With the new AoS Thondia Seasons of War on the way, GW relieved some new Krondspine Incarnates rules that are quite interesting!
This was revealed over at AdeptiCon, and then very quickly put on sale. It will be interesting to see how the seasons make an impact on AoS. We’re not sure if it will be all that impactful or even something players exactly wanted. Still, no need to get down on it before it even starts!
Warhammer Community unveiled the rules for the centerpiece of the new Thondian Stronghold release. Let’s first check out the model reveal, then jump into the new stuff!
Realmscape: Thondian Strongpoint
The Krondspine Incarnate arrives in Realmscape: Thondian Strongpoint, a collection of highly detailed Ghurish scenery that brings your battles in the Era of the Beast to life. Dawnbringer crusades toil desperately to bring Sigmar’s civilisation to the Mortal Realms, and these half-completed buildings speak of nascent settlements under attack from the many perils that beset them.
This new terrain set provides a great start to a table, but also comes with a new miniature to add some unique scenarios to your games to make them more interesting!
The Krondspine Incarnate itself is a beautifully detailed model of cracked bone animated by swirling, primal magics. Its fury can be commanded by any faction in the game, but they’ll need to beware its fickle nature should their control waver. You’ll find rules for this mighty magical beast – and the new terrain in the Thondian Strongpoint – in Season of War: Thondia.
AoS Thondia Krondspine Incarnates Rules Revealed!
Those attacks sport a hefty amount of Rend and Damage, and they’re exceptionally reliable, hitting on a 3+ and wounding on 3+ or 2+. The number of attacks the Krondspine Incarnate can make will change according to how powerful it is – but right off the bat, it starts each game with a fearsome 11 attacks.
With a decent number of attacks and a good statline overall, this can really deal a decent amount of damage! Plus, if you can get this into combat at full power, you’ll get 4 attacks with the Tearing Fangs that are much more impactful.
Incarnates don’t even have a Wounds characteristic – it’s kind of tricky to injure a howling mass of realm-energy tethered to an assortment of bones and realmstone. Instead, their power is marked by a series of states running from Empowered to Abolished. The incarnate starts at Primal, and will shift up as it devours endless spells and slays MONSTERS, or down if it suffers damage.
This is a very strange way to stat a character, and as you either eat more spells or fail to, it will go up and down. This is interesting as you’ll have to track it much differently than you’re used to.
Monstrous Rampage Rules
Yep, that’s right. These vortexes of thaumaturgical energy can even turn endless spells into phantasmal prey. If an incarnate ends up within charge distance of one such wandering spell, it may choose to charge and perform a special Monstrous Rampage to chow down and increase its level. If it fails, however, its level falls as it weakens from the clash of energies.
Let’s say you’re at level 2 (where it starts) for your first roll, you’ll be getting +2 to your roll. This means you should be successful most time, but not always. This is a bit of a snowball mechanic and puts a lot of emphasis on the first roll. If you fail the first roll, it gets harder to power up. If you are successful, every other roll becomes easier. So it really feels super important to pick an easy spell the first time, to start ramping up.
Wild Form
So how in the world does an army cope with such elemental savagery? A HERO with enough willpower can bond with one of these creations, corralling their bestial intelligence and pointing them at enemy lines. Every faction may wrangle these spectres to do their bidding, but there’s a cost.
If the HERO the incarnate is bonded to dies, it reverts to its wild form. In this state, it is yet more savage, and in its mindless aggression, it treats all forces, be they friend or foe – or endless spell! – as targets to sate its bloodlust.
Be sure to keep this away from your army if it looks like your hero is going to bite the dust! As it will just start charging into everything!
Anvil of Apotheosis
This is the return of a firm fan favourite, which first appeared in the 2020 General’s Handbook and allowed narrative players to bring weird and wonderful kitbashed heroes to their games of Age of Sigmar. The Anvil has received a polish to bring it into the Era of the Beast – and to showcase its weird and wonderful capabilities, we’ve used it to create a bespoke hero just for you.
