Huge Meta Shift in Warhammer The Old World

The new Arcane Journal: River of Bones brings a collection of magic items that could have a much bigger impact on the Old World meta than you might expect. Some of these items will probably come and go without making a splash, but a couple could completely change how we build our lists and deal with certain threats.

For a long time, magic-heavy lists and big flying monsters, especially characters riding dragons with ridiculous defensive setups, have shaped a huge part of the game. But what if some of these new magic items are exactly the answer we have been looking for?

In this analysis, we’re going through every new magic item in River of Bones: their rules, strengths and weaknesses, possible combos, and, above all, which ones I actually think are worth taking. Because there are items I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole, but there are others whose cost and potential make them absolutely nuts.

Let’s get into it!

Tomb King of Khemri proudly displaying a magic ring — River of Bones

New River of Bones Magic Weapons: Rules and Best Uses

The Axe of Abandon — 40 points

A magic weapon that gives you +1 Strength, AP -2, and D3 extra attacks. However, if you roll a 3 for the extra attacks, the bearer suffers a -1 modifier to their rolls To Hit for that Combat phase.

Honestly, even before we get into the curse, paying 40 points for only +1 Strength rather than +2 makes me prefer a mundane great weapon. Because think about it: if you only get one extra attack, it’s crap. And if you get three extra attacks, it’s also crap because of the penalty. At 40 points, a 66% chance of it being crap in any given round of combat is just too much.

A mundane great weapon costs 3 or 4 points and always gives you +2 Strength, even if you strike last. It also has better armor penetration thanks to Armour Bane. I don’t like this weapon at all.

The Briar-bow — 25 points

A bow with a range of 30 inches, Strength 3, AP -1, and, obviously, Magical Attacks, as you would expect from a magic bow. When it hits, the target suffers a number of hits equal to the result on the artillery die. If you roll a Misfire, the bow breaks and can’t be used again, and the bearer suffers one hit instead of the target.

It could be interesting for certain combos, but I like that it’s Strength 3 rather than Strength 4, because at Strength 4 it would be practically an auto-include. We would see the exact same item in every army.

A Wood Elf Waywatcher champion has BS6, and you can give them this because it only costs 25 points. A Sisters of Avelorn champion can take it too. There are some interesting combos here. So this could be fun, but it’s no silver bullet. Personally, I like this kind of item.

The Flaming Sword — 25 points

A melee weapon with AP -1, Flaming Attacks, and Magical Attacks. It also always wounds targets with the Flammable special rule on a 4+, regardless of their Toughness. The drawback is that the bearer can’t join units with the Regeneration special rule.

I think this weapon is going to have absolutely no impact and nobody is going to use it, because paying 25 points for a weapon that gives you no Strength bonus and only AP -1 makes no sense. Same story again: compare it with a mundane great weapon. With +2 Strength from a mundane great weapon, the model carrying it will usually end up at Strength 6 or Strength 7. At Strength 6 or 7, you’re already wounding any Flammable target in the game on a 4+ or a 3+. So it’s pointless. Seriously, it feels like they did not think these items through before releasing them.

Helmcutter — 20 points

Another weapon with no Strength bonus and only AP -1. On a natural 6 To Wound, the enemy can’t make an armor save against that attack.

Same story again: I would rather have a mundane great weapon. Here’s why: how many attacks do you have? How many of those actually hit? And of the ones that hit, think about how many are going to roll a 6 To Wound. The rest probably won’t even wound, because there’s no Strength bonus. If you’re fighting something reasonably tough, even wounding it will be a struggle.

On top of that, depending on what you’re fighting, taking away its armor save might not be enough to kill it. The enemy might simply have Regeneration or a ward save. So those 20 points are almost never going to earn their keep.

River of Bones Magic Armour: Benefits, Curses and Combos

The Armour of Dust — 45 points

A suit of full plate armor, meaning a 4+ save, whose armor value can’t be improved or modified in any way. So no matter how much armor penetration the enemy has, you still save on a 4+, unless it has a special rule that outright denies armor saves, like the 20-point Helmcutter we just looked at.

At 45 points, it’s pretty expensive. But the cost is not its only drawback. Every time the bearer rolls a natural 1 for an armor save, they suffer -1 Toughness for the rest of the battle.

