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Do you think its time GW brought back the Zoats ?


Jetengine

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So Zoats.

Weird Lizard-Centaur monsters created in the late 80s, with a more recurring role in 40k thanks to being attatched to the Tyranids. In WFB and the Roleplay they were solitary, nomadic druids. Not particularly educated in life magic but using it instinctively, so well in fact only high end Archmages could keep up. They also regularly carried great weapons to defend themselves if people were stupid enough to attack the 8ft Lizard Centaur.

At the time GW dropped them because they couldn't really find a niche for them either as a force on their own or with the Wood Elves and they felt out of place. Now that GW is looking for new IPs though that are more easily copyrighted then "Dwarf in steampunk armour" maybe it's time to get the Zoats out again ?

I could imagine a minor redesign to seperate them more visually from dragon ogres and Seraphon,  either fleshing them out more as a significant faction on its own with a few kits ala KO or a single dual kit to add to the Sylvaneth for variety.

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They would have a lovely home with Wanderers, much more synergistic than Sylvaneth.  Zoats  were associated with the Wood Elves in the world-that-was (3rd edition page 233) and only Wood Elves could include them as allies ( Warhammer Armies book 3rd ed). They were seen as druidic in nature, as you said, and so would have more in common with the Wanderers who have retained a more druidic approach to life than the Sylvaneth. 

From a tabletop perspective, we lack a big centrepiece since they took the Dragons away and Sylvaneth have enough tools already, and a battletome.  A Wizard, a Warrior hero and a hard-hitting tanky cavalry unit would fit nicely into a Wanderers battletome (though the Warrior hero wasn't available back then, only the other two).  

They never felt out of place with Wood Elves to me back then, and they wouldn't be out of place now.  Wanderers are the perfect foil to Beasts of Chaos and Zoats would be the perfect foil to Dragon ogres.

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Like many of the 'squatted' races, I'm not sure that there's actually anything interesting about Zoats beyond nostalgia. What is it about them that people like? Visually they're not very striking, and 'wandering druid creatures' is a pretty generic and passive role in the lore. 

One of the things I really like about Age Of Sigmar is that GW keeps coming up with completely new stuff, rather than constantly going back to the same wells. 

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8 minutes ago, robinlvalentine said:

Like many of the 'squatted' races, I'm not sure that there's actually anything interesting about Zoats beyond nostalgia. What is it about them that people like? Visually they're not very striking, and 'wandering druid creatures' is a pretty generic and passive role in the lore. 

One of the things I really like about Age Of Sigmar is that GW keeps coming up with completely new stuff, rather than constantly going back to the same wells. 

SCE, Idoneth and KO are genuinely new.

Everything else is the "same wells".

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Still counts since the lore for them is reimagined and original. It opens up the door for bigger innovations in the future.

On Zoats I think they'd serve best as a FW Order monster. The lore can be changed into something more unique like Seraphon memories from the Slann during the Age of Myth that communed with Ghyran in order to find a way to recreate their spawning pools and succeeded but also morphed those searching memories into living beings of ancient power and knowledge that keep wandering Ghyran and the realms in further search for the secrets of life itself.

For something more unique and mainline for forces like the wanderers i'd like a connection to the God-beasts with mystic guardian animals(heavy princess Mononoke vibe welcomed) and stuff like the tamed magic creatures like the Warding Hounds of Garma that once protected the small Ghur kingdom of Amcarsh.

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1 hour ago, Kyriakin said:

SCE, Idoneth and KO are genuinely new.

Everything else is the "same wells".

Their not even THAT new frankly. Paladins, Sea Elves and Steampunk Dwarfs aren't exactly new takes on Fantasy.

My idea with the Zoats was more that their fairly unique design wise and with some revamping could add something newer and interesting  to the lore and factions.

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I think they would be a better fit for 40K, where having another Xenos Faction or two wouldn't hurt.

For fantasy I could see them fitting into Seraphon, giving them a lizard centaur type unit to complement the Kroxigor, as a faster, heavy hitter.

I wouldn't mind them being their own thing though. I'm sure that they could come up with quite a cool niche for them to fill in Ghyran, and its always good to have more cool creatures to play with!

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On 12/9/2018 at 1:01 AM, robinlvalentine said:

One of the things I really like about Age Of Sigmar is that GW keeps coming up with completely new stuff, rather than constantly going back to the same wells. 

Except Chaos, chaos is still....chaos. You could put all the new chaos models into WFB and people would be like "cool, khorne marauders".

Also thus far nothing in Destruction is new either. Ironjawz are Black Orcs 2.0. Moonclan update is just Night Gobbos 2.0. Not that I am not looking forwards to moonclan/grots!

 

Though I do agree zoats are dead for a reason.

If a lizard race should come back (more) it's Fimir. The FW models are pretty slick looking, and they can finally brush the "steal women to make babies" lore under the carpet!

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if at all, and it's a very big if, I could imagine them bringing out a single Zoat model (and likewise a squat/demiurg model too) then the only way I see it happening would be as part of something like a Blackstone Fortress expansion but I think that would be it.

talking of nostalgia bait, do Fimirs see much action?

 

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