Hello fellow sons and daughters of the VIIIth. I have a rules questions for you all.
I know that, from a rules perspective Nightmare Hunt is objectively better than Dread Talons however there are some things about Dread Talons I prefer, namely it impacts all battle shock roles and Merciless Pursuit. I've had some success with running Dread Talons and using Merciless Pursuit as often as I can keeping the pressure and battleshock up to deny opponent scoring and I feel it's a fun and thematic way to run my list.
However I am worried I making some mistakes with my rules interpretations as follows;
1) Can I run Dread Talons with Murdertalon? Dread Talons does not have the nightmare tag so as far as I am aware this is allowed? They work really well together, and actually make Dread Talons rule feel very impactful for raptors (-2 battleshock pre fight phase then buffs/debuffs), and I am aware the VIIIth is not used to having nice things so I feel like I can't be right here.
2) Will breaker enhancement states it's battleshock test occurrs after the *bearer* makes it's attacks. The core rules states "If an attack fails or inflicts damage, this sequence ends for that attack. When all attacks have either failed or inflicted damage, this sequence ends and those attacks
have been resolved." (Pg18 core rules) - I have been playing it occurs after the whole unit had fought (which felt a little pointless) but reading this could I not attack with my character first, hope for a battleshock then attack with the rest of the unit?
3) Not a rules question but speculation. Do you think Dread Talons will stick around much longer or will it be replaced by Nightmare Hunt once the official codex drops? I am aware that we currently do not know when the chaos codex will drop and I think this is going to be my way to play until that happens. I'll be sad when it goes if it isn't replaced/supported with alternatives