Is that interesting? Well, I think this armor is terrible. I would rather take the trusty old Armour of Meteoric Iron we have had since the start of Warhammer: The Old World. It gives us a 5+ armor save that can’t be modified, costs less, and doesn’t come with any penalties.

The Armour of Fate — 35 points

Restricted to infantry or cavalry models. A suit of heavy armor that lets you reroll failed armor saves. The drawback is that if you roll a natural 1 when rerolling a failed save, the bearer suffers a Strength 5 hit with no armor save allowed. You can still take a ward save against that hit, though.

I think this could make sense if you can build a character with a 2+ armor save. What I can’t figure out is how to get that character to a 2+ when this is not full plate with a base 4+ save, but heavy armor with a base 5+ save. A Black Orc with a shield and Trollhide Trousers has a 2+, but needs full plate to get there. A Doombull with Armoured Hide (1) can also get there, but needs Chaos full plate armor. I don’t know. There are not many options.

I don’t think this magic armor is worth taking with a 3+ armor save, but it might be with a 2+. We would have to work out which armies can actually build a character with a 2+ armor save, and how. It’s also important for the character to have plenty of Wounds, three or four, because with only two Wounds, even with rerollable saves, one bad roll could kill them in a single turn. At that point, this armor wouldn’t be worth it.

The Bronze Shield — 30 points

When the bearer suffers one or more wounds from an Assailment spell, a Magic Missile, or a Magical Vortex, the caster suffers D3 Strength 4 hits with AP -2. The shield only activates once per battle. In fact, it activates automatically the first time its condition is met. According to the item description, you can’t choose to save it for later.

It’s interesting. At the very least, it’s an interesting item. However, it has several problems. The first is that D3 Strength 4 hits probably won’t kill the Wizard. There’s a 33% chance of rolling a 1, meaning a single hit. One hit won’t kill them, whether you wound or not.

If you get two hits against a low-level Wizard, you might get lucky and kill them. An Empire Wizard with Toughness 3, for example. But the odds are low. Think about it: you wound on a 3+, and assuming they don’t have a ward save from a Talisman of Protection or something similar, they could die. But the combined probability is very low.

And if it’s a level 3 or level 4 Wizard, obviously two hits won’t kill them, because those Wizards have three Wounds. Any mounted Wizard is also going to survive, whether on a chariot or a monster, because they’ll have more Wounds than you can inflict.

That brings us to the second problem: the shield goes off the first time its condition is met—you can’t save it for later. Because you can’t choose when to use it, the opponent, who knows who is carrying the shield, can take advantage of that. If they have several Wizards, they’ll first try to wound the bearer and use up the shield’s effect with a Wizard they know will survive the retaliation. After that, they can start casting with their low-level Wizard, if they have one that’s actually at risk of dying.

You could argue that damaging a Wizard without killing them still makes sense because you can finish them off later. My point is that no, it doesn’t. Because a Wizard is a model that will usually die once it reaches combat, apart from Chaos Sorcerers, Daemon Princes, or Chaos Dwarf Wizards, who have Toughness 5 and can even take a monstrous mount. For an average Wizard, it makes little difference whether they reach combat already wounded or completely untouched. For all those reasons, I think this item is far too situational and not worth taking.

The Armour of Jet — 20 points

This item is Extremely Common, so you can take more than one. A suit of heavy armor that any Wizard can wear without suffering a penalty for using armor. However, if they miscast or are Outclassed in the Art, they suffer a -1 modifier to their roll on the Miscast table. We know the new Miscast table being used is more dangerous than the old one, and that -1 could be significant and risky.

But I don’t think that’s the most dangerous part. The most dangerous part is that armor is no longer limited to certain Wizards, as was the case with Chaos Dwarfs, Warriors of Chaos, Beastmen, and so on. I think Games Workshop should never have crossed that line, because it takes away some of what makes certain armies distinct.

But what is done is done. So, is the item worth 20 points? If you’re combining that heavy armor with a barded horse or some other armor bonus, it could make sense. But 20 points might be too much for a 5+ save that any idiot with a hand weapon can take away from you.

I don’t know. It doesn’t strike me as an auto-include, and I don’t think we will see people spamming it just because Extremely Common lets them. But it does look usable and worth considering.

River of Bones Talismans: New Options Against Enemy Magic

The Pariah Stone — 35 points

Anyone trying to target the bearer or their unit with a spell, must pass a Leadership test using their own Leadership characteristic. If they fail, they must choose a different target.

