As the Idoneth Deepkin and Fyreslayers battletomes are up for pre-order this weekend, Warhammer Age of Sigmar publisher Games Workshop is letting rip with a load of new rules previews for both factions. On Tuesday, fresh details on the Deepkin’s Isharann rituals were shown in a Warhammer Community article. These have been completely redesigned to tie in with the faction’s Tides of Death rules: a cycle of four phases, from Low Tide to Ebb Tide, which activate new abilities on each battle round.
The new rituals allow Isharann units like Soulscryers, Tidecasters, and Soulrenders to control the swirling ethersea that allows the aquatic Idoneth Deepkin fight on land (and which prevents all their Allopexes and other sea beasties from flopping uselessly about like dying goldfish).
There are four in total (one for each Tides of Death phase), but only two – the Ritual of the Spiteful Riptide, and the Ritual of the Surging Stream – have been revealed so far. The former inflicts D3 mortal wounds (on a 4+ roll) to enemies within three inches of Deepkin units retreating with the Ebb Tide ability, while the latter adds one to all Run and Charge rolls made by units affected by the Flood Tide ability.
Obviously, the two remaining rituals will correspond with the two remaining tides: Low Tide and High Tide.
These new Isharann rituals have the important limitation that they can only be used during their relevant Tides of Death phase. That means Ritual of the Spiteful Riptide can only be cast on battle round four, while Ritual of the Surging Stream must be used during battle round two. To get the most out of your Isharann units, it seems like planning and careful timing is going to be crucial.
The Warhammer Community article mentions that bringing an Isharaan Tidecaster along will allow you to cast two of the four rituals instead of just one – which might be useful if organisation isn’t your strongest suit.
All the new ritual rules will feature in the Idoneth Deepkin 3rd edition battletome, which goes up for pre-order this weekend, alongside the Fyreslayers new book. After that, according to GW’s battletome roadmap, it’ll be Daughters of Khaine and Nighthaunt players that get to enjoy new rules, artwork, and lore titbits.