Harbingers are spoliers for armies to come soon?

[Hounsou83]

Hello! 

Are Harbingers new models for Battletomes Incoming?

Lord Ordinator = New Stromcast chamber

Darkoath warqueen = slave to darkness (i hope so much)

Knight of shrouds = nighthaunt (they are 100% sure now)

Fungoid cave shaman = moonclan grots / new grot faction that will inglobe all the moonclan grot alliance?

What do you think? 

It will be majestic for me to see new univided chaos warriors and marauders, some big beasts (like  the forgeworld mammoth) and new heroes!

 

[PJetski]

I think we've seen enough to basically confirm more Stormcast and a Nighthaunt release.

Moonclan Grots are very likely.

Slaves to Darkness... not as likely.  There hasn't been anything besides the Chieftain and Warqueen, but both of those could be one-shot releases.

[Rogue Explorator]

I think the only question is when.

Moonclan seemed like a likely release ever since they did not feature in GHB 2017. But there has yet to be a solid rumor for them.

Darkoath seem to be the future for Slaves to Darkness and mortals of Chaos Undivided, as well as a sort of spiritual successor to Norscans, Kurgans and co. However, it has been some time since Silver Tower, it may be even longer till we see a full release of them.

Nighthaunt seem to be pretty much confirmed, though I am still careful, as their imminent release would be contradicted by statements made around the release of GHB 2017. Could still be we get some other/new Death faction with a strong malignant element instead.

We also know that more Stormcast are coming, but those we know about (the mage guardians of the anvil of aptheosis) seem to have little to nothing in common with the Ordinator. I think Stormcast are moving to a regular new isolated release drop model, vs. the one big release plus battletome model we have seen for all factions so far. SCE warmachines seem inevitable, propably even an entire chamber of them. But again, no idea when or if that comes with a battletome.

 

In short, yes, I think they are all a sign of releases to come, but that does not mean they are necessarily closer than any faction not previewed.

[ShadowSwordmaster]

I think they are previews for those armies at least. 

[Thebiggesthat]

It makes no sense financially to make a massive effort with making a one-off model. I'd expect all four armies to come in the next 12 months. Starting with Nighthaunt, then probably Moonclan with any luck!

 

[Hounsou83]

Slave to darkness also have a great part in the background for aos, as the "normal" chaos warriors, i don't think they'll put in the garbage all theirs molds

[Twitch of Izalith]

On 30/04/2018 at 3:51 PM, Thebiggesthat said:

It makes no sense financially to make a massive effort with making a one-off model. I'd expect all four armies to come in the next 12 months. Starting with Nighthaunt, then probably Moonclan with any luck!

 

Actually they probably make their best margins on single mini's if you think of how much they retail for... As long as the model belongs to one or more existing factions or their is a way to include it - such as the MP Harbingers - then its probably a profitable exercise.

Agreed a true one off - not related to any other ranges is probably not worth it.

Still interested to see of the Mistweaver Saih and the tenebrael shard will show up in a faction at some point.

I'm convinced that Nighthaunt and moonclan are on the way - not so sure about the Slaves to Darkness. To me, the warqueen looks like it got re-purposed from somewhere else - like shadespire or a warhammer quest expansion. I would really like to see them re-vamped as Darkoath Warclans or something though Its a bit dull being forced to play the Everchosen Batallions in order to make them competitive - even at a friendly level!

[Jamopower]

There are also similar cases for the grot scuttlings and the skaven deathrunners, who came with the Warhammer quest and are only partly related to the existing product lines.

[Arkiham]

night haunt are coming with or shortly after the book of spells, 

but yes, these models are early designed for armies further down the road - example silver tower the tenebrael shard was a test model for the see elf range, ultimately they didnt go that way but it was a early version ( im told ) 

[Kramer]

52 minutes ago, Arkiham said:

night haunt are coming with or shortly after the book of spells, 

Where did this rumour start? Because I remember that GW did state that the armies that got allegiance rules in the General's Handbook 2017 would take a while. And Night haunt is one of those armies. (and looking at the production times, as I understand it, the models would have been done at that time

[Arkiham]

27 minutes ago, Kramer said:

Where did this rumour start? Because I remember that GW did state that the armies that got allegiance rules in the General's Handbook 2017 would take a while. And Night haunt is one of those armies. (and looking at the production times, as I understand it, the models would have been done at that time

I can't say. 

 

But i trust them, it's all I need. 

[Jamopower]

Some rumours said, that they have sold surprisingly well after the allegiance rules (which might, or might not have something to do with how easy they are to paint) and thus they have been chosen to be expanded. Don't have any sources, but sounds plausible. 

 

I have also heard from somewhere that the production time from start of the sculpting to the product can be nowadays around half a year due to the digital processing.

[bsharitt]

1 hour ago, Kramer said:

Where did this rumour start? Because I remember that GW did state that the armies that got allegiance rules in the General's Handbook 2017 would take a while. And Night haunt is one of those armies. (and looking at the production times, as I understand it, the models would have been done at that time

Well if the rumors are true, they won't be coming out until nearly the time of the new GHB, and they didn't really specify a while. It could mean that they won't be getting anything between now and the next GHB.

