What could the next faction be?

[Vasshpit]

Id very much like to see Troggoth fleshed out more into a faction of their own. An elite, low model count high wound army. In doing so a slight re-imagining would need to take place. instead of 3 models, increase to Morghast size and stats  and release  plastic Trogg - Hag and Trogg-King hero units.  A faction just bare bones and simple enough to play alone or make some nasty allies. Perhaps even chaos or destruction like how the Gargant works.

Also not really a new faction per  say but id love to see Ironjawz Shamans able to tap into Death magics and open up a whole new aspect to them. (replacing a  dead Brutes unit with skelly versions  and such)

Suggested before.... Fishmen.

Lastly, as cheesy as it might be, id like an Insectoid race for destruction. Like Starship troopers-esque  or AoS Tyranid equivalents. (less bio-mechanics and more straight up nasty gribblies more in line with the Spider Grots Arachnok.)

 

just some wishlisting.

[PlasticCraic]

18 hours ago, Grim Stone said:

Oh don't say that. I've just started a Gutbuster army! 

Me too mate, I wouldn't stress about that too much though... I'd LOVE a new Battletome, but as several factions have shown (Seraphon, Wanderers, Fyreslayers, Free Peoples), even the GH treatment can elevate you to proper army status.  If you offered me decent GH abilities now I'd bite your hand off!

[Sheriff]

7 hours ago, someone2040 said:

 

Rampaging Hordes - Greenskinz, Gitmob Grots, Troggoths and Aleguzzler Gargants. A return to the Orcs and Goblins of old! Again, some good allegiance abilities would go a long way to making the core factions (greenskinz and gitmob) interesting to play. You can of course make this army today as both have 'true' battleline options, but the Destruction allegiances and the one dimensional spells and buffs restrict this army from breaking out. I really hope this 'is a thing' in the future, as the kind of vanilla rampaging hordes style is what made me buy a Orcs and Goblins army back in the first place. Lore of Big and Little Waaagh! please :).

 

Stoneclaw allegiance. 

[someone2040]

12 hours ago, Sheriff said:

Stoneclaw allegiance. 

Yes and no. First and foremost, it's not a battletome.

But basically, the Firestorm allegiances I guess you could say are... half cooked. They build upon the base grand alliance abilities, which means there aren't any specialised command traits, magic artefacts, spell lores, etc.  These all add up to being part of how powerful allegiance abilities turn out to be.

I mean, Legions of Nagash would not be anywhere near as powerful without the spell lores and specialised artefacts. 

My gut feeling on Stoneklaw's (without running it), is that probably it leans towards the Ironjawz and Bonesplitterz units with some Grots thrown in where necessary. It's also missing Troggoths for some peculiar reason. So my reasoning is that, a battletome such as 'Rampaging Hordes' or whatever it's called, would basically be to wrap up those factions that are unlikely to see expansion in future into a proper battletome.

[generalchaos34]

My bet is the NEXT tome is going to be Ghost Pirates....like flying ghost ships ala Kharadrons, THEN they will release a sky grot army  (which they mention quite a bit in the KO book) then all the factions will be ready for air battles (chaos dosen't cut it for the airship department, I think they will be stuck with all their flying daemons)

[CDM]

I think these will defiantly come

-moon clan grots ( new emphasis on shrooms, maybe a couple of squig kits)

These will have a battletome ala legions of nagash 

-Waaaaagh! (Includes all misc greenskin factions like greenskinz Gitmob etc)

-hordes of destruction  (includes all other ogors, giants, trolls, fimir etc)

Theses are a possibility to get own battletome

-spider fang

-Gutbusters

These are mine and others wishlist

-pirate grots!

-fishmen

-Ghur human faction ( I think human factions will be realm related in the future and existing free people's, duardin, high elves should be rolled into battletome: free cities!)

[meet.the.doctor]

No, please! Keep that fishmen joke away from Destruction.

Ghur humans could work, but barbarian theme is already taken by Dracothians unfortunately.

[Chris Tomlin]

It will start to get to the stage (if it hasn't already) where Destruction are the new Death and in desperate need of some love. The last 3 battletomes have been evenly spread (Chaos, Death, Order) so it would be amazing if we saw something for Destruction next (Though perhaps Idoneth Deepkin will get that slot).

Personally I think the next Destruction battletome is likely to be Moonclan, given the Malign Portents Harbinger - could be a midsize release similar to the Daughters of Khaine with a mix of old and new kits included. I do also think there will be a Grotbag Scuttlers book sometime down the line.

[Solaris]

I'm thinking that the next large event for AoS after Malign Portents is going to be Destruction oriented. Then we may get a "Gordrakk's WAAAGH" battletome or something like that, collecting the pieces in the same way Legions of Nagash did. That may be some time away, and if we get anything before that I think next in line will be Grot sky pirates. They have been mentioned rather heavily in the fluff, after all.