This is a really cool way to bring your own monsters into the game! Let’s check out how it works.
Step 1:
Champions get 20 destiny points, great for heroes on foot. Conquerors get 40 points, affording extra luxuries such as giant mounts.* This iteration of the Anvil takes it even further – thanks to the unique Path to Glory objective Hero Quest, you can now set your own destiny point limit and work out how many battles you must participate in to recruit them. Why not create a Godbeast or minor deity for your army to hunt down?
Obviously, you want to go with a conqueror because who doesn’t love big monsters?
Step 2:
The second step is to pick an ancestry for your hero. The Anvil includes 24 race options, including Aelves, Daemons, Stormcast Eternals, and many more. The ancestry you pick will cost a number of destiny points and will determine your hero’s Move, Wounds, Bravery, and Save characteristics, as well as giving them certain keywords. You will have opportunities to buff these later down the line.
We’ll be going with the Orruk example for this one.
Step 3:
Next, we arm our wily hero with some weapons. The Anvil of Apotheosis allows for a huge number of combinations, including classic sword-and-board builds, dual wielding, two different sizes of bow, and much more.
As he has a penchant for purloining, our protagonist will have a sword rather than a traditional Kruleboyz spear – perhaps he stole it from an unfortunate Freeguild General who bit off more than he could chew. He also gets a handbow to defend himself at range.
They could have picked more interesting weapons, but hey, they didn’t.
Step 4:
There are three archetypes to choose from that grant associated abilities. Adding an archetype does not cost any destiny points – a priest or mage shouldn’t have to pay for talents they were born with, after all.
Our hero lacks such natural-born gifts, but as an immensely charismatic salesman, he can easily sway groups into doing his bidding with a good sales pitch and a toofy grin. He will receive the Commander archetype, which also grants him the pick of some powerful abilities.
It’s honestly always fun to come up with the rules for your own characters!
Step 5:
Much like The Armoury stage’s point-buy, this part of the Anvil allows you to pay destiny points for doggos. The smallest of these, such as a Gryph-hound or personal Ur-crab, will set you back DP 6. For our orruk’s beloved Vulcha, however, the price is a little steeper at DP 15. Perhaps you could mould this big bird a cute neck ribbon to mark it out as a pampered merchant’s mount, or kitbash it into a different bird of prey using other big avian kits, such as the Tauralon or Griffin.
Finally, you can bestow mount traits upon your new pet. It makes sense for the Vulcha to get Winged Beast and Razor-Sharp Claws, but since we have points to play with, it will also receive the hilarious Gobble Attack so it can consume foes that stray too close to its adored master.
This is always one of the most fun parts because who doesn’t want a giant custom-made beast?
Step 6:
The final step of the Anvil of Apotheosis is to buff your hero with unique abilities. Once again, this works as a point-buy system – and we have DP 9 leftover for some juicy options.
Our slippery hero’s gilded tongue has earned him the title of Consummate Commander, allowing him to start the battle with an extra command point. He will also receive Superior Leadership as his comrades admire his kunnin’ intelligence and wealth.
Finally, with three points left over, he will also get Frenzy to reflect the feral orruk temper that hides behind his rotten veneer, allowing him to hit his enemies harder in combat.
And there you have it! A fully custom character!
View Gallery: 38 Images
Here’s the most up-to-date list of new Games Workshop bits from preview models that we should keep an eye out for. Click on the gallery above to see dozens of Rumor Engines with new models still left to be revealed!
All the Newest GW Model & Rules Previews For 2022
Do you like the Thondia rules so far? Will you be picking this box up?
Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group, or our new Discord server, and make sure you enter the latest monthly giveaway for FREE today!
Get ad-free access to our hobby videos, a monthly drop of miniatures, and support some of the best creators out there for as little as $6 a month on Patreon!
About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