[AthlorianStoners]

2 hours ago, Arkiham said:

night haunt are coming with or shortly after the book of spells, 

but yes, these models are early designed for armies further down the road - example silver tower the tenebrael shard was a test model for the see elf range, ultimately they didnt go that way but it was a early version ( im told ) 

I can defitnely see this being the case.

the DoK and ID are almost 100% expansions of the sewing concepts in the shard and mistweaver, just expanded and more refined 

[Rogue Explorator]

1 hour ago, Jamopower said:

Some rumours said, that they have sold surprisingly well after the allegiance rules (which might, or might not have something to do with how easy they are to paint) and thus they have been chosen to be expanded. Don't have any sources, but sounds plausible. 

 

I have also heard from somewhere that the production time from start of the sculpting to the product can be nowadays around half a year due to the digital processing.

That would be huge game changer, around three years was still the gospel very recently.

I feel the Harbingers, as well as some 40k characters (the new cryptek and Chapter Primaris suff, but also the triumvirates), where done faster than normal releases, but even then, they previewed the Knight of Shrouds a long time in advance.

If this turns out to be true, I really hope this does not come at the cost of creativity. I feel half a year is a very short time for the visual design of a new army alone. As an example for my concerns, Maggotkin was a neat release all together, but the new Nurgle Mortals really offered absolutely nothing new visually.

 

On the other hand, I would not be surprised if Nighthaunt where so popular as to be pulled forward due to popularity.

They have a lot going for them:

Potentially easy to paint, can also be painted very ambitously, low model count, mostly relatively new models, a strong instantly recognizable theme, an army theme not often done as central element of a force, had a sort of start collecting early on, and to boot, they where quite strong in matched play for some time.

 

I could see GW having picked them up for developement shortly after GHB 2016 dropped (possibly even sooner, but the first GHB also saw them really boosted in popularity) and then hurrying them up further if GHB 2017 gave them another boost in popularity. I that case, I could see them ready for release now.

[Arkiham]

1 hour ago, bsharitt said:

Well if the rumors are true, they won't be coming out until nearly the time of the new GHB, and they didn't really specify a while. It could mean that they won't be getting anything between now and the next GHB.

Well the last book was August ? Still a good month or two between these releases  

[Morglum StormBasha]

Nighthaunt are coming because they showed a video of the black coach and a shadespire card of a hanged man with the night haunt allegiance symbol. So they are confirmed and they are next for aos.

 

as for a 6 month production time. That’s not true. Bloodbowl is the fastest thing they have ever released and that was 12 months with the plastic spruces included being smaller than any normal sized kit. A bloodbowl sprue alone is 20 weeks of sculpting. That’s before you take into account 3 months to ship products for worldwide release. So even special games is running on about a 9-12 month delay and tying to catch up. 

 

For aos and 40k it’s still 2-3 years for an army but a single character yes that could be done in 12 months.

[Jamopower]

Might be. Don't believe anything takes three years anymore though. Some of the competitors are more open with the behind the scenes stuff and the models come surprisingly fast from the concepts to the store. I would believe that GW has top notch stuff including inhouse production etc. So an army such as the nighthaunt in one year sounds pretty plausible for me. 

 

Edit. Three years for the whole timaeline from concepting and brainstorming to a major product such as idoneth in store might be true though. 

 

Edit2: Pretty normal kickstarter delivery time for a game with around 50 individual models with all the accessories by one or two man company is around 1,5 years. I believe a company with all the possible resources and tens of years of experience can do a lot better. 

[Arkiham]

2 hours ago, Jamopower said:

Might be. Don't believe anything takes three years anymore though. Some of the competitors are more open with the behind the scenes stuff and the models come surprisingly fast from the concepts to the store. I would believe that GW has top notch stuff including inhouse production etc. So an army such as the nighthaunt in one year sounds pretty plausible for me. 

 

Edit. Three years for the whole timaeline from concepting and brainstorming to a major product such as idoneth in store might be true though. 

 

Edit2: Pretty normal kickstarter delivery time for a game with around 50 individual models with all the accessories by one or two man company is around 1,5 years. I believe a company with all the possible resources and tens of years of experience can do a lot better. 

I've had it from Ben Johnson that production lead time is at least 24 months for aos. Plans for aos were in place about a year before end times happened. 

[Skabnoze]

1 hour ago, Arkiham said:

I've had it from Ben Johnson that production lead time is at least 24 months for aos. Plans for aos were in place about a year before end times happened. 

I'm sure that includes more than simply the time to digitally create the miniatures, work out the sprues, and create the molds.  I am sure the full lead time includes developing the visual & fiction concepts, creating the rules, book layouts, finding a manufacturing production window, etc.  I expect that just producing the miniatures once you have concept art (and assuming you don't have to work around/within a manufacturing production schedule) is pretty fast.

[Lucio]

All of them are strong candidates for army choices, each with a theme that's not *quite* found elsewhere.

The Stormcast support division, siege engineers and battlemages.

The Moonclan, with a bigger emphasis I think on Squigs and fugus

The Nighthaunts, spectral armies aren't that common in miniature games due to the difficulty of doing them well.

The Darkoath, linked into Chaos and with a strong heritage in the Maurauders of the North but with potential to grow into something more

[Ar-Pharazôn]

Chaos Undivided is something that needs to be better done. The Slaves to Darkness allegiance had interesting ideas and the various units for the faction are really fun with the synergies based on Chaos Marks. The models were largely fine, but the army itself needs a proper battletome to really follow through on its potential.

[Redmanphill]

They are called Harbingers, that kind of gives it away.

[Hounsou83]

1 hour ago, Redmanphill said:

They are called Harbingers, that kind of gives it away.

you got the point