As someone currently paint 100-odd human-sized infantry for a King of War army, I’m all for more huge models. Plus, it might encourage people to play much larger games, which could be interesting.
Monster hammer is great for the game as a way to build excitement and push the boundaries of the game. Large models look amazing on the table (when painted especially) and add a cinematic element that can’t be captured with just rank and file infantry.
So from book 1 and 2 of end times it looks like the monster takes the higher of the rider or the mount for WS BS S T I LD. To get the W and A add the riders and the mounts values together. Movement is determined by the mount’s movement value. The thing I’m not sure on is how armor values are worked out. At a quick glance it looks like it might be ignoring the monsters AV and just counting as a +1 for mounted.
The big thing with monsters now is that we do have hard counters for them and they no longer kill all the models in base contact preventing attacks back to them. So do I think we need more monsters in WFB? Yes please! But I also don’t think it is going to return to the days of 7th and star dragon craziness as they have tone stuff down.
As a side note we have already seen the combined profiles this edition with monster and their crew for the special and rare monsters and they have not hurt the game and made very little impact on it.
Whats going to be cool to see with the 50% change plus the combined profiles?
Hunter on Stonehorn – Add 3 wounds and attacks to the profile on a model the reduces the multiple wounds amount in half.
Goblin shaman on arachnarok – Right around 10Ws with lore master and maybe that wand OnG magic item. Plus this frees up your rare slot for other units.
Tomb Prince on sphinx – Add 3 wounds and the TK sword the heals you. Now you might be able to run a 4 or 5 sphinx list.
Old blood on Carnosaur – Add wounds, attacks with piranha blade and helm of anti monster or multi wound killer.
Scare Vet on Carnosaur – Still solid with a GW, because why not.
Adds a bit more diversity which helps to make things always that bit more interesting. Couple of points I wonder about for 9th though.
In existing army books if they take the approach to monsters and riders you made last week how do you think they will resolve differential Armour save values? Steg and skink riders for example. Do you think they will take the approach already seen with end times of the riders save just bumped by +1 for mounted? as such although things like stegs and skinks gain more wounds as a single model it is harder to reach a decent save in such a case (a limited example I know). Still I think it just raises a question as to how various parts could be integrated in 9th.
Still just thinking of all the carnosaur fun to be had with lizardmen. Even just an old blood with fencers blades and a 4+ save could be fun for a WS 10 monster. If they stay around.
That’s allot of typing so I’m going to shut up now!
I think this is a great step forward for the game, and despite what people think not all that game breaking. Short of Nagash and his ability to raise armies upon armies. But what they need to do is offer a balance to all armies at the same time. As Matthew showed its easy enough to figure out how the stats are worked out so just release a FAQ and say here do this and your lord will have combined stats. That’s the biggest reason we don’t see more monsters mounts taken right now but it’s the quickest way to make it balanced and to have new players coming into the game stop from going “of if I want to play an army with a decent chance to win I can only use the armies that have an entry in the end times books”
Jaded Gamercast 
As someone currently paint 100-odd human-sized infantry for a King of War army, I’m all for more huge models. Plus, it might encourage people to play much larger games, which could be interesting.
Yes, because…Tyranids.
Yes, because… euphemism.
Monster hammer is great for the game as a way to build excitement and push the boundaries of the game. Large models look amazing on the table (when painted especially) and add a cinematic element that can’t be captured with just rank and file infantry.
So from book 1 and 2 of end times it looks like the monster takes the higher of the rider or the mount for WS BS S T I LD. To get the W and A add the riders and the mounts values together. Movement is determined by the mount’s movement value. The thing I’m not sure on is how armor values are worked out. At a quick glance it looks like it might be ignoring the monsters AV and just counting as a +1 for mounted.
The big thing with monsters now is that we do have hard counters for them and they no longer kill all the models in base contact preventing attacks back to them. So do I think we need more monsters in WFB? Yes please! But I also don’t think it is going to return to the days of 7th and star dragon craziness as they have tone stuff down.
As a side note we have already seen the combined profiles this edition with monster and their crew for the special and rare monsters and they have not hurt the game and made very little impact on it.
Whats going to be cool to see with the 50% change plus the combined profiles?
Hunter on Stonehorn – Add 3 wounds and attacks to the profile on a model the reduces the multiple wounds amount in half.
Goblin shaman on arachnarok – Right around 10Ws with lore master and maybe that wand OnG magic item. Plus this frees up your rare slot for other units.
Tomb Prince on sphinx – Add 3 wounds and the TK sword the heals you. Now you might be able to run a 4 or 5 sphinx list.
Old blood on Carnosaur – Add wounds, attacks with piranha blade and helm of anti monster or multi wound killer.
Scare Vet on Carnosaur – Still solid with a GW, because why not.
Adds a bit more diversity which helps to make things always that bit more interesting. Couple of points I wonder about for 9th though.
In existing army books if they take the approach to monsters and riders you made last week how do you think they will resolve differential Armour save values? Steg and skink riders for example. Do you think they will take the approach already seen with end times of the riders save just bumped by +1 for mounted? as such although things like stegs and skinks gain more wounds as a single model it is harder to reach a decent save in such a case (a limited example I know). Still I think it just raises a question as to how various parts could be integrated in 9th.
Still just thinking of all the carnosaur fun to be had with lizardmen. Even just an old blood with fencers blades and a 4+ save could be fun for a WS 10 monster. If they stay around.
That’s allot of typing so I’m going to shut up now!
I think this is a great step forward for the game, and despite what people think not all that game breaking. Short of Nagash and his ability to raise armies upon armies. But what they need to do is offer a balance to all armies at the same time. As Matthew showed its easy enough to figure out how the stats are worked out so just release a FAQ and say here do this and your lord will have combined stats. That’s the biggest reason we don’t see more monsters mounts taken right now but it’s the quickest way to make it balanced and to have new players coming into the game stop from going “of if I want to play an army with a decent chance to win I can only use the armies that have an entry in the end times books”