well, we've played a healthy amount of 2.0, what is your opinions on the subfactions so far. to start it off, heres mine

Atlantean Empire:

Imperial Legion:
a HUGE disappointment. Everyone posted these "fear the imperial legion, their mass-capturing will destroy you!". instead we get a bunch of chaff with pitiful attacks. The majority of figures have a 7-8 attack, with Volkare topping it at an unimpressive 11. The demoralized healing is nice, but the capture threat just ISNT there.

Golemkore:
I rarely see it used. There simply arent enough golems yet. I dont think anyone expected this to be broken, right?

Black Powder Revolutionaries:

Bloody Thorns:
A uncommon ability, its nice, but simply not on enough figures to pose a threat.

Northlanders:
interesting, but I doubt it will see much use outside of BPR themed armies. It virtually FORCES you to use blackwyn.

Orc Khans:

Broken Tusk:
I havent heard a WHOLE lot of buzz about it, but it is a very powerful ability. the extra damage is just too nice to pass up.

Shadow Khans:
again, useful, but its doubtful it will come into play more than once or twice a game. suffers the same as Bloody Thorns. not bad, but under used.

Elven Lords:
Free armies/ Temple Lords:
I found these two simaler. decent, but not terribly impressive on the figures so far, and nothing new, the KI had lots of it in the past.

Dark Crusaders:

Order Of Vladd:
a very underestimated and subtle ability, the staying power of these figures is through the roof.

Deathspeakers:
despite its loopholes, revenant is a VERY powerful ability that any experiened NS player should use. I was worried it would only be on expensive support gods like Aeradon (although Aeradon is hella cool). but with 29 pts, its easily swallowable.

Solonavi/Draconum/Shyft/Elementals
not much too talk about. elementals have ONE subfaction. but no figures with it or a stated ability. DOH :eek:

Northlanders: I'm still trying to figure this one out. Terrain cards? Do they mean domains that say terrain? Half my build total? I'm thinking this is just a lot of useless points slapped onto your fig.

Elven Lords: would be good except you have to format with your own SUB-faction to use them, and would you have enough pieces to actually use these abilities?

Order Of Vlad: Vampirism. Been there done that. Not saying it's a bad thing, but nothing I'm getting excited about.

Deathspeakers: 29 points figs bringing back uniques for one shot at the enemy. If I get to use this, I like veryu much. :)

I think they mean domain cards, not terrain.

i think every subfaction ability is pretty good in its own way, and with one or two more sets there will be enough reasons to fear each one.

about the imperial legion, their ability is scary, and it may seem too be on chaff figures now, but im sure the time will come when it will be a big thing.

the golemkore's ability is useful, and seems to be pretty cheap. it allows for healing past repair markers i believe, which means unless your golem has vampirism or regeneration.

the northlanders HARDLY forces you to use blackwyn. 2**steam maulers and a *amazon scout is around 160 points, well over half, and with wylden forest would create quite a scary formation.

the bloody thorns ability only appears on a few figures in the set, but each time it appears it is very nice to have around. i like it a lot, and im sure it will see use.

the order of vladd as stated before has incredible staying power. vampirism may not seem like much, but it is very nice to have around. unfortunately there is huge untapped potential in having this as a subfaction ability, as a figure can now have up to 3 attack SA's at once if they are in vladd. thats pretty sweet if you ask me.

i dont need to tell you how amazing revenant is. it is just such a useful ability that i would want to have its children if it were a human and i werent a guy. it will honestly find its way into every single one of my crusader armies.

both the elven lord abilities are let downs sort of. they arent really anything new. however they are very nice abilities so in the sense of usefullness they would get a decent score

the broken tusk ability is amazing, and forces the opponent to think. if theres a harka orc within surging distance the opponent better look out or they might just take 6 damage from a 25-34 point figure.

Lurk is a nice thing on orcs, its just too bad it only appeared on 2 noteworthy figures really (rava and the ubkhan) toughness that cant be cancelled by pierce or crushing blow is great.

Volkare has an attack of 10.

Jeremy

I like the necro abilites...Revenant is sort of a no-brainer about how good it is, but the order of vladd get that permenant vamp. This means they can heal the click they lost with a surge, they can push to attack and not take it if they hit, ETC. You cannot count them out of it untill they are dead. One big thing with vamp was that it never got you too far up your dial, it just kept you alive longer. Now, any piece with this subfaction can heal up to thier starting click given enough time.

All right my personnal review of the subfaction abilities :

- Imperial Legion : Great ability! Don't start complaining that it's on chaff, start using Gang-up for pete's sake! the fact that it's mostly on cheap figures means you will have plenty of warm bodies to start killing stuff. Add to that the fact that demoralised heals back up 2 clicks and you get one really annoying faction ability. (Note that playing Volkare in an IL army is really strong move... IL figs heal 4 clicks if they start demoed, General can easily cap figures and then kill em (and can use relics), you hsuld be happy about this one.