I think this is the kind of item that flies completely under the radar and nobody ever uses. If failing the Leadership test meant the spell was wasted instead of forcing the caster to pick another target, this item could be very useful alongside Leadership penalties, such as those available through Necromancy or Tomb Kings in general. But that’s not how it works. The opponent, who is usually not an idiot, will take this into account and stay within range of a couple of juicy targets rather than just one, in case they fail the Leadership test.

So it might not be the most exciting item in the world. But there’s another downside worth keeping in mind. The effect doesn’t only apply to enemy spells. If you want to cast an Enchantment on that unit yourself, you also have to pass the Leadership test. So it doesn’t just protect you from enemy spells. It can also make it harder to cast your own spells on the unit.

The Obsidian Pendant — 20 points

It gives the bearer a 4+ ward save against Magic Missiles only. However, that save only lasts until you fail it once. The moment you fail a save, the item is destroyed and can’t be used again. It reminds me a bit of the High Elf cloak that was already available and often gets used in Sisters of Avelorn units, but worse. It only protects the bearer rather than the whole unit, and stops working as soon as you fail a save. Honestly, I don’t find it particularly interesting.

New River of Bones Magic Standards: Which Units Benefit Most?

The Mouldering Banner — 25 points

Any enemy that chooses the unit carrying this banner as a target in the Shooting phase suffers an additional -1 modifier to its rolls To Hit. However, friendly units within six inches of the unit carrying the banner also suffer -1 To Hit when shooting. It’s very similar to banners we already had, except those usually cost around 30 points, a bit more, and don’t come with this penalty.

Only certain lists that generally don’t bring any shooting are going to benefit from this slightly cheaper banner. Overall, it’s not adding much.

Banners that give -1 To Hit in the Shooting phase have been around practically since the beginning of Warhammer, although they used to be limited to certain armies. Wolves of the Sea, for example, could take one. Then Games Workshop made it a common item, and now they’re selling it to us again with a fresh coat of paint.

I don’t know why Games Workshop is so determined to get us to use these banners, with practically no success. I see very few lists running them.

The Banner of the Resolute Dead — 15 points

When taking a Leadership test or a Break test, the unit can roll one extra die and discard the highest of the three results. The penalty is -1 to its Movement characteristic, all the time, not just when the banner is used. So the unit basically gets what we used to know as Cold-blooded, but with -1 Movement.

Personally, this could be very useful for a unit you know is there to hold the line. But -1 Movement can really hurt troops that already have low Movement, which generally means infantry. Imagine a Chaos Dwarf Infernal Guard unit losing a point of Movement. They’re slow enough already. Dropping to Movement 2 and marching four inches is pretty sad. No matter how well they hold, the enemy could easily avoid them.

Still, we should not forget that our beloved game has spells such as Steed of Shadows and the teleport spell from Elementalism, which hugely improve our mobility. In those cases, the drawback would matter a lot less. So I do think this banner will have a place in the game.

Besides, 15 points is a great price. Not just because it’s cheap, but because many units can only buy magic standards worth up to 25 points. Had it been more expensive, those units wouldn’t even have the option.

River of Bones Enchanted Items: How the Robes of Phakth Could Change the Meta

Robes of Phakth — 50 points

Restricted to infantry models. The bearer gains Ethereal, Fly (8), and Loner.

This item is going to change the meta as we know it. That’s my prediction, and now I am going to explain why.

So far, we have complained a lot about flying models that are Large Targets, have loads of Wounds, and come with excellent saves, whether armor, ward, Regeneration, or all three. But those models usually carried a great weapon or a lance without Magical Attacks. Their mounts also have no way to get Magical Attacks, and their Stomp Attacks are not magical either.

For just 50 points, which some people might think is expensive, this enchanted item lets you build an infantry model that can deal with those much more expensive models. The point is that if you can tie those models up, it doesn’t matter whether you can kill them. If you can engage them without them being able to hurt you, you will probably be winning or drawing the combat while stopping them from threatening the rest of your army. Let’s look at some practical examples, because this is an item worth spending some time on.

Option 1: the beatstick character

One option is to use it to build an offensive character in certain armies. Obviously, not every army can do this, only the lucky ones.

