Post by Fadril Adren on Apr 9, 2018 18:52:47 GMT -5
The Idoneth Deepkin are coming – but who are these mysterious reavers? Join us as we dive into the lore and rules of this sinister new race, starting with their shadowy origins, their role in the Grand Alliance of Order, and their strange tidal powers.
The Idoneth Deepkin were created by Teclis to act as successors to the aelven races of the world-that-was. While most aelves are passionate, sensitive and emotional, the Idoneth bear a deep spiritual trauma from their time within the belly of Slaanesh, and shunned Teclis’ teachings – causing him to try to kill them.
The Idoneth Deepkin fled beneath the oceans of the Mortal Realms, drawn there by a deep ancestral link with Mathlann, the old aelven god of the seas. Once there, they made a horrifying discovery – the vast majority of their young were born with withering feeble souls. It appeared the race was on the brink of extinction until the sinister art of soul-theft was discovered – the Idoneth could extend their lives and grant new souls to their young by stealing those of other sentient creatures.
The Idoneth Deepkin have a tenuous and difficult relationship with Order and even other aelves. Following their discovery, they’ve made for stalwart allies against Chaos but have continued their raids on humans, aelves and even the sylvaneth. In short, the Idoneth Deepkin might fight for Order, but they’re not exactly role models.
Having seen the Idoneth Deepkin, you may be wondering – if they’re fighting on land, where do all those fish come from? And how’s that giant turtle flying? The answer is the ethersea.
When the Idoneth Deepkin fight, they summon a magical ocean around themselves, allowing their most powerful sea-beasts to join the battle even if it’s taking place miles inland and letting all troops take advantage of their specialised undersea training. Over time, the battlefield itself changes, sprouting coral growths, ghostly shipwrecks and shoals of iridescent fish – you’ll find a few of the latter in every Idoneth Deepkin kit for customising your models. The ethersea, and the strange powers possessed by the Idoneth Deepkin, are also represented on the tabletop by two powerful allegiance abilities.
The Idoneth Deepkin seem to disappear from the consciousness of their enemies almost instantly, which can make keeping track of them on the battlefield nightmarish for budding commanders. This is represented on the tabletop by Forgotten Nightmares, a rule that makes the Idoneth Deepkin terrifyingly resilient against ranged weapons.
The Idoneth Deepkins’ link to the sea is further represented by Tides of Death – a powerful new mechanic somewhere between the Maggotkin of Nurgle’s Cycle of Corruption and the Blood Rites of the Daughters of Khaine. Each battle round, your Idoneth Deepkin army will receive a different bonus rewarding a specific type of play – the strongest armies will be those with balanced forces capable of making the most use of every step.
With Tides of Death, an Idoneth Deepkin army will start defensively, before quickly advancing on the enemy. Manage to get your best units into combat on round 3, and you’ll be able to take maximum advantage of High Tide – a devastating turn where all your units fight first in combat! Following this, you’ll be able to retreat before either re-engaging or picking off enemy units with ranged attacks.
Tides of Death makes playing with and against Idoneth Deepkin both challenging and rewarding. While powerful, your opponent will know exactly when High Tide is coming, and in the first two turns, you’ll have to work hard to stop their efforts to counter it.
When you play Idoneth Deepkin, you’ll want to build your army to spend the first couple of turns getting into position, the third turn doing as much damage as possible and the fourth turn onwards mopping up enemy forces and claiming objectives. Alternatively, you could build a defensive army, constantly slipping out of your opponent’s clutches, using High Tide as a powerful deterrent.
The Idoneth Deepkin are set to shake up the Mortal Realms and Warhammer Age of Sigmar considerably – come back tomorrow when we’ll be taking a closer look at the cursed Namarti, the lowest and most tragic of this sinister new race. In the meantime, check out this video of a few fans getting to look at the new faction for the very first time: