Cèsar de Quart

I like the last two ideas. The political commissar Idoneth army is a cool concept, cheeky humour without being blatant fun. The Lizardmen being the spawns of a dragon god is also a cool idea. Is the Dragon some sort of Quetzalcoatl feathered serpent?

My RUBICANT EXILES are both an excuse to use Nihilax Oxide and to keep buying Imperial minis. They are the remnants of an isolated Stormcast chamber who was trapped in an unstable part of Chamon, the Seven Cities of Ysavellir, while fighting the Pandaemoniad of the Portentous Alimandre, the Ten Thousand Eyed Empress. The daemoniad of Tzeentch harassed them and besiedeg the human kingdoms until only Ysavellir remained. Of its original Forty Cities, only seven remain. A Hold-Lord of the Rubicant Exiles watches over each city with a contingent of Stormcast Eternals. Each city has its own character (Ursberg is Middenheim with lots of guns; Ys, the capital, is a washed down version of Bretonnia; Kronwal is a dark place of stern justice and robed, dark inquisitors looking for witches and winged hussars patroling the steppe; Lucieliande is a city of learning, desperate to preserve the little knowledge left from the Forty Cities, etc etc) The fate of these Stormcasts is a tragic one, because aside from being rusted because of the acid rain (hence their nickname, the Knights-in-Rust) they cannot be resmitten in new bodies, because the orb where Ysavellir is is fully outside of Sigmar's reach. Every Stormcast dead is a soul lost to Chaos, or in the best case, Nagash.

I don't think they're going to sick by the history they have written in the existing lore very much. I mean, you want to have a game centered around four different Imperial armies, what do people know about the Empire? Gunpowder and halberds, tights and funny hats. If you set them in an era where they look more like 14th Century Imperial armies than 16th Century, you're gonna have many people crosseyed. I understand why they won't necessarily go gunpowder-free or kick back one step the tech level (and fashion choices). As for the game style, I'm also very curious about the mini count and regimental style. Apocalypse is, in my opinion, the tightest game GW has ever published. It's massive, it's fun, it's fast, it's not overly long and it's very functional. I hope they go that route. Movement trays for units and massive games of tactical positioning. All without the *honestly* exhausting system in old WHFB where pivoting a unit was equivalent to losing a turn.

It has been consistent with itself. I have read (looked at, better said) the heraldry of the empire book from cover to cover, and it is consistent. But more than that, it is firmly rooted in the heraldic traditions of the 15-16th Century. It is consistent BECAUSE they chose to base it off strongly on this design tradition. Again, you can have your own original cohesive designs, but mixing up styles doesn't help. I think the Taal head is too overdesigned, too 1800's with a sprinkle of fantasy thrown in, when you compare it to the wolf, which would not look out of place in the 13th Century. As for the mermaid, I still can't really distinguish its features. I know it's a merdmaid, It's Marienburg, but still... Another reason I dislike the bearded tree is that we already had a symbol for Taal which was quite unique and representative of Talabecland: the oaktree. I don't see the bearded head of Taal as a better option, but what do I know?

The eagle for Reikland doesn't really seem to inhabit the same world as the face of Taal in the Talabheim coat of arms, for instance. Inconsistency. The wolf of Middenheim looks good, the eagle as well. They are the closest ones to real heraldry. The one in Marienburg, I haven't been able to distinguish what it is. Already a bad sign, heraldry should be at least marginally easy to recognise from a distance (of course, this varies from century to century, but in the 15-16th, it still should). I'm not saying they shouldn't try to do something new or different, I'm saying that if you want to have a style, you must commit to it, or you risk the integrity of the style to fall apart. Lord of the Rings did that very well with the Elves and Dwarves, very consistent style and iconography. Very different heraldry as well, but distinguishable and coherent within itself. This is two very European looking heraldic designs and two very strange choices, the overdetailed face of a bearded god, and something with a fish tail I can't even picture. You're telling me this is consistent? As for "not everyone is a heraldry expert", the only people who have to be are the ones designing heraldry, real or imaginary. If you don't know the grounds you're working on, you're missing on both inspiration and perspective. I don't trust an artist who doesn't know their classical and academic art history inside and out. They want to try new things? Cool, but we already have Warhammer heraldry. Buckets of it. We already know the iconography and style of the Empire. Want to change it to make it look older? Do it right. Half-assery and rule of cool is how you end up with bland, forgettable fantasy worlds.

Well, they didn't do a good job at making up something new when it comes to the design of these coats of arms. I find it funny because real heraldry has been around for almost a thousand years (maybe 900 years) and had become, already by the 1400's, a very stylish, respected and fashionable form of design. Now people come in and say they can "do it better"? I doubt it. If you can't do something better than what we have, why persist? It's like armour design. We know, in our brains, what is possible and what is practical. Within these bounds, you can do many "new" things. But as soon as you get super pauldrons that impede movement in, it stops looking cool. The adjective "ridiculous" is always happy to have company. And yes, I know they're the CoAs of the Four Emperors. But one would expect that the Prince of Reikland would have the Reikland colours, for instance. But it's really no big deal, they'll make up some lore excuse and it will probably be fine. I'm a bit bummed because if the Warhammer lore has something, it's depth, and them making up coats of arms and colours feels like emptying the box and having a new one, not necessarily better. Using something obscure from the established lore is both a way to fill gaps for the writer AND a small reward for the reader who knows about it. It's what CA are doing with Total War Warhammer. I mean, Repanse de Lyonesse? Who would have thought anyone would remember her? I'll never tire of saying it: one of the joys of knowing History is that the world gains meaning because you become capable of recognising things which previously had none. Some ruin on top of a hill in Tuscany become the last vestiges of the mysterious Etruscans. A series of brick buildings on a parking lot behind the Blue Mosque turn into the last pillars of the Golden Palace of the Roman Emperors. A painting on the wall is a 19th Century celebration of someone becoming a college graduate. A letter from a WW1 soldier dated 1914 who says "I'll be home soon" becomes quite the tragedy... you get my meaning. This is also true in most deep fantasy worlds where there's much, much to take in. So I hope they take the Horus Heresy route of combing the lore over, making it rounder, tying up some loose ends, creating new questions to solve and putting in the extra effort to have the Old World become even deeper. If not with seriousness, then at least with good, black, cynical references to real world culture and history.

