How do I look at my stuff right now? (part 6 minions)

Fighting for coin or just to stay alive, all the minions (and merc) I own for my Skorne army.

Swamp gobbers, the only one point option in our army list, with the new rules unable to hide behind their own cloud, which lost the -2 Mat. Still useful to keep your stuff hidden for one more round.
Orin Midwinter, not very much changed, to antimagic aura is very nice, but I usually end up to low on points to include fun solo's like him.
The Feralgeist has been unnerfed and nerfed at the same time. You will get an activation, but he will only go into enemy beasts. Only the though of having him in something like Typhon will make you very happy.
Wrong eye and Snapjaw are a fun team, the influence on wrong eye is very nice, gives him something to spend his fury on, as long as it does not have to much defense. Snapjaw's animus is a classic. Abuse not working on them anymore is a loss to me. Have to try them out to see how I really think about them.
Rorsh & Brine, or smart pig and monster pig, what else do you want? The diversionary tactics is still there and Brine got two extra attacks, not finally his animus has a use. Painresponse got a little bit worse, same goes for pigheaded. Have to try them out to see how I really think about them.

These are all the minions I have, but more might come in the near future, especially if you can make gator and farrow armies then.

How do I look at my stuff right now? (part 5 solos)

To weak to be a warcaster or real beast, to egocentric to be in an unit, most of them just plain wierd, the Skorne solos!

Ancestral Guardian, our primal solo and the only which I own a pair, got nerved hard in the fieldtest. He was very good in mark 1, but is he still worth his 3 points compared to the other solo's, which are all 2 points. Having a mat 8 model which is able to boost to hit is nice and he still is hard to kill, but that is about all.
Void Spirit, like him, the eruption of ash is so cool. Of course auto include with Mordikaar.
Soulward, still very nice, the boostable zap can be useful, but needing souls to get eyeless sight is sometimes annoying, you'll have to wait till your opponent gets around to kill something.
Master Tormentor. She brings the pain, the mat boost for the bloodrunners is very welcome.
The Agonizer is something I never got working in the previous mark, he didn't change that much, maybe time to get to know this little bugger better.

How do I look at my stuff right now? (part 4 units).

Loved and hated, without further introduction, the Skorne infantry!

Arcuarii, nice unit for its cost. Plays well with a lot of our casters Mordikaar for the boosted attacks, makeda for the 5" extra move, Xerxis for the 5d6 charge, etc. Less fragile because of the 8 hitpoints they now have and the drag can be really helpful from time to time.
Cetrati, hard hard unit to kill, but look at the cost! In mark 2 they also hit harder.
Karax, see my previous post.
Swordsmen, good for their cheap points, with added UA their are a lot of plinging katana's coming your way!
Paingivers, a little bit nerved, but still healing beasts and managing fury is very nice, not to forgot the added strenght?
Out little construct unit, the immortals, I love them, I do like vengeance a lot is really, P+S is a sweet spot, they move a little slow, but a very good second wave, for the moment your opponent has lost the ability to wipe units in one turn. Filling mine up to 10 is high on my wish list.
Ferox, sounds like a glass cannon to me. Fast, very fast with makeda, but fragile and not hitting very hard. I have not tried them, being restrained by the massive point cost.
Bloodrunners, cleaning up your single wound infantry since 2009.
Venators, paying a lot of points for some weak attacks, might be dangerous in the wrong (or right) hands. Didn't get them working in mk1, might give them a serious try with mk2 soon.
The catapult, has a hard time hitting stuff, good to clean up massed enemy infantry if you're lucky.

How do I look at my stuff right now? (part 3 small beasts).

Welcome to part 3! Enjoy the ugly toads and one eyed giants!

Krea, don't really know if I still like her. I have to admit she was way to good in mk1. The paralysis sounds like fun.
Drake, like him, with the new spray rules and his animus, although very situational, still very nice.
Savage, good old one eye.
Brute, well executed model rule wise. The no knock down can be very useful in a lot of situations and he is really though.
Shaman, don't own one, but on my wish list. Like his tricks.

How do I look at my stuff right now? (part 2 big beasts).

Part two of this little set of posts, I hope you like these brain dumps.

Gladiator, yes! Finally a reason to get this beasty out of the cabinet and into action. His stats are fine for his price, his animus is very nice to get this 2" more or pathfinder. I even have used rush (one from the gladiator, two from the warcaster) on arcuarii to get them into combat though terrrain. And then there is the elephant brawler look on him.
Cannoneer, my staple warbeast for mark 1, still very nice in mark 2, especially when helped by Rush. Still good in combat because of his head attack. His animus got a little bit weakish.
Karn, hardly played in mk1, still waiting for paint. All I can see for now is that I find the 11 points a bit steep when we get a good combat beast for 8 points.
Bronzeback, I dont own one, looks like has an unit of infantry for dinner and then a warcaster as desert.
Rhinodon, have to think about him more, for now I think about him as the weaker version of the gladiator with a weaker animus.