- Golemkore : paying pure golemkore basically means playing an army full of healers, ain't that useful? Also note that you can field repair in base contact...

- Northlander : The only one I'm not really impressed with, strong nonetheless. There are plenty of other Northlander figs besides Blackwyn, shouldn't be a problem to get if you really want it.

- Bloody Thorns : Once again, amazing ability. Pair nimble with a bonus of +2 attack, where's the problem with that? Even if you don't have range, the simple fact that you can spin to face a new ennemy fig while in meelee is worthwhile by itself.

- Broken Tusk : Another really impressive ability, extra damage is always good.

- Shadow Khans : Toughness is amazing no matter where it is, now if you have it on your whole dial! The extra defense bonus in concealing terrain makes it even better!

- Elven Lords abilities : Just because they had it before doesn't mean it's bad.

- Vampirism : amazing for close combat, assures a great durability.

- Revenant : Strong but balanced. you can't revenant a figure you killed during your turn, it takes 2 actions ot use said figure, and you can't do it repeatedly on the same figure... Still really strong.

Now if you don't like those abilities, please let me know, I'll be more then happy unburden you of any figure with those awful awful awful abilities...
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Bear in mind that this all opinions based on ONE day's worth of playtesting between one starter and three boosters.

Imperial Legion: Other than the fact that they've killed half the ability for it, it's pretty nice. Which half? Capturing. The 'veterans' abilities are sub par for actual capturing. Playtesting found that out.

GolemKore: Not enough golems to make it worth it. Yet. The keyword is yet...

Northlander: Not enough Domains to make it worth it for me...

Bloody Thorn: This ability is pretty sweet. This one I have no issues with.

Orc Kahns: Both abilities pretty darn strong, so no complaints there.

Elven Lords: Both are 'meh' class abilites nothing to special, but otherwise fine.

Dark Crusaders:

Order of Vladd: Redundant but still nice.

Deathspeakers: This one could get messy...

My opinion?

The top 3 sub-faction abilities are:

Lurk: Permanent Toughness that isn't ignored by Pierce and Crushing Blow. Figures with Lurk can NEVER be affected by auto-damage SAs like Ram, Venom or Polearm. That's incredible.

Revenant: Played right, this ability alone can have a snowball effect that changes the outcome of a match.

Vampirism: It was a great SA in old Mage Knight, now the figures that have it get it permanently.

Followed closely by:

Reckless: Adding damage is great, as long as you're causing more harm to your opponent that to your own figures. There are some good, cheap figures in this set with the ability - and sacrificing a 25 point Harka Orc to cause 6 clicks of damage to a bigger threat is valuable.

Elven Lords: both of their sub-factions bring in Defend and Forced March. In this base set, there are no figures that really stand out, I think 10" is the highest speed value and maybe 18 for Defense. Later sets will imprive this I think.

Sniper: Nimble and a bonus to attack value is great, but there aren't any figures that really make use of this one yet. Wait until we get an Amazon Huntress type figure with good range, damage and high attack, and pair it up with Snow's Fuser Rifle, and you'll see the power of this ability.

I belive the orc kahns and the Dark crusdaers did flat out the best

The Good:

Shadow Khans - Lurk - Free toughness, and a bonus defense is great!
Northlanders - Reeconnaissance - Use the Domains you want every round!

The Bad:

Golemkore - Field Repair - We make our figures super expensive since they can ALL heal (somewhat).
Free Armies - Force March - All we need is someone cheap and fast...
Temple Masters - Gallant Defense - All we need is someone cheap and with a high defense...

The Ugly:

Deathspeakers - Revenant - Uber Necro!
Broken Tusk - Reckless - I kill you fast!
Bloody Thorns - Sniper - Nimble + -2 to your defense = a happy Revolutionar.
Order of Vladd - Vampirism - I can heal myself up to full by just attacking you!
Imperial Legion - Rally - Demoralization only lasts until next turn!

I think we have two kinds of abilities here; those that affect only the figure having it (such as Lurk, Vampirism, and Toughness), and then support abilities for the whole army (such as Revenant, Recon, and Golemkore). Most of the abilities that affect only a figure are pretty darn good. Vampirism through the whole dial made me wish I liked the DC for a second. Some of them are not that great, but it is the first set and we do have a limited selection of figures. This seems to be the problem with the "support" faction abilities too. Revenant (which I think is the most powerful ability in the game bar none) is not subtle and does not require anything other than a dead fig. Reccon or Golemkore on the other hand are much more subtle, but they will be powerful in a few sets. Even Galant Defence will be used once the necessary figures for it appear. Just wait and see.

Just my two cents.

Dimitri

Still a fan of Rally. Why? Cuz of the automatic kill. I don't really care if all the figures have low attacks. All I need are 3 other figs to help with a gang up. And now, those figures aren't considered to have used an action, so you can use them for something else that turn. Don't care how badly people knock on Rally. Its going to be my friend for a long time.