Oh my Sigmar. This was a good night present alright. Making Warhammer "historical" scenarios and campaigns is the best thing they could have done. Setting it in the Age of the Three Emperors (plus one) is a genius stroke. I hope they develop the three Emperors in a quirky, satirical way. The Old World was plenty quirky and satirical, but it had sometimes too much of a hero fantasy bias. Karl Franz HAD TO BE the BEST STATEMAN THE WORLD HAD EVER SEEN. Come on, Karl Franz never was interesting. Boris Goldgather was interesting. Dieter the Incompetent was too. Even Mandred Ratslayer or Magnus were interesting. KF was too much of a Marty Stu. I actually liked when the End Times killed him in a heroic way and then the Reborn KF was actually Sigmar in disguise. There's not much you can do with a character so flawless as this boy, except for killing him to give other people meaning or purpose. Or to advance the plot. I've got to say, though... I don't like this heraldry in the new map. It looks very different from the traditional symbols and colours we expect from Talabecland, Marienburg and Reikland. The style is also very... ahistorical. Whenever visual art is taken up by people with no idea of history, I tremble. Just look at the first seasons of Game of Thrones vestuary. Awful. "Fantasy" doesn't mean "nonsense".

I think you'll agree that picking the part where Egyptian culture was at its least Egyptian is not the best excuse to call something "Egyptian". Teclis' puffy pants are not Persian, they're a very generic piece of clothing found in many cultures, and the frills and crests on the helmets are the only major direct Greek influence I can see. The rest is a mix of old High Elf, new Eldar and a bit of generic high fantasy designs tossed in. As for "focus on knowledge and learning".... just like most other cultures in the world. The High Elves did have a mix of influences, from Chinese to Greek, until they acquired a very distinct visual identity. I feel like these are much better minis but the designs look a bit bland to me. Anyway, I like them. More than the Ossiarchs or the fish elves.

There's some talk of "a mix of Greece, Persian and Egyptian themes" in the aesthetics. Show them to be, because all I see is swirly designs clearly inspired by the new 40k Eldar look, and Greek-like crests. There's no Egyptian feel to anything (pyramids and sphynxes are not exclusive to the Egyptians, and one cannot say "a sphynx is Egyptian" unless said Sphynx looks like an Egyptian sphynx. It's like saying every dragon is Chinese, even if it doesn't look like a Chinese dragon). That said, I don't dislike the general feel and look of the new elves. The basic troops look nice, but I'd rather they didn't have so many swirly bits. They promised pointy elves. For swirly elves, we have the fish elves already.

Teclis is the first AoS mini since the Goresomethings that makes me go... ugh. Also, wasn't this the only name they came up with? Lumineth? Is this supposed to be Elvish? And am I supposed to believe that the Elvish word for light is the same as the Latin root? I mean... come on, GW, stop fooling around with the names. Seraphon, Lumineth, Stormcast Eternals... get your act together. I dig the new elves, though, the basic troops look fine, and the horses (OH THE HORSES)...

I can see the problem for some people. To me, new WHFB models is always good news.

Honestly, the special rules and specific functions was a bad thing both in 40k and Fantasy. I got into WHFB with the start of the 6th Edition, and not even for a moment do I remember having problems understanding the rules. The Big Red Book may have looked intimidating, but the core of it was simple, and most of the rules followed a pattern which was easy to understand. It played around mostly with the stats of each unit and the movement they were able to do. WHFB was a game of positioning and timing. You had to move to the right spot at the right turn. Like chess. When a game bloats the ruleset with special ruels not contained in the big red book or not easily recognisable by the stats of the mini, it ends up filled with "Well, I didn't know that rule existed" moments. Not fun.

Yes. As I've said, if anything, AoS has spurred imagination. The Old World is free to move in new directions in your own head, your old minis are mostly still here (mostly), we have play systems adapted to both worlds... and with GW doing the Old World conga, we've got the chance to mend the mistake and keep the Old World alive with new rules and (hopefully) new minis. Again, this can only be good. If they do like 30k and release a box with all-new High Elf vs Orcs, or Empire vs Chaos sculps, you bet my money will be there waiting for them. Heck, I'm putting 150 euros right now in a box. Three years from now I'll take them out, go to the store and tell the black polo shirt guy "I HAVE CROSSED OCEANS OF TIME".

The Vampire Coast is probably going to get its own GW shanty. I still sing it from time to time at the shower. Oooooh the blood runs cold!. Damn catchy.

Why is this always an AoS player vs Fantasy player? We're getting new rules for WHFB, fraking hurray! If this means new models, I'll cheer GW to the grave.