Imagine a Doombull or an Ogre Tyrant with Ethereal and Fly. They still have a 360-degree vision arc and are immune to anything that’s not magical. Also, remember that even if they’re not a Large Target themselves, they can still see enemy Large Targets over other troops. And Movement 8 is pretty interesting.

What is missing here is Swiftstride. Always keep that in mind. Fly (8) or not, without Swiftstride, your charge range is still limited.

Option 2: the flying Battle Standard Bearer

If you have an Ethereal Battle Standard Bearer that enemy monsters can’t hurt because they don’t have Magical Attacks, you can create some truly absurd situations. Take a 30-point Night Goblin Bigboss, add the cost of making him your Battle Standard Bearer, then give him a War Banner, this item, and a great weapon or something similar. Now imagine him going into combat.

This guy has a measly three Strength 6 attacks, and with a lot of luck he might put a wound on the enemy General riding a dragon. But if he doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. Just carrying the battle standard and the War Banner means he wins combat by two every turn against anything that can’t hurt him. In this example, the enemy dragon.

So even in the best-case scenario for the dragon, it’s neutralized because the Goblin will chase it to the ends of the earth while the dragon keeps Falling Back in Good Order or Giving Ground two inches. Or, with one bad Break test, the Goblin might even kill it.

Option 3: an Ethereal character that hunts other Ethereals

Remember that anyone can take this item. You can give it to anyone in your army who meets the requirements, but you can also run into it in any game. So another job for your Ethereal character is killing the enemy Ethereal character if the item becomes really popular, which I think it will. To do that, they need Magical Attacks somehow, either from a magic weapon or as part of their basic rules, as is the case with Warriors of Chaos characters. Either way, that’s another possible role.

And there’s a combo here that could be particularly interesting. This Ethereal hunter could be the best friend of the classic dragon-riding character we already know. Imagine wanting to keep the same defensive magic item setup as always: Regeneration, a ward save, good armor, and so on. Keeping all that protection against the vast majority of units in the game leaves you without enough points in your magic item allowance to fit in Magical Attacks.

The answer might be to keep an Ethereal hunter nearby. That way, your dragon-riding character never has to deal with the enemy Ethereal character during the game. They avoid getting tied up fighting it, or even getting killed in the way we talked about earlier.

Option 4: threatening enemy war machines

Any of the options above can do this job. But remember that many armies, such as Warriors of Chaos, have had to use fast cavalry, very expensive characters, or units with Ambushers to threaten the enemy backline ever since we lost the option to take a flying Disc of Slaanesh, Furies, or Screamers in the army. That’s about to change quite a bit.

Either way, I hadn’t thought of Games Workshop using an item like this to balance the game, and I find it very interesting. Let’s see how players adapt.

Barrow-dirt — 20 points

Limited to one per model and single use. A Breath Weapon with Strength 3, AP -3, Magical Attacks, and Multiple Wounds (2). The downside is that after using it, the bearer must take an Initiative test. If they fail, they’re also hit by the Breath Weapon on a 4+.

I think it could work on models that already have a Breath Weapon. You can fire several in the same turn; nowhere is there a general rule saying you can’t use several shooting weapons at once. In most situations, I probably wouldn’t move close to the enemy just to use this Breath Weapon. But if I am using two templates, maybe I would. A Chaos Dwarf Lammasu, for example, might get some use out of it.

Then again, 20 points for a Breath Weapon that, as I always tell you, still needs a 4+ to hit partially covered models and only has Strength 3 might be too situational to pay off. It works against very specific targets.

Still, we also need to remember that plenty of models, such as the Lammasu, have high Toughness. So if they fail the Initiative test and end up taking a Strength 3 hit, it probably won’t be much of a problem for them.

The Crown of Fury — 20 points

The bearer, but not their mount, gains Furious Charge and Impetuous.

Seriously, this is a joke. And it’s not just the obvious problem with Impetuous: you’re charging me 20 points for a single attack, only on the turn I charge, and only if I move more than three inches.

If I have Frenzy in a unit, for example, Impetuous doesn’t matter. So that would be the winning combo. But that’s what it comes down to: they’re selling me one attack that only happens in specific situations, for 20 points. This magic item is absolute trash.

River of Bones Arcane Items: New Ways to Shut Down Enemy Magic

The Tome of Oppression — 40 points

Restricted to infantry or cavalry models. Once per turn, when an enemy Wizard casts a spell, you can use this instead of making a normal Dispel roll.