[Skabnoze]

While something completely new like Grot Sky Pirates would be neat it seems to me that it would be in GWs best interest to convert over more of the older range.  It seems most expedient and likely to please existing players to take some of the existing factions, salvage a few of the kits, add a few new kits, and spin that into something new.  It is also probably the most cost-effective since they can repurpose some of the models they have already made.  In a similar fashion to what they did with the Daughters of Khaine.  There they managed to save 2 plastic kits, add 3 new kits, and spin that into 15 unit entries for a full new faction.

Thinking along those lines and considering that they probably only want to keep the more current plastic kits, then I would say that the prime candidate in Destruction is probably Gutbusters.  Nothing in that range is really old, and the majority of it is already plastic.  They would need to put out a kit for the heroes and they could easily make a single kit that builds the current heroes and adds in a few new choices.  Then they could probably rework the Gorgers with a new dual build plastic kit to also add a new unit.  And then they could sprinkle in some sort of centerpiece model kit if they wanted.

The other choice to me would be Moonclan since Games Workshop has always had a favorite soft spot for the cave-dwelling loonies and historically it has always been one of the most popular subfactions within Orcs & Goblins.  It also helps that they just released a new Moonclan model.  Having said that, a large portion of the Moonclan  range would need to be reworked since they have a very large resin range - much of which was old metals converted to resin.  But it also seems like they could wrap up a bunch of the current units into a small handful of kits.  They could release a combined kit that makes cave squigs & herders or squig hoppers.  I am pretty sure a plastic kit for that would sell like hot-cakes.  They could probably convert the Grot warboss on foot into just the version with the prodder and the cave squig, give him a few alternate weapon options and combine him into a kit that builds the version on foot or the version mounted on the giant squig.   Then they could probably move the warboss without a great squig into simply being a lesser boss and combine him into a kit that also builds the grot shaman.  And then they can either add a new infantry kit of some sort, or make a big centerpiece display kit (like moving the Colossal Squig to plastic and making a mounted special character version).

I don't see GW doing Greenskinz or Gitmob grots anytime soon because such large portions of those model ranges would have to be reworked - to the point where the effort would probably be about the same as making an all-new destruction faction. 

[Sheriff]

WAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!

[Gecktron]

1 hour ago, Skabnoze said:

[...]

I agree with most of this but I think you forgot the Spiderfang Grots. 

They have a very strong theme to work with and two good looking plastic sets. The Arachnarok spider is comparable to the Blood Cauldron and the Spider riders to the Ironjawz 'Ardboyz.

[Vasshpit]

Maybe I'm just reading too much into this but I'm hoping for a new Troggoth kit per the Deepkin teaser...

Reasons:

1. Referred to as a "Deepwater "  not "Fellwater" Troggoth.

2. Much bigger in size when compared to the humanoid standing in front of it then the Fellwater kit.

3. Different anatomy then the Fellwater Troggoth.  It's leaner and not so bulbous.

4. Different weapon very reminiscent of the old river troll kit. 

 

[Skabnoze]

2 hours ago, Gecktron said:

I agree with most of this but I think you forgot the Spiderfang Grots. 

They have a very strong theme to work with and two good looking plastic sets. The Arachnarok spider is comparable to the Blood Cauldron and the Spider riders to the Ironjawz 'Ardboyz.

You are correct, they do have a solid theme.  The arachnarok is an amazing model.  The spider rider infantry are ok - but they are Battle For Skulls Pass mono-pose models.  The riders look good while the mounts are decent.  It has aged fairly well, but it seems to me that if they wanted to bulk out the Spiderfang that they would probably want to remake the spider rider kits into some sort of dual-unit box.  Also, they only have 2 plastic boxes that makes 3 different models.  They could squeeze a 4th out of it by doing what they did with the Witch Elf Blood Cauldron and making a profile for the shaman on foot.  But if they did that then it would only make sense if they added more grots on foot (which I would love and throw money at).

That said, I think that historically the Night Goblins have been more of a favorite both with players and internally with Games Workshop.  I have a feeling that they will be the first of the grot sub-factions to get a full book and model range.  But I could be wrong.

[Skabnoze]

I would be down for more Troggoths - but only if they bring back the Troll King Throgg model - that guy was amazing and I missed out on it.

[albin100]

There is qurrently a throggoth king in the AoS app. But it's chaos.

[Skabnoze]

7 hours ago, albin100 said:

There is qurrently a throggoth king in the AoS app. But it's chaos.

You can't get the Throgg model anywhere in the GW store that I can see though.  I could hunt ebay for it I guess.  It was really a fantastic sculpt though - so I am sad to see that they still sell lots of finecast but not him.

[Overtyrant of Destruction]

Ogors with wings! Thats what it happens to all factions in AoS...

No, but I strongly suspect that it will update a lot to Destruction factions in this year or next year. Esp Moonclans, Gutbusters and probably Spiderfang and hope to add lore of spells.