How do I look at my stuff right now? (part 1 warcasters).

Also using this little serie of post to put my own thoughts in order. I only have about 7 games in on mk2, but this is my feeling about the warcasters.

I see both morghouls are a bit bland. They still have a nice bunch of abilities, but still feel a bit boring compared to what other factions have. I have the feeling they can be fun and powerful when you get the grips of their tricks (especially the assassination runs, normal morgs no overloading powerfields/transfers, epic blinding and slaying.
Normal makeda falls in the same category, she used to be one of my favorites in mk1 and she has hardly changed, I somehow lost the affection I once had for her. This might be caused by the nerf bat hitting on the stuff I liked to play with her (guardians, krea's and ferox). Although when you play her now, she feels the same, which I think I will like in the long run.
Epic makeda, never played her in mk1, I really like that they did something to make her (feat) a lot more different from the non epic version.
Hexeris, well, hard to say without trying, a lot has changed, I do still dislike the feat, but like his new spells.
Xerxis is the bad ass beatstick in the Skorne neighbourhood. I like the tweaks to his feat, his spells, the fact he got some of the tyrant abilities (he is a tyrant after all). Played a few games with him and he feels like I think he should have been when he was launched (did not really like him in mk1).
Zaal, on paper, looks like he lost it. AG's nerved, spells nerved, but I am still neutral about him, maybe because I love his fluff, or maybe it is not all as bad as it seems.
Mordikaar: I think (for now) he is the best skorne has to offer, although his feat has disappointed me in the few games I played with him. Very good spells.

Karax vs Preats, an unfair fight

Comparing to other factions is never really unambiguous. The have other casters, other support and other play styles. The whole point for me is that with the current rules I (and IMHO a lot of other people) will prefer the swordsmen of the karax for the same role. If you sum up their differences, I think the swordsmen will be more usable in the speed bump/low damage dealing unit. I have kept the UA out of consideration, because it will even help the swordsmen more, but a good speed bump should be cheap and adding it in, will make this post even longer.

Let's split that out. Which unit is the best speed-bump:
Swordsmen have one more speed, one more defense. Karax have shield wall and girded (no blash damage). The big problem with the Karax is, that they are slow, especially if you want them to shield wall. It is no good to have a speed bump unit which can not follow a dynamic playing style (static playing style is so mark 1 ). I also think that the point of defense is almost as good as the 4 points of armor, why? It is one point in the sweet spot of most MAT (5 to 8) which will reduce the chance of getting hit by 10% or more in most cases. While the increased ARM is only in the sweet spot of low pow attacks. To get the ARM attack they do not only have to sacrifice speed, but also have to be in base to base contact, which will make them a "smaller" speed bump. It is also more situational and I like my speed bump to be reliable. Speaking of situational, girded only comes in to play rarely. And swordsmen are not as vulnerable to blast damage as the karax because they tend to be spread out a little more.

Now concerning damage dealing:
Karax have a point of P+S more, reach, do not block line of sight for friends and ranked attack, but swordsmen have an extra attack and can combo to get more P+S. They also do one point of auto damage versus 'jacks and beasts. And a speed point of speed of course.

The swordsmen are again more maneuverable, although the karax have a slighly longer charge range (half an inch). But when they charge they leave shield wall and get softer. In the advance the Karax are also a little bit faster, but this is countered by the fact you probably want them to shield wall after the advance, because they have to end in base to base contact. Ranked attack will get you some extra attacks in sometimes, but the number of attacks will always be lower then the when using two attacks. Not blocking line of sight for friends can be useful, but you have to build your army to use it. The auto point of damage of 'jacks and beasts can be nice, to put some small dents in them while keeping them engaged and the combo-ing will allow you to hurt some harder targets. The extra point of P+S for the karax does not counter this, since it is more based on luck and is less flexible.

Conclusion:
The swordsmen win on both prime usages for the units and for an unit with the same costs it will result on them being on the table a lot more. The only place I can see for the karax is with units which can attack over them: e.g.: deploy venators behind it, but on that take you can also take another unit of venators instead, because they are not that much softer. Or maybe with the expensive arcuarri and leave them behind the karax, but those are still vulnerable to shooting attacks.

How I would to see them fixed?
Give the karax a little boost, so that they will win the speed bump department compared with the swordsmen (an extra point of ARM and/or DEF and/or SPD, or maybe something else, like immunity to KD, an UA which will help them staying alive, etc)