Here is how it works. Both Wizards roll a D6 and add their own Toughness to the result.

If the casting Wizard has the higher total, the Wizard trying to dispel suffers a Strength 4 hit with AP -1, and the spell is cast as normal. If the result is a tie, the spell is simply dispelled and neither Wizard takes a hit. If the Wizard trying to dispel has the higher total, the spell is dispelled and the enemy Wizard, the one casting the spell, takes that Strength 4 hit with AP -1.

Honestly, I think this item could be absurdly good. So good it’s stupid. Remember that when a normal Dispel roll ties the casting result, the spell still goes through. Here, a tie already dispels the spell. So the Wizard trying to dispel has the advantage right from the start. There are no bonuses from magic items or anything like that, either. For example, the Beastmen stone wouldn’t add anything here. It wouldn’t make the spell harder for me to dispel.

On top of all that, you have to consider that this item pairs extremely well with Wizards that can reach very high Toughness. Some Wizards can boost their Toughness very easily, for example by riding a Chaos Chariot or a monstrous mount. The craziest example I can think of is a Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer-Prophet with the Mantle of Stone on a Bale Taurus, who has Toughness 7. That’s before his Sorcerer’s Curse special rule kicks in, which would increase his Toughness.

Imagine a typical Elven Wizard on horseback trying to cast spells while he’s within that guy’s 24-inch dispel range. All of that for just 40 points. The combinations you can put together with this against enemy magic are absolutely brutal.

Also, remember that we’re playing Warhammer and can try to dispel everything. We don’t have to decide which spells to try to dispel and which to let through. This is not Warhammer Fantasy anymore. So I think magic-heavy lists, especially at team events, could really suffer against this item. At those events, you can try to pair one of your team’s lists running this combo against the opponent’s magic-heavy list. It could be brutal. I think every team is going to bring at least one player with a high-Toughness combo and this item.

Crude Canopics — 30 points

This item is Extremely Common, so you can take more than one. When the bearer tries to dispel a spell, any natural double other than double 1 automatically dispels it. However, on a double 1, instead of rolling once on the Miscast table, they have to roll twice and apply both results.

I don’t think it’s as good as the previous item, but whatever the enemy’s casting result, it gives you an extra chance to dispel. With two dice, the chance of rolling a double is one in six. Well, it gives you almost a one-in-six chance, because double 1 doesn’t count. Actually, it’s not just that double 1 doesn’t count. You also have to roll twice on the Miscast table. With the new Miscast table in play, that could go hilariously wrong.

It’s giving you a decent chance to dispel. But is that really enough? Considering there’s already a chance the opponent fails to cast, and another chance you dispel the spell without rolling a double, maybe it doesn’t improve your chances by all that much. And perhaps it’s not worth it. Still, it’s an item to keep in mind. We need to try it out.

Morithein’s Magnifier — 25 points

Once per turn, the bearer can use it to increase a spell’s range by three inches before declaring its target. However, using it also increases the spell’s casting value by one.

At first glance, this item might look like crap, but I think there could be some interesting combos. There are plenty of situations where increasing a spell’s casting value by one doesn’t matter all that much. For example, when we’re using magic items that give a big boost to casting, or the casting dice introduced in the previous Arcane Journal as part of the optional magic rules.

As for spells that could really benefit from this effect, I am mainly thinking of very short-range spells such as Miasmic Mirage or Column of Crystal from the Lore of Illusion. Not just because their short base range makes an extra three inches a proportionally huge improvement, but because of how much impact those spells can have when they go off.

Will River of Bones Change the Warhammer The Old World Meta?

Those are all the new magic items they have added. The two I spent the most time on are exactly the two I think will change the game the most. As I said earlier, I think some of the others will come and go without making a splash, completely irrelevant.

But it’s interesting to see how just two magic items, or even one, can change the meta so dramatically, or at least how dramatically I think they’ll change it. I think the game needs that, so we see fewer lists abusing magic on the one hand and big flying Large Targets with incredible defensive setups on the other.

Once again, I think Games Workshop is moving in the right direction to improve the game. These changes might fall short; I don’t know, because we need to see what happens and play a lot of games with the new items. And that’s very much appreciated.

Either way, once they’re ready, I will leave links to the other posts about this Arcane Journal below, so you have all the analysis in one place and can look it up in the middle of a game.