I have sometimes thought about Maneater. We know all Ogre Kingdoms' heroes are dead during the end times but Golgfag aren't it and we don't know where he is. He was just like vanished

[Skabnoze]

Expanding on my earlier thoughts, I think that we will probably see the old-school catch-all factions completely reworked into something totally different at some point.  I would not even be surprised if they changed the faction name and dropped the old ones completely.  For example, I would not be surprised to see Greenskins and Gitmob Grots end up as something completely different whenever they get around to doing them.  It would be pretty easy to drop the current faction names from the list when they reissue the General's Compendium.  As they rework old ranges over time I have a feeling some of the catch-all and tiny mini factions may simply go away and the choices get rolled into some thing new such as Firebellies, Giants, Trolls, Maneaters, Dispossessed, Ironweld, etc models migrating in some form into a totally new faction entity and the current allegiances being dropped from the General's Compendium in subsequent versions over time.

If you look at the Greenskins range, the only kit likely to be kept would be the Boar Boyz.  The common orc kit is still the Brian Nelson version which has has impressively managed not to remain almost unchanged for a very long time.  I think it is a great kit, but I think that GW would probably finally replace that kit whenever they get around to Greenskins.  The plastic Warboss kit is not very good at all.   The chariot kit boars do not match the boar boyz - so that kit would probably be dropped or replaced.  And the rest of the range is resin.

I feel like whenever GW gets around to doing something with Greenskins that they would probably want to give them a stronger theme.  If you look at all of the Age of Sigmar releases so far, there is a very strong visual and/or fluff theme present.  They just released Witch Elves and pushed the entire range more towards a classical Greek visual theme (not just the mythological portions, but also the visual elements in the armor & masks).  I get the impression that they might move Greenskins into a more coherent visual theme - while hopefully making old collections still have use but tempting players to also invest in the new releases.  The same thing goes for Gitmob Grots. 

It seems like for Greenskinz they could push the range to better embrace the Frank Frazetta Conan barbarian horde aspect that common orcs have had elements of but the range has never really truly embraced.  Or if they want to tap into something historical then Gaulish barbarians would be a good choice.  As for the Gitmob, years ago they started pushing them into a Hun/Mongol direction but never completely finished the transition.  Revamping the whole range for Age of Sigmar seems like a good time to do that.

[Sheriff]

Why would GW not give grots any stuff in the 2017 handbook? Must because SOMETHING is coming, right? Why are grots the ONLY major race in the universe to not get a tome? I'm convinced something big is on its way, just a matter of what. 

I reckon either a soup tome for all grots, like for the Death soup tome, or building 1 or both of spiderfang / moonclan into a bigger faction, like they did for the elf females. 

Troggoths is another interesting point, as they have been mentioned a few times in the fluff recently as pointed out above (plus in one of the Portent stories), both times with a water-theme. Even if they just get a rebrand and some points changes that would be nice (reminder that trolls are very comparable to Skyfires in terms of points, model count, wounds, attack profiles, etc - demonstrating the inequality of points value). 

The spiderfang are the easy solution, as they just need to split up the existing kits into more scrolls (flinger!), maybe add some cool new web mechanics like slowing debuffs on enemies. Troggoths are easily fixed with points and some sort of hero interaction / synergy - handbook could do that maybe. 

Moonclan are fine as they are imho as thye have plenty of diverse units, they just suck due to points and rules - another handbook problem. 

A grot soup tome would solve the overall problems of AOS being 2-tier: tome armies stomping non-tome armies. We just need a little-waaaagh spell list, battalions (still salty they took away our tools without replacing them), and allegiance abilities. 

[Vasshpit]

2 hours ago, Sheriff said:

Troggoths is another interesting point, as they have been mentioned a few times in the fluff recently as pointed out above (plus in one of the Portent stories), 

Which one? I've missed a few here and there. 

[Sheriff]

6 minutes ago, Vasshpit said:

Which one? I've missed a few here and there. 

This Deepkin correspondence, plus the story about the troggoth in the water eating corpses, then gets flushed down an underwater realm-gate that some grots opened up. 

[AthlorianStoners]

1 hour ago, Sheriff said:

This Deepkin correspondence, plus the story about the troggoth in the water eating corpses, then gets flushed down an underwater realm-gate that some grots opened up. 

Where was that story!?!?

[Sheriff]

9 minutes ago, AthlorianStoners said:

Where was that story!?!?

Well I kind of spoiled it for you... sorry, but here it is:

edit: nope, can't find it on the MP site... I swear I'm not making it up, there was a story all about a troll eating a dead giant on  a wet battlefield, then a waaaaaaghhh! starts and the grots are super excited and bundle through a realmgate, sucking the troll through with them. 

It was inspiring. 

TELL ME I'M NOT CRAZY, GUYS! AM I MYSELF SEEING PORTENTS IN MY DREAMS?

[AthlorianStoners]

Just now, Sheriff said:

Well I kind of spoiled it for you... sorry, but here it is:

edit: nope, can't find it on the MP site... I swear I'm not making it up, there was a story all about a troll eating a dead giant on  a wet battlefield, then a waaaaaaghhh! starts and the grots are super excited and bundle through a realmgate, sucking the troll through with them. 

It was inspiring. 

Omg that sounds awesome! Plz lemme know if you find it.