The Vanari
We saw GW mention earlier that you’ll get bonuses for fighting in close formation (like the Lothern Sea Guard of old?). We can see the effect of that with the Vanari units. If you keep them all touching bases, they become a Shining Company. While they’re in formation, your opponents have to subtract 1 from their hit rolls. However, the Shining Company can’t run or charge and they can only move 1″ when they pile in. This is a unique mechanic with an obvious trade-off. However, in an objective-based game, you can plant your butt on a primary objective and never come off of it.
The Alarith
Alarith units (that’s the hammer-wielding chaps and their mountainous bovine friends) hail from the mountains of Hysh. On the battlefield, think of them as an unstoppable glacier that’s capable of sweeping enemies aside. During the first turn of the game, your Alarith units couple great saves with the ability to ignore -1 Rend attacks, ideal for weathering your enemy’s opening salvos.
So…from what we can tell, there’s no reason not to adopt the mountain stance. There’s no trade-off to give us a reason to ever NOT do the mountain stance. However, there might be another type of fighting style we have yet to see.
So this rule is cool but it’s going to be really annoying. Basically, these dudes are able to push back whatever unit they’re in melee with. This is like in the movies when you see a shield wall slowly push back an attacking horde and they lose their footing. However, in-game, you’ll have to move your units back 2″ from any Alarith unit you’re in combat with. If there are multiple Alarith units on the table and you’re playing a horde army, this can eat up a lot of time…
Lumineth Realm-Lords Come With Their Own Sub-Factions
For the Syar, they’ll have to of those reserves we talked about earlier, giving them more longevity in battle. The only thing to think about is that you’ll have to take units that can take a beating and make use of those two reserves before they die.
For the Command Ability, where you could normally only pop one reserve, your hero will let you do it to a unit twice. Solid, but we need to see if there are any bonus rules to choose from than the two that were previewed above.
For the Iliatha subsection, they’ll be playing solely off of Vanari. For these guys, it’ll be more helpful to look at the Command Ability Strike in Unison first. This ability lets you reroll 1’s. Honestly, that’s kind of lame considering All-out-attack/All-out-volley does the exact same thing with fewer constraints. However, the army-wide rule lets you pick another unit as a target of all Command Abilities as long as they are within 3″ of that other unit.
It’s a nice domino effect of buffs that can take place, but from what we’ve seen, this army is going to be very turtly.
You’re an Army of Wizards Harry…
Oh, and one more thing – your baseline units are Wizards. You see, as students of Teclis, the warriors of the Lumineth Realm-lords are keenly attuned to magic, so all Vanari units – in case you’ve not been keeping up, that’s the pikemen, horsemen and bowmen – can cast magic. Each can unbind enemy spells or use the Power of Hysh, a spell that boosts their excellent Sunmetal Weapons, and makes them frankly terrifying against armoured foes.
So it looks like Warden’s weapons already come with the sunmetal special rule. That’s a mortal wound on a hit of a 6+. However, with Power of Hysh, it’ll proc on a 5+. To throw more icing on the cake, you can cast this as many times as you want. WOW!
We thought the Lumineth’s magic potential was brutal enough after seeing Teclis being able to auto-cast spells. However, it seems like these guys are about to be a lot better than what we expected.
Hot on the heals of new Endless Spells, there are a bunch of rules teasers for Teclis and the Lumineth Realm-Lords that were revealed! Read More
What do you think about the Lumineth Realm-Lords army after seeing these rules? Will you be picking up an army starter?
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About the Author: Wesley Floyd
Wesley Floyd
Job Title: Staff Writer
Joined: 2018
Socials: @RealmbrushPainting
About Wesley Floyd: Wes has been in the Warhammer hobby since 2015 and joined the Spikey Bits writing team in 2018. He is known for his satirist takes on trending topics and imaginative yet amazingly affordable hobby solutions to painting Warhammer miniatures.
Imperial fanboy, tabletop fanatic, and the self-proclaimed King of Sprues. He knows for a fact that Mephiston red is the best-tasting paint and is the commission painting equivalent of a Wendy’s 4 for $4. If you like what he writes and want to contact him or have your tabletop minatures painted (to a mostly okayish standard), message him on Instagram.
