Hi everyone,
Catching up here on my Age of Sigmar Path to Glory reviews. I figure I would review one of my favorite armies the Idoneth Deepkin!
Army Special Rules:
The Idoneth’s main mechanic revolves around them acquiring souls. After you kill a unit you make a number of rolls according to an attached table. For each roll of a 4+ you gain one soul point. You can spend these points to improve casualty rolls or to help recuperate a unit. After you spend any of these points the rest are lost. I like the mechanic a lot, it’s fluffy but also limited such that the Idoneth player cannot stockpile an endless supply of souls (an issue with the Ynnari in 40K).
Quests:
The Idoneth get four custom quests to choose from. The first is a fairly standard quest that allows Leviadons to get mount traits. The second sets up the special mission for the Idoneth (like other armies). The third is an interesting option that, if you win a major victory and have at least three units remain you can increase your Soul points by one for each remaining Idoneth unit. This is a nice way to recuperate after a battle although you do risk losing any excess points. The final option is a quest that rewards you for dominating your opponent. After winning a major victory and having a tally of 12+ Soul points you complete it. In the next mission you play, each of your units heals D3 wounds at the start of each of your hero phases. This is hard to do but reaps a tremendous reward. One of the strikes against it though is it can be hard to time. Unless you know when you will get a crushing victory like this it is hard to structure it so that you can use it in a key battle like your custom faction one.
Custom Mission:
The mission is a breakthrough mission where the Idoneth are trying to push past their opponent. I have always found these types of missions difficult to balance but they have some interesting mechanics. The Idoneth player deploys only three units with the others arriving at a designated time. The Idoneth player is trying to break through and exit on the other side of the board and can be hampered by their opponent (who get a special rule rolling a D6 for each Idoneth unit, on a “1” that unit loses D6 movement next turn on a 2-5 it cannot shoot.) I feel like this mission is very dependent on your opponent with some armies being super un-fun, especially heavy shooting armies or armies with lots of tar-pit units. That said it is nice to see them get creative and flip the normal roles in these scenarios.
Veteran Abilities:
I like the abilities a lot though I feel there is a significant amount of variance between their power level. Abyss Dwellers gives you a once per game “Fights First” ability in addition to the one you already get. You can also get exploding 6’s, get an additional opportunity to run and charge or even summon a shipwreck!
Territories:
The territories available are decent but not great. Some are useless or give you the option to select any other result from the table. The Seamount Overlook (upgrading territories cost D3 less Glory points) and Chorrileum Plateau (get +3 soul points after every battle) are my picks for the best options.
Conclusion:
I think this book is showing some of the power creep in the Path to Glory system. These rules seem a lot more useful than some of the earlier ones. Granted this is mostly hypothetical. I would love to hear your opinions about the rules and how they stack up vs other options.
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